IGIHE

Category: Rubrique

  • Ex-rebel Commander Sworn in as CAR President

    {{Former rebel leader Michel Djotodia was formally sworn in as the Central African Republic’s president on Sunday, starting the clock on his interim administration’s 18-month deadline to restore order and organize elections.}}

    Djotodia has been in charge of the country during the chaos that followed the rebels’ seizure of control in March, when they swept into power from their northern bases, overpowering South African forces protecting former leader Francois Bozize.

    But Sunday’s ceremony, attended by regional decision-makers like Chad’s President Idriss Deby and Congo Republic’s President Denis Sassou Nguesso, marked the official transfer of power.

    “Today’s swearing in is an important stage in the future of the Central African Republic and I hope I am the last of my countrymen to have to take up arms in order to come to power,” Djotodia said in a speech during the ceremony.

    Djotodia’s rebel coalition, which is known as Seleka, had complained that the north was marginalized under Bozize, who himself seized power in a 2003 coup.

    Bozize’s ouster was the latest in a string of violent power changes in the land-locked nation since independence from France in 1960.

    CAR is rich in diamonds, gold and uranium but is surrounded by conflict-ridden neighbors and has never enjoyed stability.

    Djotodia called on politicians to observe a truce so that he could organize elections within 18 months.

    However, Bozize said earlier this month while visiting France that he wanted to return to power. His comments came as Seleka faced increasing accusations of widespread human rights abuses.

    U.N. officials have warned that CAR is on the brink of collapse and the top U.N. envoy for the country called on the Security Council to back an expanded African Union peacekeeping force in the country.

    Djotodia confirmed to Reuters after his swearing in that he would not stand for elections at the end of the transition.

    “I will do everything to ensure I come out of this transition praised and with my head held high,” he said.

    reuters

  • Egypt’s cabinet to debate fate of Muslim Brotherhood

    {{Egypt’s deputy prime minister will propose a way out of a bloody confrontation between the security forces and the Muslim Brotherhood of deposed president Mohamed Mursi when the cabinet discusses the crisis on Sunday.}}

    But his ideas seemed to run counter to a suggestion by the prime minister to dissolve the Islamist organization, the target of a fierce crackdown by the army-backed government last week.

    The authorities declared a state of emergency and killed hundreds of people in raids on Wednesday on protest camps set up in Cairo to demand Mursi’s reinstatement.

    The capital’s frenetic streets, unusually empty in the past few days, were returning to normal on Sunday, although the army kept several big squares closed and enforced a curfew overnight.

    At night, soldiers standing beside armored personNel carriers man checkpoints, and vigilantes inspect cars for weapons.

    Banks and the stock market reopened for the first time since Wednesday’s carnage, with shares rapidly falling 2.5 percent.

    “As long as we have bloodshed on the streets, it takes away any reason for foreign and regional investors to buy in Egypt,” said Amer Khan, director at Shuaa Asset Management in Dubai.

    The initiative by Deputy Prime Minister Ziad Bahaa el-Din, a liberal, calls for an immediate end to the state of emergency, political participation for all parties and guarantees of human rights, including the right to free assembly.

    The Brotherhood has said it will keep up mass protests until Mursi, toppled by the army on July 3 after huge demonstrations against him, is freed from jail and returned to office.

    {reuters}

  • Tsvangirai Withdraws Petition at Last Hour

    {{MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai yesterday withdrew his election petition from the Constitutional Court, hours before the court challenge was to be heard today.}}

    The last-minute withdrawal of the case, according to Mr Tsvangirai’s withdrawal affidavit, was done because he had not been furnished with the election material he requested at the Electoral Court.

    He also cited Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku’s presence at the National Heroes’ Acre where President Mugabe gave an address as a factor that may deprive him of the right to a fair hearing.

    To that end, the Chief Justice has cancelled today’s hearing on preliminary issues raised in the petition.
    However, despite the withdrawal, the court directed the parties to appear in court on Monday.

    The notice of withdrawal filed yesterday evening at the Constitutional Court by Mr Tsvangirai’s lawyers Artherstone and Cook reads:

    “Take notice that the applicant or petitioner hereby withdraws his presidential election petition in respect of the 2013 harmonised elections.
    “Further take notice that applicant or petitioner tenders costs of the respondents.

    “Further take notice that applicant or petitioner’s reasons for withdrawal are contained in an affidavit filed separately in this Honourable Court.”

    Chief registrar of the Constitutional Court Mr Walter Chikwanha directed the parties, on behalf of the Chief Justice, to appear in court on Monday despite the withdrawal of the case.

    “Following the withdrawal of the Presidential election petition in respect of the 2013 harmonised elections by the applicant, the Honourable Chief Justice has directed as follows:

    “The sitting of the Constitutional Court which was scheduled for Saturday 17 August 2013 at 10am be and is hereby cancelled.
    “Legal practitioners of all the parties are directed to appear before the Constitutional Court on Monday 19th of August 2013 at 10am.”

    In his affidavit, Mr Tsvangirai indicated that he had not received the requested election material for use in the petition hence he could not meaningfully argue that case.

    Source: {Herald}

  • Zimbabwe, a Closed chapter. . . South Africa tells UN

    {{South Africa has told the United Nations that Zimbabwe is neither an issue for discussion within Sadc nor at the United Nations in the wake of the widely endorsed harmonised elections, with President Jacob Zuma set to inform the 33rd Ordinary Sadc Summit that convenes in Lilongwe, Malawi, over the weekend that his job in Zimbabwe was done.}}

    Cde Zuma was appointed facilitator to the Global Political Agreement in September 2008, taking over from Cde Thabo Mbeki whom he also succeeded at Union Buildings, the seat of the SA government.

    South African International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane told UN General Assembly President Mr Vuk Jeremic during a meeting in Pretoria on Monday that South Africa had already endorsed the harmonised elections and congratulated President Mugabe on his re-election.

    “There is absolutely nothing new to discuss on Zimbabwe. The parties that did not win the elections have approached the highest court in Zimbabwe.

    “We will all wait for the outcome of the court process. All the observer missions have said the elections were peaceful and free. We have already made our own national statement on the elections in Zimbabwe,’’ Ms Nkoana-Mashabane said in response to Mr Jeremic’s request for an update on the situation in Zimbabwe.

    Ms Nkoana-Mashabane’s comments follow an announcement by the South African presidency that Cde Zuma would inform Sadc that his job as mediator in Zimbabwe was done.

    City Press on Monday quoted an unnamed official in the SA Presidency as saying President Zuma’s role was over and he would officially inform Sadc leaders in Lilongwe.

    “As far as South Africa is concerned, we have ended mediation in Zimbabwe,” said the source.

    The source said the final Sadc report would also uphold the credibility of the elections that he said were free and peaceful.

    Source: {Herald}

  • Italy’s President says Berlusconi Conviction ‘Definitive’

    {{President Giorgio Napolitano on Tuesday ruled out any reversal of a tax fraud conviction against Silvio Berlusconi and issued a stern warning to his party against trying to bring down the government over the issue.}}

    Napolitano’s statement that the law must take its course dashed hopes in Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PDL) party that the head of state would find a way to allow the former prime minister to continue his leadership of the centre-right without restriction despite a jail sentence.

    The party says that curtailing Berlusconi’s political activity would rob the 10 million people who voted for him in February’s election of their democratic choice. Several of its leading members had pressed Napolitano to find a way out.

    “Any definitive sentence, and the consequent obligation of applying it, cannot but be taken into account,” Napolitano said in a statement, warning against any “fatal” crisis in Enrico Letta’s fragile left-right coalition government at a time when Italy is stuck in its worst postwar recession.

    Earlier, Berlusconi’s oldest daughter Marina, 47, who heads his 6.6 billion euro business empire, flatly dismissed speculation that she could become the PDL figurehead to run the party while her father was out of circulation.

    {wirestory}

  • DRC: Katanga Province Threatens to Secede

    {{After a well-known warlord escaped from prison in Katanga, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s most stable province has been terrorised for the last year by a group demanding independence for the mineral-rich region.}}

    In Katanga, it is common to hear people complain that they are not benefiting from their region’s immense copper and cobalt resources, so it was no surprise that many young people initially responded to the separatists’ call.

    It is also an issue on which the southern province has infamous form.

    Less than a week after Congo’s independence in June 1960, it announced it was seceding, sparking a conflict fuelled by Cold War rivalries.

    Secessionist leader and businessman Moise Tshombe was backed by Belgium, the ex-colonial power, and the UK and US, which all had mining interests in Katanga and baulked at the idea of a Congo led by a government allied to the Soviet Union.

    Within four months Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba had been overthrown. He was later assassinated, while Mr Tshombe eventually bowed to UN pressure and superior firepower. Katanga was reintegrated in 1963.

    Cold War politics may no longer be an issue for the Swahili-speaking province almost the size of France, but the alienation from the rest of DR Congo its many residents feel still is.

    However, the current separatists – the Mai Mai Kata Katanga movement – are not using tactics that will win the hearts and minds of the civilian population.

    “They tied my mum to a tree and stuck an arrow through her rib cage,” 18-year-old Antoinette said, recalling the secessionists’ attack on her village of Montofita in which some houses were burnt and she and her mother were kidnapped.

    “They cut off her breasts. I saw it all. Then each of the two men raped me. My neighbours were burned alive.”

    Antoinette has found refuge in the small dusty town of Pweto on the border with Zambia where some 60,000 other Katanga villagers have gathered.

    The UN refugee agency estimates that more than 1,700 displaced women were raped before fleeing.

    In total nearly 400,000 people now live in camps for displaced persons – a huge number, often overshadowed by the even more numerous people forced from their homes by other conflicts in DR Congo.

    “Maybe the population could have supported the Kata Katanga’s cause, but they didn’t give us a chance: they don’t behave like a liberation movement. They burn villages and kill people,” said Priscille, a Pweto resident.

    There are several groups of Mai Mai, the term for armed community groups, in Katanga.

    {{Village recruitment}}

    The Kata Katanga, which in Swahili means “secede Katanga”, is the newest and was formed after Gedeon Kyungu Mutanga escaped from prison in September 2011.

    Before he was imprisoned in 2006, he had been head of a militia which fought alongside the Congolese forces against pro-Rwandan rebel groups in the 1990s.

    After the end of that conflict, he allegedly continued to receive discreet support from someone in the military.

    Following his escape, such links are thought to have continued – with top decisions and financing coming from a Katangan living abroad.

    A man who recently fled a rebel base with two wives and eight children explained the group’s recruitment process.

    “Gedeon came to our village in August 2012,” he said.

    “We did not see him with our eyes; he hid in a hut to talk to us.

    “He told us that if we joined the Kata Katanga, we would have a better life. He told us that if Katanga became independent, it would put an end to the harassment by the soldiers, and would give us access to the resources that belong to us.

    “Katanga is very rich, but we don’t benefit at all. He told us that would change.”

    The largest cobalt deposits in the world are in Katanga – and the province is the second biggest African provider of copper.

    While thousands of people walk for days on dusty roads to escape armed groups, other brand-new roads are used to transport millions of dollars’ worth of minerals out of the country.

    Lorries full of cobalt and copper can be seen every day lining up for kilometres on end at the Zambian border.

    According to Congolese law, the government has to transfer 40 per cent of the taxes paid by companies based in Katanga back to the province, but local human rights organisations say the tax money has had no visible impact.

    The skyline of Lubumbashi is dominated by its slag heap, but outside the provincial capital, schools, hospitals and asphalt roads – besides those heading to the border – are rare sights.

    Lucien, a school teacher from Kabisa now in Pweto, said a dozen men joined up with the separatists from his village.

    “I was targeted by the armed groups because I am educated, I tell people the truth, and so I deterred young men from joining armed groups,” he said.

    “I told them it would bring them only misery.”

    According to local authorities in Pweto, hundreds of Mai Mai fighters have deserted the movement since the beginning of the year, exhausted and demoralised.

    “We will never achieve independence. We are poorer than before, many of us died,” one former fighter said.

    {{Flag raised}}

    Yet in March, more than 200 Kata Katanga fighters, lightly armed, covered with magic charms and waving flags of the independent State of Katanga, entered Lubumbashi.

    They raised their flag in the town’s central square before surrendering to UN peacekeepers after a battle in which 23 people died.

    Since then, the Mai Mai has threatened to enter the city again.

    “We are afraid, the last time they entered many people were killed by stray bullets. It’s almost like a rebellion,” one Lubumbashi resident said.

    The villagers who fled to Pweto said soldiers from the UN or Congolese army were nowhere to be seen when they came under attack.

    The UN refugee agency UNHCR has called on the UN peacekeeping mission, Monusco, to increase its presence in the region to protect civilians.

    Monusco did send an unspecified number of Egyptian special forces to Lubumbashi in June, to reinforce the 450-strong brigade already in Katanga.

    The UN says the situation in Katanga is “very concerning” but the province of North Kivu, where some 6,000 peacekeepers are stationed, remains the priority of the mission at the moment.

    It is not clear how many government soldiers are deployed in Katanga and the government says it has no intention of sending reinforcements.

    “For me there is no rebellion,” said Congolese Prime Minister Matata Ponyo, adding that people had a democratic space to express their views and the government would attempt to control such movements.

    According to the UNHCR, government soldiers are responsible for a large portion of the cases of sexual violence registered among the displaced people.

    The UN World Food Programme (WFP) says it is struggling to assist even half of those displaced by the unrest as it does not have the funds.

    “Katanga is still seen as a ‘rich’ province,” explains Anne Nardini, head of the WFP programme in Lubumbashi.

    One resident of Lubumbashi summed up the general feeling of many people in Katanga.

    “Independence could be a good thing for Katanga, but it depends primarily on how it is achieved,” he said.

    “If this is for the people, yes, but to serve the interests of a small group, no thank you.”

    -BBC

  • Boubacar Keita Wins Mali Election

    {{Mali’s presidential election has been won by Ibrahim Boubacar Keita after his rival conceded defeat in the second round runoff.}}

    Ex-Finance Minister Soumaila Cisse said he had congratulated his rival Keita on winning the vote and wished him good luck, the media reported on Monday.

    Cisse’s concession, hours after he complained the election had been marred by fraud, will deepen optimism for Mali’s recovery.

    Journalists reporting outside Keita’s headquarters in Bamako, said the news of his win was just filtering in and there seem to be celebrations already taking place as some international observers were seen congratulating Keita.

    “The general feeling here is that people are actually happy that this has come to a peaceful end, and that Mali finally has a president,” he said.

    Keita, a former prime minister, inherits a broken nation and must still negotiate peace with northern rebels.

    No official results have yet been released following Sunday’s runoff, however, reports had put Keita well ahead.

    Keita had been widely expected to win Sunday’s vote, having swept the July 28 first round with nearly 40% of votes on a ticket to restore order after a March 2012 military coup allowed separatist rebels to seize control of the northern two-thirds of Mali.

    Cisse said earlier on Monday that the vote had been tainted by intimidation. However, international and local observers said that, despite small irregularities, the process had been credible.

    (Left)Soumaila Cisse and Ibrahim Boubacar Keita (Right)
    Source: Aljazeera

  • Tuareg of Mali say Election Wont Bring Peace

    {{In the birthplace of a Tuareg revolt that nearly tore Mali apart last year, residents said Sunday’s election would not bring lasting peace unless a new president in the distant south gave them more freedom.}}

    The desert region of Kidal in Mali’s desolate northeast has produced four rebellions since independence from France in 1960. Its light-skinned Tuareg people say successive black African governments in the capital Bamako have excluded them from power.

    “The way the Malian state treated our people, before it was chased out of here last year, we cannot allow that to happen again,” the elderly Tuareg clan chief Intallah ag Attaher, shrouded in traditional blue robes, told U.N. Special Representative Bert Koenders during an election-day visit.

    Last year’s Tuareg uprising was triggered by accusations that the government had violated a 2006 peace accord to develop the region. President Amadou Toumani Toure’s failure to tackle the uprising prompted a military coup in the capital Bamako that allowed Islamists to occupy the northern two-thirds of Mali, where they imposed a violent form of Islamic sharia law.

    Despite a lack of voting cards and confusion over where to vote, people trickled in to cast their ballots at the Baye Ag Mahaha school in the town centre, hoping the election would give the country a fresh start. Voting bureaux were guarded by heavily armed U.N. peacekeepers and Malian police.

    “Things will get better after these elections. We will have a real president again and the peace agreements will be respected,” said Tamoument Diallo, 53, seated at a desk in a dilapidated schoolroom after casting her vote.

    France sent thousands of troops to halt a southward push by the Islamists in January, destroying their enclave but leaving the Tuareg separatist MNLA movement in charge of Kidal. It said the Tuaregs were not a terrorist group and had helped fight the Islamists – a position which outraged many in Mali’s south.

    On the streets of Kidal, buildings are daubed with the red, yellow, black and green flag of Azawad, the name Tuaregs give their homeland. Graffiti reads “Mali no” and “Azawad only Azawad”.

    Turnout in the July 28 first round was just 12 percent in the town – well below the national average of 48 percent. Participation again appeared low on Sunday, with just over 30 voters on a list of more than 430 casting their ballot in one central voting bureau as of 3 p.m.

    Although 35,000 people were registered to vote in the Kidal region before last year’s conflict, only 15,000 voting cards have been distributed, the governor said, as many people had fled the fighting to refugee camps in neighboring Niger.

    Some people have heeded the MNLA’s call not to go to the polls. A small group of around 15 young rebel supporters demonstrated outside one polling station. Elsewhere, MNLA representatives watched voters at another bureau in what they said was an effort to avoid fraud.

    “I’m not going to vote. I am from Azawad, not Mali. This election is just for Malians,” said Mohamed Ag Hainza, 23, a student wearing a flowing crimson robe on a dusty Kidal street.

    A June ceasefire deal allowed Malian soldiers and civilian administrators to return to the town but the MNLA still occupies the main government offices. The governor has been forced to live and work in the town hall, sleeping on a mattress in his office.

    Election front runner Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, a former prime minister known universally as IBK, has pledged to restore order to Mali and quickly open lasting peace talks if elected. But in a sign of local hostility, his plane was nearly prevented from landing in Kidal during his campaign when separatists tried to block the runway.

    Kidal, like the other two regions of northern Mali, is home to a mix of Arab, black African and Tuareg peoples. Keita has insisted that peace talks, due to begin within two months of a new government taking office under the terms of the June ceasefire, would have to include all the peoples of northern Mali, not just the Tuareg.

    With some $4 billion in foreign aid promised to redevelop Mali and a backlash against deep-rooted corruption, some say there is a chance for peace.

    “We have to make a thorough analysis of why earlier peace deals failed,” Koenders told Tuareg leaders. “We have a historic opportunity not to repeat the errors of the past.”

    {agencies}

  • Ki-Moon, S.Sudan’s Kiir Discuss New Cabinet

    {{United Nations secretary-general, Ban Ki-Moon on Tuesday phoned South Sudan president, Gen. Salva Kiir to discuss the latter’s recently formed cabinet.}}

    Kiir put in place a lean cabinet, comprising only 33 ministers from 58, a week after he dissolved his entire government.

    The UN chief, in a telephone message, reportedly informed the South Sudan leader how he closely monitored the situation in the young nation, saying he was pleased about the calm that prevailed.

    The world body, its secretary general pledged, will closely work with the new nation’s government, including the new cabinet, most of whose members were approved by parliament this week.

    Ki-Moon, however, expressed concerns about the situation in the country largest state of Jonglei, and called on the president’s government, including the national army (SPLA), to ensure protection of civilians.

    He specifically reminded the South Sudan leader regarding an earlier commitment he made to ensure accountability for any abuses committed by the SPLA.

    Meanwhile, the UN chief lauded the government of Sudan’s decision to postpone the deadline of shutting down the oil flow from South Sudan until 21 August.

    He further assured the South Sudan leader, during their telephone conversation, of his support for the latter’s efforts to bring economic, social prosperity and political stability to the two-year old country.

    {Sudantribune}

  • Mali set for Second-Round Vote

    {{Mali’s presidential front-runner has ended his campaign promising to restore peace to the West African country reeling from a coup and an uprising that led to French military intervention.}}

    Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, 68, a former prime minister with a reputation for toughness, won last month’s first-round ballot with nearly 40 percent of the vote but fell short of an outright majority to avert a second round.

    He faces Soumaila Cisse, former finance minister, in Sunday’s run-off.

    The first round attracted 27 candidates and Keita, popularly known as IBK, has secured the endorsement of 22 of the 25 losing candidates.

    Cisse, 63, the head of the West African monetary union (UEMOA), took just 19 percent of the first-round vote with promises to improve education, create jobs and reform the army.

    Once seen as a model for democracy in turbulent West Africa, Mali was rocked by violence last year when al-Qaeda-linked rebels capitalised on the coup to seize control of the vast desert north, where they imposed a harsh version of Islamic law.