Family Of African American Man Who Died At Northland Mall To File Wrongful Death Suit

Three white security guards restrained and choked an African American man at Northland Mall in Southfield, Michigan right outside of Detroit. The man died on the scene. His family have filed suit., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Family Of Man Who Died At Northland Center Mall To File Wrongful Death Suit

February 1, 2014 11:37 AM

SOUTHFIELD (WWJ) - Relatives of a man who died following a confrontation with security guards at a metro Detroit shopping mall believe he was murdered, and they’re planning to file a lawsuit.

Attorney Gerald Thurswell is representing the family of 24-year-old McKenzie Cochran, of Ferndale, who died on Tuesday after an altercation at Northland Center on Greenfield and 8 Mile roads in Southfield. Thurswell said Cochran was pepper-sprayed and restrained so tightly, he lost consciousness.

“We believe that he was suffocated, asphyxiated,” Thurswell told WWJ’s Beth Fisher. “He had been sprayed with pepper-spray, which causes respiratory difficulties, causing him to have difficulty breathing. After they sprayed him with the pepper-spray, they threw him on the ground, put him face down, and then another security guard put his knee on his back.”

The series of events that led to Cochran’s death actually began Monday, when he was asked to leave the mall after ”standing suspiciously” outside the LA Diamonds jewelry store. Cochran returned to the store on Tuesday, ”looking angry” through the showcase windows. The business owner apparently went to talk to Cochran and that’s when police say he threatened to kill someone.

Security guards responded to the scene but Cochran was apparently “not cooperative.”

The guards then pepper-sprayed and placed Cochran in handcuffs. When police arrived on the scene, they found Cochran had a pulse but wasn’t breathing. He was pronounced dead at a hospital about an hour after the confrontation began.

Most of the incident was recorded on a cellphone camera.

“When he’s telling them that he’s dying, he says, ‘I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe. Call 911, I can’t breathe. I’m dying,’” Thurswell said. “And they just keep that knee on his back, compressing his lungs and chest into the ground when he says he can’t breathe. That’s outrageous. That’s absolutely outrageous.”

Thurswell said the cellphone video shows Cochran asking for help at least six times as multiple witnesses looked on.

Brent Reetz, general manager of Northland Center, told the Detroit Free Press that Cochran became combative and “pumped up his muscles” when security guards approached him, and that’s why they restrained him. Reetz said the guards weren’t aware Cochran had stopped breathing during the scuffle.

Thurswell said the actions of the security guards were completely out of line, regardless if Cochran was making threats.

“That was before they pepper-sprayed him, that was before they threw him on the ground, and that was before they crushed his chest and lungs into the ground, preventing him to breathe. They had no right to kill him,” he said.

A spokesman for Universal Services of America — the parent company of the mall security company — declined to comment on the case.

Thurswell said the family anticipates filing a wrongful death lawsuit sometime over the next few days. He said the whole situation has just ripped Cochran’s family apart, especially his mother — who talked to her son only hours before his death.

“She was in the kitchen cooking breakfast and she was in her bare feet and McKenzie came in to his mother and said, ‘Why are you in your bare feet?’ and she said, ‘I forgot to put my house shoes on.’ He ran and got her her house shoes and that is just an example of the caring, loving son that he was. She’s been devastated,” he said.

'The West Seeks to Exploit Africa', Interview With President Mugabe by Serbian Broadcasting

Bojan Brkic Serbian Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) deputy editor-in-chief interviewed Republic of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe at the African Union Summit held in late January 2014 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

‘The West seeks to exploit Africa'

Sunday, 02 February 2014 00:00
Zimbabwe Sunday Mail

President Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia, now Serbia, worked to prevent conflict of Second World War proportions by advocating a doctrine of non-violence that promoted peace and development after the West and Soviet Union began a political battle to control the world in the wake of WWII. He was among the proponents of peace who later formed the Non-Aligned Movement (Nam). On Friday, Serbian Broadcasting Corporation (News Programme) deputy editor-in-chief Bojan Brkic (BB) spoke to President Mugabe on the sidelines of the 22nd Session of the African Union General Assembly in Ethiopia about Nam, his friendship with President Tito, relations between Zimbabwe and Serbia, the disintegration of Yugoslavia as well as Europe’s “horse-and-rider” approach to Africa. Below is a transcript of the full interview.

BB: Mr President, let me first thank you for this honour of having this interview with one of the best friends of the country I grew up in.

I suggest we start this interview with the reminiscences of the golden era of the Non-Aligned Movement and the movement for the true independence of nations around the world. You co-operated a lot and were a friend of our President Tito. When you think of those times, how do you feel about them?

President Mugabe: Well, yes, you feel very sad, nostalgic about those days. You see, good experiences should be the basis for other new experiences and good things to happen in the future. If you have good experiences that are disrupted by challenges of a negative kind, then, naturally, you feel very much more nostalgic about the future and the good things become a source of sadness, a source of sorrow.

It’s as if death has happened in the past whereas when you have established good relations in the past, you expect those relations to develop in the future, mature into the future and yield even much more by way of benefits to those who participate in that friendship. Or, if it is experience of a country, the same; that there would be growth and development in the future, but not extinction and a kind of death of the process of development.

And when you think of our relations with Yugoslavia, the good things that Yugoslavia did; the help that came there from and it was a multi-faceted relationship that Yugoslavia had with us in Africa. We only joined in that relationship much later after the likes of Tanzania as led by Julius Nyerere; Zambia as led by Kenneth Kaunda; Mozambique as led by Samora Machel had all established excellent relations with Yugoslavia.

And then we also became a member of the Non-Aligned Movement, which was founded by Tito and others. That is Yugoslavia again, having played its part in trying to establish peace in this world for after the Second World War, two powers emerged: one - the Western power with the Nato as the basis of that power and wielding capitalism as the mode of economic development.

On the other hand, you had the Soviet Union with Moscow also integrating countries next to it and preaching what Marx and Lenin had preached earlier on: the doctrine of communism as adopted by Lenin and they called it Marxism and Leninism or communism preached by Marx and taken over later by Lenin. What was St Peter’s Town, they had called it Leningrad. That was the capital of what was now the leading Marxist country, the leading communist country — the Soviet Union.

So, Marx and Lenin had their doctrine taken over by the Russians and they became now the people leading in spreading it as far afield as possible. But, the two - Moscow and then the Western countries, Western countries not just Europe, but America on the one hand - were vying with each other for power.

Not just for ideological control of the world, economic control of the world, but for political control of the world.

It was then thought by the likes of Tito and others that a movement that could stand in between and prevent a war of the same magnitude as the Second World War was necessary. So, they had the first meeting in the 1950s in Indonesia and that’s where it was felt that this movement must be formed and formed quickly. It would unite developing countries; it would unite all other peaceful small countries. Its own ideology would be a non-violent ideology. These other two were driven by violence, really, and this one would be non-violent.

And so, Tito was the leading figure; the leading voice of this Non-Aligned Movement, Nam, with its voice of non-violence. ‘‘No more fighting. We will stand in between these two and preach non-violence’’.

And true, many countries in Africa which became independent also joined the Non-Aligned Movement.

We joined the Non-Aligned Movement in 1980 as we became independent and so we also started having relations with Yugoslavia.

BB: (Relations) which were not only ideological, there was a lot of concrete economic co-operation. You still have a lot of what Yugoslavia built in Zimbabwe.

President Mugabe: This is what I was going to go into. Non-violence was not just a doctrine of a people who will be uniting in singing ‘‘non-violence, non-violence’’, of course.

They would also be relating economically, politically. Therefore, the doctrine of non-violence brought about a unity of our people who would relate to each other economically and try to develop their countries in a peaceful way.

We took Yugoslavia as the leader of this non-violent movement and that meant, of course, that our reliance for the development programmes of our own countries would be first on Yugoslavia before we could go to anyone else. That is why Yugoslavia had a hand in the structures, various infrastructures of our countries, be they eastern countries of Africa, Tanzania for example, Central Africa, Southern Africa, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe much later. Yugoslavia also related ideologically to other countries and there was a meeting of the minds with even Castro, with Cuba, in the Non-Aligned Movement. And today, as we look at ourselves, we can point at the structures that were established by Yugoslav experts, Energo Projekt especially.

We built a conference centre, which is a combination of the conference centre itself and a hotel in Harare using Energo power.

So, Energoprojekt was the one we asked to do that project for us in preparation for the Non-Aligned Movement Conference, which we were to host in 1986. This was concluded end of 1985 and by 1986 we were ready with this beautiful conference centre. It is there in Harare for anyone to see. Quite a beautiful centre, it has remained that beautiful, shining above our Harare skies, very attractive. In Zambia; the same. Mulungushi Village was done and done within nine months of the holding of the Non-Aligned Movement (Conference) there.

KK, that is President Kaunda then, wanted to hold the Non-Aligned Movement Conference and he did not have much time.

He had just nine months to think of accommodation. And who did he think could provide accommodation in so short a time? Yugoslavia. And he went to Yugoslavia for it.

Also, when he thought he would be cut off from the hydro-electric power at Kariba, on the Zambezi, by Ian Smith after Ian Smith’s government in Southern Rhodesia had decided to declare UDI, Unilateral Declaration of Independence, in 1965, he had to take precautions and what was he to do?

Who was he to go to? Yugoslavia.

Yugoslavia did this project on the northern side of Kariba for Zambia just in readiness for what he feared would be action taken against him by Ian Smith’s government; that is cutting off electricity. But that did not quite happen.

Anyway, these are just some of the few. When we got independent, I told you, we did the same as President Kaunda had done. But even belatedly. . . Now Yugoslavia was threatened. There was imminence of disintegration. We had asked Energo to build us a house, a family house. The expert was a Mrs Simovic. She was the architect. Poor lady, she got cancer of the brain and died in Belgrade. She went back home thinking she was going to be cured, but cancer of the brain developed, became worse and she died.

But the builders went on and we had a Mr Savic who came much later to finish it. It took us a long time, naturally, because we had to pay for it from our own pocket at the end of the month. We had agreed with Energo; they gave us good terms. We paid just for the labour and we would buy the materials to build the house ourselves, the bricks and everything else and get whatever donations we might get, here and there.

At the end of each month, we then just paid the wages of the people who would have worked. We got the invoice. It took us a long time to complete the house; more than 10 years. But it’s a beautiful house.

We combined Yugoslav, the artistic capacity of Yugoslavia, with the feature of also the Chinese cultural artistic aspect of it.

BB: Your Excellency, you mentioned a lot of good experiences. At the beginning of the interview, you said the good experience of the past should not be allowed to die because of the turmoil that we have been through. But that is what more or less happened to relations between our two countries. What can be done and what do you intend to do on your side to revive what we had before?

President Mugabe: We should, first, not allow the doctrine of Nam, which is non-violence, to die, which means peace among the nations; between the nations; within the nations. That must survive, not necessarily as a derivative of the Non-Aligned Movement because Nam also derived it from experience in the past; that it was necessary for people to live in peace and this deriving from wars that had been fought in the past, especially the Second World War.

You must also always associate a movement of that nature with those who were behind it and Marshal Tito is one of the greatest movers of the Non-Aligned Movement; he and others who belong to it. Later, we of Africa joined him to further that movement. It’s not dead yet. We must continue it. We still belong to the Non-Aligned Movement. India is behind it. Countries of eastern Asia are members of it.

Well, I met Tito in 1979, I think around October. No, just before October, around September in Brijuni. I met Tito there. He was actually not well now and you could see that he was a bit nervous. But he still said he was going to attend the Non-Aligned Summit in Havana, which was going to be held there in October.

We met again in October and that was my last meeting with him, in October 1979, just before we left Havana, dashing to London for our final independence talks. That October, early October, we left the meeting going on in Havana and we got to London, just as the second week of October was beginning, to start discussions at Lancaster House, discussions which led us to, finally, the acceptance by Britain that Zimbabwe shall have independence in the following year, 1980.

But just before our independence in April, 1980, Marshal Tito had passed on. He had died. When I visited later, after independence, it was to visit his grave rather than meet the man I had met at Brijuni.

Those memories are crucial memories that strengthen us in continuing with this Non-Aligned Movement. We must improve on it and there are still people with the same push and the same sentiments, same determination as President Tito. But, he is gone. The sad, very sad experience that Yugoslavia has had is that of its disintegration, disintegration, which has been, as we looked at it, I think promoted if not sponsored by Europe, Europe using a few dissident voices in Yugoslavia. Hence, then there was that falling apart, which has left Serbia, now, on its own. Other parts - Croatia, etcetera - are independent. It’s a sad experience, but the reality must be accepted.

BB: What do you expect, hope for in the bilateral relations between Zimbabwe and Serbia in the period to come?

President Mugabe: As I was saying to the Foreign Minister (of Serbia, Mr Ivan Mrkic, in an earlier meeting), we should link up first; have a team that comes from Serbia, visiting us, discussing relations economic. And we also would want to continue to discuss, naturally, Non-Aligned Movement (Nam); if Serbia can continue, if Serbia is able to continue what Yugoslavia was doing with that movement.

But first and foremost, we would want economic relations with Serbia; if we can get groups that can come to discuss joint ventures in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, infrastructural work and ICT. We would want Serbia (to come) and we will give it preferential treatment because it has given us that treatment in the past.

So, if Serbia comes, they will be very welcome. They are friends all over Africa and no enemies. It is one country, of course, now it is Serbia; it used to be Yugoslavia, it was one country we could say was a perfect friend to us. No hypocrisy about it; no cheating about it, you see, and no discrimination at all, taking us as equals.

Whereas in other areas — Europe, America - they will shake hands with you, yes, but they will always regard you as inferior. And to this day, we have that problem that Europe wants to continue to dictate to us.

They do not want to recognise that we are a free people; we can run our own affairs without them.

And we continue to tell them, “Please, keep your dirty hands away from our business. We are what we are: masters of our own destiny in Africa. The resources of Africa are not resources of Europe anymore, no. We have kicked you out of Africa. Take care of your own countries and leave us to take care of our Africa and that is that. “We will choose our friends. We want good friends like Yugoslavia, now Serbia. Those are the ones we want to relate to, those who will see us for what we are and who will allow us to see them for what they are.” That’s the friendship we want and not that of, as they used to call it, horse and rider.

And who was to be the horse? That’s what they used to say: ‘‘We want the partnership of horse and rider in Africa.’’ Of course, we would be the horse and they the rider. And we were ridden for too long. But even the horse has its way of kicking, kicking the rider and getting rid of them if it gets annoyed. We did get annoyed and overhauled the rider, never to rise again.

BB: Since I cannot think of any better message to end the interview, I will just leave it there. Thank you very much.

President Mugabe: (Laughs) Thank you.

'No European Union Summit Without Zimbabwe'

Zimbabwe Vice-President Joice Mujuru greets President Robert Mugabe after he arrived at Harare International Airport from the African Union 22nd Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on February 1, 2014. Mugabe was elected as Deputy Chair., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

‘No EU Summit without Zim'

Sunday, 02 February 2014 00:00
Zimbabwe Sunday Mail

The African Union (AU) has resolved to cancel the European Union-AU Summit scheduled for Brussels, Belgium, in April this year if President Mugabe is not invited, thereby setting the stage for the EU to climb down on its punitive stance on Zimbabwe.

Leaders who attended the 22nd Ordinary Session of the AU General Assembly, which ended in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Friday, also agreed that the continent should take control of its natural resources and not allow foreigners to dictate their exploitation.

The leaders also resolved to realign the education systems of African countries with policies that promote entrepreneurial skills and job-creation.

Addressing journalists soon after arriving back home from the AU Summit yesterday, Foreign Affairs Minister Cde Simbarashe Mumbengegwi said the African Heads of State and Government elected not to attend the EU-AU interface if the Europeans do not invite Cde Mugabe.

He said it was “absolute madness” for the bloc to exclude the President, especially after his election as AU First Deputy Chairperson. He added that the AU Commission has been tasked with ensuring that every leader is invited to Brussels.

“We were never in any doubt that they were going to climb down and capitulate. We do not even know why they decided to try this in the first place because they tried it before and they were forced to capitulate.

“And it seems they have very short memories: they tried it again this time. Of course, Africa took a very firm position to say if President Mugabe is not invited to this Summit, then there will be no Summit because no African Head of State was going to attend a Summit where President Mugabe is being excluded.

“That is the decision that was taken at the African Union that all Heads of State and Government must be invited without exception if the Summit is going to take place. And so, faced with this situation, I do not think the European Union has any option. One never ceases to marvel why the European Union always wants to come up with self-imposed humiliation.”

The EU-AU Summit is expected to be held from April 2 to 3. It will mainly focus on strategic priorities between the two continents and review the Joint Africa-EU Strategy (JAES).

The strategy seeks to deepen relations through a “strengthened political partnership and enhanced co-operation at all levels”. It is also tailored to promote sustained development and implemented through successive short-term action plans.

One of its overarching objectives is “reinforcing and elevating the Africa-EU political partnership to address issues of common concern”.

The EU did not invite Zimbabwe to the Summit, ostensibly as an expression of its long-standing impasse with the country.

The bloc imposed targeted and economic sanctions on the Southern African nation at the instigation of former colonial power Britain, which was vehemently against the land reform programme. It is this month expected to review the punitive measures.

Cde Mumbengegwi said the firm position taken by the African leaders was likely to force the EU to rescind its decision on Zimbabwe as the grouping was keen to hold the Summit. He said: “They did not have to take this position and now they are humiliated. And so, as it is, I do not know if the invitation has arrived yet, but we know that it will have to come because they want the Summit to go ahead and Africa will only go there if President Mugabe is invited to this Summit.

“After all, President Mugabe is now the First Deputy President of the African Union. How can you hold a Summit between two organisations and then one organisation has the arrogance to say to the other organisation, ‘Yes, let’s meet as two organisations, but we don’t want your Deputy President to be present.’ I mean this is madness! This is just madness!

“The AU Commission has been tasked to follow up on this decision of the African Union that each and every Head of State must be invited. They have been mandated to follow up this issue and ensure that it is done because, if it is not done, then there is no Summit.”

Regarding the AU’s Agenda 2063, a vision expected to guide the continent over the next 50 years, the minister said the summit resolved that Africa must take control of its natural resources following glaring evidence of poverty in the midst of wealth.

He said member states would harmonise approaches to ensure they do not lose out to foreign investment. On education, he revealed that during plenary sessions, President Mugabe spoke of the need to reconsider the present job-market-oriented system and move to one that promotes entrepreneurial skills and job-creation. Agenda 2063 seeks resource control, education realignment, greater participation of the African state and a shift from donor-dependency, among other elements.

Foreign ministers, who attended a retreat ahead of the Summit, unanimously agreed that a “strong, bold leadership” was required to steer the continent to prosperity.

“As you are aware, Agenda 2063 has become extremely important on the agenda of the AU because it is an effort to come up with programmes of action over the next 50 years. It is work in progress. The AU wants to formulate that action programme. It was underlined that Africa is rich in resources and yet Africans are poor. Therefore, Africans must control these resources, then we can become masters of our own destiny.

“Another point endorsed by Summit was that of the education content in Africa. It was underlined by the President during discussions that it was good our children attend school, but the concern was about the content.”

The 22nd Ordinary Session of the AU General Assembly — held under the theme “2014 Year of Agriculture and Food Security” — closed with the leaders also making major decisions on agriculture, peace and security as well as relations between Africa and the International Criminal Court (ICC). On agriculture and food security, member states are expected to implement key activities that will be discussed after six months. Summit also reinforced its position that no sitting African Head of State and Government should be brought before the ICC.


President welcomes AU postPrint

Sunday, 02 February 2014 00:00
News Editor

President Mugabe says he is pleased with Zimbabwe’s election to the African Union (AU) Bureau of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government as Deputy Chair and has pointed out the need to work diligently.

Speaking to journalists at the Harare International Airport after his arrival from the 22nd Ordinary Session of the AU General Assembly in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, yesterday, Cde Mugabe said it was routine for member states to rotate the AU leadership.

He said Zimbabwe was not new to the responsibility as it has held a similar position in the past.

The AU Bureau comprises Mauritania (President), Zimbabwe (First Deputy President), the Democratic Republic of Congo (Second Deputy President and Rapporteur) and Nigeria (Third Deputy President).

“Well, that is to be expected. Surely, as a member of the Organisation of African Unity from 1980, now the African Union, we must also have a turn to preside over the organisation and there is nothing new.

“We have done it before.

“But we are very happy. We will take over in January next year. Just now, we are Deputy as Zimbabwe. Come mid-year this year, we will take over the chairmanship of Sadc. So, it means everybody should work hard.

“At the AU, we were mainly focusing on agriculture. That was the theme, a theme that is actually driving us this year. It is a very good theme for us. We want to mechanise . . . We must ensure that what comes from the soil and the heavens benefits us.”

President Mugabe, who is also Sadc Deputy Chair, said he presided over an Extraordinary Summit of the bloc on the sidelines of the AU Summit because the Chair, President Joyce Banda of Malawi, was unable to attend.

He said Sadc lifted sanctions on Madagascar, which successfully held elections late last year.

“Madam Banda was not able to come. So, I was doing it on her behalf. But that was to say to Madagascar at least we have had a democratic election, an election which has been long-accepted by Sadc, an election accepted by the AU.

“So, let’s erase the hardships, remove the hardships.

“We had imposed sanctions on Madagascar not to be a member of Sadc and the AU. So, what we need to do now is congratulate the people of Madagascar and remove all the restrictions that we had imposed on them.

"That is what we were presiding over. It was a very short meeting.”

Commenting on Agenda 2063, Africa’s guiding vision over the next 50 years, Cde Mugabe said resource-control was critical to Africa’s development.

He said while the vision was ambitious, the continent was working towards realising it.
Investing in young people will also help produce prosperous generations, he added.

“Well, yes, that vision is a very ambitious vision. It was presented in a very dramatic way by Madam Zuma (AU Commission Chairperson). She was already in 2063 and looking back and seeing how we had developed, how agriculture had developed and seeing also how the rivers had been utilised, the Zambezi, the Limpopo and then the whole of Africa.

“How the children had benefited and how the schools had arisen, industries and all sectors had managed to be developed. It is very ambitious, but we need investment, investment in agriculture, investment in mining, investment in manufacturing, investment also in infrastructure, roads and, of course, ICTs, but, most of all, investment in our children who will take over from us.

“I will be dreaming from some grave somewhere and perhaps you (referring to a journalist interviewing him) will be an old lady by that time, saying all my children, all of them, are now engineers, well-married and so on.

“That is good. That is what we are doing.
“To us, it did not really mean much except to say shall we have the resources, all of us in Africa, to bring development to Africa, to that important level?

“For now it is a level that we have agreed to work towards. So, that is our ambition. Well, with us, Zim Asset is part of that ambition.”

African Union Unites Against ICC Trials

Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta (L) speaks with cabinet secretary for foreign affairs Amina Mohammed (R) and attorney-general Githu Mungai (2-R) at the African Union’s special summit on ICC., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

African Union unites against ICC trials

The African Union has closed ranks in demanding that the ICC drop criminal proceedings against sitting presidents.

02 Feb 2014 07:05 Sapa-AP

The African Union urged its members to "speak with one voice" to prevent criminal proceedings at the International Criminal court against sitting presidents, according to a statement on Saturday.

The 54-nation organisation said it was disappointed that a request to the UN Security Council to defer the trials of Kenya's leaders "has not yielded the positive result expected". The African Union also has sought the deferral of criminal proceedings against Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, who has been charged with genocide in Darfur.

Only Botswana has opposed the stand taken by the African Union, made in a statement received on Saturday after a summit in Ethiopia attended by 34 leaders.

"African states parties should comply with African Union decisions on the ICC and continue to speak with one voice," the statement said, adding "There is an imperative need for all member states to ensure that they adhere to and articulate commonly agreed positions ..."

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto face charges of crimes against humanity at the international court at The Hague for allegedly orchestrating post-election violence that killed more than 1 000 people following a disputed presidential election in late 2007. Both men deny the charges.

The International Criminal Court has recently come under strong criticism from African leaders who accuse it of racism in indicting only Africans. Countries such as Uganda have suggested they may decide to sever ties with the court in solidarity with Kenya. Some Africans also argue that the Kenyan leaders need to concentrate on governing their countries to ensure stability as the region faces unprecedented terrorist challenges.

Ruto's trial continues at The Hague but the case against Kenyatta may collapse. Kenyatta's trial was to start in November but was postponed to February after the prosecution and defence teams said they needed more time to prepare. The prosecutor in December asked for an additional three-month adjournment after one witness withdrew and another said they gave false evidence.

A Kenyan court on Friday refused to stop the arrest of a journalist wanted by the international court for allegedly interfering with prosecution witnesses in the case against Ruto.

- Sapa-AP

ANC Dismisses Ramphele Candidacy for the DA

Dr. Mamphele Ramphele and Helen Zille after the merger of Agang with the Democratic Alliance (DA). The ruling African National Congress (ANC) says Ramphele is a 'rent-a-black-face for the DA., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Agang more than window dressing for DA

Agang's integration strengthens the DA's claim to nonracialism, and that is something that should worry the ANC.

31 Jan 2014 00:00 Rapule Tabane

The virtual swallowing of Agang by the ­Democratic Alliance (DA) has kept all of us wondering how the political landscape will change. Will it be a game-changer, as DA leader Helen Zille claims, or will it be more of the same, because, essentially, an individual sought refuge when her own party collapsed?

But this and other recent developments mean we need to take a broad look at what has happened in the political space in the past few weeks and, if possible, extrapolate what it means for the coming elections.

The first is that the ANC's January 8 rally and manifesto launch in Mbombela, Mpumalanga, and subsequent provincial launches indicate that opposition parties underestimate the ANC at their own peril.

The packed stadiums over the past few weeks show the enduring popularity of this 102-year-old organisation. The general discourse over the past few months was that of a party whose popularity was waning and there is the expectation that the ANC will lose a noticeable chunk of its support during the elections.

I believe this will be the case, but the party says it is aiming for a 70% majority.

Historically, the ANC has recognised election time as an opportunity to reconnect with its members and supporters. It is one of the few occasions when it is able to muster an effective communication machinery, and when the level of interaction with communities increases.

It is a time when it targets various strata of society, speaking to their needs, and a time like no other when it is able to target its messages and bring back "home" past voters who are now wavering. Its well-organised Siyanqoba rallies are also meant to intimidate its opponents psychologically and remind those contemplating voting for other parties that only the ANC is the "people's party".

As we are again witnessing, just when we expect the ANC to fall below the 60% mark, the party is tightening up its game in a manner that could confound critics. But it is not its diehard supporters attending rallies that the party should worry about, but the 23-million registered voters that matter.

This means that it cannot afford to be as complacent about the announcement of Mamphela Ramphele joining the DA as its presidential candidate as it was this week. ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe cocked a snook at the event, saying Ramphele was a rent-a-black leader.

Ramphele hardly deserves any empathy, as she naively thought that having the "right message" was enough to start a political party and win over the electorate. A wealthy woman worth R50-million, Ramphele failed to articulate any theme that resonated with millions of South Africans.

A party centred on a single personality without any visible grass-roots contact was bound to struggle to cut it. As Helen Zille said this week, a political party needs structures, institutions, people and money, and AgangSA had very little of that. Like many others, I am inclined to laugh at the joke of making Ramphele a presidential candidate when the party knows that it has no prospects whatsoever of winning the elections.

As people have said throughout the week, it revives the ghost of Joe Seremane, who had very little influence inside the party, but during elections was often nominated for the meaningless position of DA presidential candidate.

But the event that took place in Cape Town was not entirely a charade. And Zille's opponents would do well to take note of this.

Zille's admission that Mamphele's race and struggle credentials were a factor in recruiting her should alert her enemies of her tireless endeavour to change the face of the DA. The truth is that, regardless of what she says, many in our generation will see the DA as a white party.

But Zille is clearly building for the future. I am not convinced that Ramphele will bring anything substantial to the DA in the immediate elections, as many of her supporters, though they share an ideological outlook with the DA, consciously chose her instead of the DA.

The DA was poised to increase its share of the voters anyway, with or without AgangSA. The ANC, founded on the principles of non-racialism, should be careful not to surrender its credentials to the DA.

Although Zille goes about changing the face of the DA too mechanically in a manner that almost jars, in years to come the DA could well lay claim to being a truly nonracial party.

Zille will be long gone from the political stage when the race card no longer sticks against the DA, but she is laying the foundations.

CAR President Vows Protection for Muslims

Catherine Samba-Panza of the Central African Republic has been appointed as the interim President of the mineral-rich state., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Central African Republic: President Vows Protection for Muslims

BY NICK LONG, 1 FEBRUARY 2014

Bangui — The new president of the Central African Republic, Catherine Samba-Panza, has promised that starting next week, the country's security forces will be re-organized to protect Muslims as well as Christians.

The interim president made the announcement Saturday at several sites for displaced people including the central mosque in Bangui, where hundreds of Muslims have taken refuge from the violence in their part of the city.

Muslims are a minority of the CAR's population, perhaps about 15 percent. Since last year when a largely Muslim rebel group, the Seleka, seized power, and then gradually lost power, the fellow Muslims have been in increasing danger.

Her visit to a mosque on Saturday was the first time that Samba-Panza, who is a Christian, has met a large Muslim crowd since she was elected president last month. It marked an important test of her appeal to Muslims.

The visit was nearly called off in the morning when an anti-Muslim gang burned a house near the mosque and tried to lynch a Muslim, but the president finally arrived there with a heavily armed escort of Rwandan peacekeepers.

Unlike at the other sites the president had visited, there was no cheering as she shook hands with waiting dignitaries, but she managed to break the ice with a unifying address partly in Arabic, the only language many Muslims here understand.

She told the crowd she deplores the fact that many people who have lived in the Central African Republic a long time have now been forced to flee to Chad or to the northeast of the country. This is against the principles on which the nation was built, she says, as expressed in its motto - Unity, Dignity and Work.

Tens of thousands of CAR's Muslim population have been forced into exile or forced to return to their home countries, while in Bangui and across the west of the CAR frightened communities are under attack by the so-called anti-Balaka militia. Many are anxiously waiting for trucks to get through that might yet take them to safety.

The Chadian government has taken a lead in evacuating Muslims from the CAR - aid agencies are reluctant to organize wholesale departures because it could be seen as facilitating ethnic cleansing.

Security forces in the CAR were routed by Seleka rebels last year and, only recently, have begun to reassemble.

Samba Panza reiterated her call for militias to lay down their arms, but had a conciliatory message for some militia members.

"Not all the Seleka militia are bandits," she said, "and not all the anti-Balaka militia are bandits either, but they must guard against being manipulated."

She added that starting Monday the security forces - army, police and gendarmerie - will be rearmed so that they can protect the whole population, in collaboration with international peacekeepers.

Meanwhile African Union and French peacekeepers have re-established their presence at the town of Sibut, 150 kilometers north of Bangui, where hundreds of Seleka fighters had set up a base. It is not clear whether the Seleka have left the town, but it seems they did not take on the international forces.

Ex-Somalia Prime Minister Was Leader of Youth League

Former Somalia Youth League official and Prime Minister Abdirizak Haji Hussein has died at the age of 89 in Minnesota., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Feb 1, 2014 - 2:08:14 AM
SOMALIA

Ex-Somalia PM passes away at 89

1 Feb 1, 2014 - 1:40:47 AM

GAROWE, Somalia Feb.1, 2014 (Garowe Online)- Abdirizak Haji Hussein, former Somalia Prime Minister from 1964 to 1967 under the incumbency of the country's first president Adan Abdulle Osman has on Saturday died of pneumonia complications according to his relatives at the age of 89, Garowe Online reports.

Sources close to his family says, Hussein was hospitalized last week and succumbed to his ailing health at a medical center in the US's Minneapolis city.

In his last interview with the Somali Media, late former Prime Minister told that Federal Government of Somalia took a step forward but failed to lead the war-ravaged horn of Africa nation to the path to recovery.

Hussein served in different administrative capacities in the pre-civil war governments as he separately became Interior and Public housing Ministers during 1960s before former dictator Mohamed Siyad Barre came to power in 1969 following bloodless military coup.

Barre placed him in detention and later appointed as Somalia's ambassador to the United Nations in 1975.

Though he spent much of the last two decades of chaos as asylum seeker in the United States after armed opposition groups toppled the country's longstanding military government in 1991,Being an active member in the defunct Somali Youth League made Hussein a national hero and patriotic among the Somali public.

One, Two, How Many "Somalias': Beward of Balkanization

A map of the Horn of Africa nation of Somalia on the east coast of the continent. The state has undergone tremendous upheaval over the last three decades or more., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Jan 29, 2014 - 11:06:03 AM

OPINION

One, Two, How Many “Somalias” – Beware Balkanization

29 Jan 29, 2014 - 11:00:27 AM
Paul R. Camacho, Ph.D.
The William Joiner Institute for War and
Social Consequences
University of Massachusetts Boston (retired)

Several articles have appeared lately illustrating the crossroads confronting not only the Federal Government of Somalia, but the various sectors of leadership and public across Somalia and throughout the diaspora.

These articles include, but are not limited to the article by Abukar Arman concerning Somalia’s fault lines, particularly those of a clan-centric nature, the Michael Weinstein article concerning silver linings and vicious cycles and his earlier article on the political poisoning by the donor nations, and Armin Rosen’s concerning banking and the Dahabshiil / hawala transfer system.

The Arman piece is illustrative of how various external actors are enticing, influencing the internal players, the Somali clans and others.

The point I would make is the Somali people and particularly the clan structures should beware Balkanization. On one hand, there are overt demands the F.S.G. negotiate a reconstruction of the political situation, but as Weinstein points out, on the other hand there are the contradictions of the donor nation’s separate negotiations with those very entities. I know not what funding is being proffered before the government; it is perhaps a chalice that may never be forthcoming, and could very well be a poison one if it actually arrives. The “up-front” requirements are challenging as it is and certainly there will be “back-end” demands as well.

Now given the diaspora provided a little over half of the Somali GDP; it seems plausible to say this community can do what is financially necessary even if over a longer period of time. However, as Armin Rosen noted the ability of the diaspora to facilitate the maintenance of its current contribution and / or an increase of this is in danger. The blunt instrument of the US is to thwart any financial support of terrorism by cracking down on a financial transfer system that ignores / circumscribes western accounting methods with its financial flows. If US policy should choke the financial lifeline of the diaspora, then what becomes of Somalia?

This potential shutdown of the remittances portends the Balkanization of Somalia. There is a neo-liberal argument articulated during the last decade that Somalia, and other fragile and / or failed states are better off stateless; economist Peter Leeson argued for this in the Journal of Comparative Economics, The policy preference for Balkanization has been in the overall context of discussion pertaining to Somalia in a variety of other areas. It was a theme tendered at the Patuxent Defense Forum of 2008 and readers will note it is implied in a supportive manner in the concluding passages of the Rosen article. Weinstein’s “Belgian Waffles” article notes the donors negotiating on their own with Somaliland and suggests a coming “scramble” of factions.

Further, George Selgin, writing in The Cato Journal suggested weak states should have privatized currency. All this does not lead to genuine self-government.

Will there be a Somalia for each clan and perhaps even sub clans? What about other powerful factions of warlords, pirate lords, or even Al-Shabaab? It will no doubt have an appeal to those immediately envisioning wealth and power. However, what would be the consequences? I think it would be catastrophic, an end to a Somali nation and perhaps over a modest time frame for the Somali culture. Reduced to numerous fifes, what could any of these quilt-patches of Somali sovereignty bring to countervail the powerful forces of privatization and globalization? What rules and context of procedure law, property rights, or commanding interests would prevail? Can clans incorporate? What would be their legal status? It is a forgone conclusion legal authority would tilt in favor of those offering the foreign direct investment – donors and more particularly the international corporations – virtually all of whom will possess greater resources than any of the fifes.

Further, I submit that Balkanized, Somalia represents a new and sizable experiment for privatization / globalization and enclave investment in a conveniently self-cleft society.

Once this process truly begins, it will likely be irreversible and will signal the beginning of a new trend / policy for weak / failed states. It may create wealth for a few local elites, but will probably be to the detriment of all others.

The phenomenon of globalization is now well established; yet there is no forecast of how it will continue to unfold. Even the United States – the entity allowing / encouraging the genie out of the bottle - has no actual control of the path. The socio-economic debate in the U.S., the ever accelerating concentration of wealth and disparity of wealth, the culture “war” in general, the issue of immigration in particular, and of course the proclivity of Wall Street and other financial empires to seek their immediate enrichment over the welfare of the nation are indicators of a failure of governance by our political and corporate elites. The forces of privatization constantly seek to eclipse public space in the United States and their advocates always reach back to the constitution and James Madison for justification.

Yet, as a recent New York Times article noted, there were no competitors then. Currently private corporations constitute as much, if not bigger threat to the public over any governmental power. They are too big to fail and their elite leadership is too connected to be prosecuted.

So what are the possibilities for those in less powerful nations?

Somalia can become a strong unified nation state, channeling the forces of international development for the benefit of all Somalis, thereby becoming an anchor for collective prosperity and development in all East Africa.

It could also unravel and sputter out as a unified society over the next two decades if it takes even that long. The choice is up to the Somali people and particularly its leadership, which exists in all the potentially divergent sectors. Again, Abukar Arman has noted both external and internal fault lines.

The Somali leadership should focus on the latter: the hybrid clan-centric behavior, the need to develop a truly professional military over an amalgamation of militias, and regional state development. There are also the issues revolving around the hybrid presidential-parliamentary system, a myriad of legal issues, particularly property rights in the development sector, and the establishment of a solid and sustainable tax base.

The present government represents the best opportunity for unification. It seems doubtful a better opportunity will come about later given the trends noted thus far. All self-interested focus on relatively short term narrow gains will beget a disaster of Balkanization which bodes ill for Somalia and perhaps for all Africa. Visions of self-determination and prosperity within these potential fifes are a treacherous mirage.

Sources
Abukar Arman, Obstacles to Progress: Somalia’s Fault Lines, Think Africa Press, August 3, 2012 - http://thinkafricapress.com/somalia/obstacles-progress-new-government-fault-lines
Peter T. Leeson, "Better Off Stateless: Somalia before and After Government Collapse." Journal of Comparative Economics 35(4) 2007: 689-710
Armin Rosen concerning banking and Dhabshiil / hawala transfer system, Armin Rosen, “Picking Up the Pieces Banking on Somalia”, American Interest, December 19, 2013 - http://www.the-american-interest.com/articles/2013/12/19/banking-on-somalia/
Jeffery Rosen, “Madison’s Privacy Blind Spot”, The New York Times – Sunday Review, January 19, 2014, p. 5.
See George Selgin, “Currency Privatization as a Substitute for Currency Boards and Dollarization”, The Cato Journal, Volume 25, Number 1, Winter, 2005, pp. 141 – 151.
Michael Weinstein article concerning silver linings and vicious cycles – Michael Weinstein, “Somalia: Silver Lining or Vicious Cycle”, Garowe Online, December 20, 2013,
http://www.garoweonline.com/artman2/publish/Analysis/Somalia-Silver-Lining-or-Vicious-Cycle.shtml
Michael Weinstein, “The Political Poisoning of the F.G.S. by Belgian Waffles”, http://www.garoweonline.com/artman2/publish/Analysis/Somalia_The_Political_Poisoning_of_the_F_G_S_by_Belgian_Waffles_gazette.shtml

The opinion above is solely the author's and does not necessarily reflect the views of Garowe Online and its affiliates.

China Says Japan's 'Hype' On Air Defense Zone Spreads Tension

The United States has provoked the People's Republic of China by flying unannounced over the East Sea region. This action escalates tensions., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

China says Japan's 'hype' on air defence zone spreads tension

2:24am GMT

BEIJING (Reuters) - China does not feel threatened by countries in Southeast Asia and is optimistic about the situation in the disputed South China Sea, the Foreign Ministry said, warning Japan not to "spread rumours" it plans a new air defence identification zone.

China alarmed Japan, South Korea and the United States last year when it announced an air defence identification zone for the East China Sea, covering a group of uninhabited islands at the centre of a bitter ownership spat between China and Japan.

Last week, Japanese newspaper the Asahi Shimbun said China was considering setting up a similar zone - where foreign aircraft are supposed to report their movements to China - in the South China Sea, prompting the U.S. State Department to warn against such a move.

In a statement released late on Saturday, China's Foreign Ministry implied there was no need for such a zone in the South China Sea, where China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan all have competing claims.

"Generally speaking, China does not feel there is an air security threat from ASEAN countries," the ministry said, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

"China feels optimistic about relations with countries surrounding the South China Sea and the general situation in the South China Sea," the ministry said, adding it believed prospects for ties with ASEAN were "bright".

While the ministry said China had a right to set up air defence identification zones which nobody should criticise, it criticised Japan for attempting to distract attention from Japan's own military plans.

"Right wing forces in Japan have again been hyping up so-called plans that China will shortly set up an air defence identification zone in the South China Sea, which is purely to try and distract international attention, to cover up their conspiracy to ... expand their military," the ministry said.

"We warn these forces not to delude people with rumours for their own selfish interests and play up tensions, and hope the relevant party talks and acts cautiously," it added.

Ties have been strained by a recent visit by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to a controversial shrine for war dead, China's East China Sea air defence zone and the long-running dispute over a string of islets both countries claim, known as the Diaoyu in Chinese and the Senkaku in Japanese.

China, which is swiftly ramping up military spending, has regularly dispatched patrols to the East China Sea since it established the defence zone.

China has repeatedly denied Japanese accusations of being a threat to peace, saying it is Japan which is the threat, warning that Tokyo is trying to rearm and has failed to learn the lessons from its brutal behaviour during World War Two.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Dr. Carter G. Woodson & African American History Month

Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, chairing the 11th Annual Detroit MLK Day Rally & March at Central United Methodist Church on Monday January 20, 2014. (Photo: Marge Shultz), a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Carter G. Woodson and African American History Month

88th anniversary of popular recognition of struggle and advancement

by Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire

Editor's Note: This is a slightly revised article originally published in 2010.
--------------------------------------------------

February 2014 represents the 88th anniversary of the founding of Negro History Week, now known as African-American History Month. This month of commemoration was initiated by historian Dr. Carter G. Woodson, who worked tirelessly for many years to popularize the dissemination and study of the history of African people in the United States and throughout the world.

Carter Godwin Woodson originally came from New Canton, Virginia, where he was born on December 19, 1875. Woodson was born into a poor southern family and worked in the coal mines of Kentucky. He was not able to enroll in high school until he was 20 years old.

He would later attend the University of Chicago and Harvard University where he obtained undergraduate and graduate degrees. He was awarded a Ph.D from Harvard University in 1912, becoming the second African-American to receive this degree after W.E.B. DuBois in 1896.

The challenge of W.E.B. DuBois, Carter G. Woodson and other African-American historians was to refute the racist propaganda disguised as history which sought to provide the ideological justification for the mass enslavement of African people and the continuation of jim crow and racist terror.

Historical Studies Prior to the Intervention of African-American Scholars

One of the major contributions of historians such as DuBois and Woodson is that they scientifically challenged and debunked the myths of the "southern slave-owning aristocracy" and "black docility". These views could no longer stand up to the research presented in the narratives developed by African-American historians.

What is often not emphasized in the historical remembrance of African slavery in American society, is the level of resistance by the captives to the plantations owners, overseers and the legal codes which reinforced this system of exploitation. Notions and theories of African slave resistance were largely absent from the scholarly treatment of this long episode in American history until relatively recent times. One of the early 20th century historians, Ulrich B. Phillips, did much to advance the racist views of southern former slave owning families and their communities.

In Phillips’ book entitled, “American Negro Slavery: A Survey of the Supply, Employment and Control of Negro Labor as Determined by the Plantation Regime,” published originally in 1918, he contends that the overwhelming tendency among southern slave holders was a liberalized form of administrative control which resembles a patriarchal or paternalistic model of slave management.

As a result of the biased views held by Phillips and other white historians, their flawed emphasis and interpretation of data leads the reader to no particular insights or conclusions related to the African slave as a conscious human being within the production process taking place within southern society as a whole.

All of the viewpoints presented by observers of the slave system in Phillips' work reinforce the idea of the inferiority of African peoples and the supposed moral fortitude of the southern slave owners. These views related to the slave-master relationship contend that they are the natural order of things between Africans and Europeans.

The Birth of African-American Studies

However, new schools of thought arose during the early 20th century to counteract the apologists for the antebellum slave system and the rebel confederacy during the Civil War. DuBois declared in 1909 that the cultural presence of the ancestral origins of the slaves played a significant role in shaping the character of American life: “The mystic spell of Africa is and ever was over all America. It has guided her hardest work, inspired here finest literature, and sung her sweetest songs. Her greatest destiny—unsensed and despised though it be—is to give back to the first of continents the gifts which Africa of old gave to America’s fathers’ fathers.”

According to Jacqueline Goggin in her political biography of Woodson, ‘In 1915 he founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History to encourage scholars to engage in the intensive study of the past as it related to Africans and their descendants through the world. Prior to this work, the field had been largely neglected or distorted in the hands of historians who accepted the traditionally biased picture of blacks in American and world affairs.” (Goggin)

In 1916, Woodson founded the Journal of Negro History, which remained an important scholarly publication under his direction for more than 30 years. His academic work led him to Howard University and West Virginia State College as a professor and administrator.

Over the years he authored numerous important books including “The Negro in Our History” (1922); “The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861” (1915); and “A Century of Negro Migration” (1918). In 1933, during the Great Depression, he published his best known work, “The Miseducation of the Negro,” where he attacked the white capitalist influence over schooling designed for African-Americans during the early 20th Century.

In the book there is a chapter entitled “Political Education Neglected” where Woodson says that “Even the few Negroes who are elected to office are often similarly uninformed and show a lack of vision. They have given little attention to the weighty problems of the nation; and in the legislative bodies to which they are elected, they restrict themselves as a rule to matters of special concern to the Negroes themselves, such as lynching, segregation and disenfranchisement, which they have well learned by experience. “

Woodson then goes on to point out the contributions of African-American elected officials during Reconstruction when he says that “This indicates a step backwards, for the Negroes who sat in Congress and in the State Legislatures during the Reconstruction worked for the enactment of measures of concern to all elements of the population regardless of color. Historians have not yet forgot what those Negroes statesmen did in advocating public education, internal improvements, labor arbitration, the tariff, and the merchant marine.” (Mis-education, pp. 94-95)

Woodson’ Legacy and the African-American Struggle

Woodson died in 1950 at the age of 75. He did not live to see the emergence of the mass civil rights and black power struggles starting in mid-1950s and extending through the early 1970s. He was not able to witness the emergence of a militant student movement in 1960 that led to the formation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the later Black Panther Party.

It was during these times that the movement demanding the implementation of African-American Studies programs in K-12 education and in institutions of higher learning emerged. Tremendous protests were carried out at numerous schools, colleges and universities that won concessions that introduced course work that recognized the contributions and essential role of African-Americans in U.S. and world affairs.

The work of Woodson, DuBois and other African-American scholars provided the intellectual basis for the advancement of ethnic and multi-cultural studies. Every major school district and institution of higher learning has been the center of debate and struggle over the character of the academic curriculum and the admission and status of African-Americans and other oppressed people of color in the United States.

Despite these gains related to the adoption of African-American and multi-cultural studies programs and curriculums, as well as admission of people of color to historically white institutions, the current economic crisis has witnessed the wholesale attack on such gains that were made during the civil rights and black power era. Today school districts and colleges are cutting back and laying off educational workers who gained their positions as a result of the mass movements over the last five decades.

These attacks on higher education and their disproportionate impact on African-Americans and other oppressed people must be taken up in the current student movement against the major downsizing taking place in all areas of education in the U.S. The March 4, 2010 National Day of Action to Defend Education, students and educational workers demanded the continuation, restoration and full funding of all academic programs that serve the oppressed and exploited groups that have traditionally been excluded from position of power and influence in the country.

These major cutbacks in education funding must be rejected and students and workers should demand that money be taken away from the banks and the Pentagon and given to the people to ensure quality education for all. The interests of youth and workers must supersede those of the corporations and the military.

'Keep Dirty Hands Off Africa' President Mugabe Tells Europe at African Union Summit

President Mugabe greets the son of the late Vice President Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo,Sibangilizwe, at the official opening of the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo International Airport in Bulawayo on Sunday December 22, 2013., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

‘Keep dirty hands off Africa’

February 1, 2014
Morris Mkwate in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Africa should avoid entering “horse and rider” economic arrangements that only benefit other nations while leaving the continent poorer, President Mugabe has said.

President Mugabe, in an invitation to Serbia to establish stronger economic relations with Zimbabwe, criticised Europe for trying to keep its “dirty hands” on Africa and also appealed to progressive countries not to allow the Non-Aligned Movement’s foremost doctrine of peace to die.

In an interview with the Serbian Broadcasting Corporation at the African Union Headquarters here yesterday, the President said Serbia — part of the former Yugoslavia — was Zimbabwe’s “perfect friend” and had never discriminated against the country.

He said areas of possible co-operation included manufacturing, ICTs, mining, infrastructure development and agriculture.

“As I was saying to the Foreign Minister (of Serbia, Mr Ivan Mrkic), we should link up first; have a team that comes from Serbia, visiting us, discussing economic relations. And we also would want to discuss, naturally, the Non-Aligned Movement, if Serbia can continue, if Serbia is able to continue, what Yugoslavia was doing with that movement.

“But first and foremost, we would want economic relations with Serbia. If we can get groups that can come to discuss joint ventures in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, infrastructural work and ICT. We want Serbia (to come) and we will give it preferential treatment because it has given us that treatment in the past.”

The President criticised Europe for seeking to dictate to Africa what it should do, saying Westerners should keep their “dirty hands” off the continent.

“Whereas in other areas — Europe, America — they will shake hands with you, yes, but they will always regard you as inferior. And to this day, we have that problem that Europe wants to continue to dictate to us.

“They do not want to recognise that we are a free people; that we can run our own affairs without them. And we continue to tell them, ‘Please, keep your dirty hands away from our business’.

“We are what we are: masters of our own destiny in Africa. The resources of Africa are not resources of Europe anymore, no. We have kicked you out of Africa. Take care of your own countries and leave us to take care of our Africa and that is that.

“We will choose our friends; we want good friends like Serbia. Those are the ones we want to relate to, those who will see us for what we are and who will allow us to see them for what they are.

“That’s the friendship we want and not that of, as they used to call it, horse and rider. And who was to be the horse? That’s what they used to say: ‘We want the partnership of horse and rider in Africa’.

“Of course, we would be the horse and they the rider. And we were ridden for too long. But even the horse has its way of kicking; kicking the rider and getting rid of them if it gets annoyed. We did get annoyed and overhauled the rider, never to rise again.”

President Mugabe said Zimbabwe and Serbia shared cordial relations that saw Serbian construction giant, Energo Projekt, build the Harare International Conference Centre and Zanu-PF Headquarters.

He said Serbia provided a critical voice in world affairs as it led the formation of NAM under the visionary leadership of Marshal Josip Broz Tito.

“We should, first, not allow the doctrine of NAM, non-violence, to die, which means peace among the nations; between the nations; within the nations. That must survive, not necessarily as a derivative of the Non-Aligned Movement because NAM also derived it from experience in the past that it was necessary for people to live in peace and this deriving from wars that had been fought in the past, especially the Second World War.

“You must also associate a movement of that nature with those who were behind it and Marshal Tito is one of the greatest movers of the Non-Aligned Movement; he and others who belong to it. Later, we of Africa joined him to further that movement. It’s not dead yet. We must continue it.”

Earlier, President Mugabe held bilateral talks with Mozambique’s President Armando Guebuza, Ghana’s former president Mr John Kufuor, and Serbia’s Foreign Minister Mr Ivan Mrkic.

Speaking to journalists after their meeting, President Guebuza said discussions centred on economic co-operation.

“The talks went on very well. He is a friend of Mozambique and we are both friends. We understand the issues in our countries and had a chance to exchange views on economic co-operation,” he said.

President Mugabe also discussed economic co-operation with Mr Mrkic.

Mr Kufuor, who with Norway’s former prime minister Mr Jens Stoltenberg, was recently appointed United Nations Special Climate Change Envoy, briefed the President on the Climate Change Summit scheduled for New York in September this year.

The Summit seeks to mobilise political commitment for the conclusion of a global agreement by 2015 and to expedite action on climate change.

“They say charity begins at home, so I came to see my brother (following my appointment as one of the Climate Change Special Envoys). The United Nations secretary-general has sent us to leaders to discuss climate change,” said Mr Kufuor.

“Everyone has a part to play — the so called developing and developed world. It is affecting everyone, so we should work to arrest its impact.”

UN Peacekeeping Envoy to Visit South Sudan for Discussion on Ceasefire

Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta in South Sudan to mediate between President Salva Kiir and ousted Vice-President Riek Machar. Fighting has spread to several regions of the country., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

SATURDAY 1 FEBRUARY 2014

UN peacekeeping chief to visit S. Sudan for discussions on ceasefire

January 31, 2014 (NEW YORK) - The UN under-secretary-general for peacekeeping operations, Hervé Ladsous, is due to arrive in South Sudan on Sunday, where he is expected to meet with senior government officials to discuss the implementation of the recently-signed ceasefire agreement.

Ladsous also plans to meet with staff and peacekeepers from the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) to thank them for their efforts in helping protect at risk civilians throughout the crisis.

The first group of peacekeeping reinforcements arrived in South Sudan in mid-January following a UN Security Council decision (UNSC) to bolster UNMISS forces by 5,500 to 12,500 troops.

Among the troops being sent are 850 Nepalese peacekeepers, 350 of whom will be redeployed from Haiti.

9 January, Ladsous said the 5,500-strong surge in UN peacekeepers and equipment could take up to eight weeks to be fully deployed on the ground.

At a press conference in New York on Friday, the spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, Farhan Haq, said UNMISS estimates it is now protecting more than 85,000 civilians at eight bases across the country, including about 43,000 people seeking shelter in two sites in the capital, Juba.

According to Haq, the mission is also currently providing protection for some 28,000 civilians in Upper Nile state capital Malakal, where nearly 1,000 patients have been treated at its hospital since the end of December. Twenty-nine babies have been delivered at the Malakal protection site during the same period.

“The mission has conducted 241 military and 62 police patrols in Juba, Jonglei, Unity and Upper Nile states in the last 24 hours”, Haq said in comments to the press.

A number of high-ranking UN officials have already visited South Sudan since conflict erupted in the capital, Juba, in mid-December following clashes between rival tribal factions within the presidential guards.

UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos was in South Sudan earlier this week on a three-day visit to meet with aid groups and government officials.

While in mid-January, Ivan Simonovic, the assistant-secretary-general for human rights, visited the country as part of fact-finding mission on human rights abuses committed during the conflict.

According to the latest UN estimates some 740,000 people have been internally displaced since the conflict erupted in Juba before spreading throughout the country as forces loyal to president Salva Kiir and rebel elements aligned with former vice-president Riek Machar battled for control of key areas.

The warring parties signed a ceasefire agreement in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, on 23 January in a deal brokered by East African bloc - the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD).

However, violence in the country has continued since the signing, with both sides accusing each other of violating the terms of the peace deal.

(ST)

Why South Sudan Should Establish Good Relations With Sudan?

Republic of Sudan President Omar Hassan al-Bashir holding talks with Republic of South Sudan President Salva Kiir in Juba on January 6, 2014. They have denied establishing a joint force., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

FRIDAY 31 JANUARY 2014

Why South Sudan should establish good relations with Sudan?

By Athiaan Majak Malou

January 30, 2014 - When all the dust has settled, South Sudan should establish good relationships with Khartoum. Why? For years northern Sudan has been the arch-enemy from whom South Sudanese voted to secede.

That period has gone. South Sudan is now an independent country. South Sudanese have achieved their goal of a separate entity from Arabised and Islamised old Sudan.

Protracted wars were fought because of this and millions of lives were lost. Development was halted for years. South Sudan is now the least developed country in the eastern Africa region, if not in the world.

Although South Sudan has enormous oil resources and very small population, very little is being done by the current government to improve the lives of common people.

Because of war experiences the people of South Sudan have become militarised or military-minded. According to arms sells monitoring by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), South Sudan is the biggest military buyer in the region.

According to SIPRI’s 2012 figures, South Sudan spent US$ 964 million on arms that year compared to US$798 for Kenya, US$319 million for Tanzania, US$288 million for Uganda, and Rwanda US$79.8 million.

A report in the Washington post newspaper said part of the reason for the high military expenditure is that the government of South Sudan has been preparing for a long war, probably with Sudan on unsettled border issues or to avert internal rebellions by David Yauyau or what happened in Juba on 15 December 2013. In fact, all woes of South Sudan, except the recent crisis, are rightly or wrongly being blamed on Khartoum.

However, in the current crisis President El Bashir of Sudan has played his South Sudan cards very well. He would have caused a lot of pain to people and the government of South Sudan if he did not stand neutral in the current conflict. But he chose to be a peace facilitator and travelled to Juba to promise support to President Kiir’s government.

In addition, he assured Kiir of his support in securing South Sudan’s oilfields, which are just across the border from Sudan. When all the dust has settled, President Kiir and people of South Sudan should positively review the relationship with Sudan. The Sudanese leader, who is indicted by International Criminal Court (ICC), seemed to have matured politically.

President El Bashir did not take neutral position out of nothing. Having being engaged in wars throughout his 25 years in power, he has endured the bad effect that war brings. There is also mutual benefit when peace prevails in the two countries. The follow of oil and trade across the border of the two countries provide mutual benefits. 98% of South Sudan’s revenue comes from oil proceeds, while Sudan gets 9 to 11 dollars from every South Sudanese barrel of oil passing through its pipeline to international market outlet at the Red Sea.

According to official government data, South Sudan has over 1.14 billion barrels of proven oil reserves and by 2011 was producing 326,000 barrels per day. At current global crude prices, that would bring in about US$30 million per day. This amount, if well-managed, can afford all South Sudanese decent life within a very short period.

Khartoum appears to be comfortable with South Sudan’s government since the last government reshuffle in July 2013, when the elements believed to be hostile to Khartoum were purportedly weeded out. The real bone of contention between two countries has been support to each other’s rebels. Despite the signing of several cooperation agreements, peace between the two has been illusory.

The rebels fighting Sudan government are culturally and ideologically affiliated to South Sudan. The group that call itself Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army-North (SPLM/A-N) fighting in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states of Sudan were part of the larger SPLM/A when the country was one. The rebels in Sudan are ethnically Africans as opposed to the majority of north Sudanese who are Arabised Africans (like Nubians in the far north of Sudan and southern Egypt) or people of Arab origin in central Sudan.

These social and political linkages put the government and people of South Sudan in very awkward position, when it comes to south-north relationships. Leaving them under the mercy of Khartoum government(s) is morally unacceptable to many South Sudanese, especially their former comrades in the larger SPLM/A. To them it will be betrayal or sell-out to Jalaba (Arabs/merchants).

What should be done, in this regard, is for the government of South Sudan to make use of the current positive relationships with President El Bashir to initiate lasting peace settlement with all splinter groups in the north. While peace talks are going on among southerners in Addis Ababa, there should be similar peace talks among northerners elsewhere. There can be no peace in one Sudan when another is at war within itself.

Though separated, the two countries are still very much politically, culturally and economically intertwined. When one of them catches cold, the other sneezes.

Now that President El Bashir is casting himself in a positive role with regard to South Sudan, he is getting close to achieving a lot of his objectives in the international arena.

He recently received a lot of applauses from western governments such as US and UK.

President Kiir should reciprocate by helping in normalisation of Sudan relations with these countries. US government had imposed sanctions on Khartoum since 1997 which were also renewed two months ago.

Peace with Sudan spells development, as a bulk of resources that are being spent on military will go to development projects. In the current national budget, 51% is earmarked for security sector which has something do with military operations. Peace with Sudan will cut the number of the army as there will be no rebels or militias who usually cross the border to Sudan and come back to be integrated in the national army. Peace with Sudan will enhance democracy as there will be no needs for military rulers/governors who are always there to deal with war or crisis situation. Peace with Sudan will narrow differences on Abyei and other border issues as discussion will take place in a mutually convenient environment.

The author has formerly served in the government of Lakes state of South Sudan as the County Commissioner for Yirol East and state Minister for education. He can be reached at: athiaanm@yahoo.com

MI CATS 3 Found Guilty in Jury Trial

Three defendants in the Michigan were found guilty on all counts for opposing the environmental degradation caused by tar sands. Their bond was revoked and taken into custody after the verdict was handed down., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

MI CATS 3 Found Guilty by Jury

Enbridge, MICATS Trial

For Immediate Release

January 31, 2014
Contact: Chloe Gleichman, 1-734-474-1974, elkecee@gmail.com
Chris Wahmhoff, 269-910-6495, Whammy737@gmail.com

The trial of peaceful activists from Michigan Coalition Against Tar Sands (MI CATS) ended today with the jury finding Vicci Hamlin, Lisa Leggio, and Barb Carter guilty of both charges brought against them: trespassing and resisting and obstructing an officer. Supporters are deeply saddened that after deliberation for over 10 hours the verdict returned as guilty of all counts. The jury was split most of this time, returning to the courtroom several times for clarification. Sentencing was scheduled for March 5th and the defendants’ bail was revoked and immediately taken into custody.

On January 15th when a denied motion to quash was heard by Judge Collette, he told the MI CATS that they would not be allowed to argue that their actions were “environmentally necessary”. Collette said, “If there is somebody leaking oil on a piece of property and you race out in the yard, and you go in and you stop it, and they charge you with trespassing, I’d throw that case out in a heartbeat. That’s what I think of as ‘Environmental Necessity.” The judge obviously does not understand the severity of the looming climate crisis and that unjust laws allow for the destruction of communities and public health so corporations like Enbridge can maximize their profit. Moreover, the outcome of the case was especially discerning since Judge Collette previously stated that he wanted to make an example out of the three protesters.

This action in which Lisa, Barb, and Vicci were a part of, was not only aimed at stopping the expansion of Enbridge tar sands pipelines before the next disaster, it was also to stand in solidarity with First Nations land being turned into a sacrifice zones to mine tar sands. They used their positions of relative privilege to support communities currently being poisoned in Detroit and others because of extraction industries that put profit before people. Their actions were nothing less than necessary.

Vicci Hamlin, who became a great grandmother Monday, expressed how for her and Lisa as parents, this is a necessity, stating “ The threat that tar sands extraction poses to my children, grandchildren and now great grandchild requires me to act”. Lisa Leggio, will be a grandmother next week said, “ I came to Michigan from New York, and fell in love with nature and the water. Seeing up-close the devastation that the 2010 tar sands spill caused to the Kalamazoo river and surrounding community,

I think about my daughter and her unborn child. What are we leaving them? I did this for them, and we did this for everyone’s children”.

Prosecuting attorney Danielle Dixon and Judge Collette forbad the defense to mention many of the reasons why defendants were taking this action. Such as, the 2010 Kalamazoo oil spill of Line 6B, the largest on-land oil spill in US history that still is needing cleanup, past its deadline.

On Thursday, Barb Carter was silenced by Judge William Collette for mentioning that she lived 3 miles away from the Marathon Tar Sands refinery which affects her ability to breath when entering or leaving her home. The judge also personally questioned her after both prosecution and defense questioned her.

The MI CATS has vowed to continue peaceful resistance despite the sentence imposed. As long as Enbridge is attempting to pump toxic tar sands into refineries, principally located in communities of color, MI CATS will be standing alongside anyone who wishes to stop them. The charges used have historically been used to disrupt communities and incarcerate mainly people of color and the poor in Michigan. The fight to challenge Michigan’s Resisting and Obstructing statute is going to continue with the MI CATS appeal.
Your support, love, and commitment to this movement of movements means the world to us.

Please visit MichiganCats.org for continuous updates.

#FreeTheEnbridge3

Central African Republic Clashes Kill 43 in Bangui

A French military convoy rolls through the Central African Republic. Violence has continued after the forced resignation of Michel Djotodia., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

31 January 2014
Last updated at 09:53 ET
BBC World Service

Central African Republic clashes 'kill 43' in Bangui

Fighting in the Central African Republic capital has left 43 people dead in four days, the country's Red Cross society says.

The violence in Bangui had also left 71 wounded, the country's Red Cross said.

There have been widespread reports of revenge attacks as mainly Muslim fighters withdraw from the city.

The violence has continued even though a new leader was inaugurated earlier this month as part of regional efforts to bring peace after months of anarchy.

France, the former colonial power, has 1,600 troops in CAR, working with some 4,000 from African countries to help end the violence which has seen about a million people - 20% of the population - flee their homes.

But earlier this week, the UN said it believed at least 10,000 troops may be required in any force sent to end the unrest, which began when Seleka rebels overthrew the president last March.

What started out as a conflict fuelled by ethnic rivalries has become religious in nature, with the emergence of Christian "anti-balaka" militias taking on the former rebels. Both sides have been accused of targeting civilians.

'Unprecedented violence'

Antoine Mbao Bogo, head of the CAR's Red Cross, said that a total of 35 bodies had been recovered from the streets in many areas of the city over the last three days and eight more bodies had been found on Friday morning.

He said the victims were from both the Muslim and Christian communities.

"A few weeks ago people were dying more from gun wounds... but now it is mostly from things like knives. Sometimes they burn the corpses," he told the BBC's Focus on Africa radio programme.

His colleague, Georgios Georgantas, leader of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation in the CAR, told the AFP news agency that an "unprecedented level of violence" was being seen in the city.

Earlier this week, a human rights worker told the BBC how he had witnessed a mob of suspected "anti-balakas" mutilating the body of two Muslim men recently killed with machetes.

"It really was a scene of absolute horror. People were filming this on their cell phones and many were laughing," Peter Bouckaert, director of emergencies for Human Rights Watch, told Focus on Africa.

Mr Georgantas urged civilians to "to respect the emblem of the Red Cross", AFP reports.
"When we go through roadblocks to evacuate the wounded, each trip calls for long and difficult negotiations to move on. This endangers the lives of the wounded and causes a lot of stress to our personnel," he said.