Uruguayan and Brazilian peacekeepers. U.N. photo.

Guatemala
A former general and veteran of Guatemala’s civil war placed first — but did not secure a majority — in the first round of presidential elections Sunday. According to reports, Otto Perez Molina of the conservative Patriotic Party placed ahead of business executive Manuel Baldizon and is expected to beat him again in a second round come November. Molina has benefited from identifying himself strongly with mano dura (or iron fist) politics as a means to fight criminals. Baldizon, also conservative, is likewise a strong proponent of tough-on-crime measures, but has differentiated himself from Molina through economic populism.

There’s a reason mano dura can be smart politics — to a point. Guatemala is one of the most dangerous countries in Latin America and crime is getting worse. As a prime transit zone for drugs traveling from South America to Mexico and then into the United States, the country has been flooded with drug money, bases for narcotics and armed gangsters like the Zetas. “The main challenge for whoever wins may be building confidence in a state described by Guatemalans as a caricature, a failure, a shame or nonexistent,” reported The New York Times, adding that in the northern city of Coban, where drug violence is endemic, “many residents said that any attempted solution from the government, including a stronger military, would either never happen, or be blunted by the rich or criminals.”

Paraguay
Brazilian federal police and Paraguayan marines apparently engaged in a firefight with each other along the two countries’ border last week. There are conflicting accounts on both sides regarding what happened, exactly, but it seems to have involved confusion in heavy fog (one theory), or even possible collusion between elements of the Paraguayan military and drug traffickers.

Sometime Friday evening, a Brazilian police patrol boat attempted to seize two boats loaded with illegal drugs moving toward Brazilian territory along the Parana River, which comprises a section of the Brazil-Paraguay border. Paraguayan marines on the opposite shore then allegedly directed “high-caliber fire” at the police, which prompted the police to return fire at the Paraguayans. The smugglers slipped back into Paraguay during the forty-minute firefight, which was witnessed by hundreds of civilians at the nearby Friendship Bridge border crossing.

The Paraguayan military denies its forces were involved. However, given the depth of smuggling along the tri-border area of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay plus a history of “criminal links between military officials in Paraguay and organized crime,” analysts suggest the firefight could mark a data point in criminal infiltration of the Paraguayan military, and could potentially complicate Brazil’s security plans before the 2014 World Cup.

Haiti
A new round of clashes between demonstrators and U.N. peacekeepers erupted on Wednesday following allegations five Uruguayan soldiers kidnapped and raped a Haitian man last month. Video of the assault filmed by the soldiers was later leaked to a reporter and distributed on the internet. “The soldiers — they accept their guilt,” Major General Luiz Ramos said, the Brazilian commander of MINUSTAH, the U.N.’s Haiti peacekeeping contingent. “It’s unacceptable behaviour, of course. I’d like to mention that as Force Commander. It’s not exactly what you expect from peacekeepers.”

Uruguayan President Jose Mujica apologized for the soldiers’ “criminal and embarrassing” behavior. The assault aggravated tensions between Haitians and the U.N. force, who are treated by a not-insignificant section of the public as unwanted occupiers. The country experienced unrest late last year after a major cholera outbreak was traced back to Nepalese troops.

The Uruguayan soldiers in this case were arrested and repatriated and their battalion commander sacked. “Under the UN’s Zero Tolerance Policy for sexual abuse, the peacekeepers were repatriated after a quick investigation.  That’s the way it is supposed to work,” Mark Leon Goldberg wrote at U.N. Dispatch.  ”The problem now is that there is absolutely no way for the UN to guarantee that the accused will be properly investigated and prosecuted by Uruguayan authorities.”

Gaddafi supporters. Sipa Press photo.

Una Moore at U.N. Dispatch warns of reprisal killings:

U.N. Security Resolution 1973 authorizes members states to take “all measures necessary to protect civilians” in Libya. Right now, the rebel forces are battling to survive in the face on the Libyan military’s onslaught, but what will be the fate of non-revolutionary civilians and prisoners of war if foreign intervention not only halts the advance of Gaddafi’s forces but also allows the rebels to retake ground? In answering this question, the international community needs to break from the bloody mistakes of past interventions.

Reprisal killings and displacement usually follow victory by one side in a civil war over its opponents, with the victorious force or its supporters attacking civilians viewed, whether correctly of not, as the favored constituency of the ousted or soon-to-be-ousted regime. Neither the United States nor its usual allies have shown much willingness to stop these crimes during successive interventions (think: Serbs and Roma in Kosovo, Pashtuns in northern Afghanistan, and Baghdad resident of all sects).

This time should be different. The intervening parties in Libya should make it clear to the rebels that no amount of revenge violence against civilian supporters of the Gaddafi regime, or loyalist tribes, or foreign migrant workers or any other group will be tolerated.

Rebels. AP photo.

“The tide of Libya’s revolt-turned-civil-war has turned against the rebels,” writes Una Moore at U.N. Dispatch. Gaddafi loyalists backed up by tanks, aircraft and rocket artillery captured the central Libyan oil port of Ras Lanuf on Friday then moved a further 77 miles east, taking the oil terminal of Brega. In western Libya, loyalists devastated the city of Zawiya. If the loyalists can maintain their momentum, they will be poised to attack the strategic city of Ajadbiya and then be on to Benghazi. That’s a big if, however, on a battlefield with intense logistics pressures and a historical record of rapid advances and retreats.

Still, Gaddafi has tanks and air power. And the rebels? Not so much. Abu Ray at The Arabist blog — expanding on a Spanish journalist’s comparison of the Libyan war with Spain’s own civil war — wrote: “Benghazi in this scenario becomes civil war Barcelona, with an exuberant explosion of revolutionary thinking and fervor that is eventually crushed under the boot of the fascist armies after it turns out enthusiasm doesn’t beat out lots of equipment on the front.”

And although Gaddafi would be easily beaten by a U.S. or NATO opponent, the alliance has been reluctant to intervene. Now there is indication rebels are angry at the lack of action.

Moore asks:

At what point might the U.S. or NATO decide to carry out a military intervention in Libya? My guess is, when we see a combination of at least two of the following conditions:

Gaddafi’s forces carry out a massacre large enough to shock the global conscience –something akin to a Libyan Srebrenica, or a re-enactment of the fall of Mazar Sharif to the Taliban in 1998.

The Arab League endorses outside military intervention.

The U.N. Security Council authorizes an intervention.

The Europeans agree to participate in a multilateral effort against the Libyan regime.

Libya’s rebels want Western air power on their side, but the U.S. and its allies, bruised by the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, are in no hurry to join another war.

Getty photo.

Una Moore at U.N. Dispatch reports on a startling development:

The struggle for human rights in Afghanistan received an alarming setback when the Afghan government announced that it will take over all women’s shelters in the country within weeks. Activists are outraged and see the takeover as an attempt to shut down the few places women find protection from violent families and forced marriages.

Conservative politicians and media personalities have long railed against Afghanistan’s few women’s shelters and demanded that the facilities be closed. Two years ago, the government appointed a hard-line mullah to lead a commission to investigate shelters and recommend reforms. Then, in 2010, right wing talk show host Nasto Nadiri escalated the campaign against women’s shelters by running a series of fake reports on shelters in Kabul. Nadiri alleged that the shelters were controlled by foreigners and used as brothels. Despite lacking evidence, the bombastic pundit’s claims further riled conservatives and influenced the investigatory commission.  (One member of the shelter commission later told The Scotsman, “Of course, if a shelter is working under control of foreigners, without the police or the government’s knowledge, then the women will be prostitutes.”) Human rights activists worried a crackdown was imminent.

Now, the shelter commission’s verdict is in. The government will seize all women’s shelters countrywide and place them under the control of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the police. Women and girls seeking protection will have to plead their cases before an admissions panel of government employees and undergo medically dubious “examinations” to prove they are not guilty of adultery or prostitution. If a woman passes both tests and is admitted, she will not be allowed to leave without official permission. In effect, Afghanistan’s few refuges for abused women are about to become prisons.

World News photo.

This just in from Una Moore at U.N. Dispatch:

Prominent human rights advocate Hamida Barmaki and her entire family were among at least 14 people killed when a Taliban suicide bomber blew up a crowded supermarket in Kabul on Friday.

Barmaki was a commissioner at the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, a passionate activist for the rights of Afghanistan’s women and children, and a law professor at Kabul University. She was killed with her husband, Massoud Yama, a doctor, and their four young children.

Afghanistan’s community of human rights defenders is reeling.

Art by Ted Rall.

Cartoonists Ted Rall and Matt Bors — the artist on my new graphic novel — are in Afghanistan to chronicle the plight of everyday Afghans in a series of quickie comics. In Tajikistan, Ted spoke to U.N. Dispatch about the trip.

UND: Why are you doing this?

Ted: I’ve been interested in Afghanistan for 20 years. I went there for the first time in 1999. After the invasion in 2001, my interest in the country deepened. I have been watching the occupation and its progress – or lack of progress.

I am frustrated by the war reporting we get. I wanted to see the situation for myself, and find out how Afghans see things. Logistically, in terms of this particular trip, I have a book contract for a book on Afghanistan, and this is research for that book.

In a bigger sense, I think our responsibility as Americans is to look seriously at the country we’re occupying.

Matt: Ted asked me to come. And I have never been out of the U.S. as an adult. The Afghanistan war has been going on for nine years, which is my entire adult life. I wanted to see the situation for myself instead of watching it on the news.  I am helping pay for this occupation; I wanted to see it up close.

UND: Do you think that your reports from the field will be different because you are cartoonists? Does reporting in a graphic form convey information differently?

Ted: I think cartoons are effective in unique way. They are less precise than photos and more precise than words. I have read a lot of graphic journalism — Joe Sacco, Guy Delisle — and it conveys a very strong sense of place.

Matt: I am not planning on breaking any news. I am planning on opinion and narrative pieces. I am not trying to break hard news or be an objective journalist. As a cartoonist, the experience of being on the ground yourself is invaluable. At the same time, filing from the ground isn’t really done in editorial cartoons. Most editorial cartoonists do the USO tour if they visit war zones.

Read the rest at U.N. Dispatch.

Bamiyan. Wired photo.

by UNA MOORE

My first morning in Yakawlang I oversleep, eat a hasty breakfast of bread and tea with the AHRDO employees, and go to wash my face before venturing out. There is no more water in the water tank in the bathroom, so Bisharat tells me we’ll use the public bath in Nayak, the biggest village in the valley below.

From the porch of the guesthouse, I can see for at least 20 miles, past the green farmlands, rivers and woods, to the large, modern Nayak schoolhouse, the clusters of adobe homes, the sand-colored hills and the blue mountains beyond.

The descent from the mountain proves more difficult than the hike up the night before. “If I go down, I’m taking you down with me!” I yell to Bisharat ahead of me.

On our walk into town, we pass villagers washing clothing in the river and children casting fishing nets. Through the muddy lanes, we make it to a short wood and cement building.

Inside, a young man hands me packets of shampoo from a large basket and directs me to a free room. I thank him, shut the door and undress in the steam. Mushrooms are growing from the slick walls. The taps produce wonderfully hot water, and I use buckets to wash myself.

Read the rest at U.N. Dispatch.

Bamiyan.

by UNA MOORE

Leaving Bamiyan city, we drive through what amounts to a slum. The sights are jarring. This is where some of the poorest people in the world scrape out a ragged existence on the edges of a society with little to spare. Destitute families crowd into caves cut out from the rocky cliffs.  There is no running water, no electricity, and just a few rudimentary outdoor latrines. The six month Bamiyan winter is often deadly for children and pregnant women living in these caves.

Along the road that leads through the caves area, I see children with thin limbs carrying cans of fuel. Their hair so dry and dirty it sticks out at all angles, and they have badly sunburned, prematurely wrinkled skin. Their clothing is tattered and they don’t smile. It is impossible for me to tell how old they are.

Bisharat shakes his head. “They waited for aid, but it didn’t come. The people feel they are being punished for peace.”

Since 2002, the Afghan government has broken most of its promises to the people of Bamiyan. Pledged infrastructure has been delivered slowly, when delivered at all. The Provincial Reconstruction Team, led by New Zealand, is under-resourced and too small to cover an area as large and rugged as Bamiyan province.

Half-way between Bamiyan city and Yakawlang, we stop at a place called Qarghana To, a collection of single-room shops that sell gasoline and expired snack cakes.

I need to pee, so I ask where the latrine is. Bisharat grins and tells me to pick a spot.

Read the rest at U.N. Dispatch.

Bamiyan. Via Markhumphreys.com.

by UNA MOORE

Bamiyan city is not a city in the developed world sense. It has one commercial street with a rambling bazaar of small shops that sell local silver, carpets, medicine, food and bicycle repair supplies. The tallest buildings in sight are two stories.

My party’s guesthouse is located at the very top of a hill overlooking the city. It belongs to the Shohada Organization, which was founded by Dr. Sima Samar, current chairperson of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) and long-time defender of the rights of Afghanistan’s women.

The guesthouse is surrounded by high fences, and satellite antennas stick up from its roof. Only the first floor belongs to the Shohada Organization; the second is occupied by the Bamiyan provincial office of the AIHRC. From the hill, I can see the cliffs where the Bamiyan Buddha statues once stood, before they were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.

Read the rest at U.N. Dispatch.

Bamiyan. Via Virtualtourist.com.

by UNA MOORE

Around 8:00 in the morning, we stop in a small village in a mountainous area of Parwan. It’s breakfast time, and we are half-way to Bamiyan City.

The restaurant is the kind most often found along the roads of rural Afghanistan: a few rooms with tiny windows in a mud-walled building. A lanky teenage waiter escorts us to the family section, where men and women can dine together. We sit on the floor and the waiter rolls out a long strip of leather in front of us. Tea and bread are brought. The rest of my party orders kebabs. Being a vegetarian, I stick with the bread and tea. After tsk-tsking me for not eating enough, Aziza produces sweet cakes from her backpack and I happily accept them.

A family sits down next to my party. An elderly woman eyes me curiously. She asks Bisharat if I am Afghan. Bisharat tells her I am a foreigner. The woman looks incredulous and asks what I am doing in the village, and where I am going. When Bisharat answers, the woman squints at me through cataracts and shakes her head.

Foreigners rarely travel to Bamiyan by road. I was warned not to. “There is only one safe way to travel to Bamiyan,” one fellow expat told me seriously days before I left. “That is to fly.”

Read the rest at U.N. Dispatch.

Bamiyan. National Geographic photo.

by UNA MOORE

Day one.

At 3:oo in the morning, Bisharat, AHRDO’s 28-year-old managing director, calls me to say he is close to my house and to be ready when he arrives. The Toyota minibus pulls up outside and I bundle my duvet and duffle bag in the back. Bisharat slams the door shut. “Okay,” he says, “let’s go to Bamiyan!”

Inside, Bisharat introduces me to Aziza, an Afghan actress and filmmaker who spent many years in Iran and is now considering working for AHRDO. The other passengers include the long-haul driver, Rohullah, and AHRDO’s usual driver, Amin.

We begin the easiest phase of our eight-and-a-half hour journey from Kabul to Bamiyan City. The streets of Afghanistan’s capital are quiet and still. Few people move about in the pre-dawn hours.

Read the rest at U.N. Dispatch.

Civil society. Via 1 Woman's Vu.

by UNA MOORE

Afghanistan is more than a war, and though violence is spreading, much of the country remains peaceful.  Events in Afghanistan seldom make headlines abroad unless they involve violence, fanaticism or government malfeasance. Regrettably little attention is paid to civilian life, which goes on — because it must — in spite of deteriorating security.

One of the great untold stories of Afghanistan since 2001 is the emergence of a civil society that has begun to assert itself as a force for progressive change at the grassroots level, with the poorest and least empowered segments of Afghan society: ethnic minorities, poor women, residents of slums and internal displacement camps, orphans, civilian victims of war and persons with disabilities.

Read the rest at U.N. Dispatch.