Diplomacy & Crisis News

Recent releases on Richard Holbrooke, America’s hidden empire, and the untold story of Chernobyl.

More than 200 have been killed and hundreds injured by a series of explosions inside churches and hotels in Sri Lanka, as Christians gathered for services to celebrate Easter. In a statement, UN chief António Guterres said he was "outraged by the terror attacks" and called for the perpetrators to be "swiftly brought to justice".

An improvised roadside mine which exploded hitting a UN peacekeeping convoy in Mali, killing one ‘blue helmet’ from Egypt, and wounding four others, may constitute a war crime, the UN Chief said on Saturday, as senior UN officials condemned the blast. 

A low-cost, tiny home that provides everything you need. A boat made of recycled plastic and flip-flops. Vaccine-delivery drones… As the planet marks World Creativity and Innovation Day on Sunday, we’ve selected our favorite ideas to light up the way to a better future for all, across several sectors.

Si bon nombre de responsables du désastre sanitaire de l'amiante tentent de se faire oublier, certains ne se gênent pas pour réapparaître dans des lieux inattendus : à Bordeaux, un défenseur de l'utilisation de l'amiante — le professeur Patrick Brochard — dirige le suivi médical des personnes qu'il a (...) / Santé, Science, Travail - 2002/04 Puissance nue

The UN has condemned an attack on an Ebola treatment centre in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Friday, which led to the death of a doctor working for the World Health Organization (WHO), and injured two others. 

Les leçons devraient être tirées du scandale de l'amiante, symbole de ce système libéral où des industriels ont laissé des dizaines de milliers de personnes respirer ce poison, avec l'appui de scientifiques et des gouvernements. Il aura fallu des années de bataille pour que les victimes obtiennent (...) / France, Justice, Santé, Société, Travail - 2002/04 Puissance nue

More than 305,000 children in Mozambique are losing out on lessons at school since the devastating floods caused by Cyclone Idai, which struck southeast Africa just over a month ago. 

« On savait que le procès de Milosevic serait difficile, mais qui aurait pu imaginer que son début se transformerait en une telle débâcle pour le Tribunal pénal international (TPIY) de La Haye ? » Ce jugement de Stojan Cerovic, journaliste de l'hebdomadaire Vreme , bien connu à Belgrade pour son (...) / Balkans, Kosovo, République fédérale de Yougoslavie 1992-2003, Droit, Serbie, Bosnie-Herzégovine, Croatie, Guerre du Kosovo 1999, Justice internationale - 2002/04 Puissance nue

Shipan Kumer Basu, President of the World Hindu Struggle Committee, calls for the end of the repression of Hindu and other minority cultures within Bangladesh.  

The Bengal region, which is located in a certain region of India and Bangladesh today, used to be entirely part of India until the area was divided politically by the British.   Under the British, Muslim East Bengal and the Assam Province (present-Day Bangladesh) were divided from the Hindu-majority area of Bengal Pradesh, which is located in today’s India.   Following the colonial partition of the country into India, East and West Pakistan, the Hindus became a minority community in East and West Pakistan, where they faced intense oppression from the Muslim majority. 

The partition of India in 1947 was a very bloody conflict for both the Muslims and the Hindus. Several hundred thousand people were killed, at least 75,000 women were raped, 83,000 women were abducted, many non-Muslims were forcefully converted to Islam and 12 million people became refugees.  While the Muslims also suffered during the partition of India, at least today, the Muslims who live in India enjoy democratic rights. Sadly, this is not the case for the Hindus of the Bengal region, who are still living in the shadow of the Noakhali Riots of 1946 and the Great Calcutta Killings, as the persecution of the Hindu community did not end with the partition of India.

 Later on, during the Liberation War of 1971, Pakistani soldiers massacred Hindu men and raped their women en masse.   Many people in Bangladesh consider what the Pakistani Army did to the Hindus and other non-Pakistani peoples of the Bengal region to be genocide.  However, while many across the globe believe that the oppression ended with the Pakistani occupation, this is not the case.  Following Bangladeshi independence, numerous Hindus continue to flee to India from Bangladesh due to the murder, rape and forceful conversions of their people that never came to an end, despite the end of Pakistani rule over the region.  In fact, according to Shipan Kumer Basu, the President of the World Hindu Struggle Committee, within the past year, 107 Hindus were murdered, 25 Hindus women were raped and 235 Hindu temples were vandalized in Bangladesh.  

To this day, Basu claims that the Islamists in Bangladesh view Bengali culture to be equivalent to Hindu culture and based on this inherent belief, they have begun a process of replacing Bengali words with Arabic and Urdu words in order to “purify the language” of its non-Muslim heritage.  In addition, he added that Islamist groups such as Jamaat e-Islam, Hefajat e-Islam, Olamama and the Islami Movement are now demanding the elimination of Hindu writers from the school system and their replacement with Muslim writers.  He claims that both BNP leader Khaleda Zia and Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina are trying to transform the country into an Islamic state and are cooperating with these Islamist groups in their quest to purge Hindu culture from the country.   

Mendi Safadi, who heads the Safadi Center for International Diplomacy, Research, Public Relations and Human Rights, has condemned the oppression of the indigenous Bengali culture in Bangladesh and stressed that the State of Israel always stands beside the Hindu people in their hour of need.    Furthermore, Bangladeshi human rights activist Aslam Chowdhury added that it is critical for all Muslims to stand in solidarity with the oppressed Hindu minority of Bangladesh and to work in order to preserve the indigenous Bengali heritage, even if it is not Muslim. 

As Dr. Martin Luther King once stated, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”   For this reason, respecting minority cultures is of utmost importance to the historic preservation of nations throughout the world.   Just as America would not be the same without having a respect for Hispanic, Native American, African American, Asian American, Jewish American and Muslim American culture, the preservation of Bangladesh also requires respecting the Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and indigenous heritage of the nation.  In the name of preserving Hindu and other minority cultures in Bangladesh, Basu calls upon the international community to pressure his government to end the repression of Hindu culture within Bangladesh.   

The post Op-Ed: The repression of Bangladesh’s indigenous culture appeared first on Foreign Policy Blogs.

In and around Tripoli, an increasing number of children are “at imminent risk of injury or death” two senior United Nations officials warned on Thursday, citing a surge of aggression in crisis-torn Libya.

Thursday’s top news includes: A new report on the dangerous impact of stressful working conditions; the need to decongest Al Hol camp in Syria; a US$2 million allocation from the UN’s emergency fund to ramp up the humanitarian response in Libya; human rights concerns over a mass terrorism trial in Bahrain; and 6,000 children reunited with their parents and caregivers in South Sudan.

Help is needed urgently from the international community to help some 2,500 apparently stateless “foreign children” at a camp for the displaced, in north-east Syria, a top UN official said on Thursday.

Amid a surge in outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) announced on Thursday a new social media campaign, emphasizing that “vaccines are safe, and they save lives”.

Lorsqu'on fait le compte des politiques de la gauche, la longue colonne du débit inclut une donnée, la montée du racisme. Celle-ci, d'un seul coup, ou presque, exprime le solde de tous les échecs : une politique économique libérale qui charrie la déshérence sociale et accélère le repli identitaire ; un (...) / Immigrés, Capitalisme, Racisme, Marxisme, Extrême gauche, Idées - 1992/04

A contingent of 530 Ugandan “Blue Helmets” (63 women, 467 men) is playing a crucial role in the United Nations’ efforts to help bring peace and stability to Somalia. They make up the United Nations Guard Unit (UNGU, that is tasked with protecting UN compounds in Mogadishu in order to assist the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) and the United Nations Support Office in Somalia (UNSOS) to carry out their mandate. 

Economistes et futurologues décrivent en termes d'accélération les changements intervenus dans le cycle de vie des produits, dans la circulation des choses, le déplacement des hommes et la diffusion des informations. Les réseaux de télécommunications ont indiscutablement favorisé cette accélération du (...) / Technologies de l'information, Mutation, Information, Technologie - 1991/05

Stress, excessively-long working hours and disease, contribute to the deaths of nearly 2.8 million workers every year, while an additional 374 million people get injured or fall ill because of their jobs, the UN labour agency, ILO, said on Thursday.

At the top of the news agenda on Wednesday: updates on violence in Sudan’s Darfur and in Libya, how e-waste can become an employment opportunity, help for the 2 million affected by floods in Iran, and efforts to make the internet safer for children.

Heavy shelling overnight on Tuesday which hit a densely-populated neighbourhood of Libya’s capital, Tripoli, was condemned “in the strongest terms” by the head of the UN Mission there, after “scores” of civilians were reportedly killed and injured.