{jcomments on}OMAR, AGNEWS, BXL, le 10 juin 2010 – The Sudanese ambassador to South Africa criticized the government there for consistently reiterating their adherence to their international obligations and intention to arrest president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir who faces an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
BURUNDI :
UN – Secretary-General Praises Burundi’s Important Progress in Consolidating Peace; Says United Nations Will Be ‘Close Partner’ in Facing Future Challenges
www.isria.com/10_June_2010
Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moons remarks to national actors, delivered in French, in Bujumbura, Burundi, 9 June:
It is wonderful to be visiting Africa at this time…
When all eyes are on the continent for its hosting of the World Cup…
When so many African countries are celebrating half a century of independence, as you will in two years…
And when Burundi itself has made such important progress in consolidating peace.
I would like to congratulate you on your achievements to date.
Above all, they are the product of your efforts — nationally led, driven by a genuine desire for a definitive break with a turbulent past and for peace in what has been an unstable region. I would like to pay a special tribute to the strong role Burundi’s women have played in this process — and I am glad to see women’s groups among the actors here today.
But these results would not have been possible without a sustained and effective partnership between Burundi, regional actors, the United Nations and the international community.
This is the first time in your country’s history that democratically elected institutions will have completed their full term of office. That simple fact demonstrates how far the country has travelled, and how far it has had to travel.
These efforts culminated in the recent communal elections — the first round of the second peaceful and democratic polls this country has known. I commend all involved: Burundi’s parties, and the country’s people.
It is the responsibility of all Burundians to ensure that the electoral process remains free, fair, transparent and inclusive. I congratulate you all on your important contribution to the conduct of the elections — and strongly encourage you to resolve any disputes through established legal mechanisms.
I understand that some political parties may boycott the presidential polls scheduled for 28 June. I must underscore the importance of an inclusive process — and of accepting the democratic will of the people as expressed through that process.
Burundi is at a crossroads.
It faces significant challenges in key sectors.
Recovery. Reconciliation. Reform. Economic development. An end to impunity. Successful elections that make possible a transition from one democratically elected administration to another.
The population yearns for these vital peace dividends.
Achieving them requires sacrifice and a spirit of compromise from all Burundians.
Let us work together to achieve them — and let us make them irreversible.
Ladies and Gentleman,
I have also been pleased to note that even as you have focused on your national efforts, you are also doing your part for international peace and security through Burundi’s contribution to the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and other peacekeeping missions in Africa. I would like to express my deep condolences to the families of soldiers who have paid the ultimate price while working to bring peace to Somalia.
Thank you again for your support.
The United Nations has had a long and important presence in this country. Burundi figures prominently at the United Nations, on the agenda of the Peacebuilding Commission, of the Security Council, and in the hearts and minds of my senior officials.
Just as we will continue to be your good and close partner, I encourage you to pursue even closer partnerships with each other, and really engage with each other, for the sake of your country’s future.
Thank you.
Human rights groups sue for credibility in Burundi electoral process
Pana/ 09/06/2010
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania – Two human rights organisations Wednesday called on all political actors in Burundi to make every effort to ensure the credibility of the electoral process, which is crucial for maintaining peace and strengthening the rule of law in the central-east African country.
The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and its member organisation in Burundi, the Ligue ITEKA, said, in addition, that they deeply regretted the events that surrounded and followed the local elections of 24 May 2010.
Local elections, the first of five polls scheduled this year in Burundi, were regarded as a test for the proper conduct of the entire electoral process.
‘If no major security incident has been deplored the day of the election, some irregularities have surrounded the process — non-compliance with opening and closing hours in some polling stations, vote buying, ballots not put in envelopes, no double counting of votes, wearing of distinctive signs of political parties, intimidation of voters, polling booths without warranty of secret ballot, [among others],’ the two bodies said in a statement issued by the FIDH.
If the ‘massive’ nature of these irregularities, advanced by the main opposition parties, has yet to be refuted or not by the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI), the latter must play its full role in appeasing all the actors and use all lawful means at its disposal to ensure the continuation of a regular process, they said.
FIDH and ITEKA expressed concern about the acts of violence which occurred in some localities during the campaign and after the announcement of the first provisional results.
During the campaign, the human rights bodies cited, among others, the assassination of a member from MSD party in the urban commune of Nyakabiga by men in uniform.
Also, on 28 May 2010, the vice chairman of the party-Zigamibanga UPD was the victim of a grenade attack in Buhinyuza, Muyinga Province, North of Bujumbura. He died from his injuries.
On 29 May, clashes erupted in Kinama district, north of Bujumbura, between police forces and activists from opposition parties following the discovery of a vase containing, according to the latter, ‘not counted ballots’. The clashes led to the arrest and detention of several opposition members.
These acts of violence, the rights groups warned, were signs of an obvious tension which, combined with the current political crisis following the withdrawal of six out of the seven candidates for the presidential election scheduled for 28 June, may strongly affect the credibility of the entire electoral process.
‘As demonstrated in our report published on the eve of the first ballot, the proper conduct of these elections, expected by all Burundian citizens, is crucial for maintaining peace and strengthening the rule of law in this country,’ said FIDH vice president Dismas Kitenge.
‘The Burundian political class as a whole but also the international actors involved in this process should make every effort to ensure the credibility of all the polls,’ he added.
Dar es Salaam
RWANDA
Kagame And A Tale Of Two Rwandas
By Nii Akuetteh /blackstarnews.com/June 10, 2010
[Global: Rwanda]
Last week, former President Clinton published a glowing essay that held up post-genocide Rwanda as an example for America and the world.
Here is an early quote: “But none of us have to win at someone else’s expense. The best example of this on earth that I have encountered is in Rwanda, where I do a lot of work. They’re the most amazing people I ever saw.”
Days earlier, I had written something quite different.
Reacting to a tendentious essay by a Kigali-based American reporter, my annoyed rebuttal did upset many self-identified Rwandans.
First, I argued that Rwanda’s post-genocide leadership is getting away with murder. Among other misdeeds, it was strangling democracy, especially free speech, the rule of law and free and fair elections.
This is a sample: “[R]ight now Kagame’s regime is shutting down newspapers, is kidnapping the homeless and is demonizing and pronouncing Ms. Ingabire guilty–before her sham trial even begins. And hours ago in Rwanda, Kagame arrested eminent American law professor, Peter Erlinder, who is defending Ms. Ingabire.”
Additionally, I pointed out that Rwanda’s strongman is being coddled by three groups of American enablers—-by government policy makers; by business leaders and other influential individuals outside the administration; and worse of all, by American reporters acting like praise-singers.
This was my bottom line: “All this reeks because it continues a tradition of Western elites telling Africans to be happy living under dictatorships that those elites would not tolerate in their own countries for a single day.”
My opinion of what should be done remains unchanged: True friends of Rwanda and Africa must tell the American people the truth–Washington is in bed with a repressive regime in Kigali. Once truth confronts falsehood, American politicians and bureaucrats will quickly put pressure on Rwanda’s leaders to change course.
Washington has more than sufficient leverage to do this because each year it sends millions of American tax dollars to Kigali.
The gushing conduits that flood Rwanda with American military and development aid include: the Africa Command, AFRICOM; Africa Contingency Training and Assistance, ACOTA; the Millennium Challenge Corporation, MCC; the Agency for International Development, USAID; the National Endowment for Democracy, NED; and the National Democratic Institute, NDI.
The State Department’s website states the truth succinctly, “Overall U.S. foreign assistance to Rwanda has increased four-fold over the past four years.” Specifically, the US has given Rwanda more than one billion dollars –$1,034,000,000 to be precise– since 2000. And in the current fiscal year, President Obama proposes to give $240 million more.
Given the starkly different attitudes in our essays, some superficial readers have assumed that I must disagree vehemently with former President Bill Clinton. But I do not.
To the contrary, I agree 100% with Mr. Clinton. I am elated. Being an African immigrant long sick and tired of the media’s relentless negative stereotyping of Africa and Black people, I find it refreshing and wonderful that an American world leader of Mr. Clinton’s stature is holding up an African example for the world to emulate. It is about time.
Far from being unhappy, I gladly urge President Clinton to do more; to go further.
His essay praises a people, while mine lambastes a dictatorship. That is the simple explanation why my sharp criticism does not clash with Mr. Clinton’s praise.
The government I am unhappy with is President Paul Kagame’s. Its specific activities I condemn fall into three categories. There is its severe abuse of democratic principles and rights at home. I am terrified while Kigali has made commendable improvements, its iron-fisted rule is building an explosive time bomb–in a country whose leaders should know better because it has already been traumatized by a very recent genocide.
Next is Mr. Kagame’s invasions of the Congo and operation there of proxy militias. And then there is the plunder of the Congo’s resources, including conflict minerals.
President Kagame’s invasion, rent-seeking and plunder make him the leading figure among the many responsible for the Eastern Congo’s unspeakable catastrophe. We are talking about widespread, brutal rapes, mutilations, massive population displacement, and over 6 million deaths.
Lest we forget, these cross-border atrocities violate international law.
For us Africans, they are more–the singular, scary nightmare we have been desperately battling to prevent for over half a century since independence.
Reflect on why. With a few exceptions that prove the rule, every African country is a salad bowl of ethnicities, cultures, languages and other competing identities that are easily politicized and manipulated. Consequently friction and grievances abound. And our boundaries, carelessly drawn by rapacious, racist plunderers, are a mess. The only thing worse is violating or violently redrawing them.
Hence, Africans are very alarmed by Mr. Kagame’s invasions Congo and his manipulation of the Tutsi communities in both countries. His actions recall the late Siyaad Barre of Somalia, another US-backed dictator whose irredentist Ogaden wars bear much responsibility for today’s deadly situation in the Horn of Africa.
This is why even though Mr. Kagame may be loved and lionized in Washington, London and Paris, across Africa he worries us.
And it is why millions of Rwanda’s African sisters and brothers like me say: Yes, the Rwandan genocide did occur. It did kill over almost a million Africans—Rwandans to be precise. We share the pain and feel bottomless sympathy. However, that trauma can never justify violent predation that has already killed more than six million additional Africans—Congolese to be precise.
And Africans have a final question–for Mr. Kagame’s Western admirers and enablers: What do you say about his causal role in mass death and suffering in the Eastern Congo?
In contrast to my essay, Mr. Clinton’s focuses on regular people. It tells the amazing stories of four typical Rwandans, all but one of whom remain nameless in Mr. Clinton’s telling. Like Mr. Nelson Mandela, the two female and two male Rwandans are doing the impossible–forgiving, putting the nightmarish past behind them, and looking to and building the better future.
I too consider their example the best of Africa and want it lauded and copied. To repeat then: I completely agree with President Clinton’s praise of post-genocide Rwanda’s people. A people this forgiving, this resilient, this admirable deserve the very best governance—meaning democracy.
That is why President Clinton has a sacred obligation, in my opinion. He needs to use his incomparable influence to persuade Rwanda’s government to make big changes both domestically and externally. Domestically, Kigali must embark on
real democracy, including adhering to universal standards in the rule of law, in free speech and in free and fair elections.
And Mr. Clinton must persuade Kigali to rein in its army and militias in the Congo, to end the plunder, to make amends, and to respect the full sovereignty of the Congo and other neighbors.
Admittedly, these are gigantic tasks and processes that will take years. But precisely because they are thousand-mile journeys, they must start immediately with a vital first step: American law professor and defense attorney Peter Erlinder must be freed.
So, over to you, Mr. President: Please repeat your uplifting North Korea rescue saga. Bring fellow attorney Peter Erlinder home from his Kigali dungeon.
Nii Akuetteh, former executive director of www.africaaction.org and adjunct professor at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, is a member of the Scholars’ Council at www.transafricaforum.org and founder of the Democracy and Conflict Research Institute in Accra, Ghana, and the Open Society Initiative for West Africa www.osiwa.org
Rwanda: Public Reacts to Anti-Smoking Bill
Charles Kwizera/The New Times/allafrica.com/10 June 2010
Kigali — The Minister of Health, Dr. Richard Sezibera on Monday, tabled before members of the Lower Chamber of Parliament a bill that will restrict smoking in public places.
The bill lists offices and office buildings, court premises, factories, cinema halls, theatres, video houses when they are open to the public; hospitals, clinics and other health institutions, restaurants, hotels, bars or other eating places as areas among which smoking should be restricted.
Several other restricted places are children’s homes, premises with commercial childcare activities, schools, places of worship, prisons, police stations and cells.
The draft law however indicates that the manager or owner of any enclosed public place and other restricted premises may provide smoking areas within such a place provided they do not inconvenience non-smokers.
The New Times set out to find out what the public thinks about the bill and compiled the following views. According to Jackson Karangwa a trader, the bill is all he has been waiting for and that he is looking forward to see it being passed.
“It’s true that a person chooses how to live, but it’s not right when this person decides to make others uncomfortable so, to me parliament should go on and pass the bill to save us from public smokers,” said Karangwa.
“People who smoke in public are an inconvenience, I don’t think its right for a person to stand in a public place and start smoking without caring about the health of those who don’t smoke. I think the bill should be passed,” said Godfrey Rukundo, driver.
“I don’t smoke, but I equally don’t have any problem with smokers. So it’s up to the lawmakers to see what is good for the public, and the effects the ban could inflict on the country in terms of taxes from the tobacco trade,” John Kamari, a businessman, said.
“I have complained about people who smoke in public almost my entire life. Apart from the smoke suffocating me, I know that it is dangerous to my health, which makes me support that bill,” said Helen Kayitesi, a shop attendant in Remera.
“To me, if the bill went ahead and got passed, it would be some kind of denial of human rights. You can’t expect me to rush off to a designated area to smoke, what if there is no designated smoking place nearby? I think it is just not right,” said one Richard Mugabo a waiter.
“I wouldn’t care about whatever decision they made concerning smoking in public because even though I smoke, I don’t support smoking around a crowd because it is generally not good,” Jean Paul Hareramungu a student at ULK.
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Sharon Haba, supported the bill and said that it would reduce the number of school-going children who smoke.
Research results, carried out in Rwanda show that 58.9 percent start smoking between the age of 11 and 15.
“When young school-going children see people smoke in public, they think it is fashionable, hence copying it.
So I think the bill will be helpful in that context,” said Haba
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) report, the global population of smokers is in the range of about 1.1 billion, with 800 million, an equivalent of 80 percent, live in less developed countries.
UGANDA
Uganda Opposition Leader Questions Credibility of 2011 Vote
Peter Clottey /www1.voanews.com/ 10 June 2010
The leader of Uganda’s main opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party said failure of the electoral commission to organize a credible presidential election next year could plunge the country into chaos.
Dr. Kizza Besigye said his party will not participate in fraudulent elections.
“Of course, it’s the last thing we want to have. We don’t want to have chaos at all, now or after (elections). But, once you don’t have credible elections, normally, the outcome is that you will have chaos, once you have disputed elections. And, it has been witnessed in many countries,” he said.
Kizza Besigye, a former ally of incumbent President Yoweri Museveni, resigned from the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party in 2001 to form the FDC party establishing himself as Uganda’s main opposition leader.
Besigye said Uganda has a history of fraudulent elections that have led to violence.
“Indeed, this government of NRM is a result of chaos that resulted after rigged elections of 1980 in our country. President Museveni contested the outcome and went to the bush to fight, and that war which lasted five years, consumed more than more than half a million Ugandans who died out of the violence arising out of (the) rigged elections of 1980,” Besigye said.
Opposition groups have often rejected previous election results saying the electoral commission is biased towards President Museveni’s NRM party – a charge supporters of the ruling party sharply deny.
But, Besigye said a court ruled that Uganda’s last election was not credible.
“The last two elections were petitioned in the Supreme Court of Uganda. And there is a finding, a unanimous finding, of the Supreme Court that those elections were not free and fair, that the electoral commission which organized them was incompetent and biased (towards NRM). Now, these are grave findings by a Supreme Court of the country,” Besigye said.
He also expressed concern that the re-appointment of the same members of the electoral commission that organized the previous two elections will undermine the credibility of the 2011 vote.
But, supporters of the ruling party rejected the accusation as without merit and urged the opposition leader to channel his energy into campaigning ahead of the election.
President Museveni, who has been in power since 1986, is likely to run for a fourth term after amending the constitution that removed term limits. He is heavily favored to win the election despite a stiff opposition challenge.
Opposition leader Besigye is also calling for the current electoral commission to be reconstituted to ensure a credible vote in 2011.
TANZANIA:
CONGO RDC :
Former US envoy to head UN’s DRC peace mission
Thu Jun 10, 2010/Reuters
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United Nations on Wednesday named two new special envoys to African countries; a former U.S. diplomat to serve in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a Tanzanian ambassador to focus on Somalia.
Roger Meece, who was U.S. ambassador to the DRC from 2004-07, will take charge of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the central African nation, which at a current strength of 20,500 is the largest blue-helmet force anywhere in the world.
The mission, which first deployed in 2004 after a civil war and has faced continued conflicts between the Congolese army and rebel groups, including rampant violence against civilians, has an uncertain future.
DRC President Joseph Kabila wants the force out by the end of next year, saying it is no longer needed. The U.N. Security Council agreed last month to an immediate cut of up to 2,000 troops but has made no further commitments.
Meece succeeds Alan Doss of Britain, who had held the post since 2007. Last year, the U.N. opened an inquiry into the hiring of Doss’s daughter by the U.N. Development Program after an Italian passed over for the job alleged Doss helped her get it. The investigation’s results have not been made public.
Augustine Mahiga, who has been Tanzania’s ambassador to the United Nations since 2003, was named as head of the U.N. Political Office for Somalia, which is based in Nairobi.
The U.N. has been resisting pressure from Africa to deploy a peacekeeping force to Somalia and to move part of the Nairobi-based office to the conflict-torn Horn of Africa country. At present, an African Union force is struggling to defend the Somali government against Islamist insurgents.
Mahiga will replace Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah of Mauritania, who has held the job since 2007.
KENYA :
In Kenya, a Cheerful Biden Gamely Fills in for His Boss
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN/ www.nytimes.com/June 10, 2010
NAIROBI, Kenya — Standing before an auditorium packed with Kenyan students on Wednesday, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. knew full well that he was a somewhat disappointing understudy for President Obama, whose father was Kenyan and who has reached near deity status here with his visage plastered to billboards, minibuses, shawls, dresses and the like.
“Hello, my name is Joe Biden,” he offered as an opening line. “I work for Barack Obama.”
The audience laughed.
Mr. Biden, who has spent two days in Kenya en route to the opening of the World Cup in South Africa this week, went on to present a balance sheet of Kenya’s attributes — and its problems.
Sticking to a familiar script and hitting many of the same notes that Mr. Obama himself has hit, he praised Kenyans for building the “largest non-oil, non-mineral based economy in sub-Saharan Africa.”
He also talked glowingly about Kenya’s “human capital” and its commitment to education.
But he was not shy about Kenya’s lackluster leadership and said that “too many times, Kenya has been divided against itself, torn apart by ethnic tensions, manipulated by leaders who place their own interests above the interests of their country.”
And he warned against succumbing to fear.
“As you prepare to write a new history for your nation,” he said, referring to Kenya’s coming referendum on a new constitution, “resist those who try to divide you based on ethnicity or religion or region and above all, fear. Fear is a tool as old as mankind, and it’s been used with great effect in this country.”
His 25-minute pep talk may not have lived up to the “major speech” that Mr. Biden promised on Tuesday that he was going to deliver, but no matter what he said, he was likely to be seen as a poor stand-in for his boss.
“In Kenya, in particular, Mr. Biden will find that he is no substitute for Obama,” Macharia Gaitho, a Kenyan columnist, wrote on Tuesday. “If anything, his visit will be a painful reminder that ‘our’ president in the diaspora still cannot find the time to pay a visit ‘home.’ ”
Still, Mr. Biden’s weeklong swing through Africa will not be cheap. Among other things, the United States government flew his motorcade from Washington to Nairobi, a distance of about 7,500 miles.
He walked a fine line on some of the most contentious issues in Kenya today. For instance, he was unequivocal that he supported constitutional reform, but told the students that “this is your decision, your decision alone.”
His words may have been carefully chosen in response to a pending investigation of the Obama administration’s activities surrounding the Kenyan referendum. A group of Republican members of Congress say that the proposed constitution makes it easier to get an abortion (it is currently illegal in Kenya) and that the American Embassy here has openly supported the campaign to pass the constitution.
That, they argue, amounts to a violation of a federal rule prohibiting foreign aid from being used to lobby for or against abortion. American diplomats in Nairobi said a team of federal investigators had recently arrived to investigate the matter.
ANGOLA :
SOUTH AFRICA:
Life Healthcare, Massmart, MTN: South African Equity Preview
June 10, 2010/By Janice Kew/Bloomberg
June 10 (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 rose for the first time in six days, snapping the longest losing streak in a month. The measure climbed 631.15, or 2.4 percent, to 26,650.86.
Hospitality Property Fund Ltd. (HPA SJ): The investor in hotels and resorts said it’s in advanced talks to buy the Westin Grand Hotel and the Arabella Western Cape Hotel & Spa and golf course, both in the Western Cape. Hospitality slid 2 cents, or 0.2 percent, to 13 rand.
Life Healthcare Group Holdings Ltd. (LHC SJ): The hospital owner, which last week completed South Africa’s biggest initial public offering, starts trading in Johannesburg. The stock was sold at 13.50 rand apiece in the IPO.
Massmart Holdings Ltd. (MSM SJ): The country’s biggest food and general-goods wholesaler and Truworths International Ltd. (TRU SJ), South Africa’s largest clothing retailer by market value, will join the FTSE/JSE Africa Top40 Index, a measure of the largest companies by market value traded in Johannesburg, from June 21. This may cause investment funds that track market benchmarks to buy the stocks.
Liberty Holdings Ltd. (LBH SJ) and Pretoria Portland Cement Co. (PPC SJ), Africa’s largest producer of the building material, will be dropped from the measure. The bourse requires any stock that falls below 45th place in the index, in terms of market value, to automatically fall out.
Massmart rose 4.30 rand, or 3.8 percent, to 118.99 rand. Truworths added 53 cents, or 1 percent, to 53.03 rand. Liberty climbed 1.70 rand, or 2.5 percent, to 70.20 rand. PPC increased 32 cents, or 1 percent, to 31.37 rand.
MTN Group Ltd. (MTN SJ): Africa’s largest mobile-phone company ended talks with Weather Investments S.p.A about acquiring assets of Orascom Telecom Holding SAE. MTN rallied 3.18 rand, or 3.2 percent, to 101.40 rand.
Universal Industries Corp. (UNI SJ): The supplier of ovens and fridges will buy BCE Foodservice Equipment (Pty) Ltd. for a maximum of 224.6 million rand ($29 million). Universal was unchanged at 1.20 rand.
Shares or American depositary receipts of the following South African companies closed as follows:
Anglo American Plc (AAUKY US) rose 0.2 percent to $17.98. AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (AU US) fell 0.1 percent to $42.11. BHP Billiton Plc (BBL US) slid 0.4 percent to $51.68. DRDGold Ltd. (DROOY US) dropped 0.9 percent to $4.28. Gold Fields Ltd. (GFI US) fell 0.6 percent to $13.43. Harmony Gold Mining Co. (HMY US) was unchanged at $9.77. Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. (IMPUY US) was little changed at $23.49. Sappi Ltd. (SPP US) fell 1.6 percent to $3.70. Sasol Ltd. (SSL US) declined 0.7 percent to $35.01.
–With assistance from Carli Lourens in Johannesburg. Editors: Glenn J. Kalinoski, Paul Richardson.
AFRICA / AU :
Sudan tells South Africa to stop ’cheap propaganda’
Thursday 10 June 2010 /www.sudantribune.com
June 8, 2010 (WASHINGTON) — The Sudanese ambassador to South Africa criticized the government there for consistently reiterating their adherence to their international obligations and intention to arrest president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir who faces an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Bashir stand accused of masterminding a campaign of mass murder, torture and rape in Sudan’s Western region of Darfur that has been in a constant state of instability over the last seven years.
Last month South Africa’s president Jacob Zuma suggested that despite an invitation extended by his country to Bashir along with other African leaders to attend the FIFA World Cup Finals, he is subject to arrest if he sets foot in the country.
The Sudanese foreign ministry issued a statement afterwards saying Zuma was misrepresented by the media “to serve an agenda” and that his position is no different from that of the African Union (AU) which calls for a moratorium on ICC proceedings, as it would leads to a continued deterioration of the situation.
However, on the same day the South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Maite Nkoana-Mashabane issued a statement reaffirming that “Zuma’s pronouncement that if the Sudanese President was to visit the country, he will be arrested as South Africa was a signatory to the international justice system”.
On Tuesday the Sudanese envoy in Johannesburg Ali Yousuf Ahmed Al-Sharif made speaking at the Institute for Global Dialogue and the Africa Institute of South Africa said his government “respect the fact that South Africa is a member of the ICC”
“I don’t think it’s correct to say, ’If the president of Sudan comes to South Africa, we will arrest him.’ It looks like cheap propaganda” Al-Sharif was quoted as saying by Pretoria News.
“The president will not come to South Africa without an invitation. He is not a tourist. He is a president” he added.
Bashir was reelected last month with a comfortable majority in Sudan’s elections marred by opposition boycott and allegations of fraud by the ruling party.
(ST)
UN /ONU :
West African police seize $1B in cocaine
Agence France- Presse, with files from news services /www.nationalpost.com/Thursday, Jun. 10, 2010
BANJUL, Gambia – In a record haul for West Africa, Gambian and British police found more than two tonnes of cocaine, with a street value of US$1-billion, in a small fishing village.
The operation highlights the growing popularity of the region for South American drug cartels, after traditional routes through central America and the Caribbean became riskier and they were forced to diversify.
Fifteen people — South Americans, Europeans and Africans — working under cover of a fishing company on the tiny island of Baobob were arrested.
The 2.1 tonnes of cocaine were found in an underground bunker concealed behind a false wall in the company’s warehouse.
The suspects — four Nigerians, three Ghanaians, two Venezuelans, and three Dutch nationals — were arrested on May 12 after investigators found three kilos of cocaine in Bonto, about 30 kilometres east of the capital Banjul.
This led to the discovery last Friday of the much-larger haul on the island, one of many that dot Gambia’s coast.
Yesterday, the suspects appeared in court on three charges of drug trafficking. They all pleaded not guilty and were remanded in police custody.
Two Gambians and a Nigerian were arrested late Tuesday and more arrests are expected.
“The suspects included the Dutch owner and Venezuelan employees of a Gambia-based fishing company,” Britain’s Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA) said in a statement. “[They] had a number of premises including exclusive use of a small island where they made use of a dilapidated hotel and set up communications and transportation systems.”
Gambia, a sliver of land bordered on three sides by Senegal and the fourth by the Atlantic Ocean, sought the help of British police to examine suspected drugs warehouses.
When they broke into the underground bunker, investigators also discovered US$250,000 in cash and a number of loaded firearms, along with reflectors, satellite phones and GPS systems.
The cocaine was in “bricks” in 85 sacks, while another 60 empty sacks indicated “the bunker had been used as a distribution centre.”
The drug is worth more than US$150-million, but “the street value would be many times higher depending on how much the criminals diluted the cocaine with cutting agents,” said SOCA.
A British official in London said the street value could go as high as US$1-billion.
“It has long been feared that cocaine traffickers might seek to exploit the Gambia and other countries in the region as warehousing locations for drugs en route from South America to Europe,” said Neil Giles, the agency’s deputy director.
“It is highly likely a large proportion of these drugs would have found their way on to the streets of Europe and the UK. Taking this cocaine, and the profits it would have generated, out of the hands of criminals is a major blow to their operations.”
According to the UN, cocaine shipments through West Africa started increasing in 2003. Most of the contraband arrives by sea, where it is picked up by small boats and brought to land.
About 20 tonnes of cocaine passed though West Africa in 2008, the UN says. The region has also become a drug-processing site.
“A flourishing illicit trade in the hands of organized crime is obviously a threat to the rule of law, governance and, as a result, human rights,” said Alexandre Schmidt, West African head for the UN Office for Drugs & Crime.
“But we must no longer hide the indirect consequences with regard to the increase in problems linked to drug abuse.”
The drugs trade through West Africa grabbed headlines in 2007 after seizures of hundreds of kilos of cocaine were made in the region, alongside a spike in violence.
Guinea-Bissau, the landing point for most of the cocaine, saw a string of political assassinations that analysts say was linked to the drugs trade. The notoriously brutal military in neighbouring Guinea was also believed to be involved.
In March, Yayha Jammeh, the Gambian President, said there would be “zero tolerance” for drug-trafficking after 11 senior officials were arrested.
They included a former police chief and drug chief and senior military and drug enforcement officials.
Russell Benson, regional director for Europe and Africa for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, warned last week West Africa faced a “very complicated threat” from drug cartels and urged countries to boost legislation, law enforcement and judicial capabilities.
.
Former Nuremberg prosecutor chides U.S., China, Russia
From Samson Ntale, For CNN/June 10, 2010
Kampala, Uganda (CNN) — One of the attorneys who prosecuted Nazi war criminals at the end of World War II cautioned the United States, Russia and China on Wednesday over their opposition to the final inclusion of “crimes of aggression” in the mandate for the International Criminal Court.
“Crimes of aggression” were initially included in the court’s Rome Statute of 1998, but unlike the other three crimes put under the tribunal’s jurisdiction — genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes — crimes of aggression were not defined and jurisdictional conditions were not set.
A review conference, which began May 31 in Kampala and continues through Friday, hopes to accept a proposal that will finally give the court what it needs to try cases of crimes against aggression. But the United States, Russia and China have balked.
“A country should not commit crimes for its own benefit thinking no one will question it,” said Benjamin Ferencz, a former chief prosecutor during the 1946 Nuremberg Tribunal that brought top Nazi war officials to justice.
“This is the time all nations in the world should come in full support of the crime of aggression to be part of crimes tried by ICC so that we put to past impunity and open a new chapter to accountability,” he said.
As for those opposed, Ferencz said, “the court of opinion will judge them harshly.”
Ferencz, 91, accused “the big nations” of delaying inclusion of crimes of aggressions in 1998 “because they felt they would dodge it, make it die out completely.”
“They set up conditions that they felt would never be met,” he added. “They wanted the crime of aggression defined and wanted to be sure that the U.N. Security Council will run the show when the ICC was implementing it.”
The proposal under consideration in Kampala defines crimes of aggression as “the planning, preparation, initiation or execution, by a person in a position effectively to exercise control over or to direct the political or military action of a State, of an act of aggression.” The trigger for the action is that it violates the U.N. Charters.
But three proposals are under consideration regarding when and how an investigation might proceed. Two proposals require the U.N. Security Council to determine whether an act of aggression has been committed, but one of those allows an investigation to proceed without the Security Council determination for six months.
The third proposal would give the authority to trigger an investigation to the tribunal’s pre-trial Chamber, the U.N. General Assembly or the International Court of Justice.
The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — China, Russia and the United States along with France and the United Kingdom — have veto power on the 15-member council.
The 33 African states that form the biggest single continental block among the 111 states who have signed onto the Rome Statute last week issued a joint statement in Kampala opposing the suggestion to make the U.N. Security Council the arbiter of crimes of aggression.
Individual countries and the Security Council may refer cases from the other three crimes under the court’s jurisdiction to the prosecutor, or, under certain circumstances, the prosecutor may begin an investigation unsolicited.
“The trick behind all this is that the big countries are still in the cold war,” Ferencz said. “No big nation trusts the other on how it will be handled in case it becomes party to the Rome Statute and when is fully implemented.”
Ferencz’s comments came just a day after lawyers representing Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir accused ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo of politicizing the court’s operations by focusing on Africa. Al-Bashir was indicted in March on three counts of genocide, five of crimes against humanity and two of murder, most connected with the Darfur region of Sudan.
Al-Bashir’s attorneys urged Moreno-Ocampo to indict former U.S .President George W. Bush and his close ally former British Prime Minister Tony Blair for lying to the world of existence of weapons of mass destruction to support their invasion of Iraq in 2002.
U.S. State Department legal adviser Harold H. Koh, attending the Kampala conference, urged attendees to deliberate slowly.
“Surely finishing the unfinished business of Rome does not mean rushing to a premature conclusion of institution- transforming amendments on which there is not yet genuine consensus,” Koh told the conference.
“Instead, finishing the work of Rome means building a stronger court with a renewed commitment to pursuing meaningful solutions by genuine consensus that can advance the cause of human rights and international justice,” he said.
Koh argued against finalizing the Rome Statute’s sections on crimes of aggression, saying not enough agreement yet existed to move forward.
“Although we respect the considerable effort that has gone into (drafting the amendment), we believe that without agreed-upon understandings, the current draft definition remains flawed,” he said.
Among the items that lacked “agreed-upon understandings,” he said, were the meaning of the definition of crimes of aggression and the concern about potential prosecutions of “mere acts of aggression, as opposed to the ‘wars of aggression’ that were prosecuted in Nuremberg and Tokyo.”
China is not a party to the Rome Statute. The United States and Russia signed the document but have not ratified it, and the U.S. Congress in 2002 nullified the U.S. signature on the document. Israel and Sudan also “unsigned” the statute. Congress also passed an act that year preventing U.S. service members from providing military aid to countries that had ratified the Rome Statute and giving the president permission to authorize military force to free any U.S. soldier, sailor, airman or marine who is being held by the International Criminal Court.
That same year, the United States threatened blanket vetos of the renewal of the U.N. peacekeeping mission unless the ICC granted its troops immunity from prosecution. As a compromise, the Security Council passed a resolution granting immunity for a year to U.N. nations who were not parties to the court and renewed that resolution in 2003.
But the council dropped the exemption in 2004 when photographs of U.S. troops abusing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib surfaced.
Ferencz, who served in the U.S. Army during World War II, said such maneuverings might delay but would not stop prosecutions.
“The world is changing very fast and perpetrators of atrocities will be held to account even after a century,” he warned.
“No one should use his military prowess to terrorize the rest of the world thinking no one will hold him accountable.”
But the former prosecutor was optimistic that the holdouts would see reason.
“I hope that President Obama, after accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, will also support the ICC on crimes of aggression and that Russia and China will not find it acceptable to commit the old mistakes to stop the process,” he said.
USA :
U.S Vice President Urges Kenyans to Transform Their Country
Peter Clottey/www1.voanews.com /10 June 2010
U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden ends his three-day official visit to Kenya Thursday after urging Kenyans to transform their country. At a public forum held at the Kenyatta International Conference Center in Nairobi Wednesday, Mr. Biden expressed support for Kenya’s journey towards securing a free, democratic and a prosperous country.
He also warned against ethnic divisions saying, “Kenyans are now divided…torn apart by ethnic tensions perpetuated by leaders who place their own interests ahead of the country. The 2007 general election crisis revealed exactly how dangerous these forces can be.”
P.L.O Lumumba, a constitutional law expert, said Biden’s message was clear adding that Kenya has no choice other than to decisively deal with corruption as a cancer in the country’s body politic.
“Those in the know will tell you that corruption does contribute negatively to our economy and it eats up anything between 20 and 25 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). And, that tells you that it is the one thing that stands in our way towards the realization, not only of the Millennium Development Goals, but our own (development initiative) Vision 2030,” Lumumba said.
Biden also said Kenya’s destiny is in the hands of its people after expressing disappointment at the failure of some Kenyan leaders who he said have failed to drive the country to exploit its full potential, 47 years after independence.
Kenyans have demanded more democratic reforms following the 2007 post-election violence which led to the deaths of at least 1,300 people, while 350,000 were made homeless.
P.L.O. Lumumba said there is need for Kenyans to resolve the ongoing challenges the country faces.
“Ultimately, I hold the view that the key to Kenya’s, and indeed Africa’s, salvation lies with Africans themselves,” Lumumba said.
He also said that the Biden visit is a clear statement that Kenya is a member of the international community of nations and that it must conduct its affairs in keeping with the accepted standards of democracy.
Kenyans are expected to vote in a referendum scheduled 4th August to determine whether to accept, or reject, a proposed constitution that will also pave the way for the next general election.
The U.S. vice president said, “…a new constitution will accelerate reforms…reforms will bring more foreign investments into the country. The power to bring about change in Kenya rests with its people.”
Lumumba expressed confidence in the draft constitution.
“I have no doubt in my mind that come the fourth day of August, Kenyans will overwhelmingly endorse a new constitutional dispensation. And, the truth is that that, in my view, will be the beginning of the creation of a new Kenya because that constitution is a bridge to the Kenya that many desire. We will have our teething problems like every other nation, but it will be a new beginning,” Lumumba said.
Meanwhile, Biden is scheduled to go to South Africa to participate in the opening ceremony of the upcoming World Cup in South Africa, which is set to begin Friday.
CANADA :
AUSTRALIA :
EUROPE :
East Africa, EU set Nov deadline for trade deal
Thu Jun 10, 2010/By Mark Denge/Reuters
NAIROBI (Reuters) – The East African Community (EAC) trade bloc and the European Union have set November as the new deadline for signing a trade deal, a top Kenyan official said on Wednesday.
The EAC and the European Union have been at loggerheads for months over the signing of new a Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), which was meant to replace preferential trade deals the World Trade Organisation has rejected.
The five EAC members, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, initialled the EPA deal in 2007 and secured continued EU market access for their products.
The countries have however failed to sign the agreement, meaning there are no legally binding pacts. The deal was meant to be signed last July, but the deadline passed due to disputes over trade and development issues.
“It was agreed that the deadline to conclude full EPA is November 2010,” David Nalo, the permanent secretary at Kenya’s East African Community Affairs ministry, told Reuters after a three-day meeting between negotiators from the European Union and the EAC in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
“The EAC and the European Union agreed to maintain status quo. Preferential access continues until full EPA is signed.”
The European Union said in February it wanted a clear timetable for signing the deal, but Tanzania’s trade minister said then that the EAC would not budge unless Brussels gave firm commitments on development assistance, especially for infrastructure.
KENYA TO BE GREATEST LOSER
East Africa’s largest economy, Kenya, stands to lose most if the EU deal is not signed as it is excluded from the classification of a Least Developed Country.
It would miss out on exporting goods to Europe tarriff-free under the Everything But Arms initiative, which other EAC members qualify for. Kenya would have to start paying duty of between 8.5 per cent and 15.7 per cent.
Estimates by Kenya’s Trade ministry show that loss of tariff preferences would cost Kenya investments worth $700 million and thousands of jobs in its horticulture sector that currently stands as one of the leading foreign exchange earners.
Nevertheless, Kenya has stood by its EAC partners in pushing for all issues to be resolved despite the danger it faces should it fail to sign the deal.
The EAC has a gross domestic product of $73.3 billion and a population of close to 127 million. It has a customs union, and a common market is due to take effect in July.
CHINA :
China journalists robbed at World Cup
(AFP)/10062010
BEIJING — An armed gang stole money and a camera from four Chinese journalists in South Africa to cover the World Cup, state media reported Thursday.
Several men attacked the journalists when their car stopped on the side of the road as they returned to Johannesburg after an interview, the reports said.
The thieves made off with a small amount of cash and a camera worth about 1,500 dollars, the Beijing News said.
“When you go out, you have to be careful, put all your valuables in the boot and no matter what happens, don’t open the windows,” one of the journalists was quoted as saying.
The paper said it was also trying to confirm a report that a Beijing journalist was robbed in South Africa ahead of the opening of the World Cup on Friday.
China’s consulate in Johannesburg has issued a warning to Chinese nationals attending the World Cup to remain alert and refrain from carrying large sums of cash, the newspaper said.
On Wednesday, an armed gang stole electronic equipment from a team of Portuguese journalists during a robbery at their lodge near Johannesburg, police and one of the victims said.
The gang broke into the lodge at Magaliesburg, northwest of Johannesburg, while three journalists covering the Portuguese team were sleeping.
INDIA :
MTN Chief Ends Orascom Talks in Fourth Aborted Deal (Update1)
June 10, 2010/By Nicky Smith/Bloomberg
June 10 (Bloomberg) — MTN Group Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Phuthuma Nhleko failed to close his fourth deal in two years, frustrating the South African company’s ambitions of entering new markets to secure sales growth.
MTN, Africa’s largest mobile-phone company, yesterday said it ended talks with Weather Investments S.p.A to buy $10 billion of assets of Orascom Telecom Holding SAE. The inability to complete the transaction caps more than 24 months during which Johannesburg-based MTN sought purchases to offset increasing competition and price-regulation pressures at home.
“Shareholders have once again been let down by the lack of a successful deal,” said Lindsey McDonald, a Frost & Sullivan analyst, in a note today.
Nhleko, 50, who has said he will leave the company in March after eight years in the post, has tried to expand the company’s business in emerging markets through mergers or acquisitions. He has sought to add new markets to its 21 businesses across the Middle East and Africa as some of the world’s largest operators, including Vodafone Group Plc, seek expansion in Africa to counter slowing revenue growth in Europe.
MTN rose as much as 4.4 percent to 105.90 rand in Johannesburg and were up 2.8 percent as of 9:40 a.m., while Orascom Telecom shares dropped 5.4 percent to 5.56 Egyptian pounds in Cairo.
MTN said April 28 that it was negotiating to buy all or part of Orascom Telecom, the biggest mobile-phone company by subscribers in the Middle East. A purchase would have broadened MTN’s presence in Africa and the Middle East and extended its reach to markets such as Bangladesh, Pakistan and North Korea.
Failed Bharti Merger
“With the list of failed deals growing, investors are likely to remain concerned that the company may be keen to do a deal at almost any price,” Martin Mabbutt, a Nomura Securities analyst in London with a “buy” rating on MTN shares, said in a note today.
The abandoned Orascom talks come after MTN and India’s Bharti Airtel Ltd. failed for the second time last year to conclude a $23 billion merger that would have created the world’s third-largest mobile phone company by subscribers. Talks about a tie-up with Indian mobile operator Reliance Communications Ltd. ended without an agreement in July 2008.
Bharti said this week that it had completed a $9 billion deal to acquire African assets from Kuwait’s Mobile Telecommunications Co., also known as Zain.
Focus on Existing Assets
MTN’s discussions with Orascom were “terminated,” MTN said in a statement yesterday, without giving a reason. MTN spokeswoman Nozipho January-Bardill and Orascom spokeswoman Manal Abdel-Hamid didn’t respond to messages left on their mobile phones.
“Management must now focus their attention on the assets that they have,” said Bruce Main, a fund manager at Ivy Asset Management which holds MTN shares.
Orascom Telecom operates in Algeria, North Korea, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt, Tunisia, the Central African Republic, Burundi, Namibia and Zimbabwe. The talks failed after Algeria’s government blocked a possible sale to MTN of Orascom’s largest and most profitable unit, Djezzy.
“It was clear that after Djezzy was out, there couldn’t be a deal,” Ivy Asset’s Main said.
Algerian Obstacle
The Algerian government has said it would make an offer to Orascom for the local unit, exercising its rights of pre- emption. Orascom Telecom this month said it received a letter from the Algerian government saying that it was preparing for talks on the possible purchase of the company’s unit there.
Nhelko needs new growth drivers. In March, the company said full-year profit fell, as South African customer numbers declined 6.4 percent to 16.1 million, the first time subscribers in MTN’s home market have dropped. Subscriptions were hurt by a new law requiring customers to supply personal details to mobile-phone companies.
The company’s regional market is also getting crowded. Mobile-phone operators, including the U.K.’s Vodafone Group, are seeking growth in Africa as revenue gains slow in their home markets.
India’s Bharti Airtel bought Zain assets in 15 African countries. In April, France Telecom SA CEO Stephane Richard said the Paris-based company may invest as much as 7 billion euros ($8.4 billion) in deals focused on Africa and the Middle East in the next five years.
–Editors: Vidya Root, Simon Thiel.
The Ambassadors of India Inc.
By Amol Sharma/ blogs.wsj.com/June 10, 2010
It’s been a week of big milestones for India Inc.’s global push, with Bharti Airtel’s completion of a $10.7 billion acquisition in Africa and now Essar Group’s announcement that its U.K. energy-and-power venture will soon be included in the prestigious FTSE 100 Index, the benchmark for trading on the London Stock Exchange.
The significance of these events doesn’t just lie in money or bragging rights. They are about introducing big Indian brands to millions of people who’ve never heard of them. In effect, these companies will be among the ambassadors of India Inc. along with the likes of Tata, Mahindra & Mahindra and the Reliance companies.
The $15 billion-in-revenue Essar Group raised about $1.9 billion in April through its initial public offering of Essar Energy Plc, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
In an interview Thursday, Essar Group Chief Executive Prashant Ruia said Essar Energy is the only purely India-focused company on the FTSE 100 – an indication of the growing attraction of India to foreign investors.
Essar will use the money from the share offering for a massive expansion of power and oil refining capacity in India in coming years.
“We’ve raised the capital to grow the business and that’s exactly what we intend to do,” Mr. Ruia said. “The big focus is the demand side story for energy in India, which is very strong.” He said getting on the FTSE 100 was an “added bonus” after the successful listing and that he expects the firm to come in at between No. 45 and No. 50 on the list when it is officially added on June 18.
Essar’s move followed telecom giant Bharti Airtel’s announcement Tuesday that it had completed its acquisition of the Africa assets of Zain Group – the largest ever cross-border emerging markets deal.
The merger, which adds 15 countries to Bharti’s portfolio, catapults it to the world’s fifth-largest wireless company, with 180 million subscribers and $12.4 billion in revenues.
“For India it’s truly a proud moment,” Bharti Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said at a news conference. “With this move, Bharti Airtel truly joins the ranks of MNCs.”
BRASIL:
EN BREF, CE 10 juin 2010 … AGNEWS / OMAR, BXL,10/06/2010
