SUDAN Omer the outlaw 6th March 2009 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site The Islamist regime shows its true colours as the ICC issues the arrest warrant for President Omer el Beshir The arrest warrant for President Omer Hassan Ahmed el Beshir, which the International Criminal Court issued on 4 March, is a landmark event (AC Vol 50 Nos 2 & 4). For Sudan, the seven charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes confirm the National Congress Party (aka National Islamic Front) regime's ethnic cleansing policy in Darfur. 'He is suspected of being criminally responsible, as an indirect (co-) perpetrator, for internationally directing attacks against an important part of the civilian population of Darfur, Sudan, murdering, exterminating, raping, torturing and forcibly transferring large numbers of civilians, and pillaging their property,' said the ICC.
ZIMBABWE Caviar and cholera 6th March 2009 Mugabe celebrated his 85th birthday as his allies obstructed Morgan Tsvangirai's team in the new government It was a grotesque birthday banquet. President Robert Mugabe's nephew Patrick Zhuwawo organised the celebrations. They were in poor taste from both a political and a culinary point...
ZIMBABWE Next, the mines 6th March 2009 Mining companies, claims and assets offer hope of wealth to the Zimbabwe government's cronies The barons of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front are jostling for mineral riches as the power-sharing government struggles to make its mark. They are joined by Chi...
The International Criminal Court’s issuing of an arrest warrant for Sudan’s President Omer el Beshir for crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur poses a profound moral challenge. Officials across Africa, including three Presidents, have told Africa Confidential that they have no doubts about Omer’s guilt but fear that no one is prepared to address the consequences of the ICC’s decision. Threats by intelligence chief Sallah Abdullah Gosh to mutilate those cooperating with the ICC sho... The International Criminal Court’s issuing of an arrest warrant for Sudan’s President Omer el Beshir for crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur poses a profound moral challenge. Officials across Africa, including three Presidents, have told Africa Confidential that they have no doubts about Omer’s guilt but fear that no one is prepared to address the consequences of the ICC’s decision. Threats by intelligence chief Sallah Abdullah Gosh to mutilate those cooperating with the ICC should be taken seriously. We have credible reports that Sudanese security has tortured relatives of exiles suspected of helping the ICC. Khartoum’s expulsion of ten foreign aid agencies, claiming they have cooperated with the ICC, and its closure of two Sudanese human rights groups means that thousands more people will die of disease in the camps housing over two and a half million displaced by the Darfur war. There needs to be more protection for Sudanese civilians if the ICC warrant is to stand a chance of helping them. Western governments should supply the peacekeepers with the equipment, airlift and surveillance capacity to do their job. The ICC should get the resources it needs to run a comprehensive protection programme for witnesses and their families. Furthermore, the UN Security Council should spell out clear consequences to the Khartoum regime of continued attacks on its own people rather than complying with international law. Read more
ZIMBABWE Worthless cash 6th March 2009 South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is proud of the Southern African Development Community for its brokering in Zimbabwe. At a meeting of SADC finance ministers i...
BURKINA FASO A brutal family business 6th March 2009 President Blaise Compaoré is getting ready for his re-election in November next year, two decades after the murder of Thomas Sankara Western donors think well of Burkinabè President Blaise Compaoré. On 11 February, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the wife of the French President, made Ouagadougou her first port of call as ...
SOUTH AFRICA Claims and counter-claims 6th March 2009 The fiercest contests will be in Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Northern Cape, and to a lesser extent, Gauteng. All opposition parties claim the moral high ground; they defend the ...
SIERRA LEONE Shake-up in Freetown 6th March 2009 President Ernest Bai Koroma has finally shaken up his government, before a vote to determine if he will continue to lead the All People's Congress (APC). In all, nine of 20 posts w...
ZIMBABWE Now blood gold 6th March 2009 Under Zimbabwe's power-sharing government, the mining portfolio (like the army) remains under the control of President Robert Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriot...
BURKINA FASO Waiting in the wings 6th March 2009 François Compaoré, the President's brother, and a lawyer named Sankara (but no relation) are just some of the applicants queuing for the top job P>After President Blaise Compaoré and Prime Minister Tertius Zongo, Burkina Faso's most senior politician is Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, National Assembly Speaker and...
FRANCEAFRICA Unfinished business 6th March 2009 President Sarkozy faces awkward questions about his stopovers in Brazzaville, Kinshasa and Niamey this month The legacy of Françafrique - the opaque network of commercial and political ties between Paris and its African allies - continues to haunt French President Nicolas Sarkozy's...
MALAWIZAMBIAZIMBABWE A new federation 6th March 2009 In Malawi, the President seems to be blundering towards a new version of the Central African Federation Back in the 1950s, as independence for its Empire became inevitable, Britain tried to unite some smaller units into federations it deemed large enough to stand alone. This never go...
SOUTH AFRICA A morality contest 6th March 2009 Jacob Zuma's legal problems are the new opposition's strongest card The presidential election will make or break the careers of many South African political leaders. A new one has unexpectedly appeared. The new Congress of the People (COPE), formed...
SIERRA LEONE See you in the court 6th March 2009 Some kind of justice has been done but the Special Court has not set a good precedent for international justice The Special Court for Sierra Leone completed its last trial on 25 February, convicting the three most senior leaders of the reviled Revolutionary United Front (RUF) of a series of ...
NIGERIAUNITED STATESBRITAIN Tesler trapped 6th March 2009 Officers from Britain’s Serious Fraud Office arrested lawyer Jeffrey Tesler, 60, at his offices in Tottenham in London on 5 March in a move that will widen the international invest...
GUINEA BISSAU Mutually assured destruction 6th March 2009 The main threat to peace in Bissau is a coup d’état following the fatal bombing of the Army Chief of Staff, General Batista Tagme Na Waie, on 1 March and the retaliatory killing of...
KENYA Pushing Wako 6th March 2009 Kenya’s long-serving Attorney General, Amos Shitswila Wako, has been targeted for special censure by United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extra-Judicial, Summary or Arbitrary Execu...
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC The rebel's return 6th March 2009 With an armed attack on a police base in Batangafo, 390 kilometres north-west of Bangui, on 21-22 February, Abdoulaye Miskine relaunched the rebellion that he had abandoned in ear...
