{jcomments on}[ Près de quatre millions de Sud-Soudanais, soit un sur deux, se sont inscrits pour participer le 9 janvier au référendum sur l’indépendance de la région, qui devrait couper le plus grand pays d’Afrique en deux, ont fait savoir des responsables lundi…]
BURUNDI :
Burundi: Une Suédoise à la tête du Bureau des Nations unies
Pana 03/01/2011
Bujumbura, Burundi – Le Secrétaire général des Nations unies, Ban Ki-moon, a nommé Mme Karin Landgren, de nationalité suédoise, au poste de représentante spéciale et chef du Bureau des Nations unies au Burundi, apprend-on de source diplomatique à Bujumbura.
A 53 ans, mariée et mère de 2 enfants, la diplomate suédoise de carrière va remplacer au nouveau poste, le Franco-canadien, Charles Pétrie, dont le mandat est arrivé à terme le 31 décembre 2010.
Un communiqué de presse transmis dimanche à la PANA précise qu’avant le Burundi, la Suédoise était représentante spéciale de l’ONU au Népal et chef de mission des nations unies dans ce pays.
Elle a eu également à représenter le Haut commissariat des Nations unies pour les réfugiés (HCR) en Erythrée, à Singapour et en Bosnie-Herzégovine.
Au Burundi, la Suédoise hérite d’un bureau plus réduit dans le cadre de l’adaptation des Nations unies à la nouvelle donne politique nationale faite d’un retour progressif à la normale après plus d’une décennie de guerre civile.
Les principales missions du nouveau Bureau des Nations unies au Burundi (BNUB), qui a remplacé le Bureau intégré des Nations unies (BINUB) au 1er janvier 2011, consisteront surtout à ‘renforcer l’indépendance, les capacités et les cadres juridiques des institutions nationales essentielles, conformément aux normes et principes internationaux’.
Le BNUB devra également s’assurer que toutes les stratégies et politiques concernant les Finances publiques et le secteur économique mettent l’accent sur la croissance économique, en répondant aux besoins des populations vulnérables.
Spencer-Van Etten Town Talk: Burundi medical clinic note highlights challenges
JANUARY 3, 2011,
I have always liked to share with the community the stories of some of our Spencer-Van Etten graduates.
One 2001 graduate, Eva Koehler, earned a master’s in public health from Boston University in 2008. On Aug. 16, she left for Burundi, a small, landlocked country south of Rwanda. With Rwanda, it holds the dubious distinction of being the land where Hutus and Tutsis tried to exterminate one another in the mid-1990s.
Eva works at a medical clinic 2 1/2 hours from the capital, founded by Deogratias, the medical student/refugee made famous by Tracy Kidder’s book, “Strength in What Remains.” Eva works primarily in the office, on financial analysis, impact on the community and funding proposals.
This sobering e-mail is dated Dec. 15, and is edited somewhat for space:
“Tonight is hard. I’m hot and sticky and itchy and doing one of the most unpleasant tasks I’ve had to do — going through hospitalization receipts for patients with HIV and removing $500 worth of support we thought we could use to provide better care in the future months.
“We get a partial reimbursement for some of the care we provide from an NGO (non-governmental organization) working in Burundi and channeling Global Fund money. They won’t reimburse medications for opportunistic infections because the medicines are made available through another NGO. Except — they’re not actually ever available; so we’ve been buying them in order to provide care.
The country director and I tried to argue in a meeting today to have them covered — we even have the receipts to prove we’ve had to buy them, but they’re not budging. So I sat at my desk and crossed out items and recalculated, and at the end of the night, a quarter of what we hoped to recover had disappeared from our collective future.
“It’s not a good time to cut $500 we hoped we would have — which could pay two of our nurses for a month. I cross out $25 on a single patient — there goes January’s budget for inject able quinine, just in time for malaria season.
RWANDA
Rwanda: “We Are Ready”
Bonnie Mugabe 3 January 2011 / Rwanda’s U-17 national team is ready for the opening game against Burkina Faso in the 2011 Africa Youth Championship, which begins this Saturday at Amahoro stadium.
Speaking at press conference recently, French tactician Richard Tardy said that his boys will pull off a good show as they start quest of lifting the African title at home.
“I have spent time assessing how Burkina Faso plays and its general performance in the road to Rwanda. Having seen how they play, I have confidence in my team putting on good performance.
“It’s important that we do well in the first game, we need a good a platform against Burkina Faso,” the Frenchman has told Times Sport.
According to Tardy, Burkina Faso are a good side, which plays better at home and not so well away from home. The Frenchman has already named an 18-man team.
Uganda’s Proline academy pair of Andrew Butera and Charles Tibingana made it to the team while upcoming Rayon Sport defender Faustin Usengimana will give a boast to Tardy’s team after being summoned on the last minute.
Meanwhile, all Rwandan players have successfully passed the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) measurement which will be used to identify players who may be above the age of 17 during this year’s tournament.
MRI will be used in 2011 U-17 Africa Youth Championship in Kigali in order to protect the integrity of the tournament and in the spirit of fair play.
Though Rwanda is hosting this tournament for the first time, its ambitions are to reach the semi final stage of the tournament so as to clinch an automatic spot for participation in the U-17 World Cup due in Mexico mid this year.
Rwanda must play to its best football in this tough group. The top two in each group are guaranteed a spot at next year’s FIFA U-17 World Cup in Mexico.
Junior Wasps Team:
Steven Ntalibi, Rusheshangoga Michel, Ndayishimiye Celestin, Nirisarike Salomon, Nsabimana Eric, Ndatimana Robert, Tibingana Charles Mwesigye, Bayisenge Emery, Kabanda Bonfils, Butera Andrew, Mahoro Nicolas, Mico Justin, Turatsinze Heritier, Rutanga Eric, Usengimana Faustin, Nsegayire Shadad, Mugabo Innocent, Nzarora Marcel.
Rwanda Tries Exiled Dissidents In Absentia
1/3/2011 http://www.rttnews.com/Content/GeneralNews.aspx?Id=1518183&SM=1
(RTTNews) – The trial of four exiled Rwandan dissidents began at a military court in the country’s capital city of Kigali on Monday, with the four facing charges of threatening state security and propagating ethnic divisions.
The four former high-ranking officials facing trial include Rwanda’s former Chief of Staff General Faustine Kayumba Nyamwasa; former director of cabinet Major Theogene Rudasingwa; former head of foreign intelligence Colonel Patrick Karegeya and former Attorney General Gerald Gahima.
All four dissents are being tried in absentia as they are currently in exile either in South Africa or the United States. In Monday’s opening session, prosecutors demanded that all the four dissident officers be given lengthy prison sentences, fined and stripped-off of certain rights as citizens of Rwanda.
The prosecutors also accused Nyamwasa and Rudasingwa of deserting the army and demanded 35-year prison terms for the duo. Prosecutors also pleaded the court hand out 30-year sentences each to Karegeya and Gahima.
All the four accused were once close associates of President Paul Kagame and high ranking officials in his government. They, however, fled the country after falling out with President Kagame earlier this year.
The dissidents were not represented by any lawyers when charges against them were read out in court. Though Rwanda is expected to seek extradition of the four dissidents once they are convicted by the military court, the countries presently hosting them are unlikely to entertain such a request.
Gen Nyamwasa, once a close confidante of Kagame, had fled his home country to South Africa in February 2009 after abandoning his post as Rwanda’s envoy to India, following a fallout with the Rwandan President.
A failed attempt on Gen. Nyamwasa’s life in June while in South Africa had triggered a diplomatic spat between the two countries. He was shot in the stomach by a lone gunman near his home in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg when the exiled general and his wife were returning after a shopping trip.
Gen. Nyamwasa survived the attempt. The general’s wife, Rosette Nyamwasa, has since described the shooting of her husband as an assassination attempt, and accused the Rwandan President Paul Kagame of masterminding it.
However, the Rwandan government denied any connection to the shooting incident, with Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo stressing that Kagame government does not condone violence.
Later, the Rwandan government accused Gen Nyamwasa of having links to grenade attacks in Kigali in the run-up to presidential elections in August, and demanded his extradition from South Africa. Nyamwasa has denied the allegations.
(RTTNews) – South Africa also refused the Rwandan request for the extradition of Nyamwasa, citing the lack of an extradition treaty between the two countries. Gen Nyamwasa has since accused Kagame of corruption, which was promptly denied by the Rwandan President.
Kagame has been in power in Rwanda for more than 16 years since his rebel group-turned-political party, the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), routed Hutu extremists after the 1994 inter-tribal war.
Kagame is seen as one of the most dynamic leaders in the African continent, but his authoritarian tendencies have often evoked concerns. Despite ushering in stability and growth, Kagame’s critics accuse him of undermining democracy, suppressing political opponents, independent media and human rights to strengthen his grip on power.
His supporters say Kagame has brought both stability and a steady economic growth to the county since coming to power after ending the1994 Rwandan genocide in which over 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered by Hutu militias over a period of 100 days.
by RTT Staff Writer
For comments and feedback: contact editorial@rttnews.com
Rwanda: New Agriculture Projects Boost Nyagatare Maize Farming
Dan Ngabonziza 3 January 2011
http://allafrica.com/stories/201101040231.html
Nyagatare — Winiflida Mukakigeri, 48, is a rural farmer who has moved from leading a hunger- stricken life to become a model farmer in the district and beyond.
Married with 11 children, the maize farmer from Rwimiyaga sector in Nyagatare District shares her story of the journey to being a bread winner for the family.
“In 2006, I was always frustrated thinking of my family. We depended on subsistence farming which was unproductive,” says Mukakigeri.
With all energy spent, everyday, in the garden, Mukakigeri says the seasonal production was only 50kgs of maize and 25kgs of beans.
“It was a drop in the ocean. Both the maize and beans produced was not enough to feed my family.
All changed when she was introduced to two agriculture projects; Rwanda Development organization (RDO) and Research into Use (RIU), in collaboration with Duterimbere, a Micro-finance institution.
“I was later blessed to be a beneficiary of the RDO and Research into Use projects that helped apply fertilizers in our gardens,” she says.
At first, Mukakigeri adds, we resisted the use of fertilizers.
“We were told that use of fertilizers was unproductive but after a series of consultation by RDO officials, we adopted the system and yielded bumper production in a short period of time.”
After applying the fertilizers, Mukakigeri harvested 500Kgs of maize.
“I was very excited to harvest 500kgs of maize on just one hectare of land. This time I managed to sell some and got school fees for my children,” she says.
In the second season, RDO helped Mukakigeri use cows for cultivation. With industrial and other agricultural fertilizers she applied, Mukakigeri harvested 1tone of maize which she sold and bought household facilities.
Mukakigeri’s third season saw her harvesting 5 tonnes of maize on a hectare of land.However, with the increased production, Mukakigeri and other farmers could not find market.
“RIU advised us to work under a cooperative and they purchased our maize at Rwf200 per kilogramme,” she said.
Later, Mukakigeri and the other members of the cooperative joined the ‘Inventory Credit system’, a programme that facilitates farmers to get credit facilities and use their harvest as security.
The farmer’s harvest is stored in a warehouse or grain storage facility until the loan is repaid.
This system, according to Innocent Kirenga of RIU, protects farmers from selling their produce at low prices, just because they need the money.
“The need and lack of credit can force farmers to sell their crops to the first buyer at harvest, often at a low price.
Then, the farmer often has to buy food and seeds a few months later at higher prices. One of the advantages of this system is that farmers can sell their crops in the months after the harvest, when market prices are higher,” Kirenga noted.
According to Mukakigeri, their cooperative has registered enormous success and they have been urged by local authorities to mobilize other rural farmers to follow in their footsteps.
Today, Mukakigeri is a happy mother. Her children are in school and she has managed to save a more than Rwf1m from her profits.
“My dream is to construct one of the best houses in my village where people will see it as a modern house that belongs to a once poor farmer,” she said. “I also want to buy a nice vehicle that will transport my children to school.”
RDC –Congo
DR Congo gov’t confirms 2011 electoral timetable
KINSHASA, Jan 04, 2011 (Xinhua via COMTEX) — The communication minister, also the government spokesman of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), Lambert Mende Omalanga, on Monday confirmed the government’s commitment to respect the 2011 electoral timetable.
The electoral timetable published in 2010 by the country’s Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) provides for the organization of presidential, national/provincial legislative elections in 2011 and the urban, municipal and local elections in 2013.
At a press conference held in Kinshasa, Omalanga said the respect of the electoral timetable does not rule out some changes to be carried out on some laws, especially the electoral law.
The confirmation came amid fears that the polls could be put off beyond 2011, as a result of delay in replacing CEI by the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI).
Regarding the cost, Mende said the government would mobilize some funds for this purpose, in addition to the 40 percent of the spending that will come from external sources.
This is why certain articles of the Constitution need to be revised so that the presidential election could be decided within the first round, according to the official.
Last month, opposition parties decried the revision of the Constitution and the electoral code.
Rd CONGO : Présidentielles 2011, Une fraude électorale annoncée
Le peuple congolais doit exiger les deux tours du scrutin de 2011
lundi 3 janvier 2011, par Jean Paul BWANA , pasteur évangéliste
Cette expérience du deuxième tour avait étalé en 2002 les limites de l’actuel chef de l’Etat Joseph Kabila qui avait d’ailleurs fui le débat contradictoire devant le mettre face à Jean Pierre Bemba. A travers le jeu de questions réponses, si jamais ce débat avait eu lieu, certainement que les indécis et autres courtisans se seraient à l’évidence en votant utilement. Hier c’était par les intrigues de Vital Kamerhe que le peuple congolais n’avait pas eu l’opportunité de juger le bien fondé de deux candidats en lice, à savoir le sortant Joseph Kabila et le chairman du Mlc, Jean Pierre Bemba. Pour avoir distrait le peuple, les gens sont allés au vote sans connaître profondément les candidats pour qui ils allaient voter. Et conséquence fâcheuse, la mise en place d’un gouvernement sans aucune maîtrise de règles de gestion d’un Etat moderne.
Voir en ligne : Rd CONGO : Présidentielles 2011
L’opinion publique internationale a été estomaquée d’apprendre ce matin par les radios périphériques le début d’une tournée de campagne par le président Joseph Kabila et au cours de laquelle il cherche à obtenir du peuple congolais et des ses élus la révision de la loi électorale afin de ne retenir que le mode du scrutin à un seul tour aux présidentielles de 2011. Et ce à quelque 10 mois du scrutin présidentiel considéré comme celui de tous les enjeux.
Pour mémoire, la Rd Congo a un régime politique parlementaire et le mode du scrutin présidentiel d’application permet aux deux candidats ayant obtenu les plus des voix au premier tour de s’affronter lors d’un deuxième tour. Ce qui offre l’avantage aux électeurs notamment de bien juger l’efficacité de candidats et la pertinence de leurs projets de sociétés respectifs. Comme pour dire que le peuple a l’opportunité de sanctionner doublement ceux de ses représentants appelés à présider demain à sa destinée. Et un énergumène qui serait passé sournoisement à travers les mails lors du premier tour généralement se voit recaler lors du second tour. Et les jeux des alliances politiques trouvent ici leur raison d’être en ceci qu’après avoir été éliminés lors du premier tour, l’on peut soit même librement choisir le camp politique de l’un ou l’autre candidat en lice, après que l’on les a vus à l’œuvre.
Cette expérience du deuxième tour avait étalé en 2002 les limites de l’actuel chef de l’Etat Joseph Kabila qui avait d’ailleurs fui le débat contradictoire devant le mettre face à Jean Pierre Bemba. A travers le jeu de questions réponses, si jamais ce débat avait eu lieu, certainement que les indécis et autres courtisans se seraient à l’évidence en votant utilement. Hier c’était par les intrigues de Vital Kamerhe que le peuple congolais n’avait pas eu l’opportunité de juger le bien fondé de deux candidats en lice, à savoir le sortant Joseph Kabila et le chairman du Mlc, Jean Pierre Bemba. Pour avoir distrait le peuple, les gens sont allés au vote sans connaître profondément les candidats pour qui ils allaient voter.
Et conséquence fâcheuse, la mise en place d’un gouvernement sans aucune maîtrise de règles de gestion d’un Etat moderne. Tout ce qu’il y a comme mérite c’est le chant claironné à l’unisson sur tous les médias propagandistes, à savoir les cinq chantiers du chef de l’Etat qui n’existent que dans la tête des applaudisseurs et fanatiques, contre sonnantes et trébuchantes.
L’opinion a certes eu à se rendre compte que même de dernières élections de la Cote d’Ivoire, la victoire d’Alassane Ouattara était visible à travers la pertinence de son argumentaire et la nette maîtrise du dossier ivoirien. Pareil en France lors du débat entre Nicolas Sarkozy et la candidate Ségolène Royale. Après le débat contradictoire, on avait plus de chance de faire le pronostic sur l’issue du scrutin.
Accepter un mode du scrutin présidentiel à un seul tour au Congo Kinshasa est à la fois une vaste tricherie de la famille politique du chef de l’Etat sortant et un piège pour la jeune démocratie naissante. Plus jamais de doute, la situation politique au Congo Kinshasa a fort reculée. Tous les acquis de la Cns et de la transition ont été balayés du revers de la main, désormais les assassins, les voleurs, les violeurs, les détourneurs de deniers publics … peuvent être applaudis sur la place publique et sans que cela n’inquiète qui que ce soit. Les assassins de Floribert Chebeya, d’Armand Tungulu, de Boteti, de Franck Dikey… courent la rue. Ceux qui ont sur les mains le sang de plus des six millions (6.000.000), qui ont violé à l’Est sont aujourd’hui les alliés potentiels de la famille politique du président sortant.
L’histoire politique récente a démontré que la démocratie a ses règles sacro saintes et auxquelles l’on ne peut plus se dérober. Quand on a été aux affaires, on ainsi le loisir d’étaler ses réalisations, ce qui malheureusement ne sera pas le cas avec le président Joseph Kabila qui n’a pas un vrai bilan à présenter au peuple congolais qui a passé les fêtes de fin d’année sans salaire et dans l’obscurité totale alors que ce pays a parmi les plus grands barrages hydroélectrique au monde.
Accepter les élections présidentielles à un seul tour c’est ouvrir une voie royale à la tricherie à la fraude généralisée. Le politique congolais n’a pas de maturité, avec un peu d’argent il peut se faire acheter et même vendre sa mère.
Nous conseillons aux élus du peuple de ne pas céder à cette tentation de la foi, qu’il prenne l’argent, mais qu’il ne cautionne pas ce genre de bassesse.
RD Congo : Désabusé, M’Bokani déclare publiquement qu’il ne veut plus rester à Monaco !
Lundi 03 Janvier 2011 http://www.camer-sport.be/index1.php?id=7430&act=9
Dix-septième du classement de Ligue 1 avec seulement un petit point d’avance sur la zone rouge, l’AS Monaco a vécu une première moitié de saison plus que difficile. Et ce pas près de s’arrêter. Six mois après avoir déboursé pas moins de 7 M€ pour arracher Dieumerci M’Bokani au Standard de Liège, les dirigeants asémistes n’auraient en effet plus envie de revoir le buteur congolais porter à nouveau le maillot princier.
Si le manque de patience de l’ASM peut surprendre, le principal concerné semblait pourtant vouloir prouver qu’il avait les moyens de s’imposer sur le Rocher. Mais sa non convocation pour le stage de reprise à Sainte-Maxime a visiblement été la goutte qui a fait déborder le vase. Interrogé par RMC, M’Bokani vient de confirmer publiquement qu’il avait changé son fusil d’épaule et qu’il ne souhaitait plus rester en Principauté.
« Je voulais réussir à Monaco. Je suis triste. J’ai reçu un sms me signalant que je devais reprendre avec la CFA. Je n’ai pas eu de discussion avec l’entraîneur. Je fais des efforts. Mais c’est tout le groupe qui ne marche pas bien. Je viens d’arriver, il faut me laisser le temps. Mais je suis prêt à partir. J’ai des contacts avec d’autres clubs. C’est Monaco qui me pousse dehors. J’avais dit avant les vacances que je voulais rester, mais vu comment ça se passe… » Déçu de ne pas se voir accorder plus de temps pour faire ses preuves, M’Bokani devrait pouvoir rebondir en Premier League où West Ham lui fait les yeux doux.
RD Congo : blanchiments et financements au profit du Hezbollah
Rédigé par JSS le Jan 2nd, 2011
http://jssnews.com/2011/01/02/rd-congo-blanchiments-et-financements-au-profit-du-hezbollah/
Lors de sa précédente tournée africaine, M. Liebermann n’était point passé par la République Démocratique du Congo. Ce choix que, je pense, délibéré, passé presque inaperçu en laissa certains dubitatif. La raison ? Peut-être ce communiqué, rendu public le 9 décembre 2010 depuis Washington, par le très sérieux « US Department of Treasury » (Trésor américain) sous le titre : « Treasury targets Hizballah financial network » (Le Trésor cible le réseau financier du Hezbollah), qui pointe du doigt la RD Congo comme l’une des plateformes de financement des groupes terroristes. Le document accuse nommément les propriétaires du géant congolais de commerce général « Congo Futur » d’implication avérée dans le blanchiment des capitaux et le financement du terrorisme.
Pour le Trésor américain, la République démocratique du Congo serait devenue une plaque tournante du blanchiment des capitaux en vue du financement de certains groupes terroristes, notamment ceux indexés comme tels par le département d’Etat américain. Dans les milieux des affaires de la RD Congo, tout comme dans différents cercles politiques, le sujet est sur toutes les lèvres, depuis le 9 décembre 2010, car le rapport précise que « Congo Futur », alimenteraient le réseau financier du Hezbollah.
LES MOTIVATIONS AMÉRICAINES
« Ces révélations visent deux de hauts financiers du Hezbollah en Afrique. Ali et Hussein TAJIDEEN qui génèrent des millions de dollars dans le financement réseau multinational et assurent les stratégies des bastions géographiques pour le Hezbollah», a déclaré le sous-secrétaire pour le terrorisme et le renseignement financier, Stuart LEVEY. Pour les États-Unis, la RDC compterait parmi les plateformes de soutien au blanchiment des capitaux et de financement au terrorisme. Et ce, en dépit des efforts internes entrepris, notamment sous la houlette de la Banque centrale du Congo pour mettre fin à ces deux fléaux. La Cellule des renseignements financiers (Cenaref), une structure répressive créée à ces fins, sombrerait une fois de plus dans un immobilisme maladif, alors que pour le Trésor américain, la RDC serait devenue un dépotoir des capitaux sales. Des médias influents en RDC tendent à identifier Hussein TAJIDEEN, comme un actionnaire important groupe « Congo Futur », dont la FUTUR TOWER surplombe l’une des principales avenues de Kinshasa, affirmation renier en bloc par le Directeur général adjoint M. Rachid EL CHAER. Pour Washington, les deux frères TAJIDEEN, d’origine libanaise, travailleraient dans la collecte des fonds en vue de fournir le soutien financier au Hezbollah. Tous deux, toujours selon le document du Trésor américain, sont les frères et partenaires commerciaux de Kassim TAJIDEEN, un important contributeur financier au Hezbollah, qui a été désigné depuis mai 2009 par le Trésor comme un « Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) » en vertu de l’Executive Order (EO) 13224. L’initiative américaine a également ciblé un réseau d’entreprises détenues ou contrôlées par les frères TAJIDEEN opérant en Gambie, au Liban, au Sierra Leone, en République démocratique du Congo, en Angola, et aux îles Vierges britanniques. Dans son communiqué, sans en dévoiler le contenu, le Trésor américain annonce des sanctions à l’égard des personnes et entreprises citées. Il fait mention notamment de la possibilité de les isoler à partir des États-Unis des systèmes financiers et commerciaux internationaux.
SOUTENIR ISRAËL AVEC LE M.S.A. (Mouvement Sioniste Africain)
Ces révélations qui semblent être dans l’air du temps au regard des secousses médiatiques initiées par WikiLeaks, montrent, à mon sens, l’isolation chronique qui encercle l’état juif. Aux bonnes volontés israéliennes se confrontent des réalités sous-jacentes qui doivent pousser chacun d’entre nous à reconnaître les aptitudes des gouvernants israéliens face aux marasmes politico-diplomatiques internationaux auxquels ils doivent faire face. Chapeau bas. Le politique juif et congolais que je suis, ne peut se contenter de mots ou de simples constations, il est de ma nature et de mon devoir que d’agir et de participer activement à la réhabilitation officielle d’Israël dans les affaires congolaises et africaines, car à défaut c’est la stigmatisation et l’adversité qui l’y attende. La constitution d’un AIPAC local en Afrique subsaharienne, évoquée dans un article précédent, prend plus que forme, le M.S.A., dont je détaillerai les tenants et les aboutissants, dans les prochaines semaines, trouve ici, au regard des récentes déclarations du Trésor Américain, un motif valable et urgent, de plus, d’exister et d’agir. L’état hébreu doit savoir qu’il peut et doit compter sur nous.
Par Marah Saday – JSSNews
Marah Saday est membre de la Fédération Juive Noire. Il est aussi (et surtout) un candidat investit par le Parti Socialiste Congolais (dont il est également le porte parole) aux futures élections locales.
UGANDA
Uganda court bans gay outing
Sources: CBC News/BBC/CNN http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2011/jan/04/gay-rights-uganda
The Ugandan high court has banned the country’s media outlets from outing people as gay.
The ruling was made three months after The Rolling Stone – a local tabloid, no relation to the US magazine – published a list of people it said were gay. It also urged readers to report them to police.
Described as a landmark ruling by gay rights groups, it remains the case that homosexual acts are illegal in Uganda.
The Ugandan paper launched its campaign to expose gays in October with the article shown above. It alleged that gays had plans to recruit one million “innocent kids” by 2012.
At least four people said they were attacked because of the article.
The judge said: “Clearly, the call to hang gays in dozens tends to tremendously threaten their right to human dignity.”
Uganda Government News: Electoral Commission Delays To Release Voters Register
First published: 20110103
Presidential candidates have expressed concerns over the delay in releasing the final voters’ register.
In the meeting held with the inter-religious council, Norbert Mao of the Democratic Party said presidential candidates cannot know the original number of supporters they are looking for without the original voters’ register.
Other presidential candidates who expressed worry include Abed Bwanika of the Peoples Development Party, Dr Kizza Besigye of Forum for Democratic Change, Olara Otunnu of Uganda Peoples Congress and Uganda Federal Alliance‘s Betty Kamya.
The candidates also voiced their disagreement with the electoral commission’s decision of allowing voters to go into polls without voters’ cards.
Religious leaders under their umbrella, National Task Force for Peace Transformation a body that was set up by the inter-religious council to monitor elections, have been meeting the presidential candidates with an aim of ensuring violence occurs come next month.
The chairman of the National Task Force for Peace Transformation a body task force Bishop Zac Naringiye adds that they are committed to hold frequent meets with all presidential candidates and preach to then the message of peace.
more Uganda news…
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TANZANIA:
FACTBOX-Key political risks to watch in Tanzania
Tue Jan 4, 2011 By FumbukA Ng’wanakilala
DAR ES SALAAM Jan 4 (Reuters) – Tanzania has enjoyed relative stability in an often unsettled region, but growing criticism on the government’s fight against corruption and an energy crisis clouds the east African country’s 2011 outlook.
President Jakaya Kikwete was re-elected in an Oct. 31 vote marred by a record low turnout and claims of rigging. Boosting economic growth, tackling poverty, youth unemployment and fighting corruption are his top priorities. [ID:nLDE6A40UX]
The 60-year-old moderate Muslim faces widening rifts within the ruling party and mounting opposition demands for electoral reform, as he embarks on his second and final term in office.
Here are some risk factors to watch out for:
Kikwete’s main rival in the elections, Willibrod Slaa of the Chadema party, rejected the election outcome and demanded an independent inquiry, electoral reform and a new constitution before the next election in 2015.
WikiLeaks: Tanzania and fight to stop Airbus sale
BY THE GUARDIAN REPORTER / 4th January 2011
Wikileaks has revealed diplomatic cables complaining of favouritism and suspicion of corruption in the manner Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL) went about shopping for jetliners for its ageing fleet four years ago.
According to the cables, carried in the New York Times of Sunday, January 2 this year the US Embassy in Dar es Salaam fighting for Boeing then said: “As Air Tanzania shops for new airplanes for its ageing fleet, we remain troubled by separate press reports, quoting Air Tanzania leadership and most recently the Minister of Infrastructure that a decision has been made in favour of Airbus.” This decision would have been made without any serious negotiations with Boeing. We have actively engaged at the highest reaches of this government, and for the moment halted the rush to Airbus and opened a window that Boeing intends to exploit.”
The newspaper report titled: “Diplomats Help Push Sales of Jetliners on the Global Market. Tanzania and the Fight to Stop Airbus Sale,” said Boeing executives, at times, were pressed by foreign government officials and airline executives to hire “agents” or other intermediaries to help deliver a sale.
According to the diplomatic notes, Air Tanzania seemed to be seriously evaluating the leasing and sale options offered by Boeing, “but we do not believe we are out of the woods, in view of early efforts to pressure Boeing to hire an “agent,” and subsequent rumours that China is tying aid to purchase of Airbuses in order to give business to the joint manufacturing facility being built in China,” the US embassy said.
It said in June 2007, Boeing had submitted a request for advocacy through the Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration, and Ambassador Retzer, the Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) and Economic Counsellor (EconCouns) met with Rob Faye, Regional Director of Sales for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, on several occasions.
It said Boeing’s early dealings with top officials of the airline beginning in June suggested (to Post) that the company’s fear of outside influence or corruption might be legitimate.
The report said in subsequent meetings with Faye, the DCM raised the issue of Air Tanzania’s dealings with Boeing and Airbus in conversations with a close advisor to President Jakaya Kikwete.
According to the report the DCM specifically noted Air Tanzania Managing Director and CEO, David Mattaka’s unusual “suggestion” that Faye should contact a wealthy South Asian hotelier, who subsequently suggested to Faye that he would need his services to open the right doors in government. Faye flatly refused, responding that Boeing does not use “agents” in Tanzania or elsewhere.
The report released as comment that “Agents” and steep “commissions” have been at the heart of several corruption scandals here (Tanzania), including a BAE radar deal in which the GOT paid a 31 percent commission to a Tanzanian agent, much of which ended up in Swiss bank accounts, according to a UK Parliamentary investigation. Despite the fact that the UK shared this evidence with Tanzania’s corruption board, no evident action has been taken.
The presidential advisor later got back to the DCM, telling him that President Kikwete was “incensed” upon learning that senior Air Tanzania officials might be intending to profit personally from the deal.
The report said Ambassador Green raised MCC (Millenium Challenge Corporation) Compact, the importance of transparency to the investment climate, and a level playing field for Boeing in his presentation of credentials to President Kikwete on September 12.
Earlier the DCM had called on the Infrastructure Minister and spoken with a close advisor to the President underscoring the same points. “We will continue to press hard not only on behalf of Boeing, but the importance of transparency and a level playing field to the positive investment climate Kikwete is working to create,” said the report.
It said further that on August 9, Boeing’s Faye met with Maua Daftari, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure, and Dr. Bartholomew Rufunjo, Director of Transport and communications in the Ministry of Infrastructure (the Ministry that makes all financial decisions regarding Air Tanzania). Faye reported his meetings with both Daftari and Rufunjo were promising.
Both officials mentioned more than once the importance of a fair and level acquisition process for Air Tanzania’s development. David Mattaka, CEO of Air Tanzania, went out of his way to tell Faye on August 10 that Air Tanzania did not use agents.
Mattaka repeated this statement during a meeting between Faye and the Air Tanzania board of directors. Faye reported that it was apparent that there had been some communication with the Ministry, presumably from State House, to ensure there would be no “go-betweens” in Air Tanzania’s dealings with Boeing. On the sidelines, Mattaka reportedly mentioned to Faye that he thought the pressure was originating with the US Embassy.
It said Ambassador Retzer forcefully raised the issue of combating corruption in his last public speech before leaving on August 31.
On September 2, forty-eight hours after Retzer departed the country, the Tanzanian press reported for the second time that Air Tanzania was in the process of procuring eight Airbus planes, and extensively quoted Tanzanian Minister of Infrastructure, Andrew Chenge.
“We did not view the timing of the second announcement — on the heels of Retzer’s departure and before Ambassador Green had arrived and been credentialed — as a coincidence,” said the cable.
The report said on September 7, the DCM and EconOff met with Minister Chenge, raising President Kikwete’s trip to the United States and his plan to take a large business delegation.
Kikwete would be marketing Tanzania as a prime location to trade and invest. It was important, therefore, that a major US corporation like Boeing compete on a level playing field with Airbus, so its message to the US business community would echo Kikwete’s message.
The DCM said Boeing and the Embassy had been confused by recent press reports regarding Air Tanzania’s acquisition of new aircraft, and asked Chenge to clarify the status of negotiations.
Chenge said contrary to his purported statements to the Tanzanian press, no final decision had been made on whether Air Tanzania would acquire Airbus or Boeing airplanes.
However, the issue of financing was also a primary concern due to a lack of government funding for the new aircraft. He stated that he could say “with certainty” that no decision has been made, but his Ministry was “very cautious on how to proceed because (they) don’t have the money.” He said he understood Boeing could help open doors to financing possibilities, but “certain deadlines” needed to be met.
The report said the DCM stressed that regardless of the outcome, the Embassy wanted to see that Air Tanzania is engaged in fair and transparent negotiations. He pointed out that Tanzania would benefit from giving Boeing the chance to underbid Airbus.
The DCM ended the meeting by mentioning the upcoming vote on the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact for Tanzania, and the importance of transparency to sustaining any Compact that eventually would be signed. On the way out, Chenge’s staffer reportedly told the DCM that he was aware that Chenge had “misspoken” and been “misquoted” in the press, and that his office had already received several calls for clarification.
Minister for Transportation Omar Nundu told this paper yesterday that he was not aware of the report.
“I am not aware of the reports. I do not know,” said Nundu.
This paper called Andrew Chenge for the comment but his phone could not be received. Mattaka who has since moved from ATCL was not reachable as his phone was switched off.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
KENYA :
Kenyan minister quits over graft claims
Written By:Stanley Wabomba, Posted: Tue, Jan 04, 2011
http://www.kbc.co.ke/news.asp?nid=68233
Henry Kosgey has quit as industrialization minister.
Kosgey made the announcement Tuesday morning at the ministry’s headquarters at Teleposta Towers in Nairobi.
He told a press conference that he was stepping aside to pave way for investigations over claims of abuse of office.
And even as he denied involvement in any shady deals, Kosgey pledged to fully cooperate with authorities investigating the matter.
The Tinderet MP is accused of clearing the importation of vehicles which are more than eight years old, the threshold put by the Kenya Revenue Authority.
However after reading the statement to indicate that he was stepping aside, Kosgey declined to field questions from journalists before heading to the Kenya Anti Corruption Commission (KACC) offices where he was quizzed over the allegations.
On Monday, Attorney General Amos Wako directed KACC to arrest and prosecute Kosgey on eight counts relating to the irregular importation of over age motor vehicles.
The cars were seized at the port of Mombasa last year in November because of documentation queries. Only Kosgey’s written permission can allow them in.
The minister joins the list of senior government officials, including two cabinet ministers who have been forced out of office over allegations of corruption.
The Minister is also one of the six Hague suspects named by International Criminal Court -ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo over involvement in the 2008 post-election violnce.
FACTBOX-Key political risks to watch in Kenya
By James Macharia NAIROBI | Tue Jan 4, 2011 / Jan 4 (Reuters) – The possible trials of three cabinet ministers by the International Criminal Court for their role in Kenya’s post-election violence in 2008 could destabilise Kenya’s fragile coalition government.
The ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo says the trio were among six suspected masterminds of the bloodshed that followed the disputed presidential election in December 2007, which severely damaged Kenya’s reputation for stability.
Should the six be indicted, their trials could rock the east African country’s coalition or unity government, which was formed by President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to end the fighting.
Further shocks to Kenya’s politics could come from possible new prosecutions of senior government officials as the nation’s long-promised war on corruption starts to bite.
Industrialisation Minister Henry Kosgey stepped down on Jan. 4 in the face of abuse of office claims in connection with an imported vehicles scam.
Analysts said Kenya’s anti-graft watchdog and Attorney General appeared to be setting their sights on the “big fish”.
Despite these rumblings, a resurgent tourism sector and rebounding tea and horticulture revenues are spurring a recovery of the farm-based economy, ranked fourth in sub-Saharan Africa.
The benchmark NSE-20 Share Index rose closed on a high on the last day of the year having risen 37 percent in 2010. The index hit a year high of 4,701.15 points on Oct. 26, and is the second best performer in sub-Saharan Africa after Uganda.
Following are some of the main risk factors to watch:
ICC TRIALS LOOM
Prominent on the ICC list are Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, son of Kenya’s founding father Jomo Kenyatta, and William Ruto, the higher education minister who has been suspended to fight a corruption case.
The ICC’s investigation into Kenya’s post-election violence has driven a wedge into the cabinet and parliament, where lawmakers passed a motion on Dec. 22 urging Kibaki to withdraw Kenya from the Rome Statute that established the ICC. Their aim is to try to block the trials of the violence suspects.
That vote does not compel Kenya to quit the ICC, and Odinga has opposed parliament’s stance, saying pulling out now will not exempt the six suspects from the possible trials. This tug-of-war is expected to upset the cabinet further. [ID:nLDE6BL1RA] [ID:nLDE6BM0PU] [ID:nLDE6BH01B] [ID:nLDE6BN09W]
Opinion polls show many Kenyans want the six tried and convicted to avoid a repeat of the bloodshed seen in the last election when the country votes again in 2012. [ID:nLDE6BE1MJ]
AFRICA / AU :
Civil War Looms in Ivory Coast
by Firouzeh Afsharnia
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-01-03/civil-war-looms-in-ivory-coast/
In this strategically important African country, militias now roam the streets, the U.S. State Department staff has been evacuated, and the president-elect remains a virtual prisoner in a downtown hotel. By Firouzeh Afsharnia.
To avert a regional crisis that could spiral into violence, African leaders on Monday traveled to the Ivory Coast, bearing gifts of amnesty and security for Laurent Gbagbo to persuade him to step down.
In the month since elections produced not one but two presidents, the country has teetered on the abyss of violence. Although the United Nations has declared that Gbagbo lost the election, the former president has refused to accept the result, and has clung to power with the help of the army and the state media. Last month, Gbagbo let himself be sworn in, in regal fashion, wearing a sash and preening in front of the cameras by the presidential palace.
Women take part in a prayer for peace on December 27, 2010 at Republic square in Abidjan, after Ivory Coast strongman Laurent Gbagbo warned that refusal to recognize him as Ivory Coast’s legitimate leader was pushing the country towards civil war. (Photo
For the world’s largest cocoa producer, which supplies about 40 percent of the world’s cocoa, the price of chocolate isn’t the only thing in play. As youth militias loyal to Gbagbo mobilize, conducting nightly raids, abductions, and torture in the opposition neighborhoods of Abidjan, there are fears that the country could relapse into large-scale violence with considerable human and economic costs, possibly affecting the entire region, which relies on this country’s commercial port. The U.N. has warned of possible civil war and the U.S. has evacuated State Department personnel. Fear of a $30 million interest default has already made the international bond markets nervous. And in the past month, the U.N.’s refugee agency, UNHCR, has logged almost 20,000 refugees, mostly women and children fleeing the crisis to neighboring Liberia—itself a fragile state, newly emerging from conflict.
For the world’s largest cocoa producer, which supplies about 40 percent of the world’s cocoa, the price of chocolate isn’t the only thing in play.
The actual winner, Alassane Ouattara, has meanwhile hunkered down at the Golf Hotel, a virtual captive in the country where he has just been elected president. (French journalists have nicknamed him the President of the Golf Hotel Republic.) The only thing standing between Ouattara and Gbagbo’s army are 800 U.N. peacekeepers—each force behind their respective lines, leaving no choice but to airlift food and supplies to the hotel, where the grounds and structure have been transformed into makeshift ministries and cabinet offices.
Last month, the U.N. General Assembly voted unanimously to recognize Ouattara as the rightful head of the Ivorian state, sending the ambassadorial mission of Gbagbo packing. (They left in a huff, taking all the computers and office equipment as a consolation prize.)
Looking for other means to dislodge the previous president from power, the Central Bank of West African States has ceded control of the state funds to Ouattara in an effort to choke the economic lifeline of Gbagbo. How loyal his ethnically stacked army will be once he runs out of money will be interesting to see.
In further attempts to isolate Gbagbo, the African Union has suspended his membership, and regional allies have even raised the possibility of the use of “legitimate force” to remove him—a threat they have since backed away from.
All this talk of intervention raises the question: In an increasingly global and interdependent world, where actions have far-reaching consequences, often implicating those who had no part in the decisions, and where world bodies are tasked to pick up the pieces, is the sovereign nation destined to become a relic of the past, to be relegated to the dustbin of history along with feudal states and walled cities surrounded by moats?
The last century witnessed the creation of global institutions—the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, the World Trade Organization, and the many U.N. agencies—all supra-national institutions with global mandates, yet subject to sovereign whims of national or personal interests. Consequently, Omar Bashir remains free in spite of ICC indictments; the West Bank is fast becoming an Israeli colony in spite of the ICJ rulings; the West continues to push for agricultural subsidies that favor their own to the detriment of poorer nations; and the U.N. remains handcuffed by the narrow mandate it is given after the big five settle on the lowest common denominator on the Security Council.
The case of Ivory Coast is not just a practical and very real problem. It is also a test case of how the international community can—and should—deal with claims of sovereignty offered by those who can’t make it.
In a shrinking world, the stakes are higher than ever. And sovereignty may be the last sacred cow.
Firouzeh Afsharnia was born in Iran and immigrated to the U.S. during the Iranian revolution. She was part of the U.N. Peacekeeping Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where she lived for two years. Afsharnia holds an MBA from University of Southern California and a master’s in International Service, with a focus on Conflict and Africa, from American University. She has traveled extensively in Africa, consulted for the World Bank and served on election missions with the Carter Center in Nepal, DRC, and Ivory Coast. She lives and writes in Los Angeles.
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Côte d’Ivoire : Ouattara-Gbagbo, rencontre ou pas ?
le 04 janvier 2011 / http://lci.tf1.fr/monde/afrique/2011-01/cote-d-ivoire-gbagbo-ouattara-rencontre-ou-pas-6210624.html
– Rencontre démentie
Sans surprise, Laurent Gbagbo n’a pas accepté de quitter le pouvoir lors de la visite lundi des quatre émissaires africains de la Communauté économique des Etats d’Afrique de l’Ouest (Cédéao) et de l’Union africaine.
Ces émissaires, qui ont quitté Abidjan dans la soirée, ont ensuite assuré mardi matin avoir néanmoins obtenu une avancée : une rencontre entre Laurent Gbagbo et Alassane Ouattara, sous certaines conditions. “Nous avons rompu la glace. Nous avons entamé les discussions”, a déclaré Raila Odinga, le Premier ministre kényan et médiateur de l’Union africaine, sans fixer de date.
Quelques minutes plus tard, le camp Ouattara démentait avoir donné son accord. “C’est totalement faux. Cette proposition a été faite par Odinga et nous l’avons totalement rejetée. Nous ne sommes pas contents”, affirme Ali Coulibaly, le conseiller diplomatique du président reconnu par la communauté internationale. Il souligne qu’Alassane Ouattara s’en tient aux déclarations qu’il a faites après sa rencontre avec les médiateurs africains, à savoir qu’il est le “président légitime” de Côte d’Ivoire et que Laurent Gbagbo “doit partir”.
– Proposition des Etats-Unis
Washington s’est dit lundi soir prêt à “envisager” l’accueil aux Etats-Unis de Laurent Gbagbo s’il le demande, pour aider à clore la crise. “Mais toutes les possibilités risquent de disparaître rapidement”, a précisé un haut responsable américain sous couvert d’anonymat, ajoutant que pour l’heure “il s’obstine”.
– La France ne veut pas intervenir
Interrogé sur Europe 1 mardi matin, Alain Juppé, le ministre de la Défense, a redit que “la France ne prendra pas l’initiative d’une intervention militaire” pour tenter de régler la crise. “Je sais que la Cédéao (la Communauté économique des Etats d’Afrique de l’Ouest), c’est-à-dire les voisins de la Côte d’Ivoire, y réfléchissent. Je pense que c’est aux Africains de décider. “Je pense que ça leur revient et certainement pas à l’armée française”, a-t-il souligné.
“Nos troupes ne sont là-bas que dans le cadre des Nations-Unies. Le seul cas évidemment où nous interviendrions, c’est si nos nationaux -ils sont nombreux, plus de 15.000- étaient menacés de quelque manière que ce soit”, a-t-il ajouté.
Ingérence dans les affaires intérieures en Afrique
Publié le mardi 4 janvier 2011 | http://news.abidjan.net/h/385863.html / Par professeur Albert Bourgi
Côte d’Ivoire : interventionnisme sous couvert de la communauté internationale Jamais dans l’histoire des relations franco africaines, une crise n’aura soulevé autant de parti pris mediatico politique en France que celle que vit la Côte d’Ivoire depuis bientôt une dizaine d’années. Aujourd’hui, comme hier en septembre 2002, lors du déclenchement d’une rébellion militaire ouvertement soutenue, voire totalement planifiée par un chef d’État voisin, Blaise Compaoré, et fait inédit en Afrique subsaharienne, coupant le pays en deux, l’opinion publique africaine et internationale s’est vue servir une interprétation unilatérale, voire tronquée, des événements. Et pour couronner le tout, voire pour conforter le courant d’opinion, la position officielle française s’est réduite à accabler le Chef de l’État ivoirien, Laurent Gbagbo, à voir en lui le seul responsable de la rébellion qui a provoqué la partition du pays, et aujourd’hui, de la crise post électorale. Or dans l’un et l’autre cas, hier avec Jacques Chirac, aujourd’hui avec Nicolas Sarkozy, selon des méthodes différentes, l’objectif est le même : évincer coûte que coûte Laurent Gbagbo du pouvoir, et préserver la cohésion du pré carré français en Afrique.
En 2002, en 2004, après le bombardement de Bouaké et l’intervention directe des troupes françaises dans Abidjan, comme en 2005, 2006, à travers la tentative de mise sous tutelle de la Côte d’Ivoire, et bien entendu aujourd’hui, par le biais d’un processus électoral totalement dévoyé, il ne s’agit de rien d’autre que de se débarrasser d’un homme qui, aux yeux de l’ancienne puissance coloniale, remettait en question son emprise politique en Afrique. A chacune des étapes de cet interventionnisme français, le mode opératoire est identique : mettre en avant les organisations régionales africaines au sein desquelles siègent les chefs d’État adoubés par la France et dont la traduction la plus parfaite est incarnée par d’anciens auteurs de coups d’État reconvertis à la pseudo démocratie, à l’image d’un Blaise Compaoré ou d’un Faure Gnassimbé Eyadéma, et user de son influence aux Nations unies, particulièrement au Conseil de sécurité.
La crise post électorale en Côte d’Ivoire illustre à l’évidence la perpétuation de la politique d’ingérence de la France en Afrique, qui tout en ne prenant plus les formes caricaturales d’actions militaires directes destinées à maintenir l’ordre intérieur au profit de «présidents amis», n’en aboutit pas moins aux mêmes résultats que naguère. Quelle communauté internationale ?
Cette politique interventionniste de la France s’adosse désormais à la notion ambiguë de communauté internationale, pour instrumentaliser les dispositifs internationaux de règlement des conflits que ce soit à l’ONU, à l’Union européenne, à l’Union africaine ou à la CEDEAO, au sein desquels elle dispose d’importants réseaux d’influence, ce qui lui permet de faire passer «ses solutions politiques». C’est de ce registre international qui s’est grossi de «groupes internationaux de contact» que le pouvoir français est parvenu à faire avaliser les coups d’État perpétrés en Mauritanie en 2008, et à Madagascar, et mieux encore à faire élire, avec le soutien de la prétendue communauté internationale, le général mauritanien, Mohamed Abdel Aziz. Cette nouvelle forme d’intervention sous couvert de la légalité internationale et d’actions concertées entre les différentes institutions internationales, a incontestablement atteint sa maturation en Côte d’Ivoire, du coup d’État manqué du 19 septembre 2002 et de ses suites diplomatiques (la Conférence de Kléber en janvier 2003) à ce qu’il faut bien appeler un coup de force électoral de décembre 2010, orchestré par le représentant spécial du Secrétaire général de l’ONU. Le passage en force de ce dernier, entouré pour l’occasion des ambassadeurs français et américains en poste à Abidjan, pour entériner définitivement les résultats «provisoires» proclamés par le président de la Commission électorale, au siège du candidat déclaré «élu», et cela au titre d’un pouvoir de «certification» dont il disposerait, renvoie à une pratique totalement inédite dans l’histoire des Nations unies.
Jamais l’ONU n’a outrepassé de telle manière son mandat, y compris au Timor oriental, au Kosovo, en République démocratique du Congo, pour ne citer que ces exemples. Faisant fi des institutions d’un pays souverain, membre des Nations unies depuis cinquante ans, et ne se donnant pas le temps de permettre à la Commission électorale de débattre des contestations soulevées au cours des délibérations, Monsieur Choi a incontestablement cédé aux pressions de certains pays, dont et surtout la France représentée en Côte d’Ivoire par un ambassadeur dont le parcours professionnel est un parfait condensé de la Françafrique. En brandissant l’argument de la communauté internationale, et en se prévalant d’un processus électoral sur lequel pèse des suspicions très lourdes et à terme grave de conséquences pour la stabilité de la Côte d’Ivoire, Nicolas Sarkozy s’inscrit dans la droite ligne d’une politique néocoloniale de la France, dont les métastases se trouvaient déjà dans le discours raciste qu’il a prononcé à Dakar en juillet 2007g
UN /ONU :
UN chief slams church blast in N Egypt
English.news.cn 2011-01-03 / UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) — UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday strongly condemned the bomb attack at the al-Qiddissin Coptic Church in Egypt’s northern city of Alexandria that took place on New Year’s Eve, killing 21 people and injuring 70 others.
A statement issued here late Sunday by Ban’s spokesman said the secretary-general, who was “appalled” by the bomb attack, “strongly condemns this deplorable act of violence and supports efforts by the Egyptian authorities to bring those responsible to justice.”
“The secretary-general conveys his sincere condolences to the families of the victims and to the government and people of the Arab Republic of Egypt,” the statement added.
A statement of the Egyptian Interior Ministry said the car, which was parked outside the church and caused the blast, was believed to belong to one who frequently went to the church.
Small clashes between Muslims and Christians followed the attack, but the situation has been put under control on Saturday morning, reports said.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.
Coptic Christians account for about 10 percent of Egypt’s total population of nearly 80 million. Tensions between Muslims and Coptics happen sometimes in Egypt for a number of reasons, including religious conversions.
USA :
US cable leaks’ collateral damage in Zimbabwe
guardian.co.uk, / Monday 3 January 2011 19.00 GMT
Zimbabwe’s PM Morgan Tsvangirai faces a treason inquiry after WikiLeaks revealed his talks with US embassy officials about possible sanctions. Photograph: Alexander Joe/AFP/Getty Images
When WikiLeaks whistleblowers began circulating in April footage of a 2007 Iraq war incursion in which US military personnel unwittingly killed two war correspondents and several civilians, the international community was aghast at the apparent murder. With sobering questions on the material’s full context largely falling on deaf ears, the group was free to editorialise the scene as it pleased: “collateral murder”.
But now, with the recent release of sensitive diplomatic cables, WikiLeaks may have committed its own collateral murder, upending the precarious balance of power in a fragile African state and signing the death warrant of its pro-western premier.
Zimbabwe’s Morgan Tsvangirai’s call to public service has been a tortured one, punctuated by death and indignity.
His numerous arrests and brushes with death began in 1997, when he emerged as the unlikely face of opposition to President Robert Mugabe. That year, Mugabe’s henchmen nearly threw Tsvangirai from the window of his tenth floor office. He would be arrested on four separate occasions in the years to follow. During one such arrest, in 2007, he was severely beaten and tortured by Zimbabwean special forces at the behest of the ruling political party.
After Zimbabwe’s 2008 presidential contest – featuring incumbent Mugabe, Tsvangirai and independent Simba Makoni – failed to award any candidate with the majority necessary to claim victory, the election defaulted to a runoff between the two highest vote-getters, Mugabe and Tsvangirai.
In the days succeeding the first round of balloting, Tsvangirai was the alleged target of an assassination plot and subsequently taken into the custody of Mugabe’s police, for which American and German diplomats demanded his immediate release. After initially committing to pursuing a second challenge to Mugabe, Tsvangirai withdrew in protest, lambasting the election as a “violent sham” in which his supporters were risking their lives to cast ballots in his favour. Indeed, it is estimated that over 100 MDC supporters met an untimely demise in the period following the election.
Following intense negotiations, the two parties agreed in February 2009 to a coalition government, in which Mugabe would remain head of state – a post he had held uninterrupted for 30 years – and Tsvangirai would assume the premiership. Not one month later, Tsvangirai and his wife were involved in a suspicious collision with a lorry. Though the prime minister survived, his wife for 31 years died.
With little regard for the nuances and subtlety of soft international diplomacy, WikiLeaks released last week a classified US state department cable relating a 2009 meeting between Tsvangirai and American and European ambassadors, whose countries imposed travel sanctions and asset freezes on Mugabe and his top political lieutenants on the eve of Zimbabwe’s 2002 presidential election.
Though western sanctions don’t prohibit foreign trade and investment or affect international aid – it’s said that Zimbabwe’s 2009 cholera epidemic topped 100,000 cases, registering some 4,300 deaths – the Mugabe administration effectively characterised the sanctions as an affront to the common Zimbabwean, further crippling the nation’s already hobbled economy. (Zimbabwe’s national unemployment figure hovers somewhere near 90%.)
Publicly, Tsvangirai opposed the measures out of political necessity. In private conversations with western diplomats, however, the ascendant Tsvangirai praised its utility in forcing Mugabe’s hand in the new unity government.
Now, in the wake of the WikiLeaks’ release, one of the men targeted by US and EU travel and asset freezes, Mugabe’s appointed attorney general, has launched a probe to investigate Tsvangirai’s involvement in sustained western sanctions. If found guilty, Tsvangirai will face the death penalty.
And so, where Mugabe’s strong-arming, torture and assassination attempts have failed to eliminate the leading figure of Zimbabwe’s democratic opposition, WikiLeaks may yet succeed. Twenty years of sacrifice and suffering by Tsvangirai all for naught, as WikiLeaks risks “collateral murder” in the name of transparency.
Before more political carnage is wrought and more blood spilled – in Africa and elsewhere, with special concern for those US-sympathising Afghans fingered in its last war document dump – WikiLeaks ought to leave international relations to those who understand it – at least to those who understand the value of a life.
CANADA :
Canadian Space Agency testing African-style cured meats for astronaut missions
By RANDY SHORE 3 JAN 2011
The Canadian Space Agency is conducting tests on South African-style dried beef produced by a Cranbrook couple to see if it is suitable for astronauts to eat on space missions.
Rod and Mal Paterson, owners of Biltong Canada, were contacted by the Operational Space Medicine Group (OSM) of the space agency in October inquiring about biltong cured meat. OSM is the division responsible for the health of Canadian astronauts.
“We just got this e-mail out of the blue,” said Mal Paterson. “That was really fun and exciting.”
“They asked us to send them some samples and they were very specific about the size and the packaging that they wanted,” she said.
In correspondence, the agency made detailed inquiries about the shelf life of the cured meats.
The order specifies that the biltong be delivered in 50-and 100-gram packets. The Patersons sent the space medicine group a total of two kilos of biltong and droewors, a dried sausage.
A second e-mail from the agency arrived just before Christmas saying that the products were undergoing testing and that taste testing would start early in 2011.
While Biltong Canada has customers all over the country, Rod Paterson never thought he would find an extraplanetary market for his products.
Biltong is a traditional air dried meat made from slabs of inside round beef according to a recipe developed about 300 years ago by the first European settlers in South Africa for easy transport in saddlebags.
The Patersons began making traditional meat products as a home business not long after moving to B.C. from South Africa seven years ago.
“It’s still a home business, but it’s growing by leaps and bounds,” Mal Paterson said.
Much of the food eaten by Canadian astronauts on missions is dried as there is no refrigeration on the International Space Station.
Ready to eat foods are a big advantage in space. Foods such as vegetables have to be rehydrated in the original packaging with water injected through a tube and then warmed in a small convection oven.
Astronauts eat from trays attached to them by straps. The packages are opened with scissors to allow the astronauts to extract bite-sized pieces of food.
Astronauts choose all their own foods before each mission. The International Space Station is also stocked with emergency rations, enough to supply each astronaut with 2,000 calories a day for 22 days.
AUSTRALIA :
EUROPE :
Aide de la Belgique et de la FAO aux agriculteurs africains
Samedi, décembre 18th, 2010 – Centre d’information des Nations Unies
http://mondeactu.com/monde/aide-de-la-belgique-et-de-la-fao-aux-agriculteurs-africains-9619.html
La Belgique vient d’approuver un programme de l’Organisation des Nations Unies flow l’alimentation et l’agriculture (FAO) de 6,6 millions de dollars d’aide d’urgence aux agriculteurs pauvres africains, dans le cadre d’un partenariat qui a totalisé and de 80 millions de dollars au cours des 12 dernières années.
Quelque 2,6 millions de dollars de la Coopération belge flow le développement bénéficieront directement aux familles d’agriculteurs dont les moyens d’existence ont été compromis durant les troubles en République démocratique du Congo. Du manioc et des plants de patates douces ainsi que des outils et des semences seront distribués à 25 000 paysans, selon un communiqué.
En outre, 4 000 autres paysans bénéficieront d’une assistance flow doper leur prolongation de maïs et répondre à la demande du marché. Les coopératives de producteurs recevront une arrangement de base: réparation des machines-outils, des silos à pellet et des routes. Cela facilitera le stockage et le ride des récoltes.
Cette partie du projet sera mise en oeuvre conjointement avec le “Purchase for Progress (P4P)” du Programme alimentaire mondial (PAM), également financé standard la Belgique. Le PAM help les agriculteurs en achetant leurs produits qui sont ensuite distribués comme help alimentaire aux personnes qui souffrent de la faim.
Le enclose de la Belgique à la FAO aidera également au retour des anciens soldats et des familles d’agriculteurs qui ont souffert du fait des inondations et de la flambée des prix dans un pays voisin, le Burundi, et ce, dans le cadre d’un programme de 2 millions de dollars qui les aidera à reprendre leurs activités dans les champs. Le reste du enclose belge ira à l’aide aux paysans affectés standard la sécheresse au Niger et en Ethiopie.
La Belgique est l’un des and solides contributeurs aux activités d’urgence de la FAO. Cela est très apprécié et sa dernière démonstration de générosité permettra d’améliorer les moyens d’existence et la sécurité alimentaire de milliers de personnes vulnérables, a déclaré en piece M. Laurent Thomas, directeur de la Division des opérations d’urgence et de la réhabilitation à la FAO.
La Belgique a également contribué à hauteur de 900 000 dollars au Fonds spécial de la FAO flow les activités d’urgence et de réhabilitation qui permet à l’Organisation d’agir promptement dans les situations d’urgence. Depuis 1997, la Belgique a financé and de 105 projets d’urgence et de réhabilitation dans and 20 pays touchés standard des catastrophes.
CHINA :
China BRICS up Africa
By M K Bhadrakumar http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-01/03/c_13674810.htm
There can be no two opinions that Beijing made a smart move. Its decision to anoint South Africa as a new member of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) will be projected as based on economic grounds, but there are any number of other dimensions.
The decision was hugely significant politically, and its announcement showed delightful timing – Christmas Eve. It also has vast geopolitical potential and it is undoubtedly based on strategic considerations. The choice of South Africa can even be spotted as a gutsy move to disprove a prediction from Jim O’Neill, chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management and guru of the BRIC concept, that Nigeria was better placed to make the grade.
The next BRIC summit – or BRICS as it will now be known – is
Arguably, why South Africa? In the size of its economy, growth rate or population, South Africa lags far behind the BRIC average. Knowing that his grip on BRIC was waning, O’Neill bestirred himself from Christmas holidays to say, “It is not entirely obvious to me why the BRIC should have agreed to ask South Africa to join. How can South Africa be regarded as a big economy? And, by the way, they happen to be struggling as well.” In fact, the rand touched three-year highs against the US dollar when the news broke.
The gross domestic product (GDP) of South Africa is about US$285 billion as compared to Russia or India’s ($1,600 billion), Brazil’s ($2,000 billion) or China’s ($5,500 billion). GDP never quite tells the whole story, but even then, China has obviously made some smart calculations.
For one thing, China knew South Africa was interested to join BRIC and assessed that it pays in many ways to show Beijing is prepared to go the extra league to protect its number one African partner’s interests. Beijing took a far-fetched investment decision to create political goodwill. O’Neill’s laconic remark summed it up: “When I created the acronym, I had not expected that a political club of the BRIC countries would be formed as a result.”
In his celebrated 2001 paper titled “The World Needs Better Economic BRICs”, O’Neill used the acronym as a symbol of the shift in global economic power away from the developed Group of 7 economies toward the developing world. He argued that by 2050 the combined economies of the four BRIC countries would exceed the economies of the richest countries in 2001.
Yet, he was confident BRIC would never evolve into an economic or trading bloc – like European Union (EU) or the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). However, the BRIC acronym is extended with South Africa’s admission, and BRICS is indeed heading to form a “political club”, sidestepping the mode of the EU or ASEAN.
India faces some strategic choices if the grouping assumes a political orientation. Indeed, India wouldn’t dream of opposing South Africa’s admission but, strangely, to date, the Indian foreign ministry has not pronounced a word.
Both Russia and Brazil have acclaimed the Chinese decision and, interestingly, both noted the political significance of the decision. Russia’s foreign ministry said South Africa is a “leading African country” whose entry into BRIC is “in line with … the emergence of a polycentric international system”. The Brazilian foreign ministry commended that South Africa will make an “important contribution” to the BRIC both on account of its economic relevance and its “constructive political action”.
Brazil added, “The addition of South Africa will expand the geographic representation of the [BRIC] mechanism at a time that we are looking, on the international level, to reform the financial system and increase democratization of global governance.” Part of India’s nervousness probably lies in the reference by Brazil about “democratization of global governance”.
India increasingly pins hopes on the US to advance its bid for UN Security Council membership and is making adjustments to its foreign policy so as to meet with Washington’s approval. Its dilemma will be acute if the BRICS moves toward a common position on international issues that runs against the grain of the US’ global strategies.
The official China Daily newspaper indirectly took note of Delhi’s lukewarm attitude to the grouping. In a commentary titled “Building BRICS” last week, it left out India while making the following reference:
China, Russia and Brazil assumed an important role when the international community sought to resolve the Iran nuclear issue and tensions in the Middle East and on the Korean Peninsula. Their greater say in international affairs and inevitable assumption of more responsibilities are a significant contribution to multilateralism and have lifted the status of the developing world as a whole in the international arena.
The logical thing would have been to simply merge BRIC and IBSA (India, Brazil and South Africa). But India seems to have turned down the idea. “IBSA has a personality of its own. It is three separate continents, three democracies. BRIC is a conception devised by Goldman Sachs. We are trying to put life into it”, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh suggestively explained a few months ago while underlining the high importance that Delhi ascribed to IBSA (which excludes China).
India sees its interests intersecting with China’s in Africa. Delhi has decided that Africa will be one of its three “major foreign policy targets” in 2011. During his visit to Delhi in November, US President Barack Obama pointedly singled out Africa as a region where the two countries should closely cooperate. Indian Foreign Minister S M Krishna was explicit that India saw itself locked in a rivalry with China. “China is taking more than normal interest in the Indian Ocean and we are monitoring it carefully.”
Beijing’s decision to bring South Africa, which is the heavyweight in Africa, into BRIC pre-empts the proposed US-Indian collaboration. Without doubt, both Washington and Delhi would estimate to their discomfort that the grouping’s anchor of economic logic has been unmoored. Neither expected Beijing to move so fast.
Beijing estimated that the time has come for expanding the geographic spread of the BRIC so that it can aspire to play a more significant role on the world stage. In 2011-2012, all the BRICS countries will serve as members of the 14-member UN Security Council. Five out of 14 makes a hefty share – almost one-third, which also is around BRIC’s share of the world economy.
During the first decade of the century, BRIC contributed 27.8% of the world GDP growth in US dollar terms and made up about a quarter of the world economy in purchasing power parity (PPP). According to Goldman Sachs, BRIC is set to contribute to about 49% of the global GDP growth by 2020 and account for a third of the world economy in PPP.
Arguably, South Korea, Mexico and Turkey, popularly known as the “growth economies” (each accounting for about 1% of global GDP) have a better claim than South Africa to join BRIC. The South African economy of $285 billion compares poorly with South Korea’s ($830 billion), Turkey’s ($615 billion) and Mexico’s ($875 billion). But South Africa has one distinctive asset: it is the “gateway” to an entire continent for trade and investment – and for making geopolitical forays.
To quote the People’s Daily, “The role of South Africa’s traditional trading partners – Western countries – has been lessened significantly … China is South Africa’s largest trading partner, and South Africa is the largest destination in Africa for China’s direct investment … By joining the BRIC countries, South Africa also hopes to become the gateway for the BRIC countries’ entry into Africa … South Africa has the ability to promote agendas related to Africa on the international arena … This is an important factor that makes South Africa valuable as a BRIC country.”
By getting South Africa on board, China challenges the US to rework its Africa strategy. How do you patrol the “global commons” in the Indian Ocean without a grip on the Cape of Good Hope? Interestingly, the challenge is of diplomatic suppleness with no trace of hard power. Beijing closely coordinates its foreign policy moves with Moscow and the initiative to legitimize South Africa as a future global power can be seen as a joint decision to challenge the US strategies in Africa and the Indian Ocean.
Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar was a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service. His assignments included the Soviet Union, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Germany, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kuwait and Turkey.
(Copyright 2011 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
La Tunisie classée parmi les cinq pays investisseurs africains en Chine
Lundi, 03 Janvier 2011 18:26 By I.Z Investissement
D’après le livre blanc publié dernièrement, par le bureau de l’information du conseil des affaires d’Etat (gouvernement chinois), sur la coopération économique et commerciale chino-africaine, la Tunisie figure parmi les 5 pays africains qui investissent activement en Chine au cours de l’année 2009.
De par la Tunisie, l’île Maurice, l’Afrique du Sud, les Seychelles et le Nigeria sont les principaux investisseurs africains en Chine.
Ainsi, les investissements directs africains en Chine aussi se sont élevés à 9,33 milliards de dollars fin 2009, couvrant les domaines de la pétrochimie, de l’outillage, de l’électronique, du transport et des communications.
INDIA :
BRASIL:
EN BREF, CE 4 janvier 2011… AGNEWS /DAM, NY,04/01/2011
