20091222
allafrica

Nairobi — On the face of it, the news on the tourism front is encouraging. This is because, despite the slump occasioned by the post-election violence and the global economic crunch, which made international tourists stay away from our attractions, the industry hasn't exactly collapsed.

However, leading hoteliers and other stakeholders claim this slump has been more than adequately addressed by the rising numbers of domestic tourists.

This cannot be true. Kenya has been trying to rely on the fickle and unstable tourism industry as the mainstay of its economy for too many years, with the result that any unforeseen occurrence is enough to make foreign holiday-makers stay away with their precious dollars, euros, yens and yuans.

Besides fears of political violence and general insecurity, both of which are somewhat exaggerated, there are many other reasons why foreign tourists have been bypassing this country and heading further south to Tanzania and South Africa.

It is not true that all tourists enjoy impassable roads, our infamous beach boys, Maasai "warriors", and such-like things. They also do enjoy creature comforts and reasonable accommodation charges.

Our tourism stakeholders would be deceiving themselves if they concluded the domestic tourist can take the place his or her foreign counterpart. We've simply not been selling this country smartly enough.

20091222
allafrica

Kampala — You are driving through the streets of the Ugandan capital and suddenly a traffic police officer waves you down. He immediately notices that the side-mirror on the passenger's side is missing. He threatens to give you a penalty ticket that costs 50,000 shillings (25 dollars).

But because you understand 'the policeman's language', you automatically dig into your purse and discreetly squeeze a 10,000 shilling note (5 dollars) in to his palms. They call it 'kitu kidogo' a Swahili word for a bribe, literary meaning 'something small.'

And that solves the problem. But an act of corruption has just occurred; an act that has become a way of life in the East African country where bribing a traffic policeman is cheaper than facing the long arm of the law.

Corruption

Corruption in Uganda is the most serious unethical practice undermining trust and confidence in most public institutions including the police. Indeed, the third National Integrity Report (NIS) 2008 produced by the Inspectorate of Government rated the police as the most dishonest and most corrupt public institution at 88.2 percent and 87.9 percent for general police and traffic police respectively.

"The corruption scourge not only undermines good governance but also retards the economic development of a given country," the NIS report said.

According to the report, the most prevalent form of corruption is bribery at 66 percent. The survey found that demands for and payment of bribes were no longer secret in society and many treated corruption as "a useful means of accessing services".

However, this is having a negative impact on service delivery, the NIS report said. Respondents who sought services from selected public institutions in a countrywide study were asked what effect they thought corruption had on service delivery.

The results showed a consensus on what respondents said; that corruption retards development, limits access to services, worsens poverty, causes resentment of and loss of confidence in government.

"When the police are perceived as corrupt, then you will have very many incidences of mob justice and gender-based violence. Administration of justice then turns to the citizens because they think when they report a crime to the police, nothing is done," says Jasper Tumuhimbise, National Coordinator, Anti Corruption Coalition of Uganda (ACCU), a local NGOs in Kampala.

Poor welfare

Poor welfare is the major cause of high levels of corruption among police, analysts say. A Police constable here earns as little as 200,000 shillings (100 dollars) a month. The police also have inadequate and poor housing conditions.

Most police barracks built before independence in 1962 are now too small, dilapidated and with broken sewerage systems. For instance, Nsambya barracks, one of the largest, built to accommodate 300 police officers now houses over 3,000 officers and their families. This is because accommodation there is free and the majority cannot afford to rent their own houses.

However, some officers have now turned to renting rooms outside the barracks at their own cost. It is also not uncommon to find a police officer constructing his own mud and wattle shelter and toilet within the barracks premises during working hours. Over two decades ago, government introduced 'uniports' (single-roomed aluminium huts) to improve accommodations. However, often, two families still share one uniport.

"This affects my concentration at work especially when I am out on night duty," says 27 year-old Constable Albert Vuchiri*. "I keep worrying over the safety of my wife because I have left her in the same uniport with another man," he tells IPS.

Coincidentally, HIV/AIDS prevalence in the force is 10 percent compared to the national figure of 6.4 percent, recent statistics from the Commissioner of Medical Services in the police reveals.

Besides, the police have no medical schemes. Many times, officers have to meet their own medical expenses. Although there are free state hospitals, patients usually have to buy their own drugs as lack of supplies occur frequently.

Furthermore, police stations lack stationary, furniture and even computers.

"Sometimes they (the police) even ask you to facilitate them to serve you, including photocopying police report forms. And when you do so, then you become a donor. Therefore, they will begin judging the case depending on how much one has contributed. This is compromising and a disaster," Tumuhimbise says.

Government responds

National Police Commissar and Assistant Inspector General of Police Asan Kasingye acknowledges the situation, describing the state of police welfare as "appalling".

"On one hand it (the accommodation facilities) is appalling and on the other hand it (accommodation) is just not there. So police officers use their meagre salary to pay for accommodation yet it is government supposed to accommodate them," Kasingye says.

Kasingye also agrees that poor welfare has affected service delivery and exacerbated corruption levels.

"As long as police officers are not well enumerated, and they have to meet their needs in terms of medical, food and accommodation from the meagre salaries, they will be forced to indulge in corrupt tendencies and these tendencies affect service delivery 100 percent," Kasingye admits.

"It also affects attitude and motivation. It actually makes a police officer perform as if he has been forced to do the job and we all know what that means. A police officer is supposed to have the right attitude to perform his job effectively because we are supposed to be on duty 24 hours."

Interventions

However, government is putting efforts to improve police welfare.

"Our welfare slate is not good. We could do much more and are working on it We have not got to even a quarter of where we want to be (in terms of improved welfare). The welfare of the police officers in Uganda is really bad," Kasingye says.

Interventions include the introduction of schemes - police welfare shops geared at ameliorating the situation of household incomes of the police officers. These welfare shops will provide food stuffs and building materials at discount rates for only police officers, he says.

"We have already secured two billion Uganda shillings (one million dollars) from government and within next month, the welfare shops will be opened at least within Kampala.

"There is also a cooperative Saving Scheme where officers can save or borrow money at only one percent interest per month," Kasingye says.

CSO's speak

"We are saying police are corrupt, but we as the community also facilitate this corruption. Police is part of our society; a society that says 'okay, lets steal because nobody will punish us'. Because we have not punished police and others, they have become part of a process that promotes corruption rather than good governance. There should also be community policing," ACCU's Tumuhimbise says.

Gerald Werikhe Wanzala, Team leader Africa Leadership Institute, a local policy think tank and NGO in Kampala said most CSO's have been dwelling on issues like HIV/AIDS and disasters and have ignored the fight against corruption. "People at the grassroots lack information about corruption. They do not know what corruption is and do not even know that they have the responsibility of fighting corruption themselves."

20091222
allafrica


The peace process in the war-wracked Darfur region of Sudan has reached a "critical point," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, calling on both the Government and rebel groups to accelerate efforts to reach a compromise.

The Joint African Union-United Nations Mediator Djibril Bassolé has been working with Qatar to drum up momentum by giving civil society a voice at the peace talks, Mr. Ban told the Security Council.

The efforts by the UN and AU - which together manage UNAMID - to resolve the long-running conflict in the region between the Sudanese Government and the region's armed movements have been led by Mr. Bassolé and his team and sponsored by the Government of Qatar.

Civil society and armed movements have agreed to re-start consultations in Doha on 18 January, to be followed by direct talks between the Government and movements on 24 January in Qatar's capital.

"Efforts must continue to encourage the Government, and more especially the rebel movements, to make concessions, and embrace the consensus which Mr. Bassolé is building," the Secretary-General underscored.

The AU High-Level Implementation Panel - comprising former South African president Thabo Mbeki, former Burundian leader Pierre Buyoya and former Nigerian president Abdulsalami Abubakar - and the international community have a key role to play, he added.

The 15-member Council today was briefed by both Mr. Mbeki and AU Commission Chairperson Jean Ping on the Panel's new report, which provides a "frank assessment and insightful analysis" of what is happening in Sudan and offers recommendations on the way forward, according to Mr. Ban.

"Perhaps above all, the panel members have insisted on seeing Sudan in its totality," he said.

"They have clearly articulated the links between the crisis in Darfur and broader efforts to implement the Comprehensive Peace Agreement [CPA]," the 2005 pact that ended the more than two decades of north-south strife.

In the coming months and years, Sudan will experience elections and two referenda, "which will determine the future shape of Sudan," the Secretary-General told the Council, and their outcome will require "genuine cooperation" between the two parties to the CPA, the National Congress Party (NCP) and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM).

Following today's meeting, the Council issued a press statement read out by Ambassador Michel Kafando of Burkina Faso, which holds the body's rotating monthly presidency, in which they welcomed the Panel's report, noting that they "looked forward to the implementation of a holistic approach to the problems facing Sudan."

Council members said they agreed with the new report that the causes and consequences of the Darfur conflict have yet to be addressed, repeating their call on all parties that have yet to take part in the peace talks to join the dialogue.

20091222
allafrica

Nairobi — Kenyans should brace for more devastating effects of climate change following a failure by world leaders to deliver a legally binding agreement in Copenhagen.

Mrs Grace Akumu, Kenya's technical advisor on climate change issues, told Nation on Tuesday that with the outcome of the two-week summit, rich countries are now not legally obliged to make sharp reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

This, she said, will have serious effects on developing countries -- especially in Africa -- which has so far borne the brunt of global warming.

The talks that ended last Friday came up with an agreement, dubbed the Copenhagen Accord, which was negotiated by five countries: the US, China, South Africa, India and Brazil, under the leadership of US President Barack Obama.

While the agreement maintains that the scientific thinking for keeping temperature increases below two degrees Celsius was important, it failed to make commitments to reduce emissions to keep the temperature rise in check.

The "deal" was immediately criticised by leading environmentalists.

Greenpeace executive director Kumi Naidoo said: "This is not a fair, ambitious and legally binding deal. The job of world leaders is not done. They have failed to avert catastrophic climate change."

The sentiments were echoed by Mrs Akumu: "This is why I am saying that Kenyans should brace for more devastation from climate change. The deal in Copenhagen will do very little to end the damage of climate change, particularly for the poorest in Africa."

Indeed, the fourth assessment report of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change projects that if emissions continue to rise at the current pace and are allowed to double from pre-industrial levels, the world will face an average temperature rise of 3°C this century.

This will lead to a rise in sea-level, shifts in seasons and more frequent and intense extreme weather such as storms, floods and droughts.

Climate analyses indicate that should this happen, Kenya will very likely be warmer by up to five degrees by 2100. Droughts will continue, possibly becoming more severe while in other parts of the country, rains could become more intense, leading to floods.

The rise in sea level could affect Mombasa, with one study suggesting that 17 per cent of the island could be submerged by a rise in sea level of up to 30 centimetres.

Kenya is seeking at least $3 billion annually to roll out the first phase of its recently launched climate change response strategy but it is unlikely the country will receive all this money as the summit only approved a start-up fund of about $10 billion.

Said Mrs Akumu, "The money is very little ... all of us were shocked when the continent's spokesperson, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, backed this proposal."

She added: "We would have got a far much better financial deal had we pushed harder."

20091222
allafrica

Human rights groups say that recent flare-ups of violence in parts of South Sudan could still disrupt national elections due to take place on April 11 next year.

More than 16 million people - over 75 per cent of the voting-age population - have been registered for the election. While the process, which concluded on December 7, has been largely peaceful, the past 12 months have seen growing tension in parts of the country.

In fact, aid organisation Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF, says this year has seen the worst violence in the region since the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, CPA, was signed four years ago.

"What we are seeing is violence that goes beyond inter-tribal cattle rustling and suggests a deliberate targeting of villages," said Karima Hammadi, MSF operational coordinator for Sudan. "MSF has been treating many women and children for gunshot wounds, and we have spoken to lots of witnesses and patients who have described the violence as different from the usual ethnic clashes."

If the violence was centred on cattle-rustling, Hammadi said, one would expect to see less women and children shot, since cattle herders tend to be men.

Violence has been particularly prominent in the Western and Central Equatoria region - where remnants of Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army, LRA, are believed to be operating - as well as in Jonglei, Lakes, and Upper Nile states.

The United States says that 250,000 people have been displaced this year by the violence in South Sudan.

Fouad Hikmat, Sudan special adviser for the International Crisis Group, said the violence is being exacerbated by a local power struggle between rival political and tribal groups, who hope that next year's national elections, scheduled for April 11, will provide them with a louder voice in the country.

He said that many local tribal leaders were left out of the coalition government between the former southern rebels and the north, which was set up under the CPA, and they now see a chance to become more involved.

Hikmat also pointed out that many South Sudanese soldiers have not been paid in months, and this has led to many trying to find alternative ways of earning an income.

"Some of the soldiers sell their arms to make money," he said. "Others take sides in the conflicts, based on tribal allegiances, and have participated in raids on villages."

A researcher from Human Rights Watch, HRW, working undercover in the country, says that there is some evidence that groups of LRA fighters are causing trouble in Western Equatoria, but that it is impossible to tell whether such violence is part of a wider insurgency.

MSF claims that LRA activity in Western Equatoria has increased this year, following a joint military operation that was launched against the LRA by the Ugandan, Congolese and southern Sudanese armies earlier this year.

The south has long accused the north of backing the LRA in the country's 20-year civil war, something that Khartoum consistently denies.

Anne Itto, secretary-general for the southern sector of the SPLM, told IWPR that the ruling National Congress Party, NCP, is seeking to destabilise the south in the run-up to next year's election.

But Hikmat says that there is no concrete evidence to support this line of argument.

Nevertheless, those in the south report that the violence is having a devastating effect on their livelihoods.

Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala from Tambura-Yambio, not far from the border with the Central Africa Republic, said that suspected rebel soldiers from the LRA recently staged several attacks on a church in the area and vandalised the building before abducting 17 people, mostly in their teens and 20s.

One of the young men who went missing was later found dead, tied to a tree and mutilated.

The bishop said that, less than a week later, six others were ambushed and killed in the nearby town of Nzara. They were nailed to pieces of wood fastened to the ground, like something from a crucifixion scene, he said.

HRW says that the local authorities should do more to end the cycle of violence, which could undermine the effors to hold elections next year.

Jemma Nunu Kumba, the governor of Western Equatoria, told IWPR that the government is doing what it can to offer protection in such a vast territory, but that they need more support from the international community.

"The people of [Western Equatoria] are shedding tears while the international community watches the situation without intervening," she said. "Neither the African Union nor the UN have been able to address the situation. They only discuss things about Darfur, and do not touch upon things that are going on here."

But the UN's mission in South Sudan does not see ending the current violence as part of its mandate, which is primarily to make sure that the CPA is properly implemented.

"These conflicts can often be best understood in very local terms - tribal terms - and not necessarily in the larger dynamic context of the CPA itself," David Gressly, regional coordinator for South Sudan, said during a recent press conference.

20091222
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Kinshasa — A new report released Monday by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and MONUC (the UN Mission in DR Congo) outlines a rolling series of attacks carried out over a ten-month period by the renegade armed group known as the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), during which they killed at least 1,200 people, abducted 1,400 – including some 600 children and 400 women – and displaced a total of around 230,000 people.

"These attacks and systematic and widespread human rights violations carried out by the LRA… may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity," the report says, echoing a second report, also issued on Monday by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, on a similar pattern of LRA attacks in neighbouring South Sudan -- see separate press release at www.ohchr.org.

The dozens of attacks on towns and villages described in the report, which covers the period from September 2008 to June 2009, took place in various parts of DRC's northern Orientale Province. They were sometimes carefully synchronized and also involved mutilations, torture and multiple rapes. Women and girls were often raped before being killed, and many of those who were abducted "were forced to marry LRA members, subjected to sexual slavery, or both."

The roving bands of LRA members also carried out widespread destruction and looting of property, the report says: "Thousands of homes, dozens of shops and businesses, as well as public buildings, including at least thirty schools, health centres, hospitals, churches, markets…were looted, set on fire, or both."

Driven out of Uganda in 2002 and South Sudan in 2005, the LRA took refuge in the DRC's Garamba National Park, in the northeastern part of Orientale Province, where they carried out occasional human rights violations consistent with their practice ever since they first emerged in northern Uganda in 1986.

The Congolese army (FARDC), with support from United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC), launched an operation (Rudia) in September 2008 with the aim of limiting LRA incursions. By the end of October 2008, 3,000 FARDC troops had been deployed, but the extremely remote and difficult terrain, and inadequate logistical support meant they made little difference, and the LRA continued to carry out sporadic attacks. The LRA killed during September and October 2008 at least 76 persons.

On 14 December 2008, another anti-LRA operation was launched, this time a joint one known as Operation Lightning Thunder, involving Ugandan and Sudanese troops as well as the FARDC. In response, the LRA launched a series of systematic and organized military attacks against the civilian population.

The most devastating wave of synchronized attacks was unleashed on 25 December 2008, ten days after the start of Operation Lightning Thunder, apparently to exploit the fact that people were gathering in groups in towns and villages to celebrate Christmas Day. Attacks were launched in seven locations in and around the town of Faradje, killing at least 147 people. Around the same time, a further 13 locations close to the town of Doruma were also attacked, with a further 330 people killed. In one of these locations alone – Batande -- the report says, "members of the LRA killed 80 people, women, children and men, who had been locked in a church" People who helped bury the dead in Batande testified to UN human rights staff that a dozen women had been found "their hands tied, clothes torn and legs apart." In all, in a space of 24 hours in two clusters of locations some 400 km apart, two groups of between 100 and 150 LRA fighters had killed at least 477 civilians and abducted hundreds of others.

Further attacks continued in both areas later in December and into January, despite the major military operation that was under way to tackle the LRA. In subsequent months the attacks were more sporadic and less coordinated, but no less vicious in nature, with a similar pattern of killings, rapes and large numbers of abductions especially of children. By the end of June a total of 228,000 people had been displaced within DRC and a further 16,400 had fled as refugees into the neighbouring Central African Republic and Sudan, despite the fact that LRA splinter groups had also crossed both borders and were carrying out similar, if smaller-scale, attacks there (see separate press release and report on South Sudan).

In some cases, the report says, the terror inflicted by the LRA in various parts of Orientale Province was compounded by troops belonging to the Congolese army (FARDC): "Displaced persons were also subjected to harassment, extortion, rape and summary executions committed by the Congolese security forces." Camps sheltering displaced people were also attacked by the LRA, causing further displacement.

The report urges the Congolese government and its foreign military allies to "conduct a realistic assessment of their capacities to defend and protect civilian populations" and, with assistance from the international community, to implement "a military operation that takes into account the duty to protect civilians."

Among other recommendations, it also urges the international community "assist the DRC to establish a vetting system to improve the quality of its security forces and their ability to protect civilians" and to "cooperate with the ICC in investigating, arresting, and transferring all LRA leaders accused of international crimes covered by the Rome Statute."

Arrest warrants, on 33 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes, were issued against the LRA's leader, Joseph Kony, and other senior LRA members by the International Criminal Court in 2005. Two students, who were abducted on 17 September 2008 and subsequently escaped, told UN human rights investigators how they had been among a group of abductees presented to Kony in his camp in Garamba National Park.

20091222
allafrica

Kigali — Former Chief Executive Officer of Rwandatel, Patrick Kariningufu is being investigated for embezzlement of millions of francs from the company, The NewTimes has learnt.

A source from Rwandatel said yesterday that an on-going audit by the company has already established that Kariningufu could have embezzled a large sum of money from the company.

Reports say, since late last month, the youthful former CEO he has reportedly gone under ground for fear of being arrested. The New Times has learnt that police have contacted Interpol, to apprehend him.

Initial reports said Kariningufu fled to South Africa but has since relocated to the United States.

When contacted last evening, Hamidou Isiaka who replaced Kariningufu in October said the former CEO "is no longer part of us."

"What I can confirm to you is that we have a clear message from our chairman that Kariningufu is no longer working with LAP Green," Isiaka said by phone yesterday but declined to give more details surrounding the case.

Rwandatel is one of African telecom companies owned by LAP Green Networks, a Libyan Company.

A source in Rwandatel who spoke on condition of anonymity said Kariningufu had initially asked for a 15 day leave in early October this year.

After the 15 days, he was expected to return and be moved to head LAP Green's business operation in Kampala, Uganda.

However, no sooner had Kariningufu started his fifteen-day leave than an audit was initiated which implicated him in the mismanagement of company resources.

Kariningufu reportedly got wind of the audit from his contacts within Rwandatel and decided disappear.

"As we speak now, over Frw 30million is not accounted for. But the audit is still going on, so it's still early to get to bottom of the matter," the source said.

Despite the news of Kariningufu's Interpol surveillance being talk of the town, police officials were evasive.

When contacted, Tony Kuramba, who heads the Interpol unit at Rwanda National Police, threw a shroud over the affair.

He could neither confirm nor deny the matter. "Call the police spokesperson for the information," Kuramba said by phone yesterday.

Asked whether Kariningufu had been listed by Interpol, Police spokesperson Supt. Eric Kayiranga could do no better.

He said he wanted to confirm first from Interpol boss Kuramba who had earlier referred this newspaper to him. Later, he said he was unaware about the development.

20091222
allafrica

Bukavu — The hundreds of savings and loan cooperatives operating in South Kivu should be providing an opportunity to develop agriculture and fight food insecurity in the province, but few farmers have been able to take advantage.

Félicien Zozo Rukeratabaro, a human rights advocate for Social and Rural Action, an NGO based in the province's main town of Bukavu, says "not one small-scale farmer is able to access financial support or credit from any of these cooperatives, which are primarily concerned with speculative transactions and activities only of immediate benefit to themselves."

He tells IPS, "All cooperatives have structured conditions for access to credit. But most often, the guarantees they need cannot be provided by small-scale famers, who are often very poor."

"How will we become wealthy? And how will we be able to produce more in order to sell the surplus and save or repay the credit obtained - if we cannot secure initial financial support from cooperatives?"

The question is asked by Augustine Baliahamwabo, who produces "lenga-lenga", a vegetable widely consumed in the east. She also produces cassava on her farm in the village of Kabare.

Baliahamwabo tells IPS she "produces about 500kg of lenga-lenga per season and employs three women in the village to sell the goods in Bukavu. These women, each carrying about 100kg of vegetables on their heads or backs, walk the 55 kilometres from Kabare to Bukavu where they sell the vegetables and bring in approximately $25, earning a profit of $10 off the sale of each woman's load.

"All I need is to be able to pay for more farmers and organise for the vegetables and cassava I produce to be distributed for just two seasons. Then I'd be able to produce more. An amount of $1,000 would allow me to become independent after only a year of work," she says, pointing out that she employs farm workers daily.

Ever since the outbreak of the wars that have raged in the eastern DRC, the province of South Kivu has experienced food insecurity, particularly because of declining agricultural production.

"None of these cooperatives cares about us. Yet it is we who feed the entire city of Bukavu as well as our own villages," says Jardon Ngabo Y'eka, a producer of sweet potatoes and carrots in Ngweshe, a village 70km from Bukavu. "We cannot produce enough to sell and are sometimes forced to limit ourselves to subsistence farming, even though we have large areas we could well be using to produce more food and flood the market."

Ngabo Y'eka tells IPS, "In reality, the cooperatives are not asking us to give them guarantees of repayment of credit. They are simply scared because most of us are really poor. But we still have land to use as security."

He adds, "I also have a small farm where I get regular milk from my two cows and eight goats, but this is only for family consumption. All this could serve as a guarantee of repayment of a small sum of $1,000!" â-¨ Vénantie Mucuba is a farmer from Mushekere, another village located 45km from Bukavu. She tells IPS, "If I get credit of $1,500 to be repaid after one year, I can produce an average of two tons of beans. I would use this money to hire at least ten farmers, buy 50 kg bags and organise the transportation of the beans to Bukavu. There, I'd sell it and be able to realise a profit of over $2,000 by the end of the year."

But Charles Kabashali, manager of the Christian Mutual Society for Savings and Credit, which also does not give agricultural credit, sees things differently. "Getting involved with producers who are mostly in the villages is a good thing," he tells IPS.

However, "there is no security there and no electricity or infrastructure that would allow cooperatives to effectively support small-scale farmers, while at the same time being protected from any loss of capital invested by members of these cooperatives."

Aimée Busime heads up the Credit and Savings Cooperative of South Kivu. She tells IPS, "If small-scale farmers could form groups, we could help them access credit not exceeding $2,000 each. But they must provide a personal guarantee; that is to say one of them must offer sufficient guarantees to repay the credit granted." She adds, "It is for them to organise themselves and not for us to push them to meet the conditions to obtain credit."
Farmers in eastern DRC

For his part, Bukavu resident Chikos Mushamuka tells IPS: "In reality, these cooperatives could have a little goodwill. If they did, they'd be able to significantly boost the agricultural economy of the entire province."

"Throughout all the villages and even in Bukavu, several hundred small-scale farmers are bravely producing vegetables, beans, cow's milk, sweet potatoes, bananas, goat meat and pork, as well as fish farmed from Lake Kivu. This could feed more than three million people," says Mushamuka.

He adds that, "to support these farmers would effectively fight food insecurity, particularly in Bukavu where very few families still enjoy quality nutrition or regular meals."

20091222
allafrica

Kinshasa — The more than 800 small-scale farmers belonging to co-operatives around the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) capital, Kinshasa, could produce enough rice and vegetables for the capital's estimated eight million inhabitants, according to the country's agriculture ministry.

However the farmers say they cannot effectively work the land without any long-term prospects or stability. The land is being steadily being taken away from them and sold off for new construction, especially in Mimoza, Maluku, Mpasa, Bandalungwa, N'Sele and Kingabwa, which are rural areas around the capital.

The situation is especially sad for Françoise Makulu, a vegetable farmer. "For over five years, I produced more than 200 kilos of vegetables each season on just 100 square metres of land, at the nursery across the road from the Kinshasa Higher Institute of Commerce," she said.

"But a year ago, the nursery was sold to Lebanese traders who, in a matter of weeks, have put up four buildings there," she tells IPS.

"My annual harvest allowed me to meet all the food needs of my family, to pay rent for the house we live in and to pay all my children's school fees," says Makulu.

To survive, she now sells fish bought from wholesalers at the market in Selembao, a Kinshasa district.

Yet according to Norbert Bashengezi, the minister of agriculture, fisheries and livestock, "the government is ready to help these small-scale farmers produce more crops at a cheaper price, especially as over 80 percent of them are women."

According to the minister, women are "the first to recognise the need to feed children and pay school fees, even as men abandon their work in the fields, indulging in reading the paper and watching television."

The minister's statements are little comfort to Laurentine Vakoko, another former vegetable producer, who lost her field along Kasa Vubu Avenue which goes to Bandalungwa. "How can a government which claims to help small-scale farmers and agriculturists take from them what is so essential to their work?" she asks IPS.

For her part, Génie Kamanda, who has been farming rice in N'Sele for over five years, has this to say, "Taking land from small-scale farmers who are playing their part in the fight against hunger simply leads to greater food insecurity in our country. The only assistance we now expect from government is a guarantee around the stable use of land."

She however says she benefitted from the hoes, spades, seeds and fertilisers which government distributed free to farmers around the capital in May 2009.

Speaking to IPS, Minister Bashengezi says, "Investors in agriculture must understand that through its program to fight food insecurity, the government want to assure them of the stability of land use. This is because since January 2009, it has already invested over US$500 million to help some of them with material implements and other inputs."

John Mbaka is scornful. "Another statement, and much like any other! The minister would be reassuring our colleagues who've lost their fields if he told us that there is - or will be - coordinated policy between his department and the person responsible for land management."

Mbaka is a member of the agricultural cooperative of vegetable producers in Kinshasa's Changu district.

Pascal Mavungu, a Congolese agronomist, wants to see the debate extended to other roleplayers in agriculture. For him, "the search for a solution to forced removal from cultivated land should not be limited to exchanges between government and small-scale farmers. Civil society must find its place and play its role, without which an already-powerful government could not be influenced by a group of vulnerable farmers."

But, as Bashengezi angrily tells an audience of journalists and farmers, "how does one rely on a civil society that is wasting 60 percent of its finance on self-serving meetings or on associations which have no address? Which collects inputs from the department (of agriculture) and resells them 10 metres away from the warehouses?"
Farmers in eastern DRC

"It is true that the Congolese civil society is disorganised and has many weaknesses," says Fernandez Murhola, president of the Civil Society of Kinshasa. He however feels that "it is impossible to generalise on the shortcomings of certain organisations in the whole structure .

Murhola further tells IPS, "It is also true that agricultural associations are not yet sufficiently well-structured. This is because agriculture is not yet a topic of great debate in our country. But other associations in various sectors of society, which have been in existence for years, have nevertheless managed to help refocus government efforts through the concerted actions of lobbying and advocacy. "

20091222
allafrica

Kinshasa — Years of conflict and instability mean the Democratic Republic of Congo is still among the worst countries in the world to be pregnant, despite a nationwide push to improve maternal, infant and childhood mortality rates.

"Every hour of every day in DRC, four women die from complications of pregnancy and labour, and for every woman who dies, between 20 and 30 have serious complications, such as obstetric fistula, which is very common in DRC," said Richard Dackam Ngacthou, country representative of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). For every 100,000 live births 1,100 women die, he said.

But to meet a national target of reducing the number of women who die in childbirth by 75 percent and to provide all Congolese with access to contraception - in line with the UN Millennium Development Goals - new funding targets must be achieved.

The funding gap is severe: in 2008 some US$5 million went towards the fight against maternal mortality, whereas in 2009 less than $2 million was allocated. Congo's 2010 budgetary situation is no less dire, with only around $6 million planned to finance the entire health sector, where some $60 million would be warranted, according to a member of parliament.

"The Congolese government and its partners have developed a battle-plan, which clearly maps out the steps needed to be taken to reduce maternal mortality and is backed by a national strategy to obtain reproduction and family planning materials," said Ayigan. "All we need is the funding to put this process in place."

Beyond the funding shortfalls, however, DRC has to overcome ignorance about family planning, contraception and reproductive health. Few Congolese men have been co-opted into the global campaign to increase the use of condoms, and child marriage remains common, particularly in the eastern part of the country.

Nearly half of Congolese women have a child by age 19, Marie-Claure Mbuyi Kabulepa, reproductive health coordinator for WHO in DRC, told IRIN - the first of an average 6.2 children born to each of the country's nearly 35 million women, according to population figures from the CIA Factbook.

Women become pregnant too soon and continue having children for too long; they deliver prematurely or beyond gestational age; and they have too many children spaced too close together, said Mbuyi Kabulepa. Worse still, just 6 percent use contraception - compared with 15 percent in 1985.

For all these challenges, health advocates suggest the number-one solution is a stronger, better-resourced national healthcare system that responds proactively to women before complications occur. Ante-natal healthcare begins with family planning, said UNFPA's Joséphine Bora, and continues with regular obstetric care. Reproductive health must be a component of health education, standardized across the national school system, targeting adolescents.

This can also help to reduce unwanted pregnancies; of the more than three million births recorded in 2009, it is estimated that nearly half were unwanted. In addition, there are tens or even hundreds of thousands of clandestine abortions, which also lead to death or complications that can include sterility.

The impetus would appear to be there, even if it has yet to be financially supported. At the end of the December 2009 national conference on the repositioning of family planning, First Lady Marie-Olive Lembe Kabila termed it "inadmissible [that] women continue to die as they are giving life".

20091222
america.gov

Washington — One of the most popular musicians in Ghana is drawing inspiration from the chief inhabitant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington.

“Obama is like our president, too,” said Kwaw Kese, a hip-life star in Ghana who is known for his style of rapping and colorful antics that earned him the nicknames “Madman” and “King of the Streets.” When President Obama visited Accra, Ghana, in July, Kese was invited by Ghanaian officials to be one of the headliners at an official entertainment venue for the visit. Obama’s motorcade did not pass by as planned, but Kese still calls the gig in front of 5,000 people “something spiritual.”

“It was great getting a show and performing for a large crowd like that on the day of Obama’s visit,” Kese said in an interview with America.gov.

He had already met then President George W. Bush in 2008, when Bush visited Ghana. But he said the Obama visit, during which the president delivered a major address on democratic governance and finding solutions to corruption, was a source of pride for Africans, given Obama’s family ties to Kenya. “That’s our part. We are all of us with Obama, not only the Americans but everybody, wherever they are,” he said.

Now Kese has linked up with one of the more respected hip-hop artists in the United States, the recording star Wyclef Jean. The duo met in Ghana when Jean was touring Africa and Kese quickly charmed the American artist with his wit, style and music. The next day, they recorded a track together, “War,” which is featured on Kese’s latest album.

The opening lyric of “War” declares, “I check the news/the pirates snatched the ship/politics is pile of tricks/but no more tricky tricky trick to fool Africa/that’s why my president is Obama.”

“Every song that I’ve written, every song that I had done, it’s about experiences in life,” Kese said. “Every song that I’ve done has a story to it. I’m a street type. … I was at one time a street guy and I came out of it, so everything I do is a message for the street to motivate them to do something good for themselves. I don’t just want to do pop songs. Every song I do has a message.”

Part of that message was inspired by his own government, led by the previous opposition party, which took power after defeating the ruling party in peaceful elections that were hailed as a democratic achievement for Africa. The new government, led by President John Atta Mills, pledged to clean up Ghana within its first 100 days in office. Kese took note of the idea, and wrote the song “Obul.” In the resulting video, he wears a sanitation worker’s outfit, stands near a particularly nasty pile of garbage strewn on an Accra street and raps, “Let’s help build a clean Ghana/my brothers and my sisters/and make it free from disease.”

“That was my contribution to the president’s 100 days for Ghana,” Kese said. He described the reactions once people saw the video and heard the song: “They think, ‘Hey, this guy, he’s a madman, and the madman has taken it upon himself to clean up Accra.’ … My song motivated people to come together to do that.”

His message is also contained in the title of his latest album, “Give Way,” which he said is aimed at the older generation that still rules much of Africa. Kese quoted from Obama’s speech in Accra, where the president spoke of Africa’s “moment of great promise.” Obama continued:

“Only this time, we’ve learned that it will not be giants like Nkrumah and Kenyatta who will determine Africa’s future. Instead it will be you — the men and women in Ghana’s parliament, the people you represent. It will be the young people brimming with talent and energy and hope who can claim the future that so many in previous generations never realized.”

Thus, Kese said, his album title is “an advocacy tool I’m using for youth to move forward.”

“In Africa,” he said, “everything is about the ‘Old Fellows,’” those who are in power but who, in his opinion, do not pay attention to the youth. “They should ‘give way’ to more innovation for the youth,” he said.

Kese said he is trying to challenge himself to be part of the solution to problems too. He is organizing a group he plans to call Music for Help Foundation to work with orphans needing help with school fees or other issues. He has worked with a main orphanage in Accra previously, and says the children there dubbed him “King of the Streets,” the nickname he proudly repeats in his music.

“That’s a dream of mine, to use my music as a tool to eradicate poverty on the street,” Kese said.

20091222
aljazeera



Members of the oil producers' body Opec have agreed to maintain their production restrictions in a bid to maintain oil prices.

Ministers from the 12-member Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) announced their decision at a meeting in Luanda, Angola's capital, on Tuesday.

The group instituted its emergency quotas a year ago after oil prices tumbled amid the global economic crisis.

Oil prices have risen from a low of $40 a barrel to just short of $74 a barrel since the group imposed its restrictions.

David Strahan, a London-based energy strategist, said that there was no real justice for any move other than maintaining the status quo.

"Opec could hardly cut production at the moment as it is enjoying quite substantial prices, oddly high prices I think given the fundamentals of the market at the very minute," he told Al Jazeera.

"$70 to $80 a barrel, that's great for them, state budgets are balanced at that price, they are making quite a bit of money.

"There was also no incentive for them to increase production and the economic recovery, such as it is, seems able to survive these current prices."

Low demand

But Manouchehr Takin, a senior analyst at the Centre for Global Energy Studies, said the world economy was still struggling and likely downward pressure on prices could lead to more restrictions.

"It could be, if this trend of low demand continues towards the end of 2010, there could be great [downward] pressure and the price will come down to maybe $60 or so - and before that time Opec might have to cut production [to raise prices]," he told Al Jazeera.

20091222
aljazeera

Security forces in Madagascar have clashed with opposition supporters outside parliament, just days after the country's president abandoned a power-sharing deal and dismissed the prime minister.

Armoured riot police fired teargas at opposition protesters who gathered outside the assembly building in the capital, Antananarivo, on Tuesday, the Reuters news agency reported.

Police quickly dispersed the crowd, but the incident indicated a deepening of the island nation's political crisis.

"We have lost our jobs because of the crisis but the government won't listen to us even though it preaches about democracy. It's shameful," Fanja Rakotoson, one of the protesters, said.

The protest came as opposition leaders prepared to form a new unity government, in a move Andry Rajoelina, Madagascar's president, has called "illegitimate".

'Null and void'

Rajoelina, who toppled former leader Marc Ravalomanana and seized power with military support in March, announced on Sunday that all agreements sponsored by international mediators to form a transitional coalition were "null and void".

And last week, Rajoelina said it would be impossible to share power with political enemies and dismissed Eugene Mangalaza, a man he had appointed as prime minister in October.

The president had offered the job to Mangalaza under heavy international pressure as part of a power-sharing deal signed with his political rivals.

But that deal and a succession of others have fallen through as Rajoelina and three former presidents squabble over the division of key jobs in a consensus government.

Rajoelina later named Cecile Manorohanta, Madagascar's vice-prime minister and a close ally of his, to take over the premiership indefinitely. He has also declared that elections would be held in March 2010.

Foreign countries have said they will re-engage with Madagascar only after a consensus government is established and a road map to free and credible elections is in place.

20091222
aljazeera



Sudan's parliament has approved a controversial bill paving the way for a referendum on possible independence for the country's oil-producing south.

MPs passed the bill on Tuesday, despite opposition from southern Sudanese legislators over a clause that would allow southerners living outside South Sudan to cast absentee ballots.

"Finally, after a long journey, we approved this law," Ahmed Ibrahim al-Tahir, the parliament's chairman and member of north Sudan's National Congress Party (NCP), said.

However, parliamentarians from the Sudan Peoples' Liberation Movement (SPLM), the south's main party, had walked out of the session in protest.

The SPLM is concerned that southern Sudanese now living in the north could be less supportive of a campaign for independence.

Badriya Suleiman, the chair of the parliament's justice committee, said barring southerners from voting outside their region would be a violation of Sudan's temporary constitution.

"The article was changed because it violated the transitional constitution that gives Sudanese freedom of movement from one area to the other," she told reporters.

Peace deal 'violated'

But Yasser Arman, the SPLM deputy secretary general, called the vote a breach of the 2005 power-sharing accord that ended decades of civil war that had caused the deaths of millions of people.

"What happened today is the worst violation against the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, and from today we will not participate in parliamentary sessions until this matter is resolved," he said.

South Sudan secured the independence vote, due to be held in 2011, as part of the peace accord.

Analysts had warned of a risk of a return to conflict if the parties could not agree terms for the laws, whicch also pave the way to national elections, due in April 2010.

A key point of disagreement was the organisation of the democratic process under the results of a recent census are scheduled to be the basis for electoral constituencies for the 2011 vote.

The government in Khartoum released the census last May showing that more than 500,000 southerners live in the north, though southern regional officials have disputed that figure.

The national vote will be the first in Sudan since 1986, three years before Omar Hasan al-Bashir, Sudan's president, toppled a democratically elected government in a bloodless military coup.

Relations between the SPLM and al-Bashir's NCP have been strained, most recently when authorities in Khartoum arrested two senior SPLM officials and scores of their supporters during a protest earlier this month.

myjoyonline

This write up is my reaction to a story I read on 11.12.09 on “modernghana” website titled: “Koku Anyidoho In Trouble.” I have struggled a title for this write–up. Initially, I titled it: Notoriety of a Political Buffoon. That did not go down well with me. I changed it to; The Idiocy of an Attention Seeking Nonentity. Then again, I thought about changing it to: Ramblings of a Schizo-Affective Personality. After a while, I finally settled on; Shenanigans of a Johnny-Just-Come. I could go on to justify why I chose any of the above titles but I will probably leave that for another time. For now though, I will try to explain my choice of the title: Shenanigans of a Johnny just come.

As stated earlier, I am compelled by the comments by the Director of Communications at the Presidency, Koku Anyidoho on opposition members of parliament to write this piece. In his unwarranted and unprovoked attack, he described the Minority Members of Parliament as “irresponsible lot who are bellicose, whimsical and capricious.” Suffice to say that, I am not the mouth piece of the minority in parliament yet, I am obliged as a Ghanaian to defend our constitution, our institutions of democracy and most importantly, the august body of parliament. One need not be a rocket scientist to understand that, for our democracy to succeed, we need everyone, including the Anyidohos of today, to acknowledge the sacrosanctity of the legislature. Koku Anyidoho has used his anachronistic position as the Communication Director at the Presidency to play the buffoon. That his position is anachronistic is not even contested by staunch NDC members and the only way he thinks he can make himself useful is to issue innuendoes against anyone whose “face” he “hates”. I am yet to hear one sensible word from him since being awarded his position. Koku looks like my age mate or slightly older than I am and for him to exhibit such belligerence and lack of respect baffles my understanding. Not long ago, Koku was in the news for all the wrong reasons when he made his “I hate the face of Kufuor” statement. I can say this for fact though that; Ghanaians do not drool when we see Koku Anyidoho’s face!?! I am not talking semantics here but since Koku earns his livelihood from working at the Presidency which the Ghanaian tax payer pays allegiance to, he is expected to show a modicum of respect to it and all past occupants.

I am not asking Koku to fall in love with Kufuor, but for him to proclaim his hatred for the former President on national radio was tactless and crassly to say the least. I don’t like the utterances and postulations of former President Rawlings either but I do not “hate” his face. In truth, I do respect him as someone who could easily be my father and most importantly, as the former President of our beloved country. That is the beauty of democracy; we agree to disagree. Actually, I wouldn’t have commented on Koku’s previous misdemeanour if it hadn’t been his recent recalcitrance. Koku doesn’t seem to understand that even in his current employment where his job description is as hazy and foggy as the December harmattan weather, he is meant to accord respect and dignity to the arms of government. He arrogates so much importance to the fringe position he occupies and yet wants to drag the name of the legislature into disrepute.

Koku is reported to have referred to the Minority Members of parliament as “an irresponsible lot who are bellicose, whimsical and capricious” during a radio discussion. For Koku to show such gross disregard for former President Kufuor and now the Minority makes me wonder if the man has any understanding of the democracy which has created a job for him even in this global “ecominc” crisis. In the said discussion, Koku is said to have been incensed by suggestions by Hon Opare Ansah (Minority Chief Whip) that President Mills could face impeachment in accordance with article 69 (1) of the 1992 Constitution if it is indeed established that the President rejected 2 “brown envelops” intended to bribe him but failed to report the matter and the individuals involved to the police for prosecution. The above suggestion by Hon Opare Ansah was necessitated by Kwame Pianim’s statement that President Mills is incorruptible because he (Kwame Pianim) has observed the president reject 2 “brown envelops” intended to bribe him. Hon Opare Ansah’s argument is in line with the constitution. Any wise person with any understanding of democracy will understand the point Hon Opare Ansah was making. The emphasis is in Opare Ansah’s statement is on the word “could”. I do believe that Ghanaians want a vibrant opposition that is adept with the dictates of the constitution and on top of events. So much capital has been made of the so called ‘honesty’ and ‘incorruptible’ character of President Mills. Kwame Pianim’s story if it’s true, is the litmus test the President should have passed with flying colours to confirm his credentials as the “honest” and “incorruptible” man who could be trusted to fight corruption. The main issue is, up to this point, the Presidency has neither confirmed nor denied Mr Pianim’s assertion and silent, they say, means consent”. That should have been Koku’s concern. For Koku, the Communications Director, to say that the incident probably happened before Prof Mills became the President is neither here nor there. Bribery or attempted bribery is a crime and it is expected of every Ghanaian to report it wherever one encounters it. The President was once a tax-law professor and vice-President of the Republic. I would not expect anything less from anyone in any one of the above positions. If we even assume that the attempted bribery as revealed by Kwame Pianim took place when the President was a professor at Legon but failed to do the simple task of reporting the matter to the Police, then he failed Mother Ghana and surely the entire citizenry; prominent amongst them, the students he taught at the time. The other 2 scenarios are even more worrying, that is if the attempted bribery took place when professor Mills was the Vice-President or in his current position as the President but failed to act. This is the albatross Kwame Pianim, in his desperate attempt to sing the praise of the President has ended up hanging on the latter’s neck. And this is the matter Koku Anyidoho, the Director of Communications at the Presidency should be arguing out with maturity, tactfulness and sound reasoning.

To me, Koku’s description of the Minority Members of Parliament as “an irresponsible lot who are bellicose, whimsical and capricious” is and affront on our democracy. Unsurprisingly amateurish and typical of his character, he sounded his usual bullish and infantile self without being convincing. In his response to Hon Opare Ansah’s suggestion that the President could face impeachment for failing to report the alleged attempted bribery, he insulted the Minority and also “launched a vitriolic attack on the Minority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu.” It was even reported that Koku “threatened” one Shamima Muslim, “a broadcast journalist at the Citi FM when she cautioned him to mind his language.” Talk of one being “bellicose, whimsical and capricious.” huh!! Koku was not even ashamed to threaten a female presenter for daring to remind him, a whole Communications Director at the Presidency to be mindful of his choice of words in describing members of the legislature! A case of a communications director who can’t communicate. I have never seen someone robe himself in so much glory in an irrelevant position as Koku Anyidoho. This guy is so arrogant and swollen-headed that he thinks he is probably even more important than the vice-President. Speaking of Hon Opare Ansah, Koku had the following to say: “…I speak categorically that irresponsible people like him will not lead the President down an irresponsible path.” Koku went on further to state that; “The fact that people like Opare Ansah have gone and sat down and are making this irresponsible statement does not mean that President Mills, having the gotten the mandate of 23 to 24 million Ghanaians to build a better Ghana, should come and respond to this level of irresponsibility.”

No Koku, you are wrong! That Prof Mills is the President for all Ghanaians is an undeniable fact. But to say that the President has the mandate of “23to 24 million Ghanaians” is not true. It’s not every Ghanaian that voted for the President but in a multi-party democracy like ours, the needs and concerns of the minority must be addressed. In any case, being the President doesn’t mean that Prof Mills cannot be questioned by parliament if the occasion demands it. The President, I believe acknowledges this and therein lies Koku’s naivety.

Koku further retorted that “… with people like Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu and Opare Ansah in Parliament, we have a question to answer and President Mills will hear but will not pay attention to the bellicose, whimsical and capricious irresponsibility of Opare Ansah and his lot.” Koku’s belligerence is further evidenced when he said that, “…we are telling Opare Ansah and co that they better get ready, this their irresponsibility, their bellicosity is nonsense and I use word, nonsense again.” I don’t know if the last statement was meant as a threat or not. What is evident though is that, after 12 months, Koku is still a political greenhorn. That is what one gets when one creates jobs for the boys not on competence but on sentiment. Hon Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, Hon Opare Ansah and the entire Minority caucus are individuals who have served their respective constituencies, their region and Ghana in various capacities. I believe that was why their constituents voted for them to be their representatives in Parliament. Hon Osei-Kyei-Mensah (Minority Leader) for example is in his 4th consecutive term in parliament and that alone is an achievement Koku cannot measure to in any way. These are honourable men and women who at least, have a certain portion of the Ghanaian populace to be accountable to. Which area in Ghana does Koku represent? Koku is where he is now on the benevolence of the President. In fact, the “Communications Director at the Presidency” job has been created for Koku by the President in acknowledgement of the former’s father’s association to the NDC. In simple terms, Koku has no political track record, not even in NDC. Koku is merely a Johnny-just come whose stock in trade is over-harp on his own importance to the point of boring his listeners.

There are 3 things I want Koku to learn. Firstly, Koku should learn how to address our leaders (this includes Minority in Parliament, the opposition parties, former President Kufuor and anyone who has an opposing view to his.) with respect. That is the only way to earn the respect that he craves so much for himself. Secondly, Koku should learn to reason and string convincing arguments together rather than the hocus-pocus he has been known to gobble out so frequently. Lastly, humility does pay. It is imperative Koku learns to show humility to the high and low in society whether or not he agrees with them. If Koku thinks he has made it, I want to tell him that he hasn’t! Koku is only a green horn and a political toddler. He should learn to walk before he runs. His antics are but those of a Johnny-just-come.

Countrymen and women! Another year has ended and I will like to take this opportunity to wish my readers (including those who send abusive mails and those who write to encourage me) “Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year!” You are all lovely people in your diversity. Let’s meet again in 2010 and discuss issues about our country passionately and objectively. God bless you all and God bless Ghana!!!

myjoyonline

Whilst reacting to Dr. Arthur Kennedy’s criticism that he had told a chief in the Brong Ahafo Region that there would be no Tain, former president Kufuor made a major statement which excites The Chronicle.

According to the immediate past president, he had no power under the laws of Ghana to cancel elections - that decision is the sole prerogative of the Electoral Commission (EC). As the Commander in Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, he could have used his powers to stop the EC from conducting the Tain election to determine who wins the 2008 presidential elections, but he respected the laws, and allowed the right agency to take the decision.

Earlier in the year 2000, former President Rawlings, who had ruled the country for 18 solid years, peacefully handed over to his predecessor after his party had genuinely lost the elections.

Looking at his military background, and the fact that he was the Commander in Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, he could have stopped the EC from declaring the results, after realising that his party was losing, and then declare a state of emergency, as other dictators have been doing, but this never happened.

Like Kufuor, he realised that such a decision would be unconstitutional, and peacefully handed over power.

Unfortunately, whilst our leaders appreciate the fact that they are not the above the law, and that they are subject to the dictates of the constitution, the same cannot be said about their followers.

During the Rawlings era, some of his ministers who were found guilty of unjustifiably amassing wealth by the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), were later set free through a white paper the government issued.

The Kufuor’s government was no exception. Three women organisers of his party, who were arrested at the Kotoka International Airport, for carrying substances suspected to be cocaine, were never prosecuted for the crime, despite several calls from civil society organisations.

These, among several others, have created the impressions in the minds of party followers and appointees that they are above the law, so long as their party remains power. Just recently, a group of youth, suspected to be supporters of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), pounced on innocent journalists in Sunyani, and subjected them to several beasting.

Like the cocaine case involving the NPP women organizers, the police have failed to press charges against perpetrators of this crime, even though, according to the victims, they provided the names of some of the people involved to the law enforcement agency.

In a society where the rule of law is relegated to the background or some of the citizens are made to believe that they are above the law, people decide to take the law into their own hands, and the results are always chaotic.

Ghana is today struggling to maintain peace in some parts of Northern and Upper East regions, because of the perception that those who commit crime go unpunished.

The Chronicle is therefore appealing to the Police Administration to divorce itself from political influence, and discharge the duties conferred on them by the constitution, without fear or favour.

When a suspected New Patriotic Party (NPP) or National Democratic Congress (NDC) supporter, depending on which party is in power, commits an offence, he or she must be made to face the music.

At least the illustration that we have made about the two living former heads of state, shows clearly that they are not above the law, so how much more a mere supporter or supporters of their parties.

If Ghana is to enjoy absolute peace, the security agencies would have a crucial role to play. They must therefore wake up, before things begin to fall apart.

myjoyonline

That Robert Mugabe should lead an entourage of sixty Zimbabwean technocrats on an expensive frolic to participate in discussions on global warming in Copenhagen is a grave travesty of justice. How a man under ‘EU sanctions’ can evade arrest for crimes against ‘nature and humanity’ is only explainable by the mysterious world of United Nations protocol. Moreover, though the general position is that African and G77 countries are the least offenders in carbon dioxide emission, there is critical evidence to prove that Mugabe’s violent ten-year land grab has been responsible for desertification of previously arable commercial farmland.

When his cronies, sympathisers and ZANU-PF fanatics invaded white commercial farms under the guise of ‘indigenisation’, they had nothing but axes and machetes for ‘working capital’. The more lucky ones, like former information minister Bright Matonga, dispossessed legitimate owners of their land, houses, implements and crops. Villagers who had taken over vast forests had no resources to develop the land so they simply resorted to felling trees and setting up roadside fuel wood-marketing stalls. In Harare where I reside, woodlots owned by the local city council fifteen kilometres along the highway to Mozambique were plundered by wood poachers trying to cope with electricity shortages. A decade of ZANU-PF induced high-level incompetence, patronage, subsidies and corruption completely disabled ZESA the electricity Parastatal, to a stage where even urban dwellers like me resorted to gas, jelly and wood charcoal for cooking.

Mugabe’s land ‘reform’ set off a chain of disasters. Apart from the possibility of soil erosion, desertification and siltation, loss of trees reduces the capacity of nature to ‘process’ carbon dioxide. Alex McBratney, soil and carbon researcher of Sydney University in Australia explains that photosynthesis soaks up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and draws it into the ground. So when desperate ZANU-PF activists are confronted with soils that are difficult to till, they plunder the trees for a living before burning the grass. During dry winter months, highway travellers are treated to numerous fiery horizons ignited by idle peasant farmers in occupied lands. Zimbabwe has an active environmental management policy, but it functions well in areas controlled by the National Parks. However, where farms were invaded, the environmental watchdog has no power over political influence. State propaganda glorifies December as a tree-planting month, but given Mugabe’s environmental plunder, this is hollow hypocrisy.

Traditional historians have oral and written evidence that apart from colonial laws that prevented over-grazing and tree-felling, chiefs and headmen enforced a tradition of masango anoyera [sacred forests]. No one was allowed to cut trees in these havens of spiritual symbolism. Mugabe’s culture of lawlessness and patronage then pushed traditional leaders to a point where they completely abandoned their roles as guardians of the forest. Prospective ZANU-PF Members of Parliament in areas where precious stones are close to the surface like Kwekwe, Shurugwi and Chiyadzwa bought votes by allowing makorokoza [informal miners] to carve numerous trenches in search of wealth. The resultant gullies have left scars on the earth that may take decades to fill up.

Mugabe’s primitive land reform program has also had telling effects on wild life, thus upsetting the country’s delicate ecological balance. Peasant farmers who invaded wildlife sanctuaries massacred animals or simply drove them to more hostile habitat to die. High-yielding hunting safaris have either been ‘colonised’ by ZANU-PF big-wigs or dissipated altogether. So it comes as a surprise that the man who has contributed so much to the destruction of nature is masquerading as a campaigner against global warming. On the contrary, ZANU-PF is an integral part of the family of global political, ideological and ecological pollutants.

My critics will argue that Copenhagen 2009 is as much a destination for the notorious climate offenders like the United States as it is for victims of global warming like Zimbabwe. I agree, but Mugabe has no business in a community where serious people are discussing preservation of human dignity and life. The very DNA of ZANU-PF politics is destruction. When Barack Obama’s country pollutes the atmosphere, it is in the name of creating jobs and enhancing the wealth of citizens. When his armies are in Afghanistan, Obama is attempting to stem the tide of deadly fundamentalism at its source. Mugabe will argue eternally that the land reform is a noble scheme to improve lives of ‘victims of colonialism’, but I argue that violating property rights, murdering citizens, displacing half-a-million farm workers and destroying the environment in one policy instrument has no place in civilisation.

Mind you, ZANU-PF’s entry into Zimbabwe’s polity completely poisoned the democratic climate. Zimbabweans have really never known true peace since 1980. Citizens are fearful, impoverished and abused by vindictive state machinery that rewards praise singers and thrives on restricting civil liberties. Five million Zimbabweans have taken refuge in Botswana, South Africa, United Kingdom, USA, Australia and New Zealand. Whenever Mugabe goes, journalists confront him with questions on bad governance, torture and violations of civil liberties. In short, the ZANU-PF president carries with him an aura of poisoned perceptions. Even his own people in his party, are beginning to ask relevant questions about his ability to represent their interests in the next electoral context.

At a time when the government of nationality unity [GNU] is fragile and requiring careful nurturing, Mugabe hurls broadsides at coalition partner Movement for Democratic Change, further poisoning the negotiating climate. What kind of ideological bankruptcy drives this man? MDC was formed by Zimbabweans for Zimbabweans, not the British, as he claims. Can we say that since ZANLA [the liberation military wing of ZANU] was supported by the Chinese and Nordic countries, it was ‘formed’ by those countries? When two million people voted for MDC in March 2008 – and Mugabe has now conceded defeat – they sought representation by their own, local leaders, not Tony Blair. It was Morgan Tsvangirayi on the ballot paper, not Gordon Brown. Mugabe is in government by the generosity of Thabo Mbeki and SADC. Outside the GNU, the man has no legitimacy whatsoever. My humble submission is that Copenhagen is not for him, until he accepts a more democratic climate in Zimbabwe. Listening to Mugabe speak at Copenhagen, my assertion is that the international community now should lift sanctions on ZANU-PF and impose a real blockade.

thisdayonline

Minister of Commerce and Industry, Chief Achike Udenwa, yesterday in Abuja informed a delegation of the visiting Islamic Development Bank (IDB) that the Nigerian economy is still virgin and therefore needs facilities from the bank to stimulate growth and development.
?In the private sector, a lot of expertise and capacity are available within Nigeria, these capacities also need further improvement, we need a lot of funding for the Small and Medium Enterprises to grow,? he said.

Udenwa added that the Small and Medium enterprises require medium and long term funds which the Commercial Banks in Nigeria are not able to provide because they are structured to lend on short term basis. He pointed out that this is the area where the Nigerian business community will need the assistance of the Islamic Development Bank.
The Minister made this disclosure when a delegation of the Bank led by its West Africa Regional Manager, Mr. Musa Sillah, paid him a courtesy visit.
Udenwa acknowledged the fact that quite a large number of the Nigerian public are ignorant of the activities of the bank before now.

He expressed happiness for the visit as it will help to sensitise the public about its activities in the country.
According to him, the bank is coming into Nigeria at a time when it is most needed by both the private and public sectors.
The minister said ?Nigerians will embrace you and will want to make use of your facilities to further enhance the development of the economy?
He was appreciative of the fact that the bank was already involved in some form of public and private financing especially in the area of agriculture in Anambra, Gombe and Yobe states.
He said the construction of four science secondary schools and the 300 hospital beds in Kaduna is a welcome development.
The Minister pointed out that the economy is presently undergoing a lot of reforms which needed some long financing to develop its infrastructural base especially in the areas of transportation, power, manufacturing and in the area of solid mineral development.

He said the country will need the assistant of the Development Bank to finance some of these projects at competitive rate. Concerning the Private sector, Udenwa said it is gratifying to note that the likes of Dangote, Chicason and some other companies have benefited from the arrays of facilities from the Bank. He said the need for the Business Forum between the Bank and Nigeria?s private sector has become imperative. He said the Commerce Ministry as the hub of industrial development will lead the way in bring both the Government and the Private sector to a meeting point towards the enhancement of the growth of the economy.

In an earlier remark the leader of the delegation Mr. Musa Sillah said the Islamic Cooperation For Financing of the Private Sector is the equivalent of International Finance Cooperation of the World Bank. He said since Nigeria became a member of the organisation four years ago, relations between Nigeria and the Bank has grown steadily. He said between 2006 and now the total exposure of financing activities in the Country has risen to USD200 Million. Mr. Sillah pointed out that the purpose for the visit has become expedient in order to increase awareness to the Nigerian Business environment so that they benefit from the facilities of the Bank at interest free rate. He said since Nigeria is a member of the Organization its lending to the general public cuts across religion background. He said the Agricultural facilities are presently being enjoyed in Anambra, Gombe and Yobe states and some other projects in Kaduna state. He said the Vice President of the Bank and President Musa Yar? Adua had made considerable progress at a diplomatic level with subsequent progress with the by Nigeria?s Chief Economic Adviser Mr. Tanimu Yakubu to Saudi Arabia in October this year. He said what is important now for a practical steps to move forward in the organization of the event to showcase the available opportunities needed by the Private sector to stimulate industrial growth in the country.

Court Stops FG from Withdrawing Daar Communications? Licience
From Paul Obi in Abuja

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja yesterday granted an order of interim injunction on the federal government from withdrawing the network licence of DAAR Communications Plc (owners of Ray Power 100.5FM radio station, Daarsat and AIT).
Justice Adamu Bello granted the order sought through a motion ex parte filed by DAAR Communications' counsel, Chief Mike Ozekhome restraining the National Broadcasting Commission(NBC), Ministry of Information and Communications and the Attorney General of the Federation from doing anything that will prevent Daar Communication from running its two broadcast channels of RayPower and AIT.

The ex-parte motion read as follows:?An order of this Honorable court directing the maintenance of the status quo ante bellum and suspension of all acts tending towards, revocation, suspension or cancellation of its existing license and/or threats of any detrimental actions, including proceedings and processes relating to the planned revocation or withdrawal of the plaintiff?s licence pending the determination and hearing of the motion on notice already filed before this honorable court?.
While speaking with Journalists after the ruling, Chief Ozekhome said that the NBC is planning to withdraw the network license of DAAR Communications which will stop Ray Power and AIT from their network broadcast.
The injunction was sought after the Commission failed to issue DAAR Communications a fresh network license during the bidding held by the commission between September 6 and December 12, 2009.

inform

The queue snakes down the road for 50 metres: trucks, mopeds and young men with tanks in their hands. Angola pumps more oil than anywhere else in Africa, but for its people, getting hold of some takes time and precious cash.

The drivers come at a rate of 1,500 a day, pumping 65,000 litres of gasoline, says Adao Kimanha, duty manager of the filling station in Luanda's southern suburbs.

Down the road stands the swanky conference centre where ministers of the OPEC cartel were meeting on Tuesday to discuss the prices, production levels and stockpiles of the crude oil on which the world economy relies.

"We're open 24 hours. We never close," says Kimanha, a 22-year-old with the logo of the state-controlled petrol company Songangol on his shirt. "There are lots of vehicles. Lots of demand."

Behind the wheel in the baking heat, bus driver Joao Antonio reaches the front of the line after 20 minutes -- a relatively quick fill-up in the Sunday afternoon lull.

"On a weekday, it can take an hour and a half, two hours," he says.

Since it broke free seven years ago from decades of war that ruined its infrastructure, Angola has overtaken Nigeria as Africa's biggest oil producer, according to figures from the International Energy Agency.

Oil platforms run by foreign companies such as Chevron, Total and British Petroleum have sprouted off its Atlantic coast and shiny glass car showrooms stand not far from the dirt roads of Luanda's slums.

Despite producing up to 1.9 million barrels of crude a day, Angola's refineries are only working at half-capacity and it imports three million tonnes of petroleum products a year, its oil minister says.

Along with the limited number of gas stations operated by Songangol, this swells the queues.

"There just aren't enough petrol stations. They should build more," said oil worker Jose Lapi, sitting in the queue at the wheel of his air-conditioned four-wheel drive.

Oil Minister Jose Botelho de Vasconcelos last week promised the government would "intervene" in the petrol pump problem, with measures "in commercialisation, in supply posts, in wholesale."

"We're working at full pelt so that the new rules of regulation in the sector can be concluded within 18 months," he said in an interview in the economic weekly Exame.

Gasoline costs 40 kwanzas (about 0.45 dollars, 0.30 euros) a litre in a country where more than two thirds of people live on two dollars a day, according to the United Nations Development Programme.

President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos said earlier this month that six in 10 Angolans live in poverty and hunger with little access to clean water.

A few yards (metres) along the road, a man in a blue basketball vest sits beside a stack of plastic petrol containers. He sells for 50 kwanzas a litre, a mark-up from the pump price for those willing to pay extra to cut the queue.

"I have a life of sacrifice," said the 31-year-old man, a demobilised army sergeant who would not give his name.

Visiting the gas pumps in the middle of the night and then selling from morning until evening, he can make up to 200 dollars on a good day, but still faces hardship in a city where lunch in a restaurant can run into triple figures.

OPEC ministers said they were happy with petrol prices hovering around 75 dollars a barrel, ahead of their meeting down the road.

"That meeting just benefits the ones who have money," the petrol seller said. "The poor go on suffering."

20091221
thenational

JOHANNESBURG // As the temperature rises towards the peak of the austral summer, one of Africa’s major modern migrations gets under way: the return of the Zimbabwean diaspora to their homeland for the holidays.

No-one knows exactly how many Zimbabweans have fled the destruction of the country’s economy under Robert Mugabe, but estimates for their numbers in South Africa – the most popular destination, with the United Kingdom and Botswana some distance behind – range from one million to three million.

Despite the formation of the unity government with the former opposition Movement for Democratic Change this year, which has seen hyperinflation arrested and the beginnings of economic recovery, albeit from a desperately low base, thousands are still crossing the Limpopo every month in search of work and money.

But as Christmas and New Year approach, vast numbers of people pack into long-distance minibuses and trains to make the reverse journey north from Johannesburg and return to their families. It is by far the busiest time of year for operators on the transport artery, demand for whose services is so high that prices can double or more, to 180 rand (Dh87) for a train ticket to the border at Musina, or 600 rand for a bus ticket direct from Johannesburg to Harare, 16 hours away, plus two or three hours or more for frontier formalities.

Every day, as the evening departures approach, the waiting area at Johannesburg’s Park Station is packed with northbound passengers, many surrounded by vast piles of luggage, while a street away, motor vehicles fill up rapidly with people bound for Zimbabwe’s major cities.

“I’m going to see my family,” said one bus traveller, Tanzwa Nazvo, 32, from Harare. “That’s my home, every other person from my clan or my family is there.”

He has been in South Africa for a little more than a year and works as a driver, even though he is a trained firefighter. Employment restrictions in the country mean it is typical for skilled immigrants to have to do less than they are capable of, and stories of doctors or engineers working as gardeners are common.

Nonetheless, Mr Nazvo said, “there’s something to do here better than back home. At least we can buy something to eat, something to wear. It seems things have improved in Zimbabwe except it’s difficult to get money there.”

He added that members of his family were among the victims of the political violence that engulfed the country last year as thugs loyal to Mr Mugabe beat, displaced and killed opposition supporters, eventually forcing the MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai to pull out of a presidential run-off.

Some of Mr Nazvo’s relatives were still unable to return to their houses, he said. Mr Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party had built its political foundation on the struggle for independence but, he added: “Nobody realised that foundation was going to destroy us.”

Mr Nazvo still regards Zimbabwe as home – “We can’t shift our homes or our cattle to South Africa” – but expects it will take years before the economy recovers sufficiently for him to be able to go back for good.

“It’s going to take a long time,” he said. “We don’t know because of all these political things we are not involved in but that have affected us, because everyone has been a victim, from the top brass to the least. It has affected everyone from the president to the lowest person.”

His “proudly Zimbabwean” wife Tatenda, 28, added: “We thought with that agreement [between Mr Mugabe and the MDC] things are going to be better but they are still arguing, so for us we don’t know when things are going to be fine. I don’t trust [either of] them. I don’t trust anybody.”

Fear is a constant background for many Zimbabweans in South Africa, where those without official papers are liable to be rounded up for deportation at any time, and their presence is resented among the urban poor.

There have been spasms of xenophobic violence, including an outbreak last year in which scores of people were killed.

Mrs Nazvo believes that a lid is being kept on the tensions until the World Cup finals next June, and “after that it’s going to be a disaster”. They may, she feels, have to flee again. “We can always go to Botswana, we can always go to Tanzania.”

“I didn’t like it in South Africa,” added Patience Musoni, 21, who was going back to Harare after studying marketing and management for 15 months in Johannesburg.

“They are racist. They don’t like us and I think they feel threatened.” She believes she will be able to find a job once she graduates “because there are people starting businesses”.

But Betty Chakahwata, 49, pointed out that while shop shelves are now well stocked, goods are extremely expensive. Half a kilogram of mealie-meal, the corn flour that is the region’s staple food, cost 12 rand in South Africa but 65 rand in Zimbabwe – the rand is now legal tender and the dominant currency north of the border, so the comparison is direct.

“It’s a little bit better because the shops are open for groceries. But if you have got 10 rand here you can buy something to eat and in Zimbabwe it’s impossible.

Like many Zimbabweans, she makes a living as a cross-border trader, bringing bedspreads, seat covers and brooms south and returning to her home in Budidiro, a suburb of Harare, with finished goods such as clothes, shoes and bags. “It’s the old one who is making things impossible,” she added, declining to speak Mr Mugabe’s name.

Zeph Snake had no such qualms. A Zanu-PF supporter from Bulawayo, where he has a car repair business, he said: “He liberated us and he has given us the opportunity to stand on our own two feet, opportunity no other man has given us.”

He saw no irony in his compatriots’ presence in South Africa. “The problem is not Mugabe, the problem is the people. We don’t understand what he is trying to make us understand. We are not migrating because of poverty,” he insisted. “Migration has always been there. It’s good for people.”