Politics

Officials of the International Criminal Court warned member states not to compromise judicial independence as Kenya began a renewed diplomatic push against charges faced by its deputy president. Ahead of this week's ICC general assembly meeting, Kenya is rallying its African allies in support of rule changes that would disbar much of the evidence prosecutors are relying on to convict Deputy President William Ruto over post-election violence that killed 1,200 people. The dispute risks driving a wedge between the European countries that largely finance the court and Africa, which provides a third of its members. In a letter published on Monday by the website Journalists for Justice and confirmed genuine by the court, the court's president, prosecutor and registrar said member states risked compromising the court's integrity. "States parties (must) robustly continue to safeguard the independence of the ICC's judicial process," they wrote in a letter to the assembly's president. 

The warning comes amid escalating tensions between Africa and the permanent global war crimes court, with leading members contemplating leaving the body. Judges this year withdrew charges against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, who, like Ruto, was accused of stoking ethnic violence after the 2007 presidential election. This week, Kenyatta said he was "tired" of the ICC's "interference" in Kenya's internal affairs. South Africa, under fire from the court for failing to detain and extradite Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, a war crimes suspect, when he was in the country, was urged by its ruling party to leave the court.

Prosecutors have blamed their failure to put Kenyatta on trial on political interference and interference with witnesses, especially after Kenyatta was elected president in 2013. Their withdrawal weakened the prosecution case. "In 2014, information suggested that, for the first time, a (prosecution) witness was likely targeted and killed due to his interaction with the court," prosecutors said in a report published on Monday, without indicating which case the witness was linked to. Judges have allowed prosecutors to use statements from withdrawn witnesses as evidence against Ruto. Kenya wants member states to tell judges they were wrong to do so. Kenya says the court case against Ruto risks rekindling ethic tensions.

"The ICC represents an existential threat to Kenya ... its peace and security," said Korir Sing'Oei, a legal adviser to Ruto, adding if member states refused to rein in judges it would "show that the Assembly is a tool of just a few states." Despite complaints in Africa about being singled out by the court, the ICC is expanding its activities outside the continent, with investigations launched this year in Gaza, Georgia and Ukraine.

Details

Ngwa Bertrand

18.Nov.2015

Hits: 1496

Bernard Bajolet, the chief of the French Secret Service was in Cameroon on Thursday, November 12, 2015 for reasons not yet known to the Cameroonian people. Bernard Bajolet was received in audience by President Paul Biya at the Unity Palace and nothing has so far filtered from this meeting between the two personalities, as the boss of the French secret services made no statement to the press. 

The presence of Bernard Bajolet in Yaounde some few hours before the happenings in Paris has created some “excitement” among the political elites, the Cameroon army and other policing establishments in the country. We gathered from our military informant that Bajolet met Biya to discuss the business of intelligence sharing in the war against Boko Haram. Our senior political correspondent in Yaounde who contributed to this report observed that with the arrival of the US contingent stationed in Garoua and made up of 300 soldiers, France is aware that the intelligence system has changed and Paris wants to be at the head of everything in Cameroon from the security point of view.

Recently, senior French leaders have visited Cameroon including Laurent Fabius (Foreign Minister) Bernard Cazeneuve (Interior Minister) and Francois Hollande (President). Bernard Bajolet became head of the French Secret Service, DGSE on the 10th of April 2013. He has served as ambassador of France in Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Jordan. From 1986-1990 he served as deputy ambassador in the French embassy in Syria. Bernard Bajolet was en route to Paris when the Friday terrorists’ attacks were staged. In trying to protect everything, you end up protecting nothing

Details

Ngwa Bertrand

18.Nov.2015

Hits: 1639

France invoked the European Union's mutual assistance clause for the first time on Tuesday, asking its partners for military help and other aid in missions in the Middle East and Africa after the Paris attacks. The unexpected move to look to the European Union for help, rather than the U.S.-led NATO alliance, requires all of the bloc's 28 members to provide "aid and assistance", which Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said meant taking some of the burden off France as Europe's most active military power. "France cannot do everything, in the Sahel, in the Central African Republic, in the Levant and then secure its national territory," Le Drian told a news conference during a meeting of EU defense ministers in Brussels where he invoked the EU's Article 42.7 mutual assistance clause.

French troops have been deployed in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad in the Sahel area of west Africa. French troops have been deployed in French cities following Friday's militant attacks in Paris that killed 129 people. More details will be discussed between France and individual EU governments, said EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, although initial reactions were mixed. Germany and the Czech Republic offered help, as did Spain. But Madrid ruled out joining air strikes on Syria, saying it was already doing a lot, a position echoed by Denmark. Britain, which has yet to join international air strikes in Syria, said it was ready to consider any French request for assistance.

The EU clause is not strictly the same as NATO's mutual defense clause that considers an attack against one ally as an attack against all, but the article can be invoked the case of "armed aggression" on any EU country. President Francois Hollande has described Friday's attacks that killed 129 people as "an act of war", which could have been a trigger for NATO action, but France appears to be looking for a bigger European response that could possibly bring Britain into air strike operations against Islamic State in Syria. The U.S.-led air war, in which France has intensified its involvement, has lasted more than a year but failed to contain Islamic State.

The United States is also looking to EU allies to step up their participation in the war in Iraq and Syria. London has not struck at Islamic State in Syria and although British Prime Minister David Cameron is said to be eager to take that step, he faces resistance from British lawmakers. Germany, which is about to take over an EU training mission in Mali, was the first to publicly offer its support to France. "We will do everything in our power to give France help and support", German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said. Czech Defence Minister Martin Stropnicky said Prague would be ready to contribute to any possible ground troop operation in Syria, although Washington has ruled out such a move beyond special forces. "I can imagine some form of a limited contribution there, in the sense of an anti-chemical unit or healthcare personnel," Stropnicky said. Despite falling defense budgets, EU governments have only limited cooperation between their armed forces. EU "Battlegroups" of rapidly deployable forces, operational since 2007, have yet to be used. Only 22 of the EU's 28 countries are members of NATO.

Details

Ngwa Bertrand

18.Nov.2015

Hits: 1536

The United Nations said on Monday it plans to redeploy some 300 peacekeepers to Central African Republic from a U.N. mission in Ivory Coast in a bid to boost security ahead of the country's planned December elections and a visit by Pope Francis. The Senegalese troops from the U.N. quick reaction force in Ivory Coast would be redeployed as soon as possible for about eight weeks "in light of the ongoing tense security situation," said U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will send a letter to the U.N. Security Council requesting approval for the move.

The 15-member body is likely to give the greenlight, diplomats said. The landlocked former French colony descended into inter-religious violence some two and a half years ago after mainly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power, sparking reprisal killings by Christian anti-balaka militias. Seleka later handed power over to a transitional government under heavy international pressure. Long-delayed presidential and parliamentary elections are due to take place on Dec. 27. A U.N. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the troops from the Ivory Coast mission would likely be deployed before a planned visit by Pope Francis later this month. At least 22 people were killed in a string of raids on villages in Central African Republic last week.

The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic will also be boosted with an additional 750 troops and 140 police. The mission currently has some 9,100 peacekeepers and about 1,500 police. It does not need Security Council approval for this increase as it falls within its mandated strength. The U.N. official has said some of those reinforcements should be in place before the pope's visit.

Details

Ngwa Bertrand

17.Nov.2015

Hits: 1579

French fighter jets have pounded positions belonging to the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in its de facto capital, al-Raqqah​, destroying a training camp and a command post in the northern Syrian city, France’s defense ministry says. “The first target destroyed was used by Daesh as a command post, recruitment center and arms and munitions depot. The second held a terrorist training camp,” a ministry statement said on Sunday, AFP reported. 

Twelve warplanes, including 10 fighter bombers, dropped 20 bombs on the targets, the statement further said, adding that the jets had left from bases in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates to conduct the mission in coordination with US forces, at the head of a so-called coalition alledgedly against the Takfiris. The airborne strikes were the first since Daesh deadly terrorist attacks in Paris, which claimed the lives of 132 people and left some 350 others injured.

Daesh subsequently claimed responsibility for the attacks, threatening Paris for more, in an undated video, unless France halts airstrikes against the terrorists in Iraq and Syria. Daesh terrorists, who were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the government in Damascus, now control parts of Syria and Iraq. They have been engaged in crimes against humanity in the areas under their control.

Details

Ngwa Bertrand

16.Nov.2015

Hits: 1477

Israel on Sunday approved the entry of some 9,000 Ethiopians known as Falash Mura who claim Jewish lineage, ending decades of debate on whether to allow their immigration despite uncertainty over their right to settle in the Jewish state. The cabinet unanimously voted in favor of allowing the last group of Falash Mura to immigrate over the next five years but their acceptance will be conditional on a successful Jewish conversion process, the Interior Ministry said. They have been waiting at transit camps in Ethiopia for years waiting for Israel's green light.

"Today we have taken an important decision, to bring to Israel within the next five years the last of the communities with links to Israel waiting in Addis Ababa and Gonder," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. Israel's "law of return" allows Jews to claim citizenship and take residency. The first Ethiopian Jews were airlifted in the 1980s and 1990s following a rabbinical creed that ruled they were descendents of the biblical Dan tribe but not all the Falash Mura have so far been allowed to settle. Some 135,000 Jews of Ethiopian descent live in Israel, whose population numbers over 8 million.

They have long complained of discrimination, racism and poverty which led to violent protests on the streets of Tel Aviv earlier this year. Ethiopian Jews have joined the ranks of legislators and the officer corps in the country's military but official figures show they lag behind other Israelis. Ethiopian households earn 35 percent less than the national average and only half of their youth receive high school diplomas, compared with 63 percent for the rest of the population.

Details

Ngwa Bertrand

16.Nov.2015

Hits: 1646