Tag: GreatLakesNews

{Kenya deployed extra security at its border with South Sudan after the clashes in Juba. Extra officers were also sent to Kakuma refugee camp in Turkana County.}

Turkana West Sub County police boss Jonathan Ngala said police have increased patrols in the camp amid tension among the 2,000 Sudan nationals living in the camp.

Mr Ngala said that it was necessary to assure all South Sudan nationals from different clans at the camp of tight security as tension continues to rise in their newly created nation.

The administrator predicted that there might be an influx of South Sudan nationals seeking refuge in Kenya due to the crisis. Security officials at Nadapal police camp will scrutinise all refugees coming into the country.

Speaking to the Nation on phone before he chaired a District Security and Intelligent
Committee meeting at Kakuma, Mr Ngala termed the situation as critical.

Daily Nation

Currently, he said transport along the Lodwar- Juba road is still safe and trucks continue to cross the border to Kapoeta in South Sudan.

{South Sudan’s president said Monday he had defeated a coup attempt by a political rival following a night of fighting in the capital Juba.}

“This was an attempted coup,” President Salva Kiir told reporters.

He also said in a statement that the “government is in full control of the security situation in Juba. The attackers fled and our forces are pursuing them.”

A curfew has also been imposed from 6am to 6pm.

Kiir, dressed in full military uniform, accused former vice-president Riek Machar of being behind the unrest.

TRIED TO LOOT

Violence erupted on Sunday night at a military base in the Gieda suburb, where some soldiers allegedly tried to loot a military store in an attempt to overrun the military headquarters at Bilpham.

Kiir said localised shootings started at 6pm on Sunday, following the conclusion of the ruling party’s National Liberation Council.

Machar has been challenging Kiir for leadership of the party.

Senior military officials said arrests have been made but the identities of those arrested were not revealed.

Kenya Airways on Monday suspended all flights to and from Juba, after the airport in the capital was closed that morning.

Daily Nation

{{Heavy gunfire rocked the capital of the Republic of Congo but then calm returned.
}}

{Residents remained in their homes and businesses were closed after the gunfire started Monday near the home of Col. Marcel Tsourou, and overtook the city center.}

The gunfire stopped at midday. It was unclear what the shooting was about.

Meanwhile shots were heard Monday in Brazzaville, near the home of an army officer wanted by the police, causing panic in the center of the Congolese capital, IGIHE learns from source.

A resident told AFP that he was advised not to go to lunch this afternoon

There was an exchange of fire last night and a police operation is underway to recover those fired. (…) Its a little panic in the city, people running in every direction, said a diplomat.

The shots seemed localized near the home of Colonel Marcel Tsourou , former Deputy Secretary General of the National Security Council.

{MISA Zambia expresses its grave concern at the arrest and detention of Daily Nation Newspaper proprietor Richard Sakala, Production editor Simon Mwanza and FODEP Executive director MacDonald Chipenzi over an article that appeared in the Newspaper on Monday.}

The offence of publishing false information likely to cause public alarm and despondency in the country contrary to section 67 subsections (i) and (ii) of the penal code cap 87 of the laws of Zambia that Sakala, Mwanza and Chipenzi have been framed with is not only draconian and archaic but retrogressive, colonial and an affront to media freedoms
As MISA, we note that the Daily Nation published the information regarding the secret recruitment from a source and this would not warrant their persecution.

We demand the release of the journalists and that the charges leveled against them be dropped because this we feel this is a threat to Zambia’s democracy, curb freedom of expression and gag the media.

Zambia police should have refuted this claim instead of harassing the media personnel who are supposed to provide checks and balances to the ruling Patriotic Front government.

We appeal to all well- meaning Zambians to rise up and denounce the barbaric and draconian action and therefore challenge government to state its position on freedom of expression and the safety of journalists in the country.

MISA Zambia
Acting Chairperson
Hellen Mwale
12 December 2013

{The defense team of former DR Congo vice president Jean Pierre Bemba at the ICC trial has discovered letters from 23 extremely protected witnesses in which they ask for their money promised to them by the prosecutor.
}

The development, according to the defense, was made when they landed on a letter of one the unnamed witnesses towards the end of November reminding the prosecutor of his payment. However, as the defense prepared to inform the trial chamber of their discovery, the entire team was arrested on November 23-24.

The four taken into custody were: Aimé Kiolo Musamba, Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo’s lead counsel; Jean-Jacques Mangenda Kabongo, a member of Mr. Bemba’s defense team and case manager; Fidèle Babala Wandu, a member of the DRC Parliament and Deputy Secretary General of Bemba’s party the Mouvement de Libération du Congo; and Narcisse Arido, a defense witness. All the four were arrested in different countries and transferred to the ICC in The Hague.

The new revelations concerning the ICC prosecutor paying witnesses was made in the trial chamber hearing the case of one of them Jean-Jacques Mangenda Kabongo on December 5th.

Defense attorney Maître Jean Flamme angrily informed the judge that prosecution had illegally accessed their confidential correspondences and listened in on phone conversations.

Describing the discovery of the letters as “extremely grave”, Maître Flamme said the prosecutor used illegally obtained information to order for the arrest of the four accused.

The ICC prosecutor claimed the individuals were specifically alleged to have presented falsified or forged documents and to have bribed certain witnesses to falsely testify in Bemba’s trial. The Prosecutor also alleged that Bemba was the one who ordered, solicited, and induced the attempts to pervert the course of justice.

In the current case, the defense says they were in the process of evoking ICC powers that call for review of all the prosecution witnesses. The defense was also planning to ask Bemba’s trial chamber to recall the 23 witnesses in question who wrote letters asking for their payments.

Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, was a former Vice President of the DRC and leader of the Mouvement de Libération du Congo (MLC) rebel group. Bemba is on trial over two counts of crimes against humanity including murder and rape, and three counts of war crimes including murder, rape, and pillaging. In 2002, Bemba allegedly sent MLC troops into the Central African Republic (CAR), which neighbors the DRC, in order to help put down a coup d’état against former CAR President Ange-Felix Patasse.

Bemba’s troops allegedly committed acts of rape, murder and pillage in CAR in 2002 and 2003. The presentation of Bemba’s case was completed on November 22, 2013, three years after his trial commenced. It is the same day that the ICC Prosecutor filed arrested warrants ordering the arrest Bemba’s legal team.

It is not entirely clear how the court is going to respond to the new damning revelations about the prosecutor’s witnesses, who are all protected and anonymous.

News of Rwanda

{Ugandan Army said that nineteen fighters from Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) have surrendered following an offensive against the rebel group in the Central African Republic (CAR).}

Six children were among those who gave themselves up, the army said.

The LRA was forced out of Uganda in 2005 and since then has wreaked havoc in CAR and other neighbouring states.

The group says its mission is to install a government in Uganda based on the Biblical Ten Commandments.

It is notorious for abducting children to serve as sex slaves and child soldiers.

The US has listed it as a terrorist group and has offered up to $5m (£3.3m) for leads resulting in the arrest of its leader, Joseph Kony.

{The U.S. military expects on this Thursday, 12th December, to begin flying Burundi forces into the Central African Republic to help stop the violence in that war-torn country, according to a U.S. military official.}

The United States has two C-17 aircraft in Uganda that will pick up the forces in Burundi and unload them in Bangui, the capital. The official emphasized the U.S. planes will remain on the ground in Bangui for a very short period due to the violence there.

The official also said the United States believes its planes and crews will be safe, because French forces control the airport there. The airlift of Burundi forces is expected to last about a week. Discussions about what additional assistance the United State may provide continue.

The Pentagon announced Monday that American military would fly African and European peacekeepers to the Central African Republic, which is in the midst of a bloody internal conflict between various proclaimed Christian and Muslim militias and other rebel factions.

That announcement was followed by a statement from President Barack Obama, who called on the country’s citizens to reject violence and urged the transitional government to join “respected leaders” in Muslim and Christian communities in calling for “calm and peace.”

“Individuals who are engaging in violence must be held accountable in accordance with the law. Meanwhile, as forces from other African countries and France work to restore security, the United States will support their efforts to protect civilians,” Obama said.

Pentagon spokesman Carl Woog said “the United States is joining the international community” in aiding the peackeeping effort “because of our belief that immediate action is required to avert a humanitarian and human rights catastrophe.”

Agencies

{Burundi’s opposition on Tuesday condemned the arrest of one of its key leaders, claiming he had been “set up” in a sex and bribery scandal designed to block a challenge to the country’s president. }

Frederic Bamvuginyumvira, a former vice-president of Burundi and current deputy of the Front for Democracy in Burundi (Frodebu) party, was arrested on Thursday “while having sex… in a house of ill repute”, said senior Supreme Court official Emmanuel Rumbete.

Bamvuginyumvira, 52, is alleged to have then tried to bribe his way to freedom, while a woman, reportedly an old family friend in her fifties, was released.

But his party said his arrest was organised by President Pierre Nkurunziza, adding to political tensions in the small central African nation, torn in the past by civil war, rebellion and massacres.

“This is outrageous,” said Frodebu president Leonce Ngendakumana. “We are witnessing a shameless and growing campaign orchestrated by Pierre Nkurunziza to remove a man known for his integrity, and who could pose a threat in the general election in 2015.”

Bamvuginyumvira, a highly respected leader with a reputation for being tough on graft, was Burundi’s vice president from 1998 to 2001, and is touted as one of the most serious potential opposition presidential candidates for 2015.

According to eyewitness accounts, Bamvuginyumvira was arrested while riding in a car in the centre of the capital Bujumbura.

One of his lawyers, Fabien Segatwa, criticised the lack of evidence against him, as well as condemning his treatment in prison, where he said the politician was “forced to sleep on the floor” without a mattress or blankets.

“He was first prosecuted for adultery, but that charge was quickly abandoned because it requires a complaint from his wife,” Segatwa said, adding that police also considered charges of rebellion and incitement to debauchery.

Frodebu won the 1993 general elections, bringing to power the country’s first elected president Melchior Ndadaye.

Ndadaye was assassinated a few months later, triggering a brutal civil war that ended in 2006.

Like other opposition groups Frodebu boycotted legislative elections in 2010.

Sapa-AFP

{Members of a Rwandan Hutu militia, FDLR, in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo have been surrendering in large numbers to U.N. peacekeepers trying to neutralize armed groups in the region, a senior U.N. official said on Wednesday.}

According to Reuters, Congolese troops and the U.N. peacekeeping mission – which includes a unique Intervention Brigade mandated to eliminate armed groups in eastern Congo – have turned their attention to combating the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) after defeating the Tutsi-led M23 rebel group last month.

Martin Kobler, head of the U.N. mission, said operations against the FDLR began on November 27. He said the group had up to 1,800 fighters, but only 30 percent were Hutus who fled Rwanda after the 1994 genocide against Tutsi and moderate Hutus.

“Most of them are young people, 70 percent of them are young people below the age of 30. They were not involved in the 1994 genocide so it is easier for them also to surrender to us,” Kobler told reporters after briefing the U.N. Security Council on the situation in Congo behind closed doors.

“We have quite a number of surrenderees, a whole platoon every month is surrendering without fighting,” he said.

Millions of people have died from violence, disease and hunger in eastern Congo since the 1990s while dozens of rebel groups have fought for control of its rich deposits of gold, diamonds, copper, cobalt and uranium.

French U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud, the president of the Security Council for December, said Kobler told the 15-member Security Council that tackling the FDLR involved a different approach to that used against the M23 rebels.

“There is a major obstacle in that the FDLR are living with their families,” Araud told reporters.
“The M23 was waging a traditional war with a front with armed forces quite easily identifiable while the FDLR are small groups, very, very often living in small villages with their families, which means among civilians,” he said.

Kobler also spoke about the unarmed surveillance drones that the United Nations started to use earlier this month to monitor the volatile border between Congo and its neighbors Rwanda and Uganda.

“This is a deterrent I think to all armed groups,” Kobler told reporters. “If you see the imagery, you can see from 2,000 meters (6,561 feet) children playing football in a backyard and you can identify the faces.”

Nairobi: {{Kenyans mark half a century of independence from Britain on Thursday, celebrating progress of the regional economic powerhouse but also struggling to shake off a legacy of corruption, inequality and ethnic violence. }}

Celebrations got underway at midnight yesterday, with the Kenyan flag raised in Uhuru Gardens – meaning “freedom” in Swahili – in a reenactment of the moment 50 years earlier when Britain’s rule since 1895 came to a close.

Climbers are also raising another flag on the snow-capped peak of Mount Kenya.

In another echo of history, President Uhuru Kenyatta will address crowds and regional presidents later today as his father Jomo Kenyatta did in 1963, when he became the first Kenyan to lead the east African nation.

Back then, Kenyans sang and danced wildly in the streets at the end of the British colonial rule.

Today, anti-colonial rhetoric is being drummed up again, amid international pressure on President Uhuru Kenyatta ahead of his international crimes against humanity trial early next year.

Kenyatta, who denies all charges of masterminding violence following contested elections in 2007 in which over 1,00 died, has campaigned hard to have his trial at International Criminal Court suspended, appealing for support from fellow African presidents and at the African Union.

The president is expected to echo recent speeches vowing to defend Kenya from her “enemies”.

“Our forefathers rejected colonialism and imperial domination in their time,” Kenyatta said in a speech in October for Hero’s day, commemorating those who died in the Mau Mau uprising, a largely ethnic Kikuyu insurgent movement in the 1950s brutally suppressed by colonial powers.

“We must honour their legacy, and stay true to our heritage, by rejecting all forms of domination and manipulation in our time.”

Government advertisements in newspapers to celebrate the independence jubilee have included full page pictures of the Mau Mau, urging unity in the country.

A competition has also been launched to design a Mau Mau memorial for central Nairobi for those who suffered during the insurgency, with backing by the British government.

But for many Kenyans, the anniversary is a date to rather look forward to build their nation rather than dredge up the ghosts of the past.

“This will be a season of hagiography,” wrote Patrick Gathara, a well known media commentator and cartoonist in a recent article.

“Kenya will put on its Sunday-best gear and apply some patriotic perfume to cover the stench of the last five decades.”

{{AFP}}