Pro-Gbagbo forces in Côte d’Ivoire Inform UN of Their Intention to Stop Fighting

5 April 2011 –The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Côte d’Ivoire reported today that it has received telephone calls from the heads of forces loyal to former leader Laurent Gbagbo stating that their soldiers have been instructed to stop fighting and hand in their weapons to the UN.

The UN Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) said the calls came from General Philippe Mangou, the chief-of-staff of the Defence and Security Forces, General Thiape Kassarate Edouard, the commander of the National Gendarmerie and General Bruno Dogbo Blé, the commander of the Republican Guard.

Troops loyal to Mr. Gbagbo, the former president who refused to step down after losing the election in November to opposition leader Alassane Ouattara, have been engaged in fierce fighting with forces loyal to Mr. Ouattara, who have in recent weeks stepped up their offensive to force the ex-leader out of power. Mr. Ouattara is the internationally recognised President of Côte d’Ivoire.

“UNOCI has given orders to its troops to receive arms wherever they are handed in and to offer protection to disarmed FDSCI [Defence and Security Forces of Côte d’Ivoire] elements, including the Special Forces,” the UN mission said in a press release.

Meanwhile, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that the situation in Abidjan, the West African country’s commercial capital and the scene of the some fiercest fighting over the past week, is alarming.

Most of the hospitals are not functioning and ambulances have been fired on when they tried to enter the city, according to OCHA.

Valerie Amos, the UN Under-Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs, who is visiting Côte d’Ivoire, reported that internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the western town of Duékoué, the scene of an alleged massacre of civilians last week, were “fearful and traumatized.”

Ms. Amos, who is also the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator and head of OCHA, stressed the need for physical protection for those affected and the distribution of sufficient humanitarian aid. Access to many civilians in need has, however, been severely restricted or completely cut off since mid-February when the fighting intensified, according to OCHA.

The Emergency Relief Coordinator was accompanied on the visit to Duékoué yesterday by the Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, Ivan Simonovic, who went to the town to look into the mass killings that allegedly took place last Wednesday.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) voiced alarm over the impact of the violence in Côte d’Ivoire on children.

“We are especially troubled by reports that children are among the victims of a mass killing there,” said Anthony Lake, the UNICEF Executive Director. “And children continue to be recruited by armed forces on all sides of the conflict – a grave violation of their rights which jeopardizes not only their future but also the chances for achieving sustainable peace in Cote d’Ivoire.”

“We fear outbreaks of disease if we and other agencies cannot reach the thousands of internally displaced families,” added Mr. Lake.

UN News Center

April 5, 2011July 3, 2012

Molesters of Campus Woman Thief, Amina, to Be Dismissed, Vice Chancellor

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The Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana has condemned last week’s sexual onslaught on a lady who allegedly stole a laptop and mobile phones from the Mensah Sarbah Hall annex B.

Some male students of the Hall molested and stripped the young lady entirely, exposing her private parts. Whilst she struggled to extricate herself from the over a dozen young men, others filmed her. The video was subsequently circulated and copies sent to some media houses.

The Vice Chancellor of the University Professor Ernest Ayeetey told Campus station, Radio Universe, that the act was disgraceful and the students involved will be punished.

“what we saw was a criminal behavior and that falls within the ambits of the law enforcement agencies of Ghana. One thing I can assure Ghanaians is that this University would not protect anybody who has broken the laws of Ghana. In the past students assumed that if they committed crimes their behavior could be excused on the grounds of being students and that the university would go and say they’re students so leave them: we will not do that” he stressed.

“If the law enforcement agencies want to pursue anybody, we will collaborate with them and cooperate as much as possible to ensure that justice is served. We will have our own mechanisms for sanctioning, we can dismiss and indeed we will dismiss”he noted.

Meanwhile the Legon Police command says it has identified some students who engaged in the act.

Crime Officer at the Legon Police Station, ASP Emmanuel Basin-Tale told Citi News “arresting the students is not necessarily a challenge but because they are students we just want to go through the school authorities before picking them”.

The young lady (Amina) now in police custody, is said to be responding to treatment. Professor Ernest Ayeetey noted that “there should be two aspects, the university sanctions as well as the criminal aspect being dealt with by the law enforcement agencies. This university would treat students the way the laws of Ghana require and the way our statutes demand”.

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April 4, 2011April 4, 2011

Oil vs.Ccocoa: Why Ivory Coast Isn’t Like Libya

Barry Neild (CNN)

Violence is escalating in the west African nation of Ivory Coast, where president-elect Alassane Ouattara is trying to oust incumbent Laurent Gbagbo, who refused to leave office after losing an election.

But the international response — limited to a U.N. peacekeeping force already deployed there — has paled by comparison with the U.S. and NATO air strikes targeting forces to Moammar Gadhafi in Libya to prevent attacks on rebels and civilians.

Read an explainer on the situation in Ivory Coast

Nigeria’s foreign minister last month accused the West of hypocrisy in its reactions to the two crises, lashing out at the “contradictions” of imposing a no-fly zone over Libya but failing to to take action to protect civilians in Ivory Coast.

This raises questions about the strategic factors that have influenced the international response to the turmoil facing both countries.

Are there any similarities to the situation in Libya?

Analysts say that there are sharp differences in the problems facing the two countries, with Ivory Coast’s problems evolving over a period of years before coming to a boil in recent weeks compared to Libya’s relatively recent turmoil. But, they say, there are humanitarian concerns over the violence in both countries.

“The two conflicts are very separate, but what is similar is the potential threat to the civilian population,” says Phil Clark, a lecturer in Comparative and International Politics at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, who points out that global intervention in both countries has been focused on protecting hundreds of thousands of people at risk rather than on regime change.

But, says Gilles Yabi, a West Africa analyst with the International Crisis Group, the situation on the ground is vastly different with Gbagbo — who the United Nations and the United States have urged to stand down — having no access to planes and helicopters like those initially deployed by Gadhafi. “We have to be quite prudent about making comparisons,” he said.

What are the differences in international response?

Again there are similarities, with both situations prompting U.N. Security Council resolutions mandating international military intervention, albeit on different scales. In Libya, aircraft were deployed to attack Gadhafi’s air defenses and to protect opposition rebels and civilians from government troops.

In Ivory Coast, extra troops were authorized earlier in the year increasing the size of the U.N. peacekeeping force to 11,000, while France has dispatched 300 military personnel.

Tom Cargill, an Africa expert at the Chatham House think tank, says U.N.-sanctioned air strikes in the Ivory Coast conflict are unlikely. “The situation has moved quickly with the rebels moving into built up areas, so there hasn’t been time to get a mandate from the U.N., but because they are in built-up areas, that kind of intervention probably won’t be something air forces would consider.”

Why are there differences?

Analysts disagree on the reasons. Cargill says the two cannot be compared since Ivory Coast has endured years of crisis and a sustained international engagement aimed at finding a political solution. Others like Clark point to more strategic factors, not least that fact that Western countries feel over-stretched by Libya and are unwilling to commit to the same level of action in Ivory Coast.

“I think Libya has in a sense, acted as a kind of deterrent to collective action,” says Knox Chitiyo, head of Africa program at the UK’s Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies.

“In terms of escalation [Ivory Coast] has been unfortunate in terms of timing as the world’s attention has been focused on the Middle East and particularly Libya, so the Ivory Coast, which has been a slow-burning crisis, fell of the radar.”

Is oil a factor?

Yes, say some analysts. As a major oil producer, Libya’s strategic significance is far greater than cocoa- and coffee-producing Ivory Coast, says Clark. Libya’s potential as an incubator for Middle Eastern democracy is also an attention-grabber for Western countries, he says.

“There is significant concern over Libya’s oil and what that would mean for Western strategic interest and there’s a sense that Libya fits into this wider pattern of democratization and the falling of draconian regimes in North Africa and the Middle East.”

Knox adds: “Oil is seen by the West as a more strategic commodity than cocoa if we’re to be quite blunt.”

Is America likely to get involved in the same way it has in Libya?

No, says Knox – partly because as he has shown with Libya, President Barack Obama is unwilling to take a leading role in multinational intervention.

But, he says, this is also because Obama would find it tough to convince a public disillusioned by America’s experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan, particularly given Ivory Coast’s perceived lack of strategic significance.

“We’ve seen that Obama has had a real problem selling [intervention] to the U.S. audience,” he said.

Why is France so involved?

As Ivory Coast’s former colonial ruler, France not only has experience of working in the country but also appears to feel a duty to do so, pressing for Security Council action and dispatching troops.

This, says Yabi, creates its own problems as Gbagbo uses the French presence for his own benefit. “Anti-colonial discourse is one of Gbagbo’s political weapons and he is trying to resuscitate that rhetoric against France.”

Knox adds that France’s involvement points to a broader campaign by Paris to inject itself into the international arena, as punctuated by President Nicolas Sarkozy (who is seeking re-election next year) taking a lead role in urging military action in Libya.

April 2, 2011April 3, 2011

Zambia: Pregnant Woman Strips Naked to Prove Her Innocence in Stealing Charge

Business at Senama market in Mansa District came to a halt last evening when a pregnant woman stripped naked in the market shelter after she was accused of stealing a Fifty Thousand Kwacha by her fellow trader.

The woman decided to strip naked after she failed to convince her accuser that she had not stolen the money.
The duo was selling vegetables at the market when they picked up a quarrel after one of them lost a K 50,000 and accused her friend of stealing the money.

ZANIS reports that after a prolonged argument, the woman who accused her counterpart of having stolen the money demanded that her friend produces all the money she had so that she could identify her K 50, 000 note.

It was at this point that the accused woman decided to strip naked in the full view of people who had gone to watch them argue and those that went to buy assorted items.

She told ZANIS that that she stripped naked to show her accuser that she did not steal her money. One of the on lookers who sort anonymity said it was shameful for a woman to resort to stripping naked in presence of men and children at the market.

She said it was unjustifiable for the accused woman to remove all her clothes in public even if she was pressurized by her friend.

Meanwhile, other women expressed displeasure at the event but condemned the woman who had accused the other of stealing the money for not listening to her friend’s explanation.

They said it would be more important for the women in question to settle their wrangles at the police station than reaching the extent of stripping naked in public.

Lusaka Times

April 2, 2011April 4, 2011

Libya: Politics of Humanitarian Intervention

Mahmood Mamdani

Iraq and Afghanistan teach us that humanitarian intervention does not end with the removal of the danger it purports to target.

It only begins with it. Having removed the target, the intervention grows and turns into the real problem. This is why to limit the discussion of the Libyan intervention to its stated rationale – saving civilian lives – is barely scratching the political surface.

The short life of the Libyan intervention suggests that we distinguish between justification and execution in writing its biography. Justification was a process internal to the United Nations Security Council, but execution is not.

In addition to authorising a “no-fly zone” and tightening sanctions against “the Gaddafi regime and its supporters”, Resolution 1973 called for “all necessary measures to protect civilians under threat of attack in the country, including Benghazi.” At the same time, it expressly “excluded a foreign occupation force of any form” or in “any part of Libyan territory”.

UN conflicts

The UN process is notable for two reasons. First, the resolution was passed with a vote of 10 in favour and five abstaining.

The abstaining governments – Russia, China, India, Brazil, Germany – represent the vast majority of humanity.

Even though the African Union had resolved against an external intervention and called for a political resolution to the conflict, the two African governments in the Security Council – South Africa and Nigeria – voted in favour of the resolution.

They have since echoed the sentiments of the governments that abstained, that they did not have in mind the scale of the intervention that has actually occurred.

The second thing notable about the UN process is that though the Security Council is central to the process of justification, it is peripheral to the process of execution.

The Russian and Chinese representatives complained that the resolution left vague “how and by whom the measures would be enforced and what the limits of the engagement would be.”

Having authorised the intervention, the Security Council left its implementation to any and all, it “authorised Member States, acting nationally or through regional organisations or arrangements.”

As with every right, this free for all was only in theory; in practise, the right could only be exercised by those who possessed the means to do so. As the baton passed from the UN Security Council to the US and NATO, its politics became clearer.

Money trail

When it came to the assets freeze and arms embargo, the Resolution called on the Secretary-General to create an eight-member panel of experts to assist the Security Council committee in monitoring the sanctions.

Libyan assets are mainly in the US and Europe, and they amount to hundreds of billions of dollars: the US Treasury froze $30bn of liquid assets, and US banks $18bn. What is to happen to interest on these assets?

The absence of any specific arrangement assets are turned into a booty, an interest-free loan, in this instance, to US Treasury and US banks.

Like the military intervention, there is nothing international about the implementing sanctions regime. From its point of view, the international process is no more than a legitimating exercise.

If the legitimation is international, implementation is privatised, passing the initiative to the strongest of member states. The end result is a self-constituted coalition of the willing.

War furthers many interests. Each war is a laboratory for testing the next generation of weapons. It is well known that the Iraq war led to more civilian than military victims.

The debate then was over whether or not these casualties were intended. In Libya, the debate is over facts. It points to the fact that the US and NATO are perfecting a new generation of weapons, weapons meant for urban warfare, weapons designed to minimise collateral damage.

The objective is to destroy physical assets with minimum cost in human lives. The cost to the people of Libya will be of another type. The more physical assets are destroyed, the less sovereign will be the next government in Libya.

Libya’s opposition

The full political cost will become clear in the period of transition. The anti-Gaddafi coalition comprises four different political trends: radical Islamists, royalists, tribalists, and secular middle class activists produced by a Western-oriented educational system.

Of these, only the radical Islamists, especially those linked organisationally to Al Qaeda, have battle experience.

They – like NATO – have the most to gain in the short term from a process that is more military than political. This is why the most likely outcome of a military resolution in Libya will be an Afghanistan-type civil war.

One would think that this would be clear to the powers waging the current war on Libya, because they were the same powers waging war in Afghanistan. Yet, they have so far showed little interest in a political resolution. Several facts point to this.

The African Union delegation sent to Libya to begin discussions with Col. Gaddafi in pursuit of a political resolution to the conflict was denied permission to fly over Libya – and thus land in Tripoli – by the NATO powers.

The New York Times reported that Libyan tanks on the road to Benghazi were bombed from the air Iraq War-style, when they were retreating and not when they were advancing.

The two pilots of the US fighter jet F15-E that crashed near Benghazi were rescued by US forces on the ground, now admitted to be CIA operatives, a clear violation of Resolution 1973 that points to an early introduction of ground forces.

The logic of a political resolution was made clear by Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, in a different context: “We have made clear that security alone cannot resolve the challenges facing Bahrain. Violence is not the answer, a political process is.”

That Clinton has been deaf to this logic when it comes to Libya is testimony that so far, the pursuit of interest has defied learning political lessons of past wars, most importantly Afghanistan.

Marx once wrote that important events in history occur, as it were, twice – the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. He should have added, that for its victims, farce is a tragedy compounded.

Mahmood Mamdani is professor and director of Makerere Institute of Social Research at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, and Herbert Lehman Professor of Government at Columbia University, New York. He is the author, most recently of Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, The Cold War and the Roots of Terror, and Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics and the War on Terror.

Originally published on http://english.aljazeera.net on March 31, 2011. Republished on talkafrique.com on April 2, 2011. Courtesy Tunde Oseni

April 1, 2011July 3, 2012

Suspected Woman Thief Stripped Naked by Legon Students: Lawlessness Hall of Fame

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[ad#Caricature-text]Every form of lawlessness should be treated with the same displeasure and students of higher institutions should know better. Some male students of the premier university, University of Ghana, Legon, are making news for a shameful reason, intended to indulge their lust and lack of self restrain. In summary, a female suspect accused of stealing from one of the dormitories was sexually abused by the male students and recorded on video. In the video, you could see some of the students inserting their fingers into the woman’s vagina and fondling her breast as the woman begged them to forgive her trespasses. It is shameful that students at this level of ‘enlightenment’ would ignore the rule of law and embark on such despicable behavior. KAM

Video

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Update:

The Crime officer at the Legon Police command, ASP Emmanuel Basin-Tale says the police are hunting for the students who molested Amina, the alleged female thief suspected to have stolen a laptop and other gadgets belonging to some female students. Details soon.

Full Story from CitiFM

Authorities of the University of Ghana are yet to react to the molestation of a suspected female thief at one of the halls of residence by male students on the dawn of Thursday March 31.

Some male Students of the Mensah Sarbah Hall annex B arrested Amina at about 3:00am for allegedly stealing a laptop and other gadgets belonging to a female student of the mixed hall.

Instead of handing her over to the University police, the students many of whom are males stripped her naked and physically abused her and recorded the act.

In the ‘nasty video’ obtained by Citifmonline.com, Amina could be seen weeping severely as she pleaded with the students to forgive her. But the men without mercy tore her into pieces to expose her naked body.

They opened her legs wide and some of the guys could be seen inserting their fingers into her vagina.

The students, after molesting the victim, handed her over to the police who are investigating the incident.

Citi News understands the University authorities are investigating the situation and will come public in the coming days.

The Crimes Officer at the Legon Police command, ASP Basim, who confirmed the incident to Citi News, said the suspect has been on the police wanted list before Thursday’s alleged thievery.

He however condemned the molestation of Amina.

“She was apprehended and brought to Legon and handed over to the police for investigation so she is in custody. About two months ago, she committed a similar offence and she was arrested and cautioned but because of her circumstance she was granted Court bail to report at the Court. Unfortunately she failed, and the case was presented in her absence and a bench warrant was obtained. So we were looking for her when she committed this recent theft”.

“But if you suspect anybody for committing any offense, the best is to apprehend the person and hand him or her over to the police but not to molest or beat the person up. That will mean taking the law into your own hands” the Crimes Officer lamented.

The sexually molested lady has not been confirmed to be a student of the University.
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March 31, 2011April 21, 2011

Importance of Electronic Media to The Democratic Development of Ghana.

The branches of government in a democracy are as follows: the Executive branch, the Legislative branch and the Judiciary. Even though the electronic media is not a direct institutional branch it forms part and parcel of any successful political set up that can be described as a good democracy. The media is the interface or the intermediary between the three main branches of the democratic system and the people or rather citizens that these branches are expected to serve. Thereby, a complex system of checks and balances and transparency is established creating an environment of government accountability to the citizens of the state. In the absence of the media therefore, democracies will not empower citizens the way they are expected to.

Over the years however, the media has taken several shapes and forms. Since Johannes Gutenberg’s 15^th Century discovery of the printing machine, mankind has found new and innovative ways to disseminate information. From the talking drums of our ancestors to the World Wide Web which makes internet communication possible, the methods of spreading information have improved substantially making the electronic media a more vital feature in democracies. It is the belief of several political pundits that, the success of the National Patriotic Party in the 2000 Presidential elections was heavily influenced by the free media in Ghana.

Will the media however always play a positive role in Ghana’s democracy? How can the media which, is expected to be an instrument of freedom corrupt the country’s democratic system? It must be noted that, the positive role of a free electronic media in a vibrant and dynamic democracy such as what is currently being practised in Ghana can be abused. So instead of the media playing a positive role in the organization of general elections for instance it could even destabilize the social as well as political harmony prevailing in the country at the moment. This usually happens, when politicians are able to infiltrate the ranks of media practitioners in the country. So political reportage can become propaganda machinery designed to endorse government policy and advance the agenda of political parties. The media’s role can also be undermined by the commercialization of news agencies in Ghana whereby reporters seek or endeavour to sensationalise stories and events for popularity and ratings.

The war in Iraq spearheaded by the Bush administration enjoyed public support in America but it is believed that the majority of the supporters of the war which was described as illegal by the then Secretary-General of the United Nations Mr Kofi Annan, were convinced that Iraq and its former leader the late Saddam Hussein were involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York city and Washington DC. The war at one point was termed as a “Rush Limbaugh/Fox News War — based on the premise that in our current media environment if you tell a lie forcefully and frequently enough, the lie will triumph”. The Fox news network was therefore used as an outlet for misinformation and misdirection thereby securing support for an illegitimate war that threatened international peace and stability and cost billions of dollars that contributed to a decline in the US economy. A free media can therefore be an instrument of deception if not utilised properly.

It is also widely believed that radio stations were used to incite the very tragic genocide of Rwanda in 1994. Radio presenters and journalists analyzed normal political and social events in a tribal context creating the impression that social chaos was imminent unless certain members of the society were eliminated. The outcome was the massacre of nearly one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Most of the killings were carried out by civilian Hutus against their Tutsi neighbours and has been described as one of the worst tragedies in the history of mankind.

These are a few examples of how the wrong use of a liberalized electronic media system can ultimately destroy or defeat the essence of democracies and engineer a national atmosphere of deceit, hostility and mayhem.

A free media must therefore have its limits, if it is going to be constructive in Ghana. Even though, the criminal libel law has been repealed the ambience of free expression that has been created must not be exploited to print false articles and publications about politicians and public figures.

In 1973 two prominent American journalists namely, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein exposed a political scandal that came to be known as the Watergate scandal. They successfully exposed campaign malpractices in the Presidential campaign of Richard Nixon resulting in the resignation of the former American President after he had been successfully inaugurated. The actions of the two journalists significantly changed the political landscape of America and has garnered exemplary behaviour from Presidential aspirants in the US ever since. The landmark case of Watergate therefore, marked a triumph in American political history and showcased the very important role that the media generally plays in democracies.

Prospective journalists training at schools of journalism in Ghana must familiarise themselves with cases such as the Watergate scandal so that they can be conversant with the merits or relevance of political neutralism to a free national media. Outfits such as the National Media Commission (NMC) must ensure that there is integrity among Ghanaian journalists and regulate their activities in such a way that political reportage in the country will be fair, accurate and balanced.

The electronic media therefore has a very important role to play in Ghana’s democracy. If properly practised and executed, the liberalised press can guarantee the freedoms of Ghanaians by ensuring that politicians or elected officials account to the people of Ghana. If the tenets of good governance such as transparency and the implementation of good Human Rights policy are going to be realised the electronic media must be perceived as the fourth and arguably the most important branch of government.