Honduras coup succeeded

So, Honduras held an election and the US will recognize it. This might seem to be a good conclusion, but think about what this means in terms of the structure of power in Honduras–suppose the elected president does something that the military doesn’t like, what will they do? This episode tells them that if they overthrow [...]

US

The US had said that they were against the coup in Honduras, but they aren’t showing they care all that much. It is now less than two weeks until the election, Zelaya is still not back in power, and yet the US is hinting that they will support the election. This type of show is good [...]

Honduras resolution

It seems there is now an agreement to end the coup in Honduras. A couple places have translations for the agreement. Here’s one (for a slightly different one, go here):
The accord contains the following points:
1– The creation of a government of unity and national reconciliation
2– Rejection of amnesty for political crimes, and delay of criminal [...]

The NRA and arms treaties

So, the UN is trying to write a law to help prevent illegal arms transfers. The main purpose is to try to stop the flow of arms to private armies in mostly lawless countries like Somalia and the DR Congo and to stop arms from getting to regimes like Zimbabwe that use them against their [...]

Sri Lanka

I haven’t talked about Sri Lanka for a while, mainly because there has been almost nothing in the news here. Looking around at the news by other countries, I catch glimpses that show the government is still not acting well. From a British newspaper, I see that Sri Lanka may be about to lose a [...]

More DR Congo

The DR Congo is back in the news, put there by a joint report by 84 humanitarian and human rights groups. It’s not pretty:
“The human rights and humanitarian consequences of the current military operation are simply disastrous,” said Marcel Stoessel of Oxfam. “UN peacekeepers, who have a mandate to protect civilians, urgently need to work [...]

Not a good week

The natural disasters in Asia are sobering:

a typhoon killed hundreds in the Philippines (at least 240) before moving into southeast Asia and killing tens in Vietnam (at least 41 and at least 10 in Cambodia) before the weakened storm headed into Laos.
scores were killed in Samoa and American Samoa (at least 154) when a 8.0 level earthquake triggered [...]

Yet more on Honduras

Let’s look at a typical editorial basically supporting the coup in Honduras and compare it to the facts presented here:
He was removed from office three months ago in circumstances of doubtful legality. Both the Supreme Court and the Congress had demanded his removal for “repeated violations of the constitution and the law,” but the way [...]

Zelaya back in Honduras

Deposed President Zelaya has appeared back in Honduras (in the Brazilian embassy–no one is sure how he got there (well, he must know)). Obviously this changes the situation. It’s a tough situation, but this statement is not helpful:
“Everyone has been working hard to reach a peaceful resolution to this crisis,” said a senior State Department [...]

US moves on Honduran coup

It’s taken quite awhile, but Secretary of State Clinton has announced that about $22 million in aid to Honduras has been revoked (or $35 million?). By itself, this isn’t very strong (the aid had already been suspended) but this was added:
The State Department also announced that it was revoking the visas of several people who had [...]

Women of the world

The New York Times Magazine has a really good article about how aid to women might help to reduce poverty and violence:
Our interviews and perusal of the data available suggest that the poorest families in the world spend approximately 10 times as much (20 percent of their incomes on average) on a combination of alcohol, [...]

More DR Congo

It’s been a while since I’ve looked at the Congo. Back then it looked like things might be looking up, but not anymore. The number of women and men being raped is still going up and 500,000 people have been displaced by the combined Rwanda/Congo forces that were supposed to bring calm.
Secretary of State Clinton seems [...]

Karzai signs law that makes women second class

The updating of the infamous law for Shia women has now been published and thus is law. Human Rights Watch talks about it here:
A copy of the final law seen by Human Rights Watch shows that many regressive articles remain, which strip away women’s rights that are enshrined in Afghanistan’s constitution. The law gives a husband the [...]

Karzai and women

I found this bit in Afghanistan President Karzai’s speech about Afghanis held in American detention camps to be funny:
“The Afghan people are happy because you have paved roads, built schools, and the salaries of the government are paid by the international community and United States,’’ he told the crowd in a field before a mosque. [...]

Sri Lanka after the civil war

At the end of the Sri Lankan civil war, I wondered if the government would treat the Tamils well. The answer so far is no:
Hundreds of thousands of Tamils remain locked in camps almost entirely off limits to journalists, human rights investigators and political leaders. The Sri Lankan government says that the people in the [...]

Problems in Afghanistan

Back in March, Afghanistan passed a rule that severely restricted the rights of Shia women but a huge international outcry forced President Karzai to say he would rewrite it. The new version is out and it seems it’s not much better:

The changes, which are not yet approved by Parliament, would delete sections that said a woman [...]

Senator DeMint a bit confused

Last night Senator DeMint at the National Press Club:
 Part of what we’re trying to do in “Saving Freedom” is just show that where we are, we’re about where Germany was before World War II where they became a social democracy. You still had votes but the votes were just power grabs like you see in [...]

Honduras, Iran, and Iraq

A few updates:

The situation in Honduras is still confused with some in the government still insisting that it was not a coup:

Roberto Micheletti, the veteran congressional leader who was sworn in by his fellow lawmakers on Sunday to replace Mr. Zelaya, seemed to plead with the world to understand that Mr. Zelaya’s arrest by the army [...]

Coup in Honduras

I’m with Hilzoy, I’m confused about what’s going on in Honduras:
Mr. Zelaya’s ouster capped a showdown with other branches of government over his efforts to lift presidential term limits in a referendum that was to have taken place Sunday. Critics said the vote was part of an illegal attempt by Mr. Zelaya to defy the [...]

Civil war over in Sri Lanka

The Tamil rebels in Sri Lanka have been defeated and its leaders have been killed. This is a good thing, the LTTE was a terrorist organization that cared more for its leaders than their supposed cause. Whether this is a very good thing will depend on what happens now, will the grievances of the Tamils be [...]