You cannot claim a moral compass if it is skewed and bent.
Our news media is crucial to our national consciousness, and to our children's form and content. An Australia-wide lead news item was the Queen's alleged discontent at honeymoon photos of her grandson being published.
However the news media makes just about zero mention of the 10 million Congolese who have been killed since 1996. Many of you will think, "10 million Congolese murdered? That's genocide, how wouldn't we know about this? This is more than 12 times the genocidal deaths in Rwanda during 1994.
That's right, our moral compass needs repair so our consciousness isn't damaged any further, and vacuums of inhumanity slide by out of sight out of mind.
What is more important? The Queen's discontent or ten million dead and counting?
Gerry Georgatos
More to come - humanrightsalliance.org
info@humanrightsalliance.org
043 657 309
LINKS (24 hours later):
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-12/the-terminator-sparks-fear-of-war-...
The Terminator sparks fear of war in Congo
There are fears conflict is looming between rebels lead by a man known as The Terminator and Government forces and that would plunge Congo back in to war.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/un-reinforcing-troops-in-...
UN secretary-seneral Ban Ki-moon has placed phone calls to the presidents of Rwanda and Congo, as a mutiny in the eastern Democratic Republic (DR) of the Congo intensifies, amid accusations that the Rwandans are backing the rebels.
The mutineers, known as the M23 and comprising mostly former rebels who were integrated into the Congolese army in 2009 but defected in April, are allegedly linked to Bosco Ntaganda, a renegade general wanted by the International Criminal Court.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2012/07/2012712105043395108.html
UN and Democratic Republic of Congo government troops have bombarded rebel positions in the country's strife-torn eastern region of North-Kivu.
Three helicopters belonging to the United Nations DR Congo mission - MONUSCO - and two gunships of the DR Congo army (FARDC) were seen and explosions were heard around the villages of Nkokwe and Bukima, where rebels from the M23 group are thought to have some positions.
Officials from the UN and the army confirmed attacks were underway, as did the mutineers.
"The FARDC are currently attacking our positions, but they don't know where we are. There's no problems," a colonel from the mutiny told AFP.
Nkokwe and Bukima are about 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of the Nord-Kivu capital Goma.
The deployment came on Thursday as Ban Ki-moon, the UN chief, urged the presidents of DR Congo and its rival Rwanda to "defuse tensions" over the rebellion.
The rebels, who have seized a number of towns along the Ugandan border, denied plans to advance on Goma, the AFP news agency reported.
Barnabe Kikaya Bin Karubi, DRC's ambassador to Britain, told Al Jazeera that his country was trying to "give peace a chance" and that an emergency meeting bringing together foreign and defence ministers from the Great Lakes region had been called by Uganda to resolve the crisis.
Rwanda blamed
The Great Lakes region is made up of Burundi, DRC, Rwanda and Uganda.
Karubi insisted Rwanda was backing M23 rebels, who take their name from the March 23, 2009, peace agreement they signed with the Congolese government, paving the way for them to be integrated in the national army.
They had previously belonged to the National Congress for the Defence of People (CNDP).
"The United Nations group of experts came up with a report saying there's no rebellion in eastern Congo. It's ... Rwanda which attacked the Democratic Republic of Congo. Rather than focus on M23, let's talk about CNDP which was integrated in the political system [and] in the army," Karubi said.
"Since 1998 we did say the same thing but Rwanda denied. It was under the pressure of the international community that they accepted that they were in Congo. Today it is exactly the same scenario. We have evidence; we can prove it [and] we've been joined by the United Nations."
Rwanda has denied accusations it is supporting M23 rebels, who split from the government army in March in protest at wages and conditions and have been fighting ever since.
Human cost
Karubi, however, told Al Jazeera that the rebellion started when the DRC government tried to arrest rebel commander Bosco Ntaganda, who served in the CNDP, for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Ntaganda, nicknamed "terminator" in his home region, had been made a general in the Congolese army following the March 2009 agreement.
UN officials and the DR Congo government fear that M23, which has added fighters in recent weeks, might be planning to target Goma.
But a diplomat in Kinshasa said this now appeared unlikely.
http://aljazeera.smartgalleries.net/gallery/MONUSCO-prepares-for-M23-adv...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405270230437380457752281371133138...
Rwanda's president rejected accusations that his country is supporting a group of Congolese army mutineers staging a rebellion in Congo's mineral-rich eastern region.
President Paul Kagame denied on Thursday the charge that Rwanda is aiding and abetting the rebels, who have been waging a violent campaign against Congolese forces and United Nations peacekeepers since March. Mr. Kagame's government had previously issued a formal rejection of a recent U.N. report accusing Rwanda of helping the rebels.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18779726
DR Congo warlord Thomas Lubanga sentenced to 14 years
http://www.raisehopeforcongo.org/content/democratic-republic-congo-short...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14093322
Chronology of key events
VIDEOS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_ois9rQNvE
Congo's nightmare
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peH02zuQ29Q
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1104733/the_silent_congo_war_widespread_ge...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ryan-gosling/congos-conflict-minerals-_b_8...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6JFST6Qlps
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/01/30/opinion/1247466767698/congo-s-...
Congo's Forgotten war