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2.12.01 6th MONUC report 2.15.00 UN amb. Holbrooke Africa Subcomm Rwanda's Kagame & Tutsi in Congo 10.21.98 "Congo; Good To Be A Traitor" Charles Onyango-Obbo The Monitor |
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NGO: Search for
Common Ground
Fowler Report 3.10.00
Canada currently chairs the Security Council's Angola Sanctions Committee
responsible for implementing Council-imposed sanctions against the Angolan rebel movement, UNITA. Purpose of
sanctions is to diminish UNITA's capacity to pursue objectives through military means by targeting illicit diamonds
and other sources of financial support for UNITA's war effort, by reducing UNITA's weapons procurement and
access to petroleum supplies, and by limiting the ability of UNITA leaders to travel or be represented abroad. French arms scandal |
4.1.02 Anthony Boadle Reuters "Kissinger had the CIA rewrite its report to serve the political aim of the administration, and so the poor CIA ended up lying," he said, speaking tongue-in-cheek.
Declassified CIA papers for
Aug. through Oct. 1975 talk of the presence of only a few Cubans in Angola trying to pass themselves off as
tourists, the historian said. The first academic to gain access to archives in Havana, Gleijeses has put together a
almost day-to-day account of the arrival of Cuban troops in Angola. With 1975 departure of Portuguese, Angola
had a power vacuum that the Marxist Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, or MPLA, and conservative
UNITA sought to take advantage of. The fighting that marked the struggle for independence became a civil
war.
The war stretched on for another 25 years, with the latest cease-fire deal signed just last weekend. "The key
element of the covert operation was cooperation with S.Africa, and that was totally denied," Gleijeses said.
"Kissinger went to the extreme of saying he only learned a couple of weeks later that S.Africa had invaded."
In his book "Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington & Africa 1959-1976," based on U.S. documents &
archival research in Cuba & Angola, Gleijeses maintains Cuba dispatched troops as a result of the S.African
invasion. He argues Kissinger's account of U.S. role in Angola was misleading, both in testimony to Congress in
1976 and more recently in the third volume of his memoirs "Years of Renewal." Gleijeses also argues Kissinger misled Americans by saying an attempt to gain China's help in Angola was thwarted by the refusal of the U.S. Congress to approve funding for the covert operation. In his memoirs, Kissinger recounts 12.2.75 meeting he & Ford had in Beijing with Chairman Mao Tse-tung in which Angola was discussed and Mao suggested China was willing to cooperate. Gleijeses said Kissinger failed to mention a meeting held the following day with Deng Xiaoping in which, according to a White House memorandum, the Chinese president refused to help in Angola while S.Africa was involved. "The reason why China held back was not Congress' refusal to vote additional aid. It was because the S.Africans were there," he said, adding that Mao was very ill by then and Deng was in charge of decisions of state. "Kissinger ignores the other document which contradicts what he wants to say, and that is very dishonest," Gleijeses said. |
The tanker had been named for Rice in 1995 when she was a member of the Chevron board of directors. She
resigned from Chevron 1.15.01 when appointed national-security adviser. Chuck Lewis of the Centre for Public
Integrity, a Washington-based think tank, first pointed out the incongruity of a tanker named for the national-security
adviser. But "I saw no reason to be exercised or concerned because she had already severed her official Chevron
ties, resigned from the board and that sort of thing," Lewis tells Insight.
"It is hard to tell the story without laughing."
Nevertheless, Chevron at first had declined to rename the vessel, and did so only after the issue had been raised
with White House spokesman Scott McClellan. The matter "has already been addressed," said McClellan in the
daily briefing. "She will uphold the highest ethical standards in office."
Yet Lewis wonders whether any official who has held high-level positions in multinational corporations such as
Chevron can really disentangle themselves from the corporate point of view. Chevron is a company that has thrived
by doing business with every kind of oil-rich dictatorship in the world, incl former Soviet Union, People's Republic of
China and Indonesia.
In Africa, Chevron has been a major client of the Nigerian kleptocracy and of the late tyrant Laurent Kabila, whose
regime in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) now is headed by his son, Joseph.
But it is in Angola where Chevron has struck it rich. New discoveries in deep waters off the province of Cabinda in
the mid-nineties made a dramatic shift in Angola's importance to corp. revenues and to the regime of José Eduardo
dos Santos and his revolutionary Movement for the Popular Liberation of Angola (MPLA).
That movement was founded by hard-line communist Agosthino Neto, who went to Moscow for medical treatment
in 1979 and died on the operating table. His successor, dos Santos, remained committed to Neto's Marxist-Leninist
ideology but in recent years has retooled MPLA's image, downplaying Marxism but giving no sign that it has
surrendered the Leninist heritage of acquisition & maintenance of total power by the elimination of all
opponents.
In its 26-year war with rival Jonas Savimbi's Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), MPLA well may
have given the coup de grace to its political & military opposition by killing Savimbi on Feb. 21, 6 days before
dos Santos' face-to-face meeting in Washington with President GWBush, a meeting supposedly intended to
encourage reconciliation between the warring factions.
Intelligence sources tell Insight that dos Santos personally gave the command to kill Savimbi. Whether that can be
corroborated, it is clear that while dos Santos had it almost within his power to kill Savimbi since Oct. 2001, the
prospect of the Bush visit encouraged him to give orders for the kill as soon as possible, the sources said.
Despite oil revenues amounting to some $ 3.5 bn a year, Angolan govt is chronically broke. The Economist
magazine reported Jan. 2000 that "the bulk of the money bypasses the budget, disappearing straight into the
hands of the presidency." The magazine said that the oil revenues for the next 3 years "had already been spent."
According to industry data source Alexander's Gas & Oil Connections in July 1999 the oil companies, incl Chevron,
paid Angola $ 900 million "secretive signature bonuses" for exploration leases. Such up-front payments are not
based on production, but are an on-the-books way to get around anti-bribery provisions of the Corrupt Practices
Act, US officials suggest.
As for the need for a signing bonus, an intelligence source tells Insight: "They used the money to buy tanks,
armament, MiGs, chemical weapons and foreign advisers to hunt down and kill Savimbi." For many years the
military arm of the MPLA, the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA), had been frustrated in its attempts to take out UNITA's
leader because Savimbi's troops had broad support among the local population and had been well-trained in rapid
guerrilla movements by the man they called the "Black Cockerel."
"The fish swim in the ocean of the people," says the guerrilla maxim. Moreover, the coalition of tribal peoples that
formed the basis of his support deeply distrusted the mesticos, detribalised & assimilated minority that ruled in
Luanda.
"MPLA decided to drain the ocean," a congressional-staff African expert tells Insight. "When they learned that
Savimbi was in the northern province of Mexico, they instituted a scorched-earth policy. They used chemical
weapons to defoliate the trees and kill the crops. Then they burned the villages.
The people had no food & no houses, so they fled. MPLA forces then rounded up columns of as many as 700
refugees when they could and confined them to camps near the provincial capital. The FAA esp. targeted groups
trying to get across the border into the Congo [Zaire], because they assumed that women & children incl
dependents of UNITA soldiers."
Once the area was depopulated, the FAA could assume that any movements picked up by satellite imagery would
be those of UNITA forces, the source says. After that, it was just a matter of time.
Lisbon's Diario de Noticias gave an account of Savimbi's death through the eyes of the enemy FAA commander,
Brig. Simao Carlitos Waly, according to a Foreign Broadcast Information Service text. The Lisbon report says
Savimbi wascornered with the assistance of foreign commandos. Nevertheless, even
the brigadier's account could not avoid a kind of professional admiration of the gallantry of his enemy's last
stand.
"By travelling to the Luvuei region, Savimbi would have to pass through dense bush," said Waly. "We continued to
pursue him. As soon as he reached the Luvuei River he was caught in an ambush set up by our forces. Upon
arriving in the area, Savimbi thought he had lost us. He tried to let his troops rest and reorganize.
... Through reconnaissance missions we learnt that he passed through the area. We began to fire all our artillery.
We used all the information we had at our disposal. During the first phase we shot Savimbi 7 times. He [still] tried to
pick up a weapon and defend himself when he saw all his guards were dead."
On the same day that Waly gave his account, US State Dept spokesman Robert Boucher released a statement in
Washington. "Jonas Savimbi has been killed," Boucher said. "The death of theUNITA leader is yet another casualty
in a war that should have ended long ago. We call upon both sides, in conjunction with the peaceful opposition, civil
sectors and intl community, to fulfil their obligation to bring peace to the Angolan people."
At the White House press briefing, White House press spokesman Ari Fleischer was asked what impact the
Savimbi killing would have on the talks with dos Santos. "Does the White House think that the dos Santos govt set
Savimbi up for assassination, in effect, to get him out of the way before dos Santos gets here?" he was asked
.
Fleischer, master of the non-answer, was at his smoothest: "Well, the U.S. is still committed to achieving peace
development through equitable solutions in Angola. And the president calls upon all Angolans to fulfil their
obligations to peace there."
The next day, President Bush met with dos Santos and the presidents of Mozambique & Botswana and issued
a brief statement: "Today I met with 3 presidents who can help bring peace & prosperity to southern Africa.
The 3 presidents also discussed the tragic wars in Angola & the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We
agreed that peace is within reach of both countries.
I urged President dos Santos to move quickly toward achieving a cease-fire in Angola. And we agree that all parties
have an obligation to seize this moment to end the war and develop Angola's vast wealth to the benefit of the
Angolan people."
UNITA's political leaders immediately turned to Savimbi's second-in-command, Vice President Antonio Dembo, as
their man to negotiate reconciliation with the MPLA. 4 days after dos Santos met with Bush, FAA forces in Angola
encountered Dembo, who had escaped the original massacre, and shot him down like a dog.
Angola watchers were not surprised at the administration's mild response to these dramatic events. Last Oct.,
former US amb. Paul Hare, now US-Angolan Chamber of Commerce exec. dir. which represents US corporations
operating in Angola, put it bluntly:
Certainly Rice is very gifted. She attended the University of Denver, entering at age 15 and taking Soviet studies
with Joseph Korbel, father of former secretary of state Madeleine Albright. Rice earned a master's degree at the
University of Notre Dame and a doctorate from Denver's Graduate School of Intl Studies.
She went to Stanford University in 1981 to study arms control and, in 1986, joined the staff of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff as a Council on Foreign Relations fellow.
Rice was named to the Chevron board in 1991 after leaving her post on the staff of President GHWBush's National
Security Council, where she served as director of Soviet affairs. Now she eagerly was sought after by the
establishmentarian intelligentsia.
In addition to her call to serve the board of Chevron, she was chosen to serve on the boards of Charles Schwab,
Transamerica, Hewlett Packard, intl advisory council of J.P. Morgan, Carnegie Corp., Carnegie Endowment for Intl
Peace and the Rand Corp.
She also was on the board of Notre Dame and provost & vp of Stanford, as well as on the boards of a number
of other educational institutions.
This résumé was a good fit with the moderate conservatism of GWBush, whom she had served as foreign-policy
adviser during the presidential campaign. When nominated, she filed papers indicating that she had more than
$250,000 in Chevron stock and an income in excess of $ 550,000 per year.
Insight attempted many times to reach Rice's office to ask for comment on her service with Chevron, but received
no reply. During the decade that Rice served on the Chevron board, the corporation prospered, according to its
annual reports, going from total revenues of $38.9 bn in 1991 to $50.6 bn in 2000, with net income rising from $1.2
bn in 1991 to $5.2 bn in 2000. On 10.10.91, Chevron acquired Texaco, resulting in combined revenues inexcess of
$100 bn.
Chevron's role in Angola dates back to the days of Portuguese colonial rule, when Gulf Oil Corp. opened fields in
the Atlantic Ocean just offshore from the province of Cabinda. (Gulf was acquired by Chevron in 1984.)
Cabindans claim that Cabinda never has been part of Angola. Geographically, it is an exclave separated from
Angola by a narrow slice of the Congo (Zaire) and the mighty Congo River delta.
In the late 1960s, 3 revolutionary groups contended to control Angola: MPLA in Luanda & the west, UNITA in
the east & the south and Holden Roberto's Front for the National Liberation of Angola (FNLA), a smaller group
headquartered in the northern provinces.
The MPLA called on Portugal for assistance, then ruled by a friendly Marxist military junta, and brought in some
30,000 Cuban troops and Soviet advisers & arms. The first thing MPLA did was to march into the Cabinda
exclave and seize the prize: the offshore oil fields that, according to recent statements by Chevron, constitute
50% of the Angolan govt's gross domestic product.
The people of Cabinda, more closely related to ethnic groups in the Congo than Angola, have received a mere
pittance of the oil revenues taken from their territory. They live in great poverty.
A fourth, much-splintered, revolutionary group known as the Front for the Liberation of the Cabinda Exclave (FLEC)
has sought independence for Cabinda, conducting a low-level insurgency of harassment & sabotage of oil
facilities, seizing villages for a brief time as a demonstration and kidnapping oil co. employees.
Maybe the issue has been those oil royalties; maybe it has been freedom. In 1980, with the election of Ronald
Reagan, the new administration backed the MPLA's pro-Western rival, Savimbi. A charismatic leader who spoke 9
languages, Savimbi represented the vast majority of Angolans who lived in tribal societies in the countryside. The
new US president saw Savimbi as an anticommunist fighting for freedom.
"Reagan was an admirer of Jonas Savimbi," Reagan's UN amb. Jeanne Kirkpatrick, said recently. "Ron Reagan
cared a very great deal about freedom. He detested tyranny. He detested imperialism & colonialism, and he
detested communism because it stood for these things. And wherever there were people who had been or were
about to be sucked into the Soviet empire and conquered by Soviet forces, who were struggling to preserve or to
establish their freedom, Reagan said, 'I want us to stand with those people who are struggling for freedom &
independence.'"
Savimbi was able to support his movement by taking over the diamond mines in the north, exporting the diamonds
through friendly Zaire and by getting supplies via Namibia to the south. The first Bush administration, listening
carefully to Chevron & the oil industry, did little to disturb the status quo but kept pushing for "free & fair
elections" between the communist & anticommunist factions.
Savimbi reluctantly agreed, and the elections were held on Sept. 29-30, 1992, in the waning months of the Bush
administration. Intl diplomatic elite rushed to pronounce the elections a success, among them U.S. Amb. Herman Cohen, then asst secretary of state for African affairs. "They were free & fair," Cohen tells
Insight.
But some election observers had a different conclusion. Long-time Hill staffer Margaret Hemenway, part of UN
authorized official delegation, tells Insight: "The first one to report fraud was Holden Roberto. We saw polling places
in the morning with no voters. We went in and said 'What's going on?' The ballot boxes were already full. We went
back to Luanda & UNITA candidates saw their computer vote tallies actually descending as they watched the
screen. They couldn't believe it."
A report issued Nov. 1992 by Washington-based Centre for Security Policy, headed by former top Pentagon
official Frank Gaffney, gave more details: Registration of voters was closed 40 days before the election; large
numbers of polling stations reported identical numerical results; only the MPLA was allowed access to govt
controlled tv; pre-election bribery of voters by MPLA was rife; in some areas as many as 25 % of the ballots cast
were nullified; and electricity blackouts took place in a number of key provinces as the votes were being tabulated.
Finally, according to the report, UN special envoy Margaret Anstee stated that she "had never witnessed a more
unfair election, even in Latin America."
Cohen says Savimbi refused to accept the outcome from the start. "He told me he was going back to war because
he had to save the Ovambindu people from being ruled by the Marxists," Cohen says today. "He made that
decision early on. He even told me that he had enough troops around the country that he could easily win the war,
and he almost did. He went pretty far."
But Hemenway says Savimbi told her that, "Even though there was massive fraud and I was cheated, I will accept."
In fact, the terms of the election called for a runoff if neither presidential candidate achieved more than 50% of the
vote. Savimbi sent his vp Jeremias Chitunda, Western-educated diplomat well-known in Washington & other
capitals, to go to Luanda to arrange the terms for the runoff election.
But on 10.31.92, the capital descended into chaos. Amnesty Intl's 1996 report stated: "Intense fighting broke out in
Luanda. Govt forces attacked UNITA offices & residences. The [Rapid Intervention Police] and ordinary police,
assisted by civilians to whom they had distributed arms in the preceding weeks, carried out house-to-house hunts
for UNITA supporters.
Many hundreds died in the crossfire or were deliberately killed. Hundreds of others were taken into police or military
custody. Prisoners were taken in truckloads to the Camama cemetery on the outskirts of the city where they were
shot and buried in shallow graves. Another mass grave is reported to be at Morro da Luz, a steep ravine in the
Samba area of Luanda where suspected UNITA members were taken to be pushed off."
The most prominent victim of this ethnic cleansing was Chitunda. His official convoy, travelling with a white flag of
peace, was ambushed and forced off the road. Chitunda was pulled from the car and shot in the face. Another
member of the party also was shot in the head; a third, although wounded, got away to tell the tale.
Both the U.S. State Dept & Human Rights Watch have reported that the dos Santos govt consistently has
refused to return Chitunda's body to his family for burial. Hemenway says that this betrayal was the root cause of
Savimbi's subsequent distrust in dealing with Luanda.
Cohen's version is more benign: "I don't know whether Chitunda's death had any impact on Savimbi. I didn't speak
to him after that. From what I heard, they were killed in an automobile accident when their car went off the road. I
didn't hear that they were deliberately murdered, but I don't have firsthand evidence. But anyway, it didn't seem to
change Savimbi's point of view, he wanted to go on with the war."
In 1993, Cohen resigned from the State Dept and registered with the Justice Dept as a foreign agent for the
Luanda regime. Although the Angolan contract has expired, his firm most recently registered as an agent for the
Robert Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe, which has just completed a ruthless election based on the Angolan Leninist
model.
In 1993 the Clinton administration proclaimed sanctions against UNITA "to deal with the unusual &
extraordinary threat to the foreign policy of the U.S. by the actions and policies of the National Union for the Total
Independence of Angola (UNITA)."
The nature of this unusual & extraordinary threat was not specified. Some say that a key player behind the
sanctions was the intl entrepreneur & investment banker Maurice Templesman, whose diamond interests in Angola
had been compromised by Savimbi. … His closest influence may have been on the late Michael LeMoyne
Kennedy, who was operating Citizens Energy in Massachusetts, a non-profit set up by Michael's brother, Joseph
Kennedy II, to get cut-rate fuel oil to the needy. And never mind that Citizens Energy had a for-profit affiliate,
Citizens Energy Intl, where the Kennedy brothers were wheeling & dealing in the oil business.
The Boston Globe reported in 1998 that Michael Kennedy earned more than $622,000 in salary & stock
options in 2 years on the for-profit side. A cornerstone of this for-profit business was an oil concession in the
Cabinda field that Templesman persuaded dos Santos to award to Kennedy, the Globe says.
In turn, Kennedy was the founder of the US-Angolan Chamber of Commerce, that glittering roster of US firms
operating in Angola, and the main advocate of stabilizing the dos Santos regime by forcing the surrender of
Savimbi.
Although UNITA (unlike FLEC) never attacked the oil installations and, in fact, had pledged not to do so, the
goodwill of the Marxist regime was about to assume greater importance. Until the mid-nineties, Chevron was
operating from the continental shelf off Cabinda; but now it was about to move 40 miles offshore to the deep ocean.
"Reserves have been in proportions far exceeding anything on shore," commented Alexander's Gas & Oil
Connections.
All during this decade of tightening relationships between Chevron and the Angolan regime, Condoleezza Rice sat
in the catbird seat as developments were placed before the board. Last Sept. President Bush renewed the
sanctions against UNITA, using language identical to Clinton's about "the unusual & extraordinary threat to the
foreign policy of the U.S." posed by Savimbi.
Renewal of sanctions sent a message to dos Santos that he would not be penalized for eliminating the leadership
structure of UNITA. In Oct. 2001, the scorched-earth policy began, dislocating thousands of civilians and destroying
their livelihoods. In February the need to accommodate Savimbi was ended with 7 bullets.
"The problem for us now is to mobilize sufficient funds to keep the safety systems in both lakes working...It is
expensive and our government does not have the funds to maintain it. That is why we count on assistance from our
friends worldwide," he said. U.S. had already given about $500,000, which had been vital for the project, and it
would be difficult to ask it to contribute more, he added. The govt has warned villagers living near the lakes to keep
their distance. "The lakes are calm but remain potentially very dangerous," said Hogbe Nlend, who had returned
from a visit to both lakes. The carbon dioxide gas normally stays in the depths of the lakes but can break out if the
colder upper layer of the water, which acts as a lid, is disturbed, by an earth tremor, for example. Hogbe Nlend said
many villagers were going too close to the lakes to farm and there was a risk that some might eventually begin to
rebuild permanent homes near the shore.
CBC MEETING WITH THE PRIME MINISTER OF ETHIOPIA CONTACT: 202.474.4574
ERITREA - ETHIOPIA: UN to deploy forces to border in Oct. NY U.N. 9.12.00 ANN Deploy
troops to the border between Ethiopia and Eritrea in Oct.
The Corporate Council on Africa is facilitating a forum in Wash.DC for the Tribalism dictator Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia. Meles is
among the most brutal & hated political leader Ethiopia ever had. Read below to determine for yourself some
of Meles's records. Dictators deserve isolation not cuddling. Wining & dining with human rights abusers is not
at all in the long term interest of Africa and any far thinking corporate leader.
Dos Santos shook hands with the president, had a photo-op and a 3 minute speech and went home to enjoy his
victory.
Cameroon Appeals for Funds to Tame Killer Lakes
YAOUNDE Since January, international scientists have been fighting the threat from Cameroon's
killer lakes where sprays of toxic gases have already killed more than 1,800 people in surrounding villages in recent
years. But the project risking running into funding problems by Thursday, and Cameroon's minister for scientific
research, Henri Hogbe Nlend, appealed for international aid to forestall another deadly eruption. Gas from Lake
Monoun in West Province killed 37 people in 1984. Two years later, 1,800 were killed by toxic emissions from Lake
Nyos, some 50 miles north of Bamenda in Northwest Province.
6.21.01 Reuters
Scientists agree that the best way to prevent future disasters is to continuously draw gas from the lakes. Work on a
system of pipes to do that was started on Nyos in January. "The degassing process is well on course," Hogbe
Nlend told Reuters in an interview. However, he said, because of insufficient funds, only one pipe had been
installed rather than the five planned. The project, known as the "Nyos Organ," was expected to cost some $2.8
million. Gas was currently accumulating at 1 million cubic feet per day and only 353,000 cubic feet were being
removed, he said. On the less dangerous lake Monoun, Hogbe Nlend said, 3 pipes would be installed next
year. Until then, an alarm system had been set up near the lake to alert villagers to any serious gas release.
Apart from Lake Kivu on the border between the DRCongo & Rwanda, the 2 Cameroonian lakes are the only
ones known to gather carbon dioxide in the lower strata of their basins.
African NewsWire re Cape
Verde
Embassy to U.S. & Canada
Visafric Eritrean headlines & news sources
Asmarino online Eritrean community
Eritrea: CNN &
BBC
4-5pm EF 100 Capitol Meet H.E Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister Ethiopia
Ethiopia, Eritrea Want Accord
NEW YORK U.S. is backing a 4,200-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission to monitor the cease-fire but has
said the troops could not be a substitute for a comprehensive peace agreement. Albright, Zenawi and Afwerki were
in New York attending the U.N. Millennium Summit. Both Zenawi and Afwerki thank the United Nations for its help
in ending their 2 year border war. Ethiopia was also supposed to address the Millennium Summit but skipped the
speech. No official explanation was given, but an official at Ethiopia's mission said Zenawi had ''other
engagements.''
9.8.00 APWeb
Zenawi, however, did meet with SecGeneral Annan on Friday and told him Ethiopia wanted a peacekeeping force
to be quickly deployed along the contested border. Afwerki made a similar request in his separate meeting with
Annan. Statements issued by Annan's spokesman after the meetings said both leaders reported that the cease-fire
signed in June was holding and both called for a swift deployment of peacekeepers.
UN plans to dispatch 23 military observers each to the capitals of both countries next week in line with a Security
Council resolution authorizing the deployment of up to 100 military observers, according to the statements.
In a speech to the General Assembly Friday, Afwerki expressed gratitude for the UN and all those organizations
and states which helped end the war with Ethiopia, which killed tens of thousands on both sides. "It is gratifying to
note that because of the efforts exerted ... the conflict has halted,'' Afwerki told the summit.
Storming the Hill for aid
Lobbyists for Ethiopia, Eritrea face long odds as they ask U.S. lawmakers for help
9.4.00 Tatiana Boncompagni
Meles Says
U.S must assist Africa
Unless U.S. helps African & Asian countries, their suffering could result in waves of contagious diseases,
terrorism and organized crime serious enough to threaten Americas national security, Premier Meles has said. In
his speech at Harvard University Meles emphasized the effectiveness of US assistance by pointing out as evidence
the transformation of Taiwan & South Korea after WWII.
9.8.00 Addis Tribune
9.6.00 Chas. A. Radin Boston Globe
Misrak Assefa, who attended the speech as a representative of the Boston-area Ethiopian Community Mutual
Assistance Association, told Meles that his policy of dividing Ethiopia along ethnic lines ''has caused the country to
go backward rather than forward … and kept us from focusing on economic development.'' Several other
participants also harshly criticized the policy. Meles rejected the criticisms flatly, and said he has no interest in
changing the policy, which creates local government units along ethnic and linguistic lines.
Patriotic Ethiopians demonstrated
in Wash.DC against dictator Meles Zenawi Sunday 9.10.00
Today, a demonstration was held again in front of the TPLF ambassador's residence on Wyoming St in Wash.DC.
The demonstration started at noon. Meles Zenawi returned to the residence around 3pm and the foreign
minister, Seyoum Mesfin, came at 6:45pm. We greeted both with these chants: Murderer! Fascist! Dictator! We
also voiced these messages: Free Dr Taye! Free Fitawrari Mekonnen! Free All Political Prisoners in Ethiopia! We
Demand Respect for Human Rights in Ethiopia! We Reject Your Ethnic Apartheid Politics!
The TPLF-run Selam Radio in Washington DC today announced an invitation by Meles Zenawi to all opposition
organizations based in Wash.DC for a discussion. The invitation asked each organization to send 2 representatives
to the new embassy on Sept. 15 Friday for the meeting. If Meles Zenawi is sincere, why not talk to the opposition
parties inside the country who have been calling on his regime for discussion and national reconciliation.
AAPO All Amhara People Organization
soc.culture.guinea-conakry
|
Thatcher's son charged over coup plot
8.26.04 China Daily
Victor Bouts
¹
²
³
Simon Mann
Son of former British PM Margaret Thatcher, an ex-race car driver whose business career has been dogged by
accusations of questionable arms deals & shady ventures, was charged Wednesday with helping finance a
foiled coup plot in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea. Thatcher, 51, was arrested at his Cape Town home and taken before
Wynberg Magistrate's Court to be charged with violating the country's Foreign Military Assistance Act.
Magistrate Awie Kotze placed Thatcher under house arrest and gave him until 9.8.04 to post bail of US$300,000.
Thatcher, who nervously tapped a pen in his palm during the proceeding, smiled and said, "Thank you," before he
was led away to be driven home. Outside court, Thatcher's lawyers said he was arrested on suspicion of providing
financing for a helicopter linked to the coup plot.
Police raided Thatcher's home in the upscale suburb of Constantia shortly after 7 a.m. and investigators searched
his records & computers. Hours later, he was driven away in a police vehicle. But his court appearance was
delayed when he was robbed of his shoes, jacket and cell phone in a crowded holding cell, according to a
court official who witnessed the attack. Police recovered the items.
Equatorial Guinea's justice minister, Ruben Mangue, sidestepped questions about seeking Thatcher's extradition.
"Let's first give an opportunity to the South African authorities and the South African legal system to handle the
situation," he told BBC radio.
Thatcher studied accounting but then pursued an undistinguished career in motor racing. In January 1982, he was
lost for 6 days during an auto rally across the Sahara Desert, causing his mother to weep in public for the first time.
He started his own company and moved to Texas in April 1984 after a lengthy controversy over reports that he
represented a British construction firm that won a US$600 million contract in Oman while Mrs. Thatcher was there
on a trade-boosting trip in 1981.
Thatcher moved to South Africa two years ago after business troubles in the United States. While living in Dallas,
he settled a civil racketeering lawsuit for an undisclosed sum. He also faced charges from Internal Revenue
Service over his role with a Dallas-based home security company that went bankrupt. |
Thais detain alleged `Merchant of Death' 3.6.08 Michael Casey, L.Neumeister, L.Jakes Jordan, A.Ahuja, G.Peck, D.Birch, P.Leonard AP
BANGKOK, Thailand - A Russian dubbed the "Merchant of Death" for allegedly supplying weapons to Africa's bloody conflicts over power and diamonds was arrested Thursday in Thailand on suspicion of conspiring to smuggle guns to Colombia's leftist rebels. Viktor Bout, 41,
¹
²
³
was arrested at U.S. request in his hotel room in Bangkok, said police Lt. Gen. Pongpat Chayapan.
Bout had eluded arrest for years and was finally seized after a four-month sting organized by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. In New York, federal authorities unsealed a criminal complaint charging that Bout conspired to sell millions of dollars worth of weapons, including 100 surface-to-air missiles and armor-piercing rockets, that he thought were going to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
Bout, who has never before been prosecuted for arms selling despite investigations in several countries, has always denied being involved in illicit deals. The paunchy businessman was shown briefly by Thai police to reporters; he stared blankly and made no comment.
In New York, U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia would not say how much the weapons involved in the alleged deal were worth but said the cost of transporting them alone was set at $5 million. He said the weapons were to be parachuted to FARC fighters in Colombian territory.
Bout's best-documented activities have been in Central and West Africa, where he has been accused of funneling weapons into various civil wars since the early 1990s. In 2000, Peter Hain, then Britain's Cabinet minister for African affairs, called Bout "the chief sanctions-buster" flouting U.N. arms embargoes on the warring parties in Angola and Sierra Leone, dubbing the Russian "a merchant of death."
The book, "Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes, and the Man Who Makes War Possible," also says a plane in Bout's fleet made several airdrops of weapons to FARC guerrillas between December 1998 and April 1999. It says the flights dropped about 10,000 weapons to the rebels, "enabling them to greatly enhance their military capabilities".
U.N. reports say Bout set up a network of more than 50 aircraft around the world, owned by shadowy companies with names such as Bukavu Aviation Transport, Business Air Services and Great Lakes Business. Bout's list of alleged customers in Africa includes former dictator Charles Taylor of Liberia, the Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, the late dictator Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, now known as Congo, and both sides of the civil war in Angola. In October 2006, President Bush issued an executive order freezing the assets of Bout and several associates and warlords in Congo and barring Americans from doing business with them. They were accused of violating international laws involving targeting of children or violating a ban on sales of military equipment to Congo. |
Bout is believed to have served in an air transport unit of the Russian military until about 1991. He built his business on the huge drawdown of weapons and aircraft in the former Soviet bloc of eastern Europe as the Cold War waned.
A 2005 report by Amnesty International, a London-based human rights group, alleged Bout was "the most prominent foreign businessman" involved in trafficking arms to U.N.-embargoed countries. It implicated Bout in transferring "very large quantities of arms" from Ukraine that were delivered to Uganda via Tanzania aboard a Greek-registered cargo ship.
Bout's businesses included many legitimate operations as well, according to a report by the Washington-based
Center for Public Integrity's International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
"Bout's companies shipped vegetables and crayfish from South Africa to Europe, transported United Nations peacekeepers from Pakistan to East Timor, and reportedly assisted the logistics of Operation Restore Hope, the U.S.-led military famine relief effort in Somalia in 1993," said the center's 2002 report.
Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Moscow-based Center for Strategies and Technologies, described Bout as a rich "adventurist, one of these guys who emerged at the start of the 1990s and started pumping weapons from the former Soviet Union into Africa."
9/28/00 "Rounded Up in Camps & Roasted Ghanaians in Libya Massacred"
R.Archer
Accra Ghanaian
Chronicle
Govt official sources are refusing to give exact figures but Chronicle has
learnt scores of Ghanaians have been roasted and others beaten to death by
marauding bands of Libyans in Tripoli, ironically a country whose leader is
perceived as a friend of Ghana and closest ally of President Rawlings. No clear
reason has been fathomed but there has been consistent reports that an
increasing crime wave in the country has caused Libyans to look at black
Africans in general and Ghanaians in particular as criminal elements because on
some occasions, Ghanaian passports have been found at crime scenes.
colonial view of future
Chocolate … comes from a world of misery. Beatings, slavery and terror …
contribute to
the production of chocolate, activists say. More than 90% of cocoa from Ivory Coast,
world's biggest producer of cocoa, procured with the help of child labor,
according
to Slavery documentary broadcast on Britain's Channel 4 last year. Today, senior
delegation from
W. African nation arrived in London to address the allegations. The Ivorians say the use
of child
labor is linked to the low price of cocoa, and their prime minister said cocoa would
have to rise
almost 10 times in price for the slavery problem to disappear.
The Low-Price Connection
Cocoa prices are at 10 year low, caused by deregulation of market &
overproduction. That
has led to slavery. Traditionally, Ivory Coast farmers used young men & boys from
Mali as
laborers, contracting them for farming season and paying them after the crop is sold. But
other
farmers, unable to turn a profit in recent years, have refused to pay their laborers, and
instead kept
them working without pay through beatings, intimidation and threats of magical spells,
say activists
like UK's Fairtrade Foundation. Other young men have been lured to the plantations with
false
promises of well-paid work, only to wind up being bought & sold in open markets,
according
to Slavery. Ivory Coast's PM Pascal Affi N'Guessan blamed multinationals for child
trafficking
in Africa. He says they encouraged more & more developing countries to grow
cocoa, forcing
down the price.
But chocolate trade groups, like London-based Biscuit, Cake, Chocolate &
Confectionary
Alliance, as well as the Ivorian govt, say reports of slavery in the cocoa trade are
exaggerated
& not representative of conditions on most plantations. The Ivorians also say they
have
signed an accord with Mali to tackle the issue. Nevertheless, Ivorian Ag. Minister
Alphonse Douati
told Reuters today low prices could not be used as an excuse for the mistreatment of
children in
plantations. "In my opinion, if the price was better, all producers would be encouraged to
use legal
work methods. Those who do use children are often immigrants who were themselves
laborers in
plantations," he said.
From the Flesh of Babes
The issue of child slavery in Africa was thrust into the spotlight last month when reports
emerged
of a ship traveling along the West African coast carrying up to 250 children bound for
slavery.
Although the ship was eventually found to be carrying only about a dozen suspected
child slaves,
the incident revived fears of a thriving modern slave trade. Those fears first came to light
last Sept.
with broadcast of Slavery about 18 young men & boys enslaved on Ivory Coast
cocoa
plantation. The filmmakers said they got their story when one of the boys managed to
escape and
notified a countryman. When the filmmakers asked the former slave, known as Victor, if
he had
ever tasted chocolate, he said "no." They then asked him what he would say to the
millions of
Britons who ate chocolate daily. He answered: "If I had to say something to them it
would not be
nice words. They buy something I suffer to make. They are eating my flesh.
Yamoussoukro Nearly 300km into Ivory Coast's interior lies a lost city,
known only
to the natives & privileged few. Built by a mighty ruler as a monument to his own
power
& glory, the city of Yamoussoukro still amazes travellers in this antique land. There
stand vast
deserted public buildings, empty highways, echoing temples and vacant hostelries,
gleaming by
night among the encroaching bush. The few thousand people who live there squat like
intruders
among the relics of somebody else's civilisation. Many are foreigners, cattle and goat
herders from
Mali and Burkina Faso, who drive their beasts to market down ancient trade routes from
the north.
Their makeshift corrals stand near a man-made lake that still swarms with sacred
crocodiles.
Yamoussoukro is a strange, almost eerie place, not least because it is still the official
capital of the
Ivory Coast, and most of it was built in the past 20 years.
Yamoussoukro has never supplanted Abidjan as the real heart of Ivoirien political and
economic
life. Guide books reckon fewer than 100,000 people live in the sprawling town, most
dependent on
government subsidies. Now that power has finally passed from Houphouët-Boigny's
Baoulé tribe,
the subsidies, and the city's long-term survival, are no longer guaranteed. Before it was
partly
cleared for cultivation, this was the heart of the west African coastal forest. On the edge
of town
the thick bush is already leaning over the motorways.
How much it cost remains obscure. The late president claimed to have financed the
entire project
from his own wealth. Though he was a successful planter of cocoa. the Ivory Coast's
main crop,
cynics say the basilica still represents a whole heap of chocolate bars. In the event, the
project
provoked division, not unity. Angered by the extravagance at a time of falling cocoa
& coffee
prices, many Ivoiriens began pushing for an end to Houphouët-Boigny's one-party rule.
While he
was able to win subsequent rigged elections in 1990, an increasingly fractious opposition
bedevilled him until his death seven years ago. His weak successor, Henri Konan Bédié,
had to
ban rival candidate Alassane Ouattara and others from running to win in 1995. Ouattara
was
disbarred because, like many northerners, he has family ties across the border and had
used a
Burkina Faso passport while working for the United Nations.
He was again banned from presidential polls won three weeks ago by minority candidate
Laurent
Gbagbo, after a short-lived military dictator, General Robert Gueï, tried and failed to rig
the poll in
his own favour. An estimated 171 Ivoiriens were killed in post-election clashes in
normally peaceful
Abidjan, first between soldiers and mass protesters, then between rival supporters of
Ouattara and
Gbagbo. With ethnic and religious tensions now running high, the peace that
Houphouët-Boigny
prided himself on seems seriously threatened for the first time in the young nation's
history.
On a low hill to the north of the town, at an estimated cost of $US150 million ($284
million), the
founding father built what is still claimed to be the tallest Catholic basilica in the world.
Modelled on
St Peter's in Rome, the domed Basilica of Our Lady of Peace looms 158 metres over the
adjacent
coconut groves. According to guide books, it took 1,500 workers three years to build.
The dome is
100 metres in diameter and weighs nearly 100,000 tonnes. With the giant portico and
colonnade,
the central basilica swallowed a year's production of French white concrete. The pews,
which seat
7,000, are individually air-conditioned. They are made from kotibe, a local hardwood that
was sent
to Italy to be shaped. The altar stands under a giant gilt canopy whose columns conceal
14
massive loudspeakers. Over it hangs a two-metre-tall cross made from 50 kilograms of
gold.
Surrounding the basilica are 36 stained glass windows more than 30 metres high, a
greater area
of glass than in France's Chartres Cathedral.
In the tradition of the medieval cathedral builders, the makers of Our Lady of Peace
immortalised
themselves in a stained glass window, with the Lebanese architect Pierre Fakhoury,
European
building contractors and others portrayed as apostles bearing Christ through a garden.
Houphouët-Boigny has, of course, the place of honour. When it was completed in 1990,
the Pope
flew in for the consecration. He travelled more than a kilometre to the basilica from the
main gate,
along a piazza paved in marble from Portugal, Italy and Spain. Few tourists pass this
way now.
Mass is said once a week. Most local people go to the cathedral in town.
Smith Hempstone,
Bush ambassador to Kenya & former journalist, "was very good with the press.
We could call him at home, any time. He was great with a quote. One of the
Kenyan ministers accused Hempstone of meddling in Kenya's affairs and
overstepping the lines of an ambassador. Hempstone was called by a reporter at
night and asked for a reaction to this. And Hempstone says, 'Well, you tell the minister
that if he
doesn't stop telling lies about me, I'm going to start telling the truth about him.' "
When I was growing up in the Slopes of Mount Kenya where I was born, this tribe had
very few members from the
Slopes and they operated only in the city. They were known by name and had certain
peculiar habits other skirt-
wearers never did. One of them was to eat the African sausage, which was supposed to
be for men only. The
African sausage is something made from the intestines of a cow or a goat and is filled with
blood and some meat
then roasted. When I was growing up in the Slopes of Mount Kenya, it was called Mu-ten
or the ten-cent piece. It
was called so because a piece cost ten cents. The ten-cent piece was the size of the
width of the blade of the
butcher's knife. When a real man ate a piece or two of Mu-ten, he escorted it with a mug
of soup in a cup called
Mu-South, a sizeable tin cup. It was called so because it was imported from South Africa.
It was so sizeable that
when you drank from it, it covered most of the face.
One of the members of this second tribe who operated a Mu-ten joint then was called
Wanjiru Ki-Nylon. I have
whispered something about her before and if you have forgotten, she was called Ki-Nylon
because when finally
retired from her profession, she was the owner of only one dress made of nylon material.
Nylon was also called
wash-and-wear because it needed only a few minutes to dry. Wanjiru used to wash her
only nylon dress at night
and wear it in the morning. Her trademark thus was that dress that had red dots. When
she retired and came back
to the village, she was "kept", as they said, by a man from Kavirondo. In the language of
the Slopes, to be "kept"
meant a woman living with a man to whom she was not married, or rather, whose clan had
not delivered goats and
beehives full of bees to the elders of her clan.
A person from Kavirondo was anyone who came from anywhere near Lake Victoria. This
particular Kavirondo was
a man who had been trained at the Kiganjo Police College in the science of arresting
criminals. He had been
posted to the Slopes. It was in those days when the men who were trained in Kiganjo
could shoot so straight that
when they pursued a most wanted criminal, they just crippled their kneecaps. In those
days, the most wanted
criminals were not armed like a whole army. All they owned was a homemade club when
they went about the
business of reaping where they had not sowed. In those days, the word chokora was not
known. Children
were supposed to know their fathers and their fathers knew them. A man was not allowed
to sow wild
seeds all over and flee. Even Wanjiru Ki-Nylon could not allow herself to get a child with a
father who would be
absent as soon as the mother's belly started getting big.
Lately, the members of the two tribes have become so many that I won't be surprised at
the chokora supporting
their own candidate as a councillor come the next election. They could go ahead and
ensure he actually becomes
the mayor of the city of many thieves. I also won't be surprised if the women who wear
shrunk foolscaps decide to
support their candidate for the mayorship. That will indeed happen one day and so we
shall have a mayor who
retires to his chamber to sniff glue after deliberations on what to do with garbage in the
city. That should not
shock anyone in this country where maize roasters are translated into councillors who
then become "his worship
the mayor". It should not shock anyone in this country where former and very junior men in
blue have ended up in
the honourable house and then become whole ministers with flags on their cars. It will not
shock me to have a glue-
sniffing character for a mayor since I have a feeling that some Members of Parliament
sniff and smoke illegal things
of senior proportions.
That is the only way I can explain why they take warrior tactics to Parliament and are
given to saying some things
that are not very honourable in that honourable house. I did not mean to talk about the
chokora and the commercial
sex worker becoming mayors. I mean to ask what happens when the small chokora grows
beards. I also mean to
ask what happens when the commercial sex worker gets old and her voice is hoarse from
telling total strangers,
"Hi-I am-Ivy-I love you darling-and-I-drink-Tusker-baridi" much too often. I guess you will
tell me that the chokora
don't die when they reach the age of getting beards. A fellow who has fed on half-baked
sweet potato
peels, meat of unknown animals that even the vultures have refused to eat and chips
mixed with water from
the mopping pail all his life - and survived - cannot die just because he has become of age
when a man gets a
beard.
When a chokora reaches that age, he does not become a priest or go into farming since
he was born and brought
up on the cold cement floors in the city and has no idea whether maize is born or
harvested. Those who know will,
of course, say that when the chokora grows a beard, he now has the licence to do all what
he has wished to do all
his life. If the man who lives in State House and who had invited the chokora for lunch one
day is reading, let me
tell him to take a walk in the night and without escort in the city and he will learn what
senior chokora have wished
to do all their lives. Let him take the walk at nine. Let him look as if he has just come from
selling a big herd of
goats at Mogotio market and got senior money. Suddenly, someone jumps onto his back
like a lion onto a buffalo.
A pair of hands go for his throat and immediately cut off air supply to his voice box.In the
meantime, other hands
are working on his shoes and others through his pockets at lightning speed. In a minute,
the man who was born
and brought up in Sacho is on the floor, almost knocking on the door of heaven. Or hell.
He revives after three
minutes with his throat feeling as if it has swallowed a stone. For the next one week, he is
not able to talk. He also
realises that quite a number of people walk without trousers at night and it is not out of
their will. He concludes this
because, on reviving, he discovers he does not have trousers - the senior chokora has
taken them.
The man who occupies the main seat in the country also finds out why many people in
Nairobi speak in whispers
as if they are suffering from a cold. He will discover that they speak so after an encounter
with a senior chokora
trying to practice what he has wished to do all his life. The boss of this country might then
declare the chokora a
national disaster and start a fund to buy a farm for them somewhere where they can be
taught that maize is
harvested and not born. I would also be glad if the man who was born and brought up in
Sacho could find out why
people drive with the windows of their cars closed even when the heat inside makes it feel
like an oven. There
is only one way he could find out: by driving an ordinary car alone in the city. Let him put
on a smile and
he will discover how those kinds of smiles are wiped from people's faces in an instant. He
comes face to face with
something in the hand of a chokora who is aspiring for greater things in life, like improving
his tactics in the art of
ngeta. The thing in the hand of the chokora is what has gone through the digestive system
of another person. It has
many names but for now, let us call it "the product of the digestive system". The chokora
is holding it like a rugby
ball and his hand is held high in a manner likely to suggest that he does not need any
persuasion to land it on the
smiling face of the driver. The other hand is outstretched and the driver is supposed to get
the obvious
idea that the young fellow is saying, "Your money or I colour you face with the products of
the digestive system."
The young fellow might make another hint and say, "Mdosi chota ama nifyatue."
It is obviously not good manners to drive in town with the products of the digestive system
of a person you don't
even know all over your face, so when that happens to the man born and brought up in
Sacho, he wakes up one
day and decides that those boys (or men) need far more than one lunch at State House
once every five years. For
now, I think he imagines they retire to become bishops and the commercial sex workers
nuns. If the man who was
born and brought up in Sacho thinks otherwise, let him tell me through
wis@mitsuminet.com .
|
Liberia tries to forget homemade film 6.14.01 Tim Sullivan AP
MONROVIA, Liberia The production quality is terrible - a tangle of distorted
voices, jerky angles,
blurry images. But every once in a while a few words punch through the garble, and the
video's sickening reality
becomes clear. "I will talk,'' pleads panic-stricken Liberian President Samuel K. Doe, half-
naked and tied up on the
floor of a nondescript office. "I will tell you something ... Please, please let me go. I beg
you.'' His captor, a militia
leader named Prince Johnson, stares back drunkenly from behind a large desk, guarded
by a dozen soldiers. The
militia leader turns away from the just-ousted president, a barely literate man whose
repressive regime savaged
this West African country through the 1980s. A framed painting of Jesus watches over the
scene. Johnson looks
bored. He waves his hand: "I say cut off one ear.'' |
The Liberian horror film we didn't miss 4.23.00 Tom Kamara Smyrna, Georgia
… British Channel 4 television team, currently in detention for alleged spying …
Catholic Justice & Peace Commission
¹
²
Rights Advocate Fears for His Life The director of a prominent rights advocacy group in Liberia, James Verdier, says he has received threats from "prominent individuals", the Panafrican News Agency (PANA) reported on Thursday. Verdier, who heads the Justice and Peace Commission (JPC), fears that he will be attacked, flogged and detained, PANA reported. His car has already been attacked once, the agency said. It also said the JPC's previous director, Samuel Woods, had left Liberia after receiving similar threats. The threats stem from the fact that the JPC's latest country report on Liberia was critical of the government's human rights record, Verdier told PANA. Amnesty International recently reported that repression had escalated since July 2000 when insurgents attacked the northern county of Lofa, and following a December 2000 UN report on Liberian military support to rebels in Sierra Leone. |
Through much of the 1990s, while Liberia was being devastated by one of the most
vicious civil wars in West
African history - a seven-year nightmare that killed 150,000 people and destroyed nearly
every city and town - the
video was a hit. In a country increasingly callous to violence, the movie celebrated a
dictator's downfall with a
surreal blend of documentary and horror. Liberians crowded into Monrovia's tiny,
generator-powered theaters to
watch it. Johnson distributed hundreds of copies. The movie circulated quickly throughout
West Africa. "People
would come in and ask for it all the time,'' said Tony Hane, who works in a Monrovia video
shop. "That movie gave
a very bad name to the country.''
But things have changed in Liberia. The civil war ended five years ago with one final
spasm as feuding warlords
fought for supremacy. In 1997, the most powerful of those warlords, Charles Taylor, was
elected president. If
Liberia is trying to escape its past, however, it's not getting far. "The country remains
divided,'' said James Verdier
Jr., director of the Justice and Peace Commission, Liberia's foremost rights group.
"National reconciliation is a
farce.'' Years after the war's end, members of Taylor's old militia dominate the
government. The security forces, a
thuggish collection of ex-fighters, harass ordinary civilians for money and frighten
government critics into
silence.
Diplomats say Taylor and his inner circle have grown rich while the country remains mired
in 80%
unemployment and widespread poverty. Few Liberians have seen a working electrical
outlet or water faucet for 11
years. For more than a year, the country has faced a rebellion along its border with
Guinea. Paranoia runs high;
officials warn of infiltrators and Taylor doesn't move without an army of soldiers around
him. A billboard, not far
from Taylor's mansion, urges "Total Reconciliation by 2024.'' Twenty-three years sounds
likely to Verdier, who
wonders if watching the movie could help Liberia. "Let people see what happened,'' he
said. "They don't want to
admit the atrocities they committed.''
Ask quietly in the right places and the tape can still be bought. But these days, it's seldom
Liberians doing the
purchasing. "Most of them are foreigners - Lebanese, Americans. One guy came from
Europe,'' said a video store
clerk who occasionally sells the tape and asked his name not be used. "They just want to
see how he acts before
he dies.'' That raises the obvious question. Why would anyone want to watch it? Why
would a nation bathed in
violence - yet still famed for its friendliness - revel in such a film? It doesn't take war to
breed such a hit. In 1980s
America, a once-obscure video, "Faces of Death,'' became a brief sensation among teen-
agers, and suburban TVs
filled with images of human autopsies, suicides and slaughterhouses. Americans worried
over its popularity, its
meaning. Few found acceptable answers.
Likewise, Liberians can't explain the hold the Doe movie had on their nation. "Liberians
are very good people.
They're kind. They're intelligent,'' said Hane. "How can people who are so friendly be so
bloody? I don't know.''
|
8.21.00 US Policy Toward Nigeria: An Agenda for Justice last ones out the door: sons of Nigeria's late military dictator Sani Abacha State Dept vs Randall Robinson & State of Maryland 4.6.98 The Nation "Guerrilla Journalism in Nigeria" Media Matters series 5.18.98 Sunday Dare The Nation n/avail@Nation site "Divide and Confuse" Selling Nigeria to American Blacks 5.20.96 Ron Nixon The Nation n/avail@Nation site "The National Newspaper Publishers Assoc. trade organization of black newspapers is promoting Nigeria; understandable, perhaps, given Africa's chronic under-representation in the U.S. press. But behind NNPA.'s slick "advertorial" & media campaign is brutal & repressive Nigerian govt aided by army of U.S. public relations firms, lobbyists, front groups" Index on Censorship |
Space plan aimed at satellites, mining
8.1.01 Reuters
LAGOS President Olusegun Obasanjo has said Nigeria's new space agency, dismissed by critics as
a joke, does not aim to land a Nigerian on the moon but to develop its own satellite technology and identify areas
for mining. Nigeria plans to use advances in remote sensing, weather forecasting and satellite communications "for
the exploration and exploitation of our mineral resources, and the development of information &
communication technologies," the semi-official Daily Times quoted Obasanjo as saying. |
British national Alan Ferguson was overseeing Baker Hughes' division operations in Nigeria, filed the lawsuit last
Monday. He said he lost his job 5 months after refusing to give a share of the company's contract revenues to the
Nigerian official. According to Ferguson's lawsuit, Houston-based Baker Hughes was bidding on an oil & gas
project with the Shell Petroleum Development Co. of Nigeria in 1999. Ferguson & another Baker Hughes
manager in Nigeria were allegedly informed by a manager of Western Geophysical, company now owned by Baker
Hughes, that his company had an inside contact at Shell Nigeria who agreed to give Baker Hughes a 2-year
contract to drill the wells if he received a percentage of the gross revenue.
Ferguson complained to the company's human resources dept about the bribes. He was then transferred to
another project in the U.S., according to Ferguson's atty. 5 months later in Oct. 2001, he was laid off. Baker
Hughes said before the lawsuit was filed, it had begun an investigation of its operations in Nigeria. The probe is still
ongoing. "Baker Hughes is committed to integrity in all its activities and will not tolerate improper payments or other
improprieties by any employee or in any of its business dealings," the company said. The lawsuit, filed in state
district court in Houston, comes 6 months after Baker Hughes settled with the SEC in connection with allegations it
bribed a Indonesia govt official to cut the company's tax liability from $3.2 million to $270,000. The company settled
the complaint without admitting or denying the charges.
2.5.02 CNN Thousands of Hausa tribe members, mostly Muslims from the north of Nigeria, left Lagos in terror carrying their few possessions on their shoulders and backs after clashes with Yoruba tribesmen, who are mainly from the more Christian and animist southwest. CNN's Jeff Koinange said he was in "the middle of hell," as he witnessed dead bodies along the roadside, 4 of whom were on fire and smouldering.
For the city of Lagos, Africa's biggest with more than 10 million people, the fighting came on top of an ammunition
dump fire which caused 1,000 deaths, most in a stampede into a nearby canal. Red Cross workers told Reuters
they believed at least 60 had died in Mushin with more than 200 were treated for injuries. Scores of people were
slashed with machetes or shot. Police, reinforced by the army, fought gun battles on the streets with members of
the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), an ethnic Yoruba militia blamed for the violence.
The sight of soldiers on the streets has become routine in Nigeria after ethnic disturbances which have killed
thousands since President Oluesgun Obasanjo took office in 1999. Tension in Lagos has been fuelled by anger
among soldiers over their treatment after the January 27 ammunition dump blast, which flattened most of the Ikeja
barracks and left thousands homeless. Despite a purge of many top northern officers since the Yoruba former
military ruler Obasanjo became president, Hausa northerners remain a very strong component of armed forces
they traditionally dominated. The city has been tense since the tragedy. Many others said the fighting began with a neighbourhood squabble after someone allegedly defecated in front of another person's home. The fighting resumed on Monday when some witnesses said Odudua members burnt homes believed to be owned by Hausas, shot at residents and threw homemade petrol bombs. |
2.2.02 Reuters
A police spokesman in the capital Abuja said coordination of the action had been broken by the arrest of four
ringleaders at the central town of Makurdi, from where they had been distributing tracts urging their colleagues to
mutiny. The police action came as Nigeria struggled with its worst cycle of violence in 30 years and preparations
begin for 2003 general elections in a country torn by ethnic and political rivalries. Nigeria's first police strike since
independence in 1960 began in southeastern Cross River state on Thursday. Police Affairs Minister Steven Akiga
said in a statement that what started as a minor strike had spread to other regions and that the government
regarded it as a mutiny.
Banks close |
Surveys conducted by the WCS and CIB showed some of the triangle's wildlife, particularly the chimpanzees,
showed little evidence of previous human encounters, which led scientists to believe the area never experienced
human intrusion. Surrounded by swamp forests and two rivers, the area's geographic isolation has kept humans
out. Chimpanzees in the triangle showed curiosity rather than fear toward researchers and did not flee when
approached, unlike chimpanzees familiar with humans, particularly hunters, said Paul Elkan, WCS conservationist.
"The most important aspect is that there was no sign of human activity. You feel like you're violating the place, you
just don't belong," Elkan said. The privately held CIB leased the land from the Congolese government, which
depends heavily on forest resources for economic development.
But Henri Djombo, the nation's minister of forestry economy, said an investment in conservation was not
necessarily a loss. "In fact, it is an investment in the future which can include eco-tourism, scientific work and
possibilities of game hunting. A sacrifice today is a clear investment in the future," said Djombo. Stoll said logging in
the triangle could potentially have been worth $40 million to CIB. Although the company is not getting anything in
exchange for giving up its harvesting rights, he said there was plenty of other land in the African nation available for
logging.
9/22/00 "Uganda's Museveni in Rwanda" Who won 10/28
soccer match?
Keith Richburg, author Out Of
America
"There was this mass denial. After the French troops came in and
kind of calmed the
situation about three months after it erupted. I was able to go into other parts of Rwanda.
There was one area
where there was a church service going on. The congregation members, all Hutu because
the Tutsi had all been
killed in that town, were still going to the same church, they hadn't been evacuated in the
southwest zone. The
bodies had been buried in mass graves right beside or underneath the church. The stench
would come up through
the church, and you could smell death. You would ask people in the town, `What
happened to all the Tutsi? This
town used to be about half Tutsi, half Hutu. Where are the Tutsi?' Holding a handkerchief
to their nose to keep
away the stench of death, they would just say, `Oh, there were never any Tutsi in this
town.'
I got all kinds of explanations from Hutu. A million Hutu walked out of the country, moved
into refugee camps in
Tanzania and Rwanda, so that gave us a great opportunity to try to find some of these
killers and talk to them,
figure out what went on. I got a lot of defensiveness. I was quite nervous because a lot of
them were very jittery.
They still had their machetes, even in the refugee camps. A lot of them still had the blood
of their victims on their
shirts. And they would say, well, it wasn't their fault. The Tutsi attacked first. They were
defending themselves.
Some of them said they were defending their president. The president was a Hutu, very
popular, especially among
these young militias. He formed these militias, that carried out these attacks with the
backing of the Rwandan army.
Some of these kids had the picture of the president emblazoned on their T-shirts, and they
would say, `What we did
was defending our president who was assassinated by the Tutsi."
Sao Tome & Principe has a population of about 140,000 and is one of the world's poorest countries,
according to UN. But the recent discovery of oil has brought hopes of quick economic advancement to Africa's
smallest country. U.S. has made diplomatic overtures toward Sao Tome & Principe, hoping it and other
countries bordering the Gulf of Guinea can provide a more stable source of oil than the Persian Gulf.
Major oil companies had bid on contracts to develop the oil fields. Winners of the contracts had not yet been
announced, but the bidders reportedly included Exxon Mobil, Norway's PGS and a Nigerian company called
Chrome Oil. Chevron Texaco was also believed to be interested.
Sporadic gunshots were heard throughout the morning in the capital, Sao Tome, though it was not clear whether
the shots were from fighting or were fired into the air as a warning. No injuries were reported. The gunfire faded by
late morning and the capital's 2 main markets opened for business but the streets were mostly empty. Public
buildings and most shops remained closed. The radio played mostly music. State TV was not broadcasting.
Executive power in Sao Tome lies with the prime minister and Parliament. The head of state has veto power over
laws and can dissolve Parliament & dismiss the govt. Sao Tome's Foreign Minister Fernando Meira Rita said
he had information that the mutineers were army veterans linked to the Christian Democratic Front, a party with no
seats in Parliament.
Army officers rebelled in 1995, forcing the govt to step down and hold new elections. They gave up their attempt to
take power after U.S. and EU threatened to cut off vital aid. The rebellious soldiers took control of the presidential
palace, the parliament building and the airport, the radio report said. They also seized the central bank premises
and the state radio & TV HQ in the capital.
In January, Menezes revoked a decree that called for early elections and the dissolving of Parliament after striking
a deal with lawmakers eager to trim his powers. Offshore development had been planned in conjunction with
Nigeria. International tenders for development of the oil reserves were recently opened, though the results of those
bids are not yet known. They were reported to have drawn interest from major intl oil companies.
African NewsWire re
Senegal
The film centres on the real life incident in which Somali militia succeeded in shooting down two helicopters that
were part of a US-led effort to help secure deliveries of food aid to war-torn Somalia. A rescue operation was
launched by US forces, but 19 Americans soldiers died in the ensuing battle. In Dualeh cinema, young spectators
clapped and cheered every time they saw a white man killed or wounded. The downing of each helicopter was met
with even more enthusiastic applause. "In this fighting, I lost nine of my best friends on one spot," said
movie-goer Warsameh Abdi, a former militiamen fighting against the Americans under the late warlord General
Mohammed Farah Aideed. "It was that very helicopter," he said, pointing at the screen. "It hovered on top of us and
shot us one by one."
Aside from critical reservations about the film, there was also scant regard for US copyright laws in its distribution.
The film was initially purchased on a pirated video cassette from the United Arab Emirates, watched at ten US
cents per ticket in three cinema halls. According to the Dualeh cinema owner, Mr Shukeh, it was then copied again
and redistributed to all of Mogadishu's remaining cinemas. Tickets for the re-copied version went for five cents a
head. Mr Shukeh said each copy cost about 100,000 shillings, or about $5, to make. The only real-life reminder of
the incident in Mogadishu are the last few rusting remains of one of the helicopters, which still lie among the
cactuses. The shell lies next to the house of the Weheliye family, who say they lost 7 members 10.3.93 when the
US troops arrived. The buildings around the Olympic Hotel, where much of the fighting was concentrated, have
been rebuilt but the streets remain as dusty as ever. And Mogadishu residents continue their struggle to move from
decades of conflict to some semblance of peace. Black Hawk Down certainly amused the crowds, but told no one
anything they did not know already.
Rwandan officials said earlier the visit was aimed at bridging gaps between the two countries and charting a
clearer course for the Congo war. Both presidents emerged smiling and joking after meeting in a Kigali hotel and
issued a joint statement reiterating their commitment to the Lusaka peace agreement on Congo signed last
year."It's part of the process of overcoming the problems between us, especially the problems we had in
Kisangani", Rwandan presidential adviser Theogene Rudasingwa told Reuters."We want to try to look ahead and
see how we can continue and improve the alliance we had in the past." Rudasingwa said the visit was a follow-up
to an earlier meeting between the two presidents in Uganda in July. Uganda's state-run New Vision newspaper
reported last week that Museveni and Kagame would play in a football match together at their old school
in Uganda on October 28.
The only reason these two xtreme villains ever meet face to face is to measure where in the back to plant the knife.
Which is why vague little conference notices like this are the most frightening of all: you know they are portents
but only will know what they portend.
Sao Tome
map
govt ¹
²
UN
State Dept
¹
²
African NewsWire
ed. Kenneth Mokoena preface Randall Robinson
7/99 In some
cases, U.S. strategy is more convoluted and Machiavellian. In the Sudan, for example, it has long been evident
that the U.S. wants to keep the rebels sufficiently viable to avoid defeat, but not strong enough to pose a serious
threat of the govt's overthrow. "Peace," an "official" is quoted as saying, does not necessarily suit American
interests … unstable Sudan amounts to a stable Egypt."
Troops revolt in Sao Tome & Principe
Sao Tome Renegade troops said Wednesday they had deposed the govt of this oil-rich West
African island nation and intended to appoint new leaders to rule during a transition period. In a statement
on state Radio Nacional de Sao Tome, the troops said they acted "due to the continuing social and economic
decline of the country.'' It was not known how many troops were involved and the statement did not say how long
the transition period would last.
7.16.03 Manuel Dende AP
The former Portuguese colony off the coast of Gabon has been in turmoil since the recent discovery of offshore oil
in the Gulf of Guinea. The rebelling troops appealed to the intl community not to intervene, saying the people of
Sao Tome could resolve their problems alone. The leaders of the revolt were not named in the statement, which
was read aloud by an unidentified man.
feuding among rival political parties over the oil wealth has caused political instability, stalling plans to explore the
oil reserves.
Soldiers in recent months also have complained about low pay & poor living conditions. The country's armed
forces number about 600. Shots were heard before dawn, and Prime Minister Maria das Neves was arrested by
renegade soldiers at her official residence, Portuguese state radio Radiodifusao Portuguesa reported. Other senior
govt officials, including Oil Minister Rafael Branco, also were detained. President Fradique de Menezes was out of
the country, on a private visit to Nigeria.
Earlier, military training head Maj. Fernando Pereira, participant in the rebellion, read a statement over the radio
ordering govt officials & lawmakers to report to central police headquarters. Health Minister Claudina Cruz,
Justice Minister Justino Veiga and 30 of the 55 members of Parliament surrendered to the mutineers, a police
source said on condition of anonymity.
"We recognize there are social & economic problems but there's no reason for the renegades to go ahead
with this coup attempt because power is won at the ballot box, not through violence,'' Meira Ritta said in Lisbon,
Portugal, where he was on an official visit.
Mozambique's President Joaquim Chissano, current African Union president, urged the mutineers to halt the power
grab. "We condemn this coup and demand that its perpetrators restore constitutional order,'' Chissano said. Das
Neves was the country's first female prime minister. She was appointed in October of last year in a Cabinet
reshuffle by Menezes. Since Menezes began his term in Sept. 2001, he has fired 4 prime ministers and dissolved
Parliament once.
2.3.99 testimony "U.S. Trade
Relations with subSaharan Africa" M.Mansour Seck, Senegal amb. to U.S. at Trade subcomm House
Ways&Means
Leonenet
Sierra Leone: Diamonds and War The Heart of the Matter
Jan2000 study
Partnership AfricaCanada on SL, Diamonds & Human Security stresses diamonds central to SL conflict in
Sierra Leone; no peace sustainable til problems mining & selling diamonds addressed. Detailed set
recommendations. Excerpts archive
Intl Injustice: The Tragedy of Sierra Leone
8.2.00 Kenneth Roth WSJ Europe
McKinney testimony,
Subcomm. Trade in African Diamonds, House Ways & Means Committee 9.13.00
Index on Censorship
Somalis cheer Black Hawk Down
Mogadishu Thousands of Somalis have flocked to cinemas in Mogadishu for the opening night of
Black Hawk Down, the war blockbuster based on the shooting down of 2 U.S. Blackhawk helicopters in Somalia in
1993. Residents of the capital formed long queues outside more than a dozen cinema halls, jostling for the hottest
ticket in town. But they were watching pirated copies of the film and applauded when the helicopters were shot
down. In the Dualeh cinema in the Bulo Hubey neighbourhood, the capacity audience crowded onto the sandy
floor, glued to director Ridley Scott's version of one the most violent episodes in the city's turbulent history.
1.23.02 Hassan Barise BBC
The movie has been widely criticised for glorifying US troops while turning the Somalis themselves into violent two-
dimensional caricatures.The audience certainly gave the film a rapturous reception, but probably not for the
reasons that Mr Scott intended.
Not surprisingly, some were less than impressed with the film's portrayal of the Somali people. "There's not one
single word of the Somali language nor Somali music, almost nothing of our culture in the movie," said Mohamed
Ali Abdi. "This is absurd, but still they copied our sandy streets and rough buildings and the crazy nature of the
Somalis to continue the fighting," he said.
S.Africa &
the U.S. Declassified History
NGO Africa Fund:
7/00 Talisman: Blood & Oil in the Sudan
7/00 Questions & Answers on Slavery in Sudan
6 African Presidents for Museveni's inauguration
Entebbe, Uganda … Libyan leader Moammar Kadhafi was first to arrive Friday at at Entebbe
intl airport, 34km south of Ugandan capital where the swearing ceremony will be held. President Museveni received
him. Presidents Daniel arap Moi of Kenya, Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania and Maj. Pierre Buyoya of Burundi will be
among leaders to witness the event at Entebbe. Being awaited on Saturday are presidents Omar al Bashir of
Sudan and Frederick Chiluba of Zambia. Uganda & Sudan severed diplomatic relations in 1995 amid
mutual accusations of backing each other's respective armed rebel groups. Former Nigerian head of state
Shehu Shagari will stand in for Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo who is currently in the US. Rwandan PM Makuza Bernard
will represent Pres. Kagame. Mozambique is sending a minister while ambassadors will represent Ghana &
Senegal.
5.11.01 Panafrican
News Agency (Dakar)
Museveni begins his second and last five-year mandate at the helm of the E.African nation on Saturday. He had
ruled the country without organising elections for 10 years after seizing power in January 1986 following a gruelling
civil war. In the 12 March presidential poll, Museveni collected 69.3% of the votes while his closest rival Col.
Kiiza Besigye won 27.8%. However, Besigye, who was among five other candidates challenging Museveni in
that poll, lodged a petition in April alleging widespread rigging. A 3 to 2 majority dismissed the petition in the
Supreme Court. The judges said the voting irregularities did not affect the election results substantially. The former
guerrilla leader, who introduced a no-party political system regarded by opposition leaders regard as a disguised
single party regime, has promised to retire in 2006.
Qadafi Reconciles Sudan, Uganda
Kampala, Uganda Sudanese President Hassan al Bashir, whose country formerly had strained
relations with Uganda, was among 5 African leaders who Saturday attended the inauguration of Ugandan President
Museveni following mediation Friday between both countries by Col Moammar Kadhafi. Khartoum & Kampala
decided to resume diplomatic ties immediately following the normalisation of relations, the Ugandan foreign ministry
said in a statement late Friday. It said the relations would initially resume at the level of chargé d'affaires. Kadhafi
Friday seized an opportunity at the extraordinary meeting of the national conference of Uganda to appeal for the
normalisation of relations & communications Kampala & Khartoum. He stressed that the problems
between Sudan & Uganda "are dead leaves blown away by the advent of the African Union", an entity that will
erase borders among African States. Besides Kadhafi and Bashir, Presidents Pierre Buyoya of Burundi, Benjamin
Mkapa of Tanzania, Daniel arap Moi of Kenya attended the inaugural ceremony. Other attendants were S.African
vice president Jacob Zuma, Zambia vp, Rwanda PM & former president of Nigeria, Shehu Shagari.
5.12.01 Panafrican News Agency (Dakar)
"Uganda's Museveni seeks to mend ties with Rwanda"
KIGALI Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni made a one-day visit to the Rwandan capital on
Friday, his first since the two countries battled each other in the Congo in June. Rwanda and Uganda both sent
troops to the DRCongo in August 1998 to support rebels in a war against Congolese President Laurent Kabila.
Differences flared into direct clashes between Rwandan and Ugandan troops in the northern Congolese city of
Kisangani several times over the last year, leaving hundreds of people dead. Diplomats say relations
between the two countries have improved recently and Museveni's visit itself was symbolic of efforts by
both sides to restore their alliance. Rwandan officials said earlier the visit was aimed at bridging gaps between the
2 countries and charting a clearer course for the Congo war.
9.22.00 Todd Pitman Reuters
[ Museveni is only marginally further ahead of a UN Tribunal than Milosevic.Kagame not only killed
his nation's president, who he was negotiating with as rebel leader, by blowing up the plane flying into the peace conference, but
he made sure his neighboring nations' defense ministers would be on the plane to score a two-fer; poor little
Burundi was the only one who took the bait of friends-fly-free.
I predict the loser of the 10/28 soccer match will murder the winner, boys being boys. ]
Congo; Good To Be A Traitor
10.21.98 The Monitor
The making of Idi Amin
preface British govt documents recently declassified under 30yr rule
support Dirty Work 2
"The CIA in Africa" Zed Press 1980 ed. Ellen Ray & Wm Schaap nee Peoples News Service 1979 Pat Hutton
& Jonathan Bloch
2.01 cover story New African
Rise of Idi Amin was engineered by outside interests to stop Pres. Milton Obote's nationalisation drive in which the
state took 60% interest in all foreign & Ugandan-Asian-owned businesses.
Zambia
Kadhafi proposes change of venue for OAU Summit
Tripoli, Libya Libyan leader Col. Moammar Kadhafi proposed the change of venue for forthcoming
annual summit of the OAU to S.Africa instead of Zambian capital, Lusaka. Kadhafi made the proposal Wed.
commending Zambian President Frederick Chiluba for his decision not to seek a third term in office. "The decision
of President Chiluba not to run for a third term proves his sincerity to respect his commitments not only to his own
people, but also to the people of Africa and the world at large", Kadhafi said in Tripoli. By that decision, Kadhafi
said Chiluba would no longer be in a position to complete his term of office as chairman of the Organisation of
African Unity that he was expected to assume at the 37th summit in July in Lusaka. Zambians are due to go to the
polls in Oct. or Nov. to elect Chiluba's successor. …
5.9.01 Panafrican News
Agency (Dakar)
5.3.01 Reuters "The president knows the action of congress is illegal under the law. We have a court order restraining the party. But we also know how desperate he is to cling to power," said Edith Nawakwi, who lost her job as labor minister. Declaring that the fight had just begun, Nawakwi said the dissidents had called for a rally Saturday in Lusaka to protest the president's plan. The ruling party decided Monday by 80% majority to amend the party's constitution to allow the nomination of the president for another 5 year term. Though he has not publicly declared his intention to run, Chiluba submitted a signed nomination form 20 minutes after the party vote results were announced. "I am not after power; I am responding to petitions from the Zambian people. You are dealing with a very sane person and a normal politician," Chiluba told reporters after his speech. |
5.1.01 Reuters pA17 Chiluba swept to power in 1991, toppling Kenneth Kaunda, who had been Zambia's leader since independence in 1964. Chiluba was elected overwhelmingly, partly on the strength of his promise to consolidate democracy and honor the two-term limit. Political analysts have said that while the party vote ensures Chiluba's nomination, amending the national constitution to lift the two-term limit on the presidency could be much harder. At least 62 of the ruling party's representatives in parliament, including 11 cabinet members, have announced their opposition to Chiluba's plan to stay in power. If they do not relent, they will be able to block passage of a constitutional amendment in the 158-seat legislature. |
Ralph McGehee, Deadly Deceits |
CIA says no to hearing on its cooperation record 7.71.01 Reuters WASHINGTON CIA Director George Tenet on Tuesday declined to testify at a hearing on the spy agency's record of cooperation with Congress, saying the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee "urged me not to testify." Tenet was listed as the lead witness for Wednesday's hearing titled: "Does the CIA's Refusal to Cooperate With Congressional Inquiries Threaten Effective Oversight of Federal Operations?" But on Tuesday, the CIA chief sent a letter declining to appear to Rep. Stephen Horn, the California Republican who chairs the House Govt Reform |
"This agency arrogantly appears to believe that it answers only to the (intelligence committees)," he said. "This
subcommittee has oversight responsibility for all departments and agencies in the executive branch, and that
includes the CIA, whether it likes it or not," Horn said. In his letter Tenet said a House rule stipulated that the
intelligence committee had "exclusive" responsibility to review the intelligence community's sources and methods.
Horn set this week's hearing after CIA officials in May canceled at the last minute an appearance at a closed-door
subcommittee hearing on security of the agency's classified computer systems, an aide said.
Tenet in his letter said the CIA had sought to respond to the subcommittee's request for information about the CIA
computer systems and security. "For instance, although we did not answer directly the information systems security
questionnaire you sent me, we did advise you that: computer security has been and is a top Intelligence
Community priority..." the letter said. The subcommittee planned to have an empty chair at the witness table to
mark Tenet's absence on Wednesday. The remaining witnesses for Wednesday's hearing include former CIA Dir.
James Woolsey and former Cong. Lee Hamilton D-IN.
European presence links
9/21/00 Peter Hain Ministerial Conf. on Diamonds
Pretoria
United Nations links
UN Peacekeeping
2.12.01 6th MONUC report
8/29/00 Sunshine Project UN
Drug Control Program UNDCP administers US-funded work in Uzbekistan &
promoting Fusarium
testing in Colombia
9/2/00 "How the UN sold its soul to big business" G.Monbiat R.Mader
The Age
UN's metamorphosis began at 1992 Earth Summit. UN Centre on Transnational
Corporations, which tried to help
weak nations to protect themselves from predatory companies, had recommended that
businesses should be
internationally regulated. UN refused to circulate its suggestions. Instead summit adopted
proposals of Business
Council for Sustainable Development, composed of chief executives of big corporations.
Unsurprisingly, council
had recommended companies
should regulate
themselves. In 1993 UNCTC was dissolved. In June 1997, president of General
Assembly announced that
corporations would be given a formal role in UN decision-making. SecGen Kofi Annan
suggested he would like to
see more opportunities for companies, rather than govts or UN, to set global standards. At
beginning of 1998, UN
Conference on Trade & Development revealed it works with Intl Chamber of
Commerce to help developing
countries "formulate competition & consumer protection law" and to facilitate trade.
UN until a few years
before had sought to defend poor countries from big business, now helping big business
to overcome resistance of
poor countries. ICC repaid favor by asking world's richest nations to give the UN more
money. Annan launched
new agency Jan.99 called Business Humanitarian Forum jointly chaired by UN High
Commissioner for Refugees
& president of Unocal. at the time only major US company still operating in Burma. It
was helping Burmese
govt build massive gas pipeline which construction involved slave labor, torture &
extrajudicial killings. "The
business community," Annan explained to Unocal, Nestle, Rio Tinto & other
members of the new forum, "is
fast becoming one of UN's most important allies. … That is why organisation's doors
are open to you as
never before." … By making peace with power, the UN has declared war upon the
powerless.
|
Medicin sans frontiere
re Srebrenica HR Watch Congo campaign |
Kremlin said creating 'substitute' for civil society 7.10.01 RFE/RL
According to an article by former State Duma deputy (Yabloko) Viktor Sheinis in "Nezavisimaya gazeta" on 7 July,
the Kremlin is seeking to "imitate" the institutions of civil society, because "the imitation of democracy require[s] the
imitation of civil society." Sheinis suggested that the Kremlin-created Union of Unions is one such imitation and
stands in sharp contrast to the Democratic Conference that in fact is an effort by civil society to advance its
interests.
HRts commissions to be set up in federal districts |
|
Fred Schauer, acting Dir.
Harvard
Univ.
Carr
*
Ctr for Human Rights
( RFK Ctr ) "focus on the tools and techniques for realizing existing norms" in places of chaos where jurisprudence (re)built from scratch: Kosovo, Mandela's S.Africa, etc. Programs, press & links Rwanda connection: served as film premiere theater for Tribunal's promotional feature "funded by the US State Dept's Office of War Crimes Issues, Open Society Institute, & Soros Documentary Fund." [ Foggy Bottom = Ivy League aka Skull&Bones; affil. is inevitable: ]
pursuing & studying the interaction of information & communications technologies and intl development. [ clearcut path to future profit, hegemony & dominion ]
Members of the group, which was convened by the Kennedy School of Govt's "Visions of Governance in the 21st Century" Project, are |
JFK School of Govt homepg
"Academic Dean and Frank Stanton Professor of the First Amendment" "Schauer's
teaching & writing
focus on constitutional law, freedom of speech and press, political philosophy, the
philosophy of law, and legal
constraints on policymaking … He frequently appears before various
congressional committees on issues
relating to freedom of speech and other questions of constitutional law."
"In addition to appearing
before many
congressional committees on issues of constitutional law, in recent years he has taught
and advised on issues of
legal and constitutional development in Australia, Belarus, Chile, Estonia, Mongolia, and
South Africa, and has also
lectured on legal theory and constitutional law in Canada, Finland, Germany, Hungary,
Israel, the Netherlands,
New Zealand, Spain, and Taiwan."
[ this much intl exposure makes me think he's CFR/TriLatCom mouthpiece
]
11.8.00 pro-Electoral College Q&A
blessing of
Supreme Court rush to
judgement on Florida E2K
Stephen Rickard In-house lobbyists for
Amnesty International USA
1998
As exec. director of Amnesty
International USA, Stephen Rickard works to limit weapons sales to non-democratic
regimes and those with
persistent human rights violations. Rickard: "if U.S. is going to provide weapons,
they should be weapons to
countries that aren't keeping dictators in power, that they should be used for external
defense not external
aggression, and they should be used to defend the people of a country not to repress the
people of a country."
11.16.00 speak for RFK Fdtn re award to Dalits (India untouchables)
advocate
Authored book on Taiwan HR
China by the UN Commission
on HRts in Geneva.
"Since the Commission met last year there has been virtually no progress on human rights
in China and in many areas
conditions have
gotten worse," said Stephen Rickard, Legislative Director for AIUSA.
12.8.99 IOHR Hearing on "China, the
WTO, and HRts"
3.12.99 at CSCE hearing on Turkey: "There
is
something Orwellian about calling units that torture and beat children and sexually
assault their
victims 'anti-terror'police."
9.10.97 HIRC FREEDOM FROM RELIGIOUS
PERSECUTION ACT
OF 1997, PART II—PRIVATE WITNESSES HEARIN
G
Washington Office director of Amnesty International, USA. And from 1994 to 1996, Mr.
Rickard
served as the Senior Advisor for South Asian Affairs in the Department of State. "
Twenty-one
years ago, I was a sophomore at a little Methodist college in Michigan. I was a
preacher's kid, but I
was not doing much about human rights, even caring much about persecution of
Christians, much
less doing anything about it. But fortunately, one day, I read a report about Christians
who were
being tortured in Brazil. "
RFK Fdtn for HR sitemap
reports
Human Rights
Award $30K.
Now in its 32nd year, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards
were founded in 1968 by a group of reporters who covered Robert Kennedy's presidential
campaign. Dedicated to
Robert Kennedy's youngest child, Rory, it is the largest single program that honors
outstanding reporting on the
problems of the disadvantaged. Known as the "Poor People's Pulitzers," it is one
of the few journalism
awards in which the winners are judged solely by their peers.
Rep. John Lewis got the 1999 book award
5.99 Human Rights Action Camp w/
Ruckus Society
[ Seattle WTO'99 prep ]
1997 : coaching
multinational resource extractor on meeting HR demands
Intelligence Dir. Rice caught in Iran-Contra style capers in
Africa
The parallel to the Bush-North operations is precise: Incontrovertible evidence
accumulated by EIR demonstrates that the same extra-governmental "assets" used
by North in widespread illegal narcotics & arms-trafficking, are channelling
arms and military aid into Central Africa.
In this new "Central African" supply operation, standing in for the drug-
smuggling gangsters of the Nicaraguan Contra operation, are the African
"rebels" fighting the govts of Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo,
and any other Central African nation targetted by British intelligence's leading
warlord in the region, Ugandan dictator Yoweri Museveni.
Uganda's
'Dollar' Churches: Legacy of the U.S. Pentecostal Cult. Alleged origin
s: "Druid
Infiltration of Pentecostalism"
more LaRouche on Africa
Project
Underground
"Grasberg is known to different audiences as different things. For some it is Indonesia's
largest source of tax
revenue; for others it is a symbol of that nation's corruption and cronyism. For the
engineers it is a technological
marvel; for activists it is the locus of human rights abuse and destruction of the important
local ecosystem in Irian
Jaya. For the traditional owners, it was the sacred head of their mother; for shareholders it
is simply a bad
investment. … complicity in the murder of hundreds of the local indigenous peoples,
and the destruction of
hundreds of hectares of rainforest.
… PT Freeport Indonesia has no political risk insurance against risks such as
nationalization.
Unfortunately for shareholders, 2 good policies with World Bank's Multilateral
Investment
Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and US Govt's Overseas Private Investment Corporation
(OPIC) were
canceled by the parent company in the last two years. This was for one of two reasons.
Freeport
McMoRan Copper & Gold's version is that it no longer requires insurance "against
political risks
such as civil wars or nationalization" as the staff told MIGA. The unofficial version is that
the
insurance was canceled to avert the scrutiny and conditions that the Bank and US Govt
had
required in return for their guarantee. It is no secret that the company terminated its
contract
on the eve of an investigation into the mine by the WorldBank MIGA. In either case,
the
cancellation of these guarantees appears to be a major problem now with Indonesia on
the brink
of chaos. … large sums of money which were intended as an effort to resolve
existing social
problems have on the contrary become a new source of difficulties and conflict. …
people
around the mine (Amungme, represented by LEMASA - Amungme Tribal Council)
remain
committed to upholding their rights & working out solutions with the company. That
this has
resulted in them going to the courts in the U.S. "
rumor links
An EIR team probing the causes behind the genocidal wars that have been ravaging
East and Central Africa over the last four years, has uncovered a covert arms
and logistical supply network run out of the U.S. State Department, which
mirrors precisely the notorious Iran-Contra arms supply operation of the 1980s.
As in the case of then-Vice President George Bush and Col. Oliver North's covert
Iran-Contra operations, the arms and logistical supply to marauding forces in
East and Central Africa is being organized "off the books," and in direct
violation of the official, public policy of the U.S. govt toward
the conflicts involved.
by an EIR Investigative Team
The two leading operatives who have been caught red-handed in such dirty
operations toward Central Africa are U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for
African Affairs Susan Rice, and Roger Winter, executive director of the U.S.
ommittee on Refugees. EIR has uncovered two, overlapping operations. First, is
the covert supply of arms to the Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA) of
John Garang, which has waged a totally unsuccessful but nevertheless genocidal
war against the Sudan govt since 1983. The second involves covert military
logistical aid to the so-called rebel forces arrayed against the govt of
Laurent Kabila in the Democratic Republic of Congo, an operation being run
directly out of the U.S. State Department with the oversight of Rice.
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