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.