AMSTERDAM — Is it possible that NATO, probably the mightiest, certainly the wealthiest, military alliance the world has even seen, could leave Afghanistan defeated by the Taliban, a band of religious fanatics with an ideology harking back to the 7th century? During two days of talks just completed in the Dutch resort of Noordwijk along the North Sea coast, defense ministers from NATO countries discussed the future of the mission in Afghanistan in tones that betrayed a sense of urgency bordering on despair. In the Netherlands, whose troops are fighting in the most dangerous region of Afghanistan, the mission is [...]
In March, Kurt Pelda, Africa Bureau Chief of the Swiss daily the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), traveled to eastern Chad on the border with the Sudanese crisis region of Darfur: a trip that was documented in a diary published in English on World Politics Review and that would see him eventually turning back from the border due to inadequate security conditions. Last week, Pelda returned to the region and crossed the border into Darfur, where he is now accompanying a Darfur rebel group. His daily dispatches on his journey are being published in German on the NZZ Online here. Starting [...]
CONGOLESE WARLORD IN THE DOCK — Democratic Republic of Congo general and former militia leader Germain Katanga made his first appearance in front of the International Criminal Court at The Hague Oct. 22, where he will face nine counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Katanga, also known as Simba, stands accused of — among other things — organizing the massacre of 200 civilians, conscripting children for use as soldiers and sexually enslaving survivors of the brutal attack on the village of Bogoro in February 2003. “The victims of these crimes deserve to see justice for their suffering,” Param-Preet [...]
