Author: Pan-African News Wire

US expands war front

IN his latest column for the New Statesman, JOHN PILGER describes the increasing American war front across the world: from Afghanistan to Africa and Latin America. This is the Third World War in all but name, waged by the only aggressive “ism” that denies it is an ideology and threatened not by introverted tribesmen in faraway places but by the anti-war instincts of its own citizens.

HERE is news of the Third World War. The United States has invaded Africa. US troops have entered Somalia, extending their war front from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Yemen and now the Horn of Africa.

In preparation for an attack on Iran, American missiles have been placed in four Persian Gulf states, and “bunker-buster” bombs are said to be arriving at the US base on the British island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

In Gaza, the sick and abandoned population, mostly children, is being entombed behind underground American-supplied walls in order to reinforce a criminal siege.

In Latin America, the Obama administration has secured seven bases in Colombia, from which to wage a war of attrition against the popular democracies in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Paraguay.

Meanwhile, the secretary of “defence” Robert Gates complains that “the general (European) public and the political class” are so opposed to war they are an “impediment” to peace. Remember this is the month of the March Hare.

According to an American general, the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan is not so much a real war as a “war of perception”. Thus, the recent “liberation of the city of Marja” from the Taliban’s “command and control structure” was pure Hollywood.

Marja is not a city; there was no Taliban command and control. The heroic liberators killed the usual civilians, poorest of the poor. Otherwise, it was fake.

A war of perception is meant to provide fake news for the folks back home, to make a failed colonial adventure seem worthwhile and patriotic, as if The Hurt Locker were real and parades of flag-wrapped coffins through the Wiltshire town of Wooten Basset were not a cynical propaganda exercise.

“War is fun”; the helmets in Vietnam used to say with bleakest irony, meaning that if a war is revealed as having no purpose other than to justify voracious power in the cause of lucrative fanaticisms such as the weapons industry, the danger of truth beckons.

This danger can be illustrated by the liberal perception of Tony Blair in 1997 as one “who wants to create a world (where) ideology has surrendered entirely to values” (Hugo Young, the Guardian) compared with today’s public reckoning of a liar and war criminal.

Western war-states such as the US and Britain are not threatened by the Taliban or any other introverted tribesmen in faraway places, but by the anti-war instincts of their own citizens.

Consider the draconian sentences handed down in London to scores of young people who protested Israel’s assault on Gaza in January last year. Following demonstrations in which paramilitary police “kettled” (corralled) thousands, first-offenders have received two and a half years in prison for minor offences that would not normally carry custodial sentences.

On both sides of the Atlantic, serious dissent exposing illegal war has become a serious crime.Silence in other high places allows this moral travesty.

Across the arts, literature, journalism and the law, liberal elites, having hurried away from the debris of Blair and now Obama, continue to fudge their indifference to the barbarism and aims of western state crimes by promoting retrospectively the evils of their convenient demons, like Saddam Hussein.

With Harold Pinter gone, try compiling a list of famous writers, artists and advocates whose principles are not consumed by the “market” or neutered by their celebrity. Who among them have spoken out about the holocaust in Iraq during almost 20 years of lethal blockade and assault?

And all of it has been deliberate. On January 22, 1991, the US Defence Intelligence Agency predicted in impressive detail how a blockade would systematically destroy Iraq’s clean water system and lead to “increased incidences, if not epidemics of disease”.

So the US set about eliminating clean water for the Iraqi population: one of the causes, noted Unicef, of the deaths of half a million Iraqi infants under the age of five. But this extremism apparently has no name.Norman Mailer once said he believed the United States, in its endless pursuit of war and domination, had entered a “pre-fascist era”.

Mailer seemed tentative, as if trying to warn about something even he could not quite define. “Fascism” is not right, for it invokes lazy historical precedents, conjuring yet again the iconography of German and Italian repression.

On the other hand, American authoritarianism, as the cultural critic Henry Giroux pointed out recently, is “more nuance, less theatrical, more cunning, less concerned with repressive modes of control than with manipulative modes of consent.”

This is Americanism, the only predatory ideology to deny that it is an ideology. The rise of tentacular corporations that are dictatorships in their own right and of a military that is now a state with the state, set behind the façade of the best democracy 35 000 Washington lobbyists can buy, and a popular culture programmed to divert and stultify, is without precedent. More nuanced perhaps, but the results are both unambiguous and familiar.

Denis Halliday and Hans von Sponeck, the senior United Nations officials in Iraq during the American and British-led blockade, are in no doubt they witnessed genocide. They saw no gas chambers.

Insidious, undeclared, even presented wittily as enlightenment on the march, the Third World War and its genocide proceeded, human being by human being. In the coming election campaign in Britain, the candidates will refer to this war only to laud “our boys”.

The candidates are almost identical political mummies shrouded in the Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes.

As Blair demonstrated a mite too eagerly, the British elite loves America because America allows it to barrack and bomb the natives and call itself a “partner”. We should interrupt their fun. — www.johnpilger.com

Germany: Hotbed of imperialism

By Itai Muchena, in OREGON, USA
Courtesy of the Zimbabwe Herald

THE hodgepodge of geometric boundaries that today divide Africa into 50 plus irregular nations under Eurocentric subjugation all started in Berlin, Germany on November 15, 1884.

The infamous Berlin Conference still remains Africa’s greatest undoing in more ways than one, where colonial powers superimposed their domains on the African continent and tore apart the social, political and economic fabric that held the continent together.

By the time independence returned to Africa between 1956 and 1994, the African realm had acquired a colonial legacy of political fragmentation that could neither be eliminated nor made to operate wholly independent from the former colonial masters.

Some Africans had been too much battered, some bruised, some undignified and others brainwashed so much that up to today, Africa is battling to remain united due to continued and uncalled for interference, at every opportunity, by the imperialist hawks.

Today, the same Germany — the womb that gave birth to colonialism — is unashamedly hosting and developing AFRICOM, the United States of America superior military command formed to superintend on America’s milking of African resources, at the expense of not only Africa but other fair dealing countries of the world.

There is no doubt that Germany is seeking re-colonisation of Africa, this time, creating space for its big brother, the United States of America.

The giant military project is not only an affront to African democracy but an insult to African humanism as it seeks to reverse all the gains brought about by independence — from sovereignty to control of natural resources and self governance.

Africa will not forget that in 1884 at the request of Portugal, German chancellor Otto Von Bismarck called together the major western powers of the world to negotiate questions and end confusion over the control of Africa. Africa itself was not invited because Europe believed Africans had no meaningful contribution to make towards shaping their own destiny.

Bismarck saw an opportunity to expand Germany’s sphere of influence over Africa and desired to pitch Germany’s rivals to struggle with one another for territorial integrity. Today, current Chancellor Angela Mickel is playing exactly the same role, pitching America against other economic powers in a battle to control Africa’s strategic natural resources.

Before the Berlin Conference 80 percent of Africa and its natural resources had remained under traditional and local leadership but thereafter the new map of the continent was superimposed over the one thousand indigenous cultures and regions of Africa. Concurrently, Africa’s wealth — as pronounced by its vast human and natural resource base — was appropriated by the colonisers.

As a result, the new countries lacked and still lack rhyme or reason and divide coherent groups of people and merged together disparate groups that really did not get along.

All in all, 14 countries were represented: Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden-Norway (unified from 1814-1905), Turkey, and the United States of America.

France, Germany, Great Britain, and Portugal were the major players in the conference, controlling most of colonial Africa at the time.

At the Berlin Conference the European colonial powers scrambled to gain control over the interior of the continent. The conference lasted until February 26, 1885 — a three-month period where colonial powers haggled over geometric boundaries in the interior of the continent, disregarding the cultural and linguistic boundaries already established by the indigenous African populace.

By 1914, the conference participants had fully divided Africa among themselves into 50 countries.

Great Britain targeted a Cape-to-Cairo collection of colonies and almost succeeded through its control of Egypt, Sudan (Anglo-Egyptian Sudan), Uganda, Kenya (British East Africa), South Africa, and Zambia (Southern Rhodesia), Malawi (Nyasaland), Zimbabwe (Northern Rhodesia), and Botswana. They also controlled Nigeria and Ghana (Gold Coast).

France took much of western Africa, from Mauritania to Chad (French West Africa) and Gabon and the Republic of Congo (French Equatorial Africa).

Belgium and King Leopold II controlled the Democratic Republic of Congo (Belgian Congo) while Portugal took Mozambique in the east and Angola in the west.

Italy took Somalia (Italian Somaliland) and a portion of Ethiopia while Germany took Namibia (German Southwest Africa) and Tanzania (German East Africa). Spain claimed the smallest territory — Equatorial Guinea (Rio Muni).

Today, Africa has stood firm against the hosting of AFRICOM and the same Germany has offered an alternative and will host AFRICOM until 2012, when it is envisaged the US would have found a suitable base in Africa.

Sadc in particular and the African Union in general, have said no to this project but the Americans are not resting on their laurels. They are still working out ways of penetrating African governments in order to get a strategic African country to host AFRICOM.

The truth, however, remains that once Africa allows the hosting of AFRICOM, it will have subcontracted all its powers to AFRICOM, to USA and its exploitative military ventures.

After a review of numerous potential locations for the establishment of AFRICOM headquarters, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has elected to keep the new command in Stuttgart, Germany at least for now, Pentagon officials say.

‘‘Secretary of Defence Gates decided to delay a decision on the permanent location of US Africa Command headquarters until early 2012,’’ said Defence Department spokeswoman Lt. Colonel Elizabeth Hibner, last week.

Until then, AFRICOM’S headquarters will remain in Stuttgart, ‘‘the decision has been delayed until US Africa Command has more experience in working with partner nation militaries and thus a better understanding of its long-term operational requirements,’’ wrote Hibner.

After fierce resistance from Africa, which should continue through experienced leaders like President Mugabe, Hosni Mubarak, Omar al-Bashir, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and new but progressive thinking ones like Jacob Zuma, Bingu waMutharika and Rupiyah Banda, AFRICOM seems to have hit a brick wall on finding an African host.

‘‘We certainly looked at a number of alternatives,’’ Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said in a news release. ‘‘But at the end of the day, it was determined that for now, and into the foreseeable future, the best location was for it to remain in its current headquarters.’’

In Stuttgart, AFRICOM officials say the focus now is on building up the new command.

Though it was officially activated on October 1, there has been a steady stream of speculation worldwide about where AFRICOM would eventually set up its headquarters. Potential sites have ranged from Charleston, SC, to Morocco and Monrovia, to other locations in Europe such at Rota, Spain.

‘‘It’s become a phenomenon that the discussion of AFRICOM always hinges on where it’s going. Where we’re going is here (Stuttgart). What’s important for us is to build the command,’’ said Vince Crawley, AFRICOM spokesman. ‘‘Looking for office space stateside is something that is well-intended, but something way down the road.’’

But whether the Pentagon’s latest statement on AFRICOM will quell the speculation remains to be seen. For instance, despite repeated statements that the initial plan to place AFRICOM headquarters in Africa was shelved, reports routinely crop up asserting otherwise. The most recent case occurred a couple weeks ago with Moroccan media outlets reporting that a deal was struck for AFRICOM to locate its headquarters in the port city of Tantan.

It will be folly for Africa to think that AFRICOM commanders have rested their case on finding a compliant African country to host them because keeping the new command in Stuttgart will allow it to gain greater operational experience and foster relationships with both African and European partners.

Once AFRICOM moves to African soil, Africa is doomed and finished. It will have to religiously follow the American exploitation gospel and the founding fathers of the African revolution will turn and wince in their graves from anger and disappointment.

–Itai Muchena is reading politics at Ohio State University, US. He can be reached on: [email protected]

Wednesday, April 07, 2010
11:36 Mecca time, 08:36 GMT

Egypt hosts antiquities meeting

Iraqi officials are seeking to get back antiquities looted from the National Museum in 2003

Antiquities officials from around the world have gathered in Cairo to map out a strategy to bring back artefacts they say have been taken away from their countries and displayed abroad.

Antiquities officials, deputy culture ministers and museum directors from 16 countries are attending the two-day meeting.

Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) said the forum will discuss “the protection and restitution of cultural heritage”.

Delegates will also draw up lists of artefact’s missing from their countries and displayed in museums abroad, treasures they have been demanding be returned, the SCA said.

The conference will also call on the United Nations cultural body Unesco to amend a convention that bans export or ownership of stolen antiquities acquired after 1970.

The convention deals with the “means of prohibiting and preventing the illicit import, export and transfer of ownership of cultural property”, but stipulates there will be no “retroactive” measure for artefacts acquired before the convention was signed in 1970.

Retrieving ‘loot’

Over the years, Egypt’s antiquities supremo Zahi Hawass has made the return of looted Egyptian artefact’s the hallmark of his tenure and won many battles to bring home Pharaonic items and other ancient relics.

Thirty countries were invited to attend but only 16 are attending: Bolivia, China, Cyprus, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Iraq, Italy, Libya, Mexico, Nigeria, South Korean, Spain, Sri Lanka and Syria.

Officials from Iraq, whose national museum saw one of the biggest lootings in modern history following the US-led invasion in 2003, will attend the conference.

Fawzi al-Atroshi, Iraq’s deputy culture minister, told Al Jazeera: “The number of antiquities stolen from the Iraqi national museum in 2003 is estimated at 15,000 pieces. Many of them date back to the third millennium BC.

“We have recovered around 7,000 pieces and we are still chasing the rest in neighbouring countries, Europe, Americas and Israel. The Israelis were interested in antiquities written in Hebrew.”

In March, Egypt said it retrieved from Britain some 25,000 ancient artefacts, including a stone axe dating back 200,000 years and pottery from the seventh millennium BC.

Egyptian efforts

But Hawass is still eyeing two high profile objects: the Rosetta stone held by the British Museum for more than 200 years and the 3,400-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti on display at the Neues Museum in Berlin.

The iconic Rosetta stone, which dates back to 196 BC, was found by French forces in Egypt in 1799 and given to the British under a treaty two years later.

As for the Nefertiti bust, Germany has repeatedly rebuffed Egyptian claims to the rightful ownership of it and says the priceless sculpture was acquired legally nearly a century ago. Egypt says it was spirited out of the country.

Last year Egypt broke off relations with the Louvre Museum until France finally returns stolen steles chipped off a wall painting in the ancient tomb in Luxor’s Valley of the Kings.

Greece, one of the countries attending the conference, will chair a session devoted to “problems facing the countries in their attempt to retrieve their antiquities,” Hawass has said.

Athens has been locked in a 30-year antiquities “war” with London to retrieve the Elgin Marbles from the British Museum.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

Detroit Continues Fight Against School Closings, Demolitions & Illegal Medical Center Takeover

Parents, community rally to save schools while state halts federally-funded downsizing

By Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire

A new round of rallies and demonstrations began during the week of March 29 in efforts to halt the closing of 45 schools and other attacks involving the downsizing of the city and the sale of the non-profit Medical Center. Residents of the city came out in the hundreds to community meetings seeking answers and methods of struggle to stop the escalating attacks on the largely African-American and working class municipality.

On March 29, 200 students, staff and alumni from Cooley High, located on the northwest side, rallied in front of the building requesting that the plan to shut down the school be reversed. The state-appointed Detroit Public Schools (DPS) emergency financial manager Robert Bobb has scheduled to close the school at the end of the semester in June.

Alumni extending back to the 1950s and 1960s attended the rally and voiced their concerns to the media that the closing of the school would be devastating to the community. State Rep. Leslie Love, a Cooley alumni, was present and played a leading role in the gathering.

After the rally, the crowd took the streets and marched along the business district on Fenkell. Even though traffic was blocked along the way, motorists honked their horns and gave the black power salute and thumbs-up in support of the demonstration to save the school.

This demonstration lasted for an hour and drew people out of their homes and small businesses to join in the protest. Residents of the neighborhood were unanimous in their sentiment that the closing of Cooley would further damage the social fabric of the community which has been severely impacted by the deepening economic crisis in Detroit.

Later that same evening the first in a series of community meetings called by the DPS emergency financial manager to discuss the closings was held at Henry Ford High School also located on the northwest side. 400 people showed up at the meeting representing Coffey, Holcomb, Langston Hughes, McKenny, Taft and Charles Wright schools.

Both parents and students gave detailed and impassioned presentations in support of keeping their schools open. In addition, Detroit Federation of Teachers President Keith Johnson spoke as well as in opposition to the closings.

The school closings are being promoted in the corporate media as a cost-cutting mechanism for the cash-strapped district which is facing a deficit of over $300 million. Yet since the appointment of the emergency financial manager by Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm one year ago, the red ink has increased by $100 million.

When the emergency financial manager for DPS took control in 2009, he laid-off 1,500 employees but was forced to bring back 1,100 because personnel shortages were so acute that many schools could not even operate. Due to the financial mismanagement by the state-appointee, the district was forced to take out a short-term loan of $256 million in order to meet payroll and other expenses. (Detroit News, April 4)

Even the Detroit News, whose editorial stance is in support of the emergency financial manager and state control of the school district, was forced to admit that “Now the district is so broke it has had to plead to state officials for permission to take on yet another short-term loan.” (Detroit News, April 4) Despite threats by Robert Bobb to put the school district into receivership or bankruptcy last year if the unions did not accept huge pay and benefit cuts, this plan is no longer advocated because of the damage it has done to the overall bond ratings for both the city and the state of Michigan.

At present the state Superintendent Michael Flanagan is attempting to force a deal between the elected Detroit School Board and the emergency financial manager in order to secure a $115 million grant from the federal government. The board has filed suit against the emergency financial manager in an effort to win an injunction to stop the school closings.

Robert Bobb wrote to Otis Mathis, the Detroit Board of Education President, asking for the elected body to drop its lawsuit against his office in exchange for some compromise over control of the district. The Detroit board had sued earlier to stop Bobb from exercising academic control over the district as well.

Yet the question of academic control of the district is superfluous with the impending closure of 45 schools, the possible lay-off of over 2,000 employees and the burgeoning deficit. Vice-President of the Detroit board Anthony Adams said on April 1 that “The board has been ignored. The issue is whether he’s prepared to accept us as a partner.” (Detroit Free Press, April 2)

However, the question is what will the board and the emergency financial manager be partnering to accomplish? The community is demanding that all of the school closings be rescinded and that funding be supplied by the state to maintain personnel levels in the district.

In a leaflet being circulated at the anti-school closing rallies and demonstrations as well as among the people throughout the city, the Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility Shut-offs states that “Both Robert Bobb, the unelected DPS emergency financial manager, and Mayor Dave Bing are serving the rich who are responsible for creating the worse economic crisis this city, state and country has seen since the Great Depression.”

The leaflet continues by pointing out that “In order to defeat the banks, corporations and the private foundations like Kresge and Skillman, who are really behind these dictatorial measures to further impoverish the people and deny their right to self-determination, we must build a city-wide coalition to demand a moratorium on all foreclosures, evictions, utility shut-offs, layoffs, school closings and mass dislocation.”

This statement concludes in an appeal to the masses to “Tell Mayor Bing to declare a state of economic emergency and suspend debt-service payments to the banks and demand that the federal government immediately establish public works programs to create jobs for hundreds of thousands of unemployed and poor people in Detroit.

In regard to the DPS deficit and its relationship to the banks, the Detroit News revealed on April 4 that “80 percent of Detroit’s state aid will go to debt payment instead of classrooms. That is extraordinary, given the students’ dire academic needs.”

Downsizing Efforts Halted Over Environmental Concerns

Illustrating the undemocratic and chaotic character of the corporate-engineered plans to “rightsize” Detroit during the census year, a much trumpeted plan to utilize $20 million in federal dollars to demolish vacant homes in the city was halted on the first day by state officials due to the failure of the Bing administration to have the buildings inspected for untreated asbestos.

When the first house was being bulldozed, the project was stopped leaving the home as a gaping eyesore and possible environmental hazard. “I don’t want to have to breathe this stuff,” said Alex Alexander, 73, who lives next door to the abandoned home. (Detroit News, April 3)

Alexander continued by saying that “I am worried I am going to get sick.” The Detroit News reported that “State officials only learned of the city’s federally funded demolition blitz—which Mayor Bing touted in his “State of the City” speech last week—through the media. The state said the city didn’t file a required 10-day notice with the Department of Natural Resources and Environment over its plans to raze the house. Such a notice would include whether the house has asbestos.”

The demolition blitz is slated to carry out large scale destruction of abandoned homes, many of which are owned by the banks, in the neighborhoods of Brightmoor, Herman Gardens, Southwest, Kettering, North End, North Central, Osborn and Far East/East English Village. The deputy director of the city’s Building Safety and Engineering Department said on April 2 that 160 houses have already been torn down without the necessary environmental permits.

Private Takeover of Detroit Medical Center Challenged

In other efforts aimed at stopping the privatization of the city, a coalition of non-profit organization have declared that the proposed sale of the Medical Center located in the Wayne State University area is illegal under state law. The three groups, calling themselves the Coalition to Protect Detroit Health Care, wrote a letter to the Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, who must approve the sale, stating that the possible takeover by the Nashville-based Vanguard Health Systems would violate laws that prohibit non-profit “assets to be used, conveyed or distributed for non-charitable purposes.” (Fiercehealthcare.com, April 1)

“We want to make sure the sale reflects the long-term best interests of the city of Detroit versus the short-term interests of Vanguard,” said Marjorie Mitchell, the executive director of Michigan Universal Health Care Access Network.

The Moratorium NOW! Coalition is calling for a mass demonstration at City Hall on April 20 to unite the forces fighting around all the major issues in Detroit. In the call for the demonstration downtown, the Coalition says that “Corporate interests are moving rapidly to privatize public education, break the Detroit Public Schools unions, seize the municipal pension funds, sell the Detroit Medical Center and drive tens of thousands of people from their homes so that the banks can prosper at the expense of working people and youth.”

Imperialist Interference Continues as Sudan Prepares for National Elections

EU maintains sanctions while U.S. attempts to set terms for upcoming vote

By Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire

Despite widely publicized claims that the opposition parties in Sudan will boycott the elections scheduled for April 11-13, President Omar al-Bashir has reiterated that the national poll will not be derailed.

Moktar Al-Ahsan, a member of the of Sudan’s National Election Commission says “We are confident that the elections will be completed on time and they will be supported by the people to vote. The official maintains that the people are “keen to participate in the process.”

Election Commission officials pointed out that 84 percent of the people in Sudan of voting age have registered to participate. One opposition party, The Democratic Unionists, who before had withdrawn, are now back in the race.

The presidential candidate for the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), Yasir Arman, withdrew from the elections saying that the process has not been fair. However, Al-Ahsan of the National Election Commission says that “There is nothing new in what the opposition is saying. We have reviewed their complaints, and accepted some of their objections and others, the opposition went to court and we were obliged to make changes. But now, we are bound by the timetable as it is.” (Christian Science Monitor, April 5)

A spokesman for the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) of President al-Bashir noted that there is no basis for the withdrawal of the SPLM from the elections. Rabbie Abdelatti Ebaid, a NCP official, indicated that “Until this time there was no information that the opposition parties will withdraw. I think the political parties are not justified to withdraw. They feel that if they enter these competitions, they will lose. So instead of losing, they start to make chaos.” (Christian Science Monitor, April 5)

The Role of the U.S. and E.U.

Even though both the United States and the European Union have imposed sanctions on Sudan over the conflict with rebel secessionist groups in the western Darfur region, efforts have been made under the Obama administration to open up dialogue with the government in Khartoum. The U.S. special envoy to Sudan Scott Gration visited the country in early April in order to assess the political situation leading up to the national elections.

Gration stated on April 4 that “They (the National Election Commission) have given me confidence that the elections will start on time and they would be as free and as fair as possible. These people have gone to great lengths to ensure that the people of Sudan will have access to polling places and that the procedures and processes will ensure transparency.” (Sudan Tribune, April 5)

These statements by the special envoy Gration has angered various political elements in the country who saw the upcoming elections as a means to weaken and destabilize the NCP government. The northern-based Umma Party met with the government on April 2 and later said that their participation was contingent upon the fulfillment of eight conditions which included access to the media and electoral funding.

Nonetheless, the State Department pointed out that the U.S. wanted the Sudan National Election Commission to make changes in the way the upcoming vote is organized. Philip Crowley, a State Department spokesman, said that Washington was still “concerned with troubling developments including serious restrictions on political freedom.” (AFP, April 5)

Crowley also said that it was “important for the government of Sudan to immediately lift restrictions on political parties and the civil society.”

Sudan presidential assistant Nafie Ali Nafie expressed his belief that the major opposition parties will agree to participate in the elections. In an article in the Sudan Tribune, Nafie was quoted from an interview held at the NCP headquarters saying that “opposition parties will have no choice but to take part in the elections after losing external support.”

The April 11-13 elections are crucial in the success of the 2005 peace deal signed between Khartoum and the southern-based SPLM and other parties in the region. The success of a projected 2011 referendum on the future of the southern region will probably be determined by the outcome of the April poll.

Sanctions Remain in Force by the U.S. and E.U.

President al-Bashir’s government is hoping that with the advent of national elections existing sanctions imposed by the imperialist countries against this central African state will be lifted.
These sanctions were recently highlighted when the European Commission announced again its ban on Sudanese carriers landing at airports controlled by the E.U.’s 27-country bloc.

“We cannot accept that airlines fly into the EU if they do not fully comply with international safety standards,” said European Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas. In a March 30 Reuters report it says that the European Commission would continue to place restrictions on aircraft that did not meet certain safety standards.

Reuters reported that “In many airports in Sudan, travelers are greeted by the sight of a crashed plane lying beside the runway. Sudan blames U.S. sanctions, imposed in 1997, for difficulties in obtaining spare parts.” (Reuters, March 30)

Sudan has been at odds with the U.S. since the first military invasion of Iraq in 1991. The Sudan government refused to support the coalition led by the U.S. and Britain whose military actions resulted in the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from Kuwait and the imposition of more than a decade of draconian United Nations sanctions against the previous government of the late President Saddam Hussein.

With Sudan emerging as a major oil-producing state during the previous decade, the country has moved closer to the People’s Republic of China. Consequently, Britain, the European Union and the U.S. have given political support to the Darfur rebel groups fighting the Sudan government in the western region near the border with Chad, a state which is backed by the conservative government in France.

Sudan is often accused by Israel of supplying arms to the Hamas government in Gaza. During 2009, reports indicated that the Israeli Air Force bombed a number of convoys in Sudan alleging that they were smuggling arms from Iran into Egypt and across the border into the Gaza region of occupied Palestine. The government in Khartoum has denied these allegations of arms smuggling although it does openly support the struggle of the Palestinian people for national liberation and statehood.

President al-Bashir earlier this year signed a peace agreement with one of the leading rebel groups in Darfur, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). However, leading up to the elections the JEM has charged the NCP government with violating the agreements.

On April 5 the JEM accused the Sudan Air Force of bombing areas inside the Darfur region. “The bombing started at midnight and continued this morning…These people (the government) are not interested in finding a political solution to the problem,” said JEM spokesman Ahmed Hussein Adam, who responded to questions from the Reuters press agency by telephone from Qatar. (Reuters, April 5)

The NCP government denied the allegations by the JEM saying that “The Sudan Army is committed to the ceasefire it has signed with JEM. It has not bombed any JEM positions,” a military spokesman said.

Ghazi Salaheddin, the government’s negotiator for Darfur said that the JEM rebels are really the party violating the peace agreement by moving into territories prohibited in the truce. “They (JEM) have been fanning out in the area and trying to establish themselves in Kulbus and Jabel Moun which is a violation of the ceasefire declaration.” (Reuters, April 5)

The International Criminal Court (ICC) based in The Hague has issued several indictments calling for the arrests of President al-Bashir and other leading officials of the government. The ICC indictments have been rejected by the government in Khartoum and their position is supported by both the African Union and the Arab League.

Both of these regional organizations representing Africa and the Arab world oppose the ICC actions saying that it has complicated the ongoing peace process that is making progress in curbing the fighting within the Darfur region as well as in the border areas with neighboring Chad.

Tuesday, April 06, 2010
22:35 Mecca time, 19:35 GMT

Multiple explosions rock Baghdad

A number of buildings were destroyed by the powerful blasts in different parts of the capital

At least eight explosions have rocked the Iraqi capital, killing at least 35 people and injuring more than 140 people.

The blasts targeted residential buildings in a mix of Sunni and Shia areas of Baghdad on Tuesday morning.

Police said two car bombs were detonated in Chkook, Khadamiya district, killing at least five people.

In Baghad’s western Shula district, another car bomb exploded, causing some buildings to collapse. Several people died in the explosion, Iraqi security sources said.

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Baghdad, said those attacks occurred in residential neighbourhoods of the capital.

“[Shula] is a mostly Shia neighbourhood. It used to be a former stronghold of the Mahdi Army, the armed wing of the Sadr movement,” our correspondent said, referring to supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr, a Shia leader.

Target not clear

Shula has been a relatively quiet neighbourhood, having not seen been the target of attacks in recent months.

Police said another of the blasts was carried out by a suicide bomber, who detonated explosives on Haifa street in the central Salhiya neighbourhood, near the national museum.

The attacks come as political uncertainty remains following last month’s election.

Our correspondent said it was not yet clear what the target of that attack was.

“We’re getting conflicting reports on the target. Some reports say it was the public works ministry, other reports say he [attacker] blew himself up outside a popular restaurant,” she said.

Iyad Allawi, the former prime minister whose coalition won a narrow victory in the country’s March 7 poll, sharply criticised the attacks.

“Government officials hold responsibility for not achieving security,” Allawi said as he gave blood for the wounded in Baghdad.

“I don’t know what they have been doing in these (last) four years.”

“They have been saying ‘we are ready,’” Allawi said. “Where is this readiness? Nothing is ready.”

Political unrest

Tuesday’s co-ordinated strike follow similar attacks just two days earlier. On Sunday, three suicide car bombsnear foreign diplomatic missions killed at least 30 people and wounded hundreds more.

In the past five days, four attacks have left more than 100 people dead.

The spate of violent attacks comes as Iraqi politicians continue wranglings to form a coalition government following last month’s general elections. No clear winner emerged from the poll.

The Sadr political bloc was expected to announce who it would back for prime minister on Tuesday after holding an unofficial referrendum among its supporters, but said late on Monday night that the decision was being postponed.

Nouri al-Maliki, the incumbent prime minister, is reported to have met the group last night, but no details of any agreement have emerged. The Sadr bloc has in the past indicated it would not support al-Maliki staying on for another term as prime minister.

Our correspondent in Baghdad said a lot of negotiations are taking place, but “no agreements so far, no progress, and there is a real fear that the security situation will deteriorate”.

“Over the past few days we’ve been seeing car bombings, shootings, mortar round being fired, as well as improvised explosive device attacks”.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

Obama to meet at the White House with black church leaders

By Hamil R. Harris and Krissah Thompson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 6, 2010; A03

President Obama will sit down Tuesday with about 20 black religious leaders, including representatives of the major African American denominations, in the second White House meeting in three months to discuss the needs of the black community.

The president has faced growing questions about whether he has done enough to help African Americans deal with the nation’s economic downturn. Blacks have been hurt more than other communities by the lack of jobs and the difficulty in obtaining bank financing, among other issues, and some — including political commentator Tavis Smiley and some members of the Congressional Black Caucus — say that Obama has not responded urgently.

As the criticism intensified last month, the White House paid little public attention to the critics while aides privately pushed back, citing examples of the president’s agenda, such as health care and education, that specifically benefit African Americans.

Tuesday’s meeting appeared to be a clear sign that Obama has heard the complaints, especially because it precedes a gathering with a larger group of ministers in the East Room for an Easter prayer breakfast. But a White House spokesman rejected the conclusion.

“This meeting is not about politics,” spokesman Corey Ealons said. “It is about connecting with key faith leaders on the challenges impacting our nation. President Obama appreciates the acute challenges facing African Americans across the country and respects the work these pastors are doing to support the communities they serve.”

The preachers, who represent some of the largest African American churches in the country, have written an open letter to the president that praises the job Obama has done and encourages him to “stay the course.”

“President Obama has pursued policies that are crucial for our communities and the nation as a whole, and we cannot afford to lose courage and fortitude at this juncture,” reads the letter, which more than 30 ministers signed. “President Obama has fought for us — and we must fight for him. . . . We have been troubled by the trivial debates that have become more prominent in Washington and across the country, while at the same time our families are facing historic challenges.”

The public show of support and its welcome by the White House is a shift from Obama’s seeming detachment from the question of whether he should have a “black agenda.” In the past, he has responded by saying that “a rising tide lifts all boats” and that his job “is to be president of the whole country.” This time, he is letting the ministers sing his praises.

“He is the president of the United States, not just the president of black people, the president of Latino people,” said Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie, a leader of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. “We expect him to put together policies and an agenda that will impact all of America and not just one special interest.”

The letter, to be presented to Obama by the Rev. T. DeWitt Smith Jr., president of the 2.5 million-member Progressive National Baptist Convention, outlines Obama’s accomplishments on behalf of “the least of these,” citing changes in education policy, health care and financial regulation.

“We are in the mix here,” McKenzie said. “If you are talking about health care, you are talking about African Americans. If you talk about unemployment, African Americans are losing jobs disproportionately.”

Joshua DuBois, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, said that the president “is honored to have deep support in the African American church.”

Tuesday’s meeting is the second at the White House this year to discuss issues primarily affecting blacks. Two months ago, Obama sat down with NAACP President Benjamin Jealous, National Urban League President Marc Morial and the Rev. Al Sharpton, who had requested the visit.

Afterward, the civil rights leaders said Obama had been willing to hear their ideas, and they restated their support for the administration. But in the days after, Smiley criticized the men for not putting more pressure on Obama to carve out a specific black agenda.

Smiley then held a forum in Chicago — attended by the Rev. Jesse Jackson and academics Cornel West and Michael Eric Dyson, among others — where a number of African American speakers said that Obama needs to do more for blacks.

“The bottom line is the president needs to take the issues of black America more seriously because black folks are catching hell, number one,” Smiley said after the forum. “Number two: This theory that a rising tide lifting all boats — that theory was soundly dismissed. Thirdly, because black people are suffering disproportionately, it requires a disproportionate response.”

Smiley’s forum drew criticism from Sharpton, who accused Smiley of being a “critic of the president” and creating unnecessary division.

A similar tug of war has occurred between the president and some members of the Congressional Black Caucus, who have said that Obama should do more to target aid and jobs for poor blacks. Caucus members have said that key people in the Obama administration have taken them for granted.

Despite such fissures with black political leaders, the president’s popularity among black voters remains sky-high, said David Bositis, a pollster with the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a think tank focused on black issues.

“Obama couldn’t be doing better among African Americans,” Bositis said. “There’s absolutely nothing there in terms of a problem in terms of African Americans. The opposition from Southern white conservatives . . . just makes African Americans more strongly bonded to Obama.”

Staff writer Michael D. Shear contributed to this report.

Barack Obama to restrict US use of nuclear weapons

The Obama administration is poised to adopt a new policy that would restrict America’s use of nuclear weapons

London Daily Telegraph
Published: 6:00AM BST 06 Apr 2010

The policy review, expected to be released later today, is likely to include language reducing US reliance on nuclear weapons for its national defence.

The move away from nuclear arms reflects President Barack Obama’s pledge to work towards a nuclear-free world, and could strengthen US arguments that other countries should either reduce stockpiles of nuclear weapons or forego developing them.

Sensibly, Barack Obama follows the George W Bush line on terror
Russia drops plans to deploy missiles next to Poland after Barack Obama takes officeThe White House also planned to urge Russia to adopt limits on shorter-range, less powerful nuclear weapons, an arena in which Russia holds an advantage, according to officials.

The administration’s new policy would stop short of renouncing the use of nuclear weapons except in retaliation to atomic attack, as some activists have advocated. But it would describe the weapons’ purpose as “primarily” or “fundamentally” to deter or respond to a nuclear attack.

That wording would rule out the use of such weapons to respond to an attack by conventional, biological or chemical weapons. Previous US policy was more ambiguous.

In an interview with the New York Times, Mr Obama said his administration was explicitly committing not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states that are in compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, even if they attacked the United States with biological or chemical weapons. Those threats, he told the newspaper, could be deterred with “a series of graded options” – a combination of old and newly designed conventional weapons.

Mr Obama said he would make exceptions for “outliers like Iran and North Korea,” but that his new strategy was aimed at eliminating Cold War ambiguities about when such weapons could be used.

Published by the government of Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe: President Hails Senegal Ties

Morris Mkwate
5 April 2010
——————————————————————————–
THOUSANDS of Senegalese celebrated their 50th Independence Anniversary here yesterday with President Mugabe hailing the historical relations between Zimbabwe and the West African country.

President Mugabe was among the 19 African Heads of State and Government who attended the ceremony in the city centre.

Others included African Union chair and Malawi President Dr Bingu wa Mutharika; President Toumani Tourè of Mali; Gambia’s Yahya Jammeh; President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia; President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equitorial Guinea and Ivory Coast’s President Laurent Gbagbo. AU Commission chairman Dr Jean Ping was also present.

The festivities kicked off mid-morning with scores of joyous citizens lining the General Charles de Gaule Boulevard — the venue of the celebrations.

The expectant crowds were treated to cultural performances as well as displays by the country’s uniformed forces who took two hours showcasing their military might.

The airforce also wowed many with its wide range of aircraft which flew past in spectacular fashion.

Speaking on the eve of the occasion broadcast live on national television, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade announced that his country had resolved to retain control of all military bases held by former colonial power France.

The French remained in charge of the bases since the West African nation’s decolonisation in 1960.

However, most of the 1 200 French soldiers are now set to leave this year, as Senegal moves to assert its sovereignty.

“I solemnly declare that from midnight April 4 Senegal will take back all the (military) bases formerly held by France and intends to exert its sovereignty,” he said after unveiling the Monument of African Renaissance at Ouakam.

“Regarding the timeframe for the release of these bases, I have asked the prime minister and army chief of staff to begin talks with the French side.”

Over the years, this situation has appeared more and more incongruous and has often been felt by our populations, particularly young people, civil servants and the army, as an incomplete independence.”

Speaking ahead of the celebrations at a reception hosted by Zimbabwe’s Ambassador here, Mrs Gertrude Stevenson, President Mugabe described the golden jubilee as a celebration of Africa.

He said Zimbabwe and Senegal shared good historical ties dating back to the formative years of the G15 and the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), now the African Union.

He pointed out the need for the two countries to continue strengthening relations on various fronts, including trade.

“We are here to celebrate Senegal’s 50th Independence Anniversary and we do so whole-heartedly. Of course, it’s Africa we are celebrating and our relations with Senegal,” he said.

“We hope these relations continue to blossom and on a reciprocal basis benefit us. . .We look forward to the mission (here) doing well on the political and diplomatic front and deepening our relations with Senegal.”

Senegal gained independence in 1960 after France agreed to a power transfer pact with all of its African colonies.

The country — like its fellow Francophone States on the continent — has maintained close ties with the French in line with the agreement.

A bulk importer, some of its notable economic activities are tourism, fisheries and trade on the Atlantic Ocean coast.

The Government is focusing on infrastructural development in order to stimulate increased foreign direct investment.

Meanwhile, President Mugabe left the coastal country yesterday afternoon. He is expected to arrive home early this morning.

Copyright © 2010 The Herald. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).

Liberia Government (Monrovia)

Liberia: President Sirleaf Joins Senegal in 50th Independance Anniversary Celebrations

5 April 2010
——————————————————————————–
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has described the inauguration in Senegal of the African Renaissance Monument as a symbol that represents the lifting of the African flag.

She stated that it is a testimony to Africa’s freedom and the continent’s ability to choose its own destiny. The President urged African Governments to bury the past of slavery and colonialism and to continue forging ahead into the future. The Liberian leader was speaking in Dakar, Senegal, following the inauguration of the African Renaissance Monument, which coincided with the 50th Independence Anniversary of the country.

In a speech at the Independence Day event, the President of Senegal, Abdoulaye Wade, called on the Senegalese people to continue the unity that has brought them so many accomplishments over the years. President Wade stated that the success of the celebration was a result of the patriotism of

the Senegalese people – a sentiment which he believed would enhance development. Senegal, he said, is for all Senegalese.

He expressed heartfelt gratitude to all delegates and ordinary people who joined the Senegalese to celebrate their anniversary.

The occasion brought together more than ten African Presidents and representatives of several Governments and organizations around the world, including the United States, Asia, Europe, and the United Arab Emirates. The dignitaries included the President of the African Union, the President of

Malawi, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. of the Rainbow Coalition of the United States.

The celebration, which took place from the 3rd to the 4th of April, also included a parade in which military hardware including helicopters, armored-vehicles, amongst others, were put on display to demonstrate Senegal’s preparedness to defend its sovereignty.

In another development, the Liberian community in Dakar, Senegal, appealed to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to facilitate their return to Liberia. According to the President of the community, James Kolleh, most of them are languishing in Dakar without jobs and schooling, and that their return to Liberia will enable them to go to school.

The Liberians said they were proud that President Johnson Sirleaf attended what they described as an historic and colorful celebration. The President assured the Liberian Community in Dakar that the Liberian Government wouldwork with its embassy in Dakar to begin formulating plans for their gradual return.

The President’s delegation, which included the Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, Dr. Edward McClain, Representative Haja Fata Siryon of Bomi County, and the Secretary General of the Federation of Liberian Youths (FLY) Mr. Jerry Tarbolo, returned to the country Sunday afternoon.

Copyright © 2010 Liberia Government. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).

Haiti schools reopen for first time since quake

By Jorge Saenz, AP

Elene attends a math class at the Bom Berger Baptist School, Cite Soleil slum, Port-au-Prince, Monday, April 5. Schools are opening across Haiti’s capital for the first time since a devastating earthquake hit nearly three months ago

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The official reopening of schools among the ruins of Haiti’s capital brought unbridled joy Monday to students like 12-year-old Moris Rachelle.

After nearly three months on the streets with nothing to do but help her mother look after two younger brothers, Moris wore white ribbons in her hair as she ran, laughed and hugged friends she had not seen since the Jan. 12 catastrophic earthquake.

“All my friends are here,” she gushed, smiling broadly. “I’m happy they are not under the rubble.”

Registration for the academic year provided a major step toward normalcy for Haiti’s children, and offered the first sense for how many of them have survived.

But Haiti’s hard-hit education system is just beginning to recover.

MORE: Haiti to use quake rubble in capital’s rebuilding

The yard at Moris’ public school in the western Carrefour-Feuilles district of Port-au-Prince remained covered with smashed concrete, glass, torn notebook paper. Parents did not want their children to enter a pair of concrete buildings still standing for fear they might give way from damage or an aftershock.

And there was no sign of the tents promised by the Education Ministry in sight, so the school eventually sent all the students home until next Monday.

Only a few hundred schools are expected to open this week in a country where the quake destroyed some 4,000 schools. Many are waiting for tents to teach under because nobody wants to put children back under concrete roofs.

Some community-led learning centers already opened in homeless camps, but there had been no formal education in the capital until Monday, said Edward Carwardine, a UNICEF spokesman in Port-au-Prince. He said it was impossible to say how many schools reopened Monday.

About 40% of schools in the hard-hit southern city of Jacmel have reopened.

At Moris Rachelle’s school, as many as 100 of its roughly 1,000 students died in the quake, including some buried in the rubble of an unfinished, six-story hospital that collapsed onto the yard during afternoon classes.

The only way to know for sure who survived was to write down students’ names as they filed in Monday. Student council member Chilet Louis, a volunteer registering a line of arrivals in blue school uniforms, said it was his first time back since he helped pull bodies from the rubble that afternoon.

“It’s good to see life starting again, but I also knew a lot of the kids who died,” said Louis, a 22-year-old high school junior at the public Jean Jacque Dessaline school.

Educators say the regular curriculum will wait while they address the trauma of the disaster.

Administrators took groups of older students aside to talk about the quake. Without any psychologists available, they used a form of group therapy.

One by one, the students stood up and described their experiences of Jan. 12. One girl said she was so startled by the bodies on the streets that she didn’t eat, bathe or sleep for two days. Another said she survived only because she left her neighbor’s house for an errand a moment before it collapsed, killing everyone inside.

The group applauded after each student spoke.

The magnitude-7 quake that killed a government-estimated 230,000 people left the education system to start from scratch. The Education Ministry and all its records were destroyed, and more than 700 teacher and staff were killed along with an estimated 4,000 students.

Schools are expected to open gradually across the quake zone, with the goal of having 700,000 children back in school by the middle of May, said Mohamed Fall, UNICEF’s chief educational official in Haiti. The school year has been extended until August to make up for lost time.

Even before the quake, the system was in disarray. Only half of school-age children were enrolled and the government was unable to support more than a handful of schools, leaving a void filled by for-profit schools with fees that put them beyond the reach of many Haitians.

Many Haitian children leave school to work at a young age. Others are sent by their families to work as servants in more affluent households.

Fall said that as part of the quake recovery, the Haitian government and aid groups are developing strategies to extend education to children who had been excluded.

“We want to build back better,” he said.

For now, he said, the immediate priorities are to clear rubble away to make room for classes, assure parents that students will not be kept anywhere near unstable buildings and ensure a minimum of sanitation for children who are often homeless.

Despite the joy of Moris and her classmates, it was a nerve-racking day for parents facing their first separation from their children since the quake.

Moris’ mother, 29-year-old Jerline Ceuid, said Moris could have walked on her own from the campsite outside their collapsed home but she wanted to check on the school. She was startled to see only the two single-story concrete schoolhouses.

“If she went into those buildings, I think my heart would stop beating,” said Ceuid, who added that she has taught her daughter to avoid unstable buildings in case of aftershocks. “There is still danger.”

A bulldozer and frontloader parked outside had cleared a path from the street to the school, but the yard was still covered with rubble, including a pair of dusty children’s shoes.

Maoists kill dozens of police in India attack

SUJEET KUMAR | RAIPUR, INDIA – Apr 06 2010 11:27

Maoist rebels killed at least 73 police by setting off explosives and firing from hilltops around dense forest in central India on Tuesday in one of the worst attacks by the insurgents in years.

The ambush in Chhattisgarh state highlights the strong Maoist presence in large swathes of India, especially remote rural areas, and underscores how many parts of the country have been left out of India’s booming economy.

“Something has gone very wrong,” Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram said. “They seem to have walked into a camp or a trap.”

Recent high-profile rebel attacks on police have raised questions over how well prepared India’s security forces are to tackle the Maoists, especially during a counter-offensive by security forces this year.

“We have confirmation of 73 deaths in the attack. At least two dozen have been injured,” Amresh Mishra, a senior police officer, told Reuters. Reinforcements trying to collect the dead bodies came under fire by the Maoists who have surrounded the area.

The Maoists regularly attack railway lines and factories, aiming to cripple economic activity in many of the mineral-rich and remote mining regions of India. But they have made few inroads into cities.

The Congress-led government has come under criticism by the opposition for failing to deal with the insurgents and the security issue could be important in several state elections over the next two years.

Taken by surprise

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described the Maoists as the gravest threat to India’s internal security.

The rebels number between 6 000 and 8 000 hardcore fighters in nearly a third of the country’s 630 districts. Each year they extort more than $300-million from companies, the government says.

Tuesday’s attack echoed a similar ambush in February, when Maoists caught police off guard in a daylight attack on in the state of West Bengal, killing at least two dozen police.

Maoists have stepped up attacks in response to a police offensive that began late last year in several states, which Indian officials say has for the first time weakened the decades-old movement.

Maoists, who say they are fighting for the rights of poor farmers and landless labourers, are trying to expand their influence in east, central and southern India.

Thousands have been killed in the insurgency, which began in the late 1960s.

On Sunday, rebels triggered a landmine blast that killed 10 police in the mineral-rich eastern state of Orissa. — Reuters

Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-04-06-maoists-kill-dozens-of-police-in-india-attack

Face-off at Terreblanche hearing

Scuffles have broken out between black and white South Africans outside a court where two alleged killers of a white supremacist leader were charged.

Police stepped in to stop the face-off between people from the local black community and supporters of Eugene Terreblanche, found dead on Saturday.

Officers built a barricade from razor wire to keep the two groups apart in the north-western town of Ventersdorp.

The killing has raised racial tensions in the country.

Hundreds of AWB flags are flying and Afrikaner nationalist songs are playing as hundreds of Afrikaners protest outside the court.

Some 200 police officers have formed a human barricade around the court. There is a smaller group from the local black community.

Tension fills the air as both groups begin to sing songs linked to their race – Afrikaners singing the old national anthem – the black group responded with anti-apartheid songs.

Many Afrikaners say the murder is proof of a “siege” against farmers in South Africa. There are placards in green and red ink, some accusing former President FW de Klerk of “selling out Afrikaners” to the blacks, referring to his partnership with Nelson Mandela to end apartheid.

Police said the pair, aged 28 and 15, had admitted beating him to death in a dispute over unpaid wages.

The court proceedings are not in public because one of the accused is a minor.

Terreblanche’s paramilitary group AWB (Afrikaner Resistance Movement) had threatened to take revenge for the killing, but retracted their threat on Monday.

The BBC’s Jonah Fisher in Ventersdorp says about 500 people gathered outside court – divided equally between white supremacists, local black residents and the police.

The police stepped in after tensions between the two groups led to pushing, shoving and scuffles.

Pieter Steyn, an AWB leader, said the organisation had called for calm and anyone who disregarded this call would not be acting on behalf of the organisation.

“Everybody has adhered to our request to remain cool,” he told AFP news agency.

“As soon as the court proceedings are completed, we will all disperse and go home and gather again on Friday for the funeral.”

The group blames ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema for contributing to the killing by recently singing a song from the anti-apartheid struggle called “Shoot the Boer”.

Boer is an Afrikaans word for farmer, which has become a derogatory term for all white people.

Mr Malema has denied any responsibility for Terreblanche’s death and the ANC argues that the song does not incite people to kill but is part of the country’s history and the fight against white minority rule.

It is planning to appeal against a court judgement banning the song as hate speech.

The authorities are keen to stress that the killing was not politically motivated.

President Jacob Zuma has appealed for calm and condemned the killing.

Terreblanche, 69, was fiercely opposed to the end of apartheid in South Africa, which led to the ANC winning the country’s first democratic elections in 1994 and Nelson Mandela becoming the country’s first black president.

He served three years in jail after being convicted in 2001 of the attempted murder of a farm worker.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/8604375.stm
Published: 2010/04/06 13:10:06 GMT

Workers charged for Terre’Blanche’s murder

VENTERSDORP, SOUTH AFRICA Apr 06 2010 15:59

Two farm workers, aged 15 and 28, were officially charged with four crimes including the murder of former Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) leader Eugene Terre’Blanche in the Ventersdorp Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.

National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) advocate George Baloyi said the accused, Chris Mahlangu (28) and a minor, who cannot be named, were formally charged with murder, housebreaking and robbery with aggravating circumstances, crimen injuria and attempted robbery with aggravating circumstances.

The charge of crimen injuria was explained by Baloyi: “[After the murder] … they pulled down his [Terre’Blanche’s] pants to his knees and exposed his private parts.”

The case was postponed to April 14. The two had not yet pleaded to the charges.

“We had two sessions today [Tuesday], one was informal and one was formal,” Baloyi said.

“In the informal session we outlined the charges we intend to bring against the two accused and the summary of facts we are relying on.

“In session two, we spoke about complying with the provisions of the new Act.”

He said the Act provided for the treatment of children who committed an offence and laid down the procedure that needed to be followed, adding that the probation officer had compiled a report as per the Act.

The accused’s rights were explained in court and necessary documentation, such as birth certificates, was handed over.

Baloyi said the inquiries were “all but finalised except for one issue”.

“That is the criminal capacity of the accused [the minor].”

The NPA had to determine whether the youth had the capacity to commit murder or whether he was acting on someone else’s instruction.

“It was postponed for seven days to finalise that issue.”

In camera

Baloyi said the entire trial would be held in camera, due to the age of the one accused.

“The law is very clear the trial must take place in camera,” he said.

NPA head Menzi Simelane confirmed that there would only be one trial, saying thus far “from the information, they are the only ones involved in the crime”.

He said there were sufficient provisions to move the case to the high court but certain matters had to be taken into account, such as the Ventersdorp community wanting justice “from here”.

He said people in South Africa generally respected court outcomes and although the case might take place in Ventersdorp, it was still in South Africa with a Constitution generally obeyed by the people.

Simelane said it was difficult to say when the trial would begin.

Asked why he had attended the case, he said: “I am at work like you are. I work from any court …”

The 15-year-old’s attorney, Zola Majavu, relayed a message from the youth to the community: “Please, please don’t hurt my family.”

The youth had not eaten on Tuesday and his mother was too scared to leave the courtroom, worrying about her safety.

“I am arranging the security for her,” Majavu said.

Earlier on Tuesday, police had to separate white AWB supporters and black onlookers in a fracas during the singing of Die Stem and Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika.

‘Pent-up rage and frustration’

Meanwhile, the murder of Terre’Blanche had unleashed a “tidal wave of pent-up rage and frustration” in certain sections of South African society, Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said on Tuesday.

Addressing the media at Parliament, she said it was time for President Jacob Zuma to “act like a president” and rein in his party’s youth leader, Julius Malema.

“For over a decade now, farmers and farming communities have been on the receiving end of escalating criminal violence, and 3 368 have been murdered.

“Most recently, the ANC Youth League’s sinister leader, Julius Malema, has made popular again an old struggle song, the lyrics of which include the phrase ‘[shoot] the boer’.”

Zille said pointing out, as the ANC had done, that there was no direct evidence linking Malema’s reported hate speech to Terre’Blanche’s murder was unhelpful, to say the least.

“We must acknowledge the fact that songs inciting people to kill others create a climate in which murder is legitimised and romanticised.

“We must understand why people are angered and alienated by a song that calls for their murder.

“We must understand why this is multiplied many-fold when the country’s president fails to take a stand, effectively condoning the flouting of a court ruling that declared these words to be hate speech.

“This song is not experienced as ‘an attack on the apartheid system’, which its apologists claim it is; it is experienced, [and I believe it is meant by those who sing it], as a contemporary expression of a hateful attitude towards farmers and Afrikaners in particular, and whites in general,” she said.

According to the police, Terre’Blanche was murdered, allegedly by two of his farm labourers following a pay dispute, on his farm 10km outside Ventersdorp on Saturday.

Symbolic

Zille said Terre’Blanche’s murder was “symbolic”, for a number of reasons.

“It shows how close to the precipice we are with people’s pent-up rage and anger … A symbolic murder can often be the match on the dry grass, and this is what Eugene Terre’Blanche’s murder threatened to be.”

Asked how big a “seminal moment” Terre’Blanche’s murder was in South Africa’s history, she replied: “It is a big one.”

However, she had been very pleased to hear the AWB had withdrawn its call for violence to avenge Terre’Blanche’s death.

“We cannot avenge violence with violence,” Zille said.

She also called on the ANC leadership to “take a formal decision at the highest level to stop singing the song that includes the words ‘shoot the boer’.”

Farm safety had reached crisis proportions in South Africa.

“When you compare the number of farmers who have been murdered in South Africa [with] the numbers that have lost their lives in Zimbabwe, you will see the sort of crisis it actually is; farm murders in Zimbabwe don’t enter triple figures, and ours are over 3 000.”

Earlier on Tuesday, police had to separate white AWB supporters and black onlookers in a fracas during the singing of Die Stem and Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika. — Sapa

Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-04-06-workers-charged-for-terreblanches-murder

SA warning against race violence

South African leaders have warned against any attempt by white supremacists to avenge the murder of their leader Eugene Terreblanche.

Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said such talk would not help the current situation in the country, and President Jacob Zuma called for national unity.

On Sunday the remnants of Mr Terreblanche’s AWB party vowed revenge.

It blames Julius Malema, head of the ruling ANC’s Youth League, for inflammatory actions.

Mr Malema, who last month led college students in a song about killing white farmers, is due to return from Zimbabwe later in the day, and correspondents say his response to calls for calm is keenly awaited.

Mr Terreblanche, 69, was attacked on Saturday evening at home on his farm near the town of Ventersdorp, North West province. He is due to be buried on Friday.

‘Sad moments’

Mr Zuma knows that such a prominent killing could rapidly trigger racial violence, if not handled sensitively, says the BBC’s Karen Allen in Johannesburg.
————————————————————————————-
TERREBLANCHE: KEY DATES

1941: Born on farm in Transvaal town of Ventersdorp
1973: Co-founds AWB to protect rights of Boers’ descendants
1993: AWB vehicle smashes into World Trade Centre in Jo’burg during talks to end apartheid
1994: AWB invades tribal homeland of Bophuthatswana and is defeated; three AWB men die
1998: Accepts moral blame for 1994 bombings that killed 21
2001: Jailed for attempted murder of farm-worker
2004: Released from prison
——————————————————————————————
He was quick to condemn the attack amid criticism that he had failed to rein in the ANC Youth League.

The president went on television on Sunday to condemn what he said was a “cowardly” murder.

He said he had spoken to Mr Terreblanche’s daughter and hoped to speak to the leader’s wife in order to convey his condolences.

“This is one of the sad moments for our country that a leader of his standing should be murdered,” said Mr Zuma.

He said that South Africans must not let anyone take advantage of the “terrible deed” by inciting racial hatred.

The AWB (Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging, or Afrikaner Resistance Movement) echoed Mr Zuma’s call for calm as relatives and friends of Mr Terreblanche gathered near his home to pay their respects on Sunday.

But the far-right movement’s secretary general, Andre Visagie, said Mr Terreblanche’s killing had political overtones.

“The next step for the AWB will be to bury their leader in peace, but thereafter we shall avenge the death of our leader,” he said.

“Of course we do blame Julius Malema,” Mr Visagie told the BBC.

“The death of Mr Terreblanche is a declaration of war by the black community of South Africa to the white community that has been killed for 10 years on end.”

He said there was “fierce anger” among AWB members. “They all call for revenge for Eugene Terreblanche’s death,” he said.

He said some some members advocated violent retribution, but he encouraged them to wait until actions could be co-ordinated “right across the country”.

More than 3,000 white farmers are estimated to have been murdered since the end of apartheid in 1994.

A committee of inquiry found in 2003 that only 2% of farm attacks had a political or racial motive, although critics said this figure was far too low.

Others point out that some 50 people, mostly black, are killed every day in South Africa – a country with one of the world’s highest rates of violent crime.

Heated exchanges

Last week, South Africa’s High Court banned Mr Malema from singing the racially charged apartheid-era song with the words “kill the Boer”. It ruled the song was hate speech, although the ANC is appealing.

Boer is Afrikaans for a farmer, but is sometimes used as a disparaging term for any white person in South Africa.

Mr Malema denied responsibility during his official visit to Zimbabwe.

“The ANC will respond to that issue. On a personal capacity, I’m not going to respond to what people are saying. I’m in Zimbabwe now, I’m not linked to this.”

South Africa is a nation still nursing racial wounds from the past, our correspondent says, and in some quarters there is nervousness about the future.

Ventersdorp has already seen some heated racial exchanges since the killing.

“A black guy killed a white guy. Obviously it’s going to stir a lot of trouble,” said Kgomotso Kgamanyane, a cashier at a local petrol station.

“Just earlier a customer came in, a white guy, and he told us to go to hell,” he told AFP news agency. “It could get violent, because whites in their minds they think that we did it because of hate.”

Police have arrested and charged two male farm workers – aged 21 and 15 – who they say beat Mr Terreblanche to death in a dispute over wages.

Mr Terreblanche had founded the white supremacist AWB in 1973, to oppose what he regarded as the liberal policies of the then-South African government.

His party tried terrorist tactics and threatened civil war in the run-up to South Africa’s first democratic elections, before sliding into relative obscurity.

Mr Terreblanche served three years in jail after being convicted in 2001 of the attempted murder of a farm worker.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/8603048.stm
Published: 2010/04/05 11:18:24 GMT

Malema salutes President’s stance against West

Herald Reporter

ANC Youth League president Cde Julius Malema has lauded President Mugabe as one of the few African leaders with guts to stand against the wishes of the West.

Cde Mugabe, he said, has a strong history as a peace-loving leader who does not encourage political violence.

Addressing journalists at State House yesterday after meeting with the President, Cde Malema said some African leaders were even afraid of the unborn children of imperialists.

Earlier, President Mugabe had appraised Cde Malema and his delegation on the history of the liberation struggle and the relationship between Zanu-PF and the ANC.

He advised Cde Malema that he should never sacrifice ANC principles on the altar of expediency. He said Zanu-PF and the ANC shared the trenches during the liberation struggle and continue to do so as they fight to empower their people.

He said when the imperialists colonised Africans they turned the people into semi-slaves and changed their way of living while at the same time denying them education because they feared that once enlightened the people would fight.

“Do not sacrifice principles on the altar of expediency. Do not be opportunistic. Principles should be principles. They should never be sacrificed,” he said.

Cde Mugabe said when Zanu-PF and the ANC took up arms to fight they had realised that whites were only here to amass wealth and were not committed to the welfare of indigenous people.

He said at independence, Zanu-PF espoused the policy of reconciliation because the struggle was not against individuals but policies that they advanced.

“When we got independence we did not see the reason to punish anyone. We said let bygones be bygones. We forgive but do not forget,” he said.

Cde Mugabe chronicled the history of the land reform programme and how Britain and America reneged on their promises to finance land reforms. He said some white former farmers had tried to fight the land reform programme through the Sadc Tribunal adding that the tribunal “does not have power over us”.

Cde Mugabe attacked some black elites for thinking the economy should remain in the hands of whites simply because some of them are chief executives.

Soon after his closed-door meeting with the President, Cde Malema said many people draw inspiration from President Mugabe’s leadership.

“President Mugabe is amongst very few African leaders who can say no. Many leaders are scared of children of imperialists and their grandchildren and even the unborn children of imperialists,” he said.

Earlier Cde Mugabe said founders of the Organisation of African Unity, now African Union, must be shaking in their graves because many African leaders are agreeing to the divisive politics of the West.

Cde Malema said whites will never abandon Zimbabwe because of the land reform programme because there is nowhere in the world they would own so much land.

“All capitalists are now accepting the land reform as a policy of Government and are beginning to co-operate. They are not talking of going away. They will never own the hectares they have here if they leave. They have nowhere to run to,” he said.

Cde Malema said his delegation had learnt a number of valuable lessons in Zimbabwe with regard to the land reform and empowerment of the indigenous people. The ANC Youth League, he said, had copied some of the lessons for implementation in South Africa.

“President Mugabe, like President Mandela, fought for us to gain political freedom. It is up to us to take it further. We are going to strengthen youth movements in Southern Africa and progressive countries in Latin America,” he said.

He defended the singing of the liberation war song Dubula Ibhunu (Kill the Boer) saying he was much younger than the song. He said liberation luminaries such as Chris Hani, Oliver Tambo among others, sang the song.

He dismissed allegations that the recent killing of the Afrikaner supremacist, Eugene Terre’blanche, was linked to the song.

He said he would continue singing the song because it forms part of the liberation history.

“We feel very proud when we sing the song. I will continue singing the song. If anybody wants to assassinate me they will find me ready. If they kill me they will not eat me,” he said.

He said the ANC Youth League had invited Zanu-PF to send a team to understudy how the ANC campaigns and woos the people.

Responding to a question on his attack of the MDC-T, Cde Malema said the party had started the fight and should not force him to visit them.

“The MDC-T was the first to insult us. Unprovoked they held a Press conference in Sandton and insulted us. Then you expect us to be nice. We are visiting our friend. You cannot force us to visit you,” he said.

US wants new Nigerian poll head

The US government wants the head of Nigeria’s election commission replaced ahead of new polls due in 2011.

Independent National Election Commission (Inec) chairman Maurice Iwu has been blamed for the flawed elections in 2007.

US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson said Mr Iwu was incapable of organising a credible election.

Nigeria is the third largest supplier of oil to the US.

The 2007 poll overseen by Mr Iwu was widely criticised for irregularities such as ballot-stuffing and voter intimidation.

The election was won by Umaru Yar’Adua, although legal challenges to the result lasted for months afterwards.

Mr Iwu’s current term as Inec chairman ends in June 2010 and the Obama administration is keen that his past record be taken into account when a new chairman is appointed.

Sick president

The US demands came as a new US-Nigeria Binational Commission was formally inaugurated to improve co-operation between the two countries in areas such as trade, good governance and food security.

President Yar’Adua has not been seen in public since he fell ill in November 2009.

There was speculation that Mr Yar’Adua had in fact died.

However, Muslim and Christian clerics who have visited him over the past week say that, although in poor health, the president is still alive.

“We said the purpose of visiting him was to see if he actually exists,” Ibrahim Datti Ahmed, chairman of the Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria, told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme last week.

Mr Yar’Adua’s duties have been assumed by Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan.

In March, Mr Jonathan dissolved the entire cabinet and made new nominations, most of which were accepted by Nigeria’s senate last week.

Mr Jonathan’s new cabinet is expected to be formally inaugurated later on Tuesday.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/8604733.stm
Published: 2010/04/06 10:26:49 GMT

Reflections on CUBA

Viewpoint by Bathabile Dlamini

Cuba is still one of the few countries which leave an indelible impression in the mind of any one who has visited her, despite the fact that she has been under the yoke of oppression for decades. Each time I visit Cuba, I find tremendous change. Of course, the people of Cuba have been adversely affected by the blockade and the collapse of the Eastern block, more particularly the Soviet Union which was its main trading partner. However, no one has dampened her spirit of internationalism. After all these years of repression by the Western powers, Cuba still remains a veritable symbol of the resilience of the human spirit.

Despite all the attempts to hinder her progress, no one has been able to destroy Cuba’s revolution. No one has been able to erase the memories of the struggle against fascism and imperialism and her fight for social justice. No one has been able to silence Cubans. Far from being docile, the repression has done the opposite and spurred the Cubans to chat their own course in every sphere of international relations.

The resilience that the people of Cuba have shown demonstrates that they have always had an understanding of what they wanted. Most of their programmes are well thought out. Both the leadership and the masses have a conviction to defend their revolution at a high level as well as at a community level. As a country that is trying to fashion a shared future from the ruins of the apartheid edifice there is a lot we can emulate from Cuba.

What we need to learn from Cuba is that communities play a critical role in defending the gains of the revolution. Despite the continuous pressure from the imperialist force, communities are the bedrock on which Cuba’s defence against the imperialists is founded.

The level of consciousness in Cuba is very high and it starts at a local level. Communities have a clear goal of defending their country. At a local level, they have committees dedicated towards defending the gains of the revolution. At all time, they have a clear understanding of what is happening. They are always vigilant.

Their first target is fighting crime, monitor if there is internal counter revolution so as to help the state to prepare for a counter offensive in advance. Some may see red if they see the word counter offensive. Counter offensive may include cracking down on drug trafficking.

We all know that drugs really need a counter offensive because they affect and destroy the development of a person. We are all witnesses to what is happening in our areas. Drugs have not only destroyed the social fibre of our communities, but they have also shattered the lives of young people who are the future of our country. In order to fight crime and drugs, our people and the state need to join hands because as citizens we have a responsibility to defend our country, protect our youth and our future.

The other lesson we need to learn from Cuba is that they protect the property of the state.

Ass far as vigilance is concerned in Cuba, communities are the first to know if there is a stranger in the area and what that person is doing in the country.

They ensure that all children go to school and if there are problems they help the children.

They screen people for social security so that no one can claim to qualify for social security when they don’t.

Communities form part of vaccination programmes for children as well as mosquito elimination programmes. Above all, local committees mobilise communities on all critical social issues. Members of the community engage the youth at a young age. They learn responsibility and mentor them. Children as young as 14 can start serving in these committees.

They receive training on how these committees work and people who serve in these committees are volunteers who have their full-time employment but they are still very committed to their work.

I am very proud of the serving NEC for trying to bring to the fore again the veterans of our struggle. At some stage, I felt we were pushing away the living legends and heroes and heroines of our struggle for our selfish interest. It is also energizing that the ANC has worked tirelessly for the formation of the Veterans League.

This is going to bring back the dignity of the ANC. Veterans are important because they are the walking institutional memory of the organisation. They are the custodians of the organisation. They have a responsibility of installing the culture and good practices of the ANC. What is also important about veterans is that they must strive to be neutral so that they can sustain the unity and cohesion of the movement. Right now we need experienced Veterans to give us direction on how they have kept the Alliance together and how we can co-exist and focus on a minimum platform of action.

As South Africans we need to be proud of our veterans who sacrificed everything and fought for the liberation of this country. There are also many unsung heroes and heroines of the struggle that we need to honour by making the ANC better. The ANC has always been a torchbearer and a trail blazer in the liberation of our people. Humility and selflessness are some of the values that have always been the compass of the ANC. That is why it was able to survive under difficult conditions.

Veterans are well respected, they have a very important role. They mentor the younger generation and their younger generation starts from 40 years. They practically impart the skills, knowledge and better leadership quantities. Leaders in Cuba have worked for everything they have, earned respect for laying a good and strong foundation for younger generations.

They are not seen as a threat by the younger generation. If the generation that is mentored presently like the Minister of Foreign Affairs does not lose this practice, the revolution of the people of Cuba is safe for generations to come.

That is why in Cuba you will never see leaders who do not grow organically within the structures of the party landing in very senior and sensitive positions without anyone being able to account about their background. This does not mean that people must not join the ANC but patience is very important because it helps you to understand the organisation and be able to respond to issues in a manner that benefits the ANC.

Yes, the ANC is a multi-class organization and as such anyone can be a member of the ANC as long as he/she is committed to its principles. In this regard, respecting the principles of the organisation is of paramount importance. However, joining the ANC for positions will kill its fabric and its paramount responsibility of transforming South Africa into a united, non- racial, non-sexist, democratic, and a prosperous country.

Other comrades that have created a huge gap in the ANC are those who are part time strugglers who come in and go as they like. Yes they participated fully when we were campaigning for the elections. Babezokhipha iANC emlonyeni wesilwane. When the counter-revolutionaries came together in their failed attempt to destroy the soul of the ANC, they rose in unison to defend our movement from the enemies of the people. But where are they now? Buyani bafowethu nodadewethu sizokwenza umsebenzi sonke.

I wonder what reasons will you give to Dube, Chief Albert Luthuli, Charlotte Maxeke, Lillian Ngoyi, Naicker, Helen Joseph, Chris Hani, Solomon Mahlangu, Dulcie September, Oliver Tambo and Walter Sisulu if you abandon the ANC. All these titans made the ultimate sacrifice under difficult conditions.

Cuban people continue to be generous, their situation and economic conditions have not turned them to be in a jungle where the mantra of the survival of the fittest reigns supreme, and where some animals are more equal than others as in George Orwell’s book Animal Farm says.

They continue to provide human resources to needy countries without huge expectations. Doctors and Professions of different fields are all over the world trying to help the world deal with the challenges they are facing such as illiteracy and diseases and other social ills: eg Cuba sent doctors to Haiti long ago, even before the latest disaster which has devastated the country. As we speak, there are more doctors from Cuba running hospitals on the ground in Haiti.

America has been using the Cuban route to Haiti for refueling since the natural disaster occurred because it is a shorter route, but no one is talking, about this. If Cuba was a selfish country, they would have put conditions for this, but because people’s lives are more important they will never put conditions. They are not opportunists.

As expected, American people choose not to talk about this. Instead of highlighting the Cubans’ contribution to the betterment of humanity, the media has become obsessed with stories about the so called abuses of human rights. They do not talk about Cuba’s spirit of internationalism which contributed to the liberation of the people of Africa. Even today there are many countries which have employed hundreds of doctors from Cuba because of their high level of education and their campaign on education. The standards of health in Cuba surprise many old democracies who are highly industrialised and do not face any blockade or oppression by imperialists.

In two years time, the ANC will celebrate its centenary. When this milestone event in the evolution of the ANC dawns, we will also be celebrating Cuba’s selfless contribution in our struggle. Some among us never made such contributions to our own liberation.

Unlike in South Africa, all Cubans celebrate their country’s milestone. They do not fold their arms and throw all manner of negative criticism as is the case with some sections of our society in South Africa.

They celebrate Jose Marti who is the father of the struggle because he developed the theoretical base of their struggle and died in the war. Marti was not only a man of words but also a man action. He only lived for 42 years but he was already a professor who contributed his intellectual capacity to a number of countries.

They also celebrate without fear the life of Che Guevara, and without any regret because he was also an internationalist. He left his country Argentina to fight the struggle of the people of Cuba through very difficult conditions. He was an asthmatic qualified doctor and fought in Sierra-Maestra and led the forces to Santa Clara. Che Guevara died at the age of 39 but had contributed a lot in the fight for human rights and a better world. In Havana, the Capital City of Cuba the Airport is named after Jose Marti and there is a big monument facing the department of communications with a big cartoon-like picture of Che Guevara where he started working as a Minister.

In villa Clara there is a huge statue of Che Guevara with an eternal light. He lives on there with other heroes of the struggle who died with him in Bolivia and only one woman died in Bolivia.

All districts of Cuba have statues and big billboards like pictures of the fallen Comrades who participated in the struggle for liberation of the people of Cuba. Their billboards are not full of advertisements that indoctrinate our children and our people with artificial and unrealistic lives. The billboards are the warehouse of the struggle for their liberation unlike in South Africa where the media undermines our people, spread jealousy, gossip, hatred of development of other African people, lack of focus, prioritization of things that are not important.

In Cuba they respect and honour the struggle of their martyrs. Unlike here they do not attach a prize to celebrating their historic events.

I have no doubt that if we can build some statues of our heroes in key places, there will be those who will be obsessed with counting amounts of money used for those. This obsession with the money that is spent either to build statues of our heroes and heroines or to celebrate historic events negates the fact that our people paid the ultimate price sacrifice for all of us to enjoy this freedom.

The Cuban people have never stopped fighting. The only thing we can do as South Africans is to pledge solidarity with the people of Cuba for their contribution in our struggle.

Lessons learnt from the people of Cuba are thus:

* Internationalism
* Resilience
* Dynamism
* Defence of the revolution
* Commitment to the drive for economic recovery.

Lastly the ANC has always deployed Senior Members of the organisations as Ambassadors to Cuba, I thought that deploying a younger person will disadvantage us. Ambassador Justice Pitso is one of our few young leaders of the ANC that are serious about their work. I was impressed by the way his office staff is committed to the work of the Embassy. They have a good approach to the work they do and a strong relationship and partnership with the people of Cuba.

Bathabile Dlamini is an ANC NEC member and Deputy Minister of Social Development.

ANC denies anti-white hostility in South Africa

Web posted at: 4/6/2010 2:25:59
AFP

CAPE TOWN: South Africa’s ruling ANC dismissed yesterday claims of anti-white hostility in the country as tensions flared over a song linked by the far-right and opposition to the murder of a white supremacist. “Any claim that blacks intend to harm other race groups – particular our white compatriots – is baseless and devoid of all truth,” the African National Congress (ANC) said in a statement.

White supremacist Eugene Terre’Blanche was killed on Saturday by black workers on his farm in an alleged pay dispute.

His far-right Afrikaner Resistance Movement (AWB) has linked the killing to a song from the struggle to end apartheid that contains the slogan “kill the boer”, an Afrikaans word for a farmer that refers to white South Africans. The song was banned by two court rulings after the ANC’s controversial youth leader, Julius Malema, sang it in public in March. He sang it again in Harare at the weekend. Opposition groups claim it incites violence against whites.

The ANC statement said that linking the song to Terre’Blanche’s murder was “not only mischievous but also inciteful and meant to fuel racial polarisation in our country during a highly emotion-charged and sensitive moment”.

“Let us not add fuel to an already very sensitive atmosphere in the wake of Terre’Blanche’s death by making unfounded and dangerous speculative statements,” it said. The party has said it will challenge the ban on the song, arguing it is part of South Africa’s liberation history.

The murder of a white supremacist leader has presented Jacob Zuma with an acute test of his bridge-building skills as he tries to stop the biggest racial storm of South Africa’s raging out of control. Since becoming South Africa’s third elected black president less than a year ago, Zuma has engaged minorities, including Afrikaners, and vowed to keep the country on the path of reconciliation laid by former leader Nelson Mandela.

A day after Terre’Blanche’s death, Zuma appeared on state television, condemning the killing and calling for calm – as the extremist Afrikaner Resistance Movement (AWB) vowed to avenge his brutal killing. A political analyst at the Johannesburg’s Institute for Global Dialogue described the current situation as the most testing episode for Zuma’s leadership skills and the country since he took office.

Statement from the officials of the ANC

30 March 2010

In their normal weekly meeting, held yesterday, March 29, 2010, at the ANC Head Office in Luthuli House, the officials of the ANC did a detailed analysis of the current political environment, with particular reference to the emerging racial polarization of our society. In their analysis, the Officials came to the conclusion that the hot debate about the freedom struggle song is a manifestation of a society that has not come to terms with itself. We are dealing with a society that wants to wish its own history away by picking up on any petty issue that trigger disagreement and conflict. Irritation resulting from pronouncements made by the ANCYL President from time to time is elevated to defining how our society should be shaped. The debate about one of the many liberation songs is dealing with symptoms rather than the real issues that need our attention.

The officials of the ANC expressed concern about the determination by some interest groups use of courts over political issues and to seek to eradicate our proud history and heritage through unenforceable judgements such as declaring the struggle songs as unconstitutional.

The struggle for our freedom was declared as just by the entire world, it is apartheid that was declared evil against humanity. Going through the judgement by the South Gauteng High Court we were even more worried to find that the applicant and the respondent are belonging to the same organization, but differ on technicalities of the case. It appears to us that an artificial contestation was created to arrive at a pre-determined outcome.

In view of the above the ANC: –

* Will appeal the judgement and seek to get a more correct constitutional interpretation of the many liberation struggle songs which form a big and important part of our history.
* Will file an application to the equality court to test whether the publicly announced prosecute Malema campaign by the Freedom Front constitutes real hate speech or not.

We also reminded ourselves that part of our ugly history is that when the rightwing groups started an aggressive propaganda about individual members of our movement in the past such members ended up being assassinated. We are hoping that there is no attempt to create such an environment around the young man, Malema, irrespective of the irritation we may be having with him.

* The announcement by the Pan African Congress Youth that Malema will be found either in hospital or in the mortuary is not just hate speech but a public declaration of the intention to kill. The ANC takes it very seriously and expect law enforcement agies to follow this threat through.
* Welcomes the appropriate approach used by a group of journalists who have directly approached the ANC with a complaint regarding the spokesperson of the ANCYL, and that complaint will be attended to immediately.

We will participate in any initiatives aimed at preserving our history and heritage as a country and a nation. We must own our history and heritage whether good or bad. We must talk more about the genocide against the Khoi San, the wars of dispossession, and the concentration camps during the South African war. We must be more open about the longest struggle for freedom carried out by the oldest liberation movement in the continent and the various phases thereof.

We must accept that thirty years of this struggle had armed insurrection as one of the pillars. During this phase of the struggle songs that capture the mood and the moment were sung to mobilize our people to be part of determining their own future. These songs cannot be regarded as hate speech or unconstitutional. Any judgement that describes them as such is impractical and unimplementable.

We must all come together and discuss ways and means of preserving this history and heritage, cautious enough to avoid offending each other. In this process there must be no group that will project itself as having the monopoly of victimhood. We must strive to link the Freedom Park and the Voortrekkerhoogte monuments into a single precinct.

We must systematically own all our history and heritage and undo the appropriation of parts of our history and heritage to individual nationalities in the country. We are a single nation that must work together in building our country. Easy legal victories by any grouping in society will further polarize our society. All the institutions must make a positive contribution in this process rather than artificially using tensions in society to argue for “independence”.

We believe that all of us, as South Africans, including institutions created to uphold our democracy, can learn a lot from the thought that informed the crafting of our National Anthem.

Issued by:
Gwede Mantashe
ANC Secretary General

Enquiries:
Jackson Mthembu 0823708401
Ishmael Mnisi 0823335550

Mother tells how son killed Terre’Blanche

THOMAS PHAKANE AND MICHELLE FAUL | VENTERSDORP, SOUTH AFRICA – Apr 05 2010 15:27

The mother of a 15-year-old murder suspect said on Monday that her son struck Eugene Terre’Blanche with an iron rod after the farmer refused to pay him, a slaying that heightens racial tensions as South Africa prepares to host the Soccer World Cup.

“My son admitted that they did the killing,” the mother said in an exclusive interview with AP Television News conducted in Tswana from her two-room cement home in Tshing township on the outskirts of Ventersdorp.

She said she spoke to the teenager at Ventersdorp police station on Saturday after he turned himself in along with his alleged accomplice, a 28-year-old farm worker, following the slaying of Terre’Blanche.

Police have refused to identify either of the suspects by name.

Under South African law, a minor accused of any charge cannot be identified without permission from a judge.

Terre’Blanche (69) was leader of the far-right Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging movement, which said it planned to march on Monday on the police station to demand the police bring out the two suspects. Police say the two have been charged with murder and were expected to appear in court on Tuesday.

Officials appear anxious to show they are swiftly handling the crime, which comes just 10 weeks before South Africa becomes the first African nation to host the Soccer World Cup.

Terre’Blanche’s slaying also comes at a time of heightened racial tension in the country.

‘Hit him with three blows’

The mother said her 15-year-old son told her that when he and his co-worker asked Terre’Blanche for their money, he told them first to bring in the cows. After they had brought in the cows they again asked for their money, which he then refused to give them.

“He said that the [labourer] man told him to wait while he went to the storeroom. He came back with an iron rod. He started hitting Terre’Blanche, with four blows to the head. Then my son says he took
the iron rod and hit him with three blows,” the mother said.

“My son was a person who doesn’t like to be in trouble,” she said softly, appearing a bit bewildered and scared.

At the farm on Monday, a big grader was being used to dig a hole for Terre’Blanche in the family graveyard, where he is to be buried after a church service in Ventersdorp on Friday.

“This was such an unnecessary thing,” Terre’Blanche’s brother, Andries, said as he sat on a gray marble grave. “We are not racists, we just believe in purity of race.”

‘Declaration of war’

AWB’s members still seek to create an all-white republic within mostly black South Africa.

The group’s leaders have been using Terre’Blanche’s killing as a rallying point for their cause, with secretary general Andre Visagie claiming on Sunday that Terre’Blanche’s brutal death was “a declaration of war” by blacks against whites.

He also warned countries against sending their soccer teams without protection to “a land of murder”.

Visagie and other members of the group have blamed African National Congress Youth League leader Julius Malema, saying he spread hate speech that led to Terre’Blanche’s killing.

Malema incited controversy last month when he led college students in a song that includes the lyrics “kill the boer”.

The song sparked a legal battle in which the ruling ANC party challenged a high court that ruled the lyrics as unconstitutional.

The ANC insists the song Ayesaba Amagwala [The Cowards are Scared] is a valuable part of its cultural heritage and that the lyrics — which also refer to the farmers as thieves and rapists — are not intended literally and are therefore not hate speech.

Visagie said the 15-year-old suspect was a casual worker and that the 28-year-old man was a full-time employee who had been taking care of the garden of the family home in Ventersdorp.

Terre’Blanche had been spending most of his time there since he had heart surgery a few weeks ago.

Terre’Blanche had previously been convicted for a brutal attack on two black farm workers and was sentenced to six years in prison.

He re-emerged in 2004 as a born-again Christian with renewed vigour for his cause. The movement always has been on the fringes, estimated to have no more than 70 000 members at its height in the early 1990s out of a population of nearly 50-million.

‘The murderers kept on beating his body’

Police said Terre’Blanche was lying on his bed when he was attacked between 5pm and 6pm on Saturday.

The mother’s account that there was only one murder weapon — an iron rod — did not fit police reports that a machete and a knobkerrie were the murder instruments found at the scene.

Visagie said Terre’Blanche was bludgeoned so badly he was barely recognisable and described a gory murder scene indicative of great rage when he visited the farm on Sunday.

“There was blood all over the place, pools on the mattress, the pillow, the floor and splatters on the walls and ceiling,” he said.

“The deductions I make is that he was killed almost instantaneously but the murderers kept on beating his body and chopping his corpse with the panga.”

Terre’Blanche, who would appear at rallies astride a black horse, founded the movement that was to the right of South Africa’s apartheid government in the 1970s. Masked AWB “stormtroopers” in black or khaki uniforms terrorised black South Africans in the years leading up to majority rule. The AWB’s red, white and black insignia resembles a Nazi swastika, but with three prongs instead of four. – Sapa-AP

Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-04-05-mother-tells-how-son-killed-terreblanche

Terre’Blanche killing: AWB vows revenge

Apr 05 2010 06:21

The Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) has vowed to exact revenge for the death of their leader as the country’s president, Jacob Zuma, sought to calm growing racial tensions.

Eugene Terre’Blanche, leader of the AWB movement, was found bludgeoned and hacked to death on Saturday at his farm in Ventersdorp. Two black farm workers involved in an apparent wage dispute were arrested at the scene.

The AWB has since ramped up the language of a race war. Its spokesperson, Andre Visagie, said: “The death of Mr Terre’Blanche is a declaration of war by the black community of South Africa to the white community that has been killed for 10 years on end.”

Land of murder

Visagie warned other countries to avoid sending their teams to the Soccer World Cup in June as they would be travelling “to a land of murder”. He added: “We will decide upon the action we are going to take to avenge Mr Terre’Blanche’s death.”

The AWB accused African National Congress Youth League leader Julius Malema of having blood on his hands. It blamed the killing on his recent singing of the apartheid-era protest song Ayesaba Amagwala [The Cowards are Scared].

Malema expressed fear that his life was at risk, citing a right-wing conspiracy. Last week the ANC said it was concerned about an SMS in circulation which appeared to offer a bounty for his death. The ANC has defended the song as no more than a way to remember a history of oppression, but a party spokesperson said it would now re-examine the issue in the light of recent criticism.

On Sunday at Ventersdorp, in the North West Province, AWB followers clad in paramilitary khaki laid flowers at the gate of Terre’Blanche’s farm.

The 69-year-old was killed by two farm workers who claimed that he refused to pay them their monthly salaries of R350 rand each. The workers, aged 21 and 15, reportedly smashed a window to enter Terre’Blanche’s home and killed him with a knobkerrie and a panga. A police source told the Sunday Times the pair alleged Terre’Blanche had threatened to kill them when they went to his farm for their money. “They claim they killed him in self defence,” the officer said.

The men, who were said to have waited for police to arrive and arrest them, are due to appear in court on Tuesday.

The killing sparked fierce debate on race relations in a country where white farmers have become increasingly vocal, claiming thousands of them have been murdered since the end of white minority rule in 1994.

Last month the former president F W De Klerk wrote to Zuma warning that Malema was creating an increasingly febrile mood. He said: “All this is beginning to create a volatile atmosphere in which any additional intemperate statement or action might spark an unfortunate incident.”

Explosive case

Frans Cronje, deputy director of the South African Institute of Race Relations, said: “It could be an explosive case, especially if the ANC don’t back down.”

Zuma appealed for calm following the “terrible deed”. In a statement he asked South Africans not to allow “agent provocateurs” to take advantage of the situation by “inciting or fuelling racial hatred”.

Political leaders in South Africa must “think” before they make statements, which could be “misunderstood”, Zuma said on South African Broadcasting Corporation radio on Saturday.

“This happening must indeed say to us as leaders we need to think before we make statements in public that might be misunderstood to be encouraging the opposite of what we are trying to do — to build our new nation — irrespective of what quarter they come from, so that no one could attempt to say that what we say is not helping the process of nation-building”

On Sunday night, Zuma said calm needed to prevail in South Africa.

“All leaders who lead this country, from different political formations and non-governmental organisations, should unite in the call for calm.

“I know for a fact that those who have been close to Mr Terre’Blanche, they must be feeling a pain, but it is this time that we take our leadership responsibility to make this country unite in calling for a stop of violence,” said Zuma. “Violent crime must be stopped and defeated by all of us.”

Zuma, who said Terre’Blanche’s murder was a “sad moment” for the country termed the act “cowardly”.

“I condemn this cowardly act and the murder of Mr Terre’Blanche. It’s not acceptable in our society. In due course we will know what is it that led to this terrible action.”

‘Has-been personality’

Jackson Mthembu, an ANC spokesperson, also denied any causal link between the protest song and the murder of Terre’Blanche. But he also appeared to shift the party’s position: “The ANC is prepared to look at whether it is appropriate to continue singing it in this manner. We will … look at what we can do.”

The opposition Democratic Alliance warned of a risk of polarisation with a dangerous outcome. Leader Helen Zille, said: “The murder of Eugene Terre’Blanche will inevitably polarise and inflame passions in South Africa at a time when tensions are already running high … This could have tragic consequences and it is essential that all leaders stand together now and call for calm.”

Terre’Blanche had threatened war on South Africa’s white minority government in the 1980s when it began to make what he considered dangerous concessions that endangered South Africa’s white race. Described yesterday as a bully and buffoon, his predictions of doom under a multiracial democracy proved hollow and his support dwindled to a tiny rump.

“He was a has-been personality,” said Allister Sparks, a veteran political analyst. “His influence is absolutely minimal. I regarded him as one of the most remarkably powerful orators I’ve ever heard. He spoke with a great passion and could really move people, but that was before 1994 when he was trying to mount his rather crazy resistance campaign.” –

Sapa, guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media 2010
Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-04-05-terreblanche-killing-awb-vows-revenge

AWB warned to stay away from court

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA Apr 06 2010 07:37

North West public safety minister Howard Yawa on Monday warned the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) against marching to the Ventersdorp Court on Tuesday.

A 21-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy have been arrested for allegedly killing AWB leader Eugene Terre’Blanche on his farm on Saturday. They were expected to appear in the Ventersdorp Magistrate’s Court on charges of murder on Tuesday.

Yawa warned that any person who participates in the illegal march would be arrested.

Yawa said the march had apparently been organised to demand the handover of the two suspects.

“Our constitutional democracy enjoins all of us to defend the rule of law at all costs” said Yawa in a statement.

Yawa welcomed the retraction of a threat to avenge Terre’Blanche’s death by the AWB.

AWB spokesperson Pieter Steyn retracted their threat to avenge their leader’s death on Monday after declaring war on Sunday.

Yawa described this decision as a “sensible and positive development”.

‘They did the killing’

The mother of a 15-year-old suspect said on Monday that her son struck Terre’Blanche with an iron rod after the farmer refused to pay him.

“My son admitted that they did the killing,” the mother said from her two-room cement home in Tshing township on the outskirts of Ventersdorp.

She said she spoke to the teenager at Ventersdorp police station on Saturday after he turned himself in along with his alleged accomplice.

The mother said her 15-year-old son told her that when he and his co-worker asked Terre’Blanche for their money, he told them first to bring in the cows. After they had brought in the cows they again asked for their money, which he then refused to give them.

“He said that the man told him to wait while he went to the storeroom. He came back with an iron rod. He started hitting Terre’Blanche, with four blows to the head. Then my son says he took the iron rod and hit him with three blows,” the mother said.

“My son was a person who doesn’t like to be in trouble,” she said softly, appearing a bit bewildered and scared.

Cool tensions

The African National Congress on Monday brushed off accusations of fuelling racial tension amid fears of a bloody backlash.

Anger over the death of the AWB founder has shifted to the singing of Ayesaba Amagwala [The Cowards are Scared], which is being blamed for triggering the leader’s death.

The provocative anti-apartheid song has been recently revived by ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema, who has sung it at public gatherings.

“Any claim that blacks intend to harm other race groups — [in] particular our white compatriots — is baseless and devoid of all truth,” the ANC said in a statement.

“Let us not add fuel to an already very sensitive atmosphere in the wake of Mr Terre’Blanche’s death by making unfounded and dangerous speculative statements,” the party said.

The youth leader has rejected the accusations which were carried on the front page of Monday’s Beeld newspaper with the headline, “The song is the culprit”.

“We have nothing to do with his death,” Malema told reporters in Harare on Tuesday while on a visit to Zimbabwe hosted by President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF youth.

“I am not going to be terrorised by right-wingers in our country. I am not scared.”

The right-winger’s funeral on Friday is expected to draw hundreds of AWB supporters.

The extremist leader — found with a machete still embedded in his flesh — will be buried on his farm. – Sapa, AFP

Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-04-06-awb-warned-to-stay-away-from-court

Mthethwa’s balancing act

LAUREN CLIFFORD-HOLMES | JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – Apr 01 2010 14:01

Artist Zwelethu Mthethwa’s long-awaited monograph will be launched this month. Simply titled Zwelethu Mthethwa, and published by the Aperture Foundation in New York, it provides an overview of Mthethwa’s photographic work to date and features the portraits that have brought him international acclaim.

In his essay, titled Photography after the End of Documentary Realism, Okwui Enwezor of the San Francisco Art Institute concludes that Mthethwa “challenges conventional ideas of the black subject as a ground-down, disposessed, disempowered and abject figure in need of social sympathy.

“His grand images present the emancipatory possibility of colour; its ability to infuse life into beleagured communities and to speak persuasively of the dignity of the subjects in the face of their entrapment.”

Why the decision to move from painting into photography in 1996 and what were your reasons for avoiding the black-and-white medium?

Well, I’ve never really moved from painting to photography. Photography has always been part of my life. When I was a kid — I think I was around six years old — I went to movies every Saturday. I think that’s where everything started. So I am very much influenced by cinema, by photography and growing up. The first books I think I read were comic books. Comic books are like still photographs.

When I was a teenager — maybe when I was around 13 — I got my first camera and I started taking photographs. I drew as well as a young kid, so I have always traded between photography and drawing and painting.

In Okwui Enwezor’s prologue to your book he starts by saying “South Africa’s often-told story is always framed by the experience of apartheid”. How do you respond to this statement?

I think that is very true, because when you look at the land issue, it covers almost everything — who has the right to own the land, who has the right to build a house, to own a plot, who has the right to own a field? We are framed by that. You know, when you move people from the cities back to the rural areas, when you deport people, these [experiences] are framed by the issues of land and ownership.

How do you reconcile framing black South Africans as dignified and defiant, even under the duress of social and economic hardship, which beautifies poverty?

There is a very thin line when I photograph black people who are poor and I make them public, or I show them in exhibitions, because I’m treading in very shallow waters here. It is so easy to make poverty beautiful. It is so easy to idealise things. But if you look at the history of how black people have been photographed, or how black people have been placed in our history, it’s a very interesting journey.

One must go back to the time when you had to have an identity document, which used to be called a “dompas”. If you look at those photographs, which were black and white but were highly underexposed, they used strong flash bulbs that deleted all the details that we have on our faces. You were just left with the nose, the eyes and the mouth. And most of the eyes would be shut because of the strong light.

So, those pictures were ethnographic in a sense because it was just a record that they used to say that you are in this zone; you have a permit. This was your passport to the city. And that was the basis of photography for black people.

If you look at my photographs, they are in colour. The resemblance is very close to what people look like. Now go back to the early 1980s or 1990s — the height of documentary photography in South Africa — and you had photographers who went into different communities, different neighbourhoods, and they took photographs that were black and white. But they didn’t spend a lot of time with the people they were photographing.

Now when you take a photograph in colour you tend to notice the colour of the shirt, or the blouse, you tend to notice the colour of the room, what is on the walls. You are not just looking at poverty, per se, poverty is not right in your eye. You’re looking at the textures. And colour has a history of emotions. In different cultures colour has got meaning.

Basically you deal with key issues: the crisis of dwelling and habitation, and the production of sovereignty, land and labour. Let’s talk about your interiors.

The photographs are a celebration of people who are living. It’s a celebration of life. They are not just used as mere documents for propaganda — it’s in their homes, they live there. They are as real as any other people in this world. They have a choice in the way that they have been photographed. It’s a celebration — they are living, they are human beings. What I choose to show is that people living in these not-very-good-looking conditions have the energy to turn that around and make their homes aesthetically pleasing. Because they make their homes with very little money and their homes are very warm.

Let’s talk about your landscape images, such as the sugarcane series, and the way you have portrayed the dynamic between the subject and the landscape. You have placed subjects to show both their autonomy and their entrapment (or even enslavement) by the land and the labour they perform.

The photographs focusing on sugar-cane cutters refer back to a very old history where man is battling with the field. You know, we try to conquer the Earth, and we exploit and abuse the Earth, but eventually we fail. The Earth will always conquer. And there has always been an interest in and balance between man and land.

Zwelethu Mthethwa: Photographs by Zwelethu Mthethwa will be launched at iArt Gallery, 71 Loop Street, Cape Town, on April 22. To coincide, mural-size photographs by the artist will be shown for the first time in South Africa. For more information visit www.iart.co.za

Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-04-01-mthethwas-balancing-act

Somali refugees recruited to fight Islamist militia

By Sudarsan Raghavan
washington post foreign service
Tuesday, April 6, 2010; A07

The U.S.-backed government of Somalia and its Kenyan allies have recruited hundreds of Somali refugees, including children, to fight in a war against al-Shabab, an Islamist militia linked to al-Qaeda, according to former recruits, their relatives and community leaders.

Many of the recruits were taken from the sprawling Dadaab refugee camps in northeastern Kenya, which borders Somalia. Somali government recruiters and Kenyan soldiers came to the camps late last year, promising refugees as much as $600 a month to join a force advertised as supported by the United Nations or the United States, the former recruits and their families said.

“They have stolen my son from me,” said Noor Muhamed, 70, a paraplegic refugee whose son Abdi was recruited.

Across this region, children and young men are vanishing. All sides in Somalia’s conflict are recruiting refugees to fight in a remote battleground in the global war on terrorism from which they fled, community leaders say.

It is unclear whether recruiting by the governments of Kenya and Somalia is ongoing. But their military officers continue to train refugees at a heavily guarded base near the northern Kenyan town of Isiolo as the Somali government prepares for a long-planned offensive against the Shabab.

A second camp is in Manyani, a training station for the Kenya Wildlife Service in southern Kenya, according to former recruits, relatives, community leaders and U.N. investigators.

“They told us we were going to Somalia soon,” said Hassan Farah, 23, who escaped from the Isiolo camp last month.

Farah, who was injured in a 2008 bombing in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, first spent more than two months at Manyani. “I saw 12-year-old children at the camp,” said Farah, who has a jagged scar on his left arm. He escaped by bribing a water truck driver to sneak him out.

The Kenyan government has acknowledged that it is helping train police officers for Somalia’s weak interim government but said that the recruits were flown in from Mogadishu. “No one is recruited from the refugee camps,” said Alfred Mutua, a Kenyan government spokesman.

But a recent U.N. report on Somalia confirmed the recruitment of refugees, including underage youths, for military training. Kenya’s training program, the report said, is a violation of a U.N. arms embargo, which requires nations to get permission from the U.N. Security Council before assisting Somalia’s security efforts.

Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the U.N. special representative to Somalia, said he has not personally seen evidence to act on. “If this recruiting is happening, we have to condemn it,” he said.

Recruiting refugees is a violation of international law, and enlisting children under 15 constitutes war crimes, human rights groups say.

“They told me I would become a soldier and fight the Shabab,” said Ahmed Barre, a bone-thin 15-year-old whose family fled Somalia’s anarchy in 1991, when the central government collapsed. He was born in Dadaab’s camps and has never been to Somalia. “I didn’t want to go. But I was jobless. I wanted to help my family.”

A State Department spokesman, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said, “We strongly condemn recruitment in the refugee camps by any party.” Senior U.S. officials, he added, “have stressed” to top Kenyan and Somali government officials “the need to prevent any recruitment in refugee camps.”

Human Rights Watch has also raised concerns about the force, which numbers roughly 2,500.

Once the recruits signed up, their cellphones and identification cards were taken. They never saw the promised money. And they were denied access to their traumatized families, which, fearing deportation, seldom complained to the authorities, local officials and recruits said.

“These people ran away for their dear lives to seek refuge in Kenya,” said Mohamed Gabow Kharbat, mayor of Garissa, the provincial capital. “To recruit them and send them back to the same situation they ran away from, this is terrible.”

Kharbat said that “most of the youths have no parents, no family members to protest on their behalf. And even if they have parents, these are people who are scared of the government security organs. They can never have the confidence to complain.”

The recruitment comes amid fears that Somalia’s Islamist militants could extend their reach into Kenya, Uganda and other neighboring countries. The Shabab has voiced support for al-Qaeda and has attracted jihadists from around the world. The United States and European nations are supporting the pro-Western Somalia transitional government with arms, cash, training and intelligence.

Somali refugees have few opportunities in Kenya, which has imposed strict residency rules and limits on travel, making it difficult for them to find jobs. Many youths are uneducated.

“The Shabab and all other groups have representation here,” said Abdul Khader, 35, a refugee youth leader. “They give a lot of false hopes to the refugees.”

Hassan Mukhtar, 16, was recruited to fight for the Somali government with a promise of $300 a month and a $50 signing bonus.

When he and other recruits did not get their signing bonus, they jumped out of the truck on the way to Manyani.

A Shabab recruiter enticed Mukhtar Awliyahan, 16, by promising him $300 month. He was taken to Somalia and given the nom de guerre “Mukhtarullah” — the One Chosen by God. In January, tired of fighting, he escaped. Today he keeps a low profile in the camp. “They are still recruiting,” he said.

Hezbi Islam, a rival militia, recruited Bare Ali Jama, 19. “I had nothing to substitute for this offer,” said Jama, who joined along with five other refugees. In February, Shabab fighters pushed them out of their stronghold; he fled back to Kenya. Still jobless, he wants to return to Somalia. “I will fight for anybody,” he said.