News: Elusive Peace

• Burundi: Click here for an analysis of the country’s current political situation and the difficulties faced by efforts to initiate a peace process between the government and the main rebel group.
• Uganda: A press release from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) describes efforts to salvage the peace process in Northern Uganda, which has been continually stalled by rebel leader Joseph Kony’s determination to evade any kind of accountability for his human rights abuses.
• Iraq: The Washington Post describes the hurdles to creating a lasting peace in Iraq.
• Lebanon: The U.S.-backed government and Iran/Syrian-backed Hezbollah exchanged gunfire in the capital Beirut, escalating a political conflict that WaPo describes as “the country's worst internal crisis since the 1975-90 civil war.”
• Somalia: Though the government refutes an Amnesty International report on abuses committed against civilians, other sources say the report only scratches the surface of Somalia’s human rights disaster.
• Burma: As the number of dead or missing reaches 60,000 in the aftermath of Saturday’s cyclone, the Bush administration is stepping up its criticism of the country’s ruling military junta for delays in approving visas for international assistance teams.
• Zimbabwe: I opened up several articles to read and include in this post, but honestly, there’s nothing new to say right now. The AU, SADC, UN, etc etc are all meeting and discussing. Thabo Mbeki is reportedly involved somehow. Violence continues. Elections may be delayed up to a year. Whatever.