Reporting on Conflict | Media Watch Blog

• News source:
• Fest21.com
• By LEKHA J. SHANKAR, Bangkok

As the world watches the historic trials of the atrocious Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, this is a good time to watch a ‘life-affirming’ film on the country, by a New Zealand director, who spent two decades of his life, to make it. Stanley Harper’s 18-year-old cinematic odyssey ‘Cambodia Dreams’ is an amazing film in more ways than one. Apart from being made against all odds in a politically volatile country, it achieved the miraculous feat of ‘connecting’ a mother and daughter, living on either side of the border, who did not even know, they existed!

• News source:
• updated 21 April 2009
• International Crisis Group

A desperate humanitarian crisis is facing Sri Lanka’s northeastern region, where over 100,000 civilians remain trapped in the crossfire between government forces and the Tamil Tigers (LTTE).

• News source:
• 30 April 2009
• New York Times
• Editorial

Army troops in Sri Lanka are closing in on a dwindling band of Tamil Tiger separatists who are outgunned on an ever-narrowing battlefield. It would be a relief if this 25-year fight finally ends. In the meantime, tens of thousands of terrified civilians are trapped in the conflict zone — a strip of land about four miles long — and are running out of food and water. They must be allowed to leave.

• News source:
• 29 April 2009
• BBC News

Women’s activist groups in Kenya have slapped their partners with a week-long sex ban in protest over the infighting plaguing the national unity government.

• News source:
• 29 April 2009
• Georgia Straight

National Chief Phil Fontaine of the Assembly of First Nations delivered this statement today (April 29) to Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican. Today, the pope told a delegation of aboriginal Canadians he is sorry for the abuse that took place at Canadian residential schools run by the Catholic Church.

• News source:
• 29 April 2009
• CNW
• By Union of Ontario Indians | Press Release

NIPISSING FN, ONTARIO, CANADA – Grand Council Chief John Beaucage says the “expression of sorrow” issued by Pope Benedict XVI about the Catholic Church’s role in operating Indian Residential Schools should seen as a foundation on which a reconciliation process can be built.

• News source:
• Taiwan News

A popular comedian jailed by Myanmar’s military government for his political activism was briefly taken to hospital for examination after relatives said he was ill and being denied medical care.

The sister-in-law of Zarganar, who is serving a 35-year sentence in Myitkyina prison in northernmost Kachin State, said Wednesday he was taken to Myitkyina General Hospital late Monday and had a medical checkup lasting about two hours that included an ultrasound, X-ray and EKG. Like many people in Myanmar, Zarganar uses only one name…

Zarganar, 48, was arrested in June last year after he gave interviews to foreign news outlets criticizing the junta’s slow response to Cyclone Nargis, which left nearly 140,000 people dead or missing. He was convicted of causing public alarm and illegally giving information to foreign media.

Several activists including Zarganar _ whose name means “tweezers” and whose comedy routines are banned for their jokes about the junta _ delivered donated relief supplies to the storm-shattered Irrawaddy Delta.

• News source:
• 29 April 2009
• Chronicle Herald
• By BARBARA AGGERHOLM, Waterloo Region Record

KITCHENER, Ont. — Candace Wormsbecker was tending her carrots in a community garden when an elderly Chinese woman appeared at her side. With smiles and gestures, the woman demonstrated her own technique for thinning the rows and replanting the carrots that Wormsbecker had been throwing on the compost heap.

“She couldn’t speak English, but showed me what to do.”

It’s that mixing of cultures and know-how that Wormsbecker likes best about community gardens.

• News source:
• 27 April 2009
• Alternative Information Center (AIC)
• By Sofia Filocalossi and Ines Gramigna

From 22-24 April 2009, the village of Bil’in hosted the Fourth International Conference of Popular Nonviolent Resistance. Hundreds of Palestinian, Israeli and international participants attended the event, a number that greatly increased in the last day of the program, which coincided with the weekly nonviolent demonstration. This year the conference was held in honor of the pacifist member of the Bil’in popular committee, Bassem Abu Rahma, who was shot dead by a tear gas canister on 17 April 2009. The intensive conference program consisted of three days of activities: political and grassroots speeches about the complexity of the Palestinian issue and its possible resolutions; workshops and field trips which gave a direct and pragmatic knowledge of different examples of nonviolent resistance; drawing up of the conference closing statement and participation in the weekly demonstration.

• News source:
• 28 April 2009
• Xinhua
• By Chen Gongzheng, Wang Wei

CAIRO – National reconciliation and the rule of law are the sole approach to bring durable peace to the war-torn Iraq, said an Egyptian analyst in an exclusive interview with Xinhua.

“The recent comeback of violent attacks in Iraq was caused by U.S. troops’ relocation in the country,” said Nabil Zaki, secretary general of the Arab Affairs Committee of the National Progressive Unionist Party.

• News source:
• 27 April 2009
• IRIN

GAZA CITY – UN agencies and the health ministry in Gaza are working to strengthen communicable disease surveillance systems in Gaza, in light of the fact that leaking sewage may be contaminating drinking water.

The fragile water and sewage network was damaged during the recent 23-day Israeli offensive in Gaza, increasing public health risks, according to a recent report by the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) cluster, entitled A Brief Outline of the Sewage Infrastructure and Public Health Risks in the Gaza Strip for the World Health Organization (WHO).

• News source:
• 28 April 2009
• Global Voices
• By Laura Vidal

Counting the consequences for the victims of the armed conflict in Colombia can be extremely difficult. Survivors and refugees have had to run from their own land and cross the Venezuelan border in order to guarantee security for their families…

Within these communities, children can often be the most vulnerable, yet they have immense potential to grow. The group Ancla2, which has been featured on Global Voices last year, recognized this opportunity and gave a workshop to a group of refugee children in a town called El Nula located along the Venezuelan-Colombian border.

• News source:

The program will be started on September 2009, and the deadline for submitting an application form is June 19, 2009.

• News source:
• 28 April 2009
• Opinion Online
• By Jake Lynch

“The winds of change are blowing through American media.” So say the enterprising campaigners for peace and social justice at Avaaz.org, an independent not-for-profit organisation with offices in six countries. Avaaz means “voice”, in many languages, and their team “works to ensure that the views and values of the world’s people inform global decision-making”.

• News source:
• 28 April 2009
• Winnipeg Sun
• By JOANNE RICHARD

Seems society couldn’t care less.

The urge to help others is at an all-time low, narcissism at an all-time high.

Dr. Venus Nicolino calls it “empathy deficit” and believes it’s at the heart of escalating societal violence…

According to Nicolino, of doctorofdeliberateliving.com, the best way to teach someone empathy is by example…

• News source:
• 28 April 2009
• Press TV

Bolivia and Paraguay have settled a decades-long dispute ‘fueled by foreign interests’ over the control of the arid Chaco region of South America.

Bolivian President Evo Morales and his Paraguayan counterpart, Fernando Lugo, inked a historic accord on Monday to end the border dispute that triggered the Chaco War between the two Latin American nations in the 1930s when the two landlocked countries sought control of the Paraguay River running through the region to access the Atlantic Ocean.

• News source:
• 27 April 2009
• Kigali New Times
• By Charles Kwizera

KIGALI — The Students’ Club on Unity and Reconciliation (SCUR) of the School of Finance and Banking (SFB), in conjunction with their counterparts from ISAE, held a ‘Tolerance Tournament’ with the aim of cultivating a culture of tolerance.

• News source:
• 27 April 2009
• Associated Press

A popular comedian jailed by Myanmar’s military government for his social and political activism is ill and being denied proper medical care, relatives said Monday.

The sister-in-law of Zarganar, who is serving a 35-year sentence in Myitkyina prison in northernmost Kachin State, said he fainted in his cell 10 days ago due to high blood pressure and is suffering from hepatitis.

• News source:
• 27 April 2009
• Ekklesia
• By Savi Hensman

The grim situation in Sri Lanka shows the hazards of extreme ethnic nationalism. In today’s world, many people – whether they regard themselves as atheists, agnostics or religious believers – in reality put their ‘nation’ first, often symbolised by a flag.

• News source:
• April-June 2009
• Peace Magazine
• What Does It Mean To Be A Foreigner In Sri Lanka?
• By Angela Pinchero

I am a foreigner promoting nonviolent problem-solving – a peace activist in a time of war. As someone with occasional access to a borrowed land cruiser, I find it uncomfortable to pull up in this expensive, white, flagged NGO vehicle to offer help to those who have lost so much. I have never allowed myself to share an opinion as to what is a ´solution’ to this conflict; I feel it is not my right. However, I can’t help forming opinions about the strategies of war as a result of my experiences here.