Major Highlights of the News I Read
The difference in tone of these two articles is incredible. From the title to the almost the very end, an unsurprising and yet interesting difference in treatments.
Obama in Israel on first official visit – Middle East – Al Jazeera English.
Obama on First Israel Trip as President Vows ‘Eternal’ Alliance – BBC
BBC News – ICC welcomes Bosco ‘Terminator’ Ntaganda’s surrender.
Bosco Ntaganda has been wanted by the ICC since 2006The International Criminal Court (ICC) has welcomed Congolese rebel leader Bosco Ntaganda’s surrender to stand trial on war crimes charges.
Known as “The Terminator”, Gen Ntaganda surrendered on Monday to the US embassy in Rwanda after seven years on the run.
The ICC said it was in contact with the relevant authorities to arrange for his immediate transfer to The Hague.
He denies committing atrocities during the long-running conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The DR Congo government says Gen Ntaganda crossed into Rwanda on Saturday.
‘Most wanted’
“I think justice now has a chance to prevail, now that he has handed himself in,” DR Congo’s ambassador to the UK, Kikaya Bin Karubi, told the BBC’s Newsday programme.
“The most wanted criminal in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has seen that he has no other option now, and the best option for him is to go and face the music.”
Neither the US nor Rwanda recognise the ICC.
However, the US state department said on Monday that it was in contact with the ICC and the Rwandan government to arrange his transfer to The Hague.
“The ICC welcomes news of Bosco [Ntaganda’s] surrender,” the ICC chief prosecutor’s office said, AFP news agency reports.
“This is great news for the people of the DR Congo who had to suffer from the crimes of an ICC fugitive for too long,” it added.
The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Gen Ntaganda in 2006. He faces 10 counts of conscripting child soldiers, murder, terrorising communities and using rape as a weapon of war.
The charges – which he denies – relate to his time as the leader of a militia in the north-eastern DR Congo between 2002 and 2003.
Since then Gen Ntaganda has fought for other rebel groups in the region, as well as the Congolese army.
Most recently he was believed to be one of the leaders of the M23 rebel group, which is fighting government troops in the east of the country.
The United Nations believes the M23 group is backed by the government of neighbouring Rwanda, though Rwanda denies this.
On Sunday, the DR Congo government said Gen Ntaganda, who comes from the Tutsi ethnic group, had fled to Rwanda after he and some of his followers were apparently defeated by a rival faction of the M23 group.
BBC East Africa correspondent Gabriel Gatehouse says that if Gen Ntaganda does reach the ICC, many will be hoping he can shed light on the accusations of Rwanda’s involvement in the Congolese conflicts, including the backing of the M23 rebels.
Eastern DR Congo has been riven by conflict since 1994, when some of the ethnic Hutu groups accused of carrying out the genocide in neighbouring Rwanda fled across the border.
Gen Ntaganda appears to have been throughout the long conflict, fighting for both rebels and government armies.
His military career started in 1990, at the age of 17, when he joined the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) rebels, now the ruling party in Kigali.
In November 2008, international journalists filmed him commanding and ordering rebel troops in the village of Kiwanja, 90km (55 miles) north of Goma in DR Congo, where 150 people were massacred in a single day.
In 2009, he was integrated into the Congolese national army and made a general following a peace deal between the government and rebel troops he commanded.
However, he defected from the army last April, accusing the government of failing to meet its promises.
It is not clear why Gen Ntaganda chose this moment to surrender, but there are suggestions the split in the M23 movement has made him vulnerable.
Watch it please. It’s fantastic. Also, you may grab a wonderful glimpse of what happens when the French protest. It ain’t nothing like you’ve seen before.
This. Everyone should watch this. AND everyone should be this happy all the time.
Watch this. And then take everything he says about peace, and remove everything he says about specifically America. And then make it for everyone. Because that’s what foreign policy should be.
And here is another story about a country and region I don’t have a good background in, but this conflict is really interesting. I read in another article that the French also sent in a force to Somalia to try and free some of the captives there at around the same time, although that mission was unsuccessful.
BBC News – French troops continue operation against Mali Islamists.
Without much knowledge about this country, I can’t say much, but this is interesting. And you should read it. Academically please. This isn’t an article about America, or Europe or any part of the West (although it was produced by BBC). Please keep that in mind.
BBC News – Saudi Arabia’s king appoints women to Shura Council.
BBC News – Protesting farmers spray European Parliament with milk.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
How to End the War in Gaza | Foreign Affairs.
Maybe you guys can read this? But it’s a very interesting article from a reputable political science-type journal.
Gaza strikes: Motives and consequences – Inside Story – Al Jazeera English.
I’ve taken an entire course just on this one conflict and I will tell you that this goes beyond the impasses of American politics. This isn’t just ideologies against ideologies. This is religion, ethnicity, politics, ideology, history, anger, international pressure, fundamentalism and just a whole bowl of human stupidity and stubbornness.
Something is going to have to change. And I think it will. Soon. And I only hope it falls to the good instead of the really, really messy and, frankly, terrible.
Adventures in Yonderland 