He ran for his life now he's running for gold

My piece on the South Sudanese Olympic marathon runner Guor Marial

IRIN Africa | SOUTH SUDAN: He once ran for his life; now he’s running for gold | South Sudan | Conflict | Refugees/IDPs

New prosecutor for the ICC

Here's a piece I wrote for IRIN on Fatou Bensouda.

IRIN Global | GLOBAL: New ICC prosecutor vows to focus on victims | DRC | Global | Kenya | Libya | Conflict | Governance | Human Rights

Reparations for Lubanga victims

Motorcycles, school fees, counselling, cash: Thomas Lubanga’s `kadogo’ (child soldiers) know what reparations they want from the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Less clear is what a cash-strapped court can offer damaged children taken from their families and forced to fight in a brutal ethnic conflict in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

This is a piece I wrote for IRIN on the thorny issue of reparations.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report/95257/DRC-Thorny-issue-of-reparations-for-Lubanga-s-victims

It was also reprinted by the Guardian in the UK.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/apr/12/congo-reparations-lubanga-child-soldiers

Shameless self promotion

Good for a chuckle - and to hear some high speed talking from me.

My musings on media in South Sudan in an interview I did last week with Radio France International.

http://www.english.rfi.fr/africa/20120324-media-south-sudan

Invisible Children

I'm really not sure about this Kony 2012 video. There is zero context and it doesn't even try to explain the current situation with the LRA. Particularly disliked the implication that the war is still ongoing in northern Uganda simply because it was too complicated (not really!) to explain the LRA are now in neighbouring countries and in tiny numbers (less than 200) and that Uganda is at peace and has been for several years. Obviously this has major implications for the film's solution to the problem - the Ugandan army (itself accused of terrible human rights abuses against civilians) should arrest Joseph Kony. How will they do that if he is in the DRC, as he seems to be at the moment, and the Congolese government won't let the Ugandans in?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-news-blog/2012/mar/07/kony-2012-video-viral-invisible-children

Arrest warrant issued for Abdel Raheem Muhammad Hussein

The warrant for the Sudanese defence minister covers crimes in Darfur which is all the ICC is allowed to investigate under its mandate from the UN Security Council.

But what about the bombings in South Kordofan targeting the Nuba people and the incursions into Abyei last year which also happened on his watch? Seems like there is nothing the ICC can do about that.

http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL5E8E19WJ20120301

The Lubanga verdict at last

The big day is March 14th.

http://www.icc-cpi.int/NR/exeres/8044AED7-D927-4746-AA82-7E650025F9D7.htm 

Ocampo’s crusades tainted the idea of international justice

A gloomy assessment in Canada's Globe & Mail of Luis Moreno Ocampo's time as prosecutor.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/doug-saunders/ocampos-crusades-tainted-the-idea-of-international-justice/article2349318/