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.
The New Yorker’s Alexis Okeowo reports on the controversial trial of former LRA fighter Thomas Kwoyelo, who applied for amnesty but was denied. A member of Kwoyelo’s defense team told Okeowo that the move to end Uganda’s amnesty program likely comes from Kampala’s need to show the international community that they are making a concerted effort to end the LRA, 25 years after the rebel group formed. But insofar as the decision to repeal the amnesty law goes, “the new crackdown on the L.R.A. ‘means prolonged rebellion,’” writes Okeowo, quoting the lawyer.
Ahmed Kodouda, a senior program associate at Freedom House, examined Sudan’s troika: the three influential components of the National Congress Party administration that keeps the country firmly under the party’s control. Writing for Al Jazeera, Kodouda explains how the military, Islamist Movement (the Sudanese version of the Muslim Brotherhood), and the intelligence services are interlinked, and how they might fall if one element falters under the pressure from ongoing pro-democracy demonstrations.
Harvard professor Stephen M. Walt offers up a solid list of foreign policy questions for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on his blog for Foreign Policy. The interview questions are hypothetical, and some are designed to be dodged, but they do highlight how little is known about how Romney would distinguish himself from President Obama in his approach to international affairs.
Foreign Policy blogger Colum Lynch reports on the recent developments in U.S.-Rwanda relations in the wake of allegations that top Rwandan officials have been backing the M23 rebellion in Congo.
While much attention on eastern Congo is currently focused on the emergence and regional dynamics behind M23, another militia group has re-emerged with a vengeance in the volatile Walikale territory. Congo blogger Jason Stearns’ post, “Who are the Raia Mutomboki?” provides an overview of their origin and aims.