Hirondelle News Agency
9 November 2007
The judicial inquiry against Agathe Habyarimana, the widow of the former Rwandan president, opened in Evry, near Paris, following a complaint for "complicity to genocide and crimes against humanity", will be transferred to an investigating magistrate from Paris.
The criminal chamber of the final court of appeal delivered this judgment in the middle of the week for a "good administration of justice". For three years, all the cases of genocide have been handed over to two Parisian judges: Fabienne Pous and Michèle Ganascia. This transfer should take a month.
The inquiry was opened on 16 May in Evry, a prefecture in the department where Mrs. Habyarimana resides, following a complaint by a civil party filed three months before by the collective of the civil parties for Rwanda (CPCR). A preceding complaint filed by the association "reporters without borders" had not been declared admissible.
To date, six judicial inquiries have been opened in France against Rwandan nationals accused of having taken part in the genocide. Two of them could be abandoned and handed over to the ICTR, which wants that Wenceslas Munyeshyeka and Laurent Bucyibaruta be transferred to them. A decision of the Court of Appeal of Paris is waited next week on this subject.
The complaint against Mrs. Habyarimana was filed after the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless People (OFPRA) refused, at the beginning of the year, its application to be regarded as a political refugee. In its decision, OFPRA claimed there were "serious reasons" to think that the widow of the assassinated former president had been implicated in the 1994 genocide.
Mrs. Habyarimana had been evacuated to France a few days after the assassination of her husband. Ten years later, she asked for political asylum. Before this complaint, no judicial inquiries had targeted her in France. Investigations carried out at the beginning by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda had not succeeded.
10 November, 2007
Burundians Split on the Presence of Foreigners in the TRC.
Hirondelle News Agency
9 November 2007
A week after the Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza launched the committee charged with holding popular consultations for the installation of the mechanisms of transitional justice, opinions remain split on the presence of foreigners within the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
All the persons questioned agree, however, that the members of these bodies will have to be people with integrity "who do not have blood on their hands".
First mechanism to be set up, the Steering Committee (sc) will include six members: two representatives of the government, including the president of the committee, two from civil society, and two from the United Nations.
"Foreigners do not know anything about what happened in our country, they should not thus be involved in things that do not concern them", estimates Liberate Nimbona, a country-woman originating from Mwaro province, in the center of the country.
For Vital Bambanzi, a representative of an association of Batwa (1% of the population), the foreigners should be associated with the TRC "in small numbers and in the capacity as observers only". "It is we who know the wrongs that we caused to one another, and we must demonstrate independence", he said.
His point of view is not shared by Raymond Kamenyero, a member of the Forum for the Reinforcement of the Civil Society (FORSC), an association which calls itself "apolitical". According to him, transitional Justice is a field which exceeds Burundians. "We need the expertise of foreigners", he underlines. The Arusha Peace Accords, signed in August 2000, as well as the various cease-fire agreements concluded between the government of Burundi and the rebel groups were negotiate with the support and the mediation of foreigners, points out Kamenyero.
The lawyer Didace Kanyugu, president of the Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture (ACAT), is of the same opinion. He thinks that the participation of foreigners is necessary because of their neutrality. According to him, their presence would be used as a counterweight to the generally globalizing attitude adopted by Burundians and would make the debates much more transparent.
The political leaders that have been questioned have all be unanimous on the fact that the TRC must function under foreign monitoring. "We need experts (international) who would not come to decide", estimates Pierre Claver Nahimana, president of the parliamentary group of the FRODEBU party (Front for Democracy in Burundi, principal opposition party).
"The peace process is not yet finished, we must keep an opening, but the greatest part would be played by locals", estimates Nahimana; who has held several ministerial portfolios before being named vice-president of the Senate during the transition.
The Minister for Regional Integration, Karenga Ramadhani, for his part stressed that the question of the composition of the TRC "was settled a long time ago". "There will absolutely be a foreign contribution", explained the former information minister and member of the governing party, CNDD-FDD.
The TRC is one of the mechanisms of transitional justice resulting from the Arusha Accords, which also plans the establishment of a Special Tribunal which will have to investigate the crimes committed in Burundi since independence in 1962, and will decide on the fate of their authors. This tribunal must, according to the UN, be supported by foreign judges and lawyers who will work with their Burundian counterparts.
The government had at the onset shown a more flexible attitude, estimating that any person having publicly confessed their crimes could benefit from a pardon. However, during his visit to Burundi in May, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, clarified that crimes of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity are “imprescriptible and inadmissible" crimes.
9 November 2007
A week after the Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza launched the committee charged with holding popular consultations for the installation of the mechanisms of transitional justice, opinions remain split on the presence of foreigners within the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
All the persons questioned agree, however, that the members of these bodies will have to be people with integrity "who do not have blood on their hands".
First mechanism to be set up, the Steering Committee (sc) will include six members: two representatives of the government, including the president of the committee, two from civil society, and two from the United Nations.
"Foreigners do not know anything about what happened in our country, they should not thus be involved in things that do not concern them", estimates Liberate Nimbona, a country-woman originating from Mwaro province, in the center of the country.
For Vital Bambanzi, a representative of an association of Batwa (1% of the population), the foreigners should be associated with the TRC "in small numbers and in the capacity as observers only". "It is we who know the wrongs that we caused to one another, and we must demonstrate independence", he said.
His point of view is not shared by Raymond Kamenyero, a member of the Forum for the Reinforcement of the Civil Society (FORSC), an association which calls itself "apolitical". According to him, transitional Justice is a field which exceeds Burundians. "We need the expertise of foreigners", he underlines. The Arusha Peace Accords, signed in August 2000, as well as the various cease-fire agreements concluded between the government of Burundi and the rebel groups were negotiate with the support and the mediation of foreigners, points out Kamenyero.
The lawyer Didace Kanyugu, president of the Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture (ACAT), is of the same opinion. He thinks that the participation of foreigners is necessary because of their neutrality. According to him, their presence would be used as a counterweight to the generally globalizing attitude adopted by Burundians and would make the debates much more transparent.
The political leaders that have been questioned have all be unanimous on the fact that the TRC must function under foreign monitoring. "We need experts (international) who would not come to decide", estimates Pierre Claver Nahimana, president of the parliamentary group of the FRODEBU party (Front for Democracy in Burundi, principal opposition party).
"The peace process is not yet finished, we must keep an opening, but the greatest part would be played by locals", estimates Nahimana; who has held several ministerial portfolios before being named vice-president of the Senate during the transition.
The Minister for Regional Integration, Karenga Ramadhani, for his part stressed that the question of the composition of the TRC "was settled a long time ago". "There will absolutely be a foreign contribution", explained the former information minister and member of the governing party, CNDD-FDD.
The TRC is one of the mechanisms of transitional justice resulting from the Arusha Accords, which also plans the establishment of a Special Tribunal which will have to investigate the crimes committed in Burundi since independence in 1962, and will decide on the fate of their authors. This tribunal must, according to the UN, be supported by foreign judges and lawyers who will work with their Burundian counterparts.
The government had at the onset shown a more flexible attitude, estimating that any person having publicly confessed their crimes could benefit from a pardon. However, during his visit to Burundi in May, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, clarified that crimes of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity are “imprescriptible and inadmissible" crimes.
The ICTR Agrees to Hear Human Rights Watch on a Transfer Proceedure.
Hirondelle News Agency
9 November 2007
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) agreed to hear the opinion of the organization for the defence of human rights, Human Rights Watch (HRW), in connection with a procedure aiming at transferring a defendant to Rwandan courts, it was learned from a legal source Friday.
The accused in question, the former legal police inspector, Fulgence Kayishema, is still at large. The ICTR prosecutor, Hassan Bubacar Jallow, filed on 11 June, a motion aiming at transferring this case to Rwanda.
"The chamber grants leave to HRW to appear as amicus curiae in the present case ", indicates an order delivered Thursday by Judges Inès Weinberg de Roca (Argentina), Lee Gacuiga Muthoga (Kenya) and Robert Fremr (Czech Republic).
HRW had filed its request on 25 October. The prosecutor had stated his opposition to this proposal.
In its decision, the tribunal invites HRW to answer, in written arguments, a certain number of questions.
The judges want to know, in particular, if the Rwandan legal system can, in practice, guarantee an adequate legal assistance, grant a suitable legal aid to a poor defendant, facilitate displacements and investigations of defence teams and ensure their safety.
"What kind of impediments the defence of the accused may face in the discharge of its function?”, also requests the chamber.
It also wishes that the organization expose: "What kind of threats prosecution and/or defence witnesses may potentially face before, during and after giving testimony in Rwanda?".
The organization has, according to the decision, a 21-day deadline to file its arguments. The ICTR prosecutor and the Rwandan government will be able, if they consider it useful, to retort.
Three other defendants are targeted by transfer requests to Rwanda.
Within the framework of its completion strategy, the ICTR, which must finish its first instance trials by the end of next year, plans to transfer certain case to national courts, including those in Rwanda.
The tribunal has, to date, delivered 28 convictions and 5 acquittals.
9 November 2007
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) agreed to hear the opinion of the organization for the defence of human rights, Human Rights Watch (HRW), in connection with a procedure aiming at transferring a defendant to Rwandan courts, it was learned from a legal source Friday.
The accused in question, the former legal police inspector, Fulgence Kayishema, is still at large. The ICTR prosecutor, Hassan Bubacar Jallow, filed on 11 June, a motion aiming at transferring this case to Rwanda.
"The chamber grants leave to HRW to appear as amicus curiae in the present case ", indicates an order delivered Thursday by Judges Inès Weinberg de Roca (Argentina), Lee Gacuiga Muthoga (Kenya) and Robert Fremr (Czech Republic).
HRW had filed its request on 25 October. The prosecutor had stated his opposition to this proposal.
In its decision, the tribunal invites HRW to answer, in written arguments, a certain number of questions.
The judges want to know, in particular, if the Rwandan legal system can, in practice, guarantee an adequate legal assistance, grant a suitable legal aid to a poor defendant, facilitate displacements and investigations of defence teams and ensure their safety.
"What kind of impediments the defence of the accused may face in the discharge of its function?”, also requests the chamber.
It also wishes that the organization expose: "What kind of threats prosecution and/or defence witnesses may potentially face before, during and after giving testimony in Rwanda?".
The organization has, according to the decision, a 21-day deadline to file its arguments. The ICTR prosecutor and the Rwandan government will be able, if they consider it useful, to retort.
Three other defendants are targeted by transfer requests to Rwanda.
Within the framework of its completion strategy, the ICTR, which must finish its first instance trials by the end of next year, plans to transfer certain case to national courts, including those in Rwanda.
The tribunal has, to date, delivered 28 convictions and 5 acquittals.
Directives Have Been Given to the TPLF Regime's Army to Prepare for War, Say Defecting Ethiopian Soldiers.
Shabait.com
8 November 2007
Ethiopian soldiers abandoning the TPLF regime who recently arrived here said that directives have been given to the TPLF regime's Army to prepare for war.
They also explained that the acute sufferings and oppression committed by the regime against the Army is gaining momentum and that those fleeing to their respective villages in opposition of the TPLF's racist and war-mongering policies are being rounded up.
The defecting soldiers are Tesfai Gerezghier from the Tigray ethnic group, Teages Esayas Mamo from the Walaita ethnic group, and Mamush Teklewold Tufa from the Oromo ethnic group.
8 November 2007
Ethiopian soldiers abandoning the TPLF regime who recently arrived here said that directives have been given to the TPLF regime's Army to prepare for war.
They also explained that the acute sufferings and oppression committed by the regime against the Army is gaining momentum and that those fleeing to their respective villages in opposition of the TPLF's racist and war-mongering policies are being rounded up.
The defecting soldiers are Tesfai Gerezghier from the Tigray ethnic group, Teages Esayas Mamo from the Walaita ethnic group, and Mamush Teklewold Tufa from the Oromo ethnic group.
Georgian billionaire says will run for president.
Reuters
10 November 2007
Georgian billionaire and opposition financier Badri Patarkatsishvili said on Saturday he would run for president in January's election despite being accused of plotting a coup.
Patarkatsishvili is one of the highest profile opposition figures in Georgia, a former Soviet republic that is experiencing one of its worst political crises since a civil war in the early 1990s.
"I have decided to participate in the presidential election," Patarkatsishvili said in an e-mailed statement.
"Mr (President Mikhail) Saakashvili's regime has completely discredited itself in the eyes of the Georgian people who will never again entrust it its destiny."
On Wednesday police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at anti-government protesters to drive them off the streets after six days of demonstrations. President Mikhail Saakashvili then imposed a state of emergency and accused Russia of destabilizing the country, charges Moscow denies.
On Friday, the Prosecutor-General's office accused Patarkatsishvili of plotting a coup and sought to question him.
The silver-haired mustachioed Patarkatsishvili is not in Georgia but is funding part of the former Soviet state's opposition movement which accuses Saakashvili of corruption and economic mismanagement.
"My election slogan will be 'Georgia without Saakashvili is Georgia without Terror'," he wrote.
(Reporting by Michael Stott, writing by James Kilner; editing by Ralph Boulton)
10 November 2007
Georgian billionaire and opposition financier Badri Patarkatsishvili said on Saturday he would run for president in January's election despite being accused of plotting a coup.
Patarkatsishvili is one of the highest profile opposition figures in Georgia, a former Soviet republic that is experiencing one of its worst political crises since a civil war in the early 1990s.
"I have decided to participate in the presidential election," Patarkatsishvili said in an e-mailed statement.
"Mr (President Mikhail) Saakashvili's regime has completely discredited itself in the eyes of the Georgian people who will never again entrust it its destiny."
On Wednesday police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at anti-government protesters to drive them off the streets after six days of demonstrations. President Mikhail Saakashvili then imposed a state of emergency and accused Russia of destabilizing the country, charges Moscow denies.
On Friday, the Prosecutor-General's office accused Patarkatsishvili of plotting a coup and sought to question him.
The silver-haired mustachioed Patarkatsishvili is not in Georgia but is funding part of the former Soviet state's opposition movement which accuses Saakashvili of corruption and economic mismanagement.
"My election slogan will be 'Georgia without Saakashvili is Georgia without Terror'," he wrote.
(Reporting by Michael Stott, writing by James Kilner; editing by Ralph Boulton)
US Africa command chief in talks with African Union.
AFP
9 November 2007
The head of the US military's new Africa command (AFRICOM) held talks with African Union (AU) officials Thursday, amid grumblings on the continent over increased US military involvement.
General William Ward met AU Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare at the pan-African body's headquarters in Addis Ababa.
"I came to present my vision of AFRICOM and to listen and understand the traditions of this old institution," Ward said at a press conference.
"There are threats on the continent that deal with poverty, terrorism, trafficking of drugs or people," he said to justify the Pentagon's decision to create a new military command for Africa.
African countries have hitherto been split between three different commands for the US military, and AFRICOM has yet to find a country on the continent to set up its headquarters.
"No decision taken so far. We take into account the different factors that will impact," said Ward, the US military's only serving African-American four-star general.
Some African countries have made no secret of their hostility to the project which they fear will make the host country a target for anti-US terrorism.
AFRICOM currently operates out of Germany as a sub-unified command under the US European command but will become a fully operational command by October next year.
9 November 2007
The head of the US military's new Africa command (AFRICOM) held talks with African Union (AU) officials Thursday, amid grumblings on the continent over increased US military involvement.
General William Ward met AU Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare at the pan-African body's headquarters in Addis Ababa.
"I came to present my vision of AFRICOM and to listen and understand the traditions of this old institution," Ward said at a press conference.
"There are threats on the continent that deal with poverty, terrorism, trafficking of drugs or people," he said to justify the Pentagon's decision to create a new military command for Africa.
African countries have hitherto been split between three different commands for the US military, and AFRICOM has yet to find a country on the continent to set up its headquarters.
"No decision taken so far. We take into account the different factors that will impact," said Ward, the US military's only serving African-American four-star general.
Some African countries have made no secret of their hostility to the project which they fear will make the host country a target for anti-US terrorism.
AFRICOM currently operates out of Germany as a sub-unified command under the US European command but will become a fully operational command by October next year.
Chinese Premier Discusses Thorny Energy Issue with Russia.
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
9 November 2007
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met his Russian counterpart Viktor Subkov on Tuesday for talks to deepen the two countries' energy sector cooperation, including the construction of new oil and gas pipelines.
After the talks in Moscow, Wen said that China hoped for cooperation in large-scale projects, with Beijing wanting to speed up the construction of pipelines.
But local media reports said there were major differences between Moscow and Beijing, particularly over prices for Russian oil and gas deliveries.
Two years ago, China provided Russia with massive credits to help secure long-term Russian petroleum supplies at fixed prices to be delivered by rail.
In the meantime, with world market prices for oil steeply rising, Moscow wants a revision of the delivery terms to reflect world market conditions, something which Beijing is refusing.
Wen, who arrived in Moscow on Monday, was also due to meet President Vladimir Putin during his visit, but the magazine Kommersant was sceptical about the prospects for an agreement between the two countries in the controversy.
"Both sides will not be able to agree on the conditions for the oil deliveries," it predicted.
Amid the differences over energy trade, Russian industry has been complaining about a steady drop in its technology exports to China, whereas exports of raw materials such as oil and petroleum products as well as timber make up 70 per cent of overall trade.
In view of the differences, demands were made in Moscow last week to slap punitive duties on goods arriving from China, reports said.
Moscow and Beijing have lately been moving closer to each other in coordinating their military and geopolitical interests. But at the same time, there is evidently a latent worry among some segments of the Russian leadership about the prospect of a mass emigration of ethnic Chinese into the thinly-populated areas of Siberia.
9 November 2007
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met his Russian counterpart Viktor Subkov on Tuesday for talks to deepen the two countries' energy sector cooperation, including the construction of new oil and gas pipelines.
After the talks in Moscow, Wen said that China hoped for cooperation in large-scale projects, with Beijing wanting to speed up the construction of pipelines.
But local media reports said there were major differences between Moscow and Beijing, particularly over prices for Russian oil and gas deliveries.
Two years ago, China provided Russia with massive credits to help secure long-term Russian petroleum supplies at fixed prices to be delivered by rail.
In the meantime, with world market prices for oil steeply rising, Moscow wants a revision of the delivery terms to reflect world market conditions, something which Beijing is refusing.
Wen, who arrived in Moscow on Monday, was also due to meet President Vladimir Putin during his visit, but the magazine Kommersant was sceptical about the prospects for an agreement between the two countries in the controversy.
"Both sides will not be able to agree on the conditions for the oil deliveries," it predicted.
Amid the differences over energy trade, Russian industry has been complaining about a steady drop in its technology exports to China, whereas exports of raw materials such as oil and petroleum products as well as timber make up 70 per cent of overall trade.
In view of the differences, demands were made in Moscow last week to slap punitive duties on goods arriving from China, reports said.
Moscow and Beijing have lately been moving closer to each other in coordinating their military and geopolitical interests. But at the same time, there is evidently a latent worry among some segments of the Russian leadership about the prospect of a mass emigration of ethnic Chinese into the thinly-populated areas of Siberia.
Barrick Gold, NovaGold kiss and make up, form Donlin Creek JV.
Mineweb
By Dorothy Kosich
9 November 2007
Barrick and NovaGold--who fought tooth and nail over Pioneer Resources and Donlin Creek—now, have declared peace with all litigation forgiven. The ‘frienemies” are becoming equal partners in Donlin Creek.
One of the more heated disputes between two mining companies in the past year has ended with a whisper as Barrick Gold and NovaGold decided it was time to bury the hatchet and work together to develop the Donlin Creek project in Alaska.
A little more than a year ago, the two companies were slugging it out in dueling news conferences, takeover battles, in court and before Canadian regulators. On Thursday, however, NovaGold and Barrick announced they will form a 50-50 limited liability company to convert Donlin Creek into a project.
While NovaGold has insisted for quite some time that Barrick would be unable to complete a feasibility study on Donlin Creek by a November 12th deadline, in reality, Barrick completed its work on the feasibility study last month.
Barrick CEO Greg Wilkins told analysts during a conference call in August 2007 that the world's largest gold miner wasn't interested in boosting its former 30% interest in Donlin Creek if the project was not a decent project.
NovaGold Vice President Doug Nicholson has been appointed the initial general manager of the Donlin Creek project until December 31, 2009. Wilkins said "Barrick and NovaGold will work together in a constructive manner, focusing on what's best for the project. Resolving these disputes is in the best interests of all our stakeholders."
Previously, the companies were at such odds over Donlin Creek that Barrick unsuccessfully attempted a $1.7 billion hostile all-cash takeover of NovaGold in July 2006. However, NovaGold shareholders basically hunkered down for a fight and successfully refused to relinquish their shares to the mega-gold miner.
That same month NovaGold filed litigation in a U.S. federal court, complaining that Barrick would never met its November 2007 feasibility study deadline. However, a federal court judge threw it out, claiming the action was premature.
Prior to that NovaGold sued Barrick for alleged misuse of confidential information in their competing bids for Pioneer Resources, a Galore Creek project neighbor. NovaGold had originally launched a bid for neighbor Pioneer in June 2006.
However, Barrick successfully acquired Pioneer in an all-cash bid, holding Pioneer's Grace claims. Meanwhile, the British Columbia-based Galore Creek copper-gold project became a joint venture between Teck Cominco and NovaGold.
The passage of time and a lot of negotiation apparently healed the wounds between Barrick and NovaGold. As part of Thursday's announced agreement for the Donlin Creek JV, Barrick has agreed to allow the Galore Creek Mining Corporation (the NovaGold/Teck JV) to purchase a 100% interest in the Grace claims adjacent to Galore Creek for Cdn$54 million.
Meanwhile, Barrick and NovaGold have agreed to drop all pending litigation, Barrick has upped its interest in Donlin Creek from 30% to 50%, and NovaGold has acquired yet another major Canadian partner with strong financial buying power for both its major mining projects.
NovaGold has agreed to reimburse Barrick over time for US$63.5 million, representing half of Barrick's $127 million in expenditures at Donlin Creek. Under the agreement, NovaGold will initially pay $12.7 million; with the remaining $50.8 million to be paid out of future mine production cash flow. After that all funding will be shared jointly.
One of the more delicious ironies of the whole NovaGold-Barrick-Pioneer-Teck Cominco saga is that NovaGold President and CEO Rick Van Niewenhuyse used to be a former Placer Dome manager, who left the company because he believed so strongly in the future prospects of Donlin Creek, which Placer had decided against developing as a gold mine.
Barrick subsequently acquired Placer Dome and now will officially be an equal partner in the development of Donlin Creek.
By Dorothy Kosich
9 November 2007
Barrick and NovaGold--who fought tooth and nail over Pioneer Resources and Donlin Creek—now, have declared peace with all litigation forgiven. The ‘frienemies” are becoming equal partners in Donlin Creek.
One of the more heated disputes between two mining companies in the past year has ended with a whisper as Barrick Gold and NovaGold decided it was time to bury the hatchet and work together to develop the Donlin Creek project in Alaska.
A little more than a year ago, the two companies were slugging it out in dueling news conferences, takeover battles, in court and before Canadian regulators. On Thursday, however, NovaGold and Barrick announced they will form a 50-50 limited liability company to convert Donlin Creek into a project.
While NovaGold has insisted for quite some time that Barrick would be unable to complete a feasibility study on Donlin Creek by a November 12th deadline, in reality, Barrick completed its work on the feasibility study last month.
Barrick CEO Greg Wilkins told analysts during a conference call in August 2007 that the world's largest gold miner wasn't interested in boosting its former 30% interest in Donlin Creek if the project was not a decent project.
NovaGold Vice President Doug Nicholson has been appointed the initial general manager of the Donlin Creek project until December 31, 2009. Wilkins said "Barrick and NovaGold will work together in a constructive manner, focusing on what's best for the project. Resolving these disputes is in the best interests of all our stakeholders."
Previously, the companies were at such odds over Donlin Creek that Barrick unsuccessfully attempted a $1.7 billion hostile all-cash takeover of NovaGold in July 2006. However, NovaGold shareholders basically hunkered down for a fight and successfully refused to relinquish their shares to the mega-gold miner.
That same month NovaGold filed litigation in a U.S. federal court, complaining that Barrick would never met its November 2007 feasibility study deadline. However, a federal court judge threw it out, claiming the action was premature.
Prior to that NovaGold sued Barrick for alleged misuse of confidential information in their competing bids for Pioneer Resources, a Galore Creek project neighbor. NovaGold had originally launched a bid for neighbor Pioneer in June 2006.
However, Barrick successfully acquired Pioneer in an all-cash bid, holding Pioneer's Grace claims. Meanwhile, the British Columbia-based Galore Creek copper-gold project became a joint venture between Teck Cominco and NovaGold.
The passage of time and a lot of negotiation apparently healed the wounds between Barrick and NovaGold. As part of Thursday's announced agreement for the Donlin Creek JV, Barrick has agreed to allow the Galore Creek Mining Corporation (the NovaGold/Teck JV) to purchase a 100% interest in the Grace claims adjacent to Galore Creek for Cdn$54 million.
Meanwhile, Barrick and NovaGold have agreed to drop all pending litigation, Barrick has upped its interest in Donlin Creek from 30% to 50%, and NovaGold has acquired yet another major Canadian partner with strong financial buying power for both its major mining projects.
NovaGold has agreed to reimburse Barrick over time for US$63.5 million, representing half of Barrick's $127 million in expenditures at Donlin Creek. Under the agreement, NovaGold will initially pay $12.7 million; with the remaining $50.8 million to be paid out of future mine production cash flow. After that all funding will be shared jointly.
One of the more delicious ironies of the whole NovaGold-Barrick-Pioneer-Teck Cominco saga is that NovaGold President and CEO Rick Van Niewenhuyse used to be a former Placer Dome manager, who left the company because he believed so strongly in the future prospects of Donlin Creek, which Placer had decided against developing as a gold mine.
Barrick subsequently acquired Placer Dome and now will officially be an equal partner in the development of Donlin Creek.
The President of the Senate had a talk with the German Ambassador in DRC.
Digital Congo 3.0
9 November 2007
English Translation
The President of the Senate, Léon Kengo Wa Dondo had a talk on Thursday November 8, 2007 with the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany on bilateral relations between the two countries and issues of economic development.
The new ambassador of west Germany (Federal Republic of Germany) in DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo), Dr. Axel Weishaupt, had a talk on Thursday with the President of the Senate, Léon Kengo Wa Dondo, on bilateral relations questions between the two countries and topics that relate to economic development.
The results of the recent visit of the President of the Senate to the head of an important delegation in Germany, he indicated, were the topic of their interview.
The German diplomat also underlined that he explored with the President of the Senate perspectives of development and a strengthening of the relationship between their countries, favouring the takeoff of the partnership that exists between Berlin and Kinshasa following the beginning of the new institutions stemming from the elections.
9 November 2007
English Translation
The President of the Senate, Léon Kengo Wa Dondo had a talk on Thursday November 8, 2007 with the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany on bilateral relations between the two countries and issues of economic development.
The new ambassador of west Germany (Federal Republic of Germany) in DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo), Dr. Axel Weishaupt, had a talk on Thursday with the President of the Senate, Léon Kengo Wa Dondo, on bilateral relations questions between the two countries and topics that relate to economic development.
The results of the recent visit of the President of the Senate to the head of an important delegation in Germany, he indicated, were the topic of their interview.
The German diplomat also underlined that he explored with the President of the Senate perspectives of development and a strengthening of the relationship between their countries, favouring the takeoff of the partnership that exists between Berlin and Kinshasa following the beginning of the new institutions stemming from the elections.
New details on Garang’s death.
Daily Monitor
By ANGELO IZAMA & RODNEY MUHUMUZA
10 November 2007
The former Sudanese interior minister who lost his job for claiming that John Garang was killed "by his friends" has given a new interview in which he once again points a finger at Uganda.
Mr Aleu Ayieny Aleu, who is in the United States, told the New Sudan Vision that former Defence Minister Amama Mbabazi knows something about Garang's death.
Mr Aleu was interviewed on October 29 and the transcript was carried on October 31 by the New Sudan Vision, an online newspaper run by Sudanese living at home and abroad.
The new revelations from Mr Aleu, who is reportedly due for reappointment as minister, are bound to bring new discomfort to authorities in Juba and Kampala.
But on Thursday, Mr Mbabazi said: "I don't know any more than anybody else does [about Garang's death]. I have been hearing that more investigations will be carried out. I don't think it is helpful to begin speculating and saying things through the media."
"You should ask [Works and Transport Minister John] Nasasira because he is the one who heads the team," said Internal Affairs Minister Ruhakana Rugunda, who was a member of the Ugandan side led by Mr Nasasira to the international probe. Repeated efforts to reach Mr Nasasira were futile.
Mr Aleu also said that Garang made his fateful trip to ask the Uganda Government to return some military equipment to South Sudan.
He also claimed that authorities in Kampala were not happy with the SPLA's alleged reluctance to confront the rebel Lord's Resistance Army, which had bases in parts of South Sudan.
"The Lord's Resistance Army are part of it," Mr Aleu said, adding that while Garang was a personal friend of President Museveni, the UPDF was convinced he was not doing enough against the LRA. "The Ugandan defense minister knows who killed Garang."
Mr Mbabazi, who is now security minister, was in charge of the defence portfolio at the time of Garang's death in a Ugandan presidential helicopter crash at the end of July 2005. Both Mr Mbabazi and Army Spokesman Felix Kulayigye declined to respond to these specific claims.
Maj. Kulayigye said he did not wish to comment on a matter "that might interfere with regional issues". And it was not possible to confirm whether a new Garang death investigation, as suggested by Mr Mbabazi, is in the offing.
Mr Aleu, who belongs to the SPLA, was sacked from the unity government in Khartoum after he gave an interview with similar claims to the Sudanese Arab-language daily Akhbar Alyoum in August this year. Mr Aleu was a member of the Sudanese side to the joint investigation team.
The official line accepted by both Uganda and South Sudan is that the helicopter crash was caused by bad weather and pilot error. But Mr Aleu has different ideas, and he has said he will return to Juba, South Sudan, to step up the pressure for a criminal investigation, which he believes should, naturally, have come after the technical probe. "I told you the navigation maps [in the helicopter] were destroyed…The equipment was not reading properly," he said in the interview.
Mr Aleu, whose was directly in charge of security at the time, also added: "The reason why Garang went to Uganda was to claim our tanks we bought which came through Uganda."
Mr Aleu's new revelations are bound to fuel claims made separately by powerful figures such as Garang's widow Rebecca Nyandeng, who has already stated that she believes foul play was involved in her husband's death. "At the back of my mind, I knew my husband was assassinated," Ms Nyandeng said in an earlier interview with a Nairobi newspaper.
By ANGELO IZAMA & RODNEY MUHUMUZA
10 November 2007
The former Sudanese interior minister who lost his job for claiming that John Garang was killed "by his friends" has given a new interview in which he once again points a finger at Uganda.
Mr Aleu Ayieny Aleu, who is in the United States, told the New Sudan Vision that former Defence Minister Amama Mbabazi knows something about Garang's death.
Mr Aleu was interviewed on October 29 and the transcript was carried on October 31 by the New Sudan Vision, an online newspaper run by Sudanese living at home and abroad.
The new revelations from Mr Aleu, who is reportedly due for reappointment as minister, are bound to bring new discomfort to authorities in Juba and Kampala.
But on Thursday, Mr Mbabazi said: "I don't know any more than anybody else does [about Garang's death]. I have been hearing that more investigations will be carried out. I don't think it is helpful to begin speculating and saying things through the media."
"You should ask [Works and Transport Minister John] Nasasira because he is the one who heads the team," said Internal Affairs Minister Ruhakana Rugunda, who was a member of the Ugandan side led by Mr Nasasira to the international probe. Repeated efforts to reach Mr Nasasira were futile.
Mr Aleu also said that Garang made his fateful trip to ask the Uganda Government to return some military equipment to South Sudan.
He also claimed that authorities in Kampala were not happy with the SPLA's alleged reluctance to confront the rebel Lord's Resistance Army, which had bases in parts of South Sudan.
"The Lord's Resistance Army are part of it," Mr Aleu said, adding that while Garang was a personal friend of President Museveni, the UPDF was convinced he was not doing enough against the LRA. "The Ugandan defense minister knows who killed Garang."
Mr Mbabazi, who is now security minister, was in charge of the defence portfolio at the time of Garang's death in a Ugandan presidential helicopter crash at the end of July 2005. Both Mr Mbabazi and Army Spokesman Felix Kulayigye declined to respond to these specific claims.
Maj. Kulayigye said he did not wish to comment on a matter "that might interfere with regional issues". And it was not possible to confirm whether a new Garang death investigation, as suggested by Mr Mbabazi, is in the offing.
Mr Aleu, who belongs to the SPLA, was sacked from the unity government in Khartoum after he gave an interview with similar claims to the Sudanese Arab-language daily Akhbar Alyoum in August this year. Mr Aleu was a member of the Sudanese side to the joint investigation team.
The official line accepted by both Uganda and South Sudan is that the helicopter crash was caused by bad weather and pilot error. But Mr Aleu has different ideas, and he has said he will return to Juba, South Sudan, to step up the pressure for a criminal investigation, which he believes should, naturally, have come after the technical probe. "I told you the navigation maps [in the helicopter] were destroyed…The equipment was not reading properly," he said in the interview.
Mr Aleu, whose was directly in charge of security at the time, also added: "The reason why Garang went to Uganda was to claim our tanks we bought which came through Uganda."
Mr Aleu's new revelations are bound to fuel claims made separately by powerful figures such as Garang's widow Rebecca Nyandeng, who has already stated that she believes foul play was involved in her husband's death. "At the back of my mind, I knew my husband was assassinated," Ms Nyandeng said in an earlier interview with a Nairobi newspaper.
Mandate for German Armed Forces in Sudan.
Government of the Federal Republic of Germany
7 November 2007
The German government has decided to mandate the involvement of the German Armed Forces in two UN missions in Sudan. The mandate of the German contingent to the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) is to be extended by one year. In addition to this, German troops are to participate in the United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) in the west of the country.
The UNMIS mandate is to be extended essentially unchanged until 15 August 2008. This decision is still subject to parliamentary approval by the German Bundestag.
Germany will contribute up to 75 unarmed military observers to the mission. Currently, 37 members of the German Armed Forces and five police officers are deployed.
The German Armed Forces are making a long-term contribution to overcoming the conflict, which is one of the longest and bloodiest in Africa. UNMIS is providing support to the former parties to the conflict, helping them put into practice the terms of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in 2005. The mission also plays an important part in ensuring the security needed for economic and political reconstruction in southern Sudan.
Initial successes of the UNMIS peace mission
The withdrawal of troops on both sides has made good progress, and administrative structures are being established in southern Sudan. Numerous refugees are returning home and building a new life with the support of the international community.
UNMIS will remain indispensable in the foreseeable future, as a stabilising element. This was underlined by the UN Secretary-General on his trip to the region. He called on the international community to renew its support for the North-South peace process. This often tends to be forgotten as a result of the situation in Darfur.
Support for UNAMID in Darfur
The German government has also decided to deploy up to 250 troops to UNAMID. They can be deployed as individuals within units, as experts responsible for liaison, advisory services or support services, and within the scope of air transport.
In line with Security Council Resolution 1769, the United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) is to replace the current African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) no later than 31 December 2007. AMIS currently has the support of up to 200 German troops.
The UN Security Council and the Peace and Security Council of the African Union decided in agreement with the Sudanese government that UNAMID should take over from AMIS. It proved necessary to expand the peace mission because AMIS, in spite of the support of the international community, had not been able to improve the humanitarian situation or the security situation.
The German government has already contributed about 19 million euros this year to humanitarian and development-oriented emergency aid in Sudan and eastern Chad. This financial support is used primarily to provide aid in Darfur and to help the refugees who have fled Darfur for Chad.
UNAMID - United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur
UNAMID has been pledged a contingent of up to 19,555 troops (including 360 military observers and liaison officers). The operation also involves civilian interventions, with up to 3,772 police officers and 19 organised police units, each numbering up to 140 officers.
7 November 2007
The German government has decided to mandate the involvement of the German Armed Forces in two UN missions in Sudan. The mandate of the German contingent to the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) is to be extended by one year. In addition to this, German troops are to participate in the United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) in the west of the country.
The UNMIS mandate is to be extended essentially unchanged until 15 August 2008. This decision is still subject to parliamentary approval by the German Bundestag.
Germany will contribute up to 75 unarmed military observers to the mission. Currently, 37 members of the German Armed Forces and five police officers are deployed.
The German Armed Forces are making a long-term contribution to overcoming the conflict, which is one of the longest and bloodiest in Africa. UNMIS is providing support to the former parties to the conflict, helping them put into practice the terms of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in 2005. The mission also plays an important part in ensuring the security needed for economic and political reconstruction in southern Sudan.
Initial successes of the UNMIS peace mission
The withdrawal of troops on both sides has made good progress, and administrative structures are being established in southern Sudan. Numerous refugees are returning home and building a new life with the support of the international community.
UNMIS will remain indispensable in the foreseeable future, as a stabilising element. This was underlined by the UN Secretary-General on his trip to the region. He called on the international community to renew its support for the North-South peace process. This often tends to be forgotten as a result of the situation in Darfur.
Support for UNAMID in Darfur
The German government has also decided to deploy up to 250 troops to UNAMID. They can be deployed as individuals within units, as experts responsible for liaison, advisory services or support services, and within the scope of air transport.
In line with Security Council Resolution 1769, the United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) is to replace the current African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) no later than 31 December 2007. AMIS currently has the support of up to 200 German troops.
The UN Security Council and the Peace and Security Council of the African Union decided in agreement with the Sudanese government that UNAMID should take over from AMIS. It proved necessary to expand the peace mission because AMIS, in spite of the support of the international community, had not been able to improve the humanitarian situation or the security situation.
The German government has already contributed about 19 million euros this year to humanitarian and development-oriented emergency aid in Sudan and eastern Chad. This financial support is used primarily to provide aid in Darfur and to help the refugees who have fled Darfur for Chad.
UNAMID - United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur
UNAMID has been pledged a contingent of up to 19,555 troops (including 360 military observers and liaison officers). The operation also involves civilian interventions, with up to 3,772 police officers and 19 organised police units, each numbering up to 140 officers.
South Sudan to give UK While Nile stake in new oil firm.
Reuters
10 November 2007
The semi-autonomous government of southern Sudan will give 55 percent of shares in a planned government-owned oil company to White Nile Plc , government officials said on Friday.
The company will take over the part of the block B consortium — mostly held by French Total — which was freed up when U.S. firm Marathon Oil Corp pulled out because of Washington’s sanctions on Sudan, the officials said.
"This company is to take over the 22.5 percent of the Marathon Company," Legal Affairs Minister Michael Makuei said. "(Its shares) should be 55 percent owned by White Nile."
The block has been the subject of a long-running dispute between the French oil giant and the British exploration company, which is 50 percent owned by the southern Sudanese government.
Total had taken the dispute to a British court.
The Sudanese National Petroleum Commission (NPC), which under a 2005 peace deal between northern and southern Sudan has the authority to assign oil deals, said in July White Nile had to leave block B.
The British firm had already begun exploratory work in one section of the concession.
Makuei, speaking to reporters after a meeting between White Nile and southern politicians, including Vice President Riek Machar, said the NPC had asked the south to choose a new company to complete block B’s consortium.
The NPC has the final say on the deal, but Makuei said its consent was a matter of formality. The NPC earlier decided to remove White Nile from Block B and had set up a committee to assess compensation for the company.
Machar said White Nile was an obvious partner for the southern government. "It is an established company ... and it is much easier given that we own half," he said
White Nile board member Edward Lino said that the company has invested around $75 million in the south.
"Of course we are waiting for Total and the rest of the shareholders (in the block’s consortium) to agree," said Lino when asked if White Nile would re-start operations.
Members of the southern government pulled out of the central coalition government last month, saying the northern ruling party of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir had not implemented key parts of the 2005 peace agreement.
10 November 2007
The semi-autonomous government of southern Sudan will give 55 percent of shares in a planned government-owned oil company to White Nile Plc , government officials said on Friday.
The company will take over the part of the block B consortium — mostly held by French Total — which was freed up when U.S. firm Marathon Oil Corp pulled out because of Washington’s sanctions on Sudan, the officials said.
"This company is to take over the 22.5 percent of the Marathon Company," Legal Affairs Minister Michael Makuei said. "(Its shares) should be 55 percent owned by White Nile."
The block has been the subject of a long-running dispute between the French oil giant and the British exploration company, which is 50 percent owned by the southern Sudanese government.
Total had taken the dispute to a British court.
The Sudanese National Petroleum Commission (NPC), which under a 2005 peace deal between northern and southern Sudan has the authority to assign oil deals, said in July White Nile had to leave block B.
The British firm had already begun exploratory work in one section of the concession.
Makuei, speaking to reporters after a meeting between White Nile and southern politicians, including Vice President Riek Machar, said the NPC had asked the south to choose a new company to complete block B’s consortium.
The NPC has the final say on the deal, but Makuei said its consent was a matter of formality. The NPC earlier decided to remove White Nile from Block B and had set up a committee to assess compensation for the company.
Machar said White Nile was an obvious partner for the southern government. "It is an established company ... and it is much easier given that we own half," he said
White Nile board member Edward Lino said that the company has invested around $75 million in the south.
"Of course we are waiting for Total and the rest of the shareholders (in the block’s consortium) to agree," said Lino when asked if White Nile would re-start operations.
Members of the southern government pulled out of the central coalition government last month, saying the northern ruling party of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir had not implemented key parts of the 2005 peace agreement.
Ethiopia ready to cooperate with US Africa Command - Zenawi.
Sudan Tribune
10 November 2007
By Tesfa-alem Tekle
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, said Ethiopia is ready to work closely with the US Command to be established soon in Africa.
PM Meles made the remark when he holds talks with US Africa command commander, General William E. Ward, on Thursday at the premiums office.
“The US Africa command will be important in playing a major role in bringing lasting peace and security across the continent” Meles said.
The US Africa command which its head office is not yet decided will assist the cotinent during emergencies and insecurity problems.
“The command will be in major input in bringing solution to African crises and security related problems that could arise though African leaders and governments are the main actors to find their own problems by them selves” Meles added
Commander of US Africa command general William E. Ward on his side said “The command will put its maximum effort along with African countries to assure peace and stability across the countries”.
Command will also work together with African nations to tacle. The rising fear of terror network in Africa.
According to general word the command will serve as a center for facilitating US-Africa cooperation based on mutual benefits and understanding.
“The command will be on a alert to directly assist African countries on demanded request they make when ever insecurity arises” he added.
10 November 2007
By Tesfa-alem Tekle
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, said Ethiopia is ready to work closely with the US Command to be established soon in Africa.
PM Meles made the remark when he holds talks with US Africa command commander, General William E. Ward, on Thursday at the premiums office.
“The US Africa command will be important in playing a major role in bringing lasting peace and security across the continent” Meles said.
The US Africa command which its head office is not yet decided will assist the cotinent during emergencies and insecurity problems.
“The command will be in major input in bringing solution to African crises and security related problems that could arise though African leaders and governments are the main actors to find their own problems by them selves” Meles added
Commander of US Africa command general William E. Ward on his side said “The command will put its maximum effort along with African countries to assure peace and stability across the countries”.
Command will also work together with African nations to tacle. The rising fear of terror network in Africa.
According to general word the command will serve as a center for facilitating US-Africa cooperation based on mutual benefits and understanding.
“The command will be on a alert to directly assist African countries on demanded request they make when ever insecurity arises” he added.
US proposes changes to North-South peace agreement in Sudan.
Sudan Tribune
By Wasil Ali
9 November 2007
The US administration proposed revisions to the terms of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended 21 years of civil war in Sudan, according to a US press report.
The Washington Post revealed that the US special envoy to Sudan Andrew Natsios was pushing officials from the Southern ex-rebel group Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) to accept the plan.
Sudan’s First Vice-President and President of the Government of South Sudan Salva Kiir Mayardit met yesterday with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Washington to discuss the progress of the CPA implementation.
On October 11th the SPLM decided to suspend their participation in the national unity government because of what they describe as the NCP’s failure to fully implement crucial elements of the CPA.
The latest move by the SPLM raised concern that the Comprehensive peace agreement (CPA) that ended two decades of civil war between the Arab and Muslim-dominated north and the mainly Christian and animist black southerners may unravel.
According to the Washington Post Natsios’s proposals were on the agenda of the meeting between Kiir and Rice.
However Kiir said in an interview last Wednesday that he doesn’t agree with the plan suggesting that this will open up the accord to renegotiation.
The spokesman for the US State department Sean McCormack acknowledged the existence of the proposals saying they were related to the implementation of the CPA to “bridge differences between the government in Khartoum and the government in the South”.
However McCormack said that Kiir expressed to Rice his satisfaction with the agreement reached with the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) last week to resolve the outstanding issues in the CPA.
This week a joint committee from the SPLM and NCP began meetings aimed at finalizing a deal to break the deadlock between the two sides.
McCormack said that based on Kiir’s assessment to the CPA implementation, Natsios’s proposals are “no longer relevant, because they’ve [SPLM & NCP] actually moved beyond it”.
By Wasil Ali
9 November 2007
The US administration proposed revisions to the terms of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended 21 years of civil war in Sudan, according to a US press report.
The Washington Post revealed that the US special envoy to Sudan Andrew Natsios was pushing officials from the Southern ex-rebel group Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) to accept the plan.
Sudan’s First Vice-President and President of the Government of South Sudan Salva Kiir Mayardit met yesterday with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Washington to discuss the progress of the CPA implementation.
On October 11th the SPLM decided to suspend their participation in the national unity government because of what they describe as the NCP’s failure to fully implement crucial elements of the CPA.
The latest move by the SPLM raised concern that the Comprehensive peace agreement (CPA) that ended two decades of civil war between the Arab and Muslim-dominated north and the mainly Christian and animist black southerners may unravel.
According to the Washington Post Natsios’s proposals were on the agenda of the meeting between Kiir and Rice.
However Kiir said in an interview last Wednesday that he doesn’t agree with the plan suggesting that this will open up the accord to renegotiation.
The spokesman for the US State department Sean McCormack acknowledged the existence of the proposals saying they were related to the implementation of the CPA to “bridge differences between the government in Khartoum and the government in the South”.
However McCormack said that Kiir expressed to Rice his satisfaction with the agreement reached with the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) last week to resolve the outstanding issues in the CPA.
This week a joint committee from the SPLM and NCP began meetings aimed at finalizing a deal to break the deadlock between the two sides.
McCormack said that based on Kiir’s assessment to the CPA implementation, Natsios’s proposals are “no longer relevant, because they’ve [SPLM & NCP] actually moved beyond it”.
Dozens of corpses litter Mogadishu after battles
Reuters
By Aweys Yusuf
9 November 2007
Corpses lay on Mogadishu streets on Friday as Ethiopian forces backed by tanks and artillery fought Islamist-led insurgents in a new round of fighting that has killed more than 40 people in two days.
Residents said the death toll included eight civilians who died on Friday when an Ethiopian mortar bomb blew up in the sprawling Bakara Market, littering the area with body parts.
Twelve more bodies, including two women, lay in an insurgent stronghold in the north of the city -- a district where rebels dragged dead Ethiopian soldiers along the roads on Thursday.
"Some of the dead civilians were identified by relatives," Mohammed Abdullahi, a resident of the Sqa Holaha neighbourhood, told Reuters by telephone. "Some are still lying here."
In a move likely to dismay the interim government as it and its Ethiopian allies battle the rebels, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday that sending U.N. peacekeepers to Somalia was neither realistic nor viable.
Insecurity had prevented the world body from even sending a technical assessment team, he said.
The Somali administration has long called for U.N. troops to help it stamp its authority on the Horn of Africa country. It is the 14th attempt to forge central rule in Somalia, which has been in chaos since 1991 when warlords ousted a dictator.
With Ethiopian support, the government chased hardline Islamists out of the capital at the start of this year, but has since faced an Iraq-style rebellion.
In the latest fighting, Ethiopian infantry and tanks pounded insurgent positions in the city, while the rebels responded with automatic gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades.
HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
Shabelle, an independent local broadcaster, quoted residents accusing the Ethiopians of indiscriminately shelling some of the city's most densely populated areas. It said at least 43 bodies were found on Friday in areas that were hit hard on Thursday.
The United Nations said on Friday 114,000 more Somalis had been displaced by fighting in the last week, bringing to 850,000 the number of internal refugees across the nation.
"Somalia is facing one of the worst humanitarian crises in years and coping mechanisms of the population are stretched to the limit," the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement released in Nairobi.
It condemned the dragging of corpses through the streets of Mogadishu this week: "These gross violations of humanitarian law as well as barbaric and inhuman acts have triggered new panic and movements of population."
And U.N. OCHA also warned that 10,000 severely malnourished children in Lower Shabelle were "at risk of death" without "desperately needed massive intervention."
In a bid to stem the violence, the African Union agreed this year to deploy 8,000 troops to replace the Ethiopians in Somalia. But so far only 1,600 Ugandan soldiers have arrived.
Ban's conclusion that it was unrealistic to send U.N. peacekeepers angered Mogadishu's dominant Hawiye clan, many of whose members resent the presence of their old enemy Ethiopia.
"We accuse human rights organisations and the United Nations of keeping silent about the massacres the Ethiopians are committing," Hawiye elder Mohammed Hassan Haad told Reuters.
"We are unhappy with their decision not to send troops to Somalia, just when our country needs them most." (Additional reporting by Claudia Parsons in New York and Andrew Cawthorne in Nairobi; Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Charles Dick)
By Aweys Yusuf
9 November 2007
Corpses lay on Mogadishu streets on Friday as Ethiopian forces backed by tanks and artillery fought Islamist-led insurgents in a new round of fighting that has killed more than 40 people in two days.
Residents said the death toll included eight civilians who died on Friday when an Ethiopian mortar bomb blew up in the sprawling Bakara Market, littering the area with body parts.
Twelve more bodies, including two women, lay in an insurgent stronghold in the north of the city -- a district where rebels dragged dead Ethiopian soldiers along the roads on Thursday.
"Some of the dead civilians were identified by relatives," Mohammed Abdullahi, a resident of the Sqa Holaha neighbourhood, told Reuters by telephone. "Some are still lying here."
In a move likely to dismay the interim government as it and its Ethiopian allies battle the rebels, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday that sending U.N. peacekeepers to Somalia was neither realistic nor viable.
Insecurity had prevented the world body from even sending a technical assessment team, he said.
The Somali administration has long called for U.N. troops to help it stamp its authority on the Horn of Africa country. It is the 14th attempt to forge central rule in Somalia, which has been in chaos since 1991 when warlords ousted a dictator.
With Ethiopian support, the government chased hardline Islamists out of the capital at the start of this year, but has since faced an Iraq-style rebellion.
In the latest fighting, Ethiopian infantry and tanks pounded insurgent positions in the city, while the rebels responded with automatic gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades.
HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
Shabelle, an independent local broadcaster, quoted residents accusing the Ethiopians of indiscriminately shelling some of the city's most densely populated areas. It said at least 43 bodies were found on Friday in areas that were hit hard on Thursday.
The United Nations said on Friday 114,000 more Somalis had been displaced by fighting in the last week, bringing to 850,000 the number of internal refugees across the nation.
"Somalia is facing one of the worst humanitarian crises in years and coping mechanisms of the population are stretched to the limit," the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement released in Nairobi.
It condemned the dragging of corpses through the streets of Mogadishu this week: "These gross violations of humanitarian law as well as barbaric and inhuman acts have triggered new panic and movements of population."
And U.N. OCHA also warned that 10,000 severely malnourished children in Lower Shabelle were "at risk of death" without "desperately needed massive intervention."
In a bid to stem the violence, the African Union agreed this year to deploy 8,000 troops to replace the Ethiopians in Somalia. But so far only 1,600 Ugandan soldiers have arrived.
Ban's conclusion that it was unrealistic to send U.N. peacekeepers angered Mogadishu's dominant Hawiye clan, many of whose members resent the presence of their old enemy Ethiopia.
"We accuse human rights organisations and the United Nations of keeping silent about the massacres the Ethiopians are committing," Hawiye elder Mohammed Hassan Haad told Reuters.
"We are unhappy with their decision not to send troops to Somalia, just when our country needs them most." (Additional reporting by Claudia Parsons in New York and Andrew Cawthorne in Nairobi; Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Charles Dick)
09 November, 2007
RUSSIA URGES FORMATION OF CENTRAL ASIAN ENERGY CLUB.
Eurasia Net
Sergei Blagov
7 November 2007
Russia wants to use the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as a mechanism to regulate Central Asian energy exports. It remains to be seen whether China, the other power in the SCO, shares Russia’s energy vision.
At a meeting of SCO prime ministers, held November 2 in the Uzbek capital Tashkent, Russian Premier Viktor Zubkov reiterated Moscow’s desire to forge a Central Asian energy "club" within the SCO, which comprises Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The SCO energy club could be set up as soon as 2008, Russian Deputy Industry and Energy Minister Ivan Materov announced in Tashkent. However, he insisted that the club would not amount to a sort of mini-OPEC within the SCO.
Political and economic analysts in Moscow believe the Kremlin is keen to establish an energy club as a means to prevent a possible clash with China over Central Asia’s energy resources. In recent years, Chinese companies have moved aggressively to enhance their positions in Central Asia. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].
"An unhurried struggle for spheres of interests is starting between the region’s largest centers of influence, Russia and China, within the framework [of the SCO]," political analyst Igor Cherkashenko said in comments distributed by the Rosbalt news agency. "It’s vital that these relations develop on mutually beneficial terms, and not grow into fierce rivalry, which would be detrimental for both."
"The United States would certainly try to make mischief between our countries" in the event that Moscow and Beijing began jostling over Central Asian energy exports, Cherkashenko added.
China has remained non-committal on the energy club idea, even as Chinese and Russian leaders act to foster an image of a strong bilateral relationship. During a November 5-6 visit to Moscow, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao signed a communiqué with his Russian counterpart, Zubkov, envisioning broader "strategic and political cooperation," according to the Xinhua news agency. At a November 5 meeting with Wen, Putin hailed what he described as "substantial" cooperation between the two nations. Wen, in response, noted positive developments in bilateral energy cooperation, but he did not elaborate.
Behind the façade of cooperation, Russia and China are waging a spirited, though not yet adversarial competition in Central Asia over access to natural resources. In May, Russia appeared to lock up much of Central Asia’s natural gas, when Russian, Kazakhstani and Turkmen leaders announced the expansion of the Prikaspiisky Pipeline. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].
Since then, however, the project, which would funnel the bulk of Kazakhstan’s and Turkmenistan’s natural gas to Russia via a pipeline network skirting the Caspian Sea, has stalled. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].
At a bilateral meeting with Russia’s Zubkov in Tashkent on November 2, Kazakhstani Prime Minister Karim Masimov pledged to finalize negotiations on the Prikaspiisky pipeline in the near future. The talks could be completed at a meeting of the Kazakhstani-Russian intergovernmental commission later in November, Masimov said. Incidentally, Zubkov refrained from comments on the Prikaspiisky pipeline.
Lingering uncertainty over the Prikaspiisky route has given China an opening, especially in Turkmenistan. During a brief visit to Ashgabat, Wen, the Chinese prime minister, called for efforts "to step up bilateral trade cooperation to a new level." Berdymukhamedov, in turn, expressed interest in "working closely" with China on a natural gas pipeline project, Xinhua reported. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].
Moscow remains cautious about Kazakhstan’s commitment to the Prikaspiisky route, given Astana’s continuing commitment to the diversification of its energy partnerships. Notably, in December 2005, Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev inaugurated Atasu-Alashankou pipeline to ship oil to China. The $800 million Atasu-Alashankou route still needs Russian crude from Western Siberian, transported via the Omsk-Pavlodar-Shymkent pipeline, to reach its full annual capacity of 20 million tons by 2010.
Meanwhile, Kazakhstan’s Transportation Ministry has floated plan to build a new railway link between the Caspian port of Aktau and China. Such a link could pave the way for a significant increase in Chinese exports across the Caspian to Baku and beyond. On November 2, Russian Transportation Minister Igor Levitin described the project as "premature," arguing that Russia currently possesses sufficient capacity to handle Chinese freight to Europe via Belarus.
Sergei Blagov is a Moscow-based specialist in CIS political affairs.
Sergei Blagov
7 November 2007
Russia wants to use the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as a mechanism to regulate Central Asian energy exports. It remains to be seen whether China, the other power in the SCO, shares Russia’s energy vision.
At a meeting of SCO prime ministers, held November 2 in the Uzbek capital Tashkent, Russian Premier Viktor Zubkov reiterated Moscow’s desire to forge a Central Asian energy "club" within the SCO, which comprises Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The SCO energy club could be set up as soon as 2008, Russian Deputy Industry and Energy Minister Ivan Materov announced in Tashkent. However, he insisted that the club would not amount to a sort of mini-OPEC within the SCO.
Political and economic analysts in Moscow believe the Kremlin is keen to establish an energy club as a means to prevent a possible clash with China over Central Asia’s energy resources. In recent years, Chinese companies have moved aggressively to enhance their positions in Central Asia. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].
"An unhurried struggle for spheres of interests is starting between the region’s largest centers of influence, Russia and China, within the framework [of the SCO]," political analyst Igor Cherkashenko said in comments distributed by the Rosbalt news agency. "It’s vital that these relations develop on mutually beneficial terms, and not grow into fierce rivalry, which would be detrimental for both."
"The United States would certainly try to make mischief between our countries" in the event that Moscow and Beijing began jostling over Central Asian energy exports, Cherkashenko added.
China has remained non-committal on the energy club idea, even as Chinese and Russian leaders act to foster an image of a strong bilateral relationship. During a November 5-6 visit to Moscow, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao signed a communiqué with his Russian counterpart, Zubkov, envisioning broader "strategic and political cooperation," according to the Xinhua news agency. At a November 5 meeting with Wen, Putin hailed what he described as "substantial" cooperation between the two nations. Wen, in response, noted positive developments in bilateral energy cooperation, but he did not elaborate.
Behind the façade of cooperation, Russia and China are waging a spirited, though not yet adversarial competition in Central Asia over access to natural resources. In May, Russia appeared to lock up much of Central Asia’s natural gas, when Russian, Kazakhstani and Turkmen leaders announced the expansion of the Prikaspiisky Pipeline. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].
Since then, however, the project, which would funnel the bulk of Kazakhstan’s and Turkmenistan’s natural gas to Russia via a pipeline network skirting the Caspian Sea, has stalled. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].
At a bilateral meeting with Russia’s Zubkov in Tashkent on November 2, Kazakhstani Prime Minister Karim Masimov pledged to finalize negotiations on the Prikaspiisky pipeline in the near future. The talks could be completed at a meeting of the Kazakhstani-Russian intergovernmental commission later in November, Masimov said. Incidentally, Zubkov refrained from comments on the Prikaspiisky pipeline.
Lingering uncertainty over the Prikaspiisky route has given China an opening, especially in Turkmenistan. During a brief visit to Ashgabat, Wen, the Chinese prime minister, called for efforts "to step up bilateral trade cooperation to a new level." Berdymukhamedov, in turn, expressed interest in "working closely" with China on a natural gas pipeline project, Xinhua reported. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].
Moscow remains cautious about Kazakhstan’s commitment to the Prikaspiisky route, given Astana’s continuing commitment to the diversification of its energy partnerships. Notably, in December 2005, Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev inaugurated Atasu-Alashankou pipeline to ship oil to China. The $800 million Atasu-Alashankou route still needs Russian crude from Western Siberian, transported via the Omsk-Pavlodar-Shymkent pipeline, to reach its full annual capacity of 20 million tons by 2010.
Meanwhile, Kazakhstan’s Transportation Ministry has floated plan to build a new railway link between the Caspian port of Aktau and China. Such a link could pave the way for a significant increase in Chinese exports across the Caspian to Baku and beyond. On November 2, Russian Transportation Minister Igor Levitin described the project as "premature," arguing that Russia currently possesses sufficient capacity to handle Chinese freight to Europe via Belarus.
Sergei Blagov is a Moscow-based specialist in CIS political affairs.
Georgian president calls early election.
Associated Press
By Maria Danilova
9 November 2007
Under fire from the West, the U.S.-friendly leader of this former Soviet republic moved Thursday to defuse an explosive political crisis by calling an early presidential election and promising to quickly lift a state of emergency.
President Mikhail Saakashvili also offered minor concessions to the opposition, whose protests demanding electoral reforms were violently broken up a day earlier by riot police using tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon.
Tbilisi was quiet Thursday, patrolled mainly by hundreds of soldiers armed only with rubber clubs, while heavily armored riot police stayed out of sight.
The use of force against the demonstrators and Saakashvili's declaration of a state of emergency deeply shocked many Georgians.
But while his already weakening popularity is likely to take a further hit, the president is expected to win a second term in the Jan. 5 election because the fragmented opposition lacks the time and resources to mount a serious challenge.
The police violence and the banning of all news broadcasts except those on state-controlled television drew sharp criticism from the West on Thursday.
Saakashvili has worked to break free from Russia's orbit and integrate Georgia with the West, but his handling of the opposition challenge has raised questions about the U.S.-educated leader's stated commitment to democracy.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack called the declaration of a state of emergency "a disappointment" and said the United States wanted Saakashvili to "return back to the people the various freedoms that they enjoyed."
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer warned Saakashvili might be jeopardizing Georgia's aspirations to join the Western military alliance.
"The imposition of emergency rule and the closure of media outlets in Georgia, a partner with which the alliance has an intensified dialogue, are of particular concern and not in line with Euro-Atlantic values," he said in a statement.
Saakashvili's televised address late Thursday appeared to be an attempt to respond to the criticism and ease tensions while retaining his political control. He said he was calling the early presidential election "to gain the trust of the people."
"My compromise is that the opposition is given a chance to get elected by the people, if they have the support," he said.
He also proposed simultaneously holding a referendum on when to hold the next elections for parliament. That ballot had been moved back to late 2008, but the opposition is demanding the election be held earlier in the year as originally scheduled.
Under the Georgian constitution, the president is elected for a five-year term and calling an early election would require parliament's approval. A majority of legislators back Saakashvili and they are expected to quickly endorse his decision.
Saakashvili also expressed readiness to discuss other measures the opposition says would make the electoral system more democratic.
"In the long term, the political environment will emerge from these recent events as more competitive and less dominated by the ruling party," said Ana Jelenkovic, a Georgia analyst at Eurasia Group, a U.S.-based firm that provides advice on geopolitical risks.
The political crisis is the worst Saakashvili has faced since being ushered into power almost four years ago after peaceful street protests known as the Rose Revolution.
Many Georgians support his efforts to shake off Russia's influence and take the small Caucasus nation into the European Union and NATO, efforts that have alarmed the Kremlin.
But Saakashvili's critics accuse him of sidestepping the rule of law and failing to move fast enough to spread growing wealth. The average monthly pension remains at about $30.
The disillusionment fed the latest rounds of protests, which began Nov. 2 with about 50,000 people massing outside parliament.
The protesters initially called for changes in election dates and the electoral system. But after Saakashvili rejected their demands and accused their leaders of serving Russia's interests, they made his ouster their central aim.
On Wednesday, riot police advanced toward the protesters, pushing people back with shields and beating some with truncheons. They fired tear gas and rubber bullets and sprayed the crowd with water cannons.
Health officials said 569 people, including 24 policemen, sought medical treatment after the clash, and 28 remained hospitalized Thursday. The Interior Ministry said 32 protesters were detained.
In a televised address late Wednesday, Saakashvili said he regretted the use of force, but argued it was necessary to prevent the country from sliding into chaos.
Some Georgians agreed. "This was the right thing to do, otherwise they would have overthrown the government," said Mariam Gormarteli, 36, a hotel manager in Tbilisi.
But Marina Ramishvili, a 40-year-old cleaning woman who took part in the protests and was gassed, said she would never forgive Saakashvili, whom she once supported.
"He crossed out democracy in Georgia," she said. "He showed that he doesn't consider his own people humans."
Saakashvili accused Moscow of fomenting the unrest and expelled three Russian diplomats. Russia responded Thursday by expelling three Georgian diplomats, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said, accusing Georgia of "unfriendly acts."
By Maria Danilova
9 November 2007
Under fire from the West, the U.S.-friendly leader of this former Soviet republic moved Thursday to defuse an explosive political crisis by calling an early presidential election and promising to quickly lift a state of emergency.
President Mikhail Saakashvili also offered minor concessions to the opposition, whose protests demanding electoral reforms were violently broken up a day earlier by riot police using tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon.
Tbilisi was quiet Thursday, patrolled mainly by hundreds of soldiers armed only with rubber clubs, while heavily armored riot police stayed out of sight.
The use of force against the demonstrators and Saakashvili's declaration of a state of emergency deeply shocked many Georgians.
But while his already weakening popularity is likely to take a further hit, the president is expected to win a second term in the Jan. 5 election because the fragmented opposition lacks the time and resources to mount a serious challenge.
The police violence and the banning of all news broadcasts except those on state-controlled television drew sharp criticism from the West on Thursday.
Saakashvili has worked to break free from Russia's orbit and integrate Georgia with the West, but his handling of the opposition challenge has raised questions about the U.S.-educated leader's stated commitment to democracy.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack called the declaration of a state of emergency "a disappointment" and said the United States wanted Saakashvili to "return back to the people the various freedoms that they enjoyed."
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer warned Saakashvili might be jeopardizing Georgia's aspirations to join the Western military alliance.
"The imposition of emergency rule and the closure of media outlets in Georgia, a partner with which the alliance has an intensified dialogue, are of particular concern and not in line with Euro-Atlantic values," he said in a statement.
Saakashvili's televised address late Thursday appeared to be an attempt to respond to the criticism and ease tensions while retaining his political control. He said he was calling the early presidential election "to gain the trust of the people."
"My compromise is that the opposition is given a chance to get elected by the people, if they have the support," he said.
He also proposed simultaneously holding a referendum on when to hold the next elections for parliament. That ballot had been moved back to late 2008, but the opposition is demanding the election be held earlier in the year as originally scheduled.
Under the Georgian constitution, the president is elected for a five-year term and calling an early election would require parliament's approval. A majority of legislators back Saakashvili and they are expected to quickly endorse his decision.
Saakashvili also expressed readiness to discuss other measures the opposition says would make the electoral system more democratic.
"In the long term, the political environment will emerge from these recent events as more competitive and less dominated by the ruling party," said Ana Jelenkovic, a Georgia analyst at Eurasia Group, a U.S.-based firm that provides advice on geopolitical risks.
The political crisis is the worst Saakashvili has faced since being ushered into power almost four years ago after peaceful street protests known as the Rose Revolution.
Many Georgians support his efforts to shake off Russia's influence and take the small Caucasus nation into the European Union and NATO, efforts that have alarmed the Kremlin.
But Saakashvili's critics accuse him of sidestepping the rule of law and failing to move fast enough to spread growing wealth. The average monthly pension remains at about $30.
The disillusionment fed the latest rounds of protests, which began Nov. 2 with about 50,000 people massing outside parliament.
The protesters initially called for changes in election dates and the electoral system. But after Saakashvili rejected their demands and accused their leaders of serving Russia's interests, they made his ouster their central aim.
On Wednesday, riot police advanced toward the protesters, pushing people back with shields and beating some with truncheons. They fired tear gas and rubber bullets and sprayed the crowd with water cannons.
Health officials said 569 people, including 24 policemen, sought medical treatment after the clash, and 28 remained hospitalized Thursday. The Interior Ministry said 32 protesters were detained.
In a televised address late Wednesday, Saakashvili said he regretted the use of force, but argued it was necessary to prevent the country from sliding into chaos.
Some Georgians agreed. "This was the right thing to do, otherwise they would have overthrown the government," said Mariam Gormarteli, 36, a hotel manager in Tbilisi.
But Marina Ramishvili, a 40-year-old cleaning woman who took part in the protests and was gassed, said she would never forgive Saakashvili, whom she once supported.
"He crossed out democracy in Georgia," she said. "He showed that he doesn't consider his own people humans."
Saakashvili accused Moscow of fomenting the unrest and expelled three Russian diplomats. Russia responded Thursday by expelling three Georgian diplomats, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said, accusing Georgia of "unfriendly acts."
Iraq-Iran pipeline construction starts.
United Press International
8 November 2007
Iraq and Iran may be moving ahead on a cross-river oil pipeline, a move the Iraq ministry has talked about but was further down the road.
Media reports are carrying the word of a source in Iraq's South Oil Co. that the pipeline construction has started.
The South Oil Co. is a state-owned entity producing and transporting oil from Basra and surrounding areas, where 80 percent of Iraq's oil reserves are located.
The Kuwait News Agency reports the construction of the pipeline between ports in Basra and the Abaadan port in Iran, crossing the Shatt al-Arab river.
The pipeline capacity would be 200,000 barrels per day, and provide another route for Iraq exports and allowing an increase in production, the Al Mashriq newspaper reports.
Iraq produces just over 2 million barrels per day right now, but with 115 billion barrels of proven reserves, it could handle much more.
Iraq and Iran had apparently signed a deal on the pipeline, though details are not known. Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani has confirmed it as one of many options to increase production and exports of the oil.
8 November 2007
Iraq and Iran may be moving ahead on a cross-river oil pipeline, a move the Iraq ministry has talked about but was further down the road.
Media reports are carrying the word of a source in Iraq's South Oil Co. that the pipeline construction has started.
The South Oil Co. is a state-owned entity producing and transporting oil from Basra and surrounding areas, where 80 percent of Iraq's oil reserves are located.
The Kuwait News Agency reports the construction of the pipeline between ports in Basra and the Abaadan port in Iran, crossing the Shatt al-Arab river.
The pipeline capacity would be 200,000 barrels per day, and provide another route for Iraq exports and allowing an increase in production, the Al Mashriq newspaper reports.
Iraq produces just over 2 million barrels per day right now, but with 115 billion barrels of proven reserves, it could handle much more.
Iraq and Iran had apparently signed a deal on the pipeline, though details are not known. Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani has confirmed it as one of many options to increase production and exports of the oil.
Kampala-Kigali oil pipeline estimated at $ 193.6 mm.
Rwandan Information Agency
16 October 2007
Construction of the much needed oil pipeline from Eldoret (Kenya) via Kampala (Uganda) to Kigali will cost stake holders in the projects up to $ 193.6 mm (about Rwf 106 bn), a senior official with the company that carried out the study has revealed.
According to Mr Christopher Ellsworth, the Director of Energy Markets and Forecasting with the US-based Science Application International Corporation (SAIC), the pipeline has been valued at the cost of $ 193.6 mm for the 2010-2020 period at the levelized tariff of $ 42.44 cm.
"This is below the current $ 48 per cm through trucking costs which indicates that the pipeline is economically superior to current the transport mode" said Ellsworth.
The US expert has been in Kigali where he also attended the government sponsored workshop to assess the progress of the pipeline project. The firm was contracted earlier this year to carry out the feasibility study for the project.
Mr Ellsworth said a preliminary review of the population centres, topography and existing road network connecting Kampala, Kigali and Bujumbura indicates that the pipeline will follow the existing main road high-way.
Increased demand for petroleum products as the economies of Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda boom has left the Kenya Petroleum Corporation unable to pump enough supply. The company said last year that it needed $ 145 mm over five years to upgrade its pumping capacity including a Mombassa-Kisumu pipeline.
The three countries have been sourcing products from the Eldoret refinery that could not cope with demand forcing countries to buy directly from Mombassa and Nairobi. A Chinese firm has already started construction of the pipe-line extension from Nairobi to Kisumu in Western Kenya.
Mr Ellsworth however, said the Kigali-Bujumbura section of the pipeline extension estimated at a nominal $ 53.7 mm is economically unviable compared to the current cost of trucking.
"The levelized tariff is $ 55 per cm which is far above the current $ 40 by trucking cost", heexplained adding that for the case of Burundi, the pipeline may not be extended before 2020 when it could be economically feasible.
Rwandan officials want the pipeline operational within the next three years but observers say the scheme depends on the willingness of the Ugandan government. Sources contend that the effective implementation of the pipeline to Kigali will entirely depend on the seriousness of the Kampala regime to extend the pipeline from Eldoret to Kampala, given the recent discovery of oil deposits.
The Rwanda State Minister for Communications and Energy Eng. Albert Butare told that discussions with Ugandan and Kenyan officials have yielded a "way forward".
The first meeting between the three governments was held in Kampala on June 18 to discuss the institutional framework through which the project will be implemented. On August 30, a draft Memorandum of Understanding that proposed creation a Joint Coordination Commission was finalized.
It is also anticipated that entry into the East African Community by Rwanda and Burundi could play an important role in facilitating the structures and activities necessary for the project implementation.
16 October 2007
Construction of the much needed oil pipeline from Eldoret (Kenya) via Kampala (Uganda) to Kigali will cost stake holders in the projects up to $ 193.6 mm (about Rwf 106 bn), a senior official with the company that carried out the study has revealed.
According to Mr Christopher Ellsworth, the Director of Energy Markets and Forecasting with the US-based Science Application International Corporation (SAIC), the pipeline has been valued at the cost of $ 193.6 mm for the 2010-2020 period at the levelized tariff of $ 42.44 cm.
"This is below the current $ 48 per cm through trucking costs which indicates that the pipeline is economically superior to current the transport mode" said Ellsworth.
The US expert has been in Kigali where he also attended the government sponsored workshop to assess the progress of the pipeline project. The firm was contracted earlier this year to carry out the feasibility study for the project.
Mr Ellsworth said a preliminary review of the population centres, topography and existing road network connecting Kampala, Kigali and Bujumbura indicates that the pipeline will follow the existing main road high-way.
Increased demand for petroleum products as the economies of Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda boom has left the Kenya Petroleum Corporation unable to pump enough supply. The company said last year that it needed $ 145 mm over five years to upgrade its pumping capacity including a Mombassa-Kisumu pipeline.
The three countries have been sourcing products from the Eldoret refinery that could not cope with demand forcing countries to buy directly from Mombassa and Nairobi. A Chinese firm has already started construction of the pipe-line extension from Nairobi to Kisumu in Western Kenya.
Mr Ellsworth however, said the Kigali-Bujumbura section of the pipeline extension estimated at a nominal $ 53.7 mm is economically unviable compared to the current cost of trucking.
"The levelized tariff is $ 55 per cm which is far above the current $ 40 by trucking cost", heexplained adding that for the case of Burundi, the pipeline may not be extended before 2020 when it could be economically feasible.
Rwandan officials want the pipeline operational within the next three years but observers say the scheme depends on the willingness of the Ugandan government. Sources contend that the effective implementation of the pipeline to Kigali will entirely depend on the seriousness of the Kampala regime to extend the pipeline from Eldoret to Kampala, given the recent discovery of oil deposits.
The Rwanda State Minister for Communications and Energy Eng. Albert Butare told that discussions with Ugandan and Kenyan officials have yielded a "way forward".
The first meeting between the three governments was held in Kampala on June 18 to discuss the institutional framework through which the project will be implemented. On August 30, a draft Memorandum of Understanding that proposed creation a Joint Coordination Commission was finalized.
It is also anticipated that entry into the East African Community by Rwanda and Burundi could play an important role in facilitating the structures and activities necessary for the project implementation.
Libya and Russia to develop cooperation in oil and gas sphere.
Itar-Tass
25 October 2007
Libya and Russia are going to actively develop the cooperation in the oil and gas spheres.
The chief of the board of directors of the Libyan National Oil Company, Shokri Ghanem, and the co-chairman of the Russia- Libya Business Council, Ara Abramyan, held talks in Tripoli. The meeting covered prospects for cooperation between Libya and Russia in the oil and gas sector.
Ghanem and Abramyan discussed possibilities for increasing Russia’s investment in this sphere of the Libyan economy.
The sides have agreed on setting up a joint working group for examining areas of interaction, in particular the establishment of joint stock societies. Its activity will be aimed at studying the sales market, prospects for drilling operations, the state of the basic oil infrastructure and the development of draft agreements in the oil and gas sectors.
25 October 2007
Libya and Russia are going to actively develop the cooperation in the oil and gas spheres.
The chief of the board of directors of the Libyan National Oil Company, Shokri Ghanem, and the co-chairman of the Russia- Libya Business Council, Ara Abramyan, held talks in Tripoli. The meeting covered prospects for cooperation between Libya and Russia in the oil and gas sector.
Ghanem and Abramyan discussed possibilities for increasing Russia’s investment in this sphere of the Libyan economy.
The sides have agreed on setting up a joint working group for examining areas of interaction, in particular the establishment of joint stock societies. Its activity will be aimed at studying the sales market, prospects for drilling operations, the state of the basic oil infrastructure and the development of draft agreements in the oil and gas sectors.
Oil companies owe Uganda billions.
The New Vision
16 October 2007
Nine companies have not accounted for fuel received from the Government totalling to over 3.2 mm litres worth Sh 6.8 bn. The defaulting companies include Shell, Caltex, Gapco, Rio Oil, Hared, Moil, Upet, Germasu and Standard. According to the Auditor General's report for the financial year 2006, the "recoverability was increasingly becoming difficult" since the companies had taken long to settle the bills.
"Oil companies that owe Government stocks had not adhered to the required penalties of 22 % on any outstanding balances after 30 days. Some companies are under arbitration, while others have asked to have their repayments rescheduled," the report stated. About Sh 5.4 bn in penalties was accumulated.
The Government does not trade in petroleum products but it stocks fuel products, which can be used to stabilise the market in case of a disruption in supply. The ministry loans out Government fuel to private oil companies whenever there is a disruption in the supply chain. The companies then pay back the Government in fuel stocks.
The Government has an oil depot in Jinja with a storage capacity of 30 mm litres. There are 10 mm litres each of petrol, diesel and kerosene. Small and new oil companies which do not own depots also keep their fuel at the oil depot. The companies are supposed to pay a storage fee of Sh 8 per litre of each product taken out of the storage tanks.
At the time of audit, the companies owed Government Sh 513.5 mm as hospitability fees and Sh 92.4 mm in penalty fees arising from non-compliance with the clauses of the agreement. The Auditor General was concerned that the equipment used at the Jinja storage tanks had not been replaced since 1978.
"The metres have not been serviced in several years. Faulty metres can give misleading readings which can lead to fraud," the report noted.
16 October 2007
Nine companies have not accounted for fuel received from the Government totalling to over 3.2 mm litres worth Sh 6.8 bn. The defaulting companies include Shell, Caltex, Gapco, Rio Oil, Hared, Moil, Upet, Germasu and Standard. According to the Auditor General's report for the financial year 2006, the "recoverability was increasingly becoming difficult" since the companies had taken long to settle the bills.
"Oil companies that owe Government stocks had not adhered to the required penalties of 22 % on any outstanding balances after 30 days. Some companies are under arbitration, while others have asked to have their repayments rescheduled," the report stated. About Sh 5.4 bn in penalties was accumulated.
The Government does not trade in petroleum products but it stocks fuel products, which can be used to stabilise the market in case of a disruption in supply. The ministry loans out Government fuel to private oil companies whenever there is a disruption in the supply chain. The companies then pay back the Government in fuel stocks.
The Government has an oil depot in Jinja with a storage capacity of 30 mm litres. There are 10 mm litres each of petrol, diesel and kerosene. Small and new oil companies which do not own depots also keep their fuel at the oil depot. The companies are supposed to pay a storage fee of Sh 8 per litre of each product taken out of the storage tanks.
At the time of audit, the companies owed Government Sh 513.5 mm as hospitability fees and Sh 92.4 mm in penalty fees arising from non-compliance with the clauses of the agreement. The Auditor General was concerned that the equipment used at the Jinja storage tanks had not been replaced since 1978.
"The metres have not been serviced in several years. Faulty metres can give misleading readings which can lead to fraud," the report noted.
Mozambique signs agreement to build refinery in Nacala.
Information Agency of Mozambique
17 October 2007
The Mozambican government signed an agreement in Maputo with the company Ayr Logistica, under which this company will invest $ 5 bn to build an oil refinery in Nacala-a-Velha, in the northern province of Nampula.
The document was signed between Energy Minister Salvador Namburete, representing the government, and Ercilio Varela for Ayr Logistica. This company is the Mozambique-registered branch of the Texas-based firm Ayr Logistics.
Speaking on the occasion, Namburete said that the work, which is to take about six years to complete, will be done in three phases. The undertaking is to have a capacity to produce 300,000 barrels of refined fuels a day. A third of this production will be to supply the domestic market, while the remainder will be for export. The refinery could thus eliminate Mozambique's dependence on the import of refined fuels, and make a significant contribution to the country's balance of payments.
"Expectations about the implementation of this project are high, because it will have a strong social and economic impact, not only in the country, but also within the southern African region, given the strategic nature of its produce", said Namburete.
This undertaking, the first of its kind in Mozambique since independence, will create 450 permanent jobs when it starts operating, plus a similar number of temporary jobs during the building stage.
Implementation of this project will imply opening access routes, a new branch of the northern rail line, bridges, small reservoirs, a power central, a station for the treatment of water and waste, a cargo terminal, a pipeline, storage tanks and other industries for the processing of by-products. The government approved the refinery project earlier this month.
Known as the Ayr Petro-Nacala project, its largest investor is Ayr Logistics, with about 70 %. The other investors are Varela and Ferreira Mendes, the two Mozambicans who set up Ayr Logistica, and a South African citizen named Colin Crorie. The crude oil for the refinery can be unloaded at Nacala port.
Although Nacala is widely regarded as the best deep water harbour on the east African coast, it has, up until now, been under-used. The port needs no dredging, and is capable of accommodating very large vessels.
17 October 2007
The Mozambican government signed an agreement in Maputo with the company Ayr Logistica, under which this company will invest $ 5 bn to build an oil refinery in Nacala-a-Velha, in the northern province of Nampula.
The document was signed between Energy Minister Salvador Namburete, representing the government, and Ercilio Varela for Ayr Logistica. This company is the Mozambique-registered branch of the Texas-based firm Ayr Logistics.
Speaking on the occasion, Namburete said that the work, which is to take about six years to complete, will be done in three phases. The undertaking is to have a capacity to produce 300,000 barrels of refined fuels a day. A third of this production will be to supply the domestic market, while the remainder will be for export. The refinery could thus eliminate Mozambique's dependence on the import of refined fuels, and make a significant contribution to the country's balance of payments.
"Expectations about the implementation of this project are high, because it will have a strong social and economic impact, not only in the country, but also within the southern African region, given the strategic nature of its produce", said Namburete.
This undertaking, the first of its kind in Mozambique since independence, will create 450 permanent jobs when it starts operating, plus a similar number of temporary jobs during the building stage.
Implementation of this project will imply opening access routes, a new branch of the northern rail line, bridges, small reservoirs, a power central, a station for the treatment of water and waste, a cargo terminal, a pipeline, storage tanks and other industries for the processing of by-products. The government approved the refinery project earlier this month.
Known as the Ayr Petro-Nacala project, its largest investor is Ayr Logistics, with about 70 %. The other investors are Varela and Ferreira Mendes, the two Mozambicans who set up Ayr Logistica, and a South African citizen named Colin Crorie. The crude oil for the refinery can be unloaded at Nacala port.
Although Nacala is widely regarded as the best deep water harbour on the east African coast, it has, up until now, been under-used. The port needs no dredging, and is capable of accommodating very large vessels.
Vangold signs deal to explore for oil in Kenya.
The East Africa
23 October 2007
Editor's Note: Vangold also bought the exploration rites to the 'White Elephant' block in Rwanda.
Canadian-based Vangold Resources, has signed a production sharing contract (PSC) with Kenya's Ministry of Energy to explore oil on Block 3A in the North Eastern Province. This is the third exploration contract to be signed with an international oil company in three weeks.
Block 10A went to Camec International of the UK, Block 11 to the Geneva-based Swedish firm Lundin International and Block 3A to giant Vangold Resources.
Kenya, it would seem, has decided to intensify efforts to find oil. At a recent ceremony in which Energy Minister Kiraitu Murungi signed the deal with Lundin, he said the ministry had come under pressure to explore for oil after its neighbours -- Uganda, Tanzania, Somalia and Sudan -- found the commodity.
Energy permanent secretary Patrick Nyoike recently said the government will shoot its own seismic data and sell it to prospective oil explorers.
"Next year, we want to review the situation and dedicate resources in the budget to map data and sell it to companies interested in exploring for oil in Kenya," he said.
The increased activity comes against a backdrop of doubts as to whether there is oil in Kenya especially after UK-based Woodside came up dry after spending over $ 20 mm in the process. During the signing ceremony, Ashley Heppenstall, president of Lundin Group was compelled to address the doubts.
"We want to take the risk because we believe it is worth it. Eventually, oil will be discovered in Kenya. East Africa is a fertile area for oil and natural gas," he said.
Top Ministry of Energy officials are convinced that there is oil in the country. Chief geologist in the ministry, Don Riaro, expressed confidence that oil discovery in Kenya was just a matter of time.
"There is no doubt that there is great potential for hydrocarbons (oil) in Kenya. What, however, remains to be established is whether it is commercially viable," he said. He pointed out that companies such as Chinese National Oil Company (CNOC), UK-based Camec International, Lundin Petroleum and Vangold Resources have committed to drill a well each within the next three years.
Oil exploration in East Africa's rift basin has increased, especially after the discovery of oil in Uganda by Australian firm Tullow Oil. For years, petroleum geologists had discounted the potential of oil being discovered in the region. However, with the Ugandan discovery, significant data was obtained on the rift basin and potential source rocks that host hydrocarbons.
Mr Riaro said Vangold's block in the Anza basin, where Lundin and CNOOC are also exploring, has harsh exploration conditions mainly because of volcanic rocks covering the region, making it difficult to obtain seismics. But he added that with modern technology, especially the three dimension seismic technology, it was now possible to get accurate data.
Vangold's president Dal Brynelsen said the company has chosen block 3A on technical merit based on a study it conducted in the area. During the study, the company's geologists found five prospects and one lead. He said that the next phase will be to reprocess part of the seismic data with new technology to establish if the prospect is a deep structure and if the rocks host hydrocarbons.
"If the results are positive, the company will fast-track its drilling programme," he said. He said the company had established its offices in the country and has hired local experts who have many years of experience with companies such as the National Oil Corporation of Kenya, Amaco and Shell.
Vangold is hoping to share technical resources and data with CNOOC and Lundin who are also active in the Anza basin. This basin has been compared to Sudan's Mug lab basin where Lundin Petroleum made a major discovery.
International oil exploration companies that have in the past concentrated on West and South-western Africa are now seeking opportunities in new areas of the continent, partly spurred by high global oil prices. Four international companies have won rights for oil exploration in the Ruvuma Basin in northern Mozambique and are expected to invest an estimated $ 300 mm and drill eight wells in the five blocks within eight years. These are Canada's Artumas Group, US-based Anadarko Petroleum, Italy's ENI and Petronas of Malaysia.
In September, Presidents Yoweri Museveni and Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo agreed to collectively explore and use any oil found on the border by setting up a joint commission.
The commission will among other things review the terms of the June 1990 oil exploration agreements between the two countries. Henry Okello Oryem, State Minister for International Affairs, has supported the commission as a way of easing tension at the border.
23 October 2007
Editor's Note: Vangold also bought the exploration rites to the 'White Elephant' block in Rwanda.
Canadian-based Vangold Resources, has signed a production sharing contract (PSC) with Kenya's Ministry of Energy to explore oil on Block 3A in the North Eastern Province. This is the third exploration contract to be signed with an international oil company in three weeks.
Block 10A went to Camec International of the UK, Block 11 to the Geneva-based Swedish firm Lundin International and Block 3A to giant Vangold Resources.
Kenya, it would seem, has decided to intensify efforts to find oil. At a recent ceremony in which Energy Minister Kiraitu Murungi signed the deal with Lundin, he said the ministry had come under pressure to explore for oil after its neighbours -- Uganda, Tanzania, Somalia and Sudan -- found the commodity.
Energy permanent secretary Patrick Nyoike recently said the government will shoot its own seismic data and sell it to prospective oil explorers.
"Next year, we want to review the situation and dedicate resources in the budget to map data and sell it to companies interested in exploring for oil in Kenya," he said.
The increased activity comes against a backdrop of doubts as to whether there is oil in Kenya especially after UK-based Woodside came up dry after spending over $ 20 mm in the process. During the signing ceremony, Ashley Heppenstall, president of Lundin Group was compelled to address the doubts.
"We want to take the risk because we believe it is worth it. Eventually, oil will be discovered in Kenya. East Africa is a fertile area for oil and natural gas," he said.
Top Ministry of Energy officials are convinced that there is oil in the country. Chief geologist in the ministry, Don Riaro, expressed confidence that oil discovery in Kenya was just a matter of time.
"There is no doubt that there is great potential for hydrocarbons (oil) in Kenya. What, however, remains to be established is whether it is commercially viable," he said. He pointed out that companies such as Chinese National Oil Company (CNOC), UK-based Camec International, Lundin Petroleum and Vangold Resources have committed to drill a well each within the next three years.
Oil exploration in East Africa's rift basin has increased, especially after the discovery of oil in Uganda by Australian firm Tullow Oil. For years, petroleum geologists had discounted the potential of oil being discovered in the region. However, with the Ugandan discovery, significant data was obtained on the rift basin and potential source rocks that host hydrocarbons.
Mr Riaro said Vangold's block in the Anza basin, where Lundin and CNOOC are also exploring, has harsh exploration conditions mainly because of volcanic rocks covering the region, making it difficult to obtain seismics. But he added that with modern technology, especially the three dimension seismic technology, it was now possible to get accurate data.
Vangold's president Dal Brynelsen said the company has chosen block 3A on technical merit based on a study it conducted in the area. During the study, the company's geologists found five prospects and one lead. He said that the next phase will be to reprocess part of the seismic data with new technology to establish if the prospect is a deep structure and if the rocks host hydrocarbons.
"If the results are positive, the company will fast-track its drilling programme," he said. He said the company had established its offices in the country and has hired local experts who have many years of experience with companies such as the National Oil Corporation of Kenya, Amaco and Shell.
Vangold is hoping to share technical resources and data with CNOOC and Lundin who are also active in the Anza basin. This basin has been compared to Sudan's Mug lab basin where Lundin Petroleum made a major discovery.
International oil exploration companies that have in the past concentrated on West and South-western Africa are now seeking opportunities in new areas of the continent, partly spurred by high global oil prices. Four international companies have won rights for oil exploration in the Ruvuma Basin in northern Mozambique and are expected to invest an estimated $ 300 mm and drill eight wells in the five blocks within eight years. These are Canada's Artumas Group, US-based Anadarko Petroleum, Italy's ENI and Petronas of Malaysia.
In September, Presidents Yoweri Museveni and Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo agreed to collectively explore and use any oil found on the border by setting up a joint commission.
The commission will among other things review the terms of the June 1990 oil exploration agreements between the two countries. Henry Okello Oryem, State Minister for International Affairs, has supported the commission as a way of easing tension at the border.
US to explore oil opportunities in Uganda.
East African Business Week
29 October 2007
The US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) has commissioned a US consultant to explore areas where it may be able to provide grant assistance in support of the development of Uganda's oil and gas sector.
Over the past one and a half years, Uganda's oil exploration efforts have pointed to the development of a viable oil and gas sector in the Albertine basin, which is found in the western arm of the Great Rift Valley. Canadian oil and gas explorer Heritage has put estimates of commercially available oil to more than a billion barrels of oil while Irish explorer Tullow Oil has achieved flow rates of more than 10,000 barrels of oil per day.
The US mission in Kampala said potential USTDA actions that could result from the mission include technical assistance programmes, feasibility studies and training activities. Others are orientation visits (reverse trade missions) designed to assist the government of Uganda in achieving its developmental objectives in the oil and gas sector.
"USTDA is prepared to assist the GoU with technical assistance and training on a grant basis as it seeks to harness its oil and gas resources to supplement its industrial and electric power needs," it said.
USTDA has selected RKR Enterprises as the US consulting firm to conduct this mission. After initial research and information-gathering meetings in the United States, RKR Enterprises will travel to Uganda to meet with public and private sector officials to identify opportunities for USTDA assistance.
USTDA is an independent US Government foreign assistance agency that is funded by the US Congress. The statement said in particular, RKR will explore potential USTDA grant assistance to support the development of a regulatory and institutional framework for the nation's oil and gas sector.
RKR will as well carry out human capacity building training activities that may be required to support this emerging domestic industry, which will be set for takeoff in another two years.
USTDA advances economic development and US commercial interests in developing and middle-income countries. The agency funds various forms of technical assistance, early investment analysis, training, orientation visits and business workshops that support the development of a modern infrastructure and a fair, open trading environment. USTDA's strategic use of foreign assistance funds to support sound investment policy and decision-making in host countries creates an enabling environment for trade, investment and sustainable economic development.
29 October 2007
The US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) has commissioned a US consultant to explore areas where it may be able to provide grant assistance in support of the development of Uganda's oil and gas sector.
Over the past one and a half years, Uganda's oil exploration efforts have pointed to the development of a viable oil and gas sector in the Albertine basin, which is found in the western arm of the Great Rift Valley. Canadian oil and gas explorer Heritage has put estimates of commercially available oil to more than a billion barrels of oil while Irish explorer Tullow Oil has achieved flow rates of more than 10,000 barrels of oil per day.
The US mission in Kampala said potential USTDA actions that could result from the mission include technical assistance programmes, feasibility studies and training activities. Others are orientation visits (reverse trade missions) designed to assist the government of Uganda in achieving its developmental objectives in the oil and gas sector.
"USTDA is prepared to assist the GoU with technical assistance and training on a grant basis as it seeks to harness its oil and gas resources to supplement its industrial and electric power needs," it said.
USTDA has selected RKR Enterprises as the US consulting firm to conduct this mission. After initial research and information-gathering meetings in the United States, RKR Enterprises will travel to Uganda to meet with public and private sector officials to identify opportunities for USTDA assistance.
USTDA is an independent US Government foreign assistance agency that is funded by the US Congress. The statement said in particular, RKR will explore potential USTDA grant assistance to support the development of a regulatory and institutional framework for the nation's oil and gas sector.
RKR will as well carry out human capacity building training activities that may be required to support this emerging domestic industry, which will be set for takeoff in another two years.
USTDA advances economic development and US commercial interests in developing and middle-income countries. The agency funds various forms of technical assistance, early investment analysis, training, orientation visits and business workshops that support the development of a modern infrastructure and a fair, open trading environment. USTDA's strategic use of foreign assistance funds to support sound investment policy and decision-making in host countries creates an enabling environment for trade, investment and sustainable economic development.
Ivorian President suppresses residence permit for ECOWAS nationals.
African Press Agency
9 November 2007
The Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo signed Thursday a decree suppressing the residence permit required for foreigners (ECOWAS nationals) living in the country, revealed the communiqué of the Council of Ministers published Friday in Abidjan.
"After listening to the report of the Commission in charge of examining the suppression methods, President Laurent Gbagbo signed an order to that effect for the nationals of ECOWAS member-states," the statement said.
"The suppression of this card which no longer serves its purposes can only strengthen, at social level, the ideal of common life, opening and hospitality which always characterised Cote d’Ivoire," the statement quoted Laurent Gbagbo as saying.
"Freedom of movement becomes a reality," thanks to this decree.
In addition, the Council of Ministers recommended that the nationals of the community of West African States (ECOWAS) are provided with legal identity papers of their countries of origin.
The Ivorian authorities also urged the diplomatic and consular representations to register their nationals within the full respect of the new provisions.
The Ivorian head of state asked the ministers of Defense, Interior, Foreign Affairs, Justice and African Integration, to start immediately, under the supervision of Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, sensitising the civil agents and servants in charge of implementing this decree in order to sanction "the return to normalcy, good citizenship and conviviality".
On Wednesday, Laurent Gbagbo received ECOWAS diplomats. He told them that from 1991 to 2002, the residence permit brought only 59 billion CFA to his country, i.e. 42 billion for the ECOWAS national and 17 billion for the others.
The head of state announced his intention to suppress the residence permit last Sunday in Abidjan, when celebrating the reunion between Burkinabe and Ivorians.
Foreigners living in Cote d’Ivoire hailed this announcement, notably Burkinabe whose number is estimated at about 4 million people.
Then Prime Minister Allassane Dramane Ouattara introduced the residence permit in the 1990s, in order to bail out the state coffers following the difficulties the devaluation of the CFA currency caused.
The then Interior minister Boga Doudou tightened the law in 1992. He belonged to the Ivorian People’s Front (FPI) and was assassinated in the early days of the Ivorian crisis in 2002.
The residence permit went from CFA 5000 (in 1992) to CFA 35000 for ECOWAS nationals and CFA 50,000 for other nationalities.
According to official figures, the foreigners represent 26 % of the population.
This West African country is struggling to overcome a four-year crisis following the signing of the Ouagadougou political agreement last 4 March.
9 November 2007
The Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo signed Thursday a decree suppressing the residence permit required for foreigners (ECOWAS nationals) living in the country, revealed the communiqué of the Council of Ministers published Friday in Abidjan.
"After listening to the report of the Commission in charge of examining the suppression methods, President Laurent Gbagbo signed an order to that effect for the nationals of ECOWAS member-states," the statement said.
"The suppression of this card which no longer serves its purposes can only strengthen, at social level, the ideal of common life, opening and hospitality which always characterised Cote d’Ivoire," the statement quoted Laurent Gbagbo as saying.
"Freedom of movement becomes a reality," thanks to this decree.
In addition, the Council of Ministers recommended that the nationals of the community of West African States (ECOWAS) are provided with legal identity papers of their countries of origin.
The Ivorian authorities also urged the diplomatic and consular representations to register their nationals within the full respect of the new provisions.
The Ivorian head of state asked the ministers of Defense, Interior, Foreign Affairs, Justice and African Integration, to start immediately, under the supervision of Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, sensitising the civil agents and servants in charge of implementing this decree in order to sanction "the return to normalcy, good citizenship and conviviality".
On Wednesday, Laurent Gbagbo received ECOWAS diplomats. He told them that from 1991 to 2002, the residence permit brought only 59 billion CFA to his country, i.e. 42 billion for the ECOWAS national and 17 billion for the others.
The head of state announced his intention to suppress the residence permit last Sunday in Abidjan, when celebrating the reunion between Burkinabe and Ivorians.
Foreigners living in Cote d’Ivoire hailed this announcement, notably Burkinabe whose number is estimated at about 4 million people.
Then Prime Minister Allassane Dramane Ouattara introduced the residence permit in the 1990s, in order to bail out the state coffers following the difficulties the devaluation of the CFA currency caused.
The then Interior minister Boga Doudou tightened the law in 1992. He belonged to the Ivorian People’s Front (FPI) and was assassinated in the early days of the Ivorian crisis in 2002.
The residence permit went from CFA 5000 (in 1992) to CFA 35000 for ECOWAS nationals and CFA 50,000 for other nationalities.
According to official figures, the foreigners represent 26 % of the population.
This West African country is struggling to overcome a four-year crisis following the signing of the Ouagadougou political agreement last 4 March.
Clashes Resume in Mogadishu, Vast Security Operation Underway.
MISNA
9 November 2007
Ethiopian soldiers fired mortar shells on Mogadishu’s main Bakara market, killing at least six civilians, including a woman and a child, according to witnesses. The market is considered a hideout of insurgents tied to the ousted Islamic Courts, in power from June to December 2006. Ethiopian forces launched a vast search operation this morning in various neighbourhoods of the Somali capital for Islamic insurgents active in the city. As reported by Al Jazeera, the operation was launched in response to the killing yesterday of seven Ethiopian soldiers in the southern Black Sea neighbourhood. Witnesses referred that insurgents dragged the bodies of two of the soldiers along the streets of the capital as trophies, for several kilometres through the neighbourhoods of Suqaholana and Barubah, while people gathered chanting slogans against the Ethiopian military presence in the nation. The new violence in the capital caused hundreds of civilians to flee from their homes, adding to the 40,000 that left Mogadishu over the past days.
9 November 2007
Ethiopian soldiers fired mortar shells on Mogadishu’s main Bakara market, killing at least six civilians, including a woman and a child, according to witnesses. The market is considered a hideout of insurgents tied to the ousted Islamic Courts, in power from June to December 2006. Ethiopian forces launched a vast search operation this morning in various neighbourhoods of the Somali capital for Islamic insurgents active in the city. As reported by Al Jazeera, the operation was launched in response to the killing yesterday of seven Ethiopian soldiers in the southern Black Sea neighbourhood. Witnesses referred that insurgents dragged the bodies of two of the soldiers along the streets of the capital as trophies, for several kilometres through the neighbourhoods of Suqaholana and Barubah, while people gathered chanting slogans against the Ethiopian military presence in the nation. The new violence in the capital caused hundreds of civilians to flee from their homes, adding to the 40,000 that left Mogadishu over the past days.
Rebels Announce the Release of Hostage.
MISNA
9 November 2007
Steve Cash Goldbold, the American national kidnapped on October 10 in Chad’s northern Tibesti region by rebels of the Movement for Democracy and Justice in Chad (MDJT), will be released “in the next days”. The rebels made the announcement in a statement, specifying that the decision to free the hostage was taken “after two weeks of investigations” that freed Steve Cash from the accusation of espionage “at the service of the regime in N’Djamena to create division in the movement”. The statement, dated November 5, also reassured the family that the hostage “is in good health and well treated”. Goldbold, in Chad since 1992, is an evangelical Christian aid worker for the Development Association of Tibesti, which is an apparently humanitarian Non-Governmental Organisation. Based on reports circulating in the press, at the time of his abduction he was due to participate in a water basin prospecting project in Bardai, where he lived for five years, financed by the US embassy in Chad. The MDJT detained the man for “illegally” entering in its territory. The rebel group, among many active in north and east Chad, warned foreigners to not “venture” in areas under its control.
Editor's Note: Several reports, including an earlier one by MISNA, said Mr. Cash was not an NGO worker at all.
9 November 2007
Steve Cash Goldbold, the American national kidnapped on October 10 in Chad’s northern Tibesti region by rebels of the Movement for Democracy and Justice in Chad (MDJT), will be released “in the next days”. The rebels made the announcement in a statement, specifying that the decision to free the hostage was taken “after two weeks of investigations” that freed Steve Cash from the accusation of espionage “at the service of the regime in N’Djamena to create division in the movement”. The statement, dated November 5, also reassured the family that the hostage “is in good health and well treated”. Goldbold, in Chad since 1992, is an evangelical Christian aid worker for the Development Association of Tibesti, which is an apparently humanitarian Non-Governmental Organisation. Based on reports circulating in the press, at the time of his abduction he was due to participate in a water basin prospecting project in Bardai, where he lived for five years, financed by the US embassy in Chad. The MDJT detained the man for “illegally” entering in its territory. The rebel group, among many active in north and east Chad, warned foreigners to not “venture” in areas under its control.
Editor's Note: Several reports, including an earlier one by MISNA, said Mr. Cash was not an NGO worker at all.
LRA Deputy Mystery: LRA Founder Says, 'He is Under Arrest.'
MISNA
9 November 2007
The second-in-command of the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army), Vincent Otti, is apparently not dead but under arrest along with other four top figures of the LRA on charges of plotting to kill the founder and leader of the rebel movement, Joseph Kony, and “conspiring with the enemies of the LRA”. The statement was made by Kony in a phone conversation with Norbert Mao, the Gulu district chairman and member of the government delegation in peace talks in Juba (South Sudan). In accounting the conversation to the media, Mao specified that Otti and other LRA members are “under arrest, pending investigations” on charges of “wanting to destroy the LRA from within” in collusion with some infiltrates of the Ugandan armed forces. The LRA leader however assured to Mao that “the talks should continue and he fully trusted his peace team”. For weeks the local press has given wide coverage to the mystery surrounding the fate of Vincent Otti, for years Kony’s trusted right-hand-man. In the past days officials confirmed Otti’s death, claiming that he was killed by Kony in an exchange of fire. Previously, Otti was also believed to have died from cholera. The International Criminal Court (ICC) yesterday also announced the opening of an investigation into the fate of Otti, indicted by the ICC for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Ugandan intelligence sources in the past days also referred that Kony named Okot Odhiambo as his second in command of the LRA.
9 November 2007
The second-in-command of the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army), Vincent Otti, is apparently not dead but under arrest along with other four top figures of the LRA on charges of plotting to kill the founder and leader of the rebel movement, Joseph Kony, and “conspiring with the enemies of the LRA”. The statement was made by Kony in a phone conversation with Norbert Mao, the Gulu district chairman and member of the government delegation in peace talks in Juba (South Sudan). In accounting the conversation to the media, Mao specified that Otti and other LRA members are “under arrest, pending investigations” on charges of “wanting to destroy the LRA from within” in collusion with some infiltrates of the Ugandan armed forces. The LRA leader however assured to Mao that “the talks should continue and he fully trusted his peace team”. For weeks the local press has given wide coverage to the mystery surrounding the fate of Vincent Otti, for years Kony’s trusted right-hand-man. In the past days officials confirmed Otti’s death, claiming that he was killed by Kony in an exchange of fire. Previously, Otti was also believed to have died from cholera. The International Criminal Court (ICC) yesterday also announced the opening of an investigation into the fate of Otti, indicted by the ICC for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Ugandan intelligence sources in the past days also referred that Kony named Okot Odhiambo as his second in command of the LRA.
NTAGERURA ASKS THE ICTR TO ORDER CANADA TO GRANT HIM ASYLUM.
Hirondelle News Agency
8 November 2007
The former Minister of Transport, André Ntagerura, acquitted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), asked the president of the tribunal to order Canada to grant him asylum, it was learned from a legal source Thursday.
In a motion dated 23 October, and that the Hirondelle Agency received Thursday, Ntagerura’s lawyer, Philippe Larochelle, states that: "Ntegerura is respectfully requesting the President of the Tribunal to issue an order to Canada , directing the country to grant the asylum application made by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda on behalf of André Ntagerura".
Larochelle has stressed that "for more than three years, repeated asylum requests have been made to Canada", either by the administration of the ICTR or by Ntagerura’s lawyers.
"To date, Canada has systematically ignored these requests", deplores the lawyer who finally asks the ICTR president to seize the Security Council of the refusal of co-operation of the Canadian authorities.
Delivered in first instance on 25 February 2005, the acquittal of the former minister was confirmed in appeal on 8 February 2006.
He was tried alongside two other persons, including the former prefect of Cyangugu (southern Rwanda), Emmanuel Bagambiki, also acquitted and who was welcomed by Belgium in July.
Ntagerura shares his "safe house" at the ICTR in Arusha, Tanzania, with the former Minister of National Education, André Rwamakuba, acquitted on 20 September 2006, and whose most heart held dream is to join his family in Switzerland.
In an interview with the Hirondelle Agency, in March, the ICTR registrar, the Senegalese Adama Dieng, stated clearly that "the problem is likely to be recurring insofar as acquitted persons do not want to go back to Rwanda".
Dieng considered it regrettable that Western countries "close a bit their doors" and reminded them that "this tribunal was created by the Security Council" and that "it is the international community which must assume the consequences of the judgments that it delivers".
The two others that have been acquitted by the ICTR, the former mayors Ignace Bagilishema and Jean Mpambara, were welcomed by France.
8 November 2007
The former Minister of Transport, André Ntagerura, acquitted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), asked the president of the tribunal to order Canada to grant him asylum, it was learned from a legal source Thursday.
In a motion dated 23 October, and that the Hirondelle Agency received Thursday, Ntagerura’s lawyer, Philippe Larochelle, states that: "Ntegerura is respectfully requesting the President of the Tribunal to issue an order to Canada , directing the country to grant the asylum application made by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda on behalf of André Ntagerura".
Larochelle has stressed that "for more than three years, repeated asylum requests have been made to Canada", either by the administration of the ICTR or by Ntagerura’s lawyers.
"To date, Canada has systematically ignored these requests", deplores the lawyer who finally asks the ICTR president to seize the Security Council of the refusal of co-operation of the Canadian authorities.
Delivered in first instance on 25 February 2005, the acquittal of the former minister was confirmed in appeal on 8 February 2006.
He was tried alongside two other persons, including the former prefect of Cyangugu (southern Rwanda), Emmanuel Bagambiki, also acquitted and who was welcomed by Belgium in July.
Ntagerura shares his "safe house" at the ICTR in Arusha, Tanzania, with the former Minister of National Education, André Rwamakuba, acquitted on 20 September 2006, and whose most heart held dream is to join his family in Switzerland.
In an interview with the Hirondelle Agency, in March, the ICTR registrar, the Senegalese Adama Dieng, stated clearly that "the problem is likely to be recurring insofar as acquitted persons do not want to go back to Rwanda".
Dieng considered it regrettable that Western countries "close a bit their doors" and reminded them that "this tribunal was created by the Security Council" and that "it is the international community which must assume the consequences of the judgments that it delivers".
The two others that have been acquitted by the ICTR, the former mayors Ignace Bagilishema and Jean Mpambara, were welcomed by France.
BICAMUMPAKA WANTED PEACE, ACCORDING TO A FORMER RWANDAN DIPLOMAT.
Hirondelle News Agency
8 November 2007
An exiled former Rwandan diplomat, Isidore Rukira, stated Thursday before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) that the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jérôme Bicamumpaka, was preoccupied by the return of peace to his country in 1994.
Rukira, who testified by video conference from The Hague, was Ambassador of Rwanda to China and North Korea during the genocide.
He affirmed that on 10 April 1994, Bicamumpaka had sent to all the embassies of Rwanda a fax in which he explained why one of the three objectives of the interim government was "to bring back peace" and to continue "the negotiations with the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) for the application of the Arusha Peace Accords".
In May 1994, the defendant, on his way to New York, telephoned, from Paris, to repeat to the ambassador his attachment to peace, still according to the testimony.
"He gave me instructions; he said to me to approach the ambassador of the United States (in Beijing) and ask for their intervention with the RPF and Uganda so that the war would end, which I did ", indicated Rukira.
According to the main defence counsel, Michel Croteau, the sphere of activity of Bicamumpaka, "was diplomatic relations and not internal affairs".
8 November 2007
An exiled former Rwandan diplomat, Isidore Rukira, stated Thursday before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) that the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jérôme Bicamumpaka, was preoccupied by the return of peace to his country in 1994.
Rukira, who testified by video conference from The Hague, was Ambassador of Rwanda to China and North Korea during the genocide.
He affirmed that on 10 April 1994, Bicamumpaka had sent to all the embassies of Rwanda a fax in which he explained why one of the three objectives of the interim government was "to bring back peace" and to continue "the negotiations with the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) for the application of the Arusha Peace Accords".
In May 1994, the defendant, on his way to New York, telephoned, from Paris, to repeat to the ambassador his attachment to peace, still according to the testimony.
"He gave me instructions; he said to me to approach the ambassador of the United States (in Beijing) and ask for their intervention with the RPF and Uganda so that the war would end, which I did ", indicated Rukira.
According to the main defence counsel, Michel Croteau, the sphere of activity of Bicamumpaka, "was diplomatic relations and not internal affairs".
A Decision on 14 November for Ntawukuriryiayo.
Hirondelle News Agency
8 November 2007
The investigation chamber the Court of Appeal of Paris will render its decision on 14 November related to Dominique Ntawukuriryiayo, which the prosecutor requested Wednesday the transfer to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
Ntawukuriryayo, was arrested in France on 16 October. During the hearing, he disputed the facts which are charged against him by the ICTR, describing them as "pure fiction" and "lies". Mr. Ntawukuriryayo is accused by the ICTR of being responsible, directly and indirectly, for the deaths of at least 25 000 Tutsis, between 21 and 25 April 1994, that had taken refuge on Kabuye hill.
If the defendant said that he did not fear justice, he regretted that the ICTR "did not call him in a convenient time" because he would have come to plead his case. Today, he explained, he fears of not being able to be tried by the ICTR, whose mandate is to be completed by the end of 2008, and fears of being extradited to Rwanda where he assures that he will not have a "fair trial".
Dominique Ntawukuriryayo was arrested on 16 October in Carcassonne; a French city where he resided since 2000. He arrived in France in 1999. According to his lawyers, he always had legal residence.
The representative of the prosecution of the Court of Appeal of Paris specified Wednesday that there were no prosecutions in France against this Rwandan national at the moment of his arrest.
Since a complaint has been filed before the senior investigating magistrates of the first instance court of Paris. Even if he is on the list of people wanted by Rwanda, no extradition request has been made by Kigali, pointed out the prosecuting attorney.
In 2006, Rwandans had filed a complaint in Carcassonne against this former sub-prefect of Gisagara (southern Rwanda). The complaint had been classified without follow-up, the investigators had not found the residence of Mr. Ntawukuriryayo.
The Court of Appeal of Paris must also render on 21 November its decision relating to the transfer request to the ICTR of two Rwandans, Wenceslas Munyeshyeka and Laurent Bucyibaruta.
8 November 2007
The investigation chamber the Court of Appeal of Paris will render its decision on 14 November related to Dominique Ntawukuriryiayo, which the prosecutor requested Wednesday the transfer to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
Ntawukuriryayo, was arrested in France on 16 October. During the hearing, he disputed the facts which are charged against him by the ICTR, describing them as "pure fiction" and "lies". Mr. Ntawukuriryayo is accused by the ICTR of being responsible, directly and indirectly, for the deaths of at least 25 000 Tutsis, between 21 and 25 April 1994, that had taken refuge on Kabuye hill.
If the defendant said that he did not fear justice, he regretted that the ICTR "did not call him in a convenient time" because he would have come to plead his case. Today, he explained, he fears of not being able to be tried by the ICTR, whose mandate is to be completed by the end of 2008, and fears of being extradited to Rwanda where he assures that he will not have a "fair trial".
Dominique Ntawukuriryayo was arrested on 16 October in Carcassonne; a French city where he resided since 2000. He arrived in France in 1999. According to his lawyers, he always had legal residence.
The representative of the prosecution of the Court of Appeal of Paris specified Wednesday that there were no prosecutions in France against this Rwandan national at the moment of his arrest.
Since a complaint has been filed before the senior investigating magistrates of the first instance court of Paris. Even if he is on the list of people wanted by Rwanda, no extradition request has been made by Kigali, pointed out the prosecuting attorney.
In 2006, Rwandans had filed a complaint in Carcassonne against this former sub-prefect of Gisagara (southern Rwanda). The complaint had been classified without follow-up, the investigators had not found the residence of Mr. Ntawukuriryayo.
The Court of Appeal of Paris must also render on 21 November its decision relating to the transfer request to the ICTR of two Rwandans, Wenceslas Munyeshyeka and Laurent Bucyibaruta.
Amnesty International Has Doubts About Country's Courts.
Hirondelle News Agency
8 November 2007
The organization for the defence of human rights Amnesty International expressed doubts about Rwandan courts by affirming last week that suspects of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) should not be transferred to Rwanda.
In this aim, and in accordance with the rules of the tribunal, the ICTR prosecutor filed several weeks ago motions aiming to transfers four accused, of which one of them is still at large. Several chambers were seized, but they have not yet rendered their decisions.
For Amnesty International, before any transfer is done "it must be demonstrated that the Rwandan justice system can operate impartially by investigating and prosecuting crimes by all sides". The organization remains worried that, to date, the crimes committed by members of the Rwandan Patriotic Army have not been investigated or prosecuted by the local authorities.
With regards to the guarantees of a fair trial, Amnesty explains that for more than ten years it has expressed concerns on the fairness of the judgments of Rwandan courts, including the semi-traditional gacaca courts. "... of the permanent reports that the guarantees of fair trials are not applied (...) drains the whole of the legal system", writes Amnesty.
The trials of transferred persons must, moreover, according to Amnesty, be followed by independent experts in order to ensure their fairness. These experts must have access to all the aspects of the trial and, in particular, to the transcripts if they cannot attend all the sessions, states Amnesty which suggests allocating funds to the African Commission on Human and People's Rights if it is asked to do so.
It must finally, explains Amnesty, be shown that persons transferred to Rwanda for their trials do not risk torture and will not be subjected to any cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Rwanda, points out the organization, has not signed the Convention against Torture. According to the organization, cases of torture in Rwanda have been confirmed by foreign courts and reported by civil society or the media.
8 November 2007
The organization for the defence of human rights Amnesty International expressed doubts about Rwandan courts by affirming last week that suspects of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) should not be transferred to Rwanda.
In this aim, and in accordance with the rules of the tribunal, the ICTR prosecutor filed several weeks ago motions aiming to transfers four accused, of which one of them is still at large. Several chambers were seized, but they have not yet rendered their decisions.
For Amnesty International, before any transfer is done "it must be demonstrated that the Rwandan justice system can operate impartially by investigating and prosecuting crimes by all sides". The organization remains worried that, to date, the crimes committed by members of the Rwandan Patriotic Army have not been investigated or prosecuted by the local authorities.
With regards to the guarantees of a fair trial, Amnesty explains that for more than ten years it has expressed concerns on the fairness of the judgments of Rwandan courts, including the semi-traditional gacaca courts. "... of the permanent reports that the guarantees of fair trials are not applied (...) drains the whole of the legal system", writes Amnesty.
The trials of transferred persons must, moreover, according to Amnesty, be followed by independent experts in order to ensure their fairness. These experts must have access to all the aspects of the trial and, in particular, to the transcripts if they cannot attend all the sessions, states Amnesty which suggests allocating funds to the African Commission on Human and People's Rights if it is asked to do so.
It must finally, explains Amnesty, be shown that persons transferred to Rwanda for their trials do not risk torture and will not be subjected to any cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Rwanda, points out the organization, has not signed the Convention against Torture. According to the organization, cases of torture in Rwanda have been confirmed by foreign courts and reported by civil society or the media.
08 November, 2007
DRC sheds blood diamond tag.
Reuters
8 November 2007
Editor's Note: Only time will tell if this is sincere or simply a ploy to increase business and consumer confidence in the market. It will open up more markets for the DRC and the diamond miners in the Kasai provinces and the diamond company owned by the Directors of Banro located on the Angolan border will be pleased with this development. DeBeers is reportedly close to obtaining concessions in the border area as well.
The Democratic Republic of Congo was readmitted to an international mechanism regulating the diamonds trade on Thursday after convincing experts it had tightened controls on so-called "blood diamonds".
The central African country was expelled from the Kimberley Process (KP) in 2004 because it could not account for most of its exports, which were some 100 times more than its estimated output.
Industry officials believe the Congo Republic had been used as a conduit for diamonds mined in the larger Democratic Republic of Congo, scene of a war in 1998-2003 that was funded in part by illicit gems.
A statement issued by the 48-nation Kimberley Process after a four-day meeting in Brussels said Congo Republic had been readmitted. The move could prompt the UN Security Council to end a trading embargo against the Congo Republic.
KP chairperson Karel Kovanda said Ivory Coast, which would then be the last remaining country subject to such an embargo, could be readmitted too after this year's ceasefire in its civil war.
"We have been reviewing what steps are needed so that, in the fullness of time, Ivory Coast can rejoin the Kimberley Process as well," Kovanda, deputy director-general of external relations at the European Commission, told a news conference.
The Commission holds the rotating chair of the KP, which has been criticised for not acting fast enough against errant countries. The issue returned to prominence after last year's Hollywood blockbuster Blood Diamond.
The meeting also approved a declaration on internal controls to be implemented by states with rough diamond trading and manufacturing sectors, such as spot checks on trading companies, inspections of imports and verifiable records of inventories.
The move was welcomed by non-governmental organisations at the meeting who nonetheless noted it was only voluntary and called for states to put in place legally binding controls.
KP supporters say the share of conflict diamonds is now less than 1% of the overall world trade of gems from a peak of 15%.
In 2006 the process monitored some $35.7bn of rough diamond exports representing more than 480 million carats.
8 November 2007
Editor's Note: Only time will tell if this is sincere or simply a ploy to increase business and consumer confidence in the market. It will open up more markets for the DRC and the diamond miners in the Kasai provinces and the diamond company owned by the Directors of Banro located on the Angolan border will be pleased with this development. DeBeers is reportedly close to obtaining concessions in the border area as well.
The Democratic Republic of Congo was readmitted to an international mechanism regulating the diamonds trade on Thursday after convincing experts it had tightened controls on so-called "blood diamonds".
The central African country was expelled from the Kimberley Process (KP) in 2004 because it could not account for most of its exports, which were some 100 times more than its estimated output.
Industry officials believe the Congo Republic had been used as a conduit for diamonds mined in the larger Democratic Republic of Congo, scene of a war in 1998-2003 that was funded in part by illicit gems.
A statement issued by the 48-nation Kimberley Process after a four-day meeting in Brussels said Congo Republic had been readmitted. The move could prompt the UN Security Council to end a trading embargo against the Congo Republic.
KP chairperson Karel Kovanda said Ivory Coast, which would then be the last remaining country subject to such an embargo, could be readmitted too after this year's ceasefire in its civil war.
"We have been reviewing what steps are needed so that, in the fullness of time, Ivory Coast can rejoin the Kimberley Process as well," Kovanda, deputy director-general of external relations at the European Commission, told a news conference.
The Commission holds the rotating chair of the KP, which has been criticised for not acting fast enough against errant countries. The issue returned to prominence after last year's Hollywood blockbuster Blood Diamond.
The meeting also approved a declaration on internal controls to be implemented by states with rough diamond trading and manufacturing sectors, such as spot checks on trading companies, inspections of imports and verifiable records of inventories.
The move was welcomed by non-governmental organisations at the meeting who nonetheless noted it was only voluntary and called for states to put in place legally binding controls.
KP supporters say the share of conflict diamonds is now less than 1% of the overall world trade of gems from a peak of 15%.
In 2006 the process monitored some $35.7bn of rough diamond exports representing more than 480 million carats.
US intelligence will help rid northern Iraq of PKK: Erdogan.
AFP
8 November 2007
Visiting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday said stepped-up intelligence support from Washington would help Ankara rid northern Iraq of Kurdish rebels.
Erdogan met with his Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi the day after US President George W. Bush, hosting him at the White House, pledged to provide Ankara with "real-time" intelligence on Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) rebels.
This will "give us the necessary information to end the presence" of the PKK in northern Iraq, Erdogan told a joint news conference with Prodi.
Tension between Ankara and Baghdad intensified in recent weeks after the PKK fighters ambushed a Turkish military patrol and killed 12 soldiers.
Faced with mounting violence, Ankara has been threatening a cross-border military operation against the rebel bases if Washington and Baghdad fail to take urgent measures against them.
"Turkish public opinion is pressing" for action against the rebels, Erdogan said.
Analysts said after Washington's pledge of intelligence assistance that a large-scale Turkish incursion into northern Iraq was now unlikely, but they saw tacit US approval for surgical strikes on rebel targets across the border.
For his part, Prodi praised Erdogan for "the moderation of his response to the excessive provocations" of the rebels.
Washington fears a possible confrontation between two allies -- NATO-member Turkey and the Kurds who rule northern Iraq -- could destabilise a relatively peaceful part of Iraq.
During a visit to Turkey in June, Italian Foreign Minister Massimo d'Alema cautioned Turkey against an incursion, saying that conflict-torn Iraq could not take more tension.
The Turkish parliament earlier this month authorised the government to conduct cross-border operations if necessary within a one-year time-frame.
8 November 2007
Visiting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday said stepped-up intelligence support from Washington would help Ankara rid northern Iraq of Kurdish rebels.
Erdogan met with his Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi the day after US President George W. Bush, hosting him at the White House, pledged to provide Ankara with "real-time" intelligence on Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) rebels.
This will "give us the necessary information to end the presence" of the PKK in northern Iraq, Erdogan told a joint news conference with Prodi.
Tension between Ankara and Baghdad intensified in recent weeks after the PKK fighters ambushed a Turkish military patrol and killed 12 soldiers.
Faced with mounting violence, Ankara has been threatening a cross-border military operation against the rebel bases if Washington and Baghdad fail to take urgent measures against them.
"Turkish public opinion is pressing" for action against the rebels, Erdogan said.
Analysts said after Washington's pledge of intelligence assistance that a large-scale Turkish incursion into northern Iraq was now unlikely, but they saw tacit US approval for surgical strikes on rebel targets across the border.
For his part, Prodi praised Erdogan for "the moderation of his response to the excessive provocations" of the rebels.
Washington fears a possible confrontation between two allies -- NATO-member Turkey and the Kurds who rule northern Iraq -- could destabilise a relatively peaceful part of Iraq.
During a visit to Turkey in June, Italian Foreign Minister Massimo d'Alema cautioned Turkey against an incursion, saying that conflict-torn Iraq could not take more tension.
The Turkish parliament earlier this month authorised the government to conduct cross-border operations if necessary within a one-year time-frame.
US Congress okays $155m missile package for Israel.
Y Net News
7 November 2007
The US Congress on Wednesday approved a $155 million arms package for Israel, aimed at the development of the Hetz and David mid-range defensive missile systems and for the development long-range defensive missile systems.
The arms package is still pending the approval of the US House of Representatives and President George W Bush. The Israeli defense establishment was pleased with Congress' decision, which effectively increases Israel's missile development budget by 30%.
With the allocation of these new funds, the US would be investing some $98 million in the development of the Hetz defensive missile system: Thirty-seven million dollars will be directed towards the Hetz's production in a Boeing factory in the US and by the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), and $37 million for its continuing development.
The US will also allocate $37 million for the development of the David mid-range defensive missile system, which is supposed to neutralize threats within a 25 to 125 mile radius, covering both the Hizbullah and Syrian missiles. The David missiles are not designed to fights Qassam or Katyusha rockets.
The remaining funds are to be allocated for the development of long-range missile defense systems aimed at fighting the Iranian threat.
7 November 2007
The US Congress on Wednesday approved a $155 million arms package for Israel, aimed at the development of the Hetz and David mid-range defensive missile systems and for the development long-range defensive missile systems.
The arms package is still pending the approval of the US House of Representatives and President George W Bush. The Israeli defense establishment was pleased with Congress' decision, which effectively increases Israel's missile development budget by 30%.
With the allocation of these new funds, the US would be investing some $98 million in the development of the Hetz defensive missile system: Thirty-seven million dollars will be directed towards the Hetz's production in a Boeing factory in the US and by the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), and $37 million for its continuing development.
The US will also allocate $37 million for the development of the David mid-range defensive missile system, which is supposed to neutralize threats within a 25 to 125 mile radius, covering both the Hizbullah and Syrian missiles. The David missiles are not designed to fights Qassam or Katyusha rockets.
The remaining funds are to be allocated for the development of long-range missile defense systems aimed at fighting the Iranian threat.
1 in 4 US Homeless Are Veterans.
Associated Press
8 November 2007
By Kimberly Helfling
Veterans make up one in four homeless people in the United States, though they are only 11 percent of the general adult population, according to a report to be released Thursday.
And homelessness is not just a problem among middle-age and elderly veterans. Younger veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are trickling into shelters and soup kitchens seeking services, treatment or help with finding a job.
The Veterans Affairs Department has identified 1,500 homeless veterans from the current wars and says 400 of them have participated in its programs specifically targeting homelessness.
The National Alliance to End Homelessness, a public education nonprofit, based the findings of its report on numbers from Veterans Affairs and the Census Bureau. 2005 data estimated that 194,254 homeless people out of 744,313 on any given night were veterans.
In comparison, the VA says that 20 years ago, the estimated number of veterans who were homeless on any given night was 250,000.
Some advocates say the early presence of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan at shelters does not bode well for the future. It took roughly a decade for the lives of Vietnam veterans to unravel to the point that they started showing up among the homeless. Advocates worry that intense and repeated deployments leave newer veterans particularly vulnerable.
"We're going to be having a tsunami of them eventually because the mental health toll from this war is enormous," said Daniel Tooth, director of veterans affairs for Lancaster County, Pa.
While services to homeless veterans have improved in the past 20 years, advocates say more financial resources still are needed. With the spotlight on the plight of Iraq veterans, they hope more will be done to prevent homelessness and provide affordable housing to the younger veterans while there's a window of opportunity.
"When the Vietnam War ended, that was part of the problem. The war was over, it was off TV, nobody wanted to hear about it," said John Keaveney, a Vietnam veteran and a founder of New Directions in Los Angeles, which provides substance abuse help, job training and shelter to veterans.
"I think they'll be forgotten," Keaveney said of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. "People get tired of it. It's not glitzy that these are young, honorable, patriotic Americans. They'll just be veterans, and that happens after every war."
Keaveney said it's difficult for his group to persuade some homeless Iraq veterans to stay for treatment and help because they don't relate to the older veterans. Those who stayed have had success — one is now a stock broker and another is applying to be a police officer, he said.
"They see guys that are their father's age and they don't understand, they don't know, that in a couple of years they'll be looking like them," he said.
After being discharged from the military, Jason Kelley, 23, of Tomahawk, Wis., who served in Iraq with the Wisconsin National Guard, took a bus to Los Angeles looking for better job prospects and a new life.
Kelley said he couldn't find a job because he didn't have an apartment, and he couldn't get an apartment because he didn't have a job. He stayed in a $300-a-week motel until his money ran out, then moved into a shelter run by the group U.S. VETS in Inglewood, Calif. He's since been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, he said.
"The only training I have is infantry training and there's not really a need for that in the civilian world," Kelley said in a phone interview. He has enrolled in college and hopes to move out of the shelter soon.
The Iraq vets seeking help with homelessness are more likely to be women, less likely to have substance abuse problems, but more likely to have mental illness — mostly related to post-traumatic stress, said Pete Dougherty, director of homeless veterans programs at the VA.
Overall, 45 percent of participants in the VA's homeless programs have a diagnosable mental illness and more than three out of four have a substance abuse problem, while 35 percent have both, Dougherty said.
Historically, a number of fighters in U.S. wars have become homeless. In the post-Civil War era, homeless veterans sang old Army songs to dramatize their need for work and became known as "tramps," which had meant to march into war, said Todd DePastino, a historian at Penn State University's Beaver campus who wrote a book on the history of homelessness.
After World War I, thousands of veterans — many of them homeless — camped in the nation's capital seeking bonus money. Their camps were destroyed by the government, creating a public relations disaster for President Herbert Hoover.
The end of the Vietnam War coincided with a time of economic restructuring, and many of the same people who fought in Vietnam were also those most affected by the loss of manufacturing jobs, DePastino said.
Their entrance to the streets was traumatic and, as they aged, their problems became more chronic, recalled Sister Mary Scullion, who has worked with the homeless for 30 years and co-founded of the group Project H.O.M.E. in Philadelphia.
"It takes more to address the needs because they are multiple needs that have been unattended," Scullion said. "Life on the street is brutal and I know many, many homeless veterans who have died from Vietnam."
The VA started targeting homelessness in 1987, 12 years after the fall of Saigon. Today, the VA has, either on its own or through partnerships, more than 15,000 residential rehabilitative, transitional and permanent beds for homeless veterans nationwide. It spends about $265 million annually on homeless-specific programs and about $1.5 billion for all health care costs for homeless veterans.
Because of these types of programs and because two years of free medical care is being offered to all Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, Dougherty said they hope many veterans from recent wars who are in need can be identified early.
"Clearly, I don't think that's going to totally solve the problem, but I also don't think we're simply going to wait for 10 years until they show up," Dougherty said. "We're out there now trying to get everybody we can to get those kinds of services today, so we avoid this kind of problem in the future."
In all of 2006, the National Alliance to End Homelessness estimates that 495,400 veterans were homeless at some point during the year.
The group recommends that 5,000 housing units be created per year for the next five years dedicated to the chronically homeless that would provide permanent housing linked to veterans' support systems. It also recommends funding an additional 20,000 housing vouchers exclusively for homeless veterans, and creating a program that helps bridge the gap between income and rent.
Following those recommendations would cost billions of dollars, but there is some movement in Congress to increase the amount of money dedicated to homeless veterans programs.
On a recent day in Philadelphia, case managers from Project H.O.M.E. and the VA picked up William Joyce, 60, a homeless Vietnam veteran in a wheelchair who said he'd been sleeping at a bus terminal.
"You're an honorable veteran. You're going to get some services," outreach worker Mark Salvatore told Joyce. "You need to be connected. You don't need to be out here on the streets."
___
Associated Press writer Kathy Matheson contributed to this story from Philadelphia.
___
On the Net: National Alliance to End Homelessness: http://www.naeh.org/
New Directions: http://www.newdirectionsinc.org/
Project Home: http://www.projecthome.org/
County of Lancaster: http://www.co.lancaster.pa.us/
Veterans Affairs Department: http://www.va.gov/
U.S. Vets: http://usvetsinc.org/
8 November 2007
By Kimberly Helfling
Veterans make up one in four homeless people in the United States, though they are only 11 percent of the general adult population, according to a report to be released Thursday.
And homelessness is not just a problem among middle-age and elderly veterans. Younger veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are trickling into shelters and soup kitchens seeking services, treatment or help with finding a job.
The Veterans Affairs Department has identified 1,500 homeless veterans from the current wars and says 400 of them have participated in its programs specifically targeting homelessness.
The National Alliance to End Homelessness, a public education nonprofit, based the findings of its report on numbers from Veterans Affairs and the Census Bureau. 2005 data estimated that 194,254 homeless people out of 744,313 on any given night were veterans.
In comparison, the VA says that 20 years ago, the estimated number of veterans who were homeless on any given night was 250,000.
Some advocates say the early presence of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan at shelters does not bode well for the future. It took roughly a decade for the lives of Vietnam veterans to unravel to the point that they started showing up among the homeless. Advocates worry that intense and repeated deployments leave newer veterans particularly vulnerable.
"We're going to be having a tsunami of them eventually because the mental health toll from this war is enormous," said Daniel Tooth, director of veterans affairs for Lancaster County, Pa.
While services to homeless veterans have improved in the past 20 years, advocates say more financial resources still are needed. With the spotlight on the plight of Iraq veterans, they hope more will be done to prevent homelessness and provide affordable housing to the younger veterans while there's a window of opportunity.
"When the Vietnam War ended, that was part of the problem. The war was over, it was off TV, nobody wanted to hear about it," said John Keaveney, a Vietnam veteran and a founder of New Directions in Los Angeles, which provides substance abuse help, job training and shelter to veterans.
"I think they'll be forgotten," Keaveney said of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. "People get tired of it. It's not glitzy that these are young, honorable, patriotic Americans. They'll just be veterans, and that happens after every war."
Keaveney said it's difficult for his group to persuade some homeless Iraq veterans to stay for treatment and help because they don't relate to the older veterans. Those who stayed have had success — one is now a stock broker and another is applying to be a police officer, he said.
"They see guys that are their father's age and they don't understand, they don't know, that in a couple of years they'll be looking like them," he said.
After being discharged from the military, Jason Kelley, 23, of Tomahawk, Wis., who served in Iraq with the Wisconsin National Guard, took a bus to Los Angeles looking for better job prospects and a new life.
Kelley said he couldn't find a job because he didn't have an apartment, and he couldn't get an apartment because he didn't have a job. He stayed in a $300-a-week motel until his money ran out, then moved into a shelter run by the group U.S. VETS in Inglewood, Calif. He's since been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, he said.
"The only training I have is infantry training and there's not really a need for that in the civilian world," Kelley said in a phone interview. He has enrolled in college and hopes to move out of the shelter soon.
The Iraq vets seeking help with homelessness are more likely to be women, less likely to have substance abuse problems, but more likely to have mental illness — mostly related to post-traumatic stress, said Pete Dougherty, director of homeless veterans programs at the VA.
Overall, 45 percent of participants in the VA's homeless programs have a diagnosable mental illness and more than three out of four have a substance abuse problem, while 35 percent have both, Dougherty said.
Historically, a number of fighters in U.S. wars have become homeless. In the post-Civil War era, homeless veterans sang old Army songs to dramatize their need for work and became known as "tramps," which had meant to march into war, said Todd DePastino, a historian at Penn State University's Beaver campus who wrote a book on the history of homelessness.
After World War I, thousands of veterans — many of them homeless — camped in the nation's capital seeking bonus money. Their camps were destroyed by the government, creating a public relations disaster for President Herbert Hoover.
The end of the Vietnam War coincided with a time of economic restructuring, and many of the same people who fought in Vietnam were also those most affected by the loss of manufacturing jobs, DePastino said.
Their entrance to the streets was traumatic and, as they aged, their problems became more chronic, recalled Sister Mary Scullion, who has worked with the homeless for 30 years and co-founded of the group Project H.O.M.E. in Philadelphia.
"It takes more to address the needs because they are multiple needs that have been unattended," Scullion said. "Life on the street is brutal and I know many, many homeless veterans who have died from Vietnam."
The VA started targeting homelessness in 1987, 12 years after the fall of Saigon. Today, the VA has, either on its own or through partnerships, more than 15,000 residential rehabilitative, transitional and permanent beds for homeless veterans nationwide. It spends about $265 million annually on homeless-specific programs and about $1.5 billion for all health care costs for homeless veterans.
Because of these types of programs and because two years of free medical care is being offered to all Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, Dougherty said they hope many veterans from recent wars who are in need can be identified early.
"Clearly, I don't think that's going to totally solve the problem, but I also don't think we're simply going to wait for 10 years until they show up," Dougherty said. "We're out there now trying to get everybody we can to get those kinds of services today, so we avoid this kind of problem in the future."
In all of 2006, the National Alliance to End Homelessness estimates that 495,400 veterans were homeless at some point during the year.
The group recommends that 5,000 housing units be created per year for the next five years dedicated to the chronically homeless that would provide permanent housing linked to veterans' support systems. It also recommends funding an additional 20,000 housing vouchers exclusively for homeless veterans, and creating a program that helps bridge the gap between income and rent.
Following those recommendations would cost billions of dollars, but there is some movement in Congress to increase the amount of money dedicated to homeless veterans programs.
On a recent day in Philadelphia, case managers from Project H.O.M.E. and the VA picked up William Joyce, 60, a homeless Vietnam veteran in a wheelchair who said he'd been sleeping at a bus terminal.
"You're an honorable veteran. You're going to get some services," outreach worker Mark Salvatore told Joyce. "You need to be connected. You don't need to be out here on the streets."
___
Associated Press writer Kathy Matheson contributed to this story from Philadelphia.
___
On the Net: National Alliance to End Homelessness: http://www.naeh.org/
New Directions: http://www.newdirectionsinc.org/
Project Home: http://www.projecthome.org/
County of Lancaster: http://www.co.lancaster.pa.us/
Veterans Affairs Department: http://www.va.gov/
U.S. Vets: http://usvetsinc.org/
Reliance Industries' Iraq oil signing bonus: $15 Million U.S.
UPI
7 November 2007
Reliance Industries paid a signing bonus of between $15.5 million and $17.5 million for oil contracts to explore and develop two Iraqi Kurdish blocks.
The amounts, reported by The Times of India, represent the first time concrete numbers have been made public.
Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government has announced another round of production-sharing contracts, deals Baghdad calls illegal, claiming the KRG's unilateral moves are unconstitutional.
Reliance was among the firms announced Tuesday. It signed deals for two exploration blocks in the KRG area, which has little of Iraq's proven reserves, but experts believe the geological structures will turn up large deposits when fully explored.
The contracts themselves have not been made public, but KRG Natural Resources Minister Ashti Hawrami said they fall in line with the model production-sharing contract it has made public via its Web site.
According to the "Kurdistan Region Risk/Reward Commercial Guidelines for Exploration," signing bonuses are "required for all Blocks, Bidders to propose their best amounts."
When asked in October, following the announcement of two additional production-sharing contracts, Hawrami told UPI the amounts of the signing bonuses are "variable, meaningful and important enough to ensure that the contractors are serious to deliver their responsibilities under the contract."
When asked to clarify, Hawrami said it was "confidential ... but designed to get ongoing commitments of the contractors."
7 November 2007
Reliance Industries paid a signing bonus of between $15.5 million and $17.5 million for oil contracts to explore and develop two Iraqi Kurdish blocks.
The amounts, reported by The Times of India, represent the first time concrete numbers have been made public.
Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government has announced another round of production-sharing contracts, deals Baghdad calls illegal, claiming the KRG's unilateral moves are unconstitutional.
Reliance was among the firms announced Tuesday. It signed deals for two exploration blocks in the KRG area, which has little of Iraq's proven reserves, but experts believe the geological structures will turn up large deposits when fully explored.
The contracts themselves have not been made public, but KRG Natural Resources Minister Ashti Hawrami said they fall in line with the model production-sharing contract it has made public via its Web site.
According to the "Kurdistan Region Risk/Reward Commercial Guidelines for Exploration," signing bonuses are "required for all Blocks, Bidders to propose their best amounts."
When asked in October, following the announcement of two additional production-sharing contracts, Hawrami told UPI the amounts of the signing bonuses are "variable, meaningful and important enough to ensure that the contractors are serious to deliver their responsibilities under the contract."
When asked to clarify, Hawrami said it was "confidential ... but designed to get ongoing commitments of the contractors."
Rio Tinto rejects bid approach from BHP Billiton.
Mining Journal Online
8 November 2007
After five months of takeover speculation, BHP Billiton today confirmed that it "recently" made a merger proposal to Rio Tinto. The terms, which centre on an exchange of shares, have been rejected by the Rio Tinto board.
According to Rio Tinto, BHPB proposed an exchange of one Rio Tinto share (trading in Australia at A$120 at the end of last week) for three BHPB shares (A$47 each). Being a non-cash offer, and at a premium of only 15%, Rio Tinto`s statement on Thursday that the offer "significantly undervalues" the group and its prospects will not come as a surprise.
BHPB said that the offer reflects "its confidence in the benefits for both sets of shareholders". In preparing its proposal, BHPB said that it "has examined, in detail, the regulatory issues and other practicalities of a combination". BHPB has written back to Rio Tinto, and intends "to continue to seek an opportunity to meet and discuss its proposal with Rio Tinto".
BHPB warned, however, that "there can be no assurance" that the proposal will lead to an offer or merger. Nevertheless, Rio Tinto shares leapt as much as 24% in trading following the announcement. Both BHPB and Rio Tinto declined to make further comment.
8 November 2007
After five months of takeover speculation, BHP Billiton today confirmed that it "recently" made a merger proposal to Rio Tinto. The terms, which centre on an exchange of shares, have been rejected by the Rio Tinto board.
According to Rio Tinto, BHPB proposed an exchange of one Rio Tinto share (trading in Australia at A$120 at the end of last week) for three BHPB shares (A$47 each). Being a non-cash offer, and at a premium of only 15%, Rio Tinto`s statement on Thursday that the offer "significantly undervalues" the group and its prospects will not come as a surprise.
BHPB said that the offer reflects "its confidence in the benefits for both sets of shareholders". In preparing its proposal, BHPB said that it "has examined, in detail, the regulatory issues and other practicalities of a combination". BHPB has written back to Rio Tinto, and intends "to continue to seek an opportunity to meet and discuss its proposal with Rio Tinto".
BHPB warned, however, that "there can be no assurance" that the proposal will lead to an offer or merger. Nevertheless, Rio Tinto shares leapt as much as 24% in trading following the announcement. Both BHPB and Rio Tinto declined to make further comment.
Burundi VP Resigns.
News 24
8 November 2007
The Burundian first vice-president has resigned, the latest sign of escalating political tensions in the tiny East African nation struggling to recover from a brutal civil war.
Martin Nduwimana said: "We have tendered our resignation to His Excellency the president of the Republic (Pierre Nkurunziza), and he has accepted."
The resignation came at a delicate time for the government, which was struggling to move forward stalled peace talks with the country's last rebel group and faced opposition calls to replace its entire cabinet over its failure to stop human rights abuses and corruption.
The ruling party had also split in two after jailing its powerful chairperson for trying to destabilise the country, and one half of it had allied itself to opposition parties boycotting parliament.
The boycott meant no new laws could be passed. Nduwimana was formerly a member of an opposition party, but was dumped in August for working with the government.
Last September, President Nkurunziza struck a deal with opposition parties and assured the nation that a solution to the political crisis had been found, but the country continued to be troubled by sporadic violence.
Nduwimana said he hoped his resignation would help break the impasse.
Burundi was trying to emerge from a 13-year civil war, which killed more than 250, 000 people and shattered its fledging economy.
8 November 2007
The Burundian first vice-president has resigned, the latest sign of escalating political tensions in the tiny East African nation struggling to recover from a brutal civil war.
Martin Nduwimana said: "We have tendered our resignation to His Excellency the president of the Republic (Pierre Nkurunziza), and he has accepted."
The resignation came at a delicate time for the government, which was struggling to move forward stalled peace talks with the country's last rebel group and faced opposition calls to replace its entire cabinet over its failure to stop human rights abuses and corruption.
The ruling party had also split in two after jailing its powerful chairperson for trying to destabilise the country, and one half of it had allied itself to opposition parties boycotting parliament.
The boycott meant no new laws could be passed. Nduwimana was formerly a member of an opposition party, but was dumped in August for working with the government.
Last September, President Nkurunziza struck a deal with opposition parties and assured the nation that a solution to the political crisis had been found, but the country continued to be troubled by sporadic violence.
Nduwimana said he hoped his resignation would help break the impasse.
Burundi was trying to emerge from a 13-year civil war, which killed more than 250, 000 people and shattered its fledging economy.
Troops in capital of ex-Soviet Georgia.
Associated Press
By MISHA DZHINDZHIKHASHVILI
8 November 2007
Troops flooded the center of the Georgian capital on Thursday to enforce a state of emergency imposed after a violent crackdown on anti-government protesters.
Hundreds of Interior Ministry officers in khaki uniforms and armed with hard rubber truncheons patrolled Tbilisi's main thoroughfare, the site of the main protests by demonstrators calling for U.S.-backed President Mikhail Saakashvili to resign.
Riot police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons, and Saakashvili announced a 15-day nationwide state of emergency, in which news broadcasts on independent stations were halted and all demonstrations banned.
Nearly 100 people hurt during the clashes remained hospitalized Thursday, the Health Ministry said.
Normally noisy, bustling Rustaveli Avenue was quiet. Only a few cars moved along the street.
Many pedestrians seemed stunned by the crackdown, and most were reluctant to talk about it.
"One doesn't treat one's own people this way," said Yekaterina Bukoyeva, a 35-year-old civil servant. "It was very painful to see how they were dispersing all the people."
The crackdown followed six days of protests in front of Parliament — Georgia's worst political crisis since the pro-Western Saakashvili was elected nearly four years ago.
The American-educated Saakashvili, who is trying to shake off centuries of Russian influence and integrate the ex-Soviet republic with the West, accused Moscow of fomenting the protests and expelled three Russian diplomats. Tensions with Russia have risen as Saakashvili has sought to establish central government control over two separatist regions that have run their own affairs with Russian support since wars in the early 1990s.
In protests that began Friday, demonstrators initially called for changes in the dates of planned elections and the electoral system. But after Saakashvili rejected their demands and accused their leaders of serving the Kremlin, they made his resignation their central aim.
In a nearly 30-minute televised address late Wednesday, Saakashvili said he regretted the use of force, but argued that it was necessary to prevent the country from sliding into chaos.
"Everyone has the opportunity to express their protest in a democratic country and I, as a democrat, have always defended the right of people to protest ... but the authorities will never allow destabilization and chaos in Georgia," he said, flanked by Georgian and EU flags.
The state of emergency must be approved by parliament within two days.
The White House voiced concern over Wednesday's events.
"We urge that any protests be peaceful and that both sides refrain from violence," said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the National Security Council. "The government and opposition should engage in a constructive dialogue with each other. We will continue to monitor the situation."
At least four channels showed entertainment programs instead of their regular news shows Thursday morning, and classes in schools and universities in Tbilisi were suspended for two days.
A Georgian television station regarded by the government as an opposition mouthpiece went off the air Wednesday night after riot police entered its headquarters. The Imedi station has carried statements by opposition leaders and broadcast constant footage of police dispersing the protests.
Opposition leaders advised supporters to refrain from street protests — in line with government orders — to avoid being hurt, Ivlian Khaindrava, a leader of the opposition Republican Party, told The Associated Press.
Many of Saakashvili's opponents support his aims, including closer ties with the United States and Europe.
But there has been increasing disillusionment among critics who say he has not moved fast enough to spread growing wealth. Opponents accuse him of sidestepping the rule of law, creating a system marked by violations of property rights, a muzzled media and political arrests.
Russia, which views most countries of the former Soviet Union as its sphere of influence, has deepened ties with the separatist regions and imposed a trade and transportation blockade on Georgia.
Some Georgians supported Saakashvili's crackdown, also accusing Russia of fomenting the unrest.
"You could see Russia's hand in this and one had to make tough decisions — it was necessary, because they were already starting provocations," said David Chedia, 27, a marketing manager.
Russia's Foreign Ministry dismissed Saakashvili's claims as "irresponsible provocation" and said they were an attempt to distract attention from domestic problems.
"We believe Georgia is approaching a serious human rights crisis," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said Thursday. "The footage the whole world saw from Tbilisi vividly shows what Georgian-style democracy is; It is the harsh, forceful dispersal of peaceful demonstrations, the closure of free media, the beating of foreign journalists."
_____
Associated Press Writer Maria Danilova contributed to this report.
By MISHA DZHINDZHIKHASHVILI
8 November 2007
Troops flooded the center of the Georgian capital on Thursday to enforce a state of emergency imposed after a violent crackdown on anti-government protesters.
Hundreds of Interior Ministry officers in khaki uniforms and armed with hard rubber truncheons patrolled Tbilisi's main thoroughfare, the site of the main protests by demonstrators calling for U.S.-backed President Mikhail Saakashvili to resign.
Riot police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons, and Saakashvili announced a 15-day nationwide state of emergency, in which news broadcasts on independent stations were halted and all demonstrations banned.
Nearly 100 people hurt during the clashes remained hospitalized Thursday, the Health Ministry said.
Normally noisy, bustling Rustaveli Avenue was quiet. Only a few cars moved along the street.
Many pedestrians seemed stunned by the crackdown, and most were reluctant to talk about it.
"One doesn't treat one's own people this way," said Yekaterina Bukoyeva, a 35-year-old civil servant. "It was very painful to see how they were dispersing all the people."
The crackdown followed six days of protests in front of Parliament — Georgia's worst political crisis since the pro-Western Saakashvili was elected nearly four years ago.
The American-educated Saakashvili, who is trying to shake off centuries of Russian influence and integrate the ex-Soviet republic with the West, accused Moscow of fomenting the protests and expelled three Russian diplomats. Tensions with Russia have risen as Saakashvili has sought to establish central government control over two separatist regions that have run their own affairs with Russian support since wars in the early 1990s.
In protests that began Friday, demonstrators initially called for changes in the dates of planned elections and the electoral system. But after Saakashvili rejected their demands and accused their leaders of serving the Kremlin, they made his resignation their central aim.
In a nearly 30-minute televised address late Wednesday, Saakashvili said he regretted the use of force, but argued that it was necessary to prevent the country from sliding into chaos.
"Everyone has the opportunity to express their protest in a democratic country and I, as a democrat, have always defended the right of people to protest ... but the authorities will never allow destabilization and chaos in Georgia," he said, flanked by Georgian and EU flags.
The state of emergency must be approved by parliament within two days.
The White House voiced concern over Wednesday's events.
"We urge that any protests be peaceful and that both sides refrain from violence," said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the National Security Council. "The government and opposition should engage in a constructive dialogue with each other. We will continue to monitor the situation."
At least four channels showed entertainment programs instead of their regular news shows Thursday morning, and classes in schools and universities in Tbilisi were suspended for two days.
A Georgian television station regarded by the government as an opposition mouthpiece went off the air Wednesday night after riot police entered its headquarters. The Imedi station has carried statements by opposition leaders and broadcast constant footage of police dispersing the protests.
Opposition leaders advised supporters to refrain from street protests — in line with government orders — to avoid being hurt, Ivlian Khaindrava, a leader of the opposition Republican Party, told The Associated Press.
Many of Saakashvili's opponents support his aims, including closer ties with the United States and Europe.
But there has been increasing disillusionment among critics who say he has not moved fast enough to spread growing wealth. Opponents accuse him of sidestepping the rule of law, creating a system marked by violations of property rights, a muzzled media and political arrests.
Russia, which views most countries of the former Soviet Union as its sphere of influence, has deepened ties with the separatist regions and imposed a trade and transportation blockade on Georgia.
Some Georgians supported Saakashvili's crackdown, also accusing Russia of fomenting the unrest.
"You could see Russia's hand in this and one had to make tough decisions — it was necessary, because they were already starting provocations," said David Chedia, 27, a marketing manager.
Russia's Foreign Ministry dismissed Saakashvili's claims as "irresponsible provocation" and said they were an attempt to distract attention from domestic problems.
"We believe Georgia is approaching a serious human rights crisis," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said Thursday. "The footage the whole world saw from Tbilisi vividly shows what Georgian-style democracy is; It is the harsh, forceful dispersal of peaceful demonstrations, the closure of free media, the beating of foreign journalists."
_____
Associated Press Writer Maria Danilova contributed to this report.
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