Our February Edition features two polar views on whether ethnic slaughter occurred in both former Yugoslavia and Rwanda in the 1990s. We welcome readers who might have been in similar situations to share their views on the two horrific events. They are the ones who can best narrate their experiences.
By Jonathan Power, weekly columnist on foreign affairs
The divisions and tensions in some parts of ex-Yugoslavia appear to be boiling up again. The leadership of the Serbian mini-state, Srpska, which comprises 49% of Bosnia’s territory, appears to be challenging the governing entity of Bosnia, founded at the end of the civil wars that raged in ex-Yugoslavia, 1991-2001. In a peculiar compromise, this sliver of Serbian territory was confirmed as part of Bosnia, but with its own self-government at the local level. Twenty-seven years later its hardline leaders are set on joining up with Serbia proper.
By Okot Nyormoi, Editor, novelist, retired cell biologist
As always, I appreciate Jonathan Power for sharing his weekly columns on foreign affairs. While I acknowledge that he has the right to have an opinion as he once told me, I, too, have the right to have one. This time, I found his column titled, “IT IS NOT ETHNIC SLAUGHTER IN YUGOSLAVIA AND RWUANDA” jarring to say the least.
By Kato Mpanga, U.K Academic Lawyer and Counsel Frances N. K. Ddungu (Smith), CEO of Arbitration, and Mediation Society of Uganda.
The United Nations Convention on International Mediation Settlement Agreements, also known as “The Singapore Convention on Mediation” is a convention that applies to international settlement agreements resulting from mediation. It sets out a legal framework for the right to invoke the mediation settlement agreements as well as for their enforcement among the member states. The Convention facilitates international trade by using mediation as an alternative and effective method of resolving commercial disputes. The Singapore Convention on Mediation (the Convention) was adopted in December 2018 in Singapore and Uganda was among the first countries to became signatories to the convention on 7th August 2019.
By Henning Melba, Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria, South Africa.
Historian Susan Williams grew up in Zambia. Like other scholars of her generation raised in former settler societies of southern Africa, she empathizes with the continent’s people.
Williams’ widely acknowledged new book, White Malice–The CIA and Neocolonialization of Africa, adds to her track record, testifying to this engagement. Almost a forensic account, its more than 500 pages (supported by close to 150 pages of sources, references, and index) are as readable as a John le Carré novel.