{jcomments on}OMAR, AGNEWS, BXL, le 15 juin 2010 – CNN- June 15, 2010–A quartet of special representatives went before the United Nations Security Council Monday to brief members on political and humanitarian challenges in Sudan — particularly the war-torn Darfur region — as the country nears a referendum in early 2011 that could see Africa’s largest nation split in two.
BURUNDI :
RWANDA
Rwanda: 85 Genocide Victims Given Decent Burial
Stevenson Mugisha/The New Times/allafrica.com/15 June 2010
Kigali — THE remains of 85 victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi were yesterday accorded a decent burial at Kigali Genocide memorial centre. The ceremony was organized by the management of Nyamirambo Sector in collaboration with Nyarugenge District.
According to the Executive Secretary of Nyamirambo Sector, Emmanuel Rutubuka, the bodies were retrived on June 2 this year from several latrines in Kivugiza and Rugarama cells.
Rutubuka said that some inmates at Kigali central prison charged with Genocide related crimes revealed the whereabouts of the victims’ bodies.
The Mayor of Nyarugenge District, Theophila Nyirahonora, called upon district officials and the local residents to always remember the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi and to fight against the Genocide ideology and its related crimes.
“Today it’s very important to have given a decent burial to over 80 remains of our fellow Rwandans who were killed during the 1994 Genocide in Nyamirambo Sector,” Nyirahonora said.
“This should be always taken as a great loss and lesson to our nation.”. She also said that more remains of victims were still missing and encouraged residents to voluntarily reveal their.
The Mayor also castigated former President Juvenal Habyarimana’s regime for promoting racism, divisionism and hatred among Rwandans leading to the Genocide.
Rutubuka told The Sunday Times that those buried were killed by Interahamwe and Ex-FAR militias at various roadblocks in Nyamirambo Sector.
He also revealed that among the remains that were buried included the family of Alloys Mutabaruka, a former employee of the US Embassy who was killed together with his wife and three children.
UGANDA
Uganda: Headed for Political Stalemate?
Timothy Kalyegira/The Monitor/allafrica.com/15 June 2010
With nine months left until the much-anticipated 2011 Ugandan general election, there is much that is starting to become clear and some that are not. There are three well-known players in the unfolding Ugandan drama – the United States of America, President Yoweri Museveni, and the formal political opposition.
And, despite appearances, these three power centres share one thing in common: they are all in a weak position. The weakness of these three parties ahead of the forthcoming election means that Uganda is most likely headed for an impasse in the next nine months until and after the election. How so? The first player to examine is the United States.
Obama anticipation
When Barack Obama became the first Black President of the US in January 2009 and in July paid his first visit to Africa as president, there was much anticipation that he would insist on the flourishing of democracy in Africa and be tough on the continent’s many autocrats.
Many Ugandans took the decision by the US Congress to task Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with keeping a close eye on Uganda as a signal that the Obama administration was going to act as the election watchdog in the run-up to the 2011 polls. A recent visit by Johnnie Carson, the administration’s main point man for Africa, appeared to confirm this view.
However, as millions of Americans are discovering, President Obama’s somewhat passive leadership style is starting to exhibit itself and nowhere more so than in Africa. The year 2010 could well be one of those years in which Africa demonstrated that 20 years of the post-Cold War experiment with democracy has achieved little.
Elections in Africa suddenly seem to be turning more, not less, messy with time. Sudan held an election in April that saw many opposition parties boycott it. Ethiopia arrested and harassed many opposition leaders and despite the anger still simmering after the 2005 demonstrations, the ruling EPRDF regime in Addis Ababa claimed to have won the sort of landslide usually associated with autocratic Communist governments.
All eight opposition presidential candidates in Burundi’s June 28 general election have now pulled out, citing rigging, leaving President Pierre Nkurunziza as the sole candidate.
In Rwanda, the main challenger to President Paul Kagame, Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, was summarily arrested and charges of denying the 1994 genocide and collaborating with Hutu rebels brought against her. In Uganda on June 9, opposition leader Dr Kizza Besigye was roughed up by police and a state-associated vigilante group nicknamed the “Kiboko Squad” when he tried to lead a demonstration in Kampala against the widely criticised Electoral Commission. In all this, the Obama administration has been, at best, mild and ineffective in its protests and intervention and at worst, silent and almost absent.
What complicates matters further for Washington is that with Ugandan peace-keeping troops forming the bulk of the African peacekeeping force, Amisom, in the war-torn Horn of Africa nation of Somalia and Burundian troops also deployed, the United States is in some ways hostage to the governments of Uganda and Burundi.
The US is already too bogged down in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and watching over rising tensions in the Korean Peninsula, Persian Gulf and Obama’s popularity at home sagging for America to risk any further engagement in Africa. Uganda and Burundi have become Washington’s sub-contractors in Somalia.
The Ugandan opposition is weak financially, weak in organisation and weak in its reading of the national mood. Even with all signs glaring that the 2011 election will not be free or fair and will probably see much violence meted out to opposition leaders and supporters, the opposition still goes through the motions of registering its members, holding rallies and protesting at harassment by the NRM government.
Many opposition figures are hoping that the United States will act as the arbitrator and main pressure group in the election but, as noted, Obama has so far shown none of the decisive voice that Africans had hoped for a year ago.
President Museveni, for his part, is in his weakest position since acceding to power in January 1986. Where he once was comfortable enough to allow opposition rallies to take place, today he is not even sure that FM radio station talk shows, left to their own, will not become a rallying point for the millions of disgruntled Ugandans.
Campaigning President
In every parliamentary by-election or even Local Council 5 and (as with Rubaga Division in Kampala) Local Council 3 election since 2007, he has had to campaign in person and throw all his weight behind the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) candidates just for them to win or not to be totally routed.
An illuminating example of President Museveni’s weak position came in January when he explained to grumbling NRM party leaders at a meeting at State House Entebbe why he had to take a cautious position on the proposed anti-gay Bill.
The President personally, his family, army Generals, senior party leaders and political aides, and others who form his core power base, as well as over 90 per cent of the Ugandan public, seem united in their opposition to granting legal recognition of homosexuality.
Biting pressure
But he told the NRM leaders the pressure on him from several Western leaders necessitated that he weighs what he called “foreign policy implications.”
By giving in to Western demands to reconsider the anti-gay Bill, President Museveni demonstrated the proof that his real power base lies in the Western capitals and that he cannot rely on the sentiments of even his most ardent loyalists to withstand Western pressure.
Incidentally President Museveni’s understanding of the role Western diplomatic, financial, and military support plays in maintaining him in power might explain his curious silence in the face of the defiance of police summons by the UPC party president Olara Otunnu.
TANZANIA:
CONGO RDC :
Mazorro Resources Announces Closing of Amended Acquisition Agreement for Exploration Permits in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
June 15, 2010 /www.marketwatch.com
OTTAWA, ONTARIO, Jun 14, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — Mazorro Resources Inc. (“Mazorro” or the “Company”) /quotes/comstock/11v!mzo (CA:MZO 0.10, 0.00, 0.00%) (FRANKFURT: JAM) announces that it has entered into an amended agreement (the “Agreement”) with Congo Mining Company sprl (“CMC”) of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (“DRC”) for the acquisition of a 100% interest in exploration permits in the DRC. The Company originally announced an agreement in principle with CMC pursuant to which it would acquire a total of six exploration permits (see Press Release dated December 8, 2009) and has now revised the agreement to acquire two of these exploration permits, being PR7811 and PR8500.
Revised consideration payable to CMC for the acquisition of a 100% interest in the two exploration permits consists of US $75,000 in cash and the issuance of 600,000 common shares of the Company. The cash consideration is payable as follows: US $25,000 was paid at the time of execution of the agreement in principle in December 2009; and US $50,000 is payable at the earlier of the first anniversary of the Agreement or upon the completion and public filing of a National Instrument 43-101 (“NI 43-101”) Report evidencing mineralization within the areas covered by the exploration permits. Mazorro has also committed to incur expenditures relating to exploration activities totalling a minimum aggregate of US$500,000 on or before the third anniversary of the Agreement.
Closing of the acquisition was completed today, June 14, 2010, and is subject to final acceptance of the TSX Venture Exchange.
As previously reported, Wardell Armstrong International was contracted to complete the independent NI 43-101 Report which incorporated the requirement for a site visit of the mineral permits. The NI 43-101 Report will be publicly available on SEDAR.
Mr. Paul Lemmon, CIM, P. Geo., is acting as qualified person (as defined by National Instrument 43-101) and has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information in this press release.
Including the shares issued for this acquisition, Mazorro presently has 23,334,395 common shares outstanding.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange or its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Some statements in this release may contain forward-looking information. All statements, other than of historical fact, that address activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future (including, without limitation, statements regarding potential mineralization) are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by use of the words “may”, “will”, “should”, “continue”, “expect”, “anticipate”, “estimate”, “believe”, “intend”, “plan” or “project” or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company’s ability to control or predict, that may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, without limitation, failure to establish estimated mineral resources, the possibility that future exploration results will not be consistent with the Company’s expectations, changes in world gold markets or markets for other commodities, and other risks disclosed in the Company’s public disclosure record on file with the relevant securities regulatory authorities. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement.
Contacts:
Andre Audet
Chief Executive Officer
613-241-2332
SOURCE: Mazorro Resources Inc.
KENYA :
Bombing in Kenya Recalls 2008 Election Violence
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN/www.nytimes.com/2010/06/15
NAIROBI, Kenya — The hospital floors on Monday morning were littered with bloody bandages. Young men writhed in bed, their hands in mittens of gauze, their faces studies in pain. Scrums of Kenyan politicians cruised the corridors, flanked by the victims’ relatives, who spoke darkly of a political conspiracy.
The last time Kenyatta National Hospital looked like this was in 2008, after Kenya was torn apart by a disastrously flawed election. Back then, fighting over the results killed more than 1,000 people, quickly filling the country’s hospitals — and its morgues.
This time, the violence was caused by two small bombs, which exploded Sunday evening at a densely packed rally in downtown Nairobi, Kenya’s capital.
But the root cause appeared to be the same: politics.
The rally was a gathering of thousands of Kenyans who are opposed to a new constitution that will be put to a referendum in August. Once again, many Kenyans fear that the prospects for more violence are increasing as their country heads toward another politically divisive turning point.
Kenyan officials said that around 6 p.m. on Sunday, two bombs ripped open at the rally, killing 5 people and wounding more than 100. It was not clear from the witness reports whether the five people killed had died from the blast or from being trampled in the ensuing stampede.
On Sunday night, there was such a deluge of victims pouring into Kenyatta National Hospital, one of the biggest in the country, that the nurses jettisoned their usual admittance procedure of methodically taking down patient information. Instead, they stuck a strip of white medical tape on the patients’ foreheads and labeled it with a number. During the election mayhem in 2008, a similar practice was followed, with many unidentified victims wheeled into morgues with no more than a piece of tape on their foreheads saying “postelection violence.”
On Monday, Patient No. 73, John Shayo, twisted and turned in his bed. His skin had been perforated by flying debris. Like many others in the hospital, his arms, legs and face were pocked by tiny bleeding holes.
“I think there’s some metal in there,” he said, groaning and indicating his legs.
Next to him was Joseph Maina, a teacher.
Mr. Maina had been standing in the crowd on Sunday evening, just as the sun was slipping behind the trees, when a loud explosion blasted him off his feet.
“I was in the air, then I was crawling, then I saw smoke and dust,” he said.
Kenyan police officers are investigating the attack, and preliminary reports indicate the explosives were homemade devices, possibly Molotov cocktails or something similar.
There are no suspects yet, though there is no shortage of speculation, which seems to be fueling an already tense political atmosphere.
Kenya’s Constitution goes back to its independence in 1963, and it has been criticized for creating an imperial-like presidency with dangerously sweeping powers. The proposed constitution significantly trims those powers and enhances individual rights.
The main objections to the new constitution are the perception that it is softer on abortion — the new constitution keeps it illegal and defines life as beginning at conception, but allows abortion under certain circumstances — and that it recognizes traditional Islamic courts for family law and inheritance matters. Several prominent Kenyan Christian leaders have urged their supporters to vote the constitution down, though most recent polls indicate that it will pass.
William Ruto, the higher education minister, who is spearheading the opposition to the constitution and has mobilized many people in his ethnic group to vote “no,” immediately blamed the supporters of the new constitution for the attack. “This is a sign some people want to force the constitution on Kenyans,” he said to journalists on Sunday night.
But there is also some suspicion that the “no” camp, as it is known, may have planted the bombs in a cynical ploy to generate sympathy and establish a reason to retaliate. Mr. Ruto and other high-ranking officials were at the rally earlier in the day but left before the explosions went off.
Either way, political analysts here fear what might come next.
The bombing “will create a hostile climate for free speech and freedom of expression,” said Kwamchetsi Makokha, a columnist for The Daily Nation, a leading newspaper in Kenya. The paper, in a huge headline on Monday, labeled it: “Bloody Sunday.”
Reuben Kyama contributed reporting.
Va. officials find goat shoved in woman’s trunk
(AP) /15062010
BEDFORD, Va. — Authorities said a regional drunken-driving checkpoint led to the discovery of a goat, bound and shoved in the trunk of a car. The Bedford Sheriff’s Office said the car, driven by 32-year-old woman, pulled up to the checkpoint on Friday night when deputies heard noises from the trunk.
When asked what was in the trunk, the driver said she bought a goat from a farmer to give to the four passengers in her car, who are from Kenya but reside in Lynchburg. The goat was panting heavily and animal control officers said the temperature in the trunk was 94 degrees.
The woman told deputies she is from the United Kingdom and transporting goats in this manner was acceptable there. She was charged with cruelty to an animal and released.
ANGOLA :
SOUTH AFRICA:
World Cup stewards walk out in pay strike
15 June 2010 /news.bbc.co.uk
Stewards due to provide security at a World Cup football match in South Africa have gone on strike in a dispute over wages.
About 1,000 police officers stood in for the stewards at the game, between Italy and Paraguay in Cape Town.
Fans said there appeared to be no security problems at the match, which ended in a 1-1 draw.
Earlier, riot police in Durban fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of stewards protesting over pay.
South Africa’s World Cup chief, Danny Jordaan, said it was “unacceptable” for the stewards to be trying to disrupt the games.
He said it was an “employer-employee wage dispute”.
Protesting stewards in Durban told reporters they had received 190 rand (£17; $25) for their work, but they had been promised much more.
The firm employing the stewards, Stallion Security, told AFP news agency that the workers had been “misled” by jealous commercial rivals who failed to get the World Cup tender.
Police and World Cup officials said they expected Tuesday’s games to go ahead as planned, with security being handled by police and some non-striking stewards.
VU’LL NEVER SHUT US UP
By Jeremy Armstrong; Martin Fricker/ www.mirror.co.uk/ 15/06/2010
Fifa bosses say no to a horn ban
World Cup bosses announced yesterday that the controversial vuvuzela horns would not be banned from games.
Officials are being flooded with complaints about the loud plastic trumpets but say they are “the sound of Africa”. The BBC has had hundreds of complaints and some viewers are watching with the sound muted.
Portugal superstar Cristiano Ronaldo added his voice to the protest. He said: “It is difficult on the pitch to concentrate. A lot of players don’t like them.”
France captain Patrice Evra blamed the noise for his side’s poor showing in its goalless draw against Uruguay.
He said: “We can’t sleep at night because of the vuvuzelas. People start playing them from 6am.”
And Holland’s Robin van Persie even complained to the referee about the noise at yesterday’s game against Denmark. But Fifa’s Rich Mkhondo said the low buzz of the horns was a key part of Africa’s first ever tournament.
“They are here to stay,” said Mr Mkhondo. “Look at them as part of our culture. We ask our guests to embrace our culture, the way we celebrate.
“The history of the the vuvuzela is ingrained in this country. People love them around the world. We just ask people to use them wisely and not during national anthems.”
The England Supporters’ Band promised it would play on for the England game against Algeria.
But band trumpeter John Hemmingham also backed the vuvuzela. He said: “It’s the way the South Africans express their joy at the tournament being here.” In musical terms the vuvuzela is tuned at the B flat below middle C, says Trevor Cox, of the Institute of Acoustics.
It also has a similar frequency to speech tones, which is why broadcasters are struggling to filter it out – doing so would interfere with the match commentary. Some experts say that the three-foot plastic horns, as loud as a jet engine, can do permanent hearing damage.
Crystal Rolfe, from the Royal National Institute for the Deaf, said: “They have been measured to reach more than 125 decibels – a pneumatic drill is between 90 and 100 decibels so it’s much louder than that.
“If you listen to sounds over 85 decibels for a prolonged period it can cause temporary or permanent ear damage.” Enterprising street vendors have started selling ear plugs before games.
One elderly viewer in the UK rang her cable provider to complain about the “loud buzzing” coming from her TV.
And research by Onepoll.com found that six out of 10 England fans watching the games at home are now doing so with the volume turned down.
Neil van Schalkwyk, of vuvuzela-maker Masincedane Sport, said yesterday that his company was now producing a much quieter horn.
He said: “We have modified the mouthpiece so that it will blow noise that is 20 decibels less.”
Mr van Schalkwyk expects the tournament will generate sales of up to £2million for his company.
JEREMY ARMSTRONG
In the middle of a crowd of vuvuzela-blowing locals it is virtually impossible to concentrate on the football.
And you can forget having a conversation with the person next to you. We knew the vuvuzela would be loud. We knew it would be constant. But until you stand in the stadium with people blowing them the impression you get from TV is just the tip of the iceberg. The noise from the super-size, multi-coloured trumpets is overwhelming, yet it somehow adds to the excitement of the game.
Dr RICK NORRIS
Stress from continuous noises can be disabling to the point you can’t bear the sound because you are so attuned to it.
The sound of the horns is something we cannot bear because we are not used to it. For us we would have to hear it for a long period of time to get used to it.
We become more sensitive to triggers once we have isolated them as something unusual and then every time we hear them, stress levels rise. There is no easy solution except trying not to think about the sound.
AFRICA / AU :
South Africa: Court Date in Death of Mandela Relative
By BARRY BEARAK/ www.nytimes.com/ June 15, 2010
Sizwe Mankazana, the driver in a one-car accident that killed Nelson Mandela’s great-granddaughter on Friday, will not appear in court until July 26, two weeks after the end of the World Cup, authorities said Monday. Mr. Mankazana, 23, was arrested after the accident on possible charges of drunken driving and culpable homicide. His father is in a relationship with Zenani Mandela-Dlamini, a daughter of Mr. Mandela and a great-aunt of the dead girl, Zenani Mandela, 13. “Sizwe is part of the Mandela family,” said a statement from the Nelson Mandela Foundation. Normally, a person arrested for drunken driving makes a court appearance within 24 hours, but the police say they are still investigating the case.
Prizing leadership in a hopeful Africa
By Mo Ibrahim /www.ft.com/June 15 2010
Mo Ibrahim: Ten years ago, The Economist told its elite readership around the world that Africa was “the hopeless continent”. It expressed a sentiment that was pervasive – that Africa was economically backward with no chance of growth and that its political leadership was at best corrupt and at worst murderous.
As the publication has been gracious enough to admit, it was wrong. Africa has delivered many reasons for hope over the past decade. Growth has outpaced the rest of the world. World-beating businesses have emerged and, given Africa’s rich natural resources, financiers are finally waking up to the investment potential of the continent. The geniuses in investment banks who used arrogantly to deride the risks of investment in Africa while pouring billions into phoney derivatives based on the American housing bubble have been proven to be as spectacularly wrong on Africa as they were on everything else.
Yet the concern about how well African countries are governed is real and remains. It was to promote excellent leadership and good governance that I established the Ibrahim Prize a few years ago. With funds accumulated from investing in mobile telephony in Africa, my foundation was able to award the biggest annual prize in the world – worth $5m over 10 years – to former African leaders who have governed well, respected their constitution and left office with their country in better shape than at their arrival.
In the first two years we had two winners – Joaquim Chissano, former president of Mozambique, and Festus Mogae, former president of Botswana. Little known outside Africa, both have been outstanding statesmen and both have been worthy winners. This year, like last year, the prize committee – chaired by Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary-general, who is independent of the board – has decided not to make an award.
So does that mean that African leadership has been, as The Economist might say, “hopeless”? And has the foundation, established to celebrate good leadership in Africa, ended up proving that there is no such thing?
No. Whether there is a winner of the prize or not, the purpose of the foundation is to challenge those in Africa and elsewhere to debate what constitutes excellence in leadership. The standards set for the prize winner are high, and the number of eligible candidates each year is small. It is always likely there will be years when no prize is awarded.
Many African countries are making great strides not just economically, but in terms of governance. In addition to the prize, the foundation publishes annually a rigorously researched index of how African countries have fared. It is meant to equip citizens with as much information as possible about how their country is governed. It reveals a wide variation but, overall, shows considerable improvements in the last few years. Prize or no prize, Africa is being governed better.
The foundation is anything but complacent about governance in Africa. Much more needs to be done. For that reason, the funds that would have been spent on the Ibrahim Prize this year are to be used for a complementary initiative to promote good governance.
We are initiating the Ibrahim Leadership Fellowships, a selective programme to identify and prepare the next generation of outstanding African leaders by providing them with mentoring opportunities in key multilateral institutions. The programme will seek to identify talented professionals to serve in leading institutions whose objective will be to improve the economic and social prospects of Africans. Our expectation is that fellows will go on to play leading roles in the governance of their countries.
The task of promoting good African leadership is more important than ever. Good governance will be crucial if African people are to share in the strong economic growth that many are predicting for Africa.
Far from being hopeless, Africa is full of hope and potential, maybe more so than any other continent. The challenge is to ensure that its potential is effectively harnessed. We will aim to play a part in that by giving Africans information to assess the performance of their political leaders, by rewarding outstanding leadership, and by equipping some of the continent’s brightest and best with skills to help countries meet the expectations of their people. That is the real prize for Africa.
Princes Harry and William on Africa trip
Tuesday, 15 June 2010/news.bbc.co.uk
Princes William and Harry are due to start their first joint overseas trip, visiting charities they support in southern Africa.
The six-day tour will include visits to Botswana, Lesotho and South Africa.
They will watch England’s World Cup match against Algeria and Football Association president William will promote England’s 2018 tournament bid.
On Monday, Prince Harry attended a garden party in Gaborone, Botswana, to mark the Queen’s official birthday.
Harry, who arrived in the country ahead of his older brother, attended the function at the British ambassador’s residence in the capital.
The tour will see them combine promoting their charity interests with cheering on England’s World Cup football squad in Cape Town on Friday.
Prince William is a patron of British charity the Tusk Trust which teaches Botswanan children the importance of conservation.
In a tour of the Mokolodi Nature Reserve near Gaborone, the princes are expected to visit an education centre supported by the charity and meet deaf children from a rural school carrying out projects.
In Lesotho, they will visit Sentebale, a charity Prince Harry has established for children orphaned by the Aids epidemic.
AngloGold, FirstRand, Stella Vista: South Africa Equity Preview
June 15, 2010/By Janice Kew and Renee Bonorchis/Bloomberg
June 15 (Bloomberg) — The following is a list of companies whose shares may have unusual price changes in South Africa. Stock symbols are in parentheses after company names and prices are from the last close.
South Africa’s FTSE/JSE Africa All Share Index gained 596.92, or 2.2 percent, to 27,446.09, the highest since May 27.
AngloGold Ashanti Ltd (ANG SJ): Africa’s largest producer of the metal was downgraded to “underperform” from “sector perform” at Barnard Jacobs Mellet by equity analyst Shane Hunter. AngloGold gained 2.77 rand, or 0.9 percent, to 326.95 rand.
Avusa Ltd. (AVU SJ): The media and entertainment company has agreed to buy Universal Print Group Ltd. and Hirt & Carter Ltd. from UHC Communications Ltd. for 925 million rand ($121 million) in stock and cash. Avusa rose 29 cents, or 1.6 percent, to 18.50 rand.
FirstRand Ltd. (FSR SJ): South Africa’s second-largest financial services group was raised to “buy” from “hold” at Citigroup Inc. The stock rose 43 cents, or 2.3 percent, to 19 rand.
Stella Vista Technologies Ltd. (SLL SJ): The maker of color-video displays and traffic signs posted a loss of 3.1 million rand in the six months through Feb. 28. Stella Vista slid 1 cent, or 17 percent, to 5 cents.
Shares or American depositary receipts of the following South African companies closed as follows:
Anglo American Plc (AAUKY US) rose 2.9 percent to $19.42. AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (AU US) declined 0.1 percent to $42.26. BHP Billiton Plc (BBL US) climbed 1.1 percent to $55.55. DRDGold Ltd. (DROOY US) fell 2.7 percent to $4.34. Gold Fields Ltd. (GFI US) slid 0.5 percent to $13.36. Harmony Gold Mining Co. (HMY US) decreased 1.2 percent to $9.65. Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. (IMPUY US) added 1.3 percent to $24.30. Sappi Ltd. (SPP US) fell 1.8 percent to $3.88. Sasol Ltd. (SSL US) rose 1.6 percent to $36.77.
–Editors: John Kohut, Ana Monteiro.
Special reps brief U.N. Security Council on Sudan
By Evan Buxbaum, CNN/June 15, 2010
United Nations (CNN) — A quartet of special representatives went before the United Nations Security Council Monday to brief members on political and humanitarian challenges in Sudan — particularly the war-torn Darfur region — as the country nears a referendum in early 2011 that could see Africa’s largest nation split in two.
Former South African President Thabo Mbeki currently serves as the African Union (AU) chairperson for Darfur. He was joined at U.N. Headquarters in New York by U.N. Special Representative Halie Menkerios, joint U.N.-AU envoy Ibrahim Gambari, and chief U.N.-AU mediator for Darfur, Djibril Bassole.
Mbeki expressed the necessity for cooperation, allowing the organizations to “coordinate their actions and support one another” in an effort to implement the five-year-old Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).
The CPA was signed in 2005 between Southern Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the Northern Sudanese Government in Khartoum. It was supposed to end decades of violent civil war, promising shared oil revenues, democratic governance, and paving the way for the South to vote on secession in January 2011.
UK Ambassador Lyall Grant said the coming months would represent a “defining moment” both for Sudan and for the Security Council. “With over 30,000 peacekeepers on the ground” throughout the country, Grant said the Council “has more invested in Sudan than in any other agenda item.”
“There is no greater challenge facing the Security Council over the next 12 months than supporting the parties in securing peace and prosperity for the people of Sudan,” he said.
“Sudan is a microcosm of Africa and its stability or instability will have far-reaching implications,” said Special Representative Menkerios.
U.N.-AU Representative Gambari explained that parts of Darfur remained “tense and volatile,” with 447 deaths reported in May alone. He told Council members that this recent upsurge in violence has created “very serious hindrances to the effective implementation” of his protection mandate, as well as to humanitarian assistance efforts for “those in dire need of such support.”
The Oxfam International aid organization released a statement coinciding with the Security Council meeting, saying that international attention has shifted away from Sudan and the Darfur conflict “at a time when it is desperately needed.”
“At this week’s summit the UN Security Council and Special Envoys must commit to bring these initiatives together and help forge a peace process that is truly inclusive, representative and lasting,” said spokesperson Kirsten Hagon in the statement.
Speaking to reporters after the Security Council briefing, Sudan’s U.N. ambassador, Abdalmahmood Mohamad, said recent elections should be seen as “ushering in a new era of democratic transformation in the country and within the process of the CPA implementation.”
However, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice disagreed during her remarks before the council.
“With respect to elections, let me reiterate that the April elections were characterized by serious irregularities,” including political repression and intimidation by government security forces, she said.
She explained how “the international community stands ready to provide diplomatic and technical support,” but only if there are sincere efforts to address the serious and difficult issues facing the country.
Monday’s meeting followed a Security Council update Friday from International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, which Rice called “disturbing” during her statements on Monday.
Moreno-Ocampo told Council members that attacks against civilians persist, and “the crime of extermination against millions of displaced into camps continues.” He called on the U.N. to produce an updated comprehensive report on the situation in camps and villages “to allow the international community to consider the current extent of the suffering of civilians.”
The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Sudan’s sitting President, Omar al-Bashir in March 2009 for various war crimes, including “extermination.”
“The crime of extermination does not require killing by bullets,” Moreno-Ocampo told the Security Council. He said “the deprivation of access to food and medicine, calculated to bring about the destruction of part of a population” also applies.
Although the US is not a member of the Court, Rice said Monday that “the United States strongly supports international efforts to bring those responsible for genocide and war crimes in Darfur to justice.”
UN /ONU :
Korea After Kim Has Gone
June 15, 2010/the-diplomat.com/By Gordon G. Chang
Kim Jong-il’s youngest son is favourite to succeed him. But his prospects once installed are bleak—unless China steps in.
The rule of Chairman Kim Jong-il is coming to an end. ‘The Lodestar of the 21st Century’ and ‘the Guardian of Our Planet’ is elderly, ailing, and obviously tired. His economy, despite a brief respite in 2008, is continuing on a downward spiral. His subjects literally worshipped his father, the founder of the North Korean state, but despise him. Kim’s plan to install his 27-year-old son on the throne looks like a precarious bet.
So what will happen in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea when Kim passes from the scene? Unfortunately, we can’t rule much out. Pyongyang’s politics are Byzantine, unpredictable, and almost always hidden from view. We nonetheless caught a glimpse of what’s going on this month when the Supreme People’s Assembly, the rubber-stamp legislature that usually meets once a year, held an unexpected additional session. At the extra meeting, Kim’s brother-in-law, Jang Song Thaek, was named vice chairman of the all-powerful National Defense Commission.
Apparently, Kim wants his trusted relative, the husband of his younger sister, to act as regent until his youngest-acknowledged son, Kim Jong-un, is ready to become the third family member to rule the regime. The plan had originally appeared to run into opposition, but the elevation of Jang indicates Kim Jong-il was able to put his succession programme back on track.
Jong-un has the wind at his back for the moment. The regime, although not formally a monarchy, derives its legitimacy from the Kim family. This means the military—by far the strongest bloc in Pyongyang—will naturally look to a Kim as leader. Moreover, Korea has a tradition of strong-man rule, and there are no stronger men on the peninsula than the Kims. Additionally, the regime’s fragility can even help the young Jong-un. Flag officers, who could take over if they so choose, look hesitant to become formally responsible for a failing economy and a disintegrating society.
Yet despite all the advantages Kim Jong-un enjoys, there are powerful forces working against him. For one thing, Kim Il-sung, who died in July 1994, began planning the elevation of his son, Jong-il, in the early 1960s. Jong-il, on the other hand, has spent only a couple of years getting Jong-un ready for the top spot. Should Jong-il disappear or die soon—as many hope and some expect—Jong-un will not have had the time to consolidate his position in Pyongyang.
Jong-un may not have much time in any event. The regime has promised its people that by 2012 their nation will be a ‘strong and prosperous country.’ By now, North Korea’s impoverished citizens have become used to fantastical boasts of Kim family propaganda, but this claim is of special importance and not easily forgotten. Why? In 2012, the regime will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il-sung.
In short, Kim Jong-il has created a hard-to-ignore marker for himself. That’s probably a mistake because there’s no conceivable way he can make good on that solemn promise. His major economic ‘reform’ initiative of last year, a misconceived demonetization launched on November 30, resulted in riots against the government and the firing squad execution of Pak Nam Gi, the official in charge of the botched plan. Kim was able to restore order, but the disruptions clearly demonstrated the lack of popular support for his regime—and the declining effectiveness of his governance.
That’s not good news for Kim Jong-un, an untested candidate for succession. He is said to have inherited the ‘dictator gene,’ and no doubt his dad is giving him lessons in advanced cruelty, prevarication, and double-dealing. Yet the challenges will nonetheless be daunting, especially if he faces them without parental backup.
There’s always hope for the youngest Kim. In late 1994, few thought Kim Jong-il could survive without his dad. Top brass and senior officials, however, eventually assented to the first hereditary transfer of power in a communist state by rallying around Kim Jr. But there’s one crucial difference between then and now. In October 1994, the Clinton administration signalled its support for continuation of the Kim regime by signing the Agreed Framework, an interim arrangement to suspend the North Korean nuclear programme.
Given today’s near universal pessimism in Washington about Pyongyang’s long-term intentions, it’s unlikely the Obama administration will come to Kim Jong-un’s rescue in such a dramatic—and tangible—fashion. Moreover, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, even if he wanted to, can’t provide assistance after the March 26 sinking of the Cheonan, a frigate.
That leaves China as the only possible saviour of the Kim dynasty. President Hu Jintao has consistently supported North Korea this decade. There may be great frustration with Pyongyang in Beijing’s policy circles, but there’s no consensus on withdrawing support for Kimist Korea.
On the contrary, we can expect Beijing and Pyongyang to retain their strong links. In addition to sentimental reasons for the continued bond, there are structural ones. Kim family provocations destabilize Japan, unnerve South Korea, and make the United States feel beholden to China. What’s there for Beijing not to like? Moreover, both the Chinese and the North Koreans have identified Western nations as obstacles to their long-term ambitions.
At this moment, we don’t know how Beijing’s policymakers feel about Kim Jong-un, but there are reasons to believe they would not object to him as North Korea’s next leader. He will, in all probability, be a weak one and especially dependent on Beijing.
For decades, Beijing has cultivated North Korean officials, and Kim Jong-il has periodically purged them. The dynamic continues today and will only end when he loses power. But by then Beijing, especially if it has gained the upper hand, will undoubtedly have learned to live with the newest Kim. Kim Jong-un, when he steps into his dad’s elevator shoes, may only be a figurehead. But from China’s viewpoint, that will be ideal.
Gordon G. Chang writes a weekly column at Forbes.com. He is the author of ‘Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes On the World.’
USA :
CANADA :
International NGOs Call for Zimbabwe’s Suspension From Kimberly Process
Sandra Nyaira/www1.voanews.com/ 15 June 2010
The two NGO reports, which call for Zimbabwe’s membership in the Kimberly Process to be suspended, contrasted dramatically with a report by Kimberly monitor Abbey Chikane, which argued for Harare’s certification
| Washington
An international watchdog group said Monday that political and military elites connected to Zimbabwe’s former ruling ZANU-PF party seek to capture the country’s diamond wealth through a combination of state-sponsored violence and opaque joint-venture companies formed to extract alluvial diamonds from eastern Marange district.
In a report entitled “The Return of The Blood Diamond,” Global Witness criticized the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, set up to end the trade in conflict diamonds, for failing to react effectively to end the crisis in Marange, in Manicaland province, where diamonds were discovered in quantity several years ago.
The report said Mines Minister Obert Mpofu has played a key role in blocking oversight by Parliament and others of two companies working in joint ventures with the government, Canadile Miners and Mbada Diamonds.
The Canadian non-governmental organization Partnership Africa Canada also issued a report on Monday examining the diamond industry in Zimbabwe. The two NGO reports, which call for Zimbabwe’s membership in the Kimberly Process to be suspended, contrasted dramatically with a report by Kimberly monitor Abbey Chikane, who said Zimbabwe should be certified to export diamonds from the controversial Marange field.
Global Witness spokeswoman Amy Barry told VOA Studio 7 reporter Sandra Nyaira that the evidence argues for Zimbabwe’s suspension when Kimberly Process members gather in Tel Aviv, Israel, on June 21.
“Global Witness is calling on international governments to suspend Zimbabwe from the Kimberley Process scheme until it can prove its diamonds aren’t bankrolling violence and abuse,” Global Witness stated.
“Zimbabwe must immediately withdraw the army from the diamond fields, hold rights abusers to account and suspend imports and exports of rough diamonds until the diamond sector meets international standards,” the group said. “It should also suspend the introduction of new investors into Marange until the legality of current joint ventures can be established, and effective oversight implemented.”
Partnership Africa Canada commented: “Zimbabwe is not the only country failing to meet some or all of the basic requirements asked of diamond producing nations by the Kimberley Process. But Zimbabwe sets itself apart from the others because of the government’s brazen defiance of universally agreed principles of humanity and good governance expected of adherents to the [Kimberly Process].”
“As such Zimbabwe poses a serious crisis of credibility for the KP, whose impotence in the face of thuggery and illegality in Zimbabwe underscores a worrisome inability or unwillingness to enforce either the letter, or the
spirit, of its founding mandate,” Partnership Africa Canada declared.
Regional Coordinator Dewa Mavhinga of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition said next week’s Kimberly Process meeting should suspend Harare from the organization until a clearer position regarding the definition of the term “blood diamond” has been agreed, and until the shroud of secrecy over Marange has been lifted.
International organizations have also expressed concern as to the welfare of activist Farai Maguwu of the Center for Research and Development in Mutare, who remained in police custody on Monday.
Legal sources said Maguwu was removed from the Harare remand prison for interrogation on the weekend. Lawyer Tinoziva Bere, one of the attorneys representing him, said a bail hearing has been set for Wednesday.
Dana Petroleum acquires PetroCanada Netherlands
Robin Pagnamenta /The Times /June 15, 2010
Dana Petroleum paid £270 million for PetroCanada Netherlands yesterday, it’s biggest-ever acquisition.
The oil group, which operates fields in Britain and North Africa, said that the deal would boost its production by up to 9,000 barrels a day and give it access to a new area of the Dutch North Sea.
It would also lift Dana’s proved and probable reserves by an additional 31 million barrels of oil equivalent, or 12 per cent, to 254 million barrels. Tom Cross, Dana’s chief executive, said that the deal represented Dana’s fourth international acquisition in the past three years and was “the most significant and exciting development in the company’s history”.
The Aberdeen-based company said that the deal would be financed using a $900 million loan and revolving credit facility from the Royal Bank of Canada.
The company expects the deal, which requires approval from shareholders, to be completed by the end of September.
Dana is buying Petro Canada Netherlands from Petro Canada Holdings, a subsidiary of Suncor, Canada’s largest oil company.
Shares in Dana closed at £10.88 on Friday. It is a leading operator in the North Sea, with four producing fields. It also operates in Norway, Egypt and Morocco.
Last year 81 per cent of production came from oil, with gas making up the remainder. It employs 108 people.
AUSTRALIA :
Stadium Security Changes
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/ June 15, 2010
The police took over responsibility for security at World Cup stadiums in Cape Town and Durban after a pay dispute escalated between stewards and a security contractor.
World Cup organizers said they called in the police after some stadium staff members left their posts because of a pay dispute with the contractor, Stallion Security Consortium.
The match between Italy and Paraguay at Green Point Stadium in Cape Town kicked off on time, but the police said fans were kept outside the stadium for an extra hour until the area was deemed secure.
“Gates have opened, the police are in control and the match will kick off as scheduled,” organizers said in a statement.
Danny Jordaan, said the problem was an “employer-employee wage dispute.”
He added, “Although we have respect for workers’ rights, we find it unacceptable for them to disrupt match-day proceedings and will not hesitate to take action in such instances.”
Col. Billy Jones, a police spokesman for the Western Cape region, said about 500 security staff members congregated on the stadium’s second-level terrace.
Employers attempted to negotiate a settlement, but failed.
“We had to take a decision quickly because we didn’t have much time,” Jones said. “We told both sides to take their labor dispute out of the stadium.”
Jones said the striking security staff members left peacefully. About 1,500 trainees from the national police were called in to cover for a shortage of manpower at the stadium’s entrances, he said.
Officials in cities hosting matches Tuesday said they expected no security problems.
In Rustenburg, where New Zealand and Slovakia will play Tuesday afternoon, the police already work alongside stewards who are expected to report for normal duty.
Port Elizabeth will host the match between Ivory Coast and Portugal later Tuesday, and the police are handling most security work at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, a spokeswoman said. (AP)
DROGBA MAY PLAY Didier Drogba trained with his teammates as Ivory Coast prepared for its World Cup opener against Portugal, and a decision on whether he can play will be made two hours before the match. Drogba broke his right arm in a June 4 warm-up match. Coach Sven-Goran Eriksson said he was hopeful that FIFA would approve the protective cast Drogba must wear; FIFA must be satisfied that the cast does not present a danger to other players.
Even if Drogba does not play Tuesday, Eriksson said there was a good chance he would play in next week’s Group G match against Brazil. (AP)
EUROPE :
Zimbabwe: European Union Insincere – Govt
15 June 2010/allafrica.com/The Herald
Harare — THE European Union is not committed to re-engaging Zimbabwe in dialogue to normalise relations and lift the illegal economic sanctions the bloc imposed on the country, Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi has said.
Addressing journalists after meeting the visiting Portuguese Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Antonio Braga in Harare yesterday, Minister Mumbengegwi – who heads Zimbabwe’s re-engagement committee – said the EU was not serious on dialogue.
The dialogue was scheduled to resume on April 21, but was deferred after a flight ban in Europe following a volcanic eruption in Iceland.
Since then, the EU has not made any formal communication to agree on a way forward.
“We are still waiting for the EU to indicate to us when our delegation should go there and they certainly seem to be taking their time.
“It seems to suggest to us that the EU has never taken this dialogue seriously at all.
“They are just playing games with the lives of the people of Zimbabwe and I know that in international relations, morality is the first casualty,” he said.
Minister Mumbengegwi recently wrote to the EU expre-ssing concern at the lack of progress.
He said the dialogue was being conducted in bad faith because Zimbabwe had received several delegations from EU members, but “surprisingly” the bloc refused to reciprocate.
“We have received a ministerial troika from the EU and several ministerial delegations from EU countries but when we want to send our delegations they refuse,” he said.
Minister Mumbengegwi said the EU had refused to hear Zimbabwe’s position on the illegal sanctions following the renewal of the discredited embargo in February this year.
He said European capitals had barred a Zimbabwean delegation that sought to discuss the matter of sanctions before they were renewed for another year.
Referring to one of the few meetings between the two sides, the minister said: “We agreed in Brussels that the two sides must produce commitment plans as to what each side was committing itself to achieve in the dialogue.
“Zimbabwe has produced its commitment plan, but the EU has declined to produce theirs.”
Minister Mumbengegwi said he had explained that Zimbabweans were against the continuation of the illegal sanctions and had taken a position against the embargo in the Global Political Agreement.
Mr Braga said Portugal was committed to rapprochement.
He said Zimbabwe and Portugal enjoyed cordial relations and Lisbon was exploring investment opportunities here.
“We are looking at the possibility to have some investment here and we have also discussed issues relating to our bilateral relations.”
Mr Braga faces a daunting task in convincing hardliners in the EU on the need for re-engagement.
This became immediately obvious after his meeting with Minister Mumbengegwi when a visiting Danish parliamentary delegation insisted there were no sanctions on Zimbabwe.
The 10-member delegation from the Danish Portfolio Committee on Foreign Affairs met Minister Mumbengegwi in Harare yesterday.
Head of delegation Mrs Marian Pederson held an hour-long meeting with Minister Mumbengegwi and claimed the sanctions only targeted individuals.
Minister Mumbengegwi said: “It was a frank exchange of views, but unfortunately we were hoping that their coming to this country would change their perception.
“I get the impression that they are going back with the same impression which they had.
“They still believe that there are no sanctions in Zimbabwe. I told them that the top 31 companies are under sanctions imposed to cripple Zimbabwe.
“I pointed out that the complete withdrawal of aid to Zimbabwe is not a sanction to individuals, but to the general people of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe used to benefit from lines of credit but all that was withdrawn.”
Minister Mumbengegwi expressed surprise that the legislators were misinformed on the land reform programme.
“It is unreasonable for Zimbabwe to pay compensation for land that was taken by the British at gunpoint. It is the British government that should pay compensation and that is there in our Constitution, we will pay compensation on improvements.”
Mrs Pederson confirmed they had failed to agree.
“We didn’t manage to discuss other issues because we still felt that you are not following the rules,” she said.
Yesterday, the European Commission delegation in Zimbabwe did not respond to questions sent to it on the issue of re-engagement.
Dialogue was initiated last year but little headway has been made to break the impasse.
At one point the French Embassy in Harare, which is responsible for issuing Belgian visas in Zimbabwe, denied Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa a visa to travel to Brussels.
The situation was only resolved after EC head of delegation in Zimbabwe Ambassador Xavier Marchal’s intervention.
Minister Chinamasa was subsequently detained for about seven hours at Frankfurt International Airport in what was seen as a crude attempt to stop him from attending meetings in Brussels.
Other members of Zimbabwe’s re-engagement team are ministers Tendai Biti (Finance), Elton Mangoma (Economic Planning and Investment Promotion), Pricilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga (Regional Integration and International Co-operation) and Welshman Ncube (Industry and Commerce.)
A 2006 study of the Cotonou Partnership Agreement – under which the EU says the sanctions are justified – the bloc admitted the embargo was implemented in an attempt to influence the 2002 Presidential elections eventually won by President Mugabe.
Spurned by EU, Turkey goes it alone as regional power broker
The Irish Times /Tuesday, June 15, 2010
EUROPEAN DIARY: Ankara says it has not turned its back on the West but it is keeping its options open by building trade and diplomatic links with its neighbours, writes ARTHUR BEESLEY
US DEFENCE secretary Robert Gates pinned the blame on Brussels when Turkey voted with Brazil against new sanctions on Iran in the UN Security Council.
With relations between Turkey and Israel at their lowest level for decades in the wake of the fatal Israeli assault last month on the Gaza-bound aid flotilla, the development struck observers as a further sign that Ankara was reorienting its foreign policy away from the west.
With EU accession talks going nowhere, Turkey’s relations with Iran and Syria are thawing and the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 still rankles badly with Turks.
Washington looks on anxiously. “I personally think that if there’s anything to the notion that Turkey is moving eastward, it is in no small part because it was pushed by some in Europe refusing to give Turkey the kind of organic link to the West that Turkey sought,” Gates said in London after the UN vote.
“We have to think long and hard about why these developments in Turkey [are occurring] and what we might be able to do to counter them and make the stronger linkages with the West more apparently of interest and value to Turkey’s leaders.”
Brussels denied any rift, as did Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“Those who allege that Turkey has broken away from the West are the intermediaries of an ill-intentioned propaganda,” he said.
But the fact remains that Turkey’s application to join the EU is on the back burner and is likely to remain there for some years to come. Although the process is bogged down in procedure, the over-riding issue is that neither French president Nicolas Sarkozy nor German chancellor Angela Merkel wants Turkey in the EU.
Ostensibly, the blockage stems from Ankara’s refusal to recognise Cyprus, an EU member since 2004, or open Turkish ports to vessels from it.
Ankara is obliged to do this under its customs union with the EU but refuses because Europe will not agree to open trade with the self-styled Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
The result is stasis, with neither Turkey nor the European authorities willing to jump first. EU officials readily acknowledge, however, that the breakdown reflects Franco-German resistance to Turkish membership.
With talks on many EU policy areas in suspension, Turkey has been hedging bets in its foreign policy, using trade as a lever.
The country has targeted neighbouring and non-EU countries in its trade policy for years, as well as Africa and Latin America.
The shift has seen Russia supplant Germany as the country’s biggest trading partner. Between 1991 and 2008, Turkey’s trade with its neighbours grew more than 20 times.
At its root, indeed, the current foreign policy is cast as a means of having “zero problems with neighbours”.
This also reflects private opinion within the apparatus of the Turkish state that the EU’s “Christian club” will never admit a largely Muslim country such as Turkey.
In this view, Turkey would be better to forge an independent future as a global player – and a regional power in counterweight to the might of Russia and Iran.
All of that smacks of pragmatism on Ankara’s part – and ties in neatly with Erdogan’s increasing international assertiveness.
Turkey mediated between Israel and Syria, before the military campaign that Israel unleashed in Gaza in December 2008 brought talks to a halt and led to a marked deterioration in Ankara’s relations with Israel.
Even if EU membership remains Turkey’s ultimate goal, Erdogan’s increasing assertiveness has deep resonance for his domestic audience.
In a vast country that plays on its status as meeting point between the eastern and western worlds, his international profile appeals to Turkish pride.
For the opposite reason, dictates from Brussels around the adoption of EU-style legislation go down very badly indeed.
Although the country’s Muslim identity is problematic for certain Europeans, close observers of the accession process in Brussels perceive an “anti-European, anti-democratic” strain in the Turkish army. This, too, presents difficulty because the military is guardian of the secularism of the Turkish state.
These are long-term issues, however, for neither Brussels nor Ankara wants to force the pace of a process that is barely moving at all.
In Luxembourg yesterday, Gaza and Iran dominated the agenda when EU foreign ministers convened for their monthly meeting.
It’s unlikely that the Turkish minister will be attending such gatherings any time soon.
Israel’s Freedom Flotilla Massacre underlines the urgency of intensifying BDS
By Guest Post / palestinethinktank.com/ Jun 15, 2010
Occupied Palestine, 08 June 2010 — In light of Israel’s massacre of humanitarian relief workers and activists aboard the Freedom Flotilla on 31 May 2010 and its insistence to continue its illegal siege on Gaza, pressuring Israel to comply with its obligations under international law has become of undeniable urgency. Drunk with power and impunity, Israel has ignored recent appeals by the UN Secretary General as well as a near consensus among world governments to end its deadly siege, putting the onus on international civil society to shoulder the moral responsibility of holding Israel accountable to international law and ending its criminal impunity. The Palestinian-led global campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel has shown the most effective way of achieving this.
Israel’s ongoing blockade of essential food, health, educational and construction supplies is not only immoral; it is a severe form of collective punishment, a war crime that is strictly prohibited under Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. It is inducing mass poverty, water contamination, environmental collapse, chronic diseases, economic devastation and hundreds of deaths. This three-year old medieval siege against 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza has been squarely condemned by leading legal experts, including UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the oPt, Prof. Richard Falk, who described it as constituting “slow genocide.”
Israel’s widely condemned attacks on the unarmed ships of the Freedom Flotilla, as prominent international law experts agree[1], are in violation of both international maritime law and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which states that “the high seas should be reserved for peaceful purposes.” Under article 3 of the Rome Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation of 1988, it is an international crime for any person to seize or exercise control over a ship by force, and also a crime to injure or kill any person in the process. As international law scholars have confirmed, there is absolutely no legal justification for Israel’s act of aggression against international civilian ships carrying humanitarian and developmental aid to civilians suffering under occupation and a patently illegal blockade, which has created a man-made and deliberately sustained humanitarian catastrophe. Our response must be commensurate with the horrific suffering resulting from this siege as well as decades-old, multi-tiered systems of Israeli oppression.
The reaction of the international community and people all over the world must understand the latest Israeli atrocities in the context of decades of Israeli impunity, afforded to it by Western governments and, lately, the United Nations. Since the Nakba, Israel’s establishment throug
h the dispossession and ethnic cleansing of a majority of the indigenous Palestinian people, Israel has been allowed to deny the over 6 million refugees from their UN-sanctioned right to return to their homes of origin. In the same period, Israel managed to get away with its system of legalized and institutionalized racial discrimination that conforms to the definition of apartheid under the 1993 International Convention for the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid.[2] For exactly 43 years, Israel has maintained its occupation of the West Bank, including Jerusalem, and Gaza and continued to expand its illegal colonies, committing grave violations of international law and war crimes with immunity. Even the ruling by the International Court of Justice in 2004, which found Israel’s Wall and colonial settlements illegal and directly called on all states to bring about an end to both, was ignored.
Today we see signs that the unconditional support given to Israel over the decades by the international community to protect it from being held accountable, or indeed criticized, is showing cracks. Israel’s Flotilla Massacre has been met with international sanctions including Nicaragua’s suspension of diplomatic relations with Israel[3]; South Africa[4] and Turkey[5] recalling their respective ambassadors from Tel Aviv, as well as a unanimous call in the Turkish parliament to “revise the political, military and economic relations with Israel” and to “seek justice against Israel through national and international legal authorities.”[6] Furthermore, Norway’s minister of education and head of the Socialist Left party, Kristin Halvorsen, reconfirmed Norway’s arms ban on Israel and called all other states to “follow the Norwegian position which excludes trading arms with Israel.”[7]
International civil society has also responded swiftly and effectively to Israel’s attack on the Flotilla. The Swedish Port Workers Union heeded the BNC appeal[8] by deciding to blockade all cargo to and from Israel from June 15 to 24.[9] The South African trade union federation COSATU called for “greater support for the international boycott, divestment and sanction campaign against Israel,” urging “all South Africans to refuse to buy or handle any goods from Israel or have any dealings with Israeli businesses.”[10] The South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (SATAWU), which pioneered the boycott against Israeli maritime trade in February 2009, refusing to offload a ship in Durban, also heeded the BNC appeal, calling upon its members “not to allow any Israeli ship to dock or unload” and calling upon fellow trade unionists “not to handle them.” [11] The South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) unanimously called for making every municipality in South Africa an Apartheid Israel free zone.[12] Britain’s largest union, Unite, unanimously passed a BDS motion to boycott all Israeli companies at its first policy conference in Manchester.[13] Norway’s largest trade union federation, LO, comprising almost one fifth of the entire Norwegian population, called on the State Pension Fund, the third largest in the world, to divest from all Israeli companies.[14] A poll taken after the Flotilla attack showed more than 42% of Norwegians now supporting a comprehensive boycott of Israeli goods.[15]
Leading cultural figures have also had their say. World renowned British writer, Iain Banks, wrote in the Guardian that the best way for international artists, writers and academics to “convince Israel of its moral degradation and ethical isolation” is “simply by having nothing more to do with this outlaw state.”[16] The Klaxons and Gorillaz Sound System cancelled their scheduled concerts in Israel, due to the Flotilla attack,[17] and so did the Pixies.[18] World best-selling writer, the Swedish Henning Mankell, who was on the Freedom Flotilla when attacked, called for South-Africa style global sanctions against Israel in response to its brutality.[19] The best-selling US author, Alice Walker, reminded the world of the Rosa Parks-triggered and Martin Luther King-led boycott of a racist bus company in Montgomery, Alabama during the civil rights movement, calling for wide endorsement of BDS against Israel as a moral duty.[20]
The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) warmly welcomes these brave, principled and effective international positions and actions to end Israel’s siege and criminal impunity. We salute the artists, sportspersons, and trade unions for heeding Palestinian civil society calls for effective solidarity with the Palestinian people in the form of BDS.
Today, we call on:
■Dockworkers unions everywhere to heed the call[21] issued 7 June 2010 by the entire Palestinian trade union movement to block loading and offloading cargo on/from Israeli ships.
■Other trade unions to endorse BDS by implementing a boycott of Israeli products and divesting their pension funds of all stock in Israeli and international companies profiting from Israel’s occupation and apartheid. We also call on international trade unions to follow the historic example set by the British academic union, UCU, when it decided[22] on May 31st to sever links with Histadrut, even before news of Histadrut’s statement[23] whitewashing Israel’s Flotilla Massacre was publicized. The Palestinian trade union movement, completely represented in the BNC, strongly condemned Histadrut’s latest defense of Israeli war crimes. The Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU), for instance, accused[24] Histadrut of hiding “behind Union to Union cooperation in order to justify brutal assaults against civilians who tried to offer humanitarian assistance to 1.5 million Palestinians, mostly working people, in Gaza.” It is worth noting that Histadrut had defended Israel’s war crimes in Gaza during in 2008-09.[25]
■Governments to immediately end all collusion with Israel’s unlawful blockade of the Gaza Strip and to pressure Israel to guarantee unrestricted access and freedom of movement of people and products into and out of the Gaza Strip. Governments that uphold international law and human rights are urged to initiate a global arms embargo against Israel and ban on settlement trade.
· People of conscience to pressure governments to immediately suspend arms trade with Israel, and to implement trade sanctions, bringing to justice all Israeli officials and military personnel who took the decision and/or implemented this latest massacre as well as earlier war crimes.
■Civil society organizations – including faith based groups, universities, unions, women’s associations, student groups, academic associations, etc.– to divest their institutions and pension funds of all investments in Israeli and international companies that are complicit in maintaining Israel’s occupation, apartheid and violation of international law and to boycott Israeli goods. We further call on them to pressure their governments to end free trade agreements (FTAs) with Israel, and implement an immediate arms embargo against it, as was called for previously by Amnesty International after Cast Lead[26].
In particular, we call on:
· The EU to refuse to renew the EU-Israel Action Plan and to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement; the Mercosur states to suspend the FTA with Israel; India and Chile to end all negotiations around an FTA with Israel.
· Turkey, Greece and Ireland, as states whose civilian ships were illegally attacked in international waters by Israel, to pursue all legal channels possible to bring Israelis responsible for this war crime to justice and to suspend all bi-lateral agreements with Israel until it respects international law.
· An end to arms trade and military ties: in particular for India, Turkey and Brazil — the three major importers of Israeli arms[27] — to stop all military ties and arms deals with Israel.
· The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to activate its calls for a ban on colonial settlement goods, denial
of entry to settlers and sanctions on companies/entities involved in the Wall and settlements, issued repeatedly at NAM meetings since 2004.[28]
■South Africa parliament to join the struggle against Israeli apartheid first by banning Israeli and international companies implicated in the occupation and apartheid from public contracts. It is also urged to lead the initiative on a global arms embargo on Israel and on a gradual ban on Israeli products. Diamond trade with Israel must also gradually come to a halt, by developing polishing workshops in South Africa, rather than allowing Israel to exploit South African raw diamonds to make enormous profits in the polishing process.
■Arab States to end existing diplomatic and trade agreements with Israel and to exclude from public contracts all international companies involved in Israel’s violations of international law and human rights, especially Veolia, Alstom, Lev Leviev, Caterpillar, Motorola, Volvo, etc. Egypt should indefinitely open the Rafah Crossing.
■Trade Unions participating in the upcoming ITUC conference in Vancouver to endorse BDS and sever links with Histadrut.
In the words of Nelson Mandela, justice for the people of Palestine has become “the greatest moral issue of our time.” Israel’s brutal siege of Gaza is today the most critical and urgent of all Israeli injustices against the Palestinian people. The BNC calls on people of conscience and citizen groups all over the world to intensify BDS campaigns against Israel as the most effective means of ending the siege and holding Israel accountable to international law in the pursuit of a just peace.
——————————————————————————–
[1] Leading international law expert, Prof. Ben Saul, for instance, comments on the Flotilla attack saying: “This latest sad and shocking episode is a reminder of Israel’s recklessness towards the lives of others, its utter disregard for international opinion, and its incivility as an outlaw of the international community.” http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2915343.htm
Prominent British lawyers reached the same conclusion in a letter to the Times:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/letters/article7142646.ece
And so did leading Dutch international law professors in a letter to NRC Handelsblad:
http://www.iss.nl/News/Karin-Arts-co-authors-letter-about-Israel-for-Dutch-newspaper
[2] http://untreaty.un.org/cod/avl/ha/cspca/cspca.html
[3] http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3897773,00.html
[4] http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?sid=a_vBbjBZJ6LM&pid=20601087
[5] http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-212110-100-ambassador-celikkol-back-in-ankara-for-consultations.html
[6] http://www.news-gazette.com/news/news/2010-06-02/turkeys-parliament-wants-review-israeli-ties.html
[7] http://www.swedishwire.com/nordic/4809-norway-calls-for-boycott-on-arms-to-israel
[8] http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/710
[9] http://ibnkafkasobiterdicta.wordpress.com/2010/06/03/the-swedish-dockers-union-decides-on-a-blockade-against-israeli-ships-and-goods/
[10] http://www.cosatu.org.za/show.php?include=docs/pr/2010/pr0531d.html&ID=3395&cat=COSATU%20Today
[11] http://groups.google.com/group/cosatu-press/msg/a2ff0baff48201c4?pli=1
[12] http://www.samwu.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=621&Itemid=1
[13] http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/32579/unite-votes-boycott-israel
[14] http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/norge/1.7148110
[15] http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3898052,00.html
[16] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/03/boycott-israel-iain-banks
[17] http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/klaxons-and-gorillaz-sound-system-cancel-israel-shows-apparently-due-to-gaza-flotilla-raid-1.294191
[18] http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/06/2919568.htm?section=justin[19] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/palestinianauthority/7795692/Gaza-aid-flotilla-Henning-Mankell-calls-for-sanctions-on-Israel.html
[20] http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11319.shtml
[21] http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/712
[22] http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=177210
[23] http://www.unions.org.il/BRPortal/br/P106.jsp?id=7642
[24] http://www.pgftu.org/ensite/news.php?action=view&id=76
[25] http://www.labourstart.org/israel/Histadrut_on_Gaza.pdf
[26]http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/arms-embargo-vital-gaza-civilian-toll-mounts-20090115
[27] See Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), http://armstrade.sipri.org/armstrade/page/values.php
[28] “With regard to Member States, the Ministers called upon them to undertake measures, including by means of legislation, collectively, regionally and individually, to prevent any products of the illegal Israeli settlements from entering their markets consistent with the obligations under International Treaties, to decline entry to Israeli settlers and to impose sanctions against companies and entities involved in the construction of the wall and other illegal activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem”. http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/4B3B9C4D7017D42D8525722700520F5F
CHINA :
INDIA :
‘Imagine Africa as India was 15 to 20
www.indianexpress.com/Tue Jun 15 2010
Shekhar Gupta: My guest today is India’s most prominent African, Sunil Bharti Mittal. Wonderful to have you as an honorary African, just a week after we had President Jacob Zuma from South Africa.
Sunil Mittal:I am delighted that we are finally there in the continent of hope. I believe the next decade is going to belong to Africa.
Shekhar Gupta: What gives you that confidence? There is trouble even in South Africa. Look at any international publication, the news is all about trouble in South Africa — poverty, confusion and misgovernance. Sometimes, it looks like a story on India.
Sunil Mittal:Well, if you look at how the world is moving, the US, Europe and other more advanced economies are shrinking. India and China are driving the economy but where will it all move next? Africa is the next continent. Imagine Africa as India was 15 to 20 years ago. I sense that opportunity.
Shekhar Gupta: When did you get focused on Africa? Was it MTN or some kind of philosophical discovery of Africa?
Sunil Mittal:I think very early on I realised if we ever have to go out of India, it’s not going be US or Europe but Africa or the emerging world. So, in 1997, I spent my 40th birthday in Botswana, bidding for a licence. We lost to some other bidder. Then we got Seychelles in 1998 and then we tried the famous MTN 1 and MTN 2, which, of course, never got through and now Zain.
Shekhar Gupta:Yet, what did you see in Africa? Do you have a memory, a recollection or something that told you this is it?
Sunil Mittal:Despite its growth, Africa is still the continent where tele-density is 35 per cent, which means to go to a point where India is today, you will be putting hundreds and thousands of phones in the hands of people in Africa. Secondly, our low-cost model in India gives us a hope that what we have is right as a recipe for Africa. Africa has a 20 cents average rate per minute and India has 1 cent. I think there is a very clear Africation of the Indian model.
Shekhar Gupta: But did it not become izzat ka sawaal? Once you did not get MTN, you had to be in Africa somehow.
Sunil Mittal:No, if Zain wouldn’t have gone through, we probably would have gone a step back because the only two companies that in some sense were available were MTN, which was the largest, and Zain which was the second largest. It was never izzat ka sawaal.
Shekhar Gupta: What did the loss of MTN teach you?
Sunil Mittal:One, that if we have to be in Africa, we have to be brave, we need to be bold and we can’t go bargain hunting. Africa is not for bargain hunting, you have to be brave and bold, because the opportunity is so large.
Shekhar Gupta: Were you also driven by a compulsion to acquire something overseas, because everybody else was doing it? So, just as I used the phrase izzat ka sawaal earlier, shall I use the expression, bhed chaal? Four or five of the top Indian corporates had done it, your peers had done it or are in the process of doing it, so, how could a Punjabi be left behind?
Sunil Mittal:No, I think what was driving us was that we had to diversify. We are the leaders of telecom in India. Unfortunately, the regulations have been unfolding in a very negative way for the established players in India. The company is strong today to diversify and it was important for us to add one more large piece outside India, So, for our shareholders, it is a diversification of risk in telecommunications.
Shekhar Gupta:And it is an entrepreneurial risk, because you have taken debt.
Sunil Mittal:This is true.
Shekhar Gupta: What kind of debt?
Sunil Mittal:It is a very large debt. For a company that is generally loathe to take any debt, we have taken a 9 billion dollar debt. In fact, we had cash on our books when we did this deal and now we have debt. The good news is we struck because of our strength of balance sheet. Our debt deal with banks is at a 2.25 per cent rate, which means at 200 million dollars of interest per year, we have secured Africa. I mean that’s a big headline I would say. While the debt was 9 to 10 billion dollars, the outflow was very small.
Shekhar Gupta: I know you are a big tycoon now, but deep inside you have a middle-class outlook. And a middle-class Indian doesn’t sleep too well with debt on his head.
Sunil Mittal: You are absolutely right and it took me a long time to get used to leveraging to this extent to do a deal outside. We will not keep our debt too much for too long. We have plans to mitigate this, these debts will come down over the next few years.
Shekhar Gupta: But, this is an entrepreneurial leap of faith. You have gone and embraced something with the risk, given the environment in India, that you could lose it all.
Sunil Mittal:Well, in telecom you never lose it all. A bad job done will get your money back, a good job done will transform this company into a truly world-class telecom company. If you see in India, there were companies like Spice and Escotel. Even those companies which were down in the dumps finally got sold for huge premiums. In India, you see licences being sold.
Shekhar Gupta:With most of the promoters walking around with cheque books hoping to buy other assets.
Sunil Mittal:So, I don’t think there is a risk here. It’s 15 countries, so again it is a diversified risk in Africa. Some are very large countries, some are small countries, but the good news is Zain is No.1 in 10 countries, No. 2 in four countries and struggling only in one country.
Shekhar Gupta: So, tell me when you deal with individuals, how are Africans different from Indians? How are Africans different from Punjabis?
Sunil Mittal:Culturally, there is a difference. In this particular deal, we dealt with Kuwaities, the Arabs, to buy over Africa. But, in MTN we were dealing with Africans. I must say I was quite surprised to see how western they were in their approach.
Shekhar Gupta: You talked about the regulatory scenario deteriorating in India, especially for existing companies. What exactly is this because, when I see a telecom story, I turn the page. I know there is a 2G, 3G, 5G, 4G, but I don’t understand. I know there is the shadow of Mr Raja there. I see many usual suspects, but I understand nothing.
Sunil Mittal:You know, in the garb of having more players and more competition, we have been pushed to the wall and it has been very hard for us.
Shekhar Gupta: We as in Bharti, or all Indian players?
Sunil Mittal:I think all established players. People who have been serving the country for the last 15 years, providing telephony like nobody else in the world has provided. Bring competition, we are ready to fight everyone in the marketplace but do it on level terms, do it on terms that are fair to all. Spectrum is given in ration. I run 135 million customers here with such a small slice of spectrum and there are people who have similar spectrum with five million or two million customers. So, there is no equity in that. The second part is the charges of spectrum. There is a proposal to charge more from those who are established and are bigger players. Now, I can’t run with too much weight around my neck. And that’s precisely what the regulations are trying to do. The regulations are being geared towards hurting the large players but people who have got licences yesterday must pay nothing. I am happy if the country decides to have a punitive regime for telecom, but then let it be punitive for all.
Shekhar Gupta: How does the punitive regime work?
Sunil Mittal:Look at 3G for example. The price that we all are paying for 3G is atrociously high. This will
result in high broadband rates.
Shekhar Gupta: Extortionist?
Sunil Mittal:Yes, but you can’t blame the government. They are saying you guys bid for it. Now, our answer to it is when you create a scarcity and when you have 22 circles in India and the bidding keeps going until the last circle closes, you don’t have a choice. It is a defective proposition—you have only three slots, but 10 buyers. It is expensive, but it is equally punitive for all. If I have paid more, somebody else has also paid more. I will deal with that in the marketplace.
Shekhar Gupta: So, ultimately consumers will have to pay?
Sunil Mittal:There is no question. If India wants cheaper broadband, that opportunity has been bypassed. We will not have cheaper broadband.
Shekhar Gupta:I was going through our last conversation in Ludhiana when you said that telecom is now on autopilot, farming is the next frontier. Over the past three years, you have discovered two new frontiers in telecom—new technologies in India, sort of spectrum jump, and Africa. So, is farming sort of stalling a little bit?
Sunil Mittal:I would tend to concede that point. We still believe the operations of telecom are on autopilot, however, the regulations need to be dealt with. Suddenly, we are faced with a barrage of regulatory recommendations, which have, to my mind, the potential of crippling this industry. So, one has to be vigilant, agile and talk to the right people and highlight the inconsistencies. So, there is work to be done. On farming, I think things have not come out the way we thought they would. There is an absence of a cold chain, in fact, there is no cold chain.
Shekhar Gupta: Share with us some of your most difficult moments when you said “how could this happen”.
Sunil Mittal:I think if you look at the current recommendations (TRAI) on the table, should they get accepted, to my mind, we would have written off the chapter of telecom in India. So there is a frustration and there is a hope—that’s why I say I remain calm. At the end of the day, this country has a process that if somebody has a deep angst or frustration, it gets sorted out. Somebody will look into it. I still have hope that we have people who will look into it.
Shekhar Gupta: Do you see yourself as a collateral beneficiary of the brothers’ (Ambanis) patch up in Reliance?
Sunil Mittal:No.
Shekhar Gupta: Were you caught in the cross fire or did you suffer collateral damage?
Sunil Mittal:No, if you look at it, when we were in telecommunications, Reliance was launched and both the business sides of the family were together, then they went separate. One side had telecom and we competed with them. So, my view is that we will probably see Mukesh getting into telecommunications.
Shekhar Gupta: So, that’s more competition to look at?
Sunil Mittal:We should not worry about competition. We are a product of competition. All we are saying is that the rules of the game should be the same for everybody.
Shekhar Gupta: You have known both the Ambani brothers. What do you find interesting about each of them?
Sunil Mittal:Well, I would say both have their own unique ways of delivering stakeholder value and I think both have been successful in their businesses. I am not regularly in touch with them but I admire what Mukesh has done and his vision and what he wants to do internationally and his skills of execution are, I would say, unparalleled. The way he organised his telecom business was quite breathtaking.
Shekhar Gupta: One more thing we talked about last time was when I asked you that does public life figure somewhere in your plans and you explained the degree of difficulty. But, then when I said will you never do it, you said you never say never. Where has our thought process evolved since then because we have the example of Nandan Nilekani.
Sunil Mittal:I think Nandan is doing a brilliant job.
Shekhar Gupta: So, you think you can do something without necessarily being in politics?
Sunil Mittal:I think he (Nilekani) has shown a way for many of us who desire to be in public life and yet, have decided not to cross the line and be in full-time politics. I think if we are in business, we can’t cross that line. I am very clear we can’t straddle both sides. But I do a lot of stuff in public life through my participation in the Bharti Foundation, the Carnegie Endowment and I was a CII representative too.
Shekhar Gupta: You have learnt some lessons the hard way in dealing with the public life aspect of being in business or political life where even one casual statement can chase you for a long time. You know I am referring to that so called statement on Narendra Modi. Tell us more about that.
Sunil Mittal:All I will say is that I was there on behalf of CII and I had to talk about his administrative capabilities. The state’s economic activity was shaping up. As you know, it was an event where a lot of industrialists talk about their projects. So, I was talking about the administrative capabilities and the business opportunities that were available in Gujarat. It was nothing more, nothing less.
My only investment in Gujarat is what I do as a telecom company. I don’t have any investments there, any factories there. I was just a CII nominee talking about the economic environment in the state.
Shekhar Gupta: I think you’ll be doing a lot in Africa. All the best for your African journey.
Sunil Mittal: Thank you.
Transcribed by Abhineet Mishra
BRASIL:
EN BREF, CE 15 juin 2010 … AGNEWS / OMAR, BXL,15/06/2010
