Category: Politics

Pope in historic talks with Grand Imam of Al-Azhar

Unexpected meeting between Francis and Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb followed easing of tensions during reign of Benedict.

Pope Francis has met the grand imam of Cairo’s Al-Azhar Mosque at the Vatican in a historic encounter that was sealed with a hugely symbolic hug and exchange of kisses.

The first Vatican meeting on Monday between the leader of the world’s Catholics and the highest authority in Sunni Islam marks the culmination of a significant improvement in relations between the two faiths since Francis took office in 2013.

Our meeting is the message,” Francis said in a brief comment at the start of his meeting with Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, Vatican officials told a small pool of reporters covering the event.

In a statement on the trip, Al-Azhar, an institution that also comprises a prestigious seat of learning, said Tayeb had accepted Francis’ invitation in order to “explore efforts to spread peace and co-existence”.

The “very cordial” meeting lasted around 30 minutes, the Vatican said in a statement after the talks. In all, the imam spent just over an hour at St Peter’s.
Conciliatory gestures

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said in a statement that the pope and the imam had “mainly addressed the common challenges faced by the authorities and faithful of the major religions of the world”.

At the meeting, the pope presented the imam with a copy of his recent encyclical, Laudato Si’, a letter to the faithful in which he urges the world to wake up to the threat posed by climate change and also calls for a rebalancing of the economic relationship between the industrialised and developing worlds.

Tayeb decided to accept the invitation to Rome as a result of the numerous conciliatory gestures Francis has made to the Muslim world since being elected in early 2013.

“If it were not for these good positions the meeting would not be happening,” the imam’s deputy, Abbas Shuman, told AFP on Sunday.
Ties were badly soured when the now-retired Benedict made a September 2006 speech in which he was perceived to have linked Islam to violence, sparking deadly protests in several countries and reprisal attacks on Christians.

After the tensions of the Benedict years, Francis moved quickly to set a new tone, sending a personal message to the Muslim world to mark the end of the first month of Ramadan of his pontificate.

The Argentinian pontiff followed up by pushing various inter-faith initiatives and he was accompanied by both Rabbi Abraham Skorka and Islamic studies professor Omar Abboud when he visited Jordan and Israel in 2014.

But perhaps the gesture that clinched the deal was the most dramatic piece of political theatre of his papacy: his April visit to the refugee crisis island of Lesbos which concluded with him bringing three Syrian Muslim families back to the Vatican.

May 23, 2016
Independent candidate wins Austrian presidential polls

Alexander van der Bellen beats far-right leader Norbert Hofer of Freedom Party in knife-edge election.

Independent candidate Alexander van der Bellen has won Austria’s presidential election after far-right leader Norbert Hofer conceded defeat.

The interior minister said on Monday that Alexander Van der Bellen won 50.3 percent of the vote in Sunday’s knife-edge election, compared to 49.7 percent for Hofer, presented as the friendly and moderate face of the anti-immigration, populist Freedom Party (FPOe).

“Of course I am sad,” Hofer said on Facebook as he conceded defeat. “I would have loved to have looked after this wonderful country for you as president.

“Please don’t be disheartened. The effort in this election campaign is not wasted, but is an investment for the future.”

Preliminary results late on Sunday had put Hofer 3.8 percentage points ahead in the runoff for the largely ceremonial but bitterly fought-over post of Austrian head of state, but postal ballots, which account for about 12 percent of eligible votes, swayed the result in Van der Bellen’s favour.

A record 700,000 postal ballots were counted during Monday, dramatically putting Van der Bellen ahead by just over 31,000 votes in the final tally.

May 23, 2016
DR Congo: UN envoy urges ‘patriotic reawakening’ to ease rising political tensions

23 May 2016 – The top United Nations official in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has expressed deep concern about the increasing political tensions in some parts of the Central African country, urging both the majority and opposition sides to reawaken their patriotism.

“The current situation and the dangers weighing upon it need patriotic reawakening both on the part of the majority as well as the opposition, to place the interests of the country above any other consideration,” Maman Sidikou, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO), said in a press release over the weekend.

He noted that increasing the number of judiciary proceedings and actions likely to shrink the political space will only exacerbate the tensions and make it even more difficult to hold the political dialogue insistently called for by President Joseph Kabila.

Mr. Sidikou urged strict respect for the rule of law and the fundamental freedoms enshrined in the Constitution.

“Only a genuinely inclusive political dialogue, Constitution-abiding, will help Congolese actors to successfully overcome the current challenges, more particularly the ones relating to the electoral process,” he said.

Citing Security Council resolution 2277, he said that the UN stands resolutely with the African Union and its appointed facilitator, former Togolese Prime Minister Edem Kodjo, to facilitate the launch of the political talks.

The Special Representative further expressed the UN readiness to assist an independent nation electoral commission in organizing free and transparent elections to mark a new step forward in the advancement of the democratic process in the DRC.

May 23, 2016
Uganda:Winnie Byanyima hits out at Judiciary over Besigye

Ms Winnie Byanyima, wife to former Forum for Democratic Change party presidential candidate Dr Kizza Besigye has put government on notice over the life of her detained husband, warning that the police may try to gain access to Luzira prison to harm him.

In a statement released after she was allowed access to Dr Besigye at the weekend, Ms Byanyima said she is worried about the life of President Museveni’s leading Opposition challenger because he is in “the hands of a scared and increasingly desperate regime.”

Ms Byanyima further claimed the government has acquired unnamed “toxic agents,” which could be used to harm political opponents and specifically accused the Judiciary of being “complicit in the abuse of State processes to persecute Besigye.”

But officials in the Prisons and Judiciary dismissed her claims, insisting the two institutions are not being used by the Executive to fix Mr Museveni’s political opponents.

Prisons spokesperson Frank Baine said: “Dr Besigye has been an inmate in Luzira prison before and was released without harm,” while Judiciary spokesperson Solomon Muyita argued that “the issue of connivance does not occur” as Courts followed due process in all the cases involving Dr Besigye.

“I am concerned that the lawless and violent police and its illegal militias have in the past had access to Besigye while he was in prison. I warn them not to go to Luzira to harm him. Besigye’s life is in the hands of the NRM government. We will hold the government accountable for his safety,” Ms Byanyima said.

Ms Byanyima’s worries re-echo similar concerns raised by Dr Besigye when he told the Nakawa Chief Magistrate’s Court on May 18 that he fears for his life in prison but the magistrate shut him down half way his pleadings.

Dr Besigye was charged with treason at the Nakawa court and remanded to Luzira prison until June.

When he was held in Moroto Prison, Dr Besigye also said he feared for his life there because the doors to his prison cell were not locked even as he realised suspicious movements around the cell under the cover of darkness.

May 23, 2016
Austria presidential election too close to call

Postal ballots will determine whether anti-immigration candidate will become EU’s first far-right head of state.

Austria’s presidential election was too close to call on Sunday, meaning postal ballots were set to determine whether an anti-immigration candidate would become the European Union’s first far-right head of state.

A victory for Freedom Party candidate Norbert Hofer would be a landmark triumph for parties across Europe that have capitalised on Europe’s migration crisis and widespread dissatisfaction with traditional parties of power.

It would be all the more remarkable for being in a prosperous country with low unemployment, where two centrist parties have dominated since it emerged shattered from World War II after its annexation by Nazi Germany in 1938.

“The sovereign has spoken,” Hofer’s opponent, former Greens leader Alexander Van der Bellen, told broadcaster ORF. “What exactly it has said – Hofer or Van der Bellen – we will know tomorrow afternoon.”

A projection by the SORA institute for broadcaster ORF, based on 100 percent of votes cast in polling stations and an estimate of the outcome of postal voting, showed a statistical dead heat on 50 percent each. The margin of error was 0.7 percentage point.

The provisional result from the Interior Ministry, which did not include postal ballots, showed Hofer ahead with 51.9 percent to van der Bellen’s 48.1 percent.

Postal votes will not be counted until Monday and their exact number is not known. They tend to be used by the more highly educated, a spokesman for SORA said, a group among which 72-year-old Van der Bellen has greater support.

Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said he expected there would be about 750,000 postal ballots, roughly 12 percent of Austria’s 6.4 million eligible voters.

May 23, 2016
Tajiks vote on allowing president to rule for life

Constitutional changes, if passed as expected, will allow President Rahmon to rule the central Asian state for life.

Polls closed in ex-Soviet Tajikistan on Sunday in a referendum on constitutional changes almost certain to strengthen the hold of long-time President Emomali Rahmon and his family over the Central Asian state.

The country’s electoral commission, which declared the vote valid, said some 88.3 percent of the roughly 4.3 million eligible voters had cast ballots by 1300 GMT.

The 63-year-old leader has ruled Tajikistan for nearly a quarter of a century, demonstrating what critics say is an increased disregard for religious freedoms, civil society and political pluralism in recent years.

Many residents of the Tajik capital appeared enthusiastic in their support for Rahmon, who led the country out of a five-year civil war that began in 1992, less than a year after independence.

“Rahmon brought us peace, he ended the war, and he should rule the country for as long as he has the strength to,” 53-year-old voter Nazir Saidzoda told AFP news agency.

Other voters were more pessimistic about their leader’s ability to pull the country of eight million out of economic difficulty.

“Everything that is being done is for [the regime] to hold on to power for as long as possible,” 37-year-old Marifat Rakhimi said.

“We are waiting for a better economy and the disappearance of corruption.” Rakhimi added.

The amendment to lift the limit on his time in office applies only to Rahmon, owing to the “Leader of the Nation” status parliament voted to grant him last year, which also affords him and his family permanent immunity from criminal prosecution.

Other amendments include lowering the minimum age required to be elected president from 35 to 30 and a ban on the formation of parties based on religion.

The age-limit change could position Rahmon’s 28-year-old son, Rustam, for an early succession, while restrictions on political parties come amid the ongoing trial of key members of a banned Islamic party.

The Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) had been widely viewed as moderate before the government branded it a “terrorist group” last year, stripping away the most significant formal opposition to the Rakhmon regime.

May 23, 2016
Dozens detained in Kazakhstan over land reform protests

Police block protests in major cities over reforms the opposition says will lead to foreigners acquiring too much land.

Police have detained dozens of protesters in Kazakhstan during anti-government rallies in the country’s major cities, prosecutors said.

Opposition activists had called for demonstrations in the Central Asian country’s largest cities, including Astana, Almaty and Karagandy, to protest a controversial proposal for land reforms that includes liberalising the sale and rental of farmland to foreigners.

There are fears it could lead to Chinese farmers acquiring large swathes of land.

Authorities had rejected all applications to hold protests on Saturday and cordoned off the main squares of Almaty and Astana, while activists called on their supporters to protest nonetheless.

Kazakhstan’s deputy prosecutor general, Andrei Kravchenko, said that as of Saturday, 40 people had been arrested for organising and taking part in these unauthorised demonstrations, TASS news agency reported.

Kravchenko said that the police force had worked to “prevent any violations of the law.”

A number of journalists were briefly detained during the protests. Kazakh police later said that the arrests had been a “misunderstanding”, Interfax news agency reported.

In April demonstrators had taken to the streets in a string of provincial towns to protest proposed land reforms the government says are important to attract investment into the country.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev earlier this month halted the proposal, saying that “doubts had arisen in society”.

A combination of inflation and falling real incomes have fuelled social discontent in a country often regarded as a regional success story despite endemic corruption.

Kazakhstan’s tenge currency shed around half its value after the government abandoned a trading corridor with the dollar last year under pressure from low crude prices and Russia’s economic downturn.

Land policy is highly politicised in ex-Soviet Central Asia where privatisation policies of the 1990s are often recalled with bitterness and where nearby China is seeking to expand its agricultural interests.

May 22, 2016
Africa’s second round of elections all set for August

Kabila out to emulate, Museveni, Nkurunziza, Kagame, Bashir and Jammeh.

As the second half of 2016 beckons, Africa can look back to a busy first half that saw the continent focused on a mixed bag of often dramatic elections and referendums.

As matters stand, the election of former coup leader Azali Assoumani as the president of Comoros marked the end of a series of riveting polls, many of which were controversial.

In Comoros, what turned out to be a tight race saw Assoumani garner 41.43 per cent of the ballots cast. He is to be sworn into office on Thursday.

As for the rest of Africa, a welcome hiatus is now in place, giving the continent a whiff of fresh air as it refocuses on socio-economic and security matters before the beginning of another poll season that kicks off in August.

There is still a lot of internal politicking, though, as campaigns are already heating up in countries like Zambia.

As matters stand, the country will hopefully hold an election on August 11. President Edgar Lungu faces a tough opposition.

An unusually crowded month in Africa’s electoral calendar, August is also expected to see a presidential election in Cape Verde.

The tiny country recently held credible parliamentary polls won by the opposition.

Also due in August is a presidential election in Gabon, a country with a history of unabashed vote-fixing, and where the Bongo dynasty will be going all out to remain in power.

Evidently, though, incumbent Ali Ben Bongo Odimba, the heir of Omar Bongo, will not be having it easy.

In the meantime, there is uncertainty regarding a presidential election set to be held in Somalia, also in August.

In fact the jury is still out about whether the perennially unstable country will be able to mount an election.

As for the Democratic Republic of Congo, a still uncertain presidential poll is supposed to be held in November.

However, the political turbulence prevailing in the country has raised fears that the poll may not be held.

In recent times, that prospect has become all too real as President Joseph Kabila, who assumed power in 2001, has been accused of resorting to tricks in a bid to have the poll postponed.

Borrowing a leaf from such veterans of the African political scene as Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni, Rwanda’s Paul Kagame, Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir and his own wily neighbour, Dennis Sassou-Ngueso of the Republic of Congo, Kabila seems to be hell-bent on serving a new term.

Indications, however, are that Kabila — who like Gabon’s Bongo inherited his country’s presidency from his father Laurent Desiré Kabila — is unlikely to be sitting easy for long.

Already, he is being kept on toes by a formidable and seemingly united opposition fronted by its flagbearer, Moise Katumbi, who is widely recognised as the leading contender for the presidency.

The world can still look forward to other polls slated for different dates in November. Among them will be Ghana.

Also awaited is the planned presidential poll in Gambia, where Yahya Jammeh will by all predictions be trying to tighten his grip on power.

May 22, 2016
Burundi parties advised to learn from two world wars

Parties to the ongoing conflict in Burundi have been warned against fuelling civil war in the country and advised to learn from the two world wars on how such unrest could badly cost a community socially and economically.

That was stated by Head of the European Union Delegation to Tanzania, Ambassador Roeland Van-De Geer, who was speaking on behalf of the Diplomatic Community during the opening of the Burundi Dialogue Process on Saturday.

“In Europe, we learned the hard way. It took us two world wars to realise the importance of peace and conflicts resolutions,” he recalled. The four-day dialogue sessions are taking place here under the facilitation of former President Benjamin Mkapa.

The original Burundi Peace Accord was notably signed in Arusha during Mr Mkapa’s tenure and supervision alongside former South African President, the late Nelson Mandela. In his comments yesterday, Mr Mkapa pointed out that it was Burundi who held the responsibility of ensuring peace in their country.

“We are all aware that this is a Burundi problem and it can be solved only by the Barundi themselves,” he said, adding that his only role was to facilitate the dialogue and reach an amicable solution.

“My plan in this endeavour is to give ample time and space to all stakeholders to express their views on the way forward and for this reason I have sent invitations to former heads of state and political parties in Burundi, civil society Organisations, faith-based groups, prominent political actors as well as women and youth group,” explained Mr Mkapa.

The dialogue’s opening was also attended by the Special Advisor to the United Nations Secretary General on the Great Lakes, Ambassador Jamal Benomaar, who stated that the UN Security Council was very much concerned on the situation in Burundi.

“The Security Council has given its full support to the East African Community-led meditation efforts under the Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and commended the EAC’s decision to appoint former Tanzanian president to facilitate the process,” he said.

Mr Mkapa had been appointed as facilitator for the Burundi peace talks by the Summit of the East African Heads of State, a regional community, comprising of Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi itself.

May 22, 2016
Uganda:Continue the struggle, Besigye tells Opposition

The former Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) presidential candidate, Dr Kizza Besigye, who is remanded at Luzira prison on treason charges, has told his party leaders to continue with the fight for rights and freedoms of the oppressed.

“When I was in Moroto Prison, I found many inmates on remand who have gone for over two years without seeing a judge. Most of them are now busy handling election petitions. Here in Luzira prison, which was built for 600 inmates now accommodates over 1,300 inmates. Go and continue our struggle to free these Ugandans,” Mr Ibrahim Ssemujju, the FDC spokesperson, quoted Dr Besigye as telling party leaders.

Mr Ssemujju together with Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago visited the former presidential candidate in Luzira on Friday morning.
The FDC spokesperson said Dr Besigye was in high spirits.

“Those who think that by jailing him they are going to frustrate him are lying to themselves. This is a man who spent four years in the bush during the war (1981 to 1986). So he is used to harsh and actual conditions. He is recharging. When he eventually comes out, he will continue where he ended,” Mr Ssemujju said.

The genesis
Dr Besigye was arrested on May 11 after a video clip on YouTube circulated on social media showed him being sworn in as President of Uganda.
He was later transferred to Moroto District in the remote Karamoja semi-arid region and charged with treason.

Dr Besigye was on Monday this week transferred to Nakawa in Kampala and charged with treason afresh before being remanded to Luzira prison until June 1 for mention of his case.

The Electoral Commission announced Mr Museveni winner of the February 18 elections with 60 per cent and Dr Besigye as runner up with 35 per cent.
Dr Besigye disputed the results and said the Electoral Commission wrongfully announced President Museveni the winner. Dr Besigye claims he won the elections with 52 per cent.

Meanwhile, Dr Besigye’s wife Winnie Byanyima visited him on Friday evening.
“I am pleased that today I got permission from prisons commissioner to regularly speak to Besigye on phone when I return to work,” she posted on Twitter.

May 22, 2016