February 3, 2012
Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre

Abstract:

The issues of national healing, reconciliation, truth and justice are crucial and significant for what happens next in countries emerging out of conflicts such as Liberia. Importantly, these issues constitute a real challenge as well as moral and political dilemmas for countries that are making a transition from war to peace. The real problem is that while Truth Commissions have the potential of creating an enabling environment for truth telling and forgiveness through amnesty, reparations and other things, there are doubts as to whether people and societies torn asunder by protracted period of war can easily be reconciled and healed through forgiveness and impunity.

Liberia is no exception to the above. When the decision to establish the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was made at the Accra peace talks and the Commission was subsequently established in May 2005 by an Act of Legislature, it was clear that the country was bent on seeking the truth in order to create an enabling environment for national healing and reconciliation but without necessarily burying justice.

. The main purpose of this policy brief is to critically examine, and provide a capsule analysis and nuanced understanding of the context, mandate, reactions and key issues emerging out of the TRC report and recommendations. Subsequently, the essay puts forward some recommendations for immediate actions by the Government and people of Liberia as well as the broader international community of state and non-state actors in order to facilitate dialogue and informed social debates around the issues emerging out of the report....

February 3, 2012
The Association of Concerned Africa Scholars

Abstract:

This issue of the Bulletin on health and political violence continues the theme of intervention and conflict presented in issue no. 48/49 (Fall 1997), this time from the perspective of those who suffer the consequences. With conflict in Africa so pervasive--more than twenty countries have been or are involved in recent wars - there is growing recognition that the development business cannot go on as usual, that policy makers have vastly underestimated the extent of war damage, and that planners must take into account the psychic as well as the physical devastation of war.

Articles in this issue include:
1. Reconstructing Health in Post-War Mozambique | Julie Cliff

2. A Critical Comment on “Reconstructing Health in Post-War Mozambique” | Karim Hirji

3. Violence, Gender and Illness in Post-War Mozambique | Robert P. Marlin

4. The Uprooted and the Forgotten | Asma Abdel Halim

5. Women and Conflict in Africa | Meredeth Turnshen

6. Some Reflections Arising from “Women’s War Stories” | Karim Hirji

7. Removing Landmines - One Limb at a Time? | Warren “Bud” Day

8. The Photographer, His Editor, Her Audience, Their Humanitarians: How Rwanda’s Pictures Travel Through the American Psyche | Niranjan S. Karnik

9. Professional Accountability: Lessons from the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission | H. Jack Geiger...

February 3, 2012
The Association of Concerned Africa Scholars

Abstract:

Since the end of the Cold War, internal violence resulting from ethnic and sectarian conflict has erupted in a number of African countries, most notably Somalia, Liberia, Burundi, Rwanda, and Zaire/Democratic Republic of Congo. The United Nations, other international and regional organizations, and interested foreign powers first responded to this explosion of internal violence by employing the traditional methods of conflict resolution that had been used with some success to resolve conflicts during the Cold War period.

Many of the leaders of multilateral international and regional organizations, foreign powers, and other interested parties quickly became frustrated by their inability to use these traditional methods to resolve internal conflicts. They therefore concluded that the traditional methods of conflict resolution were insufficient for dealing with internal violence and sought to develop and employ new methods of conflict resolution which involved the use of sanctions, investigations of human rights abuses, the imposition of legal penalties, and the use of military force.

This issue of the Bulletin presents the views of a wide variety of concerned scholars and activists who, although passionate and involved, seek to provide principled and practical perspectives on these questions. William Minter and Alex de Waal discuss the broad ethical and political issues raised by intervention in African conflicts since the end of the Cold War. Anna Simons, Joost Hiltermann, and Stephen Weissman explore the lessons to be learned from the attempts by the international community to intervene in Somalia, Rwanda, and Burundi. Herb Howe examines Executive Outcomes - the best known of a number of private security firm that are increasingly active in Africa - and its role in African conflicts. And Adekeye Adebajo looks at the potential for an all-African intervention force, an idea first proposed by Kwame Nkrumah in the 1960s.

Articles in this issue include:
1. “Intervention:” The Folly of Formulas | William Minter

2. African Encounters | Alex de Waal

3. Hardly Innocent: Armed Humanitarian Intervention in Somalia | Anna Simons

4. Post-Mortem on the International Commission of Inquiry (Rwanda) | Joost R. Hiltermann

5. Peacekeeping and Peace Enforcement in Burundi | Stephen R. Weissman

6. Executive Outcomes and African Stability | Herb Howe

7. An African High Command | Adekeye Adebajo...

February 3, 2012
The Association of Concerned Africa Scholars

Abstract:

The Association of Concerned Africa Scholars (ACAS) is an organization of scholars and students of Africa dedicated to formulating alternative scholarly analysis of U.S. government policy, mobilizing support in the United States on critical current issues related to Africa, developing communication and action networks among scholars in the United States and Africa, and collaborating with other organizations that share our concerns.

Our interdisciplinary approach supports rethinking conventional interpretations of social and economic policy, globalization, development strategies, media representations, and nation building. For three decades, the Concerned African Scholars Bulletin has been a centerpiece of ACAS’s work. It continues to provide timely, relevant and incisive analysis of developments in Africa while promoting alternative views and policies....

February 3, 2012
Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre

Abstract:

Conflict Prevention includes a wide range of actions, interventions, programmes, activities, mechanisms and procedures that address structural risks to prevent the escalation of tension into violent conflict, the continuation of conflict or the reoccurrence of armed conflicts in post-conflict situations.1 This in turn broadens and diversifies the purpose of early warning, which is a tool responsible for data collection, analysis and communication of the information for conflict prevention. In 2004, the African Union launched the Continental Early Warning System as part of the African Peace and Security Architecture. This was done in acknowledgement of the effectiveness of conflict prevention, which is proactive than the traditional reactive system in AU. Now the CEWS has been in place for almost half a decade.

This paper examines the progress and challenges of this system by looking at the African Union and other African regional organisations. Key issues to be discussed include a historical background to the CEWS and commonly contested issues in the system. Using different facts and the experiences of the regional organisations, this paper tries to show the challenges and merits of early warning systems in Africa. It also argues that the early warning systems should be included in every stage of conflict and explains that the core value of early warning should be the protection of individuals by the state or by the regional organizations if the state fails to do so....

February 3, 2012
The Association of Concerned Africa Scholars

Abstract:

The Association of Concerned Africa Scholars (ACAS) is an organization of scholars and students of Africa dedicated to formulating alternative scholarly analysis of U.S. government policy, mobilizing support in the United States on critical current issues related to Africa, developing communication and action networks among scholars in the United States and Africa, and collaborating with other organizations that share our concerns.

Our interdisciplinary approach supports rethinking conventional interpretations of social and economic policy, globalization, development strategies, media representations, and nation building. For three decades, the Concerned African Scholars Bulletin has been a centerpiece of ACAS’s work. It continues to provide timely, relevant and incisive analysis of developments in Africa while promoting alternative views and policies....

February 2, 2012
Enough Project

Abstract:

The deployment of U.S. military advisors to central Africa is potentially the most significant step in a decade to end the war against the Lord’s Resistance Army, or LRA. The comprehensive strategy to end the LRA that U.S. forces should help develop as a result of their deployment will only have a chance of being successful if American forces are supplemented by four additional ingredients from the United States and other supportive countries: troops, transport, intelligence, and a defections strategy, or TTID for short. This includes additional special forces troops, enhanced transport and logistics, upgraded intelligence capacities, and a more effective strategy to increase LRA defections.

If the mission is to succeed, it is essential for the U.S. advisors to stay in the field for a significant amount of time and be buttressed by TTID support. The LRA has decreased its attacks by two-thirds over the past six months in an effort to reorganize and lie low.1 But this is not a sign of LRA weakness. It is part of the group’s historical pattern of waiting out military incursions and then launching attacks. The LRA are among the best survivors on the planet—and they could simply be playing a waiting game for the departure of the U.S. soldiers. If the advisors withdraw prematurely and TTID support is not given, the LRA will likely reemerge and resume its attacks on civilians.

Despite the U.S. deployment and a new African Union, or AU, initiative, which essentially is a rehatting of the military operation by the four countries involved under AU auspices, there is a serious danger of the LRA reorganizing for attacks because of disturbing trends on both the military and civilian side. On the military side, Uganda is the main force undertaking operations against the LRA, but its current capacity and troop numbers—approximately half of what they were in 2010—are inadequate to be able to pin the group down in the vast territory within which it operates, roughly the size of Arizona and extending into four countries. Moreover, Uganda’s best soldiers are deployed as peacekeepers in Somalia. Some 90 percent of LRA attacks over the past six months have taken place in Congo, but Uganda does not have bases there at the request of the Congolese authorities. The shortage of troops is also hurting civilian protection efforts, which are in urgent need of a boost. And the existing deployment is hampered by a lack of mobility and intelligence capacity over the large territory....

February 1, 2012
Human Security Report Project

Abstract:

Human Security Research is a monthly compilation of significant new human security-related research published by academics, university research institutes, think-tanks, international agencies, and NGOs.

Articles in this issue:

CLIMATE CHANGE: Livelihood Security: Climate Change, Migration and Conflict in the Sahel
MIDDLE EAST: The Saudi-Iranian Rivalry and the Future of Middle East Security
HORN OF AFRICA: Critical Factors in the Horn of Africa's Raging Conflicts
COMBATANTS: Learning How (Not) to Fire a Gun: Combatant Training and Civilian Victimization
EAST AFRICA: Land, Livelihoods and Identities: Inter-Community Conflicts in East Africa
HUMAN RIGHTS: Guantánamo: A Decade of Damage to Human Rights and 10 Anti-Human Rights Messages Guantánamo Still Sends
DR CONGO: Stabilising the Congo
UNITED NATIONS: UN Integration and Humanitarian Space: An Independent Study Commissioned by the UN Integration Steering Group
LIBYA: Holding Libya Together: Security Challenges after Qadhafi
EDUCATION: The Battle for the Schools: The Taleban and State Education
GOVERNANCE: Electoral Democratisation in Post-Civil War Guinea-Bissau 1999-2008
TERRORISM: Beyond Bin Laden: Future Trends in Terrorism...

January 27, 2012
Frontline // Public Broadcasting Service

Abstract:

A revealing look at the CIA’s drone program in Pakistan and covert support for elements of the Taliban by the Pakistani military and its intelligence service, the ISI.

January 26, 2012
Center for Strategic and International Studies

Abstract:

During recent uprisings in Bahrain, Syria, and Libya, security forces obstructed access to health facilities; harassed, arrested, and prosecuted medical personnel; and even assaulted patients within hospitals. In Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, where drug-related violence has escalated over the past three years, criminal organizations have killed and abducted health workers and interfered with patient care inside hospitals. As a result of the insecurity, doctors and nurses have fled, and 60 percent of the city’s clinics have closed, jeopardizing the health of individuals in a city of 1.5 million people. In some areas of the city there are no clinics left at all, and night and weekend services have been severely compromised.

Assaults like these have long been part of the landscape of armed and civil conflict. They jeopardize the lives and well-being not only of those directly attacked but of others who may never be able to access the health care they need. Yet, for decades, a paucity of regular reporting on the frequency, dynamics, and impacts of these assaults; lack of attention to strategies to prevent attacks; and absence of accountability mechanisms for those who perpetrate assaults has allowed these assaults to continue with impunity....

February 3, 2012
The Centre for International Governance Innovation

Abstract:

Police reform in the Palestinian Territories has faced many challenges. Rebuilding the police force in a post-conflict environment is not an easy task, and must take into account the community’s needs in order to build legitimacy. In 2006, the European Union Police Coordinating Office for Palestinian Police Support was established to support the short-term objectives of the Palestinian Civil Police and provide longer-term transformational change assistance. This issue paper discusses a number of questions to address gaps in the evaluation of police reform efforts. It concludes with a series of recommendations, but maintains that building legitimate and sustainable institutions will not be possible without a credible Palestinian-Israeli peace process....

February 2, 2012
Amnesty International

Abstract:

3 February 2011 was the day when protests in Yemen transformed into a mass movement. On that day a broad group of mainly students and activists calling itself the Youth of 3 February (since referred to itself as Youth of the Revolution) attracted tens of thousands of people to mass protests in the capital Sana’a.

Protests had begun the previous month after the government announced draft constitutional amendments to allow President Ali Abdullah Saleh, head of state since 1978 – first as President of north Yemen and then of unified Yemen – to run for Presidential elections for unlimited terms. But they were also fuelled by frustration at corruption, unemployment and repression of freedoms in the country, and partly inspired by events in Tunisia and Egypt.

The protesters called on President Ali Abdullah Saleh to dismiss the government and corrupt officials, dismiss his son as head of the Republican Guard and Special Forces, dissolve Parliament, appoint a government of national unity, return “embezzled” funds, and resign from the presidency and pledge not to run for office again....

February 2, 2012
Karen Human Rights Group

Abstract:

This paper highlights impediments to effective international responses to attacks on health and education in eastern Burma presented by lack of clarity regarding the meaning of "attacks" within the monitoring and reporting framework established by UN Security Council resolutions 1612 and 1998. In order to address this definitional ambiguity and enable recent developments in the UN Security Council to potentially provide support to communities facing attacks in eastern Burma, this paper argues for interpreting "attacks" in a fashion that is consistent with applicable international humanitarian law. The analysis below concludes that UN-led monitoring, reporting and response pursuant to UNSCRs 1612 and 1998 should include acts by parties to armed conflict that both: a) violate relevant international law; and b) attack or threaten to attack personnel related to schools or medical facilities and/ or destroy, damage or force the closure of a school or medical facility....

February 2, 2012
Karen Human Rights Group

Abstract:

This report presents primary evidence of attacks on education and health in eastern Burma collected by KHRG during the period February 2010 to May 2011. Section I of this report details KHRG research methodology; Section II analyses general trends in armed conflict and details a loose typology of attacks identified during the reporting period. Section III applies this typology to 16 particularly illustrative incidents, and analyses them in light of relevant international humanitarian law and UN Security Council resolutions 1612, 1882 and 1998. These incidents were selected from a database detailing 59 attacks on civilians documented by KHRG between February 2010 and May 2011....

February 2, 2012
Karen Human Rights Group

Abstract:

Human rights abuses faced by ethnic communities across rural eastern Burma have continued since November 2010, and are consistent with patterns KHRG has documented since 1992. Drawing from a dataset of 1,270 oral testimonies, sets of images and documentation written and collected over the last year by villagers trained to monitor human rights conditions in their own communities, this report presents information on 17 categories of abuse and quantifies their occurrence across KHRG research areas. By placing recent testimony from villagers in the context of twenty years of abusive practices, this report should make clear that developments since the 2010 elections have neither expanded villagers' options for claiming their human rights, nor addressed the root causes of abuse in rural eastern Burma. External assessments of developments in Burma that ignore local perspectives on continuing human rights abuse thus exclude the input of the most knowledgeable and engaged stakeholders – who also stand to lose the most from inaccurate conclusions drawn without their participation. The testimony presented in the report should thus function as a critique of any attempt to assess changes in Burma that ignores local perspectives, and a call to heed the concerns of rural people who are gauging, on a day-to-day basis, the way past, present and continuing abuse impacts the future for communities in eastern Burma....

February 3, 2012
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace // Euro-Atlantic Security Initiative

Abstract:

The report we present here is the product of two years of effort by a group of former senior officials from government, the private sector, and nongovernmental organizations who came together as participants in the Euro-Atlantic Security Initiative. Our agenda has been to address the future security needs of the Euro-Atlantic region. We set as our goal the development of an intellectual framework for our nations, societies, and peoples to build a security system that will meet the twenty-first-century security challenges that face our region.

Our report sets forth practical steps to begin building this future and calls upon our leaders, governments, and societies to act. As co-chairmen of the Euro-Atlantic Security Commission, we present this report with the endorsement and support of all commission members. We hope that our effort will lead to greater security for all in our region and to our region’s strengthened capacity for global leadership in the promotion of increased stability, safety, and progress in the world beyond....

February 3, 2012
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace // Euro-Atlantic Security Initiative

Abstract:

One of the fundamental impediments to molding the Euro-Atlantic nations into a more unified and workable security community, as became apparent early in the deliberations of the Euro-Atlantic Security Initiative, is the lingering distrust that poisons too many of the region’s key relationships. For this reason we organized a working group to explore deeper solutions to the challenges of achieving historical reconciliation between countries divided by deep-seated historical grievances and of breaking through the long-standing impasse in resolving a number of protracted conflicts within the region. The two problems have as a common base the pernicious influence of that underlying mistrust of the other side. In this report, the Euro-Atlantic Security Initiative’s Working Group on Historical Reconciliation and Protracted Conflicts offers an approach that goes beyond traditional diplomacy to get at the root causes of the problem and urges a broader strategy for engaging society at large, the level at which solutions must be found....

February 2, 2012
International Crisis Group

Abstract:

A violent standoff in northern Kosovo risks halting Kosovo’s and Serbia’s fragile dialogue and threatens Kosovo’s internal stability and Serbia’s EU candidacy process. Pristina’s push to control the whole territory of the young state, especially its borders with Serbia, and northern Kosovo Serbs’ determination to resist could produce more casualties. Belgrade has lost control and trust of the northern Kosovo Serb community, which now looks to homegrown leaders. The international community, especially the EU and U.S., should encourage Belgrade to accept the government in Pristina as an equal, even if without formal recognition, but not expect it can force local compliance in northern Kosovo. All sides should seek ways to minimise the risk of further conflict, while focusing on implementing what has been agreed in the bilateral technical dialogue. They should build confidence and lay the groundwork for the political talks needed to guide a gradual transformation in northern Kosovo and eventually lead to normal relations between Kosovo and Serbia.

The current flare-up of tensions began on 25 July 2011, when Pristina sent police to two customs gates along the border with Serbia. Local Serbs surrounded the police and forced them to retreat; one officer was killed in an ambush, and a border post was burned. On 16 September, EULEX, the EU rule of law mission, started to airlift Kosovo officials to the border. All roads leading to the customs points were barricaded by Kosovo Serbs intent on obstructing deployment of Kosovo officials. While the roadblocks have generally been peaceful, violence ensued on at least three occasions during the last months of the year, when NATO’s peace enforcement mission (KFOR) attempted to dismantle the barricades, and Kosovo Serbs pushed back. It is perhaps some testament to the general commitment to limiting casualties that while there have been many injuries, only two persons have died....

January 27, 2012
International Crisis Group

Abstract:

In Iraq, the official withdrawal of the last U.S. combat troops, nearly nine years after the invasion, was quickly followed by a political crisis. Authorities issued an arrest warrant for the country’s top Sunni politician, Vice President Tariq Al-Hashimi, accusing him of running death squads.

Tension remained high after November’s flawed presidential and parliamentary elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Continued violence and repression by security forces claimed at least 30 lives. Incumbent president Joseph Kabila was sworn in for a second term on 20 December, despite international observers finding that the results “lacked credibility”.

Relations between Sudan and South Sudan deteriorated further. Tension over the status of Abyei continued, with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon calling for the withdrawal of both sides’ armed forces, while the two countries’ militaries clashed in the disputed territory of Jau.

In Senegal, President Abdoulaye Wade showed no signs of reconsidering his candidacy for a controversial third term. Clashes between ruling party and opposition supporters left one dead and several injured.

In Nigeria a spate of violent attacks by militant Islamists Boko Haram left at least 100 dead and 90,000 displaced. President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency. In Guinea-Bissau an attempted coup by renegade soldiers on 26 December left at least two dead. The navy chief, former army chief, and a number of politicians suspected of orchestrating it have been arrested.

Tensions between Pakistan’s government and military leadership escalated as the Supreme Court began its probe over a memo last May requesting U.S. help to avert a military takeover. In Afghanistan bomb attacks by Pakistani Sunni militants Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif killed 84 people on the Shia holy day of Ashura. Relations with Pakistan remained strained, as Pakistan’s boycott overshadowed the Bonn conference.

At least fifteen people were killed and 100 injured in Janaozen in western Kazakhstan on 16 December as government forces clashed with a crowd including former oil workers, who have been on strike for 6 months.

Bosnia avoided an intensified political crisis as leaders of the six main political parties agreed to form a government at the end of the month, ending fourteen months of deadlock after the October 2010 elections.

...

January 12, 2012
Strategic Studies Institute

Abstract:

This monograph considers the recent history of organizational change in the Russian Airborne Forces (VDV). In particular, it looks at how the VDV has changed since the end of Russia’s conflict with Georgia in 2008. The VDV, a force much admired in Russian media and society has, in fact, escaped fairly lightly during the comprehensive reform of the Russian Army more generally over the last few years. In large part this has been down to the personality of the current head of the VDV, Lieutenant-General Vladimir Shamanov. Close to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Shamanov--a "maverick"--has used his political connections to help ward off many of the cuts and reforms that have impacted the rest of the Army. He has managed to keep the basic structure of the VDV intact, while also dealing with a number of problematic issues related to manning, equipment, and training regimes within his organization. This monograph goes on to point out the level of professionalism in the VDV that was demonstrated during the Georgian war. It also though, highlights the fact that, while some battalions within the VDV will be very effective and well trained, other battalions will not. Thus it is difficult to judge precisely how battle-ready the VDV’s divisions now are. Ultimately, this monograph seeks to establish just what sort of Russian airborne forces U.S. or NATO troops may one day have to either work alongside or, indeed, face in some sort of confrontation....