The founder of France's far-right, National Front part, Le Pen, was found guilty of condoning war crimes on Thursday, and given a suspended jail sentence of three months and a fine. In 2005, Le Pen had remarked that the Nazi occupation of France during the second world war, “not been particularly inhumane, even if there were blunders.”
A referendum by ethnic Serbs in the north of Kosovo have rejected rule by the Kosovo authority in Pristina. Kosovo Serb election officials said 99.7% of voters rejected rule by the ethnic Albanian majority. Serbs in the north of Kosovo have obstructed attempts by the Kosovo government to establish authority in the region and have rejected attempts by NATO forces to implement law and order. The Kosovo government denonunced the referendum saying it "does not produce any legally and politically binding effect and as such is not valid". Serbian President Boris Tadic was also critical of the...
The trial of the former Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic has been delayed until May 14th to allow the defence team more time to prepare and analyse thousands of pages of evidence. The UN backed war crimes court had initially planned to the case of Mladic, nicknamed the “Butch of Bosnia”, on the 27th of March. The 68-year-old defendant faces 11 charges of war crimes and two counts of genocide, for his role in Bosnia’s 1992-1995 war. In December the number of crimes in the indictment against Mladic was reduced from 196 to 106 due to Mladic’s ailing health. He is being charged with...
The Iranian oil ministry has denied state media reports claiming it has ended exports to various EU countries in response to an EU oil embargo. Press TV, an Iranian channel recently banned in the UK by Ofcom, claimed exports to the Netherlands, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain were cancelled. The EU imposed an oil embargo on Iran last month, but it will only come into effect in July, due to the reliance of several EU states on Iranian oil. Oil prices rose after Press TV’s report, but the European Commission said it would not make a difference as member states were already switching...
“On top of this, we must end any illusion the regime has that it can act with impunity in Syria. There is no doubt that mass murder is being committed. Some 6,000 people have already been sacrificed to the regime's brutal determination to cling to power. Those carrying out these crimes may well think that they will get away with it. However that is what Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, the architects of the blood-soaked siege of Sarajevo, probably thought; or Slobodan Milosevic when he presided over ethnic cleansing in Kosovo and Bosnia; or Charles Taylor when he committed his crimes in...
Thousands of protesters marched through the streets of Bahrain's capital, Manama, to mark the one-year anniversary of pro-democracy uprisings. Protesters gathered around Pearl Square, now commonly referred to as 'Freedom Square', the epicentre of last year's demonstrations, and vowed to fight on. Riot police and security forces tried to curtail the protests using tear gas, after the government warned of a zero-tolerance approach to any such anti-government activity. Over 60 people are believed to have died since the protests started and there have been numerous accounts of protesters being...
The Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has told reporters that China will not protect Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria. The statement, which marks a significant change in tone since vetoing a UN resolution condemning the crackdown on opposition activists, is thought to be a move designed to limit damage after widespread criticism of its perceived protection of the Syrian state. Mr Jiabao addressed reporters after talks with EU officials in Beijing. Speaking alongside European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, Jiabao insisted China was...
An EU official has announced the approval of a $128m aid package for Burma to develop the country’s infrastructure, in a sign of further easing of sanctions placed on the state. Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said the package would be for improving the country’s health, education and basic infrastructure. Piebalgs suggested that more sanctions will be lifted if elections, scheduled to be held in April, are free and fair. "There is concern [on the government side] that they've made reforms, they released political prisoners, they opened up, but the sanctions are still in place," Mr...
The UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, criticised the Security Council for failing to agree on "collective action", which she said "appears to have emboldened the Syrian government. Addressing UN delegates in New York Monday, Pillay said, "The failure of the Security Council to agree on firm collective action appears to have emboldened the Syrian government to plan an all out assault in an effort to crush resistance with overwhelming force ." "I am particularly appalled by the ongoing violence in Homs." "We are certain that the number of dead and injured continues to rise...
In commemoration of the 22nd anniversary of Nelson Mandela's release from jail, Mandela's image will be printed on five new South African bank notes — 10, 20, 50, 100 and 200 rand. Announcing the news, current president, Jacob Zuma, said, “It is my honour and pleasure to announce that new South African banknotes will bear the image of President Mandela, the first President of a free, democratic South Africa." “It is a befitting tribute to a man who became a symbol of this country’s struggle for freedom, human rights and democracy." “With this humble gesture, we are expressing our deep gratitude as the South African people, to a life spent in service of the people of this country and in the cause of humanity worldwide.” The notes will feature an image of Mandela taken in 1990, the year of his release. In 1962, Mandela was arrested and convicted of sabotage, along with other crimes, and sentenced to life in prison. A front-line anti-apartheid campaigner within the African National Congress (ANC), Mandela was one of the forming members and subsequent leader of the ANC's military wing - MK or Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation). The ANC was outlawed as an unlawful organisation in 1960, and was until 2008, on the United States' terrorism watch list , along side Nelson Mandela and other ANC members. In 1964, during his trial, Mandela defended the actions of the ANC and the justification for the actions of Umkhonto we Sizwe, in a speech - 'An ideal for which I am prepared to die'. See here for speech in full and original recording. Extracts reproduced below: "Some of the things so far told to the court are true and some are untrue. I do not, however, deny that I planned sabotage. I did not plan it in a spirit of recklessness, nor because I have any love of violence. I planned it as a result of a calm and sober assessment of the political situation that had arisen after many years of tyranny, exploitation, and oppression of my people by the whites."