Just a reminder...

...that there are places outside of Iraq. A few dispatches from less-attended parts of the globe.

Sudan
A horseback Arab militia known as the janjaweed, believed to be acting at the direction of the Sudanese government, has been embarked on a "reign of terror" in the Darfur region of western Sudan, according to an official report to the UN Security Council, reported the BBC on May 8.

After briefing the council, UN Commissioner for Human Rights Bertrand Ramcharan spoke of a "scorched earth policy" and "repeated crimes against humanity".

He described aerial bombardments as well as systematic attacks on villages by Sudanese government forces and militiamen who killed, raped, and looted.

Ramcharan said that more than one million people have been driven from their homes in the attacks, in what human rights groups have labeled a campaign of ethnic cleansing designed to drive African peoples out of the region.

The Security Council said it would "monitor the situation" but would take no action at present.

I guess there's not enough oil there.

Meanwhile, the violence has spilled over into Chad, whose army has had battles with the janjaweed after the militia attacked villages in eastern Chad, according to Chad's defence minister, Emmanuel Nadingar.

Sudan to Democratic Republic of Congo
Again from the BBC (don't expect too much international news from US media, folks), for May 7:

Poachers linked to the Sudanese SPLA rebels are killing elephants for ivory in the Democratic Republic of Congo, say national park authorities.

A spokesman said poaching began for meat two years ago in the Garamba National Park near the border with Sudan, but the object now was ivory. ...

He estimated only 14,000 elephants remained in DR Congo compared to 90,000 before the country's war began in 1997. ...

The BBC's Arnaud Zajtman says that, despite an international ban, at the main tourist market in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, ivory is still being sold.

The SPLA is the rebel band in Sudan whose activities are the justification for the brutality of the janjaweed.

The government of DR Congo had hoped to use the elephants and the parks in which they are found as a tourist draw to bring much-needed capital to the country now that a bitter and unusually bloody five-year civil was has come to an end.

Or has it?

Democratic Republic of Congo
Writing in the May 10 International Herald Tribune, Mvemba Phezo Dizolele, co-chair of the advocacy group En Avant Congo!, charges the UN peacekeeping mission is failing its job.

In eastern Congo, where rape and insecurity are the daily lot of hopeless civilians, the mission has, in fact, become the symbol of impunity.

The UN troops were sent to Congo in 1999, in the midst of a civil war that killed more than 3.3 million people. ...

In a 2002 agreement that established a power-sharing government in Kinshasa, the foreign troops were supposed to withdraw while the UN and Congo pledged to send home the insurgents.

Rwanda, however, saying that Congo hasn't held to its part of the agreement, has repeatedly violated the agreements with impunity, sending troops in and saying they are searching for rebels that stage raids on Rwandan villages. A run-in between UN troops and hundreds of Rwandan soldiers in eastern Congo last month underscores the mission's ineffectiveness.

In the confrontation, on April 21, the Rwandan Army ordered UN troops to withdraw from the area, and in a shocking reversal of roles, they complied - even though under their mandate they can use force to protect the peace. ..

[T]he UN seems reluctant to disturb the status quo.

But the trading of accusations about insurgents is merely a front for the real issue at stake, Congo's natural resources. ...

Rwanda and Uganda have no incentive to stop the financing and arming of their proxies. ...

The United Nations must take an active and forceful role in its Congo mission. Their passive presence has become a mockery of peace.

India
As reported by the May 13 Toronto Globe & Mail,

[t]he ruling party of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee conceded defeat Thursday in parliamentary elections, opening the way for Sonia Gandhi to become India's prime minister in one of the most dramatic political upsets since independence.

Unofficial results indicate that millions of rural poor people abandoned Mr. Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata party believing they had been left behind by the country's economic boom. ...

It was an embarrassing defeat for Mr. Vajpayee's Hindu nationalist-led government, which had called elections six months early because it felt confident of winning an even bigger majority in Parliament, based on a booming economy and prospects of peace with Pakistan.

But Congress focused its campaign on the country's 300 million people who still live on less than a dollar a day. It hammered away at the lack of even basic infrastructure, electricity and potable water for millions of rural poor. ...

Ms. Gandhi has pushed for a secular India in contrast to the BJP's Hindu nationalist message.

South Korea
From the Toronto Globe & Mail for May 14:

Seoul - President Roh Moo-hyun regained power Friday in a historic court ruling that overturned an opposition-led impeachment vote, giving him a fresh mandate to seek more latitude from Washington in negotiations with North Korea.

Roh had been impeached in March on minor charges in what around 70% of South Koreans saw as politically-motivated move by conservatives angered over his intention to seek reconciliation with North Korea. The Constitutional Court had to uphold the impeachment for Roh to be removed from office; instead, it dealt an embarrassing defeat to the conservatives by ruling that of the three charges against him, he was innocent of two and the other was too minor to justify removing him from office.

Mr. Roh will be working with the first liberal National Assembly in four decades, one that supports him and wants a foreign policy less dependent on the United States.

That was as the result of last month's general election, won by the pro-Roh Uri Party in an apparent rebuke to the conservative parties that impeached him.

Footnote: Following the decision, Reuters says, Roh apologized to the nation for his part in causing the constitutional crisis, saying "Even though the impeachment was overturned it does not mean I have escaped political and moral responsibility." He pledged to let the new parliament take the lead in making reforms.