[La société américaine Pivotech va aider à la production de 25 mégawatts d’ici trois mois dans le cadre d’un contrat avec l’Etat burundais ]
BURUNDI :
Une société américaine pour résorber la crise énergétique au Burundi
PANA /3-10-2011
La société américaine Pivotech va aider à la production de 25 mégawatts d’ici trois mois dans le cadre d’un contrat avec l’Etat burundais pour résorber une crise énergétique sans précédent dans le pays, apprend-on de source officielle à Bujumbura.
Le pays vit depuis des mois au rythme de délestages qui respectent de plus en plus difficilement le calendrier initial d’une journée sans courant continu par quartiers entiers, tel que cela avait été décidé par la Régie de l’eau et d’électricité (REGIDESO) pour mieux gérer la pénurie.
Le bruit assourdissant de groupes électrogènes aux quatre coins de la ville de Bujumbura, poumon économique du pays, donne la mesure de cette crise énergétique sans précédent dans le pays.
Selon le ministre burundais de l’Energie et des Mines, Moïse Bucumi, un léger mieux pourrait intervenir d’ici trois mois à la faveur d’une récente signature d’un contrat avec la société américaine d’électricité Pivotech pour 25 mégawatts supplémentaires.
Dans l’état actuel des choses, les clients de la REGIDESO partagent 36 mégawatts qui suffiraient à peine à satisfaire les seuls besoins des ménages, indique-t-on dans les milieux d’affaires à Bujumbura.
L’exploitation des minerais, comme celui plus abondant et prometteur de nickel, pourrait porter les besoins énergétiques du pays jusqu’à 270 mégawatts, selon le ministère de l’Energie et des Mines.
RWANDA :
Le Tchad étudie l’offre du Rwanda de juger Habré, les victimes sceptiques
(AFP) – 03/10/2011
N’DJAMENA — Le Tchad, saisi par l’Union africaine, examine actuellement une proposition du Rwanda d’abriter le procès de l’ancien président tchadien Hissène Habré, une offre qui “n’enchante” pas les victimes qui craignent que la tenue du procès s’éloigne.
“Depuis le mois d’août nous avons reçu une correspondance de l’Union Africaine, dans laquelle, elle nous informait de la disponibilité du Rwanda d’accueillir sur son sol le procès de l’ancien président Hissène Habré” a indiqué lundi à l’AFP un haut fonctionnaire des Affaires étrangères sous le couvert de l’anonymat.
“Nous ne nous sommes pas prononcés sur cette correspondance que nous avons transmis au ministre de la Justice”, a ajouté la même source.
Le ministre de la Justice Abdoulaye Fadoul Sabre, qui a confirmé l’existence de la proposition rwandaise, a précisé: “l’option de juger Hissène Habré en Afrique nous avait séduit en son temps, maintenant il reste à discuter les modalités pratiques avant que le Tchad ne se prononce”.
“Le plus urgent pour nous c’est que le procès se tienne parce que les victimes sont en train de s’éteindre une à une. Nous nous sommes déjà prononcés en son temps pour que l’ancien président soit jugé en Belgique”, a-t-il souligné.
L’association des victimes de Hissène Habré s’est par contre montrée très sceptique: “c’est dilatoire, ça ne nous enchante pas cette nouvelle trouvaille de l’Union africaine”, a commenté Clément Abaïfouta, président de l’Association des victimes contre la répression politique au Tchad (AVCRP).
“Nous avons peur de que cette proposition de l’Union africaine ne nous traîne encore en longueur. La solution proche est là, tout est prêt pour que Habré soit jugé en Belgique”, a-t-il ajouté.
M. Habré, qui vit en exil à Dakar depuis sa chute en 1990 après huit ans au pouvoir, est accusé de crimes contre l’humanité, crimes de guerre et torture. Le Sénégal, qui avait accepté en 2006 de le juger à la demande de l’UA, n’a jamais organisé le procès.
Le 8 juillet, le gouvernement sénégalais avait annoncé qu’il allait expulser M. Habré au Tchad où il a été condamné à mort par contumace avant de revenir 48 heures plus tard sur sa décision, à la demande de l’ONU.
La Haut commissaire de l’ONU aux droits de l’homme, Navi Pillay, avait estimé que cette extradition pouvait être “une violation du droit international”, dans la mesure où l’ancien président risquait d’être “soumis à la torture” au Tchad.
Le ministère belge des Affaires étrangères avait proposé le 10 juillet qu’Habré soit extradé en Belgique. Le gouvernement tchadien avait demandé en juillet que l’option belge soit “privilégiée”.
Habré avait été renversé par l’actuel président tchadien Idriss Deby Itno qui, après avoir été un de ses proches était entré en rébellion avant de provoquer sa chute en 1990.
Rwanda : Les jours d’Eric Nshimyumuremyi en danger
4. oct | Par Irène Nyenyeli | jambonews.net
Le 15 septembre dernier, Eric Nshimyumuremyi, un jeune cadre du PS Imberakuri avait reçu une balle dans la poitrine. Aujourd’hui le PS Imberakuri, unique parti d’opposition reconnu à Kigali, tire la sonnette d’alarme dans une lettre adressée aux plus hautes autorités rwandaises. La police refuse tous soins au jeune homme malgré l’inquiétude croissante des médecins.
Alors qu’il rentrait chez lui après avoir assisté quelques heures auparavant en tant que spectateur à une audience du procès de Victoire Ingabire, Eric Nshimyumuremyi, représentant du PS dans le District de Kicukiro, avait survécu à une tentative d’assassinat par balle commise à son égard par les policiers de la brigade anti criminologie, au quartier Sodoma de Gikondo. Le jour même la police a refusé que l’ambulance qui était appelée à la rescousse lui apporte les premiers soins ou l’amène à l’hôpital. C’est seulement trois heures plus tard que, selon la lettre, la police décidait enfin de l’amener à l’hôpital CHUK où il a reçu comme seul traitement une perfusion de sérum physiologique. La jeune victime est depuis lors emprisonnée à l’hôpital de Kacyiru, où la police lui refuse tout traitement ainsi qu’une opération pour lui retirer la balle. Son parti écrit dans la lettre que les médecins n’ont pas caché leur inquiétude face à la situation clinique d’Eric : « si rien n’est fait au plus vite, il va vite succomber à ses blessures car il commence à pourrir de l’intérieur ».
Il est à noter que depuis la tentative d’assassinat, la police ne cesse de se contredire quant aux raisons de son acte jugé « malheureux et inacceptable » par la direction du parti d’opposition. Dès le lendemain de l’incident, le porte parole de la police, Théos Badege, affirmait que la police avait été alertée par la population de Gikondo qui soupçonnait Eric Nshimyumuremyi de détenir un objet dangereux. Arrivée sur la place la police aurait trouvé Eric Nshimyumuremyi en possession d’une arme avec une vingtaine de munitions. Depuis, toujours selon le contenu de la lettre, la police a fournit plusieurs motifs différents les uns plus farfelus que les autres : « on a trouvé sur lui sept armes à feu avec un sac plein d’argent » ; « pendant la fouille la balle l’a accidentellement blessé à la poitrine et que la police a trouvé sur lui un pistolet et 17 balles ».
La tentative d’assassinat d’Eric Nhimyumuremyi s’inscrit dans une liste noire d’intimidations, d’agressions, d’assassinats de membres des partis d’oppositions ou de toute personne critique face au régime de Kigali. A titre d’exemple il convient de citer notamment les cas d’Aimable SIBOMANA RUSANGWA enlevé le 13/06/2010 ou J.M.Vianney NSHIMIYIMANA (25/03/2010) tous deux portés disparus depuis lors; l’exécution d’André KAGWA RWISEREKA (13-14/07/2010) ou l’assassinat par balles du journaliste Jean Léonard RUGAMBAGE le 24/06/2010; sans oublier l’emprisonnement politique de plusieurs leaders de l’opposition ou journalistes comme c’est le cas de Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, présidente des FDU, Bernard Ntaganda, président du PS, Déo Mushayidi, président du PDP ainsi que de nombreux autres.
Irène Nyenyeli
Rwanda: Nigeria’s President Jonathan Expected Tomorrow
4 October 2011 / The Newtimes
President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan of Nigeria is expected in Kigali tomorrow for a two-day official visit.
He will hold talks with President Paul Kagame at Urugwiro Village on Thursday.
The two Heads of State will discuss strengthening links between Nigeria and Rwanda, as well as African and global issues and hold a joint press conference.
Rwanda and Nigeria enjoy good and established relations, reinforced by the opening of a Rwanda High Commission in Abuja earlier this year. Currently, 38 Nigerian health professionals are volunteering in Rwanda under the Nigeria Technical Aid Corps.
The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Rwanda and Nigeria are scheduled to discuss formalizing a framework for comprehensive bilateral cooperation
President Jonathan was last in Rwanda in September 2010 to attend the inauguration of President Kagame.
Rwanda: Govt-U.S. Investment Pact a Boost to Investor Confidence
4 October 2011 / The Newtimes
The US Senate, last week, approved a Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) with Rwanda, a deal which was first signed, in 2008, by President Paul Kagame and then US leader George W. Bush, during the latter’s visit to Kigali.
The Treaty – the first the US has signed with a sub-Saharan nation within the last decade – is anchored on the principles of open investment and trade policies in both countries, and seeks to bolster the links, especially through the private sector.
Under the BIT, the parties undertook to accord non-discriminatory and fair treatment to each other’s businesses, allow free transfer of investment funds, transparency, and to refer investments disputes to neutral, international panels.
The development comes in the wake of Rwanda’s impressive and widely acknowledged business reforms that have made the country an ideal investment destination.
The BIT resonates well with Rwanda’s ambitions to become a top regional investment and business hub, and will help build confidence among investors.
With the world staring at another potential crisis, owing to the current debt crisis in some of the major economies and a sluggish recovery from the 2008 recession, countries like Rwanda need to put more efforts in widening their export base, as well as attracting foreign investors.
With increased investments and export base, Rwanda will not only reduce reliance on foreign aid, but will also mobilise the necessary resources to help achieve development targets as stipulated in Vision 2020.
Rwanda: UN war crimes tribunal convicts two former government ministers
( 3 October 2011 – un.org ) Two former government ministers in Rwanda have been convicted by a United Nations war crimes tribunal and each sentenced to 30 years in prison for their roles in the genocide that engulfed the small African nation in 1994.
Justin Mugenzi, who served as commerce minister, and Prosper Mugiraneza, a former minister of civil service, were found guilty on Friday by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) of conspiracy to commit genocide and direct and public incitement to commit genocide.
But the ICTR, which is based in Arusha, Tanzania, acquitted two other former government ministers – Casimir Bizimungu and Jérôme-Clément Bicamumpaka – of similar charges and ordered their immediate release from jail.
The four ministers were part of an interim government that ran Rwanda in the wake of the death of then president Juvenal Habyarimana on 6 April 1994, an event which led to the start of the genocide. Over the next three months as many as 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed, often by machete and club.
During the trial, prosecutors said the ministers had made incendiary speeches calling for the killing of Tutsis and participated in key government decisions involving the genocide.
RDC CONGO:
Congo RDC: Etienne Tshisekedi pour un candidat unique de l’opposition
AFRIQUE CENTRALE – RD CONGO
Présidentielle 2012 RD Congo – ‘Ma victoire est une certitude’, affirme Etienne Tshisekedi, président de l’Union pour la démocratie et le progrès social (UDPS) entreprend une tournée en Europe et au Canada, dans le but de convaincre les chefs des partis congolais de l’opposition à la désignation d’un candidat unique de l’opposition face au président sortant, Joseph Kabila.
Dans une interview qu’il a accordée ce week-end au quotidien belge, ‘Le Soir’, le vieil opposant congolais, âgé de 79 ans , candidat à la présidentielle de novembre 2011, affirme avoir examiné, avec le président de l’Union des Forces du Changement (UFC), Leon Kengo Wa Dondo, aussi bien avec Jean-Pierre Bemba, président du Mouvement de libération du Congo (MLC), au centre pénitencier de la Cours pénale internationale (CPI) à La Haye (Pays-Bas), qu’avec Thomas Lubanga de l’UPC, la possibilité de présenter un candidat commun de l’opposition à la présidentielle.
Le Président de l’UDPS, qui s’engage à rendre ingouvernable la République démocratique du Congo, si Joseph Kabila tentait de se maintenir par la force, a également annoncé qu’il avait un rendez-vous à ce sujet, à Montréal (Canada), avec un autre candidat, Vital Kamerhe.
Il faut rappeler que, suite à un changement de la Constitution, le scrutin présidentiel congolais, prévu le 28 novembre 2011, comporte un seul tour.
Pana 04/10/2011
UGANDA :
Uganda’s Central Bank Boosts Key Interest Rate by 4 Points
By Fred Ojambo – Oct 4, 2011
Uganda’s central bank raised its benchmark interest rate by 4 percentage points after inflation surged to the highest level in more than 18 years and the shilling fell to a new low.
The central bank rate was increased to 20 percent, Bank of Uganda Governor Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile told reporters today in the capital, Kampala. The rate, introduced in July when it was set at 13 percent, was lifted by 1 percentage point in August and 2 percentage points in September.
Inflation accelerated to 28.3 percent last month from 21.4 percent in August as the worst regional drought in 60 years boosted food costs and a weaker shilling drove up import prices. The bank aims to bring the underlying inflation rate, which excludes food, energy and water, to 5 percent from 27.5 percent in August.
“This should be seen as a clear signal to bring inflation under control,” Tumusiime-Mutebile said. “However, should the upside risk to inflation continue in the months ahead, then monetary policy will be tightened further.
Higher interest rates may help to support the shilling, which plunged 19 percent against the dollar this year to an 18- year low and is the third-worst performer of 176 currencies tracked by Bloomberg.
Uganda, East Africa’s third-biggest economy and the continent’s second-largest coffee producer, is scheduled to become an oil producer next year when Tullow Oil Plc (TLW) begins pumping crude and gas from the Lake Albert Basin. The central bank expects the economy to expand 5 percent in the year through June 2012.
SOUTH AFRICA:
Dalai Lama Calls Off South Africa Visit
Published October 04, 2011 | Associated Press
The Dalai Lama has called off a visit to South Africa because he does not expect to get a visa, the Tibetan spiritual and political leader’s office said Tuesday.
In a statement from New Delhi, the Dalai Lama’s office said he had planned to leave his Indian exile home Thursday, but after failing to receive a visa this week he was “now convinced that for whatever reason or reasons, the South African government finds it inconvenient to issue” a visa.
South African foreign ministry officials had denied accusations they were bowing to pressure from China, which accuses the Dalai Lama of being a separatist. The Dalai Lama insists he is only seeking increased autonomy for Tibet, the homeland from which he has been exiled since 1959.
Fellow Nobel Peace Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu had invited the Dalai Lama to South Africa to celebrate his 80th birthday, and bitterly criticized the delay in the issuing of a visa.
Dumisa Ntesebeza, chairman of the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre, which had planned to host a speech by the Dalai Lama on Saturday, the day after Tutu’s birthday, said he could not immediately comment. The foreign ministry spokesman Clayson Monyela refused comment.
Rights groups, academics, opposition parties and newspapers in South Africa had pressed their government to grant the Dalai Lama a visa.
In a statement last week, Loyisa Nongxa, vice chancellor of Johannesburg’s University of the Witwatersrand, said that instead of trying to “silence” the Dalai Lama, South Africa should “welcome the opportunity and allow all voices to be heard in our democracy — a right for which we fought with our lives.”
The university had hoped to host the Dalai Lama for a second speech during his visit.
In an editorial this week, the Sunday Times of Johannesburg said: “The government has dithered for weeks over the Tibetan spiritual leader’s visa application, leading to suspicion that Pretoria has once again been put under immense pressure by China not to allow the Dalai Lama to visit.”
South Africa’s deputy president was on a state visit to China last month. China is a major trade partner for South Africa.
The Dalai Lama was welcomed to South Africa in 1996 and met with the country’s first black and democratically elected president, Nelson Mandela. But in 2009, the South African government kept the Dalai Lama from attending a Nobel laureates’ peace conference, saying it would detract attention from the 2010 soccer World Cup.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/10/04/dalai-lama-calls-off-south-africa-visit/#ixzz1Zh7tFtaw
TANZANIA:
Tanzania Shilling Slips for First Day in 3 as Banks Buy Dollars
By David Malingha Doya – Oct 4, 2011 / Bloomberg
Tanzania’s shilling depreciated for the first day in three against as banks bought the U.S. currency, anticipating demand for dollars will increase.
The currency of East Africa’s second-biggest economy lost 0.9 percent to 1,670 per dollar by 11:55 a.m in Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital.
“It is banks that are trading today mainly in anticipation of demand for the dollar coming through in a couple of days,” Zainul Chandoo, head treasurer at Stanbic Bank Tanzania Ltd., Standard Bank Group Ltd.’s local unit, said by phone from Dar es Salaam. “We expect demand for the dollar to come from oil, telecoms and power sectors.”
Tanzania’s inflation rate climbed to 14.1 percent in August on higher energy and food costs, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday.
KENYA:
Kenya says kidnapping provocation by al Shabaab
By Humphrey Malalo NAIROBI | Mon Oct 3, 2011
(Reuters) – Kenya said on Monday the weekend kidnapping of a French woman was a serious provocation by Somalia’s Islamist al Shabaab group which threatens the east African country’s multi-million dollar tourism industry.
Internal Security Minister George Saitoti also warned that those behind the kidnapping “and all others who are trying to provoke Kenya have made a big mistake and will live to regret it.”
In the second such kidnapping in recent weeks, gunmen stormed the private home of 66-year-old, wheelchair-bound Marie Dedieu on the northern coast island of Manda on Saturday.
They then grabbed and carried her to a waiting boat that crossed into Somalia, where the al Qaeda-allied rebels are in control of large swathes of the south and center.
Analysts and diplomats in the region had warned that Somali pirates were likely to turn to softer targets, such as tourists in Kenya, in response to more robust defense of merchant vessels by private security guards.
Early last month, gunmen attacked British tourists at a camp resort a short speedboat ride away from northern Kenya’s Lamu archipelago, killing a man and kidnapping his wife.
Last week, fighting also erupted on the Somali-Kenyan border, raising pressure on Kenya’s authorities to beef up their defenses against cross-border and sea-based attacks which threaten to hit a tourism industry that earned 74 billion shillings ($737 million) in 2010.
“This is a serious provocation on Kenya’s territorial integrity by the al-Shabaab with negative effects on the tourism industry and generally also on our own investment,” Saitoti told reporters.
“SPEEDBOATS DISABLED”
Saitoti announced increased security measures near Lamu, an island resort town which is about 100 kilometers from the Somali border, including 24-hour aerial surveillance and the deployment of additional navy vessels.
“All entry and departures by boats will be regulated through a common security point,” he said, adding that any speedboats defying orders to stop would be “disabled,” without elaborating on the measures.
Hotel operators fear tourists may cancel their bookings due to governments’ travel warnings, threatening a sector which is a leading foreign exchange earner and employs many Kenyans.
About a 100 people took to the streets of Lamu to protest against the government’s lax security measures and called for greater cooperation with British and French security forces to prevent a repeat of the kidnappings.
“Kenyan police should employ us locals to patrol the water because we can swim and we know the area,” said Pius Ndung’a, a construction worker who joined the protest in Lamu.
Dedieu’s kidnappers escaped with their hostage after a maritime gun battle with Kenyan security forces, in which Saitoti said two kidnappers had been shot dead.
“The disabled French woman is here and she is very fine, we are keeping her between lower Juba and middle, we are not al Shabaab and we are looking for ransom money,” a former al Shabaab fighter who operates with a pirate group in the southern port town of Kismayu told Reuters.
“We have not agreed how much yet. Some of us are waiting to take her in to a different zone,” he said. Reuters could not independently verify his account.
HOSTAGE “VERY SICK”
Film director Elie Chouraqui, who owns a house near Dedieu, appealed for her friend’s release.
“The kidnappers must understand that she is very sick and needs urgent help,” Chouraqui was quoted in Le Parisien newspaper as saying.
The protesters slammed the government for failing to provide adequate resources to the local navy base.
“It is unbelievable that we have the Kenyan navy base here and yet we don’t even have a boat. We want the Kenyan government and international governments to protect us more,” hotel-owner Muhidin Athman said as he marched by the port.
The demonstrators also urged French and British tourists not to shun the palm-fringed archipelago, despite travel warnings by both governments who have asked their citizens to avoid all but essential travel within 150 km (90 miles) of the Somali border.
“We love France. We love Britain. We want them to stay,” one placard held aloft by a protester said.
France already has eight hostages held overseas, including one in Somalia who is a member of France’s secret service.
On Monday, beaches in the area were empty with one boatman saying he had not ferried any tourists for the last five days.
During a typical high season which runs through October, the white-sand beaches are dotted with tourists who water-ski, snorkel and fish in the turquoise waters and others who stroll along the shore enjoying the Indian Ocean sun. ($1 = 100.400 Kenyan Shillings)
(Additional reporting by Flora Bagenal in Lamu and John Irish in Paris; Writing by Yara Bayoumy)
EN BREF, ce 04 Octobre 2011… AGNEWS/DAM,NY,04/10/2011
