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Stopped: Two merchants of death

Two very different types of gun dealer have been exposed in the US this week. Monzer Al-Kassar, a Syrian arms broker, was sentenced to 30 years for agreeing to arrange arms transfers to a Colombian armed group. The same week saw the start of the trial of George Iknadosian, owner of the X-Caliber Guns store in Arizona, for knowingly providing hundred of weapons to Mexican organised crime.

Death of Alison Des Forges, human rights activist

Campaigners around the world expressed their sorrow at the death of Alison Des Forges, the human rights activist who helped to publicise the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, and subsequently worked to defend human rights in the Great Lakes region of Africa. She died in a plane crash on 12 February.

Why are girl soldiers still neglected?

Former child soldiers and young people from around the world presented thousands of symbolic “red hands” to UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-Moon on Thursday 12 February to demand stronger action by international leaders to end the use of child soldiers.

The Sri Lankan army claimed on 3 February that the Tamil Tigers had given civilians small arms in a bid to retain control of their territory.

Attack on civilian hospital in Sri Lanka

The United Nations has confirmed an attack on the last functioning hospital in the territory dominated by the Tamil Tigers in North Eastern Sri Lanka on 1 February. At least nine people were killed. The hospital was under heavy artillery fire for 18 hours.