AFRICOM Related News Clips 15 April 2011

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United States Africa CommandPublic Affairs Office15 April 2011

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TOP NEWS RELATED TO U.S. AFRICA COMMAND AND AFRICA

A light footprint (The Economist)(Germany/Pan-Africa) Rarely have American generals seemed less keen to claim gloryon the battlefield. Those in charge of the Pentagon·s Africa Command (Africom) aremightily relieved to have handed control of Libya·s no-fly zone to NATO earlier this

month, before the going got tough.

Allies Vow to Push Libya Campaign Until Gadhafi Goes (VOA)(Libya) The leaders of Britain, France and the United States say the NATO coalition willcontinue its military campaign in Libya until Moammar Gadhafi leaves power, whilerebels said loyalist attacks killed 23 people in the besieged city of Misrata.

Obama praises Emir of Qatar over Libya (AFP)(Libya) US President Barack Obama Thursday poured praise on the emir of Qatar,saying in Oval Office talks that the international coalition in Libya would have beenimpossible but for his leadership.

EU lifts sanctions on Libyan defector (CNN)(Libya) The European Union has lifted sanctions on Libya's highest-profile defector,allowing him to travel freely in Europe and access his money.

Amateur Videos from Libya Show Frustration (VOA)(Libya) Government restrictions on the media in the parts of Libya controlled byMoammar Gadhafi make it difficult to get uncensored news out of Tripoli. But a VOAcorrespondent has contacts in Libya and has received videos over the Internet thatapparently show examples of government repression. We want to to share these videos

with you and dissect what it is they show.

China's interests in Gaddafi (Aljazeera)(Libya) What a sight. Chinese president Hu Jintao pulling a vintage John Lennonperformance in Beijing and telling self-styled Arab liberator and French neo-Napoleonicpresident Nicolas Sarkozy to "give peace a chance" in Libya.



Ivory Coast, Libya highlight growing rift between Africa and the West (ChristianScience Monitor(Pan-Africa) If ever there was doubt of a growing rift between African and Westernleaders, it was made clear with the recent conflicts of Libya and Ivory Coast.

UN Expects Swift Economic Recovery in Ivory Coast (VOA)(Côte d·Ivoire) Forces loyal to Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara have takencontrol of the presidential palace in downtown Abidjan. It was one of the last placeswhere fighters backing the former president were holding out after months of politicalviolence. The United Nations expects a swift economic recovery for the country oncesecurity is restored.

Sudanese leaders to discuss Abyei (UPI)(Sudan) A decision by parties in Sudan to discuss solutions to simmering disputes in

the border region of Abyei is a welcome measure, the U.N. Mission in Sudan said.

South Sudan army says it is capable of providing adequate security (Sudan Tribune)(Sudan) The Sudan People·s Liberation Army (SPLA) said on Thursday it is capable ofproviding adequate security to all its citizens and their properties, across the ten statesand in the surrounding areas.

World sea attacks surge with more violent pirates (AP)(Somalia) Sea piracy worldwide hit a record high of 142 attacks in the first quarter thisyear as Somali pirates become more violent and aggressive, a global maritime watchdog

said Thursday.

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Websitey Côte d·Ivoire stand-off over but humanitarian crisis continues, UN and partners

warn

y UN agencies in Namibia appeal for funds to respond to flood emergency-------------------------------------------------------------------------UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST:

WHEN/WHERE: Friday, April 15, 2011; 9:30 a.m.; Brookings Institution, 1775

Massachusetts Avenue NWWHAT: The Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA): Opening Doors for U.S.-Africa Economic RelationsWHO: Mwangi Kimenyi, Director of the Africa Growth Initiative; Stephen Hayes,President of the Corporate Council on Africa; Florizelle Liser, assistant U.S. traderepresentative for Africa; Zambian Commerce, Trade and Industry Minister FelixMutati; John Page, senior fellow of Global Economy and Development at Brookings;



Katrin Kuhlman, senior fellow and director of TransFarm Africa Policy at the AspenInstitute; Witney Schneidman, president of Schneidman and Associates International;and Rosa Whitaker, president and CEO of the Whitaker GroupInfo: www.brookings.edu WHEN/WHERE: Tuesday, April 19th at 2:00 p.m.; U.S. Institute of PeaceWHAT: The Future of Two Sudans: A Conversation with former Presidents ThaboMbeki, Pierre Buyoya and Adulsalami Alhaji AbubakarWHO: President Thabo Mbeki, Former President of South Africa, Head of the AfricanUnion High Level Implementation Panel (Sudan); President Pierre Buyoya, FormerPresident of Burundi, Member, African Union High Level Implementation Panel(Sudan); President Abdulsalami Alhaji Abubakar, Former President of Nigeria,Member, African Union High Level Implementation Panel (Sudan)Info: http://www.usip.org/events/the-future-two-sudans-conversation-former-presidents-thabo-mbeki-pierre-buyoya-and-adulsalami

WHEN/WHERE: Thursday, April 20th at 2:00 p.m.; U.S. Institute of PeaceWHAT: H.E. Dr. Jean Ping, Chairperson of the African Union CommissionWHO: H.E. Dr. Jean Ping, Speaker, AU CommissionInfo: http://www.usip.org/events/he-dr-jean-ping-chairperson-the-african-union-commission ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------FULL ARTICLE TEXT

A light footprint (The Economist)By Unattributed AuthorApril 14th 2011STUTTGART - RARELY have American generals seemed less keen to claim glory on thebattlefield. Those in charge of the Pentagon·s Africa Command (Africom) are mightilyrelieved to have handed control of Libya·s no-fly zone to NATO earlier this month,before the going got tough.

The orders from Barack Obama were to end their involvement within days rather thanweeks, which they did. But the mission was never a comfortable fit. Africom is one ofthe oddest creatures in the American military. Its staff of 2,000 includes no regulartroops, no ´trigger-pullersµ, unlike its sibling Centcom, which oversees Iraq and

Afghanistan.

Responsible for American operations in all African countries except Egypt, Africom wasset up four years ago in the toxic aftermath of the Iraq invasion to pioneer a new form ofdefence, encompassing diplomacy and development. To avoid future high-profile wars,commanders were told to focus on ´smart powerµ: training national armies to keep thepeace and to neutralise threats before they reach the headlines.



A quarter of Africom·s staff is meant to be made up of linguists, historians and otherspecialists. Yet 99.5% of Africom personnel are Pentagon employees. The StateDepartment and other government agencies are too stretched to send experts. Congresshappily pays for weapons but despises weaselly diplomats and woolly developmentaid, yet they are vital to ensuring that arms stay sheathed.

-----------------------------Allies Vow to Push Libya Campaign Until Gadhafi Goes (VOA)By Unattributed AuthorApril 14, 2011The leaders of Britain, France and the United States say the NATO coalition willcontinue its military campaign in Libya until Moammar Gadhafi leaves power, whilerebels said loyalist attacks killed 23 people in the besieged city of Misrata.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and U.S.President Barack Obama said Friday that leaving Mr. Gadhafi in power would be an

"unconscionable betrayal" of the Libyan people.

In a joint article published in several international newspapers, The Times of London,France's Le Figaro and The Washington Post , the leaders wrote it is "unthinkable thatsomeone who has tried to massacre his own people can play a part in their futuregovernment."

Mr. Gadhafi, meanwhile, gave no sign he is willing to relent. His forces poundedMisrata with dozens of rockets for several hours Thursday. Anti-government rebelssaid at least 23 people were killed and many more wounded in what they called a

"massacre" in Libya's third-largest city.

The main target of the assault was Misrata's port, the only lifeline for rebels to theoutside world. Residential neighborhoods near the port were also shelled.

Meanwhile, Libyan state television reported that NATO warplanes had launched airstrikes Thursday on targets in Tripoli. Witnesses in the capital said a series ofexplosions rocked the area shortly after NATO warplanes flew overhead.

Despite the bombing, Mr. Gadhafi was shown on state television Thursday, defiantlycruising through the streets of Tripoli, pumping his fists and waving from an open-topvehicle.

In Washington, State Department acting spokesman Mark Toner said the U.S. remainsconfident in NATO's ability to oversee air operations in Libya. He commented afterFrance asked for the United States to resume air raids.



France made the request on Thursday at a NATO meeting in Berlin. NATO chiefAnders Fogh Rasmussen, however, told alliance members that their forces havemaintained a "high operational tempo" against legitimate targets in Libya. He saidNATO needs more high-precision attack aircraft for the mission.

Another conference about Libya took place in Cairo. United Nations Secretary-GeneralBan Ki-moon said the African and Arab and European delegates attending that meetinghad agreed on a unified approach to finding a "lasting solution" to Libya's turmoil.

The talks in Berlin and Cairo occurred a day after an international contact group of U.S.,European and Arab partners pledged more monetary and political support for theLibyan opposition at a meeting in Doha. In its final statement, the group called on Mr.Gadhafi to leave power, saying he and his government had "lost all legitimacy."

In Brussels, the European Union announced Thursday that it has removed former

Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa from a sanctions list, in an apparent bid toentice other Libyan officials to break ranks with the government. Koussa is the mostsenior official to flee Libya.--------------------Obama praises Emir of Qatar over Libya (AFP)By Unattributed AuthorApril 13, 2011WASHINGTON ³ US President Barack Obama Thursday poured praise on the emir ofQatar, saying in Oval Office talks that the international coalition in Libya would havebeen impossible but for his leadership.

Obama also thanked Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani for his role in supportingdemocratic transitions in Egypt and Tunisia, in a sign of an increasing convergence ofinterests between Washington and Doha.

"I expressed to him my appreciation of the leadership that the emir has shown when itcomes to democracy in the Middle East," Obama said.

"We would not have been able to shape the kind of broad-based international coalitionthat includes not only our NATO members and also includes Arab states without theemir's leadership," he said.

"He is motivated by a belief that the Libyan people should have the rights and freedomsof all people."

Qatar and the United Arab Emirates were the only Arab states to participate in militaryoperations in Libya despite the Arab League's support for a no-fly zone to preventMoamer Kadhafi from harming civilians.



On Wednesday, Qatar hosted a meeting of the International Contact Group on Libya,and attracted a riposte from the Tripoli government, which accused the emirate ofsupplying anti-tank missiles to rebels.

Obama also said the emir had offered him insight on the wave of political revolt in theMiddle East and that they also discussed joint efforts to end the humanitarian crisis inDarfur.

The president also joked that though he would be an ex-president by then, he hoped hecould get good seats for the 2022 World Cup Finals, which will be hosted by Qatar.

The emir told Obama that his priority was "the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and how tofind a way to establish a Palestinian state.

"We do understand your position Mr President in supporting the existence of two statesliving side by side and we support your position."

The emir and Obama discussed the Middle East as pressure mounts on Obama to makea new attempt to unblock Israeli-Palestinian talks which broke down last year due to arow over settlements.

Separately, House of Representatives speaker John Boehner said on Thursday that hehad invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to give an address to a jointsession of Congress in May.

Qatar and the United States have growing diplomatic and economic links and there is alarge US airbase in the Qatari desert.---------------------EU lifts sanctions on Libyan defector (CNN)By Unattributed AuthorApril 14, 2011(CNN) -- The European Union has lifted sanctions on Libya's highest-profile defector,allowing him to travel freely in Europe and access his money.

The EU unfroze the assets of former Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa and lifteda visa ban that had been imposed on him.

The sanctions were lifted Tuesday but made public Thursday.

Koussa, a Gadhafi confidant and former intelligence chief, left his foreign ministry postin Libya and flew into a small airport in London last month. His arrival raised eyebrows-- and hopes of a breakthrough on many fronts.



He was the highest-ranking Libyan official to defect. NATO coalition officials hoped itindicated lagging support for Gadhafi in his inner circle.

He traveled to Qatar on Tuesday for an international meeting on Libya. It was unclear

whether he met with Libyan opposition members.--------------------Amateur Videos from Libya Show Frustration (VOA)By Carolyn PresuttiApril 14, 2011Government restrictions on the media in the parts of Libya controlled by MoammarGadhafi make it difficult to get uncensored news out of Tripoli. But a VOAcorrespondent has contacts in Libya and has received videos over the Internet thatapparently show examples of government repression. We want to to share these videoswith you and dissect what it is they show.

This is just a sample of the amateur videos sent to a correspondent's email account atVoice of America. The sender is a source I trust, and have used before. This source saysthe video shows forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi abusing volunteersoldiers and rebel prisoners.

This interview comes from a different source. Both he and the woman are risking theirlives in Green Square in Tripoli where Gadhafi supporters typically gather fordemonstrations.

"We are the people who are fighting for the Libyan people," she said.

Media experts say these videos are typical of what now comes out of conflict zones.

Susan Moeller is director of the International Center for Media at the University ofMaryland. She says together the videos are persuasive.

"Here we are seeing little snippets of individual pixilated people who are saying ¶I·magainst Gadhafi, in favor of outside intervention,'" said Moeller. "But they want us tosee them all and say, 'Oh, okay the full picture we get is there's a lot of people who seethis and maybe we should think this too.'"

Some of the interviews are accompanied by accurate English translations. This man is joking about Libya's government, while several people record him on their mobilephones.

"Our killed people will end up in paradise, but your killed people will go to hell," hesaid.



In another video, the same man is lying in a truck, purportedly captured by Gadhafiloyalists.

"You dare to insult Moammar, you dog. You are a traitor," yells a male voice.

The Gadhafi government restricts journalists to one hotel in Tripoli. They cannot leavewithout an official escort and are only allowed to cover events sanctioned by thegovernment. That's why these videos are so rare. But their rarity also makes themsuspect.

Christine Fair with Georgetown University says you - the viewer - need to decide ifInternet videos are authentic.

"Once these videos go viral, they move very quickly and they are very powerful," said

Fair. "This also means however that it's somewhat easy to fabricate somewhat dodgy[shaky] looking video from a phone."

"It's definitely not normal life," said a Libyan woman.

This woman from Tripoli is being interviewed in front of what the shooter says is thenaval barrack on the outskirts of the capital.

"It's safe, it's just frustrating not being able to say what we want to," she said. "I neverreally thought I'd be happy to have my country bombed by anybody. You find yourself

saying a new prayer for the pilots' safety."

Most of these opposition fighters agree on the fate of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi,including this man from Tripoli.

"He will not stay. Impossible. If he stays it means that we will die. All of Libya willdie," he said.

Government soldiers disagree:

"Lift your head, you dog. Long live Moammar," says a man's voice.

The senders of these videos say many Libyan cities have an acute communication crisis.They have occasional Internet access and can only speak through satellite phones. Or,through smuggled images like these.-----------------China's interests in Gaddafi (Aljazeera)By Pepe Escobar



April 14, 2011What a sight. Chinese president Hu Jintao pulling a vintage John Lennon performancein Beijing and telling self-styled Arab liberator and French neo-Napoleonic presidentNicolas Sarkozy to "give peace a chance" in Libya.

The top four BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) all abstained at the voting ofUN Security Council Resolution 1973. In his subtle address to Sarkozy, Hu also impliedhis displeasure that the African Union, which was overwhelmingly against a foreignintervention in Libya, had their proposals totally sidelined by the West.

Only three days before UN Resolution 1973 was voted on, Gaddafi met with theambassadors of BRICS members China, Russia and India, and told them, according tothe JANA news agency: "We are ready to bring Chinese and Indian companies toreplace Western ones." That may go a long way to explain the BRICS abstentions.

It would be tempting to see the Beijing leadership merrily watching Washington walkinto another open-ended quagmire in a Muslim nation ² part of a Chinese grandstrategy of letting the US be distracted in peripheral Muslim countries in the arc fromnorthern Africa to Central Asia.

Well, it is slightly more complicated than that.

Shopping for suppliers

China has 50 large-scale projects in Libya, but still invests less than in Angola and

Zambia. From a Libyan point of view, China is a major Gaddafi financial partner ² thethird-largest buyer of Libyan oil behind Italy and France, with the added bonus offollowing its world-famous "non-interventionism" policy.

Yet in energy terms, China's top African oil suppliers are Angola, Sudan and Nigeria ²all ahead of Libya.

Around 80 per cent of Libya's oil reserves, of roughly 44 billion barrels, are in the Sirtebasin ² spread out between Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, a great deal of it under on andoff rebel control.

Some 70 per cent of Libya's GDP is connected to oil. Beijing would hate to contemplatea balkanisation of Libya along Korea's lines ² an impoverished, oil-less, Gaddafi-ruledwest/North Korea opposed to an affluent, oil-rich, Western-aligned Cyrenaica/SouthKorea.

Beijing never really worried about a Western embargo on Libyan oil. Who would darestrike a tanker navigating under the Chinese flag?



What Beijing wanted was for the rebels to collapse, with Gaddafi back in charge of thewhole country and no "regime change".

Now with a Libyan stalemate as the most possible scenario, Beijing is factoring its

influence in the price of oil. Oil consumption in China is about 4 per cent of GDP. Each$10 increase in the price of a barrel dangerously increases that proportion by 0.4 percent.

Then there's Washington's response to the AU via the Pentagon's Africom ² created bythe Bush administration in late 2007, but now already in its first African war. Africominnocuously brands itself as "advising and training" military forces.

Only five African countries are not associated with Africom in some way ² among themLibya.

Africom holds the paltry record of coordinating a botched Ethiopian invasion ofSomalia that ended up with a great deal of the country embracing the hardcore al-Shabab militia. Africom also war-gamed a full-scale conflict in the Gulf of Guinea.Angola, China's top oil supplier in Africa, happens to be in the Gulf of Guinea.

So no wonder the leitmotiv in the influential People's Daily is something like: "Libyahas been attacked because of oil", with the corollary of this anti-China power play inLibya mirroring Western interference in Sudan.

Oil or jasmine?

Chinese reaction to the complex Sunni/Shia tumult in Bahrain has been silence. Why?That may be a good question for Saudi foreign minister Saud bin Faisal bin Abdul-Aziz,who repositioned the House of Saud post-Cold War to a preferential footing withChina.

Saudi Arabia is China's top oil supplier (1.1 million barrels a day; the Middle East as awhole exports a total of 2.9 million); that limits Beijing's leverage to really influence theArab world.

Africa is absolutely crucial for China's energy strategy. Let's take a look at China's topoil suppliers: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Angola, Russia, Oman and Sudan.

At the strait of Hormuz ² through which transits Saudi, Iranian and Omani oil ² Chinais hostage of the local policeman, the US 5th Fleet, which also patrols the Bab el-Mandeb, the gateway to the Red Sea and the naval highway for Sudan's oil to reach theIndian Ocean.



Then there's the strait of Malacca, between Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula, patrolledby the US 7th Fleet ² the key chokepoint for oil navigating towards China.

China also has to worry about Iran, its number two supplier (of oil and also natural

gas), under severe sanctions that have shrunk its energy production.

So it is no surprise Beijing has connected the dots between Libya being bombed andBahrain and Yemen getting away with repression of pro-democracy protests. The 5thFleet calls Bahrain home, and Aden, in Yemen, is the key to the Red Sea.

Whichever the latitude, Beijing finds the Pentagon's mighty machine interfering withmost of its key sources of energy; half of China's oil imports in 2011 came from MENA(Middle East/ Northern Africa). The threat is graphic, as Beijing sees it.

Africa, in the periphery of Eurasia, is also a key battlefield of the New Great Game ² asthe global geo-economy is rearranged, and the competition between the US and Chinafor energy resources is emphasised.

Beijing's position is crystal clear in the words of Lin Zhiyuan, a deputy office director ofthe People's Liberation Army Academy of Military Sciences.

Writing in People's Daily, Zhiyuan stresses how "the US global military redeploymentcentres mainly on an instable arc zone", and how "the African continent is taken as astrong point to prop up the US global strategy", with Africom facilitating the US

"advancing on the African continent, taking control of the Eurasian Continent andproceeding to take the helm of the entire globe".

And then there is the social volcano inside the Middle Kingdom. Moving at lightningspeed to curb the ultra-sensitive political reverberations of the great 2011 Arab Revolt ²the "harmonious society" collides with the prospect of a "jasmine revolution" ² theBeijing leadership condemned what it dubbed "street corner politics" which can onlylead to "social chaos" and "stagnate" Chinese society.

In a nutshell; China is not the Middle East, and Middle East "turmoil" does not apply toChina. Instead, "happiness" has been set as the new national goal ² replacing GDPgrowth (and, hopefully, making everyone forget about inflation, social inequality andcorruption).

Bob Dylan, who turns 70 next month, played his first concert ever in China this week, ata packed Workers' Gymnasium in Beijing.



In China, Dylan is considered a sheng ren ² a sage. He did play "A Hard Rain's GonnaFall". The Chinese translation may have sent shivers down the spine of many a MiddleKingdom strategist.------------------------Ivory Coast, Libya highlight growing rift between Africa and the West (Christian

Science MonitorBy Scott BaldaufApril 14, 2011 Johannesburg, South Africa - If ever there was doubt of a growing rift between Africanand Western leaders, it was made clear with the recent conflicts of Libya and IvoryCoast.

In both countries ² where strongmen rulers unleashed their armies and police againstopponents ² Western leaders quickly called for international intervention to protectcivilians, while many African leaders preferred mediation and complained of African

sovereignty being trampled.

In Ivory Coast, African Union-led mediation failed miserably as renegade PresidentLaurent Gbagbo plunged his country back into civil war before the United Nationsasked French forces to intervene, leading to Mr. Gbagbo's capture on Monday. Andwhile Western allies continued to bomb forces loyal to Libyan dictator MuammarQaddafi this week, the AU sent a five-nation team to Tripoli to hash out "road map" forpeace that rebels have rejected.

Five key reasons Ivory Coast's election led to civil war

The tensions resulting from the two approaches, though, are not merely between bossyrich Western nations on one side and African nationalists on the other. They existwithin every African country, in a debate that poses the question: Can modern Africansocieties be open enough to allow democracy, but strong enough to resist externalpolitical or economic domination?

´It is a very interesting conflict going on. The Ivory Coast issue has divided Africanpublic opinion quite sharply,µ says Achille Mbembe, professor of history and politics atWitwatersrand University in Johannesburg, South Africa.

African anger at the West reached its sharpest point at the beginning of a French-led airattack on heavy weapons belonging to Gbagbo·s forces in Ivory Coast's main city ofAbidjan on April 4.

Think you know Africa? Take our geography quiz.



African Union chief Teodoro Obiang Nguema ² who is also president of EquatorialGuinea ² told a gathering of reporters in Geneva, ´Africa does not need any externalinfluence. Africa must manage its own affairs.µ

Not only was UN action unwanted in Ivory Coast, it was also undermining AU efforts

at mediation in Libya, Mr. Obiang said.

"I believe that the problems in Libya should be resolved in an internal fashion and notthrough an intervention that could appear to resemble an humanitarian intervention,"Obiang said. "We have already seen this in Iraq.µ

Colonialism looms largeYet the larger debate between democracy on one hand and nationalism on the other isan old one, Mr. Mbembe says, dating to the colonial period, when Africans werefighting for self-determination.

´Africans wanted elections, but they also wanted to be free from foreign intervention,µhe says. Freedom movements combined both of these two goals into a larger project topush out Western colonial powers. But once the colonial powers left, the liberal goal ofdemocratic freedom gave way as newly formed African governments adopted anauthoritarian style.

This authoritarian style has lasted until today, through strongmen Presidents such asUganda·s Yoweri Museveni, Rwanda·s Paul Kagame, Ethiopia·s Meles Zenawi,Zimbabwe·s Robert Mugabe, Angola·s Eduardo Dos Santos, and Gabon·s Ali Bongo.

At a time when foreign investment is flooding into Africa ² particularly from China,India, and Russia, but also from Britain, France, and the US ² this authoritarian style,mixed with a touch of populist nationalism, can sometimes ring warning bells, as whenSouth Africa·s ruling African National Congress (ANC) contemplates new rules to limitpress freedom, and when ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema recently called fornationalization of all the country·s privately operated mines.

The power of nationalismBut nationalism is a powerful force in Africa because it is popular, Mbembe says, andthe UN is not helped by the fact that ´the history of foreign intervention has beennegative throughout Africa, from the tragedy of [the killing of former CongolesePresident Patrice Lumumba in 1961] to the indifference shown during the Rwandangenocide to the UN force bombing the military in Abidjan.µ

Indeed, Mbembe says, resistance to UN intervention in Africa is growing.



Even when African leaders are charged with human rights crimes ² as Sudan PresidentOmar al-Bashir and a half dozen Kenyan politicians are, in separate cases currentlybefore the International Criminal Court ² their fellow African leaders increasinglyprotest against an únfairµ intervention of ´rich Western nationsµ in African domesticaffairs, instead of standing firm for the principles of universal human rights and justice.

Yet there is no reason that democracy and self-determination have to remain at odds,Mbembe adds.

A false choice?Ít·s a false choice," says Mbembe. "From 1960 to the end of the century, authoritariangovernments in Africa have tried to convince people that these two things are notdoable, and we should favor authoritarianism over democracy. But what we are seeingis people are going back to the original project in which democracy and self-determination shared equal space.µ

Here in South Africa, the continent·s largest economy, the ruling ANC retains a firmnationalism at its ideological core, and it has pointedly marked out a foreign policy thatis at odds with the West, and the US in particular.

While serving on the UN Security Council, South Africa used its vote to defeat acensure vote against the military regime in Myanmar (Burma) back in 2009, a move thathorrified human rights activists.

During both the Ivory Coast and Libyan conflicts, South African President Jacob Zuma

has personally traveled to both countries as part of AU fact-finding missions to explorepossibilities for mediation, including power-sharing deals that would allow unpopularleaders to remain in power.

Át its core, the ANC saw nationalism as more important than human rights,µ saysAdam Habib, a political scientist and deputy vice chancellor of University of Johannesburg. But like Mbembe, Mr. Habib says ´there needs to be a new alliancebetween human rights and nationalists. We get this question of development ordemocracy. It is not possible to have one without the other.µ------------------UN Expects Swift Economic Recovery in Ivory Coast (VOA)By Scott StearnsApril 14, 2011Abidjan - Forces loyal to Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara have taken control ofthe presidential palace in downtown Abidjan. It was one of the last places wherefighters backing the former president were holding out after months of politicalviolence. The United Nations expects a swift economic recovery for the country oncesecurity is restored.



Ouattara forces took control of the presidential palace after U.N. peacekeepers arrangedthe surrender of former government troops there and cleared out a basement arsenalthat included more than 500 rockets for BM-21 mobile rocket launchers.

Ouattara officials are now preparing the palace for an official inauguration, which couldcome in the next few days.

Mr. Ouattara came to power following Monday's capture of former president LaurentGbagbo, who was holding out in an underground bunker refusing to recognize that helost November's vote.

With most of Mr. Gbagbo's senior military officials now pledging their support forPresident Ouattara, the new government is moving quickly to restore security inAbidjan.

The U.N. Secretary General's Special Representative in Ivory Coast, Young-jin Choi,says security has improved faster than he expected, and he may soon allow U.N. staff toreturn to their homes after sleeping for months at the UNOCI headquarters.

"UNOCI cars were forbidden to go out because Gbgabo's people distributed all theplate numbers and gave orders to burn UNOCI cars wherever they see them," saidChoi. "But I think it is secure enough that we can show the way by going homebeginning in several days."

With security, President Ouattara says he wants to get the economy back on track byresuming cocoa exports, restarting Abidjan's refinery, and reopening banks.

Buses and taxis are back on the road. Shops in most neighborhoods are open. A cardealership in the Marcory neighborhood had several customers Thursday. Furnituremakers are back at work as two men pulled peach-colored upholstery across the frameof a couch.

Choi believes Ivory Coast's economy will recover quickly from more than four monthsof political violence because there was little damage to infrastructure.

"Destruction was really minimum," he said. "The airport is intact. It is operating now.The seaport is intact and ready to operate. The sanctions are lifted. Bridges were neverbroken or damaged. All the roads are there. Electricity, no damage at all. Water, nodamage at all to the supply."

The European Union and France are giving Ivory Coast $840 million for emergencyspending to restart essential public services and meet overdue payments.



-------------------Sudanese leaders to discuss Abyei (UPI)By Unattributed AuthorApril 14, 2011 at 11:50 AMKHARTOUM, Sudan - A decision by parties in Sudan to discuss solutions to simmering

disputes in the border region of Abyei is a welcome measure, the U.N. Mission inSudan said.

Both sides in the disputed area of Abyei agreed to form a joint committee to oversee thedeployment of forces from North and South Sudan. The agreement follows a Januarymove that calls for the withdrawal of illegal forces in the area.

Fighting between rival Sudanese nomad groups killed at least 10 people in the oil-richregion of Abyei during the first week of March. Both sides blame the other for thedispute. The Dinka Ngok tribe claims the region belongs to the south while Khartoum-

backed Misseriya nomads pledge allegiance to the north. They are fighting over grazingrights for cattle.

UNMIS said in a statement it welcomed the decision to back earlier agreements forpeace in the disputed region.

Abyei was to take part in a January referendum for South Sudan's secession, but thematter was delayed over voting rights.

The joint committee holds its first meeting Monday.

----------------------South Sudan army says it is capable of providing adequate security (Sudan Tribune)By Ngor Arol GarangApril 14, 2011The Sudan People·s Liberation Army (SPLA) said on Thursday it is capable ofproviding adequate security to all its citizens and their properties, across the ten statesand in the surrounding areas.

Chief of General Staff of the SPLA, James Hoth MaiUnder the 2005 ComprehensivePeace Agreement (CPA), in which north and south Sudan signed to end more than twodecades of civil war in which an estimated 2 million people were killed. The SPLA, amilitary wing of the south Sudan·s governing party; the Sudan People·s LiberationMovement (SPLM) became the official regional army.

In January 2011, the oil producing region conducted a referendum on self-determination in which majority of the South Sudanese voted in favour of secessionfrom the rest of Sudan, several years after repeated attempts including armed rebellions



aimed at putting a pressure on central government to endorse division of one of thebiggest countries on the African soil into two states.

However, following conduct of the 2010 general elections and the January vote, theregion appears facing immense challenges as it prepares to become the world·s newest

nation on 9 July 2011.

Pessimists expressed concerns and fears indicating that the rivals would turn the regioninto a tribal state and that corruption will spiral out of control, returning its people tofurther suffering and abject poverty. Reports from the UN indicate that more than 800people were killed at the beginning of the year in increasing incidents of violence in thethree states of the greater Upper Nile Region following the rebellion of some of thesenior military officers in the regional army.

General James Hoth Mai, Chief of General Staff of the SPLA dismissed fears that the

region would slip into a tribal and lawless state after attaining independence in July,saying his army is capable of providing what he described as "adequate security" toprotect lives and properties of the ordinary citizens across the ten states and theirsurroundings.

"The SPLA is capable of providing adequate security by protecting lives and propertiesof all citizens across south Sudan and their surroundings," said Mai while responding toa question by Sudan Tribune on a similar statement he made on South Sudan Televisionlast week while officiating a graduation ceremony of senior SPLA officers passing outfrom financial management training at Malou Military Academy in Rumbek, Lakes

State, Bahr el Ghazal.

"We in the SPLA had faced of a lot of challenges but we managed to overcome them.This is part of the history into which the SPLA was born. It is not a new phenomenon.The history of the SPLA has always been either sad or smile. There has never beenabsolute happiness or sadness. We have had both smiling and sad days," explainedGeneral Mai in a telephone interview with Sudan Tribune on Thursday.

He accused the Khartoum based government of supporting political opponents of theGovernment of South Sudan (GoSS) while training and arming military dissidents.

"As you may have followed recent events, the SPLA forces have been engaging GeorgeAthor until he was uprooted from his base in the north western part of Jonglei State inKhorfulus. He [Athor] is now on the run like Osman Bin laden and hiding somewherebut we will get him," said General Mai.

The top military officer said the SPLA forces were also engaged in fighting in Unitystate against forces he said were loyal to Gatluak Gai and other groups whom he said



were later dislodged to northern territories. "The SPLA forces fought against theseforces which are trained and armed by Khartoum and sent to the South with intentionto create instability. They were fought and sent back to the north. They are currently inareas around Heglig," said the SPLA Chief of General Staff.

Mai made the statement just a day after the UN broke their silence by saying 151incidents across nine of the South·s ten states have killed 801 people and displacednearly 94,000 more since the year began.

"The violence has crippled developmental activities. We are worried, with at least sevenmilitia that are active, with inter-communal violence continuing, with the LRA [Lord·sResistance Army] active in Western Equatoria. This is not a good picture," said LiseGrande, the UN·s senior humanitarian official in the south at a press conference held inthe regional capital of Juba on Wednesday.

Grande said the wave of conflict in the last two months had stalled the progress neededto build the new African nation, starting almost from scratch, and the imminent rainyseason would soon make much of the region inaccessible. "We can·t start winding downan emergency operation if 100,000 people have been displaced," she said in a newsconference, adding that emergency relief was now underway in about half of theSouth·s counties.

Grande singled out Uganda·s LRA rebels as posing a persistent threat to any hope ofthe south feeding itself. "LRA attacks occur every couple of weeks and when it happenspeople become terrorised, they don·t plant ... this has a big impact on food security

around the south as a whole."

Last year the UN said almost half the southern population was short of food. Militiagroups have clashed with the southern army including a February massacre in whichover 200 lives were lost. Long-standing tribal rivalries have reignited, leading to 31deaths in the first two weeks of April.

These crises are compounded by the hundreds of thousands of southerners returning tothe region from the north and elsewhere, before the looming independence. Some264,000 have returned since October and another 300,000 are still expected to arrive,according to the UN.

Many hope July·s independence celebrations could become a rallying cry for peace andunity. However, some analysts believe the unity will be short-lived given how quicklysouthern tensions re-emerged after the euphoria of the referendum.-------------------- World sea attacks surge with more violent pirates (AP)By Unattributed Author



April 13, 2011KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia ³ Sea piracy worldwide hit a record high of 142 attacks inthe first quarter this year as Somali pirates become more violent and aggressive, aglobal maritime watchdog said Thursday.

Nearly 70 percent or 97 of the attacks occurred off the coast of Somalia, up sharply from35 in the same period last year, the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reportingcenter in Kuala Lumpur said in a statement.

Attackers seized 18 vessels worldwide, including three big tankers, in the January-March period and captured 344 crew members, it said. Pirates also murdered sevencrew members and injured 34 during the quarter.

"Figures for piracy and armed robbery at sea in the past three months are higher thanwe've ever recorded in the first quarter of any past year," said the bureau's director

Pottengal Mukundan.

He said there was a "dramatic increase in the violence and techniques" used by Somalipirates to counter increased patrols by international navies, putting large tankerscarrying oil and other flammable chemicals at highest risk to firearm attacks.

Of the 97 vessels attacked off Somalia, he said 37 were tankers including 20 with morethan 100,000 deadweight tonnes.

International navies have taken a tougher stance against pirates, with the Indian navy

alone arresting 120 mostly Somalian pirates over the past few months. The U.S. andother nations have also prosecuted suspects caught by their militaries, although somewere released as countries weigh legal issues and other factors.

Mukundan said the positions of some of the attackers' mother ships were known andcalled for stronger action to be taken against these mother ships to prevent furtherhijackings. Pirates held some 28 ships and nearly 600 hostages as of end-March, thebureau said.

Elsewhere, nine attacks were reported off Malaysia and five in Nigeria in the firstquarter.------------------------ UN News Service Africa Briefs Full Articles on UN Website

Côte d·Ivoire stand-off over but humanitarian crisis continues, UN and partners warn14 April ² Although the political stand-off in Côte d·Ivoire ended earlier this week, thehumanitarian crisis spawned by months of violence continues, United Nations agencies



and their partners stressed today as they appeal for $160 million to scale up aid toaffected populations inside the country.

UN agencies in Namibia appeal for funds to respond to flood emergency

14 April ² United Nations agencies in Namibia today requested $2.3 million to support

the southern African country·s efforts to assist an estimated 60,000 people who havebeen displaced by severe floods, which have claimed the lives of 65 people in the northand submerged many rural

AFRICOM Related News Clips 15 April 2011

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