07 April, 2007
First Quantum Says Resumes Congo Ore Exports.
Mining Weekly.
By: Reuters
Published: 5 Apr 07 - 8:20
http://www.miningweekly.co.za/article.php?a_id=106922
First Quantum Minerals Ltd said on Wednesday it had resumed trucking copper ore from Congo to Zambia for processing after an export ban was lifted, but a Congo provincial governor said the ban continued.
Katanga Province Governor Moise Katumbi closed the border with neighbouring Zambia to trucks transporting raw copper and cobalt ore on March 3, seeking to force mining companies to produce value-added processed products inside Katanga.
Later in the month, Katumbi lifted a ban on the export of processed copper to Zambia but maintained a prohibition on shipping ore, mining and transport executives said.
"As of midday yesterday, First Quantum's Lonshi mine in the DRC has resumed trucking ore across the border to the company's processing plant in Zambia," a spokeswoman told Reuters on Wednesday.
The spokeswoman said shipments had been allowed to resume as a result of the ban being lifted by the authorities.
But Katumbi said the ban remained in place.
"This is very false. It is intoxication. Nothing is passing -- you can come and see for yourself," he told Reuters by telephone from Katanga's provincial capital Lubumbashi.
"I have given no order ... this will continue, I have no intention of lifting it (the ban)," he said.
First Quantum's Lonshi mine is located around 35 km east of the firm's Bwana Mkubwa processing facility in Zambia. The operation produced 51 068 t of copper cathode last year.
Following the end of a 1998-2003 war and Congo's first free elections in more than four decades last year -- won by incumbent President Joseph Kabila -- foreign investment has been picking up and firms are moving to dig new mines or restart old ones.
The Democratic Republic of Congo tumbled from being the world's fifth biggest copper producer in the 1980s, when it produced more than 500 000 t a year, to an output of only 33,000 tonnes in 2000.
But mine production is due to jump by 83% this year to 139 500 t, according to Reuters Metal Production Database (MPD) (http://mpd.session.rservices.com).
Somalia clan Leaders Blame US for Mogadishu Crisis.
Shabelle News Network
7 April 2007
http://www.shabelle.net/news/ne2700.htm
The traditional elders of Somali’s powerful Hawiye tribe Saturday accused Washington of being responsible for the current crisis in the capital Mogadishu.
Hussein Siad Qoor-gaab, spokesman for Hawiye ceasefire committee told Shabelle Radio that the US government is behind what is going on in Mogadishu.
“The US government will be hold on accountable for the problem in the country by the Somali people” said Qoor-Gaab adding “the US supports the Ethiopian aggression against Somalia” Why the UN he said is silent of what is going on Mogadishu and watches the carnage on the civilians in the capital.
He urged the international community to act quickly about the crisis in Mogadishu.
7 April 2007
http://www.shabelle.net/news/ne2700.htm
The traditional elders of Somali’s powerful Hawiye tribe Saturday accused Washington of being responsible for the current crisis in the capital Mogadishu.
Hussein Siad Qoor-gaab, spokesman for Hawiye ceasefire committee told Shabelle Radio that the US government is behind what is going on in Mogadishu.
“The US government will be hold on accountable for the problem in the country by the Somali people” said Qoor-Gaab adding “the US supports the Ethiopian aggression against Somalia” Why the UN he said is silent of what is going on Mogadishu and watches the carnage on the civilians in the capital.
He urged the international community to act quickly about the crisis in Mogadishu.
DR Congo Ready to Profit From its Oil Resources.
AMEDEE MWARABU KIBOKO
Media Congo.net
English Translation.
Kinshasa, 7/04/2007
It is time DR Congo awakens and draws from the consequent incomes of its oil resources. As much as Angola, Congo-Brazzaville or Gabon, the DRC, located on the same perimeter of coast, must exploit its oil resources fully. From this point of view, a commission on the development of laws on hydrocarbons has just been installed. Beyond the need for a code for the oil industry, the DRC must include its sovereignty in the management of its oil resources.
By a decree signed last on Thursday April 5, the Minister for Hydrocarbons, Mende Lambert, set up a Commission in charge of the development of the Code of Hydrocarbons for the DRC and its application.
In the long term this text will be a law of the government of the Republic. This Commission is chaired by the Minister for Hydrocarbons and composed of five experts of the ministry, two from the presidency of the Republic, two of Primature, one of the ministry for Justice, and four of the teaching staff from the universities. This team of experts has a one year renewable mandate.
As such, it is time the DRC is committed to working out an outline law on the management of its hydrocarbon resources as much as it is time that the policies give a strong signal on the need for a beneficial policy to the DRC and the Congolese. Indeed, at the time when the creed of the modern government is good governorship and durable development, it is time to cease the opacity which exists in the exploitation of the DRC's oil resources . Also, it is not acceptable that the local communities livingin misery are given social and environmental impacts only in the zones where oil companies carry on their activities .
The DRC contains 6% of the oil reserves of Africa, according to data's available. (Emphasis mine-Editor.) However, up to now, oil exploitations are made only in the coastal basin, work in the Central Basin and the basins of the western branch of the East-African Rift are still only at the exploration stage. It should be noted that to exploit its oil, the DRC chose concession agreements with economic operators of the sector who, for the majority, are multinationals. According to certain analyses, these are the agreements which are at the base of the climate of secrecy that surrounds the exploitation of Congolese oil.
In his book “Oil Industry in DRC”, Jose Bafala, noted that “the DRC controls neither the produced quantities nor the prices. In the same way, the communities living in the immediate environment of the sites of exploitation bathe in poverty while these oil companies thrive."
In his work, the author showed the weakness of oil agreements signed in DRC and called for a rationalization of the agreements in the future.
THE CONGOLESE OIL CIRCUIT
Oil activities in DRC are organized around exploration/production, refining, transport, storage, and distribution of the petroleum products. To date, the hydrocarbons in the upsteam sector are controled by Ordinance law N° 81-013 of April 2, 1981, which regulates the granting of mineral rights by convention. They are granted only to moral people whose goals are limited to the recognition, he exploitation and refining of hydrocarbons without causing damage to the rights of state-owned property.
The individuals of the upstream oil chain in DRC are respectively, the State which plays the part of regulator, dictates the laws and also proceeds to the control of their applicability and the multinationals. They are associated with the acquisition of the licences in the zones open to exploration/production on the three sedimentary basins (coastal basin, Central Cuvette, Albertine Grabens and Tanganyika). The State holds 20% stakes in each operational company. To date, three oil conventions are in force in the only coalfield, the coastal basin, located in the west of the DRC.
The national company has, inter alia like mandate, the application of the national oil policy in this sector of exploration/production. It must develop its activities, alone and with joint ventures. It is within this framework that it participated in the PERENCO REP-LIREX association. The companies supporting the petrolum business, made up mainly of a multitude of sub-contracting international companies, ensures various support services for the exploration/production of patents of mining claims.
Downstream, the activities obey a common de jure system. The State regulates economic activities in connection with the marketing of petroleum products. The prices are fixed by the Ministry for the Economy after dialogue with the commercial companies. Here, there are several categories of companies: multinational subsidiary companies gathered in GPDPP (Professional body of the distributors of petroleum products), COBIL (a limited liability company born of ashes of the MOBIL OIL company), CONGO-OIL (a Swiss limited liability company [X-OIL: 50%] and Congolese [COHYDRO: 50%]), SONANGOL (a limited liability subsidiary company of the Angolan company SONANGOL in which the Congolese State holds 40% stakes) and COHYDRO, the Congolese state company.
Media Congo.net
English Translation.
Kinshasa, 7/04/2007
It is time DR Congo awakens and draws from the consequent incomes of its oil resources. As much as Angola, Congo-Brazzaville or Gabon, the DRC, located on the same perimeter of coast, must exploit its oil resources fully. From this point of view, a commission on the development of laws on hydrocarbons has just been installed. Beyond the need for a code for the oil industry, the DRC must include its sovereignty in the management of its oil resources.
By a decree signed last on Thursday April 5, the Minister for Hydrocarbons, Mende Lambert, set up a Commission in charge of the development of the Code of Hydrocarbons for the DRC and its application.
In the long term this text will be a law of the government of the Republic. This Commission is chaired by the Minister for Hydrocarbons and composed of five experts of the ministry, two from the presidency of the Republic, two of Primature, one of the ministry for Justice, and four of the teaching staff from the universities. This team of experts has a one year renewable mandate.
As such, it is time the DRC is committed to working out an outline law on the management of its hydrocarbon resources as much as it is time that the policies give a strong signal on the need for a beneficial policy to the DRC and the Congolese. Indeed, at the time when the creed of the modern government is good governorship and durable development, it is time to cease the opacity which exists in the exploitation of the DRC's oil resources . Also, it is not acceptable that the local communities livingin misery are given social and environmental impacts only in the zones where oil companies carry on their activities .
The DRC contains 6% of the oil reserves of Africa, according to data's available. (Emphasis mine-Editor.) However, up to now, oil exploitations are made only in the coastal basin, work in the Central Basin and the basins of the western branch of the East-African Rift are still only at the exploration stage. It should be noted that to exploit its oil, the DRC chose concession agreements with economic operators of the sector who, for the majority, are multinationals. According to certain analyses, these are the agreements which are at the base of the climate of secrecy that surrounds the exploitation of Congolese oil.
In his book “Oil Industry in DRC”, Jose Bafala, noted that “the DRC controls neither the produced quantities nor the prices. In the same way, the communities living in the immediate environment of the sites of exploitation bathe in poverty while these oil companies thrive."
In his work, the author showed the weakness of oil agreements signed in DRC and called for a rationalization of the agreements in the future.
THE CONGOLESE OIL CIRCUIT
Oil activities in DRC are organized around exploration/production, refining, transport, storage, and distribution of the petroleum products. To date, the hydrocarbons in the upsteam sector are controled by Ordinance law N° 81-013 of April 2, 1981, which regulates the granting of mineral rights by convention. They are granted only to moral people whose goals are limited to the recognition, he exploitation and refining of hydrocarbons without causing damage to the rights of state-owned property.
The individuals of the upstream oil chain in DRC are respectively, the State which plays the part of regulator, dictates the laws and also proceeds to the control of their applicability and the multinationals. They are associated with the acquisition of the licences in the zones open to exploration/production on the three sedimentary basins (coastal basin, Central Cuvette, Albertine Grabens and Tanganyika). The State holds 20% stakes in each operational company. To date, three oil conventions are in force in the only coalfield, the coastal basin, located in the west of the DRC.
The national company has, inter alia like mandate, the application of the national oil policy in this sector of exploration/production. It must develop its activities, alone and with joint ventures. It is within this framework that it participated in the PERENCO REP-LIREX association. The companies supporting the petrolum business, made up mainly of a multitude of sub-contracting international companies, ensures various support services for the exploration/production of patents of mining claims.
Downstream, the activities obey a common de jure system. The State regulates economic activities in connection with the marketing of petroleum products. The prices are fixed by the Ministry for the Economy after dialogue with the commercial companies. Here, there are several categories of companies: multinational subsidiary companies gathered in GPDPP (Professional body of the distributors of petroleum products), COBIL (a limited liability company born of ashes of the MOBIL OIL company), CONGO-OIL (a Swiss limited liability company [X-OIL: 50%] and Congolese [COHYDRO: 50%]), SONANGOL (a limited liability subsidiary company of the Angolan company SONANGOL in which the Congolese State holds 40% stakes) and COHYDRO, the Congolese state company.
Top U.S. Diplomat in Somalia Visit.
Reuters.
By Ysain Bu'ul
By Ysain Bu'ul
April 7 2007
Editor's Note: For recall, Assistant Secretary Frazier once said that Somalia has the best chance for peace in years since the UIC has been evicted. She added, "One thing that gives me hope is that at some point people get exhausted of killing each other." ("Best Chance for Somali Peace in Years: US Official," Shabelle News Network. 6 April 2007. http://www.shabelle.net/news/ne2692.htm)
BAIDOA, Somalia, April 7 (Reuters) - The top U.S. diplomat for Africa flew to Somalia on Saturday to urge the interim government to establish a lasting truce to clear the way for a reconciliation conference threatened by violence in Mogadishu.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer landed in Baidoa, the government's former temporary capital in south-central Somalia, under heavy security, witnesses said.
Frazer, the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Somalia since 1994, was whisked off to the former presidential palace to meet President Abdullahi Yusuf and Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi before addressing parliament, witnesses said.
Frazer's visit came on the sixth day of a truce to end some of the heaviest fighting in the capital Mogadishu in 15 years.
The fighting was sparked by an offensive to wipe out a persistent insurgency before an April 16 national reconciliation conference.
Frazer told reporters in Baidoa that her message to all she met was to "stop the violence now and have a permanent ceasefire mechanism in place. Peace will come through dialogue and not fighting."
A joint Somali-Ethiopian offensive led to entire pro-insurgent neighbourhoods being demolished with rockets, tanks and artillery from March 29-April 1, in fighting that killed at least 400 people and wounded about 1,000.
The interim government must get the reconciliation underway so that an inclusive government, security forces and constitution can be finished in time for elections in 2009, when the current administration's mandate is due to end, she said.
The interim government must get the reconciliation underway so that an inclusive government, security forces and constitution can be finished in time for elections in 2009, when the current administration's mandate is due to end, she said.
NATION IN ANARCHY
Despite nearly a week with only sporadic gunfire -- the norm in Mogadishu -- many doubt the security situation will improve enough in time for the start of the conference, which is designed to bring together all sectors of Somali society.
Diplomats see the meeting as the government's only chance to gain the legitimacy and inclusiveness it needs to lead a nation in anarchy since the 1991 ousting of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
Frazer also said that the Washington still believed that three top al Qaeda suspects, plus three Somali associates are still in the country.
"Unfortunately, Somalia has become a haven for terrorists, and the al Shabaab militia took part in the last fighting that happened in Mogadishu," she said, before flying back to the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
The Shabaab is a feared Islamist combat unit led by Adan Hashi Ayro, a leader of the Islamist movement that Ethiopian and Somali forces routed in a two-week war over the New Year with U.S. backing that included two air raids.
Rebel attacks, carried out by defeated Islamists trained in insurgency and gunmen from Mogadishu's dominant Hawiye clan, and the government's responses have sent 124,000 residents -- a tenth of Mogadishu's population -- fleeing since February.
Indiscriminate shelling in last week's assault prompted a European Union investigation into possible war crimes by Ethiopian and Somali troops, and also by African Union peacekeepers from Uganda who failed to stop them from happening.
Ethiopia, Somalia and Uganda all deny wrongdoing.
Somalia's interim government is the 14th attempt to establish central rule in the Horn of Africa nation since 1991. Frazer has said she sees this current time as the best opportunity since then to create a lasting government.
(Additional reporting by Bryson Hull in Nairobi and Sahal Abdulle in Mogadishu)
Slain Rwandan President's Daughter Questions Probe Into His Death.
Agence France Presse
7 April 2007
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/070407/1/47oli.html
The family of Rwanda's former president, a Hutu who was killed in a 1994 attack that triggered the Rwandan genocide, on Friday objected to a government-created probe and questioned its neutrality.
The Rwandan government said last month it would create an independent commission to investigate the attack on a former president Juvenal Habyarimana's aircraft, but did not say when the work would begin or give details on its make-up.
"The family of president Habyarimana recognizes neither the competence or the neutrality of the commission issued by the (Tutsi rebel group the Rwandan Patriotic Front) RPF government," his daughter, Canada-resident Marie-Rose Habyarimana wrote in the Quebec daily Le Devoir.
Over the course of 100 days in 1994, around 800,000 people in Rwanda, most of them Tutsis and moderate Hutus, were slaughtered in a genocidal campaign planned and orchestrated by the Hutu government in power at the time.
In July of that year, a Tutsi rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, led by Paul Kagame, now president, seized power in Kigali, putting an end to the genocide.
Habyarimana's daughter accused the RPF of being "the initiator and principal actor of the Rwandan conflict," and said its leaders were "suspected of perpetrating this attack."
In November 2006, Rwanda broke ties with France after French judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere called for President Kagame to be tried for alleged complicity in the death of Habyarimana. Kagame denied the allegations.
Habyarimana's daughter said any probe could be guaranteed independent if it were formed through the United Nations, as was the case with a UN investigation into the murder of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri.
"We wonder a lot about the UN's indifference and ambivalent attitude. The UN policies have a double standard, as if the blood of Rwandans did not have the same value as others," she said.
"We continue to demand that light be shed on this attack," she added. "We continue to ask that justice be served for all."
Peter Karim to Finally Join FARDC.
L'Avenir
7 April 2007
7 April 2007
English Translation.
Editor's Note: Colonel Karim, who has deep ties to Uganda (he is a former UPDF commander) and has participated in smuggling timber from DRC, is the commander of the last major rebel group in Ituri, the FNI. This group is responsible for the death of several MONUC soldiers and innumerable human rights abuses against civilians in the region. Yet, he will be granted amnesty in the name of "peace."
The chief of the Front for Nationalism and Integration (FNI), Peter Karim, finally agreed to give up all his weapons. The ceremony will take place today in Kpandroma in Ituri, affirms the FARDC's commander of military operations in this district, General Vainqueur Mayala.
Joined on the telephone yesterday from Kinshasa, General Vainqueur Mayala indicates the guarantee in conditions that he would have granted to Peter Karim and who probably convinced Karim to take the route of Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR).
The commander of operations in Ituri indicates the members of this militia will see their ranks confirmed in the national army and that amnesty will be issued by the proper authorities. Thus, one learns from sources, Peter Karim will carry the rank of major in the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC), while his/her other comrades in arms will keep in their trn the ranks which they already had.
These guarantees which probably persuaded Karim would be also at the root of the prolonged negotiations between FARDC and FNI, in the sense that Peter Karim did not want to decide before having them.
After the first two waves of his combatants were given to the FARDC, Peter Karim seemed not to want to continue the operation. Each day which passed without him giving the final word made everyone fear the worst. But obstinate, General Mayaka and his staff continued negotiations which carried out in two sites in the Ituri District. After the locality of Nioka which had received delegates of the two parts, negotiations had been delocalized once again and for four days in Kpandroma from where this final agreement was concluded.
With the pace that the situation develops, Peter Karim will have filled his share of the contract through this important cache of weapons awaited today, and he will now return to the government to fill his.
General Mayala reassures the good results of the combat which he will carry out near his hierarchy to remove the privileges that he gleaned to Karim, especially because he could not take such a step without having the support of his chiefs, notice other observers. Admittedly, he said that all the process returns in the order and that we are unaware of the exact terms respected in the various clauses of the “contract" so that other chiefs of war which still remain will return to the DDR. It is the price of peace claimed by all the Congolese population in general and that of Ituri in particular.
Feared Warlord Joins State Army.
By Lubunga Bya'Ombe
IOL News.
7 April 2007
Kinshasa - One of eastern Congo's most feared militia warlords joined the national army on Saturday with the rank of colonel under a disarmament process to pacify the violent region after years of bloodshed, the army said.Peter Karim's Front of Nationalists and Integrationists (FNI) has long been regarded as one of the main obstacles to peace in Democratic Republic of Congo's northeastern Ituri district, racked by militia violence since a 1998-2003 war.The FNI and two other armed groups in Ituri signed peace deals in November 2006 after Congo's first free elections in over four decades. The group slid back into violence in December, but its fighters started joining a disarmament process in February.
General Vainqueur Mayala, the army's commander of operations in Ituri, said Karim had handed himself over on Saturday at Kpandroma, 70 km (44 miles) from Ituri's main town Bunia, in what he called "an important step in pacifying Ituri".The November deals, under which Karim and another militia leader were offered the rank of colonel, were criticised at the time by US-based Human Rights Watch, which said they should be arrested to face war crimes charges instead.
General Vainqueur Mayala, the army's commander of operations in Ituri, said Karim had handed himself over on Saturday at Kpandroma, 70 km (44 miles) from Ituri's main town Bunia, in what he called "an important step in pacifying Ituri".The November deals, under which Karim and another militia leader were offered the rank of colonel, were criticised at the time by US-based Human Rights Watch, which said they should be arrested to face war crimes charges instead.
Mayala told Reuters by phone from Kpandroma that Karim would be transferred to another part of the country, to be decided by the army chief of staff, and integrated into the national army.Seven other FNI officers gave themselves up along with Karim, as well as 307 fighters who were now at a transit centre.Karim still has some fighters in the bush but will encourage them to join the disarmament process too, Mayala said."We are limited by our accommodation, as the transit centre holds no more than 500 people," he said.Several provinces of eastern Congo are torn by violence involving local ethnic militias and some Rwandan Hutu groups who fled over the border after their country's 1994 genocide.
Another feared Ituri warlord known as Cobra Matata is still at large. Mayala said he was "in touch with Cobra Matata where he is in the bush, and he too will come and join us at some point".The 1998-2003 war triggered a humanitarian crisis that killed an estimated 4 million people and aid workers say 1 200 more die each day from war-related violence, hunger or disease. (Editor's Note: Matata is the leader is the leader of the FPRI, who has, like Karim, agreed verbally to disarm and has sent several groups of soldiers to the transit camps for DDR. Matata is known to be particularly rutheless, and he was a commander for the forces that committed the massacre in Nyakunde, one of the worse single war crimes in the Congo. He is holding out for amnesty as well.)
Landmark elections in 2006, won by President Joseph Kabila and his allies, were meant to draw a line under decades of instability, but many parts of the vast country are still plagued by violence. Hundreds of people were killed last month in two days of fighting in the capital Kinshasa itself. - Reuters
Senator Barack Obama: Corporate Lobbying in Africa.
Illinois Senator (and Democratic presidential candidate) Barack Obama with Idris Deby, the President of Chad.
Photo by Lynn Sweet/ Chicago Sun-Times)
Editor's Note: While he was in Africa on his way to visit his father's home village in Kenya last year, Senator Obama visited Chad, officially to talk about Chad's role in destabilizing Darfur. However, he was also there as an unofficial lobbyist for ExxonMobil and particularly Chevron, who had their oil contracts in Chad revoked because of a significant backlog of unpaid taxes. Senator Obama's own website was particularly telling. The official press release announcing his trip was entitled, "Obama trip to highlight U.S. interests in Africa."(http://obama.senate.gov/news/060710-obama_trip_to_h/)
In Chad, Senator Obama pressured President Idris Deby to reinstate the contracts unaltered. The World Bank financed Chad-Cameroon pipeline has the potential to be a growing vital asset in Africa for the West, and the US Navy already utilizes Cameroon's ports. Perhaps investors might eventually consider an extension into Darfur if those oil fields are ever developed after the ongoing war ends.
Senator Obama has talked a tough stance against the Khartoum government. However, Chad, like Sudan, uses its oil profits on arms spending. Chad, like Sudan's government, arms warring factions in Darfur. However, Senator Obama has said nothing about Chad's ongoing role in the Darfur crisis, nor Chad's distinct lack of democracy and democratic values. The center-right Council on Foreign Relations' magazine "Foreign Affairs" ranked Chad as #4 on its annual "Failed States Index" for 2008. Chad received a 7 out of 7 by Freedom House for 2008, rating it in the category of "Least Free" states. In 2007, Reporters Without Borders ranked Chad's press freedom at 116th out of 169th.
Reuters
by Stephanie Hancock
3 September 2006.
N'DJAMENA, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Fences and laws will not halt illegal
migrants, whether Africans headed for Europe or Mexicans to the U.S.,
and they should be treated not as criminals but as a humanitarian
problem, U.S. Senator Barack Obama said.
At the end of a two-week tour of Africa, the only African-American
member of the U.S. Senate told Reuters that illegal migration was a
transnational issue, like terrorism, pandemic diseases or climate change.
"The days are gone when we can isolate ourselves and pretend that
somehow Africa's problems are not our own," Obama said in an interview
late on Saturday in the Chadian capital N'Djamena.
Obama, the son of a Kenya-born economist and a rising star in America's
Democratic Party, had visited South Africa, Kenya, Djibouti and camps
sheltering Darfur refugees in eastern Chad.
He drew a parallel between the thousands of Africans trying to enter
Europe through perilous sea and land journeys from the world's poorest
continent and the inlux of mostly Hispanic migrants trying to cross from
Mexico into the United States.
"We can try to build fences, we can try to improve enforcement of
immigration laws, but ultimately when people are desperate, when they
are making $1 a day and they have to feed their families, they are going
to keep on coming," he said.
"We have a border with Mexico and we are struggling with this issue
ourselves," he added.
Obama said that while every nation had the right to protect its
frontiers, the most cost effective solution to the illegal migration
problem was to treat it as a humanitarian issue.
So the United States and Europe should assist the development of poorer
countries to try to keep would-be migrants at home.
"We have to be mindful that people who are coming in boats to Europe or
trying to cross the deserts from Mexico into the south-west of the U.S.
are simply looking for a better life for themselves and their children,
and should not be treated as criminals but as desperate people," he said.
TALKS ON DARFUR
Earlier, Obama had visited camps in eastern Chad sheltering refugees
from Sudan's violent Darfur region, where political and ethnic conflict
has killed around 200,000 people and forced 2.5 million more from their
homes.
The United Nations Security Council has authorised a 22,600-strong
international peacekeeping force for Darfur but Sudan's government is
refusing to allow in U.N. troops.
Obama told reporters Darfur had been the main topic of his talks with
Chadian President Idriss Deby.
"One thing I think is very important ... is the need for the African
Union to apply pressure on the Sudanese government to accept a U.N.
protective force." the U.S. senator said.
"I think if such pressure is only coming from Western nations, then (it)
will fail," he added.
Obama also discussed with Deby Chad's desire to change an existing
agreement with a foreign oil consortium, which includes two U.S.
companies, Exxon Mobil and Chevron.
Deby has ordered Chevron and the other consortium member, Malaysia's
Petronas, to halt operations and leave Chad for refusing to pay taxes
the government says they owe.
"If an agreement has been made with a foreign company my instinct is
generally that those agreements should be observed and not renegotiated
continually," Obama told Reuters.
He added that oil revenues, if improperly handled, could turn out to be
a "curse" for developing countries and he supported efforts by the World
Bank to ensure that Chad showed transparency and accountability in its
use of oil income.
(Emphasis mine-Editor.)
www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L0371080.htm
by Stephanie Hancock
3 September 2006.
N'DJAMENA, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Fences and laws will not halt illegal
migrants, whether Africans headed for Europe or Mexicans to the U.S.,
and they should be treated not as criminals but as a humanitarian
problem, U.S. Senator Barack Obama said.
At the end of a two-week tour of Africa, the only African-American
member of the U.S. Senate told Reuters that illegal migration was a
transnational issue, like terrorism, pandemic diseases or climate change.
"The days are gone when we can isolate ourselves and pretend that
somehow Africa's problems are not our own," Obama said in an interview
late on Saturday in the Chadian capital N'Djamena.
Obama, the son of a Kenya-born economist and a rising star in America's
Democratic Party, had visited South Africa, Kenya, Djibouti and camps
sheltering Darfur refugees in eastern Chad.
He drew a parallel between the thousands of Africans trying to enter
Europe through perilous sea and land journeys from the world's poorest
continent and the inlux of mostly Hispanic migrants trying to cross from
Mexico into the United States.
"We can try to build fences, we can try to improve enforcement of
immigration laws, but ultimately when people are desperate, when they
are making $1 a day and they have to feed their families, they are going
to keep on coming," he said.
"We have a border with Mexico and we are struggling with this issue
ourselves," he added.
Obama said that while every nation had the right to protect its
frontiers, the most cost effective solution to the illegal migration
problem was to treat it as a humanitarian issue.
So the United States and Europe should assist the development of poorer
countries to try to keep would-be migrants at home.
"We have to be mindful that people who are coming in boats to Europe or
trying to cross the deserts from Mexico into the south-west of the U.S.
are simply looking for a better life for themselves and their children,
and should not be treated as criminals but as desperate people," he said.
TALKS ON DARFUR
Earlier, Obama had visited camps in eastern Chad sheltering refugees
from Sudan's violent Darfur region, where political and ethnic conflict
has killed around 200,000 people and forced 2.5 million more from their
homes.
The United Nations Security Council has authorised a 22,600-strong
international peacekeeping force for Darfur but Sudan's government is
refusing to allow in U.N. troops.
Obama told reporters Darfur had been the main topic of his talks with
Chadian President Idriss Deby.
"One thing I think is very important ... is the need for the African
Union to apply pressure on the Sudanese government to accept a U.N.
protective force." the U.S. senator said.
"I think if such pressure is only coming from Western nations, then (it)
will fail," he added.
Obama also discussed with Deby Chad's desire to change an existing
agreement with a foreign oil consortium, which includes two U.S.
companies, Exxon Mobil and Chevron.
Deby has ordered Chevron and the other consortium member, Malaysia's
Petronas, to halt operations and leave Chad for refusing to pay taxes
the government says they owe.
"If an agreement has been made with a foreign company my instinct is
generally that those agreements should be observed and not renegotiated
continually," Obama told Reuters.
He added that oil revenues, if improperly handled, could turn out to be
a "curse" for developing countries and he supported efforts by the World
Bank to ensure that Chad showed transparency and accountability in its
use of oil income.
(Emphasis mine-Editor.)
www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L0371080.htm
Rwanda Says They are Ready to Accomodate Genocide Suspects.
Panapress.
March 27, 2007
English Translation.
Mpanga Prison, located 106 kilometers in the south-central area Rwanda meets all the conditions to start accomodating genocidary suspects of the International Penal Court for Rwanda (ICTR), reports the pro-governmental “The New Times”, quoting the Secretary General of the Rwandan Ministry of the Interior, Joseph Mutaboba.
Rwanda appears among the countries who agreed to relieve the ICTR at the end of its mandate envisaged in December 2008.
Right now, the first 25 files of certain genocide suspects whose instruction was made by this U.N. jurisdiction, were transferred from Arusha.
Resolution 1503 of the U.N. Security Council made an agreement with the ICTR to conclude its work by 2010, only for the remainder of the lawsuits in call.
The same resolution stipulates that all the countries which would have ratified genocide convention and harmonize their legislation, could start to receive files from the ICTR.
Ambassador Mutaboba indicated that the prison is ready to accomodate the transfer of the first files, noting that the Rwandan Government played its part while meeting the international standards required for a modern prison.
According to an official source quoted by the Rwandan daily newspaper, Mpanga has the capacity to accomodate some 7.500 prisoners.
March 27, 2007
English Translation.
Mpanga Prison, located 106 kilometers in the south-central area Rwanda meets all the conditions to start accomodating genocidary suspects of the International Penal Court for Rwanda (ICTR), reports the pro-governmental “The New Times”, quoting the Secretary General of the Rwandan Ministry of the Interior, Joseph Mutaboba.
Rwanda appears among the countries who agreed to relieve the ICTR at the end of its mandate envisaged in December 2008.
Right now, the first 25 files of certain genocide suspects whose instruction was made by this U.N. jurisdiction, were transferred from Arusha.
Resolution 1503 of the U.N. Security Council made an agreement with the ICTR to conclude its work by 2010, only for the remainder of the lawsuits in call.
The same resolution stipulates that all the countries which would have ratified genocide convention and harmonize their legislation, could start to receive files from the ICTR.
Ambassador Mutaboba indicated that the prison is ready to accomodate the transfer of the first files, noting that the Rwandan Government played its part while meeting the international standards required for a modern prison.
According to an official source quoted by the Rwandan daily newspaper, Mpanga has the capacity to accomodate some 7.500 prisoners.
Donors may be Complicit in War Crimes in Somalia - EU.
Associated Press.
Saturday 7 April 2007.
April 06, 2007 (NAIROBI) — Ethiopian and Somali forces may have committed war crimes during four days of heavy artillery shelling to quash an Islamic insurgency in the Somali capital and foreign donors could be complicit, a European Union conflict expert said in an e-mail obtained by The Associated Press.
The United States, United Nations and the European Union have provided millions of dollars to support Somalia’s fragile interim government. Ethiopian troops intervened in December to protect the government and defeat their militant Islamic rivals.
But Islamic insurgents and clan militiamen opposed to the government have attacked government and Ethiopian troops in recent weeks. An operation by Ethiopian-backed government forces last week sparked the heaviest fighting in 15 years, leaving hundreds of civilians dead, and the tactics they used raised concerns among EU experts.
The warning was made in an urgent e-mail to Eric van der Linden, the chief EU official for Kenya and Somalia. Van der Linden confirmed the e-mail’s authenticity to the AP.
"I need to advise you that there are strong grounds to believe that the Ethiopian government and the transitional federal government of Somalia and the African Union (peacekeeping) Force Commander, possibly also including the African Union Head of Mission and other African Union officials have through commission or omission violated the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court," the e-mail said.
The e-mail’s author, whose name was blanked out on the copy obtained by the AP but whose senior position was apparent from the text, went on to detail the exact statutes that may have been violated. They included intentionally directing attacks against civilians and ordering the displacement of civilians for reasons related to the conflict.
"In regard to the abovementioned potential violations of international law there arise urgent questions of responsibility and potential complicity in the commission of war crimes by the European Commission and its partners," the e-mail said.
Van der Linden said he forwarded the e-mail to EU headquarters for legal review. He said he takes all accusations of war crimes seriously, but said the e-mail only raised questions about potential legal issues and did not make any specific allegations.
"We cannot talk at this stage about war crimes, we need to do some serious research," he said. He also denied some press reports that he had appointed a team to investigate possible war crimes in Somalia.
Van der Linden said he was focused on trying to bring together all of the warring sides at a reconciliation congress intended to end the fighting.
In the Somali capital, Mogadishu, residents were still burying bodies from last week’s fighting. A fragile five day cease-fire was holding but residents were still fleeing, fearing new clashes between Somali government forces, their Ethiopian backers and Islamic insurgents.
The e-mail was sent on Monday, following the four day battle. The day after it was written, the European Union issued a statement calling for an end to the fighting.
"We are deeply concerned about the humanitarian impact of the conflict in Mogadishu and the indiscriminate shelling of heavily populated areas," the EU said Tuesday. A statement condemning potential war crimes can be considered under international law as mitigation against accusations of complicity.
Somali officials declined to comment.
The EU was shortly expected to release A15 million (US$20 million) for the African peacekeeping force, but the e-mail could lead to the suspension of the money, a Western diplomat said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The United States is also a major financial supporter of the Somali government and the peacekeepers, pledging more than US$120 million (A90 million).
Solomon Abebe, spokesman for the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the allegations a "fabrication."
"The international community, everybody knows that this is false," he said.
But European diplomats said they were analyzing the legal implications.
"We are looking at this from a legal point of view at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Stockholm," said Jens Orlander, the Swedish special envoy for Somalia based in Nairobi.
The European Union has no mechanism for investigating and prosecuting war crimes in Somalia; that would fall on the International Criminal Court.
One Somali human rights group, which asked not to be identified for fear of retribution, said it was gathering evidence of war crimes in Somalia for submission to the International Criminal Court for possible future prosecutions.
Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf and his Cabinet ministers have repeatedly called for civilians to leave their homes because insurgents have fired mortars at Ethiopian and government troops from densely populated neighborhoods.
The U.N. refugee agency says some 124,000 people have fled Mogadishu since the beginning of February, including 11,000 in the past six days.
New York-based Human Rights Watch called Friday for all sides to end indiscriminate attacks against civilians.
"Civilians in Mogadishu are paying an intolerable price for the failure of all sides to abide by the rules of warfare," said Georgette Gagnon, deputy Africa director of Human Rights Watch.
Francois Mitterrand's Son Faces Trial in Shady Angola Arms Deals.
Reuters.
28 March 2007.
PARIS, France (Reuters) -- A French prosecutor said on Wednesday that 42 people, including the son of the late former president Francois Mitterrand, should stand trial in a $790 million scandal over arms sales to Angola in the 1990s.
Concluding a seven-year inquiry, prosecutor Jean-Claude Marin said arms traders Pierre Falcone and Arcady Gaydamak had bought their way into setting up a network of political contacts to favor their activities in the African country.
Falcone is accused of selling Russian arms to the war-torn African country in 1993 and 1994 in an affair dubbed "Angolagate" that cast a shadow over Mitterrand's two-term presidency from 1981 to 1995.
Falcone's contacts, including Mitterrand's son Jean-Christophe, the Socialist president's adviser Jacques Attali and former conservative interior minister Charles Pasqua, are suspected of accepting large sums to facilitate the deals.
The sums range from $2.6 million in Mitterrand's case to $160,000 for Attali.
The case is one of a series of murky politico-financial scandals from the Mitterrand era and involves political figures on both the left and right as well as a colorful associated cast including the thriller writer Paul-Loup Sulitzer.
Falcone and Gaydamak bought tanks, helicopters, artillery pieces, mines, flame throwers and other weapons in eastern Europe and sold them to Angola through a Paris-based company called Brenco and its Slovak subsidiary.
Prosecutors say the deals required official authorization, a charge rejected by the defense.
The weapons were used by Angolan President Eduardo Dos Santos to fight rebel UNITA forces under Jonas Savimbi.
The prosecution said Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, who was his father's adviser for Africa from 1986 to 1992, should stand trial for "corruption and the misappropriation of public property", for which he risks 10 years in prison.
An investigating judge has to decide on whether to call a new trial, which would probably take place in 2008.
The case is the latest in a series of legal woes for Mitterrand, who was found guilty of tax fraud in 2004 and sentenced to a 30-month suspended jail sentence.
"He has committed no breach of the law," his lawyer Jean-Pierre Versini said. "He will call for a discharge [at the trial] and reserves himself the right to demand compensation."
Attali, a former adviser to Francois Mitterrand, former interior minister Pasqua and arms traders Falcone and Gaydamak should also stand trial, the prosecution said.
Falcone and Gaydamak are both abroad. They have argued that their business was legal.
Editor's Note: There is a whole lot more to this story. Global Witness' Report entitled "All the President's Men" reveals much more about the network behind the deals. The Angolan arms buildup helped the army defeat UNITA (with the help of the Private Military Companies MPRI and AirScan) pushed UNITA back into the bush, which forced them to turn to the "blood diamond" trade for survival.
Falcone's wife, a former Miss Bolivia, is a personal friend of First Lady Laura Bush and was a big contributor to (then) Governor George W. Bush's presidential campaign through her Essante Corporation, which was later linked to the arms trafficking. Just before Mr. Falcone was arrested, police found a letter he had written to Governor Bush inviting him to meet with Angolan President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, who had abandoned his Marxist princpals. Bush eventually met with President Dos Santos after UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi was assassinated in 2002. While Dick Cheney was CEO of Halliburton, the company worked with the U.S. Import-Export bank to get nearly 70 million dollars on loan for Angola during the height of their arms smuggling operations. ("All the President's Men." Global Witness. March 2002.)
28 March 2007.
PARIS, France (Reuters) -- A French prosecutor said on Wednesday that 42 people, including the son of the late former president Francois Mitterrand, should stand trial in a $790 million scandal over arms sales to Angola in the 1990s.
Concluding a seven-year inquiry, prosecutor Jean-Claude Marin said arms traders Pierre Falcone and Arcady Gaydamak had bought their way into setting up a network of political contacts to favor their activities in the African country.
Falcone is accused of selling Russian arms to the war-torn African country in 1993 and 1994 in an affair dubbed "Angolagate" that cast a shadow over Mitterrand's two-term presidency from 1981 to 1995.
Falcone's contacts, including Mitterrand's son Jean-Christophe, the Socialist president's adviser Jacques Attali and former conservative interior minister Charles Pasqua, are suspected of accepting large sums to facilitate the deals.
The sums range from $2.6 million in Mitterrand's case to $160,000 for Attali.
The case is one of a series of murky politico-financial scandals from the Mitterrand era and involves political figures on both the left and right as well as a colorful associated cast including the thriller writer Paul-Loup Sulitzer.
Falcone and Gaydamak bought tanks, helicopters, artillery pieces, mines, flame throwers and other weapons in eastern Europe and sold them to Angola through a Paris-based company called Brenco and its Slovak subsidiary.
Prosecutors say the deals required official authorization, a charge rejected by the defense.
The weapons were used by Angolan President Eduardo Dos Santos to fight rebel UNITA forces under Jonas Savimbi.
The prosecution said Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, who was his father's adviser for Africa from 1986 to 1992, should stand trial for "corruption and the misappropriation of public property", for which he risks 10 years in prison.
An investigating judge has to decide on whether to call a new trial, which would probably take place in 2008.
The case is the latest in a series of legal woes for Mitterrand, who was found guilty of tax fraud in 2004 and sentenced to a 30-month suspended jail sentence.
"He has committed no breach of the law," his lawyer Jean-Pierre Versini said. "He will call for a discharge [at the trial] and reserves himself the right to demand compensation."
Attali, a former adviser to Francois Mitterrand, former interior minister Pasqua and arms traders Falcone and Gaydamak should also stand trial, the prosecution said.
Falcone and Gaydamak are both abroad. They have argued that their business was legal.
Editor's Note: There is a whole lot more to this story. Global Witness' Report entitled "All the President's Men" reveals much more about the network behind the deals. The Angolan arms buildup helped the army defeat UNITA (with the help of the Private Military Companies MPRI and AirScan) pushed UNITA back into the bush, which forced them to turn to the "blood diamond" trade for survival.
Falcone's wife, a former Miss Bolivia, is a personal friend of First Lady Laura Bush and was a big contributor to (then) Governor George W. Bush's presidential campaign through her Essante Corporation, which was later linked to the arms trafficking. Just before Mr. Falcone was arrested, police found a letter he had written to Governor Bush inviting him to meet with Angolan President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, who had abandoned his Marxist princpals. Bush eventually met with President Dos Santos after UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi was assassinated in 2002. While Dick Cheney was CEO of Halliburton, the company worked with the U.S. Import-Export bank to get nearly 70 million dollars on loan for Angola during the height of their arms smuggling operations. ("All the President's Men." Global Witness. March 2002.)
President Kagame Releases Former President Pasteur Bizimungu.
The New Times.
by Felly Kimenyi
Apr 06, 2007 at 10:35 PM
Editor's Note: A nice public relations move to make him appear as the merciful one. Mr. Bizimungu wrote to President Kagame last year and begged for clemency becasuse he is terminally ill. President Kagame turned him down, then denied Mr. Bizimungu ever asked him for clemency in the letter, despite admitting he was pondering the decision at an earlier press conference. ("Rwanda President Considering Clemency for Ex-president Jailed on Incitement Charges," Jeannie Shawl. The Jurist. 8 May 2006; "Bizimungu Asked no Pardon, says Kagame," Stephen Baguma, Ignatius Ssuuna. The New Times. 11 September 2006.)
President Paul Kagame yesterday granted pardon to former president Pasteur Bizimungu who has been serving a fifteen-year jail sentence. "I am much overjoyed by the President’s move to pardon me. I was completely caught off-guard by the pardon,” said a beaming Bizimungu before saying he was too tired to entertain questions from members of the press.
When contacted for comment, the Minister of National Security, Musa Fazil Harerimana, confirmed that indeed the news was true; the President invoked the powers entrusted to him by the constitution to pardon Bizimungu.“We were told what to do by the President and that is what we executed: he is a free man. We only cautioned him to be a law abiding citizen,” he said over the phone yesterday.
Harerimana said that Bizimungu’s release was unconditional but warned that in case the latter was caught in any act related to what he was convicted of, he would be re-arrested and required to complete his sentence.“But I don’t think he can do it because of the happiness with which he received the pardon. He even asked us to extend his gratitude to the President, and we will do it,” the minister added.
The Minister for Justice, Tharcisse Karugarama, said that the pardon was upon the President’s continence, saying he could not comment on the timing of the pardon.
“Unless you ask the President himself, all I can tell you is that everything has its own timing. The President was simply exercising his prerogatives,” Karugarama said on phone.
Arrested in 2002 over charges of treason which he committed through an interview he gave to one Valerie Torre, a journalist of Jeune Afrique, a French magazine, earlier that year, Bizimungu had so far completed five years of his sentence.
In February last year, the final verdict was handed down by the President of the Supreme Court, Aloysia Cyanzayire, rejecting the appeal logged by Bizimungu.
Other crimes for which Bizimungu had been convicted included embezzlement of public funds, creation of a criminal gang, and spreading malicious propaganda.
The former president was convicted with a former minister of public works, Charles Ntakirutinka, who was sentenced to ten years.
Bizimungu’s release comes on the eve of the thirteenth commemoration of the 1994 Genocide.Pictured: Rwandans will today begin a week of commemoration of the lives of an estimated one million people who lost their lives during the 1994 Genocide.
The national ceremony, under the theme ‘We should remember the plight of genocide survivors while fighting for their justice’, will be presided over by President Paul Kagame at Murambi in Southern Province.
Associated Press.
6 April 2007.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- Rwanda's first post-genocide leader walked free from jail Friday after a surprise presidential pardon of convictions that included inciting ethnic tension.
Pasteur Bizimungu was freed after serving two years of a 15-year jail term as an act of clemency by President Paul Kagame to build national unity, an official said. His release came on the 13th anniversary of the start of the 1994 genocide in which 500,000 were killed.
"It's a good gesture, it's done in good faith, it's done for the good," Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama told The Associated Press by telephone from the Rwandan capital, Kigali. About 9,000 people were released last year, he said.
Karugarama said Bizimungu's release was the first full presidential pardon Kagame has given. He said he did not know Kagame's reasons for the pardon.
"I should imagine that the president, in exercising his discretion, is part of the forgiving process," he said. "It's all part of a large, wide reconstruction and reconciliation."
He added that he believed Bizimungu returned to his home in Kigali after his release. Bizimungu could not be reached for comment.
His lawyer, Jeanbosco Kazenge, said his client had gone home to be with his family. "He's fine, he's happy," he said by phone from Kigali.
MONUC Says Opposition Forces Have Disarmed, Awaiting Handover.
United Nations News Service.
April 5, 2007
Posted to the web April 6, 2007
After clashing violently with Government troops in the capital Kinshasa last month, opposition forces and their dependents in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) currently under United Nations protection have disarmed, the world body's Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) said today.
The UN mission in the DRC, known as MONUC, estimates that hundreds were killed and many more wounded in the violence which broke out on 22 March between Government forces and guards of former Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba, who was defeated last year by current President Joseph Kabila in the run-off round of landmark presidential elections.
As of 30 March, 149 opposition fighters, called DPP, have taken refuge with MONUC. In addition to those DPP members, some 93 women and 109 children who claim to be family of DPP members have also taken refuge with MONUC.
"The Mission is in discussions with the Government regarding [the opposition forces'] handover to Government authorities for disarmament or reintegration into the armed forces," Michele Montas, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson, told reporters in New York today.
Mr. Bemba's guards have yet to be handed over, as a detailed agreement is currently being negotiated by which the Government would guarantee to respect the opposition forces' human rights and their proper treatment before the law should they be tried, as well as giving MONUC's human rights officials access to them.
Yesterday, MONUC called on Government officials to ensure that the country's security forces act in accordance to the law and not create an atmosphere of persecution against people associated with the opposition or those originating from Equateur province, an opposition stronghold.
"It is crucial that the fundamental rights of individual security and liberty, as well as the liberty of opinion and expression, which are guaranteed by the DRC constitution, should be respected by all the security forces in relation to Congolese citizens, which includes members of the opposition and the press," MONUC spokesperson Kemal Saiki said.
On Tuesday, the Security Council called on the DRC's authorities and political parties to pursue national reconciliation and resolve their differences through dialogue.
Deploring the March violence, the 15-member Council underscored the legitimacy of the DRC's democratically elected institutions. The body also pointed out that these institutions must operate with respect for the rule of law, human rights and international humanitarian law, and must also avoid any unnecessary or disproportionate force.
The country is rebuilding following the end of a six-year civil war, widely considered the most lethal conflict in the world since World War II, which cost 4 million lives in fighting, hunger and disease.
06 April, 2007
Chadian Army Attacks Rebels on the Sudanese Border.
By Betel Miarom
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L06510623.htm
N'DJAMENA, April 6 (Reuters) - Chadian land forces and at least one helicopter attacked rebel positions near Sudan in retaliation for an operation they said was launched from Sudanese territory, the Chadian foreign minister said on Friday.
Chadian government forces have been fighting eastern-based rebels in an on-and off conflict that has been fuelled by violence over the border in Sudan's Darfur region.
Last weekend Sudanese militia known as "Janjaweed", who have fought alongside the Khartoum government in Darfur, attacked over the border into Chad, killing at least 65 people, torching two villages and sending up to 8,000 people fleeing for safety, Chadian authorities said this week.
"In the last 48 hours, we have bombarded rebel positions near Sudan. But we have not touched civilian populations because they had already been chased away from these areas by the Janjaweed and the rebels," Foreign Minister Ahmat Allam-Mi told Reuters.
"We have retaliated following an action which came from Sudan," he said.
Sudan's government denied responsibility for the attack.
Allam-Mi said at least one helicopter had taken part in the bombardment, but gave no further details on the operation.
"The government is responsible for protecting the population by air and land. These actions are part of that mission, and we have on several occasions warned Sudan to stop supporting this rebellion," Allam-Mi said on Friday.
Chad and Sudan have repeatedly accused one another of supporting each others rebel groups, despite several attempts by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to mediate.
Darfur's four-year war, pitting rebels from local tribes against government troops and their Janjaweed allies, has killed an estimated 200,000 people and forced another 2.5 million from their homes.
Refugees and violence have spilled over into Chad.
Khartoum has resisted plans by the United Nations to send a robust peacekeeping force to Darfur where an ill-resourced 7,000-strong African force is struggling to have any impact promoting a partial ceasefire which has failed to stop fighting.
That has led to proposals for U.N. peacekeepers to be sent to quell Darfur-related violence in eastern Chad and northern Central African Republic, but Chad's government says only police and paramilitary gendarmes should be sent.
"We have accepted the principle of an international presence in the east to protect refugees and humanitarian staff, but we think it should be civilian, that is, police and gendarmes with the resources necessary to do their job," Allam-Mi said.
"We are open. Discussions are continuing. The government will give its views on the question very soon," he said.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L06510623.htm
N'DJAMENA, April 6 (Reuters) - Chadian land forces and at least one helicopter attacked rebel positions near Sudan in retaliation for an operation they said was launched from Sudanese territory, the Chadian foreign minister said on Friday.
Chadian government forces have been fighting eastern-based rebels in an on-and off conflict that has been fuelled by violence over the border in Sudan's Darfur region.
Last weekend Sudanese militia known as "Janjaweed", who have fought alongside the Khartoum government in Darfur, attacked over the border into Chad, killing at least 65 people, torching two villages and sending up to 8,000 people fleeing for safety, Chadian authorities said this week.
"In the last 48 hours, we have bombarded rebel positions near Sudan. But we have not touched civilian populations because they had already been chased away from these areas by the Janjaweed and the rebels," Foreign Minister Ahmat Allam-Mi told Reuters.
"We have retaliated following an action which came from Sudan," he said.
Sudan's government denied responsibility for the attack.
Allam-Mi said at least one helicopter had taken part in the bombardment, but gave no further details on the operation.
"The government is responsible for protecting the population by air and land. These actions are part of that mission, and we have on several occasions warned Sudan to stop supporting this rebellion," Allam-Mi said on Friday.
Chad and Sudan have repeatedly accused one another of supporting each others rebel groups, despite several attempts by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to mediate.
Darfur's four-year war, pitting rebels from local tribes against government troops and their Janjaweed allies, has killed an estimated 200,000 people and forced another 2.5 million from their homes.
Refugees and violence have spilled over into Chad.
Khartoum has resisted plans by the United Nations to send a robust peacekeeping force to Darfur where an ill-resourced 7,000-strong African force is struggling to have any impact promoting a partial ceasefire which has failed to stop fighting.
That has led to proposals for U.N. peacekeepers to be sent to quell Darfur-related violence in eastern Chad and northern Central African Republic, but Chad's government says only police and paramilitary gendarmes should be sent.
"We have accepted the principle of an international presence in the east to protect refugees and humanitarian staff, but we think it should be civilian, that is, police and gendarmes with the resources necessary to do their job," Allam-Mi said.
"We are open. Discussions are continuing. The government will give its views on the question very soon," he said.
DRC Cancels Timber Contracts.
Agence France Presse.
6 April 2007.
KINSHASA (AFP) - The government of the
Democratic Republic of Congo has cancelled more than 20 illegal lumbering rights, covering nearly three million hectares (7.4 million acres) of forest, the environment minister said Thursday.
DR Congo Environment Minister Didace Pembe told AFP that the forest concerned which had been divided up between 16 companies would revert to public ownership by month's end.
The 21 cases for cancellation concern forestry rights either obtained in violation of the law, or that have not been the subject of a request for conversion into a licence agreement.
Holders of the cancelled rights, mostly small companies, have two weeks to contest, he added.
Large lumber firms which cover 70 percent of the production capacity in DR Congo, such as Safbois, Sodefor, Siforco or Soforma, are not affected by the cancellations.
6 April 2007.
KINSHASA (AFP) - The government of the
Democratic Republic of Congo has cancelled more than 20 illegal lumbering rights, covering nearly three million hectares (7.4 million acres) of forest, the environment minister said Thursday.
DR Congo Environment Minister Didace Pembe told AFP that the forest concerned which had been divided up between 16 companies would revert to public ownership by month's end.
The 21 cases for cancellation concern forestry rights either obtained in violation of the law, or that have not been the subject of a request for conversion into a licence agreement.
Holders of the cancelled rights, mostly small companies, have two weeks to contest, he added.
Large lumber firms which cover 70 percent of the production capacity in DR Congo, such as Safbois, Sodefor, Siforco or Soforma, are not affected by the cancellations.
Sierra Leone and The Gambia Solidify Ties.
African Press Agency.
6 April 2007.
The presidents of The Gambia and Sierra Leone: Yaya Jammeh and Ahmed Tejan Kabbah decided to make operational their joint departmental committee as regards co-operation, learned APA in Banjul.
The commission hopes to meet every three months in order to discuss the state of relations between the two countries, President Kabbah announced to the press.
The Sierra Leonian president expressed himself at the end of a meeting in Banjul with President Jammeh.
The two presidents tackled political problems of order in optics to have together the best practices on the improvement of the living conditions of their respective populations.
Kabbah, who arrived inThe Gambia Monday evening before flying away to Senegal for a visit of one day, was accomodated at the International Airport of Banjul by President Jammeh.
He said to journalists that the visit was worth the trouble, making note that relations between the two countries will be consolidated.
Editor's Note: President Jammeh, who claims he can heal HIV+ people by laying his hands on them, has made the news a lot lately. He has imprisoned anyone who refutes his claims. Moreover, The Gambia has established covert ties with the U.S. and other familiar international figures. As journalist Wayne Madsen reports in the Wayne Madsen Report:
24 August 2005: After denouncing the recent Mauritanian military coup against President Maaouiya Sid'Ould Taya, the Bush administration has established links with the pro-"Islamist" junta led by Col. Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, a recipient of past U.S. military training. Taya is exiled in nearby Gambia but he has been offered permanent asylum by the government of Qatar, a close U.S. military ally.
16 December 2005 -- More details emerge of links between GOP right-wing and Viktor Bout's African client, President Yahya Jammeh. Richard Hines, a close ally of GOP right wingers and the owner of RTH Consulting, signed contracts with the military dictatorship of Gambia, a client of Russian arms smuggler Viktor Bout to obtain for the Gambian dictatorship "meetings with the President's National Security Advisor, Deputy Secretary of State, and new CIA Director." The contract, dated November 23, 2004, refers to Condoleezza Rice, Richard Armitage, and Porter Goss. The contract also states that RTH will "recast the image of the . . . President of . . . Gambia [Yahya Jammeh] in a favorable light that reflects the party's, the President's, and the government's actual, proud history with the early focus on the Washington, DC media and minds of the conservative Republican leadership in the U.S. Congress." In addition, RTH commits to "gain the support of the conservative Republican leadership in the United States Congress for the government of The Gambia and President Jammeh, and thereby weaken opposition in Washington, DC."
It is also noteworthy that The Gambia has reportedly been involved in selling off-shore oil blocks to Houston-based oil companies linked to Bush and Cheney business interests. There are also interesting connections between World Air Leasing of Hondo, Texas and Gambia. World Air has leased several repainted U.S. commercial aircraft to Gambia.
More recently, RTH signed a contract with the Akwa-Ibon State of Nigeria, an oil-rich state in the southern Niger River delta. RTH is to "arrange meetings with White House staff" and other government agencies.
See consulting agreements: Gambia 1 Gambia 2 Gambia 3
Gambia 4 Gambia 5 Akwa Ibon 1 Akwa Ibon 2
19 December 2005: Richard Hines is the head of RTH Consulting, the firm that has signed lucrative deals with Gambia and an oil-rich southern Nigerian state. His activities in Gambia coincide with those of Russian arms smuggler Viktor Bout and two mysterious aircraft companies linked to CIA activities, World Air Leasing and West African Link. The latter, a World Air subsidiary, has recently started direct air services between Banjul and New York and Washington, as well as Brussels, Guinea, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, and Mali]. Gabon has also been involved with slush fund activities of Abramoff.]
9 March 2006 -- Gambia, a center for Viktor Bout and GOP lobbyist aircraft leasing activities, was also site of CIA rendition kidnapping. WMR has previously reported on the activities in Gambia of international weapons smuggler and Pentagon contractor Viktor Bout and Richard T. Hines, a GOP lobbyist tied to various neo-confederate activities. On November 2, 2002, two British residents, Bisher al-Rawi, an Iraqi national, and Jamil El-Banna, a Jordanian national, were arrested in Gambia by the CIA and transported to Bagram airbase, Afghanistan on a CIA leased Gulfstream.
According to their attorney, Rawi and El-Banna were in Gambia to start up a business venture, a peanut oil processsing plant. They are now incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. They are among the 480 detainees in Guantanamo who have not been charged with a crime.
Rawi's brother, Wahab, a resident of Gambia, and another British citizen, Abdullah el Janoudi, who accompanied Bisher al-Rawi and El-Banna from Gatwick to Gambia, were released on December 5, 2002 by the Gambian National Intelligence Agency, without charges being brought and after 27 days in captivity and under harsh interrogation.
Another Briton, Martin Mubanga, a convert to Islam, was arrested in Zambia by Zambian intelligence in March 2002 and renditioned to Guantanamo in April 2002, all with the full knowledge of British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. Mubanga was released in early 2005, the apparent victim of a stolen passport.
February 6, 2007 -- Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh, previously linked by WMR to a number of Christian Right GOP politicians and operatives, including members of the neo-Confederacy, recently announced that he has mystical powers and can cure people by "laying on hands." Jammeh declared that he is able to cure asthma on Fridays and Saturdays and HIV/Aids on Mondays and Thursdays. All that is required is a physician's referral.
Mystical healer Yahya Jammeh with George W. Bush. Perhaps Jammeh can lay his hands on Bush and cure him of his severe retardation.
Jammeh, a Muslim, is a member of George W. Bush's international "anti-terrorism" coalition and has illegally detained British citizens and residents in Gambia, accusing them of being members of "Al Qaeda."
6 April 2007.
The presidents of The Gambia and Sierra Leone: Yaya Jammeh and Ahmed Tejan Kabbah decided to make operational their joint departmental committee as regards co-operation, learned APA in Banjul.
The commission hopes to meet every three months in order to discuss the state of relations between the two countries, President Kabbah announced to the press.
The Sierra Leonian president expressed himself at the end of a meeting in Banjul with President Jammeh.
The two presidents tackled political problems of order in optics to have together the best practices on the improvement of the living conditions of their respective populations.
Kabbah, who arrived inThe Gambia Monday evening before flying away to Senegal for a visit of one day, was accomodated at the International Airport of Banjul by President Jammeh.
He said to journalists that the visit was worth the trouble, making note that relations between the two countries will be consolidated.
Editor's Note: President Jammeh, who claims he can heal HIV+ people by laying his hands on them, has made the news a lot lately. He has imprisoned anyone who refutes his claims. Moreover, The Gambia has established covert ties with the U.S. and other familiar international figures. As journalist Wayne Madsen reports in the Wayne Madsen Report:
24 August 2005: After denouncing the recent Mauritanian military coup against President Maaouiya Sid'Ould Taya, the Bush administration has established links with the pro-"Islamist" junta led by Col. Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, a recipient of past U.S. military training. Taya is exiled in nearby Gambia but he has been offered permanent asylum by the government of Qatar, a close U.S. military ally.
16 December 2005 -- More details emerge of links between GOP right-wing and Viktor Bout's African client, President Yahya Jammeh. Richard Hines, a close ally of GOP right wingers and the owner of RTH Consulting, signed contracts with the military dictatorship of Gambia, a client of Russian arms smuggler Viktor Bout to obtain for the Gambian dictatorship "meetings with the President's National Security Advisor, Deputy Secretary of State, and new CIA Director." The contract, dated November 23, 2004, refers to Condoleezza Rice, Richard Armitage, and Porter Goss. The contract also states that RTH will "recast the image of the . . . President of . . . Gambia [Yahya Jammeh] in a favorable light that reflects the party's, the President's, and the government's actual, proud history with the early focus on the Washington, DC media and minds of the conservative Republican leadership in the U.S. Congress." In addition, RTH commits to "gain the support of the conservative Republican leadership in the United States Congress for the government of The Gambia and President Jammeh, and thereby weaken opposition in Washington, DC."
It is also noteworthy that The Gambia has reportedly been involved in selling off-shore oil blocks to Houston-based oil companies linked to Bush and Cheney business interests. There are also interesting connections between World Air Leasing of Hondo, Texas and Gambia. World Air has leased several repainted U.S. commercial aircraft to Gambia.
More recently, RTH signed a contract with the Akwa-Ibon State of Nigeria, an oil-rich state in the southern Niger River delta. RTH is to "arrange meetings with White House staff" and other government agencies.
See consulting agreements: Gambia 1 Gambia 2 Gambia 3
Gambia 4 Gambia 5 Akwa Ibon 1 Akwa Ibon 2
19 December 2005: Richard Hines is the head of RTH Consulting, the firm that has signed lucrative deals with Gambia and an oil-rich southern Nigerian state. His activities in Gambia coincide with those of Russian arms smuggler Viktor Bout and two mysterious aircraft companies linked to CIA activities, World Air Leasing and West African Link. The latter, a World Air subsidiary, has recently started direct air services between Banjul and New York and Washington, as well as Brussels, Guinea, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, and Mali]. Gabon has also been involved with slush fund activities of Abramoff.]
9 March 2006 -- Gambia, a center for Viktor Bout and GOP lobbyist aircraft leasing activities, was also site of CIA rendition kidnapping. WMR has previously reported on the activities in Gambia of international weapons smuggler and Pentagon contractor Viktor Bout and Richard T. Hines, a GOP lobbyist tied to various neo-confederate activities. On November 2, 2002, two British residents, Bisher al-Rawi, an Iraqi national, and Jamil El-Banna, a Jordanian national, were arrested in Gambia by the CIA and transported to Bagram airbase, Afghanistan on a CIA leased Gulfstream.
According to their attorney, Rawi and El-Banna were in Gambia to start up a business venture, a peanut oil processsing plant. They are now incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. They are among the 480 detainees in Guantanamo who have not been charged with a crime.
Rawi's brother, Wahab, a resident of Gambia, and another British citizen, Abdullah el Janoudi, who accompanied Bisher al-Rawi and El-Banna from Gatwick to Gambia, were released on December 5, 2002 by the Gambian National Intelligence Agency, without charges being brought and after 27 days in captivity and under harsh interrogation.
Another Briton, Martin Mubanga, a convert to Islam, was arrested in Zambia by Zambian intelligence in March 2002 and renditioned to Guantanamo in April 2002, all with the full knowledge of British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. Mubanga was released in early 2005, the apparent victim of a stolen passport.
February 6, 2007 -- Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh, previously linked by WMR to a number of Christian Right GOP politicians and operatives, including members of the neo-Confederacy, recently announced that he has mystical powers and can cure people by "laying on hands." Jammeh declared that he is able to cure asthma on Fridays and Saturdays and HIV/Aids on Mondays and Thursdays. All that is required is a physician's referral.
Mystical healer Yahya Jammeh with George W. Bush. Perhaps Jammeh can lay his hands on Bush and cure him of his severe retardation.
Jammeh, a Muslim, is a member of George W. Bush's international "anti-terrorism" coalition and has illegally detained British citizens and residents in Gambia, accusing them of being members of "Al Qaeda."
President Bush with President Jammeh to his right.
Sierra Leone's Poor Still Suffer With Elections Approaching.
The Times.
Jonathan Clayton.
6 April 2007
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article1620588.ece
A glint of light on steel and Abubakar Kargbo’s life changed forever. That was when the axe came crashing down and severed his arm from his body. Seconds later, the action was repeated. His left arm then also joined the pile of bloodied, lifeless limbs at the foot of the village mango tree.
That was eight years ago, at the height of Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war. He was 28 and has never worked since. “I go into town to beg, but it is hard. People have lost sympathy because of the time that has elapsed,” Abubakar, married with three children, explained sadly. “Some don’t want to be reminded of the war.”
His stumps often ache but he cannot afford medicine. Until recently the Health Ministry pocketed all the money given to buy drugs. “The Government tried in the early days but overall, since the end of the conflict, very little has been done to bring the victims back as close as is possible to what they were. They have forgotten totally about us now,” he told The Times.
Lamine Jusa Jarka, his former neighbour, was “amputated” on the same day by the same group of rebels, a motley gang of drugged child soldiers, led by Commanding Officer “Cut Hands”. They had been found hiding in their houses, defying instructions to come out and welcome the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF).
Amputations were a trade-mark of Sierra Leone’s civil war from 1991 to 2002, one of the fiercest witnessed in post-independence Africa. There are believed to be at least 6,000 such amputees across the country. With elections planned for July, they are now mobilising. Hundreds have registered to vote. By special decree, those without hands will be allowed to use their toes to stamp their mark. “Al-Haji” Jusa Jarka, chairman of the Amputees and War Wounded Association of Sierra Leone, declared: “We are going to vote for a president who recognises our plight.”
The amputees are the most visible victims of this former British colony’s descent into hell but they are far from being a lone voice. Their complaints over the Government’s failure to deliver promised peace dividends are echoed by others and have raised fresh concerns over the country’s future stability.
Mustapha, 20, who is unemployed, said: “They are crooks, all of them. They do nothing for us. I hate those greedy bastards.” Mustapha left the countryside to look for work in Freetown, the capital, and scrapes a living guiding foreigners around town.
Vivien, a scantily clad prostitute in one the many neon-lit discos lining the capital’s long, curving beach, cried softly into her beer. “There is nothing here, my mother is ill and I have to support her. There is nothing for young people here, just misery.”
It is easy to understand their frustration. For seven out of the past ten years, Sierra Leone has been ranked officially as the world’s poorest country, nudged out of bottom place only by Bangladesh. The UN’s Human Development Index reads like a roll call of horror. Life expectancy, at 37 and falling, is the worst in the world.
Deaths in childbirth are the highest in the world, made worse by widespread female genital mutilation. More than 300 children out of 1,000 do not make it beyond the age of five. Unemployment is put at more than 70 per cent. More than two-thirds of the population of five million live below the poverty line of 52p a day.
In the teeming slum of Kroo Bay in central Freetown, more than 5,000 people, crammed together in flimsy tin-roofed hovels, live in extreme poverty. Pigs wander knee-high in stagnant pools of water — human excrement floating on the surface — while women and children wash clothes and bathe a few yards away.
Sento Sesay, 12, great beads of sweat running down her face as she squeezes filthy water from washed clothes, says that each day she dreams of leaving. “When it rains, we are flooded, everything comes into our houses — human waste, litter, mosquitoes. It is horrible here.” In a quiet voice, she adds that sexual abuse is also rampant.
Tony Blair, whose father taught at Fourah Bay university in Freetown, West Africa’s first, is assured of a hero’s welcome when he visits the country next month, although it is unlikely that there will be a repeat of the euphoric scenes of his last visit in 2002 when he was met with banners saying: “We love and respect you, we support you.”
Within six months of British paratroopers leading an international intervention force in May 2000, a ceasefire was agreed and notorious gangs were disarmed. By 2002 a full UN-supervised peace agreement was in force. The ousted Government of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, elected in 1996, was restored.
The rebels and their foreign backers bankrolled the war with diamonds — events depicted in the Hollywood blockbuster Blood Diamond. In little more than ten years 500,000 people — about one tenth of the population — were murdered, maimed or raped. A UN-supported tribunal was set up to bring the ringleaders to justice. Charles Taylor, the warlord who became President of Liberia, who channelled the gems through his country on to the world market, goes on trial in The Hague in June.
There has been undeniable progress since the end of the war. With Western support, the police and army, though notoriously corrupt and underpaid, have been restructured. The coups and counter-coups that marked the period after independence in 1961 are believed to be a thing of the past. The country is at peace.
Critics, however, say that what began as a model “nation-building exercise” has been knocked off course by high- level corruption and misrule by the same generation of politicians responsible for the initial crisis. They say progress has now slowed to a halt.
Valentine Collier, dismissed as head of a supposedly independent anti-corruption unit in November 2005, says Britain, the country’s biggest single bilateral donor at £40 million a year, takes a “softly, softly” approach because it does not want to spoil Sierra Leone’s image as a success before Mr Blair stands down this year.
“The greatest threat to peace and stability in Sierra Leone today is still corruption. In four years, I failed to bring one successful high-level indictment even though in some ministries’ capital flight per month is as high as $15,000,” he told The Times.
Mr Kabbah, 75, is due to step down but his chosen successor, Solomon Berewa, his current Vice-President, is not expected to make any changes. Two opposition leaders could push him closely but, even if they upset predictions and win, political analysts doubt that there would be any significant changes in policy.
Though few people, including the amputees, believe that war would return, many analysts fear that unmet expectations from the coming poll could destabilise the country once again.
Government supporters point to progress in many areas, notably education and food provision. “We had so many conflicting priorities. In the provinces, even a small thing like the creation of a market is a huge step forward,” said Kadie Sesay, a former academic who is now Minister of Trade and Industry.
“I think we will see new faces begin to emerge. Those who suffered most want a new type of leadership.”
Conflict toll
— The Civil War in Sierra Leone began in 1991. In July 1999 the warring parties signed the Lomé Peace Agreement, but despite UN presence fighting continued
— Conflict was between the Sierra Leone Government and the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF), backed by Liberia
— Elections in May 2002 brought relative political stability. RUF incursions and flows of Liberian refugees continue to threaten peace
— Out of a population of 5 million, it is estimated that 2 million have been forced to leave their homes for refugee camps and 75,000 have died
— Diamond production in Sierra Leone was estimated at 300,000 carats by De Beers in 1998. Each carat is worth $100-$300. In 1998-99 official exports fell from 114,438 carats to 9,320, a drop attributed to RUF control of diamond-producing areas
Source: UN Global Policy Forum; www.american.edu
Jonathan Clayton.
6 April 2007
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article1620588.ece
A glint of light on steel and Abubakar Kargbo’s life changed forever. That was when the axe came crashing down and severed his arm from his body. Seconds later, the action was repeated. His left arm then also joined the pile of bloodied, lifeless limbs at the foot of the village mango tree.
That was eight years ago, at the height of Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war. He was 28 and has never worked since. “I go into town to beg, but it is hard. People have lost sympathy because of the time that has elapsed,” Abubakar, married with three children, explained sadly. “Some don’t want to be reminded of the war.”
His stumps often ache but he cannot afford medicine. Until recently the Health Ministry pocketed all the money given to buy drugs. “The Government tried in the early days but overall, since the end of the conflict, very little has been done to bring the victims back as close as is possible to what they were. They have forgotten totally about us now,” he told The Times.
Lamine Jusa Jarka, his former neighbour, was “amputated” on the same day by the same group of rebels, a motley gang of drugged child soldiers, led by Commanding Officer “Cut Hands”. They had been found hiding in their houses, defying instructions to come out and welcome the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF).
Amputations were a trade-mark of Sierra Leone’s civil war from 1991 to 2002, one of the fiercest witnessed in post-independence Africa. There are believed to be at least 6,000 such amputees across the country. With elections planned for July, they are now mobilising. Hundreds have registered to vote. By special decree, those without hands will be allowed to use their toes to stamp their mark. “Al-Haji” Jusa Jarka, chairman of the Amputees and War Wounded Association of Sierra Leone, declared: “We are going to vote for a president who recognises our plight.”
The amputees are the most visible victims of this former British colony’s descent into hell but they are far from being a lone voice. Their complaints over the Government’s failure to deliver promised peace dividends are echoed by others and have raised fresh concerns over the country’s future stability.
Mustapha, 20, who is unemployed, said: “They are crooks, all of them. They do nothing for us. I hate those greedy bastards.” Mustapha left the countryside to look for work in Freetown, the capital, and scrapes a living guiding foreigners around town.
Vivien, a scantily clad prostitute in one the many neon-lit discos lining the capital’s long, curving beach, cried softly into her beer. “There is nothing here, my mother is ill and I have to support her. There is nothing for young people here, just misery.”
It is easy to understand their frustration. For seven out of the past ten years, Sierra Leone has been ranked officially as the world’s poorest country, nudged out of bottom place only by Bangladesh. The UN’s Human Development Index reads like a roll call of horror. Life expectancy, at 37 and falling, is the worst in the world.
Deaths in childbirth are the highest in the world, made worse by widespread female genital mutilation. More than 300 children out of 1,000 do not make it beyond the age of five. Unemployment is put at more than 70 per cent. More than two-thirds of the population of five million live below the poverty line of 52p a day.
In the teeming slum of Kroo Bay in central Freetown, more than 5,000 people, crammed together in flimsy tin-roofed hovels, live in extreme poverty. Pigs wander knee-high in stagnant pools of water — human excrement floating on the surface — while women and children wash clothes and bathe a few yards away.
Sento Sesay, 12, great beads of sweat running down her face as she squeezes filthy water from washed clothes, says that each day she dreams of leaving. “When it rains, we are flooded, everything comes into our houses — human waste, litter, mosquitoes. It is horrible here.” In a quiet voice, she adds that sexual abuse is also rampant.
Tony Blair, whose father taught at Fourah Bay university in Freetown, West Africa’s first, is assured of a hero’s welcome when he visits the country next month, although it is unlikely that there will be a repeat of the euphoric scenes of his last visit in 2002 when he was met with banners saying: “We love and respect you, we support you.”
Within six months of British paratroopers leading an international intervention force in May 2000, a ceasefire was agreed and notorious gangs were disarmed. By 2002 a full UN-supervised peace agreement was in force. The ousted Government of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, elected in 1996, was restored.
The rebels and their foreign backers bankrolled the war with diamonds — events depicted in the Hollywood blockbuster Blood Diamond. In little more than ten years 500,000 people — about one tenth of the population — were murdered, maimed or raped. A UN-supported tribunal was set up to bring the ringleaders to justice. Charles Taylor, the warlord who became President of Liberia, who channelled the gems through his country on to the world market, goes on trial in The Hague in June.
There has been undeniable progress since the end of the war. With Western support, the police and army, though notoriously corrupt and underpaid, have been restructured. The coups and counter-coups that marked the period after independence in 1961 are believed to be a thing of the past. The country is at peace.
Critics, however, say that what began as a model “nation-building exercise” has been knocked off course by high- level corruption and misrule by the same generation of politicians responsible for the initial crisis. They say progress has now slowed to a halt.
Valentine Collier, dismissed as head of a supposedly independent anti-corruption unit in November 2005, says Britain, the country’s biggest single bilateral donor at £40 million a year, takes a “softly, softly” approach because it does not want to spoil Sierra Leone’s image as a success before Mr Blair stands down this year.
“The greatest threat to peace and stability in Sierra Leone today is still corruption. In four years, I failed to bring one successful high-level indictment even though in some ministries’ capital flight per month is as high as $15,000,” he told The Times.
Mr Kabbah, 75, is due to step down but his chosen successor, Solomon Berewa, his current Vice-President, is not expected to make any changes. Two opposition leaders could push him closely but, even if they upset predictions and win, political analysts doubt that there would be any significant changes in policy.
Though few people, including the amputees, believe that war would return, many analysts fear that unmet expectations from the coming poll could destabilise the country once again.
Government supporters point to progress in many areas, notably education and food provision. “We had so many conflicting priorities. In the provinces, even a small thing like the creation of a market is a huge step forward,” said Kadie Sesay, a former academic who is now Minister of Trade and Industry.
“I think we will see new faces begin to emerge. Those who suffered most want a new type of leadership.”
Conflict toll
— The Civil War in Sierra Leone began in 1991. In July 1999 the warring parties signed the Lomé Peace Agreement, but despite UN presence fighting continued
— Conflict was between the Sierra Leone Government and the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF), backed by Liberia
— Elections in May 2002 brought relative political stability. RUF incursions and flows of Liberian refugees continue to threaten peace
— Out of a population of 5 million, it is estimated that 2 million have been forced to leave their homes for refugee camps and 75,000 have died
— Diamond production in Sierra Leone was estimated at 300,000 carats by De Beers in 1998. Each carat is worth $100-$300. In 1998-99 official exports fell from 114,438 carats to 9,320, a drop attributed to RUF control of diamond-producing areas
Source: UN Global Policy Forum; www.american.edu
Virunga Park Occupied Again by the UPDF
L'Avenir
Fifi Nyakio
6 April 2007
English Translation
Editor's Note: The timing of this invasion, which coincides with an increase in FOCA (or Rasta, nobody will confirm who is actually doing these crimes) activities, leads me to wonder about the motives of these soldiers, especially when they are gathering in Virunga, the same hideout as the demobilized RDF soldiers who haven't covertly joined the FARDC. Is another operation in the works? Spread the word so another massacre doesn't occur like last year (beginning in November).
The UPDF have occupied Virunga National Park located in eastern DRC. This information was delivered by the Congolese Minister for the Environment, Didace Pembe. He declared the Ugandans occupied this part of the Congo on Monday, April 2 during the evening.
It was at the end of a working visit carried out by the various services of the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation (ICCN) in Kinshasa that the Minister for the Environment made this statement. However, the Congolese statesman did not give precise details concerning this new occupation by the Ugandan troops.
Minister Didace Pembe called upon authorities to act in the most urgent possible way to recover this protected space.
This park is already in a state of total decay since its occupation by refugees coming from Rwanda and Burundi during 1994.
In the space of a few hours, the protected species from the park accomodated thousands of individuals in their fields who built homes there and ate animals in the park. With the destruction of fauna and flora, the war of aggression in DRC transformed the park into a true battlefield between the enemy troops. On their side, the poachers benefitted from the disorder to massacre the mountain gorillas, a rare and protected species.
Let us announce that the Ugandan occupation of Virunga Park continues with that of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). They occupied Garamba park in Orientale Province for several months.
These armed men used Garamba as their rear base in their fight against Uganda. The presence of LRA on Congolese soil led Kampala to threaten to attack DRC. After the war, authorities of the two countries met to set up strategies aimed at driving the Ugandan rebels out of Congolese territory. The LRA eventually left Congo for Southern Sudan.
Fifi Nyakio
6 April 2007
English Translation
Editor's Note: The timing of this invasion, which coincides with an increase in FOCA (or Rasta, nobody will confirm who is actually doing these crimes) activities, leads me to wonder about the motives of these soldiers, especially when they are gathering in Virunga, the same hideout as the demobilized RDF soldiers who haven't covertly joined the FARDC. Is another operation in the works? Spread the word so another massacre doesn't occur like last year (beginning in November).
The UPDF have occupied Virunga National Park located in eastern DRC. This information was delivered by the Congolese Minister for the Environment, Didace Pembe. He declared the Ugandans occupied this part of the Congo on Monday, April 2 during the evening.
It was at the end of a working visit carried out by the various services of the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation (ICCN) in Kinshasa that the Minister for the Environment made this statement. However, the Congolese statesman did not give precise details concerning this new occupation by the Ugandan troops.
Minister Didace Pembe called upon authorities to act in the most urgent possible way to recover this protected space.
This park is already in a state of total decay since its occupation by refugees coming from Rwanda and Burundi during 1994.
In the space of a few hours, the protected species from the park accomodated thousands of individuals in their fields who built homes there and ate animals in the park. With the destruction of fauna and flora, the war of aggression in DRC transformed the park into a true battlefield between the enemy troops. On their side, the poachers benefitted from the disorder to massacre the mountain gorillas, a rare and protected species.
Let us announce that the Ugandan occupation of Virunga Park continues with that of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). They occupied Garamba park in Orientale Province for several months.
These armed men used Garamba as their rear base in their fight against Uganda. The presence of LRA on Congolese soil led Kampala to threaten to attack DRC. After the war, authorities of the two countries met to set up strategies aimed at driving the Ugandan rebels out of Congolese territory. The LRA eventually left Congo for Southern Sudan.
Insecurity in North-Kivu: The Provincial Parliament Blames the Mixed Brigades.
L'Avenir
Stephan Salikoko.
6 April 2007
English Translation.
Editor's Note: Once again, General Nkundabatware's former soldiers are at it again with complete impunity. Keep in mind some of these men are demobilized RDF soldiers.
The plenary one of the provincial Parliament of North-Kivu had set up a committee of enquiries to give a progress report on many cases of insecurity noted in the province since the beginning of the year in the province.
With the exit of the investigation, the report/ratio of the aforesaid the commission allots these cases of insecurities to the soldiers of the recently mixed brigades. To believe the aforementioned report of it, they were guilty of several abuses in the regions where they are based.
After exposed reasons by the president of the aforesaid the commissions, the plenary one adopted this report/ratio unanimously.
According to the same report/ratio, these brigades are implied in assassinations of civilians, arbitrary arrests , recruitment of children, in particular in the territories of Masisi and Rusthuru. In the same report/ratio, we learn the mixed brigades implied in these exactions are in particular, those from Bravo, Alpha and Charlie, deployed between January and March 2007 in these two territories of North-Kivu. In Masisi for example, units from the Charlie brigade deployed in Ngungu, Gasake, Luke and Mushaki, are responsible, according to the report/ratio, several cases of rapes, rançonnements, tortures and fires of the houses.
As for the brigade Alpha, the battalion more accused by the report/ratio is that deployed in Mweso, Kashunga and Kalembe. Lastly, the brigade Bravo deployed towards the east of the territory of Rutshuru insécurise the totality of the localities under its control. Several people were assassinated, and others removed by the elements of this brigade. Among the causes of the insecurity, the report/ratio evokes in particular the absence of the proper assumption of responsibility by the mixed soldiers. The commission also estimates that it is an error to have deployed the mixed troops in the areas where they formerly committed several exactions. Also, the commission recommends to the government to hold account, and to break impunity of it while translating in front of the courses and courts the authors of the crimes and violation of the human rights.
Concerning the credibility of this report/ratio, the rapporteur of the commission, Me Akizumwami Jules, estimates that it is about a data-gathering provided by several local NGOs and chiefs starting from Goma. If it is not completely credible, he says, it constitutes nevertheless a beacon for all that which would like to check the facts on the ground.
Stephan Salikoko.
6 April 2007
English Translation.
Editor's Note: Once again, General Nkundabatware's former soldiers are at it again with complete impunity. Keep in mind some of these men are demobilized RDF soldiers.
The plenary one of the provincial Parliament of North-Kivu had set up a committee of enquiries to give a progress report on many cases of insecurity noted in the province since the beginning of the year in the province.
With the exit of the investigation, the report/ratio of the aforesaid the commission allots these cases of insecurities to the soldiers of the recently mixed brigades. To believe the aforementioned report of it, they were guilty of several abuses in the regions where they are based.
After exposed reasons by the president of the aforesaid the commissions, the plenary one adopted this report/ratio unanimously.
According to the same report/ratio, these brigades are implied in assassinations of civilians, arbitrary arrests , recruitment of children, in particular in the territories of Masisi and Rusthuru. In the same report/ratio, we learn the mixed brigades implied in these exactions are in particular, those from Bravo, Alpha and Charlie, deployed between January and March 2007 in these two territories of North-Kivu. In Masisi for example, units from the Charlie brigade deployed in Ngungu, Gasake, Luke and Mushaki, are responsible, according to the report/ratio, several cases of rapes, rançonnements, tortures and fires of the houses.
As for the brigade Alpha, the battalion more accused by the report/ratio is that deployed in Mweso, Kashunga and Kalembe. Lastly, the brigade Bravo deployed towards the east of the territory of Rutshuru insécurise the totality of the localities under its control. Several people were assassinated, and others removed by the elements of this brigade. Among the causes of the insecurity, the report/ratio evokes in particular the absence of the proper assumption of responsibility by the mixed soldiers. The commission also estimates that it is an error to have deployed the mixed troops in the areas where they formerly committed several exactions. Also, the commission recommends to the government to hold account, and to break impunity of it while translating in front of the courses and courts the authors of the crimes and violation of the human rights.
Concerning the credibility of this report/ratio, the rapporteur of the commission, Me Akizumwami Jules, estimates that it is about a data-gathering provided by several local NGOs and chiefs starting from Goma. If it is not completely credible, he says, it constitutes nevertheless a beacon for all that which would like to check the facts on the ground.
North-Kivu: Approximately 223 Children Edentified in North Kivu's Mixed Brigades.
L'Avenir.
6 April 2007
English Translation.
The section of the protection of the child of Monuc North-Kivu began, last Saturday March 31, a vast operation of separation of children found in mixed Brigades of Fardc in North-Kivu. According to Monuc, approximately 223 minors were identified at the time of the operations of mixing of these brigades. This operation is carried out in close cooperation with the staff of the 8th military Area, indicates the source.
The commitment entered into by the Chief of Staff general of Fardc and the Commander of the 8th military Area so that all the minors who remain in the Fardc troops are extracted from the troops of the Congolese army, led to the installation of a Joint Committee in order to conclude the operation.
The objective continued is to give these minors to the organizations specialized in the protection of the child for their rehabilitation in the civil life.
The operation encloses this Friday April 6, 2007. The Commanders of the mixed brigades Alpha, Bravo, Delta and Echo are supposed to give all the minors who trail still present in the rows of their respective brigades.
Currently, after having carried out the operations of separation of the minors in the first three brigades (Bravo, Delta and Alpha), Monuc has, in its press release, specified that the results were less satisfactory. The number of the minors received by his section of protection of the child and his partners does not tally with the made estimates.
However, the Mission of the United Nations in Congo hopes that the results will be more convincing during operations devoted to the two other brigades Charlie and Echo.
Monuc made a point of recalling that the recruitment of the children within the army is a punishable crime by the Congolese law and the international law. It asks all the commanders Fardc brigades of North-Kivu to be able to obey the orders of their hierarchy while giving all the minors still present in their rows at Monuc, for their demobilization.
In addition, Monuc let everyone know that it has just installed since last Tuesday an operational mobile base with Jomba, in Rusthuru, for one unspecified duration.
This installation, indicates the Mission, answers a significant rise of the violations of the human rights made by men-at-arms against the civil populations in this area. The other bases mobile of Nyamilima remains still active in North-Kivu.
6 April 2007
English Translation.
The section of the protection of the child of Monuc North-Kivu began, last Saturday March 31, a vast operation of separation of children found in mixed Brigades of Fardc in North-Kivu. According to Monuc, approximately 223 minors were identified at the time of the operations of mixing of these brigades. This operation is carried out in close cooperation with the staff of the 8th military Area, indicates the source.
The commitment entered into by the Chief of Staff general of Fardc and the Commander of the 8th military Area so that all the minors who remain in the Fardc troops are extracted from the troops of the Congolese army, led to the installation of a Joint Committee in order to conclude the operation.
The objective continued is to give these minors to the organizations specialized in the protection of the child for their rehabilitation in the civil life.
The operation encloses this Friday April 6, 2007. The Commanders of the mixed brigades Alpha, Bravo, Delta and Echo are supposed to give all the minors who trail still present in the rows of their respective brigades.
Currently, after having carried out the operations of separation of the minors in the first three brigades (Bravo, Delta and Alpha), Monuc has, in its press release, specified that the results were less satisfactory. The number of the minors received by his section of protection of the child and his partners does not tally with the made estimates.
However, the Mission of the United Nations in Congo hopes that the results will be more convincing during operations devoted to the two other brigades Charlie and Echo.
Monuc made a point of recalling that the recruitment of the children within the army is a punishable crime by the Congolese law and the international law. It asks all the commanders Fardc brigades of North-Kivu to be able to obey the orders of their hierarchy while giving all the minors still present in their rows at Monuc, for their demobilization.
In addition, Monuc let everyone know that it has just installed since last Tuesday an operational mobile base with Jomba, in Rusthuru, for one unspecified duration.
This installation, indicates the Mission, answers a significant rise of the violations of the human rights made by men-at-arms against the civil populations in this area. The other bases mobile of Nyamilima remains still active in North-Kivu.
Ibuka Considers Suing Belgium.
Hirondelle News Agency.
Kigali, 5 April 2007 (FH) – Ibuka, the main organization of Rwandan survivors of the genocide in 1994, which caused about one million victims according to Kigali, threatens to sue Belgium for failure to render assistance at the height of the massacres.
“On 11 April (1994), the Belgian contingent of the UNAMIR (United Nations Mission for assistance to Rwanda) left to the killers more than 10,000 persons who took refuge in Nyanza, in the district of Kicukiro (in Kigali town)”, Ibuka executive secretary, Benoît Kaboyi, explained to Hirondelle Agency on Thursday. “Thousands of Rwandans were in the hands of these Belgian militaries. They were wildly massacred after the departure of the Belgians, I think there is at least a responsibility for failure to render assistance”, M. Kaboyi said.
The Ibuka leader added that his organization still examined the practical modalities of the complaint registration. The massacres of Kicukiro will be at the heart of the 13th commemoration of the genocide which will start on Saturday with an official ceremony led by the President Paul Kagame in Murambi in the South province. The national mourning week in memory of victims will officially end on 13 April in Rebero, Kigali, at the cemetery of the political figures assassinated at the beginning of the genocide. Among them is the Prime Minister at that time, Mrs. Agathe Uwilingiyimana, who is one of the “national Heroes”. During this week, the bodies of victims, often discovered due to confessions of repentant genocide perpetrators, will finally receive worthy funerals, 13 years after the drama.
Editor's Note: It is ironic that it was Belgian UNAMIR soldiers who died trying to protect Mrs. Uwilingiyimana when she was killed.
Kigali, 5 April 2007 (FH) – Ibuka, the main organization of Rwandan survivors of the genocide in 1994, which caused about one million victims according to Kigali, threatens to sue Belgium for failure to render assistance at the height of the massacres.
“On 11 April (1994), the Belgian contingent of the UNAMIR (United Nations Mission for assistance to Rwanda) left to the killers more than 10,000 persons who took refuge in Nyanza, in the district of Kicukiro (in Kigali town)”, Ibuka executive secretary, Benoît Kaboyi, explained to Hirondelle Agency on Thursday. “Thousands of Rwandans were in the hands of these Belgian militaries. They were wildly massacred after the departure of the Belgians, I think there is at least a responsibility for failure to render assistance”, M. Kaboyi said.
The Ibuka leader added that his organization still examined the practical modalities of the complaint registration. The massacres of Kicukiro will be at the heart of the 13th commemoration of the genocide which will start on Saturday with an official ceremony led by the President Paul Kagame in Murambi in the South province. The national mourning week in memory of victims will officially end on 13 April in Rebero, Kigali, at the cemetery of the political figures assassinated at the beginning of the genocide. Among them is the Prime Minister at that time, Mrs. Agathe Uwilingiyimana, who is one of the “national Heroes”. During this week, the bodies of victims, often discovered due to confessions of repentant genocide perpetrators, will finally receive worthy funerals, 13 years after the drama.
Editor's Note: It is ironic that it was Belgian UNAMIR soldiers who died trying to protect Mrs. Uwilingiyimana when she was killed.
US Reveals its Efforts to Topple Mugabe.
The Guardian.
6 April 2007.
The United States admitted openly for the first time on Thursday that it was actively working to undermine Robert Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe.Although officially Washington does not support regime change, a US state department report published on Thursday acknowledged that it was supporting opposition politicians in the country and others critical of Mugabe.
The State Department also admitted sponsoring events aimed at "discrediting" statements made by Mugabe's government.The report will be seized on by Mugabe, who has repeatedly claimed that the US and Britain are seeking regime change.
The comments are contained in the state department's fifth annual Supporting Human Rights and Democracy report. It sets out in detail actions the US government is taking worldwide to promote human rights.The report has had a troubled history. Three years ago publication had to be hastily delayed when details emerged about US human rights abuses at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad.The US, compared with the United Kingdom, was initially slow to criticise Mugabe, but has since adopted an increasingly critical stance, most recently at the Human Rights Council in Geneva last month.
In an unusual piece of candour, the State Department report says: "To encourage greater public debate on restoring good governance in [Zimbabwe], the United States sponsored public events that presented economic and social analyses discrediting the government's excuses for its failed policies. "To further strengthen pro-democracy elements, the US government continued to support the efforts of the political opposition, the media and civil society to create and defend democratic space and to support persons who criticised the government.
"While the US and British governments still insist their aim in Zimbabwe is not regime change, they have been encouraging the main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangarai, who was beaten up last month.The report says that while Zimbabwe is nominally democratic, the government of Mugabe is "now authoritarian".
At a press conference to launch the document, the Assistant Secretary of State, Barry Lowenkren, said the US goal was not necessarily regime change but to create a level playing field for all parties. He added that where there was a country with record levels of inflation, denial of basic human rights and other abuses, the US had a duty to speak out so that people in Zimbabwe knew they had support.Asked whether US efforts to promote human rights worldwide were being undermined by the hundreds of of people being held at Guantánamo, Lowenkren insisted the issue was not raised by non-governmental groups at conferences he attended and participants were more interested in what the US could do to help them in their own countries. He also denied the report was softer on authoritarian governments allied to the US, such as Belarus, than to Zimbabwe.
Lowenkren said $66-million was being spent on promotion of democracy and human rights in Iran, about half of which was devoted to broadcasts from outside the country and the rest spent on support for non-governmental exchanges, cultural exchanges such as the visit by the US wrestling team and a Persian internet service. The report is critical of Russia, noting the killing of the journalist Anna Politkovskaya.
It says: "Political pressure on the judiciary, corruption and selectivity in enforcement of the law, continuing media restrictions and self-censorship, and government pressure on opposition political parties eroded the public accountability of government leaders. "Security forces were involved in additional significant human rights problems." University considers revoking degree.
Meanwhile, the University of Massachusetts (UMass) is considering revoking an honourary doctorate of law it awarded Mugabe in 1986. Some students at the Boston campus have circulated a petition asking for the university to revoke the degree, and officials say they are considering doing so.
"Mugabe's actions during the past decade show he's fallen from being a good citizen of the world," said Shauna Murray, a graduate student who helped circulate the petition. "He has a track record of suppressing basic human rights like free speech and the right to protest, and that doesn't represent what students here stand for.
"The issue also has surfaced at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and Michigan State University, which gave Mugabe honourary degrees in 1984 and 1990, respectively.Terry Denbow, a Michigan State spokesperson, said administrators have received letters requesting that Mugabe's degree be rescinded. "There have been discussions, but I know of no formal process for rescinding the degree," Denbow said.
Officials at Edinburgh said the issue of Mugabe's degree was under review.
According to the UMass policy, honourary degrees are handed out to people "of great accomplishment and high ethical standards".Recipients have included former South African president Nelson Mandela, former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan, author Toni Morrison and comedian and educator Bill Cosby.
Once lauded as a model for African democracy, Mugabe has tried to crush opposition to his power and has threatened to expel Western envoys for criticising his government. The country's Roman Catholic bishops said last month that health, education and other public services "have all but disintegrated"."Mugabe has become a scourge of his people and a scourge of Africa," said Michael Thelwell, a professor in the UMass Afro-American studies department. But Thelwell and others cautioned against revoking the degree just to appease Mugabe's critics.
"The task of intellectuals is to seek the truth, not to be swayed by pressures of the moment," said Bill Strickland, a UMass politics professor. "If they take away the degree, they have to look at all the facts surrounding what is happening in Zimbabwe and not simply blame just one person." - Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007, Sapa-AP
6 April 2007.
The United States admitted openly for the first time on Thursday that it was actively working to undermine Robert Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe.Although officially Washington does not support regime change, a US state department report published on Thursday acknowledged that it was supporting opposition politicians in the country and others critical of Mugabe.
The State Department also admitted sponsoring events aimed at "discrediting" statements made by Mugabe's government.The report will be seized on by Mugabe, who has repeatedly claimed that the US and Britain are seeking regime change.
The comments are contained in the state department's fifth annual Supporting Human Rights and Democracy report. It sets out in detail actions the US government is taking worldwide to promote human rights.The report has had a troubled history. Three years ago publication had to be hastily delayed when details emerged about US human rights abuses at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad.The US, compared with the United Kingdom, was initially slow to criticise Mugabe, but has since adopted an increasingly critical stance, most recently at the Human Rights Council in Geneva last month.
In an unusual piece of candour, the State Department report says: "To encourage greater public debate on restoring good governance in [Zimbabwe], the United States sponsored public events that presented economic and social analyses discrediting the government's excuses for its failed policies. "To further strengthen pro-democracy elements, the US government continued to support the efforts of the political opposition, the media and civil society to create and defend democratic space and to support persons who criticised the government.
"While the US and British governments still insist their aim in Zimbabwe is not regime change, they have been encouraging the main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangarai, who was beaten up last month.The report says that while Zimbabwe is nominally democratic, the government of Mugabe is "now authoritarian".
At a press conference to launch the document, the Assistant Secretary of State, Barry Lowenkren, said the US goal was not necessarily regime change but to create a level playing field for all parties. He added that where there was a country with record levels of inflation, denial of basic human rights and other abuses, the US had a duty to speak out so that people in Zimbabwe knew they had support.Asked whether US efforts to promote human rights worldwide were being undermined by the hundreds of of people being held at Guantánamo, Lowenkren insisted the issue was not raised by non-governmental groups at conferences he attended and participants were more interested in what the US could do to help them in their own countries. He also denied the report was softer on authoritarian governments allied to the US, such as Belarus, than to Zimbabwe.
Lowenkren said $66-million was being spent on promotion of democracy and human rights in Iran, about half of which was devoted to broadcasts from outside the country and the rest spent on support for non-governmental exchanges, cultural exchanges such as the visit by the US wrestling team and a Persian internet service. The report is critical of Russia, noting the killing of the journalist Anna Politkovskaya.
It says: "Political pressure on the judiciary, corruption and selectivity in enforcement of the law, continuing media restrictions and self-censorship, and government pressure on opposition political parties eroded the public accountability of government leaders. "Security forces were involved in additional significant human rights problems." University considers revoking degree.
Meanwhile, the University of Massachusetts (UMass) is considering revoking an honourary doctorate of law it awarded Mugabe in 1986. Some students at the Boston campus have circulated a petition asking for the university to revoke the degree, and officials say they are considering doing so.
"Mugabe's actions during the past decade show he's fallen from being a good citizen of the world," said Shauna Murray, a graduate student who helped circulate the petition. "He has a track record of suppressing basic human rights like free speech and the right to protest, and that doesn't represent what students here stand for.
"The issue also has surfaced at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and Michigan State University, which gave Mugabe honourary degrees in 1984 and 1990, respectively.Terry Denbow, a Michigan State spokesperson, said administrators have received letters requesting that Mugabe's degree be rescinded. "There have been discussions, but I know of no formal process for rescinding the degree," Denbow said.
Officials at Edinburgh said the issue of Mugabe's degree was under review.
According to the UMass policy, honourary degrees are handed out to people "of great accomplishment and high ethical standards".Recipients have included former South African president Nelson Mandela, former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan, author Toni Morrison and comedian and educator Bill Cosby.
Once lauded as a model for African democracy, Mugabe has tried to crush opposition to his power and has threatened to expel Western envoys for criticising his government. The country's Roman Catholic bishops said last month that health, education and other public services "have all but disintegrated"."Mugabe has become a scourge of his people and a scourge of Africa," said Michael Thelwell, a professor in the UMass Afro-American studies department. But Thelwell and others cautioned against revoking the degree just to appease Mugabe's critics.
"The task of intellectuals is to seek the truth, not to be swayed by pressures of the moment," said Bill Strickland, a UMass politics professor. "If they take away the degree, they have to look at all the facts surrounding what is happening in Zimbabwe and not simply blame just one person." - Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007, Sapa-AP
Canada, Eritrea, Sweden Seek Information on US Interrogations in Ethiopia.
Associated Press.
April 5, 2007 (NAIROBI) — Ethiopia was under pressure Thursday to release details of detainees from 19 countries held at secret prisons in the country, where U.S. agents have carried out interrogations in the hunt for al-Qaida in the Horn of Africa.
Canada, Eritrea and Sweden were lobbying for information about their citizens in Ethiopia, where human rights groups say hundreds of prisoners, including women and children, have been transferred secretly and illegally. An investigation by The Associated Press found that CIA and FBI agents have been interrogating the detainees.
Officials from Ethiopia, which has a troubling human rights record, were not immediately available for comment, but in the past have refused to acknowledge the existence of the prisons.
Canadian Foreign Affairs spokesman said of Canadian citizen Bashir Makhtal: "We know that he is in Ethiopia."
"We’ve been making, and continue to make, representations both here in Ottawa and in Ethiopia to get access to him," Beaulieu said.
Some detainees were swept up by Ethiopian troops that drove a radical Islamist government out of neighboring Somalia late last year, according to Kenyan officials and police. Others have been deported from Kenya, where many Somalis have fled the continuing violence in their homeland, they said.
The detainees include at least one U.S. citizen and some are from Canada, Sweden and France, according to a list compiled by a Kenyan Muslim rights group and flight manifests obtained by AP. They also include citizens from Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Tunisia and Morocco.
Eritrea is asking Kenyan authorities for details on three of its citizens, handed over to Somalia on Jan. 20, and who human rights groups say are in Ethiopia.
"At this juncture, the Government of Eritrea again calls on the Kenyan authorities to get the three Eritrean citizens released at the earliest and repatriate them to their country," according to a statement by Eritrea’s Information Ministry. "Furthermore, it reminds the Kenyan authorities that the responsibility for the lives of the Eritrean citizens rests on them."
Eritrea and Ethiopia are bitter rivals and have no diplomatic relations.
Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua said the government had no comment to make until it received an official communication from the Eritrean government.
Swedish Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Nina Ersman said they had managed to gain access to its nationals still being detained, including two Swedish citizens and one who holds a permanent residence permit. "We have visited them, but not in recent days," she told the AP, although she did not know the dates of the visit.
Jonathan Hafetz, a lawyer at the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law who has been assisting the family of a detained U.S. citizen, 24-year-old Amir Mohamed Meshal, said Thursday he had still not spoken to him.
According to the U.S. State Department late Wednesday, a U.S. Embassy official made a third visit to Meshal on Wednesday.
In a message passed from the official to his parents, Amir Meshal asked his family to be "patient," and said he missed his mother’s cooking "more and more every day."
Ethiopia has a long history of human rights abuses. In recent years, it has also been a key U.S. ally in the fight against al-Qaida, which has been trying to sink roots among Muslims in the Horn of Africa.
April 5, 2007 (NAIROBI) — Ethiopia was under pressure Thursday to release details of detainees from 19 countries held at secret prisons in the country, where U.S. agents have carried out interrogations in the hunt for al-Qaida in the Horn of Africa.
Canada, Eritrea and Sweden were lobbying for information about their citizens in Ethiopia, where human rights groups say hundreds of prisoners, including women and children, have been transferred secretly and illegally. An investigation by The Associated Press found that CIA and FBI agents have been interrogating the detainees.
Officials from Ethiopia, which has a troubling human rights record, were not immediately available for comment, but in the past have refused to acknowledge the existence of the prisons.
Canadian Foreign Affairs spokesman said of Canadian citizen Bashir Makhtal: "We know that he is in Ethiopia."
"We’ve been making, and continue to make, representations both here in Ottawa and in Ethiopia to get access to him," Beaulieu said.
Some detainees were swept up by Ethiopian troops that drove a radical Islamist government out of neighboring Somalia late last year, according to Kenyan officials and police. Others have been deported from Kenya, where many Somalis have fled the continuing violence in their homeland, they said.
The detainees include at least one U.S. citizen and some are from Canada, Sweden and France, according to a list compiled by a Kenyan Muslim rights group and flight manifests obtained by AP. They also include citizens from Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Tunisia and Morocco.
Eritrea is asking Kenyan authorities for details on three of its citizens, handed over to Somalia on Jan. 20, and who human rights groups say are in Ethiopia.
"At this juncture, the Government of Eritrea again calls on the Kenyan authorities to get the three Eritrean citizens released at the earliest and repatriate them to their country," according to a statement by Eritrea’s Information Ministry. "Furthermore, it reminds the Kenyan authorities that the responsibility for the lives of the Eritrean citizens rests on them."
Eritrea and Ethiopia are bitter rivals and have no diplomatic relations.
Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua said the government had no comment to make until it received an official communication from the Eritrean government.
Swedish Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Nina Ersman said they had managed to gain access to its nationals still being detained, including two Swedish citizens and one who holds a permanent residence permit. "We have visited them, but not in recent days," she told the AP, although she did not know the dates of the visit.
Jonathan Hafetz, a lawyer at the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law who has been assisting the family of a detained U.S. citizen, 24-year-old Amir Mohamed Meshal, said Thursday he had still not spoken to him.
According to the U.S. State Department late Wednesday, a U.S. Embassy official made a third visit to Meshal on Wednesday.
In a message passed from the official to his parents, Amir Meshal asked his family to be "patient," and said he missed his mother’s cooking "more and more every day."
Ethiopia has a long history of human rights abuses. In recent years, it has also been a key U.S. ally in the fight against al-Qaida, which has been trying to sink roots among Muslims in the Horn of Africa.
05 April, 2007
Zimbabwe: DRC War Bill Stalks Government.
Zimbabwe President Mugabe of the ZANU-PF party.
Financial Gazette.
Clemence Manyukwe
The government will pay billions of dollars for accrued leave days for an estimated 40 000 soldiers deployed during Zimbabwe's involvement in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) war, a senior Defence Ministry official has said.
Secretary for Defence, Trust Maphosa, said this week that the entire force that served at the time would receive outstanding payment in lieu of leave, a development likely to force the government to dig deeper into its drying coffers.
Responding to enquiries by The Financial Gazette, Maphosa said: "It is true that the government has set aside funds to pay for leave days that were accrued by the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) members during operations in the DRC."
He would not say how much the government would spend. In December last year, however, army chiefs told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Defence and Home Affairs that the Ministry of Finance had indicated it was unable to fund the payment.
At that same hearing, the army chiefs described the outstanding payments as "substantial amounts."
Although it was indicated that the bill stood at $1.2 billion as at December 2006, Maphosa said the total amount would exceed that figure at prevailing rates.
"Since salaries get reviewed from time to time, the figure of $1.2 billion, which your informant gave you will therefore, not remain static," he said.
The amount to be paid will be linked to current salaries.
On Monday, Maphosa explained that in terms of section 38 (3) of the Defence (Regular Force) (officers) regulations of 1988, as amended, a member of the Defence Forces who is on active service outside the country's borders cannot go on leave. The soldiers are required to accrue leave days for which they are paid on returning home.
"All the ZDF members serving then were not permitted to go on leave during the
DRC campaign, which means that the entire force will be paid cash in lieu of leave for the period of Operation Sovereign Legitimacy," Maphosa said, referring to the campaign's code name.
"Each ZDF member will be paid according to his/her rank. It therefore, is not possible to give you quickly the details of the money to be paid to each member because of the magnitude of the numbers involved and the varied nature of their ranks."
On August 2, 1998, the army deployed 20 000 troops to the DRC, half of the army at the time, to defend the regime of slain Congolese leader Laurent Kabila against a rebel incursion backed by Uganda and Rwanda.
Puntland President Calls on Hawiye Clan to Form a Regional Authority.
By: Shabelle news-dept.
Mogadishu 05, April.07 ( Sh.M.Network)
The president of the semi-autonomous region of Puntland in northeast Somalia Gen. Adde Muse Hersi called Thursday on the Hawiye clans to form a regional authority similar to the Puntland and Somaliland.
Mr. Muse who was invited overnight in the Shabelle Dirada radio program through the telephone line in Puntland said the authorities of Puntland and Somaliland reached tangible progress which he meant it came through the network by their people. “Both communities have long been thinking about how they could find regional states for their future with law and order.”
Abdulahi Sheik Hassan, among the prominent Hawiye politicians in Mogadishu who also attended the radio program said that Mogadishu had experienced six months of peace and stability which disturbed by the interim government and its allied Ethiopian forces.
Puntland’s president Adde Muse said he would begin mediation efforts between the transitional government and the Hawiye clans pointing out that the government stepped in actions that might stir the public anger.
“There are faults done by the government of president Abdulahi Yusuf like imposing unaffordable tariff on the goods imported,” said Muse. “it is unwise to do that,”He said he made contacts to the federal government officials and the Ethiopian government to gain solution for the crisis in the capital.
When talking about Saudi deportee Somalis who were refused to land in Galkaayo, Mr. Muse said he wanted to bring these people back to Saudi Arabia to get their rights. “every immigrant has the right to get survive and it is not a human violation to expel the refugees to unsafe places,”
“It was my order to bring these young Somalis back to Saudi Arabia but I did not want that the plane they onboard to land in Hargeysa,” said.
Mr. Muse dismissed the allegation that its authority made clam segregation saying he would launch investigation on the case.
Christophe Hakizabera
Born in 1949 in Gitarama, left Chief the 9th Promotion of Officers School in Rwanda with the Rank of Lieutenant, fled to Uganda in 1973 following the Coup d'etat of General Juvenal Habyarimana, joined the Rwandan Patriotic Front (FPR) in 1990, fled the Rwandan Patriotic Front (FPR) in 1995 and has lived in exile since.
LETTER ADDRESSED TO the COMMISSION OF UNO CHARGED TO INQUIRE INTO the RESPONSIBILITY FOR UNO IN the RWANDAN DRAMA.
Mr. President of the Commission,
It is a great pleasure for me and all the Rwandan people to learn that the Secretary General of the UNO has set up a commission tasked with showing the role of the UNO in the Rwandan Genocide.
Being one of those which, from the beginning beginning, started with the FPR in Uganda, I consider that the FPR which continues to make dins making endorse its own responsibilities with the others must be denounced.
I am the only former member of the surviving FPR who could flee the mode of torture in the FPR. Before I was to be killed by the FPR, they made an example of Mr. Théoneste Lizinde and Mr. Seth Sendashonga, I deliver to the UNO commission my memories of the FPR. I dare to hope that this document will inform the commission on the methods used by the FPR to put the UNO in a trap.
With my opinion, Ia better approach would be of:
1. To create a commission which would inquire into:
a)How the Rwandan tragedy since 1959 at our days and more especially on the role of the FPR in the genocide;
b) The tragedy that devastates the Great Lakes and Central Africa . It is necessary that the truth, the whole truth is carried with the knowledge of the international community.
2. To bring to justice all those who are guilty of crimes against humanity in front of an international penal court with impartiality.
3. To organize an international conference on the Great Lakes and take with wisdom and firmness all measures necessary to releave all Rwandan people and their neighbors from the cycle of self-destruction.
It is unacceptable to continue to leave berner by the lies of the FPR which wants to trap the international community and to subject it to the blackmail.
Please find in appendix the document which I made for submission to
Commission D “Inquires of UNO entitled <<>>.
I remain fully at your disposal for further information if adequate measures are taken to ensure my safety and that of my family.
That God protects us.
Fact in Cotonou, on August 10, 1999
HAKIZABERA Christophe
Signed
UNO In the Vice of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (FPR) Lobbies
The international community let itself be handled by the lobby of the FPR and today, the UNO pays the price. Naïvété, the lightness and absence of analysis and critical thinking of certain civil servants lead the Secretary General to put the UB system in examination, by setting up a commission charged to inquire into the role of UNO in the Rwandan tragedy.
If the UNO had, upon departure, it was perspicacious would not have accepted the withdrawal of its forces to most extremely of the war and consequently it would have avoided Ia tragedy which one did not know, until now, the victims. Today one speaks about 800.000 dead killed, but I affirm that this number is very far from the reality, because no statistical work of forever made enumeration. Why this number is minimized? Why the current authorities with Kigali do not want to proceed to the census and the enumeration of the victims? As many the questions which let plane the shade on the authors of the Rwandan tragedy. As long as this work “will not have been made IE FPR and its lobbies will continue to make endorse Ia responsibility on UNO, Ia France and the INTERAHAMWE to cover its dominating role in the genocide.
Born in 1949 in Gitarama, left Chief the 9th Promotion of Officers School in Rwanda with the Rank of Lieutenant, fled to Uganda in 1973 following the Coup d'etat of General Juvenal Habyarimana, joined the Rwandan Patriotic Front (FPR) in 1990, fled the Rwandan Patriotic Front (FPR) in 1995 and has lived in exile since.
LETTER ADDRESSED TO the COMMISSION OF UNO CHARGED TO INQUIRE INTO the RESPONSIBILITY FOR UNO IN the RWANDAN DRAMA.
Mr. President of the Commission,
It is a great pleasure for me and all the Rwandan people to learn that the Secretary General of the UNO has set up a commission tasked with showing the role of the UNO in the Rwandan Genocide.
Being one of those which, from the beginning beginning, started with the FPR in Uganda, I consider that the FPR which continues to make dins making endorse its own responsibilities with the others must be denounced.
I am the only former member of the surviving FPR who could flee the mode of torture in the FPR. Before I was to be killed by the FPR, they made an example of Mr. Théoneste Lizinde and Mr. Seth Sendashonga, I deliver to the UNO commission my memories of the FPR. I dare to hope that this document will inform the commission on the methods used by the FPR to put the UNO in a trap.
With my opinion, Ia better approach would be of:
1. To create a commission which would inquire into:
a)How the Rwandan tragedy since 1959 at our days and more especially on the role of the FPR in the genocide;
b) The tragedy that devastates the Great Lakes and Central Africa . It is necessary that the truth, the whole truth is carried with the knowledge of the international community.
2. To bring to justice all those who are guilty of crimes against humanity in front of an international penal court with impartiality.
3. To organize an international conference on the Great Lakes and take with wisdom and firmness all measures necessary to releave all Rwandan people and their neighbors from the cycle of self-destruction.
It is unacceptable to continue to leave berner by the lies of the FPR which wants to trap the international community and to subject it to the blackmail.
Please find in appendix the document which I made for submission to
Commission D “Inquires of UNO entitled <<>>.
I remain fully at your disposal for further information if adequate measures are taken to ensure my safety and that of my family.
That God protects us.
Fact in Cotonou, on August 10, 1999
HAKIZABERA Christophe
Signed
UNO In the Vice of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (FPR) Lobbies
The international community let itself be handled by the lobby of the FPR and today, the UNO pays the price. Naïvété, the lightness and absence of analysis and critical thinking of certain civil servants lead the Secretary General to put the UB system in examination, by setting up a commission charged to inquire into the role of UNO in the Rwandan tragedy.
If the UNO had, upon departure, it was perspicacious would not have accepted the withdrawal of its forces to most extremely of the war and consequently it would have avoided Ia tragedy which one did not know, until now, the victims. Today one speaks about 800.000 dead killed, but I affirm that this number is very far from the reality, because no statistical work of forever made enumeration. Why this number is minimized? Why the current authorities with Kigali do not want to proceed to the census and the enumeration of the victims? As many the questions which let plane the shade on the authors of the Rwandan tragedy. As long as this work “will not have been made IE FPR and its lobbies will continue to make endorse Ia responsibility on UNO, Ia France and the INTERAHAMWE to cover its dominating role in the genocide.
In Ia preparation of the attack of Rwanda by the FPR, the founder members of this organization knew that Tutsi will pay the expenses of them but they did not expect the massacres on a so large scale. All the forecasts made by people of the FPR in exile and its sympathizers agreed to affirm that the war whom they intended to engage against the HUTU of Rwanda was going to show a fast victory of the FPR TUTSI and which the victims civil would be less than 500 people. These are the arguments which convinced the General Fred RWIGEMA who always hesitated to tackle the Hutu mode of Kigali.
Taking into account the beginning strategies of the FPR, these forecasts were true, but did not take into account a possible intervention of foreign troops on the side of the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR). When the RPA was pushed back by the FAR aided by Zairois (FAZ) on October 3 1990, it was necessary to quickly change strategies and methods. Thus we gave up on the idea of a traditional war and planned a guerilla war. New political strategies were discussed lengthily in a seminar organized by the FPR in Mbarara in January 1991.
We concluded that to ensure itself of a total victory, II was necessary to tackle Habyarimana on all fronts (military, political, diplomatic and media)
I. Strategy adopted on the military level.
To ensure a ,military victory while minimizing the loss of human lives, the FPR chose what follows:
1.1 To form politico-military officers and to send them to cover all the territory and convey the FPR ideology to Tutsi sympathizers of the FPR. The first school of formation was established in Kabale and Masaka in Uganda;
1.2 To infiltrate small groups of 6 to 10 well trained military people throughout Rwanda with the mission of terrorizing the population, sowing panic and distress,sowing chaos and disorder with an aim of making the country ungovernable.
1.3 To install the brigades (militia) of the FPR which would enter in action the day " J ".
1.4 Through these brigades, to teach all young Tutsi to use a gun.
1.5 To gather a maximum of military equipment to set out again on Rwandan territory in the form of stocks.
1.6 To recruit the maximum of combatants among the young tutsi which will protect the Tutsi families when IE FPR would advance on Kigali.
Strategy adopted on the political level.
The policy of the FPR was of diaboliser mode HABYARIMANA and to be presented in the form of an alternative; for that it was necessary to make what follows:
2.1 To cause anger of the HUTU by killing a great number of their congeneric at the time of each military attack;
2.2 To awake hatred inter-éthnique by drawing up the HUTU against the TUTSI;
2.3 To create the tensions inter-éthniques by killing the leadesr HUTU and by throwing the responsabiIities on mode HABYARIMANA and its party the MRND;
2.4 To camouflage the ethnic identity of the FPR by recruiting HUTU of services which adhere to the ideology of the FPR;
2.5 To seek an HUTU to put at the head of the FPR to be made pass for a movement rassemblor.
2.6 To create the tensions between the political parties to weaken the opposition to mode HABYARIMANA with an aim of reducing the influence of the parties on the Rwandan political scene and of promoting thus only one plain movement which is the FPR;
2.7 Inflltrer and to core all the political parties;
2.8 To infiltrate all the organizations of youth of each movement;
2.9 To draw up the political opposition HUTU counters mode HABYARIMANA by organizing through the political parties the demonstrations which should degenerate into disorders thus causing dissatisfaction within the population and consequently justify the need for a change of mode.
2.10 To calumniate the Catholic Church which preaches the equality between the men and having contributed to the education of the popular masses.
2.11 To liquidate a great number of the HUTU clergy in order to make them replace later by the TUTSI.
2.12 To terrorize the Catholiques missionaries so that they leave the country because they are witnesses génant and obstacles with the execution of the plan of the FPR in any sound together.
2.13 To kill the former missionaries who knew the history of Rwanda because they are responsible from what occurred in 1959 when the TUTSI lost power while the HUTU profited from the elite formed by these same missionaries in the small seminaries.
2.14 To threaten the foreign troops which will want to intervene in Rwanda to protect the TUTSI.
2.15 On arrival of Ia MINUAR it was agreed of what follows: To handle the MINUAR through the Dallaire General with whom one must seek a pretty girl TUTSI very intelligent and able to influence it and to handle it.
2.16 To use the personal relations of Canadian Mrs. Helene NDASINGWA Landoald with her Dallaire compatriot with an aim of having permanent access to the information of the MINUAR and of handling it.
2.17 To constantly inform the MINUAR of the crimes committed in Rwanda by taking care to accuse the MRND and the INTERAHAMWE (whereas many of these crimes were made by the FPR on civil populations); assassination policies, attacks has the explosive, massacres of the civil ones.
2.18 To benefit from the anger of the HUTU to show them to prepare a genocide against the TUTSI.
3. Strategy adopted on the diplomatic and media level.
To isolate the Rwandan Government and to discredit HABYARIMANA, the FPR decided to make what follows:
3.1 To infiltrate the accredited foreign diplomatic missions with Kigali to spin the information manufactured by Ia to them head thinking of the FPR.
3.2 To inform the diplomatic missions on all the actions made on all the territory even those which are perpetrated by the FPR by taking care to throw any Ia responsibility on the MRND and with the INTERAHAMWE.
3.3 To set up a station broadcasting for médiatiser the ideology of the FPR and diaboliser mode HABYARIMANA and its party MRND. This radio was baptized “MUHABURA” and was placed under Ia direction of an extremist TUTSI then known under the norn of Commander SHABANI RUTA which later will bear the name of major RUTAYISIRE Wilison. The Radio MUHABURA which, has length of the days diffused provocative remarks with I' place of mode HABYARIMANA was very harmful to the Rwandan people, because it in reaction of the remarks is diffused by this radio that the “extremists” Hutu' mounted their own independent radio, the Radio Television of the Miles Hills (RTLM) which informed the HUTU about the spite of the TUTSI and required of those to be vigilant and to defend oneself against the TUTSI. In addition it is this same radio MUHABURA which broke the national unit by exacerbating the ethnism, regionalism and hatreds between the political parties.
All these strategies were applied by the FPR but they did not produce all the effects. Although the military strategies were a total success, politically the FPR was a total failure and that will be difficult to repair.
All the demons specific to each ethnic group awakened and sowed hatred in the hearts of Tutsi and Hutu. Both ethnicities, although belonging to the same nation, from now on became sworn enemies and their cohabitation will be, in my opinion, very difficult. From now on, the FPR has succeeded to divide Hutu and created a savage opposition to HABYARIMANA and his MRND party, but on other side the policy of diabolisation of all party MRND by the FPR allowed all those which did not agree with the ideology of the FPR to gather in a movement called “POWER” to make a common face against the FPR. Vis-a-vis this failure, the FPR worked out a macabre plan which should lead the country in chaos, the death of President HABYARIMANA. This one was regarded as a major obstacle with the seizure of power by Ia forces. The first meeting of planning of the assassination was held with KABALE in the buildings of évêché under the auspices of Bishop HARERIMANA. Later, of the meetings of this kind will be held with MBARARA in the residence of GénéraI Major Salim Saleh, half-brother of President Ugandais Yoweri KAGUTA MUSEVENI, then it is known pertinently that Ia decision to kill President HABYARIMANA was taken with BOBO-DIOULASSO with BURKINA FASO in Mars 1994 and that Major Paul KAGAME took part in this meeting. The plan of assassination of President HABYARIMANA was revealed at the TUTSI of the interior which put KAGAME keeps some against facheuses and disastrous consequences of such an assassination and required of KAGAME not to make such a silly thing of which they knew in advance the consequences and the price of blood to be paid.
But KAGAME counting on a military victory flash, the catch of Kigali endéans 3 days and the limitation of the losses in human lives with 500 victims, assessment which the FPR considered acceptable taking into account the anticipated results: namely the total seizure of power in Kigali. For the FPR, only the TUTSI of Ia diaspora counted while Ia most of the TUTSI of the interor were regarded as belonging to those which were corrupted by mode HABYARIMANA This explains why the death of the thousands of the TUTSI does not have affected of anything the FPR which was useful of their misfortunes to legitimate his coup d'etat by the foreign force and even Onusienne which will intervene in Rwanda to save anyone.
Any intervention would have géné the seizure of power by force by the FPR. It is clear that KAGAME needed a marsh of blood of the TUTSI to justify later the planned extermination of the HUTU and to shout high and strong with the genocide which today became inexhaustible goodwill to legitimate its mode.
In conclusion, the FPR appears to the eyes of the whole world as a liberator, whereas not only, it did not do anything to protect and save the TUTSI, but it did everything to block any initiative aiming at protecting them.
Today the FPR wants to benefit the maximum of dead of the TUTSI by endorsing all the responsibilities with its old allies, of which UNO which succeeded in covering the horrible crimes committed by the FPR. Five years after the Rwandan tragedy, I' UNO is on the docks to have been accessory to the FPR, and when deaths of KIBEHO, the refugee camps of Burundi and with Za! will Re, of Tingi Tingi, Kisangani and MBANDAKA awake to claim justice, which will answer the Internationale community, with the question which will be asked to him to know why one did not open the investigations against these crimes?
The UNO, which, by the means of the UNHCR had the role of protecting the refugees, A volontarily left Hutu to be massacred. Today, the UNO is examened for its role in the genocide, tomorrow they will have to answer of the blood of Hutu poured by the FPR and the number of Hutu victims does not have any measurement with that of the Tutsi which were killed, since at least 2 million Hutu died and they continue to die under the repression of the FPR.
HAKIZABERA Christophe
Sé
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
