Articles: Paris Summit Offers Boost to Syria’s Image
Region: Syrian Arab Republic
A Syria News Briefing report President Bashar al-Assad's upcoming visit to Paris offers Damascus a chance to play a key role in a French project to forge an association of Mediterranean states, analysts say. The July 13 meeting will be the highest-profile diplomatic visit Assad has made since Syria began indirect peace talks with Israel and accepted the Doha agreement which ended six months of political deadlock in Lebanon. French president Nicholas Sarkozy is hosting the Paris meeti... more
Views: 1505NGO Numbers Wane in Uzbekistan
Region: Uzbekistan
A News Briefing Central Asia report Uzbekistan is seeing a steady decline in the number of non-government organisations, NGOs, with a string of closures reported recently. Not only is the government hostile to any group with foreign links, it has blurred the lines with a semi-state umbrella body that manages the theoretically independent NGO sector On June 26, the electronic news bulletin Civil Society of Uzbekistan reported that the list of closures included organisations as diverse as t... more
Views: 3769Journalists Demand Justice for Kambakhsh
Region: Afghanistan
The appeals process has stalled and there seems to be little political will to ensure a fair outcome. By Hafizullah Gardesh and Noorrahman Rahmani in Kabul All over Afghanistan, journalists, writers and activists gathered on July 8 to press their government to release Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh. Kambakhsh, who has been in prison since last October, faces the death penalty for insulting Islam. His alleged crime consists of downloading an internet text critical of Islam’s restrictions on w... more
Views: 1205Female Outlaw Comes in From the Cold
Region: Afghanistan
The government has finally won over a woman who made her name as a militia commander – but plans to give her a job to keep her out of trouble are proving controversial. By Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi in Mazar-e-Sharif The Afghan government scored a minor victory last month by reeling in a rebellious “warlord” who led a band of warriors over nearly three decades. What really set this case apart is that the militia commander is a woman. The authorities’ decision to co-opt ... more
Views: 771Tsvangirai Facing Critical Choices
Region: Zimbabwe
No one is quite clear what the opposition’s next step will be, but any delay will benefit the president most. By Mike Nyoni in Harare Zimbabwe’s political stalemate looks set to continue as President Robert Mugabe settles in for another term and Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change, MDC, struggles to respond to the new, post-election environment. Tsvangirai, who pulled out of the presidential race five days before the June 27 run-off, now faces a dilemma o... more
Views: 935Kurdish Muslims Embrace Digital Age
Region: IraqFrom cartoons to lectures on theology, CDs on religious themes are selling fast in the north of Iraq. By Rebaz Mahmood in Sulaimaniyah Kawa Kamal’s shop in Sulaimaniyah is doing a booming trade in CDs, DVDs and cassettes of Muslim sermons and other religious material. Kamal says he is taking about 300,000 Iraqi dinars, around 250 US dollars, a day in CD sales alone, about three times what he was making five years ago. His busy shop in this northeastern city is bustling with custom... more
Views: 971Gulf States Woo Iraq
Region: Iraq
They hope their backing for Baghdad will help stabilise the country and curb Tehran. By Jennifer Koons in London Improved security, a grudging belief in the credibility of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and a desire to counter growing Iranian influence has led Iraq’s Sunni Arab neighbours in recent weeks to increase their diplomatic and economic support for the Shia-dominated government in Baghdad. Until recently, the Gulf Arab states – which include Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman... more
Views: 1225Seselj Trial Hears of Mostar Shootings
Region: Bosnia and HerzegowinaBosniak survivor describes ordeal at the hands of Serb forces in the summer of 1992. By Simon Jennings in The Hague A Bosniak imprisoned after surviving a massacre near the town of Mostar in June 1992 told judges this week how he was allowed water only once in four days and ate one meal in six days. Redzep Karisik was giving evidence in the trial of Serbian nationalist politician Vojislav Seselj. Still head of the Serb Radical Party, SRS, despite being detained in The Hague, Seselj is st... more
Views: 1414Learning to Document the Victims of Conflicts
Region: Bosnia and HerzegowinaSarajevo seminar attempts to draw lessons from different countries’ approaches to identifying the victims of rights abuses. By Lara Nettelfield in Sarajevo When the call to prayer sounded at 10:45pm on a balmy Sarajevo night, Muhammad Jafar of Banda Aceh knew all of the words flowing from the city's mosques. But he was in Bosnia to learn another language — the use of information technologies to manage the documentation of human rights abuses in post-conflict countries, and ev... more
Views: 1162Oric Acquitted in Appeals Hearing
Region: Bosnia and Herzegowina
Mixed reactions to court ruling in Bosnia and Serbia. By Merdijana Sadovic in Sarajevo and Simon Jennings in The Hague The appeals chamber of the Hague tribunal this week acquitted former Bosnian commander Naser Oric of crimes committed against Serbs in the Srebrenica area during the 1992-95 conflict. The ruling reversed a judgement delivered by the trial chamber in June 2006, sentencing Oric to two years in prison for failure to prevent murder and cruel treatment of Serb prisoners in S... more
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