The Amazon
Peru: oil spill threatens rainforest reserve
Indigenous leaders in Peru’s Amazon protested that a leak from Pluspetrol’s oil operations is causing contamination within the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve.
Tag: genocide
Africa
Darfur: ethnic war exploding again
Efforts by pastoralist militias to bar refugees from returning to their lands in Darfur have sparked yet a new wave of fighting and displacement—with 250,000 uprooted this year.
Africa
HRW protests Rwanda aid to Congo rebels
Human Rights Watch reports that the M23 rebel group in the Democratic Republic of Congo is still receiving assistance from Rwanda despite continued human rights abuses.
Iraq
Iraq: sectarian war escalating fast
Sectarian violence has killed at least 200 in Iraq since the start of Ramadan, and Hezbollah has launched an Iraqi wing to fight al-Qaeda’s networks in the country.
The Amazon
Brazil sends tanks to protect threatened tribe
Brazil’s military has launched a major ground operation against illegal logging around the remote Amazon lands of the Awá, said the be the “Earth’s most threatened tribe.”
South Asia
Bangladesh Islamist sentenced for war crimes
Street clashes erupted as Islamist leader Ghulam Azam was sentenced to 90 years by the Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal for crimes against humanity in the 1971 war.
Europe
Srebrenica: 18 years later, quest for justice goes on
A jurist at The Hague warns that the acquittal of Bosnia war crimes defendants sets a precedent for the "military elite of prominent countries"—including the US and Israel.
The Andes
Colombia: indigenous to open dialogue with FARC
Indigenous leaders in Colombia exchanged letters with FARC commander "Timochenko" to discuss a face-to-face dialogue over guerilla aggression against native peoples.
Greater Middle East
Samantha Power signals Syria intervention?
Samantha Power’s appointment as UN ambassador may signal a determination on the part of the Obama administration that intervention in Syria is inevitable.
The Amazon
Brazil: indigenous protester killed in land dispute
Indigenous people occupy estates and a giant dam’s construction site to press demands for land and rights—just as a report resurfaces on atrocities from the past.
Greater Middle East
‘Sunni cleansing’ in Syria?
Turkey sees in the battle for Qusayr a strategy to create an Alawite mini-state within Syria, purged of Sunni Muslims, to which the ruling elite can withdraw for a last stand.
Central America
Guatemala: thousands protest reversal of dictator’s conviction
Protesters and legal experts raise questions about a court’s decision on the RĂos Montt conviction; meanwhile, Guatemala suddenly extradites another ex-president to the US.