“Its main objective is to try and make the border with Iraq safer, since Iraq is no longer able to control its borders, since the invasion on the part of the Coalition”. With these words Nawaf Obaid, counsellor for national security in Saudi Arabia, presented the project for the defensive barrier that the Saudi government wants to build on the border with Iraq. Mutual accusations. continue...
The shopping list is precise but costly: 5 naval units, 5 helicopters and an agreement on a plan to control and dispose of immigrants that have arrived in the Canary Islands. The request aimed at member countries of the European Union was made by Spain that constantly finds itself exposed, with its archipelago on the southern edge of the Union, to landings along its coastline by clandestine refugees. continue...
Written for PeaceReporter by Grazia Careccia It’s the morning of March 14 2006. After nine months wait, Naima feels that it’s nearly time for her fifth son to be born. Naima isn’t yet thirty and lives in Hizma, a small village a few kilometres from Jerusalem, that she can see from the windows of her house, so close yet so far because of the dark grey wall that separates her village from the city. continue...
from our correspondent Christian Elia Country walls. Bilal Jado is a tall, strong 21-year-old Palestinian boy. He lives on a farm right outside of Bethlehem, in the midst of the countryside and animals where his family has been living for generations. Bilal’s face lights up when he proudly shows people the land where he was born, covered with olive trees, but becomes gloomy when he points to the wall. Tall, continue...
Exactly one year ago, people in the Italian border city of Gorizia were dressing up for a celebration. Slovenia’s entry into the European Union, to be marked on the first of May, would erase one of the most delicate borders left over from World War II. The central square of the Transalpine city, for fifty years divided in two by a wall separating it from the Slovenian city Nova Gorica, continue...
Writen for PeaceReporter by Andrea Carbonari* Delicate balance. Hundreds of people are standing in line these days at public offices in the two parts of Kashmir. Residents under Indian control in the state of Jammu and Kashmir as well as those in the Pakistani zone known as Azad Kashmir are hoping to get a special permit to travel by bus to visit relatives not seen in decades, in some cases since 1947. continue...
