IGIHE

Category: Politics

  • Brazil prosecutor seeks arrest of top politicians

    Supreme Court asked to authorise arrests of the Senate President and other politicians for obstructing corruption probe.

    Brazil’s political crisis heated up, as authorities reportedly sought the arrests of senior figures in the push to impeach suspended president Dilma Rousseff, accusing them of obstructing a corruption probe.

    If reports in the main Brazilian newspapers on Tuesday are confirmed, new doubts would be cast over the impeachment of Rousseff, pushing Latin America’s biggest economy into ever greater uncertainty with less than two months to go before Rio de Janeiro hosts the Summer Olympics.

    Prosecutor General Rodrigo Janot has asked the Supreme Court to authorise the arrests of Senate President Renan Calheiros, former Brazilian President Jose Sarney, Senator Romero Juca and powerful lawmaker Eduardo Cunha, O Globo newspaper reported.

    Cunha, who is the suspended speaker of Brazil’s lower house of Congress, said prosecutors’ request for his arrest on charges of obstructing sweeping corruption investigation at state firms was “absurd.”

    The report, which did not name its sources, was matched by two other newspapers shortly thereafter.

    However, officials at the prosecutor’s office and Supreme Court refused to confirm the reports to AFP news agency.

    The four are accused of participating in a huge embezzlement and bribery network centered around the state oil company Petrobras.

    Al Jazeera’s Adam Raney, reporting from Rio de Janeiro, said if the court does grant the arrests, it would be a huge deal for Brazil.

    “It is worth noting that Brazil’s general prosecutor refused to comment on whether these reports are true – that he asked for the Supreme Court of Justice to issue those arrests for these four men.

    “If granted by the Supreme Court, this would be a huge deal for Brazil because these four are one of the most powerful politicians,” Raney said.

    According to the reports, Janot now accuses them of trying to obstruct the probe into the scheme, known as Operation Car Wash.

    The alleged evidence against them came from secret recordings of conversations made by a former oil executive, Sergio Machado, who is cooperating with Car Wash prosecutors as part of a plea bargain.

    Calheiros denied any wrongdoing, calling the request for his arrest “irrational, disproportionate and abusive.”

    “I did not practice any specific act that can be interpreted as a supposed attempt to obstruct justice,” he said in a statement.

    All four in the prosecutor general’s crosshairs are from Temer’s PMDB party, which has been crucial to pushing impeachment through Congress.

    Supreme Court decisions on such sensitive cases often take a long time.

    But if confirmed, the scandal would be a huge blow against interim president Michel Temer, who took the reins after the suspension of Rousseff last month for her impeachment trial.

    Speaking to Al Jazeera on the Talk to Al Jazeera Show, Roussef said there were no legal grounds for her impeachment trial.

    “Because they are unable to find any corruption charges against me, they are trying to have me convicted of violating fiscal obligations.

    “When you believe justice is on your side, that gives you strength to withstand all odds,” she said.

    Prosecutor Janot accused of participating in a huge bribery network centered around the state oil company, Petrobas

  • Burundi frees some students accused of defacing president’s photo

    Burundi said on Tuesday it had released six juveniles who were part of a group of 11 students jailed last week for allegedly defacing a photograph of President Pierre Nkurunziza in a school text book.

    Authorities in the central African country have been cracking down on critics and the opposition against a backdrop of tension and violence sparked by Nkurunziza’s decision to run for a third term last year.

    Last Friday, police shot and wounded a student and a taxi driver during a protest by schoolchildren against the arrest of their colleagues a day earlier.

    Agnes Bangiricenge, spokeswoman for the ministry of justice said in a statement six of the students had been dealt with under proceedings for juvenile offenders. “After a hearing…the juvenile judge provisionally released them,” she said.

    Prosecution of the other five students, aged between 18 and 21, would proceed “normally”.

    In another incident last month, more than 300 students of a school in the capital’s Ruziba neighborhood were sent home after being accused of defacing Nkurunziza’s image.

    Violence broke out in Burundi last year after Nkurunziza announced he would seek re-election for a third term.

    Opponents accused him of violating the constitution, which they said limited him to two five-year terms. The government cited a court ruling which they said cleared him to stand again, and Nkurunziza subsequently won re-election last July.

    More than 450 people have been killed in violence between government security forces and various rebel factions opposed to his continued rule. The United Nations estimates the year-long violence has displaced over 250,000 Burundians, who have fled mostly to Tanzania and other neighboring countries.

    Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza walks during a ceremony in tribute to the former late President Colonel Jean-Baptiste Bagaza at the national congress palace in Bujumbura, Burundi May 16, 2016.

  • Uganda:New Cabinet: Dropped ministers speak out

    Left out. President Museveni on Monday appointed 38 new persons to the Cabinet and dropped 35. In other cases, Mr Museveni transferred a minister from one ministry to another – as he did with his wife, Janet Kataha Museveni, whom he moved from Karamoja Affairs to the Education ministry. Some of those Mr Museveni dropped from the cabinet told Daily Monitor’s Neslson Wesonga they saw it coming and that, fortunately, they have always had something to fallback to.

    Efforts to reach others, including Mr Jim Muhwezi (Information and National Guidance), Mr Asuman Kiyingi (State minister for Works), Ms Prisca Ssezi Mbaguta (State minister for Public Service), Ms Rebecca Amuge Otengo (State minister for Northern Uganda), Mr Fred Jacan Omach (State minister for Finance General Duties), Ms Rose Akol Okullu (Internal Affairs), failed.

    John Nasasira: Information and Communication Technology

    “I retired from elective politics [in 2016]. I was involved in an accident and since I had to go abroad for treatment, I informed my constituents I would not be in position to run for Parliament again. I am happy with the 27 years that I served as a Member of Parliament and a minister. I am not in the new cabinet. I will now focus on my private work as an engineer and a farmer. Definitely, I have not retired from working for the National Resistance Movement.”

    Barbara Nekesa Oundo: State for Karamoja Affairs

    “I am not bitter I have been left out of cabinet because there is a time for everything. God knows. I have not yet decided on my next move. I could decide tomorrow or even next week. I was committed to my constituents in Busia District in eastern Uganda.”

    Henry Banyenzaki: Economic Monitoring
    “ I am going to attend to my businesses. I am not bitter. I did my part; I have served the nation diligently. If those who fought against my reelection follow me in business, I will fight back. I support NRM. But in business, I would not want to mix it with politics.”

    Fredrick Ruhindi: Attorney General
    “I will be at Ruhindi & Company Advocates in Kampala. I look back to my time [in politics] with a lot of gratitude. I appreciate the people of Nakawa [in Kampala] who gave me an opportunity to serve them. I appreciate the appointing authority who found it fit to appoint me to the Cabinet [then].

    Suleiman Madada: State for the Elderly

    “I thank the President for having given me an opportunity to serve Uganda. There are many Ugandans he could have chosen. I served in the ministry for 10 years nonstop. Since I was active before I joined politics, I will never be idle; I am enterprising. I have institutions of learning and a foundation that deals with employment issues that I run.

    Sarah Kataike Ndoboli: State for Luweero Triangle

    “ I saw it coming. But I am not bitter with the appointing authority. Actually, I thank the appointing authority for having me serve in the previous Cabinet. I also have been working with Gen Salim Saleh, the chairperson Operation Wealth Creation (OWC). So OWC is the immediate address I could go to.

    Clockwise: (Fredrick Ruhindi: Attorney General), Sarah Kataike Ndoboli (State for Luweero Triangle), John Nasasira (Information and Communication Technology), Suleiman Madada (State for the Elderly), Henry Banyenzaki (Economic Monitoring) and Barbara Nekesa Oundo: State for Karamoja Affairs

  • US election: AP says Clinton wins Democratic nomination

    AP news agency names Clinton presumptive Democratic nominee based on count of superdelegates who say they support her.

    Hillary Clinton has commitments from the number of delegates needed to become the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee for president, the Associated Press news agency reports.

    An AP count of pledged delegates won in primaries and caucuses and a survey of party insiders known as superdelegates shows Clinton with the overall support of the required 2,383 delegates.

    Based on the count, AP named her the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee almost eight years to the day she conceded to now-President Barack Obama.

    Speaking to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, Clinton said she did not want to “get ahead of herself” and encouraged her supporters to vote in Tuesday’s primary in California, the largest US state, and in other states.

    “It is historic and I’m aware of that, and I take that responsibility seriously…I think it’s going to be a positive development- not just for little girls and women but for little boys and men because I’m running to be president for every single American,” Clinton said.

    The campaign of Bernie Sanders, her rival, said declaring Clinton the presumptive nominee was a rush to judgment.

    The campaign said the Democratic Party’s presidential pick is dependent on superdelegates who can still change their minds between now and the July convention.

    ‘Impossible’ for Sanders

    Political analyst Bill Schneider from the University of California Los Angeles said it was “impossible” to imagine how Sanders could now win the nomination but added the senator could still pose problems for Clinton.

    “The only way he could do it is with superdelegates but he’s complaining that she’s doing it with superdelegates … she’s ahead with elected pledged delegates and that’s very democratic,” Schneider said.

    “The question is what’s he fighting for now, what’s his stamp on the party platform? The longer he keeps his campaign going, the more he’ll depict her as the candidate of the national establishment.”

    Delegate count

    The Democratic contenders are fighting for pledges from 4,765 delegates, of which 4,046 are elected at primaries held across the US.

    The remainder, or superdelegates, are senior members of the Democratic party, including members of its national committee, senators, and members of Congress, who are free to vote as they choose when the party holds its convention on July 25.

    Excluding superdelegates, Clinton still leads Sanders by 1,812 delegates to 1,521.

    Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said she didn't want to celebrate just yet

  • Khartoum and Juba sign security deals

    The two sides have agreed to stop supporting rebel in both countries.

    Sudan and South Sudan late Monday signed a package of security agreements related to the re-deployment of joint military forces along the Safe Demilitarised Border Zone, and approved a plan to stop supporting and harbouring rebels and open border crossings.

    The joint Political and Security Committee between Sudan and South Sudan convened in Khartoum on Sunday in the presence of the foreign, defence and oil ministers of the two countries.

    “The committee agreed to implement the joint agreements related to the demilitarised zone,” local media quoted Sudanese Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour as saying.

    The two sides also agreed to stop supporting rebel groups in the two countries, he said, noting that the concerned security authorities in both countries would adopt specific measures in this regard.

    South Sudan’s Defence Minister Kuol Manyang, meanwhile, was reported to have said that the two sides agreed to carry out the joint cooperation agreements, and immediately embark on implementing the decisions reached during the meeting.

    REBEL GROUPS

    The South Sudanese minister admitted the presence of rebel groups in the two countries, saying “the rebel movements are a reality and their problem must be solved so that peace will prevail between the two countries.”

    The committee also agreed to gradually open the border crossings, and a joint border committee is to meet in Juba within two weeks to agree on dates and procedures for opening the 10 border crossings between the two countries.

    The two sides agreed to ask the African Union to support the safe buffer zone and provide the two parties with the necessary technical teams, besides establishment of three consulates in the cities in the safe demilitarised border area.

    The meeting also agreed to task a joint committee headed by the directors of intelligence services to address issues related to the disputed areas.
    In September 2012, Sudan and South Sudan signed a cooperation agreement in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa under the patronage of the African Union.

    The agreement included a package of understandings related to security, citizens’ status and border and economic issues.

    However, the signed agreements did not tackle the issues of Abyei and border demarcation.

    The border issue represents one of the biggest obstacles hindering the settlement of differences between Sudan and South Sudan, revolving around five border areas — Abyei, Dabatal-Fakhar, Jabel Al-Migainis, Samaha and Kafia Kanji.

    Sudanese Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour (left) meets with his South Sudanese counterpart Deng Alor in Khartoum on June 5, 2016. The two countries signed a peace deal.

  • Uganda:UFirst lady named Education minister

    In Exercise of Powers conferred on the President of Uganda by Articles 108(1), 108 (2), 113(1), 114(1) and Article 99(1) of the 1995 Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, I have appointed the Vice President, the Prime Minister, created new Departments of Government (Ministries); and appointed Cabinet Ministers and Ministers of State as indicated below, Mr Musevni has sai.

    H.E. the Vice President ─ HON. KIWANUKA
    EDWARD SSEKANDI

    1. Rt. Hon. Prime Minister ─ DR. RUHAKANA
    RUGUNDA

    2. 1st Deputy Prime Minister ─ GEN. MOSES ALI
    & Deputy Leader of Gov’t
    Business in Parliament

    3. 2nd Deputy Prime Minister and ─ HON. KIRUNDA
    Minister of East African KIVEJINJA
    Affairs

    4. Minister of Education and ─ HON. MUSEVENI
    Sports JANET KATAAHA

    5. Minister of Public Service ─ HON. MURULI
    MUKASA

    6. Minister of Trade, ─ HON. KYAMBADDE
    Industry & Cooperatives AMELIA ANNE

    7. Minister of Internal Affairs ─ GEN. JEJE ODONGO

    8. Minister of Agriculture, ─ HON. SSEMPIJJA
    Animal Industry & VINCENT
    Fisheries BAMULANGAKI

    9. Minister of Finance and
    Economic Planning ─ HON. KASAIJA MATIA

    Uganda Federal Alliance (UFA) president Betty Kamya has been appointed Minister in charge of Kampala city

  • Exclusive: U.S. wants sanctions on Congo leaders, Europe not so sure

    Concerned over Congolese President Joseph Kabila’s apparent attempts to cling to power, U.S. officials are pushing for sanctions against his inner circle but running into opposition from European powers wary of moving too quickly.

    Kabila is ineligible to stand in Democratic Republic of Congo’s next election due in November, after serving two elected terms. Opponents accuse him of plotting to hold onto power by delaying the poll or even changing the constitution to remove the term limit, as several African leaders have done.

    His government says it is unlikely to be able to organize the vote on time, and the electoral commission has said the delay could last 16 months. Senior Kabila ally Henri Mova Sakani on Saturday raised the possibility of a constitutional referendum on the number of terms he can serve.

    Any such move risks triggering further violence in Congo, which has never had a peaceful transition of power. Donors worry about a repeat of the regional conflict in eastern Congo between 1996 and 2003, when millions of people died and more than a half-dozen countries were sucked into the fighting.

    “This is an historic moment because Congo is such an important part of Africa,” Senator Edward Markey, the Africa subcommittee ranking Democrat, told Reuters. “They are going to be looked to for leadership or a failure of leadership.”

    Protests against a potential delay have already turned violent and authorities have arrested dozens of critics of Kabila, who took power when his father was assassinated in 2001.

    The resolution last month by three senior Democrat senators, including Markey, calls on President Barack Obama to join with international partners “to impose targeted sanctions on those officials … who are responsible for violence and human rights violations and undermining the democratic processes or institutions of DRC, including visa bans and assets freezes.”

    CONFLICTING VIEWS

    U.S. officials, including the State Department’s special envoy to Africa’s Great Lakes region, Tom Perriello, and several senators, are considering sanctions against Congolese officials, for the moment mostly lower-level people in the security forces.

    The Senate’s Africa subcommittee will hold a hearing on June 8 on U.S. sanctions policy in sub-Saharan Africa. Senator Jeff Flake, the subcommittee’s chairman, told Reuters he had discussed targeted sanctions with State Department officials.

    The U.S. Congress is pushing President Barack Obama’s administration to act unilaterally if it must.

    But without the EU, sanctions may have little impact since officials in Congo, a former Belgian colony, are thought to have most assets in Europe. The European Union is divided on the subject, and even nations that support sanctions want to exhaust other options first.

    “The assessment … is that we still have a little bit of time to see what is going to happen in DRC,” one Western diplomat posted to Washington said.

    A European diplomat based in Kinshasa said European thinking is that sanctions threats would “have the best effect when they serve as a warning, not having to be implemented”.

    Within the EU, Britain is among those leaning toward sanctions with Spain and Italy more reluctant, diplomats say.

    The Washington-based diplomat suggested that, as is often the case, commercial interests may play a part in some calculations. A Spanish-led consortium is one of two finalists to develop a $14 billion segment of the Grand Inga hydroelectric project, meant to produce 44,000 MW in all. [ID:nL5N18760P]

    Spain’s ACS, which is in the consortium, declined to comment. The Spanish Foreign Ministry said it had no comment.

    Other EU states also question the efficacy of actually going through with sanctions. The concern is that they “would put him [Kabila] in a corner right now and actually make him more defiant and probably make it even more complicated to have … substantial dialogue,” the Washington-based diplomat said.

    “SELECTIVE”

    “We hope to coordinate with the Europeans and that they would follow suit quickly,” one U.S. official said.

    The vast wealth contained in Congo’s forests and the minerals underneath them has often divided world powers since its independence in 1960, when the United States and the former Soviet Union vied for Cold War influence.

    Extra U.N. sanctions beyond current travel bans and asset freezes related to conflict in eastern Congo would not get past veto-wielding Russia and China, Congo’s top trading partner.

    Meanwhile, the country’s African neighbors, who analysts think carry the greatest influence, have remained silent.

    Congo’s government has bristled at talk of sanctions. In a statement last month, foreign minister Raymond Tshibanda denounced the “selective application” of sanctions threats, when the presidents of Rwanda and the smaller neighboring state Congo Republic have already changed their constitutions to let themselves stand for third terms.

    Last month allies of Moise Katumbi, Kabila’s main political rival, visited Washington to plead for sanctions.

    Stephanie Wolters, a Congo analyst at the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria, said U.S. sanctions could send an important message but warned that it was also a risky strategy.

    “The more isolated the government becomes, the harder it will be to manage potential fallouts of the growing crisis,” she said. “European countries are worried about just that.”

    (Additional reporting by Lou Charbonneau at the United Nations, Robin Emmott in Brussels, Aguado Gonzalez in Madrid and Maria Vega Paul in Rome; Editing by Tim Cocks and Peter Graff)

    Joseph Kabila Kabange, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, addresses the 69th United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. headquarters in New York September 25, 2014.

  • ANC to launch manifesto in 3 provinces

    Johannesburg – The ANC in three provinces will be scrambling to fill stadiums this weekend to ensure the party conveys its local government elections message to voters.

    The Western Cape ANC cancelled its events at the last minute on Friday.

    President Jacob Zuma is expected to speak in two provinces. He will be in Gauteng on Saturday, where the province will do its best to ensure the 94 000-seater FNB stadium is filled and that there is no repeat of a 2013 booing incident there against Zuma. On Sunday, he will be in Mpumalanga and is likely to be received more warmly.

    Gauteng’s manifesto launch is one of the most ambitious for this year’s local government elections in August. Even the national manifesto launch was held in a smaller stadium, the 46 000-seater Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth. The party expected 110 000 supporters, but only about 42 000 turned up.

    In Limpopo, ANC treasurer-general Zweli Mkhize will be speaking at Monsterlus Stadium, in the Sekhukhune region, on Sunday.

    In the Western Cape, the ANC postponed Sunday’s manifesto launch in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, because ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa would not be available. He was meant to have been the main speaker.

    Door-to-door, dinner postponed

    On Saturday, Ramaphosa was meant to have gone door-to-door campaigning in Mitchells Plain, and address a professional’s dinner, costing R1 000 a person. These events had also been postponed, provincial party spokesperson Yonela Diko said. They would be held in two weeks.

    Many of the other provinces have already had their manifesto launches. In the Free State, Zuma addressed the manifesto launch in Botshabelo on May 14. The event had been postponed by a week and moved to a smaller stadium – something which a report in The Citizen attributed to divisions in the provincial ANC between pro- and anti-Zuma camps.

    Later that day, Zuma addressed North West ANC supporters at the modestly-sized Taung Sport Ground.

    A week earlier, the Northern Cape had its provincial manifesto launch in Kimberley, at which party deputy secretary general Jessie Duarte spoke.

    The KwaZulu-Natal manifesto launch was meant to have taken place three weeks ago, but was postponed after two party members died.

  • oseph Kabila ally floats possibility of Congo referendum on term limits

    Kinshasa: A top ally of Congolese President Joseph Kabila on Saturday raised the possibility of a constitutional referendum.

    This is in a bid to alter the number of terms President Kabila can serve. This defies opponents and western powers who insist Kabila should leave office this year. Term limits in Democratic Republic of Congo’s 2006 constitution bar Kabila, who has ruled the central African country since 2001, from running for a third elected term in a presidential poll scheduled for November.

    The government, however, has said the election is likely to be pushed back because of budgetary and logistical problems. The country’s constitutional court ruled last month that Kabila would remain in office if the vote does not take place on time.

    Kabila would likely face more opposition to any such move. Yet in a speech to thousands of supporters at a rally in the capital Kinshasa to celebrate Kabila’s 45th birthday, the secretary-general of his PPRD party, Henri Mova Sakani, said a constitutional referendum was an option. “If the people decide to go to a referendum, they are going to do it,” he said.

  • Poland: Thousands march against government in Warsaw

    About 50,000 people attend protest against conservative government they say has limited their freedoms.

    Two former Polish presidents have led tens of thousands of marchers in Warsaw to protest against the right-wing government’s policies and mark 27 years since the ouster of communism.

    The march on Saturday was yet another in a series organised by a new civic movement, the Committee for the Defence of Democracy, or KOD, against the conservative government that took office in November.

    The government’s policies have strained Poland’s relations with the European Union and the United States and angered many in Poland. But the ruling party insists it has a mandate from Poland’s voters.

    The nationalist government has focused on helping those left out of Poland’s economic growth and increased its grip on state institutions.

    The moves have paralysed the nation’s Constitutional Tribunal, put state-owned media under government control and increased police surveillance powers.

    The EU says Poland’s rule of law and democracy are in danger.

    The protests on Saturday brought former presidents Aleksander Kwasniewski, a left-winger, and Bronislaw Komorowski, a centrist, together to remind the Poles about their attachment to freedom and to democracy, which they won on June 4, 1989, in an election that peacefully ousted the communists from power.

    “We want a free Poland because we fought for it, we dreamed about it and we built it,” Komorowski, a dissident under communism, told the crowd.

    Warsaw authorities said 50,000 people took part. Smaller marches also took place in other Polish cities and in Berlin and Brussels.

    Marchers chanted “Freedom, equality, democracy!” and carried Polish and European flags.

    “We want to live in a democratic country. We want to express ourselves,” a protester at the march in the Polish capital told Al Jazeera. “We want people to say what they want to say and do what they want to do.”

    At the ruling Law and Justice party’s regional meeting in Warsaw, party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski insisted on Saturday that his policies are improving the lives of Poles and protecting Poland’s independence in the 28-nation EU.

    Poles have the right to “a new, better shape [of Poland] that would better serve the vast majority of Poles and we will not give that right up,” Kaczynski said, pounding the podium.

    Former Polish presidents led the marchers in the capital, Warsaw