Juan José Quispe, attorney with Peru's independent Pro-Human Rights Association representing survivors of last June's Bagua massacre, issued a statement Feb. 26 protesting Defense Minister Rafael Rey's proposal for an internal military hearing instead of a trial on homicide charges for two generals of the Peruvian National Police (PNP) accused of ordering the violence. The generals, Luis Muguruza and Javier Uribe, have been formally charged with the deaths of four indigenous residents in the June 5 confrontation at Curva del Diablo, a stretch of road in Bagua, Amazonas department, where police opened fire on protesters. It is now believed that 34 were killed in the incident. Quispe said Rey sought to protect the generals' "impunity."

Representatives of Peru's Amazonian indigenous alliance AIDESEP and affiliated regional organizations opened meetings in Lima Feb. 15 with the National Institute for the Development of Andean, Amazonian and Afro-Peruvian Peoples (INDEPA) to arrive at a "plan for protection of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation and initial contact."

Indigenous peoples are again caught in the middle as the Colombian army launches a major offensive against the FARC guerillas in the southern Andean department of Cauca. At dawn on Feb. 20, guerillas from the FARC's Sixth Front attacked the center of the Nasa and Guambiano indigenous town of Jambaló, after it was occupied by the army and National Police. However, residential houses and the town's hospital suffered severe damage, while the local National Police headquarters was relatively unscathed. Some half the population of Jambaló's urban center fled, taking refuge in outlying hamlets (veredas) and the neighboring municipality of Silvia. (Semana, Bogotá, Feb. 22)

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez announced the creation of a new Campesino Militia, which will be under the command of the national Bolivarian Armed Forces (FAB). Chávez made the announcement during a ceremony to commemorate 151 years since Venezuela's Federal War lead by peasant leader Ezequiel Zamora. The Campesino Militia will be responsible for protecting peasant farmers from paramilitary groups organized by ranchers and wealthy landowners, Chávez explained in his weekly column, "Las líneas de Chávez" on Feb. 21. More than 300 peasant leaders and activists have been murdered since the government introduced the Law on Land and Agricultural Development in 2001, launched an agrarian reform program.

Christian families are fleeing Mosul in droves in the aftermath of the murder of a Christian family in the city—a replay of the 2008 exodus in which thousands of families fled the city. The fleeing families are heading for the string of Christian villages, towns and monasteries to the east and north of the city. Anti-Christian attacks have intensified recently in the city, with five killed in the past two weeks. Many Christians were openly told to leave or face the consequences.

On Feb. 21, 67 corpses were brought to Baghdad morgue all shot with silencer guns, medical sources told Baghdad's Azzaman daily Feb. 26. The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said most of the victims were civil servants, former Baathists and army officers. Three more were killed with silencer guns Feb. 22, including Dr. Thamer Kamel, a university professor who was head of the human rights section at the Ministry of Higher Education. The gunmen drive in mainly four-wheel vehicles and quickly disappear from the crime scene.

At least 17 people were killed and 32 wounded early Feb. 26, when multiple suicide bombers attacked a hotel popular with foreigners and the surrounding area in the center of Kabul, Afghanistan's capital. The bombing is the first attack in the city since Jan. 18, when teams of suicide bombers and gunmen targeted government buildings, leaving 12 dead, including seven attackers. It is also the first attack in Kabul since the start of a major NATO-led offensive against Taliban fighters in Afghanistan's Helmand province. (AlJazeera, Feb. 26)

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Syria's President Bashar Assad and Hezbollah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah met in Damascus Feb. 25, Hezbollah's al-Manar TV reported. This was the first time a Nasrallah visit to Damascus has been reported. Al-Manar did not say whether Hamas political chief Khaled Meshal, who is based in Damascus, took part in the meeting.