Ian Bunn | Political & Popular Culture Arts

Michel Am-Nondokro Djotodia the 63 year old Central African politician, military leader and President of the Central African Republic has been profiled by Farouk Chothia in an BBC Africa article titled ‘Michel Djotodia: Central African Republic rebel leader’. Chothia states “A Soviet-trained civil servant who turned into a rebel leader, Michel Djotodia has finally achieved his long-held ambition of becoming leader of the Central African Republic (CAR). …Djotodia – some seven years after playing a key role in the launch of the Union of Democratic Forces for Unity (UFDR) rebel group – is now in power. …Djotodia led the UFDR into a coalition with other rebel groups last year to form Seleka, which spearheaded the offensive to overthrow Mr Bozize. For Mr Djotodia, this was sweet revenge: Mr Bozize’s rebel forces had toppled his political boss, then-President Ange Felix-Patasse, in 2003. Mr Djotodia had served in Mr Patasse’s government as a civil servant in the ministry of planning after studying economics in the former Soviet Union. … As Mr Bozize fled to Cameroon, Mr Djotodia announced that elections would be held in three years, suggesting, in an interview with Radio France Internationale, that he would run for the presidency to legitimise his rule. “I did not say that in three years I will hand over power. I said that in three years, we are going to organise free and transparent elections,” he said. It is a remarkable change in the fortunes of a man who had been jailed in Benin in November 2006, for using the country as a base for his rebellion against Mr Bozize. According to rights group Amnesty International’s 2009 report on CAR, Mr Djotodia and another rebel leader Abakar Sabone were detained without trial in Benin for more than a year, before being released at Mr Bozize’s request as part of yet another regionally brokered peace initiative to end the conflict. It was probably Mr Bozize’s biggest political mistake, as it opened the way for Mr Djotodia to shrewdly play the dual role of peace-maker and rebel leader until he finally seized power in Bangui.”

Inspired by Farouk Chothia, BBC ow.ly/jArOT Image source Facebook ow.ly/jArMd

Ratko Mladić the 69 year old former Bosnian Serb military leader who had been finally arrested under a 1995 indictment by the International Criminal Tribunal (ICTY) for genocide in the former Yugoslavia during the Bosnian War and transferred to the Hague for trial, has claimed he is unfit due to health issues to proceed with the trial. Mladić had lived as a fugitive for sixteen years in Serbia, praised by many as a hero, and arrested in Lazarevo in the Banat region of the Vojvodina province. Accusations against Mladić include orchestrating the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica and burying the remains in mass graves in the area, described as the worst slaughter of civilians in Europe since World War II. Mladić had suffered several strokes in recent years.

Inspired by Jovana Gec ow.ly/55PcX image source Politika newspaper ow.ly/55Pba