Israel has said that Russia’s plans to meet leaders of the new militant Palestinian government, Hamas, may legitimise its political status in the eyes of the international community, but not diminish its terrorist nature. Hamas was elected in January to rule the Palestinian Authority. It is considered by many foreign governments to be a terrorist organisation.
It is not the place where you would expect to find justice in Rwanda: at the end of a bumpy dirt road leading to a shantytown of red mud-brick homes, where children sit idly on verandas. Yet, deep within this labyrinth of buildings, streets and palm trees in the south of the capital, Kigali, a rudimentary courtroom has been set up.
Although the rebel movement fighting in Uganda’s north has fostered an aura of religious mysticism based on an apparent wish to recreate a state following the Biblical Ten Commandments, its grudge against the Ugandan government is rooted in deep-seated grievances that stem back for years.
Walking in the eerie darkness engulfing Noah’s Ark, a centre that children in northern Uganda escape to for fear of being kidnapped by the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), it is easy to see why so many in the region are eager for peace. Although a handful of the several hundred children who gather here every night are now singing sweetly for a group of visitors, the 19-year battle between government and the LRA has scarred their lives.