Daily Telegraph
11 September 2009
By Thomas Harding
For the past six months Britain’s elite troops have been schooling soldiers working for Col Muammar Gaddafi’s regime, which for years provided Republican terrorists with the Semtex explosive, machine-guns and anti-aircraft missiles used against British troops during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Sources within the SAS have expressed distaste at the agreement, which they believe could be connected to the release of the Lockerbie bomber.
Britain’s relationship with Libya has been under the spotlight since Abdelbaset al Megrahi was freed from a Scottish jail on compassionate grounds last month after being diagnosed as suffering from terminal prostate cancer and given three months to live.
Gordon Brown has faced claims that his Government helped engineer Megrahi’s release to promote Britain’s commercial interests, particularly energy, in Libya.
Downing Street has denied the allegations, but Jack Straw, the Justice Minister, has admitted that trade was a factor in deciding to include Megrahi in an earlier prisoner transfer agreement with Libya. Megrahi was the only person convicted for the murder of 270 people killed in the bombing in 1988 of Pan Am flight 103.
The disclosure that members of the SAS are training their Libyan counterparts will further raise suspicions about exactly what has been agreed behind the scenes between Tripoli and Britain.
It will also infuriate families of the Lockerbie victims and further sour relations with America. Earlier this week, President Barack Obama told the Prime Minister of his “disappointment” over Megrahi’s release.
Defence sources said the training arrangement must have been given high-level political approval.
Members of Britain’s elite regiment are angry at having to help train soldiers from a country that for years armed terrorists they fought against.
An SAS source said: “A small SAS training team have been doing it for the last six months as part of this cosy deal with the Libyans.
“From our perspective we cannot see it as part of anything else other than the Megrahi deal.” Another SAS soldier said: “The IRA was our greatest adversary now we are training their backers. There was a weary rolling of the eyes when we were told about this.”
The Ministry of Defence refuses to comment on special forces activities, but sources have admitted that SAS reserves have bolstered the team that has been training “Libyan infantry in basic skills”.
A senior defence source admitted: “This is a huge political embarrassment.’’
The first moves towards setting up the training agreement are believed to have begun after Tony Blair visited
Libya as Prime Minister in 2004. However, the deal was only finalised and “signed off” by Mr Brown earlier this year.
Robin Horsfall, a former SAS soldier who took part in the Iranian Embassy siege in 1980 and fought the IRA in Northern Ireland, said:
“There is a long list of British soldiers who have died because of Gaddafi funding terrorists.
“The SAS is being ordered to do something it knows is morally wrong.’’
The team – a troop of between four and 14 men – is training the Libyans in counter-terrorism techniques, including covert surveillance.
However, the “full spectrum of techniques” learned from fighting Islamic terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan is not expected to be passed on.
12 September, 2009
11 September, 2009
King's supporters riot in Uganda.
BBC News
10 September 2009
At least two people have been killed in Uganda's capital, Kampala, in clashes between police and rioting supporters of a traditional king.
Police fired tear gas at the protesters who hurled stones and burned tyres. One report said at least seven people died.
The demonstrators protested against the government's attempts to stop the king of Buganda from visiting a region near Kampala where violence was feared.
The king has a big influence among the Baganda, Uganda's largest ethnic group.
At least two people were killed in Thursday's riots in central Kampala, police and witnesses said.
But a photographer working for the Associated Press news agency said he had counted seven bodies, adding that all the victims appeared to be civilians.
King Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II - who is constitutionally barred from taking part in national politics - had wanted to visit a hostile part of his community to the north-east of Kampala.
The issue is so sensitive that ethnic Baganda members of parliament walked out of the legislature on Wednesday.
There has also been a long history of tension between the king and central government, particularly over land reform proposals that the Baganda say threaten their community, the BBC's Peter Greste reports.
Buganda is one of four ancient kingdoms in Uganda. It was abolished in 1966 but then restored in the 1990s.
10 September 2009
At least two people have been killed in Uganda's capital, Kampala, in clashes between police and rioting supporters of a traditional king.
Police fired tear gas at the protesters who hurled stones and burned tyres. One report said at least seven people died.
The demonstrators protested against the government's attempts to stop the king of Buganda from visiting a region near Kampala where violence was feared.
The king has a big influence among the Baganda, Uganda's largest ethnic group.
At least two people were killed in Thursday's riots in central Kampala, police and witnesses said.
But a photographer working for the Associated Press news agency said he had counted seven bodies, adding that all the victims appeared to be civilians.
King Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II - who is constitutionally barred from taking part in national politics - had wanted to visit a hostile part of his community to the north-east of Kampala.
The issue is so sensitive that ethnic Baganda members of parliament walked out of the legislature on Wednesday.
There has also been a long history of tension between the king and central government, particularly over land reform proposals that the Baganda say threaten their community, the BBC's Peter Greste reports.
Buganda is one of four ancient kingdoms in Uganda. It was abolished in 1966 but then restored in the 1990s.
10 September, 2009
MISSIONARY FOUND DEAD IN FOREST.
MISNA
10 September 2009
The body of a Xaverian missionary from the Colombian Yarumal apostolic society, Father Gustavo Vélez Vasquez, was found yesterday afternoon. Fr. Vasquez, 79, better known as “Father Calixto”, was missing since Sunday in a nature reserve called St. Sebastian, in the north-western department of Antioquia. According to local sources, the body of “Father Calixto”, a nickname used for 31 years in reflections on the Gospel for the newspaper ‘El Colombiano’, was found by some farmers participating in the search. Based on a police reconstruction, the missionary died from injuries after falling along a river. The area where the priest was found confirms that he had walked for at least 4 hours, passing one of the most perilous zones of the San Sebastian de la Castellana reserve, and was just 300 metres from a main highway. Hundreds of people, including police, farmers and locals, participated in the search for “Father Calixto”, who went missing on Sunday after lunch on a walk in the forest outside Medellin. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe remembered the widely known and loved priest in a message of condolences, expressing “deep grief” for the death of man who with “his reflections always gave the people of Antioquia love, faith and hope”. The body of the priest is at the Mother Laura Convent of Belencito in Medellin, and the funeral service will be celebrated on Friday morning at the Metropolitan Cathedral.
10 September 2009
The body of a Xaverian missionary from the Colombian Yarumal apostolic society, Father Gustavo Vélez Vasquez, was found yesterday afternoon. Fr. Vasquez, 79, better known as “Father Calixto”, was missing since Sunday in a nature reserve called St. Sebastian, in the north-western department of Antioquia. According to local sources, the body of “Father Calixto”, a nickname used for 31 years in reflections on the Gospel for the newspaper ‘El Colombiano’, was found by some farmers participating in the search. Based on a police reconstruction, the missionary died from injuries after falling along a river. The area where the priest was found confirms that he had walked for at least 4 hours, passing one of the most perilous zones of the San Sebastian de la Castellana reserve, and was just 300 metres from a main highway. Hundreds of people, including police, farmers and locals, participated in the search for “Father Calixto”, who went missing on Sunday after lunch on a walk in the forest outside Medellin. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe remembered the widely known and loved priest in a message of condolences, expressing “deep grief” for the death of man who with “his reflections always gave the people of Antioquia love, faith and hope”. The body of the priest is at the Mother Laura Convent of Belencito in Medellin, and the funeral service will be celebrated on Friday morning at the Metropolitan Cathedral.
Guinean government to audit Rusal, AngloGold and Kenor.
Reuters
10 September 2009
Guinea, the world's biggest bauxite exporter and a source of gold and iron ore, will audit at least three of the foreign mining firms working there, its government said late on Wednesday.
The government has set up an audit committee to look into the Guinean operations of Russian metals firm UC RUSAL, world No. 3 gold miner AngloGold Ashanti (ANGJ.J), and Norwegian firm Kenor, Ousmane Kaba, vice-president of the committee, said on state television.
"We will do this to find out what has really happened," Kaba said, speaking in the presence of Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, whose junta took power in the West African state last December.
"The list is not exhaustive. We can increase it if necessary," he added.
Camara's administration began by taking an aggressive stance against mining firms, and though this appeared to have softened later in the year, recent events indicate he may be changing tack again.
Last week RUSAL halted operations at Friguia, the country's biggest alumina refinery, after the government banned exports during a dispute over environmental tax. The ban was lifted on Wednesday
(Reporting by Salio Samb; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)
10 September 2009
Guinea, the world's biggest bauxite exporter and a source of gold and iron ore, will audit at least three of the foreign mining firms working there, its government said late on Wednesday.
The government has set up an audit committee to look into the Guinean operations of Russian metals firm UC RUSAL, world No. 3 gold miner AngloGold Ashanti (ANGJ.J), and Norwegian firm Kenor, Ousmane Kaba, vice-president of the committee, said on state television.
"We will do this to find out what has really happened," Kaba said, speaking in the presence of Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, whose junta took power in the West African state last December.
"The list is not exhaustive. We can increase it if necessary," he added.
Camara's administration began by taking an aggressive stance against mining firms, and though this appeared to have softened later in the year, recent events indicate he may be changing tack again.
Last week RUSAL halted operations at Friguia, the country's biggest alumina refinery, after the government banned exports during a dispute over environmental tax. The ban was lifted on Wednesday
(Reporting by Salio Samb; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)
09 September, 2009
Former British paratrooper sentenced to death in DR Congo over driver's murder.
The Independent
9 September 2009
By Mike Pflanz in Nairobi and Duncan Gardham
Joshua French, 27, and Tjostolv Moland, a 28-year-old Norwegian, were arrested after Abedi Kasongo was shot dead in the remote north-east of the country. The two Europeans claimed that their vehicle was attacked by bandits as they drove after dark.
But Congolese prosecutors accused the men of being mercenaries who were in the country to set up a security firm to profit from ongoing lawlessness around newly-found oil deposits close to the Ugandan border.
Related Articles
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Apartheid-era policeman granted immunity after killing four loses bid to get his job back
Hillary Clinton to meet president of Somalia
British businesses accused of funding Congo warAlthough the death penalty still sits on Congo's statute books, the sentence is no longer carried out and is instead commuted to life imprisonment. The men were also ordered to pay more than £37 million in damages.
The life sentence would likely be in one of the country's notorious prisons, described as the worst in the world by a senior United Nations official during a visit earlier this year.
Mr French's lawyer said that, despite the convention of commuting the death penalty, his client remained fearful.
"He was very worried that even though they no longer execute people, maybe because this is a military tribunal, because the Army is involved, that the rules were different," said Andre Kimbambe.
"We told him that that was not going to happen. He has calmed down a bit now and is more confident that we will eventually find a fair court that will listen to us.
"We will be appealing tomorrow and will go on appealing as far as we can."
Norwegian media reported that Mr French had trained as a Paratrooper with the British Army and was a member of an elite Norwegian infantry unit known as the Telemark Battalion.
However, he had to resign when he and Mr Moland, were accused of recruiting soldiers from Norway's army to private security companies operating in Africa and Arabian peninsula.
They had both reportedly worked in Angola and Sierra Leone before arriving via Uganda to Congo to hunt for contracts there.
Police raided a flat the pair shared in the Ugandan capital Kampala and found ID badges and uniforms bearing the insignia of a small Norwegian private security firm, although its directors denied employing the two men.
Mr French, whose late father was a British aid worker and whose mother is Norwegian, has denied the allegations against him since he was arrested in early May.
He has dual British and Norwegian citizenship, according to diplomatic sources in Congo's capital, Kinshasa.
His mother, Kari French, said on Tuesday: “It was clear that he was going to get a death sentence from the beginning but today has still been very difficult.
"I haven’t spoken to him but yesterday was the first time in more than four months in prison that I have heard him a bit down hearted. He’s had malaria, typhoid, pneumonia and stomach problems in jail but he’s been very strong.
“They have already accused the Norwegian government of trying to help him escape and our fear is they will go ahead an carry out the execution or shoot him in a mock escape.”
The Foreign Office declined to comment until they spoke to Mr French. He has been represented by the Norweigian consulate so far.
Mr French was born in Norway and lived there with his mother after his parents divorced, moving back to Britain when he was 19 and joining the Parachute Regiment for a year before he was forced to retire through injury.
Mr French’s father, John, a former aid worker, died from brain cancer six years ago.
Mr Kasongo died from a single gunshot wound to the head on a road 40 miles east of Kisangani, the jungle city where the military court eventually tried the two men.
It is unclear what Mr French and Mr Moland were doing in the area, but there have recently been promising new oil deposits found to the east, close to the border with Uganda.
They may have been scouting ahead of searching for security contracts for prospecting firms.
9 September 2009
By Mike Pflanz in Nairobi and Duncan Gardham
Joshua French, 27, and Tjostolv Moland, a 28-year-old Norwegian, were arrested after Abedi Kasongo was shot dead in the remote north-east of the country. The two Europeans claimed that their vehicle was attacked by bandits as they drove after dark.
But Congolese prosecutors accused the men of being mercenaries who were in the country to set up a security firm to profit from ongoing lawlessness around newly-found oil deposits close to the Ugandan border.
Related Articles
Foreign murderers found living in Britain
African armies launch joint offensive against Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army
Apartheid-era policeman granted immunity after killing four loses bid to get his job back
Hillary Clinton to meet president of Somalia
British businesses accused of funding Congo warAlthough the death penalty still sits on Congo's statute books, the sentence is no longer carried out and is instead commuted to life imprisonment. The men were also ordered to pay more than £37 million in damages.
The life sentence would likely be in one of the country's notorious prisons, described as the worst in the world by a senior United Nations official during a visit earlier this year.
Mr French's lawyer said that, despite the convention of commuting the death penalty, his client remained fearful.
"He was very worried that even though they no longer execute people, maybe because this is a military tribunal, because the Army is involved, that the rules were different," said Andre Kimbambe.
"We told him that that was not going to happen. He has calmed down a bit now and is more confident that we will eventually find a fair court that will listen to us.
"We will be appealing tomorrow and will go on appealing as far as we can."
Norwegian media reported that Mr French had trained as a Paratrooper with the British Army and was a member of an elite Norwegian infantry unit known as the Telemark Battalion.
However, he had to resign when he and Mr Moland, were accused of recruiting soldiers from Norway's army to private security companies operating in Africa and Arabian peninsula.
They had both reportedly worked in Angola and Sierra Leone before arriving via Uganda to Congo to hunt for contracts there.
Police raided a flat the pair shared in the Ugandan capital Kampala and found ID badges and uniforms bearing the insignia of a small Norwegian private security firm, although its directors denied employing the two men.
Mr French, whose late father was a British aid worker and whose mother is Norwegian, has denied the allegations against him since he was arrested in early May.
He has dual British and Norwegian citizenship, according to diplomatic sources in Congo's capital, Kinshasa.
His mother, Kari French, said on Tuesday: “It was clear that he was going to get a death sentence from the beginning but today has still been very difficult.
"I haven’t spoken to him but yesterday was the first time in more than four months in prison that I have heard him a bit down hearted. He’s had malaria, typhoid, pneumonia and stomach problems in jail but he’s been very strong.
“They have already accused the Norwegian government of trying to help him escape and our fear is they will go ahead an carry out the execution or shoot him in a mock escape.”
The Foreign Office declined to comment until they spoke to Mr French. He has been represented by the Norweigian consulate so far.
Mr French was born in Norway and lived there with his mother after his parents divorced, moving back to Britain when he was 19 and joining the Parachute Regiment for a year before he was forced to retire through injury.
Mr French’s father, John, a former aid worker, died from brain cancer six years ago.
Mr Kasongo died from a single gunshot wound to the head on a road 40 miles east of Kisangani, the jungle city where the military court eventually tried the two men.
It is unclear what Mr French and Mr Moland were doing in the area, but there have recently been promising new oil deposits found to the east, close to the border with Uganda.
They may have been scouting ahead of searching for security contracts for prospecting firms.
08 September, 2009
UPDF Officers to Train at U.S Base in Djibouti.
Daily Monitor
Martin Ssebuyira
8 September 2009
At least 50 UPDF officers were yesterday sent to the American army base in Djibouti to acquire skills in military planning. The officers, who will visit the ship where various military operations are conducted, will get training in disaster management and other operational skills.
"We are engaging in peace keeping in Somalia and Uganda is working towards forming an East African brigade. There is need to equip the army with skills to work with international forces," UPDF Air force spokesman Tabaaro Kiconco said yesterday.
The operation follows a decision by African Union to renew the mandate of UPDF in Somalia to allow them attack the Al-Shabab militants. Capt. Kiconco said the officers will use the acquired skills to train junior officers to work confidently with any international force. "We are grateful to the US forces for giving us skills to crack down terrorism and helping us in case of any disaster," he added.
Asked whether the training was in line with the AU mission to attack Al-Shabab militants, Capt. Kiconco said the objective is to train the army to work with international forces.
Martin Ssebuyira
8 September 2009
At least 50 UPDF officers were yesterday sent to the American army base in Djibouti to acquire skills in military planning. The officers, who will visit the ship where various military operations are conducted, will get training in disaster management and other operational skills.
"We are engaging in peace keeping in Somalia and Uganda is working towards forming an East African brigade. There is need to equip the army with skills to work with international forces," UPDF Air force spokesman Tabaaro Kiconco said yesterday.
The operation follows a decision by African Union to renew the mandate of UPDF in Somalia to allow them attack the Al-Shabab militants. Capt. Kiconco said the officers will use the acquired skills to train junior officers to work confidently with any international force. "We are grateful to the US forces for giving us skills to crack down terrorism and helping us in case of any disaster," he added.
Asked whether the training was in line with the AU mission to attack Al-Shabab militants, Capt. Kiconco said the objective is to train the army to work with international forces.
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