IGIHE

Category: Rubrique

  • Iran’s Rouhani seeks international dialogue

    {{Iran’s president-elect Hassan Rouhani has promised a more conciliatory tone over the country’s nuclear programme, saying Iran needs a cautious approach in its foreign policy.}}

    In a live address on state TV on Saturday, Rouhani said that Iran was after “dialogue and interaction with others from an equal position, based on mutual respect and interests”.

    He also warned the country would develop relations with others only if Tehran’s interests were respected.

    Media said Rouhani also warned regional countries not to miscalculate Iran’s power, saying some rival nations were now paying the cost.

    “International relations with others are based on respect, mutual interest and equality. We should reduce tensions, increase confidence-building, while keeping our rights and national dignity in consideration.”

    wirestory

  • South Sudan’s vice president to visit Khartoum

    {{South Sudan’s vice president will visit Sudan on Sunday, both sides said on Saturday, marking the highest-level talks between the long-time African foes since Khartoum threatened to stop cross-border oil flows.}}

    Relations hit a new low three weeks ago when Sudan said it would halt South Sudanese oil exports passing through the north for shipment abroad within 60 days unless Juba ended support for rebels operating across the border. Juba denies the claims.

    The neighbors, which fought decades of civil wars that ended in 2005, came close to war in April 2012 when tensions over oil pipeline fees and disputed territory escalated.

    South Sudan’s Vice President Riek Machar will arrive in Khartoum on Sunday for a two-day visit, Sudan’s state news agency SUNA said.

    He will meet Sudan’s First Vice President Ali Osman Taha, it said, adding that South Sudan’s Oil Minister Stephen Dhieu Dau and other ministers would also join Machar.

    A South Sudanese official confirmed the visit.

    The dispute threatens to hit supplies to Asian buyers such as China National Petroleum Corp, India’s ONCG Videsh and Malaysia’s Petronas, which run the oilfields in both countries.

    Diplomats said they doubted Sudan would close the two cross-border export pipelines because its economy has been suffering without South Sudan’s pipeline fees.

    Oil used to be the main source for Sudan’s budget until the south’s secession in July 2011, when Khartoum lost 75% of its oil production and its status as oil exporter overnight.

    Both countries accuse each other of backing rebels on the other’s territory, one of several conflicts stemming from the division of what was once Africa’s largest country.

    {wirestory}

  • Egypt opposition rejects dialogue with Morsi

    {{Egypt’s main opposition coalition Thursday rejected an offer from President Mohamed Morsi for dialogue, repeating its call for early presidential elections and calling for peaceful demonstrations on June 30.}}

    Mohamed ElBaradei, who leads the opposition National Salvation Front, said at a news conference Morsi’s speech on Wednesday was “the opposite of a clear admission that the difficult situation that Egypt is going through is the result of his failure to administer the affairs of the country that he took charge of one year ago”.

    In a televised speech, Morsi called for reforms and dialogue, while warning that political divisions in the country threatened to “paralyse” Egypt.

    ElBaradei, who also heads the liberal Al-Dustur party, read from an NSF statement saying that the opposition “remained determined to call for an early presidential election to bring about the objectives of the revolution, with social justice foremost among them”.

    “We are confident the Egyptian people will come out in their millions to hold peaceful demonstrations on all of Egypt’s squares and streets to realise their aspirations and to put the January 25 revolution back on track,” he added.

    Egyptians rose up in January 2011 to overthrow veteran president Hosni Mubarak.

    The NSF statement also said that Morsi was responsible for divisions in the country.

    Egypt is deeply divided between Morsi supporters, who believe he is restarting institutions after decades of corruption, and his critics, who accuse him of massing power for the Muslim Brotherhood from which he hails.

    The call for the June 30 protests was launched by Tamarod (Arabic for Rebellion), a grassroots movement launched in April seeking to withdraw confidence from Morsi.

    Capitalising on low spirits caused by a severe economic crisis, including fuel shortages, power cuts and soaring inflation, it collected more than 15 million signatures calling for early presidential elections.

    Several opposition parties and groups back the calls, while several Islamist parties have called for an “ongoing” demonstration from Friday in support of Morsi’s “legitimacy”.

    Coming just two days before the opposition’s planned June 30 demonstration, it has sparked concerns of the political situation worsening and the possibility of more violence.

    {agencies}

  • Premier Gillard Ousted from Leadership of Australia’s Labor Party

    {{Kevin Rudd has ousted Prime Minister Julia Gillard as leader of Australia’s Labor Party.}}

    He won by 57 votes to 45, in a leadership ballot of Labor lawmakers.

    The change comes ahead of a general election due in September, which polls suggest Labor is set to lose.

    This is the latest twist in a long and bitter rivalry between the two politicians – but it could be the last as Ms Gillard has said she will now leave politics.

    “I will not re-contest the federal electorate… at the forthcoming election,” said Ms Gillard, Australia’s first female prime minister.

    “What I am absolutely confident of is it will be easier for the next woman and the woman after that and the woman after that, and I’m proud of that,” she added.

    Despite their bitter rivalry, Mr Rudd praised his predecessor, describing her as a woman of extraordinary intelligence, with great strength and energy.

    “Julia, as prime minister and prior to that as deputy prime minister, has achieved much under the difficult circumstances of a minority government,” he told a news conference after his victory.

    Mr Rudd is more popular with voters than Ms Gillard, and many believe Labor will perform better in the election under him.

    Meanwhile, opposition leader Tony Abbott called on Mr Rudd to name an election date, arguing that it should be sooner than 14 September – the date set by Ms Gillard.

    “The Australian people are yearning to make a choice. The Australian people are well and truly over this low and dishonourable parliament,” he told a news conference.

    {wirestory}

  • What African Leaders Did Not Say At The AU Special Summit

    {{There are critical issues curiously not addressed or not given enough ventilation as epochal as the recent 50th anniversary of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was.}}

    Alongside with this was the 21st ordinary summit of the Assembly of heads of state and government of the African Union (AU), the gathering in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, again reminded everyone that Africa remains the world’s poorest continent and its most war-prone even though development indicators – including health, education, infant mortality, economic growth and democracy – have improved steadily in the last 50 years.

    Yes, a 50 year-strategic plan for An African rebirth has been put in place. But the leaders did not spell out the elements or specifics of monitoring and evaluation mechanism in the action plan even when such questions were raised. And when they spoke about assessment, the procedure for benchmarking of progress across the states remained vague.

    Knowing full well that the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) is billed to come into force in 2015, the leaders failed to tie the conflict management interventionist ideas they glorified in Addis to their avowal to zero-tolerance of unconstitutional seizure of power and (for instance) make a bold statement on the situation in Central African Republic (CAR) where a renegade soldiers has since March sacked the democratically elected government of president Francois Bozize

    A long-term plan targeting 2063? At a time when the continent’s challenges of peace and security have now seen intra-national African conflicts on the ascendancy.

    Added to this are the new threats on hand: Insurgencies, terrorism, human trafficking, drugs, climate change adaptation and its impact on the security of nations.

    That new threats embody environmental sustainability cannot be overemphasized. So African leaders need to interrogate for instance the submission by the Institute of Security Studies (ISS) to the effect that the armed tension and insurgency vulnerability that led to the big bloodbath in Baga, northern Nigeria is linked with the drying lake Chad in Nigeria’s north east which has resulted in the exasperating need for new jobs.

    The pressure exerted by unemployment has clearly exacerbated environmental sustainability and has now thrown up food security issues as well.

    Merely resolving in their summit resolutions to address the root causes of conflicts, put an end to impunity and strengthen national and continental judicial institutions and accountability in line with the collective responsibility to the principle of non-indifference is seen by observers as inadequate given the exigency of the situation.

    But even as the leaders did not pronounce sufficiently on the matter of security sustainability, they did not want to lose out of making a history of the moment.

    They proclaimed a new focus that would see the continent taking its destiny in its hands in self sufficiency, peace and security as well as inter-regional trade, determined not to bequeath the burden of conflicts to the next generation of Africans.

    Economic experts have always urged not just the banishing of conflicts but also the creation of an economically sovereign continent. At the turn of the Millennium Africa’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was $600 billion.

    Today it is $2.2 trillion. But adjusted for inflation, Africa’s GDP has doubled in 10 years while Sub Sahara Africa’s economic size has now doubled. Burgeoning conflicts have however continued to take the steam away from the road to more economic progress.

    Besides, about 14 million of the continent’s our youth are entering the labour market each year and cannot find a decent job.

    Before the summit proper, the AU Executive Council had adopted the strategic plan (2014-2017) alongside the year 2014 budget amounting to $380 million.

    The strategic plan is constituted of eight priorities meant to address challenges in peace, stability and governance, growth and transformation, regional integration through the achievement of the Continental Free Trade Area by 2017, innovation, harnessing human and natural resources, mainstreaming women and youth etc”

    As if to make up for the things unsaid and expectations unmet, they raised an instrument to deal with the recurrent and emerging sources of conflict including piracy, narco-human trafficking, all forms of extremism including terrorism, trans-national organized crime and missing no opportunity to push forward the agenda of conflict prevention, peacemaking, peace support, national reconciliation and post-conflict reconstruction and development. Among others.

    Addressing the global media in this regard, the Chairperson of the AU authority of heads of state Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn said “We (African leaders) should take care of our own business by ourselves.

    We should not be waiting for handouts. We will now take care of all our programmes (security, economic integration and trade) etc, ourselves”

    In a world now charged by nuclear proliferation and threats, the leaders also committed a nuclear-free Africa and called for global nuclear disarmament, non-proliferation and peaceful use of energy while undertaking the effective implementation of agreements on landmines and the proliferation of small arms and light weapons.

    Chairperson of the AU Commission Dr. Nkosazana Zuma who also fielded questions jointly with the Ethiopian leader said the report of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA), African Standby Force (ASF) as well as the panel on the Wise would guide the next steps for peace and security on the continent.

    Interestingly, she said the leaders were pleased with the post 2015 development agenda ‘s report brought in By Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

    The African development Bank (ADB) had identified issues such as Urbanization, the Growing Natural Resource Industry and ability to leapfrog technology, climate change and food security and infrastructure as critical towards transiting to an economically stable continent.

    What does this mean for development experts? How has conflict burgeoning and feeble resolution of same taken steam away from the development process?

    The peace making work of the AU has left many ordinary Africans skeptical of its ability to impose its solutions to conflicts. Even if the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) does often mediate behind the scenes, it has struggled to communicate its role in the conflicts plaguing the continent.

    Now, where was the PSC in Mali, for example, when France intervened militarily earlier this year? Its sidelining during the Libyan crisis in 2011 and almost total absence that year during the Arab Spring that engulfed North Africa indicated the limits of the AU’s capacity to play a role in conflicts.

    A development expert professor Oshita Oshita of the institute of Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) in Abuja says the way forward is for the leaders to answer the puzzle: “Is this far too soon for a change of emphasis for the AU, with economic development in so many countries still being held back by political conflict (e.g. Zimbabwe and Côte d’Ivoire); strife from militant groups (e.g. Mali and Nigeria); and coup leaders who fail to leave office (e.g. Madagascar)?

    Further to this, human rights activists including ISS consultant Liesl Louw-Vaudran have also emphasised the need for the AU to step up its efforts to ensure individuals in Africa have regional or continental recourse to justice if they do not have faith in their governments to protect them.

    The African Court on Human and People’s Rights and regional courts like the Economic Community of West African States Court of Justice and the Southern African Development Community Tribunal in Namibia still do not sufficiently provide for this.

    The AU’s lackluster support for the International Criminal Court (ICC) is also seen as hampering the fight against impunity.

    As the world looks forward to another summit in Addis, one of the issues that seems bypassed now is the fact that today, the AU has forces in Somalia and Darfur and is backing the individual member states’ action in Mali. Yet an African High Command is not floated many years after it was envisaged.

    That kind of pan African solidarity force is now needed so to take the lead in flattening the continent’s flash points such as what emerged in Mali this year without the odium of a meddlesome intervention of colonial France.

    Thirty-two countries including Nigeria founded the OAU in 1963. (AU emerged from its ashes in July 11 2000 following the adoption of the Act of the African Union). Now, South Africa that is steadily now asserting itself in the scheme of things became the 53rd member in 1994 after the first multi-racial elections that ushered in Madiba Nelson Mandela. South Sudan became the 54th state after independence on July 9 2011.

    It is in order to build on the economic sustainability already unfolded at the summit that a meeting of the continent’s finance Ministers to discuss a bold new proposal of an Africa Infrastructure Fund and a Special Purpose was held in Marrakech, Morocco penultimate week.

    It was billed among others as a Vehicle to raise money in the markets for high return infrastructure projects that will help Africa to unlock her potential.

    But as it is often said: “The sleeping giant is still on its way” Beyond the question of leadership from Nigeria, when would Africa finally help the world to abandon that sometimes-patronising look at the continent?

  • South African new party Agang to challenge ANC

    {{A new political party has been launched in South Africa to challenge President Jacob Zuma’s African National Congress.}}

    Agang, which means “Build”, has made tackling corruption and improving education two of its main goals.

    Its leader, Mamphela Ramphele, told supporters in Pretoria the ANC could not be trusted to run the economy.

    Ms Ramphele is a former World Bank managing director and was the partner of murdered anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko.

    Ahead of Saturday’s launch, retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu described her as a brave and principled leader and said the graciousness of South African politics in the 1990s had largely been surrendered at the altar of power and wealth.

    “Few thinking South Africans would not welcome the entry into South African politics of someone of the calibre, background, intellect and resourcefulness of Mamphela Ramphele,” he said in a statement.

    the ANC is regularly accused of poor governance and failing to deliver basic services such as housing, water and jobs.

    Agang’s stated aim, she says, is to galvanise South Africans to build on the democratic foundations left by former President Nelson Mandela and other anti-apartheid leaders – a legacy which some believe is being squandered by the ANC.

    However, loyalty to the ANC among South African voters runs deep, our correspondent adds.

  • Green Party Group Holds First Delegates Conference

    {{The Opposition Green Party Political group has held its first delegates conference after successfuly securing permision to the effect.}}

    Frank Habineza the leader of the Green Party group said the conference was held today at about 9AM and the minutes of the meeting were made legal and binding after approval by the public notary.

    The delegates conference attended by hundreds of supporters was held at la Verdana located in Kimironko a Kigali city suburb.

    It was required that Green Party secured atleast 5 members of the party from every disitrict making it atleast 150 members for a quoram to be approved to hold a delegates conference.

    Atleast members of the political group are required to be atleast 18years of age and were required to present their Identification documents before the district Public notary.

  • Brazil’s President Pledges to Hold Dialogue with Protesters

    {{Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff promised on Friday to hold a dialogue with members of a protest movement sweeping the country, but also said she would do whatever is necessary to maintain order in the wake of widespread vandalism and looting.}}

    “We cannot live with this violence that shames Brazil,” she said in a nationally televised address. “All institutions and public security forces should prevent, within the limits of the law, every form of violence and vandalism.”

    Rousseff spoke even as new demonstrations broke out on Friday, including one that for several hours blocked most passengers from entering or leaving the country’s busiest international airport, outside Sao Paulo.

    The protests have come out of seemingly nowhere over the past week. More than 1 million people took to the streets on Thursday in the biggest demonstrations in Brazil in 20 years.

    The nameless, leaderless movement – composed largely of students and the middle class – has pulled together a wide range of grievances including bad public transport and healthcare, corruption, and the billions of dollars that the government is spending to host next year’s World Cup.

    Rousseff, a former guerrilla who herself protested a military rule during the 1960s, praised the peaceful majority of protesters and said she would listen to their demands.

    Speaking calmly but firmly, she said Brazil has a “historic opportunity” to harness the energy from the protests and make improvements.

    But she warned the movement could be ruined by violence like that seen on Thursday, when protesters smashed buildings, looted stores and set fires in a dozen cities.

    Rousseff said it was her “obligation to listen to the voice of the streets, as well as dialogue with all segments” of society peacefully protesting.

    The president, who is not known for initiating talks, did not specify what such a process would look like.

    After her speech, the hashtag #calabocadilma – “Shut up, Dilma” in Portuguese began trending on Twitter accompanied by withering comments attacking her government.

    Friday’s protests were much smaller than those on Thursday. There were signs of a backlash against the movement on Friday, and one prominent leftist group said it would stop organizing marches for now because of discord and violence.

    Unlike other recent protest movements such as the Arab Spring, Brazil’s demonstrators are not targeting individual politician and Rousseff remains relatively popular.

    {wirestory}

  • Opposition Leader Suspends talks With Guinea’s Govt

    {{Guinea’s main opposition leader Thursday pulled out of United Nationa-mediated election talks with the government, accusing police and youths of attacking him and his supporters.}}

    The negotiations aim to secure opposition participation in long-delayed elections which are meant to seal the mineral-rich nation’s transition to civilian rule following a coup in 2008.

    Cellou Dalein Diallo, who heads the UFDG party, said he and his supporters were attacked by stone-throwing youths and police near his home in the capital Conakry on Wednesday. The opposition said 17 people were injured in the clashes.

    He had been returning from an appearance in court, where he is facing defamation charges brought against him by an ally of President Alpha Conde.

    “They can’t attack us like this, fire tear gas at us, allow thugs to throw stones at us and expect us to go along with it,” Diallo said. “For now, the UFDG is suspending its participation in the dialogue.”

    The government said the violence had been provoked by youths from Diallo’s own neighborhood.

    Other members of the opposition coalition said they would meet to decide whether to follow Diallo’s lead and withdraw from the negotiations.

    More than 50 people have been killed over the past three months in protests by the opposition, who accuse Conde of stuffing the electoral roll with his ethnic Malinke supporters.

    Political instability following the military coup has deterred some investors despite Guinea’s large deposits of iron ore, bauxite, gold and other minerals.

    The U.N. envoy Saïd Djinnit said this month there had been a breakthrough in the talks between the government and opposition parties.

    The elections commission, known as the CENI, said this week that a June 30 date for the polls, which was rejected by the opposition, would need to be pushed back.

    Conde’s 2010 election victory was marred by violence. Diallo came second in that contest.

    {wirestory}

  • Tanzania Police Detains Opposition MPs

    {{Tanzanian police has reportedly detained four members of parliament of the main opposition Chadema party and 60 supporters in Arusha as they gathered to pay tribute to murdered colleagues.}}

    Police said they had detained them on a charge of “illegal assembly”.

    “We managed to get our hands on four Chadema deputies,” Tanzanian police operations chief Paul Chagonja told reporters.

    They were still trying to find Chadema leader Freeman Mbowe, who they held responsible for the gathering, he added.

    Organisers of Tuesday’s rally said it had been called to pay homage to three people killed when a hand grenade exploded at an opposition rally on Saturday, the last day of campaigning for municipal elections.

    The blast injured another 60 people.

    Chagonja said police had arrested three suspects in that attack, which the police chief had described Monday as a “suspected act of terrorism”.

    NMG