Interfax-Ukraine
17 January 2010
One Georgian man has been detained in Donetsk for violating Ukrainian immigration rules, two others were held for improper behavior at a polling station.
A Georgian man was detained in Donetsk's Kyivsky district for violating Ukrainian immigration rules, Donetsk Region's Central Police Department spokesman Ihor Demin told Interfax.
"According to eyewitnesses, two Georgian men attempted to enter one of the polling stations [in Donetsk's Petrovsky district], started a row and tried to rip seals off the ballot boxes," Demin said. "After that they were taken to a local police station but refused to talk to law enforcers," the official said.
The Georgian nationals, who are not arrestees at the moment, are having a conversation with a Ukrainian security officer on the premises of the district police department, according to the election law enforcement headquarters for the Petrovsky District of Donetsk.
It is unclear whether the three Georgians in question were the ones who were detained as freelance correspondents working for Ukrainian media outlets, as was reported earlier by Ukrainian Interior Ministry's public safety chief Volodymyr Mayevskiy, or some other Georgians.
06 February, 2010
Party of Regions: Georgian riot police allegedly arrived in Ukraine posing as observers.
Interfax-Ukraine
17 January 2010
Ukraine's Party of Regions has learned that there are law enforcers among so-called Georgian observers to presidential elections in Ukraine, namely the riot police, parliament member Vladyslav Lukianov has said.
The press service of the Party of Regions quotes him as saying: "The foreign special police arriving here include Sergei Bigiashvili, Giorgy Kalandarishvili, Zurab Makirishvili, Zama Vashadze, Zurab Jakhaya, Zviad Tsnobiladze, Chukzar Tsikhilashvili, Irakly Gogiya, Bakur Kornilov and Irakly Andronikashvili."
The reprot says that all these people have received training but not for the missions usually performed by international observers to elections.
"They are commandos trained for special operations aimed at undermining stability. They have experience in such operations not only in their own country, Georgia, but also abroad," the press service says.
17 January 2010
Ukraine's Party of Regions has learned that there are law enforcers among so-called Georgian observers to presidential elections in Ukraine, namely the riot police, parliament member Vladyslav Lukianov has said.
The press service of the Party of Regions quotes him as saying: "The foreign special police arriving here include Sergei Bigiashvili, Giorgy Kalandarishvili, Zurab Makirishvili, Zama Vashadze, Zurab Jakhaya, Zviad Tsnobiladze, Chukzar Tsikhilashvili, Irakly Gogiya, Bakur Kornilov and Irakly Andronikashvili."
The reprot says that all these people have received training but not for the missions usually performed by international observers to elections.
"They are commandos trained for special operations aimed at undermining stability. They have experience in such operations not only in their own country, Georgia, but also abroad," the press service says.
Row over Georgian ‘election observers’
AFP
17 January 2010
The arrival of hundreds of Georgians in Ukraine purportedly to monitor elections spiralled into a major row yesterday after a party accused them of being special forces sent to disrupt the polls.
The Regions Party of presidential frontrunner Viktor Yanukovich has protested vehemently over the sudden arrival of hundreds of male Georgians “built like sportsmen” in the eastern city of Donetsk over the last days.
Tbilisi insists they are observers who Ukraine refused to accredit but the Donetsk authorities have said there is evidence they were sent to carry out fraud on behalf of Yanukovich’s main rival, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
“All these people have corresponding training not in line with the duties of international observers in elections,” Regions Party MP Vladislav Lukyanov said in a statement released by Regions Party headquarters. “These are fighters specialised in carrying out actions to destabilise elections.”
Yanukovich himself meanwhile appealed to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to withdraw the “so-called” observers.
“It is unacceptable that a foreign state interferes in the affairs of our country,” he said.
The head of Donetsk city council Nikolai Levchenko said they were all men aged between 25-45 and “built like sportsmen”.
But Georgia’s ambassador to Ukraine, Grigol Katamadze, said the Ukrainian supreme court had ordered that the observers be registered.
Reports said that Georgia had been seeking to accredit some 2,000 observers. The central election commission has accredited a total of 3,149 observers from around the world.
Election fraud in Ukraine remains a major issue after the supreme court ordered a re-run of the last presidential elections in 2004 after discovering mass vote-rigging in favour of Yanukovich.
Donetsk, a heavy industry and mining region, is a political stronghold of Yanukovich but analysts have said it will be crucial for Tymoshenko to win votes here if she is to make a serious challenge for the presidency.
17 January 2010
The arrival of hundreds of Georgians in Ukraine purportedly to monitor elections spiralled into a major row yesterday after a party accused them of being special forces sent to disrupt the polls.
The Regions Party of presidential frontrunner Viktor Yanukovich has protested vehemently over the sudden arrival of hundreds of male Georgians “built like sportsmen” in the eastern city of Donetsk over the last days.
Tbilisi insists they are observers who Ukraine refused to accredit but the Donetsk authorities have said there is evidence they were sent to carry out fraud on behalf of Yanukovich’s main rival, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
“All these people have corresponding training not in line with the duties of international observers in elections,” Regions Party MP Vladislav Lukyanov said in a statement released by Regions Party headquarters. “These are fighters specialised in carrying out actions to destabilise elections.”
Yanukovich himself meanwhile appealed to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to withdraw the “so-called” observers.
“It is unacceptable that a foreign state interferes in the affairs of our country,” he said.
The head of Donetsk city council Nikolai Levchenko said they were all men aged between 25-45 and “built like sportsmen”.
But Georgia’s ambassador to Ukraine, Grigol Katamadze, said the Ukrainian supreme court had ordered that the observers be registered.
Reports said that Georgia had been seeking to accredit some 2,000 observers. The central election commission has accredited a total of 3,149 observers from around the world.
Election fraud in Ukraine remains a major issue after the supreme court ordered a re-run of the last presidential elections in 2004 after discovering mass vote-rigging in favour of Yanukovich.
Donetsk, a heavy industry and mining region, is a political stronghold of Yanukovich but analysts have said it will be crucial for Tymoshenko to win votes here if she is to make a serious challenge for the presidency.
Museveni Courts Russian Oil Investor.
256 News
6 February 2010
President Yoweri Museveni has encouraged Lukoil, a Russian-based oil company to invest in the petroleum exploration and refining sector in Uganda.
The President made the call yesterday at State House, Entebbe when he received a delegation, led by the Vice-President of the company’s business development, Mr. Andrei Sapozhnikov.
President Museveni was pleased to receive the investment proposal of the company and informed his guests of the variety of opportunities in the petroleum sector in Uganda.
Mr. Sapozhnikov expressed interest in the oil exploration, refinery and the training of local manpower to facilitate the development of the sector.
State Minister for Investment Mr. Aston Kajara, the Executive Director of the Uganda Investment Authority, Dr. Margie Kigozi, Uganda’s Ambassador to Russia, Dr. Moses Ebuk and the Russian Ambassador to Sergey N. Shishkin Uganda attended.
6 February 2010
President Yoweri Museveni has encouraged Lukoil, a Russian-based oil company to invest in the petroleum exploration and refining sector in Uganda.
The President made the call yesterday at State House, Entebbe when he received a delegation, led by the Vice-President of the company’s business development, Mr. Andrei Sapozhnikov.
President Museveni was pleased to receive the investment proposal of the company and informed his guests of the variety of opportunities in the petroleum sector in Uganda.
Mr. Sapozhnikov expressed interest in the oil exploration, refinery and the training of local manpower to facilitate the development of the sector.
State Minister for Investment Mr. Aston Kajara, the Executive Director of the Uganda Investment Authority, Dr. Margie Kigozi, Uganda’s Ambassador to Russia, Dr. Moses Ebuk and the Russian Ambassador to Sergey N. Shishkin Uganda attended.
Ethiopia Constricts Press Freedom Even More While Providing Another "Law" to Use as a Tool of Oppression.
AFP
6 February 2010
Ethiopia's new anti-terror law strips journalists of the right to protect the identity of their sources, a top official said in a statement carried on Saturday by the national news agency ENA.
"The anti-terrorism law revoked the rights of journalists not to disclose their information sources when they report on terrorism," the agency quoted State Minister for Communication Shimeles Kemal as saying.
"The new law revoked this right taking into consideration the magnitude of disasters caused by terrorism," he added.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, only one other African country has jailed more journalists than Ethiopia and only last week it imprisoned a columnist for criticising the prime minister.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch voiced concern before the bill was passed last year that some of its provisions were targeted at the nation's media.
"A journalist interviewing an opposition politician or a supporter of an armed opposition group could be deemed as 'encouraging' terrorism merely by publicising the views of the interviewee," it said.
6 February 2010
Ethiopia's new anti-terror law strips journalists of the right to protect the identity of their sources, a top official said in a statement carried on Saturday by the national news agency ENA.
"The anti-terrorism law revoked the rights of journalists not to disclose their information sources when they report on terrorism," the agency quoted State Minister for Communication Shimeles Kemal as saying.
"The new law revoked this right taking into consideration the magnitude of disasters caused by terrorism," he added.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, only one other African country has jailed more journalists than Ethiopia and only last week it imprisoned a columnist for criticising the prime minister.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch voiced concern before the bill was passed last year that some of its provisions were targeted at the nation's media.
"A journalist interviewing an opposition politician or a supporter of an armed opposition group could be deemed as 'encouraging' terrorism merely by publicising the views of the interviewee," it said.
BAE admits guilt over corrupt arms deals.
The Guardian
6 February 2010
By David Leigh and Rob Evans
The arms giant BAE yesterday agreed to pay out almost £300m in penalties, as it finally admitted guilt over its worldwide conduct, in the face of long-running corruption investigations.
For 20 years, the firm refused to accept any wrongdoing, despite mounting evidence of alleged bribes and kickbacks, much of it uncovered by the Guardian.
But BAE yesterday said it would plead guilty to charges of false accounting and making misleading statements, in simultaneous settlement deals with the Serious Fraud Office in the UK and the department of justice in Washington.
The admissions in the US covered BAE's huge £43bn al-Yamamah fighter plane sales to Saudi Arabia and smaller deals in the Czech Republic and elsewhere in central Europe. In the UK, the admissions cover a highly controversial sale of a military radar to poverty-stricken Tanzania, which the development secretary Clare Short said at the time "stank" of corruption, but which the then prime minister, Tony Blair, forced through the cabinet.
The Serious Fraud Office said in its announcement yesterday that some of the £30m penalty BAE was to hand over in the UK would be "an ex gratia payment for the benefit of the people of Tanzania".
Another $400m (£257m) would be paid in penalties to the US authorities. BAE will not face international blacklisting from future contracts, because it has only admitted false accounting, not bribery.
MPs admitted to mixed feelings about BAE's admission and are still furious that the SFO's own extensive inquiry into the al-Yamamah deal was shut down in 2006, following pressure from the firm and from Saudi officials, who reportedly threatened to withdraw co-operation over security matters. The then attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, cited national security when he announced the inquiry was being abandoned. Blair said he took full responsibility for the decision.
The Liberal Democrats' deputy leader, Vince Cable, said last night that BAE Systems had succeeded in ensuring that key details of its arms deals would remain hidden. "The one positive thing is we have now had an acknowledgement from BAE Systems that unacceptable practices were being conducted. But nobody has been brought to account." He added: "The British government was up to its neck in this whole business. Government ministers were almost certainly fully aware of what was happening."
The former Labour minister Peter Kilfoyle said: "I certainly think there is now an argument to be made for an independent judicial inquiry into the whole affair. This raises serious questions on what [Blair's] motivation was in intervening in the [al-Yamamah investigation in the UK] and what influences were brought to bear on him."
Richard Alderman, director of the SFO, called the pioneering deal "pragmatic". It later emerged that the only prosecution of an individual by the SFO – Count Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly – was being dropped. Alderman added: "This brings to an end the SFO's investigations into BAE's defence contracts."
In Washington, the deputy attorney general, Larry Grindler, was more pointed. "Any company conducting business with the US that profits through false statements will be held accountable," he said. "The alleged illegal conduct undermined US efforts to ensure that corruption has no place in international trade."
Britain had previously been subject to condemnation at the OECD after Blair intervened to halt the British investigation into allegations of Saudi corruption.
Yesterday's announcement in Washington focused on BAE's acceptance of guilt of the Saudi deals, and described secret shell offshore companies for making covert payments, and specific payments into a Saudi intermediary's Swiss account. It also identified £19m secretly paid to lubricate Czech and Hungarian weapons deals. BAE admitted writing an untrue letter to US authorities in 2000, denying it was paying any secret commissions.
Yesterday's statement said BAE was now free of threats of corporate prosecution. BAE said the deal "draws a line under the past", and it regretted what it called "the lack of rigor in the past".
A government spokesman said last night: "It's right that these historical allegations have been addressed."
But two anti-corruption campaigners – Sue Hawley of the Cornerhouse NGO, and the former South African ANC MP Andrew Feinstein – said they reacted to the deal, under which no trials will take place, with "dismay". They said it "betrays the people of Tanzania, South Africa, the Czech Republic and Romania, who have the right to know the truth about corruption in their countries perpetrated by British and other companies. It … sends the message that large enough corporations are able to pay their way out of trouble."
6 February 2010
By David Leigh and Rob Evans
The arms giant BAE yesterday agreed to pay out almost £300m in penalties, as it finally admitted guilt over its worldwide conduct, in the face of long-running corruption investigations.
For 20 years, the firm refused to accept any wrongdoing, despite mounting evidence of alleged bribes and kickbacks, much of it uncovered by the Guardian.
But BAE yesterday said it would plead guilty to charges of false accounting and making misleading statements, in simultaneous settlement deals with the Serious Fraud Office in the UK and the department of justice in Washington.
The admissions in the US covered BAE's huge £43bn al-Yamamah fighter plane sales to Saudi Arabia and smaller deals in the Czech Republic and elsewhere in central Europe. In the UK, the admissions cover a highly controversial sale of a military radar to poverty-stricken Tanzania, which the development secretary Clare Short said at the time "stank" of corruption, but which the then prime minister, Tony Blair, forced through the cabinet.
The Serious Fraud Office said in its announcement yesterday that some of the £30m penalty BAE was to hand over in the UK would be "an ex gratia payment for the benefit of the people of Tanzania".
Another $400m (£257m) would be paid in penalties to the US authorities. BAE will not face international blacklisting from future contracts, because it has only admitted false accounting, not bribery.
MPs admitted to mixed feelings about BAE's admission and are still furious that the SFO's own extensive inquiry into the al-Yamamah deal was shut down in 2006, following pressure from the firm and from Saudi officials, who reportedly threatened to withdraw co-operation over security matters. The then attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, cited national security when he announced the inquiry was being abandoned. Blair said he took full responsibility for the decision.
The Liberal Democrats' deputy leader, Vince Cable, said last night that BAE Systems had succeeded in ensuring that key details of its arms deals would remain hidden. "The one positive thing is we have now had an acknowledgement from BAE Systems that unacceptable practices were being conducted. But nobody has been brought to account." He added: "The British government was up to its neck in this whole business. Government ministers were almost certainly fully aware of what was happening."
The former Labour minister Peter Kilfoyle said: "I certainly think there is now an argument to be made for an independent judicial inquiry into the whole affair. This raises serious questions on what [Blair's] motivation was in intervening in the [al-Yamamah investigation in the UK] and what influences were brought to bear on him."
Richard Alderman, director of the SFO, called the pioneering deal "pragmatic". It later emerged that the only prosecution of an individual by the SFO – Count Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly – was being dropped. Alderman added: "This brings to an end the SFO's investigations into BAE's defence contracts."
In Washington, the deputy attorney general, Larry Grindler, was more pointed. "Any company conducting business with the US that profits through false statements will be held accountable," he said. "The alleged illegal conduct undermined US efforts to ensure that corruption has no place in international trade."
Britain had previously been subject to condemnation at the OECD after Blair intervened to halt the British investigation into allegations of Saudi corruption.
Yesterday's announcement in Washington focused on BAE's acceptance of guilt of the Saudi deals, and described secret shell offshore companies for making covert payments, and specific payments into a Saudi intermediary's Swiss account. It also identified £19m secretly paid to lubricate Czech and Hungarian weapons deals. BAE admitted writing an untrue letter to US authorities in 2000, denying it was paying any secret commissions.
Yesterday's statement said BAE was now free of threats of corporate prosecution. BAE said the deal "draws a line under the past", and it regretted what it called "the lack of rigor in the past".
A government spokesman said last night: "It's right that these historical allegations have been addressed."
But two anti-corruption campaigners – Sue Hawley of the Cornerhouse NGO, and the former South African ANC MP Andrew Feinstein – said they reacted to the deal, under which no trials will take place, with "dismay". They said it "betrays the people of Tanzania, South Africa, the Czech Republic and Romania, who have the right to know the truth about corruption in their countries perpetrated by British and other companies. It … sends the message that large enough corporations are able to pay their way out of trouble."
FDU Alleges The New Times Newspaper, Acts as a Judge, Jury, and Executioner by Exploiting Forged Gacaca Evidence to Create More Victims.
PRESS RELEASE
FDU-Inkingi
6 February 2010
We read with great consternation the New Times edition of Saturday, 6th February 2010. This fire-spitting media has clearly revealed its true colors. The title on the front page reads, “Ingabire’s assistant a Gacaca fugitive,” alleging that Mr. Joseph Ntawangundi was sentenced to 19 years by the gacaca courts in absentia. This is a pure fabrication of “the last times.”
Mr. Joseph Ntawangundi left Rwanda in 1986 for academic studies in Poland (Wroclaw), and he returned to Rwanda in 1992 to work in Kigali (CESTRAL). In 1993, he left Rwanda for ICFTU - AFRO (International Confederation for Free Trade Unions, African Regional Organisation, located in Nairobi, Kenya) as a Research and Training Officer until 2002. During the 1994 genocide, Mr. Joseph Ntawangundi was attending, on behalf of ICFTU – AFRO, a 2-month training course in Sweden (GANGNEF) and then he returned directly to Kenya.
He has never been in the education sector in Rwanda. How is it even possible he could be in Sweden and then go directly back to Kenya while at the same time be a so-called School Director in GITWE (Rwanda) during the genocide? Simply put, these reporters didn't even bother to crosscheck their facts about what they write when it comes to character assassination and inflammatory comments.
Since Mrs. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza returned to her home country of Rwanda, the Rwandan media has been recklessly poisoning public opinion with all sorts of false stories while failing to provide any chance to discuss the accuracy of its propaganda. Mr. Joseph Ntawangundi is ready and able to challenge the baseless allegations made against him in a fair court of law.
We can't believe that the gacaca courts have fallen so low as to condemn an innocent man who was not even in Rwanda during the genocide, much less for crimes he allegedly committed in a place he has never even been to. This hateful and baseless propaganda is yet another shame in the history of The New Times.
Done in Kigali,
For the UDF-Inkingi,
Mrs. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza
Chairperson
FDU-Inkingi
6 February 2010
We read with great consternation the New Times edition of Saturday, 6th February 2010. This fire-spitting media has clearly revealed its true colors. The title on the front page reads, “Ingabire’s assistant a Gacaca fugitive,” alleging that Mr. Joseph Ntawangundi was sentenced to 19 years by the gacaca courts in absentia. This is a pure fabrication of “the last times.”
Mr. Joseph Ntawangundi left Rwanda in 1986 for academic studies in Poland (Wroclaw), and he returned to Rwanda in 1992 to work in Kigali (CESTRAL). In 1993, he left Rwanda for ICFTU - AFRO (International Confederation for Free Trade Unions, African Regional Organisation, located in Nairobi, Kenya) as a Research and Training Officer until 2002. During the 1994 genocide, Mr. Joseph Ntawangundi was attending, on behalf of ICFTU – AFRO, a 2-month training course in Sweden (GANGNEF) and then he returned directly to Kenya.
He has never been in the education sector in Rwanda. How is it even possible he could be in Sweden and then go directly back to Kenya while at the same time be a so-called School Director in GITWE (Rwanda) during the genocide? Simply put, these reporters didn't even bother to crosscheck their facts about what they write when it comes to character assassination and inflammatory comments.
Since Mrs. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza returned to her home country of Rwanda, the Rwandan media has been recklessly poisoning public opinion with all sorts of false stories while failing to provide any chance to discuss the accuracy of its propaganda. Mr. Joseph Ntawangundi is ready and able to challenge the baseless allegations made against him in a fair court of law.
We can't believe that the gacaca courts have fallen so low as to condemn an innocent man who was not even in Rwanda during the genocide, much less for crimes he allegedly committed in a place he has never even been to. This hateful and baseless propaganda is yet another shame in the history of The New Times.
Done in Kigali,
For the UDF-Inkingi,
Mrs. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza
Chairperson
05 February, 2010
Rwanda Opposition Candidate Writes to Kagame Demanding Protection.
256 News
5 February 2010
By Godwin Agaba
The leader of Rwanda’s opposition United Democratic Forces (FDU) says she will this Thursday officially present a letter to President Paul Kagame to demand protection 256 news.com reports.
“I will officially present a letter to President Paul Kagame this Thursday to demand protection ahead of the scheduled August general election,” Ms. Ingabire informed 256news.com
This followed yesterday’s incident when Rwandan opposition presidential aspirant, Ms. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza and her aide were mugged and robbed at the office of Kinyinya sector, a Kigali suburb.
On Wednesday, around mid-day, the vigilante group allegedly entered the Kinyinya office and roughed up Ms. Ingabire and her aide Joseph Ntawangundi as she waited to be given a document from the Sector, which was to be added to the party registration dossier. The men stole her handbag which had her passport and National ID card.
Ms. Ingabire’s aide was beaten and stripped naked by unknown assailants with Kinyinya Executive Secretary Shema Jonas, who had called them on the phone and told them to come and collect their identification documents, looking on.
“When they battered us, the police were there and they didn’t do anything. They watched us (as) the young people battered us,” Ms. Ingabire told 256 news yesterday evening over the phone.
Several opposition party groups have vowed to defeat the ruling party in the upcoming election after visiting Ms. Ingabire’s badly injured aide at the hospital.
“We see that the government of General Kagame does not accept all political activities in our country."
"You know that I have been back to the country now three weeks ago, and they are doing everything to prevent (me) from participating in the election. They know that the population needs the change and they know that the population wants (me) to participate in the election, and they want me as the leader of them. This is why they (will) do everything that people will be afraid to come to me,” Ms. Ingabire said.
Rwandan Police Spokesman Superintendent Eric Kayiranga had different versions of events. He claims Ms. Ingabire entered the Kinyinya office by bypassing other people who had been seated there “for hours waiting to be served”. In several other media interviews and on BBC Kinyarwanda service, Rwanda News.net, Reuters, and local media, Superintendent Kayiranga claims the people who attacked Ingabire were “angry”, and he speculated they were probably thinking she had undermined them.
“These people were angry on seeing Ingabire coming and going into the
Kinyinya offices in total disregard of their plight,” he said.
“They were saying, ‘how can such a person who negates the Genocide come
from outside and get services before us?’ …”, said Superintendent
Kayiranga on state radio.
Ms. Ingabire dismissed the police version of events, arguing that there
was “nobody” at the Kinyinya office seeking support, apart from the sector's
staff members who were in their offices inside the building.
“When we arrived, I saw the men who attacked us seated near houses
which neighbour Kinyinya Sector. I greeted them from afar. They
followed me hurriedly inside the Sector office, grabbed my bag, and
continued roughing up my aide as I fled into the car and drove off,”
she narrated. Ms. Ingabire drove off, leaving her aide until police arrived on the scene.
5 February 2010
By Godwin Agaba
The leader of Rwanda’s opposition United Democratic Forces (FDU) says she will this Thursday officially present a letter to President Paul Kagame to demand protection 256 news.com reports.
“I will officially present a letter to President Paul Kagame this Thursday to demand protection ahead of the scheduled August general election,” Ms. Ingabire informed 256news.com
This followed yesterday’s incident when Rwandan opposition presidential aspirant, Ms. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza and her aide were mugged and robbed at the office of Kinyinya sector, a Kigali suburb.
On Wednesday, around mid-day, the vigilante group allegedly entered the Kinyinya office and roughed up Ms. Ingabire and her aide Joseph Ntawangundi as she waited to be given a document from the Sector, which was to be added to the party registration dossier. The men stole her handbag which had her passport and National ID card.
Ms. Ingabire’s aide was beaten and stripped naked by unknown assailants with Kinyinya Executive Secretary Shema Jonas, who had called them on the phone and told them to come and collect their identification documents, looking on.
“When they battered us, the police were there and they didn’t do anything. They watched us (as) the young people battered us,” Ms. Ingabire told 256 news yesterday evening over the phone.
Several opposition party groups have vowed to defeat the ruling party in the upcoming election after visiting Ms. Ingabire’s badly injured aide at the hospital.
“We see that the government of General Kagame does not accept all political activities in our country."
"You know that I have been back to the country now three weeks ago, and they are doing everything to prevent (me) from participating in the election. They know that the population needs the change and they know that the population wants (me) to participate in the election, and they want me as the leader of them. This is why they (will) do everything that people will be afraid to come to me,” Ms. Ingabire said.
Rwandan Police Spokesman Superintendent Eric Kayiranga had different versions of events. He claims Ms. Ingabire entered the Kinyinya office by bypassing other people who had been seated there “for hours waiting to be served”. In several other media interviews and on BBC Kinyarwanda service, Rwanda News.net, Reuters, and local media, Superintendent Kayiranga claims the people who attacked Ingabire were “angry”, and he speculated they were probably thinking she had undermined them.
“These people were angry on seeing Ingabire coming and going into the
Kinyinya offices in total disregard of their plight,” he said.
“They were saying, ‘how can such a person who negates the Genocide come
from outside and get services before us?’ …”, said Superintendent
Kayiranga on state radio.
Ms. Ingabire dismissed the police version of events, arguing that there
was “nobody” at the Kinyinya office seeking support, apart from the sector's
staff members who were in their offices inside the building.
“When we arrived, I saw the men who attacked us seated near houses
which neighbour Kinyinya Sector. I greeted them from afar. They
followed me hurriedly inside the Sector office, grabbed my bag, and
continued roughing up my aide as I fled into the car and drove off,”
she narrated. Ms. Ingabire drove off, leaving her aide until police arrived on the scene.
Rwanda / Independent weekly threatened with being closed for good.
Reporters Without Borders
Press Release
5 February 2010
Reporters Without Borders is very concerned about the fate of Umuseso, one of Rwanda’s leading independent weekly newspapers, which could be closed down as a result of case brought by the public prosecutor’s office accusing it of libel and invasion of privacy for reporting that a government minister was having an extra-marital affair with the mayor of Kigali. A neighbourhood court in Nyarugenge is due to issue its verdict on 22 February.
“We urge the judge to keep a cool head and to issue a fair verdict that respects press freedom,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The court must first establish whether the defendants are guilty of libel and if they are, there are much more appropriate punishments than jailing them and closing their newspaper for good.”
Reporters Without Borders fears the continuing erosion of the already limited freedom available to Rwanda’s privately-owned media in the run-up to the presidential election scheduled for August.
On 27 January, the Kigali prosecutor’s office requested Umuseso’s closure and one-year jail sentences for its publisher, Charles Kabonero, its editor, Didas Gasana, and one of its reporters, Richard Kayigamba, for an article published in issue No. 382 in November about cabinet affairs minister Protais Musoni and Kigali mayor Aisa Kirabo Kacyira. The prosecutor’s office also asked that they be fined 5 million Rwandan francs (9,000 dollars).
Kayigamba claimed in the article, which was accompanied by photos of the minister and the mayor, that he caught them together in a hotel. The public prosecutor’s office brought the case after the two officials denied the report.
The one-year suspended prison sentences which Umuseso’s publisher and editor received in an unrelated case brought by a wealthy businessman, Tribert Rujugiro, is meanwhile due to be examined by an appeal court on 11 February.
Rwanda was ranked 157th out of 175 countries in the 2009 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index. Eritrea, Somalia and Equatorial Guinea were the only African countries that received worse rankings.
Press Release
5 February 2010
Reporters Without Borders is very concerned about the fate of Umuseso, one of Rwanda’s leading independent weekly newspapers, which could be closed down as a result of case brought by the public prosecutor’s office accusing it of libel and invasion of privacy for reporting that a government minister was having an extra-marital affair with the mayor of Kigali. A neighbourhood court in Nyarugenge is due to issue its verdict on 22 February.
“We urge the judge to keep a cool head and to issue a fair verdict that respects press freedom,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The court must first establish whether the defendants are guilty of libel and if they are, there are much more appropriate punishments than jailing them and closing their newspaper for good.”
Reporters Without Borders fears the continuing erosion of the already limited freedom available to Rwanda’s privately-owned media in the run-up to the presidential election scheduled for August.
On 27 January, the Kigali prosecutor’s office requested Umuseso’s closure and one-year jail sentences for its publisher, Charles Kabonero, its editor, Didas Gasana, and one of its reporters, Richard Kayigamba, for an article published in issue No. 382 in November about cabinet affairs minister Protais Musoni and Kigali mayor Aisa Kirabo Kacyira. The prosecutor’s office also asked that they be fined 5 million Rwandan francs (9,000 dollars).
Kayigamba claimed in the article, which was accompanied by photos of the minister and the mayor, that he caught them together in a hotel. The public prosecutor’s office brought the case after the two officials denied the report.
The one-year suspended prison sentences which Umuseso’s publisher and editor received in an unrelated case brought by a wealthy businessman, Tribert Rujugiro, is meanwhile due to be examined by an appeal court on 11 February.
Rwanda was ranked 157th out of 175 countries in the 2009 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index. Eritrea, Somalia and Equatorial Guinea were the only African countries that received worse rankings.
Security Threat to Frank HABINEZA, President of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda.
Democratic Green Party of Rwanda
Press Release
5 February 2010
On Thursday 4th February 2010, around 15:30 hrs at Hotel Leprentemps in Kimironko, Kigali, I was intimidated and threatened by an unknown man whom I suspect to be a security operative.
I went to the hotel to meet a colleague: Jean Paul MUDAHERANWA aka. Sunday. When I arrived, I observed the presence of two other men. One of them left in about 10 minutes.
Shortly thereafter, the other unknown man who remained behind, well-dressed, presumed to be in his late thirties, brown and tall, suddenly stood up and walked towards me. He said in a rather strong voice, “Frank, why don’t you recruit me in your party?." I responded to him that it was no problem, and asked him his name, but he declined to tell me.
He then continued, “Frank, we know whatever you are doing, we are following you very closely, remember, we paid school fees for you (meaning government bursary at University). Why are you fighting us? What do you want from that woman Victoire Ingabire? Be very careful, we are monitoring you very closely….”
I was disturbed by his abrupt aggressiveness and reference to what I had done two days ago and what I was to do later on Thursday evening. I was very surprised because the two events he referred to were factual.
I responded to him that I am not an enemy of the state in any way and having different ideas from the ruling party does not make am an enemy of President Kagame or the RPF. I also pointed out to him that Victoire was given a Rwandan passport and National ID by the government and that if had they believed she was a state enemy, they should have not given them to her………….. , so they should stop intimidating people like this.
This incident follows Victoire Ingabire's attack on Wednesday 3rd February 2010, where her passport and ID were stolen. Her aide Joseph Ntawangundi was seriously beaten and injured. Several other forms of intimidation and harassment have also been directed at members of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda since 30th October 2009 during our Party congress that was sabotaged violently. They were detailed in an official press release issued on 24th December 2009.
This morning, 5th February 2010, I reported the matter to the Remera Police Station and will make a follow up later in the day.
I would like to appeal to the Government of Rwanda to take these matters very seriously and ensure the security of all Rwandans, especially in the opposition political parties, during the presidential elections period.
I would also like to emphasize that being in an opposition political party does not qualify someone as an enemy of the state. Disagreeing on some issues with the current regime in power does not make one an enemy of the government.
The time has come for Rwandans to have mature, democratic politics. Politics that will ensure the sustainable development of Rwanda, a Rwanda that is free from poverty, fear and harassment. A Rwanda that fully recognizes freedom of press, expression and association.
Done in Kigali on 5th February 2010,
Frank HABINEZA
Founding President, Democratic Green Party of Rwanda
President, African Greens Movement ( AfGM)
Co-Africa Representative to Global Greens Coordination (GGC)
Mob: + 250 78 85 630 39
Email: fhabineza@africangreens.org
http://www.rwandagreendemocrats.org
http://www.africangreens.org
http://www.globalgreens.org
Press Release
5 February 2010
On Thursday 4th February 2010, around 15:30 hrs at Hotel Leprentemps in Kimironko, Kigali, I was intimidated and threatened by an unknown man whom I suspect to be a security operative.
I went to the hotel to meet a colleague: Jean Paul MUDAHERANWA aka. Sunday. When I arrived, I observed the presence of two other men. One of them left in about 10 minutes.
Shortly thereafter, the other unknown man who remained behind, well-dressed, presumed to be in his late thirties, brown and tall, suddenly stood up and walked towards me. He said in a rather strong voice, “Frank, why don’t you recruit me in your party?." I responded to him that it was no problem, and asked him his name, but he declined to tell me.
He then continued, “Frank, we know whatever you are doing, we are following you very closely, remember, we paid school fees for you (meaning government bursary at University). Why are you fighting us? What do you want from that woman Victoire Ingabire? Be very careful, we are monitoring you very closely….”
I was disturbed by his abrupt aggressiveness and reference to what I had done two days ago and what I was to do later on Thursday evening. I was very surprised because the two events he referred to were factual.
I responded to him that I am not an enemy of the state in any way and having different ideas from the ruling party does not make am an enemy of President Kagame or the RPF. I also pointed out to him that Victoire was given a Rwandan passport and National ID by the government and that if had they believed she was a state enemy, they should have not given them to her………….. , so they should stop intimidating people like this.
This incident follows Victoire Ingabire's attack on Wednesday 3rd February 2010, where her passport and ID were stolen. Her aide Joseph Ntawangundi was seriously beaten and injured. Several other forms of intimidation and harassment have also been directed at members of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda since 30th October 2009 during our Party congress that was sabotaged violently. They were detailed in an official press release issued on 24th December 2009.
This morning, 5th February 2010, I reported the matter to the Remera Police Station and will make a follow up later in the day.
I would like to appeal to the Government of Rwanda to take these matters very seriously and ensure the security of all Rwandans, especially in the opposition political parties, during the presidential elections period.
I would also like to emphasize that being in an opposition political party does not qualify someone as an enemy of the state. Disagreeing on some issues with the current regime in power does not make one an enemy of the government.
The time has come for Rwandans to have mature, democratic politics. Politics that will ensure the sustainable development of Rwanda, a Rwanda that is free from poverty, fear and harassment. A Rwanda that fully recognizes freedom of press, expression and association.
Done in Kigali on 5th February 2010,
Frank HABINEZA
Founding President, Democratic Green Party of Rwanda
President, African Greens Movement ( AfGM)
Co-Africa Representative to Global Greens Coordination (GGC)
Mob: + 250 78 85 630 39
Email: fhabineza@africangreens.org
http://www.rwandagreendemocrats.org
http://www.africangreens.org
http://www.globalgreens.org
04 February, 2010
'Justice Denied' in CIA Shootdown of Missionaries in Peru.
ABC News
By MATTHEW COLE and BRIAN ROSS
February 3, 2010
The CIA today was accused of lying to Congress and covering up its role in the deaths of two innocent Americans, a mother and her infant daughter, at the hands of the CIA and the Peruvian Air Force nine years ago.
"If there's ever an example of justice delayed, justice denied, this is it," said Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R.-Mich., ranking minority member of the House Intelligence Committee. "The [intelligence] community's performance in terms of accountability has been unacceptable. These were Americans that were killed with the help of their government, the community covered it up, they delayed investigating."
On April 20, 2001, Jim and Veronica "Roni" Bowers and their two children, six-year-old son Cory and infant daughter Charity, were returning to their home in Peru from a trip to Brazil in a small airplane piloted by Kevin Donaldson.
The Bowers' worked as Christian missionaries along a stretch of the Amazon River near Iquitos, Peru, a remote jungle region near the Brazilian and Colombian borders heavily traveled by drug traffickers.
The CIA and the Peruvian Air Force were working in the same area, trying to interdict the drug smugglers. Starting in 1995, they'd operated a joint program to intercept drug planes, shooting them down if necessary.
On April 20, a CIA spotter plane saw the Cessna in which the Bowers family was flying and alerted the Peruvian Air Force. What happened during the next hour and 49 minutes is captured in a CIA videotape.
The CIA spotter plane, with two operative aboard, sneaked up behind the Cessna as it flew over the Amazon.
"We are trying to remain covert at this point," one of the CIA pilots on the plane can be heard to say on the tape.
The CIA pilot describes the aircraft as a high-wing, single engine float plane, which is accurate, that it has picked up on the border between Peru and Brazil.
But the CIA personnel misidentified the craft as a drug plane. The CIA alerted the Peruvian Air Force, which scrambled an interceptor. Over the next two hours, the CIA personnel would express doubts, but would not correct their error, and would repeatedly violate what the White House believed to be strict rules of engagement.
Said former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke, who served in the White House at the time on the National Security Council, which created the anti-drug program, "Either the CIA spotter aircraft or the interceptor is supposed to get up close, identify the plane from the tail number, try to indicate to the plane that it should follow them to the ground."
That did not happen. Instead, the decision was made not to try to identify the tail number, because it might allow the plane to escape.
"You know, we can go up attempt the tail number," says a CIA operative on the tape. "The problem with that is that if he is dirty and he detect us, he makes a right turn immediately and we can't chase him."
When the Peruvian Air Force jet arrived it issued a warning to the target plane, saying, 'We will shoot you down." The warning was in Spanish, which the Bowers and their pilot could understand, but it was on the wrong frequency.
The CIA pilots begin to have doubts. "This guy doesn't, doesn't fit the profile," says one. But nothing was done to pull the plane back.
The CIA then asks a Peruvian Air Force liaison, "Are you sure is bandito? Are you sure?"
"Yes, okay," says the Peruvian.
"If you're sure," responds the CIA operative. Then more serious doubts were quietly whispered.
"That is bull ," says one CIA operative. "I think we're making a mistake."
"I agree with you," says the other operative.
A minute and a half later the gunships opened fire and the Bowers' pilot, Donaldson, screamed in Spanish for the jet to stop.
"They're killing me. They're killing us," yells Donaldson on the tape.
"Tell him to terminate," says one of the CIA operative to the Peruvian liaison. " No. Don't Shoot. No more, no mas."
The Peruvian liaison starts yelling at the pilot, "Stop! No mas, no mas, Tucan no more."
"God," says one of the CIA pilots.
By then the damage was done. Trailing black smoke, it headed for a river to land, with Veronica Bowers and her daughter Charity already dead from bullet wounds and the pilot wounded in both legs.
Jim Bowers, his son Cory and Kevin Donaldson survived. But for almost nine years, the CIA misled Congress, the White House and the dead woman's parents about how and why the agency defied the rules established to make sure innocent people were not killed.
"I want to know the truth," Garnett Luttig, father of Roni Bowers, told ABC News. "I want to know why. I wonder why my baby's gone. Don't they understand that?"
Said Gloria Luttig, Roni's mother, "I want somebody to have to stand up and say I was responsible. I want him to know what a mother's heart is like."
On Wednesday, the CIA said its nine-year long investigation had determined that 16 CIA employees should be disciplined, including the woman then in charge of counter-narcotics.
Many of them are no longer with the CIA, and one of those involved said his discipline was no more than a letter of reprimand placed in his file, which he was told would be removed in one year.
A CIA spokesperson issued a statement to ABC News Wednesday that placed the blame for the shootdown on the Peruvian Air Force, and said its own internal review had shown no evidence of a cover-up.
"The program to deny drug traffickers an "air bridge" ended in 2001 and was run by a foreign government," said the spokesperson. "CIA personnel had no authority either to direct or prohibit actions by that government. CIA officers did not shoot down any airplane. In the case of the tragic downing of April 21st, 2001, [sic] CIA personnel protested the identification of the missionary plane as a suspect drug trafficker."
The date of the downing was April 20.
"This was a tragic episode that the Agency has dealt with in a professional and thorough manner," continued the statement. "Unfortunately, some have been willing to twist facts to imply otherwise. In so doing, they do a tremendous disservice to CIA officers, serving and retired, who have risked their lives for America's national security."
Editor's Note: The CIA's official statement on the matter can be found at:
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/cia-statement-2001-peru-shootdown/story?id=9738624
By MATTHEW COLE and BRIAN ROSS
February 3, 2010
The CIA today was accused of lying to Congress and covering up its role in the deaths of two innocent Americans, a mother and her infant daughter, at the hands of the CIA and the Peruvian Air Force nine years ago.
"If there's ever an example of justice delayed, justice denied, this is it," said Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R.-Mich., ranking minority member of the House Intelligence Committee. "The [intelligence] community's performance in terms of accountability has been unacceptable. These were Americans that were killed with the help of their government, the community covered it up, they delayed investigating."
On April 20, 2001, Jim and Veronica "Roni" Bowers and their two children, six-year-old son Cory and infant daughter Charity, were returning to their home in Peru from a trip to Brazil in a small airplane piloted by Kevin Donaldson.
The Bowers' worked as Christian missionaries along a stretch of the Amazon River near Iquitos, Peru, a remote jungle region near the Brazilian and Colombian borders heavily traveled by drug traffickers.
The CIA and the Peruvian Air Force were working in the same area, trying to interdict the drug smugglers. Starting in 1995, they'd operated a joint program to intercept drug planes, shooting them down if necessary.
On April 20, a CIA spotter plane saw the Cessna in which the Bowers family was flying and alerted the Peruvian Air Force. What happened during the next hour and 49 minutes is captured in a CIA videotape.
The CIA spotter plane, with two operative aboard, sneaked up behind the Cessna as it flew over the Amazon.
"We are trying to remain covert at this point," one of the CIA pilots on the plane can be heard to say on the tape.
The CIA pilot describes the aircraft as a high-wing, single engine float plane, which is accurate, that it has picked up on the border between Peru and Brazil.
But the CIA personnel misidentified the craft as a drug plane. The CIA alerted the Peruvian Air Force, which scrambled an interceptor. Over the next two hours, the CIA personnel would express doubts, but would not correct their error, and would repeatedly violate what the White House believed to be strict rules of engagement.
Said former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke, who served in the White House at the time on the National Security Council, which created the anti-drug program, "Either the CIA spotter aircraft or the interceptor is supposed to get up close, identify the plane from the tail number, try to indicate to the plane that it should follow them to the ground."
That did not happen. Instead, the decision was made not to try to identify the tail number, because it might allow the plane to escape.
"You know, we can go up attempt the tail number," says a CIA operative on the tape. "The problem with that is that if he is dirty and he detect us, he makes a right turn immediately and we can't chase him."
When the Peruvian Air Force jet arrived it issued a warning to the target plane, saying, 'We will shoot you down." The warning was in Spanish, which the Bowers and their pilot could understand, but it was on the wrong frequency.
The CIA pilots begin to have doubts. "This guy doesn't, doesn't fit the profile," says one. But nothing was done to pull the plane back.
The CIA then asks a Peruvian Air Force liaison, "Are you sure is bandito? Are you sure?"
"Yes, okay," says the Peruvian.
"If you're sure," responds the CIA operative. Then more serious doubts were quietly whispered.
"That is bull ," says one CIA operative. "I think we're making a mistake."
"I agree with you," says the other operative.
A minute and a half later the gunships opened fire and the Bowers' pilot, Donaldson, screamed in Spanish for the jet to stop.
"They're killing me. They're killing us," yells Donaldson on the tape.
"Tell him to terminate," says one of the CIA operative to the Peruvian liaison. " No. Don't Shoot. No more, no mas."
The Peruvian liaison starts yelling at the pilot, "Stop! No mas, no mas, Tucan no more."
"God," says one of the CIA pilots.
By then the damage was done. Trailing black smoke, it headed for a river to land, with Veronica Bowers and her daughter Charity already dead from bullet wounds and the pilot wounded in both legs.
Jim Bowers, his son Cory and Kevin Donaldson survived. But for almost nine years, the CIA misled Congress, the White House and the dead woman's parents about how and why the agency defied the rules established to make sure innocent people were not killed.
"I want to know the truth," Garnett Luttig, father of Roni Bowers, told ABC News. "I want to know why. I wonder why my baby's gone. Don't they understand that?"
Said Gloria Luttig, Roni's mother, "I want somebody to have to stand up and say I was responsible. I want him to know what a mother's heart is like."
On Wednesday, the CIA said its nine-year long investigation had determined that 16 CIA employees should be disciplined, including the woman then in charge of counter-narcotics.
Many of them are no longer with the CIA, and one of those involved said his discipline was no more than a letter of reprimand placed in his file, which he was told would be removed in one year.
A CIA spokesperson issued a statement to ABC News Wednesday that placed the blame for the shootdown on the Peruvian Air Force, and said its own internal review had shown no evidence of a cover-up.
"The program to deny drug traffickers an "air bridge" ended in 2001 and was run by a foreign government," said the spokesperson. "CIA personnel had no authority either to direct or prohibit actions by that government. CIA officers did not shoot down any airplane. In the case of the tragic downing of April 21st, 2001, [sic] CIA personnel protested the identification of the missionary plane as a suspect drug trafficker."
The date of the downing was April 20.
"This was a tragic episode that the Agency has dealt with in a professional and thorough manner," continued the statement. "Unfortunately, some have been willing to twist facts to imply otherwise. In so doing, they do a tremendous disservice to CIA officers, serving and retired, who have risked their lives for America's national security."
Editor's Note: The CIA's official statement on the matter can be found at:
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/cia-statement-2001-peru-shootdown/story?id=9738624
Pres. Obama, Sec. Clinton, other Cabinet members to Attend The Family's National Prayer Breakfast.
New York Times
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: February 3, 2010
For more than 50 years, the National Prayer Breakfast has served as a prime networking event in Washington, bringing together the president, members of Congress, foreign diplomats and thousands of religious, business and military leaders for scrambled eggs and supplication.
Usually, the annual event passes with little notice. But this year, an ethics group in Washington has asked President Obama and Congressional leaders to stay away from the breakfast, on Thursday. Religious and gay rights groups have organized competing prayer events in 17 cities, and protesters are picketing in Washington and Boston.
The objections are focused on the sponsor of the breakfast, a secretive evangelical Christian network called The Fellowship, also known as The Family, and accusations that it has ties to legislation in Uganda that calls for the imprisonment and execution of homosexuals.
The Family has always stayed intentionally in the background, according to those who have written about it. In the last year, however, it was identified as the sponsor of a residence on Capitol Hill that has served as a dormitory and meeting place for a cluster of politicians who ran into ethics problems, including Senator John Ensign, Republican of Nevada, and Gov. Mark Sanford, Republican of South Carolina, both of whom have admitted to adultery.
More recently, it became public that the Family also has close ties to the Ugandan politician who has sponsored the proposed anti-gay legislation, which would make homosexuality a capital crime.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a government watchdog group, sent a letter this week to the president and Congressional leaders urging them to skip the prayer breakfast. They have also called on C-Span not to televise it this year.
Melanie Sloan, executive director of the ethics group, said: “It is a combination of the intolerance of the organization’s views, and the secrecy surrounding the organization. It doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be allowed to hold their breakfast; of course they should. The question is, Should American officials be lending legitimacy to it, giving their imprimatur by showing up.”
The Family has no identifiable Internet site, no office number and no official spokesman. J. Robert Hunter, a member who has spoken publicly about the group, said that it was unfair to blame the Family for the anti-gay legislation introduced by David Bahati. Mr. Hunter said that about 30 Family members, all Americans, active in Africa recently conveyed their dismay about the legislation to Ugandan politicians, including Mr. Bahati.
Mr. Hunter said the recent controversies had prompted a debate within the group about its lack of transparency. “I and quite a few others are saying we should be much more open,” he said.
Jeff Sharlet, author of “The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power” (Harper Perennial, 2009) said in a telephone interview, “Here’s an organization that, in the past, has not acknowledged its own existence.”
“It’s not a sinister plot. This is their theological stance,” said Mr. Sharlet, who infiltrated the group to do research for his book. “Their leader, Doug Coe, says that the more invisible you can make your organization, the more influence it will have.”
A White House official said that Mr. Obama, like each president since Dwight D. Eisenhower, planned to attend the breakfast. Michelle Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and other cabinet members will also attend. The president will deliver remarks about “the importance of an openness to compromise,” the official said.
The official also said that the president and the State Department had spoken out strongly against the legislation in Uganda.
The breakfast, which usually features a prominent keynote speaker (past ones have included Bono, Mother Teresa and former Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain), is only the most visible in several days of gatherings where the Family’s networking takes place in smaller groups. There are separate meetings for African politicians, military leaders, business people and media professionals, to name a few.
Many states also have prayer breakfasts this week, which may appear to be government-sponsored but are also mostly affiliated with the Family.
Liberal members of the clergy and gay rights leaders organized the alternative events in haste this year, calling theirs the American Prayer Hour. The will convene at places like Calvary Baptist Church in Washington; Glendale City Seventh-day Adventist Church in California; the bishop’s chapel of the Episcopal Diocese of Western New York, in Rochester; and Covenant Community Church in Center Point, Ala.
Wayne Besen, executive director of Truth Wins Out, a gay rights group, said he initiated the prayer-hour idea because many religious Americans who attend the breakfasts have no idea about the connection to the Family and the anti-gay legislation.
“They have symbolically taken the mantle of religion,” Mr. Besen said, “and I think it’s time to take it back. And the American Prayer Hour is a step in that direction.”
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: February 3, 2010
For more than 50 years, the National Prayer Breakfast has served as a prime networking event in Washington, bringing together the president, members of Congress, foreign diplomats and thousands of religious, business and military leaders for scrambled eggs and supplication.
Usually, the annual event passes with little notice. But this year, an ethics group in Washington has asked President Obama and Congressional leaders to stay away from the breakfast, on Thursday. Religious and gay rights groups have organized competing prayer events in 17 cities, and protesters are picketing in Washington and Boston.
The objections are focused on the sponsor of the breakfast, a secretive evangelical Christian network called The Fellowship, also known as The Family, and accusations that it has ties to legislation in Uganda that calls for the imprisonment and execution of homosexuals.
The Family has always stayed intentionally in the background, according to those who have written about it. In the last year, however, it was identified as the sponsor of a residence on Capitol Hill that has served as a dormitory and meeting place for a cluster of politicians who ran into ethics problems, including Senator John Ensign, Republican of Nevada, and Gov. Mark Sanford, Republican of South Carolina, both of whom have admitted to adultery.
More recently, it became public that the Family also has close ties to the Ugandan politician who has sponsored the proposed anti-gay legislation, which would make homosexuality a capital crime.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a government watchdog group, sent a letter this week to the president and Congressional leaders urging them to skip the prayer breakfast. They have also called on C-Span not to televise it this year.
Melanie Sloan, executive director of the ethics group, said: “It is a combination of the intolerance of the organization’s views, and the secrecy surrounding the organization. It doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be allowed to hold their breakfast; of course they should. The question is, Should American officials be lending legitimacy to it, giving their imprimatur by showing up.”
The Family has no identifiable Internet site, no office number and no official spokesman. J. Robert Hunter, a member who has spoken publicly about the group, said that it was unfair to blame the Family for the anti-gay legislation introduced by David Bahati. Mr. Hunter said that about 30 Family members, all Americans, active in Africa recently conveyed their dismay about the legislation to Ugandan politicians, including Mr. Bahati.
Mr. Hunter said the recent controversies had prompted a debate within the group about its lack of transparency. “I and quite a few others are saying we should be much more open,” he said.
Jeff Sharlet, author of “The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power” (Harper Perennial, 2009) said in a telephone interview, “Here’s an organization that, in the past, has not acknowledged its own existence.”
“It’s not a sinister plot. This is their theological stance,” said Mr. Sharlet, who infiltrated the group to do research for his book. “Their leader, Doug Coe, says that the more invisible you can make your organization, the more influence it will have.”
A White House official said that Mr. Obama, like each president since Dwight D. Eisenhower, planned to attend the breakfast. Michelle Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and other cabinet members will also attend. The president will deliver remarks about “the importance of an openness to compromise,” the official said.
The official also said that the president and the State Department had spoken out strongly against the legislation in Uganda.
The breakfast, which usually features a prominent keynote speaker (past ones have included Bono, Mother Teresa and former Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain), is only the most visible in several days of gatherings where the Family’s networking takes place in smaller groups. There are separate meetings for African politicians, military leaders, business people and media professionals, to name a few.
Many states also have prayer breakfasts this week, which may appear to be government-sponsored but are also mostly affiliated with the Family.
Liberal members of the clergy and gay rights leaders organized the alternative events in haste this year, calling theirs the American Prayer Hour. The will convene at places like Calvary Baptist Church in Washington; Glendale City Seventh-day Adventist Church in California; the bishop’s chapel of the Episcopal Diocese of Western New York, in Rochester; and Covenant Community Church in Center Point, Ala.
Wayne Besen, executive director of Truth Wins Out, a gay rights group, said he initiated the prayer-hour idea because many religious Americans who attend the breakfasts have no idea about the connection to the Family and the anti-gay legislation.
“They have symbolically taken the mantle of religion,” Mr. Besen said, “and I think it’s time to take it back. And the American Prayer Hour is a step in that direction.”
Uganda Approves Tullow's $1.5B Takeover of 2 Oil Blocks.
by Nicholas Bariyo
Dow Jones Newswires
2/4/2010
URL: http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=87001
The Ugandan government has approved UK-based Tullow Oil PLC's takeover of the interests of Heritage Oil PLC in two oil blocks in the Lake Albert basin for up to $1.5 billion, government and company officials told Dow Jones Newswires Thursday.
The decision to approve the sale was communicated to cabinet late Wednesday and Tullow and Heritage are now required to follow the government's conditions, such as paying capital gains taxes, cross-listing on the local stock market as well as early commercialization of Uganda's oil reserves, according to Peter Lokeris, Uganda's junior energy and minerals development minister.
"The government approved the deal because there was an existing agreement between Tullow and Heritage that if one wanted to dispose of its stake, the other partner had the first option to buy," he said.
The decision ends Italy-based Eni Spa's attempts to take over the stakes, officials added.
A company executive told Dow Jones Newswires separately the Ugandan president had earlier pledged to respect the sanctity of Tullow's contract and the preemption right in its agreement with Heritage.
Tullow Oil's Uganda office couldn't comment immediately.
Dow Jones Newswires
2/4/2010
URL: http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=87001
The Ugandan government has approved UK-based Tullow Oil PLC's takeover of the interests of Heritage Oil PLC in two oil blocks in the Lake Albert basin for up to $1.5 billion, government and company officials told Dow Jones Newswires Thursday.
The decision to approve the sale was communicated to cabinet late Wednesday and Tullow and Heritage are now required to follow the government's conditions, such as paying capital gains taxes, cross-listing on the local stock market as well as early commercialization of Uganda's oil reserves, according to Peter Lokeris, Uganda's junior energy and minerals development minister.
"The government approved the deal because there was an existing agreement between Tullow and Heritage that if one wanted to dispose of its stake, the other partner had the first option to buy," he said.
The decision ends Italy-based Eni Spa's attempts to take over the stakes, officials added.
A company executive told Dow Jones Newswires separately the Ugandan president had earlier pledged to respect the sanctity of Tullow's contract and the preemption right in its agreement with Heritage.
Tullow Oil's Uganda office couldn't comment immediately.
HIGH PROFILE OPPOSITION MEMBER ATTACKED, ARRESTS.
MISNA
4 February 2010
Rwandan police have arrested five people accusing them of having attacked, in Kigali, yesterday, Victoire Ingabire, a member of the opposition to the government of Paul Kagame and a candidate in the next presidential election. Local news media said that Ms. Ingabire was attacked on the street, along with her assistant Joseph Ntawagundi, by a group of people who beat her and then stole her handbag. Ms, Ingabire suffered mild wounds, which will heal in a week’s time; her assistant’s conditions are worse say doctors. Ms. Ingabire said that the law and order forces that were available at the time of the aggression failed to intervene to help her and her assistant as they were being beaten and kicked; this, she says, “shows the true face of a dictatorial regime which does not tolerate the voices of dissent”. The pro-government ‘New Times’ daily has published a rather different version of events, suggesting that Ms. Ingabire “provoked the anger of a small crowd of people trying to jump the queue at an office issuing identity papers”. Having returned to Rwanda last month, after 16 years in Europe, Victoria Ingabire has announced her intention to represent the opposition ‘United Democratic Front’ (as yet not registered) in next September’s presidential election to choose a successor to president Paul Kagame, whose party, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (FPR) has not chose a candidate yet.
4 February 2010
Rwandan police have arrested five people accusing them of having attacked, in Kigali, yesterday, Victoire Ingabire, a member of the opposition to the government of Paul Kagame and a candidate in the next presidential election. Local news media said that Ms. Ingabire was attacked on the street, along with her assistant Joseph Ntawagundi, by a group of people who beat her and then stole her handbag. Ms, Ingabire suffered mild wounds, which will heal in a week’s time; her assistant’s conditions are worse say doctors. Ms. Ingabire said that the law and order forces that were available at the time of the aggression failed to intervene to help her and her assistant as they were being beaten and kicked; this, she says, “shows the true face of a dictatorial regime which does not tolerate the voices of dissent”. The pro-government ‘New Times’ daily has published a rather different version of events, suggesting that Ms. Ingabire “provoked the anger of a small crowd of people trying to jump the queue at an office issuing identity papers”. Having returned to Rwanda last month, after 16 years in Europe, Victoria Ingabire has announced her intention to represent the opposition ‘United Democratic Front’ (as yet not registered) in next September’s presidential election to choose a successor to president Paul Kagame, whose party, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (FPR) has not chose a candidate yet.
Agression de V. Ingabire : le FPR renoue avec la méthode «d’accusation en miroir».
« L’accusation en miroir » est cette méthode de propagande qui consiste à accuser son adversaire des crimes qu’on s’apprête à commettre ou déjà commis contre lui.
Durant sa guerre de conquête du 01 octobre 1990 au 17 juillet 1994, le FPR s’est distingué dans le maniement de cet outil de propagande et cela lui a toujours réussi car l’opinion qui était de bonne foi tombait chaque fois dans le panneau. C’est ainsi que les assassinats des cadres du MRND dans ce qui était alors la zone démilitarisée en 1993 (Kirambo, Nkumba, Mutura…) furent présentés par le même FPR comme étant l’œuvre du MRND qui éliminait ses propres militants. Les leaders politiques de l’opposition mais qui refusaient de pactiser avec le FPR (Félicien Gatabazi, Emmanuel Gapyisi) furent d’après le FPR, assassinés par Habyarimana. Plus récemment, le FPR vient d’offrir le « nec plus ultra » en matière d’accusation en miroir. Dans un rapport officiel (rapport Mutsinzi), l’ancienne rebellion tutsi aujourd’hui au pouvoir à Kigali affirme sans sourciller que le président Habyarimana a été assassiné par les siens !Cette accusation en miroir vient trois ans après qu’un juge anti-terroriste français ait établi que Habyarimana fut assassiné par les éléments du FPR sous les ordres de Paul Kagame, l’actuel président du Rwanda.
L’agression dont vient d’être victime Madame Victoire Ingabire,candidate déclarée contre Paul Kagame lors de l’élection présidentielle d’août 2010 donne l’occasion au FPR de recourir à la vieille recette « d’accusation en miroir ».
Les faits.
Mercredi 03 février, alors qu Madame Ingabire a retiré sa carte d’identité la veille, l’autorité administrative de Kinyinya lui fixe rendez-vous par téléphone, de venir retirer d’autres attestations. Elle doit se présenter à 12h30 (pendant la pause de midi pour éviter les files). A l’heure indiquée, elle s’y présente en compagnie d’un de ses collaborateurs. Elle fut reçue par une foule de jeunes menaçants et insultants qui l’empêchent d’entrer dans le bureau de l’autorité qui lui avait donné rendez-vous. Elle se sauve in extremis mais son sac à main contenant son passeport et sa toute nouvelle carte d’identité est subtilisé. Son collaborateur restera aux mains des assaillants. Il sera tabassé, emmené au poste de police où il restera plusieurs heures sous interrogatoire avant d’être relâché.
Les réactions
Dans ses premières réactions, la police déclare à l’agence Reuters que Madame Ingabire a été agressée par des gens qui n’apprécient pas son discours politique dans ce qu’ils appellent « révisionnisme ». S’avisant qu’il avait commis une gaffe politico-médiatique, le porte parole de la police changea de discours. Il déclara à la BBC que Madame Ingabire avait été victime des citoyens qui n’ont pas supporté qu’elle passe avant eux pour aller dans le bureau de l’autorité au lieu de faire la queue comme tout le monde.
La victime devient « bourreau »
Le lendemain 04 février 2010 le verdict tombe : le quotidien pro-FPR « The New Times » titre : « Ingabire a troublé l’ordre au bureau du secteur Kinyinya ». Et voilà que celle qui est tombée dans un guet-apens tendu par les autorités administratives est maintenant présentée comme auteur de sa propre agression ou tout au moins qu’elle l’a provoquée. Avec ce scénario, le FPR fait d’une pierre deux coups. Il parvient, pense-t-il, à diaboliser Madame Ingabire comme « une vulgaire fauteur de trouble » mais aussi à récupérer les précieux documents (passeport et carte d’identité) qu’elle avait mis beaucoup de temps à acquérir. Ce sera autant de temps perdu dans l’enregistrement de son parti.
En conclusion,
il faut reconnaitre que le FPR en fait trop en matière « d’accusation en miroir ». Se rend-t-il compte que l’opinion en est lassée et que désormais elle ne se satisfait plus de ses mensonges grossiers comme du temps de sa guerre de conquête de 1990 à1994 ? Mais comme toute dictature, le régime du FPR est tellement narcissique qu’il croit pouvoir tromper indéfiniment le monde entier.
Emmanuel Neretse
04/01/2010
Durant sa guerre de conquête du 01 octobre 1990 au 17 juillet 1994, le FPR s’est distingué dans le maniement de cet outil de propagande et cela lui a toujours réussi car l’opinion qui était de bonne foi tombait chaque fois dans le panneau. C’est ainsi que les assassinats des cadres du MRND dans ce qui était alors la zone démilitarisée en 1993 (Kirambo, Nkumba, Mutura…) furent présentés par le même FPR comme étant l’œuvre du MRND qui éliminait ses propres militants. Les leaders politiques de l’opposition mais qui refusaient de pactiser avec le FPR (Félicien Gatabazi, Emmanuel Gapyisi) furent d’après le FPR, assassinés par Habyarimana. Plus récemment, le FPR vient d’offrir le « nec plus ultra » en matière d’accusation en miroir. Dans un rapport officiel (rapport Mutsinzi), l’ancienne rebellion tutsi aujourd’hui au pouvoir à Kigali affirme sans sourciller que le président Habyarimana a été assassiné par les siens !Cette accusation en miroir vient trois ans après qu’un juge anti-terroriste français ait établi que Habyarimana fut assassiné par les éléments du FPR sous les ordres de Paul Kagame, l’actuel président du Rwanda.
L’agression dont vient d’être victime Madame Victoire Ingabire,candidate déclarée contre Paul Kagame lors de l’élection présidentielle d’août 2010 donne l’occasion au FPR de recourir à la vieille recette « d’accusation en miroir ».
Les faits.
Mercredi 03 février, alors qu Madame Ingabire a retiré sa carte d’identité la veille, l’autorité administrative de Kinyinya lui fixe rendez-vous par téléphone, de venir retirer d’autres attestations. Elle doit se présenter à 12h30 (pendant la pause de midi pour éviter les files). A l’heure indiquée, elle s’y présente en compagnie d’un de ses collaborateurs. Elle fut reçue par une foule de jeunes menaçants et insultants qui l’empêchent d’entrer dans le bureau de l’autorité qui lui avait donné rendez-vous. Elle se sauve in extremis mais son sac à main contenant son passeport et sa toute nouvelle carte d’identité est subtilisé. Son collaborateur restera aux mains des assaillants. Il sera tabassé, emmené au poste de police où il restera plusieurs heures sous interrogatoire avant d’être relâché.
Les réactions
Dans ses premières réactions, la police déclare à l’agence Reuters que Madame Ingabire a été agressée par des gens qui n’apprécient pas son discours politique dans ce qu’ils appellent « révisionnisme ». S’avisant qu’il avait commis une gaffe politico-médiatique, le porte parole de la police changea de discours. Il déclara à la BBC que Madame Ingabire avait été victime des citoyens qui n’ont pas supporté qu’elle passe avant eux pour aller dans le bureau de l’autorité au lieu de faire la queue comme tout le monde.
La victime devient « bourreau »
Le lendemain 04 février 2010 le verdict tombe : le quotidien pro-FPR « The New Times » titre : « Ingabire a troublé l’ordre au bureau du secteur Kinyinya ». Et voilà que celle qui est tombée dans un guet-apens tendu par les autorités administratives est maintenant présentée comme auteur de sa propre agression ou tout au moins qu’elle l’a provoquée. Avec ce scénario, le FPR fait d’une pierre deux coups. Il parvient, pense-t-il, à diaboliser Madame Ingabire comme « une vulgaire fauteur de trouble » mais aussi à récupérer les précieux documents (passeport et carte d’identité) qu’elle avait mis beaucoup de temps à acquérir. Ce sera autant de temps perdu dans l’enregistrement de son parti.
En conclusion,
il faut reconnaitre que le FPR en fait trop en matière « d’accusation en miroir ». Se rend-t-il compte que l’opinion en est lassée et que désormais elle ne se satisfait plus de ses mensonges grossiers comme du temps de sa guerre de conquête de 1990 à1994 ? Mais comme toute dictature, le régime du FPR est tellement narcissique qu’il croit pouvoir tromper indéfiniment le monde entier.
Emmanuel Neretse
04/01/2010
Romania 'to host US missile shield.'
BBC News
4 February 2010
Romania has agreed to host missile interceptors as part of a new US defence shield, its president says.
President Traian Basescu said the plan was approved by the supreme defence council. It still needs parliamentary approval.
US President Barack Obama last year scrapped a previous version of the shield, involving Poland and the Czech Republic.
The shield had poisoned relations between the US and Russia.
Mr Basescu said the system would "protect the whole of Romania's territory", but stressed that it "is not directed against Russia".
The US has insisted that its defence shield was designed to protect its allies against attack from "rogue states" like Iran, and was not aimed at Russia.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, however, said the system would upset the strategic balance.
Mr Obama's decision to abandon the original plan in September was greeted with enthusiasm in Russia, and came amid attempts to "reset" the relationship between Washington and Moscow.
But the US did not say it was abandoning missile defence altogether - just that it would look at other ways of doing it.
In October, Poland said it was ready to join a smaller-scale plan, hosting a US base equipped with short-range missiles, rather than the much bigger system favoured by former President George W Bush.
It was thought the new system would be largely sea-based.
4 February 2010
Romania has agreed to host missile interceptors as part of a new US defence shield, its president says.
President Traian Basescu said the plan was approved by the supreme defence council. It still needs parliamentary approval.
US President Barack Obama last year scrapped a previous version of the shield, involving Poland and the Czech Republic.
The shield had poisoned relations between the US and Russia.
Mr Basescu said the system would "protect the whole of Romania's territory", but stressed that it "is not directed against Russia".
The US has insisted that its defence shield was designed to protect its allies against attack from "rogue states" like Iran, and was not aimed at Russia.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, however, said the system would upset the strategic balance.
Mr Obama's decision to abandon the original plan in September was greeted with enthusiasm in Russia, and came amid attempts to "reset" the relationship between Washington and Moscow.
But the US did not say it was abandoning missile defence altogether - just that it would look at other ways of doing it.
In October, Poland said it was ready to join a smaller-scale plan, hosting a US base equipped with short-range missiles, rather than the much bigger system favoured by former President George W Bush.
It was thought the new system would be largely sea-based.
Swiss court awards Haiti funds to Baby Doc Duvalier.
BBC News
4 February 2010
At least $4.6m (£2.9m) in Swiss bank accounts must be returned to the family of Haiti's former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier, a Swiss court has ruled.
A lower court had previously awarded charities the money - but that decision was overturned on 12 January and the ruling released on 3 February.
However, the Swiss government has blocked the release of the money until a law is passed to return it to Haiti.
The exile, known as Baby Doc, allegedly looted millions. He denies wrong-doing.
The court decision was made hours before the Haiti earthquake killed at least 150,000 people and left 1.5 million homeless.
The three-week delay before the ruling had been released was a common feature of Swiss courts, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
The Federal Supreme Court reversed the lower court's ruling that the money should go to aid groups in Haiti because the statute of limitations on any crimes committed by the Duvalier clan expired in 2001.
We assume that this money doesn't belong to the Duvalier family
Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf
Swiss Justice Minister
The court decision cannot be appealed.
But the Swiss Foreign Ministry said it would continue to block the release of the money while it formulated a better law dealing with assets of "criminal origin".
The government was keen "to avoid the Swiss financial centre serving as a haven for illegally acquired assets," it said in a statement.
"We assume that this money doesn't belong to the Duvalier family," said Swiss Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, according to AP.
"We've blocked the money again... to prevent that it goes somewhere that it shouldn't for political reasons.
"We really hope that this money finally goes back to the country."
The Duvaliers ruled Haiti from 1957, when Papa Doc came to power, helped by his brutal private militia, the Tontons Macoutes.
Fled unrest
On his father's death in 1971, 19-year-old Baby Doc was named president for life.
Haiti first asked for the money to be returned in 1986 shortly after Baby Doc fled unrest and settled in France.
But Switzerland refused to return it because the Haitian government was not pursuing Mr Duvalier under its own justice system.
And as an alternative, the Swiss government had proposed giving the money to aid groups working in Haiti.
4 February 2010
At least $4.6m (£2.9m) in Swiss bank accounts must be returned to the family of Haiti's former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier, a Swiss court has ruled.
A lower court had previously awarded charities the money - but that decision was overturned on 12 January and the ruling released on 3 February.
However, the Swiss government has blocked the release of the money until a law is passed to return it to Haiti.
The exile, known as Baby Doc, allegedly looted millions. He denies wrong-doing.
The court decision was made hours before the Haiti earthquake killed at least 150,000 people and left 1.5 million homeless.
The three-week delay before the ruling had been released was a common feature of Swiss courts, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
The Federal Supreme Court reversed the lower court's ruling that the money should go to aid groups in Haiti because the statute of limitations on any crimes committed by the Duvalier clan expired in 2001.
We assume that this money doesn't belong to the Duvalier family
Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf
Swiss Justice Minister
The court decision cannot be appealed.
But the Swiss Foreign Ministry said it would continue to block the release of the money while it formulated a better law dealing with assets of "criminal origin".
The government was keen "to avoid the Swiss financial centre serving as a haven for illegally acquired assets," it said in a statement.
"We assume that this money doesn't belong to the Duvalier family," said Swiss Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, according to AP.
"We've blocked the money again... to prevent that it goes somewhere that it shouldn't for political reasons.
"We really hope that this money finally goes back to the country."
The Duvaliers ruled Haiti from 1957, when Papa Doc came to power, helped by his brutal private militia, the Tontons Macoutes.
Fled unrest
On his father's death in 1971, 19-year-old Baby Doc was named president for life.
Haiti first asked for the money to be returned in 1986 shortly after Baby Doc fled unrest and settled in France.
But Switzerland refused to return it because the Haitian government was not pursuing Mr Duvalier under its own justice system.
And as an alternative, the Swiss government had proposed giving the money to aid groups working in Haiti.
DRC considers new laws for gemstone mining: minister.
Reuters
2 February 2010
Democratic Republic of Congo was looking at special laws for its gemstones sector after taking steps to transform its mining industry, Minister of Mines Martin Labilo said on Tuesday.
The DRC, which boasts an abundance of mineral wealth, including gold, diamonds and platinum, undertook a controversial review of 61 mining contracts last year that led to 17 being cancelled, prompting concern from major mining firms that operate in the central African country.
Labilo said the new law to govern the mining of gemstones was meant to stimulate the sector.
"In regard to precious gemstones, there is specific legislation that is being set up in order... to mine them and we will have a lapidary (stone) industry, which will be similar to other countries in Africa, such as Madagascar," Labilo told a mining conference in Cape Town.
Besides tightening up its regulatory framework, the DRC aims to industrialise its mining sector to create jobs and add more value to exports as it struggles to rebuild its economy following two civil wars in the past 20 years.
But critics argued its zeal to tranform the mining sector was alienating foreign mining companies, with at least one, Toronto-listed First Quantum Minerals, approaching the courts to try and recover some of its investment.
Under the mining review, Congo cancelled a $500 million copper and cobalt project in which First Quantum was the majority shareholder. Congo accused Canada in November on holding up a rescheduling of its foreign debt as part of the spat.
However, Labilo sought on Tuesday to win over nervous investors, claiming the country's legislative thrust had led to more business security.
"My country has already started to improve its legal framework and business framework, which will give more security to investors and those who operate by being mindful of the laws in the country," he said.
Labilo said DRC's mineral reserves include 75 million tonnes of copper, 4.5 million tonnes of cobalt, 1.0 billion tonnes of iron ore, 7 million tonnes of zinc, 7 million tonnes of manganese, 600 tonnes of gold and 240 million carats of diamonds.
2 February 2010
Democratic Republic of Congo was looking at special laws for its gemstones sector after taking steps to transform its mining industry, Minister of Mines Martin Labilo said on Tuesday.
The DRC, which boasts an abundance of mineral wealth, including gold, diamonds and platinum, undertook a controversial review of 61 mining contracts last year that led to 17 being cancelled, prompting concern from major mining firms that operate in the central African country.
Labilo said the new law to govern the mining of gemstones was meant to stimulate the sector.
"In regard to precious gemstones, there is specific legislation that is being set up in order... to mine them and we will have a lapidary (stone) industry, which will be similar to other countries in Africa, such as Madagascar," Labilo told a mining conference in Cape Town.
Besides tightening up its regulatory framework, the DRC aims to industrialise its mining sector to create jobs and add more value to exports as it struggles to rebuild its economy following two civil wars in the past 20 years.
But critics argued its zeal to tranform the mining sector was alienating foreign mining companies, with at least one, Toronto-listed First Quantum Minerals, approaching the courts to try and recover some of its investment.
Under the mining review, Congo cancelled a $500 million copper and cobalt project in which First Quantum was the majority shareholder. Congo accused Canada in November on holding up a rescheduling of its foreign debt as part of the spat.
However, Labilo sought on Tuesday to win over nervous investors, claiming the country's legislative thrust had led to more business security.
"My country has already started to improve its legal framework and business framework, which will give more security to investors and those who operate by being mindful of the laws in the country," he said.
Labilo said DRC's mineral reserves include 75 million tonnes of copper, 4.5 million tonnes of cobalt, 1.0 billion tonnes of iron ore, 7 million tonnes of zinc, 7 million tonnes of manganese, 600 tonnes of gold and 240 million carats of diamonds.
US contractor's body found in Quetta hotel.
Daily Times
4 February 2010
A US citizen, working as a private contractor through the US embassy for the Frontier Corps (FC), was found dead in his hotel room on January 31, and his body has been flown back to the US without any police report or autopsy, sources said on Wednesday. The staff of an international hotel chain, located in Quetta’s Cantonment area, said that a man named Mr. Johnson was found dead in his hotel room, but did not disclose any more details. They said that officers from the FC and the US embassy had retrieved the body and sealed off the area. Confirming the death of a US citizen in Quetta, a spokesperson for the US embassy said the embassy could not reveal the name of the person due to certain rules.
4 February 2010
A US citizen, working as a private contractor through the US embassy for the Frontier Corps (FC), was found dead in his hotel room on January 31, and his body has been flown back to the US without any police report or autopsy, sources said on Wednesday. The staff of an international hotel chain, located in Quetta’s Cantonment area, said that a man named Mr. Johnson was found dead in his hotel room, but did not disclose any more details. They said that officers from the FC and the US embassy had retrieved the body and sealed off the area. Confirming the death of a US citizen in Quetta, a spokesperson for the US embassy said the embassy could not reveal the name of the person due to certain rules.
Three US soldiers killed in Pakistan Lower Dir District ‘suicide’ blast.
Daily Times
4 February 2010
Three US soldiers and four female students were among nine killed on Wednesday when a blast targeted a military-led convoy in Lower Dir, said police.
The US soldiers were travelling in a convoy with local troops, journalists and officials to the opening of a girls’ school, according to the AFP news agency.
At least 115 people – including 95 schoolgirls – injured in the attack have been admitted to hospitals in Timergara. “Some seriously wounded people have been sent to Peshawar,” a doctor told Daily Times.
While the ISPR said an improvised explosive device was used in the attack, the AP news agency said there were conflicting reports about the source of the blast. Some officials said it was a roadside bomb detonated by a remote control, while others claimed it was a suicide car bomb.
US embassy: According to a statement by the US embassy in Islamabad, the US troops killed in the attack were training FC soldiers on a request by the Pakistani government. “Three Americans were killed and two injured in an explosion,” according to the statement. The embassy said the US troops were in Lower Dir to attend the inauguration of a school for girls that was recently renovated with US assistance.
A statement by the Pakistan Army said the dead included a Frontier Corps soldier. However, it only said three “foreigners” were among the injured.
Local police sources said a US Army major and five FC personnel were among the wounded. The AP news agency quoted a local journalist as saying that two of the “foreigners” were wearing civilian clothes, not uniforms. Two Pakistani reporters travelling in the same convoy said Pakistani military guides referred to the “foreigners” as journalists.
District police chief Mumtaz Zarin told Daily Times that nine people – including four schoolgirls and “three foreigners” – were killed in the remote-controlled blast. Security sources in Peshawar said they were investigating if the TTP had been tipped off about the presence of Americans in the convoy. Local authorities appear confused by the foreign troops’ plans to attend the inauguration of the school, as “they had little role in the project”. A local said the blast destroyed the school building completely. “Fortunately, the students were not inside the classrooms, otherwise the number of casualties would have been much higher,” said Noor Muhammad.
Editor's Note: Other sources say the TTP has claimed responsibility.
4 February 2010
Three US soldiers and four female students were among nine killed on Wednesday when a blast targeted a military-led convoy in Lower Dir, said police.
The US soldiers were travelling in a convoy with local troops, journalists and officials to the opening of a girls’ school, according to the AFP news agency.
At least 115 people – including 95 schoolgirls – injured in the attack have been admitted to hospitals in Timergara. “Some seriously wounded people have been sent to Peshawar,” a doctor told Daily Times.
While the ISPR said an improvised explosive device was used in the attack, the AP news agency said there were conflicting reports about the source of the blast. Some officials said it was a roadside bomb detonated by a remote control, while others claimed it was a suicide car bomb.
US embassy: According to a statement by the US embassy in Islamabad, the US troops killed in the attack were training FC soldiers on a request by the Pakistani government. “Three Americans were killed and two injured in an explosion,” according to the statement. The embassy said the US troops were in Lower Dir to attend the inauguration of a school for girls that was recently renovated with US assistance.
A statement by the Pakistan Army said the dead included a Frontier Corps soldier. However, it only said three “foreigners” were among the injured.
Local police sources said a US Army major and five FC personnel were among the wounded. The AP news agency quoted a local journalist as saying that two of the “foreigners” were wearing civilian clothes, not uniforms. Two Pakistani reporters travelling in the same convoy said Pakistani military guides referred to the “foreigners” as journalists.
District police chief Mumtaz Zarin told Daily Times that nine people – including four schoolgirls and “three foreigners” – were killed in the remote-controlled blast. Security sources in Peshawar said they were investigating if the TTP had been tipped off about the presence of Americans in the convoy. Local authorities appear confused by the foreign troops’ plans to attend the inauguration of the school, as “they had little role in the project”. A local said the blast destroyed the school building completely. “Fortunately, the students were not inside the classrooms, otherwise the number of casualties would have been much higher,” said Noor Muhammad.
Editor's Note: Other sources say the TTP has claimed responsibility.
03 February, 2010
Rwanda Opposition Presidential Aspirant Brutally Attacked and Mugged by Youth Group.
256 News
3 February 2010
Rwandan opposition presidential aspirant, Ms. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza and her aide were mugged and robbed at their offices this afternoon in Kinyinya sector, a Kigali suburb.
Mr. Joseph Ntawangundi, Ms. Ingabire’s aide, was reportedly brutally beaten and stripped half-naked by unknown youth assailants with Kinyinya Executive Secretary, Shema Jonas, who had called them on the phone with instructions for the party members to collect their identification documents, looking on.
Ms. Ingabire herself escaped narrowly but her bag was grabbed from her. She fled into her car as a mob of young men in civilian clothes closed in on her.
As we write this report, one of the aides is still being held by the Rwandan police according to Ms. Ingabire’s personal secretary who called 256news.com soon after the attack and sounded distraught.
Efforts to talk to the Rwandan police were fruitless as of the time of filing this report because the police spokesman was not answering his cell phone.
Last week, Ms. Ingabire told 256news.com in an exclusive interview that the Rwandan government has plans to arrest her.
Ms. Ingabire wants to contest for President of Rwanda in this year’s elections.
Editor's Update: The New Times, a supposedly "independent" newspaper, is lying by saying Ms. Ingabire "provoked" the pogrom by "jump the queue" and yes, Mr. Ntawangundi was arrested.
3 February 2010
Rwandan opposition presidential aspirant, Ms. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza and her aide were mugged and robbed at their offices this afternoon in Kinyinya sector, a Kigali suburb.
Mr. Joseph Ntawangundi, Ms. Ingabire’s aide, was reportedly brutally beaten and stripped half-naked by unknown youth assailants with Kinyinya Executive Secretary, Shema Jonas, who had called them on the phone with instructions for the party members to collect their identification documents, looking on.
Ms. Ingabire herself escaped narrowly but her bag was grabbed from her. She fled into her car as a mob of young men in civilian clothes closed in on her.
As we write this report, one of the aides is still being held by the Rwandan police according to Ms. Ingabire’s personal secretary who called 256news.com soon after the attack and sounded distraught.
Efforts to talk to the Rwandan police were fruitless as of the time of filing this report because the police spokesman was not answering his cell phone.
Last week, Ms. Ingabire told 256news.com in an exclusive interview that the Rwandan government has plans to arrest her.
Ms. Ingabire wants to contest for President of Rwanda in this year’s elections.
Editor's Update: The New Times, a supposedly "independent" newspaper, is lying by saying Ms. Ingabire "provoked" the pogrom by "jump the queue" and yes, Mr. Ntawangundi was arrested.
Rwanda Opposition Steadfast After Brutal Attack on FDU Politicians.
256 News
3 February 2010
By Godwin Agaba
Several opposition figures in Kigali rushed to Kinyinya sector where opposition presidential aspirant, Victoire Ingabire and her aide, Joseph Ntawangundi, were attacked by an unidentified youth group.
The gang grabbed Ms. Ingabire’s bag and beat up her aide brutally. Among the first at the scene was Mr. Frank Habineza, the President of the Green Party of Rwanda.
Mr. Habineza helped support Mr. Ntawangundi who was in too much pain to stand.
Opposition groups say the time for political activism against the RPF regime is now. They accuse the RPF government of being behind the attack and have vowed to continue their political campaigns.
Ms. Ingabire has not been in Rwanda for even a month after living in exile for over a decade. She leads the FDU-INKINGI political party.
3 February 2010
By Godwin Agaba
Several opposition figures in Kigali rushed to Kinyinya sector where opposition presidential aspirant, Victoire Ingabire and her aide, Joseph Ntawangundi, were attacked by an unidentified youth group.
The gang grabbed Ms. Ingabire’s bag and beat up her aide brutally. Among the first at the scene was Mr. Frank Habineza, the President of the Green Party of Rwanda.
Mr. Habineza helped support Mr. Ntawangundi who was in too much pain to stand.
Opposition groups say the time for political activism against the RPF regime is now. They accuse the RPF government of being behind the attack and have vowed to continue their political campaigns.
Ms. Ingabire has not been in Rwanda for even a month after living in exile for over a decade. She leads the FDU-INKINGI political party.
L'agression contre Victoire Ingabire à Kigali.
Mme Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, Présidente et Candidate des FDU-Inkingi à l’élection présidentielle rwandaise d’août 2010, accompagnée d’un membre de notre équipe, M. Joseph Ntawangundi ont été lynchés ce jour à midi dans l’enceinte de l’administration publique par une horde de malfaiteurs agissant sur commande du pouvoir.
Un bref rappel des faits
En fin de matinée Madame Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza a été appelée par l’exécutif responsable du secteur administratif de Kinyinya, dans le district de Gasabo, Monsieur Shema. Il l’invitait de venir retirer des documents administratifs lui permettant de faire la demande des extraits du casier judiciaire d’elle-même et de son équipe.
Au moment d’entrer dans le bureau de l’exécutif, ils furent happés par une horde de jeunes qui commença à les rouer de coups. Mme Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza a réussi à se réfugier in extremis dans un lieu sûr et a pu être évacuée par son chauffeur. Dans sa fuite, à la recherche d’un abri, elle s’est vue arracher son sac à mains dans lequel figuraient son passeport ainsi que la carte d’identité qui lui avait été délivrée la veille. Mr Joseph Ntawangundi qui s’était entreposé pour permettre à la Présidente des FDU Inkingi de s’échapper des agresseurs est resté dans les mains de ces derniers, lesquels ont continué à le tabasser, lui causant des contusions graves dans les côtes et aux jambes.
La police appelée immédiatement au secours par le chauffeur n’est arrivée que tardivement très longtemps après les faits. Elle l’a emmené dans un lieu inconnu et ne le relâcha qu’une heure plus tard. Il est arrivé à son domicile torse et pieds nus, d’où il vient d’être acheminé en urgence à l’hôpital Roi Fayçal.
Considérations
Il n’est point de doute de dire que cette agression contre des opposants politiques rentrés dans leur pays pour y mener une lutte démocratique pacifique est un acte imputable à l’Etat car organisé dans l’enceinte même des bâtiments de l’Administration grâce à un guet-apens sciemment tendu par un officiel, à savoir l’exécutif du secteur administratif de Kinyinya.
Cette agression vient en outre après une campagne intense d’intimidation, de diabolisation et de lynchage médiatique orchestrée contre Mme Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza et son équipe, depuis notre retour au Rwanda en date du 16 janvier 2010, d’abord par une presse partisane, ensuite par les médias de l’Etat, à savoir la Radio et la Télévision nationales.
Les FDU-Inkingi condamnent avec force cet acte d’agression commis par les autorités rwandaises à l’endroit des personnes qu’elles sont plutôt censées protéger. Elles exigent que toute la lumière soit faite sur cet incident majeur afin que tous les responsables qui ont participé à la préparation et à l’exécution de l’agression contre la Présidente de l’organisation et les membres de son équipe soient déferrés devant la justice et sanctionnés conformément à la loi.
Les FDU-Inkingi prennent à témoin le peuple rwandais et la communauté internationale pour les actions de dégradation du climat politique commis depuis notre arrivée par l’Etat rwandais. Elles lui demandent de renoncer à la violence politique, d’assurer pleinement la sécurité de l’équipe dirigeante et de s’engager résolument dans un processus politique pacifique, lequel est le mieux à même de faire face aux grands enjeux de paix, de réconciliation, de liberté et de démocratie dont le Peuple a tant besoin.
Fait à Kigali, le 03 février 2010
FDU-Inkingi
Bureau de la Présidente
Madame Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza
Un bref rappel des faits
En fin de matinée Madame Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza a été appelée par l’exécutif responsable du secteur administratif de Kinyinya, dans le district de Gasabo, Monsieur Shema. Il l’invitait de venir retirer des documents administratifs lui permettant de faire la demande des extraits du casier judiciaire d’elle-même et de son équipe.
Au moment d’entrer dans le bureau de l’exécutif, ils furent happés par une horde de jeunes qui commença à les rouer de coups. Mme Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza a réussi à se réfugier in extremis dans un lieu sûr et a pu être évacuée par son chauffeur. Dans sa fuite, à la recherche d’un abri, elle s’est vue arracher son sac à mains dans lequel figuraient son passeport ainsi que la carte d’identité qui lui avait été délivrée la veille. Mr Joseph Ntawangundi qui s’était entreposé pour permettre à la Présidente des FDU Inkingi de s’échapper des agresseurs est resté dans les mains de ces derniers, lesquels ont continué à le tabasser, lui causant des contusions graves dans les côtes et aux jambes.
La police appelée immédiatement au secours par le chauffeur n’est arrivée que tardivement très longtemps après les faits. Elle l’a emmené dans un lieu inconnu et ne le relâcha qu’une heure plus tard. Il est arrivé à son domicile torse et pieds nus, d’où il vient d’être acheminé en urgence à l’hôpital Roi Fayçal.
Considérations
Il n’est point de doute de dire que cette agression contre des opposants politiques rentrés dans leur pays pour y mener une lutte démocratique pacifique est un acte imputable à l’Etat car organisé dans l’enceinte même des bâtiments de l’Administration grâce à un guet-apens sciemment tendu par un officiel, à savoir l’exécutif du secteur administratif de Kinyinya.
Cette agression vient en outre après une campagne intense d’intimidation, de diabolisation et de lynchage médiatique orchestrée contre Mme Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza et son équipe, depuis notre retour au Rwanda en date du 16 janvier 2010, d’abord par une presse partisane, ensuite par les médias de l’Etat, à savoir la Radio et la Télévision nationales.
Les FDU-Inkingi condamnent avec force cet acte d’agression commis par les autorités rwandaises à l’endroit des personnes qu’elles sont plutôt censées protéger. Elles exigent que toute la lumière soit faite sur cet incident majeur afin que tous les responsables qui ont participé à la préparation et à l’exécution de l’agression contre la Présidente de l’organisation et les membres de son équipe soient déferrés devant la justice et sanctionnés conformément à la loi.
Les FDU-Inkingi prennent à témoin le peuple rwandais et la communauté internationale pour les actions de dégradation du climat politique commis depuis notre arrivée par l’Etat rwandais. Elles lui demandent de renoncer à la violence politique, d’assurer pleinement la sécurité de l’équipe dirigeante et de s’engager résolument dans un processus politique pacifique, lequel est le mieux à même de faire face aux grands enjeux de paix, de réconciliation, de liberté et de démocratie dont le Peuple a tant besoin.
Fait à Kigali, le 03 février 2010
FDU-Inkingi
Bureau de la Présidente
Madame Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza
Reverend Dr. Jesse Jackson to visit the ICTY.
ICTY
Press Release
3 February 2010
Reverend Dr. Jesse Jackson will be visiting the ICTY on Thursday 4 February 2010 as part of a wider European Tour.
Rev. Jackson will be meeting with the Tribunal’s President Patrick Robinson and Vice-President Kwon, Registrar John Hocking and representatives of the Office of the Prosecutor.
There will be a photo opportunity for members of the Press at 10:30 a.m. when President Robinson welcomes Rev. Jackson. Journalists are required to contact the Press Office at press@icty.org to confirm their attendance.
Rev. Jackson is one of America’s foremost civil rights activists. Over the past thirty years, he has played a pivotal role in movements for empowerment, peace, civil rights, gender equality, and economic and social justice.
During the conflicts of the former Yugoslavia he visited the region and remains supportive of the Tribunal's mandate and mission to hold accountable those responsible for the crimes committed during the 1990s.
Press Release
3 February 2010
Reverend Dr. Jesse Jackson will be visiting the ICTY on Thursday 4 February 2010 as part of a wider European Tour.
Rev. Jackson will be meeting with the Tribunal’s President Patrick Robinson and Vice-President Kwon, Registrar John Hocking and representatives of the Office of the Prosecutor.
There will be a photo opportunity for members of the Press at 10:30 a.m. when President Robinson welcomes Rev. Jackson. Journalists are required to contact the Press Office at press@icty.org to confirm their attendance.
Rev. Jackson is one of America’s foremost civil rights activists. Over the past thirty years, he has played a pivotal role in movements for empowerment, peace, civil rights, gender equality, and economic and social justice.
During the conflicts of the former Yugoslavia he visited the region and remains supportive of the Tribunal's mandate and mission to hold accountable those responsible for the crimes committed during the 1990s.
Victoire Ingabire in hospital after being nearly beaten to death in Kigali.
Rwandan News Agency
3 February 2010
Politician Ms. Ingabire Umuhoza Victoire has been admitted to King Faisal Hospital after being attacked by assailants as she toured an outskirt in Kigali, RNA can exclusively reveal.
The head of the yet-to-be United Democratic Forces-Inkingi party was apparently attacked by a group of people but it is not clear what exactly happened, according to our sources.
Her staff and party members on the ground with her are said to be traumatized and speaking on phone to whoever can be listening.
More to follow.
Editor's Update: This from a source in Rwanda - A few hours ago we came to hear that Victoire Ingabire and her delegation in Rwanda have been attacked with unknown people. Mrs. Ingabire is safe but one member of her team is still being held by the police....
3 February 2010
Politician Ms. Ingabire Umuhoza Victoire has been admitted to King Faisal Hospital after being attacked by assailants as she toured an outskirt in Kigali, RNA can exclusively reveal.
The head of the yet-to-be United Democratic Forces-Inkingi party was apparently attacked by a group of people but it is not clear what exactly happened, according to our sources.
Her staff and party members on the ground with her are said to be traumatized and speaking on phone to whoever can be listening.
More to follow.
Editor's Update: This from a source in Rwanda - A few hours ago we came to hear that Victoire Ingabire and her delegation in Rwanda have been attacked with unknown people. Mrs. Ingabire is safe but one member of her team is still being held by the police....
02 February, 2010
Elderly Mau Mau-era Kenyans to sue British government.
Daily Telegraph
By Mike Pflanz in Nairobi
12 May 2009
The three men and two women, all in their 70s and 80s, want payouts for what they say was assault, torture and unlawful imprisonment during the 1950s and 1960s.
Their case is being handled by Leigh, Day & Co, the London-based firm which won huge Ministry of Defence payouts for Kenyans injured by unexploded munitions left behind after Army training in the country's north.
The Mau Mau was an armed movement drawn from Kenya's majority Kikuyu tribe which launched a series of attacks against whites and pro-British blacks.
In response, the colonial British government ordered up to 150,000 Kenyans to be rounded up and kept in detention camps. Thousands died, mostly of disease or malnutrition.
Sunday's announcement that the British government is to be sued follows recent studies which alleged that widespread torture was carried out as a policy, and not by a handful of sadistic officials.
It has become clear that far from being the acts of a few rogue soldiers, the torture and inhuman and degrading treatment of Kenyans during the Emergency Period resulted from policies sanctioned at the highest levels of government in London, said Dan Leader of Leigh, Day & Co.
If the initial claimants are successful, it could open the floodgates for thousands of other applications and compensation could run into millions of pounds.
The claim will be lodged in London on June 23.
It is hoped that this will be an opportunity for the British government to come to terms with this stain on British history and to apologise to the Kenyan people, said a statement signed by the Kenya Human Rights Committee and the Mau Mau War Veterans' Association.
The British government has written to Leigh, Day & Co claiming that the action is invalid because it is now too long since the alleged abuses took place.
They added that responsibility for the actions of the colonial administration passed to Kenya's government at independence.
By Mike Pflanz in Nairobi
12 May 2009
The three men and two women, all in their 70s and 80s, want payouts for what they say was assault, torture and unlawful imprisonment during the 1950s and 1960s.
Their case is being handled by Leigh, Day & Co, the London-based firm which won huge Ministry of Defence payouts for Kenyans injured by unexploded munitions left behind after Army training in the country's north.
The Mau Mau was an armed movement drawn from Kenya's majority Kikuyu tribe which launched a series of attacks against whites and pro-British blacks.
In response, the colonial British government ordered up to 150,000 Kenyans to be rounded up and kept in detention camps. Thousands died, mostly of disease or malnutrition.
Sunday's announcement that the British government is to be sued follows recent studies which alleged that widespread torture was carried out as a policy, and not by a handful of sadistic officials.
It has become clear that far from being the acts of a few rogue soldiers, the torture and inhuman and degrading treatment of Kenyans during the Emergency Period resulted from policies sanctioned at the highest levels of government in London, said Dan Leader of Leigh, Day & Co.
If the initial claimants are successful, it could open the floodgates for thousands of other applications and compensation could run into millions of pounds.
The claim will be lodged in London on June 23.
It is hoped that this will be an opportunity for the British government to come to terms with this stain on British history and to apologise to the Kenyan people, said a statement signed by the Kenya Human Rights Committee and the Mau Mau War Veterans' Association.
The British government has written to Leigh, Day & Co claiming that the action is invalid because it is now too long since the alleged abuses took place.
They added that responsibility for the actions of the colonial administration passed to Kenya's government at independence.
Ugandans sue Britain over colonial era crimes.
Daily Telegraph
2 February 2010
The group are seeking damages for crimes committed during the 1893-1899 war in the northwestern Bunyoro region.
Their lawyer Crispus Ayena Odongo said: "Before this war the population of Bunyoro was stated to be 2.5 million. But by the end of the war there were only 150,000 Bunyoro that could be accounted for.
"The people who were responsible for invading the place should tell us where the rest are."
When the British began their colonial project in present-day Uganda they were received warmly by one the country's largest tribes, the Buganda, according to several historical works.
However, the Bunyoro, the other dominant kingdom in the area, was resistant.
The suit alleges that between 1893-1899 the British, using their own fighters and those imported from Buganda, decimated Bunyoro in an attempt to force the tribal monarch to sign an agreement with the colonial government.
Odongo, who previously served as the chief legal adviser to the Lord's Resistance Army rebel militia during failed peace talks, said his case relied heavily on dairies from colonial field officers.
He said the kingdom had never recovered from the massive losses by the British backed invasion.
The case is currently pending in a Ugandan court.
Britain has hired local legal representatives who have insisted the British government enjoys diplomatic immunity.
The 10 named citizens are senior officials from Bunyoro's Kibaale district.
2 February 2010
The group are seeking damages for crimes committed during the 1893-1899 war in the northwestern Bunyoro region.
Their lawyer Crispus Ayena Odongo said: "Before this war the population of Bunyoro was stated to be 2.5 million. But by the end of the war there were only 150,000 Bunyoro that could be accounted for.
"The people who were responsible for invading the place should tell us where the rest are."
When the British began their colonial project in present-day Uganda they were received warmly by one the country's largest tribes, the Buganda, according to several historical works.
However, the Bunyoro, the other dominant kingdom in the area, was resistant.
The suit alleges that between 1893-1899 the British, using their own fighters and those imported from Buganda, decimated Bunyoro in an attempt to force the tribal monarch to sign an agreement with the colonial government.
Odongo, who previously served as the chief legal adviser to the Lord's Resistance Army rebel militia during failed peace talks, said his case relied heavily on dairies from colonial field officers.
He said the kingdom had never recovered from the massive losses by the British backed invasion.
The case is currently pending in a Ugandan court.
Britain has hired local legal representatives who have insisted the British government enjoys diplomatic immunity.
The 10 named citizens are senior officials from Bunyoro's Kibaale district.
Kenya considers deploying troops to Somalia.
Garowe Online
2 February 2010
Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula said his country is contemplating about sending peacekeeping troops to the neighboring war-torn Somalia.
Wetangula told reporters in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia that they can’t be sit back and watch as Somalia disintegrate into further chaos.
“Somalia is our neighbor and its stability is our responsibility because the fire burning there is also reaching us,” said Wetangula.
Kenya’s president Mwai Kibaki who addressed AU summit in Addis said the escalating conflict in Somalia is affecting his country, pledging support to end the conflict.
However, Nigerian Foreign Affairs Minister said his country is not ready to deploy troops to Somalia at the moment, arguing that there is no peace to keep.
Djibouti, a neighboring country that plays crucial role in Somalia’s peace and reconciliation process, said it’s deploying some 450 troops to join the 5,300 AU peacekeeping forces, which are mainly from Uganda and Burundi.
2 February 2010
Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula said his country is contemplating about sending peacekeeping troops to the neighboring war-torn Somalia.
Wetangula told reporters in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia that they can’t be sit back and watch as Somalia disintegrate into further chaos.
“Somalia is our neighbor and its stability is our responsibility because the fire burning there is also reaching us,” said Wetangula.
Kenya’s president Mwai Kibaki who addressed AU summit in Addis said the escalating conflict in Somalia is affecting his country, pledging support to end the conflict.
However, Nigerian Foreign Affairs Minister said his country is not ready to deploy troops to Somalia at the moment, arguing that there is no peace to keep.
Djibouti, a neighboring country that plays crucial role in Somalia’s peace and reconciliation process, said it’s deploying some 450 troops to join the 5,300 AU peacekeeping forces, which are mainly from Uganda and Burundi.
Rwandan Democratic Green Party registration dossier takes another twist.
Rwandan News Agency
2 February 2010
The quest by the troubled Green Party to acquire a clearance certificate from the Rwandan National Police has taken another twist – as the Commissioner General claims the police have no authority to give permission to anybody to hold a public gathering, RNA reports.
In November, Gasabo district refused to grant the group permission to hold a delegates conference on its territory and demanded they provide an official police clearance indicating they would not cause more trouble like what had happened earlier at a previous conference.
In subsequent letters, the Police Commissioner General, Brig. Gen. Emmanuel Gasana, told the Green Party that he would not provide any clearance as investigations were still ongoing to determine what transpired on October 30 when violence suddenly broke out at their conference.
Now, the Commissioner General indicates that the police do not have the powers to give permission to any organization or individual to hold a public meeting. “Instead, we (police) have the responsibility to provide security for all people and their property in general,” writes General Gasana in a January 22 letter.
It is not clear if this will be sufficient grounds to convince the districts to allow the group to converge on their territory. Green Party leader Mr. Frank Habineza says they are going ahead with submitting a new request to hold the delegates' congress.
In the latest communication, the police chief does not make any reference to the issues raised in his previous letters. Gen. Gasana had demanded that the Green Party provide information on the people who abruptly started throwing chairs as the party prepared to start its conference. Several people were seriously injured as they fled out of the hall for dear life.
The delegates’ conference is crucial, according to the Green Party, because it is at this event that the nomination signatures of its delegates are put together as part of a dossier to be submitted to the Ministry of Local Government for registration of their political organization.
This has not been possible since around August last year as different hurdles have arose.
First, there was no government notary to notify the nomination signatures. When this was cleared, Nyarugenge district in Kigali – where the conference was due - raised still more hurdles. Then came the chaos of October 30 which resulted into the police halting the conference, allegedly for security reasons.
The group then shifted strategy – preferring to have the conference in another district, choosing neighbouring Gasabo district. The now embattled former Mayor of Gasabo district, Ms. Claudine Nyinawagaga, refused the Greens any space and asked for a police clearance. She has since resigned, allegedly over different matters, as well as Nyarugenge's Mayor, Origene Rutayisire.
As the situation stands at the moment, Green Party officials say: “It looks positive”.
2 February 2010
The quest by the troubled Green Party to acquire a clearance certificate from the Rwandan National Police has taken another twist – as the Commissioner General claims the police have no authority to give permission to anybody to hold a public gathering, RNA reports.
In November, Gasabo district refused to grant the group permission to hold a delegates conference on its territory and demanded they provide an official police clearance indicating they would not cause more trouble like what had happened earlier at a previous conference.
In subsequent letters, the Police Commissioner General, Brig. Gen. Emmanuel Gasana, told the Green Party that he would not provide any clearance as investigations were still ongoing to determine what transpired on October 30 when violence suddenly broke out at their conference.
Now, the Commissioner General indicates that the police do not have the powers to give permission to any organization or individual to hold a public meeting. “Instead, we (police) have the responsibility to provide security for all people and their property in general,” writes General Gasana in a January 22 letter.
It is not clear if this will be sufficient grounds to convince the districts to allow the group to converge on their territory. Green Party leader Mr. Frank Habineza says they are going ahead with submitting a new request to hold the delegates' congress.
In the latest communication, the police chief does not make any reference to the issues raised in his previous letters. Gen. Gasana had demanded that the Green Party provide information on the people who abruptly started throwing chairs as the party prepared to start its conference. Several people were seriously injured as they fled out of the hall for dear life.
The delegates’ conference is crucial, according to the Green Party, because it is at this event that the nomination signatures of its delegates are put together as part of a dossier to be submitted to the Ministry of Local Government for registration of their political organization.
This has not been possible since around August last year as different hurdles have arose.
First, there was no government notary to notify the nomination signatures. When this was cleared, Nyarugenge district in Kigali – where the conference was due - raised still more hurdles. Then came the chaos of October 30 which resulted into the police halting the conference, allegedly for security reasons.
The group then shifted strategy – preferring to have the conference in another district, choosing neighbouring Gasabo district. The now embattled former Mayor of Gasabo district, Ms. Claudine Nyinawagaga, refused the Greens any space and asked for a police clearance. She has since resigned, allegedly over different matters, as well as Nyarugenge's Mayor, Origene Rutayisire.
As the situation stands at the moment, Green Party officials say: “It looks positive”.
Foreign Firms Angle for Uganda's Oil Reserves.
by Guy Chazan and Nicholas Bariyo
The Wall Street Journal
2/1/2010
URL: http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=86691
A skirmish over an oil field on the shores of Africa's Lake Albert highlights Big Oil's intense interest in Uganda -- a rising star of African energy.
The battle centers on the Ugandan assets of Heritage Oil PLC, a small U.K.-based explorer, which is selling its stakes in the much-coveted Lake Albert Rift Basin. The area has yielded some of sub-Saharan Africa's largest onshore oil discoveries of recent years.
Big energy companies like Italy's Eni SpA, France's Total SA and China National Offshore Oil Co. all are vying for access to Uganda's oil wealth. Uganda's onshore oil is particularly appealing because it is relatively inexpensive to produce. That sets it apart from other frontier provinces, like the deep waters off Brazil's coast and the Arctic Ocean, where the majors require an oil price of around $60 a barrel just to break even.
Initially, Eni looked to be the likely winner, announcing in November that it was buying Heritage's stakes for $1.5 billion in cash and assets. But Tullow Oil PLC, Heritage's partner in the oil field, exercised its contractual right to block the sale and acquire the stakes itself at the same price.
Tullow's purchase, however, is subject to approval by the Ugandan government. The initial reaction was negative, with the country's energy minister saying the government didn't want one company to end up with control of the whole oil field and would prevent the sale if necessary.
Heritage and Tullow share ownership of two blocks in the oil field, while Tullow owns all of a third. Acquiring Heritage's stakes would give Tullow full ownership of all three blocks, covering 3,900 square miles, more than twice the area of Rhode Island.
The government's position appeared to soften after Tullow Chief Executive Aidan Heavey met with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in Kampala recently. Tullow said that once in full possession of the oil field it would sell half to either Cnooc or Total to help finance the construction of a refinery and an 800-mile pipeline that would carry the oil to world markets.
Such an arrangement would allow Tullow to control who it works with as well as concentrate on its core activities -- exploring for and pumping oil, rather than refining and transporting it to market.
Tullow also announced plans last Wednesday to raise around $1.6 billion in a rights issue to help it develop Uganda's oil.
Tullow now is the favorite to take the Heritage stakes, with Cnooc edging out Total as Tullow's most-likely partner, a person familiar with the matter said. Mr. Museveni met with Cnooc executives in Kampala last week and is expected to meet them again this week to finalize details, the person said. Cnooc and Total declined to comment.
Eni hasn't given up, however, and last week sweetened its package. The company's CEO, Paolo Scaroni, said in a newspaper interview that Eni would not only develop the Lake Albert field and build a refinery and pipeline to the Indian Ocean, but also would construct an electricity plant in Uganda and upgrade a railway line from Kampala to the Kenyan port of Mombasa. He said Eni would invest $13 billion in the "integrated development plan." Eni declined to comment for this article.
Tullow declined to comment on Eni's new offer.
What has attracted companies like Eni to Uganda is the one billion barrels of crude already discovered in the Lake Albert Rift Basin, a vast, oil-rich area close to Uganda's border with Congo to the west, and the huge untapped potential of the region. Tullow estimates that about 1.5 billion barrels, roughly the same amount as Yemen's oil reserves, remain to be discovered in the basin.
Uganda also is seen as more stable politically than many of its neighbors.
Uganda plans to produce around 150,000 barrels of oil a day in four to six years, most of which will be exported. For comparison, that is slightly less than the output of Brunei. The steady revenue stream from oil could radically change the fortunes of the east African country, one of the world's poorest.
The Wall Street Journal
2/1/2010
URL: http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=86691
A skirmish over an oil field on the shores of Africa's Lake Albert highlights Big Oil's intense interest in Uganda -- a rising star of African energy.
The battle centers on the Ugandan assets of Heritage Oil PLC, a small U.K.-based explorer, which is selling its stakes in the much-coveted Lake Albert Rift Basin. The area has yielded some of sub-Saharan Africa's largest onshore oil discoveries of recent years.
Big energy companies like Italy's Eni SpA, France's Total SA and China National Offshore Oil Co. all are vying for access to Uganda's oil wealth. Uganda's onshore oil is particularly appealing because it is relatively inexpensive to produce. That sets it apart from other frontier provinces, like the deep waters off Brazil's coast and the Arctic Ocean, where the majors require an oil price of around $60 a barrel just to break even.
Initially, Eni looked to be the likely winner, announcing in November that it was buying Heritage's stakes for $1.5 billion in cash and assets. But Tullow Oil PLC, Heritage's partner in the oil field, exercised its contractual right to block the sale and acquire the stakes itself at the same price.
Tullow's purchase, however, is subject to approval by the Ugandan government. The initial reaction was negative, with the country's energy minister saying the government didn't want one company to end up with control of the whole oil field and would prevent the sale if necessary.
Heritage and Tullow share ownership of two blocks in the oil field, while Tullow owns all of a third. Acquiring Heritage's stakes would give Tullow full ownership of all three blocks, covering 3,900 square miles, more than twice the area of Rhode Island.
The government's position appeared to soften after Tullow Chief Executive Aidan Heavey met with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in Kampala recently. Tullow said that once in full possession of the oil field it would sell half to either Cnooc or Total to help finance the construction of a refinery and an 800-mile pipeline that would carry the oil to world markets.
Such an arrangement would allow Tullow to control who it works with as well as concentrate on its core activities -- exploring for and pumping oil, rather than refining and transporting it to market.
Tullow also announced plans last Wednesday to raise around $1.6 billion in a rights issue to help it develop Uganda's oil.
Tullow now is the favorite to take the Heritage stakes, with Cnooc edging out Total as Tullow's most-likely partner, a person familiar with the matter said. Mr. Museveni met with Cnooc executives in Kampala last week and is expected to meet them again this week to finalize details, the person said. Cnooc and Total declined to comment.
Eni hasn't given up, however, and last week sweetened its package. The company's CEO, Paolo Scaroni, said in a newspaper interview that Eni would not only develop the Lake Albert field and build a refinery and pipeline to the Indian Ocean, but also would construct an electricity plant in Uganda and upgrade a railway line from Kampala to the Kenyan port of Mombasa. He said Eni would invest $13 billion in the "integrated development plan." Eni declined to comment for this article.
Tullow declined to comment on Eni's new offer.
What has attracted companies like Eni to Uganda is the one billion barrels of crude already discovered in the Lake Albert Rift Basin, a vast, oil-rich area close to Uganda's border with Congo to the west, and the huge untapped potential of the region. Tullow estimates that about 1.5 billion barrels, roughly the same amount as Yemen's oil reserves, remain to be discovered in the basin.
Uganda also is seen as more stable politically than many of its neighbors.
Uganda plans to produce around 150,000 barrels of oil a day in four to six years, most of which will be exported. For comparison, that is slightly less than the output of Brunei. The steady revenue stream from oil could radically change the fortunes of the east African country, one of the world's poorest.
Editor jailed for criticising Ethiopian PM.
CPJ
2 February 2010
An Ethiopian judge sentenced a journalist to prison on Friday in connection with a January 2008 column that criticised Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's statements about religious affairs in Ethiopia, according to local journalists.
Federal High Court Judge Mohammed Omar sentenced editor Ezedin Mohamed of the Muslim-oriented newspaper Al-Quds to one year in prison.
The precise charges were not immediately available but were related to a January 30, 2008, column that came in response to Zenawi's interview with The Guardian of London that month, according to CPJ sources.
The Al-Quds column challenged PM Zenawi's characterisation of his country as "Orthodox Christian", one source said.
Mohamed has begun serving his sentence at Kality Prison outside the capital, Addis Ababa, sources said.
"The jailing of Ezedin Mohamed is another example of Ethiopia's intolerance of independent and critical voices," said CPJ Africa programme coordinator Tom Rhodes.
"It is high time for Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to demonstrate his committment to democratic values by ending the practice of imprisoning journalists."
Mohamed is the fifth journalist imprisoned in Ethiopia, which is the second worst jailer of journalists in Africa, according to CPJ research.
2 February 2010
An Ethiopian judge sentenced a journalist to prison on Friday in connection with a January 2008 column that criticised Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's statements about religious affairs in Ethiopia, according to local journalists.
Federal High Court Judge Mohammed Omar sentenced editor Ezedin Mohamed of the Muslim-oriented newspaper Al-Quds to one year in prison.
The precise charges were not immediately available but were related to a January 30, 2008, column that came in response to Zenawi's interview with The Guardian of London that month, according to CPJ sources.
The Al-Quds column challenged PM Zenawi's characterisation of his country as "Orthodox Christian", one source said.
Mohamed has begun serving his sentence at Kality Prison outside the capital, Addis Ababa, sources said.
"The jailing of Ezedin Mohamed is another example of Ethiopia's intolerance of independent and critical voices," said CPJ Africa programme coordinator Tom Rhodes.
"It is high time for Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to demonstrate his committment to democratic values by ending the practice of imprisoning journalists."
Mohamed is the fifth journalist imprisoned in Ethiopia, which is the second worst jailer of journalists in Africa, according to CPJ research.
Pres. Museveni shakes up top army command.
Daily Monitor
2 February 2010
By Risdel Kasasira
Editor's Note: Exporting some internal rivals like Rwanda? Time will tell.
President Museveni has re-deployed two bush war fighters - brigadiers Stephen Kashaka and Pecos Kutesa who have been on Katebe (without deployment) for almost a decade.
The new changes were announced yesterday by the Chief of Defence Forces, Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, to all army units, the military sources told Daily Monitor.
Brig. Kashaka has been sent to South Africa as military attaché, while Brig. Kutesa was promoted to Major General and redeployed as the boss of the newly created chieftaincy of doctrines in UPDF – a unit that is expected to formulate the army’s fighting and training ideology.
Staff College changes
In other changes, Maj. Gen. Andrew Gutti, the commandant of Kabamba Military Training School and his deputy, Col. Mathew Gureme have been transferred to Senior Staff and Command College Kimaka as commandant and directing staff respectively.
Col. Gureme who has been the Chief Instructor at Kabamba, where the vice president’s son, Bryan Bukenya was doing a cadet training before he died in a motor-accident in Mityana last year.
Gen. Gutti has been replaced by Brig. Clovis Kalyebala while Col. Dick Olum has succeeded Col. Gureme as the new Chief Instructor. Brig. Kalyebala was acting commandant at Kimaka.
The re-deployment of Brig. Kashaka and now Maj. Gen. Kutesa is being seen as a token of appreciation to the two senior bush war fighters as the army prepares to celebrate its 29-years anniversary on February 6.
Defence/military spokesman Lt. Col Felix Kulayigye confirmed the changes yesterday, saying Gen. Kutesa’s new role is to implement UPDF’s “training and fighting doctrines”.
“Every army has their doctrine. UPDF has been developing one on how we train and fight and Gen. Kutesa will see us through this process of implementation,” he said by telephone.
Army celebrations
After he was sacked as 4th division commander in the mid 1990s, Gen. Kutesa, went into writing political-philosophy and his memoirs “How I saw It” that tells his involvement in the five-year guerrilla warfare led by Museveni in Luwero Triangle.
Brig. Kashaka was the UPDF Chief of Personnel and Administration until 2001 when he was sacked along with 20 senior officers on accusations of creating ghost soldiers on the army payroll. His cases, before the Military Court Martial, have since been dropped and he will replace Col. John Kasaija at the South African embassy.
Col. Kasaija has been recalled to head Military Police formerly commanded by Lt. Col Michael Kabango. Col. Kabango is returning to Somalia for the African Union Peacekeeping mission.
Other changes have been made in the engineering brigade, which has become a critical unit for the UPDF because of the army construction projects.
Col. Solomon Amanya, who has been the Brigade Training and Operations Officer, will oversee the construction of houses and offices of Amisom staff in Mogadishu. The construction is to enable Amisom head offices shift from Nairobi to Mogadishu.
Lt. Col Sam Nkeera, who has been the field engineering officer, under the same brigade, has been transferred to the office of disaster preparedness under the Prime Minister.
Col. Nkeera’s deputy, Lt. Col Wilson Kabera has been transferred to Karama Training School in Mubende as the deputy commandant to Col. Geoffrey Kyazze.
2 February 2010
By Risdel Kasasira
Editor's Note: Exporting some internal rivals like Rwanda? Time will tell.
President Museveni has re-deployed two bush war fighters - brigadiers Stephen Kashaka and Pecos Kutesa who have been on Katebe (without deployment) for almost a decade.
The new changes were announced yesterday by the Chief of Defence Forces, Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, to all army units, the military sources told Daily Monitor.
Brig. Kashaka has been sent to South Africa as military attaché, while Brig. Kutesa was promoted to Major General and redeployed as the boss of the newly created chieftaincy of doctrines in UPDF – a unit that is expected to formulate the army’s fighting and training ideology.
Staff College changes
In other changes, Maj. Gen. Andrew Gutti, the commandant of Kabamba Military Training School and his deputy, Col. Mathew Gureme have been transferred to Senior Staff and Command College Kimaka as commandant and directing staff respectively.
Col. Gureme who has been the Chief Instructor at Kabamba, where the vice president’s son, Bryan Bukenya was doing a cadet training before he died in a motor-accident in Mityana last year.
Gen. Gutti has been replaced by Brig. Clovis Kalyebala while Col. Dick Olum has succeeded Col. Gureme as the new Chief Instructor. Brig. Kalyebala was acting commandant at Kimaka.
The re-deployment of Brig. Kashaka and now Maj. Gen. Kutesa is being seen as a token of appreciation to the two senior bush war fighters as the army prepares to celebrate its 29-years anniversary on February 6.
Defence/military spokesman Lt. Col Felix Kulayigye confirmed the changes yesterday, saying Gen. Kutesa’s new role is to implement UPDF’s “training and fighting doctrines”.
“Every army has their doctrine. UPDF has been developing one on how we train and fight and Gen. Kutesa will see us through this process of implementation,” he said by telephone.
Army celebrations
After he was sacked as 4th division commander in the mid 1990s, Gen. Kutesa, went into writing political-philosophy and his memoirs “How I saw It” that tells his involvement in the five-year guerrilla warfare led by Museveni in Luwero Triangle.
Brig. Kashaka was the UPDF Chief of Personnel and Administration until 2001 when he was sacked along with 20 senior officers on accusations of creating ghost soldiers on the army payroll. His cases, before the Military Court Martial, have since been dropped and he will replace Col. John Kasaija at the South African embassy.
Col. Kasaija has been recalled to head Military Police formerly commanded by Lt. Col Michael Kabango. Col. Kabango is returning to Somalia for the African Union Peacekeeping mission.
Other changes have been made in the engineering brigade, which has become a critical unit for the UPDF because of the army construction projects.
Col. Solomon Amanya, who has been the Brigade Training and Operations Officer, will oversee the construction of houses and offices of Amisom staff in Mogadishu. The construction is to enable Amisom head offices shift from Nairobi to Mogadishu.
Lt. Col Sam Nkeera, who has been the field engineering officer, under the same brigade, has been transferred to the office of disaster preparedness under the Prime Minister.
Col. Nkeera’s deputy, Lt. Col Wilson Kabera has been transferred to Karama Training School in Mubende as the deputy commandant to Col. Geoffrey Kyazze.
01 February, 2010
Iran Asks Museveni to Help Lobby Against UN sanctions.
256 News
1 February 2010
Iran has asked Uganda as a member of the UN Security Council to lobby the UN in their favor to stop the impending sanctions against Tehran because of their possession of uranium.
In February 2003, Iran revealed its uranium enrichment programme at Natanz, which it said it was using the technology for peaceful purposes and invited the UN nuclear monitoring body, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to visit the facility.
The US, however, alleged the Iran nuclear programme is part of a drive by Iran to develop nuclear weapons and sought to refer the Iranian case to the UN Security Council.
Nevertheless, the International Atomic Energy Agency said it could not confirm that Iran was not pursuing undeclared nuclear activities and referred the case to the UN Security Council.
The delegation, led by the Vice President and Head of the Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, met President Museveni at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where he is currently attending the 14th AU summit.
The Iranian delegation expressed concern over the pending sanctions saying that they would adversely affect the Iranian economy.
President Museveni and his visitors exchanged views on the current security situation both in the Great Lakes’ Region and in the Middle East. The Iranian visitors commended President Museveni for his efforts in fighting for peace in the region.
The President and his guests also discussed bilateral issues between Uganda and Iran including business and investment opportunities. The meeting between the President and the Iranian delegation is a follow up on the visit Mr. Museveni paid to Iran mid last year. The President extended an invitation to Iranian President Mr. Mahmood Ahmedinejad to visit Uganda.
1 February 2010
Iran has asked Uganda as a member of the UN Security Council to lobby the UN in their favor to stop the impending sanctions against Tehran because of their possession of uranium.
In February 2003, Iran revealed its uranium enrichment programme at Natanz, which it said it was using the technology for peaceful purposes and invited the UN nuclear monitoring body, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to visit the facility.
The US, however, alleged the Iran nuclear programme is part of a drive by Iran to develop nuclear weapons and sought to refer the Iranian case to the UN Security Council.
Nevertheless, the International Atomic Energy Agency said it could not confirm that Iran was not pursuing undeclared nuclear activities and referred the case to the UN Security Council.
The delegation, led by the Vice President and Head of the Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, met President Museveni at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where he is currently attending the 14th AU summit.
The Iranian delegation expressed concern over the pending sanctions saying that they would adversely affect the Iranian economy.
President Museveni and his visitors exchanged views on the current security situation both in the Great Lakes’ Region and in the Middle East. The Iranian visitors commended President Museveni for his efforts in fighting for peace in the region.
The President and his guests also discussed bilateral issues between Uganda and Iran including business and investment opportunities. The meeting between the President and the Iranian delegation is a follow up on the visit Mr. Museveni paid to Iran mid last year. The President extended an invitation to Iranian President Mr. Mahmood Ahmedinejad to visit Uganda.
Volta Resources says Burkina Faso gold mine will start producing in 2014.
Reuters
1 February 2010
Toronto-listed Volta Resources expects a pre-feasibility study at its Kiaka gold mine in Burkina Faso to start in second half of 2010, with first production at the mine seen in 2014, the CEO said on Monday.
"The pre-feasibility study will take between six and nine months, starting in the second half of this year, so I would assume mid-2011 it would be done," Kevin Bullock, Volta's CEO told Reuters on the sidelines of an Africa mining conference in Cape Town.
"Should everything advance I don't expect to be in production prior to 2014," he said.
He could not estimate exactly how much production was likely pending the results of the feasibility study.
Volta Resources said earlier in January that the International Finance Corp had agreed to invest up to C$8 million in the Canadian company mainly to finance its exploration activities at the Kiaka gold project in West Africa.
Bullock said Kiaka was the most advanced of several properties it owned in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Mali. Volta purchased the mine from Randgold Resources Ltd in October 2009.
"The Kiaka gold project is very viable because it sounds like a low grade, and it is at one gram, but the deposit itself is 130 metres wide on average... so it's going to be cheap mining," he said of the mine with estimated resources of 2.65 million ounces.
Bullock said the 2010 gold price could peak out at $1,400 or $1,500 an ounce as investors looked for a safe haven during a global credit crunch.
"But I think between $1,100 and $1,200 (an ounce) is probably going to be the average for the year," he added.
1 February 2010
Toronto-listed Volta Resources expects a pre-feasibility study at its Kiaka gold mine in Burkina Faso to start in second half of 2010, with first production at the mine seen in 2014, the CEO said on Monday.
"The pre-feasibility study will take between six and nine months, starting in the second half of this year, so I would assume mid-2011 it would be done," Kevin Bullock, Volta's CEO told Reuters on the sidelines of an Africa mining conference in Cape Town.
"Should everything advance I don't expect to be in production prior to 2014," he said.
He could not estimate exactly how much production was likely pending the results of the feasibility study.
Volta Resources said earlier in January that the International Finance Corp had agreed to invest up to C$8 million in the Canadian company mainly to finance its exploration activities at the Kiaka gold project in West Africa.
Bullock said Kiaka was the most advanced of several properties it owned in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Mali. Volta purchased the mine from Randgold Resources Ltd in October 2009.
"The Kiaka gold project is very viable because it sounds like a low grade, and it is at one gram, but the deposit itself is 130 metres wide on average... so it's going to be cheap mining," he said of the mine with estimated resources of 2.65 million ounces.
Bullock said the 2010 gold price could peak out at $1,400 or $1,500 an ounce as investors looked for a safe haven during a global credit crunch.
"But I think between $1,100 and $1,200 (an ounce) is probably going to be the average for the year," he added.
UK plan to overthrow Saddam drawn up two years before the invasion.
The Independent
1 February 2010
By Michael Savage, Political Correspondent
A secret plan to foster an internal coup against Saddam Hussein was drawn up by the Government two years before the invasion of Iraq, The Independent can reveal.
Whitehall officials drafted the "contract with the Iraqi people" as a way of signalling to dissenters in Iraq that an overthrow of Saddam would be supported by Britain. It promised aid, oil contracts, debt cancellations and trade deals once the dictator had been removed. Tony Blair's team saw it as a way of creating regime change in Iraq even before the 9/11 attack on New York.
The document, headed "confidential UK/US eyes", was finalised on 11 June 2001 and approved by ministers. It has not been published by the Iraq inquiry but a copy has been obtained by The Independent and can be revealed for the first time today. It states: "We want to work with an Iraq which respects the rights of its people, lives at peace with its neighbours and which observes international law.
"The Iraqi people have the right to live in a society based on the rule of law, free from repression, torture and arbitrary arrest; to enjoy respect for human rights, economic freedom and prosperity," the contract reads. "The record of the current regime in Iraq suggests that its priorities remain elsewhere.
"Those who wish to promote change in Iraq deserve our support," it concludes. "We look forward to the day when Iraq rejoins the international community." A new regime was to be offered "debt rescheduling" through the Paris Club, an informal group of the richest 19 economies, given help from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and handed an EU aid and trade deal. Companies were to be invited to invest in its oil fields. A "comprehensive retraining programme" was to be offered to Iraqi professionals.
During his evidence to the inquiry last week, Mr Blair said it was only after 9/11 that serious attention was given to removing Saddam as the attack changed the "calculus of risk". However, another classified document released by the Iraq inquiry on Friday night showed that No 10 explicitly saw the Contract with the Iraqi People as an early tool to remove the former Iraqi dictator. A memo issued in March 2001 by Sir John Sawers, then Mr Blair's foreign policy adviser, cited the document under the heading "regime change".
"Regime change. The US and UK would re-make the case against Saddam Hussein. We would issue a Contract with the Iraqi People, setting out our goal of a peaceful, law-abiding Iraq," the memo states. "The Contract would make clear that the Iraqi regime's record and behaviour made it impossible for Iraq to meet the criteria for rejoining the international community without fundamental change."
Officials planned to release the contract alongside tougher sanctions against Saddam's regime being negotiated in 2001. When no agreement was reached and the US began to seek more active measures to remove the Baghdad administration after 9/11, the contract was dropped.
The document was not released by the Iraq inquiry, despite being cited as significant by Foreign Office officials. Sir William Patey, the Government's head of Middle East policy at the time it was drafted, said it was "our way in the Foreign Office of trying to signal that we didn't think Saddam was a good thing and it would be great if he went". He said it was used in place of an "explicit policy of trying to get rid of him".
"It was a way of signalling to the Iraqi people that because we don't have a policy of regime change, it doesn't mean to say we're happy with Saddam Hussein, and there is life after Saddam with Iraq being reintegrated into the international community," he said.
Ed Davey, the Foreign Affairs spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, said the document called into question Mr Blair's evidence and should have been made public before his hearing on Friday. "A plan to back Iraqis seeking to oust Saddam may have been far less damaging and certainly more legal than what happened. Yet it shows that Blair's intent was always for regime change from an early stage and before 9/11," he said. "Yet again, it seems that critical documents have not been declassified, hampering the questioning of Blair and others."
* Tony Blair is to be recalled by the Chilcot Inquiry to give further evidence, according to The Guardian. It claims that Mr Blair will be questioned in both public and in private after the panel raised concerns that his evidence relating to the legality of the invasion conflicted with that given by the former Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith.
1 February 2010
By Michael Savage, Political Correspondent
A secret plan to foster an internal coup against Saddam Hussein was drawn up by the Government two years before the invasion of Iraq, The Independent can reveal.
Whitehall officials drafted the "contract with the Iraqi people" as a way of signalling to dissenters in Iraq that an overthrow of Saddam would be supported by Britain. It promised aid, oil contracts, debt cancellations and trade deals once the dictator had been removed. Tony Blair's team saw it as a way of creating regime change in Iraq even before the 9/11 attack on New York.
The document, headed "confidential UK/US eyes", was finalised on 11 June 2001 and approved by ministers. It has not been published by the Iraq inquiry but a copy has been obtained by The Independent and can be revealed for the first time today. It states: "We want to work with an Iraq which respects the rights of its people, lives at peace with its neighbours and which observes international law.
"The Iraqi people have the right to live in a society based on the rule of law, free from repression, torture and arbitrary arrest; to enjoy respect for human rights, economic freedom and prosperity," the contract reads. "The record of the current regime in Iraq suggests that its priorities remain elsewhere.
"Those who wish to promote change in Iraq deserve our support," it concludes. "We look forward to the day when Iraq rejoins the international community." A new regime was to be offered "debt rescheduling" through the Paris Club, an informal group of the richest 19 economies, given help from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and handed an EU aid and trade deal. Companies were to be invited to invest in its oil fields. A "comprehensive retraining programme" was to be offered to Iraqi professionals.
During his evidence to the inquiry last week, Mr Blair said it was only after 9/11 that serious attention was given to removing Saddam as the attack changed the "calculus of risk". However, another classified document released by the Iraq inquiry on Friday night showed that No 10 explicitly saw the Contract with the Iraqi People as an early tool to remove the former Iraqi dictator. A memo issued in March 2001 by Sir John Sawers, then Mr Blair's foreign policy adviser, cited the document under the heading "regime change".
"Regime change. The US and UK would re-make the case against Saddam Hussein. We would issue a Contract with the Iraqi People, setting out our goal of a peaceful, law-abiding Iraq," the memo states. "The Contract would make clear that the Iraqi regime's record and behaviour made it impossible for Iraq to meet the criteria for rejoining the international community without fundamental change."
Officials planned to release the contract alongside tougher sanctions against Saddam's regime being negotiated in 2001. When no agreement was reached and the US began to seek more active measures to remove the Baghdad administration after 9/11, the contract was dropped.
The document was not released by the Iraq inquiry, despite being cited as significant by Foreign Office officials. Sir William Patey, the Government's head of Middle East policy at the time it was drafted, said it was "our way in the Foreign Office of trying to signal that we didn't think Saddam was a good thing and it would be great if he went". He said it was used in place of an "explicit policy of trying to get rid of him".
"It was a way of signalling to the Iraqi people that because we don't have a policy of regime change, it doesn't mean to say we're happy with Saddam Hussein, and there is life after Saddam with Iraq being reintegrated into the international community," he said.
Ed Davey, the Foreign Affairs spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, said the document called into question Mr Blair's evidence and should have been made public before his hearing on Friday. "A plan to back Iraqis seeking to oust Saddam may have been far less damaging and certainly more legal than what happened. Yet it shows that Blair's intent was always for regime change from an early stage and before 9/11," he said. "Yet again, it seems that critical documents have not been declassified, hampering the questioning of Blair and others."
* Tony Blair is to be recalled by the Chilcot Inquiry to give further evidence, according to The Guardian. It claims that Mr Blair will be questioned in both public and in private after the panel raised concerns that his evidence relating to the legality of the invasion conflicted with that given by the former Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith.
SA arms supporting rogue states, opposition.
Afrol News
1 February 2010
The South African government has been accused of supporting rogue and dictatorships across the African continent because of the lack of control in its arms deals.
The opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) in the country has said the national conventional arms control committee (NCACC) lacks administrative control and thereby putting the state deals at high risk of supplying black spots in the continent.
The DA’s comment follows a report by the auditor-general which has found that the NCACC could not fully account on the activities, especially those related to the issuing of permits and other controls.
SAPA reported the DA’s spokesman, David Maynier, having said in a statement on Sunday that the register of permits for the international sale of weapons could not be traced.
"The (auditor-general's) report shows that at least 58 arms transactions with clients in at least 26 countries took place without the legally required input by relevant government departments," Maynier was quoted.
Mr Maynier stated that in at least 17 transactions, there were no delivery verification certificates, meaning arms could have been sold to rogue states, further adding that in some cases, the certificate indicating the end-user was missing.
The DA has demanded that the chair of Parliament's portfolio committee on defence and military, to urgently brief Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Jeff Radebe, who is also chairman of the NCACC, on the steps being taken to improve the NCACC's administrative capacity.
The issue of arms in South Africa has been in the centre since the infamous arms deal saga which saw people like current President Jacob Zuma and his close business friends being quizzed. The arms deal saga involved millions worth of Rands and other gifts said to have been splashed across the political key figures of the post apartheid regime in South Africa.
1 February 2010
The South African government has been accused of supporting rogue and dictatorships across the African continent because of the lack of control in its arms deals.
The opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) in the country has said the national conventional arms control committee (NCACC) lacks administrative control and thereby putting the state deals at high risk of supplying black spots in the continent.
The DA’s comment follows a report by the auditor-general which has found that the NCACC could not fully account on the activities, especially those related to the issuing of permits and other controls.
SAPA reported the DA’s spokesman, David Maynier, having said in a statement on Sunday that the register of permits for the international sale of weapons could not be traced.
"The (auditor-general's) report shows that at least 58 arms transactions with clients in at least 26 countries took place without the legally required input by relevant government departments," Maynier was quoted.
Mr Maynier stated that in at least 17 transactions, there were no delivery verification certificates, meaning arms could have been sold to rogue states, further adding that in some cases, the certificate indicating the end-user was missing.
The DA has demanded that the chair of Parliament's portfolio committee on defence and military, to urgently brief Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Jeff Radebe, who is also chairman of the NCACC, on the steps being taken to improve the NCACC's administrative capacity.
The issue of arms in South Africa has been in the centre since the infamous arms deal saga which saw people like current President Jacob Zuma and his close business friends being quizzed. The arms deal saga involved millions worth of Rands and other gifts said to have been splashed across the political key figures of the post apartheid regime in South Africa.
US Ties Israeli Billionaire Leviev With Chinese Intelligence.
Haaretz
31 January 2010
By Yossi Melman
The Admiralty complex is one of the trademarks of Hong Kong's urban landscape. Overlooking the port, the complex used to house the soldiers of the British army and the headquarters of the Royal Navy in the region. Today it is part of the city's business center. One building there houses a group of companies nicknamed the 88 Queensway Group (the address of the building), which the U.S. administration suspects is nothing more than a cover for activity conducted by the People's Republic of China's foreign intelligence. Wu Yang, one of the group's senior directors, provided the Registrar of Companies in Hong Kong with an address that matches the address of Chinese foreign intelligence.
The suspicions were spelled out in a report recently compiled by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, which was established by Congress in 2000 in order to "monitor, investigate and submit to Congress an annual report on the national security implications of the bilateral trade and economic relationship between the United States and the People's Republic of China, and to provide recommendations, where appropriate, to Congress for legislative and administrative action." The report noted, among other things, that the group of Chinese corporations has business ties with Israeli businessman and diamond magnate Lev Leviev.
Using the group, Chinese intelligence acquires oil and energy companies and other important assets in countries in Africa, Latin American, Southeast Asia, as well as in the United States. In this way it promotes Chinese national interests, increases its influence and guarantees the supply of raw materials - first and foremost oil - necessary for its economy.
China is already an important economic-diplomatic and security factor in Africa, and the day is not far off when it will become the major power on that continent - surpassing the United States, France and Great Britain in importance. It has large investments in Congo-Brazzaville, Guinea, Zambia, Nigeria and Angola. Some of these countries are oil producers and some are subject to U.S. and EU boycotts due to their human rights situations. For China, however, the absence of human rights is not an obstacle. Trade between China and African nations has increased tenfold in the past nine years - from $10 billion in 2000 to $107 billion in 2009.
China also aims to penetrate the economies of Argentina and Venezuela. By means of liaisons, the directors of the Chinese companies have succeeded in forging personal ties with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and Nestor Kirchner, the former president of Argentina who is married to the current president.
The three businessmen
The Chinese companies are assisted in some of their international activities by the Angolan government, a rising economic power in Africa, and particularly its national oil company Sonangol. The report mentions three international businessmen connected to the Angolan-Chinese cooperation, with the help of a company called China-Sonangol, which is registered in Hong Kong. China-Sonangol is part of the 88 Queensway Group.
One is Helder Battaglia, a Portuguese businessman with close ties to Angolan President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, as well as Chavez and Kirchner. Battaglia has varied investments in Angola, Congo and Latin America. The second is Pierre Falcone, a French businessman who was Arcadi Gaydamak's partner, and together with Gaydamak was involved in supplying arms to the tune of about $800 million to Angola in the 1990s. Falcone, Gaydamak and others were recently convicted in a French court for illegal arms trade conducted in the '90s. In recent years, Falcone moved the main center of his business to Beijing, and has become the person who opens Angola's doors to China (for huge fees). Gaydamak is not mentioned at all in the report; it is known that he is at odds with Falcone and the two are embroiled in legal proceedings over the profits of the arms deal.
The third businessman mentioned in the American report is Lev Leviev, who was Gaydamak's partner and who according to the report continues to have a strong standing in Angola, where he has mines, diamond polishing plants and a diamond trade company.
The report does not note whether there are business connections among the three - or in fact any acquaintance whatsoever. It does mention that Leviev is considered a close friend of Isabel Dos Santos, the president's daughter. There have been newspaper reports and investigations in the past, which claim she is a partner in several of Leviev's diamond businesses in Angola.
According to the new American report, due to his standing in Angola, Leviev came to know the Chinese companies and began to form business ties with them. These ties produced several huge deals involving the prestigious Manhattan real estate owned by Leviev and the companies owned by Africa Israel and Memorand. China Sonangol purchased the JP Morgan building on 23rd Street opposite the New York Stock Exchange for $150 million; for another $150 million it purchased 49 percent of the Met Life clock tower apartment building on Madison Avenue; and for about $400 million (including the purchase of the building's debts) acquired the old New York Times building, the jewel in the crown of Leviev's real estate empire.
Israel claimed in response that the findings are not correct, and that these are public companies which report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and whose activity is transparent. According to these sources, only one transaction actually took place: the purchase of the JP Morgan building.
The report casts no aspersions on Leviev or the transactions, nor does it claim they were improper or not kosher. But its authors emphasize that the 88 Queensway Group falsely represents itself as a "private" business when it actually is not.
"The lack of transparency and public accountability surrounding the 88 Queensway Group is a major concern for the United States," the report notes. "The 88 Queensway Group's purchase of high-profile real estate assets in the United States underscores the importance of identifying the extent of the group's connections to the Chinese intelligence community."
31 January 2010
By Yossi Melman
The Admiralty complex is one of the trademarks of Hong Kong's urban landscape. Overlooking the port, the complex used to house the soldiers of the British army and the headquarters of the Royal Navy in the region. Today it is part of the city's business center. One building there houses a group of companies nicknamed the 88 Queensway Group (the address of the building), which the U.S. administration suspects is nothing more than a cover for activity conducted by the People's Republic of China's foreign intelligence. Wu Yang, one of the group's senior directors, provided the Registrar of Companies in Hong Kong with an address that matches the address of Chinese foreign intelligence.
The suspicions were spelled out in a report recently compiled by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, which was established by Congress in 2000 in order to "monitor, investigate and submit to Congress an annual report on the national security implications of the bilateral trade and economic relationship between the United States and the People's Republic of China, and to provide recommendations, where appropriate, to Congress for legislative and administrative action." The report noted, among other things, that the group of Chinese corporations has business ties with Israeli businessman and diamond magnate Lev Leviev.
Using the group, Chinese intelligence acquires oil and energy companies and other important assets in countries in Africa, Latin American, Southeast Asia, as well as in the United States. In this way it promotes Chinese national interests, increases its influence and guarantees the supply of raw materials - first and foremost oil - necessary for its economy.
China is already an important economic-diplomatic and security factor in Africa, and the day is not far off when it will become the major power on that continent - surpassing the United States, France and Great Britain in importance. It has large investments in Congo-Brazzaville, Guinea, Zambia, Nigeria and Angola. Some of these countries are oil producers and some are subject to U.S. and EU boycotts due to their human rights situations. For China, however, the absence of human rights is not an obstacle. Trade between China and African nations has increased tenfold in the past nine years - from $10 billion in 2000 to $107 billion in 2009.
China also aims to penetrate the economies of Argentina and Venezuela. By means of liaisons, the directors of the Chinese companies have succeeded in forging personal ties with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and Nestor Kirchner, the former president of Argentina who is married to the current president.
The three businessmen
The Chinese companies are assisted in some of their international activities by the Angolan government, a rising economic power in Africa, and particularly its national oil company Sonangol. The report mentions three international businessmen connected to the Angolan-Chinese cooperation, with the help of a company called China-Sonangol, which is registered in Hong Kong. China-Sonangol is part of the 88 Queensway Group.
One is Helder Battaglia, a Portuguese businessman with close ties to Angolan President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, as well as Chavez and Kirchner. Battaglia has varied investments in Angola, Congo and Latin America. The second is Pierre Falcone, a French businessman who was Arcadi Gaydamak's partner, and together with Gaydamak was involved in supplying arms to the tune of about $800 million to Angola in the 1990s. Falcone, Gaydamak and others were recently convicted in a French court for illegal arms trade conducted in the '90s. In recent years, Falcone moved the main center of his business to Beijing, and has become the person who opens Angola's doors to China (for huge fees). Gaydamak is not mentioned at all in the report; it is known that he is at odds with Falcone and the two are embroiled in legal proceedings over the profits of the arms deal.
The third businessman mentioned in the American report is Lev Leviev, who was Gaydamak's partner and who according to the report continues to have a strong standing in Angola, where he has mines, diamond polishing plants and a diamond trade company.
The report does not note whether there are business connections among the three - or in fact any acquaintance whatsoever. It does mention that Leviev is considered a close friend of Isabel Dos Santos, the president's daughter. There have been newspaper reports and investigations in the past, which claim she is a partner in several of Leviev's diamond businesses in Angola.
According to the new American report, due to his standing in Angola, Leviev came to know the Chinese companies and began to form business ties with them. These ties produced several huge deals involving the prestigious Manhattan real estate owned by Leviev and the companies owned by Africa Israel and Memorand. China Sonangol purchased the JP Morgan building on 23rd Street opposite the New York Stock Exchange for $150 million; for another $150 million it purchased 49 percent of the Met Life clock tower apartment building on Madison Avenue; and for about $400 million (including the purchase of the building's debts) acquired the old New York Times building, the jewel in the crown of Leviev's real estate empire.
Israel claimed in response that the findings are not correct, and that these are public companies which report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and whose activity is transparent. According to these sources, only one transaction actually took place: the purchase of the JP Morgan building.
The report casts no aspersions on Leviev or the transactions, nor does it claim they were improper or not kosher. But its authors emphasize that the 88 Queensway Group falsely represents itself as a "private" business when it actually is not.
"The lack of transparency and public accountability surrounding the 88 Queensway Group is a major concern for the United States," the report notes. "The 88 Queensway Group's purchase of high-profile real estate assets in the United States underscores the importance of identifying the extent of the group's connections to the Chinese intelligence community."
Straw refuses to release notes on talks with BP executive over Libya.
The Scotsman
31 January 2010
By Eddie Barnes
Political Editor
Mr. Jack Straw is refusing to release notes of a conversation with a senior oil executive who lobbied him over Britain's relations with Libya just weeks before he allowed the Lockerbie bomber to apply for a return home.
The Justice Secretary took two calls in late 2007 from former MI6 agent Sir Mark Allan, who was then working for BP.
The oil giant that year signed a $900 million oil exploration deal with Libya but feared it could be damaged if Britain failed to secure a prisoner transfer agreement allowing Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi to apply to return home.
Straw is side-stepping demands under Freedom of Information laws to make the notes of the conversations public. He insists there was never any deal with the Libyans to offer oil deals to British firms in return for progress on Megrahi's release.
But opponents claim that until he releases the details of the conversation, suspicions will remain that oil was put before Lockerbie victims.
Megrahi returned to Libya last August, freed by the Scottish Government on compassionate grounds as he has terminal cancer.
The row dates back two and half years, to when the UK government was hoping to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Libya. Part of that deal was a prisoner transfer agreement which would allow Libyan prisoners in the UK to serve their terms in Libyan jails.
First Minister Alex Salmond met Straw in summer 2007 to ask that Megrahi be excluded from such an agreement. In December 2007, Straw said he could not agree to the request. It has since emerged he spoke to Allan on 15 October and 9 November 2007.
31 January 2010
By Eddie Barnes
Political Editor
Mr. Jack Straw is refusing to release notes of a conversation with a senior oil executive who lobbied him over Britain's relations with Libya just weeks before he allowed the Lockerbie bomber to apply for a return home.
The Justice Secretary took two calls in late 2007 from former MI6 agent Sir Mark Allan, who was then working for BP.
The oil giant that year signed a $900 million oil exploration deal with Libya but feared it could be damaged if Britain failed to secure a prisoner transfer agreement allowing Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi to apply to return home.
Straw is side-stepping demands under Freedom of Information laws to make the notes of the conversations public. He insists there was never any deal with the Libyans to offer oil deals to British firms in return for progress on Megrahi's release.
But opponents claim that until he releases the details of the conversation, suspicions will remain that oil was put before Lockerbie victims.
Megrahi returned to Libya last August, freed by the Scottish Government on compassionate grounds as he has terminal cancer.
The row dates back two and half years, to when the UK government was hoping to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Libya. Part of that deal was a prisoner transfer agreement which would allow Libyan prisoners in the UK to serve their terms in Libyan jails.
First Minister Alex Salmond met Straw in summer 2007 to ask that Megrahi be excluded from such an agreement. In December 2007, Straw said he could not agree to the request. It has since emerged he spoke to Allan on 15 October and 9 November 2007.
31 January, 2010
Malawi's president elected African Union leader.
AP
31 January 2010
Malawi's president has been elected as leader of the African Union, a position held by Moammar Gadhafi of Libya for the last year.
Malawi's President Bingu wa Mutharika was selected by the continental body at its annual summit Sunday. The chairmanship of the African Union is a rotating position held by heads of state for one year and gives the holder some influence over the continent's politics but carries no real executive power.
The AU's chairmanship also rotates among Africa's regions, with North Africa chairing for the past year.
Meetings to select the chairman are held in private. The leader is usually nominated and then chosen by consensus. AU officials would not give further details of the proceedings.
31 January 2010
Malawi's president has been elected as leader of the African Union, a position held by Moammar Gadhafi of Libya for the last year.
Malawi's President Bingu wa Mutharika was selected by the continental body at its annual summit Sunday. The chairmanship of the African Union is a rotating position held by heads of state for one year and gives the holder some influence over the continent's politics but carries no real executive power.
The AU's chairmanship also rotates among Africa's regions, with North Africa chairing for the past year.
Meetings to select the chairman are held in private. The leader is usually nominated and then chosen by consensus. AU officials would not give further details of the proceedings.
President Obama to seek major increase in nuclear weapons funding.
By Jonathan S. Landay
McClatchy Newspapers
January 29, 2010
The Obama administration plans to ask Congress to increase spending on the U.S. nuclear arsenal by more than $5 billion over the next five years as part of its strategy to halt the spread of nuclear weapons and eventually rid the world of them.
The administration argues that the boost is needed to ensure that U.S. warheads remain secure and work as designed as the arsenal shrinks and ages nearly 18 years into a moratorium on underground testing and more than two decades after large-scale warhead production ended.
The increase is also required to modernize facilities — some dating to World War II — that support the U.S. stockpile and to retain experts who "will help meet the president's goal of securing vulnerable nuclear materials worldwide . . . and enable us to track and thwart nuclear trafficking (and) verify weapons reductions," Vice President Joe Biden wrote in a Friday Wall Street Journal opinion piece.
The administration will seek an initial $600 million increase for nuclear weapons programs in the proposed 2011 budget it submits to Congress on Monday. That would increase annual spending on those programs by about 10 percent, to almost $7 billion.
The spending plan already has sparked controversy.
Some arms control advocates who ordinarily support the administration contend that the boost will fund unnecessary construction of new facilities that could give future administrations the ability to design and build new warheads, something that President Barack Obama has forsworn.
"Essentially the new facilities would allow an increase in the production of new warheads if they wanted to do that. They (the Obama administration) say they don't, but the next administration could," said Stephen Young of the Union of Concerned Scientists. "There are risks . . . for our overall non-proliferation goals."
Conservatives contend that with the arsenal to be slashed to no more than 1,675 deployed warheads under a new pact being finalized with Russia , U.S. security will depend on ending the testing moratorium and designing and fielding a new "modern" warhead.
"Nobody should kid themselves if they think there is a substitute for testing," said John Bolton , who served as the Bush administration's top nuclear arms control official and was an ambassador to the United Nations .
All 40 Republican senators and Sen. Joseph Lieberman , a Connecticut independent, implied in a letter to Obama last month that they'd block ratification of the new treaty with Russia unless he funds a "modern" warhead and new facilities at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and the Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
"We don't believe further reductions can be in the national security interest of the U.S. in the absence of as significant program to modernize our nuclear deterrent," wrote the senators, led by Republican Jon Kyl of Arizona .
Some experts said the administration apparently is hoping that its plan to boost spending on nuclear weapons will persuade enough Republicans to join Democrats in ratifying the new treaty with Russia and a global ban on underground testing known as the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
Iran and North Korea, however, could argue that the plan contradicts Obama's pledge to cut the U.S. arsenal and seek a nuclear weapons-free world in their campaigns to blunt U.S.-led efforts to halt their nuclear programs.
Other countries could see increased U.S. spending for nuclear weapons as backsliding by Obama, whose strategy helped win him the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.
"The tightrope the president has to walk is to put in enough funding to ensure everyone that the weapons will remain safe, secure and effective, but not so much that it looks like a new arms buildup," said Joseph Cirincione of the Ploughshares Fund , a foundation that underwrites arms control programs. "There is no question that some counties, friends and foes, will see the increased spending as a sign of U.S. hypocrisy."
Obama vowed to take "concrete steps towards a world without nuclear weapons" in an April 5 speech in the Czech Republic capital of Prague , warning that the growing danger of powers such as Iran or terrorist groups acquiring them puts "our survival" at risk.
He committed the U.S. to signing the new treaty with Moscow, de-emphasizing the role of nuclear weapons in U.S. defense strategy, joining the global ban on underground testing and bolstering the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the keystone of the international system to halt the spread of nuclear arms.
Obama, however, stipulated that "as long as these weapons exist, the U.S. will maintain a safe, secure and effective arsenal" to deter nuclear strikes on the U.S. or its allies.
Since the mid-1990s, the U.S. has used computer simulations, advanced experiments, inspections, monitoring and overhauls — the Stockpile Stewardship Program — to ensure the safety, security and effectiveness of its arsenal, now estimated at 2,200 deployed strategic warheads and 2,500 reserve strategic warheads.
A series of government and independent studies have certified the reliability of the arsenal. A September report by the JASONs, an independent advisory group, found that the "lifetimes of today's nuclear warheads could be extended for decades with no anticipated loss in confidence."
The JASONs' report, however, also added to concerns about a loss of U.S. nuclear weapons expertise, inadequate support for the Stockpile Stewardship Program and the need to modernize the Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico and the Lawrence Livermore laboratory in California and five other sites of the "nuclear complex" where warheads are maintained, monitored, overhauled and stored.
The National Nuclear Security Administration , the civilian agency that oversees the U.S. arsenal, is pursuing a multi-billion dollar plan to "transform" the complex by demolishing old, unsafe and unused facilities and consolidating their functions in modern, high-security buildings.
McClatchy Newspapers
January 29, 2010
The Obama administration plans to ask Congress to increase spending on the U.S. nuclear arsenal by more than $5 billion over the next five years as part of its strategy to halt the spread of nuclear weapons and eventually rid the world of them.
The administration argues that the boost is needed to ensure that U.S. warheads remain secure and work as designed as the arsenal shrinks and ages nearly 18 years into a moratorium on underground testing and more than two decades after large-scale warhead production ended.
The increase is also required to modernize facilities — some dating to World War II — that support the U.S. stockpile and to retain experts who "will help meet the president's goal of securing vulnerable nuclear materials worldwide . . . and enable us to track and thwart nuclear trafficking (and) verify weapons reductions," Vice President Joe Biden wrote in a Friday Wall Street Journal opinion piece.
The administration will seek an initial $600 million increase for nuclear weapons programs in the proposed 2011 budget it submits to Congress on Monday. That would increase annual spending on those programs by about 10 percent, to almost $7 billion.
The spending plan already has sparked controversy.
Some arms control advocates who ordinarily support the administration contend that the boost will fund unnecessary construction of new facilities that could give future administrations the ability to design and build new warheads, something that President Barack Obama has forsworn.
"Essentially the new facilities would allow an increase in the production of new warheads if they wanted to do that. They (the Obama administration) say they don't, but the next administration could," said Stephen Young of the Union of Concerned Scientists. "There are risks . . . for our overall non-proliferation goals."
Conservatives contend that with the arsenal to be slashed to no more than 1,675 deployed warheads under a new pact being finalized with Russia , U.S. security will depend on ending the testing moratorium and designing and fielding a new "modern" warhead.
"Nobody should kid themselves if they think there is a substitute for testing," said John Bolton , who served as the Bush administration's top nuclear arms control official and was an ambassador to the United Nations .
All 40 Republican senators and Sen. Joseph Lieberman , a Connecticut independent, implied in a letter to Obama last month that they'd block ratification of the new treaty with Russia unless he funds a "modern" warhead and new facilities at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and the Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
"We don't believe further reductions can be in the national security interest of the U.S. in the absence of as significant program to modernize our nuclear deterrent," wrote the senators, led by Republican Jon Kyl of Arizona .
Some experts said the administration apparently is hoping that its plan to boost spending on nuclear weapons will persuade enough Republicans to join Democrats in ratifying the new treaty with Russia and a global ban on underground testing known as the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
Iran and North Korea, however, could argue that the plan contradicts Obama's pledge to cut the U.S. arsenal and seek a nuclear weapons-free world in their campaigns to blunt U.S.-led efforts to halt their nuclear programs.
Other countries could see increased U.S. spending for nuclear weapons as backsliding by Obama, whose strategy helped win him the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.
"The tightrope the president has to walk is to put in enough funding to ensure everyone that the weapons will remain safe, secure and effective, but not so much that it looks like a new arms buildup," said Joseph Cirincione of the Ploughshares Fund , a foundation that underwrites arms control programs. "There is no question that some counties, friends and foes, will see the increased spending as a sign of U.S. hypocrisy."
Obama vowed to take "concrete steps towards a world without nuclear weapons" in an April 5 speech in the Czech Republic capital of Prague , warning that the growing danger of powers such as Iran or terrorist groups acquiring them puts "our survival" at risk.
He committed the U.S. to signing the new treaty with Moscow, de-emphasizing the role of nuclear weapons in U.S. defense strategy, joining the global ban on underground testing and bolstering the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the keystone of the international system to halt the spread of nuclear arms.
Obama, however, stipulated that "as long as these weapons exist, the U.S. will maintain a safe, secure and effective arsenal" to deter nuclear strikes on the U.S. or its allies.
Since the mid-1990s, the U.S. has used computer simulations, advanced experiments, inspections, monitoring and overhauls — the Stockpile Stewardship Program — to ensure the safety, security and effectiveness of its arsenal, now estimated at 2,200 deployed strategic warheads and 2,500 reserve strategic warheads.
A series of government and independent studies have certified the reliability of the arsenal. A September report by the JASONs, an independent advisory group, found that the "lifetimes of today's nuclear warheads could be extended for decades with no anticipated loss in confidence."
The JASONs' report, however, also added to concerns about a loss of U.S. nuclear weapons expertise, inadequate support for the Stockpile Stewardship Program and the need to modernize the Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico and the Lawrence Livermore laboratory in California and five other sites of the "nuclear complex" where warheads are maintained, monitored, overhauled and stored.
The National Nuclear Security Administration , the civilian agency that oversees the U.S. arsenal, is pursuing a multi-billion dollar plan to "transform" the complex by demolishing old, unsafe and unused facilities and consolidating their functions in modern, high-security buildings.
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