BOGOTÁ, Colombia — For years, paramilitary death squads and guerrillas waged a campaign of terror and violence against the indigenous Kankuamo people in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains of northeastern Colombia. Their goal was to seize coca plantations, control narcotrafficking routes and profit from large infrastructure projects. In Kankuamo areas, the paramilitaries would gather the people together to watch as they brutally killed someone, or tossed their victims in the road to be run over by cars. Now, however, many of those and other paramilitary leaders are in jail, facing harsh penalties and potentially large payments that are [...]
MONROVIA, Liberia — To Liberians, she is President Ellen, or “our iron lady.” Her supporters call her a difference-maker and a straight talker, a leader who says what she’s going to do and then does it. Those qualities have inspired admiration and even love for President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first female president. “She love the country,” Roland Watson, a driver for an aid agency, said. “I think she want to make things happen in this country.” The same cannot be said about Liberia’s former presidents, who presided over 14 years of civil war that claimed 250,000 lives and impoverished [...]
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Former rebel turned governor, Irwandi Yusuf, stunned many with his victory in the first direct provincial election held in Indonesia’s once pro-secessionist province of Aceh on Dec.11, 2006. Yet, with post-election pleasantries now over, the former academic has a tough job ahead, as hefty expectations weigh on his three-year term, due to start on Feb. 8. Irwandi’s election is the direct result of the peace deal signed between the Indonesian government and the Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM) in Helsinki, Finland, on Aug. 15, 2005. The peace ended a separatist war that had killed nearly 30,000 since 1976. [...]
