361°

Conflict in Central African Republic

CENTRAFRIQUE
Vidéo envoyée par a360

''More than 150,000 Central Africans had been internally displaced, conflict in the north had affected about a million people''. Toby Lanzer, United Nations Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator in Central African Republic. Press Conference, 16 January 2007.

Since October 2006, Central African Armed Forces (FACA) have burned more than 2000 houses in the only region of Kaga Bandoro. Atrocities, rapes, summary executions, burnings of villages, destruction of harvests, many witnesses accuse the Central African Armed Forces (FACA). The people run away from their villages and hide in the bush where the FACA doesn't dare entering by fear of the rebellion that appeared as an answer to Francois Bozize's access to power after the overthrow of President Patasse in 2003.
The villagers are caught between the rebels they are accused of supporting, and the Central African military. They survive near their fields wher they lack of food, care, and clothes. Only two NGOs are there, Caritas, and MSF.

According to an a 40 year old agreement, the Fench army is in Central African Republic and gives a logistical and technical support (equipment and soldiers transportation) to the Central African Armed Forces (FACA).

Frédéric Sautereau, photoreporter, realised in December 2006 in the heart of the current conflict in Central African Republic.

We collaborated together to make a film including the photographs nd testimonies he brought from this "unexisting" conflict.

Produced by Oeil Public and À 360 Productions

Entrevista a R. Kapuscinski

Saló de lectura. Entrevista a R. Kapuscinski (spanish)

Ryszard Kapuscinski

Polish writer Ryszard Kapuscinski died on January 23, 2007, at the age of 74. As a foreign correspondent, Kapuscinski covered coups and revolutions in the developing world for forty years. Many of his articles appeared in a series of books that made him famous: The Soccer War, Another Day of Life, and Shah of Shahs. Listen to this interview originally aired in 1988.

Struggle for indigenous autonomy

Los olvidados de Oaxaca
The struggle for indigenous autonomy in Mexico.

Thanks to the LIMEDDH (Liga Mexicana por la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos) and the OPIZ (Organización de los Pueblos Indígenas Zapotecos), Alexa Brunet, photographer, and Yves Bonnardel, writer, undertook an extended investigation into state repression in Mexico in January - February 2006.
“Los olvidados” (the forgotten ones) brings together a series of 'on site' portraits and testimonials of Mexican villagers. The project focuses on two indigenous communities in the state of Oaxaca : Loxicha and San Juan Lalana.
The members of these communities assert their right to be liberated from a corrupt power, to live from their land, and to live autonomously and according to their own customs.

The government of the state of Oaxaca is seeking to impose their power on local representatives, in order to profit from the resources of these regions, rich in land, cattle and minerals. The people that we have presented in this investigation have all been victims of violent reprisals. People close to them have been arrested, they have been threatened, sometimes abducted, tortured, and detained without charge for having defended their rights for better living conditions.

The aim of this collaboration is to make the situation of these two communities known to the general public and to contribute as far as possible to a just resolution of the conflict.

Texts : Yves Bonnardel
Translated from French by Ivora

More +++

Jacaranda

Jacaranda is a "guarani word which designates a decorative tree from tropical America and Madagascar with vivid lilac-blue flowers, whose wood is appreciated in ebenistery under the name of purple wood".

Two motivated students found several similarities between this tree and the social entrepreneurs they are going to interview around the globe:
- Like the Jacaranda, whose roots take the best from the ground on which it grows, social entrepreneurs rely on their environment to elaborate solutions to social problems;
- Like the Jacaranda, which grows from South America to the Australian Continent, as well as in Madagascar, there are social entrepreneurs all over the world;
- Like the Jacaranda, that produces a wood of great quality for multiple uses, social entrepreneurs come up with ideas that can be exported and duplicated in different contexts.

The heroes you will discover on their website are not those who appear in adventure novels, history books or action movies. They are not legendary soldiers, famous politicians nor superheroes with magical powers.
But they improve the life of millions of people on all continents and build step by step a better world.
Their weapons : innovating ideas, determination and a deep belief in the capacity of each and everyone of us to change the world.
Their fieds of action: economic development, education, environment, health, social issues...

More +++

Eastern Roads

Soviet Union officially collapses on December 25th, 1991. Fifteen years later, the 15 ex-republics of the Soviet Union are waking up and growing up between democracy and dictatorship, liberalism and neo-communism, between European Union and Vladimir Putin’s Russia, between laicization and religion, between inequality and unity.

Formerly regrouped together in only one block, 15 ex-republics of the Soviet Union are actually countries very different. And it is interesting to notice that when some young people are dreaming of Russia or United States, their parents or grandparents are missing the great Moscow’s Mother.

The goal of Evangeline Masson et Patricio Diez's project is to meet the young people from 20 to 35 years old, to know them and to understand their desires and projects.

More +++