CHINESE SUES OBAMA

US President Barack Obama 

President Obama this year ruled against allowing a Chinese man to build a wind farm in Oregon, calling him a ‘national security threat’. Convinced that the president was biased against the Chinese, the man is taking Obama to court.

Wu Jialiang, CEO of Ralls Corp. and one of China’s richest men, is challenging Obama in a federal court today on his refusal to let him build a wind farm on US ground he had purchased – even though other foreigners had built businesses in the same area, the Christian Science Monitor reports.

“We are suing the president because we do not accept his finding that we are a national security threat. It is not true,” Jialiang said.

Ralls Corp. is affiliated with Sany Group Ltd., one of China’s largest and wealthiest private companies with its president ranking as the sixth richest man in China. The company bought four plots of land in Oregon on which it planned to build a wind farm in March. But the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which reviews foreign purchases, blocked the deal, claiming the agency found “credible evidence” that this was a national security risk – especially with its close proximity to a military facility where unmanned drones are tested.

After Ralls Corp. disputed the decision, President Obama issued an executive order enforcing the CFIUS ruling. This was the first time a US president used his power to block a business transaction on security grounds in 22 years.
Angered by the decision, Sany Group Ltd. filed a complaint against Obama and the CFIUS at a District

Court in Washington, claiming that the presidential order exceeded its constitutional rights, since it provided no detailed evidence as to why Ralls Corp. was a national security threat. The company has made numerous investments in Europe, and 15 percent of its total sales are made overseas. Jialiang also expressed frustration with the financial loss his company faced when the executive order was made.

“This measure caused us more than $20 million in direct investment losses, excluding indirect losses,” Jialiang said in a press conference in Beijing.

The district court judge is now reviewing the case to decide whether or not to accept it. Sany Group Ltd. has threatened to take the case to the US Supreme Court if its complaint is rejected, Forbes reported in mid-November.

Although both Chinese and US lawyers find it unlikely that the Chinese company will win the lawsuit against Obama, the case represents China’s increasingly intrepid relationship as a challenger of the US. The case also displays US hesitation to allow Chinese competition on American soil. Chinese investors have frequently complained about US hostility towards them.
“When you challenge the Titan, the US, you appear a hero,” Hao Junbo, an expert on transnational legal cases, told the Christian Science Monitor.

As China becomes a greater competitor and world power, the US has felt weary about allowing big Chinese investors to bring their businesses to the US for many reasons similar to the country’s former relationship with Japan and Korea.

In the 1980’s, Japan was a rising economic challenger. When the Japanese bought the Rockefeller Center, an enormous American symbol and huge investment, Americans worried that the Japanese were trying to undermine them in the business world. Many of Japan’s products were also superior to those produced by the US.

But Japan was also a US ally and had no interest in dominating the world politically. The country’s main concern seemed to be selling its products and bringing in cash. Fears about Chinese dominance, on the other hand, are more than just economic. Americans are concerned that China may try to dominate with its political ideologies, which are radically different from Western beliefs. While Japan was not much of a military threat, China’s military power is rising and the country often intervenes in global affairs. Its neighbors have become fearful of the rising power. China has also supported countries that US considers threats or enemies, such as North Korea.

China is not just an economic competitor, but a political and military one as well. US fears of Chinese investors are just one indicator of the perception of threat. Jialiang’s company was not the first whose investment was rejected without much of a valid reason: a congressional panel last month branded two
 Chinese telecommunications companies as potential threats to national security. Huawei and ZTE will now face immense difficulties conducting business in the US.

“The US government and people do not think the Chinese government is 100 percent like other ones. They always have doubts; it is cultural and political discrimination,” said Hao Junbo, an expert on transnational legal cases.
Jialiang’s fierce confrontation against President Obama is likely to shed light on the US perception of China.

“This could well be an indication of things to come when Chinese investors will stand up if they feel they have been badly treated. One could argue that this is a straw in the wind,” Dr. Karl Sauvant, author of the book “Is the US Ready for FDI from China?” told the Christian Science Monitor.

Leveson Inquiry verdict: UK needs media watchdog

Lord Justice Brian Leveson poses with an executive summary of his report following an inquiry into media practices in central London November 29, 2012

Lord Leveson has handed down the findings in his inquiry into the UK media, recommending a new independent regulatory body be set up free from government control, which the press themselves would sign up and adhere to.

Some members of the British press hacked the phones of the public and celebrities, which sparked the inquiry.

Leveson began his summing up by praising the British press, which “serves the country well most of the time,” and therefore “press freedom should not be jeopardized.”

But he warns that this doesn’t mean that the press is “beyond challenge” and, like any other profession or industry, must be able to stand up to criticism.

He continued that the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), the former regulator, has failed in its task of getting the press to adhere to its responsibilities to the public, which it is meant to serve. Leveson then warned that “putting a policeman in every newsroom” would not provide an answer to the problem. In any case, law-breaking in the press has been covert, with the victims unaware of what was going on.
Nor did he suggest that the government or politicians should be involved in regulating the press. Instead he suggested a new system of independent self regulation. He has already asked the press to try and do this.

The new regulatory body must be independent of the media themselves and of parliament, as the industry cannot “mark its own homework.”
Such a body, he continued, would provide tangible benefits to the press, as they could show that they had acted in good faith and sought to uphold the public interest.

The new regulatory body cannot be realized through legislation, he said, but there may need to be some legislation to recognize the new independent system formally.

Leveson did not devote much time to the relationship between politicians and the media, but did say that in some instances relations between the press and politicians had “been too close”; by this he meant policy lobbying out of the public eye.

The 16-month report looked at why politicians and police failed to react when reports first appeared of phone hacking cases linked to The News of the World. Critics argue that the power of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire was so far-reaching that the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) and the authorities were powerless to take action.

The inquiry is estimated to have cost around US$9.5 million and is supported by a backlog of interviews with media figures and celebrities who were targeted in the phone hacking scandals.

The Leveson Inquiry is expected to recommend new regulations for the UK press and the instatement of an independent watchdog that would investigate abuses and impose fines.

The UK press has voiced protest at the possible creation of an organization backed by law that would control media content, maintaining it would give politicians new power over press. Instead many newspapers advocate the idea of reinforcing the already-existing self-regulating model.

Debates over the possible news measures have seen the UK’s coalition government divided with stiff opposition coming from many MPs in David Cameron’s conservative party.

Egypt votes to keep Islamic law main source of Egypt’s constitution

    

Egyptian protesters clash with security forces on November 29, 2012 in Cairo's Tahrir Square (AFP Photo / Mahmoud Khaled)

Egypt’s Constituent Assembly tasked with drafting the country’s new constitution has voted to keep “the principles of sharia” law as the main source of legislation in the country.

The article's language however, remains unchanged from the previous constitution used under the regime of former President Hosni Mubarak.

The assembly gathered on Thursday to vote on each of the new draft constitution’s 234 articles in a potential bid by the Muslim Brotherhood to contain popular anger directed at Islamist President Muhamed Morsi.

The rushed vote was unexpected, coming just a week after Morsi extended the deadline for drafting the national charter by two months. The constitution was previously scheduled to be completed by December 5.

Once voting on the draft constitution is completed, the document will then be sent to Morsi, who will then  be able to call a referendum to ratify it within two weeks.

Morsi is expected to call for national unity in a public address scheduled for 1700 GMT on Thursday to ease the ongoing crisis that has resulted in a week of often violent street clashes and mass protests.

Egypt’s Constitutional Court was set to rule on the legitimacy of the Constituent Assembly on Sunday.
Thursday’s apparent fast-tracking of the process has promoted speculation the panel is pushing through the draft constitution in case the court moves to dissolve the panel.

The country's first 100-member Constituent Assembly was dissolved by the Supreme Administrative Court in April. The court said MPs who were responsible for electing members of the body were not supposed to be serving on it, putting the panel in contravention to the March 2011 Constitutional Decree.

The current Constituent Assembly – elected in June – also contains members of parliament , making its legal status equally dubious.

Thursday's vote follows massive protests which saw more than 200,000 protester’s flood onto Cairo’s Tahrir Square in opposition to recent presidential decrees giving Morsi sweeping powers.

The Constitutional Court's vote has put the judiciary on a collision course with Morsi, who ruled that no authority may dissolve the assembly until the country's defining document is completed. He further ruled that no authority may dissolve the Shura Council, the upper house of Egypt's parliament.

Morsi defended the decrees, saying they were only temporary measures which would be repealed once the new constitution is ratified and a new parliament is elected.

Mohamed Abdel-Alim Dawoud of the liberal Wafd party told Egypt’s Ahram Daily that attempts by the Muslim Brotherhood to extricate Morsi from the current political crisis by passing the final draft constitution will likely backfire.

“The decision to rush out the vote will only serve to pour oil on the fire and direct more anger at Morsi and his group [the Brotherhood]. It will exacerbate the impression that the assembly is under the Brotherhood's tight control and that the constitution is tailored to serve their political ends,” Dawoud, who had previously withdrawn from the assembly, said.

At least 40 liberal, leftist and Christian members have withdrawn from 100-member Islamist-dominated assembly.

In another move likely to further inflame tensions on the streets, the assembly also voted on an article giving the Islamist-dominated Shura Council – Egypt’s upper house of parliament – the power to issue legislation until the lower house is elected.

With both the Shura Council and the Constituent Assembly being placed above judicial review, the country’s opposition fears Egypt is falling victim to an Islamist coup.

Ex-Kosovo PM acquitted of war crimes

 

 

A supporter of former Prime Minister and rebel chief Ramush Haradinaj holds the latter's portrait as he celebrates outside the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at the Hague on November 29, 2012

The Hague tribunal has cleared former Kosovo’s PM Ramush Haradinaj of war crimes during the military conflict in Serbia in late 1990s. Serbian president says court’s decision annuls efforts to normalize ties between Belgrade and Pristina.
­

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in Hague has ruled that Kosovo ex-PM Ramush Haradinaj, also a former commander of Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), and two of his subordinates are not guilty of any crimes during the 1998-1999 war.

The three men were accused of torture and killing of ethnic Serbs, Roma and those Albanians who collaborated with Serbs while KLA was establishing control of the western Kosovo.

In 2008 Haradinaj together with co-defendants Idriz Balaj and Lahi Brahimaj were already acquitted but later the court had admitted that witnesses were intimidated and reversed the acquittal. Four years later, in an unprecedented for the Hague tribunal re-trial, the Albanians have been acquitted for the second time.
Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic denounced the verdict, saying it “fuels separatism, delivers a blow to efforts at establishing peace in the region, annul efforts so far in normalizing ties between Belgrade and Pristina and fuels euro-skepticism among the Serbian people.”

Haradinaj’s acquittal only added to a list of cases, in which the ICTY refused to sentence militants accused of war crimes against Serbs during the war that followed disintegration of former Yugoslavia in 1990s. Just recently, on 16 November 2012, the ICTY acquitted Croatian General-Leutenant Ante Gotovina of war crimes against Serbs, though in April 2011, he was found guilty on eight of the nine counts of the indictment and sentenced to 24 years in prison.

Ex-Kosovo PM’s acquittal was anticipated by Serbian officials and media after Gotovina was freed. The judgment enraged the Serbian community both in Belgrade and in Kosovo.
“The Hague is laughing in Serbia’s face with this acquittal,” Belgrade political analyst Aleksandar Pavic told the press.

Pavic went on to dub The Hague tribunal as anti-Serb, an opinion which is very popular in the country.
“The Hague tribunal was set up in 1993 when the US was the only country that really mattered at the time. And this tribunal was specifically designed pretty much a tribunal for the Serbs, to make sure the Serbs are declared a guilty party in all the wars in the early 1990s [which] were in fact caused by the West intervention – military and diplomatic,” Pavic argued.

Ramush Haradinaj served as Kosovo Prime Minister for only 100 days in 2005 before he had to quit because of his first trial in Hague.

Haradinaj, the founder of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo party, has a lot of supporters among Kosovo Albanians. They celebrated his acquittal with large banners in the capital Pristina, having watched the verdict live on a giant screen.

Ramush Haradinaj's lawyer Ben Emmerson told journalists his client plans to come back to politics.
"With the consent of the people, he will soon be resuming his rightful position as the political leader of the country," Emmerson told the media at the court in Hague.

Kenya MUST Investigate Attack on Rights Activist

The Kenyan authorities should promptly and thoroughly investigate a serious physical assault on Okiya Omtatah Okoiti, a prominent human rights activist, on the evening of November 9, 2012, and bring appropriate charges, Human Rights Watch, ARTICLE 19,Legal Link International (LLI) and East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project said yesterday.

The organizations expressed concern over the apparent lack of a serious police investigation two weeks after the violent attack on an outspoken critic of the government.

Omtatah, executive director of Kenyans for Justice and Development (KEJUDE) Trust, a local NGO that advocates for transparency and accountability, was attacked by two unidentified men in central Nairobi. He lost six teeth and suffered serious injuries to his face and the back of his head, which required surgery. Omtatah told Human Rights Watch and ARTICLE 19 that the attackers demanded that he withdraw a lawsuit he filed to demand accountability in the procurement of biometric voter registration (BVR) kits because of corruption associated with the process.

“This vicious attack was clearly meant not just to intimidate Omtatah but to seriously injure him – and perhaps even to kill him,” said Leslie Lefkow, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The aim seems to be to stop his work on corruption in the procurement of biometric voter registration kits for the upcoming elections.”

From a bed in a Nairobi hospital, Omtatah described the attack:

The two gentlemen walked behind me in the light rain at around 8:30 p.m. As we neared I&M Bank Building, one of them called out my name, “Omtatah,” and I responded, looked back, and we waved at each other pleasantly. I did not stop. Somehow they quickened up and one overtook me. The other stayed behind me. The one in front then turned to face me and he asked me in Kiswahili and in a very polite voice: “Will you withdraw the petition you have filed in the High Court over the procurement of the biometric voter registration kit?” I responded in English with a strong “No!”

He immediately flashed something that looked like a short, thick silver stick and struck me in the face. Almost simultaneously the other one struck me with a heavy blunt object at the back of my head. I heard an exploding sound in my head as I fell in the rain, gravely injured. They stole nothing from me. I had two mobile phones and cash.

Omtatah said a police investigator had visited him in the hospital but only to take the basic facts of the attack. They did not ask him for a description of the attackers. Police at Nairobi’s Central Police Station told Human Rights Watch and ARTICLE 19 that they could not begin an investigation while Omtatah was undergoing treatment.

“Omtatah has been the sole voice of concern in the problematic biometric voter kit procurement process,” said Henry Maina, director of ARTICLE 19 Eastern Africa.  “The authorities need to get to the bottom of the procurement process and protect Omtatah’s right to seek the truth and they need to hold everyone responsible for corruption and for this attack accountable as well.”

Kenya’s 2007 elections were marked by controversy and violence, resulting in more than 1,000 deaths countrywide and causing more than 600,000 people to flee their homes. The problem was partly due to flaws in the integrity of the electoral process, which undermined confidence in the results. A commission of inquiry looking at the elections recommended a shift from the manual voter registration system to an electronic system to fix problems with the voter register.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC)is trying to introduce biometric voter registration kits to improve the process, but the procurement process has been fraught with controversy, with allegations of bribery, influence peddling, and irregularities in the tendering process. Last July the commission’s tender committee resigned to protest what it called external influences on the process and the IEBC. The biometric voter kit uses specific facial features to identify each voter during voting to prevent fraud.

The lowest bidder in the BVR tender, 4G Identity Solutions of India, was disqualified in August 2012. The company’s CEO, Sreeni Tripuraneni, said that the company was being punished for refusing to pay 30 million Kenyan shillings in bribes to senior officials in Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Ministry. In September 2012 the IEBC canceled the tender altogether, prompting an inquiry by a parliamentary committee. The IEBC Chairman, Isaack Hassan, told the committee that his commission had come “under immense pressure from external interests” who sought to influence the tender.

“Omtatah has been keeping the IEBC on its toes and, together with others, making sure the process is transparent and fair,” Maina said.  “In the end, the credibility of Kenya’s electoral process is at stake.”

After the cancellation of the tender the Kenyan government took over the procurement process amid protests from some civil society groups about possible manipulation and implications for the independence of IEBC.

Omtatah’s KEJUDE and other civil society groups have raised concerns about the rising costs – from an initial 3.9 billion Kenyan shillings for 9,750 BVR kits under the IEBC to 9.6 billion Kenyan shillings for 1,500 BVR kits when the government took over. Omtatah went to court to stop the process over the alleged corruption.  He filed detailed documents in court that appeared to show that Kenya would lose up to 4 billion Kenyan shillings in the deal.

The three organizations said Omtatah might be in danger if the authorities fail to assure his safety. Kenya has a responsibility to respect and protect the rights of human rights defenders, as contained in the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, as well as to provide effective remedies for any violations of these rights. The government should urgently order a full and impartial investigation into the attack and prosecute those responsible.

“The authorities must investigate this vicious attack and bring those responsible to justice,” said Hassan Shire, executive director of East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project. “Activists need to be able to carry their work without the fear of violent repercussions.”

Reinstate Moratorium on DEATH PENALTY

The Indian government should immediately reinstate its moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty, Human Rights Watch said today.India ended its eight-year unofficial moratorium on executions when on November 21, 2012, it hanged Ajmal Kasab, convicted for his role in the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people and wounded more than 300 others.

“The hanging of Ajmal Kasab marks a distressing end to India’s moratorium on executions and is a step backwards for India’s justice system,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

“The government should take prompt and decisive action toward a total abolition of capital punishment.”
Kasab, a Pakistani national, was one of 10 gunmen who attacked Mumbai on November 26, 2008, laying siege to the city for nearly three days. He was sentenced to death in 2010 after being found guilty on numerous charges including murder, conspiracy to murder, and waging war against the country. He was hanged in secret in a prison in the city of Pune, just southeast of Mumbai, after he lost his appeals and India’s president this month rejected his plea for clemency.

India executed Kasab just two days after it opposed a draft resolution by the United Nations General Assembly’s human rights committee calling for a global moratorium on capital punishment. India was among the 39 countries that voted against the draft resolution, which was adopted with 110 votes in favor. Thirty-six countries abstained.

Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances as an inherently irreversible, inhumane punishment. India has maintained that it imposes capital punishment in only the “rarest of rare” cases. However the lack of legal safeguards to prevent the execution of individuals whose crimes do not meet the Indian government’s ambiguous “rarest of the rare” criteria is a serious concern, Human Rights Watch said.

In July 2012, 14 retired Supreme Court and High Court judges asked President Pranab Mukherjee to commute the death sentences of 13 inmates erroneously upheld by the Supreme Court over the past nine years. This followed the court’s admission that some of these death sentences were rendered per incuriam (out of error or ignorance). This November the Supreme Court ruled that the “rarest of rare” standard for capital punishment had not been applied uniformly over the years and the norms on death penalty needed “a fresh look.”

“Capital punishment is an act of cruel, pre-meditated killing sanctioned by the law,” Ganguly said. “India can demonstrate to the world that it’s as committed to justice as it is to economic development by joining with those nations that have decided to abolish the death penalty.”

Comesa Summit Opens in Kampala

The African heads of state meeting in Kampala is today expected to adopt a report on regional trade, arising out of a meeting of the Council of Ministers.

The spokesperson of the foreign affairs ministry, Elly Kamahungye, said the council had met earlier and completed a report, which makes key recommendations on a number of issues, including regional trade.

Kamahungye yesterday said the heads of state will discuss how to move the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA) economic bloc forward after most member states ratified the Free Trade Arrangement (FTA).

"The FTA means that member countries have agreed to remove barriers to trade and it makes COMESA a formidable regional organisation in promoting trade," he said.

Yesterday, five African leaders arrived in the country to attend the COMESA heads of state summit scheduled for today at Speke Resort Munyonyo.

The leaders were Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe), Mwai Kibaki (Kenya), Joyce Banda (Malawi), Dr. Ikiliou Dhoinine (Comoros) and Ethiopian prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn.

Others were prime ministers Mizengo Kayanza Pinda (Tanzania), Barnabas Sibusiso Dlamini (Swaziland) and Pierre Damien Habumuremyi (Rwanda).

Also expected were vice-presidents Dr. Gervais Rufykiri (Burundi) and Danny Foure (Seychelles), African Union chairperson Zuma Dlamini and Egyptian minister of investment Osman Saleh.

The summit comes after Uganda ratified the COMESA Free Trade Area, which is expected to increase the volume of Uganda's exports within the region.

MUSEVENI AND HIS FOREIGN POLICY GAME

With events in the eastern DRC rapidly unfolding, what will Museveni do next and why?

In the latest high-level diplomatic move surrounding the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Presidents Joseph Kabila of the DRC, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda yesterday jointly demanded that the M23 rebels pull out of the recently-captured town of Goma and end their offensive.

This may seem strange given that many believe M23 is a proxy army of Rwanda and that in a leaked UN Panel of Experts report, Uganda was also accused of providing more "subtle" support to the rebels and allowing "the rebel group's political branch to operate from within Kampala and boost its external relations".

Both Uganda and Rwanda strenuously denied the claims and Uganda's Army and Defence Spokesman Felix Kulaigye dismissed the report as "hogwash ... a mere rumour that is being taken as a report".

Shortly after, as if to demonstrate its deep displeasure, Ugandan officials threatened to pull out of international peace-keeping missions in Somalia, the Central African Republic (CAR), and the DRC.

However, Wendy Sherman, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, amongst others seemed to believe Uganda was calling the international communities bluff, saying she "fully expects" Uganda to continue playing "the leadership role it has" in diplomatic and military terms.

With events unfolding quickly in the region, it may be difficult to predict Museveni's next move and pick apart the short-term motivations behind his most recent actions, but looking at how he has operated in the region previously and the issues that take the centre ground in his foreign policy calculations may offer some insight.

Political survival

One factor that might explain Sherman's confidence in dismissing Uganda's threat to withdraw international peacekeepers is Washington's history of cooperation with Museveni on security matters. Following the death of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia earlier this year, the Ugandan president is the most powerful and significant pro-Western leader in the region remaining.

Museveni has been a long-time US ally in regional security in conflicts from Sudan to the Lord's Resistance Army in central and east Africa to al-Shabaab in Somalia. Museveni and his military chiefs have done well from these partnerships and there are whispers suggesting the US is building a military base in Uganda's north-eastern region of Karamoja.

Another reason for doubting the seriousness of Uganda's threats is that there is almost always more to Museveni's political moves than meets the eye. He often proclaims the 'noble aspects' of his foreign ventures whilst keeping his real motives close to his chest, and has proven himself to be shrewd operator when it comes to geopolitical and regional issues.

In Somalia, for example, in which Uganda contributes to the AU peacekeeping force AMISOM, Uganda's Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa promised that Uganda's "primary intention ... was not to do business. It was our pan-African role in ensuring that Somalia ceases to be a failed state."

However if you scratch below the surface, a different picture with possible ulterior motives emerges. At the time of Uganda's military incursion into Somalia, the international community was intensifying its calls for a smooth political transition in Uganda - "transition" possibly being a euphemism for 'a Uganda without Museveni at the helm'.

Concerned by these calls, and perhaps inspired by Muammar Gaddafi's advice to him once that "revolutionaries don't retire", Museveni offered large numbers of Ugandan troops to the mission in Somalia.

Uganda now contributes more than a third of the 17,600 AU peacekeepers stationed there to combat the militant Islamist and al-Qaeda-linked group al-Shabaab, and this move effectively established Museveni as one of the West's indispensible allies in the war on terror.

Regional power game

Apart from the need to deflect attention from his "life presidency" project, another of Museveni's key objectives for going into Somalia was possibly to secure an alternative sea port to Kenya's Mombasa as an alternative for exporting newly-discovered Ugandan oil.

Additionally, by establishing a Ugandan presence in Somalia, Museveni likely hoped to ensure any future Kenyan president would have to accept his hegemony in the interests of Kenya's security, especially in the critical northern corridor around Lamu port, where multi-billion dollar oil, rail, and road infrastructure projects are underway.

Considering the odds-on favourite to become Kenya's next president is the current PM Raila Odinga, a man who has had a love-hate relation with Museveni, we can see what journalist Charles Onyango Obbo meant when he suggested that success in Somalia would be Museveni's greatest victory.

Success in Somalia would firmly enable Museveni to gain strategic leverage over a country that has shown signs of discomfort with Museveni's ambition to become, and perhaps even retire as, the first president of the proposed East African Community (EAC) federation.

But Kenya is not, and never has been, a passive observer in Museveni's regional power games. It saw what was coming and decided to follow Museveni into Somalia under the AMISOM umbrella. That move pulled a strategic rag from under Museveni's feet, although Ugandan troops remain crucial in Somalia.

What next for Museveni?

The security threat from eastern DRC was always likely to be Museveni's next foreign policy theatre. Indeed, in his reaction to the UN report, Uganda's International Affairs Minister Henry Okello Oryem expressed Uganda's displeasure at the handling of the region, telling the BBC that "the UN was seeking to blame others for the failure of its own peacekeeping force in the eastern Congo".

This may explain why the Great Lakes leaders, led by Museveni and Rwanda's President Kagame, decided to push ahead with the creation of a neutral force to pacify the region despite the fact the UN had given the idea a rather lukewarm reception.

Both Kampala and Kigali seem to believe one of the most important solutions to the crisis in eastern DRC is for the President Kabila to end to what Museveni and Kagame see as his persecution of immigrant Tutsis who have ancestral ties in Rwanda and Burundi. This would be one of the reasons behind creating a regional force.

And according to a Ugandan analyst speaking to Think Africa Press on the condition of anonymity, although the US has been quick to show it is critical of Rwanda's alleged support for the M23 rebels, it has also shown signs of sympathy for the positions being pursued by Museveni and Kagame. It would not be against US interests, for example, for a neutral force to impose a federal state system in the DRC, nor - taken to the next extreme - for the expansive DRC to be broken up into smaller states.

The threat looms that emerging powers might be able to detract from the US' influence in the region, to which Uganda is crucial, and in a recent interview, Uganda's Foreign Minister declared that Uganda will now be "looking at countries like China, Brazil and India" and reposition itself "because there is a shift in the economies of the world and we must position ourselves to take advantage of all this". How Museveni exploits these tensions will be one of the hallmarks of his legacy.

All in all, it is not difficult to agree with those who think Museveni actually sees himself as an African "political architect". As one analyst put it, the foreign policy chess game "motivates him like hell"

INTERPOL, EAC TO COOPERATE ON MATTERS OF SECURITY

The Secretary General of the East African Community Amb. Dr. Richard Sezibera has underscored the commitment of the Partner States to cooperate with the International Police (INTERPOL) in the pursuit of EAC objectives by strengthening collaboration for mutual benefit in the exercise of their respective mandates.

The assurance came when the EAC Secretary General met his INTERPOL counterpart, Mr.Roland K. Noble, during the ongoing 81^st Interpol General Assembly session in Rome, Italy, 7 November, 2012.

‘’As the EAC integration deepens  and widens, with the implied freedoms brought about by the implementation of the Common Market Protocol, negative effects like transnational crimes among others are also gaining sophistication and must be resolutely fought. The role of the INTERPOL therefore becomes key in complementing EAC’s strategic peace and security interventions’’, said Amb Sezibera.

INTERPOL and EAC are expected to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) soon. The EAC recognizes INTERPOL’s expertise and competences in security areas and how it would stand to benefit from the partnership.

Notes to readers

Negotiations between the two organizations for a cooperation framework commenced in 2009 with an aim to optimize the relative advantage and competences of the two organizations in delivering safety and security in the EAC region.

At the moment all EAC Partner States are actively engaging with the EA INTERPOL Regional Bureau.

The EAC Council of Ministers has already pronounced itself on the need to adopt decisions of the Eastern African Police Chief's Cooperation Organization (EAPCCO) as EAC Decisions. The conclusion of the MOU will facilitate enhancing the pace at which INTERPOL decisions within the context of EAPCCO are implemented. The MOU provides a formal platform with which both EAPCCO and EAC can participate in each other’s technical working groups and decision processes but also support a mechanism for joint implementation of projects and programs.

The Maritime Security Project (MASE) and the establishment of regional centers of excellence will provide a solid ground on which this partnership will further be harnessed for mutual benefit.

NEW IUCEA BILL APPROVED AS EAC EDUCATION MINISTERS MEET

 

$1.8 million and $2 million budgets approved for East African Science and Technology Commission and East African Kiswahili Commission respectively

 

 Ministers responsible for Education, Science and Technology, Culture and Sports in the region have adopted the revised draft Inter University Council for East Africa (IUCEA) Bill, 2012. The Ministers were in Kigali, Rwanda for the 1st Extraordinary Sectoral Council on Education, Science and Technology, Culture and Sports.

 

The 5-8 November meeting chaired by Hon. Ababu Namwamba, Kenya’s Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports considered among others, the draft IUCEA Bill that proposes to enact a new Act on the Inter-University Council for East Africa, 2012; plans to operationalize the East African Science and Technology Commission and East African Kiswahili Commission; as well as matters regarding Mutual Recognition Agreements that various professional bodies are currently working on to facilitate movement of labor and trade in professional services.

 

The draft IUCEA Bill the ministerial meeting passed was prepared to remedy anomalies and inconsistencies highlighted in the IUCEA Act (2009) following a comprehensive review of the same.

 

The Act in question, which the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) enacted in 2009, was meant to effectively mainstream the Inter University Council for East Africa into the EAC but its operationalization has met with a number of challenges because some of its sections do not augur well with the EAC Treaty, the institutional position of IUCEA in the Community, as well as with new developments in the provision of higher education.

 

The new Bill that aims to repeal the IUCEA Act 2009 will now be forwarded to the Council of Ministers—the EAC policy-making organ—for approval.

 

At the same meeting, the Ministers considered and adopted the proposed budget of US$ 1,894,400 for the initial operationalization of the East African Science and Technology Commission (EASTECO) and another US$ 2,009,041 for the initial operationalization of the East African Kiswahili Commission, both provisioned for the 2013/14 Financial Year. Rwanda and Tanzania have been selected to host the Science and Technology and Kiswahili Commissions respectively.

 

The Ministers who attended the meeting were: Hon. Ababu Namwamba (Youth Affairs and Sports, Kenya); Hon. Vincent Biruta (Education, Rwanda); Hon. Dr. Julien Nimubona (Higher Education and Scientific Research, Burundi); Hon. Dr. Shukuru Kawambwa (Education and Vocational Training, United Republic of Tanzania); and Uganda’s Minister of State for Higher Education Hon. Dr. John C. Muyingo.

Foreign bribery fines should go to global legal empowerment, not domestic coffers

                                         


In the last three years, fines for violations of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) – under which corporations with ties to the U.S. face criminal penalties for paying bribes to foreign government officials – have exceeded $2.1 billion.

Beyond showing that the U.S. and others are taking seriously the governance failures that frustrate citizens everywhere, the fines create an opportunity to stamp out corruption. Rather than treat the fines as national revenue – as in the U.S., where they are deposited directly into the national treasury – governments should apply them to addressing the root causes of corruption worldwide.

Over the last 35 years, the U.S. Department of Justice has established strong FCPA enforcement mechanisms, leading to enhanced compliance efforts by firms. Meanwhile, social movements in the Middle East, India, Russia, Malawi, the U.S., and elsewhere have challenged corruption, demanding increased accountability and transparency from governments and business leaders.

Citizens are rejecting fraudulently negotiated mining contracts that imply high environmental and social costs and few benefits for the public. They are protesting poorly constructed water and transportation infrastructure. And they are demanding to know why essential medicines disappear before they reach patients.

Foreign corrupt practices laws are rooted in the recognition that governance should cross borders, just as capital does. But such laws have limits. While strict penalties may deter U.S.-connected companies, firms without any link to a country with an enforcement regime can still trade bribes for contracts. In other words, while the laws stymie one supply channel, they do not shut down the pipeline – and they do nothing to curb demand.

To increase the FCPA’s impact, the fines collected should be dedicated to the global fight against corruption. One possibility would be to establish a multilateral mechanism for financing the direct legal empowerment of citizens worldwide.  After all, civil-society organizations have a critical role to play in holding governments accountable.  We propose this option in an extended op-ed and hope that it prompts wider discussion.

South Sudan breaches Legal Obligations

South Sudan’s decision to expel a United Nations human rights officer constitutes a “breach of the legal obligations” of the Government, the world body’s senior official in the country stressed on Sunday.

“The order is in breach of the legal obligations of the Government of the Republic of South Sudan under the Charter of the United Nations,” said the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for South Sudan, Hilde F. Johnson.

“I have therefore been in discussions with the highest levels of the Government of the Republic of South Sudan to seek clarification on the reasons behind the order and to protest against this decision,” she added in a statement

The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMIS) had recently received official communication from the Government ordering one of its human rights officers to leave the country within 48 hours. The officer has since been redeployed to the UN Regional Service Centre in Entebbe, Uganda, pending a decision on her future status.

On 25 October, the Mission wrote to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and international cooperation, and yesterday, Ms. Johnson met with President Salva Kiir to discuss the matter. However, she stated that in spite of these efforts, the order has not been withdrawn.

South Sudan became independent from Sudan in July last year, six years after the signing of the peace agreement that ended decades of warfare between the north and the south. During the same month, the Security Council established UNMISS with the purpose of consolidating peace and security and to help establish conditions for development.

Human rights and discrimination, Ms. Johnson noted, were at the core of the civil war struggle, and respect for human rights is now a cornerstone of the country’s transitional constitution.

“Human rights monitoring, investigation and reporting, and building capacity, is a core element of the mandate of UNMISS which must be protected. It is therefore important to allow the Mission’s human rights officers to carry out their mandate,” the Special Representative said.

“Should there be any serious complaints or evidence related to individual staff members’ conduct, we trust that the Government will bring this to our attention and follow due process in accordance with international obligations,” she added.

DEATH PENALTY IN SOUTH SUDAN

(Juba, November 5, 2012) Legal Link International – South Sudan should join the great majority of United Nations members that have abolished the death penalty in law or practice by placing a moratorium on all executions, a group of South Sudanese and international human rights groups said today.

In December 2012, South Sudan will have its first opportunity to vote on a UN General Assembly resolution to establish a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty. In a 5 November letter to the South Sudan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nhial Deng Nhial, the organizations raised concerns about South Sudan’s continued use of the death penalty.

“South Sudan should take the opportunity of the UN General Assembly resolution on the death penalty to join movement toward abolition across Africa and around the world,” said Audrey Gaughran, Africa Director at Amnesty International. “President Salva Kiir Mayardit should immediately declare an official moratorium on executions, and the government should urgently address the continuing shortcomings in the country’s administration of justice.”

South Sudan has continued to use the death penalty despite well-documented weaknesses in the country’s legal system, which prevent it from ensuring the basic legal rights of people accused of crimes. On August 28, two men were hanged in Juba prison. More than 200 prisoners are on death row, shackled and crowded into cramped and dirty cells.

Globally, more than two-thirds of UN member states- 137 countries - have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice. This includes 37 of the 54 member countries of the African Union - more than two-thirds of all African countries.

Since 2000, Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Rwanda, Senegal and Togo have abolished the death penalty for all crimes. In the last few months alone, the government of Ghana accepted the recommendation of a Constitution Review Commission to abolish the death penalty in the country’s new Constitution. Benin became the 75th country worldwide and the 10th in Africa, to ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the
 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) aiming at abolition of the death penalty; in September Madagascar also signed this treaty.

“Depriving someone of the right to life is an ultimate and irreversible punishment,” said Dong Samuel of the South Sudan Law Society. “Without even the most basic legal protections in place, the risk of arbitrariness and error is too high.”

Since 2006, South Sudan’s Ministry of Justice has provided legal aid in a total of only six cases. The vast majority of prisoners on death row were not represented by counsel, leaving many unable to adequately prepare their defense or to appeal convictions. The ICCPR requires that where the death penalty has not been abolished, it should be imposed only for the most serious crimes, after scrupulous adherence to international fair trial standards, and only after a final judgment by a competent court.

The coalition of organizations is calling upon the Government of South Sudan to increase public information and transparency about its use of the death penalty, including by publishing statistics on the number of executions carried out and death sentences imposed and notifying prisoners’ families of impending executions.

The accessibility of such information is of particular importance during the current constitutional review process, the groups said. During this period, the government should facilitate informed discussion about substantive constitutional provisions such as the right to life.

“Transparency is fundamental to the administration of justice and critical to allowing South Sudanese to evaluate how the death penalty is being imposed,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch.

“However, the death penalty will remain an affront to basic human rights until there is an effective moratorium and it is ultimately abolished under statutory law.” said Kiggundu Henry, the Director Legal Link Internatioal.

Sudan’s NCP accuses opposition party of causing alleged Israeli attack

                      
 Fire engulf the Yarmouk ammunition factory in Khartoum October 24, 2012. - Reuters

The ruling National Congress Party (NCP) in Sudan has accused its rival, the Islamist opposition Popular Congress Party (PCP), of being directly involved in the Israeli airstrike that allegedly destroyed Al-Yarmook military factory in Khartoum last month.

An NCP official told the pro-government daily Akhir Lahzah on Monday that media comments by

Israeli officials indicate that the Jewish state decided to bomb the factory on basis of a report published on 15 May 2010 by the PCP-affiliated newspaper Ra’y al-Sha’b about the establishment of an Iranian arms factory in Sudan.

The report, titled “Revolutionary Guards builds Iranian arms factory in Sudan”, alleged that members of the Qudus Brigade of Iran’s

Revolutionary Guards had set up an arms factory in Khartoum as part of a military agreement signed by Iran’s former defense minister Mostafa

Mohammad Najjar during his visit to Khartoum in March 2008.
According to the paper, the factory is being used to manufacture and supply arms to the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

Ra’y al-Sha’b was immediately suspended and had three of its journalists arrested and brought to trial on charges of publishing false information. But the report caught the attention of Western and Israeli media which cited its contents in articles about Khartoum’s relations with Tehran.

The NCP official, who asked not to be named, said that Israeli officials confirmed that the planning of the operation started two years ago, which coincides with the period of the paper’s report.

Israel accuses Sudan of being implicated in the smuggling of Iranian weapons to the Hamas-controlled Gaza strip through the Egyptian desert of Sinai. It is widely believed that the Jewish state stood behind two airstrikes in Sudan before, the first pulverized an arms smuggling convoy in the east in 2009 and the second destroyed a car in the Red Sea town of Port Sudan in 2011.

The paper’s report said that Iran established the factory in Sudan to avoid shipping weapons via Iranian ports.

The NCP official said that the PCP’s vengeful mindset led the party to fabricate the report.
But the PCP has rejected the accusation saying that the government is trying to use them as a scapegoat for its involvement with Iran.

Kamal Omer, PCP’s political secretary, said during his party’s regular symposium in the capital Khartoum on Monday that the allegation that his party was involved in the attack was a “ridiculous accusation”

Omer said that the government is lying to demonize the PCP. He assigned the blame for the attack instead to the government’s “suspicious” relations with Iran. He even suggested that the recent renewal of US economic sanctions against the country could be a result of Khartoum’s relations with Tehran.

“We need to review our foreign relations” he said.

VACANCIES AT UGANDA CHRISTRIAN LAWYERS FRATERNITY (UCLF)

                                                                

                                                                        

Uganda Christian Lawyers’ Fraternity (UCLF) a faith based legal aid service provider invites applications for qualified candidates for the following vacancies;

1.       Advocate

Location: Moyo

Duties:

-          Provide legal advice and court representation to indigent persons

-          Mobilise lawyers for pro bono case work and visit prisons

-          Collaborate with other legal aid service providers and criminal justice actors

-          Ability to speak Madi is an added advantage

Academic qualifications: Bachelor of laws degree, Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice, Enrolled as an Advocate of the High Court.

2. Volunteer

Location: Moyo District

Duties:

-          Legal research and study the existing criminal law

-          Interviewing clients and selecting cases for representation

-          File management, keeping updated list of cases and documentation 

-          Collaborate with PAS paralegals on identifying cases and tracking files for public defence

-           Generate monthly progress reports for submission to the Project Director and donors

Qualifications

-          Diploma in  law

3. Programme officer/administrator Juvenile Justice

Location: Kampala

Duties:

-          Legal research and study the existing laws on children in conflict with the law

-          Assess and explore the issues around Juvenile Justice  rights as established in the recent case law and constitutional judgments

-          Conduct a needs assessment and review relevant literature/studies

-          Interviewing clients and selecting cases for representation

-          File management, keeping updated list of cases and documentation 

-          Liaise with the CPD Coordinator to mobilise a team of lawyers for pro bono work

-          Work with criminal justice agencies and build and maintain close links stakeholders

-          Generate issues affecting criminal justice system work for policy and practice advocacy

-          Formulate advocacy responses to feed into LASPNET and JLOS

-          Submit monthly work plan detailing activities Juvenile project

-          Liaise with the Project Director in identifying advocacy issues and developing an advocacy strategy

-          Liaise with the Project Director and any other staff on publications of articles and packaging information for external audience – including documenting case studies

-          Collaborate with LASPNET for purposes of filtering through advocacy issues on trends of justice.

Qualifications:

Bachelors of law (Hons)

Programme Assistant Juvenile Justice

Location: Kampala

Duties

-          Legal research and study the existing laws on children in conflict with the law

-          ‘Interviewing clients and selecting cases for representation

-          File management, keeping updated list of cases and documentation 

-          Collaborate with the different remand home in collaboration with the J-FASTER project to identify cases and tracking files for representation –

-          Case preparation  up to the point of case representation and work along side programme officer and CPD coordinator

-          Liaise with the CPD Coordinator to mobilise a team of lawyers for pro bono work

-          Work with criminal justice agencies and build and maintain close links stakeholders

-          Visit the different remand homes prisons and conduct field monitoring

-          Prepare quarterly progress reports for submission to the Project Director and donors

-          Generate issues affecting prisons work for policy and practice advocacy

-          Formulate advocacy responses to feed into LASPNET

-          Defence project

Qualifications

All applicants must have the following qualifications;

-          At least 2 years’ experience

-          A mature Christian faith

-          Proven commitment to justice for the poor

-          Good communication and inter-personal skills

-          Good report writing and computer skills

-          The ability to lead,  mobilise staff, volunteers and members

-          Proven understanding of the laws of Uganda

-          Experience of Court representation and drafting in criminal and civil matters

-          Proficient in English and computer.

-          Ability to work with minimum supervision

Only short listed applicants will be contacted

Applicant should submit a covering letter (including a telephone number) and full CV with details of three referees, of whom one should be your pastor, by   8^th November 2012 to:

The Project Director

UCLF

Baptist House, Bombo Road, Wandegeya

P.O. Box 29375 Kampala