BREAKING: Macy’s responded to our campaign calling out their attack on an equal pay bill in Texas–by claiming that the bill is unnecessary.1
We know that Macy’s is feeling the heat from our actions, but it’s clear that we need to amp up our campaign and make sure they know that we’re not buying their excuses–or their merchandise–unless they publicly pledge to never block equal pay legislation again.
We’re planning a big delivery next week. But for a super-size store like Macy’s, we want to make sure we have a super-size petition.
Can you add your name right away and let Macy’s know that blocking equal pay is bad for business?
http://act.weareultraviolet.org/go/1020?t=1&akid=575.6000.CbILmA
Thanks for speaking out,
Nita, Shaunna, Kat, Malinda, and Karin, the Ultraviolet team
Sources:
1. Macy’s Convinces Rick Perry That Women Don’t Need Equal Pay, Jezebel, August 20, 2013
http://act.weareultraviolet.org/go/1045?t=2&akid=575.6000.CbILmA
P.S. Here’s the original email about Macy’s asking Governor Rick Perry to veto a popular equal pay bill in Texas.
—prior msg;——-
Macy’s just blocked a bill that would help stop wage discrimination in Texas. Can you sign the petition to tell Macy’s to stop blocking equal pay?
Have you ever shopped at a Macy’s department store? If you have, you’ve unfortunately helped fund discrimination against women.
Here’s the story: Macy’s recently played a key role in defeating an important equal pay bill in Texas.1 The bill would have given employees who are discriminated against more time to sue in state court. Without this law, women who are paid less simply because of their gender could miss their chance to get justice before they even find out that they were discriminated against.2
The bill passed the Texas legislature with strong bipartisan support, but Governor Rick Perry vetoed it last month at Macy’s request.3
Wage discrimination is a major problem in America, costing women and their families an average of $431,000 over their careers.4 Macy’s is in the middle of a big back-to-school marketing campaign right now, aimed largely at moms.5 The last thing they need right now is controversy over equal pay–an issue women all over the country care a lot about. If we all speak out now, we can generate enough media attention to pressure them to retract their opposition and pledge to support equal pay legislation–in Texas and nationally–going forward. Can you sign the petition?
Tell Macy’s: Stop blocking equal pay for equal work.
http://act.weareultraviolet.org/go/1020?t=5&akid=575.6000.CbILmA
The wage gap between men and women has remained stagnant for decades. The average, full-time working woman in this country earns $0.77 for every dollar a man makes. For women of color, it’s even worse–for African American women it’s only $0.64 and for Latina women it’s $0.55. The gender wage gap means lost wages of $10,000 per year for an average woman–or $431,000 over her lifetime.6
And it doesn’t just affect women–it hurts entire families who are struggling to make ends meet. $431,000 could cover a lot of mortgage payments, groceries, doctor’s appointments, or college tuition payments.7 But Congress is stalled on the Fair Pay Act, which would help finally close the gender wage gap, and the last thing we need when it finally comes up for a vote is big companies like Macy’s stepping in to oppose it.
The Texas bill mirrors the federal Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and would give Texas women who are paid less because of their gender the right to sue in state courts for 180 days after a discriminatory paycheck.8 The protections in federal law don’t extend to the state courts–which are often closer and more affordable for victims to access than federal courts.9 For a woman who’s already lost income due to wage discrimination, access to state courts is critical. But according to Macy’s letter to Gov. Perry, this important protection for women is “unnecessary.”10
Macy’s should be supporting, not blocking equal pay–especially if they want to woo women as customers. If we all speak out now, we can generate enough bad press to make sure they get the message. Can you sign?
Add your name.
http://act.weareultraviolet.org/go/1020?t=6&akid=575.6000.CbILmA
Thanks for speaking out,
Nita, Shaunna, Kat, Malinda, and Karin, the Ultraviolet team
Sources:
1. You Really Shouldn’t Shop There: The Businesses That Told Perry to Veto Equal Pay, Burnt Orange Report, August 7, 2013
2. Perry vetoed wage bill after getting letters from retailers, Houston Chronicle, August 5, 2013
3. Ibid.
4. Facts: Women and the Wage Gap, National Partnership for Women & Families
5. Macy’s Back to School campaign, Macys.com
6. Facts: Women and the Wage Gap, National Partnership for Women & Families
7. How the Wage Gap Hurts Women and Families, National Women’s Law Center, April 3, 2013
8. Perry vetoed wage bill after getting letters from retailers, Houston Chronicle, August 5, 2013
9. You Really Shouldn’t Shop There: The Businesses That Told Perry to Veto Equal Pay, Burnt Orange Report, August 7, 2013
10. Perry vetoed wage bill after getting letters from retailers, Houston Chronicle, August 5, 2013
——–
Want to support our work? UltraViolet is funded by members like you, and our tiny staff ensures small contributions go a long way. Chip in here.
https://weareultraviolet.actionkit.com/donate/donate?akid=575.6000.CbILmA
Contrary to the assertions made by the author in this article, Kenya is fast progressing. The ‘independent’ tribes as Yogo asserts are wholly dependent of each other within a National social budget, economic infrastructure and certainly a unifying Constitution which protects the interest and rights of each citizen.
It is extremely misleading to always amplify the errors of the past as the bench marks for the future.
The Kenyatta family, ‘said to own’ large tracts of land, has been used severally to demonise a certain community setting it up against other tribes.
Yogo has taken up this tribal hate and ran off a notch higher by indicating that what jubilee government represents is a KANU metamorphosed into jubilee, he writes
…” Today, the Kanu brigade is back at the helm of leadership as an extension of Moi’s bad governance and is promising to take us back to the struggle for freedom. Kenya is fast retrogressing.”…
I want to refute this statement, lest we forget, we are now a multi-party democracy, de-jure and de-facto, a ressusfare absent in the era so imputed above.
Kenyatta and Ruto, may it be as it may, chose their political paths modelled NOT ON KANU AND KAMU MANIFESTO but on a futuristic promise to achieve vision 2030. This. This i say, is a constitutional right.
The essence of a general and national election is to raise a political leadership that epitomizes the aspirations of the suffrage…that my friends is not questionable.
What therefore ought to be our focus is to excellently play our roles individually and nationally to better our counties rather than emit negative energy bent on entrenching tribal hatred and putting down the gains and successes already been made by the Jubilee government.
Mwendani Frank
____________
ALLIANCE PARTY OF KENYA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR.
A lawyer,researcher,political strategist,peer trainer and community mobiliser.
From: George Yogo
Sent: 2013/08/21 17:54
Subject: WHERE IS KENYA HEADED?
KENYA: A NATION OR A COUNTRY OF 42 INDIFFERENT TRIBAL GROUPINGS?
The word nation means a large aggregate of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular country or territory. That territory within which they are confined is their country. It is undeniable that the country cannot forge ahead except her nationhood is cultivated.
The term nationhood defines a country or a people in terms of commonness of culture, language, history, ethnicity, religion and spirit. In Kenya today, Kenyans seem to be extremely dived along ethnic and political leanings. In fact, our political inclinations are absolutely tribal. 99% of Kenyan populace does not join a party because of its ideologies; rather because of its tribal formation.
The incoherence witnessed among Kenyans is largely informed by the way the founding president ruled (Not led) the country from its birth water. My only worry is that 50 years down the line, Kenya is more dived than when it was first founded. What then is the future of this country? Should we go the Rwandan way before we earn tribal respect and therewith coherently move forward as one nation?
Allow me to point out a few things:
One of the very essences of Mau Mau rebellion was the restoration of land to the Kenyan people. However, when Kenyatta took over the leadership of the newly born Kenya, he used the opportunity to amass wealth for himself – quickly gathering large chunks of land for his family. The Kenyatta’s are reputed to own land larger than Nyanza region of the country. Opposition to his dictatorial style of leadership saw the opponents suffer humiliation and segregation.
Instead of healing the Nation, Moi did more damage by not only consolidating the evil done by Kenyatta, but also by turning to an absolute totalitarian. Kenya fast drifted to the dark days. There was a shy of relief when Narc took over but the joy was short lived. Today, the Kanu brigade is back at the helm of leadership as an extension of Moi’s bad governance and is promising to take us back to the struggle for freedom. Kenya is fast retrogressing.
African People don’t understand the deep social disintegration with economic collapse from serious vices, theft with purposeful injustices, that render pain and human sufferings without care from corrupt political leadership practices.Where, in leaps and bounds, the conspirators of the politically correct network, engage in destroying important fabric of livelihood and survival including those that affected climate change.These actions are organized and executed in private deals that are unconstitutional and therefore, are illegal.
Consequently over a time, this practice render their ugly head pressurizing and intimidating on innocent people, forcing the people to submit to unfavorable prescriptions offered by the condition in such like, joblessness will find opportunity to join organized gangs in engineered framed Rebel Groups; with others forced out of their dwelling places and yet others are conditionally forced to engage in unfavorable dismembering of body organs against their cultural values, practices and norms.There is no alternative when put on corner by intimidating force; whether good or bad, the people have to succumb where there is no choice and their circumstances equally does not permit or give them option to defend their rights………thus in this critical state-of-affair, the people are oppressed and are denied their obligated Rights with social and economic freedom and liberty from living a favorable, honorable and justified life.This amounts to International Crime, Violation and Abuse of Rights.
The Crime, violation and abuse in the effect of theorized plan put in effect thereby causing people disharmony, and where people are killed at will and or are forced out of their dwelling homes unfairly are causes of acts against moral justice for humanity.The spanner at work by the politically correct, make it in such a way, that the people become victims of circumstances without their honest validated consent as, they systematically forced and formed to be in a condition as hunted targets that are destined for extermination under unfavorable conditions, their Lands to be unfairly Grabbed, used as guinea pigs put on concentration camps or set to be used as slaves for selfish greed of enriching unscrupulous political corporate Special business interest network.
In this prospect, the behavior amounts to injustices against humanity that are punishable by law; and victims compensated ……. and it is because, they emanates from Abuse and mis-use of Public, Facilities and Utilities that are violated from abuse of public office through conflict of interest against Public interest and mandate.
The conspiracies of the politically corrupt network should not escape justice because they engaged in organized crimes against the innocent, and that these are violation and abuse that are done with careful orchestrated, well defined execution through shared engineering that are systematically and timely executed in a compact agenda.It is not an accident but a purposeful plan rendered through criss-cross shuttling with expenditures from public taxpayer incurring heavy expenses made to corrupt and push people to extreme poverty with bitter impunity to fulfill selfish greed ……..and this is unacceptable…….
Therefore, if the government is under democratically controlled principled rule, its service is per-mount to the people. Let it prioritize serving the people first.The people must take the lead……consulting with the people first for way forward before negotiating with the business community.
The business community equal to the people, and it must not act as a Government to the people or superior to the people.The business community needs must fall in harmony regulated with those of the people.When the Business Community self interest overtakes the Government, this is when economy faces a collapse. Any business first interest is to make gainful profit. If it is allowed to own power more than the Government, it will use those power to overtake and control the Government and suppress, oppress, intimidate and evade paying taxes to the Government, thereby maximizing its profit over those of the people going beyond margin in the balance of profit making. No Government in the world can survive in this manner of unscrupulous special business interest invasion. Which is why, all must play by the same set of rules………..which is why, in every practice, there must be control for discipline, guidlines to be observed, balancing to maintain leverage, checks and balances to avoid short-changing, theft with unscrupulousness……..
This is why, in the balance of all, Justice must take its central rule to execute just rule of law in balancing acts that protects peoples rights in fairness, and offer guidance to government facilitative engagement mutually. When the rule of law fails, it gives rise to the jungle rule which the business community with corrupt politicians loves……..so it goes to intimidate its target further to gain power and amass more wealth and power in a greedy manner so to control its target………rendering its subject the target to collapse in decay………The law will in effect control the hostile environment to allow Human Rights Activist to stand up for peoples rights and continue to educate and empower people to know and demand their rights………..and that, people must act on informed choices…..because, knowledge is power………and people have a right to access the knowledge, it is their human rights, freedom and Liberty for pursuit of happiness……..
Therefore, to balance, both the business community and the people must work collaborate and agree to acceptable principles that work well for all on a fair mutual Plan of Action.Both must be guided by Policy guidelines that are the Law and no one is above the law.
May our Good God Bless us all to overcome human pain and sufferings and overcome the injustices of the wicked minds……….
Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com
– – – – – – – – – – –
More hostile environment for human rights activists
Updated Saturday, August 17th 2013 at 12:53 GMT +3
By Philip Mwakio
“The environment in which human rights defenders operate is becoming more and more hostile, limiting space for negotiations. Those who stand up for human rights continue to pay a high price for their courage
This quote aptly captures the daily work of one Francis Auma, 35. Auma or ‘Gamba’ as he is fondly referred to in the civil society arena, is a household name in activism at the Coast.
Police harassment
He has withstood police beatings, harassment and threats to his life to help bring to light unfair and unjust human sufferings.
Recently, he was part of the group that featured prominently during the Occupy Parliament protests in Nairobi.
In Mombasa, he has become the public face of protests against all forms of injustice including extra-judicial killings of terror suspects, land grabbing and has several criminal charges on his head.
While growing up in the densely populated Makupa estate, Auma came face-to-face with the grim reality when unknown assailants clobbered his father, Aloice Kizito Nyando Auma to death outside his house in 1989.
“The killers have remained unknown to date. We had to grow up under the care of our hardworking mother, Alice Osea,†he says.
Today, working at the Muslim for Human Rights (Muhuri) as head of the Rapid Response Unit, Auma has led demonstrations against the Lamu port, police brutality, suffering of Kenyan domestic workers in Saudi Arabia and rampant land grabbing cases in and around Mombasa, among many others.
Rapid Response Programme
Auma€’s designation is Programme officer for Muhuri’s Rapid Response Programme (RPP).
They (family) are always apprehensive. They are always in constant fear for my life,†he says.
Auma says the RPP has been on the forefront of fighting for justice at the Coast.
“This programme has been dealing with day-to-day human rights violations that have been brought to its attention. Members of the public have trusted the organisation to be at the forefront of championing their rights,†he said.
Complaints
Auma says every day, the organisation receives at least 15 different complaints of violations that need to be rapidly followed up.
“Indeed the RRP are certain that we cannot conclusively deal with all the issues that are reported as this can only be done by the State. The programme has put more emphasis on matters that are communal in nature,†Auma added.
 He describes Muhuri board chairman Munir Mazrui and Chief Executive officer Hussein Khalid as his role models and also admires South African politician Julius Malema who was expelled from the African National Congress for advocating for a land grab policy against minority whites.
Remembering a massacre at a South African mine
1 hr 20 mins ago 1:21 Reuters Videos
South Africa remembers tje Marikana massacre
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLJsBnvDWJc
Year After South African Mine Shooting, Residents See No Change
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6-a_G_-Jdk
Published on Aug 16, 2013
In South Africa, August 16, 2012, will be remembered as the date of one of the country’s most violent police confrontations since the apartheid era. Police shot dead 34 striking mineworkers at the Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana. The miners were striking to demand a significant pay raise and improved conditions. Officials say that since then, progress has been made: a commission is investigating the incident and the miners have been granted some raises. But, as VOA’s Anita Powell learned when she visited the tense community a year later, residents believe things have changed for the worse, not better.
Thousands attend a memorial service at the Marikana mine in South Africa where 34 striking workers were killed a year ago by police. Deborah Lutterbeck reports.
Family massacred in South Africa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyiO9sRtxUs
Published on Jun 29, 2013
the sun,the guardian,frankfurter,the independent,usa today,dawn,the times,le monde,bbc,la daily news,cnn,fox news,die welt,the independent,new york times
Vavi slams Cosatu’s Executive Committee
Friday 16 August 2013 15:02
SABC
Zwelinzima Vavi Media Briefing
Streamed live on Aug 16, 2013
Zwelinzima Vavi briefs the media on his suspension
Zwelinzima Vavi has slammed the decision by Cosatu to suspend him.(SABC)
Tags:
Cosatu
Zwelinzima Vavi
Numsa
Irvin Jim
Unions
South Africans
South African leader suspended for illicit love affair
South Africa News.Net Thursday 15th August, 2013
Suspended Cosatu General Secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi has ordered his lawyers to write to the Central Executive Committee of Cosatu, requesting a postponement or suspension of a disciplinary meeting meant to probe his sexual liaisons with a married colleague.
He was addressing a news conference in Johannesburg.
Vavi has slammed a decision by the labour federation to suspend him, saying those in favour of his suspension were strongly prejudiced.
An internal disciplinary, meant to probe his affair with the 26-year old woman and the way she was appointed, is meant to get
underway within days.
“I believe that the next people to be politically persecuted is not only Numsa’s Irvin Jim and those other leaders of the unions that are defending my rights but all those South Africans that are listed in the so called intelligence report.”
The ruling Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) Thursday said its general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi has been suspended for having an illicit love affair. “Vavi has been released from all his official duties as the general secretary (of COSATU) during the period of investigation until such time that the outcome of the disciplinary hearing is known,” reported Xinhua quoting party’s deputy general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali as saying. As the largest of the country’s three main trade union federations with 1.8 million workers, the COSATU is part of the tripartite alliance with the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party in ruling the country. Last month a junior COSATU employee accused Vavi of rape, but he said that he had a consensual affair with her. The central executive committee (CEC) of the COSATU Wednesday met in Johannesburg to discuss the possible disciplinary action against him. “After lengthy discussion, the CEC meeting agreed to conduct a full investigation into the allegations,” COSATU president Sidumo Dlamini said Thursday. – See more at: http://www.southafricanews.net/index.php/sid/216461217/scat/371b1b8643d479c1/ht/South-African-leader-suspended-for-illicit-love-affair#sthash.rWKaKSrw.dpuf
– At the biggest camp in northeast Cairo, security forces fired tear gas
– Police helicopters circled above and army vehicles were stationed
nearby
– Muslim Brotherhood has claimed that 250 have been killed today
– The group also said that more than 5,000 have been injured so far
By JILL REILLY
As many as 100 people have been killed according to reports, as Egyptian
security forces, backed by armoured cars and bulldozers, began to clear two
sit-in camps by supporters of the country’s ousted President Mohammed
Morsi.
At the biggest camp in northeast Cairo, security forces fired tear gas as
police helicopters circled above and army vehicles were stationed nearby.
The state news agency said security forces had started implementing a
phased plan to disperse the protesters, which is almost certain to deepen
political turmoil in Egypt.
Scroll down for video
[image: Chaos: A tent burns at one of the two sites occupied by protestors
until armed forces moved them on this morning. At least 25 are said to have
been killed today]
Chaos: A tent burns at one of the two sites occupied by protestors until
armed forces moved them on this morning. At least 25 are said to have been
killed today
[image: Clashes:]
Clashes: Smoke rises during clashes between riot police and members and
supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, at Rabba el Adwia Square in Cairo.
Egyptian security forces have started clearing out Cairo protest camps
which have been demanding the reinstatement of Morsi
[image: Unrest:]
Unrest: At the biggest camp in northeast Cairo, security forces fired tear
gas as police helicopters circled above and army vehicles were stationed
nearby
[image: Movement:]
Movement: An image grab taken from Egyptian state TV shows police forces
moving in to disperse a huge protest camp set up outside the Rabaa
al-Adawiya mosque in Cairo
While initial reports have suggested that around 25 protestors have been
killed in one of the protest camps and security forces have confirmed the
deaths of two of their personnel, the Muslim Brotherhood is claiming that
at least 250 are dead.
The movement’s spokesman Gehad El-Haddad took to Twitter to make the claim,
adding that more than 5,000 people have been injured.
More…
– Egyptian schoolgirl, 10, gunned down as she walked home from a bible
study class
– Israeli Iron Dome defence system shoots down rocket launched towards
Red Sea resort
But those estimates are unconfirmed.
The simultaneous actions by the Egyptian forces – at the pro-Morsi
encampment in Nasr City and at the site outside the main campus of Cairo
University in Giza – began at around 7am local time.
Regional television networks have been broadcasting images of collapsed
tents and burning tires at both sites, with ambulances on standby.
Footage showed dozens of protesters being arrested and led away by
black-clad policemen.
State television showed footage of some dozen protesters, mostly bearded,
cuffed and sitting on a sidewalk under guard outside the Cairo University
campus.
[image: Breaking in: A bulldozer is seen in television reports breaking
down a barricade into one of the protest camps]
Breaking in: A bulldozer is seen in television reports breaking down a
barricade into one of the protest camps
[image: Attack: Egyptian security forces throw tear gas towards supporters
of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi at a sit-in in Cairo]
Attack: Egyptian security forces throw tear gas towards supporters of
ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi at a sit-in in Cairo
[image: Action: Protestors can be seen behind a barricade in the background
as tear gas is fired at protestors earlier today]
Action: Protestors can be seen behind a barricade in the background as tear
gas is fired at protestors earlier today
The smaller of the two camps was cleared of protesters by late morning,
with most of them taking refuge in the nearby Orman botanical gardens and
inside the sprawling campus of Cairo University.
Security forces remained on the fringes of the other camp in the eastern
Nasr City district after it showered the encampment with tear gas.
Television footage from there showed thousands of protesters congregating
at the heart of the site, with many wearing gas masks or covering their
faces to fend off the tear gas.
A security official, who spoke anonymously, said that as many as 200
protestors had been arrested.
At the Nasr City site, ambulances are also seen at the scene, and there are
reports of some protesters being arrested and led away by the troops.
The pan-Arab Al-Arabiya TV is showing images of collapsed tents and burning
tires at the Nasr City protest site.
Ambulances are also seen at the scene, as well as some protesters being
arrested and led away by the troops.
Clearing out: Supporters of Egypt’s ousted President Mohammed Morsi stand
behind sand barriers recently set up where supporters of Morsi have
installed a camp. At least 15 people have been killed as Egyptian security
forces, backed by armoured cars and bulldozers, began to clear two sit-in
camps
[image: Operation: Supporters of Egypt’s ousted Pre]
Operation: Supporters of Egypt’s ousted President Mohammed Morsi rest in a
tent outside Rabaah al-Adawiya mosque, where protesters have installed a
camp and held daily rallies at Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt
Officials confirmed that a number of leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood
group had been arrested in the move to clear out the protest camps.
None of those arrested have been named.
‘We have arrested a number of Brotherhood leaders but it’s too early to
announce their names,’ General Abdel Fattah Othman, a senior official in
the Interior Ministry, told the privately-owned CBC TV channel.
[image: Plans]
Plans: The state news agency said security forces had started implementing
a phased plan to disperse the protesters, which is almost certain to deepen
political turmoil in Egypt
[image: Camp]
Camp: A supporter of Egypt’s ousted President Mohammed Morsi enters Nahda
Square, which is fortified with multiple walls of bricks, tires, metal
barricades and sandbags, where protesters have installed their camp near
Cairo University
The Anti-Coup Alliance, an umbrella of pro-Morsi supporters, said in a
statement that there are dozens of dead and injured so far in Wednesday’s
attacks.
Eyewitness Ahshur Abid said 15 people were killed as the clearing operation
started.
He said he saw their bodies at a field hospital at one of the camps.
There was no immediate official conformation of the deaths.
While supporters say that security forces used live ammunition, officials
denied the claims and said that they only fired tear gas on the camps.
A ministry statement also warned that forces would deal firmly with
protesters acting ‘irresponsibly,’ suggesting that it would respond in kind
if its men are fired upon.
It said it would guarantee safe passage to those who want to leave the Nasr
City site but would arrest those wanted for questioning by prosecutors.
[image: Blame:]
Tension: More than 300 people have already died in political violence since
the army overthrew Morsi on July 3, including dozens of his supporters
killed by security forces in two separate earlier incidents
Casualties treated at field hospital in Cairo (Graphic Content)
An Associated Press television video journalist at the scene of the larger
of the two camps said he could hear the screams of women as a cloud of
white smoke hung over the site in the eastern Cairo suburb.
He said an army bulldozer was removing mounds of sand bags and brick walls
built by the protesters as a defence line.
Army troops, however, were not taking part in the operation
More than 300 people have already died in political violence since the army
overthrew Morsi on July 3, including dozens of his supporters killed by
security forces in two separate earlier incidents.
Morsi became Egypt’s first freely elected leader in June 2012 but failed to
tackle deep economic malaise and worried many Egyptians with his apparent
efforts to tighten Islamist rule.
TWO YEARS OF TENSION: FROM MUBAREK TO MORSI AND BEYOND
Jan. 25-Feb. 11, 2011 – Egyptians stage nationwide demonstrations against
the rule of autocrat Hosni Mubarak, who led the country for nearly three
decades.
The 18-day ‘revolution,’ launched by secular and leftist youth, draws in a
wide spectrum, including the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists.
Hundreds of protesters are killed as Mubarak and his allies try to crush
the uprising.
Feb. 11 2011 – Mubarak steps down and turns power over to the military. Two
days later, the body of top generals, the Supreme Council of the Armed
Forces, dissolves parliament and suspends the constitution, meeting two key
demands of protesters.
June 16-17 2011 – Egyptians vote in the presidential runoff between Morsi
and Shafiq. The generals issue a ‘constitutional declaration’ giving
themselves sweeping authorities and limiting the powers of the next
president. Morsi emerges as the victor, with 51.7 percent of the vote.
June 30 2011 – Morsi takes his formal oath of office before the Supreme
Constitutional Court, a day after reading a symbolic oath in Cairo’s Tahrir
Square, birthplace of the revolution.
Aug. 12 2011 – In a bold move, Morsi orders the retirement of the top
Mubarak-era leadership of the military and cancels the military’s last
constitutional decree, taking back the powers that the generals gave
themselves. The move was seen as way to curb the military’s role in
political affairs but it also gave Morsi the power to legislate in the
absence of parliament.
Nov. 22 2011 – Morsi unilaterally decrees greater authorities for himself,
giving his decisions immunity from judicial review and barring the courts
from dissolving the constituent assembly and the upper house of parliament.
The move came just ahead of court decisions that could have dissolved the
bodies. The move sparks days of protests, with clashes between Morsi’s
supporters and opponents. At one point, some 200,000 people rally in Tahrir
Square, with some of the first chants for Morsi to ‘leave.’
Dec. 4 2011 – More than 100,000 protesters march on the presidential
palace, demanding the cancellation of the referendum and the writing of a
new constitution. The next day, Islamists attack a peaceful anti-Morsi
sit-in outside the palace, sparking all-out street battles that leave at
least 10 dead. Days later, Morsi rescinds his initial decrees, but
maintains the date of the referendum.
Jan. 25, 2013 – Hundreds of thousands hold protests in Tahrir Square and
nationwide against Morsi on the 2-year anniversary of the start of the
revolt against Mubarak, and clashes erupt in many places.
Jan. 26 – Residents of the city of Port Said stage protests, angered by a
court ruling convicting and sentencing to death a group of local soccer
fans for a 2012 stadium riot. Police crack down hard in Port Said, killing
more than 40 protesters, and in outrage the city and others nearby go into
near revolt. Much of the anger is focused at Morsi, who praised the police
for their crackdown.
Feb.-March – Protests continue in Port Said and other cities for weeks,
with dozens more dying in clashes, and some police units around the country
go on strike. Brotherhood youth and their opponents fight in the streets
outside the group’s main Cairo headquarters.
June 30 — Millions of Egyptians take to the streets in Cairo and other
cities calling for Morsi to step down in a massive display of anger and
frustration with the Islamist leader. The demonstrations are largely
peaceful, although 16 people, half of them in clashes outside the Muslim
Brotherhood’s Cairo headquarters, are killed in protest-related violence
nationwide. Organisers vow to keep up the protests until Morsi resigns.
July 1 – Demonstrations continue and Egypt’s military issues an ultimatum
for the two sides to come to a resolution within 48 hours or it will impose
its own solution.
July 3 – Egyptian media reports that President Morsi will either be sacked
or forced to stand down as the army’s deadline for a resolution approaches. The
head of the Egyptian army, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi later declares on
national TV that Morsi has been ousted from power, prompting a wave of
celebrations across the country.
July 4 – Judge in Egypt’s supreme court, Adly Mansour, sworn in as interim
president in Cairo.
July 5 – ‘Friday of Rage’ protests spark violent clashes that last into the
night, leaving a 36 dead and more than 1,000 people injured
July 7 – More than 50 are killed and 435 injured in clashes between
supporters of ousted President Morsi and armed forces at the Republican
Guard building in Cairo. Armed forces claim that they opened fire because a
‘terrorist group’ had attempted to storm the building.
July 9 – Interim head of state Adli Mansour sets a timetable of next year
for elections in the country leaving Egypt facing months of protests.
July 12 – Thousands of Muslim Brotherhood supporters gather in Cairo and
say they will occupy a square in the city until Morsi is reinstated as
president.
July 15 – At least seven killed in clashes between protestors and police in
Cairo. A further 261 are injured when locals and Muslim Brotherhood
supporters clash.
July 26 – More than 120 people were reportedly killed in another night of
violence in Cairo, according to the Muslim Brotherhood. Security forces
were said to have opened fire on a round the clock vigil for President
Morsi shortly before pre-dawn prayers.
From: erasto agwanda
Date: Wed, Aug 14, 2013 at 4:35 AM
Subject: Death threat on my life by Kisumu District Criminal Investiagtions Officer
To: “jaluo@jaluo.com”
to: 0724 837 060.
Commander,
Criminal Investigations Officer,
Kisumu County,
P.O. Box 800,
Kisumu.
Dear Sir,
Ref; DEATH THREAT ISSUED TO ME BY KISUMU EAST DISTRICT CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS OFFICER HENRY NDOMBI.
I am called Erasto Agwanda Saye and I am a freelance journalist based in Kisumu County,
I wish to address you on the above matter and seek for your indulgence in regard to recording an official statement with the police.
The sequence of events leading to all these are as follows;
On Monday 12th August 2013 at 8.42.43 am, I sent an sms to Mr.Ndombi asking him if he had read “Citizen Weekly “ headlined “Outcry as grabbed land linked to bogus teachers Sacco” in which he was adversely mentioned by an official of the said Sacco.
Mr.Ndombi replied me on his cell phone number 0722 68 58 67 saying “Thanks, assist us get this idiot bwana Gd dei” at 8.45.34 am assumed that he wanted the numbers of the officials who had mentioned him in the story and sent to him both numbers of the Chairman Mr.Daniel Omotto and his Deputy Solomon Amuti.
The same day at 02.20 pm , a number 0738 561 861 called me and the caller told me that he was DCIO Ndombi and he started throwing tantrums at me calling me an “an idiot” and he was told that I was the one who had done the said story (the attached copy).
He went on to telling me as a DCIO he was “ordering” me to go to his office immediately with another journalist called Dickens Wesonga failure of which he told me that he was going to get me whether dead or alive and I should know that “ameangusha wengi”.
Immediately I sent a sms message to Mr.David Ng’etich the County Police Commander who advised me that I see you urgently in regard to the issue as he said he was out of office.
You can recall that I called you on your mobile number 0721 599 499 and you advised that I see you in the office after an hour and I asked you if I could still see Mr.Ndombi and you told me that it was not necessary and that I come even with my advocate.
At around 3.16pm Mr.Ndombi called me again on his safaricom line number 0722 68 58 67 and I declined to pick instead sending him a sms of what you and my advocate had told me.
The same day at around at around 5pm a person who introduced himself as a police officer met me near the office of Kisumu East District Officer who told me that I am still young “na niachane na Ndombi ama nikule lead”.
The reason I have written to you is to intervene in regard to the above issue which I have been advised not to take lightly so that I record a statement with the police as I have been unable to book the incident at the Kisumu Central Police Station’s Occurrence Book.
I look forward to hear from you,
Regards
Erasto Agwanda Saye
Cc;
-Provincial Police OfficeR Nyanza
-County Police Commander- Kisumu County
-County Commissioner –Kisumu County
-Complaints Directorate, Vigilance House
-Independent Police Oversight Authority
-Criminal Investigations Department Director
-Inspector General
-Cabinet Secretary Internal Security
-Kenya National Human Rights Commission
-Kisumu City Residents Voice
-National Integration Cohesion Commission
-Law Society of Kenya
-Commission of Administration of Justice
-Committee Protecting Journalists
-Doha Centre for Media Freedom
-Frontline Defenders
-Media Legal Defense Initiate
-Amnesty International
-Otieno Ragot and Company Advocates
-Mwamu and Company Advocates
-Olago Aluoch and Company Advocates
-Onyango and Company Advocates
A radical Muslim preacher wanted for questioning over the acid attack on two British tourists in Zanzibar was shot on Saturday night as he fled police trying to arrest him.
Sheikh Issa Ponda is understood to have survived the raid and was on the run but injured, police sources told The Daily Telegraph.
He had visited Zanzibar in the weeks running up to the attack on Katie Gee and Kirstie Trup, both from north London, who were on Saturday still in hospital being treated for their injuries.
Ponda earlier this month met with the imprisoned leaders of a Muslim separatist group, Uamsho, who police believe may have inspired the attack on the two women.
Tanzania’s director of public prosecutions, Elieza Feleshi, on Friday ordered that the cleric be arrested after accusing him of inciting violence, for which he was convicted earlier this year and given a 12 month suspended sentence.
“He narrowly escaped from the police in Morogoro, he was shot by our officers, but we are pursuing him,” said Faustine Shilogile, a senior police commander in Morogoro, the town 110 miles west of Tanzania’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, where Ponda was shot.
The women, both aged 18, were admitted to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London on Friday where they were receiving treatment for burns inflicted in an unprovoked attack while they were on a volunteering holiday.
Family members of the pair are believed to be keeping a bedside vigil, after the teenagers were flown home yesterday and immediately sent to the capital’s regional burns centre.
A hospital spokesman confirmed the women continued to be treated by medics, and their conditions were described as “stable”.
Miss Gee has already taken to Twitter to say: “Thank you for all your support x”.
Their doctor, Andy Williams, a consultant burns and plastic surgeon, said: “We can confirm that Katie and Kirstie have been transferred to our care at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital’s burns unit where we’re still assessing their injuries.
“Both families would like to thank everyone that’s helped to bring the girls back.
“The families now wish to have time with the girls and that the media would respect their privacy at this difficult time.”
A photograph released by the girls’ families showed the injuries one of them suffered in the attack.
The girl is shown wearing an open striped shirt and a silver necklace.
What appear to be acid burns are clearly visible on her chin, neck and upper chest.
One of the girl’s injuries are much worse than the other’s, it was reported, because helpers used dirty water on her burns.
One of the victims was reportedly immersed in the sea in the aftermath of the attack at Stone Town, a beach resort, and the salt water helped her skin.
“That completely altered the result: the salt water and the acid,” Miss Trup’s father, Marc, said.
“The other girl panicked, ran around, made her way to a public toilet.”
When “they got to the medical centre there was no shower,” he added. “They were throwing dirty water at her.”
People from the Continent of Africa deserve fair Human Rights with better Trading engagement away from Politically Engineered conflicts that come as a result of corruption and impunity. People of Africa too have a right to enjoy benefits of peace and happiness and as well, engage in Trading under favorable conducive environment, just like other people from other parts from Industrialized progressive world. I say this because, the resources from Africa is in the world market where we are all consumers of the same; but looking back and considering the pathetic humanitarian situations at which the resources are acquired from Africa, it is extremely traumatizing. It then calls for moral conviction for which I am compelled to petition you, to face this matter boldly, resolutely without looking back and make firm and conclusive response which will save this pathetic situation and ultimately provide safety-net to the proposed Energy project you sold out during your recent trip to Africa.
Since UN Treaties are an internationally credible Law that are as valid as any other Constitutional Law of any Nation in the world, most United Nations ratified their treaties to conform with that of UN. We therefore expect The UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki-moon to engage fairly and be fully committed to guiding member States to be in compliant with Policy Agreement of the UN Conventions or face the law.
Every piece of Africa’s land and every ounce of water are protected by the International and UN treaty rights, including treaty rights for specific countries such like Kenya, Congo, Tanzania or any other Nation in Africa, Asia or in Europe where inherent rights are honored and protected. All these rights (be it Human Rights, Governments Constitutional Rights, Trade Security or Climatic Environmental Change) contribute to effects on Environmental Rights that afflict human health adversely or destroys and pollutes Nature and consequently abuses human rights. Similarly, the same in extension are Agreements recognized within International and UN Treaty.
The People of Congo, South Sudan, Kenya and other parts of Africa, are constantly attacked from outside invasion from the likes of M23 Rebel Groups. This tends to negate natural development that involves good balanced practices needed for fair trading, with sustained job creation to engage the youth and women from Africa.
Since the unscrupulous International Corporate special business interest failed to do fair business deals in Africa, or consult favorably to engage mutually good business practices; the corrupt African Governments found reason to violate and evade their Responsibilities. As a result, they fail to commit mandated business for investment deals on a “Give and Take” to mutually benefit both stakeholders and the investors. But because of humanitarian grounds, and because victims have suffered irreparably, I petition you to engage good Allys to stop this idea of sponsoring Rebel Groups in Africa to kill, destroy, drive away and scare their own local people from their home establishments that results into extreme poverty and deaths instead of advancing development; thus paving ways for extreme business of greed.
Land, Waters, Oil or rare mineral resources, should explicitly be utilized within the acceptable legal framework of the United Nations International Treaty, where the same, through Legislative consultative system in the Government should provide security to public mandate, Land Rights, resource Rights or Taxpayers as obligated in the Jurisdiction …… and this therefore remain a question for Legal Justice system to pursue, remedy and inform.
As a matter of concern, the extremely traumatic of humanitarian situation in the Eastern DRC require urgent, bold, resolute, and morally inspired response by the United States with its Allys from other countries to work tin concerted efforts to bring life in Congo and in Africa to normality. The Regions in Eastern Great Lakes of East Africa are blessed with very good understanding people who love peace. These people are highly educated and can reason well. They are extensively informed and are ready to engage in secured progressive business. This cannot happen when peace and security that offers favorable, friendly and conducive environment to prosper is not assured.
In DRC Congo and South Sudan, 70 percent of the economy of these countries heavily depend on oil and mining, therefore, any initiative would have to take into account peoples welfare, security and health protection under Human Rights, security with preservation to preserve cultural livelihood of the people.
We must not under-estimate main purposes with reasons of Terror fighting in Congo and South Sudan. It is a well known fact that, Corporate Special Business Interest are determined to engage in their selfish greed that has caused pain and sufferings to others; and are unwelcomed failed practices that do not add value; which in the first place is the reason for Global Economic Collapse, the disease which is now spreading like bush-fire to Kenya and before long, the world will break into 3rd world war because, people have reached their limits.
Currently, sponsored Private Rebels are terrorizing people and Mercenaries who engage in serious Pirating, illegal Money Laundering, illegal transfer with sale of fire-arms as well with other sophisticated weaponry, Trafficking of child prostitution with Drug trading in the Great Lakes Regions has become the order of the day.
The states surrounding the Great Lakes – which include Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, Kenya, and the DRC – have coalesced around these issues without proper management plan to develop a plan of action that requires effective coordination to ensure, there is credibility for security monitoring and as well the Rebel Groups are dismantled and driven out of Congo with their foundation completely destroyed.
To save a situation, a workable sustained process for solution must be established so that, those affected communities who are victims of circumstances get involved in Nation building and are compensated of their loses.
A targeted sustained development project instead of Aid that are short term and do not make any notable impact, must urgently be put to take effect in these regions, otherwise, those who conspired to create the mess for their advantage, would be the same beneficiaries fronting for the AID Funding, and as a result, there will be no tangible effective result for remedy that shall have been implemented……..”since the funding will have gone to those who planned for the damage in the first place”………Loose-ended spoon-feeding Aid to Africa is unsustainable and non-effective and this is where the Neo-colonialism breeds high suspecion in Africa……….What a double tragedy that would be after 50 years of Africa”s independence !!!
It is an open secret with credible documented reports both from the UN, African Envoys and by the NGOs stating that, although Governments in these regions face considerable challenges from the growing strength and sophistication of arms by these rebel groups in the Region, trading across borders only benefit the corrupt politicians with their network of Corporate Special Business Interest to a large extent, leaving out the Government to fall apart with its local people dug deeper into hopeless poverty which is greatly alarming.
It is unfortunate that, Pirating and smuggling is growing dangerously in leaps and bounds in and around the region and there is urgent need to stop these from getting out of control in Africa.
Need to Establish a Functioning Civil Society:
Management of Civil Society with Engagement of the Government to observe and follow the Constitutional policies for public mandate is crucial and very necessary. Since the Government is for the people, Civil Society have rights to be equipped with knowledge to organize themselves so to protect and preserve their Pivotal roles in the Society through engagements.
Civil society guarantee sustainability through popular participation to facilitate a functioning Democracy with good Governance that are established under Just Rule of Law; and by engaging and managing their affairs with humanitarian issues, the Civil Society are able to assist the government in managing their welfare in their Community Organization. Civil Society must equally be engaged in training in order to help with strengthening their government system to expedite service on time. When the Community is informed, they are able to manage their affairs effectively. Any other matters of human rights abuses and the need to protect Rights through policy enactment is a ways the Civil Society will preserve Africa’s minerals resource trading in a more beneficial and sustainable manner. This Natural Mineral Wealth do not last for ever, and it is our responsibility now that we engage to do the right thing.
Consequently, the information exchange encourage the civil society’s participation as Watch-dog that monitors the bad behavior of government employees with reason to re-call irresponsible elected Officials who fail to perform with integrity.
Moving forward in boosting education and strengthening security for civil society on the ground is extremely important and definitely essential.
The U.S. government, must support initiatives for Congo, Kenya, South Sudan, Tanzania with peace initiative to create management re-organization to provide conflict-free supply chains. If more revenue is invested to legitimizing supply chains, Trading benefits for USA with their Allys will grow more in bounty than where we are presently. A greater substantial proportion of the problem will have been solved, paving ways for sustainable Trading processes in the Region to compete fairly and peacefully under conducive environment that has lesser challenges from terrorism and war. This is the only way to avoid Neo-colonialism.
Progress must be swift and fast so to establish proceedure for order and discipline to instil general rule where all Trading are done in mutually common good for all.
For this to happen there is need to establish a lasting impact that will bring solution. We must follow up on uniformity to Mineral Certification process on all types of Natural Mineral Resource business that involve Oil, Gold, Diamond, Titanium, Colta, Land, Water with observance of International Treaty with United Nations Conventions.
I await to hear from you favorable…..I beg to remain,
Sincerely,
Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson &
Executive Director for
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com
email: jbatec@yahoo.com
– – – – – – – – – – –
Point of Reference from latest news report why action is acutely important and extremely urgent:
Omollo,
Iko Jaluo moja kutoka Gem anaitwa Professor Rading a ver accomplished researcher and educationist. He did a lot of research work and tests on various areas in Kwale. Through him I came to know that Niobium an element so important on stainless steels, and Titanium the stuff they use for manufacturing bodies of Fighter jets which travel at 3times the speed of sound or Mach 3 is available in Kwale in trillions of tons. Infact Kwale holds one third of the total World Titanium.
Way back in 1998 a Canadian Company, which engaged that professor from Gem to do the reseach, was given a license by Baba na Mama Government, to start Mining. Unfortunately the company wanted to loot the area the way all Gentile Companies loot Minerals in Africa. The locals were not put in the picture. Tiomin (the canadian Company started evicting akina Mwana Iddi na Swaleh Bakarii without compensation. They resisted and later the case went to Court.
The Court’s resolution was that these Locals be paid good compensation to make them relocate. But Tiomin said that they did not have that kind of money at that time. With that argument the project came to a holt.
Sometime around 2004 Obako’s Government issued another Fresh license to Tiomin.. At that point Tiomin involved their Government by asking for a Loan from the Canadian Government to help offset the money going to the Locals as compensation. From then on it has been back and forth with no headway.
Now, if the Ching ling Ling were hoping to get into those mines then they are a little late because as I know it the Canadians already have the license. not through Kamwana but one which was issued by Moi and reissued by Kibaki.
Professor ile ya ktoka Gem likwisa fuanya analysis na kuthibitisa availability of several minerals way back in late 80s to mid 90s. Donge!!!
Also did you know that Kwale has the best sand for Casting of any kind be it process casting of Aluminum or steel or Cast Iron. Sand around Kwale town has 99.9% silica. Almost 100%. I personally tested this in a lab. Compare this to other Countries which do a lot of Casting like USA Germany, USSR. Egypt, South Africa etc. Their sand range from 65% – 90% silica
Jagem
President Uhuru Kenyatta steps into global mining power struggle
Updated Tuesday, July 30th 2013 at 17:29 GMT +3
It, by-and-large, has escaped the attention of the madia that Kenya has a resources asset far greater than the oil and gas find, about which there was so much fuss. Down in Kwale, under a wooded hill, sits a deposit of Rare Earths that is of global significance.
Rare Earths are in every mobile phone, in our modern light bulbs, in most modern technologies, and just as the world played a dance of Middle Eastern supremacy over oil and control of oil supplies, so China, more than a decade ago, spotted the power of controlling the Rare Earth market.
Rare Earths
The Chinese President laid out his country’s strategy to be the controller of Rare Earths as the Middle East had controlled oil. He spoke of it. It was spelt out in his speeches. And China moved. With large Rare Earth deposits of its own, it went on to acquire almost all of the world’s mines, in Australia, globally.
It secured more than 95 per cent of all the world’s Rare Earth supplies. No-one can make modern technology without Chinese-controlled Rare Earths, and, predictably enough, the prices have soared in recent years.
Now, Kenyan geologists have long known the country had Rare Earths, together with a handy little mineral called Niobium, also these days in big demand as a strengthener of steels. Geological surveys showed the Rare Earths in Kwale back in the 1950s — a sweet enough mineral asset to mean there was a time that global mining major, Anglo American, hacked a mine shaft into that hill and set out on the path of mining there.
But that international company gave up, unable to get mining go ahead in a country where mining has never happened NOT because the country isn’t packed with mineral resources, but because no mining company could ever manage the politics. Mining takes huge up-front investment. The surveys have to happen first, the mining, the processing plant, the processing, and finally, years down the line comes the first actual piece of revenue.
Investors have to back a mine, for years and in very large sums, to turn it into a revenue stream.
It’s not like selling Coca Cola, and it doesn’t work when the menu on offer is ‘put a lot of money in, but you may lose it all and never see a penny of revenue’. Mining investment takes SOME commitments.
Kenya has never offered that, leaving itself almost isolated in Africa as a country without earnings from natural resources.
But the Kwale thing was bigger still. It certainly sat there for decades undeveloped through a lack of will to convert into a government facilitated investment. A French company tried after Anglo American. Gave up.
Then a little ‘junior’ mining company — first a South African/Australian nexus, then merged with a Toront-listed mining company — began the journey.
That company got further than the others. They prospected and found the deposit was among the richest in the world, possibly the richest, in the percentage of Rare Earths held in the soil.
They also found that the deposit was larger than anyone realised. It now looks as if it may be the second largest in the world, after the world’s largest Rare Earth mine, in China, called Baotou.
But by now, there were more challenges than ordinary, routine, forever, political blockage of mining.
No one ever mentioned in China’s strategy for Rare Earths that it would be a supply dominated by China AND Kenya. The ‘ Kenya’ part wasn’t in the global plan.
Not that anyone has really focussed on that jigsaw puzzle as we gained lots of lovely grants and friendship from China, a free hospital, a beautiful Thika superhighway.
I asked a Chinese First Secretary last week why China had put so much into Kenya recently, and he told me, repeatedly, that it was a ‘beautiful’ country with interesting tourism and great weather.
So I guess China will be putting a lot into Croatia too, with its stunning coastline.
Of course, the truth is, China wanted that mine, and maybe it’s suicide of me to say it, but I think they had got it. Only then our new government was elected, and within three weeks our new President intervened, personally. China did not get the licence. The President met the Canadian-listed international miners, issued their licence, and they have now received their Environment Impact Assessment approvals. The fund raising is underway.
Changing future
And no-one, but no-one, seems to grasp how brave that was. There will be so much pressure over that mine. I’ve seen detailed figures estimating the resource at a worth of US dollars 95 billion — that’s 8 trillion shillings. It’s the biggest thing that Kenya has ever owned that the world wants.
But that resource is a Kenyan birth right. So I don’t care what tribe he’s from: our President just stood up to one of the most powerful forces in the world to harness it for Kenya, setting up an income stream in royalties, 80 per cent of which will go to Government, and our health service, and teachers’ pay, and so much more.
And I’m not sure anyone even noticed. But they should. Because that’s future changing.
And very brave indeed.
COMMENTS:
Rare-Earth DIGGER01 August 2013 3:37 PM
Looks pretty close. The revenue may look tiny in light of the bigger cake, however, that is a direct revenue. there are indirect revenues such as employment and infrastructure development, investments, etc.
twister31 July 2013 11:29 PM
It start low as the company recoup its huge invested, which is usually borrowed attracting huge interests, after some time the Gok will poket as high as 80%.
George k31 July 2013 6:35 AM
Why such a low percentage , someone should explain this
Paulo30 July 2013 3:31 PM
This article is full of praises but lacking in real focus. Praising China for giving us grants that we will end up paying back and being dependant on their input even in cases where we can do better by developing our local capacity is not the way to go. Also, the issue of mining is more complicated than just working out figures in billions and trillions of expected income/production. EIA have been political tools in cases where in the long run, the cost paid by the local population turns out to be far much greater.
Ekhisa30 July 2013 12:05 PM
I still think 80percent of 3 percent of 95b only comes to 2.8B USD leaving the mining company with staggering profits from these at 92B USD…So what is so transformational about that figure…I think the new President did well to stick it for Kenya but the royalties just doesnt make sense…I mean Kenya will only make 250B KES from mining worth of 8 trillion shillings…Not right
Lands officer linked to Sh954m fraud
Ministry of Lands headquarters in Nairobi. Former State officials have been accused of using their positions in government to grab 795 acres of land belonging to Ms Anna Nyogio Kimitei.
By VINCENT AGOYA vagoya@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Wednesday, July 31 2013 at 21:44
In Summary
The former State officials have been accused of using their positions in government to grab 795 acres of land belonging to Ms Anna Nyogio Kimitei.
A lands registrar has been summoned to court in a case where a widow claims she was swindled out of a Sh954 million ranch using false documents.
Ms Agnes Wangu Gerald Kuria has failed to honour “verbal” summons to honour the court date.
Wednesday, magistrate Peter Ndwiga issued summons after police complained she had ignored orders to present herself to investigators.
Ms Kuria has been enjoined in the case with former Kenya Pipeline Company boss Ezekiel Komen, former District Commissioner Benjamin Rotich, land registrar Tom Mainja and two others.
Ms Kuria has been accused of giving instructions on behalf of the chief land registrar to open green cards in the names of Ezekiel Komen, Eric Kibiwott Tarus, and Kipkorir Kuti for the transfer of land in Eldoret belonging to someone else.
She did this on December 22, 2005 while working as a lands registrar at Ardhi House, Nairobi, it is claimed.
Using positions
The former State officials have been accused of using their positions in government to grab 795 acres of land belonging to Ms Anna Nyogio Kimitei.
Yesterday, the prosecution said it would amend the charges to include Ms Kuria and charge the suspects afresh.
The prosecution alleges the widow lost her land to powerful politicians during the Kanu regime.
It is alleged the politicians subdivided the land and sold it to more than 200 families who have put up commercial and residential buildings.
The widow claims her family bought the land from a white settler, Mr James Gear, on March 10, 1969 but in 2006 was told that “the government had taken it over and allocated it to poor families.”
The court yesterday extended the suspects’ bond of Sh500,000 and ordered them to appear Thursday.
A Summary of
United Nations Agreements
on Human Rights
Contents
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
Optional Protocol to the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights
Convention Against Torture
Convention Against Genocide
The Geneva Conventions
Convention on the Rights of the Child
Convention on Eliminiation of Discrimination Against Women
Charter of the United Nations
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The UDHR is the first international statement to use the term “human rights”, and has been adopted by the Human Rights movement as a charter. It is short, and worth reading in its entirety — a summary would be about as long as the document itself.
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
This covenant details the basic civil and political rights of individuals and nations. Among the rights of nations are:
the right to self determination
the right to own, trade, and dispose of their property freely, and not be deprived of their means of subsistence
Among the rights of individuals are:
the right to legal recourse when their rights have been violated, even if the violator was acting in an official capacity
the right to life
the right to liberty and freedom of movement
the right to equality before the law
the right to presumption of innocence til proven guilty
the right to appeal a conviction
the right to be recognized as a person before the law
the right to privacy and protection of that privacy by law
freedom of thought, conscience, and religion
freedom of opinion and expression
freedom of assembly and association
The covenant forbids torture and inhuman or degrading treatment, slavery or involuntary servitude, arbitrary arrest and detention, and debtor’s prisons. It forbids propaganda advocating either war or hatred based on race, religion, national origin, or language.
It provides for the right of people to choose freely whom they will marry and to found a family, and requires that the duties and obligations of marriage and family be shared equally between partners. It guarantees the rights of children and prohibits discrimination based on race, sex, color, national origin, or language.
It also restricts the death penalty to the most serious of crimes, guarantees condemned people the right to appeal for commutation to a lesser penalty, and forbids the death penalty entirely for people under 18 years of age.
The covenant permits governments to temporarily suspend some of these rights in cases of civil emergency only, and lists those rights which cannot be suspended for any reason. It also establishes the UN Human Rights Commission.
After almost two decades of negotiations and rewriting, the text of the Universal Covenant on Civil and Political Rights was agreed upon in 1966. In 1976, after being ratified by the required 35 states, it became international law.
Optional Protocol to the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
The protocol adds legal force to the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by allowing the Human Rights Commission to investigate and judge complaints of human rights violations from individuals from signator countries.
Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights
– This covenant describes the basic economic, social, and cultural rights of individuals and nations, including the right to:
– self-determination
– wages sufficient to support a minimum standard of living
– equal pay for equal work
– equal opportunity for advancement
– form trade unions
– strike
– paid or otherwise compensated maternity leave
– free primary education, and accessible education at all levels
– copyright, patent, and trademark protection for intellectual property
In addition, this convention forbids exploitation of children, and requires all nations to cooperate to end world hunger. Each nation which has ratified this covenant is required to submit annual reports on its progress in providing for these rights to the Secretary General, who is to transmit them to the Economic and Social Council.
The text of this covenant was finalized in 1966 along with that of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, but has not been ratified yet.
UN Convention on the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces (I)
Also called the first Geneva Convention
The first Geneva Convention focuses on the rights of individuals, combatants and non-combatants, during war. It is lengthy and detailed, perhaps because human rights are rarely at such risk as during war and, in particular, involving prisoners of war or enemy captives.
Convention against Genocide
This convention bans acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. It declares genocide a crime under international law whether committed during war or peacetime, and binds all signators of the convention to to take measures to prevent and punish any acts of genocide committed within their jurisdiction. The act bans killing of members of any racial, ethnic, national or religious group because of their membership in that group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, inflicting on members of the group conditions of life intended to destroy them, imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group, and taking group members’ children away from them and giving them to members of another group.
It declares genocide itself, conspiracy or incitement to commit genocide, attempts to commit orcomplicity in the commission of genocide all to be illegal. Individuals are to be held responsible for these acts whether they were acting in their official capacities or as private individuals. Signators to the convention are bound to enact appropriate legislation to make the acts named in Article 3 illegal under their national law and provide appropriate penalties for violators.
People suspected of acts of genocide may be tried by a national tribunal in the territory where the acts were committed or by a properly constituted international tribunal whose jurisdiction is recognized by the state or states involved. For purposes of extradition, an allegation of genocide is not to be considered a political crime, and states are bound to extradite suspects in accordance with national laws and treaties. Any state party to the Convention may also call upon the United Nations to act to prevent or punish acts of genocide.
The remainder of the Convention specifies procedures for resolving disputes between nations about whether a specific act or acts constitute(s) genocide, and gives procedures for ratification of the convention.
Convention against Torture
This convention bans torture under all circumstances and establishes the UN Committee against Torture. In particular, it defines torture, requires states to take effective legal and other measures to prevent torture, declares that no state of emergency, other external threats, nor orders from a superior officer or authority may be invoked to justify torture. It forbids countries to return a refugee to his country if there is reason to believe he/she will be tortured, and requires host countries to consider the human rights record of the person’s native country in making this decision.
The CAT requires states to make torture illegal and provide appropriate punishment for those who commit torture. It requires states to assert jurisdiction when torture is committed within their jurisdiction, either investigate and prosecute themselves, or upon proper request extradite suspects to face trial before another competent court. It also requires states to cooperate with any civil proceedings against accused torturers.
Each state is obliged to provide training to law enforcement and military on torture prevention, keep its interrogation methods under review, and promptly investigate any allegations that its officials have committed torture in the course of their official duties. It must ensure that individuals who allege that someone has committed torture against them are permitted to make and official complaint and have it investigated, and, if the complaint is proven, receive compensation, including full medical treatment and payments to survivors if the victim dies as a result of torture.. It forbids states to admit into evidence during a trial any confession or statement made during or as a result of torture. It also forbids activities which do not rise to the level of torture, but which constitute cruel or degrading treatment.
The second part of the Convention establishes the Committee Against Torture, and sets out the rules on its membership and activities.
The Convention was passed and opened for ratification in February, 1985. At that time twenty nations signed, and five more signed within the month. At present sixty five nations have ratified the Convention against torture and sixteen more have signed but not yet ratified it.
Convention on Eliminiation of Discrimination Against Women
This convention bans discrimination against women. The copy of the Convention on Women presently accessible through this page is a fully- indexed HTML document. A linked summary of the document will be written in the next few weeks.
Convention on the Rights of the Child
This convention bans discrimination against children and provides for special protection and rights appropriate to minors. The copy of the Convention on the Rights of the Child presently accessible through this page is a fully-indexed HTML document. A linked summary of the document will be written in the next few weeks.
Charter of the United Nations
The Charter of the United Nations contains some important human rights provisions, in addition to containing the framework for the organization as a whole. This is a fully indexed HTML version of the charter. A summary will be written at some future date.
Created on July 8, 1994 / Last edited on January 25, 1997
Clear Channel–the largest owner of AM and FM radio stations–just booted ads for a women’s health clinic, claiming they were “divisive.” Tell Clear Channel that there’s nothing divisive about women’s health care. http://act.weareultraviolet.org/go/981?t=2&akid=531.6000.nsBV8f
Dear Readers:
Clear Channel–the largest owner of AM and FM radio stations, including the ones that carry Rush Limbaugh’s show–just booted ads for a women’s health care clinic in Kansas, calling them “indecent” and “divisive.”1
What’s indecent? Absolutely nothing–these ads are straightforward promotions of available health care for women. But apparently Clear Channel decided declaring that your clinic offers “highly qualified gynecologists” and “trusts women to make the best decisions for themselves” is too divisive. (see transcript below)
Their claims are ridiculous–and dangerous.
We cannot let a media corporation get between a woman and her right to critical health information. This story is starting to get attention in online media, including Jezebel, DailyKos, and the Huffington Post.2 If thousands of us speak out quickly, we can help generate a national media firestorm and Clear Channel will be forced to respond. Will you sign the petition telling Clear Channel to put South Wind Women’s Center’s ads back on the air and stop blocking Kansas women’s access to health care information?
Tell Clear Channel that ads for women’s health clinics aren’t indecent or divisive.
At South Wind Women’s Center, our physicians are committed to providing quality reproductive health care in Wichita. Each physician is board-certified in family medicine or obstetrics and gynecology. Between them, they have over 50 years of experience and dedication, ensuring women are able to ensure the care they need when they need it.3
And South Wind Women’s Center was founded to reestablish full access to reproductive health care. The center provides high-quality medical care and trusts women to make the best decisions for themselves and their families. South Wind Women’s Center: entrusting women with their own medical decision-making.4
The radio industry is still recovering from the fallout after hundreds of advertisers dropped Rush Limbaugh’s show when he attacked Sandra Fluke for testifying before Congress about birth control.5 And radio industry insiders know another high profile fight about their meddling with women’s personal decisions isn’t going to go over well.
If enough of us speak out, we can send a strong message to Clear Channel, and others: Media corporations have no business getting between a woman and her right to critical health information.
Tell Clear Channel to stop blocking women from reproductive health care information.
http://act.weareultraviolet.org/go/981?t=4&akid=531.6000.nsBV8f
Thanks for speaking out.
–Nita, Shaunna, Kat, Malinda and Karin, the UltraViolet team
Sources:
1. Clear Channel Won’t Run Women’s Center Ads Because They’re ‘Divisive’, Jezebel, July 26, 2013
2. Massive Media Company Pulls Ads for Famous Women’s Health Center, Jezebel, July 24, 2013
Clear Channel Pulls Ads for Women’s Health Clinic, Claiming They Are “Indecent”, DailyKos, July 25, 2013
Clear Channel Pulls Abortion Clinic Ads, Huffington Post, July 25, 2013
3. South Wind Women’s Center Ad 1
4. South Wind Women’s Center Ad 2
5. EXCLUSIVE: 140 Companies Drop Advertising From Rush Limbaugh [Update: 142], Think Progress, March 12, 2012
Rush Limbaugh Still Toxic For Advertisers One Year After Fluke Attacks, Media Matters, March 1, 2013
Israeli forces continue systematic attacks against Palestinian civilians and property in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt)
A Palestinian boy was wounded in al-Bireh in the West Bank during an Israeli incursion.
Israeli forces have continued to use excessive force against peaceful protesters in the West Bank.
Sarit Michaeli, B’Tselem spokesperson, was wounded during al-Nabi Saleh protest, northwest of Ramallah.
Dozens suffered tear gas inhalation and sustained bruises due to Israeli soldiers’ attack.
Israeli forces conducted 50 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank and a limited one in the Gaza Strip.
At least 25 Palestinian civilians, including 4 children, were arrested.
Israel has continued to impose a total closure on the oPt and has isolated the Gaza Strip from the outside world.
Israeli forces established dozens of checkpoints in the West Bank.
10 Palestinian civilians were arrested by Israeli forces at checkpoints in the West Bank.
A Palestinian civilian was arrested at Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing.
Israeli forces have continued efforts to create a Jewish majority in occupied East Jerusalem.
An Israeli court gave Siyam family an extension until 01 August 2013 to evacuate their house in al-Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in the occupied city.
Licenses were issued to build 165 new settlement units in “Nabi Ya’qoub” settlement.
Israeli forces have continued to support settlement activities in the West Bank and Israeli settlers have continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property.
More demolition notices were issued.
The settlers set fire to 400 fruitful olive trees, south of Bethlehem.
The settlers continued their attacks on the Palestinian farmers and shepherds, south of Hebron.
4 settlers tortured a Palestinian woman, northwest of Ramallah, and put her life at risk.
EU Concerned by Israeli Restriction on its Activities in West Bank
BRUSSELS (WAFA) – The European Union Friday expressed concern by reports that Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon has ordered restriction on its activities in the West Bank and is going to prevent its members from entering Gaza through Israel.
Maja Kocijancic, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, said from Brussels that EU delegations in the area were seeking clarifications regarding these reports from the Israeli government.
Yaalon, whose ministry runs the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, apparently decided to restrict EU humanitarian activities and work in the occupied territories in retaliation for EU embargo on products made in the illegal West Bank and East Jerusalem Israeli settlements as well as individuals working with the settlements.
“The EU is concerned by reports in the Israeli media that the Israeli Minister of Defence has announced a number of restrictions affecting EU activities supporting the Palestinian people,” said Kocijancic.
“We have not received any official communication from the Israeli authorities. Our delegations on the spot are seeking urgent clarifications,” she added.
Military Orders Demolition of Homes, Water Well
HEBRON (WAFA) – The Israeli military government Saturday informed residents of a small village south of Hebron of its intention to demolish their homes and a water well, according to Rateb Jbour, from the popular committee against settlements in the south Hebron area.
He told WAFA that soldiers raided Mafqara village, east of Yatta, and handed residents orders to demolish their shack homes and tents as well as water well.
Israeli forces detain former Fatah fighter in Jenin camp
JENIN (Ma’an) — Israeli forces on Friday detained a former Fatah fighter after raiding his home in the Jenin refugee camp, Palestinian Authority security sources said.
Israeli military vehicles raided the camp and detained 35-year-old Daoud Zubeidi, PA security officials told Ma’an.
An Israeli military statement said that soldiers and border police arrested “a Palestinian terrorist operative,” without giving his name or detailing the allegations against him.
Zubeidi’s brother Zakaria Zubeidi, the former head of Al-Aqsa in Jenin, is currently facing charges in a Palestinian court of taking part in a May 2012 shooting attack on the residence of Jenin governor Qaddura Musa.
Musa died after suffering a heart attack during the incident, and Palestinian security forces arrested dozens of people, including Zakaria Zubeidi, shortly afterwards.
Zakaria, a founder of Jenin’s Freedom Theatre, was released on bail in October.
Israelis injure Palestinian farmer in Gaza, report says
Israeli soldiers have injured a Palestinian farmer at the borders between eastern Gaza Strip and the occupied Palestine.
Residents living in al-Bureij refugee camp in the besieged enclave told Xinhua on Saturday that they heard gunfire near the borders, adding that Israeli troops opened fire at a farmer who was approaching the border.
Earlier in the day, the Israeli forces removed tents belonging to Palestinian activists on a property that is supposed to be part of an Israeli settlement near the West Bank city of Bethlehem.
The presence and continued expansion of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine has created a major obstacle for the efforts to establish peace in the Middle East.
More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem) in 1967.
The UN and most countries regard the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories were captured by Israel in a war in 1967 and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbids construction on occupied lands.
Israeli forces arrest citizens in Ramallah including a journalist
RAMALLAH — Israeli military forces at dawn Sunday stormed the town of Arura, north of Ramallah, and raided citizens’ houses under the pretext of “searching for wanted people.”
Local sources in Arura reported that the soldiers stormed and searched the houses of citizens Samir Aruri and Abdel-Rahman Khasib, and checked the identities of the inhabitants.
They said that the occupation detained journalist and activist Ahmed Aruri and Hamza Khasib, and transferred them to an unknown destination.
According to statistics, the occupation arrested during the last week more than 40 people from several cities in the West Bank.
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Contact us: P.O Box 20307, 612 UN Road – Upanga West, Dar es Salaam Tel: 2152813, 2150643 Fax: 2153257 Email: pict@pal-tz.org Website: www.pal-tz.org
In the USA, there has been a divisive highly covered in the media, Zimmerman court case. Some political activist groups have reacted to the case by criticizing a certain body of law. In seeking to know what the jargon referred to, I looked up that term in a brief web search. See below first paragraph of its description, and link to the rest.
-om-
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Stand-your-ground law
A stand-your-ground law is a type of self-defense law that gives individuals the right to use reasonable force to defend themselves without any requirement to evade or retreat from a dangerous situation. It is law in certain jurisdictions within the United States. The basis may lie in either statutory law and or common law precedents. One key distinction is whether the concept only applies to defending a home or vehicle, or whether it applies to all lawfully occupied locations. Under these legal concepts, a person is justified in using deadly force in certain situations and the “stand your ground” law would be a defense or immunity to criminal charges and civil suit. The difference between immunity and a defense is that an immunity bars suit, charges, detention and arrest. A defense, such as an affirmative defense, permits a plaintiff or the state to seek civil damages or a criminal conviction but may offer mitigating circumstances that justify the accused’s conduct.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand-your-ground_law
We must be keepers of our brothers and sister. We must moan with them when they moan, laugh with them with they laugh. We must share situation of life together and this is how we shall build the world to be a better place for all of us.
You made very important points and I agree with you that, Museveni is the plague evoking bad spirit to assault neighbouring peaceful Nations in the great lakes of East Africa. Joined with his friend President Kagame of Rwanda who they share bad behavior where, without empathy or shame, they have caused untold sufferings, loss of lives pain and suffering to the people of East Africa.
With the help of Uganda’s Museveni brother Salim Saleh who is of Somali origin, they introduced private armies and staged them strategically at the neighboring boarders,organized and train Rebel Groups with mercineries ready to ambush and attack in assault and provoke people to war. Acting as aggressors, they instigate and provoke people to war. They use foreign NGOs with some corrupt UN peacekeepers stationed in Africa and as well as they corrupt European Envoys who engage corrupt politicians to steal mineral with other natural resources including oil and gas from Africa where they promote corruption with impunity of high level in offshore trading; and avoid paying taxes.
With this kind of business, they destroy African youths who are enticed to join gang groups for hire in the Rebel for private army and in the mercenaries that plague the havoc of instability in Africa. To an extent, they promoted pirating, drug peddling, trafficking of arm with other sophisticated weaponry, environmental pollution, foreign currency trafficking, child abuse with prostitution trafficking, including injustices that are illegal in nature and that are against the International Treaty and as well are constitutionally unacceptable.
These are reasons why the whole world must stand together against this kind of Human Rights crimes, violation and abuse and protest by demanding equal justice for all.
The United Nations Secretary-General Ban-Ki-Moon made a serious mistake to halt Congo Army to advance attack on the M23 adversary who attacked to overthrow Congo Government and in the event raped and killed innocent people with many children and women; on the other part, when Goma was invaded through fierce attack by M23 the UN simply watched and M23 captured Goma for 10 days and he did nothing…….did not even charge the M23 aggressors……….and today, he is again giving M23 protection cover…..???? This, we people of African Descent will not allow or take it lying down.
Resolution passed for Congo on July 22nd is not favorable on the side of DRC Congo against M23 invasion is not favorable at all.
We demand that UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki-moon stand down and relieve himself from occupying peoples’ public office in the United Nations immediately so he can be charged with like minded in the ICC Hague………
I am going after UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki-Moon and I need all good people of the world to give me support in moral, financial and physical to charge Ban-Ki-Moon with his contemporaries network of special business interest who together inflicted great loss on African livelihood and survival; in such as land grabbing, environmental pollution that caused bad health to people and from industrial mismanagement causing poor climatic conditions with destruction of nature, pain and suffering with extension to human rights crimes, violations and abuse in the adversity of injustices against Africans of all walks of life.
I am going after Secretary-General Ban-Ki-Moon to answer why he has acted in biasness and against his oath of office to be fair and protect all people the same under legal compliance of the creation of United Nations including the observance of the International Treaty…..thus, causing and failing to provide the sustainable development……. In reverse, UN provided ways and means for killing, looting and stealing Africa peoples’s future, wealth and Natural resource through expounding corruption and impunity and altogether destroyed Livelihood and survival of people of Africa.
The recommendations levelled on the part of Congo Government Army is very unfair. It cannot hold any water against instigation of Kagame and Museveni with invasion of the M23. This is why Congo People are rebelling against United Naions Peacekeeping in Congo………let us be realistic and face true justice…….
Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson &
Executive Director for
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com
email: jbatec@yahoo.com
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From: Maurice Oduor
Sent: Tuesday, July 23, 2013 5:44 AM
Subject: It is time Kagame and Museveni take back their Rebel Groups out of Congo
Judy thura,
These people have managed to deflect the discussion from the very important point you were trying to make about Kagame and Museveni interfering in Congo. This is unfair. I think my good buddy Mobhare Matinyi of Tanzania is the one who started it all. I don’t know how such things have a tendency to take a life of their own. Mtume !!!!! I don’t know the best way to manage such situations so that the main point of discussion is not sidelined.
But let me say here that I support the initiative you’re undertaking to sensitize people about what’s going on in Congo DRC. Uganda and Rwanda should simply mind their own business and get their M23 and other rebel groups out of the Congo. It’s unfair for these 2 countries to destabilize the whole region just so they can get their hands on the minerals in the Congo. Tanzania pays the biggest price in this situation because all the Congo refugees end up in Tanzania.
Museveni has in the past come out very strongly against the ICC and this is the reason why. He does not want to be a Charles Taylor who was shipped to the Hague for sponsoring rebels to torture people in Sierra Leone. He has managed to outwit Kenya on Migingo Island and is now thirsty for the Congo minerals. That should not be allowed to continue. I don’t know the American position on this. Are they with Museveni and Kagame or are they supporting Kabila and the Congolese?
One way or the other, the world should be outraged about what’s going on in the Congo and as a first step, Uganda and Rwanda should get their rebels out of the Congo. Really.
Courage,
Oduor Maurice wod Ugenya Ukwala
Rebels with a Cause Slam Corporate Greed
Published on Jul 22, 2013
Two new films focus on fringe groups who take social justice into their own hands. With a tongue-in-cheek approach, the films “The East” and “Now You See Me” offer 21st century Robin Hood-type plots where young vigilantes target corporate greed. VOA’s Penelope Poulou has more.
DR Congo: M23 Rebels Kill, Rape Civilians
New Evidence of Rwandan Support for M23
July 22, 2013
[image] M23 rebels take position near the town of Mutaho, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on May 27, 2013.
Not only is Rwanda allowing its territory to be used by the abusive M23 to get recruits and equipment, but the Rwandan military is still directly supporting the M23. This support is sustaining an armed group responsible for numerous killings, rapes and other serious abuses.
Daniel Bekele, Africa director
(Goma) – M23 rebels have summarily executed at least 44 people and raped at least 61 women and girls since March 2013 in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Local residents and rebel deserters reported recent forced recruitment of men and boys by the M23 in both Rwanda and Congo.
After a nearly two-month-long ceasefire, fighting resumed on July 14 between the Congolese armed forces and M23 rebels near the eastern city of Goma.
Residents and rebel deserters described recent support from within Rwanda to the abusive M23 forces. This includes regular movements from Rwanda into Congo of men in Rwandan army uniforms, and the provision of ammunition, food, and other supplies from Rwanda to the M23. The M23 has been recruiting inside Rwanda. Rwandan military officers have trained new M23 recruits, and have communicated and met with M23 leaders on several occasions.
“Not only is Rwanda allowing its territory to be used by the abusive M23 to get recruits and equipment, but the Rwandan military is still directly supporting the M23,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “This support is sustaining an armed group responsible for numerous killings, rapes and other serious abuses.”
The latest Human Rights Watch findings are based on more than 100 interviews since March, including with former M23 fighters who left the movement between late March and July and civilians living near the Congo-Rwanda border, some of whom were victims of abuses.
In addition to M23 abuses, Human Rights Watch documented several cases of killings and rapes by Congolese Hutu militia groups operating in and around M23-controlled territory. Some Congolese army officers have allegedly supported factions of these groups, as well as factions of the allied Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) – a largely Rwandan Hutu armed group, some of whose members participated in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
Since its inception in April 2012, the M23 has committed widespread violations of the laws of war. Despite numerous war crimes by M23 fighters, the armed group has received significant support from Rwandan military officials. After briefly occupying Goma in November, then withdrawing on December 1, the M23 controls much of Congo’s Rutshuru and Nyiragongo territories, bordering Rwanda.
On April 25 and 26, M23 fighters killed 15 ethnic Hutu civilians in several villages in Busanza groupement in Rutshuru territory, and at least another 6 in mid-June, in an apparent attempt to “punish” villagers for alleged collaboration with Congolese Hutu militias.
Other civilians killed by M23 fighters since March include a 62-year-old man who was shot dead because he refused to hand his sons over to the M23, a motorcycle driver who refused to give money to the M23, M23 recruits who were caught after trying to escape, and others accused of collaborating with Hutu militia.
On July 5, four M23 fighters gang-raped a 12-year-old girl as she went to fetch water in her village in Rutshuru. An M23 fighter who accosted an 18-year-old woman near Bunagana shot her in the leg on April 15 when she refused to have sex with him.
Since June, M23 leaders have forced local chiefs in areas under their control to undergo military and ideological training and obtain recruits for the M23. The M23 considers these chiefs to be part of their “reserve force” that can be called upon to provide support during military operations.
M23 fighters have arrested or abducted dozens of civilians in recent weeks in Rutshuru, most of them Hutu. The M23 accused many of them of collaborating with the FDLR or allied Congolese Hutu militias. M23 fighters beat them severely, tied them up, and detained them. The M23 then forced many of them to undergo military training and become M23 fighters.
A former M23 police officer, who deserted in April, told Human Rights Watch that he participated in investigations of killings of civilians. He said that before each investigation, a high-ranking M23 commander, Innocent Kayna, told him: “You will do the investigation. You will say it’s bandits in the neighborhood who killed, not M23.”
Human Rights Watch contacted the M23’s military leader, Sultani Makenga, but he was unavailable to speak about the recent alleged abuses.
Those recruited in Rwanda into the M23 include demobilized Rwandan army soldiers and former FDLR fighters, most of whom had become part of the Rwandan army’s Reserve Force, as well as Rwandan civilians. A 15-year-old Rwandan boy told Human Rights Watch that he and three other young men and boys were promised jobs as cow herders in Congo, but when they got to Congo were forced to join the M23. They were given military training by Rwandan officers in Congo and told they would be killed if they tried to escape. Other M23 deserters also said Rwandan officers were training new M23 recruits.
Former M23 officers who had been part of previous Rwanda-backed rebellions said they recognized officers serving with the M23 who they knew were members of the Rwandan army. Congolese deserters told Human Rights Watch that a number of M23 fighters admitted freely that they were Rwandan. Some said they had served in the Rwandan army’s peacekeeping contingent in Somalia or Darfur.
Recent M23 deserters interviewed by Human Rights Watch described frequent – in some cases weekly – arrivals of soldiers and recruits from Rwanda. Sometimes these were rotations, with new soldiers replacing others who had returned to Rwanda. Weapons, ammunition, large containers of milk, truckloads of rice, and other supplies were brought to the M23 from Rwanda. M23 deserters also described phone conversations and meetings in both Rwanda and Congo between senior M23 leaders and people the deserters were told or knew to be Rwandan officials.
All of the recent M23 deserters interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that Rwandan soldiers, officers, and trainers were present throughout their time with the M23, and that there had been new arrivals from Rwanda in recent months.
“For the past 17 years, the Rwandan army has repeatedly deployed troops to eastern Congo and backed abusive proxy forces responsible for war crimes,” Bekele said. “As in the past, Rwanda denies it’s supporting the M23, but the facts on the ground speak for themselves.”
Rwandan government and military officials did not respond to Human Rights Watch’s requests for a meeting. Rwandan officials in the past have repeatedly denied allegations that the government is providing support to the M23.
The Rwandan government should immediately halt all support to the M23 because of its broadly abusive behavior, Human Rights Watch said. The United Nations and United States special envoys for the Great Lakes region and donor governments should publicly denounce continuing Rwandan support to the M23 and call for sanctions against senior Rwandan officials responsible for backing the armed group.
The Congolese government should immediately suspend, investigate, and prosecute as appropriate Congolese military officers and government officials who have provided support to the FDLR or allied groups. The government should make clear that abusive militia commanders will not be integrated into Congo’s army as part of any political settlement.
According to international journalists present near the front line and photographs seen by Human Rights Watch, Congolese army soldiers treated the corpses of M23 fighters killed in combat on July 16 in a degrading manner, stripping them, making ethnic slurs, and prodding their genitals with weapons. International law prohibits “committing outrages upon personal dignity,” including against the dead. Human Rights Watch also documented cases in which the Congolese army detained former M23 fighters and alleged collaborators for several weeks without bringing them before a court, and often incommunicado and in harsh conditions.
Congolese military officials should appropriately discipline officers and soldiers responsible for mistreating corpses, and ensure that such acts cease immediately. Military and judicial officials should ensure that captured combatants and civilians are treated in accordance with due process standards, including being promptly brought before a judge and charged, or released. Detainees should not be mistreated or held in inhumane conditions.
Summary Executions and Other Attacks by the M23Human Rights Watch has documented 44 summary executions committed by the M23 since March. M23 fighters have also killed and wounded an unknown number of civilians, including some caught in the crossfire during fighting.
M23 fighters killed 15 Hutu civilians in several villages in Busanza groupement in Rutshuru territory on April 25 and 26, and at least another 6 in mid-June, in an apparent attempt to “punish” villagers for alleged collaboration with Congolese Hutu militias.During the attack on the night of April 25, a group of M23 fighters moved through the villages of Ruvumbura, Kirambo, Nyamagana, and Shinda, killing and looting as they went. A 43-year-old mother of three told Human Rights Watch: “When they started killing people, we scattered into the bush. My husband went back to try to get our belongings, and they killed him. They shot him in the head.”
In late May, M23 fighters shot dead a 62-year-old man in Ntamugenga because he refused to hand his sons over to the M23. On May 15, M23 fighters stopped a motorcycle driver outside Kiwanja and killed him because he did not give them money. In mid-June, M23 fighters shot a moneychanger several times in the chest, killing him. They then told his wife, “Give us money or we’ll do to you what we did to your husband.” She handed over their money, and the fighters left.
In Kibumba in mid-May, an M23 officer, Col. Yusuf Mboneza, ordered the execution of a 24-year-old man whom he accused of being a thief. After the execution, Mboneza called the villagers to a meeting and displayed the young man’s corpse, saying it should serve as a warning to anyone else who might steal.
Others summarily executed by the M23 since March were new recruits and prisoners who unsuccessfully tried to escape.
On June 21, the M23 caught a Congolese M23 fighter known as “Tupac” as he tried to flee near Kabuhanga. They took him back to the military camp at Kamahoro, where the commander ordered the troops into formation and told soldiers to shoot him to discourage other deserters. They shot Tupac twice in the chest at close range. An M23 deserter told Human Rights Watch that he and other recruits were forced to bury Tupac.
After a clash between the M23 and a Congolese Hutu militia group on June 18, M23 fighters looted several villages in Busanza. The fighters demanded money from a 33-year-old woman. When she said she had no money, the fighters cut her on the shoulder with a machete and struck her 11-year-old son on the head. On April 15, an 18-year-old woman was shot in the leg when she refused to have sex with an M23 fighter who approached her at her farm near Bunagana. The victims of these attacks survived with serious injuries.
Rape by the M23Human Rights Watch has documented 61 cases of rape of women and girls by M23 fighters between March and early July. Because of the stigma surrounding rape and fear of reprisals, the actual number of victims may be much higher. Many of those raped were in their fields or collecting firewood. M23 fighters accused some of them of being the “wives” of FDLR fighters. Most of the rapes occurred close to M23 positions, and some victims recognized the attackers as M23 fighters they had seen before. The rapists frequently told their victims that they would be killed if they spoke about the rape or sought medical treatment.
A 12-year-old girl told Human Rights Watch that an M23 fighter caught and raped her in June as she and her friends were buying sugar cane in a field near an M23 position in Rutshuru:
I saw a [M23] soldier. I started running, but I tripped on a piece of sugar cane and fell. The soldier caught up with me and said he would kill me because I tried to flee. I stopped then because I was very scared. Then he raped me. I cried out, but he closed my mouth.
A 17-year-old girl said M23 fighters had raped her twice. The second time, in June, occurred when she was alone in her house after M23 police abducted her husband and forced him to join a night patrol:
The M23 fighter came into my house and asked me where my husband was. He then put a knife to my chest and said he was going to kill me, and that I should give him money. I told him I didn’t have any money, that my husband took it with him on patrol. I was sitting on the bed with my child. The soldier fought with me on the bed. He was stronger than me and he had a gun. Then he raped me.
A 35-year-old Hutu woman who was raped by an M23 fighter near Bunagana in June told Human Rights Watch:
When he finished, he left me in the forest. I was shaking and turned toward the ground, crying.… The one who raped me was an M23 fighter whom I know. I recognized him, but what can I do to him?
Forced Recruitment, Including of Children, and Abductions by the M23Human Rights Watch has documented dozens of cases of forced recruitment by M23 forces since March, including of children. Recruitment appears to have increased in recent months as the M23 has struggled to keep its forces’ numbers up. Over 700 M23 fighters and political cadres fled to Rwanda when Bosco Ntaganda’s faction of the M23 was defeated by an M23 faction led by Makenga in March, an estimated 200 M23 fighters were killed during the infighting, and scores of fighters have deserted.
Since June, the M23 leadership has held several meetings with local chiefs and other community leaders and demanded their help in recruiting new fighters. In early June, the M23 forced local leaders and chiefs to attend a week-long military training conducted by Rwandan officers. They also received “ideological training,” which included the M23’s vision for taking over Congo.
The chiefs were released but are supposed to form part of a “reserve force” that can be called upon when necessary. The M23 ordered them to find recruits in their villages and send them to the M23. One local leader who participated in the training told Human Rights Watch that they had been told to give M23 officials the names of demobilized youth in their villages, so that the M23 “could then go themselves, find the demobilized youth, and make sure they joined up.”
The M23 have arrested Hutu civilians whom they accused of collaborating with or supporting the FDLR or Congolese Hutu militia groups. The fighters detained, beat and whipped these civilians, and took many of them to an M23 military camp, where they were trained and forced to become M23 fighters.
A 19-year-old secondary school student told Human Rights Watch that he was recruited by the M23 in March while he was farming near Kalengera, in Rutshuru:
I saw the M23 come and surround me. They asked me if I was an FDLR, and I said no. After that, they started whipping and beating me. They tied me up and took me to Rumangabo, where they locked me in a cell. After two days, they untied me, but left me in the cell for a week. After, they told me I would become a soldier. They then started the military training. There were 80 of us being trained. There were 10 officers from Rwanda who led the training. They told us we had to become soldiers so we could fight to liberate Goma and then continue on to South Kivu.
On June 3, the M23 went from house to house in Kiwanja’s Kachemu neighborhood, apprehending about 40 young men and boys whom they accused of collaborating with a local militia group. The fighters beat the civilians and detained them in a cell at the M23’s base in Nyongera. Many had difficulty walking the next day as a result of the ill-treatment. About half of the youth were released after their families paid the M23 guards; 20 were taken to Rumangabo to be trained as fighters.
In other cases, families do not know what happened to abducted relatives. In March and April, for example, M23 fighters in Busanza abducted four young men whom they accused of collaborating with a Congolese Hutu militia. Their families have not heard from them since.
Congolese army soldiers captured by M23 fighters described torture and other ill-treatment in detention. One soldier, who was taken by the M23 in December and escaped in early July, said that two other soldiers held prisoner with him were beaten to death. For three days, the rebels hit the prisoners with sticks and stomped on their chests, while their legs and arms were tied together. While beating them, the M23 demanded information about where the Congolese army was hiding its weapons. The two men were not given medical treatment and died in detention.
M23 Recruitment in Rwanda and Other Rwandan Support
Based on interviews with 31 former M23 fighters who deserted since late March and numerous civilians living on both sides of the border, Human Rights Watch has documented military support from Rwanda to the M23. The support includes the provision of weapons and ammunition. Armed men in military uniform have moved regularly from Rwanda into Congo to support the M23; these could be new recruits and demobilized soldiers who were given uniforms before crossing into Congo, or serving Rwandan soldiers.Rwandan army officers have been seen at M23 bases, leading training for new recruits, and recruiting for the M23 in Rwanda.
Those recruited in Rwanda and taken across the border to fight with the M23 include demobilized Rwandan soldiers and former FDLR fighters who are part of the Rwandan army’s Reserve Force, as well as civilians, including boys. Between January and June, UN peacekeepers demobilized and repatriated 56 former M23 fighters who said they were Rwandan nationals. But M23 deserters interviewed by Human Rights Watch, as well as the UN Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of Congo, said that Rwandan army officers forcibly brought back Rwandan nationals who escaped the M23 and tried to return to Rwanda.
Human Rights Watch has documented the cases of seven Rwandan children, ages 15, 16, and 17, who were forcibly recruited in Rwanda in March and April, forced to fight with the M23, and were later able to escape. Human Rights Watch has received reports of other children recruited in Rwanda in recent months who have not been able to escape.
A 15-year-old Rwandan boy told Human Rights Watch that he was forcibly recruited from his village in Nyabihu district in Rwanda with two other boys and a young man in late April. The four of them were making bricks when two men in civilian clothes offered them jobs as cow herders in Congo. The two men then took them by motorcycle to the Congolese border, and on to an M23 military camp. They were forced to become M23 fighters and were warned that they would be killed if they refused or tried to escape.
The 15-year-old said that Rwandan army officers gave them military training for 10 days and that many other Rwandans were in his group of 58 new recruits. He said some of the Rwandan recruits tried to escape, but they were caught and brought back to the camp.
A Congolese M23 officer who deserted in late May told Human Rights Watch that Rwandan recruits and soldiers arrived regularly throughout his time with the M23, from November through May. He said the soldiers would come and go, as they rotated in and out. The recruits were given military training and forced to stay in Congo. Many tried to flee back to Rwanda, he said, but some were caught once they crossed into Rwanda and were taken back to the M23.
One deserter told Human Rights Watch that a Rwandan soldier in his unit had told him in April that he was a demobilized soldier and had come to fight in Congo so he could have a higher rank in the Rwandan army when he went back. He said that two other Rwandans in his unit had escaped to Rwanda in March, but had been re-recruited and brought back to the M23. A former M23 officer said that two Rwandans in his unit escaped in mid-April. Soon after they arrived in Rwanda, the former officer said, neighborhood authorities informed military intelligence officials, who brought the young men back to the M23. They were detained by the M23 for a week, then redeployed.
M23 deserters and Rwandan villagers said that Rwandan soldiers and new recruits often crossed the border on foot at night, using remote trails through Virunga National Park.
Two former M23 officers told Human Rights Watch that some of the Rwandan fighters in their units told them they had served in Somalia or Darfur as part of the Rwandan army’s peacekeeping contingent. Several M23 deserters interviewed by Human Rights Watch, who had served in previous Rwanda-backed rebellions, said they recognized Rwandan army officers from their past experiences with the Rwandan military.
A Congolese man from Ntamugenga was forcibly recruited in May and forced to start military training. “In our group, there were 107 in the training,” he said. “Most of the others were Rwandans. They told me they had been tricked and were promised money if they came to Congo. Many of them were children. The army officers from Rwanda gave us the training, and they told us themselves that they lived in Rwanda. [After the training], there were demobilized soldiers from Rwanda and some ex-FDLR in my group.”
Several M23 deserters who escaped since late May described to Human Rights Watch the difference in the way the M23 treated Rwandans and Congolese within the rebel movement. One said:
Rwandans are favored. They’re given uniforms immediately, they’re given blankets, and they get boots. They’re spoiled. When they talk, they talk like they are the owners of the movement. I felt this threat. [They] called me a loser. They said, “You are worth nothing in your country.” They insulted me with things that you can’t say out loud. They said, “You Congolese, you may have studied a lot, but you’ve never been to the front.”
M23 deserters described deliveries of weapons, ammunition, food, phone credit, and other supplies from Rwanda. One former officer said that the wives of Rwandan officers often came to the M23’s positions in Congo to visit their husbands, bringing with them letters from family members in Rwanda.
All of the M23 deserters Human Rights Watch interviewed said the presence of Rwandan soldiers, officers, and trainers continued throughout their time with the M23, and that new arrivals – often bringing with them military and other supplies – continued coming from Rwanda in recent months.
Three former M23 officers close to the movement’s leadership told Human Rights Watch that the M23’s senior commanders spoke on the phone and met regularly with senior Rwandan army officers until at least late May or June, when the three deserted. Sometimes Rwandan officers came to Tshanzu or Rumangabo to meet with the M23 leaders, and sometimes the M23 leaders went to Rwanda for meetings.
Rwandan Support for M23 Military Operations
M23 deserters and civilians from near the Congo-Rwanda border reported an increase in support from Rwanda to the M23 at the time of three recent periods of heavy fighting – during infighting between two M23 factions in March; during fighting between the M23 and the Congolese army around Mutaho in late May; and before the fighting north of Goma in mid-July.
After the M23 split into two factions, Rwandan officials backed the faction led by Sultani Makenga against Bosco Ntaganda. A former M23 officer in Makenga’s faction told Human Rights Watch: “We were saved by Rwanda, and it’s thanks to their support that we were able to defeat Ntaganda’s group. They sent us ammunition and well-armed troops.”
Days before the fighting in Mutaho in late May, a young Congolese man told Human Rights Watch that M23 fighters abducted him in Kibumba groupement in mid-May. The fighters took him across the border into Rwanda, where they met a group of Rwandan soldiers. He and others with him were forced to carry containers of milk and boxes of ammunition and walk with the soldiers and rebel fighters back into Congo.
A 19-year-old Congolese student who was forcibly recruited by the M23 in March told Human Rights Watch that he and other M23 fighters were taken across the border into Rwanda in mid-May to pick up a delivery of weapons and ammunition and bring them back to the M23. They crossed into Rwanda at Gasizi and the following morning carried the weapons and ammunition to Kibumba in Congo. “The weapons were in two trucks,” he said. “We unloaded small bombs, machine guns, cartridges, and rocket launchers. Other Rwandans met us [in Gasizi] to help us carry the weapons back to Kibumba.”
Numerous local residents who were at or near the border between May 19 and 23 told Human Rights Watch that they saw groups of armed men in uniform crossing the border from Rwanda into Congo, including at Kasizi, Kabuhanga, and Hehu hill.
On May 20, for example, a teacher in Kasizi, who lives next to the border, saw three trucks arrive at the border at about 5 p.m. A large number of armed men in Rwandan military uniforms with Rwandan flags on their uniforms got out of the trucks and crossed the border into Congo on foot, through the forest, just to the side of the official border crossing.
On May 21, a local resident told Human Rights Watch, he saw at least several dozen soldiers with Rwandan flags on the shoulders of their uniforms by the Ruhunda market in Kibumba at about 11 a.m., walking in single file. They had weapons and some were carrying boxes. Some who appeared to be of a higher rank carried walkie-talkies.
Human Rights Watch also received reports of increased movements of armed men from Rwanda into Congo in the days leading up to the fighting that broke out on July 14.
A farmer told Human Rights Watch that on the evening of July 10 he was visiting a relative who lives next to the Rwanda border in Kibumba groupement when he heard the sound of vehicles, looked out the window, and saw armed men in uniform going from the border toward Kibumba. Some were on foot and others in vehicles.
A farmer who lives on the Rwandan side of the border said he saw similar movements of trucks between July 7 and 11, in the evenings, bringing soldiers to the Rwandan army military position at Njerima. The men got out of the trucks at the border and crossed into Congo on foot.
Another Rwandan civilian who lives near the border, in Rubavu sector, told Human Rights Watch that Rwandan army officers called him and other local residents to a meeting in early July. A Rwandan army captain leading the meeting told those present that the FDLR was close to the border. “Instead of letting the war come to Rwanda,” he said. “We will go to the other side.”
Four days later, the same Rwandan civilian saw hundreds of Rwandan soldiers cross the border into Congo, carrying heavy weaponry. “Some had heavy guns, the kind that break down and three men each take one section,” he said. “Others were carrying mortars. Most of the men were on foot, but they also used two trucks covered with sheeting.”
This man said he saw another large movement of Rwandan soldiers cross into Congo on July 8, a week before fighting broke out between the M23 and the Congolese army. During the following week, he saw smaller groups of soldiers cross into Congo.
A Rwandan farmer who lives near Kabuhanga village said he saw groups of several dozen Rwandan army soldiers cross into Congo between June 20 and June 30. He also saw a larger group cross on July 12, two days before fighting broke out.
Abuses by Hutu Militia with Support from Congolese Military Personnel
The M23’s control of territory weakened following the infighting between two M23 factions in March. Since then, Congolese Hutu armed groups, including the Popular Movement for Self-Defense (Mouvement populaire d’autodéfense or MPA), have carried out attacks in and around M23-controlled territory, and killed and raped several civilians. UN officials and former Hutu militia fighters told Human Rights Watch that some factions of these groups have received support from Congolese military personnel.
A 16-year-old girl told Human Rights Watch that on June 17, she, two other girls and an older woman who were coming home from their farm in Rutshuru were gang-raped by several Hutu militia fighters. In June, MPA fighters killed the local chief in Buchuzi, in Busanza groupement, as well as two M23 policemen. The fighters accused the chief of recruiting members for the M23. The attack followed a clash on June 6, when M23 fighters attacked the MPA and looted 12 houses and took dozens of goats.
Some of these Congolese Hutu groups are allied with the FDLR, which has long carried out horrific abuses against civilians in eastern Congo, including killings and rapes. Sources interviewed by the UN Group of Experts, cited in the group’s leaked interim report in June, said that Congolese army soldiers have supplied ammunition to the FDLR and that local Congolese army officers operating near M23-controlled territory and FDLR commanders “regularly meet and exchange operational information.”
Background on the M23 and Recent FightingThe M23 was formed in April 2012 after a mutiny by former members of a previous Rwanda-backed rebellion, the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP), whose members had integrated into the Congolese armed forces in 2009. With significant support from the Rwandan military, the M23 gained control of much of Rutshuru and Nyiragongo territories in Congo’s North Kivu province. In late November, the M23 seized the main eastern city of Goma, again with significant Rwandan military support. The M23 withdrew from Goma on December 1, when the Congolese government agreed to peace talks.
On February 24, 11 African countries signed the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Region in Addis-Ababa, under the auspices of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The signatories – including Congo and Rwanda – agreed not to interfere in the internal affairs of neighboring countries; not to tolerate or provide support of any kind to armed groups; neither to harbor nor provide protection of any kind to anyone accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity, acts of genocide or crimes of aggression, or anyone falling under the UN sanctions regime; and to cooperate with regional justice initiatives. The former president of Ireland, Mary Robinson, was appointed UN special envoy for the Great Lakes Region to support implementation of the Framework Agreement.
On March 18, Ntaganda, one of the M23’s leaders, surrendered to the US embassy in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, following his defeat during infighting between two M23 factions. He was transferred to The Hague, where he is to face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court. Over 700 M23 fighters and political leaders loyal to Ntaganda also fled to Rwanda, including four people on UN and US sanctions lists: Innocent Zimurinda, Baudouin Ngaruye, Eric Badege, and Jean-Marie Runiga.
Zimurinda and Ngaruye have been implicated in ethnic massacres, rape, torture, and child recruitment. They should not be shielded from justice but instead arrested and prosecuted without delay, Human Rights Watch said.
Makenga and Kayna (known as “India Queen”), who are still in Congo, are also on UN and US sanctions lists and are wanted on Congolese arrest warrants for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Talks in Kampala, Uganda between the Congolese government and the M23 have made little progress. The Congolese government has insisted that it will not integrate into its forces or reward people implicated in serious human rights abuses, including those who are on UN sanctions lists. Providing official positions to human rights abusers can encourage future human rights violations and is an affront to victims of past abuses, Human Rights Watch said.
After the M23 withdrew from Goma in December, a ceasefire had largely held between the M23 and the Congolese army until heavy fighting broke out around Mutaho, eight kilometers northwest of Goma, on May 20 to 22.
Fighting between the M23 and the Congolese army resumed on July 14 north of Goma.
Since its internal split in March, the M23’s control over some territory has weakened, allowing the FDLR and allied Congolese Hutu groups to carry out incursions there.
A new Force Intervention Brigade , an African-led, 3,000-member force made up of troops from South Africa, Tanzania, and Malawi, is being deployed to eastern Congo. The force is part of the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, MONUSCO, and has a mandate to carry out offensive operations against armed groups operating in eastern Congo. The M23 has strongly opposed the deployment of this force.
Recommendations
To the Rwandan government:
Immediately end all support for the M23;
Cooperate with efforts to bring to justice M23 commanders allegedly responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity and other serious abuses, and ensure that any such commanders who have fled to Rwanda are not shielded from justice;
Investigate and prosecute as appropriate Rwandan civilian and military officials who may be responsible for aiding and abetting war crimes by the M23 and other rebel forces in Congo.
To the Congolese government:
Suspend, investigate, and prosecute as appropriate Congolese civilian and military officials who may be responsible for aiding and abetting war crimes by the FDLR and allied armed groups;
Reject any settlement that rewards M23 leaders allegedly responsible for serious abuses, including Sultani Makenga and Innocent Kayna;
Appropriately discipline officers and soldiers responsible for mistreating corpses, and ensure that such acts cease immediately;
Ensure that captured combatants and civilians are treated in accordance with due process standards, including being promptly brought before a judge and charged, or released; ensure that detainees are not mistreated or held in inhumane conditions.
To the UN and US special envoys to the Great Lakes and governments providing aid to Rwanda and Congo:
Denounce continued support to the M23 from Rwanda, and support sanctions against senior Rwandan officials responsible for supporting the M23 since 2012;
Seek to ensure that any settlement between the Congolese government and the M23 excludes integration into the Congolese army of M23 leaders, including those on UN and US sanctions lists, implicated in war crimes and other serious abuses;
Press for the arrest and prosecution of military commanders, including members of the M23, implicated in war crimes and other serious abuses;
Suspend donor assistance to the Rwandan military for as long as it supports abusive armed groups in Congo, and continue to seek independent information about the use of Rwandan territory to recruit M23 members and the involvement of the Rwandan military in supporting the M23; include strong human rights benchmarks as part of other assistance programs to Rwanda.
UN DRC Congo combined Army must keep on the good work of surging forward aggressively. This is the only hope for the dying souls of Congolese people………
For the sake of Human Rights, M23 must be driven out of DRC Congo into Rwanda once and for all. That is where they belong.
The stealing of DRC Congo Wealth and Resources to Rwanda must be put to a stop. Kagame and Museveni are not entitled to genocidely damage peace with Rights in the Great Lakes and get away with it. They must ultimately face the consequences of the same, since, time and again they refused to heed all round advice given to them and instead remained adamant and stubborn.
If this unilateral momentum is maintain for a little longer, very soon peace and stability for DRC Congo is guaranteed………and we all shall say, Halelluia, God is great, he heard our prayers……….!!!
Cheers !!!
Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com
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Voice of America (Washington, DC)
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Congo-Kinshasa: Army Advances in 4th Day of Battle
South Sudan: Khartoum to Cut Oil – Minister
The Democratic Republic of Congo’s army has continued advancing in a fourth day of fighting against M23 rebels near the eastern city of Goma.
The scene is a government army position at mid-afternoon Wednesday, just after the M23 had started targeting some nearby tanks.
“You men get forward,” the sergeant is shouting. “Where are you retreating for? Get in front of the tanks.”
For a moment, there was a brief panic as mortar bombs started falling, causing some casualties in a commando platoon.
“Take that man and get him out of here,” an officer shouts, pointing to a soldier who has just been hit.
But the incoming fire seemed to be heavily outweighed by the army’s outgoing fire with tanks, artillery and helicopter gunships that pounded the rebel positions.
After an hour or more of shelling on both sides, the commandos moved forward following the tanks.
An intelligence officer said the unit had advanced 300 meters by mid-afternoon. That rate of progress may speed up if, as United Nations sources report, the rebels are running low on ammunition.
The M23 is outmanned as well as outgunned, having only around 2,000 combatants, against an army that on paper numbers 100,000. Although the army faces many other armed groups, few of them support M23.
A civilian, Jules Akili, who traveled through the M23 zone on Wednesday before crossing over to the government side, told VOA he saw hardly any M23 soldiers.
He says he traveled from Rutshuru Centre a distance of about 40 kilometers, and saw only five M23 soldiers along the route, which was guarded by M23 police.
The Congolese army’s recent successes have prompted euphoric scenes in Goma, with civilians waving leafy branches staging victory runs on the outskirts of town.
Tens of thousands of people displaced by fighting who are living in camps around Goma are hoping the army can defeat all the rebels so they can return to their homes.
Women at a displaced peoples camp say they would be very happy to see their villages liberated from the rebels, and are hopeful the army can do it.
A Congolese journalist told VOA five government soldiers were badly wounded on Wednesday, and a local journalist also was hurt.
On Tuesday, the government said 120 rebels had been killed in the fighting since Sunday, a claim that could not be independently verified
A United Nations source Wednesday evening said the army had pushed back an M23 counter attack and was still advancing.
Nick Long sent this report from the front line, 12 kilometers north of Goma.
Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson &
Executive Director for
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com
email: jbatec@yahoo.com
FDLR controls 50 percent of the South Kivu Province but they are a mixture of both Hutu, Tutsi and Congo Rebel groups. M23 is predominantly Tutsi of the Kagame tribal group which is why, Kagame gives its full financial support and protection for Kagame’s benefit looting from Congo. Kagame is the aggressor terrorizing and killing innocent Congolese and driving them our of their land for Tutsi to occupy Congolese land, for which he has created a government within another government inside the DRC Congo for his benefit.
Kagame made M23 to be a strong voice demanding what does not belong to them in Congo.
From intelligence observation, M23 is working with FDLR to benefit Kagame. He has made it a smart business to loot from DRC Congo. This is why Kikwete requested him to talk with FDLR and stop Congolese massacre. If they are able to talk when it is business, why should they not talk when Human Rights demands, after-all, both Ribel group were created by Kagame and Museveni. Kagame created this group was fighting the Habyarimana regime, in 1980s and this part cannot be ignored. Killing Congolese children and women is not justifiable matter. Kagame must be forced to eat a humble pie……..
Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson &
Executive Director for
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com
email: jbatec@yahoo.com
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Rwanda, Zambia agree on refugee repatriation
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Zambia agree on refugee repatriation
Rwandan refugees registering upon arrival
Rwanda and Zambia have agreed on a comprehensive strategy for former Rwandan refugees living in Zambia.
In a joint communiqué signed on Friday night following a bilateral meeting by the two governments held in Lusaka last week, the two countries reiterated the call for the two countries to establish diplomatic missions in their respective capitals for enhanced bilateral cooperation.
The Zambian delegation was led by Minister of Home Affairs Edgar Lungu while the Rwandan team was headed by that country’s Minister of Disaster Management and Refugee Affairs Seraphine Mukantabana.
These deliberations come as a follow-up to the regional assessment meeting of the global strategy on the search for durable solutions for former refugees, that was held in April in South Africa.
They also come following the effect of the cessation clause for Rwandan refugees that took effect on June 30.
The two delegations agreed that voluntary repatriation will remain open and efforts to encourage it will continue.
It was also agreed that former Rwandan refugees who wish to stay in Zambia will be facilitated by the Rwandan government in collaboration with the Zambian government.
“This is in order to facilitate processing and issuance of immigration permits in Zambia. The criteria and procedures for the eligibility to local integration will be set and published by the Zambian government,” reads the joint communiqué in part.
The communiqué further states that passport application forms for former Rwandan refugees shall be made available in Zambia through the office of the Commissioner for Refugees (COR) as the focal point for the process in Zambia.
While the focal point in Rwanda will be the Directorate General of Immigration and Emigration. Additionally, the two governments also agreed that the said forms shall be available online for downloading and submission to COR.
Since the coming into effect cessation clause, hundreds of Rwandan returnees from regional neighbours have been streaming into the country on a daily basis.
According to MIDIMAR, intense registration program is under way to provide passports for tens of thousands of Rwandans who lost refugee status on June 30 as a result of the UN cessation clause, but prefer to stay in the host countries.
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Stop Paul Kagame From Destroying Rwandan and Congolese Lives
Sign
The Petition
Paul Kagame visits Said Business School at Oxford University on 18/05/13.
We the undersigned hereby affirm that continued support to the Rwandan president Paul Kagame and his country by British institutions and government are irreversibly destroying the lives of millions of Rwandans and Congolese. This sounds contrary to the Western media coverage of the politics of region and for particular reasons.
Since July 4th, 1994, when Paul Kagame and his Rwandan Patriotic Front took power in Kigali after the genocide, they invested heavily and continue to do so in lobbying influential personalities such as Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and American investor Howard B. Buffet to portray his regime as a model of development in Africa.
But it is not rightly weighted how undemocratically his regime operates. On August 9th, 2010 the Rwandan president scored 93.4% of the votes in staged presidential elections. And this happened after assassination of politicians and journalists and imprisoning others. His regime took its criminal activities in foreign countries: United Kingdom, Tanzania, Kenya, and South Africa.
The reality is that the Rwandan government has put in place policies of killing imprisoning, and oppressing its citizens at levels never experienced in the country’s history. The claimed and drummed about development concerns only Kigali the capital and benefits less than 10% of the population. Instead the Rwandan president criminal activities have not stopped within national boundaries of his country. Since 1996 he waged wars in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.
According to the United States Geographic Survey, Rwanda produced more than 25% of the world’s coltan in 2011 more than what their coltan deposits should be able to provide. Rwandan coltan mining relied on mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, some of which are in conflict areas and others not.
More than 6 millions of Congolese lives have been lost and five hundreds thousands of women girls and even men raped by militia and military groups he has been funding to help him plunder the country’s enormous mineral resources. The last of these groups is the rebel movement M23 operating in Eastern Congo and whose the ICC indicted General Bosco Ntaganda was part of.
On May 18th, 2013 the Rwandan President Paul Kagame is invited as a guest speaker at the Said Business School – University of Oxford. This might not be his last visit in the United Kingdom if the British members of parliament continue to be blind at the crimes he has been accused of by many UN reports and renowned human rights organizations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, both in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Being at the side of the victims of the Rwandan dictator is what the undersigned would normally expect from institutions that claim universally to advocate for democracy, human rights, justice and development.
For the UK government and institutions to persist in being blind at the never ending crimes that President Paul Kagame is committing in DRC and indescribable suffering he causes to millions of his citizens would confirm complicity, which would look as criminal too.
Africa will not fold its arms amid terrorism: Kagame
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News in RwandaRwandaRwanda latest newsRwanda politics
Africa will not fold its arms amid terrorism
There are numerous Rwandan troops keeping peace around the World
Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame stated in a press conference last month that terrorism is spreading within African continent and it is not advisable to continue folding arms despite such a threat.
Many people across the globe wonder why Rwanda continues to be a model in terms of peace keeping missions in different parts of the planet.
The same question will always be asked as long as the world does not yet understand the way Rwandans treat the security issues, especially with the fact that Rwanda as a nation was hurt by genocide and experienced horrifying human rights violence.
What makes Rwanda an outstanding peace keeper?
Discipline and determination are key qualities that are keeping Rwanda’s image on a high scale, and that goes down in the troops’ minds from the high commanding system. Rwanda is now praised all over the world for the role it plays in securing post-conflict regions and making an impact on the populations welfare in delivering vital services to them.
That goes round with top Rwandan militaries nominations by international organizations to head those missions. The recent nomination was when Maj. Gen Jean Bosco Kazura was appointed by the UN Secretary General to lead MINUSMA (Mali) which is the third largest UN mission with 12,000 soldiers.
Nevertheless, the Rwandans nominations cannot serve if the inside authorities don’t believe in their men and/or if they are not determined to facilitate them. The appointment of Gen. Kazura comes while another Rwandan Gen. Patrick Nyamvumba had finished his term as head of United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID).
President of Rwanda Paul Kagame is committed to help Rwandan military to be professional and useful not only in the country but also all over the world, one of many remarkable and developmental issues he deals with for Rwandans and their country.
Olivier Nduhungirehe, Rwanda’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, says General Kazura was appointed Force Commander of MINUSMA, “first, because of his personal competence and experience” and secondly “because of the role Rwanda has played in peacekeeping operations for the last nine years, particularly in Darfur.”
If Rwanda would not have done what was done in Darfur, Haiti, and Liberia or if Kazura would have been well facilitated to acquire professionalism and military knowledge, we would have been writing another story.
Can Rwanda send troops in Mali?
The mission led by Gen Kazura will undoubtedly play a key role in Mali’s presidential polls scheduled for July 28. This means the security has to be priority and given the terrorist groups’ experience in the region, the battle might not be easy.
One of the challenge the new Commander would face is the fact Rwanda did not deploy soldiers in Mali and that would be difficult to command the troops you have never been with before. The question repeats: is Rwanda ready to deploy in Mali?
According to the President Kagame’s words it is possible that Rwandan peacekeepers may also be deployed in the near future. In a news conference last month, President Kagame acknowledged that “There is a possibility of sending troops to Mali.” And a request had already been made, he said.
“Africa cannot, and should not, fold its arms when terrorist and criminal groups are occupying over half the territory of a Member State, carrying out the most atrocious crimes against innocent civilians and destroying monuments that are of great significance to Africa’s heritage and civilization.” Kagame stressed
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Rwandan exiles warned of assassination threat by London police
Two dissidents living in London told that Rwandan government poses imminent risk to their lives
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Haroon Siddique
The Guardian, Friday 20 May 2011 06.38 EDT
Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame
Rwandan exiles warned about threats to their lives may have been targeted because of criticisms made of President Paul Kagame (above). Photograph: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images
The Metropolitan police have warned two Rwandan exiles living in London that they face an “imminent threat” of assassination at the hands of the Rwandan government.
The dissidents received letters within hours of one another which advised them to take extra steps to increase their safety and raised the possibility of them leaving the country, the Times reported.
“Reliable intelligence states that the Rwandan government poses an imminent threat to your life,” the warning letters read. “The threat could come in any form. You should be aware of other high-profile cases where action such as this has been conducted in the past. Conventional and unconventional means have been used.”
One of the men, Rene Mugenzi, 35, stood as a Liberal Democrat candidate for Greenwich council, in south-east London, and now runs a social enterprise which aims to help disadvantaged communities. He may have been targeted because of comments he made about the Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, in March when asked on a BBC programme about the prospect of the Arab spring uprisings spreading to his homeland. He replied that criticisms of Kagame suggested that he was “a despot who doesn’t tolerate any form of opposition; that under his leadership, Rwanda has become a dangerous place for those who publicly disagree with him or his ruling party”.
Mugenzi told the Independent: “How can it be that in Britain, a foreign government can be allowed to threaten the life of a person? Every time I go outside, I am looking over my shoulder, wondering if there is an assassin around the corner.”
The other recipient of the warning letter was Jonathan Musonera, a former officer in the army of the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front. He is one of several exiled military officers behind the founding of the Rwanda National Congress, a new political party that earlier this month called on the Rwandan president to stand down “if he cannot stop killing, jailing and exiling innocent citizens”. The group recently held a meeting in London. Musonera told the Independent he was “terribly scared. We know what the Rwandan government can do.”
A Rwandan suspected of being part of the assassination threat was stopped at the Eurotunnel terminal in Folkestone, Kent, last week, according to the Times. It said the man, a naturalised Belgian aged 43, left after being questioned by police.
Western governments have praised Kagame for his efforts in transforming Rwanda since the 1994 genocide, with Britain committing £83m a year until 2015 to help rebuild the country. But political violence and suppression in Rwanda have shaken faith in Kagame.
Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, another founder member of the Rwanda National Congress and former head of Rwandan intelligence, was the subject of a failed assassination attempt in South Africa in June, last year.
The Independent reported last month that MI5 had warned the Rwandan high commissioner to London, who attended the royal wedding, to halt an alleged campaign of harassment against critics of Kagame living in the UK or face a cut in British aid.
A Rwandan government spokesman said the allegations contained within the warning letters were “without foundation. The government of Rwanda does not threaten the lives of its citizens, wherever they live,” he said. “The Metropolitan police have not approached us with evidence of these allegations but we are ready as always to work with them to ensure that nobody, be they Rwandan or not, is the victim of violence on British soil.”
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Kagame speaks out on Kikwete’s call for negotiations with FDLR rebels
Rwanda President Paul Kagame. Photo/File
Rwanda President Paul Kagame. Photo/File
By EMMANUEL RUTAYISIRE, Special Correspondent
Posted Monday, June 10 2013 at 18:32
President Paul Kagame of Rwanda has described calls for the country to negotiate with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) as “utter nonsense.”
(Read: Unease in Kigali over Kikwete’s call for talks with FDLR)
Speaking on Monday at the Rwanda Military Academy (Nyakinama) in the northern part of the country where he was attending a graduation ceremony of 45 officers, President Kagame said:
“I kept quiet about this because of the contempt I have for it. I thought it was utter nonsense. Maybe it was due to ignorance but if this is an ideological problem for anyone to be thinking this way, then it better stay with those who have it.
“We will have another time to deal with this. As Rwandans, being who we are, achieving what we want to achieve for ourselves is not a myth, its real”.
The call to talk to FDLR was made by Tanzania’s President Jakaya Kikwete at a meeting of Heads of State from the Great Lakes Region in Addis Ababa, on the sidelines of last month’s African Union Summit in Ethiopia.
Kikwete’s remarks have soured the already shaky relations between the two neighbouring countries with foreign affairs ministers from both countries issuing statements.
(Read: Dar-Kigali spat a serious matter)
Kikwete had suggested that Rwanda should consider direct talks with the FDLR rebels since the military option didn’t seem to be working.
President Kikwete also urged Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni to talk to the Allied Democratic Forces and the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda, as well as asking DR Congo’s President Joseph Kabila to talk to the M23 rebels and other forces operating in eastern Congo.
This is the first time President Kagame is personally responding to President Kikwete’s remarks even though both presidents attended the Addis Ababa meeting.
(Read: Rwanda can’t talk to FDLR; they’re stone cold killers)
Tanzania has said it is not going to apologise to Kigali over the statements.
The remarks have triggered a diplomatic row between the two countries although observers say it is a pointer to the fact that despite the cordial relationships, Presidents Kagame and Kikwete have never been friends.
The FDLR is a sensitive issue in Kigali because of the former’s role in the 1994 genocide as well as its continued security threat to Rwanda. The militia draws most of its members from the genocidaires who participated in the 1994 mass killings.
Kagame publicly threatening to hit President Kikwete.
4 juillet 2013
Amakuru
Kagame publicly threatening to hit President Kikwete. jeannet-300×200
She has reason to be worried
It is remarkable that the Rwandan president’s own wife has already understood the dangers of criminalizing a whole population group. In her own speech in the same event, she emphasized that criminal responsibility was individual and “every knee will have to kneel for itself”.
It has almost become a tradition in his improvised speeches to hear Rwandan president Paul Kagame spit his anger and express his contempt for Western donors and other foreigner s who do not share his peculiar ideas about governance and political freedom. He does not miss any opportunity to slam what he calls their attempts to give him lessons, while he has no lesson to receive from anybody. We have heard many insults and derogatory words, but an outright threat to “hit” the president of a sovereign neighbouring nation, this is something even those who know him for a long period would not easily had predicted. On Sunday June 30, in a speech to the “youth connect” meeting convened by the Ministry of Youth together with his wife’s own Imbuto foundation, Paul Kagame threatened Tanzanian President Kikwete in unmistakable terms that he will wait for him at the right place and hit him, in response to the latter’s suggestion that Kagame initiate talks with the armed Hutu opposition FDLR.
“And those whom you recently heard speaking for the Interahamwe and FDLR, saying that we should negotiate with them. Negotiate with them? As for me, I do not even argue about this issue because I will wait for you at the right place and I will hit you!! I really did not… I didn’t even reply to him, I never arg… uh… it is known, there is a line you can’t cross. There is a line, there is a line that should never be crossed. Not once. It’s impossible!!…”
From these words pronounced partly in his hallmark unstructured Kinyarwanda mixed with English, Kagame made clear that he is still deeply angered by the mere suggestion to engage in talks with political opponents. That is why he vowed to wait for the right opportunity to strike back at Tanzanian President. It is unheard of in world diplomacy, to see a head of state threatening to hit another head of state of a sovereign nation in time of peace.
This threat should be taken seriously. Kagame has already proven in the past that he is able to strike his adversaries and silence them. Whether fellow presidents or his own (former) trusted collaborators, his prowess in murdering those he thinks are his enemies would not shy from a comparison with L. Sulla’s famous bragging. Melchior Ndadaye, Juvénal Habyarimana, Cyprien Ntaryamira, Laurent-Desiré Kabila are all heads of states in whose assassination he has allegedly had a hand. Théoneste Lizinde and Seth Sendashonga, are former collaborators eliminated in covert operations from afar. The last known feat in this series is the failed assassination of his former army chief of staff Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, who survived a shooting in Johannesburg, South Africa. The lesser known cases of eliminated military officers who had knowledge of damaging secrets of his cruelty or could become rivals for power in the military, is no less impressive.
The grudge against Kikwete has other sources as well. Kagame’s big ego does not suffer being second to anybody. Being overshadowed by Kikwete as the most visible leader in the region is an additional source of personal resentment towards the charismatic Tanzanian President who, in less than a year, has been honoured by the official visits of the presidents of the two most powerful nations in the world. The recent attempt by Kagame, Museveni and Uhuru Kenyatta to bypass Kikwete and meet in Entebbe without him underscores a rampant feeling of discomfort at the growing strategic importance of Tanzania in the region.
Tanzania’s resolve to play its full role in restoring peace in the region has borne him many enemies among the neighbours who most benefit from the chaos they have helped perpetuate in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Uganda and Rwanda will namely be the losers if peace returns in the region because violence has long been their cover and their opportunity to loot Congolese resources. But whether they like it or not, Kagame and Kaguta will have to understand that time for peace has now come.
Kagame doesn’t seem to notice the changing circumstances however. In his self-righteousness, he said in the same speech that he was the paramount example of tolerance because he accepts to live in the same country with an ethnical group of genocidaires. He said that allowing Hutus to stay alive is the biggest political space he could think of, anywhere in the world. He urged the Hutus, even those who were not born at the time of the mass slaughters of 1994 to repent and ask forgiveness on behalf of their ethnical group (Suddenly. There are ethnical groups in Rwanda again!). He made them understand that they owed their lives to him because his soldiers would have slaughtered the entire Hutu population that he characterizes as a genocidaire ethnical group, was it not for his magnanimity that forced him to stop the RPA soldiers. In return for RPF soldiers not slaughtering all Hutus, he urges them to bear the burden of perpetual guilt, because, according to him, crimes were committed on their behalf.
It is remarkable that the Rwandan president’s own wife has already understood the dangers of criminalizing a whole population group. In her own speech in the same event, she emphasized that criminal responsibility was individual and “every knee will have to kneel for itself”. She underlined the importance of liberating the youth from the burden of event in which they did not take part. When Kagame’s own wife starts signaling that she has understood the dangers of his principal political principle (criminalizing all Hutus), the peace in the region can’t continue to be held up by just one individual.
This is what Tanzania has understood much earlier. But Kikwete also knows that those who sow chaos in order to harvest in violence will not easily give up their booty. By accepting to step in, to make his voice for peace heard, Tanzanian President Kikwete knew there was a price. It is now up to the entire population of the region (Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and obviously Tanzania) to step in and stand with President Kikwete, ensure his protection and denounce any attempt to threaten his physical integrity.
Dr Alexis Habiyaremye
http://www.editions-sources-du-nil.com/article-kagame-publicly-threatening-to-hit-president-kikwete-118887725.html
From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste
FRIDAY, JULY 11, 2013
Many of our readers have been touched by my article on why Uhuru Kenyatta won’t end impunity in Kenya as yet, with some pleading with him not to allow impunity to creep into his government. He must ensure the law is followed to the letter.
Peres Were from Nairobi was very categorical: “with culture of impunity in Kenya Kethi Diana Kilonzo is simply wasting her time, the court will definitely rule in favour of TNA, for that matter, in favour of Uhuru Kenyatta”.
With impunity court has no say. That is why despite of the High Court decision on the appointments of TSC commissioners the government disrespected.
Those nominated for appointment in the initial list were Kahindi Ziro James, Fredrick Haga Ochieng’ and Adan Sheikh Abdullahi. Cleopas Tirop, who had emerged tops in the interview, was missing in the list.
This list was rejected and the names taken back to the President and a new one presented to the House, this time with Tirop, Ochieng’, Abdullahi and that of the chairperson.
Mr Abdi Sitar Yusuf went to court to block the three commissioners’ names arguing the list was irregularly approved. The court blocked Ochieng’ and Abdullahi but cleared Tirop and he was sworn in.
Impunity–particularly in connection with human rights abuses committed during the 2007 post election violence is pervasive. As of late last year, there had been a total of 24 convictions in cases stemming from the violence following the 2007 elections, in which more than 1,300 Kenyans lost their lives.
No police officers had been prosecuted successfully. This is because Kenya is a republic with an institutionally strong president. That is why, even though the new constitution stipulates the creation of a Supreme Court, which was established in June 2011, president still have power to overrule the judgment.
It explains why widespread impunity at all levels of government continued to be a serious problem, despite implementation of judicial reform and the vetting of all judges and magistrates.
Human rights groups estimated that police were responsible for approximately 1,000 extrajudicial killings between 2008 and 2012; in 200 of those cases, there was credible evidence of police involvement, according to civil society groups.
In 2008 the government formed the Commission of Inquiry into Postelection Violence as part of the internationally mediated political settlement. In 2008 the final commission report recommended that the government establish a special tribunal to investigate individuals suspected of violence; however, no local tribunal was established, and the government did not conduct any investigations.
As a result of government inaction, in 2010 the International Criminal Court (ICC) opened an investigation and in March 2011 issued summonses on charges of crimes against humanity for six individuals. At year’s end three of them held official positions and two were former government officials.
The six individuals were: Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, deputy prime minister by then and former minister of finance; William Samoei Ruto, member of parliament and former minister of higher education, science, and technology; Henry Kiprono Kosgey, minister of industrialization; Joshua Arap Sang, former head of operations for KASS FM radio station; Francis Kirimi Muthaura, former head of the public service and secretary to the cabinet; and Mohamed Hussein Ali, police commissioner at the time of the violence.
In August 2011 the ICC dismissed an appeal by the government that challenged the admissibility of the cases against the six, ruling that the government had failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove that it was conducting its own investigation.
On January 23, the ICC confirmed charges against four of the six suspects, ruling that the prosecutor had not reached the threshold for charges to be confirmed against Kosgey and Ali.
In February the government appointed a task force to investigate local cases of post-election violence in 2007-08. In an August report the task force indicated that it had reviewed 4,408 of the 6,081 files compiled by police and found that most of the files were incomplete.
No suspects were identified in 2,411 of the cases. In approximately 1,000 cases a suspect had been identified but there was insufficient evidence to prosecute. In 2008 human rights groups reported that police turned away victims or refused to take down witness testimony after the post-election violence.
Police reportedly were also responsible for many of the human rights violations during that period. As of year’s end there were 24 convictions in post-election violence cases, including two for murder. No police officers had been prosecuted successfully.
That is also why, even though the law prohibits arrest or detention without a court order unless there are reasonable grounds for believing a suspect has committed or is about to commit a criminal offense, police frequently arrested and detained citizens arbitrarily.
Police often stopped and arrested citizens to extort bribes; those who could not pay were jailed on trumped-up charges and beaten. Police often failed to enter detainees into police custody records, making it difficult to locate them.
Although the president historically had extensive powers over appointments, including for the positions of attorney general, chief justice, and appellate and High Court judges, according to the new constitution, promulgated in 2010, vests responsibility for making recommendations for the appointment of judges in the Judicial Services Commission (JSC), which must publicly vet candidates, president still have the power to determine who is appointed.
The government did not always respect judicial independence. It explains why in June President Kibaki ordered members of the Provincial Administration to disregard the High Court’s ruling after the court declared their appointments unconstitutional.
The government occasionally used the legal system to harass critics, like what happened with KNUT officials recently. The government used the court to declare that their strikes are illegal.
Even with law in place to protect media, government still uses security forces to harass members of the media. Good example is what happened in April when police threatened two journalists, The Standard’s Osinde Obare and Radio Citizen’s David Musindi, for publishing stories on a police raid at a market in Kitale.
According to Obare, Kitale police chief Luca Ogara called him to ask why he published a negative story about the police and threatened repercussions if he returned to Kitale. In some cases their cameras confiscated by police and film destroyed.
Another example is what happened in May when two journalists with The Standard Media Group, Senior Investigative Editor Mohammed Ali and Dennis Onsaringo, filed a complaint with the police commissioner regarding ongoing threats and intimidation by senior police officials.
In 2011 Ali filmed an investigative series for the Kenya Television Network (KTN) on police complicity in drug dealing and the role of state agents in frustrating an investigation into a large cocaine seizure.
Pressure from politicians, including former defense minister Christopher Murangaru, forced KTN to stop broadcasting the series. The police investigation into threats to Ali’s life and the defamation lawsuits sparked by the program were unresolved at year’s end.
In September prison warders at the Machakos Law Courts attacked Jonathan Mutiso, a KBC reporter, for filming an inmate who had attempted to escape by climbing on the roof of the court.
The warders confiscated the camera and ordered two Kenya News Agency interns to erase footage of the incident, threatening the two with violence if they did not comply. The warders were disciplined following a demonstration by journalists.
On September 30, police arrested three Somali journalists who were reporting on a grenade attack on a school in Eastleigh. The journalists were released without charge and deported from the country.
The Committee to Protect Journalists issued a report in February noting that impunity in cases of torture of journalists remained a problem. Ten journalists reported mistreatment at the hands of police in 2011; the government had taken no action in any of the cases as of year’s end.
These are just but few examples to demonstrate how the government of Kenya will not end the culture of impunity any sooner. And because the TNA is determined that Kethi’s name deleted from the register because they did not want her to vie for Makueni senatorial seat, you will not be surprised that the court will still rule in favour of TNA. That is Kenya you call yours.
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Facebook-omolo beste
Twitter-@8000accomole
Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.
-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ UN Disarmament Conference, 2002
From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste
MONDAY, JULY 8, 2013
Time Magazine describes Pope John XXIII as a revolutionary—a Pope of modernization who kept in continuity with the church’s past, yet made even the most enlightened of his 20th century predecessors seem like voices of another age.
John XXIII was one of the greatest popes in all of history. For him the gospel truly meant what the word itself means, “good news”. This good news filled him with joy, and he constantly radiated a true Christian joy to all around him.
He decried the “prophets of doom”, he wanted to dialogue with the world rather than condemn it, and he instinctively knew that praising one good thing in the life of either a person or a whole society achieves far more than condemning ten bad things.
John XXIII carried the office of pope with great dignity and distinction, the greatness of the office was never allowed to obscure his humanity. He possessed the “natural virtues” in abundance and the Christian and priestly virtues built on them.
John XXIII had the humility to know that he did not have all the answers to the problems facing the Church as it entered the new and difficult world of the 1960s. And so it was with his heart first and his head second that he instinctively turned to the collective wisdom of the whole Church and called a Council.
His emphasis on the importance of our basic humanity is reflected in statements of the Council that speak of qualities which are esteemed by all people and which make Christ’s ministers acceptable, such as “sincerity, a constant love of justice, fidelity to one’s promises, modesty and charity.
You cannot understand contemporary Catholicism without understanding Pope John XXIII. This is the man who did not only change the church, but also impressed the world with the friendliness.
John XXIII always emphasized on the importance of respect of human rights as an essential consequence of the Christian understanding of dignity and respect for humanity, that every man has the right to life, to bodily integrity, and to the means which are suitable for the proper development of life.
Against the background that he issued his first encyclical letter on justice and peace, Pacem in Terris (Peace on Earth) on 11 April 1963 to ensure that the rights of the people was protected at all the times.
In this work, John XXIII reacted to the political situation in the middle of the Cold War. It was issued only two years after the erection of the Berlin Wall and only a few months after the Cuban Missile Crisis.
He explains in this encyclical that conflicts “should not be resolved by recourse to arms, but rather by negotiation”, emphasizes the importance of respect of human rights as an essential consequence of the Christian understanding of humanity.
The first section of the encyclical establishes the relationship between individuals and humankind, encompassing the issues of human rights and moral duties. The second section addresses the relationship between man and state, dwelling on the collective authority of the latter.
The third section establishes the need for equality amongst nations and the need for the state to be subject to rights and duties that the individual must abide by. The final section presents the need for greater relations between nations, thus resulting in collective states assisting other states.
The encyclical ends with the urging of Catholics to assist non-Christians and non-Catholics in political and social aspects. Pope John XXIII issued eight Papal Encyclicals during his five-year reign as Pope. He ruled from his election on October 28, 1958 until his death on June 3, 1963. Two of his encyclicals, Mater et Magistra and Pacem in Terris and are especially important.
Encyclicals may condemn errors, point out threats to faith and morals, exhort faithful practices, or provide remedies for present and future dangers to the church. The authority of the encyclical varies depending on the circumstances and is not necessarily ex cathedra.
Because of his love for justice and peace Pope John offered to mediate between John F.Kennedy and Nikita Khruschev during the Cuban missile crisis. Both men applauded the pope for his commitment to peace.
During World War I, he did front-line service as a medic and chaplain in the Italian Army. A few years after the war he was sent as Vatican representative to Bulgaria, then to Turkey where, during World War II, he helped refugees from Nazi Germany.
He became Vatican nuncio in France, where he dissuaded General Charles de Gaulle from forcing the Holy See to remove 25 French bishops who had collaborated with the wartime, Nazi-collaborating Petain regime.
On 11 May 1963, the Italian president Antonio Segni awarded Pope John XXIII the Balzan Prize for his engagement for peace. It was the Pope’s last public appearance.
On 25 May 1963, the Pope suffered hemorrhage and required blood transfusions, but the cancer had perforated the stomach wall and peritonitis soon set in.
By 31 May, it had become clear that the cancer had overcome the resistance of Pope John. The Pope died of peritonitis caused by a perforated stomach at 19:50 (local time) on 3 June at the age of 81, ending a reign of four years, seven months.
He was buried on 6 June. He was known affectionately as “Good Pope John” and “the most beloved Pope in history” to many people. On 3 September 2000, John was declared “Blessed” by Pope John Paul II. He was the first pope since Pope X to receive this honour.
Following his beatification, his body was moved from its original burial place in the grottoes below St Peter’s Basilica to the altar of St Jerome and displayed for the veneration of the faithful.
At the time, the body was observed to be extremely well preserved—a condition which the Church ascribes to embalming and the lack of air flow in his sealed triple coffin rather than to a miracle.
The 50th anniversary of his death was celebrated on 3 June 2013 by Pope Francis who visited his tomb and prayed there for a few minutes. Francis then addressed the gathered crowd and spoke about the late pontiff. On the following 5 July, Francis approved Pope John XXIII for canonization, along with Pope John Paul II.
Some participants at the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) favored canonizing John XXIII by acclamation, in the tradition of the Church’s early centuries. But some conservative Council Fathers suspected the acclamation proponents were interested as much in Church politics as in piety.
They thought the endorsement of John XXIII pitted him against his immediate predecessor, Pius XII, contrasting the two popes, their personalities and policies.
The Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints was less than enthusiastic about the proposal because it meant the saintmaking process was being snatched out of its hands by the Council participants.
The potential conflict over the proposal to acclaim John XXIII a saint was avoided when Paul VI announced that the process would be initiated simultaneously on behalf of Pius XII as well.
The decision was a vindication of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and also suggested continuity between the two popes: If Pope John had convoked the Council, Pius had done much to prepare it.
Blessed Pope John XXIII was born Angelo Roncalli on November 25, 1881, in Sotto il Monte, a village of 1200 inhabitants at the foot of the Alps. The Roncallis had lived there since 1429. The house where Angelo was born was called the “palazzo” but it was not much like a palace: the large family shared the ground floor with their cows.
“We were poor but happy with our lot and confident in the help of Providence…. When a beggar appeared at the door of our kitchen, there was always room for him, and my mother would hasten to seat this stranger alongside us.” Corinna Laughlin, Director of Liturgy.
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Facebook-omolo beste
Twitter-@8000accomole
Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.
-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ UN Disarmament Conference, 2002
On June 26, the world commemorates the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. In Tanzania, however, such commemorations are likely to be muted. Tanzania is among a small minority of countries that have not signed or ratified the Convention against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, a United Nations treaty.
Yet Tanzanians, including those who are marginalized and most vulnerable in society, are sometimes tortured and ill-treated by police officers, and often have no recourse to justice. I have spoken with many such victims.
One of them, “Zeitoun,” from Tandika, told me during an interview in 2012:
“They [police officers] arrived and started to beat me around the waist with the butt of their gun. They took my own belt and tied it around my neck and dragged me to the police post. They tied my legs with cuffs, the two legs were tied together and the two hands were handcuffed. I was handcuffed to the gate of the holding cell… hanging like a goat to be roasted.”
Another victim, “Walid” from Zanzibar, described being arrested and sexually abused by police andpolisi jamii (community police): “They [beat me with] water pipes and electrical wires. Two of them raped me…. They had canes and pipes, and they hit me on the bottoms of the feet. I couldn’t walk afterwards.”
“Rosemary,” a 14-year-old girl in Mbeya, has had several experiences with police torture. “One time they burned me on the arm with a lighter,” she said, showing me the burn mark. She had also been raped by police “at least seven times.”
Why were they treated this way by the police? Because they are members of marginalized groups who are considered “criminals” under Tanzanian law. They are also victims of social stigma. Zeitoun injects heroin. Walid is gay, or “MSM” – a man who has sex with men. Rosemary is engaged in sex work.
A recent study by Human Rights Watch and the Wake Up and Step Forward Coalition (WASO) found that some members of these marginalized groups are tortured by security forces simply because of who they are.
Of course, they are not the only Tanzanians at risk of torture, according to a recent study by the Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC). The report includes the notorious case of Dr. Stephen Ulimboka, who said he was abducted by intelligence agents and then tortured because of his leadership in the doctors’ strike. In another reported case, police broke a man’s legs because he was suspected of stealing.
Despite such horrific abuses, the police have expressed a willingness to address the problem. When we submitted the Human Rights Watch and WASO report to the police, several commissioners, including those responsible for internal affairs, training, and the gender and children’s desks, welcomed the report’s publication and did not deny that abuses occur. They said they will distribute the report to regional commanders, and that they will hold accountable police officers who commit these crimes. Whether police officers’ behavior will improve remains to be seen.
Tanzania’s constitution prohibits torture, but no such prohibition appears in the penal code, making it difficult to hold abusers criminally accountable. At its last Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights Council in 2011, Tanzania accepted member states’ recommendations to ratify the Convention against Torture. But it has not yet done so.
One outcome of this inconsistency may be that, although some police officers told Human Rights Watch that torture is unacceptable, that view is not shared at all levels. Police have used heavy-handed methods to quell recent political dissent, encouraged by some government officials who have said that beating protesters is the right thing to do.
Why this emphasis on the Convention against Torture? What difference does it make to ratify a treaty? For one, it sends a clear message to the security forces that when they torture detainees, they are violating both national and international law. Second, it affirms that rights are, in fact, universal. As a party to the Convention against Torture, Tanzania would be required to report on the convention’s implementation, and to demonstrate that it applies to all citizens. It would be required to domesticate the convention, integrating it into national law and providing torture victims with a solid legal basis for filing complaints. And it would be required to prosecute those who violate the law, regardless of their position or rank.
Often, the application of international human rights standards is most urgent for vulnerable groups. In some countries, these may be minorities, including ethnic, political, or religious minorities, whom those in power may have an interest in silencing. In some countries, these may be children, who may lack sufficient protections under national laws. And in Tanzania, sex workers, sexual and gender minorities, and people who use drugs, among others, fall into this category of most vulnerable. A clear commitment to international law on the part of the authorities would provide them, and all Tanzanians, an additional layer of protection.
Any discussion of protecting the rights of marginalized groups elicits controversy in Tanzania. That is normal: the unknown always provokes fear. Only recently have sex workers, sexual and gender minorities, and people who use drugs begun to speak out. Public debates around these issues are still in their early stages. But today, can we all agree on one thing: that no one deserves to be tortured?
Ratifying the Convention against Torture would not end torture or ill-treatment in Tanzania overnight. But in light of persistent recurrences of torture – and in a context where the most vulnerable lack a clear legal framework that sets forth consequences for those who abuse them – it is a critical step toward ensuring that
the security forces respect the rights of all Tanzanians.
Date: Fri, Jun 28, 2013 at 4:54 AM
To: “jaluo@jaluo.com”
By Agwanda Saye
The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) has resolved to conduct an audit of former Mau Mau freedom fighters over the Sh2.6 billion British Government settlement.
The LSK Secretary/CEO Mr. Apollo Mboya said that the audit and identity verification will prevent fraud to the settlement meant for 5,228 ex-Mau Mau veterans who were victims of torture by the colonial Government.
Mr. Mboya said that LSK has approached Ernst & Young, an audit firm, to look at the possibility of undertaking identity verification for the surviving Mau Mau victims of Torture, those who are deceased and the legal estate of the deceased.
“Ernst & Young has the capacity to conduct the exercise under its department of Fraud Investigations and Dispute Services (FIDS),” Mr. Mboya said.
The LSK Secretary/CEO said that similar audits were conducted by audit firms when compensating victims of explosives in Samburu and rape that involved British soldiers in Nanyuki. The British Government compensated some 500 Kenyans Sh585 million in 2003 over deaths and injuries suffered from undetonated devices allegedly left in their grazing fields. “LSK believe that an audit of the list of prospective beneficiaries is the best way forward to ensure that no deserving former freedom fighter is defrauded,” Mr. Mboya said.
Mr. Mboya also said that the LSK will file a suit at the High Court on Monday to force the British Law Firm of Leigh Day to release a list of 5,228 ex-Mau Mau fighters who are to receive Sh340,000 each following an out of court settlement with the British Government on mainly torture claims by the colonial administration.
“We wrote a letter to the British Law Firm (Leigh Day) last week requesting for the list within seven days, which is expiring on Friday,” Mr. Mboya said.
The Secretary/CEO said that LSK receives several elderly citizens daily requesting whether their names are in the list to receive the settlement.
Mr. Mboya said that LSK is also aware that two other British Firms will file separate Mau Mau compensation claims cases in courts at the United Kingdom (UK).
“Tandem Law and GT Law Solicitors have similar cases with 8,061 and 700 clients respectively,” Mr. Mboya said.
Mr. Mboya said that unlike the law firm of Leigh Day, Tandem Law and GT Law Solicitors have both furnished LSK with their list of clients.
Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Cantor are pushing an unconstitutional bill through the House that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy–without any exception for the woman’s health. Sign the petition to tell them to drop this bill and stop attacking women.
Visit Here http://act.weareultraviolet.org/go/879?t=2&akid=488.6000.TUDXfe
From: Nita and Shaunna, Ultraviolet
Dear Readers,
Remember Todd “legitimate rape” Akin? And Richard Mourdock who said a pregnancy from rape is “gift from God”?1 Well, they’re back–or at least their policies are. Trent Franks, a tea party Republican Congressman from Arizona, said last week that “the incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low.”2 The truth: at least 30,000 women become pregnant from rape each year.3
What’s even scarier? The House is set to vote on Rep. Franks’s proposal to criminalize abortion nationwide after the 20th week of pregnancy this week.4
Republicans in Congress are using this bill to score political points with their conservative base, but after the 2012 election, they’re also desperate to appeal to women voters. Now, it’s up to all of us to send them a clear message: Women are watching and we are speaking out. Stop attacking our rights. Can you sign the petition telling Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Cantor to drop this bill now? We’ll deliver your signature and comments before the vote.
Tell Congress: Drop the 20-week abortion ban.
Attempts to ban abortions after 20 weeks aren’t new–extreme conservatives have been pushing similar legislation through state legislatures for years now. Nine states have all passed similar laws, including Indiana, Louisiana and Nebraska. But the bill is unconstitutional, and it directly contradicts Roe v. Wade. Just last month, Arizona’s ban was thrown out by the federal appeals court. Courts have also overturned similar laws in Idaho and Georgia.5
It’s also dangerous. If it’s passed, doctors who perform safe abortion care could be tried and imprisoned–even if a woman was at risk for severe, permanent health problems.6
Not all Republicans are on board with their party’s latest extreme attack on women. Republican Rep. Charlie Dent even said of his own party’s leadership, “Clearly the economy is on everyone’s minds… and now we’re going to have a debate on rape and abortion… The stupidity is simply staggering.”7
If we all speak out now, we can show Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Cantor that pushing this bill through the House–and continuing the Republican war on women–is not only wrong, it’s going to cost them politically.
Sign the petition.
Thanks for speaking out.
–Nita, Shaunna, Kat, Malinda and Karin, the UltraViolet team
Sources:
1. Rape remarks sink two Republican Senate hopefuls, NBC News, November 7, 2012
2. Trent Franks: ‘The Incidence Of Rape Resulting In Pregnancy Are Very Low’, Huffington Post, June 12, 2013
3. Ibid.
4. House GOP Set To Vote Next Week On 20-Week Abortion Ban, Talking Points Memo, June 12, 2013
5. Abortion Bans at 20 Weeks: A Dangerous Restriction for Women, NARAL Pro-Choice America
House Republican Calls Nationwide Abortion Ban Vote ‘Staggering Stupidity’, Think Progress, June 13, 2013
6. Trent Franks, Abortion Bans, and the Fetal Pain Lie, RH Reality Check, June 13, 2013
7. House Republican Calls Nationwide Abortion Ban Vote ‘Staggering Stupidity’, Think Progress, June 13, 2013
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POLL: “YOU are in IT. Is it OK what the NSA is doing?”
A new Washington Post-Pew Research Center poll asked Americans if they consider the NSA’s practice of obtaining telephone calls and email through secret court orders “acceptable.” As the Post’s exploration of the poll results notes, some people said the government should be allowed to go even further than it actually is. As you are probably aware, the NSA whistle-blower is 29-year old IT pro Ed Snowdon.
It’s my opinion that most people do not really understand the issue and I think it would be very interesting to see what IT professionals answer when they are asked the same questions. I will broadly announce the survey results in a few days, perhaps even a press release. I am asking the very same questions as the Post survey, with one exception where question 5 clarifies the amount of data being monitored.
It’s just 6 multiple choice questions and should take less than 2 minutes. Thanks so much for taking the time, this should be interesting !! Here is the link:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NSA_OK
Citadel Botnet ‘Shutdown’ Makes Cybercrime Worse
It was all over the news. The Citadel botnet responsible for stealing more than 500 million dollars out of bank accounts from both individuals and organizations worldwide has been largely shut down or so it seems if you read the breathless press. Citadel is a smarter and more sophisticated cousin of the Zeus Trojan.
Citadel is an example as Crime-as-a-Service and has been sold since 2012 in do-it-yourself crime kits that cost $2,400 or more. The malware itself is installed on workstations using social engineering. End-users were tricked with phishing and spear-phishing into clicking on links which infected their workstations.
The Press Release said that Redmond aligned with the FBI and authorities in 80 other countries to take down one of the world’s biggest cyber crime rings. Microsoft said its Digital Crimes Unit Wednesday took down at least 1,000 of an estimated 1,400 Citadel Botnets, which infected as many as five million PCs around the world and targeted on major banks.
Now, I agree that it’s about freaking time these gangsters were shut down, but there is quite some collateral damage with all this hoopla. Let’s have a look at what Microsoft actually did. They identified about 1,400 botnets and disturbed them by pointing the infected machines to a server operated by Redmond instead of the Command & Control servers controlled by the bad guys.
This is not new, technically this is called ‘sinkholing’, and it’s been around for a long time. Simply put, you redirect the traffic generated by the Trojan on an infected PC to the good guys, who then warn the owner so they can clean the machine.
It so happens that a lot of security researchers had created their own sinkhole domains and a good chunk of these Citadel botnets had already been sinkholed when Microsoft seized both the domains of the bad guys but also the domains of the security researchers. Nearly a 1,000 domain names out of the approximately 4,000 domain names seized by Microsoft had already been sinkholed by security researchers!
The problem is that sinkholing is just a game of whack-a-mole. Takedowns like this trigger countermeasures by the bad guys who simply respond by using a peer-to-peer architecture instead of command & control servers making it much harder to take them down.
Cybercrime cannot be stopped with takedowns; as a matter of fact takedowns make cybercrime worse. You need legislation in Eastern Europe, and sufficient resources for law enforcement to take down the bad actors themselves.
(Hat Tip to Abuse.ch)
PS, We have a new infographic you might like, explains Spear-phishing in terms that everyone can understand:
http://www.knowbe4.com/infographic/
PPS: And here is a new fun little quiz you can send to your users: “How Phish-prone Are You?”
http://www.knowbe4.com/how-phish-prone-are-you/
Quotes of the Week
“Time is a created thing. To say ‘I don’t have time’ is to say ‘I don’t want to.’” – Lao Tzu
“You will never ‘find’ time for anything. If you want time, you must make it.” – Charles Bruxton
“The future has already arrived. It’s just not evenly distributed yet.” – William Gibson
