Black Star Journal

Press liberalization in Niger

2011-12-27T10:33:00.000-05:00

Africaphiles are often reading disturbing stories about attacks on press freedom on the continent. Even South Africa, arguably the freest state in Africa, recently rammed through a law that was widely denounced as a serious assault on the country's thriving independent media.

So I was pleased to read the following headline in a Zambian newspaper: President of Niger to be first to sign document abolishing barbaric media laws in Africa.

Niger's president Mahamadou Issoufou approved a bill that revoked the country's criminal defamation and insult laws. Such a repeal is one of the major appeals of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, which cites the laws as one of the severe threats to media freedom in Africa. By contrast, defamation is a civil offense in most western countries (which means the punishment is monetary, not prison). Criminal defamation laws are a popular tool used by autocratic regimes to silence dissent, by making criticism an imprisonable offense.

Kudos to Pres. Issoufou for the move. Many long-time opposition leaders turn autocratic as soon as they gain power. Senegal's Abdoulaye wade and former Cote d'Ivoire strongman Laurent Gbagbo are just two. So it's gratifying to see Niger's leader bucking the trend.

All that glitters isn't gold

2011-12-26T10:10:00.001-05:00

Radio Netherlands Africa service has a story about the problems caused by the gold rush in southeastern Senegal.

Nigeria's exploding population

2011-10-27T21:31:00.000-04:00

Nigeria's This Day has a piece on the country's skyrocketing population. There were 140 million Nigerians five years ago but that figure has already risen to nearly 168 million and is expected to hit 221 million by the year 2020. The head of the country's National Population Commission pointed out that this meant that Nigerians represent fully 2.4% of humanity.

Tubman backs Taylor return

2011-10-23T21:52:00.000-04:00

There has been a critical international reaction to comments by a Liberian presidential candidate. Winston Tubman, who recently qualified for a run off against the incumbent president and Nobel Peace laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, said that former warlord and dictator Charles Taylor would be free to return to the country. Taylor, an indicted war criminal and convicted scumbag, is presently on trial at the Special Court for Sierra Leone for his widely believed meddling in that country's civil war. He's yet to face trial for his role in his own country's conflict. Taylor's wife, a Liberian senator, is expected to be part of a Tubman administration if he wins. Tubman is a nephew of a former Liberian strongman.

Gbagbos charged

2011-08-19T10:41:00.006-04:00

Former Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo, whose election loss sparked a brief civil war, has been charged by prosecutors with "economic crimes, armed robbery, looting and embezzlement," as was his wife. Pascal Affi N'Guessan, former head of Gbagbo's FPI party, has also been charged with attacking state security following the election defeat.

Male victims of sex crimes in war 'almost equal' number of female victims

2011-07-29T21:34:00.009-04:00

In recent years, there's been quite a bit of press coverage of the rape and sexual assault against women during war time, and rightly so. However, there's virtually no awareness of such crimes against men. Both al-Jazeera (here) and the UK Observer (here) have done pieces on this mostly ignored scourge.

Both news outlets report the claim that sex crimes against men during war is nearly as common as those against women, some of the victims having been gang raped repeatedly for months or even years.

But The Observer points out that the problem is so little thought of that such statistics are hard to find. Because there has been so little research into the rape of men during war, it's not possible to say with any certainty why it happens or even how common it is – although a rare 2010 survey, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that 22% of men and 30% of women in Eastern Congo reported conflict-related sexual violence.

They note that, in addition to the taboos (and in some places, laws) preventing many such men from getting help, many non-governmental organizations are set up to help female victims of sex crimes but not males.

"The organisations working on sexual violence don't talk about it," says Chris Dolan, director of the Refugee Law Project (RLP) at the Makerere University in Uganda.

But it goes beyond not talking about it to an active muzzling of reality.

"I know for a fact that the people behind [a 2006 United Nations] report insisted the definition of rape be restricted to women," [Dolan] says, adding that one of the RLP's donors, Dutch Oxfam, refused to provide any more funding unless he'd promise that 70% of his client base was female.

The Observer article concludes depressingly: Before receiving help from the RLP, one man went to see his local doctor. He told him he had been raped four times, that he was injured and depressed and his wife had threatened to leave him. The doctor gave him a Panadol.

Congratulations South Sudan

2011-07-09T11:02:00.001-04:00

Congratulations to the Republic of South Sudan, the world's newest nation, which achieved independence today. To the country's government: it took you a long time to get to this day. Don't screw it up.

Arrest warrant for Blé Goudé

2011-07-01T19:03:00.006-04:00

An international arrest warrant has been issued for Charles Blé Goudé, one of Côte d'Ivoire's most notorious criminals. Blé Goudé (age 39) is the long-time leader of the 'Jeunes patriotes' (Young Patriots), a group that's little more than an armed gang affiliated with whichever political group claims the nationalist/xenophobic mantle. He was a close ally of the recently defeated president Laurent Gbagbo. The prosecutor accused Blé Goudé of inciting xenophobia and ethnic violence during the clashes in which Gbagbo supporters tried to cling to power following the election defeat.

The new African land grab, brought to you by Harvard

2011-06-15T17:56:00.002-04:00

The UK Guardian has a disturbing piece on how many prestigious US universities, including Harvard and Vanderbilt, are collaborating with European speculators to buy or lease large chunks of land in Africa thus forcing thousands of locals off the land.

Jos

2011-06-14T17:54:00.001-04:00

The BBC World Service’s Assignment program has a good documentary on sectarian divisions that persist in the Nigerian city of Jos.

You read it here first!

2011-04-15T21:48:00.002-04:00

A few days ago, I read a very interesting piece on al-Jazeera’s website about hate media in Ivory Coast.

It reminded me a lot of a piece I published over six years ago on the exact same topic.

The Kinshasa Symphony

2011-04-10T10:51:00.002-04:00

The public radio program Studio 360 has a piece on a fascinating documentary about the Kinshasa Symphony Orchestra, in the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital. It's a compelling story from a country more known for less pleasant things.

The real Africa is hidden

2011-04-03T19:57:00.004-04:00

The Columbia Journalism Review has a great piece on why non-governmental organizations prefer bad news about Africa and how that prevents westerners from getting a more nuanced picture about life on the continent.

Rapes and murders by Gbagbo's thugs

2011-03-17T17:49:00.002-04:00

Human Rights Watch has detailed atrocities, including murder and rape, committed by forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo, Cote d'Ivoire's former president who's bloodily clinging to power following an election defeat last year.

Illegitimate Gbagbo's bloody hands cling to power

2011-03-03T08:31:00.010-05:00

While the murderous Muammar Gadhafhi has received most of the international press attention, former Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo's blood lust for power is equally bloody. Gbagbo was defeated at the polls last November by opposition leader Alasanne Ouatarra but steadfastly refuses to give up power.

Most recently, his insecurity forces mowed down at least five women in the main city of Abidjan who were marching in support of President-elect Ouatarra.

Yesterday, Gbagbo's regime ordered that water and electricity be cut to the northern half of Cote d'Ivoire, Ouatarra's stronghold. I'm not sure if this fits the legal definition of a war crime (and make no mistake about it, Gbagbo views his quest for power as a war to be won at all costs) but it certainly re-inforces how illegitimate his regime is.

He is clearly afraid of the truth, which is why his regime kicked the BBC World Service and Radio France Internationale off the country's FM airwaves. Though if my forces were slaughtering women, I wouldn't want the outside world to know about it either.

But Gbagbo's thugs don't just target women, they target all opponents. The Associated Press reported on evidence of mass killings of those presumed to be Ouatarra supporters in the aftermath of the controversial election.

Africans embrace democracy while the African Union rejects it

2011-02-14T15:18:00.000-05:00

The former Organization for African Unity was often derided as a club for dictators. The organization rebranded itself the African Union several years ago in an attempt to start afresh. It was part of a trend at the time where pan-African institutions were created (such as the New Partnership for African Development, NEPAD) or reformed (such as the AU) to purportedly do more self-policing on issues like human rights and good governance.

So it was quite sickening to read that the AU named Equatorial Guinea’s longtime dictator Teodoro Obiang Nguema as its new president. Although the position is mostly ceremonial, it’s a slap in the face to give such a platform to the head of one of the world’s three most repressive regimes. As a man who seized power in a coup in 1979 and has brutally cracked down on all opposition, with what authority can he lecture Côte d’Ivoire’s recalcitrant former president Laurent Gbagbo or the generals in Cairo? With one of the world’s most abominable human rights record, how can he speak on northern Uganda or the Central African Republic or the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo?

While Africans from Tunisia to Egypt are courageously rising up to embrace democracy, it’s a revolting sight to see the AU so strongly cravenly reject it.

There's something about Tunisia

2011-01-14T10:41:00.025-05:00

Something's happening in Tunisia.

That statement alone is pretty significant, since it concerns one of the world's most tightly controlled police states.

The north African state has been controlled by two dictators since independence in 1956. First was Habib Bourguiba, who ran the country from 1956 until he was removed for 'health' reasons in 1987 by his prime minister Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, who still rules today. The country is so rigidly monitored that it's said that Ben Ali, a former intelligence chief, personally reviews logs of who entered and left the country via the main international airport.

But after nearly a quarter century, Tunisians appear to be fed up with Ben Ali's regime. As The New York Times described the situation: unisia also has one of the most repressive governments in a region full of police states. Residents long tolerated extensive surveillance, scant civil liberties and the routine use of torture, at least until the economic malaise that has gripped southern Europe spread here, sending unemployment and public resentment skyrocketing.

The current crisis started when an unemployed university graduate set himself on fire after police refused to allow him to scratch out a meager living selling fruits and vegetables on the street because he lacked paperwork.

Protests erupted, spread by social media, since the traditional media is heavily censored. The protests were dealt with in the way that autocratic regimes usually deal with such displays: brute force. People were killed, which fueled even more fury and resentment. To no one's surprise, Ben Ali initially blamed the unrest of foreign elements and terrorists.

(Foreign Policy has a good analysis of Tunisia's socioeconomic problems and other catalysts of the protests.)

Then an unusual thing happened, the dictatorship blinked.

A chastened Ben Ali went on national television and promised not to run again for the presidency in 2014, to ease censorship and apologized for the abuses of the insecurity forces.

Many are skeptical of the dictator's promises, especially after several people were shot by men in uniform not long after Ben Ali's speech; a human rights' organization counts 66 confirmed deaths since the unrest began on December 17. There's the added factor that Ben Ali's family has a stranglehold on the Tunisian economy (some are describing this as the first Wikileaks' Revolution) and won't relinquish that easily.

The protesters aren't satisfied. They want Ben Ali to give up power now.

Still, it's a remarkable climbdown for a strongman who had, not long prior, so vehemently denounced the protests.

In the blogosphere, there's some interesting discussions about social media and the Tunisia situation.

Ethan of My Heart's in Accra worries that no one is paying attention. Even the normally excellent BBC World Service had virtually nothing on it, at least that I heard, for the first several weeks of the protests.

George Brock of 21st Century Journalism counters that whether the events in Tunisia are noticed in the west or not misses the point. It's the empowerment that matters. Much inflated hyperbole is talked about the effect of social media on politics and society in Europe and the US. But here in the Middle East, it is impossible exaggerate the importance – actual and potential – of informal media, he explains.

Update: Today, Ben Ali has declared a state of emergency, sacked the entire government (except himself of course) and called for new elections within six months.

Further update: Ben Ali has apparently resigned and fled the country. His prime minister, a close ally, has assumed the acting presidency, though there is some doubt as to whether this is constitutional.

Third update: Tunisia's high court has appointed the parliamentary speaker as acting president.

US slaps sanctions on Gbagbo

2011-01-07T10:01:00.003-05:00

The United States has improsed sanctions on Cote d'Ivoire's former president Laurent Gbagbo, who lost elections late last year but refuses to cede power. The punishment also applies to several members of Gbagbo's inner circle, including his wife and the leader of his party. As a result, Americans are are prohibited from conducting financial or commercial transactions with the designated individuals, and any assets of the designees within U.S. jurisdiction are frozen, according to the State Department.

Côte d'Ivoire: Rwanda redux... redux

2010-12-30T09:07:00.029-05:00

In 2005, I wrote an essay entitled Côte d'Ivoire: Rwanda Redux.

The country was then, as now, run by the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI). The FPI was a long-time opposition party that gained power through the same public outrage against a rigged election that now threatens it. The FPI has cultivated a hypernationalistic and very xenophobic streak to preserve its grip on power, against the obvious will of the people, at all costs... to the point where they are willing to destroy the country to hold on to it.

In my 2005 essay, I described the similarities between the situation then in Cote d'Ivoire and pre-genocide Rwanda as such:

There are so many parallels between the two, it's scary. From the leader who considered making peace with rebels but was opposed by extremists in his own camp. To the despicable hate media campaign against 'foreigners.' To the involvement of French and UN troops. To the meticulously planned campaign against all 'enemies' of the regime... and thus enemies of the Republic... the rhetorical unification of the government of the day with the nation as a whole is a key part of any sinister propaganda campaign. Even to the Lady MacBeth wife of the president with her own Pretorian Guard entourage (Agathe Habyrimana in Rwanda and Simone Gbagbo in Côte d'Ivoire).

Laurent Gbagbo and his FPI have changed little since that essay was written, despite being declared loser of the recent presidential runoff by the Ivorian Independent National Electoral Commission among others.

There are serious warnings of genocide in the country by pro-Gbagbo forces.

The UN has accused the regime of blocking access to mass graves.

Ivorian observers have expressed concern about the proliferation of hate media, a key component of the Rwandan genocide. As someone who's read and listened to the Ivorian media for many years, these accusations are consistent with my own experiences, both past and present.

No doubt hearing reports of serious human rights abuses and the violent fanaticism of some Gbagbo supporters, thousands of Ivorians have fled to neighboring countries, with officials fearing that influx could be as high as 100,000.

Gbagbo has been called upon to give up the power he legitimately lost not only by westerners and the UN, but also by the African Union and the West African regional body ECOWAS. ECOWAS threatened to remove Gbagbo by force by has since backed off. The military option is unlikely without the support of Ghana, which has one of the region's strongest militaries.

And that's probably just as well for the moment. Threats of outside intervention only play into the hands of the hypernationalistic Gbagbo camp and may provoke a return to civil war should it actually take place. Pressure should continue to be heaped upon the losers to give up power before a bloodbath occurs; a Nigerian human rights group has offered some suggestions in that regard. However, ECOWAS should be ready to intervene if Gbagbo's forces get out of control. Already, the pro-Gbagbo Young Patriots thugs have threatened Ouattara and his aides.

Botswana's president Ian Khama rubbished the idea of a power-sharing agreement with Gbagbo remaining as president and Ouattara returning to his old job as prime minister until the next elections. And very rightly so. Power sharing agreements prevent solutions rather than addressing them.

Pres. Khama denounced the precedent that this would set, noting that "Elections there [in Kenya and Zimbabwe] were hijacked by the ruling party and if that is what is going to happen every time someone wants to dispute an election result and then stay in power by default through a mechanism of power-sharing, then it’s wrong."

Former president Gbagbo has two options. He could follow the example of Cellou Dalein Diallo in neighboring Guinea by accepting defeat with dignity and prevent his country from descending into hell. Or he might end up facing trial in the Hague, like Charles Taylor of neighboring Liberia. May he choose the path of a civilized human being.

Congratulations to President Alpha Conde and Guineans

2010-12-21T23:26:00.005-05:00

Congratulations to former political prisoner Alpha Conde for becoming Guinea's first democratically elected president. Thanks also goes to Cellou Dalein Diallo who accepted defeat grudgingly but peacefully, unlike his fellow runner-up in neighboring Cote d'Ivoire Laurent Gbagbo who'd rather destroy the country (again) than to give up his throne. But most credit of all goes to the courageous Guinean people for responding to what was probably the country's worst tragedy by truly taking back their country from the murderers and thugs.

Periodic Twitter update

2010-12-14T08:36:00.001-05:00

Note: This is a series highlighting selected stories from the Twitter feeds for my blogs Musings of a (Fairly) Young Contrarian and Black Star Journal. The Twitter feed contains not only links to original pieces from my blogs but also links ("re-tweets") to diverse stories from other media outlets. 129 people presently get their updates this way. Those interested are encouraged to subscribe the Twitter feed to get all stories by going to Twitter.com/mofycbsj and clicking 'follow'.

-Poll: [NYS] Voters Say No To Raises, Yes To Taxing Rich (The Journal News)

-EU to sanction Cote d'Ivoire (al-Jazeera)

-How Glenn Beck's Twisted Worldview Goads Disturbed People into Acts of Violence (AlterNet)

-Australian Media's Finest Defend Wikileaks [unlike craven American journalists] (The Wakely Foundation)

-TX GOP Official Opposes Jewish House Speaker: Christians ‘Are The People That Do The Best Jobs’ (Think Progress)

-Indoleaks launched [Indonesian answer to WikiLeaks] (Jakarta Globe)

-Rwandan genocide finds release in photos (NPR)

-Julian Assange, like Daniel Ellsberg and Joe Wilson, Feels the Heat (The Progressive)

-Howie Hawkins says the Green campaign continues (GPNYS)

-Phone Companies' $100 Billion Rip-off -- Where Is That Hidden $6 a Month Going in Our Phone Bills? (Alternet)

-Guinea's [President-elect Alpha] Conde plans truth commission on violence (Reuters)

Gbagbo leads Ivory Coast toward another civil war after electoral coup

2010-12-04T08:04:00.017-05:00

The situation in Guinea seems to be stabilizing. The country's Independent National Electoral Commission and Supreme Court declared Prof. Alpha Conde the country's next president. Runoff loser Cellou Dalein Diallo complained about the Court's decision but said he would accept it. Sadly, such statesmanship seems absent in neighboring Cote d'Ivoire.

The Ivorian electoral commission declared that former prime minister and longtime opposition leader Alasanne Ouattara had defeated incumbent Laurent Gbagbo by 54-46 percent in the recent presidential runoff election. This victory was concurred with by international observers. The top UN official in the country said he had "absolute confidence that there is only one winner - Mr Alassane Ouattara."

However, the Ivorian constitutional court invalidated the results in several regions where Ouattara had strong support and declared Gbagbo the winner with, surprise surprise, 51 percent.

The electoral coup was denounced by Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, who was the rebel military leader during the civil war.

Apparently, Gbagbo is not content having presided over one civil war that destroyed his country; he now wants to provoke a second. Why did he bother holding an election if his hand-picked court was just going to declare him the winner regardless of what the Ivorian people wanted?

The results were invalidated because of alleged fraud. Of course, "fraud" only occurred in pro-Ouattara areas. And just enough to get Gbagbo to the 51 percent mark. How convenient!

Since the current regime is the one that organized the election, it's accusing ITSELF of not being able to run a competent, fair election? Isn't that be grounds for annulling the ENTIRE vote?

This is an outrageous electoral coup d'Etat. Even if there was alleged fraud in those areas, final results should have been delayed while the election was be re-run in that region. Instead, Gbagbo's judges have disenfranchised thousands of Ivorians... to say nothing of those Ouattara supporters murdered in Abidjan by Gbagbo fanatics.

If northern Ivorians are not permitted to vote for the president of their country, they are not full fledged Ivorian citizens, a sentiment which provoked the civil war in the first place. If they are not treated as Ivorians by Gbagbo and his judges, can you blame them if the try to secede again and form a country where they actually have the right to vote as well as other basic rights?

In an attempt to prevent his fellow citizens from knowing the truth about its electoral hold up, the Ivorian regime has blocked foreign news broadcasters.

Gbagbo will try to quickly legitimize his stolen victory by being sworn in today. However, not only has the UN, the US and other non-African countries backed Ouattara's win. But crucially, the West African regional group ECOWAS has also urged the his victory to be respected. It seems Gbagbo and his supporters are the only ones who don't respect the verdict of the Ivorian people.

The Ivorian army has backed his controversial 're-election.' Since Gbagbo will stay in office because of the army, rather than the people, it now seems more accurate to refer to him as a military-backed dictator than a president.

Vieux Farka Touré

2010-11-29T10:31:00.001-05:00

Mother Jones has an interview with Vieux Farka Touré, son of the legendary Malian musician Ali Farka Touré and a pretty good performing artist in his own right.

A West African view of the situation in Guinea

2010-11-28T17:02:00.002-05:00

Sierra Leone Express media offers a neighbor's perspective of the instability in the Republic of Guinea.

Long-time opposition leader becomes first democratically elected president of Guinea

2010-11-16T08:27:00.007-05:00

RPG candidate Alpha Conde has been elected president of Guinea, according to the country's Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI). Conde won 52.5% of the vote in the long-delayed presidential runoff as compared to 47.5% for former prime minister Cellou Dalein Diallo.

The result is a bit of a surprise since Diallo gained nearly 43.7% of the vote in the first round while Conde garnered less than 18.3%.

It is not yet clear whether Diallo's supporters will accept the results, as his UFDG party withdrew from vote counting on Sunday after the CENI refused to disqualify results from two Conde strongholds contested by Diallo.

A long-time opposition leader, Conde was exiled during much of the regime of Guinea's first dictator Sekou Toure and was imprisoned by Toure's successor Lansana Conte.

After gunshots were heard in Conakry following the announcement of Conde's victory, Diallo made a public appeal for calm.

The 'new' African land grab

2010-10-27T08:48:00.003-04:00

File this under the 'everything old is new again' category. The Ghana News Agency has a story about the African Union's response to the new land grab on the continent. It noted that from October 2008 to August 2009, some 30 million hectares in Africa were sold to foreign investors.

An Oxfam spokesman observed that operationalised land grabbing to mean damaging large scale acquisitions by private investors (companies or countries) with negative impact for local populations' livelihoods and food security.

Ethiopian dictatorship uses food aid to punish dissent: HRW

2010-10-20T08:27:00.009-04:00

Human Rights Watch has accused the Ethiopian regime of using food aid to punish political opponents.

HRW reports that farmers who do not support the ruling party of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi are rebuffed in their attempts to gain access to loans, fertilizer and seeds.

The NGO added families of opposition members are banned from a food for work project which supports seven million poor people in Ethiopia.

These are particularly heinous acts in a country suffering from chronic food shortages.

Ethiopia is one of the world's largest recipients of foreign aid, receiving over $3 billion from abroad in 2008.

Despite these actions and the de facto dictatorship's repressive crackdown on dissent, HRW noted that foreign aid to the regime doubled between 2004 and 2008.

Return

2010-10-19T08:27:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the hiatus but things have been a bit crazy lately. I will try to get back to blogging regularly here on BSJ. Tell your friends!

Losing Guinea candidates cry foul; Gen. Konaté threatens to resign

2010-07-07T19:58:00.001-04:00

Reposted with permission from Friends of Guinea blog

Conduct of the first round of presidential elections were generally praised by the international community, including ECOWAS and the United States.

However, the Carter Center did cite concerns, including: Confusion about several important aspects of voting and counting procedures, delay in allocation of polling stations, and late delivery of essential voting materials negatively affected the quality of polling.

The top two finishers will contest a run off: former prime minister Cellou Dalein Diallo and longtime opposition leader Alpha Condé. The second round was originally scheduled for July 18 but reports have suggested that it will not take place on that date, since the Constitutional Court will not rule on the validity of the first round results until July 13.

The interim government banned public demonstrations following the first round and broke up with tear gas a march held in defiance of the ban.

Several opposition candidates complained about electoral irregularities, most vehemently the UFR's candidate Sidya Touré. Touré, another former prime minister, finished third in the first round, about 5 percentage points behind Condé.

Touré attacked the president of the transition Gen. Sékouba Konaté as well as the French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner.

The acting head of state Gen. Konaté responded angrily to the 'offensive' questioning of his neutrality and set off a mini-crisis when he threatened to resign. However, he appears to have been dissuaded from this course of action by Senegal's leader Abdoulaye Wade and African Union chief Jean Ping.

Less than a week until historic elections in Guinea... and you can help!

2010-06-22T17:14:00.001-04:00

Republished with permission from Friends of Guinea blog.

Campaigning and preparations in Guinea are well underway for the June 27 poll, expected to be the first ever free and democratic elections in the country's history. Some 24 candidates are contesting the presidential election, none soldiers.

The US NGO the Carter Center has sent a delegation to monitor the vote and has described the campaign as 'positive.' The African Union has also praised preparations.

The Economist had a profile of the head of state Gen. Sekouba Konate and his efforts to ensure that both the elections and the future civilian administration remain free of military meddling. Additionally, the army chief of staff Col. Nouhou Thiam warned that there would be no immunity for soldiers involved in the Sept. 28, 2009 massacre.

However, Foreign Policy warns that challenges remain beyond the formal election. It published an article on 'Guinea's economic junta' which noted that the army's domination of lucrative mineral contracts won't end with the ascension of a democratic head of state.

**

Also from FOG blog:

Our colleagues at Alliance Guinea have launched a 'high-tech election monitoring system' in support of this Sunday's presidential election in the country.

The system, GV10 Witness (or GV10 Temoin, in French), will allow Guineans on the ground to report violence, threats of violence, fraud and other serious incidents via SMS, email and Twitter.

The messages will then be posted to the website www.GV10Temoin.org on a map of Guinea, organized by incident location and type of incident or report. People monitoring the elections – whether election administrators and observers, international media, civil society organizations or the general public – will then be able to follow developments on the site or through email updates.

This effort will require volunteers to process the information. If you'd like to help, please click here for more information.

The return of blood diamonds

2010-06-20T09:15:00.009-04:00

The Wall Street Journal online has a piece on the diamond industry in Angola.

Several years ago, the diamond industry was pressured into the creation of the Kimberley Process, an attempt to eliminate so-called 'blood diamonds' from the market. However, The WSJ reports that a big loophole threatens the viability of the entire program.

The Kimberley Process was designed to stem human rights abuses in territories controlled by rebel movements, but apparently does not take into account such abuses in government controlled territories.

The WSJ highlights a raft of problems in Angola, widely considered one of the most corrupt states in the world.

On the nature of reconciliation (guest essay)

2010-06-08T00:01:00.000-04:00

Editor's note: The following is an email sent to me in response to my essay on the nature of reconciliation. It is published here with the permission of the author.

by Rufus Arthur Wilderson

Your post on the views of Africans towards reconciliation struck a chord with me. As much as the diverse views of an entire continent can be generalized, I think yes, Africans do have a greater propensity to live and let live than is seen in Eurasia.

My first anecdote comes from my brief time in college, I want to say 2005-2006 time frame. For some reason Somalia was in the news; maybe the piracy was starting to get bad. At the time I was attending an African Studies course, and the professor was a somewhat world-weary type who had been an ambassador and was able to add a lot of color to the discussion of the Horn of Africa, including all the nuances and shifting alliances during the Cold War and Ogaden conflict (someone should make an opera out of it). His conclusion looking at Somalia? "It is better to have a bad government than no government at all". That was it, verbatim. Of course, this was about the same time that Zimbabwe had been making the news for bulldozing slums, so this struck me as a somewhat odd outlook on matters. Considering the state of life in Somalia though; perhaps it is not entirely unjustified.

The second anecdote comes from the excellent book In Search of Zarathustra, and dates to about the seventies or so when the author was having adventures in Afghanistan and Iran.

He had come to explore the ruins of an old Zoroastrian fire temple and met a community elder just before mid-day prayers. He asked about the temple. The elder said the temple was haunted, and the site of a great battle between Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan and the local tyrant. The lesson from that is that while centuries-long or even millennia-old grudges and events are remembered in much of the world, they are not necessarily remembered accurately! Perhaps there was some ancient battle at that site, but the story had become hopelessly distorted over time as it was told and retold for whatever didactic or political reasons were expedient at the time.

To me, as an American, both views seem strange. I have been taught, ultimately via the Enlightenment tradition, that it is not only justified to fight injustice, but that it is a moral imperative to do so. The American emphasis on the individual leaves me feeling a bit odd with the idea of punishing someone because our ancestors five generations ago were in a battle. Why should that matter to us, now?

It is tempting to think that the American outlook has the best balance of emphasis on social justice tempered with the mercy of easy forgiveness and individual, rather than group accountability. This is probably provincial though, and I suspect such a world view works best and flourishes only in a prosperous and stable environment. In an environment where even basic necessities like clean water or food could be hard to come by and life could be beset by all manner of natural and man made privations, fighting overmuch for social justice would seem like foolish idealism. Better to live and let live and get on to more important basic necessities. In an environment with a greater degree of prosperity and wealth, but with shifting alliances and organized national militaries all around like Eurasia has had for most of the past three thousand years, too much forgiveness and too much forbearance with tyrants might be the complacency that gets one's entire tribe destroyed in the next war.

Or at least that's what comes to mind for me. I could be making up just-so stories based on vague generalizations about people and places; always a risk in sociology.

'Has HIV/AIDS Destroyed Its First Nation-State?'

2010-06-07T09:06:00.004-04:00

Chris Albion's fascinating Conflict Health blog asks the provocative question: Has HIV/AIDS Destroyed Its First Nation-State?

He reports that there's a growing movement in the mountain kingdom of Lesotho to have the country annexed by South Africa. Lesotho, which is entirely surrounded by its giant neighbor, has one of the highest rates of HIV in the world.

Malaria prevention advance?

2010-06-03T08:41:00.003-04:00

IRIN (via All Africa) has an interesting piece on malaria prevention efforts in Burkina Faso. Officials have launched a small project of the indoor spraying of the insecticide Bendiocarb. The World Health Organization notes that such programs are most effective when at least 80 percent of households are sprayed. Right now, the spraying is only occurring in the southwestern part of Burkina Faso, due to cost. The country counted some 4 million cases of malaria last year.

Periodic Twitter update

2010-05-28T17:06:00.002-04:00

Note: This is a series highlighting selected stories from the Twitter feeds for my blogs Musings of a (Fairly) Young Contrarian and Black Star Journal. The Twitter feed contains not only links to original pieces from my blogs but also links ("re-tweets") to diverse stories from other media outlets. 103 people presently get their updates this way. Those interested are encouraged to subscribe the Twitter feed to get all stories by going to Twitter.com/mofycbsj and clicking 'follow'.

-Boaters, don't pollute lakes and rivers (NYS DEC)

-Amnesty: Powerful Governments 'Stand Above the Law' on Human Rights (VOA Africa)

-The opposition is the restraining force on government. Obama in power means we must look to the GOP to restrain militarism... (Wikileaks)

-Green Party Nominates Clark and Lawrence for US Senate and 2010 Candidates of Green Party NY (GPNY)

-Guinea headed for free election, analysts say (AP)

-Sexual violence against men (Forced Migration Online)

-What a 'Peace Corps' of Africans Is Doing for Cajuns and Creoles (Wall Street Journal)

-Six myths about immigration that just won't die (Alternet)

-Children working on farms at younger ages, report says (PBS Need to Know)

-Despite Legislation, Misleading RNC ‘Census’ Mailers Continue (Pro Publica)

The nature of reconciliation

2010-04-27T14:58:00.001-04:00

Al-Jazeera's Barnaby Phillips (a former BBC journalist) has an interesting blog on reconciliation in Africa. In it, he suggests that one of the things Africans do better than people in other parts of the world is to figure out how to live with each other after conflict. He cites the tension and difficulties in places like Bosnia and Northern Ireland following prolonged civil conflict. He notes that people in Africa would find it absurd to be fixated by the outcome of a 14th or 17th century battle.

He adds that in African countries from Mozambique, to Angola, to Sierra Leone, rebel and government forces that fought on opposite sides in brutal civil wars, marred by atrocities and massacres, are now united in national armies, and apparently oblivious to recent divisions.

He also cites post-conflict stability in places like Biafra/Nigeria, Rwanda and South Africa. Philips concludes that the lessons Africans take from conflicts is that the price of disunity is too high to pay.

Yet that approach has its own flaws. Countless dictators, from Mobutu to Meles Zenawi, have exploited this very sentiment. The Rwandan dictatorship itself, praised by Phillips, uses the pretext of unity to crush all opposition... as the newly formed Rwandan Democratic Greens were the latest to learn first hand.

In the mid-90s, both Sierra Leone and Liberia were embroiled in savage civil wars, which sent hundreds of thousands of refugees into neighboring countries, including Guinea where I lived. Countless Guineans complained about the sclerotic, corrupt rule of Gen. Lansana Conté and his cabal. But few were willing to rise and challenge the dictatorship. When I asked why, I was told that Conté's regime was bad but at least the repressive stability was better than the alternatives they saw on the southern border, with women and children having their limbs chopped off by drugged boy soldiers.

But that forced unity has a price of its own. The forced unity didn't solve any of Guinea's myriad of problems; it simply delayed their explosion for a decade or so. When the problems finally did erupt, beginning with the general strike of 2007, it was not pretty. There were riots, at least one major massacre, mass rapes, reports of small scale ethnic cleansing and very real fears (expectations in some quarters) of a Liberia/Sierra Leone-style full scale civil war.

Thanks to the intervention and strong will of a sane military man, Gen. Sékouba Konaté, and to mobilization of the international community and especially of Guinean civil society, the country appears to have gotten past the worst of it. If not for a fortunate sequence of events (including an unmitigated disaster with an unexpected silver lining), things could have been much, much worse.

Phillips makes the valid point that honest dialogue is essential to move forward in post-conflict situations. But true reconciliation involves a voluntary partnership of equals not fake 'unity' imposed at the barrel of a gun.

When 'Never Again' happened again

2010-04-08T00:06:00.005-04:00

Earlier this week marked the 16th anniversary of the beginning of the Rwandan genocide during which at least 800,000 people were murdered. It was one of the world's worst atrocities of the century and certainly the worst to be covered during the age of cable news television. It occurred a year, almost to the week, after politicians and dignitaries in Washington solemnly promised 'Never again' while inaugurating the Holocaust Memorial Museum.

In 2004, I wrote a long series of essays on the occasion of the 10th anniversary which gave a lot of information and background about the genocide.

They are as follows (yes, I know the images do not work):

-Ten years later (an intro)
-Pre-genocide history
-How the genocide unfolded
-Myths and realities about the genocide (Part 1)
-Myths and realities about the genocide (Part 2)
-The genocide's orphans
-Hate media and their role in the genocide
-International law and American law on genocide
-Post-genocide justice
-The post-genocide government
-Lessons and conclusions

Libel suits a threat to independent journalism in Liberia?

2010-04-07T11:29:00.001-04:00

A Voice of America article reports on a huge rise in the number of libel suits in Liberia. Leading journalists fear that this phenomenon is merely an attempt to muzzle independent reporting.

Che, Lumumba and... Foday Sankoh?

2010-03-30T09:35:00.001-04:00

I was in the library last night and noticed in the new arrivals section DVD entitled The Empire in Africa (I won't link to it because I don't want to encourage any one to spend a dime enriching the pockets of its makers). My curiosity piqued, I took a look and was nauseated to discover it was an apologia mythologizing the Revolutionary United Front. The RUF were the Sierra Leonian rebels who became infamous for the forced conscription of children, for the drugging of those child soldiers and for chopping off the hands and arms of women and children.

This was not the invention of some international propaganda campaign, as the 'documentary' implies. I lived in Guinea at the height of the Sierra Leonian civil war and met numerous refugees who fled the RUF's savagery, including a few who had lost limbs.

The Sierra Leonian government and military were filled at the time with brutal and thieving scumbags, no doubt. But no one's dared make an apologia to them. Whatever anti-corporate ideology the RUF might allegedly have had when it formed in the early 90s quickly evaporated. It became nothing more than an unimaginably savage organized crime gang that used ANY means necessary to line the pockets of its leaders.

The documentarian who made this offensive trash owes an apology to all the people killed, maimed and displaced by his sainted RUF.

Repression in Rwanda

2010-03-17T00:01:00.000-04:00

The Economist has a piece on strongman Paul Kagame and his regime of paradoxes in Rwanda.

The Facebook group We Support the African Greens has a number of links to stories and resources related to repression by the Rwandan dictatorship against journalists and others.

Torture victims and the US justice system

2010-03-16T22:32:00.005-04:00

US National Public Radio had a fascinating piece on whether victims of torture had the right to sue their tormentors in US court. The question is how to reconcile two American laws: the 1991 Torture Victim Protection Act and the 1976 Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.

Africa Writes: a cultural history website

2010-02-17T22:10:00.004-05:00

I came across a really fascinating website of cultural history called Africa Writes. I was particularly intrigued by the fact that it was based in Kankan, which is the second city in the Republic of Guinea but hardly a major West African cultural center. But I've actually spent time in Kankan and it's definitely an interesting city in an intriguing area of the country... though I could've done without the dust.

According to its mission statement, Africa Writes' objective is the complete and total redefinition of African history and culture, through proper observation, documentation and representation of African culture from total indigenous African perspective.

I haven't had the chance to fully explore the site but from what I've seen, it's something I'd certainly recommend.

Sékouba Konaté: Guinea's ATT?

2010-02-12T18:37:00.001-05:00

A recent inquirer asked me what I thought about the new Guinean head of state Gen. Sékouba Konaté. Gen. Konaté recently took power after previous junta leader Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara, recovering from an assassination attempt, handed it over. The somewhat unstable Dadis and his equally fanatical cabal were widely seen as an obstacle to democracy and stability in Guinea, whereas Konaté is seen as more moderate. Konaté quickly appointed a civilian prime minister (long-time opposition figure Jean-Marie Doré) as well as a key labor leader to head a body that will manage the transition.

As always, it's hard to tell what any leader's real intentions are. I'm not sure whether the general is a democrat per se. But my sense is that Konaté sees which way the wind is blowing and recognizes that the military has lost all credibility, both internally and externally, after the Sept. 28 massacre and cover up. The outraged reaction to the massacre was much broader and more powerful than anyone (including myself... I'm happy to have been wrong) ever expected. I think Konate realizes that the army's time is up and they need to get out of the way.

I think the bigger question is whether Konaté has enough control over the divided army to actually allow this democratic transition to take place and for the civilians to rule without intimidation. It's clear there have been fanatics loyal to Dadis Camara who don't want to give up power but it's not clear whether they will stand aside without causing chaos or worse.

In 1991 in neighboring Mali, military dictator Gen. Moussa Traoré's forces massacred hundreds of pro-democracy protesters in the capital Bamako. Revulsion to the bloodshed was so widespread that Traoré was overthrown and replaced by Gen. Amadou Toumani Touré (known colloquially as ATT). ATT convened a national conference which wrote a new constitution and organized democratic elections, to whose winners he handed over power. ATT was so widely revered for his role in Mali's democratic transition that he was later elected to the chief executive and has been civilian president since 2002. Will Gen. Konaté be Guinea's ATT? Only time will tell.

20 years after a hero's liberation

2010-02-11T18:54:00.000-05:00

"Anyone can handle adversity. If you really want to test a man's character, give him power." -Abraham Lincoln

I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge today as being the 20th anniversary of Nelson Mandela's liberation from prison. Mandela remains arguably (though not arguably in my opinion) the greatest living political figure and certainly one the greatest of the 20th century. Not simply for his role in liberating South Africa from apartheid but for his sage guidance of the country during the early years of the country's real democracy. I maintain that the greatest thing he ever did for South Africa, even greater than leading the apartheid struggle, was to serve only a single term as the country's president. In doing so, he prevented the country from trading one oppressor for another. The decision prevented the development of a cult of personality and sent a loud and clear message that the well-being of the state must never be dependent on the beneficence of a single individual. He thus fulfilled his promise upon being released from prison that he stood "not as a prophet but as [the people's] humble servant." This mentality, the mark of true statesmanship, is likely the biggest single reason South Africa has so far avoided going down the road of other countries with similar liberation struggles like Zimbabwe and Angola.

Note: The South African Broadcasting Corporation has coverage here, here The Johannesburg Daily Mail and Guardian has reports here and here. The BBC has a report here as well as memories here and here as well as pictures.

Periodic Twitter update

2010-02-10T17:30:00.001-05:00

Criminally moronic CAF add insult to injury... and death

2010-01-30T14:25:00.014-05:00

There've been many reasons that Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Issa Hayatou should be sacked. The quality of football on the continent has improved dramatically since the Cameroonian took over way back in 1988. He re-shaped the continent's premier club tournament into a more high profile African Champions League. The international African Nations Cup has dramatically gained in prestige and importance in the last two decades.

But under Hayatou's reign, CAF has spectacularly failed to capitalized on the increased interest in the Champions League and especially the Nations' Cup. The tournaments are almost impossible to find on television anywhere.

Despite intense interest outside the continent, the Nations Cup is only available in most countries via an expensive online scheme. I have no idea if the Champions League is available at all.

CAF has made some egregious decisions in awarding the Nations' Cup. Tournaments, such as the 2008 edition in Ghana, are often plagued by organizational difficulties. The continental body inexplicably awarded the 2012 Nations' Cup jointly to Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, two of the most corrupt countries in the world, the latter being closed and repressive on a par with North Korea or Burma.

The awarding of the current year's tournament to Angola was less egregious, except for CAF allowing matches to be held in the unstable province of Cabinda, a decision which had deadly consequences.

A bus carrying the Togolese national team was attacked by Cabindan rebels as it crossed the border from Congo-Brazzaville into Cabinda, where it was playing first round matches. Three members of the Togolese entourage were killed and one of its goalkeepers seriously injured in the attack; naturally the other members of the team were badly shaken.

CAF and Angola's dictatorship initially tried the Kremlin approach, but denying that any attack took place at all. It was just a ruptured tire, they said. Because noise from a blown tire lasts 20 minutes.

Finally, the "organizers" admitted that the gun attack took place by placed blame squarely on the shoulders of the Togolese. They said Togo should've flown to the Angolan capital Luanda and then to Cabinda, rather than go overland. They gave no explanation of why they allowed tournament matches to be held in a place that was not safe to drive in.

After some discussion, the Togolese government ordered its shell-shocked players to come home, since the criminally negligent authorities in Angola and CAF quite obviously couldn't guarantee anyone's security.

Rather than an apology for forcing players to play in a war-afflicted province or showing understanding toward witnesses to a massacre, CAF has incomprehensibly suspended Togo from the next two Nations' Cups.

CAF is complicit via negligence in the deaths of the three members of Togo's delegation. And yet it's Togo who is punished for being the only ones who gave a damn about their players' safety. Or maybe Togo's fault is having been stupid enough to trust the judgment of the morons at CAF and the Angolan dictatorship's spinmeisters.

For this whole series of criminal stupidity, Issa Hayatou and the entire CAF executive committee should be sacked... to say nothing of lifting the ban of the victims of this whole affair, the Togolese team.

Power sharing accord reportedly to be signed but Guinea remains tense and military split

2010-01-15T13:21:00.002-05:00

Republished with permission from Friends of Guinea's blog

Note: Events have been moving quickly in Guinea in recent weeks. You are encouraged to subscribe (follow) our Twitter feed, which is updated several times a day. It can be found at @friendsofguinea on Twitter or http://twitter.com/friendsofguinea

The head of Guinea's military junta Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara was flown from Morocco to Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou. Dadis had spent a month in hospital in the North African country after being wounded in an assassination attempt. Reports indicate that Dadis thought he was being flown directly to Conakry and was furious when he realized otherwise. Supporters of the junta leader have demanded he be returned to Guinea.

The International Criminal Court is investigating Dadis' alleged role in the September 28, 2009 massacres in Conakry; the report of a UN inquiry into the killings is available here.

Morocco is not a part of the ICC while Burkina Faso is. Additional, Burkina Faso's leader Blaise Compaore is mediating in the Guinean crisis on behalf of the West African regional grouping ECOWAS. Speculation is that these reasons played a role in Morocco's decision to send Dadis to Ouagadougou.

In the absence of Capt. Dadis, Guinea's acting leader has been the more moderate defense minister Gen. Sekouba Konate. Konate threatened to resign if Dadis did not compromise on terms to a transition to civilian rule.

Splits in the army remain, with supporters of Dadis wanting the charismatic captain to remain in power indefinitely while Gen. Konate and others want to return civilian constitutional order as quickly as possible. A spokesman for Konate said, "The general has made it very clear that he is not interested in staying in power. He made it very clear that he is there to restore discipline within the army and create conditions for a transition.

Meanwhile, Guinea's southern neighbors are worried about the effects of any civil strife on their country. A member of Sierra Leone's parliament warned that if the Republic of Guinea should explode, Sierra Leone would be consumed in less than a week; and if the situation in Guinea is not treated seriously, Sierra Leone's survival and livelihood as a state would be affected.

Today, Radio France Internationale reports that an accord was signed in Burkina Faso, between Dadis and Konate, whereby Dadis would remain in 'convalescence' and elections would be scheduled in six months. The AP has this as well. The BBC added that the accord stated that Dadis would support the transition to civilian rule.

Alliance Guinea reported that Dadis had accepted the principle of a prime minister from the opposition and that Saratou Sara Diallo and long time opposition figure Jean-Marie Dore were the two names it had proposed.

Update: al-Jazeera adds that the accord bans members of the junta as well as any active military serviceman from standing in the elections.

African Nations' Cup must be withdrawn from Cabinda

2010-01-09T16:57:00.005-05:00

As reported here yesterday, militants in the Angolan enclave of Cabinda attacked a bus carrying the Togolese national soccer team, killing the bus driver, the team's press officer and an assistant coach. Some reports have indicated that a fourth victim, one of the team's goalkeepers, has also died. The team was on its way from a training camp to the African Nations Cup tournament, which is being hosted in four venues in Angola, including Cabinda city.

Despite unconscionable pressure from PR-conscious Angolan officials and representatives from the African soccer confederation CAF, the Togolese team has withdrawn from the tournament.

Cabinda, which is separated from mainland Angola by DR Congo's territory, is the country's oil heartland and is also the source of a small but violent separatist movement. Given that Cabinda's instability was no secret, it was criminally irresponsible for the tournament organizers to schedule matches in Cabinda and for CAF to allow it.

Officials have already stated that the Nations' Cup will go on. However for the security of fans, the press and players, matches scheduled for Cabinda must be moved to the other venues in mainland Angola. This includes all matches in Group B (involving two of the continent's most prominent teams, Ivory Coast and Ghana, as well as Burkina Faso) as well as one quarterfinal match.

All yet, there is no indication that this blindingly obvious decision will be made. CAF already has the blood of four deaths on its hands. Does it want more?

Update: There is some speculation on Twitter that Ghana may also pull out.

Further updates: According to AFP, the Togolese players have decided to defy their government's decision and participate in the tournament. CAF has insisted stubbornly and stupidly that matches will be played as scheduled in Cabinda, despite the rebels announcing that they would step up military attacks.

Togolese national team shot

2010-01-08T12:57:00.000-05:00

There are reports out (BBC, AP) that Togo's national soccer team's bus has been attacked by gunmen and several team members and staff have been injured. The team was traveling from Congo-Brazzaville, where it had been training, to Angola, for the upcoming African Nations Cup. The incident occurred in the Angolan enclave of Cabinda, which is separated from the rest of Angola by a sliver of DR Congo territory. Cabinda has been plagued by militants fighting for the independence of the oil-rich enclave.

Periodic Twitter update: Dec. 1-14, 2009

2009-12-14T15:05:00.000-05:00

Note: This is a new series of blog entries highlighting selected stories from the Twitter feeds for my blogs Musings of a (Fairly) Young Contrarian and Black Star Journal. This is for the benefit of blog readers who do not subscribe to Twitter. However those that are interested are encouraged to subscribe the Twitter feed to get all stories by going to Twitter.com/mofycbsj and clicking 'follow'.

GENERAL
*Global Voices -- France: The Day Without Immigrants

*AlterNet -- A Look at the Shady Morals of NY State Senator Hiram Monserrate Who Opposed Marriage Equality

*Doctors Without Borders -- Interested in humanitarian work? See what it’s really like. LivingInEmergency next Mon, 12/14

*AlterNet -- Social Action in Copenhagen Rivals Seattle Protest

*Adirondack Almanack -- What's Wrong With Leg-Hold Traps?

AFRICA
*HumanityNews -- Nigeria: YarAdua Illness Raises Succession Fears

*Africannewsfeed: Cell phones cut maternal deaths in Ghana

*BBC World Service Africa: Reports of arrests, torture and killings of civilians suspected of opposing Guinea's injured junta leader

*BBC World Service Africa: A French mining firm is accused of dumping radioactive waste in Gabon

Enugu police on the rampage

2009-12-08T09:41:00.001-05:00

The BBC has a disturbing report on what appears to be a killing spree by the police in Enugu, Nigeria.

The Chief Medical Director at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital in Enugu says his staff are being forced to carry out mass burials because of the corpses that are flooding his hospital.

The Enugu State Police Commissioner said he was 'too busy' to talk about his out of control forces.

Nigerian police have come under widespread criticism for extrajudicial killings.

Revised commenting policy

2009-12-03T13:07:00.001-05:00

The old commenting policy of this blog rejected publication of completely anonymous, unsigned comments.

The new commenting policy of this blog will publish anonymous, unsigned comments on the condition that they do not make serious allegations against a person or entity. If you wish to make serious allegations, then you should sign your comment.

If you have a serious allegation but wish to remain anonymous, please contact me via email with details and I may investigate in a journalistic fashion and report on it as appropriate: mofycbsj@yahoo.com

This blog will continue to reject comments that are potentially libelous or defamatory or that appear to be spam/ads.

Guinean pro-democracy march in NYC on Dec. 8

2009-11-29T21:36:00.001-05:00

Republished with permission from Friends of Guinea blog.

From: Alliance Guinea

This is far from over - the latest news out of Guinea is a proposed deal that would have the CNDD junta heading a "national transition council" for up to 10 months and open the door for Dadis to stand in elections. At the same time, the UN is beginning the work of the international commission of inquiry into the crimes of September 28, but it's clear that more international pressure against the military and support for the population is needed.

Here in New York Alliance Guinea has joined forces with the Guinean Forces Vives in the US and our friends Kadiatou Diallo and Norman Siegel of the Amadou Diallo Foundation to form the "September 28 Coalition for Justice and Democracy in Guinea."

Together we are organizing a march and rally on Tuesday, December 8 from 11am - 3pm to demand justice for the crimes committed and support for a speedy and democratic transition to civilian rule in Guinea. At 11am we will gather in front of the Guinean consulate at 140 E. 39th St., marching then to 47th Street and rallying by noon at Dag Hammarskjold Park in front of the United Nations. See Stay tuned for a list of expected speakers.

If you live far from New York and cannot join us in person, here are two things you can still do:

1. Make a donation – help us offset the cost of the rally (permits, transport, stage & sound system costs, etc.) through our new online giving button at www.allianceguinea.org. Check it out and pass the word – every gift counts!

2. Write a letter (again!) to your local newspaper or Congressperson/Member of Parliament and tell them about the march and how the latest news out of Guinea confirms the critical need for international pressure and support is critical to getting justice and preventing what could spiral into civil war. For sample letters and other tips, see http://www.allianceguinea.org/advocacy-what-you-can-do/

And if you are in the New York area and can’t make it during lunch hour on Tuesday, don’t miss for what is going to be an amazing "Musique contre la Violence" unity night in Harlem on December 9 at 8pm at Shrine in Harlem with some of the greatest masters of Guinean music living in America and guest speakers from the September 28 Coalition.

The situation in Guinea is just as dire as ever, and justice must be served and the military must go. As those of us here in the US gather for Thanksgiving this week, let us give thanks for the freedoms we enjoy and continue to do all we can to help our friends and family enjoy the same.

Most unintentionally ironic headline of the day

2009-11-27T09:49:00.001-05:00

From the BBC World Service Africa's Twitter feed: "Madagascar's constitution becomes the basis of a cartoon".

This from a country where several months, a guy who was constitutionally too young to become president stole power from the democratically elected government in a military-backed coup.

Illegal mining funds DRC rebels

2009-11-22T12:21:00.000-05:00

BBC's domestic Radio 4 has a good documentary on the devastating effects of illegal gold mining in the DR Congo.

A Taste of Zimbabwe in Albany

2009-11-10T15:44:00.001-05:00

I received information about a fundraiser in Albany, NY to support girls in Zimbabwe made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS. It is sponsored by the Dangwa Initiative and the Rotary Club of the Empire Plaza.

A Taste of Zimbabwe will be held on Friday November 20 from 7:00 pm until midnight at The Linda (WAMC Performing Arts Studio).

It will feature living Zimbabwean music by Fafi 3 Percent, the sale of Shona sculptures and Zimbabwean cuisine.

Donation is $25 for adults, $20 for students ($35 at the door).

For reservations, please call (518) 459-2914 or email: info @ dangwa.org

You can pay online at: wamcarts.org/artsched.html

Or you can mail checks (payable to: FCNY/Dangwa Initiative) to:

Dangwa Initiative
PO Box 5125
Albany, NY 12205

For further information, you can call Teresa at (518) 221-9423

Guinea slaughter was 'premeditated', says NGO

2009-11-02T20:24:00.000-05:00

A recent report by the advocacy group Human Rights Watch concluded that massacre by the Guinean 'security' forces which killed over 150 was in fact premeditated.

The country's military dictator Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara had blamed the killings on out-of-control members of the military and Red Berets (presidential guard). The argument seemed plausible as army discipline has long been a problem in the country, especially the mutiny-turned-coup attempt of 2-3 February 1996, which I lived through.

Dadis also had the audacity to partly blame the demonstrators, who'd gathered to peacefully protest his decision to break his promise and run in next January's presidential election.

This remarkable piece of reportage by France 24 (unfortunately available only in French) reveals beyond any shadow of a doubt the messiah complex that has clearly seized Dadis.

HRW found that members of the Presidential Guard carried out a premeditated massacre of at least 150 people on September 28 and brutally raped dozens of women. Red berets shot at opposition supporters until they ran out of bullets, then continued to kill with bayonets and knives.

The Africa director of HRW said, "Security forces surrounded and blockaded the stadium, then stormed in and fired at protesters in cold blood until they ran out of bullets. They carried out grisly gang rapes and murders of women in full sight of the commanders. That’s no accident."

HRW also discounted claims that the massacre was provoked. It obtained video evidence showing that the crowd in Conakry's main stadium had a "peaceful and celebratory atmosphere" with "singing, dancing... and even praying."

The NGO added that it has not seen any evidence that any opposition supporters were armed, and no security officials were wounded by opposition supporters at the stadium, suggesting that there was no legitimate threat posed by the opposition supporters that required the violence that followed.

It added that the violence started as soon as the Presidential Guard savages entered the stadium and "began firing point-blank directly into the massive crowd."

Ethnic cleansing in Guinea?

2009-10-21T19:06:00.002-04:00

I received this from a contact of mine who's married to a Guinean. The account is reprinted with her permission. The name of her husband has been omitted for his safety.

Earlier this evening [last week], I spoke with my [husband] in Guinea. A week ago today, the Guinean armed forces opened fire on a peaceful pro-democracy demonstration, killing at least 157, injuring over 1200 more, and reportedly raping over 150 women, in addition to using tear gas and stabbing people with bayonets. Although the UN, the EU, the AU, France, the US, and many others have issued strong statements of condemnation against the violence, no one has yet been willing to commit to a more active course of intervention. There has been minimal news coverage, especially as compared to the recent crisis in Iran, for example. Reporters have been threatened, detained, and had their equipment smashed; there has been some additional coverage of events via Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Doctors Without Borders.

Moussa Dadis Camara, the current dictator, has denied all responsibility for the shootings, citing 'out of control elements' in the military. Because one of the most outspoken opposition leaders is from the Peule ethnic group, there has been a great deal of open hostility toward this specific group. They are one of the three dominant ethnic groups in the country.

[Husband] lives in a predominantly Peule neighborhood, and he told me that for the past two nights especially, there has been increased gunfire and violence as the militia have been going through the neighborhood, randomly arresting people and taking them away. Last night, his next-door neighbors from BOTH SIDES were taken, but they left [husband] alone... He said to me that he knew it was the protection and energy work (being done by myself and my colleagues) that kept him safe, and to please continue as things are looking pretty unstable at the moment!

A couple of days ago, the military shot & killed a 10-year old boy from just down the street, and there have been numerous other shootings, lootings and rapes in the past week. I haven't seen any media reports on any of these additional crimes, and the coup government continues to maintain there were only 56 fatalities, and that most of those were from being 'crushed or asphyxiated in the crowds'. Text messaging has been suspended, the media has been throttled, and public gatherings have been banned.

At the memorial services held last Friday, THOUSANDS of people turned out looking for missing friends & relatives. This makes me question whether the military in fact started 'disappearing' people some time ago. Given what [husband] has been through in the past few months, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if this turns out to be the case.

Meanwhile, in the past couple of months, the military has inducted over 2000 new militia from the Guerze ethnic group in a targeted recruitment. The Guerze are a minority group in southern Guinea who also inhabit both Liberia and Sierra Leone. The reigning dictator, Moussa Dadis Camara, is also Guerze - this is the first time a member of this group has held power (over) in Guinea, and apparently he is unwilling to let go of it. The Guerze people were reportedly heavily involved in both the recent conflicts in the neighboring countries.

[Husband] spent today in the garage, working on getting the car ready to drive across country to Mali - about a 20-hour drive if road conditions are good. He will have to find & bribe someone in the military to get him past the checkpoints, but once he is out of Conakry, he should be OK. (I hope)

The majority of the military & police forces have succumbed to brutality and violence, and continue to carry out atrocities daily, with seeming impunity. My husband is terrified that he will not live to see me again. Because of the recurrent gunfire at night, he has been unable to sleep properly for several days now; his health has taken some pretty big hits this year, and he's very aware of being pushed to his physical limits. There have also been rumors that the water supply had been deliberately contaminated, which could set up conditions for a pandemic. Business has mostly remained closed since last week, and food supplies are becoming scarce.

If Guinea destabilizes into an ethnic war, both Sierra Leone and Liberia are likely to be drawn into the conflict. Both of those countries have only very recently recovered from their own civil wars (if you haven't seen the film Blood Diamond, it gives a relatively accurate depiction of how bad it could get).

Personally I'm praying for divine intervention - perhaps in the form of international peacekeeping forces conducting an aggressive investigation into accountability and command structure of the military forces in Guinea. Whatever it takes. One wonders if this is merely going to be the latest in a long string of tragedies that could have been averted if only the international community could find the political will and sanity to mount an intervention free of any regional agenda. Rwanda, Darfur, Somalia... how many Africans have to be killed before the world cares?

Also: NPR had a pair of stories this week (here and here) on the reported widespread sexual violence against women by the forces of disorder.

"Doctor" Jammeh scapegoats gays again

2009-10-15T16:08:00.001-04:00

Yahya Jammeh, the megalomaniac in charge of The Gambia, has reportedly threatened to execute practicing gays who are HIV positive. In 2007, Jammeh claimed to have cured Gambians of HIV and AIDS. So if "Doctor" Jammeh "cured" those afflicted with HIV, then how can there be anyone left for him to murder?

Guinea

2009-10-14T13:37:00.002-04:00

For those of you following the events in Guinea, Friends of Guinea's blog and Twitter feed (both of which I maintain) have extensive information.

Friends of Guinea statement on the events in Guinea

2009-10-08T20:05:00.000-04:00

From: The Friends of Guinea blog

Below is a statement on behalf of the Friends of Guinea board of directors on the recent events in Guinea

As an organization primarily comprising people who've lived in or have some other strong connection to the country, Friends of Guinea is following the unfolding events in the Republic of Guinea with grave concern. We condemn by the massacre of 187 peaceful, unarmed protesters (over 1000 were injured) by the Guinean security forces and are particularly horrified by reports of soldiers publicly raping women.

The country's military leader, Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara, claims he has no control over the elements within the army and even blamed civilian opposition politicians for leading their followers into a confrontation with that army. In reality, the tension has been caused by Guineans' rightful disgust with corrupt leaders who've misruled and oppressed them with complete impunity for decades, last week's slaughter being only the most bloody example.

Guineans were initially optimistic about the new regime, as Capt. Dadis promised to crack down on corruption and drug trafficking. He also promised not to stand in next January's presidential elections. It was his reneging on that promise that led to the escalation of tension in the country. The brutal suppression, by men in uniform acting in his name, of peaceful protests is only making things worse.

If we are to take him at his word, that he's not in control of the military, then the military ruler must make re-establishing that control his number one task, not running a political campaign. We are heartened that Capt. Dadis says he agrees that an international inquiry into the massacre is merited, but that is not enough. We call on him to keep his initial promise to not run in the upcoming presidential elections and to hand over power to a democratically-elected civilian government. Imposing control over the security forces, implementing the rule of law and establishing democracy would be three of the most important things he could do for Guineans.

The September 28th killings occurred on the 50th anniversary of Guinea's historic rejection of French colonialism. In the lead up to that vote, Guinean leader Sékou Touré said that his countrymen would choose "poverty in liberty over prosperity in slavery." Guineans have seen plenty of poverty but precious little liberty. They are clearly showing how fed up they are with corrupt, autocratic regimes. After half a century, it's long past time they are allowed a leader who reflects their will. We call on Capt. Dadis to allow that to happen.

Updates on the situation in Guinea following the 28 September massacre

2009-10-05T22:24:00.000-04:00

Reprinted with permission from Friends of Guinea blog here and here.

Guinéenews reports that the Upper Guinea city of Siguiri and Forest region city of Kissidougou were both paralyzed by general strikes today [Monday].

Earlier Monday morning, protesters in Siguiri took to the streets demanding public lighting of their city. The protests prevented activities in the center of town. Protesters objected to the local authorities failure to keep its promise in the matter.

In Kissidougou, transport and commercial activities were halted when youth called for action to protest both the candidacy of the military leader Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara in January's presidential elections and the September 28 massacre. The protesters were dissuaded against actually taking to the streets, for fear of violence, however the population stayed home instead, shutting down the city.

Meanwhile, Burkina Faso's head of state Blaise Compaoré arrived in Conakry to begin ECOWAS sponsored mediation.

***

Events are moving so quickly in Guinea that it's hard to keep up, but below are links to various news articles about and international reaction to the evolving situation in the country following the September 28 massacre that is now believed to have killed 187 people.

-Foreign gunmen helped Guinea crackdown (Reuters)

-Scuffles break out at new Guinea anti-junta demo (AFP)

-Thousands identify Guinea bodies (BBC)

-International inquiry needed into violence by Guinea security forces(Amnesty International)

-Guinean junta leader calls for UN investigation (Radio Netherlands)

-UN Security Council condemns Guinea repression, deaths (DPA)

-CNDD junta condemns September 28 deaths (Guinéenews - in French)

-Guinea junta calls for national unity government (Reuters)

-Guinea opposition rejects unity government after bloodbath (DPA)

-Guinean refugees heading toward Mali (Maliweb - in French)

-Guinean soldiers accused of raping women with rifle butts (AP)

-Civil society reactions to junta leader’s declarations (MISNA)

-West African regional grouping names Burkina Faso leader as facilitator (AFP)

-[Video] Guinean soldiers firing on crowd (UK Guardian) (WARNING: contains graphic images)

-[Audio] Guinea violence (BBC World Service Analysis program)

-Guinea leader vows to hold election despite bloody protest (The Day)

-France's [foreign minister Bernard] Kouchner Urges International Intervention in Guinea (Bloomberg)

-Guinea people opposed to peacekeepers, claims junta chief (AFP)

-Guinea leader claims 'no responsibility' in bloodbath (AFP)

-Dadis admits, "To say that I control this army would be demagogy." (France 24)

87 (120+?) massacred after Guinean insecurity thugs attack anti-dictator demonstrators

2009-09-28T21:27:00.001-04:00

Reprinted with permission from Friends of Guinea blog

Initial optimism about the new regime has faded dramatically ever since junta leader Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara reneged on a promise to not participate in presidential elections scheduled for January 31.

A new political party, the Rally for the Defense of the Republic, was formed to back the military leader's candidacy. After Dadis, who unilaterally declared himself president following the death of Gen. Lansana Conté, broke his pledge not to run for the chief executive, the African Union imposed sanctions on Guinea.

Anti-Dadis has been rising ever since the coup leader's electoral ambitions became clear. He was met by huge protests when he visited Labé, the country's second largest city. And when the opposition tried to organize a rally against the regime, the junta banned it.

When the demonstration proceeded anyway, the "security" forces fired live ammunition at the crowd, reportedly killing dozens of demonstrators.

"It's butchery! There are dozens of dead," a Conakry doctor told the French news agency AFP.

Some media outlets reporting the death total as high as 87.

Another Conakry doctor told the IRIN news agency that there were 'hundreds' of injuries from bullets and beatings.

The massacre occurred on the 51st anniversary of the referendum in which Guineans voted for independence from France.

Update: Al-Jazeera reports that opposition leader and former prime minister Cellou Dalien Diallo and several other politicians were thrown in jail. A source indicated to me that Diallo was also shot during the protests. New reports suggest the death toll now exceeds 120.

Get blog updates on Twitter

2009-09-16T11:48:00.001-04:00

You can get updates to my general blog Musings of a (Fairly) Young Contrarian and my Africa blog Black Star Journal on the microblogging service Twitter.

Just follow the username: mofycbsj

Or go to the link: twitter.com/mofycbsj

Any time I post to either blog, I post a title on Twitter and link to the piece.

One advantage of Twitter is that I can easily repost ("Re-Tweet" or RT) articles and essays from a wide variety of other sources. I do so for pieces that I find interesting but do not necessarily have the time to compose an essay of my own commenting on it; in other cases, they are so well-written or compelling that they speak for themselves.

Some recent RTs I've shared:

"How British invented 'development' during WWII as propaganda to defend colonialism & cover up racism," from Bill Easterly, a professor and development expert with whom I've sparred on the pages of Foreign Policy;

"African famines examined," from Public Radio International's The World;

"Could we improve care by changing the way we pay doctors?" from The Christian Science Monitor online;

"Internet access and telecommuting in the Adirondacks," from North Country Public Radio and featuring an interview with Adirondack Almanack founder and contributor John Warren.

Check it out.

Sort-of hiatus

2009-08-26T10:35:00.001-04:00

Due to a very busy schedule, I will be posting only sporadically to BSJ between now and the end of October. I should be able to resume more regular postings in November.

The heroes of the world

2009-08-20T16:53:00.001-04:00

Yesterday marked the first celebration of World Humanitarian Day. The date was chosen because it marked the sixth anniversary of the homicide bombing of the UN compound in Baghdad which killed 22 UN workers including former Human Rights Commissioner Sergio Vieria de Mello.

Humanitarian aid workers have always been in harm's way but they are suffering greater and greater numbers of casualties in recent years. This is not down to bad luck but rather to an intentional strategy by warring parties.

When I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guinea, which at the time hosted one of the largest refugee populations in the world, I came in contact with and made the acquaintance of many humanitarian aid workers. I visited a refugee camp and it gave me some idea of the absolutely miserable conditions these aid workers labor under.

I've come to consider these people the heroes of Humanity. The majority of western aid workers are people who could easily have remained at home in comfortable, air-conditioned apartments in London or New York but have chosen of their own free will to go to the worst places in the world in order to feed the starving and heal the sick.

It's also worth remembering that most big aid organizations also rely heavily on domestic staff from the countries in question. These are people who could very easily and understandably flee the conflict in their land but choose to stick around and help people who would otherwise suffer in misery or die.

I can think of no more noble calling.

Flooding in Conakry

2009-08-13T10:05:00.000-04:00

Reprinted with permission from Friends of Guinea blog

The UN's IRIN news service reports that flooding has hit parts of the Guinean capital Conakry last week. IRIN notes that torrential rains caused extensive damage in the Damondy neighborhood, near the international airport. The rains flooded homes, washed away belongings and destroyed some crops locals grow nearby.

It added: Dabondy residents said the area lacks the infrastructure to evacuate water. Everyone IRIN spoke to pointed to a low bridge nearby, where rubbish packed underneath hinders the passage of water. Fuel residue mixed in with debris in the area has exacerbated the blockage and hurt crops, residents said.

Other areas of the capital were also affected but Dabondy was particularly hard hit.

The UN news service points out that Dabondy is affected by flooding every year but that the rains have been particularly hard this year.

One resident who gave her name as Madame Bah said the floodwaters submerged a community well and swept away the cover. The well was used for cooking and bathing water; for drinking water residents fill jerry cans at a communal tap about 5km away.

The mayor of Matoto, the district in which Dabondy is located, blamed the residents for not being able to afford to build their houses anywhere else.

Note: a reader contacted me asking me if I had any more information other than the IRIN article on the flooding. Unfortunately, I accidentally deleted this email and can not reply to her directly. But I do not really have any further details. I contacted an acquaintance of mine in Conakry but she didn't know much about it and hadn't been affected. If any readers have any further information, please feel free to comment.

Get updates via Twitter

2009-08-11T09:48:00.001-04:00

Just a reminder that you can get a notification via Twitter whenever I update either my main blog Musings of a (Fairly) Young Contrarian [MOFYC] or my Africa blog Black Star Journal [BSJ]. On the Twitter feed, I also provide links (Re-tweets or RT) to stories around the web that may be of interest to readers of either blog. The Twitter feed can be found at:

twitter.com/mofycbsj.

Travels in Brazzaville

2009-08-10T09:58:00.001-04:00

Globalist.com correspondent Guy Pfeffermann muses on his travels in the Republic of Congo in a piece alliteratively entitled ' Birds and Bureaucrats of Brazzaville: Travels in the Congo.'

Bits and pieces - Africa edition

2009-08-04T17:15:00.000-04:00

AFRICAN CORRUPTION NUMBERS TRUMP DEVELOPMENT AID
Foreign Policy's blog has a piece on Africa's missing billions and the tax havens that aid and abet these crimes. Each year, more than $1 trillion exits developing countries, and more than $140 billion of comes from Africa. That's almost four times as much as the continent gets in official development aid... The key players in this shadow economy are corporations. Globally, more than 60 percent of capital flight comes from multinationals operating in resource-rich regions.

THE RISH AND FALL OF A VILLAGE HOUSING MARKET
The Wall Street Journal has an article on a small village in Guinea's Forest region that saw a housing market develop around investment from giant Rio Tinto only to crash when the controversial mining giant shuttered two-thirds of its operations only a short time later.

FILM FESTIVAL IN THE SAHARAN SANS
The New York Times had a feature on a film festival held in the Algerian desert.

UNCLE TED RETIRES
A story I must've missed earlier: Ted Roberts, the much loved Sierra Leonian news presenter, retired in February from the Voice of America. He worked at the VOA since 1964 and spent the last 14 years as host of the weekend news program Nightline Africa.

KENYAN NOBEL LAUREATE INTERVIEW
The American channel C-SPAN had an excellent hour-long interview with Kenyan Nobel Peace Laureate Dr. Wangari Maathai, who spoke, among other things, about her book The Challenge for Africa.

PRO-MONARCH POLL BANNED IN MOROCCO
You know freedom of the press is pretty limited when media outlets are banned from publishing polls that are 'extraordinarily favorable' toward the head of state. That's what happened in Morocco recently. The Moroccan magazine Tel Quel and the French daily newspaper Le Monde collaborated on a poll to measure the popularity of King Mohammed VI, on the 10th anniversary of his accession to the North African country's throne. Publication of the results were banned in Morocco. "The monarchy can not be put into the equation, even via a poll," explained Khalid Naciri, the government's spokesman and information minister. Daring ask people if they approve of their head of state would sent a terrible precedent, apparently. The irony? The banned results were overwhelmingly favorable toward the king, who is the 7th richest monarch in the world. 91 percent admitted to having sensed some positive change, since Mohammed became king. The further irony? 51 percent said that the overbearing royal protocol had lightened.

Thoughts on US policies toward Africa

2009-08-01T13:47:00.001-04:00

Here are some good recent pieces exploring western, and particularly American, policy with regard to Africa...

-Foreign Policy in Focus (FPIF) explores the increasingly militarized nature of the United States' policy toward the continent.

-FPIF also muses on the dictatorship in Uganda.

-Oxfam America and Foreign Policy held a discussion calling for a new path on American foreign assistance to Africa. Panelists called on U.S. leaders to make U.S. foreign assistance more supportive of effective states and active citizens. In particular, the panelists called for a U.S. aid approach that is more transparent, more consistent with the needs of citizens and local governments, and more focused on giving recipient states the power to manage their own development.

-Nigeria's This Day wonders in an editorial if Africa needs food aid.

Rawlings denies Nigerian funding

2009-07-29T09:48:00.001-04:00

Peace FM reports that a spokesman for Jerry Rawlings has denied media reports that the former Ghanaian president helped channel $3.5 million into his National Democratic Congress' 2008 electoral campaign. The $3.5 million allegedly came from the governor of Nigeria's River State, who is under investigation by a Nigerian anti-corruption commission.

Ghanaian law prohibits political parties from receiving money from foreign citizens or institutions.

NDC candidate John Atta Mills, once Rawlings' vice-president, was narrowly elected president in the campaign.

RFI censored in DRC

2009-07-28T15:41:00.001-04:00

RNW's Media Network blog reports that the Democratic Republic of the Congo has suspended FM transmissions of Radio France Internationale in the country. The Congolese regime has been a frequent critic of RFI's reporting. Media Network adds that RFI can still be heard in the DRC via shortwave.

Vacation

2009-07-17T15:36:00.000-04:00

This blog will be on hiatus for much of the rest of this month as I will be on vacation.

Evil Scum Taylor begins spewing his lies

2009-07-15T16:36:00.001-04:00

Earlier this week, former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor took the stand in The Hague during his trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Taylor, henceforth known here as Evil Scum Who Ought to Rot in Prison for The Rest of His Pathetic Life (Evil Scum for short), denied being responsible for any of the accused offenses.

Evil Scum, who is 'credited' with destabilizing much of West Africa during the 1990s and much of this decade, is charged with 11 counts of murder, torture, rape, sexual slavery and the use of child soldiers and terrorism in his role backing rebels in Sierra Leone's 1991-2002 civil war.

He has not yet been charged for any of the countless crimes he is widely believed to have been responsible for in his native Liberia.

Evil Scum's lawyer was on CBC Radio's As It Happens program earlier this week giving the former warlord's point of view.

Guinean junta warns of invasion, blames cartels

2009-07-13T14:57:00.002-04:00

Republished with permission from Friends of Guinea blog

The Guinean military regime has put the armed forces on high alert after claiming to have uncovered a plot to attack the country.

An announcement on state-run national radio said drugs cartels were believed to be behind the plans.

Cocaine cartels have essentially taken over the neighboring Republic of Guinea-Bissau, however the junta in Conakry said that armed men were also amassing along the borders in Senegal and Liberia.

"The ministry of defence was informed by the security services and other credible sources of the preparation of an armed attack on Guinea from its borders with Guinea-Bissau and the region of Casamance [in Senegal]," said a Guinean government statement. "These sources have also indicated that there are armed men regrouping on the border with Guinea Bissau to the north and the town of Foya to the south on the border with Liberia."

The governments of Guinea-Bissau, Senegal and Liberia denied that there were any armed groups along their borders with Guinea.

Update: Guinéenews reports that the African Union has criticized the invasion claims of the Guinean junta and described the CNDD's actions as a 'diversion.' An AU spokesman charged the CNDD with seeking pretexts to postpone the elections scheduled for the end of the year. Radio France Internationale's Afrique Soir program reports that head of state Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara threatened to arrest anyone contradicting the CNDD's claims and spreading 'disinformation.' Guinéenews pointed out that the forest region of Guinea was the victim of an incursion from rebels based in Liberia in 2000 which caused hundreds of deaths and serious destruction.

Why Africa produces the world's worst leaders

2009-07-03T00:01:00.000-04:00

A piece in the Nigerian paper This Day offers explores why on why Africa produces the world's worst leaders.

A Christian minister blamed the dearth of service-driven leadership in Nigeria and Africa on the wrong perception of service, saying it has also created the pervasive problem of intolerance of dissenting views, no matter how progressive they might be; thereby leading "to repression, attacks and elimination of persons who criticise or hold opposing views."

"Oil Industry Has Brought Poverty and Pollution to Niger Delta"

2009-07-02T18:03:00.000-04:00

Amnesty International recently issued a damning report on the manner in which the oil industry has destroyed Nigeria's Niger Delta Region. The title says it all: "Oil Industry Has Brought Poverty and Pollution to Niger Delta."

The Amnesty report notes: The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) describes the region as suffering from “administrative neglect, crumbling social infrastructure and services, high unemployment, social deprivation, abject poverty, filth and squalor, and endemic conflict.” This poverty, and its contrast with the wealth generated by oil, has become one of the world’s starkest and most disturbing examples of the “resource curse”.

Oil has generated an estimated US$600 billion since the 1960s. Despite this, many people in the oil-producing areas have to drink, cook with and wash in polluted water, and eat fish contaminated with oil and other toxins.

“More than 60 per cent of people in the region depend on the natural environment for their livelihood,” said Audrey Gaughran “Yet, pollution by the oil industry is destroying the vital resource on which they depend.”

Oil pollution kills fish, their food sources and fish larvae, and damages the ability of fish to reproduce, causing both immediate damage and long-term harm to fish stocks. Oil pollution also damages fishing equipment.

Oil spills and waste dumping have also seriously damaged agricultural land. Long-term effects include damage to soil fertility and agricultural productivity, which in some cases can last for decades. In numerous cases, these long-term effects have undermined a family’s only source of livelihood.

The destruction of livelihoods and the lack of accountability and redress have led people to steal oil and vandalize oil infrastructure in an attempt to gain compensation or clean-up contracts.

Black Looks blog has written quite extensively on the catastrophe as well...

'Which coups count?'

2009-07-01T16:22:00.001-04:00

Ethan at My Heart's in Accra muses on the wildly differing international reaction to the protests in Iran, the coup in Honduras and coup in Niger.

Femi Kuti interview

2009-06-30T16:26:00.001-04:00

WNYC public radio's Soundcheck program recently ran a good interview with Femi Kuti, son of the legendary Afrobeat pioneer and a pretty compelling musician in his own right.

Niger becomes dictatorship

2009-06-27T13:36:00.004-04:00

Rebuffed repeatedly in his attempts to become president-for-life by the country's National Assembly and Constitutional Court, Niger's president Mamadou Tandja has seized dictatorial powers. Tandja, who's already been in power for ten years, dissolved parliament and declared that he would rule by decree. He said that "the independence of the country is threatened," no doubt he meant the independence of his wallet.

The National Assembly refused Tandja's request to remove the constitutional two-term limit on the presidency. He tried to organize a public referendum to circumvent the legislative decision but its legality was twice struck down by the courts.

Un-human nature

2009-06-25T09:27:00.000-04:00

I was listening to this story about a monkey giving his liquefied opinion of the Zambian president's remarks and it made me wish that we humans were as honest as our ancestors.

Why corruption kills

2009-06-15T11:42:00.000-04:00

Last week, the world's longest serving president, Omar Bongo of Gabon, passed away in a hospital in Barcelona, Spain. It struck me how often African leaders have died in hospitals in Europe or North America or sought treatment there for illnesses.

For all the anti-western rhetoric of Guinea's Sékou Touré, dictator for 27 years, where did he seek treatment for the heart problem that eventually killed him? Cleveland, Ohio, United States. Félix Houphoët-Boigny ran Ivory Coast for 33 years but ended up in French hospitals for his prostate cancer. Zambia's Levy Mwanawasa died in a hospital near Paris. Mobutu Sese Seko was in charge Zaire for 30 years but got treatment for prostate in Europe.

It's a scathing indictment of the incompetence of misrulers like Bongo and Mobutu that they can have absolute power for decades but can not find a single hospital in their own country fit to address common conditions like heart problems and cancer. It's disgraceful that these thieves can jet off to Europe or the US at whim for their treatments but ordinary citizens are stuck with virtually non-existent health care systems at home.

Guinean army chief calls for poll delay but is rebuffed by Dadis

2009-06-12T13:34:00.003-04:00

Reprinted from Friends of Guinea blog with permission

Earlier this week, Guinea's army chief made waves by claiming that the country was not ready for elections in 2009 and that they should be delayed until next year.

However, the head of state, Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara, responded by insisting that elections would take place this year as scheduled.

When the German ambassador pressed Dadis if he would contest presidential elections if they were postponed until 2010, the junta leader angrily lashed out at the envoy. Camara promised not to stand in the 2009 elections, but some observers wonder if the promise precluded a candidacy if the polls were delayed until next year.

An Afrik.com correspondent shared his thoughts on a visit to the head of state's lounge.

Source: here

Guinean 'law and order' chief urges lynching

2009-06-10T08:53:00.001-04:00

In a shocking acknowledgment of the military junta's impotence, Guinea's anti-crime chief has urged the population to burn alive armed robbers caught in the act.

"I'm asking you to burn all armed bandits who are caught red-handed committing an armed robbery," said Captain Moussa Tiegboro Camara. "The prisons are full and cannot take more people, and the situation cannot continue like that."
Human rights groups have denounced the call.

Shell pays blood money to Ogonis

2009-06-09T10:27:00.002-04:00

The Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell has agreed to pay $15.5 million in blood money to a group of Ogoni plaintiffs. The group had filed a lawsuit in US court alleging Shell's complicity with human rights abuses in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The multinational pretended that the agreement was a "humanitarian gesture," presumably thinking that someone might be fooled. If Shell is suddenly concerned with "humanitarianism," perhaps they could stop the toxic gas flaring and other environmental and resulting human devastation that they are causing in the Delta.

Other sources on the story...
-The Independent (UK daily)
-This Day (Nigeria daily)
-AllAfrica.com
-Essay by Ken Saro Wiwa Jr. (background)
-Shell Guilty (pressure group)
-Shell (corporate press release)

Bongo's death confirmed

2009-06-08T14:42:00.001-04:00

Although there was some confusion earlier in the weekend, Gabon's prime minister has confirmed the death of the country's head of state Omar Bongo. Bongo, the world's longest serving president, died in Barcelona reportedly of cancer.

He'd ruled the oil-rich central African state since 1967. The UK Telegraph noted that Bongo was under investigation by French authorities over allegations that he plundered state resources to pay for huge houses and luxury cars in France.

As if the Jewish people haven't suffered enough

2009-06-06T21:17:00.006-04:00

Foreign Policy blog points out that former Liberian dictator and indicted war criminal Charles Taylor has pretended to convert to Judaism.

This might be surprising, as he used to be a pretend Christian. You may remember his farewell address shortly before fleeing the country rather than be overthrown, where he seemed to compare himself to Jesus Christ.

However, one of his wives [sic] clarified this to the BBC. "No, no, no he hasn't rejected Christianity. He has always been a Christian. He just decided to become a Jew. He wants to follow the two religions," she said.

As Foreign Policy put it: Least. Welcome. Convert. Ever.

Guinea-Bissau army kills senior pols

2009-06-05T12:56:00.001-04:00

The army in Guinea-Bissau has reportedly killed the minister of territorial administration (who was a candidate the June 28 presidential election) as well as a former defense minister, in a move described by the military as putting down a coup attempt. South Africa's Daily Mail and Guardian adds that local radio is also reporting that a former prime minister was also killed in the operation.

In March, the longtime-head of state was assassinated, apparently in revenge for the murder of the army chief.

Guinea-Bissau is considered Africa's first narco-state, which is a major cause of the country's dysfunction and instability.

Deposed Madagascar leader sentenced in absentia

2009-06-03T10:08:00.000-04:00

A court in Madagascar has sentenced recently overthrown president Marc Ravolomanana in absentia to four years in prison for "abuse of office." The court also fined the former head of state $70 million.

Ravolomana was toppled earlier this year in an army-backed coup, in which then-opposition leader Andry Rajoelina seized power.

Transition (sort of) to come in Addis?

2009-06-02T15:10:00.001-04:00

Africa Confidential has an interesting interview with Ethiopian strongman Meles Zenawi.

When asked what African countries can do for themselves to diminish the effects of the global economic downturn, the prime minister replied, "Well, in the end no amount of money that comes in from abroad is going to do the task for us."

Ironic comment considering Ethiopia has long been one of the world's largest per capita recipients of international "development" aid.

He also hinted at a generational transition, though as someone who's been in power for 18 years, the proof of the pudding will be in the cake.

Meles said, "The old leadership which was leading the [ruling] EPRDF during the armed struggle and up to now, myself included. That, to some extent is a sign of strength and it is also a sign of weakness that needs to be addressed and, as I said, the EPRDF is aware of it and is trying to address it. It is not just about X, Y or Z, it is about the whole group of leadership which has been in very senior leadership positions for a bit too long for the health of the party."

When asked if he was expecting a collective transition, he replied, "Yes, I think that the next crucial step needs to be taken."

It remains to be seen if there will be a real transition, both in personality and mentality. One signal: if the opposition will be able to demonstrate without being massacred.

Niger leader tries to confiscate power

2009-05-26T11:35:00.006-04:00

The leader of Niger has dissolved parliament and announced plans to hold a referendum that would allow him to be president-for-life. President Mamadou Tandja made the announcement after both legislators and the high court rejected his plans for a presently illegal third term in office. The National Assembly refused to push through constitutional changes that would've removed the two-term presidential limit. Tandja proposed a public vote to force through the changes, but the country's constitutional court ruled that a referendum "cannot serve as a basis for changing the constitution". The court added that the changes would violate his oath of office.

Presidential elections are scheduled for November of this year. The regional grouping ECOWAS warned that Niger faced sanctions if Tandja pushed his power grab. The grouping cited in particular a regional rule that Niger signed up to banning signatory member states from modifying their constitution in the six months immediately prior to an election, unless political figures from across the spectrum are in agreement.

Illegal fishing in the Gulf of Guinea

2009-05-21T08:58:00.000-04:00

The Washington Post has a story on the problem of illegal fishing in the Gulf of Guinea and the assistance being provided by the US Navy to Gabonese officials.

The Post points out that Illegal fishing -- which Somalia's pirates also cite as one reason for their attacks -- strips an estimated $1 billion in yearly revenue from sub-Saharan Africa.

Pres. Sirleaf's memoir

2009-05-15T16:01:00.000-04:00

The New York Times has a review of 'This Child Will Be Great,' a memoir by Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

The first elected female African head of state was also on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart last month to discuss the book.

Trial in Ivorian toxic dumping scandal

2009-05-14T17:37:00.001-04:00

BBC Two's Newsnight has a piece on 'the biggest toxic dumping scandal of the 21st century,' which allegedly poisoned at least 30,000 people and killed 17 in Abidjan in 2006

The program's investigation led to Amsterdam where the waste could have been safely disposed of. Instead the company, Trafigura, went for the cheaper option and offloaded it in Abidjan, where it was illegally dumped in at least 18 different places across Côte d'Ivoire's commercial capital.

Trafigura denies any responsibility. The company says that the action was undertaken by an independent contractor Companie Tommy but called the dumping 'reprehensible and illegal.' Yet Trafigura claims that 'it is not possible that the content of the slops could have led to the deaths and widespread injuries which are alleged to have been caused by them.'

The UK Guardian also ran a piece on the lawsuit filed in English court against Trafigura. The company has been accused of pressuring witnesses to change their story.

The impact of foreign assistance in Africa

2009-05-12T16:40:00.001-04:00

OneWorld.net and Public Radio International offer an interesting discussion between a journalist and a Zambian economist debating 'the impact of foreign assistance in Africa, challenging the existing model and calling for innovative change.'

Press freedom in 2008

2009-05-02T16:13:00.003-04:00

Congrats to Ghana, Mali and Mauritius for having the freest presses in Africa. It's no coincidence they are three of the most stable, democratic countries on the continent. Comoros, Sierra Leone, Angola and Liberia improved their press freedom rating, according to the NGO Freedom House. Though notably South Africa, Botswana and Senegal were among the countries who saw press freedom diminished in 2008. The NGO said Eritrea has the least press freedom in Africa with Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea not far behind.

The four Scandanavian countries plus Iceland and Belgium had the world's freest media environments.

Elections set in Guinea, Côte Ivoire

2009-04-29T10:07:00.000-04:00

December is likely to be a busy time in West Africa.

The Guinean military junta announced that the first round of presidential elections to replace the late Gen. Lansana Conté will be held on December 13, two months after scheduled legislative elections. Junta leader Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara recently declared that he would not be a candidate in those elections.

In neighboring Côte d'Ivoire, long overdue presidential elections will supposedly be held 'no later than December 6,' according to the Ivorian ambassador to the United Nations. He noted that the country's independent electoral commission promised elections between October 11 and December 6 of this year and that the exact date "will be announced by President [Laurent] Gbagbo in the next few days."

Now on Twitter

2009-04-28T12:17:00.001-04:00

You can now be notified of this blog's updates via Twitter.

Just go to and follow:

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Black Star Journal

Press liberalization in Niger

All that glitters isn't gold

Nigeria's exploding population

Tubman backs Taylor return

Top Kenyan officials indicted for post-electoral violence

Gbagbos charged

Male victims of sex crimes in war 'almost equal' number of female victims

Congratulations South Sudan

Arrest warrant for Blé Goudé

The new African land grab, brought to you by Harvard

Jos

You read it here first!

The Kinshasa Symphony

The real Africa is hidden

Rapes and murders by Gbagbo's thugs

Illegitimate Gbagbo's bloody hands cling to power

Africans embrace democracy while the African Union rejects it

There's something about Tunisia

US slaps sanctions on Gbagbo

Côte d'Ivoire: Rwanda redux... redux

Congratulations to President Alpha Conde and Guineans

Periodic Twitter update

Gbagbo leads Ivory Coast toward another civil war after electoral coup

Vieux Farka Touré

A West African view of the situation in Guinea

Long-time opposition leader becomes first democratically elected president of Guinea

The 'new' African land grab

Ethiopian dictatorship uses food aid to punish dissent: HRW

Return

Losing Guinea candidates cry foul; Gen. Konaté threatens to resign

Less than a week until historic elections in Guinea... and you can help!

The return of blood diamonds

On the nature of reconciliation (guest essay)

'Has HIV/AIDS Destroyed Its First Nation-State?'

Malaria prevention advance?

Periodic Twitter update

The nature of reconciliation

When 'Never Again' happened again

Libel suits a threat to independent journalism in Liberia?

Che, Lumumba and... Foday Sankoh?

Repression in Rwanda

Torture victims and the US justice system

Africa Writes: a cultural history website

Sékouba Konaté: Guinea's ATT?

20 years after a hero's liberation

Periodic Twitter update

Criminally moronic CAF add insult to injury... and death

Power sharing accord reportedly to be signed but Guinea remains tense and military split

African Nations' Cup must be withdrawn from Cabinda

Togolese national team shot

Periodic Twitter update: Dec. 1-14, 2009

Enugu police on the rampage

Revised commenting policy

Guinean pro-democracy march in NYC on Dec. 8

Most unintentionally ironic headline of the day

Illegal mining funds DRC rebels

A Taste of Zimbabwe in Albany

Guinea slaughter was 'premeditated', says NGO

Ethnic cleansing in Guinea?

"Doctor" Jammeh scapegoats gays again

Guinea

Friends of Guinea statement on the events in Guinea

Updates on the situation in Guinea following the 28 September massacre

87 (120+?) massacred after Guinean insecurity thugs attack anti-dictator demonstrators

Get blog updates on Twitter

Sort-of hiatus

The heroes of the world

Flooding in Conakry

Get updates via Twitter

Travels in Brazzaville

Bits and pieces - Africa edition

Thoughts on US policies toward Africa

Rawlings denies Nigerian funding

RFI censored in DRC

Vacation

Evil Scum Taylor begins spewing his lies

Guinean junta warns of invasion, blames cartels

Why Africa produces the world's worst leaders

"Oil Industry Has Brought Poverty and Pollution to Niger Delta"