Stories about War & Conflict from July, 2010
Georgia: Frozen conflicts, frozen happiness
With a little over a week to go before the second anniversary of the short war fought between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway territory of South Ossetia, Evolutsia turns its attention to another one of the country's two frozen conflicts, Abkhazia.
Wikileaks’ Japan data on Afghanistan
Richard Smart at the Tokyo Digital Journalism blog posted a summarized list of Wikileaks’ Japan data on Afghanistan. Raw data can be found on his blog.
Palestine: A Possibility of Military Conscription?
The Hamas government's Interior Minister, Fathi Hammad, earlier this week announced that he was considering expanding Gaza's military force, initially with volunteers and eventually with conscripts. Bloggers in Gaza have reacted with astonishment to the idea.
Vietnam: Agent Orange at Danang Airbase
Thuy Vu of Vietnam Reporting Project visited the Danang Airbase where Agent Orange was stored. Agent Orange is the highly toxic herbicide used by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War
Pakistan: Wikileaks Documents And Corrective Actions
Raza Rumi at Pak Tea House analyzes the disclosure of Wikileaks documents on Afghan war and opines that the civil-military leadership of Pakistan should take corrective actions against the extremists within Pakistan.
Chile: Mapuche on Hunger Strike over Anti-terror Law
On July 12, 2010, fourteen Mapuche indigenous detainees began a hunger strike to denounce the Chilean State’s treatment of Mapuche communities in southern Chile. The strike is aimed mainly at ending the use of Chile’s Anti-terrorism Law against Mapuche prisoners, a Pinochet-era decree widely used during the seventeen years of the Pinochet dictatorship.
Serbia, Kosovo: Another View on ICJ's Ruling
The Greater Surbiton writes that “the ICJ’s ruling on Kosovo sets a precedent that is dangerous only for tyrants and ethnic cleansers.” (More views are here and here.)
The Balkans: Regional Lottery vs Nationalism
Belgraded writes about the planned revival of “the one big regional lottery” in the former Yugoslavia and does not “miss the opportunity to point out just how stupid nationalism is.”
Afghan Bloggers on Wikileaks War Logs
Afghan bloggers writing in Dari appear to be relatively quiet in the aftermath of the leaked military reports posted on Wikileaks. Here are reactions from two Afghan bloggers.
Georgia: Presidential faux pax
The Tbilisi Blues comments on the latest gaffe by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili when he called his prime minister a term considered politically incorrect in the West. The blog says that it is surprised at how many people have reacted to the remarks so strongly given that even losing a...
Armenia-Azerbaijan: Border
This is cinemelo comments on Border, a 2009 film from director Harutyun Khachatryan. Ostensibly a tale of life in rural Armenia, the blog says that the most telling images come from barbed wire fences which illustrate the filmmaker's connection with his country and his hatred of the war and closed...
Armenia: Doubts about reported suicide in the Army
Unzipped comments on news that a contract officer in the Armenian army has been reported dead. With mistreatment in the military common and of concern to human rights groups, the blog does not appear to believe the official story that Artak Nazaryan committed suicide and directs readers to a Facebook...
Pakistan: Bollywood Movie On Laden Banned In Pakistan
“The Bollywood movie, ‘Tere Bin Laden’ (Without You, Laden), has been banned in Pakistan because it caricatures Osama Bin Laden”, informs Sonya Rehman.
China: Sino-North Korean relations
With an incident-free Invincible Spirit wrapping up today, don't miss this post from Sinologistical Violoncellist‘s Adam Cathcart looking at some of the dynamics in the relationship between China and North Korea.
Armenia: Eating a way to peace
Ianyan says that food might represent the path to peace for cultures that place such significance in it. Referring to an Armenian bakery in the U.S.-Armenian Diaspora as well as responses to a recent guest entry on Armenian-Azerbaijani relations in the context of the still unresolved conflict over Nagorno Karabakh,...
Serbia, Kosovo: More on ICJ's Ruling
More commentary on the ICJ's opinion on Kosovo's independence – at A Fistful of Euros, Belgraded, Gray Falcon, and Jamestown Foundation Blog (a GV translation on the subject is here).
Pakistan: In Damage Control Mode After WikiLeaks
Effendi at The Spittoon comments: “the Pakistan government has gone into damage control mode after the evidence of the ISI’s involvement in Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan was exposed and confirmed on WikiLeaks.”
Iraq: Going Back to America
Ice Cold, from the Kirkuk Air Base in Iraq, tweets: “It's official… we're here in Irq another 4 more weeks… Nothing cam be finer than gettin’ back to Carolina!!!”
Liveblog of global reactions to Wikileaks Afghanistan war logs
More than 90,000 classified U.S. military documents about the war in Afghanistan have been leaked. As an experiment, we are using Google Wave to live blog global blog and citizen media reactions to the war logs (#warlogs) made public today by Wikileaks, Der Spiegel, New York Times and The Guardian.
Honduras: Criminal Rule
Aaron Ortiz is critical of the government's approach to fighting crime, and shares his sister's experience: “Just last night, armed robbers broke into my sister’s house and pointed a gun at my nephew and niece. My brother in law, and his mother arrived minutes later and were also robbed.”
Moldova: Solving the Transnistria problem
Morning in Moldova comments on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's proposal to solve Moldova's Transnistria problem.
