Ethnic Cleansing

SHOULD THE United States be the world’s policeman? According to a new Rasmussen poll, only a sliver of US voters — 11 percent — want America to be the nation chiefly responsible for policing the planet and trying to maintain international order. An overwhelming 74 percent reject the idea. These aren’t anomalous results. When Rasmussen polled the same question in 2009, the results were virtually identical. Gallup regularly asks how large a role — leading, major, minor, or none — the United States should take in solving international problems; only a small minority of respondents ever favors...

THE HAGUE - Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb military commander, went on trial here Wednesday facing charges of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity in some of the bloodiest events of the Bosnian war in the 1990s, including the Srebrenica massacre and the siege of Sarajevo. The court heard a prosecutor's recitation of atrocities said to have been committed by soldiers directly under Mladic's command as Bosnian Serb units carried out a campaign of ethnic cleansing and, in Sarajevo, directed a "spigot of terror" that could be opened or closed at will against...

The mayor of Manchester wants to stop new refugees from settling in the city for two years because those already there are still trying to acclimate. New Hampshire’s largest city has long been a hub for the International Resettlement Program and hundreds of victims of political and religious persecution, ethnic cleansing and natural disasters have found sanctuary in the community. But Mayor Ted Gatsas and the alderman have concerns that those already in Manchester aren’t getting the support they need from the federally funded program.

The heavy-handed touch of Angelina Jolie's directorial debut "In the Land of Blood and Honey" is evident right from the start, when a bomb explodes in a nightclub before our main characters, out on a date, have even shared a word. Throughout the film, Jolie puts politics ahead of story and character, blatantly imposing a message — an altruist message, but a message nonetheless — on the film. And the result is a movie whose narrative feels like a fictionalized United Nations presentation.

SUKHUMI, Georgia - Vladislav Ardzinba, who led the breakaway Georgian province of Abkhazia to de facto independence through a bloody war and ethnic cleansing, died yesterday, his doctor said. He was 64. Mr. Ardzinba died in a Moscow clinic, Anzor Gooz said without specifying the cause of death. The Abkhazian president hailed Mr. Ardzinba’s role in the nation’s history. “His service to Abkhazian people was boundless,’’ Sergei Bagapsh told the Interfax news agency.

THE HAGUE - Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb military commander, went on trial here Wednesday facing charges of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity in some of the bloodiest events of the Bosnian war in the 1990s, including the Srebrenica massacre and the siege of Sarajevo. The court heard a prosecutor's recitation of atrocities said to have been committed by soldiers directly under Mladic's command as Bosnian Serb units carried out a campaign of ethnic cleansing and, in Sarajevo, directed a "spigot of terror" that could be...

PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro -- NATO-led forces surrounded a key Kosovo town yesterday in efforts to separate ethnic Albanians and Serbs and prevent a resurgence of attacks that killed 28 people and wounded 600, the worst bloodshed in the province since its war ended in 1999. Thousands of fresh NATO forces began taking up positions late Friday and throughout yesterday in the UN-run province after every major city here was hit by riots, arson, and gunfights that started Wednesday.

UNITED NATIONS -- Sudanese forces are helping Arab militias drive black Africans out of the country's Darfur region, the UN human rights chief said Friday, but he stopped short of blaming the government for what he described as widespread atrocities. Bertrand Ramcharan and James Morris, chief of the UN World Food Program, spoke to reporters after they briefed the Security Council on UN missions they recently led to the region. "First, there is a reign of terror in this area; second, there is a scorched-earth policy; third there are repeated war crimes and crimes against...

WASHINGTON -- Three decades after misty eyes doomed Edmund Muskie's presidential campaign and revelations of shock treatment forced Thomas Eagleton out as vice presidential nominee, Howard Dean has spoken about grief counseling and bouts of anxiety over his brother's disappearance in Southeast Asia. Wesley K. Clark has gotten emotional over genocide. John F. Kerry has been seen watery-eyed in a New Hampshire diner. John Edwards has called the death of his son "the undercurrent of my life.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Radovan Karadzic’s words urging the destruction of Bosnia’s non-Serbs rang out in a courtroom yesterday from speeches and intercepted phone calls as United Nations prosecutors opened their genocide and war crimes case against him. The former Bosnian Serb leader boycotted his trial for the second day, despite warnings from the war crimes tribunal’s presiding judge that he could be stripped of his right to defend himself....

CRAYS HILL, England - British police used sledgehammers, crowbars, and a cherry picker yesterday to clear the way for the eviction of Irish Travelers from a site where they have lived illegally for a decade. By the afternoon police said that they were in control of the site and that bailiffs were beginning to move onto the disputed property. Essex Police said two protesters were Tasered and seven people arrested after police officers were attacked with rocks, other missiles, and liquids including urine.

The mayor of Manchester wants to stop new refugees from settling in the city for two years because those already there are still trying to acclimate. New Hampshire’s largest city has long been a hub for the International Resettlement Program and hundreds of victims of political and religious persecution, ethnic cleansing and natural disasters have found sanctuary in the community. But Mayor Ted Gatsas and the alderman have concerns that those already in Manchester aren’t getting the support they need from the federally funded program.

SHOULD THE United States be the world’s policeman? According to a new Rasmussen poll, only a sliver of US voters — 11 percent — want America to be the nation chiefly responsible for policing the planet and trying to maintain international order. An overwhelming 74 percent reject the idea. These aren’t anomalous results. When Rasmussen polled the same question in 2009, the results were virtually identical. Gallup regularly asks how large a role — leading, major, minor, or none — the United States should take in solving international problems; only a small minority of respondents ever favors...

SUKHUMI, Georgia - Vladislav Ardzinba, who led the breakaway Georgian province of Abkhazia to de facto independence through a bloody war and ethnic cleansing, died yesterday, his doctor said. He was 64. Mr. Ardzinba died in a Moscow clinic, Anzor Gooz said without specifying the cause of death. The Abkhazian president hailed Mr. Ardzinba’s role in the nation’s history. “His service to Abkhazian people was boundless,’’ Sergei Bagapsh told the Interfax news agency.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Radovan Karadzic’s words urging the destruction of Bosnia’s non-Serbs rang out in a courtroom yesterday from speeches and intercepted phone calls as United Nations prosecutors opened their genocide and war crimes case against him. The former Bosnian Serb leader boycotted his trial for the second day, despite warnings from the war crimes tribunal’s presiding judge that he could be stripped of his right to defend himself....

'We Shall Remain," a revisionist account of American Indian history, runs tonight and for the next four Mondays on Channel 2 as part of PBS's "American Experience" series. A necessary and welcome corrective, "We Shall Remain" isn't meant to be comprehensive. Don't expect to find Pontiac, Chief Joseph, or Sitting Bull - let alone Indian casinos. Instead, individual episodes examine the fall of the 17th-century Wampanoags in Massachusetts; the Shawnee chief Tecumseh's dream of a pan-tribal union, in the early 1800s; the forced relocation of the Cherokee three...

The heavy-handed touch of Angelina Jolie's directorial debut "In the Land of Blood and Honey" is evident right from the start, when a bomb explodes in a nightclub before our main characters, out on a date, have even shared a word. Throughout the film, Jolie puts politics ahead of story and character, blatantly imposing a message — an altruist message, but a message nonetheless — on the film. And the result is a movie whose narrative feels like a fictionalized United Nations presentation.

CRAYS HILL, England - British police used sledgehammers, crowbars, and a cherry picker yesterday to clear the way for the eviction of Irish Travelers from a site where they have lived illegally for a decade. By the afternoon police said that they were in control of the site and that bailiffs were beginning to move onto the disputed property. Essex Police said two protesters were Tasered and seven people arrested after police officers were attacked with rocks, other missiles, and liquids including urine.

UNITED NATIONS -- Sudanese forces are helping Arab militias drive black Africans out of the country's Darfur region, the UN human rights chief said Friday, but he stopped short of blaming the government for what he described as widespread atrocities. Bertrand Ramcharan and James Morris, chief of the UN World Food Program, spoke to reporters after they briefed the Security Council on UN missions they recently led to the region. "First, there is a reign of terror in this area; second, there is a scorched-earth policy; third there are repeated war crimes and crimes against humanity; and fourth,...

CAIRO -- Sudan is waging a bloody campaign of "ethnic cleansing" in the western Darfur region, killing thousands of people and driving more than 1 million more from their homes by bombing villages, shooting men, and raping women, a prominent human rights group said today. Human Rights Watch, based in New York, called on the UN Security Council, scheduled to meet today on the Darfur situation, to step in to help stop the bloodshed and look for evidence of crimes against humanity.