The United Nations Security Council unanimously passed a resolution calling for sanctions to be placed on M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The passing of Resolution 2076, which was drafted by France, comes after rebels stormed Goma, the capital city of North Kivu province, despite UN combat helicopters assisting DRC forces. The statement from the Security Council "demands the immediate withdrawal of the M23 from Goma, the cessation of any further advances by the M23 and that its members immediately and permanently disband and lay down their arms". While Rwanda was not directly...
The Kazakh government has moved towards a ban on the two opposition movements and media outlets supportive of the opposition, reported Reuters on Wednesday. The leader of the Alga! party, Vladimir Kozlov, was jailed for seven-and-a-half years last month for an attempt to lead protesting workers to topple the government. A spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office said that both movements propagated extremism. "Kozlov's sentence established that the activity of the unregistered Alga! and Halyk Maidany movements, as well as the activity of a number of mass media outlets, was extremist," said...
After eight days of conflict, a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas took hold late on Wednesday evening, although distrust and singular attacks continued after the truce took effect at 9pm. The deal has momentarily suspended the Israeli threat of a ground invasion of Gaza after bombing and rocket fire left 162 Gazans, including 37 children, and 5 Israelis dead. Talking to a news conference in Cairo, exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said: "If Israel complies, we are compliant. If it does not comply, our hands are on the trigger," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had...
The surviving gunman of the 2008 Mumbai attacks was hanged in secret, the Indian government confirmed on Wednesday. According to the Home Minister of Maharashtra, R.R. Patil, he was executed at 07:30am local time on Tuesday, after being moved in secret to Yerwada jail in Pune a few hours prior. Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, a 25-year-old Pakistani, said to belong to the Lashkar-e-Taiba group was convicted over a year ago for his part in the attacks that killed 160 people. In August, India's Supreme Court upheld his sentence of the death penalty, and earlier this month, President Mukherjee rejected a...
The British Foreign Secretary William Hague has announced that the UK has recognised the National Coalition of the Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces as the “sole legitimate representative” of the Syrian people and that it is a “credible” alternative to the current regime. "It is strongly in the interests of Syria, of the wider region and of the United Kingdom that we support them and deny space to extremist groups," he said to MPs. "A credible alternative to the Assad regime is emerging that has the growing support of the Arab League, the European Union, the United States and an...
Kosovo’s supreme court has ruled that a former rebel commander, now a senior politician and close ally of the Prime Minister, must face a retrial for war crimes six months after the case against him collapsed. Fatmir Limaj, a senior commander with the Kosovo Liberation Army, was accused of torturing and killing Serbian prisoners in the Kosovan village of Klecka in 1999. The case collapsed however, after a key witness, fellow KLA fighter Agim Zogaj who was under witness protection in Germany, was found hanging from a tree in September 2011, in an apparent case of suicide. The court have now...
The former Chief Prosecutor at the Hague has criticised the release of two Croatian generals by the war crimes court, stating that it was “not justice”. Speaking to the Serbian tabloid Blic, Del Ponte said she was “shocked” by their acquittal , adding , "I was very surprised and stupefied. It is completely incredible what happened after the sentence of 24 years in prison for Gotovina. Unbelievable. I cannot accept it. I feel full solidarity with the Serb victims of the crime. The crime, that we backed up with hard evidence." "The Serbian government and Serbs cannot accept such a verdict, and...
Farc declared a two month unilateral ceasefire on Monday in Havana, Cuba, following landmark talks between Farc and the Colombian government . Ivan Marquez, Farc's negotiator, said that they would halt all attacks from midnight on Monday, till 20th January. The government's top negotiator, Humberto de la Calle, had previously said that Farc must agree to disarm, and that the army would continue fighting Farc till a peace deal was signed. There has been no response as yet on the unilateral ceasefire.
While fighting intensifies in the Congolese city of Goma, the Democratic Republic of Congo has out-ruled the prospect of negotiations with rebel group M23, dismissing the proposals as ‘blackmail’ from a Rwandan-backed group. Speaking to the Associated Press, government spokesman Lambert Mende said: “We refuse to enter into negotiations with M23. Because it’s Rwanda, not the M23, that is responsible. If Goma falls, it’s going to create a whole other set of problems. We refuse systematically to speak to them (M23). Because if we do, it would be a way to wash away Rwanda’s responsibility.” See...
A district court in Denmark has upheld a decision from the Danish Ministry of Justice to extradite a man to Rwanda, where he faces charges of genocide. The 50-year-old unnamed suspect was unable to prove to the court that he would not face a fair trial in Rwanda and now faces extradition back to the country. He has appealed against the decision. Rwandan authorities requested the suspect’s removal in 2008 or demanded that Danish authorities prosecute him themselves. Since no genocide law had existed in Denmark at the time, the man was indicted for murder, charges that he still faces, depending...