• A new American initiative to improve the notoriously poor LGBT rights in sub-Saharan Africa is reportedly inspiring a large backlash. Sub-Saharan Africa is marked by widespread homophobia as well as chronic dependence on foreign aid, in particular from the US, and the idea that the two issues might now be linked seems…

• A lawyers group claim that police arrested a carpenter on Wednesday who questioned whether Zimbabwe’s President still had the strength to blow up balloons at his 88^th birthday celebrations, under a law making it an offense to insult the President.
• The top UN envoy to Libya expressed…

• Experts say the increasing trend of illicit financial flows are posing a great threat to Africa’s fragile growth as they pump back more dollars to developed countries than those send to poor African states.
• The Open Society Media Program released background papers earlier this month on Mapping Digital…

• The West African Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP) has just launched a new book on election management in West Africa.
• The African Union Chairman announced on Saturday he will visit some of the continent’s conflict areas including Sudan, South Sudan, Mali and Libya for…

• The UN and Interpol discussedtransnational organized crime in West Africa, including illicit drug trafficking and the proliferation of illegal arms, as well maritime piracy in Lyon, France on Monday.
• An anti-homosexuality bill is being once again resurrected by the Parliament in Uganda with…

• The West African Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP) will be launching its new book, “Election Dispute Management Practice Guide for West Africa” on February 14^th, 2012 at the Grand Mensvic Hotel, in East Legon, Accra, Ghana at 9am. The keynote speech at the launch will be delivered by Sierra Leone’s Chair of the Electoral…

• The African Union summit in Addis Ababa ended in deadlock after the group failed to chose a new chairman for the executive commission. A new election was then scheduled to be held in June or July, though they managed to elect President Boni Yayi of Benin as the new…

Published in Conflict Trends Journal. The full article in PDF format can be found at this link:

http://www.brookings.edu/articles/2011/1231_libya_sharqieh.aspx

Imperatives for Post-Conflict Reconstruction in Libya

Ibrahim Sharqieh

Having endured for four decades the political system of Jamahiriya,…

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=28254

The Globalization of War

The "Military Roadmap" to World War III



Michel Chossudovsky and Finian Cunningham (Editors)





December…

Hello, hope all is well!

This week’s conflict reports will be a little thinner than usual, as I have been feeling a bit under the weather the last couple days and haven’t been reading as extensively as normal. Please be sure to add anything I have missed in the comments below or send via email to apeaceofconflict@gmail.com.

Thanks!

Rebecca

• The New…

• Transparency International’s new report concluded that police forces in eastern Africa are perceived as the most corrupt body among the six institutions surveyed; the police, judiciary, customs, registry and permit services, land services, medical services, tax revenue, utilities and education systems. According to the report, 54% of people surveyed reported to have paid a bribe in the past year.
• The…

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Libyan rebels investigate Qaddafi son for murder of soccer player

By James M. Dorsey

Libya's rebel Transition National Council (TNC) is investigating ousted Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi"s soccer-playing son, Al Saadi Al Qaddafi,for the 2005 killing of national team player and coach Basheer Al-Ryani.

The investigation, announced by rebel…

http://www.granma.cu/ingles/reflections-i/26sept-40Reflex1a.html

Reflections of Fidel

(Taken from…

Dear All,

Please find below a selection of articles published by TransConflict during September. To read all TransConflict's analysis from throughout the month, please click here.

- Kosovo – KFOR-EULEX violence and a…

Dear All,

TransConflict is pleased to present the following analysis on post-war reconstruction in Libya, written by Savo Heleta, a member of TransConflict’s Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Advisory Board:

- Post-Gaddafi Libya – a liberal peace project - despite Western policy-makers insisting that…

Winners and losers in Libya: Western companies win, Chinese lose

By James M. Dorsey

The winners and losers in the competition for post-Qaddafi reconstruction contracts are starting to emerge as rebel officials turn their attention to rebuilding their nation’s severely damaged oil industry even as they are posed to attack the former Libyan leader’s last remaining…

Sunday, September 4, 2011

China scores fatal own goals in competition for post-Qaddafi Libya

By James M. Dorsey

China has scored two near fatal own goals in the race for influence and lucrative contracts in oil-rich post-Qaddafi Libya.

A document disclosed this weekend testifies to China preparing to supply as late as July weapons in violation of United Nations sanctions…

September 2, 2011

Jan Oberg, dr.hc., peace researcher


Director of TFF, The Transnational Foundation in Sweden


www.transnational.org

Manuscript finished on August 15, i.e. a few days before the Libyan rebels moved into Tripoli

Part II - What Should Have Been Done Before the NATO/US Decision to Bomb? 

The following is…

September 2, 2011

Jan Oberg, dr.hc., peace researcher


Director of TFF, The Transnational Foundation in Sweden


www.transnational.org

Manuscript finished on August 15, i.e. a few days before the Libyan rebels moved into Tripoli

Part I - Prologue: What we should have learned by now



It is a safe assumption that people in general neither like…