NANNING, China — A huge sign strung across the entrance to a trade exhibition center in the southwest Chinese city of Nanning blandly says “10+1=11.” But behind this uninspiring piece of sloganeering, and in and around this provincial capital, more exciting things have been happening. The Philippines’ President Gloria Arroyo went for a cruise on the Li River, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong popped up to Sichuan and received a bottled gourd for happiness and prosperity, and deals worth $600 million were signed between Chinese companies and several Southeast Asian countries. There have also been some amusing asides in [...]
CARTAGENA, Colombia — Every day, around 860 people are internally displaced in Colombia. In the last 10 months, over 11,000 people have been forced to flee their homes, according to The Consultancy for Human Rights and Displacement (Codhes), a Colombian NGO that monitors displacement. There are glaring discrepancies between government and NGO displacement figures. But with an estimated 2 to 3.6 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), Colombia is home to the highest number of IDPs in the western hemisphere and has the second largest displaced population in the world, after Sudan. The crisis is a forgotten emergency that receives scant [...]
NAIROBI, Kenya — A global consensus is now emerging about the necessity for laws that will support and encourage, rather than stifle, the growing role of private, professional combatants and peace support personnel in conflict zones. But in Africa and elsewhere, the growing role of such private forces has been met with caution and relative hostility. In November, an international gathering will take place under the auspices of the Swiss government and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent (ICRC) to drum up international support for positive regulation of private military and security companies. Emanuela-Chiara Gillard, an ICRC legal advisor, [...]
