Word: militiaization
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...German authorities arrested a Rwandan militia leader, along with one of his aides, for allegedly orchestrating war crimes in the Democratic Republic of Congo from his perch in Europe. Prosecutors say that since 2001, Ignace Murwanashyaka has remotely commanded the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a paramilitary rebel group accused of killing hundreds of Congolese citizens this year. The organization is composed mainly of ethnic Hutu, some of whom are believed to be responsible for the massacre of more than 500,000 Rwandan Tutsi in 1994. The arrest of Murwanashyaka, who has lived in Germany since...
...junta, which took power in December 2008 and is led by a former army captain, Moussa Dadis Camara, seems to be preparing for more repression. Intermittent beatings and killings of opposition supporters continue, says a Guinean human rights worker who requested anonymity. And there are widespread reports of new militia training camps that have been set up in the hinterlands to train new paramilitary forces. Thierno Sow, president of the Guinean Organization for Human Rights (OGDH), claims the camps are outside a town called Forecariah near the border with Sierra Leone and that they are being run by mercenary instructors...
...combat the slaughter, Thailand has unleashed a massive surge, sending nearly 70,000 security forces into a region populated by 1.7 million people. But the authorities have also encouraged local residents to arm themselves and form militias with fanciful names like the Iron Ladies, the Night Butterflies and the Eyes of a Pineapple. Around 100,000 civilians are now members of such armed groups, and they either receive free guns from the military or can buy them at deeply subsidized rates. The majority of militia members come from Buddhist ranks because the government feels they are most vulnerable to attack...
...Forty other Sai Khao citizens have banded together as a unit of a village militia called the Or Ror Bor. Nearly all of the 25,000-strong Or Ror Bor operating in the three provinces are Buddhist, and their corps was inspired by no less an authority than the Queen of Thailand. In late 2004, after three Buddhists were brutally beheaded by militants, Queen Sirikit gave an impassioned speech advising the military to teach villagers how to defend themselves with firearms. Facing the cameras, she announced that even she "would learn to shoot guns without my glasses...
Five months after Lebanon's parliamentary elections, Prime Minister--designate Saad Hariri managed to form a unity government. Though the resolution to what had been a contentious political stalemate left Hariri's Western-backed coalition with the most ministerial posts, the opposing faction led by the Iranian-backed militia Hizballah--which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization--gained crucial Cabinet positions. The power-sharing agreement was welcomed by the U.N., but critics admonished Hariri for conceding to Hizballah's demands and potentially legitimizing its military presence in the country...