Peter Bouckaert

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Halima, a 25-year-old Muslim, could not hold back tears when we met again recently in Bossemptele, about 185 miles north of Bangui, in the Central African Republic. She was living under the protection of the Catholic Church, after the anti-balaka militia slaughtered more than 80 Muslims in Bossemptele.

For the past six months, such militias have sought to avenge the devastation wrought by the predominantly Muslim Seleka rebel group, which took power last March in this majority-Christian country.

When we first spoke, two days earlier, Halima said that her husband and father-in-law were among the dead and that she had not heard from her three children since they had run away from the killers.…  Seguir leyendo »

Col. Saleh Zabadi, a commander of the alliance of rebel forces that seized control of much of this country in March, is widely feared for his ruthlessness.

I recently sat down with three men who had barely survived an encounter with him. They were among seven Christian men captured by fighters from the rebel alliance, which is mostly Muslim, on Nov. 18 while returning from selling produce at a market outside of the town of Bossangoa.

Tied up and beaten, the men were brought to Colonel Zabadi and his commander, Gen. Issa Yahya (who died last week in fighting in Bangui, the capital).…  Seguir leyendo »

For much of Friday afternoon, this city teetered between hope and fear. We knew the army would come - the question was when. About 7:30 p.m., six armored personnel carriers with mounted machine guns arrived at the main square. Then something extraordinary happened: The soldiers were surrounded by hundreds of people - and after several minutes, welcomed. As I write this, ordinary citizens are walking up to the two vehicles stationed at Ramleh Square and photographing each other flashing victory signs. The mood, fearful for so much of the day, is turning festive.

When my interpreter and I arrived in Alexandria Friday morning, tension hung in the air.…  Seguir leyendo »

During the Vietnam conflict, the US military developed some creative ways to increase the numbers of Viet Cong insurgents it claimed to have killed. "If they're dead, they're Viet Cong," meant that any Vietnamese killed by American soldiers would automatically count as enemy fighters.

Sri Lanka's defence secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, has taken such creative accounting to new heights. The United Nations reported that at least 7,000 civilians were killed and tens of thousands wounded during the final months of the brutal conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which ended in May 2009. But Gotabhaya has repeatedly cast aspersions on the idea that there were any civilian casualties.…  Seguir leyendo »

Despite verbal acrobatics reminiscent of George Orwell's 1984, Sri Lankan officials have been unable to dismiss a shocking mobile phone video from last January purportedly showing Sri Lankan soldiers summarily executing naked and bound captives. The government has consistently claimed the video is fake, without providing any evidence that the gruesome scene was staged or the footage tampered with.

Now, the top United Nations envoy responsible for investigating extralegal executions around the world has added his voice to those believing the tape to be genuine. After commissioning three experts on forensic pathology, video analysis and firearms to review the tape, the envoy, Philip Alston, told the BBC, "You cannot fake the precise sort of reaction which the human body makes when shot at close range by such a weapon."…  Seguir leyendo »