President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan responded to criticism from a US special envoy, accusing the US and the West of trying to “dictate” the internal affairs of his country, and asking the international community to give him a change to resolve the crises in Darfur and Abyei. Excuse me, Mr. President? Killing all of your opponents does not qualify as a legitimate policy for conflict resolution and domestic peace.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) is setting up a committee, with ZANU-PF and MDC representatives, to work with police to curb violence ahead of the June 27 presidential run-off election. Because clearly it makes good sense for the people responsible for the violence to be charged with “curbing” it. The po-po have been very busy this week: They detained opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai for “rallying supporters without authorization” (if only he would have asked!), and also held a convoy of US and UK diplomats to prevent them from investigating the on-going political violence. The convoy was chased by Zimbabwe police, who then slashed the tires of their vehicle and detained them for 5 hours once they were finally stopped. The government is also reportedly preventing food distributions by international aid organizations in certain regions until after the election. Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga defied a taboo by publicly criticizing Mugabe and calling a dictator.
The US called on South Africa to use its “unique position” of political leverage with Mugabe to intervene and avert further violence. South African President Thabo Mbeki has presided over such negotiations in the past, and has been accused by many of being too soft towards Mugabe. An editorial in the New York Times accuses Mbeki of abdicating his responsibility, and calls on other African governments to take his place. A civil society group also accused Mbeki of knowing about plans to transport a shipment of Chinese weapons through South Africa to Zimbabwe—delivery of the shipment, as you may remember from previous posts, was successfully thwarted by organized protests throughout southern Africa.
Rwandan rebels attacked a refugee camp in the eastern DRC, killing 6 and wounding 30 after firing indiscriminately into a crowd of unarmed civilians. The rebels, many of whom participated in the 1994 genocide, remain a major obstacle to peace in the region.
Uganda, Sudan, and the DRC agreed to join forces against the Ugandan rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) if their leader, Joseph Kony, continues to stall peace negotiations. The UN-led process was near conclusion in April when Kony refused to show up and sign the peace accord, presumably in protest of an International Criminal Court indictment against him. Human rights groups report an increase in the LRA’s violence activities, including the abduction of children, in the months since. Kony and the LRA are hiding in eastern DRC.
And finally…an Amnesty International report on crimes against humanity committed by the government of Burma (Myanmar) against the Karen ethnic minority.
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