IGIHE

Author: Théophile Niyitegeka

  • Geneva talks: Rebels positive after meeting de Mistura

    {Opposition official praises Staffan de Mistura’s ‘positive ideas’ at first meeting of new round of Geneva talks.}

    Geneva, Switzerland – The Syrian opposition has described its first meeting here with the UN envoy in the latest round of peace talks as “generally positive”, praising him for being more engaged in discussing a political transition.

    The comments came a day after Staffan de Mistura, the UN special envoy for Syria, formally launched the fourth round of negotiations at the UN offices amid low expectations.

    The talks are part of the latest political initiative to bring an end to a six-year war that has killed nearly 500,000 people, wounded more than a million, and displaced nearly half the population.

    “We heard positive ideas and suggestions from Mr de Mistura,” Nasser al-Hariri, the lead opposition negotiator, said at a news conference on Friday.

    “I believe he was more enthusiastic than before in discussing a political transition in Syria. So far there are no specific measures.”

    Hariri said the opposition presented its “understanding” of points in UN Security Council Resolution 2254 that discuss political transition in Syria, including governance, the formation of a new constitution and new UN-supervised elections.

    {{‘Just political solution’}}

    The opposition’s goal was to forge “a just political solution that ensures for the Syrian people its aspirations and dreams, for which it has paid a very high price”, he said.

    Friday’s discussions with de Mistura only covered “procedural” aspects of the ongoing talks, Hariri said, adding that specific points about the shape and scope of any transition would be clarified in the coming days.

    Opposition officials told Al Jazeera that their delegation would respond on Monday to the framework for political transition submitted by de Mistura.

    “What will be discussed in the following days is the make-up of a transitional governing body – as in, who the members of this body would be,” Mohammad Sabra, the chief negotiator for the opposition delegation, told Al Jazeera.

    He said the opposition’s participation in the latest round of Geneva talks was aimed at finding ways to implement “mechanisms” to “force the Syrian government to comply with UN Security Council resolutions surrounding Syria, if it refuses to do so”.

    “The regime always claims that it is looking for a political solution,” Sabra said.

    “So far, it has not said that it refuses to implement the resolutions. Resolution 2118 stipulates that in the case of refusal, the Security Council can take measures based on Chapter VII of the UN Charter […] to force the regime to comply with international law, so that we can achieve political transition.”

    Shortly after Friday’s news conference, the opposition delegation returned to its hotel and held a closed-door meeting with Michael Ratney, the US special envoy for Syria, and several European diplomats.

    Government’s account

    For his part, de Mistura met the representatives of the Syrian government earlier in the day.

    In a brief press conference after that meeting, Bashar al-Jaafari, the lead Syrian government negotiator, said de Mistura had presented his delegation with a “document” whose contents would be discussed at their next meeting.

    Though the Geneva talks are seen as the most serious effort in months to put an end to the Syrian war, the starkly different political objectives of the rival sides remain unchanged from previous rounds of negotiations, casting doubt on the possibility of achieving progress.

    For the Syrian opposition, a political transition that ensures the removal of President Bashar al-Assad remains the only option for peace – an issue that his Damascus-based government has consistently refused to consider.

    “The only solution that we will accept is to establish a transitional governing body, which Bashar al-Assad will have no role in, not in this transitional period, and not in the future of Syria,” Salem al-Muslet, spokesperson for the opposition delegation, told Al Jazeera.

    The latest talks almost fell apart before they began on Thursday, after the opposition threatened to skip the opening ceremony over disagreements on the format of the session.

    The Syrian opposition expects political transition to be discussed

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • White House bars outlets from Sean Spicer media gaggle

    {News organisations criticised by President Trump among those blocked from ‘gaggle’ with Press Secretary Sean Spicer.}

    The White House has blocked a number of news outlets from covering a question-and-answer session with spokesman Sean Spicer held in place of the daily press briefing.

    Media organisations including The New York Times, CNN, Politico and Al Jazeera were blocked from joining the informal, on-the-record, off-camera press briefing on Friday, referred to as a “gaggle”.

    Some of the blocked outlets, including CNN, have been singled out by President Donald Trump as sources of “fake news”.

    Spicer invited only a pool of news organisations that represents and shares reporting with the larger press corps.

    Journalists from several right-leaning outlets were also allowed into Spicer’s office, including the website Breitbart News, whose former executive chairman, Steve Bannon, is Trump’s chief strategist.

    When additional news organisations attempted to gain access, they were not allowed to enter.

    Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett, reporting from the White House, was among those asked to leave.

    “This is really the latest in an ongoing media war with this White House,” she said.

    “Some of those who are concerned about this are outlets that have been accused by the White House of reporting unfavourably, namely that they reported that the White House recently tried to deploy the FBI to counter some negative reporting with regard to whether or not there had been contact between the White House and Russian officials.”

    Typically, the daily briefing is televised and open to all news organisations credentialed to cover the White House.

    The Associated Press and Time magazine chose not to participate in the gaggle after Spicer restricted the number of journalists present.

    {{‘Don’t need everything on camera’}}

    Spicer said the White House held a gaggle rather than an open briefing because Trump made a major speech earlier in the day.

    “Our job is to make sure that we’re responsive to folks in the media,” he said during the briefing. “We want to make sure we answer your questions, but we don’t need to do everything on camera every day.”

    In a statement, White House Correspondents’ Association President Jeff Mason said the group was “protesting strongly” against how the gaggle was handled by the White House and that the issue would be discussed further with officials.

    Speaking to Al Jazeera, Mason added that press access to the White House since Trump took office in January has been “good”.

    “There’s some irony to that statement because the tone set by President Trump about the media, of course, has been very negative,” he said, “but we have had many opportunities to ask questions, both of the president and Sean Spicer, his press secretary, and to see and take pictures basically of how this White House governs. That is a positive thing and a trend we hope will continue.”

    After The New York Times was barred from attending the gaggle, its executive editor, Dean Baquet, said that “nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties.”

    CNN described the move as an “unacceptable development by the Trump White House”.

    “Apparently this is how they retaliate when you report facts they don’t like. We’ll keep reporting regardless,” the broadcaster said in a statement.

    The Committee to Protect Journalists also condemned the move by the White House.

    “We are concerned by the decision to bar reporters from a press secretary briefing,” CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said in a statement. “The US should be promoting press freedom and access to information.”

    Journalists leave after several major news organisations were excluded from the off-camera 'gaggle'

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • Army claims gains in fight for western Mosul

    {Government troops advance on Al Maamun neighbourhood, a day after deadly ISIL rocket strikes on soldiers near airport.}

    Iraqi forces have entered a neighbourhood in the western part of Mosul for the first time since the launch of an offensive to retake the city from ISIL last year.

    Sami al-Aridhi, a lieutenant-general in Iraq’s Counter Terrorism Service (CTS), said on Friday that the army was fighting for Al Maamun, a small neighbourhood on the southwestern edge of Mosul.

    He told AFP news agency that the troops earlier “attacked and fully control” Ghazlani military base and Tal al-Rayyan village outside Mosul.

    The fighters belonging to ISIL, or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, attacked government forces with a suicide car bombing in Tal al-Rayyan and that three other car bombs were found there, according to Aridhi.

    The CTS, the most-seasoned force in Iraq, has suffered no losses since the renewed push on west Mosul was launched on Sunday, according to Aridhi.

    He said some fighters had been wounded, however, some of them by the weaponised drones that ISIL – also known as ISIS – has increasingly resorted to in recent weeks.

    {{Earlier casualties}}

    Late on Thursday, ISIL rocket attacks killed at least dozens of Iraqi soldiers, a day after the army secured Mosul airport.

    Al Jazeera’s Osama Bin Javaid, reporting from Erbil, said that ISIL targeted the troops from multiple fronts, including soldiers who were stationed at Mosul airport, one of the Iraqi army’s most significant achievements in its first phase of the offensive.

    “It is one of the largest death tolls you’ve seen in the last six days of this push towards western Mosul,” he said.

    He said that while ISIL had claimed that it had killed almost 40 Iraqi soldiers, “Iraqi government officially does not accept or deny any of these casualty figures [although] military sources have been telling us that dozens of soldiers have died in these ISIL attacks”.

    The attacks came after Iraqi forces stormed the city’s airport and a nearby military base early on Thursday, which had been captured by ISIL fighters when they overran Mosul in June 2014.

    ISIL’s strategy reportedly includes waiting for “darkness to fall” before hidden fighters launch a series of attacks on surrounding soldiers.

    Iraqi forces aim to secure the airport and the camp’s surrounding areas, in order to easily bring in reinforcements, Al Jazeera’s Bin Javaid said, adding that “Iraqi forces realise that taking Mosul is weeks, if not months away”.

    A federal police officer and an official overseeing operations said on Friday that soldiers secured key infrastructures since the operation to force ISIL out of western Mosul was officially launched on Sunday.

    The operation to retake Iraq’s second-largest city was officially launched in October last year, and in January its eastern half was declared “fully liberated”.

    Mosul is ISIL’s last major urban stronghold in Iraq, but the battle to retake its western half is expected to be the most challenging yet, since the streets are older, narrower and is densely populated with an estimated 750,000 civilians trapped in the area.

    In a separate incident, two suicide car bombers struck army and paramilitary forces west of Mosul on Monday, killing and wounding a number of troops, two army officers said, with ISIL claiming responsibility for the attacks.

    The operation to retake Iraq's second largest city was launched in October

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • Suicide bombers kill dozens near Al Bab

    {Attacks leave more than 60 people dead, day after ISIL’s retreat from northern town.}

    Two suicide car bombs have gone off near Al Bab, killing scores of people, just a day after ISIL fighters were pushed out of the northern Syrian town.

    Friday’s first bombing killed 53 people in the village of Susiyan, 10km northwest of Al Bab, and struck Syrian rebels battling ISIL, or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group, local sources said.

    The second explosion took place a few hours later and left eight dead, according to the Aleppo Media Center and Thiqa News agency, media platforms operated by opposition activists.

    Two suicide car bombs have gone off near Al Bab, killing scores of people, just a day after ISIL fighters were pushed out of the northern Syrian town.

    Friday’s first bombing killed 53 people in the village of Susiyan, 10km northwest of Al Bab, and struck Syrian rebels battling ISIL, or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group, local sources said.

    The second explosion took place a few hours later and left eight dead, according to the Aleppo Media Center and Thiqa News agency, media platforms operated by opposition activists.

    He added that several cars and motorbikes were destroyed in the powerful blast.

    Turkey’s Anadolu news agency said at least 41 wounded were taken for treatment to the Turkish border town of Kilis.

    On Thursday, several Turkish-backed Syrian rebels were killed by a mine in Al Bab while clearing the town of unexploded ordnance after ISIL retreated, according to reports.

    Syria’s main conflict pits President Bashar al-Assad, backed by Russia, Iran and Shia militias, against rebels that include groups supported by Turkey, the US and Arab Gulf countries.

    However, both those sides, as well as a group of militias led by Kurdish forces and supported by the US, are also fighting ISIL, which holds large expaneses of northern and eastern Syria.

    Turkey directly intervened in Syria in August in support of a group of rebel factions fighting under the FSA banner to drive ISIL from its border.

    It also wants to stop Kurdish groups from gaining control of most of the frontier.

    In Geneva on Friday, the UN’s Syria envoy, Staffan de Mistura, held his second day of meetings with government and opposition delegations in a bid to move closer to a political solution to end the war.

    For the Syrian opposition, a political transition that ensures the removal of President Bashar al-Assad remains the only option for peace – an issue that his Damascus-based government has consistently refused to consider.

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • Egypt’s Coptic Christians flee Sinai after deadly attacks

    {Dozens of Coptic Christian families in Egypt have fled North Sinai province after a number of killings in recent weeks by suspected Islamist militants.}

    Many have now taken refuge in the Evangelical Church in the Suez Canal city of Ismailiya.

    The Coptic Church has condemned the attacks, saying they were aimed at “dividing” Egyptians.

    On Sunday, Islamic State militants released a video, warning of more attacks on Egypt’s Christian minority.

    The Copts – who make up about 10% of the country’s 90 million population – have often been targeted by Islamists in recent years.

    Most of the Islamist militant attacks of recent years have been focused on the Sinai peninsula, where an IS-linked jihadist group is active, but the capital Cairo has also suffered a string of attacks in the past two years.

    {{‘Scared of our shadows’}}

    About 250 Christians with their belongings were now in Ismailiya’s church, deacon Nabil Shukrallah said on Friday.

    “They’ve come running with their children. It’s a very difficult situation. We’re expecting 50 or 60 more,” he told the AFP news agency.

    Meanwhile, refugees said they were now “scared of our shadows”, adding that they “are being targeted in an ugly way”.

    Many of them were from the city of El-Arish, where at least seven Christians have been killed.

    Egypt has seen a wave of attacks by militants since 2013 when the military overthrew President Mohammed Morsi, an elected leader who hailed from the Muslim Brotherhood, and launched a crackdown against Islamists.

    Some of Mr Morsi’s supporters blamed Christians for supporting the overthrow.
    In December, a bomb explosion in the Coptic Christian cathedral in killed at least 25 people.

    The Coptic Orthodox Church is the main Christian Church in Egypt. While most Copts live in Egypt, the Church has about a million members outside the country.

    Copts believe that their Church dates back to around 50 AD, when the Apostle Mark is said to have visited Egypt. Mark is regarded as the first Pope of Alexandria – the head of their church.

    This makes it one of the earliest Christian groups outside the Holy Land.

    The Church separated from other Christian denominations at the Council of Chalcedon (451 AD) in a dispute over the human and divine nature of Jesus Christ.

    The early Church suffered persecution under the Roman Empire, and there were intermittent persecutions after Egypt became a Muslim country. Many believe that continues to this day.

    More Christian refugees from Sinai are expected to arrive in Ismailiya

    Source:BBC

  • ‘Good vibration’ hand pumps boost Africa’s water security

    {The simple up-and-down motion of hand pumps could help scientists secure a key water source for 200 million people in Africa.}

    Growing demand for groundwater is putting pressure on the resource while researchers struggle to accurately estimate the future supply.

    But a team from Oxford University says that low-cost mobile sensors attached to pumps could solve the problem.

    Their study shows that pump vibrations record the true depth of well water.

    While fresh water from Africa’s rivers and lakes is hugely important for people, it is dwarfed by the amount of groundwater available, estimated to be 100 times greater than the annual renewable fresh resource.

    Groundwater lies in aquifers under the surface of the earth and is often extracted from wells by pumps. In many places these are simple devices, operated by hand.

    In 2012 the Oxford research team started a trial in Kenya where hand pumps in 60 villages were fitted with data transmitters.

    The idea was they would monitor the motion of the pump and the amount of water extracted on an hourly basis – if the pump wasn’t working, a message was sent to a repair company and workers were dispatched to fix the problem.

    The innovation cut the average repair time from over a month to less than three days.

    Now the scientists have found another way to interpret the data from the accelerometers fitted to the pump handles.

    They discovered that when the water is being drawn from a deep aquifer, it produces different vibrations than when the liquid comes from a shallow one.

    “It’s quite a simple and elegant solution to estimating groundwater and how it varies over time,” co-author Dr Rob Hope from Oxford’s School of Geography and the Environment told BBC News.

    “In East Africa at the moment there’s quite a severe drought, in South Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, and a lot of this might be dealt with earlier with these sorts of systems.

    “If you can predict that groundwater levels are going down rapidly, rather than getting to problem and dealing, with it you can predict it much earlier on.”

    While the accelerometers and mobile data technology in the system is a fairly simple arrangement, the statistical analysis of the information is quite sophisticated.

    Researchers took recordings of pumping lasting between 20 seconds and three minutes at different sites in Kenya and Oxford.

    The scientists say the vibration value analysis is akin to the complex systems that monitor vibrations in aircraft.

    “This project is a great example of using the latest developments in low-cost mobile sensors and machine learning,” said lead author Dr David Clifton, associate professor of engineering science at Oxford.

    “Working closely with development experts, we can help tackle water security, which is an issue of huge importance in the developing world.”

    There are now about 300 sensors installed across Kenya as an early warning system and some 15,000 people who are paying small premiums for rapid repairs. There has been very little damage or attempts to steal the technology in the communities in which they are installed, as people value the service.

    The researchers believe the system can be rapidly scaled up and rolled out to other communities. With up to a million hand pumps dotted around Africa, they believe there is now a great opportunity to capture highly useful groundwater data.

    {{What is groundwater?}}

    When water falls as rain or snow, much of it either flows into rivers or is used to provide moisture to plants and crops. What is left over trickles down to the layers of rock that sit beneath the soil.

    And just like a giant sponge, this groundwater is held in the spaces between the rocks and in the tiny interconnected spaces between individual grains in a rock like sandstone.

    These bodies of wet rock are referred to as aquifers. Groundwater does not sit still in the aquifer but is pushed and pulled by gravity and the weight of water above it.

    The movement of the water through the aquifer removes many impurities and it is often cleaner than water on the surface.

    This “accidental infrastructure” could allow a network of hand pumps across the region to transmit data to the cloud to create a public dataset that would be widely used.

    “Rather than just seeing these pumps as concrete and iron littered around Africa, these systems could be the little sentinels giving you this very valuable information,” said Dr Hope,
    “Mining companies, agriculture, institutional investors and communities could all benefit from this.

    “I’ve been working in Africa for 15 years and I think it’s one of the most exciting things that we’ve been working on and the results that we’ve had have been very promising.”

    Millions of people across Africa depend on hand pumps for their water supplies

    Source:BBC

  • East Africa to track trucks from Mombasa port to stop theft

    {East African customs authorities have adopted an electronic system to track lorries travelling between Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda to speed up journeys.}

    The trackers will allow officials and traders to monitor trucks travelling to and from the Kenyan port of Mombasa.

    A device will be attached to vehicles and is intended to help prevent hijacks and goods being tampered with.

    Uganda, which pioneered the project, says journey times could be cut from three-and-a-half days to just 36 hours.

    {{Detours detected}}

    The geo-mapping, known as the Regional Electronic Cargo Tracking (RECT), will apply to the main road stretching from Mombasa port to the Rwandan capital, Kigali, known as the “Northern Corridor”.

    Officials will be able to monitor journeys on a map and be able to immediately detect any detours.

    About 90% of goods through the region are transported by road with the risk of cargo being targeted by criminals.

    Customs officials say drivers have also been known to take diversions and siphon off freight, for example offloading coffee and adding stones to make up the missing weight.

    “There has always been that unpredictable aspect of not knowing whether your goods will reach or they won’t reach and that in itself is a very serious discomfort, now this will resolve that problem,” Kassim Omar, chairman of the Association of Clearing and Forwarding Agents in Uganda, told the BBC at the launch in the Ugandan capital, Kampala.

    “The level of assurance guarantees the buyer abroad or the supplier from this end that what was sent will be what is contained in that particular container,” he added.

    The system will also mean that all appropriate tax is properly declared.

    The amount of time spent clearing goods at Mombasa ports will also be significantly reduced, according to Bernard Kibiti, from the Kenya Revenue Authority.

    He told the BBC the whole process would be more efficient and would result in less paperwork.

    From Mombasa to Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, a truck spends about 80 hours stuck at border posts.

    A lorry is stopped at either side of the Kenya-Uganda border, taking an estimated 40 hours to clear both, and the same time at the Uganda-Rwanda border.

    With the electronic tagging a driver will be checked and present their papers once at each border.

    The BBC’s Patience Atuhaire in Kampala says the three East African Community countries hope the seamless movement of goods enabled by the electronic cargo tracking system will attract even more investment to the region.

    The electronic device will help to improve the process of transporting goods

    Source:BBC

  • South Africa clashes at anti-foreigner protest in Pretoria

    {South African police have used rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannon to disperse crowds at an anti-immigrant march in the capital, Pretoria.}

    A low-flying police helicopter was deployed to break up a stand-off between local protesters and foreigners, with both groups armed with sticks, bricks and knives.

    President Jacob Zuma said the protests were “anti-crime” not “anti-foreigner”.
    Many unemployed South Africans accuse migrants of taking their jobs.

    Mr Zuma has condemned recent acts of violence and intimidation directed at African immigrants living in South Africa.

    Earlier this week, angry mobs attacked Nigerians and looted shops belonging to Somalis, Pakistani and other migrants in townships around Pretoria and parts of Johannesburg.

    “They [foreigners] should know that this they are a guest in my house. I am treating them with respect. They should treat me with respect,” one angry protester told the BBC’s Nomsa Maseko at the scene.

    Nigerians in South Africa were “notorious” for dealing drugs, he added, calling for greater checks on foreigners coming into the country.

    {{‘Foreigners arrogant’}}

    Somali and Bangladeshi immigrants in the western part of the city told the BBC that their shops had been looted during Friday’s protests.

    Shopkeeper Omar Adawi said it was the third time his business had been targeted: “I am not feeling happy… Now my shop is nothing. They took everything. I have lost everything. I have nothing left in my hands,” he said.

    The main group behind the Pretoria protests, Mamelodi Concerned Residents, has blamed foreign nationals for taking jobs and accused them of being involved in prostitution rings and drug cartels, accusations denied by immigrant communities.

    The petition delivered by the group to the home affairs ministry alleged worshippers from Zimbabwean apostolic churches, who congregate in the open, were “destroying our public parks”, and accused them of defecating, urinating and burning fires.

    It also said foreigners were “arrogant and don’t know how to talk to people, especially Nigerians”.

    But President Zuma said many foreign citizens living in South Africa were law-abiding and contributed to the economy.

    “It is wrong to brandish all non-nationals as drug dealers or human traffickers. Let us isolate those who commit such crimes and work with government to have them arrested, without stereotyping and causing harm to innocent people,” Mr Zuma said in a statement.

    Speaking to media after the protest, the president denied that South Africans were xenophobic and that the event “was anti-crime in the main. It was not an anti-foreigners march.”

    “The number of foreigners in South Africa are far more than the numbers that Europe is fighting about… but nobody calls them xenophobic,” he added.

    The opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) blamed poor leadership for the unrest.

    “The root cause of this rise in xenophobic violence is the ANC government’s failure to create jobs and to equip our people with the necessary quality education and skills to gain employment,” the DA said in a statement.

    The home affairs minister announced plans on Thursday to inspect workplaces to see if firms are employing undocumented foreigners.

    Police in Pretoria say they have made more than a hundred arrests in the past 24 hours, amid the unrest.

    {{‘March of hatred’}}

    In a statement, they blamed a group from the Atteridgeville township in Pretoria, who were not part of the sanctioned protest, for this morning’s violence.

    The foundation of late South African leader Nelson Mandela says it was shocked at the decision by police to give the go-ahead for Friday’s anti-foreigner protest, calling it “a march of hatred”.

    Official government figures say the number of immigrants in South Africa has declined in recent years.

    Figures released last year said there were 1.6 million foreign-born people in the country, down from 2.2 million in 2011.

    South Africa experienced its worst outbreak of violence against foreigners in 2008, when more than 60 people died.

    Two years ago, similar xenophobic unrest in the cities of Johannesburg and Durban claimed seven lives as African immigrants were hunted down and attacked by gangs.

    South African nationals marched through Pretoria to protest against immigrants

    Source:BBC

  • Kenya:Three suspected remnants of Sabaot Land Defence Force lynched in Mt Elgon

    Three suspected remnants of the Sabaot Land Defence Force were on Friday lynched by irate residents in Cheptais, Mt Elgon.

    The angry residents also torched the suspects’ houses.

    According to the residents the three youths allegedly killed an elderly man whose body was found in Mt Elgon forest.

    The residents say the elderly man was abducted by the suspects who wanted to kick him out of his land.

    Cheptais police boss Ezekiel Kiche said the three were hunted down, seized by angry villagers before they were stoned to death.

    “Investigation is ongoing, the law does not allow mob justice they should have arrested them and handed them to us,” he said.

    He said security personnel have been deployed in the area to stop further killings.

    Mr Kiche added that two other suspects are receiving treatment in hospital while 10 youths have been arrested and are being held at Cheptais Police Station.

    Cheptais residents mill around the body of a lynched youth suspected to be a remnant of the Sabaot Land Defense Force on February 24, 2017.

    Source:Daily Nation

  • Besigye asks EU to probe Kasese killings

    {Former presidential candidate Kizza Besigye has implored the European Union (EU) to investigate the post 2016 election violence especially in the “traditional strongholds of the Opposition” such as Kasese District.}

    Dr Besigye made the request in Brussels on Wednesday during a closed-door meeting with Mr Koen Vervaeke, the European External Action Service (EEAS) managing director for Africa.

    “I briefed Mr Vervaeke about the post-election situation in Uganda, including the Kasese violence, and our continued demand for an internationally-supervised audit of the 2016 election,” he said.

    The EU, alongside other international regional bodies, observed the 2016 polls and concluded that the Electoral Commission lacked independence and transparency and fell short of international standards.

    Dr Besigye, in his fourth unsuccessful shot at the presidency, stood on the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party ticket.

    Mr Dickson Wasajja, the FDC UK Chapter chairperson and the party’s envoy to the European Union who attended the meeting, said: “current political and economic crisis in Uganda and matters of mutual interest between Uganda, the Great Lakes Region and the European Union dominated the talks”.

    Dr Besigye, during the meeting accused President Museveni and government of intentionally targeting the leadership and subjects of the Rwenzururu kingdom, according to Mr Wasajja.

    A combined army and police force bombed out the kingdom headquarters and arrested King Charles Wesley Mumbere now facing trial for multiple crimes, including treason and murder.

    In their latest report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused security forces in the country of carrying out at least 13 extra-judicial killings of people in the Rwenzori region shortly after the February 18, 2016 general elections.

    The New York-based rights group said it documented cases where the army and police allegedly executed unarmed civilians following violence in the region between February and April, 2016. 30 people reportedly died at the time.

    The 687-page report, however, did not include the November, 2016 violence in Kasese that left more than 100 people dead after the army and police raided Rwenzururu Kingdom palace outside Kasese Town. Government denied the HRW allegations, saying the people killed were armed combatants who attacked police stations, other security installations, and police and army personnel.

    The EU, according to Mr Wasajja, promised to work with all groups and individuals that are calling for a thorough investigation into the Kasese massacre.

    Dialogue
    Mr Vervaeke had earlier on February 21, tweeted a photo of him and Dr Besigye saying he had discussed with the former presidential candidate “national dialogue and political reforms in Uganda”.

    On Monday Daily Monitor broke the story that President Museveni and Dr Besigye had agreed on a foreign mediator and broad agenda for expected talks to resolves Uganda’s intractable political problems.

    Information minister Frank Tumwebaze later denied any dialogue is in the works and FDC said its preconditions for talks had not been met.

    These include a mutually agreed foreign mediator, agenda for the dialogue, implementation mechanism for decisions reached, and treatment of parties to the talks as equals.

    FDC has also insisted on an independent audit of the 2016 presidential election results.

    “Yes, we discussed having dialogue with Mr Museveni and our position was made clear that any dialogue cannot be a Besigye-Museveni affair, but national, with an agreed agenda, respected facilitator and international guarantors,” Mr Wasajja said.

    The EU is reported to have expressed readiness to assist with the facilitation of any such dialogue, if asked.

    “Talks have got to be meaningful and aimed at solving Uganda’s mountain of problems,” he said.

    Dr Kizza Besigye is welcomed by Mr Koen Vervaeke - Managing Director for Africa at the European Union External Action Service in Brussels, Belgium. The two officials discussed current political and economic issues in Uganda and matters of mutual interest between Uganda, the Great Lakes Region and the European Union.

    Source:Daily Monitor