Democracy for Africa

Egyptians mass in Tahrir to honour uprising

2012-01-26T02:15:00.000-08:00

Hundreds of thousands of people have gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square to commemorate the first anniversary of the Egyptian revolution that toppled their long-time ruler, Hosni Mubarak.

It is a year since Egyptians, inspired by an uprising in Tunisia, took to the streets to call for reform and to demand the resignation of Mubarak, Egypt's president for 30 years.

"Down with military rule" and "Revolution until victory, revolution in all of Egypt's streets" were chanted by one group of mainly youths in an area of Tahrir on Wednesday.

Sherine Tadros, reporting from Tahrir Square, said: "For a section of people demonstrating here, it's really just about military hijacking the revolution, and about Islamist parties and movements now making the gains instead of those who actually initiated the revolution."

"But others say it is a rocky transition but it is still a transition pointing out to the fact that Egypt had first free and fair elections in decades and people’s assembly which reflects will of the people."

Meanwhile, about 3,000 people, who were pardoned by the military rulers coinciding with the anniversary, have walked out of Tora prison located on the outskirts of Cairo.

In an apparent attempt to appease reformist demands, the military council has in recent days pardoned people convicted in military courts since Mubarak was toppled.

The military, which was handed power as the president stepped down on February 11, has planned mass celebrations with a naval parade in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, air shows in Cairo and fireworks displays around the country.

The ruling military council is also issuing commemorative coins for the occasion and is expected to honour public servants.

It has called on Egyptians to "preserve the spirit of January 25, which united the Egyptian people, men and women, young and old, Muslims and Christians".

Al Jazeera's Tadros said: "What we have right now is their [military] promise. And this was something reiterated by Field Marshal Tantawi on Tuesday."

"Apart from saying that the scope of emergency law would be narrowed, he also said and promised, come July when there is new president in power the military will go back to barracks.

"But the big question is what will be their legacy? What kind of role they want to carve out for themselves? What kind of backroom deal they could have made with the largest force in the parliament [Muslim Brotherhood] so is to guarantee their immunity."

'Objectives of the revolution'

Activists say the revolution has been hijacked by Hussein Tantawi, for two decades Mubarak's defence minister, who now heads the military council.

Wael Khalil, Egyptian blogger and activist, told Al Jazeera: "Definitely, the revolution has not achieved its goal and that’s why the main slogan now on the street is, people going back to Tahrir Square, because the revolution continues until it realises its goal."

"Everything that has been achieved in the past one year was a result of people’s protests and demands.

"The trial of Mubarak, free elections, participation of people in the elections and other demands were not achieved by power from above, not by SCAF, but people pressuring from below."

Prominent novelist and pro-democracy activist Alaa al-Aswani wrote in the independent daily al-Masry al-Youm: "We must take to the streets on Wednesday, not to celebrate a revolution which has not achieved its goals, but to demonstrate peacefully our determination to achieve the objectives of the revolution."

These goals remain to "live in dignity, bring about justice, try the killers of the martyrs and achieve a minimum social justice", he wrote.

Dalia Mogahed, director and senior analyst at the Abu Dhabi Gallup Center, told Al Jazeera "Egyptians are more optimistic about their future than they have been in a very a long time".

According to research done by her group, Mogahed said most Egyptians believe things are getting better and will get better in the future. She said the vast majority of Egyptians still have faith in the military and the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF).

She said Tahrir Square was an important component of the story, but not the entire story. Research shows that more than 85 per cent of Egyptians say they still have confidence in the SCAF.

Partial lifting of emergency

Protesters want Tantawi and the other ruling generals to step down immediately and to stay out of the drafting of the country's new constitution, for fear they may enshrine military powers into the charter.

The military has pledged to cede power to civilian rule when a president is elected by June.

On Tuesday, it announced a partial lifting of a state of emergency, but kept a clause saying emergency laws in place since 1981 would still apply to cases falling into the vague category of "thuggery".

The Muslim Brotherhood, which won the most seats in recent parliamentary elections, has announced it will join the celebrations on Wednesday, without calling for "a second revolution" or demanding that the military give up power.

"The formation of the parliament is the biggest celebration of the anniversary of the revolution," the group said on its website, a day after the lower house convened for the first time since it was dissolved after the uprising.

Leading Muslim Brotherhood member Saad al-Katatni was elected speaker of parliament on Monday, in scenes unthinkable just a year ago when the group was still banned.

Mubarak will spend the anniversary in a Cairo military hospital, where he is in custody accused of involvement in the killing of protesters during the uprising that toppled him.

Egyptians upbeat as they celebrate one year since start of revolution

2012-01-26T02:08:00.000-08:00

CROWDS of protesters gathered in Tahrir Square to mark the first anniversary of Egypt's revolution, as the country's ruling military council announced a partial end to the emergency rule that has dominated people's lives for more than 30 years.

But it kept a clause saying emergency laws - in place since 1981 - would still apply in cases of ''thuggery'', a vague term that has drawn criticism from human rights groups and raised eyebrows in Washington.

''We are seeking some clarification from the Egyptian government … what they mean by that,'' the US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

Egyptians gather in Tahrir Square to mark the one year anniversary of the revolution on January 25, 2012 in Cairo Egypt. Photo: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

''The fact that they are finally, after these many, many months of demands, taking the major step is very important for Egypt and for its future.''

To further appease democracy activists who want the country's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to cede power to a civilian government, the military pardoned and released this week nearly 2000 prisoners arrested and tried in military courts since the former president Hosni Mubarak was swept from power.

Yesterday was declared a public holiday by the ruling military council. In Tahrir Square, which has been at the heart of Egypt's millions-strong protests and the scene of months of horrific violence, the mood was upbeat.

Click for more photos

A year without Mubarak

Protesters celebrate outside the presidential palace in Cairo after President Hosni Mubarak steps down. Photo: AFP

Flags were flying high in the winter breeze, political discussions erupted into heated debates, groups chanted slogans calling for the end to military rule and hundreds more people were arriving to take their place in this rolling democracy movement.

The crowd was calm early on, and the military vowed to let the protest proceed unhindered, although it was clear they had prepared for trouble. The streets around the square leading to government buildings have been blocked by concrete cubes, reinforced cement walls, barbed wire and rows of riot police.

Like many protesters, 19-year-old Nia, who did not want her last name published, had not told her parents she would be in Tahrir Square today.

''We were so hopeful once we were rid of Mubarak, but now the army is holding us back,'' she said. ''They have done nothing about food prices, gas prices, or anything with the economy - if they cannot fix it they should allow a civilian government to take over.''

Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, Egypt's de facto ruler, has stuck to his deadline of handing over power after the presidential elections due in July. Activists say this should happen sooner and have nominated the elections for the parliament's upper house, due to begin on Sunday, as the next deadline for the military.

Some protesters came to the square simply to celebrate what has been an extraordinary year. Mohammed Ahmed, an English teacher from Damietta, a coastal city about 200 kilometres north of Cairo, said Egypt had undergone enormous upheaval in a short period and he was proud of the achievements so far.

''This is the first time I have felt real happiness and freedom. This is a new Egypt and this is a great time in our lives,'' he said.

''I am 47 years old and this is the first time I have felt a real optimism about a new Egypt. Of course [the military council] should hand over power, but this will happen. We will go forward gradually, step by step.''

He was especially positive about the inaugural sitting this week of the country's first democratically elected parliament in 60 years, in a house dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party.

''Here we see liberal and leftist parties and Islamist parties all speaking together - we would never see this under Mubarak. Under Mubarak we were bleeding, now we have hope.''

Libya: UK officials tell Gaddafi loyalists to defect or face war crimes trial

2011-02-26T00:06:00.000-08:00

• SAS on standby to rescue trapped Britons

• Leader says Libya will be 'red with fire'

Patrick Wintour and Julian Borger
guardian.co.uk, Friday 25 February 2011 20.30 GMT
Article history

In a televised address, Colonel Gaddafi vowed to ‘open up the arsenals’ to arm his supporters. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

British officials are contacting senior Libyan regime figures directly to persuade them to desert Muammar Gaddafi or face trial alongside him for crimes against humanity, the Guardian has learned.

With SAS troops and paratroopers on standby to rescue an estimated 150 Britons at workplaces in the Libyan desert, contingency measures were being drawn up to close the British embassy in Tripoli to pre-empt possible reprisals.

But the Foreign Office denied reports that the embassy would be closed as soon as this weekend. "We will react to the situation as it unfolds on the ground. If it gets too dangerous for our people to be there, of course we will pull them out of there. But are we planning to close the embassy down? No," a spokesman said. The US said it was closing its embassy in Tripoli as well as imposing limited unilateral sanctions on Libya.

The foreign secretary, William Hague, urged Britons still in Tripoli to board the last UK-sponsored chartered flight out of the capital at first light. He said HMS Cumberland would return to Benghazi on Sunday to pick up any remaining Britons there, but added that those in the desert remained Britain's biggest worry. All options were being considered, he said.

There were reports that two RAF helicopters had arrived in Malta in what may be the next stage of preparations to airlift some UK oil workers.

Britain's direct warnings to Libyan officials coincided with a joint British and French draft UN security council resolution the Libyan leadership to face war crimes prosecutions at the international criminal court for attacks on protesters. The resolution also called for travel bans and asset freezes for Libya's leaders.

Gaddafi showed no sign of heeding the warnings. Reports said that gunmen in cars in the capital, Tripoli, opened fire on protesters as they emerged from Friday prayers.

Nearby, in Green Square, the Libyan leader made another defiant televised appearance, promising to arm his supporters. "Retaliate against them, retaliate against them," he told a crowd of loyalists from the ramparts of a crusader fort overlooking the square. "Dance, sing and prepare. Prepare to defend Libya, to defend the oil, dignity and independence."

Wearing a fur-lined cap and sunglasses, and flanked by bodyguards, Gaddafi declared: "At the suitable time we will open the arms depot so all Libyans and tribes become armed, so that Libya becomes red with fire."

A vote on the UN resolution is not expected before next week. EU officials also discussed the possible imposition of punitive measures against the Gaddafi government, but stressed that any action would be led by decisions taken by the security council.

The steps under discussion fall a long way short of steps called for by some human rights groups, which wanted the UN to declare a no-fly zone over Libya if the regime continued to use warplanes to bomb or strafe demonstrators.

Mention of a no-fly zone was removed from the Franco-British draft , and an emergency Nato meeting in Brussels did not even discuss it as a contingency measure.

European officials said Russia and China would veto any such suggestions in the security council. They were also anxious about the timing of any punitive action, hoping to avoid a backlash against the many thousands of foreign workers still in the country, while seeking to maximise incentives for Gaddafi's supporters to defect.

Such defections seemed to be accelerating . Envoys to Portugal and Sweden renounced Gaddafi, with the ambassador to Lisbon, Ali Ibrahim Emdored, telling AP he was leaving "due to the killing of my people by this fascist regime".

In Geneva, the Libyan delegation to the UN human rights council called for a moment of silence in the chamber to "honour this revolution".

"We in the Libyan mission have categorically decided to serve as representatives of the Libyan people and their free will. We only represent the Libyan people," one envoy, Adel Shaltut, declared, drawing thunderous applause.

The 47-nation council unanimously declared that it "strongly condemns the recent gross and systematic human rights violations committed in Libya", calling for the launch of a UN human rights investigation into the bloodshed of the past few days. It took the unprecedented step of calling for Libya's membership to be revoked.

Hague, the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, and the EU foreign affairs chief, Lady Ashton, are due to fly to Geneva on Monday to promote the case for prosecutions of Libyan leaders by the international criminal court. The foreign secretary said: "The message is clear: that there will be a day of reckoning for those guilty of the appalling atrocities. The world will act together to hold them to account."

Such measures were decried as paltry by some organisations calling for immediate action to stop the bloodshed.

A coalition of more than 200 Arab organisations and 30 leading Arab intellectuals appealed for the imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya .

One of the signatories, the Egyptian writer and commentator Hani Shukrallah, said: "Stopping Gaddafi and his family shopping in Harrods or on the Champs Elysées is not going to prevent him unleashing further bloodshed.

"It's time to stop fiddling about and get serious."

Surreal: Libya’s UN ambassador makes the case against Qaddafi to the Security Council

2011-02-26T00:01:00.001-08:00

An amazing end to an amazing spectacle this week of Qaddafi’s diplomatic corps summarily abandoning him in cities around the world. I remember reading somewhere long ago how western diplomats once spoke privately with Tariq Aziz about defecting, and he dismissed the idea on grounds that while he’d be safe afterwards, his extended family back home in Iraq wouldn’t be. I’m not sure why that logic hasn’t held for Libyan diplomats. Maybe they figure that Qaddafi’s grip on power is so weak that they don’t have to worry as much about targeted retaliation anymore. Or maybe they think he’s capable of such horrors against so many innocents that they have to speak out, the risk to their families notwithstanding. That’s not to defend these guys — like the UN ambassador, many of them have obviously been in bed with the regime for ages — but a humanitarian act at the end that might save lives partly mitigates the damage.

If you don’t want to watch both clips, just watch the first. It ends with him crying and being consoled by other ambassadors. Serious question: Has this ever happened before at the UN, where a country’s envoy ends up making the case at the Security Council against the man who appointed him?

U.S. Freezes Assets Of Muammar Qaddafi And His Family

2011-02-25T23:58:00.001-08:00

POSTED IN LIBERALAND BY ALAN • FEBRUARY 25, 2011, 9:18 PMET • 27 COMMENTS »

President Obama has ordered a freeze on the U.S. assets of Muammar Qaddafi and members of his family and regime.

The executive order says that Qaddafi “and close associates have taken extreme measures against the people of Libya, including by using weapons of war, mercenaries, and wanton violence against unarmed civilians.”

Obama, in a statement, criticized the Libyan government for its “continued violation of human rights, brutalization of its people, and outrageous threats” and said the regime must be held accountable.

“We will stand steadfastly with the Libyan people in their demand for universal rights, and a government that is responsive to their aspirations,” he said. “Their human dignity cannot be denied.”

President Obama on Libya

2011-02-25T23:57:00.001-08:00

President Obama on Libya: "These Sanctions Therefore Target the Qaddafi Government, While Protecting the Assets that Belong to the People of Libya"

Posted by Jesse Lee on February 25, 2011 at 08:37 PM EST

The President has just signed an Executive Order regarding Libya Sanctions. In addition, he sent a letter to Congress on the matter and issued the following statement:

The Libyan government’s continued violation of human rights, brutalization of its people, and outrageous threats have rightly drawn the strong and broad condemnation of the international community. By any measure, Muammar el-Qaddafi’s government has violated international norms and common decency and must be held accountable. These sanctions therefore target the Qaddafi government, while protecting the assets that belong to the people of Libya.
Going forward, the United States will continue to closely coordinate our actions with the international community, including our friends and allies, and the United Nations. We will stand steadfastly with the Libyan people in their demand for universal rights, and a government that is responsive to their aspirations. Their human dignity cannot be denied.

Press Secretary Jay Carney also discussed the sanctions and broader context earlier in the day.

Egypt unrest: Protesters hold huge Cairo demonstration

2011-02-25T23:48:00.001-08:00

The BBC's John Simpson describes the scene in Cairo's Tahrir Square

Egypt's Revolution

Egyptian protesters are holding huge rallies in Cairo and other cities as they step up their efforts to force President Hosni Mubarak from power.

Organisers have been hoping to bring one million people on to the streets of the capital. The demonstration is the biggest since the protests began.

The atmosphere has been festive, with protesters singing and chanting.

State TV said Mr Mubarak was preparing to make a statement. Earlier he held talks with a senior US official.

Frank Wisner, a former ambassador to Egypt sent to Cairo on Monday, advised the president not to seek re-election in September or put forward his son Gamal as a candidate for president, senior US officials said.

The BBC's Kim Ghattas in Washington says the US is waiting for an answer, which could come in his statement.

Protest leaders like Mohamed ElBaradei say Mr Mubarak should step down by Friday at the latest.

"They hope that this will end today or Friday at the latest, and they called the coming Friday 'the Friday of departure', but I hope that President Mubarak will take heed before then and leave the country after 30 years of rule and give the people a chance, and I don't expect that he wants to see more blood," Mr ElBaradei told al-Arabiya TV.

Festive atmosphere

BBC correspondents in Cairo's Tahrir Square say the crowds there have been much bigger than on the previous seven days of protests.

At the scene

Rupert Wingfield-HayesBBC News, Cairo

From what I saw I would guess there were at least 200,000 people out in Cairo, but it's only a guess. It could be much more. Regardless, nothing like this has ever been seen before in Egypt. The atmosphere of the demonstrations has changed too. The tension and violence of the weekend has gone.

Today was more like a carnival. With the police gone and the military promising not to fire on protesters, whole families came out. The demonstrations were also much more organised. On every street leading to the square, lines of young men and women blocked the way.

They insisted, politely, that everyone show an ID and be searched for weapons. As I was patted down the young man apologised profusely for the inconvenience.

But if the atmosphere has changed the message has not. A huge banner stretched across the middle of the square read: "The People Demand the Removal of the Regime."

Relaxed crowd, stern message

Journalists at the scene estimated that hundreds of thousands of people - men, women and children from a cross-section of Egyptian society - were there, although in the absence of official estimates, there is no way of finding out the exact numbers.

The BBC's Jim Muir says that hours after dusk and despite a theoretical 1500 (1300 GMT) curfew and bitter cold the square is still full of people.

Egypt's powerful army has vowed it will not use force against the protesters.

Many carried placards and banners daubed with anti-Mubarak slogans. Earlier, crowds cheered as an effigy of the president was hung from a set of traffic lights in the square.

But the BBC's John Simpson in the square says the demonstration has not been the critical moment people thought it would be, and it has not reached a tipping point.

There is a danger that the demonstrators could lose the initiative if a march to the presidential palace planned for Friday fails to budge Mr Mubarak, but it is hard to see how he can continue in power, he adds.

Meanwhile, new Vice-President Omar Suleiman said he would hold cross-party talks on constitutional reform.

Mr Mubarak reshuffled his cabinet on Monday to try to head off the protests, replacing the widely despised Interior Minister Habib al-Adly.

Prime Minister Ahmad Shafiq told state TV the new government would ensure bread supplies, tackle security problems and "review our entire political, constitutional and legislative situation, into something more satisfactory and appropriate for us as Egyptian citizens".

"Everything is subject to amendments, without limits," he said.

But analysts say the army's statement has been a major blow for President Mubarak, and appears to have encouraged protesters, who are flocking to central Cairo in their thousands.

The UN human rights chief, Navi Pillay, says 300 people may have been killed across the country since the protests began a week ago. They followed an internet campaign and were partly inspired by the ousting of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia last month.

Egypt has since cut off the internet in the country and text messaging services have been disrupted.

In other developments:

The US state department announced it had ordered all non-emergency US embassy and government personnel to leave Egypt
AFP news agency reported that US Ambassador Margaret Scobey had spoken by phone to Mr ElBaradei
In an opinion piece for the New York Times, US Senate Foreign Affairs Committee head John Kerry called on Mr Mubarak to step down and engineer a peaceful transition

In Egypt's second biggest city, Alexandria, thousands of people have gathered to call for the president to step down.

Egypt's crisis

Most populous Arab nation, with 84.5 million inhabitants
Authoritarian President Hosni Mubarak has ruled for 30 years
Protests against corruption, lack of democracy, inflation, unemployment
Unrest triggered by overthrow of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia

Thousands more were out in the streets in Suez, and the Associated Press news agency reported protests in Mansoura, north of Cairo, and the southern cities of Assiut and Luxor.

With limited bus, train and internal flight services, access to the capital has been restricted.

Unnamed security officials were reported as saying all roads and public transportation to Cairo had been shut down.

Some protesters camped out in Tahrir Square on Monday night, saying they would stay there until Mr Mubarak's 30-year rule ended.

One demonstrator, Tarek Shalabi, told the BBC that groups were camped out in tents or sleeping out in the square, and described the atmosphere as "overwhelming".

"We're here because we want to make a statement. We're not going until Mubarak steps down," he said.

He said a stage had been set up where people could go up and make speeches, read out poetry or sing or chant political slogans.

Mubarak supporters have been holding counter-demonstrations in the Egyptian capital

Meanwhile, crowds of pro-Mubarak demonstrators held counter-protests elsewhere in the capital, raising fears of possible confrontations between the different groups.

'Legitimate'

On Monday, the Egyptian army said it respected the "legitimate rights of the people".

In its statement, carried on Egyptian media, the military said: "To the great people of Egypt, your armed forces, acknowledging the legitimate rights of the people... have not and will not use force against the Egyptian people."

Correspondents say the announcement is absolutely critical because it takes away a huge measure of uncertainty from the mind of any potential demonstrator.

A coalition of political opposition groups - incorporating the Muslim Brotherhood, political parties such as that led by Mr ElBaradei, and other prominent figures - has reportedly met, and told the Egyptian government that it will begin talks on its demands only after Mr Mubarak has stood down.

Concerns have also grown about the economy, as global oil prices on Monday topped $100 (£62) a barrel amid fears over the ongoing unrest.

BBC

Obama announces Libya sanctions

2011-02-25T23:36:00.000-08:00

Obama announces Libya sanctions

Click to play

The BBC's Jeremy Bowen reporting from Tripoli says the uprising is spreading

Mid-East Unrest

The US has announced sanctions against the Libyan government, as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged the body's Security Council to take "decisive action" over the Libya crisis.

US President Barack Obama signed an executive order blocking property and transactions related to the country.

Transactions involving assets of Muammar Gaddafi and some close associates were blocked.

Libya's UN envoy deserted him in dramatic scenes in New York.

On Friday, an anti-government demonstration in the Libyan capital Tripoli came under heavy gunfire. Around 1,000 protesters are thought to have been killed by troops attempting to quell the insurrection.

"The Libyan government's continued violation of human rights, brutalization of its people, and outrageous threats have rightly drawn the strong and broad condemnation of the international community," said Mr Obama in a Lstatement late on Friday.

"These sanctions therefore target the Gaddafi government, while protecting the assets that belong to the people of Libya."

'Madman'

Witnesses reported the latest deaths and injuries as militiamen and government troops confronted protesters as they emerged from mosques following Friday prayers and started demonstrating in several areas of the city.

Click to play

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon: ''It is time for the Security Council to consider concrete action''

At the same time, Libyan state TV showed Colonel Gaddafi speaking from the Tripoli's old city ramparts, urging the crowd to arm themselves and defend the nation and its oil against the anti-Gaddafi elements who have taken control of large parts of the country.

"We shall destroy any aggression with popular will," he said. "With the armed people, when necessary we will open the weapons depots. So that all the Libyan people, all the Libyan tribes can be armed. Libya will become a red flame, a burning coal."

Earlier, at a hastily organised news conference at the UN in New York, Libyan deputy ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi described Col Gaddafi, who has been in power for 42 years, as a "madman". He warned that thousands would die in Tripoli because the Libyan leader would never flee and would fight to the end.

At the scene

Jeremy BowenBBC Middle East editor, Tripoli

Outside the airport there's a sad sight. Several thousand people queuing in the darkness and rain, trying to get flights out. Some people told me they were from Syria, others appear to be from the Indian sub-continent, the kind of migrant workers upon whom this economy has been depending.

I was given a briefing by a man who said he was an engineer who has come back from Italy. The fact that he spoke to us suggests he has been given permission to do so, and he was essentially presenting the regime's position as a point of stability in a sea of chaos. The only place the "system" is operational is in the capital, he said.

There's a fair amount of traffic on the streets. There were some reports of shooting near the airport but I saw no signs of that. In some side streets I saw some road blocks, but they didn't look like military people.

Much of the east of the country is in the hands of anti-Gaddafi protesters and units of the Libyan military that have crossed over to them.

Secretary General Ban said violations of human rights had been carried out by the Libyan government.

He said that 22,000 people had fled Libya via Tunisia, and a further 15,000 via Egypt.

"Much larger numbers are trapped and unable to leave," he added. "There are widespread reports of refugees being harassed and threatened with guns and knives."

He said it was important for neighbouring countries, including those in Europe, to keep their borders open to those fleeing the violence.

Mr Ban also said that there was a food crisis inside Libya that the UN World Food Programme (WFP) expected to worsen. The WFP says Libya's food supply chain is at risk of collapse because imports have not been getting into the country and food distribution is hampered by violence.

Diplomats at the UN Security Council say Britain and France have drawn up a draft resolution with a package of measures aimed at isolating Libya's political and military leaders. As well as targeted sanctions, this could include an arms embargo, and a proposed referral of the situation in Libya to the International Criminal Court.

Libya's ambassador to the UN, Mohamed Shalgham, denounced Col Gaddafi on Friday, just three days after praising him as "my friend".

He told the Security Council he "could not believe" Col Gaddafi's troops were firing on the protesters, but having seen the Libyan leader call for the protests to be put down by force, he was now backing sanctions.

When he finished speaking, he was embraced by his weeping deputy, Ibrahim Dabbashi, who in turn was hugged by other diplomats.

'Exaggerated media campaign'

The BBC's Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen has entered the Libyan capital at the invitation of the Libyan government.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of the Libyan leader, told him that the reports of extreme violence were an "exaggerated media campaign" run by "hostile Arab TV channels".

It was not true that Libya had bombed civilians, Mr Gaddafi said, although he did say that the air force had bombed ammunition dumps that were in enemy hands.

Help for UK nationals

The Foreign Office is advising against all but essential travel to Libya
UK nationals in Libya wishing to get on the charter flight are advised to call the following numbers:
020 7008 0000 from the UK or 021 3403644/45 from within Libya

Visitors to Tripoli would not hear gunfire but might hear fireworks, Mr Gaddafi said. He criticised the protesters, some of whom wanted an Islamic "Afghan solution" to the country's problems.

He admitted that the east of Libya was "a big mess". People were behind his father, Mr Gaddafi said, and would come out into the streets to support him.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the Obama administration was acting "to put pressure on the regime" to cease the violence. "Colonel Gaddafi has lost the confidence of his people," he added.

Evacuations of foreign nationals from Libya by sea has continued:

The frigate HMS Cumberland that picked up more than 200 people in Benghazi arrived in Malta in the early hours of Saturday
A US-chartered ferry carrying Americans evacuated from Libya arrived in Malta on Friday evening
Britain has sent a second ship, the destroyer HMS York, to deploy to the sea area near Libya
India is sending warships to the region to evacuate its nationals

Hundreds of sub-Saharan Africans are said to be fleeing southern Libya into Niger. Many more are stranded in Libya, where they say they are being attacked by people accusing them of being mercenaries fighting for Col Gaddafi.

BBC

Tunisia protests against Ben Ali left 200 dead, says UN

2011-02-25T23:33:00.001-08:00

A month of protests forced Tunisia's long-time leader from power

Tunisia turmoil

At least 219 people died during the protests that toppled Tunisia's President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali last month, a UN team has said.

Team leader Bacre Waly Ndiaye said this figure included 72 people who died during prison riots.

The government previously said that 78 people had died, although the opposition said the figure was higher.

Mr Ndiaye was speaking at the end of a week-long human rights team investigation into the unrest.

He added that the figure was not final and the UN would continue its investigations.

Earlier reports that a synagogue had been set on fire in the southern city of Ghabes had proved to be false, Agence France-Presse news agency said.

Amid the anti-government demonstrations which began in December, there have been occasional outbreaks of looting and violence

After President Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia in January, a unity government was sworn in but some protests continue, by demonstrators who want anyone linked to the former regime to leave power.

Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi has promised elections within six months.

The toppling of Mr Ben Ali after 23 years in power helped inspire the current anti-government protests in Egypt.

On Monday, the European Union announced it had frozen the assets of the former leader and his wife

French Foreign Minister Urged to Resign

2011-02-25T23:31:00.000-08:00

By STEVEN ERLANGER

Published: February 3, 2011

REPRINTS

PARIS — France’s new foreign minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie, is facing renewed calls for her resignation, and once again the problem is Tunisia.

Enlarge This Image

Eric Feferberg/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Michèle Alliot-Marie after the cabinet meeting on Wednesday. She said she would not resign “over false claims.”

Ms. Alliot-Marie and her partner, Patrick Ollier, a government minister in charge of relations with Parliament, vacationed in Tunisia between Christmas and New Year’s, when small antigovernment demonstrations were under way and some protesters had died.

Even worse, her opponents say, she and Mr. Ollier took a flight on a private jet owned by Aziz Miled, a Tunisian businessman who is in a partnership with the family of the country’s former president, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, who was forced from office by the protests. The flight was reported by the French satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaîné.

Mr. Miled, as an associate of Mr. Ben Ali’s brother-in-law Belhassen Trabelsi, is on a list of people subject to an assets freeze by Swiss authorities.

Ms. Alliot-Marie, 64, angrily rejected calls from the Socialist opposition for her resignation and said that Mr. Miled, who made a fortune in tourism, was a friend who offered space on his jet for a trip he would have taken in any event. She said that Mr. Miled was not a close associate of the Ben Ali family, and that his charter airline business had been “plundered” by Mr. Trabelsi, who insisted on taking a share of it.

“On my arrival in Tunis, a friend who was going to Tabarka with his plane offered to take us with him rather than spend two hours in a car as planned,” she said, referring to Mr. Miled. “He did not lend us his plane; we accompanied him on his journey.”

The Socialist leader in Parliament, Jean-Marc Ayrault, called on Ms. Alliot-Marie to resign. “She no longer has any place in government,” he said. Others raised questions about her judgment and about whether a French foreign minister should accept free flights from anyone.

The head of the Socialist Party, Martine Aubry, said that “when one is in government, one shouldn’t use private means.” A legislator, Pierre Moscovici, said, “She was there when a revolution was taking place and saw nothing.” He insisted that Ms. Alliot-Marie “can no longer speak for France; she must go.”

On Thursday, Prime Minister François Fillon and President Nicolas Sarkozy both supported Ms. Alliot-Marie, who has served as the minister of defense, interior and justice. Mr. Fillon said she had their “full confidence,” and complained that calls for her resignation were a “purely political polemic.”

A government spokesman, François Baroin, said she had “explained and even made a ‘mea culpa,’ ” and he called the affair “closed.”

But even some members of the governing party suggested that Tunisia was a poor choice for a vacation at Christmas. Nadine Morano, a junior minister, said it seemed to be “a political blunder.”

Mr. Sarkozy had promised a government “beyond reproach,” and last year fired ministers who had taken advantage of their office by charging cigars to the state and letting relatives use state-provided apartments.

It has been a bad beginning for Ms. Alliot-Marie, who was appointed as foreign minister in November. Just a few days before Mr. Ben Ali fled Tunisia on Jan. 14, she told French legislators that the French police could provide better training to their Tunisian counterparts to help restore calm because the French were skilled in “security situations of this type.”

It was later reported that France had approved the export of police equipment and crowd-control devices to Tunisia at the height of the demonstrations, and that the French ambassador in Tunis was slow to grasp that the government was about to fall.

Ms. Alliot-Marie said that it had been her intention to spare life through better police tactics. She said that “the abiding principles of our international policy are noninterference, support for democracy and freedom and the application of the rule of law.”

As a former colonial power, she said, France is “more obliged to a certain reserve — we don’t want to pour oil on a fire, but to help as far as possible a friendly people, but without interfering.” Mr. Sarkozy later said that France had severely underestimated the Tunisians’ anger, and he replaced the French ambassador.

As for her Christmas holiday, Ms. Alliot-Marie told reporters there were was no question of her resigning “over false claims, mere assertions.” She added, “I only reply about these things because I don’t like people telling lies about me.” She then went on a series of television and radio programs to defend herself.

On Friday, she has scheduled a working lunch in Paris with the new Tunisian foreign minister, Ahmed Ounaïes.

Egyptians, Libyans and Tunisians demand democracy

2011-02-25T22:33:00.000-08:00

The people of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Djibouti, Cameroon, Gabon are demanding democracy, rule of law and jobs from their leaders. Since January protests have rocked North African states of Tunisia, Egypt and now Libya. Similar protests have also taken place in Cameroon and Gabon.

The protesters have embraced jet fighters, helicopter gunships, armoured carrier assaults, water cannons, tear gas and camel charge. Thousands have died and tens of thousands have been injured. We cannot watch quietly while a part of humanity is being brutalised. The people of Libya, Cameroon and Gabon need our support. They need our prayers,and our encouragement. Our silence means victory for the totalitarian regimes. Let's us support them. This is the time and opportunity to make a difference. Raise your voice against injustice, oppression and dictatorship. Let us support them Now!!!. Join and invite your friends to join.

http://www.causes.com/causes/288492-africa-for-democracy

2010-12-05T08:48:00.000-08:00

Ivory Coast's electoral commission has said opposition candidate Alassane Ouattara has won the presidential run-off but the Constitutional Court has contested the announcement.

The BBC's John James in the main city Abidjan says there will now be a tug of war between the two bodies with the outcome unclear.

Supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo had tried to block the result, saying there had been fraud in the north.

Former rebels control this area.

It is also where Mr Ouattara is most popular.The election is intended to reunify the world's largest cocoa producer.The announcement of the result of Sunday's run-off has been much delayed, leading to heightened tension in the country.At least four people were killed on Wednesday night in an attack on an office of Mr Ouattara's party.

The Constitutional Court said the electoral commission's failure to announce the result by Wednesday's deadline meant it was taking over the declaration.

But at about the same time, electoral commission head Youssouf Bakayoko said Mr Ouattara had won 54% of the vote.

He was speaking under armed guard at a hotel, rather than from the commission headquarters.

Source: BBC

Security Council and Secretary-General welcome release of Ivorian poll results

2010-12-05T08:25:00.000-08:00

The United Nations Security Council and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today welcomed the announcement by Côte d’Ivoire’s electoral authorities of the provisional results of Sunday’s presidential run-off, while urging calm amid reported violence in the West African nation.
According to press reports, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) today declared former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara the winner of the elections in which he ran against incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo.

The announcement of the provisional results is “a crucial step for ensuring the validity and integrity of the electoral process and thereby an important element in the process of certification of the final results by the Special Representative,” Ambassador Susan Rice of the United States, which holds the Council’s presidency for December, said a statement read out to the press.

“The Secretary-General calls upon the Constitutional Council to expeditiously initiate the process of proclamation of the final results, respecting the will of the people of Côte d'Ivoire, so that his Special Representative can certify those results, in keeping with his mandate,” said a statement issued by the Secretary-General’s spokesperson.
The Council’s statement followed a closed-door meeting of the Council in which members were briefed on the latest developments via videolink by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Côte d’Ivoire, Y. J. Choi. The 15-member body took note of Mr. Choi’s assessment that the run-off was conducted in a “democratic climate.”

The Council also reminded the leaders that they bear primary responsibility for ensuring a peaceful process and called on them to “exercise restraint, refrain from any interference in the work of the IEC, and honour their commitments to respect the results, address their complaints through the legal procedures and resolve their differences peacefully.

“They further urged the supporters of the candidates to refrain from any provocation or recourse to violence throughout the electoral process.”

Mr. Ban said stressed that all parties and leaders would bear the responsibility for any violent actions of their supporters.

He also reassured the people of Côte d'Ivoire that the UN operation in the country, known as UNOCI, “will undertake all possible actions, within its mandate, to help keep the electoral process on track, to preserve peace and security in the country and to support their efforts to successfully conclude the peace process.”

The Deputy Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Fatou Bensouda, meanwhile encouraged authorities in Côte d’Ivoire to investigate “criminal incidents” that had occurred and take measures to prevent others from happening.

“All reported acts of violence will be closely scrutinized by the Office [of the Prosecutor],” Ms. Bensouda said in a statement.

She said that the Office of the Prosecutor has been monitoring the situation in the country before the presidential run-off and will continue to do so and urged supporters of both candidates and security forces to refrain from violence.

“I encourage the political leaders to call on their supporters and fellow citizens to show restraint and avoid unrest,” she said.

Yesterday Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned all sides not to interfere with the work of the IEC, and requested them to demonstrate responsibility and to refrain from any initiative until the announcement of the provisional results.

His call followed media reports that a supporter of Mr. Gbagbo had torn up the first announcements of partial results, and that journalists were barred from entering the IEC.

The West African country, the world’s largest cocoa exporter, was split by civil war in 2002 into a Government-controlled south and a rebel-held north, and UNOCI, with a current strength of over 9,000 uniformed personnel, has been supporting reunification efforts, of which Sunday’s vote was a principal step.

Source: UNIC - Accra

World leaders back Ouattara as Ivory Coast poll winner

2010-12-05T08:05:00.000-08:00

World leaders have voiced their support for Ivory Coast opposition candidate Alassane Ouattara, saying he is the true winner of a presidential run-off.

The country's Constitutional Council has overturned results to declare President Laurent Gbagbo the winner - he is due to be sworn in shortly.

The US, UN, France and the West African bloc Ecowas have urged Mr Gbagbo to accept defeat.

The poll was intended to reunify the country after a civil war in 2002.

Prime Minister Guillaume Soro warned the overturning of the results threatened to derail attempts to stabilise and re-unify the country.

On Thursday, the independent Ivorian Election Commission declared that Mr Ouattara had won the 28 November run-off by 54.1% to 45.9%.

But after Mr Gbagbo and his supporters alleged the ballot had been fraudulent, the Constitutional Council overruled the Commission.

Chairman Paul Yao N'Dre said Mr Gbagbo had secured just over 51% of the vote.

Ivorian state media said Mr Gbagbo would be sworn in at a midday ceremony on Saturday.

'Held to account'

"Independent Electoral Commission, credible and accredited observers and the United Nations have all confirmed this result and attested to its credibility," he said.

He congratulated Mr Ouattara and said the international community would "hold those who act to thwart the democratic process and the will of the electorate accountable for their actions".

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France - the former colonial power in Ivory Coast - told Mr Gbagbo to "respect the will of the people, abstain from any action that might provoke violence" and to help establish peace.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon earlier called on Mr Gbagbo "to do his part for the good of the country and to cooperate in a smooth political transition".

The chairman of regional bloc Ecowas, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, said all parties should "respect and fully implement the verdict of the Ivorian people as declared by the Independent Electoral Commission".

The head of the UN mission in Ivory Coast also said it regarded Mr Ouattara as the winner, while the African Union said it was "deeply concerned" by the developments.

Mr Ouattara told reporters on Thursday evening: "I am the elected president of the Republic of Ivory Coast."

"The Constitutional Council has abused its authority, the whole world knows it, and I am sorry for my country's image," he said.

Divided country

There have been dramatic scenes since Sunday over the declaration of the results.

On Tuesday, Mr Gbagbo's representative in the electoral commission tore up the first batch of results as the commission's spokesman was about to announce them.

The electoral commission head, Youssouf Bakayok, then went ahead with an announcement on Thursday, speaking under armed guard at a hotel rather than from the commission's headquarters, declaring Mr Ouattara the winner with 54% of ballots cast.

Not long afterwards, Mr N'Dre said that, as the announcement had come after Wednesday's legal deadline, those results were "null and void".

The presidential poll was intended to reunify the world's largest cocoa producer after a civil war in 2002.

The two candidates represent the two sides of the north-south divide that exists religiously, culturally and administratively, with the northern half still controlled in part by the former rebels.

In a statement, the country's Prime Minster Guillaume Soro said the voiding of votes "threatens the ideal of reunifying the country".

The BBC's John James in Abidjan, the country's main city, says the Constitutional Council's decision has come as a shock to many, especially the opposition.

Youths from the opposing camps took to the streets in Abidjan and other towns, throwing stones and burning tyres.

The military has closed the borders and international news sources are suspended. An overnight curfew is in place.

Both the army and UN peacekeepers have been patrolling the streets of Abidjan since Sunday.

At least four people have been killed in election-related clashes in Abidjan this week.

Source: BBC

US President Barack Obama has rejected the Council's decision.

World leaders back Ouattara as Ivory Coast poll winner

2010-12-05T08:03:00.001-08:00

Ivory Coast election result deadline is missed

2010-12-03T04:24:00.001-08:00

The head of the electoral commission, Youssouf Bakoyoko, said it was still working to reach a consensus on the results, which have been disputed.

Supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo, and those of the opposition leader, Alassane Ouattara, have accused each other of trying to rig the poll.

The election is supposed to reunify a country divided since a 2002 civil war.

Some 8,000 UN peacekeepers are on alert in case the dispute leads to renewed conflict in the world's largest cocoa producer, which used to be seen as a haven of peace and prosperity in West Africa.

On Tuesday night, the president's representative at the electoral commission publicly tore up the first batch of results amid calls for votes from the former rebel-held north to be annulled. The region is where Mr Ouattara is most popular.

“Start Quote

Whoever wins wins, whoever loses, loses - that's democracy”

Hamadoun ToureUN spokesman

Damana Adia Pickass said there had been an "electoral hold-up".

Mr Ouattara's allies have meanwhile accused the president of trying to block the announcement of the result because he has lost.

The main international observer missions do not support Mr Gbagbo's claims of widespread fraud in the north.

"The second round of the election took place, I would say, in a generally democratic climate," the UN spokesman in Ivory Coast, Hamadoun Toure, told the BBC.

The former colonial power France, the UN, EU and US have urged the Ivorian authorities to announce the results of Sunday's run-off.

Deserted streets

The BBC's John James in the main city Abidjan says the electoral commission includes representatives from both sides and they cannot agree, meaning the results cannot be announced.

Presidential Contenders

Laurent Gbagbo (left)

Age: 65
Southerner, Christian
Former history teacher, now president
Took 38% of the first-round vote

Alassane Ouattara (right)

Age: 68
Northerner, Muslim
Economist and former prime minister
Took 32% of the first-round vote

Country profile: Ivory Coast

The long delay has led to mounting tension. Banks have been closed and the streets in the commercial district were almost entirely deserted on Wednesday, our reporter says.

A presidential decree has extended the 1900-0600 curfew until Saturday.

One reliable source told the BBC the officials of the electoral commission had agreed on results from 13 of Ivory Coast's 19 regions, but that the remaining regions were being contested.

The head of the UN's peacekeeping mission, Young-jin Choi, is continuing to shuttle between the various camps and election commission to try to get the results published.

Mr Toure said the UN was disappointed that promises to publish the results quickly in the second round had been broken.

"Whoever wins, wins, whoever loses, loses - that's democracy. They should only resort to democratic means to settle disputes," he told the BBC.

Mr Ouattara told reporters on Wednesday afternoon the uncertainty over the results was worrying.

"It is imperative that the president of the electoral commission proclaims the results," he said.

French concern

Earlier, French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie told French radio that "the results must be published today [Wednesday]".

She also said that French forces would be able to intervene if French nationals or interests were affected.

France retains close economic ties to its former colony but Mr Gbagbo's supporters have previously accused France of bias, and French targets in the country have been attacked.

Our reporter points out that the UN peacekeeping mission has copies of the results from all the polling centres and will be able to verify if what is published by the commission corresponds to 20,000 individual results.

The result is expected to be extremely close - testament to the fact these are the first open democratic elections the country has seen in 50 years since independence.

The two candidates represent the two sides of the north-south divide that exists religiously, culturally and administratively, with the northern half still controlled in part by New Forces soldiers who took part in the 2002 rebellion, our reporter says.

The New Forces have officially joined the government in a power-sharing deal.

The elections have been cancelled six times in the past five years.

Ghana: Making Sense of our Democracy

2010-08-09T22:45:00.000-07:00

The status of Ghana as an emerging democracy has been acknowledged the world over. The opposition New Patriotic Party’s unprecedented flagbearership election on August 7, 2010 that saw the re-election of Nana Akuffo Addo as the party’s candidate for the 2012 elections has added a new and positive dimension to the credentials of Ghana as the pacesetter of Africa politics. It is fair to say that Ghana’s current democracy which begun in 1992 has come with peace and stability that has made Ghana the darling of her neighbours and the international community. The recent outstanding performance of the Black Stars in the 2010 Fifa world cup in South Africa has added momentum to the worldwide view that Ghana is on the path of greatness.

The essence of democracy is to elect leaders who will manage the country to provide security, energy, housing, education, transport, health and telecommunication infrastructures that the citizens can take advantage of to improve their living conditions. Many who have engaged in the democratic process in Ghana have done so with the hope that democracy will usher in not only liberty, rule of law, political stability, freedom of speech and assembly but also economic prosperity. But the people who have been ruling Ghana since the day the Fourth Republican Constitution came into force seem to have forgotten this simple meaning of democracy.

More than seventeen years since the first ballot was cast and 53 years after independence the life of many Ghanaians has stagnated if not retrogressed to pre-independence levels. A critical look at the economic situation of the people suggests that the stability and peace that democracy has brought the nation has not translated into economic and social development. The various governments that have governed Ghana since 1992 have not been able to take advantage of the peace and stability to formulate and implement the necessary policies needed to transform Ghana’s economy to enable Ghanaians benefit directly. A critical look at the country’s sectors: education, energy, transportation, health and waste management reveal a state of organised disorder.

The CIA’s 2010 world ranking of countries with higher life expectancy puts Ghana at 186^th position (60.55 years) out of the 224 countries polled. Today two-thirds of the population still live on two dollars a day. The inequality and the poverty gap between those who govern and the governed is widening every year. This is evidenced in the number of people working as street vendors including children who work as head potters in our cities instead of going to school and the high number of children being trafficked to work in various parts of the country. There is a sense of anger and frustration among the populace as is indicated by the growing number of unruly behaviour of the so called foot soldiers of the NDC youth with their incessant seizing of public toilets, locking up National Health Insurance Service and National Youth Employment Programme offices and constant calling of District Chief Executives to be fired. These activities suggest that the people are not benefiting from our democracy and are getting increasingly disillusioned, a situation that can easily be nurtured to cause political instability in the country.

The only people who seem to have benefited from our democracy are the politicians who go home every four years with fat ex-gratia payments while majority of the people live in squalid conditions. Take E. T. Mensah for example. Since 1992 he has been representing Ningo Prampram as an MP and going home with ex-gratia every four years while many people in his constituency can neither read nor write and lack the basic necessities of life including water, electricity and housing.

The expensive and cosy sport utility vehicles (Land Cruisers etc) that has come to represent the taste of NDC and NPP politicians do not reflect the harsh economic life being experienced by majority of the people especially those in the rural areas who live in mud houses roofed with raffia and bamboo leafs and without water and electricity. This is unacceptable and is very dangerous for the continuous existence of democracy itself. People cannot continue to cast their votes every four years and continue to live in the same pre-independence conditions without jobs, proper housing, electricity, roads, farming equipments and access to water and sanitation. People cannot vote every four years while they continue to live on two dollars a day. That is slavery, not democracy. Democracy must come with liberty, economic empowerment, social development and improvement in the overall quality of life of the people. This has not happened in Ghana more than seventeen years of democratic governance and over fifty years of self rule.

Slowly we are missing the opportunity to develop as a nation and to add quality and value to the lives of our people. Despite promises of a better Ghana and jobs for the youth nothing seems to have changed, courtesy the politicians who are trapped in their narrow view of state management and who are going round the circle unable to work out a solution for the nation’s many problems. Slowly many of the people who have placed so much hope in democracy are being betrayed not by democracy as a system but by those elected to lead them to economic freedom. This cannot continue forever.

The people who vote must have something to live up to if they can continue to support the democratic efforts of the state. Therefore, the promises and pledges that characterise our elections must be transformed into actions and deeds. The broken promises and the politics of the same on the part of those who govern must stop before apathy sets in. Those who rule Ghana must recognise that their performance is not measured by what they say but what they do. Therefore we must act now and make good use of our peace, stability and democracy if we want to avoid any cataclysmic political upheaval in future.

In light of the abysmal economic performance of the nation and her inability to reduce poverty, I strongly believe Ghana needs strategic counselling and I want to offer my suggestions here.

First of all, Ghanaians need strategic leaders with the ability to vision and ability to bring the vision into reality; leaders who can turn aspiration into reality and inspire the people to great heights and help build a new Ghana that all of us can be proud of. Those who manage state institutions must be strategic thinkers who can formulate good policies and implement them to bring positive change. The begging mentality (i.e. the focus on aid as a development model) that continues to permeate those who live in the Osu Castle must give way to a more ingenious ways of state management that has as its focus the attraction of foreign investment, promotion of trade, support for indigenous producers, farmers, the promotion of local entrepreneurial development and the building, renovating and expanding the economic and social infrastructures in the country i.e. energy, roads, rail lines, harbours, telecommunication, silos, canals, schools and hospitals. It is unacceptable that while other nations are going outer-space to discover new planets we are still struggling to feed ourselves. Therefore the politics that has come to define our education (3 years for NDC, 4 year for NPP) must give way to a non-partisan approach to problem solving.

Secondly, evidence from Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and China has shown that a country’s economic growth, human development and her ability to reduce poverty are dependent on her technological development. Therefore, if we are to make sense of our 53 years of independence and over seventeen years of democracy; if we are to take advantage of the current favourable political climate and make it a force for good and a force for development, then a ground work for export-driven industrial economy must be laid through the adoption of a comprehensive export-driven industrial strategy. Such a strategy must make the development and acquisition of advanced technologies a priority so as to take advantage of the huge unexploited natural resources in the country, to increase production, and create wealth for the people. Why should our child-bearing women continue to carry their children on their back in this African heat when we can adopt technology to build pushchairs/prams for them? Why should we continue to wash our cloths with our hands when we could adopt the technology to build washers to save us precious time? Why should we continue to sleep in darkness when we could adopt the technology to convert solar energy into electricity? Why should our farmers continue to farm with cutlasses and hoes when we could adopt advanced farming technologies to increase yield and reduce hunger and poverty in the country? And why should we continue to carry things on our head when we could use technology to do it?

China and India’s development of their own technologies and their acquisition of technologies from the West has shown that it is possible to move hundreds of millions of people from poverty through technology acquisition. I believe that nations that turn away from the development and use of science and technology are bound to remain primitive and face extinction, and even if those nations survive extinction they will probably remain slave to others with superior technologies. Ghana cannot afford to remain technologically backward while our independence peers in Asia are moving forward scientifically and technologically and the earlier the policy-makers in Ghana look into technology acquisition the better.

Added to the above point is the fact that Ghana cannot continue to depend on the export of some few raw materials while the population continues to increase almost exponentially. Ghana cannot remain agrarian if we are to solve the teeming unemployment problem, eradicate poverty, hunger, malnutrition, malaria and improve the overall quality of life in the country. The policymakers must device ingenious schemes and work assiduously to diversify Ghana’s economy by shifting emphasis from the current reliance on raw material export to manufacturing, service, and knowledge based economy. The diversification of the economy will not only help the nation expand her revenue base but will also lead to increased production, create more jobs and protect the country from the shocks that always threaten the vivacity of our economy.

Lastly, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning must be told in plain language that lowering inflation alone will not meet the aspirations of unemployed Ghanaians who are looking for jobs. The National Development Planning Commission and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning must live up to their names and build some credibility for themselves as institutions tasked with planning the nation’s development. Ghana deserves better fiscal policies/financial management than it has been offered by Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning. These institutions must think strategically and device strategies with inbuilt policy priorities to stabilise the nation’s financial market, revive the defunct firms, create jobs and put money in the pockets of the people.

I want to conclude by saying that if Ghanaians are to make sense of democracy, cherish its values and ideals; if indeed democracy is to thrive in Ghana, and if Ghana is to continue to serve as the guiding light for the rest of Africa, then more must be done to improve the economic well-being of the people, for democracy without economic and social development is a catalyst for chaos.

By Lord Aikins Adusei*

*The author is a political activist and anti corruption campaigner. His e-mail is politicalthinker1@yahoo.com

Under fire Paul Kagame speaks out

2010-07-23T01:15:00.000-07:00

Posted on Tuesday 20 July 2010 - 16:39
Watyekele Sezi, AfricaNews reporter in Jinja, Uganda
President Paul Kagame of Rwanda has launched his campaign for the August 9 polls and promised free elections despite attacks, assassinations and arrests on the opposition. Human rights groups have also berated him for not protecting lives of innocent ones ahead of the tensed voting.
"Rwandan voters have the freedom to decide," Kagame told his Rwandan Patriotic Front supporters at a rally at the Kigali national stadium.

The rally was estimated to cost $2 million. However, campaign co-coordinator Christophe Bazivamo said the funding was supplied by "voluntary contributions".

The more modest Social Democratic Party of Deputy Speaker Jean-Damascene Ntawukuriryayo is planning to take out a bank loan.

Two other presidential challengers – the Liberal Party's Prosper Higiro and the Party of Progress and Concord's Alvera Mukabaramba – will also be campaigning on low budgets.

Those three parties supported Kagame during the 2003 presidential election and are described by the opposition as the RPF's "political satellites".

But the three main opposition parties that had planned to contest the election are already practically sidelined.

The Unified Democratic Forces has not been officially registered by the authorities and its leader, Victoire Ingabire, has faced legal action since April after being accused of negating the genocide and abetting terrorism.

The Social Party (Imberakuri) faces similar problems and its leader Bernard Ntaganda has been behind bars since June 24.

In another development, Andre Kagwa Rwisereka – vice chairperson of the unregistered opposition Democratic Green Party – was found dead, nearly decapitated, on July 14.

Several senior army officers have been arrested in recent months and one general, Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, narrowly survived an assassination attempt in exile in South Africa.

An opposition journalist who claimed to have uncovered the regime's responsibility in the attempted murder was shot dead days later.

Kagame's government has flatly denied any involvement in the killings.

"There have been all kinds of activities... which have been orchestrated in order to instill a climate of fear in the run-up to the elections but also in an attempt to smear the government," Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo told AFP in a recent interview.

Restricting political and press freedom

Rights groups have repeatedly accused Rwanda of restricting political and press freedom ahead of the election.

Kagame has often been praised by Western countries for his economic vision and his ability to maintain stability in genocide-scarred Rwanda but the latest outbreak of political violence appeared to cause some unease.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon "expressed his concerns regarding the recent incidents which have caused political tensions" and demanded a full investigation into the death of the journalist and Rwisereka's murder.

Ban's statement came last week in Madrid, where Kagame was invited to talk on the status of the Millennium Development Goals.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero opted out of a meeting with Kagame at the last minute following protests from some political parties over the Rwandan president's role in the genocide.

Gambia: President Jammeh attacked

2010-07-23T01:11:00.000-07:00

Posted on Thursday 22 July 2010 - 12:07
Kemo Cham, AfricaNews reporter in Dakar, Senegal
The Dakar-based African Assembly for the Defense of Human Rights has attacked Gambian president Yahya Jammeh for poor human rights and democracy record.
"Since the accession of Captain Yahya Jammeh to power in 1994, the state of democracy and human rights in the Gambia continues to deteriorate," the organization said in a statement in response to the recent conviction and sentencing to death of eight Gambians.

The convicts include former chief of Defense Staff of the Gambia Armed Forces, Lt. General Lang Tombong Tamba.

“Since taking office more than two hundred (200) coups have been identified in a country where everything has been clocked and where there is intimidation and terror that spares no political actors (opposition and ruling party),” the statement said.

It added: "Currently, many people are detained without charge or illegally imprisoned after unfair trials. Most of them are victims of torture or other ill-treatment."

The organization called on President Yahya Jammeh to respect his obligations vis-à-vis the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights.

In Nigeria, Northern Politicians Offer Conditional Support for President Jonathan

2010-07-23T00:57:00.000-07:00

Chinedu Offor | Washington DC July 2010

In Nigeria, northern politicians have offered to support President Goodluck Jonathan in next year’s elections if he promises not to seek re-election. Analysts say the compromise offer is the strongest indication yet that Mr. Jonathan is the leading candidate of the ruling People’s Democratic Party.

But the compromise is not a significant political development, says Abubakar Momoh, a lecturer at the Department of Political Science Lagos State University.

“It’s just [a] political calculation and strategizing by some elite who think they just have to be politically relevant. The first question to ask is on whose behalf [is] this olive branch [being extended].”

Momoh disagrees with speculation that the compromise is a ploy by pro-Jonathan elements to weaken the position of the North.

“I don’t really believe that some of the names that are being peddled around are really the ones to determine ultimately how electorates in the north will vote. And the electorate in this area is not gullible, it is informed and it knows what is going on. It will vote on the basis of what is on ground, the issues and questions about who is credible and so on. They are going to make a rational choice on the basis of what they are offered.”

The deal offered to the Nigerian leader, says Momoh, is intended to push one part of the country against the other and will be rejected by the electorate

Zimbabwe's Coalition Parties Meet in Rare Talks

2010-07-23T00:55:00.000-07:00

Peta Thornycroft | JohannesburgJuly 2010

Photo: AP

President Robert Mugabe, centre, shares a light moment with Morgan Tsvangirai, left, Zimbabwe's Prime Minister and his Deputy, Arthur Mutambara after giving their end of year message to the nation, at Zimbabwe House in Harare, Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2009

For the first time Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party's politburo and the national executive committees of the two Movement for Democratic Change parties met on Wednesday to discuss ways to ensure that political violence ends in Zimbabwe.

The meeting in Harare was the first time the three parties' national executives have met since a unity government was formed 17 months ago.

Following the establishment of the unity government, a multi-party Committee for National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration was formed to try to heal some of the scars of political violence since Zimbabwe's independence from the United Kingdom in 1980.

The healing committee has traveled to several regions of the country to persuade victims and perpetrators to face one another and tell their stories.

More than 100 delegates from the three parties agreed by consensus that there could be no national healing without justice and compensation, and that the police must arrest anyone who commits violence.

MDC Secretary-General Tendai Biti described the meeting as historic and said the challenge was to ensure that no Zimbabwean ever attacks or kills another on the basis of political affiliation.

Most of the political violence of the decade followed the emergence of the Movement for Democratic Change, or MDC, which came close to winning elections in 2000.

Domestic and international human rights monitoring groups, such as Human Rights Watch, say that President Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF party has been responsible for most of the political violence since independence.

Although rights monitors say political violence has declined significantly since the unity government came to power, the MDC says some of its members, particularly in rural areas, are still being attacked.

Niger's Political Parties Form Alliance Before Presidential Election

2010-07-23T00:50:00.001-07:00

Anne Look | DakarJuly 2010

Nigeria’s Ruling Party Chief Drops Power Rotation Policy

Seventeen political parties in Niger that opposed the country's ousted president have formed an alliance ahead of presidential elections due in January of next year. The various opposition parties say they each will present their own presidential candidates in the first round of voting. They have pledged to throw their collective support behind whichever candidate advances to the second round. The strategic accord was signed Saturday in Niger's capital, Niamey.

Opposition leader and group spokesman Mahamadou Issoufou says the parties signing the pact will work to ensure that one of their candidates is elected in the presidential poll. He says they will make no electoral agreements with political parties outside the alliance. Issoufou said the pact will apply to those legislative and regional elections as well.

The presidential election will take place 3 Jan 2011, with a run-off planned for 14 Jan, if necessary. Local and legislative elections also are planned during that time.

This is not the first time these 17 political parties have joined forces. They also were part of the Coordination of Democratic Forces for the Republic that had opposed former President Mamadou Tandja. Mr. Tandja had grown increasingly unpopular since expanding his power and giving himself another three years in office through a controversial referendum in August 2009.

Mr. Tandja was ousted in a military coup this February. Soldiers promised an election and a return to civilian government within the year.

Campaigning Begins in Rwandan Election

2010-07-23T00:46:00.000-07:00

VOA NewsJuly 2010

Photo: AP

Rwandan President Paul Kagame (file photo)

Campaigning has begun in Rwanda for an election expected to return President Paul Kagame to power.

Political tensions are high in the country following a series of arrests and killings that targeted opposition figures and journalists.

Also, three main opposition parities say authorities did not allow them to register for the August 9 vote.

Victoire Ingabire, leader of the unregistered Unified Democratic Forces party says she is ready to organize a boycott of the elections.

Ingabire has faced legal action since April, after being accused of denying Rwanda's 1994 genocide.

Earlier this month, the vice president of the Rwandan Democratic Green Party, Andre Kagwa Rwisereka, was found dead, nearly decapitated. Also this month, the editor-in-chief of the independent newspaper Umuvugizi, Jean Leonard Rugambage, was shot and killed.

The government denies any involvement in the killings.

Critics have accused President Kagame of stifling opposition and freedom of expression ahead of the poll.

The French news agency, AFP, reports that Mr. Kagame told reporters in Kigali Tuesday that Rwandans have the freedom to decide who will lead them. He said he is confident Rwandans will choose to work with the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front but said he cannot take anything for granted.

The presidential election will be the second since the 1994 genocide, in which Hutu extremists killed an estimated 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

President Kagame and his party won the last election in 2003.

The official Rwanda News Agency says the candidates will have 20 days to campaign.

Gambian Opposition Leader Denounces Coup Celebration as Illegal

2010-07-23T00:43:00.001-07:00

Peter Clottey July 2010

The leader of Gambia’s main opposition United Democratic Party (UPD) has described as illegal the celebration of the coup d’état that brought President Yahya Jammeh to power 16 years ago Thursday.

Ousainou Darboe, who is also a human rights attorney, condemned the planned celebration saying it sends the wrong signal to the country’s security forces that there is a virtue in taking up arms to overthrow a constitutionally-elected president.

The Gambia's President Yahya Jammeh

“Our party’s position is that, today, (Mr.) Jammeh will again be celebrating an illegality. He will be celebrating a rape on the Constitution of The Gambia. And, he will be sending a very wrong signal to other members of the security forces that there is virtue in staging coup d’états. And, I do not think that is right,” he said.

Mr. Jammeh seized power in a bloodless coup in 1994, but was later elected three times. He is also set to run for a fourth term in next year’s general election.

Gambia’s local media quoted President Jammeh recently as saying that “whether you like it or not, no coup will end my government, no elections can end my government. By God's grace, I will rule this country as long as I wish and choose someone to replace me.”

Supporters of the Gambian leader have reportedly arrived in the capital, Banjul, to participate in the coup d’état celebration.

But, critics say these “supporters” were either forced against their will or bribed to be part of the celebration, an accusation the government denies.

Opposition leader Darboe described the celebration as an insult to law abiding citizens and called on Gambians to boycott Mr. Jammeh’s coup d’état celebrations.

“We are in a democratic dispensation (and) we should be celebrating everything that is democratic, but we should not be celebrating undemocratic events. Our party has condemned it in the past and, today, again we condemn it and we will continue to condemn it as long as he continues to celebrate it,” Darboe said.

In a televised address last year, President Jammeh said he will supervise the killing of anyone who aims to destabilize the country. He also warned human rights groups to stop interfering in The Gambia’s internal politics, warning citizens not to cooperate with them.

Mr. Jammeh recently expelled two U.N. officials without any explanation. The opposition claims the president’s death threat is a calculated ploy to silence any dissent.

Guinea's Supreme Court Upholds June 27 Election Results

2010-07-23T00:39:00.001-07:00

Mamadou Dian Balde, editor-in-chief of L'Independant and Le Democrate weekly newspapers says Guineans were not surprised by the court's ruling

James Butty21 July 2010

Photo: AP

Local residents watch as election workers count presidential votes at an outdoor polling station in Conakry, Guinea, 27 Jun 2010. Guinea on Sunday held its first free election since independence more than half a century ago.

Guinea's Supreme Court has rejected a challenge to the results of last month's presidential election paving the way for a runoff.

A number of losing candidates, including former Prime Minister Sidya Toure, had challenged the results of the June 27 first round vote, alleging fraud.

But, the high court Tuesday night upheld the preliminary results, saying former Prime Minister Cellou Diallo won 44 percent of the vote followed by opposition leader Alpha Conde with 18 percent.

The court ruled that both candidates will meet in a runoff election, the date yet to be determined.

Mamadou Dian Balde, editor-in-chief of L'Independant and Le Democrateweekly newspapers in Guinea's capital, Conakry, said Guineans were not surprised by the Supreme Court decision.

“People were not surprised because, for the first time, the CENI (Guinea’s Independent National Electoral Commission) about the first results, said Alpha Conde and Cellou Diallo were the two candidates who were qualified for the second part of the presidential election. Sidya Toure was the third,” he said.

AFP

A man puts up electoral posters on a wall in a street of Conakry ahead of Guinea's first free election since independence in 1958., 24 Jun 2010

Supporters of Sidya Toure’s Union of Republican Forces (UFR) party said their candidate was cheated out of the second place position to third during the first round.

Balde said the Supreme Court carefully considered all the evidence.

“I think the Supreme Court did a good work because they delayed the vote of [the towns of] Mandiana, Kakan, and Matam because the CENI didn’t give them results about those areas,” Balde said.

Toure had said he would abide by whatever ruling the Supreme Court would make, but he would not say which of the two candidates in the runoff he would support.

Balde said both Lansana Kouyate and Toure, the two losing candidates in the first round, are likely to throw their support behind Cellou Diallo, the first place finisher in the first round.

“Sidya Toure and Lansana Kouyate, I think that the both will support Cellou Dalein Diallo because Sidya Toure said that Sekouba Konate helped Alpha Conde against him [Toure]. I don’t think that he will go behind [support] Alpha Conde after saying that. So, if Sidya has to support someone, I think it will be Cellou Dalein Diallo,” Balde said.

General Konate, Guinea’s minister of defense, became interim president after military junta leader Captain Moussa Dadis Camara was flown to Morocco after being shot in the head by a bodyguard.

Balde said there is a likelihood that political realignment in the second round might happen along ethnic lines.

“I think that Sidya Toure’s people, who are behind him, are Soussou people from Conakry and Boke because his ethnic group Dialonke is a minority. Those Soussou people, Alpha Conde is trying to get them because Alpha Conde was born in Boke, a Soussou town. So, even if Sidya Toure call his people to support Cellou Diallo, who is a Fulani, the Soussou people won’t do that,” Balde said.

Balde said Cellou Diallo will likely win the runoff.

Guinea Presidential Run-Off Possible Within 2 Weeks

2010-07-23T00:33:00.000-07:00

Anne Look | Dakar21 July 2010

Photo: AFP

Candidate for the Guinean presidency Cellou Dalein Diallo smiles to the crowd, 27 Jun 2010

Guinea's Supreme Court has rejected challenges to first-round results in the country's presidential poll, and a run-off between the two top-scoring candidates could now take place in as little as two weeks.

The head of Guinea's Supreme Court, Mamadou Sylla, announced definitive results Tuesday for the first round of the country's landmark presidential election that took place June 27.

The Supreme Court overruled challenges to the provisional results brought by many of the first round's 24 presidential candidates. The court threw out votes from five districts including a part of the capital Conakry, citing severe irregularities.

According to definitive results, former prime minister, Cellou Dallein Diallo, led the first round with 43 percent of votes, and long-time opposition leader, Alpha Conde, came in second, with 18 percent. Former prime minister, Sidya Toure, remained in third place with 13 percent.

Mr. Diallo and Mr. Conde will face off in a second round of voting the electoral commission says could take place within two weeks.

Spokesman Fodé Oussou Fofana, who represents Mr. Diallo's party, the Union for Democratic Forces in Guinea says Mr. Diallo's campaign will continue with its same strategy of fraternity among all Guineans. He says they are now reaching out to all political parties who share their vision for Guinea. He says the problem in Guinea is not ethnicity, but rather poverty. He says they are committed to bringing the country out of misery.

Coalition building is under way for the second round of voting.

Bakary Diabaté is spokesman for the party of candidate Lansana Kouyaté, who placed fourth in the first round.

Diabaté says there is still hope for Guinea and that they will not give up. He says choosing alliances for the run-off is a political decision. He says the party submitted its challenges to first-round results to the Supreme Court and the court has ruled. He says the party will now meet to decide its position for the second round.

The presidential poll is meant to return the country to civilian government after a military coup in December 2008 and many hope it will be the country's first free and fair presidential election since independence in 1958.

Despite logistical challenges, the first round of voting was largely applauded by international observers.

The electoral commission has not yet announced a date for the second round.

Burundi Parliamentary Vote Begins Friday

2010-07-23T00:28:00.000-07:00

Peter Clottey22 July 2010
Photo: AFP
Burundi's main opposition leader Agathon Rwasa sits underneath the portrait of Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza during an interview with journalists in the south western Burundian town of Rumonge, 12 May 2010
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A leading member of Burundi’s opposition Forces for National Liberation (FNL) has called on supporters of his party as well as other opposition parties to boycott the parliamentary election scheduled to begin Friday.
Jean-Bosco Habyarimana, spokesman for the FNL accused both President Pierre Nkurunziza’s government and the Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) of undermining the credibility of the parliamentary vote.
“It was known that we will not participate in this election. You remember we rejected the results of the (local) election because of the fraud that characterized those elections. We requested for a dialogue in which we could maybe correct the problems and then try to get a solution but the government refused,” he said.
Burundi’s opposition groups rejected the results of the 24^th May local elections, saying it was fraught with irregularities and voter intimidation. They demanded a re-run of the vote. But, the electoral commission refused, saying the election was transparent and credible.
Pierre Claver Ndayicariye, chairman of the electoral body said the parliamentary vote will continue as planned despite the opposition boycott.
But, opposition leader Habyarimana said his party will not participate in an election in which the ruling National Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD) is pre-determined to win.
“The one who refused us is the one who refused the dialogue so that we can correct the faults that characterized the community elections. He is the one who (prevented) us from continuing in the electoral process,” Habyarimana said.
He also described Friday’s vote as illegal.
“All what is being done is against the law” he said.
Habyarimana said despite the boycott his party will continue to offer stiff opposition to President Pierre Nkurunziza’s government.

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