tagged w/ Civil War
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After the 2007 elections were badly organized and eventually rigged, Kenya went into a tailspin of civil conflict that led to the death of 1500 people and displacement of more than half a million.
The country is tense, tribal mistrust is high and gangs have overrun parts of the country leading to increased criminality.
The author argues that Kenya was destined to fall into the African trap of civil war and being of no exception is poised to fall apart just like its neighbours. There are safeguards though that can be put in place to reduce the possibility of a prolonged civil war, but the political kingpins are neither interested nor aware of the predicament of the country to implement this safeguards.
This book is a must read for those who want to understand Kenya at this stage in its history.After the 2007 elections were badly organized and eventually rigged, Kenya went into a... more
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salah
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3 years ago
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The Rise of Extremism: By Warren Bonesteel
Guest Commentator on Stand Up For America, Sept. 19, 2009The Rise of Extremism: By Warren Bonesteel
Guest Commentator on Stand Up For... more
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Darkest of Days sets out to carry gamers through the time stream to multiple historic battles ranging from the American Civil War through World War II in epic scale. Does it shine above the crowd, or just get lost in the dark?
From the Review:
"Where most game studios tend to put their best foot forward in the opening of the game to reel players in early and, perhaps more importantly, project a good image in previews and trailers, but slack off toward the end of the game becoming almost routine, 8Monkey did almost the exact opposite here. The beginning of the game feels bland and generic, but improves markedly as you go on. After finishing the first two segments with period weapons in the Civil War and World War I eras, some surprises begin to occur. There's no truly developed story to speak of, no character depth, or strongly detailed events, but what happens still adds to wow factor a bit. Events start to appear in the wrong place, and don't match up with the proper timeline. Green time portals open up and power armored agents pop out and begin interfering. The historical detail and mood is extremely well done throughout the game, so time bubbles and Storm Troopers provide the intended shock to the senses, as do events that don't match up. Later in the game you begin intersecting your own time intervention, working for the other side and experiencing your own actions from earlier in third person. Additionally, missions stop being a linear rail shooter and start focusing on objective based missions..."Darkest of Days sets out to carry gamers through the time stream to multiple historic... more
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Award
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added this
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3 years ago
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NARLO's video about the coming civil war between socialisists and patriots. WATCH OUT TAX AND SPENDERSNARLO's video about the coming civil war between socialisists and patriots.... more
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Rape has always been used as a means of intimidation, but now women are not the only targets.Rape has always been used as a means of intimidation, but now women are not the only... more
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August 22 (10am-4pm) - 23, 2009 (1-4pm). Civil War soldiers on the grounds providing Visit with a variety of Civil War soldiers as they demonstrate drills, camp life, firing demos, and more. Also see the house, explore the grounds, and visit the animals!August 22 (10am-4pm) - 23, 2009 (1-4pm). Civil War soldiers on the grounds providing... more
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A look at some of the more famous and infamous people born on today’s date in history.A look at some of the more famous and infamous people born on today’s date in... more
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A documentary filmed during the late 1980's that gives you a look into the daily life of the guerrilla army FMLN. "In the Name of the People" offers you a personal view of the Salvadoran civil war.A documentary filmed during the late 1980's that gives you a look into the daily... more
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Newton Knight fully supported secession in America. Fortunately he was in the deep south and seceding against the Confederacy. This man was definitely tough enough.Newton Knight fully supported secession in America. Fortunately he was in the deep... more
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Honduras is approaching the brink of a civil war.
This article succinctly recaps recent contributing factors. It then echoes a voice from within the country that describes the accompanying emotional impact on the population.Honduras is approaching the brink of a civil war.
This article succinctly recaps... more
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This is Chuck Baginski, the editor of Hard Power. Our mission is to keep you informed about the real news - when people are fighting and dying, when billions are changing hands, and when political power is taken out of some hands and put into others. These are the stories that change lives and change history.
There is no such thing as a slow news day - only slow reporters. I believe the big story isn't always the breaking news, and it isn't always popular. Big stories started a long time ago, but you probably don't know enough about them yet. Our goal is to put the pieces of the big story together, to give perspective, and help you bring all the stories together into the world.
Today I begin the first step: trying to bring the content together on sites like current.com to build up the network of people who are interested in real news. If we get to the point where I have enough people engaged in the discussion, we can start hiring the veteran freelance journalists to cover these stories in more depth, and generate original journalism on the topics. Advertising ultimately will have to pay for that journalism, and I won't know how much revenue we can get until you jump into the dialogue.
So in this first step, I'll be linking you to the news out in the wilds of the internet, and providing my commentary. Let's get the discussion rolling.This is Chuck Baginski, the editor of Hard Power. Our mission is to keep you informed... more
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Abeysekera: The Sri Lankan government sacrificed civilians and democracy to defeat the LTTE. Part 2
Sharmini Peries speaks to Sunila Abeysekera about the so-called defeat of the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) at the hands of the Sri Lankan military. Abeysekera is an award-winning human rights defender and the Executive Director of INFORM, an organization working to spread the word on Sri Lankan human rights violations. She says that, “this government, more than any previous government in Sri Lanka, really embarked on a military strategy to displace the LTTE from the areas that it controlled,” and goes on to explain that from the beginning of the offensive, “it became really clear that this military operation was going to proceed with no regard for civilian consequences or civilian deaths.”
Sunila Abeysekera is the Executive Director of INFORM, an organization working to inform the world about human rights violations in Sri Lanka. The major themes of Sunila Abeysekera's work include issues of equality and difference in understanding women's human rights, problems of re-conceptualising the nation-state and principles of good governance from a feminist perspective; problems of representation of women in art and culture; and feminist film criticism. In 1998, Abeysekera was honoured by the United Nations for her contribution to the protection and promotion of human rights along with Jimmy Carter.
See Part 1 at:
http://current.com/items/90210566_the-disappearing-act-in-sri-lanka.htmAbeysekera: The Sri Lankan government sacrificed civilians and democracy to defeat the... more
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Abeysekera: Sri Lankan intelligence has always been extremely good at torture. Part 1
Sharmini Peries speaks to Sunila Abeysekera award-winning human rights defender and the Executive Director of INFORM, an organization working to spread the word on Sri Lankan human rights violations. The speak about the history of the ongoing torture allegations in Sri Lanka and the so-called "internment camps" where roughly 300,000 refugees of the recent conflict linger. Abeysekera says, "Forget the torture; just overcrowding, lack of access to medical attention, and then including on top of that the beatings and the waterboarding. You know, you name it, we hear stories about it."
Sunila Abeysekera is the Executive Director of INFORM, an organization working to inform the world about human rights violations in Sri Lanka. The major themes of Sunila Abeysekera's work include issues of equality and difference in understanding women's human rights, problems of re-conceptualising the nation-state and principles of good governance from a feminist perspective; problems of representation of women in art and culture; and feminist film criticism. In 1998, Abeysekera was honoured by the United Nations for her contribution to the protection and promotion of human rights along with Jimmy Carter.
See Part 2 at:
http://current.com/items/90210581_ltte-defeated-at-what-cost.htmAbeysekera: Sri Lankan intelligence has always been extremely good at torture. Part 1... more
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Sri Lankan television broadcast images Tuesday of what it said was the body of Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, as the island's president hailed his army's victory over the rebels.
The images were shown after the Tigers claimed the guerrilla leader was still alive and well, and said they would continue fighting for a separate Tamil homeland despite President Mahinda Rajapakse's call to unite the nation.
The video showed the upper section of a corpse which was dressed in camouflage fatigues. The back of the head, which was resting on a bloodstained newspaper, appeared to be missing.
The face was intact, with the eyes wide open, and bore a clear resemblance to the stocky, moustachioed rebel leader.
"We are a government that defeated terrorism at a time when others told us that it was not possible," Rajapakse said in a nationally televised address to parliament.
"The writ of the state now runs across every inch of our territory."
Under international pressure to reach out to the Tamil minority, Rajapakse vowed that a political solution to the island's deep rooted ethnic divisions would be found.
"All should live with equal rights. They should live without any fear or doubt," he said. "Let us all be united."
His speech had been shadowed by a Tiger statement insisting that Prabhakaran was not dead and that his fight -- which he began in 1972 -- would go on.
"Our beloved leader is alive and safe. He will continue to lead the quest for dignity and freedom for the Tamil people," the rebels' international relations chief Selvarasa Pathmanathan said on the pro-rebel Tamilnet website.
Prabhakaran went on to accuse the government and military of "crimes against humanity," saying senior LTTE leaders had been shot dead after being invited to negotiate a surrender.
But the army chief, General Sarath Fonseka, stated categorically that Prabhakaran's body had been identified -- a day after defence officials reported he was gunned down trying to flee government troops.
"Reports from the battlefield confirmed this morning that they have identified the body of Prabhakaran, this ruthless terrorist leader," Fonseka said.
The conflicting accounts of the Tiger leader's fate came after a dramatic day Monday that effectively ended one of Asia's oldest and most brutal ethnic conflicts that has claimed 70,000 lives.
The army said its commandos overran the last sliver of Tiger-held territory, killing their remaining 300 fighters and decimating the rebel leadership.
But the Sri Lankan government's moment of triumph came at the cost of many innocent lives, according to the United Nations.
The UN and human rights groups have partly blamed indiscriminate shelling by the military for causing heavy civilian casualties, while accusing the rebels of using tens of thousands of people as a "human shield".
The European Union on Monday called for an independent inquiry into alleged human rights violations, while the Red Cross complained it was unable to reach the wounded in the northeastern conflict zone even after victory was declared.
UN relief agencies also said that access to some government-run camps housing tens of thousands of displaced civilians had been restricted in recent days and demanded that the camps be "demilitarised."Sri Lankan television broadcast images Tuesday of what it said was the body of Tamil... more
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The Tamil Tigers admitted defeat Sunday in their fierce quarter-century war for a separate homeland as government forces raced to clear the last pockets of rebel resistance from the war zone in the north.
Far from the battlefield, thousands of Sri Lankans danced in the streets of Colombo, celebrating the stunning collapse of one of the world's most sophisticated insurgencies. But with rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran still at large, the threat of renewed guerrilla warfare remained.
Several rebel fighters committed suicide when they were surrounded, but it wasn't clear whether Prabhakaran or other leaders were among them.
The Tamil Tigers once controlled a shadow state complete with courts, police and a tax system across a wide swath of the north. By Sunday, troops had surrounded the remaining rebels in a 0.4-square-mile (1-square-kilometer) patch of land and were fighting off suicide bombs and other attacks, the military said.
Huge clouds of black smoke rose over the battlefield as soldiers inspected the charred remains of rebel trucks and heavy artillery pieces, according to footage broadcast on state television. Civilians carrying backpacks and rolling suitcases were escorted from the area.
Military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said the civilians who had been trapped in the war zone — 63,000 in all — fled to safety during the past 72 hours. But rebel official Selvarasa Pathmanathan said the bodies of thousands of wounded and slain civilians lay strewn across the war zone.
"This battle has reached its bitter end," Pathmanathan said in a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press. "It is our people who are dying now from bombs, shells, illness and hunger. We cannot permit any more harm to befall them. We remain with one last choice — to remove the last weak excuse of the enemy for killing our people. We have decided to silence our guns."
Media Minister Anura Yapa dismissed the appeal. "We want to free this country from the terrorist LTTE," he said, referring to the group by its formal name, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
The military spokesman denied the rebels had laid down their weapons. "Fighting is still going on in small pockets," Nanayakkara said.
Rights groups have accused the rebels of holding civilians as human shields, and blamed the government for shelling the densely populated area where they sought refuge. Both sides denied the accusations.
With most journalists and aid workers barred from the war zone, it was not possible to verify the accounts of either side. Health officials in the area have said thousands of civilians were killed in shelling since the beginning of the year.
The rebels have been fighting since 1983 for a separate state for Sri Lanka's ethnic Tamil minority after years of marginalization at the hands of the Sinhalese majority. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the fighting.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said that after defeating the rebels, his government will begin talks toward power sharing and political reconciliation between the two communities. But many Tamils are skeptical that the victorious government will be willing to make real concessions.The Tamil Tigers admitted defeat Sunday in their fierce quarter-century war for a... more
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In sweltering temperatures and woolen uniforms, local students and members of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War honored Private james C. Averill, a Civil War veteran from Newburyport. He was a private in Company L, 1st Heavy Artillery in Maine. He joined the Union Army in 1864 and fought in the battle of Cold Harbor. Following his death on Labor day 1901, Averill was interred at the New Highland Cemetery in Newburyport on 3 September 1901. This production honors Private Averill and other American war dead and veterans while addressing the question of why it is important to remember them. Through short interviews with organizers and participants of the event, a famous quote of General Robert E. Lee is also explored. Civil War era photographs and accurate American casualty counts serve as a reminder of past American conflicts and the many brave men and women who fought them.
PLEASE REMEMBER TO REMEMBER ON MEMORIAL DAY.
EXCUSE THE SHODDY QUALITY; THIS LOOKS MUCH BETTER ON A TV
THANKS FOR WATCHING!In sweltering temperatures and woolen uniforms, local students and members of the... more
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NFUSA
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added this
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4 years ago
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What is going on in Sri Lanka? A discussion with International Affairs columnist and foreign correspondent Jonathan Manthorpe and Editor Fazil MihlarWhat is going on in Sri Lanka? A discussion with International Affairs columnist and... more
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Human Rights Watch on Saturday accused Sri Lankan forces of repeatedly striking hospitals in the northern war zone with indiscriminate artillery and aerial attacks that have killed scores of people, a charge the military denied.
The New York-based group claimed military commanders responsible for ordering or conducting such attacks "may be prosecuted for war crimes."
The accusation came amid growing international concern for an estimated 50,000 civilians caught in the fighting between government forces and the separatist Tamil Tigers.
In the latest clashes, naval vessels destroyed two rebel boats after a sea battle off the northeast coast Saturday, killing at least 14 rebels, a military statement said.
On Friday, troops pushed further into the rebel territory, capturing an earthen fortification. The military said soldiers found 35 bodies of rebel fighters killed in the fighting.
There was no comment from rebels and it is difficult to verify the military's claims because reporters and independent observers are barred from the war zone.
Government troops in recent months have ousted the rebels from their strongholds across the north and say they have cornered the Tigers in a sliver of land just 2.4 miles- (four kilometers-) long on the northeast coast.
Human Rights Watch said Saturday it has information "about at least 30 attacks on permanent and makeshift hospitals in the combat area since December 2008" and blamed government forces.
"Hospitals are supposed to be sanctuaries from shelling, not targets," Brad Adams, the group's Asia director, said in a statement.Human Rights Watch on Saturday accused Sri Lankan forces of repeatedly striking... more
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Sri Lanka's rebels declared a unilateral cease-fire on Sunday as a top U.N. official pressed Sri Lankan leaders to let aid into the northeastern war zone where tens of thousands of civilians are trapped.
Sri Lanka's Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa rejected the call, saying the rebels were "running" from government forces, who have pushed deep into the Tamil Tigers' strongholds in the north in recent months, surrounding the beleaguered rebels and vowing to end the quarter-century war.
The United Nations and others have been pushing for a negotiated truce to allow civilians to escape, as reports have grown of starvation and casualties among those trapped by the fighting.
A rebel statement e-mailed to The Associated Press Sunday said all their military operations would "cease with immediate effect."
The rebels asked the international community pressure the government into also halting their campaign, saying the "humanitarian crisis can only be overcome by the declaration of an immediate cease-fire."
U.N. Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes held meetings Sunday with senior officials in Colombo and was "underscoring the urgent need for humanitarian access by the U.N. to the combat zone," U.N. spokesman Gordon Weiss said.
Aid workers have been barred from the region since fighting escalated in September.
The U.N. says nearly 6,500 civilians have been killed in the fighting over the past three months.
Holmes, who arrived late Saturday, had previously called on the government to suspend its offensive to allow the estimated 50,000 trapped civilians to escape.
Holmes was to head Monday to the northern region of Vavuniya to inspect displacement camps and hospitals that have been overwhelmed by the more than 100,000 civilians who fled the war zone over the past week.
The U.N. says another 50,000 civilians remain trapped in the war zone. But the rebels say the number of trapped civilians is three times that estimate.
The rebels, listed as a terrorist group by many Western nations, have been fighting since 1983 for an ethnic Tamil state in the north and east after decades of marginalization by governments dominated by the Sinhalese majority. After more than three years of intense fighting, the military stands on the verge of crushing the group.Sri Lanka's rebels declared a unilateral cease-fire on Sunday as a top U.N.... more
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Two top Indian officials headed Friday to Sri Lanka to demand an immediate cease fire in the bloody civil war as a private U.N. document reported that nearly 6,500 ethnic Tamil civilians were killed in the last three months of fighting.
Concern for the safety of the civilians trapped in the war zone has increased in recent weeks as the government pushed ahead with its offensive to crush the Tamil Tiger rebels and end the nation's quarter-century civil war.
On Monday, the military broke through rebel fortifications on the edge of a previously declared "no fire" zone along the northeastern coast, sparking an exodus of more than 100,000 civilians. The rebels said at least 1,000 civilians were killed in that battle and the Red Cross said hundreds had been killed or wounded.
Neighboring India, under pressure from its own Tamil population in the midst of a national election, was sending National Security Adviser M. K. Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Monen to Sri Lanka on Friday to push for a cease-fire.
"We are very unhappy at the continued killing in Sri Lanka. All killing must stop. There must be an immediate cessation of all hostilities," External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vishu Prakash said in a statement Thursday.
International rights groups have accused the government of shelling densely populated civilian areas in the war zone and accused the rebels of holding the civilians hostage for use as human shields against the government offensive. Both sides deny the accusations.
At least 6,432 civilians were killed in the intense fighting over the past three months and 13,946 wounded, according to a private U.N. document circulated among diplomatic missions in Sri Lanka in recent days. The casualties were reported as "verified data" in the document, which was given to The Associated Press by a foreign diplomat Friday.
The U.N. has declined to publicly release its casualty figures and had no immediate comment on the document.
The level of civilian deaths has increased dramatically as the fighting has worn on, according to the U.N. An average of 33 civilians were killed each day at the end of January, a number that jumped to 116 by April, the document reported.Two top Indian officials headed Friday to Sri Lanka to demand an immediate cease fire... more
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