Colombia's Constitutional Court has issued a ruling upholding the rights of the San José de Apartadó Peace Community in the northern war-torn Urabá region, ordering the Colombian government to take steps to end the state of impunity in the crimes committed against the community since its formation ten years ago.

The Organization of American States (OAS) approved a resolution March 5 declaring the Colombian military raid into Ecuador a violation of sovereignty. The resolution was approved in Washington after talks in which the United States was the hemisphere's only nation explicitly supporting Colombia. While the measure stopped short of condemning Colombia for the raid, Ecuador's Foreign Minister María Isabel Salvador said: "We consider this agreement a triumph for the concept that every nation's territory cannot be violated whatever the reason. Ecuador is a peaceful country that had been dragged into this unfortunate situation."

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe upped the rhetorical ante against Venezuela March 4, accusing Hugo Chávez of supporting "genocide" and threatening to bring charges against him at The Hague. "Colombia proposes to denounce Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela, in the International Criminal Court for sponsoring and financing genocide," Uribe said. "We are not warmongers, but we are not weak. We cannot allow terrorists who seek refuge in other countries to spill the blood of our countrymen." (Reuters, March 4)

At least 23 were killed and dozens were wounded March 3 when two car bombs, including one driven by a suicide attacker, blew up in Baghdad. In the suicide attack, a man drove a minibus into the headquarters of the Interior Ministry's 4th Brigade, a special quick reaction force based in Baghdad's eastern Zayouna neighborhood. The blast killed at least two police officers and wounded six others. One day earlier, the US military said its soldiers discovered 14 bodies in a mass grave south of the city of Samarra. The military said all the victims had their hands tied behind their backs and had been shot in the head — execution style. "Coalition and Iraqi forces believe al-Qaida in Iraq is responsible for these murders. The victims are believed to have been members of Iraqi security forces or Sons of Iraq," a military announcement said. Sons of Iraq is US-funded Sunni militia now fighting al-Qaeda. (AP, March 3)

A car bomber tried to hit a government building in the Tani district of Afghanistan's eastern Khost province March 3, but Afghan guards opened fire. A police officer was killed and five others, including an Afghan soldier, were wounded in the ensuing explosion. The attack came a day after a bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into the gates of another government building in the Yaqoubi district of Khost province. Four were killed in that attack—two NATO soldiers and two Afghan civilians—and 19 other people, including 15 soldiers, were wounded, officials said. Although the nationality of the NATO soldiers was not released, most of the troops in Khost are from the US. (AP, March 4)

The idiot left has lost no time in blasting Kosova's declaration of independence. The latest spew from New York's International Action Center screams "US Hands Off Serbia!" and cheers the Belgrade protests (where wanted war criminal Ratko Mladic was hailed as a hero) and the attack on the US embassy there. Predictably, the statement barely mentions the Albanians—and then only to note that almost a quarter of them have been forced to leave Kosova to seek work abroad. The uninitiated reading this propaganda would have no idea that the Albanians constitute over 90% of Kosova's population, and that they overwhelmingly—practically unanimously, it seems—support independence. Fortunately, there have been a few principled voices on the left who have had more honest things to say about Kosova...

A US submarine fired three Tomahawk cruise missiles into southern Somalia March 3, aiming at what the Defense Department called terrorist targets. The missiles hit the town of Dobley, five miles from Somalia's border with Kenya, partly destroying a house and injuring local residents. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said it was a "deliberate and precise strike" aimed at "a known al-Qaeda terrorist." Residents reached by telephone told the New York Times three civilians were wounded, and three cows and donkey killed.

The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) has issued a statement condemning "in the strongest possible terms" attacks on Mogadishu radio stations by the armed forces of the Transitional Federal Government. The statement said government troops raided the offices of the independent Radio Simba on March 2, taking away computers, audio recorders, digital cameras and other equipment. Reporter Abdiaziz Hussein Hassan was beaten in the raid. One day earlier, a rocket hit Radio Simba, destroying the station's archive. A few minutes after the raid on Simba, soldiers broke down the doors of Shabelle Radio, again confiscating equipment, and detaining station director Shabele Muktar Mohamed Hirabe. Security forces also visited the offices of Horn Afrik Radio and ordered them to stop broadcasting. (NUSOJ, March 3 via AaaAfrica)