AP
12 February 2010
President Barack Obama has signed legislation lifting the cap on government borrowing to $14.3 trillion.
The new law also puts in place new budget rules to curb growing annual deficits. Known as "paygo" — for "pay as you go" — the rules require future spending increases or tax cuts to be paid for with tax increases or other spending cuts.
If the rules are broken, the White House budget office would force automatic cuts in programs like Medicare and farm subsidies. (emphasis added-Editor) Most other benefit programs, including Medicaid, Social Security and food stamps, would be exempt.
The debt limit was increased from $12.4 trillion to keep the U.S. from going into default.
Pres. Obama signed the bill privately Friday at the White House.
13 February, 2010
Poland passes bill to station US troops for new missile shield.
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
12 February 2010
Poland's lower house of parliament approved an agreement Friday that specifies conditions for the stationing of US soldiers in Poland as part of revamped plans for a US missile shield.
The Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) gives the green light for some 100 US soldiers to be stationed in Poland as part of the shield, which will include Patriot missiles and SM-3s. It passed with 374 votes for, and 34 votes against.
Defence Minister Bogdan Klich said the vote Friday makes it possible for the Patriot missiles to be positioned in Poland soon, as early as March or April, reported the Polish Press Agency PAP.
Klich said there was no reason for Moscow to be concerned regarding the missile shield. Russia has been critical of the US- Polish agreement, which would place the missiles in Morag, a town just 100 kilometres from the Russian border.
Poland and the US signed the deal on December 11 in Warsaw after a delay reportedly caused by US hesitancy to put its soldiers under the jurisdiction of Polish law.
SOFA includes provisions that US soldiers would pay taxes in Poland and come under the jurisdiction of Polish law for any crimes committed outside the military base.
The Patriots will be given to Poland in exchange for US hosting rights of a missile system that was first proposed by the George W Bush administration.
US President Barack Obama announced on September 17 that the US would drop Bush's plans for a long-range system in favor of a short- and medium-range system to counter Iran's ballistic missile programme.
12 February 2010
Poland's lower house of parliament approved an agreement Friday that specifies conditions for the stationing of US soldiers in Poland as part of revamped plans for a US missile shield.
The Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) gives the green light for some 100 US soldiers to be stationed in Poland as part of the shield, which will include Patriot missiles and SM-3s. It passed with 374 votes for, and 34 votes against.
Defence Minister Bogdan Klich said the vote Friday makes it possible for the Patriot missiles to be positioned in Poland soon, as early as March or April, reported the Polish Press Agency PAP.
Klich said there was no reason for Moscow to be concerned regarding the missile shield. Russia has been critical of the US- Polish agreement, which would place the missiles in Morag, a town just 100 kilometres from the Russian border.
Poland and the US signed the deal on December 11 in Warsaw after a delay reportedly caused by US hesitancy to put its soldiers under the jurisdiction of Polish law.
SOFA includes provisions that US soldiers would pay taxes in Poland and come under the jurisdiction of Polish law for any crimes committed outside the military base.
The Patriots will be given to Poland in exchange for US hosting rights of a missile system that was first proposed by the George W Bush administration.
US President Barack Obama announced on September 17 that the US would drop Bush's plans for a long-range system in favor of a short- and medium-range system to counter Iran's ballistic missile programme.
12 February, 2010
Israel Says Ready to Recognize Somaliland.
Somaliland Press
11 February 2010
The government of Israel is ready to restore the de jure recognition it has offered to Somaliland in 1960 as it eyes the Red Sea and the Horn, an Israeli spokesman says.
According to a local source, Golisnews, Mr. Yigal Palmor, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman is quoted on the Israeli newspaper of Haaretz Daily saying his government was ready to recognize Somaliland again. He cited Israel was the first state to recognize Somaliland in 1960 when it received its independence from Great Britain.
However, Mr. Palmor admitted Somaliland government has not contacted the Israeli government to seek ties.
When asked a question regarding Somalia, Mr. Palmor answered: “Somalia looks like the Afghanistan of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, historically speaking we know the Somali people have different believes and politics. The Somali people have different political values of which they unified in 1960 that led to the whole misunderstanding and ultimately the collapse of Somalia,” he told Haaretz Daily.
While answering to a question regarding Somaliland-Israel ties, he said: “Israel was the first nation to recognize Somaliland and indeed was the first country the State of Israel has recognized, after it received it’s Independence from Great Britain. When it unified with Southern Somalia, again we were the first to recognize it. We always wanted a relationship with a Muslim country in East Africa and which we can share the Red sea with.”
Mr. Palmor said his country was ready to restore Somaliland’s old status however currently the two states have no bilateral ties.
He added Israel has ties with number of East African countries including Tanzania, Uganda and even Djibouti.
11 February 2010
The government of Israel is ready to restore the de jure recognition it has offered to Somaliland in 1960 as it eyes the Red Sea and the Horn, an Israeli spokesman says.
According to a local source, Golisnews, Mr. Yigal Palmor, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman is quoted on the Israeli newspaper of Haaretz Daily saying his government was ready to recognize Somaliland again. He cited Israel was the first state to recognize Somaliland in 1960 when it received its independence from Great Britain.
However, Mr. Palmor admitted Somaliland government has not contacted the Israeli government to seek ties.
When asked a question regarding Somalia, Mr. Palmor answered: “Somalia looks like the Afghanistan of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, historically speaking we know the Somali people have different believes and politics. The Somali people have different political values of which they unified in 1960 that led to the whole misunderstanding and ultimately the collapse of Somalia,” he told Haaretz Daily.
While answering to a question regarding Somaliland-Israel ties, he said: “Israel was the first nation to recognize Somaliland and indeed was the first country the State of Israel has recognized, after it received it’s Independence from Great Britain. When it unified with Southern Somalia, again we were the first to recognize it. We always wanted a relationship with a Muslim country in East Africa and which we can share the Red sea with.”
Mr. Palmor said his country was ready to restore Somaliland’s old status however currently the two states have no bilateral ties.
He added Israel has ties with number of East African countries including Tanzania, Uganda and even Djibouti.
President Kagame Upset over Criticism of "genocidal ideology" law.
Rwandan News Agency
12 February 2010
President Paul Kagame has angrily dismissed any criticism of the Genocide ideology law coming from donors, human rights groups and exiled opposition, saying nobody has the right to undermine what happens in Rwanda, RNA reports.
Since the passing of a law in 2007 criminalizing negating the Genocide – described here as “Genocide Ideology”, critics have claimed that it has been used to stifle free speech and oppress the opposition. The harshest criticism came last year from the Commonwealth Human rights Initiative, which was strongly opposed to Rwanda’s admission into the British Commonwealth block.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as well as the US government in its annual human rights reports, have repeated the same concerns. The latest came when New York-based Human Rights Watch claimed Wednesday that government was using the law “as a way of targeting and discrediting its critics”.
Amnesty International has also said that the terms of the law criminalizing “genocidal ideology”, are very “vague and ambiguous”. The group also says this law can restrict the ability of the accused to put forward a defence in criminal trials. The offence is punishable by 10 to 25 years’ imprisonment.
President Kagame on Friday seemed to have had enough. Addressing the judiciary, senior government officials and diplomats at the Parliamentary building at the start of the judicial year, Mr. Kagame described the criticism as “complete nonsense”.
The President wondered why international media and diplomats accredited to Kigali repeatedly claim the Genocide Ideology law is not clear.
“Sometimes a person wonders…‘but how come your laws criminalizing divisionism and others against negating the holocaust are not ambiguous?’ How come you implement them? What specialty do you have that others cannot have?”, said Mr. Kagame, in a mixture of English and Kinyarwanda.
“What they are trying to say is that all of you here seated with huts and robes have no brains,” he said, amid muted laughter from some of the audience. The President accused the West of consistently undermining “Rwandans and Africans” by always being suspicious of everything done on the continent.
With an unusually high-pitched tone, suggesting that he was very angry and not reading from his prepared speech, Mr. Kagame fired in English: “We’ve lived this life. We’ve lived the consequences. So, we understand it better than anyone from anywhere else.”
“Apart from this over-bearing attitude of always wanting to decide for others what they should do, what do these people have in their brains…heads that we don’t have?. What is it? Why almost everyday question what people do for themselves?”
Turning to Kinyarwanda, President Kagame told his audience that critics can only be found to be wrong depending on how the country’s institutions are built.
“We ensure all is done with ultimate courage…explain to whoever doesn’t understand…such that even if we remain with some who do not want to understand, just like we even have them,” he said.
Mr. Kagame said criticism from the outside should not make those implementing policies internally to lose morale because they are doing it all for themselves and the country.
“This is the only way that we will silence those who are always speaking nonsense,” he said.
The judiciary had earlier presented several achievement attained over the past year, and President Kagame was on hand – thanking them. He also promised to avail them with his contribution at anytime “because it is my responsibility”.
12 February 2010
President Paul Kagame has angrily dismissed any criticism of the Genocide ideology law coming from donors, human rights groups and exiled opposition, saying nobody has the right to undermine what happens in Rwanda, RNA reports.
Since the passing of a law in 2007 criminalizing negating the Genocide – described here as “Genocide Ideology”, critics have claimed that it has been used to stifle free speech and oppress the opposition. The harshest criticism came last year from the Commonwealth Human rights Initiative, which was strongly opposed to Rwanda’s admission into the British Commonwealth block.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as well as the US government in its annual human rights reports, have repeated the same concerns. The latest came when New York-based Human Rights Watch claimed Wednesday that government was using the law “as a way of targeting and discrediting its critics”.
Amnesty International has also said that the terms of the law criminalizing “genocidal ideology”, are very “vague and ambiguous”. The group also says this law can restrict the ability of the accused to put forward a defence in criminal trials. The offence is punishable by 10 to 25 years’ imprisonment.
President Kagame on Friday seemed to have had enough. Addressing the judiciary, senior government officials and diplomats at the Parliamentary building at the start of the judicial year, Mr. Kagame described the criticism as “complete nonsense”.
The President wondered why international media and diplomats accredited to Kigali repeatedly claim the Genocide Ideology law is not clear.
“Sometimes a person wonders…‘but how come your laws criminalizing divisionism and others against negating the holocaust are not ambiguous?’ How come you implement them? What specialty do you have that others cannot have?”, said Mr. Kagame, in a mixture of English and Kinyarwanda.
“What they are trying to say is that all of you here seated with huts and robes have no brains,” he said, amid muted laughter from some of the audience. The President accused the West of consistently undermining “Rwandans and Africans” by always being suspicious of everything done on the continent.
With an unusually high-pitched tone, suggesting that he was very angry and not reading from his prepared speech, Mr. Kagame fired in English: “We’ve lived this life. We’ve lived the consequences. So, we understand it better than anyone from anywhere else.”
“Apart from this over-bearing attitude of always wanting to decide for others what they should do, what do these people have in their brains…heads that we don’t have?. What is it? Why almost everyday question what people do for themselves?”
Turning to Kinyarwanda, President Kagame told his audience that critics can only be found to be wrong depending on how the country’s institutions are built.
“We ensure all is done with ultimate courage…explain to whoever doesn’t understand…such that even if we remain with some who do not want to understand, just like we even have them,” he said.
Mr. Kagame said criticism from the outside should not make those implementing policies internally to lose morale because they are doing it all for themselves and the country.
“This is the only way that we will silence those who are always speaking nonsense,” he said.
The judiciary had earlier presented several achievement attained over the past year, and President Kagame was on hand – thanking them. He also promised to avail them with his contribution at anytime “because it is my responsibility”.
Democratic Green Party of Rwanda Responses to Rwandan Dispatch Questions.
12 February 2010
Qn. 1. In regard to good governance, since the local government reforms of 2006, most of the elected leaders, especially district mayors and their deputies, have lost their jobs. What do you think is the reason for this high turnover in local government? Is the process through which they are elected fair and transparent to recruit competent talent? Are they sacked because of corruption? Does the Electoral College system make it easy for them to be removed since they have no direct mandate from the electorate? What should be done to improve governance at local levels?
Ans. The Principal reason is: If a mayor or any other local leader does not tow the RPF line or if he/she shows independent thinking, he/she is forced to resign.
These people are not sacked because of corruption. If you see how many people are taken to court compared to the total number of people sacked, the number that are take to court is simply too small. This has been going on since 1995. Anybody trying to provide alternative views has been sent packing.
The process through which these leaders are elected look free and fair at the theoretical level, but in reality, we as the electorate are not given many options. There are no open primaries through which we can choose a candidate of our own.
The party (RPF) fields its own candidates and the Electoral College system does not give us the right of recall. The higher one goes in the education system, the more detached he/she is from the grassroots electorate and the closer he/she is to the ruling party bureaucracy. The allegiance to party bosses at a higher level becomes stronger than allegiance to the voters.
What s should be done to improve governance at local levels? There should be direct elections of mayors/their deputies and any other person who qualifies as the law provides. People should be allowed to compete whether that person belongs to a political party or as an independent candidate.
Qn.2:- Considering the limitations in resources, both financial and man power, what is the possibility of the opposition putting up a serious and credible challenge to President Kagame in the August presidential elections? Will the election be based of policy issues or the fallout from the 1994 genocide of the Tutsi and ethnicity issues? Is ethnicity supposed to be an issue or voters should look at the political agendas other than the background of Candidates?
Ans. Many people in Rwanda and outside Rwanda believe that President Kagame is popular, powerful and therefore nobody can defeat him in the election.
If he is that strong, that popular and capable, let him allow other political parties to register, flourish, and campaign in a free and fair atmosphere so that his popularity and strengths are tested. Why has he resorted to strong-arm tactics of intimidation and harassment to would-be opposition candidates?
What is happening to Victoire Ingabire and the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda are not signs of a popular leader, strong he may be militarily, but not widely popular.
In regards to financial and human resources, the existing opposition groups are handicapped. But it must be understood that this can be changed qualitatively and quantitatively through recruitment. And once you recruit people, you get funds.
The registration process is being delayed deliberately in order to weaken us further. The delay in part of the overall strategy of thwarting any serious and credible alternative to Kagame. But it can’t and will not last. We are here to stay. Our targets go beyond August 2010 Presidential elections. Our aim is to take power through regular elections conducted freely and fairly.
Any form of election or by-election at any time should address policy issues, eg, economy, democracy, human rights, corruption, etc. Issues relating to ethnicity and genocide are circumstantial. They will, with time, be relegated to history once the Rwandan society becomes composed of middle-class, who by definition are de-tribalized and de-regionalized. Unfortunately, the RPF and other parties under its umbrella most of the time politically resort back to petty issues and are not likely to take the issues to another level.
We should look at real political issues rather than the ethnic or regional origins of candidates and the time to do it is now not tomorrow. Can the RPF take this country to the next level? Unlikely. It is too big a leap! They can’t manage. We are the ones who want to bring lasting democratic change to Rwanda.
3. On what points do the Green party agree or disagree with Mrs. Ingabire's FDU related to the genocide of the Tutsi and supposed war crimes?
Ans. Victoire Ingabire categorically states that there was genocide in Rwanda and that it was the Hutu majority who killed Tutsi. This is a statement of fact which nobody disputes, including the RPF and other parties under its umbrella. The Democratic Green Party of Rwanda entirely agrees with this position.
Victoire Ingabire also says that the gacaca court system has not performed to the people’s expectations. She is echoing the views expressed by IBUKA (Genocide Survivors Association) many years ago.
Gacaca has had its fair share of flaws and mistakes. This is not surprising considering the circumstances. Gacaca is one of the many Government agencies that should be open to criticizism like we have for the Rwanda Revenue Authority, Police, RAMA and other institutions. Anyone who says something unfavorable about it should not be misinterpreted. It is an institution that has tried its best in the most difficult times.
As far as the supposed war crimes are concerned, this is not the first time we hear about this. We have heard about them for the past 15 years or so. They should be investigated.
Qn4. How far is the Green Party registration process?
An. The registration does not appear anywhere near. The concerned authorities are using delaying tactics to run us aground. We are, at the moment, waiting for a response from the Gasabo District on our letter dated 2nd Feb 2010 requesting for permission to have our next congress. The ball is squarely in their court.
5. Any position on proposed amendments to the constitution? Is it proper that the constitution is being amended for the fourth time since promulgation just seven years ago?
The present constitution which was enacted only seven years ago was amended when it was still an infant in its cradle. At that time it was amended to take care of an inexperienced and rather incompetent candidate for the post of Chief Justice. Since then, it has been amended rapidly when the powers that be wish to do so. This is not proper at all. The constitution being the Supreme law of the land should not be amended at the whims of whoever wants. Its supremacy should be respected. The rate at which they are amending it is so fast that we fear it will soon be abrogated.
Done on 12th Feb 2010.
Frank Habineza
Chairman, DGPR
Qn. 1. In regard to good governance, since the local government reforms of 2006, most of the elected leaders, especially district mayors and their deputies, have lost their jobs. What do you think is the reason for this high turnover in local government? Is the process through which they are elected fair and transparent to recruit competent talent? Are they sacked because of corruption? Does the Electoral College system make it easy for them to be removed since they have no direct mandate from the electorate? What should be done to improve governance at local levels?
Ans. The Principal reason is: If a mayor or any other local leader does not tow the RPF line or if he/she shows independent thinking, he/she is forced to resign.
These people are not sacked because of corruption. If you see how many people are taken to court compared to the total number of people sacked, the number that are take to court is simply too small. This has been going on since 1995. Anybody trying to provide alternative views has been sent packing.
The process through which these leaders are elected look free and fair at the theoretical level, but in reality, we as the electorate are not given many options. There are no open primaries through which we can choose a candidate of our own.
The party (RPF) fields its own candidates and the Electoral College system does not give us the right of recall. The higher one goes in the education system, the more detached he/she is from the grassroots electorate and the closer he/she is to the ruling party bureaucracy. The allegiance to party bosses at a higher level becomes stronger than allegiance to the voters.
What s should be done to improve governance at local levels? There should be direct elections of mayors/their deputies and any other person who qualifies as the law provides. People should be allowed to compete whether that person belongs to a political party or as an independent candidate.
Qn.2:- Considering the limitations in resources, both financial and man power, what is the possibility of the opposition putting up a serious and credible challenge to President Kagame in the August presidential elections? Will the election be based of policy issues or the fallout from the 1994 genocide of the Tutsi and ethnicity issues? Is ethnicity supposed to be an issue or voters should look at the political agendas other than the background of Candidates?
Ans. Many people in Rwanda and outside Rwanda believe that President Kagame is popular, powerful and therefore nobody can defeat him in the election.
If he is that strong, that popular and capable, let him allow other political parties to register, flourish, and campaign in a free and fair atmosphere so that his popularity and strengths are tested. Why has he resorted to strong-arm tactics of intimidation and harassment to would-be opposition candidates?
What is happening to Victoire Ingabire and the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda are not signs of a popular leader, strong he may be militarily, but not widely popular.
In regards to financial and human resources, the existing opposition groups are handicapped. But it must be understood that this can be changed qualitatively and quantitatively through recruitment. And once you recruit people, you get funds.
The registration process is being delayed deliberately in order to weaken us further. The delay in part of the overall strategy of thwarting any serious and credible alternative to Kagame. But it can’t and will not last. We are here to stay. Our targets go beyond August 2010 Presidential elections. Our aim is to take power through regular elections conducted freely and fairly.
Any form of election or by-election at any time should address policy issues, eg, economy, democracy, human rights, corruption, etc. Issues relating to ethnicity and genocide are circumstantial. They will, with time, be relegated to history once the Rwandan society becomes composed of middle-class, who by definition are de-tribalized and de-regionalized. Unfortunately, the RPF and other parties under its umbrella most of the time politically resort back to petty issues and are not likely to take the issues to another level.
We should look at real political issues rather than the ethnic or regional origins of candidates and the time to do it is now not tomorrow. Can the RPF take this country to the next level? Unlikely. It is too big a leap! They can’t manage. We are the ones who want to bring lasting democratic change to Rwanda.
3. On what points do the Green party agree or disagree with Mrs. Ingabire's FDU related to the genocide of the Tutsi and supposed war crimes?
Ans. Victoire Ingabire categorically states that there was genocide in Rwanda and that it was the Hutu majority who killed Tutsi. This is a statement of fact which nobody disputes, including the RPF and other parties under its umbrella. The Democratic Green Party of Rwanda entirely agrees with this position.
Victoire Ingabire also says that the gacaca court system has not performed to the people’s expectations. She is echoing the views expressed by IBUKA (Genocide Survivors Association) many years ago.
Gacaca has had its fair share of flaws and mistakes. This is not surprising considering the circumstances. Gacaca is one of the many Government agencies that should be open to criticizism like we have for the Rwanda Revenue Authority, Police, RAMA and other institutions. Anyone who says something unfavorable about it should not be misinterpreted. It is an institution that has tried its best in the most difficult times.
As far as the supposed war crimes are concerned, this is not the first time we hear about this. We have heard about them for the past 15 years or so. They should be investigated.
Qn4. How far is the Green Party registration process?
An. The registration does not appear anywhere near. The concerned authorities are using delaying tactics to run us aground. We are, at the moment, waiting for a response from the Gasabo District on our letter dated 2nd Feb 2010 requesting for permission to have our next congress. The ball is squarely in their court.
5. Any position on proposed amendments to the constitution? Is it proper that the constitution is being amended for the fourth time since promulgation just seven years ago?
The present constitution which was enacted only seven years ago was amended when it was still an infant in its cradle. At that time it was amended to take care of an inexperienced and rather incompetent candidate for the post of Chief Justice. Since then, it has been amended rapidly when the powers that be wish to do so. This is not proper at all. The constitution being the Supreme law of the land should not be amended at the whims of whoever wants. Its supremacy should be respected. The rate at which they are amending it is so fast that we fear it will soon be abrogated.
Done on 12th Feb 2010.
Frank Habineza
Chairman, DGPR
Ghana: Tullow Upbeat about Timeline for First Oil Production.
The Chronicle
Daniel Nonor
11 February 2010
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In line with efforts to meet its last quarter of 2010 time line to start pouring Ghana's first commercial oil from the jubilee fields, Tullow Ghana Limited has began the installation of a number of subsea equipment required for siphoning oil from under the seabed, with the latest being the Christmas Tree.
Some other equipment currently being installed includes the Riser station and production lines. The Christmas tree is an assembly of control valves, gauges, pipes, chokes and fittings used to control oil and gas flow from a completed well and are installed on the ocean floor."These installations indicate that production can start anytime from now," Mr. Gayheart Mensah, communications Manager of Tullow Ghana Limited told The Chronicle.
The Sekondi Naval Base and the Takoradi Port have been the main entry points for the equipment. Before the vessels carrying the equipment set sail for Ghana, a team from Tullow Ghana Limited visited some of the companies contracted by the Jubilee partners as manufacturers.
The companies which are based in Houston, Texas, in the United States of America, include MODEC, FMC Technologies and Spitzer industries Incorporated, and are said to be specialized companies that manufacture various subsea equipment for oil production.
Spitzer Industries Incorporated is well known in the oil industry for the manufacture of Manifolds and Riser Stations, both of which are critical in bringing out the oil from belly of the sea. FMC Technologies manufactured the "Christmas Trees" for the Jubilee Project.
The team from Tullow Ghana Limited also visited the Theodora Spool base in Mobile Alabama. Whilst there the Deep Blue Vessel, farmed for spooling oil production pipelines, was busy at it, in preparation for its departure to Ghana. Some of the pipelines being spooled onto the vessel had a diameter in excess of 17cm and were 1.5km in length.
Mr. Gayheart Mensah and a member of the team that visited the US said "there are expectations among Ghanaian that the oil find should transform Ghana's economy and spin off jobs immediately. These are huge expectations that need to be managed. "
He was confident that with the level of technology deployed by Tullow Ghana Limited, the operator of the Jubilee Field and the quality of personnel working on the project, the target date of producing first oil by quarter 4 this year will be met.
Daniel Nonor
11 February 2010
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In line with efforts to meet its last quarter of 2010 time line to start pouring Ghana's first commercial oil from the jubilee fields, Tullow Ghana Limited has began the installation of a number of subsea equipment required for siphoning oil from under the seabed, with the latest being the Christmas Tree.
Some other equipment currently being installed includes the Riser station and production lines. The Christmas tree is an assembly of control valves, gauges, pipes, chokes and fittings used to control oil and gas flow from a completed well and are installed on the ocean floor."These installations indicate that production can start anytime from now," Mr. Gayheart Mensah, communications Manager of Tullow Ghana Limited told The Chronicle.
The Sekondi Naval Base and the Takoradi Port have been the main entry points for the equipment. Before the vessels carrying the equipment set sail for Ghana, a team from Tullow Ghana Limited visited some of the companies contracted by the Jubilee partners as manufacturers.
The companies which are based in Houston, Texas, in the United States of America, include MODEC, FMC Technologies and Spitzer industries Incorporated, and are said to be specialized companies that manufacture various subsea equipment for oil production.
Spitzer Industries Incorporated is well known in the oil industry for the manufacture of Manifolds and Riser Stations, both of which are critical in bringing out the oil from belly of the sea. FMC Technologies manufactured the "Christmas Trees" for the Jubilee Project.
The team from Tullow Ghana Limited also visited the Theodora Spool base in Mobile Alabama. Whilst there the Deep Blue Vessel, farmed for spooling oil production pipelines, was busy at it, in preparation for its departure to Ghana. Some of the pipelines being spooled onto the vessel had a diameter in excess of 17cm and were 1.5km in length.
Mr. Gayheart Mensah and a member of the team that visited the US said "there are expectations among Ghanaian that the oil find should transform Ghana's economy and spin off jobs immediately. These are huge expectations that need to be managed. "
He was confident that with the level of technology deployed by Tullow Ghana Limited, the operator of the Jubilee Field and the quality of personnel working on the project, the target date of producing first oil by quarter 4 this year will be met.
US national security adviser visits Swat.
Daily Times
12 February 2010
By Ghulam Farooq
MINGORA: US National Security Adviser (NSA) Gen James Jones and his delegation visited Swat on Thursday, residents said.
Jones is the first top American official to visit the region since three US military trainers were killed in a vehicle-borne suicide attack in Lower Dir district on February 3.
Meanwhile, authorities imposed an unannounced curfew as part of security measures for Jones’ visit. “There is an unannounced curfew which has affected the patients trying to reach the government hospital in Saidu Sharif,” Mingora residents told Daily Times.
The military cleared Swat of the Taliban after Operation Rah-e-Rast. The anti-Taliban operation saw the biggest displacement of population when some two million people moved to safer places.
“A detailed briefing was arranged for the American delegation on the Swat situation by the military,” district administration officials said. “Gen Jones highly appreciated the military operation.”
Senior government officials confirmed the American official’s visit, saying the curfew was necessary to ensure complete security for the visiting VVIP. In Peshawar, Jones called on the NWFP governor and discussed matters of mutual interest.
12 February 2010
By Ghulam Farooq
MINGORA: US National Security Adviser (NSA) Gen James Jones and his delegation visited Swat on Thursday, residents said.
Jones is the first top American official to visit the region since three US military trainers were killed in a vehicle-borne suicide attack in Lower Dir district on February 3.
Meanwhile, authorities imposed an unannounced curfew as part of security measures for Jones’ visit. “There is an unannounced curfew which has affected the patients trying to reach the government hospital in Saidu Sharif,” Mingora residents told Daily Times.
The military cleared Swat of the Taliban after Operation Rah-e-Rast. The anti-Taliban operation saw the biggest displacement of population when some two million people moved to safer places.
“A detailed briefing was arranged for the American delegation on the Swat situation by the military,” district administration officials said. “Gen Jones highly appreciated the military operation.”
Senior government officials confirmed the American official’s visit, saying the curfew was necessary to ensure complete security for the visiting VVIP. In Peshawar, Jones called on the NWFP governor and discussed matters of mutual interest.
US military planning to set up new training centres in Pakistan.
Daily Times
12 February 2010
The US military is planning to set up new training centres inside Pakistan where American special operations trainers would work with Pakistani forces close to the Afghan border battle zone, a senior defence official said.
The new centres would supplement two already operating in Pakistan, and they would be used to accelerate and expand the training of Pakistani forces considered key to rooting out Al Qaeda leaders hiding along the mountainous border, the official said.
Increased numbers: Staffing the new centres would require an increase in the more than 100 US special operations forces in Pakistan, but Pentagon officials do not yet know how much of a boost would be needed, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
US officials see their effort to train Pakistan’s forces, which includes the country’s paramilitary Frontier Corps, its Special Service Group commandos and its Army, as a growing success.
Welcomed by Islamabad, the training has helped repair America’s fragile relationship with the Pakistanis, while also giving elite US special operations forces better access to the rugged border region dominated by Al Qaeda and its militant allies.
At the same time, the small but growing numbers of American troops inside Pakistan have also become targets. Last week, three US special operations soldiers participating in a low-profile programme were killed and two others wounded by a roadside bomb. Military aid to Pakistan is considered key to winning the Afghan war and the ongoing fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
12 February 2010
The US military is planning to set up new training centres inside Pakistan where American special operations trainers would work with Pakistani forces close to the Afghan border battle zone, a senior defence official said.
The new centres would supplement two already operating in Pakistan, and they would be used to accelerate and expand the training of Pakistani forces considered key to rooting out Al Qaeda leaders hiding along the mountainous border, the official said.
Increased numbers: Staffing the new centres would require an increase in the more than 100 US special operations forces in Pakistan, but Pentagon officials do not yet know how much of a boost would be needed, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
US officials see their effort to train Pakistan’s forces, which includes the country’s paramilitary Frontier Corps, its Special Service Group commandos and its Army, as a growing success.
Welcomed by Islamabad, the training has helped repair America’s fragile relationship with the Pakistanis, while also giving elite US special operations forces better access to the rugged border region dominated by Al Qaeda and its militant allies.
At the same time, the small but growing numbers of American troops inside Pakistan have also become targets. Last week, three US special operations soldiers participating in a low-profile programme were killed and two others wounded by a roadside bomb. Military aid to Pakistan is considered key to winning the Afghan war and the ongoing fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
11 February, 2010
Police quiz Ingabire over “double genocide” remarks.
Rwandan News Agency
10 February 2010
Editor's Note: Source in Rwanda say the political situation was calm today.
On Wednesday morning, the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) brought in opposition politician Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza for questioning over the comments she made on January 16 upon her arrival from a 17-year exile – with possible criminal charges awaiting, RNA reports.
At 10am, Mrs. Ingabire entered CID Headquarters in Kacyiru District in the company of her lawyer Mr. Protais Mutembe, reporters, party colleagues and onlookers. Only Mrs. Ingabire and her renowned attorney were allowed into the building.
According to party officials, Mrs. Ingabire was quizzed by CID agents on her comments, which have caused a stir. She raised eyebrows on January 16 at the Kigali Genocide Memorial Center where some 250,000 victims are laid to rest. She said it only honors Tutsi killed by Hutu.
In front of journalists present, Ms. Ingabire wondered why the memorial site does not also honor Hutu killed by Tutsi. This statement, has never been raised on Rwandan territory before.
The following weeks have seen her come under fire from the small political parties aligned with the Rwanda Patriotic Front and Tutsi genocide survivors who have accused her of promoting a “double genocide theory”. She maintains that the reported comments, first carried by a pro-government local daily ‘The New Times’, were twisted out of context.
Some members of the diplomatic community have called on the leader of the yet-to-be registered United Democratic Forces-Inkingi party to avoid what European Union envoy Mr. Michel Arrion subjectively described as “inflammatory declarations”. Ms. Ingabire has met British and Dutch diplomats, but it’s not clear if they have encouraged her to keep out of trouble.
Police officials say summoning Mrs. Ingabire is normal procedure, but add that she could be charged criminally if a there is a case for her to answer. The summons also came two days after President Paul Kagame publicly warned that the law would take its course.
Ms. Ingabire was also apparently quizzed on alleged links to the Rwandan FDLR rebels - currently holed up in the forests of DR Congo, with some accused in Kigali of taking part in the Genocide of the Tutsi.
Mrs. Ingabire's lawyer, Mr. Mutembe, was the defense lawyer of catholic Bishop Joseph Ndagijimana, who was accused of genocide charges between 2002 and 2004. The cleric pleaded unsuccessfully against the charges, and the Nyanza Appeals court transferred his case to the Gacaca courts. This meant he no longer required a lawyer.
The bishop was acquitted last December following four years of on-and-off Gacaca court proceedings.
Ms. Ingabire is also having her situation followed by Mr. Protais Mutembe – a lawyer who came into the limelight when he came to the defense of currently exiled Colonel Patrick Keregeya four years ago. The colonel was the country’s top spy but was accused a host of charges.
In 2006, Mr. Mutembe also came to the rescue of exiled minister Patrick Habamenshi. The ex-minister was accused of corruption and causing financial losses to the state. He was acquitted of all charges.
10 February 2010
Editor's Note: Source in Rwanda say the political situation was calm today.
On Wednesday morning, the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) brought in opposition politician Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza for questioning over the comments she made on January 16 upon her arrival from a 17-year exile – with possible criminal charges awaiting, RNA reports.
At 10am, Mrs. Ingabire entered CID Headquarters in Kacyiru District in the company of her lawyer Mr. Protais Mutembe, reporters, party colleagues and onlookers. Only Mrs. Ingabire and her renowned attorney were allowed into the building.
According to party officials, Mrs. Ingabire was quizzed by CID agents on her comments, which have caused a stir. She raised eyebrows on January 16 at the Kigali Genocide Memorial Center where some 250,000 victims are laid to rest. She said it only honors Tutsi killed by Hutu.
In front of journalists present, Ms. Ingabire wondered why the memorial site does not also honor Hutu killed by Tutsi. This statement, has never been raised on Rwandan territory before.
The following weeks have seen her come under fire from the small political parties aligned with the Rwanda Patriotic Front and Tutsi genocide survivors who have accused her of promoting a “double genocide theory”. She maintains that the reported comments, first carried by a pro-government local daily ‘The New Times’, were twisted out of context.
Some members of the diplomatic community have called on the leader of the yet-to-be registered United Democratic Forces-Inkingi party to avoid what European Union envoy Mr. Michel Arrion subjectively described as “inflammatory declarations”. Ms. Ingabire has met British and Dutch diplomats, but it’s not clear if they have encouraged her to keep out of trouble.
Police officials say summoning Mrs. Ingabire is normal procedure, but add that she could be charged criminally if a there is a case for her to answer. The summons also came two days after President Paul Kagame publicly warned that the law would take its course.
Ms. Ingabire was also apparently quizzed on alleged links to the Rwandan FDLR rebels - currently holed up in the forests of DR Congo, with some accused in Kigali of taking part in the Genocide of the Tutsi.
Mrs. Ingabire's lawyer, Mr. Mutembe, was the defense lawyer of catholic Bishop Joseph Ndagijimana, who was accused of genocide charges between 2002 and 2004. The cleric pleaded unsuccessfully against the charges, and the Nyanza Appeals court transferred his case to the Gacaca courts. This meant he no longer required a lawyer.
The bishop was acquitted last December following four years of on-and-off Gacaca court proceedings.
Ms. Ingabire is also having her situation followed by Mr. Protais Mutembe – a lawyer who came into the limelight when he came to the defense of currently exiled Colonel Patrick Keregeya four years ago. The colonel was the country’s top spy but was accused a host of charges.
In 2006, Mr. Mutembe also came to the rescue of exiled minister Patrick Habamenshi. The ex-minister was accused of corruption and causing financial losses to the state. He was acquitted of all charges.
EurAc : pour une mission d'observateurs des élections au Rwanda.
EurAc
11 Fevrier 2010
Le 9 août 2010, le Rwanda organisera des élections présidentielles. Ces dernières années, l’Union européenne a envoyé plusieurs missions d’observation électorale dans la région, entre autres lors des élections présidentielles, législatives et provinciales au Congo en 2006, des élections présidentielles et législatives en Ouganda en 2006 et des élections législatives au Rwanda en 2008. L’Union européenne s’apprête à envoyer une mission d’observation au Burundi, pour le cycle électoral constitué de plusieurs scrutins entre mai et septembre 2010.
Le réseau des ONG européennes sur l’Afrique Centrale, EurAc, a un grand respect pour les missions d’observation électorale de l’Union européenne. Fondées sur les principes de couverture totale, d'impartialité, de transparence et de professionnalisme, ces missions contribuent grandement à la liberté et à la transparence du vote. Elles renforcent la légitimité des processus électoraux et la confiance des citoyens dans ceux-ci.
EurAc s’étonne et s’inquiète de ce que l’UE ne planifie pas de mission d’observation pour les prochaines élections présidentielles au Rwanda alors même que nous observons des développements inquiétants sur le terrain. L’espace démocratique demeure très restreint et les militants et les candidats de l’opposition subissent et dénoncent au quotidien différentes formes d’agression.
EurAc comprend que la décision d’envoyer ou non une MOE est influencée par différents facteurs et que des choix difficiles s’imposent. Les moyens financiers, dont l’UE dispose pour l’organisation des MOE de par le monde, ne lui permettent pas en effet de répondre à toutes les demandes qu’elle reçoit chaque année. Néanmoins, EurAc est convaincu que l’envoi d’une MOE au Rwanda est primordial : les conclusions et recommandations du rapport final de la mission de 2008, bien que la portée de ce dernier ait été affaiblie, justifient et nécessitent un suivi approfondi des prochaines échéances électorales.
La mise en place d’une véritable démocratie au Rwanda est non seulement un instrument de paix et de cohésion sociale pour le pays en tant que tel, mais constitue également un facteur déterminant pour la stabilité dans la région entière. A ce titre, les élections présidentielles de cette année au Rwanda représentent un rendez-vous que l’Union Européenne ne saurait manquer.
Bruxelles, 10 février 2010
Pour plus d’informations:
Kris Berwouts
Rue des Tanneurs, 165 B - 1000 Bruxelles, Belgique
Tel: +32 (0)2 213 04 00
@: kris.berwouts@EurAc-network.org
www.EurAc-network.org
11 Fevrier 2010
Le 9 août 2010, le Rwanda organisera des élections présidentielles. Ces dernières années, l’Union européenne a envoyé plusieurs missions d’observation électorale dans la région, entre autres lors des élections présidentielles, législatives et provinciales au Congo en 2006, des élections présidentielles et législatives en Ouganda en 2006 et des élections législatives au Rwanda en 2008. L’Union européenne s’apprête à envoyer une mission d’observation au Burundi, pour le cycle électoral constitué de plusieurs scrutins entre mai et septembre 2010.
Le réseau des ONG européennes sur l’Afrique Centrale, EurAc, a un grand respect pour les missions d’observation électorale de l’Union européenne. Fondées sur les principes de couverture totale, d'impartialité, de transparence et de professionnalisme, ces missions contribuent grandement à la liberté et à la transparence du vote. Elles renforcent la légitimité des processus électoraux et la confiance des citoyens dans ceux-ci.
EurAc s’étonne et s’inquiète de ce que l’UE ne planifie pas de mission d’observation pour les prochaines élections présidentielles au Rwanda alors même que nous observons des développements inquiétants sur le terrain. L’espace démocratique demeure très restreint et les militants et les candidats de l’opposition subissent et dénoncent au quotidien différentes formes d’agression.
EurAc comprend que la décision d’envoyer ou non une MOE est influencée par différents facteurs et que des choix difficiles s’imposent. Les moyens financiers, dont l’UE dispose pour l’organisation des MOE de par le monde, ne lui permettent pas en effet de répondre à toutes les demandes qu’elle reçoit chaque année. Néanmoins, EurAc est convaincu que l’envoi d’une MOE au Rwanda est primordial : les conclusions et recommandations du rapport final de la mission de 2008, bien que la portée de ce dernier ait été affaiblie, justifient et nécessitent un suivi approfondi des prochaines échéances électorales.
La mise en place d’une véritable démocratie au Rwanda est non seulement un instrument de paix et de cohésion sociale pour le pays en tant que tel, mais constitue également un facteur déterminant pour la stabilité dans la région entière. A ce titre, les élections présidentielles de cette année au Rwanda représentent un rendez-vous que l’Union Européenne ne saurait manquer.
Bruxelles, 10 février 2010
Pour plus d’informations:
Kris Berwouts
Rue des Tanneurs, 165 B - 1000 Bruxelles, Belgique
Tel: +32 (0)2 213 04 00
@: kris.berwouts@EurAc-network.org
www.EurAc-network.org
Elections au Rwanda: plus libres et plus transparentes qu’ailleurs?
EurAc
11 Fevrier 2010
Au moment où EurAc a décidé de travailler de façon plus intensive sur le Rwanda, je m’y suis rendue pour mesurer la température sociopolitique dans la période qui précède les élections présidentielles du 9 aout 2010. Même si officiellement la campagne électorale se déroulera à partir de quelques semaines avant les élections, le FPR semble être bien en route pour s’assurer, non seulement de les gagner avec le pourcentage qu’il juge honorable pour ses ambitions, mais aussi que les autres partis en lice pour la course présidentielle puissent rencontrer toutes les difficultés possibles pour ne pas avoir l’accès facile à la population. Les différentes intimidations subies par différents candidats à ces présidentielles me semble un signe très préoccupant parmi d’autres.
Dans un pays où tout les monde porte des blessures encore saignantes (physiques et psychologiques), et où la majorité de la population est traumatisée, les gens vivent dans la peur et se sentent prisonniers d’un gouvernement qui a bien affiné ses armes pour s’assurer un contrôle ramifié jusqu’à la base. La peur de se voir coller l’étiquette de génocidaire et divisionniste est très présente et, il me semble, risque aussi de devenir la motivation pour laquelle une partie de la population continue à s’identifier, dans son discours, à la ligne officielle du gouvernement.
Dans ces conditions, le soutien inconditionnel au gouvernement par une partie de la communauté internationale depuis quinze ans, reste très difficile à comprendre. Il est frappant et est le fruit du manque d’unité de la part des Etats membres de l’Union européenne vis-à-vis du gouvernement rwandais. Mais ce qui plonge la majorité de la population rwandaise dans le désespoir est que cette communauté internationale puisse arriver à dire que le développement sur le plan économique (qu’EurAc reconnait aussi dans une certaine mesure) justifierait un gouvernement dur et répressif dans un pays dont on est en train de réécrire l’histoire et la mémoire.
Une bonne partie de la population avait vraiment espéré un changement en faveur d’un régime démocratique suite à la décision de la Suède et des Pays Bas de «geler» leur appui budgétaire. Elle avait espéré que les conséquences auraient été favorables à un ralentissement de la répression et du contrôle. De voir que c’est plutôt le contraire qui est arrivé est assez décevant. C’est pour cela aussi que nous sommes inquiets par le fait qu’il n’y a aucune indication que l’Union européenne se prépare à envoyer une mission d’observation aux prochaines élections, comme si les élections ont plus de chances d’être libres et transparentes qu’au Burundi ou qu’en RDC. EurAc y exprime son étonnement et demande, dans un communiqué, à l’Union de déployer une mission au Rwanda quand même, surtout en nous rendant compte que le rapport final de la mission de 2008, même si c'était un rapport affaibli, contient plusieurs éléments et recommandations qui justifient et nécessitent un suivi profond.
Donatella Rostagno
Policy Officer à EurAc
11 Fevrier 2010
Au moment où EurAc a décidé de travailler de façon plus intensive sur le Rwanda, je m’y suis rendue pour mesurer la température sociopolitique dans la période qui précède les élections présidentielles du 9 aout 2010. Même si officiellement la campagne électorale se déroulera à partir de quelques semaines avant les élections, le FPR semble être bien en route pour s’assurer, non seulement de les gagner avec le pourcentage qu’il juge honorable pour ses ambitions, mais aussi que les autres partis en lice pour la course présidentielle puissent rencontrer toutes les difficultés possibles pour ne pas avoir l’accès facile à la population. Les différentes intimidations subies par différents candidats à ces présidentielles me semble un signe très préoccupant parmi d’autres.
Dans un pays où tout les monde porte des blessures encore saignantes (physiques et psychologiques), et où la majorité de la population est traumatisée, les gens vivent dans la peur et se sentent prisonniers d’un gouvernement qui a bien affiné ses armes pour s’assurer un contrôle ramifié jusqu’à la base. La peur de se voir coller l’étiquette de génocidaire et divisionniste est très présente et, il me semble, risque aussi de devenir la motivation pour laquelle une partie de la population continue à s’identifier, dans son discours, à la ligne officielle du gouvernement.
Dans ces conditions, le soutien inconditionnel au gouvernement par une partie de la communauté internationale depuis quinze ans, reste très difficile à comprendre. Il est frappant et est le fruit du manque d’unité de la part des Etats membres de l’Union européenne vis-à-vis du gouvernement rwandais. Mais ce qui plonge la majorité de la population rwandaise dans le désespoir est que cette communauté internationale puisse arriver à dire que le développement sur le plan économique (qu’EurAc reconnait aussi dans une certaine mesure) justifierait un gouvernement dur et répressif dans un pays dont on est en train de réécrire l’histoire et la mémoire.
Une bonne partie de la population avait vraiment espéré un changement en faveur d’un régime démocratique suite à la décision de la Suède et des Pays Bas de «geler» leur appui budgétaire. Elle avait espéré que les conséquences auraient été favorables à un ralentissement de la répression et du contrôle. De voir que c’est plutôt le contraire qui est arrivé est assez décevant. C’est pour cela aussi que nous sommes inquiets par le fait qu’il n’y a aucune indication que l’Union européenne se prépare à envoyer une mission d’observation aux prochaines élections, comme si les élections ont plus de chances d’être libres et transparentes qu’au Burundi ou qu’en RDC. EurAc y exprime son étonnement et demande, dans un communiqué, à l’Union de déployer une mission au Rwanda quand même, surtout en nous rendant compte que le rapport final de la mission de 2008, même si c'était un rapport affaibli, contient plusieurs éléments et recommandations qui justifient et nécessitent un suivi profond.
Donatella Rostagno
Policy Officer à EurAc
10 February, 2010
USS Samuel B. Roberts FFG-58 Arrives in Lagos, Nigeria.
US Naval Forces Africa
10 February 2010
USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG 58) pulled into Lagos, Nigeria to conduct a series of military-to-military interactions, theater security cooperation engagements, and community relations projects, February 10, 2010.
While in port, crew members of the Roberts will host tours and a reception, as well as participate in meetings designed to further the maritime relationship between both nations' Navies. Commander Chuck Sellers, commanding officer of the Roberts, will meet with the Flag Officer Commanding, Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Lshaya Iko Ibrahim, and Flag Officer Commanding, Nigerian Naval Training Command, Rear Admiral Ekwere U. Ekwere.
"We are excited about coming to Lagos and operating with the Nigerian Naval professionals," said Sellers.
Roberts will provide military-to-military training in basic damage control, first aid, anti-terrorism force protection, non-lethal weapons, visual communications, and visit board, search, and seizure (VBSS). At-sea training between Roberts and the Nigerian Navy will be taking place, including divisionary tactics, visual communications, emissions control drills, VBSS and search and rescue training
Simultaneously, many sailors will be spending time participating in community relations projects aiding Lion's Village Orphanage, as well as donating to Project Handclasp hygiene and recreation. Furthermore, the crew will join in a soccer and a volleyball game against the Nigerian teams to build up relations, morale, and camaraderie.
Roberts, a guided missile Oliver Hazard Perry Class frigate, is home-ported in Naval Station Mayport, Florida, and is currently on a scheduled deployment in the U.S. Sixth Fleet area of responsibility.
10 February 2010
USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG 58) pulled into Lagos, Nigeria to conduct a series of military-to-military interactions, theater security cooperation engagements, and community relations projects, February 10, 2010.
While in port, crew members of the Roberts will host tours and a reception, as well as participate in meetings designed to further the maritime relationship between both nations' Navies. Commander Chuck Sellers, commanding officer of the Roberts, will meet with the Flag Officer Commanding, Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Lshaya Iko Ibrahim, and Flag Officer Commanding, Nigerian Naval Training Command, Rear Admiral Ekwere U. Ekwere.
"We are excited about coming to Lagos and operating with the Nigerian Naval professionals," said Sellers.
Roberts will provide military-to-military training in basic damage control, first aid, anti-terrorism force protection, non-lethal weapons, visual communications, and visit board, search, and seizure (VBSS). At-sea training between Roberts and the Nigerian Navy will be taking place, including divisionary tactics, visual communications, emissions control drills, VBSS and search and rescue training
Simultaneously, many sailors will be spending time participating in community relations projects aiding Lion's Village Orphanage, as well as donating to Project Handclasp hygiene and recreation. Furthermore, the crew will join in a soccer and a volleyball game against the Nigerian teams to build up relations, morale, and camaraderie.
Roberts, a guided missile Oliver Hazard Perry Class frigate, is home-ported in Naval Station Mayport, Florida, and is currently on a scheduled deployment in the U.S. Sixth Fleet area of responsibility.
Chinese experts to explore for oil and gas in Zimbabwe.
Africa Manager
23 December 2009
A team of Chinese experts arrived to start exploration for oil and gas, official sources told.
This follows an $ 8 bn investment agreement the two countries signed in November covering many sectors of the Zimbabwean economy, including energy. Officials said the team would soon start exploration for oil and gas in the northern part of the country, where early surveys had indicated some reserves.
In the 1980s, US oil giant Mobil explored for oil in the area, and found reserve s which it said were not commercially viable to exploit.
But surveys later indicated more reserves, including those of gas.
23 December 2009
A team of Chinese experts arrived to start exploration for oil and gas, official sources told.
This follows an $ 8 bn investment agreement the two countries signed in November covering many sectors of the Zimbabwean economy, including energy. Officials said the team would soon start exploration for oil and gas in the northern part of the country, where early surveys had indicated some reserves.
In the 1980s, US oil giant Mobil explored for oil in the area, and found reserve s which it said were not commercially viable to exploit.
But surveys later indicated more reserves, including those of gas.
President Mugabe’s Biggest Sin: Anglo-American and Chinese interests clash over Zimbabwe’s strategic mineral wealth.
by F. William Engdahl
Zimbabwe’s President, Robert Mugabe is a very very bad man. We all know this from reading the newspapers or hearing the pronouncements of President George W. Bush, earlier Britain’s (then) PM Tony Blair and more recently PM Gordon Brown. In their eyes he has sinned badly. They constantly charge that he is a dictator; that he has expropriated, often with violence, the farms of whites as part of land reform; they claim he rigged his re-election by vote fraud and violence; that he has ruined the economy of Zimbabwe.
Whether Robert Mugabe deserves to be in Washington’s subjective honor roll of villains alongside Fidel Castro, Saddam Hussein, Milosevic, and Ahmadinejad, however, it is not the real reason Washington and London have made Zimbabwe regime change priority number one for their Africa policy.
What his sin is seems to have more to do with his attempts to get out from under Anglo-American neo-colonial serfdom dependency and to pursue a national economic development independent of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. His real sin seems to be the fact that he has turned to the one nation that offers his government credits and soft loans for economic development with no strings attached—The Peoples’ Republic of China.
Western media accounts conveniently tend to omit the second major party to what is a huge tug of war between Anglo-American interests and China to get control of Zimbabwe’s vast mineral wealth. We should keep in mind that for Washington there are always "good dictators" and "bad dictators." The difference is whether the given dictator serves US national interests or not. Mugabe clearly is in the latter category.
Cecil Rhodes’ legacy
Zimbabwe is the name of what under the era of British Imperialism a century ago was named Rhodesia. The name Rhodesia came from the British imperial strategist and miner, Cecil Rhodes, founder of the Rhodes scholarships to Oxford, and author of a plan for a vast private African zone, to be chartered from the Queen of England, from Egypt to South Africa. Cecil Rhodes created the British South Africa Company, modeled on the East India Company, along with his partner, L. Starr Jameson of Jameson Raid notoriety, to exploit the mineral riches of Rhodesia. It controlled what was later named Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and Southern Rhodesia-Nyasaland. The model was that the British Government would assume all risks to militarily defend Rhodes’ looting while Rhodes and his London bankers, above all Lord Rothschild, who was a close associate, would assume all the gains of the business.
Rhodes, a seasoned geologist, knew well that there was a remarkable geological fault running from the mouth of the Nile at the Gulf of Suez south through Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, down through today’s Zimbabwe on to South Africa. Rhodes had already instigated several wars to gain control of the diamonds of Kimberly and the gold of Witwatersrand in South Africa. This geological phenomenon he, as well as enterprising German explorers, had discovered in the 1880’s. They named it the Great Rift Valley.
Rhodesia, like South Africa after the bloody Boer wars, was settled by white settlers to secure future minerals gains for allied interests of the City of London, mainly those of the powerful Oppenheimer family and their gold and diamond enterprises in the region.
In 1962 when Africa was undergoing the wave of national liberation from colonial rule, a wave calculatedly supported by "non-colonial power" Washington, Rhodesia was one of the last bastions, along with former British colony South Africa, of white Apartheid rule. Whites in Rhodesia constituted only 1-2% of the total population so their methods of holding on to power were rather ruthless.
White supremacist Prime Minister, Ian Smith, declared Rhodesian independence from Britain in 1965 rather than agree to the slightest compromise on race or power sharing with black nationalists. Britain got UN trade sanctions imposed to force Smith to buckle under. Despite sanctions, there was considerable support from conservative business interests in London. Britain’s Tiny Rowland, head of the Lonrho mining conglomerate, secured the bulk of his African profits from Rhodesian copper mining and related ventures under the Smith regime. The City of London knew very well what riches lay in Rhodesia. The question was how to secure enduring control. Smith’s Rhodesian backers had little interest in giving it all to London.
Following a long and bloody struggle, in 1980 the leader of the black African Popular Front coalition, Robert Mugabe, overwhelmingly won election as the first Prime Minister of a new Zimbabwe. Twenty eight years later, the same Robert Mugabe is under escalating attack from the West, especially Zimbabwe’s former colonial master, England, including strong economic sanctions designed to bring the country to the brink of collapse, to force him to open the economy to foreign (read Anglo-American and allied) investment. Ironically, the issue seems not all that different from the Ian Smith era: London and US control of the resources of the rich land, and Zimbabwean efforts to resist that control.
The Great Dyke
Within Zimbabwe, a portion of the rich Great Rift is called the Great Dyke, an intrusive geological treasure zone running over 530 kilometers from the northeast to the southwest of the country, in places up to 12 kilometers wide. A river runs along the fault and the region is volcanically active. Here also lie vast deposits of chromium, of copper, platinum and other metals.
The US State Department, as well as London, is aware of the vast minerals and other riches of Zimbabwe. It states in a recent report on Zimbabwe,
"Zimbabwe is endowed with rich mineral resources. Exports of gold, asbestos, chrome, coal, platinum, nickel, and copper could lead to an economic recovery one day...The country is richly endowed with coal-bed methane gas that has yet to be exploited.
With international attractions such as Victoria Falls, the Great Zimbabwe stone ruins, Lake Kariba, and extensive wildlife, tourism historically has been a significant segment of the economy and contributor of foreign exchange. The sector has contracted sharply since 1999, however, due to the country's declining international image.(sic).
Energy Resources
With considerable hydroelectric power potential and plentiful coal deposits for thermal power station, Zimbabwe is less dependent on oil as an energy source than most other comparably industrialized countries, but it still imports 40% of its electric power needs from surrounding countries--primarily Mozambique. Only about 15% of Zimbabwe's total energy consumption is accounted for by oil, all of which is imported. Zimbabwe imports about 1.2 billion liters of oil per year. Zimbabwe also has substantial coal reserves that are utilized for power generation, and coal-bed methane deposits recently discovered in Matabeleland province are greater than any known natural gas field in Southern or Eastern Africa. In recent years, poor economic management and low foreign currency reserves have led to serious fuel shortages."
In short, chrome, copper, gold, platinum, huge hydroelectric power potential and vast coal reserves are what is at stake for Washington and London in Zimbabwe. The country also has unverified reserves of uranium, something in big demand today for nuclear power generation.
It is clear of late that so long as the tenacious Mugabe is running things, not the Anglo-Americans, but rather the Chinese, are Zimbabwe’s preferred business partners. This seems to be Mugabe’s greatest sin. He’s not reading from the right program as George W. Bush’s friends see it. His real sin seems to be turning East not West for economic and investment help.
The Chinese connection
During the Cold War China recognized and supported Robert Mugabe. In recent years as China’s search for secure raw materials escalated its foreign diplomacy, relations have become stronger. According to the Chinese media, China has invested more in Zimbabwe than any other nation.
Already back in July 2005 as Tony Blair turned the sanctions screws tighter on Zimbabwe, Mugabe flew to Beijing to meet with the top Chinese leadership, where he reportedly sought an emergency loan of US$1 billion and asked increased Chinese involvement in the economy.
It began to bear fruit. In June 2006 state--owned Zimbabwean businesses signed a number of energy, mining and farming deals worth billions of dollars with Chinese companies. The largest was with China Machine-Building International Corporation, for a $1,3bn contract to mine coal and build thermal-power generators in Zimbabwe, to reduce Zimbabwe’s electricity shortage. The Chinese company had already built thermal-power stations in Nigeria and Sudan, and had been involved in mining projects in Gabon.
In 2007 the Chinese government donated farm machinery worth $25 million to Zimbabwe, including 424 tractors and 50 trucks, as part of a $58 million loan to the Zimbabwean government. The Mugabe administration had previously seized white-owned farms and gave them to blacks, damaging machinery in the process. In return for the equipment and the loan the Zimbabwean government will ship 30 million kilograms of tobacco to the People's Republic of China.
Other Zimbabwe-China agreements included a deal between the Zimbabwe Mining Development and China’s Star Communications, forming a joint venture to mine chrome, with funding from the China Development Bank. Zimbabwe also agreed to import road-building, irrigation and farming equipment from the China National Construction and Agricultural Machinery Import and Export Corporation and China Poly Group. Zimbabwe also relies on China for imports of telecommunications equipment, military hardware and many other critical items it can no longer import from the west because of the British-led sanctions.
Relations have become so important that Zimbabwe’s police have a dedicated "China desk" to protect Chinese interests in the country.
In April 2007 the chairman of China’s top political advisory body, Jia Qinglin, head of the National Committee of the Chinese Peoples’ Political Consultative Conference, flew to Harare to meet with Mugabe. It was a follow-up to the 2006 Beijing China-Africa Cooperation Summit where the Chinese government invited the heads of more than 40 African states to discuss relations. Africa has become a diplomatic and economic priority for China and its economy.
At that time, Beijing got an open invitation to help develop dormant mines in the country. The deputy speaker of Zimbabwe's parliament called for more Chinese investment in the country's mining sector, according to China's Xinhua news agency. Zimbabwe's mining laws were changed to allow the government to reallocate mining claims that were not being exploited.
Mining generates half of Zimbabwe's export revenue. It is the only sector in the country that still has foreign investors after the collapse of the main agricultural sector. Western companies with mining claims in Zimbabwe were not exploiting them. "We would appeal to the Chinese government to come in full force to exploit these minerals," Zimbabwean Deputy Parliamentary Speaker, Kumbirai Kangai said to the official Xinhua.
Kangai assured potential Chinese investors that they would not expose themselves to legal action if they took over claims held by Western companies.
A few months after, in December 2007, Chinese company, Sinosteel Corporation, acquired 67 percent stake in Zimbabwe's leading ferrochrome producer and exporter Zimasco Holdings. Zimasco Holdings is the fifth largest high carbonated ferrochrome producer in the world. It used to produce 210,000 tons of high-carbon ferrochrome per year, nearly all of it along the mineral-rich Great Dyke, accounting for 4 percent of global ferrochrome production.
Zimasco has also the world's second largest reserves of chrome, after South Africa. It was formerly owned by Union Carbide Corporation, now part of Dow Chemicals Corp.
Oh, oh! Alarm bells went ringing in London and in Washington at that news.
China clearly views Africa as a central part of its strategic plan, most notably for its oil reserves and vital raw materials such as copper, chrome, nickel. The continent is also at the same time becoming an important region for Chinese manufactured exports. But the raw materials battle is at the heart, and the real reason by all accounts, why Washington recently decided to form a separate Africa Command in the Pentagon.
Controlling China’s economic emergence is an un-stated strategic priority of United States foreign and military policy and has been since before September 11, 2001. The only delicate point in the business is the fact that China, with well over $1.7 trillions of foreign exchange reserves, most believed in form of US Treasury securities, could trigger a complete dollar panic and further collapse of the US economy should she decide for political reasons it were too risky to continue holding its hundreds of billions of US dollar debt. In effect, by buying US Government debt with its trade surpluses, China has been indirectly financing US policies counter to Chinese national interest such as the Iraq war, or even the $100 million or so annually that Condi Rice’s State Department spends on Tibet.
China is refusing to play by the rules of the Anglo-American neo-colonial game. It does not seek IMF or World Bank approval before dealing with African countries. It makes soft loans, regardless who might be running the country. In this it does nothing different from Washington or London. The Chinese see American influence in Africa less entrenched than in the rest of the world, thus offering unique opportunities for China to pursue its economic interests.
It may or may not be cynical. It may be Realpolitik. If it results in the ability of certain African countries to use China as a political counterweight to the one-sided Anglo-American domination of the Continent, that itself could be a major benefit to Africans depending on how they use it.
Clearly, it has been extremely positive for Chinese access to vital economic minerals for its economy as well as oil from places such as Darfur and southern Sudan, or Nigeria.
Mineral wealth has once more put Africa on center stage of a battle for mineral riches between East and West. This time, unlike during the Cold War era, however, Beijing is playing with far more assets, and Washington with far less.
Zimbabwe’s President, Robert Mugabe is a very very bad man. We all know this from reading the newspapers or hearing the pronouncements of President George W. Bush, earlier Britain’s (then) PM Tony Blair and more recently PM Gordon Brown. In their eyes he has sinned badly. They constantly charge that he is a dictator; that he has expropriated, often with violence, the farms of whites as part of land reform; they claim he rigged his re-election by vote fraud and violence; that he has ruined the economy of Zimbabwe.
Whether Robert Mugabe deserves to be in Washington’s subjective honor roll of villains alongside Fidel Castro, Saddam Hussein, Milosevic, and Ahmadinejad, however, it is not the real reason Washington and London have made Zimbabwe regime change priority number one for their Africa policy.
What his sin is seems to have more to do with his attempts to get out from under Anglo-American neo-colonial serfdom dependency and to pursue a national economic development independent of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. His real sin seems to be the fact that he has turned to the one nation that offers his government credits and soft loans for economic development with no strings attached—The Peoples’ Republic of China.
Western media accounts conveniently tend to omit the second major party to what is a huge tug of war between Anglo-American interests and China to get control of Zimbabwe’s vast mineral wealth. We should keep in mind that for Washington there are always "good dictators" and "bad dictators." The difference is whether the given dictator serves US national interests or not. Mugabe clearly is in the latter category.
Cecil Rhodes’ legacy
Zimbabwe is the name of what under the era of British Imperialism a century ago was named Rhodesia. The name Rhodesia came from the British imperial strategist and miner, Cecil Rhodes, founder of the Rhodes scholarships to Oxford, and author of a plan for a vast private African zone, to be chartered from the Queen of England, from Egypt to South Africa. Cecil Rhodes created the British South Africa Company, modeled on the East India Company, along with his partner, L. Starr Jameson of Jameson Raid notoriety, to exploit the mineral riches of Rhodesia. It controlled what was later named Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and Southern Rhodesia-Nyasaland. The model was that the British Government would assume all risks to militarily defend Rhodes’ looting while Rhodes and his London bankers, above all Lord Rothschild, who was a close associate, would assume all the gains of the business.
Rhodes, a seasoned geologist, knew well that there was a remarkable geological fault running from the mouth of the Nile at the Gulf of Suez south through Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, down through today’s Zimbabwe on to South Africa. Rhodes had already instigated several wars to gain control of the diamonds of Kimberly and the gold of Witwatersrand in South Africa. This geological phenomenon he, as well as enterprising German explorers, had discovered in the 1880’s. They named it the Great Rift Valley.
Rhodesia, like South Africa after the bloody Boer wars, was settled by white settlers to secure future minerals gains for allied interests of the City of London, mainly those of the powerful Oppenheimer family and their gold and diamond enterprises in the region.
In 1962 when Africa was undergoing the wave of national liberation from colonial rule, a wave calculatedly supported by "non-colonial power" Washington, Rhodesia was one of the last bastions, along with former British colony South Africa, of white Apartheid rule. Whites in Rhodesia constituted only 1-2% of the total population so their methods of holding on to power were rather ruthless.
White supremacist Prime Minister, Ian Smith, declared Rhodesian independence from Britain in 1965 rather than agree to the slightest compromise on race or power sharing with black nationalists. Britain got UN trade sanctions imposed to force Smith to buckle under. Despite sanctions, there was considerable support from conservative business interests in London. Britain’s Tiny Rowland, head of the Lonrho mining conglomerate, secured the bulk of his African profits from Rhodesian copper mining and related ventures under the Smith regime. The City of London knew very well what riches lay in Rhodesia. The question was how to secure enduring control. Smith’s Rhodesian backers had little interest in giving it all to London.
Following a long and bloody struggle, in 1980 the leader of the black African Popular Front coalition, Robert Mugabe, overwhelmingly won election as the first Prime Minister of a new Zimbabwe. Twenty eight years later, the same Robert Mugabe is under escalating attack from the West, especially Zimbabwe’s former colonial master, England, including strong economic sanctions designed to bring the country to the brink of collapse, to force him to open the economy to foreign (read Anglo-American and allied) investment. Ironically, the issue seems not all that different from the Ian Smith era: London and US control of the resources of the rich land, and Zimbabwean efforts to resist that control.
The Great Dyke
Within Zimbabwe, a portion of the rich Great Rift is called the Great Dyke, an intrusive geological treasure zone running over 530 kilometers from the northeast to the southwest of the country, in places up to 12 kilometers wide. A river runs along the fault and the region is volcanically active. Here also lie vast deposits of chromium, of copper, platinum and other metals.
The US State Department, as well as London, is aware of the vast minerals and other riches of Zimbabwe. It states in a recent report on Zimbabwe,
"Zimbabwe is endowed with rich mineral resources. Exports of gold, asbestos, chrome, coal, platinum, nickel, and copper could lead to an economic recovery one day...The country is richly endowed with coal-bed methane gas that has yet to be exploited.
With international attractions such as Victoria Falls, the Great Zimbabwe stone ruins, Lake Kariba, and extensive wildlife, tourism historically has been a significant segment of the economy and contributor of foreign exchange. The sector has contracted sharply since 1999, however, due to the country's declining international image.(sic).
Energy Resources
With considerable hydroelectric power potential and plentiful coal deposits for thermal power station, Zimbabwe is less dependent on oil as an energy source than most other comparably industrialized countries, but it still imports 40% of its electric power needs from surrounding countries--primarily Mozambique. Only about 15% of Zimbabwe's total energy consumption is accounted for by oil, all of which is imported. Zimbabwe imports about 1.2 billion liters of oil per year. Zimbabwe also has substantial coal reserves that are utilized for power generation, and coal-bed methane deposits recently discovered in Matabeleland province are greater than any known natural gas field in Southern or Eastern Africa. In recent years, poor economic management and low foreign currency reserves have led to serious fuel shortages."
In short, chrome, copper, gold, platinum, huge hydroelectric power potential and vast coal reserves are what is at stake for Washington and London in Zimbabwe. The country also has unverified reserves of uranium, something in big demand today for nuclear power generation.
It is clear of late that so long as the tenacious Mugabe is running things, not the Anglo-Americans, but rather the Chinese, are Zimbabwe’s preferred business partners. This seems to be Mugabe’s greatest sin. He’s not reading from the right program as George W. Bush’s friends see it. His real sin seems to be turning East not West for economic and investment help.
The Chinese connection
During the Cold War China recognized and supported Robert Mugabe. In recent years as China’s search for secure raw materials escalated its foreign diplomacy, relations have become stronger. According to the Chinese media, China has invested more in Zimbabwe than any other nation.
Already back in July 2005 as Tony Blair turned the sanctions screws tighter on Zimbabwe, Mugabe flew to Beijing to meet with the top Chinese leadership, where he reportedly sought an emergency loan of US$1 billion and asked increased Chinese involvement in the economy.
It began to bear fruit. In June 2006 state--owned Zimbabwean businesses signed a number of energy, mining and farming deals worth billions of dollars with Chinese companies. The largest was with China Machine-Building International Corporation, for a $1,3bn contract to mine coal and build thermal-power generators in Zimbabwe, to reduce Zimbabwe’s electricity shortage. The Chinese company had already built thermal-power stations in Nigeria and Sudan, and had been involved in mining projects in Gabon.
In 2007 the Chinese government donated farm machinery worth $25 million to Zimbabwe, including 424 tractors and 50 trucks, as part of a $58 million loan to the Zimbabwean government. The Mugabe administration had previously seized white-owned farms and gave them to blacks, damaging machinery in the process. In return for the equipment and the loan the Zimbabwean government will ship 30 million kilograms of tobacco to the People's Republic of China.
Other Zimbabwe-China agreements included a deal between the Zimbabwe Mining Development and China’s Star Communications, forming a joint venture to mine chrome, with funding from the China Development Bank. Zimbabwe also agreed to import road-building, irrigation and farming equipment from the China National Construction and Agricultural Machinery Import and Export Corporation and China Poly Group. Zimbabwe also relies on China for imports of telecommunications equipment, military hardware and many other critical items it can no longer import from the west because of the British-led sanctions.
Relations have become so important that Zimbabwe’s police have a dedicated "China desk" to protect Chinese interests in the country.
In April 2007 the chairman of China’s top political advisory body, Jia Qinglin, head of the National Committee of the Chinese Peoples’ Political Consultative Conference, flew to Harare to meet with Mugabe. It was a follow-up to the 2006 Beijing China-Africa Cooperation Summit where the Chinese government invited the heads of more than 40 African states to discuss relations. Africa has become a diplomatic and economic priority for China and its economy.
At that time, Beijing got an open invitation to help develop dormant mines in the country. The deputy speaker of Zimbabwe's parliament called for more Chinese investment in the country's mining sector, according to China's Xinhua news agency. Zimbabwe's mining laws were changed to allow the government to reallocate mining claims that were not being exploited.
Mining generates half of Zimbabwe's export revenue. It is the only sector in the country that still has foreign investors after the collapse of the main agricultural sector. Western companies with mining claims in Zimbabwe were not exploiting them. "We would appeal to the Chinese government to come in full force to exploit these minerals," Zimbabwean Deputy Parliamentary Speaker, Kumbirai Kangai said to the official Xinhua.
Kangai assured potential Chinese investors that they would not expose themselves to legal action if they took over claims held by Western companies.
A few months after, in December 2007, Chinese company, Sinosteel Corporation, acquired 67 percent stake in Zimbabwe's leading ferrochrome producer and exporter Zimasco Holdings. Zimasco Holdings is the fifth largest high carbonated ferrochrome producer in the world. It used to produce 210,000 tons of high-carbon ferrochrome per year, nearly all of it along the mineral-rich Great Dyke, accounting for 4 percent of global ferrochrome production.
Zimasco has also the world's second largest reserves of chrome, after South Africa. It was formerly owned by Union Carbide Corporation, now part of Dow Chemicals Corp.
Oh, oh! Alarm bells went ringing in London and in Washington at that news.
China clearly views Africa as a central part of its strategic plan, most notably for its oil reserves and vital raw materials such as copper, chrome, nickel. The continent is also at the same time becoming an important region for Chinese manufactured exports. But the raw materials battle is at the heart, and the real reason by all accounts, why Washington recently decided to form a separate Africa Command in the Pentagon.
Controlling China’s economic emergence is an un-stated strategic priority of United States foreign and military policy and has been since before September 11, 2001. The only delicate point in the business is the fact that China, with well over $1.7 trillions of foreign exchange reserves, most believed in form of US Treasury securities, could trigger a complete dollar panic and further collapse of the US economy should she decide for political reasons it were too risky to continue holding its hundreds of billions of US dollar debt. In effect, by buying US Government debt with its trade surpluses, China has been indirectly financing US policies counter to Chinese national interest such as the Iraq war, or even the $100 million or so annually that Condi Rice’s State Department spends on Tibet.
China is refusing to play by the rules of the Anglo-American neo-colonial game. It does not seek IMF or World Bank approval before dealing with African countries. It makes soft loans, regardless who might be running the country. In this it does nothing different from Washington or London. The Chinese see American influence in Africa less entrenched than in the rest of the world, thus offering unique opportunities for China to pursue its economic interests.
It may or may not be cynical. It may be Realpolitik. If it results in the ability of certain African countries to use China as a political counterweight to the one-sided Anglo-American domination of the Continent, that itself could be a major benefit to Africans depending on how they use it.
Clearly, it has been extremely positive for Chinese access to vital economic minerals for its economy as well as oil from places such as Darfur and southern Sudan, or Nigeria.
Mineral wealth has once more put Africa on center stage of a battle for mineral riches between East and West. This time, unlike during the Cold War era, however, Beijing is playing with far more assets, and Washington with far less.
Angola signs oil deal in dangerous region of Iraq.
Africa News
23 December 2009
Angola has signed a lucrative but potentially dangerous oil deal with war-torn Iraq. The state-owned oil company, Sonangol, signed the deals which will see it take over oil fields in Qayara and Najmah, in the restive Nineveh province, described as one of the most dangerous regions in Iraq.
The Angolan state run oil company will receive between $ 5 and $ 6 a barrel, one of the highest fees awarded in Iraq's oil deals. The two fields combined are said to contain an estimated 1.7 bn barrels of oil.
Reports also say that Sonangol is one of several oil companies which were awarded deals as part of Iraq's second bidding round for oil contracts, held earlier in November. The deals now await Iraqi cabinet's approval before it can be finalized.
But worries of violence are a cause for serious concern for the Angolans due to frequent insurgencies in the area with Sunni Islamic militants and al-Qaeda activist both active there. Observers say the level of unbearable insecurity in the region tends to discourage a number of Western based companies from going to Iraq. In Sierra Leone, concerns have recently been raised that its youth have been flocking into the Middle Eastern nation in search of unavailable job back home.
The Angolan state-owned oil company intends to invest $ 2 bn in Qayara. It also announced that several firms have shown interest in forging joint exploration partnerships with it.
"There are at least five companies that have approached us and showed an interest to work with us to invest. We are still holding talks with them. The companies are European and American," Paulino Jeronimo, exploration manager at Sonangol, was quoted as saying.
The southern African country is the second largest producer of crude oil in Africa after Nigeria.
23 December 2009
Angola has signed a lucrative but potentially dangerous oil deal with war-torn Iraq. The state-owned oil company, Sonangol, signed the deals which will see it take over oil fields in Qayara and Najmah, in the restive Nineveh province, described as one of the most dangerous regions in Iraq.
The Angolan state run oil company will receive between $ 5 and $ 6 a barrel, one of the highest fees awarded in Iraq's oil deals. The two fields combined are said to contain an estimated 1.7 bn barrels of oil.
Reports also say that Sonangol is one of several oil companies which were awarded deals as part of Iraq's second bidding round for oil contracts, held earlier in November. The deals now await Iraqi cabinet's approval before it can be finalized.
But worries of violence are a cause for serious concern for the Angolans due to frequent insurgencies in the area with Sunni Islamic militants and al-Qaeda activist both active there. Observers say the level of unbearable insecurity in the region tends to discourage a number of Western based companies from going to Iraq. In Sierra Leone, concerns have recently been raised that its youth have been flocking into the Middle Eastern nation in search of unavailable job back home.
The Angolan state-owned oil company intends to invest $ 2 bn in Qayara. It also announced that several firms have shown interest in forging joint exploration partnerships with it.
"There are at least five companies that have approached us and showed an interest to work with us to invest. We are still holding talks with them. The companies are European and American," Paulino Jeronimo, exploration manager at Sonangol, was quoted as saying.
The southern African country is the second largest producer of crude oil in Africa after Nigeria.
Iraq seeks stronger presence from Iran in energy sector.
Mehr News
12 December 2009
Iraqi Electricity Minister Kareem Waheed called for Iranian private sector to participate more actively in Iraq's energy projects.
In a meeting with Iranian Energy Minister Majid Namjoo in Tehran, the two sides expressed their interest and preparedness to broaden cooperation. The Iranian official said his country has two projects in hand to build power plants in Iraq, one of the projects is well underway and the other is in the preliminary stages of implementation.
The Iraqi side said his government should provide Iranian contractors working in Iraq with facilities to streamline their activity in that country.
Iran and Iraq are currently exchanging 600 MW of electricity, Waheed said, adding the capacity can be increased to 1,000 MW. The construction of factories to manufacture power generators and power plant equipment in Iraq by Iranian firms was also agreed in the meeting.
The then Iranian Minister of Energy Parviz Fattah, Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz, and Iraqi Minister of Electricity Kareem Waheed signed a memorandum of understanding in May at the end of their first regional power conference held in Baghdad. According to the MoU, the three countries agreed to bolster cooperation in the power and electricity field and link their national power grids to one another and Syria.
The Iraqi minister stated the four countries aimed at connecting their power networks to the Persian Gulf littoral states, the Central Asian nations, and to European countries in the long run.
12 December 2009
Iraqi Electricity Minister Kareem Waheed called for Iranian private sector to participate more actively in Iraq's energy projects.
In a meeting with Iranian Energy Minister Majid Namjoo in Tehran, the two sides expressed their interest and preparedness to broaden cooperation. The Iranian official said his country has two projects in hand to build power plants in Iraq, one of the projects is well underway and the other is in the preliminary stages of implementation.
The Iraqi side said his government should provide Iranian contractors working in Iraq with facilities to streamline their activity in that country.
Iran and Iraq are currently exchanging 600 MW of electricity, Waheed said, adding the capacity can be increased to 1,000 MW. The construction of factories to manufacture power generators and power plant equipment in Iraq by Iranian firms was also agreed in the meeting.
The then Iranian Minister of Energy Parviz Fattah, Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz, and Iraqi Minister of Electricity Kareem Waheed signed a memorandum of understanding in May at the end of their first regional power conference held in Baghdad. According to the MoU, the three countries agreed to bolster cooperation in the power and electricity field and link their national power grids to one another and Syria.
The Iraqi minister stated the four countries aimed at connecting their power networks to the Persian Gulf littoral states, the Central Asian nations, and to European countries in the long run.
Ghana and China enter into agreement on oil and gas.
All Africa
11 December 2009
The China Development Bank (CDB) has, in a financing agreement with the Ghana government and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), disclosed plans to support the development and the utilization of Ghana's oil and gas. It also seeks, in the financing agreement, to support the development of the agriculture, transportation and energy sectors among others.
The financing agreement was signed under a memorandum of understanding by the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Kwabena Duffuor on the behalf of the Government of Ghana, Nana Boakye Asafu Adjaye, the Managing Director of GNPC on behalf of the company and Mr Zahao Jianping signed for CDB.
Fiifi Kwettey, Deputy Minister for Finance and Economic Planning said the agreement, which was a long-term cooperation, will support GNPC to accelerate and optimize the development and utilization of national oil and gas resources and their proper integration into sustainable national development. He explained that the Ghana-China cooperation will enable the development of national capacity and infrastructure in the production, processing transportation and marketing of oil and gas, while ensuring that the oil and gas development will support rather than undermine other productive sectors.
Through the agreement, he noted, CDB will also support priority agricultural, industrial and infrastructure investments to create sustainable jobs and equitable growth.
The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Kabana Duffuor said that "the Government of Ghana welcomes investors to work hand in hand with Ghana in the development of the country's hydrocarbon resources as well as other sectors of our national economy". The signing of the agreement, according to him, was a boost to this effort.
Nana Boakye Asafu Adjaye, the CEO for GNPC expressed satisfaction that the GNPC has been able to contribute to securing financing for building critical petroleum resources, adding that the signing of the memorandum of understanding clearly indicates how attractive Ghana has become as an investment destination.
According to Zhao Jianping, the leader of the delegation from China, China Development Bank is the leading Chinese bank in the world and provides medium and long term finance and investment including the provision of financial services and project management to energy companies engaged in the exploration and exploitation of oil and gas resources and related infrastructure development.
The CDB, he informed, also provides funding through the China-Africa Development Fund (CAD) fund. This makes equity investments that support Chinese enterprises, makes direct investments in Africa and offers value added services ranging from project management and consulting to financial services.
The Economic Leader of China, Mr Huyjie told that China and Ghana have enjoyed a long political relationship. According to him, Ghana has a good environment for investments. Through agreement, therefore, a lot of opportunities will be created especially in the agriculture sector.
"I see a bright future for both countries and I am happy to witness the signing ceremony," he stressed.
11 December 2009
The China Development Bank (CDB) has, in a financing agreement with the Ghana government and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), disclosed plans to support the development and the utilization of Ghana's oil and gas. It also seeks, in the financing agreement, to support the development of the agriculture, transportation and energy sectors among others.
The financing agreement was signed under a memorandum of understanding by the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Kwabena Duffuor on the behalf of the Government of Ghana, Nana Boakye Asafu Adjaye, the Managing Director of GNPC on behalf of the company and Mr Zahao Jianping signed for CDB.
Fiifi Kwettey, Deputy Minister for Finance and Economic Planning said the agreement, which was a long-term cooperation, will support GNPC to accelerate and optimize the development and utilization of national oil and gas resources and their proper integration into sustainable national development. He explained that the Ghana-China cooperation will enable the development of national capacity and infrastructure in the production, processing transportation and marketing of oil and gas, while ensuring that the oil and gas development will support rather than undermine other productive sectors.
Through the agreement, he noted, CDB will also support priority agricultural, industrial and infrastructure investments to create sustainable jobs and equitable growth.
The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Kabana Duffuor said that "the Government of Ghana welcomes investors to work hand in hand with Ghana in the development of the country's hydrocarbon resources as well as other sectors of our national economy". The signing of the agreement, according to him, was a boost to this effort.
Nana Boakye Asafu Adjaye, the CEO for GNPC expressed satisfaction that the GNPC has been able to contribute to securing financing for building critical petroleum resources, adding that the signing of the memorandum of understanding clearly indicates how attractive Ghana has become as an investment destination.
According to Zhao Jianping, the leader of the delegation from China, China Development Bank is the leading Chinese bank in the world and provides medium and long term finance and investment including the provision of financial services and project management to energy companies engaged in the exploration and exploitation of oil and gas resources and related infrastructure development.
The CDB, he informed, also provides funding through the China-Africa Development Fund (CAD) fund. This makes equity investments that support Chinese enterprises, makes direct investments in Africa and offers value added services ranging from project management and consulting to financial services.
The Economic Leader of China, Mr Huyjie told that China and Ghana have enjoyed a long political relationship. According to him, Ghana has a good environment for investments. Through agreement, therefore, a lot of opportunities will be created especially in the agriculture sector.
"I see a bright future for both countries and I am happy to witness the signing ceremony," he stressed.
Rwanda's leaders 'bullying critics.'
BBC
10 February 2010
Rwanda's RPF government is attacking and intimidating oppostion parties in the run-up to August's presidential election, the US-based Human Rights Watch says.
The party says the leaders target opponents by accusing them of having taken part in the 1994 genocide.
The aide of one opposition leader has been jailed, but witnesses claim he was abroad at the time.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame claims he respects people's rights but will not tolerate anyone undermining peace and stability.
However, Human Rights Watch says intimidation of the opposition parties is undermining democracy.
The party cites the case of opposition leader Victoire Ingabire, who recently suggested that crimes committed against the Hutu population during the genocide should be investigated.
She was denounced in media outlets close to the government as a "negationist" of the genocide.
Last week, her aide Joseph Ntawangundi was beaten up at a local government office and later jailed for crimes a gacaca court says he committed during the genocide.
Officials said he had been convicted in absentia while he was living in exile.
He has protested his innocence, claiming he was in Europe during the genocide. HRW says Rwandan authorites have not yet allowed him to see his Rwandan lawyer.
"The Rwandan government already tightly controls political space," says HRW's Georgette Gagnon.
"These incidents will further undermine democracy by discouraging any meaningful opposition in the elections."
10 February 2010
Rwanda's RPF government is attacking and intimidating oppostion parties in the run-up to August's presidential election, the US-based Human Rights Watch says.
The party says the leaders target opponents by accusing them of having taken part in the 1994 genocide.
The aide of one opposition leader has been jailed, but witnesses claim he was abroad at the time.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame claims he respects people's rights but will not tolerate anyone undermining peace and stability.
However, Human Rights Watch says intimidation of the opposition parties is undermining democracy.
The party cites the case of opposition leader Victoire Ingabire, who recently suggested that crimes committed against the Hutu population during the genocide should be investigated.
She was denounced in media outlets close to the government as a "negationist" of the genocide.
Last week, her aide Joseph Ntawangundi was beaten up at a local government office and later jailed for crimes a gacaca court says he committed during the genocide.
Officials said he had been convicted in absentia while he was living in exile.
He has protested his innocence, claiming he was in Europe during the genocide. HRW says Rwandan authorites have not yet allowed him to see his Rwandan lawyer.
"The Rwandan government already tightly controls political space," says HRW's Georgette Gagnon.
"These incidents will further undermine democracy by discouraging any meaningful opposition in the elections."
Rwanda: End Attacks on and Oppression of Opposition Parties
Human Rights Watch
10 February 2010
Opposition party members are facing increasing threats, attacks, and harassment in advance of Rwanda's August 2010 presidential election, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch urged the government to investigate all such incidents and to ensure that opposition activists are able to go about their legitimate activities without fear.
In the past week, members of the FDU-Inkingi and the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda - new opposition parties critical of government policies - have suffered serious incidents of intimidation by individuals and institutions close to the government and the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). One member of the FDU-Inkingi was beaten by a mob in front of a local government office. The attack appeared to have been well coordinated, suggesting it had been planned in advance.
"The Rwandan government already tightly controls political space," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "These incidents will further undermine democracy by discouraging any meaningful opposition in the elections."
The Rwandan government and the RPF have strongly resisted any political opposition or broader challenge of their policies by civil society. On several occasions, the government has used accusations of participation in the genocide, or "genocide ideology," as a way of targeting and discrediting its critics. The current RPF-dominated government has been in power in Rwanda since the end of the 1994 genocide.
Victoire Ingabire, president of the FDU-Inkingi, has faced an intensive campaign of public vilification since she returned from exile in the Netherlands in January 2010. She has been widely condemned in official and quasi-official media and described as a "negationist" of the genocide for stating publicly that crimes committed against Hutu citizens by the RPF and the Rwandan army should be investigated and those responsible brought to justice.
Beating of Joseph Ntawangundi
Ingabire received a phone call on February 3 from the executive secretary of Kinyinya sector, Jonas Shema, who told her that she should come with her colleagues to the local government office to collect official documents required for their identity cards. When Ingabire and Joseph Ntawangundi, a party colleague, arrived outside the local government office, they were met by a group of people. Two men jostled Ingabire, grabbed her by the arms, and stole her handbag, which contained her passport. The attackers shouted, "We don't want génocidaires here!" and, "We don't want people with genocide ideology!" Ingabire managed to run to her car unharmed; some of the men threw stones at the car as it drove off.
The men then turned on Ntawangundi and beat him severely. He described to Human Rights Watch being attacked for about 45 minutes by scores of young men who punched him, kicked and scratched him, threw him into the air, and ripped his clothes. They stole his watch, glasses, and shoes. The attack appeared to be designed not only to hurt Ntawangundi, but also to humiliate him. At one point, at least six people held him in the air, with his feet apart, and carried him toward a tree. They insulted him and shouted phrases such as: "We don't want you here! You have no right to an identity card!"
The attack appears to have been well organized. On several occasions, when the beatings became particularly brutal, individuals who appeared to be leading the group ordered the others to stop - for example, when the assailants each picked up a stone from a pile on the ground and prepared to throw them at Ntawangundi.
Several witnesses told Human Rights Watch that policemen and members of the Local Defense Force were present during the attack, but did not try to stop it - nor did Shema, the executive secretary, seem to make any effort to call for assistance.
Eventually, alerted to the attack by other members of the FDU-Inkingi, police from the nearby station intervened. The mob followed Ntawangundi to the police station and stayed there for about 10 minutes. The police claim they have opened an investigation, but have declined to provide any information on whether there has been any progress or any arrests made.
When Human Rights Watch representatives met with Ntawangundi the day after the beating, he was visibly suffering from his injuries and was finding it painful to walk. Although he had been given pain medication when he went to a hospital for treatment, he said pain remained in his kidneys, back, and head.
Rwandan government and police authorities have offered a different version of events, claiming that residents of Kinyinya who had been waiting for their identity documents for a long time became angry and reacted spontaneously against Ingabire and her colleague when they allegedly jumped the line. This version was broadcast widely on Rwandan and international media.
In a telephone conversation with Human Rights Watch, police spokesperson Eric Kayiranga minimized the incident, but said that the police were investigating. Human Rights Watch tried to contact Shema several times, but he was unavailable.
Arrest of Joseph Ntawangundi
Three days later, on February 6, police arrested Ntawangundi on accusations of participation in the genocide. They told him that a gacaca court, a community-based court set up to try crimes committed during the genocide, had convicted him in absentia. He was initially detained at the police station at Remera, in Kigali, but was not told of the specific charges against him. His Rwandan lawyer was not allowed to see him on February 6, though a foreign lawyer was allowed to see him the next day. He was transferred to Kimironko prison on February 8.
The FDU-Inkingi has stated that Ntawangundi was living abroad during the genocide, and that he had never heard about the accusations against him until the day before his arrest when an article containing these allegations was published in the New Times, a Rwandan newspaper that is closely aligned with the government.
Intimidation of Green Party members
In a separate development on February 4, the Green Party president, Frank Habineza, was talking with a party member in a Kigali restaurant when a man Habineza did not know approached and greeted him by name. The man, who would not give his own name, asked Habineza to recruit him to the Green Party.
The man then asked Habineza why he was rejecting those who had helped him (a reference to Habineza's former links with the RPF), and why he had been spending time with Ingabire. He warned Habineza that he was being watched and that "they" knew what he was doing and whom he was seeing. The man gave accurate details of appointments Habineza had attended and was scheduled to attend. He told Habineza: "We're monitoring you very closely. Be careful." The man's identity remains unclear, but his comments indicate that he may have close government connections.
"This escalation of attacks against opposition party members does not bode well for the election," Gagnon said. "The Rwandan government should immediately investigate these incidents, bring those responsible to justice, and make sure that the interference with opposition parties stops."
Background Information
Government opponents and critics have repeatedly faced threats and obstacles to legitimate political activity in Rwanda.
In 2009, several meetings of the Green Party and the PS-Imberakuri - another opposition party - were broken up by police, in some cases violently. Both parties have since found it difficult to obtain the official authorization to hold meetings. Political parties need to be officially registered before they can offer candidates in the elections, and some of the intimidation seemed designed to obstruct this process. PS-Imberakuri finally managed to register in November. The Green Party has still not succeeded, despite several attempts. Green Party members have come under pressure to give up their political activities, and some have received anonymous phone calls asking for information about Habineza and his travel plans.
In late 2009, Bernard Ntaganda, leader of the PS-Imberakuri, was summoned before the Senate to answer accusations of "genocide ideology" in connection with public statements he had made criticizing the government. Ntaganda's case is still pending before the Senate, which has indicated that the case may be referred for criminal prosecution.
Political opposition activities were also tightly restricted during the September 2008 legislative elections, when RPF candidates won 79 percent of the vote. European Union observers noted procedural irregularities in over half the polling places, RPF domination of the media, and the absence of political plurality, due in part to the fear of "genocide ideology" accusations.
10 February 2010
Opposition party members are facing increasing threats, attacks, and harassment in advance of Rwanda's August 2010 presidential election, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch urged the government to investigate all such incidents and to ensure that opposition activists are able to go about their legitimate activities without fear.
In the past week, members of the FDU-Inkingi and the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda - new opposition parties critical of government policies - have suffered serious incidents of intimidation by individuals and institutions close to the government and the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). One member of the FDU-Inkingi was beaten by a mob in front of a local government office. The attack appeared to have been well coordinated, suggesting it had been planned in advance.
"The Rwandan government already tightly controls political space," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "These incidents will further undermine democracy by discouraging any meaningful opposition in the elections."
The Rwandan government and the RPF have strongly resisted any political opposition or broader challenge of their policies by civil society. On several occasions, the government has used accusations of participation in the genocide, or "genocide ideology," as a way of targeting and discrediting its critics. The current RPF-dominated government has been in power in Rwanda since the end of the 1994 genocide.
Victoire Ingabire, president of the FDU-Inkingi, has faced an intensive campaign of public vilification since she returned from exile in the Netherlands in January 2010. She has been widely condemned in official and quasi-official media and described as a "negationist" of the genocide for stating publicly that crimes committed against Hutu citizens by the RPF and the Rwandan army should be investigated and those responsible brought to justice.
Beating of Joseph Ntawangundi
Ingabire received a phone call on February 3 from the executive secretary of Kinyinya sector, Jonas Shema, who told her that she should come with her colleagues to the local government office to collect official documents required for their identity cards. When Ingabire and Joseph Ntawangundi, a party colleague, arrived outside the local government office, they were met by a group of people. Two men jostled Ingabire, grabbed her by the arms, and stole her handbag, which contained her passport. The attackers shouted, "We don't want génocidaires here!" and, "We don't want people with genocide ideology!" Ingabire managed to run to her car unharmed; some of the men threw stones at the car as it drove off.
The men then turned on Ntawangundi and beat him severely. He described to Human Rights Watch being attacked for about 45 minutes by scores of young men who punched him, kicked and scratched him, threw him into the air, and ripped his clothes. They stole his watch, glasses, and shoes. The attack appeared to be designed not only to hurt Ntawangundi, but also to humiliate him. At one point, at least six people held him in the air, with his feet apart, and carried him toward a tree. They insulted him and shouted phrases such as: "We don't want you here! You have no right to an identity card!"
The attack appears to have been well organized. On several occasions, when the beatings became particularly brutal, individuals who appeared to be leading the group ordered the others to stop - for example, when the assailants each picked up a stone from a pile on the ground and prepared to throw them at Ntawangundi.
Several witnesses told Human Rights Watch that policemen and members of the Local Defense Force were present during the attack, but did not try to stop it - nor did Shema, the executive secretary, seem to make any effort to call for assistance.
Eventually, alerted to the attack by other members of the FDU-Inkingi, police from the nearby station intervened. The mob followed Ntawangundi to the police station and stayed there for about 10 minutes. The police claim they have opened an investigation, but have declined to provide any information on whether there has been any progress or any arrests made.
When Human Rights Watch representatives met with Ntawangundi the day after the beating, he was visibly suffering from his injuries and was finding it painful to walk. Although he had been given pain medication when he went to a hospital for treatment, he said pain remained in his kidneys, back, and head.
Rwandan government and police authorities have offered a different version of events, claiming that residents of Kinyinya who had been waiting for their identity documents for a long time became angry and reacted spontaneously against Ingabire and her colleague when they allegedly jumped the line. This version was broadcast widely on Rwandan and international media.
In a telephone conversation with Human Rights Watch, police spokesperson Eric Kayiranga minimized the incident, but said that the police were investigating. Human Rights Watch tried to contact Shema several times, but he was unavailable.
Arrest of Joseph Ntawangundi
Three days later, on February 6, police arrested Ntawangundi on accusations of participation in the genocide. They told him that a gacaca court, a community-based court set up to try crimes committed during the genocide, had convicted him in absentia. He was initially detained at the police station at Remera, in Kigali, but was not told of the specific charges against him. His Rwandan lawyer was not allowed to see him on February 6, though a foreign lawyer was allowed to see him the next day. He was transferred to Kimironko prison on February 8.
The FDU-Inkingi has stated that Ntawangundi was living abroad during the genocide, and that he had never heard about the accusations against him until the day before his arrest when an article containing these allegations was published in the New Times, a Rwandan newspaper that is closely aligned with the government.
Intimidation of Green Party members
In a separate development on February 4, the Green Party president, Frank Habineza, was talking with a party member in a Kigali restaurant when a man Habineza did not know approached and greeted him by name. The man, who would not give his own name, asked Habineza to recruit him to the Green Party.
The man then asked Habineza why he was rejecting those who had helped him (a reference to Habineza's former links with the RPF), and why he had been spending time with Ingabire. He warned Habineza that he was being watched and that "they" knew what he was doing and whom he was seeing. The man gave accurate details of appointments Habineza had attended and was scheduled to attend. He told Habineza: "We're monitoring you very closely. Be careful." The man's identity remains unclear, but his comments indicate that he may have close government connections.
"This escalation of attacks against opposition party members does not bode well for the election," Gagnon said. "The Rwandan government should immediately investigate these incidents, bring those responsible to justice, and make sure that the interference with opposition parties stops."
Background Information
Government opponents and critics have repeatedly faced threats and obstacles to legitimate political activity in Rwanda.
In 2009, several meetings of the Green Party and the PS-Imberakuri - another opposition party - were broken up by police, in some cases violently. Both parties have since found it difficult to obtain the official authorization to hold meetings. Political parties need to be officially registered before they can offer candidates in the elections, and some of the intimidation seemed designed to obstruct this process. PS-Imberakuri finally managed to register in November. The Green Party has still not succeeded, despite several attempts. Green Party members have come under pressure to give up their political activities, and some have received anonymous phone calls asking for information about Habineza and his travel plans.
In late 2009, Bernard Ntaganda, leader of the PS-Imberakuri, was summoned before the Senate to answer accusations of "genocide ideology" in connection with public statements he had made criticizing the government. Ntaganda's case is still pending before the Senate, which has indicated that the case may be referred for criminal prosecution.
Political opposition activities were also tightly restricted during the September 2008 legislative elections, when RPF candidates won 79 percent of the vote. European Union observers noted procedural irregularities in over half the polling places, RPF domination of the media, and the absence of political plurality, due in part to the fear of "genocide ideology" accusations.
Rwandan authorities are alleged to be planning detain the opposition leader Voctoire Ingabire Umuhoza.
FDU-Inkingi
Press Release
Editor's Update (17:19 Kigali time): According to sources in Rwanda, Mrs. Ingabire Umuhoza was released after 4 hours of questioning. She was questioned on her public statements, alleged but unproven ties to FDLR, and accused of genocidal ideology and negationism. However, to reiterate, she has not been arrested as of this writing.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in the Kacyiru District of Kigali have summoned Mrs Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza to appear today without giving any clear reason for the summons. It is very clear that this apparatus of the state is implementing instructions given by the President of Rwanda, H.E. Paul Kagame, following a statement he made on the 8th of February stating that her move to contest the RPF in the upcoming election would be stopped by the “wall of the laws” tailored to ensure that nobody can challenge the current regime.
According to credible sources last week, following the incident at the local administration offices where Mrs Victoire Ingabire was subjected to verbal harassment, intimidation and physical abuse, the Rwandan police was given instructions to move fast and make a pre-emptive charge that would lead to the detention of Mrs. Ingabire, thus depriving her of her political and civil rights.
The decision to arrest Mrs Victoire Ingabire, Chairperson of the United Democratic Forces (FDU-Inkingi), which follows the detention of her assistant Mr Joseph Ntawangundi, will have serious political significance. It would mean the complete prevention of a peaceful and democratic political process. The United Democratic Forces party is fully committed to ending the political and human crisis that has prevailed the country over the last 21 years. This initiative was undertaken by the United Democratic Forces after carefully weighing the catastrophic consequences of the use of force in terms of human lives and the damage caused to the social and economic fabric of the country. The party has committed itself to pre-empt any such moves from any quarter and discourage anyone tempted to take the path of violence to access democracy and good governance. We want to make a fundamental difference by showing Rwandans that political change is possible through non-violent, democratic means.
The United Democratic Forces FDU/UDF -Inkingi calls on all Rwandan people and the international community to acknowledge their commitments to peace, freedom, human rights and democracy by holding the RPF regime responsible for the continued deterioration of the political climate in the country. We call on the Rwandan government to honour its promises and show its commitment and the political will to allow open political debate, avoid oppressing opposition, end political repression and allow political parties to fully exercise their rights.
Done in Brussels, 10th February 2010
On behalf of the FDU/UDF-Inkingi Steering Committee,
Nkiko Nsengimana
Press Release
Editor's Update (17:19 Kigali time): According to sources in Rwanda, Mrs. Ingabire Umuhoza was released after 4 hours of questioning. She was questioned on her public statements, alleged but unproven ties to FDLR, and accused of genocidal ideology and negationism. However, to reiterate, she has not been arrested as of this writing.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in the Kacyiru District of Kigali have summoned Mrs Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza to appear today without giving any clear reason for the summons. It is very clear that this apparatus of the state is implementing instructions given by the President of Rwanda, H.E. Paul Kagame, following a statement he made on the 8th of February stating that her move to contest the RPF in the upcoming election would be stopped by the “wall of the laws” tailored to ensure that nobody can challenge the current regime.
According to credible sources last week, following the incident at the local administration offices where Mrs Victoire Ingabire was subjected to verbal harassment, intimidation and physical abuse, the Rwandan police was given instructions to move fast and make a pre-emptive charge that would lead to the detention of Mrs. Ingabire, thus depriving her of her political and civil rights.
The decision to arrest Mrs Victoire Ingabire, Chairperson of the United Democratic Forces (FDU-Inkingi), which follows the detention of her assistant Mr Joseph Ntawangundi, will have serious political significance. It would mean the complete prevention of a peaceful and democratic political process. The United Democratic Forces party is fully committed to ending the political and human crisis that has prevailed the country over the last 21 years. This initiative was undertaken by the United Democratic Forces after carefully weighing the catastrophic consequences of the use of force in terms of human lives and the damage caused to the social and economic fabric of the country. The party has committed itself to pre-empt any such moves from any quarter and discourage anyone tempted to take the path of violence to access democracy and good governance. We want to make a fundamental difference by showing Rwandans that political change is possible through non-violent, democratic means.
The United Democratic Forces FDU/UDF -Inkingi calls on all Rwandan people and the international community to acknowledge their commitments to peace, freedom, human rights and democracy by holding the RPF regime responsible for the continued deterioration of the political climate in the country. We call on the Rwandan government to honour its promises and show its commitment and the political will to allow open political debate, avoid oppressing opposition, end political repression and allow political parties to fully exercise their rights.
Done in Brussels, 10th February 2010
On behalf of the FDU/UDF-Inkingi Steering Committee,
Nkiko Nsengimana
Sec. of State Hillary Clinton Delivers Keynote Speech to Prayer Breakfast Founded by Christian Extremist Abram in 1953.
Keynote Address at the 58th National Prayer Breakfast
by Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Washington Hilton Hotel
Washington, DC
February 4, 2010
SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you. Thank you very much. I have to begin by saying I’m not Bono. (Laughter.) Those of you who were here when he was, I apologize beforehand. (Laughter.) But it is a great pleasure to be with you and to be here with President and Mrs. Obama, to be with Vice President Biden, with Chairman Mullen, with certainly our host today, my former colleagues and friends, Senators Isakson and Amy Klobuchar. And to be with so many distinguished guests and visitors who have come from all over our country and indeed from all over the world.
I have attended this prayer breakfast every year since 1993, and I have always found it to be a gathering that inspires and motivates me. Now today, our minds are still filled with the images of the tragedy of Haiti, where faith is being tested daily in food lines and makeshift hospitals, in tent cities where there are not only so many suffering people, but so many vanished dreams.
When I think about the horrible catastrophe that has struck Haiti, I am both saddened but also spurred. This is a moment that has already been embraced by people of faith from everywhere. I thank Prime Minister Zapatero for his country’s response and commitment. Because in the days since the earthquake, we have seen the world and the world’s faithful spring into action on behalf of those suffering. President Obama has put our country on the leading edge of making sure that we do all we can to help alleviate not only the immediate suffering, but to assist in the rebuilding and recovery. So many countries have answered the call, and so many churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples have brought their own people together. And even modern technology through Facebook and telethons and text messages and Twitter, there’s been an overwhelming global response. But of course, there’s so much more to be done.
When I think about being here with all of you today, there are so many subjects to talk about. You’ve already heard, both in prayer and in scripture reading and in Prime Minister Zapatero’s remarks, a number of messages. But let me be both personal and speak from my unique perspective now as Secretary of State. I’ve been here as a First Lady. I’ve been here as a senator, and now I am here as a Secretary of State. I have heard heartfelt descriptions of personal faith journeys. I’ve heard impassioned pleas for feeding the hungry and helping the poor, caring for the sick. I’ve heard speeches about promoting understanding among people of different faiths. I’ve met hundreds of visitors from countries across the globe. I’ve seen the leaders of my own country come here amidst the crises of the time and, for at least a morning, put away political and ideological differences. And I’ve watched and I’ve listened to three presidents, each a man of faith, speak from their hearts, both sharing their own feelings about being in a position that has almost intolerably impossible burdens to bear, and appealing often, either explicitly or implicitly, for an end to the increasing smallness, irrelevancy, even meanness, of our own political culture. My own heart has been touched and occasionally pierced by the words I’ve heard, and often my spirit has been lifted by the musicians and the singers who have shared their gifts in praising the Lord with us. And during difficult and painful times, my faith has been strengthened by the personal connections that I have experienced with people who, by the calculus of politics, were on the opposite side of me on the basis of issues or partisanship.
After my very first prayer breakfast, a bipartisan group of women asked me to join them for lunch and told me that they were forming a prayer group. And these prayer partners prayed for me. They prayed for me during some very challenging times. They came to see me in the White House. They kept in touch with me and some still do today. And they gave me a handmade book with messages, quotes, and scripture, to sustain me. And of all the thousands of gifts that I received in the White House, I have a special affection for this one. Because in addition to the tangible gift of the book, it contained 12 intangible gifts, 12 gifts of discernment, peace, compassion, faith, fellowship, vision, forgiveness, grace, wisdom, love, joy, and courage. And I have had many occasions to pull out that book and to look at it and to try, Chairman Mullen, to figure out how to close the gap of what I am feeling and doing with what I know I should be feeling and doing. As a person of faith, it is a constant struggle, particularly in the political arena, to close that gap that each of us faces.
In February of 1994, the speaker here was Mother Teresa. She gave, as everyone who remembers that occasion will certainly recall, a strong address against abortion. And then she asked to see me. And I thought, “Oh, dear.” (Laughter.) And after the breakfast, we went behind that curtain and we sat on folding chairs, and I remember being struck by how small she was and how powerful her hands were, despite her size, and that she was wearing sandals in February in Washington. (Laughter.)
We began to talk, and she told me that she knew that we had a shared conviction about adoption being vastly better as a choice for unplanned or unwanted babies. And she asked me – or more properly, she directed me – to work with her to create a home for such babies here in Washington. I know that we often picture, as we’re growing up, God as a man with a white beard. But that day, I felt like I had been ordered, and that the message was coming not just through this diminutive woman but from someplace far beyond.
So I started to work. And it took a while because we had to cut through all the red tape. We had to get all the approvals. I thought it would be easier than it turned out to be. She proved herself to be the most relentless lobbyist I’ve ever encountered. (Laughter.) She could not get a job in your White House, Mr. President. (Laughter.) She never let up. She called me from India, she called me from Vietnam, she wrote me letters, and it was always: “When’s the house gonna open? How much more can be done quickly?”
Finally, the moment came: June, 1995, and the Mother Teresa Home for Infant Children opened. She flew in from Kolkata to attend the opening, and like a happy child, she gripped my arm and led me around, looking at the bassinets and the pretty painted colors on the wall, and just beaming about what this meant for children and their futures.
A few years later, I attended her funeral in Kolkata, where I saw presidents and prime ministers, royalty and street beggars, pay her homage. And after the service, her successor, Sister Nirmala, the leader of the Missionaries of Charity, invited me to come to the Mother House. I was deeply touched. When I arrived, I realized I was one of only a very few outsiders. And I was directed into a whitewashed room where the casket had already arrived. And we stood around with the nuns, with the candles on the walls flickering, and prayed for this extraordinary woman. And then Sister Nirmala asked me to offer a prayer. I felt both inadequate and deeply honored, just as I do today. And in the tradition of prayer breakfast speakers, let me share a few matters that reflect how I came on my own faith journey, and how I think about the responsibilities that President Obama and his Administration and our government face today.
As Amy said, I grew up in the Methodist Church. On both sides of my father’s family, the Rodhams and the Joneses, they came from mining towns. And they claimed, going back many years, to have actually been converted by John and Charles Wesley. And, of course, Methodists were methodical. It was a particularly good religion for me. (Laughter.) And part of it is a commitment to living out your faith. We believe that faith without works may not be dead, but it’s hard to discern from time to time.
And of course, John Wesley had this simple rule which I carry around with me as I travel: Do all the good you can by all the means you can in all the ways you can in all the places you can at all the times you can to all the people you can, as long as ever you can. That’s a tall order. And of course, one of the interpretive problems with it is, who defines good? What are we actually called to do, and how do we stay humble enough, obedient enough, to ask ourselves, am I really doing what I’m called to do?
It was a good rule to be raised by and it was certainly a good rule for my mother and father to discipline us by. And I think it’s a good rule to live by, with the appropriate dose of humility. Our world is an imperfect one filled with imperfect people, so we constantly struggle to meet our own spiritual goals. But John Wesley’s teachings, and the teachings of my church, particularly during my childhood and teenage years, gave me the impetus to believe that I did have a responsibility. It meant not sitting on the sidelines, but being in the arena. And it meant constantly working to try to fulfill the lessons that I absorbed as a child. It’s not easy. We’re here today because we’re all seekers, and we can all look around our own lives and the lives of those whom we know and see everyone falling so short.
And then of course, as we look around the world, there are so many problems and challenges that people of faith are attempting to address or should be. We can recite those places where human beings are mired in the past – their hatreds, their differences – where governments refuse to speak to other governments, where the progress of entire nations is undermined because isolation and insularity seem less risky than cooperation and collaboration, where all too often it is religion that is the force that drives and sustains division rather than being the healing balm. These patterns persist despite the overwhelming evidence that more good will come from suspending old animosities and preconceptions from engaging others in dialogue, from remembering the cardinal rules found in all of the world’s major religions.
Last October, I visited Belfast once again, 11 years after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, a place where being a Protestant or a Catholic determined where you lived, often where you worked, whether you were a friend or an enemy, a threat or a target. Yet over time, as the body count grew, the bonds of common humanity became more powerful than the differences fueled by ancient wrongs. So bullets have been traded for ballots.
As we meet this morning, both communities are attempting to hammer out a final agreement on the yet unresolved issues between them. And they are discovering anew what the Scripture urges us: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we don’t give up.” Even in places where God’s presence and promise seems fleeting and unfulfilled or completely absent, the power of one person’s faith and the determination to act can help lead a nation out of darkness.
Some of you may have seen the film Pray the Devil Back to Hell. It is the story of a Liberian woman who was tired of the conflict and the killing and the fear that had gripped her country for years. So she went to her church and she prayed for an end to the civil war. And she organized other women at her church, and then at other churches, then at the mosques. Soon thousands of women became a mass movement, rising up and praying for a peace, and working to bring it about that finally, finally ended the conflict.
And yet the devil must have left Liberia and taken up residence in Congo. When I was in the Democratic Republic of Congo this summer, the contrasts were so overwhelmingly tragic – a country the size of Western Europe, rich in minerals and natural resources, where 5.4 million people have been killed in the most deadly conflict since World War II, where 1,100 women and girls are raped every month, where the life expectancy is 46 and dropping, where poverty, starvation, and all of the ills that stalk the human race are in abundance.
When I traveled to Goma, I saw in a single day the best and the worst of humanity. I met with women who had been savaged and brutalized physically and emotionally, victims of gender and sexual-based violence in a place where law, custom, and even faith did little to protect them. But I also saw courageous women who, by faith, went back into the bush to find those who, like them, had been violently attacked. I saw the doctors and the nurses who were helping to heal the wounds, and I saw so many who were there because their faith led them to it.
As we look at the world today and we reflect on the overwhelming response of outpouring of generosity to what happened in Haiti, I’m reminded of the story of Elijah. After he goes to Mount Horeb, we read that he faced “a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence – a still small voice.” It was then that Elijah heard the voice of the Lord. It is often when we are only quiet enough to listen that we do as well. It’s something we can do at any time, without a disaster or a catastrophe provoking it. It shouldn’t take that.
But the teachings of every religion call us to care for the poor, tell us to visit the orphans and widows, to be generous and charitable, to alleviate suffering. All religions have their version of the Golden Rule and direct us to love our neighbor and welcome the stranger and visit the prisoner. But how often in the midst of our own lives do we respond to that? All of these holy texts, all of this religious wisdom from these very different faiths call on us to act out of love.
In politics, we sometimes talk about message discipline – making sure everyone uses the same set of talking points. Well, whoever was in charge of message discipline on these issues for every religion certainly knew what they were doing. Regardless of our differences, we all got the same talking points and the same marching orders. So the charge is a personal one. Yet across the world, we see organized religion standing in the way of faith, perverting love, undermining that message.
Sometimes it’s easier to see that far away than here at home. But religion, cloaked in naked power lust, is used to justify horrific violence, attacks on homes, markets, schools, volleyball games, churches, mosques, synagogues, temples. From Iraq to Pakistan and Afghanistan to Nigeria and the Middle East, religion is used a club to deny the human rights of girls and women, from the Gulf to Africa to Asia, and to discriminate, even advocating the execution of gays and lesbians. Religion is used to enshrine in law intolerance of free expression and peaceful protest. Iran is now detaining and executing people under a new crime – waging war against God. It seems to be a rather dramatic identity crisis.
So in the Obama Administration, we are working to bridge religious divides. We’re taking on violations of human rights perpetrated in the name of religion. And we invite members of Congress and clergy and active citizens like all of you here to join us. Of course we’re supporting the peace processes from Northern Ireland to the Middle East, and of course we are following up on the President’s historic speech at Cairo with outreach efforts to Muslims and promoting interfaith dialogue, and of course we’re condemning the repression in Iran.
But we are also standing up for girls and women, who too often in the name of religion, are denied their basic human rights. And we are standing up for gays and lesbians who deserve to be treated as full human beings. (Applause.) And we are also making it clear to countries and leaders that these are priorities of the United States. Every time I travel, I raise the plight of girls and women, and make it clear that we expect to see changes. And I recently called President Museveni, whom I have known through the prayer breakfast, and expressed the strongest concerns about a law being considered in the parliament of Uganda.
We are committed, not only to reaching out and speaking up about the perversion of religion, and in particularly the use of it to promote and justify terrorism, but also seeking to find common ground. We are working with Muslim nations to come up with an appropriate way of demonstrating criticism of religious intolerance without stepping over into the area of freedom of religion or non-religion and expression. So there is much to be done, and there is a lot of challenging opportunities for each of us as we leave this prayer breakfast, this 58th prayer breakfast.
In 1975, my husband and I, who had gotten married in October, and we were both teaching at the University of Arkansas Law School in beautiful Fayetteville, Arkansas – we got married on a Saturday and we went back to work on a Monday. So around Christmastime, we decided that we should go somewhere and celebrate, take a honeymoon. And my late father said, “Well, that’s a great idea. We’ll come, too.”
(Laughter.)
And indeed, Bill and I and my entire family – (laughter) – went to Acapul
oco. We had a great time, but it wasn’t exactly a honeymoon. So when we got back, Bill was talking to one of his friends who was then working in Haiti, and his friend said, “Well, why don’t you come see me? This is the most interesting country. Come and take some time.” So indeed, we did. So we were there over the New Year’s holidays. And I remember visiting the Cathedral in Port-au-Prince, in the midst, at that time, so much fear from the regime of the Duvaliers, and so much poverty, there was this cathedral that had stood there and served as a beacon of hope and faith.
After the earthquake, I was looking at some of our pictures from the disaster, and I saw the total destruction of the cathedral. It was just a heart-rending moment. And yet I also saw men and women helping one another, digging through the rubble, dancing and singing in the makeshift communities that they were building up. And I thought again that as the scripture reminds us, “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed.”
As the memory of this crisis fades, as the news cameras move on to the next very dramatic incident, let us pray that we can sustain the force and the feeling that we find in our hearts and in our faith in the aftermath of such tragedies. Let us pray that we will all continue to be our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers. Let us pray that amid our differences, we can continue to see the power of faith not only to make us whole as individuals, to provide personal salvation, but to make us a greater whole and a greater force for good on behalf of all creation.
So let us do all the good we can, by all the means we can, in all the ways we can, in all the places we can, to all the people we can, as long as ever we can.
God bless you. (Applause.)
by Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Washington Hilton Hotel
Washington, DC
February 4, 2010
SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you. Thank you very much. I have to begin by saying I’m not Bono. (Laughter.) Those of you who were here when he was, I apologize beforehand. (Laughter.) But it is a great pleasure to be with you and to be here with President and Mrs. Obama, to be with Vice President Biden, with Chairman Mullen, with certainly our host today, my former colleagues and friends, Senators Isakson and Amy Klobuchar. And to be with so many distinguished guests and visitors who have come from all over our country and indeed from all over the world.
I have attended this prayer breakfast every year since 1993, and I have always found it to be a gathering that inspires and motivates me. Now today, our minds are still filled with the images of the tragedy of Haiti, where faith is being tested daily in food lines and makeshift hospitals, in tent cities where there are not only so many suffering people, but so many vanished dreams.
When I think about the horrible catastrophe that has struck Haiti, I am both saddened but also spurred. This is a moment that has already been embraced by people of faith from everywhere. I thank Prime Minister Zapatero for his country’s response and commitment. Because in the days since the earthquake, we have seen the world and the world’s faithful spring into action on behalf of those suffering. President Obama has put our country on the leading edge of making sure that we do all we can to help alleviate not only the immediate suffering, but to assist in the rebuilding and recovery. So many countries have answered the call, and so many churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples have brought their own people together. And even modern technology through Facebook and telethons and text messages and Twitter, there’s been an overwhelming global response. But of course, there’s so much more to be done.
When I think about being here with all of you today, there are so many subjects to talk about. You’ve already heard, both in prayer and in scripture reading and in Prime Minister Zapatero’s remarks, a number of messages. But let me be both personal and speak from my unique perspective now as Secretary of State. I’ve been here as a First Lady. I’ve been here as a senator, and now I am here as a Secretary of State. I have heard heartfelt descriptions of personal faith journeys. I’ve heard impassioned pleas for feeding the hungry and helping the poor, caring for the sick. I’ve heard speeches about promoting understanding among people of different faiths. I’ve met hundreds of visitors from countries across the globe. I’ve seen the leaders of my own country come here amidst the crises of the time and, for at least a morning, put away political and ideological differences. And I’ve watched and I’ve listened to three presidents, each a man of faith, speak from their hearts, both sharing their own feelings about being in a position that has almost intolerably impossible burdens to bear, and appealing often, either explicitly or implicitly, for an end to the increasing smallness, irrelevancy, even meanness, of our own political culture. My own heart has been touched and occasionally pierced by the words I’ve heard, and often my spirit has been lifted by the musicians and the singers who have shared their gifts in praising the Lord with us. And during difficult and painful times, my faith has been strengthened by the personal connections that I have experienced with people who, by the calculus of politics, were on the opposite side of me on the basis of issues or partisanship.
After my very first prayer breakfast, a bipartisan group of women asked me to join them for lunch and told me that they were forming a prayer group. And these prayer partners prayed for me. They prayed for me during some very challenging times. They came to see me in the White House. They kept in touch with me and some still do today. And they gave me a handmade book with messages, quotes, and scripture, to sustain me. And of all the thousands of gifts that I received in the White House, I have a special affection for this one. Because in addition to the tangible gift of the book, it contained 12 intangible gifts, 12 gifts of discernment, peace, compassion, faith, fellowship, vision, forgiveness, grace, wisdom, love, joy, and courage. And I have had many occasions to pull out that book and to look at it and to try, Chairman Mullen, to figure out how to close the gap of what I am feeling and doing with what I know I should be feeling and doing. As a person of faith, it is a constant struggle, particularly in the political arena, to close that gap that each of us faces.
In February of 1994, the speaker here was Mother Teresa. She gave, as everyone who remembers that occasion will certainly recall, a strong address against abortion. And then she asked to see me. And I thought, “Oh, dear.” (Laughter.) And after the breakfast, we went behind that curtain and we sat on folding chairs, and I remember being struck by how small she was and how powerful her hands were, despite her size, and that she was wearing sandals in February in Washington. (Laughter.)
We began to talk, and she told me that she knew that we had a shared conviction about adoption being vastly better as a choice for unplanned or unwanted babies. And she asked me – or more properly, she directed me – to work with her to create a home for such babies here in Washington. I know that we often picture, as we’re growing up, God as a man with a white beard. But that day, I felt like I had been ordered, and that the message was coming not just through this diminutive woman but from someplace far beyond.
So I started to work. And it took a while because we had to cut through all the red tape. We had to get all the approvals. I thought it would be easier than it turned out to be. She proved herself to be the most relentless lobbyist I’ve ever encountered. (Laughter.) She could not get a job in your White House, Mr. President. (Laughter.) She never let up. She called me from India, she called me from Vietnam, she wrote me letters, and it was always: “When’s the house gonna open? How much more can be done quickly?”
Finally, the moment came: June, 1995, and the Mother Teresa Home for Infant Children opened. She flew in from Kolkata to attend the opening, and like a happy child, she gripped my arm and led me around, looking at the bassinets and the pretty painted colors on the wall, and just beaming about what this meant for children and their futures.
A few years later, I attended her funeral in Kolkata, where I saw presidents and prime ministers, royalty and street beggars, pay her homage. And after the service, her successor, Sister Nirmala, the leader of the Missionaries of Charity, invited me to come to the Mother House. I was deeply touched. When I arrived, I realized I was one of only a very few outsiders. And I was directed into a whitewashed room where the casket had already arrived. And we stood around with the nuns, with the candles on the walls flickering, and prayed for this extraordinary woman. And then Sister Nirmala asked me to offer a prayer. I felt both inadequate and deeply honored, just as I do today. And in the tradition of prayer breakfast speakers, let me share a few matters that reflect how I came on my own faith journey, and how I think about the responsibilities that President Obama and his Administration and our government face today.
As Amy said, I grew up in the Methodist Church. On both sides of my father’s family, the Rodhams and the Joneses, they came from mining towns. And they claimed, going back many years, to have actually been converted by John and Charles Wesley. And, of course, Methodists were methodical. It was a particularly good religion for me. (Laughter.) And part of it is a commitment to living out your faith. We believe that faith without works may not be dead, but it’s hard to discern from time to time.
And of course, John Wesley had this simple rule which I carry around with me as I travel: Do all the good you can by all the means you can in all the ways you can in all the places you can at all the times you can to all the people you can, as long as ever you can. That’s a tall order. And of course, one of the interpretive problems with it is, who defines good? What are we actually called to do, and how do we stay humble enough, obedient enough, to ask ourselves, am I really doing what I’m called to do?
It was a good rule to be raised by and it was certainly a good rule for my mother and father to discipline us by. And I think it’s a good rule to live by, with the appropriate dose of humility. Our world is an imperfect one filled with imperfect people, so we constantly struggle to meet our own spiritual goals. But John Wesley’s teachings, and the teachings of my church, particularly during my childhood and teenage years, gave me the impetus to believe that I did have a responsibility. It meant not sitting on the sidelines, but being in the arena. And it meant constantly working to try to fulfill the lessons that I absorbed as a child. It’s not easy. We’re here today because we’re all seekers, and we can all look around our own lives and the lives of those whom we know and see everyone falling so short.
And then of course, as we look around the world, there are so many problems and challenges that people of faith are attempting to address or should be. We can recite those places where human beings are mired in the past – their hatreds, their differences – where governments refuse to speak to other governments, where the progress of entire nations is undermined because isolation and insularity seem less risky than cooperation and collaboration, where all too often it is religion that is the force that drives and sustains division rather than being the healing balm. These patterns persist despite the overwhelming evidence that more good will come from suspending old animosities and preconceptions from engaging others in dialogue, from remembering the cardinal rules found in all of the world’s major religions.
Last October, I visited Belfast once again, 11 years after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, a place where being a Protestant or a Catholic determined where you lived, often where you worked, whether you were a friend or an enemy, a threat or a target. Yet over time, as the body count grew, the bonds of common humanity became more powerful than the differences fueled by ancient wrongs. So bullets have been traded for ballots.
As we meet this morning, both communities are attempting to hammer out a final agreement on the yet unresolved issues between them. And they are discovering anew what the Scripture urges us: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we don’t give up.” Even in places where God’s presence and promise seems fleeting and unfulfilled or completely absent, the power of one person’s faith and the determination to act can help lead a nation out of darkness.
Some of you may have seen the film Pray the Devil Back to Hell. It is the story of a Liberian woman who was tired of the conflict and the killing and the fear that had gripped her country for years. So she went to her church and she prayed for an end to the civil war. And she organized other women at her church, and then at other churches, then at the mosques. Soon thousands of women became a mass movement, rising up and praying for a peace, and working to bring it about that finally, finally ended the conflict.
And yet the devil must have left Liberia and taken up residence in Congo. When I was in the Democratic Republic of Congo this summer, the contrasts were so overwhelmingly tragic – a country the size of Western Europe, rich in minerals and natural resources, where 5.4 million people have been killed in the most deadly conflict since World War II, where 1,100 women and girls are raped every month, where the life expectancy is 46 and dropping, where poverty, starvation, and all of the ills that stalk the human race are in abundance.
When I traveled to Goma, I saw in a single day the best and the worst of humanity. I met with women who had been savaged and brutalized physically and emotionally, victims of gender and sexual-based violence in a place where law, custom, and even faith did little to protect them. But I also saw courageous women who, by faith, went back into the bush to find those who, like them, had been violently attacked. I saw the doctors and the nurses who were helping to heal the wounds, and I saw so many who were there because their faith led them to it.
As we look at the world today and we reflect on the overwhelming response of outpouring of generosity to what happened in Haiti, I’m reminded of the story of Elijah. After he goes to Mount Horeb, we read that he faced “a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence – a still small voice.” It was then that Elijah heard the voice of the Lord. It is often when we are only quiet enough to listen that we do as well. It’s something we can do at any time, without a disaster or a catastrophe provoking it. It shouldn’t take that.
But the teachings of every religion call us to care for the poor, tell us to visit the orphans and widows, to be generous and charitable, to alleviate suffering. All religions have their version of the Golden Rule and direct us to love our neighbor and welcome the stranger and visit the prisoner. But how often in the midst of our own lives do we respond to that? All of these holy texts, all of this religious wisdom from these very different faiths call on us to act out of love.
In politics, we sometimes talk about message discipline – making sure everyone uses the same set of talking points. Well, whoever was in charge of message discipline on these issues for every religion certainly knew what they were doing. Regardless of our differences, we all got the same talking points and the same marching orders. So the charge is a personal one. Yet across the world, we see organized religion standing in the way of faith, perverting love, undermining that message.
Sometimes it’s easier to see that far away than here at home. But religion, cloaked in naked power lust, is used to justify horrific violence, attacks on homes, markets, schools, volleyball games, churches, mosques, synagogues, temples. From Iraq to Pakistan and Afghanistan to Nigeria and the Middle East, religion is used a club to deny the human rights of girls and women, from the Gulf to Africa to Asia, and to discriminate, even advocating the execution of gays and lesbians. Religion is used to enshrine in law intolerance of free expression and peaceful protest. Iran is now detaining and executing people under a new crime – waging war against God. It seems to be a rather dramatic identity crisis.
So in the Obama Administration, we are working to bridge religious divides. We’re taking on violations of human rights perpetrated in the name of religion. And we invite members of Congress and clergy and active citizens like all of you here to join us. Of course we’re supporting the peace processes from Northern Ireland to the Middle East, and of course we are following up on the President’s historic speech at Cairo with outreach efforts to Muslims and promoting interfaith dialogue, and of course we’re condemning the repression in Iran.
But we are also standing up for girls and women, who too often in the name of religion, are denied their basic human rights. And we are standing up for gays and lesbians who deserve to be treated as full human beings. (Applause.) And we are also making it clear to countries and leaders that these are priorities of the United States. Every time I travel, I raise the plight of girls and women, and make it clear that we expect to see changes. And I recently called President Museveni, whom I have known through the prayer breakfast, and expressed the strongest concerns about a law being considered in the parliament of Uganda.
We are committed, not only to reaching out and speaking up about the perversion of religion, and in particularly the use of it to promote and justify terrorism, but also seeking to find common ground. We are working with Muslim nations to come up with an appropriate way of demonstrating criticism of religious intolerance without stepping over into the area of freedom of religion or non-religion and expression. So there is much to be done, and there is a lot of challenging opportunities for each of us as we leave this prayer breakfast, this 58th prayer breakfast.
In 1975, my husband and I, who had gotten married in October, and we were both teaching at the University of Arkansas Law School in beautiful Fayetteville, Arkansas – we got married on a Saturday and we went back to work on a Monday. So around Christmastime, we decided that we should go somewhere and celebrate, take a honeymoon. And my late father said, “Well, that’s a great idea. We’ll come, too.”
(Laughter.)
And indeed, Bill and I and my entire family – (laughter) – went to Acapul
oco. We had a great time, but it wasn’t exactly a honeymoon. So when we got back, Bill was talking to one of his friends who was then working in Haiti, and his friend said, “Well, why don’t you come see me? This is the most interesting country. Come and take some time.” So indeed, we did. So we were there over the New Year’s holidays. And I remember visiting the Cathedral in Port-au-Prince, in the midst, at that time, so much fear from the regime of the Duvaliers, and so much poverty, there was this cathedral that had stood there and served as a beacon of hope and faith.
After the earthquake, I was looking at some of our pictures from the disaster, and I saw the total destruction of the cathedral. It was just a heart-rending moment. And yet I also saw men and women helping one another, digging through the rubble, dancing and singing in the makeshift communities that they were building up. And I thought again that as the scripture reminds us, “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed.”
As the memory of this crisis fades, as the news cameras move on to the next very dramatic incident, let us pray that we can sustain the force and the feeling that we find in our hearts and in our faith in the aftermath of such tragedies. Let us pray that we will all continue to be our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers. Let us pray that amid our differences, we can continue to see the power of faith not only to make us whole as individuals, to provide personal salvation, but to make us a greater whole and a greater force for good on behalf of all creation.
So let us do all the good we can, by all the means we can, in all the ways we can, in all the places we can, to all the people we can, as long as ever we can.
God bless you. (Applause.)
Sri Lanka Gets Russian Loan for Arms, Military Upgrades.
Daily Times
10 February 2010
Editor's Note: Sri Lanka continues to move its SCO alliance forward as China is planning to build a naval base at the southern tip of Sri Lanka to protect a key energy corridor. This comes at a time when Sri Lanka's parliament has been dissolved and Gen. Sarath Fonseka, the defeated electoral opponent, was detained on allegations he was plotting a coup. Gen. Fonseka fought the LTTE for decades and is credited with bringing them down for good last year.
Sri Lanka has secured a 300-million-dollar loan from Russia to upgrade its military, the foreign ministry in Colombo said on Tuesday.
“We are looking at technology transfers, including new technology for our military, new satellite technology, through this agreement,” Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said. He said the deal was clinched during a four-day visit to Moscow by President Mahinda Rajapakse. Rajapakse and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev also discussed technology cooperation in the fields of oil exploration, renewable energy, aviation and tourism, Bogollagama said.
Bogollagama gave no details of the Russian credit, but RIA-Novosti, a Russian news agency, said Sri Lanka would have access to financing for five years to buy Russian weapons with a repayment period of 10 years. Russia, China and Pakistan have been the main arms suppliers to Sri Lanka during the 37-year ethnic conflict with separatist Tamil Tiger rebels that ended in May after government troops wiped out its leadership.
10 February 2010
Editor's Note: Sri Lanka continues to move its SCO alliance forward as China is planning to build a naval base at the southern tip of Sri Lanka to protect a key energy corridor. This comes at a time when Sri Lanka's parliament has been dissolved and Gen. Sarath Fonseka, the defeated electoral opponent, was detained on allegations he was plotting a coup. Gen. Fonseka fought the LTTE for decades and is credited with bringing them down for good last year.
Sri Lanka has secured a 300-million-dollar loan from Russia to upgrade its military, the foreign ministry in Colombo said on Tuesday.
“We are looking at technology transfers, including new technology for our military, new satellite technology, through this agreement,” Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said. He said the deal was clinched during a four-day visit to Moscow by President Mahinda Rajapakse. Rajapakse and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev also discussed technology cooperation in the fields of oil exploration, renewable energy, aviation and tourism, Bogollagama said.
Bogollagama gave no details of the Russian credit, but RIA-Novosti, a Russian news agency, said Sri Lanka would have access to financing for five years to buy Russian weapons with a repayment period of 10 years. Russia, China and Pakistan have been the main arms suppliers to Sri Lanka during the 37-year ethnic conflict with separatist Tamil Tiger rebels that ended in May after government troops wiped out its leadership.
09 February, 2010
CID summons Victoire Ingabire for Wednesday Appearance.
Rwandan News Agency
9 February 2010
A day after President Kagame said the so-called “honeymoon” of opposition party leader Ms. Victoire Ingabire was not open-ended, she has now been summoned to appear at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), RNA can reveal.
A written summons was delivered to Ms. Ingabire summoning her to appear at 14:30 Tuesday at the CID Headquarters in Kacyiru – an upper class suburb of Kigali. The CID HQ is within walking distance of the American embassy, the Office of the President and several ministerial offices. The time was later changed to Wednesday.
President Kagame indicated Monday that at some point, Ms. Ingabire will likely be held responsible for things she has said and done since her arrival on January 16 from exile in Holland. President Kagame accused her of allegedly trying to provoke authorities – so she may be arrested. This, the President said, would attract sympathy for the politician.
The latest developments also come following the jailing of Ms. Ingabire’s aide, Mr. Joseph Ntawangundi, for 19 years over a gacaca conviction for genocide. However, the group has brought in Dutch lawyers to plead his case, with the defense that Mr. Ntawangundi was actually in Sweden during the time of the 1994 Genocide of the Tutsi.
Meanwhile, RNA has also established that Ms. Ingabire has recovered the documents she lost last week when a gang of youths attacked her at the Kinyinya sector office.
Information available to RNA suggests that the CID summon has been changed to 10am on Wednesday. It is not yet clear why there has been a change to the summons. RNA will bring details as they emerge.
9 February 2010
A day after President Kagame said the so-called “honeymoon” of opposition party leader Ms. Victoire Ingabire was not open-ended, she has now been summoned to appear at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), RNA can reveal.
A written summons was delivered to Ms. Ingabire summoning her to appear at 14:30 Tuesday at the CID Headquarters in Kacyiru – an upper class suburb of Kigali. The CID HQ is within walking distance of the American embassy, the Office of the President and several ministerial offices. The time was later changed to Wednesday.
President Kagame indicated Monday that at some point, Ms. Ingabire will likely be held responsible for things she has said and done since her arrival on January 16 from exile in Holland. President Kagame accused her of allegedly trying to provoke authorities – so she may be arrested. This, the President said, would attract sympathy for the politician.
The latest developments also come following the jailing of Ms. Ingabire’s aide, Mr. Joseph Ntawangundi, for 19 years over a gacaca conviction for genocide. However, the group has brought in Dutch lawyers to plead his case, with the defense that Mr. Ntawangundi was actually in Sweden during the time of the 1994 Genocide of the Tutsi.
Meanwhile, RNA has also established that Ms. Ingabire has recovered the documents she lost last week when a gang of youths attacked her at the Kinyinya sector office.
Information available to RNA suggests that the CID summon has been changed to 10am on Wednesday. It is not yet clear why there has been a change to the summons. RNA will bring details as they emerge.
UDF Protests Harassment and Surveillance by RPF.
UDF-Inkingi
Press Release
Done in Kigali, 3rd February 2010.
To:
- Hon. Minister of Local Government: KIGALI
- Hon. Minister of Defense: KIGALI
- Hon. Minister of Internal Security: KIGALI
- RDF Commander: KIGALI
- Commissioner General of Police: KIGALI
Subject: Protest letter denouncing administration backed lynching and
harassments by sections of secret services, the police and the army.
Today at 11:25, responding to an invitation by the authorities of Kinyinya Sector (Gasabo District) to collect our administrative papers, Mrs. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, the Chairperson of UDF-INKINGI narrowly survived a planned lynch mob. Within the administration premises, my assistant, Mr. Joseph Nawangundi, was savagely dragged out of the car, beaten and stabbed. It is only after a full hour that the police stopped the lynching. I escaped the mob. However, the militia snatched my handbag containing my identity card, my passport, and other valuable belongings. Mr. Joseph Ntawangundi was severely injured and his clothes were torn apart. He was rushed to King Fasial Hospital for emergency treatment.
This is just the latest in a growing list of blatant attacks and harassments that compromise public confidence in Rwandan security systems. Militia lynching, the reign of terror being carried out by certain sectors of the administration, intelligence services and the police forces are unacceptable.
It is with great regret that we must take issue with the on-going aggressive surveillance and tailing by Rwandan intelligence services and Army officers coupled with police harassment and intimidation against UDF-INKINGI leader, Mrs. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza.
We mainly refer to these incidents:
- Wednesday 27th January 2010, Nyagasambu (Kigali). Exercising our right to
freedom of movement in our country, our two vehicles were ordered by police
officers to pull over. Our drivers licenses and vehicle registration papers were
confiscated. The official charge was “careless driving” and a Rw. FRW 50,000 fine
was levied. Unable to substantiate these allegations on spot, the police officers confirmed to us that they received orders from their hierarchy to stop our vehicles.
- The same day, we were tailed by an army vehicle with men in miltary uniforms
between Rwamagana and Kibungo and all the way back. This mobile surveillance
continued with cars bearing civilian license plates. The surveillance was extensively
carried out in an intimidating fashion even while we were shopping for vegetables in both Rwamagana and Kibungo's public markets.
- Sunday 17th January 2010, 2 manned vehicles tailed us from Kigali to Gitarama
and all the way back;
- Since 16th January 2010 to date, we have been submitted to a 24-hour intensive
surveillance.
We call on all relevant authorities to investigate the militia lynching within Kinyinya Sector premises, harassment by sections of the Rwanda intelligence services, police and the military. It is time authorities take action and ensure we are allowed to carry out our political work and enjoy our right to freedom of movements without any harassment. We don’t believe this brutality, terror, militia lynching and various harassments are, for some reason, beyond the control of the government.
Respectfully,
For the UDF-INKINGI Party,
Mrs. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza
Chairperson.
CC:
- H.E. General Paul KAGAME, President of Rwanda, Kigali, Rwanda
- The Right Hon. Mr. Bernard MAKUZA, Prime Minister, Kigali, Rwanda
- Diplomatic Missions, Kigali, Rwanda
Press Release
Done in Kigali, 3rd February 2010.
To:
- Hon. Minister of Local Government: KIGALI
- Hon. Minister of Defense: KIGALI
- Hon. Minister of Internal Security: KIGALI
- RDF Commander: KIGALI
- Commissioner General of Police: KIGALI
Subject: Protest letter denouncing administration backed lynching and
harassments by sections of secret services, the police and the army.
Today at 11:25, responding to an invitation by the authorities of Kinyinya Sector (Gasabo District) to collect our administrative papers, Mrs. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, the Chairperson of UDF-INKINGI narrowly survived a planned lynch mob. Within the administration premises, my assistant, Mr. Joseph Nawangundi, was savagely dragged out of the car, beaten and stabbed. It is only after a full hour that the police stopped the lynching. I escaped the mob. However, the militia snatched my handbag containing my identity card, my passport, and other valuable belongings. Mr. Joseph Ntawangundi was severely injured and his clothes were torn apart. He was rushed to King Fasial Hospital for emergency treatment.
This is just the latest in a growing list of blatant attacks and harassments that compromise public confidence in Rwandan security systems. Militia lynching, the reign of terror being carried out by certain sectors of the administration, intelligence services and the police forces are unacceptable.
It is with great regret that we must take issue with the on-going aggressive surveillance and tailing by Rwandan intelligence services and Army officers coupled with police harassment and intimidation against UDF-INKINGI leader, Mrs. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza.
We mainly refer to these incidents:
- Wednesday 27th January 2010, Nyagasambu (Kigali). Exercising our right to
freedom of movement in our country, our two vehicles were ordered by police
officers to pull over. Our drivers licenses and vehicle registration papers were
confiscated. The official charge was “careless driving” and a Rw. FRW 50,000 fine
was levied. Unable to substantiate these allegations on spot, the police officers confirmed to us that they received orders from their hierarchy to stop our vehicles.
- The same day, we were tailed by an army vehicle with men in miltary uniforms
between Rwamagana and Kibungo and all the way back. This mobile surveillance
continued with cars bearing civilian license plates. The surveillance was extensively
carried out in an intimidating fashion even while we were shopping for vegetables in both Rwamagana and Kibungo's public markets.
- Sunday 17th January 2010, 2 manned vehicles tailed us from Kigali to Gitarama
and all the way back;
- Since 16th January 2010 to date, we have been submitted to a 24-hour intensive
surveillance.
We call on all relevant authorities to investigate the militia lynching within Kinyinya Sector premises, harassment by sections of the Rwanda intelligence services, police and the military. It is time authorities take action and ensure we are allowed to carry out our political work and enjoy our right to freedom of movements without any harassment. We don’t believe this brutality, terror, militia lynching and various harassments are, for some reason, beyond the control of the government.
Respectfully,
For the UDF-INKINGI Party,
Mrs. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza
Chairperson.
CC:
- H.E. General Paul KAGAME, President of Rwanda, Kigali, Rwanda
- The Right Hon. Mr. Bernard MAKUZA, Prime Minister, Kigali, Rwanda
- Diplomatic Missions, Kigali, Rwanda
British Spies must seek ministerial green light to pay bribes, House of Lords rules.
Daily Telegraph
By Robert Winnett, Deputy Political Editor
09 February 2010
Members of the security services and armed forces have offered such bribes on “hundreds of thousands” of occasions, peers were told.
The House of Lords voted to amend the Bribery Bill currently passing through Parliament – to insist that ministers “pre-authorise” bribery by members of the intelligence and security services.
Ministers are thought to be fearful of pre-authorising bribes paid during controversial and secretive intelligence operations – some of which they may subsequently wish to be able to deny knowledge of.
In the Lords, ministers warned that introducing the amendment threatened the entire Bribery Bill – which sets out new laws to stop companies bribing officials around the world for contracts.
Lord Bach, a junior Justice Minister threatened to withdraw the entire bill if the amendment was passed. The Government instead said it wanted the intelligence service to have effective immunity if they are subsequently prosecuted for paying bribes.
Lord Bach told the Lords: “If your Lordships see fit to pass this amendment, the Government would have to think very seriously indeed about whether this Bill should be pursued.
“I do not say this as a threat. I am repeating in other words what I have said on a number of occasions. I cannot emphasise enough the importance Her Majesty's Government attaches to clause 13 [on bribes offered by members of the security service] in its current form.”
A member of the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security committee – which has access to secret information in its role overseeing the work of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ – hinted at the regular use of bribes by spies.
Lord Foulkes, a former defence minister said: “The volume of authorisations would be enormous.”
He added that former home and foreign secretaries would “well understand the huge volume there would be in respect to authorisation where agents have got, as part of their duty, to make payments to contacts to get information which could be absolutely vital for national security, for the prevention of terrorism, for a whole range of other things that would be in the national interest”.
“There would be hundreds of thousands of pre-authorisations on a regular basis.”
However, the Government was defeated after a co-ordinated attack on the plans by senior legal experts including Lord Pannick, a cross-bench QC, and Lord Woolf, the former Lord Chief Justice.
Lord Pannick said bribery should be carried out on behalf of the state "only when necessary" and agents should be given "as much assistance as possible in advance in order to know when it is permissible to carry out such an act".
"It is important for there to be an authorisation procedure for acts of bribery by the state,” he said.
Lord Woolf, Lord Chief Justice from 2000-05 said: “It is a very significant power to give to give to the security services and the other services."
“If it [pre-authorisation] is practical in terms of telephone tapping or in relation to searching of premises, why can something not be done also in these cases?”
He added: “It is a very corrosive exercise to resort to bribery and, if bribery is going to be resorted to, it does need care and protection of the sort that I have indicated.”
By Robert Winnett, Deputy Political Editor
09 February 2010
Members of the security services and armed forces have offered such bribes on “hundreds of thousands” of occasions, peers were told.
The House of Lords voted to amend the Bribery Bill currently passing through Parliament – to insist that ministers “pre-authorise” bribery by members of the intelligence and security services.
Ministers are thought to be fearful of pre-authorising bribes paid during controversial and secretive intelligence operations – some of which they may subsequently wish to be able to deny knowledge of.
In the Lords, ministers warned that introducing the amendment threatened the entire Bribery Bill – which sets out new laws to stop companies bribing officials around the world for contracts.
Lord Bach, a junior Justice Minister threatened to withdraw the entire bill if the amendment was passed. The Government instead said it wanted the intelligence service to have effective immunity if they are subsequently prosecuted for paying bribes.
Lord Bach told the Lords: “If your Lordships see fit to pass this amendment, the Government would have to think very seriously indeed about whether this Bill should be pursued.
“I do not say this as a threat. I am repeating in other words what I have said on a number of occasions. I cannot emphasise enough the importance Her Majesty's Government attaches to clause 13 [on bribes offered by members of the security service] in its current form.”
A member of the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security committee – which has access to secret information in its role overseeing the work of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ – hinted at the regular use of bribes by spies.
Lord Foulkes, a former defence minister said: “The volume of authorisations would be enormous.”
He added that former home and foreign secretaries would “well understand the huge volume there would be in respect to authorisation where agents have got, as part of their duty, to make payments to contacts to get information which could be absolutely vital for national security, for the prevention of terrorism, for a whole range of other things that would be in the national interest”.
“There would be hundreds of thousands of pre-authorisations on a regular basis.”
However, the Government was defeated after a co-ordinated attack on the plans by senior legal experts including Lord Pannick, a cross-bench QC, and Lord Woolf, the former Lord Chief Justice.
Lord Pannick said bribery should be carried out on behalf of the state "only when necessary" and agents should be given "as much assistance as possible in advance in order to know when it is permissible to carry out such an act".
"It is important for there to be an authorisation procedure for acts of bribery by the state,” he said.
Lord Woolf, Lord Chief Justice from 2000-05 said: “It is a very significant power to give to give to the security services and the other services."
“If it [pre-authorisation] is practical in terms of telephone tapping or in relation to searching of premises, why can something not be done also in these cases?”
He added: “It is a very corrosive exercise to resort to bribery and, if bribery is going to be resorted to, it does need care and protection of the sort that I have indicated.”
Pakistani Religious Leader Claims More Blackwater than State Police in Capital.
UPI
8 February 2010
There are more private security contractors from Xe, formerly Blackwater, operating in Islamabad than capital police, a religious leader said.
Maulana Fazal-ur-Rahman, the leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, a Deobandi political party in Pakistan, said there were as many as 9,000 Xe contractors working in Islamabad, compared with just 7,000 capital police, Pakistan's News International reports.
The Pakistani Taliban last week said attacks in the Lower Dir District of Pakistan's North-West Frontier province killed U.S. personnel, claiming the attack was an act of revenge against Xe contractors operating in the region.
Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, confirmed the deaths were U.S. military personnel but described the Taliban claims as propaganda.
Their deaths are the first known U.S. military fatalities in Pakistan.
Fazal blamed foreign contractors for instability in the country, saying they undermined an already weak democratic government. He equated Xe contractors with the insurgent Taliban.
Washington linked stability in Pakistan to the success of its counterinsurgency battle in neighboring Afghanistan, encouraging Islamabad to step up domestic security measures. Pakistan in October launched its own offensive in the volatile tribal regions near the Afghan border.
Fazal during a weekend meeting with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said an immediate halt to military activity in the tribal areas would bring normalcy to the region.
8 February 2010
There are more private security contractors from Xe, formerly Blackwater, operating in Islamabad than capital police, a religious leader said.
Maulana Fazal-ur-Rahman, the leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, a Deobandi political party in Pakistan, said there were as many as 9,000 Xe contractors working in Islamabad, compared with just 7,000 capital police, Pakistan's News International reports.
The Pakistani Taliban last week said attacks in the Lower Dir District of Pakistan's North-West Frontier province killed U.S. personnel, claiming the attack was an act of revenge against Xe contractors operating in the region.
Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, confirmed the deaths were U.S. military personnel but described the Taliban claims as propaganda.
Their deaths are the first known U.S. military fatalities in Pakistan.
Fazal blamed foreign contractors for instability in the country, saying they undermined an already weak democratic government. He equated Xe contractors with the insurgent Taliban.
Washington linked stability in Pakistan to the success of its counterinsurgency battle in neighboring Afghanistan, encouraging Islamabad to step up domestic security measures. Pakistan in October launched its own offensive in the volatile tribal regions near the Afghan border.
Fazal during a weekend meeting with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said an immediate halt to military activity in the tribal areas would bring normalcy to the region.
.Nigerian Parliament Names Jonathan Acting President.
New York Times
By ADAM NOSSITER
Published: February 9, 2010
The Nigerian Parliament Tuesday voted to make Vice President Goodluck Jonathan the acting president of Africa’s most populous nation, and filling a power vacuum that has persisted since President Umaru Yar’Adua’s departure for medical treatment in late November.
The vote ended weeks of political uncertainty, with Mr. Yar’Adua’s cabinet and supporters insisting there was no need to replace him, little word from the president himself about his condition, and outbreaks of citizen discontent over what many said was the government’s failure to follow the Constitution, which prescribes a handover in the president’s absence.
With Mr. Yar’Adua in a hospital in Saudia Arabia, a tenuous truce in the restive, oil-producing south of the country has fallen apart, and religious and ethnic clashes have broken out in the north in which hundreds have been killed.
Mr. Jonathan, 53, is a former governor of oil-producing Bayelsa state whose calm demeanor and southern background are regarded as assets in tackling what both he and Mr. Yar’Adua have described as their top objective, solving the conflict over oil in the south. As de facto president in recent weeks, he sent extra troops to the north to help quell the violence there.
By ADAM NOSSITER
Published: February 9, 2010
The Nigerian Parliament Tuesday voted to make Vice President Goodluck Jonathan the acting president of Africa’s most populous nation, and filling a power vacuum that has persisted since President Umaru Yar’Adua’s departure for medical treatment in late November.
The vote ended weeks of political uncertainty, with Mr. Yar’Adua’s cabinet and supporters insisting there was no need to replace him, little word from the president himself about his condition, and outbreaks of citizen discontent over what many said was the government’s failure to follow the Constitution, which prescribes a handover in the president’s absence.
With Mr. Yar’Adua in a hospital in Saudia Arabia, a tenuous truce in the restive, oil-producing south of the country has fallen apart, and religious and ethnic clashes have broken out in the north in which hundreds have been killed.
Mr. Jonathan, 53, is a former governor of oil-producing Bayelsa state whose calm demeanor and southern background are regarded as assets in tackling what both he and Mr. Yar’Adua have described as their top objective, solving the conflict over oil in the south. As de facto president in recent weeks, he sent extra troops to the north to help quell the violence there.
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