BLAIR BLASTED OVER TANZANIA DEAL !
Tanzania's main airport benefited from the deal.The UK sold a "useless" air traffic control system to Tanzania in 2001 in a "scandalous" and "squalid" deal, the House of Commons has been told. Ex-International Development Secretary Clare Short joined the Tories in accusing Tony Blair of pushing through the £28m sale by BAE Systems. Ministers said the deal had not damaged Tanzania's economy or its development. The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is currently investigating claims that BAE bribed Tanzanian officials.
'Reputation in tatters'
Ms Short, who is now an independent MP, has consistently argued Tanzania could have paid much less for the same equipment. "I believe that all the parties involved in this deal should be deeply ashamed," she said in a Commons debate on Tuesday night. She said the deal was "useless and hostile to the interests of Tanzania" and had been opposed by senior cabinet members including Chancellor Gordon Brown. She said Barclays Bank had "colluded" with the government by loaning Tanzania the money, but lying to the World Bank about the type and size of the loan.
Lynne Featherstone, of the Liberal Democrats, said Britain had to be "squeaky clean" if it wanted to "retain any influence, reputation or credibility in world affairs". "Somewhere between the government, BAE and Barclays - and perhaps all three - our reputation worldwide is in tatters," she said.
'Profoundly unattractive'
Shadow international development secretary Andrew Mitchell said BAE had used "ageing technology" and said the system was "not adequate and too expensive". Mr Mitchell said the deal had "all the warning signs of impropriety - a vastly inflated price, an unsuitable product and unorthodox financing".
"Despite the opposition of all the most informed, respected and qualified observers approval for the licences was forced through a divided cabinet by the prime minister." He called on his opposite number, Hilary Benn, to explain the government's "profoundly unattractive" conduct.
BAE denial
Mr Benn said the government had considered whether "the export would seriously undermine the economy or seriously harm the sustainable development of the recipient country". "The government at the time judged it would not and, looking back from this vantage point, it would be hard to argue that it did." He said he could not comment on bribery allegations because they were under investigation.
Officials from the SFO have already visited Tanzania to look into claims BAE gave bribes to ensure the deal would go through. BAE says it is co-operating fully with the inquiry, but has strongly denied operating a secret slush fund to sweeten deals. The SFO recently dropped a long-running BAE corruption probe into a huge arms deal with Saudi Arabia.
Reports said the Saudis had threatened to pull out of a new BAE deal unless the probe was brought to an end.
Opposition politicians accused the government of putting cash before principle.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
FIFTY DEAD IN WEST KENYA CLASHES !
Some 50 people have been killed in the past month in clan violence over land in Kenya's western province, local government officials say.
Spokesman Abdul Mwasera told the BBC more than 30 people had been arrested in connection with the clashes.
Hundreds of families fled to camps after conflict began during a government land allocation programme.
The government has barred politicians and religious leaders from visiting the area accusing them of inciting clans.
"We have arrested 35 members of the Sabaot lands defence force, a group that is claiming responsibility for this recent fighting and the government has deployed enough security personnel to counter these fighters," said Mr Mwasera.
The Sabaot community lives at the foot of Mt Elgon on Kenya's border with Uganda and some displaced families have fled into Uganda.
The BBC's Muliro Telewa in western Kenya says tension remains high in the area as the disagreement among the clans on how land should be divided intensifies.
Seven schools in the area have been closed following the violence.
Reports say trouble started after some families sold their land and benefited from the government's new allocations at a prime settlement scheme leaving the original squatters landless.
The affected communities now want the government to revoke land allocations to 1,732 families.
President Mwai Kibaki's administration has pledged to resolve land problems across the country which have persisted for more than 40 years.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
MALI RELICS RECOVERED IN FRANCE !
Some of the artefacts confiscated may be up to one million years old. French customs officials say they have seized more than 650 ancient artefacts smuggled from Mali in one of the largest such finds at a Paris airport. Described as an "archaeological treasure", the objects were thought to be on their way to private US buyers.
Experts say most of the items are from the Neolithic period, but some may be up to one million years old. The artefacts are thought to have been taken from archaeological sites on the edge of the Sahara desert.
The 669 items - 601 stones and 68 bracelets - were confiscated on 19 January at Charles de Gaulle airport and included axe heads, flintstones and stone rings. Most of the artefacts date from a few thousand years BC. But others are from the Acheulean period, between one million years and 200,000 years old, and from the Middle Stone Age (200,000 years BC to 20,000 years BC).
The artefacts were shipped in nine parcels from the Malian capital, Bamako, which the accompanying paperwork described as handcrafted objects. Customs officials look out for artefacts being exported from specific countries such as Mali which may be smuggled, a customs spokeswoman told the BBC News website.
If they have a doubt, they then seize the objects and have them assessed by experts to establish their age - in this case an expert from the Department of Prehistory at the Natural History Museum in Paris, she said. This type of traffic was unheard of a few years ago, an airport customs official told the AFP news agency. "Since 2004 we have observed regular traffic in this kind of contraband. There is a big market and we are pretty sure that these items, which had been neatly sorted and were of very high quality, had been pre-sold," Eric Cailheton said.
French customs officials made two similarly large finds of archaeological items from Niger in March 2004 and December 2005. The 2005 haul included more than 5,000 stone arrowheads and 90 carved stone artefacts, dating back 5,000 years. The items were found in the baggage of a passenger who arrived on a flight from Niger's capital, Niamey.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Rwanda leader backs crash probe
By Fergal Keane - BBC world affairs correspondent.
Kagame denies he discussed killing ex-president Habyarimana. Rwandan President Paul Kagame has told the BBC he would co-operate with an international inquiry into the death of former leader Juvenal Habyarimana. The downing of Habyarimana's plane in 1994 sparked the Rwandan genocide.
In a rare interview, Mr Kagame accused France of using the crash to cover its role in training and arming those who committed genocide. Mr Kagame also angrily said: "Would I care that bloody Habyarimana died? I don't give a damn."
Mr Kagame rejected claims that he had discussed the killing of President Habyarimana in the presence of bodyguards. He said he would not do that unless he was the most stupid man in the world.
But significantly the president said he would be willing to co-operate with an independent inquiry into the shooting down of the plane.
It remains to be seen whether the UN - which backed away from such an inquiry in the past - would be keen to take him up on this.
Within hours of the shooting down of the plane, Hutu extremists began a campaign of extermination that would last 100 days and kill up to a million people - mostly members of the Tutsi minority.
The claims of one key witness who spoke to the BBC could prove troubling for French judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere, who has alleged that Mr Kagame ordered the attack to seize total power.
Innocent Marara, who says he was a former bodyguard of Mr Kagame, claims the judge tried to get him to join a rebel group fighting the Rwandan president and arranged for him to give intelligence to French defence officials.
Judge Bruguiere could not be reached for comment.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
FEMALE PEACEKEEPERS REACH LIBERIA !
The unit are experienced in battling insurgency. The first all-female unit of United Nations peacekeepers has arrived in Liberia's capital, Monrovia. The group of more than 100 police women from India will stay in Liberia for six months, helping to train the local police force. They will also carry out security duties in forthcoming local elections.
The UN currently has 15,000 peacekeepers deployed in Liberia, which is struggling to recover after a 14-year civil war.
The unit is made up volunteers drawn from across India and are experienced in battling insurgencies in Kashmir and the north-east.
UN police advisor Mark Kroeker, who has served with the Los Angeles Police Department for more than 30 years, says the presence of women in UN missions enhances their access to vulnerable populations.
"It also sends a message to the post-conflict societies where we work that women officers can have any position and play any role in a police organisation," he said.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
AFRICAN LEADERS MULL SOMALI FORCE !
Ethiopia wants to withdraw its troops from Somalia. African Union leaders are discussing sending a peacekeeping force to Somalia to prevent renewed conflict, on the final day of a summit in Ethiopia.
The AU wants to send an 8,000-strong force to replace departing Ethiopian troops, whose intervention swept Islamists from power last month. But so far only three nations have come up with concrete offers of troops.
Meanwhile, Somalia has agreed to host a reconciliation conference in the coming weeks, according to a top EU official. European Union Development Commissioner Louis Michel said this meant the EU would be able to release 15m euros ($20m) to fund the peacekeeping force.
However, interim Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf did not confirm he would hold the conference of clan and religious leaders. The EU, the US and the UN have all urged Mr Yusuf to include moderate Islamists in his administration. The US has offered to provide air support for the peacekeeping force.
In other developments at the summit:
Ghana was chosen to be the next AU chair, instead of Sudan
Sudan still refuses to let UN peacekeepers go to Darfur
UN chief Ban Ki-moon said urgent action was needed to tackle climate change in Africa.
On Monday, AU commission chief Alpha Oumar Konare said peacekeepers were needed in Somalia to prevent renewed conflict.
"If African troops are not in place quickly, then there will be chaos," he said in his opening remarks to the summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. "We need 8,000 soldiers, today we have hardly 4,000. We cannot simply wait for others to do the work in our place."
POSSIBLE PEACEKEEPERS
Nine battalions proposed - up to 9,000 troops:
Uganda: 1,500 troops offered, subject to parliamentary approval
Malawi: Up to 1,000 troops offered
Nigeria: 1,000 troops offered
Ghana: Reportedly offered troops
Tanzania: Considering
Rwanda: Considering
South Africa: Not sending troops
In December, thousands of Ethiopian soldiers were sent to help the weak Somali interim government oust the Union of Islamic Courts which had controlled much of southern and central Somalia for six months.
But Ethiopia says it is seeking an early withdrawal from the country and has already begun pulling some of its troops out.
The fear, says the BBC's Adam Mynott, is that unless insecurity is contained quickly, then Somalia will slip back to the anarchic misrule which has prevailed in the country for the past 16 years.
So far three countries - Uganda, Nigeria and Malawi - have offered to contribute troops, while a number of other countries are reported to be considering it.
AU peace and security commissioner Said Djinnit told the BBC that troops from more countries were needed.
"I think we have made some progress because we are at the point where we are putting together conditions for an early deployment of at least the first three battalions," he said.
"And we are also in the process of creating logistical and financial conditions but we do hope that during the debate at the summit there'll be more pledges or more commitment to participate in the African Union mission in Somalia."
BBC NEWS REPORT.
CHINA'S HU JINTAO ON AFRICA TOUR !
President Hu is to sign a number of agreements while in Africa. China's President Hu Jintao is starting an eight-nation tour of Africa that will include Sudan and South Africa. Before he left, China announced $3bn in preferential loans and more aid over the next three years for Africa.
Trade has expanded dramatically between Africa and China in recent years as China seeks resources to feed its economy and markets for its exports. Africa supplies one-third of China's imported oil. It is Mr Hu's third trip to Africa since he took office in 2003.
China has been urged to use its influence as a big oil customer of Sudan's to lobby the government in Khartoum to resolve the conflict in Darfur. Beijing has been criticised for selling weapons to countries like Zimbabwe and flooding Africa with cheap goods that threaten local industries.
Mr Hu's tour will also take him to Cameroon, Liberia, Zambia, Namibia, Mozambique and Seychelles.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Posted by: Mara at January 30, 2007 14:46 |
link | comments |
ZAMBIA IMPORT FOOD FOR CONGO TIE !
The Zambian under-20s side will eat meals prepared in DR Congo. Zambian players will eat food prepared in DR Congo ahead of their African Youth Championship semi-final against hosts Congo on Tuesday.
Fearing 'dirty tricks' in Congo (Brazzaville), meals for the 18-man squad will be prepared at the Zambian embassy in Kinshasa, capital of the DR Congo, an official admitted.
"At this stage of the competition anything can happen, especially when you are playing the host nation for a place in the final," warned Zambian delegation leader Machacha Shepande.
"Dirty tricks" have been part of African football for decades with visiting national and club sides regularly subjected to a range of difficulties designed to disrupt preparations and lower morale.
Sub-standard food, no hot water and insect-infested rooms at hotels, no keys to open training facilities, and unnecessarily long trips in buses lacking air conditioning are some examples of previous tactics employed.
Defending champions Nigeria and Gambia, the only team boasting a 100% record in the pool phase, meet in the other semi-final in Brazzaville at the same time.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
ICC TRIAL FOR DR CONGO'S WARLORD !
Lubanga denies three war crimes charges. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has ruled there is enough evidence against a DR Congo militia leader to launch the court's first trial. Thomas Lubanga, 46, is accused of recruiting child soldiers during DR Congo's brutal 1998-2003 civil war
Prosecutors allege that children as young as 10 were kidnapped and forced to fight in 2002-2003, The ICC, based in The Hague, was set up in 2002 as the world's first permanent war crimes court. It was designed to end the need for the various ad hoc war crimes courts which have been established, including the chambers created to deal with war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia and the genocide in Rwanda.
The US strongly opposed the creation of the ICC, fearing the political prosecution of its soldiers. Four million people are estimated to have been killed during the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mr Lubanga led the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) militia in the north-eastern Ituri district, where fighting continued long after the official end of the five-year war in 2003.
"Lubanga made children train to kill, Lubanga made them kill and Lubanga let the children die... in hostilities," prosecution lawyer Ekkehard Withopf told the court during a hearing in November.
The prosecution says children were snatched as they walked to school and forced to fight for Mr Lubanga's ethnic Hema militia against their Lendu rivals.
The child soldiers were later instructed "to kill all Lendu including men, women and children", a prosecution statement says, based on testimony from six children.
Mr Lubanga denies any wrongdoing. His lawyers say he was trying to end the conflict and is being punished by the international community for refusing to give mining concessions in areas he controlled to foreign firms. Referring to his enemies, he once told UN peacekeepers: "Those who have committed genocide or massacres have to be punished."
The BBC's Mark Doyle says the conflict in Ituri manifests itself as an ethnic war, but its root cause is the criminal mining of the region's gold and other minerals. Lobby group Human Rights Watch says some 60,000 civilians have been slaughtered in Ituri province by various militias.
It calls for them all to be investigated, along with government officials from DR Congo and others who may be implicated from neighbouring Rwanda and Uganda.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
POLICE ATTACKED IN SOMALI BATTLE !
Gunmen have staged several attacks on Somalia's police force. At least two people have been killed, including a Somali police officer, during an hour-long gunbattle in the capital, Mogadishu. The clash began when a group of gunmen threw a grenade at the police, witnesses say. This is the latest in a series of violent attacks in the city, since Islamist forces were driven out of the city last month. The African Union is putting together a peacekeeping force for Somalia.
The clashes late on Sunday followed an attack on two police stations earlier in the day. No-one has claimed responsibility for the attacks but the government has blamed the remnants of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC). It says some 3,500 Islamist fighters remain in Mogadishu.
POSSIBLE PEACEKEEPERS
Nine battalions proposed - up to 9,000 troops:
Uganda: 1,500 troops offered, subject to parliamentary approval
Malawi: Up to 1,000 troops offered
Nigeria: 1,000 troops offered
Ghana: Reportedly offered troops
Tanzania: Considering
Rwanda: Considering
South Africa:Will not send troops
The AU force would replace the Ethiopian troops, who helped oust the UIC and install the government in Mogadishu.
The Ethiopians have started to withdraw their troops, with about a third due to leave in the coming days. Some analysts fear an increase in violence if the Ethiopians leave before the AU peacekeepers arrive. So far, only Uganda, Malawi and Nigeria have pledged to send troops to Somalia.
But the US would lend air support to the proposed 8,000-strong force, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer told the AFP news agency. "We are ready to provide airlift and contracting airplanes for the African peacekeeping force in Somalia," she said. A court in Somalia's neighbour, Kenya, is due to decide whether to deport a one of the main UIC financial backers to Somalia.
Abubakar Omar Aden, a 72-year old businessman, has pleaded guilty to illegally entering Kenya but says his life would be in danger if he was sent home. About 200 Ethiopian soldiers left Mogadishu last week.
Kenya has deported 57 people to Somalia in recent days, in a move criticised by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Spokesman Yazdi Pedram said there was no legal basis for repatriating them after they fled to Kenya during the recent fighting.
Government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said they would be brought to court but said that most of them investigated so far were foreign passport-holders. He said they include Arabs, Ethiopians, Eritreans and holders of US and European passports. He also said the wives of key international terror suspects and three children had been sent to Somalia.
"The wife of Mohamed Fazul, one of the guys wanted for the 1998 terror bombings on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the wife of Yassin Omar, one of the suspects of the [failed 21 July 2005] London bombings, are among the suspects we hold," he said.
The UIC denied repeated accusations that they were harbouring al-Qaeda operatives.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
AFRICAN SNUB TO SUDAN OVER DARFUR !
Mr Bashir was due become AU leader last year. Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir has again been bypassed in his bid to become chairman of the African Union because of the conflict in Darfur. Mr Bashir was due to take on the role but it has been instead given to Ghana's President John Kuffuor.
Human rights group Amnesty International warned that the AU's credibility would be damaged if Mr Bashir became its leader.
Sudan's government is accused of backing brutal militias in Darfur. Mr Bashir has always denied backing the Janjaweed militias and says the problems in Darfur have been exaggerated.
Some 200,000 people have died and more than two million fled their homes in the four-year conflict.
Mr Bashir was originally due to become AU leader a year ago but this was postponed by 12 months.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
A.U. SUMMIT TO TACKLE TOUGH AGENDA !
AU summit to tackle tough agenda.
By Adam Mynott - BBC News, Nairobi.
Heads of state and political leaders from Africa are gathering at the headquarters of the African Union (AU) in Ethiopia for a two-day summit beginning on Monday. The situation in Darfur has been described as "catastrophic". Climate change which threatens livelihoods all over Africa and a call for more dynamic scientific advances on the continent will occupy the public forum of the summit on Monday.
The coming year has also been designated by the AU as the International Year of African Football, and various events attended by football luminaries have been arranged. But other issues will dominate the closed session of African leaders on Tuesday and much of the discussions which take place behind the scenes at the AU headquarters in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
The ongoing Darfur crisis in western Sudan is not improving. In fact it is getting worse. Tom Arnold, the head of the international agency Concern has just returned from Darfur. "The situation is catastrophic," he said. "The only way to turn it round is for urgent political action to improve security in the short term and to start a meaningful longer-term peace process."
The new UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has put Darfur at the top of his list of humanitarian priorities. He is going to the AU summit to urge heads of government to press for more to be done to stop the killings and rapes, and to find a solution to help end the misery of the two-and-a-half million who are living in camps in poverty and fear.
His predecessor, Kofi Annan, thought he had secured the agreement of the Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to allow UN troops to bolster the African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur, but President Bashir continues to say that he will refuse to allow "neo-colonialist" UN forces into the western Sudanese province.
Omar al-Bashir's candidacy for AU chairman is splitting the group.Many African leaders accept that the AU on its own cannot bring the Darfur crisis to a close. The other problem facing the African Union is what to do about Somalia. It is still rocked by insecurity a month after the Islamic Courts Union which had controlled much of central and southern Somalia was defeated by the combined forces of Somalia's transitional government and Ethiopia.
The AU has committed itself to finding a "stabilisation force" of 8,000 soldiers to send into Somalia, but so far few African countries have come forward with offers of help. The longer it takes the worse it becomes.
Somalia and Darfur should be enough to fully occupy the combined diplomatic skills of all the leaders of Africa's 53 countries, but another matter threatens to overshadow the entire exercise. A year ago Sudan was due to take over chairmanship of the AU but, because of Darfur, many African leaders felt it entirely inappropriate for a government accused of war crimes to be in charge of the pan-African body.
Somalia is fragile but few have offered peacekeepers. In part to avoid a total diplomatic breakdown, Sudan was, in effect, promised the role next time. But Darfur is in an even worse state and many feel that it would be even more inappropriate for President Bashir to become chairman of the AU now.
This is likely to be very contentious, and has not been made any easier by the fact that one of the main rebel groups in Darfur, the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) saying that if Sudan is given the chairmanship then it will consider itself at war with the AU.
On top of that, Chad, which has accused Sudan of supporting rebel groups in the east of the country, has threatened to withdraw from the AU for a year if Sudan is put in charge.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
GUINEAN UNIONS END GENERAL STRIKE !
The strike has crippled commerce in Guinea for 18 days.Guinean unions have called off a general strike that has crippled the nation and led to deadly clashes, after a deal was reached with the government. Nearly 60 people have died in protests since the strike was called on 10 January to demand government reforms. President Lansana Conte agreed on Friday to cede some powers to a prime minister who would head the government.
On Saturday the unions said the president's concessions were sufficient for them to end the strike. "The union association has decided to suspend the strike this Saturday, 27 January, and invites all Guineans to return to work," said Ibrahima Fofana, leader of the USTG union.
The deal reached on Saturday also provided for a lowering of fuel and rice prices, Reuters reported. Since he sacked the last prime minister in April 2006, Mr Conte has combined the roles of head of state and head of government.
But after long negotiations on Friday he agreed to appoint a new prime minister. No-one has yet been named for the position. "He must be a civilian, he must be competent and honest, a patriot who loves Guinea and is prepared to serve it," said union leader Mr Fofana.
The president seized power in a 1984 coup but has since won three elections. The strikers accused Mr Conte, who is in his 70s and suffers from diabetes, of mismanaging the economy and personally securing the release from prison of two men accused of corruption. This was the third general strike in a year. It turned very bloody last Monday, when officials say 49 people were killed in the capital, Conakry.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
S. AFRICAN HOSPITALS DELAYED BY CUP !
S Africa hospitals delayed by Cup
By Martin Plaut - BBC News.
South Africa is set to stage a World Cup on African soil for the first time. A hospital building programme in South Africa has been put back, to help pay for the football World Cup which the country is hosting in 2010.
Two hospitals in the remote Northern Cape have been told their buildings will be delayed because of cuts in government spending.
The rising cost to South Africa of hosting the World Cup is beginning to take its toll on government spending.
A new 200-bed hospital in De Aar is to be delayed - so is another in Upington.
A spokeswoman for the Northern Cape health department, Shelley Fielding, said money had been diverted to prepare for 2010.
"The hospital building programme will resume in 2008/9 financial year. Other provinces are also affected," Ms Fielding said.
The South African treasury said spending on health was increasing but did not deny that the money had been transferred.
The cost of providing new and renovated stadiums for the World Cup is rising rapidly, with construction bills hundreds of millions of dollars over budget.
A spokesman for the opposition Democratic Alliance has put this down to inadequate government planning.
But President Thabo Mbeki has staked South Africa's reputation on the event, and nothing is likely to stand in its way.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
More Ethiopians to Quit Somalia !
About 200 Ethiopian soldiers left Mogadishu last Tuesday. Ethiopia is cutting its troop numbers in Somalia by about a third, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has said. He told Reuters news agency they would leave in the next 24 hours, but gave no precise details or numbers.
Thousands of Ethiopian soldiers were sent to help the weak Somali interim government oust Islamist forces.
Observers say a withdrawal makes the proposed African Union (AU) force to replace the Ethiopians an even more pressing issue at a summit on Monday.
The BBC's Amber Henshaw in Addis Ababa says some fear a political vacuum in Somalia, if there is no international support for the transitional government.
Our correspondent also says there is concern that there could be a re-emergence of the warlords who controlled much of the country since 1991 or an upsurge of violence from the Islamists.
POSSIBLE PEACEKEEPERS
Nine battalions proposed - up to 9,000 troops:
Uganda: 1,500 troops offered, subject to parliamentary approval
Malawi: Up to 1,000 troops offered
Nigeria: 1,000 troops offered
Ghana: Reportedly offered troops
Tanzania: Considering
Rwanda: Considering
South Africa: Considering but forces stretched
Ethiopia began pulling its troops out last Tuesday, with 200 seen leaving the capital Mogadishu.
"We are reducing troop numbers by about a third... that process should be completed today (Saturday) or tomorrow (Sunday)," Mr Meles told Reuters.
He declined to say how many troops had been sent to Ethiopia. Experts' estimates range from 5,000 to 15,000.
Mr Meles said he hoped to withdraw the rest of his troops "within weeks".
The proposed 7,600-strong AU force to replace the Ethiopians has drawn commitments from just three countries - Uganda, Malawi and Nigeria - although it is supposed to deploy by the end of the month.
In a separate development, the International Committee of the Red Cross has expressed concern about the deportation of Islamist suspects from Kenya to Somalia.
Spokesman Yazdi Pedram said there was no legal basis for repatriating them after they fled to Kenya during the recent fighting.
A second group of Islamists has been forcibly returned to Somalia - 23 prisoners arrived at Mogadishu international airport blind-folded, their legs in shackles, their hands tied behind their backs.
Heavily armed policemen escorted them onto trucks bound for an unknown destination.
Thirty-four suspected Islamists deported from Kenya a week ago are still in custody and have not been charged.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Cathy Buckle's Letter From Zimbabwe !
Dear Family and Friends,
A large black snake showed up in my garden this week. I believe it was an
Egyptian Cobra and it seemed to come from nowhere and without any warning.
It's that time of year when animal encounters increase. It is wet, hot and
humid and there is thick, tall bush everywhere you look - including on
un-mown roadsides and uncleared drains in the residential suburbs of the
towns. I watched in horror as the snake approached my chickens. It raised
its head, began to spread a hood and I could not believe that the chickens
just stood there, completely still, seemingly paralyzed. The hens did not
move a muscle or make a sound as death literally stared them in the face. I
didn't wait any longer and soon the missiles began to fly. At last, perhaps
buoyed by the noisy support, the hens woke up from their stupor. Feathers
were ruffled, necks craned and a great clucking and alarmed babbling
started up, and carried on for a considerable time. Many missiles later the
snake retreated down a hole in the corner of the garden and now I know it's
there but can't do anything except wait for the next encounter. The garden
is tended, the grass is short and on the surface everything looks serene
and peaceful, but I know its just an illusion and that at any time all hell
will break loose again.
We have become a country full of illusions and this rainy season the
tricks,mirrors and juggling acts are very battered indeed. In many small
towns we seem to be moving perilously close to a ticking time bomb.This
week on state sponsored TV came a headline report of Kwekwe town being "on
the edge of collapse" as miners are digging right under the railway lines.
From Bindura came news that the municipal department responsible for
housing has been closed until further notice. It seems that the receipts
for money being paid to the department differed hugely between the top and
duplicate copies and a huge fraud has been playing out to the detriment of
the town.
In Marondera when the dustbins had not been collected for three weeks
recently, the local Health Inspector was contacted. He was sympathetic to
the obvious effects of uncollected garbage at this time of year - the
smell, flies, mosquitoes rats and health hazard but said there was nothing
he could do. The fuel intended for the refuse removal trucks had been
reallocated to the army for land tillage. The large government hospital,
and in fact most of Marondera town, continues to have major water
shortages. Public toilets at the hospital outpatients unit are closed but
desperate patients continue to use them as they wait for five or more hours
just to see a nurse as the doctors are still on strike. The toilet floors
are apparently thick with maggots and horrors you would expect in a sewer,
not a major provincial government hospital.
And so the appearance of things being under control in Zimbabwe is just a
shaky illusion. Someone told me this week that there is bright light at the
end of the tunnel. Its from an express train coming straight at us and we
are standing right in its path, blinded by the light, unable to move. Until
next week, thanks for reading, love cathy.
Copyright cathy buckle 27
January 2007. http://africantears.netfirms.com My books: "African Tears"
and "Beyond Tears" are available from@ orders@africabookcentre.com To
subscribe/unsubscribe to this newsletter, please write to:
cbuckle@mango.zw
--
GUINEAN LEADER 'TO CEDE POWERS' !
The strike has paralysed Guinea for more than two weeks. Guinean President Lansana Conte has agreed to cede some powers to a prime minister, union leaders say, meaning they may call off their general strike. "He has accepted the principle of a prime minister who is head of government. We are satisfied," said union leader Amadou Diallo.
Another source said talks on ending the strike would take place on Saturday. Almost 60 people have died over 17 days in clashes between protesters and Guinean authorities.
Mr Diallo, assistant secretary-general of the National Confederation of Guinean Workers (CNTG), said getting the president to agree that the new prime minister should head the government "was the most important point for us".
Until now, Mr Conte has combined the roles of head of state and head of government.
Mr Diallo said the strikers' demands for lower fuel and rice prices were still outstanding, but he was confident a settlement could be reached. "This should go quickly. The strike could be suspended from tomorrow," he said.
Mr Conte seized power in a 1984 coup but has since won three elections.
The strikers accuse Mr Conte, who is his 70s and suffers from diabetes, of mismanaging the economy and personally securing the release from prison of two men accused of corruption.
This is the third general strike in a year.
It turned very bloody on Monday, when officials say 49 people were killed in the capital, Conakry.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Posted by: Mara at January 27, 2007 22:36 |
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TWO KILLED IN KENYAN CARJACKING !
Armed men shot dead two female passengers as they carjacked a US embassy vehicle near the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, police have said. At least one of the women appeared to have been shot for not getting out of the vehicle quickly enough, they said.
The incident took place in Kinoo, some 12 miles (20km) west of the capital. The men were armed with rifles.
The identities of the women have not been released and the US embassy in Nairobi has not confirmed the incident.
Police spokesman Gideon Kibunjah said: "There was a person who was driving and an elderly lady who took too long to get out of the vehicle and the gangsters shot them and threw them out."
Both women were confirmed dead on arrival at hospital.
Police said the group of five people were travelling through the western suburb in a black four-wheel drive with US diplomatic number plates.
Carjackings are common in and around the Kenyan capital but they usually take place at night.
A senior US military official was seriously wounded after being shot during a similar carjacking in September.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Posted by: Mara at January 27, 2007 22:31 |
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YORKSHIRE CLAN LINKED TO AFRICA !
The connection was found to date back many generations. People of African origin have lived in Britain for centuries, according to genetic evidence. A Leicester University study found that seven men with a rare Yorkshire surname carry a genetic signature previously found only in people of African origin.
The men seem to have shared a common ancestor in the 18th Century, but the African DNA lineage they carry may have reached Britain centuries earlier. Details of the study appear in the European Journal of Human Genetics. The scientists declined to disclose the men's surname in order to protect their anonymity.
The discovery came out of genetic work looking at the relationship between the male, or Y, chromosome and surnames. The Y chromosome is a package of genetic material normally found only in males. It is passed down from father to son, more or less unchanged, just like a surname.
Rare lineage
But over time, the Y chromosome accumulates small changes in its DNA sequence, allowing scientists to study the relationships between different male lineages. Y chromosomes can be classified into different groups (called haplogroups) which, to some extent, reflect a person's geographical ancestry.
Certain haplogroups might be very common in, for example, East Asia and very rare in Europe. By chance, the researchers discovered a white man with a rare Yorkshire surname carrying a Y chromosome haplogroup that had previously been found only in West African men. And even there, it is relatively uncommon.
"We found that he was in haplogroup A1, which is highly West African-specific," said Turi King, a co-author on the study at the University of Leicester. "It is incredibly rare, there are only 25 other people known worldwide and they are all African."
Family tree
The individual had no knowledge of any African heritage in his family. Sharing a surname also significantly raised the likelihood of sharing the same type of Y chromosome, with the link getting stronger as the surname gets rarer. Analysis of Thomas Jefferson's DNA also threw up a surprise. So the researchers started recruiting people with the same last name, which starts with "R" and originates in Yorkshire.
Of 18 people they tested, seven carried the rare African haplogroup.
Turi King and Leicester colleague Mark Jobling then commissioned a genealogist to fit the men into a family tree to see how they were related and find clues about where exactly their unusual Y haplogroup came from.
"He could only get them into two trees, one which dates back to 1788 and the other to 1789. He couldn't go back any further. So it's likely they join up in the early 18th Century," said Turi King. The majority of the one million people who define themselves as "black" or "black British" trace their origins to immigration from the Caribbean or Africa from the middle of the 20th Century onwards.
Prior to the 20th Century, there have been various routes by which people of African ancestry might have reached Britain. For example, the Romans recruited from Africa and elsewhere for the garrison that guarded Hadrian's Wall.
Different routes
Another major route was through the slave trade. "Some of the Africans who arrived in Britain through the slave trade rose quite high up in society, and we know they married with the rest of the population," said Ms King. "It could be either of these two routes," she said. Even if the two family trees link up in the 18th Century, haplogroup A1 could have reached Britain long before that. "But my guess is that, because many slaves came from West Africa, it could have been through that route," Ms King told BBC News. She added that the study showed that Britain has always been composed of a mosaic of different people.
Professor Jobling echoed this view: "This study shows that what it means to be British is complicated and always has been," he said. "Human migration history is clearly very complex, particularly for an island nation such as ours, and this study further debunks the idea that there are simple and distinct populations or 'races'."
Turi King said she had since found another African Y chromosome haplogroup in a different British lineage. There are other precedents for the finding. When scientists analysed the DNA of the third US president, Thomas Jefferson, they found that his Y chromosome belonged to a haplogroup known as K2.
Jefferson's father claimed Welsh ancestry. But his Y-haplogroup is rare in Europe and has not yet been reported in Britain. In fact, genetic studies show that Thomas Jefferson's K2 haplogroup ultimately came from north-east Africa or the Middle East, the areas where it is most commonly found today.
The research on haplogroup A1 was funded by the Wellcome Trust.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
FIVE KILLED IN MOGADISHU ATTACKS !
There have been numerous attacks in Mogadishu recently.Unknown gunmen have killed five people in a series of attacks in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, witnesses say. A BBC correspondent saw three bodies with gunshot wounds lying in waste ground and reliable witnesses have seen two more bodies elsewhere in the city. Four people were also injured in mortar attacks. Insecurity has increased since the ousting of Islamists last month.
Meanwhile, South Africa says it does not have the troops to contribute to an African Union peacekeeping force. Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said it might try to support the mission in other ways, such as technical support. The AU force would replace Ethiopian troops, who have started to withdraw after helping the interim government drive out the Union of Islamic Courts from Mogadishu and most of southern Somalia.
POSSIBLE PEACEKEEPERS
Nine battalions proposed - up to 9,000 troops:
Uganda: 1,500 troops offered, subject to parliamentary approval
Malawi: Up to 1,000 troops offered
Nigeria: 1,000 troops offered
Ghana: Reportedly offered troops
Tanzania: Considering
Rwanda: Considering
South Africa:Not sending troops
Some UIC leaders have said they would stage a guerrilla war and it is believed that some 3,000 Islamist fighters remain in Mogadishu. There have been several attacks on Ethiopian and government troops but those killed overnight were civilians. Four were killed in at least two attacks in south Mogadishu, the other body was found in the north of the city.
Police Commissioner Ali Mohamed Hassan Loyan said the attackers were "hell-bent on undermining the security of the country. The police will track them down." This week, an Ethiopian soldier was killed in the southern city of Kismayo, while mortars were fired at Mogadishu's main airport. After 15 years of lawlessness in Somalia, the UIC had restored some security to the capital after taking control of the city last June. But they were accused of sheltering al-Qaeda militants responsible for the 1998 attacks on US embassies in East Africa. They denied the charges.
On Thursday, AU chairman Alpha Oumar Konare appealed to countries across the continent to help get troops deployed to Somalia. He said troops, funding and other resources like aircraft were needed to ensure peacekeepers could be deployed soon to avert a tragedy. He said Nigeria, Uganda, Ghana and Malawi had now offered to send peacekeeping troops.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
