Peace & Justice

Photo: Rwandan millionaire financier Felicien Kabuga arrested in France. Source: The New Times Rwanda.

On the Run Rwanda Genocide Suspect Nabbed in French Hideout

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Twenty-six years after financing the Rwandan genocide, wealthy businessman and most wanted fugitive, Felicien Kabuga, was nabbed in an upscale French hideout.

It was a relief for prosecutors of the Rwandan Genocide tribunal who feared the 84-year-old Kabuga could die a free man. He stands accused of masterminding the slaughter of 800,000 Rwandans, mainly minority Tutsis but also political opponents among the Hutus, over a period of 100 days, from April to July 1994, in a murderous campaign of ethnic violence.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 26 May 2020

Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Namaste Trump rally in Ahmedabad, India on 24 February 2020. (Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks).

India Pivots to The United States to Balance China

Viewpoint by C Raja Mohan

The writer is Director of the Institute of South Asian Studies at The National University of Singapore. This article first appeared on EastAsiaForum on 19 May 2020. A longer version is available in the most recent edition of East Asia Forum Quarterly, ‘Middle Power Game’, Vol. 12 No. 1.

SINGAPORE (IDN) – At a time when much of Asia is reconciling itself to the regional dominance of China and increasing political distance from the United States, India is going the other way — moving into an ever-closer partnership with the United States and making a more intensive effort to balance China in the Indo-Pacific.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 25 May 2020

Photo: In July of 1971, Premier Zhou Enlai met with Henry Kissinger, the National Security Advisor to U.S. President, who was on a secret mission to China. Both sides made a public announcement that the U.S. President Richard Nixon would be invited to visit China soon. Credit: china.org.cn

China Abandons the Strategy of Persuasion and Compromise

Viewpoint by Vijay Gokhale

This article by a former Foreign Secretary of India and a former Ambassador to China first appeared on The Hindu on 20 March 2020. It is republished because of an insider's view of the changing nature of China's diplomacy characterised by unilateralism and a one-size-fits-all approach. "China, post-COVID-19, will be operating in a very different external environment."

TORONTO (IDN) – If U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt believed that if you “speak softly and carry a big stick: you will go far”, half a century later and many thousands of miles away, another man practised it. His name was Zhou Enlai.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 24 May 2020

Image: Virus on a decreasing curve. Source: www.hec.edu/en

COVID Crisis Has Shone A Spotlight on Long-Festering Inequality

The Future Is Wide Open

Viewpoint by Nathan Gardels, The World Post

The author is WorldPost co-founder and editor in chief. This article appeared first on THEWORLDPOST* on 23 May 2020 and is being republished in view of its forward-looking approach.

BERLIN (IDN) – The first real-time global pandemic has so broken the inertia of old ways that the future has rarely seemed so open. The slate is nearly wiped clean. The decisions we take now are thus immensely consequential because they will shape the times to come for the rest of the century and beyond.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 23 May 2020

Photo: Donald Trump poses with Xi Jinping for a photo after a joint press conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in 2017. Source: IndiaTVNews

U.S. Attacks on China Threaten World Peace

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – The world is supposed to be pulling together to defeat the Coronavirus and to some extent it is. Earlier on Russia sent special equipment to the U.S. and recently the U.S. has sent some to Russia. China has aided Italy and Africa with doctors and equipment. Tiny Cuba, with its deep pool of doctors, has also helped Africa.

Around the world there is a sense of "we are all in this together" and that this is a bigger problem than the ones the world has faced since World War II. The last two days the World Health Organization (WHO) has brought all the world’s countries together to discuss how to go forward.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 19 May 2020

Photo: Children fill their cups at a water point built by UNICEF at Kanyosha III primary school in Bujumbura, Burundi. Credit: UNICEF/UNI180029/Colfs

Traditional Polls Will Test Africa's Resistance to COVID-19

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Africa's infection rates are still relatively low to the wonderment of some in the western world who predicted infection rates in the billions. In fact, African governments in many cases took preventative steps – from closing borders, social distancing, shutting educational institutions and banning mass gatherings.

By April 19, the Africa CDC reported that 34 countries had gone further and brought in night-time curfews or partial lockdowns. Eleven brought in rules requiring people to wear face masks in public.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 18 May 2020

Eritrean Refugees Sue EU for Abetting Forced Labour Back Home

By Dion De Vries*

BRUSSELS (IDN) – A Dutch Foundation of Eritrean refugees, Foundation Human Rights for Eritreans, has filed a lawsuit in the Amsterdam court against the European Union (EU) for its role in financing a road building project in Eritrea that uses forced labour. The Netherlands is host to many Eritrean migrants and pays toward the project as a member of the EU. The Foundation, together with their Dutch Lawyer Emiel Jurjens, demand the EU stops the 80 million euro support to Eritrea.

: Europe Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Reduced Inequalities; 18 May 2020

Photo: Members of CNDD-FDD rebel forces surrender their weapons and ammunition to United Nations Operation in Burundi (ONUB) peacekeepers in Mbanda, southern Burundi. 03 February 2005. UN Photo/Martine Perret.

Burundi Threatens to Deal a Severe Blow to UN Reputation

Viewpoint by Paula Donovan and Stephen Lewis

Paula Donovan and Stephen Lewis are Co-Directors of AIDS-Free World and its Code Blue Campaign, which seeks to end impunity for sexual offences by UN personnel.

NEW YORK (IDN) – It is a matter of extreme urgency that Burundi's presidential, legislative, and local elections, scheduled for May 20, be postponed. Admittedly, it's the eleventh hour, but the contagion of violence, and the viral contagion of COVID-19, make rescheduling imperative.

Three events of the past several days make an incontrovertible argument:

: UN Bureau; THE WORLD; Africa; 16 May 2020

Photo: Religious leaders in an online meeting. Credit: UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

UN Chief Appeals to 'Common Humanity' Across All Faiths to Tackle COVID-19

By UN News

NEW YORK (IDN) – Our shared vulnerability to the coronavirus pandemic reveals “our common humanity”, UN Secretary-General António Guterres told religious leaders in an online meeting to discuss the role they can play in limiting the damage caused by COVID-19.

Speaking during the meeting on May 12, Guterres said “it lays bare our responsibility to promote solidarity as the foundation of our response – a solidarity based on the human rights and human dignity of all … and it highlights the crucial role of religious leaders in your communities and beyond.”

: UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 13 May 2020

Photo: Veterans in a letter called for Putin to "take a difficult but, as we see it, fair decision to hold the military parade on another date". Putin has meanwhile agreed to defer the military parade. Credit: Sergei Kiselyov/Moskva News Agency

Russia's Victory in WWII Changed the World but War Drums Continue

Viewpoint by Somar Wijayadasa*

NEW YORK (IDN) – On May 9, 1945, after four years of violent battles inside Russia, recorded as the bloodiest and most destructive military conflict in the whole history of humanity, the Russians defeated Nazi Germany in World War II. It is the single most important day in Russian history that elicits a strong feeling of pride and patriotic fervour that binds the nation together.

However, due to the coronavirus pandemic Russia's President Vladimir Putin had to postpone the massive military parade through Red Square. Postponing the event, Putin said, "On Victory Day, we honour the heroes who defended the country and the rest of the world and sacrificed their lives to protect others".