{jcomments on}OMAR, AGNEWS, BXL, le 02 mai 2010 – www.un.org- May 02, 2010–The top United Nations humanitarian official today condemned the “horrific” atrocities committed by a notorious Uganda rebel group in the volatile northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
RWANDA
Rwandan to speak at breakfast
Former hotel manager who inspired movie seeks democracy
www.pjstar.com/By JOHN GUIDROZ /GateHouse News Service /May 02, 2010
SPRINGFIELD — Paul Rusesabagina is far removed from the 1994 genocide in the Republic of Rwanda, where hundreds of thousands of people were killed.
The country, located in the Great Lakes region of central Africa, was the site of mass violence at the hands of the Hutu-elite government and the Interhamwe militias. While managing the Sabena Hotel des Mille Collines, Rusesabagina let 1,268 Hutus and Tutsis take shelter there for 76 days.
“They were terrified because of what was going on outside,” he said in a telephone interview last week. “As a manager, I cared for them from the beginning to the end.”
Rusesabagina’s efforts inspired the 2004 movie “Hotel Rwanda,” starring Don Cheadle. After the movie was released, Rusesabagina began speaking out against the conflicts in Rwanda and the Congo.
He will bring his message to the 2010 Governor’s Prayer Breakfast, set for 7:30 a.m. May 12 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel.
Gov. Pat Quinn, who has been close friends with Rusesabagina since meeting him three years ago, invited him to speak at the breakfast.
Rusesabagina said he hopes to “raise awareness for equal rights and equal justice” throughout Rwanda and other areas being oppressed by government officials.
“This is all about democracy,” he said of the speech. “We need teachers who believe that.”
Rusesabagina said he will talk about how freedom of speech is disappearing in Rwanda, after two weekly newspapers were recently closed for six months. The suspensions will prevent the Umuseso and Umuvugizi newspapers from covering the presidential election in August.
Rusesabagina said he would also discuss the ongoing war in the Congo, which started in 1996. About 45,000 people are killed in the conflict every month, and about 7 million people have died since the war began.
Despite these numbers, Rusesabagina said most people are still unaware about the war and its impact on the region.
He said the country finances the war mainly from the mineral coltan, which is widely used in cell phones, computers and video games.
After speaking about the conflict in the Congo, Rusesabagina said countries like Sweden, Canada and the Netherlands cut off direct aid to Rwanda in an effort to curb the violence there.
“This is a very positive sign that the world is watching (and) that the world feels concerned,” Rusesabagina said.
In addition to speeches, he created the Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation in 2005 to raise awareness and provide assistance for orphans of Africa’s civil war. Around $200,000 has been contributed to the foundation.
Rusesabagina has received numerous honors, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National Civil Rights Museum Freedom Award.
John Guidroz can be reached at (217) 782-6882 or John.guidroz@sj-r.com.
Copyright 2010 pjstar.com. Some rights reserved
UGANDA
UN relief chief speaks out against Ugandan rebel violence in DR Congo
www.un.org/2 May 2010
1 May 2010 – The top United Nations humanitarian official today condemned the “horrific” atrocities committed by a notorious Uganda rebel group in the volatile northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes spoke out against the violence on a visit to Niangara, an area in Orientale Province near the DRC’s border with Sudan and the Central African Republic (CAR).
It was the scene of one of the worst recent massacres carried out by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), which terrorized northern Uganda for two decades before spilling over into neighbouring countries and has been accused of committing atrocities including mutilations and the recruitment of child soldiers.
During the attack last December, more than 300 civilians were reportedly killed and some 250 – including at least 80 children – were kidnapped.
Since late 2007, roughly 1,800 civilians are thought to have been killed by the LRA and 2,400 abducted throughout the province.
In Niangara today, Mr. Holmes heard first-hand accounts from survivors, including one woman whose lips and ear had been torn off two days ago in a typically barbaric and inexplicable attack.
“This is unacceptable. We need a rapid solution to what has become a regional crisis,” he emphasized.
In meetings with authorities and humanitarian workers in the area, the official voiced concern that the possible drawdown of the UN peacekeeping mission in the country, known as MONUC, could have negative effects on the protection of civilians and on humanitarian access.
“MONUC is a deterrent for the LRA, and its presence is also essential to humanitarian operations in this province,” he stated. “I am concerned that their departure could increase the suffering of civilians, and reduce our ability to help them.”
Seven UN agencies and 23 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) carry out humanitarian work in Orientale Province’s Haut-Uele and Bas-Uele districts, combined are home to at least 320,000 persons uprooted by LRA-related violence.
Due to the ongoing threat posed by the group’s presence, the internally displaced persons (IDPs) have little prospects of returning home in the near future.
Aid workers have been able to reach nearly two-thirds of the displaced population, but face obstacles on a daily basis due to insecurity and the inaccessibility of many of the IDPs in an area with little or no road coverage.
Yesterday, Mr. Holmes visited uprooted people in Mwenga, approximately 80 kilometres south-west of the city of Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province, also in northeast DRC.
“Civilians continue to suffer enormously and disproportionately in this armed conflict,” he said in Mwenga, where he helped launch a new feeding programme of the UN World Food Programme (WFP).
North and South Kivu provinces have been ravaged by armed conflict mainly pitting DRC”s national army against insurgents of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, better known as FDLR, the group’s French acronym.
Local armed militias and bandits also contribute to insecurity in the two Kivu provinces, where an estimated 1.4 million people are internally displaced, more than 70 per cent of whom live with host families, increasing the burden on a population with already-scarce resources.
TANZANIA:
CONGO RDC :
KENYA :
China grants Kenya Sh1.2bn
By SAMWEL KUMBA in Shanghai, China/www.nation.co.ke/May 2 2010
China has extended a grant of Sh1.2 billion to Kenya.
The bulk of the money will be in the development of a second port at Lamu and the construction of a rail and road corridor from the Coast to Isiolo.
This will link the Kenyan Coast to Southern Sudan and land-locked Ethiopia to the north.
A statement after talks between President Kibaki and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao said the port will take top priority. It is estimated to cost $16 billion (Sh1.2 trillion).
“My visit today, the third one in a five years, underscores the close relations between Kenya and China,” said President Kibaki.
The port will have 22 berths with a quay on 1,000 acres. It will serve Ethiopia, currently served by Djibouti port.
President Hu described Mr Kibaki as a true and old friend of China. He said Mr Kibaki’s leadership had set Kenya on the growth path to drive the economies of East and Central Africa.
President Kibaki said China was a genuine development partner and critical ally in Kenya’s economic revival with total bilateral assistance of Sh42 billion.
He added that Kenya’s development cooperation with China was anchored on the Forum for China Africa Cooperation Action Plan adopted during the fourth Ministerial Conference at Sharm-El-Shiekh in Egypt last year.
Mr Kibaki’s State visit to China included attending the Shanghai World Expo that opened on Saturday. He officially opened the Kenyan exhibition stand. The President and the ministers accompanying him toured the stands of Ghana and Rwanda.
Only five African countries have built their own pavilions. They are South Africa, Libya, Algeria, Nigeria and Angola.
On Friday evening, President Kibaki joined his host Mr Hu and other heads of state including French President Nicolas Sarkozy, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, Malawi President Bingu Wa Mutharika, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and North Koreas number two Kim Yong-nam at the grand reception and opening ceremony of the Expo at the park next to Shanghai’s Huangpu River.
President Kibaki affirmed the Kenyan government had adopted a pragmatic approach that would transform the country into a middle income economy in line with Vision 2030, the country’s development blue print.
The Chinese leader committed himself to encouraging investors to open businesses in Kenya and more tourists to visit.
President Hu announced new areas of cooperation with Kenya in health and education.
The talks were attended by Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Cabinet ministers Moses Wetang’ula, Fred Gumo, John Munyes, assistant ministers Nderitu Murithi, Mohamed Abu Chiaba and Joseph Nkaissery among others.
ANGOLA :
SOUTH AFRICA:
AFRICA / AU :
Mining for Asbestos in South Africa Costs Many Lives of Workers
02052010/newyorknewstoday.com
After more than five years, several thousand South African laborers received little compensation in a settlement. The workers had been mining asbestos for Cape PLC, a British company, who found that labor costs in England were much to high and they moved their company to South Africa where nearly 7,500 workers became sick or died after extensive exposure to asbestos.
Clearly, globalization threatens the advances labor has made in employment protections. At the same time, it brings new meaning to labor’s belief that “an injury to one is an injury to all.”
Asbestos in the United States: Claims and the Trust Fund
The South Africa story brings into sharp focus the reality that asbestos is the new scourge of the modern workplace. Legal professionals have been working with laborers and workers to provide compensation for negligence. The enormity of this legal battle is staggering. Just over half a million individuals have filed compensation claims for exposure to asbestos in the U.S. And business has had to pay out more than $54 billion because of its negligence. Some experts predict that as many as 2.4 million additional asbestos claims will be filed, and business will have to pay an additional $210 billion to compensate workers for asbestos injuries.
To address this catastrophe, Congress has been working on creating an asbestos trust fund to pay claims from injured workers. Such a trust fund would ease the flood of asbestos lawsuits in the court system. But legislation has stalled on the issue of how much money should be available in the fund. The highest figure mentioned has been $145 billion.
Asbestos is one of the major hazards workers have faced. The devastating effects of asbestos have been understood for quite some time. More than 30 years ago, the late physician and scientist Dr. Asbestos dust and fibers was once described as a hidden time bomb by Irving Selikoff.”
“The seeds of cancer,” he said, “are planted in the workplace … and by the time an agent is discovered and under control, millions of workers may have been exposed.” Dr. Selikoff also said that many organizations must partake in reducing the risks that laborers face with exposure to asbestos. Perhaps those in the legal profession should be added to the list. Because of the action taken by legal professionals it is likely that that is the reason why manufacturers and construction workers no longer use asbestos. Because of litigation, a safer workplace exists for employees who must deal with asbestos. Companies are finding that they’re going to have to do the right thing by their workers — or they are going to pay a heavy price.
If you have been exposed to asbestos and have suffered injury, you may have a legal case and are advised to contact a lawyer specializing in asbestos-related cases.
Somali gov’t, AU condemn deadly Mogadishu Mosque attack
Source: Xinhua/world.globaltimes.cn/ [ May 02 2010]
The Somali government and the African Union (AU) on Saturday separately condemned the deadly twin explosions that hit a Mogadishu mosque, expressing “shock and sadness at the killing of innocent civilians”.
The attacks which left almost 35 dead and more than 70 others injured took place in a packed mosque in the main Bakara market in the south of the Somali capital.
Somali information minister Dahir Mohamoud Gelle told reporters that the Somali government was saddened by the attacks and he, on behalf of the government, sent deep condolences to the families of those affected by the blast.
Gelle described the attacks as unprecedented in Somalia because it targeted a place of worship.
Chairperson of the African Union Commission for Somalia Ambassador Boubacar Gaoussou Diarra condemned in the strongest terms possible the attacks and all attacks targeting public places especially those of worship such as the mosque.
“Indiscriminate attacks on public places like today’s incident cannot be condoned. I, on behalf of the African Union, would like to call upon all warring parties in the Somali conflict to stop such barbaric attacks on innocent civilian population.” said Ambassador Diarra in a statement.
The AU envoy sent his condolences to the families and relatives of those who have lost their lives and prays for quick recovery of those injured during this incident, the statement added.
Almost 5,000 AU peacekeepers are based in the government- controlled part of the Somali capital backing the fragile administration’s forces. The forces come under almost daily attacks from Islamist fighters.
Ambassador Diarra says it is regrettable to note that while the AU and its partners are investing huge resources to help the country achieve sustainable peace and security, killing of innocent civilians continues as various groups target public places in the conflict.
The African Union said it is closely monitoring and assessing the impact of the attacks on the mosque in the Bakara neighborhood.
The Islamist Al Shabaab movement blamed the attacks on “local collaborators” which it termed as foreign security firms operating in Mogadishu.
UN /ONU :
USA :
Britons join the jihadist ranks to fight in Somalia
Fears grow that al-Qaida is constructing a safe haven in east Africa with UK groups’ help
Mark Townsend, home affairs editor The Observer/ www.guardian.co.uk/Sunday 2 May 2010
A growing number of Britons are answering the call to jihad in Somalia and joining the ranks of militants linked to al-Qaida ahead of an American-backed drive next month to strengthen the country’s army.
Sources say that the influx, which includes Britons of Pakistani origin, is heading to the Horn of Africa as the US tries to shore up Somalia’s government in the face of a broadening Islamist insurgency.
Warnings have been sounded about British-based groups offering funding and expertise to individuals seeking to travel to Somalia to fight alongside al-Shabab, the militia aligned with al-Qaida’s global campaign.
US State Department sources said yesterday that it had noted an influx of “foreign fighters” arriving in Somalia to swell the ranks of al-Shabab. Popular routes from Britain to Somalia involve Kenya or Djibouti, the small republic that borders Somalia on its north west. One western official said some flights to the republic had, at one stage, been dubbed the “Djibouti express” because on occasion so many young Britons were on board. The precise scale of the exodus is unclear, but “scores” of British fighters are known to have travelled to Somalia.
Concern is growing over the drip-feed of British men attending Somali training camps. Officials are keen to limit the country’s potential to evolve into an alternative hideout for al-Qaida extremists from Afghanistan and Pakistan. Somalia’s ungoverned spaces raise the risk, say analysts, of the country replicating Afghanistan’s role as an al-Qaida safe haven when under Taliban control.
There is fresh concern over Somalia’s proximity to Yemen, the Arabian peninsula base for al-Qaida. Last week the British ambassador to Yemen survived a suicide bomb attack as his convoy travelled through the capital, Sanaa. A Pentagon source said recent events meant the US was developing “significant concerns about the growing threat” in the area.
America has brought US special forces into Yemen to work with the army to try to counter the al-Qaida threat. It has also spent $6.8m in Somalia supporting training for nearly 2,000 soldiers, touted as the biggest effort to rebuild the Somalian army in 20 years.
The issue of Somalia has been repeatedly raised by Jonathan Evans, director- general of MI5. “There is no doubt that there is training activity and terrorist planning in east Africa – particularly in Somalia – which is focused on the UK,” he has said.
British security sources cite the case last month of an Australian man of Somali origin who was suspected of working with al-Shabab, but who escaped from police custody in Kenya, as an example of the new wave of foreign fighters entering the country.
The movement between Somalia and the UK has led to increased efforts to detect potential terror networks linked to Islamic militants basedin east Africa. The Somali community in Britain numbers about 250,000, the largest in Europe, with the bulk of those coming to the country as refugees within the past 20 years.
Two Somali asylum-seekers were among the four men convicted of the failed attempts to bomb the London transport system on 21 July 2005.
Biggest World Expo ever opens in Shanghai
By John Boudreau/jboudreau@mercurynews.com/ 05/02/2010
SHANGHAI — To celebrate its emergence as a global power, China is throwing a party — the largest-ever world expo, a six-month extravaganza that kicked off Saturday with hundreds of thousands visitors.
While many in the West view world fairs as overblown trade shows, China sees the Shanghai World Expo as a way to burnish its image by mobilizing its masses and vast resources to create another jaw-dropping spectacle on the heels of the Beijing Olympics two years ago.
President Hu Jintao presided at an opening ceremony Friday night at the expo’s saucerlike cultural center that featured stars such as Jackie Chan. Hours later on Saturday morning, the gates opened to hundreds of thousands of Chinese eager to celebrate the country’s new global prominence.
“It’s a big stage for China, Shanghai and the citizens,” said Lu Ye, a 47-year-old engineer. He reveled in his good fortune to have tickets to attend the event with three generations of his family.
The expo grounds were designed to accommodate up to 600,000 visitors a day, and the lines of people waiting as long as four hours to get into prime venues, such as the USA Pavilion, made it look like there were few no-shows on opening day.
China’s adept organizing skills — from providing plenty of benches for tired visitors to installing 11,000 pristine public toilets — impressed many foreigners. “There is order in the chaos,” said Sara-Kate Astrove, a 21-year-old Tufts
University student volunteering at the USA Pavilion.
The significance China attached to the expo can be measured by the vast sums it spent in preparation. No official tally has been disclosed but local media put the total costs at $58 billion, substantially more than the estimated $42 billion spent on the Beijing Olympics.
“This is the message: ‘No one can do this but China and we are the future,’ ” said Debby Cheung, group managing director of Ogilvy Public Relations in China.
In all, some 70 million people are expected to march across the sprawling site dotted with pavilions from more than 200 countries and international organizations.
“This expo is the largest gathering of humanity in the history of mankind,” said Anthony Elvey, who is overseeing Cisco Systems’ expo participation. The giant San Jose networking equipment maker, which hopes to get billions of dollars of business in China, is a major corporate sponsor of the fair. The expo’s theme, “Better City, Better Life,” fits nicely with the company’s marketing campaign that its technology can dramatically improve the delivery of services, from health care to traffic management.
In recent decades, world expos have drawn relatively little attention. At the last one, held five years ago in Aichi, Japan, interest among American corporations was so low that the United States pavilion was sponsored by Toyota. Under U.S. law, public money can’t be used to fund the project.
This time around, though, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton cajoled U.S. companies to cough up donations to fund a $61 million, 60,000-square-foot pavilion and prevent an international tiff with China, which made it clear anything less than a robust American showing would be viewed as an insult.
“You didn’t have a choice not to attend this thing,” said Adam Minter, a Shanghai writer who has blogged extensively on the expo. “This is how China has done business for thousands of years: If you are a foreign country, you come, you bring your treasures, you kowtow.”
More countries have come bearing pavilions to the Shanghai Expo than to any expo in history. Israel built its first-ever pavilion. Japan spent $133 million on its exhibit, “Purple Silkworm Island.” To ensure maximum attendance, China set up a $100 million fund to cover the costs of developing countries, including many from Africa.
For Saturday’s opening, a host of world leaders were scheduled to be on hand, including French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and European Union Commission President José Manuel Barroso.
The expo comes during a period of rising tensions between China and the United States. Though frictions have eased in recent weeks, major disputes remain, including pressure from the United States for China to increase the valuation of its currency.
Even American corporations, including many from Silicon Valley, that rarely criticize China for fear of being shut out of its rapidly growing market, are chaffing against regulatory changes in China that they say tilt the field in favor of local companies.
Google’s decision to stop censoring its searches in China prompted the government to block much of the Mountain View company’s services, which only caused more irritation between the U.S. and Chinese leaders.
“There are two major news streams about China: The positive news is about China’s financial story. And the other is of an autocratic society and human rights violations,” said Kenneth DeWoskin, a Deloitte senior adviser based in China. “The Shanghai Expo is meant to build a more positive image of China around the world.”
It is also aimed at local Chinese, many of whom still marvel at the country’s quick rise.
“This is the first time China has had an expo,” said Yi Liang, co-founder of a mobile-phone technology company in Shanghai. Just 20 years ago, he added, it would have been unthinkable that China would host such an event.
There has been grumbling about the traffic tie-ups caused by two years of construction. Some have criticized the expo mascot Hai Bao because they believed it looked too much like Gumby. And popular Shanghai blogger Han Han poked fun at expo boosterism: “It’s sort of like when a domestic clothing brand is very hot and heavily advertised,” he wrote. “But when you go abroad and ask around you discover it’s actually a second-rate brand.”
Rising above all expo buildings is the Chinese pavilion, a $220 million edifice called the “Oriental Crown” and painted in the same red hue as the Forbidden City. The 206-foot-high pavilion features four pillars supporting six floors that expand horizontally with each ascending floor like an inverted pyramid. No other country was allowed to have an expo footprint remotely close in size.
Other pavilions make up for their smaller size with dazzling designs. Finland’s structure looks like an ark. Britain’s pavilion is a giant cube made from more than 60,000 acrylic rods containing seeds of different plants. Latvia built a glittering box. Canada’s pavilion, designed by Cirque du Soleil, looks like a lumpy wood carving. Denmark showed deference by sending to Shanghai its popular “Little Mermaid” statue, inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale— the first time it has been taken abroad.
America’s pavilion, sponsored in part by Intel and resembling a modern Silicon Valley office building, is unlikely to win any design awards. Nonetheless, polls among the Chinese indicate it will be the most frequently visited pavilion after China’s imposing structure. The Americans expect to draw 6 million visitors to view a Hollywood-produced “4-D” spectacle underscoring America’s innovation and diversity.
“We all understand the importance of the relationship with China,” said Greg Lombardo, director of BRC Imagination Arts, the Burbank company producing the U.S. pavilion. “It’s an amazing opportunity to tell America’s story. People still have a love affair with America.”
Although the vast majority of attendees will be Chinese, the country is going out of its way to warmly welcome foreigners. Even workers running airport-like security checks at the expo gates are friendly.
“You see the beauty coming out,” said Gugu Mbongwa, a South African attending the expo. “You see the good part of
China.”
CANADA :
AUSTRALIA :
Australia Moots Superprofits on Mining and Resources
Sunday, May 02, 2010 /By Siyabonga Ntshingila / www.newstime.co.za
The Government of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced a stiff 40% tax to be levied on the profits of resource oriented companies such as BHP Billiton and the Rio Tinto Group.
This comes as Australia is looking into its most comprehensive tax overhauls since the Second World War. The government announced that the tax, intended to finance infrastructure, healthcare and social welfare costs for an ageing Australian population, will start in 2012 and raise an estimated A$12 billion in its first two years.
Resources make up over 9% of the Australian economy and Kevin Rudd described the taxation move as one that “will help convert Australia’s strong economic position today into enduring prosperity”. This will use super profits on resources owned by all Australians”. The move is designed to capitalise on Australia’s Chinese driven mining boom. The mining industry has expected reacted with scepticism to the plan.
Mitch Hooke of the Minerals Council of Australia said “Under the plan announced today, Australia will have the highest taxed mining industry in the world. Australia’s hard-earned reputation as a stable investment environment will be dramatically undermined”.
A Citigroup report suggested that the tax would cut into Australia’s competitiveness. MacArthur Coal ltd chairman Keith de Lacy said the tax risks “taking away from Australia the strongest industry we have and the one that saved us from the global financial crisis. Always 50 percent of our net profits went into development and exploration and so much of that is going now so obviously we’ll grow slower”.
Australia’s resources sector helped the A$ 1 trillion plus Australian economy avoid the recent recession. The developments will no doubt be watched closely by South Africa’s left wing who have consistently called for a greater share of the country’s mineral wealth to be redistributed amongst the people.
EUROPE :
Greek prime minister: Agreement reached on deal with IMF and EU for rescue package
Greek leader say agreement reached on aid deal
By DEREK GATOPOULOS /Associated Press/SUNDAY, MAY 2, 2010
Prime Minister George Papandreou said Sunday that Greece has reached agreement with the IMF and European Union on a rescue package for the debt-laden country.
His government is set to announce later Sunday harsh spending cuts through 2012 as part of the loan agreement worth some euro120 billion ($159 billion). Greeks would be called upon to make “great sacrifices” to avoid catastrophe, Papandreou said in a live televised address.
Eurozone finance ministers have scheduled an emergency meeting later Sunday and are expected to approve the EU’s contribution.
Greek unions planning a general strike Wednesday against the new cuts. Violent clashes broke out Saturday during anti-government protests at May 1 Labor Day rallies.
“I have done and will do everything not to let the country go bankrupt,” Papandreou said Sunday.
“We have convinced our partners that Greece’s problem is not only ours. It concerns the functioning of the markets and the stability of the euro.”
The prime minister said the measures will affect public sector pay and pensions but not the private sector, as had been widely feared. There will also be further hikes in consumer taxes, and deep cuts in defense spending and hospital procurement, according to media reports.
The government will submit special emergency legislation to Parliament that was agreed upon with the EU and the IMF at Saturday’s negotiating session. The Parliament is expected to approve the measures by Friday.
CHINA :
Nigerian violence raised as concern by US religious freedom commission
www.catholicreview.org/By Dennis Sadowski /Catholic News Service /May 2, 2010
WASHINGTON – Two recent outbreaks of violence that claimed nearly 1,000 lives in northern Nigeria show that the country’s political leaders are unable to effectively resolve conflicts that transcend both socio-economic and religious issues, said a U.S. government commission.
In releasing its annual report April 29 in Washington, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom cited Nigeria as a country where violence is tolerated by the government, which it said allows Christian and Muslim perpetrators to continue their attacks unhindered.
“Until the Nigerian government recognizes there is a sectarian aspect to this conflict and violence, it will not be solved,” said Leonard A. Leo, the commission chairman.
The commission recommended – for the second year in a row – that the United States list Africa’s most populous nation as a country of particular concern, the most serious on a three-tier rating system. Nigeria is one of the 13 countries recommended for such a rating.
The Department of State has placed eight countries on the list but has excluded Nigeria from it.
By rating a country as one of particular concern, State Department officials would be permitted under the International Religious Freedom Act to undertake diplomatic actions or economic sanctions to encourage countries to improve religious freedom.
Nigeria’s recent violence prompted commission members to visit the country three times during the past year, most recently in late March.
Commission member Don Argue said that in discussions with Nigerian legislators from the region around Jos, where violence occurred in January and March, they acknowledged that the violence has deep religious roots.
“Yes, there are issues – economic issues, unemployment, ethnic, land ownership – all of these things come into play,” said Argue, who has visited Nigeria twice since July. “But the question is why has the frustration been vented in religious persecution?”
Elizabeth H. Prodromou, commission vice chairwoman, said the group’s inquiries have shown that religious and socio-economic issues are intertwined in the culture of Nigeria, requiring that the government address both if the violence is to be resolved.
Other concerns cited by the commission include the adoption of Shariah, Islamic law, in 13 Nigerian states and the insertion of religion into the conflict by outside parties. Prodromou identified the funding of school and mosque construction by Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Libya as reason for concern because the educational material used in the schools encourages violence against non-Muslims.
Several commission members held out a glimmer of hope that things would change in Nigeria with the newly established U.S.-Nigeria Binational Commission, which will focus on economic and diplomatic initiatives.
The religious freedom report also criticized President Barack Obama for failing to appoint an ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, as called for under the law that mandated religious freedom be an aim of U.S. diplomacy. The position has remained unfilled since John Hanford left Jan. 2, 2009.
Overall, there was no change from the commission’s 2009 list of 13 countries singled out for particular concern for failing to protect religious freedom. In addition to Nigeria, the commission named China, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Myanmar, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam to that category.
The commission also maintains a watch list of countries where conditions of religious freedom require close monitoring. That list, unchanged in 2010, includes Afghanistan, Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Laos, Russia, Somalia, Tajikistan, Turkey and Venezuela.
Three other countries – Bangladesh, Kazakhstan and Sri Lanka – also deserve to be monitored, the report said.
The commission pointed to Nigeria as a country where violence among Christians and Muslims has left as many as 12,000 dead since 1999. The report said conditions in Nigeria are worsening, allowing “for the proliferation of extremist ideology and terrorism.”
A recent Pew Forum report on Islam and Christianity in sub-Saharan Africa showed that, of 19 countries surveyed, Nigeria and Rwanda had the highest percentage of the general population – 58 percent – who believed that conflict between religious groups is a very big problem in their country.
The report said 38 percent of Nigerian Christians surveyed saw Muslims as violent, while 13 percent of Nigerian Muslims surveyed saw Christians as violent.
It also said that 70 percent of Nigerian Christians favored making the Bible the official law of the land, while 71 percent of Nigerian Muslims favored making Shariah the official law of the land.
INDIA :
BRASIL:
EN BREF, CE 02 mai 2010 … AGNEWS / OMAR, BXL,02/05/2010
