Current Issue

Taylor: the bitterness of war, the sourness of justice

Lansana Gberie

2012-05-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/81812

cc A AThe Charles Taylor trial reportedly cost a whopping $250 million. Was it worth it?

I have been asked by many people about my views on the conviction, on 26 April, of Charles Taylor, Liberia’s former president, for aiding and abetting Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front (RUF). He is the first head of state - after Admiral Doenitz, who very briefly led Germany after Hitler committed suicide, and was convicted by the Nuremburg court after WWII - to be convicted by an international court for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The RUF that Taylor supported waged a nasty bush war against successive Sierra Leonean governments from 1991 to its defeat by a combination of forces, mainly foreign, in 2001. Throughout that war, Taylor mentored the RUF and provided it with weapons and fighters; in turn, the RUF gave him diamonds looted from Sierra Leone’s mines. This is the sum of the judgment against Taylor, and it narrowly reflects the argument that I have been making for over a decade now.

Sierra Leone’s war started in March 1991 when Foday Saybanah Sankoh, a self-adoring former army corporal, led a petty army from territory controlled by Taylor, then an insurgent leader in Liberia, into southern and eastern Sierra Leone. Like Taylor, Sankoh had trained in Libya and, according to the trial judgment, met Taylor there. The judges, however, rejected the prosecution’s overdrawn argument that Taylor and Sankoh ‘made common cause’ in Libya to wage wars in West Africa. The judgment accepted the prosecution’s submission that Taylor facilitated the training of RUF recruits in Liberia and helped launch the RUF’s war, noting that Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) forces ‘actively participated’ in the RUF’s initial invasion in March 1991. (‘Witness to Truth’, Sierra Leone’s Truth and Reconciliation report of 2004, estimated that as many as 1,600 NPFL fighters were involved in the early phase of the Sierra Leonean war, or about 80 per cent of the RUF forces. This grew to 2,000 within a few months of the invasion.)

However, striking a balance between the prosecution’s claim that Taylor ‘effective controlled’ and led the RUF at this point, and Taylor’s claim that only former NPFL members joined Sankoh and that he had nothing to do with the RUF after the Sierra Leone invasion, the judgment delicately noted that the prosecution did not prove beyond reasonable doubt that Sankoh took orders from Taylor - or that Taylor participated in the planning of the invasion.

This point was always a difficult legal one, not least because the trial was not about the crime of aggression (which had not even been defined by the time Taylor faced the court). The indictment period did not even cover the origins of the war - the temporal jurisdiction of the court is from November 1996 to the official end of the war in 2002. Compounding this problem was the fact that the most credible person that would have definitively testified to this would have been Sankoh, but he died long before Taylor faced the court. In fact, it is a testimony to the tenacity and industry of the prosecution that it was able to sufficiently prove even the crime of aiding and abetting, since Taylor had effectively eliminated key witnesses to that crime. He allegedly had Sam Bockarie, his key link to Sankoh and the RUF during the period of the indictment, murdered in Liberia shortly after Bockarie was indicted. Johnny Paul Koroma, a notorious Sierra Leonean coup maker who also dealt intimately with Taylor, simply disappeared: he was also allegedly murdered either in Liberia or Ivory Coast on Taylor’s orders after his indictment. These events must count as the most comprehensive and effective evidence-tampering in an international war crimes trial ever.

I have always thought that the prosecution’s invocation of the notion of ‘joint criminal enterprise’ (JCE) was ill-advised, and successive judgments by the court rubbished the concept. This concept was first used by the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (1991-1999). It considers each member of an organised group individually responsible for crimes committed by that group within the ‘common plan or purpose’. The Appeals Chamber of the ICTY decided on 21 May 2003 that ‘insofar as a participant shares the purpose of the joint criminal enterprise (as he or she must do) as opposed to merely knowing about it, he or she cannot be regarded as a mere aider and abettor to the crime which is contemplated.’

The concept was roundly rejected by the court in the trial of the leaders of the admirable Civil Defence Forces (CDF), since ‘the evidence led by the Prosecution in this case to show a joint criminal enterprise [is] insufficient to prove its existence against those named persons beyond reasonable doubt.’ Conviction around the concept was entered only in the case of the leaders of the RUF, and even here the judgment involving the pathetic and roguish Augustine Gbao was problematic, looking very much like guilt by association. Though the prosecution did not establish Gbao’s direct involvement in crimes during the war, the judges concluded that because he was the RUF’s ‘ideological trainer’, Gbao ‘significantly contributed to the [Joint Criminal Enterprise], as the leadership of the RUF relied on the RUF ideology to ensure and to enforce the discipline and obedience of its forces to the RUF hierarchy and its orders, this being a factor which contributed to the furtherance of the Joint Criminal Enterprise.’ Justice Shireen Fisher dissented, noting that Gbao’s conviction ‘abandons the keystone of JCE liability as it exists in customary international law.’ Gbao was nevertheless given a global sentence of 20 years and flown to jail in Rwanda. Many observers feared that the same approach would be used to convict Taylor.

The prosecution had argued that Taylor had made a ‘common cause’ with Sankoh to invade Sierra Leone and loot is diamond reserves, and that the RUF’s terror campaign was a direct result of this blood pact. Taylor’s Defence made no effort to deny Taylor’s support for the RUF, but it stated that ‘diamonds only financed the procurement of arms and ammunition’ for the RUF between 1998 and 2001. The Defence denied that diamonds were the reasons why Taylor supported the RUF, stating in the Final Brief what no one has challenged: that the RUF diamond mining began ‘post the invasion’ which happened in March 1991. It stated: ‘There is no evidence of any discussions relating to diamonds pre the Sierra Leonean invasion to suggest that the invasion might have been motivated by a desire to pillage Sierra Leone’s diamonds.’ The point was that the Defence’s key argument was not that Taylor did not support the RUF, but that he did not do so either as part of JCE or with ‘an underlying intention to cause terror’. The Defence contends that there was a ‘purely political motive’ for Taylor’s support of the RUF war, which may be immoral but certainly not illegal in international law (since the law of aggression was not at issue).

The judgment on 26 April broadly agrees with this, dismissing the notion of JCE as it involved Taylor’s role. But while the judgment agreed with Taylor that he and Sankoh had ‘a common interest in fighting common enemies’ - the Liberian anti-Taylor insurgent group ULIMO and the Sierra Leonean government supporting ULIMO - this is actually tangential to the case, since the period (1991-1992) falls outside the temporal jurisdiction of the court.

Of profound importance to many people in Sierra Leone and elsewhere is the finding involving Taylor’s role in the events surrounding the Johnny Paul Koroma coup in 1997, and in particular the resurgence of rebel forces leading to the devastating attacks on Freetown in January 1999. Close to 6,000 people were killed, including hundreds of Nigerian peace-enforcement troops, and the hands of dozens of people were crudely amputated by the rebel forces during those attacks. The judges established Taylor’s direct role in instigating the attacks on diamond areas of Kono as well as the subsequent attack on Freetown. Here the judgment uses the word ‘instructed’ to describe Taylor’s orders to Johnny Paul Koroma and Sam Bockarie. With his eyes ever on diamonds, Taylor ‘emphasised’ to Bockarie that taking over Kono was more important than attacking Freetown at that point. He also told Bockarie to make the attack ‘fearful’. As a result, the demented Bockarie, who called himself Maskita, announced ‘Operation No Living Thing’, with predictable results. More crucially, the judgment establishes that Taylor arranged ‘a large shipment of arms and ammunition from Burkina Faso’ to the rebels in Makeni; these arms were instrumental in the attacks on Kono and later Freetown. It is important to note that the UN Panel of Experts on Liberia had established in 2000 that the arms were supplied by Victor Bout, recently convicted on unrelated charges in the US, and that they were presumably paid for by diamonds from the RUF in Sierra Leone.

It is of interest that a number of names appearing in the judgment as playing a facilitating role in this sordid and murderous business were neither indicted by the court nor even invited as witnesses: Gaddafi, Ibrahim Bah, and, of course, Blaise Campaore (who as president of Burkina Faso surely knew and supported it all).

Also of interest has been the unenthusiastic - sometimes even hostile - reaction of a good number of Liberians to the conviction of their former president. This is partly because Taylor was not charged with his many crimes in Liberia but for his role in supporting a foreign war. But there are quite a few Liberians who actually do not think that Taylor should have been held accountable for his crimes at all, local or international. This reflects a deep-rooted culture of impunity in the country. I lived in Liberia for nearly two years during its truth and reconciliation process, and attended dozens of testimonies there. Many of these, by former commanders in Taylor’s NPFL, proudly narrated how they participated in attacks inside Sierra Leone, and how they were fully supported by Taylor to do so. None of them to my knowledge expressed remorse about what they did - but then none of them, with the quirky exception of General Butt Naked, apologised to Liberians for the atrocities they committed in Liberia itself.

Was it all necessary, this expensive and long trial? I think that the proceedings were unnecessarily prolonged by overpaid judges and lawyers, and I think that the court erred very badly in indicting and convicting the leaders of the CDF. The Taylor trial alone reportedly cost $250 million, nearly six times more than the total revenue officially generated by Liberia in 2003 ($44.2 million), the year that Taylor was forced to relinquish power. Still, I think that the conviction of Taylor - as nasty a gangster as ever become president in Africa - is a signal event, something we should all celebrate in our region. As I write this, I remember the day that Taylor was helicoptered into the Special Court compound in Freetown. I stood among the small crowd of people there that evening. A woman in the crowd turned to me after Taylor was sent to his cell and said, apropos of a statement made by Taylor in 1990, ‘Well, he told us that we in Sierra Leone will taste the bitterness of war. We did. But now he will taste the sourness of justice.’ The sourness of justice: that indeed is a lovely phrase there.

* BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Please do not take Pambazuka for granted! Become a Friend of Pambazuka and make a donation NOW to help keep Pambazuka FREE and INDEPENDENT!

* The writer is author of 'A Dirty War in West Africa: The RUF and the Destruction of Sierra Leone' (London, 2005).
* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Popular resistance and corporate landgrabbing in Sierra Leone

Interview with Oakland Institute on Socfin investments in Sierra Leone

2012-05-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/81813

cc R WA new report from the Oakland Institute examines a controversial land investment deal in Sierra Leone. Pambazuka News caught up with Oakland Institute Policy Director Frederic Mousseau to find out why the report has attracted so much attention.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: Early April, Oakland Institute released a new land deal brief. Tell us about it.

FREDERIC MOUSSEAU: The Oakland Institute’s latest land deal brief exposes yet another case of a problematic land investment, Socfin Agricultural Company Sierra Leone Ltd. (Socfin SL) investment project in the south of Sierra Leone. The project involves a lease of 6,500 hectares (ha) of land for rubber and oil palm plantations in Pujehun district, with an option to acquire an additional 5,000 ha.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: The investor in this case accused the Institute of being biased and that the brief is politically motivated. Your response.

FREDERIC MOUSSEAU: Contrary to Socfin’s recent allegations, our report is not politically motivated. Our goal was not to incriminate Vincent Bolloré, the main shareholder of the company because he is viewed as a friend of President Nicolas Sarkozy - currently running for relection in France. We were compelled to start documenting the Socfin case following the arrest of 40 people in October 2011, in Pujehun, where the plantation is located. These arrests were the result of a blockade of the Socfin plantation by over a hundred local landowners, adversely impacted by the investment.

The protest followed a formal list of grievances, which were presented by the community to the district officials. But no action was taken. These grievances include the lack of transparency, proper consultation, and information regarding displacement and resettlement caused by the land deal, inadequate compensation, corruption, pressure on landowners and town chiefs to sign agreements as well as appalling work conditions for the plantation workers. Repression of dissent can be added to this long list given the arrest of those who dared to complain about the project - 15 of them spent eight days in jail and still face trial. A legal analysis of the deal, obtained by our researchers, makes it obvious that Socfin’s land deal in Sierra Leone has gone ahead without free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) of land owners. Yet FPIC is an internationally recognized principle for such investments, and is also stipulated in Sierra Leonean legal framework and procedures.

SOCFIN Group also claims that it is committed to the principles and criteria of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). These include transparency, compliance with applicable laws and regulations, responsible consideration of employees, individuals and communities, environmental responsibility, and conservation of natural resources and biodiversity. Yet the reality on the ground, in Sierra Leone as is in other countries where this company operates, contradicts this commitment.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: Are communities in Sierra Leone against foreign investment?

FREDERIC MOUSSEAU: What we found during the course of field work and in communication with the villagers, was that the local farmers and landowners are not against investment. However their concerns are about the way the lease was negotiated, the resulting loss of livelihoods and natural resources, and about the low wages and bad working conditions on the plantation. We also realized the dramatic power imbalance prevailing in this conflict: a few hundred farmers and land owners on one side and the government of Sierra Leone and its police backing a firm which is a subsidiary of a giant multinational group. Socfin SL is a subsidiary of Socfin (Société Financière des Caoutchoucs), an investment holding company, whose main shareholder is Vincent Bolloré, a prominent French businessman, who manages myriad of companies worldwide through his Bolloré Group.

During our research we also realized that the grievances of Sierra Leonean farmers over Socfin’s palm oil plantations are virtually identical to those of the farming communities from around the world who are challenging investments made by other Socfin’s subsidiaries. These subsidiaries operate within a complex web of over 30 different companies, registred in Asia, Africa as well as Belgium and several tax havens such as Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and Guernsey. Operating under different names - SOCAPALM in Cameroon, LAC in Liberia, Socfin KCD in Cambodia - several Socfin subsidiaries have faced very similar accusations of land grabbing and investment malpractices in recent years. For instance, peasant farmers from the Bunong minority in Cambodia have been protesting since 2008, claiming that the land leased for the rubber plantation by the government belonged to them and should be returned to them.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: Despite resistance in several countries Socfin has managed to operate and business is as usual. How do you explain that?

FREDERIC MOUSSEAU: The Oakland Institute report shows how Socfin’s plantations have faced resistance by local populations and indigenous groups, and how Socfin’s subsidiaries systematically use the threat of legal action against their critics. In 2010, the group sued a French journalist and a photographer for their respective reporting over the activities of SOCAPALM in Cameroon. The photographer, Isabelle Alexandra Ricq, was sued after she had described the problems on and around the firm’s oil palm plantations in Cameroon, the dismal living conditions of the Bagyeli people, the problems of deforestation, the lack of access to land, and the deplorable conditions faced by plantation workers who call themselves SOCAPALM’s slaves.

While farmers opposing the plantations were put in jail and now await trial in Sierra Leone, experience from around the world confirms how risky it is to criticize the firms controlled by Bolloré and his associates.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: How do you respond to a business like Socfin who would say that they are following the norm in Sierra Leone, and are not breaking any law?

FREDERIC MOUSSEAU: I think that Bolloré and his associates in Socfin can do far better to meet the demands of farmers and workers in Sierra Leone and elsewhere.

If one takes for instance the low level of wages, set at 250,000 Leones per month ($50) for six days a week, eight hours per day, in its response to our report, Socfin provides a convenient argument. It claims that it is applying the local labour law and does not want to ‘create an imbalance on the macro-scale of the country’. It also states that it is committed to providing a $75,000 social development fund in addition to the compensation and the rent it is paying for the 6,500 ha plantation in Sierra Leone.

This looks certainly significant for most Sierra Leoneans given the deep level of poverty in a country where the average income doesn’t exceed $1 a day. However, it is out of proportion with the profits recorded by the company. With 158,800 ha of plantations in Asia and Africa, Bolloré Group recorded $250 million net profit in 2011, an increase of $163 million (187 per cent) since 2009. Such figures correspond to an average gain of $1,500 per hectare of plantation per year, i.e. over $10 million per year on a 6,500 ha of plantation. Even if a new plantation takes a few years to become productive and beneficial to the investor, Socfin disposes of plantations at different stages of growth in various countries, which do provide the firm with financial resources that could be spent in favor of local populations in new investments as well. But obviously, this will have a marginal impact on the returns provided to its shareholders.

The Bolloré group is currently one of the world’s top 500 companies, with an annual turnover of more than seven billion Euros. Its global expansion has been largely concentrated in Africa, where it now operates in 43 countries and has become a key player in the economic structure and political life of many countries. Vincent Bolloré - the 18th wealthiest man in France in 2009 – has built an empire with far more extensive outreach than the former French colonies. He has gained control of not only plantations throughout Africa, but also manages a large portion of the shipping and transport industry, as well as oil companies. Bolloré group controls over 13 African ports, including a 20-year concession of the port of Freetown, secured in December 2010.

By expanding its presence in both production and transport, the Bolloré Group is developing a model of integration, which covers a range of activities geared toward the extraction of natural resources from developing countries, particularly Africa. The Group is increasingly reaching a situation of monopoly or quasi-monopoly over critical economic sectors, including transport in many countries. Such a hold on power carries major risks for local populations and governments who are progressively losing control not only over their production but also trade flows in and out of the country. Disempowering people and governments, such an expansion strategy clearly contradicts the Group’s stated commitment to sustainable development.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: Any recommendations regarding the Socfin investment?

FREDERIC MOUSSEAU: We believe it is critical that Socfin’s deal is urgently reviewed and the trial case against the villagers from Sanh village in Pujehun be dropped. Transparency, adequate documentation, and proper consultation are required to give people a say in the future of land and natural resources that are essential for their livelihoods. The publication of a comprehensive Environmental, Social and Health Impact Assessment and a land survey is necessary to give communities the basic information required to negotiate the conditions and terms of any agreement, and the ability to reject it.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: Has the research work involved Sierra Leoneon organisations, and how are they involved in taking up the findings of the report?

The Oakland Institute partnered with a Sierra Leonean organization, Green Scenery, during the research as well as in the follow-up of the publication of our report. The partnership goes beyond research, for instance, around the dissemination of our findings in local languages on local radios, participation in local media events, etc. The Oakland Institute is also proud to have sponsored the first ever assembly of communities impacted by large-scale land investments in Sierra Leone. The event was organized by Green Scenery, together with the Sierra Leone Network on the Right to Food. In April 2012, nearly 100 farmers and small land owners assembled in Freetown to have their voices heard and strategize a way forward.

The final communiqué issued from this assembly, calls on the government to review all the land agreements and to ensure no deals are made without full free and informed consent of all community members. It also states that local communities require independent legal counsel, that environmental protection must be enforced to protect land, water, vegetation and wildlife resources on which people depend. Further, it decries any land deal that increases hunger and food insecurity. The conference also saw the launch of a new watchdog group, Action for Large-Scale Land Acquisition Transparency, or ALLAT. The ALLAT network of civil society organizations and landowner and user associations will monitor land investments throughout the country and sensitize communities.

We are obviously very glad that our research has not just provided independent information to all stakeholders but has also played a critical role in the emergence of a national debate and questionning of government policies around agricultural land investment. Not long ago, all foreign agricultural investors were welcome by many, and first of all by government officials, as bringing much needed development to the country. Today, the question is being seriously asked about how the country and the people will benefit.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: What are the avenues - local, continental and international - for seeking reparations and justice from companies such as Socfin as well as the Sierra Leoneon government?

FREDERIC MOUSSEAU: Our research shows that the government has the primary responsibility of what is happening around land investments in the country. In Sierra Leone, like in other African countries, it is the government who invites investors and offers them mouthwatering conditions in terms of land lease rates, fiscal incentives and tax holidays. It is also the government who is implementing an unfair policy that gives more opportunities to large-scale foreign investors than to local smallholders. It is again the government of Sierra Leone who sent the police force to farmers who opposed Socfin in Pujehun, and decided to keep protesters in jail for several days. The first avenue therefore relates to true democracy in a country where many citizens are misled by their elites over the prospects of foreign investments. Objective information and unbiased analysis have proven to be essential for democracy to operate, as seen with the recent moves of farmers and NGOs getting organized and strengthening their capacity to engage with the government.

At the international level, one shocking discovery in the course of our research was the incredibly impenetrable institutional set-up of Socfin and the Bolloré Group. Some of the subsidiaries, with names like Société Bordelaise Africaine or Forestière Equatoriale sound like coming directly from the colonial times. What some call an ‘empire’ operates through a web of dozens of different companies, registred in many countries, including several tax havens. Mediapart, a french online news source, studied the Bolloré Group in 2009 and concluded that ‘controlling financial flows seems almost impossible’ because of the complexity of the set-up and of the number of cross-holdings. ‘For instance, Plantations des terres rouges owns 61.7% of Compagnie du Cambodge, which owns 36% of Financière Moncey, which owns 42% of Financière d'Artois, which is also a shareholder at 22% of Plantations des terres rouges, and so on.’ Mediapart concluded ‘dividends circulate from one structure to another, come back, are lost. The whole thing is unreadable.’

Such a structure raises obvious questions about the accountability of these firms and their shareholders and concerns about their overall impunity when confronted with their responsibility and role in malpractices and abuses in their different operations in different countries.

* BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Please do not take Pambazuka for granted! Become a Friend of Pambazuka and make a donation NOW to help keep Pambazuka FREE and INDEPENDENT!

* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Strange fruit and the Trayvon Martins of history

Ama Biney

2012-05-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/81823

cc F WThe February death of Trayvon Martin in the US shows the need to address the underlying structures of racism that are embedded in the ideology of a capitalist and imperialist society.

When the news broke about Trayvon Martin - a 17-year-old unarmed African-American youth allegedly murdered by George Zimmerman, a self-appointed neighbourhood crime watchman in Florida, USA, on 26 February 2012 - I was half way through reading ‘Strange Fruit: the Biography of a Song’ by David Margolick.

‘Strange Fruit’ is the haunting ballad depicting the ritualistic brutal murder of black people otherwise known as lynching by white mobs in the USA’s Deep South. The eloquence and poetic lyrics of this song were written by the Jewish school teacher and communist sympathizer, Abel Meeropol in the late 1930s and first performed by the beautiful 24-year-old Billie Holiday - also known as ‘Lady Day’ in 1939 at New York’s Café Society.

Since then, others have made renditions of that mesmerizing ballad, including Nina Simone, Josh White, Sting, Cassandra Wilson, and many others. It succinctly tells the utterly painful narrative of the history of people of African descent and specifically the cruelties and injustices inflicted by a white racist society on the body of the black male. However, this infliction was not merely physical but also deeply psychological and therefore underpinned how black people behaved, consciously and unconsciously. Whilst black males were predominantly the target of these lynchings, so were black women.

The profound inhumanity of lynchings speaks of the sheer degradation of people of African descent by Europeans; their denial of human worth; the savagery and barbarity of a racist European culture that held itself superior to other cultures and peoples. That is why when Frantz Fanon discovered around 1960 that he had contracted leukemia and was advised by Soviet physicians to seek treatment in Bethesda, Maryland where the best treatment was being carried out, he initially resisted against seeking aid in what he referred to as a ‘nation of lynchers’. Fanon’s remark expresses his profound abhorrence of the practice of lynching, but he would also have been fully aware that he and his European wife, Joséph Dublé, would have been the target of racial animosity expressed towards intra-racial unions in the Deep South, of which Bethesda was a part.

Lynchings were acts of terror inflicted on people of African descent. Living under conditions of terrorism under enslavement and Jim Crow segregation is nowadays unimaginable to many human beings. It is however a brutal aspect of the history of people of African descent that cannot be forgotten on the basis that the lives of people of African descent continue to be expendable. Those racial injustices continue in the 21st century and have their antecedents in history. Therefore as William Faulkner correctly points out: ‘The past is not dead. It is not even past.’

In the USA, methods of lynching black males - apart from the capital punishment that was meted out to Troy Anthony Davis on 21 September 2011 and the other deaths on death throw that received little to no media attention - continue. Shoot to kill policies by the American and British police and the high number of deaths in UK police cells and mental institutions also fail to abate.

Michelle Alexander writes of ‘The New Jim Crow’ in the USA in the form of mass incarceration in her recent book of that same title. There is a direct link between the disproportionate numbers of the 2.5 million incarcerated in the USA being African-American and Latino and racial oppression. Imperialism abroad and racist oppression at home are also inextricably linked for there is no distinction between the alien uncivilized enemy and the dehumanization of people of colour considered lesser human beings at home. The torture of Iraqis that took place in Abu Ghraib in 2003 and the pre-mediated murder of 16 Afghans on 11 March 2012 by Sergeant Robert Bales are symptoms of an imperialist mind-set that deems the ‘other’ as extinguishable and impunity as the order of the day.

In the UK the murder of Mark Duggan on 4 August 2011 sparked the so-called summer ‘riots’ and was preceded by the death of David Emmanuel, more popularly known as Smiley Culture, on 15 March the same year. Since the infamous murder of 18-year-old Stephen Lawrence in April 1993, the Institute of Race Relations reports that in the UK ‘at least ninety-six people have lost their lives to racial violence – an average of five per year.’[1] They also report that between 1978-2009 deaths in police, prison and psychiatric custody of black and Asians (predominantly men) have numbered 175.[2] Since the ‘riots’ the British newspaper, The Guardian (14 January 2012) reported that ‘black people are 30 times more likely than white people to be stopped and searched by police in England and Wales.’ In short, ‘racial profiling’ or the use of section 60 that allows the British police to stop and search individuals without reasonable suspicion has increased since the ‘riots’ of 2011. Ironically, it was this policy that incited the ‘riots’ in the first instance.

In Brazil, the story is no different for black males. ‘A young black teenager in Brazil is nearly three times more likely to die as a result of violence than a white adolescent, a new report has concluded.’[3] On 26 March 2012, 13-year-old Igor Corderio Manhaes was murdered by the Brazilian police in Duque de Caxias, Rio de Janiero.[4]

In the UK a 21-year-old black man by the name of Mauro Demetrio was told by a police officer that ‘the problem with you is you will always be a nigger’. Fortunately for Demetrio he recorded this racial abuse that took place in August 2011. According to The Guardian (2 April 2012): ‘The mobile phone recording captured one officer by the name of PC MacFarlane, saying that he strangled him [i.e. Demetrio] because he was a “cunt”. Whilst being held in custody Demetrio witnessed another police officer assault a 15-year-old black teenager by kicking him whilst he was on the ground. The two cases are being investigated by the Crown Prosecution Service in London.

Lynchings could be executed for the mere flimsiest of reasons on the say-so of Europeans on the account that blacks had no means of legal redress for they were considered sub-human. Blacks could be lynched for merely being regarded as ‘uppity’ i.e. not knowing their place and being over-confident; for fabricated sexual assault and rape; for looking at a white woman in the wrong way; for consensual sexual relationships between black and white; for looking directly into the eyes of whites; for black economic success during the era of reconstruction when some economically successful blacks in the South owned property that was envied by whites or for acting in a manner deemed to be suspicious, like Trayvon Martin.

George Zimmerman, who hails from a white father and Latina mother, said on the phone to the police that the young 17-year-old Trayvon Martin ‘looks like he’s up to no good. They always get away.’ The young teenager carried no weapon, simply a bag of Skittles (sweets); a bottle of pop and he wore the hood of his tracksuit up because it was raining. Though Zimmerman was told not to follow Martin, he ignored this instruction. He also muttered under his breath ‘fucking coons’. He allegedly killed Trayvon, who was a mere 1001bs in weight compared to Zimmerman’s 250lbs, in self-defence. It is staggering that the Sanford police did not immediately arrest Zimmerman, check his alcohol level or whether he had been under the influence of other drugs at the time of the murder.

Instead Zimmerman was shielded by the ‘stand your ground’ law that allows any citizen to claim use of deadly force wherever he or she feels threatened, without a duty to retreat. The law was first enacted in Florida and has now been adopted by at least 21 states. The law is promoted by the powerful National Rifle Association and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Consequently, it appears that both the police and the legal system endorse a pernicious culture of impunity that appears no different from the era of lynchings.

During the era of lynchings in the Deep South (from just after the Civil War in 1866 to the 1940s), many who lived through that period could recall the profound fear that lynchings inculcated in the psyche of black people. The deference and obsequiousness that former enslaved Africans and later freedmen and women, particularly mothers inculcated in their children were part of the survival mechanisms of blacks, for to step out of line could easily lead to death.

In contemporary times, there continues to remain a fear and nervousness among black parents when their children, particularly their male children, are out late at night in some parts of the UK and US. Black parents now have to teach young black males their rights, how to conduct themselves, particularly when they are stopped and searched on the streets in the UK and US by racist police officers.

The murder of Trayvon Martin has been equated with the murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in August 1955, who allegedly whistled at a white woman in Mississippi. He was abducted from his uncle’s home, savagely beaten to death and his white killers were eventually acquitted. It seems the death of Trayvon Martin has become a rallying point for progressive organisations in the USA (as was the death of Emmett Till for the Civil Rights Movement), as protest marches and rallies were held in the hometown of Trayvon Martin shortly after his murder as well as in New York, Washington DC and outside the US Embassy in Central London. The successful protests seem to have finally led to the arrest of Zimmerman on 22 April and he is now awaiting a murder trial.

Mobilizing for justice for Trayvon Martin is essential. In addition, the national debate in America over guns, self-defense laws and race relations is imperative. However, what also needs to be done can only be done as part of a mass movement of people who are genuinely prepared to address the underlying structures of racism that are embedded in the ideology of a capitalist and imperialist society that has unfairly imprisoned and killed many people of colour. In other words, the Trayvon Martins of history, the voiceless and those who go unnamed as a result of deplorable and racist murder, will continue unless these structures and the accompanying mindset are radically dismantled and some kind of reparative justice is achieved.

The historical phenomenon of ‘Strange Fruit’ still needs to be told to new generations for the political and economic conditions that produced racism retain their contemporary legacies in the US and across the Atlantic shores in the UK and Europe, for as James Baldwin once said: ‘history is upon our brows’.

* BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Please do not take Pambazuka for granted! Become a Friend of Pambazuka and make a donation NOW to help keep Pambazuka FREE and INDEPENDENT!

* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

NOTES:

- 96 Murders since Stephen Lawrence http://www.irr.org.uk/news/96-murders-since-stephen-lawrences/ Accessed 7/01/2012
- ‘Black Deaths in Custody’ http://www.irr.org.uk/news/black-deaths-in-custody/
Accessed 08/09/2010
- ‘Study charts Brazil youth murders http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8162568.stm
Accessed 09/04/2012
- See ‘Black Women of Brazil’, http://bit.ly/JPqFpd
Accessed 08/04/2012
- 96 Murders since Stephen Lawrence, http://bit.ly/IIkLIh
Accessed 7/01/2012
- ‘Black Deaths in Custody’ http://www.irr.org.uk/news/black-deaths-in-custody/
Accessed 08/09/2010
- ‘Study charts Brazil youth murders http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8162568.stm
Accessed 09/04/2012
- See ‘Black Women of Brazil’, http://bit.ly/JPqFpd
Accessed 08/04/2012

Somalia, Museveni and militarising the region

Mahmood Mamdani

2012-05-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/81818

cc B-K'Everybody knows the solution in Somalia is political not military. Even if there is a military victory in Somalia, it will not be sustainable without a political solution.'

THE INDEPENDENT: Prof. Mamdani, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Burundi have troops in Somalia. It is the first time Kenya has troops in a foreign country. What do you think are the implications of militarisation of the region?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: Let us step back a little to understand the basic problem with the present strategy which is looking for a military solution in Somalia. The problem becomes clear if you look at Northern Uganda.

One of the biggest achievements of NRM was the use of a broad-base government for those who would give up armed struggle. Even leaders, not just remnants from the Idi Amin regime, but of the Obote II and Okello administrations, were welcome in the broad-base. But the NRM closed the door when it came to the political north. They refused a political solution when it came to the leadership of Alice Lakwena and Joseph Kony. The north could have its representatives in parliament but the NRM insisted that the solution for the region must be military. Uganda’s challenge today lies in finding a political solution to the Kony problem. Even when Kony has no more than a few hundred fighters around him, the LRA has become a justification for the entry of US forces in the region, leading to its militarisation.

Everybody knows the solution in Somalia is political not military. Even if there is a military victory in Somalia, it will not be sustainable without a political solution. Every attempted military solution in Somalia has made the problem worse because it has ignored the centrality of the political dimension. We all know that the Union of Islamic Courts was beginning to turn around the situation in Somalia. It was creating law and order yet it was branded some kind of al Qaeda and demonised by the US. The military intervention instead created the political space for al Qaeda to come in. It pushed those in the Union of Islamic Courts unwilling to capitulate into a corner. As they became desperate for allies, al Shabaab was born; which is still more an umbrella of various groups than a single solid organisation.

Secondly I think there is a competitive element in this regional bid for Somalia. There is a competitive element to militarisation, South Sudan has shown that there is a peace dividend and commercial one after war. The Ugandan officials have been asking what’s going on since Uganda supported the war but the oil refinery is going to Kenya. We seem to be in place in times of war but clueless when the guns go silent.

THE INDEPENDENT: What are the implications for Uganda’s involvement in Somalia?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: I think the Congo war introduced some element of jealousy in the Ugandans. They envied the military capacity of Angolans and Zimbabweans. Uganda wanted to be the Angola of this part of the world but did not have the means, which for Angola came from oil. Uganda solved the problem by finding an ally in the US. Thus was born the Somalia project. I think Uganda’s military presence in the region is pegged on that. Somalia is Uganda’s claim that we have a solution for your security concerns in the region. It fits very nicely with the American claim that the primary problem of Africa is not development, nor democracy, nor even the lack of human rights, but security.

THE INDEPENDENT: Do you think the East African Community countries will be able to secure political federation by 2014 as projected?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: No it’s not possible. I think you have to look at the 1970s to understand why the community collapsed. It’s not true that the arrival of Amin led to the collapse of the community. Problems began very soon after independence. Kenya had been the headquarters of the Community during the colonial period. The common services were centralised in Kenya; the Common Market had a Kenyan flavour. So Tanzania, joined by Uganda then, asked for a decentralisation of industries. Thus was born the 1964 Kampala agreement whereby each country was allocated a specific industry producing for the region. But there was no way of punishing a country for flouting the rules. Tanzania began the Tanzam (Tanzania-Zambia) railway financed by the Chinese. To finance the local cost of the Railway, there was an agreement allowing Chinese goods preferential access to the Tanzanian market, even if this flouted common market rules. It began a tit for tat, and partners became competitors, then rivals. Tanzania under Nyerere was beginning to move southwards. The challenge for EAC is that Tanzania is not willing to enter into federation because it does not think its interests will be achieved. The Tanzanians have legitimate political concerns. Uganda and Kenya have to come up with assurances. It may be better to think of a confederation as a first step to a federation.

THE INDEPENDENT: What do you think of Rwanda and Burundi presence in the EAC?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: I think it is a good thing for them and for us. It would be great for Rwanda because it has been unable to come up with a solution to the political trauma after the genocide. You cannot ban the Hutus and Tutsis from organising themselves in a situation where Hutu and Tutsi have operated as mobilising identities for political parties. You can only do this as part of a power-sharing project. I think Nyerere understood this. So did Museveni if you judge from his willingness to follow Nyerere’s leadership in Burundi. If Rwanda was accepted in a much larger community where the competition is no longer between Hutu and Tutsi, they will both be minorities in a larger East Africa. The larger the group, the more the necessity for alliances. In this world you cannot exist alone.

THE INDEPENDENT: South Sudan is on tension with Khartoum. What are the implications on Uganda and EAC if the two countries fight? Don’t you think Uganda would be dragged into the war?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: It will not just be dragged into the war; Uganda is likely to see it as a continuation of the war of liberation. The problem between the two Sudans is more serious than the conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia. We need to look at the background to understand the reasons for the current fighting. Garang had this idea of New Sudan. He understood that for South Sudan to win the fight for independence he had to find allies. He found these in Darfur and South Kordofan. The people in these border regions were mainly opposed to the independence of South Sudan; they thought it a betrayal to the larger cause of a New Sudan.

Immediately after independence SPLA was divided; one group saying Sudan is a foreign state and it is not our business now, the other group was saying no; we have a political commitment to support our allies in South Kordofan. The big fight in South Kordofan is about the SPLA; they have forces fighting alongside militias in South Kordofan against the Sudan army, and Sudan is saying this is an invasion. It is a serious conflict. In the Mbeki mediation, South Sudan wanted to focus on oil first but Sudan was calling for a focus on border demarcation so they can patrol the border against SPLA infiltration. South Sudan refused.

THE INDEPENDENT: Why?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: Because they had soldiers on the other side of the border; that would mean withdrawing from South Kordofan, Nuba Mountains, Blue Nile. These are part of Sudan.

THE INDEPENDENT: Kenya has found oil, Uganda has oil and Tanzania has gas. What do you think will be the implications of this on the politics and economies of these countries?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: It is going to be a big challenge especially in Uganda where the entry of oil money coincides with the politics of succession. All the factions, even inside the NRM, all are preparing for succession and all are aware that the inflow of oil is likely to coincide with succession. So we will have the toughest challenge because we will be making a transition to an oil economy alongside a political transition. I think Kenya is in a better situation because in spite of the levels of corruption there, Kenyans have shown an internal capacity for political reform; just look at their ability to reform the Constitution and tame the power of the executive. The problem in Kenya is the ICC process which has introduced an external element. The ICC has no political accountability inside the country; its political accountability is to the UN Security Council.

THE INDEPENDENT: What do you think are the risks of the ICC indictment and prosecution to Kenya?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: We know the violence in the Rift Valley was tied to social issues like right of land ownership. One side says land is a tribal right. The other side says land is marketable and can be bought and sold by any Kenyan. Thus it is the right of a citizen. This is the same notion that is playing out in Darfur: who owns the land, is it tribal or national? The problem is you cannot solve the social question in the courts. You cannot even solve the political problem in the courts. The ICC will try individuals, and leave Kenya to solve the political and social problems. Will the selective trial of particular politicians, and not others, make the political problem worse?

THE INDEPENDENT: What social and economic implications will oil discovery in the region have on the fast tracking of EAC integration?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: The weaker the institutions the bigger the challenges; the fast tracking of the EAC is more of a media gimmick. No one wants to be against the EAC in public. So there is no public debate, which is for the worse.

THE INDEPENDENT: Rwanda and Uganda have been at each other’s throat but they seem to have fairly improved their relations. Do you think it will last?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: Museveni has always had a good sense of knowing which way the wind is blowing and he can change in response to the change in wind. Some conclude from this that he has no principles; others say that he is pragmatic. He changes with the demands of the circumstances. I think Museveni has demonstrated a remarkable ability to see things from a medium term perspective and to act in an interest larger than just individual.

THE INDEPENDENT: So what wind did he see?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: He can’t afford to be overthrown. Museveni claims that Uganda has a disciplined and effective military force. This is the claim he is trying to establish in Somalia. But this claim was successfully challenged in Congo. The UN accused both Uganda and Rwanda armies of corruption in Congo. The difference was that the beneficiaries in the Ugandan case were individual officers but in Rwanda it was the state. That tells you the difference in institutional discipline between the two.

THE INDEPENDENT: Tell us your feelings about the Occupy Movement in the West and what does it say about the structural tensions inherent in post-cold war capitalism?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: The interesting move is that the West is learning from the rest. The Occupy Movement was an effect of the Arab Spring in Egypt. They were inspired by Tahrir Square. The history of protest in the West as elsewhere is very long. Protests were an event: people would come to a particular place, make or listen to speeches, sing, march, and then go home. The new thing about Occupy Movement is go to a place and stay there. The idea was for a small dedicated group to maintain a constant presence, like a magnet which could attract others as supporters.

* BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Please do not take Pambazuka for granted! Become a Friend of Pambazuka and make a donation NOW to help keep Pambazuka FREE and INDEPENDENT!

This article was first published by The Independent.
* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Refounding Somalia: Constitution and Islam

Abdulwahid Sheikhosman Qalinle

2012-05-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/81819

cc B-KThe draft constitution is a considerable improvement from the Transitional Federal Charter. However, there are serious flaws in the draft which would make the operation of the system of government difficult and controversial.

“Allah doth command you to render back your Trusts to those to whom they are due; And when ye judge between man and man, that ye judge with justice: Verily how excellent is the teaching which He giveth you! For Allah is He Who heareth and seeth all things.” (Quran; Al Nissa 4:58, Translation: Yusuf Ali)

"The aim of every political constitution is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good of the society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous whilst they continue to hold their public trust." --Alexander Hamilton or James Madison, Federalist Papers, New York Packet, Federalist No. 57, Tuesday, February 19, 1788.

BACKGROUND

Earlier this month, the Transitional Federal Government (TFG)-appointed Committee of Experts (CoE) on the Constitution held a “constitutional review” session in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a gathering that, given the stakes, I wish I had attended. Regardless, in what follows below, I will share my initial thoughts about the constitution-making process currently underway in Somalia.

Today, there is a broad regional and international consensus that successive reconciliation conferences on Somalia produced a cycle of ineffectual transitional “governments” leaving nothing in their wake but dashed hopes, squandered goodwill and unfulfilled mandates.

For two long decades, Somalis repeatedly failed to negotiate effective and meaningful national government. In an age that is in dire need of alternative views of the future that can break with the bloody past, nothing highlights the general ineptitude of the Somalis to achieving statehood better than the utter failure of the Somali elite, both secular and religious, to pursue their own national interest defined in terms of their ability to achieve broad consensus on national purpose, strong idea of state, establish a shared socio-political vision and sound “political philosophy” for post civil war Somalia.

In short, Somalis failed to rejuvenate a collective sense of national identity that would prevail upon the tribal identity and prevent the perpetuation of the inherently discriminatory and un-Islamic “4.5” formula. Alas, the Somali Diaspora, besides being an “ATM” and a vital economic lifeline, continues its role as vicarious participant of the events unfolding back in the troubled country with no ability to marshal any meaningful contribution in order to positively impact the clan-induced political stalemate.

Despite this bleak situation, however, the Somali people insist on a new political configuration that challenges the categories delimited by the clannish-minded elites, religious demagogues and the continued manipulation by the “ Internationals” or “Ghost-lords” (to borrow from Bro. Abukar Arman, the fine Somali writer). Surprisingly, the citizens of Somalia have demonstrated astounding resilience and sheer will to survive and hope for a better day despite enduring decades-long brutality and disasters of all stripes. To overcome the current debacle, however, Somalia needs a new Social Contract. It is time to refound Somalia through sound principles.

ROLE OF ISLAM IN THE NEW POLITICAL DISPENSATION

On April 18, 2009, the Somali parliament voted unanimously to adopt Shariah law. Article 8 of the Transitional Federal Charter reads, in part, “(1) Islam shall be the religion of the Somali Republic. (2). The Islamic Shariah shall be the basic source for national legislation”.

Furthermore, the 2010 Draft Constitution, currently under review, essentially proclaimed Somalia as an “Islamic state” with a national religion. It obligates the Somali judges to rule and adjudicate in accordance with the provisions of Islam and jurisprudence of Shariah law as, under the Draft, no law could be "contrary to the sacred religion of Islam.” The role of religion in the new constitution is, therefore, bound to be contentious. This represents significant departure from the language of the 1960 constitution, which merely stated that “Islam shall be the religion of the State” rather than requiring all laws to be brought in conjunction with the Islamic law and declaring the supremacy of Shariah.

THE QURAN IS NOT A CONSTITUTION

The Quran is not a constitution in the generic sense. It is by definition and substance greater than a constitution. The religious clerics who proclaim, “Quran is our constitution!” misread the very essence of the Quran. A constitution is a flexible device, which organizes and shapes diverse political and legal systems. It is used to enshrine the broad principles on which a governmental system is to operate, including the rights and responsibilities of all levels of government; the description and role of key institutions at central and local levels; and, the basis on which detailed rules may be established or changed. It can be amended or abrogated.

On the other hand, a Qur’anic text cannot be altered or abrogated because of the Qadiyu Thubuut (absolutely authentic origin) principle. It can only be interpreted where its texts are vague, Zaniyu al Dilalah. An example would be verses describing acceptable commercial practices. These may be interpreted in light of relevant sources and materials. In essence, the Qur’an is more expansive than a constitution with respect to its functions and characteristics. Now, the belief that Somalia needs no unifying document besides the Quran misunderstands the function of the constitution in establishing a modern state and, moreover, runs contrary to the principles of Al Siyasah Al Shari’yah and Ijtihad (unprecedented doctrinal development) as articulated by classical Islamic jurists. Simply put, Somalia needs a national constitution to formalize its political choices in matters of government while, at the sometime, keeping Islam as the conscience of both the community and the constitution.

SOMALI LEGISLATURE AND INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF IJTIHAD

Technically, the implementation of Islamic law in Somalia, as required by this Draft, poses monumental legal challenge to Somalia’s fragile legal infrastructure and its religious elites. To effectuate the Islamic provisions in the Draft, Somalia’s constitutionally defined body (parliament) shall have no choice but to enact specific statutes containing detailed legal techniques and tools used to identify, interpret and apply principles, norms and standards of the Quran and Sunnah, and in their absence, to identify by certain techniques applicable principles to situations for which existing Quranic or Sunnah norms are unavailable.

These techniques include:

i. Identification, appraisal, and ranking of the sources of law in accordance with a certain methodology deemed valid by the Somali legislature and the consensus of the jurists.

ii. The institutionalization and professionalization of fiqh authorities and developing mechanisms to check the temporal rulers by Allah’s law, so that if a given law violated Islam there was a way to stop it.

iii. Creating a hybrid legal system representing a combination of immutable, divinely-derived legal standards and mutable decisions whose validity needs to rest on political judgments of what constitutes the best rule given a particular set of temporal circumstances by the fiqh scholars or the parliament whereby all laws are subjected to the following two-pronged test: 1) is the law in question inconsistent with an unambiguous ruling of authoritative sources of the Shariah and 2) does the law violate the Maqasid al Shariah “goals,” or the utilitarian principles of the Maslaha as articulated, among others, by Al Shatbi, Ibn Al Qayim, Al Qarafi and Ezzedin Ibn Abdisalam?

iv. Developing codified statutes with uniform application throughout the country. As former Chairman of Somaliland’s Law Reform Commission, I had the privilege of witnessing firsthand the impact of Somaliland’s efforts and struggle to harmonize Xeer, Shariah Law and the pre-1969 statutes of the Somali Republic into one uniform legal system throughout Somaliland. The purpose was to provide legal certainty and create predictable system of justice.

v. Since, according to the Islamic teachings, the Qur'an is God-given and cannot be altered, jurisprudential and doctrinal differences of various Fiqh authorities had to be reconciled in part because there is no uniformity of opinion about major legal issues within any one school of legal thought. For example, see Imam Shafi’s Al Qadim & Al Jadid legal doctrines or Al Asah & Al Azhar principles. In that context, uncontrolled pluralism of judicial (Fiqh) opinions and decisions should, in my view, be considered as conflicting with constitutionalism on grounds that it can be internally segregative and thus impede on the ideals of constitutionalism and possibly hinder good governance and social cohesion under a uniform system of law.

Instead of addressing these profoundly important questions in the national debate and political discourse, the recurring theme of Somali’s leading religious elite seems to become not only rhetoric calls for a return to the fundamentals of Islam, but in fact a regression to a fixed historic framework. In what constitutes an utter disregard of the human juristic interpretations (Fiqh), they argue that since the Qur'an is immutable, as is the Sunnah, and since the Sunnah is the last word on the Qur'an, everything that had to be said by Allah and His messenger has been said. There being nothing more to be said, the only thing left is a strict application of what has already been given. It is based on such faulty reasoning that leaders of some of these movements made themselves into the arbiters of what was valid and what was not. The corollary of that self-declared authority is that these “leaders” can decide on who is a true believer and who is an apostate (Murtad), a sideshow that really adds nothing to the quest for nationhood.

But the on-going process to refound Somalia in the year of 2012 is the ultimate test of Somali’s religious movements and elites. Now that the Draft Constitution essentially mandates the implementations of the Islamic Law, the era of the care-free religious rhetoric by religious elites is finally over. Taking the easy road of labeling every complicated human condition as Haram (prohibited) is no longer acceptable. The practice of the rarefied art of statecraft demands answers and solutions to layers upon layers of complicated and unprecedented legal and political issues. The religious elite will soon find out that governance, unlike lawlessness, is a complex system of interactions among competing interests. In such an environment, looking at the world in black and white (Muslim & Murtad) wouldn’t be only a disservice to Islam itself but also an undue oversimplification of the complex nature of Islamic Jurisprudence. There is a reason why there are at least four major schools of jurisprudence in Sunni Islam alone.

Without a doubt, the Somali legislators will need plenty of properly credentialed Ijtihad practitioners among them as they will, unfortunately, find it very had to stumble upon any of the so-called international legal experts – who were in charge of Somali’s “legal affairs” for the past two decades - that possesses the necessary legal background in the mergers of Islamic law and Western jurisprudence. Passing a unanimous parliamentary resolution declaring Shariah as the law of the land might have been the easy part. Implementing that decision within a modern-day governmental system, however, entails a complicated set of technical and jurisprudential challenges to which Somali’s religious elites are no match and, in my view, ill equipped to undertake.

BRIEF COMMENTS ON THE DRAFT CONSTITUTION

The efforts to establish a constitutional republic in Somalia are admirable. These efforts, however, must be diligent, effective, and thoughtful. The effectiveness of a new constitution should, in my view, be judged by: a) the level of participation by the public and b) legitimacy of the process. There is no credible evidence to suggest that the views of the people throughout the country reached the Independent Commission for the Constitution and Federal Affairs (IFCC) in any meaningful manner or were considered by it during the drafting process, the hilarious minute-long commercial on Universal TV notwithstanding. Further, based on my preliminary research, the IFCC seems to have been under intense pressures to meet strict deadlines. Regardless, I am not aware of any serious efforts on the part of the IFCC to consult and seek wide scale public participation in the Diaspora as well. (Reportedly, less than 100 people attended a recent TFG sponsored constitutional review session in Minnesota, a state which is home to an estimated 70 thousand Somalis).

Of course, a counter-argument can be made that the current security situation in Somalia does not permit broad debate and public participation. In addition, there is evidence of considerable intervention by foreigners, with their own unhelpful agenda (normally, the constitution-making process is a jealously guarded national treasure everywhere else but Somalia). Consequentially, because of strict time pressures, an unstable security situation and questionable foreign intervention, the goal of ensuring inclusiveness and broad based consensus with regards to the Constitution is, thus far, unattained. Therefore, with regards to participation and legitimacy, among people and communities, the process must be regarded as largely ineffective.

My general assessment is that this document is a considerable improvement from the Transitional Federal Charter. However, I consider that there are serious flaws in the Draft which would make the operation of the system of government difficult and controversial. For instance, there are technical deficiencies, ambiguous or incomplete language in the draft, which are to some extent tied to key substantive provisions, such as sovereignty, sources of legislation, lack of clear demarcation between the president and parliament, and the role of the regional states vis-à-vis the federal government. These poorly drafted substantive provisions could further sharpen the divisions within Somalia and pose a serious threat to the unity and territorial integrity of the country. I, therefore, have serious reservations about the durability and effective implementation of the Constitution in its current form. Having said that, I do have sympathy for its drafters and do understand the enormous difficulties they had to overcome to reach where they have.

My non-exhaustive review suggests that Somali intellectuals must give a great deal more thought to the modalities of the Constitution-making process than was possible in the process so far.

THE PREAMBLE

Generally, a preamble is an inspirational and symbolic statement. Its purpose is to situate the Constitution into a specific context. The context may consist of reconciliation (2010 Somali Draft Constitution), independence (1960 Somali Constitution), a revolution or the overthrow of the previous regime (1979 Iranian Constitution), or a peaceful transition to a new political or social system (the 2005 Afghan Constitution). The preamble also provides guidance to the objectives of the Constitution, which may be used to interpret the Constitution, but is not otherwise binding. Hence, to be effective for these purposes, the preamble is normally brief.

The preamble in this Draft-Constitution sets out an unprecedented affirmation of the central role of Islam in Somalia’s public life. It reaffirms and promotes the unity of Somalia and recites and condemns the injustices of the past. It certainly is intended to inspire pride in Islam. In these respects the preamble is good, if somewhat short. However, it fails to set out clearly the objectives of the Constitution in a comprehensive manner. Understandably, there is perhaps too much emphasis on the Islamic nature of the Constitution largely designed, in my view, to fend off any criticism by the powerful Islamic groups in Somalia. However, the preamble must also clearly spell out the objectives of the Constitution. Using the events of the last two decades as a backdrop, the Commission should enumerate, in addition to those already existing, the following priorities for the new constitution:

(a) Formulating a vision of Somalia that has wide approval all over the country;
(b) Enhancing national unity and territorial integrity;
(c) Assuring people democracy and participation as well as physical and psychological security;
(d) Ensuring effective and accountable government;
(e) The protection of human rights and dignity, including rights of minorities;
(f) Promotion of social justice and the fair distribution of the benefits of national resources; and
(g) Renewal of the economy and removal of poverty.

SHARIAH & SOVEREIGNTY (CHAPTER 1)

The title, “Declaration of the Republic,” has revolutionary overtones. Instead, I would prefer using, “Fundamental Principles,” as a title for this Chapter.

ARTICLE 1

In my view, Article 1 struck a reasonable balance between the core Islamic beliefs represented in the Maqasid Al- Shariah and the universally accepted international standards and norms of justice, human rights, rule of law and democracy. Most importantly, the use of the Maqsid as articulated by Al- Shatibi and Ibn- Al-qayim, offers significant flexibility to the Somali legislature with respect to its lawmaking function and ensures compatibility of the Shariah with modernity.

Further, with respect to the issue of women’s rights, although recognizing that they are an integral part of the citizenry, they should not be singled out for specific privileges. Normally, such moves yield negative results. Instead, women’s Rights and Obligations should be based on the equal protection clauses of the Constitution (Art. 17 of the Draft) with further protections granted through the instrumentalities of the judiciary and law enforcement agencies. Consequentially, Article 1(4) is short-sighted, and probably meant to appease international actors. Therefore it is unnecessary and should be removed.

ARTICLE 2

There is no provision prescribing the sources of legislation, a major flaw in this Constitution. To remedy this omission, Article 2(3) should either read: “Islamic law shall be the basic source of legislation. All legislations enacted by the Parliament shall be brought in conformity with the injunctions of Islam as found in the Qur’an and Sunnah” or it should elaborate other sources of legislation with a degree of clarity. If the IFCC were to choose the former, it should, in my view, solidify this provision further by proposing the establishment of the “National Fiqh Council” comprising membership of preeminent Islamic scholars, Judges, lawyers, women’s groups and human rights advocates, as a constitutional body entrusted with the mandate to advise the legislature on whether a certain law or legislation is repugnant to Islam, namely to the Qur'an and Sunnah. Read together, the preamble and Articles 2 & 3 clearly give supremacy to Shariah over the constitution.

ARTICLE 4

States, “Somalia is sovereign . . . .” but fails to specify where that sovereignty is vested. Is it in the people? or, as the preamble suggests, in the Shariah?

One way to remedy this can be to distinguish original sovereignty as it rests with Allah (swt) and delegated sovereignty, which rests with the people (ummah), for the purposes of law-making and governance. Therefore, although, ultimate sovereignty rests with Allah (swt), mankind has also inherited a trust, or amana, from Allah (swt), in the form of the khilafa, to govern matters in light of the revelation, or risala. In a famous narration of the Prophet (pbuh), or hadith, the Prophet states, “My Ummah shall not agree upon error” thus reaffirming the importance of the will of the people.

ARTICLE 11 & 12: CITIZENSHIP

Clearly, the Constitution largely follows both the jus sanguinis, citizenship by right of blood, and the jus soli, citizenship by right of birth within the territory. Article 11 (2) states, in part,“. . . [A] person born outside……. or if they are of Somali origin.” In the absence of a clear definition of the word “Somali” in this Constitution, the plain language of this Article entitles any person of ethnic “Somali” origin, specifically the large Somali populations in Djibouti, northeastern Kenya, and the Somali region of Ethiopia to automatic citizenship. While I have nothing bad to say about the delusionary concept of “Greater Somalia,” these words constitute a serious loophole which, if not properly remedied, poses grave economic, national security and public health dangers to the Somali Republic.

Article 11(4) is a reckless disregard of the fact that Somalia’s borders are totally insecure and that there are large numbers of migrant children from neighbouring Ethiopia in the streets of Somalia today. Certainly, these children are entitled to full protection and other remedies under the law, but not necessarily citizenship. Thus, this provision should be deleted altogether. In Article 12(3), I would argue that five years is not a sufficient period of time to allow an alien to fully immerse herself in Somali identity, history, language, and culture. Therefore, in my view, Somali citizenship should be acquired by an applicant who has resided in Somalia a total of 12 years and fulfilled other requirements under the law. In addition Articles 13 & 14 should be merged.

Finally, provisions regulating nationality and citizenship should be left to nationality laws and legislation enacted by the Parliament. Usually, nationality and citizenship provisions are mutable and therefore are best dealt with by acts of Parliament.

FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS (CHAPTER 3)

This chapter shares suspiciously striking similarities with the new constitution of South Africa!

One purpose of a Fundamental Rights chapter is to provide a vision and goals for a society. Another purpose is to define the relationships between citizens, communities, and the State. In this chapter, the Somali state comes across as a caring society, trying to ensure for its people their dignity and the fulfilment of their basic needs. On the whole it strikes fair and suitable balances, recognizing the liberties of the individual in a community-oriented society. It acknowledges the importance of economic development to the enjoyment of rights, and commits the state to facilitate economic growth by creating a suitable legal and business environment (Arts. 31, & 32). It also responds to the special problems, and recent experiences of governance, in Somalia, and thus contains sufficient protection to citizens, families, and children. The formulation of article 23, freedom of expression, may give the impression that these rights are conferred by the State; it, however, would be an improvement to state that everyone has an inherent right to the freedom of expression.

ARTICLE 51: THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM

Article 51 does not set out the method of voting, nomination, or other key aspects of the electoral system. It is unclear whether, under this system, the entire country is one electoral constituency or if there will be system of multi-member constituencies. Although a single national constituency can produce full proportionality, it has several disadvantages; particularly in the control it gives political parties and the lack of close, effective connections between the people and their representatives. It will be interesting to see how comprehensively the Somali parliament tackles the electoral system.

THE FEDERAL SYSTEM (CHAPTER 7)

The current debate over a federal system as opposed to a unitary system in certain Somali circles misdiagnoses the underlying causes for mistrust among Somalis. Central to the demands of every Somali tribe, in my view, are two major components: a) acceptable level of representation; and b) a desire for self-governance, such as a governor or district commissioner being from own tribe. My sense is that Somalis are less concerned about the nature of their system so long as they are satisfied with the level of representation allocated to their tribe and their ability to govern their own tribal localities. In general, federalism can balance national identity and interests with communal or regional identity and interests, and in this way discourage secession and promote national unity, as has been the experience of India and Switzerland. Federalism is also a reflection of the tolerance in society and the ability of the people to make compromises. It can produce greater responsiveness among government authorities to the people’s wishes and needs in local situations and increase opportunities for their participation in public affairs. Thus, federalism is perfect for countries that, unlike Somalia, have large multiethnic populations with multi-layered demands.

Somalia, however, is an impoverished nation with scarce resources to run large and expensive bureaucracies at federal and state levels. Therefore, I would strongly argue that a decentralized unitary system with strong local government is the realistic approach in Somalia, a country with homogenous population. Further, it is the only system experienced by Somalis in their modern history, thus resembling continuity and similarity to previous governmental systems.

BICAMERAL VS. UNICAMERAL (CHAPTER 8)

If Somalia were to adopt the Federal system, as this Draft-Constitution does, then it should have a bicameral legislative system. Bicameralism ensures territorial representation, provides stability, and assures legislative quality through extended deliberations. In addition, the institutional mechanisms afforded to each branch have significant ramifications for both the relative balance of power between the two branches, as well as the manner in which legislation is proposed, processed and passed. In light of the successful experience of Somaliland in running a bicameral system, I prefer a bicameral system for Somalia comprised of: (a) Lower House of Representatives and (b) Upper House of Elders, or Guurti. The use of the term Guurti would be particularly brilliant and compelling because it is the invention of Somalis in Somaliland and it had such a positive impact in maintaining equilibrium in the politics of Somaliland since the landmark 1993 Borama conference. With respect to article 85, I think the quorum should be a simple majority of those expected to be in attendance. A simple majority of votes should also be the requirement to make a decision.

PRESIDENTIAL V PARLIAMENTARY SYSTEMS

Once again, this Constitution, consistent with the Transitional Federal Charter, gives the Somali people a parliamentary and presidential system. The system as it stands is prone to creating power struggle between the president and the prime minister, similar to those that occurred between former PM Nur Cade and the late President Abdullahi Yusuf. Under this system, presidents would try to run an administrative state and not a democracy.

Only a strong, independent and effective Supreme Court could provide remedy to this flawed system and the constitutional crisis that will undoubtedly result from it.

JUDICIARY (CHAPTER 10)

I do not see a compelling reason for having a separate Constitutional Court. It is simply an unnecessary expenditure. I do believe that constitutional judicial authority should be vested in the Supreme Court which should be the final arbitrator of federal constitutional questions.


INDEPENDENT COMMISSIONS (CHAPTER 11)

It has become common in contemporary constitutions to establish Independent Commissions for the discharge of politically sensitive functions and for purposes of accountability of state officials. The intention is to insulate the performance of these functions from political interference or pressures. Article 136 (1) & (31) establishes a number of commissions with important tasks while it delegates the power of establishing others to the parliament. Given the increased role of religion in the public life in Somalia, I would suggest the establishment of a National Fiqh Council (NFC) with a mandate to advise the parliament and the government on religious matters.

RATIFICATION

A constitution becomes legitimate once it is ratified by the public. However, given Somalia’s current security situation, ratification should follow a two-step process. The first step will create a provisional constitution. In order to create this provisional constitution, the IFCC should require the approval of the constitution by a constituent assembly representing various regions and tribes of Somalia. Once the security situation in Somalia stabilizes, a referendum, involving the citizens of each region, should take place. After this referendum, the provisional constitution shall become permanent, subject to change only through the stated amendment procedures.

These are indeed perilous times, filled with real opportunities for revival of the Somali State. Any strategy aimed at bringing this political stalemate to a close must be holistic and far-reaching, addressing both the humanitarian and political causes and effects of years of anarchy, factionalism, bloodshed, loss of national purpose and the very essence of Somalinimo itself.

Refounding Somalia demands genuine Somalinimo and nothing less.

* BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Please do not take Pambazuka for granted! Become a Friend of Pambazuka and make a donation NOW to help keep Pambazuka FREE and INDEPENDENT!

* Prof. Abdulwahid Sheikhosman Qalinle is director of the Islamic Law & Human Rights Project (IHRP), University of Minnesota Law School; E-mail: shei0038@umn.edu
* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Balkanization and brutalization of Somalia

Analysis of the Draft Constitution

Mohamud M Uluso

2012-05-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/81824

cc J HIt is immoral and a political crime to purport to draft a new constitution under the prevailing political and security conditions in Somalia.

The people of Somalia face the looming dreadful reality of becoming a vanished nation/country because of the Draft Constitution soon to be rubberstamped through fraudulent political and legal process. As usual, the International Community and the media will join force to publicize the new constitution as a success story for Somalia. In contrast, the Draft Constitution is an instrument for balkanization and brutalization of Somalia on basis of the following reasons:

It repeals the 1960 constitution in force which represents the legal and political foundation or the birth certificate of the Somali state/nation. The 1960 constitution embodies the basis for the admission of independent Somalia to the United Nations, International Monetary Fund, World Bank and the Organization of African Unity.

It partitions the country into three territories: Somaliland, Puntland and South Central. In accordance with article 172, it binds specifically the South Central Somalia, while Somaliland and Puntland adopted separate constitutions drafted with the help of the international community. For this reason, the Draft Constitution omits the demarcation of the national borders of Somalia, while the constitutional demarcation of national borders is imperative at this historical moment.

It is not ending the transitional period extended after August 2012 for four more years during the Garowe conferences. Also, it has nothing to do with the political dispensation for the establishment of new parliament and the election of national leaders.

It introduces ideas, culture and values that could intensify the social and political tension within the Somali society. It weakens the commonality and amplifies the diversity among the Somali communities. It embeds multiple sources of conflict and confusion detrimental to the governance of Somalia so that the latter will vanish as a nation and country.

It ignores the need for soul searching national reconciliation before drafting a national constitution. A national consensus on the causes and effects of the civil war and the collapse of the Somali State is paramount for enduring peace in Somalia. It is immoral and a political crime to draft a new constitution under the prevailing political and security conditions in Somalia.

It fails to articulate a national vision and a workable national and local system of governance. There is strong belief that instead of federalism decentralization suits best Somalia’s needs for democratic and efficient governance. What is crucial for the Somali people is to negotiate in good faith a workable and hierarchical system of national and local governance that is accountable, trustworthy, sustainable, equitable and self sufficient.

It lacks clarity, simplicity and practicability. It is written as a policy diktat paper.

It devalues the Somali Citizenship and Somali Nationalism.

It is not prepared in adherence to the provisions of the Transitional Federal Charter and in accordance with the required constitution-making process which is completely different from the process of making a law. The critical evaluation of the timing, the role of the international actors, the legitimacy of the process and persons responsible for drafting the constitution, the genuineness of public participation, and the role of the national authority is an important condition for the acceptance or rejection of a constitution. Particularly, the case for Somalia as a failed state requires high attention to legitimacy, stakeholders, participation, and transparency. Prof. Abdiwahid Sheikh Osman Qalinle put it eloquently when he said, “Normally, the constitution-making process is a jealously guarded national treasure everywhere else but Somalia.” Unfortunately, International actors controlled the entire process.

For the above reasons and others, the overwhelming majority of the people of the “South Central Somalia (90%)” oppose the Draft Constitution. Similarly, the majority of the participants in the consultation draft constitution organized for the Somali Diaspora living in Minneapolis and Columbus expressed their objections to the Draft Constitution. The feedback from the consultations in Europe is the same. In general, the public questioned the motives behind the campaign for a new constitution.

The participation of personalities from Puntland and Somaliland in the upcoming Constituency Assembly or new parliament serves only the purpose of muddling the Somali political situation. The agenda for outreach, unity, power-resource sharing on the basis of citizenship cannot go along with the agenda for separation, stand alone under Regional States or total independence pursued by Puntland and Somaliland with the collaboration of the international community.

On April 24, President Sheikh Sharif of TFG publicly repudiated the validity of the Transitional Federal Charter and consequently the legitimacy of the Transitional Federal Parliament after electing lawfully new Speaker. The President belittled the role of the MPs and threatened anyone opposing his propaganda agenda. TFG leaders seem confident about the replay of 2008 Djibouti process by handpicking 225 new members of parliament under the protection and diplomatic support of AMISOM and Ethiopian forces, and with the financial support of donors.

On his part, the Prime Minister Prof Abdiweli M. Ali announced the completion of the draft constitution and dismissed the opponents’ views by arguing that 99 % of the critics did not read the constitution. He has yet to publish the final draft of the constitution for transparency and public comment. I bet that TFG leaders did not read the Draft Constitution either. Otherwise they would not have released the unedited first draft of July 2010 for public consultation in March 2012.

The rules of engagement of the AMISOM forces, the Kampala Accord and Ethiopia’s forces have deprived the Somali citizens including the MPs of their right to challenge their notorious incompetent and corrupt leaders. A corrupt political system of governance has taken root in “South Central Somalia” with the complicity of the international community. The leaders of Al Shabab and TFG are now using the same threatening language to gain power over the Somali people.

It is plainly wrong to believe that the Draft Constitution will secure the actual transition from the transitional government to a permanent one possessing international privileges. Dropping the word “Transitional” will not graduate Somalia from a failed state to credible international partner with the right of entering into international agreements or directly receiving bilateral and multilateral foreign aid. Any literate Somali who wants to believe such claim is someone whose understanding about the legal, diplomatic and economic foundations for international relations and cooperation is limited.

In reality, the Draft Constitution has distracted the people of Somalia from addressing systematically and passionately the causes and solutions of the real problems devastating their country. Today, about half of the Somali population is facing famine, malnourishment and insecurity inside and outside Somalia. The fraudulent approval of the Draft Constitution will be another calamity on Somalia. It is the responsibility of every Somali citizen to avoid the happening of that calamity with all legitimate means.

* BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Please do not take Pambazuka for granted! Become a Friend of Pambazuka and make a donation NOW to help keep Pambazuka FREE and INDEPENDENT!

* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Relaunching Somalia with a flawed constitution?

Mohamud M Uluso

2012-05-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/81820

cc B-KThe proposed Somali constitution is a hurried job, with the latest version available only in Somali language while various outdated or fake versions are circulating on the web.

It appears that the UN-wise roadmap for Somalia is nothing but part of a plan of perfidy to keep Somalia and the Somalis in turmoil. Instead of liberating the true Somalis, who need and want to continue living in and developing their own country and their communities inside Somalia, the planned constitution appears as the manifestation of the shackles of foreign as well as internal oppression of the indigenous Somali people in perpetuity.

A constitution - as a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a sovereign or federated state is governed - must itself be constitutional to the extent that it contains institutionalized mechanisms of power control for the protection of the interests and liberties of the citizenry, including those that may be in the minority. It is the condensed sum of the consolidated and freely determined will of "WE, THE SOMALI PEOPLE", which has taken into consideration and incorporated the rights - and not at least the right to self-determination - of all people making the Somali nation, and which sets the framework for a governance that guarantees the respect for the rights of the people.

Most Somalis and their scholars doubt that it is the right time to engage in the process of forming a new constitution during an era of civil strife and turmoil in Somalia and wonder why millions of dollars have been spent by the players from the so-called international community to re-invent the wheel, while the existing Somali constitution could just be amended if any real need would be given and legally as well as representatively expressed - reflecting the true and free will of the Somali people.

Apparently, in late September 2005 the congress of the USA is said to have scrapped the open-source, open-edit, online version of their constitution only two months after it went live on websites like Wiki-govern or Wikocracy. "The idea seemed to dovetail perfectly with our tradition of democratic participation," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said. "But when so-called 'contributors' began loading it with profanity, pornography, ASCII art, and mandatory-assault-rifle-ownership amendments, we thought it might be best to cancel the project." "Congress intends to restore the constitution to its pre-Wiki format as soon as an unadulterated copy of the document can be found," The Onion reported jokingly back then.

Though also the web-based The Constitution of the United Sovereign Individuals of the World remains unfinished business, the people of Island last year embarked on a new, similar process, which might represent the most open and participatory and thereby most democratic of the constitutional processes in world history and has overcome the flaws of earlier web-based efforts.

But concerning the constitution-making or amending processes in most other countries Chris McNeal rightly stated: "Legal documents such as constitutions, which under-gird every public decision thereafter and which function as system, require abnormal amounts of comprehensive planning. Shotgun constitutions have a long history of short lives."

Exactly this is what appears to be the name of the game in Somalia: "Shotgun Constitution" - whose latest version is available only in Somali language and not made public, while various outdated or fake versions are circulating on the web. According to insiders FGM is now permitted by the newly proposed Somali constitution, which will be presented for adoption to selected "traditional leaders". A typical scheme how the UN and their stooges want to get it their way - or the way their master wants it.

The Somalis also could borrow a leaf from one of the oldest and shortest constitutions of the world - the Japanese published in the year 720, which some scholars argue is still valid:

Harmony is to be valued, and the avoidance of wanton opposition to be honoured.

The Ministers and functionaries should make decorous behaviour their leading principle, for the leading principle of the government of the people consists in decorous behaviour.

Chastise that which is evil and encourage that which is good.

Let every man have his own charge, and let not the spheres of duty be confused.

One important provision of that codex stipulates that: "Decisions on important matters should not be made by one person alone" which as such is deeply rooted in Somali traditions like the SHIR and unlike the situation where Sheikh Sharif without parliamentary consent signed the Kampala accord, which is now base for the "road-map" and the constitutional exercises.

So, maybe the XEER, the unwritten Basic Law of the Somalis, which is sound, well alive and used by the wise men and elders of the Somali communities in the vast lands of mostly internet-free Somalia, needs to be looked at more profoundly. Even states like the Federal Republic of Germany still remain without a proper constitution - and operate just fine based on their post-war Basic Law of 1952, to which the German people as a whole never had a chance to contribute, and its subsequent amendments, which can be changed if real need arises. But as with the Basic Law itself, decisions to, for instance, break the rule of the fathers of post-war Germany, which stated that from German soil there shall never again war be waged - a basic law provision which was skipped by the parliament under US and NATO pressure to drag Germany into the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with full battle permission, but was never sanctioned by a public referendum. Apart from Germany only the special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China, namely Hong Kong and Macau, have undemocratic basic laws as their constitutional documents.

Like in post-war Germany, constitution-making in general has worldwide perhaps the least democratic record in history and as designed by the UN in Somalia it seems not to be any better. So far in Somalia there is no all-inclusive, transparent process at all.

This is maybe why Thomas Jefferson, in his letter to William S. Smith (1787), averred that rebellion is necessary every twenty years. With Somalia having now suffered and remained UN-governed for over 20 years, the time has come for a fresh start - but not by a flawed constitutional scam, not by ghost-lords nor war-lords or over-lords.

* BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Please do not take Pambazuka for granted! Become a Friend of Pambazuka and make a donation NOW to help keep Pambazuka FREE and INDEPENDENT!

* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

The human face of troubled Mogadishu

Rasna Warah

2012-05-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/81822

cc B-KTo novelist Nuruddin Farah, his homeland city is not the ‘most dangerous in the world;’ it’s the prettiest and most colourful — once you’ve tasted its waters, you will always go back.

"Once you have tasted the water of Mogadishu, you will always go back,” the Somali novelist Nuruddin Farah told me during his recent visit to Nairobi en route to Somalia’s war-torn capital.

Mogadishu has often been described as the most dangerous city in the world — “the world capital of things-gone-completely-to-hell,” as author Mark Bowden put it.

But I knew what Farah meant. Since I visited Mogadishu last year, I have yearned to go back.

The city never quite leaves you; I suppose because it is impossible for those who have lived there, or even visited briefly, to reconcile the horror and devastation of its recent history with its glorious past.

When former residents speak of Mogadishu, one can hear a longing in their voices for a city that once held so much promise.

In a recent essay, Farah described the city of his youth as being “the prettiest and most colourful” in the world, “a living metropolis with cosmopolitan values.”

Today, once-magnificent buildings that used to house government offices, museums, cinemas and hotels have become shells hosting internally displaced people.

Guttted cathedrals and ancient mosques stand stubbornly in the most desolate and devastated parts of the city.

It is difficult to understand why one of Africa’s most beautiful cities allowed itself to implode. But even amid the rubble, there is a sense of hope — and sometimes even flickers of joy — in the faces of the women, men and children who struggle to survive in the city against all odds.

Farah has been going back to Mogadishu every two years since 1996.

Forced into exile by the Siad Barre regime in 1976 after the publication of his novel ‘A Naked Needle’, the 66-year-old novelist has lived and taught in Uganda, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Sudan, India, Nigeria, the Gambia and the US.

He blames Barre, the military dictator who ruled from 1969 to 1991, for much of the havoc that was unleashed in his country.

“Somalia was a badly written play, and Barre was its author,” he once wrote.

The novelist divides his time between Minneapolis, US, where he holds the Winton chair in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota, and Cape Town, South Africa.

In 1998, he became the first African to win the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, a biennial award that is considered by some to be second only to the Nobel Prize for Literature.

In a 2004 interview with the philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah, Farah said that he tries to view Mogadishu as the principal character in his novels, and the people living in it or visiting it as secondary characters.

His latest book ‘Crossbones’, which was published last year, has been described as “a tense and moving portrait of people struggling to sustain their individuality and fragile connections in the face of zealotry, corruption and civil war.”

Farah has often said that his writing is an attempt to “keep my country alive by writing about it.”

Unlike many famous authors, Farah does not carry around him an air of arrogance or self-importance.

When I contacted him, he appeared surprised that I would even want to interview him, but promptly agreed to meet me at the Serena Hotel in Nairobi, where he was meeting friends.

He appeared older and frailer than I had imagined, and was carrying with him Michael Ondaatje’s book ‘Running in the Family’, which he said keeps him company when he is “sitting in Nairobi’s dreadful traffic.”

(The other authors he likes to read are William Faulkner and Samuel Becket.) He also has a wry sense of humour.

When asked if he was a Muslim, he said: “I don’t know which heaven is better, the Muslim one or the Christian one — once I know that, I’ll decide.”

Appiah describes Farah as a “feminist novelist in a part of the world where that’s almost unknown among male writers.”

Indeed, the female characters in his novels are both strong and independent.

Gifts for example, tells the story of a Somali nurse struggling to care for her family in the face of a famine.

His first novel, ‘From a Crooked Rib’, is about a nomad girl who flees an arranged marriage to a much older man.

Farah, who has been married twice and has three children, believes that his nation’s salvation lies in women and that the prevalence of violence against women in Somali society is just a symptom of the violence that grips his homeland.

He, however, has no time for the writings of the other famous “feminist” Somali author, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who has gained notoriety in the West for denouncing Islam and her Somali roots.

He thinks that Ali is not just ill-informed about Somalia and Islam, but about Africa as a whole. “She has no understanding of the complexities that make up Somali society,” he says.

He is convinced that inter-clan fighting in Somalia is not so much about blood ties, but about gaining access to economic resources.

The warlords who took control of Mogadishu in the early 1990s were not defending their clans, he says, but were trying to profit from the chaos, a situation that has continued for the past 20 years.

“You cannot analyse Somali politics through the prism of blood,” he says. “The warlords were not representing their clans. They were fighting for economic power.”

Farah believes that Mogadishu’s demise began with the arrival of pillaging pastoralists who invaded the city at the start of the civil war and proceeded to demolish it.

He has described pastoralist Somalis as being “urbophobics” by nature, who view urban dwellers with hostility, and who have little appreciation for city life.

“Many Somalis are not comfortable with being urban,” he says. “They are not cosmopolitan.”

His views could be refuted by the many Somalis who now live in large cosmopolitan cities such as London, Toronto and even Nairobi.

Somalis — even those who come from nomadic cultures — adapt quickly to urban life, as anyone who has visited Nairobi’s Eastleigh area will attest.

But even in Eastleigh there are traces of nomadic yearnings. One of Eastleigh’s most famous hotels is called Nomad and camel milk and meat are served in many restaurants in the area.

The novelist, who speaks fluent Somali, Amharic, Italian, Arabic and English, is also an ardent critic of the aid industry, which he says has created a culture of dependency in Somalia and inhibited local initiatives.

His novel Gifts is about a woman who is determined to be independent and self-reliant, even as the world around her crumbles.

“A gift, which can also be interpreted as aid, is in a sense a type of poison, says Farah. “It destroys the receiver.”

Farah says he learnt about the debilitating and dehumanising impact of food aid when he was living in the Gambia in the late 1970s.

US aid in the form of long-grain rice was not just used by the president to buy votes, but also suppressed local rice production.

It is the same story in Somalia. What’s worse, he says, much of the aid in Somalia is controlled by a “mafia” that has little contact with the people who are supposed to be its beneficiaries.

He also thinks that the international community’s recent attempts to bring about stability in his war-torn nation may not be as altruistic as they appear.

The British, he feels, are more interested in Somalia’s untapped oil reserves than its prosperity.

Other countries such as Kenya have benefited from the chaos in Somalia by hosting most of the aid agencies that have projects in that country.

“But Kenya is now realising that lack of peace in Somalia is in the long run harmful to its and the region’s economy,” says Farah.

Farah has in the past questioned the disastrous US intervention in Somalia in the early 1990s that culminated in the infamous “Black Hawk Down” incident — the name used to describe the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu between forces of the US, supported by the United Nation’s Operation in Somalia and Somali militia fighters loyal to the self-proclaimed president-to-be Mohamed Farrah Aidid — and abhors the media spectacle that his country’s people have become, especially when famine is declared.

His novels could be considered an antidote to the predominant images of “faces empty of everything but the pains of starvation,” that are aired and published in the Western media.

He once said that he writes “in order to provide an alternative to the propaganda put out by the Somali state and to the clichés offered in the Western media.”

But Farah remains misunderstood both in the West and in his homeland.

Many Americans have accused him of ingratitude and some Somalis have criticised him for portraying Somali society as one that oppresses women.

But Farah insists that his novels show the side of Somalia that few want to admit exists. The characters in many of his novels are full of contradictions, often oscillating between being both powerful and vulnerable, rebellious and submissive.

Many of the characters are psychologically fragmented, with several identities which they display when the situation demands it.

The author says this schizophrenic existence is a neo-colonial condition and a survival strategy prevalent among once-colonised people in Africa and elsewhere who are unsure of who they are because they are trapped in a cultural narrative that does not belong to them.

Neo-colonial subjects cannot tell their own stories because they have been repeatedly told that these stories are not worth telling or remembering.

“They do not believe in their own truth so they adopt other personas,” he says. “And because they have not fully owned their own truth, they become self-destructive.”

Farah’s stories try to resurrect this truth, a truth that may ultimately liberate and heal his wounded homeland.

* BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Please do not take Pambazuka for granted! Become a Friend of Pambazuka and make a donation NOW to help keep Pambazuka FREE and INDEPENDENT!

* Rasna Warah is a writer and columnist with the Daily Nation. She is also the organiser of a photo exhibition on Mogadishu’s past and present that will be shown in June at the Alliance Française in Nairobi. E-mail: rasna.warah@gmail.com. This article was first published by The EastAfrican.
* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Armed struggle: Mamdani tells politicians to learn from Luwero

Interview by Andrew Mwenda and Mubatsi A. Habati

Mahmood Mamdani

2012-05-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/81817

cc P PLeading political philosopher Mahmood Mamdani says the government’s ban on the political pressure group Activists for Change (A4C) is naïve and likely to drive opposition underground.

THE INDEPENDENT: The government has banned the civic pressure group known as Activists for Change. What do you think of this development?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: Activists for Change (A4C) organised themselves in response to the events in the Middle East and the Arab spring. They hoped to be catalysts of change in Uganda. Walk-to-Work was brilliant in its simplicity. It was brilliant in that it showed that government was unwilling to tolerate the very idea of protest. Government responded to it as if it was a threat to the security of the state which it obviously wasn’t. That kind of response played straight into the strategy of A4C, for the public was outraged that even a simple idea of walking as a mode of protest could invoke such a response from the state.

I think A4C after that have been singularly unimaginative. They have persisted with the one imaginative idea they had, even after it ran out of steam. Any protest movement cannot just be a result of an idea, no matter how brilliant, inserted from the outside. It has to connect organically with what is going on in society and what’s going on in society is the protest of primary school teachers, retail traders, nodding disease in northern Uganda; there are lots of issues. But the A4C have not even tried to address this. It has been a top-down effort which shows a lack of connection. It shows the absence of deep organisation and deep study.

But it makes no sense for the government to ban them. A more effective way to deal with them would have been a permissive response. You only needed to let them continue and they would run out of steam. Instead, the government is falling back on a colonial law, showing that it too has run out of steam.

People in government think if A4C is in the streets, stirring up trouble, they may over time be joined by those who may give them organisation, strategy and a message that can connect them to these other social forces. Government may be thinking that it’s better to neutralise them early.

Let me suggest a different way of thinking about it: if you have an opposition which has a message, strategy and addresses real issues in society, that is the kind of challenge every government should wish for because it would steer you in the direction of reform that would strengthen you. The idea of a world without opposition is naive.

But that hypothesis seems to be too idealisitic and out of sync with human nature. No one wants to nourish opposition, however responsible.

When you are in power you should be open to new ideas, not be closed to them. By the choices you make, you can shape the kind of opposition you face: whether open or underground. You would rather have open opposition than an underground one. The era of single party states is past. The armed struggle in Luwero was too expensive in terms of human lives and time lost; we should have learnt lessons from it. You can’t have a society as big and complex as this driven by a single idea behind a single man. There are many ideas and there will be many contending on the basis of those ideas. The point is to define the parameters within which you can compete, not to do away with competition.

THE INDEPENDENT: What do you think of a wider opposition in Uganda beyond A4C?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: The opposition here has been narrowly confined to contending for positions and power. There is a failure to address broader social issues that concern people. You need to convince an ordinary person who doesn’t have political aspirations that politics is going to change his or her life. Otherwise why should they get involved?

THE INDEPENDENT: How do you do this?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: It requires people who have a finger on the pulse of society. You need to understand not only how different sections of society define their needs but also which sectors of society are beginning to show some level of organisation in response to these issues. Ugandan society is not just inert, waiting for an external stimulus; there are demands, there is organisation at different levels.

THE INDEPENDENT: Why do you think the opposition has not seen these challenges?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: They are too narrowly focused on capturing power. It’s a highly corrupted society and the opposition has shown itself being unable to withstand the corruption of entering political offices. We have seen the opposition being corrupted in parliament. What will happen when they get to the presidency? If you can succumb to the prospect of, say Shs 20 million, in parliament and vote yes when asked to do so, what are going to do when the stakes are higher? To be sure, it is a mixed picture. The opposition as an opposition has not quite found its way. There are individuals who stand out against the culture of corruption individually. You find courageous people like Besigye (FDC president, Kizza) for example. This kind of courage and integrity wins support for some time. This has been enough to win him admiration and followers in wider circles. But leadership needs to go with organisation, without it integrity and courage will not have results.

The Afrobarometer survey shows that over the last one year people who say NRM is their party of choice have reduced from 62% to 47% (a 15% decrease). Yet those who now support FDC have increased from 13 to 15 %. UPC decreased from 3% to 2%. So you see a huge decline on the part of the NRM but it is not reflected in the numbers joining the opposition parties. What does it tell us?

It’s a dangerous signal for Uganda. It means most people are becoming disillusioned with politics. It means there is no organised and credible alternative. This is a recipe for unpredictable events that can be triggered by large scale frustration.

THE INDEPENDENT: Do you see a section of Ugandans outside of partisan politics that stands in defence of particular values and principles and can therefore act as a restraint on the behaviour of partisan warriors on either side?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: It’d be very interesting to see if there is a movement whose objective is not political power but social change. If there was a movement here that would act as a constraint by demanding those in power to prioritise particular social needs. It would act as a restraint on those contending for political power. It’d be a movement that would renounce political power in the interest of social change. It would be a Gandhi or Martin Luther-like movement. It would be the direct opposite of going to the bush. It would bring Ugandan society a long way away from the politics of destruction. But we don’t have such a movement. The kind of social movements that existed in the period of nationalism; membership based movements like the Cooperative movement, trade union movements, drivers association, traders association, women’s associations, youth associations, religious associations, etc. even if leaders rigged elections, there were members to respond.

THE INDEPENDENT: But we have civil society now, don’t we?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: We have a civil society that is mainly defined by NGOs. The NGOs are not member-based movements; they are organised like so many philanthropic bodies. They have no members, only beneficiaries. They do charity work and respond to those who pay them. They are antidemocratic in their structure. Their financial accountability is upwards to those who fund them not downwards to those who benefit from their work. So we have turned things upside down, there is no democratic civil society here. Just look around at who is involved in the movement for social change: it is membership-based organizations like primary school teachers, KACITA, even UTODA, whatever you may think of it. Where are the NGOs?

THE INDEPENDENT: Is a Martin Luther King, Mahtma Gandhi-like movement possible in Uganda and why?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: One cannot say it is not possible. There appears to be a consensus in Ugandan society that armed struggle is not permissible. But even if armed struggle was successful it would not solve the problem. Because we have seen that armed struggle delivers monopoly of power in the hands of those who fought and there is agreement that monopoly of power is part of the problem, not the solution. Any solution requires that there should be room for opposition within the political system. But beyond that, the political should be constrained by the social within society; the large masses of people should have a say in defining the priorities of a government in power.

THE INDEPENDENT: Why are there few, if any, membership organisations in this country? What happened to them?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: One thing that happened to them is liberalisation. These market based reforms were so extreme they dissolved the cooperatives. The largest unions were done away with. Where is the union of Railway workers, textile workers, etc? The de-industrialisation of Uganda was the result of the period of liberalisation.

THE INDEPENDENT: Turning to economic issues now, how have you personally felt the impact of inflation in this country for the last one year and what do you think are its implications on the economy?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: The crisis has eroded the purchasing power of fixed income earners. It has pushed people to look for incomes outside their stable jobs. It will push those who don’t feel morally constrained into corruption. As you read newspapers everyday you begin to realise that there seems to be a widespread consensus that only a fool in government will not be corrupt. It has reached such a level that it is eroding all institutions step by step.

THE INDEPENDENT: Why does the Uganda political class seem far removed from the concerns of the majority who are fixed income earners?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: When the NRM came into power it had the ambition of changing the nature of the state and governance. It wanted to dismantle this unaccountable government of chiefs and it replaced them with resistance committees. In short, it championed a participatory notion as opposed to representative notion of government. The challenge was to combine the two, not to see them as alternatives, even opposites. NRM has had a problem doing so. Multiparty democracy and vibrant media are mainly an urban affair. In rural Uganda it is one party that functions; it is hard to speak on radio, let along organise a rally, outside election time in rural Uganda when you are from the opposition. The NRM which began wanting to bring the gap between the urban and the rural has cut off the rural from urban; we are back to the colonial model.

THE INDEPENDENT: But what stops the opposition from establishing themselves in rural areas?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: Once the elections are over, no opposition party has managed a sustained presence in rural areas. Even if it tries to do so, the state structure is determined to keep the opposition out of the rural areas. But the opposition has not tried. The dilemma of the opposition is not simply in Uganda; it is also the dilemma of the opposition in other African countries. They seem to have reached a conclusion that instead of the hard work of organising the rural communities, they can go for a soft alternative. Today, the opposition in Uganda calls on donors to support the removal of Museveni. The problem is that Museveni has also understood this. His response has been to make himself indispensable to the American War on Terror in the region. So the State department can say everything it wants to about the democratic deficit of the Uganda government but the CIA and the Department of Defence and the White House will not go along with the State department.

* BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Please do not take Pambazuka for granted! Become a Friend of Pambazuka and make a donation NOW to help keep Pambazuka FREE and INDEPENDENT!

This article was first published by The Independent.
* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

United States 911, Nigeria and the big opinion shift

Osita Ebiem

2012-05-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/81825

cc WikimediaThe problem of Nigeria is one-Nigeria. The state structure is wrong. The solution is restructuring; separation of the warring peoples, cultures and religions into independent countries.

In his recent article, John Campbell writing about the Easter Day suicide bombing of a Christian church in the Nigerian city of Kaduna succeeded in disappointing some of us who have been following his write-ups on Nigerian affairs. (Dozens of people were killed and the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram has since claimed responsibility for the bombing). The disappointment came from the fact that Campbell wrote an objective article contrary to what he and others have always written; merely speaking as mouthpieces of the Islamic North. This article was refreshing. Please click to follow the [url=http://blogs.cfr.org/campbell/2012/04/09/a-bloody-easter-in-nigeria/#more-4618[link[/url]. What some of us are advocating for is that the truth be told and written about Nigeria rather than falsified and sponsored reporting as we currently have. Those of us in the Southsouth and Southeast political zones of Nigeria are campaigning for separation from Nigeria but we do not want to base it on any false premise.

The current one-Nigeria is based on lies and falsehood so we know firsthand the implications of founding any state on deceit and untruth. No sincere advocate would therefore want a repeat of the same sordid mockery of human intelligence as is taking place today in one-Nigeria in the emerging new states. This is why we constantly advocate that if anyone must comment on Nigeria then they should be honest enough to base their arguments on facts and truth.

John Campbell served from May 2004 to November 2007 as the United States ambassador to Nigeria and ever since has remained a regular commentator on Nigerian affairs. But other than some time ago when he rightly and objectively said that the people of Niger Delta have become colonized for the second time in their own land by the Islamic oligarchs of northern Nigeria, he has tended to be biased in his essays on Nigeria. For a long time some of us have held our breath; alarmed and sometimes quite amused by the display of insensitivity and very lopsided reporting by people like John Campbell, Jean Herskovits, Jon Gambrell and a few other foreign commentators.

On occasions these reporters had gone from the theatrical to sheer ridiculous levels of the absurd. Like a people sponsored and recruited to perform as jests in the royal court of the Sultan of the Sokoto caliphate and the rest of the Islamic oligarchs of the Nigerian north, their writing never left anyone in doubt as to where they were coming from. In their haste to carry out an urgent paid-assignment they left very little to hide as they made concerted effort and danced completely naked to the badly rehashed tune of the paymasters. It was very unprofessional. They repeated as if to a bunch of tone-deaf audience the absurdity that poverty and bad governance are responsible for the scourge of Islamic terrorism unleashed on the Christian population of Nigeria.

To write this article I took time to visit the 911 Memorial in New York City. While there I had a sobering mixed feeling of sadness, hope and courage. And I said: No one had any reason to have committed such a premeditated mass murder of the innocent. Then I read some of the courageous exploits of the innocent men, women and children as they struggled to rise out of the ashes of hatred and death thrown on them quite suddenly and unexpectedly. I tried to think but emotions were almost getting the better part of me. I tried to imagine how the men who carried out the hate crime in the name of Islam thought. They lived among Americans for several years, ate American food, drank American water, walked the streets and trained in American schools and all the time planned on how to kill their hosts. And they did.

Yet another thing was very impressive; I went outside and saw the American demonstration of faith in life and the eventual defeat of unfounded Islamic fear and hatred. I saw the new buildings defiantly rising out of the ashes and debris of fear and hate; multiple Phoenixes, seven of them in rebirth, gleaming. I left knowing that Biafra, Igbo people, as the new World Trade Center, will eventually rise above the Nigerian/Islamic hatred and become free to live life on their own terms and secure the future of their children in their own Homeland.

The mantra by some Western nations including the United States before now is that poverty is responsible for the Islamic violence against Christians in Nigeria. Linking poverty and bad governance to the Islamic terrorism that has continued to go on in Nigeria against Igbo people since 1945 to date could not have been more callous and insulting of the sensibilities of a discerning world than saying that it is because Osama bin Laden was poor and indigent so he chose to kill Americans. Or to claim that the Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the millionaire Islamic underwear bomber of the 2009 Christmas Day Delta Flight incident, was driven by poverty to kill Americans. Can anyone honestly also claim that poverty is the reason why the Egyptian Muslims are bombing the Coptic Christians in Egypt? Could it have been poverty that made the Egyptian government in league with the rest of the Arab nations to send their pilots to bomb and strafe Igbo/Biafran civilians between 1967 and 1970? In all honesty can anyone claim that poverty was responsible when Great Britain of Harold Wilson and the then USSR sponsored and supplied all the arms and men that Nigeria needed to commit genocide in Biafra where 3.1 million Igbo/Biafrans were murdered between 1966 and 1970?

The honest truth is that poverty and bad governance are not even remotely connected with the Islamic jihad going on in Nigeria. The problem is culture/religious clash. The problem of Nigeria is one-Nigeria. The state structure is wrong. The solution is restructuring; separation of the warring peoples, cultures and religions into independent countries. Let each group determine the way they want to live, worship and be governed in their own separate sovereign entities. Igbo/Biafra people want to get out of the unworkable Nigerian union and establish a separate independent sovereign secular state. The Islamic North wants to separate from Nigeria and establish a sharia state: That is the clear message of Boko Haram and they are entitled to it. The west part of Nigeria wants Odua sovereign state, independent and separate from Nigeria. This truth is simple enough and does not need to be spoken in any complex and sophisticated language to make anyone listen and do the right thing. Human lives are being wasted, for goodness sake.

However, as we write, we see light at the end of the tunnel. With the perceived shift in the reporting of people like John Campbell about Nigeria, it seems little but it is very significant. For some reason the United States State Department and others tend to base their decisions about Nigeria on the opinion of these people so we take them serious. Before now their opinion had been clouded but today it is changing and the world must brace up for the revealing of the big truth and a big change. At last, after a long period of harrowing darkness, death and dishonesty; the truth will now prevail on the reality of the Nigerian situation. Nigeria will now be divided because that is the only viable option.

* BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Please do not take Pambazuka for granted! Become a Friend of Pambazuka and make a donation NOW to help keep Pambazuka FREE and INDEPENDENT!

* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Cessation Clause for Rwandan refugees raises questions

Guillaume Cliche-Rivard

2012-05-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/81821

cc W E CThe whole rationale behind UNHCR’s recommendation to invoke the Cessation Clause is suspect. The refugees body should be urged to withdraw it.

The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees states that refugee status is temporary. Articles 1C (1) to (6) describe the so-called ‘Cessation Clauses’. When invoked, these provisions cease the international protection of a specific group of refugees: ‘He [the refugee] can no longer, because of circumstances in connexion with which he has been recognized as a refugee have ceased to exist, continue to refuse to avail himself of the protection of the country of his nationality’[1]. Since 2002, the Government of Rwanda has repeatedly requested UNHCR to recommend the invocation of the Cessation Clause for Rwandan refugees. This pressure succeeded as UNHCR’s Executive Committee’s 60th Session (2009) declared that it was considering invoking the Clause in 2011.

To counter this measure, the Fahamu Refugee Programme, other NGOs and concerned individuals signed a petition, which argued that such a drastic measure was not appropriate at this point in time. This strategy succeeded in temporarily postponing the invocation of the Cessation Clause to June 2013, while UNHCR has recommended that States ‘commence to progressively implement throughout 2012 all aspects of cessation of refugee status’ [2].

Invoking the Cessation Clause signifies the end to the international protection of certain refugee groups. UNHCR’s recommendation at this time, in the case of Rwanda, raises fundamental political, ethical and juridical concerns. This article examines these issues and questions the whole rationale behind UNHCR’s recommendation to invoke the Cessation Clause and aims to mobilise the international community to request its withdrawal.

ASSESSING CHANGE IN RWANDA

UNHCR’s Comprehensive strategy for Rwanda recalls that both the 1951 Refugee Convention and the OAU Refugee Convention require that cessation of refugee status can only occur when ‘positive changes have taken place in the country of nationality (or country of habitual residence), such that the causes of refugee flight no longer exist. The changes must be of a fundamental and durable character’ [3]. This requirement, however, necessitates further elaboration: How have ‘positive’, ‘fundamental’ and ‘durable’ been defined? After what period of time are changes reputed to be durable? How are host States to be convinced that these changes are real?

NGO reports, such as Amnesty International’s, raise important concerns with the political stability of Rwanda and the protection of fundamental human rights under Kagame’s administration, especially the violation of freedom of expression and the vague charge of ‘genocide ideology’ [4]. There are also numerous concerns regarding Kagame government’s claims of free and fair elections and substantive democratic reforms. In light of the evidence that civil and political rights in Rwanda continue to be violated, how can it be argued that fundamental and durable change has occurred justifying the invocation of the Cessation Clause? As the recommendation expresses that the Cessation is not going to be applied on Rwandans who escaped the country after 1998 or are still seeking asylum, it clearly indicates that fundamental, durable, and positive changes have not occurred in Rwanda.

Additionally, the Guidelines on International Protection state that ‘changes in the refugee’s country of origin affecting only part of the territory should not, in principle, lead to cessation of refugee status’ [5]. According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC):

“Some refugees had been prevented from returning home by the FDLR, [Forces Democratiques de liberation du Rwanda] but they had also been reluctant to return because did not trust the Rwandan Gacaca courts and did not think they would be able to reintegrate. The prospects of returnees and those resettled depend on continuing reconciliation and the equitable distribution and management of scarce land” [6].

How could any host state and UNHCR justify the invocation of the Cessation Clause when these changes are not countrywide and understanding that some Rwandan refugees do not trust the country’s administration?

Moreover, Paragraph 135 of the Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status under the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees states that the Cessation Clause will be invoked when ‘fundamental changes in the country, which can be assumed to remove the basis of the fear of persecution’ have occurred [7]. Paragraph 115 states that the Cessation Clause can be invoked only if ‘the reasons for a person becoming a refugee have ceased to exist’. Is there a difference between ‘fundamental changes’ in the country and ‘ceased to exist’ conditions? What could be understood as ‘fundamental changes’ and is this requirement less restrictive than the ‘ceased to exist’ conditions? These conflicting terminologies are confusing to legal advisors and refugees. Even if it were agreed that fundamental changes have occurred in Rwanda, given that Rwandans continue to flee, it would be impossible to argue that the previous conditions leading to these exiles have ‘ceased to exist’.

According to the UNHCR Executive Committee Conclusion 69 before invoking the Cessation Clause, ‘States must carefully assess the fundamental character of the changes in the country of nationality or origin’ [8]. Given that this statement stresses that States are responsible for assessing these ‘fundamental changes’, why is UNHCR appearing to have already made this determination in the case of Rwanda? Moreover, if UNHCR has already determined that the changes in Rwanda are fundamental and durable, under which criteria was this assessment made? What response was given to NGOs concerns? Understanding that both the invocation of the Cessation Clause and the assessment of fundamental changes are States’ responsibilities, why does UNHCR seem to be leading the discussion of States’ obligations? What is driving UNHCR’s agenda? How was the decision to recommend the Cessation Clause for Rwandan refugees made? Understanding the current situation presented by Amnesty International and IDMC, why is cessation recommended at this time?

INTERNAL CONTRADICTIONS

In 2003, UNHCR produced a Guideline on International Protection: Cessation of Refugee Status under Article 1C(5) and (6) of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees ( the “Ceased Circumstances” Clauses). The Guidelines state that, ‘Cessation under Article IC(5) and IC(6) does not require the consent of or a voluntary act by the refugee’ [9]. However, this interpretation in contested in some host States. The First Secretary of the Rwandan High Commission in Uganda, Mr. John Ngarambe, at the 28 February 2012 meeting held in Nakivale Refugee Camp, was reported as stating that ‘the Cessation Clause does not allow anyone to forcefully repatriate Rwandan refugees’ [10]. It is unclear when - and to whom - UNHCR or a State intends to ‘operationalise’ the non-requirement for consent? What is UNHCR’s response to this statement by Mr. Ngarambe?

In addition, is UNHCR promoting the Cessation Clause globally or just in Africa? It has appointed ‘focal points’ for 21 African States, but remained silent on how the invocation is to affect other continents. Have all African States hosting Rwandan refugees accepted UNHCR’s recommendation for invocation and does UNHCR expect States to apply its guidance on the exemptions procedures guidelines [11]? What if States develop their own guidelines or if they do not decide to invoke the Cessation Clause at all? What would be the consequence of inconsistent decisions? Could refugees then seek asylum in another State that had refused to invoke it?

OTHER PROTECTION ISSUES

If the Cessation Clause is invoked by 30 June 2013, as recommended by UNHCR, the process will raise several other protection issues - particularly with regard to legal aid and State assistance. The Comprehensive Strategy states that ‘UNHCR will provide advice and technical or such other support and resources as may be required by States for the implementation of the Cessation Clauses’ [12]. What will this ‘advice and technical or such other support and resources’ constitute? Will UNHCR recruit lawyers for each African host State to assist in interviewing Rwandans as was done for Sudan [13]? There is strong evidence to suggest that most Rwandan refugees currently resist the notion of return. Will there be any legal aid provided so as to ensure they are competently represented before a State or UNHCR adjudication process?

Concerning Rwandans in Europe, a telephone conversation on April 17 2012 with Michele Cavinato (Policy officer at UNHCR’s European Bureau in Brussels and focal point for Rwandan Cessation Clause in Europe) assured that Europe is unlikely to follow UNHCR’s recommendation to invoke the Cessation Clause for Rwandan refugees [14]. What impact could such decision have on UNHCR’s credibility?

While Mr Cavinato noted that the majority of Rwandans have been locally integrated in their host States, the concern was expressed for those currently seeking asylum in Europe. Mr Cavinato was reassured that Europe will normally not consider Rwanda as a safe country of origin and hoped that the recommendation will not affect the new refugees or persons who are seeking asylum for facts occurring after 1998.

Unlike Europe, up to now no provisions for local integration in Africa have materialised, and the cessation recommendation is still pending. Why is UNHCR pursuing cessation before provisions for local integration are official? How can refugees be asked to choose between repatriation and local integration when the terms of ‘local integration’ have not yet been defined?

As this paper was being revised, The Daily Guide reported the situation of Liberians refugees in Ghana who are facing the Cessation Clause on 30 June 2012. Those who do not want to repatriate must report to the Ghanaian immigration office by the 30 April to seek local integration. However, provisions for local integration ‘has not yet been defined by the Ghana government’ [15]. This situation is not unique to Ghana as the Lusaka Times [16] reported on 26 April 2012 a discussion about Angolans in Zambia also facing cessation in June 2012. What choices are refugees expected to make if the provisions for local integration are inexistent? There is, in fact, no choice [17].

EXEMPTIONS

Paragraph 5 of the Guidelines on Exemption Procedures describes two categories of refugees who should be exempted from cessation: ‘(1) refugees who continue to have a well founded fear of persecution, despite general positive changes in the country of origin, and (2) refugees who due to compelling reasons arising out of previous persecution cannot be expected to return to their country of origin’ [18]. The Guidelines on Exemption Procedures admits that there is ‘no fixed definition of, or scale on which acts of persecution are so severe that an exception on the basis of ‘compelling reasons’ is warranted’. However, it defines that ‘sufficient severity can be inferred from the act itself, e.g., including but not limited to genocide, torture and other degrading treatment, detention in camps or prisons, acts or threats of severe violence, including mutilation, rape and other forms of sexual assault’ [19]. If the recommendation is maintained, will every person who feared the genocide or acts/threats of severe violence be exempted? Would people who fled Kagame’s military intervention in DRC (including innocent Hutu and civilian Tutsis) be included in the exemptions as defined? Moreover, is a test (singular) necessary to assess the severity of the acts? Whether UNHCR will then provide the necessary medical and physiological expertise remains to be seen, and it is possible that refugees will be responsible for paying these services.

We know of cases of ‘Hutu’ refugees of ‘mixed’ parentage who came to Uganda before 1998 and subsequently returned to Rwanda, only to find living there intolerable and returned to Uganda. If they have returned to Uganda since 1998, will they be exempted?

ACQUIRED RIGHTS?

In several discussions at the annual UNHCR/NGO Consultations, George Okoth-Obbo, of UNHCR’s Africa Bureau, has spoken about ‘acquired rights’. The document, UNHCR Note on Suspension of ‘General Cessation’ Declaration in respect of particular persons or groups based on acquired rights to family unity, refers to social and economic rights.

UNHCR Note on Suspension of ‘General Cessation’ Declaration in respect of particular persons or groups based on acquired rights to family unity provides for a suspension of the Cessation Clause ‘to particular persons or group based on right to family unity’. This ‘suspension’ can be declared for someone who ‘cannot be expected to leave the country of asylum, due to a long stay in that country resulting in strong family, social and economic links’.

The suspension is not an exemption to the Cessation Clause and is limited to a maximum of one year. It would allow refugees to continue to benefit from protection ‘until such arrangements are agreed and/or implemented’ [20]. What constitutes these ‘arrangements’? Would one year be enough to establish the right to remain with one’s spouse? Do all States have such provisions for respecting family unity? And, more importantly, what is this document suggesting when it refers to ‘social and economic links’? Is this a reference to rights conferred by the International Covenant for Economical, Social and Cultural Rights?

Many Rwandans in Uganda have acquired land and property, the majority of whom have paid taxes to the Ugandan government over many years. Unknown numbers of Rwandan refugees have received university education in their host countries in Africa. Tutsi Rwandans in Tanzania were naturalised; have any of these Rwandan returned to Rwanda after the genocide, but returned to Tanzania again? Rwandans in Uganda and Tanzania were employed in various sectors of the economy. The majority of these refugees arrived before 1998. Would these elements facilitate local integration and status regularisation?

SOME FINAL QUESTIONS

In its document, UNHCR Comprehensive Strategy for Rwandan Refugee Situation, UNHCR admits that the likelihood for local integration remains low. It states that, ‘broadly speaking, governments in countries of asylum have yet to step forward with concrete offers of local integration for Rwandan refugees generally, or to define the categories of refugees who may be eligible for this solution, many being reluctant to commit to local integration options absent clear progress with regard of voluntary repatriation’ [21].

Which States are expected to change their position and allow local integration? What would be Rwandans’ immigration status? What rights would be granted to them? Have any States agreed to naturalise Rwandans? We have noted that neither Ghana nor Zambia have done so yet. Despite this, the cessation clause is still recommended for Rwandans for June 2013. What is the rationale behind such a hurry?

The cessation of refugee status itself is not the fundamental problem raised by this recommendation. The main issue represents the absence of local integration policies and the inexistent choices that Rwandan refugees have to face. A cessation clause accompanied by large provisions for local integration would mean there is a real choice for refugees; it would not force them to repatriate. This article raised an important number of political, ethical and juridical issues generated by UNHCR’s recommendation to invoke Cessation Clause for Rwandan refugees and has demonstrate why it is not time for such decision for Rwanda. Fahamu Refugee Programme is enquiring individuals, NGOs and governmental supports to achieve the revocation of this recommendation.

* BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Please do not take Pambazuka for granted! Become a Friend of Pambazuka and make a donation NOW to help keep Pambazuka FREE and INDEPENDENT!
* Guillaume Cliche-Rivard is an intern at the Fahamu Refugee Programme.

* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

END NOTES

[1] UN General Assembly, Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, 28 July 1951, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 189, p. 137, available at: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3be01b964.html [accessed 27 April 2012].
[2] UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Implementation of the Comprehensive Strategy for the Rwandan Refugee Situation, including UNHCR’s recommendation on the Applicability of the ‘’Ceased Circumstances’ Cessation Clauses, Inter-Office Memorandum No. 093/2011, 31 December 2011, AF/00/DIR/048/11.
[3] Ibid.
[4]Amnesty International, Rwanda Annual Report 2011, 2011, available at: http://www.amnesty.org/en/region/rwanda/report-2011 [accessed 31 March 2012], Amnesty International, Rwanda urged to end clampdown on dissent as Charles Ntakirutinka released, December 2012, http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/rwanda-urged-end-clampdown-dissent-charles-ntakirutinka-released-2012-03-01 [accessed 31 March 2012] and Amnesty International, Vague laws used to criminalise criticism of government in Rwanda, 2010, available at : http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/vague-laws-used-criminalise-criticism-government-rwanda-2010-08-31 [accessed 2 April 2012].
[5] UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Guidelines on Exemption Procedures in respect of Cessation Declarations, December 2011, available at: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4eef5c3a2.html [accessed 31 March 2012].
[6] International Displacement Centre, Rwanda : Ensuring durable solutions for Rwanda’s displaced : a chapter too early closed, available at : http://www.internal-displacement.org/countries/Rwanda [accessed 31 March 2012].
[7] UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status under the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees, January 1992, available at: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3ae6b3314.html [accessed 31 March 2012].
[8] UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Cessation of Status, October 1992, ExCom Conclusions 69, available at: http://www.unhcr.org/3ae68c431c.html [accessed 31 March 2012].
[9] UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Guidelines on International Protection No. 3: Cessation of Refugee Status under Article 1C(5) and (6) of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (the "Ceased Circumstances" Clauses), 10 February 2003, HCR/GIP/03/03, available at: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3e50de6b4.html [accessed 31 March 2012].
[10] Mutuyimana Manzi, Report of the meeting of the 28 February 2012 held in Nakivale Refugee Camp, unofficial.
[11] Op cit., UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Guidelines on Exemption Procedures in respect of Cessation Declarations.
[12] Op cit., UN High Commissioner for Refugees Implementation of the Comprehensive Strategy for the Rwandan Refugee Situation, including UNHCR’s recommendations on the Applicability of the “Ceased Circumstances’ Cessation Clauses".
[13] Siddiqui, Y. Reviewing the Application of the Cessation Clause of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees in Africa, 2009, Oxford University.
[14] Telephonic communication with Michele Cavinato, Policy Officer of UNHCR’s European Bureau and focal point for Rwanda Cessation Clause in Europe, 17 April 2012.
[15] The Daily Guide, ‘The Dilemma Liberian Refugees’, 28 April 2012, available at: http://www.google.ca/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=%5D+The+Daily+Guide%2C+%E2%80%98The+Dilemma+Liberian+Refugees%E2%80%99%2C+28+April+2012 [accessed 30 April 2012].
[16] Lusaka Times, ‘Angolan Refugees Asked to Leave Zambia’, 26 April 2012, available at: http://www.lusakatimes.com/2012/04/26/angolan-refugees-asked-leave-zambia/[accessed 30 April 2012].
[17] See also ‘Zambia has no intentions of integrating refugees’, TIME PUBLISHED, July 2, 2011.
[18] Op cit., UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Guidelines on Exemption Procedures in respect of Cessation Declarations.
[19] Ibid.
[20] UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Note on Suspension of “General Cessation” Declarations in respect of particular persons or groups based on acquired rights to family unity, December 2011, available at http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/pdfid/4eef5a1b2.pdf [accessed 31 March 2012].
[21] Op cit., UN High Commissioner for Refugees Implementation of the Comprehensive Strategy for the Rwandan Refugee Situation, including UNHCR’s recommendations on the Applicability of the “Ceased Circumstances’ Cessation Clauses".

Rwanda: 18 Years After

Chika Ezeanya

2012-05-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/81816

cc E FIn this short story, the wedding day of a young woman is described in the context of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

18 years after that Day, tears of joy, like cow’s urine, spurted from my eyes. Imbabazi. Forgiveness. The word that started the journey to today. Mbabazi. The name we will give our first child. Whether boy or girl, Bizimana and I know that the first fruit of our love will be called Mbabazi. The singularity of events that brought us together demands nothing short of an uncommon response.

18 years ago, nobody would have thought or imagined that a day like this would be possible. I stared at Bizimana my beloved, and the tears flowed even more.

‘We are here on a journey that has taken us several generations to make,’ declared Nkurunziza, the eldest man from Bizimana’s family.

‘Eeeeehhh welcome.’ My uncle, Mzee said. ‘He who has traveled alone for long can easily summarize his needs. Please tell us about your journey of several generations. How many years have you been traveling? What is the purpose of the journey? Please talk; our ears are thoroughly cleaned of wax.’

Several of Bizimana’s family accompanied him; parents, uncles, aunties, cousins, nephews, and nieces. It was a most joyful day for them. They all come from the people who did the unthinkable 18 years ago. The men were most elegantly dressed, wearing their stately imikenyero with much swagger. Most of the ladies were gracefully clad in beautifully patterned chiffon imikenyero, although some wore pant or skirt suits, or well-sown richly embroided brocade gowns.

My family was well represented as well. My ‘father’ sat smiling like the saint he is, Reverend Dieudonne, the man who held my one month old head and poured water over it 28 years ago, as Papa held my screaming body in his arms. Reverend Dieudonne has held my head and my hand, and guided my feet for the past 18 years. Papa could not have wished for a better replacement for him on a day like this. My ‘uncle,’ Mzee, the messenger from the office where I have worked for the past 8 years sat besides Reverend Diedonne. Beside Mzee sat Mutumayi. Mutumayi was my family barber. He cut Papa’s hair from the time he was born until he was no more. When Papa married Ma, Mutumayi’s wife plaited Ma’s hair, and Agathe’s and mine.

Epiphanie led the women who sat on the row behind the men. A better mother I could not have wished for. Ma brought me into the world the first time; Epiphanie brought me into the world the second time.

I remember the look in Epiphanie’s eyes on that fateful day as she snatched me from the trembling hands of my father. At ten years, I stood at about 5 feet and 5 inches tall, but Epiphanie’s slight frame did not shake one bit when she heaved me unto her shoulders. I cried out in pain as my legs were pierced by the broken bottles that laced the fence dividing her compound and mine. I felt the rush and wetness of blood from my legs down to my toes.

‘Papa! Papa!’ I screamed.

‘Shhhhhhh. Papa will come for you later.’ Epiphanie hushed as the sound of the Interahamwe breaking down the gates of my compound drowned her pleas.

‘Papa my leg, my feet,’ I was uncontrollable. Epiphanie covered my mouth with her hand, but I pushed it away and screamed even more.

‘Papa my leg! Papa, Ma, Seminage, Agathe!’ I shouted even louder. I cried from the searing pain of the wound, and for my family as their blood-curling screams filled the air.

‘I am a grey haired man,’ Nkurunziza responded to Mzee’s question. ‘Only a matter of grave importance could have dragged me away from under my Mango tree shade. My young son has been crying for a very long time and pointing at your compound. He has been seeing something from this compound in his dreams, he says. Sometime ago, he came to me in the company of all his elder ones to say that his dreams make him sick and he can only be cured if he should possess that precious thing in broad daylight.’

Nkurunziza’s hands were spread as in supplication. He adjusted his umukerenyo as he spoke. His dark, rough looking and wrinkled elbows rested on the plain white satin fabric that covered the table.

‘I heard your words, Nkurunziza.’ Mzee said. ‘But they darken my knowledge more than they clarify it. Your son has been pointing at this compound, you say?’

‘Yes, Mzee. I have never heard him talk of any other compound this way since I placed him in his mother’s womb.’

‘Nkurunziza?’ Mzee called out, staring at the floor of the vast compound and avoiding the eyes of the one he called. There was nothing admirable to hold his gaze, except for the bits of green, dark brown and light brown colored grasses, surrounded by stretches of red earth. Across the compound, the grass grew in patches, like the hair on Seminage’s head.

Seminage suffered from an acute case of ringworm. For long, Papa and Ma pleaded with him to shave his head to allow for proper treatment of the infection, but he refused. One Sunday evening, Papa and Ma dragged Seminage to Mutumayi, and pinning him to the old, brown, leather-covered chair, asked that his head be shaved.

Papa and Ma were later to regret their action. Seminage refused to eat or talk to anybody for days afterwards. He went to school without food and watched television during lunch. In the evenings, he sat at the table but pushed his dinner plate aside and fetching the family Bible, would open to the book of Job and stare at it until end of dinner. Intermittently, he would read some verses aloud, pretending to be memorizing them, but they were usually verses warning of the wrath of God that awaited all oppressors of His children. Mama pleaded, cajoled, and even cried by the second week, but Seminage would not budge. Papa threatened about three times and seeing his threats met with cold stares ignored Seminage. Seminage’s hair grew back quickly, and only then did he start eating. From then on, nobody raised questions about how he chose to wear his hair. He shaved off only the areas affected by the ringworm, and left the hair around to grow to a sizeable length. Hilarious Seminage – I still miss him sorely.

‘Nkurunziza’ Mzee repeated, still staring at the unsightly patch before him.

‘Kalame’ Nkurunziza answered.

‘I try to be modest about my blessings, but the fact is that there is so much about my compound for a young man to dream about. My stalls are full of cows. My backyard stretches with acres of banana trees bursting with harvests. The chests of my young girls are heavy with breasts. Which one of these keeps your son restless in his sleeping and waking moments?’

Bizimana smiled at the mention of breasts. He loves the fact that I am heavy in the upper area. It makes my tall thin frame balanced, he says. Bizimana is the youngest of six brothers none of who could make it to the wedding. The prison would not allow four of them to come, even with extra warders that we had offered to pay for. The eldest is still on the run. He has been sighted in Congo, Uganda, Tanzania and even Belgium. For three months he wielded the panga-machete, the Ishoka-axe, the ubuhiri - those hideous looking wooden clubs with nails, and threw the grenade. Ruharwa – the notorious one - was the name given to him by fellow Interahamwe. Even when the rebel forces advanced into the city, he kept cutting, and in shirt and pants soaked with blood that was not his, he cut his way for miles into the Democratic Republic of Congo.

‘You have spoken well, Mzee,’ Nkurunziza responded. ‘But from the time his mother removed the breast from his mouth, my son has known no idleness. He does not have eyes for your cows, and neither does his mind think about your banana fields. The heavy chests of your virgins perturb him not, for he is known to have his manhood tightly girded with the Ishabure. It is the heart and happiness of one of your daughters that has troubled him from the first day he made acquaintance with her. Gaju is her name.’

At the mention of my name, the musicians who accompanied Bizimana’s family began to sing:

Gaju, Gaju, the name of beauty.

Gaju is the chaste lady we want.

She comes beautiful, inside and outside.

Gaju, the woman whose soul is clean and whose body bears no scars.

A genuine and long lasting round of applause came from everybody. The elated lead singer barred all her teeth in delight at the warm reception from the audience.

Great music, but a little exaggeration right there. Apart from the marks I sustained from the glass cuts that Day, I do have another - bigger, more unsightly - mark on my left upper thigh.

‘Have you come to lure us away from reason with your soul-stirring music?’ I heard Mzee ask Nkurunziza in response to the music.

Mzee and his words. He was with me the day I sustained the huge scar on my thigh. We had gone to the bank to make some deposits and process some drafts. His motorcycle followed closely behind mine, as he would often insist when we had to go anywhere together. ‘You are too beautiful to be left alone with a man, rubbing your body against his, and breathing down his neck,’ Mzee would often say. Mzee. He says things as they are. My conclusion is that the operator of the motorcycle I took that day could have only come straight from the deep interiors of the village that morning. Sighting his relative’s motorcycle for the first time, he must have asked for the keys to go try out the machine. How else can one explain the way he drove zig-zag as his hands shook on the neatly asphalted road?

I remember Mzee saying something loudly from his motorcycle and as I turned to hear him, I found myself in a ditch, with the motorcycle exhaust pipe on top of my thighs. It turned out Mzee was calling on the motorcycle rider to stop, he saw the accident coming. What Mzee did next confounded me and all the passersby there that day. With one hand, the almost 67-year-old man held the motorcycle operator’s pants and with the other he single handedly lifted the motorcycle from my body. There were tears in his tired eyes as he violently shook the cyclist, shouting, ‘what did she do to you that you have sought to kill her?’

‘Even if you had brought Kairebwa Cecile to sing until she fears to loose her prized voice, we shall not be moved,’ Mzee continued. Everybody in the audience laughed heartily.

‘When has good music become bribery, Mzee?’ Nkurunziza asked feigning anger at being so accused.

‘Mzee, you indict me of no light a charge and we might have to halt this event to go to the court of law, for I must defend my untainted family name of your dreadful indictment.’

Mzee acted along by soft-pedaling his stance and showing signs of being afraid of a court case.

‘What else do you want me to say, my dear Nkurunziza. You have been the one talking all these while and referring to an imaginary son. I am left with the suspicion that you wish to take my precious daughter for yourself, to warm your old blood. If not, may you identify clearly to us, the young and fresh blood who has been spending mindless days and fitful nights over Gaju?’

At these words, the Itorero dancers emerged from behind the small white tent where Bizimana’s family sat and began to dance.

Who else could have brought us here,

We the renowned dancers of Cyangugu

We do not accompany any flimsy person

Or attend flimsy occasions

We have brought the true son of his father

The man who speaks and keeps his word

The heaviest cows from Cyangugu we have brought with us

Because Bizimana goes with the very best

From my vintage observation point inside the house I could see Bizimana marching out slowly with four other young men. Those could have been his brothers with him, I thought sadly. At the Gacaca, Bizimana’s four brothers had lied about everything. Despite the overwhelming evidence against them from several witnesses, they refused to acknowledge their acts. ‘I was sick during the Cutting,’ lied the one with HIV. It was a lie. He only got to know his status after the Cutting, while he was detained and awaiting trial. Doctors Without Borders offered to test all suspects, and started the confirmed cases on anti-retroviral, depending on their viral load.

‘May the Lord forgive my accusers and grant them a place in heaven,’ responded his other brother the Catechist, when asked to confess to his crimes. Clutching his huge black leather Bible, a songbook and a book of catechism, he lifted his eyes to heaven and sang a Christian dirge, mentioning the names of his ‘beloved neighbors’ who he lost to demon possessed people. ‘You need to partake of the communion right now, that the joy of the Lord may fill your soul,’ he said to the middle aged woman crying bitterly and testifying of how she watched from her hiding place as he cut her husband and three children to pieces. The other two brothers did not bother to defend themselves. ‘They are horrible people and deserved what they got,’ one said of his victims. The other kept quiet all through the trials and stared at the hills and landscape, far beyond where his accusers sat, fixing his gaze on no one and saying nothing to anybody.

‘We have fulfilled our side of the bargain,’ began Nkurunziza. See the handsome young man that we brought to you.’ Nkurunziza pointed at Bizimana proudly, smiling widely. His dentition, perfect for a man of his age, was displayed in its entirety. ‘Mzee, do you now agree that we are not cheats?’

‘We have seen him,’ Mzee responded in a nonchalant manner, as if he was not impressed by Bizimana in all his splendor.

‘Is it fair that we ask to see the reason for which we came here?’ asked Nkurunziza.

‘Why are you in such a hurry?’ Mzee responded, feigning surprise and agitation. ‘Are you afraid of the choice of your son? Do you fear that it is one of these women behind me that he has an eye for? Mzee pointed at the women who sat in the row behind him, his own wife, his wife’s elder sister, Epiphanie, Epiphanie’s two elder sisters, Mutumayi’s wife, an older reverend sister that came with Reverend Dieudonne and two other women in their 70s.

‘The women I see behind you are all young and very beautiful,’ responded Nkurunziza tactfully. ‘It shall be our pleasure to welcome any one of them into our family.’

I saw Epiphanie smile slightly for the first time that day. Yet, her anguish was obvious. Not that she did not want me to get married, she did, but insisted that I must marry one of my own people. ‘A Tutsi, you must marry,’ she said severally to me. ‘My people do not like your people, my daughter,’ she would often warn me. ‘I will not sleep well at night to know that you are in the arms of one of my people, we do not like your people and anything can happen tomorrow.’

‘But Ma, things are changing. The past is over and together we have to build a new future.’ I would then give her examples of several of my friends who had survived the Cutting, and who went on to marry men from her people. ‘Ma everybody is not bad. You saved my life. And there are other people like you among your people too.’

‘You are a child, my dear. How will you know the good and bad ones?’

‘I will know Ma. I am not that young anymore. We are one people. We speak the same language, we eat the same food, we have the same culture, we are all mostly Christians, Let the past be in the past, Ma, and let us try to build a new future for ourselves.’

‘Gaju, listen to me.’ On and on Epiphanie would go.

The day I told her about Bizimana, she screamed and screamed until she began to pant for air. I had to take her to the hospital where she spent one week on admission.

A week after her hospital stay, Epiphanie woke me up one night and asked that I come to the sitting room.

‘Did you say that you have decided to marry Bizimana son of Ngoga? She asked.

I kept quiet.

‘Gaju did I ask you a question or not?’

I kept quiet.

‘Has it reached the point of treating me with scorn and disrespect,’ she began to say.

‘Ma it is not that. You know I will never disrespect you. It is just that you are not yet well enough to hold this discussion. May we please leave this talk until you are strong enough?’

‘Gaju, I can never be strong enough to hold the kind of conversation you have in mind,’ Epiphanie began to say, her eyes assuming that wild look I saw last on the day she took me from Papa. She reached under the basket styled table and produced a brand new thinly sharpened machete.

‘Complete the job now,’ she said, forcing the machete handle into my right hand. ‘Finish up what you started. Do it quickly, please do not delay. There is no point waiting. I beg you to make it quick and fast, my daughter.’ Her voice was thick with sorrow. Tears drenched the top of the red T-shirt that serves as her nightwear. The hand that forced the machete into mine shook with suppressed rage.

That was the second worst day of my life.

It was to take another three years of pleading, explaining, bringing friends that were happily inter-married, and giving gifts, for Epiphanie to most grudgingly allow today to happen. I could never have proceeded without her approval, no matter how begrudgingly given. Reverend Dieudonne came almost every weekend to counsel and to pray.

The day she accepted Bizimana, she simply said, ‘Do what is in your heart, Gaju. I will support you and pray for you every day I live. But no matter what, never forget what happened to your family.’

Epiphanie and her words; how could I ever forget? How could I forget that day, nine years ago, when at the Gacaca details of the murder of Papa, Ma, Seminage and Agathe came to light. It was the day I met Bizimana.

Bizimana eyes were red with tears from crying. He was 13 years old during the Cuttings. The day the Cuttings began, he did not really understand what was going on. However, not wanting to be at home alone, he had tagged along with his brothers. He followed closely behind as his brothers and others went from house to house, killing and killing and killing. Disgusted, Bizimana threw up severally. He fell sick and had to be carried home. After the first day, he refused to go on the second and third days. By the fourth day, his brothers insisted; they were going to do a lot of cutting and would need him. He dared not disobey his brothers; at the age of six when he dared, they had beat him into a coma.

It was in the early morning of that fourth day that they came to my house. After my house, he refused to participate in any more killings. He still limps from the beatings he received from his brothers. Across his forehead, back, upper right arm and lower left leg are huge unsightly scars of machete cuts he obtained from his brothers that day. He spent the rest of the three months the killings lasted recuperating in the hospital.

That day at the Gacaca, Bizimana begged his other brothers to come clean. He confessed to everything the way it happened. Not holding a thing back. He begged to be sentenced to life imprisonment. No, first, he begged for exceptions to the death penalty to be made in his case. He did not deserve to live, he said. ‘I cannot die by my own hands, please take my life,’ he pleaded over and over again.

Finally, Mzee called for me to come and identify my husband. I had chosen a red and gold Indian Saree for the occasion. My neck held the heavy gold plaited necklace adorned with layers of red colored fake diamonds. Matching earrings dangled from my ear lobes, almost touching my neck. My forehead held a similar chain with a long pendant that dropped close to the bridge of my nose.

‘Eheeeeee. I know my son. I know my son. Look at the beauty he is bringing into our home,’ Nkurunziza said with delight, as if that was his first time of seeing me.

I wore a solemn, almost sad look. It is unbecoming of a bride to give the slightest inclination at being excited about leaving her family. Before Mzee and Nkurunziza, we knelt for prayers. Both men laid hands on our heads and began to bless the union, our new family, our extended families, our friends, our jobs; everything imaginable was blessed that day.

Finally, we had to exchange rings. I could not hold myself any longer. Huge balls of tears dropped on my chest. I watched as the same hands that cut my family, yes, the very same fingers that lifted the metal machete, lifted a platinum and diamond ring of everlasting love.

* BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Please do not take Pambazuka for granted! Become a Friend of Pambazuka and make a donation NOW to help keep Pambazuka FREE and INDEPENDENT!

* Chika Ezeanya is the author of ‘Before We Set Sail’ . Some of her essays and fiction works can be found at www.chikaforafrica.com
* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

South Africa’s dangerously unsafe financial intercourse

2012-05-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/81815

cc W RSouth Africa's economic management is as risky as unsafe sex.

Just before last weekend’s meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) board in Washington, South Africa's finance minister dropped us an obscure news item: ‘Gordhan concerned about rand volatility’ (Reuters, 16 April).

Hidden away in the business pages, it was nevertheless an important confession. Pretoria can no longer remain in denial about South Africa’s glaring economic HIV+ status, what with our regular breakouts of full-blown financial AIDS, in a world featuring the collapse of so many sickly economies. Indeed, the rampaging plague will infect many more countries now that the IMF has an additional $430 billion to jet around the world with, thanks to careless finance ministers like our Pravin Gordhan.

Three years ago, his predecessor Trevor Manuel was responsible for lobbying the world to grant the IMF a $500 billion capital boost, aimed at firming up world finance after the 2008 melt. Now the banksters’ pimps are back for more, and even the BRICS bloc – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – were asked to fork out another $100 billion. Gordhan is on record supporting the bailout, even though the other BRICS haven’t yet paid a cent.

For once in his life, Australian media baron Rupert Murdoch spoke for the world’s masses when on Monday he tweeted about Britain’s contribution: ‘Govt sending IMF another £10bn to the euro. Must be mad. Not even US or China chipping in.’

Stodgy men like Murdoch may not like the ways of the wilder Europeans. And it’s true that the IMF remains full of unrehabilitated financial libertines, whose advice is inevitably to remove protections against monetary malfeasance, especially exchange controls. To paraphrase their advice with a sickening local anti-condom joke, ‘You can’t enjoy the sweet if the wrapper is still on.’

Even Nelson Mandela, who mistakenly approved a $750 million IMF loan a few months before our 1994 liberation from political apartheid, adopted the same suicidal philosophy – we may call it 'economic apartheid'. So as Gordhan is correct to finally now lament, the South African currency, the rand, became intensely ‘volatile’ – i.e., crashing dramatically, akin to a heart attack. Face it, that’s what happens when you play the field bare and unprotected, prone to picking up vile contagions from the world’s diseased financial industry, in an intellectual milieu of rampant economic-AIDS denialism.

Other opportunistic infections are all too obvious: a persistent current account deficit that by early 2009 had given us the reputation of the world’s riskiest of 17 emerging markets, according to Economist gossip. Last year, that status forced up our prime interest rate – the equivalent of a cheap perfume to attract sleazy one-night-stand banksters – to the world’s second-highest level, after Greece.

SA CURRENT ACCOUNT DEFICIT; ECONOMIST RISK RATING; COMPARATIVE INTEREST RATES

Why have we been so unhygienic in our international economic relations? There were those notoriously bad influences on Mandela at the World Economic Forum in 1992 and then two years later, IMF Managing Director Michel Camdessus reportedly told him he had to reappoint apartheid’s two main economic managers – both dirty old men with racist, big business swagger – when he took office in May 1994. Perhaps giddy with all the attention he was receiving then, Mandela stupidly agreed.

So it was SA Reserve Bank governor Chris Stals who, in March 1995, gave us a really bad dose of the virus just at the time the rest of the world was becoming aware of the emerging markets epidemic, a few weeks after Mexico caught economic Slim’s Disease and its currency crashed by two thirds. Stals cut a gaping hole in the only condom we had on at the time, the Finrand (‘Financial rand’), our decade-old system of discouraging capital flight. Within a year, in February 1996, the result was a crash of a third of the rand’s value, ironically catalyzed by a rumour that Mandela was ill.

Since then, like blood-letting in the 18th century, those promiscuous Pretoria players – the latter-day Lotharios Stals (1989-99), Tito Mboweni (1999-2009) and now Gill Marcus at the SA Reserve Bank and Chris Liebenberg (1994-95), Manuel (1995-2009) and Gordhan at Treasury – have tried to kill the patient by steadily rolling back that condom, loosening exchange controls more than 30 times. It must have felt relaxing to them and their Sandton financial district buddies, but with potentially fatal risk for the rest of us.

The worst period was 1999-2001 when the largest Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed firms – Anglo, DeBeers, Old Mutual, SA Breweries, Mondi, Investec, Didata and others – were given permission by Manuel to take their party to London, switching financial headquarters and primary stock market listings away from Johannesburg.

The blood then hemorrhaged: corporate dividends, rich white people’s apartheid-era loot and ‘Black Economic Empowerment’ tycoons’ tenderpreneurship takings (e.g. Mzi Khumalo’s illegal R1 billion+ of capital flight) spurted out of SA at record rates. In 2007, according to economists from Wits University, the capital outflow amounted to more than a fifth of the country’s GDP that year.

Worse yet, our children will be adversely affected by this generation’s irresponsibility. For in order to pay off the capital-flight financiers, Manuel and Gordhan contracted foreign debt that is now $100 billion higher than the $25 billion Nelson Mandela inherited in 1994 - putting us in danger of reaching mid-1980s levels when South Africa defaulted.

Each time there is a flare-up of the sickness, instead of staying home and recovering through tightened exchange controls, our financial fanatics cock their hips, raise the Reserve Bank’s repo rate to appear more attractive, and go out for more wild-and-crazy unsafe international monetary intercourse in the multiply-afflicted global capital markets. No wonder, as Gordhan has just complained, there’s extreme volatility in the temperature of the economy (the rand’s value). SA’s currency has crashed by more than 15 per cent on six separate occasions: 1996, 1998, 2001, 2006, 2008 and 2011.

That’s the worst ongoing currency malady in the world, aside from that fatal case across the Limpopo River, the wretched patient known as Zimdollar who died in January 2009 after Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono gave the country monetary gonorrhoea: an inflation rate of trillions of per cent. In that sauna-like climate, you can’t just go take a shower to protect yourself from infection, even South African president Jacob Zuma might acknowledge.
Also revealed last week was the secret behind our local ‘growth’: consumer credit binging, which is just another symptom of the underlying disease. The Standard & Poor’s rating agency - usually not so well regarded for timely recognition of financial f*&!-ups - indiscreetly remarked on rising unsecured personal loans for cars, home improvements, overdrafts and credit cards: ‘There are signs a bubble is forming…there’s no place in the world where unsecured credit has grown at this pace and there hasn’t been a problem with it.’

SA FOREIGN DEBT SOARS; CONSUMER DEBT BUBBLE FIT TO BURST

Our current finance minister, a trained chemist, surely understands these terrible infections. Yet for Gordhan, the cure is simply more globalization, with the vain hope that his intimate partners on Wall Street and the City of London will somehow discover a cure – though all evidence is certainly to the contrary, with Iceland, Ireland, Greece and now Spain keeling over. The Euro itself could be next in the morgue.

This past weekend’s parties in Washington offered more evidence of politicians’ pathological love of the international financial high life. Not even an AIDS specialist like Dr Jim Yong Kim – the just-named World Bank president who while at the World Health Organisation helped get cheap Anti-Retrovirals to millions of HIV+ Africans – has the skills to end this ideological plague, also known as the Washington Consensus.

We thought Dr Kim could at least try, after reading a brilliant book he co-edited a decade ago, ‘Dying for Growth’, but he’s since been consorting with Washington quacks, trying as hard as he can to deny his earlier diagnoses by claiming the World Bank is now ‘pro-poor’. Ah, the lies that the terminally ill tell themselves – but no one else is fooled.

None of these fast-lane financiers learnt a lesson in humility from the 2007 firing of World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz due to nepotism (high-salaried favours for a girlfriend), nor from the tragically sex-addicted Dominique Strauss-Kahn, formerly IMF managing director. Strauss-Kahn resigned in disgrace but his influence lingers, as the fast-thinning IMF desperately sought the new capital injection, so that his successor Christine Lagarde (herself still under investigation for politico-financial corruption in Paris) can in turn lend more to the European 1 per cent elites to screw their 99 per cent.

STRAUSS-KAHN; ZUMA AND LAGARDE; MANUEL AND WOLFOWITZ

This is no harmless Mary Poppins, though Lagarde calls her $430 billion benefaction an ‘umbrella’, to disguise its real role: a sharp stick to jab at ordinary people’s bellies.

Gordhan is paying a high price for the company he keeps, if the BRICS go along with Lagarde’s request to add to the bank-bailout kitty. Gordhan was asked by Moneyweb’s Alec Hogg about the $100 million Pretoria is expected to contribute to the IMF: ‘Many African countries went through hell in the 70s and 80s because of conditionality according to these loans. Are you going to try and insist that there is similar conditionality now that the boot is on the other foot, as it were?’

‘Absolutely,’ replied hell-raiser Gordhan, ‘The IMF must be as proactive in developed countries as it is in developing countries. The days of this unequal treatment and the nasty treatment, if you like, for developing countries and politeness for developed countries must pass.’

Such a ‘proactive’ reversion to ‘nasty’ financial intercourse will be a pain in the ass for workers and poor people in Southern Europe, already victims of those men who, during Strauss-Kahn’s reign, earned the informal nickname International Maid Fornicators.

In this daredevil milieu, we can only expect Washington’s virus to spread. So it’s long overdue for those svelte swingers Gordhan and Marcus to take some time off to detox and get some overdue sex education. While well-intentioned but inept Keynesian doctors like Joseph Stiglitz, Paul Krugman and Jeffrey Sachs still search plaintively for an AIDS cure - an unending process that mainly allows the authorities to continue merrily along in their hedonistic ways - it’s time now to start practicing the ABCs: Abstain; Be faithful; and Condomise.

That requires:

· abstaining from further financial liberalization and from paying IMF pimps;

· being faithful to poor and working people at home, instead of partying with the ever-unfaithful Goldman Sachs mafia (the ones who hired Mboweni after his 2009 firing); and

· condomizing by putting our exchange control system back on as tight as we can.

Others have done so since the pandemic hit emerging markets in the late 1990s. As a result, after an initial shock exposure which weakened their immune system, several countries condomized and even defaulted on Odious Debts, and grew stronger and more self-reliant: Argentina, Venezuela, Ecuador and Malaysia. Moreover, China and India never removed their exchange-control condom, and are now healthier, bigger and bolder than ever.

I’m optimistic that South Africans – or at least all those outside the Union Building, the Treasury and Reserve Bank (oh, and Parliament, which appears a lost cause) – can learn these lessons. After all, a caring populace moved, over the past decade, from widespread stigmatization of such afflictions to successful activism in search of affordable treatment, even facing down Big Pharma, the Thabo Mbeki and George W. Bush regimes, and the World Trade Organisation’s Intellectual Property fetish.

If a Financial Treatment Action Campaign arose here in 2012, as did Occupy Wall Street in the belly of the New York beast last September, it would surely do much more than teach the ABCs. Like those in the first TAC, the activists would force Pretoria to first reverse its Washington-Consensus denialism and immediately provide genuine Anti-FinancialViral therapies at clinics, factories, fields, homes and even shopping centres across the country. It’s South Africa’s turn for a new moral regeneration campaign, but this time one that takes seriously the challenge of economic liberation, instead of the current crew’s fascination with unending financial liberalization.

* BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Please do not take Pambazuka for granted! Become a Friend of Pambazuka and make a donation NOW to help keep Pambazuka FREE and INDEPENDENT!

* Patrick Bond’s recent books are ‘Politics of Climate Justice, Durban’s Climate Gamble’ and ‘Zuma’s Own Goal’.
* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

The Empire vs. Iran (and Syria)

A New World War for a New World Order?

Jooneed Khan

2012-05-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/81814

cc C MConfronted with a declining World Order it can no longer control, does the West want to re-assert its will through a new world war, which this time would be really global?

A terrifying scenario emerges from the ceaseless escalation of pressures and threats against Syria and Iran, pitting, for the first time since the NATO-OECD Empire won the Cold War two decades ago, the Western trio of the UN veto club (U.S., U.K., France) against its non-Western duo (Russia and China).
These two latter superpowers, key players of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) spanning the Eurasian mega continent, have blocked the trio's plans to carry out a Libya-II in Syria, and to choke Iran with an array of sanctions that include cutting off its oil exports -- while keeping the military strike option "on the table."

This is the first time the Russians and Chinese have, together, raised obstacles in the way of the apparently unstoppable march of the victors of the Cold War - and the destroyers of the former Soviet Empire.

But the march of the NATO-OECD Empire is becoming less and less triumphal. With support from most of the non-Western countries of the Non Aligned Movement and the G77, Russia and China are reasserting the primacy of international law and UN diplomacy in tackling the Syria and Iran issues, hobbling further the Western propensity to drown every "crisis," real or fabricated, under a carpet of bombs, missiles and boots on the ground - with dire unintended consequences for all!

FROM EUPHORIA TO QUAGMIRE, AND DECLINE

Still basking in its victory over the ex-Soviet Empire, the NATO-OECD Empire dismembered the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s and extended NATO to the European limits of Russia - which did not react militarily. Moscow reacted only when NATO tried to take hold in the Caucasus, through Georgia and Azerbaijan.

Despite the French "lone wolf" episode in Rwanda, the Empire also reinforced its hegemony over the Great Lakes region of Africa - as compensation for the fall of Apartheid in the South of the continent. Neither Russia nor China budged. And China coolly swallowed the repeated provocations of the Empire along its borders - through Tibet, Xinjiang, Burma, Taiwan, North Korea.

But as the 21st century set in, the Empire began to falter. The attacks of September 11, 2001 precipitated implementation of a New World Order according to George W. Bush's PNAC (Project for a New American Century): "You are either with us or against us."

For the first time in its history, NATO invoked Article 5 of its Charter to attack and occupy Afghanistan - bypassing the UN. Two years later, again without UN approval, the Empire attacked and occupied Iraq.

But very soon it hit a quagmire. By 2012, these wars will have cost $4 trillion, according to the Oakland Institute - while OECD economies stagnate or decline. Throughout the West, crises won't stop, unemployment is up, debt is ballooning - while the weight and influence of the "Rest" (China, India, Brazil, Iran, South Africa, et al.) keep growing globally.

THE EMPIRE SAPS THE UN AND BOOSTS NATO

This shifting balance of power has compelled the old G7 to turn to the G20 to manage the world economy. But the G7 keeps stalling much called-for UN reform and Security Council enlargement, as it clings to its waning political supremacy.

More resolutely, the G7 continues to boost its military superiority: 21 of the 34 States of the OECD are members of NATO, which has pushed the limits of the "North Atlantic" to the Indian Ocean, Central Asia and Africa (with Africom) - while also targeting Australasia and the Pacific.

As real productivity migrates away from the West, the unsteady economies of the NATO-OECD Empire depend more than ever on the "Military-Industrial Complex" that Dwight Eisenhower warned us against. According to the Swedish SIPRI Institute, NATO countries devoted more than $1 trillion (1,000 billion) last year to military expenditure.

With allies like Saudi Arabia ($42 billion, 11 per cent of GDP, 8th place), Australia ($20 billion, 1.9 per cent, 14th) and Israel ($13 billion, 6.3 per cent, 18th), NATO and its friends accounted for more than two-thirds of a global military expenditure of $1.6 trillion in 2011. With $698 billion (4.8 per cent of GDP, 1st place), the U.S. alone accounted for 43 per cent of world defence spending. Canada ($22.8 billion, 1.5 per cent) came 13th.

In comparison, China spent $120 billion (2.1 per cent of GDP, 2nd place), Russia $58 billion (4 per cent, 5th), India $41 billion (2.7 per cent, 10th), Brazil $30 billion (1.6 per cent, 11th) - with $7.7 billion for Iran (1.8 per cent, 25th) and $2.2 billion for Syria (4 per cent, 53rd)!

THE EMPIRE AND THE ISRAEL-OIL-EMIRATES-TURKEY AXIS

This is the backdrop to the incessant roll of NATO-OECD drums of war over Syria and Iran. The twin crises are inseparably linked: through Syria, its key Arab ally, and its bridge to the (Shiite) Lebanese Hezbollah and the (Sunni) Palestinian Hamas, it's Iran which is the target, Iran which broke free of the Empire more than 30 years ago.

Motives abound:

1. The Syria-Hezbollah-Hamas-Iran axis holds Israel in check;

2. The Shiite awakening, Arab and Persian, and unambiguously republican, threatens the feudal Sunni monarchies of the Gulf, beginning with Saudi Arabia and its puritan wahhabi brand of Islamic fundamentalism;

3. After destroying Saddam Hussein's secular and anti-monarchist Baath regime (and Iraq along with it), the Empire, backed by the Oil Emirates, Israel and Turkey, is frantically trying to steer, even hijack, the Arab Spring;

4. Turkey, a member of both NATO and the OECD, sees itself as a Sunni republican rival of Iran - drawing on its new "moderate" Islamist regime and on its Ottoman past as ruler of the Arabs for nearly 700 years;

5. Syria has its own secular Baath regime, which has been pressured by the Arab Spring and by its allies to open up to pluralism and hold general elections on May 7 - but the Empire keeps battering it ruthlessly, because what it wants is "regime change";

6. Meanwhile the Empire is doing all it can to maintain the status quo in Yemen, and in Bahrain, home of the U.S. 5th Fleet in the Gulf, where a Sunni royal family rules over a Shiite majority;

7. The Sunni oil emirate of Qatar continues the propaganda war for the Empire via Al Jazeera TV, even though key journalists are leaving and accusing the network of fabricating false video reports on Libya and Syria. Qatar shares with the atoll of Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean, the HQ of the U.S. Central Command (Centcom).

A MILITARY VICTORY FOR A NEW WORLD ORDER?

The campaign in the U.S. leading to the November presidential and Congressional elections, now pitting Mitt Romney against Barack Obama, is an additional factor that heightens the threat of a new world war, in the context of the inexorable decline of the NATO-OECD Empire.

Romney and his Republican rivals have publicly called for "doing everything, covertly and deniably, to isolate, choke and destabilize Iran, to kill its nuclear scientists, to destroy its facilities, and to bring down the regime." Short of declaring war on Iran, Obama the Democrat is doing all that, but Romney believes, with Israel and the hawkish camp in Washington, that only war will work.

Some hawks are Evangelical Zionists who pontificate on U.S. TV about biblical prophecies, and call for U.S. support for the "King of the North" (Israel) in the necessary Armageddon against the "King of the South" (Iran) - although my reading of the map points to Saudi Arabia as "King of the South"! For them, this war is absolutely essential to the Second Coming of Christ.

These hawks think that a victorious war against the Iran-Syria axis will provide the West with the opportunity to impose a (divinely sanctioned) New World Order tailored to the interests of the NATO-OECD Empire.

The opposite camp fears another costly quagmire, like in Afghanistan-Iraq-Pakistan, and further decline of Empire. But the U.S., Britain and France also find the war option tempting, as they recall how they imposed their own global dispensation after World Wars I and II. They won the Cold War, but they do not have the means other than a "Hot War" to establish a Diktat which is universally scorned.
After demonstrating its military superiority and getting a real stranglehold over Arab and Persian oil, the Empire would force countries like China, India, Japan, Indonesia, and South Africa, among others, to depend on its benevolence for stable and secure supplies for their crucial energy needs. The UN could then be reformed and the Security Council enlarged, but in a way that would allow the Empire to keep its decisive political power within the architecture of the world system.

As it continues moving away from a uni-polar to a multi-polar world, the "Rest" obviously sees things differently. The Empire "just doesn't get it" and keeps reaching for the caveman's club, says the Rest. But the West keeps doing all it can to provoke a larger, global showdown, which the Rest has no appetite for and is determined to avoid.

TALKS, FREEZE, SANCTIONS AND TERRORIST WARS

Such are the dark schemes hovering on the Iran-Syria crisis. Iran just met with the P5+1 (the five UN Security Council "permanents," plus Germany) in Istanbul to explain and defend its nuclear program, once again. Iran was quick to reassert its peaceful nuclear rights under the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and countered its inquisitors by calling for global nuclear disarmament. The P3 trio deemed the meeting "positive." Discussions will resume in Baghdad in May.

But on the ground inside Iran, where the eight-year war waged by Saddam Hussein on behalf of the Empire ended in 1988, terrorists groups linked to the West continue to operate relentlessly. They are, in the main, the MeK (Moujahidine-e-khalq), the Kurdish Komoleh and PJAK, and the Sunni Jundallah, based in Pakistan. Nuclear scientists are being assassinated. Neighbouring Azerbaijan also has an eye on the territory of 16 million Azeris living in Iran.

Iran's assets and accounts are frozen and the West refuses to sell it all kinds of goods, including spare parts critical to the safety of its civilian airlines. A campaign is now on to obtain a worldwide boycott of its oil exports. Iran has preemptively cut off oil supplies to some European countries, triggering a rise in prices and in unemployment.

But India and China continue to purchase Iranian oil. They refuse to bow to what they call "internal U.S. rules," and argue that Iranian oil is essential for their development. The Empire is playing India against China by giving New Delhi access to its nuclear technology - and squeezing Pakistan, which seems to value its friendship with China more than its old dependence on the West. India, looking out for its own interest, has signed a deal with Iran to settle their bilateral trade in riyals and rupees. However, India may not resist the siren song of the West if the NATO-OECD Empire were to take over or disable Pakistan's nuclear arsenal in the fog of war.

WAR PREPARATIONS, FROM SYRIA TO THE CAUCASUS

India and Iran, together with Pakistan and Afghanistan, enjoy observer status in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which is prepared to upgrade them to full membership. And the SCO is lined up solidly behind Iran, together with Latin America, where Uncle Sam is in retreat, and with many African and other Asian countries. The entry of both India and Pakistan, together with Iran, as full-fledged members of the SCO, an emerging powerhouse of neighbourly co-operation, trade and security under the joint leadership of Russia and China, is too much of a nightmare for the declining NATO-OECD Empire to contemplate.

Russian troop movements have been reported in the Caucasus along the Georgia and Azerbaijan borders. Georgian opposition members say new hospitals built in the country with U.S. help are part of war contingencies. Azerbaijan has purchased arms worth $1.6 billion from Israel, which imports one-third of its oil needs from Baku. The risks of a generalized conflagration are high, and will only rise with the approach of the U.S. elections - as most eyes will be on the U.S. "withdrawal" from Afghanistan.

On Syria, the Empire says it supports the mediation efforts of Kofi Annan as Special Envoy for the UN, and the Arab League, which is itself in deep transition. But the Empire has declared in the same breath that it is financing and arming the forces that are carrying out war operations inside Syria from nearby Lebanon and Turkey. The Empire is feeding a civil war in Syria and shows it will countenance no compromise.

PROPAGANDA AND POLICE STATE MEASURES

The option of an outright military strike against Iran and Syria has been frenziedly promoted by Israel, itself a nuclear power, though undeclared, which refuses to sign the NPT and submit its nuclear facilities to IAEA inspection. The U.S. repeats that the military option against Iran "remains on the table" - hanging as a Damocles sword over the Middle East, and the world.

With Al Jazeera and Al Arabiyya, the Western media keeps on demonizing Iran and Syria for a coming overt war led by NATO and its allies - "this sounds just like the propaganda we heard before the attack on Iraq," said Ron Paul, the black sheep of the Republican hopefuls.

These same media meanwhile are silent on the growing trend within the Empire towards measures typical of police states - the assaults on rights and freedoms, and on citizen privacy, the militarization of police as seen in the brutal repression of the 99 per cent, the authority to arrest, torture, detain, and even kill, citizens on "suspicion of terrorism" - all in the name of "national security."

German writer and Nobel laureate Günther Grass was hit by widespread censorship in the West for his poem ‘What Must Be Said’, which criticizes nuclear Israel for clamouring for war against Iran "where the existence/Of a single atomic bomb is unproven," and for endangering "the already fragile world peace." Israel quickly declared him persona non grata. As the Rest refuses to rise to the bait of the West over Iran, we may yet avoid war. But if the new, dreaded war does come to pass, those who will oppose it within the very NATO-OECD Empire know what treatment to expect.

* BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Please do not take Pambazuka for granted! Become a Friend of Pambazuka and make a donation NOW to help keep Pambazuka FREE and INDEPENDENT!

* This article was first published by Rabble
* Jooneed Khan is a journalist and author of 'Diego Garcia: the Militarization of an Island', published by Sage in 1983.
* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Global: May 2012 issue of the Fahamu Refugee Legal Aid newsletter available

2012-05-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/Announce/81934

We are pleased to announce that the May 2012 issue of the Fahamu Refugee Legal Aid Newsletter is now online.

In this issue:

- Pending questions: UNHCR Recommendations regarding the Cessation Clause for Rwandan refugees
- Asylum victory on appeal: Immigration Judge placed ‘unreasonable expectations’ on applicant to demonstrate the motive behind violence against her
- UK detaining Sudanese asylum seekers with an aim towards deportation
- Understanding psychology can make asylum decisions fairer
- EU resolution against human trafficking in the Sinai
- Hungarian asylum process condemned by the UNHCR
- Thai NGO collecting signatures to petition for a Refugee Act
- The Moroccan Arab Spring: Protecting migrants rights in theory and practice
- Campaign for access to detention centres in Europe
- Engaging with our readers
- Refugees in Egypt: Between rights and responsibilities
- Publication profile: Migration Information Source

Also in this issue: Deportation news; Country of Origin and legal news; Resources; Publications; Vacancies; Courses, conferences and seminars; Calls for papers; Links.

As always, we welcome feedback and suggestions.

Volunteer copy editors wanted

2012-05-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/Announce/81828

Algerians in the UK to stage protest

Algeria Solidarity Campaign

2012-05-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/81827

One year after the inspiring events of the “Arab Spring” that swept away western-backed dictators, the Algerian authoritarian regime –still in place- is desperately calling for the Algerian people to go and participate massively in the up-coming electoral masquerade on May 10th. At the same time, this indifferent and disdainful regime is continuing its totalitarian policies of contempt for civil liberties, a brutal repression and cracking-down on political and human rights activists.

In Fact, over the last few months, many activists who were fighting for basic freedoms and human rights and who were campaigning peacefully for a genuine democratic change were denied the right to protest and to express themselves. Some of them were brutally arrested and still imprisoned to this day. These activists belong to different organisations from the civil society such as: Ligue Algeriene de la Defense des Droits de l’homme (LADDH), Coordination nationale de défense des droits des chômeurs (CNDDC), Mouvement de la Jeunesse Independente pour le Changement (MJIC)....

Concurrently, the popular discontent is still going on with protests in several towns and cities to the point that young people are still immolating themselves (last case was on 29th April 2012), and risking their lives to escape and reach the northern shores of the Mediterranean. This situation bears witness to the despair, the misery and the injustice the Algerian people are subjected to under an oppressive totalitarian regime.

These dictatorial measures and the ongoing contempt for Algerians and their democratic rights cannot go unchallenged, especially when we Algerians are asked to fulfil our “patriotic” duty of endorsing the cosmetic reforms (initiated in April 2011) and legitimating a despised system that has no will to change and no intentions to treat us as fully-fledged “citizens”.

It is clear that this illegitimate Pouvoir -with the colluding of British, French and American imperialists- wants to maintain its criminal and corrupt rule, and preserve its own interests at the expense of the political and socio-economic aspirations of Algerians who are really hungry for an alternative to regain their dignity and freedoms.

We, Algerians in the UK, who are jealous of the future of our country and who cherish justice, dignity and the respect of human rights, cannot go on and be just passively sympathetic to our people’s aspirations. We urgently need to react to this reprehensible situation and strongly denounce the regime’s shameful attitudes.

Thus, ASC calls for a protest in front of the Algerian Consulate on the May 5th at 3pm to voice our condemnation of the tyranny still in place, to show our support to the arrested and repressed activists and above all to be in solidarity with the democratic aspirations and legitimate demands of the Algerian people for a better Algeria.

So please join us and show your support and let’s come together (Algerians and Non-Algerians) and be in the side of the oppressed against the oppressor!

Heroic Ethiopian journalist Eskinder Nega, Turkish publisher honoured

Writers pledge, “We will never forget you”

PEN American Center

2012-05-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/81826

New York City, May 2, 2012—Edward Albee, Margaret Atwood, E.L Doctorow, Zadie Smith, and Kwame Anthony Appiah were among the more than 500 PEN luminaries and supporters who joined last night in honoring Eskinder Nega, one of Ethiopia’s most courageous journalists and free expression advocates, with the 2012 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award at its annual Literary Gala at the Museum of Natural History in New York. Nega is currently in prison and standing trial on manufactured terrorism charges, and could face the death penalty if convicted. In the evening’s most dramatic moment, Nega’s wife Serkalem Fasil, who has been jailed herself for her journalism and who traveled from Addis Ababa and arrived in New York hours before the ceremony, said she was accepting the award on behalf of her husband “at a time when freedom of expression and press freedoms are at the lowest point in Ethiopia.”

Noting that “prison has been Eskinder’s home away from home for the past two decades,” she told the audience, “If Eskinder were standing here, he would accept this award not just as a personal honor, but on behalf of all Ethiopian journalists who toil under withering repression in Ethiopia today, those forced into exile over the years, those in prison with him now, and even those who serve in state media for no other reason than making a living.”

Turkish publisher Ragip Zarakolu, who like Nega has been repeatedly jailed for challenging free expression restrictions in his country—most recently on the pretense of endorsing terrorism—was honored at the event as well. Accepting the Association of American Publisher’s Jeri Laber International Freedom to Publish Award on his behalf, his children Seref and Zerrin Holle read a message from their father dedicating the award to “the many other publishers, editors, writers, and journalists” who remain in prison in Turkey—among them Zarakolu’s oldest son Deniz, with whom he shared a cell for the past several months.

Master of Ceremonies Charlayne Hunter-Gault praised the awardees for “embodying the core values of PEN,” an organization that is celebrating its 90th year of programming in defense of freedom of expression and an open exchange of literature and ideas around the world. Hunter-Gault called it “a disturbing sign of the times” that both of them “stand accused of terrorism for their courageous, and peaceful, advocacy for freedom of expression.”

Eskinder Nega has been publishing articles critical of the government since 1993, when he opened his first newspaper, Ethiopis, which was soon shut down by authorities. He was the general manager of Serkalem Publishing House, which published the newspapers Asqual, Satenaw, and Menelik, all of which are now banned in Ethiopia. He has also been a columnist for the monthly magazine Change and for the U.S.-based news forum EthioMedia, which are also banned. He has been detained at least seven times under Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, including in 2005, when he and his journalist wife Serkalem Fasil were imprisoned for 17 months on treason charges for their critical reporting on the government’s violent crackdown of protests following disputed elections. Their newspapers have been shut down and Nega has been denied a license to practice journalism since 2005, yet he has continued to publish columns critical of the government’s human rights record and calling for an end to political repression and corruption.

Nega was again arrested on September 14, 2011, after he published a column questioning the government’s claim that a number of journalists it had detained were suspected terrorists, and for criticizing the arrest of well-known Ethiopian actor and government critic Debebe Eshetu on terror charges earlier that week. Shortly after his arrest, Nega was charged with affiliation with the banned political party Ginbot 7, which the Ethiopian government considers a terrorist organization. On November 10, Nega was charged and further accused of plotting with and receiving weapons and explosives from neighboring Eritrea to carry out terrorist attacks in Ethiopia. State television portrayed Nega and other political prisoners as “spies for foreign forces.” He is currently being held in Qaliti Prison, and his trial is ongoing.

In a moving tribute film introducing Nega, PEN President Peter Godwin and journalist Jason McLure called Eskinder’s prosecution “a cautionary tale” about the use and spread of antiterrorism laws to prosecute terrorists. “His case really highlights the way that terrorism has come to be used as a catchall for a way to go after your political opponents or people who are critical of you,” McLure said.

PEN has for years been tracking the misuse of anti-terror and national security laws in Turkey to limit dissent—and publisher Ragip Zarakolu is one of those who has frequently been jailed for allegedly supporting terrorism, most recently in October 2011 in a round-up of human rights activists who have been charged with “aiding and abetting an illegal organization.” After more than five months in a high security prison, he was released on April 10, 2012, pending trial, and faces up to 15 years in prison.

Since founding the Belge Publishing House in 1977 with his late wife Ayse Nur, Zarakolu has defied Turkey’s censorship laws by translating and publishing Turkish editions of works by Armenian, Greek, Kurdish and other writers, dealing with such forbidden subjects as the Armenian genocide and the repression of Turkey’s Kurdish minority. Among the titles published by Belge is the Turkish edition of Black Dog of Fate: An American Son Uncovers His Armenian Past by American poet and academic Peter Balakian, who presented the award at the ceremony.

“His life’s work is an emanation of who he is,” Balakian told the audience. “He is humble about his work, but he is confident about what his work is and means.”

“And yet,” he continued, “He has been rewarded by his government with endless trials, harassment, persecution, and several imprisonments; and his publishing company was bombed and destroyed. Through all of this, Ragip has proceeded with calm, with patience, with perseverance, with grace and dignity, with great courage, and with a love of what he does. He has said, ‘I am not an activist, I’m a publisher.’”

In introducing the evening, Godwin pointed to PEN’s 90th anniversary, but noted that, “With the exception of a few modest celebrations, we are spending this year doing what we always do: working to protect the freedom to write, and the freedom to read what others are writing, anywhere on earth. In today’s interconnected world, more than ever, silencing of a writer anywhere abridges the right of people everywhere to hear their voices.”

Author Barbara Goldsmith picked up the theme at the close of the evening, telling the evening’s honorees, “We will not desert you. We will never desert you. We will not desert you or any of your compatriots who are fighting for freedom of expression.”

PEN American Center is the largest of the 144 centers of PEN International, the world’s oldest human rights organization and the oldest international literary organization. The Freedom to Write Program of PEN American Center works to protect the freedom of the written word wherever it is imperiled. It defends writers and journalists from all over the world who are imprisoned, threatened, persecuted, or attacked in the course of carrying out their profession. For more information on PEN’s work, please visit www.pen.org

Our lady of the trees

Natty Mark Samuels

2012-05-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/African_Writers/81829

A monologue

The first three to five minutes of this play will consist of quotes and excerpts from the speeches of Wangari Maathai, including from the Hummingbird Story. During this, the actress is seen planting and tending trees. When the quotes and excerpts finish, she sits; and after a few moments, her monologue begins.

Reading from a piece of paper

There is mud under your toenails, your feet camouflaged by dust. Come, Great Sister of ours, place them in these calabashes of water, so I can wash away all the dirt. After drying them, I shall bless them with oil.

Some have gone to prepare food, especially for you. Another has gone to bring water, to quench your thirst.

You, who have struggled to improve our lives; please give us some time, so we can demonstrate our gratitude. You have given us a way to go forward, like a donation of dignity. Wangari Maathai, you lead us on the path that keeps our heads held high.

After this washing, these two calabashes shall no longer be in use. They will hang on the wall of my dwelling, or where my sistren think best. Special mementos; of she who pointed us, then walked beside us, in the direction we should go. No longer to be used for the storing of porridge, or beer mixed with honey. They will be our Sacred Souvenirs, of Our Lady of the Trees.

I always have that poem with me. It means as much to me, as the Noble Peace Prize, or any of the awards and degrees I have received. This little poem, written by a woman from a Kenyan village. It thrills me and lifts me, every time I read it. She says it all. And with our songs of green places, we shall continue to raise our voices.


Female voices chanting/singing
(This and others could be a recording)

Come to Gakanga and you will see
Come with me to Gakanga.
A new panorama in Central Kenya.
Come with me to Gakanga.
The hillside is green
The river is clean
Come with me to Gakanga.

As this day bids us farewell and the night begins it's nocturnal greeting I sit under my favourite fig tree, enjoying the cool breeze of evening, while looking at that monument, which we call Kirinyaga and the world knows as Mount Kenya. My mind begins wandering, meandering; from my village of birth called Ihithe, through the cities and capitals of the world...

I go to different places, but it's the same message. Nairobi, New York, London, Paris and Oslo. That if we respect the Earth, it will provide. But we have taken and not given back. So the soil is going away.

Female voices chanting/singing

Here come the loggers
The daylight robbers

If we conquer soil erosion
We can fight malnutrition.
So today is a day for planting.
Because here come the loggers
Here come the developers
Developing starvation.

As a girl, collecting firewood meant a short walk of chat and laughter, not the gruelling trek of today. Once upon a time, clean water was an everyday blessing; now that blessing is becoming rare. Today is a day for planting.

Trees to halt soil erosion. That bear fruit to combat malnutrition. For firewood and for shade. For fencing and construction. Trees to generate water. To clothe the naked hillside, to dress the ragged earth.

Alongside the tree planting, there were classes in nutrition; plus workshops in family planning. Some have trained to be nursery managers, bee keepers and forest rangers. The women of the villages rose up and walked. Not the plod or the trudge-no. The stride and the bounce. It’s been a real privilege to step amongst them. Something rare, totally refreshing. We spoke with pride of each other. We propped and picked each other up - and kept going forward.

Because we were mothers, we did what the men of our government refused to do. When did economic interests, become more important than the health of our children? Women of Kenya, wherever we go, we must plant seedlings; and protect the trees that remain.

The sound of a beating, screams and a fall.

Officials of Kenya, how low have you fallen? To beat unarmed women, peacefully protesting. Would you beat your mother that way? Lock her in a cell where she lies in water? For trying to protect the environment; an improved future for a battered Kenya?

Female voices chanting/singing

Here come the loggers
The daylight robbers

We couldn't sit back
When there was so much to do.
For the first time in our lives
We took the initiative -
Walked side by side
Part of the Greenbelt Crew.

Along came brutality, looking like my son. Then water on the cell floor, mixed with that from my eyes, as my tears began to fall.

When I first left Kenya in 1960 to study in America I was determined to return to make my contribution. Watching state brutality against civil rights protesters, I never for a moment thought, that my country, soon to be independent, would follow a similar course. That I would come to know the cold and concrete of Lang'ata Women's Prison.

Sounds of a take-off

Up and away on the Kennedy Airlift. I was one of the chosen: to be sponsored by then Senator J. F. Kennedy, through the Joseph P. Kennedy Foundation, with some assistance from the U.S State Department. The father of the current president, was also flown out in that airlift. In 2006, I planted a tree with then Senator Obama at Uhuru Park. This was also the year my autobiography was published, entitled Unbowed. Four decades after that wonderful take-off. A visionary airlift supported by dreamers such as Tom Mboya, Martin Luther King, Andrew Young, Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte.

At a time when most village girls were not sent to school; I was flown to New York, then to the Mid-West, where for four years, I became a Kenyan in Kansas; in a town on the Missouri River, called Atchison.

The awe of everything in first-time New York. Skyscrapers, like silver sentinels of commerce. Black Americans, black as me. The quick magic of high-rise elevators, slow trickery of escalators. Our heads continually turning, hopefully recording; snapshots of another planet. Sharing this strange phenomenon, with my old school friend, Agatha Wangeci, who became a life long friend.

After a few days in New York, we took a legendary Greyhound bus, dropping students off here and there, until we got to Aitchison. To a college called Mount St. Scholastica, run by Catholic nuns, as was my previous school in Kenya. The Benedictines, were amongst the first settlers in Atchinson. I loved that place and all those within it. Sister Imogen and Sister Marcella. Fellow students like Florence Salisbury and Margaret Malone. Names and faces close to me, never to be erased. Of brilliant mentors and beautiful friends. The walks along the Missouri. The carpets of red gold and green, when autumn came around. Letters of excitement, to my beloved elder brother, Nderitu; who was the instrumental figure, in my first attendance at school. May God bless all his days.

Snippet from a Nina Simone classic

The dancing - with boys too! Dancing wasn't allowed at Loreto Girls' High School, which was the only Catholic secondary school for girls in Kenya, at that time. But what was frowned upon at my last school, was welcomed at my new one. So what I had done naturally as a little girl, I re-learnt again as a young adult. We students celebrated each other through dance and soda pop. Students from Asia, Africa and America. I never danced much then, but when I did, I could rock as good as the next student. Now, one of my favourites is Angelique Kidjo, from the West African country of Benin.

On the 12 December, 1963, the Kenyans in Kansas, gathered in the city of Lawrence, to celebrate Kenyan independence. Kenyans and Americans; eating, drinking, singing and dancing. Listening to speeches. Toasting a hero called Kenyatta.

I left St. Scholastica with a BSc degree in Biology. Going onto Pittsburg University, where I gained an MSc degree in Biological Sciences; through the guidance of Professor Charles Ralph, who became a real friend.

I also remember the dance of thirty years later. The victory dance of Uhuru Park. The dance of those who've realised that solidarity works. Applauding and embracing each other; our Uhuru ululations. And after each victory, I always planted a tree. For me, trees represent hope; like symbols of salvation.

Female voices

A short interlude beginning with ululating and clapping; then cowbell and assorted percussion.

Uhuru
Our green oasis called Uhuru.
We fought the grabbers
Who tried to snatch it
From those such as me and you.

The men of money
Tried to build a monstrosity
In a park the state called Freedom.
But we heard the call
Came to stand beside her
When Sister Wangari said, ''Come''

Uhuru Park, in the centre of Nairobi. Where they tried to ruin the skyline and block out the sun. Congestion and the cutting down of trees. A desecration of this park that blesses one and all.

Even now, I love to sit beside that lake. To watch the herons. The lovers hand in hand. The flight of frisbees; the parade of picnics. Young men playing football; their female fans, cheering for their favourites. Elderly women watching their grandchildren; old men playing bao. Someone reads a book, another does martial arts. A place of fantasy and adventure for the little ones; a portion of peace for the older ones.

Parliament and the press vilified me, fuelled by its song of sexism. But not everyone joined their choir and its sad dirges - the brutish ballads. Instead, we came together, composing and singing our own anthems; with choral support, from within and outside the country. We continued to sing from the same songsheet, till finally victory was ours. Victory for our oasis of green, shining from its concrete setting.

Female voices chanting/singing.

Uhuru
Our green oasis called Uhuru.
We fought the grabbers
Who tried to snatch it
From those such as me and you.

Before the victory, the battles. Our landslide lamentations. Topsoil, dirtying the water. The good land of ancient staples, now used for tea and coffee - the curse of the cash crop. People reverting to eating substitutes; high in carbohydrates, but not much else. The battle of sick children. Grass has gone and so has fodder. The battle of thin cattle.

Did you cry, ancestor Gikuyu? Did your beloved wife Mumbi, weep beside you? To see the cutting down, of an ancient fig tree. Like Mount Kenya, a monument from our beginning. For those of us who are Gikuyu, our ancestral story tells us this; that the children of Gikuyu and Mumbi, were conceived in a fig tree grove. I cried myself to sleep that night, for we have never cut fig trees; sources of clean water, shade and fruit. A sacred tree.

What we've taken away, is our responsibility to replace. That was the thinking behind the Green Belt Movement. Plant trees and you bind the soil. Plant trees and the birds will return. Plant trees for that uncertain future, knocking haphazardly at our door.

So when the sun rose on the 5th of June 1977, a day called World Environment Day, we planted our first trees. Under the banner of the great N.C.W. K. (National Council of Women of Kenya), we walked behind a marching band of boys. For most of the world it was just another day, but for us, it was something monumental. A procession of purpose. Hundreds of women, alongside supporters, from the varied walks of life; both national and regional, community-based and statutory. Calling ourselves Save the Land Harambee, we strolled in joyful unison, the two miles from Nairobi city centre to its periphery, to a place called Kamukunji Park. This was the first manifestation, of what came to be known as the Green Belt Movement. Since then, we have planted around 45 million trees. With Green Belt branches, reaching into 30 other countries.

Later on, in moments of sweet contemplation, I sat listening to music; such as the beautiful sound of the Nyaitti, the traditional harp of the Luo people.

A short interlude of Nyatti, the Luo traditional harp

Female voices chanting/singing

Chant of the first seedling
Song of original nursery.
When the women of Kenya
Walked together
To the Kamukunji Park ceremony.

We planted seven trees that day
To heroes of recent history.
In our first green belt
We planted a cordia, a nandi
And an African fig tree.

Monumental days, never to be forgotten. Like the day in 1971, when I walked up to a rostrum in the University of Nairobi; on which stood President Jomo Kenyatta, who was also the chancellor of that institution, to receive my Ph.D. in biological sciences. The first woman in East and Central Africa to receive a doctorate. At a time when education for women was often dismissed, deemed unnecessary, this was a significant occasion. It's eternally heart warming to know, that what I achieved forty years ago, continues to inspire young East African women today.

Munich and microscopes. For this was the period I spent nearly two years in Germany; undertaking research at the University of Munich for my doctorate, although I was officially registered at the University of Giessen. I remember beautiful parks - winter wonderlands in December, rendezvous of rainbows in July. Walks along the Isar River. Little restaurants and theatres. Bavarian beer and national wines. A young veterinary doctor named Fraulein Koch and a fancy dress carnival called Fasching.

I have to thank Professor Rheinhold Hoffman for the German interlude. As head of Veterinary Anatomy at Nairobi University, he employed me as one of his assistants. Due to his belief in my potential and his academic connections in Germany, I was offered the opportunity to enhance my studies over there. Wherever you are today Professor Hoffman, I salute you.

Sounds of children playing

But when you're a child, every day is monumental; interspersed with moments of magic.

Every day in springtime, down to the stream of crystal clarity, to watch the blobs that became tadpoles, metamorphose into frogs. The majestic fig, ancient monarch of the green lands; that I was told was the mysterious provider of that stream.

My mother and father - like Shamans of the Soil. Whose mystic qualities, provided me with the magic of millet porridge.

The tastes, sensations and colours of life, in a green place of abundant blessings; gifts from the Abedare Mountains. The bananas, sugarcane and sweet potatoes. The ecstasy of managu berries! My favourite fast-food feast. The wonderland parade of wild animals; zebras, giraffes and antelopes.

One of my enduring images is that of the night fire. We gathered around it, while waiting for a meal of corn and arrowroots. Our mothers would regale us with stories and myths, of legendary humans and magical animals, like the trickster dragon, called irimu.

But the joy of my childhood, cannot compare with that of the childhood of my children. My daily celebrations of Waweru, Wanjira and Muta. From their first breath until now.

Forced to become an expert in time management; the juggling of everything. To ensure quality time with my beloved triumvirate: those precious moments we pray for. We still love being together. We are the root, branch and fruit of each other.

I'm glad my treasured trio were not there, at the time of the barricade. My daughters were studying in America and I had sent Muta to stay with his father.

Female voices speaking/chanting

When the steamroller came
It tried to flatten those it could not tame.
It came relentless
Perennial in power
To arrest, torture and maim.
They'd come for others
She knew they were coming for her.
Barricaded herself in
To protect herself
And talk about the secret burglars.

Three days I was there. Then the boots gatecrashed; followed by another bout in custody.

The sound of quiet weeping

Female voices speaking/chanting

Wish I could have been there Wangari
In the water and the cold.
To try and rub away your arthritis.
And when it got to much
I could have warmed you in a sister-hold.

Wish I could have been there my Sister
When agony reached it's apogee.
Used the elements against you
Thinking you'd grovel
Because you hobbled on shattered knees.

After cold hell and court, where I was charged with treason, I was taken to hospital. The charges were later dropped, mainly due to international efforts, from figures such as Edward Kennedy and Al Gore. Once again the Kennedys stepped into my life. Like the friendship I've made over the years with Kerry Kennedy, a human rights activist; daughter of Robert Kennedy.

I have been fortunate in my life, to have gained the trust of international figures such as Al Gore, who has become a real ally in this struggle. He wrote about the Green Belt Movement, in his best-selling book, entitled Earth in the Balance. Men of power, who have used their influence, to ease the way for me at certain times. Like during the dark year of 1993. When Mikhail Gorbachev put pressure on arap Moi, to allow me to travel to Toyko, to a meeting of the Green Cross International, which I had been invited to. Although I missed the Tokyo meeting, his intervention gave me the travel documents and passport, that enabled me to travel elsewhere. I was in hiding then - in a place called underground. Going from safe house to safe house; the constant change of cars when travelling. The same dark year they kidnapped Dr. Makanga. No one heard from him, or knew where he was for three days. It seemed to me that year, that if environmental damage didn't kill us, then tribalism (political and ethnic) would. The recurrent clashes, between the various groups. Between the pastoralist and the farmer, on the land that was rapidly diminishing.

Female voices chanting/singing

KANU built a fire
That raged through Naivasha
And along the Great Rift Valley.
Neighbour killed his neighbour
Blinded by rhetoric
The divide and rule reality.

We tried to counteract it
With seminars and seedlings
Football matches too.
Still the KANU press told lies
Fomenting the friction
Between Kalenjin and Kikuyu.

Thinking of Al Gore, sends my mind back to America. To the year 2002 and Yale University. Of the course I taught there between January and June, on the importance of Sustainable Development. Where I used the Green Belt Movement, as the foundation of the teaching. An extra blessing came along, with the opportunity to take a group of students to Kenya, on a Green Safari. Seeing with their own eyes, the degradation and the enormity of the task at hand. Living with village residents and planting trees. A wonderful, crucial learning experience, for the Kenyans as well as the Americans.

Where ever I have gone, I have taken the same message. Whether it be the village meeting or a government house, the rooms of academia, or the conference hall of speeches. I have spoken with Mother Theresa and also the Dalai Lama. Lyric, melody and rhythm always the same. I continue to chant of a Greener Place. I have been singing this song, for more than thirty years: and now I'm seventy-one. Only this cancer can stop my chanting.

We sang for a whole year for the political prisoners. Beginning in a corner of Uhuru Park, that we named Freedom Corner. A movement of mothers, fighting for their imprisoned sons. We camped in the park, talking and singing by candlelight.
Warmed ourselves with sisterhood and the fire that we made. One of the supporters boosted us further, with music from the traditional flute of the Kikuyu, which we call Wandidi.

A short interlude of Wandidi, the Kikuyu traditional flute.

Female voices chanting/singing

When one of us got weaker
Another one took over -
Hunger strike in Uhuru Park.
Until the forces came
Through light and dark
We held the Freedom Corner.

Someone gave a tent for the ageing mothers
Others gave juice, glucose or water -
Hunger strike in Uhuru Park.
Before the tear gas and gunshot
The boot and the bark
We stood for the victims of torture.

I was knocked unconscious and taken to hospital, suffering from dehydration. I was fortunate to be treated by the trusted Dr. Dan Gikonyo, a respected medical figure, in the pro-democracy movement.

After the forced dispersal, the following day some women returned to take up residence again in Freedom Corner. But the forces were there in force. Hundreds of police with armed weaponry. So they took up residence in All Saints Cathedral, opposite Uhuru Park. May the name of Reverend Peter Njenga, always be mentioned with respect; for his beautiful brotherhood. The hunger strike continued, throughout the one year vigil. Male supporters came to guard the doors at night. Prominent figures in the pro-democracy movement, such as Dr. Makanga came in solidarity. Religious leaders from different congregations, came to sing and pray with us.

After a year, the fifty-odd prisoners we had campaigned for, were released. We held the thanksgiving service in the cathedral; our sanctuary in a season of storms. The church that did not side with the state; another Freedom Corner.

Freedom took a right turn in December 2002, in the first free and fair elections, for nearly a quarter of a century, when arap Moi left power.

A short interlude of the sounds of celebration; featuring a ngoma drum solo, alongside varied percussion.

We went to Uhuru Park in our thousands, to sing and dance. To watch arap Moi, hand over power to President Kibaki. What a day! Of undiluted joy and unashamed weeping. A day like no other. The day long-prayed for. After the long tunnel, we danced for the light we could finally see, shining at the end of it.

Three weeks after this monumental day, I was given the post of Assistant Minister for the Environment and Natural Resources. I had campaigned for the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC), an umbrella organisation of opposition parties. Contesting the Tetu seat, I won 98% of the vote! Change was coming and I was to be an official part of it. A far cry from the days when the government machine and its press, continually persecuted me.

We danced that day, like we've never danced before. People everywhere, like the national flag. Horns tooting; musicians performing. The sharing of drinks, the passing of food. We jumped in our carnival of joy, like the owners of laughter. The ancestors must have heard us; and been happy also.

Female voices chanting/singing

We danced all night in Uhuru Park
Into the next day too.
We danced for each other
For a dream called Kenya
We danced for something new.

I couldn't help thinking of my mother, wishing she could have been there. The greatest loss in all my existence. She'd died two years previously, at the age of ninety-four. She'd cherished the company of my children, as well as mine. I see her now, making her traditional medicine of herbs and bark. Determined to walk, even though mobility was a struggle. My mother, who I talked with more than with anyone else. My first teacher of the soil. Like an earth priestess of everyday provision. My first and enduring heroine; my anchor.

I think of the battle of 1993, when we planted trees for peace. To halt the fighting between the various ethnicities. The Kisii, Sabaot, Luhya, Maasai, Luo and Kikuyu communities. Organising seminars; raising awareness of the increasing degradation, propelled by government corruption. So the scarcity of resources, couldn't be manipulated by government forces; fuelling the ethnic fire.

Reminding me now, of 1966, when I was offered and then refused a position of Research Assistant in the Zoology Department at Nairobi University; because the department head gave it to a male from his own ethnic group. Imagine that - returning to Kenya, burning to begin; to be faced with such a stagnant scene. A new dream, battered by the old nightmare. Two months later, I began working for the Department of Veterinary Anatomy, which led to research in the rural areas and the subsequent thinking, that led to the Green Belt action. In becoming a professor and the chair of this department, I became the first women to attain these positions in a Kenyan University. But what is more important, is that if we plant together, we shall surely grow together; replenishing ourselves and our resources.

The battle of blatant avarice. Greed of the gargantuan machine. When they tried to take Karura forest from the people, to partition it amongst the predators.

Female voices chanting/singing

She came armed with a watering can -
To counteract the violence of man.

With Lillian Muchungi and Dr. Makanga
She ran from the stones
The machetes and the pangas

From the bows and arrows
The clubs and the whips
The rage to deliver blows

She came armed with a watering can -
To counteract the violence of man.

After the thuggery of the young men and the police savagery, the student riots and the closing of Nairobi University. After the support from those like then U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, the American ambassador, figures in the Kenyan clergy, opposition and press; I am happy to say that beautiful Karura Forest, remains a public place for all to benefit from.

In 2008, I was gassed again, after leaving government service. It happened in Uhuru Park. I was amongst about a hundred protesters, protesting the enlargement of government machinery, which the country could not afford.

The sound of choking and coughing

A year after the gassing, while attending a UN conference in Copenhagen on climate change, I was named a UN Messenger of Peace; with a special focus on the environment and climate change. I stand alongside other UN Peace Messengers, such as Stevie Wonder, for people with disabilities and fellow Nobel laureate, Elie Wiesel, who focuses on human rights. Our arms are inter-linked, in our determined stride, toward the shared vision of peace.

Have you ever heard the word Mottainai? In ancient Japan, the Buddhist monks, conceived a concept called Mottainai. It means respect for the environment; that it is sacrilegious to waste natural resources. So I have 'resurrected' this term; under the three Rs and one of my own. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle; plus my insertion Respect. Better to use sisal, to make a bag that will last; rather than the thin plastic bags, used once, that clutter and disfigure the landscape. And if we utilised the sisal plant bags, then we could regenerate the local basketry and weaving industries. Alongside this, the idea and it's resultant trade could go international, enhancing communities worldwide, as well as here.

My 2005 visit to Japan brought another surprise. After more than forty years, I was reunited with four Japanese school friends; from our time at St. Scholastica, in Kansas, America. I have to thank Mainichi Newspapers, for inviting me to Japan and for secretly arranging that fantastic meeting; of tears, laughter and the singing of old school songs.

For the revelation of Mottainai. Reminding me that Africans also, need to re-engage or 'resurrect', our traditional values, of respect and communal thinking.

I remain radiant. Knowing that the Green Belts are growing; that the Movement has moved, taking up residence in other African nations, such as Ethiopia, Malawi, Lesotho, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Uganda.

Female voices chanting/singing

We prayed for the women in the Horn of Africa
For those in Sudan
Our sistren in Somalia.
For the falling of rain
And political inclusion
For the mothers who double as farmers.

Soon the Green Belt Movement, or similar initiatives, will take root in those countries too. Then we can do more than pray and raise awareness. We're coming sisters, we're coming. We'll get there as soon as we can.

Along this route to Pan-Africanism, I was elated and humbled, to be voted in by the leaders of the Central African States, as the Goodwill Ambassador for the Congo Basin; to assist the people in those areas, to improve the protection and management of the forests. A caretaker of the Congo. That lung of life, that helps to keep the world breathing.

Humbled also, to be the recipient, of so many awards and degrees. I received one from Nairobi University, formerly University College. One from Morehouse College, where Martin Luther King was a student. Another from Yale University, where I had taught. The highest civilian decorations of France and Japan. In 2004, the Norwegian Nobel Committee gave me the Nobel Peace Prize; the first African women to receive it. I wept tears of joy when I heard the news, as did many around me. Then I planted a Nandi flame tree, of beautiful red flowers. I thank God for the wider platform, that the Nobel Prize has given me. A platform for sustainable peace. I see myself now, in that orange dress, grinning wider than the Rift Valley......

A projection showing the Nobel Prize speech - 10 minutes.

But it is this poem that goes with me everywhere. A reminder of where I came from and the struggle to where we're we going - to that Greener Place. That will sustain a better life, for all the people of Kenya, Africa and all humanity.

The sounds of children playing

As I sit under this fig tree, sacred to me as it was to Mother Mumbi; facing Mount Kenya, I think of my granddaughter Ruth, my little heartbeat. That she will enjoy the adventure of green places and clean rivers as I did; and my mother before me. That she too will be excited, by the mystery of tadpoles and frogs. And the power of trees.
My eyes are tired now and the candle is falling asleep. I shall smile myself to sleep, with this sweet poem of struggle. Knowing I am truly blessed, to have known these women; and those men who walked beside us.

She reads the poem to herself. As she begins to read, the vocals begin. The reading and the vocals finishing at the same time, concluding the play


Female voices chanting/singing

Come to Gakanga and you will see
Come with me to Gakanga.
A new panorama in Central Kenya.
Come with me to Gakanga
The hillside is green
The river is clean
Come with me to Gakanga.

Come celebrate a tree nursery
In a place called Muranga
Beween the towns of Nyeri and Thika.
Come with me to Muranga
Dressed in our kangas
Singing in Swahilli
Come with me to Muranga.

The End

* BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Please do not take Pambazuka for granted! Become a Friend of Pambazuka and make a donation NOW to help keep Pambazuka FREE and INDEPENDENT!

* Natty Mark Samuels is the founder of African School, offering African and native American studies to the general community. He is also a poet and journalist blogging here.
* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Egypt: The Egyptian Revolution and neo-liberal economics

2012-05-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/podcasts/81940

http://bit.ly/IBm8FF

Global: Africa Today on 'Trayvon Martin is all of us'

2012-05-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/podcasts/81933

http://bit.ly/KGYoAK

Global: Palestinian woman defies Israeli military

2012-05-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/podcasts/81943

http://bit.ly/IBnmAU

Global: The world according to Monsanto

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/podcasts/81896

http://bit.ly/IQyqcL

Global: Video documentary 'Global Crises, Regional Solutions'

2012-05-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/podcasts/81939

http://bit.ly/KyjO8C

Liberia: Interviews from the Taylor case

SOAS Radio and Pambazuka News broadcast

2012-05-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/podcasts/81927

http://bit.ly/IOL0yp

South Africa: Equal Education in South Africa

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/podcasts/81900

http://bit.ly/KcsJcR

Malawi: Moves to block visit by Sudan's wanted Bashir

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/aumonitor/81898

http://bit.ly/J9rN6v

Egypt: Military releases women detainees, journalists

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/wgender/81902

http://bit.ly/KF4PUV

Global: Birthing Justice, reclaiming land in Honduras

2012-05-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/wgender/81944

http://bit.ly/KCpp7M

Kenya: How beads are used to ‘book’ Samburu girls into sexual relationships

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/wgender/81890

http://bit.ly/INXd7P

Uganda: A passionate human rights activist

Profile on Sylvia Tamale

2012-05-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/wgender/81938

http://bit.ly/IOUABt

Burundi: Effort to block a report about political killings

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/rights/81894

http://bit.ly/JMEibj

Global: Human rights impacts of oil pollution

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/rights/81888

http://bit.ly/J1ot2v

Kenya: Rights groups oppose move to sideline ICC

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/rights/81923

http://bit.ly/KB4a6d

Liberia: Taylor names lawyer to lead his appeal case

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/rights/81909

http://bit.ly/IRhRRA

Morocco: Reforms welcomed by human rights body

2012-05-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/rights/81811

http://bit.ly/JDfouI

Tunisia: Demonstrators support Palestinians held in Israeli prisons

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/rights/81891

http://bit.ly/JeTm1p

Western Sahara: UN officials blame France for Ban's whitewash of restrictions

2012-05-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/rights/81946

http://bit.ly/IH1d7P

Africa: Asylum procedures in Israel

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/refugees/81911

http://bit.ly/KAZGN1

DRC: Congolese refugees flee fighting into Rwanda

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/refugees/81924

http://bit.ly/KB4jqd

Kenya: Investigate security force abuses against ethnic Somalis

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/refugees/81892

http://bit.ly/IFc9Tz

Sahel: Aid efforts under strain as refugees numbers mount

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/refugees/81922

http://bit.ly/KFigEi

South Sudan: The right to nationality and the secession of South Sudan

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/refugees/81907

http://bit.ly/IzDZgg

Ghana: 'Booming economy without jobs'

2012-05-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/labour/81830

http://bit.ly/IHuOjE

Nigeria: Labour threatens strikes over fuel subsidy

2012-05-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/labour/81806

http://bit.ly/JCIQRp

Sierra Leone: Worker riot at African Minerals' mine turns deadly

2012-05-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/labour/81801

http://bit.ly/K1logm

Swaziland: Trade unionists beaten

2012-05-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/labour/81805

http://bit.ly/IucEzT

Guinea-Bissau: EU slaps sanctions on coup leaders

2012-05-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/elections/81947

http://bit.ly/IybSiP

Malawi: Banda talks of the foiled coup and puts women's rights at centre of new presidency

2012-05-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/elections/81802

http://bit.ly/JoqrDq

Malawi: Possible investigation into coup plot

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/elections/81897

http://bit.ly/IvTKpB

South Africa: Cosatu continues fight against e-tolling

2012-05-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/elections/81800

http://bit.ly/Je9nSQ

Zambia: Sata suspends three Judges

2012-05-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/elections/81803

http://bit.ly/ImrWnM

Tanzania: Leader sacks ministers amid corruption scandal

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/corruption/81916

http://bbc.in/JpniFE

Global: Public finance for public services in the Global South

2012-05-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/development/81931

http://bit.ly/KKwYf8

Global: Was UNCTAD XIII a victory for the South, or a draw?

2012-05-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/development/81930

http://bit.ly/K5jsFu

East Africa: Regional HIV Bill passed without criminalization clause

2012-05-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/hivaids/81949

http://bit.ly/JP5uWJ

Uganda: Civil society demands more funding for health, education

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/hivaids/81913

http://bit.ly/JMSMYO

Mozambique: Effective delivery of public services in the education sector

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/education/81906

http://bit.ly/KAWvoH

Cameroon: 'Gay' man's deportation from UK to Cameroon halted

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/lgbti/81915

http://bbc.in/K4cb8J

South Africa: Traditional leaders want gay rights cut from Constitution

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/lgbti/81904

http://bit.ly/JGAAeP

Africa: Africa’s vanishing Lake Chad

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/environment/81926

http://bit.ly/KEZjU7

Global: Japan shuts down nuclear power

2012-05-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/environment/81928

http://n.pr/IB9Tc9

Global: Worldwide appeal over Fukushima nuclear crisis

2012-05-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/environment/81932

http://bit.ly/IOMCbw

Africa: 'Zombie' Chinese land grabs in Africa rise again in new database

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/land/81918

http://bit.ly/J2bDh0

Africa: Organic farmer doubles his income

2012-05-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/land/81807

http://bit.ly/IvHLcx

Ethiopia: Human rights violations and deteriorating security threaten indigenous peoples

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/land/81917

http://bit.ly/INOiSN

Global: New report on mobilization against land grabbing

2012-05-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/land/81948

http://bit.ly/IHl9rp

Uganda: Apologise or face closure, Government tells Uganda Land Alliance

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/land/81919

http://bit.ly/J2clel

Uganda: Land row over oil exploration areas

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/land/81895

http://bit.ly/IFdk5i

Uganda: State bodies accused of land grabbing

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/land/81912

http://bit.ly/J7a5lI

Global: Support 'Take the Flour Back'

2012-05-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/food/81937

http://bit.ly/J8ZkiM

Global: Top 10 food trailblazers

2012-05-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/food/81936

http://bit.ly/K5wK4X

Africa: Governments of Somalia and Ethiopia Should Respect ACHPR Resolutions

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/81886

http://bit.ly/JMBb2V

Egypt: 18 journalists assaulted, injured or arrested in Cairo

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/81901

http://bit.ly/JGwd3k

Egypt: Arabic directory for social media websites

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/81905

http://bit.ly/KAW9hR

Eritrea: Eritrea is world's most censored country, says report

2012-05-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/81808

http://bit.ly/JeBiSp

Ethiopia: Censoring of newspapers ordered

2012-05-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/81810

http://bit.ly/IXgj9b

Ghana: Indecent language monitored ahead of elections

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/81908

http://bit.ly/Iw0NyA

Ghana: Language use ahead of election monitored

2012-05-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/81809

http://bit.ly/IVOoow

Global: Rio to gather free media

2012-05-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/81935

http://bit.ly/JWBAgY

Somalia: Reporter shot dead

2012-05-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/81833

http://bbc.in/IGkoB1

Swaziland: Media freedom amongst the worst globally

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/81899

http://bit.ly/JpdNGm

Uganda: Media houses in self-censorship, says new report

2012-05-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/81831

http://bit.ly/Iu4WXE

Zimbabwe: Minister threatens press crackdown

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/81925

http://bit.ly/IOvtjB

Madagascar: Peer pressure to stop teen pregnancy

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/welfare/81921

http://bit.ly/KEQ7iw

Mauritius: New study on poverty and exclusion in an ethnically-plural society

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/welfare/81889

http://bit.ly/Jp6qib

Nigeria: Commitment needed on lead poisoning

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/welfare/81893

http://bit.ly/KAPsMu

Egypt: At least 15 dead in Cairo clashes, doctor says

2012-05-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/conflict/81804

http://bit.ly/JNilGw

Egypt: Massive rally in Tahrir; more clashes in Abbassiya

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/conflict/81903

http://bit.ly/KAV3lZ

Mali: Ecowas force ready for Mali if invited

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/conflict/81910

http://bit.ly/Iw28W5

Mali: Stray bullets kill 14 as pro and anti-Toure forces clash

2012-05-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/conflict/81832

http://bit.ly/IGk2KD

Nigeria: Dozens killed in cattle market attack

2012-05-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/conflict/81834

http://bbc.in/KWsg0z

Sudan: Rival Sudans agree to AU roadmap

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/conflict/81920

http://aje.me/J2hw1i

Uganda: Army denies supporting Khartoum rebels

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/conflict/81914

http://bit.ly/J9BXEc

Uganda: Beyond Juba

Building consensus on sustainable peace

2012-05-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/conflict/81945

http://bit.ly/KeeYKM

Global: Private Military & Security Companies newsletter

2012-05-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/enewsl/81887

http://bit.ly/KESfVE

Senegal: 2012 Democratic Governance Institute

2012-05-07

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/583/Call_2012_Governance_Institute.pdf

Uganda: Social medicine course In Uganda

2012-05-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/81929

SocMed invites students to apply for the fourth annual course Beyond the Biologic Basis of Disease: The Social and Economic Causation of Illness, a social medicine immersion experience conducted on-site at Lacor Hospital in Gulu, Uganda from January 7, 2013 to February 1, 2013. This unique immersion course incorporates innovative teaching methodologies to merge teaching of clinical tropical medicine with understanding the socioeconomic, cultural, political, and historical underpinnings of illness. Visit www.socmedglobal.org, for more information about the course, its directors and guest lecturers, and SocMed. Questions can be sent to inquiries@socmedglobal.org

Oxfam research consultancies in Tanzania, Ghana and Zambia

Call for applications: Impact of corporate investments in land on rural women

2012-05-07

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/583/TOR Impact of corporate investments on rural women Tanzania Ghana Zambia.pdf

Fahamu