24 May 2011

Cameroon Government Dismisses Opposition Threats to Disrupt Polls

23 May 2011 
Peter Clottey 


Cameroon’s information minister has dismissed a threat by the main opposition Social Democratic Front [SDF] to disrupt the October presidential election.

He calls the threat “overly ambitious and pretentious.”

Issa Tchiroma, who also heads the opposition Front for the National Salvation of Cameroon, says allegations of repression, intimidation and harassment of opponents of the ruling party are unfounded.

“They have no grounds [and] no reasons whatsoever [to disrupt the election] because they haven’t been mandated by the opposition in general,” said Tchiroma.

The SDF claims irregularities during the recent voter registration process.

But, Tchiroma said the opposition has failed to use proper channels to address their concerns ahead of the vote.

“[They are] completely wrong. They use a prism, which completely distorts the reality. This is fact,” said Tchiroma.

He said the SDF will be contravening the constitution if it disrupts the vote.

Tchiroma denies accusations that opponents of the administration are being prevented from campaigning on radio and television.

“The state does not interfere at all in the editorial lines of those television [and radio] stations,” Tchiroma said.

But, the leader of the main opposition party, John Fru Ndi, insists there is no level-playing field and that the electoral commission lacks independence, which he said will undermine the credibility of the presidential vote.

“The opposition has for years been calling for an independent electoral body that will conduct elections that will be free, fair and transparent. But, they ignored all of them,” said Fru Ndi.

He also said that the composition of the top leadership of the electoral commission comprises former members of the ruling Democratic Rally of the Cameroonian People [RDPC], a charge the RDPC denies.

“It is easier and better for us to disrupt the elections and we stop there and make sure that things go rightly in Cameroon than to take the North African style [uprisings],” said Ndi.

The electoral commission says so far, five presidential aspirants, including incumbent President Paul Biya, have declared their intentions to run in the October elections.

21 May 2011

US Urges Cameroon to Hold Free and Fair Election

19 May 2011
TrustLaw


U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Cameroon on Thursday to hold a free and fair presidential election, expected in October this year. President Paul Biya, 78, has ruled Cameroon since 1982 and is one of Africa’s longest-serving presidents. He is expected to seek another term in the election after tweaking the constitution in 2008 to remove term limits.

“We look forward to seeing the people of Cameroon exercise their right to vote later this year in a free, fair, and credible presidential election,” Clinton said in a message ahead of Cameroon’s national day which is celebrated on Friday.

Clinton said the United Nations remained committed to working with the oil-exporting Central African nation as it seeks to strengthen democracy, governance, and rule of law.

The election is coming against the backdrop of frustration with the electoral system after parliament, controlled by the ruling CPDM party, stripped the electoral body of the right to announce provisional results in future elections.

The country’s main opposition party, the Social Democratic Front (SDF), has threatened to disrupt the election and accused Biya of trying to “steal” another seven-year term by passing new legislation and constitutional changes. (Reporting by Tansa Musa; Writing by Bate Felix; Editing by Maria Golovnina).

14 May 2011

Ugandan Journalists Targeted During Entebbe March


13th May 2011 
Committee to Protect Journalists

Security and military personnel attacked local and foreign journalists and confiscated their equipment on Thursday as they covered the return of opposition leader Kizza Besigye to Uganda.  Besigye returned to Uganda Thursday from Nairobi, where he was treated for injuries received when security forces assaulted him and his colleagues during demonstrations on April 28 in Kampala. 
Crowds of Besigye's supporters marched with him in a nine-hour procession from Entebbe airport to the Nsambya park in Kampala. Besigye had returned to protest Thursday's swearing-in ceremony of incumbent President Yoweri Museveni. Rumors that Besigye would be returning to Kampala provoked a mass deployment of military, security forces, and police around the Kabuye roundabout, local and foreign journalists told CPJ. Military police and other security personnel beat journalists with sticks and gun butts as they took photos of them indiscriminately attacking Besigye supporters, local journalists told CPJ.
"Ugandan authorities are becoming increasingly hostile toward the press, even accusing the media of siding with the opposition," CPJ East Africa Consultant Tom Rhodes said. "The government must thoroughly investigate these brutal attacks against the press and ensure all equipment confiscated from journalists during the attacks is returned immediately."
Authorities pulled journalists out of a truck belonging to the state-owned daily New Visionnewspaper and beat them, local journalists said. Authorities severely beat reporter Raymond Abbare from the independent weekly Razor newspaper on the back of the head, Editor Robert Mukasa told CPJ. Abbare received medical treatment and has reported the assault to the police. At least six other journalists who had been riding in the truck--from the New Vision, the independent Daily Monitor, the private weekly Red Pepper, and the private Wavah Broadcasting Service--were assaulted, according to local journalists. All received minor injuries but were discharged after treatment. 
Other journalists assaulted include reporter Patrick Ogwango from the vernacular weekly newspaper Rupiny and Yusuf Kavuma, a photojournalist for Sky Magazine, local journalists said. Some journalists have now gone into hiding after being tipped off by government sources that they were being accused of maintaining links with Besigye's opposition party, the Forum for Democratic Change.
Thursday's violence came just two days after Museveni criticized the media at a press conference, accusing them of supporting demonstrations organized by the opposition, according to local reports.
Ugandan journalists have decided to boycott press conferences held by the police and security forces, the Ugandan Human Rights Network for Journalists reported. The boycott will remain in force until the government apologizes and returns confiscated cameras and pays the medical bills of injured journalists, the organization announced at a press conference in Kampala today. 

Has France Lost its Grip on Africa?

12 May 2011
Lee Mwit


The headstone was in place, the epitaph inscribed. Throughout last year, as 17 African countries headily celebrated the 50th anniversary of the parting of ways with their former colonial master, the unanimous view was that France's once considerable influence on the continent was on its deathbed. A number of factors contributed to this perception: The death of the Machiavellian Jacques Foccart, better known "Mr Africa", the demise of former Côte d'Ivoire president Félix Houphouët-Boigny, the 1997 ascent to power of the puritanical premier Lionel Jospin and the emergence of a new breed of younger African leaders contemptible of France's indulgence of dictators.

France's murky role in the events leading to Rwanda's 1994 genocide was seen as further erosion of its image, as did the unease bred in Francophone Africa by the painful devaluation of the CFA Franc that same year. Even Nicolas Sarkozy, on his 2007 election to the French presidency, further embellished the theme, promising that his country would no longer unduly interfere in the affairs of its former African colonies. "Times have changed and it's not up to France to play the gendarme in Africa," he said on a 2008 trip to South Africa, despite Paris having a host of military agreements, defence pacts and bases on the continent. An investigation into the source of millions of dollars in assets held in the country by three long-serving African oligarchs was allowed to go on - additional proof of France's readiness to let Africa run its own show sometimes at the expense of its former stooges. President Ali Bongo Ondimba, whose father was a target of the probe, told Paris.

With the phenomenal inroads made by China into Africa, where it is the continent's biggest trading partner, France was not only being eased out of the continent but also being rejected. In truth, la République Française never really went anywhere. The past six months have shown up as fanciful talk of Paris fading into the twilight. French tanks and gunships dealt the final blow to defiant strongman Laurent Gbagbo, with reports from the deposed Ivorian leader's camp suggesting that French special forces had captured him. "In West Africa, France was never really out of the picture. They have had a military presence in Cote d'Ivoire going back to colonial days, and their current deployment was approved by Ivorian and UN resolutions. An intervention in Cote d'Ivoire was a 'no-brainer' for France," Mark Schroeder, director of sub-Saharan Africa analysis for Texas-based intelligence firm Stratfor said. Sarkozy was also at the forefront of military planning for the ongoing campaign against the Gaddafi regime in Libya.

Action in Libya

Paris was the setting of a decisive March summit of the world's most powerful military nations, which drew up operational details after the United Nations imposed a no-fly zone over Libya. To further drive the point home, the French president, who referred to Muammar Gaddafi as perpetuating "murderous madness" against civilians, authorised the first strikes against the Libyan leader's forces, and has since remained at the helm of the airstrikes. "In Libya, the civilian population, which is demanding the right to choose its own destiny, is in mortal danger. It is our duty to respond to their anguished appeal," stressed Sarkozy.

France was also controversially the first country to recognise the Libyan National Council - the rebels' organisational vehicle - as the country's legitimate government. "Libya was a different scenario. The French did not have pre-positioned forces in the North African country, but Libya was a location French aircraft and ships could reach from the homeland," said Mr Schroeder. "France's intervention in Libya was to demonstrate, particularly to the rest of Europe, and especially Germany, its independent ability to project military force, and to use that sense of confidence to project its influence as a European power that should be recognised," he added.

The signs have all along been there of France's pining for a continued say in African affairs. On January 30, Sarkozy became the first French head of state to address the African Union since 1963, at an Addis Ababa summit where he was also interestingly the guest of honour. He began by soothing the gathered presidents by assuring them of co-operation and support for Africa's bid for a Security Council seat. "France is assuming the weighty responsibility of the presidency of the G8 and G20. I promise to do everything to involve Africa as closely as possible in this double French presidency. I have been convinced for a long time now that Africa hasn't had its rightful place in international governance," he said.

But he would have some of the gathered leaders fidgeting uncomfortably when he expressed support for the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia, in what he called a "sensitive topic". "France respects the sovereignty of states and the right of peoples to self-determination. She has no desire to lecture, nor to seek to impose a model. By what right could she do so? But there are values that are universal: Those of the United Nations Charter and the Constitutive Act of the African Union. In today's world, one can no longer govern the same way as in the world of yesterday. Either this change is inflicted upon you. or you anticipate and guide it, and it can take place without clashes, without rifts, and without opening the door to all kinds of unpredictable events."

However, it is France's investments on the continent that offer the clearest pointer that it will continue to wield considerable clout. In May last year, some 40 African leaders and 250 business executives attended a two-day summit in the Mediterranean city of Nice meant to deepen economic ties. France already holds the Francophonie summit - its equivalent of the Commonwealth's CHOGM - biennially with all former African colonies a fixture.

In Tunisia, some 1,300 French enterprises straddle the North African country's economy, with French investment in 2009 estimated at $185.5 million, making it the biggest economic partner. In Côte d'Ivoire, an estimated 700 French companies pay half of the West African country's taxes, a situation replicated in up to a dozen other former colonies. Paris, not content with Francophone Africa, has also been aggressively spreading its tentacles to Anglophone countries, with South Africa and Kenya the primary targets.

In Kenya, Premier Raila Odinga has just returned from the French capital with huge energy contracts expected to be drawn up. In 2010, trade between the two countries grew by 10 per cent, with official development body Agence Française de Développement putting up $124 million - 27 per cent of all development aid last year. French companies such as France Telecom and oil giant Total are already major players in the country. Total in October signed a significant $2 billion investment deal in Gabon's petroleum fields. Paris is also the biggest industry investor in Niger's top foreign exchange earner, uranium, through state-owned firm, Areva.

As part of the Gleneagles pledges, France has the biggest aid commitment to Africa as a percentage of G7 gross national incomes, in 2009 translating into $1.19 billion (though that was projected to have fallen to $624 million in 2010, according to One.org, which tracks G8 commitments to the continent). Sarkozy's address in Addis Ababa was unequivocal about France's future engagements with Africa. "We're not as far apart as is believed. Yes, there was colonisation, yes, there are disagreements, but today, geography brings us together. If we want to control migration flows, combat terrorism, we must help you succeed in your economic development. France is convinced of this reality," he said. Sarkozy has already visited Africa at least six times in his first four years in office as he seeks to entrench French interests.