Bosnia, the post-Yugoslav state and scene of the 1995 genocide at Srebrenica, is making (bad) news once again, in danger of again inflaming the Balkans. It was 19 years ago when this Former Yugoslav component republic seized the world’s attention, just as Ukraine does today. Then as now, the world held its breath to see if the ethnic conflict there would become a wider war. The horrific event in the FYR that shows the depth of the historic problem will continue to stain the pages of history. It doesn’t get much worse than this - the massacre at the Bosnian city of Srebrenica, cold-blooded execution of 8000 civilian men and boys taken from their homes to ‘racially cleanse’ this part of Bosnia to make space for a permanent Serbian re-population.
Also and dangerously, the events in Ukraine’s Crimea are being celebrated in Republika Srbska as a model for them to emulate, to seek to take their Serb -occupied territory in Bosnia, across to the much larger Serbia, perhaps enlisting Russian help [...]

The Arab Awakening 2014 style

"All power comes from the barrel of a gun"

Egypt: blithely ignoring international law, after a two day trial, 529 people were sentenced to death for the murder of the deputy commander of a police district in August last year. 147 were in court to hear the sentences. Some 380 were convicted and condemned ‘in absentia’, ‘though some of these were already in detention [...]

Libya: The only Arab uprising in which western forces were engaged, it is not recovering from the traumatic civil war. Removing the Qaddafi dictatorship was like taking a cork from a bottle, pouring away such elements of order and civilisation that had survived the Colonel. Following the western air forces intervention, the civil war had been largely conducted by local resistance fighters around this large country. Some are Islamist inspired, others more akin to bandits - with a range in between [...]

Iraq: Al Qaeda and semi-attached associates such as ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) have campaigns to dominate (terrorise) Baghdad and other Iraqi cities seeking to reassert the preponderance of Sunni power that was enjoyed until the US/UK invasion, following which the terror attacks commenced as the majority Shia population assumed their rightful place. But they also strive to give reality to the notion of a new Islamic state formed out of chunks of Syria verging on Iraq’s Anbar province (hence ISIS) [...]

Syria: Nothing further on resumed peace negotiations. Of course, they may not be resumed. Fighting between the Islamists and the secular FSA groups has become commonplace. The Kurds settled for generations are also defending themselves, as Islamists seek to displace them to create their own territory - space for a Caliphate spreading across the Syrian - Iraqi borders [...]

Russia and China in the Far East

Regional divergences between Moscow and Beijing throughout Asia have not been resolved and may not be capable of resolution!

Bandwagoning with China against the US and simultaneously covertly trying to restrain China, have been the dominating motifs of Russia’s Asian policy in Northeast and Southeast Asia. As a result of this dual-track policy, throughout the 2000s, Russia had to accept the palpable signs of growing Russian dependence on China in economics and energy. In 2009-11, Russia took determined steps to portray itself as an Asian player. But, Russia’s failure’ to develop the Russian Far East (RFE) has forced it to “turn to China for help” which has allowed China to take initial steps to build a new economic and security order in Asia at Russia’s expense [...]

Clive Lindley - Publisher