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Iran nuclear issue not insoluble, says FM Javad Zarif

{Iran’s foreign minister has expressed cautious optimism about upcoming talks on Iran’s nuclear programme, saying the issue is “not insoluble”.}

World powers and Iran are due to meet in Geneva later on Thursday for a further round of discussions.

Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said the talks would be “highly laboured” but the aim was to “cross over the wall of distrust” created by Western policies.

The West suspects Iran of seeking to build nuclear weapons.

Tehran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes.

{{‘First step’}}

In comments broadcast on Iranian TV on Thursday, Mr Zarif repeated Iran’s long-standing assertion that to “refrain from seeking nuclear weapons is a policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran”.

Ahead of the talks, he met EU foreign policy envoy Catherine Ashton for a working breakfast. Her spokesman described it as a good meeting, while Reuters quoted Mr Zarif as saying an agreement was within reach.

After last month’s meeting, international negotiators said they were considering an Iranian proposal, although no details have been released.

The latest round of talks bring together Iranian officials and representatives of the “P5+1” – the permanent members of the UN Security Council (Britain, China, France, Russia and the US) plus Germany – also known as the E3+3.

Ahead of the meetings, a senior US administration official told reporters that Washington wanted Tehran to agree on a “first step” to stop advancing its programme further.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the US was hoping for “an initial understanding that stops Iran’s nuclear programme from moving forward and rolls it back for the first time in decades”.

Last month, the EU’s top foreign policy official, Catherine Ashton, said the the P5+1 and Iran had “their most detailed talks ever”.

Last month’s talks were the first since Hassan Rouhani – seen as a relative moderate – became Iran’s president in August.

{{Key demands}}

International negotiators want Tehran to take specific steps to prevent it from ever being able to make nuclear weapons.

In return, they promise to lift some of the international sanctions imposed in recent years.

Key international demands include the acceptance by Iran of a comprehensive verification regime – with unannounced checks – and a reduction in Iran’s level of uranium enrichment.

Iran subscribed to a fuller inspection regime under the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which was known as the additional protocol, until 2006.

Western nations have also been pressing for Tehran to halt the production and stockpiling of uranium enriched to 20% – a step away from achieving a nuclear weapons capability.

They also want Iran to send some of its stockpiles abroad, and shut down the Fordo production site near the city of Qom, where most of the higher-grade enrichment work is done.

Since 2006 the UN Security Council has imposed a series of sanctions – including asset freezes and travel bans – on entities and people involved in Iran’s nuclear programme.

Separate US and EU sanctions have targeted Iran’s energy and banking sectors, crippling its oil-based economy. Iran wants the sanctions lifted.

Source: BBC

November 7, 2013
ANC anger over ‘insulting art student T-shirts’

{South Africa’s governing African National Congress party has criticised a school for displaying students’ artwork which “borders on racism”.}

The exhibition included images of ANC leaders, including President Jacob Zuma and Nelson Mandela, printed on T-shirts as part of an end-of-year art exam.

The ANC said they ridiculed its leaders with one labelling them “fakers since 1994”, when white minority rule ended.

But the school in Durban denied there was any racial motivation behind them.

Headmaster Trevor Hall said Westville Boys’s High School in Durban was committed to a “non-racial democratic South Africa” and apologised for any offence caused by the T-shirt images.

The visual art syllabus included a section on social and political commentary, he said.

{{‘Derogatory’}}

One of the satirical T-shirts has a picture of Mr Zuma posing as the Bakers man – the emblem of Bakers Biscuits – with the word “Fakers” over his head.

Senzo Mkhize, the ANC’s spokesman in KwaZulu-Natal, said such captions were “derogatory”.

“It is unacceptable for a school’s management to allow individuals with their own agendas to ridicule and insult the leadership of the country in this manner,” he said in a statement.

He said the party was made aware of the T-shirts by a member of the public who saw them displayed at a local shopping mall in Durban.

“We view this as an attack on the ANC and on the country since the South African flag [is] featured in the background,” Mr Mkhize said, calling on the school to investigate the incident and sanction those behind the designs.

“We cannot allow people who are hell-bent on employing underhand tactics to fuel hatred that reminds us of the dark days of apartheid.”

But Mr Hall told South Africa’s Daily News paper that “no particular political or social bias is encouraged” during the course.

“Pupils are free to make their own commentary on society, as is their right,” he is quoted as saying.

It is not the first time artwork has angered the ANC.

Last year, the governing party demanded that a controversial painting of President Zuma with his genitals exposed be removed from public view.

The artwork caused a furore with some saying President Zuma’s right to dignity had been violated, while supporters said it was a question of freedom of expression.

The ANC dropped legal action after the gallery agreed to remove the painting, which was vandalised whilst on display.

Source: BBC

November 7, 2013
Evidence of massacre uncovered in C.A.R

Al Jazeera has uncovered evidence that armed forces in the Central African Republic were responsible for a massacre that took place on October 26, a few kilometres from the centre of the town of Bouar.

Eighteen people were killed in the incident, the youngest victim just two weeks old.

Landlocked CAR – a nation of 4.6 million people – has slipped into chaos since a coalition of fighters named Seleka took control of the capital, Bangui, and deposed President Francois Bozize in March this year.

Human rights organisations estimate that thousands of people have been killed amid the deterioraring security situation.

Michel Djotodia, the Seleka leader, has claimed himself president of CAR.

He announced on September 14 that the Seleka alliance had been dissolved after it was blamed for a wave of violence. However, attacks have continued throughout the country.

In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera’s Nazanine Moshiri in Bangui, Djotodia has admitted that Seleka fighters do not follow his orders.

“When we arrived in Bangui, all the jobless, big-time bandits and escapees from prison … dressed in uniform and said they were Seleka,” he said.

“It is difficult for me because I don’t know who they are. It is hard for me to control them.”

Last week, senior UN officials told the UN Security Council that the CAR is at risk of slipping into genocide as armed groups incite Christians and Muslims against each other in the virtually lawless country.

The country is rich in gold, diamonds and uranium, but decades of instability and the spillover from conflicts in its larger neighbours have left it mired in cycles of crises.

The African Union plans to deploy a 3,600-member peacekeeping mission, known as MISCA, in the country.

It would incorporate a regional force of 1,100 soldiers already on the ground and is unlikely to be operational before 2014.

Source: Al Jazeera

November 7, 2013
Congolese journalist found alive in forest, 72 hours after being kidnapped

{Journalist in Danger (JED) is relieved to learn that Sagesse Kamwira – a journalist for Canal Congo Télévision-Radio Liberté Kinshasa – has been found, after having been kidnapped for three days.
}

According to testimonies gathered by JED, Kamwira was found on 31 October at around 7pm in the Visika Mabuku forest, approximately 60 km from Beni, by the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) and the National Congolese Police. The FARDC and the police had been deployed to search for Kamwira, shortly after Jinnah Ivogha, director of Radio Liberté/Beni received a phone call from the journalist, saying that she was abandoned in the forest.

Kamwira was kidnapped by a group of six unidentified armed individuals. Two women tied the journalist up before throwing her into Loulo river. Kamwira was able to save herself, and shortly afterwards was noticed by a farmer, who helped put her in contact with the radio station.

“After having found her, the FARDC and the police immediately took her to a hospital, where she is currently under medical supervision. Sagesse Kamwira was accused by her abductors of possessing photos and sound recordings of a group of criminals – now under arrest – who were associated with the murder of a merchant in Beni. Kamwira was also accused of having denounced the presence of a group of criminals in Beni, several days before she was kidnapped”, the director of Radio Liberté de Beni told JED.

Background:

Kamwira had been phoned on 29 October 2013 by an unknown individual, asking her to report on an event regarding the Tax Inspector of Beni. After informing her colleagues, Kamwira went to go report on the event. Later that evening, the journalist sent a text message to her radio station, saying that she was in the hands of her abductors.

November 7, 2013
Ethiopia: Egypt objections delaying dam panel

{Egyptian objections are delaying formation of a committee to implement expert recommendations on an Ethiopian dam project, Ethiopia’s water minister says}.

Egypt fears the 6,000 MW Grand Renaissance Dam, which will be Africa’s largest when completed in 2017, could diminish its water supply,

At a one-day meeting in Khartoum, the water ministers of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia agreed to form the panel, Alemayehu Tegenu said on Tuesday.

“But we didn’t agree about the composition of this committee,” he said. “We have differences with Egypt.”

Tegenu declined to elaborate on why there was disagreement over the committee’s membership but said the three sides would meet again in Khartoum on December 8.

Ethiopia began diverting the Blue Nile in May to build the dam.

An international panel has issued a report outlining the dam’s impact on water levels.

The report has not been made public, but Ethiopia has said it confirms that the impact on water levels is minimal.

Egyp, which is almost entirely dependent on the Nile, had sought more studies about the dam’s impact on its water supply.

Egypt believes its “historic rights” to the Nile are guaranteed by two treaties from 1929 and 1959 which allow it 87 percent of the Nile’s flow and give it veto power over upstream projects.

But a new deal signed in 2010 by other Nile Basin countries, including Ethiopia, allows them to work on river projects without Cairo’s prior agreement.

Sudan, along with Egypt, has not signed the new Nile Basin deal.

Sudan too relies on Nile resources but has said it does not expect to be affected by the Grand Renaissance project.

Source: Al Jazeera

November 7, 2013
US may consider easing Rwanda sanctions

{{Envoy says that if Washington believed Rwanda was no longer supporting Congo’s M23 rebels it may reconsider situation.}}

{The United States would consider resuming military aid to Rwanda if it found Rwandan support for Congo’s M23 rebel group had ended, a senior US official has said.}

On October 3, Washington said it would block US military aid to Rwanda because of its “support for the M23, a rebel group which continues to actively recruit and abduct children” and which has posed a threat to the stability of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Rwanda has repeatedly denied backing the rebels.

Under US sanctions, Rwanda does not get US International Military Education and Training funds, which help train foreign militaries, or US Foreign Military Financing, which funds the sale of US military equipment and services.

Russ Feingold, US special envoy to the Great Lakes region of Africa, told reporters that the United States would conduct an investigation and could lift the sanctions if it found that any Rwandan support for M23’s use of child soldiers had ceased.

“If it turns out that Rwanda is no longer involved in such activities, if it turns out that their role here has been a positive one – and there is much that they have done during this (peace) process to be positive … then we would certainly review whether it’s appropriate to continue these sanctions,” Feingold said.

“They are based specifically on certain actions that we believe occurred and if those actions cease, there would certainly be a serious review of whether it is appropriate to continue it (the sanctions).”

Source: {{Aljazeera}}

November 7, 2013
UN to reinforce DRC borders to stop FDLR rebels crossing into Rwanda

{UN troops will help reinforce Democratic Republic of Congo’s borders to stop rebels and arms getting into other countries after the defeat of M23 mutineers, a top UN envoy said Wednesday during a Security Council meeting.
}

Martin Kobler, UN representative to DR Congo said the UN peacekeeping mission, officially known as MONUSCO, would strengthen border positions to stop ethnic Hutu rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) crossing into Rwanda.

“We need to reinforce MONUSCO positions near the border to avoid flows of arms across the border, to avoid the FDLR crossing to Rwanda,” Kobler was quoted as telling the closed meeting.

UN troops, a new special intervention force, backed an offensive by government forces that this week defeated M23 rebels who launched an uprising in eastern DR Congo in early 2012.

But Rwanda, a temporary Security Council member closely implicated in the conflict across its border, called for a new focus on rebels which oppose its government.

Rwanda has warned that it remains ready to intervene in DR Congo, and this message was reinforced by its UN envoy Eugene Richard Gasana. Rwanda is particularly enraged by FDLR operations across the border.

“Rwanda remains fully prepared to use all necessary means to protect its people and territory,” Gasana told the meeting.

Afterwards, Gasana told reporters the Security Council should order the intervention brigade in DR Congo to take on the FDLR and other armed groups.

“This is a genocidal force which is there,” Gasana said. The FDLR is made up of remnants of Hutu extremists blamed for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda in which an estimated one million people died.

Furthermore, France’s UN envoy Gerard Araud told reporters the defeat of M23 was “a success for the Congolese army and for the United Nations.”

But he added that the M23 fighters had to be disarmed, the government must re-establish its authority in rebel areas, there had to be more work on a political accord among countries around DR Congo and there must be a new fight against other armed groups.

Araud highlighted the FDLR, Mai-Mai militias and the ADF-Nalu (Allied Democratic Forces-National Army for the Liberation of Uganda), Islamist militants who UN experts have linked to Al-Qaeda backed Shebab in Somalia.

The French envoy said the FDLR was a “legitimate” concern for the Rwandan government, which has been accused in the past of aiding M23.

DR Congo’s UN ambassador Ignaca Gata said the government now wanted to “eradicate all of the negative forces” in the eastern region.

Gata added that the government wants to complete an accord with remnants of the M23 that is being negotiated in Kampala.

He said it could allow for some M23 fighters to be integrated into the national army but this would be decided on “a case-by-case” basis.

Source: {{AFP}}

November 7, 2013
Congo Will Not Sign a ‘Peace Deal’ With Defeated M23 Rebels, Government Says

{The Congolese government says it will not sign a “peace deal” with the M23 rebels now that they have been defeated.}

Information Minister and government spokesman Lambert Mende told reporters during a news conference in Kinshasa on Tuesday that there will only be a “statement.”

“We did not go to [Kampala] to negotiate and sign an agreement. We were told: come to Kampala, listen to your countrymen and answer them. We listened and our response will be in the statement that we are going to sign,” Mr. Mende said.

He added that the Congolese government “never intended to sign a peace deal with anybody” when it agreed to start peace talks with the rebels in Kampala, Uganda.

DR Congo’s government agreed to hold talks with the M23 rebels in Kampala last year after they briefly occupied Goma, the North Kivu province’s capital city.

After nearly a year of off-and-on discussions, the talks were suspended again two weeks ago after the Congolese government refused to grant a complete amnesty or integrate into the army rebels who had committed war crimes or crimes against humanity.

The fighting then resumed. But by Tuesday morning, the Congolese army had regained all territories that had been occupied by the M23 rebels for more than a year.

After losing their strongholds of Kibumba, Kiwanja, Rutshuru, and Bunagana, the rebels fled from their last hideouts on the hills of Chanzu and Runyoni overnight as government troops backed by UN peacekeepers were advancing towards their positions.

The political leader of the M23, Bertrand Bisimwa, released a statement saying that the rebel group was “ending its rebellion.” But by then, the few remaining rebels and the M23 military leader Sultani Makenga had either fled to Uganda or Rwanda.

“You all heard the news. The M23 said that it has ended its rebellion. So, there is no need to go and change this fact by recreating an M23 to sign an agreement with,” Mr. Mende said on Tuesday.

Congo Planet

November 7, 2013
4 people arrested for unauthorized possession of military uniforms and weapons

{{Ngoma}}-{Four people were arrested for concealing military uniforms and weapons with an attempt to sell them. Currently they are detained at Sake police in Ngoma district.
}

The detained are Turayisenga Innocent alias Hawayi, 22, Hakizimana Theoneste, Nyandwi Ntirujyinama and Issa Abdul.

November 7, 2013
140 Police Officers to depart for peacekeeping mission in Mali

{The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Emmanuel K. Gasana, on Wednesday briefed a contingent of 140 police officers under Formed Police Unit (FPU), who are set to depart on Friday for a peacekeeping mission in Mali.}

The maiden contingent to serve for one year in the West African nation includes 17 females.

The contingent will be headed by Chief Superintendent Bértin Mutezintare.

“Make good use of the trainings and preparations you received to fulfill your mission assignments to bring about peace in Mali,” the IGP told the officers at the Police General headquarters in Kacyiru.

He urged them to raise the country’s flag high by acting professionally and upholding discipline.

He also told them to stick to the force’s core values and be good ambassadors.

Rwanda maintains about 600 police peacekeepers in eight missions including Haiti, Sudan, Liberia, Ivory Coast and South Sudan

RNP

November 7, 2013