Europe

The Hague. The mothers of thousands of civilians killed by Bosnian Serb forces in the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica in 1995 regretted a Dutch court's ruling Wednesday that the Dutch government is not liable for its peacekeepers' failure to protect the victims.

Kosovo FM Hyseni will travel on Wednesday for a two-day visit to Saudi Arabia and will also talk to other delegations of OIC member states.

Many lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Turkey lead lives of fear, paralyzed by stigma. When singled out for harassment, violence, or other abuse—still an everyday occurrence for many—they also fear going to the authorities for assistance, and often for good reason:

they have long experienced harassment and sadistic treatment by police and dismissive attitudes among judges and prosecutors. Despite reforms, new cases of such mistreatment continue to emerge, as this report demonstrates.

The report can be downloaded here.
Also available in Turkish.

On Monday (Sept. 8), Navanetham Pillay addressed the Human Rights Council for the first time since she assumed the post of High commissioner for human rights last September.

She will have to fight for her independence

Amsterdam. All Dutch attorneys, including Muslims, should rise when a judge enters a court room, Dutch Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin told Dutch parliament on Tuesday.

Hirsch Ballin said the Dutch Council for Jurisprudence felt that rising for a judge is "the common way to show respect for the court and legal authority."

THE HAGUE. The Party for Freedom (PVV) is demanding a ban on Turkish mosque organisation Milli Gorus. The opposition party was reacting to an extensive article in newspaper De Telegraaf, which has obtained access to an alarming report of the Dutch intelligence services.

PARIS. A decision by a French court to postpone a robbery trial involving a Muslim defendant until the end of the holy month of Ramadan has set off a new fracas here about whether France's fiercely secularist institutions are bending to religious demands.

For years, Germans have preferred to see their country's presence in Afghanistan as armed development assistance. That myth is now becoming more difficult to maintain as the violence spreads to the north where the Germans are based.

French politicians are criticizing a court's decision to postpone a Muslim suspect's trial on armed-robbery charges during the holy month of Ramadan [Beliefnet.com backgrounder], arguing that it violates France's constitutional separation of church and state.

When it comes to a state fighting a non-state enemy, the impression widely exists that the state is doomed to fail.

In 1968, Robert F. Kennedy concluded that victory in Vietnam was "probably beyond our grasp," and called for a peaceful settlement. In 1983, the analyst Shahram Chubin wrote that the Soviets in Afghanistan were embroiled in an "unwinnable war." In 1992, U.S. officials shied away from involvement in Bosnia, fearing entanglement in a centuries-old conflict.