Monday 11 March

On Monday, a two-day referendum on the political status of the Falklands Islands wraps-up, with the results due that evening. The referendum is largely symbolic, since the islanders overwhelmingly favour retaining their status as an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom. The Argentine government, predictably, has already said it considers the poll a farce and it that it will continue to pursue its claim to sovereignty regardless of the outcome. Expect some chest-beating in Buenos Aires.

Also Monday, the US and South Korea are scheduled to begin an annual joint military exercise called Key Resolve. The exercise, which runs until 21 March and involves about 13,500 troops from the two nations, comes at a particularly tense time in the peninsula following the 12 February nuclear test in North Korea and the subsequent tightening of UN sanctions against the secretive communist state, which were approved on 7 March.

Monday is also a big day at the UN Human Rights Council session taking place in Geneva. Reports on North Korea, Syria, Myanmar (Burma) and Iran are all due to be considered on Monday. There is a press conference with the  Commission of Inquiry on Syria scheduled. It follows the announcement last week that the number of refugees from the conflict has surpassed the million-person mark.

EU Foreign Ministers are also due to meet Monday, with Syria a particular focus. Joint UN-Arab League Special Envoy for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi will brief ministers at a lunch before the meeting.

Tuesday 12 March

Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, will host the leader of the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia for talks in Moscow. He is also due to meet today with the Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan who is making his first visit abroad since securing re-election last month. This choice of location for the trip is a clear affirmation of the close – and geo-politically significant – ties between Yerevan and Moscow.

Finally Tuesday, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde is scheduled to arrive in Algeria where she will pay a three-day visit.

Wednesday 13 March

On Wednesday, British Foreign and Defence Secretaries William Hague and Philip Hammond will be hosting their Russian counterparts Sergey Lavrov and Sergei Shoigu for talks in London, the first talks in this ‘2+2’ format. Syria is likely to be high on the agenda, although cynics might suggest the UK has little influence over Russia in this, or any, regard. Another topic that may be discussed privately is the ongoing inquest into the murder of Alexander Litvinenko (a procedural hearing in that inquest takes place on Thursday).

Finally, in the United States the Senate Armed Services Committee is scheduled to hold what is expected to be a highly emotive hearing on sexual assault in the military, with three of the witnesses giving testimony at the hearing being victims of abuse themselves.

Thursday 14 March

EU leaders will descend upon Brussels again on Thursday for their second meeting of the year, and the first since the Italian elections that failed to produce a clear victor and threaten to derail what was looking like a significantly more positive year for the region. It will also be UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s first opportunity to meet with counterparts since his Chancellor George Osborne failed to extract any significant concessions on the proposed cap on bankers’ bonuses that is scheduled to take effect in 2014.

Finally, Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold talks with the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in Moscow. Russia currently holds the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council and has said it wants to make progress in the Middle East Peace Process a priority of its presidency.

Friday 15 March

The Italian parliament is scheduled to reconvene on Friday following the elections held at the end of February. Discussions on possible coalitions will begin in earnest the following week – likely on 21 March – hosted by outgoing Italian President Giorgio Napolitano. Many fear further elections later in the year are inevitable.

Friday also marks two years since the start of the Syrian uprising which has since descended into a horrific bloodbath which the international community appears powerless to stop.

Weekend

Saturday also marks the deadline for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to form a coalition, after he was forced to seek a two-week extension on March 2. Although both Israeli and US officials have issued public declarations suggesting a failure to form a government would not imperil the visit the following week by Barack Obama, others are not so sure.

Finally, as noted earlier, the 12th National People’s Congress closes in Beijing, with votes on draft resolutions and a closing ceremony, marking the culmination of the once –in-a-decade leadership transition in China.

Some images courtesy of Vasily Smirnov / Shutterstock.com

By Rosie Scammell

An intimate evening unfolded at the Frontline Club last night, as Argentine photojournalist Adriana Groisman talked through her photography commemorating the Falklands/Malvinas War.

In a venue famed for its images of conflicts, Groisman’s work presented an unexpected calm – rolling waves in black & white; stark island landscapes in grey hues tinged with colour. But rather than see beauty in the images, it is the scars within the landscapes she urged the audience to understand.

‘Voices of the South Atlantic’ began when Groisman accompanied National Geographic on its search for the Belgrano, the Argentine warship sunk by the British to the loss of 323 lives. Soon after, however, the project gained its own momentum:

“I showed it in Buenos Aires, and was able to see how it was received. That was what     inspired me to keep working on the project; the fact that people were seeing somethingtotally different, because the work did not force them to stand on one side or another of theconflict.”

With politicians ruled by their own agendas on both sides, Groisman sought out another avenue, and united Argentines, Brits and islanders affected by the conflict to reconcile with one another.

Bringing together the man who took a fateful torpedo shot at the Belgrano and one who received the blow, for example, seems an ill-fated venture. Yet granting the men innovative opportunities, such as writing down one wish from the other side, resulted in an openness Groisman said many had thought themselves incapable of.

“It’s strange that we would try to kill each other, when we have so much in common,” said one participant in a short film of the project.

This desire to close the divide plays out throughout Groisman’s work; in one piece she has united all those who died in sea-related hostilities, and notes that with many names it is impossible to tell which side they fought on.

While the tide may be turning in Argentina, with veterans at last receiving better treatment, Groisman said raw emotions still rule: “The few people that are proposing a new way of looking at this are being dismissed as traitors.” Just last month, for example, a television advert was aired depicting Olympic athletes training on ‘Argentine soil’ on the Falkland Islands. The British government responded with furore, while still plotting oil exploration in the region.

But while some are still unwilling to open dialogue, Groisman explained that in getting people together (in a studio lifeboat, no less) to see the faces and hear the voices of the war, reconciliation is achievable:

“The experience between these people made me realise that for former enemies, it ispossible to find common ground and understand each other, and acknowledge eachother’s pain. What this work is proposing is to include rather than exclude, and look at each other as humans.”

Adriana Groisman:Voices of the South Atlantic is showing at Photofusion in Brixton, London, until 25 May.

[acf field=”Tickets”]

Nearly eight years in the making, Voices of the South Atlantic is a major exhibition by Argentinian photographer Adriana Groisman, which marks the 30th Anniversary of the Falklands/Malvinas War.

Join us at the Frontline Club where Groisman will be speaking about her motivations for the project and her experiences whilst making the work.

Brief but bloody, the Falklands/Malvinas War remains a defining moment in the Falkland’s history as well as Britain’s and Argentina’s. To this day, sovereignty of the islands remains a contentious issue and tensions are mounting over the hunt for oil and gas in the Falkland’s waters.

An experienced photographer, Groisman‘s work has appeared in major publications around the globe, including The Smithsonian Magazine, Newsweek, The Atlantic, Aperture, Sette-Corriere della Sera in Italy and French GEO, and has been displayed at numerous galleries and festivals.

Moderated by Director of Autograph ABP Mark Sealy.

Sponsored by:

The exhibition opens on 30 March at the Photofusion Gallery in London and will run until 25 May. It was made possible with support from Autograph ABP, Ffotogallery, Peninsula Arts, Arts Council England and Arts Council of Wales.

By Nicole Hunt

Following the Friends of Syria (or Friends of the Syrian people, depending on who you ask) meeting in Istanbul on Sunday, UN-Arab League Special Envoy for Syria Kofi Annan is set to address the UN Security Council in New York on Monday to update them on the progress of his recent discussions with the Syrian government and the implementation of his six-point plan.

The recent rise in diplomatic sparring between the UK and Argentina can be attributed to the fact that the 30th anniversary of the beginning of the Falklands War has been fast approaching. Monday marks 30 years since Argentine naval forces landed on the Falkland Islands, sparking the 74-day conflict over the sovereignty of the archipelago.

South Sudan has invited Sudanese President Omar al Bashir to something of a peace summit on Tuesday, though it looks increasingly unlikely that he will attend (he’s said he won’t, but South Sudan says the invitation still stands). The two countries have been trying to iron out outstanding issues surrounding oil revenues, disputed border regions and citizenship since South Sudan became independent in July 2011, but ongoing armed conflict – with each country blaming the other – has stalled negotiations.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel visits Prague to meet with Prime Minister Petr Necas, partially to celebrate 20 since the signing of a treaty of cooperation between the two countries, and partially to discuss the EU debt crisis, following the Czech Republic’s decision to opt out of the new EU fiscal stability treaty alongside the UK. The meeting comes on the same day that the EU releases the third estimate of its fourth quarter GDP figures, and as the German, French and Italian statistics offices release their quarterly eurozone economic outlook.

Angola marks the 10th anniversary of the end of its 27-year civil war on Wednesday. Over 500,000 civilians are believed to have been killed during the conflict, and another 4.3 million people displaced. After several false starts, including the signing of the Lusaka Protocol in October 1994, the conflict was formally ended with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the government and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) on April 4, 2002.

Four police officers are sentenced in New Orleans after having been found guilty last August of opening fire on an unarmed family in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, resulting in the death of 17-year-old James Brissette. Kenneth Bowen, Robert Gisevius, Robert Faulcon and Anthony Villavaso were also found guilty of obstructing the course of justice and the shooting death of 40-year-old Ronald Madison, who had severe mental disabilities. Attention stays stateside and in the courts on Thursday, with two high-profile hearings scheduled to take place.

Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout is sentenced in New York, having been convicted of conspiring to sell millions of dollars worth of weapons to South American terrorists, conspiring to kill US nationals, conspiring to acquire and use anti-aircraft missiles, and harbouring or concealing terrorists.

In Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky is due to appear for a pre-trial hearing ahead of his 5 June trial to face multiple charges of child abuse.

Christians around the globe observe Good Friday, though the conventional traditions of going to mass and eating fish pale in comparison to the rituals carried out in the Philippines every year, where dozens of people are nailed to crosses and hundreds of others whipped until their backs bleed in ceremonial re-enactments of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

And in the last of this week’s war-related anniversaries, Bosnia marks 20 years since the siege of Sarajevo began. While the beginning of the Bosnian war, which lasted until December 1995, is officially recognised as 1 April, Bosnians generally observe 6 April as the starting point of the conflict. A range of events are planned, from a concert with empty seats for those killed in the siege to a gathering of war reporters at the Holiday Inn that became media headquarters during the war.

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi hosts his Japanese and South Korean counterparts in Ningbo on Saturday for two days of talks ahead of a trilateral leaders’ meeting later this year. Discussions are expected to focus on regional cooperation, but it’s unlikely that the three ministers will make it through the weekend without the topic of North Korea popping up, especially ahead of a rocket launch planned for next week.

Sudan has set Sunday as the deadline for between 500,000 and 700,000 ethnic South Sudanese living in Sudan to obtain a residency or work permit to remain in the country or risk ‘being treated as foreigners’. Whether this deadline still stands by the end of the week may depend on how Monday’s summit goes – or whether it goes ahead at all.