Reporting on Conflict | Media Watch Blog

• News source:
• 23 June 2008
• World Politics Review Blog
• By Judah Grunstein

Meanwhile, the debate over the American military engagement in Iraq has been reduced to the choice between maintaining or withdrawing our troops. Ignored is the notion that we can maintain troop levels while disengaging politically (e.g. disengaged bases) or that, conversely, we can withdraw our troops while significantly ramping up our political engagement. The latter option is what this report (.pdf) by the Task Force for a Responsible Withdrawal from Iraq proposes as the basis for a complete withdrawal of American forces within 12-18 months, beginning with a modified UN mandate that internationalizes the Iraqi aid and support mission in the context of a gradual American troop drawdown.

• News source:
• 30 June 2008
• What about Clients?
• By JD Hull

It’s a good time for business clients to push for ADR (including mediation) over litigation. Not because ADR is cheaper, faster and better–sometimes it’s clearly not–but because the cases you defend in a struggling economy can be more marginal.

Say you’ve just been handed a case to defend in an American court that is highly questionable and insubstantial… Down-on-their-luck David & Son, with hungry counsel, v. Flatfooted Goliath, Inc., your client. You are before a real judge, a scholarly, sane and honest one, and you think you will win your case…

Just silly, right? Beneath you, you tell yourself. And easy to win.

Think again, Skippy.

• News source:
• 30 June 2008
• VOA
• By James Butty

Eight members of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) delegation to the Juba peace talks quit late last week, citing dissatisfaction with LRA leader Joseph Kony and chief LRA negotiator David Matsanga. Matsanga quit his position after a failed attempt to convince Kony to sign a final agreement in April, but in recent weeks has claimed to have regained Kony’s confidence.

• News source:
• June 2008
• Singapore Institute of International Affairs
• 7th Workshop on the ASEAN Regional Mechanism on Human Rights

The 7th Workshop on the ASEAN Regional Mechanism on Human Rights was held at the Amara Sanctuary Resort, Singapore on 12-13 June, 2008. Supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore and co-hosted by the Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA) and the Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism, it is the first conference of the sort ever to be held in Singapore. More than 60 delegates, from NGOs, think-tanks, government of Singapore and all other ASEAN member countries participated in the discussion about establishing an ASEAN human rights body.

Raymond Lim, Singapore Minister for Transport and the Second Minister for Foreign Affairs addressed three broad criteria for establishing an ASEAN human rights body in his opening speech, emphasizing that the new institution “must recognize the political history and policy of established ASEAN tradition,” “can only be achieved with a revolutionary approach,” and that “no artificial deadlines should be set just for the sake of setting them.”

Despite these broad suggestions, the issue of human rights has divided the ASEAN community more than any other. According to H.E. Prof. Tommy Koh, while Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand already have national human rights committees, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam are not enthusiastic about making progress in this direction. Singapore and Brunei belong to neither of these camps, and have failed to bridge the gap between the two. The blurred boundary between rights and responsibilities, as well as whether an ASEAN human rights body should preside over each ASEAN member state, are two areas where no consensus has been made.

• News source:
• 28 June 2008
• Modesto Bee
• By EMILIE RAGUSO

Palestinian psychologist and professor Mubarak Awad visited Modesto on Thursday with a message of hope about peace in the Middle East.

Modesto was Awad’s most recent stop on a lecture and training circuit that has included Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Qatar, Singapore and Burma during the past six months.

Awad, 64, who is based outside Washington, D.C., has been called “the Gandhi of the Middle East” for his emphasis on nonviolent resistance. While his training began with Palestinians struggling for independence from Israel, Awad has since expanded his scope, offering training around the world.

• News source:
• 27 June 2008
• Foreign Policy In Focus
• By Stephen Zunes

Gene Sharp, an 80-year-old scholar of strategic nonviolent action and veteran of radical pacifist causes, is under attack by a number of foreign governments that claim that he and his small research institute are key players in a Bush administration plot against them.

Though there is no truth to these charges, several leftist web sites and publications have been repeating such claims as fact. This raises disturbing questions regarding the ability of progressives challenging Bush foreign policy to distinguish between the very real manifestations of U.S. imperialism and conspiratorial fantasies.

Gene Sharp’s personal history demonstrates the bizarre nature of these charges. He spent two years in prison for draft resistance against the Korean War, was arrested in the early civil rights sit-ins, was an editor of the radical pacifist journal Peace News, and was the personal assistant to the leftist labor organizer A.J. Muste. He named his institute after Albert Einstein, who is not only remembered as the greatest scientist of the 20th century but was also a well-known socialist and pacifist.

• News source:
• 27 June 2008
• mongabay.com

A group of Brazilian ethanol producers has signed the first deal to export certified sustainable ethanol, reports Reuters…

Brazil’s sugar cane ethanol is presently the most efficiently produced biofuel in the world, yielding 5.5 times as much energy per unit of input compared with U.S. corn ethanol. With a production cost less than a third the cost of conventional gasoline, nearly eight out of every ten new cars sold in Brazil are flex-fuel—capable of running on either an ethanol-gasoline mix (“gasohol”) or bioethanol. Brazil has effectively replaced 26 percent of its gasoline with sugar-cane based fuel grown on 5 percent of its crop area.

Nevertheless, the industry has at times been the target of campaigns by NGOs that allege labor abuses and questionable environmental practices, including burning of cane fields, water depletion and pollution, and displacement of farmers and ranchers into more ecologically sensitive areas, like the Amazon rainforest. The new deal seeks to allay these concerns by tracking the environmental performance of production.

• News source:
• 27 June 2008
• Opinio Juris
• By Kevin Jon Heller

The BBC reports that the New Zealand government and seven Maori tribes have entered into an historic agreement concerning Maori ownership of a number of forests in the North Island, where I live…

The agreement, known as the “Treelords” deal — echoing the very controversial 1992 Sealords deal, which ultimately led the New Zealand Parliament to extinguish all Maori claims to commercial fishing rights — is indeed historic. I would take issue, though, with the article’s claim that the Treaty of Waitangi “guaranteed the indigenous Maori people use of their land and resources in return for ceding sovereignty to the British crown.” That interpretation is consistent with the English version of the Treaty — but not with the Maori version.

• News source:
• 27 June 2008
• Civil Negotiation and Mediation
• When you negotiate, think of ways to show what you mean. It can be a persuasive way to make your point.
• By Nancy E. Hudgins

Plaintiff was diagnosed with Type II juvenile diabetes in his teens. Despite countless admonitions from physicians, dieticians and nurses, he was non-compliant with his diet.

In his twenties, he did something illegal (I can’t remember what) and was jailed for six months. The jail’s family practice physician diagnosed diabetic retinopathy for the first time. Plaintiff contended that the physician committed malpractice for not diagnosing it sooner (even though plaintiff had been followed by an ophthalmologist on the outside who had not diagnosed it). I represented the company aligned with the physician.

The jail kept records of all the snack food that plaintiff bought at the jail’s commissary during the six months he was incarcerated. He bought a lot: moon pies, pork rinds, top ramen, Kit Kats, Hershey bars, you name it. I put the commissary records into evidence. At the suggestion of a co-defendant’s lawyer, I decided to show, not tell, the jury what plaintiff had bought. The argument went to plaintiff’s contributory negligence.

• News source:
• 27 June 2008
• AP
• By HAMZA HENDAWI

BAGHDAD— Baghdad hasn’t been this quiet in years. But the respite from bloodshed comes at a high price.

Up to 20 feet high in some sections.

Rows after rows of barrier walls divide the city into smaller and smaller areas that protect people from bombings, sniper fire and kidnappings. They also lead to gridlock, rising prices for food and homes, and complaints about living in what feels like a prison.

• News source:
• 27 June 2008
• Reuters

MADRID – The Basque Country regional assembly voted on Friday to go ahead with plans for a public vote on ties with the rest of Spain, but Spain vowed to block the move its sees as unnecessarily divisive.

Juan Jose Ibarretxe’s government in the northeastern Spanish region also wants Basques to vote on October 25 on whether his administration should seek peace talks with separatist guerrillas ETA.

The two issues to be raised run contrary to Spanish government policy on maintaining national unity and refusing to talk to ETA.

Polls show most Basques do not want to leave Spain and do not support the violent campaign for independence fought by ETA, which has killed more than 800 people over four decades.

• News source:
• 27 June 2008
• Radio Netherlands Worldwide
• By Jamie van Wagtendonk

In the brutal war in Uganda, waged since the 1980s, thousands of children have been forced to fight for the main guerrilla force, the Lord’s Resistance Army. As a tenuous peace has been brokered over the past few years, more and more of the young soldiers are returning home, if their small villages that they haven’t seen for years could be considered a home.

• News source:
• 25 June 2008
• Upside Down World
• By Raúl Zibechi

The Cordillera Central is one of the prime regions torn by the war between the Colombian military and the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia). The rural population, which is mostly lower class and of indigenous decent, and consequently the sector of the Colombian populous most dramatically hit by the armed confrontations, defends itself through the “Indigenous War.”…

In 2004 the indigenous guard received the National Peace Prize, which is awarded each year by a group of institutions: The United Nations, the Ebert Foundation, and various media sources such as El Tiempo, Caracol Radio and Television, and Semana magazine. In effect, it has been one of the most original experiences ever to happen to any one social movement. “We are not an armed military force, nor guerillas; we are just a community in the service of the other communities,” says one guard, whole-heartedly taking to the idea that he is an instrument of defense for the territory. In this way, the concept of self defense of the different communities is key and promotes organization. Their resistance strategies include promoting food sovereignty, early warning systems, communal gardens, and above all, collective training processes such as those involving permanent assembly areas and the reinforcement of community-run authorities.

• News source:
• 25 June 2008
• By Kevin Jon Heller

WorldPublicOpinion.org has released an interesting survey of world attitudes toward torture. Here is the summary of their findings:

A WorldPublicOpinion.org poll of 19 nations finds that in 14 of them most people favor an unequivocal rule against torture, even in the case of terrorists who have information that could save innocent lives. Four nations lean toward favoring an exception in the case of terrorists.

However, large majorities in all 19 nations favor a general prohibition against torture. In all nations polled, the number saying that the government should generally be able to use torture is less than one in five.

• News source:
• 25 June 2008
• Mizzima News

Famous poet Ko Saw Wai, who had jeered at ageing SPDC Chairman Snr. Gen.Than Shwe calling him ‘power crazy’ was remanded for the third time by the Bahan Township court yesterday. His poem ‘February 14′ disguised as a ‘St. Valentine’s Day poem’ had appeared in January this year in the Rangoon-based weekly journal ‘Ah Chit’ (Love). http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/4-inside-burma/718-poet-remanded-to-custody-for-jeering-at-junta-supremo-

• News source:
• 25 June 2008
• Reporters Without Borders

Reporters Without Borders appeals to Raúl Castro’s government for a show of magnanimity towards the organisation’s correspondent, Ricardo González Alfonso, and other imprisoned journalists in return for the European Union’s decision on 23 June to lift the political sanctions it had imposed Cuba. The Cuban government had made this a condition for restoring normal relations with the EU.

“There have been a few advances in freedom of expression and information since Raúl Castro took over as Council of State president on 24 February, with Cuban being given the right to buy their own computer equipment or enter tourist hotels that have better Internet connections,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The dialogue begun by the Spanish government undoubtedly contributed to this…

• News source:
• 25 June 2008
• UN Dispatch

Jackie Chan may be best known for employing his martial arts prowess in Hollywood, but, in his role as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, he is also bringing it to places like Dili, East Timor.

• News source:
• June 2008
• Communidad Segura
• By Peter Lucas

Brazil is not a country at war in the conventional sense. But its deaths by weapons rival the world’s worst war zones. In the same four years that Sarajevo was under siege, three times as many people were killed in Rio by weapons. Brazil has 2.8% of the world’s population but claims 13% of its yearly firearms deaths. According to a study on firearm-related violence by the University of São Paulo, 325,000 Brazilians were killed between 1993 and 2003.

This crisis has been met by an innovative disarmament campaign that specialists around the world have watched closely, looking for what has worked and what hasn’t. Although the campaign peaked in the autumn of 2005, after a total ban on gun sales to civilians was voted down in a national referendum, there are several new gun control laws in Brazil as a result of the campaign.

• News source:
• British Red Cross

The British Red Cross has teaching tools and resources for citizenship teaching.

• News source:
• June 2008
• By Bernard Chazelle

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is often narrated as a morality play, where offers are generous, lessons are taught, consciousness is seared, terrorism is rewarded, etc. Let’s quit the blame game and focus, instead, on what’s feasible and what’s not.