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252. Promoting Reconciliation through Exhuming and Identifying Victims in the 1994 Rwandan Genocide
- Author:
- Erin Jessee
- Publication Date:
- 07-2012
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Centre for International Governance Innovation
- Abstract:
- In the aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, in which an estimated 800,000 Tutsi civilians were killed, the ICTR commissioned a series of mass grave exhumations in Kigali and Kibuye. These exhumations were conducted by PHR, a Boston-based nongovernmental organization (NGO). Its mandate was to provide scientifically rigorous evidence that revealed the criminal nature of specific massacres in Kigali and Kibuye, as well as the statistical elements of the crimes, including the sex, ethnicity, age, and cause and manner of death for the individual victims (Haglund, 1997: 1; Haglund and Kirschner, 1997: ii).
- Topic:
- Political Violence, Genocide, Human Rights, and International Cooperation
- Political Geography:
- Africa
253. Rethinking Nigeria's Indigene-Settler Conflicts
- Author:
- Aaron Sayne
- Publication Date:
- 07-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United States Institute of Peace
- Abstract:
- Many of Nigeria's worst conflicts pit the recognized original inhabitants, or indigenes, of a particular place against supposedly later settlers. These conflicts may be growing deadlier and more numerous with time. State and local governments have free rein to pick who is an indigene. Abuse of the label can foster deep socioeconomic inequalities, given that indigenes enjoy preferential access to land, schools, development spending, and public jobs. These inequalities feed into violence, although righting inequality may not be sufficient to end violence in every case. The indigene-settler distinction is also explosive because it reinforces and is reinforced by other identity-based divides in Nigeria. These differences in ethnicity, language, religion, and culture can be longstanding and deeply felt, but how they factor into violence is again not well understood. Poor law enforcement responses also help entrench violence between indigenes and settlers. Official complicity and indifference make prosecutions rare. Destructive conduct by the Nigerian security forces itself often becomes a structural cause of violence. Serious thought about how to prevent or resolve indigene-settler violence has barely started in Nigeria. Addressing inequality between indigenes and settlers calls for serious, microlevel analysis of local economic dysfunctions and opportunities, along with real official commitment to make and enforce better policies. More holistic understandings of justice are also needed. The worst hot spots will need a wide menu of well-planned interventions. Options include securitization, criminal prosecution, mediation and dialogue, truth commissions, victim compensation programs, public health and trauma assistance, public institutional reforms, education, and communications work. In some cases, building sustainable peace could take a generation or more.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Political Violence, Crime, Ethnic Conflict, and Peace Studies
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Nigeria
254. In Transit: Gangs and Criminal Networks in Guyana
- Author:
- Taylor Owen and Alexandre Grigsby
- Publication Date:
- 02-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Small Arms Survey
- Abstract:
- Guyana is an anomaly in South America. As the only English-speaking country on the continent, Guyana identifies primarily with its fellow former British colonies in the Caribbean, such as Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, rather than its immediate Hispanic, Portuguese, and Dutch neighbours (Venezuela, Brazil, and Suriname). Relative to other South American states, Guyana's population is small—only 750, 000 people, 90 per cent of whom live along the Atlantic coast—leaving the country's vast interior sparsely populated (Mars, 2010,. Georgetown, the country's capital, is Guyana's largest city with just over 200, 000 people, followed by the cities of Linden and New Amsterdam, with about 410, 000 and 18, 500 inhabitants, respectively.
- Topic:
- Political Violence, Arms Control and Proliferation, Crime, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- Latin America and Guyana
255. Precedent in the Making: The UN Meeting of Governmental Experts
- Author:
- Glenn McDonald
- Publication Date:
- 03-2012
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Small Arms Survey
- Abstract:
- How to stop a criminal from removing the identifying marks on a polymerframe handgun? This was the kind of question asked, and sometimes answered, at the Open-ended Meeting of Governmental Experts (MGE), convened at UN headquarters in New York from 9 to 13 May 2011. For the first time at a UN small arms meeting, the discussions were expert-led and relatively interactive as delegations focused on the practical details of weapons marking, record-keeping, and tracing, specifically as dealt with in the International Tracing Instrument (ITI) (UNGA, 2005).
- Topic:
- Political Violence, Arms Control and Proliferation, Crime, Government, and United Nations
- Political Geography:
- New York
256. Indonesia: Dynamics of Violence in Papua
- Publication Date:
- 08-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- A spate of violence in Papua in May and June 2012 exposed the lack of a coherent government strategy to address this multidimensional conflict. Shootings of non-Papuans in the provincial capital Jayapura in June, likely involving pro-independence militants, were followed by the death of one of those militants at police hands, highlighting the political dimension of the problem. In Wamena, a rampage by soldiers after the death of a comrade shows the depth of distrust between local communities and the army, and the absence of mechanisms to deal with crises. The shooting of five Papuans by newly arrived members of a paramilitary police unit (Brigade Mobile, Brimob) in a remote gold-mining area of Paniai highlights the violence linked to Papua's vast resource wealth and rent-seeking by the security apparatus with little oversight from Jakarta. While these events are still under investigation, they signal that unless the Yudhoyono government can address these very different aspects of the conflict, things may get worse. An overhaul of security policy would help.
- Topic:
- Security, Political Violence, Development, Ethnic Conflict, and Post Colonialism
- Political Geography:
- Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and Papua
257. Preventing Conflicts in Africa: Early Warning and Response
- Author:
- Mireille Affa'a-Mindzie
- Publication Date:
- 08-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Peace Institute
- Abstract:
- The popular uprisings in North Africa in 2011 and more recent crises in Mali and Guinea-Bissau have raised questions about the capacity of the African Union (AU) and the international community to successfully prevent violent conflicts in Africa. In Mali, the military coup in March 2012, which ousted President Amadou Toumani Touré, occurred only two days after a ministerial meeting of the AU Peace and Security Council was held in the capital Bamako to consider the situation in the Sahel region and the Tuareg rebellion in the northern part of the country. Less than a month later, the equally unforeseen crisis in Guinea-Bissau erupted while an ECOWAS Mediation and Security Council ministerial meeting was taking place in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, in April 2012. Against this backdrop, the International Peace Institute (IPI) hosted a roundtable discussion on early warning in partnership with the Permanent Missions of South Africa and Azerbaijan to the United Nations, both members of the United Nations Security Council at the time. The seminar, “Preventing Conflicts in Africa: The Role of Early Warning and Response,” was held on April 27, 2012, at IPI's Trygve Lie Center for Peace, Security, and Development in New York.
- Topic:
- Conflict Prevention, Political Violence, Civil Society, and United Nations
- Political Geography:
- Africa
258. Disrupting Atrocity Enablers
- Publication Date:
- 07-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Human Rights First
- Abstract:
- In its brutal crackdown on civilians, the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria has committed mass atrocities. These crimes are not only a human rights catastrophe but also, as the Obama Administration says, a threat to U.S. national security. Yet American diplomatic efforts have failed to curb the violence.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Political Violence, Human Rights, and Armed Struggle
- Political Geography:
- America, Middle East, and Syria
259. Young Minds Rethinking the Mediterranean
- Author:
- Nihan Akıncılar, Anna Alexieva, Jennifer Brindisi, Evinç Doğan, Amanda E. Rogers, and Beatrice Schimmang
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Book
- Institution:
- Global Political Trends Center
- Abstract:
- In this paper, Europeanization of minority rights in Turkey will be explained in detail and in the conclusion part, it will be compared and contrasted with the Europeanization of minority rights in Greece. In this comparison, it is difficult to compare and contrast the mechanisms of Europeanization in Turkey and Greece because these mechanisms are suitable for the member states of the European Union (EU). For the candidate countries, the question of “how it is Europeanized” can be only answered with conditionality. Therefore, instead of trying to adapt Turkey in the case of minority rights to the mechanisms of Europeanization for the member states, in this study, it will be dealt with how the EU matters in affecting the minority rights protection in candidate and member states. Therefore, what this study implies when it is expected to explain Europeanization of mi`nority rights in Turkey is not to handle this case through the Europeanization theories, but how the EU affects the candidate countries through conditionality.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, Foreign Policy, Political Violence, Human Rights, War, and Political Theory
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Turkey, and Greece
260. A new Geography of European power?
- Author:
- James Rogers
- Publication Date:
- 01-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- EGMONT - The Royal Institute for International Relations
- Abstract:
- The naval historian and geostrategist, Alfred Thayer Mahan, understood the utility of military power perhaps better than anyone before or since. In an article called The Place of Force in International Relations – penned two years before his death in 1914 – he claimed: 'Force is never more operative then when it is known to exist but is not brandished' (1912). If Mahan's point was valid then, it is perhaps even more pertinent now. The rise of new powers around the world has contributed to the emergence of an increasingly unpredictable and multipolar international system. Making the use of force progressively more dangerous and politically challenging, this phenomenon is merging with a new phase in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. At the same time, many European governments are increasingly reluctant – perhaps even unable – to intervene militarily in foreign lands. The operations in Afghanistan and Iraq have shown that when armed force is used actively in support of foreign policy, it can go awry; far from re-affirming strength and determination on the part of its beholder, it can actually reveal weakness and a lack of resolve. Half-hearted military operations – of the kind frequently undertaken by democratic European states – tend not to go particularly well, especially when there is little by way of a political strategy or the financial resources needed to support them. A political community's accumulation of a military reputation, which can take decades, if not centuries, can then be rapidly squandered through a series of unsuccessful combat operations, which dent its confidence and give encouragement to its opponents or enemies.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Political Violence, Arms Control and Proliferation, War, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and Armed Struggle
- Political Geography:
- Europe