By Rebecca Tinsley - Journalist and Human Rights Activist

Huffington Post 01/30/2012

Casablanca, a film regularly cited as one of the greatest movies of all time, was released 70 years ago. It gave us phrases that have passed into the English language, ("Here's looking at you, kid," "Round up the usual suspects", "We'll always have Paris," and "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship", to name but a few). And it cemented Humphrey Bogart's reputation as the most irresistible anti-hero to cast his weary gaze on the silver screen.

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By Rebecca Tinsley on the Huffington Post January 4, 2012

The Arab League is whitewashing mass murder in Syria. But for the man leading its team of observers, what is happening on the streets of Syria is merely business as usual.

Mohammed Ahmed Dabi, a Sudanese general, has declared that the Syrian government is making significant progress toward the Arab League goal of restoring peace to Syria. Yet, the killing continues in plain sight: snipers target unarmed civilians, and dissidents are reportedly packed into shipping containers and tipped into the sea to drown. Even the ever-cautious United Nations estimates that 5,000 have died in the uprising.

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I've been sent a photo of a man missing two-thirds of his head. He lies on rocky ground in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan. The picture was taken by a fellow Nuban on his cell phone, moments after a Sudanese armed forces bombing raid killed his friend.

Although the wound was caused by a piece of shrapnel, it is more accurate to say the man died from complications. The more complicated the cause of a conflict, the less likely it is that the media will cover it or the international community will apply the diplomatic pressure necessary to stop the killing.

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Written by Rebecca Tinsley on August 16, 2011 - www.huffingtonpost.co.uk

It is a cliché that people in positions of power lie. And powerful people believe the lies others tell them because it serves their own agenda, or it is less effort in the short-term to accept falsehood.

But when our politicians believe powerful foreign liars with a track record of lying, bad things, like the Second World War, can happen.

 

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Written by Rebecca Tinsley on August 16, 2011 - www.e-ir.info

On July 9^th diplomats celebrated the birth of Africa’s newest country, South Sudan, like over-stimulated toddlers at a party. The media followed suit, with trivial and sometimes patronising stories about the new national anthem and flag, and the admittedly strange plan to create cities in the shapes of African animals.

Sadly, those involved should have focused on the agenda items they failed to address before sending out the independence day invitations. Postponed until an unspecified time were:

1. The location of the border between north and south;
2. Who has citizenship, and what becomes of the millions of southerners living in the north;
3. How much the north would charge the south to tranship its oil across northern territory to Port Sudan.

Each issue has the potential to reignite war. Consequently, and entirely predictably, the region is falling apart before our eyes.

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The Guardian, Friday 18th February 2011

In your WikiLeaks round-up (After WikiLeaks, 5 February) there is a reference to the claim by the international criminal court's chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, that President Omar al-Bashir siphoned off $9bn of state funds and that some of it might be in a British bank. But Moreno-Ocampo did not say "a British bank". He named Lloyds. The claim has been investigated three times and Lloyds has denied it.

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The Independent, Monday 14th February 2011

A Darfuri torture victim is today set to be deported back to Sudan, where she believes she could be killed, due to what her supporters claim is a "bureaucratic blunder" by the Home Office.

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The Fresh Outlook, Wednesday 9th February 2011

Sudan's President, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, yesterday announced that he was prepared to accept the secession of southern Sudan, granting the region independence from the north to create the world's newest country which is Africa's 54th state.

A referendum concerning separation saw 98.83% of the 3.8 million people polled vote in favour of secession, with some regions nearing 100%. In the frontier Unity State, nearly 500,000 people voted in favour of secession, with just 90 voting for unity.

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The Guardian, Monday 7th February 2011

The world's newest country has been born with confirmation that southern Sudan voted almost unanimously for independence from the north.

Results announced in Khartoum showed a near 99% majority in favour of cleaving Africa's biggest country – a mantle that will pass to Algeria.

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The Fresh Outlook, Wednesday 2nd February 2011

Over 99% of southern Sudanese people have voted in favour of secession from the north after the first results of the country's referendum on independence were counted.

The referendum commission who conducted the process have confirmed that 99.57% of those who were polled called for independence from the north. The poll, which was agreed as part of a peace agreement brokered in 2005, should bring to an end over two decades of civil war.

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