Tag: GreatLakesNews

{The Opposition is considering involving the international legal mechanisms to stop what they describe as repression and human rights violations by government.}

Former Forum for Democratic change (FDC) presidential candidate Dr Kizza Besigye told the media at his Kasangati home, outside Kampala following his arrest and what he described as torture on Tuesday, that the state agents were operating with impunity which must be stopped.

“This criminality, we are definitely going to continue to challenge it in all ways. We intend to engage the local remedies here not so that they can save us from it because we know they won’t but we want to start a process now seeking international remedies,” Dr Besigye said.

{{Kabale incident}}

Dr Besigye, who narrated their journey to and from Kabale District, explained that Police was acting with impunity by brutally arresting them, destroying their vehicles, disrupting their business and taking them against their will. He said such violations will be presented to the local institutions not with the hope of them acting but to register their failure to do so.

In order to seek international help, Dr Besigye said they will have to show that the local remedies have been fully exhausted. For example, Dr Besigye said he had written to the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) when Police incarcerated him in his home but nothing has been done. The UHRC is constitutionally charged with overseeing and protecting human rights in the country.

However, Dr Besigye continued with the message he used throughout the presidential campaigns of rallying Ugandans to what he calls liberating themselves, arguing that they (Ugandans) are the final authority.

“Over and beyond that we know that we have a rogue regime in Uganda which has no legitimacy and that the way to get rid of it is not going to happen through whether international appeal or what appeal. It is going to happen by our own actions, the actions of Ugandans. They are the actions of the citizens that will end this.”

Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago, who was arrested together with Dr Besigye in Kabale, said the crimes committed against them tantamount to those against humanity.

“We have made that resolve to deal with this impunity; it is now going beyond condemnation; it is time for action against impunity, otherwise we shall find ourselves in a situation which will be dire and we might not extricate ourselves from as a nation,” Mr Lukwago said.

{{Government responds}}

However, Col (rtd) Shaban Bantariza, the deputy executive director of the Uganda Media Centre, laughed off such attempts by the Opposition.

“They (Opposition) are lying, the international community they are talking about has no structures. They are brewing a storm in a tea cup but even if they wanted to go there, they would have to go through the United Nations Security Council which deals with governments. As long as they have plans to cause an insurrection, they have to be prepared for those inconveniences,” Col Bantariza said.

{The national government, the Head of State said, has conformed to the rule.}

President Uhuru Kenyatta has urged county governments to do more in ensuring women and other marginalised groups get full representation.

Mr Kenyatta underscored the need for women to be in leadership positions to conform to the two-thirds gender rule.

The national government, the Head of State said, has conformed to the rule.

“Of the 1,450 ward members of county assemblies across the country, [there are] 1,370 men (95 per cent) and 80 women.

We had to add 572 women from party lists to ensure compliance with the two-thirds gender rule. Representatives of other groups brought the total of MCAs to 2,222.

“Lest we forget, Kenyans did not elect a single woman governor, and, of the members of the county executive committees, slightly more than two-thirds are men.

“We need to be frank. All of us need to do more to make room for women in leadership,” he said in a speech read on his behalf by Devolution Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri.

DEVOLUTION A SUCCESS

He said his administration has played its part in making devolution a success in the country.

This is through giving money and expert staff and close consultations with counties.

“But we must be frank, the county governments must work with us if devolution is to succeed. And we must be even franker, corruption, waste, mismanagement and infighting are direct threats to the viability of devolution,” he said.

The president noted with concern that counties will have some of the “fiercest political contests” as the country approaches the next elections.

Governors and those seeking elective positions, he said, should promote and preach peace.

“I want to make myself perfectly clear, my deputy and I swore that never again would another Kenyan lose his life or his property in the heat of political contest.

“That is our pledge to Kenyans, and especially to those who have suffered in the past.

“It is your duty to join us in keeping the peace. Let Kenyans choose their leaders without strife, without hatred, or anger. Let us choose our leaders in peace,” the President said.

{Burundi has been in turmoil since April 2015.}

A senior US official accused Burundi’s government of being behind the central African country’s prolonged political crisis, saying Tuesday that the administration was doing everything possible to stop Washington helping civilians.

Burundi has been in turmoil since April 2015, when President Pierre Nkurunziza decided to run for a third term, which he went on to win in July, with violence leaving hundreds dead.

“The government of Burundi is the driver, not the victim of this current crisis, whether it’s on the political side or the economic side,” Thomas Perriello, US special envoy for Africa’s Great Lakes region, told a press conference in the capital Bujumbura.

“The government is doing everything it can to make it impossible for us and other partners to continue to support the Burundian people and the Burundian economy.”

The opposition, as well as civil groups and some of Nkurunziza’s own supporters, accuse him of violating the constitution and the Arusha peace deal that ended Burundi’s 1993-2006 civil war — a conflict that claimed an estimated 300,000 lives.

Violence over the past year has left more than 400 people dead and forced more than 250,000 people to flee Burundi, and watchdogs have repeatedly sounded the alarm.

On Monday, UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said his team had recorded at least 345 cases of torture and ill-treatment in Burundi since January and nearly 600 over the past year, and warned that the actual numbers were probably higher.

“These shocking figures are a clear indicator of the widespread and growing use of torture and ill-treatment by government security forces,” Zeid said.

Perriello said there had been “concrete pledges from the president himself, just a few weeks ago, about the release of political prisoners — we have not seen that.

“We saw a pledge from the president himself about 200 African Union monitors, and there continues to be games played,” he added.

The US envoy said there was “systematic documentation” of torture and extrajudicial killings “at a time where the government says they are committed to making sure that Burundians feel safe for returning to their country”.

“This is the kind of double speak that doesn’t build confidence in the government or the path forward,” he added.

“A lot of the cards are in the hands of the government, whether or not they are interested in trying to solve the economic and political crisis by delivering on the pledges that they’ve made on the highest level.”

Perriello was in Burundi after a tour that took him to France, Switzerland, Belgium and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

He is set to meet in the coming days with former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa, who has been appointed a mediator in the Burundi crisis by the six-nation East African Community.

Perriello expressed support for Mkapa’s efforts to find a resolution to the crisis, including the establishment of a dialogue between the government and the exiled opposition.

{Parliament Speaker Rebecca Kadaga yesterday claimed one of her opponents for the Speaker job is ‘sponsoring’ stories in the media to decampaign her. She, however, did not name the opponent.}

Ms Kadaga, who is seeking a second term as Speaker, is facing a challenge from Mr Jacob Oulanyah, her deputy. She also claims Foreign Affairs minister Sam Kutesa is secretly eying the Speaker job, although the latter has denied having any interest in the job or decampaigning her.

“The Idea is to show that Kadaga works more with the Opposition MPs (than the ruling party MPs),” Ms Kadaga said.

She was reacting to a story published last week in one of the local newspapers that claimed that Ms Kadaga had named a campaign team that mostly included Opposition MPs.

Ms Kadaga was speaking at the opening of a two-day workshop for journalists accredited to cover the 10th Parliament, which opens next month.

As the D-day to electing the next Speaker draws closer, the race has been gathering more momentum, and has seen Ms Kadaga aim missiles at her deputy, Mr Oulanyah, who has been hitting back as well that he is ready to run against her and doesn’t mind becoming a back bench MP in case he loses.

Ms Kadaga has accused Mr Oulanyah of being greedy, saying he should have served as Deputy Speaker for two terms and let her serve two terms as she did when she deputised former Speaker and now Vice President Edward Ssekandi.

Ms Kadaga yeaterday turned the heat on journalists covering Parliament, accusing them of overstepping their limits.

“There has been a misconception that as long as you report in Parliament, you are entitled to be here 24 hours a day,” she said.

{The U.S. should seize the opportunity to help facilitate the peaceful transfer of power in the Democratic Republic of Congo.}

The history of postcolonial Africa is brimming with tales of greed, avarice, corruption and thuggery that would produce envy in the heart of even the slickest Chicago pol. If it weren’t for the poverty, disease, bloodshed, war and death accompanying it, it might even be amusing, like something out of a late Graham Greene novel.

The problem is not intractable as it is seems. It’s the lack of resolve among the truly democratic nations of the world that allows it to continue. They pump in billions in aid, the plutocrats steal it, and as long as the special interests on both sides are getting what they want, everyone tries to pretend nothing is going on.

For the world to pay attention, an event typically has to be like the Ethiopian famine, the genocide in Darfur, the Rwandan civil war – extraordinary in its inhumanity and brutality. When the crisis is past, however, we all turn away.

Despite its many democratic successes, Africa is not a continent where people expect to see peaceful transitions of power in countries from one regime to the next. Democratic institutions and constitutions are still undergoing their shakedown cruise in many places, where political successors are trying just as hard to cling to power as their predecessors.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, President Joseph Kabila is giving every indication he does not plan to leave office at the end of this year but will instead run again for the presidency, in violation of the country’s newest constitution.

“A political crisis is building as [Congo] prepares, or rather fails to prepare, for upcoming historic elections scheduled for this November,” former Rep. Tom Perriello, now the U.S. Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa, told a congressional hearing in February.

Such a move, he said, would undermine the political and economic gains the country has experienced over the past decade. “A confrontation between President Kabila and those demanding timely and credible elections in the country is not inevitable, but it is becoming increasingly probable,” he said.

Kabila’s signals that he may resist a peaceful transition is drawing bipartisan attention on Capitol Hill.

In a letter sent Friday to the Congo’s ambassador to Washington, Republican Sen. John McCain wrote of his “deep concern at the increasingly repressive political climate and the deterioration of the human rights situation” in the country, a former Belgian colony once known as Zaire.

McCain went on to criticize what he called “a wide-scale campaign to crack down on political dissent and consolidate power,” including the expulsion of members of the ruling coalition and the arrest and imprisonment of activists calling for a general strike to protest Kabila’s efforts to remain in office. McCain noted “reports from credible rights groups indicate that political opponents are now facing death threats from authorities.”

Alongside McCain in this crusade is Democratic Sen. Ed Markey, who wrote to Secretary of State John Kerry in February about the situation in the Congo, saying, “Continued delay and public perceptions that President Kabila is clinging to power have create a very real risk of violent upheaval.”

The Congo is no stranger to violence. Kabila came to power after his father, Laurent-Desire Kabila, who led the coalition that ousted Mobuto Sese Seko after a 31-year dictatorial reign and then proclaimed himself president, was assassinated in 2001. The prospect of civil unrest, perhaps even another war if Kabila refuses to abide by the constitution, is quite real.

In his letter to Kerry, Markey outlined three points the United States should “clearly and unequivocally” impress upon Kabila:

Kabila should immediately, clearly and publicly state he will not remain in power once his term ends this year.

Provided there is verified, on-the-ground progress toward a free and fair national election this year, including an end to the current efforts to close political space and crack down on peaceful dissent, the U.S. and international partners will help fund the electoral process, and encourage increased private investment.

If he fails to meet clear benchmarks required to hold a free and fair national election this year, then the U.S. and other partners will implement sanctions. Such sanctions should include targeted visa denials and asset freezes under the Executive Order on the DRC of July 8, 2014, review and reduction of bilateral and multilateral security and economic aid going through the government and discouragement of private investment.

In their letters, both McCain and Markey acknowledge that Kabila has, up to now, helped bring “relative stability” to the Congo after a prolonged period of turmoil. The respect he has earned, they caution separately, could be wiped out if he continues the transition from democrat to dictator by blocking or impeding the upcoming election, continuing to crack down on democracy supporters and standing for a third term in office.

“The United States values its good relationship with the [Congo] and is proud to have provided assistance to your government as you continue to confront ongoing challenges,” writes McCain in the penultimate paragraph to his letter. “President Kabila has been instrumental to the [Congo’s] path from conflict to relative stability. He now has the opportunity to cement his legacy by setting the country on the successful path towards democracy and prosperity that future generations of Congolese and the world will long celebrate.”

There are those within the Washington policymaking community who will no doubt say, “It’s Africa – who cares? What is America’s compelling strategic interest in what happens in Congo?” The answer is freedom, for all mankind – an idea that has animated this nation since its founding. We long ago determined that the men and women who inhabit this small planet have an inalienable right to be free that comes to us from the Creator. Our size and economic and cultural power give America a unique opportunity — some would even call it a responsibility — to spread that belief far and wide, not just through Africa but through Asia, Central and South America and the Middle East. It may not be our job to topple every tinhorn dictator who plans his flag on a plot of land. But it is our job to keep freedom’s light burning on the highest hill so that all can see it and embrace its glow.