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Click here for the NewsAfrica Special Focus Article GUINEA The Guinean junta leader, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, said early November that he was prepared to assist the commission of inquiry set up by the UN to investigate the bloody crack down of an opposition rally in September. Camara said he regretted the deaths of innocent people in the demonstration but accused the organisers of the demonstration of aiming at dividing Guineans. ‘Guinean blood flowed. This tragic event is unacceptable and such actions cannot go unpunished. The national inquiry commission will not contradict that set up by the UN which I welcome by asking to be the first to be heard,’ he said. More than 150 people were killed in the September 28 rally which had been called following reports that Capt Camara was planning to stand in presidential elections next year. After seizing power in December 2008 following the death of long-time leader Lansana Conte, he pledged not to contest elections but has since made a series of contradictory statements about his intentions. Human rights groups say 1,200 people were injured, including many women who were sexually abused by soldiers. Guinean officials say 57 people died and that most were trampled to death ‘in a stampede’. Camara has also pointed out that the demonstration had not been ‘allowed’. The US and AU placed travel bans on members of the junta, while the EU and regional grouping Ecowas has imposed an arms embargoes and travel restrictions. The EU has also called for Capt Camara to be tried for crimes against humanity, while the African Union says he should step down. Following a visit to Conakry at the end of last month, the US’s Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs William Fitzgerald said, ‘Fifty years of authoritarian rule has been debilitating to the country. The time is right, now, for the people of Guinea to get the elections they were hoping for.’ As pressure mounts, a number of ministers have resigned including civil service minister Alpha Diallo, who ‘preferred to leave the government rather than support the events of September 28’, a close ally of the minister told reporters on condition of anonymity. RWANDA A Rwandan man convicted of war crimes has been jailed for life by a Canadian court, without the prospect of parole for 25 years. Desire Munyaneza, 42, was found guilty in May in the first court case brought under Canada’s 2000 War Crimes Act. He was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in 1994. The sentencing judge said the law considered the crimes committed by the accused to be the ‘worst in existence’. Judge Andre Denis described the sentence, the harshest possible, as ‘severe’. The trial took place over two years, and heard emotional testimony from 66 witnesses about the atrocities. Munyaneza was accused of leading a militia whose members raped and killed dozens of Tutsis, and of orchestrating a massacre of 300-400 Tutsis in a church. His lawyer has said he will appeal against the conviction. Munyaneza arrived in Canada in the 1990s and tried to claim asylum - but the authorities rejected his claims. He was arrested in 2005 in a Toronto suburb after allegations emerged that he had been a militia leader during Rwanda's civil conflict. Rwandan Jean-Paul Nyilinkwaya told the BBC, ‘The fact that he was found guilty is a very big boost for the survivors. Everybody there is desperate for justice.’ LIBERIA An investigation by the government has concluded that the Firestone Rubber Plantation Company has polluted local water sources, the BBC has reported. The three-month investigation found that a plant south-east of the capital Monrovia was responsible for high levels of orthophosphate in creeks. The report called on Firestone to improve its waste treatment facility. Firestone said it believed it fully complied with environmental law and its waste water was not harmful to health. The Firestone plant is 48km south-east of the capital Monrovia and the creeks are a water source for tens of thousands of villagers. Many residents had said they could no longer use the water. A BBC reporter also said residents in the town of Kpanyah town had been complaining of developing skin rashes on venturing into affected creeks. The investigation team included government ministries, Firestone representatives and local residents. Water samples were collected and tested at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. Testing was also carried out in Liberia. The tests confirmed high levels of orthophosphate. The report called on Firestone management to adhere to the Environmental Protection and Management Law. Firestone said it believed it was in full compliance with the law and with its environmental commitments to the government and that it ‘strongly disagreed with any characterisation to the contrary.’ It said an external consultant had found the plant’s waste water was not harmful. Firestone said that phosphate was also not harmful to human health but that it would work to address any elevated levels. It said it believed its water treatment system was working as designed and intended. SOUTH AFRICA South Africa’s ruling ANC has called for the results of gender tests carried out on runner Caster Semenya to be annulled. International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) ordered the tests after she won the 800m gold medal at the World Championships in August. The ANC said the IAAF had violated its own procedures in handling the case. The test results are due soon, but leaked reports say they show Semenya is both male and female. There has been widespread anger in South Africa about the way the athlete has been treated. South Africa’s own athletics body, the ASA, has also come in for criticism of its handling of the row. Its president initially denied knowing that Semenya had been asked to take a gender test even before travelling to the World Championships in Berlin. Among the points the ANC raised was the failure of the IAAF to keep the matter confidential, as its gender policy verification policy demands. Nick Davis, the IAAF spokesperson, disclosed in a press conference publicly that such tests will be conducted on Caster,’ the ANC said in a statement published on its website. ‘The alleged tests results were also leaked to the international media. We therefore call for the nullification of the results as they have been compromised, as they cannot be used for any decision-making.’ Sudan Deadly clashes have broken out in southern Sudan, as officials begin a month-long registration of voters for the first full election in 24 years. The semi-autonomous south’s information minister Paul Mayom said at least eight people were killed in the violence. It was said to have broken out between rival ethnic groups in the early hours of October 31 in a village near Malakal town, about 480km north of regional capital Juba. They were the latest in a series of clashes in southern Sudan – a region where the UN estimates more than 2,000 people have died and 250,000 have been displaced this year. The BBC reported that although the clashes are not believed to be connected to the election process, they do indicate the enormous logistical and security challenges the authorities face As well as full elections, Sudan is also set for a referendum on independence for the south in 2011. A referendum in the now semi-autonomous was part of the 2005 deal that ended decades of civil war. At the end of last month, southern Sudanese leader Salva Kiir urged the south to split, saying a vote for unity with northern Sudan would make southerners ‘second class citizens’ in their own land. MAURITANIA A UN independent mission of experts led by the special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, Gulnara Shahinian, announced on November 2 that she has recommended a series of measures to eradicate slavery for good in the country. In a press conference, Shahinian said that her mission report on Mauritania, also recommends universal primary education, a ban on child labour and an increase in the number of welfare programmes. During its week-long visit, the UN mission met the government authorities, political class, the anti-slavery and human rights organisations within the society, scholars and victims. Shahinian, who also went to the interior of the country to witness the existence of various forms of slavery, also noted the willingness expressed by government to definitively eradicate the practice. Mauritania adopted in 2007 a law criminalising slavery, but anti-slavery NGOs say there is ‘a chain of complicity within the administration and the justice services.’ GHANA Three people were killed during communal clashes in the north-eastern town of Bawku, Upper East Regional Minister, Mark Woyongo, announced early November. The clashes involved gunfire in the town that has been under night curfew for about two years because of sporadic fighting in an ethnic feud. Woyongo said 29 people had been arrested and security men were on the ground to control the situation. He said he and his delegation came under fire and had to retreat at a point. Although calm was restored, the Upper East regional security council and Bawku municipal security council have called for a state of emergency to be declared in the town and for the security agencies to have sweeping powers to deal with offenders. Woyongo said people in Bawku fired guns indiscriminately with ‘impunity’. He also noted that there were a lot of small arms in the town and the regional security council was talking to the Togolese and Burkina Faso authorities, with whom the region shares borders, to help in curbing arms smuggling. A two-day curfew was imposed ‘to protect life and property’ and there are plans to deploy more troops in the area. |
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