[Uganda last night made a dramatic U-turn to recognise the National Transition Council as Libya’s genuine government hours after the country’s deposed leader, Muammar Gaddafi, was killed in Sirte ]
BURUNDI :
Burundi : le roi Ntare V sera dignement enterré en avril 2012
vendredi 21 octobre 2011/ Xinhua
(Xinhua) — Le dernier roi burundais Ntare V, tué le 29 avril 1972, sera dignement enterré le 29 avril 2012 à Gitega, au centre du Burundi, a annoncé jeudi le ministre burundais de la Jeunesse, des Sports et de la Culture, Jean Jacques Nyenimigabo, au cours d’une conférence de presse.
Intronisé le 1er septembre 1966, le règne de Ntare V a été interrompu par un coup d’Etat le 28 novembre 1966, qui a en même temps mis fin aux monarchies au Burundi alors qu’il était au Zaïre (actuelle RDCongo). Il s’est exilé pour l’Allemagne avant d’être amené en Ouganda par les services secrets ougandais et burundais.
Six ans plus tard, il a été rapatrié de force vers le Burundi et a été conduit vers le camp militaire de Gitega, où il a été tué le 29 avril 1972.
Son corps aurait été enterré dans une fosse commune.
Au cours de la conférence de presse, M. Nyenimigabo a fait savoir que deux experts de la police belge étaient présents au Burundi pour une mission destinée à “bien décerner l’endroit où a été enterré le roi Ntare V”.
Des analyses scientifiques à l’aide de l’ADN seront entreprises pour savoir que ce sont effectivement les restes du corps de Ntare V.
Le 29 avril 2012, des funérailles dignes seront organisées pour le dernier roi du Burundi, a expliqué M. Nyenimigabo
RWANDA :
Rwandan delegation meets industrialists
Express News Service , The New Indian Express/ ibnlive.in.com/ Oct 21, 2011
BANGALORE: Rwanda Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources Agnes M Kalibata led a delegation of 12� persons to the city to meet industry representatives and discuss� business opportunities in Rwanda.
“We will provide all support to Indian businesses wishing to enter Rwanda. To this effect, we will soon be introducing direct flights to our country from Mumbai,” said Kalibata. He underlined the importance of the roadshow and said that it was� directed at building direct business partnerships.
He brought a trade delegation comprising secretary to trade ministry Emmanuel Hategeka and chiefs of many private companies.
The country sought Indian investment in what was� claimed to be a $ 100 billion� market in Central/Eastern Africa. A seminar was followed by one-on-one business meetings with industrialists from the state.
The roadshow was jointly organised by Rwandan Development Board (RDB) and the Federation of Indian Micro and Small and Medium Enterprises. Rwandan High Commissioner Williams Nkurunziza and ceo of RDB Clare Akamanzi participated� in the seminar.
Rwanda tribunal calls for life sentence for former minister
(AFP) /21102011
ARUSHA, Tanzania — Prosecutors at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda called for a life sentence against the country’s former youth minister, on trial for genocide and crimes against humanity.
Prosecutor Paul Ng?arua called for the sentence against Callixte Nzabonimana on every count relating to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
Nzabonimana, a geologist trained at a French university, is accused of having conspired to planned, ordered and directed the slaughter of civilian Tutsis and to eliminate members of the opposition.
He also allegedly provoked and urged the people in several prefectures to exterminate Tutsi civilians and provided them with weapons.
Nzabonimana has denied all charges against him. He argued in court that he had taken refuge in the French embassy at the time of the genocide.
Prosecutors dismissed this defence, saying those being sheltered at the embassy were free to come and go as they pleased.
Final pleading is expected to be completed on Friday, when the judges will retire to consider their verdict.
Nzabonimana was arrested in Tanzania in February 2008 and his trial opened in November 2009.
Last month the tribunal jailed two former ministers for 30 years each over their part in the 1994 genocide, but acquitted two others because of a lack of evidence.
The ICTR, based in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha, was established in late 1994 to try the key perpetrators of the 1994 massacre which claimed some 800,000 lives, mainly minority Tutsis, in a span of 100 days.
RDC CONGO:
RDC : «Joseph KABILA», une caricature de chef d’Etat
20/10/2011 / KongoTimes!
«Joseph Kabila» devrait faire la lecture de l’Histoire immédiate pour comprendre qu’il vaut mieux partir avant qu’il ne soit trop tard.
«C’est un chef d’Etat ça ?». C’est la réaction dédaigneuse exprimée par de nombreux citoyens congolais après avoir visionné la conférence de presse animée mardi 18 octobre à Kinshasa par le président sortant «Joseph Kabila». L’homme est apparu, comme à son habitude, suffisant, arrogant et puéril. Il est apparu également déconnecté des réalités socio-politiques du pays qu’il dirige avec une ineptie rare depuis dix ans. Ne dit-on pas que le pouvoir rend fou? Ne dit-on pas que le pouvoir gâte les “petits” et améliore les “grands”?
Aveuglé par les coups d’encensoir des flagorneurs et autres pique-assiettes qui gravitent autour de lui, «Joseph» se prend pour un «homme providentiel». Il refuse de voir qu’il existe une grave crise de confiance entre lui et la population. Une population qui le considère comme un homme du passé. Cette population est décidée à ouvrir un nouveau chapitre de son Histoire.
Aveuglé par sa folie du pouvoir, «Joseph Kabila» se voit déjà en «vainqueur» de l’élection présidentielle prévue le 28 novembre prochain. L’homme se fie sans doute aux moyens d’Etat dont il dispose à sa guise pour dire “jy suis, j’y reste”. Quels sont ces moyens? Il y a : la Banque centrale, l’armée, la garde présidentielle, la police, les services de renseignements civils et militaires. Le président sortant a des «atouts» pour soudoyer ou pour intimider la population. Que pense-t-il de l’humeur du moment de la grande majorité des Congolais qui est au changement?
Comment peut-on être le chef d’un Etat tout en étant incapable d’assurer la défense du territoire national face à des milices et des bandes armées manipulées par des acteurs internes et externes? Comment peut-on avoir l’ambition de diriger un Etat tout en étant incapable de fournir à la population de son pays les conditions minimales de sécurité sur le territoire national? Comment peut-on diriger un Etat sans pouvoir fournir à la population de l’eau courante, de l’électricité, des soins de santé et une éducation de qualité? Comment peut-on enfin être fier de diriger un Etat alors que l’on a la conscience chargée de nombreuses exécutions extrajudiciaires?
En dépit de ce sombre tableau, “Joseph Kabila” se voit encore à la tête du Congo démocratique pour les cinq prochaines années. Comment ne pas voir dans cette ambition criminelle un défi lancé à la nation congolaise toute entière?
Les Congolais sont fatigués de vivre dans un Etat inefficace. Un Etat incapable de leur apporter des réponses concrètes à leurs attentes les plus élémentaires. Une chose paraît sûre aujourd’hui : le président sortant «Joseph Kabila» est plus que jamais à la tête d’une oligarchie politico-militaro-financière qui tente de prendre en otage le destin des 60 millions des Congolais.
«Joseph Kabila» devrait faire la lecture de l’Histoire immédiate pour comprendre qu’il vaut mieux partir avant qu’il ne soit trop tard. Il devrait se souvenir de cette confidence qu’il avait faite au journaliste François Soudan (voir La revue pour l’intelligence du monde n°3 de juillet-août 2006) : «J’ai appris trois choses de Mobutu. Un : laissez-vivre la démocratie, ne la brimez pas. Deux : ne croyez jamais, n’essayez jamais de croire que le pays vous appartient. Vous appartenez au pays et tout le reste appartient au peuple. Trois : sachez toujours quand il est temps de partir et de quitter le pouvoir.» Paroles à méditer. N’est-ce pas trop demander à un homme qui se prend pour un chef d’Etat alors qu’il n’est en réalité qu’une caricature de chef d’Etat?
Baudouin Amba Wetshi
RDC – Marche UDPS et Alliés: Diomi Ndongala arrêté, Martin Fayulu blessé par la Police
Publié par La Rédaction, /direct.cd/ le 20 octobre 2011
Pour la quatrième fois, l’opposition congolaise a été violemment réprimée par la police et empêchée d’accéder au centre-ville de Kinshasa. L’opposition dénonce de nombreux passages à tabac et des arrestations arbitraires. Eugène Diomi Ndongala, le président de la plateforme USA de l’opposition aurait été arrêté et Martin Fayulu de l’Ecidé et proche d’Etienne Tshisekedi aurait été blessé par la police.
Et de quatre. Comme maintenant tous les jeudis, l’opposition congolaise (UDPS et alliés) a souhaité manifester à Kinshasa pour demander des élections transparentes et l’accès aux serveur électoral de la Commission électorale nationale indépendante (CENI). Des élections générales doivent en effet se tenir le 28 novembre prochain en République démocratique du Congo (RDC). Ce jeudi, en fin de matinée, les militants de l’opposition ont été victimes une nouvelle fois de violences, de passages à tabac et arrestations arbitraire de la part de la police congolaise (PNC). Fortement déployée nombreux au centre ville de Kinshasa, la police a empêché l’afflux des manifestants en provenance des différents quartiers de la capitale de converger vers le centre-ville.
Dans un communiqué, l’opposition signal « plusieurs blessés ainsi que l’enlèvement par la police du Président de la plateforme politique USA, Union Sacrée pour l’Alternance, Eugène Diomi Ndongala, qui était en tête des manifestants. » L’opposition affirme également que Martin Fayulu, l’un des hommes fort de la campagne d’Etienne Tshisekedi aurait été agressé par la police congolaise et serait maintenant « en sécurité ».
L’opposition politique congolaise manifeste « son indignation » dans un communiqué et dénonce « la violation systématique des libertés publiques de la part des forces de l’ordre, lesquelles continuent à brutaliser sans raisons valables les manifestants de l’opposition qui réclament la tenue d’ élections libres, transparentes et démocratiques. »
Une question se pose : les manifestations d’opposants au président sont-elles interdites dans la capitale ? Officiellement non, selon les autorités congolaises. Mais sur le terrain, la police nationale réprime systématiquement le moindre rassemblement, empêchant donc toute manifestation… ce qui revient au même. La tension est donc encore montée d’un cran aujourd’hui à Kinshasa entre opposition et majorité, à seulement 1 mois des élections.
Christophe RIGAUD
PLus d’infos sur www.afrikarabia.com
France Télécom s’octroie 100% de Congo Chine Télécom
France Télécom a signé un accord avec la compagnie chinoise ZTE Corp pour la reprise de ses 51 % de Congo Chine Télécom moyennant la somme de 10 millions $.
D’autre part, un contrat d’achat d’actions a été conclu avec le gouvernement de la RDC : la compagnie française versera 7 millions de dollars à l’Etat congolais en échange de sa participation de 49% dans Congo Chine Télécom.
La RDC représente un marché très important avec un potentiel de croissance parmi les plus élevés d’Afrique. Seulement 17% des Congolais sont équipés de téléphone portable sur une population de 65 millions d’habitants.
Pour France Télécom, qui prévoit de doubler son chiffre d’affaires en Afrique et au Moyen-Orient d’ici 2015, « l’acquisition de CCT est une étape importante », selon la déclaration de son PDG Stéphane Richard.
Selon l’opérateur, le développement de CCT sera financé pour une part par des ressources internes, pour une autre part par des prêts externes restructurés et enfin par un apport de 185 millions de dollars libérés en plusieurs versements par France Télécom sous la forme d’augmentations de capital.
UGANDA :
Uganda: Ending the Lord’s Resistance Army – New Enough Paper
20 October 2011/ ENOUGH Project (Washington, DC)
press release
The Obama administration’s deployment of military advisers in operations aimed at ending the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is an important first step, but needs to be accompanied by broader actions by the U.S. and other countries to enhance the chances for success, according to a new Enough Project paper.
“President Obama should be lauded for deploying qualified military advisers to the region,” said John Prendergast, co-founder of the Enough Project and co-author of the report. “If his administration follows up on this deployment and is actively involved in the search for qualified special forces troops from a country with such personnel, and helps generate multilaterally the necessary logistical and intelligence support for those troops, the LRA’s days will be numbered.”
The deployment of capable special forces from an African or other nation, the expansion by the U.S. of intelligence capabilities in support of the mission, and the generation of further transport and other logistical support from European countries are crucial to ensuring that the deployment of American observers are not in vain and the nearly 25 year-old campaign of terror may finally come to an end.
“The advisors’ deployment is an important step but in itself will not be enough to end the LRA crisis and fulfill the congressional intent behind the widely-supported, bipartisan LRA legislation passed last May,” said Ashley Benner, a policy analyst at the Enough Project and co-author of the report. “Regional efforts to end the LRA are simply not working, due in large part to a lack of capable and committed forces deployed to LRA-affected areas and the necessary intelligence and logistical capabilities. To ensure that these critical gaps are addressed, a robust African-U.S.-European partnership is urgently needed.”
President Obama last year signed into law a bill that requires his administration to end the threat of the LRA, a rebel group originally from Uganda known for killing, mutilating, and abducting civilians in four central African nations during its predatory insurgency. Last November, the President released his strategy for dealing with the LRA, and last week the White House announced it is sending military advisors to advise and assist regional armies pursuing LRA senior commanders and protecting civilians.
“Without a surge of U.S. diplomacy and resources, and the involvement of additional partners in the search for Kony, the newly authorized A.U. mission will simply put a new hat on the same old efforts,” Benner said. “Rather than enhancing the existing military operations, the current plans are more concerned with continuing the status quo while attracting additional funding from governments via the African Union. The A.U. plans duplicate operational structures that do not work, while keeping the political and military command in the hands of the regional governments, particularly Kampala.”
The key elements of this partnership must be a new deployment of the most capable African special forces, a surge of U.S. intelligence support, and logistical support from European countries, according to the paper, and President Obama should directly reach out to African countries with the most capable special forces and to European partners to obtain additional logistical assistance.
The paper also recommends that operations to apprehend top LRA commanders be better integrated with efforts to protect civilians and demobilize rebel fighters.
“Continuing with the current approach, or pursuing half-way measures, will allow the LRA to keep destabilizing the region and devastating civilian populations for years to come,” said, Enough Executive Director John Bradshaw. “U.S. and international efforts to support stability in South Sudan and Congo could be undermined. And what President Obama has called a ‘unique crisis of conscience’ will continue to unfold on our watch.”
Enough is a project of the Center for American Progress to end genocide and crimes against humanity. Founded in 2007, the Enough Project focuses on crises in Sudan, eastern Congo, and areas of Africa affected by the Lord’s Resistance Army. Enough’s strategy papers and briefings provide sharp field analysis and targeted policy recommendations based on a “3P” crisis response strategy: promoting durable peace, providing civilian protection, and punishing perpetrators of atrocities. Enough works with concerned citizens, advocates, and policy makers to prevent, mitigate, and resolve these crises. For more information, please visit www.enoughproject.org.
Uganda opens arms to NTC after Gaddafi’s death
By Tabu Butagira /www.monitor.co.ug/Posted Friday, October 21 2011
Uganda last night made a dramatic U-turn to recognise the National Transition Council as Libya’s genuine government hours after the country’s deposed leader, Muammar Gaddafi, was killed in Sirte.
State Minister for International Affairs Henry Oryem-Okello said “the current position is that the AU recognised the NTC as the legitimate representative of the Libyan people following a statement issued by President Obiang Nguema on September 19”.
The Equatorial Guinea President is the present chairman of the continental body that steadfastly opposed foreign military intervention in support of local armed opposition fighters that toppled Gaddafi in August.
“Therefore Uganda’s position on NTC,” said Mr Oryem-Okello, “is within the context of the African Union position.”
This newspaper understands that AU Commission chairman, Mr Jean Ping, four days ago wrote to African governments, alerting them about President Nguema’ letter extending embrace to NTC it loathed.
In an apparent sign of lack of coordination within government, President Museveni’s deputy Principal Private Secretary Kintu Nyago separately said by telephone that Uganda’s opposition to the violent political change in Libya remained unchanged.
“This isn’t about Gaddafi because he had a government – people he was working with,” said Mr Nyago. As a result, he said, even if Gaddafi was killed, the official coterie he leaves behind must be absorbed in the new leadership to achieve meaningful peace.
Mr Nyago said like the AU demanded, Uganda would only recognise the NTC victory if its officials constitute an all-inclusive government, craft a new constitution and hold democratic elections.
“Those people (NTC forces) have no mandate; they came through Nato bombing,” Mr Nyago said, alluding to AU’s principle opposed to forcible change of governments on the continent.
Gaddafi was a father figure of sorts for AU, bankrolling about 30 per cent its budget. The slain leader’s sometimes abrasive and treacherous behaviour, including of supporting a coup in one member country and suffocating it in another, as well as a forcible decision to rush an AU one government with himself at the helm, strained his relations with many counterparts, among them President Museveni.
That notwithstanding, Kampala and AU stood with Gaddafi in his hour of need during Nato-bolstered armed insurrection, and Mr Museveni spearheaded an unsuccessful diplomatic charm to save the Libyan leader by presenting a case to Western leaders that the country’s political question should be resolved through dialogue. This, Mr Museveni argued, should be managed by Africans.
tbutagira@ug.nationmedia.com
Kenya, Uganda snared in battle for Africa
Published: Oct. 20, 2011/ UPI
NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct. 20 (UPI) — Five years after Ethiopia invaded Somalia, with U.S. backing, Kenya has sent its troops and tanks into its lawless neighbor with a similar objective: setting up a border buffer zone to block Somalia’s jihadists.
The Kenyans no doubt had the blessings of the U.S. administration of President Barack Obama as well, for helping the Pentagon fight global terror is the name of the game.
But so is securing the emerging energy boom in West and East Africa, along with other minerals in what is becoming a strategic contest between the United States and China, widely seen as the Americans’ paramount rival in the years ahead.
Africa’s exports of oil to the United States, largely from Nigeria and the dictator state of Equatorial Guinea, are roughly equal to those of the Middle East.
The Nairobi government’s mini-invasion of southern Somalia is aimed in part at curbing the anarchy there, which increasingly threatens to spread to Kenya and which has eluded the combined efforts of the Western powers.
Kenya can now look forward to U.S. largesse by actively helping the Americans contain, if not crush, Somalia’s jihadist al-Shabaab, linked to al-Qaida and deemed a direct threat to the United States by the administration.
In the meantime, Obama has sent a 100-man detachment of U.S. Special Forces to Uganda, supposedly to help the Kampala government, which has played a key role in propping up the shaky, Western-backed Transitional Federal Government installed in Mogadishu by the Ethiopians in 2006.
Since then, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has contributed several thousand troops to the heavily armed African Union “peacekeeping force” that keeps Somalia’s corruption-riddled TFG in place.
Sending elite troops to crush a brutal warlord, a murderous Christian crackpot named Joseph Kony who heads the Lord’s Resistance Army, which has plagued Museveni’s regime for a decade or more, may be an expression of the Pentagon’s gratitude.
By all accounts, the LRA is on the ropes, so the justification for U.S. military support seems rather odd.
But recent oil strikes in land-locked Uganda may have had a lot more to do with the decision to send in the forces, as would the creation of the Africa Command in 2007 to coordinate U.S. military operations across the continent.
A major oil strike was made around Lake Albert in western Uganda in 2006, and geologists say it contains at least 2 billion barrels.
Only 25 percent of the region, which includes the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has so far been explored, and some reports say there could be up to 6 billion barrels there.
Uganda expects to start producing an initial 200,000 barrels per day in early 2012.
“Among American interests are the increasing importance of Africa’s untapped natural resources, particularly energy resources and mounting concern over violent extremist activities especially in the Horn of Africa, and other potential threats by revolutionary parties and ‘under-governed spaces’ such as maritime piracy and the illicit trafficking of diamonds, gold and platinum,” observed political scientist Professor Naimah Achim Bucha of Kampala’s Makerere University.
“In disguise, there is concern for Africa’s many humanitarian crises, armed conflicts and more general challenges, such as the devastating effect of HIV/AIDS.
“This one in particular is used as a cover for U.S. (non-governmental organizations) to penetrate Africa and gain access to the all-important information that can facilitate U.S. access to natural resources,” Busha added.
“The truth is that Africom is there for the militarization of Africa and for the other purpose of elbowing out all U.S. competitors from the continent, China and Russia included.”
China is now Africa’s largest economic partner. Trade in 2010 totaled $114 billion, up from $10 billion in 2000.
The African Development Bank Group estimates that Chinese companies accounted for 40 percent of all corporate contracts in Africa signed in 2010. By comparison, U.S. firms managed 2 percent.
In September 2010, Ghana signed loan agreements with China for infrastructure and other projects worth $15 billion — just as the West African state began producing oil from a major new field.
In Angola, a key oil supplier for Beijing, Chinese banks extended loans and other financing totaling around $9 billion in 2010, the African Development Bank says.
The Americans are belatedly trying to catch up but the Chinese are years ahead of them
Uganda: ‘HIV/Aids Response Faltering’
David Mafabi/The Monitor/21 October 2011
Once touted as a success story in the fight against HIV/Aids, but recent evidence is shows that Uganda’s response to the scourge is faltering.
The executive director of National Community of Women living with HIV/Aids, Ms Florence Buluba, told celebrants marking the life of Philly Bongoley Lutaaya in Mbale on Wednesdday that although Uganda was a success story in the fight against HIV/Aids, it is faltering today.
Uganda brought down the HIV/Aids prevalence from 18 per cent in 1992 to the current 6.2 per cent. But today, an estimated 132,500 new infections is registered annually, with 25,000 of are being newborn babies.
Figures from Uganda Aids Commission show that in the last one year, 60,000 new cases were registered.
“Uganda is the only major recipient of Global Funds with raising cases of new infection, with an estimated 132,500 cases from 150,000 in 2007, 110,000 cases in 2008 and 124,000 in 2009,” Ms Buluba said.
She said Shs50 billion meant for HIV from the Global Fund is unutilised because of bureaucratic procurement process and implementation.
She also said evidence is clear that neighbours Kenya are ahead of us as a new model, adding that in Kenya, accelerated scale-up could reduce new infections by 31 per cent over five years.
The chairman of Uganda Aids Commission, Prof. Vinad Nantulya, said the commission is making changes on procurement process to ensure efficient release of ARVs for patients.
Dr Nantulya said the current reversal of Uganda’s success is being accompanied by complacency, urging better use of the ABC prevention strategy.
Ms Jane Tushabe, World Vision’s head of workplace policy on HIV/Aids, said besides the ABC strategy, Ugandans should include sex behaviour interventions and biomedical interventions such as male circumcision.
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