Crisiswatch Tracking Conflict Worldwide
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Thailand's Red Networks: from Street Forces to Eminent Civil Society
Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Freiburg (Germany) Occasional Paper Series www.southeastasianstudies.uni-freiburg.de Occasional Paper N° 14 (April 2013) Thailand’s Red Networks: From Street Forces to Eminent Civil Society Coalitions Pavin Chachavalpongpun (Kyoto University) Pavin Chachavalpongpun (Kyoto University)* Series Editors Jürgen Rüland, Judith Schlehe, Günther Schulze, Sabine Dabringhaus, Stefan Seitz The emergence of the red shirt coalitions was a result of the development in Thai politics during the past decades. They are the first real mass movement that Thailand has ever produced due to their approach of directly involving the grassroots population while campaigning for a larger political space for the underclass at a national level, thus being projected as a potential danger to the old power structure. The prolonged protests of the red shirt movement has exceeded all expectations and defied all the expressions of contempt against them by the Thai urban elite. This paper argues that the modern Thai political system is best viewed as a place dominated by the elite who were never radically threatened ‘from below’ and that the red shirt movement has been a challenge from bottom-up. Following this argument, it seeks to codify the transforming dynamism of a complicated set of political processes and actors in Thailand, while investigating the rise of the red shirt movement as a catalyst in such transformation. Thailand, Red shirts, Civil Society Organizations, Thaksin Shinawatra, Network Monarchy, United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship, Lèse-majesté Law Please do not quote or cite without permission of the author. Comments are very welcome. Requests and inquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed to the author in the first instance. -
Mapping Threats to Peace and Democracy Worldwide
ISSN: 2600-3457 Mapping threats to peace and democracy worldwide Normandy Index 2021 STUDY EPRS | European Parliamentary Research Service Members' Research Service PE 690.670 – July 2021 EN Mapping threats to peace and democracy worldwide Normandy Index 2021 The 'Normandy Index', now in its third year, aims to measure the level of threats to peace, security and democracy around the world. It was presented for the first time on the occasion of the Normandy Peace Forum in June 2019, as a result of a partnership between the European Parliament and the Region of Normandy. The Index has been designed and prepared by the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS), in conjunction with and on the basis of data provided by the Institute for Economics and Peace. This paper sets out the findings of the 2021 exercise and explains how the Index can be used to compare peace – defined on the basis of a given country's performance against a range of predetermined threats – across countries and regions. It is complemented by 51 individual country case studies, derived from the Index. EPRS | European Parliamentary Research Service AUTHORS Editor: Étienne Bassot Authors: Elena Lazarou and Branislav Stanicek, Members' Research Service Graphics by Nadejda Kresnichka-Nikolchova and Giulio Sabbati This paper has been drawn up by the Members' Research Service, within the Directorate-General for Parliamentary Research Services (EPRS) of the Secretariat of the European Parliament. The underlying data have been supplied by the Institute for Economics and Peace. Naja Bentzen, Enrico D'Ambrogio, Enrique Gómez Ramírez, Gisela Grieger, Issam Hallak, Beatrix Immenkamp, Tania Latici, Philippe Perchoc, Eric Pichon, Jakub Przetacznik, Martin Russell and Ionel Zamfir drafted case studies in this edition of the Normandy Index. -
Thailand White Paper
THE BANGKOK MASSACRES: A CALL FOR ACCOUNTABILITY ―A White Paper by Amsterdam & Peroff LLP EXECUTIVE SUMMARY For four years, the people of Thailand have been the victims of a systematic and unrelenting assault on their most fundamental right — the right to self-determination through genuine elections based on the will of the people. The assault against democracy was launched with the planning and execution of a military coup d’état in 2006. In collaboration with members of the Privy Council, Thai military generals overthrew the popularly elected, democratic government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, whose Thai Rak Thai party had won three consecutive national elections in 2001, 2005 and 2006. The 2006 military coup marked the beginning of an attempt to restore the hegemony of Thailand’s old moneyed elites, military generals, high-ranking civil servants, and royal advisors (the “Establishment”) through the annihilation of an electoral force that had come to present a major, historical challenge to their power. The regime put in place by the coup hijacked the institutions of government, dissolved Thai Rak Thai and banned its leaders from political participation for five years. When the successor to Thai Rak Thai managed to win the next national election in late 2007, an ad hoc court consisting of judges hand-picked by the coup-makers dissolved that party as well, allowing Abhisit Vejjajiva’s rise to the Prime Minister’s office. Abhisit’s administration, however, has since been forced to impose an array of repressive measures to maintain its illegitimate grip and quash the democratic movement that sprung up as a reaction to the 2006 military coup as well as the 2008 “judicial coups.” Among other things, the government blocked some 50,000 web sites, shut down the opposition’s satellite television station, and incarcerated a record number of people under Thailand’s infamous lèse-majesté legislation and the equally draconian Computer Crimes Act. -
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“PM STANDS ON HIS CRIPPLED LEGITINACY“ Wandah Waenawea CONCEPTS Political legitimacy:1 The foundation of such governmental power as is exercised both with a consciousness on the government’s part that it has a right to govern and with some recognition by the governed of that right. Political power:2 Is a type of power held by a group in a society which allows administration of some or all of public resources, including labor, and wealth. There are many ways to obtain possession of such power. Demonstration:3 Is a form of nonviolent action by groups of people in favor of a political or other cause, normally consisting of walking in a march and a meeting (rally) to hear speakers. Actions such as blockades and sit-ins may also be referred to as demonstrations. A political rally or protest Red shirt: The term5inology and the symbol of protester (The government of Abbhisit Wejjajiva). 1 Sternberger, Dolf “Legitimacy” in International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (ed. D.L. Sills) Vol. 9 (p. 244) New York: Macmillan, 1968 2 I.C. MacMillan (1978) Strategy Formulation: political concepts, St Paul, MN, West Publishing; 3 Oxford English Dictionary Volume 1 | Number 1 | January-June 2013 15 Yellow shirt: The terminology and the symbol of protester (The government of Thaksin Shinawat). Political crisis:4 Is any unstable and dangerous social situation regarding economic, military, personal, political, or societal affairs, especially one involving an impending abrupt change. More loosely, it is a term meaning ‘a testing time’ or ‘emergency event. CHAPTER I A. Background Since 2008, there has been an ongoing political crisis in Thailand in form of a conflict between thePeople’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) and the People’s Power Party (PPP) governments of Prime Ministers Samak Sundaravej and Somchai Wongsawat, respectively, and later between the Democrat Party government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and the National United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD). -
The Trump-Russia Collusion Case
The Trump-Russia Collusion Case Updated to August 2020 Source: http://www.scaruffi.com/politics/trumptraitor.html For those who have been following this page for a while: my main target is not Trump, my target is Putin. Putin, not Trump, is the most dangerous person in the world. Trump is just a lackey, a small-time crook and bit-time liar whom Putin is using to attack the USA. The problem is not that there is no evidence of Trump-Putin collusion, the problem is that there is too much of it. I have added some background about the motive of Russia's interference in US politics. In my opinion, it was not only a general attempt at undermining US institutions (that came later) but originally it was a determined effort to make sure that Hillary Clinton did not become president. Putin feared her more than anyone else. For those who have NOT followed this page from the beginning: this website was one of the first to talk about the Trump-Russia collusion at a time when few dared mention the Steele dossier. Just to be very clear: this is not about whether Russia's interference changed the results of the election (i personally think that the FBI investigation into Clinton's email server had a much bigger impact). It is about Putin's strategy to attack the USA, and, secondly, it is about the extent of Trump's collaboration with Putin. And, just to be fair, Putin's Russia is not the only country that ever interfered in US politics. -
Looters Vs. Traitors: the Muqawama (“Resistance”) Narrative, and Its Detractors, in Contemporary Mauritania Elemine Ould Mohamed Baba and Francisco Freire
Looters vs. Traitors: The Muqawama (“Resistance”) Narrative, and its Detractors, in Contemporary Mauritania Elemine Ould Mohamed Baba and Francisco Freire Abstract: Since 2012, when broadcasting licenses were granted to various private television and radio stations in Mauritania, the controversy around the Battle of Um Tounsi (and Mauritania’s colonial past more generally) has grown substantially. One of the results of this unprecedented level of media freedom has been the prop- agation of views defending the Mauritanian resistance (muqawama in Arabic) to French colonization. On the one hand, verbal and written accounts have emerged which paint certain groups and actors as French colonial power sympathizers. At the same time, various online publications have responded by seriously questioning the very existence of a structured resistance to colonization. This article, drawing pre- dominantly on local sources, highlights the importance of this controversy in study- ing the western Saharan region social model and its contemporary uses. African Studies Review, Volume 63, Number 2 (June 2020), pp. 258– 280 Elemine Ould Mohamed Baba is Professor of History and Sociolinguistics at the University of Nouakchott, Mauritania (Ph.D. University of Provence (Aix- Marseille I); Fulbright Scholar resident at Northwestern University 2012–2013), and a Senior Research Consultant at the CAPSAHARA project (ERC-2016- StG-716467). E-mail: [email protected] Francisco Freire is an Anthropologist (Ph.D. Universidade Nova de Lisboa 2009) at CRIA–NOVA FCSH (Lisbon, Portugal). He is the Principal Investigator of the European Research Council funded project CAPSAHARA: Critical Approaches to Politics, Social Activism and Islamic Militancy in the Western Saharan Region (ERC-2016-StG-716467). -
Country Travel Risk Summaries
COUNTRY RISK SUMMARIES Powered by FocusPoint International, Inc. Report for Week Ending September 19, 2021 Latest Updates: Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, India, Israel, Mali, Mexico, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Turkey, Ukraine and Yemen. ▪ Afghanistan: On September 14, thousands held a protest in Kandahar during afternoon hours local time to denounce a Taliban decision to evict residents in Firqa area. No further details were immediately available. ▪ Burkina Faso: On September 13, at least four people were killed and several others ijured after suspected Islamist militants ambushed a gendarme patrol escorting mining workers between Sakoani and Matiacoali in Est Region. Several gendarmes were missing following the attack. ▪ Cameroon: On September 14, at least seven soldiers were killed in clashes with separatist fighters in kikaikelaki, Northwest region. Another two soldiers were killed in an ambush in Chounghi on September 11. ▪ India: On September 16, at least six people were killed, including one each in Kendrapara and Subarnapur districts, and around 20,522 others evacuated, while 7,500 houses were damaged across Odisha state over the last three days, due to floods triggered by heavy rainfall. Disaster teams were sent to Balasore, Bhadrak and Kendrapara districts. Further floods were expected along the Mahanadi River and its tributaries. ▪ Israel: On September 13, at least two people were injured after being stabbed near Jerusalem Central Bus Station during afternoon hours local time. No further details were immediately available, but the assailant was shot dead by security forces. ▪ Mali: On September 13, at least five government soldiers and three Islamist militants were killed in clashes near Manidje in Kolongo commune, Macina cercle, Segou region, during morning hours local time. -
Les Assassinats Et Tentatives De Meurtres Visant Les Opposants Tchétchènes Dans Les Pays Européens Depuis 2009 FEDERATION DE
FEDERATION DE RUSSIE 30 mai 2020 Les assassinats et tentatives de meurtres visant les opposants Tchétchènes dans les pays européens depuis 2009 Avertissement Ce document a été élaboré par la Division de l’Information, de la Documentation et des Recherches de l’Ofpra en vue de fournir des informations utiles à l’examen des demandes de protection internationale. Il ne prétend pas faire le traitement exhaustif de la problématique, ni apporter de preuves concluantes quant au fondement d’une demande de protection internationale particulière. Il ne doit pas être considéré comme une position officielle de l’Ofpra ou des autorités françaises. Ce document, rédigé conformément aux lignes directrices communes à l’Union européenne pour le traitement de l’information sur le pays d’origine (avril 2008) [cf. https://www.ofpra.gouv.fr/sites/default/files/atoms/files/lignes_directrices_europeennes.pdf ], se veut impartial et se fonde principalement sur des renseignements puisés dans des sources qui sont à la disposition du public. Toutes les sources utilisées sont référencées. Elles ont été sélectionnées avec un souci constant de recouper les informations. Le fait qu’un événement, une personne ou une organisation déterminée ne soit pas mentionné(e) dans la présente production ne préjuge pas de son inexistence. La reproduction ou diffusion du document n’est pas autorisée, à l’exception d’un usage personnel, sauf accord de l’Ofpra en vertu de l’article L. 335-3 du code de la propriété intellectuelle. Fédération de Russie : Les assassinats et tentatives de meurtres visant les opposants Tchétchènes dans les pays européens depuis 2009 Table des matières Introduction ...................................................................................................... -
LEBANON 25 Years After PARALLEL Beijing: Women REPORT 2020 Fighting Inequality
LEBANON 25 Years after PARALLEL Beijing: Women REPORT 2020 Fighting Inequality in Lebanon Report prepared by: Zeina Abdel Khalik Assistant Researcher: Oday Naji Contents Preface .................................................................................................................................................... 2 Executive summary .................................................................................................................................. 3 Historical Overview ................................................................................................................................. 7 Acronyms ................................................................................................................................................ 9 Report overview ..................................................................................................................................... 10 Methodology ......................................................................................................................................... 11 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 13 International Framework ......................................................................................................................... 15 National Laws vs equality ........................................................................................................................ 15 National Machinery -
Civil Affairs Summary Action Report (01 March-20 April 2018)
Civil Affairs Division Reporting Period: 01 March– 20 April 2018 Greater Bahr el Ghazal Actions Sports for peace, Raja, Lol State, 14-16 April Context: The creation of Lol State under the 28 state model, carved out of the areas that were formerly part of Northern and Western Bahr el Ghazal states, has been a source of polarized relations between Fertit and Dinka Malual communities. The Fertit opposed the formation of the new state on the basis that they would be marginalized by the larger Dinka Ma- 7 lual population. 4 Action: Recognizing the significant role youth play in communal con- flict and the importance of leveraging their role toward improved social relations, CAD Aweil FO in partnership with the Lol State Ministry of Information, Culture, Youth and Sports, organised a two-day football tour- nament in Raja, Lol State, to facilitate communal linkages and promote 2 coexistence between Fertit and Dinka Malual. The event featured the par- ticipation of over 60 Fertit youth from Raja, and Dinka Malual youth from Aweil North County (10 women participated). The Acting Governor, Speaker of State Legislative Assembly, Minister of Information, Culture community of NBeG held separate pre-migration conferences with Misser- and Youth, Minister of Education and SPLM commander of the area also iya and Rezeigat pastoralists from Sudan in Wanyjok, Aweil East, and attended the event and urged peaceful coexistence. Nymlal, Lol State, respectively. In both conferences, they reached a num- Impact: The participants expressed hope that the event will open ave- ber of resolutions, which are recognized as binding on the communities. -
Viable Support to Transition and Stability (Vistas) Fy 2016 Annual Report October1, 2015 - September 30, 2016
VIABLE SUPPORT TO TRANSITION AND STABILITY (VISTAS) FY 2016 ANNUAL REPORT OCTOBER1, 2015 - SEPTEMBER 30, 2016 JUNE 2016 This publication was produced for review by the United States Agency for International Development. It was prepared by AECOM. VIABLE SUPPORT TO TRANSITION AND STABILITY (VISTAS) FY 2016 ANNUAL REPORT OCTOBER 1, 2015- SEPTEMBER 30, 2016 Contract No. AID-668-C-13-00004 Submitted to: USAID South Sudan Prepared by: AECOM International Development Prepared for: Office of Transition and Conflict Mitigation (OTCM) USAID South Sudan Mission American Embassy Juba, South Sudan DISCLAIMER: The authors’ views expressed in this document do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Agency for International Development or the United States Government. FY 2016 Annual Report/ Viable Support to Transition and Stability (VISTAS) i TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Executive Summary ................................................................................................................ 1 II. Political and security Landscape ............................................................................................ 2 National Political, Security, and Operational Landscape ........................................................................... 2 Political & Security Landscape in VISTAS Regional Offices ...................................................................... 4 III. Program Strategy.................................................................................................................... 7 IV. Program Highlights -
Breaking the Cycle of Crises in Lebanon
Breaking the Cycle of Crises in Lebanon Grassroots Strategies of De-sectarianization Between 2015 and 2020 Sára Vértes 6854834 Utrecht University 30 July 2020 A Thesis submitted to the Board of Examiners in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts in Conflict Studies and Human Rights Breaking the Cycle of Crises in Lebanon | Sára Vértes Supervisor: Dr Chris van der Borgh Submitted: 30 July 2020 Program trajectory: Internship (15 ECTS) & Thesis (15 ECTS) Word count: 16188 Cover image: AFP (2020, February 5). Roula Abdo’s painted hands parting the wall blocking off the road up to parliament square in downtown Beirut [Photograph]. The National. i Breaking the Cycle of Crises in Lebanon | Sára Vértes ABSTRACT Inspired by the latest anti-establishment protests in Lebanon, this thesis investigates how and why a pattern of non-sectarian movements emerged in the country’s consociational context since 2015. The analysis zooms in on (i) the post-civil war evolution of Lebanon’s political economy and the grievances it exacerbated in citizens, and (ii) the strategies by which the new wave of movements re-negotiate their room for manoeuvre within the Lebanese political structure. In order to illustrate these grassroots strategies, the thesis describes and contrasts the discourse, as well as the concrete actions of two non-sectarian movements. First, a ‘civil society’ political coalition titled Kollouna Watani is introduced that challenged the established elites by competing in Lebanon’s 2018 general elections. Second, the mass protest movement starting in October 2019 is examined which demanded structural reforms in the country’s sectarian power-sharing order.