Our weekly round-up of must-read stories you might have missed. In focus this week: Trading Conflict for Coffee in DRC; Current media focus on conflicts such as Syria means people can be forgiven for assuming “Darfur is over“. It’s not, says Olivia Warham, Director of Waging Peace; 2013 Oslo Freedom Forum.
Congo-Kinshasa: Trading Conflict for Coffee in DRC – May 8, 2013
Entrepreneur Gilbert Makelele wants armed groups in his part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to wake up and smell the coffee. “You should tell the population to grow coffee, as it’s the best way for them to make money,” he told a militia member during a recent visit to the town of Kalonge, where he and his fellow cooperative members have planted a nursery for coffee seedlings. The Kivu Cooperative of Coffee Planters and Traders (CPNCK), which Makelele founded five years ago, has planted six of these nurseries in the Kalonge-Pinga-Mweso triangle, a hotbed of militia activity. “If the young men in this area knew how much they could earn with coffee, they would not be interested in joining militias,” Makelele told IRIN. Coffee, a traditional export crop, was virtually abandoned across much of North Kivu in the past 30 years. DRC’s production shrank from 110,000 metric tons in the late 1980s to about 50,000 metric tons in 2009, according to the DRC’s national coffee office…
Darfuris Need Peace Before Reconstruction – May 13, 2013
Ten years ago, the people of Darfur began resisting the oppression suffered at the hands of President Bashir’s regime. Since then, the non-Arab Darfuri population has been systematically killed, raped and tortured. Despite the international community condemning the regime – with David Cameron claiming in 2008 that the UK could not “remain silent in the face of this horror” – a decade after this disaster began, the Darfuri population continue to wait for the bloodshed and ethnic cleansing to stop. Current media focus on conflicts such as Syria means people can be forgiven for assuming “Darfur is over”. It’s not. Just last week 18,000 civilians had to seek refuge after clashes between the Sudanese Army and rebels. Even UNAMID peacekeepers, who are meant to protect civilians, are not safe from the violence, with one recently killed during fighting, and another seriously injured. Since the conflict began hundreds of thousands have been killed – but we may never know the true figure. Millions more lost their homes, with thousands of children knowing no other life than the displacement camps they were born into. Living in unhygienic conditions without access to an education, their future is far from certain…
2013 Oslo Freedom Forum – May 19, 2013
The fifth annual Oslo Freedom Forum took place on May 13, 14, and 15, 2013. Hundreds of the world’s most influential dissidents, innovators, journalists, philanthropists, and policymakers united in the Norwegian capital for a three-day summit exploring how best to challenge authoritarianism and promote free and open societies. Hundreds of thousands have learned about the Oslo Freedom Forum through television, radio, print, and e-media. Our speakers’ presentations have been viewed online more than 250,000 times. The Freedom Forum has garnered support from Amnesty International Norway, Civita, the City of Oslo, Color Line, the Nobel Peace Center, Reporters Without Borders, Freedom House, Human Rights Action Center, the Freedom of Expression Foundation, the International Society for Human Rights, the John Templeton Foundation, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, the Thiel Foundation, the University of Oslo, and other internationally respected bodies and individuals…
