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Congo’s likely ‘descent into chaos’ could have been avoided
December 8, 2011
It was on Friday evening, on my way to the airport that word came over Okapi Radio that Jacques Djoli, the vice president of CENI, the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s election commission, would announce the preliminary results from three provinces. When he declared that incumbent President Joseph Kabila had won Equateur, Bas Congo and Bandundu by wide margins, we were stunned. All the credible reports we had received from civil society sources suggested the exact opposite: only Bandundu should have been too close to call and Etienne Tshisekedi should have been leading by a wide margin in Bas Congo. It was clear that Kabila and his allies were stealing the election with the complicity of the commission.
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Eastern Congo Initiative Statement on Elections in Congo
December 2, 2011
The Congolese people went to the polls this week to elect a new president and a new parliament. Early indications are that the turnout was generally high with polling booths remaining open for up to two days after official closing time on November 28th. Eastern Congo Initiative (ECI) witnessed a high level of participation in the voting and celebrates that, in spite of great odds, election day was largely peaceful in the east of the country.
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The Start of Voting in Congo
November 28, 2011
This blog post is the first in a series by several leading analysts on Congo who the Museum has invited to contribute their thoughts, news, and observations regarding potential threats to civilians during Congo's elections and the potentially tumultuous period following the vote. The views expressed are the authors'.
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Long-Awaited Trials Begin in Cambodia
November 21, 2011
A few hours outside of Cambodia’s capital, 58-year-old Taing Kim, a delicate woman who spent several years as a nun, lives in a gray concrete house in the middle of a quiet village amid a sea of rice paddies. She settled in Kampong Chhnang nearly 30 years ago and makes her living by farming and selling firewood. She was married in 1980 but says her husband left her when he learned of her past.
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Museum Launches “Mladic Files” Documenting War Crimes Trial of Ratko Mladic
October 26, 2011
The Museum has launched “The Mladic Files,” a multimedia website providing reporting and analysis of the upcoming trial of Ratko Mladic in The Hague.
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Technical Issues Threaten Free, Fair, and Transparent Elections in Congo
October 14, 2011
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is scheduled to hold presidential and parliamentary elections on November 28, 2011. These elections could to lead to opportunities for peace, stability and growth—or plummet the country back into economic, political, and social upheaval.
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What I’ve Learned: Tom Buergenthal’s Lucky Childhood
October 14, 2011
Thomas Buergenthal, a Holocaust survivor and the American judge on the International Court of Justice in The Hague from 2000 to 2010, recently sat down with Michael Abramowitz, Director of the Museum’s Committee on Conscience, for an interview.
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Museum Welcomes Presidential Action on Genocide
August 4, 2011
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum today welcomed the White House announcement of a new presidential directive aimed at strengthening the U.S. government’s ability to prevent genocide and mass atrocities.
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The World’s Newest Nation: The Republic of South Sudan
July 13, 2011
The world’s newest nation—the Republic of South Sudan—was born July 9 amidst parades, speeches, and banquets attended by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, the Crown Prince of Norway, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, 29 other heads of state, and some 200,000 to 300,000 South Sudanese. I had the privilege of attending the ceremonies as a guest of the South Sudanese government. As I sat in the reviewing stand with others in the 95-degree heat, listening to 13 speeches of congratulations and the reading of the new nation’s Declaration of Independence, I had time to reflect on the extraordinary cost of creating this new republic. Four million Southern Sudanese lost their lives in two civil wars spread out over 49 years, with some of the most horrific atrocities—committed by the North against the South—in recent human rights history.
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The 16th Anniversary of the Genocide at Srebrenica
July 11, 2011
Monday, July 11, 2011 marks the sixteen-year anniversary of the fall of Srebrenica. During the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, Srebrenica was one of a few lone Bosniak holdouts in the east. Completely surrounded by Bosnian Serb forces, the town was declared a safe haven in 1993, to be protected and disarmed by United Nations soldiers.
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Find information on historical cases of genocide and other atrocities.