Episodes
Monday Jan 20, 2014
Monday Jan 20, 2014
If observers in the West naively believed that severing South Sudan from its northern counterpart would resolve the human rights situation there, the events of the last several weeks will have decisively dashed those hopes.
The major fighting erupted on December 15 of last year when South Sudan Presisdent Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar of launching a coup d’etat against him. Machar denied the charge.[2]
A faction of the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA/M) had broken off and engaged in fighting against the main army under Kiir’s control.[3]
The fighting has begun to align itself with different tribal factions – the Dinka, which Kiir represents, and the Nuer, which Machar represents.[4]
As this program is being aired, peace talks between the two warring factions continue in Addis Ababa in neighbouring Ethiopia.
The toll on the people of South Sudan has been devastating. UN Human Rights monitor Ivan Simonovic has disclosed that there are human rights atrocities being committed by both sides in the conflict, which include mass and extra-judicial killings, arbitrary detention, sexual violence and the use of child soldiers.[5]
As of January 14, one month into the conflict, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that 413,000 people have been internally displaced by the fighting with 74,000 having fled to neighbouring countries such as Uganda.[6]
The International Crisis Group estimated a death toll of close to 10,000. [7]
The Global Research News Hour takes a closer look at the conflict and its historical and geo-political under-pinnings with two Africa watchers.
Ann Garrison is an independent journalist and broadcaster who has focused in recent years on war and resource extraction issues on the African Continent. A contributor to KPFA in Berkeley, California, she had a chance to interview Mobiar Garang de Mobiar, a negotiator for the opposition in the South Sudan peace talks in Addis Ababa. Garrison has also written for the San Francisco Bay View, the San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Focus, Macworld, Macweek, the Op-Ed News, and Pambazuka News among other publications. She is also an occasional contributor to Global Research.
Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya is a geo-political analyst and the award-winning author of The Globalization of NATO (Clarity Press). He is Research Associate at the Centre for Research on Globalization.
Monday Jan 13, 2014
Global Research News Hour - 01/13/14
Monday Jan 13, 2014
Monday Jan 13, 2014
Refusing to Fight: Canadians Supporting US War Deserters
Canada: A Refuge from Militarism?
January 2014 marks the ten year anniversary since Jeremy Hinzman, US soldier with the 82nd Airborne Division, having deserted his battalion, crossed the border into Canada and sought refuge from a war he could not legally or morally participate in.
In so doing, he became the first modern day US War Resister to seek asylum in Canada.
Others followed.
Brandon Hughey, David Sanders, Joshua Key, Kim Rivera, and ultimately more than two dozen others followed suit. All publicly declared their conscientious opposition to the US war agenda, particularly the conflict in Iraq.
This is not including the more than one hundred who may have crossed over unacknowledged.
Given the unpopularity of the Iraq War, especially in Canada, one would think there would be significant support for these military personnel who sacrificed their careers, their families and their reputations for an unknown future in a foreign country.
However, the experience of today’s war resisters indicates otherwise.
The current Conservative government in Canada seems anything but accommodating of US military deserters, regardless of the questionable legality of the conflicts they were ordered to participate in.
Tuesday Jan 07, 2014
Global Research News Hour - 01/07/13
Tuesday Jan 07, 2014
Tuesday Jan 07, 2014
The Global Research News Hour starts the new year off with a retrospective on important international stories of 2013 ignored by the mainstream media.
As noted elsewhere on this site, 2013 has been marked by spreading environmental degradation, economic uncertainty, and increased military tensions.
Tuesday Dec 31, 2013
Global Research News Hour - Chris Hedges - 12/30/13
Tuesday Dec 31, 2013
Tuesday Dec 31, 2013
On this, the holiday edition of the Global Research News Hour, we present a talk by Chris Hedges.