· July, 2009

Stories about War & Conflict from July, 2009

Russia: Medvedev Murder Mystery

Anna Politkovskaya... The mere name evokes images of Moscow's worst public relations nightmare in years - an ongoing ordeal for Russia's international reputation in the realm of rule of law. Still, the murderers have not been brought to justice, and Politkovskaya turned into a martyr for world voices critical of Russia - for them epitomising everything that is wrong and wretched with the country. So, should President Medvedev's quick reaction to this week's murder of Human Rights' acitivists Natalya Estemirova merely be regarded as lessons learnt from the Politkovskaya assassination? The answer might be more complicated, as voices from the Russian blogosphere have their say.

Russia: Did Kadyrov kill Estemirova?

Reactions to the murder of Russian Human Rights’ avtivist, Natalya Estemirova, of Memorial have been frequent in recent days. Sean's Russia Blog discusses accusations against Chechen president Kadyrov of being behind the murder, and posts a translation of a Novaya Gazeta article. Streetwise Professor compares the terror of the Chechen...

Palestine: Egypt and Israel and Humanitarian Aid

Writing on Arab-American joint blog Kabobfest, Will notes his disgust with Egypt's stalling of humanitarian aid entering Gaza. “Though we have seen Egypt’s role as essentially Israel’s sidekick before, the machinations around the Viva Palestine really exemplify how much it shares Israel’s sick agenda of collective punishment in Gaza,” he...

Bahrain: Learn To Live With Israel?

The Bahraini Nationalist is pleased that Bahrain's Crown Prince has written an op-ed in the Washington Post asking Arabs to talk to the people of Israel: “Shaikh Salman is trying to tell Arabs that Israel is a reality and won’t disappear. Learn to live with it!!” Yet a Facebook group...

Palestine: Fear Of Flying

At the Moments of Gaza blog, Professor Abdelwahed writes about a couple taking their children out of Gaza for the first time in 13 years, and discovering that they were terrified to fly: “Their persistent question was on their situation if the airplane bombed somewhere and killed innocent people like...

Afghanistan: Dostum denies massacre

Nick Fielding reports that General Abdul Rashid Dostum, who is believed to be a war criminal, but is about to getting rehabilitation in Afghanistan, gave a recorded statement to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, in which he denied that any Taliban or al-Qaeda prisoners were abused in November 2001 by troops...

Tajikistan: Rasht fighting

Gavin reports that a shootout has taken place in the Rasht Valley of Tajikistan, when national guardsmen were attacked by unknown armed grouping, presumably by the drug trafficking gang or by extremist militants.

Africa: Blogging the trial of Charles Taylor

  17 July 2009

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor is facing 11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, which is being held at the Hague, Netherlands. There are two blog specifically covering Charles Taylor trial: The Trial of Charles Taylor - International Criminal Justice in the Making, which is made up of a team of monitors from the global litigation practice of Clifford Chance LLP and the Trial of Charles Taylor, a project of Open Society Justice Initiative.

Why did Thailand’s former PM travel to Fiji?

  17 July 2009

Bloggers are debating the significance of the recent trip of Thailand’s ousted Prime Minister to Fiji and Tonga. Fiji and Thailand have no extradition treaties, fueling speculation that the former Thai leader traveled to the Pacific looking for asylum.

China: Fresh tensions in Xinjiang

  16 July 2009

James Leibold from the China Beats points out that both the Western and Chinese media have failed to explain the tensions happening in Xinjiang that lead to massive killing as the tensions are new.

Russia: Politkovskaya laureate murdered

Just another death, just another obituary. That seems to be the general sentiment as news of today's murder of Russian Human Rights activist, Natalya Estemirova, broke. However, there are still people out there, in the Russian blogosphere, who challenge disillusion as yet another voice of conscience and tolerance is silenced by violent death.

Turkey: Kurdish Freedom Movement Extend Ceasefire

Kurdish blogger Hevallo writes that “Kurdish political leadership Koma Civaken Kurdistan, (KCK) has announced that the ceasefire called by the Kurdish Freedom Movement to give the opportunity for solving the Kurdish Question in Turkey by political and peaceful means has been extended.” The original deadline was July 14th; it has...