{jcomments on}OMAR, BXL AGNEWS, le 10 février 2010 – From Nkepile Mabuse, CNN/February 10, 2010 – Johannesburg, South Africa (CNN) — An intense fire at a South African orphanage killed at least 15 people, including eight children, and injured nine other people, authorities said.
BURUNDI :
RWANDA
Rwanda: U.S. Top Diplomat Insists Kabuga Still in Kenya
Edwin Musoni And Agencies/The New Times/allafrica.com/10 February 2010
Kigali — The United States Ambassador-at-large for War Crimes, Stephen Rapp, has said that his office has intelligence reports confirming that the alleged financier of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, Felicien Kabuga is still in Kenya.
Rapp made the announcement on yesterday at the end of a visit to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) based in Arusha, Tanzania.
“We have intelligence indicating Kabuga is in Kenya,” said Rapp, himself a former Deputy Chief Prosecutor at the ICTR. He had made similar claims late last year.
“I’m going to Nairobi to talk to the Kenyan authorities about the arrest of Kabuga, who is still in Kenya,” he told the press.
Meanwhile, Rapp discussed the same issue yesterday with the tribunal’s president Dennis Byron and prosecutor Hassan Bubacar Jallow.
Kenya has however denied allegations that Kabuga is still in the country. When contacted yesterday, ICTR Spokesman, Roland Amoussouga, said that Kenya has failed to prove that.
“We requested Kenya to provide evidence that Kabuga left this country but they have not done so,” Amoussouga said by phone yesterday.
Kabuga is the most wanted Genocide suspect sought by the ICTR still on the run. The United States has placed a five-million-dollar bounty on his head.
Rwanda: End Attacks on Opposition Parties
10 Feb 2010 /Source: Human Rights Watch/www.alertnet.org
(Kigali) – 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.
UGANDA
Oil scramble shouldn’t turn Uganda into global septic tank
10 February 2010 / By Samuel Olara/www.independent.co.ug
Uganda is in the midst of an “oil boom” and continues to attract serious attention from the world’s major oil players. The “oil boom” has predictably resulted in what appears to be “the global scramble for Uganda’s ‘crude gold filed’. Several international oil giants such as the Italian Eni and the Chinese state-owned CNOOC want to partner with Heritage Oil and Tullow Oil whose exploration has hit oil in the Lake Albert region and in Amuru Northern Uganda.
Heritage Oil has entered an understanding with Italy’s Eni International, to purchase its stake in Uganda’s Block 1 and Block 3A, a deal that culminated in Italy’s Foreign Affairs minister visiting Uganda in early January 2010, partly on a mission to shore up the company’s credentials.
Tullow Oil on the other hand says that it wants to partner with the Chinese firm, CNOOC, in developing Uganda’s oil industry. American Exxon Mobil have also been said to have shown an interest in Uganda’s oil.
Conservative estimates are that sub-Saharan Africa alone will receive more than US$250 billion in oil revenues in the next decade, the largest and most concentrated influx of revenue in the continent’s history.
It remains doubtful that the oil revenues will benefit sub-Saharan Africa’s economies; rather if we are learn from the experiences of countries like Nigeria, Angola, Sudan, DRC, Kenya, Egypt, Corte d’Ivore, and many more; they always have a way of generating mass human suffering, massive corruption, political instability, wars and enormous environmental damage.
This day the catch phrase is the globalisation of the global village, here in Africa, we are under the impression of being that village’s septic tank.
With Uganda therefore joining the big boys in oil exploration, it is only a natural human instinct that we wonder about the future. Many commentators have already speculated about the benefit to the economy and GDP, while others have pointed to the “curse” that always seems to come with oil exploration.
So can Ugandans be proud of this overwhelming interest from the world’s oil giants? It remains to be seen, but one thing is obvious; the interest of Ugandans has been overridden right from the word go. Our dear visioned leader, President Yoweri Museveni and his Cabinet could not resist the temptation of nodding to deals that only benefits a handful, at the expense of the country. It is a deal between the oil companies and state house, Parliament as usual has been overridden – it has not been allowed to scrutinise the deal let alone see it.
Even the Norwegian experts advising state house have expressed serious reservations: a review of Uganda’s contracts commissioned by the Norwegian Agency for International Corporation (NORAD) in 2008 concluded that the profit-share model adopted “cannot be regarded as being in accordance with the interests of the host country”.
According to impeccable sources, the oil contracts are structured so that price risk lies primarily with the state, while the private companies are virtually guaranteed a healthy return even if the market slumps. As the oil price rises, investors will make a higher and unlimited profit, taking close to one quarter of oil revenues, whether each barrel is fetching $100 or $200.
The 20-year contracts, consistently weak or completely silent on human rights protection, also include a sweeping “stabilisation clause” requiring the Ugandan government to compensate the companies for any future change in the law that affects their profits – designed to militate against improvements in environmental standards.
Where it escalates into a Legal dispute between the two sides, it will not be resolved in Uganda, but in London: at the Energy Institute.
Tullow Oil insists that “its contracts with Kampala were “the best deals in the world” for the government.”
Then there is the illegal disposal of toxic residue. All types of industries; whether big or small generate hazardous wastes. Oil companies are no exception, some will try to get rid of their dangerous waste by simply dumping it illegally. All for saving money at the cost of human beings and the environment. It’s a threat to our rivers, lakes, air, land, oceans and ultimately to our health, environment and our future.
Recent soil tests by the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) in Purongo, Amuru district have shown unacceptable levels of heavy metals in the waste water and mud cuttings dumped by the oil companies in the process of their exploration activities. The cuttings are pieces of rock that come out of the Earth’s crust during drilling.
They contain a mixture of chemicals that are used to cool the temperature of the drilling head. The heavy metals found during the soil tests were lead, zinc, chromium, cadmium, manganese, cooper, nickel, iron, manganese, phosphates, nitrogen, chloride and sulphates.
In Murchison Falls National Park for example, waste was removed by Heritage Oil and deposited in the land of a peasant in Purongo. The peasant was paid Shs 300,000 to put the drill mud on his land. A pit was dug and the waste was dumped there.
Exposure to these chemicals can damage the brain, cause cancer and tumor, kidney failure and ultimately cause death. In pregnant women, high levels of exposure may cause miscarriage, while in men it can damage the organs responsible for sperm production.
The day will come when Ugandans will realize that they are being made into helpless pawns in a monstrously vicious game of masters and slaves.
Olara is a human rights advocate
Kill or jail gays but not pastors: Church of Uganda
content.usatoday.com/Feb 10, 2010
At last, the Church of Uganda, the Anglican Communion branch there, has spoken up on the anti-homosexuality bill it has been studying for months. Their confusing statement, released today to Christianity Today, is long on bewildering rhetoric and very short on proposed amendments.
Indeed, Warren Throckmorton, an associate professor of psychology at Grove City College, blogs that the “changes” only serve to show the church wants to “make it more clear that homosexuality is against the law.”
The only specific amendment suggested would qualify a provision of the bill that now says people who fail to report gays to authorities could be imprisoned themselves. The Church would like to see pastors, doctors and counselors exempted. Otherwise, they back all efforts to be sure homosexuality is “excluded as a human right.”
So, family and friends who fail to turn in gays to authorities would still be facing jail, as per the original bill’s wording. (Note to actress Anne Hathaway, who told a British mag she left the Catholic Church because it wouldn’t welcome her gay brother: Stay out of Uganda.)
Tuesday’s statement was released to CT by Rev. David Zac Niringiye, assistant bishop of Kampala in the Church of Uganda. He last spoke in that magazine when he was annoyed over U.S. churchmen such as Rick Warren criticizing the bill as unjust and unChristian. Niringiye said then:
The international community is behaving like they can’t trust Ugandans to come up with a law that is fair. No! No! That is not fair! When the Western governments or Western churches or Christians speak loudly about the legitimacy or illegitimacy of this bill, you actually begin to fuel the idea that homosexuality is the product of Western culture.”
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, head of the 77-million-member worldwide Anglican Communion, has already spoken out against the original bill. Now, he’s going to be pressured to speak against the Church of Uganda’s statement.
He was prompt and public to sigh over the election of gay bishops in the USA. Will he still share a table with people who would rather kill them than pray with them?
Should he? Would you?
TANZANIA:
Vaccine May Prevent TB in People With HIV
Clinical trial results mark ‘significant milestone,’ expert says
Feb. 10 /(HealthDay News) /www.businessweek.com
— A new vaccine prevents tuberculosis in people with HIV, a new study shows.
Phase III trials of 2,000 HIV-infected people in Tanzania found that the mycobacterium vaccae (MV) vaccine reduced the rate of definite tuberculosis (TB) by 39 percent. The findings have been published online in the journal AIDS.
TB is the most common cause of death among people in developing countries who have HIV/AIDS, and the results of the clinical trials are a “significant milestone,” according to principal investigator Dr. Ford von Reyn, director of the DarDar International Programs for the infectious disease and international health section at Dartmouth Medical School, in Hanover, N.H.
“Since development of a new vaccine against tuberculosis is a major international health priority, especially for patients with HIV infection, we and our Tanzanian collaborators are very encouraged by the results,” von Reyn said in a news release from the journal’s publisher.
The next step, he said, involves improving manufacturing methods so that sufficient quantities of the MV vaccine can be produced for further studies and possible use in patients.
Because people newly infected with HIV risk contracting TB almost immediately, the researchers said, it’s important that they get the MV vaccine before they begin taking antiretroviral drugs to fight the HIV infection.
CONGO RDC :
LRA add to DRC’s humanitarian crisis
Source: European Commission Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO) /Daniel Dickinson/Website: http://ec.europa.eu/echo/alertnet.org/10 Feb 2010
Q&A with Nicolas Le Guen
A humanitarian crisis in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is further deteriorating following an increase in attacks from a Uganda-based rebel group the Lords Resistance Army (LRA). It is estimated that over 320,000 people have been displaced by the activities of the LRA and that more than 670 children have been kidnapped. The European Commission Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO) has a 45 million euro (US$60m) programme in the DRC, a large proportion of which support people displaced by conflict. Nicolas Le Guen is a field expert for ECHO in Goma in the eastern DRC.
Question: How serious is the humanitarian situation in DRC following the increased LRA attacks.
Nicolas le Guen: The situation has deteriorated considerably over the last year, since the LRA was driven out of its base in Uganda. It is now operating in the DRC as well as southern Sudan and Central African Republic. No one knows for sure how many rebels there are but it is thought there are several hundred. What we do know is that they operate in small groups in these three countries, attacking and terrorising local communities, forcing people to flee their homes in large numbers. The LRA attacks follow years of conflict in the region which already had huge humanitarian needs.
Q: How many people are affected?
NLG: In eastern DRC, around 320,000 people have fled attacks by the LRA and are now living away from their homes. The LRA is incredibly brutal; in December 2008 it massacred 1000 Congolese civilians in Faradje which marked an escalation of the violence outside Uganda. The LRA is also well known for maiming people it does not kill, for rape and for destroying people’s property and livelihoods. Kidnap is another of its tactics; in the last year an estimated 676 children and 1610 adults have been abducted by the LRA, many of whom are forced to take up arms. This brutality has created a climate of fear and has led to the displacement of people.
Q: How difficult is it to provide humanitarian aid in DRC?
NLG: It is extremely challenging dealing with the humanitarian fall-out of the LRA. The needs are wide-ranging given the large number of displaced people. It is often very difficult to address these needs due to poor security, a lack of infrastructure and the remoteness of the displaced communities. All these factors make providing aid not just complicated but also very expensive.
Q: How are you helping the affected people?
NLG: I recently visited Ndedu in Haut U�l� in the north-eastern corner of the DRC, not too far from the Ugandan and Sudanese borders. It was originally a small town of around 15,000 inhabitants, but has welcomed an extra 7500 people who had fled the LRA. The new arrivals have put a huge burden on the town’s health care services and water supplies. ECHO identified these needs and working with our partner, Oxfam GB, has made a lot of progress in improving health facilities and the provision of fresh, clean water. A number of wells and protected water sources are currently being built. ECHO also supports Medair to ensure access to basic health care
Q: Won’t the humanitarian needs increase as the conflict continues?
NLG: As long as there is conflict in the DRC, there are likely to be humanitarian needs. It is up to the international community and concerned governments to bring an end to the conflict. ECHO does not play any political role; ours is a purely humanitarian mandate, so we will continue to provide relief to populations affected by the conflict, regardless of what is happening on the political front line. It is difficult to access these beneficiaries and in turn, they have poor access to basic services and the ability to lead productive lives. As a result, humanitarian needs are increasing day after day.
Q: Are you optimistic for the people of eastern DRC?
NLG: They are in an often desperate situation, but there are positive developments. In Ndedu, I met a displaced family; three children had been abducted by the LRA. The daughter was later murdered, but the two sons were rescued after being held for eight months. So families are being reunited and in Ndedu they have access to free health care and safe water. With this they can begin to rebuild their lives.
KENYA :
ANGOLA :
Marathon Oil concludes sale of stake in Angolan oil block
[ 2010-02-10 ] /(macauhub)
Houston, Texas, 10 Feb – US company Marathon Oil Corporation said Tuesday in Houston it had completed the sale of its 20 percent stake in Angola’s block 32 to Sonangol Pesquisa e Produção, a subsidiary of Angolan state oil company Sonangol.
Under the terms of the deal that had been previously announced. The transaction is dated 1 January, 2009 and Marathon will keep a 10 percent stake in the block.
“With this sale, Marathon has managed to get a greater balance in its portfolio of assets and has capital to be used in other projects,” said the Marathon Oil statement, which noted that the group was keeping 10 percent stakes both in block 32 and in block 31.
The 12 wells discovered so far in block 32 are Gindungo, Canela, Cola, Gengibre, Mostarda, Salsa, Caril, Manjericao, Louro, Cominhos, Colorau and Alho and a development survey of the southeast region of the block is underway.
Bloc 32’s concession-holder is Sonangol with 20 percent, and its partners are Total E&P Angola with 30 percent, Esso Exploration and Production Angola (15 percent), Portugal’s Petrogal (5 percent), Marathon International Petroleum Angola (10 percent) and Sonangol Pesquisa e produção (20 percent).
The Marathon Oil Corporation is focused on exploration and production of energy resources in the United States, Angola, Canada, Equatorial Guinea, Indonesia, Libya, Norway, Poland and the United Kingdom.
SOUTH AFRICA:
Orphanage fire kills 15 in South Africa
From Nkepile Mabuse, CNN/February 10, 2010
Johannesburg, South Africa (CNN) — An intense fire at a South African orphanage killed at least 15 people, including eight children, and injured nine other people, authorities said.
“We are shocked and saddened that so many people, many of them children, have perished in such gruesome circumstances,” said Zweli Mkhize, premier of the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal. “We wish to convey our condolences to the families.”
It took firefighters eight hours to put out Tuesday’s blaze. All the children were thought to be 2 to 15 years old.
Initial indications were the fire was caused by a gas explosion or an electrical short, Mkhize said. Fire investigators from the capital, Pretoria, were called to the scene.
AFRICA / AU :
Haiti: SA relief team hands out 100 tons in aid in Port-au-prince
10 Feb 2010 /Jerusha Sukhdeo /www.witness.co.za
AFRICA’S largest aid convoy arrived in Port-au-Prince, the Haiti capital, on Monday morning.
South African relief workers from the Al-Imdaad Foundation (AIF) have been in the country for three weeks, distributing 100 tons in aid to displaced Haitians.
Food packages, water buckets, gas stoves, clean drinking water and other essentials left Santo Domingo for Haiti on Sunday.
The aid is being distributed from the highly guarded Port-au-Prince international airport.
The AIF is part of the Emergency Operations Committee, which is responsible for the collective relief effort.
Qari Ziyaad Patel, an AIF project co-ordinator, is managing the relief effort in Haiti.
His team has reported widespread infrastructural damage, along with violence and looting.
AIF’s Qudsiya Karrim said the team’s involvement in rebuilding homes and infrastructure is being considered.
“The team is going to meet with the Emergency Operations Committee to discuss its viability,” she said.
UN /ONU :
Chad president: UN peacekeeping mission a failure
Associated Press /2010-02-10
Chad’s president Idriss Deby said Tuesday his country does not wish to renew the mandate of a U.N. peacekeeping force operating in his country along the border with Sudan because it has failed to improve conditions.
Deby made the announcement before he left Khartoum, capital of neighboring Sudan, where he sought to try to smooth relations soured for years by the ongoing Darfur conflict along the border.
The 5,200-strong UN peacekeeping force in Chad and the Central African Republic, known as MINURCAT, was deployed last year to protect civilians and improving aid delivery to refugees along the Sudan-Chad border.
The force’s mandate comes up for renewal next month.
“The mission of MINURCAT is a failure. That is why we don’t see the need to extend” the mandate, Deby told reporters at Khartoum airport at the end of his two-day visit to Sudan.
Deby said the mission was unable to boost its personnel on the ground, and has failed to provide any projects to the refugee population.
“It has not dug a single well,” he said.
The mission is “not operational. And it won’t be even if we give it another year.”
In New York, U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said it is “regrettable” that the government of Chad has requested the withdrawal of the force.
“The United Nations force is most definitely not a failure and as of today, the force is at 70 percent of its authorized strength and is highly visible and is actively establishing its presence,” he told reporters.
The force was also responsible for training Chadian police. He said an assessment team was sent to talk to the government and would report back to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The Chadian government has indicated since January that it didn’t want the UN force to renew its mandate, but Deby’s Tuesday announcement was the most explicit to date of Chad’s wish to see the force go.
Eastern Chad and northeastern Central African Republic have been seriously affected by fighting across the border in Sudan’s Darfur region where up to 300,000 people have been killed, and 2.7 million driven from their homes since 2003.
It was Chad that initially asked for a European Union force to come in to help with the humanitarian situation. That force was replaced by the UN.
Associated Press Writer Tom Maliti in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed to this report.
Joint UN-African Union envoy to Darfur talks peace with armed rebel movements
10 February 2010/www.un.org
9 February 2010 – The newly appointed head of the joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping mission in Darfur, known as UNAMID, today met with members from key rebel militia as part of a series of talks on the prospects for a durable peace in the war-scarred region in western Sudan.
The meeting, which took place in the Qatari capital of Doha, was held between UNAMID Joint Special Representative Ibrahim Gambari and negotiators from the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Army/Armed Revolutionary Front (SLA/ARF).
UNAMID noted that the talks, covering a range of issues relating to cooperation between the joint peacekeeping operation and the rebel groups, were transparent, constructive and promising, with all parties committed to working closely to advance the peace process in Darfur.
The JEM and SLA/ARF militia also underscored the need to reach an agreement to end all hostilities and tackle the root causes of the conflict in Darfur.
In addition, the parties voiced their desire to cooperate with UNAMID, which was set up in late 2007 to protect civilians and quell the violence in Darfur, where an estimated 300,000 people have been killed and another 2.7 million have been forced from their homes since fighting erupted in 2003, pitting rebels against Government forces and allied Janjaweed militiamen.
At the end of last month, Mr. Gambari held talks with Sudanese officials in Khartoum, where he expressed appreciation for the warm welcome he received from the Government and people of Sudan since arriving in the country and vowed to do his utmost to promote lasting peace and security in Darfur
AFRICOM Chief Offers Support to AU Security Goals
Peter Heinlein/ www1.voanews.com/10 February 2010
| Addis Ababa
The United States military command for Africa, known as AFRICOM, is offering enhanced support for African Union peace and security initiatives. The commander, General William Ward, hailed Ethiopia’s decision to supply badly-needed helicopters to the joint AU/United Nations peacekeeping mission in Darfur.
He met Tuesday with African Union Peace and Security Commissioner Ramtane Lamamra for talks on continental hot spots, including Sudan and Somalia. The meeting came as Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government, backed by the AU peacekeeping force AMISOM, is preparing an offensive against rebel forces that control much of the country.
But speaking to VOA, General Ward emphasized AFRICOM’s role in Somalia is strictly limited to indirect support for the U.N.-backed government.
“We certainly support those who are in fact supportive of the Transitional Federal Government, the African Union, AMISOM missions. We do things in support of those attempts to bring about stability. Insofar as any direct involvement in Somalia, that’s not the role of my command,” he said.
The U.S. Africa command is perceived in some quarters as a fighting force involved in one way or another in Somalia and other African conflict zones. But General Ward says categorically, AFRICOM has no combat role.
“There are things I’m aware of, things my command is not responsible for. Our activities on the continent, in Somalia, are widespread, and so there are probably things that occur that may be publicly perceived as done by the United States Africa command, but that’s just not the case,” he said.
The AFRICOM commander expressed concern about the potential for violence surrounding the April elections in Sudan. He praised Ethiopia’s decision to immediately dispatch five tactical helicopters to Darfur to boost the capabilities of joint AU/UN peacekeeping mission known as UNAMID.
“Those helicopters, and the mobility they provide, will be an absolutely value added contribution to the UNAMID mission, certainly from the standpoint of mobility, to get around to places that might otherwise be inaccessible, those helicopters will be a very great added contribution to UNAMID’s efforts,” he said.
AFRICOM is the newest of the U.S. regional military commands. General Ward oversees a staff of about 600 military personnel and 600 civilians headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany.
In a policy speech last July in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, U.S. President Barack Obama called Africa’s conflicts ‘not regional, but global challenges’. He said AFRICOM is focused not on gaining a foothold in Africa, but on confronting those common challenges to enhance security worldwide.
USA :
CANADA :
Right to Play right at home at Vcr Games despite split with official Olympics
By Dene Moore (CP) /10022010
VANCOUVER, B.C. — A children’s charity barred from official Vancouver Olympic events because of a sponsorship conflict has opened its doors on its own exhibit in downtown Vancouver, despite the split.
Right To Play, an international organization dedicated to bringing sport to children in areas affected by war, poverty or disease, had been allowed to set up in the athletes villages since the 1992 Games in Albertville.
The charity was, in fact, the brainchild of the Lillehammer organizing committee for the 1994 Games, in partnership with the Red Cross, Save the Children and Olympic Aid.
But a conflict between the group’s corporate sponsorships and the official Games sponsors meant the groups parted ways prior to the Vancouver Games.
Robert Witchel, Canadian director of the international group, said after the World of Play exhibit opened Tuesday at the Concord Place celebration site on Vancouver’s False Creek, that the group was borne of the Olympic movement.
He said it was disappointing when the sponsorship rift forced it out of the Olympic fold after the Beijing Summer Games.
But “because we’re borne of the Olympic movement, it’s very important that we’re here,” he said of a presence in Vancouver.
Witchel said the location outside of official venues has given the group a chance for closer outreach with the public.
Right to Play runs sports programs in 23 countries in Africa, Asia, South America and the Middle East, and recently launched its first Canadian pilot program aimed at children in remote First Nations communities in northern Ontario. The group said it reaches 600,000 children every week.
Its dozens of celebrity athlete ambassadors include Canadian gold-medal winning speedskater Clara Hughes, who will carry the Canadian flag at the opening ceremonies of the Vancouver Winter Games, and hockey great Wayne Gretzky.
“Part of the reason for being here is to meet some of the athletes and teach them about what we do,” he said.
“When Clara won the gold medal in Turin, she donated $10,000 of her own money and she was such an inspiration to Canadians that we raised almost half a million after she did that. Athletes have a certain power – people look up to them and admire them, children and adults do, and we have some of the best in the world.”
Johann Koss, president and CEO of the international charity and a four-time Olympic gold medallist in speedskating, lauded Vancouver Games organizers and said the event will be “fantastic,” despite being left out of official events.
“After the Beijing Olympics we understood that we could not be a part of the Games any more. So we had to accept that and work differently this time,” the Norwegian sport superstar said in an interview.
“Personally, I would love to have been inside the Olympic village but now we have this site and different other sites in the city.”
Right To Play has also teamed up with clothing retailer Roots, which has released a line of clothing in time for the Olympic Games.
Honda to recall Civic, Accord
10/02/2010/www.wheels24.co.za
Honda has recalled more than 400 000 vehicles to fix a defect which could cause airbags to explode and spray out deadly metal shards.
Amidst Toyota’s global recall for several of its models, the Honda recall is the third since 2008 relating to the airbag defect.
Honda reports that the defective air bag could rupture, “resulting in metal fragments passing through the airbag cushion material and possibly causing injury or fatality to vehicle occupants”.
The recall includes Accord and Civic models sold in the US, Canada and Japan and according to Honda SA’s Joeline Dabrowski, models sold in South Africa will not be affected.
AUSTRALIA :
Australia asks Britain to review 100-year-old court martial
(AFP)/10022010
SYDNEY — Australia has sent Britain a petition calling for posthumous pardons for two soldiers court-martialled and executed more than 100 years ago in South Africa, a government spokesman said Wednesday.
The petition asks Britain to review the trials of lieutenants Harry ‘Breaker’ Morant and Peter Handcock who were found guilty of the murder of 12 prisoners of war in the dying days of the Boer war.
Attorney-General Robert McClelland sent the petition, from military lawyer Commander James Unkles, to Secretary of State for Defence last week.
“We don’t express a view either way on it,” McClelland’s spokesman said.
“We sent it because we don’t have any jurisdiction to issue a pardon or review a case that was made by a foreign government in a foreign country.”
Unkles said there were strong grounds for overturning the 1902 verdict against Morant, Handcock and their co-accused George Witton, who had his death sentence commuted, because it contained serious errors.
“The passing of time and the fact that Morant, Handcock and Witton are deceased does not diminish the errors and these injustices must be addressed,” Unkles said in a statement.
“The issue is not whether Morant and Handcock shot Boer prisoners, which they admitted to, but whether they were properly represented and Military Law properly and evenly applied.”
The petition argues the accused were denied the right to communicate with the Australian government or relatives after their arrest and during their trials and were refused an opportunity to prepare their cases.
“During the trial they were denied an opportunity to have their defence of obedience to superior orders tested in court as Lord Kitchener, the British military Commander-in-Chief — who allegedly issued orders to the accused to shoot Boer prisoners — declined to appear despite being called,” Unkles said.
Morant, who volunteered to fight with the British in South Africa, was born in England but became well known in Australia as a poet and a horsebreaker.
Scottish-born writer Nick Bleszynski, who researched the case for his book ‘Shoot Straight, You Bastards!’ and helped write the petition, said a pardon for Morant was overdue.
“People have always said, ‘Oh, yeah, The Breaker, he didn’t get justice’,” he told AFP.
“And what we’re saying is, it is true. The fact that he was dudded (cheated) by the Poms isn’t just a grand old legend, it’s actually going to become fact.”
The story was made into an internationally released movie “Breaker Morant” starring the late Edward Woodward.
EUROPE :
Is Greece too big to fail?
Europe’s economic problems could cause more trouble for us
Wednesday, February 10, 2010/By Dan Simpson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The current pickle that the European Union finds itself in — as Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain stagger with debt and with the EU having few means to deal with the problem — has negative implications for the United States.
The first is, with the United States trying to dig its way out of the triple snowstorm of continuing high unemployment, accumulating national debt and a Congress and White House seemingly incapable of clearing the road to measures that might alleviate America’s situation, having Western Europe in difficult economic straits as well is not to America’s advantage.
For the health of the global economy, it is better that America’s European allies are solid — in the pink — especially when the U.S. economy is looking peaked. Even though the United States owes most of its overseas debt to the Chinese, Japanese and Arabs, it is comforting still to be able to borrow from the Europeans.
The second, probably worse European-related problem for the United States is the weakening of the euro against the dollar, which means European exports gain an advantage over America’s. This is especially unfortunate when one of President Barack Obama’s prescriptions for a return to U.S. economic health is an increase in U.S. exports.
The third difficulty for the United States is that the developments that have plunged some of Europe’s members into perilous straits are similar to the developments that have the United States stalled, tires spinning, the temperature dropping and the comfort of the home fires far from view.
Greece is probably in the worst shape, but its situation is not unique. In spite of rules that dictate otherwise, it has indulged in deficit spending that, for its size, is terrifying in terms of the country ever being able to pay back the loans it has incurred. The Greek government also has systematically lied to EU authorities about the extent of its deficits and level of debt. Now, observers talk about the possibility of Greece defaulting on its loans. The world normally thinks of the possibility of defaults with respect to failing states, usually in places like Latin America or Africa, not in Western Europe.
The fault for Greece’s plight, magnified by the global recession, lies in various places.
The first, obviously, is in Athens. Any government that borrows too much is asking for disaster. The second place for blame is Brussels, the headquarters of the EU. Just about everyone in Europe saw this coming. What was missing was the courage to blow the whistle on the Greeks and put the heat on them to be responsible. The third guilty parties are those who loaned the Greeks money, knowing their creditworthiness was low but believing, perhaps correctly, that someone would bail them out if they couldn’t pay.
Now, let’s think for a second. We don’t know, do we, of any other country that runs big budget deficits, cloaks its true financial situation in promises to cut deficits and national debt a decade in the future, while in the meantime members of its legislature in the name of party politics and with a taste for campaign contributions refuse to pass measures that might put the country’s finances on more solid ground? I must be thinking of Eritrea.
The economic and debt situations of Ireland, Portugal, Spain and even Italy, also EU members, are not very different from that of Greece.
Where the situation in Europe differs from that of the United States is that, for better or worse, the federal government in America has at its disposal the Federal Reserve Bank and other instruments to rescue the government, banks and financial houses if they get into trouble. Leaving aside the question of whether this is good or bad, the European Central Bank has virtually no such tools at its command. The political structure of the European Union is weak. It is in no position to crack the whip on national governments whose fiscal policies are irresponsible.
The bank’s president, Jean-Claude Trichet, can lecture, exhort and even criticize governments mildly. He can neither lend them money nor punish them. Unlike the U.S. Federal Reserve, the European bank cannot buy government bonds nor provide money to banks. Mr. Trichet likes to say the relationship between his bank and the governments of the 16 euro-zone member states is comparable to that between the Fed and the U.S. states. (Let’s hope the parallel holds, unless one would like to undertake a federal government bailout of feckless California.)
Just as there is a decent argument that says that if the big fat American financial houses had managed their assets so badly that they risked failing in 2008, the federal government should have let them go down with a thump, with the French kiss-off line, “to encourage the others,” rather than deeming them “too big to fail” and saving them with billions of taxpayer dollars, it might be that the best way for the EU to deal with crooked, leaky governments like Greece’s at this point in time is let them sink like a stone.
Even though it might be unpleasant to watch, such crashes can be educative. Salvation from their own folly by France, Germany, the Netherlands and other more responsible European governments at this point might encourage these states not to change their ways. On the other hand, there was the unsaved bankrupt Weimar Republic which preceded Nazi Germany.
Tough call.
CHINA :
INDIA :
India’s Stocks Fluctuate; Bharat Heavy Falls, Jaiprakash Gains
February 10, 2010/By Rajhkumar K Shaaw/Bloomberg
Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) — Indian stocks fluctuated as investors weighed concern that a global economic recovery may not be as strong as earlier thought against the prospect of strengthening domestic demand.
Wipro Ltd., the nation’s third-biggest software exporter, dropped 0.7 percent. Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd., the largest equipment provider, which plans to double exports, lost 0.9 percent. Jaiprakash Associates Ltd., India’s biggest builder of dams, climbed 2.8 percent.
“Investors are avoiding companies that have a global exposure,” said Suraj Saraogi, managing director at Keynote Capital Ltd., a Mumbai-based brokerage. “They are sitting on cash.”
The Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index, or Sensex, added 2.41, or less than 0.1 percent, to 16,044.59 at 11:09 a.m. in Mumbai, after fluctuating between gains and losses at least five times. The gauge has slid 9.4 percent from a Jan. 6 peak, after dipping as much as 11 percent on Feb. 5, exceeding the 10 percent threshold that defines a so-called correction.
The S&P CNX Nifty Index on the National Stock Exchange was little changed at 4,792.20. The BSE 200 Index gained 0.3 percent to 2,040.99.
Wipro, Bharat
Wipro slid 0.7 percent to 649.55 rupees. Bharat Heavy dropped 0.9 percent to 2,310.3. The state-run company wants overseas sales to account for 15 percent of revenue by 2012 and is targeting orders from Central Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent, Chairman B. Prasada Rao said in an interview in New Delhi yesterday.
The Sensex has retreated this year amid the prospect of higher borrowing costs as inflation accelerates and as burgeoning budget shortfalls in Greece, Spain and Portugal prompted investors to withdraw funds from emerging markets.
Jaiprakash climbed 2.8 percent to 131.15 rupees. India’s economy may grow 8 percent in the year from April 1, Chakravarthy Rangarajan, chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, said yesterday, while cautioning that the government must narrow its fiscal deficit.
Overseas funds sold a net 8.07 billion rupees ($172.3 million) of Indian stocks on Feb. 8, increasing their total outflow from equities this year to 23.3 billion rupees, according to the Securities and Exchange Board of India Web site.
Foreign fund flows into India’s stock market rose to a record 834.2 billion rupees in 2009, beating the previous high set two years earlier in local currency terms, as the biggest rally in 18 years lured foreign investors. They sold a record 529.9 billion rupees of shares in 2008, triggering the biggest ever annual decline.
–Editors: Margo Towie, Reinie Booysen.
BRASIL:
EN BREF, CE 10 février 2010 … AGNEWS / OMAR, BXL,10/02/2010
