The Toronto Star
Olivia Ward
12 October 2007
Four months ago, Congolese human rights worker Justine Masika Bihamba sat in a University of Toronto classroom, recounting in her soft voice the unimaginably sadistic sexual attacks that are routinely inflicted on women in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
"This is sexual violence that almost amounts to torture," she told a women's rights forum. "Women are not just raped, but assaulted with sharp objects to mutilate them."
Today, after a savage attack on her own daughters, Masika fears for her life, but continues to work in the turbulent eastern town of Goma, where her grassroots collective, Synergie des Femmes pour les Victimes de Violences Sexuelles, helps female victims of violence.
Masika's two daughters – who were assaulted in their home by an armed gang – are in hiding in the capital Kinshasa, and Canadian activists are trying to raise money to sponsor their removal to Canada, which has named Congo as a place of extreme violence.
Masika, 42, arrived home after the attack and narrowly escaped it, according to an emailed account. She recognized one of the bodyguards of a security forces colonel as a perpetrator.
But when confronted, the officer refused to arrest the man, and his guards scoffed that "Madame Justine is not more special than the other persons" they kill in Goma.
It was a predictable response to one of Congo's tormented women, who commonly die before reaching 45, and are subjected to extreme violence in both war and what passes for peace in a country that is no longer officially a conflict zone.
In eastern Congo, where Masika works, the scale and destructiveness of rape astonish even the human rights experts.
The United Nations' humanitarian chief, John Holmes, declared it the worst in the world, saying "the sheer numbers, the wholesale brutality, the culture of impunity – it's appalling."
The UN says some 27,000 sexual assaults were reported in the South Kivu province alone last year, a fraction of those that kill the victims, or go unreported.
"Women are caught up in a tsunami of hatred and violence," says Brad MacIntosh, a Canadian scientist who has worked as a volunteer in a hospital treating rape victims in Congo.
"They're not able to move about and hide, and they are easy targets. This goes beyond rape as a crime of war. It's a strategy to terrorize and destroy whole communities."
"The east, which is a haven of support for Kabila, is the most violent," says MacIntosh, now a post-doctoral research fellow at Oxford.
"It's a combination of guns, lawlessness and coltan, which is sustaining the West's appetite for electronics."
Coltan, a dull black ore, is used to produce tantalum, a component of popular items such as cellphones and computers. But a UN report says much of the Congolese trade is illegal. It's carried out by armed militias who battle each other for control of mines and smuggling routes.
Women who live near the mines are raped in front of their families and often taken as sex slaves. "If things go sour, and the gangs have to face off with others, they'll finish off the women," says MacIntosh, who took part in a study of 1,000 testimonies of rape victims, done by the Canadian humanitarian group Social Aid for the Elimination of Rape (SAFER).
The results show that "every woman is raped by an average of 2.8 men. In other words, behind every survivor of rape are about three men who go unpunished," he said.
In Congo, rights groups say, rape is part of a culture of lawlessness and violence that mixes both war and criminality.
The few doctors operating in eastern Congo report injuries so severe that women's reproductive organs, bladders and bowels are destroyed. Many have been assaulted with knives, bayonets, razors, or chunks of wood. Some of the dead are hideously mutilated.
Those who survive have little hope of help. Hospitals and clinics are sparse, understaffed and often without rudimentary medicines. And counselling for victims – usually by unpaid and undernourished volunteers like those in Masika's collective – reaches only a small minority of victims.
In eastern Congo, Masika said last June, "there is no government control and people take what they want."
13 October, 2007
Analysis: Hunt Oil, US State Department talked on Iraq oil deal.
UPI
By BEN LANDO
UPI Energy Editor
A representative from Dallas-based Hunt Oil Corp. did talk with the U.S. State Department prior to signing a controversial oil deal with Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government, according to an internal department communication obtained by United Press International.
Hunt Oil, whose chief executive officer is connected to the Bush administration by campaign donations and a seat on an intelligence advisory board, had previously denied the meeting.
The company now says the meeting took place but that Hunt did not seek advice from the U.S. government on investing in a country with the world’s third-largest proven oil reserves.
The Sept. 8 production-sharing contract with the KRG set off Baghdad, which accuses the region of unilaterally and illegally signing oil deals. The Hunt deal wasn’t the first or final such contract signed between private oil companies and the Kurds, who say they have the constitutional right to sign deals and blame Baghdad for its inability to make headway on a national oil law.
The U.S. government has been cautious in comment, aside from maintaining that it hurts their efforts in bolstering the ability of the central government to reconcile and rule the country.
A day after the Kurds announced two more oil deals, with Canadian and French companies, Hunt Chief Executive Officer Ray Hunt told the Wall Street Journal: "The State Department must have been misinformed. … We did not consult with anyone in the (U.S. government) prior to signing our agreement."
On Sept. 5, according to the State Department communication transmitted Sept. 6, the Hunt official in charge of the region met in Irbil, the KRG capital, with officials from the U.S. Agency for International Development.
“Hunt is expecting to sign an exploration contract with the KRG,” the communication stated.
“Asked about concerns over potential conflicts between the recently passed KRG hydrocarbon law and a national law, (the Hunt official) said the 'significant opportunity' outweighs the legal ambiguity,” the communication states. “Unlike the large players, Hunt is not looking at the entire Iraqi market. He also thought that it may take years to pass a national law.”
When asked about the conflicting statements, Jeanne Phillips, Hunt senior vice president for corporate affairs and international relations, confirmed the Sept. 5 meeting and a Hunt delegation led by David McDonald, Hunt general manager for Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
"It is correct that four Hunt technical representatives involved in a due diligence meeting for risk analysis and opportunity assessment in the Kurdistan region of Iraq properly met with USAID officials in Irbil in a routine, courtesy meeting seeking information on the risks of doing business in the Kurdistan area,” McDonald, who is now in Iraq, said in a statement passed on to UPI by Phillips. “We specifically noted that Hunt was interested in evaluating petroleum opportunities. We did not seek advice as to whether or not Hunt should proceed with an exploration contract, and we were never advised not to do so."
State Department spokesman Tom Casey, when asked Sept. 28 if there were any meetings, said, “I’m not sure how much contact there was between the company and officials, either in Baghdad or here.
“Our public and private advice to any company anywhere in the world, regardless of who’s running it or who’s on the board … we don’t think that these kinds of deals are helpful,” he said, a message that jives more with the department communication than McDonald’s recap of the meeting.
Ray Hunt is no ordinary Texan. He’s known as a maverick, the first foreigner to set up shop in Yemen, and now entering the unknown but highly prospective world of Iraqi Kurdistan oil. He’s donated $75,000 over the past two years to Republican Party fundraising committees and $35 million to the George W. Bush presidential library at Southern Methodist University.
He also sits on the National Petroleum Council, an industry advisory board to the secretary of energy, and the president’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, whose members the president selects to advise him “concerning the quality and adequacy of intelligence collection, of analysis and estimates, of counterintelligence, and of other intelligence activities,” according to the White House Web site.
This connection has raised concerns of at least two members of Congress. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, a candidate for his party’s presidential nod, decried the deal nearly immediately and called for an investigation.
Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., has sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice demanding answers to a dozen questions, including:
“Are you concerned that the involvement of such a high-level adviser to the president in this contract will create the impression that the negation between Hunt and the Kurdish government was sanctioned by you, or, indeed, by the president himself?”
“The White House has had no contact with Hunt Oil. I'm not aware of any contacts between Hunt Oil and other offices,” White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe told UPI. “This was a private transaction."
Phillips, the Hunt vice president, said neither Ray Hunt nor any other official met with any other branches of the U.S. government.
“I know for a fact he hasn’t talked to anyone himself in the government prior to this deal being signed,” she said. “We just don’t, as a matter of policy, we don’t pick up the phone, regardless of what people might imagine."
By BEN LANDO
UPI Energy Editor
A representative from Dallas-based Hunt Oil Corp. did talk with the U.S. State Department prior to signing a controversial oil deal with Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government, according to an internal department communication obtained by United Press International.
Hunt Oil, whose chief executive officer is connected to the Bush administration by campaign donations and a seat on an intelligence advisory board, had previously denied the meeting.
The company now says the meeting took place but that Hunt did not seek advice from the U.S. government on investing in a country with the world’s third-largest proven oil reserves.
The Sept. 8 production-sharing contract with the KRG set off Baghdad, which accuses the region of unilaterally and illegally signing oil deals. The Hunt deal wasn’t the first or final such contract signed between private oil companies and the Kurds, who say they have the constitutional right to sign deals and blame Baghdad for its inability to make headway on a national oil law.
The U.S. government has been cautious in comment, aside from maintaining that it hurts their efforts in bolstering the ability of the central government to reconcile and rule the country.
A day after the Kurds announced two more oil deals, with Canadian and French companies, Hunt Chief Executive Officer Ray Hunt told the Wall Street Journal: "The State Department must have been misinformed. … We did not consult with anyone in the (U.S. government) prior to signing our agreement."
On Sept. 5, according to the State Department communication transmitted Sept. 6, the Hunt official in charge of the region met in Irbil, the KRG capital, with officials from the U.S. Agency for International Development.
“Hunt is expecting to sign an exploration contract with the KRG,” the communication stated.
“Asked about concerns over potential conflicts between the recently passed KRG hydrocarbon law and a national law, (the Hunt official) said the 'significant opportunity' outweighs the legal ambiguity,” the communication states. “Unlike the large players, Hunt is not looking at the entire Iraqi market. He also thought that it may take years to pass a national law.”
When asked about the conflicting statements, Jeanne Phillips, Hunt senior vice president for corporate affairs and international relations, confirmed the Sept. 5 meeting and a Hunt delegation led by David McDonald, Hunt general manager for Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
"It is correct that four Hunt technical representatives involved in a due diligence meeting for risk analysis and opportunity assessment in the Kurdistan region of Iraq properly met with USAID officials in Irbil in a routine, courtesy meeting seeking information on the risks of doing business in the Kurdistan area,” McDonald, who is now in Iraq, said in a statement passed on to UPI by Phillips. “We specifically noted that Hunt was interested in evaluating petroleum opportunities. We did not seek advice as to whether or not Hunt should proceed with an exploration contract, and we were never advised not to do so."
State Department spokesman Tom Casey, when asked Sept. 28 if there were any meetings, said, “I’m not sure how much contact there was between the company and officials, either in Baghdad or here.
“Our public and private advice to any company anywhere in the world, regardless of who’s running it or who’s on the board … we don’t think that these kinds of deals are helpful,” he said, a message that jives more with the department communication than McDonald’s recap of the meeting.
Ray Hunt is no ordinary Texan. He’s known as a maverick, the first foreigner to set up shop in Yemen, and now entering the unknown but highly prospective world of Iraqi Kurdistan oil. He’s donated $75,000 over the past two years to Republican Party fundraising committees and $35 million to the George W. Bush presidential library at Southern Methodist University.
He also sits on the National Petroleum Council, an industry advisory board to the secretary of energy, and the president’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, whose members the president selects to advise him “concerning the quality and adequacy of intelligence collection, of analysis and estimates, of counterintelligence, and of other intelligence activities,” according to the White House Web site.
This connection has raised concerns of at least two members of Congress. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, a candidate for his party’s presidential nod, decried the deal nearly immediately and called for an investigation.
Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., has sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice demanding answers to a dozen questions, including:
“Are you concerned that the involvement of such a high-level adviser to the president in this contract will create the impression that the negation between Hunt and the Kurdish government was sanctioned by you, or, indeed, by the president himself?”
“The White House has had no contact with Hunt Oil. I'm not aware of any contacts between Hunt Oil and other offices,” White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe told UPI. “This was a private transaction."
Phillips, the Hunt vice president, said neither Ray Hunt nor any other official met with any other branches of the U.S. government.
“I know for a fact he hasn’t talked to anyone himself in the government prior to this deal being signed,” she said. “We just don’t, as a matter of policy, we don’t pick up the phone, regardless of what people might imagine."
Amnesty International Delegates Released Unconditionally
Amnesty International
PRESS RELEASE
12 October 2007
Amnesty International today announced the unconditional release of its two delegates who had been detained in The Gambia, along with the local journalist detained with them. The organization said that no charges had been brought against any of the three.
"The fact that these people were detained solely for their human rights work is deplorable," said Erwin van der Borght, Director of Amnesty International's Africa Programme. "While we welcome the releases, all restrictions on the work of human rights activists in The Gambia must be lifted immediately."
Tania Bernath and Ayodele Ameen boarded a flight in Banjul at 16.00 GMT and are expected to arrive in London tomorrow morning.
Amnesty International remains concerned for the security of Yaya Dampah, the local journalist detained with the two Amnesty International delegates, who remains in The Gambia.
The organization called on the government to ensure that Dampha will not be targeted due to his association with Amnesty International.
The two Amnesty International delegates had been in The Gambia since 2 October, when they arrived to conduct research into human rights violations in the country, including arbitrary and unlawful detentions, attacks on freedom of the press, and torture in custody. They also held a workshop for local human rights defenders and journalists in Banjul. The authorities had been informed about the Amnesty International mission.
PRESS RELEASE
12 October 2007
Amnesty International today announced the unconditional release of its two delegates who had been detained in The Gambia, along with the local journalist detained with them. The organization said that no charges had been brought against any of the three.
"The fact that these people were detained solely for their human rights work is deplorable," said Erwin van der Borght, Director of Amnesty International's Africa Programme. "While we welcome the releases, all restrictions on the work of human rights activists in The Gambia must be lifted immediately."
Tania Bernath and Ayodele Ameen boarded a flight in Banjul at 16.00 GMT and are expected to arrive in London tomorrow morning.
Amnesty International remains concerned for the security of Yaya Dampah, the local journalist detained with the two Amnesty International delegates, who remains in The Gambia.
The organization called on the government to ensure that Dampha will not be targeted due to his association with Amnesty International.
The two Amnesty International delegates had been in The Gambia since 2 October, when they arrived to conduct research into human rights violations in the country, including arbitrary and unlawful detentions, attacks on freedom of the press, and torture in custody. They also held a workshop for local human rights defenders and journalists in Banjul. The authorities had been informed about the Amnesty International mission.
US Company to Distribute Ethiopia's Petroleum.
The Reporter
15 September 2007
Crown Central Petroleum, a US-based oil company, is finalizing registration and relevant prerequisites required to enter Ethiopia's fuel and lubricant distribution market, sources told.
The company, headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, will start fuel and lubricant distributing operation either by acquiring some of existing fuel stations in the country or by constructing new ones, according to sources.
An independent refiner and marketer of petroleum products, Crown Central Petroleum Corporation operates two refineries, both located in Texas, with rated capacities of 100,000 and 50,000 bpd. Crown's principal business is the wholesale and retail sale of its products in the United States, with approximately 435 gasoline stations and stores in operation. The company will be engaged in fuel and lubricant distributions in Ethiopia, while it particularly aims at supplying the whole market with its own products, according to sources.
"The company will be participating at international tenders which is being issued by the Ethiopian Petroleum Enterprise on annual or semi-annual basis to select an oil company, which, if happened to win the bid, will supply the country's fuel consumption," the sources said.
The Ethiopian petroleum Enterprise is the responsible government agency appointed to purchase and wholesale the country's fuel consumption to fuel distributing companies operating in the country. Presently, Shell Ethiopia, Total Ethiopia, National Oil Corporation (NOC), Yetebaberut Beherawi Petroleum (YBP) and Kobil Ethiopia are the active operators in the country's fuel distribution market.
The Sudan-based Nile Petroleum is also finalizing preparation to start operation.
Crown Central Petroleum, which currently is refining and marketing petroleum products in the US, is destined to become the latest entrant to Ethiopia's oil distribution market. The company, which had reportedly been experiencing a fiscal deficit in the 1990s, has as well its operation in the US dwindling in 2006. During the summer of that year, many of its stations began to disappear, according to some reports.
"All but about 20 of Crown's stations in the US were re-branded to either Texaco, Chevron Corporation or Royal Dutch Shell gas stations," according to a report. This was because the company sold these stations about two years earlier, as the report stated. The company, however, is currently reviving, according to some other reports.
15 September 2007
Crown Central Petroleum, a US-based oil company, is finalizing registration and relevant prerequisites required to enter Ethiopia's fuel and lubricant distribution market, sources told.
The company, headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, will start fuel and lubricant distributing operation either by acquiring some of existing fuel stations in the country or by constructing new ones, according to sources.
An independent refiner and marketer of petroleum products, Crown Central Petroleum Corporation operates two refineries, both located in Texas, with rated capacities of 100,000 and 50,000 bpd. Crown's principal business is the wholesale and retail sale of its products in the United States, with approximately 435 gasoline stations and stores in operation. The company will be engaged in fuel and lubricant distributions in Ethiopia, while it particularly aims at supplying the whole market with its own products, according to sources.
"The company will be participating at international tenders which is being issued by the Ethiopian Petroleum Enterprise on annual or semi-annual basis to select an oil company, which, if happened to win the bid, will supply the country's fuel consumption," the sources said.
The Ethiopian petroleum Enterprise is the responsible government agency appointed to purchase and wholesale the country's fuel consumption to fuel distributing companies operating in the country. Presently, Shell Ethiopia, Total Ethiopia, National Oil Corporation (NOC), Yetebaberut Beherawi Petroleum (YBP) and Kobil Ethiopia are the active operators in the country's fuel distribution market.
The Sudan-based Nile Petroleum is also finalizing preparation to start operation.
Crown Central Petroleum, which currently is refining and marketing petroleum products in the US, is destined to become the latest entrant to Ethiopia's oil distribution market. The company, which had reportedly been experiencing a fiscal deficit in the 1990s, has as well its operation in the US dwindling in 2006. During the summer of that year, many of its stations began to disappear, according to some reports.
"All but about 20 of Crown's stations in the US were re-branded to either Texaco, Chevron Corporation or Royal Dutch Shell gas stations," according to a report. This was because the company sold these stations about two years earlier, as the report stated. The company, however, is currently reviving, according to some other reports.
Russia planning to invest in Rwanda’s methane gas
Rwandan News Agency
20 September 2007
The Russian Federation is "thinking seriously" about investing in methane gas extraction from Lake Kivu in Rwanda although technical hindrances still remain the stumbling block, the Russian envoy in Kigali said.
"I am thinking over this issue very intensely because of course I want our companies to come and participate in this very important economic project," Ambassador Mirgayas Mirgaiassovitch Chirinsky told. "There is a technical problem here because in my country we have a lot of gas that is underground not under water. So am not sure if we have the technology that fits the situation with Lake Kivu."
Mr Chirinsky said the Kigali Embassy is studying the issue but that the bottom line remains Russia would want its companies to have some stake in the project.
Estimates suggest that Rwanda has up to 55 bn cm of methane gas some 300 metres below the surface of Lake Kivu. The Rwandan government brought in a Norwegian led consortium amounting to $ 80 mm but the marriage miserably ended recently. The extraction is actually done by Israeli experts.
The Russian envoy said due to technological developments that his country has attained - gas companies would not have difficulty in mapping out how to get involved with the project. He said on October 4, Russia would lead the whole world to celebrate its supremacy in space science after launching the first ever artificial satellite into space.
"The contemporary world in unimaginable without international telephony, ground, marine and air navigation systems -- without television and internet -- without aerography and weather forecasts - without further exploration of the near-earth interplanetary and interstellar space," he explained. "(All this) became possible because of the cosmonautics' development that began with the first earth satellite."
On this day back in 1957, the Soviet Union launched “Sputnik-1” that culminated from scientific formulas developed by Russian engineer and cosmist Konstantin Tsyolkovskiy. Engineer Konstantin explored the theoretical aspects of space travel between 1857 and 1935. In 1954, a talented scientist Sergey Korolev started the project of the first artificial earth satellite. The Soviets would in 1957 shoot into space a device with a half diameter and 83 kg in weight. The “Sputnik-1” flew over the planet for 92 days.
"Humanity is actively exploring and mastering the space and we are proud that the first step in this direction was made 50 years when the first artificial satellite 'Sputnik-1' was launched by the Soviet Union," Amb. Chirinsky said in Russian through an interpreter.
Of course the United States and other states like Japan, France and Britain have significant development in science and technology but despite previous economic problems -- Russia is regaining its supreme role, he said. He added: "Today, we may state with satisfaction that Russia is coming back to the role of the most developed states on this planet in science and technology."
The diplomat said Rwanda has also benefited from the "cosmic era" that Russia fathered.
"It is very evident that in this part of Africa -- Rwanda is one of the fast growing countries as far as ICT is concerned. It is recognized internationally," he said.
The envoy said 700 Rwandans professionals so far have trained in Russian high-tech universities.
Apparently several Rwandan students are on Russian government scholarships and Russian academics are also attached to the National University of Rwanda.
20 September 2007
The Russian Federation is "thinking seriously" about investing in methane gas extraction from Lake Kivu in Rwanda although technical hindrances still remain the stumbling block, the Russian envoy in Kigali said.
"I am thinking over this issue very intensely because of course I want our companies to come and participate in this very important economic project," Ambassador Mirgayas Mirgaiassovitch Chirinsky told. "There is a technical problem here because in my country we have a lot of gas that is underground not under water. So am not sure if we have the technology that fits the situation with Lake Kivu."
Mr Chirinsky said the Kigali Embassy is studying the issue but that the bottom line remains Russia would want its companies to have some stake in the project.
Estimates suggest that Rwanda has up to 55 bn cm of methane gas some 300 metres below the surface of Lake Kivu. The Rwandan government brought in a Norwegian led consortium amounting to $ 80 mm but the marriage miserably ended recently. The extraction is actually done by Israeli experts.
The Russian envoy said due to technological developments that his country has attained - gas companies would not have difficulty in mapping out how to get involved with the project. He said on October 4, Russia would lead the whole world to celebrate its supremacy in space science after launching the first ever artificial satellite into space.
"The contemporary world in unimaginable without international telephony, ground, marine and air navigation systems -- without television and internet -- without aerography and weather forecasts - without further exploration of the near-earth interplanetary and interstellar space," he explained. "(All this) became possible because of the cosmonautics' development that began with the first earth satellite."
On this day back in 1957, the Soviet Union launched “Sputnik-1” that culminated from scientific formulas developed by Russian engineer and cosmist Konstantin Tsyolkovskiy. Engineer Konstantin explored the theoretical aspects of space travel between 1857 and 1935. In 1954, a talented scientist Sergey Korolev started the project of the first artificial earth satellite. The Soviets would in 1957 shoot into space a device with a half diameter and 83 kg in weight. The “Sputnik-1” flew over the planet for 92 days.
"Humanity is actively exploring and mastering the space and we are proud that the first step in this direction was made 50 years when the first artificial satellite 'Sputnik-1' was launched by the Soviet Union," Amb. Chirinsky said in Russian through an interpreter.
Of course the United States and other states like Japan, France and Britain have significant development in science and technology but despite previous economic problems -- Russia is regaining its supreme role, he said. He added: "Today, we may state with satisfaction that Russia is coming back to the role of the most developed states on this planet in science and technology."
The diplomat said Rwanda has also benefited from the "cosmic era" that Russia fathered.
"It is very evident that in this part of Africa -- Rwanda is one of the fast growing countries as far as ICT is concerned. It is recognized internationally," he said.
The envoy said 700 Rwandans professionals so far have trained in Russian high-tech universities.
Apparently several Rwandan students are on Russian government scholarships and Russian academics are also attached to the National University of Rwanda.
12 October, 2007
Congo Fighting Resumes.
Reuters
By Marlene Rabaud
12 October 2007
Forced to sleep in the jungle for fear of being attacked in their homes at night, the residents of this east Congo village are crying out for peace.
Government soldiers forced fighters loyal to renegade General Laurent Nkunda out of Karuba and two nearby villages this week but only pushed them back to Mushake, 15 km (9 miles) away, meaning the front line is still dangerously close.
"We've been sleeping in the bush at night for a month now. We return to the village by day to see the situation. We've nothing to eat, no clothes," said Karuba resident Jerome Lali.
The village of shacks nestles in the hills of North Kivu, a thickly-forested province on Democratic Republic of Congo's border with Uganda and Rwanda, long a crucible of violence.
Nkunda, an ethic Tutsi, says President Joseph Kabila's government and armed forces are supporting Rwandan Hutu rebels, accused of involvement in Rwanda's 1994 genocide.
Nkunda's men, who say they are defending the interests of Congolese Tutsis in ethnically mixed North Kivu, have been battling government forces on and off since August, when they walked out of a peace deal agreed at the start of the year.
The government has set an Oct. 15 deadline for Nkunda to disband his rebel forces and send his fighters for integration into army brigades that would be stationed outside North Kivu.
Nkunda said this week he was ready to integrate his men. But fighting was still raging on Thursday near Mushake -- around 40 km (25 miles) west of the provincial capital, Goma -- and government forces have beefed up their presence there.
"They are testing each other. Neither wants to be blamed for bringing the situation to the brink," said David Mugnier, central Africa director for International Crisis Group.
"There is a risk of maybe not a major conflict but certainly a worsening of the current situation," he said.
DIPLOMATIC EFFORTS
Artillery and machinegun fire have forced hundreds of families from their homes in recent days. Some 10,000 people had already been displaced in Mushake before the latest unrest, out of 370,000 who have fled fighting in North Kivu this year.
"What we're worried about with the expanding and intensifying of fighting is that we're seeing people who have already had to flee for the second or third time," said Patrick Lavand'homme, head of U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA in Goma.
"The problem is reaching these areas to distribute medical and surgical supplies. It's now impossible," he said.
Mugnier said Jendayi Frazer, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, and the U.N. envoy for East Africa had been in contact with Nkunda for weeks as part of broader efforts to ease tense relations between Congo and Rwanda. (Emphasis mine-Editor)
"They are trying to mediate. They want a rapprochement between Kinshasa and Kigali, and they know North Kivu is a big problem for the two countries," Mugnier said.
Rwanda has twice invaded Congo in pursuit of Hutu rebels it blames for the 1994 genocide. The second invasion triggered a 1998-2003 war in Congo which killed some 4 million people.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame said last month that Nkunda, whom Amnesty International accuses of war crimes, had legitimate grievances and called for a political deal to end the fighting. (Additional reporting by Joe Bavier in Kinshasa)
Editor's Note: The FARDC went on the offensive today along with ex-LDF fighters and Mayi-Mayi to secure postions on the hills near Mushaki and Kitchanga in advance of the disarmament deadline on Oct. 15th. On the Rwandan border, General Nkunda's men have been pushed out of the northeast section of Virunga up to Bikenge.
By Marlene Rabaud
12 October 2007
Forced to sleep in the jungle for fear of being attacked in their homes at night, the residents of this east Congo village are crying out for peace.
Government soldiers forced fighters loyal to renegade General Laurent Nkunda out of Karuba and two nearby villages this week but only pushed them back to Mushake, 15 km (9 miles) away, meaning the front line is still dangerously close.
"We've been sleeping in the bush at night for a month now. We return to the village by day to see the situation. We've nothing to eat, no clothes," said Karuba resident Jerome Lali.
The village of shacks nestles in the hills of North Kivu, a thickly-forested province on Democratic Republic of Congo's border with Uganda and Rwanda, long a crucible of violence.
Nkunda, an ethic Tutsi, says President Joseph Kabila's government and armed forces are supporting Rwandan Hutu rebels, accused of involvement in Rwanda's 1994 genocide.
Nkunda's men, who say they are defending the interests of Congolese Tutsis in ethnically mixed North Kivu, have been battling government forces on and off since August, when they walked out of a peace deal agreed at the start of the year.
The government has set an Oct. 15 deadline for Nkunda to disband his rebel forces and send his fighters for integration into army brigades that would be stationed outside North Kivu.
Nkunda said this week he was ready to integrate his men. But fighting was still raging on Thursday near Mushake -- around 40 km (25 miles) west of the provincial capital, Goma -- and government forces have beefed up their presence there.
"They are testing each other. Neither wants to be blamed for bringing the situation to the brink," said David Mugnier, central Africa director for International Crisis Group.
"There is a risk of maybe not a major conflict but certainly a worsening of the current situation," he said.
DIPLOMATIC EFFORTS
Artillery and machinegun fire have forced hundreds of families from their homes in recent days. Some 10,000 people had already been displaced in Mushake before the latest unrest, out of 370,000 who have fled fighting in North Kivu this year.
"What we're worried about with the expanding and intensifying of fighting is that we're seeing people who have already had to flee for the second or third time," said Patrick Lavand'homme, head of U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA in Goma.
"The problem is reaching these areas to distribute medical and surgical supplies. It's now impossible," he said.
Mugnier said Jendayi Frazer, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, and the U.N. envoy for East Africa had been in contact with Nkunda for weeks as part of broader efforts to ease tense relations between Congo and Rwanda. (Emphasis mine-Editor)
"They are trying to mediate. They want a rapprochement between Kinshasa and Kigali, and they know North Kivu is a big problem for the two countries," Mugnier said.
Rwanda has twice invaded Congo in pursuit of Hutu rebels it blames for the 1994 genocide. The second invasion triggered a 1998-2003 war in Congo which killed some 4 million people.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame said last month that Nkunda, whom Amnesty International accuses of war crimes, had legitimate grievances and called for a political deal to end the fighting. (Additional reporting by Joe Bavier in Kinshasa)
Editor's Note: The FARDC went on the offensive today along with ex-LDF fighters and Mayi-Mayi to secure postions on the hills near Mushaki and Kitchanga in advance of the disarmament deadline on Oct. 15th. On the Rwandan border, General Nkunda's men have been pushed out of the northeast section of Virunga up to Bikenge.
Ayatollah Sistani Wants Laws to Control 'Contractors.'
MISNA
12 October 2007
“We ask that laws be adopted to protect Iraqis from massacres, because episodes such as this no longer occur”, said the representative of Ayatollah Sistani. The ayatollah referred to ‘Blackwater’, which killed 17 people last September 16 and ‘Unity Resources Group’ which killed two women in a car three days ago, killing them. “These foreign firms hold the lives of innocent citizens in contempt, while the occupation forces have shown the same attitude perpetrating equally criminal acts” said Sistani’s spokesperson. The Iraqi government has already issued a request to try those mercenaries responsible for killing the 17 civilians, demanding that Blackwater compensate the victims’ families. The UN, meanwhile, has asked the US government to ensure that contractors involved in such incidents be fully pursued by the law. Nevertheless, Sistani’s spokesman also warned that too many civilians are being killed because of military operations such as the women and children of lake Thartar killed on the eve of Aid al-Fitr (the holiday marking the end of Ramadan) and the 25 inhabitants of the village of al-Jayzani last September 5.
12 October 2007
“We ask that laws be adopted to protect Iraqis from massacres, because episodes such as this no longer occur”, said the representative of Ayatollah Sistani. The ayatollah referred to ‘Blackwater’, which killed 17 people last September 16 and ‘Unity Resources Group’ which killed two women in a car three days ago, killing them. “These foreign firms hold the lives of innocent citizens in contempt, while the occupation forces have shown the same attitude perpetrating equally criminal acts” said Sistani’s spokesperson. The Iraqi government has already issued a request to try those mercenaries responsible for killing the 17 civilians, demanding that Blackwater compensate the victims’ families. The UN, meanwhile, has asked the US government to ensure that contractors involved in such incidents be fully pursued by the law. Nevertheless, Sistani’s spokesman also warned that too many civilians are being killed because of military operations such as the women and children of lake Thartar killed on the eve of Aid al-Fitr (the holiday marking the end of Ramadan) and the 25 inhabitants of the village of al-Jayzani last September 5.
Darfur Arms Embargo: Everyone is Violating It.
MISNA
12 October 2007
All parties involved in the Darfur conflict have been found guilty of breaching the UN arms embargo, rebels and Sudanese government included says a report by UN officials overseeing the application of the embargo. The report said that the Sudanese government has transported weapons to the capitals of the three provinces that make up the Darfur region (el-Fasher, Nyala and el-Geneina). Government troops are also said to have carried out aerial offensives in the region, in some cases using aircraft marked with the UN logo and painted white. The authors of the report also said that some rebel groups have also received weapons smuggled through Eritrea and Chad. The report also accuses such groups as the SLA – including the faction led by Minnie Minnawi – of having deliberately attacked the African Union peacekeeping contingent in the region. (Emphasis Mine-Editor) The report also says that “the parties involved in the conflict have not identified anyone as being responsible for the crimes perpetrated during the conflict, such as the widespread sexual violence”. The document recommends that the embargo be extended to cover the entire Sudanese territory.
12 October 2007
All parties involved in the Darfur conflict have been found guilty of breaching the UN arms embargo, rebels and Sudanese government included says a report by UN officials overseeing the application of the embargo. The report said that the Sudanese government has transported weapons to the capitals of the three provinces that make up the Darfur region (el-Fasher, Nyala and el-Geneina). Government troops are also said to have carried out aerial offensives in the region, in some cases using aircraft marked with the UN logo and painted white. The authors of the report also said that some rebel groups have also received weapons smuggled through Eritrea and Chad. The report also accuses such groups as the SLA – including the faction led by Minnie Minnawi – of having deliberately attacked the African Union peacekeeping contingent in the region. (Emphasis Mine-Editor) The report also says that “the parties involved in the conflict have not identified anyone as being responsible for the crimes perpetrated during the conflict, such as the widespread sexual violence”. The document recommends that the embargo be extended to cover the entire Sudanese territory.
North Kivu: New Fighting North Of Goma, Thousands of Families Fleeing.
MISNA
12 OCtober 2007
New exchanges of artillery erupted today between the Congolese armed forces (FARDC) and militants loyal to the pro-Rwandan dissident general Laurent Nkunda in the North Kivu province in north-east Democratic Republic of Congo. According to sources of the United nations Mission in DR-Congo (MONUC), the renewed fighting took place in Kastina, between Mewso and Kitshanga, around 70km north of the provincial capital Goma. The situation instead appears to have returned calm in Mushake (around 30km from North Kivu’s capital Goma), yesterday scene to fighting between the army and militants. Fighting was reported yesterday also in the Masisi territory, in Katshiru, Weso and Branda, around 100km west of Goma. Congolese Defence Minister Diemu Chikez said he had “acknowledged” the cease-fire request made two days ago by Nkunda, but was waiting to see what occurs on the ground. “The general staff has given all dissident fighters until October 15 to go to regroupment camps. According to humanitarian sources, at least 6,000 families fled the location of Mushake yesterday morning, headed to Kirolirwe, along the road for Kitshanga. The fighting since the end of August between the army and Nkunda’s dissidents – who were already integrated into the FARDC with little success – has already caused the displacement of tens of thousands. Caritas Internationalis launched an appeal for funds to assist the population of North Kivu.
12 OCtober 2007
New exchanges of artillery erupted today between the Congolese armed forces (FARDC) and militants loyal to the pro-Rwandan dissident general Laurent Nkunda in the North Kivu province in north-east Democratic Republic of Congo. According to sources of the United nations Mission in DR-Congo (MONUC), the renewed fighting took place in Kastina, between Mewso and Kitshanga, around 70km north of the provincial capital Goma. The situation instead appears to have returned calm in Mushake (around 30km from North Kivu’s capital Goma), yesterday scene to fighting between the army and militants. Fighting was reported yesterday also in the Masisi territory, in Katshiru, Weso and Branda, around 100km west of Goma. Congolese Defence Minister Diemu Chikez said he had “acknowledged” the cease-fire request made two days ago by Nkunda, but was waiting to see what occurs on the ground. “The general staff has given all dissident fighters until October 15 to go to regroupment camps. According to humanitarian sources, at least 6,000 families fled the location of Mushake yesterday morning, headed to Kirolirwe, along the road for Kitshanga. The fighting since the end of August between the army and Nkunda’s dissidents – who were already integrated into the FARDC with little success – has already caused the displacement of tens of thousands. Caritas Internationalis launched an appeal for funds to assist the population of North Kivu.
Ministers Demand Confidence Vote For Premier and Threaten Resignation.
MISNA
12 October 2007
Twenty-two ministers of the Somali federal transitional government (TFG) yesterday signed a letter threatening to resign if Prime Minister Ali Gedi does not appear by today in Parliament for a confidence vote. The announcement was made by Justice Minister Hassan Dhimbil Warsame, explaining that the ministers, 22 on 31, took the actions “after it became very clear that this government was not up to the job and has failed to deliver what the Somali people wanted”. According to some of the ministers, the government failed to draw up a constitution, carry out a consensus and set up functional regional administrations before the end of its mandate in 2009. Gedi’s supporters, convened today in Baidoa (around 200km north-west of the capital Mogadishu), however responded that the Premier still has a year and a half term to serve. According to observers, Gedi is in a delicate political situation and with a large part of his cabinet against him he may not have the necessary 139 votes in the 275 member parliament to survive a confidence motion.
12 October 2007
Twenty-two ministers of the Somali federal transitional government (TFG) yesterday signed a letter threatening to resign if Prime Minister Ali Gedi does not appear by today in Parliament for a confidence vote. The announcement was made by Justice Minister Hassan Dhimbil Warsame, explaining that the ministers, 22 on 31, took the actions “after it became very clear that this government was not up to the job and has failed to deliver what the Somali people wanted”. According to some of the ministers, the government failed to draw up a constitution, carry out a consensus and set up functional regional administrations before the end of its mandate in 2009. Gedi’s supporters, convened today in Baidoa (around 200km north-west of the capital Mogadishu), however responded that the Premier still has a year and a half term to serve. According to observers, Gedi is in a delicate political situation and with a large part of his cabinet against him he may not have the necessary 139 votes in the 275 member parliament to survive a confidence motion.
Defendents in Four Trials On Hunger Strike.
Hirondelle News Agency
11 OCtober 2007
The hunger strike observed this week by several prisoners of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) did not affect the course of the proceedings.
Four trials continued during this week: Karemera et al., Government II, Rukundo and Bikindi.
The strikers (40 out of 55) intended to protest against transfers requests of cases to Rwanda in view of the end of the ICTR mandate in December 2008. They were supported by the association of lawyers. This protest ended Wednesday evening.
In the Karemera et al. case, in progress since September 2005, the prosecutor continued the presentation of his case. He should rest his case in March 2008.
The judges heard this week two protected witnesses.
Edouard Karemera was vice-president of the governing party in Rwanda in the 1990’s: He is on trial alongside Mathieu Ngirumpatse, who was the president, and Joseph Nzirorera, the secretary-general.
A witness stated that the leaders of this party supported the exactions committed by the Interahamwe militia, executioners of the Tutsi genocide. The Interahamwe constituted the youth wing of the party, which the defendants were members of the executive committee.
On Thursday, the proceedings in this trial were suspended until 22 October.
In the "Government II" trial, in progress since November 2003, the week was largely dominated by the cross-examination by the prosecutor of the former Foreign Minister, Jérôme Bicamumpaka, one of the four defendants.
Bicamumpaka is the second to last to present his case. He is on trial alongside his former colleagues Casimir Bizimungu (health), Justin Mugenzi (trade), and Prosper Mugiraneza (civil service). Mugiraneza has not yet called defence witnesses.
Another defendant who testified on his own behalf this week was Abbot Emmanuel Rukundo. In 1994, he was a military chaplain. He is being tried alone. The proceedings were to conclude next week.
During his testimony, Rukundo stated that he was by no means interested by the military chaplaincy but he had accepted it by obedience to his bishop.
The prosecutor alleges that the chaplains were recruited among the priests who had shown radicalism against Tutsis.
Accused of genocide and crimes against humanity committed in central Rwanda, Rukundo has pled not guilty. His trial opened in November 2006.
Three other priests are detained by the ICTR.
The trial of Simon Bikindi, as for him, started in September 2006. The defendant is currently presenting his case.
Renowned Musician, Bikindi is accused of having incited the Tutsi genocide through his songs.
Defence witnesses, among which include several members of his folkloric ballet Irindiro, affirmed that Bikindi sang for peace and the unity of Rwandans.
Bikindi is among the three scheduled trials for next week, beside Government II and Military II, which involves four officers. This last case has been suspended since mid-June. It is also at the defence stage.
On Friday afternoon a status conference is scheduled for Ephrem Setako, an officer of the RAF arrested in 2004 in the Netherlands.
After the long week-end of Eid al-Fitr, which begins Thursday evening and finishes Monday evening, the Ndindiliyimana trial, alias "Military II", should restart Tuesday.
This trial, which opened in September 2002, is at the defence stage. General Bizimungu is on trial alongside the former Chief of Staff of the gendarmerie, General Augustin Ndindiliyimana; the former Commander of the reconnaissance battalion within the Rwandan Army, Major François Xavier Nzuwonemeye; and his assistant, Captain Innocent Sagahutu. Prosecuted for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, they have all pled not guilty.
11 OCtober 2007
The hunger strike observed this week by several prisoners of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) did not affect the course of the proceedings.
Four trials continued during this week: Karemera et al., Government II, Rukundo and Bikindi.
The strikers (40 out of 55) intended to protest against transfers requests of cases to Rwanda in view of the end of the ICTR mandate in December 2008. They were supported by the association of lawyers. This protest ended Wednesday evening.
In the Karemera et al. case, in progress since September 2005, the prosecutor continued the presentation of his case. He should rest his case in March 2008.
The judges heard this week two protected witnesses.
Edouard Karemera was vice-president of the governing party in Rwanda in the 1990’s: He is on trial alongside Mathieu Ngirumpatse, who was the president, and Joseph Nzirorera, the secretary-general.
A witness stated that the leaders of this party supported the exactions committed by the Interahamwe militia, executioners of the Tutsi genocide. The Interahamwe constituted the youth wing of the party, which the defendants were members of the executive committee.
On Thursday, the proceedings in this trial were suspended until 22 October.
In the "Government II" trial, in progress since November 2003, the week was largely dominated by the cross-examination by the prosecutor of the former Foreign Minister, Jérôme Bicamumpaka, one of the four defendants.
Bicamumpaka is the second to last to present his case. He is on trial alongside his former colleagues Casimir Bizimungu (health), Justin Mugenzi (trade), and Prosper Mugiraneza (civil service). Mugiraneza has not yet called defence witnesses.
Another defendant who testified on his own behalf this week was Abbot Emmanuel Rukundo. In 1994, he was a military chaplain. He is being tried alone. The proceedings were to conclude next week.
During his testimony, Rukundo stated that he was by no means interested by the military chaplaincy but he had accepted it by obedience to his bishop.
The prosecutor alleges that the chaplains were recruited among the priests who had shown radicalism against Tutsis.
Accused of genocide and crimes against humanity committed in central Rwanda, Rukundo has pled not guilty. His trial opened in November 2006.
Three other priests are detained by the ICTR.
The trial of Simon Bikindi, as for him, started in September 2006. The defendant is currently presenting his case.
Renowned Musician, Bikindi is accused of having incited the Tutsi genocide through his songs.
Defence witnesses, among which include several members of his folkloric ballet Irindiro, affirmed that Bikindi sang for peace and the unity of Rwandans.
Bikindi is among the three scheduled trials for next week, beside Government II and Military II, which involves four officers. This last case has been suspended since mid-June. It is also at the defence stage.
On Friday afternoon a status conference is scheduled for Ephrem Setako, an officer of the RAF arrested in 2004 in the Netherlands.
After the long week-end of Eid al-Fitr, which begins Thursday evening and finishes Monday evening, the Ndindiliyimana trial, alias "Military II", should restart Tuesday.
This trial, which opened in September 2002, is at the defence stage. General Bizimungu is on trial alongside the former Chief of Staff of the gendarmerie, General Augustin Ndindiliyimana; the former Commander of the reconnaissance battalion within the Rwandan Army, Major François Xavier Nzuwonemeye; and his assistant, Captain Innocent Sagahutu. Prosecuted for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, they have all pled not guilty.
A One Month Extention of the Mandate of the Rwandan Public Commission on the Role of France
Hirondelle News Agency
11 October 2007
The mandate of a Rwandan inquiry commission investigating the alleged role of France in the 1994 genocide was extended Wednesday for another month by the Rwandan government.
The decision was made at a cabinet meeting presided by the Head of State, Paul Kagame, Radio Rwanda reported Thursday.
The commission, whose mandate has already been extended twice and which was to present its report this month, is presided by Jean de Dieu Mucyo, former Minister of Justice and former Attorney General of Rwanda.
Since the end of last year, the Mucyo commission has heard dozens of witnesses, including Rwandans and Europeans who blamed France. The commission, however, complained that it was unable to question French officials.
In addition of its president, the commission includes six other members: the vice-president; General Jérôme Ngendahimana, former officer of the former Rwandan Armed Forces (RAF); and the secretary, Geraldine Bakashyaka, a lawyer by training. Also included are: historian José Kagabo, professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris; and Jean-Paul Kimonyo, doctor of political science from the Université de Montréal in Canada. The two other Members of the Commission are Jean Damascène Bizimana, doctor in law from the Université de Toulouse (France) and Alice Rugira, a jurist who worked for a long time in the field of insurance in Rwanda.
The commission will submit a report to the president of the Republic, by proposing him actions to be carried out.
11 October 2007
The mandate of a Rwandan inquiry commission investigating the alleged role of France in the 1994 genocide was extended Wednesday for another month by the Rwandan government.
The decision was made at a cabinet meeting presided by the Head of State, Paul Kagame, Radio Rwanda reported Thursday.
The commission, whose mandate has already been extended twice and which was to present its report this month, is presided by Jean de Dieu Mucyo, former Minister of Justice and former Attorney General of Rwanda.
Since the end of last year, the Mucyo commission has heard dozens of witnesses, including Rwandans and Europeans who blamed France. The commission, however, complained that it was unable to question French officials.
In addition of its president, the commission includes six other members: the vice-president; General Jérôme Ngendahimana, former officer of the former Rwandan Armed Forces (RAF); and the secretary, Geraldine Bakashyaka, a lawyer by training. Also included are: historian José Kagabo, professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris; and Jean-Paul Kimonyo, doctor of political science from the Université de Montréal in Canada. The two other Members of the Commission are Jean Damascène Bizimana, doctor in law from the Université de Toulouse (France) and Alice Rugira, a jurist who worked for a long time in the field of insurance in Rwanda.
The commission will submit a report to the president of the Republic, by proposing him actions to be carried out.
Rwandan Court Sentences to Life in Prison a Person Aquitted by the ICTR and Living in Belgium.
Hirondelle News Agency
11 October 2007
A Rwandan court sentenced Wednesday to life in prison a former Rwandan prefect received by Belgium after his acquittal by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), it was learned Thursday.
Prefect of Cyangugu (southern Rwanda) during the 1994 genocide, Emmanuel Bagambiki was convicted for rapes and incitement to commit rapes by the first instance court of Rusizi, in his native region, Thursday morning, Radio Rwanda (governmental).
Bagambaki, who had requested for several months to be reunited with his family, arrived in July in Brussels where he joined his wife and children.
The Rwandan government, which had issued an arrest warrant against him, had criticized the ICTR, accusing it of having helped the former prefect enter Belgian.
The authorities in Brussels had been initially, themselves, very reticent to grant him an entry visa.
On 25 February 2004, the ICTR had acquitted Bagambiki of crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity, and this judgment had been confirmed in appeal on 8 February 2006.
But Kigali had immediately announced the opening, against the former prefect, of legal procedures for rapes, crimes for which he had not been tried before the United Nations tribunal. The ICTR had answered that, not having territorial sovereignty, it did not have jurisdiction to carry out an unspecified arrest warrant.
11 October 2007
A Rwandan court sentenced Wednesday to life in prison a former Rwandan prefect received by Belgium after his acquittal by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), it was learned Thursday.
Prefect of Cyangugu (southern Rwanda) during the 1994 genocide, Emmanuel Bagambiki was convicted for rapes and incitement to commit rapes by the first instance court of Rusizi, in his native region, Thursday morning, Radio Rwanda (governmental).
Bagambaki, who had requested for several months to be reunited with his family, arrived in July in Brussels where he joined his wife and children.
The Rwandan government, which had issued an arrest warrant against him, had criticized the ICTR, accusing it of having helped the former prefect enter Belgian.
The authorities in Brussels had been initially, themselves, very reticent to grant him an entry visa.
On 25 February 2004, the ICTR had acquitted Bagambiki of crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity, and this judgment had been confirmed in appeal on 8 February 2006.
But Kigali had immediately announced the opening, against the former prefect, of legal procedures for rapes, crimes for which he had not been tried before the United Nations tribunal. The ICTR had answered that, not having territorial sovereignty, it did not have jurisdiction to carry out an unspecified arrest warrant.
Munyaneza Trial: Alison Des Forges Ends the Prosecution's Case
Hirondelle News Agency
11 October 2007
"For certain important parties, it could have been embarrassing if the persons responsible for the attack against the plane of President Habyarimana were identified", declared Wednesday Alison Des Forges, the final witness to testify for the prosecution in the Munyaneza trial.
Called to testify as an "expert witness", the American historian debated on the murky events that still surround the assassination of the former Rwandan president, Juvénal Habyarimana, on 6 April 1994. Mrs. Des Forges stated to the Superior Court of Quebec that "many people" were interested in killing the president. "Motivations existed from various places", she added.
The former Yale and Berkeley professor has published many works on the Rwandan genocide and has been to the Great Lakes region nearly thirty times. Since 1994, Alison Des Forges has worked as a consultant for the NGO Human Rights Watch, "because I had friends on both sides at the time of the genocide", she explained to Judge André Denis.
"The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR, based in Arusha, Tanzania) should have dug further into the question: Did, according to experts of international law, the attack against the plane of President Habyarimana constitute a violation of the laws of war?" ", explained Mrs. Des Forges.
Questioned by the media at her exit from the courtroom, the historian said that it was regrettable that no investigation has yet been carried out on this legal point. Mrs. Des Forges also deplored that "the investigation of Judge Brugière did not go in this direction and took, unfortunately, a very political turn".
In November 2006, French Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere accused the current Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, of having directed the attack of 6 April 1994. Since the publication of this report, the diplomatic relations between Kigali and Paris have been completely broken.
"That did not help us to find out more", estimated Alison Des Forges, which thinks that "to find out the persons responsible for the assassination of President Habyarimana would allow an atmosphere of reconciliation to be created in Rwanda"
The specialist in contemporary history of the Great Lakes was the 29th witness to have testified before the Superior Court of Quebec, since the beginning of the trial of Désiré Munyaneza, a 41-year-old Rwandan who took refuge in Canada under a false identity and who has been on trial for the last 6 months for his alleged participation in the 1994 genocide.
The defence of Mr. Munyaneza vainly tried to make Mrs. Des Forges admit that Uganda had orchestrated the operations of the RPF, in order to revise the nature of the conflict, from a "national armed conflict" to an "international armed conflict".
However, "if one looks at international law, the role of Uganda is no different from that played by other parties in other conflicts during which allies help the parties which are on their side! Did the Ugandans initiate the conflict? No, the RPF knew very well where it wanted to go ", concluded Mrs. Des Forges.
The proceedings will restart in January, with the defence case.
11 October 2007
"For certain important parties, it could have been embarrassing if the persons responsible for the attack against the plane of President Habyarimana were identified", declared Wednesday Alison Des Forges, the final witness to testify for the prosecution in the Munyaneza trial.
Called to testify as an "expert witness", the American historian debated on the murky events that still surround the assassination of the former Rwandan president, Juvénal Habyarimana, on 6 April 1994. Mrs. Des Forges stated to the Superior Court of Quebec that "many people" were interested in killing the president. "Motivations existed from various places", she added.
The former Yale and Berkeley professor has published many works on the Rwandan genocide and has been to the Great Lakes region nearly thirty times. Since 1994, Alison Des Forges has worked as a consultant for the NGO Human Rights Watch, "because I had friends on both sides at the time of the genocide", she explained to Judge André Denis.
"The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR, based in Arusha, Tanzania) should have dug further into the question: Did, according to experts of international law, the attack against the plane of President Habyarimana constitute a violation of the laws of war?" ", explained Mrs. Des Forges.
Questioned by the media at her exit from the courtroom, the historian said that it was regrettable that no investigation has yet been carried out on this legal point. Mrs. Des Forges also deplored that "the investigation of Judge Brugière did not go in this direction and took, unfortunately, a very political turn".
In November 2006, French Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere accused the current Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, of having directed the attack of 6 April 1994. Since the publication of this report, the diplomatic relations between Kigali and Paris have been completely broken.
"That did not help us to find out more", estimated Alison Des Forges, which thinks that "to find out the persons responsible for the assassination of President Habyarimana would allow an atmosphere of reconciliation to be created in Rwanda"
The specialist in contemporary history of the Great Lakes was the 29th witness to have testified before the Superior Court of Quebec, since the beginning of the trial of Désiré Munyaneza, a 41-year-old Rwandan who took refuge in Canada under a false identity and who has been on trial for the last 6 months for his alleged participation in the 1994 genocide.
The defence of Mr. Munyaneza vainly tried to make Mrs. Des Forges admit that Uganda had orchestrated the operations of the RPF, in order to revise the nature of the conflict, from a "national armed conflict" to an "international armed conflict".
However, "if one looks at international law, the role of Uganda is no different from that played by other parties in other conflicts during which allies help the parties which are on their side! Did the Ugandans initiate the conflict? No, the RPF knew very well where it wanted to go ", concluded Mrs. Des Forges.
The proceedings will restart in January, with the defence case.
Africa Insight - Darfur - China's Economic And Diplomatic Policy Pays Off
The Nation (Nairobi)
12 October 2007
By Patrick Mutahi
Realising that its almost unqualified support for Sudan was hurting its image, China balanced its thirst for oil versus international obligations and in the process, convinced Sudan to accept UN peacekeepers on its soil.
China has quietly changed its Darfur policy from a laid-back approach to a behind-the-scenes diplomacy.
Before the passing of UN Security Council Resolution 1769 authorising the $2 billion (Sh130 billion) a year, 26,000-strong United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), China arranged low-key meetings with Sudan to discuss the deployment.
For a country that has been Sudan's staunchest diplomatic protector, largest trading partner and a leading investor, the shift is crucial.
Beijing has asserted its role and position as a world power by mediating the Darfur crisis. Significantly, this is China's first time in its 35 years at UN Security Council to convince a sovereign country to accept a UN peace keeping force in its territory.
With the Olympics in Beijing next year already attracting more international scrutiny of Chinese affairs, Beijing is styling up and doesn't want to be associated with a repressive regime.
China's influence in Khartoum is second to none and could be decisive in resolving the four-year Darfur conflict which has killed an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 people, displacing 2.5 million others in camps strewn across Darfur if not as refugees in Chad.
While it has played a crucial role in getting Khartoum to agree on deployment of UNAMID, China should now pressure President al-Bashir and the rebel groups to begin a political process that will see all parties sign and respect a new comprehensive peace agreement.
The People's Republic's evidently strong alliance with Sudan is driven by its oil interests. Chinese Petroleum companies have been operating in the country since the departure of western oil majors in the mid-1990s.
In the process, Beijing has deftly filled the diplomatic and economic vacuum, treating the al Bashir regime as a strategic stepping stone to not only the oil fields in South Sudan and Darfur, but also in Chad and Central African Republic.
The 2007 United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database (UNCOMTRADE) records that China represents as much as 64 per cent of Khartoum's trade volume.
Between 1999 and 2006, oil exports to China increased from 266,126 tons to more than 6.5 million tons. A report to European Parliament on China's energy policy in sub-Saharan Africa notes that in 2005 and 2006, China imported 47 per cent of Sudan's total oil production.
China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the largest foreign investor so far in Sudan channeled more than $4 billion (Sh264 billion) into the country. It is also the main shareholder in the Greater Nile Petroleum Company (GNPOC), Sudan's national oil company.
Accordingly, CNPC has acquired several oil exploitation concessions with a near monopoly over a vast oil block in Darfur.
Apart from oil, Chinese companies are doing business in other areas. The Petroleum and Natural Gas Exploration and Development Corporation has implemented a polypropylene exploitation project in Khartoum. Half of the shares in the Khartoum Chemical Industry Company are owned by Beijing which wholly owns the Sudanese Petrochemical Trade Project.
With $149 (Sh10 billion) million loan of China's Central Bank, Harbin Power Company constructed the Qarre I hydropower station, about 50 kilometres north of Khartoum which it also manages. Jointly with Qarre II, it will produce 330 megawatts. With an 85 per cent shareholding, the Chinese energy giant also participated in the construction of the 300 megawatt Kajbar Dam.
A 315-men multi-functional engineering unit from China is expected to be deployed in Darfur in early October 2007.
To its credit, China has balanced its economic interests, international pressure and insecurity to protect its interests in Darfur and the entire region. Thus, its role in Darfur and readiness not invoke the sovereignty card and "it is only business" attitude should be seen in the light of protecting its economic interests.
China's foreign policy to Africa has evolved over the years. During the Cold War, Beijing supported groups that fought alleged Western imperialists.
When it assumed membership of the UN Security Council in 1971, China opposed all peacekeeping operations in Africa. After the Cold War, this position was replaced with a more moderate approach that viewed Africa's conflicts as born of structural violence, and hence deserving to be resolved as such. While supporting the UN peace keeping missions, it did so on the condition of a well defined and restricted mandate of maintaining sovereignty.
Non controversial peacekeeping operations - Somalia (UNSOM I), Mozambique (ONUMUZ), Rwanda (UNAMIR) and Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) got its green light. When the Security Council decided to dispatch troops in Liberia (UNMIL) in 2003, China even offered to contribute to this mission.
Since then, Beijing gradually increased the number of blue helmets to 1,800 in 2007. China's financial support to peacekeeping by the UN and regional organisations, such as the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), has also increased significantly.
However, China has kept off missions it has perceived as infringing on the host country's sovereignty. It vehemently opposed the European-driven Operation Turquoise in Rwanda; when Washington gave up its impartiality and called for broadened mandate of UNSOM and when France demanded an increase of the troop levels of the UN operation in Ivory Coast in 2004.
It is noteworthy that Beijing did not veto these interventions, but abstained and stayed away from the implementation.
China has been accused of complicity in Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, and Zimbabwe conflicts. In 2001, an expert panel of the UN Security Council pointed at the indirect involvement of Chinese companies in the exploitation of forests in eastern Congo. In 2002, the International Non-governmental organisation, Global Witness, accused China of sponsoring violence in Liberia by purchasing hard wood from various warlords.
In 2002, the Zimbabwean government started a brutal crackdown of political opponents. While the Western Countries applied sanctions on the government, Beijing developed strong partnership with President Robert Mugabe, selling him arms and supporting him economically.
In 2004, at the height of the bloodshed in Congolese Province of Ituri, Beijing shipped firearms to Uganda, a key party in Eastern Congo.
Darfur suffered the same fate when it exploded in February 2003 due to violence perpetuated by a mixture of Government forces, state-sponsored militias and Darfur rebels.
However, China could not afford to stay detached for long due to its close financial ties with Bashir's government.
China never opposed the deployment of UN troops but it consistently called for involvement and consent of Khartoum, even as the Sudanese government was party to the conflict was pushed to a corner when the conflict spilled over to the region.
Beijing had restored diplomatic ties with Chad in August 2006 and signed oil deals with it in early 2007 amid fears that the Darfur violence would trickle to southern Sudan, where also it has oil interests.
Lastly, China feared that a fully fledged UN intervention would hamper its economic prospects with other regional countries. Thus, with economic interests in Libya, Ethiopia and Sudan, regional security not only in Horn of Africa but also in central Africa is vital to Beijing.
Faced with an imminent boycott of 2008 Beijing Olympics, the resultant economic loss and bad publicity, China has played both the political and diplomatic cards leading to the adoption of Resolution 1769 authorising UNAMID.
While it abstained from voting Resolution 1706, which allowed deployment of 17,000 UN peace keepers, unless President Bashir agreed, Beijing didn't oppose a clause that UNMIS should play a role in the preparations for and conduct of the 2010 referendum. Knowing China's opposition to Taiwan's sovereignty, this is remarkable since South Sudan might become autonomous.
When Resolution 1706 failed, China was back in the driver's seat. It continued massaging Khartoum and at the same time pressing al Bashir to take a decisive action in Darfur.
Buoyed by the fact that time was running out with increased international pressure, China had to urgently appease Khartoum for the sake of its economic interests while stabilising Darfur at the same time.
The idea was to persuade Khartoum from enticing other investors. In December 2005 and January 2006, India approved various aid packages to Sudan. In return, President Bashir gave them more oil concessions and praised the Asia-African relationship.
Early 2006, Malaysia's oil giant Petronas embarked on an oil project in Sudan while Russia set up a business relationship with Khartoum. These movements made the Chinese, in May 2006, to conclude new financial and military deals with Khartoum.
Economic interests overrode justice when it came to voting on the list of individuals to be taken to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Beijing preferred them to be tried by Sudan local courts.
It also objected to the imposing of an arms embargo on militias operating in Darfur. In drafting resolution 1556 on the arms embargo, China agreed on the need to disarm the Janjaweed factions, but opposed restrictions that would affect the regular armed forces. The same argument was presented during the discussion of the proposal for the inclusion of a comprehensive arms ban in resolution 1591.
In April 2007, Beijing refused to approve a new report of the Expert Panel to the Sanctions Committee. This document described Khartoum's violation of the prohibiting of the transfer of arms to Darfur and recommended the tightening of the arms embargo imposed by the Security Council and further restrictions on activities involving illicit weapons, regardless of who was responsible.
Economic curbs as well crashed into Chinese resistance. Beijing has sold helicopter gunships, transport helicopters and military trucks to Sudan, which have been used in recent attacks on civilians in Darfur.
Late 2006 was a busy year for Beijing when it dangled a carrot minus the stick. During the High Level Consultation on the Situation in Darfur in Addis Ababa on 16 November 2006, China intervened to obtain the acceptation of the hybrid force.
Wang Guangya, China's ambassador to the UN was reported to have told Khartoum Foreign Minister Lam Akol that there was no hidden agenda in the effort to introduce a stronger peacekeeping force.
Prior to this meeting, several high-ranking Chinese officials had already discussed the different options when President Omar al-Bashir arrived in Beijing for the Forum on the China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Summit. His Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, publicly appealed to Khartoum to find an appropriate settlement, maintain stability, and constantly improve the humanitarian conditions in the region.
This statement was sustained during President Hu's visit to Sudan in early February 2007 that Annan's hybrid plan had to be respected. This marked the first time China was actively persuading a sovereign government to assent the deployment of blue helmets in its territory.
Forced to reconcile its business agenda with peace and security in Africa, Chinese President Hu Jintao, has promised to partly fund UNAMID. It is imperative that on June 15, 2006, the Chinese government granted AMIS $3.5 million (Sh231 million) in budgetary support and humanitarian emergency aid. From the sum, $2.5m (Sh165 million) was to be allocated to assisting refugees and $1m (Sh66 million) for budgetary support of the African Union's Peace and Security Council.
While welcoming passing of the Darfur resolution, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said it was an "important step to promote the process of resolving the Darfur issue."
China is thus pursuing a two-pronged strategy that entails a balanced combination of political processes and the peacekeeping mission to promote a complete settlement to the Darfur conflict. And, together with the international community, China should immediately put pressure on Khartoum and the rebel groups not to renege on the peace agreements.
China's efforts in Darfur however are very state-centric, leaving out the rebels and other regional actors, which is why The chairman of the Sudan Liberation Movement, Abdelwahid al-Nur, has accused China of underwriting Khartoum's killings in Darfur.
According to al Nur, China's partiality in the conflict creates a very dangerous situation for her investments in Sudan and all over Africa in the long run.
Definitely China's intervention in Darfur has succeeded, for the Asian power has secured its economic interests in Sudan while taking the credit for getting Khartoum to accept the UN peacekeepers.
Worldwide, China was praised for its "constructive policy." It not only gained moral credibility among African countries but also strengthened its position in multilateral forums like UN, Arab League and AU.
China's diplomatic success notwithstanding, the insecurity in Darfur has forced humanitarian agencies to scale back their activities drastically. Consensus on the way out of the mire seems to be coalescing around first, diplomatic pressure on Khartoum to rein in the militias, halt its proxy war against its neighbours and cease aerial bombardment of civilians in villages, IDP camps within Darfur and refugee camps in Chad.
The second important factor in the search for a consensus is the removal of any diplomatic and resource-related barriers to the deployment of UNAMID force to protect civilians and sustained dialogue within and between the various parties to the Darfur conflict as the best solution.
Thirdly, Africa and its external partners - including China - have to stabilise the region and create conditions for a return of the displaced and more promising political negotiations.
Patrick Mutahi is the Director of Eastern and Horn of Africa Programme at Africa Policy Institute (Nairobi)
Africa Insight is an initiative of the Nation Media Group's Africa Media Network Project.
12 October 2007
By Patrick Mutahi
Realising that its almost unqualified support for Sudan was hurting its image, China balanced its thirst for oil versus international obligations and in the process, convinced Sudan to accept UN peacekeepers on its soil.
China has quietly changed its Darfur policy from a laid-back approach to a behind-the-scenes diplomacy.
Before the passing of UN Security Council Resolution 1769 authorising the $2 billion (Sh130 billion) a year, 26,000-strong United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), China arranged low-key meetings with Sudan to discuss the deployment.
For a country that has been Sudan's staunchest diplomatic protector, largest trading partner and a leading investor, the shift is crucial.
Beijing has asserted its role and position as a world power by mediating the Darfur crisis. Significantly, this is China's first time in its 35 years at UN Security Council to convince a sovereign country to accept a UN peace keeping force in its territory.
With the Olympics in Beijing next year already attracting more international scrutiny of Chinese affairs, Beijing is styling up and doesn't want to be associated with a repressive regime.
China's influence in Khartoum is second to none and could be decisive in resolving the four-year Darfur conflict which has killed an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 people, displacing 2.5 million others in camps strewn across Darfur if not as refugees in Chad.
While it has played a crucial role in getting Khartoum to agree on deployment of UNAMID, China should now pressure President al-Bashir and the rebel groups to begin a political process that will see all parties sign and respect a new comprehensive peace agreement.
The People's Republic's evidently strong alliance with Sudan is driven by its oil interests. Chinese Petroleum companies have been operating in the country since the departure of western oil majors in the mid-1990s.
In the process, Beijing has deftly filled the diplomatic and economic vacuum, treating the al Bashir regime as a strategic stepping stone to not only the oil fields in South Sudan and Darfur, but also in Chad and Central African Republic.
The 2007 United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database (UNCOMTRADE) records that China represents as much as 64 per cent of Khartoum's trade volume.
Between 1999 and 2006, oil exports to China increased from 266,126 tons to more than 6.5 million tons. A report to European Parliament on China's energy policy in sub-Saharan Africa notes that in 2005 and 2006, China imported 47 per cent of Sudan's total oil production.
China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the largest foreign investor so far in Sudan channeled more than $4 billion (Sh264 billion) into the country. It is also the main shareholder in the Greater Nile Petroleum Company (GNPOC), Sudan's national oil company.
Accordingly, CNPC has acquired several oil exploitation concessions with a near monopoly over a vast oil block in Darfur.
Apart from oil, Chinese companies are doing business in other areas. The Petroleum and Natural Gas Exploration and Development Corporation has implemented a polypropylene exploitation project in Khartoum. Half of the shares in the Khartoum Chemical Industry Company are owned by Beijing which wholly owns the Sudanese Petrochemical Trade Project.
With $149 (Sh10 billion) million loan of China's Central Bank, Harbin Power Company constructed the Qarre I hydropower station, about 50 kilometres north of Khartoum which it also manages. Jointly with Qarre II, it will produce 330 megawatts. With an 85 per cent shareholding, the Chinese energy giant also participated in the construction of the 300 megawatt Kajbar Dam.
A 315-men multi-functional engineering unit from China is expected to be deployed in Darfur in early October 2007.
To its credit, China has balanced its economic interests, international pressure and insecurity to protect its interests in Darfur and the entire region. Thus, its role in Darfur and readiness not invoke the sovereignty card and "it is only business" attitude should be seen in the light of protecting its economic interests.
China's foreign policy to Africa has evolved over the years. During the Cold War, Beijing supported groups that fought alleged Western imperialists.
When it assumed membership of the UN Security Council in 1971, China opposed all peacekeeping operations in Africa. After the Cold War, this position was replaced with a more moderate approach that viewed Africa's conflicts as born of structural violence, and hence deserving to be resolved as such. While supporting the UN peace keeping missions, it did so on the condition of a well defined and restricted mandate of maintaining sovereignty.
Non controversial peacekeeping operations - Somalia (UNSOM I), Mozambique (ONUMUZ), Rwanda (UNAMIR) and Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) got its green light. When the Security Council decided to dispatch troops in Liberia (UNMIL) in 2003, China even offered to contribute to this mission.
Since then, Beijing gradually increased the number of blue helmets to 1,800 in 2007. China's financial support to peacekeeping by the UN and regional organisations, such as the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), has also increased significantly.
However, China has kept off missions it has perceived as infringing on the host country's sovereignty. It vehemently opposed the European-driven Operation Turquoise in Rwanda; when Washington gave up its impartiality and called for broadened mandate of UNSOM and when France demanded an increase of the troop levels of the UN operation in Ivory Coast in 2004.
It is noteworthy that Beijing did not veto these interventions, but abstained and stayed away from the implementation.
China has been accused of complicity in Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, and Zimbabwe conflicts. In 2001, an expert panel of the UN Security Council pointed at the indirect involvement of Chinese companies in the exploitation of forests in eastern Congo. In 2002, the International Non-governmental organisation, Global Witness, accused China of sponsoring violence in Liberia by purchasing hard wood from various warlords.
In 2002, the Zimbabwean government started a brutal crackdown of political opponents. While the Western Countries applied sanctions on the government, Beijing developed strong partnership with President Robert Mugabe, selling him arms and supporting him economically.
In 2004, at the height of the bloodshed in Congolese Province of Ituri, Beijing shipped firearms to Uganda, a key party in Eastern Congo.
Darfur suffered the same fate when it exploded in February 2003 due to violence perpetuated by a mixture of Government forces, state-sponsored militias and Darfur rebels.
However, China could not afford to stay detached for long due to its close financial ties with Bashir's government.
China never opposed the deployment of UN troops but it consistently called for involvement and consent of Khartoum, even as the Sudanese government was party to the conflict was pushed to a corner when the conflict spilled over to the region.
Beijing had restored diplomatic ties with Chad in August 2006 and signed oil deals with it in early 2007 amid fears that the Darfur violence would trickle to southern Sudan, where also it has oil interests.
Lastly, China feared that a fully fledged UN intervention would hamper its economic prospects with other regional countries. Thus, with economic interests in Libya, Ethiopia and Sudan, regional security not only in Horn of Africa but also in central Africa is vital to Beijing.
Faced with an imminent boycott of 2008 Beijing Olympics, the resultant economic loss and bad publicity, China has played both the political and diplomatic cards leading to the adoption of Resolution 1769 authorising UNAMID.
While it abstained from voting Resolution 1706, which allowed deployment of 17,000 UN peace keepers, unless President Bashir agreed, Beijing didn't oppose a clause that UNMIS should play a role in the preparations for and conduct of the 2010 referendum. Knowing China's opposition to Taiwan's sovereignty, this is remarkable since South Sudan might become autonomous.
When Resolution 1706 failed, China was back in the driver's seat. It continued massaging Khartoum and at the same time pressing al Bashir to take a decisive action in Darfur.
Buoyed by the fact that time was running out with increased international pressure, China had to urgently appease Khartoum for the sake of its economic interests while stabilising Darfur at the same time.
The idea was to persuade Khartoum from enticing other investors. In December 2005 and January 2006, India approved various aid packages to Sudan. In return, President Bashir gave them more oil concessions and praised the Asia-African relationship.
Early 2006, Malaysia's oil giant Petronas embarked on an oil project in Sudan while Russia set up a business relationship with Khartoum. These movements made the Chinese, in May 2006, to conclude new financial and military deals with Khartoum.
Economic interests overrode justice when it came to voting on the list of individuals to be taken to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Beijing preferred them to be tried by Sudan local courts.
It also objected to the imposing of an arms embargo on militias operating in Darfur. In drafting resolution 1556 on the arms embargo, China agreed on the need to disarm the Janjaweed factions, but opposed restrictions that would affect the regular armed forces. The same argument was presented during the discussion of the proposal for the inclusion of a comprehensive arms ban in resolution 1591.
In April 2007, Beijing refused to approve a new report of the Expert Panel to the Sanctions Committee. This document described Khartoum's violation of the prohibiting of the transfer of arms to Darfur and recommended the tightening of the arms embargo imposed by the Security Council and further restrictions on activities involving illicit weapons, regardless of who was responsible.
Economic curbs as well crashed into Chinese resistance. Beijing has sold helicopter gunships, transport helicopters and military trucks to Sudan, which have been used in recent attacks on civilians in Darfur.
Late 2006 was a busy year for Beijing when it dangled a carrot minus the stick. During the High Level Consultation on the Situation in Darfur in Addis Ababa on 16 November 2006, China intervened to obtain the acceptation of the hybrid force.
Wang Guangya, China's ambassador to the UN was reported to have told Khartoum Foreign Minister Lam Akol that there was no hidden agenda in the effort to introduce a stronger peacekeeping force.
Prior to this meeting, several high-ranking Chinese officials had already discussed the different options when President Omar al-Bashir arrived in Beijing for the Forum on the China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Summit. His Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, publicly appealed to Khartoum to find an appropriate settlement, maintain stability, and constantly improve the humanitarian conditions in the region.
This statement was sustained during President Hu's visit to Sudan in early February 2007 that Annan's hybrid plan had to be respected. This marked the first time China was actively persuading a sovereign government to assent the deployment of blue helmets in its territory.
Forced to reconcile its business agenda with peace and security in Africa, Chinese President Hu Jintao, has promised to partly fund UNAMID. It is imperative that on June 15, 2006, the Chinese government granted AMIS $3.5 million (Sh231 million) in budgetary support and humanitarian emergency aid. From the sum, $2.5m (Sh165 million) was to be allocated to assisting refugees and $1m (Sh66 million) for budgetary support of the African Union's Peace and Security Council.
While welcoming passing of the Darfur resolution, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said it was an "important step to promote the process of resolving the Darfur issue."
China is thus pursuing a two-pronged strategy that entails a balanced combination of political processes and the peacekeeping mission to promote a complete settlement to the Darfur conflict. And, together with the international community, China should immediately put pressure on Khartoum and the rebel groups not to renege on the peace agreements.
China's efforts in Darfur however are very state-centric, leaving out the rebels and other regional actors, which is why The chairman of the Sudan Liberation Movement, Abdelwahid al-Nur, has accused China of underwriting Khartoum's killings in Darfur.
According to al Nur, China's partiality in the conflict creates a very dangerous situation for her investments in Sudan and all over Africa in the long run.
Definitely China's intervention in Darfur has succeeded, for the Asian power has secured its economic interests in Sudan while taking the credit for getting Khartoum to accept the UN peacekeepers.
Worldwide, China was praised for its "constructive policy." It not only gained moral credibility among African countries but also strengthened its position in multilateral forums like UN, Arab League and AU.
China's diplomatic success notwithstanding, the insecurity in Darfur has forced humanitarian agencies to scale back their activities drastically. Consensus on the way out of the mire seems to be coalescing around first, diplomatic pressure on Khartoum to rein in the militias, halt its proxy war against its neighbours and cease aerial bombardment of civilians in villages, IDP camps within Darfur and refugee camps in Chad.
The second important factor in the search for a consensus is the removal of any diplomatic and resource-related barriers to the deployment of UNAMID force to protect civilians and sustained dialogue within and between the various parties to the Darfur conflict as the best solution.
Thirdly, Africa and its external partners - including China - have to stabilise the region and create conditions for a return of the displaced and more promising political negotiations.
Patrick Mutahi is the Director of Eastern and Horn of Africa Programme at Africa Policy Institute (Nairobi)
Africa Insight is an initiative of the Nation Media Group's Africa Media Network Project.
11 October, 2007
North Kivu: Clashes Continue, Insecurity Hinders Aid.
MISNA
11 October 2007
Exchanges of heavy artillery between the Congolese army (FARDC) and militants loyal to the pro-Rwandan dissident General Laurent Nkunda continue also today in North Kivu, north-eastern province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, despite a reported request for a truce yesterday by Nkunda. Sources of the United Nations Mission in DR-Congo (MONUC) this morning reported clashes outside Mushake (around 30km north of North Kivu’s capital Goma). The MONUC operative base in the area received orders to retreat and the numerous displaced civilians gathered around Mushake are fleeing north. Radio Okapi also reports that a FARDC unit was attacked yesterday by rebels of the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, present in east DR-Congo, losing two soldiers.
In the past month the FDLR rebels clashed with Nkunda’s militants, further escalating the violence. A wide insecurity that is causing serious difficulties for aid workers operating in North Kivu in assistance of some 400,000 displaced this year. Food distribution was in fact not possible in the past hours in the Masisi and Rutshuru territories due to the fighting. The insecurity however also threatens the displaced camps closer to Goma, where there are some 70,000 displaced and security is being stepped up with the deployment of new peacekeepers and police.
11 October 2007
Exchanges of heavy artillery between the Congolese army (FARDC) and militants loyal to the pro-Rwandan dissident General Laurent Nkunda continue also today in North Kivu, north-eastern province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, despite a reported request for a truce yesterday by Nkunda. Sources of the United Nations Mission in DR-Congo (MONUC) this morning reported clashes outside Mushake (around 30km north of North Kivu’s capital Goma). The MONUC operative base in the area received orders to retreat and the numerous displaced civilians gathered around Mushake are fleeing north. Radio Okapi also reports that a FARDC unit was attacked yesterday by rebels of the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, present in east DR-Congo, losing two soldiers.
In the past month the FDLR rebels clashed with Nkunda’s militants, further escalating the violence. A wide insecurity that is causing serious difficulties for aid workers operating in North Kivu in assistance of some 400,000 displaced this year. Food distribution was in fact not possible in the past hours in the Masisi and Rutshuru territories due to the fighting. The insecurity however also threatens the displaced camps closer to Goma, where there are some 70,000 displaced and security is being stepped up with the deployment of new peacekeepers and police.
Breaking into even smaller bits?
Somaliland Times
Oct 4th 2007 - A peculitarity of Somalia is that while the south of the country, including its broken capital, Mogadishu, has burned, the north has been stable. Now, to the horror of those trying to put Mogadishu back together again, the north is beginning to crack too. Fighting broke out this week between Somaliland, the northern strip that has been virtually independent of the rest of the country for some 16 years, and Puntland, a semi-autonomous territory in the north-east (see map). Somaliland says it has driven Puntland forces out of Los Anod, a town in the disputed Sool region, killing six Puntlanders and injuring or capturing another 40-plus. Puntland says its soldiers have retaken the town. Yet another war seems to be breaking out.
Sool is split between sub-clans backing either Somaliland or Puntland, while some of them want autonomy for Sool itself. Somaliland, a former British colony that was separate from the larger parts that were run by Italy, declared independence in 1991 and has since sought international recognition. Puntland's sense of identity is less strong; it has seen itself as a building block for a future federal Somalia.
But Puntland is losing its grip. The Sool dispute has been compounded by the secession of much of the Sanaag region from Puntland, to form yet another self-governing entity in the north. Drawing on its history as a sultanate, Sanaag declared independence in July, renamed itself Makhir, and chose Badhan as its capital. Tension between Makhir and Puntland is high.
A still worse headache for Puntland is the departure of its strongman, Abdullahi Yusuf, to become president of Somalia. He ran Puntland with authority and ambition, grandiosely hoping to turn it into the Horn of Africa's Dubai. When he went south, he took with him a lot of Puntland troops, vehicles, weapons and ammunition. Their departure emboldened other northerners with dreams of secession or autonomy, and may give Somaliland the edge if the dispute over Sool leads to war.
Oil and gas add fuel to the ferment. Exploration rights in Puntland have been sold several times over. Somalia's prickly prime minister, Ali Mohamed Gedi, was furious when Mr Yusuf signed oil agreements without telling him, including one with a Chinese company. Mr Gedi has also refused to endorse exploration deals signed by Puntland's government.
Meanwhile, Mogadishu is getting worse again. Fewer children are going to school. The city's markets are stagnant—quite the opposite of the government's assertions that things are back to normal. Government troops and the Ethiopian forces propping up Somalia's government are still being attacked by bombs, grenades and snipers of the Islamist militias ousted by Ethiopians early this year. The African Union promised to send 8,000 peacekeepers and then hand authority to a UN mission later this year. But several AU countries failed to honour their pledges. Uganda is still the only African one to have sent troops; with just 1,600 of them there, the UN is unlikely to come in and take over.
The American administration and other Western governments still want to back Somalia's transitional government until elections due in 2009. A recent reconciliation conference in Mogadishu passed off without rancour, itself something of a success, and was bolstered by the apparent failure of a rival meeting, mainly of Somali Islamists, in the Eritrean capital, Asmara.
Source: The Economist
Oct 4th 2007 - A peculitarity of Somalia is that while the south of the country, including its broken capital, Mogadishu, has burned, the north has been stable. Now, to the horror of those trying to put Mogadishu back together again, the north is beginning to crack too. Fighting broke out this week between Somaliland, the northern strip that has been virtually independent of the rest of the country for some 16 years, and Puntland, a semi-autonomous territory in the north-east (see map). Somaliland says it has driven Puntland forces out of Los Anod, a town in the disputed Sool region, killing six Puntlanders and injuring or capturing another 40-plus. Puntland says its soldiers have retaken the town. Yet another war seems to be breaking out.
Sool is split between sub-clans backing either Somaliland or Puntland, while some of them want autonomy for Sool itself. Somaliland, a former British colony that was separate from the larger parts that were run by Italy, declared independence in 1991 and has since sought international recognition. Puntland's sense of identity is less strong; it has seen itself as a building block for a future federal Somalia.
But Puntland is losing its grip. The Sool dispute has been compounded by the secession of much of the Sanaag region from Puntland, to form yet another self-governing entity in the north. Drawing on its history as a sultanate, Sanaag declared independence in July, renamed itself Makhir, and chose Badhan as its capital. Tension between Makhir and Puntland is high.
A still worse headache for Puntland is the departure of its strongman, Abdullahi Yusuf, to become president of Somalia. He ran Puntland with authority and ambition, grandiosely hoping to turn it into the Horn of Africa's Dubai. When he went south, he took with him a lot of Puntland troops, vehicles, weapons and ammunition. Their departure emboldened other northerners with dreams of secession or autonomy, and may give Somaliland the edge if the dispute over Sool leads to war.
Oil and gas add fuel to the ferment. Exploration rights in Puntland have been sold several times over. Somalia's prickly prime minister, Ali Mohamed Gedi, was furious when Mr Yusuf signed oil agreements without telling him, including one with a Chinese company. Mr Gedi has also refused to endorse exploration deals signed by Puntland's government.
Meanwhile, Mogadishu is getting worse again. Fewer children are going to school. The city's markets are stagnant—quite the opposite of the government's assertions that things are back to normal. Government troops and the Ethiopian forces propping up Somalia's government are still being attacked by bombs, grenades and snipers of the Islamist militias ousted by Ethiopians early this year. The African Union promised to send 8,000 peacekeepers and then hand authority to a UN mission later this year. But several AU countries failed to honour their pledges. Uganda is still the only African one to have sent troops; with just 1,600 of them there, the UN is unlikely to come in and take over.
The American administration and other Western governments still want to back Somalia's transitional government until elections due in 2009. A recent reconciliation conference in Mogadishu passed off without rancour, itself something of a success, and was bolstered by the apparent failure of a rival meeting, mainly of Somali Islamists, in the Eritrean capital, Asmara.
Source: The Economist
22 Somali Ministers Demand No-Confidence Vote on Government.
By VOA News
11 October 2007
Twenty-two members of the Somali prime minister's Cabinet are demanding that parliament hold a no-confidence vote on the country's transitional government.
Speaking to reporters in the western provincial town of Baidoa Thursday, the 22 ministers said the government of Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi government has failed to meet the needs of the Somali people.
There are conflicting reports on whether the 22 ministers have resigned or merely have threatened to resign. It remains unclear when or if parliament may vote on the proposed no-confidence motion.
Mr. Gedi went to parliament headquarters in Baidoa this week to meet with lawmakers.
Officials say the prime minister was not hurt Thursday when a suspected suicide bomber blew up a car near the hotel where Mr. Gedi is staying. The attack targeted an army base used by Ethiopian troops who assist the Somali interim government. The bomber and two soldiers were killed.
Mr. Gedi has survived several previous attempts on his life. Insurgents frequently attack Somali government targets as part their efforts to topple the government and drive out Ethiopian troops.
The insurgency began in January, after a joint government-Ethiopian offensive ousted a rival Islamist movement from power in the capital, Mogadishu, and other Somali cities.
Since then, the interim government has struggled to contain violence or assert control across Somalia. The war-torn Horn of Africa country has not had a stable central government since 1991.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
11 October 2007
Twenty-two members of the Somali prime minister's Cabinet are demanding that parliament hold a no-confidence vote on the country's transitional government.
Speaking to reporters in the western provincial town of Baidoa Thursday, the 22 ministers said the government of Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi government has failed to meet the needs of the Somali people.
There are conflicting reports on whether the 22 ministers have resigned or merely have threatened to resign. It remains unclear when or if parliament may vote on the proposed no-confidence motion.
Mr. Gedi went to parliament headquarters in Baidoa this week to meet with lawmakers.
Officials say the prime minister was not hurt Thursday when a suspected suicide bomber blew up a car near the hotel where Mr. Gedi is staying. The attack targeted an army base used by Ethiopian troops who assist the Somali interim government. The bomber and two soldiers were killed.
Mr. Gedi has survived several previous attempts on his life. Insurgents frequently attack Somali government targets as part their efforts to topple the government and drive out Ethiopian troops.
The insurgency began in January, after a joint government-Ethiopian offensive ousted a rival Islamist movement from power in the capital, Mogadishu, and other Somali cities.
Since then, the interim government has struggled to contain violence or assert control across Somalia. The war-torn Horn of Africa country has not had a stable central government since 1991.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
Uganda loses out on aid.
The New Vision
10th October, 2007
By Cyprian Musoke
UGANDA could not get funding under the Millennium Challenge Account because it fell short on the score of fighting corruption, the USAID country director has said.
Margot Ellis told the media yesterday at the Sheraton Hotel Kampala that the funds administered by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), aim at reducing poverty through sustainable economic growth.
Margot revealed that MCC instead offered Uganda $10.4m (about sh18b) to help strengthen anti-corruption institutions to help meet the target.
MCC bases eligibility for funds on countries’ performance measured against the public perception of its efforts in the fight against corruption.
Margot said the anti-corruption institutions to be aided are the Inspectorate of Government, Directorate of Public Prosecution, ethics and integrity ministry, Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority, Criminal Investigations Department, Auditor General and selected civil society organisations.
The programme will focus on preventing graft in public procurement, increase prosecutions of corruption offences and strengthening the role of civil society in fighting graft, she said.
The director for ethics, Alex Lubangamoi, noted that Tanzania was getting $698m in development grants from the millenium account, and that Uganda could qualify if only the public perception changed.
“Fighting corruption is our collective role. The only people who benefit from corruption are the corrupt. Our sisters and brothers are suffering,” he said.
He castigated the general public that condoned and celebrated the corrupt as clever and hard working achievers. “This has tended to make our work difficult as some sections of our society continue to shield the heinous acts of their corrupt relatives, friends or political cohorts. This is a vice that I wish to call upon you to expose,” he told the press.
“Do not only deal with the corrupt and their collaborators but also expose those who try to cover up for them,” he appealed.
According to the country’s improvement plan, critical deficiencies that prevented Uganda from qualifying for funding lie in the “Ruling Justly” category, that included Control of Corruption where Uganda scored -0.1 or 39%, Rule of Law (-0.6 or 40%)and Voice and Accountability (0.08 or 46%).
In his Independence Day message on Tuesday, President Yoweri Museveni asked the business class to report corrupt government officials who ask for bribes, vowing to “roast” them.
“I call on the businessmen to report anybody who asks for a bribe. It is not necessary to pay a bribe for anything. Just report the thieves. You will see the action that will be taken,” the President said.
Museveni said the country wanted to establish values based on zero tolerance for corruption. He dismissed criticism that little was being done to fight corruption.
10th October, 2007
By Cyprian Musoke
UGANDA could not get funding under the Millennium Challenge Account because it fell short on the score of fighting corruption, the USAID country director has said.
Margot Ellis told the media yesterday at the Sheraton Hotel Kampala that the funds administered by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), aim at reducing poverty through sustainable economic growth.
Margot revealed that MCC instead offered Uganda $10.4m (about sh18b) to help strengthen anti-corruption institutions to help meet the target.
MCC bases eligibility for funds on countries’ performance measured against the public perception of its efforts in the fight against corruption.
Margot said the anti-corruption institutions to be aided are the Inspectorate of Government, Directorate of Public Prosecution, ethics and integrity ministry, Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority, Criminal Investigations Department, Auditor General and selected civil society organisations.
The programme will focus on preventing graft in public procurement, increase prosecutions of corruption offences and strengthening the role of civil society in fighting graft, she said.
The director for ethics, Alex Lubangamoi, noted that Tanzania was getting $698m in development grants from the millenium account, and that Uganda could qualify if only the public perception changed.
“Fighting corruption is our collective role. The only people who benefit from corruption are the corrupt. Our sisters and brothers are suffering,” he said.
He castigated the general public that condoned and celebrated the corrupt as clever and hard working achievers. “This has tended to make our work difficult as some sections of our society continue to shield the heinous acts of their corrupt relatives, friends or political cohorts. This is a vice that I wish to call upon you to expose,” he told the press.
“Do not only deal with the corrupt and their collaborators but also expose those who try to cover up for them,” he appealed.
According to the country’s improvement plan, critical deficiencies that prevented Uganda from qualifying for funding lie in the “Ruling Justly” category, that included Control of Corruption where Uganda scored -0.1 or 39%, Rule of Law (-0.6 or 40%)and Voice and Accountability (0.08 or 46%).
In his Independence Day message on Tuesday, President Yoweri Museveni asked the business class to report corrupt government officials who ask for bribes, vowing to “roast” them.
“I call on the businessmen to report anybody who asks for a bribe. It is not necessary to pay a bribe for anything. Just report the thieves. You will see the action that will be taken,” the President said.
Museveni said the country wanted to establish values based on zero tolerance for corruption. He dismissed criticism that little was being done to fight corruption.
Sudan crisis on two fronts as southern party quits government.
AFP
11 October 2007
Sudan faced a crisis on two fronts Thursday after the main party in the south withdrew from government because of Khartoum's failure to share power as hopes also faded for peace in Darfur.
Former southern rebels from the Sudan People's Liberation Movement suspended their participation in the national government as fighting escalated in the western region of Darfur where rebels have taken up arms complaining of abuse and marginalisation by Khartoum.
Darfur peace talks due in Libya later this month have been put at risk by reports that Khartoum forces and their allied Janjaweed militias have intensified attacks on the rebels, including the only faction to have signed a peace deal.
In Khartoum, a senior SPLM official said the decision to withdraw from government was taken at a meeting in the southern capital of Juba presided over by party leader Salva Kiir.
"Our participation in the government is frozen until we can find a solution to our differences" with the north, he added.
The SPLM and its armed wing signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement with Khartoum in 2005, ending 21 years of war between the Muslim north and Christian and animist south that killed at least two million people and displaced millions more.
At least 200,000 people have been killed in four years of fighting in Darfur.
While southern former rebel leader Salva Kiir currently holds the post of first vice president in the national government, further implementation of the agreement has been dogged by problems and mutual accusations of stalling.
The SPLM currently has 18 ministers and deputy ministers in the central government, as well as holding its own parliament sessions in Juba, the capital of the semi-autonomous south.
The SPLM official said key problems revolved around the withdrawal of northern troops from the south, the fate of the disputed oil-rich region of Abiye and "the evolution of democracy in Sudan."
He said that the SPLM would return to the government once the differences were resolved.
In Darfur, the Sudan Liberation Army faction of Minni Minawi, the only rebel group to have signed a 2006 peace deal, threatened to take up arms again after it said more than 50 people were killed in a government-backed attack.
"From now on, our movement will not stand by and do nothing in the face of such attacks," Arku Suleiman Dhahia, commander in chief of the SLA said on Tuesday.
"If this happens again, we go back to square one which means war and it will be worse than the one before (the peace deal was signed) 2006," he told journalists in Khartoum.
The UN reported clashes between government of Sudan forces and Minawi troops but the circumstances of the fighting remain unclear.
As a result of the attack, Minawi, now a special advisor to President Omar al-Beshir, cut short a visit to Darfur in which he had been trying to persuade other rebel factions to join this month's peace conference in Libya.
US envoy to Sudan Andrew Natsios earlier this month voiced "deep concern" at the "poisonous" atmosphere between the north and south peace partners since the CPA was signed.
"Tensions are rising. This is dangerous ... The current political atmosphere between (north and south) is poisonous," Natsios said on October 6.
He said the risk of clashes between both sides was high, warning of the danger of militarisation on the border.
In August, south Sudan's information minister Samson Kwaje warned that the world's focus on ending the conflict in Darfur could hamper the implementation of the north-south accord.
Editor's Note: It appears to me SLA-M, the most secular rebel group, attacks the town and everyone blames it on the Sudanese Army or the JEM, led by Turabi, who is labeled as an Islamic Radical and former associate of Osama Bin Laden. Elements of the JEM have been supported by Eritrea, who opposes the U.S., Ethiopia, and the current government in Somalia.
Martin Luther Agwai, an AU commander, said the Sudanese Army was not involved in the latest attack. (See MISNA post from earlier 11 Oct on this website) The attack occurs right as new peace talks sponsored by Libya (who historically are anti-Deby and anti-Western)are about to begin and the new UN mission is about to deploy. Although from different clans, Mr. Minnawi and President Deby are from the same ethnic group, the Zaghawa, and Darfuri Zaghawa helped Idriss Deby take power in a coup in 1990. Somebody doesn't want peace to occur in Sudan....
11 October 2007
Sudan faced a crisis on two fronts Thursday after the main party in the south withdrew from government because of Khartoum's failure to share power as hopes also faded for peace in Darfur.
Former southern rebels from the Sudan People's Liberation Movement suspended their participation in the national government as fighting escalated in the western region of Darfur where rebels have taken up arms complaining of abuse and marginalisation by Khartoum.
Darfur peace talks due in Libya later this month have been put at risk by reports that Khartoum forces and their allied Janjaweed militias have intensified attacks on the rebels, including the only faction to have signed a peace deal.
In Khartoum, a senior SPLM official said the decision to withdraw from government was taken at a meeting in the southern capital of Juba presided over by party leader Salva Kiir.
"Our participation in the government is frozen until we can find a solution to our differences" with the north, he added.
The SPLM and its armed wing signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement with Khartoum in 2005, ending 21 years of war between the Muslim north and Christian and animist south that killed at least two million people and displaced millions more.
At least 200,000 people have been killed in four years of fighting in Darfur.
While southern former rebel leader Salva Kiir currently holds the post of first vice president in the national government, further implementation of the agreement has been dogged by problems and mutual accusations of stalling.
The SPLM currently has 18 ministers and deputy ministers in the central government, as well as holding its own parliament sessions in Juba, the capital of the semi-autonomous south.
The SPLM official said key problems revolved around the withdrawal of northern troops from the south, the fate of the disputed oil-rich region of Abiye and "the evolution of democracy in Sudan."
He said that the SPLM would return to the government once the differences were resolved.
In Darfur, the Sudan Liberation Army faction of Minni Minawi, the only rebel group to have signed a 2006 peace deal, threatened to take up arms again after it said more than 50 people were killed in a government-backed attack.
"From now on, our movement will not stand by and do nothing in the face of such attacks," Arku Suleiman Dhahia, commander in chief of the SLA said on Tuesday.
"If this happens again, we go back to square one which means war and it will be worse than the one before (the peace deal was signed) 2006," he told journalists in Khartoum.
The UN reported clashes between government of Sudan forces and Minawi troops but the circumstances of the fighting remain unclear.
As a result of the attack, Minawi, now a special advisor to President Omar al-Beshir, cut short a visit to Darfur in which he had been trying to persuade other rebel factions to join this month's peace conference in Libya.
US envoy to Sudan Andrew Natsios earlier this month voiced "deep concern" at the "poisonous" atmosphere between the north and south peace partners since the CPA was signed.
"Tensions are rising. This is dangerous ... The current political atmosphere between (north and south) is poisonous," Natsios said on October 6.
He said the risk of clashes between both sides was high, warning of the danger of militarisation on the border.
In August, south Sudan's information minister Samson Kwaje warned that the world's focus on ending the conflict in Darfur could hamper the implementation of the north-south accord.
Editor's Note: It appears to me SLA-M, the most secular rebel group, attacks the town and everyone blames it on the Sudanese Army or the JEM, led by Turabi, who is labeled as an Islamic Radical and former associate of Osama Bin Laden. Elements of the JEM have been supported by Eritrea, who opposes the U.S., Ethiopia, and the current government in Somalia.
Martin Luther Agwai, an AU commander, said the Sudanese Army was not involved in the latest attack. (See MISNA post from earlier 11 Oct on this website) The attack occurs right as new peace talks sponsored by Libya (who historically are anti-Deby and anti-Western)are about to begin and the new UN mission is about to deploy. Although from different clans, Mr. Minnawi and President Deby are from the same ethnic group, the Zaghawa, and Darfuri Zaghawa helped Idriss Deby take power in a coup in 1990. Somebody doesn't want peace to occur in Sudan....
Rwanda Lost $8.4 Billion in Buying Arms for Wars.
Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information (Kigali)
11 October 2007
Instead of providing education, health care or food for the tables of its people, different governments that ruled Rwanda between 1990 and 2001 bought arms to the tune of $8.4 billions to fight the multiple internal and regional wars, a study released by Oxfam today shows.
The study 'Africa's Missing Billions' indicates that in just 12 years, Rwanda spent those billions and lost out on much needed growth falling short by 32%. During the same period, according to the much publicized document, Rwanda's economy was projected to grow by 4.5% but instead attained only a 2.8% threshold.
The understanding is that during the period analyzed, Rwandans were busy preparing or fighting a war in which arms had to be purchased other than working to increase their productivity.
According to the report, the cost of the material damage to Rwanda during the Genocide was around $1bn. In relation to the 2006 GDP figures of 13.6 billion, this indicates that about 10% of what Rwanda could produce was lost out to suffering instead of welfare.
Rwanda imported millions of rounds of small arms ammunition, grenades, and rocket launchers from surplus stocks in Albania and there have been large flows of arms from Eastern Europe to the DRC transitional government and to Uganda, the study notes.
To finance the DRC campaigns against militias, the authorities in Rwanda called on all citizens to contribute anything that would be helpful - after the donor community expressed reservation to finance government budgets. Under the scheme, individuals and communities willingly provided money, food, fuel and vehicles, anything they felt would be necessary.
The nationalistic campaign was also repeated to finance the series of local, parliamentary and presidential elections that later ushered in the reign of President Paul Kagame in 2003. This was after donors again refused to finance the elections citing a non-matured electorate and human rights concerns. Following a successful election, government has since taken moves intended to show that Rwandan can do without the much needed aid.
DR Congo, for instance, that has suffered more than a decade of foreign invasion and civil war that, besides causing the deaths of about 4 million people, has cost it £9bn, or 29% of its gross domestic product, according to the report. Reconstruction for the DRC is estimated at $20bn.
The study says around $300bn since 1990 has been lost by countries including Algeria, Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Republic of Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan and Uganda.
Oxfam and its partners say the sum is equivalent to international aid from major donors in the same period. If this money was not lost due to armed conflict, it could solve the problems of HIV and AIDS in Africa, or it could address Africa's needs in education, clean water and sanitation, and prevent tuberculosis and malaria, the report says.
Rwanda now receives about $500 million annually in aid but a recent controversial UNDP report said government was spending 10% of it on defense and public order - but the authorities have since rubbished the findings.
Government said not a single cent of donor money goes into defense and that it only spends less than 3% of annual budget allocations on the sector in question. UNDP has since distanced itself from the report saying it only commissioned it.
The total budgetary plan stands at about 400 million dollars with about half of it coming from the generous donor community.
Meanwhile, another document that is circulating on the internet, purportedly a US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) World Fact Book ranking military spending in different countries shows that Rwanda is top on the list with 13.30%.
The document last updated on March 8 2007, ranks 173 countries with Israel, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Mauritania among the top 10 military spenders. Iceland features last with not a single cent put to the defense budget.
In the EAC region, Burundi follows up at position 13 with expenditure on defense from GDP at 5.90%. Kenya stands at rank 56 spending 3% of what the country can produce of funding its security. Peaceful Tanzania is spending only 1.5%.
Editor's Note: While it doesn't excuse the action, keep in mind the IMF devalued Rwanda's currency 2 times during the war against the RPF, and the world coffee market had crashed, destroying Rwanda's economy and it export tax collection. They chose to use much of what little money and aid they had to spend on the miltary to defend against the RPA. Also keep in mind that while they may, in reality, only spend 3% of the budget on military expenses, they get military aid packages from the US, China, and they also have "off the books" revenue obtiained from the illegal smuggling of the Congo's minerals. How many millions of these "blood mineral" dollars are spent annually on the Rwandan military, with no oversight or official tracking? Also ask, who do you think they bought the arms from?
11 October 2007
Instead of providing education, health care or food for the tables of its people, different governments that ruled Rwanda between 1990 and 2001 bought arms to the tune of $8.4 billions to fight the multiple internal and regional wars, a study released by Oxfam today shows.
The study 'Africa's Missing Billions' indicates that in just 12 years, Rwanda spent those billions and lost out on much needed growth falling short by 32%. During the same period, according to the much publicized document, Rwanda's economy was projected to grow by 4.5% but instead attained only a 2.8% threshold.
The understanding is that during the period analyzed, Rwandans were busy preparing or fighting a war in which arms had to be purchased other than working to increase their productivity.
According to the report, the cost of the material damage to Rwanda during the Genocide was around $1bn. In relation to the 2006 GDP figures of 13.6 billion, this indicates that about 10% of what Rwanda could produce was lost out to suffering instead of welfare.
Rwanda imported millions of rounds of small arms ammunition, grenades, and rocket launchers from surplus stocks in Albania and there have been large flows of arms from Eastern Europe to the DRC transitional government and to Uganda, the study notes.
To finance the DRC campaigns against militias, the authorities in Rwanda called on all citizens to contribute anything that would be helpful - after the donor community expressed reservation to finance government budgets. Under the scheme, individuals and communities willingly provided money, food, fuel and vehicles, anything they felt would be necessary.
The nationalistic campaign was also repeated to finance the series of local, parliamentary and presidential elections that later ushered in the reign of President Paul Kagame in 2003. This was after donors again refused to finance the elections citing a non-matured electorate and human rights concerns. Following a successful election, government has since taken moves intended to show that Rwandan can do without the much needed aid.
DR Congo, for instance, that has suffered more than a decade of foreign invasion and civil war that, besides causing the deaths of about 4 million people, has cost it £9bn, or 29% of its gross domestic product, according to the report. Reconstruction for the DRC is estimated at $20bn.
The study says around $300bn since 1990 has been lost by countries including Algeria, Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Republic of Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan and Uganda.
Oxfam and its partners say the sum is equivalent to international aid from major donors in the same period. If this money was not lost due to armed conflict, it could solve the problems of HIV and AIDS in Africa, or it could address Africa's needs in education, clean water and sanitation, and prevent tuberculosis and malaria, the report says.
Rwanda now receives about $500 million annually in aid but a recent controversial UNDP report said government was spending 10% of it on defense and public order - but the authorities have since rubbished the findings.
Government said not a single cent of donor money goes into defense and that it only spends less than 3% of annual budget allocations on the sector in question. UNDP has since distanced itself from the report saying it only commissioned it.
The total budgetary plan stands at about 400 million dollars with about half of it coming from the generous donor community.
Meanwhile, another document that is circulating on the internet, purportedly a US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) World Fact Book ranking military spending in different countries shows that Rwanda is top on the list with 13.30%.
The document last updated on March 8 2007, ranks 173 countries with Israel, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Mauritania among the top 10 military spenders. Iceland features last with not a single cent put to the defense budget.
In the EAC region, Burundi follows up at position 13 with expenditure on defense from GDP at 5.90%. Kenya stands at rank 56 spending 3% of what the country can produce of funding its security. Peaceful Tanzania is spending only 1.5%.
Editor's Note: While it doesn't excuse the action, keep in mind the IMF devalued Rwanda's currency 2 times during the war against the RPF, and the world coffee market had crashed, destroying Rwanda's economy and it export tax collection. They chose to use much of what little money and aid they had to spend on the miltary to defend against the RPA. Also keep in mind that while they may, in reality, only spend 3% of the budget on military expenses, they get military aid packages from the US, China, and they also have "off the books" revenue obtiained from the illegal smuggling of the Congo's minerals. How many millions of these "blood mineral" dollars are spent annually on the Rwandan military, with no oversight or official tracking? Also ask, who do you think they bought the arms from?
Journalist Entraped and Arrested in Senegal.
Reporters sans Frontières (Paris)
PRESS RELEASE
11 October 2007
Posted to the web 11 October 2007
Reporters Without Borders condemns the kidnapping of Moussa Gueye, the editor of the privately-owned daily L'Exclusif, who was arrested, beaten and taken off to an unknown location by plain-clothes police on 8 October after being lured into a trap. His abduction came just hours after he published a story headlined "President's nighttime escapade."
"Such archaic methods do no honour to Senegal," the organisation said. "The government often insists that it is committed to press freedom but these incidents keep on recurring. Even if Senegal's press legislation is repressive, this case would have been handled fairly by means of ordinary judicial procedures. Instead, a journalist was literally kidnapped, beaten and shut away, and now the government has political prisoner being held for lese-majeste."
Shortly before 9 p.m. on 8 October, Gueye received a call from an unidentified person claiming to be interested in taking out an ad in the next day's issue of L'Exclusif. Gueye, who was not at the paper when he got the call, told the person when should meet at L'Exclusif, located 30 km southeast of Dakar at Rufisque.
While on his way there, Gueye was intercepted by five members of the Criminal Investigation Department (DIC), who said they were looking for Justin Ndoye, the journalist who wrote the article about the president
When Gueye refused to provide any information about his staff, he was slapped, handcuffed and bundled into the policemen's car and told to lead them to where they could find his journalists. After he continued to refuse to comply, they drove to L'Exclusif, punctured the tyres of all the cars outside, and took the newspaper's computers. A member of the staff who is now in hiding said he thought Gueye could have been taken to DIC headquarters.
The newspaper's staff think Gueye's arrest was prompted by Ndoye's story about the president's "nocturnal sorties" with his chief of staff, which quoted "sources close to the presidential palace."
In public comments the next day, before Gueye's arrest had been reported, President Abdoulaye Wade denied that he wanted to control the press and urged journalists to distinguish between "the president, citizen Wade and Senegal."
"You know full well that I have the means to control the press" he added. "But I will not do it and I don't want to do it (...) I don't want a press on the payroll. I have enough money for that. I could do it but I am not going to do it."
PRESS RELEASE
11 October 2007
Posted to the web 11 October 2007
Reporters Without Borders condemns the kidnapping of Moussa Gueye, the editor of the privately-owned daily L'Exclusif, who was arrested, beaten and taken off to an unknown location by plain-clothes police on 8 October after being lured into a trap. His abduction came just hours after he published a story headlined "President's nighttime escapade."
"Such archaic methods do no honour to Senegal," the organisation said. "The government often insists that it is committed to press freedom but these incidents keep on recurring. Even if Senegal's press legislation is repressive, this case would have been handled fairly by means of ordinary judicial procedures. Instead, a journalist was literally kidnapped, beaten and shut away, and now the government has political prisoner being held for lese-majeste."
Shortly before 9 p.m. on 8 October, Gueye received a call from an unidentified person claiming to be interested in taking out an ad in the next day's issue of L'Exclusif. Gueye, who was not at the paper when he got the call, told the person when should meet at L'Exclusif, located 30 km southeast of Dakar at Rufisque.
While on his way there, Gueye was intercepted by five members of the Criminal Investigation Department (DIC), who said they were looking for Justin Ndoye, the journalist who wrote the article about the president
When Gueye refused to provide any information about his staff, he was slapped, handcuffed and bundled into the policemen's car and told to lead them to where they could find his journalists. After he continued to refuse to comply, they drove to L'Exclusif, punctured the tyres of all the cars outside, and took the newspaper's computers. A member of the staff who is now in hiding said he thought Gueye could have been taken to DIC headquarters.
The newspaper's staff think Gueye's arrest was prompted by Ndoye's story about the president's "nocturnal sorties" with his chief of staff, which quoted "sources close to the presidential palace."
In public comments the next day, before Gueye's arrest had been reported, President Abdoulaye Wade denied that he wanted to control the press and urged journalists to distinguish between "the president, citizen Wade and Senegal."
"You know full well that I have the means to control the press" he added. "But I will not do it and I don't want to do it (...) I don't want a press on the payroll. I have enough money for that. I could do it but I am not going to do it."
China closes Christian-linked businesses.
Associated Press
Wed Oct 10, 7:36 PM ET
China has closed two businesses whose owners allegedly sought Christian converts in a traditionally Muslim region and also revoked the visa of an American citizen for illegal proselytizing, a rights group said Wednesday.
The companies' business licenses were pulled last month by authorities in the Xinjiang region of western China after they were accused of distributing religious material, converting Muslims and conducting "infiltration activities," the U.S.-based China Aid Association said in a news release.
The group did not identify the American citizen whose visa was revoked, citing ongoing legal issues within China. It was not immediately clear whether the individual had been deported.
Efforts to contact the companies cited by the association were unsuccessful. At one, a branch of Xinjiang Pacific Agricultural Resources Development Company, Ltd., no one answered the phone. The other company, Xinjiang Jiaerhao Foodstuff Company Limited reportedly owned by a Muslim convert, had no listed number.
A woman who answered the phone at the regional government's religious affairs bureau said she had no information about the companies or the accused American.
The report follows word this summer that China had kicked out more than 100 suspected foreign missionaries, including many in Xinjiang, in a campaign to prevent proselytizing ahead of next year's Beijing Summer Olympics.
Christian mission groups from around the world say they plan to quietly defy the Chinese ban on foreign missionaries and send thousands of volunteer evangelists to Beijing next year.
Evangelicals worked the crowds at the Olympics in Athens, Sydney and Atlanta but the groups say the Beijing Games offer an opening like no other in the communist country.
China bans open proselytizing and worship outside the Communist Party-controlled official church. However, foreign faithful who live in China are often able to evangelize privately while working as English teachers, humanitarian workers or in business.
Wed Oct 10, 7:36 PM ET
China has closed two businesses whose owners allegedly sought Christian converts in a traditionally Muslim region and also revoked the visa of an American citizen for illegal proselytizing, a rights group said Wednesday.
The companies' business licenses were pulled last month by authorities in the Xinjiang region of western China after they were accused of distributing religious material, converting Muslims and conducting "infiltration activities," the U.S.-based China Aid Association said in a news release.
The group did not identify the American citizen whose visa was revoked, citing ongoing legal issues within China. It was not immediately clear whether the individual had been deported.
Efforts to contact the companies cited by the association were unsuccessful. At one, a branch of Xinjiang Pacific Agricultural Resources Development Company, Ltd., no one answered the phone. The other company, Xinjiang Jiaerhao Foodstuff Company Limited reportedly owned by a Muslim convert, had no listed number.
A woman who answered the phone at the regional government's religious affairs bureau said she had no information about the companies or the accused American.
The report follows word this summer that China had kicked out more than 100 suspected foreign missionaries, including many in Xinjiang, in a campaign to prevent proselytizing ahead of next year's Beijing Summer Olympics.
Christian mission groups from around the world say they plan to quietly defy the Chinese ban on foreign missionaries and send thousands of volunteer evangelists to Beijing next year.
Evangelicals worked the crowds at the Olympics in Athens, Sydney and Atlanta but the groups say the Beijing Games offer an opening like no other in the communist country.
China bans open proselytizing and worship outside the Communist Party-controlled official church. However, foreign faithful who live in China are often able to evangelize privately while working as English teachers, humanitarian workers or in business.
Morales says U.S. soldiers should leave Bolivia.
Associated Press
11 October 2007
President Evo Morales said he expects U.S. military aid to Bolivia to stop soon, as his government plans to bar U.S. troops from assisting in anti-drug operations.
"Happily, it's ending," Morales told reporters at a news conference Tuesday night. "No foreigner in uniform will be operating here."
Bolivia is the world's No. 3 producer of cocaine, after Colombia and Peru. Washington last year provided US$91 million (€64 million) to help fight cocaine production and encourage Bolivian coca farmers to switch crops.
U.S. aid has paid for everything from Bolivian troops' uniforms to the gasoline in their trucks since the 1980s. But U.S. soldiers have not been directly involved in anti-narcotics efforts, leaving that task to U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration personnel and State Department contractors instead.
It's not clear if Morales would ban their involvement in Bolivian anti-drug efforts, too.
Today in Americas
U.S. House panel raises furor on Armenian genocideU.S. Marines press to remove their forces from IraqGore supporters lead a movement with no candidateThe U.S. Embassy had no immediate response to Morales' statement, and declined to say how many U.S. military personnel or contractors are now in Bolivia. The number is believed to be no more than a few dozen.
Morales, who allied himself with Cuba and Venezuela following his December 2005 election as Bolivia's first indigenous president, has spurned his country's traditionally close ties with the U.S. military.
While his government has supported efforts to halt cocaine exports, Morales, a former advocate for coca farmers, defends age-old medicinal and religious uses of the coca leaf, which is a mild stimulant when chewed or consumed as tea.
Morales also suggested on Tuesday that Bolivia's new constitution, now being drafted by a popularly elected assembly, should include a clause banning foreign military bases on Bolivian soil.
It's not clear how that rule would affect a handful of border military posts due to be built in Bolivia with Venezuelan aid, according to a military pact reached between Morales and President Hugo Chavez last year.
11 October 2007
President Evo Morales said he expects U.S. military aid to Bolivia to stop soon, as his government plans to bar U.S. troops from assisting in anti-drug operations.
"Happily, it's ending," Morales told reporters at a news conference Tuesday night. "No foreigner in uniform will be operating here."
Bolivia is the world's No. 3 producer of cocaine, after Colombia and Peru. Washington last year provided US$91 million (€64 million) to help fight cocaine production and encourage Bolivian coca farmers to switch crops.
U.S. aid has paid for everything from Bolivian troops' uniforms to the gasoline in their trucks since the 1980s. But U.S. soldiers have not been directly involved in anti-narcotics efforts, leaving that task to U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration personnel and State Department contractors instead.
It's not clear if Morales would ban their involvement in Bolivian anti-drug efforts, too.
Today in Americas
U.S. House panel raises furor on Armenian genocideU.S. Marines press to remove their forces from IraqGore supporters lead a movement with no candidateThe U.S. Embassy had no immediate response to Morales' statement, and declined to say how many U.S. military personnel or contractors are now in Bolivia. The number is believed to be no more than a few dozen.
Morales, who allied himself with Cuba and Venezuela following his December 2005 election as Bolivia's first indigenous president, has spurned his country's traditionally close ties with the U.S. military.
While his government has supported efforts to halt cocaine exports, Morales, a former advocate for coca farmers, defends age-old medicinal and religious uses of the coca leaf, which is a mild stimulant when chewed or consumed as tea.
Morales also suggested on Tuesday that Bolivia's new constitution, now being drafted by a popularly elected assembly, should include a clause banning foreign military bases on Bolivian soil.
It's not clear how that rule would affect a handful of border military posts due to be built in Bolivia with Venezuelan aid, according to a military pact reached between Morales and President Hugo Chavez last year.
Wazaristan: Elders Meet to seek Ceasefire Accords.
MISNA
11 October 2007
The elders of the Pashtun clan in North Waziristan, the border tribal region for days theatre to violent clashes between insurgents and Pakistani troops, are convened in Miram Shah in a bid to reach a cease-fire accord. According to the local press, the fierce fighting of the past days has left around 250 people dead, including 47 soldiers, becoming the deadliest since the resumption of hostilities in July. “We hope that both sides will agree to ceasefire and roads will be opened”, said a negotiator in the jirga, though no accord has been reached yet. A first informal truce was respected yesterday to consent the burial of 50 victims of the fighting, killed in the bombing of a market in the town of Ippi. The roads however remain closed and basic necessities begin lacking. A fragile truce signed in September 2006 between the government of Islamabad and main local tribes was broken with the first fighting in July, which marked the resumption of violence.
11 October 2007
The elders of the Pashtun clan in North Waziristan, the border tribal region for days theatre to violent clashes between insurgents and Pakistani troops, are convened in Miram Shah in a bid to reach a cease-fire accord. According to the local press, the fierce fighting of the past days has left around 250 people dead, including 47 soldiers, becoming the deadliest since the resumption of hostilities in July. “We hope that both sides will agree to ceasefire and roads will be opened”, said a negotiator in the jirga, though no accord has been reached yet. A first informal truce was respected yesterday to consent the burial of 50 victims of the fighting, killed in the bombing of a market in the town of Ippi. The roads however remain closed and basic necessities begin lacking. A fragile truce signed in September 2006 between the government of Islamabad and main local tribes was broken with the first fighting in July, which marked the resumption of violence.
After Baidoa Attack, First Tolls and Call for Reconciliation.
MISNA
11 October 2007
The director and a journalist of the Mogadishu-based Simba Radio were arrested by Somali police that raided the station. The reasons for the raid remain unclear, though Simba Radio last night aired an interview with Sheikh Mukhtar Robow, an Islamist leader of anti-government insurgents active on a daily basis in the capital Mogadishu, who said he was behind the suicide attack carried out yesterday afternoon in the town of Baidoa. According to local sources, the attack against a military base in the town killed at least three Ethiopian soldiers and wounded an unspecified number, though other sources believe the death toll was much higher. Meanwhile, this morning in a radio interview the spokesman for Mogadishu’s dominant Hawiye clan made an appeal for reconciliation between the government and the opposing armed groups. Mohamed Ahmed Diriye urged the sides to settle their differences through a mediation of the elders and create a peaceful atmosphere in “the interest of the Somali people and the development of the country”.
11 October 2007
The director and a journalist of the Mogadishu-based Simba Radio were arrested by Somali police that raided the station. The reasons for the raid remain unclear, though Simba Radio last night aired an interview with Sheikh Mukhtar Robow, an Islamist leader of anti-government insurgents active on a daily basis in the capital Mogadishu, who said he was behind the suicide attack carried out yesterday afternoon in the town of Baidoa. According to local sources, the attack against a military base in the town killed at least three Ethiopian soldiers and wounded an unspecified number, though other sources believe the death toll was much higher. Meanwhile, this morning in a radio interview the spokesman for Mogadishu’s dominant Hawiye clan made an appeal for reconciliation between the government and the opposing armed groups. Mohamed Ahmed Diriye urged the sides to settle their differences through a mediation of the elders and create a peaceful atmosphere in “the interest of the Somali people and the development of the country”.
Uganda Proposes Oil Accord With DR Congo.
MISNA
11 October 2007
The foreign affairs minister for DR Congo has proposed the formation of a ‘joint commission’ to help harmonize relations with Uganda and to jointly explore and develop petroleum exploration in Lake Albert, which is at the natural border between the two countries. Henry Okello Oryem said that the Commission shall have among its tasks the determination of sovereignty on the island of Rukwanzi, on the edge of Lake Albert, which has been the object of a dispute between the two countries. The same organism would also revise the terms of reference for petroleum exploration signed in 1990, when the Congolese president was Mobutu Sese Seko. Last September 8, the two presidents Yoweri Museveni and Joseph Kabila agreed at Arusha, Tanzania, to use petroleum resources at the border. In recent months, the Lake Albert region has witnessed incidents between the two countries’ armies; some observers say that the causes are to be searched in the oil exploration progress by companies operating in Uganda.
11 October 2007
The foreign affairs minister for DR Congo has proposed the formation of a ‘joint commission’ to help harmonize relations with Uganda and to jointly explore and develop petroleum exploration in Lake Albert, which is at the natural border between the two countries. Henry Okello Oryem said that the Commission shall have among its tasks the determination of sovereignty on the island of Rukwanzi, on the edge of Lake Albert, which has been the object of a dispute between the two countries. The same organism would also revise the terms of reference for petroleum exploration signed in 1990, when the Congolese president was Mobutu Sese Seko. Last September 8, the two presidents Yoweri Museveni and Joseph Kabila agreed at Arusha, Tanzania, to use petroleum resources at the border. In recent months, the Lake Albert region has witnessed incidents between the two countries’ armies; some observers say that the causes are to be searched in the oil exploration progress by companies operating in Uganda.
Darfur: Khartoum Not Involved, Says AU.
MISNA
10 October 2007
“The fighting, which ended about 24 hours ago, took place between local groups and there were no aerial bombardments; to flee the violence, the civilian population has abandoned the city and has not yet returned,” said Martin Luther Agwai, commander of the AU peacekeepers in Sudan, clarifying rumors of a Sudanese government involvement in the clashes that took place in Mouhajirya. “I can only confirm that there are several dead and wounded and that the Sudanese army is not involved” said Agwai. (Emphasis mine-Editor) He confirmed that thousands have left their homes in search of safer lodgings in the immediate surroundings.
10 October 2007
“The fighting, which ended about 24 hours ago, took place between local groups and there were no aerial bombardments; to flee the violence, the civilian population has abandoned the city and has not yet returned,” said Martin Luther Agwai, commander of the AU peacekeepers in Sudan, clarifying rumors of a Sudanese government involvement in the clashes that took place in Mouhajirya. “I can only confirm that there are several dead and wounded and that the Sudanese army is not involved” said Agwai. (Emphasis mine-Editor) He confirmed that thousands have left their homes in search of safer lodgings in the immediate surroundings.
Government and Exiled Opposition Meet Accord.
MISNA
11 October 2007
The government of Idriss Deby and the exiled opposition have reached an accord after the successful end to talks in Cotonou (Benin). The accord provides for a general amnesty for the three signatory groups, their participation in public affairs, government jobs and other military and political resolutions. Chad was represented at the talks by Haroun Kabadj, minister of agriculture. The three leaders who signed thw accord are: Younous Ibedou Awad of the Alliace of Resistance Democrats (ADR), Djembete le Soromian of the Democratic Coalition (DTR) and Ababakar Oumar Mahamat of the Union of the People for National Reconstruction (UPTRN). If the accord in Cotonou and the talks in Tripoli have been successful serving as positive signs, the internal opposition to Deby’s leadership remains strong. A new political-military movement is said to have been formed now. It is called MOSANAT (Movement for National Salvation of Chad) and is the fusion of two active rebel groups the CAR and MNRT.
11 October 2007
The government of Idriss Deby and the exiled opposition have reached an accord after the successful end to talks in Cotonou (Benin). The accord provides for a general amnesty for the three signatory groups, their participation in public affairs, government jobs and other military and political resolutions. Chad was represented at the talks by Haroun Kabadj, minister of agriculture. The three leaders who signed thw accord are: Younous Ibedou Awad of the Alliace of Resistance Democrats (ADR), Djembete le Soromian of the Democratic Coalition (DTR) and Ababakar Oumar Mahamat of the Union of the People for National Reconstruction (UPTRN). If the accord in Cotonou and the talks in Tripoli have been successful serving as positive signs, the internal opposition to Deby’s leadership remains strong. A new political-military movement is said to have been formed now. It is called MOSANAT (Movement for National Salvation of Chad) and is the fusion of two active rebel groups the CAR and MNRT.
ICTR inmates on hunger strike in Tanzania.
African Press Agency
11 October 2007
Inmates at the Arusha-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), a UN body, started a hunger strike Wednesday to protest against requests to transfer certain cases to Rwanda, APA has learnt here.
The move, which involves 40 of the 55 prisoners, was announced by the inmates and confirmed by an ICTR official who preferred anonymity.
On September 7, the court’s prosecutor requested that three of the six inmates awaiting the start of their trials be transferred to Rwandan courts in order to meet the deadline for the end of the ICTR mandate in December 2008.
But no decision has been made yet in connection with the request.
In a letter dated 5 October, the 40 inmates currently held in Arusha, asked the president and judges of the court to confirm the independence of the ICTR by refusing any prisoners’ transfers to Rwanda.
They instead asked the chamber presidents to urgently schedule the trial of the six pending cases.
The signatories suggested that the ICTR president should ask the UN Security Council to prolong the mandate of the court or to transfer some of the uncompleted trials to courts in countries other than Rwanda should the ICTR fail to try them within the scheduled time.
They argued that the motions of the prosecutor only fit the tripartite agreement between the USA, the United Kingdom and the leaders of the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front in power in Kigali aimed at quickly ending the mandate of the ICTR in order to protect the members of that front from criminal prosecution for crimes which they committed in Rwanda during the jurisdiction of the tribunal.
Among the prisoners who did not sign the letter, for the first time in the history of the ICTR, was Colonel Théoneste Bagosora, a former cabinet director to the Rwandan Defence Minister.
APA, however, was unable to establish the reason behind Bagosora’s move.
11 October 2007
Inmates at the Arusha-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), a UN body, started a hunger strike Wednesday to protest against requests to transfer certain cases to Rwanda, APA has learnt here.
The move, which involves 40 of the 55 prisoners, was announced by the inmates and confirmed by an ICTR official who preferred anonymity.
On September 7, the court’s prosecutor requested that three of the six inmates awaiting the start of their trials be transferred to Rwandan courts in order to meet the deadline for the end of the ICTR mandate in December 2008.
But no decision has been made yet in connection with the request.
In a letter dated 5 October, the 40 inmates currently held in Arusha, asked the president and judges of the court to confirm the independence of the ICTR by refusing any prisoners’ transfers to Rwanda.
They instead asked the chamber presidents to urgently schedule the trial of the six pending cases.
The signatories suggested that the ICTR president should ask the UN Security Council to prolong the mandate of the court or to transfer some of the uncompleted trials to courts in countries other than Rwanda should the ICTR fail to try them within the scheduled time.
They argued that the motions of the prosecutor only fit the tripartite agreement between the USA, the United Kingdom and the leaders of the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front in power in Kigali aimed at quickly ending the mandate of the ICTR in order to protect the members of that front from criminal prosecution for crimes which they committed in Rwanda during the jurisdiction of the tribunal.
Among the prisoners who did not sign the letter, for the first time in the history of the ICTR, was Colonel Théoneste Bagosora, a former cabinet director to the Rwandan Defence Minister.
APA, however, was unable to establish the reason behind Bagosora’s move.
The ICTR Lawyers Denounce the Transfers of Accused to Rwandan Courts.
Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne)
10 October 2007
The Association of defence counsels (ADAD) at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) denounced Wednesday the project to transfer to Rwandan courts some accused from this United Nations tribunal, in an official statement published Wednesday.
On 7 September, the ICTR prosecutor, Hassan Bubacar Jallow, addressed to the president of the t/ribunal motions aiming at transferring to Rwandan courts Lieutenant Ildephonse Hategekimana and the former businessmen Gapard Kanyarukiga and Yussuf Munyakazi.
"The ADAD denounces the transfer of ICTR cases to Rwanda as a violation of the rights of the accused to a fair trial and urges the ICTR judges to reject the prosecution's motions for transfers", indicates the official statement.
"The ICTR, in the interest of reconciliation, is mandated to prosecute all parties in the Rwandan conflict which are accused of crimes ", writes the ADAD in this official statement distributed to the press by the president of the association, American Peter Erlinder.
For the ADAD, "the ICTR detainees, who could be key potential witnesses against the crimes of the current RPF regime, are considered by the Kagame government in Rwanda , as enemies and have already been presumed guilty".
"After 13 years, only one side, the Hutus, has been tried and there has not yet been an indictment issued against the RPF", points out the ADAD, accusing the ICTR of practicing "victor's justice".
"The ICTR judges should not make themselves accomplices in this further distortion of the ICTR mandate by delivering UN detainees to the control of those who should themselves be defendants at the ICTR ", the text adds.
On Monday and Tuesday, the majority of the 55 detainees of the ICTR observed a hunger strike as a protest against the transfer projects to Rwanda. According to an official at the prison, they would have announced their intention to end their strike on Wednesday evening.
The ICTR, which the Security Council has requested to finish its first instance trials by the end of next year, is obligated to transfer certain cases to national courts.
10 October 2007
The Association of defence counsels (ADAD) at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) denounced Wednesday the project to transfer to Rwandan courts some accused from this United Nations tribunal, in an official statement published Wednesday.
On 7 September, the ICTR prosecutor, Hassan Bubacar Jallow, addressed to the president of the t/ribunal motions aiming at transferring to Rwandan courts Lieutenant Ildephonse Hategekimana and the former businessmen Gapard Kanyarukiga and Yussuf Munyakazi.
"The ADAD denounces the transfer of ICTR cases to Rwanda as a violation of the rights of the accused to a fair trial and urges the ICTR judges to reject the prosecution's motions for transfers", indicates the official statement.
"The ICTR, in the interest of reconciliation, is mandated to prosecute all parties in the Rwandan conflict which are accused of crimes ", writes the ADAD in this official statement distributed to the press by the president of the association, American Peter Erlinder.
For the ADAD, "the ICTR detainees, who could be key potential witnesses against the crimes of the current RPF regime, are considered by the Kagame government in Rwanda , as enemies and have already been presumed guilty".
"After 13 years, only one side, the Hutus, has been tried and there has not yet been an indictment issued against the RPF", points out the ADAD, accusing the ICTR of practicing "victor's justice".
"The ICTR judges should not make themselves accomplices in this further distortion of the ICTR mandate by delivering UN detainees to the control of those who should themselves be defendants at the ICTR ", the text adds.
On Monday and Tuesday, the majority of the 55 detainees of the ICTR observed a hunger strike as a protest against the transfer projects to Rwanda. According to an official at the prison, they would have announced their intention to end their strike on Wednesday evening.
The ICTR, which the Security Council has requested to finish its first instance trials by the end of next year, is obligated to transfer certain cases to national courts.
Launching of a Study on the Archives of the International Tribunals.
Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne)
10 October 2007
A study on the archives of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and on those of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) will be undertaken by the South African Judge Richard Goldstone, it was learned from an official source at the ICTR.
According to an ICTR press release, "the work of this independent committee is crucial for the safeguarding of the legacy of the two tribunals, for the victims as for the future of international criminal justice", affirmed Judge Goldstone, who was the first prosecutor of the two "ad hoc" tribunals.
According to the text, these archives of the two tribunals consist of thousands of pages of evidence and several tens of thousands of hours of video recordings of the proceedings.
This committee will return its report by the end of the first quarter of 2008. Safety, accessibility as well as the safeguarding of the archives will have to be considered by the committee.
It will be composed for the ICTY of Professor Eric Ketelaar, former head of the Dutch public archives, as well as Mrs. Cécile Aptel, who worked in the two tribunals.
For the ICTR, Mr. Salou Mbaye, former head of the Senegalese public archives, and a judge from the Tanzanian appeals chamber Chande Othman, former chief prosecutor then prosecutor in Timor-Leste, were appointed.
The Netherlands, which has hosted since 1993 the ICTY and the International Criminal Court since its creation, already proposed to accommodate, in a building which would be built for this purpose, in The Hague the archives of the two international tribunals. Rwanda has also let known its intention to receive the archives of the ICTR.
Editor's Note: Recall that Judge Goldstone has advocated for the prosecution of the RPF for war crimes.
10 October 2007
A study on the archives of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and on those of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) will be undertaken by the South African Judge Richard Goldstone, it was learned from an official source at the ICTR.
According to an ICTR press release, "the work of this independent committee is crucial for the safeguarding of the legacy of the two tribunals, for the victims as for the future of international criminal justice", affirmed Judge Goldstone, who was the first prosecutor of the two "ad hoc" tribunals.
According to the text, these archives of the two tribunals consist of thousands of pages of evidence and several tens of thousands of hours of video recordings of the proceedings.
This committee will return its report by the end of the first quarter of 2008. Safety, accessibility as well as the safeguarding of the archives will have to be considered by the committee.
It will be composed for the ICTY of Professor Eric Ketelaar, former head of the Dutch public archives, as well as Mrs. Cécile Aptel, who worked in the two tribunals.
For the ICTR, Mr. Salou Mbaye, former head of the Senegalese public archives, and a judge from the Tanzanian appeals chamber Chande Othman, former chief prosecutor then prosecutor in Timor-Leste, were appointed.
The Netherlands, which has hosted since 1993 the ICTY and the International Criminal Court since its creation, already proposed to accommodate, in a building which would be built for this purpose, in The Hague the archives of the two international tribunals. Rwanda has also let known its intention to receive the archives of the ICTR.
Editor's Note: Recall that Judge Goldstone has advocated for the prosecution of the RPF for war crimes.
US firms exempt from embargo in South Sudan development.
Reuters
October 10, 2007 (JUBA, Sudan) — U.S. firms working to develop south Sudan will be exempted from U.S. sanctions under a deal to encourage investment in the impoverished region, a southern official said on Wednesday.
But South Sudan Finance Minister Kuol Athian said U.S. companies would not be allowed to invest in Sudan’s oil sector.
Following a north-south peace deal in 2005 ending Africa’s longest civil war, a semi-autonomous south Sudan government was formed with the right to vote on secession by 2011.
But U.S. economic sanctions, imposed on Sudan since 1997 after Washington accused Khartoum’s Islamist government of "supporting terrorism", have prevented big U.S. and even European firms investing to rebuild the country.
"Investors who are interested in South Sudan are welcome. American companies are welcome to come," Athian said.
But he said the new deal negotiated with the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets only applied to companies coming to invest in development of the south, which has little infrastructure already straining to cope with a huge influx of hundreds of thousands of returning refugees post peace.
U.S. dollar transactions to Southern Sudan would also be made easier, he said.
"Not for the oil ... but other companies can come, and they can transfer their money to South Sudan," he said.
The southern central bank’s deputy manager Kornelio Koriom said until now direct dollar transfers had been difficult.
"The movement of funds (and) settlement of payments in dollars was not allowed," said Koriom, added the southern central bank now had its own swift code for sending and receiving dollars.
He said foreign investors to the south who had been deterred by the dollar restrictions would now be able to transfer dollars in and out of the south.
"Now it will be easy to arrange any payment," Koriom said.
Sudan’s northern central bank said in September that it planned to convert all dollar reserves into euros and other currencies by year end to avoid problems with U.S. dollar transactions.
The peace deal allocated the south about 50 percent of oil revenues from wells south of the border with northern Sudan.
But the south has complained of a lack of transparency and delays in transfers from the north which controls the oil sector, hindering the function of their administration.
Athian said a new system would increase the south’s quick access to the cash.
"(Under) the new system, after the sale the oil we will get our share directly to our Bank of South Sudan, not through Khartoum," said Athian, who cut the deal with the American Office of Foreign Assets in September.
October 10, 2007 (JUBA, Sudan) — U.S. firms working to develop south Sudan will be exempted from U.S. sanctions under a deal to encourage investment in the impoverished region, a southern official said on Wednesday.
But South Sudan Finance Minister Kuol Athian said U.S. companies would not be allowed to invest in Sudan’s oil sector.
Following a north-south peace deal in 2005 ending Africa’s longest civil war, a semi-autonomous south Sudan government was formed with the right to vote on secession by 2011.
But U.S. economic sanctions, imposed on Sudan since 1997 after Washington accused Khartoum’s Islamist government of "supporting terrorism", have prevented big U.S. and even European firms investing to rebuild the country.
"Investors who are interested in South Sudan are welcome. American companies are welcome to come," Athian said.
But he said the new deal negotiated with the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets only applied to companies coming to invest in development of the south, which has little infrastructure already straining to cope with a huge influx of hundreds of thousands of returning refugees post peace.
U.S. dollar transactions to Southern Sudan would also be made easier, he said.
"Not for the oil ... but other companies can come, and they can transfer their money to South Sudan," he said.
The southern central bank’s deputy manager Kornelio Koriom said until now direct dollar transfers had been difficult.
"The movement of funds (and) settlement of payments in dollars was not allowed," said Koriom, added the southern central bank now had its own swift code for sending and receiving dollars.
He said foreign investors to the south who had been deterred by the dollar restrictions would now be able to transfer dollars in and out of the south.
"Now it will be easy to arrange any payment," Koriom said.
Sudan’s northern central bank said in September that it planned to convert all dollar reserves into euros and other currencies by year end to avoid problems with U.S. dollar transactions.
The peace deal allocated the south about 50 percent of oil revenues from wells south of the border with northern Sudan.
But the south has complained of a lack of transparency and delays in transfers from the north which controls the oil sector, hindering the function of their administration.
Athian said a new system would increase the south’s quick access to the cash.
"(Under) the new system, after the sale the oil we will get our share directly to our Bank of South Sudan, not through Khartoum," said Athian, who cut the deal with the American Office of Foreign Assets in September.
Darfur talks to focus on politically important rebel groups - UN.
Sudan Tribune
October 10, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — The UN Secretary General special envoy to Darfur disclosed that the forthcoming peace talks in Libya will focus on politically important rebel groups.
Jan Eliasson told the official SUNA that Sirte talks set to begin on October 27 will involve Darfur parties that have political weight on the ground and not those with military mightiness.
The UN envoy made these statements following a meeting with after holding talks with Presidential Assistant, and top negotiator, Nafi Ali Nafi, in Khartoum.
The Sirte negotiations are designed to find a solution to the conflict between rebels, Government forces and allied Janjaweed militia groups. Eliasson and his African Union counterpart Salim Ahmed Salim will convene those talks.
Influential rebel Sudan Liberation Movement leader, Abdelwahid al-Nur, who is boycotting the current peace process, said he will only participate in negotiations if it is limited to SLM and Justice and Equality Movement of Khalil Ibrahim. The two rebel groups that rejected Abuja peace agreement.
Also, the chairman of the rebel JEM threatened to boycott the talks if there are more than three parties: Sudanese government, JEM and a unified SLM delegation.
Eliasson further said that there are some voices in Darfur that must be listened to.
Eliasson also chaired a high-level meeting today with representatives of the regional partners to the talks, including Ali Triki, Libya’s Minister for African Affairs.
During his current visit to the region Eliasson has also met the leaders of some Darfurian Arab tribes to brief them on the preparations. Earlier this week in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, Salim and Eliasson co-chaired a two-day meeting with the Joint AU-UN Mediation Support Team.
More than 200,000 people have been killed and another 2.2 million forced to flee their homes across Darfur, an arid and impoverished region, because of fighting that has raged since 2003. Some 4 million Darfurians now depend on humanitarian aid.
October 10, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — The UN Secretary General special envoy to Darfur disclosed that the forthcoming peace talks in Libya will focus on politically important rebel groups.
Jan Eliasson told the official SUNA that Sirte talks set to begin on October 27 will involve Darfur parties that have political weight on the ground and not those with military mightiness.
The UN envoy made these statements following a meeting with after holding talks with Presidential Assistant, and top negotiator, Nafi Ali Nafi, in Khartoum.
The Sirte negotiations are designed to find a solution to the conflict between rebels, Government forces and allied Janjaweed militia groups. Eliasson and his African Union counterpart Salim Ahmed Salim will convene those talks.
Influential rebel Sudan Liberation Movement leader, Abdelwahid al-Nur, who is boycotting the current peace process, said he will only participate in negotiations if it is limited to SLM and Justice and Equality Movement of Khalil Ibrahim. The two rebel groups that rejected Abuja peace agreement.
Also, the chairman of the rebel JEM threatened to boycott the talks if there are more than three parties: Sudanese government, JEM and a unified SLM delegation.
Eliasson further said that there are some voices in Darfur that must be listened to.
Eliasson also chaired a high-level meeting today with representatives of the regional partners to the talks, including Ali Triki, Libya’s Minister for African Affairs.
During his current visit to the region Eliasson has also met the leaders of some Darfurian Arab tribes to brief them on the preparations. Earlier this week in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, Salim and Eliasson co-chaired a two-day meeting with the Joint AU-UN Mediation Support Team.
More than 200,000 people have been killed and another 2.2 million forced to flee their homes across Darfur, an arid and impoverished region, because of fighting that has raged since 2003. Some 4 million Darfurians now depend on humanitarian aid.
Country's Diamonds Under Spotlight.
Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)
10 October 2007
By Monkagedi Gaotlhobogwe
As the country embarks on taking centre stage in the world's diamond trade through the opening of the Diamond Trading Centre (DTC) in Gaborone in the New Year, Botswana should start hosting major international conferences on the diamond trade in accordance with the country's new status, says Akanyang Tombale, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources.
The country should use such conferences as a forum to tell its undiluted story regarding what it has to offer the world as a key player in the global diamond trade, Tombale said.
He was speaking ahead of next week's international diamonds conference in Antwerp, Belgium, where DTC Botswana and its ancillaries in Namibia and South Africa will be on the agenda.
He was also responding to a statement released by the conveners of the conference questioning Botswana's capacity as the new centre of the diamond trade.
"Perhaps we should host several of these conferences ourselves in the future not only to lure diamond companies to Botswana, but to reassure (ourselves) that Botswana has the capacity to deliver as the new world diamond center," says Tombale.
He admits that European powers that have been centres of the diamond industry may feel threatened by steps taken by Botswana; he assured them that Botswana does not intend to upstage anyone.
"Diamonds are not infinite resources," Tombale observes. "But when they finally run out, we do not want to remain with just empty pits. Diamonds can help us diversify the future of the industry and De Beers has supported us in our move to diversify our economy from just being a diamond producer," Tombale says.
"We wish European countries dependent on the diamond industry would help us achieve this dream because we need them on board. We do not want to be viewed as a threat to anyone." Botswana will be represented by Minister Ponatshego Kedikilwe and key officials from the Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources at the Antwerp conference.
Tombale is hoping that Botswana's cutting and polishing companies, four of which originate from Belgium, will also be in attendance.
Sixteen cutting and polishing companies have so far been registered in Botswana, while more are expected to be licensed in the New Year.
Tombale was asked to respond to a press statement released in Belgium casting doubt on Botswana's capacity to be the new centre of the diamond trade.
"Questions have been raised about the viability of the fledgling African cutting industry, which faces stiff competition from India and China, and currently lacks the physical and financial infrastructures available elsewhere," the statement reads in part.
It is feared that a number of invited speakers at the conference will dismiss the Botswana project and discourage any further interest in investing in the country. Notable among such speakers will be representatives of Canadian and Australian diamond companies, which have resolutely placed themselves to compete with Botswana.
"We are witnessing the beginning of a process that we know will change the way in which the diamond industry has operated for more than a century, but there are very real questions about the degree of change and what effects it will have on the business and the diamond market," Freddy J. Hanard says in the statement. "These changes are forcing members of our industry to question how and where they will obtain rough supply in the future, and where they will process the diamonds. All these issues will be addressed at the conference in Antwerp."
Hanard is the CEO of the Antwerp World Diamond Centre, the organiser of the Antwerp Diamond Conference.
The strident statement warns that the need to secure a greater portion of the diamond value chain is an issue of critical economic and political importance in Botswana, South Africa, Namibia and Angola, which together supply more than 50 percent of the rough diamonds flowing into the world pipeline each year.
10 October 2007
By Monkagedi Gaotlhobogwe
As the country embarks on taking centre stage in the world's diamond trade through the opening of the Diamond Trading Centre (DTC) in Gaborone in the New Year, Botswana should start hosting major international conferences on the diamond trade in accordance with the country's new status, says Akanyang Tombale, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources.
The country should use such conferences as a forum to tell its undiluted story regarding what it has to offer the world as a key player in the global diamond trade, Tombale said.
He was speaking ahead of next week's international diamonds conference in Antwerp, Belgium, where DTC Botswana and its ancillaries in Namibia and South Africa will be on the agenda.
He was also responding to a statement released by the conveners of the conference questioning Botswana's capacity as the new centre of the diamond trade.
"Perhaps we should host several of these conferences ourselves in the future not only to lure diamond companies to Botswana, but to reassure (ourselves) that Botswana has the capacity to deliver as the new world diamond center," says Tombale.
He admits that European powers that have been centres of the diamond industry may feel threatened by steps taken by Botswana; he assured them that Botswana does not intend to upstage anyone.
"Diamonds are not infinite resources," Tombale observes. "But when they finally run out, we do not want to remain with just empty pits. Diamonds can help us diversify the future of the industry and De Beers has supported us in our move to diversify our economy from just being a diamond producer," Tombale says.
"We wish European countries dependent on the diamond industry would help us achieve this dream because we need them on board. We do not want to be viewed as a threat to anyone." Botswana will be represented by Minister Ponatshego Kedikilwe and key officials from the Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources at the Antwerp conference.
Tombale is hoping that Botswana's cutting and polishing companies, four of which originate from Belgium, will also be in attendance.
Sixteen cutting and polishing companies have so far been registered in Botswana, while more are expected to be licensed in the New Year.
Tombale was asked to respond to a press statement released in Belgium casting doubt on Botswana's capacity to be the new centre of the diamond trade.
"Questions have been raised about the viability of the fledgling African cutting industry, which faces stiff competition from India and China, and currently lacks the physical and financial infrastructures available elsewhere," the statement reads in part.
It is feared that a number of invited speakers at the conference will dismiss the Botswana project and discourage any further interest in investing in the country. Notable among such speakers will be representatives of Canadian and Australian diamond companies, which have resolutely placed themselves to compete with Botswana.
"We are witnessing the beginning of a process that we know will change the way in which the diamond industry has operated for more than a century, but there are very real questions about the degree of change and what effects it will have on the business and the diamond market," Freddy J. Hanard says in the statement. "These changes are forcing members of our industry to question how and where they will obtain rough supply in the future, and where they will process the diamonds. All these issues will be addressed at the conference in Antwerp."
Hanard is the CEO of the Antwerp World Diamond Centre, the organiser of the Antwerp Diamond Conference.
The strident statement warns that the need to secure a greater portion of the diamond value chain is an issue of critical economic and political importance in Botswana, South Africa, Namibia and Angola, which together supply more than 50 percent of the rough diamonds flowing into the world pipeline each year.
Freed Citizen Seeking $ 1.7 mil in Damages From Canada.
Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information (Kigali)
10 October 2007
Mr. Victor Ndihokubwayo whose Genocide case was dropped by the Canadian Federal Court has now filed a suit against government seeking close to $1.7 million in damages, RNA has established.
According to the Toronto Globe and Mail, Mr. Ndihokubwayo in a lawsuit filed last month against the Attorney-General of Canada, wants the money as compensation to the effect done to his reputation, lost bonuses at work and for the pain and suffering he has endured.
Mr. Ndihokubwayo - 34- is son of Bishop Aaron Ruhumuliza blamed for hundreds of deaths at a Methodist church in Kigali during the Genocide between the periods April 8-10, 1994. According to a 1998 African Rights report, father and son wooed several Tutsis to the church compound only to hand them over to the rampaging militia.
Following an arduous 18-month legal battle that revealed gross misrepresentations by the investigators, all allegations against Ndihokubwayo were dropped, and the Federal Court ruled last month that there had been an "abuse of process" in the government's handling of his case.
RNA broke the story of the impending release of Mr. Victor Ndihokubwayo to officials of the prosecutor's office in Rwanda but they were unable to even establish the name of the suspect. The court had ordered Canadian media not to use his name. His father, meanwhile also remains free.
"I feel like they went out of their way to ruin my life. It's something akin to what I had seen in my country," he told the Canadian daily. Mr. Ndihokubwayo had been practicing civil law in Canada for the federal Department of Justice and lives in Gatineau-Quebec.
In mid-August, once lawyers for the government had read the full transcripts of the case, the deportation case against Ndihokubwayo collapsed when the Canada Border Services Agency withdrew all efforts to deport him.
Despite everything, Mr. Ndihokubwayo says he is not a bitter man. He wants to be in Canada and has done everything he can to embrace his adopted home. All he wants, he says, is for those responsible to be held accountable.
"I mean, they did this to their colleague, one of their own," he said.
"They know I'm well-educated and I have some means to defend myself. I know the system. But imagine other people who do not know the system, who aren't as educated, and who do not have the means. What are the guarantees that this won't happen again, to someone less fortunate?"
10 October 2007
Mr. Victor Ndihokubwayo whose Genocide case was dropped by the Canadian Federal Court has now filed a suit against government seeking close to $1.7 million in damages, RNA has established.
According to the Toronto Globe and Mail, Mr. Ndihokubwayo in a lawsuit filed last month against the Attorney-General of Canada, wants the money as compensation to the effect done to his reputation, lost bonuses at work and for the pain and suffering he has endured.
Mr. Ndihokubwayo - 34- is son of Bishop Aaron Ruhumuliza blamed for hundreds of deaths at a Methodist church in Kigali during the Genocide between the periods April 8-10, 1994. According to a 1998 African Rights report, father and son wooed several Tutsis to the church compound only to hand them over to the rampaging militia.
Following an arduous 18-month legal battle that revealed gross misrepresentations by the investigators, all allegations against Ndihokubwayo were dropped, and the Federal Court ruled last month that there had been an "abuse of process" in the government's handling of his case.
RNA broke the story of the impending release of Mr. Victor Ndihokubwayo to officials of the prosecutor's office in Rwanda but they were unable to even establish the name of the suspect. The court had ordered Canadian media not to use his name. His father, meanwhile also remains free.
"I feel like they went out of their way to ruin my life. It's something akin to what I had seen in my country," he told the Canadian daily. Mr. Ndihokubwayo had been practicing civil law in Canada for the federal Department of Justice and lives in Gatineau-Quebec.
In mid-August, once lawyers for the government had read the full transcripts of the case, the deportation case against Ndihokubwayo collapsed when the Canada Border Services Agency withdrew all efforts to deport him.
Despite everything, Mr. Ndihokubwayo says he is not a bitter man. He wants to be in Canada and has done everything he can to embrace his adopted home. All he wants, he says, is for those responsible to be held accountable.
"I mean, they did this to their colleague, one of their own," he said.
"They know I'm well-educated and I have some means to defend myself. I know the system. But imagine other people who do not know the system, who aren't as educated, and who do not have the means. What are the guarantees that this won't happen again, to someone less fortunate?"
Uganda-DRC Sign Agreement
Press Release: Government of Uganda
9 October 2007
President Yoweri Museveni and President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo, last night signed a joint bilateral co-operation agreement aimed at establishing peace and security in both countries and normalizing their relations and strengthening their co-operation.
The historic Ngorodoto Agreement was reached after a 2-day special summit convened by the Tanzanian leader President Jakaya Kikwete at Ngorodoto Mountain and Country Club in Arusha. Mr. Kikwete also witnessed the signing of the documents.
The landmark agreement covered areas of defence and security, economic co-operation as well as political and diplomatic co-operation.
At the end of the special summit, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo also issued a joint communiqué in which President Yoweri Museveni congratulated President Kabila and the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo upon the successful completion of the political transition in that country.
He pledged the support and co-operation of the government and the people of Uganda to the government and the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The 2 Presidents also renewed their commitment to the promotion of good neighbourliness, peace and security in their countries and the region.
They agreed to re-affirm the respect of the sovereignty of states and the inviolability of borders inherited from colonialism. They, however, agreed on the creation of a joint committee tasked with re-marking the common border.
Meanwhile, Rukwanzi Island in Lake Albert, is to be de-militarised and a joint administration with the presence of a joint police force, be established.
The 2 Presidents committed themselves to promote co-operation in the joint exploration and exploitation of trans-boundary hydro-carbons and to review the existing agreement of co-operation in the exploration of hydro-carbons and exploitation of the common fields signed in June 1990.
Regarding the case involving the 2 countries and the decision of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the 2 countries agreed to put in place an adhoc joint committee to examine the practical modalities of its execution.
In his remarks after the signing of the agreement and the presentation of the joint communiqué, President Yoweri Museveni said "the collaboration reflected in the agreement is a fantastic achievement for both Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo and a tiding up of the mess of the past caused by unelected governments which were not, therefore, accountable to the people".
He said that with the completion of the democratic elections in the Great Lakes region, governments are now answerable to the people and cannot afford endless insecurity because the people will vote them out.
Commenting on the border issues, Mr. Museveni said it was embarrassing for Pan-African leaders to have to refer to maps and agreements made in European capitals. He said "we must see how to move beyond this colonial paradigm and push our own agenda like greater integration so that these borders are transcended and the people live in peace across these boundaries".
On the issue of petroleum, President Museveni said this was a new opportunity to help the region develop further. He said huge amounts of good quality petroleum and gas have so far been found in over 6% of the exploration area in Uganda. He said he was glad that the Democratic Republic of Congo had agreed with Uganda on how to move forward and assured that the proceeds of the oil will not be misused.
The President also talked about value addition to other mineral resources and said that "the establishment of a joint gold refinery would emancipate our countries from modern slavery where we sell unprocessed gold at US$23 per ounce yet it could fetch US$400 an ounce when processed'.
He said other minerals like coltan, cobalt and uranium should also be processed in the region.
On his part, President Kabila said the Democratic Republic of Congo delegation came to Arusha with a vision for peace in the DRC, Uganda and the Great Lakes region and a mission to enforce the agreements already in place between Uganda and the DRC aimed at creating fundamentals for peace and development.
Mr. Kabila said the agreement they had just concluded was a testimony of the determination of President Museveni and himself to make peace in the 2 countries.
Host President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania said a new chapter of co-operation between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda had been opened by the Arusha agreement which he said is crowned with the success of the 3 leaders and their delegations as anticipated right from the beginning of their talks. He said Tanzania was ready to do everything to see the successful implementation of the Ngorodoto Agreement.
The 3 leaders looked forward to the next meeting that they hoped would be hosted either in Kampala or Kinshasa to review progress made in implementing what has been agreed upon in Arusha. They also exchanged copies of the signed agreement.
The 2-day summit was attended by high powered ministerial delegations led by their respective Foreign Affairs Ministers.
President Museveni left Arusha and was seen off at Kilimanjaro International Airport by Tanzanian Foreign Minister Mr. Bernard Membe, Uganda's High Commissioner to Tanzania Mr. Ibrahim Mukiibi, MPs Oleny Charles Ojok and Bako Christine Abia and Uganda Military Attaché to the East African Community Brigadier Tolit as well as other senior government and military officials.
President Museveni was received on arrival at Entebbe International Airport by Deputy Head of Public Service, Ms. Hilda Musubira, the Deputy Chief of the Defence Forces, Lt. General Ivan Koreta and the Commissioner General of Prisons Dr. Johnson Byabashaija.
..End.
9 October 2007
President Yoweri Museveni and President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo, last night signed a joint bilateral co-operation agreement aimed at establishing peace and security in both countries and normalizing their relations and strengthening their co-operation.
The historic Ngorodoto Agreement was reached after a 2-day special summit convened by the Tanzanian leader President Jakaya Kikwete at Ngorodoto Mountain and Country Club in Arusha. Mr. Kikwete also witnessed the signing of the documents.
The landmark agreement covered areas of defence and security, economic co-operation as well as political and diplomatic co-operation.
At the end of the special summit, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo also issued a joint communiqué in which President Yoweri Museveni congratulated President Kabila and the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo upon the successful completion of the political transition in that country.
He pledged the support and co-operation of the government and the people of Uganda to the government and the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The 2 Presidents also renewed their commitment to the promotion of good neighbourliness, peace and security in their countries and the region.
They agreed to re-affirm the respect of the sovereignty of states and the inviolability of borders inherited from colonialism. They, however, agreed on the creation of a joint committee tasked with re-marking the common border.
Meanwhile, Rukwanzi Island in Lake Albert, is to be de-militarised and a joint administration with the presence of a joint police force, be established.
The 2 Presidents committed themselves to promote co-operation in the joint exploration and exploitation of trans-boundary hydro-carbons and to review the existing agreement of co-operation in the exploration of hydro-carbons and exploitation of the common fields signed in June 1990.
Regarding the case involving the 2 countries and the decision of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the 2 countries agreed to put in place an adhoc joint committee to examine the practical modalities of its execution.
In his remarks after the signing of the agreement and the presentation of the joint communiqué, President Yoweri Museveni said "the collaboration reflected in the agreement is a fantastic achievement for both Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo and a tiding up of the mess of the past caused by unelected governments which were not, therefore, accountable to the people".
He said that with the completion of the democratic elections in the Great Lakes region, governments are now answerable to the people and cannot afford endless insecurity because the people will vote them out.
Commenting on the border issues, Mr. Museveni said it was embarrassing for Pan-African leaders to have to refer to maps and agreements made in European capitals. He said "we must see how to move beyond this colonial paradigm and push our own agenda like greater integration so that these borders are transcended and the people live in peace across these boundaries".
On the issue of petroleum, President Museveni said this was a new opportunity to help the region develop further. He said huge amounts of good quality petroleum and gas have so far been found in over 6% of the exploration area in Uganda. He said he was glad that the Democratic Republic of Congo had agreed with Uganda on how to move forward and assured that the proceeds of the oil will not be misused.
The President also talked about value addition to other mineral resources and said that "the establishment of a joint gold refinery would emancipate our countries from modern slavery where we sell unprocessed gold at US$23 per ounce yet it could fetch US$400 an ounce when processed'.
He said other minerals like coltan, cobalt and uranium should also be processed in the region.
On his part, President Kabila said the Democratic Republic of Congo delegation came to Arusha with a vision for peace in the DRC, Uganda and the Great Lakes region and a mission to enforce the agreements already in place between Uganda and the DRC aimed at creating fundamentals for peace and development.
Mr. Kabila said the agreement they had just concluded was a testimony of the determination of President Museveni and himself to make peace in the 2 countries.
Host President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania said a new chapter of co-operation between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda had been opened by the Arusha agreement which he said is crowned with the success of the 3 leaders and their delegations as anticipated right from the beginning of their talks. He said Tanzania was ready to do everything to see the successful implementation of the Ngorodoto Agreement.
The 3 leaders looked forward to the next meeting that they hoped would be hosted either in Kampala or Kinshasa to review progress made in implementing what has been agreed upon in Arusha. They also exchanged copies of the signed agreement.
The 2-day summit was attended by high powered ministerial delegations led by their respective Foreign Affairs Ministers.
President Museveni left Arusha and was seen off at Kilimanjaro International Airport by Tanzanian Foreign Minister Mr. Bernard Membe, Uganda's High Commissioner to Tanzania Mr. Ibrahim Mukiibi, MPs Oleny Charles Ojok and Bako Christine Abia and Uganda Military Attaché to the East African Community Brigadier Tolit as well as other senior government and military officials.
President Museveni was received on arrival at Entebbe International Airport by Deputy Head of Public Service, Ms. Hilda Musubira, the Deputy Chief of the Defence Forces, Lt. General Ivan Koreta and the Commissioner General of Prisons Dr. Johnson Byabashaija.
..End.
10 October, 2007
A Congolese national Faces Paul Kagame
A Congolese national exiled in Great Britain recently attended one of the public functions that hosted Rwandan President Paul Kagame while he was in London recently. It is rare to get a firsthand account of such meetings. However, Mr. Roger Antoine Lokongo, who has lost so many countrymen to the RPA/RDF over the last 13 years, decided it was time to confront his nemesis. You can read the article he calls "Face to Face With the Butcher of Kigali," written in his own words in both English and French at http://www.congopanorama.info/. Please note that the opinions expressed in his article and on his website reflect Mr. Lokongo's views and opinions, and his alone. They do not necessarily reflect my own. However, I feel readers may be interested in noting Paul Kagame's reactions to such frank questioning, which is never seen in the presses. Also note that, despite the fact the press intently questioned Mr. Lokongo after the meeting, none of them bothered to include anything he had to say in their stories.
Rape as a Weapon of Power and Domination: Congo's Plague.
Democracy Now
8 October 2007
AMY GOODMAN: President Bush was talking about the violence in Darfur, Sudan, but he made no mention of another crisis in Africa: the long and ongoing wars in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Between 1997 and 2004, up to four million people died in the conflict. That's according to the latest mortality survey carried out by the International Rescue Committee and published in the British medical journal Lancet. The IRC also estimates today, three years later, 38,000 people continue to die each month.
Today we focus on a particularly brutal aspect of the ongoing war in the DRC: the war against women. Speaking to the New York Times, John Homes, the UN Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, called the sexual violence in the Congo “the worst in the world.”
Christine Schuler Deschryver is a Congolese human rights activist. She lives in Bukavu in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the violence against women is the worst. She came into our firehouse studio last month. I asked her to describe the situation in her country.
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: In Congo, since ten years ago, the war started in ’96. After the genocide in Rwanda in ’94, all the one who made the genocide arrived in Congo and stayed there in camps. And in ’96, when the war started, they went out from the camps and went inside the forest, and then they started killing and raping the Congolese population. Three years ago, we had the report from International Rescue Committee that already four million people died in Congo, so it's one of the most --
AMY GOODMAN: Four million?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: Four million. It was three years ago, in 2004. And now we are waiting for the new report, I think, for beginning October. It will probably be seven million or more, and nobody is talking about this silent war that's going on in Congo, because the official war ended three years ago. We had elections last year.
But there's another form of very violent war with sexual terrorism going on in Congo. We are talking about more than -- in all eastern part of Congo, more than 200,000 women, children and babies being raped every day, and now, right now, I am talking to you, thousands of women are taken and children into forests as slave sex. And today --
AMY GOODMAN: As sex slaves.
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: As sex slaves, yeah. And we are not -- I’m sorry just to talk like this -- we are not talking about normal rapes anymore. We are talking about sexual terrorism, because they destroyed, and they -- you cannot imagine what's going on in Congo. Rape is a taboo, I think, in most of African countries, so the women who accept to go to the hospital or to be registered, it's because they don't have a choice anymore. They have to go and be repaired, because we are talking about new surgery to repair the women, because they’re completely destroyed. And the ones who are just raped without big destruction, they don't talk about rape, because the African -- the Congolese woman, she suffered so much that she can support being raped without telling it, when she doesn't need medical care.
AMY GOODMAN: But the medical care you're talking about is what?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: Very, very heavy surgery. We have some women, for example , this Panzi Hospital close to Bukavu town.
AMY GOODMAN: Bukavu is where you live?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: Bukavu, yeah, it's where I live. It’s eastern part of Congo, just at the border of Rwanda, five minutes walking. And we do have a hospital that is very specialized in rape, because of --
AMY GOODMAN: This is the Panzi Hospital?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: Yeah, Panzi Hospital. And -- I forgot the idea was.
AMY GOODMAN: And the women who come to this hospital, what -- they have been raped, and they have been physically --
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: Destroyed.
AMY GOODMAN: How? What is the operation? What is the -- what is the operation that they go through?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: The operation -- today we are talking about repair surgery, because these women have to be repaired. They are not just rape like usual rape, but they put hot plastics inside the organs. They put woods, they put bamboos, they put everything --
AMY GOODMAN: Guns?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: Yeah, guns. They shot inside the women, so they're completely destroyed. We have some survivors in these hospitals since more than three years, so every two months or every three months they have to be re-operated again. And it's impossible, you know, to keep all these women in this hospital. We don't have room anymore.
AMY GOODMAN: They suffer from fistula. Can you explain what that is?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: I’m not a doctor. It's quite very difficult. But I know that when they have fistula, it’s like, you know, instead of -- it’s everything, urine and things, everything comes out.
AMY GOODMAN: They're completely incontinent.
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: You cannot control. You’re out of control, so these people smell very bad, and they have infections. And they cannot live, you know, in communities. And they have to be repaired by heavy surgery.
AMY GOODMAN: So they can't control their urine or their bowel movement, and so --
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: Not at all. So everything just go out when they're walking, when they're sleeping. It's just --
AMY GOODMAN: They become pariahs in their community.
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: Yeah, yeah, of course. And also, you have to know that in your community, when they know you are raped, you are fired from the village. They stigmatize you, and also the husband, if you survive, he will just ask you to leave, most of the time with the children.
AMY GOODMAN: Who established Panzi Hospital?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: Panzi Hospital is established by the community of a church, a church, and lots of help we do have, it’s from European Union, UNICEF and also a Swedish NGO. Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: And there, the women come; they are operated on, and they live there?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: The most lucky ones who can reach Panzi Hospital, because, you know, Congo is very -- it’s a huge country, so every time permanently we can have 250 raped women, the worst of the worst one. And can you imagine when a woman has to wait surgery? So we have to find houses around the hospital for them to stay and wait -- and to wait for the surgery. It's impossible for them to stay there. That's the reason we really need to have a roof, to have a house, where this all -- all these women can stay while waiting the operation.
AMY GOODMAN: What is the Kabila government doing about this? Do they know?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: I think everybody -- in Congo, everybody know what’s going on, but I think they didn't -- you know, they have problems everywhere, and they did not know where to put priorities. And priority in Congo was, of course, security, security of people, because now they're just talking in Congo about new contracts, and especially with the Chinese who are coming in Congo like -- my goodness, it's like in far west, so people are just interested in signing this big mines contract and everything, but nobody cares about the population. Even if we see the budget the government has, there's nothing for the raped women, nothing for all these people.
AMY GOODMAN: You took Mrs. Kabila through the hospital, through Panzi Hospital?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: Mrs. Kabila came last October to visit the hospital, and, of course, she promised to come back and help, but we are still waiting. As I said, the problems in Congo, it's everywhere, so they have to know where priorities is. As long as we have raped babies, raped grandmothers --
AMY GOODMAN: Babies.
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: Babies. The last baby who was raped, it was in April. She was ten months old, so a very small baby. She was raped. The same gang raped the mother during two weeks. Then they came to Bukavu into my office. I wanted to bring the baby to the hospital, but she was so injured she died in my arms. Ten months -- can you imagine that? And these people, these women in Congo, are just begging for life, not begging for money, just the right to live in their country safely.
AMY GOODMAN: Who is doing this?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: The ones who are doing this, they are 60% -- because we made studies -- it’s 60% is committed by these people who made genocide in Rwanda, by Rwandans, the Hutu, the one who made the genocide. And, you know, we talk to women, and sometimes these people who made this can tell them, “You know, we died in ’94 in Rwanda, so now we don't care about what we are doing.” So 60% of these rapes are made by these random Hutu who made the genocide in their country.
AMY GOODMAN: There are supposedly peace talks that are going on. Foreign ministers from the Great Lakes countries failed to make progress in two days of talks in Uganda. Latest news, no solution has been agreed on how to deal with the dissident General Laurent Nkunda, whose forces were at war with the Congolese authorities. How does this figure into what you are describing?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: You know, I’m just sorry to say that it's one more meeting, and I think these meetings are just going on because of the international pressure. The consequences, I’m sure, it will be nothing. Like General Nkunda, he has an international mandate against him, but everybody, every journalist who go to Goma -- Goma is north part of Bukavu -- can go and interview him. He’s like a king there. He became a pastor. So is that normal, this impunity?
AMY GOODMAN: How do these rapes take place? What happens in a village? How do the women, how do the girls, the babies get taken?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: They usually come at the end of the day or during the night. They just come and circle the villages. Most of the time, they killed all the men, and they take all the children, the girls, the mothers, the grandmothers as the sex slaves into the forest and steal -- what can I say -- everything they have, just maybe a goat or a chicken, and take them and use them, use them as slaves, sex slaves and slaves to work for them in the forest.
AMY GOODMAN: Christine, how did you get involved with this human rights work?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: I don't know if it was my destiny, but the first -- the first raped woman was my best friend. She was like my sister. It was in ’98. She was colored like me, so not black, not white, and no political position, and she was -- she was raped in such a -- I cannot describe the violence, because after she was raped by more than twenty men and after she was killed, we found more than a hundred holes with knives in her body. And the husband has to assist -- he was Canadian, and then they killed her husband. So that was the first case in ’98. And then we thought maybe it was an accident.
AMY GOODMAN: Where did she live?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: In Goma, northern part of Bukavu. And then, in 2000, when they brought me that little girl, she was eighteen months old.
AMY GOODMAN: What were you doing at the time?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: I was working just like administration, you know, in my office. But when they brought me this young child, eighteen months, with broken legs, who was raped for two months, then I knew, my goodness, there's a problem going on in Congo. And, of course, she died. It was impossible to save her. And then, at that time, I said something is wrong in this country, and the two solutions I had is just to take my suitcase, my children, and leave this hell, or to try to change something in Congo. And I chose the first one -- the second one, to try to make an international lobby and to try to help these people the way I could, because it's not so easy, you know, to find help. The problem in Congo is so huge.
AMY GOODMAN: How do you protect yourself?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: I’m not really protecting myself, because I cannot -- I cannot live with bodyguards around me. I know I’m in danger, because the war I started against these people, I do receive lots of letters to tell me that it will be my turn soon and things like that, but I don't want to know what's going on around me. I’m just focusing in helping people the way I can, like denouncing and trying to find some funds to help. And I don't know, maybe the one is protecting me, it’s my father, who died some years ago, or my best friend who was killed, the first one, so --
AMY GOODMAN: How can people help here?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: People can help me, first of all, being our ambassador, you know, talking about the problem that's going on in Congo, because it's a silent war. It's like silent. They are killing, they are raping babies and women in Congo. It's to talk about -- you know, it's like Darfur. Darfur started four years ago. I don't want to compare, you know, problems we have in this world, but Congo, it started almost eleven years ago, and nobody's talking about this femicide, this holocaust.
AMY GOODMAN: Femicide.
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: Yeah, it's a femicide, because they are just destroying the female species, if I can talk like this, because can you imagine now -- in Africa, woman is the heart of family. She is doing everything, babies, looking for food, looking for the whole family. And now they're destroying this resource.
Also, can you imagine with this massive rape, AIDS? How will be the population, for example, in ten years? And these children who are teenagers now, who just know violence, seeing murdered the family, raped sister, the mother, what's the next generation?
So, for me, the most important thing now, it’s that the international community to realize that there’s an holocaust, to wake up and try to change something, because even the war we had in Congo, it was not -- it was like an African world war, because so many countries were involved, but it was not a Congolese war, Congolese against Congolese. It was some countries who came and invaded Congo with the help, of course, of the international community to come and steal everything out from Congo. And now we are asking for the international community reparation, not for money, but to be involved to try to find solution, Rwanda to take back these people, these genociders, and also Congo to prioritize security of the population.
AMY GOODMAN: Has Mrs. Kabila called you ever since October, coming to Panzi Hospital?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: She called me before I came here, and I think now she would like -- she asked me to think about what we can do concretely to help, to help these women, because I think also she noticed that the pressure is also coming from everywhere, because, first of all, the Congolese, and I think the first lady and the president and the institution we have now, they have to be enforced, even before the international community. They have at least to show a sign to say we are there, we would like to change. Maybe they can ask for help, but they have to show that they have this will to change these things.
AMY GOODMAN: Are you afraid to go back home, as you leave here to get on a plane?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: No, I’m not afraid at all to go back home. You know, even if I’m here, my heart is in Africa, so it's like I’m just going home. I will be happy to see my family there and also all these women at Panzi Hospital. And, no, my place is in Congo, so I’m not afraid at all to go back home.
AMY GOODMAN: If people wanted to help Panzi Hospital?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: To help Panzi Hospital, we are just begging for a roof, so we would like, with V-Day and UNICEF, to make what we will call the City of Joy, just for about for a hundred women to have a roof, where to stay while waiting for these heavy surgeries. Or we do have, for example, very young raped mother, their mothers, they're thirteen -- twelve years old, thirteen years old, they lost all the family, so they don't even know where to go. Instead of going, you know, on the road and be prostitutes to survive, we would like just to -- we are just begging to have enough funds to build our City of Joy. We will work, of course, closely with the hospital of Panzi, because if you see a woman -- for example, also these very old women, when they're safe enough, you know, to go back home, and they just trying not to leave the hospital because they are there, they feel secure, it's really breaking our hearts. So priority now in 2008, we would like to have this house for the survivors.
AMY GOODMAN: Where can people get more information online?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: V-Day. V-Day.
AMY GOODMAN: Eve Ensler’s international organization, V-Day.
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: Eve Ensler, yeah, of course, of course. She came to Bukavu some months ago. She's an amazing woman, and she was so moved at what she heard and what she saw. When she heard, she could not even imagine that today we can talk about cannibalism, having women witness how -- you know, how they ate their children, the food they were cooking, like, every day for them was their own children, and some horror you cannot even talk about. So she was moved, and I think she really wanted also to move the entire world for them to try to change something in Congo.
AMY GOODMAN: Christine Schuler Deschryver, Congolese human rights activist, she lives in Bukavu in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the violence against women is the worst. I spoke to her when she came to New York.
8 October 2007
AMY GOODMAN: President Bush was talking about the violence in Darfur, Sudan, but he made no mention of another crisis in Africa: the long and ongoing wars in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Between 1997 and 2004, up to four million people died in the conflict. That's according to the latest mortality survey carried out by the International Rescue Committee and published in the British medical journal Lancet. The IRC also estimates today, three years later, 38,000 people continue to die each month.
Today we focus on a particularly brutal aspect of the ongoing war in the DRC: the war against women. Speaking to the New York Times, John Homes, the UN Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, called the sexual violence in the Congo “the worst in the world.”
Christine Schuler Deschryver is a Congolese human rights activist. She lives in Bukavu in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the violence against women is the worst. She came into our firehouse studio last month. I asked her to describe the situation in her country.
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: In Congo, since ten years ago, the war started in ’96. After the genocide in Rwanda in ’94, all the one who made the genocide arrived in Congo and stayed there in camps. And in ’96, when the war started, they went out from the camps and went inside the forest, and then they started killing and raping the Congolese population. Three years ago, we had the report from International Rescue Committee that already four million people died in Congo, so it's one of the most --
AMY GOODMAN: Four million?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: Four million. It was three years ago, in 2004. And now we are waiting for the new report, I think, for beginning October. It will probably be seven million or more, and nobody is talking about this silent war that's going on in Congo, because the official war ended three years ago. We had elections last year.
But there's another form of very violent war with sexual terrorism going on in Congo. We are talking about more than -- in all eastern part of Congo, more than 200,000 women, children and babies being raped every day, and now, right now, I am talking to you, thousands of women are taken and children into forests as slave sex. And today --
AMY GOODMAN: As sex slaves.
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: As sex slaves, yeah. And we are not -- I’m sorry just to talk like this -- we are not talking about normal rapes anymore. We are talking about sexual terrorism, because they destroyed, and they -- you cannot imagine what's going on in Congo. Rape is a taboo, I think, in most of African countries, so the women who accept to go to the hospital or to be registered, it's because they don't have a choice anymore. They have to go and be repaired, because we are talking about new surgery to repair the women, because they’re completely destroyed. And the ones who are just raped without big destruction, they don't talk about rape, because the African -- the Congolese woman, she suffered so much that she can support being raped without telling it, when she doesn't need medical care.
AMY GOODMAN: But the medical care you're talking about is what?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: Very, very heavy surgery. We have some women, for example , this Panzi Hospital close to Bukavu town.
AMY GOODMAN: Bukavu is where you live?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: Bukavu, yeah, it's where I live. It’s eastern part of Congo, just at the border of Rwanda, five minutes walking. And we do have a hospital that is very specialized in rape, because of --
AMY GOODMAN: This is the Panzi Hospital?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: Yeah, Panzi Hospital. And -- I forgot the idea was.
AMY GOODMAN: And the women who come to this hospital, what -- they have been raped, and they have been physically --
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: Destroyed.
AMY GOODMAN: How? What is the operation? What is the -- what is the operation that they go through?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: The operation -- today we are talking about repair surgery, because these women have to be repaired. They are not just rape like usual rape, but they put hot plastics inside the organs. They put woods, they put bamboos, they put everything --
AMY GOODMAN: Guns?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: Yeah, guns. They shot inside the women, so they're completely destroyed. We have some survivors in these hospitals since more than three years, so every two months or every three months they have to be re-operated again. And it's impossible, you know, to keep all these women in this hospital. We don't have room anymore.
AMY GOODMAN: They suffer from fistula. Can you explain what that is?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: I’m not a doctor. It's quite very difficult. But I know that when they have fistula, it’s like, you know, instead of -- it’s everything, urine and things, everything comes out.
AMY GOODMAN: They're completely incontinent.
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: You cannot control. You’re out of control, so these people smell very bad, and they have infections. And they cannot live, you know, in communities. And they have to be repaired by heavy surgery.
AMY GOODMAN: So they can't control their urine or their bowel movement, and so --
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: Not at all. So everything just go out when they're walking, when they're sleeping. It's just --
AMY GOODMAN: They become pariahs in their community.
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: Yeah, yeah, of course. And also, you have to know that in your community, when they know you are raped, you are fired from the village. They stigmatize you, and also the husband, if you survive, he will just ask you to leave, most of the time with the children.
AMY GOODMAN: Who established Panzi Hospital?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: Panzi Hospital is established by the community of a church, a church, and lots of help we do have, it’s from European Union, UNICEF and also a Swedish NGO. Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: And there, the women come; they are operated on, and they live there?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: The most lucky ones who can reach Panzi Hospital, because, you know, Congo is very -- it’s a huge country, so every time permanently we can have 250 raped women, the worst of the worst one. And can you imagine when a woman has to wait surgery? So we have to find houses around the hospital for them to stay and wait -- and to wait for the surgery. It's impossible for them to stay there. That's the reason we really need to have a roof, to have a house, where this all -- all these women can stay while waiting the operation.
AMY GOODMAN: What is the Kabila government doing about this? Do they know?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: I think everybody -- in Congo, everybody know what’s going on, but I think they didn't -- you know, they have problems everywhere, and they did not know where to put priorities. And priority in Congo was, of course, security, security of people, because now they're just talking in Congo about new contracts, and especially with the Chinese who are coming in Congo like -- my goodness, it's like in far west, so people are just interested in signing this big mines contract and everything, but nobody cares about the population. Even if we see the budget the government has, there's nothing for the raped women, nothing for all these people.
AMY GOODMAN: You took Mrs. Kabila through the hospital, through Panzi Hospital?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: Mrs. Kabila came last October to visit the hospital, and, of course, she promised to come back and help, but we are still waiting. As I said, the problems in Congo, it's everywhere, so they have to know where priorities is. As long as we have raped babies, raped grandmothers --
AMY GOODMAN: Babies.
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: Babies. The last baby who was raped, it was in April. She was ten months old, so a very small baby. She was raped. The same gang raped the mother during two weeks. Then they came to Bukavu into my office. I wanted to bring the baby to the hospital, but she was so injured she died in my arms. Ten months -- can you imagine that? And these people, these women in Congo, are just begging for life, not begging for money, just the right to live in their country safely.
AMY GOODMAN: Who is doing this?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: The ones who are doing this, they are 60% -- because we made studies -- it’s 60% is committed by these people who made genocide in Rwanda, by Rwandans, the Hutu, the one who made the genocide. And, you know, we talk to women, and sometimes these people who made this can tell them, “You know, we died in ’94 in Rwanda, so now we don't care about what we are doing.” So 60% of these rapes are made by these random Hutu who made the genocide in their country.
AMY GOODMAN: There are supposedly peace talks that are going on. Foreign ministers from the Great Lakes countries failed to make progress in two days of talks in Uganda. Latest news, no solution has been agreed on how to deal with the dissident General Laurent Nkunda, whose forces were at war with the Congolese authorities. How does this figure into what you are describing?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: You know, I’m just sorry to say that it's one more meeting, and I think these meetings are just going on because of the international pressure. The consequences, I’m sure, it will be nothing. Like General Nkunda, he has an international mandate against him, but everybody, every journalist who go to Goma -- Goma is north part of Bukavu -- can go and interview him. He’s like a king there. He became a pastor. So is that normal, this impunity?
AMY GOODMAN: How do these rapes take place? What happens in a village? How do the women, how do the girls, the babies get taken?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: They usually come at the end of the day or during the night. They just come and circle the villages. Most of the time, they killed all the men, and they take all the children, the girls, the mothers, the grandmothers as the sex slaves into the forest and steal -- what can I say -- everything they have, just maybe a goat or a chicken, and take them and use them, use them as slaves, sex slaves and slaves to work for them in the forest.
AMY GOODMAN: Christine, how did you get involved with this human rights work?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: I don't know if it was my destiny, but the first -- the first raped woman was my best friend. She was like my sister. It was in ’98. She was colored like me, so not black, not white, and no political position, and she was -- she was raped in such a -- I cannot describe the violence, because after she was raped by more than twenty men and after she was killed, we found more than a hundred holes with knives in her body. And the husband has to assist -- he was Canadian, and then they killed her husband. So that was the first case in ’98. And then we thought maybe it was an accident.
AMY GOODMAN: Where did she live?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: In Goma, northern part of Bukavu. And then, in 2000, when they brought me that little girl, she was eighteen months old.
AMY GOODMAN: What were you doing at the time?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: I was working just like administration, you know, in my office. But when they brought me this young child, eighteen months, with broken legs, who was raped for two months, then I knew, my goodness, there's a problem going on in Congo. And, of course, she died. It was impossible to save her. And then, at that time, I said something is wrong in this country, and the two solutions I had is just to take my suitcase, my children, and leave this hell, or to try to change something in Congo. And I chose the first one -- the second one, to try to make an international lobby and to try to help these people the way I could, because it's not so easy, you know, to find help. The problem in Congo is so huge.
AMY GOODMAN: How do you protect yourself?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: I’m not really protecting myself, because I cannot -- I cannot live with bodyguards around me. I know I’m in danger, because the war I started against these people, I do receive lots of letters to tell me that it will be my turn soon and things like that, but I don't want to know what's going on around me. I’m just focusing in helping people the way I can, like denouncing and trying to find some funds to help. And I don't know, maybe the one is protecting me, it’s my father, who died some years ago, or my best friend who was killed, the first one, so --
AMY GOODMAN: How can people help here?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: People can help me, first of all, being our ambassador, you know, talking about the problem that's going on in Congo, because it's a silent war. It's like silent. They are killing, they are raping babies and women in Congo. It's to talk about -- you know, it's like Darfur. Darfur started four years ago. I don't want to compare, you know, problems we have in this world, but Congo, it started almost eleven years ago, and nobody's talking about this femicide, this holocaust.
AMY GOODMAN: Femicide.
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: Yeah, it's a femicide, because they are just destroying the female species, if I can talk like this, because can you imagine now -- in Africa, woman is the heart of family. She is doing everything, babies, looking for food, looking for the whole family. And now they're destroying this resource.
Also, can you imagine with this massive rape, AIDS? How will be the population, for example, in ten years? And these children who are teenagers now, who just know violence, seeing murdered the family, raped sister, the mother, what's the next generation?
So, for me, the most important thing now, it’s that the international community to realize that there’s an holocaust, to wake up and try to change something, because even the war we had in Congo, it was not -- it was like an African world war, because so many countries were involved, but it was not a Congolese war, Congolese against Congolese. It was some countries who came and invaded Congo with the help, of course, of the international community to come and steal everything out from Congo. And now we are asking for the international community reparation, not for money, but to be involved to try to find solution, Rwanda to take back these people, these genociders, and also Congo to prioritize security of the population.
AMY GOODMAN: Has Mrs. Kabila called you ever since October, coming to Panzi Hospital?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: She called me before I came here, and I think now she would like -- she asked me to think about what we can do concretely to help, to help these women, because I think also she noticed that the pressure is also coming from everywhere, because, first of all, the Congolese, and I think the first lady and the president and the institution we have now, they have to be enforced, even before the international community. They have at least to show a sign to say we are there, we would like to change. Maybe they can ask for help, but they have to show that they have this will to change these things.
AMY GOODMAN: Are you afraid to go back home, as you leave here to get on a plane?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: No, I’m not afraid at all to go back home. You know, even if I’m here, my heart is in Africa, so it's like I’m just going home. I will be happy to see my family there and also all these women at Panzi Hospital. And, no, my place is in Congo, so I’m not afraid at all to go back home.
AMY GOODMAN: If people wanted to help Panzi Hospital?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: To help Panzi Hospital, we are just begging for a roof, so we would like, with V-Day and UNICEF, to make what we will call the City of Joy, just for about for a hundred women to have a roof, where to stay while waiting for these heavy surgeries. Or we do have, for example, very young raped mother, their mothers, they're thirteen -- twelve years old, thirteen years old, they lost all the family, so they don't even know where to go. Instead of going, you know, on the road and be prostitutes to survive, we would like just to -- we are just begging to have enough funds to build our City of Joy. We will work, of course, closely with the hospital of Panzi, because if you see a woman -- for example, also these very old women, when they're safe enough, you know, to go back home, and they just trying not to leave the hospital because they are there, they feel secure, it's really breaking our hearts. So priority now in 2008, we would like to have this house for the survivors.
AMY GOODMAN: Where can people get more information online?
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: V-Day. V-Day.
AMY GOODMAN: Eve Ensler’s international organization, V-Day.
CHRISTINE SCHULER DESCHRYVER: Eve Ensler, yeah, of course, of course. She came to Bukavu some months ago. She's an amazing woman, and she was so moved at what she heard and what she saw. When she heard, she could not even imagine that today we can talk about cannibalism, having women witness how -- you know, how they ate their children, the food they were cooking, like, every day for them was their own children, and some horror you cannot even talk about. So she was moved, and I think she really wanted also to move the entire world for them to try to change something in Congo.
AMY GOODMAN: Christine Schuler Deschryver, Congolese human rights activist, she lives in Bukavu in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the violence against women is the worst. I spoke to her when she came to New York.
France May Rejoin NATO
By John Lichfield in Paris
Published: 10 October 2007
The Independent
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article3043749.ece
France has taken a step towards rejoining the Nato military alliance with a series of proposals for closer relations between the organisation and the European Union.
In recent weeks both President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Defence Minister, Hervé Morin, have spoken about the possibility of ending four decades of French isolation from the US-dominated military command of the western alliance.
In what is seen as the first concrete step in that direction, the French government has sent a document to the alliance's political headquarters in Brussels proposing four ways of sharing information and strategic thinking between Nato and the EU foreign and defence policies.
In its written proposals to Nato, Paris suggests that the EU high representative for foreign affairs should regularly brief the Nato Atlantic Council. The secretary general of Nato should also be invited to appear before EU foreign ministers. France is also calling for regular working contacts between the Nato and EU bodies which consider arms procurement. It also wants new procedures for the exchange of information between the Nato and EU crisis and disaster co-ordination agencies. France is to present its ideas to a meeting of the EU political and security committee on Friday.
All of these ideas may seem merely technical but they represent almost a U-turn from previous French hostility to EU-Nato links.
It is a radical shift from the approach of President Jacques Chirac, and previous French leaders, who objected to closer links between the two Brussels-based organisations since President Charles de Gaulle abruptly pulled France out of Nato in 1966 and ejected the Nato military headquarters from French soil.
In the past decade, France, with on-off support from Britain, has sought to build an EU defence and security policy in parallel with Nato. Paris is now saying that the two organisations should work hand in hand.
De Gaulle's decision positioned France as a western-aligned, but not slavishly pro-American, nation. This has been the bedrock of French foreign policy ever since and is unlikely to change completely, even if France rejoins Nato. President Sarkozy has suggested that he will re- position French foreign policy to be neither systematically pro-American nor knee-jerk anti- American. Washington and other Nato countries, including Britain, have broadly welcomed the French moves but some suspicion remains.
Washington officials are said to fear that M. Sarkozy is trying to build up EU defence policy as a cuckoo within the Nato nest, rather than a rival outside it.
President Chirac made tentative overtures to rejoin the military wing of the alliance in 1997. These foundered because the US objected to a demand from France for a senior military command covering the Mediterranean. President Sarkozy is likely to make a similar demand.
The French military has been favourable to rejoining the military part of the western alliance for years. Army chiefs in particular say that France has suffered by its exclusion from Nato strategic thinking and the development of military command systems.
Published: 10 October 2007
The Independent
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article3043749.ece
France has taken a step towards rejoining the Nato military alliance with a series of proposals for closer relations between the organisation and the European Union.
In recent weeks both President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Defence Minister, Hervé Morin, have spoken about the possibility of ending four decades of French isolation from the US-dominated military command of the western alliance.
In what is seen as the first concrete step in that direction, the French government has sent a document to the alliance's political headquarters in Brussels proposing four ways of sharing information and strategic thinking between Nato and the EU foreign and defence policies.
In its written proposals to Nato, Paris suggests that the EU high representative for foreign affairs should regularly brief the Nato Atlantic Council. The secretary general of Nato should also be invited to appear before EU foreign ministers. France is also calling for regular working contacts between the Nato and EU bodies which consider arms procurement. It also wants new procedures for the exchange of information between the Nato and EU crisis and disaster co-ordination agencies. France is to present its ideas to a meeting of the EU political and security committee on Friday.
All of these ideas may seem merely technical but they represent almost a U-turn from previous French hostility to EU-Nato links.
It is a radical shift from the approach of President Jacques Chirac, and previous French leaders, who objected to closer links between the two Brussels-based organisations since President Charles de Gaulle abruptly pulled France out of Nato in 1966 and ejected the Nato military headquarters from French soil.
In the past decade, France, with on-off support from Britain, has sought to build an EU defence and security policy in parallel with Nato. Paris is now saying that the two organisations should work hand in hand.
De Gaulle's decision positioned France as a western-aligned, but not slavishly pro-American, nation. This has been the bedrock of French foreign policy ever since and is unlikely to change completely, even if France rejoins Nato. President Sarkozy has suggested that he will re- position French foreign policy to be neither systematically pro-American nor knee-jerk anti- American. Washington and other Nato countries, including Britain, have broadly welcomed the French moves but some suspicion remains.
Washington officials are said to fear that M. Sarkozy is trying to build up EU defence policy as a cuckoo within the Nato nest, rather than a rival outside it.
President Chirac made tentative overtures to rejoin the military wing of the alliance in 1997. These foundered because the US objected to a demand from France for a senior military command covering the Mediterranean. President Sarkozy is likely to make a similar demand.
The French military has been favourable to rejoining the military part of the western alliance for years. Army chiefs in particular say that France has suffered by its exclusion from Nato strategic thinking and the development of military command systems.
Wazaristan: Fighting Continues
MISNA
10 October 2007
Thousands of tribesmen gathered this morning in the village of Ippi, near Miran Shah, to bury and pray for the around 50 people killed in fighting between the Pakistani army and insurgents in the tribal region of North Waziristan. Despite the military only reporting the death of militants in the fighting, which continues with brief pauses for nearly five days, residents of the area accuse the soldiers of killing unarmed civilians, including women and children. The fighting, which has so far left over 250 dead and forced thousands from their homes in the eastern part of the region along the border with Afghanistan, continues since this morning at dawn. The army issued a preliminary toll of 200 insurgents and 47 soldiers dead, while local sources refer of hundreds of families fleeing along mountain paths, to avoid the ongoing fighting on the roads. The current fighting, which follows the confirmation of President Pervez Musharraf in office, is considered the heaviest since the resumption of hostilities. A fragile truce signed in September 2006 between the government of Islamabad and main local tribes was broken with the first fighting in July, which marked the resumption of violence.
10 October 2007
Thousands of tribesmen gathered this morning in the village of Ippi, near Miran Shah, to bury and pray for the around 50 people killed in fighting between the Pakistani army and insurgents in the tribal region of North Waziristan. Despite the military only reporting the death of militants in the fighting, which continues with brief pauses for nearly five days, residents of the area accuse the soldiers of killing unarmed civilians, including women and children. The fighting, which has so far left over 250 dead and forced thousands from their homes in the eastern part of the region along the border with Afghanistan, continues since this morning at dawn. The army issued a preliminary toll of 200 insurgents and 47 soldiers dead, while local sources refer of hundreds of families fleeing along mountain paths, to avoid the ongoing fighting on the roads. The current fighting, which follows the confirmation of President Pervez Musharraf in office, is considered the heaviest since the resumption of hostilities. A fragile truce signed in September 2006 between the government of Islamabad and main local tribes was broken with the first fighting in July, which marked the resumption of violence.
Government Condemns Contractors For Killing Two Women
MISNA
10 October 2007
The Iraqi government “categorically condemns” the actions of a foreign private security company, responsible for the death of two women. The men of the Unity Resources Group (URG), a company based in Dubai but with foreign personnel, opened fire against a vehicle travelling in central Baghdad, killing the two women onboard. The URG, which also provides security for advisers of the United States international assistance agency USAID, recognised its implication in the incident. The US, under scrutiny for the civilians killed by contractors of the Blackwater security company, assured it had no part in this last incident. On September 16, Blackwater guards escorting a convoy of US diplomats opened fire against a group of civilians, killing 17. The ‘Blackwater case’ in the past weeks caused polemics on the use of ‘contractors’ (bodyguards or mercenaries that normally escort civil convoys, but that have also participated in combat alongside regular forces) in war zones.
10 October 2007
The Iraqi government “categorically condemns” the actions of a foreign private security company, responsible for the death of two women. The men of the Unity Resources Group (URG), a company based in Dubai but with foreign personnel, opened fire against a vehicle travelling in central Baghdad, killing the two women onboard. The URG, which also provides security for advisers of the United States international assistance agency USAID, recognised its implication in the incident. The US, under scrutiny for the civilians killed by contractors of the Blackwater security company, assured it had no part in this last incident. On September 16, Blackwater guards escorting a convoy of US diplomats opened fire against a group of civilians, killing 17. The ‘Blackwater case’ in the past weeks caused polemics on the use of ‘contractors’ (bodyguards or mercenaries that normally escort civil convoys, but that have also participated in combat alongside regular forces) in war zones.
North Kivu: Hundreds of Thousands Displaced and a Sole Hope
MISNA
10 October 2007
“They want to live in peace in their villages, go to the fields without fearing that their harvests are looted, move without having to pay bribes to the soldiers or armed militants; the women and girls want to be able to leave their homes without fear of being attacked; they want security above all and not only an end to the fighting of the past month”, said to MISNA Louis Vigneault, spokesman for OCHA (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), contacted in Goma, capital of the North Kivu province, in east Democratic Republic of Congo. New fighting was reported also in the past hours in the area between the Congolese regular forces (FARDC) and militants loyal to the pro-Rwandan dissident general Laurent Nkunda. Security is a recurring word among the around 400,000 people displaced in the past year in the north-eastern North Kivu province, where there is still no peace. “We do not have any numbers, but we know that more civilians are fleeing from the areas of Rugari and Kabaya, following the heavy fighting over the weekend in the zone of Rumangabo”, added Vigneault. Before the start of the actual ‘battle’ between regular forces and dissident militants of Nkunda at the end of August, there were already some 10,000 displaced near Goma. “Today, there are some 70,000 displaced divided into the structured camp of Bulango (in Mugugna), run by the UNHCR (UN High Commission for Refugees), and other five makeshift camps where aid workers are attempting to bring the necessary assistance”, specified Vigneault. Assistance in this case means everything: from building material to build shelters (plastic sheeting and branches) to food, from drinking water to medicine, from basic utensils to minimum health and hygiene facilities.
“Living in these conditions favours the spread of epidemics, such as cholera, and immediate action must be taken to avoid outbreaks: we currently have 12 confirmed cases being treated and nine suspected cases”, added Vigneault to MISNA. In addition to the displaced of Goma, an estimated between 2,000 and 3,000 families are displaced in Mushaki (between Sake and Masisi), at least 2,000 families south of Sake, others close to Kabaya (along the Goma-Rutshuru road), more also north of Masisi… “Those gathered on the outskirts of Goma are more fortunate, because they have had access to aid; for the others the situation remains extremely difficult. The insecurity has also only consented a few returns, pushed mainly from the need to work the land to avoid losing this year’s harvest”, concluded Vigneault. (Translation of article by Céline Camoin)
10 October 2007
“They want to live in peace in their villages, go to the fields without fearing that their harvests are looted, move without having to pay bribes to the soldiers or armed militants; the women and girls want to be able to leave their homes without fear of being attacked; they want security above all and not only an end to the fighting of the past month”, said to MISNA Louis Vigneault, spokesman for OCHA (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), contacted in Goma, capital of the North Kivu province, in east Democratic Republic of Congo. New fighting was reported also in the past hours in the area between the Congolese regular forces (FARDC) and militants loyal to the pro-Rwandan dissident general Laurent Nkunda. Security is a recurring word among the around 400,000 people displaced in the past year in the north-eastern North Kivu province, where there is still no peace. “We do not have any numbers, but we know that more civilians are fleeing from the areas of Rugari and Kabaya, following the heavy fighting over the weekend in the zone of Rumangabo”, added Vigneault. Before the start of the actual ‘battle’ between regular forces and dissident militants of Nkunda at the end of August, there were already some 10,000 displaced near Goma. “Today, there are some 70,000 displaced divided into the structured camp of Bulango (in Mugugna), run by the UNHCR (UN High Commission for Refugees), and other five makeshift camps where aid workers are attempting to bring the necessary assistance”, specified Vigneault. Assistance in this case means everything: from building material to build shelters (plastic sheeting and branches) to food, from drinking water to medicine, from basic utensils to minimum health and hygiene facilities.
“Living in these conditions favours the spread of epidemics, such as cholera, and immediate action must be taken to avoid outbreaks: we currently have 12 confirmed cases being treated and nine suspected cases”, added Vigneault to MISNA. In addition to the displaced of Goma, an estimated between 2,000 and 3,000 families are displaced in Mushaki (between Sake and Masisi), at least 2,000 families south of Sake, others close to Kabaya (along the Goma-Rutshuru road), more also north of Masisi… “Those gathered on the outskirts of Goma are more fortunate, because they have had access to aid; for the others the situation remains extremely difficult. The insecurity has also only consented a few returns, pushed mainly from the need to work the land to avoid losing this year’s harvest”, concluded Vigneault. (Translation of article by Céline Camoin)
2nd Day of Hunger Strike.
Hirondelle News Agency
9 October 2007
The majority of prisoners at the detention center of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania, were still true on Tuesday to a hunger strike started the day before to protest against the transfer projects to Rwandan courts of accused of the United Nations tribunal, it was learned from official source.
According to a source at the ICTR registry, 38 prisoners out of 55 are still on a hunger strike.
The representative of the prisoners, General Augustin Ndindiliyimana, former chief of Staff of the national gendarmerie, indicated that the strike was to last until Tuesday evening, added the source.
This movement had been announced in a letter addressed last Friday to the president of the ICTR and signed by 40 of the 55 prisoners.
On 7 September, the ICTR prosecutor, Hassan Bubacar Jallow, addressed to the president of the tribunal motions aiming at transferring to Rwandan courts Lieutenant Ildephonse Hategekimana and the businessmen Gapard Kanyarukiga and Yussuf Munyakazi.
"The motions of the prosecutor only fit the tripartite agreement between the USA, the United Kingdom and the leaders of the RPF in power in Kigali aiming to quickly end the mandate of the ICTR in order to protect the members of that front from criminal prosecution for crimes which they committed in Rwanda during the jurisdictional period of this tribunal", the 40 prisoners wrote.
"We suggest you reject the motions of the prosecutor, to rather ask the chambers to concentrate in order to schedule without any further delay the proceedings for the six prisoners still awaiting their trials ", continued the letter.
9 October 2007
The majority of prisoners at the detention center of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania, were still true on Tuesday to a hunger strike started the day before to protest against the transfer projects to Rwandan courts of accused of the United Nations tribunal, it was learned from official source.
According to a source at the ICTR registry, 38 prisoners out of 55 are still on a hunger strike.
The representative of the prisoners, General Augustin Ndindiliyimana, former chief of Staff of the national gendarmerie, indicated that the strike was to last until Tuesday evening, added the source.
This movement had been announced in a letter addressed last Friday to the president of the ICTR and signed by 40 of the 55 prisoners.
On 7 September, the ICTR prosecutor, Hassan Bubacar Jallow, addressed to the president of the tribunal motions aiming at transferring to Rwandan courts Lieutenant Ildephonse Hategekimana and the businessmen Gapard Kanyarukiga and Yussuf Munyakazi.
"The motions of the prosecutor only fit the tripartite agreement between the USA, the United Kingdom and the leaders of the RPF in power in Kigali aiming to quickly end the mandate of the ICTR in order to protect the members of that front from criminal prosecution for crimes which they committed in Rwanda during the jurisdictional period of this tribunal", the 40 prisoners wrote.
"We suggest you reject the motions of the prosecutor, to rather ask the chambers to concentrate in order to schedule without any further delay the proceedings for the six prisoners still awaiting their trials ", continued the letter.
55th RDF Battalion Heads to El-Fasher.
The New Times
Felly Kimenyi
10 October 2007
A fourth Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF) battalion will be airlifted to the Sudanese war-ravaged region of Darfur this month, Military Spokesman Maj. Jill Rutaremara has said.
The 800-strong battalion is an addition to three others that are already deployed in Darfur and it is set to operate under the mandate of the approved hybrid AU-UN peacekeeping force.
"The 55th battalion will go in the second shift during the regular rotation programme which will start on October, 15," Rutaremara said yesterday.
The battalion, he said, will be backed by a heavy support package, and will be deployed in Sector One, El-Fasher.
It will be under the command of Lt. Col. Bukenya Ngarambe, he added.
"Eighteen APCs (Armored Personnel Carriers) are already in the country and will be used by this battalion. They will be transported by a cargo aircraft," Rutaremara said.
The troops, which rotate after every six months will be airlifted by Miami Air
International, which has been facilitating the airlifting.
In June, the Sudanese government accepted the proposal for a hybrid UN-AU peacekeeping operation.
Subsequently, Sudanese foreign minister Dr Lam Akol visited Rwanda, requesting her to make further troop contribution for the 26,000-strong force.
Recently, Rwanda's Maj. Gen Karenzi Karake was approved by the UN to deputise the Force Commander of the new force, which is the largest military intervention to be deployed by the UN.
The hybrid operation is the third phase of a three-step process to replace the ill-equipped AU Mission in the Sudan (AMIS), which has made little impact on the killings of African farmers largely blamed on pro-government militias called Janjaweed.
Rwanda already has close to 2,000 troops in Sudan under the auspices of the African Union, which are deployed in sectors one (El-Fasher), four and seven in Kabkabiya and Zalinge respectively.
The rotation that will take place next year, according to Rutaremara, the three battalions will be restructured to the standards of the UN peacekeepers.
Meanwhile, fighting has erupted in the Darfuri town of Muhajiriya, controlled by the one rebel faction to sign a peace deal with the government in May last year.
The Sudan Liberation Army faction run by Minni Minnawi came under attack from government troops.
The SLA say dozens have died, and others are being treated for wounds by the African Union peacekeeping force.
Amnesty International says Sudan's Armed Forces are gathering in large numbers in at least six Darfuri towns.
The London-based human rights organisation said it had received credible reports that the Sudanese army was close to the towns of Kornoy, Um Baru, Kutum and Tine in Northern Darfur.
A separate report spoke of a clash between soldiers and a rebel group in Tine, which is close to the Chadian border.
The SLA says the fighting comes as "a stab in the back" for their alliance.
Observers say the upsurge in fighting is an attempt to gain ground ahead of the peace talks due to take place in Libya on the 27 October.
The commander of the 7,000-strong African Union force, General Martin Luther Agwai, told the BBC in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, that at least 24 people were injured in the attack on Muhajiriya.
He initially said he believed Sudanese government planes had bombed the town on Monday but, later on, the AU suggested there may not have been any aerial bombing after all.
Felly Kimenyi
10 October 2007
A fourth Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF) battalion will be airlifted to the Sudanese war-ravaged region of Darfur this month, Military Spokesman Maj. Jill Rutaremara has said.
The 800-strong battalion is an addition to three others that are already deployed in Darfur and it is set to operate under the mandate of the approved hybrid AU-UN peacekeeping force.
"The 55th battalion will go in the second shift during the regular rotation programme which will start on October, 15," Rutaremara said yesterday.
The battalion, he said, will be backed by a heavy support package, and will be deployed in Sector One, El-Fasher.
It will be under the command of Lt. Col. Bukenya Ngarambe, he added.
"Eighteen APCs (Armored Personnel Carriers) are already in the country and will be used by this battalion. They will be transported by a cargo aircraft," Rutaremara said.
The troops, which rotate after every six months will be airlifted by Miami Air
International, which has been facilitating the airlifting.
In June, the Sudanese government accepted the proposal for a hybrid UN-AU peacekeeping operation.
Subsequently, Sudanese foreign minister Dr Lam Akol visited Rwanda, requesting her to make further troop contribution for the 26,000-strong force.
Recently, Rwanda's Maj. Gen Karenzi Karake was approved by the UN to deputise the Force Commander of the new force, which is the largest military intervention to be deployed by the UN.
The hybrid operation is the third phase of a three-step process to replace the ill-equipped AU Mission in the Sudan (AMIS), which has made little impact on the killings of African farmers largely blamed on pro-government militias called Janjaweed.
Rwanda already has close to 2,000 troops in Sudan under the auspices of the African Union, which are deployed in sectors one (El-Fasher), four and seven in Kabkabiya and Zalinge respectively.
The rotation that will take place next year, according to Rutaremara, the three battalions will be restructured to the standards of the UN peacekeepers.
Meanwhile, fighting has erupted in the Darfuri town of Muhajiriya, controlled by the one rebel faction to sign a peace deal with the government in May last year.
The Sudan Liberation Army faction run by Minni Minnawi came under attack from government troops.
The SLA say dozens have died, and others are being treated for wounds by the African Union peacekeeping force.
Amnesty International says Sudan's Armed Forces are gathering in large numbers in at least six Darfuri towns.
The London-based human rights organisation said it had received credible reports that the Sudanese army was close to the towns of Kornoy, Um Baru, Kutum and Tine in Northern Darfur.
A separate report spoke of a clash between soldiers and a rebel group in Tine, which is close to the Chadian border.
The SLA says the fighting comes as "a stab in the back" for their alliance.
Observers say the upsurge in fighting is an attempt to gain ground ahead of the peace talks due to take place in Libya on the 27 October.
The commander of the 7,000-strong African Union force, General Martin Luther Agwai, told the BBC in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, that at least 24 people were injured in the attack on Muhajiriya.
He initially said he believed Sudanese government planes had bombed the town on Monday but, later on, the AU suggested there may not have been any aerial bombing after all.
Algeria Becomes 6th Largest Oil Producer
African Oil Journal
10 October 2007
Algeria has become the 6th largest supplier of crude oil to the United States during the first quarter of 2007, local press reported.
According to the Algerian daily Le Jeune Independant, about 721,000 barrels of petrol were exported to the United States during the entire period.
The daily added that the United States bought crude oil worth $6.9 billion from Algeria during the first quarter of 2007.
Algeria, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), is almost entirely dependent on the export of petrol and petroleum products and earns 98 percent of all its foreign exchanges from this sector.
10 October 2007
Algeria has become the 6th largest supplier of crude oil to the United States during the first quarter of 2007, local press reported.
According to the Algerian daily Le Jeune Independant, about 721,000 barrels of petrol were exported to the United States during the entire period.
The daily added that the United States bought crude oil worth $6.9 billion from Algeria during the first quarter of 2007.
Algeria, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), is almost entirely dependent on the export of petrol and petroleum products and earns 98 percent of all its foreign exchanges from this sector.
North Kivu: Fighting Underway North of Goma
MISNA
9 October 2007
Heavy fighting continues also today between the Congolese army and militants loyal to the pro-Rwandan dissident general Laurent Nkunda in North Kivu, in east Democratic Republic of Congo. Local sources refer that the clashes are underway around Goma, provincial capital of North Kivu, in the Masisi zone (north-east of Goma) and more precisely in the villages of Karuba and Mweso. It is unclear if there is fighting in the Rutshuru area (north-east of Goma), where the soldiers and militants clashed repeatedly over the past days. The fighting of the past days definitively broke the fragile truce reached between the sides at the start of September.
“We are certain that the fighting was very heavy, given that many wounded were transported to the hospital in Masisi, but we do not know the death toll”, said yesterday to MISNA a humanitarian source contacted on the scene, specifying that he was unable to say how many more were displaced in the renewed violence. More than 50,000 people were already forced from their homes in the same areas at the start of the fighting at the beginning of August.
9 October 2007
Heavy fighting continues also today between the Congolese army and militants loyal to the pro-Rwandan dissident general Laurent Nkunda in North Kivu, in east Democratic Republic of Congo. Local sources refer that the clashes are underway around Goma, provincial capital of North Kivu, in the Masisi zone (north-east of Goma) and more precisely in the villages of Karuba and Mweso. It is unclear if there is fighting in the Rutshuru area (north-east of Goma), where the soldiers and militants clashed repeatedly over the past days. The fighting of the past days definitively broke the fragile truce reached between the sides at the start of September.
“We are certain that the fighting was very heavy, given that many wounded were transported to the hospital in Masisi, but we do not know the death toll”, said yesterday to MISNA a humanitarian source contacted on the scene, specifying that he was unable to say how many more were displaced in the renewed violence. More than 50,000 people were already forced from their homes in the same areas at the start of the fighting at the beginning of August.
Prime Minister Seeks Support and Truce With Top Hawiye Clan
MISNA
9 October 07
A political deal was reached between the Somali transitional federal government (TFG) and top members of the Hawiye dominant clan of the capital Mogadishu. The accord was reached in a meeting attended also by Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi and elders of the clan headed by Mohammed Hassan Haad, who in the past months was among the most vehement opposers to the deployment of Ethiopian forces in Somali territory in defence and support of the TFG. Haad criticised the operations of the Ethiopian troops with Gedi, accusing them of killing civilians and destroying inestimable private property.
“We agreed a truce and that we do something about their complaints. We agreed we work together against anyone carrying out violence”, said Gedi at the end of the meeting. Though pledging to take every possible measure to protect the civil population, the Somali Premier called on the Hawiye to create a common united front and work with the government to restore security conditions in the nation. The situation is particularly critical in Mogadishu, where just in the month of September at least 24,000 people were forced from their homes by the ongoing violence. The parliament this week is set to vote on a no-confidence motion against Gedi’s government and, according to analysts, the Premier is attempting to boost relations with the Hawiye in view of a highly probable result against his administration. Local sources refer that Gedi may go today to Baidoa, seat of the parliament, to meet with the legislators that this morning met with President Abdullahi Yusuf.
9 October 07
A political deal was reached between the Somali transitional federal government (TFG) and top members of the Hawiye dominant clan of the capital Mogadishu. The accord was reached in a meeting attended also by Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi and elders of the clan headed by Mohammed Hassan Haad, who in the past months was among the most vehement opposers to the deployment of Ethiopian forces in Somali territory in defence and support of the TFG. Haad criticised the operations of the Ethiopian troops with Gedi, accusing them of killing civilians and destroying inestimable private property.
“We agreed a truce and that we do something about their complaints. We agreed we work together against anyone carrying out violence”, said Gedi at the end of the meeting. Though pledging to take every possible measure to protect the civil population, the Somali Premier called on the Hawiye to create a common united front and work with the government to restore security conditions in the nation. The situation is particularly critical in Mogadishu, where just in the month of September at least 24,000 people were forced from their homes by the ongoing violence. The parliament this week is set to vote on a no-confidence motion against Gedi’s government and, according to analysts, the Premier is attempting to boost relations with the Hawiye in view of a highly probable result against his administration. Local sources refer that Gedi may go today to Baidoa, seat of the parliament, to meet with the legislators that this morning met with President Abdullahi Yusuf.
ICTR: Prisoners on Hunger Strike Against Transferral to Kigali.
MISNA
9 October 2007
Thirty-eight prisoners detained at the Arusha (Tanzania) based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ITCR) yesterday began a hunger strike in protest against the transferral of the cases of four of their companions to Rwanda. ICTR sources contacted in Arusha told MISNA that the protest follows an open letter to the president of the Court, in which the prisoners protested against the transferral of 4 cases (3 regarding people detained at the ITCR and one at large) before the Rwandan magistrature, which they denounce would not allow a fair trial. “I can confirm that in the past days 40 of the 56 currently detained at the ICTR undersigned a letter that contests the legality of the transferral requested by the Court prosecutor at the start of September, Thirty-eight of the signatories are on a hunger strike since yesterday”, said to MISNA ICTR spokesman Roland Amoussouga.
In the letter the prisoners argue that the motions of the prosecutor “only fit the tripartite agreement between the USA, the United Kingdom and the leaders of the RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front) in power in Kigali aiming to quickly end the mandate of the ICTR in order to protect the members of that front from criminal prosecution for crimes which they committed in Rwanda during the jurisdictional period of this tribunal”.
According to Amoussouga, the ICTR justices will decide on the transferrals within two months. In April the ICTR – instituted to judge the main suspects in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, in which between 500,000 and 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were killed – carried out the first transferral of a case to the Netherlands. The transferral of cases to courts of other nations comes under the “strategies of end of mandate” of the UN Tribunal, which must wrap up its first degree trials by the end of 2008. No accords were so far possible for the transferral of cases to Rwanda, because the African nation still had the death penalty in its penal code; a penalty not foreseen by the Arusha-based Court that at the most can only hand down life sentences. Rwanda’s recent abolition of the death penalty in fact paved the way for the transferrals.
9 October 2007
Thirty-eight prisoners detained at the Arusha (Tanzania) based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ITCR) yesterday began a hunger strike in protest against the transferral of the cases of four of their companions to Rwanda. ICTR sources contacted in Arusha told MISNA that the protest follows an open letter to the president of the Court, in which the prisoners protested against the transferral of 4 cases (3 regarding people detained at the ITCR and one at large) before the Rwandan magistrature, which they denounce would not allow a fair trial. “I can confirm that in the past days 40 of the 56 currently detained at the ICTR undersigned a letter that contests the legality of the transferral requested by the Court prosecutor at the start of September, Thirty-eight of the signatories are on a hunger strike since yesterday”, said to MISNA ICTR spokesman Roland Amoussouga.
In the letter the prisoners argue that the motions of the prosecutor “only fit the tripartite agreement between the USA, the United Kingdom and the leaders of the RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front) in power in Kigali aiming to quickly end the mandate of the ICTR in order to protect the members of that front from criminal prosecution for crimes which they committed in Rwanda during the jurisdictional period of this tribunal”.
According to Amoussouga, the ICTR justices will decide on the transferrals within two months. In April the ICTR – instituted to judge the main suspects in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, in which between 500,000 and 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were killed – carried out the first transferral of a case to the Netherlands. The transferral of cases to courts of other nations comes under the “strategies of end of mandate” of the UN Tribunal, which must wrap up its first degree trials by the end of 2008. No accords were so far possible for the transferral of cases to Rwanda, because the African nation still had the death penalty in its penal code; a penalty not foreseen by the Arusha-based Court that at the most can only hand down life sentences. Rwanda’s recent abolition of the death penalty in fact paved the way for the transferrals.
Darfur: "Violence Increases in View of Talks."
MISNA
9 October 2007
“There is a sensation that the government and the rebels are trying to show their strength and to increase their areas of influence before being forced to stop for the peace talks that are to take place in Libya at the end of October”, said a MISNA source in Nyala, south Darfur. “In Nyala there is fear and much tension. Last week government troops and armed met connected to the SLA-M led by Minni Minnawi (which signed a peace deal with Khartoum last year) confronted each other in the city streets. …We hope this new wave of fighting does not compromise the peace talks” said the source. Meanwhile, the African Union mission (AMIS) confirmed the attack last night, conducted with ground troops backed by the air force (violating UN resolutions).
“I can confirm that there was fighting yesterday and aerial bombardments in Mouhajirya” said Justin Thundu, AMIS information chief, to MISNA from the hospital at El Fasher, North Darfur, while he was visiting the ‘green helmets’ wounded in an attack last week against the AMIS base at Haskanita that killed 10 peacekeepers. The situation remains confusing in Mouhajirya, the rebels themselves have differing accounts ranging from four to over 40 dead.
9 October 2007
“There is a sensation that the government and the rebels are trying to show their strength and to increase their areas of influence before being forced to stop for the peace talks that are to take place in Libya at the end of October”, said a MISNA source in Nyala, south Darfur. “In Nyala there is fear and much tension. Last week government troops and armed met connected to the SLA-M led by Minni Minnawi (which signed a peace deal with Khartoum last year) confronted each other in the city streets. …We hope this new wave of fighting does not compromise the peace talks” said the source. Meanwhile, the African Union mission (AMIS) confirmed the attack last night, conducted with ground troops backed by the air force (violating UN resolutions).
“I can confirm that there was fighting yesterday and aerial bombardments in Mouhajirya” said Justin Thundu, AMIS information chief, to MISNA from the hospital at El Fasher, North Darfur, while he was visiting the ‘green helmets’ wounded in an attack last week against the AMIS base at Haskanita that killed 10 peacekeepers. The situation remains confusing in Mouhajirya, the rebels themselves have differing accounts ranging from four to over 40 dead.
09 October, 2007
Ethiopia Re-elects Girma.
African Press Agency
9 October 2007
Ethiopia President Girma Wolde Giorgise was on Tuesday re-elected for another six-year term by the country’s parliament.
The election was carried when both the House of People’s Representatives and House of Federation opened on Tuesday after a three-month break.
The ruling party, Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, proposed Girma to be re-elected while the opposition proposed their candidate for the first time, Professor Beyene Petrose.
Giorgise got 430 votes while Petrose, who represented the opposition United Ethiopian Democratic Forces, received less than 100 votes. There were 11 abstentions.
According to the Ethiopian constitution, a presidential candidate must receive two-thirds of the votes to be elected.
Under Ethiopia’s federal system, executive power lies with the Prime Minister, currently Meles Zenawi.
9 October 2007
Ethiopia President Girma Wolde Giorgise was on Tuesday re-elected for another six-year term by the country’s parliament.
The election was carried when both the House of People’s Representatives and House of Federation opened on Tuesday after a three-month break.
The ruling party, Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, proposed Girma to be re-elected while the opposition proposed their candidate for the first time, Professor Beyene Petrose.
Giorgise got 430 votes while Petrose, who represented the opposition United Ethiopian Democratic Forces, received less than 100 votes. There were 11 abstentions.
According to the Ethiopian constitution, a presidential candidate must receive two-thirds of the votes to be elected.
Under Ethiopia’s federal system, executive power lies with the Prime Minister, currently Meles Zenawi.
Rumors of MNJ Campaign for new state: Disinformation Campaign?
African Press Agency
8 October 2007
The Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ) which is waging a rebellion in northern Niger, on Monday denied its involvement in a Tuareg coalition which plans to set up a new republic called "Toumoujagha" mainly Tuareg and made up of parts of Niger, Mali, Algeria and Libya.
In a statement posted on its Internet website, the MNJ reiterated "its attachment to the Niger Republic and said it would never accept its deconstruction": Niger belongs to all of us and we will never accept a citizen to claim to be more Nigerien than another one".
The Tuareg movement said it "was greatly vexed to find out that some people believe that we intended to set up or help set up a utopian Toumoujagha Republic".
According to the MNJ "this move can only stem from bad jokers even though many people suspect the Niger government itself of being behind it to justify its refusal of a dialogue with the MNJ".
Reacting to this idea of a new republic, the minister and Niger government spokesman Mohamed Ben Omar said at the week-end, that "Niger is one and indivisible republic".
Mohamed Ben Omar reiterated his government’s "resolve" not to embark on negotiations with a group "which has clearly expressed its secessionist intentions".
"How to understand that from a leaflet posted on the net, the Niger government takes such a highly serious step?", the MNJ complained, emphasising that "it is a Niger movement only fighting against the injustice and bad governance undermining our country."
The MNJ claims to be a movement with clear demands known to all and does not in any way hint at a partition of Niger".
The movement is demanding among other things a "better implementation of the 1995 peace accords that had ended the Tuareg revolt of the 1990s" mainly the clauses providing for their socioeconomic reintegration and the attribution by mining companies of jobs in priority to the indigenous people.
The idea to establish a Tuareg republic emerged last September when a group of self-styled "Party of the Tuareg Nation (PNT)" posted on its blog some elements about the foundation document of such a republic, a card delimitating the territory, a letter to the UN and a speech by the leader of this party.
The so-called president of the "Toumoujagha Republic" even wrote to the Malian, Nigerien, Libyan and Algerian presidents to inform them about the creation of their state whose "borders the colonising country France confirmed through the Act 57-7-27 of 10 January 1957 setting-up the OCRS".
This idea has sparked an outcry in some Niger places which are calling for hatred against the Tuareg community accounting for less than 1% of the country’s population.
Last Thursday, a group of Niger human rights organisations sent an open letter to President Mamadou Tandja, denouncing the circulation of leaflets on the Internet across the country while describing some association officials and journalists of betraying the nation, accusing the Tuareg community of all evils and asking for the elimination of such community in order to restore lasting peace in the country".
8 October 2007
The Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ) which is waging a rebellion in northern Niger, on Monday denied its involvement in a Tuareg coalition which plans to set up a new republic called "Toumoujagha" mainly Tuareg and made up of parts of Niger, Mali, Algeria and Libya.
In a statement posted on its Internet website, the MNJ reiterated "its attachment to the Niger Republic and said it would never accept its deconstruction": Niger belongs to all of us and we will never accept a citizen to claim to be more Nigerien than another one".
The Tuareg movement said it "was greatly vexed to find out that some people believe that we intended to set up or help set up a utopian Toumoujagha Republic".
According to the MNJ "this move can only stem from bad jokers even though many people suspect the Niger government itself of being behind it to justify its refusal of a dialogue with the MNJ".
Reacting to this idea of a new republic, the minister and Niger government spokesman Mohamed Ben Omar said at the week-end, that "Niger is one and indivisible republic".
Mohamed Ben Omar reiterated his government’s "resolve" not to embark on negotiations with a group "which has clearly expressed its secessionist intentions".
"How to understand that from a leaflet posted on the net, the Niger government takes such a highly serious step?", the MNJ complained, emphasising that "it is a Niger movement only fighting against the injustice and bad governance undermining our country."
The MNJ claims to be a movement with clear demands known to all and does not in any way hint at a partition of Niger".
The movement is demanding among other things a "better implementation of the 1995 peace accords that had ended the Tuareg revolt of the 1990s" mainly the clauses providing for their socioeconomic reintegration and the attribution by mining companies of jobs in priority to the indigenous people.
The idea to establish a Tuareg republic emerged last September when a group of self-styled "Party of the Tuareg Nation (PNT)" posted on its blog some elements about the foundation document of such a republic, a card delimitating the territory, a letter to the UN and a speech by the leader of this party.
The so-called president of the "Toumoujagha Republic" even wrote to the Malian, Nigerien, Libyan and Algerian presidents to inform them about the creation of their state whose "borders the colonising country France confirmed through the Act 57-7-27 of 10 January 1957 setting-up the OCRS".
This idea has sparked an outcry in some Niger places which are calling for hatred against the Tuareg community accounting for less than 1% of the country’s population.
Last Thursday, a group of Niger human rights organisations sent an open letter to President Mamadou Tandja, denouncing the circulation of leaflets on the Internet across the country while describing some association officials and journalists of betraying the nation, accusing the Tuareg community of all evils and asking for the elimination of such community in order to restore lasting peace in the country".
Niger Rebel Movement Denies Involvement in Creating Tuareg Republic.
African Press Agency
8 October 2007
The Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ) which is waging a rebellion in northern Niger, on Monday denied its involvement in a Tuareg coalition which plans to set up a new republic called "Toumoujagha" mainly Tuareg and made up of parts of Niger, Mali, Algeria and Libya.
In a statement posted on its Internet website, the MNJ reiterated "its attachment to the Niger Republic and said it would never accept its deconstruction": Niger belongs to all of us and we will never accept a citizen to claim to be more Nigerien than another one".
The Tuareg movement said it "was greatly vexed to find out that some people believe that we intended to set up or help set up a utopian Toumoujagha Republic".
According to the MNJ "this move can only stem from bad jokers even though many people suspect the Niger government itself of being behind it to justify its refusal of a dialogue with the MNJ".
Reacting to this idea of a new republic, the minister and Niger government spokesman Mohamed Ben Omar said at the week-end, that "Niger is one and indivisible republic".
Mohamed Ben Omar reiterated his government’s "resolve" not to embark on negotiations with a group "which has clearly expressed its secessionist intentions".
"How to understand that from a leaflet posted on the net, the Niger government takes such a highly serious step?", the MNJ complained, emphasising that "it is a Niger movement only fighting against the injustice and bad governance undermining our country."
The MNJ claims to be a movement with clear demands known to all and does not in any way hint at a partition of Niger".
The movement is demanding among other things a "better implementation of the 1995 peace accords that had ended the Tuareg revolt of the 1990s" mainly the clauses providing for their socioeconomic reintegration and the attribution by mining companies of jobs in priority to the indigenous people.
The idea to establish a Tuareg republic emerged last September when a group of self-styled "Party of the Tuareg Nation (PNT)" posted on its blog some elements about the foundation document of such a republic, a card delimitating the territory, a letter to the UN and a speech by the leader of this party.
The so-called president of the "Toumoujagha Republic" even wrote to the Malian, Nigerien, Libyan and Algerian presidents to inform them about the creation of their state whose "borders the colonising country France confirmed through the Act 57-7-27 of 10 January 1957 setting-up the OCRS".
This idea has sparked an outcry in some Niger places which are calling for hatred against the Tuareg community accounting for less than 1% of the country’s population.
Last Thursday, a group of Niger human rights organisations sent an open letter to President Mamadou Tandja, denouncing the circulation of leaflets on the Internet across the country while describing some association officials and journalists of betraying the nation, accusing the Tuareg community of all evils and asking for the elimination of such community in order to restore lasting peace in the country".
8 October 2007
The Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ) which is waging a rebellion in northern Niger, on Monday denied its involvement in a Tuareg coalition which plans to set up a new republic called "Toumoujagha" mainly Tuareg and made up of parts of Niger, Mali, Algeria and Libya.
In a statement posted on its Internet website, the MNJ reiterated "its attachment to the Niger Republic and said it would never accept its deconstruction": Niger belongs to all of us and we will never accept a citizen to claim to be more Nigerien than another one".
The Tuareg movement said it "was greatly vexed to find out that some people believe that we intended to set up or help set up a utopian Toumoujagha Republic".
According to the MNJ "this move can only stem from bad jokers even though many people suspect the Niger government itself of being behind it to justify its refusal of a dialogue with the MNJ".
Reacting to this idea of a new republic, the minister and Niger government spokesman Mohamed Ben Omar said at the week-end, that "Niger is one and indivisible republic".
Mohamed Ben Omar reiterated his government’s "resolve" not to embark on negotiations with a group "which has clearly expressed its secessionist intentions".
"How to understand that from a leaflet posted on the net, the Niger government takes such a highly serious step?", the MNJ complained, emphasising that "it is a Niger movement only fighting against the injustice and bad governance undermining our country."
The MNJ claims to be a movement with clear demands known to all and does not in any way hint at a partition of Niger".
The movement is demanding among other things a "better implementation of the 1995 peace accords that had ended the Tuareg revolt of the 1990s" mainly the clauses providing for their socioeconomic reintegration and the attribution by mining companies of jobs in priority to the indigenous people.
The idea to establish a Tuareg republic emerged last September when a group of self-styled "Party of the Tuareg Nation (PNT)" posted on its blog some elements about the foundation document of such a republic, a card delimitating the territory, a letter to the UN and a speech by the leader of this party.
The so-called president of the "Toumoujagha Republic" even wrote to the Malian, Nigerien, Libyan and Algerian presidents to inform them about the creation of their state whose "borders the colonising country France confirmed through the Act 57-7-27 of 10 January 1957 setting-up the OCRS".
This idea has sparked an outcry in some Niger places which are calling for hatred against the Tuareg community accounting for less than 1% of the country’s population.
Last Thursday, a group of Niger human rights organisations sent an open letter to President Mamadou Tandja, denouncing the circulation of leaflets on the Internet across the country while describing some association officials and journalists of betraying the nation, accusing the Tuareg community of all evils and asking for the elimination of such community in order to restore lasting peace in the country".
Algiers Reiterates 'No' to Foreign Military Bases
MISNA
8 October 2007
“The sovereignty of Algeria is not negotiable and the creation of military bases in Algeria is out of the question today. The issue is not on the agenda”, Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci said over the weekend on the national radio, confirming the refusal of the government of Algiers to host any foreign military bases on its territory. Specifying that in regard Algeria has not received any formal requests from any nations, Medelci added that in the so-called war on terror his nation “possesses a sufficient capacity”.
“Terrorism is a transnational phenomenon and it is in the interest of each nation to organise itself to combat this scourge within its own borders; it is not a matter of creating bases where there is terrorism”. The words of the Minister ruled out reports circulating in the Algerian press that the United States – though without a formal request – wants to set up a base in Tamanrasset, in the extreme south, to control movements of terrorist groups in the Sahel and Maghreb under the US Africa Command (Africom). The creation of Africom, announced on February 6 by the US President, was strongly rejected by representatives of African governments and civil societies of the continent, with the exception only of Liberia.
8 October 2007
“The sovereignty of Algeria is not negotiable and the creation of military bases in Algeria is out of the question today. The issue is not on the agenda”, Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci said over the weekend on the national radio, confirming the refusal of the government of Algiers to host any foreign military bases on its territory. Specifying that in regard Algeria has not received any formal requests from any nations, Medelci added that in the so-called war on terror his nation “possesses a sufficient capacity”.
“Terrorism is a transnational phenomenon and it is in the interest of each nation to organise itself to combat this scourge within its own borders; it is not a matter of creating bases where there is terrorism”. The words of the Minister ruled out reports circulating in the Algerian press that the United States – though without a formal request – wants to set up a base in Tamanrasset, in the extreme south, to control movements of terrorist groups in the Sahel and Maghreb under the US Africa Command (Africom). The creation of Africom, announced on February 6 by the US President, was strongly rejected by representatives of African governments and civil societies of the continent, with the exception only of Liberia.
Bicuamumpaka Reminds of the Isolation of the Rwandan Government.
Hirondelle News Agency
8 October 2007
The testimony of the former Rwandan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jérome Bicamumpaka, before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) reminded to what point the Rwandan government was isolated at the time of the 1994 genocide.
For three weeks, Bicamumpaka, who is on trial alongside three other ministers of the government in place during the 1994 genocide, has tried to show that he is not guilty of genocide or crimes against humanity. Their trial started in November 2003. The four ministers have pled not guilty.
At the risk of hindering his case, the former head of Rwandan diplomacy explained to the tribunal that the interim government set up after the plane crash of President Habyarimana and the systematic assassination of all the people likely to constitutionally replace him, functioned normally.
Documents in one hand and a passport in the other, he stated that he did nothing but travel to try to get recognition of his government by Western countries. But aside from France and Germany, it seems that he was rejected by the rest of the Western world; in particular by Anglophone countries that supported the RPF rebellion.
Many appeals were sent to the United Nations to denounce the aggression that attacked his country from Uganda; but nothing was done, he explained. Despite the support of French diplomats, he did not manage to obtain any other appointments with diplomatic representatives. Also, he explained, the attempts to obtain a ceasefire with the RPF remained unanswered.
The principal evidence produced by Bicamumpaka is perhaps his passport which shows that he was, as of his nomination, sent to Bujumbura to attend the funeral of the Burundian president, then to the DRC, France, Germany, the United States, before going to the AU in Tunis.
The head of Rwandan diplomacy vainly tried to establish diplomatic relations everywhere, but his government was already "persona non grata" and all his requests for meetings with, in particular American officials, were rejected. On the other hand, he provided evidence of a report from the American State Department showing the existence of a telephone conversation between an American official and Colonel Theoneste Bagosora, accused before the ICTR of being the mastermind of the genocide.
8 October 2007
The testimony of the former Rwandan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jérome Bicamumpaka, before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) reminded to what point the Rwandan government was isolated at the time of the 1994 genocide.
For three weeks, Bicamumpaka, who is on trial alongside three other ministers of the government in place during the 1994 genocide, has tried to show that he is not guilty of genocide or crimes against humanity. Their trial started in November 2003. The four ministers have pled not guilty.
At the risk of hindering his case, the former head of Rwandan diplomacy explained to the tribunal that the interim government set up after the plane crash of President Habyarimana and the systematic assassination of all the people likely to constitutionally replace him, functioned normally.
Documents in one hand and a passport in the other, he stated that he did nothing but travel to try to get recognition of his government by Western countries. But aside from France and Germany, it seems that he was rejected by the rest of the Western world; in particular by Anglophone countries that supported the RPF rebellion.
Many appeals were sent to the United Nations to denounce the aggression that attacked his country from Uganda; but nothing was done, he explained. Despite the support of French diplomats, he did not manage to obtain any other appointments with diplomatic representatives. Also, he explained, the attempts to obtain a ceasefire with the RPF remained unanswered.
The principal evidence produced by Bicamumpaka is perhaps his passport which shows that he was, as of his nomination, sent to Bujumbura to attend the funeral of the Burundian president, then to the DRC, France, Germany, the United States, before going to the AU in Tunis.
The head of Rwandan diplomacy vainly tried to establish diplomatic relations everywhere, but his government was already "persona non grata" and all his requests for meetings with, in particular American officials, were rejected. On the other hand, he provided evidence of a report from the American State Department showing the existence of a telephone conversation between an American official and Colonel Theoneste Bagosora, accused before the ICTR of being the mastermind of the genocide.
Most of the ICTR Prisoners on Hunger Strike to Denounce Transfers to Country.
Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne)
8 October 2007
Most of the prisoners of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) started Monday an unlimited hunger strike to protest against transfers requests of certain cases to Rwanda.
This movement was confirmed by an official source. According to the announcement made by the prisoners and communicated to the press, 40 of the 55 prisoners are on a hunger strike.
On 7 September, the ICTR prosecutor requested that three on the six prisoners awaiting the start of their trials be transferred to Rwandan court in order to meet the deadline for the end of the ICTR mandate in December 2008. No decision has yet been delivered for this motion.
In a letter dated 5 October and signed by 40 on the 55 persons currently held in Arusha, the interested parties asked the president and the judges of this UN tribunal "to confirm the independence of the ICTR" by refusing any transfer to Rwanda.
They instead asked to the chamber presidents "to act in concert to schedule without any further delay the proceedings for the six prisoners still awaiting their trials".
The signatories suggest that if the ICTR would not be able to try them, that its president should "in convenient time ask the Security Council to prolong the mandate of this tribunal consequently or to transfer some non completed trials to courts in countries other than Rwanda".
The prisoners argue that the motions of the prosecutor "only fit the tripartite agreement between the USA, the United Kingdom and the leaders of the RPF in power in Kigali aiming to quickly end the mandate of the ICTR in order to protect the members of that front from criminal prosecution for crimes which they committed in Rwanda during the jurisdictional period of this tribunal".
The prisoners often accuse the ICTR of practicing a "victors' justice".
This allegation was repeated by the President of the Association of Defence Counsels at the ICTR (ADAD), American Professor Peter Erlinder, who held a press conference Monday.
The lawyers of the three prisoners threatened with transfer to Rwanda had requested the support of the ADAD in their opposition to the transfers to Rwanda.
The ADAD held a general assembly over the weekend during which it decided to address the judges as a "friend of the court" during the awaited debate on the transfers.
Among the prisoners who did not sign the letter, for the first time in the history of the ICTR, Colonel Théoneste Bagosora, former cabinet director to the Rwandan Defence Minister. It was not possible to establish what motivated him. Generally, only the prisoners or persons detained who cooperate with the prosecutor abstain from signing letters of complaint; but today were added some defendants whose trial are in progress.
A defence counsel stated Monday afternoon that he was informed by his client that the strikers had only drank water or fruit juice.
8 October 2007
Most of the prisoners of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) started Monday an unlimited hunger strike to protest against transfers requests of certain cases to Rwanda.
This movement was confirmed by an official source. According to the announcement made by the prisoners and communicated to the press, 40 of the 55 prisoners are on a hunger strike.
On 7 September, the ICTR prosecutor requested that three on the six prisoners awaiting the start of their trials be transferred to Rwandan court in order to meet the deadline for the end of the ICTR mandate in December 2008. No decision has yet been delivered for this motion.
In a letter dated 5 October and signed by 40 on the 55 persons currently held in Arusha, the interested parties asked the president and the judges of this UN tribunal "to confirm the independence of the ICTR" by refusing any transfer to Rwanda.
They instead asked to the chamber presidents "to act in concert to schedule without any further delay the proceedings for the six prisoners still awaiting their trials".
The signatories suggest that if the ICTR would not be able to try them, that its president should "in convenient time ask the Security Council to prolong the mandate of this tribunal consequently or to transfer some non completed trials to courts in countries other than Rwanda".
The prisoners argue that the motions of the prosecutor "only fit the tripartite agreement between the USA, the United Kingdom and the leaders of the RPF in power in Kigali aiming to quickly end the mandate of the ICTR in order to protect the members of that front from criminal prosecution for crimes which they committed in Rwanda during the jurisdictional period of this tribunal".
The prisoners often accuse the ICTR of practicing a "victors' justice".
This allegation was repeated by the President of the Association of Defence Counsels at the ICTR (ADAD), American Professor Peter Erlinder, who held a press conference Monday.
The lawyers of the three prisoners threatened with transfer to Rwanda had requested the support of the ADAD in their opposition to the transfers to Rwanda.
The ADAD held a general assembly over the weekend during which it decided to address the judges as a "friend of the court" during the awaited debate on the transfers.
Among the prisoners who did not sign the letter, for the first time in the history of the ICTR, Colonel Théoneste Bagosora, former cabinet director to the Rwandan Defence Minister. It was not possible to establish what motivated him. Generally, only the prisoners or persons detained who cooperate with the prosecutor abstain from signing letters of complaint; but today were added some defendants whose trial are in progress.
A defence counsel stated Monday afternoon that he was informed by his client that the strikers had only drank water or fruit juice.
North Kivu: Fighting Resumes... Situation of Displaced Remains Critical
MISNA
8 October 2007
Heavy fighting erupted over the weekend between Congolese army units and militants loyal to the pro-Rwandan dissident general Laurent Nkunda in the North Kivu province, in the east Democratic Republic of Congo. According to local sources, violent clashes took place yesterday in the Bukima area, in Rutshuru territory, around 80km north-east of Goma (provincial capital of North Kivu) near the border with Rwanda. Congolese soldiers referred that they were attacked by militants attempting to leave the Rutshuru area for Masisi, north-west of Goma, also scene to fighting between the army and rebels in the past weeks. As usual, an entirely different version was given by the other side, which claimed to have been attacked by the army. Despite a truce reached in the past weeks, Kinshasa troops and Nkunda’s militants clashed also on Saturday in the area of Nkonkwe, also in the Rutshuru territory. For the moment there are no tolls available on the renewed violence.
8 October 2007
Heavy fighting erupted over the weekend between Congolese army units and militants loyal to the pro-Rwandan dissident general Laurent Nkunda in the North Kivu province, in the east Democratic Republic of Congo. According to local sources, violent clashes took place yesterday in the Bukima area, in Rutshuru territory, around 80km north-east of Goma (provincial capital of North Kivu) near the border with Rwanda. Congolese soldiers referred that they were attacked by militants attempting to leave the Rutshuru area for Masisi, north-west of Goma, also scene to fighting between the army and rebels in the past weeks. As usual, an entirely different version was given by the other side, which claimed to have been attacked by the army. Despite a truce reached in the past weeks, Kinshasa troops and Nkunda’s militants clashed also on Saturday in the area of Nkonkwe, also in the Rutshuru territory. For the moment there are no tolls available on the renewed violence.
North Kivu (2): Fighting Resumes... Situation of Displaced Remains Critical
MISNA
8 October 2007
Sporadic clashes were reported also this morning in various areas of North Kivu (north-east Democratic Republic of Congo) after a weekend of fighting between the Congolese army (FARDC) and militants loyal to the dissident general Laurent Nkunda. “We are certain that the fighting was very heavy, given that many wounded were transported to the hospital in Masisi, but we do not know the death toll”, referred to MISNA a humanitarian source, who will remain anonymous for security reasons. The weekend fighting took place mainly in the areas of Shasha, south of the Viruga Park, and Rumangabo, in the hills of Bukima and Kokwe, inside the park, close to the border with Rwanda. Local sources also report intensive troop movements along the Sake-Kitshanga road, north of North Kivu’s provincial capital Goma.
“It is still too early to say how many more were displaced by the renewed violence, but since the start of the fighting at the end of August tens of thousands of people are still gathered a few kilometres outside of Goma. They are in three camps: the official one of Mugunga, run by the UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees), and another two makeshift camps, all situated in a very reduced area”, added the humanitarian source. The leader of the militants, pro-Rwandan dissident general Laurent Nkunda, told the Reuters news agency that he had abandoned a September 6 cease-fire with the Congolese army, accusing the regular forces of continuing “attacks” on his men. A version rejected by the army that claims to have been targeted by rebel offensives. Reliable MISNA sources appeared to confirm the FARDC version. The truce reached a month ago was already violated in the past weeks and Nkunda’s militants also clashed with local armed groups considered pro-Kinshasa.
8 October 2007
Sporadic clashes were reported also this morning in various areas of North Kivu (north-east Democratic Republic of Congo) after a weekend of fighting between the Congolese army (FARDC) and militants loyal to the dissident general Laurent Nkunda. “We are certain that the fighting was very heavy, given that many wounded were transported to the hospital in Masisi, but we do not know the death toll”, referred to MISNA a humanitarian source, who will remain anonymous for security reasons. The weekend fighting took place mainly in the areas of Shasha, south of the Viruga Park, and Rumangabo, in the hills of Bukima and Kokwe, inside the park, close to the border with Rwanda. Local sources also report intensive troop movements along the Sake-Kitshanga road, north of North Kivu’s provincial capital Goma.
“It is still too early to say how many more were displaced by the renewed violence, but since the start of the fighting at the end of August tens of thousands of people are still gathered a few kilometres outside of Goma. They are in three camps: the official one of Mugunga, run by the UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees), and another two makeshift camps, all situated in a very reduced area”, added the humanitarian source. The leader of the militants, pro-Rwandan dissident general Laurent Nkunda, told the Reuters news agency that he had abandoned a September 6 cease-fire with the Congolese army, accusing the regular forces of continuing “attacks” on his men. A version rejected by the army that claims to have been targeted by rebel offensives. Reliable MISNA sources appeared to confirm the FARDC version. The truce reached a month ago was already violated in the past weeks and Nkunda’s militants also clashed with local armed groups considered pro-Kinshasa.
08 October, 2007
Belgium downplays breakup concerns
By ROBERT WIELAARD
Associated Press Writer
Sun Oct 7, 2:30 PM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071007/ap_on_re_eu/belgium_here_to_stay&printer=1;_ylt=Asdicw5zPGiVhtCj043gIGZbbBAF
Belgium has sent an unusual memo to its embassies around the world: If anyone asks whether the country's Dutch- and French-speaking parts are splitting up, say "No."
Nearly four months after holding general elections, Belgium's squabbling political parties still have not put a government together due to a deadlock over demands for more self-rule in Dutch-speaking Flanders and Francophone Wallonia.
The political stalemate has led to media and public speculation that Belgium might be better off breaking up, prompting Foreign Minister Karel de Gucht to offer "useful talking points" to embassy staffs meant to reassure Belgium's political and business partners worldwide.
The key point to make: "Dutch-speaking and Francophone inhabitants have always strived and managed to live together peacefully," the memo says.
It instructs embassy staffs to make clear in conversations with media and others that, after 177 years together, the political ambitions of Dutch- and French-speakers may have "evolved (but) it's still important to them to avoid any kind of violence."
Belgium has 6.5 million Dutch-speakers and 4 million Francophones. Just about everything — from cable companies to boy scouts to pigeon racing clubs — is split into Dutch- and French-speaking camps.
The country — a federation and constitutional monarchy — also gives a high degree of self-rule to its three regions. The national parliament is elected according to a scheme meant to balance representation of the French-speaking Walloons and Dutch-speaking Flemish.
The June 10 legislative elections gave a total of 81 seats to the Christian Democrats and Liberals, enough to form a governing center-right majority in the 150-seat lower house of parliament.
However both groups are split into Dutch- and French-speaking parties which have failed to agree over Flemish demands for more regional autonomy in health, justice and transport. They are also divided over the rights of a French-speaking minority living in Flemish territory around Brussels — the officially bilingual capital.
Local media reported that Belgian flags were burned during a demonstration Sunday by about 300 Flemish nationalists in Sint-Genesius-Rode, outside the capital. Several hundred people attended a demonstration in favor of Belgian unity in downtown Brussels, RTBF radio reported.
Francophones say enough powers have devolved to Flanders and Wallonia in the last 25 years, and they accuse Flemish politicians of engineering the demise of Belgium as a unified state.
Opinion polls have suggested a growing number of people in Flanders, Belgium's more prosperous northern half, now favor independence.
During a Flemish parliament debate last month on independence, Filip Dewinter, the head of the far-right Flemish Interest Party, said it was time for a "velvet divorce," referring to Czechoslovakia's 1993 peaceful breakup into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Elio di Rupo, leader of the Francophone Socialists, even predicted recently that Flanders will go its own way within a decade. "When you see how many people in Flanders believe Belgium can disappear, it's normal that ... Francophones start thinking about their own future," he said.
But the Belgian situation is not unique, De Gucht said in the memo, noting that Austria and the Netherlands had also experienced difficulties in forming governments, and saying that opinion polls were "fleeting."
So when will there be a government? De Gucht's memo suggests a safe answer: "When the time is right."
On Sunday he told the VRT television network he did not expect one before Nov. 11.
Like the rest of Premier Guy Verhofstadt's outgoing Cabinet, De Gucht has stayed on in a caretaker capacity until a new government is formed.
Associated Press Writer
Sun Oct 7, 2:30 PM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071007/ap_on_re_eu/belgium_here_to_stay&printer=1;_ylt=Asdicw5zPGiVhtCj043gIGZbbBAF
Belgium has sent an unusual memo to its embassies around the world: If anyone asks whether the country's Dutch- and French-speaking parts are splitting up, say "No."
Nearly four months after holding general elections, Belgium's squabbling political parties still have not put a government together due to a deadlock over demands for more self-rule in Dutch-speaking Flanders and Francophone Wallonia.
The political stalemate has led to media and public speculation that Belgium might be better off breaking up, prompting Foreign Minister Karel de Gucht to offer "useful talking points" to embassy staffs meant to reassure Belgium's political and business partners worldwide.
The key point to make: "Dutch-speaking and Francophone inhabitants have always strived and managed to live together peacefully," the memo says.
It instructs embassy staffs to make clear in conversations with media and others that, after 177 years together, the political ambitions of Dutch- and French-speakers may have "evolved (but) it's still important to them to avoid any kind of violence."
Belgium has 6.5 million Dutch-speakers and 4 million Francophones. Just about everything — from cable companies to boy scouts to pigeon racing clubs — is split into Dutch- and French-speaking camps.
The country — a federation and constitutional monarchy — also gives a high degree of self-rule to its three regions. The national parliament is elected according to a scheme meant to balance representation of the French-speaking Walloons and Dutch-speaking Flemish.
The June 10 legislative elections gave a total of 81 seats to the Christian Democrats and Liberals, enough to form a governing center-right majority in the 150-seat lower house of parliament.
However both groups are split into Dutch- and French-speaking parties which have failed to agree over Flemish demands for more regional autonomy in health, justice and transport. They are also divided over the rights of a French-speaking minority living in Flemish territory around Brussels — the officially bilingual capital.
Local media reported that Belgian flags were burned during a demonstration Sunday by about 300 Flemish nationalists in Sint-Genesius-Rode, outside the capital. Several hundred people attended a demonstration in favor of Belgian unity in downtown Brussels, RTBF radio reported.
Francophones say enough powers have devolved to Flanders and Wallonia in the last 25 years, and they accuse Flemish politicians of engineering the demise of Belgium as a unified state.
Opinion polls have suggested a growing number of people in Flanders, Belgium's more prosperous northern half, now favor independence.
During a Flemish parliament debate last month on independence, Filip Dewinter, the head of the far-right Flemish Interest Party, said it was time for a "velvet divorce," referring to Czechoslovakia's 1993 peaceful breakup into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Elio di Rupo, leader of the Francophone Socialists, even predicted recently that Flanders will go its own way within a decade. "When you see how many people in Flanders believe Belgium can disappear, it's normal that ... Francophones start thinking about their own future," he said.
But the Belgian situation is not unique, De Gucht said in the memo, noting that Austria and the Netherlands had also experienced difficulties in forming governments, and saying that opinion polls were "fleeting."
So when will there be a government? De Gucht's memo suggests a safe answer: "When the time is right."
On Sunday he told the VRT television network he did not expect one before Nov. 11.
Like the rest of Premier Guy Verhofstadt's outgoing Cabinet, De Gucht has stayed on in a caretaker capacity until a new government is formed.
Rwandan Refugees Expelled: After 13 Years Forced to Expatriate.
MISNA
8 October 2007
An unspecified number of Rwandan refugees, ranging from 1,500 to 3,000 depending on the sources, were expelled without notice from Uganda under a deal reached between the governments of Kampala and Kigali. The trucks departed this morning from the Kyaka II and Navikale refugee camps (near the border with Tanzania) en route to Rwanda carrying mainly refugees of the Hutu ethnic group, foodstuff, clothing, household items and light property such as bicycles. Despite protests, refugees who had livestock were not allowed to take their animals along with them. The refugees had lived for four years in Uganda, where they arrived in 2003 after their refugee status was cancelled in Tanzania claiming that the war was over in their country. The refugees had fled to Tanzania in 1994 from the war and massacres of the Rwandan genocide. A response arrived this morning from Uganda, though the local press reports two versions. The government version was expressed by Eunice Kisembo, a senior immigration officer and the spokesperson for the operation: “They requested to be assisted to go back to their homes in Rwanda and the government of Uganda has provided transport and other humanitarian aid to help them go home”. An entirely different version was given by the actual refugees: “The police arrived at 2:00a.m and ordered everyone to gather in a point of the camp, where we were then forced to board some lorries”; “Nobody should deceive you that we are going voluntarily. We have no option but to board the lorries and return to the land that we fled”. According to local sources, the transferral of the Rwandan refugees took place in agreement with the government of Kigali, which provided the trucks used for their transport. “These are people who have been living in Uganda illegally, they have not been given asylum”, said Rwandan Ambassador to Uganda Kamari Karegesa.
8 October 2007
An unspecified number of Rwandan refugees, ranging from 1,500 to 3,000 depending on the sources, were expelled without notice from Uganda under a deal reached between the governments of Kampala and Kigali. The trucks departed this morning from the Kyaka II and Navikale refugee camps (near the border with Tanzania) en route to Rwanda carrying mainly refugees of the Hutu ethnic group, foodstuff, clothing, household items and light property such as bicycles. Despite protests, refugees who had livestock were not allowed to take their animals along with them. The refugees had lived for four years in Uganda, where they arrived in 2003 after their refugee status was cancelled in Tanzania claiming that the war was over in their country. The refugees had fled to Tanzania in 1994 from the war and massacres of the Rwandan genocide. A response arrived this morning from Uganda, though the local press reports two versions. The government version was expressed by Eunice Kisembo, a senior immigration officer and the spokesperson for the operation: “They requested to be assisted to go back to their homes in Rwanda and the government of Uganda has provided transport and other humanitarian aid to help them go home”. An entirely different version was given by the actual refugees: “The police arrived at 2:00a.m and ordered everyone to gather in a point of the camp, where we were then forced to board some lorries”; “Nobody should deceive you that we are going voluntarily. We have no option but to board the lorries and return to the land that we fled”. According to local sources, the transferral of the Rwandan refugees took place in agreement with the government of Kigali, which provided the trucks used for their transport. “These are people who have been living in Uganda illegally, they have not been given asylum”, said Rwandan Ambassador to Uganda Kamari Karegesa.
Sudan: Haskanita Entirely 'Razed' After Attack on AU Peacekeepers.
MISNA
8 October 2007
“The town of Haskanita was completely burned down, except for a few buildings”, reported the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS), in describing the situation in the town of Haskanita (South Darfur, one of three States that make up the homonymous western Sudanese region). The town was theatre last week to heavy fighting and an attack, of which circumstances are still unclear, against the local base of the African Union peace mission in Darfur (AMIS) that left 10 African peacekeepers dead and another nine wounded. It is unclear if the reported damages are linked to last week’s fighting or more recent violence reported by some sources. In the report drawn-up after a verification mission on the scene, the UNMIS specified that “few civilians had returned in search of food and water” to the town that is “currently under the control of the Sudanese government”. The majority of the civilian population fled to neighbouring areas on September 29, when the attack took place on the AU base at the doors of Haskanita. Meanwhile, the UN special envoy met with government officials and representatives of some mediator nations in preparation for peace talks to be held October 27 in Tripoli between Khartoum and rebels active in Darfur.
8 October 2007
“The town of Haskanita was completely burned down, except for a few buildings”, reported the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS), in describing the situation in the town of Haskanita (South Darfur, one of three States that make up the homonymous western Sudanese region). The town was theatre last week to heavy fighting and an attack, of which circumstances are still unclear, against the local base of the African Union peace mission in Darfur (AMIS) that left 10 African peacekeepers dead and another nine wounded. It is unclear if the reported damages are linked to last week’s fighting or more recent violence reported by some sources. In the report drawn-up after a verification mission on the scene, the UNMIS specified that “few civilians had returned in search of food and water” to the town that is “currently under the control of the Sudanese government”. The majority of the civilian population fled to neighbouring areas on September 29, when the attack took place on the AU base at the doors of Haskanita. Meanwhile, the UN special envoy met with government officials and representatives of some mediator nations in preparation for peace talks to be held October 27 in Tripoli between Khartoum and rebels active in Darfur.
07 October, 2007
Emergency Update: North Kivu
Earlier, I reported that General Nkunda's men had taken over Jomba. Yesterday and early today, there was a large battle between these forces, their RDF reinforcements, and the FARDC. These forces won the battle and at 3 AM local time this morning, they siezed conrol of the entire section of Virunga National Forest on the Rwandan border, including Kibumba, Jomba, Bukima, and Bikenge. This move sucessfully opens a corridor for Rwandan reinforcements and secures ambush positions along the Goma-Rumangabo-Rutshuru axis. There are also reports these forces control and area to the west up to Rugari, essentially cutting off the road from Goma to Rutshuru town. The RDF reinforcements attacked the FARDC later this morning in the area around Nkonkwe and were trying to secure a corridor to Masisi Territory to send reinforcements to the areas that saw fighting on Friday. General Kakolele announced to the AFP that his men are going to go on the offensive. The ceasefire brokered by MONUC was used by the CNDP and RDF in the same manner the RDF used UNAMIR brokered ceasefires in 1991 and 1993. It afforded them a chance to regroup and rearm. Over the last weeks, the CNDP has abducted hundreds of children as soldiers in preparation for this offensive.
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