Month: April 2007

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Chad and Sudan clash

It’s been reported for months that the Janjaweed continue to hound and pursue the civilian population of Darfur, but yesterday the Sudanese forces were abruptly confronted by angered Chadian forces. With Libya supplying arms and material to militias in Sudan (for cross-border attacks into Chad) and Sudan supplying arms to rebels inside Chad (particularly the Chad National Concord), it’s not surprising that tensions have continued to grow in the wake of the crisis in Darfur.

Chad’s government accused Sudan’s government-backed Janjaweed militia of involvement in those attacks, but that could not be confirmed.

Chad and Sudan blame each other for supporting rebels in their respective countries. Both have refused the deployment of a UN-mandated force to patrol their border.

“Sudan has not abandoned its sinister project of destabilising Chad,” the government said Monday, calling on the population “to rally more than ever behind the defence and security forces to preserve their democratic gains, and guarantee sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

The government statement added that N’Djamena “expects the international community to condemn unequivocally this aggression against Chad from inside Sudan and take appropriate measures to force the Sudanese government to abandon its expansionist and destabilising aims in Chad.”

Both of the countries are currently apologizing for the clash, even while they continue to blame each other for fueling internal violence in their respective nations.

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EU criticized for genocidaires policies

Two human rights groups – REDRESS and International Federation for Human Rights – have accused major European countries of harboring and giving safe haven to Rwandan genocidaires.

“Thirteen years after the Rwandan genocide, it is unacceptable that perpetrators continue to live freely in Europe,” they said.

Suspects were living in Belgium, France, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Norway, the groups said.

Alain Gauthier, a human rights campaigner representing Rwandans in France, said there were “political brakes” in France to putting suspects on trial, while lawyer Jeanne Sulzer said the judiciary lacked resources in Belgium.

With the International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda working on a deadline of 2008, it is unlikely they will finish prosecuting those responsible.

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First trial in Canada

Desiré Munyaneza, a 40 year old Rwandan, is the first man to be charged and tried in Canada for war crimes and crimes against humanity. He was in court this week, as an unnamed woman [to protect her identity] testified:

The woman, one of 13 witnesses brought from Rwanda to testify, took the stand March 26, the first day of the trial.

But she fainted from the trauma of recounting the horrific details of the genocide and had to be hospitalized.

Her voice was forceful on Tuesday and the interpreter told the judge the woman “was strong.”

The witness said she saw Munyaneza at a motel owned by someone named Maheng.

It was a place where women were taken and raped repeatedly by the Interahamwe, the extremist Hutu militia.

In her earlier testimony, she said she was raped by 10 men on one day. “There were about five young men there in one room,” she said. “Desire had a gun.”

As I wrote last month, the United States has recently passed the Genocide Accountability Act, which would allow US courts to try accused genocidaires for their crimes.

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England avoids the Holocaust

A recent report from Britain’s Department for Education and Skills found that students weren’t being taught about the Holocaust or the Crusades for fear of offending students. As someone who works for an institution who’s mission is to teach tolerance through the experiences of those who lived through the Holocaust, I find it difficult to see how this does anything but exacerbate the problem. If the students have issues with one another, your role (as an educator) becomes to diversify and enlighten your classroom; not hide your head in the sand and hope it goes away.