{{Fighting between DR Congo’s military and M23 rebels killed more than 900 combatants in the country’s restive east before the insurgents were routed earlier this month, a senior military official said on Monday.}}
“Between May 20 and November 5, the… [army] had 201 dead and 680 wounded.
“On the M23 side, there were 721 dead and 543 captured said General Jean-Lucien Bahuma, a senior commander in the North Kivu region where the fighting took place.
Three UN peacekeepers were also killed.
Times
{On 23 and 24 November 2013, the authorities of the Netherlands, France, Belgium and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) acting pursuant to a warrant of arrest issued by Judge Cuno Tarfusser, the Single Judge of the Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court (ICC), arrested four persons suspected of offences against the administration of justice allegedly committed in connection with the case of The Prosecutor v. Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo. This warrant of arrest in respect of the same charges was also served on Jean-Pierre Bemba at the ICC’s detention centre, where he has been detained since 3 July 2008.}
On 20 November 2013, Judge Tarfusser issued a warrant of arrest for Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, his Lead Counsel Aimé Kilolo Musamba, Jean-Jacques Mangenda Kabongo (a member of Mr Bemba’s defence team and case manager), Fidèle Babala Wandu (a member of the DRC Parliament and Deputy Secretary General of the Mouvement pour la Libération du Congo), and Narcisse Arido (a Defence witness).
Judge Cuno Tarfusser found that there are reasonable grounds to believe that these persons are criminally responsible for the commission of offences against the administration of justice (article 70 of the Rome Statute) by corruptly influencing witnesses before the ICC and presenting evidence that they knew to be false or forged. The suspects, it is alleged, were part of a network for the purposes of presenting false or forged documents and bribing certain persons to give false testimony in the case against Mr Bemba.
The Belgian authorities arrested Aimé Kilolo Musamba, the Dutch authorities arrested Jean-Jacques Mangenda Kabongo, and Narcisse Arido was arrested by the French authorities, in response to requests for arrest and surrender from the ICC. They will be subsequently surrendered to the ICC in accordance with the judicial procedures applicable in the three countries. Fidèle Babala Wandu was arrested by the authorities of the DRC and is being transferred to The Hague. The date of his first appearance at the ICC will be announced shortly. The authorities also cooperated with the ICC for the purposes of searching locations connected to the suspects. The Single Judge of the Pre-Trial Chamber II further requested the States concerned to locate and freeze the suspects’ assets.
On behalf of the Court, the Registrar of the ICC, Herman von Hebel, expressed his gratitude to the States’ authorities for their cooperation, stating that these are the first arrests made in relation to such charges before the ICC.
The trial of Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, the alleged President and Commander-in-Chief of the Mouvement de libération du Congo, started on 22 November 2010, for two counts of crimes against humanity (rape and murder) and three counts of war crimes (rape, murder and pillaging) allegedly committed in the Central African Republic.
{{ICC Press Release }}
{ A couple accused of keeping three women as slaves in a London house for 30 years are of Indian and Tanzanian origin and two of the victims were part of a political “collective”, police said on Saturday.}
The two older victims involved in Britain’s most notorious case of modern-day slavery are thought to have met the male suspect through a “shared political ideology” and began living with him as part of a collective, London’s Metropolitan Police said.
The third victim, a 30-year-old woman, is believed to have spent her entire life in servitude in a case that has stunned Britain. Police commander Steve Rodhouse said the couple, both aged 67, were of Indian and Tanzanian origin and had been living in Britain since the 1960s.
“We believe that two of the victims met the male suspect in London through a shared political ideology, and that they lived together at an address that you could effectively call a ‘collective’,” he told reporters.
Police carried out house-to-house enquiries on Saturday, speaking to residents living near the house where the women were held in south London.
The exact location has not been revealed but the police operation centred on a modern, low-rise block of flats in Peckford Place in Brixton, an area known for its vibrant nightlife and large Afro-Caribbean community.
The victims are a 69-year-old Malaysian, a 57-year-old Irish woman and the 30-year-old Briton. They were freed on October 25 after one of them made secret telephone contact with a charity.
Their alleged captors, who are suspected of immigration offences as well as involvement in forced labour, have been provisionally freed until January pending further investigations.
The Citizen
{A spokesman for the Ugandan government says there would not be an organization called East African Community had it not been for the efforts of President Yoweri Museveni and two other east African leaders to revive the organization.}
Spokesman Ofwono Opondo was responding to criticism by an official of the newly-formed Freedom and Unity Front (FUF) of Uganda that President Museveni was out to destroy the Community.
General David Sejusa told VOA earlier this week that Museveni attempted to isolate Tanzania and Burundi by not inviting their leaders to recent regional summits.
But Opondo says there are some issues within the community that are bilateral as well as tripartite and do not affect regional cooperation.
“First of all, we don’t know that organization – Unity and Freedom Front – we don’t know them and we have not seen their report. But there has not been an East African Community to speak about until President Museveni restarted it about 12 years ago together with President Daniel Arap Moi and Benjamin Nkapa. And so you cannot be the same person trying to destroy,” he said.
He dismissed criticism that President Museveni tried to isolate Tanzania and Burundi by not inviting their two leaders to recent East African Community summits.
“There regional issues that are bilateral to Uganda and Kenya; there are issues that are bilateral for Uganda and Rwanda, and there are issues that are tripartite for Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda. So, we don’t think that bilateral issues of Uganda and Kenya should in any way jeopardize the regional cooperation of the East African Community,” Opondo said.
The FUF describes itself as a “new liberation platform to unite different liberation forces, political organizations and individuals to free Uganda from Yoweri Museveni.”
One of its leaders is General David Sejusa, the former Coordinator of Uganda’s Intelligence Services.
Sejusa fled Uganda in April this year after writing a letter, alleging that there was a scheme to assassinate senior government and military officials perceived to be against an alleged plot to have Mr. Museveni’s son, Brigadier Muhoozi Kainerugaba succeed his father as President.
Opondo describes the group as “fictitious” and said the Ugandan government does not know of the group’s existence.
“I am hearing it from you for the first time. So it must be a fictitious organization. First of all, Sejusa is a renegade fugitive who has previously been a member of parliament of Uganda representing the army. He has run out of what to say, and I think this announcement of a fictitious organization that does not exist, at least not here in Uganda is an attempt to create a profile to you, the international media who may not have all the facts about Uganda back home here,” Opondo said.
Opondo also rejects the FUF’s criticism that President Museveni has been a sponsor of the M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo and cannot be the one to mediate peace talks between the government and M23 rebels.
“President Museveni and Uganda was asked by a committee of African Union states in November of 2011 to be the mediator and we have been conducting that mediation for the past 11 months. It has never been raised by the DRC delegation the biasness of Uganda until when we hear accusations via the media,” Opondo said.
First founded in the mid-1960s, the East African Community collapsed in 1977 due to disagreements among its founding countries – Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania. It was revived in 2000 by leaders of the same three founding countries.
VOA
{World alarm grew over the Central African Republic on Thursday, when France joined a chorus warning of possible genocide in the mineral-rich but poor country torn by strife since a March coup.}
France’s Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius warned that the CAR was “on the verge of genocide”, while the United Nations has mooted sending thousands of peacekeepers to the landlocked nation, where unprecedented sectarian bloodshed has erupted.
In parts of the CAR, fighting has broken out between mainly Muslim former rebels who seized power in March and militia groups set up to protect Christian communities, which make up about 80 percent of the population. Both churches and mosques have been razed to the ground.
“It’s total disorder,” Fabius told France 2 television, adding that the UN was considering authorising African and French troops to intervene. A regional peacekeeping force known as MISMA is currently deployed, but consists of only 2,500 men hampered by a lack of funds, arms and training.
In the latest of a long line of rebellions and coups, the Seleka rebel coalition ousted president Francois Bozize in March and put the CAR’s first Muslim leader, President Michel Djotodia, in power.
Djotodia, who has officially disbanded the Seleka coalition and incorporated some of its forces into the army, announced “exceptional measures” on Tuesday to quell conflict, but a statement issued by his office gave no details.
“The president wants to assure the Central African people of his determination to hunt down all criminals, looters, troublemakers, human rights violators and their accomplices,” the statement said.
AFP
{Fresh claims against the British Government for atrocities committed during the colonial period have started to be registered.}
The claims target 8,000 Mau Mau veterans excluded from last June’s Sh2.6 billion payout.
The registration led by British firm, Tandem Law, follows last month’s order by a British High Court that claimants in the group litigation filed by Mrs Eloise Mukami Kimathi, widow of Mau Mau hero Dedan Kimathi, Mr James Karanja Njoro and others must be registered before April 30 next year.
The other 13 law firms handling various segments of the suit have been ordered to join the group register being processed by the lead solicitors or notify them of their clients’ interests in the suit before the deadline.
Thursday, Tandem Law’s lead solicitor Freddie Cosgrove-Gibson and Kenyan representative Cecil Miller addressed a press conference in Nairobi where they explained how the registration of claims from victims of the colonial atrocities would be done.
Mr Cosgrove-Gibson said that advertisements notifying the concerned parties of the recent development regarding the case have been running in the local newspapers in Kenya.
“A Group Litigation Order (GLO) has been agreed in the Kenyan emergency group litigation in the High Court of England and Wales. Tandem Law has been appointed lead solicitors for the claimants,” he stated.
He urged all genuine claimants to come out for the last chance to get justice done to them.
“We have not sent anyone out there to collect money from the claimants to finance the suit. We have decided to do a ‘no win, no fee case,” the lawyer said.
He explained that the GLO order granted on October 22 signalled the beginning of the legal process and case management of claims against the British government.
“It also outlines the formal notification period for Kenyan claimants and law firms representing claimants to come forward,” said Mr Cosgrove-Gibson.
Mr Miller noted that those allowed to place claims must be genuine Mau Mau veterans and not their relatives or descendants.
Other qualifications for claims include proof of having suffered mistreatment during the same period and that the mistreatment must have been inflicted by or on behalf of the State, whether British or Kenyan.
They must also be ready to personally give witness statement and must have their Kenyan national identity cards.
Daily Nation
Kigali — {Several armed groups in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have said they are ready to lay down their weapons, following the army’s defeat of M23 rebels. Since then, there has been a series of letters and declarations by other militias expressing their willingness to be demobilized.}
It has been two weeks since the M23 rebels fled from their last holdouts in Congo after coming under intense bombardments from the U.N.-backed Congolese army. Other armed groups in North Kivu province seem anxious to avoid the same fate.
Several of them are ready to give up their activities and demobilize, according to documents VOA has seen that apparently were signed by their leaders.
One of these documents appears to have been signed by leaders of the Mai Mai Kifuafua and Raia Mutomboki groups in Walikale territory – two groups that recently were fighting each other. Another comes apparently from the so-called Cheka group, which has been repeatedly condemned for human rights violations, and named as a priority target by the U.N.
Researcher Fidel Bafilemba, who works for the NGO the Enough Project in eastern Congo, told VOA the documents are genuine. He said they are authentic and were given to Enough by local government officials in Walikale, and were then confirmed by a Catholic priest who helped organize a peacemaking dialogue.
The signatories to one of the documents pledge to abandon all armed group activities and to join the army or return to civilian life, without conditions.
The other document from the Cheka does pose conditions, as it asks the government to integrate its fighters in the army and to recognize their self-proclaimed “ranks.”
There are said to be some 30 armed groups in eastern Congo. Bafilemba said most of the others also have pledged to demobilize, with some already partly integrated in the army, while others are disintegrating as their members desert.
VOA
Over 81.5% of Uganda’s working population is self-employed, a new National Household Survey 2012/2013 report indicates.
The survey findings that were released by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) shows that the dominant source of employment is agriculture which takes up about 66.5% of the working population.
Vincent Fred Ssenono, a senior statistician at UBOS said that the trend is generally attributed to the high unemployment levels that have seen most people start up own businesses.
“When someone fails to get a job, they choose to start up their own businesses but these in most cases do not survive and therefore resort to agriculture which has seen so many entrants,” said Ssenono.
The report however, shows a decrease in the number of people engaged in paid employment from 21.5% in 2009/2010 to 18.5% in 2012/2013.
The report further shows a rather shocking detail on the various forms of labour the different gender groups are involved in.
According to the report, more women are engaged in care activities whereas their male counterparts are more engaged in economic activities. This trend can therefore be attributed to income inequality between males and females.
Statistics show that poverty levels dropped from 24.5% in 2009/2010 to 22% in 2012/2013 nationally which trend has been attributed to the improvement in agricultural productivity especially in central rural and the western rural areas.
“Previously, the contribution of agriculture to the country’s GDP has been on a downward slope but recently it registered an increment which directly affected the poverty trends in the areas engaged in agriculture,” said Ssenono.
New Vision
{The trial in Uganda of a British man arrested after images of him having gay sex were published has been postponed until December.}
Bernard Randall faces up to two years in prison if convicted of trafficking in obscene publications. The charge against Randall resulted from the theft of his laptop computer. Images on the laptop were later published in a tabloid newspaper.
Homosexuality is illegal under Ugandan laws and gay leaders say their community is often persecuted.
On Monday Randall’s lawyer, Annette Bada, told a Ugandan court that she needed access to prosecution evidence in order to mount a defense. A judge granted the request and set a new court date of Dec. 4.
Randall told journalists that he is innocent but is worried about the court proceedings
ABCNews
{Kenya is optimistic that the International Criminal Court state parties meeting in The Hague from Tuesday will pass an amendment to shield sitting presidents from prosecution at the court.}
Attorney General Githu Muigai and Foreign Affairs Secretary Amina Mohamed said Monday that the government was hoping that the assembly of state parties will adopt the resolution, which is being pushed by the African Union (AU).
Thirty-four African countries, which have signed the Rome Statute, have resolved to push for immunity from prosecution by ICC for serving heads of state and government.
However, a group of African NGOs in New York, USA, yesterday asked the ICC member states to reject the amendments proposed by the AU.
“Immunity for government leaders before the ICC is contrary to the basic principle that no one should be above the law,” said Mr Georges Kapiamba, president of the Congolese Association for Access to Justice.
“We should not deny justice to the victims and their families because their tormentors hold high political positions.”
But speaking in Nairobi, Prof Muigai said that other nations, which are also state parties to the Rome Statute — which created the ICC — have also expressed support for the amendment.
“There is no likelihood that the amendment will not go through,” he told journalists on the sidelines of a seminar for judges in Nairobi.
According to him, Britain and France are among the countries that have already expressed their support for the amendments.
“There are many amendments that will be on the table, including reviewing of the cases that have been handled by the court and those that are currently before it,” he said.
Prof Muigai, who is set to join the Kenyan team for the talks at The Hague, also said that the amendments have been drafted over a period of some months through meetings of contact groups, which have been working to review the rules of the ICC to make the court more flexible.
He, however, denied that a rejection of the amendment would affect the relationship between Kenya and the ICC.
Daily Nation