Venue swap benefits wanted president of Sudan

An African president wanted for genocide was expected for a weekend summit, but as the International Criminal Court asked Kenya to arrest him the venue was switched to a country beyond the court's reach, officials said on Wednesday.

The summit is now to take place in Ethiopia, which doesn't recognize the International Criminal Court. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, the wanted man, visited Ethiopia in April 2009 soon after he was first indicted by the ICC. The change of summit venue raises questions about whether regional leaders have the will to bring al-Bashir to justice for atrocities committed in Darfur, in western Sudan. The weekend meeting held by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, or IGAD, brings together the leaders of six East African nations to discuss two referenda in Sudan in January that could see the southern part of Africa's biggest country break away. There are fears that if the referenda are postponed, a civil war could re-ignite in Sudan.

The ICC, based in The Hague, Netherlands, on Tuesday made public a request to Kenya to arrest al-Bashir if he enters the country. Kenya is a signatory to the statute forming the ICC and is obligated to arrest al-Bashir if he is in Kenya, even though it failed to do so when he arrived in August for a ceremony to adopt Kenya's new constitution. Yufnalis Okubo, IGAD's acting director of peace and security, said the organization had initially planned to hold the summit in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, but that as of Tuesday the venue was changed to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital. "It's not a big deal," he said, adding he did not know why the venue was changed. But the change happened as controversy grew around the possibility of al-Bashir's presence in Kenya.
 
Last week, African rights organizations asked Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki to clearly state that al-Bashir would be arrested if he visited. The ICC did not immediately return a call seeking comment. When Kenyan authorities did not arrest al-Bashir in August, they were heavily criticized, including in a statement by President Barack Obama.
 
The refusal to arrest al-Bashir raises doubts about Kenya's willingness to hand over top Kenyan officials expected to soon be charged by the ICC for postelection violence that left more than 1,000 people dead in 2007-08.  The ICC has no police force and relies on member states to arrest suspects. Al-Bashir refuses to recognize the court's authority and has vowed to never turn himself in. Darfur's ethnic African rebels rose up in 2003, accusing Sudan's Arab-dominated central government of neglect and discrimination. U.N. officials estimated 300,000 people died and 2.7 million were displaced. Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda are members of IGAD. Eritrea suspended its membership in 2007. (Sapa-AP)

Adapted from:
Mmegi Online: Venue swap benefits wanted president of Sudan

Absa Capital to Start First Gold Exchange Traded Funds in Nigeria, Kenya

Absa Capital, a unit of South Africa’s Absa Group Ltd., said it may start the first gold- backed exchange-traded funds in Kenya and Nigeria.
“Absa Capital is in talks with the Nigerian Stock Exchange to potentially secondary list our NewGold exchange-traded fund,” Vladimir Nedeljkovic, the Johannesburg-based investment bank’s principal for ETFs and index products, said today. He is in Kenya to discuss starting the ETF in the East African nation.
NewGold, which has its main listing on South Africa’s JSE Ltd., is the largest gold ETF in Africa’s biggest economy, with more than $2 billion in assets. Earlier this year, Absa Capital, listed NewGold on the Botswana Stock Exchange.
Absa, South Africa’s largest retail bank and which is controlled by Barclays Plc, wants to expand in the continent to boost earnings. Absa Capital, which was launched in 2005 after the U.K. bank bought a stake in the lender, contributed more than one-fifth of Absa’s profit in the first half to June 2010.
In Nigeria, the NewGold ETF will develop the nation’s capital markets by improving liquidity on the bourse and bringing another asset class to the West African market, helping investors to “diversify their exposures,” Nedeljkovic said. “Our discussions with the NSE are in very early stages and we cannot provide any timing.”
ETFs trade like stocks, allowing investors access to commodities like gold and platinum without taking physical delivery of them.

Adapted from:
Bloomberg: Absa Capital to Start First Gold Exchange...

Birtukan one of three Sakharov finalists

AUDJ supporter chants slogans for release of Birtukan

Note - Prominent Ethiopian opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa, who was released on October 6 in Addis from nearly two years of imprisonment, emerged on Monday one of three finalists for the prestigious Sakharov Prize. The others are an Israeli NGO known as Breaking the Silence and Cuban longtime dissident Dr. Guillermo Fariñas. It is a huge success for the pro-democracy camp in Ethiopia that Birtukan has been a finalist from nine other nominees. The winner of the Sakharov Prize will be announced October 21, 2010.

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Breaking the Silence is an Israeli NGO, established in 2004, by Israeli soldiers and veterans who collect and provide testimonies about their military service in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem during the second Intifada. The NGO is dedicated to exposing the Israeli public to the realities of the Israeli occupation, as seen through the eyes of Israeli soldiers, and to stirring debate about the impact of the prolonged occupation on the Palestinian population and on Israeli society. "If we vote for Breaking the Silence were are voting for peace, we are voting for the honour of Israeli democracy and we are saying we are in favour of two states: the Palestinian State and the Israeli State (...) Awarding the prize, we want to give peace a chance", declared Daniel Cohn-Bendit (Greens/EFA, FR).

Guillermo  Fariñas, aged 48, was nominated in the name of all those who fight in Cuba for freedom and human rights.  He is a doctor of psychology, independent journalist and political dissident in Cuba. He has conducted 23 hunger strikes over the years "not in his own favour but in order to defend his compatriots" said José Ignacio Salafranca (EPP, ES). A supporter of non-violence who dares to denounce the Castro regime, "Guillermo Fariñas is a symbol in the struggle against the imprisonment of political opponents (). Because he is defending dignity and democracy in his country, he is the ideal candidate for the Sakharov Prize" say the MEPs who nominated him.

Birtukan MIDEKSA, an Ethiopian politician and former judge, is the leader of the opposition Unity for Democracy and Justice (UDJ) party. On December 28 2008, Birtukan Mideska was re-arrested and imprisoned to serve a life sentence, after having spoken in Sweden with journalists about the way opposition leaders were released in her country. She was released from prison at the beginning of October, after almost two years' incarceration.
"The Saharov prize should be given to those who need international visibility and protection. Birtukan Mideksa needs both. By awarding the Saharov prize to Birtukan Mideksa, representing all Ethiopian political prisoners, the European Parliament would bring hope and would call attention to this young mother, one of the few female party leaders in Africa. It would also guarantee visibility of the struggle of thousands of forgotten political prisoners who fight for justice, the rule of law and democracy in Ethiopia", declared Adrian Severin (S&D, RO).


Adapted from:

Ethiomedia:Birtukan one of the three finalists

SA govt signs pact to fight crime

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA Oct 24 2010 18:05

South Africa's government on Sunday vowed to reduce violent crime by signing a delivery pact which sets out a programme of action to ensure people in the country feel safe.

The agreement with the presidency sets targets for ministries with responsibility for crime prevention, security and justice to bring down violence, fight corruption and better manage caseloads in the country's courts.

"It sets standards against which government will be measured as it pursues a safer South Africa in partnership with various sectors of society," said a government statement.

The pact is the government's programme of action to make the country safer for residents and more attractive to investors and visitors who have expressed concerns about crime, it said.

Targets include lowering levels of serious crime, increasing visible policing, and tackling escapes from custody.

A corruption baseline report is due by December, while border security is also to be beefed up.

The pact is one of a dozen priorities which also include bettering education, health, employment, and housing. Its main objective is that "all people in South Africa are and feel safe".

The agreements follow President Jacob Zuma's signing of performance agreements with his relevant ministers earlier this year.

South Africa's number of murders fell last year to the lowest level since apartheid but still averages 46 a day, one of the highest in the world. - AFP

Adapted from:
Mail & Guardian Online: SA govt signs pact to fight crime

Hotel Rwanda hero 'aided terrorism'

                                           Rusesabagina, right, has denied the allegations [EPA]
A senior Rwandan prosecutor is considering bringing charges of terrorism against a former manager of a hotel in Rwanda who saved hundreds of people from the 1994 genocide.
Martin Ngoga said on Tuesday that Paul Rusesabagina, whose actions are depicted in the Oscar-nominated film Hotel Rwanda, had helped finance what he described as terrorist activities in Rwanda by helping fund commanders with the FDLR, or Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda.
Rusesabagina has denied the allegations, telling Al Jazeera on Thursday that it was "simply a smear campaign" against him by the government that dates from the film's release six years ago. He said that he had not sent any money to Rwanda in years.
"Hotel Rwanda [the film] was creating another hero that the Rwandan government did not want," he said.
"From that day on, the president started calling me a Hollywood-made hero, fabricated hero. He started calling me a thief, stealing with the foreign powers."
The government, he said, was launching a smear campaign against him because he has in the past opposed Paul Kagame, the Rwandan president.
The FDLR is based in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda's neighbour, and is made up of Hutus known as the Interahamwe, who are blamed for massacring up to 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus in a spate of frenzied killings that lasted 100 days.
Rwanda has detained some of the FDLR commanders, but it is not clear how they have been allegedly receiving funds from Rusesabagina.
No formal charges have been filed yet, but Ngoga said he was asking US officials for assistance in gathering evidence against Rusesabagina.

"Those who want to continue considering him as a hero can go on," Ngoga told a news conference.
"We consider him a serious criminal suspect who has been financing FDLR and we are challenging whoever speaks on his behalf to tell us whether he never sent money to these FDLR commanders we have in custody."
Ngoga said some of the financial transactions originated in San Antonio, Texas, where Rusesabagina has a house.

Presidential medal
After his story was publicised in Hotel Rwanda, Rusesabagina was hailed as a hero around the world.
George W Bush, the former US president, awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005, the highest civilian honour in the US.
According to Terry George, the director of Hotel Rwanda, Kagame described Rusesabagina as a "manufactured hero" after he criticised the president's regime.
Rusesabagina, 56, who was released from a hospital operation last week to find that his home in Brussels, Belgium had been broken into and documents stolen, says he has done nothing wrong.
"It is the latest step in a campaign against me by the Rwandan government that has included public insults, lies and physical harassment," he said.
"My foundation is advocating for a truth, justice and reconciliation process to try to foster sustainable peace in Rwanda ... but anyone who opposes Kagame inside or outside the country is treated with this kind of harassment."
Kagame, an ethnic Tutsi who won re-election in August, has tried to downplay the role of ethnicity in post-genocide Rwanda, and people in the country rarely refer to themselves as Hutu or Tutsi and can face charges for speaking publicly about ethnicity.
But human rights groups accuse his administration of iron-fisted control and of silencing opposition politicians and media outlets.
The accusations against Rusesabagina came days after Rwandan authorities arrested Victoire Ingabire, the leader of the unregistered United Democratic Forces.
Ingabire, who has been under judicial control since April and was barred from the August election, has been detained in connection with an alleged plot to form a "terrorist group".
Earlier this year, Ingabire sought representation by Peter Erlinder, a US lawyer who was jailed by Rwandan authorities for about three weeks when he arrived in Rwanda in May to meet the politician.

Adapted from:
Aljezeera news article : Hotel Rwanda hero 'aided terrorism'

I’m no saint, Mandela says in book about his early days as a prisoner

AFP | NATION. Zindzi Mandela (left), the youngest daughter of former South African President Nelson Mandela shows him a letter at his home in Johannesburg on July 17, 2010 during celebrations of his 92nd birthday.

Posted Sunday, October 10 2010 at 18:32

JOHANNESBURG, Sunday

A new collection of Nelson Mandela’s private papers reveals his years of heartache at missing his family while in prison and his wariness at becoming idolised, in excerpts published today.

The book Conversations with Myself goes on sale Tuesday, but passages printed in British and South African papers show his thoughts on everything from the danger of corruption in power to his personal grief at the death of his son.

Decades worth of letters, diaries and private recordings were distilled by his eponymous Foundation in a project that purports to show the private man behind the global icon.

Now 92, the man who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his struggle against the white-minority apartheid government says he doesn’t want to be remembered as a larger-than-life saint.

“One issue that deeply worried me in prison was the false image I unwittingly projected to the outside world; of being regarded as a saint,” he said in a excerpt printed in South Africa’s Sunday Times.

“I never was one, even on the basis of the earthly definition of a saint as a sinner who keeps trying.”

Mr Mandela was detained for 27 years for resisting apartheid rule. He was released in 1990 and led negotiations with the government that culminated in his election as the country’s first black president in 1994.

He stepped down in 1999, after serving one term in office. He now appears frail and makes few public appearances since retiring from public life in 2004.

He remains deeply revered in South Africa, and although he has spoken publicly about his shortcomings, critical talk is almost non-existent about the man known fondly by his clan name Madiba.

The book appears to invite a more rounded discussion of his life, while also focusing on the enormous personal sacrifices required by his devotion to the liberation struggle.

“As a young man, I combined all the weaknesses, errors and indiscretions of a country boy, whose range of vision and experience was influenced mainly by events in the area in which I grew up and the colleges to which I was sent,” he wrote, according to the South African paper.

“I relied on arrogance to hide my weaknesses,” he added.

In letters written to his family while in prison, Mr Mandela wrote that he felt “soaked in gall” by being powerless to help his then-wife Winnie and his children, according to Britain’s Sunday Times.

“I feel I have been soaked in gall, every part of me, my flesh, bloodstream, bone and soul, so bitter am I to be completely powerless to help you in the rough and fierce ordeals you are going through,” he wrote to Winnie Mandela in August 1970.

When Winnie was also jailed for a time in 1969, he wrote to his daughters Zeni and Zindi, then aged nine and 10 that “now she and Daddy are away in jail.”

“It may be months or even years before you see her again. For long you may live like orphans without your own home and parents, without the natural love, affection and protection Mummy used to give you.”

The letters also reveal his sometimes stormy relations with Winnie, whom he divorced after his release from prison.

In a letter to a friend in 1987, he says that after writing to Winnie to say that their daughters had grown up well: “My beloved wife was furious... she reminded me: ‘I, not you, brought up these children whom you now prefer to me.’ I was simply stunned.”

A poignant letter to a friend records his reaction after Thembi, the elder of two sons from his first marriage, died in a car crash at the age of 24 in 1969. He was not allowed to attend the funeral.
“When I was first advised of my son’s death I was shaken from top to bottom,” he said, adding that he had experienced similar heartache when he lost a nine-month-old baby girl several years earlier.

Some of his musings resonate in modern South Africa’s concerns about corruption in politics.

“Frequently erstwhile revolutionaries have easily succumbed to greed, and the tendency to divert public resources for personal enrichment ultimately overwhelmed them,” he said.

Mandela himself isn’t expected to speak about the book’s release. His last public outing was a brief appearance at the World Cup final in July in Johannesburg. (AFP)

Adapted from:
Daily Nation: I’m no saint, Mandela says...