SERENA WILLIAMS FINED $ 175,000 FOR TIRADE AGAINST OFFICIALS

By REUTERS, November 30, 2009
Serena Williams argued with game officials after being disqualified for a default during the U.S. Open women’s singles semifinal match against Kim Clijsters on September 12.

LONDON (Reuters) - World number one Serena Williams has been fined $175,000 and put on probation for two years for her foul-mouthed tirade at the U.S. Open, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) said on Monday.

The ITF said a further major offence at a grand slam in the next two years would see her suspended from the U.S. Open in 2010, 2011 or 2012. The fine will be reduced to $82,500 if she commits no further major offence through 2011.

"On 9 November 2009, the grand slam committee administrator determined Serena Williams had committed the grand slam major offence of aggravated behavior for her misconduct at the 2009 U.S. Open," an ITF statement said.

The outburst was prompted by an incident in her semi-final against eventual champion Kim Clijsters in September.

Trailing 4-6 5-6 15-30, Williams launched into a second serve but the baseline lineswoman called her for a foot-fault, meaning the American had served a double-fault to go match point down.

Astounded by the verdict, Williams launched into an expletive-laced rant at the official. She waved her racket in the lineswoman's direction and then shook a ball in her clenched fist as she threatened to "shove it down" her throat.

Having already received a warning earlier in the match for smashing a racket, Williams was handed an automatic point penalty for a second violation which abruptly ended the match, giving Clijsters a 6-4 7-5 victory.

Organisers fined her $10,500, the biggest given to a female player since records began in 1990, at the end of the tournament for her unsportsmanlike behavior.

Williams's $175,000 fine includes the $10,500 penalty she has already received.

(Editing by Tony Jimenez)

DID SOUTH AFRICA BACK MERCENARIES FOR THE EQUITORIAL GUINEA PLOT?

Sun Nov 29, 2009

LONDON, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Simon Mann, a British mercenary jailed for plotting against the government of Equatorial Guinea, has said South Africa tacitly supported a failed 2004 coup in the oil-rich African nation.

Mann, who was released from prison earlier this month, told the BBC he believed that the operation had the unwritten consent of South African intelligence.

"South Africa wanted to be in," he said, according to extracts of an interview to be broadcast on Tuesday. "In fact, I was told: 'Get on with it.'"

"Because, if they are very good friends of the new government, it would be of great benefit to South Africa because they know perfectly well that billions of dollars are at stake," 57-year-old Mann said.

Educated at Eton, Britain's top private school, the ex-special forces officer was arrested in Zimbabwe along with 70 other mercenaries en route to Equatorial Guinea aboard a plane.

Extradited to Equatorial Guinea, he was sentenced in July 2008 for conspiring to topple President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. He was pardoned on health grounds, having served just over one year of a 34-year sentence.

During his trial, Mann portrayed himself as a pawn of international businessmen he said were trying to seize power and named the son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as being involved -- an allegation Mark Thatcher has denied.

In the BBC interview, Mann said he got on well with Mark Thatcher, at one point his neighbour in South Africa, describing how Margaret Thatcher would come and stay in a cottage in the garden of her son's house.

"I always sat next to her at dinner parties," he said. "She liked me. We even went on holiday together."

Mann, who said that from his point of view the purpose of the coup was to make money from the oil-rich country, said he wanted Mark Thatcher as an investor in the plot, and that he had told him precisely what the operation was.

Discussing some of his early plans for the coup, Mann said he had also considered an assassination and a guerrilla war, but these options had been discarded.

He said had been unhappy with aspects of the final plan but was under pressure from unnamed backers to get the coup over.

"I thought there was quite a good chance I was going to die, because I knew that far too many people knew about the operation," he said, adding that he should have had the courage to halt the plans but failed to.

On Sunday, Equatorial Guinea's President Obiang looked set to win an election landslide, extending his 30-year rule. [ID:nGEE5AS018]

(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan; editing by Robin Pomeroy)

((kylie.maclellan@thomsonreuters.com; +44 207 542 0401))

IF US SOLDIERS HAD OSAMA WITHIN SIGHT IN 2001, WHY DID THEY ALLOW HIM TO WALK AWAY FROM TORA BORA?

TODAY'S NEWS, INDIA
US forces had Osama Bin Laden "within their grasp" in Afghanistan in late 2001, a US Senate report says.

It says calls for US reinforcements were rejected, allowing the al-Qaeda leader to "walk unmolested" into Pakistan's unregulated tribal areas.

The report was prepared by the Foreign Relations Committee Democratic staff.

It says the failure to kill or capture Bin Laden had far-reaching consequences and laid the foundation for the protracted Afghan insurgency.

The report comes as President Barack Obama prepares to announce a long-awaited decision on sending troop reinforcements to Afghanistan.

It is highly critical of officials in former President George W Bush's administration and military commanders at the time.

'Potent symbolic figure'

It says that while the "vast array of American military power... was kept on the sidelines", US commanders "chose to rely on air strikes and untrained Afghan militias" to pursue Bin Laden in the mountainous complex of caves and tunnels known as Tora Bora.

"On or around 16 December [2001], two days after writing his will, Bin Laden and an entourage of bodyguards walked unmolested out of Tora Bora and disappeared into Pakistan's unregulated tribal area," where he is still thought to be hiding, the report says.

The then US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld expressed concern at the time that a large US troop presence in the area could provoke a backlash and he said the evidence about Bin Laden's location was not conclusive.

Open door

The report says the "failure to finish the job" laid the foundation for "today's protracted Afghan insurgency and inflaming the internal strife now endangering Pakistan".

It acknowledges that removing Bin Laden "would not have eliminated the worldwide extremist threat".

But it adds that "the decisions that opened the door for his escape to Pakistan allowed Bin Laden to emerge as a potent symbolic figure who continues to attract a steady flow of money and inspire fanatics worldwide".

The report rebuffs claims by Bush administration officials at the time that intelligence about Bin Laden's location was inconclusive.

"The review of existing literature, unclassified government records and interviews with central participants underlying this report removes any lingering doubts and makes it clear that Osama Bin Laden was within our grasp at Tora Bora," it says.

TROOPERS TO INTERVIEW WOODS AND RELEASE THE 911 TAPE

By JOSEPH BERGER,LIZ ROBBINS & LARRY DORMAN
November 29, 2009

With speculation continuing to swirl about Tiger Woods’s car accident outside his mansion early Friday morning, Florida Highway Patrol investigators were scheduled on Sunday to speak to the golfer and to release a tape of the 911 call made by a neighbor reporting the incident.

The Florida Highway Patrol went to the gated community where Tiger Woods lives, but investigators were told he was unavailable

Sgt. Kim Montes, a spokeswoman for the highway patrol, the lead investigators, said in a statement Sunday morning that troopers would interview Woods after they report to duty at about 3 p.m., more than two days after the accident. She added that no news conference was planned.

Woods was not required to speak to the police, The Orlando Sentinel reported. When police officials showed up at the athlete’s home in Windermere, Fla., near Orlando, on Friday, his wife Elin told them he was sleeping. On Saturday, Woods’s agent, Mark Steinberg, scheduled the interview for Sunday.

“It’s unusual, but I will say it’s happened before,” Sgt. Montes told The Associated Press. “This is not the first time that we’ve gone back to get a statement from a driver. ... We try and give the driver every opportunity to tell us their side of the story before we complete our investigation.”

Sgt. Montes told The Orlando Sentinel that Woods had not been given a breath test or a blood or urine test. But she said such tests would not be conducted unless a trooper had probably cause for doing so, such as the finding of a liquor bottle in a car or the smell of alcohol on a someone’s breath.

Wood crashed his 2009 Cadillac Escalade into a fire hydrant and a neighbor’s tree as he was backing out of his driveway early Friday morning in the gated community of Isleworth, an Orlando suburb where many high-profile athletes live. He sustained cuts to his upper and lower lips and was left unconscious for some time, according to an incident report. He was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where was treated and released in good condition.

But subsequent reports indicate that his wife had to smash a car window with a golf club in order to get Woods out of the car.

According to experts who advise high-profile athletes and celebrities, every hour that passes without word from Woods may prove damaging to his image by allowing an online rumor mill to produce conjecture and opinion.

“I think the next 24 hours are critical that Tiger addresses this publicly,” Steve Rosner, the founder of 16W Marketing, who represented former Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor, said on Saturday. “I understand it’s a personal matter, but because of who he is in the sports world, not only domestically but worldwide, I think it would help for him to put in his own words what transpired.”

Mike Paul, the founder of MGP & Associates, a public relations firm, said on Saturday that more than 3,200 stories were published worldwide in electronic or print form in the 36 hours after the incident.

“My advice to Tiger is pretty simple,” Paul said. “Own it, say it yourself, say it yourself with full conviction and responsibility and get it out of the way.

“You have an opportunity to change rumor and innuendo into truth. Moving past fear and doubt — that’s something they did not do well during the first 24 hours.”

The interview on Sunday could determine whether charges will be filed. Among the unanswered questions are why Woods was leaving his home at that late hour and where he was going, the circumstances of his wife’s presence at the scene, and how he sustained his injuries.

On Saturday, Sgt. Montes told the news media in an e-mail message: “We will not be addressing any rumors or other scenarios. If our investigation takes us in a different direction, we will let the media know.”

Woods, 33, was lying on the street unconscious near his vehicle for nearly five minutes, according to an incident report released by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, which received the initial 911 call from an Isleworth resident.

Woods and his 29-year-old wife of five years have two children, Sam Alexis, 2, and Charlie Axel, born in February. The couple married in October 2004.

Much of the speculation in the news media about the cause and nature of the incident stemmed from reports from the Windermere, Fla., police chief, Daniel Saylor, who said Friday that Woods’s wife used a golf club to break the rear window of the S.U.V. to help extricate Woods.
Chief Saylor told reporters that when officers arrived on the scene, Woods was “drifting out of consciousness.” He was taken to the hospital 23 minutes after officers from the sheriff’s office arrived and was later released.

ZIM PRIME MINISTER THANKS JACOB ZUMA FOR INTERVENING IN ZIMBABWE CRISIS

By CHENGETAI ZVAUYA (AP)

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe's prime minister said Sunday he is thankful for South African efforts to help rescue his coalition government, and he said South Africa's president is expected to visit the troubled neighboring country next week.

A spokesman for South African President Jacob Zuma did not comment on a possible visit, but said in a statement that a delegation of mediators sent by Zuma was leaving for Zimbabwe and expected to arrive late Sunday.

"We want to thank the government of South Africa, in particular President Zuma, for helping us," Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai told about 30,000 people at a party rally in Harare. "They still continue monitoring what we are doing here in Zimbabwe."

Tsvangirai, the country's longtime opposition leader, entered into a power-sharing agreement in February with President Robert Mugabe, who has ruled the country since its 1980 independence from Britain.

South African and other regional leaders had pushed for the coalition following a series of inconclusive elections marred by violence blamed on Mugabe's loyalists, urging the longtime rivals to work together to end their nation's political and economic crises.

But Tsvangirai temporarily withdrew from the unity government in October, cited the prosecution of one of his top aides among other issues. He returned three weeks later after receiving assurances that South Africa's president would intervene.

"People should not live in fear of violence or being beaten by police" because they support Tsvangirai's party, he said at Sunday's rally. "This must end."
Mugabe, in turn, accuses Tsvangirai of doing too little to persuade Western governments to lift foreign bank account freezes and other sanctions imposed on Mugabe and his top aides.

Tsvangirai said Sunday that instability in Zimbabwe also had affected South Africa, sending millions of economic refugees and political asylum seekers across the border.
South Africans "want to see us fulfill all that we have agreed," Tsvangirai said.
Tsvangirai has said that Zuma's predecessor took too soft a line on Mugabe. Thabo Mbeki, the regional point man on Zimbabwe, had argued that pushing Mugabe too hard could backfire.

It is not yet clear whether Zuma's approach will be tougher than Mbeki's. But in what was seen as a sign that Zuma was stepping up his intervention, he appointed two advisers and a special Zimbabwe envoy last week to work with politicians in Zimbabwe.
Zuma's spokesman, Vincent Magwenya, said Sunday that leaders at a regional summit in early November had called on Zimbabwe's politicians to start talks within 30 days to resolve their differences. Zimbabwean negotiators have been meeting behind closed doors in recent days, and Zuma's team was to report back to him on their progress, Magwenya said.

"What is important is that parties are in dialogue and have to remain in dialogue in order to iron out all outstanding issues," Magwenya said.
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

ACCOUNTING FOR POST-WAR CRIMES IN NORTHERN UGANDA

SUNDAY MONITOR KAMPALA, UGANDA

With the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels effectively off Ugandan territory and northern Uganda coming to terms with the return of peace, human rights advocate Samuel Olara returns the teething matter of accountability back to the debate.

In the run-up to the African Union (AU) sponsored Special Summit on Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced People in Africa held in Kampala, this month, Uganda’s Chief of Defence Forces, Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, was quoted to have declared that confining non-combatants to camps in conflict zones was “an effective military tool for counter-insurgency.”

Gen. Nyakairima’s straight-faced revelation is surprising, coming after years of denials that the government deliberately created the camps and drove civilians into them, as a conscious military strategy.

State neglect

Other than strafing villages to drive the population into the camps and establishing military garrisons to restrict population movements in and out of the camps, the state did virtually nothing to provide for the basic needs of the population, but left them to be dependent on the charity of international humanitarian organisations.

Contrary to previous steadfast denials until recently, the order for the creation of camps was officially announced by President Museveni to members of the parliamentary Committee on the Office of the President and Foreign Affairs, on September 27, 1996. As reported in the media on September 29, 1996, forcible encampment of civilians would leave the countryside “open for UPDF confrontation with the marauding remnants of the rebels then terrorising innocent people.”

Chua County MP, John Livingstone Okello Okello, recalls that members of the legislature from northern Uganda region raised serious objections to the plan to move civilians in eastern and northern Uganda into camps. In response, President Museveni agreed to consult with the military, and later inform the concerned legislators about official government decision, but they never heard from him again.

In October 1996 the Presidential Advisor on Political Affairs, Maj. Kakooza Mutale, deployed in Gulu. Maj. Mutale began to recruit and deploy in Gulu, a paramilitary force, the Popular Intelligence Network (PIN) that reported directly to the Office of the President.

One of their first assignments was to persuade people to move into camps. According to Maj. Mutale, President Museveni’s idea was that the camps would “enable the destruction of the intelligence centres of insurgency”.

Their strategic thinking was elaborated by the Major: “The depopulation of the villages removes the soft targets and logistics for the survival of the rebels. They will lack food, information, and youth to abduct and people to kill. Desperation will drive them to attack the army and the camps. That will be their end”.

With PIN’s operatives living among the population, the resident Presidential Advisor on Military Affairs in charge of the northern Uganda insurgency, Gen. Salim Saleh, had declared the end to any peace overtures and announced renewed military offensives against the LRA in northern Uganda.

To make good on their efforts to “depopulate” the countryside and “destroy intelligence centres of insurgency”, civilians in Acholi were ordered to move into camps, and to break any reluctance detected by Maj. Mutale’s PIN, the army swiftly began to shell villages in Pabbo, Opit, Anaka, Cwero, Unyama, Awach, Koc Goma, and Amuru, to mention but a few [Human Rights Focus, 16-24; Daily Monitor, November 20, 1996).

Bombardments
The shelling was supported with aerial bombardment. At the time, the then commander of 4 Division, James Kazini (RIP), denied that the aim was to force civilians into camps. He said the shelling was of LRA units.

The military approach to a “cleared area” was revealed by Gen. Saleh on August 7, 1996. Gen. Saleh told journalists that, once the period covered by the military edict to civilians to leave the countryside had elapsed, the army and the state would take it for granted that: “the people [the army] come across in the countryside are rebels”.

Immediately, members of the Acholi Parliamentary Group (APG) sought audience with then Minister of State for Defence, Mr Amama Mbabazi, to express their concerns about the unconstitutional conduct of the army in the region.

According to the Acholi Religious Leaders’ Peace Initiatives (ARLPI) report, Let My People Go; the Minister declared: “Since some of the people in Acholi supported the rebels, the army had no choice but to move people away from their villages in order to deny the rebels food and information”. He is quoted to have further asserted that he “did not believe that the reported atrocities committed by soldiers were true.”

The minister later repeated the same statements to a delegation from the European Union, who had visited Gulu and had in fact, voiced the same concerns (see Let My People Go, ARLPI 1990).

Responding to criticisms of the policy, Gen. Saleh was to reveal that the army acted alone in creating camps because it “suspected bureaucracy and politicking over the issue” (Daily Monitor, October 26, 1997).

Once the camp policy was in place, the UPDF essentially became very reluctant in responding to LRA attacks on civilians, as an additional strategy to force those still reluctant to leave their villages into camps.

The government later withdrew a large number of soldiers from the north and deployed them first in the war in Rwanda and later in DR Congo, leaving the camps unprotected. Even the few soldiers that remained did little to protect the civilian population as the LRA routinely raided, abducted, maimed and killed people in the camps.

Training vigilantes

In an attempt to shore up the security of the north, the government came up with a lamentable programme that began under the stewardship of Minister Betty Bigombe of training Local Defence Units - home guards - from among the camp population, to be deployed as frontline fighters against the insurgents.

Consequently, between January 7 and 12, 1997, LRA rebels allegedly murdered more than 412 men, women and children in Lokung, Padibe and Palabek, in Kitgum District. This first of a series of gruesome massacres in Acholi, triggered the first waves of flights to the so-called military detaches which were deliberately erected far away from the local villages and trading centres.

On October 4, 2002, the UPDF announced a 48-hour ultimatum to the entire Acholi population to move into camps. Those who moved into camps were put under strict movement orders enforced by the LDU and the regular UPDF.

A curfew was imposed on the camps and strictly enforced. Those found outside the perimeters of the camps were treated as rebels and rebel collaborators with grave consequences. Thus, anti-civilian violence came to be used not just to prevent the population from building a political relationship with the rebels, but also to prevent the population from organising to demand an end to the war itself.

The LRA also attacked civilians they found outside the camps; and the UPDF’s policy meant that people had no choice but to remain inside the camps.

Death traps

Caught in a Catch 22 situation; the ‘Concentration Camps’ thus became the deadliest killing centres and the most destructive manifestation of the Ugandan government’s anti-civilian counterinsurgency campaign.

Devoid of protection, the camps did serve their military purpose of denying insurgents recruitment and intelligence. But even more importantly, forcible internment had the political effect of preventing political organisation among the Acholi that, in the short run, could have held the UPDF accountable or demanded the end of the war or, in the long term, could have acted as a base of opposition politics to the NRM no-party autocracy that made such policy of brutalising citizens possible.

Legal minefield

The government policy of forced displacement and internment comprised a number of crimes under international humanitarian and human rights law. It was a war crime under the Geneva Conventions and also qualifies as a crime against humanity.

Determining the intent of a perpetrator of any crime is rarely an easy task; it can be inferred from “sufficient evidence,” which could include:
“... actions or omissions of such a degree of criminal negligence or recklessness that the defendant must reasonably be assumed to have been aware of the consequences of its conduct…”
Intent can also be “inferred from a systematic pattern of coordinated acts.”

Again, forced expulsion into harsh environments and deliberate non-provision of basic amenities fall under such an interpretation. In the case of northern Uganda, intent has been established beyond doubt.

The Geneva Conventions state that: “Should …displacements have to be carried out, all possible measures shall be taken in order that the civilian population may be received under satisfactory conditions of shelter, hygiene, health, safety and nutrition.”

The government took little, if any, such measures. People were left without access to food or water; and aid was not provided until it became apparent that displacement could not be sustained without extensive international humanitarian intervention and assistance.

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court 1998, declares that “[d]eportation or forcible transfer of population” constitutes a crime against humanity “when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack, directed against any civilian population”.

Largescale forcible expulsion of people is no longer linked with the category of war crimes: It involves a crime against humanity, whether carried out in armed conflict or otherwise.

Humanitarians’ position

There is a significant need to also expand the debate over post-conflict accountability in northern Uganda so as to include the complicity of humanitarian aid agencies and other external actors who were responsible for enabling and supporting the Ugandan government’s policy of forced displacement and internment.

While the Ugandan government is the suspected principal, humanitarian aid agencies can be said to be accessories to those crimes and thus are also liable.

Since forced displacement and internment in camps is a crime when done without providing the displaced population with minimum amenities to support their lives, any party that knowingly acts in such a way so as to assist in keeping people in the camps is complicit in that crime.

It is not necessary that a second party recognise that displacement and internment are crimes in order for that party to be legally liable as an accessory.

It appears that if the relief agencies had not intervened and had not continued to manage the internment camps to-date, political pressure over internment would have combined with popular resistance among the people of northern Uganda to have rendered mass internment unsustainable.

This leads to the conclusion that, because the humanitarian crisis was the product of displacement into the camps and because the camps could only be sustained by the massive presence of relief agencies, the relief agencies, instead of resolving the humanitarian crisis, contributed to its perpetuation.

World Food Programme (WFP) for instance, agreed to cooperate with forced displacement despite the lack of reasonable steps taken by the Uganda government and UPDF first, to minimise displacement and second, to create conditions in which it can be brought to an end as quickly as possible.

The fact that so many aid agencies quickly got involved in supplying the camps makes them complicit by default with that government policy.

In short, many aid agencies understood that they were providing essential assistance to the government policy of forced displacement and internment, and some even recognised that that policy was illegal.

WFP admitted that in provisioning the camps, it was “cooperating with a possibly illegal government policy whose intention was not civilian protection but coercive control, and whose outcome was not security but potentially long-term internment.”

Clearly, the creation and sustaining of the camps, and forced displacement and long term internment of civilian population in the camps, with little or no basic provisions, were clear violations of humanitarian laws and conventions. As much as the state and their actors are culpable for designing and enforcing these policies, while knowing their intended consequences, aid agencies should also be held accountable for being complicit in committing crimes against humanity.

LRA insurgency time line
January 1986: After four years of political chaos, Yoweri Museveni’s National Resistance Army overthrows the Acholi-led government that came to power after the fall of Apollo Milton Obote’s regime in the 1985 military coup.

August 1986: Insurgency begins in traditional Acholi areas of northern Uganda. The people of northern Uganda are particularly concerned that Mr Museveni’s forces, comprised mostly of southern Ugandans, will seek retribution for the brutality of the Obote years.

January 1987 - 1991: Joseph Kony, a 26-year-old northern Ugandan, who claims to communicate with spirits, forms the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) to fight the Ugandan army.

The LRA raids villages throughout northern Uganda to show the Ugandan army is unable to protect the populace; the LRA begins abducting civilians into military service.

March 1991: The Ugandan government launches “Operation North,” arming local villagers to combat the LRA. In retaliation, Kony massacres and mutilates suspected government supporters among the Acholi population.

1991 - 1994: The LRA insurgency grows and becomes more violent; families begin to flee their villages.

February 1994 - 1996: After peace talks between the Ugandan government and LRA fail, Kony’s LRA establishes bases in South Sudan.

LRA attacks escalate; abductions, especially of children and young people, increase.

April 1995: The Ugandan government breaks off diplomatic relations with Sudan, accusing the Sudanese government of supporting the LRA

October 1996: More than 200 LRA rebels attack and raid St. Mary’s College in the northern Ugandan town of Aboke, abducting 139 girls. Many of these girls were given to LRA commanders as “wives” and many died in captivity.

Late 1996: The Ugandan government begins moving Acholi villagers into “protected villages” to shield them from LRA attacks.

March 2002: The government’s “Operation Iron Fist” against LRA forces in northern Uganda and South Sudan sparks a bloody counteroffensive by the LRA.

December 2003: President Museveni recommends that the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigate Kony and other LRA leaders for war crimes.

The ICC later issues arrest warrants - the first since its 2002 founding - for Joseph Kony and four top lieutenants.

July 2006: Peace talks begin between the LRA and Ugandan government in Juba, South Sudan.

September 2006: Both sides agree to a temporary ceasefire. The Ugandan government establishes “return camps” to begin returning families to their villages of origin. The LRA gathers its forces.

From 2007, the LRA shifted some of their camps into DR Congo where they were later attacked by the UPDF in 2008.

Kony has, however, continued to abduct more Congolese nationals while some of his fighters surrender to humanitarian agencies in DR Congo and the UPDF.

WHY DID BROADCASTERS STAY AWAY FROM CCK FORUM ON THE DRAFT COMMUNICATIONS BILL?

By Jerry Okungu
November 28, 2009
Early this week, the Communications Commission of Kenya organized a two day forum for stakeholders to discuss the proposed Kenya Communications Regulations Act 2009. My understanding was that the CCK found it necessary to hold this forum in order to arrive at some consensus on contentious issues that have been opposed by the Media Owners Association for one reason or another.

To demonstrate the seriousness of this forum, both the Chairman and the CEO of CCK ensured their personal attendance throughout with the CEO fielding quite a number of questions from the audience along with other experts that presented their papers.

Whereas other stakeholders such as internet service providers, courier and postal service players attended the two day meeting, the absence of the main broadcasters except for Royal Media was rather conspicuous. Yet on day two, when radio communications and frequency spectrum regulations, consumer protection, broadcast licensing and content regulations were discussed, one expected that the main players in this field would be at hand to state their case on aspects of the Bill that they felt uncomfortable with.

However, talking to one of the media owners later in the week, I came to realize that the “Media Owners” had earlier convened a meeting and resolved to stay away because they considered themselves an industry rather than stakeholders. Moreover, according to them, such forums in the past where civil society groups have been included have always provided an opportunity for media bashing especially on content considered by religious and anti-pornography campaigners as unsuitable for broadcast.

That aside, one wonders whether staying away from such forums organized by policy makers in government will achieve much. Much as the media owners feel that they are an industry rather than stakeholders, it may be prudent to remind them that they do not broadcast in a vacuum or to wild animals, trees and forests. Like every media house the world over, their audiences are real human beings with diverse feelings and tastes-the stakeholders of all types that they consider not worth their time. Issues that interest groups differ on are never resolved through boycotts. If that were the case, society would never allow employers and workers’ unions to coexist.

Having said that, let us look at what the Act, whose amendments are causing ripples in the broadcast industry, is saying.

It says that the functions of the Communications Commission of Kenya on broadcasting services shall include promoting and facilitating the development of a diverse range of broadcasting services with the public interest in mind. It will in the same breadth encourage the production of local Kenyan broadcast content and ensure that at all times broadcasters meet public interest obligations in all broadcasting categories.

The Act is also specific when it comes to promoting diverse and plural opinions in what it calls the marketplace of ideas.
Here, the Act is aware that if broadcasting services are concentrated in the hands of a handful of broadcasters, there may be unhealthy monopoly of ideas and profits that accrue from the industry.

Whereas the CCK will undertake to safeguard public interest under the Act, the same Act also provides room for internal mechanisms through which broadcasters can dispose of complaints relating to broadcasting services.

Also included as one of the CCK functions, is the duty to protect the right to privacy of all persons without exception unless specified elsewhere in the Act.

To make sure that the rules of the game are clear to all players in the industry and stakeholders alike, the Act has classified broadcasting services into three main categories. These are: public broadcasting, private broadcasting and community broadcasting. It is easy to understand that only Kenya Broadcasting Corporation will after the Act is operational, be the only public broadcaster funded by public finances with a possible vote from the treasury unless other sources of public funding are stated.

Private broadcasting will include any investor who goes into broadcasting either regionally or nationally purely on a commercial basis. My understanding is that this category will include in our case, Radio Africa, Nation Broadcast Division, The Standard Broadcast Division, Royal Media, Capital Group and a number of small operators that also include religious networks.

The third category that the Act refers to as community broadcasting will include NGO or donor funded broadcast services for specific communities. This category will not be for profit purposes and will be managed by the community in a democratic and transparent manner. Because they will not be for profit, the CCK plans to waive annual fees on their frequencies.

The Act has proceeded to classify broadcasting service licenses as follows: free to air radio; free to air television, subscription radio, subscription television and subscription management. It therefore requires an applicant to apply for a specific license type and operate strictly under the guidelines of that license type. And here is where the first signs of contention emerge. The Act is very categorical that any person who contravenes this section commits an offence and shall on conviction be liable to a fine of Ks 1 million or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years or both.

Down the line in the Act, the Commission is empowered to set standards and manner of programmes (content) to be broadcast by licensees by prescribing a programming code of ethics and standards which shall be reviewed every two years.

However, what vexes the current broadcasters is a section that empowers the Commission to decide when adult programmes should be on air. It relegates all adult programmes that include strong or lurid language, explicit sexual scenes on television or steamy sex talks on radio shows that are common on our local FM stations. If the Commission has its way, such shows will be relegated to after midnight and before 6am when children are asleep.

In their view, media owners would argue that such stringent controls amount to gagging the press or worse still, curtailing press freedom. Much as they feel that this watershed clause infringes on their freedoms, other stakeholders seem to be thinking otherwise and are indeed in support of the Act.

A rare outburst from one of the Civil Society watchdogs illustrated this sentiment aptly at the forum. He asked the CCK to tell him when it would start switching off air such “promiscuous radio frequencies polluting our airwaves and corrupting our children”.

Now the question to ask is this: should broadcasters, especially those holding free-to-air licenses be allowed to broadcast any content no matter how some of such content may be offensive to sections of our populations? Is there any country in the world where such absolute freedoms exist? And if the government were to accord self regulation to the Media Council which is dominated by the same media owners, will they effect these rules and punish one of their own?

THE EAST AFRICAN COMMON MARKET IS HERE: CAN WE HANDLE IT?

NEW VISION
Friday, 27th November, 2009

By Paul Busharizi

It might not be practical to set up an Odi (ground nut and sim sim paste) factory in western Uganda, just as it might not be a good idea to have an eshabwe (whipped cream) factory in northern Uganda.

The climate, soils and generations of planting simsim and groundnuts have given northern Uganda a headstart in husbanding groundnut and sim sim fields and the processing of odi, with the distinctive taste we have come to love and expect.

An attempt to start an odi industry in western Uganda would come against the problems of scale and technology that would ensure the industry would be dead on arrival.

For similar reasons, it might be hard to justify building an eshabwe factory in west Nile.

That is why we trade. So, westerners with a taste for odi can buy it from the north and northerners with a taste for eshabwe can buy it from the west.

Trade means that we need not produce all we consume, neither does anyone else. This allows for specialisation and the development of competitive advantage.

The ease with which trade is carried out therefore determines the quality of life of the citizens of a region. War, artificial borders, roadblocks and poor transport infrastructure hamper trade and therefore compromise the quality of life.

Following from this simple example, the East African common market, therefore, should be celebrated.

Last week the leaders of the East African Community (EAC) signed into effect a common market protocol which will see goods, services and labour flow through the region unhampered.

The region is regularising the customs union, which allows for a common external tariff for goods coming into the EAC, which was a necessary precursor to the common market.

The main sticking points in bringing this situation to fruition were the fear that Kenya’s more developed industrial and commercial base would swamp the region with its products styming industrialisation in the rest of the region.

In addition the free movement of labour was met with a jaundiced eye particularly by Tanzania, which felt its human resource would be out competed at home and regionally.

As seen above, classical economics preaches that the benefits of free trade will far outweigh the challenges.

Returning to the Odi-eshabwe analogy with freer markets the respective producers will have a larger market to pitch to, leading to increased production and a corresponding increase in jobs both at the production centres and down the line in sales and marketing.

Carrying this to its logical conclusion, we can expect that there will be a lot of industries that fall by the wayside across the region because they cannot compete.

There will be loss of jobs, the extent of which is not known yet, but the political fallout from such stress may shake political resolve in the five capitals. For the long term viability of the common market, there is need therefore for a sort of compensation fund that will go towards mitigating such consequences.

The fund to which member states would contribute would target such things as retooling of factories and retraining affected labour.

But on the plus side we can expect that competitive advantages will be sharpened.

Ten years ago a study of what competitive advantages can be developed by Uganda vis-à-vis its neighbours highlighted education, health and financial services, ICT, agro processing, power generation, tourism and more recently petroleum products.

If ever there was a time to focus our efforts, that time is now. For example, it makes little economic sense for East African Breweries to have five plants brewing Tusker in the region and therefore will choose to brew all its Tusker in Kenya.

It would be in government’s interest therefore to promote research into beers brewed using locally-sourced inputs barley from Kapchorwa or sorghum from Teso, for instance, in order to retain industrial capacity and jobs in Uganda.

Similarly, we can retool our syllabus to prepare the region’s workforce to compete internationally or raise our health service standards to the point where we are a regional hub of health care.

Let us have no illusions, the bringing down of barriers in the region will have its losers. Government will be best served not to treat the losers as statistics.

pbusharizi@newvision.co.ug

THE RULING PARTY IN NAMIBIA MAY RETAIN POWER

By Agnieszka Flak
Reuters
Saturday, November 28, 2009

WINDHOEK (Reuters) - Namibians voted for the second day on Saturday in presidential and parliamentary elections that looked set to keep the ruling party in power and hand President Hifikepunye Pohamba five more years at the helm.

Voting, which got off to a smooth start on Friday, closes at 1900 GMT on Saturday.

There were some delays in opening the polling stations and two boxes containing election material were opened without authorization, but no violence was reported.

The Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP), which emerged as a breakaway fraction of the ruling SWAPO in 2007, is expected to become the new official opposition and is likely to threaten SWAPO's two-thirds majority.

Having tackled some of SWAPO's traditional strongholds, the RDP may pose the sternest political challenge yet to the ruling party.

Melissa Basson, a 29-year-old receptionist at a guesthouse in Windhoek, said she voted for the first time this year because she felt that a change in direction was possible.

"Before, everyone knew that SWAPO was going to win ... but it's time for a change and with the RDP we finally have a strong opposition," Basson said.

"We need to make sure that development policies get implemented and Namibians get the services they need including housing, water and health ... in all parts of the country."

Rich in resources and wedged between economic powerhouse South Africa and oil-producing Angola, Namibia has enjoyed a long period of political and economic prosperity that has made its 2.2 million people the envy of many in Africa.

RISE IN POVERTY, UNEMPLOYMENT

Although it is a big diamond producer and home to 10 percent of the world's uranium output, the global slowdown has exacerbated poverty and unemployment and widened cracks in the healthcare and education systems.

The economy is expected to contract by 0.6 percent in 2009, before recovering in 2010 on higher commodity prices and a rise in mining output.

SWAPO has faced little opposition since leading the former German colony and South African protectorate to independence, but criticism of corruption could threaten its solid majority.

The Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) said that for the first time votes will be counted at the polling stations around the country and results will be posted outside them to ensure transparency.

During elections in 2004 four opposition parties demanded a recount, alleging fraud in the vote that saw the South West African People's Organization (SWAPO) take 55 of the 72 parliamentary seats. The recount confirmed SWAPO as the winner.

Fourteen parties are competing for the 72 seats this year and 12 presidential candidates have been listed, though Pohamba is widely expected to be the winner.

Counting will begin immediately after the polls close and initial results will be known a few hours later.

But the ECN said it may take until Wednesday to count all the ballots from the 1.18 million registered voters scattered across the largely desert country bigger than Texas.

(Editing by Shapi Shacinda and Tim Pearce)

SOUTH SUDAN JINX IN UGANDA? SALVA KIIR SURVIVES PLANE INCIDENT IN UGANDA

Sudan's vice-president Salva Kiir Mayardit and John Garang

By PAUL AMORU, NATION Correspondent
Thursday, November 26 2009
GULU,UGANDA

South Sudan President Salva Kiir was on Wednesday held up in Gulu for nearly seven hours after the plane carrying him ruptured a tyre.

The Antonov 74 cargo plane, carrying Mr Kiir and his delegation, was just lifting off the ground at about 9:30 am when it developed a mechanical problem.

Mr Kiir, who is also the first vice president of Sudan, was in Gulu from Tuesday and engaged President Yoweri Museveni in talks over border tensions between Sudan and Uganda.

On Tuesday evening, Mr Museveni and his counterpart travelled to Moyo on the Uganda-Sudan border for bilateral talks and returned to Gulu army barracks where they held a two-hour meeting on Tuesday night.

The flurry of bilateral engagements nearly turned tragic on Wednesday morning when Mr Kiir and his delegation had to be evacuated amidst panic after his pilot fought hard and avoided a crash after detecting technical problems with the wheels and the hydraulic system of the plane.

Gulu Resident District Commissioner Walter Ochora, who later saw off Mr Kiir, ruled out foul play and described the incident as not surprising.

Mr Kiir left at 2.30 pm aboard a Ugandan Airline plane. “A snag in air transport is a very common thing, so I was not surprised that this particular aircraft developed a problem with its wheels and the hydraulic system. I have experienced it many times,” Col Ochora said today.

For some, the incident may have brought back bitter memories of the death of Colonel John Garang, the South Sudan leader who was killed after his helicopter crashed in the Imatong Hills in 2005.

Col Garang had been in Uganda for talks with President Museveni at his Rwakitura home. Investigators found no evidence of foul play in the case.

In yesterday’s incident, the pilot managed to steer the plane away from hitting trees, which averted possible harm to the passengers.

Mr Aziku Zata, the Deputy Northern Regional Police Commander, said the front tyre of the plane ruptured before take-off, causing it to veer dangerously off course.

The Police said no one was injured in the incident and Mr Kiir was evacuated into a waiting car and driven back to Acholi Inn, where he spent the night.

Other senior Sudanese officials who were travelling with Mr Kiir were: Major General Gier Dwang Aluong, who is Minister of Internal Affairs and Lt Gen Clement Wani Konga, the Governor of Central Equatorial State in Southern Sudan.

Until Mr Kiir finally flew out of the Gulu Airfield, a swarm of police, army officers and the Presidential Guard Brigade personnel cordoned off the area. Reporters were not allowed anywhere near the accident scene.

NAMIBIA GEARS UP FOR NATIONAL ELECTIONS

By Scott Bobb |
Johannesburg
26 November 2009

Namibian Electoral Commission Under Fire from Human Rights Group
Voters in Namibia are preparing to go to the polls Friday and Saturday to choose a president and parliament. The South West Africa People's Organization is expected to remain in power but SWAPO is being challenged by a new breakaway party.

Some 1.1 million registered voters are expected to take part in Namibia's 5th general election since independence nearly 20 years ago.

Analysts say President Hifikepunye Pohamba will likely be re-elected to a second five-year term and his South West Africa People's Organization, which has dominated politics since independence, is expected to retain its two-thirds majority in parliament.

Analysts say the campaign has been energized by the emergence of a new party, the Rally for Democracy and Progress.

The RDP was formed two years ago after its leader, former foreign minister Hidipo Hametenya, lost his bid for the SWAPO leadership upon the retirement of Namibia's first president Sam Nujoma.

The director of Windhoek's Institute for Public Policy Research, Graham Hopwood, says the new party has heightened tensions.

"Because there was a split-off there, it has been a somewhat bitter election campaign, involving more intimidation and violence than we in Namibia are used to," he said.

A political science professor at the University of Namibia, Andre du Pisani, says because of Namibia's past the campaign had tended to center on personalities and party loyalties.

"Namibia's political culture principally doesn't turn on issue politics. It turns on personalities, on symbolic politics, on the mythologies of liberation. So to that extent issue-based politics is not a strong feature yet of our political culture," he said.

But he says indications are that the issues are becoming more important. Hopwood of the Public Policy Research Institute agrees.

"Because we are now nearly 20 years since Namibia became independent, increasingly they [SWAPO leaders] have to go on their track record as a government. And they have quite a lot to boast about."

He says the government has improved education, health and local services. But he adds that poverty is still widespread and the gap between rich and poor is wide. As a result, he says voters want to see more rapid progress," said Hopwood.

Du Pisani says people who are too young to remember the liberation struggle are voting for the first time. And what he calls the born-free generation have shifted the focus of the elections.

"The macro-political questions, unemployment, youth empowerment, national reconciliation, and the performance of the economy, these issues have really entered center stage in these elections," he said.

Analysts say the organization and logistics of the balloting appear to be going well. But the national electoral commission has been criticized for irregularities in voter registration lists.

Hopwood says some people appear to have been registered more than once and many deceased voters are still on the rolls.

"That is a worry that the voters register seems to be in somewhat of a mess," he said "But on the other hand the electoral commission is arguing that at the end of the day it's perhaps not that crucial because what they do here is ink the fingers when you vote to try to stop repeat voting," he added.

Another concern is a perceived lack of fairness in coverage by the state media. Hopwood says the state-owned newspaper has been relatively fair but the national broadcasting corporation has devoted 80 percent of its election coverage to SWAPO and less than 20 percent to the one dozen opposition parties.

Nevertheless, analysts note that 1600 foreign observers are in the country to monitor the vote and for the first time the ballots will be counted and results posted at the polling centers before being sent to the national center for tabulation.

Preliminary results are expected next week.

THE CHALLENGE OF KEEPING WEST AFRICA STABLE

NEW YORK TIMES
By LOUISE ARBOUR
November 26, 2009

Three West African states — Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cote d’Ivoire — have emerged from civil war to fragile stability in the past few years. But a civil war is brewing in Guinea that may destroy those achievements and produce a humanitarian disaster.

When the country’s long-time dictator, Lansana Conte, died in 2008, it briefly looked like Guinea might transition relatively smoothly to elected government. That hope began to fade when Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, the leader of the military junta that had taken over, began to backtrack from the promise that he would not seek permanent power. It turned to nightmare on Sept. 28, when soldiers killed more than 150 demonstrators and raped scores of women.

There may be worse to come. In the month before that massacre, observers reported the recruitment of militias in Guinea’s isolated forest region, where elements of the badly fractured military leadership were training fighters for possible bids to seize power.

Many of these fighters are ex-combatants from the Liberian civil war, when Guinean militias helped overthrow Charles Taylor’s dictatorship. In its recruiting drive, the junta, some of whose members were deeply involved in that conflict, is reactivating the networks that fed West Africa’s recent wars.

Two days after the massacre, officials from the regional organization, Ecowas, told the International Crisis Group that international action was urgently needed to remove the military from power and hold early elections. Their fear was not only of a war that could spread like wildfire but also of the consequences of another power grab.

Only months before, the president of Niger overthrew his country’s Constitution and got away with it. Captain Camara and the Guinean military saw that and drew the conclusion that they could do likewise. If they now solidify their power, a half dozen leaders across Africa will be calculating their chances to do the same, Ecowas officials warned. We must not allow that to happen.

After the September massacre, Ecowas and the African Union began demanding that the military keep its promise to yield power to elected civilians and appointed President Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso to mediate the process.

The large majority of Guineans who insist they will not accept military rule have formed the Forces Vives, a coalition of political parties, unions and other elements of civil society. But Captain Camara and the junta will not go easily. Mr. Compaoré, a former soldier, coup leader and political godfather of Charles Taylor, is not the most reliable man to preach democracy and civilian rule.

An attempt to replace Captain Camara, who gives signs of mental instability, with another general, even temporarily, could fracture the military’s unity and bring the militias out of their forest camps with guns blazing. The Forces Vives understandably will not accept a junta offer or a Compaoré proposal of a “national union” government the military would inevitably dominate.

What is needed quickly is broad international support for the good intentions of Ecowas and the African Union. The Compaoré mission should accept U.N. offers of mediation support and stick to the region’s initial objective: managing the junta’s withdrawal from power. The U.S., with a major investment in a stable Liberia, should supplement its diplomatic backing for that effort by delegating a senior military officer to speak general-to-general with the junta.

The junta has abused Russia’s major bauxite investment to the point that Moscow recognizes the junta equals chaos, and is cooperating with the Africans. Immediately after the September massacre, the junta announced a $7 billion Chinese investment. Details of the deal with the Hong Kong-based company remain murky, and there are clear signs Beijing is skeptical that its interests would be served by Captain Camara. In any case, it should make sure no Chinese company props up the junta.

The elements of an unusually unified international approach — a transitional administration for no more than six months to prepare civilian elections — thus exist. What is needed is high-level attention in the main capitals, both to keep the pressure on and to prepare an operational strategy.

That strategy needs to include incentives for the Guinean military to cooperate — incentives that involve legitimate roles under a civilian-led government. An early step should be to get an Ecowas political and military team on the ground in Guinea, to provide guarantees against another massacre and prepare the way for a group to safeguard elections. The alternative for quickly putting such a strategy in place is likely to be a new war from which all West Africa would suffer.

Louise Arbour is president of the International Crisis Group.

ARE SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE AKIN TO KENYAN POLICE ?

SOUTH AFRICA:
By Stephanie Nieuwoudt

CAPE TOWN, Nov 26 (IPS) -
In more than 34 years as a judge, he has not been as deeply concerned by anything as he was by the recent comment of a South African deputy minister of police that police officers should shoot and "kill the bastards".

"We need to be concerned when people in responsible positions say irresponsible things," said Judge Deon van Zyl, inspecting judge of SA prisons.

He was speaking on the sidelines of a seminar held in Cape Town by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) to launch the book Criminal (In)Justice in South Africa - A Civil Society Perspective, edited by Chandré Gould.

"There is a severe lack of resources in the police services, but one does not solve the problem by giving what manpower there is extra powers (shooting to kill) to make up for the deficiency," said Van Zyl.

The seminar was held barely two weeks after a policeman shot Atlegang Aphane, a three-year-old boy. The child was in a car the police mistakenly assumed was being used by criminals.

At a press conference after the shooting, deputy minister of police Fikile Mbalula told reporters it was inevitable that innocent people would be killed in the crossfire between officers and the innocent. "Yes. Shoot the bastards. Hard-nut-to-crack, incorrigible bastards," he said.

This is the second time in two years that a minister has publicly stated it is acceptable for police to shoot to kill. In 2008 the then-deputy minister of safety and security, Susan Shabangu, told officers at a public meeting on crime to use their guns and shoot to kill.

Criminal (In)Justice

Some of the conclusions and recommendations reached by the authors of Criminal (In)Justice include: • The National Instruction on emergency response services including emergency call centres and the flying squad has remained in draft form since 2005. This Instruction should be revised and finalised to counter the climate of uncertainty amongst police officers about these services. • A public education programme should be launched to overcome the problems associated with hoax or non-emergency calls that may block the system. • More attractive renumeration packages are needed to attract suitable people to the police service. • South African Police Servce members should be trained, tested and monitored to engage victims in a professional and empathetic manner. • Punishment and sentencing can only play a small role in managing crime. Attention should be paid to social and economic conditions that contribute to crime. South Africa has many examples of poor areas where community leaders have played a role in establishing centres where the youth are engaged in sporting and other activities, keeping them off the streets and where self-help groups were started, lifting families out of dire poverty.)

South African crime rates are among the highest in the world, and according to statistics from the South African Police Service 2.1 million crimes were reported between April 2008 and March 2009.

This included 18,148 murders, 203,777 cases of assault with intent to cause serious bodily harm, 121,392 robberies with aggravating circumstances, 14,915 carjackings and 70,154 cases of sexual assault.

A number of speakers at the Cape Town seminar were concerned that the "shoot to kill" directive would not lead to a decrease in violent crimes. Lucas Muntingh, of the Community Law Centre at the University of the Western Cape, argued, "This kind of violent rhetoric by the authorities will up the ante."

According to Muntingh it could lead to criminals being even more violent during criminal activities, and more criminals resorting to armed crimes.

Speakers emphasised that the criminal justice system was overloaded and overwhelmed. Detectives had to deal with on average of 150 case dockets. There was also a severe skills shortage in the detective services, with only 25% adequately trained. These problems were compounded by the fact that the detective services were understaffed by 50 percent, speakers revealed.

"Most violent crimes are committed over weekends, but most police stations are understaffed then because the personnel are having a break," said Johan Burger, senior researcher in the Crime and Justice Programme (CJP) of the ISS.

Iole Matthews, of the Independent Project Trust, an independent conflict-resolution body, argued that the problem was exacerbated by the fact that staff in the police services were traumatised by their day-to-day work in a system constantly in flux.

Police officers were debriefed when they had shot at someone, but not debriefed after having worked at a crime scene.

Andrew Faull, a researcher for the CJP, pointed out that officers were confused by conflicting messages. "On the one hand they are told to shoot and kill, but as soon as they fire a docket is opened against them, and they are investigated on murder charges."

A number of speakers said the morale of police officers was at an all-time low, because of the bad example set by senior officials. They pointed out that former Commissioner of Police Jackie Selebi was now standing trial on corruption charges. But there was not only a problem with high-level leadership - managers often lacked the skills for the job.

Responding to questions from the audience, Irvin Kinnes, of the Centre of Criminology at UCT, said civil society had an important role to play in pressuring the authorities to deal with the gaps in the criminal justice system.

"Civil society should play a more vociferous role in addressing these problems. Our democracy gives us the opportunity to rectify imbalances. It is time for civil society to re-organise our voices. We are in crisis because our political leaders lack the capacity to take us forward."

THE WEST HAS LOST ITS WAY IN THE CONGO

To bring peace to eastern Congo would require about half a million troops – failing that, at least the UN could do its job

Richard Dowden
guardian.co.uk,
Thursday 26 November 2009

In 1995, after the Rwandan genocide, western leaders discussed plans for an armed force for Africa's Great Lakes region to suppress the remnant of the extremist Hutu movement that had fled across the border into the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I asked a British military planner how many men it might need. About half a million was his reply.

He had studied the vast landscape, the size of France; thick forest, huge mountains, no roads or boundaries, only a few airstrips and little idea of how many people lived there or who they were. It is perfect guerrilla country; a few thousand fighters with nothing to lose can move unimpeded throughout the area, living off the land and recruiting as they go.

And they also found they could generate exceedingly profitable businesses using forced labour to mine the gold, coltan, diamonds and tin that lie beneath this land and find buyers in neighbouring capitals such as Kampala and Kigali. Instead of dwindling, the surviving perpetrators of the genocide formed themselves into the FDLR, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, and have grown in strength and numbers. The Rwandan army crossed the border in pursuit and tried to set up a proxy army to suppress them, but its leader, Laurent Nkunda, is now facing charges at the International Criminal Court (ICC). And it was never clear whether the Rwandan leadership wanted the FDLR completely eliminated. As long as it lived under their threat, it could claim sympathy and aid from western governments.

The west's strategy for Congo through the United Nations was to establish a central government in Kinshasa that they could recognise and supply with aid, so they spent $500m on an election. That gave legitimacy to Joseph Kabila. His opponent, Jean-Pierre Bemba, was sent to the ICC. Had Kabila lost, no doubt he would be in the ICC. The UN assisted in attempts to construct and train a Congolese army to deal with the "rebels" in the east. But the officers stole the payrolls and found more profit in resource extraction than fighting, the units lacked discipline and coherence and soon the national army was behaving towards civilians as badly or worse than the FDLR and the other militias that have sprung up in the region. The UN has found it increasingly difficult to work with the army it trained.

So it was left to a weak UN force with a strong mandate but without the capacity to fulfil it to try to bring peace to the region. Its headquarters in Kinshasa, the capital – almost as far away from this war as London is from Moscow – has little idea what is happening on the ground. After nine years its troops just try to stay out of harm's way. There have been signs that elements of the UN force are going local and also taking to trading minerals and abusing local people. Its attempt at using a strike force, Guatemalan Special Forces, against the Lord's Resistance Army, the rebel movement that had wandered into the area from Northern Uganda, ended in disaster with nine of them killed. It no longer has an effective sharp end.

Bringing peace and development to eastern Congo will require a force 10 or 20 times the size of the present one which could take over and hold the area until all armed movements have been eliminated – or better – talked into a new peace process. (That means persuading Kabila to accept some power-sharing. That maybe difficult too.)

This is politically remote but in the meantime the UN could at least enforce the ban on mineral purchases, the supply of weapons and the flow of money to and from the warlords from their allies in the rest of the world. That would not end the war but it would at least reduce the ability of the combatants to wage it.

ANTI-OBAMA RIGHTWING AMERICA STILL ATTACKING THEIR PRESIDENT

US President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama share a moment as they await the arrival of India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur for a state dinner in Washington, November 24, 2009. REUTERS

Posted Wednesday, November 25 2009

Call it Freedom of Speech. A billboard recently erected in Wheat Ridge compares President Barack Obama to a terrorist and questions his US citizenship.

The billboard, located at 4855 Miller Road, shows two cartoonish images of Obama wearing a Muslim turban and reads “President or Jihad?”
It also says “Birth certificate - prove it!” alluding to the conspiracy theory which claims Barack Obama was born in Kenya rather than Hawaii, which would disqualify him for the office of President.

A car dealership

The words “Wake up America! remember FT. Hood!” appear on the bottom of the billboard.The sign belongs to a car dealership.

“Since Fort Hood, I’ve had it,” owner Phil Wolf told FOX 31 News Friday. “You can’t suggest things. You can’t profile. You gotta call a spade a spade.”“Everything I have read about Mr Obama points right to the fact that he is a Muslim. And that is the agenda of what Muslim is all about.

It’s about anti-American, it’s about anti-Christianity,” Mr Wolf said. The Anti-Defamation League condemned the sign, as did AM760 radio host David Sirota, who discussed the sign and interviewed Mr Wolf on his programme on Friday morning.
“It’s out of control,” Mr Sirota said.

While the ADL issued a statement calling the billboard an exploitation of the Ft. Hood shootings that is “divisive and offensive, and perpetuates hateful and harmful stereotypes about Muslims”, prominent conservatives have been silent thus far.

“That could suggest that conservative leaders are afraid to confront the extreme fringe of their base,” Mr Sirota said.

“I’m not concerned with that at all,” said Linda Alexander, of Golden, in regard to the dispute over President Obama’s American citizenship.

“He was elected, he’s the president — that’s it, as far as I’m concerned. Some people just can’t accept that, obviously.”But Keith Walters, another passing driver, saw nothing wrong with the billboard.“I can’t honestly say he’s a Jihadist, but there’s a lot of things that are questionable,” Walters said.

“The whole birth certificate controversy. From what I’ve read, there’s no proof Obama isn’t a Muslim. And I don’t believe there’s any racism [in the billboard]. I think that should be a question asked to any president who — they have some questionable backgrounds.”Supporters of the birth certificate theory believe the Certification of Live Birth produced by the state of Hawaii is a forgery. (Agencies)

Submitted by menace2society
Posted November 26, 2009 04:17 PM

I wish I had such Freedom.

Submitted by Zette
Posted November 26, 2009 12:53 PM

There is always a mad man in every market so this guy can be forgiven.The fact that we have a man committed to better the world in position of power means alot to me than him being Muslim.Islam is a religion like other religions.There will always be rotten apples in the basket.you spreading such hateful messsages lands you in the rotten pile with the terrorists coz you are destroying young minds.Dont judge someone by their looks,colour but by the contents of their character.

Submitted by Zette
Posted November 26, 2009 12:53 PM

There is always a mad man in every market so this guy can be forgiven.The fact that we have a man committed to better the world in position of power means alot to me than him being Muslim.Islam is a religion like other religions.There will always be rotten apples in the basket.you spreading such hateful messsages lands you in the rotten pile with the terrorists coz you are destroying young minds.Dont judge someone by their looks,colour but by the contents of their character.

Submitted by aggruy
Posted November 26, 2009 12:42 PM

Barack Hussein Obama is your president Mr Wolf wolf, its hurting you that much, deal with it bro its okey everything is gonna be alright.

Submitted by ericndiku
Posted November 26, 2009 12:21 PM

As far as ignorance is concerned, Americans truly lead the world. The average American does not know what happens in the next state leave alone stuff like Africa is a continent. Explaining that not every Muslim or person of Middle Eastern origins or even looks is a terrorist?? Well. I don't wanna be the one doing that.

Submitted by guarantisticExE
Posted November 26, 2009 10:14 AM

Most Americans can think are not exposed to the world. The Us army, marines and AF are aware of what is going on beyond the boarders. So don't worry. Take heart pple!! Obama is ok and doing the best he can. Only the illiterate whites feel unsafe coz they are cornered. Not all wazungus are bright.Many are damn asses n are challenges with his smart thinking. He is American, they cant deny its. Mcain was born in a us army base n he became american why not obama in Hawaii, a US territory?

Submitted by WN2007
Posted November 25, 2009 11:15 PM

When will these doubting Thomas accept Obama is here to stay until the good Lord decides otherwise? Oh how they could use their energies on other problems facing the US! Sometimes I feel like we blacks have brought it on ourselves right here in Africa - see how we govern wonderful countries into ruins? Lets all prove we are capable of doing better than we are doing in Africa today!

Submitted by yesuwangu
Posted November 25, 2009 08:27 PM

Humans are the only RAcist living things on earth .no animal of the same spacies will discriminate another based on his colour.white cat and black cat knows one thing we are all cats.red cock,black hen,spotted cats,colured dogs etc colur is nothing to them.If men could see colour as not a human identity then we would all be humans