Militia

LOUIS BEAM, a spokesman for the Aryan Nations, was speaking to an audience of 160 white men.He minced no words."I warn you calmly, coldly and without reservation that over the next 10 years you will come to hate government more than anything in your life," he said.The hearers ranged from white supremacists to pro-gu extremists, meeting at an invitation-only gathering two months after FBI sharpshooters killed white supremacist Randy Weaver's wife and son on Ruby Ridge in Idaho.They called themselves patriots.

JERUSALEM - Resisting demands from the United Nations, Israel has balked at disarming and dismantling its proxy army in South Lebanon in a bid to ensure the safety of militia members and their families. Far from dismantling the South Lebanon Army, Israel is helping to shore up the militia by turning over heavily fortified outposts as the Israelis slowly begin their withdrawal before Prime Minister Ehud Barak's July pullout. The South Lebanon Army risks being overrun by Hezbollah guerrillas and other Lebanese forces once the Israeli army pulls out. The Lebanese government has said SLA leaders face the death penalty as traitors.

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Trying to send a strong message that widespread violence and corruption will no longer be tolerated in Indonesia, President Abdurrahman Wahid said yesterday that he would not to pardon the convicted son of former dictator Suharto and ordered the arrest of the country's most notorious militia leader. But Wahid's actions could lead to further unrest. Violence and public disorder have erupted during past government efforts to bring the Suharto family and the militias to justice, underscoring the difficulty of this impoverished country's struggle to forge a democracy after decades of authoritarian rule.

UNITED NATIONS -- A high-ranking Sudanese government official colluded with militias to commit atrocities against civilians in the Darfur region, the International Criminal Court's prosecutor said yesterday. Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo presented results of a 21-month investigation that he said shows "reasonable evidence" that Ahmad Muhammad Harun, then Sudan's minister of state for the interior, and imprisoned militia leader Ali Kushayb "bear criminal responsibility" for mass executions, rapes and the forcible removal of thousands of people from their homes.

BAGHDAD -- After an unexplained four-month absence, the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr re-emerged for prayers yesterday at a mosque in southern Iraq, raising questions about his motivations and how his return will affect efforts to stem violence and broker reconciliation between the country's factions. In a sermon delivered to throngs of emotional supporters, the leader of the Mahdi Army militia repeated his demand for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. But he also struck a nationalistic, inclusive tone by appealing for understanding among Iraq's Shiites, Sunnis and Christians.

The militia of young men raided a village and took away a woman after peeling off the child that was strapped on her back. They then frog-marched her to a nearby bush where, in front of her husband and older children, they raped and then killed her. This is one of the tales from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where war is an enduring fact of life. Dr. Denis Mukwege, the director and chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Panzi Hospital in Bukavu in eastern Congo, has heard of, and sometimes witnessed, such heartrending scenes.

WASHINGTON -- One of the eager conservative Republicans who swept into Washington on an anti-government tide last fall has been caught up in the far-reaching fallout surrounding the Oklahoma City bombing.Freshman Rep. Steve Stockman of Texas has been thrust into the limelight to explain how he received an anonymous fax about the bombing as well as his own links to anti-government militia groups.Mr. Stockman, a vehement opponent of gun control who used the issue to unseat Jack Brooks, the formidable chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, last fall, staged news conferences in Washington and his home state yesterday to explain what he did with a cryptic note his office received around the time of the bombing.

GUN OWNERS OF America sounds like the right kind of group for Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett, the crusty conservative defender of the Second Amendment and of individual liberties.He found ideological empathy with the organization's executive director, Larry Pratt, and the two-term congressman wrote an appreciation for Mr. Pratt's book on constitutional history. The group gratefully gave $6,700 to Mr. Bartlett's 1994 campaign in the Sixth District, which stretches through Western Maryland. Amid embarrassing disclosures of Mr. Pratt's links to radical militia groups and white supremacists, the Republican legislator last week returned the campaign funds, declaring his blunt opposition to such extremist groups that "undermine democracy."

PHOENIX -- With residential streets cordoned off for fear of an accidental explosion, federal agents seized more than 100 high-powered rifles and hundreds of pounds of a bomb-making compound yesterday from the house of a man whom officials identified as the ordnance specialist of a local paramilitary group.The seizures followed the arrest on Monday of that suspect, Gary Bauer, and 11 other people on charges of conspiring to blow up government buildings in Phoenix.Janet Napolitano, the U.S. attorney for Arizona, said yesterday that the dozen people under arrest were the entire membership of the local paramilitary cell, the Viper Militia.

GOMA, Congo - Unidentified militia fighters ambushed and killed nine U.N. peacekeepers yesterday in the volatile Ituri region of eastern Congo. It was the worst attack in the six years of the mission and a sign of continued instability ahead of planned nationwide elections. The nine soldiers were Bangladeshis on a foot patrol near the town of Kafe, about 20 miles northwest of Bunia, the capital of Ituri province. They were protecting a nearby camp housing thousands of people who fled their villages in recent weeks because of attacks by militias.