Eyes on Zim

(I’m back!)

Zimbabwean President “Crazy Bobby” Mugabe is blocking the country’s electoral commission from releasing the official results of Saturday’s elections, in which the opposition and an increasing number of foreign observers say Mugabe and his ZANU-PF part LOST by a significant margin. Morgan Tsvangirai was warned not declare himself president because that "is called a coup d'etat and we all know how coups are handled."

One news source is reporting that the electoral commission will soon declare Mugabe the winner anyway, and are awaiting the deployment of the military to crush any potential uprisings. Senior military officials have openly declared their loyalty to Mugabe. So it looks like either way this cookie crumbles, there will be trouble.

Shame.

News: Same Sh*t, Different Day

• Nothing is black and white: An article in the New York Times discusses the difficulties of US-China relations regarding human rights issues, such as the current situation in Tibet. Though several prominent American politicians have condemned China’s harsh reaction to the demonstrations in Tibet, President Bush remains silent on the issue. A former national security advisor to President Clinton remarked, “I think to the extent that he can work the issue privately, it’s better, frankly. The public statements just make the Chinese dig in their heels all the more, make them more resolute in their repression.” This poses interesting challenges for the international human rights movement, as the high degree of nuance and “behind the scenes” foreign policy makes it difficult for us to hold our leaders accountable for their commitments to human rights. On the one hand, we have no way of knowing if necessary action is underway to uphold human rights commitments, but on the other, a public airing of diplomatic processes would likely be counterproductive to achievement the ultimate goal. Conundrum.

• Zimbabwe: Mugabe said that opposition parties will never rule “as long as we are still alive.” (Referring to the kleptocrats of the ZANU-PF, of course.) Mugabe also told people, in essence, to ‘grow a pair’ and deal with the water shortage and other economic crises in the country. A report by the Council on Foreign Relations details how, amid staggering economic crisis, Mugabe granted control of political institutions to security forces, which could be problematic should Mugabe lose in the elections on Saturday.
• Darfur: The New York Times reports on the obstacles faced by the hybrid UN-AU peacekeeping force—namely, lack of troops and necessary equipment.
• Other news from Sudan: The Comprehensive Peace Agreement, signed in January 2005 to end the long-running North/South civil war, appears to be in jeopardy, as the SPLA accuses the government of lagging in the implementation of the treaty’s provisions. The government dismisses the claims.

Mugabe: Two wrongs make me right.

"Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe warned the opposition today against Kenyan-style violence if they lose next week's election, saying security forces stood ready to crush such protests."

Nice.

Zimbabwe gets its own post

The head of the SADC electoral observer mission to Zimbabwe declared that conditions in the country are suitable for next weeks elections, remarking, “The moment is right to hold elections, the climate is right to hold elections.” Ok, but are is the “climate” right for free and fair elections? Let’s survey the reports that found their way into my Google Reader just this morning…

Opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai (MDC) is threatening to boycott the elections if the electoral commission insists on counting ballots at its central office rather than at local polling stations, as was agreed upon in the SADC-brokered negotiations that set up the election process. Mugabe is clearly unconcerned, and has been busy all week making changes to the election law that allow him to override Parliament with presidential decrees.

Pre-poll obstruction is rampant across the country. Police in Harare banned events with opposition candidates and the Combined Harare Resident Association. Police and military personnel reportedly already voted—multiple times, and under supervision. Five police officers were arrested for supporting the MDC, under a selectively-applied (considering that the state security forces are generally under the control of the whims of ZANU-PF) law that prohibits the police from engaging in political activity. For other examples of disreputable behavior, see my last post on Zim.

The International Crisis Group issued a report warning the international community of the need for contingency plans should the elections not go well, which already seems probable based on pre-poll activities by Mugabe’s government and political party.

What about any of this appears conducive to free and fair elections? Mugabe and his party are flouting not only standard democratic practices, but the terms of the SADC agreement they signed with the opposition parties—and they’re doing it in the presence of election observers and international media attention. Delusion, or gumption?

News Round-up: Anyone have a bottle of aspirin?

• The government of Uganda confirmed reports that LRA leader Joseph Kony moved from the DRC to the CAR. Kony is dodging an indictment by the ICC, and refuses to sign a final peace agreement until the charges are dropped, but the Ugandan government says that it needs the final peace agreement in order to approach the ICC. So…what’s a conflict mediator to do? Meanwhile, Uganda is asking the government of the CAR (what little there is) for help in resolving the conflict with the Kony and the LRA. CAR is investigating Kony’s possible involvement in looting and raids in the country’s southeastern province. Way to wear out your welcome.
• Due process of what…? The government of Chad continues to detain people, without charges, following an attempted coup earlier this year. Human rights groups fear for the safety of the detainees after reports of torture at the hands of Chadian military and police officials.
• This isn’t a human rights story, but more of an interesting/ironically laughable headline for those of us who’ve spent any length of time in South Africa: Mozambique to aid SA power crisis. That’s right, one of the poorest countries in the world is compensating for ZA’s failure to update and maintain its own energy infrastructure. I love South Africa, I really do, this is just a bit amusing.
• Somalia: “We are not terrorists.” We just like to blow things up to get our way.
• Chinese authorities continue to tighten control in Tibet, and the Dalai Lama said that he fears for the lives of Tibetan demonstrators. Watch the videos on the BBC page—they have footage of unarmed monks clashing with riot police, and military forces and equipment pouring into the region by the thousands.
• “There is nothing about this place that is good.” The woes of the UN/AU mission in Darfur.

AM News: No Dictators Before Coffee (NDBC, people)

• The commander of the European peace-keeping force in Chad warned that his troops will return fire if refugee camps under their protection are attacked. It’s about time we had a peace-keeping force with teeth.
• A UN report accuses the Sudanese government of deliberately targeting civilians and civilian property in a recent campaign against rebel groups in Darfur. At least 115 civilians were killed in campaigns against the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) in West Darfur in January and February.
• More allegations of electoral obstruction in Zimbabwe, this time against the Central Intelligence Organization (CIO).
  
  

Busy Day

• My new favorite place: Zimbabwe! President Mugabe signed a law allowing police (read: state-sanctioned ZANU-PF thugs) into polling booths, raising further concerns about the ruling party’s plans to adhere to fair election practices. (What is, “They aren’t going to at all?”) Meanwhile, the Deputy ‘Information’ Minister, in response to a report on pre-election violence and intimidation, said that Human Rights Watch “should be ashamed of itself,” adding that these reports are “becoming a joke.” I suppose that the delusional power-hungry types are easily amused—aided, no doubt, but their complete lack of accountability. I can only hope that I (and everyone else in the human rights-respecting world) will on day be able to say, “Who’s laughing now?”
• The Chadian army conducted multiple cross-border raids in the northwestern region of the Central African Republic (CAR) in recent weeks. Since January 2008, Human Rights Watch documented at least 5 raids, and accuses the army of killing civilians, stealing cattle, and burning villages. The report notes that it is unclear whether or not these raids were coordinated with CAR authorities, as has been the case in the past.
• The government of Nepal is joining China in the repression of Tibetan protesters. Human Rights Watch condemned the arbitrary arrest, detention, and excessive use of force of Tibetan activists and journalists living in Nepal. In other Nepalese news, the UN voiced concerns over a possible resurgence of violence related to the country’s upcoming elections, after the murder of a candidate. Over 13,000 people were killed in a 10-year civil war that ended in 2006.
• The UN warned Kenya that it will not provide support to the proposed Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC), or any other institution, if it provides a blanket amnesty for the violence committed in the aftermath of the December 2007 elections. The UN otherwise supports the TJRC as a method of “national healing” (shudder—I hate that phrase), but believes that it should make recommendations for criminal prosecutions.
• A Ghanaian woman was removed from a hospital in the UK, where she was undergoing cancer treatment, when her visa expired. She died today. Her friends and family raised over £70,000 for the treatment, which was unavailable in her home country. I feel bad for her two kids, whose father already passed away.
• South Africa: “We’ll kill the Somalians if they come back.” *Sigh*

News: Windows of Opportunity

• A UN Report on the recent upheaval in Kenya identifies three levels of violence—spontaneous, organized, and retaliatory—involved in the murder of 1200 and the displacement of over 300,000. While the violence was set of by the disputed election results in December 2007, underlying causes such as social and economic equality fuelled the uprising; these conditions must be addressed in order to prevent a recurrence of violence in the future. The report also faults the Kenyan state with failing to protect its own citizens. [AllAfrica] [UN]
• The UN urges the international community to “seize a window of opportunity” for peace negotiations in Somalia. If Ban Ki-Moon says there’s a window, well…I’ll just defer to him on that one. The UN Chief also says that he will consider the deployment of a 27,000-strong peacekeeping force to the region if certain conditions are met, including a ceasefire and the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops. But if we can’t staff and equip a force of 26,000 in Sudan, then…?
• I love this headline: Zimbabwe: Free and Fair Elections Unlikely. No kidding.
• Despite the obstructionist efforts of the ZANU-PF, Mugabe is apparently trailing in the polls in Zimbabwe.
• Lawyers for the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda are submitting petitions to the ICC for the withdrawal of the arrest warrants against leader Joseph Kony and other high-raking LRA soldiers. Kony is refusing to sign a peace agreement while still under indictment. This raises quite a dilemma between the concepts of peace and justice: In cases of negotiated settlements, where there is no clear overall victor with the ability to pursue traditional justice methods (prosecutions), is amnesty an acceptable trade for peace?
• China is not altering plans to carry the Olympic torch to Mt. Everest and through Lhasa, the capital of Tibet and the center of the recent anti-China demonstrations. I have a hunch that they’re trying to rub it in the Tibetans’ faces a bit. The head of the Communist Party in Tibet recently referred to the Dalai Lama as “a jackal in Buddhist monk’s robes, an evil spirit with a human face and the heart of a beast,” and warned that “we are engaged in a fierce battle of blood and fire with the Dalai clique.” No subtlety with these guys.
• The UN envoy to Burma reports disappointment over the lack of “concrete results” from the visit.

Peace is Annoying: The Ins and Outs of the Zimbabwean Electoral System

Note: I don't know why two paragraphs are blacked out, but if you highlight the area with your mouse, voila, there it is.

Increased reports of violence related to the March 29 elections in Zimbabwe should be raising eyebrows in the international community. Known members of Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party are attacking members of the opposition MDC party, in one instance leading to the hospitalization of 5 MDC supporters, who were ambushed while campaigning. Villagers are fleeing violence in the Makoni district, where night-attacks were reportedly led by a prominent ZANU-PF activist after a rally failed to draw a sizeable crowd.

The government is restricting access to media outlets and threatening those that enter the country without its permission: “An Information Ministry spokesman says the government is aware of attempts to turn journalists into election observers, or smuggle in observers.” I would say that Mugabe and the ZANU-PF have something to hide, but they aren’t really trying to hide their efforts to obstruct the election. Open intimidation has characterized Mugabe’s rule from the beginning. This is a man who, in a speech to Parliament in 1982, commented regarding alleged dissidents, "Some of the measures we shall take are measures which will be extra-legal....An eye for an eye and an ear for an ear may not be adequate in our circumstances. We might very well demand two ears for one ear and two eyes for one eye." Brazen—and he meant what he said. (And hopefully one day he will stand trial for the mass killings and other reprisals referred to by that statement.)

Since his days as a rebel leader in colonial Rhodesia, Mugabe has yearned for a one-party state under his consolidated control, and has made repeated claims throughout his career that he has no intention of relinquishing power. [See Martin Meredith’s book Mugabe: Power, Plunder, and the Struggle for Zimbabwe. B&N is the only place I found online that has the most recent version (in my super quick search), hence the link.] The presence of a few international observers is clearly not motivating Mugabe towards respecting democratic processes.

Another Kenya? I hope not, but I’m not a particularly optimistic person. According to the Zimbabwean ambassador to South Africa, there is currently "so much peace, but peace is annoying some people.”

More News: Because the world keeps turning

• Chinese security forces are conducting house-by-house searches in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, arresting people suspected of involvement in the recent protests. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch expressed concern for those detained, as China vowed “severe punishment” for demonstrators who did not surrender by yesterday’s deadline. And China doesn’t have the best reputation for its treatment of detained human rights activists.
• Further dampening hopes of a peace treaty in Uganda, LRA leader Joseph Kony, in his new hideout in CAR (discussed in a previous post), appears to have established contact with Chadian rebel leader General Mahamat Nouri. Oh to be a fly on the wall…
• Dafurian rebel group Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) is demanding one-on-one negotiations with Khartoum, claiming to be the only viable group in the region. Delusional, much?

News: The Dictator Daily

• A paper on Kosovo by the International Crisis Group calls for increased international coordination and a strong message to Serbia (and its Russian supporters) warning against attempts to spoil the new state.
• A new report by Amnesty International details the discrimination and hardships faced by HIV+ women living in rural South Africa.
• Guatemala’s first trial for forced disappearances during its Dirty War began last week. The conflict, which began in 1960, left 200,000 dead and 45,000 “disappeared”—an all-too-common tactic of Latin American dictatorships in the late-20^th century.
• China “thanks” India for detaining over 100 Tibetan refugees involved in anti-China protests. Given its recent rap sheet on human rights issues—see my post from last Thursday—I would think twice about doing anything for which China might be grateful. But I guess that’s just me.
• And there’s more! Chinese human rights activist Hu Jia is standing trial in Beijing for comments made in interviews with foreign media and on the internet.
• Only a select few media outlets will be allowed to cover the upcoming presidential elections in Zimbabwe. I’m thinking that this does not bode well for the prospects of anything “free and fair.”
• And finally…today’s Napoleon Award for Excellence in the Art of Petty Dictatorship goes to…Muammar Gadaffi! The Libyan dictator is urging Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to remain in power for life, arguing against multi-party democracy and presidential term limits. Awesome.

PM News Round-up: Damn those attention-hungry "splittists"...

• Beijing is blaming Tibetan “splittists” for staging a public relations crisis ahead of the summer Olympics with the protests in Lhasa. However, as the Christian Science Monitor reports, the uprising comes as no surprise to those aware of China’s repression of Tibet.
• And the Napoleon Award for Excellence in the Art of Petty Dictatorship goes to…Bobby Mugabe! Year-long negotiations, led by South African President Thabo Mbeki, appear to be unraveling ahead of elections scheduled for March 29 in Zimbabwe, as Mugabe proves once again that he has no intention of honoring his commitments. Mugabe and his party, ZANU-PF, are engaging in political violence, intimidation, and vote-buying, following declarations that “there will be no regime change” in the country. Keep your eyes on this place, folks—I fear it could end up like Kenya…
• The globalization of conflict: An interesting article on the Darfurian diaspora.

News: Monday Morning Fun with Google Reader

• Children playing a game in which they mimic rape? South Africans are questioning the development of a “culture of violence” in their new democracy. It’s about f-ing time, is all I have to say.
• Collaboration! It’s a beautiful thing. Rwanda is hosting a workshop on multi-national peace operations, with a focus on Darfur and Somalia. Military officials from 17 African nations are in attendance.
• Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that he is “distressed” by the protests in Tibet, and hopes they can be resolved through non-violent means. Too late for that, buddy. Police roundups of suspected protesters…promises of tough reprisals…it doesn’t take much to put two and two together. China hasn’t even acted like it was interested in any solution other than violent crackdown, and has even garnered strong domestic support for its methods (via dishonest propaganda, of course).
• The FDLR in the eastern DRC ignored an ultimatum to disarm (or else?) by March 15. Quelle surprise.
• Insight into the violence in the Central African Republic.
• UN troops withdrew from parts of Kosovo following violent clashes with Serbian nationalists.

News: It never ends

• The situation in Tibet is deteriorating even further, as 80 people are now reported dead, though China still puts the toll at 10. China put additional troops on standby, and continues to restrict access to the region, making it difficult to verify the scale of the repression. The Dalai Lama is calling for an international investigation into the crackdown, saying that his people face “cultural genocide” at the hands of the Chinese security forces.
• Meanwhile, additional anti-China protests are expected in Taiwan. Political parties are organizing protests against China’s anti-secession laws, which authorize the use of force against the island should it formally declare its independence.
• The World Food Programme reports increased difficult in reaching the nearly 2 million Darfurians dependent on their aid due to increased violence in the region. Fifty supply trucks were hijacked in the last year, and 13 drivers are still missing.
• Joseph Kony, leader of Ugandan rebel group Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), reportedly moved from his base in the DRC to one in the CAR, raising doubts over the signing of the Final Peace Accord scheduled for this month. For background on the LRA/Uganda conflict, visit the ENOUGH Project.

Refugees: UNHCR is a busy place...

• Sudan: There’s more going on than Darfur—UNHCR is speeding up repatriation efforts of refugees from the long-running North/South civil war, which ended with a comprehensive peace agreement in January 2005. Over 100,000 refugees from southern Sudan are still in Uganda, with many others in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Egypt, exemplifying the protracted nature of the problems facing post-conflict societies.
• Burundi: Talk about protracted…UNHCR is working the government of Tanzania on a plan to repatriate 218,000 Burundian refugees (exilers, really) who fled violence in 1972.
• Central African Republic (CAR): UNHCR is also trying to relocate the latest influx of 14,000 CAR refugees into Chad further from the border, to areas less burdened by previous refugee settlements, more accessible to relief agencies, and less susceptible to cross-border attacks. Chad is also host to an estimated 250,000 Darfurian refugees (also subject to relocation efforts, due to security concerns close to the border of Sudan), 45,000 CAR refugees before latest influx. Civil conflict in Chad has resulted in nearly 180,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), and as many as 30,000 Chadian refugees in Cameroon.
• Also in Chad: An interesting article about education in the refugee camps.
• Kenya: Local peace councils are focusing on reconciliation within local communities after the recent post-election violence, leading to resettlement of IDPs.
• For more on refugees and IDPs (because this is by no means an exhaustive list), check out UNHCR and IDMC.

News Brief: The Race to be the World's Biggest Jerk

• After Chad and Sudan signed their sixth peace accord in two years on Thursday, Chadian rebels vowed to continue their fight to overthrow the government.
• China set a Monday deadline for the surrender of protesters in Tibet. Chinese media reports 10 confirmed deaths, but Tibetan leaders claim the Chinese police are responsible for 30 confirmed deaths and up to 100 unconfirmed deaths. Travel and reporting are tightly restricted by the Chinese government, who’ve “pledged a harsh crackdown” if demonstrations continue beyond midnight on Monday. Chinese authorities, meanwhile, claim they secured the capital city Lhasa without gunfire—an account denied by Tibetan leaders in exile in neighboring India.
• Peace and justice don’t always go hand in hand. Indictments by the International Criminal Court, originally requested by the Ugandan government, are proving to be the final sticking point for peace negotiations with the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Many Ugandans seem to support forgoing prosecutions for war crimes and crimes against humanity in favor of an enduring peace agreement. This raises interesting problems about the nature of peace, justice, and international human rights obligations—a lengthy discussion, for another day.
• On a more positive note for the ICC, Charles Taylor is finally facing accountability for an astonishing and horrifying repertoire of egregious human rights violations.
• ‘Bushmen’ woman have died in Botswana after eviction from their land by diamond mining company Gem Diamonds, who bought the land concession from De Beers in 2007. The evictions were deemed illegal by the High Court in Botswana in 2006, but the Bushmen have been unable to return to the land.
• The Council on Foreign Relations released several interesting pieces on five-year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Check out the slideshow, video, and article on efforts to forge a political compromise.
• Call to Action and report by the Friends of the Congo on the appalling violence faced by women in the DRC.

Developments in Tibet: Deja vu, all over again

Protests turned violent on Friday in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. The protests began on Monday with demonstrations by Buddhist monks marking the anniversary of the failed 1959 uprising, and have become the largest since the 1980s. (Those protests were, surprise surprise, violently ended by the Chinese government.) The protests challenge Beijing’s efforts to present an “image of harmony and stability” before the summer Olympics. Though information has been sparse and difficult to verify due to tight control by the Chinese government, witnesses say that Chinese police surrounded at least two Buddhist monasteries in an attempt to quell the uprising.

Strikingly similar to the uprising in Burma last year.

News!

• Humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders suspended mobile clinic activities in the Northeastern Province of the Central African Republic (CAR) after a woman was shot in one of its ambulances.
• Additionally, the Ugandan-based Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) abducted more than 80 residents from a CAR border town. For background on the crisis in CAR, visit the Genocide Intervention Network. For background on the LRA, visit the Enough Project.
• The humanitarian situation in eastern Chad is becoming increasingly dire, as refugees from Darfur continue to flow into the region, joining some 240,000 refugees in 12 camps. Additionally, numbers of internally displaced persons (IDPs) are rapidly increasing as a result of fighting between the Chadian government and rebel groups.

More News: “Why don’t we just ask them to stop?”

• The UN Security Council passed a resolution calling for the Rwandan FDLR and ex-FAR/Interahamwe militias—the groups largely responsible for the 1994 Rwandan genocide—to “surrender immediately to the Congolese authorities and the United Nations peacekeeping mission.” Have you tried just asking them nicely?
• President Idriss Deby of Chad and President Oumar el-Beshir of Sudan (recovered from his headache, presumably) signed a peace agreement ahead of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) summit in Dakar. The two leaders agreed to “normalize” relations between the countries—i.e. stop sponsoring each others rebel groups. If international affairs—and the crisis in Darfur in particular—has taught us anything, it’s that it’s one thing to sign a treaty, and quite another to actually abide by and implement its provisions. So we’ll see.
• Meanwhile, UN and AU envoys in Sudan are preparing for meetings in Geneva next week to review their current efforts in Darfur, prompted by renewed violence in the region in recent weeks.
• In particularly gruesome news, a former death squad leader testified that Charles Taylor, one of the most accomplished of fear-mongers, ordered his soldiers to eat the flesh of their enemy/victims. Mr. Taylor is currently standing trial at The Hague. What justice is there for such an act?
• India, oh India…I thought you were a democracy! I feel betrayed. India has detained Tibet refugees for…a peace march. To the Tibetan border, sure, but still…a peace march. Apparently relations with Beijing take priority over commitments to human rights.
• I’m a huge fan of rebellious Buddhist monks.

China: A Recurring Theme

China is one of the biggest threats to peace and stability in the world. Not only does the government suppress dissent at home, it also bankrolls violent dictatorships in Asia and Africa. But let’s start on the domestic front. Amnesty International reports increased attempts to silence opposition and minority groups, including the abduction and disappearance of human rights activists in Beijing in the run-up to the summer Olympics. Protests by monks in Tibet have reached a point where the Chinese government was forced to acknowledge them, though information remains controlled, and thus sparse. China even closed Mt. Everest to climbers in an attempt to keep Tibetan protestors away from the Olympic torch run. God forbid the human rights activists infringe on the symbol of the “lasting unity of mankind.”

Strict censorship of the media and public access to information—enabled by American technology companies including Cisco, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft—allows the Chinese government to keep much of its population in dark about its insidious activities. This Frontline report on Tiananmen Square provides excellent insight into the Chinese government’s human rights abuses and the monitoring and censorship of its own population.

China’s record on international human rights is equally, if not more, deplorable. China is the largest arms-supplier and oil-investor of the genocidal regime in Sudan. From 2003-2006, as other nations were withdrawing from trade with Sudan, China supplied 90% of Sudan’s arms purchases. (Check out the Save Darfur Coalition’s chilling ad campaign. The link will open a PDF.) China dispatched a special envoy to Sudan in the wake of mounting international pressure related to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, but these attempts often seem feeble and two-faced. On the one hand, the special envoy comments about the deplorable humanitarian crisis and the need for increased peace efforts, while on the other hand defending China’s human rights record and commenting that politics have no place in the Olympics, mocking the efforts international human rights activists. (For more information: http://savedarfur.org/page/content/china)

China also funds violent authoritarian regimes in Sri Lanka and Burma. The government of Sri Lanka, engaged in a protracted 25-year civil war against the Tamil ethnic minority, is protected from international criticism and sanction by virtue of substantial Chinese financial support. Commenting on the replacement of Western donors, Sri Lankan Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona argues, “Asians don’t go around teaching each other how to behave. There are ways we deal with each other — perhaps a quiet chat, but not wagging the finger.” Read: We’ll take money from people who don’t tell us to stop abducting, torturing, and killing our own citizens. Charming.

(The methods of the Tamil Tigers themselves are by no means commendable, and Sri Lankan citizens are often caught in the middle of fighting between the rebel group and the government. HRW recently released a report, “Recurring Nightmare,” on the abductions of members of the Tamil ethnic group by the Sri Lankan military. For more information on the crisis in Sri Lanka, visit the Genocide Intervention Network.)

International boycotts and sanctions on military dictatorship in Burma are similarly thwarted by China’s economic support, especially in the gem trade. (First Lady Laura Bush is a staunch advocate of a boycott on Burmese gems, but as my friend commented, “I didn’t even know she was involved in this. She really needs better PR people.”) Major jewelers including Tiffany’s and Cartier joined the boycott, but their efforts seem futile without China’s support. China also supplies the Burmese government with arms and other investments: "The only sanctions that would work would be Chinese," asserts Robert Rotberg, a professor of public policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School. "The Chinese ... supply all the weapons and much of the investment [to Burma]." [Christian Science Monitor]

Much more can be said on the issue, but the gist is this: China not only invests heavily in countries with horrendous human rights records, but also supplies arms and other material support to the authoritarian regimes that violently oppress their own citizens. China defends its human rights record by arguing that it engages in economic activity only and does not meddle in the internal affairs of other nations—and criticizes the US and other nations for meddling in China’s internal affairs—essentially arguing for a free-enterprise approach to international affairs (very curious of a supposedly-Communist country) that ignores the connection between economics and politics.

Apologies, dear commies, but economics and politics cannot be separated. They are bedfellows. Perhaps you should re-familiarize yourself with your own founding Manifesto, because I do believe that the connection between economics and politics was an underlying theme of the Communist Revolution.

A Final Note: US State Department, though still labeling the government as authoritarian, dropped China from its list of the world’s worst human rights violators. Curious.

News Brief

• Burundi: Grenade attacks on the homes of four prominent opposition leaders occurred almost simultaneously on March 8, the latest example of increasing violence against opposition to the ruling CNDD-FDD party. [HRW] Meanwhile, UNHRC started a collaborative effort to repatriate Burundian refugees who’ve been living in Tanzania for upwards of 30 years. HRW background, BBC Background
• Somalia: The armed wing of the Islamic courts, al-Shabaab, lived up to its promise to start beheading government soldiers. [BBC] BBC background to Somali conflict
• Zimbabwe: Increase in violence reported in run-up to (ahem, sham) elections on March 29, solidifying Mugabe’s position as Petty Dictator Extraordinaire. [AllAfrica]
• Darfur: Hollywood to the rescue.
• Sudan/Chad: In the latest game of “Stratego: The African Coup Version,” Chad is reporting that Sudanese-backed rebel groups entered the country in a renewed attempt to overthrow the government. Sudan, in turn, accuses the Chadian government of sponsoring rebel groups in Darfur. This has obvious implications for the stalled peace process in Darfur—perhaps next time the mediators should bring an economy-sized bottle of Excedrin to the table.