McClatchy
By Boris Heger and Jack Chang
May 2, 2008
This divided country faces a constitutional crisis Sunday when its richest and second most-populous province votes whether to declare itself autonomous from President Evo Morales's national government, a referendum the president has called illegal.
If the referendum passes, as polls show it overwhelmingly will, leaders of Santa Cruz province say they'll elect a state legislature, organize local police and otherwise set up a government equivalent to that of a U.S. state.
Morales has called the referendum a move to split up this nation of 9.1 million and to thwart his government's efforts to rewrite Bolivia's constitution so that its indigenous majority wins more political power. Bolivia has a centralized government, where police, taxation and other government functions are controlled by federal officials.
"This referendum violates the current constitution, because there's no mechanism to convoke it," said Leonida Zurita, a close Morales ally and a substitute senator with the president's Movement to Socialism party. "They want to found a second Bolivian state, and we won't let the fatherland be divided."
Morales, a leftist critic of U.S. policies in the region, has received the support of Venezuela, Cuba, Ecuador and Nicaragua in the provincial-autonomy fight. The Bolivian president also has accused the United States of backing the autonomy move, a charge U.S. officials have rejected.
Autonomy advocates, including Santa Cruz business leaders, denied that they wanted to secede and insisted that their goal is modernizing an overly centralized government. Three other eastern Bolivian provinces, Beni, Pando and Tarija, also are planning to hold autonomy votes in coming weeks, and leaders in two others, Cochabamba and Chuquisaca, are also advocating autonomy. Only three provinces have resisted the idea.
"We're seeing a social process that's happening all over this country," said Eduardo Paz, president of Santa Cruz's chamber of commerce. "After Sunday, the people will have sent the message that they want to do things in a new way."
Both Morales and autonomy advocates have called for calm Sunday and cancelled potentially incendiary actions by both autonomy supporters and the president's indigenous activists. This week, the government prohibited civilians from carrying arms, and Morales has pledged not to send troops to Santa Cruz to block the referendum vote.
On Wednesday, the Organization of American States sent Political Affairs Secretary Dante Caputo to Bolivia to initiate last-minute dialogue between the two sides, but he left with only pledges to keep the public peace.
The OAS held its second meeting in less than a week on Friday to discuss the crisis in Bolivia. After Caputo briefed ambassadors, Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca gave a hard-hitting speech, blaming the governors for failure to hold a dialogue before the referendum and insisting that the referendum was illegal and risked breaking up the country. OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza warned that violence could break out and "could last a long time.''
On the streets of Santa Cruz Wednesday night, thousands of people attended a pro-autonomy demonstration, with several saying they were ready to defend the referendum with force if necessary.
"I voted for Morales two years ago because I had great hopes for Bolivia," said student Jose Sanabria. "Now, I think he doesn't do things the right way. He acts against Santa Cruz and against autonomies."
At the heart of the conflict is a July 2006 referendum in which Bolivians nationwide rejected allowing provincial autonomies, while voters in the four provinces now pushing referendums approved the proposal.
Those provincial leaders have said that the vote lets them pursue their separate paths despite the national rejection, while federal officials insist that only a national approval allows for provincial autonomy.
Santa Cruz leaders have long demanded more independence from Bolivia's federal government and complained that the province surrenders millions of dollars in tax revenue without getting enough back in government support.
The province, which sprawls over the country's eastern flatlands and produces natural gas, soybeans and other exports, is responsible for about 30 percent of Bolivia's gross domestic product while making up about a quarter of the country's population. The province's population is also less indigenous than that of the country's mountainous west.
Since Morales became the country's first indigenous president in 2006, Santa Cruz leaders have slammed government plans to redistribute farmland and seize more state control over natural gas and other industries. On Thursday, Morales announced that he'd nationalize the country's main telecommunications company, Entel, which is half-owned by Telecom Italia, and reclaim control of four foreign-owned natural gas companies.
Political scientist Fernando Mayorga said that despite the tensions, both sides would have to negotiate after the referendum because "they can't maintain this political tension for much longer."
The goal, Mayorga said, would be fitting regional autonomies into a draft constitution that Morales allies hurriedly approved in December, without the presence of most opposition representatives.
That constitution would allow Morales to be re-elected once, claim more state control over natural resources and grant autonomy to indigenous communities and cities, among other actions.
Morales' congressional allies had originally scheduled a national referendum also for this Sunday on the draft constitution, but cancelled it after the country's top electoral court said the vote couldn't be adequately organized in time. The president's activist allies had surrounded the national legislature in February and blocked opposition legislators from voting on the referendum date.
The electoral court also has declared the Santa Cruz referendum illegal, saying only the national legislature could schedule such votes, and announced it won't certify Sunday's results.
"The Santa Cruz leaders know the autonomy statute can't be implemented where there is no constitutional framework," Mayorga said. "And both sides know they can't resolve this outside of political negotiations. The fact is they're both too weak to defeat each other, so they have to work together eventually."
(Special correspondent Heger reported from Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. Chang reported from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.)
03 May, 2008
Argentina Protests British Oil Exploration in Falklands
Efe
2 May 2008
The Argentine government presented an "energetic protest" to Britain for offering concessions to explore for oil and natural gas in the waters surrounding the contested Falkland Islands, the foreign ministry said here Thursday.
Argentina's attempt to seize control of the British colony in the South Atlantic spurred a brief but bloody war in 1982.
"Argentina energetically rejected these unilateral measures which constitute an illicit act not only against Argentine law but also international law," Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana said in a note presented Wednesday at the British Embassy in Buenos Aires.
He also reiterated Argentina's claim to "sovereign rights over the Islas Malvinas (as the Falklands are known in Latin America) and the surrounding maritime areas, which form part of the national territory."
Buenos Aires took this step after the firm Rockhopper Exploration PLC announced its intention to begin prospecting for oil in the waters near the archipelago.
Rockhopper's CEO, Pierre Jungels, says the area his company want to explore could hold as much as 3.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the British Embassy in Buenos Aires said that "the United Kingdom has no doubt about the sovereignty of the Falklands and the waters that surround them."
"The government of the Falklands has the right to develop a hydrocarbons industry," he added.
Argentina said that a "series of unilateral British actions" has nullified last year's joint declaration by London and Buenos Aires about cooperation in the area of exploration and exploitation of fossil fuels in Falklands waters.
On April 2, 1982, Argentine troops landed in the Falkland Islands.
Full-fledged fighting in the islands, which have been in British hands since 1833, officially began May 1, 1982, with the arrival of a British task force and ended 45 days later with the surrender of Argentine forces.
2 May 2008
The Argentine government presented an "energetic protest" to Britain for offering concessions to explore for oil and natural gas in the waters surrounding the contested Falkland Islands, the foreign ministry said here Thursday.
Argentina's attempt to seize control of the British colony in the South Atlantic spurred a brief but bloody war in 1982.
"Argentina energetically rejected these unilateral measures which constitute an illicit act not only against Argentine law but also international law," Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana said in a note presented Wednesday at the British Embassy in Buenos Aires.
He also reiterated Argentina's claim to "sovereign rights over the Islas Malvinas (as the Falklands are known in Latin America) and the surrounding maritime areas, which form part of the national territory."
Buenos Aires took this step after the firm Rockhopper Exploration PLC announced its intention to begin prospecting for oil in the waters near the archipelago.
Rockhopper's CEO, Pierre Jungels, says the area his company want to explore could hold as much as 3.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the British Embassy in Buenos Aires said that "the United Kingdom has no doubt about the sovereignty of the Falklands and the waters that surround them."
"The government of the Falklands has the right to develop a hydrocarbons industry," he added.
Argentina said that a "series of unilateral British actions" has nullified last year's joint declaration by London and Buenos Aires about cooperation in the area of exploration and exploitation of fossil fuels in Falklands waters.
On April 2, 1982, Argentine troops landed in the Falkland Islands.
Full-fledged fighting in the islands, which have been in British hands since 1833, officially began May 1, 1982, with the arrival of a British task force and ended 45 days later with the surrender of Argentine forces.
UN Witness “Shocked” by Croat General’s Denials.
Institute of War and Peace Reporting
2 May 2008
By Goran Jungvirth
2-May-08
An ex-United Nations military observer said former Croatian general Ivan Cermak rejected international observers’ reports relating to the violation of Krajina Serbs’ human rights in August 1995, saying no crimes had taken place.
Former acting chief UN military observer Mikhail Ermolaev said that following the Croatian military offensive Operation Storm, the UN mission sent a number of protests to the defendant, Cermak, about the widespread destruction, looting and torching of homes of Serbs who had fled the town of Knin and neighbouring villages.
Yet Cermak denied that any crimes had been committed under his watch, he said.
“When we strongly suggested to General Cermak that he should put a stop to these human rights violations and finally take control of the sector, we received a reply from this gentleman that really shocked us,” said Ermolaev, a Russian navy captain.
“Apparently, in Sector South (a UN-protected area in southern Krajina), from the time he took over the command, there hadn’t been any looting…nothing.”
The operation, staged to retake the Krajina region from Serb rebels, ran from August 4 to 8, 1995.
At that time, Ermolaev said he came to the conclusion that Cermak, who was military commander of the Knin Garrison from August 5, could not have been ignorant of what was happening on the ground.
“..All the roads and all operations by Croatian forces were under [Cermak’s] control,” he said. “I was sure that Cermak knew what was going on in his zone of responsibility.”
Cermak is being tried along with the commander of Operation Storm, Ante Gotovina, and special police commander Mladen Markac. The three are accused of command responsibility for crimes committed against Serbian civilians during and after Operation Storm.
The generals are charged with taking part in a “joint criminal enterprise” to cleanse the Serb population from Croatia. The indictment says that at least 30 people were killed in Knin and at least 150 in the entire Krajina region from August to November 1995.
This week, the witness also described how while UN military observers went out into the field as much as they could after the Croatian army entered Knin, their movement was severely restricted.
However, during cross-examination, Cermak’s defence lawyer Andrew Cayley said his client had issued an explicit order granting UN observers freedom of movement, and it was the civilian police who prevented them from travelling through the region – over whom he had no control.
Ermolaev disagreed. He said that at their first meeting, he got the impression Cermak controlled all of Sector South - including the police units in the field - after the general assured UN officials he would take various measures in the area, particularly those relating to the UN observers’ freedom of movement.
“I think that if a person claims he’s in charge of a certain area … I think that I can’t then blame the chief of Knin police,” said the witness.
Cayley said his client was the commander only of the Knin garrison, and not the whole of Sector South, which included the surrounding area, and also argued that his client had no control over checkpoints.
“And you can’t say that anyone has really told you that General Cermak was in charge of checkpoints in the Knin area, can you?” Cayley asked the witness.
The witness replied, “No, no, I can’t.”
Markac’s defence lawyer, Tomislav Kuzmanovic, pointed out that Serbian forces had also restricted the movement of UN personnel a month previously.
During the session, the defence also presented a request made by Serbian forces for the evacuation of 32,000 civilians from the UN’s zone of responsibility. This was to support their argument that contrary to indictment, the Serbs themselves organised the departure of civilians from the rebel region and that the Croatian army did not expel them.
When he questioned the witness, Gotovina’s lawyer Gregory Kehoe provided a defence for part of Ermolaev’s testimony which appeared to support the prosecution argument that the Croat army had targeted residential areas.
At the beginning of Operation Storm, said Ermolaev, he was in his Knin apartment, which was hit by a shell along with other civilian buildings.
Kehoe argued that as Ermolaev’s apartment was close to Serbian barracks, this could be seen as collateral damage.
2 May 2008
By Goran Jungvirth
2-May-08
An ex-United Nations military observer said former Croatian general Ivan Cermak rejected international observers’ reports relating to the violation of Krajina Serbs’ human rights in August 1995, saying no crimes had taken place.
Former acting chief UN military observer Mikhail Ermolaev said that following the Croatian military offensive Operation Storm, the UN mission sent a number of protests to the defendant, Cermak, about the widespread destruction, looting and torching of homes of Serbs who had fled the town of Knin and neighbouring villages.
Yet Cermak denied that any crimes had been committed under his watch, he said.
“When we strongly suggested to General Cermak that he should put a stop to these human rights violations and finally take control of the sector, we received a reply from this gentleman that really shocked us,” said Ermolaev, a Russian navy captain.
“Apparently, in Sector South (a UN-protected area in southern Krajina), from the time he took over the command, there hadn’t been any looting…nothing.”
The operation, staged to retake the Krajina region from Serb rebels, ran from August 4 to 8, 1995.
At that time, Ermolaev said he came to the conclusion that Cermak, who was military commander of the Knin Garrison from August 5, could not have been ignorant of what was happening on the ground.
“..All the roads and all operations by Croatian forces were under [Cermak’s] control,” he said. “I was sure that Cermak knew what was going on in his zone of responsibility.”
Cermak is being tried along with the commander of Operation Storm, Ante Gotovina, and special police commander Mladen Markac. The three are accused of command responsibility for crimes committed against Serbian civilians during and after Operation Storm.
The generals are charged with taking part in a “joint criminal enterprise” to cleanse the Serb population from Croatia. The indictment says that at least 30 people were killed in Knin and at least 150 in the entire Krajina region from August to November 1995.
This week, the witness also described how while UN military observers went out into the field as much as they could after the Croatian army entered Knin, their movement was severely restricted.
However, during cross-examination, Cermak’s defence lawyer Andrew Cayley said his client had issued an explicit order granting UN observers freedom of movement, and it was the civilian police who prevented them from travelling through the region – over whom he had no control.
Ermolaev disagreed. He said that at their first meeting, he got the impression Cermak controlled all of Sector South - including the police units in the field - after the general assured UN officials he would take various measures in the area, particularly those relating to the UN observers’ freedom of movement.
“I think that if a person claims he’s in charge of a certain area … I think that I can’t then blame the chief of Knin police,” said the witness.
Cayley said his client was the commander only of the Knin garrison, and not the whole of Sector South, which included the surrounding area, and also argued that his client had no control over checkpoints.
“And you can’t say that anyone has really told you that General Cermak was in charge of checkpoints in the Knin area, can you?” Cayley asked the witness.
The witness replied, “No, no, I can’t.”
Markac’s defence lawyer, Tomislav Kuzmanovic, pointed out that Serbian forces had also restricted the movement of UN personnel a month previously.
During the session, the defence also presented a request made by Serbian forces for the evacuation of 32,000 civilians from the UN’s zone of responsibility. This was to support their argument that contrary to indictment, the Serbs themselves organised the departure of civilians from the rebel region and that the Croatian army did not expel them.
When he questioned the witness, Gotovina’s lawyer Gregory Kehoe provided a defence for part of Ermolaev’s testimony which appeared to support the prosecution argument that the Croat army had targeted residential areas.
At the beginning of Operation Storm, said Ermolaev, he was in his Knin apartment, which was hit by a shell along with other civilian buildings.
Kehoe argued that as Ermolaev’s apartment was close to Serbian barracks, this could be seen as collateral damage.
Iraq: U.S. has no claim to oil boom.
By Liz Sly
Chicago Tribune
May 1, 2008
As Congress gears up to debate the Bush administration's latest request for an additional $108 billion in war funding for Iraq and Afghanistan, Iraqis are fuming at suggestions being floated by lawmakers that Baghdad should start paying a share of the war's costs by providing cheap fuel to the U.S. military.
"America has hardly even begun to repay its debt to Iraq," said Abdul Basit, the head of Iraq's Supreme Board of Audit, an independent body that oversees Iraqi government spending. "This is an immoral request because we didn't ask them to come to Iraq, and before they came in 2003 we didn't have all these needs."
The issue of Baghdad's contribution to the costs of the war jumped to the forefront early in April during testimony to Congress of the Iraq war commander, Gen. David Petraeus, and the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker. Noting that the soaring price of oil is likely to give Iraq a revenue bonanza this year of up to $70 billion, senators quizzed the two on why Iraq isn't using its rising oil income to pay more of the costs of reconstruction.
Iraqi and U.S. officials say they are. Iraqis acknowledge the need for Iraq to take on a greater share of its reconstruction costs and say it is doing so. In fact, according to the latest report released Wednesday by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, the body established by Congress to monitor reconstruction spending, Iraq is now responsible for the majority of the money spent on reconstruction and the Iraqi security forces.
Iraqis say the criticisms in Washington grossly simplify the complexities of Iraq's situation and fail to take into account the vastness of Iraq's needs.
"I think Iraq now is able to depend on its own money. We do not ask for extra aid. We are spending on our own armed forces and reconstruction," Bayan Jabr al-Zubaidi, Iraq's finance minister, said in an interview.
U.S. officials say the $20 billion allocated for reconstruction projects has been spent and new money is being sought only for targeted programs to help the security forces, the military effort and projects such as democracy and anti-corruption programs. "The era of U.S.-funded bricks-and-mortar reconstruction is over, as Ambassador Ryan Crocker noted in his testimony to Congress," said Charles Ries, coordinator for economic affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
The criticisms in Congress that Iraq isn't paying its share are "a bit overplayed," said Stuart Bowen, the inspector general, in a telephone interview.
"It's an evolving process, but the Iraqi government has now taken over the majority of the funding," he said. "In 2007 the U.S. share dropped below 50 percent, and it will drop even more dramatically in 2008."
Behind the controversy lies a giant muddle of misspending, waste, corruption and poor accounting on the part of both Iraq and the U.S. surrounding about $100 billion worth of spending on reconstruction and the Iraqi security forces that has barely dented Iraq's needs over the past five years.
Of this, $46.7 billion came from U.S. taxpayers and $50.3 billion from Iraqi oil revenues, including $23 billion in Iraqi money that was spent by the U.S. under the occupation administration of Paul Bremer, according to Bowen.
Though it was the Bush administration's original intention that Iraq's oil revenues should be used to finance all the rebuilding of Iraq, the projection that Iraq would earn $50 billion to $100 billion from oil exports in the first two years proved to be wildly optimistic, as did estimates that the whole war would cost $50 billion to $60 billion. The Congressional Budget Office now puts the total cost of the war to date at $600 billion.
The poor state of Iraq's oil infrastructure, sabotage and smuggling meant exports never reached the 3.3 million barrels a day anticipated by the administration — exports now are averaging around 2.2 million barrels a day. Oil export revenues passed the $100 billion mark only in the second half of 2007, nearly five years after the invasion.
The soaring price of oil this year means Iraq can expect a windfall of $60 billion to $70 billion, significantly more than the nation's $48 billion budget. Though the price of a barrel of oil hit a peak of $119.93 earlier this week, Iraqi oil fetches a lower level, around $90, though that is still higher than the $57 a barrel estimate used to draw up the budget. Iraq had earned $19.3 billion from oil revenues so far this year, according to the State Department.
Iraq is already planning a bumper year for reconstruction, with a supplemental budget of $5 billion to $7 billion to be added to the $13.3 billion already earmarked for reconstruction, Zubaidi said. There is also an extra $10 billion in unspent money left over from previous years in the New York bank account into which all of its oil revenues must be deposited, under the terms of a UN resolution.
But these figures pale in comparison to the size of Iraq's needs, Zubaidi said. The Iraqi government put the total cost of reconstructing Iraq at $200 billion in 2005, a figure that is likely to have risen since then. There are no independent estimates for the overall requirements, but the Special Inspector General's report cites estimates of $25 billion needed just to repair Iraq's electricity sector and $100 billion worth of investment required for its dilapidated oil infrastructure.
One problem is that Iraq's inexperienced ministries have had a hard time spending all the money available to them. Iraq spent only 23 percent of its $6.2 billion budget for capital investments in 2006 and a little over half of the $10 billion allocated in 2007, according to Bowen's report.
Many ministers lack the expertise to properly spend large amounts of money, said Zubaidi, and some of the large-scale infrastructure projects require the participation of major international companies, which are still reluctant to do business in Iraq because of the poor security.
Indeed, pressuring Iraq to spend more of its oil bonanza quickly could result in money being misspent, government officials warn.
"I don't care what America is angry about. I care about how we reconstruct Iraq and I'm afraid this controversy in the U.S. might result in Iraqi money being wasted, simply to respond to this noise that we haven't spent the money," said Basit, the auditor. "In these years we will need many billions, and we need to spend it correctly, not just throw it away."
Corruption's cost unclear
How much of the reconstruction money has been lost to corruption is another question mark. Radhi al-Radhi, the former head of Iraq's Integrity Commission, put the figure at $18 billion in testimony to the Senate in March. A U.S. Government Accountability Office report last year said Iraq may be losing as much as $15 million a day in oil revenues due to smuggling.
Basit believes these numbers are an overstatement. Whatever the amounts embezzled by Iraqis, he says, the figure is insignificant compared with the $8.8 billion in Iraqi oil money spent by the Bremer administration that still can't be accounted for, according to Special Inspector General reports.
"I am sure the amounts wasted under Bremer exceed the amounts wasted since then," he said. "All the money spent in Iraq needs to be audited very carefully, but the money spent by Americans in Iraq needs an extra special audit."
Figures like these contribute to the widespread perception among Iraqis that the U.S. invaded only to steal the nation's oil, making it difficult for Iraqi legislators to contemplate contributing to the costs of the U.S. military in Iraq, said Sunni lawmaker Dhafer al-Ani.
"It's illogical, illegal and immoral," he said of the U.S. proposal that Iraq give the U.S. military cheap oil. "Any additional commitments by the Iraqis to the Americans will make it less respected in the eyes of the Iraqi people, and that will make things even more complicated."
Chicago Tribune
May 1, 2008
As Congress gears up to debate the Bush administration's latest request for an additional $108 billion in war funding for Iraq and Afghanistan, Iraqis are fuming at suggestions being floated by lawmakers that Baghdad should start paying a share of the war's costs by providing cheap fuel to the U.S. military.
"America has hardly even begun to repay its debt to Iraq," said Abdul Basit, the head of Iraq's Supreme Board of Audit, an independent body that oversees Iraqi government spending. "This is an immoral request because we didn't ask them to come to Iraq, and before they came in 2003 we didn't have all these needs."
The issue of Baghdad's contribution to the costs of the war jumped to the forefront early in April during testimony to Congress of the Iraq war commander, Gen. David Petraeus, and the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker. Noting that the soaring price of oil is likely to give Iraq a revenue bonanza this year of up to $70 billion, senators quizzed the two on why Iraq isn't using its rising oil income to pay more of the costs of reconstruction.
Iraqi and U.S. officials say they are. Iraqis acknowledge the need for Iraq to take on a greater share of its reconstruction costs and say it is doing so. In fact, according to the latest report released Wednesday by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, the body established by Congress to monitor reconstruction spending, Iraq is now responsible for the majority of the money spent on reconstruction and the Iraqi security forces.
Iraqis say the criticisms in Washington grossly simplify the complexities of Iraq's situation and fail to take into account the vastness of Iraq's needs.
"I think Iraq now is able to depend on its own money. We do not ask for extra aid. We are spending on our own armed forces and reconstruction," Bayan Jabr al-Zubaidi, Iraq's finance minister, said in an interview.
U.S. officials say the $20 billion allocated for reconstruction projects has been spent and new money is being sought only for targeted programs to help the security forces, the military effort and projects such as democracy and anti-corruption programs. "The era of U.S.-funded bricks-and-mortar reconstruction is over, as Ambassador Ryan Crocker noted in his testimony to Congress," said Charles Ries, coordinator for economic affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
The criticisms in Congress that Iraq isn't paying its share are "a bit overplayed," said Stuart Bowen, the inspector general, in a telephone interview.
"It's an evolving process, but the Iraqi government has now taken over the majority of the funding," he said. "In 2007 the U.S. share dropped below 50 percent, and it will drop even more dramatically in 2008."
Behind the controversy lies a giant muddle of misspending, waste, corruption and poor accounting on the part of both Iraq and the U.S. surrounding about $100 billion worth of spending on reconstruction and the Iraqi security forces that has barely dented Iraq's needs over the past five years.
Of this, $46.7 billion came from U.S. taxpayers and $50.3 billion from Iraqi oil revenues, including $23 billion in Iraqi money that was spent by the U.S. under the occupation administration of Paul Bremer, according to Bowen.
Though it was the Bush administration's original intention that Iraq's oil revenues should be used to finance all the rebuilding of Iraq, the projection that Iraq would earn $50 billion to $100 billion from oil exports in the first two years proved to be wildly optimistic, as did estimates that the whole war would cost $50 billion to $60 billion. The Congressional Budget Office now puts the total cost of the war to date at $600 billion.
The poor state of Iraq's oil infrastructure, sabotage and smuggling meant exports never reached the 3.3 million barrels a day anticipated by the administration — exports now are averaging around 2.2 million barrels a day. Oil export revenues passed the $100 billion mark only in the second half of 2007, nearly five years after the invasion.
The soaring price of oil this year means Iraq can expect a windfall of $60 billion to $70 billion, significantly more than the nation's $48 billion budget. Though the price of a barrel of oil hit a peak of $119.93 earlier this week, Iraqi oil fetches a lower level, around $90, though that is still higher than the $57 a barrel estimate used to draw up the budget. Iraq had earned $19.3 billion from oil revenues so far this year, according to the State Department.
Iraq is already planning a bumper year for reconstruction, with a supplemental budget of $5 billion to $7 billion to be added to the $13.3 billion already earmarked for reconstruction, Zubaidi said. There is also an extra $10 billion in unspent money left over from previous years in the New York bank account into which all of its oil revenues must be deposited, under the terms of a UN resolution.
But these figures pale in comparison to the size of Iraq's needs, Zubaidi said. The Iraqi government put the total cost of reconstructing Iraq at $200 billion in 2005, a figure that is likely to have risen since then. There are no independent estimates for the overall requirements, but the Special Inspector General's report cites estimates of $25 billion needed just to repair Iraq's electricity sector and $100 billion worth of investment required for its dilapidated oil infrastructure.
One problem is that Iraq's inexperienced ministries have had a hard time spending all the money available to them. Iraq spent only 23 percent of its $6.2 billion budget for capital investments in 2006 and a little over half of the $10 billion allocated in 2007, according to Bowen's report.
Many ministers lack the expertise to properly spend large amounts of money, said Zubaidi, and some of the large-scale infrastructure projects require the participation of major international companies, which are still reluctant to do business in Iraq because of the poor security.
Indeed, pressuring Iraq to spend more of its oil bonanza quickly could result in money being misspent, government officials warn.
"I don't care what America is angry about. I care about how we reconstruct Iraq and I'm afraid this controversy in the U.S. might result in Iraqi money being wasted, simply to respond to this noise that we haven't spent the money," said Basit, the auditor. "In these years we will need many billions, and we need to spend it correctly, not just throw it away."
Corruption's cost unclear
How much of the reconstruction money has been lost to corruption is another question mark. Radhi al-Radhi, the former head of Iraq's Integrity Commission, put the figure at $18 billion in testimony to the Senate in March. A U.S. Government Accountability Office report last year said Iraq may be losing as much as $15 million a day in oil revenues due to smuggling.
Basit believes these numbers are an overstatement. Whatever the amounts embezzled by Iraqis, he says, the figure is insignificant compared with the $8.8 billion in Iraqi oil money spent by the Bremer administration that still can't be accounted for, according to Special Inspector General reports.
"I am sure the amounts wasted under Bremer exceed the amounts wasted since then," he said. "All the money spent in Iraq needs to be audited very carefully, but the money spent by Americans in Iraq needs an extra special audit."
Figures like these contribute to the widespread perception among Iraqis that the U.S. invaded only to steal the nation's oil, making it difficult for Iraqi legislators to contemplate contributing to the costs of the U.S. military in Iraq, said Sunni lawmaker Dhafer al-Ani.
"It's illogical, illegal and immoral," he said of the U.S. proposal that Iraq give the U.S. military cheap oil. "Any additional commitments by the Iraqis to the Americans will make it less respected in the eyes of the Iraqi people, and that will make things even more complicated."
01 May, 2008
UNICEF Building in RPF-controlled Territory Rigged with Explosives: June 1994
Documents courtesy of Professor Peter Erlinder's Rwanda Documents Project.
MI5 ACCUSED OF ENCOURAGING TORTURE IN PAKISTAN
MISNA
29 April 2008
British internal security (MI5) officers are said to have prompted their colleagues from Pakistani intelligence (ISI) to torture alleged British terrorists, forcing them to confess under pressure of physical and psychological threats writes ‘The Guardian’.
In an article published today, accusing MI5 of collusion and encouraging torture. The British services are prevented from doing so by a law passed about 20 years ago. The paper reveals the existence of a proven strategy according top which MI5 staff asked their Pakistani colleagues to target specific individuals, British citizens in Pakistan, to be made to collapse “to obtain” an admission of guilt. “I have no doubt that in the worse case scenario, there was torture at the expense British citizens”, said Tayab Ali, defense lawyer for some of those being held in ISI’s secret prisons.
“In the best cases – he said - MI5 closed an eye”. The claims suggest the officers violated the Justice Act of 1988, which prohibits officers inflicting torture in the UK or abroad. Those found guilty of torture face life sentences. The leaders of MI5 have rejected the accusations, as they said that all their officers receive training to identify possible maltreatments suffered by prisoners abroad.
29 April 2008
British internal security (MI5) officers are said to have prompted their colleagues from Pakistani intelligence (ISI) to torture alleged British terrorists, forcing them to confess under pressure of physical and psychological threats writes ‘The Guardian’.
In an article published today, accusing MI5 of collusion and encouraging torture. The British services are prevented from doing so by a law passed about 20 years ago. The paper reveals the existence of a proven strategy according top which MI5 staff asked their Pakistani colleagues to target specific individuals, British citizens in Pakistan, to be made to collapse “to obtain” an admission of guilt. “I have no doubt that in the worse case scenario, there was torture at the expense British citizens”, said Tayab Ali, defense lawyer for some of those being held in ISI’s secret prisons.
“In the best cases – he said - MI5 closed an eye”. The claims suggest the officers violated the Justice Act of 1988, which prohibits officers inflicting torture in the UK or abroad. Those found guilty of torture face life sentences. The leaders of MI5 have rejected the accusations, as they said that all their officers receive training to identify possible maltreatments suffered by prisoners abroad.
Belarus Tells More US Embassy Staff to Leave.
BBC News
1 May 2008
Belarus summoned the highest US embassy official in Minsk to the foreign ministry on Wednesday, presenting him with a list of "personae non gratae".
The ex-Soviet republic's latest move follows the expulsion of the US ambassador in March.
US State Department Spokesperson Sean McCormack said the action was both unfair and "unwarranted".
"We are considering our response to this action," Mr McCormack said, according to Reuters.
A senior US diplomat, Jonathan Moore, said he had been given a list of 10 US diplomats who had been ordered to leave within 72 hours.
The US embassy says it currently has 15 diplomats in Minsk.
The diplomatic expulsions were initially ordered after Washington imposed sanctions on the country's state-controlled oil-processing and chemicals company, Belneftekhim.
The firm accounts for about a third of the country's foreign currency earnings.
Belarus said its embassy staff in Washington had been cut to six, but that the US had not cut staff enough.
The US - along with the European Union - has also restricted the travel of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko and members of his inner circle.
In his annual address to the nation on Tuesday, Mr Lukashenko expressed defiance over pressure from the US and EU to free political prisoners in order to improve ties.
"If the Americans introduce new sanctions and think we will collapse, that's rubbish," he said, adding that no political prisoners would be released.
1 May 2008
Belarus summoned the highest US embassy official in Minsk to the foreign ministry on Wednesday, presenting him with a list of "personae non gratae".
The ex-Soviet republic's latest move follows the expulsion of the US ambassador in March.
US State Department Spokesperson Sean McCormack said the action was both unfair and "unwarranted".
"We are considering our response to this action," Mr McCormack said, according to Reuters.
A senior US diplomat, Jonathan Moore, said he had been given a list of 10 US diplomats who had been ordered to leave within 72 hours.
The US embassy says it currently has 15 diplomats in Minsk.
The diplomatic expulsions were initially ordered after Washington imposed sanctions on the country's state-controlled oil-processing and chemicals company, Belneftekhim.
The firm accounts for about a third of the country's foreign currency earnings.
Belarus said its embassy staff in Washington had been cut to six, but that the US had not cut staff enough.
The US - along with the European Union - has also restricted the travel of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko and members of his inner circle.
In his annual address to the nation on Tuesday, Mr Lukashenko expressed defiance over pressure from the US and EU to free political prisoners in order to improve ties.
"If the Americans introduce new sanctions and think we will collapse, that's rubbish," he said, adding that no political prisoners would be released.
Are the Syrian alleged nuclear reactor pictures fake?
Ewen MacAskill
The Guardian
Thursday May 1 2008
The CIA published three aerial photographs last week purporting to show a Syrian nuclear reactor, bombed by Israel last September. But are the pictures all that they seem? Doubts about their authenticity have been raised by Professor William Beeman, head of anthropology at the University of Minnesota, who has had a long involvement with the Middle East.
He posted on a Los Angeles Times website a note received from a "colleague with US security clearance" pointing out "irregularities". The unnamed colleague said a picture taken before the bombing looked as if it had been digitally enhanced, noting that the lower part of the building, the annexe and the windows pointing south appeared much sharper than the rest.
He also questioned why the alleged reactor had no air defences, no military checkpoints and no powerlines. Turning to two shots of the bombed building, he noted that the first showed a rectangular building and the second a square one. Were they the same building?
His note has produced lively and detailed exchanges, involving photo technicians, graphic artists and military analysts past and present, including a specialist in aerial reconnaissance. The basic divide is between those who think it is unpatriotic to question the Bush administration and those suspicious that it is a rerun of 2003, when the administration put out misleading intelligence before the Iraq invasion.
Bloggers supportive of the CIA acknowledge that the first picture was digitally enhanced but say that the CIA never claimed last week that it was untouched. As for the discrepancies between pictures two and three, they suggest that the differences between the rectangular shape and the square can be explained by having been taken at different angles.
Beeman told the Guardian he did not know one way or another whether there had been a nuclear reactor in the desert, but he had been concerned last week when the administration put out the pictures. "It was so sloppy and obviously doctored," he said.
"My friend who watches this material carefully in his capacity as an analyst said, 'This does not add up.'"
The Guardian
Thursday May 1 2008
The CIA published three aerial photographs last week purporting to show a Syrian nuclear reactor, bombed by Israel last September. But are the pictures all that they seem? Doubts about their authenticity have been raised by Professor William Beeman, head of anthropology at the University of Minnesota, who has had a long involvement with the Middle East.
He posted on a Los Angeles Times website a note received from a "colleague with US security clearance" pointing out "irregularities". The unnamed colleague said a picture taken before the bombing looked as if it had been digitally enhanced, noting that the lower part of the building, the annexe and the windows pointing south appeared much sharper than the rest.
He also questioned why the alleged reactor had no air defences, no military checkpoints and no powerlines. Turning to two shots of the bombed building, he noted that the first showed a rectangular building and the second a square one. Were they the same building?
His note has produced lively and detailed exchanges, involving photo technicians, graphic artists and military analysts past and present, including a specialist in aerial reconnaissance. The basic divide is between those who think it is unpatriotic to question the Bush administration and those suspicious that it is a rerun of 2003, when the administration put out misleading intelligence before the Iraq invasion.
Bloggers supportive of the CIA acknowledge that the first picture was digitally enhanced but say that the CIA never claimed last week that it was untouched. As for the discrepancies between pictures two and three, they suggest that the differences between the rectangular shape and the square can be explained by having been taken at different angles.
Beeman told the Guardian he did not know one way or another whether there had been a nuclear reactor in the desert, but he had been concerned last week when the administration put out the pictures. "It was so sloppy and obviously doctored," he said.
"My friend who watches this material carefully in his capacity as an analyst said, 'This does not add up.'"
Barrick Gold Sues French Canadian Book Publisher Over African Allegations
Bloomberg
1 May 2008
By Joe Schneider
Barrick Gold Corp., the world's largest gold producer, sued a Quebec publisher for C$6 million ($5.95 million) in damages over a book that claims the company was linked to crimes in Africa.
Les Editions Ecosociete Inc. last week released ``Noir Canada: Pillage, Corruption et Criminalite en Afrique,'' which translates to ``Black Canada: Plunder, Corruption and Crime in Africa.'' The book by Alan Deneault alleges abuses by Canadian mining, oil and drug companies.
Barrick, based in Toronto, is accused in the book of taking part in the 1996 removal of Tanzanian miners from the Bulyanhulu gold property. Barrick acquired the site three years later. Some miners were killed during the removal, according to the book, a claim Barrick denies.
The defendants ``have engaged in a carefully orchestrated and unlawful campaign of defamation,'' Barrick said in a complaint filed yesterday in Quebec Superior Court in Montreal. ``Barrick values highly its reputation for carrying on business in a proper, ethical and lawful manner.''
In addition to damages, Barrick seeks a court order to pull all copies of the book from circulation, remove the allegations from all Web sites and bar the defendants from repeating the claims.
Guy Cheyney, director at Ecosociete, declined to comment yesterday, saying he was unaware of the suit.
Observer Suit
Barrick sued the U.K.'s Observer newspaper over similar allegations in a November 2000 article. The newspaper apologized and paid a ``substantial'' sum to Barrick, which donated the money to charity, company spokesman Vince Borg said today.
Barrick acquired Bulyanhulu, now Tanzania's biggest underground mine with 10.7 million ounces of gold reserves, when it bought Sutton Resources Inc. In addition to Africa, Barrick has operations in the U.S., Canada, South America and Australia.
In ``Noir Canada,'' Deneault also claims Barrick had dealings with a Ugandan arms trafficker and rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Barrick called the accusations ``patently false and defamatory.''
Barrick rose 76 Canadian cents, or 2 percent, to C$38.71 at 4:10 p.m. on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The shares have declined 7.3 percent this year.
The case is Barrick Gold Corp. v. Les Editions Ecosociete Inc. File No. 500-17-042671-084. Quebec Superior Court (Montreal).
1 May 2008
By Joe Schneider
Barrick Gold Corp., the world's largest gold producer, sued a Quebec publisher for C$6 million ($5.95 million) in damages over a book that claims the company was linked to crimes in Africa.
Les Editions Ecosociete Inc. last week released ``Noir Canada: Pillage, Corruption et Criminalite en Afrique,'' which translates to ``Black Canada: Plunder, Corruption and Crime in Africa.'' The book by Alan Deneault alleges abuses by Canadian mining, oil and drug companies.
Barrick, based in Toronto, is accused in the book of taking part in the 1996 removal of Tanzanian miners from the Bulyanhulu gold property. Barrick acquired the site three years later. Some miners were killed during the removal, according to the book, a claim Barrick denies.
The defendants ``have engaged in a carefully orchestrated and unlawful campaign of defamation,'' Barrick said in a complaint filed yesterday in Quebec Superior Court in Montreal. ``Barrick values highly its reputation for carrying on business in a proper, ethical and lawful manner.''
In addition to damages, Barrick seeks a court order to pull all copies of the book from circulation, remove the allegations from all Web sites and bar the defendants from repeating the claims.
Guy Cheyney, director at Ecosociete, declined to comment yesterday, saying he was unaware of the suit.
Observer Suit
Barrick sued the U.K.'s Observer newspaper over similar allegations in a November 2000 article. The newspaper apologized and paid a ``substantial'' sum to Barrick, which donated the money to charity, company spokesman Vince Borg said today.
Barrick acquired Bulyanhulu, now Tanzania's biggest underground mine with 10.7 million ounces of gold reserves, when it bought Sutton Resources Inc. In addition to Africa, Barrick has operations in the U.S., Canada, South America and Australia.
In ``Noir Canada,'' Deneault also claims Barrick had dealings with a Ugandan arms trafficker and rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Barrick called the accusations ``patently false and defamatory.''
Barrick rose 76 Canadian cents, or 2 percent, to C$38.71 at 4:10 p.m. on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The shares have declined 7.3 percent this year.
The case is Barrick Gold Corp. v. Les Editions Ecosociete Inc. File No. 500-17-042671-084. Quebec Superior Court (Montreal).
Africa Oil Corp. Operations Update in Somalia.
Africa Oil Journal
1 May 2008
Africa Oil Corp. reports that the mobilization of a seismic crew to the Dharoor Valley block in northern Puntland is proceeding smoothly. Recording is still planned to start before the middle of May. Approximately 2600 km of high quality 2D vibroseis data will be acquired as part of the comprehensive exploration program planned for the Dharoor Valley.
Preparations for drilling in the Nogal Valley block have also been proceeding well. Although plans to spud the first well in July were well advanced, it has been decided to delay the start of the drilling program. The recent situation of piracy around Somalia's coast have given rise to significant logistical difficulties in shipping large amounts of heavy equipment and supplies to the drilling location. After close consultation with the Puntland Government, it has been decided that the prudent course of action is to delay the drilling program temporarily while local issues are resolved by relevant authorities.
In a related matter, Africa Oil has announced that the President of the Transitional Federal Government, H.E. Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, has been fully briefed on the company's activities. His Excellency has subsequently issued a broad endorsement of those activities and acknowledged the legitimacy of its concession agreements, promising full support for the company’s exploration program.
Having met all other obligations, the Company had initiated an accelerated drilling schedule at the Nogal Valley block well in advance of the January, 2010 expiry of the first exploration period. The aggressive timing of the program was to the benefit of the local communities in Puntland and Somalia. However, under current conditions, it is prudent to relax this operational schedule. The Company has a strong relationship with the Puntland government and will cooperate fully with them as they work to resolve the situation. The company will continue to monitor events and reinstate the drilling program as soon as practicable.
1 May 2008
Africa Oil Corp. reports that the mobilization of a seismic crew to the Dharoor Valley block in northern Puntland is proceeding smoothly. Recording is still planned to start before the middle of May. Approximately 2600 km of high quality 2D vibroseis data will be acquired as part of the comprehensive exploration program planned for the Dharoor Valley.
Preparations for drilling in the Nogal Valley block have also been proceeding well. Although plans to spud the first well in July were well advanced, it has been decided to delay the start of the drilling program. The recent situation of piracy around Somalia's coast have given rise to significant logistical difficulties in shipping large amounts of heavy equipment and supplies to the drilling location. After close consultation with the Puntland Government, it has been decided that the prudent course of action is to delay the drilling program temporarily while local issues are resolved by relevant authorities.
In a related matter, Africa Oil has announced that the President of the Transitional Federal Government, H.E. Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, has been fully briefed on the company's activities. His Excellency has subsequently issued a broad endorsement of those activities and acknowledged the legitimacy of its concession agreements, promising full support for the company’s exploration program.
Having met all other obligations, the Company had initiated an accelerated drilling schedule at the Nogal Valley block well in advance of the January, 2010 expiry of the first exploration period. The aggressive timing of the program was to the benefit of the local communities in Puntland and Somalia. However, under current conditions, it is prudent to relax this operational schedule. The Company has a strong relationship with the Puntland government and will cooperate fully with them as they work to resolve the situation. The company will continue to monitor events and reinstate the drilling program as soon as practicable.
ICTR Turns Against HRW, an NGO On Which It Has Relied for Past 14 Years
Hirondelle News Agency
30 April 2008
The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) when presenting last week his motion in favour of transfer of genocide accused Yusuf Munyakazi to Rwanda, clearly distanced himself from the Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) Human Rights Watch (HRW), on which, however, the UN Court has relied on for the last 14 years for expert testimony.
Presenting his arguments before the Chamber, the prosecutor accused HRW of lack of credibility and having confused the collection of information on the violations of human rights in general and international criminal proceedings in an apparent attempt to rebuff HRW's contention not to send accused persons to stand trial in Kigali.
He also affirmed that the HRW's sources were in fact "inadmissible and not very reliable".
Since the first indictment presented at the ICTR, the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) has relied mainly on the collective investigation carried out by HRW and the book titled "Leave None to Tell the Story", which it presents as evidence in the majority of the trials.
The prosecution, moreover, has called in almost every trial as an expert witness, Dr Allison des Forges, official in charge of Africa for HRW, who is also a historian and specialist in Rwanda.
Dr des Forges was present during the Prosecutor's motion hearing alongside Aisling Reidy, a lawyer from New York, where the organization is headquartered, as Amicus Curie (Friends of the Court). The others invited as Amicus Curie were the Rwandan government and the Kigali Bar.
Responding to the Prosecution's allegations, Ms Reidy informed the Chamber of their systematic compilation of reports, method applied and categories of people interviewed in their investigations of the Rwandan judicial system.
For example, among people questioned, she affirmed, were four current or former ministers of justice, 14 current or former judges, 11 current or former prosecutors, three current or former bar association presidents, 15 national or international NGO representatives and more than 100 Rwandan victims of various abuses of the legal system.
The motion requesting Munyakazi's transfer is within the ICTR's completion strategy, which wants to transfer cases to national jurisdictions in order to finish by the end of the year all first instance trials as directed by the UN Security Council.
The chamber completed the one-day hearing last Thursday and was yet to announce the date for a ruling.
Since June 2007, the ICTR Prosecutor has filed motions to transfer to Kigali five accused persons, including Munyakazi.
The other accused targeted by transfer requests to Kigali are: former Commander of Ngoma Camp Lieutenant Ildephonse Hategekimana, businessman Gaspard Kanyarukiga, former Mayor Jean Baptist Gatete and former Inspector of Judicial Police, Fulgence Kaysihema. The latter is still at large.
30 April 2008
The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) when presenting last week his motion in favour of transfer of genocide accused Yusuf Munyakazi to Rwanda, clearly distanced himself from the Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) Human Rights Watch (HRW), on which, however, the UN Court has relied on for the last 14 years for expert testimony.
Presenting his arguments before the Chamber, the prosecutor accused HRW of lack of credibility and having confused the collection of information on the violations of human rights in general and international criminal proceedings in an apparent attempt to rebuff HRW's contention not to send accused persons to stand trial in Kigali.
He also affirmed that the HRW's sources were in fact "inadmissible and not very reliable".
Since the first indictment presented at the ICTR, the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) has relied mainly on the collective investigation carried out by HRW and the book titled "Leave None to Tell the Story", which it presents as evidence in the majority of the trials.
The prosecution, moreover, has called in almost every trial as an expert witness, Dr Allison des Forges, official in charge of Africa for HRW, who is also a historian and specialist in Rwanda.
Dr des Forges was present during the Prosecutor's motion hearing alongside Aisling Reidy, a lawyer from New York, where the organization is headquartered, as Amicus Curie (Friends of the Court). The others invited as Amicus Curie were the Rwandan government and the Kigali Bar.
Responding to the Prosecution's allegations, Ms Reidy informed the Chamber of their systematic compilation of reports, method applied and categories of people interviewed in their investigations of the Rwandan judicial system.
For example, among people questioned, she affirmed, were four current or former ministers of justice, 14 current or former judges, 11 current or former prosecutors, three current or former bar association presidents, 15 national or international NGO representatives and more than 100 Rwandan victims of various abuses of the legal system.
The motion requesting Munyakazi's transfer is within the ICTR's completion strategy, which wants to transfer cases to national jurisdictions in order to finish by the end of the year all first instance trials as directed by the UN Security Council.
The chamber completed the one-day hearing last Thursday and was yet to announce the date for a ruling.
Since June 2007, the ICTR Prosecutor has filed motions to transfer to Kigali five accused persons, including Munyakazi.
The other accused targeted by transfer requests to Kigali are: former Commander of Ngoma Camp Lieutenant Ildephonse Hategekimana, businessman Gaspard Kanyarukiga, former Mayor Jean Baptist Gatete and former Inspector of Judicial Police, Fulgence Kaysihema. The latter is still at large.
30 April, 2008
Iran Dumps U.S. Dollars in Oil Transactions.
Xinhua News Agency
30 April 2008
Iran had totally removed U.S. dollars in the country's oil transactions, an Oil Ministry official said on Wednesday.
"The dollar has completely been removed from our oil trade.... Crude oil customers have agreed with us to use other currencies (in the trade)," Oil Ministry official Hojjatollah Ghanimifard was quoted as saying by the state television.
"We make our transactions with euros in Europe, but yen in Asia, " he added.
Due to the tensions with Washington in the past years over the nuclear disputes and the latest depreciation of dollars, Iran has vowed to decrease the greenback in its foreign trade. Iran central bank also has reduced dollars in the country's foreign reserves.
In last November's summit of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Saudi Arabia, Iran proposed that it was necessary to replace the U.S. dollar with other major hard currencies in oil trading.
But some Arab allies of the United States showed few support to Tehran's advice.
However, Iran's Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari has already declared in last December that Tehran had completely stopped selling its oil in dollars, according a report by the semi- official ISNA news agency at that time.
"In line with the policy of selling crude oil in nondollar currencies, currently selling our country's oil in U.S. dollars has been completely stopped," Nozari was then quoted as saying.
Right now it's not clear why there seems to be a contradiction between comments by the two officials over the exact time to stop dollars in Iran's oil trade.
30 April 2008
Iran had totally removed U.S. dollars in the country's oil transactions, an Oil Ministry official said on Wednesday.
"The dollar has completely been removed from our oil trade.... Crude oil customers have agreed with us to use other currencies (in the trade)," Oil Ministry official Hojjatollah Ghanimifard was quoted as saying by the state television.
"We make our transactions with euros in Europe, but yen in Asia, " he added.
Due to the tensions with Washington in the past years over the nuclear disputes and the latest depreciation of dollars, Iran has vowed to decrease the greenback in its foreign trade. Iran central bank also has reduced dollars in the country's foreign reserves.
In last November's summit of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Saudi Arabia, Iran proposed that it was necessary to replace the U.S. dollar with other major hard currencies in oil trading.
But some Arab allies of the United States showed few support to Tehran's advice.
However, Iran's Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari has already declared in last December that Tehran had completely stopped selling its oil in dollars, according a report by the semi- official ISNA news agency at that time.
"In line with the policy of selling crude oil in nondollar currencies, currently selling our country's oil in U.S. dollars has been completely stopped," Nozari was then quoted as saying.
Right now it's not clear why there seems to be a contradiction between comments by the two officials over the exact time to stop dollars in Iran's oil trade.
Iraq Oil Ministry: Foreign Cos Stay Away, Pipe Network At 35%.
Dow Jones Newswire
29 April 2008
Iraq has failed to attract foreign companies due to violence and around 70% of the oil pipeline network remained idle due to sabotage and lack of repairs last year, the Oil Ministry said Tuesday.
Inspector General Abdul-Karim Elaibi, in an annual report, blamed frequent sabotage and lack of maintenance for a reduction to around 35% of the carrying capacity of the 7,500 kilometer pipeline network.
The report also said the country was also facing a decline in the output of refineries.
Since 2003, U.S. Congress has approved $46 billion to rebuild Iraq's devastated infrastructure, including oil production plants and pipelines. The expectation after the U.S. invasion had been it would take up to 18 months for Iraq to assume responsibility for reconstruction efforts, using its oil revenues.
But the Iraqi government has failed to lure international companies or even local companies to improve the ailing industry despite repeatedly launching tenders, sometimes more than 10 times for one project, Elaibi said.
No one "showed interest due to the security situation," the inspector said in his 152-page report.
"The difficult security situation has affected the oil workers and their performance," and had negative effects on production levels and development plans, Elaibi said.
In the latest act of sabotage, a bomb struck a pipeline carrying oil to refineries in southern Iraq on Friday, wounding eight oil guards and disrupting the flow of crude. Oil pipelines have frequently been targeted by insurgents or saboteurs trying to pilfer oil in the war-torn country.
Concern about the situation led Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, an Iraqi-born Shiite Muslim cleric in Lebanon, to issue a religious edict, or fatwa, banning attacks on public utilities in Iraq -- mainly the oil industry -- on March 31.
Sunni insurgents are also blamed for sabotage, especially in the north of the country.
Iraq sits on the world's third-largest oil reserves, totaling more than 115 billion barrels. But the industry lacks modern equipment and training after decades of U.N. sanctions, war and Saddam Hussein's ruinous rule.
The country has announced plans to increase its oil output to 3 million barrels a day by the end of 2008 by bringing in foreign companies, and is targeting production of 4.5 million barrels a day by end of 2013.
Meanwhile, Elaibi's report cited corruption and bureaucracy among other barriers before developing the country's oil industry.
The report said workers and employees at some oil installations were in "collaboration" with militiamen to commit "organized theft operations either by tankers or jerrycans in daylight."
Earlier this month, the Iraqi government announced plans to crack down on militiamen controlling gasoline stations and oil distribution in a new move to curb the resources of armed groups.
It is widely believed gasoline stations and distribution centers, especially in eastern Baghdad and some Iraqi southern provinces, are covertly controlled by Shiite militiamen dominated by radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. They in turn make large sums of money by selling smuggled gasoline and kerosene on the black market.
29 April 2008
Iraq has failed to attract foreign companies due to violence and around 70% of the oil pipeline network remained idle due to sabotage and lack of repairs last year, the Oil Ministry said Tuesday.
Inspector General Abdul-Karim Elaibi, in an annual report, blamed frequent sabotage and lack of maintenance for a reduction to around 35% of the carrying capacity of the 7,500 kilometer pipeline network.
The report also said the country was also facing a decline in the output of refineries.
Since 2003, U.S. Congress has approved $46 billion to rebuild Iraq's devastated infrastructure, including oil production plants and pipelines. The expectation after the U.S. invasion had been it would take up to 18 months for Iraq to assume responsibility for reconstruction efforts, using its oil revenues.
But the Iraqi government has failed to lure international companies or even local companies to improve the ailing industry despite repeatedly launching tenders, sometimes more than 10 times for one project, Elaibi said.
No one "showed interest due to the security situation," the inspector said in his 152-page report.
"The difficult security situation has affected the oil workers and their performance," and had negative effects on production levels and development plans, Elaibi said.
In the latest act of sabotage, a bomb struck a pipeline carrying oil to refineries in southern Iraq on Friday, wounding eight oil guards and disrupting the flow of crude. Oil pipelines have frequently been targeted by insurgents or saboteurs trying to pilfer oil in the war-torn country.
Concern about the situation led Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, an Iraqi-born Shiite Muslim cleric in Lebanon, to issue a religious edict, or fatwa, banning attacks on public utilities in Iraq -- mainly the oil industry -- on March 31.
Sunni insurgents are also blamed for sabotage, especially in the north of the country.
Iraq sits on the world's third-largest oil reserves, totaling more than 115 billion barrels. But the industry lacks modern equipment and training after decades of U.N. sanctions, war and Saddam Hussein's ruinous rule.
The country has announced plans to increase its oil output to 3 million barrels a day by the end of 2008 by bringing in foreign companies, and is targeting production of 4.5 million barrels a day by end of 2013.
Meanwhile, Elaibi's report cited corruption and bureaucracy among other barriers before developing the country's oil industry.
The report said workers and employees at some oil installations were in "collaboration" with militiamen to commit "organized theft operations either by tankers or jerrycans in daylight."
Earlier this month, the Iraqi government announced plans to crack down on militiamen controlling gasoline stations and oil distribution in a new move to curb the resources of armed groups.
It is widely believed gasoline stations and distribution centers, especially in eastern Baghdad and some Iraqi southern provinces, are covertly controlled by Shiite militiamen dominated by radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. They in turn make large sums of money by selling smuggled gasoline and kerosene on the black market.
India, Iran Positive on Pipeline Project.
Xinhua News Agency
30 April 2008
New Delhi and Tehran have inched closer to the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline deal with both sides optimistic of an early conclusion to the negotiations.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held a three hours talk with visiting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the Iran- Pakistan-India pipeline deal on Tuesday evening.
At a news conference later, Ahmadinejad described the Related Products
International Petroleum Fiscal Systems and Production Sharing Contracts
Understanding Today's Natural Gas Business
discussions as positive and hoped that the deal would be finalized in the "near future."
Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon reaffirmed Ahmadinejad's optimism but warned that a long road lay ahead to ensure that the project was commercially viable, financially acceptable to India and all security concerns were taken care of.
"We think it is doable," Menon said after three hours of talks between Ahmadinejad and Singh, adding that a "lot of work" was required.
On the nuclear issue, Ahmadinejad said the "bullying" by some western countries was primarily meant to prevent other countries from developing their own expertise to generate nuclear power.
"They are not capable of stopping the progress by the people of Iran. They are at the end of the road and should put aside their aggression and bullying."
Ahmadinejad is the first Iranian head of state to visit India in five years.
30 April 2008
New Delhi and Tehran have inched closer to the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline deal with both sides optimistic of an early conclusion to the negotiations.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held a three hours talk with visiting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the Iran- Pakistan-India pipeline deal on Tuesday evening.
At a news conference later, Ahmadinejad described the Related Products
International Petroleum Fiscal Systems and Production Sharing Contracts
Understanding Today's Natural Gas Business
discussions as positive and hoped that the deal would be finalized in the "near future."
Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon reaffirmed Ahmadinejad's optimism but warned that a long road lay ahead to ensure that the project was commercially viable, financially acceptable to India and all security concerns were taken care of.
"We think it is doable," Menon said after three hours of talks between Ahmadinejad and Singh, adding that a "lot of work" was required.
On the nuclear issue, Ahmadinejad said the "bullying" by some western countries was primarily meant to prevent other countries from developing their own expertise to generate nuclear power.
"They are not capable of stopping the progress by the people of Iran. They are at the end of the road and should put aside their aggression and bullying."
Ahmadinejad is the first Iranian head of state to visit India in five years.
Ethiopian troops accused of killing Somali civilians.
Mail & Guardian
30 April 2008
By Mohamed Olad Hassan
30 April 2008
Ethiopian troops allied to Somalia's shaky government shot dead 13 civilians after an explosion killed two soldiers on Wednesday, witnesses in south-western Somalia said.
Witness Mohamud Ahmed Nur said what appeared to be a remote-controlled land mine hit the Ethiopian troops patrolling Baidoa town and killed two soldiers.
The soldiers, he said, then opened fire in all directions, killing at least 10 civilians who were passing by.
Mohamed Hussein Diriye, a doctor at the town's main hospital, said three other people died later of their injuries while being treated at his facility. Seven other wounded were being treated at the hospital, he said.
"It was an horrific scene, blood scattered everywhere," said witness Jamal Haji. "I saw the dead bodies of at least 10 people lying in the middle of the road."
Baidoa is 250km south-west of the capital, Mogadishu, and is the headquarters for the Somali Parliament. Several senior government officials also live there.
Islamic insurgents furious about the presence of Ethiopian troops on their soil have stepped up attacks across the country in recent months, seizing towns and then voluntarily withdrawing, in a direct challenge to the government, which is struggling to exert its control.-- Sapa-AP
30 April 2008
By Mohamed Olad Hassan
30 April 2008
Ethiopian troops allied to Somalia's shaky government shot dead 13 civilians after an explosion killed two soldiers on Wednesday, witnesses in south-western Somalia said.
Witness Mohamud Ahmed Nur said what appeared to be a remote-controlled land mine hit the Ethiopian troops patrolling Baidoa town and killed two soldiers.
The soldiers, he said, then opened fire in all directions, killing at least 10 civilians who were passing by.
Mohamed Hussein Diriye, a doctor at the town's main hospital, said three other people died later of their injuries while being treated at his facility. Seven other wounded were being treated at the hospital, he said.
"It was an horrific scene, blood scattered everywhere," said witness Jamal Haji. "I saw the dead bodies of at least 10 people lying in the middle of the road."
Baidoa is 250km south-west of the capital, Mogadishu, and is the headquarters for the Somali Parliament. Several senior government officials also live there.
Islamic insurgents furious about the presence of Ethiopian troops on their soil have stepped up attacks across the country in recent months, seizing towns and then voluntarily withdrawing, in a direct challenge to the government, which is struggling to exert its control.-- Sapa-AP
29 April, 2008
Britain to send 600 troops to Kosovo.
RIA Novosti
29 April 2008
Britain will send 600 troops in late May to meet NATO's request to beef up the international peacekeeping force in Kosovo, the defense secretary said on Tuesday.
Since Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia on February 17 the province has seen a rise in tension, including the death in March of a Ukrainian peacekeeper in violent clashes. The British troops are expected to be used to maintain public order.
"We are ... well prepared to meet NATO's request and I have agreed to deploy our Operational Reserve Force battalion until June 30, 2008," Des Browne said in a written statement to parliament.
The battalion, which has been on standby since January, will complement the 16,000 NATO-led force already deployed in Kosovo.
29 April 2008
Britain will send 600 troops in late May to meet NATO's request to beef up the international peacekeeping force in Kosovo, the defense secretary said on Tuesday.
Since Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia on February 17 the province has seen a rise in tension, including the death in March of a Ukrainian peacekeeper in violent clashes. The British troops are expected to be used to maintain public order.
"We are ... well prepared to meet NATO's request and I have agreed to deploy our Operational Reserve Force battalion until June 30, 2008," Des Browne said in a written statement to parliament.
The battalion, which has been on standby since January, will complement the 16,000 NATO-led force already deployed in Kosovo.
MOUNT ELGON: CONFIRMATION ON TORTURE REPORTS.
MISNA
29 April 2008
The accusation by local rights groups against the military of beating and torturing civilians arrested during security operations in Mount Elgon, didn’t surprise Albinus Muga, director of the Justice and Peace Commission of the diocese of Bugoma, who stated to MISNA: “We also received reports of grave abuse. I just discussed the matter with a priest of the area and he confirmed numerous cases of people arrested and beaten also in the past days. I met with a representative of the National Human Rights Commission, the only body that can enter prisons and military bases, and he confirmed signs of beatings on the detained”.
Based on a report released on Sunday by the Independent Medico-legal Unit (IMLU) and published yesterday on all Kenyan newspapers, the military beat and tortured at least 400 people, and maybe up to 4,000, since the start of the offensive to flush out the Sabaot Land Defence Force (SLDF), an armed group that has been terrorising residents of the area. “I do not exclude that some of the arrested may be members of the Sabaot militia, but undoubtedly many are innocent people that were unfortunately taken away in the security force round ups”, explained Muga, adding that he deemed the IMLU estimates credible.
“The people were terrorised by the Sabaot, responsible for atrocious acts of violence. Now some believe that the army is merely taking revenge. But the point remains that human rights violations are always intolerable and that many innocent people are also getting caught in the middle”. The toll of the military operations remains unknown: “No one knows exactly how many were killed, wounded and arrested. The army is not releasing information and reporters are not allowed into the areas of the operations”, said Muga.
According to the local press, at least 800 people formally charged. The districts of Mt. Elgon have been theatre to years of disputes over land distribution that escalated in 2006 with the appearance of the Sabaot that violently forced members of other ethnic groups to abandon land assigned to them by the government. It is estimated that over 500 people were killed and 60,000 forced to flee.
29 April 2008
The accusation by local rights groups against the military of beating and torturing civilians arrested during security operations in Mount Elgon, didn’t surprise Albinus Muga, director of the Justice and Peace Commission of the diocese of Bugoma, who stated to MISNA: “We also received reports of grave abuse. I just discussed the matter with a priest of the area and he confirmed numerous cases of people arrested and beaten also in the past days. I met with a representative of the National Human Rights Commission, the only body that can enter prisons and military bases, and he confirmed signs of beatings on the detained”.
Based on a report released on Sunday by the Independent Medico-legal Unit (IMLU) and published yesterday on all Kenyan newspapers, the military beat and tortured at least 400 people, and maybe up to 4,000, since the start of the offensive to flush out the Sabaot Land Defence Force (SLDF), an armed group that has been terrorising residents of the area. “I do not exclude that some of the arrested may be members of the Sabaot militia, but undoubtedly many are innocent people that were unfortunately taken away in the security force round ups”, explained Muga, adding that he deemed the IMLU estimates credible.
“The people were terrorised by the Sabaot, responsible for atrocious acts of violence. Now some believe that the army is merely taking revenge. But the point remains that human rights violations are always intolerable and that many innocent people are also getting caught in the middle”. The toll of the military operations remains unknown: “No one knows exactly how many were killed, wounded and arrested. The army is not releasing information and reporters are not allowed into the areas of the operations”, said Muga.
According to the local press, at least 800 people formally charged. The districts of Mt. Elgon have been theatre to years of disputes over land distribution that escalated in 2006 with the appearance of the Sabaot that violently forced members of other ethnic groups to abandon land assigned to them by the government. It is estimated that over 500 people were killed and 60,000 forced to flee.
SOMALILAND: PROTESTS AND RIOTS.
MISNA
29 April 2008
Tension in Somaliland is high after days of clashes between police and demonstrators have left at least two civilian dead and ten officers wounded. The local press says that in the past few days, groups of demonstrators took to the streets in Hargeisa protesting over political issues and the increasing prices for basic food. The law and order forces cordoned off the area, intervening with force. Civil society associations have complained about the police’s brutality in reacting to the clashes, denouncing a disproportionate use of force and announcing new demonstrations, which are partly motivated against the one year extension of the mandate of president Dahir Riyale. Somaliland, as the nearby region of Puntland, self declared itself to be independent in 1991, in order not to be involved in the wars that followed the collapse of the regime of Siad Barre.
29 April 2008
Tension in Somaliland is high after days of clashes between police and demonstrators have left at least two civilian dead and ten officers wounded. The local press says that in the past few days, groups of demonstrators took to the streets in Hargeisa protesting over political issues and the increasing prices for basic food. The law and order forces cordoned off the area, intervening with force. Civil society associations have complained about the police’s brutality in reacting to the clashes, denouncing a disproportionate use of force and announcing new demonstrations, which are partly motivated against the one year extension of the mandate of president Dahir Riyale. Somaliland, as the nearby region of Puntland, self declared itself to be independent in 1991, in order not to be involved in the wars that followed the collapse of the regime of Siad Barre.
POLITICAL LEADER OF MUNGIKI SECT KILLED.
MISNA
29 April 2008
The chairman of the political wing of the Mungiki sect, Charles Ndungu Wagaca, was shot dead yesterday by unknown gunmen along with his driver, as reported by local police. Wagaca was head of the Kenya National Youth Alliance (KNYA) and brother of Virginia Nyakio, wife of the outlawed sect’s jailed spiritual leader, whose killing early in the month sparked riots by Mungiki members in many areas of the country that left some twenty dead.
Based on a reconstruction of Nairobi’s The Nation newspaper, an eyewitness said that Wagaca's driver lost control of the car during a high-speed chase involving three vehicles along the Nairobi-Naivasha highway, landing in a ditch near the road, then a man from one of the pursuing vehicles came out and shot the two men. According to police, the killing was part of an internal feud in the sect, also cause of Virginia Nyakio’s death, attributed by the outlawed group to the police. The sect, outlawed in 2002 and made up predominantly by unemployed youths of the main Kikuyu ethnic group, is believed to count a few thousand members, despite claims of 4-million followers by its leaders. Violence unleashed last year by the Mungiki left over fifty dead, sparking a mass security force operation in which thousands of members were arrested.
29 April 2008
The chairman of the political wing of the Mungiki sect, Charles Ndungu Wagaca, was shot dead yesterday by unknown gunmen along with his driver, as reported by local police. Wagaca was head of the Kenya National Youth Alliance (KNYA) and brother of Virginia Nyakio, wife of the outlawed sect’s jailed spiritual leader, whose killing early in the month sparked riots by Mungiki members in many areas of the country that left some twenty dead.
Based on a reconstruction of Nairobi’s The Nation newspaper, an eyewitness said that Wagaca's driver lost control of the car during a high-speed chase involving three vehicles along the Nairobi-Naivasha highway, landing in a ditch near the road, then a man from one of the pursuing vehicles came out and shot the two men. According to police, the killing was part of an internal feud in the sect, also cause of Virginia Nyakio’s death, attributed by the outlawed group to the police. The sect, outlawed in 2002 and made up predominantly by unemployed youths of the main Kikuyu ethnic group, is believed to count a few thousand members, despite claims of 4-million followers by its leaders. Violence unleashed last year by the Mungiki left over fifty dead, sparking a mass security force operation in which thousands of members were arrested.
GAZA-EGYPT POWERLINE PROJECT APPROVED.
MISNA
29 April 2008
Information minister and spokesman for the Palestinian National Authority, Riyad al-Maliki, announced an accord with Egyptian authorities to lay down a new power cable between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. In a press conference in the West Bank town of Ramallah, al-Malki said that the $15-million project, to be funded with loans from the Islamic Development Bank, foresees a seven-kilometre powerline to connect El-Arish (in Egypt) and the border town Rafah. Once completed, the project will consent the 1.5-million inhabitants of the coastal area to no longer be exposed to the frequent power outages since 2006 in the Gaza Strip. Gaza’s sole power plant meets 45% of the demand, while the rest is provided by Israel.
29 April 2008
Information minister and spokesman for the Palestinian National Authority, Riyad al-Maliki, announced an accord with Egyptian authorities to lay down a new power cable between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. In a press conference in the West Bank town of Ramallah, al-Malki said that the $15-million project, to be funded with loans from the Islamic Development Bank, foresees a seven-kilometre powerline to connect El-Arish (in Egypt) and the border town Rafah. Once completed, the project will consent the 1.5-million inhabitants of the coastal area to no longer be exposed to the frequent power outages since 2006 in the Gaza Strip. Gaza’s sole power plant meets 45% of the demand, while the rest is provided by Israel.
CIVILIANS FLEEING AFTER NEW CLASHES, MEDIATORS MEET IN KAMPALA.
MISNA
29 April 2008
Numerous residents of the Isale commune, outside the Burundian capital Bujumbura, fled clashes yesterday between government forces and rebels of the National Liberation Forces (FNL) that left 11 rebels dead and 3 soldiers wounded, according to the military. A Bujumbura radio reported that the Burundian crisis should be addressed in a meeting tomorrow in the Ugandan capital Kampala, attended by Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni and his Tanzanian counterpart Jakaya Kikwete – acting chairman of the African Union (AU) – whose intervention was urged by Burundi’s President and former rebel leader Pierre Nkurunziza. Tanzania (which mediated in peace talks that ended the Burundian conflict) is land of exile of the FNL leader Agathon Rwasa and other leaders of the oldest Burundian Hutu rebel group. The FNL in a statement criticised the “contradictory” declarations of the Defence ministry, who urged a resumption of negotiation, while the deputy armed forces chief stated that the FNL is “a negative force that we must not negotiate with”. The FNL claims that it didn’t receive the necessary immunity guarantees to return to negotiations in Bujumbura.
29 April 2008
Numerous residents of the Isale commune, outside the Burundian capital Bujumbura, fled clashes yesterday between government forces and rebels of the National Liberation Forces (FNL) that left 11 rebels dead and 3 soldiers wounded, according to the military. A Bujumbura radio reported that the Burundian crisis should be addressed in a meeting tomorrow in the Ugandan capital Kampala, attended by Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni and his Tanzanian counterpart Jakaya Kikwete – acting chairman of the African Union (AU) – whose intervention was urged by Burundi’s President and former rebel leader Pierre Nkurunziza. Tanzania (which mediated in peace talks that ended the Burundian conflict) is land of exile of the FNL leader Agathon Rwasa and other leaders of the oldest Burundian Hutu rebel group. The FNL in a statement criticised the “contradictory” declarations of the Defence ministry, who urged a resumption of negotiation, while the deputy armed forces chief stated that the FNL is “a negative force that we must not negotiate with”. The FNL claims that it didn’t receive the necessary immunity guarantees to return to negotiations in Bujumbura.
REBEL LEADER SURRENDERS, HOPEFUL OF NEW ERA OF STABILITY.
MISNA
29 April 2008
The rebel leader Gastao Salsinha, accused of leading a group that in February attacked and critically wounded President José Ramos-Hosta, surrendered to authorities in East Timor. After lengthy negotiations, Salsinha and 11 of his men surrendered to authorities over the weekend at the government palace in the capital Dili. “So officially the rebellion is over and now what we have to do is bring all of them to justice”, said Deputy Prime Minister Jose Luis Guterres, adding that “it’s a historic moment for the country”. So far, the rebels that surrendered were granted amnesty. “We believe that from now on the Timorese development will start and people will have a better future, as well as living in peace, harmony and stability”, added Guterres. Salsinha became leader of the rebels after the death of Alfredo Reinado, killed in the attack against Ramos-Horta.
29 April 2008
The rebel leader Gastao Salsinha, accused of leading a group that in February attacked and critically wounded President José Ramos-Hosta, surrendered to authorities in East Timor. After lengthy negotiations, Salsinha and 11 of his men surrendered to authorities over the weekend at the government palace in the capital Dili. “So officially the rebellion is over and now what we have to do is bring all of them to justice”, said Deputy Prime Minister Jose Luis Guterres, adding that “it’s a historic moment for the country”. So far, the rebels that surrendered were granted amnesty. “We believe that from now on the Timorese development will start and people will have a better future, as well as living in peace, harmony and stability”, added Guterres. Salsinha became leader of the rebels after the death of Alfredo Reinado, killed in the attack against Ramos-Horta.
RE-ELECTION OF URIBE: FORMER REP. ARRESTED FOR CORRUPTION.
MISNA
28 April 2008
Former representative Yidis Medina has reported to the general prosecutor after admitting to have received benefits from government representatives of the 2004 government to modify the vote and to allow president Alvaro Uribe to run for a third time thanks to a constitutional change.
“My client shall say the truth on the way in which president Uribe’s collaborators managed to make her change her decision to vote ‘no’ for the re-election” said Medina’s lawyer, Ramon Ballesteros, as quoted by ‘Radio Caracol’. The Supreme Court of Justice had issued an arrest warrant against Medina on the basis of statements she made to the press. In 2004, Medina demonstrated against the revision of the constitution that would have enabled Uribe to run for the presidency. In 2006 Medina announced that she had changed her mind after people close to Uribe promised her unspecified ‘benefits’, which were not kept. Medina’s arrest comes in the midst of the scandal of ‘the para-politics’ over the collusions between dozens of political leaders and right wing paramilitaries: the inquiry has already led to the arrests of 31 people, including representatives and senators, mostly from the majority; 68 others are indicted, including Uribe’s cousin.
28 April 2008
Former representative Yidis Medina has reported to the general prosecutor after admitting to have received benefits from government representatives of the 2004 government to modify the vote and to allow president Alvaro Uribe to run for a third time thanks to a constitutional change.
“My client shall say the truth on the way in which president Uribe’s collaborators managed to make her change her decision to vote ‘no’ for the re-election” said Medina’s lawyer, Ramon Ballesteros, as quoted by ‘Radio Caracol’. The Supreme Court of Justice had issued an arrest warrant against Medina on the basis of statements she made to the press. In 2004, Medina demonstrated against the revision of the constitution that would have enabled Uribe to run for the presidency. In 2006 Medina announced that she had changed her mind after people close to Uribe promised her unspecified ‘benefits’, which were not kept. Medina’s arrest comes in the midst of the scandal of ‘the para-politics’ over the collusions between dozens of political leaders and right wing paramilitaries: the inquiry has already led to the arrests of 31 people, including representatives and senators, mostly from the majority; 68 others are indicted, including Uribe’s cousin.
MOSQUE MASSACRE: INVESTIGATIONS PROCEED DESPITE RELEASE OF CHILDREN.
MISNA
28 April 2008
“We have not had a chance to speak to those seized at the al Hidaya mosque, but we are conducting investigations to reconstruct the entire episode”, said to MISNA Zahir Ali of the ‘Sean Devereux’ aid agency a few days from the massacre in the northern Mogadishu mosque, in which some twenty people were killed and 41 students – many children – were abducted and released after six days of questioning at the headquarters of Ethiopian troops deployed in the country in support of the Somali transitional federal government (TFG).
“What occurred is unclear, given that the government excludes that the Ethiopian troops entered the mosque and killed the twenty faithful and Imam. What we are certain of is the discovery of the lifeless bodies and eyewitnesses speak of a cold blood execution”, added Ali. According to the source, “the children were detained because believed to be young militants of anti-government groups, which used the mosque as a recruiting centre, and released after the military failed to link them to any criminal activities”.
According to the local press, at least 10 members of the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia, which groups different exiled opposition movements, have arrived in the southern Middle Shabelle region for consultations with local groups ahead of the first meeting on May 10 in Djibouti between the transitional government of Nur Hassan Hussein Adde and Asmara-based opposition. The appointment is part of reconciliation efforts launched by the prime minister and supported by the UN secretary general’s special representative, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah.
28 April 2008
“We have not had a chance to speak to those seized at the al Hidaya mosque, but we are conducting investigations to reconstruct the entire episode”, said to MISNA Zahir Ali of the ‘Sean Devereux’ aid agency a few days from the massacre in the northern Mogadishu mosque, in which some twenty people were killed and 41 students – many children – were abducted and released after six days of questioning at the headquarters of Ethiopian troops deployed in the country in support of the Somali transitional federal government (TFG).
“What occurred is unclear, given that the government excludes that the Ethiopian troops entered the mosque and killed the twenty faithful and Imam. What we are certain of is the discovery of the lifeless bodies and eyewitnesses speak of a cold blood execution”, added Ali. According to the source, “the children were detained because believed to be young militants of anti-government groups, which used the mosque as a recruiting centre, and released after the military failed to link them to any criminal activities”.
According to the local press, at least 10 members of the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia, which groups different exiled opposition movements, have arrived in the southern Middle Shabelle region for consultations with local groups ahead of the first meeting on May 10 in Djibouti between the transitional government of Nur Hassan Hussein Adde and Asmara-based opposition. The appointment is part of reconciliation efforts launched by the prime minister and supported by the UN secretary general’s special representative, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah.
2 Ugandan guards abducted in Iraq.
Daily Monitor
By Angelo Izama
29 April 2008
The killing of an Iraqi civilian by a Ugandan guard two weeks ago may have caused the abduction of two of his colleagues, sources in Iraq informed Daily Monitor on Monday.
Mr Gilbert Okumu and one Godfrey Nabuyaka reportedly went missing from their station at Summerall, an American military base located north of the capital Baghdad.
The locally registered private security company, Dreshak, which deployed the two as non-combat guards at the base, said the disappearance of the guards was only a “rumour” but confirmed that the shooting of an Iraqi civilian had created some “confusion” with the local population.
“I checked with the base. Everything is okay,” said Mr Alok Dheer, the local representative of Dreshak by telephone from Nairobi, Kenya.
Authorities at the US base are yet to comment on the matter. However, US authorities including Dreshak’s client in Iraq were reluctant to comment on tensions two weeks ago when Mr Kato Nsubuga, the Ugandan guard shot and killed an Iraqi civilian.
It is the first time that a Ugandan has killed an Iraqi since the country started allowing private security firms to send guards to Iraq.
According to Mr Dheer, the incident happened when Mr Nsubuga, on orders of a US soldier, opened fire on “armed insurgents attempting to force their way into the base.”
“It’s the first time for our company. After deploying 3,000 guards since three years ago, this is the only time that a Ugandan is firing at an Iraqi,” said Mr Dheer who added that Mr Nsubuga was being treated as a hero. “It was self-defence,” Mr Dheer added.
However, other Ugandan guards who contacted Daily Monitor said Mr Nsubuga was ordered to fire in the air to scare the Iraqi civilians wandering near the base.
Mr Dheer says Mr Nsubuga was held for eight hours but released after investigations revealed he had acted on the orders of his American superior.
“Whatever action he took was authorised,” Mr Dheer said adding that Mr Nsubuga was subject to US law covering the American occupation of Iraq and would therefore not face charges relating to murder or manslaughter under the domestic law there.
This is a gray area of the international law itself.
Following the killing of 16 civilians by private security guards belonging to Blackwater, another US company, a controversy arose as to which laws would prevail.
At the time of the incident it was not clear if Iraqi law or US law would apply. Since then the American lawmakers have said such incidents are prosecutable under US law.
However, it appears even murkier under what law Mr Nsubuga’s action would fall since he is what is referred to as a Third Country national or a US nor Iraqi citizen hired by sub-contract.
Daily Monitor queries to Mr Jerry McCullar, the site supervisor at Summerall at the time of the Nsubuga incident received no reply but later Mr Anthony Casas, the vice president of Human Resources at SOC-SMG wrote back referring the newspaper to the US military authorities in Iraq.
“Refer any questions that you may have about it directly to the Public Affairs Office/Press Office for Multi-National Forces – Iraq, as the incident is a military matter,” Mr Casas said. The press office in question never responded.
As for the two Ugandans allegedly missing sources say they were discovered absent at 4:20am by Mr Daniel Kawuma the night shift platoon leader who then reported the matter to the American authorities at the base.
By Angelo Izama
29 April 2008
The killing of an Iraqi civilian by a Ugandan guard two weeks ago may have caused the abduction of two of his colleagues, sources in Iraq informed Daily Monitor on Monday.
Mr Gilbert Okumu and one Godfrey Nabuyaka reportedly went missing from their station at Summerall, an American military base located north of the capital Baghdad.
The locally registered private security company, Dreshak, which deployed the two as non-combat guards at the base, said the disappearance of the guards was only a “rumour” but confirmed that the shooting of an Iraqi civilian had created some “confusion” with the local population.
“I checked with the base. Everything is okay,” said Mr Alok Dheer, the local representative of Dreshak by telephone from Nairobi, Kenya.
Authorities at the US base are yet to comment on the matter. However, US authorities including Dreshak’s client in Iraq were reluctant to comment on tensions two weeks ago when Mr Kato Nsubuga, the Ugandan guard shot and killed an Iraqi civilian.
It is the first time that a Ugandan has killed an Iraqi since the country started allowing private security firms to send guards to Iraq.
According to Mr Dheer, the incident happened when Mr Nsubuga, on orders of a US soldier, opened fire on “armed insurgents attempting to force their way into the base.”
“It’s the first time for our company. After deploying 3,000 guards since three years ago, this is the only time that a Ugandan is firing at an Iraqi,” said Mr Dheer who added that Mr Nsubuga was being treated as a hero. “It was self-defence,” Mr Dheer added.
However, other Ugandan guards who contacted Daily Monitor said Mr Nsubuga was ordered to fire in the air to scare the Iraqi civilians wandering near the base.
Mr Dheer says Mr Nsubuga was held for eight hours but released after investigations revealed he had acted on the orders of his American superior.
“Whatever action he took was authorised,” Mr Dheer said adding that Mr Nsubuga was subject to US law covering the American occupation of Iraq and would therefore not face charges relating to murder or manslaughter under the domestic law there.
This is a gray area of the international law itself.
Following the killing of 16 civilians by private security guards belonging to Blackwater, another US company, a controversy arose as to which laws would prevail.
At the time of the incident it was not clear if Iraqi law or US law would apply. Since then the American lawmakers have said such incidents are prosecutable under US law.
However, it appears even murkier under what law Mr Nsubuga’s action would fall since he is what is referred to as a Third Country national or a US nor Iraqi citizen hired by sub-contract.
Daily Monitor queries to Mr Jerry McCullar, the site supervisor at Summerall at the time of the Nsubuga incident received no reply but later Mr Anthony Casas, the vice president of Human Resources at SOC-SMG wrote back referring the newspaper to the US military authorities in Iraq.
“Refer any questions that you may have about it directly to the Public Affairs Office/Press Office for Multi-National Forces – Iraq, as the incident is a military matter,” Mr Casas said. The press office in question never responded.
As for the two Ugandans allegedly missing sources say they were discovered absent at 4:20am by Mr Daniel Kawuma the night shift platoon leader who then reported the matter to the American authorities at the base.
Fix Chad to Save Darfur.
Los Angeles Times
By Korinna Horta and Delphine Djiraibe
April 29, 2008
As the international community searches for ways to bring an end to the violence and suffering in Darfur, we must pay more attention to the sources of funds that are allowing this deadly conflict to rage on. It is well known that the Sudanese government is heavily dependent on oil sales to China for revenue, and there is mounting pressure on the Chinese government to use its influence with Khartoum to end the calamity. But there is another angle that deserves just as much notice.
Chad, one of Sudan's neighbors, is an integral part of the Darfur problem, and it must be part of the solution. Chad's eastern border with Sudan's Darfur province is porous, and many rebel groups -- Sudanese and Chadian -- are operating in this area where several hundred thousand Sudanese refugees are stranded. Chadian President Idriss Deby came to power through a military coup launched from Darfur in 1990. He and many Darfur rebels belong to the Zhaghawa tribe, and he is now repaying his debts to his tribesmen by supporting one of Darfur's rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement, with arms financed by oil money.
At the same time, Deby himself is fighting armed rebel movements operating from this region, some of which are supported by Sudan. One of these movements is led by former members of Deby's inner circle, including his nephew, Timan Erdimi. Erdimi decided to take up arms after his uncle abolished presidential term limits in Chad's Constitution in 2005, setting himself up to become president for life. The control over oil revenues looms large in this internal power struggle -- and in Darfur.
Not unlike Sudan, Chad's government is largely dependent on the sale of oil, not to China but to an Exxon Mobil-led international consortium. Remarkably, the World Bank played the key role in turning Chad into an oil-producing country. Exxon Mobil had made World Bank participation a precondition for launching its $4.2-billion oil project, an insurance policy for its investments in this politically volatile region. Once the World Bank approved co-financing for the project in 2000, other lenders, such as the U.S. Export-Import Bank and the European Investment Bank, followed suit. Before the World Bank's decision, several donor-government agencies and environmental and human rights organizations from around the world pointed to the legacy of impoverishment, human rights abuses, poisoned landscapes and violent conflict that oil and mining projects had left in Africa.
Brushing aside these concerns, the World Bank touted the Chad oil project as an unprecedented framework to translate oil wealth into benefits for the poor and as a model for investments elsewhere. And, indeed, largely in response to public protests, the bank had requested voluminous environmental studies and undertaken innovative measures, such as requiring a law in Chad meant to ensure transparency in the use of oil revenue and establishing a committee to monitor implementation of the law.
Sadly, these measures were largely ineffective in a repressive political environment in which basic human rights are not respected. Chad's already impoverished people have become even more destitute since their country has become an oil exporter, as little of the income is used to better their lives. And because much, if not most, of the oil income gets diverted to weapons purchases and to finance patronage networks within the army, it is the people in Darfur who are most placed at risk.
But there is a precedent for Western governments using this oil income as leverage. Chad's oil revenues pass through a London bank account, which holds only those funds. In 2006, the World Bank temporarily froze the funds when Deby blatantly violated his agreements with the bank to spend the bulk of the money on the social sector.
This tool can be used again -- to cut off funding to the Darfur rebels and to encourage Chad to move toward democratic rule. For the latter, Chad needs a broad national dialogue that includes the government, rebel groups, human rights organizations and unions, and that will need international pressure and mediation to get it going. Such a step toward peace would also benefit the people in Darfur and the troubled borderlands.
Korinna Horta is a senior economist for the Environmental Defense Fund. Delphine Djiraibe is an attorney for the Chadian Assn. for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.
By Korinna Horta and Delphine Djiraibe
April 29, 2008
As the international community searches for ways to bring an end to the violence and suffering in Darfur, we must pay more attention to the sources of funds that are allowing this deadly conflict to rage on. It is well known that the Sudanese government is heavily dependent on oil sales to China for revenue, and there is mounting pressure on the Chinese government to use its influence with Khartoum to end the calamity. But there is another angle that deserves just as much notice.
Chad, one of Sudan's neighbors, is an integral part of the Darfur problem, and it must be part of the solution. Chad's eastern border with Sudan's Darfur province is porous, and many rebel groups -- Sudanese and Chadian -- are operating in this area where several hundred thousand Sudanese refugees are stranded. Chadian President Idriss Deby came to power through a military coup launched from Darfur in 1990. He and many Darfur rebels belong to the Zhaghawa tribe, and he is now repaying his debts to his tribesmen by supporting one of Darfur's rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement, with arms financed by oil money.
At the same time, Deby himself is fighting armed rebel movements operating from this region, some of which are supported by Sudan. One of these movements is led by former members of Deby's inner circle, including his nephew, Timan Erdimi. Erdimi decided to take up arms after his uncle abolished presidential term limits in Chad's Constitution in 2005, setting himself up to become president for life. The control over oil revenues looms large in this internal power struggle -- and in Darfur.
Not unlike Sudan, Chad's government is largely dependent on the sale of oil, not to China but to an Exxon Mobil-led international consortium. Remarkably, the World Bank played the key role in turning Chad into an oil-producing country. Exxon Mobil had made World Bank participation a precondition for launching its $4.2-billion oil project, an insurance policy for its investments in this politically volatile region. Once the World Bank approved co-financing for the project in 2000, other lenders, such as the U.S. Export-Import Bank and the European Investment Bank, followed suit. Before the World Bank's decision, several donor-government agencies and environmental and human rights organizations from around the world pointed to the legacy of impoverishment, human rights abuses, poisoned landscapes and violent conflict that oil and mining projects had left in Africa.
Brushing aside these concerns, the World Bank touted the Chad oil project as an unprecedented framework to translate oil wealth into benefits for the poor and as a model for investments elsewhere. And, indeed, largely in response to public protests, the bank had requested voluminous environmental studies and undertaken innovative measures, such as requiring a law in Chad meant to ensure transparency in the use of oil revenue and establishing a committee to monitor implementation of the law.
Sadly, these measures were largely ineffective in a repressive political environment in which basic human rights are not respected. Chad's already impoverished people have become even more destitute since their country has become an oil exporter, as little of the income is used to better their lives. And because much, if not most, of the oil income gets diverted to weapons purchases and to finance patronage networks within the army, it is the people in Darfur who are most placed at risk.
But there is a precedent for Western governments using this oil income as leverage. Chad's oil revenues pass through a London bank account, which holds only those funds. In 2006, the World Bank temporarily froze the funds when Deby blatantly violated his agreements with the bank to spend the bulk of the money on the social sector.
This tool can be used again -- to cut off funding to the Darfur rebels and to encourage Chad to move toward democratic rule. For the latter, Chad needs a broad national dialogue that includes the government, rebel groups, human rights organizations and unions, and that will need international pressure and mediation to get it going. Such a step toward peace would also benefit the people in Darfur and the troubled borderlands.
Korinna Horta is a senior economist for the Environmental Defense Fund. Delphine Djiraibe is an attorney for the Chadian Assn. for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.
Court presses DR Congo to turn over war crimes suspect.
AFP
29 April 2008
The International Criminal Court stepped up pressure on Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday to deliver a militia leader wanted for war crimes, including the recruitment of child soldiers.
A statement from the ICC prosecutor's office in The Hague said the court issued an arrest warrant for Bosco Ntaganda on August 22, 2006, for crimes committed between July 2002 and December 2003.
The existence of the warrant was not made public until Tuesday, but the statement underlined that it had given Kinshasa precise details as to Ntaganda's whereabouts at the time of its issue.
Ntaganda, 35, is portrayed as a central actor in the vast central African country's civil war, and is the fourth militia leader to be the subject of a judge's arrest warrant.
Three other suspects -- Thomas Lubanga Lubanga, whose trial starts on June 23, Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ndgudjolo Chui -- are already in the court's custody.
The statement said Ntaganda, formerly a senior officer with the Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of the Congo (FPLC), was an associate of Dyilo, who is also accused of having forced children to fight with the FPLC.
Known as The Terminator, Ntaganda was thought to be active in the eastern Kivu regions as chief of staff of another militia group, the National Congress for the Defence of the people (CNDP), the prosecutor added.
The court added that the CNDP is also under investigation after "credible reports" concerning "sexual crimes of unspeakable cruelty".
"We count on all concerned states, authorities and actors to contribute to his arrest and surrender him to the Court," it said.
A respected human rights expert on the Congolese conflict said the court's pressure offered a renegade general who leads the CNDP, Laurent Nkunda, the "perfect opportunity" to "practice what he preaches".
"If Nkunda does not hand (Ntaganda) over to the ICC, the United Nations peacekeeping force should go all out to arrest him as soon as possible," said Anneke Van Woudenbergh of Human Rights Watch in a statement.
"The Congolese authorities and the blue berets of the UN should do everything necessary immediately to execute the ICC warrant.
"A suspected war criminal, wanted by the world's highest court, should not be able to live freely in (DR) Congo," she added.
Kinshasa officials also accuse Ntaganda's men of involvement in house-to-house massacres of ethnic Lendu civilians in Songolo, in DRC's north-western Ituri province, and the killings of around a hundred Lendu and opponents to the FPLC in Bunia, the provincial capital.
The court also suspected other groups of similar crimes, including the Rwandan Hutu rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and individual soldiers serving with government forces.
The warrant against Ntaganda is the fourth issued by the ICC judges.
The other three suspects -- Lubanga, Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ndgudjolo Chui -- are already in custody awaiting trial.
29 April 2008
The International Criminal Court stepped up pressure on Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday to deliver a militia leader wanted for war crimes, including the recruitment of child soldiers.
A statement from the ICC prosecutor's office in The Hague said the court issued an arrest warrant for Bosco Ntaganda on August 22, 2006, for crimes committed between July 2002 and December 2003.
The existence of the warrant was not made public until Tuesday, but the statement underlined that it had given Kinshasa precise details as to Ntaganda's whereabouts at the time of its issue.
Ntaganda, 35, is portrayed as a central actor in the vast central African country's civil war, and is the fourth militia leader to be the subject of a judge's arrest warrant.
Three other suspects -- Thomas Lubanga Lubanga, whose trial starts on June 23, Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ndgudjolo Chui -- are already in the court's custody.
The statement said Ntaganda, formerly a senior officer with the Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of the Congo (FPLC), was an associate of Dyilo, who is also accused of having forced children to fight with the FPLC.
Known as The Terminator, Ntaganda was thought to be active in the eastern Kivu regions as chief of staff of another militia group, the National Congress for the Defence of the people (CNDP), the prosecutor added.
The court added that the CNDP is also under investigation after "credible reports" concerning "sexual crimes of unspeakable cruelty".
"We count on all concerned states, authorities and actors to contribute to his arrest and surrender him to the Court," it said.
A respected human rights expert on the Congolese conflict said the court's pressure offered a renegade general who leads the CNDP, Laurent Nkunda, the "perfect opportunity" to "practice what he preaches".
"If Nkunda does not hand (Ntaganda) over to the ICC, the United Nations peacekeeping force should go all out to arrest him as soon as possible," said Anneke Van Woudenbergh of Human Rights Watch in a statement.
"The Congolese authorities and the blue berets of the UN should do everything necessary immediately to execute the ICC warrant.
"A suspected war criminal, wanted by the world's highest court, should not be able to live freely in (DR) Congo," she added.
Kinshasa officials also accuse Ntaganda's men of involvement in house-to-house massacres of ethnic Lendu civilians in Songolo, in DRC's north-western Ituri province, and the killings of around a hundred Lendu and opponents to the FPLC in Bunia, the provincial capital.
The court also suspected other groups of similar crimes, including the Rwandan Hutu rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and individual soldiers serving with government forces.
The warrant against Ntaganda is the fourth issued by the ICC judges.
The other three suspects -- Lubanga, Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ndgudjolo Chui -- are already in custody awaiting trial.
ICC issues arrest warrant against former DRC rebel leader.
African Press Agency
29 April 2008
Editor's Note: Respectfully, this article fails to mention the most critical aspect of the indictment: Gen. Ntaganda is Laurent Nkunda's Chief of Staff in the armed wing of the CNDP and the primary recruiter of CNDP fighters from Ituri. He is still at large. This will be a major test for the Congolese Government to arrest and extradict him. Will the international community who claims to support universal human rights play its part to promote peace and justice by asking Laurent Nkunda and the CNDP to give up Gen. Ntaganda in the name of peace and reconciliation for the community of Northeastern Congo? While the international outcry for ICC justice in Sudan increases, will the same individual and NGO voices demand justice for the Congolese people in an equitable manner?
On Monday, the Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague decided to unseal the arrest warrant issued against Bosco Ntaganda, also known as the Terminator who is still at large, according to a press release from the Court issued here on Tuesday.
According to the release, Ntaganda is alleged to have committed war crimes of enlistment and conscription of children under the age of 15 and of using them to participate actively in hostilities in Ituri, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, from July 2002 until December 2003.
The release indicates that “the Chamber found that there were reasonable grounds to believe that members of the Forces patriotiques pour la liberation du Congo (FPLC) repeatedly carried out, from July 2002 to December 2003, acts of enlistment, conscription and active participation in hostilities of children under the age of fifteen, who were trained in the FPLC training camps of Bule, Cantrale, Mandro, Rwampara, Irumu, Bogoro and Sota.”
The Chamber found that there were reasonable grounds to believe that Ntaganda, as former Deputy Chief of General Staff for Military Operations of the FPLC, had during the mentioned period of time, de jure and de facto authority over the FPLC training camp commanders and used his authority to actively implement the policy adopted at a higher level of the Union des Patriotes Congolais (UPC)/FPLC of enlisting, conscripting and using children under the age of 15 to participate actively in hostilities, the release said it went on to say that according to the judges, Ntaganda was subordinated to Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, alleged FPLC Commander in Chief, currently under the custody of the ICC.
“There are also reasonable grounds to believe that Ntaganda, often visited the FPLC training camps where children under the age of fifteen were trained to become FPLC soldiers and that he took part directly in attacks in which FPLC soldiers under the age of fifteen actively participated.”
The arrest warrant, issued in 2006 by Pre-Trial Chamber I, remained under seal amongst other reasons, because “public knowledge of the proceedings in this case might result in Bosco Ntaganda hiding, fleeing, and/or obstructing or endangering the investigations or the proceedings of the Court.”
According to the judges the circumstances that led to the sealing have changed, the release said. It adds that both the Prosecution and the Registry, which is the competent organ of the Court to execute the Court’s warrants of arrest and is in charge of the Court’s Witness Protection Programme, agreed that “the unsealing of the warrant of arrest for Bosco Ntaganda will not endanger the witnesses of the DRC cases” and that this was the “right moment” to make it public.
According to the release, the arrest warrant against Ntaganda is the fourth issued by the judges of the ICC in the situation of the DRC. Three persons are currently into custody: Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ndgudjolo Chui.
Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, the founder and leader of the UPC will be the first person to stand trial at the ICC, scheduled to start on 23 June 2008.
The confirmation of charges in the case The Prosecutor v. Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui is scheduled to start on 27 June 2008, the release states.
29 April 2008
Editor's Note: Respectfully, this article fails to mention the most critical aspect of the indictment: Gen. Ntaganda is Laurent Nkunda's Chief of Staff in the armed wing of the CNDP and the primary recruiter of CNDP fighters from Ituri. He is still at large. This will be a major test for the Congolese Government to arrest and extradict him. Will the international community who claims to support universal human rights play its part to promote peace and justice by asking Laurent Nkunda and the CNDP to give up Gen. Ntaganda in the name of peace and reconciliation for the community of Northeastern Congo? While the international outcry for ICC justice in Sudan increases, will the same individual and NGO voices demand justice for the Congolese people in an equitable manner?
On Monday, the Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague decided to unseal the arrest warrant issued against Bosco Ntaganda, also known as the Terminator who is still at large, according to a press release from the Court issued here on Tuesday.
According to the release, Ntaganda is alleged to have committed war crimes of enlistment and conscription of children under the age of 15 and of using them to participate actively in hostilities in Ituri, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, from July 2002 until December 2003.
The release indicates that “the Chamber found that there were reasonable grounds to believe that members of the Forces patriotiques pour la liberation du Congo (FPLC) repeatedly carried out, from July 2002 to December 2003, acts of enlistment, conscription and active participation in hostilities of children under the age of fifteen, who were trained in the FPLC training camps of Bule, Cantrale, Mandro, Rwampara, Irumu, Bogoro and Sota.”
The Chamber found that there were reasonable grounds to believe that Ntaganda, as former Deputy Chief of General Staff for Military Operations of the FPLC, had during the mentioned period of time, de jure and de facto authority over the FPLC training camp commanders and used his authority to actively implement the policy adopted at a higher level of the Union des Patriotes Congolais (UPC)/FPLC of enlisting, conscripting and using children under the age of 15 to participate actively in hostilities, the release said it went on to say that according to the judges, Ntaganda was subordinated to Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, alleged FPLC Commander in Chief, currently under the custody of the ICC.
“There are also reasonable grounds to believe that Ntaganda, often visited the FPLC training camps where children under the age of fifteen were trained to become FPLC soldiers and that he took part directly in attacks in which FPLC soldiers under the age of fifteen actively participated.”
The arrest warrant, issued in 2006 by Pre-Trial Chamber I, remained under seal amongst other reasons, because “public knowledge of the proceedings in this case might result in Bosco Ntaganda hiding, fleeing, and/or obstructing or endangering the investigations or the proceedings of the Court.”
According to the judges the circumstances that led to the sealing have changed, the release said. It adds that both the Prosecution and the Registry, which is the competent organ of the Court to execute the Court’s warrants of arrest and is in charge of the Court’s Witness Protection Programme, agreed that “the unsealing of the warrant of arrest for Bosco Ntaganda will not endanger the witnesses of the DRC cases” and that this was the “right moment” to make it public.
According to the release, the arrest warrant against Ntaganda is the fourth issued by the judges of the ICC in the situation of the DRC. Three persons are currently into custody: Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ndgudjolo Chui.
Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, the founder and leader of the UPC will be the first person to stand trial at the ICC, scheduled to start on 23 June 2008.
The confirmation of charges in the case The Prosecutor v. Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui is scheduled to start on 27 June 2008, the release states.
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