Botswana game park to be mined.

AFP
21 February 2009

One of the world's largest game parks located in Botswana will soon host mining activities, after the government granted 112 exploration licences to 14 foreign firms, officials said on Saturday.

The licences have been awarded over the past six years for the companies to do diamond, uranium, coal and base metals exploration in the Central Kgalagadi Game Reserve (CKGR) in central Botswana.

Besides wildlife, Botswana's largest game park of 52 800 square kilometres has also been home for thousands of years to people known as the Kalahari Bushmen.

According to Wildlife Minister Kitso Mokaila, the reserve's vast size - equivalent to Swaziland and Lesotho combined - justified allocating part of it to foreign mining companies.

"Why would I want to deny a country that started off as the 26th least developed country the opportunity to do mining? We all know what mining activities have done for this country. We are where we are right now because of mining," Mokaila told AFP.

Botswana is the world's largest producer of diamonds by value and by volume.

"It has always been the policy of the government of Botswana that where there are minerals, they will be mined," Mokaila said.

"Botswana has been built on the strength of mining. It will be a very good thing (to mine in the park)."

Finns reject Rwandan extradition.

BBC News
20 February 2009

Finland has said it will not extradite a Rwandan man accused of genocide in his home country, because he may not receive a fair trial there.

Officials said the decision followed rulings by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which has halted the referral of three similar cases.

The 57-year-old man, who has not been named, has been in custody since 2007.

He could be tried in Finland if a prosecutor charged him, officials said. A decision is expected later this year.

Finnish law allows prosecutions for crimes against humanity wherever they are committed. If convicted, the man would face life in prison.

The Finnish state broadcaster YLE reported that the man had moved to Finland in 2003 and applied for asylum. Before his arrest in April 2007, he worked as a Baptist preacher in the towns of Vaasa and Porvoo, it added.

The Finnish justice ministry said the man was suspected of "having rendered himself guilty of genocide, offences against humanity and membership in a criminal organisation". He has denied the charges.

"He has not participated in genocide, on the contrary, he saved the lives of a number of people," his lawyer, Ville Hoikkala, claimed to YLE.

US EMBASSY SECRETARY IN EQUADOR DECLARED ‘PERSONA NON GRATA’

MISNA
19 February 2009

Ecuador’s government gave Mr. Mark Sullivan, First Secretary of the United States Embassy in Quito, 48 hours to leave the country. “We have decided to expel Sullivan for unacceptable meddling in Ecuador’s internal affairs”, Foreign Minister Fander Falconi announced in a news conference following a national security council meeting, attended by President Rafael Correa. Ecuador’s minister also accused the US Embassy official of “interference” for criticism and conditioning in national police matters. Mr. Sullivan is the second US diplomat to be declared ‘persona non grata’ by Quito after Armando Astorga, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement attaché, for allegedly suspending annual aid because Ecuador would not allow the US to veto top appointments to the anti-smuggling police.

A similar accusation was made against Mr. Sullivan, who allegedly questioned a decision by Ecuadorean Police Chief Jaime Hurtado to transfer the head of the Special Investigations Unit to another police post. Interior Minister Gustavo Jalk said Sullivan threatened to cut off “logistical and economic” aid to the unit, which investigates high-profile cases including drug trafficking: “We can’t let foreign officials set conditions over internal affairs according to their own particular views”. In the Astorga case, President Correa referred the suspension by the US diplomat in a letter dated January 8 of 340,000 US dollars in annual aid to the anti-smuggling police, because some appointments were not ‘coordinated’. The US Embassy later also took back computers donated to the same police unit, containing security data from the past 15 years; the computer disks were returned on strong protest by Correa, who ordered an investigation into possible manipulation.

ARRESTS FOR ALLEGED COUP PLOT IN SAO TOME.

MISNA
17 February 2009

Editor's Note: This oil-rich nation experiences an alleged coup plot at the same time oil-rich Equatorial Guinea is facing an attack on the presidential palace.....

Twenty-seven people were arrested in connection to an alleged coup plot last week against President Fradique de Menezes in the West African island of Sao Tome & Principe. Local sources refer that the Judge Alberto Monteiro confirmed the provisional arrest of the 27 and the temporary and conditional release of another 11 people on charges of “crimes against state security in a coup plot”. The accused are all members of the opposition Christian Democratic Front (FDC), including the head of the political movement, Arléncio Monteiro, who was arrested on Thursday.

The news of the arrests comes amid indiscretions indicating the possible resignation of President de Menezes, announced in a meeting of his Force for Change Democratic Movement (MDFM) party. In a first reconstruction of the coup plot, Minister of Internal Administration Raul Cravid said that “assault rifles and ammunition were seized”, adding that the group was part of the Buffalo Battalion, a South African corps of Sao Tome ex-mercenaries. According to the minister, it is the same group that in 2003 already attempted to overthrow the government, seizing control of the nation for nine days before retreating in exchange for amnesty, the formation of a new government and new elections. President de Menezes was also in office at the time, then confirmed in 2006.

Egypt to make significant troop contribution to MONUC

Xinhua
17 February 2009

L'Egypte a décidé de participer à la mission de maintien de la paix de l'ONU en République démocratique du Congo (RDC) en envoyant 1,325 soldats, a annoncé mardi le ministère égyptien des Affaires étrangères.

La force de maintien de la paix égyptienne forte de 1 325 effectifs sera déployée dans l'est de la RDC, a précisé le porte- parole du ministère égyptien des Affaires étrangères, Hossam Zaki, dans un communiqué.

M. Zaki a indiqué que 17 000 soldats sont déployés actuellement en RDC, ajoutant que 3 000 soldats supplémentaires seront envoyés pour renforcer la mission.

SLA Leader Met with Mossad.

Mail & Guardian
16 February 2009

A Sudanese rebel leader met secretly with top Israeli spy officials in Israel earlier this month, Israeli defence officials said on Monday.

The officials would not disclose the substance of the talks between Abdulwahid al-Nur of the Sudan Liberation Movement and officials from Israel's Mossad spy agency. Israel claims weapons have reached Gaza Strip militants via Sudan and that Palestinian militants operate there.

The meeting took place on the sidelines of a security conference Elnur attended, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was confidential. The Defence Ministry had no immediate comment.

Last year, Elnur's group opened an office in Israel, which granted temporary residency status to 600 Sudanese who fled the massacres in their country's vast western Darfur region.

"We must forge new alliances, no longer based upon race or religion, but upon shared values of freedom and democracy. This is why we opened a representative office in Israel," he said at the time.

Elnur has said in the past that he favours establishing ties with Israel and opening an Israeli Embassy in Khartoum. Sudan considers Israel an enemy state and has no diplomatic relations with it. Elnur could not immediately be reached for comment on Monday.

Elnur fled to France in 2007 and has lived in exile since.

The SLM was founded in 1992, three years after President Omar al-Bashir took power in a military coup, and took up arms in 2003, the year the war in Darfur began. Today it is the largest rebel group, though it has fractured into splinter movements.

Croatia Says Will Investigate Alleged Missing Military Documents.

Institute for War and Peace Reporting
13 February 2009
By Goran Jungvirth in Zagreb

Croatian justice minister Ivan Simonovic pledged this week to clear up the mystery surrounding 33 military documents the Hague tribunal claims have been withheld by the Zagreb government.

The alleged documents – that the authorities in Croatia deny and knowledge of but which the tribunal insist exist – apparently relate to Operation Storm in July 1995, a military attack during which Croatian troops seized the Krajina region from Serb rebels. Three senior officers are on trial for the abuse of civilians during the operation.

Prosecutors believe the papers will help their case against three Croatian army generals – Ante Gotovina, Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac – currently standing trial at the Hague tribunal for war crimes committed against Serb civilians during the operation. Their trial started in March last year and is still in the prosecution phase.

During meetings in Brussels this week, Serge Brammertz, the chief prosecutor of the Hague tribunal, will inform European Union officials about the extent of Croatia's cooperation with his office – a key factor in Croatia’s hopes of joining the EU.

The availability or otherwise of the documents, which are thought to detail the activities of Croatia's artillery and special police forces during Operation Storm, could be key to that assessment.

In June last year, Brammertz asked judges to issue an order against the Croatian authorities, compelling them to hand over evidence from their state archives.

In their submission, prosecutors listed an estimated 1,000 pages of documents and maps which they believed to exist, but which had not been produced by Croatia – including 311 pages of artillery documents related to Operation Storm.

Prosecutors also outlined the reasons why they believe these documents must exist.

They explained that they had worked out from other Croatian documents in their possession, as well as from Croatian army rules, that it was necessary to produce certain documentation when conducting an artillery attack, such as Operation Storm.

They also noted that Croatia had supplied material to the tribunal revealing that “beginning in at least 1996, in a series of operations… Croatian authorities collected and concealed from the [tribunal], documents that could potentially incriminate Croatian accused or negatively affect Croatia’s national interest”.

However, at that time, Croatia’s deputy prime minister Jadranka Kosor told reporters that although the country was “sincerely and fully” cooperating with the tribunal, it couldn't surrender the documents in question because it didn't have them.

In response to the prosecutor’s submission, judges issued an order in September 2008, telling Croatia to intensify and broaden its investigation to find the documents requested by the prosecution and hand over any it found.

A prosecution document from January 19, 2009, noted that Croatia had “made several submissions and provided voluminous documentation in an effort to demonstrate its compliance with” the judges’ order.

But it said that Zagreb had provided only two of the missing artillery documents that prosecutors had requested.

“Croatia has failed to investigate key areas of inquiry, failed to obtain adequate information from key individuals, and failed to adequately analyse or account for the information it has collected,” said the submission.

“Although the evidence collected by Croatia supports the conclusion that the bulk of the missing documents were created and preserved, Croatia continues to deny that many of these documents exist.

“Croatia has made implausible claims to support their non-existence that are, for the most part, contradicted by the evidence Croatia has itself collected.”

In a piece published in Croatian daily Vecernji List on January 3, Brammertz expressed his doubts about the Croatian government’s claims not to have the documents, saying it seemed “very unlikely that key documents related to a major military operation might simply disappear”.

“We have reason to believe that some people have intentionally removed or hidden those documents,” he said.

This week, Simonovic said it was “critical to establish which documents did and which didn't exist”.

“The Hague prosecution and Croatian experts will identify each document and establish whether it was [ever] produced [by the authorities],” he said.

If a document had been produced in the past, but now can’t be found, then they will establish why it has become unavailable, he added.

“We are now checking if those 33 documents existed. Therefore, there will be no more category of ‘documents which might have existed’ after [that date],” said Simonovic.

If it is established that documents had been destroyed or removed, those responsible will be prosecuted, he said.

Court Lets Karadzic Talk to Journalist.

Institute for War and Peace Reporting
13 February 2009
By Simon Jennings in The Hague

A judge at the Hague tribunal has this week granted permission to former Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic to be interviewed by a Dutch reporter from his cell.

Karadzic wrote to the tribunal in October last year requesting permission to give a face-to-face interview to the press inside the United Nations Detention Unit, UNDU.

“For many years, the prosecutor and others have demonised me in the media without any opportunity for me to present my side of the story,” he argued, in an apparent reference to former chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte.

The court’s registry initially rejected his request, saying that allowing a journalist into the UNDU constituted “a real threat to the safety and security” of the prison, while “the possibility of sensational reporting” could interfere with the administration of justice.

On appeal, however, tribunal vice-president Judge O-Gon Kwon overruled the registry, saying that although the journalist could not enter the prison, Karadzic could contact her by letter or telephone.

The judge ruled on February 12 that in failing to consider other means by which Karadzic could communicate with the journalist, the registry had placed “an unreasonable and disproportionate restriction on [his] freedom of expression”.

“It seems quite apparent to me that it is possible for [Karadzic] to contact the media in such a way that does not compromise the security and safety of UNDU,” ruled Judge Kwon.

Karadzic is on trial at the Hague tribunal charged with 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity carried out in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995.

The charges against him include responsibility for the 1995 Srebrenica genocide when nearly 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were massacred, as well as the 44-month siege of Sarajevo, which resulted in approximately 12,000 civilian deaths.

In his appeal of the initial decision, Karadzic argued that after his arrest in July 2008, the prosecution had issued statements and that it was “only fair” that he be allowed to express his views as well.

Karadzic will now be allowed to communicate directly with Zvezdana Vukojevic, a journalist from Dutch magazine Revu, under the supervision of the court.

He said in his application to give the interview that he wishes to tell her about an agreement that he claims he made with former United States envoy Richard Holbrooke, who allegedly promised him immunity from prosecution in return for quitting politics.

Although the registry had argued that Karadzic may try to use the interview to make political statements, Judge Kwon ruled that a discussion of the alleged immunity agreement would not compromise the tribunal in any way.

“I therefore do not consider it reasonable for the registrar to conclude that the topic for discussion alone is reason to prohibit communication with Ms Vukojevic,” said the judge.

It is common practice for lawyers representing defendants at the tribunal to speak with the press. However, since Karadzic is representing himself during his trial, he does not have someone to present his case in either the courtroom or in the media.

Self-representing defendants have previously caused controversy by courting publicity.

Serb politician Vojislav Seselj, who is also serving as his own counsel, had his trial adjourned indefinitely this week due to fears he has intimidated prosecution witnesses. Prosecutors asked for the adjournment on the grounds that witnesses were being intimidated and judges granted the request.

That followed a ruling in December 2003, when the court limited Seselj’s communication to just his family and legal counsel after he spoke directly to the Serbian media from a telephone in the prison.

Seselj’s legal representatives have denied that he is involved in intimidating witnesses.

Former Serb president Slobodan Milosevic, who died in the UNDU in 2006 before his trial concluded, also sought to run his own defence in a way that was seen as politicising the proceedings and gaining himself maximum publicity.

However, Judge Kwon noted that the registry had not mentioned any signs of Karadzic wanting to undermine the tribunal.

“[Karadzic] has not made an excessive or unreasonable number of requests of this nature and the topic for discussion is limited and has been disclosed to the registrar,” wrote the judge.

Karadzic’s legal adviser, Peter Robinson, welcomed Judge Kwon’s decision.

“We are pleased with the decision of the vice-president that allows Dr Karadzic to have contact with journalists. Dr Karadzic looks forward to telling his side of the story,” he told IWPR.

Observers of international justice also saw the ruling as a step forward.

“I think it’s probably a good decision because it shows that restrictions should only be imposed when there are specific circumstances that justify those restrictions,” Alex Whiting, a former prosecutor at the tribunal, told IWPR.

“If it turns out that in making these exceptions it becomes a problem, it becomes disruptive, then perhaps a general ban will be justified, but at this stage I think it’s good to approach it on a case-by-case basis.”

Simon Jennings is an IWPR reporter in The Hague.

U.S. Woos Igbo Speakers to Join U.S. Military.

This Day
16 February 2009

Paul Ohia With Agency Report
16 February 2009

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Lagos — The United States Army is wooing skilled immigrants including those who can speak Igbo language by offering them a chance to become citizens in as little as six months.

For foreigners who live in the US on temporary visas, it often takes more than a decade to get citizenship.

As part of the Army's one-year pilot programme, to begin in New York City, it will recruit about 550 temporary immigrants who speak one or more of 35 languages, including Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Igbo (a tongue spoken in Nigeria), Kurdish, Nepalese, Pashto, Russian and Tamil, the New York Times reported Saturday.

Spanish speakers are not eligible.

Immigrants, who are permanent residents holding green cards, and have lived in the US for at least two years will be eligible to join, officials said.

"The American Army finds itself in a lot of different countries where cultural awareness is critical," said Lt. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley, the top recruitment officer for the US Army. "There will be some very talented folks in this group."

The programme will begin small - limited to 1,000 enlistees nationwide in its first year.

Immigrants serving in the US Army can apply to become citizens on the first day of active service, and they can take the oath in as little as six months.

If the pilot programme succeeds as Pentagon officials anticipate, it will expand for all branches of the military. For the army, it could eventually provide as many as 14,000 volunteers a year, or about one in six recruits.

Recruiters expect that the immigrants will have more education, foreign language skills and professional expertise than many Americans who enlist, helping the military to fill shortages in medical care, language interpretation and field intelligence analysis.

"The Army will gain in its strength in human capital. And the immigrants will gain their citizenship and get on a ramp to the American dream," General Freakley said.

The Army's programme will also include recruitment of about 300 medical professionals nationwide. Recruiting will start after the Department of Homeland officials update an immigration rule in coming days.

Language experts will have to serve four years of active duty, and health care professionals will serve three years of active duty or six years in the reserves. If the immigrants do not complete their service honourably, they could lose their citizenship, the report said.

About 8,000 permanent immigrants with green cards join the US armed forces annually, the Pentagon reports, and about 29,000 foreign-born people currently serving are not American citizens.