United States Africa Command

Public Affairs Office

14 October 2010

USAFRICOM - related news stories

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

Africa conference members aim to improve security (Stars and Stripes)

(Pan Africa) Foreign ships continue to gobble up the fish off of Africa’s coastlines,
illegally plundering a natural resource that too many countries don’t have the resources
to defend, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Vicki Huddleston said Wednesday
during an Africa Maritime Security Conference.

AU, U.S. Officials Stress Global Importance of Maritime Security in Africa

(AFRICOM Public Affairs)
(Stuttgart, Germany) African Union Commission Deputy Chairperson Erastus
Mwencha delivered a message of widening international cooperation to a conference of
African, U.S., and European partners in Stuttgart, Germany October 13, 2010, during a
speech focused on opportunities and challenges of Africa's maritime domain.

The new scramble for Africa (Thought Leader - Blog)

(Pan Africa) A closer look reveals that American diplomacy in Africa is less about
serving the good of African people than it is about securing the interests of private
American capital.

US welcomes Rwandan war crimes suspect's arrest (AFP)

(Rwanda) The United States on Wednesday welcomed France's arrest of Rwandan
rebel leader Callixte Mbarushimana, wanted for war crimes and crimes against
humanity in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Region Bombing Trial Starts (Daily Nation)

(East Africa) The al-Qaeda cell responsible for the US embassy bombing in Tanzania in
1998 also carried out the nearly simultaneous attack in Kenya, US prosecutors told a
jury in New York on Tuesday.

Ghana threatens to prosecute U. S. oil firm for spillages (Xinhua)

(Ghana) American oil company, Kosmos Energy, might face prosecution if it failed to
pay the fine imposed on it by the Ghanaian environmental authorities for oil spillage
into the sea, a senior attorney general said here on Wednesday.
South Africa to join UN Security Council. Will it take lead on Africa conflicts?
(Christian Science Monitor)
(South Africa) During South Africa's two-year term as a nonpermanent Council
member, which begins Jan. 1, the Security Council is bound to tackle a series of thorny
African conflicts – from Sudan to Zimbabwe and from Nigeria to Somalia – that
demand attention.

Mali says West should limit fight against AQIM (Associated Press)
(Mali) A Mali army official says Western countries should limit their participation in
military operations against al-Qaida's North African offshoot.

South Sudan president vows no return to civil war (AFP)

(Sudan) South Sudan’s president Salva Kiir vowed on Wednesday there would be no
return to war in Africa’s largest country, despite mounting tensions as a referendum on
southern independence approaches.

G8 countries tackle Al-Qaeda in north Africa (AFP)

(North Africa) Representatives of leading Western countries and regional states met in
Mali Wednesday to discuss how to step up the fight against Islamic militants linked to
Al-Qaeda.

Security Chiefs Strategise On Transnational Crime (Accra Mail)

(West Africa) Security chiefs from 13 countries have converged on Accra to design
strategies to combat transnational organised crime in the West African sub-region.

Analyst Predicts “Prepared” Electorate, Competitive Tanzanian Election (Voice of

America)
(Tanzania) A Tanzanian political science professor has told VOA the entire population
seems well-educated and equipped to make informed decisions in the upcoming
general election scheduled for 31st October.

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Website
 Deputy UN chief to give keynote address at African Union forum on women
 Ban names new force commander for UN peacekeeping mission in Liberia
 UN-African Union official meets with leaders of troubled Darfur camp for
displaced
 Rich countries must live up to pledge to help developing world on climate
change – UN
 DR Congo: UN rights panel calls for support for sexual violence victims
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST:
WHEN/WHERE: Wednesday, October 20, 3:30 p.m.; Center for Strategic and
International Studies
WHAT: State Department: A Dual-Track Approach to Somalia
WHO: Ambassador Johnnie Carson, Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of African
Affairs, U.S. Department of State
Info: http://csis.org/event/state-department-dual-track-approach-somalia
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FULL ARTICLE TEXT

Africa conference members aim to improve security (Stars and Stripes)

STUTTGART, Germany — Three decades ago, the Defense Department’s top civilian
for African affairs was in Sierra Leone as a young diplomat and noticed a strange sight
on the horizon: Out at sea, a huge Chinese-flagged fishing vessel was harvesting one of
the impoverished country’s most valuable resources.

Three decades later, foreign ships continue to gobble up the fish off of Africa’s
coastlines, illegally plundering a natural resource that too many countries don’t have
the resources to defend, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Vicki Huddleston said
Wednesday during an Africa Maritime Security Conference.

Illegal fishing, “...goes on with impunity,” she said at the meeting of 170 defense and
diplomatic leaders from the U.S., Africa, and Europe.

At the conference, which included officials from 19 African nations, the mission was to
develop better strategies for combating the numerous security challenges that threaten
Africa’s coastal nations.

And while a $5 billion-per-year illegal fishing industry has long been a scourge, other
threats have emerged in the past decade that reverberate beyond Africa’s shore, officials
said. Oil theft and black markets operating in the Gulf of Guinea — a multi-billion
dollar enterprise — cause a global ripple.

“It makes oil prices go up for all of us around the globe,” Huddleston said.

The list of problems is long: Piracy off Somalia’s coast is wrecking havoc on the
shipping industry; drug cartels are booming in western Africa, and human trafficking is
on the rise, African Union officials said. Meanwhile, there is growing concern over the
potential for drug traffickers to link up with terrorists, and pirates to connect with Al-
Shabab — the al-Qaida-linked terrorist group in Somalia, U.S. officials said.

Yet as the threats have mounted, the capacity of African nations to confront those
threats hasn’t kept pace.
Now, African leaders are attempting to coordinate a continent-wide strategy for dealing
with security shortcomings. But resources are limited and priorities must be
established, according to the AU, a security alliance of African states.

“The challenge is big to have a coherent strategy,” said Erastus Mwencha, the African
Union commission deputy chairperson.

Mwencha said the AU is working on a plan to integrate the various maritime strategies
of its members and better share information about potential threats. However, more
political will on the continent is needed to make those reforms, he said.

The U.S. role in this effort will be limited to support functions, military leaders said.

U.S. Africa Command chief Gen. William E. Ward, who played host to Wednesday’s
event, said the role of his command is to lend its expertise when called upon. But
despite numerous U.S. interests on the continent, which range from the military to the
commercial, Ward said AFRICOM is not in a position to dictate.

“This command does not impose itself. It responds to requests (for support),” Ward
said. “Imposed strategies don’t work.”

That sentiment was echoed by Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie
Carson, who said the U.S. aims to serve as a partner.

There are no hidden agendas, he said.

“We have no interest in injecting ourselves into the protection of those assets,” Carson
said.

The African Partnership Station, AFRICOM’s signature maritime security program, is

an example of the work the command can do on the continent, Ward said.

Launched in 2007, the program focuses on teaching African navies and coast guards the
basics of how to guard its waterways. Patrol techniques, vessel maintenance, and using
radar to track ships transiting territorial waters are some areas where AFRICOM has
assisted.

But as threats, such as Somalia, persist, the U.S.’s partners will likely be looking for
more from it and other nations.

Mwencha, talking about the ongoing AU peacekeeping mission in Somalia, said: “We
have appealed to the international community for more support.”
AU, U.S. Officials Stress Global Importance of Maritime Security in Africa (U.S.
AFRICOM Public Affairs)
(Stuttgart, Germany) African Union Commission Deputy Chairperson Erastus
Mwencha delivered a message of widening international cooperation to a conference of
African, U.S., and European partners in Stuttgart, Germany October 13, 2010, during a
speech focused on opportunities and challenges of Africa's maritime domain.

The two-day Conference on Maritime Safety and Security: Towards Economic

Prosperity, co-sponsored by the U.S. Departments of State and Defense and hosted by
U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), concentrates on forging partnerships, identifying
projects that support maritime security activities, and strengthening collaborative
strategies.

This international event brings together more than 170 participants representing the
African Union Commission, nearly 20 African nations, U.S. government agencies,
international and inter-governmental organizations, along with academic and private
sector experts. The goal is to provide a forum for interaction among African and U.S.
policymakers and non-traditional maritime safety and security stakeholders to identify
and discuss common cross-sector maritime security strategies for sustained capacity
building and economic development, according to conference organizers.

With maritime challenges growing each year off Africa's coasts, Mwencha emphasized
the importance of international partners in developing a strategy to tackle issues that
affect not only Africa, but also the world. These include piracy, illegal fishing,
environmental crimes, human trafficking, terrorism, oil theft and arms and drug
smuggling.

"These are crimes of a global nature," Mwencha said. "Without a concerted effort by the
global community, the health of Africa's oceans and most significant inland waterways
will be irreversibly damaged." Mwencha delivered the conference's keynote address.

"Any threat can gradually undermine the security of an individual, a state or society
and, at a greater level, the security of a whole region or the international trade, as is the
case with the issue of piracy off the coast of Somalia today," Mwencha said. "When
these threats undermine the security of all these categories, there is obviously a need for
action."

Among challenges in Africa, piracy has been a topic highlighted frequently in the
media; however, it was not a main issue at the conference. Event organizers said the
conference was more focused on long-term strategies for land-based matters - the root
of maritime problems that include piracy.

A key aspect in the African Union's (AU) plan is educating the international community
on Africa's issues to gain knowledge and support.
"Until there is true understanding of the strategic importance of Africa's domain,
vulnerabilities will continue to grow," Mwencha said.

U.S. Africa Command supports the totality of Africa's efforts, said General William E.
Ward, AFRICOM commander.

"The conference is a way to help us synchronize (and) coordinate the activities that
we're doing ... to complement, support and then cause a greater effect overall to be
achieved, as the nations of Africa works to increase their ability to provide security over
their maritime domain," Ward said.

Command initiatives such as Africa Partnership Station (APS) and the African Maritime
Law Enforcement Partnership program (AMLEP) aim to enable African partners to
build their maritime security capacity and improve management of their maritime
environment through training and real-world collaboration.

APS began in 2007 with one U.S. Navy ship working with the nations of the west coast
of Africa, providing tailored training, exercises, education, and maintenance activities
and partnership opportunities. It is now beginning its fifth cycle, features an
international staff, and has expanded to the east coast of Africa. It is an international
program, with 26 nations participating, including seven European partners, some of
which sail under the APS banner.

The next step in African maritime security is to develop and implement Africa's
Integrated Maritime Strategy, which Ambassador Johnnie Carson, assistant secretary of
state for African affairs, said will consist of an integrated framework that includes all
aspects of maritime security and seeks to incorporate all stakeholders at the regional,
national and international levels to work together for capacity to secure Africa and its
waters. Carson, along with Ward and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for African
Affairs Vicki Huddleston, provided the opening remarks at the first session of the
conference.

Mwencha emphasized that a collaborative, multi-layered effort of all stakeholders will

result in enhanced maritime security, leading to reduced revenue losses and increased
benefits.

"These increased benefits," Mwencha said, "will positively contribute to environmental

and socio-economic development, as well as increased national, regional and
continental stability, and by the same token, make a substantive contribution to global
security."
-------------------------------------------------
The new scramble for Africa (Thought Leader - Blog)
The past few years have seen a dramatic uptick in American diplomatic efforts in
Africa, which has coincided with a decisive shift in political rhetoric about the
continent. At first glance this might seem like a positive development, reflecting a more
progressive attitude toward what has long been considered an unimportant global
backwater. But a closer look reveals that American diplomacy in Africa is less about
serving the good of African people than it is about securing the interests of private
American capital. Nowhere has this been more flagrantly clear than on the lips of
Michael Battle, the US ambassador to the African Union.

First, a bit about Ambassador Battle. He received a master’s in divinity at Trinity

College and a PhD in ministry at Howard University, and served at the
Interdenominational Theological Centre in Atlanta until he was nominated to his
current post by President Obama in 2009. Battle’s position at the AU is new and little
known outside diplomatic circles. The US only established a dedicated ambassadorship
to the African Union during the Bush administration in 2006. This mission — known as
USAU — is the first of its kind among non-African states, and is designed to facilitate
US operations in Africa as a more “efficient” and “effective” alternative to bilateral
relationships with individual African states.

This month I had the opportunity to attend a speech delivered by Ambassador Battle
during his visit to the Miller Centre of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. I
noticed a new diplomatic rhetoric right at the outset of his presentation. First, he
referred to Africa as a continent of “riches” and “abundance”, flagging a notable
departure from earlier, longstanding representations of Africa as “desolate” and
“impoverished”. Paralleling this point, Battle spoke at length about shifting US policy in
Africa toward corporate “investment” and “partnership” and away from public “aid”
and “assistance”.

On the face of it this seemed like good news to me, but the rest of Battle’s speech
disabused me of any rosy assumptions. According to Battle, USAU promotes two
primary and interrelated goals: security and trade. I will deal with each in turn.

In terms of security, Battle confirmed America’s dedication to working with the AU and
the US Africa Command (Africom) to militarise the continent’s coastlines. While he
claimed that the goals of this mission include responding to increased maritime piracy
and breaking cartels that traffic illegally in drugs and humans, he made it clear that the
primary military objective is to protect US oil interests in the Gulf of Guinea and secure
a favourable climate for returns on investment for American corporations. When
pressed, Battle justified his call for militarisation by invoking the vague and poorly
substantiated spectre of “terrorism”. By marking Africa as a new front in the “Global
War on Terror”, the US can justify almost any military intervention it wants.

In terms of trade, Battle spoke excitedly about the partnership between the US, the AU,
and the Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) to integrate and liberalise the continent’s
national economies. Battle’s explicit vision is to facilitate the efforts of US corporations
such as Chevron and Delta (which he mentioned by name, along with half a dozen
others) to expand investments across multiple African nations by “harmonising trade
rules” and “simplifying regulations”. He praised the AU for developing “free trade”
across the continent at a faster rate than the EU was able to accomplish over a similar
period of time, and looks forward to an Africa that is increasingly “open for business”
to American companies.

None of this is particularly new, of course — the US has long used its diplomats to push
for neoliberal economic policies. The real newness of Battle’s approach is that he no
longer feels the need to hide America’s brash economic interests in Africa. While
diplomats of earlier eras invoked the lofty rhetoric of development and democracy,
Battle makes no such effort. Instead, he speaks plainly about using diplomacy to
facilitate monopoly capitalism, and about paving the way for US corporations to — as
he put it — “take advantage of Africa’s resources and exploit its tremendous market
opportunities”. According to Battle: “If we don’t act now we will miss a golden
opportunity in Africa, and wake up to find that China and India have divided up the
continent without us.” Battle couldn’t have been blunter — or more offensive — if he
tried.

One can’t help but find Battle’s approach shockingly redolent of the 19th century
“Scramble for Africa”, when European nations conspired to divide the continent among
themselves, each claiming a share of its abundant resources, its cheap labour, and its
untapped markets, all while committing to secure their claims with a military presence.
The only thing that has changed today is that the actors are different, and the plunder is
being conducted with the full support of the African Union, which — not surprisingly
— depends largely on funds from the US.

Before he left the auditorium, Ambassador Battle agreed to field a few questions from
the audience. One student asked him why he focused so much on capital investment
and economic liberalisation, but never once discussed fairer labour standards or
protective environmental policies or regulatory mechanisms designed to benefit the
poor. Indeed, any astute observer of African affairs understands that poverty and
instability arise not from too much regulation and too little foreign direct investment,
but from too little regulation and foreign direct investment that plunders and exploits
without meaningfully benefiting the public. What Africa needs is not investment for its
own sake, but investment within a framework that will protect workers and the
environment and ensure that common people receive a just share of the resources that
are their birthright. But Battle refused to answer the question.

I also took a moment to pose a question to Ambassador Battle. I asked him how it was
that his job as a public functionary of the US government has become about securing
the private interests of multinational corporations. I wasn’t surprised when he refused
to answer me. But I was surprised that he made no effort to contradict me. Indeed,
Battle was entirely prepared to defend his role as facilitator of American military
intervention in the service of private American capital. And this without even the usual
claims to altruism: he didn’t even gesture to the pressing problems of poverty,
inequality and exploitation in Africa. Given that Battle’s training and experience in
African affairs amounts to exactly zero, I suppose this shouldn’t be so shocking. Still, I
expected more compassion and critical insight from a man trained in theology and
educated at a historically black university.

As much as I want to criticise Battle for his lack of diplomatic decorum, I actually find
myself grateful for it — grateful that he has spoken so bluntly, grateful that he has
exposed USAU for what it is, grateful that he has stripped away the romantic
mystifications that usually shroud US foreign policy in Africa. Battle has given lie to
any pretence that the Obama administration has the best interests of the beleaguered
continent in mind. Indeed, Battle’s rhetoric represents nothing less than the formal
inauguration of a New Scramble for Africa, and of a complicit African Union that has
been thoroughly co-opted by the US government and multinational capital.
--------------------
US welcomes Rwandan war crimes suspect's arrest (AFP)

WASHINGTON – The United States on Wednesday welcomed France's arrest of

Rwandan rebel leader Callixte Mbarushimana, wanted for war crimes and crimes
against humanity in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Mbarushimana was arrested Monday in Paris, where he has lived as a leader-in-exile of

the Rwandan Hutu rebel group the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda
(FDLR), having received refugee status in France in 2003.

"Mbarushimana's arrest sends an important signal that the international community

will not tolerate the FDLR's continuing efforts to destabilize the eastern provinces of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said
in a statement.

He referred to "the recent mass rapes in Walikale territory in which FDLR forces are
believed to have participated.

"The United States continues to encourage FDLR soldiers and their dependents to
demobilize and repatriate to Rwanda," Crowley said.

French authorities arrested Mbarushimana, 47, on a warrant issued in September by the

International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

The ICC said Mbarushimana faces five charges of crimes against humanity and six war
crimes charges for murders, rapes, torture and destruction of property in eastern DR
Congo in 2009.
The crimes were allegedly committed during a series of "widespread and systematic
attacks" by FDLR fighters against civilians in the Nord Kivu and Sud Kivu provinces,
according to ICC prosecutors.

They said there were reasonable grounds to believe Mbarushimana "personally and
intentionally contributed" to plotting "widespread and systematic attacks against the
civilian population in order to create a humanitarian catastrophe" which could be
exploited for political gain.

Some Hutu rebels who are members of the FDLR are accused of having participated in
the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, which witnessed the killings of 800,000 Tutsis and
moderate Hutus.

Crowley said Washington supports the ICC's continuing probes into atrocities that have
been committed" in the DR Congo since 2002, as well as "the steps taken by the
Congolese government to pursue accountability."

He added: "Ending the cycle of impunity is indispensable to establishing a lasting peace

in the Congo."
--------------------
Region Bombing Trial Starts (Daily Nation)

New York — The al-Qaeda cell responsible for the US embassy bombing in Tanzania in
1998 also carried out the nearly simultaneous attack in Kenya, US prosecutors told a
jury in New York on Tuesday.

"The attacks in Kenya and Tanzania were mirror images of one another," assistant
prosecutor Nicholas Lewin said in opening remarks in the trial of a Tanzanian charged
with 224 counts of murder resulting from the explosions in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.

Cell members often gathered in a clothing store in Mombasa, Kenya to plot the
bombings, Mr Lewin said.

He added that the defendant, Ahmed Ghailani, travelled between Tanzania and Kenya.
Frequent calls were made from Mr Ghailani's mobile phone to numbers in Kenya, the
federal attorney said.

Mr Ghailani, 36, was captured in Pakistan in 2004. He had fled there along with four
other bombing conspirators on the eve of the blasts in the two East African cities, Mr
Lewin recounted.

He is charged specifically with buying the lorry used in the Dar attack, along with
several gas tanks used to construct the bomb that killed 11 people on Friday, August 7,
1998, at 10:39 a.m.. The blast in Nairobi 10 minutes earlier killed 200 Kenyans and 12
Americans.

Mr Ghailani's trial opened nine years after the convictions in the same New York court
of four men charged with involvement in both the Nairobi and Dar bombings. They are
all serving life terms at a maximum-security US prison.

His defence attorneys will seek to portray Mr Ghailani as a dupe, who was unaware of
the planned attacks, even though he assisted those who planned them.

"Ahmed Ghailani was often treated like a little brother. He was sent on errands" by his
al-Qaeda associates, defence lawyer Steve Zissou said in opening remarks on Tuesday.

"He was with them, but he wasn't one of them."

Mr Ghailani, who smiled and waved to spectators prior to the start of Tuesday's
session, "was not really a man, but a boy" at the time of the 1998 bombings, Mr Zissou
said.

"He was more comfortable playing with children, watching cartoons." The trial is being
closely watched in the United States because Mr Ghailani is the first detainee from the
US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to be tried in a civilian court.

US leader Barack Obama's critics say that prisoners suspected of terrorist ties should
have their cases heard by US military tribunals, which do not offer defendants the same
safeguards as do criminal courts.
--------------------
Ghana threatens to prosecute U. S. oil firm for spillages (Xinhua)

ACCRA - American oil company, Kosmos Energy, might face prosecution if it failed to
pay the fine imposed on it by the Ghanaian environmental authorities for oil spillage
into the sea, a senior attorney general said here on Wednesday.

Ghana expected the Texas-based oil and gas exploration company to comply with the
orders of the environmental authorities, Deputy Attorney General Kodjo Barten Oduro
told the media here.

Kosmos discovered the Jubilee Oil Field in 2007 at the Gulf of Guinea's Tano Basin, 12
km from the Ghanaian coastline and 95 km southwest of the port city of Takoradi, and
has been expecting an area of over 1760 square km ever since.

At the end of July, a ministerial committee, set up to probe into the alleged spillage of
toxic substances into Ghanaian sea, announced a fine of 35 million U.S. dollars on
Kosmos, which it said was responsible for the spillages in December 2009 and in March
and May.

In a three-page strong-worded letter to the Ghanaian authorities last month, Kosmos

made it clear that it would not pay the fine, referring to it as baseless and unlawful
although the permit issued by the Ghanaian government indicated that fines were to be
imposed in the event of negligence and violation of the permit conditions.

At the press briefing, the deputy attorney general insisted that "these are laws which
must be obeyed by every company and so we expect them to settle the issues with the
Ministry of Environment".

Oduro declared that in the event of Kosmos' refusal to pay the fine the Ghanaian
authorities would have no choice but to prosecute the company in court.
--------------------
South Africa to join UN Security Council. Will it take lead on Africa conflicts?
(Christian Science Monitor)

Johannesburg, South Africa - For years, South African diplomats have chafed at the
overbearing power of the West in African affairs, and said the time had come for
African solutions to African problems.

Now, as South Africa has been elected to a two-year seat on the United Nations Security
Council, South Africa has a chance to put its words into actions.

During South Africa's two-year term as a nonpermanent Council member, which begins
Jan. 1, the Security Council is bound to tackle a series of thorny African conflicts – from
Sudan to Zimbabwe and from Nigeria to Somalia – that demand attention.

But how will South Africa approach its leadership role on the troubled continent?

Instead of using its clout to rein in leaders like Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and Sudan's
Omar al-Bashir – as the West has made clear it would appreciate – observers expect
South Africa to act as a pragmatic broker that treads lightly with ruling despots.

“South Africa wants to engage with the world in a different way. In partnership with
others, it can change things in a meaningful way,” says Adam Habib, a seasoned
political analyst and vice chancellor of University of Johannesburg. “But it must have
the political will to take on its allies, and it must change the terms of engagement.”

Concerns over brewing African conflicts

Many of the more vexing problems that the UN Security Council will face over the next
two years will be in Africa.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the world’s largest and most expensive
peacekeeping mission is winding down at the request of the Congolese government –
even as there are growing signs that armed militias and even the Congolese army
continue to fight each other, and to abuse civilians in their areas of control.
In Somalia, an African Union led peacekeeping force – made up primarily of Ugandan
and Burundian soldiers – props a weak and divided transitional government, even as
that government continues to fight among itself. Somalia’s inability to govern itself has
also led to a massive piracy problem, with pirate crews capturing and holding more
than two dozen ships and 330 crewmembers for ransom. Thus far, South Africa has
refused to send peacekeepers to assist the AU mission, but it is still thinking of sending
naval forces to patrol against piracy.
In Sudan, a 20-year-long civil war was ended in 2005 with a peace agreement between
north and south, but a referendum that could give the south the right to secede could
put these two former rivals back on a path to war. Sudan’s Darfur region continues to
boil, where another massive joint peacekeeping mission by the African Union and UN
struggles to maintain peace in a conflict where 300,000 have been killed thus far. Here,
former South African president Thabo Mbeki is playing a key mediating role.
In Zimbabwe, a marred election in March 2008 led finally – after significant South
African mediation – to a coalition government between President Robert Mugabe and
his chief rival, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. The relationship seems yet again
ready to fall apart, with Tsvangirai this week telling a number of nations (including
South Africa) to reject ambassadors appointed unilaterally by President Mugabe. South
Africa has promised to “engage” the two sides to put the government back on track.

South Africa wants equal footing

In past years, when Western colonial powers and cold war rivals took a much more
controlling approach to Africa, continental conflicts were treated as a matter of mere
muscle. African despots were either tolerated, or treated like misbehaving children, but
rarely treated as equal partners.

Recent efforts to enforce international laws on human rights – such as arresting former
Liberian President Charles Taylor and charging Mr. Bashir war crimes and genocide –
are often seen by African leaders in this same paternalistic light. After all, Mr. Habib
notes, the United States itself has exempted itself and its commanders from the same
war-crimes laws that African leaders must abide by.

To persuade strongman leaders like Bashir or Mr. Mugabe, South Africa has tended to
be more accommodating, but Habib says that doesn’t have to mean South Africa would
get nothing in return.

In Sudan, for instance, where South Africa’s former President Thabo Mbeki has been
assigned a leading mediation role by the African Union, South Africa can devote
significant diplomatic energy to ensure that the referendum passes off peacefully, and
to ensure that Bashir and his generals see it in their personal interest and in the national
interest to accept the results.

South Africa's pragmatic path

It’s all very well to urge the international community to arrest Bashir for war crimes,
but when the Sudanese leader still has the power to rule a country, and to send his
troops into war, Habib argues that the better path is pragmatism.

In Sudan, and also in Zimbabwe, this means that South Africa would cut a deal with
Bashir or Mugabe, to moderate their behavior in exchange for peace.

“Whether we like it or not, Mugabe is a thug, but he is a thug with guns, so then you
must engage him,” says Habib. “So how do you force him to come honestly to the
table?”

The key, he says, is to give Mugabe assurances that giving away power will not
necessarily mean a ticket to a war crimes trial in The Hague. “ 'As a trade, you and your
generals don’t have to go to the ICC, but in exchange, you have to guarantee peace,' "
Habib says South Africa will say to African despots. "And that debate has to be put on
the agenda of the Security Council, by South Africa.”
--------------------
Mali says West should limit fight against AQIM (Associated Press)

BAMAKO, Mali – A Mali army official says Western countries should limit their
participation in military operations against al-Qaida's North African offshoot.

Col. Yamoussa Camara said Wednesday that foreign forces should remain in the
background — providing training and equipment — so Mali's armed forces can keep
the support of their population.

Camara spoke during a G8 meeting in Mali on how to counter al-Qaida in the Islamic
Maghreb, or AQIM.

An AQIM faction is currently holding 7 hostages in northern Mali — 5 French, a man

from Togo and another from Madagascar — and the French government said recently it
had information that the group may be planning attacks in Europe.

In July, French forces participated in a raid with Mauritanian troops against AQIM on
Malian soil.
--------------------
South Sudan president vows no return to civil war (AFP)
JUBA, Sudan – South Sudan’s president Salva Kiir vowed on Wednesday there would
be no return to war in Africa’s largest country, despite mounting tensions as a
referendum on southern independence approaches.

South Sudan, which fought a two-decade civil war against the north in which some two
million died, is due to vote on whether to secede or remain united with the north in a
January 9 referendum set up as part of the 2005 peace deal.

"There is no reverse to this peace agreement" and no going back to war, said Kiir, first
vice president of Sudan and president of the semi-autonomous south.

"We have suffered a lot and we don’t want to see people suffering again," Kiir added,
speaking at the launch of a political conference for over 20 southern parties in Juba.

"We want peace and no return to war," he said. "No drop of blood should be shed
again."

The three-day conference in the southern capital is aimed to establish "common

principles" between all political leaders to support a "free, fair and transparent
referendum," Kiir added.

"Therefore let us all work for a peaceful settlement of all issues so as to guarantee
mutual respect and good neighbourliness."

Kiir shared a stage with his fellow vice president Ali Osman Taha of the north’s ruling
National Congress Party.

But he also called on former civil war enemies in the north to implement an agreement
on the contested border area of Abyei, which is due to hold a own simultaneous
referendum on whether to join the north or the south.

"We do not want Abyei to become a potential trigger for a conflict again between the
south and the north," Kiir said.

Negotiations on the future of the contested oil-rich region broke down on Tuesday over
the issue of who is eligible to vote in Abyei, with south Sudan's army warning that the
security situation there was deteriorating.
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G8 countries tackle Al-Qaeda in north Africa (AFP)

BAMAKO — Representatives of leading Western countries and regional states met in

Mali Wednesday to discuss how to step up the fight against Islamic militants linked to
Al-Qaeda.
Anti-terror experts of G8 members Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan,
Russia and the United States joined counterparts from Burkina Faso, Mali, Morocco,
Niger, Nigeria and Senegal in Bamako.

Diplomatic sources said that Algeria, which was also invited, boycotted the talks
because it believed that countries outside the region should not be involved in the battle
against Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

But Malian Foreign Minister Moctar Ouane said the meeting was "a sign of esteem and
confidence" in Mali, where AQIM fighters are believed to be holding seven hostages
seized last month in neighbouring Niger.

A diplomat said the aim was to increase awareness to step up efforts against AQIM,
and matters discussed would include controlling borders and the role of organisations
such as the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States, also
represented at the talks.

The meeting is scheduled to end Thursday.

AQIM kidnapped five French nationals, a Madagascan and a Togolese from an uranium
mining town in Niger on September 16. It is believed to be holding them in a
mountainous desert region in northeastern Mali.

Virginie Saint-Louis, Canada's ambassador to Mali, who chaired the meeting, said, "I
am saddened by the circumstances which bring us together today, the constant and
worrying threat of terrorism."

As well as the kidnapping, she referred to a bomb attack in the Nigerian capital of
Abuja on independence day on October 1 which killed 12 people.

AQIM has been exploiting the vast tracts of the Sahara desert and the Sahel scrubland
to the south, carrying out attacks in Mali, Niger, Mauritania and Algeria.

Australian Mike Smith, head of the United Nations anti-terrorism committee, said that
AQIM "does not respect borders any more than it respects international legal norms,
national sovereignty or indeed the lives of innocent people."

On the contrary "it sets up safe-havens and training camps in remote corners of the
region and then launches strikes from these into the territories of other countries."

"The only way the states of the Sahel are going to be able to deal with this threat
effectively over the long term is collectively (with) operational cooperation in fields
such as intelligence (and) border controls," he said.
Smith also urged "working together with powers from outside the region and building
mutual confidence and trust through joint training and exercises."

The growth of the group's activities is beginning to spur countries of the region towards
greater cooperation. A month ago the military commands of Algeria, Mali, Mauritania
and Niger agreed to set up a joint intelligence centre based in Algiers.
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Security Chiefs Strategise On Transnational Crime (Accra Mail)

Security chiefs from 13 countries have converged on Accra to design strategies to

combat transnational organised crime in the West African sub-region.

the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies (ACSS)-ECOWAS Strategic Level Seminar on
trans-national Organised Crime and Human Security in West Africa, the seminar is to
explore the range of illicit activities and their implication for the ongoing
democratisation, development and public health efforts.

It will also explore links between organised criminal activities and the financing of
terror, in view of the vulnerability of the region, among other things.

Opening the seminar, Mr James Victor Gbeho, the President of the ECOWAS
Commission, called for the harmonisation of legislation on anti-corruption, money
laundering, trans-national organised crime and human and illicit drug trafficking.

He noted that the present situation indicated that it was possible for individual states,
particularly the well-endowed ones, to make progress in combating organised crime
but the success would be better assured if many countries and institutions combined or
integrated their efforts to fight such crimes.

“Unless we upgrade our continued strength, our region will be devastated by all the ill
effects we have seen in other parts of the world,” Mr Gbeho stated, adding that West
African countries needed to wake up from their denial stupor and accept the fact that
organised crime thrived where the environment was riddled with corruption and weak
governance.

The Minister for the Interior, Mr Martin Amidu, said crimes often associated with
transnational criminal syndicates included terrorism, human and drug trafficking,
money laundering, among others.

He said Ghana was committed to and would go the extra mile to implement people-
friendly initiatives aimed at entrenching human security.

For his part, Mr William M. Bellarmy, the Director of the ACSS, said the centre was a
unique agency within the United States Department of Defence and served as a link
between the military and civilians involved in the security sector from across Africa,
Europe and the United States.

He said established in 1999, the centre’s main goal was to bring individuals together to
create and maintain a global network of professionals with a shared commitment to
address the security-related challenges facing Africa.

Mr Bellarmy said although headquartered on the campus of the National Defence

University in Washington, DC, the ACSS held many of its seminars on the African
continent, allowing participants to examine complex issues and seek their own
solutions.

He said transnational crime was an enormous phenomenon which killed the prospects
for economic development and caused great damage to the continent through the
destruction of lives.

The Charge d’Affairs at the US Embassy in Ghana, Ms Julie Furuta-Toy, said the United
States and Ghana enjoyed an effective partnership in combating transnational organised
crime, saying that partnership reached across agencies in both countries.
She called on the military, the law enforcement agencies, the diplomatic community,
development agencies, as well as civil society, to work together in order to strengthen
their capacity and skills to counter the threat.
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Analyst Predicts “Prepared” Electorate, Competitive Tanzanian Election (Voice of
America)

A Tanzanian political science professor has told VOA the entire population seems well-
educated and equipped to make informed decisions in the upcoming general election
scheduled for 31st October.

Professor Xavery Lwaitama, a lecturer at the University of Dar-Es Salaam, said the
“militancy” of the population will serve as a strong warning to all participating political
parties that there would be no business as usual in this election.

“The population this time round has been prepared, especially by the civic education
programs that have been offered by different agencies educating the population about
the importance of using their vote to register their preferences, and also to register their
displeasure with how things have been going.”

Local media reports that the electoral commission, civil society groups and non-
governmental organizations have launched a massive civic education campaign ahead
of the vote.

Lwaitama said the civic education has been successful.

“This is showing itself as a bit of a surprise both to the electoral commission, I suspect,
and to the political parties themselves because the political parties did their homework,
I suppose, and the electoral commission (members) maybe did their homework. But, I
think the most important thing is that, previously, the population was not usually
prepared.”

He further said Tanzanians have not often been made aware of their rights and
encouraged to be part of a process of “either confirming the legitimacy to govern of
those particular set of people who were governing or removing them from power.
Previously, this was not made clear to them,” Lwaitama said.

Analysts say, despite a stiff challenge from opposition parties, incumbent President
Jakaya Kikwete’s ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party will win the vote.

But, Lwaitama said the October election will be much more competitive than previous
ones.

“Whatever the various technical procedural sorts of gaps, even policy sort of
shortcomings, you can see clearly that the population is determined to assert itself and
is determined to make some stand to make the politicians and all parties aware that
they are not going to continue to be the same sort of people that they are used to.”
--------------------
UN News Service Africa Briefs
Full Articles on UN Website

Deputy UN chief to give keynote address at African Union forum on women

13 October – Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro will give a keynote address
on Friday in Nairobi, Kenya, at the African Union (AU) forum on the ‘Launch of the
African Women’s Decade,’ which seeks to accelerate implementation of agreed global
and regional commitments.

Ban names new force commander for UN peacekeeping mission in Liberia

13 October – A Pakistani general with previous experience serving with United Nations
operations in Cambodia has been named the world body’s new force commander in
Liberia, succeeding a fellow-countryman at the head of the nearly 10,000-strong
uniformed component of the peacekeeping mission there.

UN-African Union official meets with leaders of troubled Darfur camp for displaced
13 October – A senior official with the joint United Nations-African Union
peacekeeping mission in Darfur today met with leaders of a restive camp for internally
displaced persons (IDPs) in the war-torn Sudanese region.

Rich countries must live up to pledge to help developing world on climate change – UN
13 October – United Nations officials have called on industrialized countries to live up
to their multi-billion dollar pledges to help the developing world adapt to climate
change at a week-long meeting of several hundred African experts, including
Government ministers, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

DR Congo: UN rights panel calls for support for sexual violence victims
13 October – Victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC),
especially in remote areas of the vast country, need greater support, a high-level panel
convened by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to hear directly
from the survivors said today.