Bougainville wants restorative justice approach to settling violence in south

from the report on Radio New Zealand International:

The autonomous Papua New Guinea province of Bougainville hopes to resolve a long standing impasse in the south of the main island by taking the traditional Melanesian approach of reconciliation.

Despite six years of autonomy, few government services are available around the district of Konnou because the security of workers can’t be guaranteed.

Aug 26, 2011 Region: Asia, Case:Violence, National Reconciliation, Country:Papua New Guinea

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Stefaans Coetzee is the face of restorative justice

from the article by Bobby Jordan in The Sunday Times:

....Today is no ordinary day for the 33-year-old who grew up in an orphanage in Winburg in the Free State. Head slightly bowed, he looks up at two imams who have finally been allowed to visit him at Pretoria Central Prison. Their two previous attempts failed. The imams are from Rustenburg, where some of their congregation were nearly blown up by two Wit Wolwe bombs outside their mosque.

Now they want to ask Coetzee what it was all about.

Aug 15, 2011 National Reconciliation, Country:South Africa, Case:Violence, Region: Africa, Case:Terrorism

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Iranian woman blinded by acid attack pardons assailant as he faces same fate

from the article by Saeed Kamali Dehghan in The Guardian:

A woman blinded with acid in Iran has pardoned her attacker, a man who was scheduled to lose his sight in an eye for an eye punishment on Sunday.

Majid Movahedi, 30, had been taken to Tehran's judiciary hospital to be blinded with acid after being rendered unconscious, but Ameneh Bahrami, his victim, spared him at the last minute, Iran's semi-official Isna news agency reported.

Iran's judiciary had given the green light to the administration for the retributive punishment, which would have been the first blinding of a convict in the country, but human rights groups across the world called on Bahrami, who had asked for eye for an eye justice in the court, to pardon him.

Aug 02, 2011 Country:Iran, Story, Case:Violence, Region:Middle East

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