African Press Agency
7 February 2009
Rwandan Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Rosemary Museminali said here on Saturday that the captured renegade rebel leader Laurent Nkunda will be handed over to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
According to a joint statement issued by the minister after a four-day bilateral meeting by the foreign affairs ministers of both Rwanda and DR Congo that has been taking place in Rwanda, Nkunda will soon be extradited to his country Congo where he is expected to face war crime charges.
However, the statement revealed no handover date or further details on Nkunda’s extradition, which Congo requested after the renegade general was arrested on January 22 by Rwandan military.
DR Congo has endured a decade-long series of civil wars in which at least 5.4 million people died.
Rwanda turned on Nkunda after a December United Nations report embarrassed the government by showing that it was supporting his rebel group. The region has become the world’s deadliest killing ground since World War II.
“General Nkunda is Congolese and will eventually have to return to his country Congo. The date and the conditions of Nkunda’s return to DR Congo are being discussed by a team comprising representatives from both parties,” Museminali told APA in a telephone interview.
Congolese President Joseph Kabila announced last month that the process to extradite Nkunda was under way.
07 February, 2009
Indicted Arms Dealer Reportedly Still Making Millions From US Government.
Miami New Times
6 February 2009
By Penn Bullock
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/content/printVersion/1352598
Indicted Miami Beach weapons dealer Mr. Efraim Diveroli is still making millions of dollars from the U.S. government.
On March 15, 2008, a fireball shot into the midday sky over Albania's capital, Tirana. The blast echoed 100 miles away in Macedonia and Kosovo. Its force was comparable to that of a small nuclear weapon. But this wasn't atomic. It was an accident at an arms depot, where poor villagers had been hired to handle old ammunition and artillery shells. The explosion killed at least 26 people and injured hundreds. The village of Gerdec was obliterated.
Three men were arrested for mass murder in what local media dubbed "Albania's Hiroshima." Two of them were alleged accomplices to a 23-year-old Miami Beach-based arms dealer named Efraim Diveroli, who faces trial later this year on 83 counts of fraud and conspiracy for procuring Chinese-made ammo in Albania and selling it to the Pentagon.
The charges might be difficult to prove, though. A potential lead witness in the case, Kosta Trebicka, mysteriously died in September. His body was found bloodied and sprawled across a dirt road in eastern Albania, some 50 yards from his slightly dented SUV. Trebicka had recorded a tape (now available on YouTube) in which Diveroli said corruption in that country "went up... to the prime minister and his son."
Last week, Miami federal prosecutors retreated, allowing the return of $4.2 million of Diveroli's property — including a new Mercedes S550 — that had been confiscated. Perhaps even more significant, Diveroli is out on bail and a Miami Beach company he owns called Ammoworks might even now be selling ammunition to the American government. This fact has been largely overlooked by prosecutors and Congress.
Efraim Diveroli comes from a family that includes arms dealers and a celebrity holyman. An uncle, Shmuley Boteach, is a former reality-TV host on TLC, a friend of Oprah's and Michael Jackson's, and the best-selling author of Kosher Sex and Dating Secrets of the Ten Commandments.
Diveroli grew up in Miami Beach and went to work at age 16 for another uncle, Bar-Kochba Boteach, who ran an arms dealership in South Central Los Angeles.
Diveroli then moved to Miami and took a job with his dad's arms company, AEY Inc. Within a year, at age 19, he became president. Along with a childhood buddy and two-time college dropout named David Packouz (who moonlighted as a masseur), he accrued a litany of government contracts. In 2006, for instance, AEY shipped several million dollars' worth of clothing, weapons, and even firefighting equipment to government agencies, according to a website called fedspending.org.
Soon, AEY was placed on a U.S. blacklist. The firm was being investigated for "numerous violations of the Arms Export Control Act and contract fraud," according to a congressional report issued last year. In addition, it was accused of performing substandard work on at least 11 government contracts, which were ultimately withdrawn or terminated. According to the report: "Government contracting officials repeatedly warned of 'poor quality,' 'damaged goods,' 'junk' weapons, and other equipment in 'the reject category,' and they complained on several occasions that AEY was 'hurting the mission' and had 'endangered the performance' of government agencies."
Nevertheless, in January 2007, the firm won a blockbuster $300 million contract with the Defense Department to supply ammunition to Afghanistan for that nation's antiterrorism effort. AEY would provide the police and national army with the bulk of their bullets. Suddenly, the firm was the largest arms supplier to a key ally.
Diveroli found much of the ammo in Albanian arms dumps. Some of it dated back decades and came from China. Unfortunately, selling Chinese-made war material to the Pentagon is illegal because of a 1989 arms embargo. Diveroli emailed the State Department in 2007 to ask if he could ship Chinese ammo. When the reply was no, federal prosecutors charge, Diveroli removed the Chinese packaging and passed off the ammo as Hungarian.
Diveroli allegedly hired two of the men accused of mass murder at Gerdec to run the repackaging process at Tirana's Mother Teresa International Airport. The ammo, which was corroded and often unusable, was removed from sealed canisters and packaging marked "Made in China." It was then dumped into cardboard boxes and shipped to Afghanistan. Sometimes bullets spilled in transport.
Businessman Kosta Trebicka, who died in eastern Albania, was also involved in the operation. When Trebicka was fired, he blew the whistle on Diveroli and agreed to secretly record cell phone conversations.
In the tapes, Diveroli tells Trebicka to bribe one of the ammo repackagers. "Send one of your girls to fuck him," Diveroli says in a recording posted on YouTube and quoted by the New York Times. "If he gets $20,000 from you, I can live with this."
Then Trebicka alludes to the CIA. "Probably I will be invited in Washington, D.C., by the CIA guys and my friends over there," he says. "Two weeks from now, I will come to Florida to shake hands with you and discuss future deals." Not long after this, Trebicka turned up dead. The Albanian government ruled it a car accident, but skeptics question that finding.
March 2008 was disastrous for Diveroli. On the 27th, the Times, acting partly on Trebicka's leads, accused the company of supplying Chinese ammo to the Pentagon in violation of federal law. The next day, the U.S. government suspended AEY from further contracting work. In a letter announcing the suspension, Pentagon officials warned, "It is reasonable to believe that both Mr. Diveroli and AEY will seek to obtain similar work in the future, either directly or as a representative of another contractor."
This turned out to be prescient. On March 6, 2008 — three weeks before the Times story broke — Diveroli had registered Ammoworks in Florida. It was headquartered at an apartment in a gated community on Hayes Street in Hollywood. In April, an industry insider spotted him at an arms fair in Malaysia.
But in June, a federal grand jury in Miami indicted Diveroli, as well as Packouz and two other AEY associates, for fraud and conspiracy. Diveroli retained at least two government contracts for months after the indictment. "The contracts were for AK-47s and weapons repair parts," says Glenn Furbish, a senior audit manager for the Special Inspector General of Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR). The contract for weapons repair parts is noteworthy for another reason: AEY had attempted to buy parts through websites in China. (New Times found web postings partly in Mandarin seeking the armaments.)
SIGIR confirmed Diveroli has been paid $10 million for the two contracts. It seems that while he was under federal indictment, the federal government made him a multimillionaire.
This past September, Ammoworks moved to an office building on Michigan Avenue just north of Lincoln Road in Miami Beach. The firm wasn't listed in the registry downstairs, but its ninth-floor suite was spacious and sunlit, with a fitness ball for a chair. Though an employee there declined comment, the firm's website (ammoworks.net), which has since been scrubbed of most text, bragged about a fortune in government contracts: "Ammoworks has produced hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of firearms, ammo, and tactical gear among other things for our special forces in Iraq and Afghanistan."
In fact, Ammoworks might simply be a shell for AEY. Records show the Ammoworks website was bought and registered by AEY, and AEY's latest state filing lists Ammoworks' address on Michigan Avenue. In a brief interview, Diveroli acknowledged both companies are his. "Yes, I own Ammoworks, and I also own AEY," he said.
A salesman for Ammoworks, Boz Kramer, said in a phone interview that the firm is back-ordered in heavy-caliber Lithuanian .308 ammo, but that it can be obtained with a hefty minimum order of 28,000 rounds — or 140 "sealed military battle packs." According to its website, Ammoworks also sells AK-47 ammo "made in South Korea for a U.S. government contract."
Although Diveroli is awaiting trial and Ammoworks was placed on the blacklist, Kramer confirmed this past October the company was trying to sell indirectly. "We provide quotes to companies that are selling to the government," he said.
A U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity said, "It's often the case that a company will get suspended or debarred, and then the owners will form another company and start getting contracts through the new company."
Defense lawyers have asked U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard to throw out the case against Diveroli. The decision could come very soon.
Maybe Efraim Diveroli — the indicted 20-something, whom another unnamed official called a "ballsy little shit" — will use that well-worn stratagem to again sell arms for America's wars.
6 February 2009
By Penn Bullock
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/content/printVersion/1352598
Indicted Miami Beach weapons dealer Mr. Efraim Diveroli is still making millions of dollars from the U.S. government.
On March 15, 2008, a fireball shot into the midday sky over Albania's capital, Tirana. The blast echoed 100 miles away in Macedonia and Kosovo. Its force was comparable to that of a small nuclear weapon. But this wasn't atomic. It was an accident at an arms depot, where poor villagers had been hired to handle old ammunition and artillery shells. The explosion killed at least 26 people and injured hundreds. The village of Gerdec was obliterated.
Three men were arrested for mass murder in what local media dubbed "Albania's Hiroshima." Two of them were alleged accomplices to a 23-year-old Miami Beach-based arms dealer named Efraim Diveroli, who faces trial later this year on 83 counts of fraud and conspiracy for procuring Chinese-made ammo in Albania and selling it to the Pentagon.
The charges might be difficult to prove, though. A potential lead witness in the case, Kosta Trebicka, mysteriously died in September. His body was found bloodied and sprawled across a dirt road in eastern Albania, some 50 yards from his slightly dented SUV. Trebicka had recorded a tape (now available on YouTube) in which Diveroli said corruption in that country "went up... to the prime minister and his son."
Last week, Miami federal prosecutors retreated, allowing the return of $4.2 million of Diveroli's property — including a new Mercedes S550 — that had been confiscated. Perhaps even more significant, Diveroli is out on bail and a Miami Beach company he owns called Ammoworks might even now be selling ammunition to the American government. This fact has been largely overlooked by prosecutors and Congress.
Efraim Diveroli comes from a family that includes arms dealers and a celebrity holyman. An uncle, Shmuley Boteach, is a former reality-TV host on TLC, a friend of Oprah's and Michael Jackson's, and the best-selling author of Kosher Sex and Dating Secrets of the Ten Commandments.
Diveroli grew up in Miami Beach and went to work at age 16 for another uncle, Bar-Kochba Boteach, who ran an arms dealership in South Central Los Angeles.
Diveroli then moved to Miami and took a job with his dad's arms company, AEY Inc. Within a year, at age 19, he became president. Along with a childhood buddy and two-time college dropout named David Packouz (who moonlighted as a masseur), he accrued a litany of government contracts. In 2006, for instance, AEY shipped several million dollars' worth of clothing, weapons, and even firefighting equipment to government agencies, according to a website called fedspending.org.
Soon, AEY was placed on a U.S. blacklist. The firm was being investigated for "numerous violations of the Arms Export Control Act and contract fraud," according to a congressional report issued last year. In addition, it was accused of performing substandard work on at least 11 government contracts, which were ultimately withdrawn or terminated. According to the report: "Government contracting officials repeatedly warned of 'poor quality,' 'damaged goods,' 'junk' weapons, and other equipment in 'the reject category,' and they complained on several occasions that AEY was 'hurting the mission' and had 'endangered the performance' of government agencies."
Nevertheless, in January 2007, the firm won a blockbuster $300 million contract with the Defense Department to supply ammunition to Afghanistan for that nation's antiterrorism effort. AEY would provide the police and national army with the bulk of their bullets. Suddenly, the firm was the largest arms supplier to a key ally.
Diveroli found much of the ammo in Albanian arms dumps. Some of it dated back decades and came from China. Unfortunately, selling Chinese-made war material to the Pentagon is illegal because of a 1989 arms embargo. Diveroli emailed the State Department in 2007 to ask if he could ship Chinese ammo. When the reply was no, federal prosecutors charge, Diveroli removed the Chinese packaging and passed off the ammo as Hungarian.
Diveroli allegedly hired two of the men accused of mass murder at Gerdec to run the repackaging process at Tirana's Mother Teresa International Airport. The ammo, which was corroded and often unusable, was removed from sealed canisters and packaging marked "Made in China." It was then dumped into cardboard boxes and shipped to Afghanistan. Sometimes bullets spilled in transport.
Businessman Kosta Trebicka, who died in eastern Albania, was also involved in the operation. When Trebicka was fired, he blew the whistle on Diveroli and agreed to secretly record cell phone conversations.
In the tapes, Diveroli tells Trebicka to bribe one of the ammo repackagers. "Send one of your girls to fuck him," Diveroli says in a recording posted on YouTube and quoted by the New York Times. "If he gets $20,000 from you, I can live with this."
Then Trebicka alludes to the CIA. "Probably I will be invited in Washington, D.C., by the CIA guys and my friends over there," he says. "Two weeks from now, I will come to Florida to shake hands with you and discuss future deals." Not long after this, Trebicka turned up dead. The Albanian government ruled it a car accident, but skeptics question that finding.
March 2008 was disastrous for Diveroli. On the 27th, the Times, acting partly on Trebicka's leads, accused the company of supplying Chinese ammo to the Pentagon in violation of federal law. The next day, the U.S. government suspended AEY from further contracting work. In a letter announcing the suspension, Pentagon officials warned, "It is reasonable to believe that both Mr. Diveroli and AEY will seek to obtain similar work in the future, either directly or as a representative of another contractor."
This turned out to be prescient. On March 6, 2008 — three weeks before the Times story broke — Diveroli had registered Ammoworks in Florida. It was headquartered at an apartment in a gated community on Hayes Street in Hollywood. In April, an industry insider spotted him at an arms fair in Malaysia.
But in June, a federal grand jury in Miami indicted Diveroli, as well as Packouz and two other AEY associates, for fraud and conspiracy. Diveroli retained at least two government contracts for months after the indictment. "The contracts were for AK-47s and weapons repair parts," says Glenn Furbish, a senior audit manager for the Special Inspector General of Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR). The contract for weapons repair parts is noteworthy for another reason: AEY had attempted to buy parts through websites in China. (New Times found web postings partly in Mandarin seeking the armaments.)
SIGIR confirmed Diveroli has been paid $10 million for the two contracts. It seems that while he was under federal indictment, the federal government made him a multimillionaire.
This past September, Ammoworks moved to an office building on Michigan Avenue just north of Lincoln Road in Miami Beach. The firm wasn't listed in the registry downstairs, but its ninth-floor suite was spacious and sunlit, with a fitness ball for a chair. Though an employee there declined comment, the firm's website (ammoworks.net), which has since been scrubbed of most text, bragged about a fortune in government contracts: "Ammoworks has produced hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of firearms, ammo, and tactical gear among other things for our special forces in Iraq and Afghanistan."
In fact, Ammoworks might simply be a shell for AEY. Records show the Ammoworks website was bought and registered by AEY, and AEY's latest state filing lists Ammoworks' address on Michigan Avenue. In a brief interview, Diveroli acknowledged both companies are his. "Yes, I own Ammoworks, and I also own AEY," he said.
A salesman for Ammoworks, Boz Kramer, said in a phone interview that the firm is back-ordered in heavy-caliber Lithuanian .308 ammo, but that it can be obtained with a hefty minimum order of 28,000 rounds — or 140 "sealed military battle packs." According to its website, Ammoworks also sells AK-47 ammo "made in South Korea for a U.S. government contract."
Although Diveroli is awaiting trial and Ammoworks was placed on the blacklist, Kramer confirmed this past October the company was trying to sell indirectly. "We provide quotes to companies that are selling to the government," he said.
A U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity said, "It's often the case that a company will get suspended or debarred, and then the owners will form another company and start getting contracts through the new company."
Defense lawyers have asked U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard to throw out the case against Diveroli. The decision could come very soon.
Maybe Efraim Diveroli — the indicted 20-something, whom another unnamed official called a "ballsy little shit" — will use that well-worn stratagem to again sell arms for America's wars.
06 February, 2009
Kyrgyz closure of US base 'final.'
BBC News
6 February 2009
Kyrgyzstan says its decision to close a US base that serves as a vital supply route for US and Nato operations in Afghanistan is "final".
It contradicts US statements that talks are ongoing about the base's future.
Meanwhile, the US has asked to move supplies through Russia, and Tajikistan has said it will allow the transit of non-military goods into Afghanistan.
Nato is understood to be increasingly concerned about the security of its supply routes through Pakistan.
Most of its supplies come through Pakistan's Khyber Pass, which has come under increasing militant attacks.
Critical timing
"The decision has been made," said Kyrgyz government spokesman Aibek Sultangaziyev.
"The US embassy and the [Kyrgyz] foreign ministry are exchanging opinions on this, but there are no discussions on keeping the base."
Manas, just outside the capital Bishkek, is the only US base in Central Asia and is a vital transit point for Nato and US operations in Afghanistan - an hour-and-a-half's flight away.
The base is used to refuel Afghan-bound planes, and is the first point of stop for the majority of coalition troops on their way in and out of Afghanistan.
The closure announcement came after Russia promised Kyrgyzstan $2bn (£1.4bn) in aid. However, Kyrgyzstan says the moves are not linked.
Kyrgyz MPs will vote on the closure later this month.
Russia has long opposed the presence of American military forces in Central Asia, says the BBC's Richard Galpin in Moscow.
Russia says it has agreed to a request from the US to allow the transit of non-military Nato supplies across its soil, but says it is waiting for details of specific shipments before issuing permissions.
"The US embassy and the [Kyrgyz] foreign ministry are exchanging opinions on this, but there are no discussions on keeping the base"
Aibek Sultangaziyev
Kyrgyz government spokesman
US Kyrgyz base is pressure point
"As soon as that happens we will give the corresponding permission," said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, quoted by Russian media.
For the US, the base closure comes at a critical moment, as the new administration of President Barack Obama plans a sharp increase in the number of American troops in Afghanistan.
For Russia, on the other hand, its closure would be a significant diplomatic victory as it seeks to reassert its influence in all former Soviet republics and beyond, analysts say.
The Manas base was set up in 2001 to assist the US military operation against al-Qaeda and the Taleban in Afghanistan.
Under the lease agreement, the US must be given six months' notice to close its operations.
Meanwhile, diplomatic sources say that the US is close to a deal with Uzbekistan as part of back-up plan.
The US left its air base there following a dispute over human rights in 2005.
6 February 2009
Kyrgyzstan says its decision to close a US base that serves as a vital supply route for US and Nato operations in Afghanistan is "final".
It contradicts US statements that talks are ongoing about the base's future.
Meanwhile, the US has asked to move supplies through Russia, and Tajikistan has said it will allow the transit of non-military goods into Afghanistan.
Nato is understood to be increasingly concerned about the security of its supply routes through Pakistan.
Most of its supplies come through Pakistan's Khyber Pass, which has come under increasing militant attacks.
Critical timing
"The decision has been made," said Kyrgyz government spokesman Aibek Sultangaziyev.
"The US embassy and the [Kyrgyz] foreign ministry are exchanging opinions on this, but there are no discussions on keeping the base."
Manas, just outside the capital Bishkek, is the only US base in Central Asia and is a vital transit point for Nato and US operations in Afghanistan - an hour-and-a-half's flight away.
The base is used to refuel Afghan-bound planes, and is the first point of stop for the majority of coalition troops on their way in and out of Afghanistan.
The closure announcement came after Russia promised Kyrgyzstan $2bn (£1.4bn) in aid. However, Kyrgyzstan says the moves are not linked.
Kyrgyz MPs will vote on the closure later this month.
Russia has long opposed the presence of American military forces in Central Asia, says the BBC's Richard Galpin in Moscow.
Russia says it has agreed to a request from the US to allow the transit of non-military Nato supplies across its soil, but says it is waiting for details of specific shipments before issuing permissions.
"The US embassy and the [Kyrgyz] foreign ministry are exchanging opinions on this, but there are no discussions on keeping the base"
Aibek Sultangaziyev
Kyrgyz government spokesman
US Kyrgyz base is pressure point
"As soon as that happens we will give the corresponding permission," said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, quoted by Russian media.
For the US, the base closure comes at a critical moment, as the new administration of President Barack Obama plans a sharp increase in the number of American troops in Afghanistan.
For Russia, on the other hand, its closure would be a significant diplomatic victory as it seeks to reassert its influence in all former Soviet republics and beyond, analysts say.
The Manas base was set up in 2001 to assist the US military operation against al-Qaeda and the Taleban in Afghanistan.
Under the lease agreement, the US must be given six months' notice to close its operations.
Meanwhile, diplomatic sources say that the US is close to a deal with Uzbekistan as part of back-up plan.
The US left its air base there following a dispute over human rights in 2005.
05 February, 2009
Dr. Rugunda meets US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice.
The New Vision
4 February 2009
By Barbara Among
Uganda’s permanent representative to the UN, Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda, has held a private meeting with his US-counterpart Mrs. Susan Rice.
A press release from the foreign affairs ministry yesterday said Rice paid a courtesy call on Rugunda at the Uganda Mission in New York, over the weekend.
“They discussed various issues on the Security Council agenda and the progress being made to resolve and prevent conflict in Africa,” the statement read.
Rugunda reiterated Uganda’s commitment to contribute to the promotion of international peace and security.
Meanwhile, during Rugunda’s first sitting, the council considered the situation in the DR Congo.
4 February 2009
By Barbara Among
Uganda’s permanent representative to the UN, Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda, has held a private meeting with his US-counterpart Mrs. Susan Rice.
A press release from the foreign affairs ministry yesterday said Rice paid a courtesy call on Rugunda at the Uganda Mission in New York, over the weekend.
“They discussed various issues on the Security Council agenda and the progress being made to resolve and prevent conflict in Africa,” the statement read.
Rugunda reiterated Uganda’s commitment to contribute to the promotion of international peace and security.
Meanwhile, during Rugunda’s first sitting, the council considered the situation in the DR Congo.
Ethiopia frees opposition figure after 3 months of jail.
Sudan Tribune
5 February 2009
Ethiopian authorities have released an opposition leader from jail after three months over accusations of working with Oromo rebels.
The leading member of the opposition Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM), Bekele Jirate, is freed today on bail. The Ethiopian security services had detained him last November for working with the rebel Oromo Liberation Front (OLF).
OFDM leadership welcomed the move saying his release without charges proves he is innocent. "I am very happy because not only is he important for our party, he is innocent," OFDM leader Bulcha Demeksa told Reuters.
The rebel OLF is one of the main armed opposition groups in Ethiopia, the government says the Oromo rebels are backed by its foe Eritrea to destabilize the regime. Authorities also accuse them of plots to blast public building in the capital.
Since the 2005 elections, the opposition parties accuse the Ethiopian government of unlawful detention and oppression due to protests they organized against fraud in the parliamentary elections of 15 May 2005.
Further the OFDM accuses Zenawi’s government of intimidating its nominees for local elections and forcing them to pull out their candidatures as voters went to the polls last April for the first time since the 2005 bloodshed.
Last December, authorities re-arrested Bertukan Midekssa, the leader of the opposition Unity for Democracy and Justice party arguing she had give a delay to confirm that it had been released after plea for pardon she filed.
The ministry of justice said last month that Midekssa by her rejection didn’t make use of the opportunity to regret and so she failed to discharge her responsibility.
However Bulcha Demeksa, the OFDM leader, launched today a call for her release saying "She has been jailed because she is a very strong and serious contender to Prime Minister Meles."
5 February 2009
Ethiopian authorities have released an opposition leader from jail after three months over accusations of working with Oromo rebels.
The leading member of the opposition Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM), Bekele Jirate, is freed today on bail. The Ethiopian security services had detained him last November for working with the rebel Oromo Liberation Front (OLF).
OFDM leadership welcomed the move saying his release without charges proves he is innocent. "I am very happy because not only is he important for our party, he is innocent," OFDM leader Bulcha Demeksa told Reuters.
The rebel OLF is one of the main armed opposition groups in Ethiopia, the government says the Oromo rebels are backed by its foe Eritrea to destabilize the regime. Authorities also accuse them of plots to blast public building in the capital.
Since the 2005 elections, the opposition parties accuse the Ethiopian government of unlawful detention and oppression due to protests they organized against fraud in the parliamentary elections of 15 May 2005.
Further the OFDM accuses Zenawi’s government of intimidating its nominees for local elections and forcing them to pull out their candidatures as voters went to the polls last April for the first time since the 2005 bloodshed.
Last December, authorities re-arrested Bertukan Midekssa, the leader of the opposition Unity for Democracy and Justice party arguing she had give a delay to confirm that it had been released after plea for pardon she filed.
The ministry of justice said last month that Midekssa by her rejection didn’t make use of the opportunity to regret and so she failed to discharge her responsibility.
However Bulcha Demeksa, the OFDM leader, launched today a call for her release saying "She has been jailed because she is a very strong and serious contender to Prime Minister Meles."
Le PIDEP dénonce l'expulsion de 5 familles pygmées établies depuis 10 ans.
Radio Okapi
5 February 2009
L'association pour la défense des intérêts des peuples autochtones, PIDEP, (Programme d'intégration et de développement du peuple pygmée) souhaite que le Mwami de la chefferie Ntambuka, revienne sur sa décision. L'assistant chargé des programmes au PIDEP –Kivu, Dieudonné Akilimali, compte sur le concours de la coordination des mutuelles des Bami du Sud-Kivu, pour réhabiliter ces pygmées qui errent depuis 8 jours, rapporta radiookapi.net.
Dieudonné Akilimali explique : « Jadis, c’est le père de l’actuel prince en règne qui aurait attribué une concession à ces pygmées. Son successeur les a expulsés de ce terrain et leur a donné un autre terrain où ils habitaient. Actuellement il est venu les chasser de ce terrain sans résoudre le problème de leur protection et de leur survie. Ces familles passent la nuit à la belle étoile. Ce chef a même placé les éléments de la police sur ce sol pour empêcher les pygmées de fouler ce terrain. S’ils osent retourner, la police peut tirer sur eux ».
Le Mwami d'Idjwi-Sud Roger Ntambuka confirme avoir chassé ces pygmées, au motif qu'ils avaient occupé illégalement la concession royale. Ils se sont aussi livrés à l'abattage désordonné des arbres. Toutefois, il reconnaît le rôle traditionnel que les pygmées jouent à Idjwi-Sud, lors de l'intronisation du Mwami.
5 February 2009
L'association pour la défense des intérêts des peuples autochtones, PIDEP, (Programme d'intégration et de développement du peuple pygmée) souhaite que le Mwami de la chefferie Ntambuka, revienne sur sa décision. L'assistant chargé des programmes au PIDEP –Kivu, Dieudonné Akilimali, compte sur le concours de la coordination des mutuelles des Bami du Sud-Kivu, pour réhabiliter ces pygmées qui errent depuis 8 jours, rapporta radiookapi.net.
Dieudonné Akilimali explique : « Jadis, c’est le père de l’actuel prince en règne qui aurait attribué une concession à ces pygmées. Son successeur les a expulsés de ce terrain et leur a donné un autre terrain où ils habitaient. Actuellement il est venu les chasser de ce terrain sans résoudre le problème de leur protection et de leur survie. Ces familles passent la nuit à la belle étoile. Ce chef a même placé les éléments de la police sur ce sol pour empêcher les pygmées de fouler ce terrain. S’ils osent retourner, la police peut tirer sur eux ».
Le Mwami d'Idjwi-Sud Roger Ntambuka confirme avoir chassé ces pygmées, au motif qu'ils avaient occupé illégalement la concession royale. Ils se sont aussi livrés à l'abattage désordonné des arbres. Toutefois, il reconnaît le rôle traditionnel que les pygmées jouent à Idjwi-Sud, lors de l'intronisation du Mwami.
Raul Castro visits Angola.
SAPA
5 February 2009
Cuban President Raul Castro on Thursday kicked off a state visit to oil-rich Angola, a longtime ally of the Communist island, where he was due to hold talks with President Jose Eduardo dos Santos.
Angola's state press agency Angop reported that Castro, 77, who replaced his ailing brother Fidel Castro as president last year, was to receive the official welcome given heads of state at the presidential palace in Luanda.
Castro, 77, was due to give a speech at the official opening of talks with dos Santos, before later addressing an extraordinary session of the National Assembly.
He was also later scheduled to visit a cemetery in Luanda, to lay a wreath at the grave of a Cuban soldier who fought alongside Angola's ruling MPLA (People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola) during the country's 27-year civil war.
Tens of thousands of Cuban troops took up arms with the MPLA after independence from Portugal in 1975 against two rebel movements that were backed by South Africa and the United States.
The war ended in 2002, after rebel leader Jonas Savimbi died in a gun battle with government troops.
Castro is in Angola until Saturday, according to Angop. Dos Santos to host an official dinner Thursday evening in Castro's honour.
5 February 2009
Cuban President Raul Castro on Thursday kicked off a state visit to oil-rich Angola, a longtime ally of the Communist island, where he was due to hold talks with President Jose Eduardo dos Santos.
Angola's state press agency Angop reported that Castro, 77, who replaced his ailing brother Fidel Castro as president last year, was to receive the official welcome given heads of state at the presidential palace in Luanda.
Castro, 77, was due to give a speech at the official opening of talks with dos Santos, before later addressing an extraordinary session of the National Assembly.
He was also later scheduled to visit a cemetery in Luanda, to lay a wreath at the grave of a Cuban soldier who fought alongside Angola's ruling MPLA (People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola) during the country's 27-year civil war.
Tens of thousands of Cuban troops took up arms with the MPLA after independence from Portugal in 1975 against two rebel movements that were backed by South Africa and the United States.
The war ended in 2002, after rebel leader Jonas Savimbi died in a gun battle with government troops.
Castro is in Angola until Saturday, according to Angop. Dos Santos to host an official dinner Thursday evening in Castro's honour.
Kyrgyz parliament to decide on U.S. base closure next week.
RIA Novosti
5 February 2009
Kyrgyzstan's parliament could vote on the closure of a U.S. military base next week, a senior Kyrgyz lawmaker said on Thursday.
President Kurmanbek Bakiyev announced plans to close down the base in Manas, used to support NATO operations in nearby Afghanistan since 2001, after talks on Tuesday in Moscow, where he secured substantial financial aid from Russia.
Kyrgyz Prime Minister Igor Chudinov said on Thursday the decision to close the airbase was not connected with the deals under which Russia will write off Uzbekistan's $180 million debt and give the country a $2 billion discounted loan and $150 million in financial aid.
"There may be a coincidence, but the closure of the base is not connected with the Russian loan," he said, adding that the talks on the loan were initiated three years ago and both countries worked hard on the details of the issue.
The government submitted on Wednesday a bill for the parliamentary approval needed to proceed with the closure. The legislature is dominated by the pro-presidential Ak Zhol party.
"The chamber will consider canceling an agreement with the U.S. on the deployment of the airbase in the international airport Manas most likely no earlier than next week," said Kabai Karabekov, deputy head of the international relations committee.
He said the bill first had to be examined by related committees, which meet on Tuesday and Wednesday, before it could be put to a vote.
The United States would have 180 days to withdraw its 1,000 military personnel from the Manas base once the two countries exchange the relevant documentation should the bill pass.
The U.S. Embassy in Bishkek said Kyrgyzstan had so far provided no official documentation on the planned closure, and the base would operate as usual.
Russia, which also runs a military base in ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan, has also claimed that the base's potential closure is not linked to the loan, and has pledged to continue cooperation with Washington on Afghanistan even if the base is closed.
5 February 2009
Kyrgyzstan's parliament could vote on the closure of a U.S. military base next week, a senior Kyrgyz lawmaker said on Thursday.
President Kurmanbek Bakiyev announced plans to close down the base in Manas, used to support NATO operations in nearby Afghanistan since 2001, after talks on Tuesday in Moscow, where he secured substantial financial aid from Russia.
Kyrgyz Prime Minister Igor Chudinov said on Thursday the decision to close the airbase was not connected with the deals under which Russia will write off Uzbekistan's $180 million debt and give the country a $2 billion discounted loan and $150 million in financial aid.
"There may be a coincidence, but the closure of the base is not connected with the Russian loan," he said, adding that the talks on the loan were initiated three years ago and both countries worked hard on the details of the issue.
The government submitted on Wednesday a bill for the parliamentary approval needed to proceed with the closure. The legislature is dominated by the pro-presidential Ak Zhol party.
"The chamber will consider canceling an agreement with the U.S. on the deployment of the airbase in the international airport Manas most likely no earlier than next week," said Kabai Karabekov, deputy head of the international relations committee.
He said the bill first had to be examined by related committees, which meet on Tuesday and Wednesday, before it could be put to a vote.
The United States would have 180 days to withdraw its 1,000 military personnel from the Manas base once the two countries exchange the relevant documentation should the bill pass.
The U.S. Embassy in Bishkek said Kyrgyzstan had so far provided no official documentation on the planned closure, and the base would operate as usual.
Russia, which also runs a military base in ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan, has also claimed that the base's potential closure is not linked to the loan, and has pledged to continue cooperation with Washington on Afghanistan even if the base is closed.
NORTH KIVU: CNDP TRANSFORMS INTO POLITICAL PARTY.
MISNA
5 February 2009
Top officials of the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP, the armed movement headed by Laurent Nkunda protagonist in the past five years of all armed campaigns in the east Democratic Republic of Congo) in a statement yesterday evening announced their transformation into a political party in respect of the laws of the nation and recommended the resumption of Nairobi talks under United Nations mediation. The announcement comes after the removal of their historical leader and start of an unprecedented collaboration with the Congolese government. The statement also announced the nomination of Mr. Desiré Kamanzi as the leader of the movement and stresses the importance of continuing the Nairobi negotiations to define many aspects of accords with Kinshasa: from the integration of CNDP members into the national army, to political issues in the local administrations. The CNDP also recommended the creation of a ministry for Community Affairs and national reconciliation; in regard to coexistence among the various communities, the CNDP called for a national reconciliation conference.
5 February 2009
Top officials of the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP, the armed movement headed by Laurent Nkunda protagonist in the past five years of all armed campaigns in the east Democratic Republic of Congo) in a statement yesterday evening announced their transformation into a political party in respect of the laws of the nation and recommended the resumption of Nairobi talks under United Nations mediation. The announcement comes after the removal of their historical leader and start of an unprecedented collaboration with the Congolese government. The statement also announced the nomination of Mr. Desiré Kamanzi as the leader of the movement and stresses the importance of continuing the Nairobi negotiations to define many aspects of accords with Kinshasa: from the integration of CNDP members into the national army, to political issues in the local administrations. The CNDP also recommended the creation of a ministry for Community Affairs and national reconciliation; in regard to coexistence among the various communities, the CNDP called for a national reconciliation conference.
US First Lady Michelle Obama, Secretary of State Clinton to visit Liberia soon.
African Press Agency
5 February 2009
The United States First Lady, Michelle Obama, and the US Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, are expected in Liberia in March to attend the International Women Colloquium, sources confirmed to APA on Thursday.
The two top United States citizens are visiting Liberia upon the invitation of the organisers of the upcoming International Women Colloquium (7-8 March).
The Colloquium, slated to take place in the capital Monrovia, is being jointly organized by Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and the President of Finland, Mrs. Torja Halonen.
According to government sources, the U.S First Lady and Secretary of State will hold meetings with President Johnson Sirleaf, members of the National Legislature and women groups.
The Women’s Colloquium will bring together 800 leaders from around the world, and is expected to put Liberia on the international spotlight.
5 February 2009
The United States First Lady, Michelle Obama, and the US Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, are expected in Liberia in March to attend the International Women Colloquium, sources confirmed to APA on Thursday.
The two top United States citizens are visiting Liberia upon the invitation of the organisers of the upcoming International Women Colloquium (7-8 March).
The Colloquium, slated to take place in the capital Monrovia, is being jointly organized by Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and the President of Finland, Mrs. Torja Halonen.
According to government sources, the U.S First Lady and Secretary of State will hold meetings with President Johnson Sirleaf, members of the National Legislature and women groups.
The Women’s Colloquium will bring together 800 leaders from around the world, and is expected to put Liberia on the international spotlight.
US to continue talks in effort to keep Kyrgyz military base.
AP
4 February 2009
By LEILA SARALAYEVA
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (AP) — The U.S. Embassy in Kyrgyzstan said Wednesday that talks will continue on maintaining a key American air base in the country despite the Kyrgyz president's announcement that it will close.
The base in the former Soviet Central Asian country is an essential element of support for U.S. and international operations in Afghanistan.
Kyrgyzstan's president announced Tuesday that the country had decided the Manas base must close. He did not specify when the closure might take place.
But a U.S. Embassy statement Wednesday said the United States has received no formal notification of the decision.
"We have been in discussions with Kyrgyz authorities on the future of Manas air base. These discussions will continue," the statement said.
The announcement by Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev posed a serious challenge to the new U.S. administration and President Barack Obama's plan to send up to 30,000 more American forces into Afghanistan this year.
Some 75 percent of U.S. supplies to Afghanistan currently travel through Pakistan, but increasing attacks on transport depots and truck convoys there have raised doubts about Pakistan's ability to protect the vital route — and increased the necessity for alternative routes through Central Asia.
The main supply route through Pakistan was severed Tuesday when suspected militants set off a bomb that wrecked a bridge across a rocky gorge near the pass. On Wednesday, assailants torched 10 stranded trucks.
The Kyrgyz base, at the Manas airport near the capital, is an important air-mobility facility, home to tanker planes that refuel warplanes flying over Afghanistan. It also supports airlifts and medical evacuation operations and houses troops heading into and out of Afghanistan.
But Kyrgyz officials complained that the United States was underpaying the impoverished country for the base and public resentment spiked in 2006 when an American serviceman fatally shot a Kyrgyz truck driver during a security check at the base entrance.
Russia, although nominally supportive of the anti-terrorism campaign in Afghanistan, resented the U.S. military presence in a country it regards as part of its traditional sphere of influence. Russia established an air base in Kyrgyzstan about two years after the U.S. base went into operation.
Bakiyev's announcement in Moscow of the base closure came shortly after the announcement of $2.15 billion in Russian loans, investments and other aid to Kyrgyzstan.
Associated Press writers Peter Leonard in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and Jim Heintz in Moscow contributed to this report.
4 February 2009
By LEILA SARALAYEVA
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (AP) — The U.S. Embassy in Kyrgyzstan said Wednesday that talks will continue on maintaining a key American air base in the country despite the Kyrgyz president's announcement that it will close.
The base in the former Soviet Central Asian country is an essential element of support for U.S. and international operations in Afghanistan.
Kyrgyzstan's president announced Tuesday that the country had decided the Manas base must close. He did not specify when the closure might take place.
But a U.S. Embassy statement Wednesday said the United States has received no formal notification of the decision.
"We have been in discussions with Kyrgyz authorities on the future of Manas air base. These discussions will continue," the statement said.
The announcement by Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev posed a serious challenge to the new U.S. administration and President Barack Obama's plan to send up to 30,000 more American forces into Afghanistan this year.
Some 75 percent of U.S. supplies to Afghanistan currently travel through Pakistan, but increasing attacks on transport depots and truck convoys there have raised doubts about Pakistan's ability to protect the vital route — and increased the necessity for alternative routes through Central Asia.
The main supply route through Pakistan was severed Tuesday when suspected militants set off a bomb that wrecked a bridge across a rocky gorge near the pass. On Wednesday, assailants torched 10 stranded trucks.
The Kyrgyz base, at the Manas airport near the capital, is an important air-mobility facility, home to tanker planes that refuel warplanes flying over Afghanistan. It also supports airlifts and medical evacuation operations and houses troops heading into and out of Afghanistan.
But Kyrgyz officials complained that the United States was underpaying the impoverished country for the base and public resentment spiked in 2006 when an American serviceman fatally shot a Kyrgyz truck driver during a security check at the base entrance.
Russia, although nominally supportive of the anti-terrorism campaign in Afghanistan, resented the U.S. military presence in a country it regards as part of its traditional sphere of influence. Russia established an air base in Kyrgyzstan about two years after the U.S. base went into operation.
Bakiyev's announcement in Moscow of the base closure came shortly after the announcement of $2.15 billion in Russian loans, investments and other aid to Kyrgyzstan.
Associated Press writers Peter Leonard in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and Jim Heintz in Moscow contributed to this report.
NATO system to boost U.S. Sigonella presence.
Stars and Stripes
By Sandra Jontz
European edition
February 4, 2009
The U.S. Navy base in Sigonella will house NATO’s future air surveillance command and control system, which could boost the U.S. military presence on the Sicilian island by 800 troops, officials said.
The Air Ground Surveillance system, which has stirred up controversy among Italian politicians, is slated to be operational by 2012. It will consist of a fleet of eight U.S.-manufactured Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles and the accompanying assets to operate it, said Robert Pszczel, a NATO headquarters spokesman.
Sigonella has about 3,500 military, civilians and dependents.
NATO’s participating 26 nations collectively agreed to house the AGS at Sigonella. Originally, it was planned to be a combination of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles, but now will consist of only a fleet of the unmanned reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft, Pszczel said.
The addition of the AGS to the Naval Air Station Sigonella base will boost the number of military members and families, and means "the realization of new infrastructure and housing, and therefore breathing a fresh breath for the economy," Italian Minster of Defense Ignazio La Russa said on the ministry’s Web site.
The NATO surveillance project comes with a roughly 1 billion to 1.5 billion-euro price tag — with the Italian government responsible for footing 150 million euros of it, La Russa said.
The potential for violations of average citizens’ privacy, coupled with the expanding U.S. military footprint, drew the ire of a vocal opponent.
"It is dangerous and wrong to install at Sigonella one of the world’s most powerful air interception systems," Giusto Catania, a member of the European Parliament for North-West, and member of Italy’s Communist Refoundation Party, said in a statement. The system "will serve to spy aerially in all of the Mediterranean and countries of the Middle East. … Aircraft will survey electromagnetic waves, to include telephonic ones," Catania stated.
La Russa confirmed that though the AGS system will have the capability to capture telephone conversations, but said the technology is to be used solely for military intelligence purposes.
Sigonella strategically is positioned for the mission, La Russa said, and "will become more so the nerve center of security" for intelligence forces. "This not only will boost Italy’s role in NATO, but on a social level will create jobs with the increased military presence," he said.
By Sandra Jontz
European edition
February 4, 2009
The U.S. Navy base in Sigonella will house NATO’s future air surveillance command and control system, which could boost the U.S. military presence on the Sicilian island by 800 troops, officials said.
The Air Ground Surveillance system, which has stirred up controversy among Italian politicians, is slated to be operational by 2012. It will consist of a fleet of eight U.S.-manufactured Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles and the accompanying assets to operate it, said Robert Pszczel, a NATO headquarters spokesman.
Sigonella has about 3,500 military, civilians and dependents.
NATO’s participating 26 nations collectively agreed to house the AGS at Sigonella. Originally, it was planned to be a combination of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles, but now will consist of only a fleet of the unmanned reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft, Pszczel said.
The addition of the AGS to the Naval Air Station Sigonella base will boost the number of military members and families, and means "the realization of new infrastructure and housing, and therefore breathing a fresh breath for the economy," Italian Minster of Defense Ignazio La Russa said on the ministry’s Web site.
The NATO surveillance project comes with a roughly 1 billion to 1.5 billion-euro price tag — with the Italian government responsible for footing 150 million euros of it, La Russa said.
The potential for violations of average citizens’ privacy, coupled with the expanding U.S. military footprint, drew the ire of a vocal opponent.
"It is dangerous and wrong to install at Sigonella one of the world’s most powerful air interception systems," Giusto Catania, a member of the European Parliament for North-West, and member of Italy’s Communist Refoundation Party, said in a statement. The system "will serve to spy aerially in all of the Mediterranean and countries of the Middle East. … Aircraft will survey electromagnetic waves, to include telephonic ones," Catania stated.
La Russa confirmed that though the AGS system will have the capability to capture telephone conversations, but said the technology is to be used solely for military intelligence purposes.
Sigonella strategically is positioned for the mission, La Russa said, and "will become more so the nerve center of security" for intelligence forces. "This not only will boost Italy’s role in NATO, but on a social level will create jobs with the increased military presence," he said.
Congo Tutsi Rebels Request Immunity For Acts Done Under Nkunda.
AFP
4 February 2009
Dissident Tutsi rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo asked Kinshasa Tuesday to grant them immunity for acts carried out during the recent war in the country's eastern Nord-Kivu region.
Members of the National Congress for the Defense of the People, or CNDP, want guarantees they won't be prosecuted after their self-proclaimed leader Bosco Ntaganda declared the war with the Congolese army was over on Jan. 16.
In a statement, the CNDP called on the government "to introduce a law for an amnesty for insurrectional acts and acts of war."
Ntaganda replaced former rebel leader Laurent Nkunda, saying he had lost his authority over the rebel group.
He quickly put the CNDP militia "at the full disposal" of the Congolese army in their fight against Rwandan Hutu rebels, the Democratic Force for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).
4 February 2009
Dissident Tutsi rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo asked Kinshasa Tuesday to grant them immunity for acts carried out during the recent war in the country's eastern Nord-Kivu region.
Members of the National Congress for the Defense of the People, or CNDP, want guarantees they won't be prosecuted after their self-proclaimed leader Bosco Ntaganda declared the war with the Congolese army was over on Jan. 16.
In a statement, the CNDP called on the government "to introduce a law for an amnesty for insurrectional acts and acts of war."
Ntaganda replaced former rebel leader Laurent Nkunda, saying he had lost his authority over the rebel group.
He quickly put the CNDP militia "at the full disposal" of the Congolese army in their fight against Rwandan Hutu rebels, the Democratic Force for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).
The Real Authors of the Congo Crimes.
by Professor Peter Erlinder
2 February 2009
On January 24, Rwandan President Paul Kagame sent 4,000 troops into the Congo to arrest rebel “Tutsi”-warlord, Laurent Nkunda, and wipe-out the remaining “hutu-genocidaires” (FDLR/Interhamwe) lurking in the eastern Congo. As the New York Times reported in early December 2008, Nkunda is a former Rwandan Army (RPA) officer and many of his current troops also came from Rwanda, including child-soldiers recruited with Rwandan assistance.
The arrest was a surprise because Rwanda ’s military, and Kagame himself, had been supporting Nkunda’s “terror” in the eastern Congo for years. The Times later reported that Nkunda is not actually "imprisoned" in Rwanda, and that the real reason for the "arrest" may have been that he had become a political liability for Kagame. He simply knows too much about Rwandan crimes in the Congo and during the 1994 Rwandan "genocide" for Kagame to permit him to remain "on the loose."
And with good reason.
Over the past two years, many different sources have exposed the ongoing crimes of the Kagame government and its military, both before and after Kagame seized power in Rwanda in July 1994. Long a favorite of the Clinton and Bush administrations (U.S. diplomatic recognition was immediate, and U.S. military advisors were in Rwanda within days), Kagame's crimes are reaching huge proportions that require him, and his U.S. admirers, to do something to divert attention from Kagame's own responsiblity for Nkunda's crimes, as well as many, many others, committed over the past two-decades, including "genocide."
UN and Media Confirm: “Kagame is the Author of Massive Congo Crimes”
In addition to the Times article, in early December Kagame's Congo crimes were further documented in a December 12, 2008 UN Security Council-commissioned report that describes Rwanda ’s 12-year occupation of a huge part of the Congo 5-times larger than Rwanda , itself. The UN report, which was also widely reported by the international media, makes clear that the Kagame’s Rwandan-elites, and well-connected Ugandans in the north, are getting rich on the resources of the Congo , while killing more than 6-million Africans in the process.
More people are being killed in the Congo every 4-6 months than the 250,000 that have been killed in Darfur in the past 10-years, allegedly by a Sudanese government the U.S. opposes.
A fact that raises disturbing questions about why the international "human rights" community has been relatively quiet about the massive crimes in the Congo , by surrogates the U.S. supports.
But this is not really new information for anyone paying close attention to the tragedy unfolding in the Congo . According to Security Council reports in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2008; reports by third-world “raw-materials watchdog” Global Witness; and, even President Clinton’s former Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, Herman J. Cohen, (IHT December 13, 2008), Rwandan and Ugandan invasions of the Congo since 1996 have been fueled by the grab for Congo’s raw materials, and that neither Nkunda nor “hutu-militias” are the real reasons for the decades-long war, that again threatens to explode, in a repeat of the1998-2002 “First “World War of Africa.”
Kagame’s “About Face” on Nkunda: A Strategy for His Own Survival
The four UN reports, make clear that Rwanda has used the presence of Rwandan refugees in the Congo as justification for Rwanda ’s “resource grab.” Of the 2-million Rwandans who fled Kagame’s regime, only a small number could possibly have been involved in 1994 crimes and it is their sons and grandsons who are in the camps in the Congo , today. The arrest of Nkunda is yet another fig-leaf to cover the naked plunder that preceded Nkunda’s Congo adventure, and will go on after his "arrest", at least until Kagame of Rwanda and Museveni of Uganda, are compelled to withdraw from the Congo fields of “blood-diamonds,” “blood-casserite (tin)” and “blood-coltan (cellphones)” that have turned their respective capitals into international trading centers for mineral riches not found in either country….as UN reports over many years have described.
Kagame’s abrupt “about face” in supporting Nkunda does nothing to reduce Rwanda’s long-established resource grab-inspired military dominance of the eastern Congo, but does show that Kagame is being forced to change his tactics, to disguise Rwanda’s actual role in the creating and supporting violence wracking the African Great Lakes region. The most recent invasion to arrest Nkunda is a clever diversionary tactic. But, the UN report and Nkunda's “bad press” are not Mr. Kagame’s only problems of late.
Kagame’s Problems Deepen as Proof of His Own Crimes Grows
Following the December 2008 UN report, the Netherlands and Sweden cut-off all foreign aid to Rwanda , and others are considering doing so too. Other EU countries are taking their own actions as the true nature of the Kagame regime is being revealed. In early 2008, Spain indicted 40-leading members of Kagame’s government which followed a late 2006 French indictment charging Kagame and his followers with assassinating former Rwandan and Burundian presidents, the crime that triggered 1994 civilian-on-civilian killings in Rwanda.
The Spanish indictment details genocidal-style killings of more than 300,000 civilians by Kagame’s troops during, and after, the 1994 war. Before this indictment, the defendants in the dock at the ICTR had been blamed for all the mass-killings in Rwanda . But, because only the losing-side in the Rwanda war are in the dock, it is clear that the story of the “Rwanda-genocide” will have to be re-examined.
Particularly after it was revealed last year that U.S. Ambassador Pierre Prosper ordered ICTR prosecutor Carla Del Ponte to be removed from office, when she insisted on prosecuting Kagame for the assasination of the former president, the crime that touched-off the "Rwanda genocide" because U.S. policy was to protect Kagame, despite the evidence of his guilt.
In November 2008, Germany also arrested one of Kagame’s retinue under INTERPOL warrants based on the Spanish and French indictment. But, perhaps the least noticed, but potentially most important exposure of the manipulation of the " Rwanda genocide" story to “cover-up” the crimes of Kagame’s military and government occurred at the UN Tribunal for Rwanda in December 2008.
The UN Rwanda Tribunal December 2008:
“No Genocide Conspiracy or Planning”
On December 18, 2008, a three-judge panel in the Military-1 case at the UN tribunal acquitted the top four military officers of the former Rwandan government of charges of “conspiracy to commit genocide” and “genocide planning”…which completely rejects the whole “Rwanda-story” that has been told by the Kagame regime July 1994, as a way of explaining the massacres that occurred during the 100-assault to seize power that began with Kagame’s assassination of the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi on April 6, 1994.
Not only were the four officers acquitted of conspiracy and planning genocide, including “architect of the genocide” Col. Theoneste Bagosora, the highest ranking officer, General Gratien Kabiligi, was acquitted of all charges and was released from more than 10-years of custody. The three-judge panel in the Military-1 case was the first to in the history of the Tribunal to have been presented with long-suppressed UN and US government files that make clear that Kagame and his RPF were the aggressors and Kagame’s military-strategy actually prevented both sides from using troops to stop the massacres the assassination of the two presidents touched off.[2]
The recently revealed documents, and testimony at the UN Tribunal, confirm that massive civilian-on-civilian violence was predicted to erupt in Rwanda as a consequence of war, because of similar massacres that occurred in neighboring Burundi in late 1993, when the first popularly-elected Burundian president was assassinated by Kagame’s Burundi-military allies. In fact, in late 1993 the US ambassador to Rwanda personally warned Kagame that he would be responsible for the same kind of massive violence, if he resumed the war.
Now evidence ICTR evidence shows that Kagame not only resumed the war, but assassinated two presidents as the opening shot, triggering the same massive killings that had already happened in Burundi six months before.
Previously suppressed UN documents also show that two-weeks after he assassinated Rwandan President Habyarimana…along with a second Burundian president, Kagame told UN General Dallaire that he would not use his troops to stop the massacres because he was winning the war, and the civilian deaths were only “collateral damage for his their war-plan. The April 22, 1994 memo reporting this conversation is in the ICTR evidence.
Kagame also repeatedly refused a ceasefire, proposed by the former military to use troops to stop the massacres touched-off by Habyarimana’s assassination. Documents from the former government repeatedly asking for a ceasefire, and Kagame's rejections, are also in the ICTR record that the 3-judge panel had before it.
The Unraveling of U.S./UK-Assisted “Cover-up” of Kagame’s Crimes
But, the formerly suppressed documents also reveal that U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher knew of Kagame’s mass-crimes no later than Sept 17, 1994. Other documents confirm a U.S.-engineered “cover-up” of Kagame’s crimes has been going on since that time. UN documents confirm that the UN knew about mass civilian-killings by Kagame’s forces by May 17, 1994, at the latest.
The documents also establish that the UN prosecutor and former Canadian Supreme Court Justice, Louise Arbour, knew that Kagame had assassinated the former President in 1997, but refused to act despite the recommendation a former FBI agent; an Australian Queen's Prosecutor; and UN Gen. Dallaire's own Chief of Military Intelligence. First she refused to prosecute, then shut down the investigation team completely. All of this was merely prelude to Bush administration Ambassador Pierre Prosper removing Ms. Del Ponte from office in 2003, because of his usefulness to the U.S.
Now we know that, because Kagame's Rwanda crimes were covered-up by the U.S. in 1994, and because he was not prosecuted at the ICTR for the assassination of the previous president in 1997 (when Bagosora and other Military-1 defendants were arrested) he has been free to rape the Congo of its riches and to massacre millions. The thousands of pages of UN and U.S. government documents in ICTR evidence, and subsequent events in the Congo will require re-writing the entire story of the “ Rwanda genocide.”
IF Kagame was the “good-guy” in Rwanda (despite the ICTR evidence that the 100-days of hell that his assassination of Habyarimana triggered, and which he told Dallaire in April 1994 was all part of his war-plan), the 2001-08 UN-Security Council reports of Kagame’s crimes in the Congo show that he and his military must have done complete “about-face” of another kind, as soon as they took power in Rwanda in July 1994.
Kagame Has Found Nkunda Expendable – Will President Obama Continue U.S. Its “Kagame Impunity” Policy?
Mr. Nkunda must now appreciate the well-known risks of relying on a patron for one’s own power…the patron may no-longer have need of the client’s services. He has merely found himself in a situation similar to Panama ’s U.S.-sponsored dictator Manuel Noriega, whose arrest was used to justify the invasion of Panama by the Bush-1Administration, when Noriega outlived his Cold War usefulness.
And, this is not even the first time that Rwanda has invaded the Congo remove a “no-longer-useful” leader. In 1996, Congo ’s president for 30-plus “Cold War” years, Mobutu Sese Seko, was removed in a joint Rwanda/Uganda U.S. and U.K.-supported invasion, and replaced by Ugandan-client Joseph Kabila, once Mobutu's value as an anti-communist “bulwark” was outweighed by the public relations-downside of his well-known criminal rule.
At least Nkunda can be grateful that he didn’t meet the same fate as another leader who ran afoul of U.S. interests in the Congo in an earlier era. In 1961 Patrice Lumumba was assassinated, not arrested. Of course, if Nkunda begins to spill what he knows about Kagame's crimes in Rwanda and the Congo ...."accidents" can happen.
The most recent Rwandan invasion to throw Nkunda “under the bus” in an effort to shore-up Kagame’s image is actually an admission of the deep trouble in which Kagame finds himself, and the deep embarrassment he is becoming to his U.S. and U.K. patrons, who have protected him for over a decade. The December 2008 UN report; the European indictments; and, the formerly suppressed documents in ICTR evidence, taken together, raise the real possibility that the Obama administration may find that Mr. Kagame has also outlived his usefulness. When that day arrives, Paul Kagame’s name will be added to the long list of former U.S. clients who outlived their usefulness and paid the price, like Noriega and Mobutu, but also, lest we forget….Saddam Hussein.
THE ONLY MORAL U.S.-AFRICA POLICY: END SUPPORT FOR KAGAME
Cutting off all western aid to Rwanda, like the Dutch and the Swedes; arresting Kagame and his henchmen under existing INTERPOL warrants, like the Germans; and prosecuting Kagame at the UN Rwanda Tribunal, or the International Criminal Court, will save far more African lives than any “foreign-aid for Africa" program than President Obama or Secretary of State Clinton could possibly conceive. One difficulty, of course, is that the “cover-up” of Kagame’s 1994 crimes in Rwanda was initiated under her predecessor Warren Christopher….Bill Clinton 's Secretary of State. Which, in turn, raises difficult questions about Clinton ’s foreign policy in central Africa , as well.
If Mr. Kagame ever does find himself in the dock, after having been “Saddamized” by his former patrons, it will be very interesting to learn what he will have to say about his own crimes in the Congo and in Rwanda…and his "special relationship" with several US administrations that has assisted the “cover-up” of those crimes.…which, may have something to do with why the “Kagame Impunity” policy as continued this long..
On January 24, Rwandan President Paul Kagame sent 4,000 troops into the Congo to arrest rebel “tutsi”-warlord, Laurent Nkunda, and wipe-out the remaining “hutu-genocidaires” lurking in the eastern Congo. As the New York Times reported in early December 2008, Nkunda is a former Rwandan Army officer and many of his troops also came from Rwanda , including child-soldiers recruited with Rwandan assistance.
The arrest was a surprise because Rwanda ’s military and Kagame, himself, had been supporting Nkunda’s “terror” in the eastern Congo for years. The Times later reported that Nkunda is not actually imprisoned in Rwanda , and that the real reason for the "arrest" may have been that he had become a political liability for Kagame. He simply knows too much about Rwandan crimes in the Congo and during the 1994 Rwandan "genocide" for Kagame to permit him to remain "on the loose."
Prof. Peter Erlinder teaches at the Wm. Mitchell College of Law, St. Paul, MN
[1] Prof. of Law, Wm. Mitchell College of Law, St. Paul, MN; past-President, National Lawyers Guild, NY; President, ICTR-ADAD (Association des Avocats de la Defence), Arusha, TZ; Lead-counsel, ICTR-Military-1 Trial, Ntabakuze Defence. 651-290-6384/ peter.erlinder@wmitchell.edu
[2] In the interests of full disclosure: As Ntabakuze Lead Defence Counsel, these documents were unearthed and put into ICTR evidence for the first time by the author between 2005 and 2007.
2 February 2009
On January 24, Rwandan President Paul Kagame sent 4,000 troops into the Congo to arrest rebel “Tutsi”-warlord, Laurent Nkunda, and wipe-out the remaining “hutu-genocidaires” (FDLR/Interhamwe) lurking in the eastern Congo. As the New York Times reported in early December 2008, Nkunda is a former Rwandan Army (RPA) officer and many of his current troops also came from Rwanda, including child-soldiers recruited with Rwandan assistance.
The arrest was a surprise because Rwanda ’s military, and Kagame himself, had been supporting Nkunda’s “terror” in the eastern Congo for years. The Times later reported that Nkunda is not actually "imprisoned" in Rwanda, and that the real reason for the "arrest" may have been that he had become a political liability for Kagame. He simply knows too much about Rwandan crimes in the Congo and during the 1994 Rwandan "genocide" for Kagame to permit him to remain "on the loose."
And with good reason.
Over the past two years, many different sources have exposed the ongoing crimes of the Kagame government and its military, both before and after Kagame seized power in Rwanda in July 1994. Long a favorite of the Clinton and Bush administrations (U.S. diplomatic recognition was immediate, and U.S. military advisors were in Rwanda within days), Kagame's crimes are reaching huge proportions that require him, and his U.S. admirers, to do something to divert attention from Kagame's own responsiblity for Nkunda's crimes, as well as many, many others, committed over the past two-decades, including "genocide."
UN and Media Confirm: “Kagame is the Author of Massive Congo Crimes”
In addition to the Times article, in early December Kagame's Congo crimes were further documented in a December 12, 2008 UN Security Council-commissioned report that describes Rwanda ’s 12-year occupation of a huge part of the Congo 5-times larger than Rwanda , itself. The UN report, which was also widely reported by the international media, makes clear that the Kagame’s Rwandan-elites, and well-connected Ugandans in the north, are getting rich on the resources of the Congo , while killing more than 6-million Africans in the process.
More people are being killed in the Congo every 4-6 months than the 250,000 that have been killed in Darfur in the past 10-years, allegedly by a Sudanese government the U.S. opposes.
A fact that raises disturbing questions about why the international "human rights" community has been relatively quiet about the massive crimes in the Congo , by surrogates the U.S. supports.
But this is not really new information for anyone paying close attention to the tragedy unfolding in the Congo . According to Security Council reports in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2008; reports by third-world “raw-materials watchdog” Global Witness; and, even President Clinton’s former Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, Herman J. Cohen, (IHT December 13, 2008), Rwandan and Ugandan invasions of the Congo since 1996 have been fueled by the grab for Congo’s raw materials, and that neither Nkunda nor “hutu-militias” are the real reasons for the decades-long war, that again threatens to explode, in a repeat of the1998-2002 “First “World War of Africa.”
Kagame’s “About Face” on Nkunda: A Strategy for His Own Survival
The four UN reports, make clear that Rwanda has used the presence of Rwandan refugees in the Congo as justification for Rwanda ’s “resource grab.” Of the 2-million Rwandans who fled Kagame’s regime, only a small number could possibly have been involved in 1994 crimes and it is their sons and grandsons who are in the camps in the Congo , today. The arrest of Nkunda is yet another fig-leaf to cover the naked plunder that preceded Nkunda’s Congo adventure, and will go on after his "arrest", at least until Kagame of Rwanda and Museveni of Uganda, are compelled to withdraw from the Congo fields of “blood-diamonds,” “blood-casserite (tin)” and “blood-coltan (cellphones)” that have turned their respective capitals into international trading centers for mineral riches not found in either country….as UN reports over many years have described.
Kagame’s abrupt “about face” in supporting Nkunda does nothing to reduce Rwanda’s long-established resource grab-inspired military dominance of the eastern Congo, but does show that Kagame is being forced to change his tactics, to disguise Rwanda’s actual role in the creating and supporting violence wracking the African Great Lakes region. The most recent invasion to arrest Nkunda is a clever diversionary tactic. But, the UN report and Nkunda's “bad press” are not Mr. Kagame’s only problems of late.
Kagame’s Problems Deepen as Proof of His Own Crimes Grows
Following the December 2008 UN report, the Netherlands and Sweden cut-off all foreign aid to Rwanda , and others are considering doing so too. Other EU countries are taking their own actions as the true nature of the Kagame regime is being revealed. In early 2008, Spain indicted 40-leading members of Kagame’s government which followed a late 2006 French indictment charging Kagame and his followers with assassinating former Rwandan and Burundian presidents, the crime that triggered 1994 civilian-on-civilian killings in Rwanda.
The Spanish indictment details genocidal-style killings of more than 300,000 civilians by Kagame’s troops during, and after, the 1994 war. Before this indictment, the defendants in the dock at the ICTR had been blamed for all the mass-killings in Rwanda . But, because only the losing-side in the Rwanda war are in the dock, it is clear that the story of the “Rwanda-genocide” will have to be re-examined.
Particularly after it was revealed last year that U.S. Ambassador Pierre Prosper ordered ICTR prosecutor Carla Del Ponte to be removed from office, when she insisted on prosecuting Kagame for the assasination of the former president, the crime that touched-off the "Rwanda genocide" because U.S. policy was to protect Kagame, despite the evidence of his guilt.
In November 2008, Germany also arrested one of Kagame’s retinue under INTERPOL warrants based on the Spanish and French indictment. But, perhaps the least noticed, but potentially most important exposure of the manipulation of the " Rwanda genocide" story to “cover-up” the crimes of Kagame’s military and government occurred at the UN Tribunal for Rwanda in December 2008.
The UN Rwanda Tribunal December 2008:
“No Genocide Conspiracy or Planning”
On December 18, 2008, a three-judge panel in the Military-1 case at the UN tribunal acquitted the top four military officers of the former Rwandan government of charges of “conspiracy to commit genocide” and “genocide planning”…which completely rejects the whole “Rwanda-story” that has been told by the Kagame regime July 1994, as a way of explaining the massacres that occurred during the 100-assault to seize power that began with Kagame’s assassination of the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi on April 6, 1994.
Not only were the four officers acquitted of conspiracy and planning genocide, including “architect of the genocide” Col. Theoneste Bagosora, the highest ranking officer, General Gratien Kabiligi, was acquitted of all charges and was released from more than 10-years of custody. The three-judge panel in the Military-1 case was the first to in the history of the Tribunal to have been presented with long-suppressed UN and US government files that make clear that Kagame and his RPF were the aggressors and Kagame’s military-strategy actually prevented both sides from using troops to stop the massacres the assassination of the two presidents touched off.[2]
The recently revealed documents, and testimony at the UN Tribunal, confirm that massive civilian-on-civilian violence was predicted to erupt in Rwanda as a consequence of war, because of similar massacres that occurred in neighboring Burundi in late 1993, when the first popularly-elected Burundian president was assassinated by Kagame’s Burundi-military allies. In fact, in late 1993 the US ambassador to Rwanda personally warned Kagame that he would be responsible for the same kind of massive violence, if he resumed the war.
Now evidence ICTR evidence shows that Kagame not only resumed the war, but assassinated two presidents as the opening shot, triggering the same massive killings that had already happened in Burundi six months before.
Previously suppressed UN documents also show that two-weeks after he assassinated Rwandan President Habyarimana…along with a second Burundian president, Kagame told UN General Dallaire that he would not use his troops to stop the massacres because he was winning the war, and the civilian deaths were only “collateral damage for his their war-plan. The April 22, 1994 memo reporting this conversation is in the ICTR evidence.
Kagame also repeatedly refused a ceasefire, proposed by the former military to use troops to stop the massacres touched-off by Habyarimana’s assassination. Documents from the former government repeatedly asking for a ceasefire, and Kagame's rejections, are also in the ICTR record that the 3-judge panel had before it.
The Unraveling of U.S./UK-Assisted “Cover-up” of Kagame’s Crimes
But, the formerly suppressed documents also reveal that U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher knew of Kagame’s mass-crimes no later than Sept 17, 1994. Other documents confirm a U.S.-engineered “cover-up” of Kagame’s crimes has been going on since that time. UN documents confirm that the UN knew about mass civilian-killings by Kagame’s forces by May 17, 1994, at the latest.
The documents also establish that the UN prosecutor and former Canadian Supreme Court Justice, Louise Arbour, knew that Kagame had assassinated the former President in 1997, but refused to act despite the recommendation a former FBI agent; an Australian Queen's Prosecutor; and UN Gen. Dallaire's own Chief of Military Intelligence. First she refused to prosecute, then shut down the investigation team completely. All of this was merely prelude to Bush administration Ambassador Pierre Prosper removing Ms. Del Ponte from office in 2003, because of his usefulness to the U.S.
Now we know that, because Kagame's Rwanda crimes were covered-up by the U.S. in 1994, and because he was not prosecuted at the ICTR for the assassination of the previous president in 1997 (when Bagosora and other Military-1 defendants were arrested) he has been free to rape the Congo of its riches and to massacre millions. The thousands of pages of UN and U.S. government documents in ICTR evidence, and subsequent events in the Congo will require re-writing the entire story of the “ Rwanda genocide.”
IF Kagame was the “good-guy” in Rwanda (despite the ICTR evidence that the 100-days of hell that his assassination of Habyarimana triggered, and which he told Dallaire in April 1994 was all part of his war-plan), the 2001-08 UN-Security Council reports of Kagame’s crimes in the Congo show that he and his military must have done complete “about-face” of another kind, as soon as they took power in Rwanda in July 1994.
Kagame Has Found Nkunda Expendable – Will President Obama Continue U.S. Its “Kagame Impunity” Policy?
Mr. Nkunda must now appreciate the well-known risks of relying on a patron for one’s own power…the patron may no-longer have need of the client’s services. He has merely found himself in a situation similar to Panama ’s U.S.-sponsored dictator Manuel Noriega, whose arrest was used to justify the invasion of Panama by the Bush-1Administration, when Noriega outlived his Cold War usefulness.
And, this is not even the first time that Rwanda has invaded the Congo remove a “no-longer-useful” leader. In 1996, Congo ’s president for 30-plus “Cold War” years, Mobutu Sese Seko, was removed in a joint Rwanda/Uganda U.S. and U.K.-supported invasion, and replaced by Ugandan-client Joseph Kabila, once Mobutu's value as an anti-communist “bulwark” was outweighed by the public relations-downside of his well-known criminal rule.
At least Nkunda can be grateful that he didn’t meet the same fate as another leader who ran afoul of U.S. interests in the Congo in an earlier era. In 1961 Patrice Lumumba was assassinated, not arrested. Of course, if Nkunda begins to spill what he knows about Kagame's crimes in Rwanda and the Congo ...."accidents" can happen.
The most recent Rwandan invasion to throw Nkunda “under the bus” in an effort to shore-up Kagame’s image is actually an admission of the deep trouble in which Kagame finds himself, and the deep embarrassment he is becoming to his U.S. and U.K. patrons, who have protected him for over a decade. The December 2008 UN report; the European indictments; and, the formerly suppressed documents in ICTR evidence, taken together, raise the real possibility that the Obama administration may find that Mr. Kagame has also outlived his usefulness. When that day arrives, Paul Kagame’s name will be added to the long list of former U.S. clients who outlived their usefulness and paid the price, like Noriega and Mobutu, but also, lest we forget….Saddam Hussein.
THE ONLY MORAL U.S.-AFRICA POLICY: END SUPPORT FOR KAGAME
Cutting off all western aid to Rwanda, like the Dutch and the Swedes; arresting Kagame and his henchmen under existing INTERPOL warrants, like the Germans; and prosecuting Kagame at the UN Rwanda Tribunal, or the International Criminal Court, will save far more African lives than any “foreign-aid for Africa" program than President Obama or Secretary of State Clinton could possibly conceive. One difficulty, of course, is that the “cover-up” of Kagame’s 1994 crimes in Rwanda was initiated under her predecessor Warren Christopher….Bill Clinton 's Secretary of State. Which, in turn, raises difficult questions about Clinton ’s foreign policy in central Africa , as well.
If Mr. Kagame ever does find himself in the dock, after having been “Saddamized” by his former patrons, it will be very interesting to learn what he will have to say about his own crimes in the Congo and in Rwanda…and his "special relationship" with several US administrations that has assisted the “cover-up” of those crimes.…which, may have something to do with why the “Kagame Impunity” policy as continued this long..
On January 24, Rwandan President Paul Kagame sent 4,000 troops into the Congo to arrest rebel “tutsi”-warlord, Laurent Nkunda, and wipe-out the remaining “hutu-genocidaires” lurking in the eastern Congo. As the New York Times reported in early December 2008, Nkunda is a former Rwandan Army officer and many of his troops also came from Rwanda , including child-soldiers recruited with Rwandan assistance.
The arrest was a surprise because Rwanda ’s military and Kagame, himself, had been supporting Nkunda’s “terror” in the eastern Congo for years. The Times later reported that Nkunda is not actually imprisoned in Rwanda , and that the real reason for the "arrest" may have been that he had become a political liability for Kagame. He simply knows too much about Rwandan crimes in the Congo and during the 1994 Rwandan "genocide" for Kagame to permit him to remain "on the loose."
Prof. Peter Erlinder teaches at the Wm. Mitchell College of Law, St. Paul, MN
[1] Prof. of Law, Wm. Mitchell College of Law, St. Paul, MN; past-President, National Lawyers Guild, NY; President, ICTR-ADAD (Association des Avocats de la Defence), Arusha, TZ; Lead-counsel, ICTR-Military-1 Trial, Ntabakuze Defence. 651-290-6384/ peter.erlinder@wmitchell.edu
[2] In the interests of full disclosure: As Ntabakuze Lead Defence Counsel, these documents were unearthed and put into ICTR evidence for the first time by the author between 2005 and 2007.
Can Rwandan President Kagame be held Responsible at the ICTR for the Killing of President Habyarimana?
Journal of International Criminal Justice 2008 6(5):981-994; doi:10.1093/jicj/mqn068
By Peter Robinson* and Golriz Ghahraman**
* Peter Robinson has served as lead counsel for Joseph Nzirorera, former President of the Rwanda National Assembly, at the ICTR since 2002. He has also worked on the defence of General Dragoljub Ojdanic, former Chief of Staff of the Yugoslavian Army, Radislav Krsti, former Commander of the Drina Corps of the Bosnian Serb Army, and Radovan Karadzi, former President of the Bosnian Serb Republic, at the ICTY. He is the author of a novel, The Tribunal. [peter@peterrobinson.com]
** Golriz Ghahraman has practised law as a criminal barrister in Auckland, New Zealand since 2004. She worked as an intern for the defence team of Joseph Nzirorera from June to August 2008. [golriz.ghahraman@kellogg.ox.ac.uk]
http://jicj.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/mqn068?ijkey=MSJBvYQEFoWOnrt&keytype=ref
or
http://jicj.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/6/5/981?ijkey=MSJBvYQEFoWOnrt&keytype=ref
By Peter Robinson* and Golriz Ghahraman**
* Peter Robinson has served as lead counsel for Joseph Nzirorera, former President of the Rwanda National Assembly, at the ICTR since 2002. He has also worked on the defence of General Dragoljub Ojdanic, former Chief of Staff of the Yugoslavian Army, Radislav Krsti, former Commander of the Drina Corps of the Bosnian Serb Army, and Radovan Karadzi, former President of the Bosnian Serb Republic, at the ICTY. He is the author of a novel, The Tribunal. [peter@peterrobinson.com]
** Golriz Ghahraman has practised law as a criminal barrister in Auckland, New Zealand since 2004. She worked as an intern for the defence team of Joseph Nzirorera from June to August 2008. [golriz.ghahraman@kellogg.ox.ac.uk]
http://jicj.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/mqn068?ijkey=MSJBvYQEFoWOnrt&keytype=ref
or
http://jicj.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/6/5/981?ijkey=MSJBvYQEFoWOnrt&keytype=ref
ARMY REJECTS TOUAREG CEASEFIRE REQUESTS.
MISNA
3 February 2009
The Malian army has rejected a ceasefire proposal from the Touareg rebels led by Ibrahim Ag Bahanga said the ministry of defense, a day after the head of the armed forces, general Gabriel Poudiougou, visited the stronghold of the Touareg rebellion, Kidal. “We shall continue the armed offensive in the north against anti-democratic and armed groups” said the sources from the defense ministry in response to a communiqué from Hama Sidi Ahmed, a spokesman for the Ag Bahanga movement, which proposed a suspension of hostilities. The government said that 31 rebels have been killed in combat in the northern areas of Gao and Kidal, which began in the first half of January; another Touareg group, the Alliance for democracy and change (ADC) confirmed their desire to resume peace talks with the government along the lines of the 2006 Algiers accords, which established that the rebels would no longer claim an autonomous state in the north in exchange for the government’s commitment to act quickly to develop the three regions of Kidal, Gao and Timubktu; the accord was rejected by followers of the Touareg rebel group led by Ibrahim Ag Bahanga, a Touareg dissident rebel un who has been active in the mountain area close to Algeria.
3 February 2009
The Malian army has rejected a ceasefire proposal from the Touareg rebels led by Ibrahim Ag Bahanga said the ministry of defense, a day after the head of the armed forces, general Gabriel Poudiougou, visited the stronghold of the Touareg rebellion, Kidal. “We shall continue the armed offensive in the north against anti-democratic and armed groups” said the sources from the defense ministry in response to a communiqué from Hama Sidi Ahmed, a spokesman for the Ag Bahanga movement, which proposed a suspension of hostilities. The government said that 31 rebels have been killed in combat in the northern areas of Gao and Kidal, which began in the first half of January; another Touareg group, the Alliance for democracy and change (ADC) confirmed their desire to resume peace talks with the government along the lines of the 2006 Algiers accords, which established that the rebels would no longer claim an autonomous state in the north in exchange for the government’s commitment to act quickly to develop the three regions of Kidal, Gao and Timubktu; the accord was rejected by followers of the Touareg rebel group led by Ibrahim Ag Bahanga, a Touareg dissident rebel un who has been active in the mountain area close to Algeria.
04 February, 2009
France’s Kouchner Mixed Business, Politics, Author Pierre Pean Alleges
Bloomberg
4 February 2009
By Gregory Viscusi
Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) -- French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner used official positions to further his business ventures in Africa, according to a book published today.
“Le Monde Selon K.,” or “The World According to K.,” by journalist Pierre Pean, said consulting companies that employed Kouchner earned 4.6 million euros ($6 million) between 2004 and 2007 from advising Gabon and the Republic of Congo on their state health systems.
There were no conflicts of interest, Kouchner said in an interview with Le Nouvel Observateur that was posted on the news magazine’s Web site today. Kouchner’s office, asked for a reaction by Bloomberg News, did not immediately return calls.
Though he was not a minister when the contracts were signed, Kouchner was carrying out health care-related missions on behalf of the French government, Pean wrote. Twice during 2007, Kouchner met with Gabon President Omar Bongo in Paris to pressure him to pay arrears for consulting work, the second time in May, a month before he became foreign minister, Pean said.
“I’ve always acted with legality and transparency, declared my revenue, and paid my taxes,” Kouchner told the Nouvel Observateur. “Is there anything shocking that a former health minister, who over the years did dozens of humanitarian missions without earning a cent, writes reports allowing African countries to improve their health systems?”
Kouchner’s Response
Kouchner said he earned “a bit less” than 6,000 euros ($7,779) a month during the three years he worked as a consultant, below, he said, what was paid to World Bank or World Health Organization consultants doing similar work. He said he stopped all outside activities when he became foreign minister and that his last meeting with Bongo was to tell him he could no longer consult for the oil-producing country.
Kouchner, 69, who had been a member of the opposition Socialist Party, joined the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy after his May 2007 election.
Kouchner was a founder of the medical aid group “Doctors Without Borders,” spurred by his experience as a Red Cross doctor in Nigeria during the 1967-70 Biafran War. The group was awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 1999.
He served as health minister in 1992 under Socialist President Francois Mitterrand. From 1999 to 2001, he ran the United Nations’ administration in Kosovo after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization had ended Serbian rule over the province.
Pean has written some 20 investigative or historical books. One best-selling work, which appeared while Mitterrand was still president, revealed the Socialist’s links to the World War II Vichy regime that collaborated with the Nazis.
In his latest book, Pean said Kouchner backed the U.S. invasion of Iraq, didn’t do enough to stop ethnic Albanians killing Serbians in Kosovo, and helped protect Rwandan President Paul Kagame from accusations that he’d helped kill his predecessor. Kouchner denied all those points in the Nouvel Observateur interview.
4 February 2009
By Gregory Viscusi
Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) -- French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner used official positions to further his business ventures in Africa, according to a book published today.
“Le Monde Selon K.,” or “The World According to K.,” by journalist Pierre Pean, said consulting companies that employed Kouchner earned 4.6 million euros ($6 million) between 2004 and 2007 from advising Gabon and the Republic of Congo on their state health systems.
There were no conflicts of interest, Kouchner said in an interview with Le Nouvel Observateur that was posted on the news magazine’s Web site today. Kouchner’s office, asked for a reaction by Bloomberg News, did not immediately return calls.
Though he was not a minister when the contracts were signed, Kouchner was carrying out health care-related missions on behalf of the French government, Pean wrote. Twice during 2007, Kouchner met with Gabon President Omar Bongo in Paris to pressure him to pay arrears for consulting work, the second time in May, a month before he became foreign minister, Pean said.
“I’ve always acted with legality and transparency, declared my revenue, and paid my taxes,” Kouchner told the Nouvel Observateur. “Is there anything shocking that a former health minister, who over the years did dozens of humanitarian missions without earning a cent, writes reports allowing African countries to improve their health systems?”
Kouchner’s Response
Kouchner said he earned “a bit less” than 6,000 euros ($7,779) a month during the three years he worked as a consultant, below, he said, what was paid to World Bank or World Health Organization consultants doing similar work. He said he stopped all outside activities when he became foreign minister and that his last meeting with Bongo was to tell him he could no longer consult for the oil-producing country.
Kouchner, 69, who had been a member of the opposition Socialist Party, joined the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy after his May 2007 election.
Kouchner was a founder of the medical aid group “Doctors Without Borders,” spurred by his experience as a Red Cross doctor in Nigeria during the 1967-70 Biafran War. The group was awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 1999.
He served as health minister in 1992 under Socialist President Francois Mitterrand. From 1999 to 2001, he ran the United Nations’ administration in Kosovo after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization had ended Serbian rule over the province.
Pean has written some 20 investigative or historical books. One best-selling work, which appeared while Mitterrand was still president, revealed the Socialist’s links to the World War II Vichy regime that collaborated with the Nazis.
In his latest book, Pean said Kouchner backed the U.S. invasion of Iraq, didn’t do enough to stop ethnic Albanians killing Serbians in Kosovo, and helped protect Rwandan President Paul Kagame from accusations that he’d helped kill his predecessor. Kouchner denied all those points in the Nouvel Observateur interview.
Kouchner Rejects Author’s Claims He Mixed Business, Politics.
Bloomberg
4 February 2009
By Gregory Viscusi
Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) -- French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner rejected allegations published today that he used official positions to further his business ventures in Africa, calling the book “one-sided” and without foundation.
“I never used my ministerial posts in Gabon or elsewhere, I never mixed my roles,” Kouchner told the French Parliament, adding his work was “fully transparent and legal,” and that he paid his taxes in France.
Journalist Pierre Pean, in his book “Le Monde Selon K.,” or “The World According to K.,” said consulting companies that employed Kouchner earned 4.6 million euros ($6 million) between 2004 and 2007 from advising Gabon and the Republic of Congo on their state health systems. Though he was not a minister when the contracts were signed, Kouchner was carrying out health care- related missions on behalf of the French government, Pean wrote.
France’s Prime Minister Francois Fillon said in a statement he had confidence in Kouchner and that “nothing justifies that the reputation of a man be so sullied by mere allegations.”
Kouchner’s office, asked for a reaction by Bloomberg News, didn’t immediately return calls.
Pean alleged that Kouchner met with Gabon President Omar Bongo in Paris twice during 2007 to pressure him to pay arrears for consulting work. The second meeting was in May of that year, a month before Kouchner became foreign minister, he wrote.
Public Health
Kouchner told Parliament that, when out of the government, he’d “worked as an expert in numerous countries, including European and African countries, to help develop public health.”
In an interview to be published in magazine Le Nouvel Observateur tomorrow, Kouchner said he earned “a bit less” than 6,000 euros a month during the three years he worked as a consultant. That was below what was paid to World Bank or World Health Organization consultants doing similar work, he said.
Kouchner said he stopped all outside activities when he became foreign minister and that his last meeting with Bongo was to tell him he could no longer consult for the oil-producing country.
Kouchner, 69, who had been a member of the opposition Socialist Party, joined the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy after the May 2007 election.
Nobel Peace Prize
Kouchner was a founder of the medical aid group “Doctors Without Borders,” spurred by his experience as a Red Cross doctor in Nigeria during the 1967-70 Biafran War. The group was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999.
He served as health minister in 1992 under Socialist President Francois Mitterrand. From 1999 to 2001, he ran the United Nations’ administration in Kosovo after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization had ended Serbian rule over the province.
Pean has written some 20 investigative or historical books. One best-selling work, which appeared while Mitterrand was still president, revealed the Socialist’s links to the World War II Vichy regime that collaborated with the Nazis.
In his latest book, Pean said Kouchner backed the U.S. invasion of Iraq, didn’t do enough to stop ethnic Albanians killing Serbians in Kosovo, and helped protect Rwandan President Paul Kagame from accusations that he’d helped kill his predecessor. Kouchner denied all those points in the Nouvel Observateur interview, which was posted on the news magazine’s Web site today.
4 February 2009
By Gregory Viscusi
Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) -- French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner rejected allegations published today that he used official positions to further his business ventures in Africa, calling the book “one-sided” and without foundation.
“I never used my ministerial posts in Gabon or elsewhere, I never mixed my roles,” Kouchner told the French Parliament, adding his work was “fully transparent and legal,” and that he paid his taxes in France.
Journalist Pierre Pean, in his book “Le Monde Selon K.,” or “The World According to K.,” said consulting companies that employed Kouchner earned 4.6 million euros ($6 million) between 2004 and 2007 from advising Gabon and the Republic of Congo on their state health systems. Though he was not a minister when the contracts were signed, Kouchner was carrying out health care- related missions on behalf of the French government, Pean wrote.
France’s Prime Minister Francois Fillon said in a statement he had confidence in Kouchner and that “nothing justifies that the reputation of a man be so sullied by mere allegations.”
Kouchner’s office, asked for a reaction by Bloomberg News, didn’t immediately return calls.
Pean alleged that Kouchner met with Gabon President Omar Bongo in Paris twice during 2007 to pressure him to pay arrears for consulting work. The second meeting was in May of that year, a month before Kouchner became foreign minister, he wrote.
Public Health
Kouchner told Parliament that, when out of the government, he’d “worked as an expert in numerous countries, including European and African countries, to help develop public health.”
In an interview to be published in magazine Le Nouvel Observateur tomorrow, Kouchner said he earned “a bit less” than 6,000 euros a month during the three years he worked as a consultant. That was below what was paid to World Bank or World Health Organization consultants doing similar work, he said.
Kouchner said he stopped all outside activities when he became foreign minister and that his last meeting with Bongo was to tell him he could no longer consult for the oil-producing country.
Kouchner, 69, who had been a member of the opposition Socialist Party, joined the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy after the May 2007 election.
Nobel Peace Prize
Kouchner was a founder of the medical aid group “Doctors Without Borders,” spurred by his experience as a Red Cross doctor in Nigeria during the 1967-70 Biafran War. The group was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999.
He served as health minister in 1992 under Socialist President Francois Mitterrand. From 1999 to 2001, he ran the United Nations’ administration in Kosovo after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization had ended Serbian rule over the province.
Pean has written some 20 investigative or historical books. One best-selling work, which appeared while Mitterrand was still president, revealed the Socialist’s links to the World War II Vichy regime that collaborated with the Nazis.
In his latest book, Pean said Kouchner backed the U.S. invasion of Iraq, didn’t do enough to stop ethnic Albanians killing Serbians in Kosovo, and helped protect Rwandan President Paul Kagame from accusations that he’d helped kill his predecessor. Kouchner denied all those points in the Nouvel Observateur interview, which was posted on the news magazine’s Web site today.
03 February, 2009
France's Kouchner to meet with Hillary Clinton.
AP
3 February 2009
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner will travel to Washington later this week for his first meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the French Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.
Thursdays meeting with Clinton will come two days after she holds talks with the U.K. and German foreign ministers on Afghanistan and Iran.
"This first working visit is taking place within the context of the new trans- Atlantic relationship that we are hoping for," said French Foreign Ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier.
Kouchner and Clinton will discuss "major global challenges and major international issues, in particular in the Middle East, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Darfur and the DR Congo," he said.
Clinton, who took office Jan. 21, was to meet U.K. Foreign Secretary David Miliband and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier separately on Tuesday to seek support on Iran and Afghanistan.
"I expect these will be very, very substantive meetings," said a U.S. State Department spokesman.
3 February 2009
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner will travel to Washington later this week for his first meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the French Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.
Thursdays meeting with Clinton will come two days after she holds talks with the U.K. and German foreign ministers on Afghanistan and Iran.
"This first working visit is taking place within the context of the new trans- Atlantic relationship that we are hoping for," said French Foreign Ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier.
Kouchner and Clinton will discuss "major global challenges and major international issues, in particular in the Middle East, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Darfur and the DR Congo," he said.
Clinton, who took office Jan. 21, was to meet U.K. Foreign Secretary David Miliband and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier separately on Tuesday to seek support on Iran and Afghanistan.
"I expect these will be very, very substantive meetings," said a U.S. State Department spokesman.
Ivorian rebels killed in feud.
Reuters
3 February 2009
By Loucoumane Coulibaly
Abidjan - Three Ivorian rebels were killed in battles late on Sunday between factions of the force still controlling much of the north of the world's top cocoa grower, witnesses in the northwestern town of Man said on Tuesday.
The clash is the latest within the ranks of the New Forces (FN) rebels, who have controlled northern Ivory Coast since a 2002-2003 war but have signed up to peace deals meant to enable long-delayed elections in the former regional powerhouse.
Citing progress towards peace despite the poll delays, which are blamed on the failure to disarm rebels as well as a slow registration process, the United Nations and former colonial power France are both reducing their peacekeeping forces there.
The UN mission is due to slash over 700 soldiers from its 8 000 strong force. France's 1,800 man mission, known as Licorne (Unicorn) and tasked with helping the United Nations and protecting French citizens, will be cut in half this summer.
"The clashes took place on Sunday night. Three of the attackers died and there was one wounded on our side," Lacine Mara, spokesperson for the FN commander in Man, said on Tuesday.
"These are people who are against the peace process and wanted to carry out subversive acts against the commander."
A resident in Man said he had seen three bodies in the streets on Monday but calm had now returned, despite heavily-armed rebels searching the town for dissidents.
The clashes in Man, the centre of a coffee-producing area north of the country's main western cocoa belt, follow several deadly internal feuds late last year between the rebels, who still control the north of Ivory Coast.
Analysts say the FN has profited from the trade in timber and coffee from the area around Man. Cocoa grown elsewhere is also smuggled through Man on its way to neighbouring countries.
Elections meant to end the six-year crisis have been repeatedly delayed and analysts say the rebels are divided over the proceeds of lucrative taxation and civil administration, which they are meant to hand over to the national government.
A January 15 deadline for this transition has passed with little evidence that the FN have ceded their powers.
Despite continuing doubts over polls, a shortage of funds for UN peacekeeping operations and France's reshuffling of military priorities has promped the scale-down.
Licorne is pulling soldiers out of the rebel stronghold of Bouake, in the north, while France is also renegotiating its defence pact with Ivory Coast, French Ambassador Andre Jarnier said.
"Discussions are ongoing on the revision of the defence agreement and that will depend on our partners ... We will not stay in Ivory Coast if we are not asked to," Jarnier said.
Previously one of the closest bonds Paris had with a former colony, the relationship has soured in recent years, notably after anti-French riots in 2004.
"This is an important decision as it shows that the war situation in Ivory Coast has finished," Defence Minister Michel Amani N'Guessan told reporters on Monday.
N'Guessan said a joint government and former rebel force is due in Bouake, but previous deployments of the joint force have been crippled by logistical constraints and lack of funds.
Additional reporting by Ange Aboa; Writing by David Lewis; Editing by Alistair Thomson and Katie Nguyen
3 February 2009
By Loucoumane Coulibaly
Abidjan - Three Ivorian rebels were killed in battles late on Sunday between factions of the force still controlling much of the north of the world's top cocoa grower, witnesses in the northwestern town of Man said on Tuesday.
The clash is the latest within the ranks of the New Forces (FN) rebels, who have controlled northern Ivory Coast since a 2002-2003 war but have signed up to peace deals meant to enable long-delayed elections in the former regional powerhouse.
Citing progress towards peace despite the poll delays, which are blamed on the failure to disarm rebels as well as a slow registration process, the United Nations and former colonial power France are both reducing their peacekeeping forces there.
The UN mission is due to slash over 700 soldiers from its 8 000 strong force. France's 1,800 man mission, known as Licorne (Unicorn) and tasked with helping the United Nations and protecting French citizens, will be cut in half this summer.
"The clashes took place on Sunday night. Three of the attackers died and there was one wounded on our side," Lacine Mara, spokesperson for the FN commander in Man, said on Tuesday.
"These are people who are against the peace process and wanted to carry out subversive acts against the commander."
A resident in Man said he had seen three bodies in the streets on Monday but calm had now returned, despite heavily-armed rebels searching the town for dissidents.
The clashes in Man, the centre of a coffee-producing area north of the country's main western cocoa belt, follow several deadly internal feuds late last year between the rebels, who still control the north of Ivory Coast.
Analysts say the FN has profited from the trade in timber and coffee from the area around Man. Cocoa grown elsewhere is also smuggled through Man on its way to neighbouring countries.
Elections meant to end the six-year crisis have been repeatedly delayed and analysts say the rebels are divided over the proceeds of lucrative taxation and civil administration, which they are meant to hand over to the national government.
A January 15 deadline for this transition has passed with little evidence that the FN have ceded their powers.
Despite continuing doubts over polls, a shortage of funds for UN peacekeeping operations and France's reshuffling of military priorities has promped the scale-down.
Licorne is pulling soldiers out of the rebel stronghold of Bouake, in the north, while France is also renegotiating its defence pact with Ivory Coast, French Ambassador Andre Jarnier said.
"Discussions are ongoing on the revision of the defence agreement and that will depend on our partners ... We will not stay in Ivory Coast if we are not asked to," Jarnier said.
Previously one of the closest bonds Paris had with a former colony, the relationship has soured in recent years, notably after anti-French riots in 2004.
"This is an important decision as it shows that the war situation in Ivory Coast has finished," Defence Minister Michel Amani N'Guessan told reporters on Monday.
N'Guessan said a joint government and former rebel force is due in Bouake, but previous deployments of the joint force have been crippled by logistical constraints and lack of funds.
Additional reporting by Ange Aboa; Writing by David Lewis; Editing by Alistair Thomson and Katie Nguyen
Ethiopia troops 'back in Somalia.'
BBC News
3 February 2009
Ethiopian troops have re-entered Somalia just two weeks after pulling out, according to witnesses.
Local officials said Ethiopian soldiers had set up a checkpoint in Hiran region of central Somalia, some 20km (12 miles) from the border.
The Ethiopian government described the reports as false and said it had no intention of returning to Somalia.
Islamist militias run much of central Somalia and some are loyal to the new President, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, described as a moderate.
Ethiopian troops occupied parts of Somalia for two years after ousting the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) from the capital Mogadishu.
The Ethiopian withdrawal was part of a peace deal agreed recently between the government and moderate Islamists.
'Wicked'
They left behind African Union peacekeeping troops and Somali government soldiers in Mogadishu but analysts have said that force is unlikely to be able to keep the advancing Islamists at bay.
Al-Shabab fighters quickly seized more territory as the Ethiopians pulled out.
"The Ethiopian forces are violating the basic integrity of Somalia again and they entered the Hiran region only days after their government announced its complete withdrawal from the country," UIC commander Ahmed Osman Abdalla told AFP news agency.
Addis Ababa has said it is keeping a heavy troop presence on the border in case of threats to its security.
But Information Minister Bereket Simon called the report that Ethiopian troops had crossed back into Somalia a "wicked" distraction.
He told Reuters news agency: "The army is within the Ethiopian border. There is no intention to go back."
Hardline Islamist militia al-Shabab, which is labelled a terrorist organisation by the US, took advantage of Ethiopia's pull-out from Somalia to boost its control of the south.
Its fighters last week grabbed Baidoa, the seat of the Somali parliament, on the same day that Ethiopia said its soldiers had finished their withdrawal.
Al-Shabab has been holding demonstrations this week against Somalia's new president, a moderate Islamist whom the radicals accuse of selling out to the West.
Mr Ahmed was elected at the weekend as part of a UN-brokered plan to try to form a unity government and bring peace to Somalia for the first time since 1991.
3 February 2009
Ethiopian troops have re-entered Somalia just two weeks after pulling out, according to witnesses.
Local officials said Ethiopian soldiers had set up a checkpoint in Hiran region of central Somalia, some 20km (12 miles) from the border.
The Ethiopian government described the reports as false and said it had no intention of returning to Somalia.
Islamist militias run much of central Somalia and some are loyal to the new President, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, described as a moderate.
Ethiopian troops occupied parts of Somalia for two years after ousting the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) from the capital Mogadishu.
The Ethiopian withdrawal was part of a peace deal agreed recently between the government and moderate Islamists.
'Wicked'
They left behind African Union peacekeeping troops and Somali government soldiers in Mogadishu but analysts have said that force is unlikely to be able to keep the advancing Islamists at bay.
Al-Shabab fighters quickly seized more territory as the Ethiopians pulled out.
"The Ethiopian forces are violating the basic integrity of Somalia again and they entered the Hiran region only days after their government announced its complete withdrawal from the country," UIC commander Ahmed Osman Abdalla told AFP news agency.
Addis Ababa has said it is keeping a heavy troop presence on the border in case of threats to its security.
But Information Minister Bereket Simon called the report that Ethiopian troops had crossed back into Somalia a "wicked" distraction.
He told Reuters news agency: "The army is within the Ethiopian border. There is no intention to go back."
Hardline Islamist militia al-Shabab, which is labelled a terrorist organisation by the US, took advantage of Ethiopia's pull-out from Somalia to boost its control of the south.
Its fighters last week grabbed Baidoa, the seat of the Somali parliament, on the same day that Ethiopia said its soldiers had finished their withdrawal.
Al-Shabab has been holding demonstrations this week against Somalia's new president, a moderate Islamist whom the radicals accuse of selling out to the West.
Mr Ahmed was elected at the weekend as part of a UN-brokered plan to try to form a unity government and bring peace to Somalia for the first time since 1991.
Teacher in US accused of genocide.
BBC News
3 February 2009
Editor's Note: The US Department of Justice and all participating federal entites must ensure Mr. Munyakazi recieves a fair investigation before any hasty deportation. The record of coached Rwandan witnesses that have made false accusations before the ICTR under oath is long, and this editor is more than willing to provide official court documents to that effect to interested parties. One is also encouraged to search the archives of this site for other similar accounts. The credibility of such charges often suddenly issued by Rwandan officials against Rwandan Hutu living abroad have steadily eroded over the years since the genocide. Recently, several European countries have denied the extradition of Rwandan nationals accused of similar or identical charges after their own independent investigations found the evidence provided by Rwandan officials insufficient, and, in some cases, determining the accused would not recieve a fair trial in Rwanda.
If Rwandan officials indeed held without charges for several years and then they let him out (as indicated in the artice), why reinstate the charges only after he publicly speaks out against the current government of his homeland? This is a pattern seen all to often. If it is determined based on solid evidence obtained through a through, independent, and impartial investigation that the charge(s) against Mr. Munyakazi are well-founded, than he should indeed face the justice system. However, the strong initial negative emotions generated against an individual charged with the most henious of crimes (genocide), along the personal and/or collective guilt felt by certain people and organizations within the US for not intervening to stop the genocide in 1994 must not supercede the due process of law and its associated norms established in the United States, nor should they premptively influence the conduct of any investigation into the charges. Do not commit the fallacy of the appeal to emotions. The credible evidence, or potential lack of it, will speak for itself.
A college near the US city of Baltimore has suspended a Rwandan professor over accusations he participated in the African country's genocide.
Leopold Munyakazi had been working at Goucher College near Baltimore under a programme for academics whose lives are threatened at home.
He has denied any involvement in Rwanda's genocide.
Mr Munyakazi, a Hutu, told the Associated Press news agency that he had been persecuted by Rwanda's government.
He said he had been held without trial in Rwanda from 1994 to 1999 on accusations of genocide.
"I'm not hiding; I was never involved in genocide," he said.
Sanford Ungar, president of Goucher College, said in a letter to students and faculty that he became aware of charges against Mr Munyakazi when a journalist and a Rwandan prosecutor came to the college in December.
They told him of witnesses testimonies that Mr Munyakazi, 59, had "participated directly" in the genocide.
Charges had been prepared in 2006 after Mr Munyakazi had given a "controversial talk" in the US questioning the Rwandan government's version of the genocide, Mr Ungar said.
"Dr Munyakazi vehemently denies any involvement in committing genocide, and in fact has presented evidence that he assisted numerous Tutsis in fleeing Hutu killers," the letter said.
Mr Ungar said the Rwandan, who started teaching French at the college in September, would be suspended from his job pending further investigation.
An official at Rwanda's embassy in Washington said Rwanda had asked for Mr Munyakazi and five others to be returned to the country.
3 February 2009
Editor's Note: The US Department of Justice and all participating federal entites must ensure Mr. Munyakazi recieves a fair investigation before any hasty deportation. The record of coached Rwandan witnesses that have made false accusations before the ICTR under oath is long, and this editor is more than willing to provide official court documents to that effect to interested parties. One is also encouraged to search the archives of this site for other similar accounts. The credibility of such charges often suddenly issued by Rwandan officials against Rwandan Hutu living abroad have steadily eroded over the years since the genocide. Recently, several European countries have denied the extradition of Rwandan nationals accused of similar or identical charges after their own independent investigations found the evidence provided by Rwandan officials insufficient, and, in some cases, determining the accused would not recieve a fair trial in Rwanda.
If Rwandan officials indeed held without charges for several years and then they let him out (as indicated in the artice), why reinstate the charges only after he publicly speaks out against the current government of his homeland? This is a pattern seen all to often. If it is determined based on solid evidence obtained through a through, independent, and impartial investigation that the charge(s) against Mr. Munyakazi are well-founded, than he should indeed face the justice system. However, the strong initial negative emotions generated against an individual charged with the most henious of crimes (genocide), along the personal and/or collective guilt felt by certain people and organizations within the US for not intervening to stop the genocide in 1994 must not supercede the due process of law and its associated norms established in the United States, nor should they premptively influence the conduct of any investigation into the charges. Do not commit the fallacy of the appeal to emotions. The credible evidence, or potential lack of it, will speak for itself.
A college near the US city of Baltimore has suspended a Rwandan professor over accusations he participated in the African country's genocide.
Leopold Munyakazi had been working at Goucher College near Baltimore under a programme for academics whose lives are threatened at home.
He has denied any involvement in Rwanda's genocide.
Mr Munyakazi, a Hutu, told the Associated Press news agency that he had been persecuted by Rwanda's government.
He said he had been held without trial in Rwanda from 1994 to 1999 on accusations of genocide.
"I'm not hiding; I was never involved in genocide," he said.
Sanford Ungar, president of Goucher College, said in a letter to students and faculty that he became aware of charges against Mr Munyakazi when a journalist and a Rwandan prosecutor came to the college in December.
They told him of witnesses testimonies that Mr Munyakazi, 59, had "participated directly" in the genocide.
Charges had been prepared in 2006 after Mr Munyakazi had given a "controversial talk" in the US questioning the Rwandan government's version of the genocide, Mr Ungar said.
"Dr Munyakazi vehemently denies any involvement in committing genocide, and in fact has presented evidence that he assisted numerous Tutsis in fleeing Hutu killers," the letter said.
Mr Ungar said the Rwandan, who started teaching French at the college in September, would be suspended from his job pending further investigation.
An official at Rwanda's embassy in Washington said Rwanda had asked for Mr Munyakazi and five others to be returned to the country.
Halliburton Bags $600MM in Devt Contracts for Deepwater Angola.
Rigzone
2 February 2009
Halliburton has been awarded long-term high-value contracts by BP Angola. BP's Angola Program covers up to four developments, to be based on a standardized design, and drilling activity is scheduled to commence in 2010.
The first development in Block 31, PSVM, was recently sanctioned by BP Angola and its partners. Block 31 covers an area of 5,349 square kilometers and lies in water depths of between 1,500 and 2,500 meters. The Plutao, Saturno, Venus and Marte (PSVM) fields lie in the north east sector of Block 31, in a water depth of approximately 2000m, some 400 kilometers north west of Luanda. First oil for these fields is planned in 2011 and is expected to build to a plateau of about 150,000 barrels per day by 2012.
The operator (BP) and its co-venturers have announced fifteen discoveries in Block 31 to date. Full development will comprise multiple hubs. PSVM, specifically, will comprise a converted hull floating, production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) with 1,600,000 barrels of storage capacity; 48 production, gas and water injection plus infill wells; 15 manifolds and associated subsea equipment; 170 kilometers of flowlines and 95 kilometers of control umbilicals.
Commitments related to the remaining three developments are anticipated to be awarded upon sanction of the additional projects, with the drilling program taking place over a multi-year period. The development program in total is expected to eventually exceed 150 wells.
The contracts awarded to Halliburton encompass the key elements of Well Completions including Upper and Lower Completions Equipment and Downhole Flow Control. In addition, Halliburton has been awarded the Drilling and Completions Fluids business for these wells.
The estimated value of these contracts will, if all four developments are sanctioned, be in excess of $600MM.
2 February 2009
Halliburton has been awarded long-term high-value contracts by BP Angola. BP's Angola Program covers up to four developments, to be based on a standardized design, and drilling activity is scheduled to commence in 2010.
The first development in Block 31, PSVM, was recently sanctioned by BP Angola and its partners. Block 31 covers an area of 5,349 square kilometers and lies in water depths of between 1,500 and 2,500 meters. The Plutao, Saturno, Venus and Marte (PSVM) fields lie in the north east sector of Block 31, in a water depth of approximately 2000m, some 400 kilometers north west of Luanda. First oil for these fields is planned in 2011 and is expected to build to a plateau of about 150,000 barrels per day by 2012.
The operator (BP) and its co-venturers have announced fifteen discoveries in Block 31 to date. Full development will comprise multiple hubs. PSVM, specifically, will comprise a converted hull floating, production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) with 1,600,000 barrels of storage capacity; 48 production, gas and water injection plus infill wells; 15 manifolds and associated subsea equipment; 170 kilometers of flowlines and 95 kilometers of control umbilicals.
Commitments related to the remaining three developments are anticipated to be awarded upon sanction of the additional projects, with the drilling program taking place over a multi-year period. The development program in total is expected to eventually exceed 150 wells.
The contracts awarded to Halliburton encompass the key elements of Well Completions including Upper and Lower Completions Equipment and Downhole Flow Control. In addition, Halliburton has been awarded the Drilling and Completions Fluids business for these wells.
The estimated value of these contracts will, if all four developments are sanctioned, be in excess of $600MM.
01 February, 2009
Ethiopian troops occupy strategic crossroad in central Somalia.
Garowe Online
1 February 2009
Ethiopian troops have reentered parts of Hiran region, in central Somalia, weeks after completely withdrawing from Mogadishu and other parts of the country, Radio Garowe reports.
The Ethiopian army contingent backed by armored trucks took control of Kala-Beyr crossroads, gaining a foothold in a strategic road that links north Somalia, south Somalia and the Somali-inhabited Ogaden region of eastern Ethiopia.
Ethiopian soldiers
Witnesses said travelers and vehicles passing through the crossroads are being stopped and searched by Ethiopian soldiers, although no major problems were reported other than delays.
Unconfirmed reports said ex-Somali government officials and a small number of Somali soldiers are working with the Ethiopian force.
The Ethiopian government maintains a major army base at Fer Fer, across the border from Kala-Beyr crossroads.
Somali insurgents shelled the army base inside Ethiopian soil last month, prompting Addis Ababa to take control of that strategic entry-point and defend against Islamist infiltration, a military source suggested.
Much of Hiran region, including the provincial capital Beletwein, remains under the control of the Islamic Courts movement.
Islamist officials in Beletwein have not publicy responded to the Ethiopian army's latest incursion onto Somali soil.
1 February 2009
Ethiopian troops have reentered parts of Hiran region, in central Somalia, weeks after completely withdrawing from Mogadishu and other parts of the country, Radio Garowe reports.
The Ethiopian army contingent backed by armored trucks took control of Kala-Beyr crossroads, gaining a foothold in a strategic road that links north Somalia, south Somalia and the Somali-inhabited Ogaden region of eastern Ethiopia.
Ethiopian soldiers
Witnesses said travelers and vehicles passing through the crossroads are being stopped and searched by Ethiopian soldiers, although no major problems were reported other than delays.
Unconfirmed reports said ex-Somali government officials and a small number of Somali soldiers are working with the Ethiopian force.
The Ethiopian government maintains a major army base at Fer Fer, across the border from Kala-Beyr crossroads.
Somali insurgents shelled the army base inside Ethiopian soil last month, prompting Addis Ababa to take control of that strategic entry-point and defend against Islamist infiltration, a military source suggested.
Much of Hiran region, including the provincial capital Beletwein, remains under the control of the Islamic Courts movement.
Islamist officials in Beletwein have not publicy responded to the Ethiopian army's latest incursion onto Somali soil.
Canadian Diplomat believed still alive in Niger.
News 24
1 February 2009
Evidence has emerged that Mr. Robert Fowler, one of two Canadian diplomats who went missing in Niger in December during a mission close to the capital Niamey, is still alive, the Ottawa Citizen reported on Saturday.
The newspaper cited an unnamed UN Security Council diplomat who said hope also remains that Mr. Louis Guay, the other Canadian diplomat who disappeared, and their driver, Mr. Soumana Mounkaila of Niger, are all still alive.
"There has been evidence some days ago that he (Fowler) was alive," the diplomat, who asked not to be identified, was quoted as saying.
The Canadian Foreign Affairs Ministry refrained from reacting to the report.
Held by rebels
"We will not share information that could compromise our efforts or that could endanger the concerned individuals," ministry spokesperson Lisa Monette told AFP via e-mail.
"When dealing with a situation where lives could be at stake, we must exercise caution and good judgment."
The diplomats and their driver went missing in mid-December when returning from a visit to a gold mine operated by Canadian company Semafo, located west of Niamey.
Their car was discovered on December 15 beside a road in an apparently trouble-free area close to Niamey. The vehicle's engine was running, its indicator lights flashing, and its doors were all wide open. Three mobile phones, a camera, and a jacket were found inside the vehicle, suggesting plain banditry was not a likely motive.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon spoke with the wife of Mr. Fowler, the UN's envoy to Niger, late last week and "reiterated that we're doing all that we can to locate the missing men," UN spokesperson Farhan Haq told the daily.
In mid-January, Niger's President Mamadou Tandja said the two Canadians were in the hands of "terrorist groups."
A Tuareg rebel group initially said it had kidnapped the men, before retracting the claim the same day.
1 February 2009
Evidence has emerged that Mr. Robert Fowler, one of two Canadian diplomats who went missing in Niger in December during a mission close to the capital Niamey, is still alive, the Ottawa Citizen reported on Saturday.
The newspaper cited an unnamed UN Security Council diplomat who said hope also remains that Mr. Louis Guay, the other Canadian diplomat who disappeared, and their driver, Mr. Soumana Mounkaila of Niger, are all still alive.
"There has been evidence some days ago that he (Fowler) was alive," the diplomat, who asked not to be identified, was quoted as saying.
The Canadian Foreign Affairs Ministry refrained from reacting to the report.
Held by rebels
"We will not share information that could compromise our efforts or that could endanger the concerned individuals," ministry spokesperson Lisa Monette told AFP via e-mail.
"When dealing with a situation where lives could be at stake, we must exercise caution and good judgment."
The diplomats and their driver went missing in mid-December when returning from a visit to a gold mine operated by Canadian company Semafo, located west of Niamey.
Their car was discovered on December 15 beside a road in an apparently trouble-free area close to Niamey. The vehicle's engine was running, its indicator lights flashing, and its doors were all wide open. Three mobile phones, a camera, and a jacket were found inside the vehicle, suggesting plain banditry was not a likely motive.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon spoke with the wife of Mr. Fowler, the UN's envoy to Niger, late last week and "reiterated that we're doing all that we can to locate the missing men," UN spokesperson Farhan Haq told the daily.
In mid-January, Niger's President Mamadou Tandja said the two Canadians were in the hands of "terrorist groups."
A Tuareg rebel group initially said it had kidnapped the men, before retracting the claim the same day.
Obama lets CIA keep controversial renditions tool.
Chicago Tribune
31 January 2009
By Greg Miller
The CIA's secret prisons are being shuttered. Harsh interrogation techniques are off-limits. And Guantanamo Bay will eventually go back to being a wind-swept naval base on the southeastern corner of Cuba.
But even while dismantling these discredited programs, President Barack Obama left an equally controversial counterterrorism tool intact.
Under executive orders issued by Obama last week, the CIA still has authority to carry out what are known as renditions, or the secret abductions and transfers of prisoners to countries that cooperate with the U.S.
Current and former U.S. intelligence officials claim the rendition program is poised to play an expanded role because it is the main remaining mechanism—aside from Predator missile strikes—for taking suspected terrorists off the street.
The rendition program became a source of embarrassment for the CIA, and a target of international scorn, as details emerged in recent years of botched captures, mistaken identities and allegations that prisoners were turned over to countries where they were tortured.
The European Parliament condemned renditions as an "illegal instrument used by the United States." Prisoners swept up in the program have sued the CIA as well as a subsidiary of Boeing Corp., which is accused of working with the agency on dozens of rendition flights.
But the Obama administration appears to have determined that the rendition program was one component of the Bush administration's war on terrorism that it could not afford to discard.
The decision underscores the fact that the battle with Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups is far from over and that even if the U.S. is shutting down the prisons, it is not done taking prisoners.
"Obviously you need to preserve some tools, you still have to go after the bad guys," said an Obama administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity when discussing legal reasoning behind the decision. "The legal advisers working on this looked at rendition. It is controversial in some circles and kicked up a big storm in Europe. But if done within certain parameters, it is an acceptable practice."
One provision in one of Obama's orders appears to preserve the CIA's ability to detain and interrogate terrorism suspects as long as they are not held long-term. The little-noticed provision states that the instructions to close the CIA's secret prison sites "do not refer to facilities used only to hold people on a short-term, transitory basis."
Obama's decision to preserve the program did not draw major protests, even among human-rights groups. Leaders of such organizations said that reflects a sense, even among advocates, that the United States and other nations need certain tools to combat terrorism.
"Under limited circumstances, there is a legitimate place" for renditions, said Tom Malinowski, the Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. "What I heard loud and clear from the president's order was that they want to design a system that doesn't result in people being sent to foreign dungeons to be tortured."
In his executive order on lawful interrogations, Obama created a task force to re-examine renditions to make sure that they "do not result in the transfer of individuals to other nations to face torture" or otherwise circumvent human-rights laws and treaties.
31 January 2009
By Greg Miller
The CIA's secret prisons are being shuttered. Harsh interrogation techniques are off-limits. And Guantanamo Bay will eventually go back to being a wind-swept naval base on the southeastern corner of Cuba.
But even while dismantling these discredited programs, President Barack Obama left an equally controversial counterterrorism tool intact.
Under executive orders issued by Obama last week, the CIA still has authority to carry out what are known as renditions, or the secret abductions and transfers of prisoners to countries that cooperate with the U.S.
Current and former U.S. intelligence officials claim the rendition program is poised to play an expanded role because it is the main remaining mechanism—aside from Predator missile strikes—for taking suspected terrorists off the street.
The rendition program became a source of embarrassment for the CIA, and a target of international scorn, as details emerged in recent years of botched captures, mistaken identities and allegations that prisoners were turned over to countries where they were tortured.
The European Parliament condemned renditions as an "illegal instrument used by the United States." Prisoners swept up in the program have sued the CIA as well as a subsidiary of Boeing Corp., which is accused of working with the agency on dozens of rendition flights.
But the Obama administration appears to have determined that the rendition program was one component of the Bush administration's war on terrorism that it could not afford to discard.
The decision underscores the fact that the battle with Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups is far from over and that even if the U.S. is shutting down the prisons, it is not done taking prisoners.
"Obviously you need to preserve some tools, you still have to go after the bad guys," said an Obama administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity when discussing legal reasoning behind the decision. "The legal advisers working on this looked at rendition. It is controversial in some circles and kicked up a big storm in Europe. But if done within certain parameters, it is an acceptable practice."
One provision in one of Obama's orders appears to preserve the CIA's ability to detain and interrogate terrorism suspects as long as they are not held long-term. The little-noticed provision states that the instructions to close the CIA's secret prison sites "do not refer to facilities used only to hold people on a short-term, transitory basis."
Obama's decision to preserve the program did not draw major protests, even among human-rights groups. Leaders of such organizations said that reflects a sense, even among advocates, that the United States and other nations need certain tools to combat terrorism.
"Under limited circumstances, there is a legitimate place" for renditions, said Tom Malinowski, the Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. "What I heard loud and clear from the president's order was that they want to design a system that doesn't result in people being sent to foreign dungeons to be tortured."
In his executive order on lawful interrogations, Obama created a task force to re-examine renditions to make sure that they "do not result in the transfer of individuals to other nations to face torture" or otherwise circumvent human-rights laws and treaties.
Lebanon, Syria to Bolster Military Cooperation.
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
30 January 2009
Lebanese defence minister Elias al-Murr discussed security cooperation and strengthening border controls during a visit to Damascus on January 28.
Murr met with top Syrian politicians including President Bashar al-Assad to talk about cooperation between the two countries’ armed forces.
His talks followed the establishment of diplomatic ties and a series of visits by senior Lebanese security and political officials over the past few months to discuss curbing the smuggling of weapons and the movement of Islamist militants across the border between the two states.
Syrian officials say that a group of militants belonging to an Islamist organisation in Lebanon were responsible for a car bombing in Damascus last September in which at least 17 people were killed and 14 injured.
An official news agency in Lebanon reported that the contentious issue of paramilitary bases located inside Lebanon close to the Syrian border also came up during Murr’s talks. These armed camps are run by Palestinian groups controlled by Damascus, say some Lebanese politicians.
A statement issued by Murr’s press office this week noted that the Syrians showed they were ready to “take all the measures necessary to facilitate the Lebanese army’s mission on the border and lead to security and stability in both countries”.
The two sides agreed on mechanisms for running more patrols at sensitive points on the border, the statement said.
Relations between Lebanon and Syria deteriorated following the killing of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri in February 2005. An international tribunal is due to convene this year to look into the assassination, and it is expected that the Syrians will fall under suspicion.
Observers note that the increased military cooperation between the two states is mirrored by the warming of diplomatic relations.
On January 27, Lebanon announced that Damascus had approved the nomination of Michel Khoury, a career diplomat, as the first Lebanese ambassador to Syria. In November, the two countries officially announced they were opening embassies in each other’s capitals as part of establishing diplomatic ties for the first time. Syria has not yet named its ambassador to Beirut.
“Syrian Lebanese relations are going through a temporary honeymoon phase,” said Adnan Ali, a Damascus-based political analyst and a columnist in several Syrian newspapers.
He added that the Lebanese recognise they need to maintain strong relations with Syria in order to stop their country becoming a battleground in future conflicts.
On January 28, a French official told reporters in Beirut that Assad had played a role in preventing Lebanon from being dragged into a conflict with Israel during the latter country’s recent military operation in Gaza.
“President Assad told me he exerted influence to ensure Hezbollah adopted a responsible attitude and showed restraint during events in Gaza,” said Philippe Marini, a French senator acting as envoy for President Nicolas Sarkozy.
A political researcher who spoke on condition of anonymity said Damascus was trying to draw Lebanon into a tripartite military alliance with Moscow to counter United States hegemony over the region.
International powers have showed recently a growing interest in building up the poorly-equipped Lebanese army. The US has substantially increased military assistance for Lebanon over the last few years, while Russia pledged to provide the country with fighter planes last month.
The researcher added that Moscow was reasserting its role in the region. The Russians keep their largest naval contingent in the Middle East at the Syrian port of Tartus.
(Syria News Briefing, a weekly news analysis service, draws on information and opinion from a network of IWPR-trained Syrian journalists based in the country.)
30 January 2009
Lebanese defence minister Elias al-Murr discussed security cooperation and strengthening border controls during a visit to Damascus on January 28.
Murr met with top Syrian politicians including President Bashar al-Assad to talk about cooperation between the two countries’ armed forces.
His talks followed the establishment of diplomatic ties and a series of visits by senior Lebanese security and political officials over the past few months to discuss curbing the smuggling of weapons and the movement of Islamist militants across the border between the two states.
Syrian officials say that a group of militants belonging to an Islamist organisation in Lebanon were responsible for a car bombing in Damascus last September in which at least 17 people were killed and 14 injured.
An official news agency in Lebanon reported that the contentious issue of paramilitary bases located inside Lebanon close to the Syrian border also came up during Murr’s talks. These armed camps are run by Palestinian groups controlled by Damascus, say some Lebanese politicians.
A statement issued by Murr’s press office this week noted that the Syrians showed they were ready to “take all the measures necessary to facilitate the Lebanese army’s mission on the border and lead to security and stability in both countries”.
The two sides agreed on mechanisms for running more patrols at sensitive points on the border, the statement said.
Relations between Lebanon and Syria deteriorated following the killing of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri in February 2005. An international tribunal is due to convene this year to look into the assassination, and it is expected that the Syrians will fall under suspicion.
Observers note that the increased military cooperation between the two states is mirrored by the warming of diplomatic relations.
On January 27, Lebanon announced that Damascus had approved the nomination of Michel Khoury, a career diplomat, as the first Lebanese ambassador to Syria. In November, the two countries officially announced they were opening embassies in each other’s capitals as part of establishing diplomatic ties for the first time. Syria has not yet named its ambassador to Beirut.
“Syrian Lebanese relations are going through a temporary honeymoon phase,” said Adnan Ali, a Damascus-based political analyst and a columnist in several Syrian newspapers.
He added that the Lebanese recognise they need to maintain strong relations with Syria in order to stop their country becoming a battleground in future conflicts.
On January 28, a French official told reporters in Beirut that Assad had played a role in preventing Lebanon from being dragged into a conflict with Israel during the latter country’s recent military operation in Gaza.
“President Assad told me he exerted influence to ensure Hezbollah adopted a responsible attitude and showed restraint during events in Gaza,” said Philippe Marini, a French senator acting as envoy for President Nicolas Sarkozy.
A political researcher who spoke on condition of anonymity said Damascus was trying to draw Lebanon into a tripartite military alliance with Moscow to counter United States hegemony over the region.
International powers have showed recently a growing interest in building up the poorly-equipped Lebanese army. The US has substantially increased military assistance for Lebanon over the last few years, while Russia pledged to provide the country with fighter planes last month.
The researcher added that Moscow was reasserting its role in the region. The Russians keep their largest naval contingent in the Middle East at the Syrian port of Tartus.
(Syria News Briefing, a weekly news analysis service, draws on information and opinion from a network of IWPR-trained Syrian journalists based in the country.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
