|
|
- Introduction
- Former Yugoslavia
- Chechnya
- Congo
- Darfur
- Somalia
- Lebanon
- Gaza
Introduction
Hello, I’m Matt Edmundson, a graduate of Tufts University, member of the 2003 EPIIC colloquium, and a co-founder of EXPOSURE. I now work for Mapendo International, an NGO based in Cambridge and Nairobi.
If you google the phrase “never again”, as I did recently, the number one search result is a website where you’ll be presented with the lyrics to American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson’s new pop song entitled “Never Again.”
My first thought: Did Ms. Clarkson realize that this title was synonymous with genocide? Did she know that activists the world over have used the phrase throughout this and the last century to try and compel their fellow citizens and governments to act to stop ongoing crimes against humanity?
Yet, as the photographers of VII demonstrate throughout this section, far more damning than Ms. Clarkon’s use of the phrase is the fact that the words themselves have become an empty slogan, a reminder of the international community’s impotence when it comes to stopping ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity. What appears to be a simple issue at the onset – let’s stop this action – often becomes numbingly complex in our politicized world.
In this section you’ll see the literal evidence contradicting the vow “never again”. Pictured here by the photographers of VII are genocide, crimes against humanity and mass death and displacement, documented while they were occurring, in Bosnia, Croatia, Chechnya, Kosovo, Congo, Rwanda, Sudan, and Somalia. Some of these situations have improved in recent years, while others continue to burn, or remain unstable, their core issues unaddressed.
And here arise more questions without answers, or without good answers at least. These photographs exist. Evidence exists. This is not happening in the dark. Is this a matter of political will, or ability? Whose responsibility is this? Who is ultimately accountable? What structures can best respond appropriately and forcefully enough to stop these events, while not becoming prey for more malignant motives?
Consider this: the Harvard scholar Alex de Waal wrote a paper several years ago where he examined 19 incidents of mass killings in the twentieth century, and how they ended. Three, he found, were conclusively stopped by a foreign military intervention, and none of these interventions were on humanitarian grounds. In only two cases, he concluded, were international actors significantly involved in mediating an end to the violence.
As you examine these exceptional photographs, though, please don’t lose sight of the victims depicted in front of you. Remember the words of Elie Wiesel, whose use of the word “never” strikes a far different message. He wrote, “Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.”
VII Photo Essay Links:
- Antonin Kratochvil, Chaos in Haiti: http://www.viiphoto.com/showstory.php?nID=6
TIMELINE
1990, July 5th
Since January, clashes between armed troops and unarmed ethnic-Albanians had been reported. In this month, the Serbian Assembly dissolved the Kosovo Assembly, transferring power to Serbia proper. Independent television, radio, and newspaper sources were shut down. The Serbian Communist Party changed its name to the Serbian Socialist Party, and on July 17th elected Slobodan Milosevic to be its president. A new Serbian Constitution was approved which abolished the autonomous status of the Kosovo and Vojvodina provinces. Ethnic Albanians began to be eliminated from Kosovo's police force and judiciary system. Most Albanian language newspapers and periodicals were shut down and Serbs replaced Albanians working for television and radio stations.
1992, July 26th
Serbian authorities surrounded the Kosovo Assembly building and arrested several deputies, citing the illegality of the Assembly's operation. Later in October, clashes occurred between Albanians and police officers in the Kosovar capital of Pristina when Albanians demanded the re-opening of schools under a non-Serb curriculum.
1993 March
Ethnic Albanians continued to be forced out of jobs controlled by State owned enterprises. Serbian militia, led by Zeljko Raznjatovic, increased harassment of Kosovo Albanians in what was termed by Kosovar leaders to be "ethnic cleansing in the quiet". Reports indicated that up to 500,000 Albanians emigrated from Kosovo.
July 28th
The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, which had entered Kosovo to monitor the human rights situation, was forced to leave. Yugoslav authorities refused to extend the organization's mandate, citing the exclusion of Yugoslavia from membership status.
November
The International Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights condemns Yugoslavia for a policy of "Serbianization" in Kosovo. Human rights abuses include torture and summary killings. Restrictions have been imposed on the freedom of movement of ethnic Albanians, on using the Albanian language, and on holding private property.
1995
September
A statement issued by the Committee for Human Rights and Freedoms in Kosovo warned that large scale conflict could break out in Kosovo if the process of resettling Krajina Serb refugees continued. It said that between the 9th and 31st August, some 8,356 refugees from Krajina had been resettled in 23 locations in Kosovo, and before that some 2,947 Serb refugees from Bosnia had been resettled there. After making a decision to settle up to 100,000 Serbs in Kosovo as a means of changing the ethnic composition of the region's population, the Serbian regime decided to settle more than 20,000 Serbs from Krajina in Kosovo.
1997 December 13
A report by the Pristina based council for the Defense of Human Rights and Freedoms reported that since January 1997 the Serbian police have arrested arbitrarily 1,012 persons, raided 402 Albanian households, summoned 437 to so-called informative conversation, 452 have received bodily injuries, 56 police raids on educational institutions, 33 journalists have been obstructed in their journalistic work, and 762 people have been taken to police for interrogation.
1998
February 19th
The Albanian foreign minister issued a statement in February that Albanians do not want a war in Kosovo, but they will demand intervention from the international community to stop war and Serbian aggression and to provide humanitarian aid.
June 20th
Rugova appeals for direct NATO intervention in June to prevent further massacres and protect the people of Kosovo. The heads of the Kosovo Albanian political parties meet in Pristina with Rugova in a bid to coordinate a joint strategy for the Kosovo crisis, but ethnic Albanian party leaders fail to agree on a joint strategy.
October 1
Calls for urgent action on Kosovo from the international community are sparked by the discovery of the bodies of ethnic Albanian civilians, including women and children, slaughtered by Serb forces. The UN Security Council expects Secretary General Kofi Annan to deliver a crucial report on whether Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has complied with the council's demand to stop the repression in Kosovo. Serbian authorities deny any involvement in the killings and say that an enquiry had been opened into the reports. According to ethnic Albanian human rights workers, at least 1,472 ethnic Albanians have been killed in the fighting in Kosovo this year. The victims include 162 women and 143 children.
1999 January 29th
The six-nation Contact Group, a major power consortium coordinating peace efforts in the Balkans, issues an extraordinary ultimatum in January directing Milosevic and the ethnic Albanians to meet before the end of this week in a French chateau and to agree before Feb. 19 on a plan offering substantial self-rule to the ethnic Albanian community. NATO issues a clear but unspecific warning of military action if the warring factions in Kosovo do not go to the conference table.
June
A plan is formed that calls for a "complete verifiable withdrawal of all Yugoslav military, police, and paramilitary forces" from Kosovo. It also calls for the introduction of "an international security presence with the essential involvement of NATO." Yugoslav and NATO negotiators reach a final agreement on procedures for Serb forces to withdraw from Kosovo and for international peacekeeping troops to enter the troubled province.
2000 October
Rugova’s Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) wins municipal elections with 58%. Rugova was quoted as saying that a vote for LDK was a vote for independence. The other two parties that took part in the elections, Thaqi’s Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), and Haradinaj’s Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), sprang out of the former KLA. They too, are determined to achieve independence. Kosovar leaders indicated that they might renew armed struggle against Serbia if independence is denied.
Source:
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,,CHRON,SRB,,469f38f51e,0.html accessed January 22, 2010
Links to relevant articles:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5165042.stm
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/05/opinion/05iht-edmontgomery.html?_r=1
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-kosovo11dec11,0,55536.story
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/balkans/overview/kosovo.htm
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/kosovo/
Europe’s War
In 1991, Ron Haviv went to document a nascent independence movement in Yugoslavia, a country that he only knew about from the 1984 Olympics. Croats and Slovenes were calling for greater autonomy from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, but the federally controlled and primarily Serbian Yugoslav People’s Army opposed republican independence. “The fall of the Berlin Wall and subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union had led people to believe that the world had taken a turn towards peace,” wrote Haviv. “All that wound up happening in places such as Yugoslavia was the lifting of the lid on fervent nationalistic feelings.”
Haviv left for Zagreb the night Slovenia declared its independence from Yugloslavia. After a brief confrontation in Slovenia, the conflict moved to Croatia first and then into Bosnia-Herzegovina. Haviv watched local villagers try to shore up defenses against the Yugoslav army, watched the fighting morph from local bursts of rifle fire to tanks crushing tanks. Ethnic cleansing re-emerged in Europe, killing tens of thousands of people, only decades after leaders swore that genocide had ended with World War II. And the world watched.
The reality was that World War II and the Cold War had created a tenuous peace in a federated Yugoslavia ruled by Marshal Josep Broz Tito. Tito was initially a leading member of the Communist bloc but went on to become one of the founders of the Non-Aligned Movement. that was often allied with but still independent from the Soviet Union. His death and the end of the Cold War opened questions for the six Yugoslav republics and its two autonomous regions. Should an ethnically and religiously diverse state with deep divisions and a history of repression remain whole? Could it? Haviv was exploring unanswered questions of the hidden legacy of conflict and the dividedness of states and peoples.
His photographs, published first in Newsweek and then as the photoessay Blood and Honey: A Balkan War Journal are stark evidence of an inevitable European war that nobody thought would happen. Straight, simple color photographs. We see the faces of Serbian paramilitaries looking to cleanse Bosnia of its Muslim population; the face of a child mourning his father, a Croatian policeman killed by Serbian Forces; more than a dozen faces of Bosnians who had just survived the attack on Srebrenica as they learn of the fall the a U.N. safe haven.
And then there are the photographs with no faces at all. The sole survivor of a massacre hides as he stands on a mass grave that likely holds his family. A faceless soldier kicks a faceless group of Bosnians to death, illustrating the personal violence of this civil conflict. And there is a found photograph; literally defaced and left by Serbian soldiers after they inhabited a Bosnian home and then took everything in it.
Haviv’s role as a journalist changed as the conflict went on. He originally viewed his work as news photographs, intended to draw attention to the atrocities happening on the edge of Europe. He hoped they would help people decide to bring change to the region. But it didn’t happen.
“Today I hope the work stands as part of a document of the war,” he wrote in Blood and Honey, “It is an accusation to those who saw yet stood by and did nothing until thousands had died and millions became refugees.”
VII Photo Essay Links:
- Joachim Ladefoged, The Albanians: http://www.viiphoto.com/showstory.php?nID=228
- Ron Haviv, Blood and Honey: http://www.viiphoto.com/showstory.php?nID=278
Timeline
1991
Collapse of the Soviet Union. Communist leader Doku Zavgayev overthrown; Dzhokhar Dudayev wins a presidential poll and proclaims Chechnya independent of Russia.
1992
Chechnya adopts a constitution defining it as an independent, secular state governed by a president and parliament.
1994 December
Russian troops enter Chechnya to quash the independence movement. Up to 100,000 people - many of them civilians - are estimated to have been killed in the 20-month war that followed.
1995 June
Chechen rebels seize hundreds of hostages at a hospital in Budennovsk, southern Russia. More than 100 are killed in the raid and in an unsuccessful Russian commando operation.
1996 April
Dudayev killed in a Russian missile attack; Zemlikhan Yandarbiyev succeeds him.
1996 May
Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Yandarbiyev sign a peace agreement; the short-lived truce lasts until July.
1996 August
Chechen rebels launch a successful attack on Grozny; Yeltsin's security chief General Alexander Lebed and Chechen rebel chief of staff Aslan Maskhadov sign the Khasavyurt Accords, which provide for a ceasefire. An agreement on Russian troop withdrawals is signed in November.
1997 May
Yeltsin and Maskhadov sign a formal peace treaty, but the issue of Chechen independence is not resolved.
2000 February
Russian troops capture Grozny; much of the city is razed.
2000 May
President Putin declares direct rule from Moscow.
July 2000
Guerrillas launch five suicide bomb attacks on Russian security bases. The deadliest attack kills 54 people.
Chechnya Post-Cold War
Surrounded by Russian territory and a little bit of Georgia, the southern Republic of Chechnya has been in shambles since Dzhokhar Dudayev declared its independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Rich in oil, its economy and infrastructure were reduced to ruins by years of war between local separatists and Russian forces, combined with armed banditry and organized crime. After failing to restrain the Chechen rebellion in 1996, which resulted in mass losses for both sides, Chechnya was granted substantial autonomy. Russia’s resulting rehabilitation plans towards the Republic were not successful.
Chechnya’s capital, Grozny, became the seat of a separatist government under the Chechen president. During the First and Second Chechen Wars the city became the main battle site subject to violent raids, carpet bombings and guerilla attacks. This caused massive destruction in infrastructure and thousands of casualties. Today, the city is still undergoing reconstruction.
Links
Timeline:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/country_profiles/2357267.stm
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/04/27/chechnya.timeline/index.html
Other:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/country_profiles/2565049.stm
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countries...
http://dirckhalstead.org/issue0104/cm33.htm
Christopher Morris Photo Essays:
- Chechen War, http://www.viiphoto.com/showstory.php?nID=92
- Faces of Chechnya, http://www.viiphoto.com/showstory.php?nID=280
- Chechen Landscapes, http://www.viiphoto.com/showstory.php?nID=91
1884-85 - European powers at the Conference of Berlin recognize Leopold's claim to the Congo basin.
1885 - Leopold announces the establishment of the Congo Free State, headed by himself.
1960 June - Congo becomes independent with Patrice Lumumba as prime minister and Joseph Kasavubu as president.
1961 February - Lumumba murdered, reportedly with US and Belgian complicity.
1965 - Kasavubu and Tshombe ousted in a coup led by Joseph Mobutu.
1971 - Joseph Mobutu renames the country Zaire and himself Mobutu Sese Seko; also Katanga becomes Shaba and the river Congo becomes the river Zaire.
1973-74 - Mobutu nationalizes many foreign-owned firms and forces European investors out of the country.
1989 - Zaire defaults on loans from Belgium, resulting in a cancellation of development programmes and increased deterioration of the economy.
1994 - President Habyarimana of Rwanda and the Burundian president are killed after their plane is shot down over Kigali; extremist Hutu militia and elements of the Rwandan military begin the systematic massacre of Tutsis. Within 100 days around 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus are killed; Hutu militias flee to Zaire, taking with them around 2 million Hutu refugees.
1994-96 - Refugee camps in Zaire fall under the control of the Hutu militia responsible for the genocide in Rwanda.
1996-97 - Tutsi rebels capture much of eastern Zaire while Mobutu is abroad for medical treatment.
Tutsi and other anti-Mobutu rebels, aided principally by Rwanda, capture the capital, Kinshasa; Zaire is renamed the Democratic Republic of Congo; Laurent-Desire Kabila installed as president.
1998 - Rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda rise up against Kabila and advance on Kinshasa. Zimbabwe, Namibia send troops to repel them. Angolan troops also side with Kabila. The rebels take control of much of the east of DR Congo.
1999 - Rifts emerge between Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) rebels supported by Uganda and Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD) rebels backed by Rwanda.
The six African countries involved in the war sign a ceasefire accord in Lusaka. The following month the MLC and RCD rebel groups sign the accord.
2000 - UN Security Council authorises a 5,500-strong UN force to monitor the ceasefire but fighting continues between rebels and government forces, and between Rwandan and Ugandan forces.
2001 - President Laurent Kabila is shot dead by a bodyguard. Joseph Kabila succeeds his father; Kabila meets Rwandan President Paul Kagame in Washington. Rwanda, Uganda and the rebels agree to a UN pull-out plan. Uganda, Rwanda begin pulling troops back from the frontline; US refugee agency says the war has killed 2.5 million people, directly or indirectly, since August 1998. Later, a UN panel says the warring parties are deliberately prolonging the conflict to plunder gold, diamonds, timber and coltan, used in the making of mobile phones.
2002 - Peace talks in South Africa: Kinshasa signs a power-sharing deal with Ugandan-backed rebels, under which the MLC leader would be premier. Rwandan-backed RCD rebels reject the deal; Presidents of DR Congo and Rwanda sign a peace deal under which Rwanda will withdraw troops from the east and DR Congo will disarm and arrest Rwandan Hutu gunmen blamed for the killing of the Tutsi minority in Rwanda's 1994 genocide.
2002 - Peace deal signed in South Africa between Kinshasa government and main rebel groups. Under the deal rebels and opposition members are to be given portfolios in an interim government.
2003 - President Kabila signs a transitional constitution, under which an interim government will rule pending elections; Last Ugandan troops leave eastern DR Congo; Interim parliament inaugurated.
2005 - Uganda warns that its troops may re-enter DR Congo after a group of Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army rebels enter via Sudan; Voters back a new constitution, already approved by parliament, paving the way for elections in 2006.
2006 July - Presidential and parliamentary polls are held - the first free elections in four decades. With no clear winner in the presidential vote, incumbent leader Joseph Kabila and opposition candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba prepare to contest a run-off poll on 29 October. Forces loyal to the two candidates clash in the capital.
November - Joseph Kabila is declared winner of October's run-off presidential election. The poll has the general approval of international monitors.
December - Forces of renegade General Laurent Nkunda and the UN-backed army clash in North Kivu province, prompting some 50,000 people to flee. The UN Security Council expresses concern about the fighting.
2007 March - Government troops and forces loyal to opposition leader Jean-Pierre Bemba clash in Kinshasa.
April - DRCongo, Rwanda and Burundi relaunch the regional economic bloc Great lakes Countries Economic Community, known under its French acronym CEPGL; Jean-Pierre Bemba leaves for Portugal, ending a three-week political stalemate in Kinshasa, during which he sheltered in the South African embassy.
May - The UN investigates allegations of gold and arms trafficking by UN peacekeepers in Ituri region.
August - Uganda and DRCongo agree to try defuse a border dispute.
2008 January - The government and rebel militia, including renegade Gen Nkunda, sign a peace pact aimed at ending years of conflict in the east.
April - Army troops clash with Rwandan Hutu militias with whom they were formerly allied in eastern Congo, leaving thousands of people displaced.
August - Heavy clashes erupt in the east of the country between army troops and fighters loyal to rebel leader Laurent Nkunda.
October - Rebel forces capture major army base of Rumangabo; the Congolese government accuses Rwanda of backing General Nkunda, a claim Rwanda denies; Thousands of people, including Congolese troops, flee as clashes in eastern DR Congo intensify. Chaos grips the provincial capital Goma as rebel forces advance. UN peacekeepers engage the rebels in an attempt to support Congolese troops.
November - Campaign by Tutsi rebel leader Laurent Nkunda to consolidate control over east prompts new wave of refugees; UN Security Council approves temporary increase of troops to bolster the strained UN peacekeeping effort.
December - Uganda, South Sudan and DRCongo launch joint assault on Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army bases in north-east DRCongo. Hundreds of civilians are killed in backlash attacks.
2009 January - Launch of joint DRCongo-Rwandan military operation against Tutsi rebels led by Laurent Nkunda. Campaign lasts five weeks; Nkunda is displaced by Bosco Ntaganda and arrested in Rwanda.
February - Medecins San Frontiers accuses UN peacekeepers of failing to protect civilians from LRA rebels.
April - Hutu militia re-emerge after end of joint DRCongo-Rwanda campaign in east, prompting thousands to flee.
May - Kabila approves law giving amnesty to armed groups as part of deal meant to end fighting in east.
June - International Criminal Court orders ex-vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba to stand trial on charges of war crimes for his troops' actions in Central African Republic between 2002 and 2003; Series of mutinies by soldiers in the east complaining they haven't been paid.
2009 - Swiss court rules that frozen assets of ex-president Mobutu Sese Seko be returned to his family
Congo
For over a decade, a conflict between various armed groups has been raging in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This conflict is the widest interstate war in modern African history and has resulted in the largest death toll since World War II. Over 5 million people have died since 1998, the vast majority perishing from disease or starvation caused by lack of access to basic medication and services. Millions more remain displaced or constantly on the run.
During the Cold War, the Democratic Republic of Congo – then known as Zaire –served as a proxy state supported by the United States, who propped up Sese Soko Mobutu’s notorious regime in opposition to Soviet advances in the region. In the fallout of the Cold War, several interwoven factors are useful in explaining the ongoing conflict in the Congo. One is long-standing antagonism between various ethnic groups. Another is the 1994 Rwandan genocide and the migration of roughly two million Rwandans across DRC's porous border in its aftermath. Among these refugees include Hutu genocidaire killers, innocent Hutu who feared retribution, and a Tutsi army in pursuit, keen on vengeance. Ethnically oriented proxy forces supported by foreign governments in Rwanda, Uganda and other neighboring nations fight much of the conflict in the DRC.
Another factor is a vast wealth in natural resources. The DRC is endowed with large quantities of gold, tungsten, lumber, diamonds, copper, and coltan—which serves as a key ingredient in producing computer chips found in cell phones. Such resources provide ethnic warlords and their foreign backers additional incentives to fight. Furthermore, the DRC is among the largest nations on earth without hardly any functioning national government. In 2006, the international community financed the first democratic election in 40 years, which resulted in the election of Joseph Kabila. Kabila’s response to his newfound power was to eradicate the political opposition, and continue using the national government as a means of personal plunder. Government officials and warlords extract the DRC’s natural resources for their own personal profit, while the general population suffers from a lack of fundamental social and economic infrastructure.
The hardest hit by the conflict are women and children. Rape is the definitive weapon of war in the DRC. Most NGO and U.N.-run hospitals throughout Eastern DRC report between 100 and 400 victims of rape per month. This is in spite of the fact that the vast majority of cases go unreported. A large number of rape victims contract HIV and many are under the age of 15. The DRC also contains one of the world’s highest numbers of child soldiers. In the past 10 years more than 30,000 child soldiers have been recruited by warlords who employ their services to fight against rival ethnic groups and for control of natural resources. Physically vulnerable and easily intimidated, children make obedient soldiers. Many are abducted or recruited by force, and often compelled to follow orders under threat of death. Others join armed groups out of simple desperation.
Western powers have considerable influence over the situation the DRC partly because the national government depends on foreign aid to maintain its army and other functions. Individual consumers also have a hand to play as buyers of products made with materials coming out of the DRC’s war zones. However, as a state suffering through internal and border conflicts that do not affect the security of the major powers, the conflict in the Congo rarely receives international attention or media coverage. Thus, the most deadly war of the 21st century remains largely hidden away and forgotten by the outside world.
Photographer Marcus Bleasdale has been deeply committed to raising awareness about the conflict in the DRC, which he has covered for over 7 years. His images have been used in wide array of advocacy campaigns, in which he has partnered with organizations such as by Human Rights Watch, Doctors without Borders, UNHCR, and Save the Children.
Links to VII Congo Photo Essays, by Marcus Bleasdale
- The Rape of a Nation: http://www.viiphoto.com/showstory.php?nID=974
- Congo, Rape as a War Crime: http://www.viiphoto.com/showstory.php?nID=642
- Congo, One Hundred Years of Darkness: http://www.viiphoto.com/showstory.php?nID=641
- Today's Children, Tomorrow's Leaders, Congo's Street Children: http://www.viiphoto.com/showstory.php?nID=633
- Congo Elections: http://www.viiphoto.com/showstory.php?nID=640
- Congo Health: http://www.viiphoto.com/showstory.php?nID=643
TIMELINE
February 2003
The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), both armed opposition groups from Darfur, attacked the Sudanese army to gain government protection in local villages from nomadic attacks and economic ruin.
March 2003
The armed conflict in Darfur officially begins after failed attempts at peaceful negotiations between the GOS (Government of Sudan) and the SLA and JEM.July 2004: AMIS, the African Union Mission in Sudan, deploys troops to Darfur to protect both its citizens and aid workers in the region.
September 18 2004
The UN Security Council voted to pass Resolution 1564, which created a Commission of Inquiry on Darfur to assess the social, political and economic effects of the conflict.
April 2004
Chad oversees negotiations between the SLA, JEM and the Government of Sudan, in which the three agreed upon a ceasefire to take place on April 11, 2004. However, attacks from the Janjawid, an allied militia to the Sudanese government, continue.
January 2005
The Commission of Inquiry on Darfur publishes a report estimating that 1.6 million Sudanese civilians were displaced internally throughout the country, and over 200,000 were refugees in Chad. The GOS and allied militias, such as the Janjawid, were reported to be committing atrocious acts of human violence throughout the conflict.
2006
The Sudanese Government and the Sudan Liberation Army/Minni Minawi faction (SLA/MM) signed the Darfur Peace Agreement, which gave the SLA/MM and other “signatories” a small amount of control.
August 31, 2006
The UN Security Council passes a resolution to deploy 17,300 peacekeeping forces to Darfur. The Sudanese Government refuses their efforts.
November 2006
The UN and the African Union agree to a joint peacekeeping mission.
2007
The International Criminal Court (ICC) indicted the GOS Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Ahmed Haroun, and a Janjawid militia leader, Ali Kushayb, on 51 accounts of both war crimes and crimes against humanity. Both men refuse to comply with the indictment and remain essentially free in Sudan.
July 31 2007
The UN Security Council unanimously passes Resolution 1769, which deploys 26,000 peacekeepers under UNAMID, the UN and African Union joint peacekeeping mission.
September 25, 2007
Resolution 1778 is unanimously passes by the UN Security Council, which permits a European Union peacekeeping mission in the neighboring eastern Chad and northeastern Central African Republic regions, called EUFOR, in conjunction with a smaller UN force MINURCAT.
May 10, 2008
Rebels attacked the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. The Sudanese government launches a counter-attack without protecting its civilians during the process.
July 2008
The Chief Prosecutor submits to the ICC an application to arrest the President of the Sudanese government, Omar al Bashir, on 10 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
October 2008
The Sudanese government announces its arrest of Ali Kushayb, an ICC-charged militia leader, with plans to conduct trials of war crimes.
From Amnesty International’s page History of the Darfur Conflict
Conflict in Darfur
The diverse country of Sudan is Africa’s largest, encompassing roughly six million people of over forty different ethnic backgrounds. These divisions in the population prompted two groups, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), to develop militant followings to lead an attack on the Sudanese government. Their goals were greater government protection for Darfurian villages vulnerable to attack from rebel groups, and economic stability within the region of Darfur. At the time, the Sudanese government was negotiating an end to a three-year war between the Northern and Southern factions of Sudan. Responding viciously, the Sudanese government attacked back through their armed militia, known as the Janjaweed. These government-backed militias attacked specific ethnic groups that supported the SLA and JEM, causing immense civilian casualties. At the same time, the rise in such powerful militias displaced millions of Darfurians to neighboring countries as the practice of ethnic purging became popular among the Janjaweed. Many humanitarian aid efforts have been made by the United Nations, the European Union and the African Union, but the two sides have still not yet signed and followed through on a peace treaty. Currently, the Sudanese government and their Janjaweed militias are still engaged in an extremely violent conflict with rebel forces, and the country continues to be in crisis.
Adapted from SaveDarfur’s Background page
Links for further interest:
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=3060
http://www.savedarfur.org/pages/primer
Darfur Photo Essays:
- Marcus Bleasdale, Darfur, http://www.viiphoto.com/showstory.php?nID=1058
- Lynsey Addario, Darfur, http://www.viiphoto.com/showstory.php?nID=947
Somalia
Somalia is located in the Horn of Africa. The country has been affected by a civil war since 1991 and the situation has been further aggravated by prolonged droughts. The combination of conflict and natural disasters has eroded livelihoods, caused structural food insecurity, population displacements and extreme poverty. Moreover, as a consequence of civil insecurity and of the absence of a central government, the Somali health and educational systems have ceased functioning.
Somalia summary gathered from http://www.fao.org/ag/agn/nutrition/som_en.stm
TIMELINE
1991
Mohamed Siad Barre, the military dictator of Somalia is ousted from power by an alliance of Somali clan-based forces and Ali Mahdi Muhammad is appointed as an interim president. However a struggle amongst clan warlords results in the ongoing Somali Civil War.
1992
By 1992 Mohamed Farrah Aidid had emerged as the most powerful warlord in Somalia and hindrance to the distribution of aid as well as the United Nations peacekeeping forces. In 1992 Pakistani peacekeeping forces were attacked and 24 members were killed. The United States responded by placing a bounty on Aidid and attempting to arrest and charge him with war crimes.
1993
In October of 1993 a force of United States Army Rangers and Delta Force Operators set out to capture several leading officials of Aidid’s militia. Although the mission is considered successful American soldiers were killed when Somali militias shot down two US helicopters in Mogadishu and battle ensued. Hundreds of Somalis die in the battle (depicted in the film "Black Hawk Down") and the US mission formally ends in March 1994.
1995
UN peacekeepers leave Somalia, having failed to achieve their mission and Aidid declares himself President.
2000 August
Clan leaders and senior figures meeting in Djibouti elect Abdulkassim Salat Hassan president of Somalia.
2001 April
Somali warlords, backed by Ethiopia, announce their intention to form a national government within six months, in direct opposition to the country's transitional administration.
2006 March and May
Scores of people are killed and hundreds are injured during fierce fighting between rival militias in Mogadishu. It is the worst violence in almost a decade. In the following months Militias loyal to the Union of Islamic Courts gain control of Mogadishu.
2006 December 28
Joint Ethiopian and Somali government force captures Mogadishu.
2007 US carries out air strikes in southern Somalia which it says targeted al-Qaeda figures, and which reportedly kill an unknown number of civilians. It is the first known direct US military intervention in Somalia since 1993. The strikes are defended by President Yusuf. They are condemned for killing innocent civilians.
2008 September
Somali pirates' hijacking of a Ukrainian ship carrying 33 tanks prompts widespread international concern. The US and other countries deploy navy ships to Somali waters. In October NATO agrees to dispatch a naval force to patrol to waters off Somalia in an effort to control piracy. In November - Somali pirates hijack an oil-laden Saudi super-tanker and demand a 25m dollar ransom for its return.
2009
Meeting in neighboring Djibouti, Somalia's parliament swears in 149 new members from the main opposition Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia. It elects a moderate Islamist, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed as president and extends the transitional government's mandate for another two years. In February President Ahmed selects Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke as prime minister. Mr Sharmarke, a former diplomat, is widely seen as a bridge between Islamists within the Somali government and the international community.
2009 May
Islamist insurgents launch onslaught on Mogadishu. President Ahmed declares a state of emergency as violence intensifies.
2009 October
Al-Shabab wins control over the southern port city of Kismayo after defeating the rival Hizbul-Islam Islamist militia
Somalia timeline adapted from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/country_profiles/1072611.stm
Lebanon
A “house divided,” the modern state of Lebanon has limped from one conflict to another since its independence from France in 1943. Its divided populace, with major portfolios of power held by its various Christian, Muslim, and Druze sects, has fueled several civil conflicts over its short history, the bloodiest of which being the fifteen-year-long Lebanese Civil War from 1975 to 1990. Ignited by sparks flying from broader regional conflicts, Lebanon’s pain is in many ways a symptom of the condition of the broader Middle East; it is a chess board for various powers to flex their muscle.
In 2000, facing a simmering insurgency in the occupied Shia south, Israel withdrew from the security zone it had occupied since the 1980s. The militant Shia group Hezbollah, which fought against Israel, grew emboldened, and a cross-border raid in 2006 set off a two-month long war that crippled Lebanon’s infrastructure and killed over 1,000 Lebanese. Following the war, occasional political violence has erupted in mixed-religion areas, and Lebanon’s political dynamic has changed dramatically. However, ever the resilient economy, Lebanon turned a globally dour year into its most successful: in 2009, it recorded its highest number of tourists in history.
TIMELINE
Adapted from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/819200.stm
1920 1 September
After the League of Nations grants the mandate for Lebanon and Syria to France, the State of Greater Lebanon is proclaimed. It includes the former autonomous province of Mount Lebanon, plus the provinces of north Lebanon, south Lebanon and the Biqa, historically part of Syria.
1943 March
The foundations of the state are set out in an unwritten National Covenant which states that Lebanon is an independent Arab country with ties to the West but which cooperates with other Arab states while remaining neutral. The 1932 census which had shown that Christians were 54% of the population is used as the basis for the distribution of seats in the Chamber of Deputies (later known as the National Assembly) on a ratio of six to five (later extended to other public offices). The president is to be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim and the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies a Shia Muslim.
1943 November-December
Free French forces detain members of the recently-appointed government, which had declared an end to the mandate, before releasing them on 22 November, henceforth known as independence day. France agrees to transfer power to the Lebanese government from 1 January 1944.
1958 14 July
Faced with increasing opposition which develops into a civil war, President Shamun asks the US to send troops to preserve Lebanon's independence.
1958 15 July
The US, mindful of Iraq's overthrow of its monarchy, sends marines to re-establish the government's authority.
1967 June
Lebanon plays no active role in the Arab-Israeli war but is to be affected by its aftermath when Palestinians use Lebanon as a base for activities against Israel.
1975 13 April
Phalangist gunmen ambush a bus in the Ayn-al-Rummanah district of Beirut, killing 27 of its mainly Palestinian passengers. The Phalangists claim that guerrillas had previously attacked a church in the same district. (These clashes are regarded as the start of the civil war).
1976 June
Syrian troops enter Lebanon to restore peace but also to curb the Palestinians.
1978 14/15 March
In reprisal for a Palestinian attack into its territory, Israel launches a major invasion of Lebanon, occupying land as far north as the Litani river.
1982 6 June
Following the attempted assassination of Shlomo Argov, Israeli ambassador to Britain, Israel launches a full-scale
1982 14 September
President-elect, Bashir al-Jumayyil, is assassinated. The following day, Israeli forces occupy West Beirut, and from 16 to 18 September, the Phalangist militia kill Palestinians in Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in West Beirut.invasion of Lebanon, "Operation Peace for Galilee".
1982 24 September
The first contingent of a mainly US, French and Italian peacekeeping force, requested by Lebanon, arrives in Beirut.
1983 23 October
241 US marines and 56 French paratroopers are killed in two bomb explosions in Beirut, responsibility for which is claimed by two militant Shia groups.
1989 22 October
The National Assembly, meeting in Ta'if, Saudi Arabia, endorses a Charter of National Reconciliation, which reduces the authority of the president by transferring executive power to the cabinet. The National Assembly now has an equal number of Christian and Muslim members instead of the previous six to five ratio.
1990 13 October
The Syrian air force attacks the Presidential Palace at B'abda and Awn takes refuge in the French embassy. This date is regarded as the end of the civil war.
1991
The National Assembly orders the dissolution of all militias by 30 April but Hezbollah is allowed to remain active and the South Lebanon Army (SLA) refuses to disband.
2005 February
Former prime minister Rafik Hariri is killed by a car bomb in Beirut. The attack sparks anti-Syrian rallies and the resignation of Prime Minister Omar Karami's cabinet. Calls for Syria to withdraw its troops intensify.
2005 March
Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese attend pro- and anti-Syrian rallies in Beirut.
Days after his resignation, pro-Syrian former PM Omar Karami is asked by the president to form a new government.
2005 April
Omar Karami resigns as PM after failing to form a government. He is succeeded by moderate pro-Syrian MP Najib Mikati. Syria says its forces have left Lebanon, as demanded by the UN.
2006 July
Israel launches air and sea attacks on targets in Lebanon after Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group captures two Israeli soldiers. Civilian casualties are high and the damage to civilian infrastructure wide-ranging. Thousands of people are displaced. In August Israeli ground troops thrust into southern Lebanon.
2006 August
Truce between Israel and Hezbollah comes into effect on 14 August after 34 days of fighting and the deaths of around 1,000 Lebanese - mostly civilians - and 159 Israelis, mainly soldiers. A UN peacekeeping force, expected to consist of 15,000 foreign troops, begins to deploy along the southern border.
Gaza
The level of suffering in Gaza has grown in recent years. In 2007 there was a civil war between the two leading Palestinian factions,Fatah and Hamas, which had won parliamentary elections in the area the year before. The brief war ended with the rout of Fatah. Israel, which like the United States considers Hamas a terrorist group, clamped down on the area's borders, restricting access and supplies. Militant groups in Gaza fired rockets at Israeli border towns, with Hamas's approval. In the summer of 2008 a six-month ceasefire was brokered by Egypt. But while the level of rocket fire fell, it never ceased entirely, and Israel made only minor changes in its border policy. When the cease-fire ended on Dec. 19, 2008, Hamas stepped up the firing of rockets and mortars. On Dec. 27, Israel responded with a devastating air and ground campaign that left at least 1,300 Palestinians dead by the time a cease-fire was unilaterally declared by both sides on Jan. 18, 2009. Much of the region's civil infrastructure and many homes were left in ruins.
TIMELINE:
September 2005
The last Israeli troops pour out of the Gaza strip in an overnight withdrawal, marking the end of Israel’s 38-year presence there. After the withdrawal, some criticize Israel for failing to ease restrictions on Palestinian’s movements into and out of the Gaza strip.
January 26, 2006
Following the death of Yasir Arafat, Hamas wins an overwhelming victory in the Palestinian parliamentary elections, ousting the Fatah government, but not Mr. Arafat’s successor, Mahmoud Abbas.
June 13, 2007
Hamas seizes Gaza. In a burst of fighting in which more than 100 people are killed, Hamas gunmen rout the Fatah forces and seize control of Gaza outright.
June 19, 2008
Mutual cease-fire. Israel and Hamas agree to an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire, to last for six months.
November 14, 2008
A shaky truce. Hamas fires a barrage of rockets into southern Israel, and says the attack is revenge for the deaths of 11 militants and the recent increased Israeli closing of Gaza crossings. Both sides accuse the other of breaking the truce.
December 19, 2008
Cease-fire ends. Hamas officially declares an end to the cease-fire, saying the truce would not be renewed because Israel was failing to fulfill its fundamental conditions and obligations.
December 27, 2008
Israel launches a major attack on Hamas targets throughout Gaza in retaliation for heavy rocket fire from the area. More than 200 Palestinians are killed in the Israeli airstrikes.
January 3, 2009
Israeli tanks and troops sweep across the border into Gaza, opening a ground war against Hamas after a week of intense airstrikes.
January 18, 2009
After 22 days of war that killed more than 1,200 Palestinians and 13 Israelis, Israel begins a unilateral cease-fire at 2 a.m. About 12 hours later, Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups in Gaza announced an immediate, week-long cease-fire in the conflict.
January 21, 2009
Israel completes Gaza withdrawal. After more than three weeks of fighting, Israeli troops complete their withdrawal from Gaza, redeploying to the perimeter of the war-battered enclave. Gazan residents report the continued sound of what they say is naval gunfire in the waters of the Mediterranean coastline.
See the New York Times Hamas Timeline
Gaza Strip Information at the New York Times
Links to Gaza Photo Essays by Alexandra Boulat:
- Gaza Tribute to the Women of Beit Hanoun: http://www.viiphoto.com/showstory.php?nID=551
- Gaza Women on the Front Line, http://www.viiphoto.com/showstory.php?nID=556