20100418
inform

Sudanese polls were "free and fair" considering the context, African Union observers said on Sunday, a day after observers from the European Union and the Carter Centre said they had failed to reach world standards.

"It was not a perfect election... but it was a historic one," said Kunle Adeyemi who headed the AU observer mission in Sudan.

"Looking into the fact this is a country that had not had a multi-party election for almost a generation... to say they are free and fair, to the best of our knowledge we have no reason to think the contrary," Adeyemi said.

"We have not found evidence of fraud... we saw a vote that was very transparent."

Between April 11-15, Sudanese voters were asked to choose their president, legislative and local representatives in the country's first multi-party polls in more than two decades.

Earlier, observers from the Arab League said the election was an example that other African and Arab countries could follow, despite some deficiencies.

"The elections did not meet international standards but they are a big step forward compared to other countries in the region," said Salah Halima who headed a mission of 50 Arab League observers.

"They were an achievement despite the deficiencies," he told reporters in Khartoum. "There was no evidence of fraud, but there were deficiencies and mistakes. These mistakes however do not greatly affect the results."

The Carter Centre headed by former US president Jimmy Carter, with 70 observers, and 130 EU observers agreed that the vote was below international standards but did pave the way for a democratic transformation in Africa's largest country.

"There is a consensus among international observers to say that what happened in Sudan is better than what has taken place in other African countries... We want Sudan to be an example for other African and Arab countries," Halima said.

"If the elections did not meet all the international standards, it does not minimise the experience of democratic transformation for Sudan.

"The Sudanese government has opened up space of democracy and we must make the most of it."

The elections are likely to see the re-election of President Omar al-Beshir, who came to power in a military coup in 1989, but they were marred by a boycott by the opposition and logistical problems.

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inform

Criticism of Sudan's multi-party elections by foreign observers including former US president Jimmy Carter has encouraged the opposition, but also damages the credibility of the former rebels ruling the south, where an independence referendum is due next year.

While struggling to coordinate their strategies, some opposition parties still took part in the election even if they shared the view of those who boycotted it that the vote had been rigged by President Omar al-Beshir's ruling National Congress Party.

Sudanese Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi denounced the polls as fraudulent and said his Popular Congress Party, which did participate despite serious doubts surrounding their credibility, would not join the next government.

"The voting and the counting process are fraudulent," said the one-time mentor to Beshir, now one of his fiercest critics.

"We will take the matter to court and if the judge does not rule in our favour, we may have to use other alternatives than the ballot boxes."

But Beshir's powerful aide Nafie Ali Nafie downplayed criticism of the elections and dismissed any rejection of the outcome.

"(The observers) didn't say that the whole election didn't meet international standards. They said some aspects of it didn't, and that is a big difference," he told reporters.

On Thursday he had said that the opposition would not recognise the results.

"They will take to the streets to try to change the regime... through conflicts, riots," Nafie said.

"They give the example of Zimbabwe and Kenya (where violent protests led to political change) as if they expect to convince public opinion that this is possible," he added.

Mubarak al-Fadil, a prominent opposition voice, said those who opposed the regime should prepare themselves.

"The opposition is talking about organising political rallies and demonstrations, although not right now," he told reporters in Khartoum.

One Sudan analyst, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that if demonstrations were held now, the opposition was more likely to bring about change within the regime than removing it.

While international observers said the election process in the north was flawed, they also pointed a critical finger at the SPLM ruling the semi-autonomous region of south Sudan, where a referendum on independence is scheduled for January 2011.

"They were more irregularities in south Sudan," chief EU election monitor Veronique de Keyser said on Saturday, emphasising the "weakness" of the election's organisation in a vast region with only the most basic infrastructure.

"The elections in the south experienced a high incidence of intimidation and the threat or use of force," the Carter Centre, also observing the elections, said, while noting the importance of learning from the "irregularities" to avoid repeating them in the referendum on southern independence.

Zach Vertin, south Sudan expert with the International Crisis Group, agreed that lessons should be learnt from the election in order to improve the referendum process from an organisational point of view.

But the SPLM's former presidential candidate Yasser Arman, who pulled out of the race, denied the election's failings had any bearing on the planned referendum.

"There is no link between the election and the referendum," he told AFP.

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press tv

Two separate incidents in the Somali capital Mogadishu have claimed the lives of 10 people and left another 17 injured.

Officials and medics said four security personnel and two civilians were killed after a roadside bomb was detonated near a police station, AFP reported.

"A roadside bomb planted near a police station was detonated after some security forces gathered in the area. We are still investigating the incident, which occurred in a government-controlled zone", security officer Col. Ahmed Gaamey said.

The head of the city's ambulance service, Ali Muse, said four people were killed and 17 others were injured in brief clashes that broke out between government forces and al-Shabab fighters in southern Mogadishu's Hodan district.

War-battered Mogadishu has been the scene of deadly civil strife since the collapse of the country's central government in 1991.

During the 2006-2009 Ethiopian invasion of Somalia, thousands of civilians died and many others fled to neighboring Kenya.

20100418
press tv

Sudanese opposition parties have announced that they will reject the official results from the country's landmark multi-party elections, saying there was widespread fraud.

President Omar al-Beshir's National Congress Party will most probably be declared the winner of the country's first competitive elections in more than two decades, pundits say.

The Sudanese opposition parties' decision to reject the result further complicates the situation, since the ongoing vote-counting process has already been marred by logistical problems and charges of fraud.

Hatem al-Sirr from the Democratic Unionist Party, who ran against Beshir in the presidential election, said he would not recognize the results of the poll that is likely to see the incumbent president re-elected.

"The result does not reflect real participation," Sirr charged.

Earlier, Hassan al-Turabi, who leads the Popular Congress Party, had described the vote as "fraudulent" and said his party would not participate in the next government.

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alalam

Two Sudanese opposition parties have refused to recognize the country's landmark elections held last week.

Hatem al-Sirr of the opposition Democratic Unionist Party, who ran against Beshir in the presidential race, said he would not recognize the results of the election.

"I reject the results of the elections and I will not recognize them," said Sirr.

Earlier Hassan al-Turabi, another opposition leader, described the country's first competitive elections in 24 years as "fraudulent," and said his party would not join the next government.

Beshir's NCP this week said that if elected, it would invite the opposition to join a future government.

Earlier on Saturday, international election observers from the Carter Centre and the European Union said the past week's presidential, legislative and local elections in Sudan should be recognized.

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alalam

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir scored overwhelming victories in a sample of results from national elections, state media reported on Sunday.

Both European Union and Carter Center observers have said last week's elections stopped short of echoing opposition allegations of widespread rigging.

The polls, set up under a 2005 peace deal that ended two decades of north-south civil war, were supposed to help transform the troubled oil-producing nation into a democracy.

Bashir won between 70-92 percent of votes cast in around 35 scattered polling centers, foreign voting posts and one state, the state Suna news agency reported.

The figures have not been confirmed by the National Elections Commission and represent a fraction of the country.

A senior official from Bashir's dominant National Congress Party said he was expecting similar results across Sudan.

"This victory is a real victory ... The counting of the votes took place under the sun, not in a dark room. The observers saw everything," Rabie Abdelati said.

Sudanese expatriates overwhelmingly supported Bashir in polling centers set up in Libya, Oman, Egypt, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, with majorities of between 77 and 92 percent.

The state agency said Bashir had secured 90 per cent of the votes for the presidency in the country's Northern State.

There were similar majorities recorded in individual voting centers across northern Sudan, said Suna.

The National Elections Commission has delayed issuing official results but says it will begin on Sunday. Election officials in south Sudan said some results might be delayed until Tuesday, the official deadline for announcements.

JOHANNESBURG, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Controversies over the murder of South African right-wing leader Eugene Terre'Blanche deepened on Sunday when South African National Police Commissioner Bheki Cele said there was semen found on the body.

Nonkululeko Mbatha, spokeswoman for Cele, on Sunday confirmed a report on South Africa's e.tv channel saying there was semen found on Terre'Blanche.

"His body was found half naked with semen on his private part. That is not new information, it has always been part of the evidence," she told the South African Press Association (SAPA).

Mbatha said this was part of the evidence being investigated and there were other leads being followed by the police.

Earlier Cele told Sunday's Afrikaans language newspaper Rapport that the "sex issue" had always been there because Terre'Blanche's body was found with his pants down and "were wet with semen."

However, Cele said there was no condom found on the scene, as it was reported in the media last week.

On Wednesday, at a bail hearing at the Ventersdorp magistrate's court in South Africa's North West province, a lawyer for one of the accused decided to abandon the claim that his client had been sodomized by TerreBlannche.

Lawyer Puna Moroko, representing Chris Mahlangu, 28, one of the two accused of Terre'Blanche's death, told journalists outside the court that his client initially spoke of being sodomized by the right-wing leader, but that further questioning had revealed this could not be true.

KHARTOUM, April 18 (Xinhua) -- The African Union (AU) Elections Observation Mission (EOM) on Sunday described the general elections in Sudan as free and fair, noting that the elections held in a developing African country such as Sudan should not be measured by the criteria of the western developed countries.

"What happened in Sudan was a historical event and a great achievement for Sudanese people," Ambassador Kunle Adeyemi, the spokesman of the AU-EOM, told Xinhua, adding that "Sudanese voters had cast their ballots in transparent, free and fair elections in spite of the challenges."

The AU-EOM was dispatched to Sudan on April 8 by Chairperson of the AU Commission Jean Ping and led by John Kufuor, the former president of the Republic of Ghana, to observe the general elections held in Sudan last week, which were the first multi- party elections held in this African country since 24 years.

"We are satisfied with this event," the spokesman added.

Adeyemi further criticized comparing the Sudanese elections with western democracies and said the claim that the Sudanese elections did not meet international standards was "not fair."

"In our own perspective, applying those standards to Sudan, a country that has not seen elections for 24 years, is not fair," he said.

He urged the international community to help Sudanese people in their quest for democracy.

"Sudanese people have done a good job in this event, which reflects their determination to get their votes right to contribute to the democratic transformation of their country. I believe that the international community should assist them in this direction."

In the meantime, the AU-EOM commended in its preliminary statement on the Sudanese elections Sunday the remarkable turnout on the part of the voters, particularly in Darfur states and IDP ( internally displaced people) camps, and considered the elections a historical achievement for the Sudanese people and the Sudan National Elections Commission (NEC).

"The elections constitute an important milestone in the country 's democratization process," the statement said, adding that " given Sudan's history, its current and immense challenges on many fronts, the just-completed elections, though imperfect, are historic."

"The AU Mission wishes to acclaim and congratulate the people of the Republic of Sudan, political parties and candidates, for the peaceful 2010 executive and legislative elections," the statement noted.

ANTANANARIVO, April 18 (Xinhua) -- A coup attempt was foiled on Sunday in Madagascar after the minister of armed forces in the Indian Ocean island country was sacked early in the month, according to the military.

Seven military officers and civilians planning to attack the leadership between Sunday night and Monday morning were arrested in the afternoon, announced colonel Rene Lilison, who heads the force of special intervention of the presidency.

The arrestees were captured around 1 p. m., Lilison told a press conference. They were shown to journalists before being transferred to a brigade of the gendarmerie stationed at Betongolo near the Defense Ministry.

Army chief Andre Ndriarijaona said the armed forces were still united, adding the suspects had recruited ex-military personnel, reservists and soldiers for peaceful purposes, proving that they had no control of the armed forces in service, who remain united.

The president of the security commission of the Highest Transitional Authority (HAT), Alain Ramaroson, disclosed that the coup attempt was foiled thanks to the information provided by police.

"Without the information they provided, this coup d'état could have been realized," Ramaroson declared.

The military reportedly developed signs of division since Prime Minister Camille Vital dismissed former minister of armed forces Noel Rakotonandrasana On April 7.

Vital said Rakotonandrasana had held suspicious meetings with senior officers without informing him, accusing him of causing confusion in the military ranks.

HAT President Andry Rajoelina made no comments on Ravalomanana's dismissal, but soon promoted colonel Vital to the rank of brigadier general, indicating the logic that colonel Vital could not overpower general Rakotonandrasana over the control of military officers, without the necessary promotion.

But Rakotonandrasana insists that he will still hold his post unless the prime minister himself comes to him so that he could hand over power. He says he will accept the dismissal if all the military officers want him to leave.

Rakotonandrasana was the main actor in the process of power transfer to Rajoelina, who ousted former president Marc Ravalomanana with the backing of the military in March 2009. The change is widely seen as unconstitutional.

Last month, the African Union imposed sanctions on Rajoelina and 108 other officials for failing to form a new government with the three camps respectively led by former presidents Ravalomanana, Didier Ratsiraka and Albert Zafy.

The four parties reached agreements in Maputo and Addis Ababa last year on power sharing, but failed to carry them out amid differences.

On Wednesday, Rajoelina admitted that France, South Africa and the Southern African Development Community had proposed a new roadmap to end the crisis after last year's international mediation failed.

He said he had accepted the offer and would meet Ravalomanana on April 24 in Johannesburg, South Africa, to discuss the signing of a new agreement. He also promised that the other two camps would share the future government if the planned talks turn out a success.

LAGOS, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Two German nationals had been kidnapped in Nigeria's southeastern Abia states, media reported Sunday night.

The two, both male, were kidnapped as they were heading to their vehicle at the beach at Imo River, according to the report.

Local police spokesperson could not be immediately reached.

Abduction is not uncommon in Nigeria. On Wednesday, gunmen in the oil-rich country released four foreign nationals abducted in Rivers State.

ALGIERS, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Algeria's state-run oil group Sonatrach announced on Sunday two hydrocarbon discoveries in Berkine basin, bringing to seven the number of oil and gas finds by the national company this year, state-run APS news agency reported.

The discoveries were made following drilling operations of the exploration wells in Menzel Ledjmet South East-9 (MLSE-9), and Zemlet el-Regab South (ZERS-1), respectively in blocks 405a and 405b1, the company said in a statement.

Last Sunday, Sonatrach unveiled two hydrocarbon discoveries in Illizi basin after drilling operations of the exploring wells of In Akarnil-2 (IAK-2) and Ain Antar East-2 (AARE-2) in blocks 239a and 244a respectively in Tinhert area in Illizi basin, around 1, 500 km south of capital Algiers.

Algeria is the world's fourth largest gas exporter and eighth biggest crude exporter, and its economy is largely relying on the energy sector.

ALGIERS, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Air traffic disturbances in Europe caused by the volcanic ash cloud caused the delay of the 16th International Conference on Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) in Algeria for one day, state-run APS news agency reported Sunday.

The conference will kick off in the western province of Oran on Monday instead of Sunday as originally planned, Algeria's Minister of Energy and Mining Chakib Khelil told a press conference on Sunday.

However, another event to be held on the sidelines of the conference, the 10th meeting of the Forum of Gas Exporting Countries (GECF), will kick off on schedule on Monday, the minister said, adding that most of the energy ministers of the forum's 11 member countries have arrived in Oran.

The 16th LNG conference is expected to gather 4,000 participants from 62 countries in the gas industry to present the state-of-the-art technologies in the field.

The GECF session, on the other hand, will focus mainly on seeking solutions and required measures to boost the global gas market and stabilize prices.

Khelil told the press conference that his country wants the gas prices indexed to oil prices.

"Now, gas unit price is set at 13 U.S. dollars per mBtu, i.e. a sixth of current oil prices, whereas it is a clear energy source that is less polluting and offers considerable comparative advantages for the development of renewable energy sources," he was quoted by APS as saying.

"Regarding all these aspects, there is no reason that gas price is maintained at this level," said Khelil, whose country annually exports a volume of 62 billion cubic meters of gas.

The GECF will discuss the issue in a view to "reaching a profitable price for both exporting and consuming countries," he said.

Also on Sunday, Khelil opened the 16th LNG exhibition, in which about 200 exhibitors representing 60 countries are showing the latest technologies used worldwide in gas production and treatment.

Russian and Qatari energy ministers Sergei Shmatko and Abdullah al-Attiyah attended the opening ceremony, according to the report.

2010-04-18
KHARTOUM, April 18 (Xinhua) -- The head of the African Union ( AU) Elections Observation Mission on Sunday described the general elections in Sudan as free and fair, saying that the elections in a developing African country such as Sudan should not be measured by the criteria of developed western countries.

2010-04-18
CAIRO, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Sunday met with Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sharm el- Sheikh, the first summit since his return to Egypt in March after a cholecystectomy surgery in Germany, state-run MENA news agency reported.

The two presidents held an expanded meeting attended by senior statesmen from both sides, MENA said without giving any further information about issues discussed during the summit.

The Yemeni president offered congratulations on the safe recovery of his Egyptian counterpart.

The latest summit Mubarak attended was with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin before undergoing the surgery in March.

On April 15, the Egyptian president resumed his work by holding a ministerial meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh.

Mubarak, 81, received a successful surgery to remove the gall bladder and a benign tissue on March 6 in Germany. He had been suffering from acute gall bladder inflammation, accompanied by gall stones.

2010-04-18
KHARTOUM, April 18 (Xinhua) -- The Arab League (AL) Election Observation Mission said on Sunday that Sudan's general elections constituted an important transition despite mistakes that caused them to fall short of international standards.

The AL observers expressed satisfaction over the progress in the Sudanese elections, sayings the landmark first multi-party elections in the country in 24 years proceeded well with positive phenomena.

"The elections proceeded well with positive phenomena," said Salah Halima, the head of the AL observation mission, at a press conference in Khartoum.

He said those positive phenomena include "cooperation between heads and members of the polling stations, as well as security personnel with international and local observers and the representatives of the parties in facilitating their duties."

He applauded the regular presence of the parties' representatives in the polling stations during the five days of voting and the wide presentation of Sudanese, especially women, the elderly, and the disabled voters.

The AL mission head also commended safety and stability that most of the Sudanese states enjoyed throughout the polling period.

In the meantime, Halima said the AL mission has noticed some shortcomings in the Sudanese electoral process.

"There were flaws in the voting lists, election symbols, voting cards, delays in the arrival of some materials to the polling centers, insufficient training to the members of the polling stations, apparent drawbacks in the logistical arrangements and inability of observation in far and remote areas by international observers," he said.

However, Halima said those mistakes will not affect the overall results of the elections.

"We cannot say that the Sudanese elections have met international standards, but that does not reduce what has happened, which is an important transition," he said.

The AL mission head underlined the high turnout in the Sudanese elections.

"In northern Sudan, the turnout reached 70 percent in some polling centers and even 80 percent in others, while in southern Sudan, an average 70 percent of participation was recorded," said Halima.

As for the western restive region of Darfur, Halima said the turnout in cities was estimated at 60 percent and around 50 percent in IDPs (internally displaced people) camps.

He commended the Sudan National Elections Commission (NEC) for its efforts to solve the technical and administrative problems to make the electoral process a success.

Halima expressed hope that the Sudanese electoral process would be a motivation in democratic transformation and development, and that it would push for more collaboration between parties and political powers to positively contribute to this transformation.

The AL observation mission has deployed 50 observers and visited 700 polling centers, which consisted of 2,000 polling stations in 18 of Sudan's northern and southern states, including the three states of Darfur.

2010-04-18


MOGADISHU, April 18 (Xinhua) -- An overnight roadside bomb explosion targeting a Somali government soldiers killed at least ten people including five soldiers and wounding almost 20 others mostly by-standers in Mogadishu, police and witnesses said.

Witnesses said that the remotely-controlled bomb was planted near a police station close to the international airport in the south of the Somali capital Mogadishu and detonated as Somali government troops came near it.

"The bomb killed 5 of the soldiers and wounded eight others while 5 civilians around the vicinity also died as a result of the blast. At least 12 other civilians were wounded," Sahal Guure, police officer told Xinhua.

The wounded were rushed to the near-by hospitals in the government controlled part of the restive Somali capital.

Witnesses, local media reports and medical officials gave the same casualty figures from the explosion.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the assault but Islamist fighters wage near daily attacks on Somali government forces and African Union (AU) peacekeepers who are based in Mogadishu.

Meanwhile Islamist rulers in the central Somali town of Jawhar, 90 km north of Mogadishu, banned the use of bells in schools to announce the beginning or ending of classes. Islamist officials said bells were used by Christians in churches thus was "un- Islamic influence" in Muslim Somali society.

It was not immediately clear what would be used in substitute for bells which has been widely used in Somali schools for decades.

Islamist rulers have previously imposed the separation of boys and girls in classes in schools and encouraged the teaching of Arabic, the language of Islam, and Islamic studies.

Somalia has been without a strong central government for nearly the past two decades of civil strife following the overthrow of Somalia strongman Mohamed Siyad Barre in 1991.

2010-04-18
KHARTOUM, April 17 (Xinhua) -- An independent U.S. observation team on Saturday said Sudan's first multiparty elections since 24 years, which started on April 11, were positive and would contribute to Sudan's internal political situation.

"What we have seen over the course of five days of voting was a positive event that could contribute to stability of the internal political situation in this country and improve its image abroad," said Imam Feisal Abdul Raouf, the chairman of the non-governmental Cordoba Initiative (CI), at a press conference.

He said that the elections were important step towards democratic exercise and a leap foreword that should not be downplayed.

He further agreed with some foreign observers who said the Sudanese elections did not meet international standards, but added that "however, given the challenges posed by the first multiparty elections in 24 years in a large, a developing nation with little electoral experience and recent history of conflict, it would have been, frankly, unrealistic to expect such a result."

He also referred to the logistical and technical difficulties which faced Sudan's elections and said that those difficulties did not mean the elections have not achieved successes.

He said that denying those successes would mean denying the right of the Sudanese people and its achievement.

The CI observation team participated in monitoring the Sudanese elections, and deployed its observers in Khartoum, Juba in southern Sudan, and El Fasher in Darfur region.

2010-04-18
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir scored overwhelming victories in a sample of results from national elections marred by fraud accusations and boycotts, state media reported on Sunday.

Both European Union and Carter Center observers have said last week's elections did not meet international standards, but stopped short of echoing opposition allegations of widespread rigging.

The presidential and legislative polls, set up under a 2005 peace deal that ended two decades of north-south civil war, were supposed to help transform the troubled oil-producing nation into a democracy.

Bashir won between 70-92 percent of votes cast in presidential ballots in around 35 scattered polling centres, foreign voting posts and one state, said state news agency Suna.

Those figures represent a fraction of the country and have not been confirmed by authorities.

Separately, Sudan's National Elections Commission announced the first official results of the contest on Sunday -- eight state assembly seats from north Sudan's River Nile state that all went to Bashir's National Congress Party (NCP) with big majorities.

Senior NCP official Rabie Abdelati told Reuters he was expecting similar results across Sudan.

"This victory is a real victory ... The counting of the votes took place under the sun, not in a dark room. The observers saw everything," he said.

Opposition groups said the huge majorities proved their accusations that the NCP had rigged the vote in the north, justifying the decision of many of the opposition parties to boycott.

WAR CRIMES

"This proves what we said: that this election is false from A to Z. It was planned from the beginning," said Farouk Abu Issa, spokesman for a loose coalition of opposition groups.

"If he thinks that being re-elected by a big majority will protect him from the International Criminal Court, he is mistaken."

Analysts say Bashir is keen to win a convincing victory to legitimise his rule and fend off International Criminal Court charges that he masterminded war crimes during the seven-year conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region.

Bashir was always likely to win the presidency after most of his main rivals, including candidates from the opposition Umma party and south Sudan's dominant Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), pulled out of the race alleging fraud.

The president of Sudan's semi-autonomous south and SPLM leader Salva Kiir is also likely to win the vote to keep his job, maintaining the status quo as the country prepares for a referendum on southern secession in January 2011.

Both the current elections and the looming referendum were promised under the 2005 peace deal.

According to Suna, Sudanese expatriates overwhelmingly supported Bashir in polling centres set up in Libya, Oman, Egypt, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, with majorities of between 77 and 92 percent.

The state agency said Bashir had secured 90 per cent of the votes for the presidency in the country's Northern State.

At one voting station in Khartoum's notorious Kober prison, Suna added, Bashir won 851 out of 1,234 votes.

Election officials will hold off announcing the new president until results have come in from all states, National Elections Commission member al-Hadi Mohamed Ahmed told Reuters.

Officials in the south warned there might be some delays in counting results.

2010-04-18
HARARE (Reuters) - President Robert Mugabe on Sunday urged Zimbabweans to end political violence and focus on rebuilding a devastated economy that critics say is a victim of his three decades in power.

Addressing a rally to mark 30 years of independence from Britain, Mugabe said Zimbabwe would pursue its controversial land seizure policy and plans to transfer control of foreign firms to locals as part of a black empowerment drive.

In a fairly mild speech by his strident standards, Mugabe, now 86, denounced Britain, the United States and other Western countries for imposing sanctions on Zimbabwean leaders over charges of vote rigging and rights abuses.

But there was none of the usual name-calling in what has become a traditional attack on what he sees as imperialist forces.

In a conciliatory message to his domestic political opponents, Mugabe urged Zimbabweans to stop inter-party violence which local rights groups invariably blame on militant supporters of the president's ZANU-PF party bent on destroying the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) of rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

"Your leadership in the inclusive government urges you to desist from any acts of violence that will cause harm to others and become a blight on our society," he said at a rally attended by about 30,000 people.

BICKERING

Mugabe -- who spearheaded a guerrilla war against white minority rule in the then Rhodesia -- denies accusations that he has hung onto power over the last 10 years through violence and vote rigging.

On Sunday, the veteran leader called on people to support a constitutional reform programme intended to lead to free and fair elections by 2013. But critics say his ZANU-PF is stalling the process to buy time to reorganise the party.

Mugabe was last year forced into a power-sharing government with Tsvangirai after a political crisis sparked by the disputed general election in 2008.

Although ZANU-PF and Tsvangirai's MDC continue to bicker over the pace of reforms and appointments of senior state officials, Mugabe said on Sunday the power-sharing deal was working and the country was focused on the economy.

"Many of the key provisions of the global political agreement which is the maker of our inclusive government, have been and continue to be in the process of being fulfilled."

Despite criticism that the move will damage the economy and discourage foreign investment, Mugabe said he was pressing on with plans to transfer 51 percent of shareholdings in foreign companies over the next five years to black Zimbabweans after a decade of seizing and transferring white-owned farms to blacks.

"The economic empowerment policies are chiefly designed to redress the historic imbalances in the ownership of the economy," he said.

Tsvangirai and members of his MDC executive -- who have criticised the new policy -- attended the rally and his MDC supporters in the crowd cheered when Mugabe acknowledged the presence of his arch rival.

The ageing president, who says he will run again for office if his party nominates him, said although the national economy was in a bad shape, Zimbabweans should celebrate their freedom and remain vigilant against incorrigible racism.

"No challenge or hardship can overcome our sense of freedom, independence and sovereignty," he said.

2010-04-18
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Julius Malema, the outspoken youth leader of South Africa's ruling ANC, will face a disciplinary hearing for bringing the party into disrepute, two weeks after being rebuked by the president, local media said.

The ANC Youth League president had been ordered by the ANC to cool his racially tinged rhetoric, and was criticised for ignoring official policy on Zimbabwe and publicly backing Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe.

He also embarrassed the party by throwing a foreign journalist out of a news conference and defied orders to stop singing songs that could add to racial tension.

Malema has no policy-making role but has a loyal following within the youth league and among some black South Africans who feel the end of apartheid should have delivered more. He has spooked investors for demanding nationalisation of mines.

Sunday newspapers said Malema would soon be called before a disciplinary committee, chaired by the ANC's Derek Hanekom, who is currently a deputy minister in the cabinet.

ANC Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe had written to him detailing the charges that could lead to punishment ranging from a reprimand to expulsion.

This follows several calls by the party and President Jacob Zuma for an end to infighting and damaging public statements.

The Sunday Times reported the charges included promoting racism, sexism, tribal chauvinism, religious and political intolerance, adding that youth league officials would meet with the ANC on Monday.

ANC spokesman Ishmael Mnisi would not confirm the reports, saying such issues were never discussed in public. "We don't discuss (in the media) any issues relating to ANC internal organisational matters," he said.

Youth league spokesmen could not be reached for comment.

Earlier this month Zuma slammed Malema for acting in a manner that was "alien" to the culture of the ANC, listing issues from comments on Zimbabwe to the treatment of the media.

The firebrand youth leader refused to stop singing an old anti-apartheid song, "Kill the Boer", that has been banned by the courts, and ranted at BBC journalist Jonah Fisher, calling him a "bastard" and "bloody agent" for interrupting him during a press conference.

Last month he was found guilty of hate speech for comments made about a woman who had accused Zuma of rape.

Malema was an important backer of Zuma in his campaign to lead the ANC and the country, but relations have soured, with the youth leader dismissing Zuma's rebuke and comparing him unfavourably to former President Thabo Mbeki.