Here at Enough, we often swap emails with interesting articles and feature stories that we come across in our favorite publications and on our favorite websites. We wanted to share some of these stories with you as part of our effort to keep you up to date on what you need to know in the world of anti-genocide and crimes against humanity work.
Two weeks after Human Rights Watch published a detailed report documenting the brutality of the Ugandan Joint Anti-terrorism Task Force (JATT), The Independent newspaper in Kampala published this column on the same topic by the lead HRW researcher. If you missed the full 92-page report, this compelling, condensed version will surely pique your interest. The comments in response to the column also make for an interesting read.
While many predict that the end of the seemingly endless conflict between the Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tigers is in sight, reconciliation in the aftermath of more than 20 years of fighting will be no small task. This article in the Christian Science Monitor takes a look at what comes next.
Journalist Philip Gourevitch first went to Rwanda shortly after the 1994 genocide and returned this year for the first time since. He spoke to NPR’s Talk of the Nation this week about his impressions of the country’s progress over the past 15 years. A key quote:
“I think that [expecting the killers and the survivors to be entirely reconciled] would be too much to ask. … What is astonishing is the extent to which there is a kind of coexistence, and I think that coexistence is probably a more meaningful measure in terms of being realistic … than reconciliation.” (Gourevitch’s New Yorker piece on the same topic will hit the newsstands Monday.)
While Zimbabwean finance minister Tendai Bidi makes the rounds in Europe and the United States to make direct pleas for aid, Human Rights Watch called on donor countries to wait for the power-sharing government to move forward with meaningful reforms before resuming the assistance the government so desperately wants. HRW’s article details some of the abuses committed by Zimbabwe’s longtime ruling party, the ZANU-PF, in its effort to intimidate members of the opposition and activists, despite the fact that ZANU-PF is part of the power-sharing government.
This short but interesting post by Gerard Prunier in his weekly installment of Notes from Africa provides some background on the Mayi Mayi rebels in eastern Congo, the opportunistic and decentralized fighters who tend to pick sides based on where they anticipate the most financial gain. Prunier sounds hopeful about a recent peace deal signed by numerous rebel groups, but he uses the example of the Mayi Mayi to illustrate why it is imperative that the international community work to make peace more economically enticing.
The Enough Team contributed to this post.