Welcome to IRIN's reading list. Every week our global network of specialist correspondents share their top picks of recent must-read research, podcasts, reports, blogs and in-depth articles to help you keep on top of global crises. We also highlight key upcoming conferences, book releases and policy debates.
Four to read:
Did the US commit a war crime by attacking an MSF clinic in Afghanistan? Maybe.
One week ago, the Pentagon released its investigation into an aerial assault on a Médecins Sans Frontières clinic in Afghanistan last October. You can find the report here. If you don’t have time to read through the whole thing, Human Rights Watch’s advocacy director, John Sifton, has written a commentary that sums up the main issues. Chief among those is the question of whether the attack that killed 42 people was a war crime. The Pentagon found that it was the result of “human errors, compounded by process and equipment failures”, but investigators determined that it did not constitute a war crime because it was not intentional. This reasoning isn’t satisfying to Sifton, who argues: “War crimes may 'typically' be committed intentionally, but as the US military knows very well, they don't have to be. War crimes can also be committed through reckless behavior.”
The precarious life of Syrian agricultural workers in Turkey
There are plenty of reports about Syrian refugees living in camps in Turkey, and even a few about the “urban refugees” who make up the majority of Syrians in Turkey, but rarely do we hear about those eking out a living in the country’s rural areas. Journalist Eric Reidy met some of the thousands of Syrians living in the agricultural district of Torbali near Turkey’s western coast, where they work as undocumented farm labourers and live in informal camps under the constant threat of eviction. These refugees have no thoughts of reaching Europe. Before the war, they were already among Syria’s poor rural classes. Now they and their children have become cheap labour for Turkey’s agricultural sector.
The State of Maritime Piracy 2015
You don’t seem to hear so much about pirates anymore. In fact, 306 seafarers were subject to attack in 2015, 108 of them were held hostage, and 41 remain in captivity. These figures come courtesy of a sixth annual report by Oceans Beyond Piracy. The takeaways: a sharp drop in the number of attacks in Southeast Asia in the second half of the year, but a worrying rise in the Gulf of Guinea. If you don’t want to wade through full individual reports on the Western Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Guinea, and Southeast Asia, check out this handy executive summary that covers all three.
Humanitarian Engagement with Non-state Armed Groups
The well-worn adage “we don’t negotiate with terrorists” doesn’t hold up terribly well when it comes to humanitarian work. Aid organisations have long dealt with militant groups to get help to those who need it, but it’s never simple. This collection of four papers from Chatham House covers many of the issues involved – what should humanitarians do when state counterterrorism legislation designates the groups they deal with as “terrorists”? How can we encourage non-state armed groups (NSAGs, in aid worker parlance), to respect international law? And how can aid workers best hear from civilians stuck in the middle of armed conflict? Might mobile technology be the answer? These papers aren’t just academic musings – humanitarians are facing these challenges head on in conflicts worldwide.
A related one to listen to:
Today We Drop Bombs, Tomorrow We Build Bridges
How do you fight in a country like Syria, against an adversary like so-called Islamic State, and help the civilian population at the same time? In his latest book, British journalist and broadcaster Peter Gill explores the entanglement of humanitarian aid with militaries and non-state armed groups. Sub-titled “How Foreign Aid Became a Casualty of War”, the book reveals how independence and neutrality have been shattered by the ‘war on terror’ and examines what this means for those engaged in vital relief operations. Ahead of the book’s 15 May publication, this fascinating podcast comes from an event at the end of last month in which Gill was joined by senior MSF humanitarian specialist Michiel Hofman to discuss the main issues. Fascinating.
One to watch:
Don’t be too hard on yourself if you don’t. A decade ago, it would have been hard to avoid hearing about the atrocities being committed in the western region of Sudan. Celebrities visited, and journalists filed heart-wrenching stories. These days, attention has dwindled, but not because the conflict has been resolved; instead, the government has simply made it impossible to get into the area. Well, almost impossible. Last year, photojournalists Adriane Ohanesian and Klaas van Dijken were smuggled over the border from Chad, the first journalists to make it in for years. They found people living in caves after being bombed by military aircraft, and burned out of their homes by government-aligned militias. This short video features some of the images they made, as well as an interview with Ohanesian, who recently won a World Press Photo award for one of the shots from the trip.
One from IRIN:
Is Rwanda stirring rebellion in Burundi?
DDR, or, if you want to add some rehabilitation and repatriation to your disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration, DDRRR, is an ugly initialism, but it is important. For evidence of that right now, just look at the former M23 rebels of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Congolese government is accusing neighbouring Rwanda of recruiting some of them to help the Burundian opposition to oust President Pierre Nkurunziza, adding a disturbing regional dimension to that year-long crisis. In this detailed and thorough analysis, IRIN Contributor Samuel Okiror examines the allegations and finds that even if the evidence is a little thin, the issue itself raises serious concerns about what is likely to happen if efforts aren’t redoubled to integrate former fighters. “[The lack of progress] remains a destabilising force generally, and a potential recruiting ground for other conflicts, such as the one in Burundi,” one leading expert tells him.
Coming up:
Start for Change: 9-13 May in London
The new humanitarian economy; systemic resilience and change; innovation; capacity strengthening; network design; the future of NGOs; and new crisis response models enabled by technology. These are the main items on the agenda for Start for Change 2016, a week of events organised by The Start Network, which aims for a more diverse, collaborative and decentralised “humanitarian ecosystem”. Speakers at Wednesday’s Annual Conference include NRC Secretary-General Jan Egeland, former Canadian PM Joe Clark, Civicus Secretary-General Danny Sriskandarajah, and Saba al-Mubaslat, CEO of the Humanitarian Leadership Academy. For the full run-down of all the governance meetings, talks and workshops, see here:
Internal Displacement Report – Wednesday, 11 May
Next week, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDCM) launches its 2016 Global Report on Internal Displacement, providing new figures for displacement caused by conflict and disasters, as well as often overlooked drivers of displacement such as criminal violence, drought and development projects. IRIN Migration Editor Kristy Siegfried will moderate a briefing to discuss the report's findings in Geneva on 13 May.
From 11 May 2016, a micro-website for the 2016 Global Report on Internal Displacement will be available at: www.internal-displacement.org/globalreport2016
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