BBC News
17 March 2009
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/hardtalk/7948535.stm
Editor's Note: You must have Real Player installed to watch the interview on this website.
Alternate site: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=2FB04FD33AFB907D&search_query=hardtalk+bbc+kagame
In a Hardtalk interview broadcast on 17th March 2009, Stephen Sackur talks to Paul Kagame, the current President of the country of Rwanda.
As the global economic downturn continues to bite, Paul Kagame, the President of Rwanda, has been impressing on western leaders not to scale back their support for Africa.
His case, however, has not been helped by widespread western donor countries' unease about Rwanda's role in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.
Does Rwanda risk losing international support as it flexes its regional muscle?
President Kagame talks to Hardtalk interviewer Stephen Sackur.
This interview will be shown on BBC World News at 0430, 0930, 1430, 1830 (except Middle East and South Asia) and 2130 GMT.
HARDtalk is also broadcast on the BBC News channel at 04:30 & 23:30 GMT.
21 March, 2009
Niger to sell 400 tons of uranium per year to South Korea as from 2010.
African Press Agency
20 March 2009
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Korea Resources Corporation (Kores) Kim Shin said his group has signed an agreement of intent with the Nigerien government for the delivery of over 400 tons of uranium per year, state-owned radio Voice of the Sahel reported here Friday.
The agreement of intent, which takes effect in 2010, was signed between the South Korean company and the Nigerien Minister of Mines, the South Korean businessman said, praising the “quality” of Niger’s uranium Mr Shin has not however disclosed the amount of this agreement, which includes the Nigerien strategy for direct sales of uranium, once granted exclusively by the French group AREVA.
In 2007, the government of Niger had sold nearly 300 tons of uranium to the American company “Exelon” for an amount estimated at about 20 billion CFA francs.
20 March 2009
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Korea Resources Corporation (Kores) Kim Shin said his group has signed an agreement of intent with the Nigerien government for the delivery of over 400 tons of uranium per year, state-owned radio Voice of the Sahel reported here Friday.
The agreement of intent, which takes effect in 2010, was signed between the South Korean company and the Nigerien Minister of Mines, the South Korean businessman said, praising the “quality” of Niger’s uranium Mr Shin has not however disclosed the amount of this agreement, which includes the Nigerien strategy for direct sales of uranium, once granted exclusively by the French group AREVA.
In 2007, the government of Niger had sold nearly 300 tons of uranium to the American company “Exelon” for an amount estimated at about 20 billion CFA francs.
Nigeria signs accord for uranium mining with Russia.
Afrol News
20 March 2009
Nigeria’s Federal government has signed an energy accord with a Russian company, Rosatom Corp, to work on mining uranium, building and testing atomic power plants and sharing knowledge.
The memorandum of understanding signed in Moscow would pave the way for a bilateral cooperation on the development of nuclear energy infrastructure, including on nuclear power plants and research reactors in Nigeria.
Russia would also assist Nigeria in the field of nuclear research and in the production and use of radioisotopes.
The memorandum also covers the joint prospecting and development of uranium deposits in Nigeria. Following the signing of the memorandum, the two countries will now draft a full intergovernmental cooperation agreement, according to local reports.
To address rapidly increasing base-load electricity demand, Nigeria has sought the support of the International Atomic Energy Agency to develop plans for up to 4000 MW of nuclear capacity by 2025.
Nigeria is Africa's most populous country and its power demand is expected to reach 10,000 MW by end of the year. The current grid-supplied capacity is 2600 MW.
20 March 2009
Nigeria’s Federal government has signed an energy accord with a Russian company, Rosatom Corp, to work on mining uranium, building and testing atomic power plants and sharing knowledge.
The memorandum of understanding signed in Moscow would pave the way for a bilateral cooperation on the development of nuclear energy infrastructure, including on nuclear power plants and research reactors in Nigeria.
Russia would also assist Nigeria in the field of nuclear research and in the production and use of radioisotopes.
The memorandum also covers the joint prospecting and development of uranium deposits in Nigeria. Following the signing of the memorandum, the two countries will now draft a full intergovernmental cooperation agreement, according to local reports.
To address rapidly increasing base-load electricity demand, Nigeria has sought the support of the International Atomic Energy Agency to develop plans for up to 4000 MW of nuclear capacity by 2025.
Nigeria is Africa's most populous country and its power demand is expected to reach 10,000 MW by end of the year. The current grid-supplied capacity is 2600 MW.
20 March, 2009
U.S. Envoy Is Cleared of Fraud on Arms.
New York Times
18 February 2009
By Eric Schmitt
The United States ambassador to Albania has been cleared of allegations that he helped cover up the illegal Chinese origins of ammunition that a Pentagon contractor bought to supply Afghan security forces, the State Department said Wednesday.
Last year, a military attaché at the embassy told investigators from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that the ambassador, John L. Withers II, endorsed a plan by the Albanian defense minister to hide several boxes of Chinese ammunition from a visiting reporter. The ammunition was being repackaged to disguise its origins and shipped from Albania to Afghanistan by a Miami Beach arms-dealing company, AEY Inc.
Mr. Withers, a Foreign Service officer for 25 years, adamantly denied the account of the attaché, Maj. Larry D. Harrison II, and said he and other embassy personnel worked closely with federal investigators looking into military procurement fraud. The Justice Department and acting State Department inspector general, Harold W. Geisel, were called in to examine the matter, which involved five other embassy employees.
“The inspector general has reviewed all the evidence made available and found nothing to substantiate criminal or any other allegations concerning Department of State employees,” Robert A. Wood, the department’s acting spokesman, said in a statement.
According to Major Harrison’s testimony, Mr. Withers met with the defense minister, Fatmir Mediu, on Nov. 19, 2007, hours before a reporter for The New York Times was to visit the American contractor’s operations in Tirana, the Albanian capital. AEY, under an Army contract, bought the ammunition to supply Afghan security forces, although American law prohibits trading in Chinese arms.
Major Harrison, who attended the late-night meeting, told House investigators that Mr. Withers went along with Mr. Mediu’s order to the commanding general of Albania’s military to remove the boxes of ammunition. But Mr. Wood said the major’s account was unfounded and that the ambassador and his team “performed exactly as we would have expected them to do.”
18 February 2009
By Eric Schmitt
The United States ambassador to Albania has been cleared of allegations that he helped cover up the illegal Chinese origins of ammunition that a Pentagon contractor bought to supply Afghan security forces, the State Department said Wednesday.
Last year, a military attaché at the embassy told investigators from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that the ambassador, John L. Withers II, endorsed a plan by the Albanian defense minister to hide several boxes of Chinese ammunition from a visiting reporter. The ammunition was being repackaged to disguise its origins and shipped from Albania to Afghanistan by a Miami Beach arms-dealing company, AEY Inc.
Mr. Withers, a Foreign Service officer for 25 years, adamantly denied the account of the attaché, Maj. Larry D. Harrison II, and said he and other embassy personnel worked closely with federal investigators looking into military procurement fraud. The Justice Department and acting State Department inspector general, Harold W. Geisel, were called in to examine the matter, which involved five other embassy employees.
“The inspector general has reviewed all the evidence made available and found nothing to substantiate criminal or any other allegations concerning Department of State employees,” Robert A. Wood, the department’s acting spokesman, said in a statement.
According to Major Harrison’s testimony, Mr. Withers met with the defense minister, Fatmir Mediu, on Nov. 19, 2007, hours before a reporter for The New York Times was to visit the American contractor’s operations in Tirana, the Albanian capital. AEY, under an Army contract, bought the ammunition to supply Afghan security forces, although American law prohibits trading in Chinese arms.
Major Harrison, who attended the late-night meeting, told House investigators that Mr. Withers went along with Mr. Mediu’s order to the commanding general of Albania’s military to remove the boxes of ammunition. But Mr. Wood said the major’s account was unfounded and that the ambassador and his team “performed exactly as we would have expected them to do.”
Turkish firm to transit Iran's gas to Europe.
Tehran Times
via Alexander's Gas and Oil Connections
22 February 2009
National Iranian Gas Export Company (NIGEC) and a Turkish entity signed a letter of agreement in Tehran to export Iran's natural gas to Europe via Turkey.
NIGEC Managing Director Seyyed Reza Kassaizadeh said that the company has required the Turkish side to receive their government's permission for the transfer of up to 35 bn cf of gas per year.
A new company will be established in this regard of which NIGEC will have 50 % of the shares.
For the time being, the Persian Pipeline and Nabucco are the two most viable routes for the transfer of Iranian natural gas to Europe.
via Alexander's Gas and Oil Connections
22 February 2009
National Iranian Gas Export Company (NIGEC) and a Turkish entity signed a letter of agreement in Tehran to export Iran's natural gas to Europe via Turkey.
NIGEC Managing Director Seyyed Reza Kassaizadeh said that the company has required the Turkish side to receive their government's permission for the transfer of up to 35 bn cf of gas per year.
A new company will be established in this regard of which NIGEC will have 50 % of the shares.
For the time being, the Persian Pipeline and Nabucco are the two most viable routes for the transfer of Iranian natural gas to Europe.
Total signs agreement with Libya's NOC to convert existing contracts.
Gulf Oil and Gas
via Alexander's Gas and Oil Connections
10 February 2009
Total announces the signature of a MoU with Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) converting the existing Petroleum Contracts covering the Blocks C17 and C137, operated by its subsidiary Mabruk Oil Operations, to EPSA IV format.
The blocks are respectively located in the onshore Sirte Basin and the offshore Sabratha Basin around 100 km from the Libyan coast.
Total has a 75 % working interest of the Second Party share in each block, with StatoilHydro holding the remaining 25 % of Block C17 and Wintershall the remaining 25 % of Block C137.
Total takes the opportunity to reinvigorate its investment policy in Libya and positions itself as a strategic and privileged partner over the long term.
In addition to production from the offshore Al Jurf field in Block C137 and from the Mabruk field in Block C17 in the Sirte Basin, Total operates a number of other exploration licenses in Libya.
In 2008, Total's equity production in Libya, which also includes its interests in non-operated blocks, averaged around 75,000 barrels of oil per day.
via Alexander's Gas and Oil Connections
10 February 2009
Total announces the signature of a MoU with Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) converting the existing Petroleum Contracts covering the Blocks C17 and C137, operated by its subsidiary Mabruk Oil Operations, to EPSA IV format.
The blocks are respectively located in the onshore Sirte Basin and the offshore Sabratha Basin around 100 km from the Libyan coast.
Total has a 75 % working interest of the Second Party share in each block, with StatoilHydro holding the remaining 25 % of Block C17 and Wintershall the remaining 25 % of Block C137.
Total takes the opportunity to reinvigorate its investment policy in Libya and positions itself as a strategic and privileged partner over the long term.
In addition to production from the offshore Al Jurf field in Block C137 and from the Mabruk field in Block C17 in the Sirte Basin, Total operates a number of other exploration licenses in Libya.
In 2008, Total's equity production in Libya, which also includes its interests in non-operated blocks, averaged around 75,000 barrels of oil per day.
CNDP Begins Building Chad Oil Refinery.
Economic Times
via Alexander's Gas and Oil Connections
16 February 2009
CNPC is building a 53,000 bpd in which it will jointly own with Chad's Ministry of Petroleum.
According to a report, the refinery is expected to have a capacity of about 21,000-bpd from Phase I. The refinery is expected to complete construction and begin production in 2011, processing crude from Zone H of the Sedigui oil field.
CNPC is expected to sign for design, engineering, procurement, and construction contracts this year, as well as firm up long-term equipment, raw-material purchasing, and transportation.
via Alexander's Gas and Oil Connections
16 February 2009
CNPC is building a 53,000 bpd in which it will jointly own with Chad's Ministry of Petroleum.
According to a report, the refinery is expected to have a capacity of about 21,000-bpd from Phase I. The refinery is expected to complete construction and begin production in 2011, processing crude from Zone H of the Sedigui oil field.
CNPC is expected to sign for design, engineering, procurement, and construction contracts this year, as well as firm up long-term equipment, raw-material purchasing, and transportation.
Obama envoy Holbrooke served on AIG's board.
By RICHARD LARDNER
19 March 2009
Associated Press Writer
Obama administration special envoy Richard Holbooke was on the American International Group Inc. board of directors in early 2008 when the insurance company locked in the bonuses now stoking national outrage. Holbrooke, a veteran diplomat who is now the administration's point man on Pakistan and Afghanistan, served on the board between 2001 and mid-2008.
During that period, AIG undertook the aggressive investment strategies that led to a near-collapse and forced a multibillion-dollar federal bailout.
President Barack Obama has insisted his administration was not responsible for AIG's financial woes, and a White House spokesman said Thursday that Holbrooke was unaware of AIG's decision to award retention bonuses to key employees.
"Mr. Holbrooke had nothing to do with and knew nothing about the bonuses," spokesman Tommy Vietor said.
Close to $165 million in bonus money was paid last weekend.
It remains unclear whether AIG's decision to grant the bonuses ever came before the board. A Holbrooke spokesman declined comment, referring calls to the White House.
Obama named Holbrooke as a special envoy on Jan. 22, two days after taking office. Vietor said administration officials were aware of Holbrooke's work for AIG during background checks this year — when AIG already had benefited from federal intervention.
"Disclosure of past board membership is part of the vetting process," Vietor said.
Holbrooke was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the final two years of the Clinton administration. and architect of the 1995 accord that ended the war in Bosnia.
Holbrooke joined AIG's board in February 2001 and resigned in July 2008, two months before the company nearly collapsed. Over more than seven years as a board member, he may have earned as much as $800,000 in cash and company stock, according to AIG financial documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Since September, AIG has received $180 billion in taxpayer money to keep it from failing and causing more damage to the U.S. economy.
An AIG spokesman did not respond to telephone calls and e-mails Thursday.
Obama this week blasted AIG for what he described as the company's reckless course. He also defended his administration's handling of the company's rescue.
"Nobody here was responsible for supervising AIG and allowing themselves to put the economy at risk by some of the outrageous behavior that they were engaged in," the president said.
Vietor said Holbrooke "has not discussed AIG with the president, Treasury or any other member of the administration."
AIG chose to approve the executive bonuses in the spring of 2008 "despite obvious signs the 2008 performance would be disastrous in comparison to the year before," New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo wrote the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday. Cuomo's office is investigating AIG's executive compensation programs.
For large companies such as AIG, boards of directors are typically made up of high-profile figures from business and academia.
Boards are expected to give the company's top leaders unvarnished advice. But with AIG on life support, the quality of the guidance the company received from its board is under fire.
"The role of a board is to keep a company from going over a cliff," said Robert Litan, an expert on financial institutions at The Brookings Institution in Washington. "I wouldn't be surprised if, in a future lawsuit, a court were to find the (AIG) directors behaved negligently."
For much of tenure on the AIG board, Holbrooke had a role in approving salaries and compensation. From 2001 until mid-2005, he was a member of the board's compensation committee. According to AIG financial statements, the committee sets the salary for the company's chief executive officer and gives advice on how other senior managers are to be compensated.
Holbrooke also led the board's public policy and social responsibility committee from 2005 through July 2008. The committee assesses how political and public policy issues might affect the company's business operations, performance and corporate reputation, according to AIG.
The actual amounts Holbrooke received as an AIG board member are difficult to pinpoint. Before 2005, the SEC reporting requirements did not call for dollar figures to be attached to the stock and option awards for directors. AIG stock awarded for board service may now be worth far less than the value it had originally.
According to the SEC filings, AIG paid Holbrooke $267,943 in fees and stock awards in 2007; he was paid $232,865 in 2006. Compensation figures for the six months he was on the board in 2008 are not yet available. By prorating his 2007 compensation, he could have earned about $107,500 in directors fees and stock.
Between 2001 and 2005 the records indicate he earned $200,000 in director's fees. He also received 2,400 shares of AIG stock and options to purchase 10,000 more during that period.
__
Associated Press writer Matthew Lee and researcher Randy Herschaft contributed to this report.
19 March 2009
Associated Press Writer
Obama administration special envoy Richard Holbooke was on the American International Group Inc. board of directors in early 2008 when the insurance company locked in the bonuses now stoking national outrage. Holbrooke, a veteran diplomat who is now the administration's point man on Pakistan and Afghanistan, served on the board between 2001 and mid-2008.
During that period, AIG undertook the aggressive investment strategies that led to a near-collapse and forced a multibillion-dollar federal bailout.
President Barack Obama has insisted his administration was not responsible for AIG's financial woes, and a White House spokesman said Thursday that Holbrooke was unaware of AIG's decision to award retention bonuses to key employees.
"Mr. Holbrooke had nothing to do with and knew nothing about the bonuses," spokesman Tommy Vietor said.
Close to $165 million in bonus money was paid last weekend.
It remains unclear whether AIG's decision to grant the bonuses ever came before the board. A Holbrooke spokesman declined comment, referring calls to the White House.
Obama named Holbrooke as a special envoy on Jan. 22, two days after taking office. Vietor said administration officials were aware of Holbrooke's work for AIG during background checks this year — when AIG already had benefited from federal intervention.
"Disclosure of past board membership is part of the vetting process," Vietor said.
Holbrooke was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the final two years of the Clinton administration. and architect of the 1995 accord that ended the war in Bosnia.
Holbrooke joined AIG's board in February 2001 and resigned in July 2008, two months before the company nearly collapsed. Over more than seven years as a board member, he may have earned as much as $800,000 in cash and company stock, according to AIG financial documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Since September, AIG has received $180 billion in taxpayer money to keep it from failing and causing more damage to the U.S. economy.
An AIG spokesman did not respond to telephone calls and e-mails Thursday.
Obama this week blasted AIG for what he described as the company's reckless course. He also defended his administration's handling of the company's rescue.
"Nobody here was responsible for supervising AIG and allowing themselves to put the economy at risk by some of the outrageous behavior that they were engaged in," the president said.
Vietor said Holbrooke "has not discussed AIG with the president, Treasury or any other member of the administration."
AIG chose to approve the executive bonuses in the spring of 2008 "despite obvious signs the 2008 performance would be disastrous in comparison to the year before," New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo wrote the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday. Cuomo's office is investigating AIG's executive compensation programs.
For large companies such as AIG, boards of directors are typically made up of high-profile figures from business and academia.
Boards are expected to give the company's top leaders unvarnished advice. But with AIG on life support, the quality of the guidance the company received from its board is under fire.
"The role of a board is to keep a company from going over a cliff," said Robert Litan, an expert on financial institutions at The Brookings Institution in Washington. "I wouldn't be surprised if, in a future lawsuit, a court were to find the (AIG) directors behaved negligently."
For much of tenure on the AIG board, Holbrooke had a role in approving salaries and compensation. From 2001 until mid-2005, he was a member of the board's compensation committee. According to AIG financial statements, the committee sets the salary for the company's chief executive officer and gives advice on how other senior managers are to be compensated.
Holbrooke also led the board's public policy and social responsibility committee from 2005 through July 2008. The committee assesses how political and public policy issues might affect the company's business operations, performance and corporate reputation, according to AIG.
The actual amounts Holbrooke received as an AIG board member are difficult to pinpoint. Before 2005, the SEC reporting requirements did not call for dollar figures to be attached to the stock and option awards for directors. AIG stock awarded for board service may now be worth far less than the value it had originally.
According to the SEC filings, AIG paid Holbrooke $267,943 in fees and stock awards in 2007; he was paid $232,865 in 2006. Compensation figures for the six months he was on the board in 2008 are not yet available. By prorating his 2007 compensation, he could have earned about $107,500 in directors fees and stock.
Between 2001 and 2005 the records indicate he earned $200,000 in director's fees. He also received 2,400 shares of AIG stock and options to purchase 10,000 more during that period.
__
Associated Press writer Matthew Lee and researcher Randy Herschaft contributed to this report.
19 March, 2009
Libya Mulls Takeover of Verenex, Blocks China's Offer.
by Nancy Agin
Rigzone 3/18/2009
URL: http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=74123
According to a report by Dow Jones Newswires, a top Libyan oil official has claimed that Libya intends to exercise its first right of refusal and will lodge its own takeover bid for Canadian oil producer Verenex's assets. Libya's plan will block a $400 million offer to acquire Verenex from China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC).
Shokri Ghanem, head of the Libyan National Oil Co. (NOC) told Dow Jones that the state-run company will pay the same amount as CNPC and that Libya is seeking Verenex's "commercial interest" as part of its effort to increase the North African country's oil production capacity to nearly 3 million barrels a day by 2013. Currently, Libya has an estimated 42 billion barrels in proven oil reserves.
"There are some formalities we are working out, but we are going to exercise our right to buy Verenex assets," Ghanem reported to Dow Jones.
The report noted that Verenex's primary asset is a 50% stake in an oil block located in Libya's hydrocarbon-rich Ghadames Basin, where the company has made 10 oil and gas discoveries to date.
In February, Calgary-based Verenex announced that CNPC agreed to purchase the company; however, a preemption clause has gridlocked the deal since it grants the Libyan government the right to acquire Verenex for its own portfolio.
Verenex issued a statement today in which the company said it could not confirm whether Libya plans to buy the company. Verenex and asset-hungry China are still awaiting Libya's official decision.
Rigzone 3/18/2009
URL: http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=74123
According to a report by Dow Jones Newswires, a top Libyan oil official has claimed that Libya intends to exercise its first right of refusal and will lodge its own takeover bid for Canadian oil producer Verenex's assets. Libya's plan will block a $400 million offer to acquire Verenex from China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC).
Shokri Ghanem, head of the Libyan National Oil Co. (NOC) told Dow Jones that the state-run company will pay the same amount as CNPC and that Libya is seeking Verenex's "commercial interest" as part of its effort to increase the North African country's oil production capacity to nearly 3 million barrels a day by 2013. Currently, Libya has an estimated 42 billion barrels in proven oil reserves.
"There are some formalities we are working out, but we are going to exercise our right to buy Verenex assets," Ghanem reported to Dow Jones.
The report noted that Verenex's primary asset is a 50% stake in an oil block located in Libya's hydrocarbon-rich Ghadames Basin, where the company has made 10 oil and gas discoveries to date.
In February, Calgary-based Verenex announced that CNPC agreed to purchase the company; however, a preemption clause has gridlocked the deal since it grants the Libyan government the right to acquire Verenex for its own portfolio.
Verenex issued a statement today in which the company said it could not confirm whether Libya plans to buy the company. Verenex and asset-hungry China are still awaiting Libya's official decision.
18 March, 2009
Dwyka secures full-ownership of Burundi nickel project.
Mining Weekly
13 March 2009
ASX- and Aim-listed Dwyka Resources, through its wholly owned subsidiary Danyland, has secured full ownership of the Muremera nickel project, in Burundi, following an agreement with diversified mining giant BHP Billiton.
The company would now proceed with the planned exploration programme.
Dwyka has identified the three highest priority targets in its exploration programme for drilling. The targets were about 10 km from the Barrick/Xstrata Kabanga project, which was currently the world’s largest undeveloped nickel sulphide project.
There was also a number of other identified drilling targets. However, the three located near Kabanga would be the immediate focus of the exploration programme, which was expected to start in May this year.
Despite BHP having satisfied its earn-in requirements to be entitled to a 10% interest in the project through its investment of some $7,3-million into the project, Dwyka would retain 100% ownership.
Edited by: Mariaan Webb
13 March 2009
ASX- and Aim-listed Dwyka Resources, through its wholly owned subsidiary Danyland, has secured full ownership of the Muremera nickel project, in Burundi, following an agreement with diversified mining giant BHP Billiton.
The company would now proceed with the planned exploration programme.
Dwyka has identified the three highest priority targets in its exploration programme for drilling. The targets were about 10 km from the Barrick/Xstrata Kabanga project, which was currently the world’s largest undeveloped nickel sulphide project.
There was also a number of other identified drilling targets. However, the three located near Kabanga would be the immediate focus of the exploration programme, which was expected to start in May this year.
Despite BHP having satisfied its earn-in requirements to be entitled to a 10% interest in the project through its investment of some $7,3-million into the project, Dwyka would retain 100% ownership.
Edited by: Mariaan Webb
17 March, 2009
U.S. Panel on Russia Calls for Putting Georgia NATO Bid on Hold, but Will it Become Reality?
Civil Georgia
17 March 2009
A bipartisan panel of former high-level U.S. diplomats and members of Congress recommended that the Obama administration should try to mend ties with Russia in a number of ways, including through putting NATO membership for Georgia and Ukraine on hold.
The 27-member commission, headed by former Senators Chuck Hagel, a Republican, and Gary Hart, a Democrat, said the U.S. administration should accept that neither Ukraine nor Georgia is ready for NATO membership and should “develop options other than NATO membership to demonstrate a commitment to their sovereignty.”
The commission was a joint project of the Washington-based think-tank Nixon Center and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs of Harvard University. Although recognizing the commitments made at NATO’s Bucharest Summit, the report produced by the group - the Right Direction for U.S. Policy toward Russia – reads: “We do not believe that the United States has a compelling security interest in expediting NATO membership for either Ukraine or Georgia at this time.”
“While both are strategically located, their membership in the alliance could decrease rather than increase Europe’s overall security given the realities on the ground in each, especially if it seriously damages relations between NATO, Ukraine, Georgia, and Russia at a time when the United States and NATO face many critical challenges elsewhere,” the report says.
It instead offers “special relationship… short of membership” with these countries that may “serve the same function as membership, and would be a useful way to ensure that those Ukrainians and Georgians seeking to join NATO do not become discouraged.”
According to the Nixon Center commission has shared recommendations with senior officials in the Obama administration, as well as with Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev, during the meeting in Moscow on March 10.
Although acknowledging Russia’s “legitimate interests” in post-Soviet space, the report also notes that it is in the United States’ strategic interest to prevent Russia “from dominating the region bridging Europe, Asia, and the Middle East” and to strongly supporting the independence and sovereignty of countries there.
“Close U.S.-Russian cooperation in Russia’s neighborhood is unlikely, but the United States should avoid zero-sum competition for influence there.” It continues. “Such competition is bound to damage American interests, especially because Russia is located in the region and the United States is not. As a result, attempts to pull countries away from Russia or to block legal Russian activities are unlikely to succeed.”
17 March 2009
A bipartisan panel of former high-level U.S. diplomats and members of Congress recommended that the Obama administration should try to mend ties with Russia in a number of ways, including through putting NATO membership for Georgia and Ukraine on hold.
The 27-member commission, headed by former Senators Chuck Hagel, a Republican, and Gary Hart, a Democrat, said the U.S. administration should accept that neither Ukraine nor Georgia is ready for NATO membership and should “develop options other than NATO membership to demonstrate a commitment to their sovereignty.”
The commission was a joint project of the Washington-based think-tank Nixon Center and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs of Harvard University. Although recognizing the commitments made at NATO’s Bucharest Summit, the report produced by the group - the Right Direction for U.S. Policy toward Russia – reads: “We do not believe that the United States has a compelling security interest in expediting NATO membership for either Ukraine or Georgia at this time.”
“While both are strategically located, their membership in the alliance could decrease rather than increase Europe’s overall security given the realities on the ground in each, especially if it seriously damages relations between NATO, Ukraine, Georgia, and Russia at a time when the United States and NATO face many critical challenges elsewhere,” the report says.
It instead offers “special relationship… short of membership” with these countries that may “serve the same function as membership, and would be a useful way to ensure that those Ukrainians and Georgians seeking to join NATO do not become discouraged.”
According to the Nixon Center commission has shared recommendations with senior officials in the Obama administration, as well as with Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev, during the meeting in Moscow on March 10.
Although acknowledging Russia’s “legitimate interests” in post-Soviet space, the report also notes that it is in the United States’ strategic interest to prevent Russia “from dominating the region bridging Europe, Asia, and the Middle East” and to strongly supporting the independence and sovereignty of countries there.
“Close U.S.-Russian cooperation in Russia’s neighborhood is unlikely, but the United States should avoid zero-sum competition for influence there.” It continues. “Such competition is bound to damage American interests, especially because Russia is located in the region and the United States is not. As a result, attempts to pull countries away from Russia or to block legal Russian activities are unlikely to succeed.”
Burundi ex-rebels start to disarm.
BBC News
17 March 2009
The disarmament of Burundi's last major rebel group, Forces for National Liberation (FNL), has begun after months of delays.
Some 3,000 singing and chanting former rebel fighters began gathering late on Monday at an assembly site in the west of the capital, Bujumbura.
According to a peace deal reached last year, the ex-fighters will now be integrated into civilian life.
The FNL is to form a political party before the elections due in 2010.
"We are happy because we have arrived here. We have been waiting for so long to come. Now we have left the bush," one ex-fighter said.
The exercise was initially due to have been completed by the end of 2008.
17 March 2009
The disarmament of Burundi's last major rebel group, Forces for National Liberation (FNL), has begun after months of delays.
Some 3,000 singing and chanting former rebel fighters began gathering late on Monday at an assembly site in the west of the capital, Bujumbura.
According to a peace deal reached last year, the ex-fighters will now be integrated into civilian life.
The FNL is to form a political party before the elections due in 2010.
"We are happy because we have arrived here. We have been waiting for so long to come. Now we have left the bush," one ex-fighter said.
The exercise was initially due to have been completed by the end of 2008.
Somalia: President Meets With Rwandan President
Shabelle News Network
16 March 2009
By Ahmednor Mohamed Farah
Somalia's new President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed has met with Rwandan leader Paul Kagame after he reached Rwandan capital Kigali, an official told radio Shabelle on Monday.
Mohamed Ali Ameriko, the Somali ambassador to Kenya, who is traveling with the president, told Shabelle radio that President Sheik Sharif and his delegation were welcomed at the airport by Rwandan Prime Minister Bernard Makuza, before he met President Kagame.
President Kagame congratulated Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed for his victory in the presidential election.
The two leaders discussed many issues; primarily the rebuilding of Somalia and training of Somali police forces.
"The Somali President asked his Rwandan counterpart for help in rebuilding government institutions in Somalia after 18 years of war," the Ambassador said.
President Sheikh Sharif visited the memorial where the massacre of 1994 took place.
The president and his delegation visited countries including Kenya, Burundi, Uganda and Rwanda. He is expected to return back to Kenya.
16 March 2009
By Ahmednor Mohamed Farah
Somalia's new President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed has met with Rwandan leader Paul Kagame after he reached Rwandan capital Kigali, an official told radio Shabelle on Monday.
Mohamed Ali Ameriko, the Somali ambassador to Kenya, who is traveling with the president, told Shabelle radio that President Sheik Sharif and his delegation were welcomed at the airport by Rwandan Prime Minister Bernard Makuza, before he met President Kagame.
President Kagame congratulated Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed for his victory in the presidential election.
The two leaders discussed many issues; primarily the rebuilding of Somalia and training of Somali police forces.
"The Somali President asked his Rwandan counterpart for help in rebuilding government institutions in Somalia after 18 years of war," the Ambassador said.
President Sheikh Sharif visited the memorial where the massacre of 1994 took place.
The president and his delegation visited countries including Kenya, Burundi, Uganda and Rwanda. He is expected to return back to Kenya.
16 March, 2009
Nigerian foreign minister due in Moscow for energy talks.
RIA Novosti
16 March 2009
Nigerian Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe will arrive in Moscow on Monday on a three-day visit to discuss bilateral energy and metals projects with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
The foreign ministers are to discuss on Tuesday "implementing major projects in the energy sphere, the ferrous and nonferrous metals industry and other sectors," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko told RIA Novosti.
During the visit, the sides are also due to analyze a package of intergovernmental agreements aimed at boosting bilateral "business and humanitarian contacts."
The international agenda for the visit will include the overall situation in Africa, UN reform, international security, as well as international efforts to overcome the global financial crisis.
The Nigerian foreign minister will also attend the third plenary session of the Russian-Nigerian commission for economic and scientific-technical cooperation, Nesterenko said.
Russian-Nigerian bilateral trade doubled in 2008 to $300 million, making Nigeria Russia's second largest trading partner in Africa.
Resource-rich Nigeria has seen numerous abductions of foreign employees in recent years, including of Russian aluminum giant RusAl. The Russian company has a 77.5 % controlling stake in the Alscon plant in Nigeria.
16 March 2009
Nigerian Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe will arrive in Moscow on Monday on a three-day visit to discuss bilateral energy and metals projects with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
The foreign ministers are to discuss on Tuesday "implementing major projects in the energy sphere, the ferrous and nonferrous metals industry and other sectors," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko told RIA Novosti.
During the visit, the sides are also due to analyze a package of intergovernmental agreements aimed at boosting bilateral "business and humanitarian contacts."
The international agenda for the visit will include the overall situation in Africa, UN reform, international security, as well as international efforts to overcome the global financial crisis.
The Nigerian foreign minister will also attend the third plenary session of the Russian-Nigerian commission for economic and scientific-technical cooperation, Nesterenko said.
Russian-Nigerian bilateral trade doubled in 2008 to $300 million, making Nigeria Russia's second largest trading partner in Africa.
Resource-rich Nigeria has seen numerous abductions of foreign employees in recent years, including of Russian aluminum giant RusAl. The Russian company has a 77.5 % controlling stake in the Alscon plant in Nigeria.
15 March, 2009
Guinea narcostate revealed in TV confessions.
GMA News
15 March 2009
When the planes arrived loaded with cocaine, it was Guinea's presidential guard that secured the cargo.
Drug deals were conducted inside the first lady's private residence and in the president's VIP salon at the international airport. To avoid detection, cocaine was sent to Europe in the country's diplomatic pouch.
As the people of Guinea sit transfixed before their TV sets, top government officials one after another are confessing to their role in a lucrative international cocaine trade. Organized by a military junta that seized power three months ago, the confessions offer unprecedented insight into an exploding drug trade in West Africa, one that connects coca leaves grown in South American fields to cocaine in European discos.
The confessions paint a picture of an illicit trade conducted with total impunity, with the help of officials, members of the president's family and security forces. They also show the large role Guinea and other West African countries are playing as drug hubs, and how vulnerable they are to the corrupting influence of drug dollars.
A recent United Nations report found that at least 46 tons of cocaine have been seized en route to Europe via West Africa since 2005, bringing profits that sometimes exceed the entire defense budgets of countries it passes through. Before that time, less than a ton a year was seized from the entire continent.
"The vast majority of cocaine that is destined for Europe is now going through West Africa," said Michael Braun, who was the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency's operations chief when he retired in October.
For years, the drug trade was an open secret in Guinea. The inner circle of former dictator Lansana Conte, who ruled Guinea for 24 years until his death, was deeply corrupt, with officials driving opulent SUVs in a capital where most people live without electricity.
Conte died in December. A day later, Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara, a junior army officer, grabbed power in a coup and promised to crack down on corruption, including on the flagrant drug trade. So far, more than a dozen people have been arrested, but Dadis has failed to arrest well-known members of his own military junta who are believed to deal in drugs.
The confessions began two weeks ago on state television in what is now known in Guinea as "The Dadis Show," broadcasts that have caused a spike in TV viewership and are the constant topic at lunch and over coffee.
First up was Ousmane Conte, the feared eldest son of the deceased dictator, who was untouchable under the previous regime. He admitted what everyone in Guinea knew but did not dare say.
"I acknowledge that I was in the drug business — and I regret it," said Conte, whose confession was taped inside his detention cell.
In a jailhouse interview this week with The Associated Press, Conte explained how he did it. He said a friend brought in "medicine" for his humanitarian foundation, using a Red Cross plane that landed at night at the international airport in the capital, Conakry. When the plane arrived, his friend called to wake him. Conte then went to the airport accompanied by the presidential guard to secure the cargo, he said.
Conte claimed he did not know at first that the cargo contained cocaine. But his friend later told him, he said, and Conte accepted a $300,000 bribe.
Other officials confessed to equally bold behavior.
The late president's brother-in-law said he met with Latin American drug dealers inside a villa owned by his sister, the former first lady. The head of the country's intelligence unit said he personally accompanied a convoy of trucks containing drugs to the capital. The former head of the police force was challenged to account for the source of funds for a university he is building.
Even the former head of the country's anti-drug unit was interrogated on state TV for his alleged role. The unit was in charge of seizing drugs when a cache was found. But instead of securing and destroying the drugs, the cocaine was often "recycled," said top police officials and foreign diplomats.
A junior police officer said that on one raid, they discovered a 40-foot container filled with cocaine wrapped in plastic. There was so much that the police could not load it all into the two pickup trucks they had brought, said the officer, who asked not to be named because he was committing a crime.
In the confusion, he said, he hid one of the plastic-wrapped sachets of cocaine inside his uniform. He sold it to a buyer at the port, who gave him $15,000. He bought a used car, a TV set and the latest generation Nokia cellphone. He also paid to send his mother, a Muslim, to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
He's not proud of what he did, he said. But he pointed out that his theft was miniscule compared to that of his superiors, several of whom stole enough to buy themselves newly-imported Toyota SUVs.
"Eighty percent of the men in uniform lived off of this — it wasn't just me," he said. "It was everyone."
The anti-drug unit eventually gained such a reputation as a place for easy money that it began to receive transfer applications from other police departments, said current director Moussa Sakho Camara, who was brought in late last year after the former director was sacked.
Camara said that when he took over, a large number of officers drove imported SUVs — $50,000 cars that would have taken over 50 years to buy on an officer's $100-a-month salary. So, in an effort to stop officers from driving their drug trophies to work, Camara ruled that only he could park in the anti-drug unit's parking lot.
The drug business in Guinea feeds into a much larger trade that brings cocaine from South America into Spain and Portugal to serve a booming European market.
As the cocaine market in the United States matured, drug traffickers turned to Europe instead, according to a U.N. report released in October. Over the past decade, cocaine use in Spain and the United Kingdom has grown three and four-fold. One kilogram of cocaine in Europe now sells for twice as much as in the United States, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.
To get the cocaine to Europe, traffickers first smuggle it to Africa's west coast, located directly across the ocean from Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, home to the world's entire crop of coca leaves. They bring it in freighter ships and in small, two-engine planes that land at night on deserted air strips. Once ashore, it is parceled out to hundreds of drug dealers, who smuggle it north on boats, in planes and in their own intestines.
In a report earlier this month, the U.S. State Department said cocaine smuggling through Venezuela alone has shot up fivefold since 2002, from 50 metric tons to an estimated 250 metric tons in 2007. It said a rapidly increasing percentage of the flow has begun to be shipped and flown to West Africa, notably to Guinea and Guinea Bissau, and then on toward Europe.
The countries dotting Africa's Atlantic Coast are so mired in poverty that their people — including the governing elite — are often tempted into the drug trade. Guinea alone was the embarkation point for 221 couriers detected since 2006, the single largest national total in the region, according to the U.N. report.
"Africa is under attack," says Antonio Maria Costa, who heads the Vienna-based U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.
The biggest entry points in Europe are Spain, Portugal and the United Kingdom, but the trade is widespread. In Switzerland alone, the U.N. report noted, 60 percent of foreign drug traffickers arrested were West African.
It's unclear if the crackdown in Guinea will succeed in dislodging the cartels. Even if it does, experts say, the trade will simply move to neighboring countries.
Next door is Sierra Leone, where last June a Cessna piloted by a three-man crew from Latin America was stopped with 700 kilograms of cocaine. To the north is Guinea-Bissau, from where in 2006, 32 people carrying cocaine boarded the same flight for Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport.
But already, the people of Guinea are realizing how much their economy depends on drugs.
Nigerians who acted as go-betweens in the drug trade used to spend freely in Guinea, but they are now gone. Business is down at the capital's discos, where the Nigerians used to order multiple rounds of drinks. For Guineans, a bottle of champagne is worth three months' salary.
Their apparent departure is also being felt at a downtown intersection, where a 14-year-old boy sells telephone charge cards. "Before, selling cards worked. The Nigerians would buy 10 at a time," said Mamadou Diallo. "Now I'm hardly selling any."
There are fewer SUVs, and those who drive expensive cars feel they have been put on notice.
The police officer who admitted to stealing cocaine said he now takes public transport to work. He answers his calls on a beat-up Nokia, and handed over the new one he bought with the cocaine money to his girlfriend.
"Everyone knows that a Guinean can't afford these things," he explained, his knees twitching under the table. "Everybody is afraid. No one could have imagined that they could arrest these people."
15 March 2009
When the planes arrived loaded with cocaine, it was Guinea's presidential guard that secured the cargo.
Drug deals were conducted inside the first lady's private residence and in the president's VIP salon at the international airport. To avoid detection, cocaine was sent to Europe in the country's diplomatic pouch.
As the people of Guinea sit transfixed before their TV sets, top government officials one after another are confessing to their role in a lucrative international cocaine trade. Organized by a military junta that seized power three months ago, the confessions offer unprecedented insight into an exploding drug trade in West Africa, one that connects coca leaves grown in South American fields to cocaine in European discos.
The confessions paint a picture of an illicit trade conducted with total impunity, with the help of officials, members of the president's family and security forces. They also show the large role Guinea and other West African countries are playing as drug hubs, and how vulnerable they are to the corrupting influence of drug dollars.
A recent United Nations report found that at least 46 tons of cocaine have been seized en route to Europe via West Africa since 2005, bringing profits that sometimes exceed the entire defense budgets of countries it passes through. Before that time, less than a ton a year was seized from the entire continent.
"The vast majority of cocaine that is destined for Europe is now going through West Africa," said Michael Braun, who was the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency's operations chief when he retired in October.
For years, the drug trade was an open secret in Guinea. The inner circle of former dictator Lansana Conte, who ruled Guinea for 24 years until his death, was deeply corrupt, with officials driving opulent SUVs in a capital where most people live without electricity.
Conte died in December. A day later, Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara, a junior army officer, grabbed power in a coup and promised to crack down on corruption, including on the flagrant drug trade. So far, more than a dozen people have been arrested, but Dadis has failed to arrest well-known members of his own military junta who are believed to deal in drugs.
The confessions began two weeks ago on state television in what is now known in Guinea as "The Dadis Show," broadcasts that have caused a spike in TV viewership and are the constant topic at lunch and over coffee.
First up was Ousmane Conte, the feared eldest son of the deceased dictator, who was untouchable under the previous regime. He admitted what everyone in Guinea knew but did not dare say.
"I acknowledge that I was in the drug business — and I regret it," said Conte, whose confession was taped inside his detention cell.
In a jailhouse interview this week with The Associated Press, Conte explained how he did it. He said a friend brought in "medicine" for his humanitarian foundation, using a Red Cross plane that landed at night at the international airport in the capital, Conakry. When the plane arrived, his friend called to wake him. Conte then went to the airport accompanied by the presidential guard to secure the cargo, he said.
Conte claimed he did not know at first that the cargo contained cocaine. But his friend later told him, he said, and Conte accepted a $300,000 bribe.
Other officials confessed to equally bold behavior.
The late president's brother-in-law said he met with Latin American drug dealers inside a villa owned by his sister, the former first lady. The head of the country's intelligence unit said he personally accompanied a convoy of trucks containing drugs to the capital. The former head of the police force was challenged to account for the source of funds for a university he is building.
Even the former head of the country's anti-drug unit was interrogated on state TV for his alleged role. The unit was in charge of seizing drugs when a cache was found. But instead of securing and destroying the drugs, the cocaine was often "recycled," said top police officials and foreign diplomats.
A junior police officer said that on one raid, they discovered a 40-foot container filled with cocaine wrapped in plastic. There was so much that the police could not load it all into the two pickup trucks they had brought, said the officer, who asked not to be named because he was committing a crime.
In the confusion, he said, he hid one of the plastic-wrapped sachets of cocaine inside his uniform. He sold it to a buyer at the port, who gave him $15,000. He bought a used car, a TV set and the latest generation Nokia cellphone. He also paid to send his mother, a Muslim, to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
He's not proud of what he did, he said. But he pointed out that his theft was miniscule compared to that of his superiors, several of whom stole enough to buy themselves newly-imported Toyota SUVs.
"Eighty percent of the men in uniform lived off of this — it wasn't just me," he said. "It was everyone."
The anti-drug unit eventually gained such a reputation as a place for easy money that it began to receive transfer applications from other police departments, said current director Moussa Sakho Camara, who was brought in late last year after the former director was sacked.
Camara said that when he took over, a large number of officers drove imported SUVs — $50,000 cars that would have taken over 50 years to buy on an officer's $100-a-month salary. So, in an effort to stop officers from driving their drug trophies to work, Camara ruled that only he could park in the anti-drug unit's parking lot.
The drug business in Guinea feeds into a much larger trade that brings cocaine from South America into Spain and Portugal to serve a booming European market.
As the cocaine market in the United States matured, drug traffickers turned to Europe instead, according to a U.N. report released in October. Over the past decade, cocaine use in Spain and the United Kingdom has grown three and four-fold. One kilogram of cocaine in Europe now sells for twice as much as in the United States, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.
To get the cocaine to Europe, traffickers first smuggle it to Africa's west coast, located directly across the ocean from Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, home to the world's entire crop of coca leaves. They bring it in freighter ships and in small, two-engine planes that land at night on deserted air strips. Once ashore, it is parceled out to hundreds of drug dealers, who smuggle it north on boats, in planes and in their own intestines.
In a report earlier this month, the U.S. State Department said cocaine smuggling through Venezuela alone has shot up fivefold since 2002, from 50 metric tons to an estimated 250 metric tons in 2007. It said a rapidly increasing percentage of the flow has begun to be shipped and flown to West Africa, notably to Guinea and Guinea Bissau, and then on toward Europe.
The countries dotting Africa's Atlantic Coast are so mired in poverty that their people — including the governing elite — are often tempted into the drug trade. Guinea alone was the embarkation point for 221 couriers detected since 2006, the single largest national total in the region, according to the U.N. report.
"Africa is under attack," says Antonio Maria Costa, who heads the Vienna-based U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.
The biggest entry points in Europe are Spain, Portugal and the United Kingdom, but the trade is widespread. In Switzerland alone, the U.N. report noted, 60 percent of foreign drug traffickers arrested were West African.
It's unclear if the crackdown in Guinea will succeed in dislodging the cartels. Even if it does, experts say, the trade will simply move to neighboring countries.
Next door is Sierra Leone, where last June a Cessna piloted by a three-man crew from Latin America was stopped with 700 kilograms of cocaine. To the north is Guinea-Bissau, from where in 2006, 32 people carrying cocaine boarded the same flight for Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport.
But already, the people of Guinea are realizing how much their economy depends on drugs.
Nigerians who acted as go-betweens in the drug trade used to spend freely in Guinea, but they are now gone. Business is down at the capital's discos, where the Nigerians used to order multiple rounds of drinks. For Guineans, a bottle of champagne is worth three months' salary.
Their apparent departure is also being felt at a downtown intersection, where a 14-year-old boy sells telephone charge cards. "Before, selling cards worked. The Nigerians would buy 10 at a time," said Mamadou Diallo. "Now I'm hardly selling any."
There are fewer SUVs, and those who drive expensive cars feel they have been put on notice.
The police officer who admitted to stealing cocaine said he now takes public transport to work. He answers his calls on a beat-up Nokia, and handed over the new one he bought with the cocaine money to his girlfriend.
"Everyone knows that a Guinean can't afford these things," he explained, his knees twitching under the table. "Everybody is afraid. No one could have imagined that they could arrest these people."
Sierra Leone suspends political broadcasts after clashes.
AFP
14 March 2009
Sierra Leone's Vice President Sam Soumana on Saturday suspended radio stations run by the country's two political parties after police used tear gas to break up clashes.
"Following the violence ... it is my decision to suspend the two political parties' radio stations until President Ernest Koroma returns home (from India)," he said.
He warned that "the government will not tolerate any form of violence in the country."
Newly elected chairman of the opposition Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) John Benjamin said "the decision can affect the democratic process."
Calm returned to the capital's business district Saturday following clashes between rival political party supporters after items were thrown at the mayor's vehicle on Friday evening.
Mayor Herbert Williams was returning to his office when ruling All People's Congress (APC) supporters clashed with SLPP supporters. Police used tear gas and batons to charge into the crowd.
Two vehicles parked in the compound of the SLPP office were burnt, party officials said.
The clash followed an earlier incident between the two parties in the eastern border town of Gendema on Thursday in which police said 10 people were arrested.
It occurred during a campaign for a local council election which is being held Saturday.
14 March 2009
Sierra Leone's Vice President Sam Soumana on Saturday suspended radio stations run by the country's two political parties after police used tear gas to break up clashes.
"Following the violence ... it is my decision to suspend the two political parties' radio stations until President Ernest Koroma returns home (from India)," he said.
He warned that "the government will not tolerate any form of violence in the country."
Newly elected chairman of the opposition Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) John Benjamin said "the decision can affect the democratic process."
Calm returned to the capital's business district Saturday following clashes between rival political party supporters after items were thrown at the mayor's vehicle on Friday evening.
Mayor Herbert Williams was returning to his office when ruling All People's Congress (APC) supporters clashed with SLPP supporters. Police used tear gas and batons to charge into the crowd.
Two vehicles parked in the compound of the SLPP office were burnt, party officials said.
The clash followed an earlier incident between the two parties in the eastern border town of Gendema on Thursday in which police said 10 people were arrested.
It occurred during a campaign for a local council election which is being held Saturday.
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