Crisis Group Weekly Update for the week of 27 March 2006

Crisis Group key quotes:

On the Aceh peace process:
“The peace process remains very much on track, but everyone concerned about Aceh should realise that the really hard part is just beginning.”
  Sidney Jones, Crisis Group’s South East Asia Project Director
  Agence France-Presse, 29 March 2006

On Iraqi distrust of the U.S.:
“The Shi’ites now believe the Americans, who brought them to power, are engaged in what they call the second betrayal: first the Americans abandoned them in the first Gulf War (in 1991), and now they believe the Americans are turning their backs on them again.”
  Joost Hiltermann, Crisis Group’s Middle East Project Director
  Reuters, 28 March 2006

On the protests in Jayapura, Papua:
“The anti-Freeport violence was a way of venting frustration over long-running grievances ranging from a lack of justice for past abuses to poverty and corruption to the role of the military in the province, but the very institution that should have a key role in managing these tensions, the Papuan People’s Council, is currently paralysed, partly by government mishandling but also by its own ineptitude.”
   Francesa Lawe-Davies, Crisis Group Analyst
   The Age, 23 March 2006

On continuing insecurity in DR Congo:
“You can buy a Kalashnikov in eastern Congo for less than 30 dollars.”
  Jason Stearns, Crisis Group Senior Analyst
  ARD Radio (Germany), 23 March 2006

On growing tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan:
“If the violence in Afghanistan escalates in the spring, then I think we are going to see this relationship become even more tense, and Pakistanis are really concerned about how this affects their relations with the Americans.”
  Samina Ahmed, Crisis Group’s South Asia Project Director
  Associated Press, 22 March 2006

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The International Crisis Group (Crisis Group) is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organisation covering over 50 crisis-affected countries and territories across four continents, working through field-based analysis and high-level advocacy to prevent and resolve deadly conflict.