The reality of international and Australian mining corporations in Africa can be grim for local civilians. My latest Guardian investigation examines these issues. I interview a journalist from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Will Fitzgibbon, about his organisation’s recent work on the subject and the following is the full interview extracted in the Guardian:…
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How foreign mining companies breach human rights in Africa
My investigation in the Guardian: Australian miners are making a killing overseas. With little regulation or oversight, billions of dollars are being made in some of the most remote places on Earth. The necessity of partnering with autocratic regimes has proved no impediment to investment. Human rights have been breached. Victims are largely invisible. None…
Radio New Zealand interview on British multinational Serco
British multinational Serco is causing trouble in New Zealand, with behaviour at its privately-run prisons fraught with violence and unaccountability. It’s the normal Serco way and only fools will be surprised. I was interviewed by Radio New Zealand’s Sunday Morning (on a very bad phone line in South Sudan) on the company’s inability and unwillingness…
Iran nuclear deal masks US and China arms race
My piece for American website Mondoweiss: The global arms race has never been more lucrative. America and China are engaged in unprecedented levels of spending around the world to influence and shape global affairs. The effects are devastating on civilians but Washington and Beijing insists they’re “stabilizing” nations. It’s one of the deadliest myths of…
Australia may send asylum seeker back to danger in Afghanistan
I’m proud to have been asked to sign the following statement (latest information here): Prominent Australians urge Immigration Minister Peter Dutton to save the life of Nadir Sadiqi Nadir’s life hangs in the balance. You alone in this country, Mr Dutton, have the power to decide whether Nadir lives or dies. Nadir arrived by boat…
Three women speak truths in Bentiu, South Sudan
My investigation in the Guardian: Julia John with one-year-old Tuach, in Bentiu camp. Photograph: Antony Loewenstein The number of South Sudanese seeking refuge in the UN compound in Bentiu has risen above 100,000, the organisation has announced, making it the country’s largest camp for those fleeing the civil war that has killed… more than 50,000 people…
Too little to celebrate in South Sudan
My article in Le Monde Diplomatique English: The UN Security Council recently imposed new sanctions on South Sudan including travel bans on six South Sudanese citizens. Samantha Power, US ambassador to the UN, praised the move saying: “The Security Council took strong action in support of a peaceful end to the conflict in South Sudan…
Land grabbing becomes global phenomenon
My investigation in Australian publication New Matilda: International aid often comes with big strings attached. Antony Loewenstein is in South Sudan researching his explosive new book. Ethiopia’s Omo Valley is one of the most culturally diverse places on the planet. Industrial-size sugar plantations and a soon to open dam are strangling indigenous communities over more…
Nothing to celebrate on South Sudan's 4th independence anniversary
My piece in Al Jazeera English today: It’s hard to think of a better example of the UN Human Rights Council’s failure. In early July, it decided to send monitors to South Sudan “to report on the situation of human rights and to undertake a comprehensive assessment of alleged violations and abuses of human rights,…
Failing states in the modern world
My essay in literary journal Meanjin: “In Europe there are shelves of books dedicated to every war, archives full of documents, special rooms in museums. Nothing of the kind exists in Africa. Here, even the longest and greatest war is forgotten, falls into oblivion. Its traces vanish by the day after: the dead must be…