Charles Taylor

Charles Taylor’s sentencing to 50 years’ imprisonment on 11 counts of war crimes is undeniably momentous. However, with Sierra Leoneans still suffering abject poverty and remaining in dire need of aid, it must be questioned for whose benefit the costly War Crimes Court really is, writes EMMA PURDY

Related Links: Charles Taylor (wiki) | Blood diamond (wiki) | The other end of blood diamond trade | Information on Sierra Leone

The Special Court for Sierra Leone will conclude this year on a triumphant note, with former Liberian president Charles Taylor now the first ex-head of state convicted by international justice since the 1946 Nuremburg trials.

The 64-year-old was found guilty this April of arming and supporting Revolutionary United Front rebels in exchange for illegally mined blood diamonds and thus “aiding and abetting” the country’s brutal civil war. He was sentenced on 30 May to 50 years’ imprisonment, having been held “criminally responsible” by judges after a protracted four-and-a-half-year trial.

From the outset in January 2008, after Taylor boycotted the initial 2007 proceedings, the trial was lauded as the first ever of a former African head of state in an international court. Taylor was the Court’s 11th defendant from a total of 21 indictments since its establishment in January 2002, its remit being to try “those who bear the greatest responsibility for serious violations of international humanitarian law” during the 11-year conflict.

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Agricultural investment or land-grab in Sierra Leone?

Come up to Rossport this June weekend

The seventh annual Rossport Solidarity Camp gathering is taking place in Erris, Co. Mayo from the 1st-4th June. You are invited to take part in workshops/discussions, skillshares, music and fun!

Come up to Mayo this June bank holiday!

Related Links: Rossport solidarity camp website | Shell to sea website | Rabbite's rush to give away our exploration rights could cost us bilions | conservative Oireachtas committee finds that state should double tax take on gas and oil finds Threats of eviction for rossport camp. | shell admits funding niger delta warlords | Police amassing at James Price Point

Nuclear armed and funded by diamonds

As the leaders of the global diamond industry gathered in Vicenza, Italy for the annual meeting of the World Diamond Council, Palestinians remained trapped in a surreal nightmarish existence under the cosh of a diamond-funded, nuclear-armed belligerent regime: "The Israeli forces used [taser guns] and I have bruises on my arms and legs. I saw them open a protester's mouth by force and spit in it, and they spit in my face as well. While being under custody, a police officer of Ramle district addressed both me and another female activist while being cuffed with verbal sexual harassment, threatening to rape us. I have to admit I burst in tears ."

Related Links:
De-Beers asked to remove blood diamond display from Tower of London | No Valentine for Kimberley Process | Israeli Blood Diamond Campaign claims another victory | Two global diamond retailers resort to censorship over Israeli Blood Diamonds issue | Marilyn Monroe launches ‘Boycott Israeli Blood Diamonds’ campaign in Dublin | Kimberley Process (wikipedia) | Amnesty US page on conflict diamonds

Occupy camp prior to sly 4.30am state eviction

At 4.30am this morning the Occupy Galway camp was forcibly removed by Gardai and Council workers. At 1pm we held a public assembly with around 100 people in attendance. The mood at the assembly was one of determination and optimism and it was agreed by all that the fight is only just getting started!

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Three Occupy Campaigners Arrested For "criminal damage using chalk" As Crackdown On Democratic Right To Protest Peacefully Continues In Galway | Occupy Galway Launches Voter Registration Campaign | Pictures From The Labour Conference Protest courtesy of Occupy Galway | An Interesting Week For Occupy Galway. | Occupy Galway requested to leave Eyre Square | Video: After Eviction, Outraged Occupy Dame St activists March on Pearse St Garda Station | In response to calls for Occupy Galway to “be removed” from Eyre Square. | #OccupyIreland, 6 camps and building... Dublin, Cork, Galway, Belfast, Waterford...Letterkenny.. | Tahrir > Spain > Wall Street > Dame Street > Galway... Occupy Eyre Square | Stop The Billion Dollar Heist: #OccupyDameStreet and Real Democracy Now! March

Basque trade union barricade during general strike in March

A political struggle in a European nation of less than three million, largely ignored by other socialists in Europe, has nevertheless come to the fore in the capitalist media repeatedly since the late 1960s. This has been largely as a result of the the Basque people’s struggle for socialism and independence from the Spanish and French states, a struggle led for decades by Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, the marxist armed organisation better known by its acronym, ETA. The organisation reawakened Basque national consciousness, has worked with others for the restoration of Euskara, the Basque language, organised Basque workers and faced the repression of the General Franco dictatorship in the Spanish state. Famously, in 1973 it assassinated the Prime Minister of the state, Admiral Carrero Blanco, Franco’s right-hand man, which hastened the fragmentation of the dictatorship and its passage to partial democracy.

Related Links: The Abertzale Left makes big electoral gains in the basque Country – but is it being steered towards social democracy? | Basque Trade Unions Square Up To The Spanish State | Report on the largest demo ever in the Basque Country, estimated 100,000, Bilbao January this year -- in solidarity with political prisoners