World roundup: May 17 2024

Stories from New Caledonia, Senegal, Mexico, and elsewhere

PROGRAMMING NOTE: I am again obliged to send out today’s roundup earlier than usual. Apologies for the disruption. I will cover anything we miss on Sunday.

TODAY IN HISTORY

May 17, 1980: The South Korean military, under General Chun Doo-hwan and members of a secret military society called Hanahoe, overthrows the country’s nominally civilian government in the “Coup d’état of May Seventeenth.” The coup ended the South Korean “Fourth Republic” and reified the political power Chun had amassed following the assassination of Park Chung-hee in October 1979 and the subsequent “12.12 Military Insurrection.” Chun removed interim President Choi Kyu-hah from office and suppressed the “Seoul Spring” protest movement that had emerged to challenge military rule. The coup sparked an uprising against the military in the city of Gwangju that Chun’s new government put down brutally, with perhaps upwards of 2000 people killed in the process. Chun would serve eight years as an essentially dictatorial president, but in 1995 he was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to execution for his actions in Gwangju. The sentence was adjusted down to life imprisonment and commuted in 1997 by then-President Kim Young-sam.

May 17, 1997: Having chased Zaire’s dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko, into exile the day before, military forces aligned with Laurent-Désiré Kabila and the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo enter Kinshasa, bringing an end to the First Congo War. Kabila succeeded Mobutu as president of Zaire, which was quickly renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The war, which had begun the previous year when Rwandan Patriotic Front forces invaded Zaire in pursuit of fleeing Hutu génocidaires, was reignited the following year when Kabila expelled his erstwhile Rwandan and Ugandan allies from the country. The Second Congo War technically ended in 2003, though conflict in the eastern DRC has persisted through the present day.

MIDDLE EAST

ISRAEL-PALESTINE

While heavy fighting continues to rage in northern Gaza, where the Israeli military (IDF) declared “mission accomplished” a bit over four months ago, The Washington Post suggests that satellite imagery might help clarify Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s nebulous post-massacre plans:

Israeli troops are fortifying a strategic corridor that carves Gaza in two, building bases, taking over civilian structures and razing homes, according to satellite imagery and other visual evidence — an effort that military analysts and Israeli experts say is part of a large-scale project to reshape the Strip and entrench the Israeli military presence there.

The Netzarim Corridor is a four-mile-long road just south of Gaza City that runs from east to west, stretching from the Israeli border to the Mediterranean Sea. Hamas has made Israel’s withdrawal from the area a central demand in cease-fire negotiations.

But even as talks have continued over the past two months, Israeli forces have been digging in. Three forward operating bases have been established in the corridor since March, satellite imagery examined by The Washington Post shows, providing clues about Israel’s plans. At the sea, the road meets a new, seven-acre unloading point for a floating pier, an American project to bring more aid into Gaza.

Israel insists it does not intend to permanently reoccupy Gaza, which its troops controlled for 38 years until withdrawing in 2005. But the construction of roads, outposts and buffer zones in recent months points to an expanding role for Israel’s military as alternative visions for postwar Gaza falter.

Elsewhere: