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BUJUMBURA, Burundi — Thousands of people stormed the streets, blowing whistles and screaming into megaphones, as the news spread across Burundi’s capital city of Bujumbura. Just hours after President Pierre Nkurunziza left the country to attend a meeting of East African leaders in Tanzania on May 13, Maj. Gen. Godefroid Niyombare announced that the president’s time in office had come to an abrupt end.

“President Nkurunziza is dismissed,” General Niyombare said around lunchtime on Wednesday, surrounded by several senior police and army officials, including a former defense minister. “His government is dismissed too.”

For many, the announcement was a welcomed response to sustained anti-government demonstrations. Protests have paralyzed the capital for nearly three weeks, after Nkurunziza announced his intention to run for a third term in the presidential elections on June 26 — a move which opponents say is illegal. Yet, on Thursday, it was clear that the celebrations were premature as a security force with divided loyalties fought violently for control of the capital.

Burundi has a long history of political unrest. Between 1993 and 2005, the country fissured during a 13-year civil war that pitted Tutsis against Hutus, and left some 300,000 dead. The ethnic loyalties that sparked the war have largely dissolved today (in accordance with the peace agreement, the army cannot comprise more than 50 percent of any one ethnic group). In fact, those opposed to Nkurunziza’s third term come from all ethnicities. Yet the president, who is Hutu, still has his supporters — primarily the police, and some within the military — who are unwilling to stand on the sidelines as their elected leader is toppled. It is as yet unclear whether the attempted sacking of Nkurunziza by General Niyombare marks the end of a protest movement, or the beginning of a more enduring conflict.

The protests began on April 26, a day after Nkurunziza announced he’d run for a third term. Since then, anti-government protesters have amassed each morning in the streets — many awaking after snatching just a few hours of sleep. During the demonstrations, protesters had feared being beaten, arrested, or even killed by police and militant young loyalists. At night, they took turns standing guard — armed with whistles and mobile phones to warn neighbors of impending attacks. Each day, crowds of energetic young men, wearing makeshift masks and carrying fake guns, then gathered in small pockets throughout the city and began to march.

The army was deployed to the streets on the second day of protests. Much-respected by civilians, it sought to play a valuable mediation role. Yet the protests turned violent and unpredictable, particularly after Burundi’s constitutional court backed the president’s bid for re-election last week. On Monday, three people were killed and dozens more wounded in clashes between police and demonstrators. In all, at least 20 people have died since the demonstrations began.

“Because the police had been attacking the demonstrators for a while, people in those neighborhoods were very anxious, very tired,” said Ketty Nivyabandi, a 36-year-old mother of two, after the announcement of the coup. She attended her first march on Sunday, a peaceful, female-only march that managed to reach the center of town.

“We needed to put peace back into the protest,” she said. “What we did was revolutionary.”

For Burundians like Ketty, General Niyombare’s actions on Wednesday were simply a response to Nkurunziza’s defiance of the constitution — and the culmination of a justified popular movement. Though many jubilant protestors return to their homes, it remains unclear who is in charge of the country.

The military is divided, and many still back the president. The army’s chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Prime Niyongabo, for example, said on state radio late on Wednesday that he is “against Maj. Gen. Niyombare.”

“This coup attempt has been foiled,” said a statement yesterday from Nkurunziza posted on the president’s Twitter and Facebook accounts. “These people, who read the coup announcement on the radio, are being hunted by defence and security forces so that they can be brought to justice.”

On Thursday, rival troops clashed in the capital. According to the most recent reports, Nkurunziza returned to Burundi today (though his location remains uncertain) and soldiers loyal to him control much of the capital.

In the vacuum of security, some analysts fear reprisal attacks by loyalist members of the police force and the Imbonerakure, the ruling party’s much-feared youth wing, against those perceived to be anti-government. Late Wednesday, men in police uniforms attacked and set fire to the influential, independent African Public Radio station, which in the past had reported on government efforts to silence critics. On Thursday, another independent radio station, Bonesha, was attacked and set alight by uniformed men with Kalashnikovs and grenades. At the time of writing, all national independent radio stations were off air.

Tutsis outside the capital may be particularly vulnerable to attacks. “The Imbonerakure would go for easy targets,” said one political analyst in the capital, who asked not to be named. “Tutsi opposition are isolated and need to be protected,” he said of those living in the countryside.

Though fighting calmed on Thursday evening, control of the capital remains very much uncertain. As civilians prepare for potentially another day of clashes between rival security forces, some have begun constructing barricades on the streets to protect themselves.

For Moustang Habimana, one of the demonstrators camped out on the streets, the prospect for a stable political transition in the short term is all but dead.

“Only the people,” he said, “control the country right now.”

Jennifer Huxta/AFP/Getty Images

Jóváhagyta az orosz kormány a gázvezetékrendszer megújított fejlesztési tervét, amelybe bekapcsolták a Török Áramlatot is. A vonatkozó utasítás csütörtökön jelent meg a kabinet honlapján. Az orosz gázt Törökország felé szállító csőrendszer mellett a Kína ellátására épülő Szibéria Ereje és az Altáj nevű, illetve a dél-oroszországi Krasznodari határvidéket és a Krím félszigetet összekötő vezetékek is szerepelnek az új kormányzati tervben.

Last June, in order to fulfill a promise to make his daughter a real life princess, Jeremiah Heaton planted a flag in a trapezoidal stretch of unoccupied territory between Egypt and Sudan and claimed it as his own.

The move was a birthday gift to his seven-year-old daughter, Emily. Heaton called the territory, which is claimed by neither Egypt nor Sudan and is known as Bir Tawil, the Kingdom of North Sudan. The move prompted outrage in the Twitterverse, where users derided it as “foolishness” and “colonization.”

Heaton told Foreign Policy that much of the criticism has come from what he scornfully calls “academics” quick to label his project modern-day colonialism. The purported country is named on no official maps and recognized by no nations on earth, including Heaton’s native United States.

Less than a year later, Heaton looks he’ll have the last laugh: Disney now plans to make The Princess of North Sudan, a movie based on his family’s story, and Morgan Spurlock of Super Size Me is producing it.

It’s a strange new phase of an exceedingly strange story. Heaton’s plan to lay claim to this unchartered territory first went viral after he posted a photo of himself next to the flag last June. The story was soon picked up by the Bristol Herald Courier, and then by the Associated Press.

The story was brought back into the limelight this fall with news of the Disney deal. On Wednesday, the Hollywood Reporter said the movie would be written by Stephany Folsom, whose previous works include 1969: A Space Odyssey or How Kubrick Learned to Stop Worrying and Land on the Moon, sparking new anger over the fact that the first African Disney princess would be a white girl from Virginia named Emily.

But in a conversation with FP Thursday, Heaton, a Virginia farmer who runs a mining-safety company, said anyone calling this project colonialist is “living through the lens of racism.”

“Academics at universities saying this is modern day colonialism, really that’s a euphemism for racism,” he told FP. “I can’t help any more that I was born in America as a white man than an Asian person born in Asia can [help that].”

His establishment of the Kingdom of North Sudan was legal, he said, because the territory belonged to no one.

“The definition of colonialism is the invasion of one country by another country for exploitation of resources and goods,” he said. “I don’t represent the U.S.A. and that area was abandoned.”

Today, the family is mainly just concerned about getting all the plans they have for their kingdom up and running.

A self-described group of science lovers, the Heatons want to use the land to create a sustainable opportunity for food production, an idea that originated with Princess Emily.

“Once she understood it was in Africa and correlated that information with the fact that her elementary school teacher does missions work in Africa…and we were in the same neighborhood as children who didn’t have a lot to eat, in her very simple terms said she wanted to grow a garden big enough to feed everyone,” he said.

Heaton, whose wife is a middle school science teacher, admitted the area, which is one of the driest in the world, is not the most ideal location to start a garden.

“There’s a reason people don’t live there,” he said with a laugh.

For now, they’re proceeding slowly. The first step, Heaton said, was declaring his borders and proving the area doesn’t have a history of being controlled by any other government. The second, which he says he did when he planted his flag last June, was to announce to the world his intention to govern the region. The third and fourth steps are where it gets trickier: It will need to be occupied and have trade relations set up with its neighbors. Considering even Heaton describes it as “inhabitable,” and neither Sudan nor Egypt have legally recognized the country as a state, that might be difficult.

Although Heaton acknowledges it’s “nothing but a barren desert” that is currently “no good to anyone,” he dreams of building a large energy production facility there to supply surplus energy to both Egypt and Sudan, who he says are both in the midst energy crises. In his conversation with FP, he didn’t specify what kind of energy would be produced there, but did say it would be renewable.

According to Heaton, Egypt is making a push for foreign investment right now, and he thinks his faux-country is “really on the same path.” He also wants to use funds to set up what he’s called the “Agricultural Research Center” to house scientists, including water purification specialists and climatologists, who will use their time to find solutions to food insecurity in the region.

This week, the family launched an IndieGoGo fundraiser to help fund the project. For a donation of $15 you get a bumper sticker, for $25 an honorary title of nobility. But if you want to name the capital city, that’s going to run you $1.75 million.

Heaton said that while they’ve only raised $4,100 so far, he thinks he will raise more than $15 million by the time the fundraiser ends in 42 days.

“I might be the sovereign king, but I see myself more as the fundraiser-in-chief,” he said.

In fact, Heaton isn’t all that thrilled he had to make the country a monarchy in the first place, but the family is already working out those political kinks.

“The only reason there’s a monarchy is that’s what I had to establish to make Emily a princess,” he said. “We’re gonna go to a constitutional form of monarchy where we are just figureheads for the state and the people who actually live there will run things so our titles will be strictly ceremonial. As king I just rule over my kids.”

As for the Disney movie? A spokesperson for Disney confirmed plans were in the works, although there isn’t a script yet.

Heaton’s family feels “blessed” to have a “neat” relationship with Disney, but the movie project is only a tiny smidgen of what they have planned for the Kingdom of North Sudan.

“For us the movie deal is five percent of what we have going on,” he told FP. “If our life was a circus, it’s the tent at the farthest end of the midway, and that’s the truth.”

“In this process we have been able to make Emily a real princess,” he said. “She’s also a Disney princess.”

Photo Courtesy of Jeremiah Heaton’s Facebook

Ce jeudi 14 mai 2015 a été marqué par deux événements d'une grave signification. La Cour suprême de Belgrade a réhabilité Draža Mihailovic, le chef des tchétniks de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, tandis que la Présidente croate, Kolinda Grabar Kitarović, rendait hommage aux oustachis à Bleiburg.
La Cour suprême de Belgrade a donné l'épilogue d'un procès ouvert voici cinq ans. Le juge Aleksandar Tresnjev a déclaré que la cour avait accepté la demande de réhabilitation, déposée en 2006 par le petit-fils de Draža (...)

/ Histoire, Politique intérieure, Croatie, Serbie

Ce jeudi 14 mai 2015 a été marqué par deux événements d'une grave signification. La Cour suprême de Belgrade a réhabilité Draža Mihailovic, le chef des tchétniks de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, tandis que la Présidente croate, Kolinda Grabar Kitarović, rendait hommage aux oustachis à Bleiburg.
La Cour suprême de Belgrade a donné l'épilogue d'un procès ouvert voici cinq ans. Le juge Aleksandar Tresnjev a déclaré que la cour avait accepté la demande de réhabilitation, déposée en 2006 par le petit-fils de Draža (...)

/ Histoire, Politique intérieure, Croatie, Serbie

As South Sudan’s fourth anniversary approaches, the fractured state teeters on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe that has left millions in need of aid as a result of renewed fighting in the ongoing civil war. The relapse into conflict has been an enormous setback for statebuilding, curtailing efforts to ensure that humanitarian relief reaches all civilians in need of it.

Through the nexus of humanitarianism and state formation, this issue brief assesses the international humanitarian system’s engagement in South Sudan during the period from statehood in July 2011 to the period immediately prior to the outbreak of the December 2013 crisis. Aside from responding to short-term needs, the author argues that humanitarianism ought to fit into the overall political strategy of supporting the process of state formation.

The report outlines the enormous needs and challenges facing South Sudan since independence, its emerging humanitarian crises, and the response of humanitarian actors and donors. It addresses South Sudan’s unique challenges of state formation and the importance of linking long-term state capacity building to aid delivery.

To advance aid delivery and improve implementation capacity in South Sudan, the author offers the following recommendations:

• Meaningfully involve government in the design and execution of aid projects.
• Finance projects that build on existing capacities at the lower tier of administration.
• Consider direct cash transfers.
• Raise local salaries to attract talent into the government.
• Finance public works projects.

IPI_E-RPT-State-Formation-Humanitarianism-South-Sudan

In recent weeks several reports have claimed that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was severely wounded in a Western air strike and that he may be on death’s doorstep. But on Thursday, the militant leader broke a prolonged period of silence with the release of a 35-minute audio message to his followers in which he urged Muslims around the world to travel to Iraq and Syria and join up with the Islamic State.

Baghdadi’s message comes as the Islamic State lost momentum in Syria to a coalition of rebel groups, including other Islamist militants, who have in recent weeks won a series of victories against the forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. In Iraq, the Islamic State has also suffered some setbacks but continues to hold large chunks of the country and are currently fighting government forces for control of its largest oil refinery, at Baiji.

Baghdadi’s speech describes this fight in cataclysmic terms and makes an aggressive appeal for additional recruits. “It is the war of every Muslim, in every place, and the Islamic State is merely the spearhead in this war,” Baghdadi said, according to a translated version of his remarks provided by Site Intelligence, which monitors online jihadi message boards. “There is no excuse, for any Muslim is capable of performing hijrah to the Islamic State.” Hijrah is an Arabic term referring to the Prophet Muhammad’s migration from Mecca to Medina and which radical groups have appropriated to describe the journey to join up with guerrilla fighters.

In an indication of the Islamic State’s international ambitions, the message was disseminated along with translations of the address in English, French, German, Russian, and Turkish. While Baghdadi’s emphasis in the address was on international recruitment to the Islamic State’s core force, he also urged Muslims to “fight in his land wherever that may be.”

For Western officials puzzling over why thousands of their youths are signing up with the militant group, Baghdadi’s address provides a litany of reasons why it has become so appealing: “We call upon you so that you leave the life of humiliation, disgrace, degradation, subordination, loss, emptiness, and poverty, to a life of honor, respect, leadership, richness, and another matter that you love — victory from Allah and an imminent conquest.”

Baghdadi casts that fight as a civilizational struggle that is sure to inflame debates about the degree to which the Islamic State is an expression of the Muslim faith: “Islam was never for a day the religion of peace. Islam is the religion of war.”

With Iraqi forces preparing to broaden their offensive against the Islamic State, Baghdadi directly addressed the residents of western Anbar province, control of which will represent a key test for the central government’s efforts to expel the extremists from the country. Baghdadi lamented the plight of Anbar residents, most of whom are Sunni, like the extremist group itself, who have been forced from their homes and said that Anbar residents fighting against the Islamic State will be forgiven for their “crimes” if they repent.

It’s not clear when the address was made, but referenced recent events in the late March-early April timeframe. Baghdadi harshly criticized Saudi Arabia’s intervention in Yemen, and referred to fighting for control of the Iraqi city of Tikrit, which was liberated from Islamic State control during the first days of April. Operation Decisive Storm, as the Saudi campaign in Yemen was known, began on March 25.

EPA/Islamic State Video

„NATO vállalásunk részeként Magyarország 2015 szeptembere és decembere között, négy hónapon keresztül részt vesz a Baltikum légtérvédelmi és légtérrendészeti feladatainak ellátásában, négy Gripen vadászgéppel és a kitelepülő földi kiszolgáló állománnyal” - mondta Hende Csaba május 14-én csütörtökön, Budapesten, azt követően, hogy Juozas Olekas litván nemzetvédelmi miniszterrel aláírta a két védelmi tárca közötti megújított együttműködési megállapodást.

Az első világháború centenáriuma alkalmából Békéscsaba Megyei Jogú Város Önkormányzata, a Magyar Olimpiai Akadémia, a Magyar Olimpiai és Sportmúzeum, a HM Hadtörténeti Intézet és Múzeum (HM HIM) és a békéscsabai Munkácsy Mihály Múzeum „Sportemberek a fronton – sport a hátországban” címmel konferenciát és kiállítást szervezett május 8-án, Békéscsabán a Csabagyönygye Kulturális Központban.

Két új, innovatív CT-berendezést adtak át május 14-én, Budapesten, az MH Egészségügyi Központ Honvédkórházában. A készülékek egyedülállóak Magyarországon, és a beteggondozás széles skáláján segítik majd a szakemberek munkáját az intézményben.

A Magyar Honvédség az ország egyik legnagyobb munkáltatójaként van jelen az északkelet-magyarországi régió munkaerőpiacán, kiszámítható, biztos jövőt jelent az elhivatottaknak. A sereg az idei évben is több száz munkavállaló jelentkezését várja.

Egy külföldiek látogatta vendégházra támadtak rá fegyveresek az afgán fővárosban. Egy amerikai és két indinai, valamint két másik vendég is meghalt a túszdrámában, aminek végül rendőrök vetettek véget. A robbanómellényt viselő támadók mindegyikét lelőtték a hét órán át zajló tűzpárbajban.

Május 10-én, helyi idő szerint délután hat óra körül Jemen felett lezuhant a marokkói királyi légierő F-16C Block 52 Falcon vadászbombázó repülőgépe. A roncsmezőben megtalált függőleges vezérsík adatai szerint a 08-8008 lajstromszámú gép szenvedett katasztrófát Wadi Nushur térségében Sana'a városától nem messze.

Háborús bűnként el kell ítélni a közel-keleti régészeti emlékek lerombolását és kifosztását, például az olyan cselekedeteket, mint amilyeneket az Iszlám Állam (IÁ) nevű terrorszervezet követett el Irakban - jelentette ki május 13-án, szerdán az egyiptomi fővárosban, Kairóban az ENSZ Nevelésügyi, Tudományos és Kulturális Szervezetének (UNESCO) főigazgatója.

A napokban ismét nyitott kapukkal várta az érdeklődőket az MH vitéz Szurmay Sándor Budapest Helyőrség Dandár Petőfi Sándor laktanyája, ahova a budaörsi Puzzle Képességfejlesztő Tanoda egy kis csoportja is ellátogatott.

Elégtelennek tartotta a brit hadsereg felszereltségét, és a mezőgazdasági termelők problémáinak ügyében is lobbizott a kormányhoz írt, évtizedes jogi csatározás után szerdán nyilvánosságra hozott leveleiben a brit trónörökös.

Megkezdődött a háromnapos NATO CIMIC Funkcionális Művelettervező Törzsgyakorlat május 13-án szerdán, Budapesten, a Stefánia Palota − Honvéd Kulturális Központban.

Elrendelte a határok és a bujumburai repülőtér lezárását a burundi hadsereg egyik tábornoka, aki május 13-án, szerda délelőtt azt állította, hogy eltávolította tisztségéből Pierre Nkurunziza elnököt. Godefroid Niyombare – akit az elnök februárban menesztett a titkosszolgálatok éléről – az RPA helyi rádióban arra utasította az állampolgárokat és a biztonsági erőket, hogy vonuljanak a bujumburai repülőtérre a létesítmény „biztosítása” érdekében.

A Hadtörténeti Múzeum a napokban Varga Sándor alezredes, vadászrepülő-pilóta különleges kitüntetés-hagyatékával gyarapodott. A tárgycsoportot − amit az 1951 és 1983 között a Magyar Néphadseregben szolgált, közelmúltban elhunyt katonatiszt lánya, Farkas Antalné ajándékozott az intézménynek − Varga Sándor testvére, Varga János nyugállományú ezredes, olimpiai bajnok birkózó és felesége adta át dr. Kovács Vilmos ezredesnek, a HM Hadtörténeti Intézet és Múzeum parancsnokának.

Az év végéig 18 hadgyakorlatot tartanak Oroszországban - olvasható május 13-i, szerdai orosz sajtóhírekben.