Mozambique: Killings Target Lawyers, Judges

Several civil society organizations are calling for a return to justice in Mozambique following a series of killings targeting lawyers and judges in the country.

Carlos Mondlane, president of the Mozambican Association of Judges, said that in recent years, criminals have tried to intimidate and silence the justice system through attacks against judges and lawyers. Another group, the Mozambican Human Rights League, said the killings were going unsolved because of police indiscipline, corruption and an absence of professional ethics.

The most recent examples of assassinations of jurists included the killings of Giles Cistac, a French-Mozambican lawyer shot in Maputo in 2015; senior prosecutor Marcelino Vilanculos, slain in April of this year; and Dinis Carlos Silica, another prosecutor.

"Organized crime is rampant," Mondlane told VOA's Portuguese service. He said judges and prosecutors handling cases related to abductions and violent crimes such as homicides needed the most protection and often received death threats.

Kidnappings probed

When he was killed, Vilanculos was investigating the kidnappings of a Portuguese citizen and two Mozambican businessmen. His investigation led to at least five arrests. In 2013, he investigated two other abductions, in which four people were ultimately convicted.

Silica, slain in May 2014 in Maputo, was investigating cases of trafficking in persons to South Africa and Swaziland, abductions in Maputo, and drug trafficking — including the case of Mohamed Bashir, an infamous narco-trafficker accused of exporting millions of dollars' worth of drugs and overseeing expansive networks reaching Asian countries.

Each prosecutor had a reputation for being honest and professional.

According to the U.S. State Department, organized crime takes advantage of Mozambique's porous borders and proximity to the South African market to traffic in narcotics and wildlife and engage in human smuggling.

Cistac was a constitutional law expert known for defending the positions of the Mozambican opposition, the Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO). He was a supporter of the RENAMO project to decentralize power in Mozambique, which was opposed by the country's ruling party, the Mozambican Liberation Front (FRELIMO). The lawyer's killer or killers have never been brought to justice, although the crime happened in broad daylight in the nation's capital.

Political assassinations

Other killings of public officials have plagued the country in recent months, including assassinations of members of the nation's three main political parties. The violence threatens to derail peace talks between FRELIMO and RENAMO. Mondlane hopes government officials can offer more protection to lawyers and judges because, he said, the killings are an attempt by organized crime to maintain control in the country.

For her part, the president of the Mozambican Human Rights League, Alice Mabota, is worried for the security not only of the legal community but also of all the citizens who live in Mozambique. Mabota said that "heinous crimes like murder and kidnapping occur in broad daylight," and she stressed that the police weren't taking appropriate actions.

Jurist Dinis de Sousa considers this issue to be larger than these cases involving the killings of judges and lawyers. In what was said to be politically motivated attacks, at least 10 high-profile figures have been killed since March 2015, according to Zenaida Machado of Human Rights Watch, who spoke to VOA in October. Machado added that the numbers were higher than those officially reported.

Meanwhile, the Mozambican justice minister, Isaac Chande, said the government had done everything possible to ensure that the administration of justice was efficient and that those guilty of homicides were brought to justice.

"We are working with all justice departments, as judges and prosecutors, to solve all those problems," he told journalists.

Anabela Guedes and Alvaro Andrade contributed to this report.

Strong International Coalition Must Back Ecowas to Resolve Gambian Crisis

     From the moment Lieutenant Yahya Jammeh, on the morning of July 22, 1994, led four other lieutenants to overthrow President Sir Dawda Jawara's government and started harassing innocent citizens, the media and ex-government officials, it became clear to most people that this young man had an evil heart.

He quickly developed the uncompromising resolve to hit at critics, beginning with the media, especially the Gambian Daily Observer, the country's only media institution that had the professional and technical capacity to tell the story of the coup to the world. And even those in Jammeh's inner circle, who quietly expressed reservations against the rash way in which he was handling power he quickly imprisoned. They included his own Vice Head of State and Interior Minister, both of whom Jammeh used to have the Daily Observer Publisher Kenneth Y. Best deported from The Gambia on October 30, 1994. Both the Vice Head of State and the Minister soon died in prison. Jammeh's first Finance Minister was later found burnt to death in a car in a town he had never visited; and The Point newspaper publisher and Gambian Press Union President, Deyda Hydara, was shot in the head on a street in Banjul.

Jammeh also forced into exile scores of the country's best known journalists and continued to rule the country with an iron fist.

It was in response to Jammeh's tyrannical rule that the resolute Gambian people bravely voted to defeat him in last week's elections.

The defeat was so decisive that Jammeh, to the surprise of most people, quickly called President-Elect Adama Barry to concede defeat.

And yet the evil in the man's heart persisted. It was so intense, so rigid that it could not permit him to do the right thing. With equal swiftness he reversed his concession and declared that the vote had been faulty, so he was holding on to power.

It was at that point that the international community intervened. Senegal, The Gambia's closest neighbor, condemned the reversal, followed by other nations, including Liberia, the United States and most especially the Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS), the African Union and the United Nations.

At the weekend Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who is also President of ECOWAS, attempted to lead an ECOWAS delegation to Banjul to resolve the crisis, but the arrangements were not concluded. So first thing Monday morning President Sirleaf and her delegation bravely entered Banjul in attempt to resolve the crisis but received a cold shoulder from the young tyrant.

Why would Jammeh challenge the entire international community? What makes him think that he alone can challenge the entire international community?

The Gambia is very attractive to tourists, who flock their by the tens of thousands each year, bringing in the lion's share of the country's foreign exchange. Does Jammeh not realize that the international community could stop tourists from entering there? This would lead to immediate economic collapse, especially when the international community blocks the country from buying anything from The Gambia.

We call on the entire international community to back ECOWAS by imposing diplomatic and economic blockade against Jammeh to force him to concede. The UN Security Council must impose a no-fly zone over

The Gambia, making sure that no tourists visit the country. Hopefully this will bring Jammeh to his senses and compel him to realize that he is fighting a losing battle.

But the world cannot sit idly by and permit him to do this to his people and country.

We call on the UN, the European Union, the United States, the People's Republic of China, Germany, the United Kingdom, France and the entire European Union, Russia to put their political, diplomatic and economic weight behind ECOWAS to force Jammeh to step aside and prevent him from any attempt to perpetrate violence against his people.

If he fails to do so, he should be arrested and turned over to the International Criminal Court just as Laurent Gbabo has been dealt with for the exact same reason--rejecting the will of the people who, through their vote, ousted him from power.

Legal Link International-West Africa Beaural.

WORLD SUPPORT CALLED UPON FOR UGANDA'S REFUGE CRISIS

 Uganda's Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa has called for international partnerships with Uganda's Settlement Transformation Project (2016-2021) that aims to achieve self-reliance and local settlement of refugees.

The Ugandan programme, officials say, aims to promote social development in the refugee hosting areas as a durable solution to challenges related to refugees, while protecting national and local interests.

Kutesa made the call on the margins of the ongoing High-Level Conference of the UN Central Emergency Response Fund in New York.

Uganda currently hosts over 900,000 refugees and asylum seekers from DRC, Somalia, Burundi and South Sudan - the highest recorded in a long history of offering asylum.

It is expected to top 1 million by year's end.

The Permanent Mission of Uganda to the United Nations in New York, in partnership with the UN Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) held the high-level side event at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

The purpose of the event, co-chaired by Kutesa, was to highlight the work and challenges faced by Uganda's leaders and partners in implementing the transformational approach to addressing vulnerabilities and refugee needs in the country.

The event included a high level panel discussion that explored the current response, challenges and opportunities in redefining the response to refugees and host communities, national leadership and accountability, understanding the new Partnerships for action and listening to the new modalities for investment.

The discussion focused on experiences and approaches Uganda has had for the influx of refugees to date and highlighted current response by the international community and existing infrastructural and financing gaps.

Participants who included representatives of member states, business leaders and others in the event were also invited to consider investing in Uganda.

"Even as Uganda remains committed to maintaining one of the most progressive refugee policies; guaranteeing refugees' rights to work, movement and basic social services the international community needs to lend more support towards the refugee crisis that is exerting immense pressure on the country's infrastructure and host communities because of chronic under-funding," Kutesa told the press after the discussion.

Kutesa explained that Uganda has experienced a prolonged drought and the food security situation has deteriorated due to poor water and harvest management practices in some of the host communities.

The event further served to showcase innovative action by Uganda to overcome challenges in their response to host communities, refugees as well as those affected by climate change; it identified suggestions to reinforce modalities for investment and aid as well as partnerships for action in response to existing and projected needs.

Kutesa led a cross-sectoral delegation to New York including senior representatives from the Office of the Prime Minister.

KNOWLES CARMEL-Legal Link International-New York

Democratic Republic of Congo at a Precipice

(Kinshasa) – The Democratic Republic of Congo government’s decisions about its next presidential election will be critical for the country’s future, Legal Link International said in a report released today.

The report summarizes Legal Link international research over the past two years in which the government cracked down on activists and opposition party leaders and members who have opposed extending Joseph Kabila’s presidency beyond the constitutionally mandated two-term limit, which ends on December 19, 2016. It also includes recommendations to deter further abuses and prevent a broader crisis in the coming weeks and months.

A government-led “national dialogue” is due to present its final agreement in the coming days. Most of the main opposition parties have not participated in the process, viewing it as a ploy to delay elections and allow President Kabila to stay in power. Activists and opposition groups have called for nationwide protests beginning on September 19, three months before the end of Kabila’s term and when the electoral commission was constitutionally required to announce presidential elections.

Government repression has spiked in the days leading up to the planned protests. In the capital, Kinshasa, about a dozen pro-democracy youth activists were arrested following a meeting, on September 15, on non-violence, peace, and respect of the constitution. They are being held by the national intelligence agency (NIA), without charge and without access to their families or lawyers.

On September 16, police in the southeastern city of Lubumbashi fired teargas and, later, live bullets to disperse opposition party members who were meeting to prepare the September 19 protests. Some meeting participants responded by throwing rocks, burning tires, blocking the roads, and looting several shops and offices. Dozens were arrested early the next morning.

On September 17, police and intelligence agents arrested human rights activist, Patrick Pindu, at his home in Kinshasa soon after he participated in a civil society meeting and press conference on elections. He was released the next day without charge on the condition that he report to the intelligence agency every 15 days.

To help deter violence, government officials and security forces should respect people’s right to freedom of expression and assembly and allow peaceful demonstrations and political meetings to go forward.

“The decisions President Kabila and his government will make in the coming weeks can make all the difference for Congo’s future,” said Kiggundu Henry, director legal affairs and investgations at Legal Link International. “This is a critical opportunity for the country to strengthen democracy, the rule of law and human rights for its own future and for the entire region.”

For full List of political prisoners and the report
 Contact: homerulers@myway.com
              

Democratic Republic of Congo at a Precipice

(Kinshasa) – The Democratic Republic of Congo government’s decisions about its next presidential election will be critical for the country’s future, Legal Link International said in a report released today.

The report summarizes Legal Link international research over the past two years in which the government cracked down on activists and opposition party leaders and members who have opposed extending Joseph Kabila’s presidency beyond the constitutionally mandated two-term limit, which ends on December 19, 2016. It also includes recommendations to deter further abuses and prevent a broader crisis in the coming weeks and months.

A government-led “national dialogue” is due to present its final agreement in the coming days. Most of the main opposition parties have not participated in the process, viewing it as a ploy to delay elections and allow President Kabila to stay in power. Activists and opposition groups have called for nationwide protests beginning on September 19, three months before the end of Kabila’s term and when the electoral commission was constitutionally required to announce presidential elections.

Government repression has spiked in the days leading up to the planned protests. In the capital, Kinshasa, about a dozen pro-democracy youth activists were arrested following a meeting, on September 15, on non-violence, peace, and respect of the constitution. They are being held by the national intelligence agency (NIA), without charge and without access to their families or lawyers.

On September 16, police in the southeastern city of Lubumbashi fired teargas and, later, live bullets to disperse opposition party members who were meeting to prepare the September 19 protests. Some meeting participants responded by throwing rocks, burning tires, blocking the roads, and looting several shops and offices. Dozens were arrested early the next morning.

On September 17, police and intelligence agents arrested human rights activist, Patrick Pindu, at his home in Kinshasa soon after he participated in a civil society meeting and press conference on elections. He was released the next day without charge on the condition that he report to the intelligence agency every 15 days.

To help deter violence, government officials and security forces should respect people’s right to freedom of expression and assembly and allow peaceful demonstrations and political meetings to go forward.

“The decisions President Kabila and his government will make in the coming weeks can make all the difference for Congo’s future,” said Kiggundu Henry, director legal affairs and investgations at Legal Link International. “This is a critical opportunity for the country to strengthen democracy, the rule of law and human rights for its own future and for the entire region.”

For full List of political prisoners and the report
 Contact: homerulers@myway.com
              :+256 414 69 3 438

Kenya: Disappearances, Deaths in Northeast by Security Agencies

Nairobi — Kenyan security forces have forcibly disappeared at least 34 people in the past two years during abusive counterterrorism operations in Nairobi and in northeastern Kenya, Legal Link International investigated and released a report today. Kenyan authorities should end the abuses in counter terrorism operations and promptly investigate the enforced disappearances and deaths of detainees in the northeast.

The 87-page report, "Deaths and Disappearances: Abuses in Counterterrorism Operations in Nairobi and in Northeastern Kenya," documents 34 instances in multi-agency security operations in which the military was actively involved in raiding homes and compounds to arrest people who were allegedly suspected of links with the armed Islamist group, Al-Shabab. But months, and in some cases over a year, later, suspects have not been charged with any crimes and families cannot locate them. In each case, although families reported the disappearance to the police and sought help from various authorities, the authorities failed to inform them of the detainees' whereabouts or to properly investigate allegations of abuse.

"People in northeastern Kenya deserve protection from Al-Shabab attacks, not further abuse from the authorities," said Kiggundu Henry,Director Legal Affairs and investigations at Legal Link International. "Rounding people up and refusing to disclose their whereabouts is a serious crime and only compounds fears and mistrust in the security forces."

Legal Link International spent more than eight months investigating the abuses in Nairobi and in the northeastern counties of Garissa, Wajir, and Mandera, and interviewed 117 people including victims and witnesses of counter terrorism operations, Imams, government officials, journalists, lawyers, human rights activists, police and military officers, and local community leaders. Legal Link International also conducted follow-up interviews in Nairobi and by phone with victims and witnesses in the northeast.

Concern for the well-being of the 34 people is compounded by at least 11 cases in the past two years in which dead bodies of people previously arrested by state agents have been found, in some instances far from the location of their arrest. As far as Legal Link Interanational is aware, police have not meaningfully investigated these deaths. In one instance, a body was exhumed in Mandera in response to public demands, but the government has not conducted an inquest or any meaningful investigations as required by Kenyan law.

Legal Link International found that those arbitrarily arrested during the security sweeps included young ethnic Somali Kenyans, Imams, and Islamic school teachers. They were detained, at least initially, in military bases and makeshift military camps in forests in the northeast and other parts of the country. In some cases, police officers arrested people, and then handed them over to the military.

Deaths and Disappearances

A 48-year-old man told us that police arrested him in May 2015, held him for two days at Wajir police station and then transferred him to Wajir military base. He said that military officers later arrested his elder brother and held them both at Wajir military base. The military officers kicked, slapped, and beat the man, and gave him electric shocks, then released him after 15 days. His brother's whereabouts are unknown.

In another case, on March 21, 2015, four military officers arrested Abdiwelli Ibrahim Sheikh, 28, at home and witnesses saw military officers take him to Mandera military camp. He has not been seen again. "The security officers said they wanted to ask him a few questions and then they would set him free," said a 50-year-old man who was with Abdiwelli at the time of his arrest. "We never knew he was being taken away for good."

Families have searched far and wide for news about their loved ones, including in detention facilities, asked political and religious leaders for their help, and, in some cases, turned to social media to try to locate the missing relatives. Some families filed habeas corpus petitions, seeking a court order to compel the government to provide information. Officials, however, have denied any knowledge of the detainees' whereabouts.

"If Kenyans are disappearing, police have the mandate to actively work with families and witnesses to locate these people," Kiggundu said. "The government's silence speaks volumes."

Counterterrorism law enforcement operations in northeast started soon after the September 2013 attack on Westgate mall in Nairobi, Kenya's capital, but intensified after the April 2015 attack on Garissa University College, in which 147 people, including 142 students, were killed. Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for both attacks. Al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for several other high profile attacks in Kenya, including in the northeast region.

In response to these attacks, the Kenya Defense Forces, Kenya police, National Intelligence Service, and Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) rangers have deployed to the northeastern region, in some cases working with other units in Nairobi.

Legal Link International believes that the 34 people are victims of enforced disappearance, defined in international law as any deprivation of liberty by state agents, followed by the state's refusal to acknowledge the detention or concealing of the fate or whereabouts of the person. Kenya police and military did not reply to our questions about the whereabouts of the 34 people.

There is no doubt that Kenya faces serious security challenges, but the authorities have an obligation to respond effectively and respect due process in any law enforcement operation

Government action to address abuses in counter terrorism operations is long overdue, Kiggundu said. The government should provide basic information regarding the identities, fate, and whereabouts of people arrested in these operations, and ensure basic due process rights for anyone who is arrested or in custody.

The Kenyan police and military should urgently investigate allegations of disappearances, deaths and torture in the northeast, and bring those responsible to justice. The president should establish a special commission of inquiry to investigate and establish the extent of the abuses in Kenya's counterterrorism operations.

"There is no doubt that Kenya faces serious security challenges, but the authorities have an obligation to respond effectively and respect due process in any law enforcement operation," Kiggundu said. "The disappearances and uninvestigated deaths in the northeast are illegal and risk alienating local communities, whose cooperation is needed."

Selected accounts from people interviewed for the report:

How Lawyers Are Acting As Technical Advisers to Criminals - EFCC's Magu

Legal Link International-NIGERIA BEAURAL.

The Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, on Wednesday charged members of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, to join hands with the commission to stamp out corruption in the country.

Speaking when members of the NBA paid him a courtesy call on Wednesday, Mr. Magu, in a remark titled 

 "The NBA Must Not Allow Corruption To Kill Nigeria", said unprofessional conducts of some lawyers is giving the NBA a bad name.

"Society is not served when prominent members of the bar not only take clearly tainted briefs, but even facilitate the commission of crimes by knowingly supplying the technical know-how and later, helping in the dispersal of the proceeds of crime.

"There are lawyers within the fold of the NBA who ought not to be among your noble ranks.

"Those people are not fit to be called ministers; rather, they are vandals of the temple of justice," he said.

He also decried the practice by some members of the NBA who he said were aiding individuals and corporate organizations to perpetrate economic and financial crimes

The EFCC boss further stated that the input of lawyers would be needed to successfully wage the war against fraud, corruption and money laundering.

"Law enforcement, just as the judiciary, encompassing the bar and the bench, is a critical link in the justice delivery system of any society.

"I dare say that even when opinions and tactics differ, the interest of the two blocs cannot but converge on the overriding interest of the people," he said.

Mr. Magu, who stated that no other anti-graft agency in Nigeria had beaten the record of the EFCC in the areas of prosecutions and convictions, further described the ordinary Nigerian as the victim of money laundering , embezzlement, diversion of funds and frauds.

He, therefore, urged them to share in the vision of President Muhammadu Buhari's war against corruption, while also congratulating the body for supporting the EFCC over the years.

Earlier, the president of NBA, Augustine Alegeh, expressed the reason behind the courtesy visit, saying that it was to salute the courage of Mr. Magu in the corruption war.

Mr. Alegeh, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, also said the EFCC and NBA needed to work in synergy for the war against corruption to be won.