from the mailbox:

INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP - NEW MEDIA RELEASE
Thank You, Gareth Evans

Brussels, 30 June 2009: On behalf of the Board of the International Crisis Group, Co-chairs Lord Patten of Barnes and Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering warmly thank Gareth Evans for his nine and a half years of outstanding service to the organisation as President and CEO.

In recognition of his contribution, the Board has decided to award Gareth Evans the title of President Emeritus of Crisis Group.

“Speaking for the Board and staff, we all owe Gareth a tremendous debt of gratitude for his tireless efforts since January 2000”, said Co-Chair Chris Patten. “He took a small organisation analysing some 12 conflicts with 25 staff and a budget of two million dollars, and he transformed it into the pre-eminent international NGO in conflict prevention and resolution, examining some 60 conflicts world-wide with 130 staff and a budget of over 15 million.”

“Under Gareth, Crisis Group established its unique mix of field-based research, experienced policy analysis and high-level advocacy that together make Crisis Group so well-respected”, said Co-Chair Tom Pickering.

Gareth Evans served with distinction as Crisis Group’s President and CEO since January 2000. He will return to Australia in July, from which home base he will be primarily engaged in his role as Co-Chair of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, a joint global initiative of the Australian and Japanese governments (www.icnnd.org). He will also remain on the Board of Crisis Group.

Gareth Evans will be succeeded as President and CEO of Crisis Group by the Honourable Louise Arbour, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and former Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. She will take up the post on 21 July.

Pop star Michael Jackson has died in Los Angeles, aged 50.

On the BBC.

fun news title of the week

Curry a day could keep dementia away

[well, week is a relative term right?..]

Netherlands gets tough on Bulgaria, Romania

A Dutch minister has asked the European Commission to consider activating safeguard clauses against Romania and Bulgaria should monitoring reports due this summer fail to acknowledge progress in fighting corruption. EurActiv Romania and Dnevnik, EurActiv's partner in Bulgaria, bring this report.
In a letter to Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot, Dutch EU Affairs Minister Frans Timmermans asks the EU executive to consider activating the safeguard clause in the judicial field should the upcoming monitoring report fail to register "enough progress" on judicial reform, according to Sofia and Bucharest media.
If activated, the clause would de facto invalidate court decisions in Romania and Bulgaria in the eyes of jurisdictions in other EU member countries.
The Dutch had until now considered sanctions to be counter-productive, but as the consequences could be "tremendous", the situation had to be treated "seriously", he said. The EU's credibility was at stake if Brussels was too lax with the newcomers, he warned.
These monitoring reports, which according to sources could be postponed until September, are prepared more thoroughly than the previous two Commission papers, the Romanian press writes. Several Commission delegations have visited Bulgaria and Romania for fact-finding, it adds.
Speaking to EurActiv, Bulgaria's Permanent Representative to the EU Boyko Kotsev confirmed the general content of the letter as described by the press. But he added that his country was hoping for positive monitoring reports, meaning that there would be "no need" for any safeguards.
"Bulgaria has achieved a lot, though there is still a lot of work to be done," Kotsev admitted.
He declined to comment as to whether his country was hoping that the Commission would be less inquisitive in the period preceding the second Lisbon Treaty referendum in Ireland.
The Dutch minister is part of the Labour Party, affiliated to the European Socialist Party. Both the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and the Romanian Social Democratic (PSD) are key players in the two countries' governing coalitions.
This is not the first time that Timmermans has warned Bulgaria and Romania to step up the fight against corruption, but his letter to the Commission has set a precedent.
Bulgarian EU Affairs Minister Gergana Passy was quoted by Focus news agency as saying she believed the message of the minister's letter to be directed at the Dutch public rather than the Commission.
However, Passy admitted that unwelcome developments such as the release of several controversial 'businessmen' indicted by the judiciary, who then registered as election candidates, had not helped her country's image (EurActiv 29/05/09). In particular, she lamented that the so-called 'Galevi brothers', known as "the owners of the first private city in Bulgaria" (EurActiv 22/01/09), had recently been released from police custody to run in national elections, to be held on 5 July. Bulgaria appears to be a unique case where candidates for elections are given immunity from prosecution.
The Dutch government is under pressure from the far-right populists to adopt a tougher stance towards Bulgaria and Romania, especially since Geert Wilders's Freedom Party ranked second at the recent European elections, HotNews Romania writes. Wilders wants Bulgaria and Romania to be excluded from the EU, the agency recalls.

Positions:
Andreas Geiger, a partner in Brussels lobbying law firm Alber & Geiger, which until recently worked under contract to the Bulgarian interior ministry, told EurActiv that the demands by Timmermans were not surprising, considering the poor results of his party in the EU elections.
If there really was a political concern regarding Romania and Bulgaria, it would have to be voiced by heavyweights such as Germany, and not the Netherlands, Geiger said.

From EurActiv.com

One in four men in South Africa may have raped someone - with most of those attacking more than one victim, data from a new survey suggests.

The study, by the country's Medical Research Council, also found three out of four who admitted rape attacked for the first time while in their teens.
It said practices such as gang rape were common because they were considered a form of male bonding.
The MRC spoke to 1,738 men in KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape provinces.
The study found that 73% of respondents said they had carried out their first assault before the age of 20.
Almost half who said they had carried out a rape admitted they had done so more than once.
One in 20 men surveyed said they had raped a woman or girl in the last year.
Professor Rachel Jewkes of the MRC, who carried out the research, told the BBC's World Today programme the findings were "very shocking".
"The absolute imperative is we have to change the underlying social attitudes that in a way have created a norm that coercing women into sex is on some level acceptable," she said.
"We know that we have a higher prevalence of rape in South Africa than there is in other countries.
"And it's partly rooted in our incredibly disturbed past and the way that South African men over the centuries have been socialised into forms of masculinity that are predicated on the idea of being strong and tough and the use of force to assert dominance and control over women, as well as other men."
She said all the victims in the main survey were women, but the participants were also interviewed about male rape.
The survey found that one in 10 men said they had been raped by other men.
Some 3% of the men interviewed said they had coerced a man or a boy into sex.
South Africa's government has been repeatedly criticised for failing to address the country's rape epidemic.

From the BBC.

Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province

INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP - NEW BRIEFING

Pakistan’s IDP Crisis: Challenges and Opportunities

Islamabad/Brussels, 3 June 2009: Unless relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) are urgently improved, the army’s offensive against the Taliban risks leaving the extremists the ultimate winners.

Pakistan’s IDP Crisis: Challenges and Opportunities,* the latest International Crisis Group policy briefing, examines the operations against religious militants in Malakand Division and their impact on internally displaced persons (IDPs) and local communities. The army’s use of heavy force, failure to address the full cost to civilians and refusal to allow effective humanitarian access to conflict zones has already been counterproductive. Public and political support for action against the Taliban could erode if civilian casualties are high and the response to IDP needs is inadequate. The government should create mechanisms to make aid distribution accountable to IDP communities, demand greater civilian oversight and humanitarian access, and prohibit banned jihadi groups from participating in relief efforts.