I don’t normally cover stories like these on IC, but for the sake of relevance I thought I should. First, the commereration, neigh, celebration of Jamestown’s 400th anniversary:

“Fifty years on, we are now in a position to reflect more candidly on the Jamestown legacy”. At this place “Three great civilizations came together for the first time — Western European, native American and African…” or rather the Christians, the Savages, and the indentured servants. Absolutely incredible. Read the Queen’s speech here

From Reuters: “We’re celebrating 400 years of survival in …

GUATEMALA: no justice for genocide and state terrorism of recent past from www.rightsaction.org, April 1, 2007

Below, a Prensa Libre article about the genocide and state terrorism of the past.

No justice has been done for the genocide and terrorism of the past, that left over 250,000 (mainly impoverished and Mayan) people dead; that forcibly displaced 1,000,000.

BUSINESS AS USUAL: The “international community” (notably: governments of USA and Canada, World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank, global resource extraction companies, …, that all had extensive relations with the genocidal regimes of the past) have extensive on-going economic and military-security dealings with the …

Rwanda releases genocide prisoners
From Reuters
February 20, 2007

KIGALI, RWANDA — Eight thousand prisoners accused of involvement in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide were released Monday, prompting anger from survivors who fear new ethnic killings.

Rwanda’s prisons have been overflowing with thousands of inmates, some convicted and others awaiting trial in the slayings of an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates by Hutu extremists.

“The group that has been released excludes key masterminds of the genocide,” said Rwanda’s chief prosecutor, Martin Ngoga.

Since a 2003 provisional release decreed by President Paul Kagame, the tiny Central African nation has freed up to 60,000 genocide suspects, including the sick, …

The other African genocide.
by James Kirchick, TNR Online
March 8, 2007

Less than ten miles from Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s mansion in Harare–the largest private residence on the African continent–Cleophus Masxigora digs for mice. On a good day, he told me, he can find 100 to 200. To capture the vermin, he burns brush to immobilize them, then kills them with several thumps of a shovel. This practice has become so widespread in Zimbabwe that, as a Zimbabwean journalist informed me, state-run television has broadcast warnings against citizens setting brush fires. Masxigora began hunting mice to support (and feed) his wife …

Supporting Genocide In West Papua
from www.heathlander.wordpress.com
March 4, 2007

note by Ahni - the following is slightly skimmed-down version of the original article, which can be found here.

“Since Indonesia gained control of West Papua, the West Papuan people have suffered persistent and horrible abuses at the hands of the government. The Indonesian military and security forces have engaged in widespread violence and extrajudicial killings in West Papua. They have subjected Papuan men and women to acts of torture, disappearance, rape, and sexual violence, thus causing serious bodily and mental harm. Systematic resource exploitation, the destruction of Papuan resources and …

Bosnia: “genocide creation” apologizes for genocide - almost
from ww4report.com
March 2, 2007

The Bosnian Serb Republic issued a formal apology Feb. 28 for crimes committed in the 1992-5 civil war, and especially the Srebrenica massacre. But the statement stopped short of using the word “genocide.” (Jurnalo, Germany, Feb. 28) Meanwhile, Sarajevo Univeristy and the International University of Sarajevo shut their doors in a one-day strike March 2 in protest of the World Court’s acquittal of Serbia on genocide charges. International University spokesman Emir Hadzikadunic said the positions of both the World Court and the Serb Republic were hypocritical. “Everyone …

Hunted Like Animals is an eye-opening documentary about an ongoing, but unknown, genocide - against the Hmong people in the jungles of Laos. Coerced into joining the CIA’s anti-communist efforts during the Viet Nam war, this ethnic minority became a Secret Army. When the U.S. pulled out of Southeast Asia in 1975 and the Lao kingdom was overthrown by the communists, the Hmong became targets of retaliation and persecution.

Hundreds of thousands fled the country; others ran to remote mountainous regions of Laos. Over thirty years and two generations later, the Hmong in hiding are still mercilessly hunted, attacked, raped, …

The following is a transcript of part 1/3 from a new audio documentary entitled Hoping Against Hope: The Struggle Against Colonialism in Canada.

For details of the documentary or to download the full transcript, please see here - and, if you’d like to read a review of the documentary, please see this page on dominionpaper.ca

Part One - Colonization and the Killing of History

Welcome to Hoping Against Hope? The Struggle Against Colonialism in Canada, a three-part series produced by Praxis Media Productions and the Nova Scotia Public Interest Research Group. This is the first installment, Colonization and the Killing of …

From October 12-15, 2006, the First ever Border Social Forum (BSF) was held in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. At the conclusion of the BSF, the following declaration was issued:

Ciudad Juarez Declaration
Border Social Forum
Assembly of Border Social Movements
Final Declaration
Ciudad Juárez, México • October 15, 2006

We the women, men, youth, Indigenous Peoples and Nations, social organizations, unions, farmers, promoters of human rights and defenders of environmental justice in the border states of Mexico and the United States, and many more, have gathered in this border space to assert our will to do away with borders.

We are part of the formidable force …

By Richard Seymour. Rwanda’s Genocide and the Myth of Western Non-Intervention

The officially sanctioned gesture, when reminded of Rwanda, is to shake one’s head and say “Never Again”. What do you mean “Never Again”? The murder hasn’t stopped – it has slowed down and moved to another country. The murder of up to one million people in 100 days stands out and understandably rivets the attention to that horrendous period in April 1994. What is more, we have a confession from the Hutu leader Kambanda, currently being held in Mali, that there was a plan to exterminate the Tutsis, and that …