BS: Should we care about Africans?

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 17 Dec 07 - 01:59 PM

Washington Post

Stuck on Darfur

A planned peacekeeping force is stalled, two weeks before it is due
to deploy.
Sunday, December 16, 2007; Page B06


WHEN THE United Nations Security Council approved an expanded
peacekeeping force for the Darfur region of Sudan last summer, some
Western politicians may have concluded -- prematurely -- that one of
the world's worst humanitarian crises was at last going to be
relieved. If so, that's exactly what Omar Hassan al-Bashir was hoping for. Mr. Bashir, Sudan's Arab dictator, has made an art form out of confounding Western attempts to end his genocidal repression
of Darfur's African population. His pattern is to resist
international pressure until it reaches a peak. He then appears to
give in, waits until Western attention wanders and returns to
intransigence.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 07 Dec 07 - 02:13 PM

http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/sudan1103/


But with China already staking the claim, nothing will be done.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: GUEST,Bruce Michael Baillie
Date: 07 Dec 07 - 01:16 AM

...What's needed is for a large oil field to be discovered under the area, That'll get the Yanks interested!

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 06 Dec 07 - 04:22 PM

Washington Post:

'A Different Kind of Genocide'

By Michael Gerson
Thursday, December 6, 2007; Page A29

WALUNGU, Congo -- This village, surrounding a small Catholic church, is as far down the red dust road as you can go without entering territory controlled by the exiled perpetrators of Rwanda's genocide. The rebels often come in civilian clothes to trade in Walungu's open-air market. At other times they raid the nearby farms for supplies and women. The region is known as "the quarter of rape."

In the shadow of the church is a facility run by Women for Women, an organization that matches international sponsors to local women in need of help. Listening to one of those women, I heard the story of a suffering nation in a single life.

Lucianne is 24, dressed in a red top and red skirt. She speaks quietly while looking downward, her hands trembling. Her eyes are staring and empty; her lovely mouth never smiles.

In December of 2005, while her husband was away on business, Hutu soldiers broke into her home, tied her arms behind her back, did the same to her sister-in-law and dragged them into the bush. The two women were marched to their family farm, where Lucianne's brother was also kidnapped. Other families were captured along the way.

"We were taken to a hill, and laid down for rape," she told me. "They gave a flashlight to my brother to hold while they were raping us. When he tried to resist, they struck him with a gun in the face. . . . We were near a stream. When one of them was finished, they washed the blood off us before the next was raped."

Afterward they were moved again. "I was unable to walk properly, and they were beating us along the way. The next morning we arrived" -- here she breaks down, then quietly continues -- "at the place where they killed my brother." She was tied to a tree. Her sister-in-law and most of the other women were taken away to be murdered.

A rebel officer decided that Lucianne would be kept as a "wife." "When I got in the house, I saw my younger sister," Lucianne recalls. "I thought she had died. She told me she was pregnant and ill.

"When I cooked, if there was more or less salt, I was put in prison, which was a hole filled with water. Once I spent three days in prison with swollen legs."

Eventually Lucianne was ordered to escort her sister to town so she could give birth. Lucianne was rescued by the wife of a government soldier, who got help for her sister at nearby Panzi Hospital-- but her sister died soon after childbirth.

Lucianne remained for treatment at Panzi. She had contracted a sexually transmitted disease and was pregnant herself. When she tried to return home, her husband had abandoned her, and her family farm had been occupied by others.

After delivering her child, she tried working on a different farm, but the soldiers came again. "I wanted to hide myself, and they told me, 'Why do you hide? You are Lucianne, and you have our baby.' " She recently saw two of her captors in the market. "Since that day I have never spent the night in the house, because of fear."

Lucianne -- who is young and lost and should be loved -- now sleeps with her child in the cassava fields near Walungu to avoid being captured again.

At Panzi Hospital, which specializes in treating rape victims, there was a long line of women waiting for treatment on the day I visited. By one estimate, 27,000 women and girls were raped in eastern Congo in 2006. The hospital has seen victims as young as 3.

Denis Mukwege, the hospital's medical director, explains that women are sometimes raped by six soldiers at a time and violated in front of their families to maximize the shame. "After the rape, sometimes they destroy their private parts," he says, "introducing firewood and guns. . . . Most people who come back from the bush come back with fistula; they smell bad and leak in their private parts." The excretory organs are no longer under control. "The idea is to destroy the entire community, so they can't procreate anymore, for the race to disappear."

"If they were shot by a gun," says Mukwege, "you would call it genocide. This is a different kind of genocide, which destroys women physically and emotionally over the years."

At the close of my interview with Lucianne, she finally looked up. "I beg you, my fathers and mothers, to help me get safety from these people."

No words of comfort came to me.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: GUEST,beardedbruce
Date: 28 Nov 07 - 05:15 PM

from the Washington Post:

Ghosts of Rwanda

By Michael Gerson
Wednesday, November 28, 2007; Page A23

KIGALI, Rwanda -- We are used to seeing aged Holocaust survivors with faded photographs, telling their stories to remind the young and forgetful. So it is shocking to meet a 31-year-old genocide survivor with memories so fresh they bleed.

I talked to Freddy Mutanguha in a field of white crosses, near a half-finished monument to perhaps 800,000 victims of the Rwandan genocide. "My mom," he recalled, "gave money to be killed by a bullet, because she saw the machetes and knew what they would do to her. But the bullet was too expensive."

The mass violence of Hutu against Tutsi left a nation of corpses -- and a nation of stories. A young man took me on a tour of the neighborhood where he had been hunted for weeks by soldiers and informers. At one point, a friend purchased his life with the bribe of a case of beer. He hugs a woman along the dirt street, commenting as she walks away, "She lost all of her children."

A man I met in passing, I later learned, was 14 when he performed the lonely task of burying his mother, father and siblings in a grave near their home.

And the ghosts seem to gather in sacred places. At Ntarama Church, soldiers surrounded thousands of Tutsis seeking refuge, blocked the door and threw grenades inside. The walls and rafters of the dark sanctuary are covered with the clothing in which the victims were found. Light comes through the tin roof in holes from shrapnel, like constellations frozen at the hour of death.

Some things about the lead-up to the Rwandan genocide are familiar. Victims were dehumanized for years as "inyenzi" -- cockroaches -- just as the Jews of Europe were labeled vermin. Tutsi children were forced to stand up in primary-school classes to be humiliated and abused -- just as Jewish children were once treated. And children were eventually a special target of the murderers, to prevent them from growing up to perpetuate the threat -- one of the excuses the Nazis employed.


And these patterns should be familiar, because at least some of the hatred in this part of Africa has European roots. In traditional African culture, the division between Hutu and Tutsi was social and economic; intermarriage was common, and mobility between classes was possible. Then German and Belgian colonial rulers in Rwanda and other places declared this a racial divide -- measuring the skulls of Hutus and Tutsis to prove their racial theories and issuing racial ID cards.

But there are differences between the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide. Over time, Germany developed an impersonal machinery of death, with trains and timetables and gas chambers. In Rwanda, the violence was more intimate. Neighbors who had shared meals suddenly became informers and executioners -- adopted children turned upon their families. At one church I visited, soldiers had taken children by the legs and smashed their heads against the wall.

And this has left behind a unique challenge. In Europe, there was little need for post-genocide reconciliation because few Jews were left. Here in Rwanda, many complicit in genocide remain in their neighborhoods or return after prison sentences. For many others, the fate of parents and siblings, after 13 years, is still unknown. Potential witnesses protect the guilty, and justice is uneven. Mass graves continue to be discovered when building foundations are dug. It is difficult for Rwandans to draw grand lessons from all this -- except the need to somehow deliver the next generation from shapeless rage.

The rest of us can draw lessons of courage. A man I met who ran an orphanage saved the lives of nearly 400 children by bluffing the militias and bribing them with food. And those 400 lives mattered, even when 10,000 in the neighborhood around them were lost -- both for the lives themselves and for the affirmation of human dignity that such rescues always symbolize.

We should also draw lessons of shame. Signs of stress and pleas for help were largely ignored in 1994. The world has a poor track record of preventing mass murder, though we have gotten good at the apologies that follow.

As the Rwandan genocide began, a woman named Sifa began hiding the hunted in her home until it was full. When one more arrived, she was forced to turn her crying friend away. But then she reconsidered, saying, "Come back or your tears will judge me forever."

In Rwanda and elsewhere, the tears judge us still.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 15 Nov 07 - 07:54 AM

U.N.: Darfur peacekeeping mission may fail

Story Highlights
U.N. says joint peacekeeping force may be unprepared to take over in Darfur

Mission depends on Sudan quickly accepting units from outside Africa

Force also requires contributing countries to offer critical equipment

More than 200,000 people have died in Darfur since fighting broke out in 2003

   
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- A joint peacekeeping force will not be prepared to take over in Darfur by the start of 2008 unless Sudan quickly accepts units from outside Africa and contributing countries offer critical equipment, a top U.N. official warned Wednesday.

Jean-Marie Guehenno said the world could face a grim choice: either delay the takeover or start the deployment with an ill-equipped force that may not be able to protect its own peacekeepers, let alone civilians.

The United Nations has already been wrangling with Sudan over the U.N.-African Union mission for over a year while the conflict in Darfur has raged. More than 200,000 people have died since fighting broke out in 2003, and the peace process suffered a setback last month when key rebels boycotted talks in Libya.

Guehenno, the U.N. undersecretary-general for peacekeeping operations, expressed frustration with Sudan for resisting critical contributions from Thailand, Nepal and Nordic countries. But he also criticized U.N. member countries for failing to offer helicopters and other equipment.


Ex-Cabinet officials to co-chair task force to prevent genocide
South Africa agrees to offer more support for Darfur force
"If those issues are not addressed very shortly, it means the mission in 2008 will not be able to make the difference that the world wants to it to make and that it may become a failure," Guehenno told reporters after briefing the Security Council.

The 26,000-member force still needs 18 transport helicopter and 6 support light helicopters crucial for sending reinforcements swiftly in emergencies, he said.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is in constant talks with defense ministers around the world, but has yet to receive concrete offers, Guehenno said.

"I think it tells a sad story on the commitment for Darfur, frankly," he said.

He acknowledged that Sudan's reluctance to accept contributions from outside Africa may be deterring governments from pledging help.

The joint force is to takeover from a beleaguered 7,000-member African Union mission. But Sudan has yet to approve a list of contributing countries despite concessions to its demands that the force be predominantly African.

Diplomats said the Security Council would soon reconvene to discuss what to do about the problem, but offered no indications about possible steps.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 17 Oct 07 - 01:18 PM

Washington Post:

To End a Nightmare
Balancing Peace and Justice in Central Africa

By Michael Gerson
Wednesday, October 17, 2007; Page A17

In Central Africa -- not uniquely, but disturbingly -- the rules of sanity are occasionally suspended.

In 1986, a priestess named Alice Lakwena, combining elements of animism with a severe reading of the Ten Commandments, led a revolt of northern Ugandans against the newly installed central government of Yoweri Museveni. Her soldiers covered themselves with vegetable oil in the belief it would protect them against bullets. The strategy wasn't effective. After the slaughter, a relative of Lakwena's named Joseph Kony took up the cause and launched a guerrilla war that eventually brought fear to three countries, took tens of thousands of lives and forced nearly 2 million people into refugee camps.

Kony's Lord's Resistance Army specialized in intimidating the people it was supposed to be liberating, cutting off ears and lips to instill fear, and abducting about 38,000 children to become soldiers and sex slaves. A recent article from the Institute for War and Peace Reporting recounts the story of one girl kidnapped at age 14: "I was dragged by my arms and put with other children who had been captured. They only wanted children." A victim named Christine was taken along with her father, who was beaten severely by the guards -- and his daughter was forced to finish his murder.

But sometimes, unexpectedly, sanity makes a comeback. In the past few years, support for the LRA has evaporated in northern Uganda as local leaders have turned increasingly to political solutions to address their grievances. Military pressure has pushed the LRA out of northern Uganda and southern Sudan and into lawless regions of northeastern Congo. An African-led peace process has produced a cease-fire. Hundreds of thousands have returned from the camps to begin rebuilding their homes and lives.

Most amazingly, Kony and his key commanders have begun to talk about demobilization and surrender. "They looked around them," says one senior State Department official, "and found everyone had moved beyond them." And this sets up one of the most dramatic legal questions since the Nuremberg trials: What does justice mean for these brutal men who "only wanted children"?

This week, the International Criminal Court, which has indicted Kony on 33 charges of murder, kidnapping, rape, mutilation and mass killing, gave an answer. The ICC chief prosecutor said: "Those warrants must be executed. There is no excuse." As a relatively new institution, the ICC feels its credibility is at stake -- along with the credibility of future ICC prosecutions in Darfur.

But according to diplomats close to the peace negotiations, these indictments are now a main obstacle to a final agreement. LRA leaders may surrender to imprisonment in Uganda; they refuse to accept a trial and punishment by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

The end of the Lord's Resistance Army now depends on three commitments from the international community:

First, the ICC needs to show some flexibility. It should insist that the Ugandan legal process meet high international standards when prosecuting LRA leaders -- but it should not insist on conducting the trials itself. By statute, the ICC is supposed to intervene only when national courts are "unable" or "unwilling" to prosecute. The Ugandans are willing. But Human Rights Watch has set out some reasonable expectations for the Ugandan courts: "credible, independent and impartial investigation and prosecution; rigorous adherence in principle and practice to international fair trial standards; and penalties that are appropriate and reflect the gravity of the crimes." This means imprisonment for LRA leaders, not merely house arrest. If these expectations aren't met, the ICC should reserve the right to move forward itself.

Second, the United States will need to support reconstruction efforts in northern Uganda -- a key to genuine reconciliation. The needs and suffering of northern Ugandans have too often been ignored. This week, President Museveni launched a long-awaited reconciliation and development plan for the region. The United States has promised to support it. But currently, the Bush administration has not included any funds for this project in either the budget or the upcoming supplemental appropriation. By this retreat from responsibility, the administration is undermining a fragile peace in Central Africa.

Third, nations in the region and United Nations peacekeepers need to be ready to launch a military campaign in the Congo against the LRA if its leaders prove recalcitrant. The Congolese military is moving two battalions into the area for possible operations in January. The United States has signaled its endorsement of this operation, which makes sincere and urgent negotiation by LRA leaders more likely.

Central Africa has experienced a two-decade nightmare. With a concerted effort in the next few months, that nightmare may finally end.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: GUEST,Chris B (Born Again Scouser)
Date: 04 Oct 07 - 01:00 PM

Africa's fucked. We should know. We fucked it.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 03 Oct 07 - 03:23 PM

Washington Post:

Africa's Ocean Of Need

By Michael Gerson
Wednesday, October 3, 2007; Page A23

One of the most uncomfortable and encouraging conversations I've ever had took place a few years ago at an overcrowded AIDS testing clinic in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

A nurse had asked me if I wanted to meet one of the women using the clinic's services. I assumed I'd be talking to someone who'd received a negative report. Speaking through an interpreter, I discovered that the young girl sitting across from me was still waiting for the result of her test. I awkwardly assured her that I wouldn't disturb her any further. She interrupted: "A few years ago, I would never have talked to a foreigner about AIDS. But now I know that even if I'm positive, it isn't a death sentence. Three of my friends have already been tested, and I need to know."

This is one reason AIDS drugs, when they arrive, are such a miracle. Without the realistic hope of treatment, there is little motivation to be tested; most of us would prefer denial to hopeless certainty. And without AIDS testing, preventing the spread of the disease is difficult; denial increases risky sexual behavior.

More than 2 million men, women and children are getting AIDS treatment in the developing world -- up from close to zero five or six years ago. Health professionals have demonstrated, against considerable skepticism, that complex drug therapies are possible in impoverished countries. And America has taken undeniable -- even though broadly denied -- leadership in these efforts, currently providing more funding to fight AIDS in the developing world than all other nations combined.

This moral achievement is impressive until it is compared with the scale of the problem -- about 40 million people living with HIV-AIDS. In 2006, there were more than 4 million new infections, far outpacing the growth of treatment. At ground zero of the pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa, about a quarter of those who need the drugs are receiving them. Even countries that have reduced new infections, such as Uganda, are still overwhelmed by the demand for treatment. Efforts to treat AIDS have increased massively, dramatically -- and we are still losing ground.


So a debate has begun. Is the goal of universal access to AIDS treatment by 2010 -- adopted by the United Nations and the wealthy Group of Eight nations -- realistic? Will larger treatment efforts be sustainable as infections rise and resistance to cheaper, first-line drugs develops? Should more resources be shifted toward prevention instead of being "wasted" on lifelong treatment?

There is no doubt -- short of an effective AIDS vaccine -- that prevention is the long-term solution to the AIDS crisis. Some preventive measures are technological and medical -- ensuring safe blood transfusions, circumcising males to lower the risk of infection and administering drugs to prevent mother-to-child transmission.

But AIDS prevention depends largely on changed sexual behavior, which is much more complicated than an operation or a pill. Those looking for a single, magical, preventive technique -- either condoms or abstinence -- will be disappointed. Nations that have made progress reducing HIV infection rates, such as Zambia, Rwanda and Kenya, seem to try everything at once. They have achieved delays in the onset of sexual activity, especially among girls, which argues for the promotion of abstinence among the young. They have seen declines in multiple sexual partners -- which recommends a message of faithfulness. And they have seen increases in condom use during casual sex -- which calls for the broad availability of condoms.

All these efforts deserve increased support (contrary to some angry and uninformed accusations, condom distribution by America in the developing world increased 70 percent in the first four years of President Bush's emergency AIDS plan). But can these efforts take the place of treatment? And should they be funded at its expense?

As a young woman taught me in Addis Ababa, testing is difficult to promote if AIDS is a death sentence. Treatment and prevention, in the end, cannot be separated. And the goal of universal access to treatment seems morally unavoidable. However expensive this commitment might be, there is also a cost to letting 40 million people and more die -- a cost the world should not be willing to pay.

But we also need to be realistic about the nature of this commitment. Defeating AIDS will require major new efforts in prevention. And moving toward universal treatment, according to the United Nations, will require between $32 billion and $51 billion by 2010.

America has done much -- and still we face an ocean of need.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 02 Oct 07 - 04:07 PM

Not to worry. Not only has the UN spoken sharply about it, but the controlling figures of the world are getting photo shots there:



Carter, Tutu, other statesmen visit Darfur to promote peace

Story Highlights
Delegation also includes billionaire Richard Branson; Graca Michel, statesmen

"The elders" are promoting a political solution to the region's conflict

More than 200,000 people have been killed, 2.5 million driven from their homes

   
EL FASHER, Sudan (AP) -- A group of elder statesmen, including former President Carter and Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu, began a tour of Darfur on Tuesday to promote a political solution to the region's conflict.

The visit by the delegation of prominent international personalities comes at a crucial time -- with peace talks due to start in Libya and a U.N-African Union peacekeeping force to begin deploying later this month.

It also come days after a stunning attack in which rebels overran an African peacekeepers base in northern Darfur, killing 10 -- the deadliest assault on the force since it arrived in the region three years ago.

"We are not here on a sightseeing tour. We hope we can do something that will make a significant difference ... and bring peace," Tutu, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his fight against apartheid in South Africa, told reporters after the delegation arrived in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur province.

The Nigerian ambassador to the African Union, Obioma Oparah, tried to dispel fears the weekend deaths of peacekeepers would discourage African governments from contributing troops to the joint force. Sudan has insisted that the bulk of the new force be African.

"No doubt about it, we are deeply saddened by the situation and we condemn the attack on the soldiers," said Oparah, whose country lost the greatest number of troops. But, he said, "We are determined to forge ahead. We are committed."

The delegation visiting Darfur -- called "the elders" -- is headed by Carter and Tutu and also includes billionaire Richard Branson; Graca Michel, wife of former South African Nelson Mandela; and several prominent former statesmen from Africa.

Don't Miss

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Their visit is largely symbolic, aiming to influence all sides to make peace in Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven out of their homes in four years of violence.

The group met first with North Darfur governor, Youssouf Kabir, then headed to the compound of an aid camp located next to the sprawling Abu-Shok and Es-Sallam camps where 150,000 refugees who fled Darfur's violence are living.

Darfur is scene of the world's largest humanitarian effort, trying to feed those hit by the turmoil. The conflict pits the Sudanese military against ethnic African rebels who rose up against discrimination by the Arab-dominated government. To help put down the rebellion, Khartoum is accused of unleashing Arab janjaweed militias who have burned hundreds of ethnic African villages, killing and raping civilians.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: Teribus
Date: 02 Oct 07 - 12:59 AM

I believe that the UN has condemned rather a lot over the years, but done very little about any of it.

At present the places grabbing peoples attention are:
- Iran
- Sudan
- Burma

The common stumbling block in each is - China, or a combination of Russia and China. Just like the "old days" isn't it.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: GUEST,Peace
Date: 01 Oct 07 - 05:42 PM

It's about bloody time.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 01 Oct 07 - 03:05 PM

U.N. condemns deadly Darfur attack

Story Highlights
U.N. chief Ban condemns attack, urges parties to prepare for peace talks

10 AU peacekeepers killed in Saturday's assault; 10 injured; 30 still missing

AU peacekeepers number 7,000; U.N. has OK'd 26,000 peacekeeper force

U.N. and Sudanese government have invited rebels to October peace talks


   
(CNN) -- United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has expressed outrage after rebels killed at least 10 African Union soldiers in an unprecented attack on a peacekeeping base in the troubled Sudanese region of Darfur.

An African Union spokesman told CNN the casualties were the heaviest suffered by the peacekeeping force since its deployment in 2004.

Some 30 peacekeepers were still missing from Saturday's assault on the Haskanita base and a further 10 wounded, Assana Ba told CNN.

Condemning the attack "in the strongest possible terms," Ban urged all parties to "recommit" to a peaceful resolution to the conflict and to prepare for peace talks in Libya in October.

The attack coincided with the arrival in Sudan on Sunday of Nobel laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter among a peace delegation seeking to help negotiate a lasting settlement ending the regional conflict.

The initiative is the first mission by Nelson Mandela's "Elders" group since its foundation to mark the former South African president and anti-Apartheid campaigner's 89th birthday in July.

Mandela's wife, Graca Machel, and former U.N. envoy to Iraq Lakhdar Brahimi are also among delegates.

"We have come here to the Sudan because we want to listen to the voices of those who have not been heard and want to explore ways that we can lend our own voices to peace." Tutu said at a news conference, shortly after arriving.

After meeting with government and opposition leaders in Khartoum, the delegates will head to Darfur this week before wrapping up their trip on Friday.

AU officers told The Associated Press that Saturday's attack was carried out by 1,000 rebels from the Sudan Liberation Army.

"We battled for hours, but when we ran out of ammunition, we took refuge in this ditch," a Nigerian peacekeeper who identified himself as Aboubakar told AP.

The camp where the attack took place was riddled with the marks of bullet and mortar fire and strewn with charred armoured vehicles and burnt out tents, AP reported.

Other peacekeepers appeared shocked by the scale of the assault and said the attackers had been armed with armored vehicles and rocket-propelled grenades. AU troops carrying their belongings were being evacuated by helicopter as Sudanese soldiers stood guard.

Although it was "too early to say who launched the attack," AU Commissioner for Peace and Security Said Djinnit said initial indications show the perpetrators were affiliated with one of the many rebel groups that did not sign an AU-brokered peace agreement in May 2006. Watch Djinnit talk about the attacks »

Only one rebel group signed the peace agreement which has done little to stop the fighting between government-backed militias and rebel groups estimated by the U.N. to have killed more than 200,000 people and driven about two million from their homes in the past four years.

"We are of the strong opinion here that once identified, those responsible for this attack should bear all consequences," Djinnit said.

"There must be some political and legal consequences from this deliberate attack."

A senior AU officer told AP, "There is a war going on between the rebels and the government, and the AU is crunched in the middle."

About two months ago the U.N. Security Council authorized a 26,000-member peacekeeping mission in Darfur, more than tripling the AU-led force there.

The "hybrid" force of U.N. and AU troops and police -- which will be under AU command -- is scheduled to take over for the current force by the end of the year, according to the United Nations.

The peacekeeping force, which will be known as UNAMID, will be the world's largest peacekeeping operation, according to the United Nations.

The current AU force of about 7,000 has been unable to stop the violence, and Sudan agreed to allow a bigger peacekeeping force after massive international pressure.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 10 Sep 07 - 09:26 AM

Subject: RE: BS: Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho)- lewd conduct
From: Peace - PM
Date: 08 Sep 07 - 05:13 PM

Not quite.

"Classified papers show Clinton was aware of 'final solution' to eliminate Tutsis

Rory Carroll in Johannesburg
Wednesday March 31, 2004
The Guardian


President Bill Clinton's administration knew Rwanda was being engulfed by genocide in April 1994 but buried the information to justify its inaction, according to classified documents made available for the first time."

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: Silver Slug
Date: 23 Aug 07 - 12:56 PM

I have enough to worry about with my own life to feel too much concern about what is happening to people I've never met in places of which I've barely heard. I object to my Government throwing my money at foreign countries when there is so much to put right in the UK.

Africa has to solve its own problems and the less interference there is from outside, the better.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 23 Aug 07 - 08:49 AM

10,000 Congolese Refugees Flee to Uganda

Wed Aug 22, 2007 12:11 PM EDT
world-news, refugees, congo, uganda

Katy Pownall, AP WriterKAMPALA — As many as 10,000 Congolese refugees have crossed the border into Uganda in the last two days, fleeing violence in their villages, local government officials said Wednesday.

Some of the refugees said they fled after a demonstration by villagers protesting the failure of U.N. peacekeepers to improve security in their remote southeastern Congolese territory.

Refugees told of demonstrators hurling rocks at U.N. troops, and some said they feared that the situation would deteriorate, said David Masereka, the district commissioner of Kisoro, which sits along the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"The influx began yesterday morning and continues up to now," Masereka said.

He said the refugees had gathered on the site of a primary school in the small border town of Bunagana.

"It is mostly women and children that have arrived but they came in haste and were unable to bring food. These people are already hungry but we have no supplies to give them," Masereka told The Associated Press.

Large-scale influxes of Congolese refugees into Uganda are not unusual. The mineral-rich eastern part of Congo, bordering Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, remains the most unstable area of the country. Fighting among rival militias, including groups from neighboring countries, regularly breaks out and often results in civilian casualties.

Uganda occupied part of the region during a 1998-2002 war in Congo that drew in military forces from six neighboring countries.

"We are taking these reports from local government seriously because of the large numbers of refugees involved and we have dispatched assessment teams to Kisoro," said Roberta Russo, a Uganda-based spokeswoman for the U.N.'s refugee agency. "But we suspect that as soon as the situation in Congo normalizes most will cross back to their homes."

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 06 Aug 07 - 04:45 PM

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070806/ap_on_re_af/liberia_rape


"Across Africa, from Sierra Leone to Sudan, rape has been a weapon of war used by militiamen, rebels and government armies. In many places, the problem has been acknowledged and even highlighted by humanitarian agencies and rights groups, but in most cases, little has been done to stop it.

The U.N. says the level of sexual violence in Congo and Burundi is "appalling," but lack of education, resources and honest justice systems made such crimes hard to curb.

Liberia stands in contrast. It has Africa's only elected female president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who has sought to dispel the stigma associated with sexual assault by publicly acknowledging that she was herself the victim of attempted rape during the war.

Rape was so prevalent during the civil war that many have come to see it as a petty offense compared with other atrocities common during the conflict, such as cutting off the genitals of a man or carving out his heart and eating it.

While a 4-year-old peace has brought an end to such crimes, government officials say rape remains rampant — especially of children, who are easier targets for men deprived of their weapons. Of the 658 rape victims treated since the end of the war at the capital's main rape clinic, more than half were under 12 and 85 percent were under 18, according to Medecins sans Frontieres, which runs the hospital. Several babies have been treated for rape

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 27 Jul 07 - 05:33 PM

I ceased caring about Africa the day that Rhodesia became Zimbabwe.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 26 Jul 07 - 07:27 PM

You missed the toxic floods in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, bb!

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: GUEST,IBO
Date: 26 Jul 07 - 07:11 AM

YES

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 25 Jul 07 - 01:45 PM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/24/AR2007072401852.html

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: Mike Miller
Date: 15 Jun 07 - 04:45 PM

The terrible truth is that atrocities occur daily throughout the world. Secterian wars are as common as religious intolerance. Life does not have the same value in every culture and, in every society, the value of life is reletive. The world has never known a time of peace. The world has never, even, known a time without some form of what we now call "ethnic cleansing". Strong nations can object, the UN can sanction, folksingers can post angry protests on Mudcat but, without armed intervention, a lot of people are going to die.
So, unless we expect the US to become the moral policemen of the world (with the resultant morasses that entails), these threads are just blowing in the wind. All they do is give the posters the illusiion of useful activity. Well, I suppose that is better than facing the hard truth.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 15 Jun 07 - 09:55 AM

From the Washington Post:

Zimbabwe's Unending Agony

By Michael Gerson
Friday, June 15, 2007; Page A21

When I talked this week with David Coltart, a Zimbabwean member of parliament and human rights lawyer, his office in Bulawayo had been without power for five hours. The central business district of Zimbabwe's second-largest city, he said, was "a ghost town," with "hardly anyone on the streets" and "signs everywhere of total economic collapse."

Four days previously the price for a liter of gasoline had been 55,000 Zimbabwean dollars; that morning, gas stations were advertising $85,000. Inflation, by conservative estimates, gallops at an annual rate of 3,700 percent. Perhaps 3 1/2 million people -- about one-fourth of the population -- have left the country in a massive drain of youth and ambition. "Land reform" has been a land grab for the ruling-party elite, which is proving that intimidation and brutality are powerless to make the corn grow. Orphans, many with signs of childhood malnutrition, have begun coming to Coltart's parliamentary office for help.

Zimbabweans have discovered with horror that their founding father, Robert Mugabe, is an abusive parent, as if George Washington had grown mad with power, expropriated Monticello and given Thomas Jefferson a good, instructive beating.

With elections for president and parliament set for next year, Mugabe can hardly run on his record. So he has kicked off the campaign season by attempting to destroy his opposition and rig the election in his favor. In March, his police crushed a protest rally and began arresting and torturing political opponents. In response to international criticism, Mugabe coolly replied, "We hope they have learned their lesson. If they have not, then they will get similar treatment." Constitutional changes are moving forward that will allow Mugabe to handpick his successor. Next week parliament will debate measures that permit the interception of e-mails and the suppression of democratic groups, with the excuse of fighting "foreign terrorism."

Mugabe, having spent a lifetime consuming his country, now seems determined to drink it to the dregs.

For years, nations in the region did nothing in response and called their silence "quiet diplomacy." More recently, those efforts have progressed from nonexistent to inadequate. After the recent round of beatings and arrests, a summit of the Southern African Development Community-- a 14-country regional organization -- appointed South African President Thabo Mbeki to mediate the political conflict in Zimbabwe. Yet the summit's participants refused to clearly criticize the regime's human rights violations. "We got full backing," boasted Mugabe. "Not even one criticized our actions."

South African diplomats tell American officials that there is no serious alternative to the regime -- that the opposition is weak and divided. But perhaps that opposition is dispirited because in March and April, 600 of its leaders were arrested or abducted, 300 hospitalized, and three killed. Any hope of "mediation" in this atmosphere is a sham. How do you sit down at the negotiating table when one side is using a truncheon on the other? The precondition for mediation is an end to beatings and torture on Mugabe's part -- and the South Africans should insist on it. They should also start considering more muscular options if Mugabe continues on his current path. South Africa has tremendous leverage if it chooses to use it. A cutoff of energy, fuel and trade could end Mugabe's regime in a matter of days.

The hesitance of many democracies to confidently promote democracy is one of the great frustrations of recent years. The South Korean government does its best to play down massive human rights abuses in the North. India and Japan do business with the brutal regime in Burma. It would be progress if South African diplomats even raised the issue of human rights in Zimbabwe and began showing the kind of moral clarity that once benefited their own cause.

In Zimbabwe, a collapsing economy, malnutrition, high rates of disease and a failing health-care system have produced some of the lowest life expectancies in the world -- 34 years for women and 37 years for men. So Mugabe, at age 83, has achieved a rare distinction in the history of tyranny -- living twice as long as his citizens are expected to live. According to Coltart, the most vivid image of Zimbabwe is found in the cemeteries, which "are filled to overflowing." "There are burials at any time of the day," he told me, "row after row of fresh dirt, with no headstones, because the poor can't afford them." "It is the way," he said, "that I imagine the Battle of the Somme."

That terrible battle during World War I lasted 142 days. Zimbabwe has suffered for years -- and the burials go on.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 07 Jun 07 - 01:50 PM

From the CNN article on the G* conf:

"
Bush agreed, saying Thursday that the summit should stick to the priorities of climate change and aid to Africa, including the fight against HIV/AIDS. He and Merkel drew up the agenda Wednesday.

"They are not keeping their promises" to help Africa, Bono told CNN's Ed Henry in an interview Wednesday.

At the Gleneagles, Scotland, G8 Summit in 2005, boosted by the Live 8 concerts and the efforts of Bono and Geldof, world leaders agreed, at the urging of Blair, to a huge program of debt reduction for the "forgotten continent" of Africa, and massive boost in efforts to curb AIDS, malaria and other diseases.

G8 leaders in 2005 promised an extra $25 billion for Africa by 2010, according to Jamie Drummond, executive director of DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa), an advocacy organization working to eradicate poverty and AIDS in Africa.

DATA also encourages African leaders to support democracy, accountability and transparency.

Bono, a board member, has persistently lobbied the governments of the world's leading industrial democracies, which make up the G8, to keep their financial commitments.

At the end of 2006, just $2.3 billion of the $25 billion promised by G8 leaders by 2010 -- not including debt relief -- had been paid, Drummond told CNN's European Political Editor Robin Oakley.

"The G8 as a whole in 2006 did about half of the aid levels they promised -- just under half. They're planning for 2007 to do just under a third of what they promised. So there's a pattern of off-track behavior," Drummond said.

According to DATA, Britain and Japan are meeting their promises.

Canada, the United States and Germany are slipping behind, and France and Italy are at the bottom.

Bush said Thursday the United States was trying to do its part.

"I asked Congress to double our initial commitment and approve an additional $30 billion for HIV-AIDS prevention, for care, and for treatment over the next five years," he said.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 30 May 07 - 03:44 PM

Bush seeks $30 billion for AIDS program 43 minutes ago



WASHINGTON -       President Bush urged Congress on Wednesday to authorize an additional $30 billion to fight       AIDS in Africa over five years, doubling the current U.S. commitment.

The money would provide treatment for 2.5 million people under the President's Emergency Program for AIDS Relief, Bush said.

Through March 31, the program has supported treatment for 1.1 million people in 15 countries, including more than 1 million in Africa, he said. The program's original five-year mandate, which called for spending $15 billion, expires in September 2008 and Bush asked Congress to renew it.

"When I took office, an       HIV diagnosis in Africa's poorest communities was usually a death sentence. Parents watched their babies die needlessly because local clinics lacked effective treatments," the president said. "Once again, the generosity of the American people is one of the great untold stories of our time."

White House press secretary Tony Snow said the specific goals for the next five years — after Bush leaves office — call for treatment of 2.5 million people, prevention of more than 12 million new infections and the care of more than 12 million people, including 5 million orphans and children.

The president said the money "this money will be spent wisely," in nations where it can have the greatest possible impact and be sustainable.

Bush also announced that his wife, Laura, will visit four African countries — Zambia, Mali, Mozambique and Senegal — that have benefited from the U.S. program and report back to him on her findings. The trip will take place June 25-29.

The president's announcement comes before next week's annual summit of industrialized nations in Heiligendamm, Germany. Germany is pledging to make Africa a central issue and is calling for more aid, further debt relief and improved financial oversight.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 30 May 07 - 02:29 PM

And more from the Washington Post...

A Big Enough Stick for Sudan

By Michael Gerson

Wednesday, May 30, 2007; Page A13

The greeting given to visitors at the presidential palace in Khartoum, Sudan, is an exercise in intimidation. You pass guards in white uniforms with AK-47s, walk under a pair of enormous elephant tusks, then file past a machine gun emplacement. Guests are reminded they have entered the rebuilt palace where Gen. Charles Gordon -- the British father of humanitarian interventionism -- was killed in a 19th-century Islamist uprising. The message of warning to a new generation of Western idealists is given and taken.

Immediately after Sept. 11, 2001, the regime in Khartoum, which once sheltered Osama bin Laden, was suddenly cooperative -- fearful of being visited by the fate of Afghanistan. By the time I met President Omar Hassan al-Bashir in 2005, the fright had worn off. The regime felt shielded from pressure by close relations with China -- its main market for oil -- and by solidarity with Arab governments. Bashir dismissed accusations of genocide in the Western province of Darfur as "legitimate defense operations" and boldly pushed for an end to American sanctions on his country.

Traveling in Darfur a few days later, I got a whirlwind tour of hell. These "defense operations" involve the use of local militias to destroy village after village, sending millions into densely populated camps. The outskirts of those camps are ruled by brutal mounted militias that use rape and murder as tools of intimidation.

During that visit, it was clear that 15,000 to 20,000 U.N. peacekeepers, armed with attack helicopters and a mandate to protect civilians, could make a difference. That mission was eventually approved by the U.N. Security Council. But leaders of the regime have obstructed the deployment of that force at every turn, fearful it might eventually be used to arrest them on charges of genocide.

Yesterday's welcome announcement by President Bush of stronger American sanctions against Sudan, and new efforts in the Security Council to internationalize those sanctions, is an attempt to break this resistance. Within the administration, most concede these actions by themselves will not be enough. But the effective use of this stick -- banks expelling Sudanese accounts worth hundreds of millions of dollars -- might make the threat of other, heftier sticks more credible in the future.

The new sanctions were opposed by the U.N. secretary general, the Chinese, the Saudis and the Egyptians, who all want "just a few more weeks" to perform diplomatic miracles. But there is also a gathering coalition for stronger action that includes the United States, Britain, Denmark, some African countries -- and now France. The new government of Nicolas Sarkozy is reviewing its Darfur policy and has signaled a willingness to join the U.N. peacekeeping force and perhaps to establish humanitarian corridors in eastern Chad.

Past the current round of sanctions, the choices become more difficult. One option is to keep sanctions in place, reengage the government and the rebels in negotiations, and wait until the conditions for a genuine peace ripen. In this view, the cost of patience is relatively low -- humanitarian conditions in the Darfur camps have actually improved recently by most measures. The cost of military confrontation could be high, if it causes the regime to expel the thousands of humanitarian aid workers who keep millions from starvation.

The problem with waiting for peace, as one administration official put it to me, is that "the regime only responds to pressure. It has no record of responding to positive moves." So the other option is to set out on a ladder of escalation that will compel acceptance of the U.N. force and the disarmament of the militias. This approach would eventually involve the threat of force by a coalition of the willing -- not invasion and occupation, but a no-fly zone and perhaps a blockade. It would also require a clear message to the regime that menacing the refugees would bring terrible consequences. The more credible this threat of force, the more likely that the regime complies without the use of force.

Given other commitments, the U.S. military has been reluctant to even plan for these contingencies. But this leads to the strangest of situations: The French may now be more willing to act against genocide in Darfur than is the Pentagon.

The choice here is far from obvious. Escalation has risks; if not done in earnest, it is better not to begin at all. America is understandably weary and distracted. But a question hangs over the history of our time: Are we too tired to oppose genocide?

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 30 May 07 - 02:26 PM

from the Washington Post:

President Bush announces new sanctions for Sudan; China proposes more foreign investment.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007; Page A12


PRESIDENT BUSH'S announcement yesterday of new sanctions against Sudan because of the continuing genocide in Darfur was well justified and -- after more than a month's delay to allow for fruitless diplomacy -- overdue. It was also out of sync with the disturbing position of China, whose cooperation is essential to bringing sufficient pressure to bear on the Sudanese regime.

On the same day that Mr. Bush extended U.S. economic sanctions to 31 more Sudanese companies and three individuals, China's new African envoy held a news conference at which he argued that more foreign aid and investment, not sanctions, is the right medicine for the regime of Omar Hassan al-Bashir. As it is, Sudan sells 60 percent of its oil and 40 percent of its total exports to China, which has invested heavily in Sudan's oil industry and sold weapons to its army. As long as Beijing continues this lucrative partnership, U.S. sanctions, already in place for a decade, are unlikely to prove effective.

Worse, China seeks to discount well-documented atrocities by the Sudanese government, which have recently included the attempted bombing of rebel commanders meeting to discuss a peace deal, as well as raids on villages in southern Darfur. In a just-concluded tour of the region, Chinese ambassador Liu Guijin said he "didn't see a desperate scenario of people dying of hunger." He couldn't have been looking very hard: The United Nations says 250,000 people have been displaced in Darfur since last fall, adding to more than 2 million already crammed into miserable and insecure camps. Deliveries of food and other aid have frequently been disrupted in recent months, according to aid groups.

Mr. Bush said yesterday that the United States will press for a new U.N. Security Council resolution that would include further sanctions on Sudan and an enforceable ban on offensive military flights over Darfur. Though Britain and the new French government strongly support such action, the resolution will go nowhere without a change in Chinese policy. That's where the good news from Mr. Liu's news conference comes in. He declined to say that his government would veto a new resolution, and he was obliged to respond to the growing campaign to connect China's support for Sudan to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. "Linking China's approach to the Darfur issue and the Olympic Games is totally untenable," he protested. And if China uses its veto to stop a new U.N. resolution? Its leaders should be made to wonder what will be "untenable" then.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 29 May 07 - 08:44 PM

Sudan: U.S. sanctions over Darfur unfair

By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU, Associated Press Writer
Tue May 29, 5:16 PM ET



KHARTOUM, Sudan - The Sudanese government condemned a new set of U.S. economic sanctions aimed at pressuring it to halt the bloodshed in Darfur, describing them Tuesday as "unfair and untimely" and calling on the rest of the world to ignore them.

       President Bush announced the United States was enforcing sanctions that bar 31 Sudanese companies owned or controlled by Sudan's government from the U.S. banking system. The sanctions also prevent three Sudanese individuals from doing business with U.S. companies or banks.

"We believe this decision is unfair and untimely," Sudan's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ali Sadiq, told The Associated Press.

His call found support in China, Khartoum's top diplomatic ally and a key business partner, which defended its investment in Sudan. Trade and investment are "helpful for the development of Sudan's economy and will fundamentally help Sudan to address the conflicts and wars in Sudan," China's envoy, Liu Guijin, told reporters in Beijing.

However, the       European Union said it was prepared to consider tougher measures to push Sudan to finally allow a large U.N. peacekeeping mission into Darfur. "In principle, we are open to consider that," Javier Solana told the AP.

Sadiq defending Sudan, saying it accepted a first batch of 3,000 U.N. peacekeepers in April to reinforce the overwhelmed African Union force already deployed in Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have fled their homes in four years of fighting between Sudanese forces and rebels.

"These American measures come at a time when Sudan is actively discussing peace in Darfur and working on the hybrid force," of U.N. and African Union peacekeepers, Sadiq said. "We invite the international community to ignore and condemn these sanctions."

Officials said Chris Hill, the U.S. nuclear negotiator with       North Korea, was heading to China on Wednesday and planned to raise Darfur with the Chinese.

The U.S. mission to the       United Nations has been drafting a resolution for broader U.N. sanctions against Sudan that is expected to face resistance in the Security Council because of China's opposition and questions over its timing.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said he needs more time to promote negotiations and persuade the Sudanese government to accept more peacekeepers.

Asked whether the U.S. sanctions would complicate his job of getting Sudan to agree to a larger U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force, Ban said: "We will have to see."

The U.N. agreed last week with the African Union on the final outline of the hybrid force that would more than triple the number of peacekeepers in Darfur with a mission of at least 23,000 soldiers and police. The peacekeepers would be allowed to launch pre-emptive attacks to stop violence.

South Africa's U.N. ambassador questioned the timing of the U.S. sanctions in the midst of those negotiations.

"It's not clear to us what are the sanctions supposed to achieve, what's really the aim?" said Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo, whose country is a large contributor to the current 7,000-strong African Union force in Darfur.

Arab League chief Amr Moussa also criticized Bush's announcement, saying "this is not time for sanctions but time for intensifying efforts to reach understanding."

However, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir recently repeated his opposition to direct U.N. involvement in Darfur peacekeeping, saying the world body should only operate in support of the African Union.

World powers are growing increasingly frustrated with Sudan's dallying on the fine print of a U.N. deployment.

Sadiq, the Sudanese spokesman, warned that sanctions would "give the wrong signal" to rebel groups fighting in Darfur.

One of the individuals targeted for sanctions is Khalil Ibrahim, the head of the Justice and Equality Movement rebel group that opposes a peace deal signed last year by one rebel faction and the Sudanese government.

The group voiced outrage that Ibrahim was targeted after repeatedly meeting with U.S. officials to find a way out of the conflict.

The U.S. Embassy in Khartoum said the rebel chief was listed because his troops contribute to the ongoing violence. "Meetings notwithstanding ... the U.S. government regards them as obstructing the peace process," said embassy spokesman Joel Maybury.

The two targeted government officials are Awad Ibn Auf, Sudan's head of military intelligence and security, and Ahmed Harun, the minister for humanitarian affairs, the U.S.       Treasury Department said.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 29 May 07 - 01:03 PM

3,000 Darfur refugees make 10-day trek through bush

POSTED: 11:27 a.m. EDT, May 29, 2007

Story Highlights• Darfur refugees walk 125 miles to seek shelter in Central African Republic
• Attacks force all 15,000 inhabitants Dafak to flee their homes
• Town of Sam-Ouandja unable to cope with the influx of Sudanese refugees
• Refugees are relying on mangoes picked from the bush for food

BANGUI, Central African Republic (Reuters) -- An estimated 3,000 Sudanese refugees driven from their homes by fighting in Darfur trekked for 10 days through the bush to seek shelter in Central African Republic, United Nations officials said on Tuesday.

The refugees told a U.N. team in the northeastern town of Sam-Ouandja, some 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the Sudanese border, that a ground and air attack had forced all 15,000 inhabitants of the southern Darfur town of Dafak to flee their homes.

Most of them headed south within Sudan, but some fled westward into Central African Republic, an arduous journey of more than 125 miles (200 kilometers) following a track accessible only on foot or by horse.

Their flight was the latest evidence that the conflict in Darfur, where a war pitting rebels against Sudan's army and allied militias has raged since 2003, is pushing refugees into neighboring states like Chad and Central African Republic.

"So far we have registered 1,411 refugees and more of them are arriving every day," said Bruno Geddo, country representative for the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, who led a U.N. mission on Monday to Sam-Ouandja in the isolated north-east.

"We are working on an estimate of 3,000 [refugees] at the moment," he told Reuters.

Although initial news reports suggested the group were armed and could include Chadian rebels, Geddo said the U.N. team had found no evidence of either weapons or Chadian nationals.

The town of Sam-Ouandja was attacked in March and November by insurgents trying to topple Central African President Francois Bozize, who seized power in a 2003 coup before legitimizing his rule at the ballot box two years later.

Geddo said the town's inhabitants were unable to cope with the influx of Sudanese refugees, who were currently relying on mangoes picked from the bush for food.

The United Nations children's agency UNICEF estimated last month that a quarter of the 4 million people in Central African Republic -- the world's sixth poorest country -- are suffering the effects of internal violence or the spill over from conflicts in neighboring Sudan and Chad.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 29 May 07 - 01:02 PM

U.S. imposes new sanctions against Sudan

POSTED: 12:41 p.m. EDT, May 29, 2007

Story Highlights• U.S. imposes punitive action against 31 companies and three individuals
• Bush: Sudanese President Bashir "finding new methods of obstruction"
• Sudan objects to latest U.N. plan to deploy peacekeepers

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush imposed sanctions Tuesday against Sudan in reaction to the "genocide" in Darfur, and has ordered actions against 31 companies and three people -- preventing them from doing business in or with U.S. companies.

The three Sudanese people affected include two high-ranking government officials and a rebel leader, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. They were targeted for their roles in fomenting violence and human rights abuses in Darfur, the agency said.

"For too long the people of Darfur have suffered at the hands of a government that is complicit in the bombing, murder and rape of innocent civilians.

"My administration has called these actions by their rightful name, genocide. The world has a responsibility to help put an end to it," Bush said.

Bush said he had ordered Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to write up a draft resolution that will be presented to the U.N. Security Council.

Bush intended to announce the sanctions last month in a speech at the Holocaust Museum in Washington but held off to give the United Nations and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir more time to try to resolve the situation.

Bush and other top U.S. officials have grown impatient with Bashir's reluctance to stop attacks by Arab militias widely believed to be supported by the government. The largest of these groups is known as the Janjaweed.

Bashir has also stalled efforts to increase international peacekeeping troops in the region.

Seven thousand African Union troops are in Darfur, and Bashir in April said Sudan would allow a U.N. support force of 3,000 troops into the country, the second phase of U.N. peacekeeping efforts in Darfur.

On Friday, the U.N. Security Council approved plans for the third phase, the deployment of 22,000 U.N. and African Union peacekeepers.

At the weekend, however, Bashir said he still opposed that plan, The Associated Press reported, saying he would only accept a predominantly African Union force.

"President Bashir's actions over the past few weeks follow a long pattern of promising cooperation while finding new methods for obstruction," Bush said Tuesday.

Fighting by government-backed militias and rebel groups in the Darfur region of western Sudan has killed more than 200,000 people and driven about 2 million from their homes.

The Treasury Department issued a statement immediately after Bush's announcement, saying that, as of Tuesday, the agency had blocked the assets of the three Sudanese.

"Even in the face of sanctions, these individuals have continued to play direct roles in the terrible atrocities of Darfur," said Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. "We are working to call attention to their horrific acts and further isolate them from the international community."

The Treasury also acted Tuesday to sanction 30 Sudanese companies owned or controlled by the government of Sudan, and one company that has violated the arms embargo in Darfur.

"These companies have supplied cash to the Bashir regime, enabling it to purchase arms and further fuel the fighting in Darfur," added Paulson.

"By denying these companies access to the U.S. and international financial system, we will make it harder for the government of Sudan to pursue its deadly agenda."

One of the three individuals named Tuesday, Ahmad Muhammed Harun, Sudan's state minister for humanitarian affairs, has been accused of war crimes in Darfur by the International Criminal Court in the The Hague, Netherlands.

Sudan's head of military intelligence and security, Awad Ibn Auf, was also designated Tuesday, along with Khalil Ibrahim, leader of the Justice and Equality Movement , a rebel group that has refused to sign the Darfur Peace Agreement, the Treasury Department said.

Tuesday's action brings to seven the number of Sudanese individuals for whom access to the U.S. financial system is prohibited, according to the agency.

Fighting between the government of Sudan, the Janjaweed and splintered rebel groups has continued unabated in Sudan, despite the signing of the African Union-brokered Darfur Peace Agreement in May 2006.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 22 May 07 - 08:42 AM

6 beheadings blamed on sect shock Kenyans
POSTED: 7:57 a.m. EDT, May 22, 2007
Story Highlights• Media says Mungiki responsible for murders
• Group instills fear by promoting archaic Kikuyu rituals like swearing oaths
• Sect fighting with local minibus taxi operators over protection money
• Mungiki was banned in 2002 after killing more than 20 people in a Nairobi slum
Adjust font size:
NAIROBI, Kenya (Reuters) -- Villagers found heads placed on poles and body parts scattered in bushes in six murders the media blamed on Tuesday on an outlawed sect notorious for killing and extortion.

People in the country's central region found the heads and other remains after attacks on Sunday and Monday.

The media blamed the killings on Mungiki, a banned group that has fought weeks of battles with local minibus taxi operators who are resisting its demands for protection money.

With presidential elections due in the east African nation in December, many commentators suspected a political hand behind violence threatening the government's authority.

"[Mungiki] is out to demonstrate that it can operate and strike with impunity anywhere and everywhere," the Daily Nation newspaper said on Tuesday in a front page editorial, below pictures of four of the six men who were decapitated.

"It is out to show the police and other government organs are feeble, helpless and unable to protect anyone who defies it."

Police said they would hold a briefing later on Tuesday.

Fear spread fast through the villages of Murang'a and Kiambu with some families fleeing the area as the victims' remains were discovered.

"I had gone out to answer a call of nature at around 3 a.m. when I switched on my torch and saw the head of a human being placed on the roof of my chicken pen," Robert Kiunjuri, a teacher in Kianjogu village, told the Nation.

The 50-year-old victim's headless body had been dragged to the nearby home of a chief, where it was dumped at the gate.

Another head was found perched atop a telephone pole about a mile (kilometer) away, and another found after villagers heard two dogs fighting over it.

In neighboring Kiambu, one head was left at a bus stop in the center of the main town, local media said. A torso and three amputated legs were discovered in a ditch in a nearby village.

The victims all appeared to be local laborers and peasant farmers with no known links to the shadowy sect.

Mungiki, whose name means "multitude" in the local Kikuyu language, was banned in 2002 after members armed with knives and clubs killed more than 20 people in a Nairobi slum.

The group instills fear by promoting archaic Kikuyu rituals like swearing oaths, and many Kenyans believe it has been supported by corrupt politicians in the past.

"The police cannot claim to be seriously investigating Mungiki if they are not calling in for questioning such political leaders," the Nation said. "Ultimately, the government must take full responsibility for failing to contain what is now clearly a national security issue."

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 15 May 07 - 03:13 PM

Bono: Industrial countries lag on Africa promises

POSTED: 12:21 p.m. EDT, May 15, 2007

BERLIN, Germany (AP) -- The world's biggest industrial countries are failing to keep up with financial promises they made to Africa, rocker-activist Bono said Tuesday, calling a new progress report "a cold shower" for the Group of Eight.

G-8 members in 2004-2006 contributed less than half the amount needed to make good on promises to double Africa aid to $50 billion by 2010, according to a report released by DATA -- Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa -- an advocacy group founded by Bono, the 47-year-old frontman for Irish band U2.

"The G-8 are sleepwalking into a crisis of credibility. I know the DATA report will feel like a cold shower, but I hope it will wake us all up," he said. (Bono talks to CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta about Africa, poverty and promises )

Bono is urging German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who chairs a G-8 summit in Germany next month, to ensure that members contribute what they said they would.(Go to CNN's podcasting page to download Dr. Sanjay Gupta's interview with Bono)

The report shows the G-8 increased aid by $2.3 billion but says the nations need to increase aid by an additional $3.1 billion to substantially help the people of Africa.

"These statistics are not just numbers on a page," Bono said. "They are people begging for their lives, for two pills a day, a mother begging to immunize her children, a child begging not to become a mother at the age of 12."

The DATA report said aid money that does arrive has an effect. "Every day 1,450 Africans living with AIDS are put on lifesaving drugs," the organization said, and 20 million African children are going to school for the first time, thanks in part to debt cancellations and aid increases.

Still, Bono warns that insufficient increases in aid could reverse progress already made. DATA says the G-8 must contribute $7.4 billion this year alone to reach its goal. If Germany makes good on its promises to help Africa, he said, the other G-8 members will do the same.

Britain and Japan have contributed most of the aid increase so far, it said.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 14 May 07 - 01:44 PM

From the Washington Post:

Liberia's Moment of Opportunity

By Robert L. Johnson
Monday, May 14, 2007; Page A15

Last September, Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf captivated an audience at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York with descriptions of the extraordinary challenges facing her country. Sirleaf's courage and vision inspired me and a group of colleagues to commit to revitalizing the historic but dormant relationship between African Americans and Liberia. After all, Jewish Americans have been vital to Israel's welfare. African Americans should play a similar role for Liberia.

As part of our commitment, we pledged to mobilize investment capital to support Sirleaf's reconstruction efforts. This led to the creation of the $30 million Liberia Enterprise Development Fund, which is designed to make credit available to Liberian entrepreneurs working to build viable, job-creating businesses.

We also pledged to take African American leaders to Liberia. Last month, our 25-person delegation visited businesses in Monrovia, toured villages in the countryside and met with Liberians from all walks of life. We were awed by the challenges but moved by the sense of hope and faith Liberians have in their future. Every Liberian with whom we spoke said that the country will not return to war. Liberians want to rebuild their lives by finding jobs, restoring their homes and educating their children.

As it turned out, our investment mission to Liberia was the first by a group of Americans in over 25 years.

The United States has a special obligation to support Liberia. The country was established in 1847 by freed American slaves, and its first few presidents were African American. While Congress and the Bush administration have taken several helpful steps, more needs to be done -- and soon.

First, the Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Programs Appropriations Act should be amended. Section 520 requires the administration to notify Congress of every program it intends to fund in Liberia. This delays unnecessarily the disbursement of the $270 million the United States has made available to Liberia and conveys the impression that Washington is indifferent to Liberia's challenges. Other countries under this constraint include Sudan and Zimbabwe. With Liberia's encouraging progress on economic and political reform, it is wrong that our government has not rescinded this burdensome requirement.

Immediate progress also needs to be made on relieving Liberia's debt. Liberia cannot pay the $3.7 billion it owes. The Bush administration, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the European Union need to resolve this so that the Sirleaf government can access new sources of development assistance. Moreover, Liberians need to see tangible results from their government's development efforts. A far-reaching debt-reduction program would be a well-deserved boost for Sirleaf's administration and would visibly distance this government from the corruption and mismanagement of previous regimes.

Few issues are as critical as Liberia's security situation. Fifteen thousand U.N. peacekeepers are there now. There is agreement among the government and foreign government donors that Liberia's new army will be a force of 2,000. The United States should take the lead to ensure that the United Nations does not withdraw until Liberia's new force is fully trained and equipped. Attention also must be paid to the development of a coast guard.

The Bush administration could display its confidence in Liberia's future by locating the new Africa Command there. Few countries are as pro-America as Liberia, and it was a staunch U.S. ally during World War II and the Cold War. The placement of a U.S. military command in Africa is overdue. Liberia, with its strategic coastal location in West Africa, is well suited to serve as a host.

Promoting U.S. investment in Liberia should be another priority. In many sectors, Liberia has world-class natural resources. Under an agreement ratified a week ago, Mittal Steel will invest more than $1 billion to extract iron ore from northern Liberia. Firestone, which has been in the country for 80 years, is working to significantly increase its rubber production. Other opportunities exist in timber, mining and infrastructure development.

Attention also needs to be given to encouraging an American carrier to make direct flights to Monrovia. This would aid the growth in commerce and make it easier for Liberian residents in the United States to travel home.

President Sirleaf has put special emphasis on attracting foreign investment and strengthening her domestic private sector. She understands, correctly, that a strong private sector is essential to growth. A strategy for attracting American investors in areas such as energy, housing and road-building should be a priority for the Bush administration.

Liberia deserves American support, and African Americans especially must come forward to reestablish the historic bond between our nations. The Sirleaf government is working tirelessly to create a better and more prosperous future for citizens. We bear a special responsibility to ensure that she succeeds.

The writer is chairman of RLJ Companies, which is a member of the Liberia Enterprise Development Fund. He is a member of the Clinton Global Initiative.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 10 May 07 - 11:53 AM

Villagers flee killings as 'peace' plan backfires
POSTED: 1:15 p.m. EDT, May 9, 2007

Story Highlights• "I buried my child in the forest," says one mother who fled village in Congo
• 600,000 flee homes as army meant to protect them kills, rapes villagers
• Violence result of plan to integrate rebels into regular army

NYONGERA, Congo (Reuters) -- "I buried my child in the forest," said Jeannette Nyirarukundo, who fled her village in eastern Congo when it was attacked by the government army meant to protect it.

Six-year-old Moise starved to death before the family reached the safety of a camp at Nyongera, 70 kilometers (44 miles) from North Kivu's provincial capital Goma.

Some 113,000 civilians have fled fighting in Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu since February, and the province now has 600,000 displaced people, according to the U.N. humanitarian coordination agency OCHA.

'They came for us there, too'
"We slept in the forest for two weeks, and then they came after us there too. It wasn't safe anymore, and we came here," said Nyirarukundo, 28, who was accompanied by her husband and three surviving children.

Eastern Congo is no stranger to violence, but ironically the latest surge in killing started with a deal designed to bring peace to this corner of the vast country nearly four years after a nationwide accord officially ended a 1998-2003 war.

Laurent Nkunda, a dissident Congolese army general, led his two brigades into the bush in 2004, vowing to protect his fellow ethnic Tutsis. He is under an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes after his men occupied Bukavu, South Kivu.

After last year's historic polls saw President Joseph Kabila become Congo's first democratically elected leader in more than four decades, the army and Rwandan mediators began negotiations to bring Nkunda and his soldiers into existing army brigades stationed in North Kivu. That process began in January.

But instead of ending the violence, the five new mixed brigades began hunting down Nkunda's enemies in the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Hutu-dominated Rwandan rebel movement based in eastern Congo.

Mixed brigades kill, rape, force civilians from homes
"There's more and more movement every day ... If this military strategy continues, we could be looking at another 280,000 more (displaced)," said Luciano Calestini, emergency specialist for eastern Congo for U.N. Children's Fund UNICEF.

"The next six months is going to be a disaster. It's going to be catastrophic," he said.

Human rights observers accuse the mixed brigades of killing, raping and forcing civilians from their homes.

Soldiers from the mixed Bravo Brigade arbitrarily executed at least 15 mostly Hutu civilians in Buramba village about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Goma, the human rights division of Congo's U.N. peacekeeping mission said in a report.

Bravo Brigade commander Colonel Sultani Makenga blamed the massacre on the FDLR.

"What we did was separate the population from the FDLR. That's why the villages are uninhabited," Makenga told Reuters in an interview. "We evacuated the civilians in order to fight the FDLR alone ... It was to protect them."

'We are in the hands of a killer'
Makenga said operations would continue until the FDLR were chased out of Congo or destroyed.

Dominique Bofondo, territorial administrator of Rutshuru, where Bravo Brigade is based, said civilians now lived in fear of the mixed brigades.

"These are the same soldiers who killed people, who raped women. And now they are here to take care of us? ... We are in the hands of a killer," Bofondo said.

In Nyongera camp, Nyirarukundo said she is still afraid to return home but says her surviving children are hungry and sick.

"For now, we have nothing. There's no food. Nothing. We just want security, so we can go home," she said.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 04 May 07 - 02:52 PM

Problem solved!


Mayor of Mogadishu bans weapons By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN, Associated Press Writer
Fri May 4, 9:30 AM ET



MOGADISHU, Somalia - A former warlord who has long lived by his gun was sworn in as mayor of Mogadishu on Friday and immediately ordered residents of the Somali capital to get rid of their weapons.

But Mayor Mohamed Dheere offered no clear details on how that could be accomplished in a city awash in Kalashnikov rifles, machine guns and hand grenades. Previous efforts to get residents to give up their weapons have been unsuccessful.

"No weapons are allowed in the city," Dheere, who spent 16 years as a warlord struggling for power in this Horn of Africa nation, said at his inauguration ceremony. "Anyone who violates this directive will be punished."

The new police chief, Abdi Qeybdiid, also called for residents to disarm Friday, and said cars with blacked-out or tinted windows must go.

"Anyone who fails to abide by these rules will be brought before the court," he said — a surprising assertion in a city that has seen little more than chaos for more than a decade.

Dheere is trying to build on a fragile peace carved out by clan deal-making and a fierce military crackdown on Muslim militants.

Aid groups say 1,670 people were killed between March 12 and April 26 and more than 340,000 of the city's 2 million residents fled for safety as the government, backed by Ethiopian troops, pressed to wipe out an Islamic insurgency.

It was not clear how long the calm would last — extremist Islamic leaders have vowed their forces would rise up again. But the violence was also spurred by a struggle for power among Somali clans, and that element may have subsided because of efforts to appease the clans, including the weekend appointment of Dheere as mayor. Dheere's powerful clan, the Hawiye, had complained of being ignored by the government.

Somalia has been mired in chaos since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned against each other. The current government was established in 2004, but has failed to assert full control.

With the crucial aid of troops from neighboring Ethiopia, Somali forces ousted a militant Islamic group known as the Council of Islamic Courts over the New Year. But the group promised to launch an       Iraq-style insurgency, and the capital was soon enduring weeks of artillery battles and shelling between the warring sides.

The relentless violence is among the reasons many Somalis have been reluctant to give up their arms. But in a hopeful sign for the government, several members of the powerful business community in the capital handed over 25 boxes and 20 sacks filled with weapons, saying they would now depend on government forces to protect them.

But violence and crime continues to be a challenge. On Thursday, gunmen seized three boats off the coast of Somalia's semiautonomous Puntland region, said Andrew Mwangura, head of the Kenyan chapter of the Seafarers Assistance Program. Mwangura had no update on the situation Friday.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 01 May 07 - 08:12 AM

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/04/30/ivory.coast.reut/index.html

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 27 Apr 07 - 12:41 PM

Britain slams 'outright rigged' election in Nigeria
POSTED: 10:20 a.m. EDT, April 27, 2007

Story Highlights• Britain says result "not credible," but urges opposition to seek redress lawfully
• Ruling party presidential candidate Umaru Yar'Adua won landslide victory
• President Olusegun Obasanjo is due to hand over to Yar'Adua on May 29
• Opposition plans series of mass protests on May 1

LAGOS, Nigeria (Reuters) -- Former colonial power Britain denounced "outright rigging" in Nigeria's elections, but urged the opposition to stick to the constitution in seeking redress.

The electoral commission gave the ruling party candidate, Umaru Yar'Adua, a landslide victory in Saturday's presidential poll, but the opposition called for it to be cancelled and held again after international observers said the result was not credible.

"It was not just a question of disorganization, but there was outright rigging and the results were frankly not credible," High Commissioner Richard Gozney said at a reception in Lagos on Thursday night.

"It is up to Nigerians to decide what should happen next. But we do make a plea for people to stick strictly to constitutional means," he added.

President Olusegun Obasanjo is due to hand over to Yar'Adua on May 29, in what would be the first transfer of power from one civilian president to another since Nigeria gained independence from Britain in 1960.

Obasanjo has urged the opposition to seek redress through election tribunals.

Some opposition groups have called for the National Assembly to install an interim government headed by Senate President Ken Nnamani to run fresh elections, but Nnamani has rejected the idea as unconstitutional.

The opposition is also planning a series of mass protests starting on Tuesday, when trade unions stage their annual May Day parade.

"If constitutionality prevails in Nigeria over the next few weeks that in itself will be a very big step forward," Gozney said, adding that Britain would not accept or endorse any unconstitutional outcome.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 26 Apr 07 - 11:41 AM

U.N. says Mogadishu becoming 'ghost city'
POSTED: 1:11 p.m. EDT, April 25, 2007

Story Highlights• Somali government, Ethiopians trying to crush Islamist insurgents, clan militia
• U.N. says 340,000 people have fled city, many sleep outdoors
• Agency fears health disaster looms
• 300 people killed in a week of fighting in Islamist stronghold in Mogadishu

MOGADISHU, Somalia (Reuters) -- The Somali capital Mogadishu is becoming a "ghost city" as residents flee a government offensive to crush Islamist insurgents and clan militia, the United Nations refugee agency said on Wednesday.

Shelling and machine-gun fire shook the coastal city for an eighth day, although residents said Wednesday's fighting was lighter than in previous days.

Allied Somali-Ethiopian forces are battling Islamist rebels frustrating the interim government's bid to restore central rule in the Horn of Africa nation for the first time in 16 years.

The United Nations says nearly 340,000 people have fled the coastal city in recent weeks, many sleeping in the open or under trees. It has warned of a looming health disaster.

"Civilians are still fleeing at a very high rate," the U.N. refugee agency said in a statement on Wednesday. "At least half the capital is deserted, slowly turning it into a ghost city."

Locals, officials and human rights workers say nearly 300 people have been killed in a week of fighting that has focused on an Islamist stronghold in the north of a city which was once home to at least a million people.

Somali media said leaders of the city's dominant Hawiye clan were meeting Ethiopian army officers to try to find common ground for a ceasefire, but gave no other details. Hawiye elders could not immediately be reached for comment.

"The shelling is still going on, but it is less heavy than yesterday. But it is still too dangerous to venture out," said one resident who asked not to be named.

Some miss relative calm of Islamists' rule
For many Mogadishu residents, accustomed to chaos and violence over the past decade and a half, the fighting contrasts with the relative stability during the Islamists' six-month rule, before they were ousted in a war over the New Year.

"This experience dramatically underlines the benefits of the brief period of 'Islamist' authority in southern Somalia which already begins to seem like a 'Golden Age'," Britain's Chatham House think tank said in a report on Wednesday.

"The (government) is simply not trusted by the populace, nor does it represent the powerful interest groups in Mogadishu."

As the battles intensified on Tuesday, a car bomb killed four civilians in central Mogadishu and a suicide attacker struck at Ethiopian troops at a base in Afgooye, a small farming town on the western outskirts.

An Islamist militant group claimed responsibility for both.

The group, calling itself the Young Mujahideen Movement in Somalia, said a Kenyan member named Othman Otibo carried out the suicide bombing at the Ethiopian military base in Afgooye.

"Following this blessed martyrdom operation, a seven-minute clash broke out between the victorious lions of unification (Islam) and the remnants of the...defeated Ethiopians," it said in an Internet statement posted on Wednesday.

The authenticity of the statement could not be verified. It was posted on a Web site used by Islamist militants fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 11:55 AM

Aid held up as battles plunge Somalia into crisis
POSTED: 2:55 p.m. EDT, April 24, 2007

Story Highlights• More than 320,000 Mogadishu residents flee fighting, U.N. says
• Government demands to inspect all food and medical shipments
• Tens of thousands of residents remain trapped by the violence

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- Somalia's government is holding up vital aid to tens of thousands of people as car bombs and street fighting Tuesday brought the death toll to nearly 1,500 in less than a month, sending this country lurching toward catastrophe, diplomats and witnesses warned.

Tuesday's fighting came hours after U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on warring sides to end the violence and allow humanitarian assistance to reach the needy. The Somali government and its Ethiopian allies are trying to quash a growing Islamic insurgency but civilians are getting caught in the crossfire.

The U.N. says more than 320,000 of Mogadishu's 2 million residents have fled since February, sending streams of people into squalid camps with little to eat, no shelter and disease spreading. The country is suffering its worst humanitarian crisis in the war-ravaged country's recent history, according to the U.N.

But the weak transitional government has been demanding to inspect all food and medical shipments, holding up potentially lifesaving aid, European and American officials warned in letters obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.

The United Nations, the European Union and the U.S. ambassador responsible for Somalia and Kenya have all appealed to Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf and Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi in letters over the past month to ease the demands, saying they were complicating the already difficult task of delivering aid to a violent and largely lawless country.

"The efforts of international agencies to come to the aid of these stricken people are being thwarted on the one hand by militia looting relief supplies, demanding 'taxes' and violently threatening aid workers, and on the other by administrative obstacles imposed by the Transitional Federal Government," the German ambassador to Kenya, writing on behalf of the European Union, said in an April 20 letter to Yusuf.

U.S. Ambassador Michael Ranneberger wrote in an April 17 letter to Yusuf that the government should stop "halting distribution of food aid for unspecified inspections." He also said at least one government-appointed regional governor "required payment for the transit of relief goods on top of payments already made to militia checkpoints. These practices are unacceptable and undermine the legitimacy of your government."

In an April 12 letter to Gedi, Graham Farmer, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, said soldiers at a military checkpoint outside Mogadishu turned back a World Food Program shipment that would have benefited 32,000 people because the government had not given clearance.

The letters were provided to the AP by an aid official who asked not to be named for fear of being fired.

Somali Interior Minister Mohamed Mohamud Guled wrote in an April 9 letter to the United Nations' World Food Program that, "no food distribution can take place anywhere in Somalia without being inspected and approved by the government."

He did not give a reason, but told the AP last week that "it is our duty to monitor for security reasons all humanitarian aid." Somali officials could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.

Government inspections are not unheard of for aid agencies, but Somalia's relatively new administration lacks the capacity to process the massive quantities of assistance. Several large shipments of food have been turned back because there was no clearance from government, according to aid agencies and diplomats.

One car bomb went off Tuesday outside the Ambassador Hotel, which is used as a base by Somali lawmakers, killing seven civilians were killed, witnesses said. The other car bomb, a suspected suicide attack, exploded outside an Ethiopian military base 18 miles (30 kilometers) from the capital, after troops opened fire on a minibus that was speeding toward them, local resident Mayow Mohamed said.

Artillery fire and mortar shells also rained down on the capital. In total, 358 people have been killed and 680 wounded in the past seven days, according to a committee set up by Mogadishu's dominant clan to assess the fighting.

Somalia has not had an effective national government since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on one another, throwing the country into anarchy. The current administration was formed in 2004 but has struggled to extend its control over the country.

The insurgents are linked to the Council of Islamic Courts, a hard-line religious movement that had controlled Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia for six quiet months in 2006. Somali and Ethiopian troops drove the group from power over the New Year. The militants reject any secular government, and vow to fight until Somalia becomes an Islamic state.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 11:54 AM

Nigeria's president says elections not fatally flawed
POSTED: 5:38 p.m. EDT, April 24, 2007

Story Highlights• Obasanjo: Don't judge country by developed-world standards
• Opposition rejects win by Umaru Yar'Adua
• Observers say election not credible after massive improprieties
A
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) -- President Olusegun Obasanjo said in remarks released Tuesday that Nigeria's deeply flawed weekend presidential elections should not be voided and asked observers not to judge his country by developed-world standards.

The political opposition has rejected the Saturday vote, won by Umaru Yar'Adua of Obasanjo's ruling party, that local and international observers said was not credible after massive improprieties, including ballot-box stuffing.

Obasanjo reiterated his acknowledgement that the vote had been flawed, but said "the magnitude does not make the results null and void."

He said election observers should not only criticize, but help.

"We should not be measured by European standards. Nigeria has come a long way from when I first voted. We are better than 20 years ago," he said in statement, which indicated he made the comments originally to the British Broadcasting Corp.

The campaign for the third-place challenger, Vice President Atiku Abubakar, said he rejected the result announced Monday and said he would mount a court challenge.

The runner up, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, also rejected the vote as rigged by Obasanjo's ruling party, and a party spokesman said a final response was still being formulated.

The spokesman, Abba Kyari, said his party, the country's leading opposition group, was not calling for mass demonstrations.

He said public rallies could spark massive unrest in his chaotic nation and that a decision to stage protests would only be made after careful consideration.

"We prepared for elections, we didn't prepare for war," he told The Associated Press.

The elections were meant to boost civilian rule and stability in Africa's top oil producer, where some 15,000 people have died in political violence since 1999 as factions fought for power in a political space liberated by the end of strict military rule that year.

Questions about the elections' legitimacy undermined the voting for Nigeria's first transfer of power from one elected civilian to another. All other civilian transfers of power between elected officials have been undermined by annulments or military coups. Nigeria gained independence from Britain in 1960.

President-elect Umaru Yar'Adua, the 56-year old governor of a heavily Muslim northern state, is scheduled to take over the presidency on May 29.

Obasanjo, a former military ruler, won a 1999 election that ended 15 years of near-constant military rule. His 2003 re-election was marked by allegations of massive vote rigging. The opposition says the elections were the worst-ever in Nigeria.

Dozens of Nigerians have died in civil strife related to the presidential election and a week-earlier vote for state officials that the ruling party also won, and the outcome seemed unlikely to stanch further bloodshed, like a low-intensity armed struggle in the country's oil-producing region.

Oil prices rose on news from Nigeria, in part because of concern about Nigeria, a country of 140 million people.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: GUEST,Partridge
Date: 24 Apr 07 - 03:13 PM

I have a very personal interst in Zimbabwe, I was born there and lots of my extended family lived there. It was Rhodesia when I was born, and it has gone bad. Extended family have moved back to the UK with nothing, meaning they they lost everything.

Mugabe is a corrupt person, the previous posts show that. I think that we will have to let time take its toll and he will eventually die and I hope thats soon and someome will take over that has some goodness and a sense of what is right. The political stuff is far too complicated.

Zimbabwe used to be one of the most self sufficient countries in Africa, I can only hope that in the very near future it returns to that state - for the good of its people.

Pat x

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 24 Apr 07 - 02:40 PM

74 killed in attack on Ethiopia oil field
POSTED: 9:20 a.m. EDT, April 24, 2007

Story Highlights• Seven Chinese workers kidnapped during raid
• Ethiopian rebel group warned last year against projects in area
• China increasing presence in Africa as need for natural resources grows

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) -- Gunmen raided a Chinese-run oil field in eastern Ethiopia on Tuesday, killing 65 Ethiopians and nine Chinese workers, an official of the Chinese company said.

Seven Chinese workers were kidnapped in the morning attack at the oil installation in a disputed region near the Somali border, Xu Shuang, the general manager of Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau, said.

China has increased its presence in Africa in recent years in a hunt for oil and other natural resources to feed its rapidly growing economy. Its forays into areas considered politically unstable, however, has exposed Chinese workers to attacks.

No one claimed responsibility for Tuesday's raid, but an Ethiopian rebel group warned last year that any investment in the Ogaden area that also benefited the Ethiopian government "would not be tolerated."

The Ogaden National Liberation Front is fighting a low-level insurgency with the aim of creating an independent state for ethnic Somalis. Somalia lost control of the region in a war in 1977.

The rebel group also has been fighting Ethiopian troops inside Somalia, where Ethiopia has been backing the government in crushing an Islamic movement and re-establishing control over the country.

In Nigeria, armed militants seeking a greater share of that country's oil wealth kidnapped nine Chinese oil workers in January, and two more in March. Two were still being held, though hostages are normally released unharmed in Nigeria, after a ransom is paid.

Also in March in Nigeria, five Chinese telecommunications workers were abducted for two weeks.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: Stringsinger
Date: 24 Apr 07 - 11:58 AM

BB on this issue, we agree. Liked the article.

Frank Hamilton

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: Mike Miller
Date: 24 Apr 07 - 09:30 AM

In a sectarian conflict, armed intervention is the only effective tool. We can wring our hands, apply economic sanctions, introduce stongly worded resolutions and congradulate ourselves for our moral stand but, for those poor souls in the line of fire, we can only observe and condemn. Unless we are willing to send real troops with real bullets (and kill real people), our protestations are empty gestures.
Condemning Ethiopia for intervening in Somalia is short sighted, even if their intervention is on the "wrong" side. Any nation that might experience a civil war, based on religion, should feel threatened and should act to prevent that war. Theocracies are, historically, intolerant and expansive. Nothing justifies injustice like faith.
What, then, is a moral people to do, in the face of atrocities? Intervention is not the answer unless we have learned nothing from a past adventures. Dictators abound and ethnic animosities are ingrained. We can not be the sword of justice, even if we, really, knew what the just side was, every time. We can, only, follow the example of Candide and tend our own gardens. It is not immoral to recognise limitations.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 24 Apr 07 - 07:48 AM

There are limits to what outside armed intervention can accomplish, and the Ethiopians (who should know better) are re-learning that lesson in Somalia. Of course, it's likely that the Ethiopians would be satisfied with continued anarchy in Somalia. What the Ethiopians don't want is a strong unified aggressive Islamic state as a neighbor. At least half of Ethiopia's population has been traditionally Muslim, and there is some potential for a Muslim/Orthodox Christian civil war, not to mention several other forms of civil war in Ethiopia.

At the same time Ethiopia is one of the staunchest allies of the United States in Africa, and we are no doubt supporting their armed intervention into Somalia.

This is just my opinion, but I'm usually right!

Charley Noble
Ethiopia Peace Corps Volunteer 1965-1968

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 24 Apr 07 - 07:17 AM

Nigerian vote denounced as flawed
POSTED: 3:44 p.m. EDT, April 23, 2007

Story Highlights• Ruling party candidate Yar'Adua declared winner of Nigerian presidential election
• Chief EU observer says election "cannot be considered to have been credible"
• Outgoing president Obasanjo admits electoral process was "not perfect"
• 65 people have been killed in violence related to Saturday's vote

ABUJA, Nigeria (Reuters) -- Nigeria's ruling party candidate Umaru Yar'Adua was declared winner on Monday of a presidential poll rejected by the opposition and condemned by observers as a "charade."

The observers and opposition politicians said Saturday's vote for the first handover of power from one civilian leader to another in Africa's most populous nation and top oil producer was manipulated through violence and rigging.

Electoral commission head Maurice Iwu declared Yar'Adua of the People's Democratic Party the winner with 24.6 million votes, far ahead of his closest rival, former army strongman Muhammadu Buhari, with 6.6 million.

Buhari rejected the result as "blatantly rigged" and called on parliament to impeach President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Thousands of opposition youths started street fires in the northern city of Kano but the protest was quelled by police and reaction elsewhere was muted.

World oil prices rose sharply on Monday because of fears of further violence in the world's eighth largest oil exporter, where militant attacks have already curbed output.

Nigeria, scarred by decades of corrupt dictatorship and military rule since independence from Britain in 1960, returned to civilian government in 1999.

Yar'Adua said he was "greatly humbled" and would reach out to the opposition. "I intend to invite them to join hands with me to work for this country," he said.

Observers: Election a 'charade'
European Union observers cited poor election organization, lack of transparency, significant evidence of fraud, voter disenfranchisement, violence and bias.

"These elections have not lived up to the hopes and expectations of the Nigerian people and the process cannot be considered to have been credible," said chief EU observer Max van den Berg.

The United States said the vote was "flawed" but stopped short of calling for it to be overturned. Problems should be resolved peacefully and according to the constitution, said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

A coalition of civil society observers called in a statement for the vote to be cancelled and held again.

"The election was a charade. A democratic arrangement founded on such fraud can have no legitimacy," they said.

But any annulment would plunge Nigeria into a constitutional crisis because by law Obasanjo must hand over power on May 29.

Obasanjo said the election could not be described as perfect but appealed to aggrieved losers to use the courts for any complaints over the next five weeks.

"Nothing should be done to make our people lose faith in the electoral process and its democratic outcome," he said.

Analysts had predicted Yar'Adua would win because of the ruling party's unrivalled funds and powers of incumbency, but Buhari had been expected to put in a much stronger showing because of widespread disaffection with poverty and crime.

About 65 people have been killed in the past 10 days in election-related crime. Four people were killed in armed clashes between criminal gangs in the southern oil capital Port Harcourt but there was no obvious link to the election.

The government has labeled critics of the poll coup-plotters and linked them to a failed attempt to blow up the electoral commission headquarters on Saturday with a fuel tanker.

Police arrested protesters at the headquarters in the capital Abuja on Sunday and banned all rallies.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 23 Apr 07 - 01:59 PM

Fighting rages in Somali capital as bodies rot in streets
POSTED: 8:11 a.m. EDT, April 23, 2007
Story Highlights• Six days of fighting leaves more than 200 people dead in Mogadishu
• Islamic insurgents battle Ethiopian troops backing Somalia's government forces
• U.N.: Clashes spark the worst humanitarian crisis in the country's recent history
• Many residents trapped by closed roads
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MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- Heavy shelling and tank fire rocked Mogadishu Monday, the sixth straight day of raging battles in the capital that have plunged the country deeper into chaos and left more than 200 people dead.

Masked Islamic insurgents clashed with Ethiopian troops backing the fragile Somali government's forces in the southern part of the battle-scarred coastal city, pounding each other with machine-gun fire, mortars, tank shells and heavy artillery.

At least four people were killed in Monday's fighting, said Khadija Farah, who saw a shell hit a residential area north of the city and kill three men and a women. Farah added a six-month-old baby was wounded.

The United Nations said the fighting had sparked the worst humanitarian crisis in the war-ravaged country's recent history, with many of the city's residents trapped because roads out of Mogadishu were blocked.

Rotting bodies have been left on the streets for days, witnesses said, as it is too dangerous to try to retrieve them. At least six people were wounded early Monday, said Medina Hospital director Dahir Dhere, but he expected fatalities.

Halime Ibrahim, who fled from south of the city, which saw the worst fighting for more than 15 years, said she had seen 11 bodies. "I even failed to recognize if they were men or women," she told The Associated Press.

"Masked Somali fighters who dug in near my house are in an intensive fight with Ethiopian and Somali troops since early morning," said Hassan Mohamed Ali lives in Tawfiq neighborhood and opted to remain behind to look after his family's house. From time to time, Ali was checking the fighting from his window.

The latest fighting flared after Ethiopian and Somali government troops made a final military push to try to wipe out the insurgency, Western diplomatic and Somali government sources told the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. The government and its Ethiopian backers were facing international pressure over the mounting death toll and appeared determined to bring order before a planned national reconciliation conference.

Ethiopian troops opened fire with tank shells and artillery from the presidential palace early Monday at insurgent positions in the south, said resident Osman Ali Yusuf who said one of the shells hit near his house. Yusuf, who monitors the fighting from his rooftop, said he had seen two tanks stationed at the strategic Tawfiq junction that divides the south from the north of Mogadishu where the two sides are facing off.

Ethiopians are in the north. The insurgency they are trying to end and which emerged after the defeat of the Council of Islamic Courts is operating from the south of the city of 2 million people. Clan and warlord militia have also joined the fight against the Ethiopians and government forces.

A bid earlier this month to wipe out the insurgency left more than 1,000 people dead, many of them civilians. More than 320,000 people have fled the fighting.

Elman Human Rights Organization that records casualties in the capital, said six insurgents and 41 civilians died on Sunday alone. They did not have any casualty figures for either Ethiopian or Somali government soldiers.

"The killing of civilians like this is a crime against humanity," said Sudan Ali Ahmed, the chairman of the group. "We urge the international community to send a team to investigate these crimes. They are war crimes."

The new tallies bring the death toll in five days of fighting in Mogadishu to at least 212, with more than 291 wounded, according to the human rights group.

A Somali government official warned on Sunday that his government planned a major offensive against the insurgents soon and wanted residents of the capital to move from insurgent strongholds.

"People in Mogadishu should vacate their homes that are located near the strongholds of terrorists, and we will crack down on insurgents and terrorists very soon," said Deputy Defense Minister Salad Ali Jelle.

In a separate development that could increase tension in the Horn of Africa, Eritrea suspended its membership in a regional body that mediated the Somali conflict Saturday.

The region is already tense because of the unresolved border dispute between Eritrea and Ethiopia that has seen the two countries go to war in the past. In recent months, the Somalia conflict has also been seen as a proxy war between the two, with each backing rival sides.

U.S. officials have named Eritrea as a supporter the months-old insurgency in Mogadishu, something Eritrea has denied.

Somalia has not had an effective national government since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on one another, throwing the country into anarchy.

The transitional government was formed in 2004 with U.N. help, but has struggled to extend its control over the country.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 09 Apr 07 - 03:55 PM

Zimbabwe's bishops warn of uprising if Mugabe stays
POSTED: 8:35 p.m. EDT, April 8, 2007

Story Highlights• Easter letter was pinned to church bulletin boards around the country
• The letter is titled "God Hears the Cries of the Oppressed"
• Pope Benedict XVI also singled out Zimbabwe as troubled in Easter address
• Zimbabwe's Anglican church has been more muted; generally toeing party line


HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- In an Easter message pinned to church bulletin boards around the country, Zimbabwe's Roman Catholic bishops called on President Robert Mugabe to leave office or face "open revolt" from those suffering under his government.

The letter, titled "God Hears the Cries of the Oppressed," was the most critical pastoral message since Zimbabwe won independence from Britain in 1980 and Mugabe assumed leadership of the country for the first time.

Once prosperous, the country is reeling under hyperinflation of more than 1,700 percent, 80 percent unemployment, shortages of food and other basic goods and one of the world's lowest life expectancies.

"As the suffering population becomes more insistent, generating more and more pressure through boycotts, strikes, demonstrations and uprisings, the state responds with ever harsher oppression through arrests, detentions, banning orders, beatings and torture," the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference said in a pastoral message pinned up at churches throughout the country.

The majority of Zimbabwe's Christians -- including Mugabe -- are Roman Catholics. Several thousand worshippers who packed the cathedral in Harare clustered around the bulletin boards to read the message after morning Mass on Sunday.

"Many people in Zimbabwe are angry, and their anger is now erupting into open revolt in one township after another," the nine bishops wrote.

"In order to avoid further bloodshed and avert a mass uprising, the nation needs a new people-driven constitution that will guide a democratic leadership chosen in free and fair elections," it said.

A similar letter in the nearby nation of Malawi pressured longtime dictator Hastings Kamuzu Banda into holding a referendum on reform in 1992 and calling democratic elections, which he lost, ending 30 years of brutal rule.

"We cannot yet say what the response of our congregations will be, but basic biblical teachings apply. Oppression is not negotiable. It must stop before there can be any dialogue," said the Rev. Oskar Wermter of the Catholic communications secretariat in Harare.

Wermter said the bishops wanted the contents of the letter to receive the widest possible distribution. The letter was delivered in the traditional rural strongholds of Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party across the country, where priests showed what he called a very strong interest in it.

In his traditional "Urbi et Orbi" Easter address from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Benedict XVI singled out Zimbabwe among other troubled countries.

"Zimbabwe is in the grip of a grievous crisis and for this reason the bishops of that country in a recent document indicated prayer and a shared commitment for the common good as the only way forward," the pope said in his Easter message which he read to tens of thousands of faithful in St. Peter's Square.

The bishops called for a day of prayer and fasting April 14 and said there would be a prayer service for Zimbabwe every week after that.

The Anglican church has been more muted, with its leaders generally toeing the ruling party line.

Police in Zimbabwe violently broke up a multi-denominational prayer meeting March 11, describing it as a banned demonstration. Two pro-democracy activists died and Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change, and a dozen senior colleagues were hospitalized after beatings.

Mugabe subsequently headed off a challenge to his leadership to win party support to stand for another presidential term in national elections in 2008. There was no response from the government Sunday to the pastoral letter and Mugabe was out of the country.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 09 Apr 07 - 02:32 PM

As I have stated before, in the future our inaction over genocides, especally in Africa, will (IMO) be our greatest regret.

8-{E

Subject: RE: BS: Should we care about Africans?
From: Barry Finn
Date: 07 Apr 07 - 10:21 AM

"Do we care or care to to care" Sorry, that should read; Do we dare or care to care.

BTW, thanks BB for starting this thread about a topic that should be getting more world attention & doesn't.

Barry