Reuters
29 May 2009
Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said on Friday the southern African country could attract up to $16-billion in exploration and mining investment if it corrects policies that have scared away foreign investors.
Mining has become a pillar of the country's battered economy, following the collapse of commercial farming, with gold alone generating a third of all export revenue.
But large mining houses have kept away from Zimbabwe's mining sector after an economic crisis worsened by President Robert Mugabe's policies, including a nationalisation law targeting majority holding by locals in foreign-owned mines.
The veteran 85-year-old leader in February formed a unity government with Tsvangirai, raising hopes that some of the controversial laws would be scrapped.
Tsvangirai told members of the Chamber of Mines at an annual general meeting that the global mining boom witnessed in the past few years could resume by mid next year, which the country could take advantage of by having attractive policies.
"Government has a window of opportunity to prepare a conducive policy environment by mid 2010, that could see Zimbabwe's minerals sector attracting between $6-billion and $16-billion in exploration and mine development during the 2011-2018 period," Tsvangirai said.
Tsvangirai said while it was necessary to allow locals to participate in the mining industry, this should be done with a view to grow the country's economy.
There has been no exploration since 2002 in Zimbabwe, which has the second largest platinum deposits after South Africa and boasts large reserves of gold, copper, coal and nickel.
Some of the major miners operating in Zimbabwe include Impala Platinum Holdings (Implats), which is the foreign firm with the biggest mining investments, its rival Anglo Platinum and global player Rio Tinto.
Several mines have shut down in the past, suffocated by hyper-inflation, and shortages of skills, power and foreign currency.
EMPOWERMENT
Critics say if having empowerment or locals owning shares in foreign owned companies is not handled carefully, the country could see a repeat of the chaotic land reforms where Mugabe's allies and top government and security officials largely benefited from seized white-owned farms.
"The manner in which this (empowerment) approach and objective are realised has to, as a matter of principle, lead to growth of the economy and the upliftment of the standards of living of our people," said Tsvangirai.
David Murangari, the Chamber of Mines President said the government should take recommendations by miners seriously, especially on the empowerment issue.
Miners want to be allowed to set their own empowerment targets rather than government's proposal to parcel out 51 percent shareholding to locals.
Murangari urged the government to exempt companies from paying full wages to workers to allow them to save jobs and enable a quicker recovery when the global economic crisis ends.
"We would like to suggest that consideration be given to allow employers to get exemption from paying full wages ... (this) would assist to preserve assets, save jobs to enable an easier resumption when conditions improve," Murangari said.
29 May, 2009
Uranium-Stockpile Drop May Benefit BHP, Areva, Cameco.
By Jonathan Tirone
May 29, 2009
Bloomberg
Russian and U.S. uranium stocks may supply as little as 5 percent of world needs by 2015, down from 40 percent, spurring demand for metal mined by companies such as BHP Billiton Ltd., the International Atomic Energy Agency said.
“The most important thing that is controlling the uranium market are the secondary sources, the uranium that has been mined in the past and diverted mainly for weapons purposes,” Chaitanyamoy Ganguly, 63, head of IAEA nuclear fuel forecasts, said yesterday in an interview. “Maybe by 2015 to 2020, the secondary-source contribution will dramatically fall to 5 to 10 percent and then you’ll need a lot of uranium from the mines.”
BHP, the largest mining company, this month said it may decide next year on a $15 billion expansion of its Olympic Dam mine, the world’s biggest uranium deposit, in Australia. Demand is growing as more nuclear power stations are built in India and China. The number of reactors may jump 30 percent by 2020, the World Nuclear Association estimates.
BHP, along with Cameco Corp., the world’s biggest uranium producer, and Areva SA, will benefit from increased reliance on mined uranium, Ganguly said in Vienna.
The price “should be between $50 and $100” a pound to spur exploration and output, and maintain consumption, while a drop below $40 would imperil new projects, he said. Extraction from rock phosphates in countries including Jordan, Egypt and Algeria will be attractive at prices from $50 to $60, he added.
Geologist Shortage
Uranium oxide concentrate for immediate delivery cost $49 a pound, according to a Roswell, Georgia-based Ux Consulting Co. report on May 25. RBC Capital Markets forecasts a price in the mid-$50s by the end of 2009, after it dropped to $40 in April. AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. said on May 15 that the price of uranium may rise to about $70 a pound in the “long-term.”
Equinox Minerals Ltd., owner of Africa’s biggest copper mine, said May 26 it would reassess a shelved $200 million uranium treatment plant in Zambia after prices rebounded.
The Vienna-based IAEA is promoting uranium exploration from China to the Democratic Republic of Congo as governments seek to generate power without adding to greenhouse gases, blamed for global warming. About 400 businesses have been set up to seek deposits since 2004, said Ganguly, a metallurgical engineer and former Chief Executive Officer of India’s Nuclear Fuel Complex.
“In the last four to five years, exploration has mushroomed all over the world,” he said. “There’s an acute shortage of uranium geologists and uranium mining engineers. Our focus is to train up these youngsters in uranium geology.”
Desperate Search
In China, “they are desperately trying to find new uranium reserves,” he said. “On the border of Kazakhstan and Mongolia there are some deposits. The grade is very, very low. At least they have identified some low-grade uranium.”
The IAEA, which together with the Paris-based Nuclear Energy Agency publishes the bi-annual Uranium: Resources, Production and Demand guide, may boost the estimated level of known reserves when they compile new figures this year.
“You’ll find that it’s no longer 5.5 million tons but maybe 6 or 7 million tons,” Ganguly said. “There are more than adequate uranium resources to meet demand for the next 100 years under any foreseeable growth scenario.” There may also be more than 10.5 million tons of undiscovered uranium resources, the organizations estimated in 2007.
Ganguly is scientific secretary of an IAEA uranium economics conference scheduled for June 22 in Vienna.
May 29, 2009
Bloomberg
Russian and U.S. uranium stocks may supply as little as 5 percent of world needs by 2015, down from 40 percent, spurring demand for metal mined by companies such as BHP Billiton Ltd., the International Atomic Energy Agency said.
“The most important thing that is controlling the uranium market are the secondary sources, the uranium that has been mined in the past and diverted mainly for weapons purposes,” Chaitanyamoy Ganguly, 63, head of IAEA nuclear fuel forecasts, said yesterday in an interview. “Maybe by 2015 to 2020, the secondary-source contribution will dramatically fall to 5 to 10 percent and then you’ll need a lot of uranium from the mines.”
BHP, the largest mining company, this month said it may decide next year on a $15 billion expansion of its Olympic Dam mine, the world’s biggest uranium deposit, in Australia. Demand is growing as more nuclear power stations are built in India and China. The number of reactors may jump 30 percent by 2020, the World Nuclear Association estimates.
BHP, along with Cameco Corp., the world’s biggest uranium producer, and Areva SA, will benefit from increased reliance on mined uranium, Ganguly said in Vienna.
The price “should be between $50 and $100” a pound to spur exploration and output, and maintain consumption, while a drop below $40 would imperil new projects, he said. Extraction from rock phosphates in countries including Jordan, Egypt and Algeria will be attractive at prices from $50 to $60, he added.
Geologist Shortage
Uranium oxide concentrate for immediate delivery cost $49 a pound, according to a Roswell, Georgia-based Ux Consulting Co. report on May 25. RBC Capital Markets forecasts a price in the mid-$50s by the end of 2009, after it dropped to $40 in April. AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. said on May 15 that the price of uranium may rise to about $70 a pound in the “long-term.”
Equinox Minerals Ltd., owner of Africa’s biggest copper mine, said May 26 it would reassess a shelved $200 million uranium treatment plant in Zambia after prices rebounded.
The Vienna-based IAEA is promoting uranium exploration from China to the Democratic Republic of Congo as governments seek to generate power without adding to greenhouse gases, blamed for global warming. About 400 businesses have been set up to seek deposits since 2004, said Ganguly, a metallurgical engineer and former Chief Executive Officer of India’s Nuclear Fuel Complex.
“In the last four to five years, exploration has mushroomed all over the world,” he said. “There’s an acute shortage of uranium geologists and uranium mining engineers. Our focus is to train up these youngsters in uranium geology.”
Desperate Search
In China, “they are desperately trying to find new uranium reserves,” he said. “On the border of Kazakhstan and Mongolia there are some deposits. The grade is very, very low. At least they have identified some low-grade uranium.”
The IAEA, which together with the Paris-based Nuclear Energy Agency publishes the bi-annual Uranium: Resources, Production and Demand guide, may boost the estimated level of known reserves when they compile new figures this year.
“You’ll find that it’s no longer 5.5 million tons but maybe 6 or 7 million tons,” Ganguly said. “There are more than adequate uranium resources to meet demand for the next 100 years under any foreseeable growth scenario.” There may also be more than 10.5 million tons of undiscovered uranium resources, the organizations estimated in 2007.
Ganguly is scientific secretary of an IAEA uranium economics conference scheduled for June 22 in Vienna.
The hidden massacre: Sri Lanka’s final offensive against Tamil Tigers.
The Times
29 May 2009
By Catherine Philp
More than 20,000 Tamil civilians were killed in the final throes of the Sri Lankan civil war, most as a result of government shelling, an investigation by The Times has revealed.
The number of casualties is three times the official figure.
The Sri Lankan authorities have insisted that their forces stopped using heavy weapons on April 27 and observed the no-fire zone where 100,000 Tamil men, women and children were sheltering. They have blamed all civilian casualties on Tamil Tiger rebels concealed among the civilians.
Aerial photographs, official documents, witness accounts and expert testimony tell a different story. With the world’s media and aid organisations kept well away from the fighting, the army launched a fierce barrage that began at the end of April and lasted about three weeks. The offensive ended Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war with the Tamil Tigers, but innocent civilians paid the price.
Confidential United Nations documents acquired by The Times record nearly 7,000 civilian deaths in the no-fire zone up to the end of April. UN sources said that the toll then surged, with an average of 1,000 civilians killed each day until May 19, the day after Velupillai Prabhakaran, the leader of the Tamil Tigers, was killed. That figure concurs with the estimate made to The Times by Father Amalraj, a Roman Catholic priest who fled the no-fire zone on May 16 and is now interned with 200,000 other survivors in Manik Farm refugee camp. It would take the final toll above 20,000. “Higher,” a UN source told The Times. “Keep going.”
Some of the victims can be seen in the photograph above, which shows the destruction of the flimsy refugee camp. In the bottom right-hand corner, sand mounds show makeshift burial grounds. Other pictures show a more orderly military cemetery, believed to be for hundreds of rebel fighters. One photograph shows rebel gun emplacements next to the refugee camp.
Independent defence experts who analysed dozens of aerial photographs taken by The Times said that the arrangement of the army and rebel firing positions and the narrowness of the no-fire zone made it unlikely that Tiger mortar fire or artillery caused a significant number of deaths. “It looks more likely that the firing position has been located by the Sri Lankan Army and it has then been targeted with air-burst and ground-impact mortars,” said Charles Heyman, editor of the magazine Armed Forces of the UK.
On Wednesday, Sri Lanka was cleared of any wrongdoing by the UN Human Rights Council after winning the backing of countries including China, Egypt, India and Cuba.
A spokesman for the Sri Lankan High Commission in London said: “We reject all these allegations. Civilians have not been killed by government shelling at all. If civilians have been killed, then that is because of the actions of the LTTE [rebels] who were shooting and killing people when they tried to escape.”
29 May 2009
By Catherine Philp
More than 20,000 Tamil civilians were killed in the final throes of the Sri Lankan civil war, most as a result of government shelling, an investigation by The Times has revealed.
The number of casualties is three times the official figure.
The Sri Lankan authorities have insisted that their forces stopped using heavy weapons on April 27 and observed the no-fire zone where 100,000 Tamil men, women and children were sheltering. They have blamed all civilian casualties on Tamil Tiger rebels concealed among the civilians.
Aerial photographs, official documents, witness accounts and expert testimony tell a different story. With the world’s media and aid organisations kept well away from the fighting, the army launched a fierce barrage that began at the end of April and lasted about three weeks. The offensive ended Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war with the Tamil Tigers, but innocent civilians paid the price.
Confidential United Nations documents acquired by The Times record nearly 7,000 civilian deaths in the no-fire zone up to the end of April. UN sources said that the toll then surged, with an average of 1,000 civilians killed each day until May 19, the day after Velupillai Prabhakaran, the leader of the Tamil Tigers, was killed. That figure concurs with the estimate made to The Times by Father Amalraj, a Roman Catholic priest who fled the no-fire zone on May 16 and is now interned with 200,000 other survivors in Manik Farm refugee camp. It would take the final toll above 20,000. “Higher,” a UN source told The Times. “Keep going.”
Some of the victims can be seen in the photograph above, which shows the destruction of the flimsy refugee camp. In the bottom right-hand corner, sand mounds show makeshift burial grounds. Other pictures show a more orderly military cemetery, believed to be for hundreds of rebel fighters. One photograph shows rebel gun emplacements next to the refugee camp.
Independent defence experts who analysed dozens of aerial photographs taken by The Times said that the arrangement of the army and rebel firing positions and the narrowness of the no-fire zone made it unlikely that Tiger mortar fire or artillery caused a significant number of deaths. “It looks more likely that the firing position has been located by the Sri Lankan Army and it has then been targeted with air-burst and ground-impact mortars,” said Charles Heyman, editor of the magazine Armed Forces of the UK.
On Wednesday, Sri Lanka was cleared of any wrongdoing by the UN Human Rights Council after winning the backing of countries including China, Egypt, India and Cuba.
A spokesman for the Sri Lankan High Commission in London said: “We reject all these allegations. Civilians have not been killed by government shelling at all. If civilians have been killed, then that is because of the actions of the LTTE [rebels] who were shooting and killing people when they tried to escape.”
As Ruling Party Alleges Anti-Yar'Adua Meeting in Ghana PDP - U.S. Wants to Destabilise Nigeria.
This Day
29 May 2009
By Chuks Okocha
The ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday accused the United States government and its embassy in Nigeria of conspiracy and plotting with opposition groups to destabilise the country.
Specifically, the party said that part of the plot is for the US Embassy to organise a meeting between the pro-democracy groups in Nigeria and President Barack Obama in Ghana, where the groups would seek to persuade the US President that the administration of President Umaru Yar'Adua is "illegitimate".
President Obama is expected in Ghana on July 11.
The statement also said the masterminds of the "conspiracy and plot" include a "failed" presidential candidate, two former Speakers, a former Senate President and "a sprinkling of political hangers-on".
In a statement signed by the Deputy National Chairman of PDP, Dr. Bello Harilu Mohammed, the party said: "Incontrovertible information available to us also revealed that after their meeting in Kaduna, they approached the American Embassy to facilitate their plans to meet with President Obama in Ghana but they were advised to include civil society organisations in their proposed diabolical delegation as a way of portraying themselves as credible elder statesmen."
PDP also said the aim of the visit to see Obama is to disrupt the existing trade relations between the United States and Nigeria, thereby worsening the already precarious state of the economy in the face of dwindling oil revenue and the global financial meltdown.
PDP urged the US "not to, by any acts of omission or commission, promote the evil plans of these unpatriotic politicians against a democratically elected government as such would raise questions about its respect for the sovereignty of other countries and the international doctrine of non-interference in the internal affairs of other sovereign nations."
The party said President Obama knows that due process and the rule of law are cardinal tenets of democracy and acceptable political behaviour anywhere in the world.
"President Obama is a product of an electoral process that evolved over time just as our President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua has kick-started enduring electoral reforms in Nigeria, a process which his Administration is fully committed to fulfil (fulifilling) in the shortest possible time. The advent of the Obama era is therefore a necessary tonic to our on-going electoral reforms and the development of strong democracies in Nigeria, Africa and other developing countries," PDP said.
The party also said the attempt by Nigeria's political leaders to cause "incalculable damage" to the Nigerian economy and its peace-loving people at this critical time is "a disservice" to a country from which most of them who have held one political office or another in the immediate past and have immensely benefited.
"It is indeed shameful that these dishonourable politicians did not realise that the advice given to them by the American Embassy to include civil society organisations in their team was actually exposing their irrelevance to the political process as such views are only worthy of consideration if expressed through a respectable forum as a civil society organisation," the statement stated.
PDP described as disturbing that "the American Embassy in Nigeria has chosen to lend itself to such a high-level political conspiracy against the Government and people of Nigeria while at the same time enjoying the hospitality of its host.
"This, to us, is hair-raising and we urge the relevant authorities in the United States to commence investigations although we are mindful that the Embassy may have been misguided by the calibre of the people involved in this plot. But we hasten to note that we do not expect the Embassy to be involved willy-nilly in such an organised conspiracy against the political and economic well-being of the Nigerian nation."
PDP also appealed to organisers of the meeting with President Obama to shun acts capable of undermining the nation's democracy which could endanger the collective destiny of Nigerians.
According to the statement, "this time in our history calls for total dedication to the growth and development of our nation. All divisive tendencies should be discouraged. Promoters of chaos and violence should be taken from our midst and handed over to security agencies. This is the only way to go."
PDP called on security agencies in the country to wade in immediately and commence necessary investigation into the matter and several others "which we have exposed in the past".
29 May 2009
By Chuks Okocha
The ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday accused the United States government and its embassy in Nigeria of conspiracy and plotting with opposition groups to destabilise the country.
Specifically, the party said that part of the plot is for the US Embassy to organise a meeting between the pro-democracy groups in Nigeria and President Barack Obama in Ghana, where the groups would seek to persuade the US President that the administration of President Umaru Yar'Adua is "illegitimate".
President Obama is expected in Ghana on July 11.
The statement also said the masterminds of the "conspiracy and plot" include a "failed" presidential candidate, two former Speakers, a former Senate President and "a sprinkling of political hangers-on".
In a statement signed by the Deputy National Chairman of PDP, Dr. Bello Harilu Mohammed, the party said: "Incontrovertible information available to us also revealed that after their meeting in Kaduna, they approached the American Embassy to facilitate their plans to meet with President Obama in Ghana but they were advised to include civil society organisations in their proposed diabolical delegation as a way of portraying themselves as credible elder statesmen."
PDP also said the aim of the visit to see Obama is to disrupt the existing trade relations between the United States and Nigeria, thereby worsening the already precarious state of the economy in the face of dwindling oil revenue and the global financial meltdown.
PDP urged the US "not to, by any acts of omission or commission, promote the evil plans of these unpatriotic politicians against a democratically elected government as such would raise questions about its respect for the sovereignty of other countries and the international doctrine of non-interference in the internal affairs of other sovereign nations."
The party said President Obama knows that due process and the rule of law are cardinal tenets of democracy and acceptable political behaviour anywhere in the world.
"President Obama is a product of an electoral process that evolved over time just as our President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua has kick-started enduring electoral reforms in Nigeria, a process which his Administration is fully committed to fulfil (fulifilling) in the shortest possible time. The advent of the Obama era is therefore a necessary tonic to our on-going electoral reforms and the development of strong democracies in Nigeria, Africa and other developing countries," PDP said.
The party also said the attempt by Nigeria's political leaders to cause "incalculable damage" to the Nigerian economy and its peace-loving people at this critical time is "a disservice" to a country from which most of them who have held one political office or another in the immediate past and have immensely benefited.
"It is indeed shameful that these dishonourable politicians did not realise that the advice given to them by the American Embassy to include civil society organisations in their team was actually exposing their irrelevance to the political process as such views are only worthy of consideration if expressed through a respectable forum as a civil society organisation," the statement stated.
PDP described as disturbing that "the American Embassy in Nigeria has chosen to lend itself to such a high-level political conspiracy against the Government and people of Nigeria while at the same time enjoying the hospitality of its host.
"This, to us, is hair-raising and we urge the relevant authorities in the United States to commence investigations although we are mindful that the Embassy may have been misguided by the calibre of the people involved in this plot. But we hasten to note that we do not expect the Embassy to be involved willy-nilly in such an organised conspiracy against the political and economic well-being of the Nigerian nation."
PDP also appealed to organisers of the meeting with President Obama to shun acts capable of undermining the nation's democracy which could endanger the collective destiny of Nigerians.
According to the statement, "this time in our history calls for total dedication to the growth and development of our nation. All divisive tendencies should be discouraged. Promoters of chaos and violence should be taken from our midst and handed over to security agencies. This is the only way to go."
PDP called on security agencies in the country to wade in immediately and commence necessary investigation into the matter and several others "which we have exposed in the past".
Israelis get four-fifths of scarce West Bank water, says World Bank.
The Guardian
27 May 2009
By Rory McCarthy
A deepening drought in the Middle East is aggravating a dispute over water resources after the World Bank found that Israel is taking four times as much water as the Palestinians from a vital shared aquifer.
The region faces a fifth consecutive year of drought this summer, but the World Bank report found huge disparities in water use between Israelis and Palestinians, although both share the mountain aquifer that runs the length of the occupied West Bank. Palestinians have access to only a fifth of the water supply, while Israel, which controls the area, takes the rest, the bank said.
Israelis use 240 cubic metres of water a person each year, against 75 cubic metres for West Bank Palestinians and 125 for Gazans, the bank said. Increasingly, West Bank Palestinians must rely on water bought from the Israeli national water company, Mekorot.
In some areas of the West Bank, Palestinians are surviving on as little as 10 to 15 litres a person each day, which is at or below humanitarian disaster response levels recommended to avoid epidemics. In Gaza, where Palestinians rely on an aquifer that has become increasingly saline and polluted, the situation is worse. Only 5%-10% of the available water is clean enough to drink.
The World Bank report, published last month, provoked sharp criticism from Israel, which disputed the figures and the scale of the problem on the Palestinian side. But others have welcomed the study and its findings.
Gidon Bromberg, the Israeli head of Friends of the Earth Middle East, said there was a clear failure to meet basic water needs for both Israelis and Palestinians, and that Israelis were taking "the lion's share".
"The bottom line is there is a severe water crisis out there, predominantly on the Palestinian side, and it will be felt even worse this coming summer," Bromberg said at a conference on the issue in Jerusalem.
He said the Joint Water Committee, established in 1995 with Israelis and Palestinians as an interim measure under the Oslo peace accords, had failed to produce results and needed reform.
The World Bank report said the hopes that the Oslo accords might bring water resources for a viable Palestinian state and improve the life of Palestinians had "only very partially been realised".
It said failings in water resource and management and chronic underinvestment were to blame. In Gaza, the continued Israeli economic blockade played a key role in preventing maintenance and construction of sewage and water projects. In the West Bank, Israeli military controls over the Palestinians were a factor, with Palestinians still waiting for approval on 143 water projects.
"We consider that the efficiency of our aid in the current situation is compromised," said Pier Mantovani, a Middle East water specialist for the World Bank, which is an important source of aid for the Palestinians.
Most went on short-term emergency projects with limited long-term strategic value. It was a "piecemeal, ad hoc" approach, he said.
Yossi Dreisen, a former official and now adviser at the Israeli water authority, disputed the Bank's findings and said many remarks in the report were "not correct". He produced figures suggesting Israeli water consumption per person had fallen since 1967, when Israel captured and occupied the West Bank, while Palestinian consumption had risen.
Israel argues that the water problem should be solved by finding new sources, through desalination and water treatment.
"There is not enough water in this area," said Dreisen. "Something must be done. The solution where one is giving water to the other is not acceptable to us."
However, Fuad Bateh, an adviser to the Palestinian water authority, said Israel continued to have obligations under international law as the occupying power and should allow Palestinians water resources through an "equitable and reasonable allocation in accordance with international law".
He accepted that there was a lack of institutional development and capacity on the Palestinian side, but he said the Palestinians were caught in an unequal, asymmetric dispute. Palestinians had not been allowed to develop any new production wells in the West Bank since the 1967 war.
"Palestinians have no say in the Israeli development of these shared, trans-boundary, water resources," he said. "It is a situation in which Israel has a de facto veto over Palestinian water development."
27 May 2009
By Rory McCarthy
A deepening drought in the Middle East is aggravating a dispute over water resources after the World Bank found that Israel is taking four times as much water as the Palestinians from a vital shared aquifer.
The region faces a fifth consecutive year of drought this summer, but the World Bank report found huge disparities in water use between Israelis and Palestinians, although both share the mountain aquifer that runs the length of the occupied West Bank. Palestinians have access to only a fifth of the water supply, while Israel, which controls the area, takes the rest, the bank said.
Israelis use 240 cubic metres of water a person each year, against 75 cubic metres for West Bank Palestinians and 125 for Gazans, the bank said. Increasingly, West Bank Palestinians must rely on water bought from the Israeli national water company, Mekorot.
In some areas of the West Bank, Palestinians are surviving on as little as 10 to 15 litres a person each day, which is at or below humanitarian disaster response levels recommended to avoid epidemics. In Gaza, where Palestinians rely on an aquifer that has become increasingly saline and polluted, the situation is worse. Only 5%-10% of the available water is clean enough to drink.
The World Bank report, published last month, provoked sharp criticism from Israel, which disputed the figures and the scale of the problem on the Palestinian side. But others have welcomed the study and its findings.
Gidon Bromberg, the Israeli head of Friends of the Earth Middle East, said there was a clear failure to meet basic water needs for both Israelis and Palestinians, and that Israelis were taking "the lion's share".
"The bottom line is there is a severe water crisis out there, predominantly on the Palestinian side, and it will be felt even worse this coming summer," Bromberg said at a conference on the issue in Jerusalem.
He said the Joint Water Committee, established in 1995 with Israelis and Palestinians as an interim measure under the Oslo peace accords, had failed to produce results and needed reform.
The World Bank report said the hopes that the Oslo accords might bring water resources for a viable Palestinian state and improve the life of Palestinians had "only very partially been realised".
It said failings in water resource and management and chronic underinvestment were to blame. In Gaza, the continued Israeli economic blockade played a key role in preventing maintenance and construction of sewage and water projects. In the West Bank, Israeli military controls over the Palestinians were a factor, with Palestinians still waiting for approval on 143 water projects.
"We consider that the efficiency of our aid in the current situation is compromised," said Pier Mantovani, a Middle East water specialist for the World Bank, which is an important source of aid for the Palestinians.
Most went on short-term emergency projects with limited long-term strategic value. It was a "piecemeal, ad hoc" approach, he said.
Yossi Dreisen, a former official and now adviser at the Israeli water authority, disputed the Bank's findings and said many remarks in the report were "not correct". He produced figures suggesting Israeli water consumption per person had fallen since 1967, when Israel captured and occupied the West Bank, while Palestinian consumption had risen.
Israel argues that the water problem should be solved by finding new sources, through desalination and water treatment.
"There is not enough water in this area," said Dreisen. "Something must be done. The solution where one is giving water to the other is not acceptable to us."
However, Fuad Bateh, an adviser to the Palestinian water authority, said Israel continued to have obligations under international law as the occupying power and should allow Palestinians water resources through an "equitable and reasonable allocation in accordance with international law".
He accepted that there was a lack of institutional development and capacity on the Palestinian side, but he said the Palestinians were caught in an unequal, asymmetric dispute. Palestinians had not been allowed to develop any new production wells in the West Bank since the 1967 war.
"Palestinians have no say in the Israeli development of these shared, trans-boundary, water resources," he said. "It is a situation in which Israel has a de facto veto over Palestinian water development."
Private armies board ships in Somalia.
Radio Netherlands
By Jan Huisman
28-05-2009
Dozens of warships from navies around the world patrol the waters off Somalia, yet still the number of hijackings rises. The international effort to combat piracy involves many navies operating in separate alliances, working with different rules of engagement in poorly coordinated operations. As governments fail, private security companies move to fill the void.
One such company, US-based Phoenix Intelligence Support, initiated a private sector conference in Cairo this week to discuss what it calls "real solutions" to the piracy threat. Speaking on phone from Cairo, Phoenix managing director William Fielding said so far a group of companies operating almost 1,000 ships have expressed interest in his protection services.
"The ideal situation would be to never have a pirate come on board a ship at all," Mr. Fielding said. "We are looking at the most humane ways to deter anyone from getting on board the ship, but we need to be true to our customers as well."
Mr Fielding said his company plans to install teams on board vessels, armed with high pressure hoses, long range acoustical devices and, as a last resort, conventional weaponry. The company also intends to employ airplanes to spot pirates at sea.
"We want our philosophy to be, just keep them off board the ship the gentlest way possible."
Moral high ground
Private security companies have been a controversial phenomenon since their involvement in Iraq. Private companies are not subject to civilian control the way a conventional military is, and have been accused of trigger-happy rules of engagement. One company already operating an armed ship in Somalia is Blackwater, infamous since a 2007 incident in which 17 civilians were killed in Baghdad's Nisoor Square.
Mr Fielding argues the private sector can thwart pirates in a simple and cost-effective manner, while navies lack the resources to patrol enough ocean.
Rob Hunnego, chairman of the Dutch Royal Association of Marine Officers, agreed that navies are struggling to intercept pirates, but said private security is an undesirable alternative. Without democratic control over the behaviour of armed forces, the use of violence lacks legitimacy, Mr Hunnego said.
"Our rules of engagement are strong enough, but I think that's the price we have to pay if we want to attack pirates, or even terrorists - we have to maintain a moral high ground and make sure that the way we act is beyond disapproval from international law."
Mr Hunnego dismissed the notion that companies would save money by hiring private security.
"One thing is sure - the private companies don't come cheap either."
Big business
Andrew Mwangura holds a unique position in the world of Somali piracy. From the Mombasa office of his small NGO for seafarer's safety, Mwangura negotiates between pirates, Somali clans and the multinational companies whose ships are seized. He does not consider private contractors a solution.
"We think that will bring more trouble in these waters. We want the private security companies to stay away and let the military do what is right."
Mwangura sees private security contractors as yet another leech profiting from conflict in Somalia. Mwangura said the finances involved in piracy far exceeds the ransom figures reported in the media. There are ransom delivery costs, negotiation fees, lawyer fees, and increasingly, the cost of security.
"Piracy in Somalia is big business. Everyone wants to make money out of this, including the private security companies."
Root cause
The debate over private security versus military intervention is misguided, said Mwangura. Ever since Somali piracy gained international attention, analysts have pointed to poverty and lawlessness in Somalia as the underlying cause. Yet all Mwangura hears is debate over what military tactic to pursue.
"The solution is not military." Conflict in Africa, Mwangura said, is often tied to the illegal extraction of its natural resources: diamonds in Liberia, cotton in the Congo, and in Somalia, fish.
"The root cause is poverty, and the cause of poverty is illegal fishing, toxic dumping, and years of bad rains."
Mwangura rattled off by memory five United Nations resolutions to address piracy in Somalia. None have mentioned the root cause, he said.
"We find it a contradiction because we have about more than 25 warships from all over the world in Somalia, but none of them has arrested fishing vessels fishing illegally in Somali waters."
By Jan Huisman
28-05-2009
Dozens of warships from navies around the world patrol the waters off Somalia, yet still the number of hijackings rises. The international effort to combat piracy involves many navies operating in separate alliances, working with different rules of engagement in poorly coordinated operations. As governments fail, private security companies move to fill the void.
One such company, US-based Phoenix Intelligence Support, initiated a private sector conference in Cairo this week to discuss what it calls "real solutions" to the piracy threat. Speaking on phone from Cairo, Phoenix managing director William Fielding said so far a group of companies operating almost 1,000 ships have expressed interest in his protection services.
"The ideal situation would be to never have a pirate come on board a ship at all," Mr. Fielding said. "We are looking at the most humane ways to deter anyone from getting on board the ship, but we need to be true to our customers as well."
Mr Fielding said his company plans to install teams on board vessels, armed with high pressure hoses, long range acoustical devices and, as a last resort, conventional weaponry. The company also intends to employ airplanes to spot pirates at sea.
"We want our philosophy to be, just keep them off board the ship the gentlest way possible."
Moral high ground
Private security companies have been a controversial phenomenon since their involvement in Iraq. Private companies are not subject to civilian control the way a conventional military is, and have been accused of trigger-happy rules of engagement. One company already operating an armed ship in Somalia is Blackwater, infamous since a 2007 incident in which 17 civilians were killed in Baghdad's Nisoor Square.
Mr Fielding argues the private sector can thwart pirates in a simple and cost-effective manner, while navies lack the resources to patrol enough ocean.
Rob Hunnego, chairman of the Dutch Royal Association of Marine Officers, agreed that navies are struggling to intercept pirates, but said private security is an undesirable alternative. Without democratic control over the behaviour of armed forces, the use of violence lacks legitimacy, Mr Hunnego said.
"Our rules of engagement are strong enough, but I think that's the price we have to pay if we want to attack pirates, or even terrorists - we have to maintain a moral high ground and make sure that the way we act is beyond disapproval from international law."
Mr Hunnego dismissed the notion that companies would save money by hiring private security.
"One thing is sure - the private companies don't come cheap either."
Big business
Andrew Mwangura holds a unique position in the world of Somali piracy. From the Mombasa office of his small NGO for seafarer's safety, Mwangura negotiates between pirates, Somali clans and the multinational companies whose ships are seized. He does not consider private contractors a solution.
"We think that will bring more trouble in these waters. We want the private security companies to stay away and let the military do what is right."
Mwangura sees private security contractors as yet another leech profiting from conflict in Somalia. Mwangura said the finances involved in piracy far exceeds the ransom figures reported in the media. There are ransom delivery costs, negotiation fees, lawyer fees, and increasingly, the cost of security.
"Piracy in Somalia is big business. Everyone wants to make money out of this, including the private security companies."
Root cause
The debate over private security versus military intervention is misguided, said Mwangura. Ever since Somali piracy gained international attention, analysts have pointed to poverty and lawlessness in Somalia as the underlying cause. Yet all Mwangura hears is debate over what military tactic to pursue.
"The solution is not military." Conflict in Africa, Mwangura said, is often tied to the illegal extraction of its natural resources: diamonds in Liberia, cotton in the Congo, and in Somalia, fish.
"The root cause is poverty, and the cause of poverty is illegal fishing, toxic dumping, and years of bad rains."
Mwangura rattled off by memory five United Nations resolutions to address piracy in Somalia. None have mentioned the root cause, he said.
"We find it a contradiction because we have about more than 25 warships from all over the world in Somalia, but none of them has arrested fishing vessels fishing illegally in Somali waters."
Presidents discuss Somali peacekeeping.
SAPA
28 May 2009
Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza was due to arrive in Uganda on Thursday to hold talks on maintaining the nations' joint peacekeeping mission in conflict-ridden Somalia.
Nkurunziza and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni will discuss the recent UN resolution extending the mandate of the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia (AMISOM) until January 31 2010, the permanent secretary in the Ugandan Foreign Ministry, James Mugume, told the German Press Agency dpa.
Islamist insurgents
Some 4 300 soldiers from Uganda and Burundi have been propping up Somalia's embattled transitional government, which is coming under increasingly fierce attack from Islamist insurgents.
AMISOM was originally supposed to consist of 8 000 troops, but only Uganda and Burundi have supplied forces so far.
28 May 2009
Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza was due to arrive in Uganda on Thursday to hold talks on maintaining the nations' joint peacekeeping mission in conflict-ridden Somalia.
Nkurunziza and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni will discuss the recent UN resolution extending the mandate of the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia (AMISOM) until January 31 2010, the permanent secretary in the Ugandan Foreign Ministry, James Mugume, told the German Press Agency dpa.
Islamist insurgents
Some 4 300 soldiers from Uganda and Burundi have been propping up Somalia's embattled transitional government, which is coming under increasingly fierce attack from Islamist insurgents.
AMISOM was originally supposed to consist of 8 000 troops, but only Uganda and Burundi have supplied forces so far.
Rajoelina meets Senegal's Wade.
AFP
28 May 2009
Madagascar's interim leader Andry Rajoelina on Thursday met Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade in the Senegalese capital Dakar.
Rajoelina said afterwards: "We came here to explain the situation in Madagascar," adding that he believed there was a big difference between the reality on the ground and "what's being said" on the internet and by international media.
This is the second visit abroad for the Madagascan interim leader, who ousted the Indian Ocean islands elected president Marc Ravalomanana in March this year after weeks of opposition protests.
Rajoelina flew to Libya earlier this month for a meeting with leader Moamer Kadhafi who is the current chairperson of the African Union.
28 May 2009
Madagascar's interim leader Andry Rajoelina on Thursday met Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade in the Senegalese capital Dakar.
Rajoelina said afterwards: "We came here to explain the situation in Madagascar," adding that he believed there was a big difference between the reality on the ground and "what's being said" on the internet and by international media.
This is the second visit abroad for the Madagascan interim leader, who ousted the Indian Ocean islands elected president Marc Ravalomanana in March this year after weeks of opposition protests.
Rajoelina flew to Libya earlier this month for a meeting with leader Moamer Kadhafi who is the current chairperson of the African Union.
Togo sets up truth commission.
SAPA
28 May 2009
Togo's President Faure Gnassingbe has set up a truth, justice and reconciliation commission to investigate political violence.
The 11-member panel comprises religious figures, traditional chiefs and academics and will be headed by Nicodeme Barrigah, who is the bishop of Atakpame, a town 175km north of Lome.
The commission was created in the light of consultations from May to July 2008 and includes no members of the political parties.
They agreed in August 2006 that a team should be formed to probe violence and satisfy a demand for justice.
Togo has been rocked by waves of political violence, particularly in the presidential election of April 2005, after the death of General Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled for 38 years.
28 May 2009
Togo's President Faure Gnassingbe has set up a truth, justice and reconciliation commission to investigate political violence.
The 11-member panel comprises religious figures, traditional chiefs and academics and will be headed by Nicodeme Barrigah, who is the bishop of Atakpame, a town 175km north of Lome.
The commission was created in the light of consultations from May to July 2008 and includes no members of the political parties.
They agreed in August 2006 that a team should be formed to probe violence and satisfy a demand for justice.
Togo has been rocked by waves of political violence, particularly in the presidential election of April 2005, after the death of General Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled for 38 years.
28 May, 2009
Somaliland agrees on fixed election time.
Afrol News
28 May 2009
The Somaliland political parties have signed an agreement with the Electoral Commission to fix an election date in the Horn of Africa state.
The agreement which is derived from a series of negotiations among the political parties and the electoral committee, saw all parties agreeing to 27 September 2009 as the official day for the polls.
The parties have also agreed that they will accept the list of voters that is to be published by the electoral commission if it will be finalised before the 27th of July.
They also urged the elections technical committee to ensure clean voter’s lists that would be accepted by all political parties.
Late last month, opposition parties had marched in the capital, Hargeisa, accusing the government of breaking the constitutional provisions and demanding fair state media coverage.
The opposition parties also contested the six months term extension by the Upper House, saying it was derailing the country’s fragile democracy.
The political crisis in Somaliland erupted in May 2008 after President Riyale received a one-year term extension following a vote by the House of Guurti. Last month, the House of Guurti voted again to give President Riyale and Vice President Ahmed Yusuf Yasin a term extension for the second time.
28 May 2009
The Somaliland political parties have signed an agreement with the Electoral Commission to fix an election date in the Horn of Africa state.
The agreement which is derived from a series of negotiations among the political parties and the electoral committee, saw all parties agreeing to 27 September 2009 as the official day for the polls.
The parties have also agreed that they will accept the list of voters that is to be published by the electoral commission if it will be finalised before the 27th of July.
They also urged the elections technical committee to ensure clean voter’s lists that would be accepted by all political parties.
Late last month, opposition parties had marched in the capital, Hargeisa, accusing the government of breaking the constitutional provisions and demanding fair state media coverage.
The opposition parties also contested the six months term extension by the Upper House, saying it was derailing the country’s fragile democracy.
The political crisis in Somaliland erupted in May 2008 after President Riyale received a one-year term extension following a vote by the House of Guurti. Last month, the House of Guurti voted again to give President Riyale and Vice President Ahmed Yusuf Yasin a term extension for the second time.
Somaliland agrees on fixed election time.
Afrol News
28 May 2009
The Somaliland political parties have signed an agreement with the Electoral Commission to fix an election date in the Horn of Africa state.
The agreement which is derived from a series of negotiations among the political parties and the electoral committee, saw all parties agreeing to 27 September 2009 as the official day for the polls.
The parties have also agreed that they will accept the list of voters that is to be published by the electoral commission if it will be finalised before the 27th of July.
They also urged the elections technical committee to ensure clean voter’s lists that would be accepted by all political parties.
Late last month, opposition parties had marched in the capital, Hargeisa, accusing the government of breaking the constitutional provisions and demanding fair state media coverage.
The opposition parties also contested the six months term extension by the Upper House, saying it was derailing the country’s fragile democracy.
The political crisis in Somaliland erupted in May 2008 after President Riyale received a one-year term extension following a vote by the House of Guurti. Last month, the House of Guurti voted again to give President Riyale and Vice President Ahmed Yusuf Yasin a term extension for the second time.
28 May 2009
The Somaliland political parties have signed an agreement with the Electoral Commission to fix an election date in the Horn of Africa state.
The agreement which is derived from a series of negotiations among the political parties and the electoral committee, saw all parties agreeing to 27 September 2009 as the official day for the polls.
The parties have also agreed that they will accept the list of voters that is to be published by the electoral commission if it will be finalised before the 27th of July.
They also urged the elections technical committee to ensure clean voter’s lists that would be accepted by all political parties.
Late last month, opposition parties had marched in the capital, Hargeisa, accusing the government of breaking the constitutional provisions and demanding fair state media coverage.
The opposition parties also contested the six months term extension by the Upper House, saying it was derailing the country’s fragile democracy.
The political crisis in Somaliland erupted in May 2008 after President Riyale received a one-year term extension following a vote by the House of Guurti. Last month, the House of Guurti voted again to give President Riyale and Vice President Ahmed Yusuf Yasin a term extension for the second time.
Kenyan MPs endorse military deployment in disputed islands.
Afrol News
28 May 2009
Kenyan legislators have given President Mwai Kibaki a go-head to deploy the military in the contested Migingo islands in the Lake Victoria in case diplomacy fails. This is despite the Ugandan government having vowed to solve the disputed island with diplomacy.
The Members of Parliament passed a motion yesterday approving the deployment of military in the contested island, saying the Ugandan government was dragging its feet to resolve the land squabble.
However the Ugandan government has described the motion as a joke insisting the row is a small issue that does not warrant military deployment.
Local media reported the Uganda Media Center boss, Fred Opolot saying: “We are not taking this motion seriously because these were just few MPs who take the advantage of the absence of other MPs to pass this unfortunate motion.”
Earlier this month, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni sparked fury among legislators when he said the disputed Migingo islands currently under Uganda control belonged to Kenya but the water around the Island was Ugandan.
The MP’s said the comments made by President Museveni were an insult and derogatory to the Kenyan government and its people.
Uganda believes that the passing of the motion does not define general consensus of Kenyan parliament, saying there were few legislators in parliament who took advantage of the situation.
The Motion also urged President Kibaki, as the Commander in Chief to use all resources at his disposal to reclaim the Kenyan land.
Kenya and Uganda have been in a bitter spat over the ownership of one of the smallest of the Migingo islands which Uganda has laid a claim on since 2008 though it is closer to the Kenyan borders.
Uganda has occupied the island since 2004 but Kenya maintains that it is on its side of the border. Tensions began to rise when Ugandan security began charging Kenyans residency fees on the island.
Waters around Migingo are rich in fish, whereas other parts of Lake Victoria have been decimated by over-exploitation.
Earlier this month, the two East African nations began a joint survey to verify ownership of the Migingos in the Lake Victoria. The exercise was due to last two months, with both countries' experts to consult the colonial demarcations.
28 May 2009
Kenyan legislators have given President Mwai Kibaki a go-head to deploy the military in the contested Migingo islands in the Lake Victoria in case diplomacy fails. This is despite the Ugandan government having vowed to solve the disputed island with diplomacy.
The Members of Parliament passed a motion yesterday approving the deployment of military in the contested island, saying the Ugandan government was dragging its feet to resolve the land squabble.
However the Ugandan government has described the motion as a joke insisting the row is a small issue that does not warrant military deployment.
Local media reported the Uganda Media Center boss, Fred Opolot saying: “We are not taking this motion seriously because these were just few MPs who take the advantage of the absence of other MPs to pass this unfortunate motion.”
Earlier this month, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni sparked fury among legislators when he said the disputed Migingo islands currently under Uganda control belonged to Kenya but the water around the Island was Ugandan.
The MP’s said the comments made by President Museveni were an insult and derogatory to the Kenyan government and its people.
Uganda believes that the passing of the motion does not define general consensus of Kenyan parliament, saying there were few legislators in parliament who took advantage of the situation.
The Motion also urged President Kibaki, as the Commander in Chief to use all resources at his disposal to reclaim the Kenyan land.
Kenya and Uganda have been in a bitter spat over the ownership of one of the smallest of the Migingo islands which Uganda has laid a claim on since 2008 though it is closer to the Kenyan borders.
Uganda has occupied the island since 2004 but Kenya maintains that it is on its side of the border. Tensions began to rise when Ugandan security began charging Kenyans residency fees on the island.
Waters around Migingo are rich in fish, whereas other parts of Lake Victoria have been decimated by over-exploitation.
Earlier this month, the two East African nations began a joint survey to verify ownership of the Migingos in the Lake Victoria. The exercise was due to last two months, with both countries' experts to consult the colonial demarcations.
27 May, 2009
Kenya MPs urge Kibaki to go to war over Migingo.
Daily Monitor
28 May 2009
By Risdel Kasasira & Alphonce Shiundu
Kampala/Nairobi
Kenyan parliament yesterday went ahead to pass a motion calling for military deployment against Uganda despite a pledge by Uganda government to resolve the Migingo Island dispute diplomatically.
The MPs gave President Kibaki a go-ahead to deploy the military in case diplomacy fails in the ongoing row between Uganda and Kenya over Lake Victoria’s Migingo Island.
However Uganda has described the motion as “a joke” insisting the row is a small issue that does not warrant military deployment.
Uganda Media Center boss, Fred Opolot told Daily Monitor yesterday, “We are not taking this (motion) seriously because these were just few MPs who take the advantage of absence of other MPs to pass this unfortunate motion,” he said.
He said Uganda is not bothered by the motion because “we know Kenyan leadership is committed to solving this matter diplomatically”.
The motion which was tabled by Ikolomani MP Bonny Khalwale, was voted on by only 47 MPs out over 220 MPs.
Mr. Opolot described the passing of the motion does not define general consensus of Kenyan parliament because they were just forty seven out of over two hundred legislators,” he said.
The House allowed the President to seek the help of the United Nations Security Council if the matter spills out and threatens regional peace and security.
The Motion also urged the President Kibaki, as the Commander in Chief “to use all resources at his disposal to reclaim Kenyan land.”
The radical move, which failed a fortnight ago, when ministers staged a walkout, sailed through yesterday after the government failed to amass the required support.
There was emotions, even acrimonious, debate as MPs beat the war drums and asked President Kibaki to take charge of the country’s borders.
Efforts by Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula and his Information counterpart Samuel Poghisio to oppose the move, and even raise the adequate numbers to force a division failed.
The two opposed the motion and even said the matter was being discussed between President Kibaki and President Yoweri Museveni and already the joint border survey was underway in a bid to resolve the row.
Similarly, a vehement appeal to MPs by assistant minister Peter Munya, that the motion was against the spirit of East African Cooperation failed, as they said the government was not doing enough.
The motion, filed under the premise of Uganda infringing the territorial integrity when its forces occupied Migingo Island.
Defence/army spokesperson, Maj. Felix Kulayigye said yesterday the UPDF has never deployed in Migingo or Pokot.
“I have said this before that we have no forces in West Pokot and in Migingo. This was verified by both sides and nobody should make such baseless statements,” he said.
Mr. Wetangula called for “a degree of restraint” among MPs saying that no matter the aggression from Uganda, Kenya has a duty to continue with good relations “even at the most difficult time.”
“There is no alternative to good neighborliness,” Mr Wetang’ula said.
28 May 2009
By Risdel Kasasira & Alphonce Shiundu
Kampala/Nairobi
Kenyan parliament yesterday went ahead to pass a motion calling for military deployment against Uganda despite a pledge by Uganda government to resolve the Migingo Island dispute diplomatically.
The MPs gave President Kibaki a go-ahead to deploy the military in case diplomacy fails in the ongoing row between Uganda and Kenya over Lake Victoria’s Migingo Island.
However Uganda has described the motion as “a joke” insisting the row is a small issue that does not warrant military deployment.
Uganda Media Center boss, Fred Opolot told Daily Monitor yesterday, “We are not taking this (motion) seriously because these were just few MPs who take the advantage of absence of other MPs to pass this unfortunate motion,” he said.
He said Uganda is not bothered by the motion because “we know Kenyan leadership is committed to solving this matter diplomatically”.
The motion which was tabled by Ikolomani MP Bonny Khalwale, was voted on by only 47 MPs out over 220 MPs.
Mr. Opolot described the passing of the motion does not define general consensus of Kenyan parliament because they were just forty seven out of over two hundred legislators,” he said.
The House allowed the President to seek the help of the United Nations Security Council if the matter spills out and threatens regional peace and security.
The Motion also urged the President Kibaki, as the Commander in Chief “to use all resources at his disposal to reclaim Kenyan land.”
The radical move, which failed a fortnight ago, when ministers staged a walkout, sailed through yesterday after the government failed to amass the required support.
There was emotions, even acrimonious, debate as MPs beat the war drums and asked President Kibaki to take charge of the country’s borders.
Efforts by Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula and his Information counterpart Samuel Poghisio to oppose the move, and even raise the adequate numbers to force a division failed.
The two opposed the motion and even said the matter was being discussed between President Kibaki and President Yoweri Museveni and already the joint border survey was underway in a bid to resolve the row.
Similarly, a vehement appeal to MPs by assistant minister Peter Munya, that the motion was against the spirit of East African Cooperation failed, as they said the government was not doing enough.
The motion, filed under the premise of Uganda infringing the territorial integrity when its forces occupied Migingo Island.
Defence/army spokesperson, Maj. Felix Kulayigye said yesterday the UPDF has never deployed in Migingo or Pokot.
“I have said this before that we have no forces in West Pokot and in Migingo. This was verified by both sides and nobody should make such baseless statements,” he said.
Mr. Wetangula called for “a degree of restraint” among MPs saying that no matter the aggression from Uganda, Kenya has a duty to continue with good relations “even at the most difficult time.”
“There is no alternative to good neighborliness,” Mr Wetang’ula said.
Nato strategist Jamie Shea gives chilling insight into military’s media control during times of war.
Spinwatch
May 1, 2009
By Nicholas Jones
A chilling insight into the military mindset -- as explained by Nato’s leading media strategist Jamie Shea -- provided an unexpected but revealing talking point at UNESCO’s annual world press freedom day debate on the international media’s role at times of war. Shea spoke in support of a motion that "governments at war are winning the battle of controlling the international media" -- a motion that carried the day by a majority of more than two to one.
Set against Shea and his supporters was a powerful line-up of international journalists and media campaigners who argued that local reporters in conflict zones were increasingly managing to provide a reliable alternative service to that offered by the western news media. In addition, an army bloggers and citizen journalists complete with mobile phones and video cameras were mounting a credible fight back against governments and their media allies. But what dominated the opening of the debate (at the Frontline Club, London) was Shea’s brutally frank exposition of how Nato governments were becoming increasingly successful in managing the flow of information from the military to the public.
Shea, who was Nato’s spokesman during the Kosovo conflict and is now director of policy planning for the Nato secretary general, said that governments had proved “quick learners” after the damage inflicted on Nato partners during the war against Serbia. Developing and maintaining a media strategy was now taken as seriously as fighting the conflict itself. The objective was to create a story line designed to keep journalists “as busy as possible”. “Keeping journalists occupied is the priority; feeding them constant briefings so they don’t have much time to go off and find out information for themselves”.
Media handlers realised that embedded journalist liked to put on battle fatigues suggesting they were “part of the action”. Regular press tours to theatre were another priority, coupled with access to privileged interviews but the military had to make sure the journalists were “flown home before they have time to look around” for themselves in operations such as Iraq or Afghanistan. Academic experts were also invited on tours and encouraged to write “influential op-ed features and columns which are often sympathetic to our case”.
Shea was equally forthright in defending the media network which Nato was developing which included Nato television, a Nato radio station and Nato newspapers. Nato tv, established two months ago, was a feed providing video material from locations to which the media did not have not access themselves and which was free of charge. “We have people employed by Nato, interviewing people employed by Nato…We must not give the impression that the people doing the interviews are independent journalists…It is important they should not call themselves journalists…It is ok as long as you put on the label that the origin is Nato”. Shea insisted that he was not advocating that governments should win the information battle. Ministers and the military needed the media to keep them on their toes. “I believe in a free press putting us under pressure. We have not won yet, but we are getting better all the time from a government perspective…But lots of positive stories don’t add to winning in the long run…There is still a stalemate in Afghanistan and the Taliban is still strong”.
Andrew Gilligan, the former BBC defence correspondent, supported Shea’s thesis that the military had the upper hand. Wars had created a sellers’ market in news. Reporters sent out at huge cost to combat zones and embedded with the military had to produce stories to justify their existence, giving governments extraordinary scope to manipulate the story lines. Very few bloggers or citizen journalists could get to combat zones. Who really knew what was happening in the villages being bombed in Afghanistan? “A sellers’ market in news has given governments massive scope for controlling the media…I think government are winning more often than they used to”.
Jeremy Dear, general secretary of the National Union of Journalists, opened for those who believed that governments were losing the propaganda war during military operations. He said there were dozens of examples of journalism which smashed the idea that government were controlling the international media. Local journalists and bloggers were lifting the veil of secrecy which governments hoped to wrap around bombings whether in Gaza or the market places of Iraq. The spirit of independent journalism was alive and well and new technology assisted the struggle to avoid the censors. Alan Fisher, Al Jazeera’s English correspondent, was convinced that governments were losing the battle because there were more news outlets than ever before and more ways to access the truth. A blogger in Baghdad with a “clapped out computer and a dodgy generator” had continued giving a street view at the height of the conflict in Iraq. “Technology, so long the Achilles heel of the modern news media, is now one of our biggest assets, because cameras, mobiles phone, computers etc are getting smaller all the time. And people giving us eye witness accounts are one of our biggest assets”.
Realising that the “shock and awe” of his opening remarks about the military’s prowess in taming western media had made life difficult for those speaking against the motion, Jamie Shea did commiserate with journalists. Once a conflict was over journalists moved in and started their investigations but at the very moment the media had access, governments “switch off their media operations and move on” which often meant information was difficult to obtain.
The media had not been helped by the decline in specialist defence correspondents. “All too often they have been replaced by generalists who don’t have the expertise to ask the right question or know where to find the information. I do believe in governments putting more people into their media operations…Governments are not firing press officers but in an economic down turn, newspapers are firing journalists…I do hope the media put in more people as well in order to balance it out." “Governments should only win the media battle in non-democratic states", he said; "in democracies they should be up some of the time, down some of the time…This is a cricket match which requires checks and balances and opposing forces. What governments are doing to improve media operations is not sinister; it is not sinister to finance public information; ninety per cent of the information which goes out is accurate and is of use to journalists…But if governments are not held to account, they will become uneconomical with the truth”.
When it came to the vote, the motion that “governments at war are winning the battle of controlling the international media” was approved by 38 votes with 15 against and nine abstentions.
May 1, 2009
By Nicholas Jones
A chilling insight into the military mindset -- as explained by Nato’s leading media strategist Jamie Shea -- provided an unexpected but revealing talking point at UNESCO’s annual world press freedom day debate on the international media’s role at times of war. Shea spoke in support of a motion that "governments at war are winning the battle of controlling the international media" -- a motion that carried the day by a majority of more than two to one.
Set against Shea and his supporters was a powerful line-up of international journalists and media campaigners who argued that local reporters in conflict zones were increasingly managing to provide a reliable alternative service to that offered by the western news media. In addition, an army bloggers and citizen journalists complete with mobile phones and video cameras were mounting a credible fight back against governments and their media allies. But what dominated the opening of the debate (at the Frontline Club, London) was Shea’s brutally frank exposition of how Nato governments were becoming increasingly successful in managing the flow of information from the military to the public.
Shea, who was Nato’s spokesman during the Kosovo conflict and is now director of policy planning for the Nato secretary general, said that governments had proved “quick learners” after the damage inflicted on Nato partners during the war against Serbia. Developing and maintaining a media strategy was now taken as seriously as fighting the conflict itself. The objective was to create a story line designed to keep journalists “as busy as possible”. “Keeping journalists occupied is the priority; feeding them constant briefings so they don’t have much time to go off and find out information for themselves”.
Media handlers realised that embedded journalist liked to put on battle fatigues suggesting they were “part of the action”. Regular press tours to theatre were another priority, coupled with access to privileged interviews but the military had to make sure the journalists were “flown home before they have time to look around” for themselves in operations such as Iraq or Afghanistan. Academic experts were also invited on tours and encouraged to write “influential op-ed features and columns which are often sympathetic to our case”.
Shea was equally forthright in defending the media network which Nato was developing which included Nato television, a Nato radio station and Nato newspapers. Nato tv, established two months ago, was a feed providing video material from locations to which the media did not have not access themselves and which was free of charge. “We have people employed by Nato, interviewing people employed by Nato…We must not give the impression that the people doing the interviews are independent journalists…It is important they should not call themselves journalists…It is ok as long as you put on the label that the origin is Nato”. Shea insisted that he was not advocating that governments should win the information battle. Ministers and the military needed the media to keep them on their toes. “I believe in a free press putting us under pressure. We have not won yet, but we are getting better all the time from a government perspective…But lots of positive stories don’t add to winning in the long run…There is still a stalemate in Afghanistan and the Taliban is still strong”.
Andrew Gilligan, the former BBC defence correspondent, supported Shea’s thesis that the military had the upper hand. Wars had created a sellers’ market in news. Reporters sent out at huge cost to combat zones and embedded with the military had to produce stories to justify their existence, giving governments extraordinary scope to manipulate the story lines. Very few bloggers or citizen journalists could get to combat zones. Who really knew what was happening in the villages being bombed in Afghanistan? “A sellers’ market in news has given governments massive scope for controlling the media…I think government are winning more often than they used to”.
Jeremy Dear, general secretary of the National Union of Journalists, opened for those who believed that governments were losing the propaganda war during military operations. He said there were dozens of examples of journalism which smashed the idea that government were controlling the international media. Local journalists and bloggers were lifting the veil of secrecy which governments hoped to wrap around bombings whether in Gaza or the market places of Iraq. The spirit of independent journalism was alive and well and new technology assisted the struggle to avoid the censors. Alan Fisher, Al Jazeera’s English correspondent, was convinced that governments were losing the battle because there were more news outlets than ever before and more ways to access the truth. A blogger in Baghdad with a “clapped out computer and a dodgy generator” had continued giving a street view at the height of the conflict in Iraq. “Technology, so long the Achilles heel of the modern news media, is now one of our biggest assets, because cameras, mobiles phone, computers etc are getting smaller all the time. And people giving us eye witness accounts are one of our biggest assets”.
Realising that the “shock and awe” of his opening remarks about the military’s prowess in taming western media had made life difficult for those speaking against the motion, Jamie Shea did commiserate with journalists. Once a conflict was over journalists moved in and started their investigations but at the very moment the media had access, governments “switch off their media operations and move on” which often meant information was difficult to obtain.
The media had not been helped by the decline in specialist defence correspondents. “All too often they have been replaced by generalists who don’t have the expertise to ask the right question or know where to find the information. I do believe in governments putting more people into their media operations…Governments are not firing press officers but in an economic down turn, newspapers are firing journalists…I do hope the media put in more people as well in order to balance it out." “Governments should only win the media battle in non-democratic states", he said; "in democracies they should be up some of the time, down some of the time…This is a cricket match which requires checks and balances and opposing forces. What governments are doing to improve media operations is not sinister; it is not sinister to finance public information; ninety per cent of the information which goes out is accurate and is of use to journalists…But if governments are not held to account, they will become uneconomical with the truth”.
When it came to the vote, the motion that “governments at war are winning the battle of controlling the international media” was approved by 38 votes with 15 against and nine abstentions.
BP Unlocks 18th Oil Discovery in Ultra-Deepwater Block 31 Angola.
Rigzone
5/27/2009
URL: http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=76523
Sociedade Nacional de CombustÃveis de Angola (Sonangol) and BP Exploration (Angola) Limited today announced the 'Oberon' oil discovery in ultra-deepwater Block 31, offshore Angola.
This is the eighteenth discovery made by BP in Block 31 and is located in the southern portion of Block 31 about 335 kilometers northwest of Luanda and 4.3 kilometers to the north-east of the Dione discovery.
Oberon-1 was drilled in a water depth of 1624 meters and reached a total depth of 3622 meters TVD below sea level. The well test results confirmed the capacity of the reservoir to flow in excess of 5000 barrels/day under production conditions.
Sonangol is the concessionaire of Block 31. BP Exploration (Angola) Limited as operator holds 26.67 percent. The other interest owners in Block 31 are Esso Exploration and Production Angola (Block 31) Limited (25 percent), Sonangol P&P (20 percent), Statoil Angola A.S. (a subsidiary of StatoilHydro ASA) (13.33 percent), Marathon International Petroleum Angola Block 31 Limited (10 percent) and TEPA (BLOCK 31) Limited, (a subsidiary of the Total Group) (5 percent).
BP in Angola
BP's involvement with Angola goes back to the mid 1970s. During the 1990s, BP made very substantial investments in Angola's offshore oil and it is now an important part of the company's upstream portfolio. BP has interests in four blocks with operated interests in two and has a 13.6 percent interest in the Angola LNG project.
Operatorship of Block 31 was awarded to BP Exploration (Angola) Limited in May 1999. The Block covers an area of 5,349 square kilometers and lies in water depths of between 1,500 and 2,500 meters.
BP also has operated interests (BP 50.00% equity) in Block 18 where the Greater Plutonio Project started production on 1st October 2007.
BP has non-operated interests in Block 15, operated by Esso Exploration Angola (Block 15) Limited (BP 26.67 percent), in Block 17 operated by Total (BP 16.67 percent) and the ALNG (13 percent).
5/27/2009
URL: http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=76523
Sociedade Nacional de CombustÃveis de Angola (Sonangol) and BP Exploration (Angola) Limited today announced the 'Oberon' oil discovery in ultra-deepwater Block 31, offshore Angola.
This is the eighteenth discovery made by BP in Block 31 and is located in the southern portion of Block 31 about 335 kilometers northwest of Luanda and 4.3 kilometers to the north-east of the Dione discovery.
Oberon-1 was drilled in a water depth of 1624 meters and reached a total depth of 3622 meters TVD below sea level. The well test results confirmed the capacity of the reservoir to flow in excess of 5000 barrels/day under production conditions.
Sonangol is the concessionaire of Block 31. BP Exploration (Angola) Limited as operator holds 26.67 percent. The other interest owners in Block 31 are Esso Exploration and Production Angola (Block 31) Limited (25 percent), Sonangol P&P (20 percent), Statoil Angola A.S. (a subsidiary of StatoilHydro ASA) (13.33 percent), Marathon International Petroleum Angola Block 31 Limited (10 percent) and TEPA (BLOCK 31) Limited, (a subsidiary of the Total Group) (5 percent).
BP in Angola
BP's involvement with Angola goes back to the mid 1970s. During the 1990s, BP made very substantial investments in Angola's offshore oil and it is now an important part of the company's upstream portfolio. BP has interests in four blocks with operated interests in two and has a 13.6 percent interest in the Angola LNG project.
Operatorship of Block 31 was awarded to BP Exploration (Angola) Limited in May 1999. The Block covers an area of 5,349 square kilometers and lies in water depths of between 1,500 and 2,500 meters.
BP also has operated interests (BP 50.00% equity) in Block 18 where the Greater Plutonio Project started production on 1st October 2007.
BP has non-operated interests in Block 15, operated by Esso Exploration Angola (Block 15) Limited (BP 26.67 percent), in Block 17 operated by Total (BP 16.67 percent) and the ALNG (13 percent).
26 May, 2009
ICTR Defendants' Open Letter to President Kagame.
Due to its very long length, I will not post it in full on the blog. Due to lack of server space, I am unable to provide a download link for the time being. If interested in obtaining a copy, please e-mail BarouD@hush.com and a full copy will be sent upon request.
Equatorial Guinea denies accounts and real estate in Spain.
Afrol News
26 May 2009
The Equatorial Guinea's office of the presidency has denied media reports pinning President Teodoro Obiang and his family to a stream of bank accounts and property investments in Spain.
According to the Spanish newspaper, 'El PaÃs', the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office is investigating the accounts and property investments bearing names of President Obiang, several ministers and their families.
The prosecutor Luis del RÃo Montes de Oca said the Spanish authorities have backed a complaint brought by the Human Rights Association of Spain for alleged money laundering by Equatorial Guinean leader, who allegedly transferred US$ 26.5 million to one of the Spanish banks, the newspaper reported.
The rights activists claim that members of President Obiang-Nquema and his government illegally diverted public funds derived from oil to purchase six houses in Spain and three parking spaces.
The counselor in charge of missions to the Presidency of Equatorial Guinea, Miguel Oyono Ndong Mifumu said the demands of the Association for Human Rights were absurd, stating that the government would not waste time responding to these attacks on the president.
"President Obiang Nguema has no real estate in Spain, much less have any funds. We believe that this announcement is once again a media coup of intoxication and misinformation, like many others that arise from time to time,” he said in the statement.
He instead accused the non-governmental agencies of being involved in money laundering activities in Africa. “And it is absurd that it is intended to open an investigation into something that everyone knows that there is nothing to investigate," added Mr Miguel Oyono.
Equatorial Guinea which has been ruled by two men from the same family since independence in 1968 has become the Sub-Saharan biggest oil producer.
26 May 2009
The Equatorial Guinea's office of the presidency has denied media reports pinning President Teodoro Obiang and his family to a stream of bank accounts and property investments in Spain.
According to the Spanish newspaper, 'El PaÃs', the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office is investigating the accounts and property investments bearing names of President Obiang, several ministers and their families.
The prosecutor Luis del RÃo Montes de Oca said the Spanish authorities have backed a complaint brought by the Human Rights Association of Spain for alleged money laundering by Equatorial Guinean leader, who allegedly transferred US$ 26.5 million to one of the Spanish banks, the newspaper reported.
The rights activists claim that members of President Obiang-Nquema and his government illegally diverted public funds derived from oil to purchase six houses in Spain and three parking spaces.
The counselor in charge of missions to the Presidency of Equatorial Guinea, Miguel Oyono Ndong Mifumu said the demands of the Association for Human Rights were absurd, stating that the government would not waste time responding to these attacks on the president.
"President Obiang Nguema has no real estate in Spain, much less have any funds. We believe that this announcement is once again a media coup of intoxication and misinformation, like many others that arise from time to time,” he said in the statement.
He instead accused the non-governmental agencies of being involved in money laundering activities in Africa. “And it is absurd that it is intended to open an investigation into something that everyone knows that there is nothing to investigate," added Mr Miguel Oyono.
Equatorial Guinea which has been ruled by two men from the same family since independence in 1968 has become the Sub-Saharan biggest oil producer.
Russia to supply low-enriched uranium to Japan.
RIA Novosti
12 May 2009
Tuesday's signing of an intergovernmental civilian nuclear power agreement will open the door for Russia to supply low-enriched uranium to Japan worth hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars, Russia's nuclear chief said.
"Today an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear power will be signed, which will give us the opportunity for full-fledged cooperation," Sergei Kiriyenko, part of a delegation accompanying Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during his visit to Japan, said.
"This deal will allow us to give the green light to projects worth billions of dollars," he added.
12 May 2009
Tuesday's signing of an intergovernmental civilian nuclear power agreement will open the door for Russia to supply low-enriched uranium to Japan worth hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars, Russia's nuclear chief said.
"Today an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear power will be signed, which will give us the opportunity for full-fledged cooperation," Sergei Kiriyenko, part of a delegation accompanying Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during his visit to Japan, said.
"This deal will allow us to give the green light to projects worth billions of dollars," he added.
Russian, U.S. firms sign $1 bln low-enriched uranium supply deal.
RIA Novosti
26 May 2009
Russia's Techsnabexport and three U.S. companies affiliated with the FuelCo Group signed on Tuesday three long-term low-enriched uranium supply contracts.
"The contracts are worth $1 billion," said Sergei Kiriyenko, head of the Rosatom state-controlled nuclear corporation.
Under the contracts, enriched uranium will be supplied directly to the U.S. companies from 2014 through 2020.
Kiriyenko also said Russia was ready to discuss the establishment of a low-enriched uranium storage facility in the U.S. to ensure long-term supplies to consumers.
He added that the U.S. companies were interested in signing a relevant agreement and that talks would begin without delay.
Earlier this month, Russia and the United States signed an agreement on civilian nuclear cooperation.
Russia and the U.S. also cooperate in the nuclear sphere on the HEU-LEU project. The HEU-LEU contract, also known as the Megatons to Megawatts agreement, was signed in February 1993 and expires in 2013.
It aims to convert 500 metric tons of highly-enriched uranium (HEU), the equivalent of approximately 20,000 nuclear warheads, from dismantled Russian nuclear weapons into low-enriched uranium (LEU), which is then converted into nuclear fuel for use in U.S. commercial reactors.
In April, Techsnabexport shipped the first batch of low-enriched uranium to the United States under a bilateral agreement.
Techsnabexport, a Russian company that exports goods and services produced by the nuclear power sector, is integrated into Atomenergoprom.
26 May 2009
Russia's Techsnabexport and three U.S. companies affiliated with the FuelCo Group signed on Tuesday three long-term low-enriched uranium supply contracts.
"The contracts are worth $1 billion," said Sergei Kiriyenko, head of the Rosatom state-controlled nuclear corporation.
Under the contracts, enriched uranium will be supplied directly to the U.S. companies from 2014 through 2020.
Kiriyenko also said Russia was ready to discuss the establishment of a low-enriched uranium storage facility in the U.S. to ensure long-term supplies to consumers.
He added that the U.S. companies were interested in signing a relevant agreement and that talks would begin without delay.
Earlier this month, Russia and the United States signed an agreement on civilian nuclear cooperation.
Russia and the U.S. also cooperate in the nuclear sphere on the HEU-LEU project. The HEU-LEU contract, also known as the Megatons to Megawatts agreement, was signed in February 1993 and expires in 2013.
It aims to convert 500 metric tons of highly-enriched uranium (HEU), the equivalent of approximately 20,000 nuclear warheads, from dismantled Russian nuclear weapons into low-enriched uranium (LEU), which is then converted into nuclear fuel for use in U.S. commercial reactors.
In April, Techsnabexport shipped the first batch of low-enriched uranium to the United States under a bilateral agreement.
Techsnabexport, a Russian company that exports goods and services produced by the nuclear power sector, is integrated into Atomenergoprom.
Lukoil Head to Visit Iraq for West Qurna-2 Oil Talks.
Dow Jones Newswire
26 May 2009
The head of Russia's largest independent oil producer Lukoil Holdings (LKOH.RS) said Tuesday he is due to visit Baghdad for talks on a contract to develop the West Qurna-2 oil field in southern Iraq, the RIA Novosti news agency reports.
Lukoil was involved in the development of the first phase of West Qurna and signed a contract with the Saddam Hussein regime to develop the second stage, but the deal was frozen in 2002. Iraq and Lukoil agreed in 2008 to establish a working group to amend the original contract on West Qurna-2.
"I plan a visit to Baghdad to continue the dialogue," Vagit Alekperov said. "I hope we reach an understanding and that the conditions including the company in the project are mutually acceptable."
West Qurna-2's proven recoverable reserves have been estimated at around 6 billion barrels of oil. Under the terms of the contract, output could amount to 4.8 billion barrels of oil and 56.4 billion cubic meters of associated gas. Investment in the project could reach $4 billion.
Ali Hussein Balo, chairman of the oil and gas committee of the Iraqi parliament, earlier said in an interview with RIA Novosti that Lukoil would have an opportunity to renew the contract.
Baghdad is also discussing the West Qurna-2 oil field with Chevron Corp. (CVX) and Total SA (TOT). However, analysts say that Iraq is likely to resume work at West Qurna-2 with Lukoil after Russia recently wrote off the bulk of the country's debt of around $12 billion.
26 May 2009
The head of Russia's largest independent oil producer Lukoil Holdings (LKOH.RS) said Tuesday he is due to visit Baghdad for talks on a contract to develop the West Qurna-2 oil field in southern Iraq, the RIA Novosti news agency reports.
Lukoil was involved in the development of the first phase of West Qurna and signed a contract with the Saddam Hussein regime to develop the second stage, but the deal was frozen in 2002. Iraq and Lukoil agreed in 2008 to establish a working group to amend the original contract on West Qurna-2.
"I plan a visit to Baghdad to continue the dialogue," Vagit Alekperov said. "I hope we reach an understanding and that the conditions including the company in the project are mutually acceptable."
West Qurna-2's proven recoverable reserves have been estimated at around 6 billion barrels of oil. Under the terms of the contract, output could amount to 4.8 billion barrels of oil and 56.4 billion cubic meters of associated gas. Investment in the project could reach $4 billion.
Ali Hussein Balo, chairman of the oil and gas committee of the Iraqi parliament, earlier said in an interview with RIA Novosti that Lukoil would have an opportunity to renew the contract.
Baghdad is also discussing the West Qurna-2 oil field with Chevron Corp. (CVX) and Total SA (TOT). However, analysts say that Iraq is likely to resume work at West Qurna-2 with Lukoil after Russia recently wrote off the bulk of the country's debt of around $12 billion.
Lukoil Head to Visit Iraq for West Qurna-2 Oil Talks.
Dow Jones Newswire
26 May 2009
The head of Russia's largest independent oil producer Lukoil Holdings (LKOH.RS) said Tuesday he is due to visit Baghdad for talks on a contract to develop the West Qurna-2 oil field in southern Iraq, the RIA Novosti news agency reports.
Lukoil was involved in the development of the first phase of West Qurna and signed a contract with the Saddam Hussein regime to develop the second stage, but the deal was frozen in 2002. Iraq and Lukoil agreed in 2008 to establish a working group to amend the original contract on West Qurna-2.
"I plan a visit to Baghdad to continue the dialogue," Vagit Alekperov said. "I hope we reach an understanding and that the conditions including the company in the project are mutually acceptable."
West Qurna-2's proven recoverable reserves have been estimated at around 6 billion barrels of oil. Under the terms of the contract, output could amount to 4.8 billion barrels of oil and 56.4 billion cubic meters of associated gas. Investment in the project could reach $4 billion.
Ali Hussein Balo, chairman of the oil and gas committee of the Iraqi parliament, earlier said in an interview with RIA Novosti that Lukoil would have an opportunity to renew the contract.
Baghdad is also discussing the West Qurna-2 oil field with Chevron Corp. (CVX) and Total SA (TOT). However, analysts say that Iraq is likely to resume work at West Qurna-2 with Lukoil after Russia recently wrote off the bulk of the country's debt of around $12 billion.
26 May 2009
The head of Russia's largest independent oil producer Lukoil Holdings (LKOH.RS) said Tuesday he is due to visit Baghdad for talks on a contract to develop the West Qurna-2 oil field in southern Iraq, the RIA Novosti news agency reports.
Lukoil was involved in the development of the first phase of West Qurna and signed a contract with the Saddam Hussein regime to develop the second stage, but the deal was frozen in 2002. Iraq and Lukoil agreed in 2008 to establish a working group to amend the original contract on West Qurna-2.
"I plan a visit to Baghdad to continue the dialogue," Vagit Alekperov said. "I hope we reach an understanding and that the conditions including the company in the project are mutually acceptable."
West Qurna-2's proven recoverable reserves have been estimated at around 6 billion barrels of oil. Under the terms of the contract, output could amount to 4.8 billion barrels of oil and 56.4 billion cubic meters of associated gas. Investment in the project could reach $4 billion.
Ali Hussein Balo, chairman of the oil and gas committee of the Iraqi parliament, earlier said in an interview with RIA Novosti that Lukoil would have an opportunity to renew the contract.
Baghdad is also discussing the West Qurna-2 oil field with Chevron Corp. (CVX) and Total SA (TOT). However, analysts say that Iraq is likely to resume work at West Qurna-2 with Lukoil after Russia recently wrote off the bulk of the country's debt of around $12 billion.
France opens military base in Persian Gulf.
RIA Novosti
26 May 2009
France opened on Tuesday a permanent military base in the Persian Gulf, in a bid to bolster security in the region.
The base, located in Abu Dhabi, the capital of United Arab Emirates, will be home to 400 to 500 French personnel from the Navy, Army and Air Force and will effectively control the Strait of Hormuz, which connects the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.
Up until now, only the United States has had military bases in the oil-rich region, but Persian Gulf officials have been talking about bringing in other military partners for several years as a result of declining U.S. influence among Arab countries.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, an average of about 15 tankers carrying 16.5 to 17 million barrels of crude oil pass through the strait every day. This represents 40% of the world's seaborne oil shipments, and 20% of all world shipments.
The French base will start receiving its first warships in the next few weeks, the officials said, and will also become one of the key support points for an international naval task force fighting piracy off the Somali coast.
Arab experts believe that the presence of a French military base will bring about more balance in the region, boost Arab Gulf countries' deterrence against Iran and subsequently improve stability.
26 May 2009
France opened on Tuesday a permanent military base in the Persian Gulf, in a bid to bolster security in the region.
The base, located in Abu Dhabi, the capital of United Arab Emirates, will be home to 400 to 500 French personnel from the Navy, Army and Air Force and will effectively control the Strait of Hormuz, which connects the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.
Up until now, only the United States has had military bases in the oil-rich region, but Persian Gulf officials have been talking about bringing in other military partners for several years as a result of declining U.S. influence among Arab countries.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, an average of about 15 tankers carrying 16.5 to 17 million barrels of crude oil pass through the strait every day. This represents 40% of the world's seaborne oil shipments, and 20% of all world shipments.
The French base will start receiving its first warships in the next few weeks, the officials said, and will also become one of the key support points for an international naval task force fighting piracy off the Somali coast.
Arab experts believe that the presence of a French military base will bring about more balance in the region, boost Arab Gulf countries' deterrence against Iran and subsequently improve stability.
Le massacre des refugiés de la cathédrale de Byumba.
Mon expérience du Front Patriotique Rwandais
Par Jean-Paul Munyarukato
26 Juin 2007
Ils étaient quelques 200 âmes qui avaient pris refuge dans la cathédrale de Byumba à la reprise des hostilités entre l’arme gouvernementale et les rebelles du Front Patriotique Rwandais (FPR). Des femmes et des enfants; pour la
plupart des ressortissants de Rebero et Buhambe dans les environs de la cathédrale de Byumba, des enseignants à l’école primaire d’application, des employés de l’église, quelques fonctionnaires aussi qui exerçaient dans quelques services qui étaient encore opérationnels dans cette ville affectée par la guerre depuis octobre 1990. Les rebelles du FPR sont entrés dans la ville de Byumba dimanche le 17 April 1994 sans rencontrer aucune résistance.
L’armée gouvernementale avait évacué la nuit précédente.
Ces réfugiés venaient donc de côtoyer les soldats du FPR pendant plus d’une semaine et s’apprêtaient à regagner leurs domiciles. Tout portait à croire que l’ordre revenait. D’ailleurs cette place qu’ils occupaient étaient plutôt besoin servir un grand nombre de déplacés de Kigali que le FPR convoyait sur Byumba en cette période.
C’est dans ce contexte que la nouvelle autorité du FPR approcha ces gens dans la journée du lundi le 25 avril 1994, leur prodiguant les assurances et leur proposa d’aller passer un peu de jours à Kageyo dans les prémisses du noviciat des soeurs de Notre Dame du Bon Conseil pendant que les organes habilités du FPR s’assuraient les moyens de les retourner chez eux en toute sécurité. Ils étaient alors mis en file indienne encadrée par les soldats pour une marche de 4 km et demi vers Kageyo.
L’opération était soigneusement orchestrée. Deux propriétés assez grandes et bien clôturées, l’un appartenant à un certain François Rwambonera, l’autre au commerçant Alphonse Nsengiyumva, avaient été apprêtées à cette occasion à un lieu dit Kuruyaga, sur la route principale Byumba-Rukomo, à moitié de la marche vers Kageyo.
Quand la file arriva à la hauteur de cet endroit en fin d’après-midi, une halte fut commandée, les soldats commencèrent à admettre ces gens en petits groupes dans les deux propriétés. On les faisait croire qu’ils allaient subir un petit interrogatoire avant de poursuivre le chemin vers Kageyo. Une justification. C’était tout simplement pour maintenir le calme chez ceux qui attendaient leur tour. A l’intérieur, un autre groupe de soldats se distribuaient les admis qu’ils massacraient en leur brisant le crâne. La fusillade aurait semé la panique.
Je connais la plupart des victimes de ce massacre, des familles entières, des enfants aux bas âges, des bébés qui ne furent pas épargnés. Je connais aussi une personne qui survécut par ce que l’on la crut une Tutsie ayant échappée
le premier tri que l’on avait subtilement effectué à la cathédrale. Elle reporta le sort de Madame Musabyimana à qui l’on a demandé aussi de s’en aller pour une autre raison mais ne voulut pas laisser derrière son mari Ignace.
Elle insista à prendre part à l’interrogatoire à ses cotés, avec leurs deux enfants et une nièce qui vivait avec eux.
Les trois enfants étaient tous âgés de moins de cinq ans. Toute la famille entière pérît. Parmi les victimes figurait aussi Médard Mudaheranwa, un collègue étudiant à l’université du Rwanda qui, au moment de la reprise de la guerre civile, se trouvait, comme moi-même, en vacances à Byumba.
Le massacre des réfugiés de la cathédrale de Byumba n’est pas un cas isolé. En ce moment les soldats chargés des opérations de l’arrière-garde sous le commandement de l’actuel Colonel Dan Munyuza des FDR étaient engagés dans une campagne d’extermination des masses à grande envergure à la quelle collaboraient activement les cadres politiques du FPR. Un des membres dirigeants de ces cadres politiques du FPR à Byumba (ABAKADA, comme on les appelle en Kinyarwanda) n’étaient rien d’autre que Monsieur Ignatius Kamali Karegyesa, l’actuel ambassadeur du Rwanda à Kampala. Il a été vu en train de superviser plusieurs massacres en fin d’avril 1994.
J’apprends dans un document disponible sur l’internet relatif à la plainte contre les éléments du FPR au près de la justice espagnole que Père Joachim Vallmajó, le Missionnaire d'Afrique de nationalité espagnole qui a été tué.
J’apprends dans un document disponible sur l’internet relatif à la plainte contre les éléments du FPR au près de la justice espagnole que Père Joachim Vallmajó, le Missionnaire d'Afrique de nationalité espagnole qui a été tué par
les soldats du FPR fut enlevé au noviciat des soeurs de Notre Dame du Bon Conseil de Kageyo. On précise le jour et l’heure de l’enlèvement : mardi le 26 Avril 1994 à 14h40. Je me trouvais à la maison familiale de Gitanwa en ce moment. On voit, à partir de la maison, le noviciat à quelques 800 mètres en haut, perché au sommet de Gitanwa, à deux pas de l’école primaire de Kageyo. Dans les jours précédents, on remarquait effectivement son véhicule qui s’en allait à Byumba et revenait au noviciat.
Rétrospectivement, je peux dire que le prêtre a été tué par ce qu’il constituait un témoin gênant pour les massacres ignobles aux quels les éléments du FPR se livraient sur toute la zone de Byumba en cette période. Cela vaut d’ailleurs autant pour l’assassinat d’autres prêtres, notamment à Karushya, près de Rwesero. Il y a
notamment en face du noviciat, identifiable et relativement proche, le sommet de Meshero. Cet après-midi de l’enlèvement du Père Vallmajó le FPR avait invité les habitants des environs de Rukomo, un petit centre commercial sur la route de Kigali-Gatuna, de se rendre à cet endroit pour une réunion de prise de contact avec les
nouvelles autorités. Pour encourager la participation, la population était laissée croire à l’opportunité d’un recensement des habitants par famille dans la perspective d’une distribution d’assistance humanitaire.
J’ai vu moi-même la population qui affluait au sommet de Meshero à partir d’une heure de l’après midi. Il y a deux kilomètres et demi à vol d’oiseau à partir de chez moi, mais le temps était clair et cette journée du 26 avril
1994 plutôt ensoleillée malgré le mois d’avril connu habituellement pour de grosses pluies et de denses brouillards dans ces montagnes de Byumba. Vers 15h00 de l’après midi, ce sommet était déjà couvert de foule humaine. De loin, je jugeais cette masse plutôt calme et attentive pour une réunion qui, très apparemment, prenait beaucoup de temps pour finir. Elle s’est éternisée jusqu’à la fin de l’après midi. Finalement, quand la fusillade a éclaté vers 17 h30, discernables aussi étaient des gens qui fuyaient la scène de massacre de Meshero et dévalaient en débandade le versant de cette imposante montagne. Malheureusement, un autre groupe de soldats avait formé une chaîne d’assassins en bas de montagne tout au long de la route Kigali-Gatuna. Les fuyards descendaient dans un autre champ d’exécution. Ils étaient abattus comme s’ils étaient quelque forme animale sujette à la chasse.
Le lendemain du massacre, un rescapé de Meshero m’informait que, contrairement à ce que l’on pouvait assumer de loin, il n’y avait pas eu de réunion du tout. La foule était tout simplement assise, assiégée par les soldats, empêchée de se parler ou de se lever pour quelque raison que ce soit. Le massacre avait commencé vers 16h00 sur
le modèle de la stratégie employée à Kuruyaga : admission et assassinat de gens en petits groupes dans les locaux d’une école primaire tout près qui n’était pas visible de notre côté. Les soldats ont seulement ouvert le feu à l’approche de la tombée de la nuit sur le constant qu’ils n’allaient pas achever tout le monde. D’ailleurs, les organisateurs de ce massacre avaient également prévu cette éventualité en disposant les soldats au bas de la montagne pour s’assurer un massacre « complet.»
Il y avait aussi cette route Kigali vers Gatuna à la frontière avec l’Uganda. Le quartier général du FPR à Mulindi se trouvait aussi au long de ce corridor. Une fusillade plus tôt aurait alerté quelques convoies qui utilisaient cette
route pendant la journée y compris des journalistes étrangers qui couvraient la guerre. Sinon, dans les endroits éloignés des voies de communication, les gens étaient tout simplement fusillés, les grenades jetés dans la foule et
dans les maisons.
Les massacres similaires ont eu lieu dans plusieurs coins de Byumba du 23 au 30 avril 1994: au stade de Byumba, à Kisaro, à l’école primaire de Kibali, à l’école primaire de Muhondo pour ne citer que les sites les plus importants. Après l’épisode des réunions-mouroirs (INAMA), les soldats descendaient sur les collines et
procédaient au regroupement et assassinat des familles entières. Cependant, il apparait que ces massacres étaient
bien définis dans le temps, essentiellement dans la deuxième semaine de l’occupation comme si les soldats étaient
enjoints d’exterminer autant de gens que possible avant de progresser vers d’autres zones.
Les faits que j’évoque ici sont vérifiables. J’ai eu l’occasion de recouper l’expérience de Byumba avec celle des ressortissants des autres régions. J’ai été dans plusieurs coins de Byumba, Butare, Gitarama et Kibungo entre 1995 et 1999. Je suis un témoin oculaire de la méthode d’extermination des masses du FPR et j’ai suffisamment consulté les autres témoins. Je lis constamment tout ce qui est écrit sur les massacres d’Interahamwes, les massacres du FPR, les travaux du tribunal pénal international sur le Rwanda. Il y a aussi le témoignage vidéo de
Marcelin et Gloria Gérin que l’on peut visualiser cette fois ci sur l’internet. Il éclaire sur les actes d’extermination des masses par les soldats du FPR tout au long de la route qu’ils ont emprunté de Kibungo à Mulindi pendant la même période de fin d’avril 1994.
N’ayant aucune raison personnelle de regretter la chute du régime qui comptait sur Interahamwes pour mettre en oeuvre le génocide des tutsis, je parle de ces massacres qui ont été perpétrés par le FPR de la manière la plus objective possible. Tous ceux qui sont informés de mon parcours sur ce sujet reconnaitront d’ailleurs que, plutôt
que de m’engager personnellement et sans réserves sur ce terrain, j’avais initialement préféré pointer du doigts la méthode d’extermination des masses du FPR à un nombre d’acteurs capables d’apporter quelque redressement de
justice à cette situation. Autrement, les témoignages recueillis à travers le pays dressent un tableau sans équivoque : les massacres du FPR confirment un niveau d’organisation hors-pair, une volonté explicite d’extermination des
masses ainsi qu’une capacité de dissimilation élaborée et constamment actualisée.
Cela étant dit, revenons sur l’exemple des massacres de Byumba. Il y avait une guerre en cours, bien entendu.
Cependant, le front se trouvait en ce moment à 50 km plus au sud dans les environs de la capitale Kigali. En plus, pour procéder à une orchestration des massacres de femmes, enfants et vieillards sur toute une région, le FPR a dû déployer un nombre important de troupes qui, autrement, pouvaient être en train de servir quelque autre rôle d’importance dans le cadre de l’effort de guerre. Ceci constitue une preuve que l’extermination des masses était pour le moins un objectif de guerre explicitement déterminé et autorisé par the haut commandement du FPR.
Je fus instituteur à l’école primaire de Muhondo pendant l’année scolaire 1990/1991. Quand j’ai appris que le FPR a organisé un massacre dans cette école, j’étais naturellement curieux de savoir plus ce qui s’est passé là -bas.
Je m’y suis rendu en janvier 1995. Les locaux étaient encore entachés de sang. Une fosse que les soldats du FPR avaient creusée au bas de la cour de recréation pour y jeter, aux dires des témoins de ce massacre, plus de 300 victimes, se faisait remarquer aussi. Peu profonde, on pouvait discerner des bouts de restes humains. Des individus concernés ajoutaient la terre ici et là pour recouvrir ces restes. La végétation s’étendait et aidait à masquer cette fosse commune. L’école avait rouvert ses portes en moment là . Les enfants jouaient sur cette sépulture inconvenable où gisaient parents et voisins ; une réalité dont personne ne pouvait s’indigner ouvertement qu’au risque d’y payer pour sa vie. Le discours officiel était que le FPR n’a pas commis de massacres.
Dans son allocution de Kibeho le 07 Avril 2007, le président Kagame est encore revenu sur cette question. « Le FPR n’a tué personne » a-t-il martelé.
Concernant, la capacité de dissimulation des massacres du FPR qui est d’ailleurs constamment actualisée depuis la fin de la guerre, je peux attester que trois semaines après le massacre de Meshero, les soldats sont revenus pour
fouiller, ramasser et emporter les dépouilles des victimes qui jonchaient les environs. Aussi, la dernière l’information sur la fosse commune de Muhondo est que qu’elle aurait été vidée au couvert de la nuit, les dépouilles emportaient ailleurs. Cet acte aurait coïncidé avec le lancement des travaux du tribunal Gacaca dans la
région. En effet, si l’on se réfère à la version officielle du gouvernement rwandais sur les événements de 1994, il ne peut pas exister de fosses communes dans une zone où Interahamwes ne sont pas connus d’avoir opérés. D’où l'effort soutenu d’effacer les traces surtout quand il s’agit de fosses communes contenant un large nombre de victimes. Co lisée depuis la fin du la guerre, je peux attester que trois semaines
après le massacre de Meshero, les soldats sont revenus pour fouiller, ramasser et emporter les dépouilles des victimes concernt, la capaci
té de jonchaient.
Cette dernière information reste à vérifier. Mais le FPR est connu pour plusieurs manouvres indignées de ce genre depuis la fin de la guerre en 1994. Il y avait notamment une fosse commune à Munyinya, tout à coté de l’ancien bureau communal de
Kinyami. Les soldats ont mis trois jours pour la vider. Les dépouilles étaient emportées en camions étroitement gardés.
Durant l’opération, les lieux étaient interdits au public, la fosse commune elle-même couverte d’une gigantesque tente que les gens de la région ont vue et se souviennent. Pour faciliter le bon déroulement de l’opération, l’autorité du FPR avait pris soin d’envoyer en mission à l’étranger le bourgmestre local, un Hutu qui, comme la plupart des habitants de la région, avait certainement des relations de parenté et des connaissances qui reposaient dans cette fosse commune.
Toutefois, malgré ces manouvres du FPR, il n’est pas du tout difficile de prouver l’existence des actes d’extermination des masses de sa part. La stratégie qui était mise en oeuvre par le FPR ne varie presque pas dans son exécution, que ce soit dans la campagne de Byumba juste après l’attentat du 06 avril 1994 que dans les opérations de Butare et de Gitarama aux mois de juin et de juillet à la vielle de l’instauration du gouvernement FPR à Kigali.
En plus, même si les treize ans qui nous séparent des événement de 1994 ont permis au FPR d’affiner ses moyens de dissimulation et de nettoyage des plus grands sites de carnage, les fausses communes issues des assassinats groupés des familles et des voisins sur les collines restent intactes, car elles se trouvent le plus souvent au milieu des habitations, loin des voies de communication. Je connais moi-même une douzaine d’emplacements dans le périmètre de Byumba. Ils m’ont été indiqués par les proches et les voisins des victimes à chaque fois que je voyageais dans cette zone depuis la fin de guerre en 1994 jusqu’en mai 1999 quand j’ai quitté le
pays.
Une précision, pourtant : parler des massacres qui ont été perpétrés par les éléments du FPR n’affecte pas en aucun cas la gravité des actes d’extermination des masses qui visaient spécifiquement l’ethnie tutsie pendant la même période. Au contraire. Je me réjouis notamment qu’il existe actuellement une plateforme convenable pour l’exercice de la justice et de la mémoire pour les victimes de ces actes de ce génocide. Cependant, si on examinait en toute conscience et sérénité l’histoire des conflits de pouvoir dans cette région du monde, au Rwanda et au
Burundi en particulier, on acceptera sans ambages que le génocide rwandais était le résultat d’une poursuite effrénée des desseins hégémoniques basés le clivage ethnique chez les belligérants de la guerre civile de 1990-
1994.
Evidemment, il y a eu cet attentat du 06 avril 1994 qui fut l’élément déclencheur de l’hécatombe de 1994. Je ne crois pas d’ailleurs que son auteur soit parmi ceux qui regrettent vraiment l’avènement du génocide de 1994.
Toutefois, à la lumière de la composition ethnique des populations du Rwanda et du Burundi sur la ligne d’une majorité et une minorité, cette histoire des conflits de pouvoir ne limite pas la capacité génocidaire dans les mains d’une ethnie ou d’une autre. Sur ce point, la comparaison du génocide rwandais avec les génocides apparus dans l’Ancien Monde dans une logique de minorité, à savoir le génocide des juifs et le génocide des araméens par exemple, ne peut qu’obscurcir le fait qu’en 1994 les forces du FPR possédaient une supériorité militaire et luttaient pour la prise du pouvoir. Les actes d’extermination des masses que les rebelles du FPR ont perpétrés reflètent leur capacité militaire et d’organisation. Les membres du FPR étaient essentiellement issus de la minorité tutsie, certes, mais le FPR ne doit pas être confondu à une organisation minoritaire en ce moment. Pour ceux qui
voudraient pousser la comparaison plus loin, les massacres dont je parle ne constituent quelques isolés de type Dresden. Ils révèlent une stratégie raisonnée d’extermination des masses de la part du FPR.
D’ailleurs, les lecteurs de ce point de vue remarqueront que le Tribunal Pénal International pour le Rwanda (TPIR) aura tergiversé et se sera montré peu disposé à faire la lumière sur les crimes de guerre et crimes contre l’humanité qui ont été commis par les éléments du FPR notamment à cause de cette confusion. Pourtant les
crimes du FPR figurent aussi clairement dans la mission du TPIR qu’ils sont faciles à mettre à jour, du moins si on considère la consistance et la généralisation de la stratégie d’extermination des masses qui a été mise en oeuvre par le FPR. Il n’y a pas de doutes sur ce point : si, comme l’on peut déjà le constater nettement, le TPIR ferme ses portes sans avoir apporté la lumière sur les massacres qui ont été perpétrés par les éléments du FPR, il va certainement laisser derrière lui un héritage nuisible à la réconciliation nationale au Rwanda.
Pour conclure ce point de vue, je dirais que mon expérience du FPR est profondément imprégnée de sa stratégie d’extermination des masses, de sa capacité de dissimulation. Cela est particulièrement apparent dans le massacre des réfugiés de la cathédrale de Byumba. D’ailleurs, mon évêque, son excellence Monseigneur Servilien
Nzakamwita, l’un des quatre destinataires de ce point de vue, conviendra avec moi: le silence sur les actes d’extermination des masses qui ont été perpétrés par le FPR n’est pas du tout susceptible de promouvoir l’Etat de droit et la réconciliation nationale dans son diocèse. Au besoin, il pourra publier les statistiques de l’Eglise sur les victimes des massacres de 1994 à Byumba, pourquoi pas?
A propos, souvenons nous que la réconciliation nationale forme actuellement une priorité dans l’agenda politique du gouvernement rwandais. Malheureusement, il semble que la passion affichée dans ce sens vise uniquement à impressionner les bailleurs de fonds et secourir la croissance de l’aide internationale. Autrement, la logique de la réconciliation nationale demande que l’on établisse d’abord la vérité sur tous les massacres ciblés de grande envergure que le Rwanda a connu en 1994. Et le FPR qui tient les reines du pouvoir politique, militaire et économique au Rwanda ne voudrait pas l’entendre de cette oreille.
Cette situation rappelle un peu le mot d’ordre d’unité nationale sous le régime précédent. Le président Habyarimana vivait, disait-on, de cette aspiration. La politique de l’unité nationale était enseignée à l’école, répétée
et renforcée chaque jour dans les discours politiques et sur les ondes de la radio nationale, du matin au soir.
Pourtant, que absurde était le silence de ce régime sur le sort des centaines des milliers de ressortissants rwandais condamnés à l’exile dans des pays voisins! Pour le Général Major Habyarimana, l’unité nationale était parfaitement compatible avec le maintien en exile des tutsis. Pour le Général Major Kagame, la réconciliation
nationale semble parfaitement compatible avec l’imposition d’un silence absolu sur les massacres qui ont ciblé les hutus. Est-il possible que le temps puisse nous convaincre que le FPR n’a pas tué ? Je ne le crois pas.
Fait à Stoke-on-Trent, ce 26 Juin 2007
Jean-Paul Munyarukato
Par Jean-Paul Munyarukato
26 Juin 2007
Ils étaient quelques 200 âmes qui avaient pris refuge dans la cathédrale de Byumba à la reprise des hostilités entre l’arme gouvernementale et les rebelles du Front Patriotique Rwandais (FPR). Des femmes et des enfants; pour la
plupart des ressortissants de Rebero et Buhambe dans les environs de la cathédrale de Byumba, des enseignants à l’école primaire d’application, des employés de l’église, quelques fonctionnaires aussi qui exerçaient dans quelques services qui étaient encore opérationnels dans cette ville affectée par la guerre depuis octobre 1990. Les rebelles du FPR sont entrés dans la ville de Byumba dimanche le 17 April 1994 sans rencontrer aucune résistance.
L’armée gouvernementale avait évacué la nuit précédente.
Ces réfugiés venaient donc de côtoyer les soldats du FPR pendant plus d’une semaine et s’apprêtaient à regagner leurs domiciles. Tout portait à croire que l’ordre revenait. D’ailleurs cette place qu’ils occupaient étaient plutôt besoin servir un grand nombre de déplacés de Kigali que le FPR convoyait sur Byumba en cette période.
C’est dans ce contexte que la nouvelle autorité du FPR approcha ces gens dans la journée du lundi le 25 avril 1994, leur prodiguant les assurances et leur proposa d’aller passer un peu de jours à Kageyo dans les prémisses du noviciat des soeurs de Notre Dame du Bon Conseil pendant que les organes habilités du FPR s’assuraient les moyens de les retourner chez eux en toute sécurité. Ils étaient alors mis en file indienne encadrée par les soldats pour une marche de 4 km et demi vers Kageyo.
L’opération était soigneusement orchestrée. Deux propriétés assez grandes et bien clôturées, l’un appartenant à un certain François Rwambonera, l’autre au commerçant Alphonse Nsengiyumva, avaient été apprêtées à cette occasion à un lieu dit Kuruyaga, sur la route principale Byumba-Rukomo, à moitié de la marche vers Kageyo.
Quand la file arriva à la hauteur de cet endroit en fin d’après-midi, une halte fut commandée, les soldats commencèrent à admettre ces gens en petits groupes dans les deux propriétés. On les faisait croire qu’ils allaient subir un petit interrogatoire avant de poursuivre le chemin vers Kageyo. Une justification. C’était tout simplement pour maintenir le calme chez ceux qui attendaient leur tour. A l’intérieur, un autre groupe de soldats se distribuaient les admis qu’ils massacraient en leur brisant le crâne. La fusillade aurait semé la panique.
Je connais la plupart des victimes de ce massacre, des familles entières, des enfants aux bas âges, des bébés qui ne furent pas épargnés. Je connais aussi une personne qui survécut par ce que l’on la crut une Tutsie ayant échappée
le premier tri que l’on avait subtilement effectué à la cathédrale. Elle reporta le sort de Madame Musabyimana à qui l’on a demandé aussi de s’en aller pour une autre raison mais ne voulut pas laisser derrière son mari Ignace.
Elle insista à prendre part à l’interrogatoire à ses cotés, avec leurs deux enfants et une nièce qui vivait avec eux.
Les trois enfants étaient tous âgés de moins de cinq ans. Toute la famille entière pérît. Parmi les victimes figurait aussi Médard Mudaheranwa, un collègue étudiant à l’université du Rwanda qui, au moment de la reprise de la guerre civile, se trouvait, comme moi-même, en vacances à Byumba.
Le massacre des réfugiés de la cathédrale de Byumba n’est pas un cas isolé. En ce moment les soldats chargés des opérations de l’arrière-garde sous le commandement de l’actuel Colonel Dan Munyuza des FDR étaient engagés dans une campagne d’extermination des masses à grande envergure à la quelle collaboraient activement les cadres politiques du FPR. Un des membres dirigeants de ces cadres politiques du FPR à Byumba (ABAKADA, comme on les appelle en Kinyarwanda) n’étaient rien d’autre que Monsieur Ignatius Kamali Karegyesa, l’actuel ambassadeur du Rwanda à Kampala. Il a été vu en train de superviser plusieurs massacres en fin d’avril 1994.
J’apprends dans un document disponible sur l’internet relatif à la plainte contre les éléments du FPR au près de la justice espagnole que Père Joachim Vallmajó, le Missionnaire d'Afrique de nationalité espagnole qui a été tué.
J’apprends dans un document disponible sur l’internet relatif à la plainte contre les éléments du FPR au près de la justice espagnole que Père Joachim Vallmajó, le Missionnaire d'Afrique de nationalité espagnole qui a été tué par
les soldats du FPR fut enlevé au noviciat des soeurs de Notre Dame du Bon Conseil de Kageyo. On précise le jour et l’heure de l’enlèvement : mardi le 26 Avril 1994 à 14h40. Je me trouvais à la maison familiale de Gitanwa en ce moment. On voit, à partir de la maison, le noviciat à quelques 800 mètres en haut, perché au sommet de Gitanwa, à deux pas de l’école primaire de Kageyo. Dans les jours précédents, on remarquait effectivement son véhicule qui s’en allait à Byumba et revenait au noviciat.
Rétrospectivement, je peux dire que le prêtre a été tué par ce qu’il constituait un témoin gênant pour les massacres ignobles aux quels les éléments du FPR se livraient sur toute la zone de Byumba en cette période. Cela vaut d’ailleurs autant pour l’assassinat d’autres prêtres, notamment à Karushya, près de Rwesero. Il y a
notamment en face du noviciat, identifiable et relativement proche, le sommet de Meshero. Cet après-midi de l’enlèvement du Père Vallmajó le FPR avait invité les habitants des environs de Rukomo, un petit centre commercial sur la route de Kigali-Gatuna, de se rendre à cet endroit pour une réunion de prise de contact avec les
nouvelles autorités. Pour encourager la participation, la population était laissée croire à l’opportunité d’un recensement des habitants par famille dans la perspective d’une distribution d’assistance humanitaire.
J’ai vu moi-même la population qui affluait au sommet de Meshero à partir d’une heure de l’après midi. Il y a deux kilomètres et demi à vol d’oiseau à partir de chez moi, mais le temps était clair et cette journée du 26 avril
1994 plutôt ensoleillée malgré le mois d’avril connu habituellement pour de grosses pluies et de denses brouillards dans ces montagnes de Byumba. Vers 15h00 de l’après midi, ce sommet était déjà couvert de foule humaine. De loin, je jugeais cette masse plutôt calme et attentive pour une réunion qui, très apparemment, prenait beaucoup de temps pour finir. Elle s’est éternisée jusqu’à la fin de l’après midi. Finalement, quand la fusillade a éclaté vers 17 h30, discernables aussi étaient des gens qui fuyaient la scène de massacre de Meshero et dévalaient en débandade le versant de cette imposante montagne. Malheureusement, un autre groupe de soldats avait formé une chaîne d’assassins en bas de montagne tout au long de la route Kigali-Gatuna. Les fuyards descendaient dans un autre champ d’exécution. Ils étaient abattus comme s’ils étaient quelque forme animale sujette à la chasse.
Le lendemain du massacre, un rescapé de Meshero m’informait que, contrairement à ce que l’on pouvait assumer de loin, il n’y avait pas eu de réunion du tout. La foule était tout simplement assise, assiégée par les soldats, empêchée de se parler ou de se lever pour quelque raison que ce soit. Le massacre avait commencé vers 16h00 sur
le modèle de la stratégie employée à Kuruyaga : admission et assassinat de gens en petits groupes dans les locaux d’une école primaire tout près qui n’était pas visible de notre côté. Les soldats ont seulement ouvert le feu à l’approche de la tombée de la nuit sur le constant qu’ils n’allaient pas achever tout le monde. D’ailleurs, les organisateurs de ce massacre avaient également prévu cette éventualité en disposant les soldats au bas de la montagne pour s’assurer un massacre « complet.»
Il y avait aussi cette route Kigali vers Gatuna à la frontière avec l’Uganda. Le quartier général du FPR à Mulindi se trouvait aussi au long de ce corridor. Une fusillade plus tôt aurait alerté quelques convoies qui utilisaient cette
route pendant la journée y compris des journalistes étrangers qui couvraient la guerre. Sinon, dans les endroits éloignés des voies de communication, les gens étaient tout simplement fusillés, les grenades jetés dans la foule et
dans les maisons.
Les massacres similaires ont eu lieu dans plusieurs coins de Byumba du 23 au 30 avril 1994: au stade de Byumba, à Kisaro, à l’école primaire de Kibali, à l’école primaire de Muhondo pour ne citer que les sites les plus importants. Après l’épisode des réunions-mouroirs (INAMA), les soldats descendaient sur les collines et
procédaient au regroupement et assassinat des familles entières. Cependant, il apparait que ces massacres étaient
bien définis dans le temps, essentiellement dans la deuxième semaine de l’occupation comme si les soldats étaient
enjoints d’exterminer autant de gens que possible avant de progresser vers d’autres zones.
Les faits que j’évoque ici sont vérifiables. J’ai eu l’occasion de recouper l’expérience de Byumba avec celle des ressortissants des autres régions. J’ai été dans plusieurs coins de Byumba, Butare, Gitarama et Kibungo entre 1995 et 1999. Je suis un témoin oculaire de la méthode d’extermination des masses du FPR et j’ai suffisamment consulté les autres témoins. Je lis constamment tout ce qui est écrit sur les massacres d’Interahamwes, les massacres du FPR, les travaux du tribunal pénal international sur le Rwanda. Il y a aussi le témoignage vidéo de
Marcelin et Gloria Gérin que l’on peut visualiser cette fois ci sur l’internet. Il éclaire sur les actes d’extermination des masses par les soldats du FPR tout au long de la route qu’ils ont emprunté de Kibungo à Mulindi pendant la même période de fin d’avril 1994.
N’ayant aucune raison personnelle de regretter la chute du régime qui comptait sur Interahamwes pour mettre en oeuvre le génocide des tutsis, je parle de ces massacres qui ont été perpétrés par le FPR de la manière la plus objective possible. Tous ceux qui sont informés de mon parcours sur ce sujet reconnaitront d’ailleurs que, plutôt
que de m’engager personnellement et sans réserves sur ce terrain, j’avais initialement préféré pointer du doigts la méthode d’extermination des masses du FPR à un nombre d’acteurs capables d’apporter quelque redressement de
justice à cette situation. Autrement, les témoignages recueillis à travers le pays dressent un tableau sans équivoque : les massacres du FPR confirment un niveau d’organisation hors-pair, une volonté explicite d’extermination des
masses ainsi qu’une capacité de dissimilation élaborée et constamment actualisée.
Cela étant dit, revenons sur l’exemple des massacres de Byumba. Il y avait une guerre en cours, bien entendu.
Cependant, le front se trouvait en ce moment à 50 km plus au sud dans les environs de la capitale Kigali. En plus, pour procéder à une orchestration des massacres de femmes, enfants et vieillards sur toute une région, le FPR a dû déployer un nombre important de troupes qui, autrement, pouvaient être en train de servir quelque autre rôle d’importance dans le cadre de l’effort de guerre. Ceci constitue une preuve que l’extermination des masses était pour le moins un objectif de guerre explicitement déterminé et autorisé par the haut commandement du FPR.
Je fus instituteur à l’école primaire de Muhondo pendant l’année scolaire 1990/1991. Quand j’ai appris que le FPR a organisé un massacre dans cette école, j’étais naturellement curieux de savoir plus ce qui s’est passé là -bas.
Je m’y suis rendu en janvier 1995. Les locaux étaient encore entachés de sang. Une fosse que les soldats du FPR avaient creusée au bas de la cour de recréation pour y jeter, aux dires des témoins de ce massacre, plus de 300 victimes, se faisait remarquer aussi. Peu profonde, on pouvait discerner des bouts de restes humains. Des individus concernés ajoutaient la terre ici et là pour recouvrir ces restes. La végétation s’étendait et aidait à masquer cette fosse commune. L’école avait rouvert ses portes en moment là . Les enfants jouaient sur cette sépulture inconvenable où gisaient parents et voisins ; une réalité dont personne ne pouvait s’indigner ouvertement qu’au risque d’y payer pour sa vie. Le discours officiel était que le FPR n’a pas commis de massacres.
Dans son allocution de Kibeho le 07 Avril 2007, le président Kagame est encore revenu sur cette question. « Le FPR n’a tué personne » a-t-il martelé.
Concernant, la capacité de dissimulation des massacres du FPR qui est d’ailleurs constamment actualisée depuis la fin de la guerre, je peux attester que trois semaines après le massacre de Meshero, les soldats sont revenus pour
fouiller, ramasser et emporter les dépouilles des victimes qui jonchaient les environs. Aussi, la dernière l’information sur la fosse commune de Muhondo est que qu’elle aurait été vidée au couvert de la nuit, les dépouilles emportaient ailleurs. Cet acte aurait coïncidé avec le lancement des travaux du tribunal Gacaca dans la
région. En effet, si l’on se réfère à la version officielle du gouvernement rwandais sur les événements de 1994, il ne peut pas exister de fosses communes dans une zone où Interahamwes ne sont pas connus d’avoir opérés. D’où l'effort soutenu d’effacer les traces surtout quand il s’agit de fosses communes contenant un large nombre de victimes. Co lisée depuis la fin du la guerre, je peux attester que trois semaines
après le massacre de Meshero, les soldats sont revenus pour fouiller, ramasser et emporter les dépouilles des victimes concernt, la capaci
té de jonchaient.
Cette dernière information reste à vérifier. Mais le FPR est connu pour plusieurs manouvres indignées de ce genre depuis la fin de la guerre en 1994. Il y avait notamment une fosse commune à Munyinya, tout à coté de l’ancien bureau communal de
Kinyami. Les soldats ont mis trois jours pour la vider. Les dépouilles étaient emportées en camions étroitement gardés.
Durant l’opération, les lieux étaient interdits au public, la fosse commune elle-même couverte d’une gigantesque tente que les gens de la région ont vue et se souviennent. Pour faciliter le bon déroulement de l’opération, l’autorité du FPR avait pris soin d’envoyer en mission à l’étranger le bourgmestre local, un Hutu qui, comme la plupart des habitants de la région, avait certainement des relations de parenté et des connaissances qui reposaient dans cette fosse commune.
Toutefois, malgré ces manouvres du FPR, il n’est pas du tout difficile de prouver l’existence des actes d’extermination des masses de sa part. La stratégie qui était mise en oeuvre par le FPR ne varie presque pas dans son exécution, que ce soit dans la campagne de Byumba juste après l’attentat du 06 avril 1994 que dans les opérations de Butare et de Gitarama aux mois de juin et de juillet à la vielle de l’instauration du gouvernement FPR à Kigali.
En plus, même si les treize ans qui nous séparent des événement de 1994 ont permis au FPR d’affiner ses moyens de dissimulation et de nettoyage des plus grands sites de carnage, les fausses communes issues des assassinats groupés des familles et des voisins sur les collines restent intactes, car elles se trouvent le plus souvent au milieu des habitations, loin des voies de communication. Je connais moi-même une douzaine d’emplacements dans le périmètre de Byumba. Ils m’ont été indiqués par les proches et les voisins des victimes à chaque fois que je voyageais dans cette zone depuis la fin de guerre en 1994 jusqu’en mai 1999 quand j’ai quitté le
pays.
Une précision, pourtant : parler des massacres qui ont été perpétrés par les éléments du FPR n’affecte pas en aucun cas la gravité des actes d’extermination des masses qui visaient spécifiquement l’ethnie tutsie pendant la même période. Au contraire. Je me réjouis notamment qu’il existe actuellement une plateforme convenable pour l’exercice de la justice et de la mémoire pour les victimes de ces actes de ce génocide. Cependant, si on examinait en toute conscience et sérénité l’histoire des conflits de pouvoir dans cette région du monde, au Rwanda et au
Burundi en particulier, on acceptera sans ambages que le génocide rwandais était le résultat d’une poursuite effrénée des desseins hégémoniques basés le clivage ethnique chez les belligérants de la guerre civile de 1990-
1994.
Evidemment, il y a eu cet attentat du 06 avril 1994 qui fut l’élément déclencheur de l’hécatombe de 1994. Je ne crois pas d’ailleurs que son auteur soit parmi ceux qui regrettent vraiment l’avènement du génocide de 1994.
Toutefois, à la lumière de la composition ethnique des populations du Rwanda et du Burundi sur la ligne d’une majorité et une minorité, cette histoire des conflits de pouvoir ne limite pas la capacité génocidaire dans les mains d’une ethnie ou d’une autre. Sur ce point, la comparaison du génocide rwandais avec les génocides apparus dans l’Ancien Monde dans une logique de minorité, à savoir le génocide des juifs et le génocide des araméens par exemple, ne peut qu’obscurcir le fait qu’en 1994 les forces du FPR possédaient une supériorité militaire et luttaient pour la prise du pouvoir. Les actes d’extermination des masses que les rebelles du FPR ont perpétrés reflètent leur capacité militaire et d’organisation. Les membres du FPR étaient essentiellement issus de la minorité tutsie, certes, mais le FPR ne doit pas être confondu à une organisation minoritaire en ce moment. Pour ceux qui
voudraient pousser la comparaison plus loin, les massacres dont je parle ne constituent quelques isolés de type Dresden. Ils révèlent une stratégie raisonnée d’extermination des masses de la part du FPR.
D’ailleurs, les lecteurs de ce point de vue remarqueront que le Tribunal Pénal International pour le Rwanda (TPIR) aura tergiversé et se sera montré peu disposé à faire la lumière sur les crimes de guerre et crimes contre l’humanité qui ont été commis par les éléments du FPR notamment à cause de cette confusion. Pourtant les
crimes du FPR figurent aussi clairement dans la mission du TPIR qu’ils sont faciles à mettre à jour, du moins si on considère la consistance et la généralisation de la stratégie d’extermination des masses qui a été mise en oeuvre par le FPR. Il n’y a pas de doutes sur ce point : si, comme l’on peut déjà le constater nettement, le TPIR ferme ses portes sans avoir apporté la lumière sur les massacres qui ont été perpétrés par les éléments du FPR, il va certainement laisser derrière lui un héritage nuisible à la réconciliation nationale au Rwanda.
Pour conclure ce point de vue, je dirais que mon expérience du FPR est profondément imprégnée de sa stratégie d’extermination des masses, de sa capacité de dissimulation. Cela est particulièrement apparent dans le massacre des réfugiés de la cathédrale de Byumba. D’ailleurs, mon évêque, son excellence Monseigneur Servilien
Nzakamwita, l’un des quatre destinataires de ce point de vue, conviendra avec moi: le silence sur les actes d’extermination des masses qui ont été perpétrés par le FPR n’est pas du tout susceptible de promouvoir l’Etat de droit et la réconciliation nationale dans son diocèse. Au besoin, il pourra publier les statistiques de l’Eglise sur les victimes des massacres de 1994 à Byumba, pourquoi pas?
A propos, souvenons nous que la réconciliation nationale forme actuellement une priorité dans l’agenda politique du gouvernement rwandais. Malheureusement, il semble que la passion affichée dans ce sens vise uniquement à impressionner les bailleurs de fonds et secourir la croissance de l’aide internationale. Autrement, la logique de la réconciliation nationale demande que l’on établisse d’abord la vérité sur tous les massacres ciblés de grande envergure que le Rwanda a connu en 1994. Et le FPR qui tient les reines du pouvoir politique, militaire et économique au Rwanda ne voudrait pas l’entendre de cette oreille.
Cette situation rappelle un peu le mot d’ordre d’unité nationale sous le régime précédent. Le président Habyarimana vivait, disait-on, de cette aspiration. La politique de l’unité nationale était enseignée à l’école, répétée
et renforcée chaque jour dans les discours politiques et sur les ondes de la radio nationale, du matin au soir.
Pourtant, que absurde était le silence de ce régime sur le sort des centaines des milliers de ressortissants rwandais condamnés à l’exile dans des pays voisins! Pour le Général Major Habyarimana, l’unité nationale était parfaitement compatible avec le maintien en exile des tutsis. Pour le Général Major Kagame, la réconciliation
nationale semble parfaitement compatible avec l’imposition d’un silence absolu sur les massacres qui ont ciblé les hutus. Est-il possible que le temps puisse nous convaincre que le FPR n’a pas tué ? Je ne le crois pas.
Fait à Stoke-on-Trent, ce 26 Juin 2007
Jean-Paul Munyarukato
Leader may be investigated.
Reuters
26 May 2009
A Spanish state prosecutor has called for Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang Nguema to be investigated over suspected illegal money transfers used to buy property in Spain, a human rights group said on Monday.
Asociacion Pro Derechos Humanos petitioned the prosecutor to probe Obiang over the transfer of $26.5m from the United States to an account in the Canary Islands.
The prosecutor has now recommended a judge in the Canary Islands take up the case, said Manuel Olle, president of Pro Derechos Humanos.
A spokesperson for the state prosecution agency said she had no information on the case. Equatorial Guinea's government dismissed the allegations.
Separate corruption claims
"President Obiang Nuguema does not have real estate in Spain and much less any type of funds," said Miguel Oyono Ndong Mifumo, of the president's office, in a news release which accused non-governmental organisations of seeking publicity through corruption accusations.
Obiang is already being investigated by a French judge over separate corruption claims.
The French judge is also investigating Denis Sassou-Nguesso of Congo and Omar Bongo of Gabon, who is in a Barcelona clinic undergoing treatment. All three deny wrong-doing.
Equatorial Guinea has a per capital gross domestic product of around $20 000 in purchasing power terms, thanks to oil production, even though most of its population lives in poverty.
26 May 2009
A Spanish state prosecutor has called for Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang Nguema to be investigated over suspected illegal money transfers used to buy property in Spain, a human rights group said on Monday.
Asociacion Pro Derechos Humanos petitioned the prosecutor to probe Obiang over the transfer of $26.5m from the United States to an account in the Canary Islands.
The prosecutor has now recommended a judge in the Canary Islands take up the case, said Manuel Olle, president of Pro Derechos Humanos.
A spokesperson for the state prosecution agency said she had no information on the case. Equatorial Guinea's government dismissed the allegations.
Separate corruption claims
"President Obiang Nuguema does not have real estate in Spain and much less any type of funds," said Miguel Oyono Ndong Mifumo, of the president's office, in a news release which accused non-governmental organisations of seeking publicity through corruption accusations.
Obiang is already being investigated by a French judge over separate corruption claims.
The French judge is also investigating Denis Sassou-Nguesso of Congo and Omar Bongo of Gabon, who is in a Barcelona clinic undergoing treatment. All three deny wrong-doing.
Equatorial Guinea has a per capital gross domestic product of around $20 000 in purchasing power terms, thanks to oil production, even though most of its population lives in poverty.
Nigerian past haunts Shell.
SAPA
26 May 2009
By Sebastian Smith
Oil giant Shell faces serious allegations of complicity in horrific abuses by the Nigerian government, including the execution of environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, in a potentially landmark trial starting on Wednesday.
In a highly unusual move, activists brought the lawsuit to a federal court in New York using an obscure US law that allows international corporations to be held to account for alleged crimes in other countries.
Jury selection starts on Wednesday and could take at least a day before opening comments can begin.
The action, if successful, is likely to set off alarm bells in boardrooms at companies who have been doing business for decades in countries with poor human rights records.
Chance for justice
Shell is accused of complicity in the 1995 hanging of Saro-Wiwa, a renowned writer and activist, and other leaders of a movement protesting alleged environmental destruction and other abuses by Shell against the Ogoni people in the Niger Delta.
The corporation, which has a powerful presence in Nigeria, is also accused of complicity in the torture, detention and exile of Saro-Wiwa's brother, Owens Wiwa, and other violent attacks on dissidents in the country.
Shell denies all the charges.
Saro-Wiwa's son, Ken Saro-Wiwa Junior, wrote in Britain's Observer newspaper on Sunday that the trial was a chance for justice more than a decade after the alleged crimes.
He said that his father in a final statement to the military tribunal, which he was ultimately not allowed to make, wrote that Shell, not he and his eight condemned colleagues, were on trial.
"The company has, indeed, ducked this particular trial, but its day will surely come... The crime of the company's dirty wars against the Ogoni people will also be punished," Saro-Wiwa Junior recalled his father writing.
Alleged collusion
The civil suit was brought by victims of Nigeria's former military government, including Saro-Wiwa Junior.
They sued under the Alien Tort Claims Act, a little-used law that dates to 1789 and which is being increasingly dusted off as a way to target human rights violations in foreign countries.
The act requires companies with a substantial presence in the United States to obey US law - everywhere in the world.
In April, a US court opened the way for another big lawsuit, saying that corporations including General Motors and IBM can be sued by South African apartheid victims for alleged collusion with the white regime.
Other cases include claims from Iraqis against controversial US-based contractors like Blackwater (now known as Xe), accused of aiding and abetting abuses during the conflict in Iraq.
26 May 2009
By Sebastian Smith
Oil giant Shell faces serious allegations of complicity in horrific abuses by the Nigerian government, including the execution of environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, in a potentially landmark trial starting on Wednesday.
In a highly unusual move, activists brought the lawsuit to a federal court in New York using an obscure US law that allows international corporations to be held to account for alleged crimes in other countries.
Jury selection starts on Wednesday and could take at least a day before opening comments can begin.
The action, if successful, is likely to set off alarm bells in boardrooms at companies who have been doing business for decades in countries with poor human rights records.
Chance for justice
Shell is accused of complicity in the 1995 hanging of Saro-Wiwa, a renowned writer and activist, and other leaders of a movement protesting alleged environmental destruction and other abuses by Shell against the Ogoni people in the Niger Delta.
The corporation, which has a powerful presence in Nigeria, is also accused of complicity in the torture, detention and exile of Saro-Wiwa's brother, Owens Wiwa, and other violent attacks on dissidents in the country.
Shell denies all the charges.
Saro-Wiwa's son, Ken Saro-Wiwa Junior, wrote in Britain's Observer newspaper on Sunday that the trial was a chance for justice more than a decade after the alleged crimes.
He said that his father in a final statement to the military tribunal, which he was ultimately not allowed to make, wrote that Shell, not he and his eight condemned colleagues, were on trial.
"The company has, indeed, ducked this particular trial, but its day will surely come... The crime of the company's dirty wars against the Ogoni people will also be punished," Saro-Wiwa Junior recalled his father writing.
Alleged collusion
The civil suit was brought by victims of Nigeria's former military government, including Saro-Wiwa Junior.
They sued under the Alien Tort Claims Act, a little-used law that dates to 1789 and which is being increasingly dusted off as a way to target human rights violations in foreign countries.
The act requires companies with a substantial presence in the United States to obey US law - everywhere in the world.
In April, a US court opened the way for another big lawsuit, saying that corporations including General Motors and IBM can be sued by South African apartheid victims for alleged collusion with the white regime.
Other cases include claims from Iraqis against controversial US-based contractors like Blackwater (now known as Xe), accused of aiding and abetting abuses during the conflict in Iraq.
Niger parliament dissolved.
AFP
26 May 2009
Niger President Mamadou Tandja on Tuesday dissolved the parliament, largely dominated by his supporters, private radio Anfani reported, quoting official sources.
"By virtue of a presidential decree, the National Assembly is dissolved," state radio confirmed, adding that it was waiting for more details from the government.
The dissolution comes as parliamentarians were examining a letter sent to them by Tandja informing them of his decision to organise a referendum on a new constitution that would enable him to stay on in power.
The current constitution obliges him to step down after his second five-year term which expires at end 2009.
26 May 2009
Niger President Mamadou Tandja on Tuesday dissolved the parliament, largely dominated by his supporters, private radio Anfani reported, quoting official sources.
"By virtue of a presidential decree, the National Assembly is dissolved," state radio confirmed, adding that it was waiting for more details from the government.
The dissolution comes as parliamentarians were examining a letter sent to them by Tandja informing them of his decision to organise a referendum on a new constitution that would enable him to stay on in power.
The current constitution obliges him to step down after his second five-year term which expires at end 2009.
Japan's big guns prepare to rejoin global arms industry.
The Times
26 May 2009
By Leo Lewis, Asia Business Correspondent
The huge engineering and technological might of Japan may be poised for a new lease of life as the country prepares to ditch a self-imposed ban on arms exports that was introduced in the mid-1970s.
The controversial decision, which is likely to encounter bitter opposition from the country's mainly pacifist middle classes, could deliver significant economic benefits to Japan and lead to a realignment in the global defence industry.
A ruling party MP said that the greatest significance would be the conversion of Japan's robotics industry from civilian to military use as the world's defence spending is directed to remote-control hardware, such as drone aircraft.
Lifting or toning-down the 33-year old embargo would unleash some of the world's most advanced heavy engineering companies into the international weapons market, one of the few areas of manufacturing where Japan's immense technical resources have, for purely political reasons, not produced a dominant global player.
The expected move, which government insiders said may be announced by Taro Aso, the Prime Minister, before the summer, is likely to begin by relaxing the ban to allow Japanese companies to work on joint projects with American and European defence manufacturers, whose products could then be sold internationally.
To date, the single exception to the ban came as a dispensation in 2005 that allowed Japan to work with US companies on a missile defence system viewed as critical while North Korea continues to flex its military muscles.
Japan sees itself as a logical target for the nuclear-armed Pyongyang regime and has spent about £5 billion on the missile defence shield jointly developed with the United States.
Joint production and the scope to profit from a share of international sales could draw more Japanese companies into the defence industry and, the Government hopes, bring procurement costs down. Yet as the ban loosens further, government defence insiders say that Japan could be propelled into the top ranks of arms manufacturers.
Even with their sales limited strictly to the domestic market, several of the country's biggest engineering conglomerates, such as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), already feature among the world's top 30 biggest military hardware suppliers. MHI already produces a fighter jet and a broad range of naval hardware.
Despite being rigidly observed, Japan's 1976 ban on arms exports was never passed as a law. It can, therefore, be reversed or amended by the sitting prime minister, without requiring passage through parliament. Such a process would almost certainly have seen the move blocked by the Democratic Party of Japan, the centre-left opposition. The wording of the new statement is expected to ensure that exports do not end up in the hands of countries that support or sponsor terrorism.
The decision to relax the ban is understood to have been under consideration for several years and comes as Japan's mainstay export industries — electronics and automotive — buckle under the pressure of the worldwide spending slump.
Mr Aso's Government, meanwhile, is struggling to reverse an unprecedented shrinkage of the economy while the strong yen has made Japanese goods even less price-competitive against South Korean and Chinese products. Defence analysts have long maintained that Japanese industry, once freed from its ban, could quickly rival British, American and European players. Japan's prowess in miniaturised motors, robotics and control systems would be especially competitive.
Japan's existing defence industry has been crafted around the peculiarities of its own military arrangements. Article 9 of the country's postwar Constitution declares that Japan will renounce war as a sovereign right and that “land, sea and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained”.
However, as the Cold War deepened, Japan identified a giant loophole in the Constitution and allowed itself to build up very considerable “self-defence forces”, whose equivalent of navy, army and air force are now among the world's most expensively and extensively equipped.
However, the prospect of being limited to the domestic market persuaded many Japanese companies that the effort and the research and development spending involved in producing military hardware would not give good returns and many dropped out altogether.
26 May 2009
By Leo Lewis, Asia Business Correspondent
The huge engineering and technological might of Japan may be poised for a new lease of life as the country prepares to ditch a self-imposed ban on arms exports that was introduced in the mid-1970s.
The controversial decision, which is likely to encounter bitter opposition from the country's mainly pacifist middle classes, could deliver significant economic benefits to Japan and lead to a realignment in the global defence industry.
A ruling party MP said that the greatest significance would be the conversion of Japan's robotics industry from civilian to military use as the world's defence spending is directed to remote-control hardware, such as drone aircraft.
Lifting or toning-down the 33-year old embargo would unleash some of the world's most advanced heavy engineering companies into the international weapons market, one of the few areas of manufacturing where Japan's immense technical resources have, for purely political reasons, not produced a dominant global player.
The expected move, which government insiders said may be announced by Taro Aso, the Prime Minister, before the summer, is likely to begin by relaxing the ban to allow Japanese companies to work on joint projects with American and European defence manufacturers, whose products could then be sold internationally.
To date, the single exception to the ban came as a dispensation in 2005 that allowed Japan to work with US companies on a missile defence system viewed as critical while North Korea continues to flex its military muscles.
Japan sees itself as a logical target for the nuclear-armed Pyongyang regime and has spent about £5 billion on the missile defence shield jointly developed with the United States.
Joint production and the scope to profit from a share of international sales could draw more Japanese companies into the defence industry and, the Government hopes, bring procurement costs down. Yet as the ban loosens further, government defence insiders say that Japan could be propelled into the top ranks of arms manufacturers.
Even with their sales limited strictly to the domestic market, several of the country's biggest engineering conglomerates, such as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), already feature among the world's top 30 biggest military hardware suppliers. MHI already produces a fighter jet and a broad range of naval hardware.
Despite being rigidly observed, Japan's 1976 ban on arms exports was never passed as a law. It can, therefore, be reversed or amended by the sitting prime minister, without requiring passage through parliament. Such a process would almost certainly have seen the move blocked by the Democratic Party of Japan, the centre-left opposition. The wording of the new statement is expected to ensure that exports do not end up in the hands of countries that support or sponsor terrorism.
The decision to relax the ban is understood to have been under consideration for several years and comes as Japan's mainstay export industries — electronics and automotive — buckle under the pressure of the worldwide spending slump.
Mr Aso's Government, meanwhile, is struggling to reverse an unprecedented shrinkage of the economy while the strong yen has made Japanese goods even less price-competitive against South Korean and Chinese products. Defence analysts have long maintained that Japanese industry, once freed from its ban, could quickly rival British, American and European players. Japan's prowess in miniaturised motors, robotics and control systems would be especially competitive.
Japan's existing defence industry has been crafted around the peculiarities of its own military arrangements. Article 9 of the country's postwar Constitution declares that Japan will renounce war as a sovereign right and that “land, sea and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained”.
However, as the Cold War deepened, Japan identified a giant loophole in the Constitution and allowed itself to build up very considerable “self-defence forces”, whose equivalent of navy, army and air force are now among the world's most expensively and extensively equipped.
However, the prospect of being limited to the domestic market persuaded many Japanese companies that the effort and the research and development spending involved in producing military hardware would not give good returns and many dropped out altogether.
25 May, 2009
Malawi vote gives president control.
IOL News
25 May 2009
President Bingu wa Mutharika's party won a decisive parliamentary majority, according to final election results released on Monday that could mean an end to bickering that had paralysed the house.
The Malawi Electoral Commission said Mutharika's Democratic Progressive Party won 114of parliament's 193 seats, or 59 percent.
The United Democratic Front won just 17 seats. It appears voters held United Democratic Front chief Bakili Muluzi responsible for a bitter political feud that has kept leaders from addressing pressing problems in this impoverished southern African country.
Not only was Muluzi's party soundly beaten by Mutharika's, but it slipped from main opposition to third place in parliament, behind the Malawi Congress Party with 26 seats. Congress is the party of Hastings Kamuzu Banda, the late dictator who had run Malawi until the first multiparty polls here in 1994.
Mutharika "has a clear majority and will no longer struggle in parliament business," said political analyst Rafq Hajat.
Mutharika was re-elected in a presidential vote held alongside the May 19 parliamentary elections. Mutharika was sworn in Friday, though the Malawi Congress Party's John Tembo, who had been backed in the presidential race by Muluzi, is contesting the results. Muluzi, barred from running himself by term limits, accepted Mutharika's victory.
Tembo filed suit in the High Court Monday claiming the elections were rigged. Foreign observers said Tuesday's poll was generally well run, and it was unlikely Tembo's challenge would have much political impact.
Mutharika had been Muluzi's protege, but the two fell out after Mutharika was elected in 2004 and accused Muluzi of trying to block an anti-corruption drive.
Muluzi and several other leaders in his party are facing fraud and corruption charges involving millions of dollars.
Political bickering had led to a five-month delay in passing the 2007-2008 budget. The United Democratic Front had blocked debate on the budget, saying that lawmakers who defected to join Mutharika Democratic Progressive Party should first be expelled. After a series of court injunctions, threats to dissolve the legislature and daily street demonstrations, it was agreed to debate the budget first and look at the political issues later.
The Mutharika-Muluzi feud also had led to rioting, a failed impeachment bid, and accusations of coup and assassination plots.
Despite the political impasse, Malawi has enjoyed relative peace and stability in the past decade. Mutharika, a 75-year-old former World Bank official, is credited with bringing economic gains to the southern African nation of 12 million. His anti-corruption drive also won praise from Malawians and foreign observers.
At his swearing-in Friday, Mutharika appealed to his rivals to work with him in a nation beset by poverty and where Aids has left an estimated one million children missing one or both parents.
25 May 2009
President Bingu wa Mutharika's party won a decisive parliamentary majority, according to final election results released on Monday that could mean an end to bickering that had paralysed the house.
The Malawi Electoral Commission said Mutharika's Democratic Progressive Party won 114of parliament's 193 seats, or 59 percent.
The United Democratic Front won just 17 seats. It appears voters held United Democratic Front chief Bakili Muluzi responsible for a bitter political feud that has kept leaders from addressing pressing problems in this impoverished southern African country.
Not only was Muluzi's party soundly beaten by Mutharika's, but it slipped from main opposition to third place in parliament, behind the Malawi Congress Party with 26 seats. Congress is the party of Hastings Kamuzu Banda, the late dictator who had run Malawi until the first multiparty polls here in 1994.
Mutharika "has a clear majority and will no longer struggle in parliament business," said political analyst Rafq Hajat.
Mutharika was re-elected in a presidential vote held alongside the May 19 parliamentary elections. Mutharika was sworn in Friday, though the Malawi Congress Party's John Tembo, who had been backed in the presidential race by Muluzi, is contesting the results. Muluzi, barred from running himself by term limits, accepted Mutharika's victory.
Tembo filed suit in the High Court Monday claiming the elections were rigged. Foreign observers said Tuesday's poll was generally well run, and it was unlikely Tembo's challenge would have much political impact.
Mutharika had been Muluzi's protege, but the two fell out after Mutharika was elected in 2004 and accused Muluzi of trying to block an anti-corruption drive.
Muluzi and several other leaders in his party are facing fraud and corruption charges involving millions of dollars.
Political bickering had led to a five-month delay in passing the 2007-2008 budget. The United Democratic Front had blocked debate on the budget, saying that lawmakers who defected to join Mutharika Democratic Progressive Party should first be expelled. After a series of court injunctions, threats to dissolve the legislature and daily street demonstrations, it was agreed to debate the budget first and look at the political issues later.
The Mutharika-Muluzi feud also had led to rioting, a failed impeachment bid, and accusations of coup and assassination plots.
Despite the political impasse, Malawi has enjoyed relative peace and stability in the past decade. Mutharika, a 75-year-old former World Bank official, is credited with bringing economic gains to the southern African nation of 12 million. His anti-corruption drive also won praise from Malawians and foreign observers.
At his swearing-in Friday, Mutharika appealed to his rivals to work with him in a nation beset by poverty and where Aids has left an estimated one million children missing one or both parents.
Immunity deal 'protects Karadzic.'
BBC News
25 May 2009
Lawyers for the former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic have filed papers arguing all charges against him should be dropped.
They say US diplomat Richard Holbrooke promised him immunity from prosecution in 1996, on condition he gave up politics and public office.
Mr Karadzic is on trial at the UN tribunal in The Hague, facing 11 charges including genocide.
The tribunal has said that any immunity deal would not be binding.
They say even if a deal - strongly denied by Mr Holbrooke - had been agreed, the trial would proceed anyway.
'Witnesses'
Mr Karadzic's lawyers filed a motion of more than 100 pages, demanding the court hold a special hearing to establish the truth of Mr Karadzic's claims.
He says Mr Holbrooke, then the US envoy to Bosnia, agreed to provide him with immunity at a meeting in Belgrade on 18-19 July 1996.
Mr Karadzic does not claim to have attended the meeting, but says the former Bosnian Serb assembly speaker Momcilo Krajisnik and foreign minister Aleksa Buha were there and could testify to Mr Holbrooke's promise.
"The indictment should be dismissed, or the proceedings should be stayed, so that the hands of the tribunal are not stained with Holbrooke's deception," the motion said, according to AFP news agency.
"Dr Karadzic honoured his part of the agreement. He now seeks to require the tribunal to honour Holbrooke's part."
Mr Holbrooke - now the US special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan - strongly denies any such deal as "laughable" and "a lie".
Mr Karadzic was arrested and brought to the tribunal last year, after more than a decade in hiding.
25 May 2009
Lawyers for the former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic have filed papers arguing all charges against him should be dropped.
They say US diplomat Richard Holbrooke promised him immunity from prosecution in 1996, on condition he gave up politics and public office.
Mr Karadzic is on trial at the UN tribunal in The Hague, facing 11 charges including genocide.
The tribunal has said that any immunity deal would not be binding.
They say even if a deal - strongly denied by Mr Holbrooke - had been agreed, the trial would proceed anyway.
'Witnesses'
Mr Karadzic's lawyers filed a motion of more than 100 pages, demanding the court hold a special hearing to establish the truth of Mr Karadzic's claims.
He says Mr Holbrooke, then the US envoy to Bosnia, agreed to provide him with immunity at a meeting in Belgrade on 18-19 July 1996.
Mr Karadzic does not claim to have attended the meeting, but says the former Bosnian Serb assembly speaker Momcilo Krajisnik and foreign minister Aleksa Buha were there and could testify to Mr Holbrooke's promise.
"The indictment should be dismissed, or the proceedings should be stayed, so that the hands of the tribunal are not stained with Holbrooke's deception," the motion said, according to AFP news agency.
"Dr Karadzic honoured his part of the agreement. He now seeks to require the tribunal to honour Holbrooke's part."
Mr Holbrooke - now the US special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan - strongly denies any such deal as "laughable" and "a lie".
Mr Karadzic was arrested and brought to the tribunal last year, after more than a decade in hiding.
Pakistan, Iran sign ‘peace pipeline’ declaration.
Daily Times
25 May 2009
President Asif Ali Zardari and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday signed an inter-governmental framework declaration to support within the framework of their respective laws and regulations, the gas deal signed by the oil ministries of the respective countries.
Earlier, the Gas Sale Purchase Agreement was signed by the managing directors of the National Iranian Oil Company and Pakistan’s Inter-state Gas System for the export of Iranian natural gas to Pakistan at the border of Iran-Pakistan for domestic consumption in Pakistan.
The deal known as a ‘peace pipeline’ was signed on the sidelines of the current tripartite summit of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran on elimination of terrorism, drugs and human trafficking – also on Sunday.
Some 1,100 of the 2,100 kilometre pipeline would be laid in Iran’s territory and 1,000 kilometres in Pakistan.
Foreign Office Spokesman Abdul Basit said Iran would supply 23 million cubic metre gas per day for 25 years under the agreement, adding the agreement could be extended for an additional five years.
He said it was agreement between Pakistan and Iran, however, the agreement had provisions to include India if it wanted to join the project.
Adviser to the Prime Minister on Petroleum Asim Hussain told APP that Pakistan and Iran would sign the formal agreement for the multi-billion dollar project in a third country within the next 15 days.
Special issues: The three countries agreed to establish a mechanism for holding regular and periodical trilateral consultations on special issues, according to a joint communiqué released at the conclusion of the one-day trilateral summit.
The three countries reaffirmed their deep commitment to make every effort to eliminate extremism, militancy and terrorism from the region.
The three countries will also collaborate closely in establishing and developing energy corridors in the region, including oil and gas pipelines and electricity networks.
Trilateral economic, industrial, planning commission and chambers of commerce will also be established.
Trade: The three sides emphasised further effective measures for implementation of bilateral, trilateral and multilateral agreements on trade and transit of goods between and through their countries.
Zardari: President Asif Ali Zardari on Sunday stressed for joint efforts and increased cooperation among Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran for combating the challenges of terrorism and militancy, which were badly hurting peace, security and development in the region.
“We have to get together to tackle these challenges. It is not just the matter of our survival, but for the betterment and safety of our future generations,” Zardari said.
25 May 2009
President Asif Ali Zardari and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday signed an inter-governmental framework declaration to support within the framework of their respective laws and regulations, the gas deal signed by the oil ministries of the respective countries.
Earlier, the Gas Sale Purchase Agreement was signed by the managing directors of the National Iranian Oil Company and Pakistan’s Inter-state Gas System for the export of Iranian natural gas to Pakistan at the border of Iran-Pakistan for domestic consumption in Pakistan.
The deal known as a ‘peace pipeline’ was signed on the sidelines of the current tripartite summit of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran on elimination of terrorism, drugs and human trafficking – also on Sunday.
Some 1,100 of the 2,100 kilometre pipeline would be laid in Iran’s territory and 1,000 kilometres in Pakistan.
Foreign Office Spokesman Abdul Basit said Iran would supply 23 million cubic metre gas per day for 25 years under the agreement, adding the agreement could be extended for an additional five years.
He said it was agreement between Pakistan and Iran, however, the agreement had provisions to include India if it wanted to join the project.
Adviser to the Prime Minister on Petroleum Asim Hussain told APP that Pakistan and Iran would sign the formal agreement for the multi-billion dollar project in a third country within the next 15 days.
Special issues: The three countries agreed to establish a mechanism for holding regular and periodical trilateral consultations on special issues, according to a joint communiqué released at the conclusion of the one-day trilateral summit.
The three countries reaffirmed their deep commitment to make every effort to eliminate extremism, militancy and terrorism from the region.
The three countries will also collaborate closely in establishing and developing energy corridors in the region, including oil and gas pipelines and electricity networks.
Trilateral economic, industrial, planning commission and chambers of commerce will also be established.
Trade: The three sides emphasised further effective measures for implementation of bilateral, trilateral and multilateral agreements on trade and transit of goods between and through their countries.
Zardari: President Asif Ali Zardari on Sunday stressed for joint efforts and increased cooperation among Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran for combating the challenges of terrorism and militancy, which were badly hurting peace, security and development in the region.
“We have to get together to tackle these challenges. It is not just the matter of our survival, but for the betterment and safety of our future generations,” Zardari said.
Text of joint declaration issued at the conclusion of Tehran trilateral summit.
Tehran Declaration
The Heads of States of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran inspired by teachings of Islam and in view of deepest desire of the people of the three countries to enjoy a peaceful, secure, and prosperous environment, and on the basis of the decision reached on the sideline of the 10th ECO Summit held on 10th March 2009 in Tehran, held their first meeting on Trilateral Cooperation on 24th May 2009 (1388/3/3) in Tehran.
Appreciating the initiative of the Trilateral Cooperation among the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran as a concrete move for realizing the vision of the leaders to harness their true potential for the welfare and prosperity of the entire region and in accordance with the will of their people to open a new chapter for peace, stability, public welfare and economic development;
Recalling the Joint Statement issued at the conclusion of the First Meeting of Foreign Ministers of the I.R. of Pakistan, I.R. of Afghanistan and I.R. of Iran held in Kabul on 27 April 2009 (1388/2/7);
Underlining the heartfelt desire and will of their peoples for putting an end to insecurity and creating a conducive regional environment for a promising future for their coming generations;
Given:
· The sufferings of the people of the region and sacrifices made by them;
· The growing concern arising from the insecurity, terrorism, extremism and drug production and trafficking;
Emphasizing:
· Their deep historical, religious, cultural bonds, common heritage and geographical commonalties;
· The deep desire of their Muslim governments and people for broadening cooperation in the political, security, economic, cultural, scientific and social fields and promoting people to people contacts;
· Significance of the regional approaches with the participation of the three states for settling problems of this region;
Respecting:
· Commitments of their countries as provided in the international agreements and treaties;
· The principles and purposes of the UN Charter;
· The rights of all States to sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity;
· The principle of peaceful coexistence, good neighbourly relations and non‑ interference in the internal affairs of each other’s States;
· All measures and acts already taken for establishment of peace and stability in the region;
For the purpose of:
· Bolstering bonds of friendship among the governments and peoples of the three countries;
· Finding a regional solution with the participation of the three States for the establishment of peace, stability and tranquility in the region;
· Realizing economic development, promoting local cultures, protecting religious beliefs of all peoples of the three States; and
· Alleviating poverty, and addressing the needs of the people;
Agreed as follows:
1‑ To establish a mechanism for holding regular and periodical trilateral consultations on special issues by Senior Officials, Foreign Ministers and the Heads of State/Government of the three countries.
2‑ To reaffirm their deep commitment to make every effort to eliminate extremism, militancy and terrorism and address their root causes which are in stark contrast with the spirit of Islam and rich cultural traditions and customs of the region.
3‑ To encourage cultural interactions including exchange of parliamentary delegations, intellectuals, academicians, seminarians, and the youth as well as promotion of people‑to‑people contacts.
4‑ To exchange experiences, information as well as embark on concentrated efforts towards socio‑economic development in the region and planning and implementing trilateral economic projects in different areas including energy, transportation, industries, mining agriculture, cattle‑breeding and environment.
5‑ To take urgent steps for development of the infrastructure connectivity between the three countries and in the region, including construction of roads, railways and improving the existing ones.
6‑ To collaborate closely in establishing and developing energy corridors in the region, including oil and gas pipelines and electricity networks.
7‑ To establish trilateral economic, industrial, planning commissions and Chambers of Commerce.
8‑ To encourage the involvement of private sectors of the three countries in the regional development programs.
9‑ To encourage ECO member states for the establishment of a Free Trade Area in the region by 2015 as a priority task, as agreed in the 10th ECO Summit in Tehran (2009).
10‑ To coordinate and to pursue projects for trans‑regional cooperation especially within the framework of ECO and OIC.
11‑ To promote trilateral socio‑cultural cooperation in the areas of education, health, sports, culture and art.
12‑ To strengthen trilateral cooperation among the relevant‑institutions of the three countries to counter production and smuggling of narcotics and psychotropic substances and their illicit trafficking.
13‑ To promote trilateral cooperation among the relevant institutions of the three countries to counter organised crimes such as illegal human‑trafficking, money laundering and arms smuggling.
14‑ To create pull factors in Afghanistan for the safe, voluntary, gradual and dignified return and reintegration of refugees with the sustained and enhanced support of the international community and UNHCR.
15‑ To create incentives and to facilitate the voluntary return of Afghan specialists to their homeland in order to assist rapid reconstruction of the country through attracting cooperation and participation of the relevant international organizations such as UNHCR.
16‑ Emphasizing the importance of reconstruction process in Afghanistan in order to achieve sustainable peace and economic development in that country, with the support of international community including international organizations, financial institutions, donor countries as well as Afghanistan’s immediate neighbours.
17‑ Emphasized further effective measures for implementation of bilateral, trilateral and multilateral agreements to which the three countries are party, concerning trade and transit of goods between and through their countries.
18‑ Reiterated their commitment to establish joint training centers aimed at achieving a proficient labor force for formulation of relevant projects between, the three countries.
19‑ Welcomed the World Bank offer of assistance to develop a plan jointly with the customs authorities of Afghanistan and Pakistan and Afghanistan and Iran to share Customs information electronically.
20‑ To establish a working group in order to conduct a feasibility study for setting up a Joint Investment Fund among the three countries to follow up the adopted decisions by their leaders and also to financially support the trilateral projects. The cases for using the resources of this fund will be determined by the relevant authorities of the three countries.
21‑ To establish a trilateral coordination committee at the level of Deputy Foreign Ministers of the three countries to prepare a comprehensive Action Plan to monitor the progress of trilateral cooperation. The three sides also emphasized that
the Foreign Ministers shall present the results of their studies and evaluations of the activities of the above‑mentioned Council as well
as the progress of implementation of the agreements to the 2nd Summit Meeting which will be held in Islamabad in October 2009, while the following Summit Meetings will be held next year in alphabetical order, starting from Kabul.
22‑ To also invite, if required and by consensus, other countries to the future Summits under the trilateral process.
23‑ The Presidents of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan expressed profound gratitude to the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran for the warm hospitality extended to both delegations and the excellent organization of this conference,
24‑ This declaration was done in Tehran on 24 May 2009, in twenty‑four items and three originals, Farsi, Dari and English, each of which is equally authentic.
The Heads of States of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran inspired by teachings of Islam and in view of deepest desire of the people of the three countries to enjoy a peaceful, secure, and prosperous environment, and on the basis of the decision reached on the sideline of the 10th ECO Summit held on 10th March 2009 in Tehran, held their first meeting on Trilateral Cooperation on 24th May 2009 (1388/3/3) in Tehran.
Appreciating the initiative of the Trilateral Cooperation among the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran as a concrete move for realizing the vision of the leaders to harness their true potential for the welfare and prosperity of the entire region and in accordance with the will of their people to open a new chapter for peace, stability, public welfare and economic development;
Recalling the Joint Statement issued at the conclusion of the First Meeting of Foreign Ministers of the I.R. of Pakistan, I.R. of Afghanistan and I.R. of Iran held in Kabul on 27 April 2009 (1388/2/7);
Underlining the heartfelt desire and will of their peoples for putting an end to insecurity and creating a conducive regional environment for a promising future for their coming generations;
Given:
· The sufferings of the people of the region and sacrifices made by them;
· The growing concern arising from the insecurity, terrorism, extremism and drug production and trafficking;
Emphasizing:
· Their deep historical, religious, cultural bonds, common heritage and geographical commonalties;
· The deep desire of their Muslim governments and people for broadening cooperation in the political, security, economic, cultural, scientific and social fields and promoting people to people contacts;
· Significance of the regional approaches with the participation of the three states for settling problems of this region;
Respecting:
· Commitments of their countries as provided in the international agreements and treaties;
· The principles and purposes of the UN Charter;
· The rights of all States to sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity;
· The principle of peaceful coexistence, good neighbourly relations and non‑ interference in the internal affairs of each other’s States;
· All measures and acts already taken for establishment of peace and stability in the region;
For the purpose of:
· Bolstering bonds of friendship among the governments and peoples of the three countries;
· Finding a regional solution with the participation of the three States for the establishment of peace, stability and tranquility in the region;
· Realizing economic development, promoting local cultures, protecting religious beliefs of all peoples of the three States; and
· Alleviating poverty, and addressing the needs of the people;
Agreed as follows:
1‑ To establish a mechanism for holding regular and periodical trilateral consultations on special issues by Senior Officials, Foreign Ministers and the Heads of State/Government of the three countries.
2‑ To reaffirm their deep commitment to make every effort to eliminate extremism, militancy and terrorism and address their root causes which are in stark contrast with the spirit of Islam and rich cultural traditions and customs of the region.
3‑ To encourage cultural interactions including exchange of parliamentary delegations, intellectuals, academicians, seminarians, and the youth as well as promotion of people‑to‑people contacts.
4‑ To exchange experiences, information as well as embark on concentrated efforts towards socio‑economic development in the region and planning and implementing trilateral economic projects in different areas including energy, transportation, industries, mining agriculture, cattle‑breeding and environment.
5‑ To take urgent steps for development of the infrastructure connectivity between the three countries and in the region, including construction of roads, railways and improving the existing ones.
6‑ To collaborate closely in establishing and developing energy corridors in the region, including oil and gas pipelines and electricity networks.
7‑ To establish trilateral economic, industrial, planning commissions and Chambers of Commerce.
8‑ To encourage the involvement of private sectors of the three countries in the regional development programs.
9‑ To encourage ECO member states for the establishment of a Free Trade Area in the region by 2015 as a priority task, as agreed in the 10th ECO Summit in Tehran (2009).
10‑ To coordinate and to pursue projects for trans‑regional cooperation especially within the framework of ECO and OIC.
11‑ To promote trilateral socio‑cultural cooperation in the areas of education, health, sports, culture and art.
12‑ To strengthen trilateral cooperation among the relevant‑institutions of the three countries to counter production and smuggling of narcotics and psychotropic substances and their illicit trafficking.
13‑ To promote trilateral cooperation among the relevant institutions of the three countries to counter organised crimes such as illegal human‑trafficking, money laundering and arms smuggling.
14‑ To create pull factors in Afghanistan for the safe, voluntary, gradual and dignified return and reintegration of refugees with the sustained and enhanced support of the international community and UNHCR.
15‑ To create incentives and to facilitate the voluntary return of Afghan specialists to their homeland in order to assist rapid reconstruction of the country through attracting cooperation and participation of the relevant international organizations such as UNHCR.
16‑ Emphasizing the importance of reconstruction process in Afghanistan in order to achieve sustainable peace and economic development in that country, with the support of international community including international organizations, financial institutions, donor countries as well as Afghanistan’s immediate neighbours.
17‑ Emphasized further effective measures for implementation of bilateral, trilateral and multilateral agreements to which the three countries are party, concerning trade and transit of goods between and through their countries.
18‑ Reiterated their commitment to establish joint training centers aimed at achieving a proficient labor force for formulation of relevant projects between, the three countries.
19‑ Welcomed the World Bank offer of assistance to develop a plan jointly with the customs authorities of Afghanistan and Pakistan and Afghanistan and Iran to share Customs information electronically.
20‑ To establish a working group in order to conduct a feasibility study for setting up a Joint Investment Fund among the three countries to follow up the adopted decisions by their leaders and also to financially support the trilateral projects. The cases for using the resources of this fund will be determined by the relevant authorities of the three countries.
21‑ To establish a trilateral coordination committee at the level of Deputy Foreign Ministers of the three countries to prepare a comprehensive Action Plan to monitor the progress of trilateral cooperation. The three sides also emphasized that
the Foreign Ministers shall present the results of their studies and evaluations of the activities of the above‑mentioned Council as well
as the progress of implementation of the agreements to the 2nd Summit Meeting which will be held in Islamabad in October 2009, while the following Summit Meetings will be held next year in alphabetical order, starting from Kabul.
22‑ To also invite, if required and by consensus, other countries to the future Summits under the trilateral process.
23‑ The Presidents of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan expressed profound gratitude to the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran for the warm hospitality extended to both delegations and the excellent organization of this conference,
24‑ This declaration was done in Tehran on 24 May 2009, in twenty‑four items and three originals, Farsi, Dari and English, each of which is equally authentic.
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