Mladic refuses to enter plea at War Crimes trial

Ratko Mladic, the Serbian Former General, refused to enter a plea at the international war crimes trial in The Hague this afternoon. He faces charges related to the Bosnian war from 1992-5, particularly allegations of genocide and mass-murder following events such as the massacre of 8,000 civilians in Srebrenica in 1995.

In a conflict that gave us the horrendous euphemism of "ethnic cleansing" (a phrase that overly sanitises a multitude of evils), Mladic is accused of one of the worst attrocities as part of a larger ideal of removing Bosnian Muslims from what the perpetrators believed should be Serb-only areas. The Bosnian war still has a power to haunt the minds of Europeans today as a point where the euphoria over the fall of Iron Curtain proved short-lived in the face of political turmoil and old hatreds burning what had once been Yugoslavia.

Growing up in the UK, the events in the Bosnian conflict took place when I was a child and the faces of Ratko Mladic, and others such as Slobodan Milosevic and Radovan Karadzic, appeared like far distant boogeymen. Seeing the now apparently frail old man in The Hague today (far from the swaggering military man of the past) put a human face on the tragedy that I had not expected; that the man alleged to have orchestrated such terror was not some fairytale monster but a man of flesh and blood. However, this humanity does not excuse Mladic but rather serves as a warning that we must be active to prevent such horrors in the future as well as the importance of ensuring that justice be carried out.

Life after Mubarak - what does the future hold for Egypt?

At my local train station on my way to work each morning, a large poster greets me advertising holiday in Egypt. Promoting the ancient town of Luxor it boasts "Egypt ... where it all begins". While this current set of revolutions across the Middle East began in Tunisia, it is in the most populous Arab nation that the future of the region will be set.

Like everyone else, I've been watching the ongoing events in Egypt with a mixture of wonder and uncertainty; to see a genuine people's uprising/revolution (delete where appropriate) rock the middle east and topple a long-standing "strong man" has been genuinely awe-inspiring. The fear comes from that uncertain future that now beckons for Egypt, one full of great opportunity and hope but also a series of concerns.

Hosni Mubarak made a disastrous fumble last week when he made a big speech and then essentially said very little (other than repeating the ill-judged idea that he could somehow cling on to power until September), and ultimately failed to inspire confidence from the protestors in the street or those in the military who truly held the power behind his throne. A true revolution, sparked following the self-imolation of a young man who had lost any hope for the pursuit of his own happiness, saw the end of Mubarak's 30 year rule in an uprising after only 18 days (and one day after he'd announced earlier he would stay on until September).

Mubarak had long held himself as a war hero, particularly from his military exploits against Israel in the 70s, though he is also noted for having ensured modern peace between Egypt and Israel as well as holding a powerbase that had ensured some stability in the region. However, his long financial support from the Americans ensured that the USA was wrong-footed when it came to an uprising demanding an end to autocracy and for a new democratic future in Egypt. Obama's administration visibly stumbled in the early days of the uprising making vague statements about ensuring a smooth transition but unwilling to completely drop the man that they had long supported. The old notion of "he's a bastard, but he's our bastard" once seemed to be the overriding position, but this is now being replaced with encouraging noises about freedom and democracy.

For a long period, I had assumed that Mubarak would hold onto power using any number of ruthless tricks and so the announcement of his resignation on Friday was one that was met with a mixture of relief, surprise and unbelief; could he really be going? The Egyptian Military has largely played its cards right in this affair with many younger soldiers actively supporting the uprising, and the annoucement today of broad consultation on a new constitution and free elections in six months has been reassuring.

However, the future of the new Egypt rests with both the military and the protestors. While we have seen essentially a military coup the initial appearance is that of a holding period before a more representative government is formed. The protestors themselves form a wide base of the local demographics, crossing age and religious groupings; one of the moving images from last Sunday was when the Christian minority held a mass in Tahrir square (now the centre of this revolution) and were protected by the other protestors including both Muslim and Secular supporters.

One of the most powerful groups within the protestors is the Muslim Brotherhood, a group with a long complicated and controversial history that had been banned under Mubarak's regime. An Islamist group with political goals and methods, they have declared that they would not stand a presidential candidate in the elections announced for later this year, but for many in other parts of the region there is a fear of another 1979 Iranian revolution. They will be an important element for the future of Egypt, but they must also be keenly aware that the military will be watching to intervene if their interests are undermined.

In terms of this year's revolutions, Egypt may not be where it all began but it will have an important impact on the future of the region.

Rogue Diplomat reviews "We Are What We Are"

Our regular film reviewer, Kate McCarthy of the Irish Film Institute in Dublin reviews the controversial Mexican Film "We are what we are" (Somos lo que hay).

At the beginning of Jorge Michel Grau’s horror film a man stumbles through a modern, sterile-looking shopping mall, stopping momentarily to dwell obsessively on his reflection in a window. Eventually falling to his knees, he perishes after a fit of bloody retching, and his body, and spilled fluids, are almost immediately removed by a mysterious cleaning crew. The promise of such an intriguing opening sequence is, however, never met during the remainder of Grau’s underwritten story.

The UK trailer for "We Are What We Are"

It emerges very soon after this man’s death that his family - a mother and three teenage children - have been left to fend for themselves, a task made more complicated than usual by the fact that they are cannibals. Their diet had been sustained by a string of prostitutes and homeless children, provided by the patriarch, and murdered and eaten in a domestic ritual. What ensues is really a drama of family politics, with a mother, bruised by her husband’s fondness for prostitutes, reluctant to hand over responsibility to her emotionally-unstable teenage sons, Alfredo and Julian.

In the middle is the teenage daughter Sabina, who pushes Alfredo to take over his father’s role, while appearing to be involved in an incestuous relationship with her other brother.  In a sub-plot, two bumbling detectives engage in a hunt for the family after an autopsy of their father reveals a number of human body parts. However like other vague aspects of the story (including Alfredo’s suggested homosexuality) many questions are left unanswered, in a way that goes beyond an acceptable level of ambiguity.       

We Are What We Are has been called a metaphorical interpretation of contemporary Mexican society, a depiction of how a leaderless people have been left to devour each other. It is difficult to say just how successfully this concept is carried by the film, although there is certainly a strong visual emphasis on reflections, from the opening sequence to Alfredo’s miserable contemplation of his own image in a subway window, through to Sabina’s solitary gaze into the bathroom mirror. And the level of societal violence is certainly just as affecting as that of the cannibal-related killings. At one point Alfredo batters a bus driver’s head against his wheel just so he will stop the bus. And given the shocking number of violent crimes that have occurred in recent months in Mexico, the most compelling images of the film, for me, involve the mother’s encounter with a group of vengeful prostitutes.     

To leave aside the metaphorical context, however, it can really be said that the film is a disappointing addition to what has been a highly successful genre of Mexican Cinema, most recently through the work of Guillermo del Toro. His 1993 offering, Cronos, and 2001 feature, The Devil’s Backbone, would be a much better place to start for those interested in exploring Mexican horror films. Despite high production values and solid acting, We Are What We Are is simply far too entangled in its own web of under-developed plot threads to truly satisfy.