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MACTV News: World grapples for response as battles divide Libya, Posted by Menelik Zeleke

 February 24, 2011 2:24:45 AM

 

* Obama, world leaders condemn violence, seek response

* Libya divided as east celebrates, capital seems calm

* Foreigners in difficulty, oil prices push up

By Alexander Dziadosz
BENGHAZI, Libya, Feb 24 (Reuters) - World leaders condemned Mummar Gaddafi's bloody crackdown on a revolt that has split Libya, but took little action to halt the bloodshed from the latest upheaval reshaping the Arab world.

U.S. President Barack Obama made his first public comments, condemning as "outrageous" and "unacceptable" attacks on protesters that have killed hundreds in 10 days and helped drive oil prices to levels that threaten global economic recovery.

Yet, there seemed little cohesion and urgency in a global response, even as Washington and Brussels spoke of possible sanctions against a man whose 41 years in power have been marked by idiosyncratic defiance of the West.
"It is imperative that the nations and peoples of the world speak with one voice," Obama said. "The suffering and bloodshed is outrageous."

The oil exports which Gaddafi used to help end his isolation in the past decade have given him means to resist the fate of his immediate neighbours, the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt, who were brought down by popular unrest in the past few weeks.

As many as 1,000 people may have been killed in Libya, the Italian foreign minister said. Unconfirmed reports speak of troops and African mercenaries firing on demonstrators in the desert nation pumping nearly two percent of world oil output.


Gaddafi's defiance has been backed by deeds, with the deployment of aircraft on bombing runs.
Yet eastern areas where much of the oil is concentrated, have slipped from his control and with security forces defecting to join the protesters, it was unclear just how long Gaddafi could hang onto power.
In cities like Benghazi and Tobruk, troops and police have either withdrawn or have joined with diffuse and disparate opposition groups to start providing some order and services.

That wave may have reached as far west as Misrata, a city some 200 km (120 miles) east of Tripoli where a statement which purported to be from lawyers and judges said "honest" military officers had helped remove agents of the "oppressive regime".

In Tripoli, which remains largely closed to foreign media, locals said streets were calm after days of sporadic violence but fear gripped people's households.

"I haven't heard gun shots, unlike in the last few days," said one resident living close to Green Square in the city centre which is a focus for gatherings.

Marwan Mohammed, a Tunisian crossing the border home after leaving Tripoli, said: "Lots of people are afraid to leave their homes in Tripoli and pro-Gaddafi gunmen are roaming around threatening any people who gather in groups."

Oil wealth has made Libya an important investor in Western economies, as well as the sponsor of a host of projects in Africa and elsewhere, winning Gaddafi potential allies in forums like the United Nations.

Differences among world powers over how to proceed, some driven by concern not to jeopardise the safety of foreigners caught up in the trouble, appear to limit prospects for immediate international action.

The Security Council agreed a statement on Tuesday calling for an end to violence. But diplomats said a formal resolution requiring U.N. action was not immediately likely.

France and Germany have pushed EU states to consider sanctions and have won agreement to look into the matter. Some governments, including Italy, warn of economic problems if oil and gas supplies are disrupted.
 

BENGHAZI REJOICES
Gaddafi, who has ruled Libya with a mixture of populism and tight control since taking power in a military coup in 1969, has promised to "cleanse Libya house by house" to crush the revolt.

He has deployed troops to the west of the capital to stop the revolt that started in the east from spreading. In the east, many soldiers have withdrawn from active service.

In Benghazi, cradle of the uprising and home to tribes long hostile to Gaddafi, thousands filled the streets, lighting fireworks and waving the red, black and green flag of the king Colonel Gaddafi overthrew in 1969.
"We have been suffering for 41 years," said 45-year-old Hamida Muftah. "Gaddafi has killed people ... We are a very rich country, but most of the people are poorer than poor".

A medical official said some 320 had died in Benghazi alone since protests against oppression and poverty began last week.

Libya's Quryna newspaper quoted a military source as saying a bomber crew bailed out and left their aircraft to crash rather than bomb Benghazi. Earlier in the week, two pilots flew their jets to Malta to avoid, they said, attacking their own people.

The newspaper said rebels in Benghazi started their own publication with the slogan "We don't surrender, we either win or die" -- the last words of anti-Italian independence leader Omar al-Mukhtar before his execution by the Italian authorities.

Gaddafi's children have spoken up in his defence and accused foreign media of misreporting the week's events in Libya.

"Libyans are the victims of the biggest joke," his son Saif al-Islam told state TV. Gaddafi's daughter Aisha appeared on state television, denying a report she tried to flee to Malta.

An estimated 1.5 million foreign nationals are working or travelling in Libya and a third of the population of seven million are immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa.

Witnesses described scenes of chaos as people tried to leave. . "It's a Biblical exodus," said Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini.

Countries with strong business ties to Libya scrambled to evacuate thousands of citizens. A Turkish worker was shot dead at a building site near the capital, Turkish officials said.

A British oil worker said 300 people were stranded at a camp in the east of Libya, where he said local people had looted oil installations. He told the BBC: "We are living every day in fear of our lives as the local people are armed." (Reporting by Tarek Amara, Christian Lowe, Marie-Louise Gumuchian, Souhail Karam, Firouz Sedarat, Tom Pfeiffer; Brian Love, Daren Butler; Dina Zayed, Sarah Mikhail and Tom Perry; writing by Alastair Macdonald and Maria Golovnina, Editing by Miral Fahmy)

MACTV News: Arab rage should we worry? , Posted by Menelik Zeleke

Monday, 21 February 2011 14:28  By Kirubel Tadesse

With several regimes in Northern Africa facing popular revolts and neighboring countries’ leaders such as Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak decades long strong grip on power crimpling down by public protests, Ethiopia’s rival political camps are reacting to surrounding changes; the opposition says a similar scenario is likely to be seen here due to dire political and economic conditions while the ruling front touts its economic and political policies that they say have been bearing fruits, giving the public hope and preempting  such happenings.
State of affairs in Ethiopia
The states of socioeconomic and political affairs is where the ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and its rivals, for example the main opposition group Unity for Democracy and Justice (UDJ), first differ on assessments.
UDJ says the economic hardship and absence of a democratic system that has led to popular rebellions across North African and Arab countries is also exhibited here in Ethiopia.
“When we see continued uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia and in other places, we find dictators who stayed in power for long with the so called dominant party state. The second character they all have is their governments don’t respect basic human and democratic rights while they intimidate arrest and kill those who protest their unjust systems. On the economic front, unemployment, hyper inflation and unaffordable living conditions are characteristics these places all have. All these hardships, socioeconomic and political conditions are also a reality here and they exist in Ethiopia even in worst degree,” says UDJ’s first vice chair Negasso Gidada (PhD).
The ruling EPRDF however paints a very different picture of Ethiopia. EPRDF says let alone resembling the hopelessness seen in Arab countries, Ethiopia today has become a benchmark, success story envied by others.
“There you see countries that have reached a middle income stage, but no longer are able to continue to grow. They have reached middle income status but have failed to maintain growth and now they have a high unemployment rate and inequitable distribution of wealth,” says Bereket Simon, EPRDF’s senior official and Government Communication Affairs Minister.
“Here we are embracing a growth era. The government is working to sustain uninterrupted economic growth and transformation from one chapter to another and more than ever, we have a public that has seen a glimmer of hope. We are succeeding both in creation of wealth and distributing it equitably across the public,” Bereket adds.
Former Defense Minister Siye Abraha, who is now among the leading opposition figures and a vice chair at UDJ, doesn’t accept the argument of economic growth.  “It was also said that Tunisia is registering economic growth and Egypt’s economy as well was recognized as a strong one. However, economic growth without a democratic system is unhealthy. Growth without democracy is anemic and corrupt development from which very few, the ones that are close to the regime, benefit from while the majority youth even with a university degree sits at home without a job and that’s exactly what we have in Ethiopia,” Siye argues.
Could similar protests happen here?
The 18 day old protest at Cairo Tharir [Liberation] Square, which successfully pushed Hosni Mubarak out of office, inspired many across Africa even opposition groups in ongoing Ugandan elections are vowing to emulate it; will Ethiopian youth be similarly inspired, will we see a revolt here?
“I don’t think the changes we desire, change to a democratic system, can be attained via revolution,” says the opposition Ethiopian Democratic Party president Lidetu Ayalew.
“We can attain what we desire through elections, with which we can assure a more certain outcome. Often revolution driven changes are uncertain and even those who started it go to a different path than they had planned. As we are seeing the future is in an uncertain path for Egypt, for example. Revolution is not something I desire for my country,” Lidetu adds.
Lidetu also downplays recent calls for an Egyptian style revolt posted on opposition websites: “In Egypt and Tunisia, the political parties there didn’t organize the revolutions as it was mainly spearheaded by the youth and the wider public. I have seen lately that some groups and individuals, mainly those living abroad, are trying to incite such actions from abroad via the Internet which would lead to nowhere.”
Lidetu argues Ethiopia is different from Egypt and Tunisia and it is highly unlikely that similar public revolts would surface anytime soon: “Ethiopia is different from Egypt in so many ways; if you noticed, those demonstrating there were in suits and wearing jeans; people  you may call middle income earners and they were not the poor that can’t get bread- you don’t have that here. There you have 3 million Internet users and a country where more than 90 percent embrace the same religion, and language which is very different from ethnic and language diversities we have; which altogether creates a very different socioeconomic and political situation. They have also a very warm, good relationship between the army and the public, which isn’t the case here.”
“If we say there is a similarity it can be the character of the regime, but that does not mean the means to change the regime should be similar,” Lidetu however stresses also cautioning that though undesired, popular revolt could happen and EPRDF should take lessons from what happened in other countries and reform vital areas such as strengthening public institutions and enforcing the full extent of laws that embrace human and democratic rights and civil liberties.
For UDJ’s Siye Ethiopia’s situation is bleaker: “The first question shouldn’t be whether we need a revolt or not rather it should be will there be a revolt or not. Wherever there is oppression, wherever there is injustice, there will be protest and, there will be struggle. In Ethiopia too there is a deep discontent and suffering among the public and it is inevitable that it will lead to protest through time.”
Siye, the former EPRDF front man himself who led a 17 year old armed struggle as the nation unseated a brutal communist regime, says public uprising in Ethiopia however inevitable it may be [unless EPRDF reforms], doesn’t mean that it will come immediately just because it happened recently in Egypt or Tunisia.
“Egyptians have come over their fear; they said ‘enough, enough.’ They said ‘no matter what happens, whether they kill or arrest us, we will not budge’ and they flocked to the streets from every direction to demand change. There will be a time Ethiopians too will overcome their fear and rise; no matter what they [the government] do, they will not stop this from happening. Egyptian authorities have tried to preempt it but they chose a forceful way that was unable to stop the uprising.”
Siye says there is no need for public rebellion: “to bring about change there shouldn’t be always bloodshed or destruction of properties. Ethiopia’s regime as wise governments do can draw a lesson from what has been happening and can prepare itself to bring about change. Understanding that such an uprising is inevitable, rather than preparing police, the approach should be to open doors for change and to allow the public to express its distress. The government should allow the public to express its opinion and listen to it and in accordance to delivering corrective measures; if they are able to do that we can witnesses change without any unnecessary tension, destruction of property or loss of life. So the ball is now in the court of our rulers; what will they choose? Will they chose peace, tolerance and dialogue or will they choose force to respond; that will be their decision to make.”
EPRDF’s outlook
EPRDF, which has led Ethiopia since 1991, wining all successive four elections, the latest one by collecting more than 90% of the votes, says popular revolts in Ethiopia will not be seen.
“No, we don’t,” firmly replied the senior cabinet minister Bereket Simon when asked if his government expects public rebellions like the ones seen in Egypt.
According to EPRDF’s assessment, there is no chance for a public uprising in Ethiopia as the predominately factor for such uprising in Egypt and Tunisia were middle income states that  no longer could drive through economic growth, and failed to provide enough jobs and equitable wealth distribution creating desperation among the public hardly resembles Ethiopia.
“There [where popular revolts happen] are desperate people, people who have nowhere to turn to. Our people are not desperate, here we have a public that has seen hope, a public that enjoys a glimmer of hope more than ever due to the recent years’ economic growth and transformation,” Bereket says.
According to the minister, for a country like Ethiopia that currently enjoys a higher economic growth and brighter future that is transferring lives of the public, uprisings that happen where there is dire situation are not a cause for concern.
“We have embraced democracy, freedom of expression is widely exercised and the public can put in power whomever it wants through elections,” Bereket elaborates explaining that without a need to go to the streets, Ethiopians enjoy freedom and rights to express themselves and bring about changes they desire.
EPRDF says, the assessment of opposition that says Ethiopian public is a desperate one comes from their inability to look into what is really happening; “they are impaired from reading the actual picture of our country and that has been the source of the mistakes they commit,” said Bereket.
Bereket says as the Ethiopian opposition remains unable to appreciate democratic and constitutional exercises the nation has embraced, they are often lured in whenever any violence or street clashes are observed elsewhere: “Whenever riots happen; be it the so called orange or any other fruit revolution or jasmine; whatever  happens, if it is it violence and street clashes that costs life, they are lured to it and they want to take lesson from it and emulate it here.”
Bereket insists it isn’t a concern for EPRDF whatever the opposition imagines will happen. “It is not only that EPRDF isn’t concerned with this, let alone now, even in 2005 where there hasn’t been an economic growth of the current scale, there wasn’t an uprising. There was violence because the opposition incited it and there was desperation to some extent, but now there is a higher rate of growth and the public is fully aware of it.”

MACTV News: U.S Cautions Kenya on New Constitution

Picture by Menelik Zeleke

By Williams Ekanem

The United States have cautioned the Kenyan administration on the full implementation of the country’s new constitution so as to realize the promise of a democratically stable and prosperous future for all Kenyans. 

A position statement from the Department of State at the weekend signed by Assistant Secretary of state for Public Affairs, Philip Crowley said that this informed by the differences in opinion between the Kenyan Parliament and that of President Kibaki on the nomination of individuals into key judicial and budget positions.

 Speaker of Parliament Kenneth Marende ruled on February 17 that President Kibaki's nominations to key judicial and budget positions were not consistent with the provisions of the new constitution, highlighting the importance of moving forward on reform transparently and cooperatively. 

In reaction, the United States stated that “Progress can only be achieved if the President and Prime Minister work together in a collaborative way to implement the constitution, particularly to ensure that appointments are made in a transparent and credible manner.”

 According to the statement, “adoption of Kenya's new constitution in August 2010 was a major milestone in implementing sweeping democratic reforms set out in the National Accord.  The National Accord – which is written into the constitution's transitional provisions – calls for the two principals to consult with a view to achieving compromise on key issues.  We also encourage the coalition leaders to involve civil society in the constitutional implementation process in order to achieve national consensus.”

The 2010 Constitution of Kenya was drawn up to replace the first constitution of Kenya. The constitution was presented to the Attorney General of Kenya on April 7, 2010, officially published on May 6, 2010, and was subjected to a referendum on August 4, 2010. The new Constitution was approved by 67% of Kenyan voters.

 The constitution was promulgated on 27 August 2010.

The new constitution of Kenya comprises of a preamble, 18 chapters, and six schedules. The preamble affirms the acceptance by all Kenyans to adopt the constitution for themselves and for all future generations.

Among other functions, the six schedules describe the national symbols of Kenya and also prescribe the oaths of office for holders of different constitutional offices.

The Kenyan Constitution is comprised of the following 18 Chapters.

UN News: Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General on Egypt

UN News: With final results in, UN hails peaceful conduct of South Sudan independence vote , Posted by Menelik Zeleke

US official: Gamal Mubarak resigning positive step, Posted by Meosha Eaton

As reported by Reuters:

EGYPT-USA/STEPS (URGENT)

WASHINGTON, Feb 5 (Reuters) - The resignation of Gamal Mubarak, son of President Hosni Mubarak, from Egypt's ruling party on Saturday was a "positive step", an Obama administration official said.

"We view this as a positive step toward the political change that will be necessary, and look forward to additional steps," an administration official said. (Reporting by Alister Bull; Editing by John O'Callaghan)

Rwanda grenade attack kills two people, wounds 28, Posted by Meosha Eaton

* Govt linked previous attacks to exiled general
* Four people arrested, motive unknown

By Kezio-Musoke David

KIGALI, Jan 29 (Reuters) - A grenade attack killed two people and wounded at least 28 in Rwanda's capital Kigali during the Friday evening rush hour, the police said on Saturday.

Police spokesman Theos Badege said four people had been arrested in connection with the blast and investigations were underway. No details of the suspects were given.
The grenade exploded near a busy bus terminal in Giporoso, Remera, a suburb of Kigali.

Badege said the police cannot at the moment figure out the motive of those who threw the grenade, but were not ruling out that the attack was designed to cause instability.
"So far two people are dead and among the 28 who sustained injuries, 10 are critically injured and hospitalised," Badege told Reuters.
"This particular type was a hand grenade. It went off at around 7 p.m. Kigali time at Giporoso near the bus park.
"It could be an isolated incident, but we can't say it was by accident because someone was definitely moving with this grenade. A mini bus was also party damaged," he said.
Kigali was hit by a string of grenade attacks last year which the government has blamed on two high-ranking officers now in exile.

One of the exiles -- Lieutenant-General Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, a former chief of staff and ambassador to India -- denied the allegations last year.
He said the Rwandan authorities had staged grenade attacks and then accused him of being behind them.

Nyamwasa now lives in South Africa. He was shot and wounded last June in an attack his wife blamed on Rwanda, a charge labelled as "preposterous" by Kigali.
Many grenades were left over from lengthy conflicts in the Great Lakes region and are sometimes used to settle scores.

While there has generally been little crime in recent years in the central African country -- where 800,000 were killed in 100 days in the 1994 genocide -- there are occasional bombings.

 (Editing by David Clarke/Maria Golovnina)