United States Africa Command

Public Affairs Office

4 October 2010

USAFRICOM - related news stories

TOP NEWS RELATED TO U.S. AFRICA COMMAND AND AFRICA

U.S. Department of State Issues Europe Travel Alert (U.S. Department of State)
(Europe) The State Department alerts U.S. citizens to the potential for terrorist attacks in
Europe. Current information suggests that al-Qa’ida and affiliated organizations
continue to plan terrorist attacks.

Obama’s Congo moment: Genocide, the U.N. report and Senate Bill 2125 (San
Francisco Bay View)
(Congo) How will the USA’s first African American president respond to the detailed
and widely publicized U.N. documentation of genocide in the heart of Africa,
committed by the USA’s longstanding military proxies, the armies of Rwandan
President Paul Kagame and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni?

Report Clears Obama Administration Over Role in Kenya Election, as Congressman

Objects (Fox News)
(Kenya) A government watchdog has issued a report saying it found no evidence that
the Obama administration illegally funded groups seeking to legalize abortion in Kenya
for the first time with changes to the constitution -- a conclusion that immediately was
blasted by one of the administration's top critics on the issue.

Dar bombing suspect pleads not guilty in New York trial (The East African)
(Tanzania) A Tanzanian accused of involvement in the US embassy bombing in Dar es
Salaam 12 years ago went on trial last week in federal court in New York.

US condemns Nigerian independence day car bombs (AFP)

(Nigeria) The United States condemned twin car bombings in the Nigerian capital
Abuja that killed at least 10 people Friday near ceremonies to mark 50 years of
independence.

Foreign-based group behind Nigeria bombs: president (Reuters)

(Nigeria) A small terrorist group based outside Nigeria and not militants from the oil-
producing Niger Delta carried out last week's car bomb attacks in the capital Abuja,
President Goodluck Jonathan said on Sunday.

Two sailors abducted off Nigeria: navy spokesman (AFP)

(Nigeria) Pirates have abducted two sailors off the coast of Nigeria's main oil-
producing region and military boats were out Sunday searching for them, a navy
spokesman said.

Patent Pool Gets First License But Drug Companies Still Not on Board (IRIN)
(Pan Africa) The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has become the first patent
holder to join the recently created Medicines Patent Pool, but unless other patent
holders follow suit, the NIH's move will not increase access to HIV treatment.

U.N. Report Details Atrocities in Congo (Associated Press)

(Congo) A report published Friday by the United Nations human rights office detailed
more than 600 incidents between 1993 and 2003 in which tens of thousands of people
were killed in gruesome attacks by the many armed groups roving eastern Congo
during the period.

Ethnic divide in Guinea widens, threatens election (Associated Press)

(Guinea) Only four months ago, journalists flocked for a rare 'good news' story to this
African capital ranked as one of the world's poorest. But a shadow has since fallen over
Guinea and the surrounding region, as the country's exercise in democracy degenerated
into a contest along racial lines.

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Website
 US actress distributes life-saving mosquito nets in Central African Republic –
UN
 Ban condemns bomb blasts at Nigeria’s independence celebrations
 Violence in Mogadishu swells number of displaced Somalis – UN survey
 Angolan polio outbreak threatens efforts to eliminate disease from Africa, UN
warns
 UN team takes soil, water samples in deadly Nigerian lead poisoning outbreak
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UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST:

WHEN/WHERE: Wednesday, October 6, Noon; Cato Institute

WHAT: Why Africa Is Poor and What Africans Can Do about It
WHO: Greg Mills, Director, Brenthurst Foundation, South Africa; Marian L. Tupy,
Policy Analyst, Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, Cato Institute; moderated by
Ian Vásquez, Director, Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, Cato Institute
Info: http://www.cato.org/event.php?eventid=7401

WHEN/WHERE: Thursday, October 7, 9:00 a.m.; Center for Strategic and International
Studies
WHAT: Next Steps on Sudan: Has the Comprehensive Peace Agreement Paved the
Way to Peace?
WHO: Lieutenant General Lazaro K. Sumbeiywo, former Kenyan Special Envoy and
Lead Mediator of the Sudanese Peace Process
Info: http://csis.org/events
WHEN/WHERE: Thursday, October 7, 12:30 p.m.; Johns Hopkins School of Advanced
International Studies
WHAT: Food Sovereignty and Land Grabs in Africa
WHO: Mamadou Goita, Director of a Food Security Program in Mali; Rachel Smolker,
Biofuel Watch; Matt Kavanagh, Health Gap; Emira Woods, Moderator, Co-Director of
IPS’ Foreign Policy in Focus
Info: http://www.sais-jhu.edu/calendar/

WHEN/WHERE: Tuesday, October 12, 6:00 p.m.; Council on Foreign Relations

WHAT: A Trip Report: Sudan
WHO: John Predergast, Co-founder, The Enough Project; George Clooney, Co-founder,
Not On Our Watch
Info: http://www.cfr.org/
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FULL ARTICLE TEXT

U.S. Department of State Issues Europe Travel Alert (U.S. Department of State)

The State Department alerts U.S. citizens to the potential for terrorist attacks in Europe.
Current information suggests that al-Qa’ida and affiliated organizations continue to
plan terrorist attacks. European governments have taken action to guard against a
terrorist attack and some have spoken publicly about the heightened threat conditions.

Terrorists may elect to use a variety of means and weapons and target both official and
private interests. U.S. citizens are reminded of the potential for terrorists to attack
public transportation systems and other tourist infrastructure. Terrorists have targeted
and attacked subway and rail systems, as well as aviation and maritime services. U.S.
citizens should take every precaution to be aware of their surroundings and to adopt
appropriate safety measures to protect themselves when traveling.

We continue to work closely with our European allies on the threat from international
terrorism, including al-Qa’ida. Information is routinely shared between the U.S. and
our key partners in order to disrupt terrorist plotting, identify and take action against
potential operatives, and strengthen our defenses against potential threats.

We recommend U.S. citizens register their travel plans with the Consular Section of the
U.S. Embassy through the State Department's travel registration website. Travelers
may obtain up-to-date information on security conditions by calling 1-888-407-4747 toll-
free in the U.S. and Canada, or on a regular toll line at 1-202-501-4444 from elsewhere in
the world.
For information on general crime and security issues, U.S. citizens should also consult
the Department of State's Country-Specific Information as well as the Worldwide
Caution, which can be found on the Bureau of Consular Affairs website. For further
information on safety tips while traveling abroad, U.S. citizens should also consult the
following website: http://travel.state.gov/travel/tips/tips_1232.html

This Travel Alert expires on January 31, 2011.

--------------------
Obama’s Congo moment: Genocide, the U.N. report and Senate Bill 2125 (San
Francisco Bay View)

The official Oct. 1 release of the U.N. Report on Human Rights Abuses in the
Democratic Republic of Congo, 1993-2003, documenting the Rwandan and Ugandan
armies’ massacres of Rwandan Hutu refugees and Congolese Hutus in the Democratic
Republic of Congo, should be a defining moment for President Barack Obama. How
will the USA’s first African American president respond to the detailed and widely
publicized U.N. documentation of genocide in the heart of Africa, committed by the
USA’s longstanding military proxies, the armies of Rwandan President Paul Kagame
and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni?

Few Americans realize that the Rwandan and Ugandan armies are armed and trained
by the U.S. or that the U.S. military uses both countries as staging grounds, but they
may learn about it now.

Few realize either that the sole piece of legislation that President Obama shepherded
into law on his own, as a Senator, was S.B. 2125, the Obama Democratic Republic of the
Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act of 2006, in which, in Section
101(3), he quoted USAID:

“Given its size, population, and resources, the Congo is an important player in Africa
and of long-term interest to the United States.”

Indeed. In 1982, the Congressional Budget Office’s “Cobalt: Policy Options for a
Strategic Mineral” noted that cobalt alloys are critical to the aerospace and weapons
industries, that the U.S. has no cobalt worth mining, that 64 percent of the world’s
cobalt reserves are in the Katanga Copper Belt running from southeastern Congo into
northern Zambia and that control of the region is therefore critical to the U.S. ability to
manufacture for war.

Foreign powers and corporations’ determination to control Congo’s cobalt and the rest
of its dense mineral resources has made the Congo conflict the most lethal since World
War II.

Section 101(5) and (6) of Obama’s 2006 Congo legislation reads:

“(5) The most recent war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which erupted in
1998, spawned some of the world’s worst human rights atrocities and drew in six
neighboring countries.

“(6) Despite the conclusion of a peace agreement and subsequent withdrawal of foreign
forces in 2003, both the real and perceived presence of armed groups hostile to the
Governments of Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi continue to serve as a major source of
regional instability and an apparent pretext for continued interference in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo by its neighbors [Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi].”

A displaced Congolese man in Kibati camp in Goma listens to the radio announcing
that Obama won the U.S. election. This photo ran in the Guardian of London on election
day, Nov. 5, 2008. – Photo: Stephen Morrison, EPAWhat Obama identified as the “real
and perceived presence of armed groups hostile to the Governments of Uganda,
Rwanda, and Burundi” was, most of all, the real and perceived presence of “Hutu
militias.” They were indeed the “pretext” for the predominantly Tutsi Rwandan
Patriotic Army’s massacres of Hutu civilians, Rwandan Hutu refugees and Congolese
Hutus, with the help of the Ugandan People’s Defence Force – massacres now
documented in the U.N. report leaked to Le Monde on Aug. 26, then officially released
Oct. 1.

Since Obama described the militias as “apparent pretext for continued interference” in
2006, we can assume that he understood them as such on his Inauguration Day, Jan. 20,
2009, when Rwandan troops again moved into Congo. On that day, world headlines,
alongside those he himself was making, included “Rwandan Troops enter D.R. Congo
to hunt Hutu militias” (Telegraph), “Rwandan troops enter Congo to hunt Hutu rebels”
(BBC) and “Rwandan troops enter Kivu to hunt Hutu rebels” (Radio France
International).

On the same day, the Christian Science Monitor, in “Rwandan Troops enter Democratic
Republic of the Congo,” reproduced the pretext that Obama had identified in S.B. 2125:

“Rwandan troops entered the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday to tackle a

Rwandan Hutu militia whose leaders are accused of taking part in the 1994 Rwandan
genocide before fleeing to Congo.”

Since Obama understood the pretext in 2006, he no doubt understood it that day and no
doubt understands it today, as Rwandan and Ugandan troops are rumored, once again,
to be moving into Congo, despite international outcry about the U.N. report.

Hutu militias and other “rebel militias” in Congo can no longer serve as the devil, the
eternal excuse or, as Obama said, the “apparent pretext for intervention in the
Democratic Republic by Congo’s neighbors.” Most of all, they can no longer serve as the
devil, the excuse and pretext for interventions by Paul Kagame, the general turned
president and so long heroized as Rwanda’s savior, because Kagame’s own army’s
massacres of Rwandan and Congolese Hutu civilians has now been documented in the
U.N. report.

The leak and now the official release have finally magnified President, then-Senator,
Obama’s obscure, still little known revision of the East-Central African story in his 2006
legislation, S.B. 2125, which then became Public Law 109-456.

Obama’s ‘Rwanda moment’?

John Prendergast and David Eggers, the ENOUGH Project’s tireless advocates for U.S.
intervention in Sudan, suggested, in a New York Times op-ed that Obama’s “Rwanda
moment,” like Bill Clinton’s in 1994, is now in Sudan, where, they say, Obama has a
chance to do what Bill Clinton reputedly failed to do in Rwanda, intervene to stop
genocide.

But Obama’s Rwanda, and Congo, moment is in Rwanda and Congo now, as the world
reviews the U.N. report and Rwandan troops once again advance into Congo.

He doesn’t need to intervene but to stop intervening, by withdrawing the military

support, weapons, training, logistics and intelligence for Kagame, support that has so
long equaled intervention. If he did so, peace and human rights activists all over the
world would stand behind him and the narrative revision that he quietly penned three
years ago.

An Obama decision to stop supporting Kagame would go up against the last 30 years of
Pentagon intervention in the Great Lakes Region of Africa, but the U.N. Report turns
his 2006 narrative revision into an outright reversal – with the weight of the United
Nations High Commission on Human Rights and growing international opinion behind
it.

And Obama is the commander-in-chief, with absolute executive authority over the U.S.
armed forces. Yes, he can, should he choose to.
--------------------
Report Clears Obama Administration Over Role in Kenya Election, as Congressman
Objects (Fox News)

A government watchdog has issued a report saying it found no evidence that the
Obama administration illegally funded groups seeking to legalize abortion in Kenya for
the first time with changes to the constitution -- a conclusion that immediately was
blasted by one of the administration's top critics on the issue.
Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, the top Republican on the House Africa panel, said the
report by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) inspector general
was "poorly researched, superficial, incomplete and a whitewash."

"This was not a well-researched investigation," he said in a written statement. "We had
expected the truth and nothing else. We had hoped the IG would dig deep for the facts.
This is the most superficial report I've seen in my 30 years in Congress."

The inspector general's office did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

Kenya has long been ripe for a new constitution, one that would balance power in the
country and prevent the kind of violent rioting that followed Kenya's 2007 presidential
election.

But Smith and other lawmakers have accused the Obama administration of offering
incentives to Kenya to approve the controversial new constitution, promising that
passage would “allow money to flow” into the nation's coffers.

Smith has cited an earlier report by USAID that estimated more than $23 million in U.S.
taxpayer funds had been spent on the referendum. He and other conservatives have
alleged that at least some of that money has been spent in support of the proposed
constitution, possibly in violation U.S. law that prohibits "lobbying for or against
abortion" in other countries.

The new report found that $61.2 million -- $12.6 million related to the constitution
reform process -- was given to eight prime recipients and 86 sub-recipients.

The inspector general found evidence that USAID had spent taxpayer funds to "achieve
a yes vote" but no evidence of "direct lobbying."

"Again with this incomplete audit, we just don't know," Smith said, adding that
spending taxpayer funds on the constitution process is illegal because it alters abortion
policy.
--------------------
Dar bombing suspect pleads not guilty in New York trial (The East African)

A Tanzanian accused of involvement in the US embassy bombing in Dar es Salaam 12

years ago went on trial last week in federal court in New York.

Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, now 36, is charged with purchasing a Nissan Atlas lorry and
bomb materials used in the August 7, 1998, attack that killed 10 Tanzanians. Ghailani
has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and other crimes.
A nearly simultaneous explosion in Nairobi carried out by Al Qaeda operatives killed
200 Kenyans and 12 Americans.

Four men were convicted in the same New York courthouse in 2001 in connection with
that attack and the Dar bombing and are now serving life terms in a US maximum-
security prison.

The courthouse is located less than a kilometre from the site of the twin towers of the
World Trade Centre which were destroyed in an Al Qaeda attack three years after the
East Africa embassy bombings.

Ghailani could also be sentenced to life imprisonment if convicted in a trial that may
last as long as six months.

Jury selection got underway September 29, with US prosecutors scheduled to make
opening arguments this week.

Presiding Judge Lewis Kaplan is likely to rule soon on whether to allow prosecutors to
put a potentially key figure in the witness box.

Dynamite

Hussein Abebe, a Tanzanian, testified in a recent pre-trial hearing that he sold Ghailani
dynamite in the belief it was to be used for mining.

Defence attorneys have asked Judge Kaplan to bar Abebe’s testimony on the grounds
that his name was obtained from Ghailani as a result of what the defence says was
torture carried out by the CIA.

US officials acknowledge that Ghailani was subjected to “enhanced interrogation

techniques” while held at secret locations in the two years following his capture in
Pakistan in 2004. The US government denies that such methods amount to torture.

Ghailani was transferred in 2006 to the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in

Cuba. He is the first person held at that controversial site to be put on trial in a US
civilian court rather than before a military tribunal.

Judge Kaplan earlier this year rejected attorneys’ arguments that the case should be
dismissed because Ghailani had been deprived of his right to trial within a reasonable
length of time.

The judge ruled that valid national-security interests accounted for Ghailani’s years of
detention.
According to the US indictment, Ghailani bought the bomb lorry as well as tanks of
oxygen and acetylene with help from Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan, a Kenyan who was
reported to have been killed in a US drone attack in Pakistan last year.

Ghailani helped assemble and load the bomb onto the lorry while staying at a house at
15 Amani Street in Dar along with other conspirators, the indictment adds.

One week prior to the attack on the embassy in Dar’s Oyster Bay suburb, Ghailani left
for Nairobi where he checked into the Hilltop Hotel, prosecutors say. He is said to have
then taken a flight to Pakistan the night before the bombings.
--------------------
US condemns Nigerian independence day car bombs (AFP)

WASHINGTON – The United States condemned twin car bombings in the Nigerian
capital Abuja that killed at least 10 people Friday near ceremonies to mark 50 years of
independence.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which has staged
scores of attacks in the oil-rich Niger Delta as it demands a fairer distribution of oil
revenue, claimed responsibility for the attacks.

"The United States condemns the bombings that took place this morning in Abuja
marring the celebration of 50 years of independence," State Department spokesman
Philip Crowley said.

"We express our condolences to the families of the victims and to the people of Nigeria
on what should be a joyous occasion," he added.

"This affirms the importance of Nigeria's upcoming elections. And we reiterate that
violence has no place in political discourse in Nigeria or anywhere else," he said ahead
of elections planned for next year.

The explosions rocked the area near Abuja's Eagle Square, but failed to halt the
anniversary celebrations attended by the country's leaders and foreign delegations. No
arrests had been made, police said late Friday.

Crowley said Johnnie Carson, the assistant secretary of state for African affairs, Rajiv
Shah, the administrator for the US Agency for International Development and other US
officials attended the events, but "they were not affected by these bombings."
--------------------
Foreign-based group behind Nigeria bombs: president (Reuters)
ABUJA – A small terrorist group based outside Nigeria and not militants from the oil-
producing Niger Delta carried out last week's car bomb attacks in the capital Abuja,
President Goodluck Jonathan said on Sunday.

Two car bombs exploded near a parade marking Nigeria's 50th anniversary of
independence on Friday, killing at least 10 people and injuring 36, according to the
police.

The attacks were claimed by Nigeria's main militant group, the Movement for the
Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).

A MEND statement signed Jomo Gbomo -- the pseudonym used by the group to claim
previous attacks on Nigeria's oil industry -- was emailed to media warning the area
should be evacuated an hour before the Abuja bombs went off.

But Jonathan said investigations had revealed MEND members knew nothing about the
attacks and they had been carried out by a small group based outside Nigeria,
sponsored by "unpatriotic elements within the country."

"It is a small terrorist group that resides outside Nigeria that was paid by some people
within to perpetrate the dastardly act," Jonathan said, according to a statement from his
office.

"We are on their trail and I promise Nigerians that the matter will be investigated to the
last. Until everybody is brought to book, we will not rest."

The Nigerian police said it had made one arrest in connection with the attacks and
declared two other men -- named as Chima Orlu and Ben Jessy -- wanted, saying they
were suspected to be the "masterminds" of the plot.

Nigeria's secret service has said it received foreign tip-offs ahead of the attacks and had
stepped up security accordingly, including towing 65 vehicles from the streets and
cordoning off roads leading to the parade ground.

Jonathan said on Saturday those responsible had used the MEND name to "camouflage
criminality and terrorism."

SENIOR MILITANT ARRESTED

Henry Okah, a senior MEND figure, was arrested in South Africa on Saturday under
counter-terrorism laws and was due to appear in court in Johannesburg on Monday, his
lawyer said.
"The warrant of arrest alleges that he contravened the Protection of Constitutional
Democracy Against Terrorist and Related Activities Act ... He totally denies any
wrongdoing anywhere," Okah's lawyer Piet du Plessis told Reuters.

Security experts believe Okah -- who accepted a government amnesty last year after
gun-running and treason charges against him were dropped -- was at one time the
brains behind MEND, although he has denied ever being its leader.

Jonathan's special adviser on the Niger Delta, Timi Alaibe, was quoted on Sunday as
saying MEND's leaders were cooperating with the government and that Okah was
using the group's name.

"Everyone in the structure knows Jomo Gbomo is Henry Okah. There is no MEND
sitting anywhere in any camp. It's all Henry Okah, through and through," he was
quoted as saying by the This Day newspaper.

MEND carried out attacks on oilfields and pipelines in the Niger Delta, home to Africa's
biggest oil and gas industry, for years until accepting an amnesty in 2009.

It has said it is fighting for a fairer share of the natural wealth for the vast wetlands
region, whose villages remain mired in poverty despite five decades of crude oil
extraction.

But MEND has always been a nebulous organization and the line between militancy
and criminality has long been blurred.

Many of the gangs that carried out attacks in the group's name were originally set up as
sabotage squads to help rig elections, rights groups and security analysts say.

They went on to thrive on a lucrative trade in stolen oil and on kidnapping for ransom
and effectively work as guns-for-hire, security experts say.

Jonathan inherited the presidency this year after the death of President Umaru
Yar'Adua. One of his main achievements while serving as Yar'Adua's deputy had been
helping to cement the amnesty deal in the Niger Delta.

He faces an election next year and some analysts have questioned whether the Abuja
bombs were intended to undermine his credibility by showing the Niger Delta issue is
unresolved.

"(The bombing) has nothing to do with the amnesty, but it has everything to do with
politics," Jonathan advisor Alaibe said.
--------------------
Two sailors abducted off Nigeria: navy spokesman (AFP)
LAGOS – Pirates have abducted two sailors off the coast of Nigeria's main oil-
producing region and military boats were out Sunday searching for them, a navy
spokesman said.

The kidnappings occurred early Friday about 10 miles (16 kilometres) off Bonny, where
Nigeria's main oil export terminal is located, said Commodore David Nabaida.
Abductors took the victims from the MV Eckhardt, he said.

"Pirates kidnapped the captain and the chief engineer," Nabaida said. "We have not
been able to establish their nationalities."

Navy officers had no sign of a ransom being demanded and no suspects in the
kidnapping, he said. Nabaida did not know which country the ship was from.

The military was not notified of the ship's presence, as such ships are asked to allow
naval officers to escort them, he said.

The Niger Delta region has seen scores of kidnappings of oil workers in recent years by
criminal gangs seeking ransom payments.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has also carried out
attacks and kidnappings in the region, claiming to be fighting for a fairer distribution of
oil revenue.

The militant group claimed responsibility for twin car bombings that killed at least 12
people on Friday near Nigeria's independence day celebrations.

Nabaida said there was no sign MEND was involved in the kidnapping, though he
underlined that the group had become an umbrella organisation for various criminal
gangs.

The navy also had no word on the fate of three French sailors and a Thai victim
kidnapped earlier this month, he said.
--------------------
Patent Pool Gets First License But Drug Companies Still Not on Board (IRIN)

Nairobi — The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has become the first patent
holder to join the recently created Medicines Patent Pool, but unless other patent
holders follow suit, the NIH's move will not increase access to HIV treatment.

By licensing the life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV), darunavir, to the patent pool, the
NIH has made the technology to produce it available for the benefit of low- and middle-
income countries. However, this does not mean generic versions of the drug can now be
manufactured and sold in these countries as additional patents on darunavir are still
held by the pharmaceutical company Tibotec, part of Johnson & Johnson.

"The licence is an important first step that shows the US is committed to bringing down
the cost of ARVs, but pharmaceutical companies must move forward quickly and share
their licences using the same positive terms of license as the NIH," Asia Russell of the
US-based Health Global Access Project (Health GAP) told IRIN/PlusNews.

Darunavir is a protease inhibitor usually used for patients who have developed
resistance to older drugs. It is recommended for use in combination with another ARV,
but the cost of darunavir alone for one patient for one year is US$1,095, according to the
medical NGO, Médecins Sans Frontières; in comparison, generic first-line combinations
cost as little as $90 per patient per year.

The Medicines Patent Pool - established in July by UNITAID, an international health

financing agency - aims to create a common space for patent-holders to license their
technology for use by generic manufacturers in exchange for royalties. Proponents of
the pool argue that not only does it have the potential to reduce the price of existing
ARVs, but it could also stimulate the development of urgently needed new medicines
and formulations such as paediatric ARVs and fixed-dose combinations.

"The US is one of the main financers of the development of AIDS drugs, and is also
home to most of the pharmaceutical companies we are hoping to collaborate with,"
Ellen 't Hoen, head of the medicines patent pool, told IRIN/PlusNews. "So this is a very
significant step; if this patent pool succeeds, the positive benefits - especially to sub-
Saharan Africa - will be enormous."

She noted that as ARV regimens were combinations of different drugs with patents
owned by multiple players, it was of the utmost importance that other patent-holders
joined the pool. "We are in talks with the holders of the additional patents on darunavir
to share their patents under agreeable terms," she said.

UNITAID has held talks with several drug developers, including Tibotec, Gilead and
Merck, all of whom have shown "considerable interest".

"Our task is to get these drugs to as wide a geographical scope as possible, and ideally
that means patent holders should be willing to provide licences for use by low- and
middle-income countries, as defined by the World Bank," 't Hoen added.

According to Health GAP's Russell, the sharing of intellectual property urgently needs
to be combined with increased funding to scale-up HIV treatment to all those who need
it.
"Sixty-four percent of people who need ARVs still have no access, and increased HIV
funding is necessary to provide for them," she said, adding that the USA needed to
build on its commitment to the patent pool by meeting its commitments to adequately
fund the US president's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, PEPFAR, and the Global Fund
to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
--------------------
U.N. Report Details Atrocities in Congo (Associated Press)

GENEVA—A report published Friday by the United Nations human rights office
detailed more than 600 incidents between 1993 and 2003 in which tens of thousands of
people were killed in gruesome attacks by the many armed groups roving eastern
Congo during the period.

The report, which had been leaked in August, describes atrocities by the Rwandan
army, which at the time was hunting down Hutu rebels in neighboring Zaire, now
called Congo. The report could prompt fresh calls for criminal investigations including
whether Rwandan troops and others committee genocide in the country.

Rwanda has denied the report's charges against his army and urged the U.N. not to
publish it. Rwandan Foreign Affairs Minister Louise Mushikiwabo called the report
"flawed and dangerous from start to finish."

Human-rights activists and Congo's government welcomed the report, immediately

calling for perpetrators to be prosecuted.

"The victims deserve justice and they deserve that their voices are heard by my
government and by the international community," said Congo's ambassador to the
United Nations in New York, Ileka Atoki.

"What we want now is for action to be taken," said Veronique Aubert, deputy director
of Amnesty International's Africa program.
--------------------
Ethnic divide in Guinea widens, threatens election (Associated Press)

CONAKRY, Guinea – Ibrahima Diallo spends his days in Bed No. 7 of the municipal
hospital here, waiting for the bones in his face to glue themselves back together. His
teeth are tied shut, so it is hard for him to talk — but even if he could, he'd have little to
say to the patient in Bed No. 8.

That man also has a broken cheekbone. And like Diallo, he too was injured in the spasm
of pre-election violence that swept Conakry last month. Yet the gulf between the two
hospital beds is a mirror of the ethnic divide at the heart of Guinea's political life, which
is threatening to derail what was supposed to be the country's first democratic election
since independence in 1958.
Mory Keita, 25, was rushed into surgery after being slammed in the face by a rock. The
rocks started raining down on the party headquarters of presidential candidate Alpha
Conde, a Malinke politician, whose supporters, like Keita, are overwhelmingly from his
ethnic group. Keita says the last thing he heard before he was knocked unconscious was
the screams of people speaking the Peul language.

On the same day, the last thing Diallo, 46 — a Peul — heard before passing out was the
Malinke dialect. He was on his way to a soccer tournament in support of Peul candidate
Cellou Dalein Diallo, whose Union for the Democratic Forces of Guinea, or UFDG, has
the nearly unanimous support of Guinea's Peul population. The men who surrounded
him insulted him in Malinke, telling him they would never accept a Peul president.
They punched him until he spit up his own teeth.

Only four months ago, journalists flocked for a rare 'good news' story to this African
capital ranked as one of the world's poorest, where black mold coats buildings and the
smell of the sea mixes with that of the sewer. For the first time in Guinea's history, there
was no incumbent to rig the election, and the army that had installed two of the
country's three dictators had vowed not to meddle. A successful election was also
expected to open the door to billions of dollars in planned mining investments.

But the mood of celebration fizzled when none of the 24 candidates won a majority,
forcing a run-off between the No. 1 and No. 2 finishers, who are from the two largest
ethnic groups, with a history of animosity. A shadow has since fallen over Guinea and
the surrounding region, as the country's exercise in democracy degenerated into a
contest along racial lines.

It's an all-too-familiar script in this part of Africa, where three of the six countries
bordering Guinea — Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast and Liberia — are only now emerging
from civil wars fueled by ethnic divisions. The dueling groups in Guinea, the Malinke
and the Peul, are ethnicities that span the borders.

"People are no longer voting for a political platform. They are voting for an ethnicity,"
says Lama Bangoura, a youth leader in the violence-prone Enco-5 neighborhood. "You
go into the neighborhoods and ask who people are voting for. And you'll immediately
see that all the Peul are voting for the UFDG, and all the Malinke are voting for the
RPG."

The ethnic question has always hovered just under the surface in Guinea, but like in the
former Yugoslavia under Tito, it was kept under a tight lid by the country's successive
strongmen. Each favored their ethnic group, stacking the government with their kin
and violently silencing opponents.
Of the country's four major groups, the Peul are the largest, representing around 40
percent of the population of 10 million, and yet they are the only ones not to have had
one of their own in power. Last year, they were singled out in an army-led massacre of
protesters calling for an end to army rule. Peul women — identifiable by their lighter
skin and Semitic features — were gang raped by soldiers chanting anti-Peul slurs.

In a market in Conakry, a Peul woman selling condiments from a Tupperware basin

says the pride she felt just months ago at finally being able to cast a vote which she
knew would be counted is gone. She says in the past few weeks, she stopped wearing
her campaign T-shirt with a picture of Diallo. The last time she wore it, Khadiatou Bah
says, a Malinke vendor approached her apparently to buy one of her sauces, and then
grabbed her shirt as if trying to twist out the face of the Peul candidate.

"He said no Peul woman had ever carried a future president on her back. He said that if
we Peuls toy around with the idea of being in power, they will kill us all," says Bah.

Salimatou Balde, 39, says the ethnic issue didn't come up until July, when the field of
candidates was suddenly reduced to a Malinke and a Peul, exposing a faultline that has
long existed between them. Guinea's first president Sekou Toure was a Malinke, and
thousands of Peul fled to neighboring countries after he claimed to have uncovered a
'Peul plot' against him. Countless hundreds were tortured to death or starved in a
gulag-like prison.

Balde says in the last four months, she has started to have fights with the Malinke
tenants who rent a room in her house. When they put up a poster of Conde, she yanked
it down. In retaliation they have stopped paying their rent.

Both candidates accuse the other of using 'tribal rhetoric' in their stump speeches. It's
hard to ignore the racial homogeneity of their party offices, located just a half-mile apart
on the national highway crossing Conakry's potholed boulevards.

At the RPG headquarters, the uniformed security guard at the entrance as well as the
party supporters inside greet each other saying 'i nike' — "hello" in Malinke. Head to
the squat building that houses the UFDG, and the first words out of people's mouths
are 'on dyaraama,' a greeting in Peul. The majority of the people inside have one of four
last names — Diallo, Barry, Balde or Bah — immediately identifying them as Peul.

The exceptions all have a story to tell about the ostracism they faced when they decided
to back the opposing candidate. The secretary-general of the RPG in the Fouta district,
the traditional homeland of the Peul, is a Peul. He has received threats from Peul
community leaders who call him a traitor. They have vowed to chase him out of town if
Diallo wins.
Bangoura, the youth leader from Enco-5, is a Soussou, a group allied with the Malinke.
He is, however, voting for the UFDG because he says he prefers Diallo's economic
policies to Conde's. He is paying the price in daily snubs from his Malinke neighbors.

"If we push on this ethnic button, it's going to explode," he says. "People are becoming
radicalized. The Malinke say don't vote for Cellou because he's a Peul, and the Peul say
we need to vote for him because he's a Peul."

Despite problems, including too few polling stations and a large percentage of irregular
ballots, the first round of voting was largely deemed free and fair, said Guinea-based
election expert Elizabeth Cote of the International Foundation for Election Systems. But
instead of a run-off in July as planned, the vote has been delayed multiple times,
allowing the electoral commission to remap voting districts and add more polling
stations near remote villages. Last week, the United Nations warned that Guinea risks
another army takeover if voting is further delayed.

Every postponement was viewed as politically motivated by Diallo's party, which

clinched 44 percent of the vote in the first round to Conde's 18 percent. The UFDG
accuses the election commission and members of the transitional government of
purposely delaying the vote to prevent a Peul from winning. The disagreement spilled
over onto the street on Sept. 11 and Sept. 12 when at least 54 people were injured,
including the two patients in the Maxillo-Facial Surgery wing of the National Donka
Hospital.

The whites of Ibrahima Diallo's eyes are pierced with red lines. He moves his bulbous
lips slowly as he explains how his attackers yanked off his party pin before saying in
Malinke that they planned to kill him. He acknowledges that Keita's attackers probably
said the same thing in Peul.

Keita has gone to lie down in the cot in the corner of the room next to the chalk mark of
the number 8 on the wall. His broken face is jutting out, as if he's tried to stuff an apple
in one side of his mouth. When he wakes up, he'll probably go to charge his phone in
the plug next to Bed No. 7.

"I let him charge his phone here. I give him my water. I share my food," says Diallo. "If
they are alone, they're OK. But they're not OK when they're in a group. When they are
in a group I am afraid."
--------------------
UN News Service Africa Briefs
Full Articles on UN Website

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