The body of a Syrian child is pulled from rubble after an aerial bombardment from goverment forces in the Ahad neighbourhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, Sept. 11, 2012. Sam Tarling.
The Sri Lankan civil war lasted for a quarter of a century, from 1983 to 2009, with an estimated hundred thousand people killed. In 2011, over eight hundred and fifty-five thousand tourists visited the island—an all-time record—and the government hopes to draw 2.6 million annual tourists by 2016.
The German photographer Yannik Willing has been documenting Sri Lanka’s post-war normalization. Click-through for a selection of Willing’s work, and for more from him on the rapid changes in Sri Lanka: http://nyr.kr/N1I5QV
The United Nations news agency IRIN reports that, in Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, “the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has reported that about 4,000 residents are seeking protection as a result of fighting late last month in the northern Al-Hasaba district of the city between security forces loyal to President Ali Saleh and the armed opposition.”
Libya - War - Inside The Libyan Rebels’ Hidden Weapons Shops in Misurata
A rebel technician works to build a hand trigger on a .50 cal machine gun, at a workshop in Misurata. Rebel forces in Misurata have been fighting for almost two months with whatever weapons they were able to loot or capture from Qadafi’s forces. As part of the war effort to defend their city against attack, a small industry of weapons workshops have sprung up in discreet locations around the city—modifying pickup trucks with armor, and welding crew serve weapons turrets into the flatbeds. Crews work long hours, evolving their craft through the machinations of war hoping to constantly improve the capabilities of the fighters on the frontlines.IMAGE: © Bryan Denton/Corbis
European Pressphoto Agency
NATO warplanes pound targets in Tripoli, Libya, hitting Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s command compound.
LIBYA-TRIPOLI-AIR RAID-KADHAFI
(110501)—TRIPOLI, May 1,2011 (Xinhua) — This photo taken on May 1, 2011 shows the damage of the house of the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi after an air raid during a tour organized by the Libyan government in the area of Gargur in Tripoli, Libya. Sayf al-Arab Kadhafi, embattled Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi’s youngest son, was killed in an airstrike on Saturday, a government spokesman said.
IMAGE: © Hamza Turkia/XinHua/Xinhua Press/Corbis
We live off the land… We just want to get back to work so we can feed our families. We are not proud of staying here [at the Catholic mission] but we were scared of what we saw with our own eyes…We are not opposing anyone. Whoever is in power, he’s the leader.
“The only way we’re able to eat is by our own hands, our own might. It’s not the president who’s going to manufacture food for us; it’s our machetes [which we use to work the land]. We have nothing to do with these politics.
“Peace is the only thing we seek. Just to be left alone to go about our lives. Imagine - I’m a simple farmer who goes to the field to find cassava or bananas, and I get shot dead, for nothing. I’m innocent - I’m not affiliated with this or that president - the land and my machete are my president.
“The only way we’re able to eat is by our own hands, our own might. It’s not the president who’s going to manufacture food for us; it’s our machetes [which we use to work the land]. We have nothing to do with these politics.
“Peace is the only thing we seek. Just to be left alone to go about our lives. Imagine - I’m a simple farmer who goes to the field to find cassava or bananas, and I get shot dead, for nothing. I’m innocent - I’m not affiliated with this or that president - the land and my machete are my president.
“
| — |
Doh St. Michel, a farmer who fled his village near Duékoué in western Côte d’Ivoire after gunfire erupted and locals were killed on 28 November 2010, the day of the presidential run-off election. IRIN Africa | COTE D’IVOIRE: Doh St Michel, “The land and my machete are my president” |
“All I heard was gunfire, screaming and crying. People were begging for mercy. Those who were shooting said nothing - they just fired and fired. Those attacking us were Gbagbo’s militia and Liberians Gbagbo deployed in the country.”
— 18 year old Ivorian man to the UN’s IRIN news agency
Nick Turse: How to Arm a Dictator | TomDispatch
If you were a protester in Yemen recently and you noticed a helicopter over your demonstration while dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh’s security forces fired at you, there is a real chance that what you saw was a new American “Huey II” chopper, sent by the Obama Administration earlier this year as part of an ongoing Pentagon program to supply and train Saleh’s forces.
For more on the Pentagon’s support — in the form of helicopters, small arms, ammunition, and armored vehicles — for Yemen’s long-time autocrat, do check out my latest article: “Hueys Over Yemen: Is U.S. Aid Suppressing Another Mideast Freedom Struggle?”
photo credit: Injured Yemeni anti-government protesters receive treatment at a makeshift clinic following clashes with security forces in Sana’a, Yemen, 10 April 2011. © YAHYA ARHAB/epa/Corbis
