March 28 2009
Garowe Online
The leader of Somalia's breakaway state of Somaliland received a term extension Saturday, in a vote that is likely to deepen the region's ongoing election crisis, Radio Garowe reports.
Somaliland's upper house of parliament, the House of Guurti, held an extraordinary session in the regional capital Hargeisa, with 79 MPs present including Guurti Chairman Saleban "Gal" Mohamud.
The first motion indicated that the administration of President Dahir Riyale's term in office expires on April 6, arguing that there is "no emergency" such as war, drought or other natural disaster to warrant another delay of the much-expected presidential election.
This motion's supporters accused President Riyale of failing to hold elections on time, while calling for the establishment of a caretaker government to rule Somaliland until the election.
The second motion stated that the Somaliland election commission could not organize the election on time, citing the Oct. 2008 suicide bombings in Hargeisa that targeted the office of President Riyale among others.
Further, the pro-Riyale lawmakers in the House of Guurti argued that there is an ongoing drought in some regions of Somaliland, saying that the current government should receive a term extension to overcome such challenges.
Mr. Saleban Gal, the Guurti Chairman, then said the lawmakers would vote on the political future of Riyale's government.
"Of the present lawmakers, 42 MPs voted to extend the term for the President and the Vice President, 35 MPs rejected the vote, 1 MP abstained and I did not vote," the Guurti Chairman announced
As the chairman declared the vote results, his two deputies – Sheikh Ahmed Sheikh Nur and Said Abdullahi – sat next to him.
The new election date was set for October 29, 2009, giving the Riyale administration time to complete the voter-registration process.
Somaliland opposition parties Kulmiye and UCID have not formally responded to President Riyale's term extension.
But Mr. Ahmed Silanyo, the Kulmiye party's presidential candidate and the opposition leader, has vowed not to recognize Riyale's government after April 6.
Security was extra tight in and around the parliament building in Hargeisa, as police and military units kept close watch as the House of Guurti held its most important vote to date.
In 2008, Guurti MPs voted in favor of extending Riyale's constitutional five-year term in office by one additional year, with opposition parties accepting the term extension on grounds that the presidential election be held on March 29, 2009.
Somaliland unilaterally declared independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991, vowing to establish a peaceful and democratic government.
Critics say Somaliland's democratic image has been severely tarnished by election delays and the overall lack of press freedom, including a ban on independent radio stations.
The separatist republic has not been recognized internationally.
28 March, 2009
Court Hears Claims Operation Storm Documents Missing
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
27 March 2009
By Rachel Irwin
Lawyers of the former Croatian army general Ante Gotovina claim that 95 reports pertaining to events during the Operation Storm military offensive are missing from a European Union, EU, archive.
They say they discovered the key documents were missing after Hague tribunal judges ordered the EU Monitoring Mission to grant the Gotovina defence access to its archives on February 28, 2008.
Gotovina is accused – along with Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac – of ordering the shelling of civilian areas, murdering Serb civilians and destroying their property during and after Operation Storm. About 200,000 Serb civilians are estimated to have fled their homes in the days leading up to the offensive.
Gotovina’s defence lawyer Luka Misetic told IWPR that the files in question are crucial to the case because they can provide insight into “what really happened” during the brief 84-hour offensive, which was launched on August 4, 1995 to retake the Serb-controlled Krajina region of Croatia.
Misetic said that throughout the war, three ECMM teams would write reports chronicling events on the ground each day, which were then sent to regional monitoring centres in Knin and Zagreb, and on to EU headquarters in Brussels.
The daily output was exact, explained Misetic, so it was not difficult to calculate how many reports were missing.
The documents could help to corroborate the defence assertion that Operation Storm was conducted in accordance with international law and that the shelling – particularly in the town of Knin – was not excessive or targeted at civilians, explained Misetic.
“It was the European Union… [which] publicly stated the most serious allegations, that, in fact, there had been an indiscriminate attack against Knin,” Misetic told IWPR. “Now the underlying reports [supporting] that assertion are missing.”
The “serious allegations”, continued Misetic, were originally made by Carl Bildt, who served as the EU special envoy to the former Yugoslavia at the time of Operation Storm.
He has been a vocal critic of the offensive, and was quoted in the Wall Street Journal in 1999 as saying that Operation Storm was "the most efficient ethnic cleansing we've seen in the Balkans”.
Bildt’s assertions contrast with those of Peter Galbraith, the former United States ambassador to Croatia from 1993 to 1998.
He appeared as a witness for the Gotovina prosecution last June and told the court that the shelling of Knin “was relatively brief… not very destructive, and took place in the context of an operation aimed at capturing the town”.
Misetic said that while his team has a few of the ECMM reports drafted between August 4 and 6, all the documents that “would assess the shelling of Knin” are missing.
“We don’t know why,” he said. “We now have access to the archives, but we don’t have a means of investigating why documents are not [there].”
The defence filed a motion on March 20 requesting that judges order Javier Solana, Secretary General of the Council of the European Union, to provide all of the documents requested.
“The European Union has consistently refused to cooperate voluntarily with the Gotovina defence over the past two years,” wrote Misetic in the filing, referring to the fact that they had to request a court order to gain access to the archive.
He further requested that the judges order the EU to open an investigation into what happened to the missing documents if it cannot produce them.
The judges are expected to make a ruling on the matter within the next 10 days.
Cristina Gallach, the spokeswoman for the EU Secretary General, insisted that there is “excellent cooperation” between The Hague Tribunal and the EU.
She added that “all that [the Gotovina defence] has asked for has been provided [to them]”.
When pressed about the missing documents, she declined to comment further, citing the ongoing court proceedings.
27 March 2009
By Rachel Irwin
Lawyers of the former Croatian army general Ante Gotovina claim that 95 reports pertaining to events during the Operation Storm military offensive are missing from a European Union, EU, archive.
They say they discovered the key documents were missing after Hague tribunal judges ordered the EU Monitoring Mission to grant the Gotovina defence access to its archives on February 28, 2008.
Gotovina is accused – along with Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac – of ordering the shelling of civilian areas, murdering Serb civilians and destroying their property during and after Operation Storm. About 200,000 Serb civilians are estimated to have fled their homes in the days leading up to the offensive.
Gotovina’s defence lawyer Luka Misetic told IWPR that the files in question are crucial to the case because they can provide insight into “what really happened” during the brief 84-hour offensive, which was launched on August 4, 1995 to retake the Serb-controlled Krajina region of Croatia.
Misetic said that throughout the war, three ECMM teams would write reports chronicling events on the ground each day, which were then sent to regional monitoring centres in Knin and Zagreb, and on to EU headquarters in Brussels.
The daily output was exact, explained Misetic, so it was not difficult to calculate how many reports were missing.
The documents could help to corroborate the defence assertion that Operation Storm was conducted in accordance with international law and that the shelling – particularly in the town of Knin – was not excessive or targeted at civilians, explained Misetic.
“It was the European Union… [which] publicly stated the most serious allegations, that, in fact, there had been an indiscriminate attack against Knin,” Misetic told IWPR. “Now the underlying reports [supporting] that assertion are missing.”
The “serious allegations”, continued Misetic, were originally made by Carl Bildt, who served as the EU special envoy to the former Yugoslavia at the time of Operation Storm.
He has been a vocal critic of the offensive, and was quoted in the Wall Street Journal in 1999 as saying that Operation Storm was "the most efficient ethnic cleansing we've seen in the Balkans”.
Bildt’s assertions contrast with those of Peter Galbraith, the former United States ambassador to Croatia from 1993 to 1998.
He appeared as a witness for the Gotovina prosecution last June and told the court that the shelling of Knin “was relatively brief… not very destructive, and took place in the context of an operation aimed at capturing the town”.
Misetic said that while his team has a few of the ECMM reports drafted between August 4 and 6, all the documents that “would assess the shelling of Knin” are missing.
“We don’t know why,” he said. “We now have access to the archives, but we don’t have a means of investigating why documents are not [there].”
The defence filed a motion on March 20 requesting that judges order Javier Solana, Secretary General of the Council of the European Union, to provide all of the documents requested.
“The European Union has consistently refused to cooperate voluntarily with the Gotovina defence over the past two years,” wrote Misetic in the filing, referring to the fact that they had to request a court order to gain access to the archive.
He further requested that the judges order the EU to open an investigation into what happened to the missing documents if it cannot produce them.
The judges are expected to make a ruling on the matter within the next 10 days.
Cristina Gallach, the spokeswoman for the EU Secretary General, insisted that there is “excellent cooperation” between The Hague Tribunal and the EU.
She added that “all that [the Gotovina defence] has asked for has been provided [to them]”.
When pressed about the missing documents, she declined to comment further, citing the ongoing court proceedings.
Botswana: Indigenous Groups Still Lacking Services, Opportunities - UN Expert.
UN News Service
27 March 2009
Botswana's indigenous peoples still struggle to gain access to health services, education and employment opportunities, despite efforts to improve their situation, according to a United Nations human rights expert who conducted a nine-day visit to the Southern African country.
S. James Anaya, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, welcomed government initiatives to eradicate discrimination and build a society of inclusion in Botswana.
"During his consultations, the Special Rapporteur heard that despite these efforts, the design and implementation of these development initiatives did not adequately take into account the language, culture, and heritage of those most affected, perhaps hindering their ultimate success," stated a news release issued by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
The official trip was intended to shed light on the challenges faced by many of the diverse indigenous peoples of Botswana and promote talks aimed at solving their problems, especially in the areas of recognition and discrimination, land rights, poverty, education and language, and political participation.
Mr. Anaya visited the Kaudwane and New Xade settlements, where various communities reported difficulties with relocating from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, and the communities of Gugamma and Metsiamanong, which have remained in the Reserve despite a lack of access to services including water.
Community members in West Hanahai, Mababe, and Shaikarawe reported that government and NGO-led development initiatives underway in their areas were deficient, and indigenous people relocated to the remote Tsodilo Hills, a renowned heritage site, expressed concern over the scant opportunities for making a living.
The Special Rapporteur, who serves the UN in an independent unpaid capacity, will present his findings and key recommendations in a report to a forthcoming session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
27 March 2009
Botswana's indigenous peoples still struggle to gain access to health services, education and employment opportunities, despite efforts to improve their situation, according to a United Nations human rights expert who conducted a nine-day visit to the Southern African country.
S. James Anaya, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, welcomed government initiatives to eradicate discrimination and build a society of inclusion in Botswana.
"During his consultations, the Special Rapporteur heard that despite these efforts, the design and implementation of these development initiatives did not adequately take into account the language, culture, and heritage of those most affected, perhaps hindering their ultimate success," stated a news release issued by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
The official trip was intended to shed light on the challenges faced by many of the diverse indigenous peoples of Botswana and promote talks aimed at solving their problems, especially in the areas of recognition and discrimination, land rights, poverty, education and language, and political participation.
Mr. Anaya visited the Kaudwane and New Xade settlements, where various communities reported difficulties with relocating from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, and the communities of Gugamma and Metsiamanong, which have remained in the Reserve despite a lack of access to services including water.
Community members in West Hanahai, Mababe, and Shaikarawe reported that government and NGO-led development initiatives underway in their areas were deficient, and indigenous people relocated to the remote Tsodilo Hills, a renowned heritage site, expressed concern over the scant opportunities for making a living.
The Special Rapporteur, who serves the UN in an independent unpaid capacity, will present his findings and key recommendations in a report to a forthcoming session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
27 March, 2009
EU fails to reistate UN rights expert on Congo.
March 27, 2009
Reuters
African states lined up on Friday to block a European Union move to reinstate a U.N. human rights expert for the Democratic Republic of Congo, where human rights abuses are continuing after years of warfare.
The United Nations Human Rights Council, where Islamic and African states hold a majority, dropped its independent expert for the former Zaire exactly a year ago.
Groups of developing countries on the council often work together to deflect what they see as unjustified intrusion into their neighbours' affairs.
On Friday, the Geneva forum rejected amendments put forward by the EU which would have appointed an expert for a year. Instead it adopted a resolution from African countries which did not refer to the fighting in troubled North Kivu province.
Congo is recovering from a 1998-2003 war and resulting humanitarian catastrophe that has killed an estimated 5.4 million people in a decade. The conflict sucked in half a dozen African nations, including neighbouring Rwanda in the wake of its 1994 genocide.
Thousands of Rwandan troops left the border province in late February after a month-long joint offensive with the Congolese army against Rwandan Hutu rebels.
The EU also lost its bid to insert stronger, condemnatory language into the African resolution put forward by Egypt.
Germany's envoy Konrad Scharinger took the floor on behalf of the EU to voice serious concern at the "dire human rights situation on the ground" in Congo.
He cited "continuing violations including reprisals against the civilian population, recruitment of child solders by armed groups, and ongoing and widespread acts of sexual violence against women and children which remain extremely worrying".
Sexual violence was being "used by members of armed groups or security forces as a weapon of war", he added.
The 47-member state forum rejected the EU amendments and adopted the African resolution by 33 votes in favour, none against with 14 abstentions including EU members.
The African text calls for providing greater technical assistance on human rights issues to Congo. "The text does not shy away from the difficulties facing the Democratic Republic of Congo," Egypt's delegate told the talks.
Experts on specific human rights issues would continue to work in Congo and report back in a year, he said.
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Matthew Jones)
Reuters
African states lined up on Friday to block a European Union move to reinstate a U.N. human rights expert for the Democratic Republic of Congo, where human rights abuses are continuing after years of warfare.
The United Nations Human Rights Council, where Islamic and African states hold a majority, dropped its independent expert for the former Zaire exactly a year ago.
Groups of developing countries on the council often work together to deflect what they see as unjustified intrusion into their neighbours' affairs.
On Friday, the Geneva forum rejected amendments put forward by the EU which would have appointed an expert for a year. Instead it adopted a resolution from African countries which did not refer to the fighting in troubled North Kivu province.
Congo is recovering from a 1998-2003 war and resulting humanitarian catastrophe that has killed an estimated 5.4 million people in a decade. The conflict sucked in half a dozen African nations, including neighbouring Rwanda in the wake of its 1994 genocide.
Thousands of Rwandan troops left the border province in late February after a month-long joint offensive with the Congolese army against Rwandan Hutu rebels.
The EU also lost its bid to insert stronger, condemnatory language into the African resolution put forward by Egypt.
Germany's envoy Konrad Scharinger took the floor on behalf of the EU to voice serious concern at the "dire human rights situation on the ground" in Congo.
He cited "continuing violations including reprisals against the civilian population, recruitment of child solders by armed groups, and ongoing and widespread acts of sexual violence against women and children which remain extremely worrying".
Sexual violence was being "used by members of armed groups or security forces as a weapon of war", he added.
The 47-member state forum rejected the EU amendments and adopted the African resolution by 33 votes in favour, none against with 14 abstentions including EU members.
The African text calls for providing greater technical assistance on human rights issues to Congo. "The text does not shy away from the difficulties facing the Democratic Republic of Congo," Egypt's delegate told the talks.
Experts on specific human rights issues would continue to work in Congo and report back in a year, he said.
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Matthew Jones)
Late Croatian president's son to run for the post.
Associated Press
24 March 2009
The son of the late Croatian President Franjo Tudjman has announced he will run for the post in early 2010.
Miroslav Tudjman, 62, who was head of Croatia's intelligence service during his father's presidency, said late Monday he would enter the elections expected in January as an independent candidate.
Tudjman, the spitting image of his father, has been associated with conservative and right-wing politicians, and has often criticized the current government's Western-oriented policies.
He works as a professor of information theory at the Zagreb's Philosophical Faculty.
President Stipe Mesic is serving his last term, after first being elected in 2000. Franjo Tudjman had died a year earlier, having led Croatia to independence in 1991.
24 March 2009
The son of the late Croatian President Franjo Tudjman has announced he will run for the post in early 2010.
Miroslav Tudjman, 62, who was head of Croatia's intelligence service during his father's presidency, said late Monday he would enter the elections expected in January as an independent candidate.
Tudjman, the spitting image of his father, has been associated with conservative and right-wing politicians, and has often criticized the current government's Western-oriented policies.
He works as a professor of information theory at the Zagreb's Philosophical Faculty.
President Stipe Mesic is serving his last term, after first being elected in 2000. Franjo Tudjman had died a year earlier, having led Croatia to independence in 1991.
New peace envoy gets indefinite mandate in Bosnia.
Mar 26, 2009
By Adam Tanner
Reuters
A new international peace envoy took office in Bosnia on Thursday amid concerns about growing instability there that prompted diplomats to give him an indefinite mandate.
Austria's Valentin Inzko immediately pledged to help the Balkan country -- scene of a war between 1992-95 in which about 100,000 people died -- join the European mainstream.
But others, including Russia, said the extension of the Office of the High Representative (OHR) would only hamper Bosnia's progress.
A 1995 peace agreement installed a foreign diplomat to oversee the peace process and the international community later gave him the authority to dismiss elected officials and overturn laws.
Foreign officials had hoped to end that role entrusted to the OHR by summer and turn over reduced powers to the European Union, but have now delayed that plan.
"I think it is a little premature to take the training wheels off at this moment, until the Bosnian authorities demonstrate they've got their hands on the handlebars," Raffi Gregorian, who has served as acting high representative, said in an interview.
"They aren't pedaling enough to keep the bike upright without training wheels."
Continued instability could complicate the entire region's aspirations to join the EU and improve living standards.
Foreign countries have donated billions of dollars trying to help heal the former Yugoslav republic. But tensions remain high between the Bosnian Serbs in one half of the country and the majority of nominal Muslims and Croats in the other half.
After a two-day meeting in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, officials from among 55 countries and agencies installed Inzko in office. He will also serve as EU representative to Bosnia.
"I will help you to pick up the pace and move quickly in the process of EU integration," Inzko told a news conference. "The EU is committed that 2009 is the year of the Western Balkans; accordingly this an opportunity that cannot and should not be missed."
RUSSIA DISPLEASED
The continuation of the OHR displeases Russia and the Bosnian Serb leadership, which believe Bosnia is stable enough to decide its own fate. Russia's ambassador to Bosnia said the focus should rather be on helping the country achieve its aspirations to join the EU.
"Having OHR as an external supervisor they will never become a member of the EU," Konstantin Shuvalov said in an interview.
"That is why all the talk about euro prospects for this country will remain just a lip service."
Diplomats say EU members are divided on how soon the OHR should end its supervisory role in Bosnia.
At one time officials thought they could close the OHR in 2007 and they scaled back staffing from about 800 people to 220. But since then tensions have worsened between the Bosnian Serb Republic which seeks more autonomy, and the Muslim-Croat half which favors a stronger central government.
Diplomats are set to meet again in June to consider if they should end Bosnia's protectorate status.
(Editing by Richard Balmforth)
By Adam Tanner
Reuters
A new international peace envoy took office in Bosnia on Thursday amid concerns about growing instability there that prompted diplomats to give him an indefinite mandate.
Austria's Valentin Inzko immediately pledged to help the Balkan country -- scene of a war between 1992-95 in which about 100,000 people died -- join the European mainstream.
But others, including Russia, said the extension of the Office of the High Representative (OHR) would only hamper Bosnia's progress.
A 1995 peace agreement installed a foreign diplomat to oversee the peace process and the international community later gave him the authority to dismiss elected officials and overturn laws.
Foreign officials had hoped to end that role entrusted to the OHR by summer and turn over reduced powers to the European Union, but have now delayed that plan.
"I think it is a little premature to take the training wheels off at this moment, until the Bosnian authorities demonstrate they've got their hands on the handlebars," Raffi Gregorian, who has served as acting high representative, said in an interview.
"They aren't pedaling enough to keep the bike upright without training wheels."
Continued instability could complicate the entire region's aspirations to join the EU and improve living standards.
Foreign countries have donated billions of dollars trying to help heal the former Yugoslav republic. But tensions remain high between the Bosnian Serbs in one half of the country and the majority of nominal Muslims and Croats in the other half.
After a two-day meeting in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, officials from among 55 countries and agencies installed Inzko in office. He will also serve as EU representative to Bosnia.
"I will help you to pick up the pace and move quickly in the process of EU integration," Inzko told a news conference. "The EU is committed that 2009 is the year of the Western Balkans; accordingly this an opportunity that cannot and should not be missed."
RUSSIA DISPLEASED
The continuation of the OHR displeases Russia and the Bosnian Serb leadership, which believe Bosnia is stable enough to decide its own fate. Russia's ambassador to Bosnia said the focus should rather be on helping the country achieve its aspirations to join the EU.
"Having OHR as an external supervisor they will never become a member of the EU," Konstantin Shuvalov said in an interview.
"That is why all the talk about euro prospects for this country will remain just a lip service."
Diplomats say EU members are divided on how soon the OHR should end its supervisory role in Bosnia.
At one time officials thought they could close the OHR in 2007 and they scaled back staffing from about 800 people to 220. But since then tensions have worsened between the Bosnian Serb Republic which seeks more autonomy, and the Muslim-Croat half which favors a stronger central government.
Diplomats are set to meet again in June to consider if they should end Bosnia's protectorate status.
(Editing by Richard Balmforth)
26 March, 2009
Congo Completes Mining Review, Plans No ‘Significant’ Changes.
By Franz Wild
March 26 2009
Bloomberg
The Democratic Republic of Congo completed its mining review process and won’t “significantly” alter contracts with Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., Lundin Mining Corp. and First Quantum Minerals Ltd.
A final report on the review will be published “very soon,” Mines Minister Martin Kabwelulu said in an interview today in the capital, Kinshasa. The three companies are among six that hadn’t agreed final terms after the renegotiation of their accords.
“It’s finished,” Kabwelulu said. “This has been a long process, but we got there in the end. Unfortunately the climate isn’t very good at the moment, but the foundations for our mining sector have been laid.”
Congo began review 61 mining contracts in 2007 as part of a plan to boost state revenue from the industry. The central African country is depending on proceeds from its mineral reserves, which include a third of the world’s cobalt and 4 percent of all copper, to rebuild an economy shattered by persistent civil wars.
Phoenix-based Freeport has a 57.75 percent stake in the $1.9 billion Tenke Fungurume project, which it describes as one of the world’s best undeveloped copper and cobalt deposits, while Lundin holds 24.75 percent. First Quantum is developing the Kolwezi copper-cobalt mine in Congo.
Neither company needs to give Congo a larger stake in the ventures, nor do they need to pay a higher signing bonus, Kabwelulu said.
“Freeport has invested a lot of money,” Kabwelulu said. “We decided to let them carry on as they are. We haven’t significantly changed those contracts. With First Quantum, it’s the same thing.”
March 26 2009
Bloomberg
The Democratic Republic of Congo completed its mining review process and won’t “significantly” alter contracts with Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., Lundin Mining Corp. and First Quantum Minerals Ltd.
A final report on the review will be published “very soon,” Mines Minister Martin Kabwelulu said in an interview today in the capital, Kinshasa. The three companies are among six that hadn’t agreed final terms after the renegotiation of their accords.
“It’s finished,” Kabwelulu said. “This has been a long process, but we got there in the end. Unfortunately the climate isn’t very good at the moment, but the foundations for our mining sector have been laid.”
Congo began review 61 mining contracts in 2007 as part of a plan to boost state revenue from the industry. The central African country is depending on proceeds from its mineral reserves, which include a third of the world’s cobalt and 4 percent of all copper, to rebuild an economy shattered by persistent civil wars.
Phoenix-based Freeport has a 57.75 percent stake in the $1.9 billion Tenke Fungurume project, which it describes as one of the world’s best undeveloped copper and cobalt deposits, while Lundin holds 24.75 percent. First Quantum is developing the Kolwezi copper-cobalt mine in Congo.
Neither company needs to give Congo a larger stake in the ventures, nor do they need to pay a higher signing bonus, Kabwelulu said.
“Freeport has invested a lot of money,” Kabwelulu said. “We decided to let them carry on as they are. We haven’t significantly changed those contracts. With First Quantum, it’s the same thing.”
France's Areva signs uranium deal with DR Congo.
AFP
26 March 2009
French nuclear giant Areva signed a deal Thursday to develop uranium mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo, during a visit by President Nicolas Sarkozy to Kinshasa.
"By its size and geological profile, the Democratic Republic of Congo offers significant uranium potential," the state-controlled firm said in a statement released in Paris.
A survey of potential sites will be carried out in the DR Congo, which has vast reserves of diamonds, gold, copper and cobalt.
Areva chief executive Anne Lauvergeon signed the agreement for mining research and exploration with Congolese Mines Minister Martin Kabwelulu, on the sidelines of Sarkozy's visit.
Sarkozy later this week travels to Congo-Brazzaville and Niger, where Areva, the world's biggest nuclear concern, has signed a contract to develop the giant Imouraren uranium reserve in the north.
26 March 2009
French nuclear giant Areva signed a deal Thursday to develop uranium mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo, during a visit by President Nicolas Sarkozy to Kinshasa.
"By its size and geological profile, the Democratic Republic of Congo offers significant uranium potential," the state-controlled firm said in a statement released in Paris.
A survey of potential sites will be carried out in the DR Congo, which has vast reserves of diamonds, gold, copper and cobalt.
Areva chief executive Anne Lauvergeon signed the agreement for mining research and exploration with Congolese Mines Minister Martin Kabwelulu, on the sidelines of Sarkozy's visit.
Sarkozy later this week travels to Congo-Brazzaville and Niger, where Areva, the world's biggest nuclear concern, has signed a contract to develop the giant Imouraren uranium reserve in the north.
UK to probe Bangladesh arms haul.
BBC News
25 March 2009
The British body responsible for overseeing charities has launched a formal inquiry into alleged UK links to an arms haul in Bangladesh.
The weapons cache was found in the south of the country at an Islamic school, or madrassa, allegedly run by a UK-based charity.
A spokesperson for the Charity Commission said they were investigating the "very serious" allegations.
There has been no response from the charity, Green Crescent.
'Mini-ordnance factory'
Bangladeshi police say the arms were found in the coastal district of Bhola earlier this week. They say the cache included weapons, bomb-making equipment and bullets.
Police say that the madrassa is run by the Green Crescent charity based near Manchester in north-west England. No-one at the charity was available for comment on Wednesday.
The Charity Commission said that the inquiry would focus on "determining the extent of the links" between the charity and the arms haul allegations.
It will aim to find out "whether or not the charity, its funds, or funds raised on its behalf were used unlawfully and the role of the trustees".
The commission's website said that in 2008, Green Crescent had a turnover approaching £70,000 ($102,733).
"We are working with relevant law enforcement and other agencies to investigate the allegation that terrorist activity is connected with the charity," said Charity Commission chief executive Andrew Hind.
"The matter is of serious concern to us, and we are taking this action given the gravity of the matter, the public interest and the need to protect charity work and funds."
He said the results of the inquiry would be made public once it was completed.
Bangladeshi officials say that the madrassa is located on a remote river island only accessible via a drawbridge.
They have described the premises as a "mini-ordnance factory" and said the whole compound was being used for militant training.
A teacher and three employees at the madrassa were arrested on Tuesday, at a time of heightened tension in Bangladesh because of a mutiny last month by border guards which killed 74 people and has been blamed by some in the government on Islamic militants.
The raid on the madrassa was carried out by the country's elite anti-crime force, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), who say they found found about 12 guns and several thousand bullets.
Police in Bhola say a leading member of the Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) extremist group was arrested in the raid along with three other people. They say that they also want to speak to the charity's UK-based owner, who is also believed to be in Bangladesh.
The JMB carried out a series of bombings across the country in 2005 and is blamed by some in the government for last month's mutiny.
Islamic law
Police say that booklets about jihad, or holy war, were found at the school.
A RAB spokesman, Mamunur Rashid, said that the school was opened a few months ago in a remote area of Bhola, about 100km (60 miles) south of Dhaka.
Bangladesh has in recent years been hit by a number of bomb attacks at political rallies, in courts and at cultural venues.
The attacks have mostly been blamed on JMB and other radical groups who are accused of wanting to establish their austere version of Islamic law in a traditionally secular - but overwhelmingly Muslim - country.
Last week Finance Minister AMA Muhith said that the authorities would examine the activities and sources of funding of some Islamic charities approved by the previous alliance government - which contained two Islamic parties.
25 March 2009
The British body responsible for overseeing charities has launched a formal inquiry into alleged UK links to an arms haul in Bangladesh.
The weapons cache was found in the south of the country at an Islamic school, or madrassa, allegedly run by a UK-based charity.
A spokesperson for the Charity Commission said they were investigating the "very serious" allegations.
There has been no response from the charity, Green Crescent.
'Mini-ordnance factory'
Bangladeshi police say the arms were found in the coastal district of Bhola earlier this week. They say the cache included weapons, bomb-making equipment and bullets.
Police say that the madrassa is run by the Green Crescent charity based near Manchester in north-west England. No-one at the charity was available for comment on Wednesday.
The Charity Commission said that the inquiry would focus on "determining the extent of the links" between the charity and the arms haul allegations.
It will aim to find out "whether or not the charity, its funds, or funds raised on its behalf were used unlawfully and the role of the trustees".
The commission's website said that in 2008, Green Crescent had a turnover approaching £70,000 ($102,733).
"We are working with relevant law enforcement and other agencies to investigate the allegation that terrorist activity is connected with the charity," said Charity Commission chief executive Andrew Hind.
"The matter is of serious concern to us, and we are taking this action given the gravity of the matter, the public interest and the need to protect charity work and funds."
He said the results of the inquiry would be made public once it was completed.
Bangladeshi officials say that the madrassa is located on a remote river island only accessible via a drawbridge.
They have described the premises as a "mini-ordnance factory" and said the whole compound was being used for militant training.
A teacher and three employees at the madrassa were arrested on Tuesday, at a time of heightened tension in Bangladesh because of a mutiny last month by border guards which killed 74 people and has been blamed by some in the government on Islamic militants.
The raid on the madrassa was carried out by the country's elite anti-crime force, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), who say they found found about 12 guns and several thousand bullets.
Police in Bhola say a leading member of the Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) extremist group was arrested in the raid along with three other people. They say that they also want to speak to the charity's UK-based owner, who is also believed to be in Bangladesh.
The JMB carried out a series of bombings across the country in 2005 and is blamed by some in the government for last month's mutiny.
Islamic law
Police say that booklets about jihad, or holy war, were found at the school.
A RAB spokesman, Mamunur Rashid, said that the school was opened a few months ago in a remote area of Bhola, about 100km (60 miles) south of Dhaka.
Bangladesh has in recent years been hit by a number of bomb attacks at political rallies, in courts and at cultural venues.
The attacks have mostly been blamed on JMB and other radical groups who are accused of wanting to establish their austere version of Islamic law in a traditionally secular - but overwhelmingly Muslim - country.
Last week Finance Minister AMA Muhith said that the authorities would examine the activities and sources of funding of some Islamic charities approved by the previous alliance government - which contained two Islamic parties.
25 March, 2009
Mining companies accused of African tax dodges.
Action Aid UK
25 March 2009
Mining companies routinely deprive African countries of huge amounts of tax revenue that could be used to combat poverty, a new report reveals today.
Breaking the Curse: How Transparent Taxation and Fair Taxes can Turn Africa’s Mineral Wealth into Development highlights the methods mining companies use to pay as little tax as possible. These include:
· Forcing governments to grant tax subsidies and concessions by threatening to go elsewhere if they are not forthcoming
· Insisting mining contracts signed with governments remain secret. Some governments, also anxious the contracts are not held up to public scrutiny – are happy to oblige.
· Using the secrecy surrounding contracts to pursue aggressive tax avoidance strategies.
· In at least one country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, (DRC), there have been allegations of corrupt politicians awarding illegal tax exemptions to mining companies in return for private gain.
· False accounting used, the report alleges, to enable companies to artificially depress profits in countries where they operate to evade tax.
The report has been jointly published by ActionAid, Christian Aid, Third World Network Africa, Tax Justice Network Africa, and Southern Africa Resource Watch.
“One practical step to addressing poverty in Africa is to ensure that all multinational mining companies pay equitable amounts of tax,” said Brian Kagoro, ActionAid’s Pan African Policy Manager.
“If they did, governments could fund social welfare programmes with revenue generated from taxes rather than seeking to borrow money externally.
“Mining contracts and payments to governments need to be subjected to rigorous parliamentary scrutiny to improve accountability in this sector.
“And we need to strengthen the capacity of national regulatory tax authorities as well as rationalise international accounting standards to ensure compliance,” he added.
The report warns that although some attempts at reform are now being made in countries like Tanzania and Zambia, they could founder because of the recent crash in international mineral prices.
Governments across Africa are finding their negotiating capacity vis-à-vis mining companies suddenly diminished.
Those who have already started reforming their old mining tax regimes or renegotiating mining contracts are now facing enormous pressure from companies to reverse these tax reforms in response to falling international prices.
Report editor Kato Lambrechts, from Christian Aid’s Africa policy unit, said:
“The record amounts various minerals fetched until the bubble burst last year meant little or nothing to ordinary Africans.
“Mining companies have long ensured that they pay as little tax as possible to the countries that own such resources. As a result, the citizens of mineral-rich countries continue to live in poverty.
“The losses are fuelled by a lack of transparency concerning the financial remittances mining companies make to government institutions, coupled with the inability of revenue departments in poorer countries to audit the complicated accounts of multinational mining companies.”
The laws, policies, and institutions that govern the financial payments made by mining corporations to governments need comprehensive reform.
Among the report’s recommendations is a call for a new international accounting standard that would require multinational extractive companies to report on their profits, expenditures, taxes, fees and community grants paid in each financial year in each country where they operate.
ENDS
COUNTRY SNAP SHOTS:
The report looks at mining taxation and transparency in seven African countries: Ghana, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Malawi, South Africa and DRC. The picture that emerges is one in which African governments are deprived of many millions of dollars, partly as a result of royalty rates that were set too low in tax laws, or exemptions from royalties negotiated by mining companies in secret mining contracts.
In Ghana, where gold accounts for 90 per cent of exports, the Minerals and Mining Act of 2006 charges royalties on a sliding scale of 3-6 per cent of gross sales value, replacing a 1986 Act which set a top royalty rate of 12 per cent. In reality, no company has ever paid more than 3 per cent in royalties because of tax allowances and lack of expertise in the revenue collection authority. Between 1990 and 2007, this cost the country US$1.163bn (if royalties had been paid at 12 per cent) and US$387.74m (if royalties were paid at 6 per cent).
In South Africa, the government has been drafting a new Royalties Bill for the past five years. The original draft proposed a royalty on company turnover of 8 per cent for diamonds, and 2.25 per cent for gold. The Bill, which has now reached the fourth draft, after pressure from mining companies, proposes royalty rates of 3.7 per cent and 2.1 per cent respectively, meaning the government will forego up to an estimated US$499m a year in lost revenue.
In Tanzania, no mining company, other than AngloGold Ashanti, had paid corporate income tax by the end of 2008 – ten years after industrial mining began in the country. AngloGold Ashanti paid US$1m in 2007. Between 2002 and 2006, mining companies exported around US$2.9bn of gold. During that time, the government earned around US$17.4m in royalties, charged at 3 per cent of the market value minus transport and transaction costs. If royalties were charged at 5 per cent as has now been recommended by a presidential commission, the government revenue would have increased US$145m over five years.
In Zambia, the two largest mining companies managed to negotiate royalty rates of 0.6%, the lowest in Africa after copper mines were negotiated in the late 1990’s. Historical comparison puts the foregone revenue into perspective. In 1992, international copper prices averaged around US$2, 280 a tonne and Zambian copper mines produced around 400,000 tonnes of copper. Revenue earned from taxes and other remittances was US$200m. In 2004, copper prices averaged US$2.868 a tonne, and the country again produced 400,000 tonnes. However, this time around, Zambia earned only around US$8m from the copper mining industry.
In Malawi, the government recently acquired a 15 per cent share in Paladin Africa Ltd, which is to open the country’s first large scale industrial mine, a uranium project. In return for the stake, it gave Paladin a 2.5 per cent reduction in corporate income tax, and reduced royalty rates from the 10 per cent stipulated in law to 1.5 per cent for the first three years, and 3 per cent thereafter. The report estimates that even with its 15 per cent stake, the government will forego revenues of up to US$124.5m in the mine’s anticipated eleven year life span.
In Sierra Leone, an internal government review estimates that revenue losses from tax concessions granted to Sierra Rutile, the second largest mineral exporter in the country (rutile – or titanium oxide when finely powdered is a brilliant white pigment used in paints, plastics, papers and foods) will amount to US$98m between 2004 and 2016.
In DRC, a 2007 World Bank document said: ‘fraudulent practices by companies and government agencies have created a gap [between] what should be paid versus what is actually what is actually recorded as having been received in terms of royalties and surface rents alone. The gap is larger if total mining taxes are considered: about US$200m per year should be generated by the sector.’ That year the government claimed to receive only US$13m in taxes from mining.
ActionAid is an international anti-poverty agency working in over 40 countries taking sides with poor people to end poverty and injustice together
www.actionaid.org
ActionAid’s HungerFREE campaign calls on governments to deliver on their commitment to halve world hunger by 2015.
25 March 2009
Mining companies routinely deprive African countries of huge amounts of tax revenue that could be used to combat poverty, a new report reveals today.
Breaking the Curse: How Transparent Taxation and Fair Taxes can Turn Africa’s Mineral Wealth into Development highlights the methods mining companies use to pay as little tax as possible. These include:
· Forcing governments to grant tax subsidies and concessions by threatening to go elsewhere if they are not forthcoming
· Insisting mining contracts signed with governments remain secret. Some governments, also anxious the contracts are not held up to public scrutiny – are happy to oblige.
· Using the secrecy surrounding contracts to pursue aggressive tax avoidance strategies.
· In at least one country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, (DRC), there have been allegations of corrupt politicians awarding illegal tax exemptions to mining companies in return for private gain.
· False accounting used, the report alleges, to enable companies to artificially depress profits in countries where they operate to evade tax.
The report has been jointly published by ActionAid, Christian Aid, Third World Network Africa, Tax Justice Network Africa, and Southern Africa Resource Watch.
“One practical step to addressing poverty in Africa is to ensure that all multinational mining companies pay equitable amounts of tax,” said Brian Kagoro, ActionAid’s Pan African Policy Manager.
“If they did, governments could fund social welfare programmes with revenue generated from taxes rather than seeking to borrow money externally.
“Mining contracts and payments to governments need to be subjected to rigorous parliamentary scrutiny to improve accountability in this sector.
“And we need to strengthen the capacity of national regulatory tax authorities as well as rationalise international accounting standards to ensure compliance,” he added.
The report warns that although some attempts at reform are now being made in countries like Tanzania and Zambia, they could founder because of the recent crash in international mineral prices.
Governments across Africa are finding their negotiating capacity vis-à-vis mining companies suddenly diminished.
Those who have already started reforming their old mining tax regimes or renegotiating mining contracts are now facing enormous pressure from companies to reverse these tax reforms in response to falling international prices.
Report editor Kato Lambrechts, from Christian Aid’s Africa policy unit, said:
“The record amounts various minerals fetched until the bubble burst last year meant little or nothing to ordinary Africans.
“Mining companies have long ensured that they pay as little tax as possible to the countries that own such resources. As a result, the citizens of mineral-rich countries continue to live in poverty.
“The losses are fuelled by a lack of transparency concerning the financial remittances mining companies make to government institutions, coupled with the inability of revenue departments in poorer countries to audit the complicated accounts of multinational mining companies.”
The laws, policies, and institutions that govern the financial payments made by mining corporations to governments need comprehensive reform.
Among the report’s recommendations is a call for a new international accounting standard that would require multinational extractive companies to report on their profits, expenditures, taxes, fees and community grants paid in each financial year in each country where they operate.
ENDS
COUNTRY SNAP SHOTS:
The report looks at mining taxation and transparency in seven African countries: Ghana, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Malawi, South Africa and DRC. The picture that emerges is one in which African governments are deprived of many millions of dollars, partly as a result of royalty rates that were set too low in tax laws, or exemptions from royalties negotiated by mining companies in secret mining contracts.
In Ghana, where gold accounts for 90 per cent of exports, the Minerals and Mining Act of 2006 charges royalties on a sliding scale of 3-6 per cent of gross sales value, replacing a 1986 Act which set a top royalty rate of 12 per cent. In reality, no company has ever paid more than 3 per cent in royalties because of tax allowances and lack of expertise in the revenue collection authority. Between 1990 and 2007, this cost the country US$1.163bn (if royalties had been paid at 12 per cent) and US$387.74m (if royalties were paid at 6 per cent).
In South Africa, the government has been drafting a new Royalties Bill for the past five years. The original draft proposed a royalty on company turnover of 8 per cent for diamonds, and 2.25 per cent for gold. The Bill, which has now reached the fourth draft, after pressure from mining companies, proposes royalty rates of 3.7 per cent and 2.1 per cent respectively, meaning the government will forego up to an estimated US$499m a year in lost revenue.
In Tanzania, no mining company, other than AngloGold Ashanti, had paid corporate income tax by the end of 2008 – ten years after industrial mining began in the country. AngloGold Ashanti paid US$1m in 2007. Between 2002 and 2006, mining companies exported around US$2.9bn of gold. During that time, the government earned around US$17.4m in royalties, charged at 3 per cent of the market value minus transport and transaction costs. If royalties were charged at 5 per cent as has now been recommended by a presidential commission, the government revenue would have increased US$145m over five years.
In Zambia, the two largest mining companies managed to negotiate royalty rates of 0.6%, the lowest in Africa after copper mines were negotiated in the late 1990’s. Historical comparison puts the foregone revenue into perspective. In 1992, international copper prices averaged around US$2, 280 a tonne and Zambian copper mines produced around 400,000 tonnes of copper. Revenue earned from taxes and other remittances was US$200m. In 2004, copper prices averaged US$2.868 a tonne, and the country again produced 400,000 tonnes. However, this time around, Zambia earned only around US$8m from the copper mining industry.
In Malawi, the government recently acquired a 15 per cent share in Paladin Africa Ltd, which is to open the country’s first large scale industrial mine, a uranium project. In return for the stake, it gave Paladin a 2.5 per cent reduction in corporate income tax, and reduced royalty rates from the 10 per cent stipulated in law to 1.5 per cent for the first three years, and 3 per cent thereafter. The report estimates that even with its 15 per cent stake, the government will forego revenues of up to US$124.5m in the mine’s anticipated eleven year life span.
In Sierra Leone, an internal government review estimates that revenue losses from tax concessions granted to Sierra Rutile, the second largest mineral exporter in the country (rutile – or titanium oxide when finely powdered is a brilliant white pigment used in paints, plastics, papers and foods) will amount to US$98m between 2004 and 2016.
In DRC, a 2007 World Bank document said: ‘fraudulent practices by companies and government agencies have created a gap [between] what should be paid versus what is actually what is actually recorded as having been received in terms of royalties and surface rents alone. The gap is larger if total mining taxes are considered: about US$200m per year should be generated by the sector.’ That year the government claimed to receive only US$13m in taxes from mining.
ActionAid is an international anti-poverty agency working in over 40 countries taking sides with poor people to end poverty and injustice together
www.actionaid.org
ActionAid’s HungerFREE campaign calls on governments to deliver on their commitment to halve world hunger by 2015.
Ousted Ravalomanana in SA.
News 24
25 March 2009
Madagascar's deposed president Marc Ravalomanana has based himself in South Africa, from where he travelled to Swaziland for meetings this week over his ouster from office, a Swazi official said on Wednesday.
Swazi King Mswati III currently chairs the security organ or troika of the Southern African Development Community, of which the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar is a member.
SADC leaders are meeting in the Swazi capital, Mbabane, on Monday to discuss ex-opposition leader Andry Rajoelina's bloodless rout of Ravalomanana last week, including possible sanctions.
"The first point of stop was South Africa, where he's presently staying, but while he was in South Africa, he made contact with ourselves in the chair of the troika," the official told South Africa's SAfm public radio.
Ravalomanana has been in the mountain kingdom that is enclosed by South Africa and Mozambique since Monday, Swaziland says.
SADC has condemned Rajoelina's arrival to power as "unconstitutional" and is refusing to recognise him as interim president, as is much of the international community. The African Union has suspended Madagascar's membership.
SADC last week dispatched a delegation to the island for talks.
25 March 2009
Madagascar's deposed president Marc Ravalomanana has based himself in South Africa, from where he travelled to Swaziland for meetings this week over his ouster from office, a Swazi official said on Wednesday.
Swazi King Mswati III currently chairs the security organ or troika of the Southern African Development Community, of which the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar is a member.
SADC leaders are meeting in the Swazi capital, Mbabane, on Monday to discuss ex-opposition leader Andry Rajoelina's bloodless rout of Ravalomanana last week, including possible sanctions.
"The first point of stop was South Africa, where he's presently staying, but while he was in South Africa, he made contact with ourselves in the chair of the troika," the official told South Africa's SAfm public radio.
Ravalomanana has been in the mountain kingdom that is enclosed by South Africa and Mozambique since Monday, Swaziland says.
SADC has condemned Rajoelina's arrival to power as "unconstitutional" and is refusing to recognise him as interim president, as is much of the international community. The African Union has suspended Madagascar's membership.
SADC last week dispatched a delegation to the island for talks.
Les entreprises françaises Areva, Lafarge, France Télécoms intéressées par le marché congolais.
Media Congo
25 March 2009
By Luc-Roger Mbala Bemba
Kinshasa sera demain jeudi 26 mars 2009 la capitale francophone du monde avec la visite officielle du président français Nicolas Sarkozy au pays. Cette visite est la première du genre qu'effectue un président français en République démocratique du Congo depuis un quart de siècle.
En effet, cette visite revêt toute son importance du fait qu'elle est la première visite d'un chef d'Etat français en République démocratique du Congo en 25 ans ! La dernière remonte à 1984 avec le président François Mitterrand reçu chaleureusement par le maréchal Mobutu Sese Seko.
Nicolas Sarkozy restera cinq heures à Kinshasa, cinq bonnes heures historiques au cours desquelles il s'entretiendra avec le président Joseph Kabila sur les questions brûlantes d'actualités. Les deux personnalités échangeront notamment sur la situation dans la région des Grands Lacs en général, en République démocratique du Congo en particulier.
Le président congolais expliquera à son homologue français la nouvelle donne dans l'Est du pays depuis les opérations conjointes FARDC-Forces patriotiques rwandaises dans le Nord-Kivu et FARDC-Armée ougandaise dans la province Orientale.
La coopération France-RDC
Le point culminant de la visite du président Nicolas Sarkozy en RDC sera la séance académique qu'il fera devant le Parlement congolais, c'est-à-dire l'Assemblée nationale et le Sénat. Des sources concordantes affirment que le président Sarkozy présentera depuis Kinshasa la nouvelle politique africaine de la France. Le patron de l'Elysée parlera notamment du rôle majeur que la République démocratique du Congo est appelée à jouer en Afrique centrale notamment sur le plan politique, économique et géostratégique.
Fidèle et respectueux des valeurs républicaines, Nicolas Sarkozy abordera sans doute la question de la démocratie, des droits de l'homme et de la bonne gouvernance. Il va certainement fustiger la pratique de la corruption qui touche un grand nombre des pays africains et qui empêche la croissance.
Le président français lancera un appel à la paix, au dialogue et à la coopération régionale. Facteurs déterminants pour stabiliser la région des Grands Lacs et surtout pour mettre fin au pillage des richesses de la République démocratique du Congo.
La coopération économique
La visite du président Sarkozy se poursuivra à Brazzaville et à Niamey, au Niger. Au cours de sa visite en Afrique centrale en général, en République démocratique du Congo, le président français est accompagné d'une forte délégation des opérateurs économiques français, membre du Medef, le patronat français.
L'on signale notamment la présence des patrons du groupe Areva qui est une entreprise internationale qui travaille dans le secteur de l'énergie atomique et qui est intéressée à discuter avec le gouvernement les possibilités d'exploitation de l'uranium du Katanga. Il y a aussi la présence des patrons de Aéroports de Paris spécialisée dans la réhabilitation et la modernisation des infrastructures aéroportuaires, France Télécoms qui manifeste son intérêt pour compléter le réseau de la téléphonie mobile en RDC, ainsi que le groupe Lafarge, le numéro un mondial du ciment.
Visiblement, la visite du président Nicolas Sarkozy va augurer une nouvelle ère, celle de la relance de la coopération économique entre les deux plus grands pays francophones de la planète. En d'autres termes, Nicolas Sarkozy vient positionner la République démocratique du Congo comme un pays phare en Afrique et au sein de la Francophonie.
25 March 2009
By Luc-Roger Mbala Bemba
Kinshasa sera demain jeudi 26 mars 2009 la capitale francophone du monde avec la visite officielle du président français Nicolas Sarkozy au pays. Cette visite est la première du genre qu'effectue un président français en République démocratique du Congo depuis un quart de siècle.
En effet, cette visite revêt toute son importance du fait qu'elle est la première visite d'un chef d'Etat français en République démocratique du Congo en 25 ans ! La dernière remonte à 1984 avec le président François Mitterrand reçu chaleureusement par le maréchal Mobutu Sese Seko.
Nicolas Sarkozy restera cinq heures à Kinshasa, cinq bonnes heures historiques au cours desquelles il s'entretiendra avec le président Joseph Kabila sur les questions brûlantes d'actualités. Les deux personnalités échangeront notamment sur la situation dans la région des Grands Lacs en général, en République démocratique du Congo en particulier.
Le président congolais expliquera à son homologue français la nouvelle donne dans l'Est du pays depuis les opérations conjointes FARDC-Forces patriotiques rwandaises dans le Nord-Kivu et FARDC-Armée ougandaise dans la province Orientale.
La coopération France-RDC
Le point culminant de la visite du président Nicolas Sarkozy en RDC sera la séance académique qu'il fera devant le Parlement congolais, c'est-à-dire l'Assemblée nationale et le Sénat. Des sources concordantes affirment que le président Sarkozy présentera depuis Kinshasa la nouvelle politique africaine de la France. Le patron de l'Elysée parlera notamment du rôle majeur que la République démocratique du Congo est appelée à jouer en Afrique centrale notamment sur le plan politique, économique et géostratégique.
Fidèle et respectueux des valeurs républicaines, Nicolas Sarkozy abordera sans doute la question de la démocratie, des droits de l'homme et de la bonne gouvernance. Il va certainement fustiger la pratique de la corruption qui touche un grand nombre des pays africains et qui empêche la croissance.
Le président français lancera un appel à la paix, au dialogue et à la coopération régionale. Facteurs déterminants pour stabiliser la région des Grands Lacs et surtout pour mettre fin au pillage des richesses de la République démocratique du Congo.
La coopération économique
La visite du président Sarkozy se poursuivra à Brazzaville et à Niamey, au Niger. Au cours de sa visite en Afrique centrale en général, en République démocratique du Congo, le président français est accompagné d'une forte délégation des opérateurs économiques français, membre du Medef, le patronat français.
L'on signale notamment la présence des patrons du groupe Areva qui est une entreprise internationale qui travaille dans le secteur de l'énergie atomique et qui est intéressée à discuter avec le gouvernement les possibilités d'exploitation de l'uranium du Katanga. Il y a aussi la présence des patrons de Aéroports de Paris spécialisée dans la réhabilitation et la modernisation des infrastructures aéroportuaires, France Télécoms qui manifeste son intérêt pour compléter le réseau de la téléphonie mobile en RDC, ainsi que le groupe Lafarge, le numéro un mondial du ciment.
Visiblement, la visite du président Nicolas Sarkozy va augurer une nouvelle ère, celle de la relance de la coopération économique entre les deux plus grands pays francophones de la planète. En d'autres termes, Nicolas Sarkozy vient positionner la République démocratique du Congo comme un pays phare en Afrique et au sein de la Francophonie.
MoD: Georgia, U.S. Consultations on Charter Implementation.
Civil Georgia
25 March 2009
A seven-member delegation from the U.S. Department of Defense held consultations with the Georgian counterparts in the Defense Ministry in Tbilisi on March 24.
Putting provisions of the Georgia-U.S. strategic partnership charter was discussed during the meeting, the Georgian Defense Ministry reported.
25 March 2009
A seven-member delegation from the U.S. Department of Defense held consultations with the Georgian counterparts in the Defense Ministry in Tbilisi on March 24.
Putting provisions of the Georgia-U.S. strategic partnership charter was discussed during the meeting, the Georgian Defense Ministry reported.
Former mining ministers held for fraud.
Reuters
24 March 2009
Guinea's ruling military junta has detained three former mines ministers on claimed charges of embezzling money from state mining funds, a senior police official in the West African country said on Tuesday.
Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, who promised to fight corruption when he seized power in the world's biggest bauxite exporter in December, has been swift to attack those associated with the government of former president Lansana Conte, whose death ushered in the military takeover.
"The former prime minister, Ahmed Tidiane Souare, and the former mines ministers, Louceny Nabe and Ousmane Sylla, have been placed in detention in prison," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The three were detained in Conakry on Monday, he said. Souare served as mines minister between 2005 and 2006 but was prime minister when Camara's group seized power.
Mining is a pillar of the Guinean economy, and many international resources firms, such as Rio Tinto, Alcoa and Rusal, have operations there.
Camara told AngloGold Ashanti to halt work at its Siguiri mine last week after a director failed to attend a mining forum, though the firm said on Tuesday it had restarted work there after a meeting with Camara.
Rapid fire Camara
Earlier this month the junta's audit committee used a television broadcast to accuse former mines ministers Ahmed Tidiane Souare, Ousmane Sylla, Ahmed Kante and Louceny Nabe of embezzling around $5.3m in total.
At the time, Souare said he had taken money from a designated mining development fund, but used it only to pay for the day-to-day running of the ministry.
Those accusations came less than a month after security forces detained the former president's son, whose confession of involvement in drug smuggling was also televised.
Camara has popular support for his anti-graft stance, but analysts are worried about political instability in Guinea.
The International Crisis Group said earlier this month that Camara's inexperienced administration was at risk of resorting to authoritarian measures, and disgruntled officers excluded from government may threaten a counter-coup.
Camara suspended two of his ministers as a punishment for non-attendance at the mining forum's opening ceremony last week, and later suspended another minister without explanation.
The official was unable to confirm whether Ahmed Kante, sacked as mines minister last August, was also in detention.
"They have all been questioned about the management of mining funds in their capacity as former mining ministers. Charges have been brought against them and justice must be done," the police official said of the three detainees.
24 March 2009
Guinea's ruling military junta has detained three former mines ministers on claimed charges of embezzling money from state mining funds, a senior police official in the West African country said on Tuesday.
Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, who promised to fight corruption when he seized power in the world's biggest bauxite exporter in December, has been swift to attack those associated with the government of former president Lansana Conte, whose death ushered in the military takeover.
"The former prime minister, Ahmed Tidiane Souare, and the former mines ministers, Louceny Nabe and Ousmane Sylla, have been placed in detention in prison," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The three were detained in Conakry on Monday, he said. Souare served as mines minister between 2005 and 2006 but was prime minister when Camara's group seized power.
Mining is a pillar of the Guinean economy, and many international resources firms, such as Rio Tinto, Alcoa and Rusal, have operations there.
Camara told AngloGold Ashanti to halt work at its Siguiri mine last week after a director failed to attend a mining forum, though the firm said on Tuesday it had restarted work there after a meeting with Camara.
Rapid fire Camara
Earlier this month the junta's audit committee used a television broadcast to accuse former mines ministers Ahmed Tidiane Souare, Ousmane Sylla, Ahmed Kante and Louceny Nabe of embezzling around $5.3m in total.
At the time, Souare said he had taken money from a designated mining development fund, but used it only to pay for the day-to-day running of the ministry.
Those accusations came less than a month after security forces detained the former president's son, whose confession of involvement in drug smuggling was also televised.
Camara has popular support for his anti-graft stance, but analysts are worried about political instability in Guinea.
The International Crisis Group said earlier this month that Camara's inexperienced administration was at risk of resorting to authoritarian measures, and disgruntled officers excluded from government may threaten a counter-coup.
Camara suspended two of his ministers as a punishment for non-attendance at the mining forum's opening ceremony last week, and later suspended another minister without explanation.
The official was unable to confirm whether Ahmed Kante, sacked as mines minister last August, was also in detention.
"They have all been questioned about the management of mining funds in their capacity as former mining ministers. Charges have been brought against them and justice must be done," the police official said of the three detainees.
Govt to limit land for foreigners.
Daily Monitor
25 March 2009
By Elias Biryabarema
Foreign investors should not be allocated huge chunks of land especially that which measures in square kilometres because such land should principally be owned by Ugandans, President Museveni has directed.
“With high food prices around the world (which is an opportunity for us) some countries that do not have agricultural land want to buy the land of ‘sleepy Africans,” Mr Museveni said in a February 29 letter, a copy of which Daily Monitor has seen.
The letter addressed to the Finance Minister titled, “Foreigners Buying Big Chunks of Land”, Mr Museveni argued that foreigners, intent on profiteering from the global food price bubble, were rushing to Uganda to buy large tracts of land on the cheap for agricultural production.
Mr Museveni said such investments in agriculture by foreigners have no solid and lasting economic advantages for Uganda except for provision of cheap labour.
Foreign investors, Mr Museveni wrote, should only be limited to small pieces of land ranging from three to 50 acres where they could establish factories. “The purchase of big chunks of land in square miles by foreigners should be discouraged,” he directed.
While Mr Museveni’s intent in the letter would appear to protect national interests in the competition for a dwindling resource, his directive also seems discordant with his government’s long-running policy of pampering foreign investors by lavishing them with cushy incentives, including large pieces free land.
For example, in 1998 Mr Museveni’s administration doled out 10,000 acres of forest land in Kalangala District to edible oils producer, Bidco, to grow oil palms. Since then 8,000 acres of forest cover have been cleared and planted with palm oil trees in defiance of protests from environmentalists and Parliament.
The government also gave a German agro-investor, NKG Tropical Management, 2,500 acres of land in Kaweri, Mubende district in 2000 to establish a Robusta coffee farm.
In 2007 President Museveni’s unpopular effort to give out a huge chunk of Mabira forest, the only remaining large, climate-stabilising natural forest in Uganda, to the sugar manufacturer, Mehta Group was thwarted after outraged environmentalists and Ugandans at large mounted a public protest that ended in the slaying of an Indian.
It is now unclear whether the President has decided to change his investment policy in favour of indigenous investors, particularly in the agricultural sector.
The new Finance minister, Ms Syda Bbumba, acknowledged receipt of the letter but said she could not explain the President’s new position on land and foreign investors.
“Find out his intentions from him,” she said. It’s also not clear why the President wrote to the Finance minister about matters of land and not to the Lands minister or the Uganda Land Commission.
In the letter, Mr Museveni said the country doesn’t need foreigners in farming because “Ugandans do that very well,” and that foreign investors instead should only be in the business of processing what is produced. He cited Sameer Agriculture and Livestock Limited, as the perfect example of an agro-processor.
In a telephone interview yesterday, Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) boss Maggie Kigozi would not explain Mr Museveni’s policy change but said UIA’s long-standing practice was to let foreign investors in agricultural areas like plantation farming establish nuclei that would be surrounded by a large number of outgrowers. Pressed about Bidco’s case, she said: “Bidco was a stand alone outside of the general practice and we are really pleased with their work.”
The majority of Ugandans in the agriculture sector lie under the subsistence component, using crude methods and producing largely for consumption. It is a situation that would hardly keep the nation’s agriculture profitable and sustainable.
25 March 2009
By Elias Biryabarema
Foreign investors should not be allocated huge chunks of land especially that which measures in square kilometres because such land should principally be owned by Ugandans, President Museveni has directed.
“With high food prices around the world (which is an opportunity for us) some countries that do not have agricultural land want to buy the land of ‘sleepy Africans,” Mr Museveni said in a February 29 letter, a copy of which Daily Monitor has seen.
The letter addressed to the Finance Minister titled, “Foreigners Buying Big Chunks of Land”, Mr Museveni argued that foreigners, intent on profiteering from the global food price bubble, were rushing to Uganda to buy large tracts of land on the cheap for agricultural production.
Mr Museveni said such investments in agriculture by foreigners have no solid and lasting economic advantages for Uganda except for provision of cheap labour.
Foreign investors, Mr Museveni wrote, should only be limited to small pieces of land ranging from three to 50 acres where they could establish factories. “The purchase of big chunks of land in square miles by foreigners should be discouraged,” he directed.
While Mr Museveni’s intent in the letter would appear to protect national interests in the competition for a dwindling resource, his directive also seems discordant with his government’s long-running policy of pampering foreign investors by lavishing them with cushy incentives, including large pieces free land.
For example, in 1998 Mr Museveni’s administration doled out 10,000 acres of forest land in Kalangala District to edible oils producer, Bidco, to grow oil palms. Since then 8,000 acres of forest cover have been cleared and planted with palm oil trees in defiance of protests from environmentalists and Parliament.
The government also gave a German agro-investor, NKG Tropical Management, 2,500 acres of land in Kaweri, Mubende district in 2000 to establish a Robusta coffee farm.
In 2007 President Museveni’s unpopular effort to give out a huge chunk of Mabira forest, the only remaining large, climate-stabilising natural forest in Uganda, to the sugar manufacturer, Mehta Group was thwarted after outraged environmentalists and Ugandans at large mounted a public protest that ended in the slaying of an Indian.
It is now unclear whether the President has decided to change his investment policy in favour of indigenous investors, particularly in the agricultural sector.
The new Finance minister, Ms Syda Bbumba, acknowledged receipt of the letter but said she could not explain the President’s new position on land and foreign investors.
“Find out his intentions from him,” she said. It’s also not clear why the President wrote to the Finance minister about matters of land and not to the Lands minister or the Uganda Land Commission.
In the letter, Mr Museveni said the country doesn’t need foreigners in farming because “Ugandans do that very well,” and that foreign investors instead should only be in the business of processing what is produced. He cited Sameer Agriculture and Livestock Limited, as the perfect example of an agro-processor.
In a telephone interview yesterday, Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) boss Maggie Kigozi would not explain Mr Museveni’s policy change but said UIA’s long-standing practice was to let foreign investors in agricultural areas like plantation farming establish nuclei that would be surrounded by a large number of outgrowers. Pressed about Bidco’s case, she said: “Bidco was a stand alone outside of the general practice and we are really pleased with their work.”
The majority of Ugandans in the agriculture sector lie under the subsistence component, using crude methods and producing largely for consumption. It is a situation that would hardly keep the nation’s agriculture profitable and sustainable.
Gold mining giants allowed to re-open in Guinea.
Afrol News
24 March 2009
The African gold mining giants, AngloGold Ashanti Ltd, has re-opened its mine in Guinea today after talks with the West African nation’s military ruler, Moussa Dadis Camara yesterday.
The mining company was ordered to shut down its operations by President Camara after the company’s director failed to attend the meeting of mine executives aimed at resolving the mining crisis in the country.
"We had a constructive meeting with the President on Monday night and he said we could re-open the mine," AngloGold's spokeswoman told local news reporters.
The government decision had come as the company projected a boost in the Siguiri production. According to the company's statement the output climbed to a record 333,000 ounces last year and is projected to increase to 600,000 ounces after 2012.
The Chief Executive Officer Mark Cutifani yesterday put the production loss at about 2,500 ounces. The Guinean government owns 15 percent stake in the AngloGold mining.
Mr Camara led a faction of Guinea’s military that seized power on 23 December, a day after the death of President Lansana Conte, who ruled the West African country for more than two decades.
24 March 2009
The African gold mining giants, AngloGold Ashanti Ltd, has re-opened its mine in Guinea today after talks with the West African nation’s military ruler, Moussa Dadis Camara yesterday.
The mining company was ordered to shut down its operations by President Camara after the company’s director failed to attend the meeting of mine executives aimed at resolving the mining crisis in the country.
"We had a constructive meeting with the President on Monday night and he said we could re-open the mine," AngloGold's spokeswoman told local news reporters.
The government decision had come as the company projected a boost in the Siguiri production. According to the company's statement the output climbed to a record 333,000 ounces last year and is projected to increase to 600,000 ounces after 2012.
The Chief Executive Officer Mark Cutifani yesterday put the production loss at about 2,500 ounces. The Guinean government owns 15 percent stake in the AngloGold mining.
Mr Camara led a faction of Guinea’s military that seized power on 23 December, a day after the death of President Lansana Conte, who ruled the West African country for more than two decades.
Gold mining giants allowed to re-open in Guinea.
Afrol News
24 March 2009
The African gold mining giants, AngloGold Ashanti Ltd, has re-opened its mine in Guinea today after talks with the West African nation’s military ruler, Moussa Dadis Camara yesterday.
The mining company was ordered to shut down its operations by President Camara after the company’s director failed to attend the meeting of mine executives aimed at resolving the mining crisis in the country.
"We had a constructive meeting with the President on Monday night and he said we could re-open the mine," AngloGold's spokeswoman told local news reporters.
The government decision had come as the company projected a boost in the Siguiri production. According to the company's statement the output climbed to a record 333,000 ounces last year and is projected to increase to 600,000 ounces after 2012.
The Chief Executive Officer Mark Cutifani yesterday put the production loss at about 2,500 ounces. The Guinean government owns 15 percent stake in the AngloGold mining.
Mr Camara led a faction of Guinea’s military that seized power on 23 December, a day after the death of President Lansana Conte, who ruled the West African country for more than two decades.
24 March 2009
The African gold mining giants, AngloGold Ashanti Ltd, has re-opened its mine in Guinea today after talks with the West African nation’s military ruler, Moussa Dadis Camara yesterday.
The mining company was ordered to shut down its operations by President Camara after the company’s director failed to attend the meeting of mine executives aimed at resolving the mining crisis in the country.
"We had a constructive meeting with the President on Monday night and he said we could re-open the mine," AngloGold's spokeswoman told local news reporters.
The government decision had come as the company projected a boost in the Siguiri production. According to the company's statement the output climbed to a record 333,000 ounces last year and is projected to increase to 600,000 ounces after 2012.
The Chief Executive Officer Mark Cutifani yesterday put the production loss at about 2,500 ounces. The Guinean government owns 15 percent stake in the AngloGold mining.
Mr Camara led a faction of Guinea’s military that seized power on 23 December, a day after the death of President Lansana Conte, who ruled the West African country for more than two decades.
24 March, 2009
Professor Reyntjens on the Congo's Wars.
http://www.ikonrtv.nl/daw/
Note: This link is temporary, subject to change its content, and please note that the broadcast is in Dutch. Please click on "Beluister dit item" to launch the interview with Professor Reyntjens. You must have Windows Media Player installed to hear the interview.
Note: This link is temporary, subject to change its content, and please note that the broadcast is in Dutch. Please click on "Beluister dit item" to launch the interview with Professor Reyntjens. You must have Windows Media Player installed to hear the interview.
23 March, 2009
Congo to push forward with $9 bln Chinese contract.
Reuters
23 March 2009
By Joe Bavier
The Democratic Republic of Congo will push ahead with a $9 billion Chinese mining and infrastructure package against pressure from the International Monetary Fund, which claims the deal will add to Congo's debt, a top government official said on Monday.
Under the 2007 agreement with the Chinese, Congo will receive much-needed roads, railways, hospitals and schools while China secures billions of dollars worth of lucrative copper and cobalt reserves it needs to feed its export-driven economy.
"No, we will not revisit this contract," said Moise Ekanga, head of President Joseph Kabila's office for the contract.
Speaking to Congo's United Nations-backed Radio Okapi on Monday, Brian Ames, division chief in the IMF's African Department, said the lending body was worried the deal will only add to Congo's external debt of more than $10 billion.
"There are some aspects of the loan that perhaps have implications for the ability to support the debt," Ames claimed.
The IMF suspended its programmes in Congo in 2006, during a three-year transitional administration heavily criticised for fiscal mismanagement and corruption.
Congo is pushing for IMF activities to be relaunched and is also angling for at least partial forgiveness of its debt.
The fund has indicated that possible changes to the Chinese deal will be a condition for any partnership or debt relief.
ECONOMIC SLIDE
Both Chinese and Congolese officials reject the idea that the contract risks plunging the mineral-rich but cash-strapped former Belgian colony deeper into debt.
"That is the IMF's version. The Congolese government is making sacrifices to benefit from debt relief, but it is also in need of renewed infrastructure," Ekanga said.
Negotiations on an initial $6 billion worth of public works and mining infrastructure projects have already been finalised, he said. Congo is still discussing the terms of the remaining $3 billion investment, which Ekanga said will likely not be required before the funds included in the current deal are exhausted in four or five years.
The pressure from the IMF comes as Congo is becoming increasingly dependent upon foreign donors and lenders to help save its economy, which is struggling as a result of a worldwide drop in demand for its mineral exports.
In December, the IMF lowered its projection for direct foreign investment in Congo in 2009, most of which had targeted mining, by over two-thirds to $800 million. And foreign reserves that stood at over $225 million last April have evaporated.
Earlier this month, the IMF's executive board approved $195.5 million for Congo from its Exogenous Shocks Facility, designed to speed financing to countries hurt by the slump.
The World Bank has promised $100 million in grants to pay teachers' salaries, electricity and water bills. The European Union and African Development Bank are expected to offer additional emergency funding.
23 March 2009
By Joe Bavier
The Democratic Republic of Congo will push ahead with a $9 billion Chinese mining and infrastructure package against pressure from the International Monetary Fund, which claims the deal will add to Congo's debt, a top government official said on Monday.
Under the 2007 agreement with the Chinese, Congo will receive much-needed roads, railways, hospitals and schools while China secures billions of dollars worth of lucrative copper and cobalt reserves it needs to feed its export-driven economy.
"No, we will not revisit this contract," said Moise Ekanga, head of President Joseph Kabila's office for the contract.
Speaking to Congo's United Nations-backed Radio Okapi on Monday, Brian Ames, division chief in the IMF's African Department, said the lending body was worried the deal will only add to Congo's external debt of more than $10 billion.
"There are some aspects of the loan that perhaps have implications for the ability to support the debt," Ames claimed.
The IMF suspended its programmes in Congo in 2006, during a three-year transitional administration heavily criticised for fiscal mismanagement and corruption.
Congo is pushing for IMF activities to be relaunched and is also angling for at least partial forgiveness of its debt.
The fund has indicated that possible changes to the Chinese deal will be a condition for any partnership or debt relief.
ECONOMIC SLIDE
Both Chinese and Congolese officials reject the idea that the contract risks plunging the mineral-rich but cash-strapped former Belgian colony deeper into debt.
"That is the IMF's version. The Congolese government is making sacrifices to benefit from debt relief, but it is also in need of renewed infrastructure," Ekanga said.
Negotiations on an initial $6 billion worth of public works and mining infrastructure projects have already been finalised, he said. Congo is still discussing the terms of the remaining $3 billion investment, which Ekanga said will likely not be required before the funds included in the current deal are exhausted in four or five years.
The pressure from the IMF comes as Congo is becoming increasingly dependent upon foreign donors and lenders to help save its economy, which is struggling as a result of a worldwide drop in demand for its mineral exports.
In December, the IMF lowered its projection for direct foreign investment in Congo in 2009, most of which had targeted mining, by over two-thirds to $800 million. And foreign reserves that stood at over $225 million last April have evaporated.
Earlier this month, the IMF's executive board approved $195.5 million for Congo from its Exogenous Shocks Facility, designed to speed financing to countries hurt by the slump.
The World Bank has promised $100 million in grants to pay teachers' salaries, electricity and water bills. The European Union and African Development Bank are expected to offer additional emergency funding.
Senegalese Opposition claims victory.
AFP
23 March 2009
Senegal's main opposition coalition claimed victory Monday in local elections seen as a test for the leadership of veteran President Abdoulaye Wade.
Opposition coalition Benno Siggil Senegaal - Wolof for 'United to boost Senegal' - said they had won in several big cities including the capital Dakar, based on its own party tallies.
"We are claiming a large victory. This is a rejection of Wade, of his system and of his plans for the Senegalese people," Benno Siggil Senegaal spokesperson Serigne Mbaye Thiam said.
Wade's Sopi 2009 ruling coalition admitted that the opposition appeared to be headed for victory in Sunday's elections, the first contested by the opposition since boycotting parliamentary elections in 2007.
"Up till now the trends we are seeing from the result in polling stations are sufficiently favourable for the Benno Siggil Senegaal coalition," Makhar Gueye of Sopi said on Monday.
"If it is confirmed the opposition is very favourably positioned," he added.
The opposition said before the elections the polls were effectively a referendum on Wade's rule ahead of the 2012 presidential elections.
The elections, held against a backdrop of mounting social tensions, marked the official entry into politics of Karim Wade, the son of the 82-year-old president who has been tipped as a candidate to succeed his father after his term ends in 2012.
Provisional results are expected to be released in the next few days.
23 March 2009
Senegal's main opposition coalition claimed victory Monday in local elections seen as a test for the leadership of veteran President Abdoulaye Wade.
Opposition coalition Benno Siggil Senegaal - Wolof for 'United to boost Senegal' - said they had won in several big cities including the capital Dakar, based on its own party tallies.
"We are claiming a large victory. This is a rejection of Wade, of his system and of his plans for the Senegalese people," Benno Siggil Senegaal spokesperson Serigne Mbaye Thiam said.
Wade's Sopi 2009 ruling coalition admitted that the opposition appeared to be headed for victory in Sunday's elections, the first contested by the opposition since boycotting parliamentary elections in 2007.
"Up till now the trends we are seeing from the result in polling stations are sufficiently favourable for the Benno Siggil Senegaal coalition," Makhar Gueye of Sopi said on Monday.
"If it is confirmed the opposition is very favourably positioned," he added.
The opposition said before the elections the polls were effectively a referendum on Wade's rule ahead of the 2012 presidential elections.
The elections, held against a backdrop of mounting social tensions, marked the official entry into politics of Karim Wade, the son of the 82-year-old president who has been tipped as a candidate to succeed his father after his term ends in 2012.
Provisional results are expected to be released in the next few days.
Statement attributable to the spokesperson for the UN secretary-general on release of UN staff member in Niger.
Niamey, Niger, March 23, 2009
African Press Organization (APO)
The Secretary General is pleased to know that Mr. Soumana Mounkaila, one of the three UN staff members who was abducted in Niger on 14 December 2008, has been released unharmed. He appreciates the efforts that have been made by Governments and concerned individuals around the region to help secure the release of the missing staff members.
The Secretary-General renews his call on those holding Robert Fowler and Louis Guay to release them both without any further delay.
SOURCE : United Nations - Office of the Spokesperson of the Secretary-General
African Press Organization (APO)
The Secretary General is pleased to know that Mr. Soumana Mounkaila, one of the three UN staff members who was abducted in Niger on 14 December 2008, has been released unharmed. He appreciates the efforts that have been made by Governments and concerned individuals around the region to help secure the release of the missing staff members.
The Secretary-General renews his call on those holding Robert Fowler and Louis Guay to release them both without any further delay.
SOURCE : United Nations - Office of the Spokesperson of the Secretary-General
22 March, 2009
Atiku Claims Innocence In Halliburton Bribe Scandal.
This Day
21 March 2009
By Yemi Adebowale
Former vice president Atiku Abubakar yesterday said media reports of former president Olusegun Obasanjo's interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in which Obasanjo was quoted to have indicted him in the Halliburton bribe scandal were inaccurate and wrong.
Obasanjo was quoted to have said that his former deputy, Atiku, has questions to answer over the US oil service company's bribery scandal.
But Atiku in a statement yesterday from his media office in Abuja said Obasanjo was wrongly quoted by the Nigerian media on the issue.
The statement said: "Nowhere in the interview did Obasanjo accuse Atiku of having had questions to answer on the Halliburton case. The former President had alluded to the case involving American Congressman Jefferson, which has been sufficiently addressed by Atiku.
"Obasanjo could not have accused Atiku on the Halliburton scandal because the former vice president never supervised the Ministry of Petroleum and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the two organisations under which the scandal was alleged to have taken place."
On the Jefferson case, the statement said Atiku had no questions to answer in the United States of America, and that Atiku had sufficiently proved his innocence in the matter.
"Congressman Jefferson is at present being tried in the USA and Atiku had never been indicted on the matter," the statement added.
Some top government officials were said to have collected $180 million bribe from the American oil services firm between 1994 and 2004.
The inducement was to facilitate contract awards to Halliburton. The bribe was said to have been given through a subsidiary of Halliburton, Kellog Brown and Root (KBR).
In an earlier reaction late on Thursday, Atiku's media aide, Garba Shehu, said Obasanjo was not saying anything new on the scandal.
Shehu said: "He had said these, and many more, while he was in office. Yet, with all the law enforcement agencies at his disposal, he failed to establish a single case against Atiku.
"If he had anything against Atiku on Halliburton, which had been in the news since 2004, he would have used it with the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) case. The attempt to use the PTDF saga backfired. We have passed this road before."
21 March 2009
By Yemi Adebowale
Former vice president Atiku Abubakar yesterday said media reports of former president Olusegun Obasanjo's interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in which Obasanjo was quoted to have indicted him in the Halliburton bribe scandal were inaccurate and wrong.
Obasanjo was quoted to have said that his former deputy, Atiku, has questions to answer over the US oil service company's bribery scandal.
But Atiku in a statement yesterday from his media office in Abuja said Obasanjo was wrongly quoted by the Nigerian media on the issue.
The statement said: "Nowhere in the interview did Obasanjo accuse Atiku of having had questions to answer on the Halliburton case. The former President had alluded to the case involving American Congressman Jefferson, which has been sufficiently addressed by Atiku.
"Obasanjo could not have accused Atiku on the Halliburton scandal because the former vice president never supervised the Ministry of Petroleum and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the two organisations under which the scandal was alleged to have taken place."
On the Jefferson case, the statement said Atiku had no questions to answer in the United States of America, and that Atiku had sufficiently proved his innocence in the matter.
"Congressman Jefferson is at present being tried in the USA and Atiku had never been indicted on the matter," the statement added.
Some top government officials were said to have collected $180 million bribe from the American oil services firm between 1994 and 2004.
The inducement was to facilitate contract awards to Halliburton. The bribe was said to have been given through a subsidiary of Halliburton, Kellog Brown and Root (KBR).
In an earlier reaction late on Thursday, Atiku's media aide, Garba Shehu, said Obasanjo was not saying anything new on the scandal.
Shehu said: "He had said these, and many more, while he was in office. Yet, with all the law enforcement agencies at his disposal, he failed to establish a single case against Atiku.
"If he had anything against Atiku on Halliburton, which had been in the news since 2004, he would have used it with the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) case. The attempt to use the PTDF saga backfired. We have passed this road before."
Study Backs Bosnian Serb’s Claim of Immunity.
New York Times
22 March 2009
By Marlise Simons
Every time Radovan Karadzic, the onetime Bosnian Serb leader, appears in court on war crimes charges, he has hammered on one recurring claim: a senior American official pledged that he would never be standing there.
The official, Richard C. Holbrooke, now a special envoy on Afghanistan and Pakistan for the Obama administration, has repeatedly denied promising Mr. Karadzic immunity from prosecution in exchange for abandoning power after the Bosnian war.
But the rumor persists, and different versions have recently emerged that line up with Mr. Karadzic’s assertion, including a new historical study of the Yugoslav wars published by Purdue University in Indiana.
Charles W. Ingrao, the study’s co-editor, said that three senior State Department officials, one of them retired, and several other people with knowledge of Mr. Holbrooke’s activities told him that Mr. Holbrooke assured Mr. Karadzic in July 1996 that he would not be pursued by the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague if he left politics.
Mr. Karadzic had already been charged by the tribunal with genocide and other crimes against civilians.
Two of the sources cited anonymously in the new study, a former senior State Department official who spent almost a decade in the Balkans and another American who was involved with international peacekeeping there in the 1990s, provided additional details in interviews with The New York Times, speaking on condition that they not be further identified.
The former State Department official said he was told of the offer by people who were close to Mr. Holbrooke’s team at the time. The other source said that Mr. Holbrooke personally and emphatically told him about the deal on two occasions.
While the two men agreed, as one of them put it, that “Holbrooke did the right thing and got the job done,” the recurring story of the deal has dogged Mr. Holbrooke.
Last summer, after more than a decade on the run, Mr. Karadzic was found living disguised in Belgrade, Serbia’s capital. He was arrested and sent to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague for his trial, which is expected to start this year.
Asked for comment for this article, Mr. Holbrooke repeated his denial in a written statement. “No one in the U.S. government ever promised anything, nor made a deal of any sort with Karadzic,” he said, noting that Mr. Karadzic stepped down in the summer of 1996 under intense American pressure.
“In subsequent meetings, as a private citizen, I repeatedly urged officials in both the Clinton and Bush administrations to capture Karadzic,” Mr. Holbrooke said. “I am glad he has finally been brought to justice, even though he uses his public platform to disseminate these fabrications.”
Mr. Holbrooke declined to accept further questions and did not address the specifics of the new accounts.
Mr. Karadzic, by insisting that he is exempt from legal proceedings, has now forced the war crimes tribunal to deal with his allegations, illustrating the difficulty of both administering international justice and conducting diplomacy.
In December, tribunal judges ruled that even if a deal had been made, it would have no bearing on a trial. They said no immunity agreement would be valid before an international tribunal in a case of genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity. Mr. Karadzic is charged with all three.
But Mr. Karadzic has appealed and filed motions demanding that prosecutors disclose every scrap of confidential evidence about negotiations with Mr. Holbrooke. He has asked his lawyers to seek meetings with American diplomats.
His demands have led the court to write to the United States government for clarification.
Peter Robinson, a lawyer for Mr. Karadzic, said that he had received a promise from Washington that he could interview Philip S. Goldberg, who was on the Holbrooke team meeting in Belgrade the night the resignation was negotiated.
“Goldberg took the notes at that meeting,” Mr. Robinson said. “The U.S. government has agreed to search for the notes and provide them if they find them.”
A State Department spokesman said that the government was cooperating with the tribunal, but would provide no further details.
Mr. Holbrooke, who brokered the peace agreement that ended the Bosnian war in 1995, returned to Belgrade in 1996 to press Mr. Karadzic to resign as president of the Bosnian Serb republic. Mr. Holbrooke’s memoirs recount a night of fierce negotiation on July 18, 1996, but make no mention of any pledge of immunity.
The Purdue University study, “Confronting the Yugoslav Controversies: A Scholars’ Initiative,” says that Mr. Holbrooke “instructed his principal assistant, Christopher Hill, to draft the memorandum to be signed by Karadzic,” committing him to give up power.
Mr. Ingrao said Mr. Holbrooke used Slobodan Milosevic, then the Serbian leader, and other Serbian officials as intermediaries to convey the promise of immunity and to reach the deal with Mr. Karadzic.
“The agreement almost came to grief when Holbrooke vigorously refused Karadzic’s demand, and Hill’s appeal, that he affix his signature to it,” the study says, citing unidentified State Department sources.
The study, the product of eight years of research by historians, jurists and social scientists from all sides of the conflict, was an effort to reconcile disparate views of the wars that tore the former Yugoslavia apart in the 1990s, Mr. Ingrao said.
Neither Mr. Hill nor Mr. Goldberg responded to requests for interviews for this article.
In an interview, the former State Department official, who had access to confidential reports and to members of the Holbrooke team, said that during that evening in 1996, Mr. Milosevic and other Serbian officials were on the phone with Mr. Karadzic, who was in Pale, Bosnia at the time.
The former official said that Mr. Karadzic wanted written assurances that he would not be pursued for war crimes and refused to sign without them.
“Holbrooke told the Serbs, ‘You can give him my word he won’t be pursued,’ but Holbrooke refused to sign anything,” the official said. Mr. Holbrooke could make that promise because he knew that American and other Western militaries in Bosnia were not then making arrests, the official said.
There were some 60,000 American and NATO troops in Bosnia, but the soldiers had no orders to arrest indicted Bosnians, reportedly for fear of inciting local rebellion.
In the brief statement Mr. Karadzic eventually signed, he agreed to withdraw “from all political activities” and to step down from office. It carried the signatures of Mr. Milosevic and four other Serbian leaders acting as witnesses and guarantors. It did not include any Americans’ names and made no mention of immunity.
The American who was involved in peacekeeping insisted in an interview that Mr. Holbrooke himself told him that he had made a deal with Mr. Karadzic to get him to leave politics. He recalled meeting Mr. Holbrooke in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on the eve of Bosnian elections in November 2000, just after Mr. Milosevic had finally been ousted from power in Serbia.
Mr. Holbrooke was worried about the outcome of the Bosnian vote because he knew that Mr. Karadzic was still secretly running his nationalist political party and picking candidates, including mayors and police chiefs who had run prison camps and organized massacres.
“Holbrooke was angry; he was ranting,” the American recalled. He quoted Mr. Holbrooke as saying: “That son of a bitch Karadzic. I made a deal with him that if he’d pull out of politics, we wouldn’t go after him. He’s broken that deal and now we’re going to get him.”
Mr. Karadzic’s party won those elections in the Bosnian Serb republic. Shortly afterward, he disappeared from public view.
22 March 2009
By Marlise Simons
Every time Radovan Karadzic, the onetime Bosnian Serb leader, appears in court on war crimes charges, he has hammered on one recurring claim: a senior American official pledged that he would never be standing there.
The official, Richard C. Holbrooke, now a special envoy on Afghanistan and Pakistan for the Obama administration, has repeatedly denied promising Mr. Karadzic immunity from prosecution in exchange for abandoning power after the Bosnian war.
But the rumor persists, and different versions have recently emerged that line up with Mr. Karadzic’s assertion, including a new historical study of the Yugoslav wars published by Purdue University in Indiana.
Charles W. Ingrao, the study’s co-editor, said that three senior State Department officials, one of them retired, and several other people with knowledge of Mr. Holbrooke’s activities told him that Mr. Holbrooke assured Mr. Karadzic in July 1996 that he would not be pursued by the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague if he left politics.
Mr. Karadzic had already been charged by the tribunal with genocide and other crimes against civilians.
Two of the sources cited anonymously in the new study, a former senior State Department official who spent almost a decade in the Balkans and another American who was involved with international peacekeeping there in the 1990s, provided additional details in interviews with The New York Times, speaking on condition that they not be further identified.
The former State Department official said he was told of the offer by people who were close to Mr. Holbrooke’s team at the time. The other source said that Mr. Holbrooke personally and emphatically told him about the deal on two occasions.
While the two men agreed, as one of them put it, that “Holbrooke did the right thing and got the job done,” the recurring story of the deal has dogged Mr. Holbrooke.
Last summer, after more than a decade on the run, Mr. Karadzic was found living disguised in Belgrade, Serbia’s capital. He was arrested and sent to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague for his trial, which is expected to start this year.
Asked for comment for this article, Mr. Holbrooke repeated his denial in a written statement. “No one in the U.S. government ever promised anything, nor made a deal of any sort with Karadzic,” he said, noting that Mr. Karadzic stepped down in the summer of 1996 under intense American pressure.
“In subsequent meetings, as a private citizen, I repeatedly urged officials in both the Clinton and Bush administrations to capture Karadzic,” Mr. Holbrooke said. “I am glad he has finally been brought to justice, even though he uses his public platform to disseminate these fabrications.”
Mr. Holbrooke declined to accept further questions and did not address the specifics of the new accounts.
Mr. Karadzic, by insisting that he is exempt from legal proceedings, has now forced the war crimes tribunal to deal with his allegations, illustrating the difficulty of both administering international justice and conducting diplomacy.
In December, tribunal judges ruled that even if a deal had been made, it would have no bearing on a trial. They said no immunity agreement would be valid before an international tribunal in a case of genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity. Mr. Karadzic is charged with all three.
But Mr. Karadzic has appealed and filed motions demanding that prosecutors disclose every scrap of confidential evidence about negotiations with Mr. Holbrooke. He has asked his lawyers to seek meetings with American diplomats.
His demands have led the court to write to the United States government for clarification.
Peter Robinson, a lawyer for Mr. Karadzic, said that he had received a promise from Washington that he could interview Philip S. Goldberg, who was on the Holbrooke team meeting in Belgrade the night the resignation was negotiated.
“Goldberg took the notes at that meeting,” Mr. Robinson said. “The U.S. government has agreed to search for the notes and provide them if they find them.”
A State Department spokesman said that the government was cooperating with the tribunal, but would provide no further details.
Mr. Holbrooke, who brokered the peace agreement that ended the Bosnian war in 1995, returned to Belgrade in 1996 to press Mr. Karadzic to resign as president of the Bosnian Serb republic. Mr. Holbrooke’s memoirs recount a night of fierce negotiation on July 18, 1996, but make no mention of any pledge of immunity.
The Purdue University study, “Confronting the Yugoslav Controversies: A Scholars’ Initiative,” says that Mr. Holbrooke “instructed his principal assistant, Christopher Hill, to draft the memorandum to be signed by Karadzic,” committing him to give up power.
Mr. Ingrao said Mr. Holbrooke used Slobodan Milosevic, then the Serbian leader, and other Serbian officials as intermediaries to convey the promise of immunity and to reach the deal with Mr. Karadzic.
“The agreement almost came to grief when Holbrooke vigorously refused Karadzic’s demand, and Hill’s appeal, that he affix his signature to it,” the study says, citing unidentified State Department sources.
The study, the product of eight years of research by historians, jurists and social scientists from all sides of the conflict, was an effort to reconcile disparate views of the wars that tore the former Yugoslavia apart in the 1990s, Mr. Ingrao said.
Neither Mr. Hill nor Mr. Goldberg responded to requests for interviews for this article.
In an interview, the former State Department official, who had access to confidential reports and to members of the Holbrooke team, said that during that evening in 1996, Mr. Milosevic and other Serbian officials were on the phone with Mr. Karadzic, who was in Pale, Bosnia at the time.
The former official said that Mr. Karadzic wanted written assurances that he would not be pursued for war crimes and refused to sign without them.
“Holbrooke told the Serbs, ‘You can give him my word he won’t be pursued,’ but Holbrooke refused to sign anything,” the official said. Mr. Holbrooke could make that promise because he knew that American and other Western militaries in Bosnia were not then making arrests, the official said.
There were some 60,000 American and NATO troops in Bosnia, but the soldiers had no orders to arrest indicted Bosnians, reportedly for fear of inciting local rebellion.
In the brief statement Mr. Karadzic eventually signed, he agreed to withdraw “from all political activities” and to step down from office. It carried the signatures of Mr. Milosevic and four other Serbian leaders acting as witnesses and guarantors. It did not include any Americans’ names and made no mention of immunity.
The American who was involved in peacekeeping insisted in an interview that Mr. Holbrooke himself told him that he had made a deal with Mr. Karadzic to get him to leave politics. He recalled meeting Mr. Holbrooke in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on the eve of Bosnian elections in November 2000, just after Mr. Milosevic had finally been ousted from power in Serbia.
Mr. Holbrooke was worried about the outcome of the Bosnian vote because he knew that Mr. Karadzic was still secretly running his nationalist political party and picking candidates, including mayors and police chiefs who had run prison camps and organized massacres.
“Holbrooke was angry; he was ranting,” the American recalled. He quoted Mr. Holbrooke as saying: “That son of a bitch Karadzic. I made a deal with him that if he’d pull out of politics, we wouldn’t go after him. He’s broken that deal and now we’re going to get him.”
Mr. Karadzic’s party won those elections in the Bosnian Serb republic. Shortly afterward, he disappeared from public view.
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