· April, 2012

Stories about War & Conflict from April, 2012

Guinea-Bissau: International Reactions to the Military Coup

  30 April 2012

Following the military coup in Guinea-Bissau, on April 12, Angolan Foreign Policy Professor Belarmino Van-Dúnem wrote an analysis [pt] on the roles of the Armed Forces and the international community. ECOWAS talks to restore civilian rule during the weekend resulted on the decision to impose sanctions on the military junta....

Argentina: The ‘Mothers of Plaza de Mayo’ Turn 35

  30 April 2012

Lillie Langtry from the blog Memory in Latin America writes about the 35th anniversary of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo in Argentina: “On Thursday, 30 April 1977, a small group of women met in the Plaza de Mayo with the aim of handing over a letter to then-president Jorge...

Russia: The Battle of Borodino Lives On

RuNet Echo  30 April 2012

After 200 years, through the works of artists such as Leo Tolstoy (as well as legal disputes about the historic preservation of the battlefield), the Battle of Borodino continues to inspire passion and incite controversy. In this post, RuNet Echo returns to the historical and modern contexts of Russia's victory in the Napoleonic Wars.

Refugees: Online Media and Technology to the Service of Refugees

  29 April 2012

Two different organizations are using online media and technology to aid refugees and improve their lives. The first uses online and mobile tools to reunite refugees who have lost track of family members, and the other provides legal information to refugees in Hong Kong through YouTube videos.

Philippines: Counterinsurgency Primer

  28 April 2012

Karapatan, an alliance working for the promotion and protection of human rights in the Philippines, uploaded a PDF copy of its comic book entitled Oplan Bayanihan for Beginners. The book is an introduction to Oplan Bayanihan, the government's counterinsurgency campaign which is being linked by human rights advocates to the...

Ecuador: Refugee Women and Girls Turning to Sex Work

  24 April 2012

A video documentary examines the situation with Colombian women who had to migrate across the border into Ecuador due to violence. In many cases, without being able to gain legal employment, the women and their underage daughters find themselves turning to sex-work to make a living.

Armenia: A Tale of Two Nations

  22 April 2012

Security, in the Caucasus and beyond…. comments on the 97th anniversary of the massacre and deportation of 1.5 million Armenians from the Ottoman Empire in 1915. Considered an act of genocide by many historians and countries, the blog explains why the events are still very much politically relevant to both...

Russia: Liberal Democrats Join Opposition to Ulyanovsk NATO Hub

RuNet Echo  21 April 2012

In the last week, Vladislav Naganov and Aleksei Navalny, two of Russia's most prominent liberal democrat bloggers, entered the debate about a proposed NATO transit hub in Ulyanovsk. The transit hub (or "military base," as critics call it) is unlike most Russian political issues that involve the North Atlantic Alliance, as the Kremlin in this instance has agreed to cooperate with (rather than resist) the West.

Tunisia: Neglect of Those Wounded in the Revolution

Tunisians have been expressing their dissatisfaction and anger regarding the government's poor treatment of those wounded during the Tunisian revolution. Some of them have bullets still to be extracted from their bodies, and other had limbs amputated and are still waiting for prosthetic limbs.