Sri Lankan minister huger strike against UN human rights investigation perverts turns civil disobedience inside out.
Sri Lankan Minister’s Sad Parody of Satyagraha
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Human Rights
Congo’s Quest for Liberation Continues
Congo has long been the focus of resource exploitation. The first era of colonization in Africa, beginning in the mid-1880s, was most pronounced in this central African country. Belgium’s King Leopold brutalized the population in his quest for rubber and riches, leaving a legacy of natural resource exploitation by white Europeans in the heart of Africa.
U.S. Hijacks ICC conference
The United States managed to foil the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) adoption of the crime of aggression as part of its mandate during this month’s review conference in Kampala, Uganda. But the U.S. presence at the conference demonstrates a new engagement with the ICC, and the Obama administration’s interest in helping to shape international law.
Burma’s Junta Built to Last
Whether or not Myanmar holds elections this year, democracy seems to be a mirage on the horizon. The military is geared to remain in power for the foreseeable future.
Pavlovian Congress Jumps to Israel’s ‘Self-‘ Defense
Learning what actually transpired in the Gaza Flotilla attack was apparently of little interest to the 87 senators who signed the letter defending the attack. Despite the apparent whitewash forthcoming in the internal Israeli investigation, the senate letter supported Israel’s alleged intention to carry out “a thorough investigation of the incident.”
Sri Lanka’s Wartime Abuses
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa was in India earlier this month making promises to resettle the war-displaced Sri Lankan Tamil minority one year after his government’s forces won a crippling victory over the Tamil Tiger insurgency. But can he deliver on his pledge and begin the healing of Sri Lanka’s deep ethinc wounds?
Israel’s Dubious Investigation of Flotilla Attack
Few decisions of the Obama administration have outraged the peace and human rights community as much as its successful efforts to block an international inquiry into May’s Israeli aid flotilla attack. Instead, supported by leading Republican and Democratic members of Congress, the Obama administration has thrown its weight behind an investigative committee handpicked by right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu to examine the incident.
Reforming Asylum Policy
On May 14, 2010, a U.S. immigration judge granted asylum to President Barack Obama’s Kenyan aunt in a second hearing. Zeituni Onyangohad applied for asylum in 2002, but the request was denied in 2004 and she was ordered to leave the country. She stayed on, fighting the order. The asylum process is confidential, as are the grounds for the judge granting the request.
60 Second Expert: Democratic Party Defends Israeli Attack
In Congress, Democratic leaders find common ground with their Republican counterparts in their effort to defend the Israeli assault on unarmed humanitarian aid flotillas. In a sharp contrast with the broad international consensus, a number of democratic representatives and senators proclaimed that the murder of nine activists, which took place in international waters, were inevitable and justified as Israel’s “right to self-defense.”
Reader Challenge: Trade Flotilla Investigation for Blockade?
Israel intends to ease the blockade on Gaza in exchange for American support for a whitewash of the investigation into the Flotilla incident. Is this nothing more than appeasement?