Stories about War & Conflict from January, 2011
Veterans in El Salvador and Guatemala
Mike writes about veterans: “When we talk about the civil wars in El Salvador and Guatemala, we tend to measure the human costs into terms of the dead and the disappeared. We forget that there are thousands of people, if not millions, who carry the wounds of war with them...
Morocco: From the Slums of Casablanca to the Prisons of Iraq
Cabalamuse writes about the story of Moroccan “foreign fighters” in Iraq, retracing their trajectory from the slums of Casablanca to the prisons of Baghdad.
Tunisia, Algeria: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Protests in Algeria and Tunisia have captured the interest of bloggers in both countries. Social media seem to be playing a central role in the coverage of the unfolding events in a context of heavy censorship and strict restrictions imposed on traditional media (mostly state-run) and on the Internet. Here is an overview of what has been said in the local blogosphere in the last couple of days.
Lebanon: Negotiating the fate of STL
“He [PM Saad Hariri] has already brought his “price” down by exonerating Syria … He has also exonerated Hizbullah’s leadership from any connection with the crime … All that’s left is for him to join his opponents in claiming that the STL [Special Tribunal for Lebanon] was infiltrated by Israel and that...
North Korean official twitter and website hacked
Intense cyber attacks were inflicted between South and North Korea. Sparked by one South Korean net user posting an insulting poem about the Kim family on the North Korean official website Uriminzokkiri, North Korea fired back with a DDOS attack. Today, South Korean hackers have allegedly attacked the North Korean government's official twitter account.
North Korean Twitter Account Hacked by S.Koreans
South Korean hackers have allegedly attacked North Korean government's official twitter account @Uriminzok, filling the timeline with harsh slurs about North Korean regime, S.Korea's citizen media Wiki Tree reported[ko] with a screenshot image of @urimizok timeline Twitterer @Tkaraq007 posted. It added verification is still needed since N.Korean account is blocked...
Palestine: Eyewitnesses Report Tear Gas at Bil'in Demonstration
The death of a Palestinian woman from Bil'in, allegedly after inhaling tear gas at a demonstration, sparked another protest today - this time reported and followed closely on micro-blogging site Twitter.
Côte d'Ivoire: Torture Scenes in the Most Populated Prison
A video is currently creating a stir among the Ivorian online community. It shows militaries beating up prisoners - presented as Alassane Ouattara's partisans - in the Abidjan MACA prison. Since the beginning of the political crisis in Ivory Coast, dozens of people have been arrested in Ivory Coast for their political opinion and jailed at the infamous MACA prison.
Korea: Poem insulting Kim family posted on NKorean Govt Website
It was revealed that a poem cursing Kim's regime was posted on the North Korean regime's official site for two days and was read by several hundreds, Free North Korea Radio[ko], a South Korea-based radio station runs by North Korean defectors initially reported[ko]. South Korean net users discovered an evidence...
Georgia: Policeman fired after being identified on Facebook
After the excessive use of force by policemen to break up a demonstration in Tbilisi, Georgia, many Facebook users used the site to identify those responsible.
Mexico: Red Cross Unable to Treat All Victims of Shootings in Ciudad Juárez
The Red Cross in Ciudad Juárez has asked that victims of shootings be taken to hospitals and not to their facilities because they do not have the capacity to treat so many victims of organized crime, as Pepe Flores reports for Vivir México.
Nigeria: Attacks in Northern Nigeria are ethno-religious
Yomi Ogunsanya argues that attacks in Northern Nigeria are mostly ethno-religious: “My concern is with the deliberate denial, by Nigerian leaders and theocratic elite, that most, if not all the violence we have seen in, particularly, Northern Nigeria, are attributable to religion or ethnicity or both.”
D.R.of Congo: Mobutu's ex-Presidential Guards arrested
71 Mobutu's ex-Presidential guards have been arrested in Bas-Congo in the Democractic Republic of Congo: “In announcing the arrest of the 71 DSP [Division Spéciale Présidentielle] elements earlier this week, Lambert Mende, DRC Communication Minister, warned that if Congolese exiles want to return home with good intentions, they would be...
El Salvador: Political Violence in Cabañas
Voices from El Salvador's Weblog reports: “Another wave of political violence swept through Cabañas, El Salvador over the Christmas Holiday […] The tension between the local civil society organizations that led the anti-mining movement and local power structures continues to grow and result in threats and violence.”
Latin America: Homicide Rates Show Several Countries “More Dangerous than Mexico”
Bloggings by Boz argues that “the intense US and global media focus on Mexico's violence risks missing the ‘more dangerous than Mexico’ countries.” He shares statistics that show that Honduras, Venezuela, Guatemala, El Salvador, Colombia and Jamaica have higher homicide rates than Mexico.
North Korea: Kim Jong-il Hid Underground During S.Korea-US Military Drills
South Korea's Joongang Sunday revealed that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il hid himself in an underground bunker for nine days during the South Korea-U.S. joint military exercise from Nov. 28 to Dec. 1 last year, quoting a defense ministry official. Korea Times posted a translation of the article.
Pakistan: Solidarity Day Rally for Peace
Teeth Maestro posts pictures of the Solidarity Day Rally for Peace. The rally was held on 1st January 2011 as an expression of solidarity with those suffering violence in any form, including suicide attacks, bomb blasts, target killings, kidnappings, disappearances, and torture killings in Pakistan.
Sri Lanka: Lack Of Morality In Abundance
Leela Isaac at GroundViews opines that the LTTE terrorism may be no more but other forms of terrorism seem to have erupted in Sri Lanka because the “moral universe is shrinking”.
Lebanon: Iraqi refugees and Lebanese sectarianism
“If I do not wear my cross, and I speak in the Iraqi dialect, automatically people think I am Shiite, and I get the very lousy treatment…”, said Joseph, an Iraqi refugee living in Lebanon, in an interview with Seif. The contact and interview for this post took place through Facebook.
