Rwanda withdraws 280 troops from DR Congo

Rwanda announced Friday it was pulling out 280 of its soldiers from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where they had been working with DR Congo troops fighting rebel militia there.

"Following consultations with the DRC and MONUSCO (the UN mission there), Rwanda is withdrawing two companies of its special forces...," said a Rwandan defence ministry statement.

They had been operating in Rutshuru, Nord Kivu province, which borders Rwanda and Uganda. The soldiers would be back on Rwanda soil by Saturday, the statement added.

While the statement did not give precise numbers, a company is normally made up of around 140 soldiers.

In Kinshasa, a military spokesman confirmed the news to AFP.

The authorities in DR Congo had told Rwanda they wanted their troops to leave, said Congolese Defence Minister Alexandre Luba Ntamabo.

They were no longer needed to combat the forces active in the region, he added.

Recent summit meetings of the countries in the Great Lakes region, which include Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and DR Congo, agreed in principle to deploy a "neutral force" of several thousand soldiers in the region. Their task will be to stamp out the activities of the militias plaguing the eastern DR Congo.

Rwandan army spokesman General Joseph Nzabamwita said they had agreed on the pull-out following clashes earlier this year between Congolese troops and the rebels of the M23 movement.

DR Congo accused Rwanda of supporting the M23 rebels, fighters from an earlier rebel movement, the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), who had been integrated into the Congolese army in 2009 after a peace deal.

They mutinied, claiming that Kinshasa had failed to respect the terms of that deal.

A UN report published in June also said there was ample evidence that Rwanda was actively involved in the M23 rebellion, a claim that Kigali has repeatedly denied.

The announcement of this withdrawal is being seen by some advisers as a bid to ease the tension between the two countries.

The Rwandan troops had been working with their Congolese counterparts since early 2009.

© ANP/AFP

http://www.rnw.nl/africa/bulletin/rwanda-withdraws-280-troops-dr-congo

S. African mine carnage reveals anger over inequality

S. African mine carnage reveals anger over inequality

By Justine Gerardy (AFP) – 2 days ago

CAPE TOWN — South Africa's mine bloodshed which killed 34 strikers has laid bare anger with persistent poverty and put a damning spotlight on President Jacob Zuma's government, analysts say.

Police opened fire on striking workers Thursday in an escalating stand-off between rival unions that had already killed 10 people days earlier at the North West province mine owned by the world's number three platinum producer Lonmin.

"I really believe the government should have been more proactive," said analyst Susan Booysen of Wits University.

"Here they should have been pre-emptive, getting together, convening stakeholders, and getting together the ministries of labour, mining, and police. I really think this tragedy could have been prevented."

Horrific images of workers being gunned down in the worst police violence since the dawn of democracy in 1994 have left a reeling nation and the world asking how scenes evocative of apartheid brutality could recur in a free South Africa.

"Is it going to force an existential crisis among South Africans? Yes, and I hope it does. It needs to shake up South Africans, and it particular needs to shake up its political and economic elite, who have become too complacent," analyst Adam Habib told AFP.

"I don't think they actually recognised how volatile our society has become, and in sporadic moments, it can flare."

South Africa's workplaces and streets frequently erupt into protests over low wages or a lack of basic services and jobs, with millions of poor blacks still living in shantytowns.

With one of the world's most glaring gaps between rich and poor, the lives of workers have changed little since Nelson Mandela vowed a better life for all.

"The poor are saying 'bugger you'. If you plunder the resources of this country, we are entitled to a share. It's become survival of the fittest in a lot of ways," said Habib who is based at the University of Johannesburg.

"That your political elite must take responsibility for, but also executives in the private sector."

Despite inroads made by black wealth, Africa's biggest economy is still divided along racial lines, with the miners who live in shacks on the world's richest platinum reserves seeing little of the country's mineral riches.

Worryingly for the government which is already trying to quell increasingly militant protests, the economy is failing to grow fast enough to transform frequently trotted out pledges into reality.

"I think we are sitting on a ticking time bomb in South Africa," said Kwandiwe Kondlo of the University of the Free State, who said issues boiled down to poor leadership, governance and lack of coordination.

"There is no proactive governance and you can't have proactive governance if there is no leadership," he said, charging that under President Zuma "the situation actually has gotten worse".

Zuma cut short a foreign trip to travel to the carnage site and announced an inquiry into the deaths for which union leaders and Lonmin bosses have also been slammed.

But his government faces questions over why it did not step in after the first deaths -- which included two police officers -- and fears of a trigger-happy police force that has resumed taking military titles since Zuma took power in 2009.

The internationally condemned shootings join a string of damning reports of public service breakdowns, including a textbook delivery scandal that saw the state hauled to court.

The escalation at Lonmin reflects a tendency to put out fires through crisis management rather than pre-emptive action, said Booysen.

"It does shed a very poor light on government in that it creates the impression that its eye is not on the ball," she said.

"It suggests regrettably that this a government that is not in full touch with developments on the ground."

Copyright © 2012 AFP.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h4R4qw_ouI0v_0GTwgC8TGrlF3aQ?docId=CNG.543ff5121eb5602388dd81a4b9b937fc.661

Ethiopia's Meles Zenawi dies of undisclosed illness

Fears for stability after PM's 21-year rule characterised by economic growth and human rights protests from international community

One of Africa's most powerful and divisive leaders, Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia, has died of an undisclosed illness, it has been announced. He was 57.

During his 21-year rule, Meles turned Ethiopia into one of Africa's fastest-growing economies and proved to be a key US ally in the war on terror. But he was also regarded as an authoritarian strongman whose critics suffered persecution, imprisonment and torture.

Meles had not been seen in public for about two months. He failed to attend a meeting of African Union heads of state in the capital, Addis Ababa, last month, raising speculation about his health.He died "abroad" at around 11.40pm on Monday after contracting an infection, state television said on Tuesday.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/21/ethiopia-meles-zenawi-dies-illneses?newsfeed=true

Ethiopian PM Meles Zenawi dies after illness

Ethiopian PM Meles Zenawi dies after illness

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has died aged 57 after months of illness, the government says.

A spokesman said Mr Meles had died in a hospital abroad - but did not specify where or give details of his ailment.

Speculation about his health mounted when he missed an African Union summit in Addis Ababa last month.

Mr Meles took power as the leader of rebels that ousted communist leader Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991 and led the country's economic transformation.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19328356

Pereza Ahabwe, former MP and now a PHD in Economics student at Makerere University – monitor.co.ug, August 19, 2012

"Recently, I was watching a documentary on the history channel of DSTV on the world leaders during and after the Second World War. At the end of it run a statement like this, "Roosevelt died in office, Churchill was defeated in the election following the war, Hitler blew himself up and Stalin stayed and completed his mission of capturing Poland and declaring it a communist state".

I have also read missives of David Mafabi, and Margaret Wokuri as well as Bishop Zac Niringiye's retirement mission on restoration of term limits for the President of the Republic of Uganda. The debate between Mr Tamale Mirundi and the leadership of the Catholic Church's Easter message as well as that of the Pentecostal Churches cannot go unnoticed.

I also recall an article I wrote in 2008 in the Daily Monitor titled, "Term Limits have failed the test in Africa" citing examples of countries which had also amended their constitutions to lift presidential term limits and today I have not changed my position on this.

Lest I forget, I am even reluctant to mention that in the first constitutional 7-year term of President Paul Kagame, he stated in no uncertain terms that he would never run for a third term. Recently in an interview while in Uganda and was asked if he will run for another term, he stated that the people of Rwanda will decide.

Thank you Paul for at least stating the truth. This is Africa! I recall during the debate on whether or not to lift term limits in 2005, Hon. Nyombi Thembo stated, "In Africa, and Uganda in particular, we are not endowed with many people who are presidential material. They are a scarce commodity and Uganda should not be seen to lose on the God given chance in the person of Mr Yoweri Museveni" and I could not agree with him more then and even now.

I have monitored for quite some time now and analysed the attributes of those who have openly manifested themselves as successors of Mr Museveni and those who are quiet but have been talked of being potentials in the widely termed succession queue. I am aware that human beings can never be the same but leaders with presidential attributes enshrined in Article 98(1) of the Uganda Constitution are indeed a scarce commodity.

To those with such wishful dreams its one thing to wish to be a President, it's another thing to manage to be a President. I can assure you, Dr Obote, Prof. Lule, QC Binaisa were all Presidents but were they really according to Article 98(1) of the Constitution? Let me also take this opportunity to wish you well in your endeavours. To Mr Museveni, stay calm, the Constitution still protects you under Article 1, 98, 102, and 103. I am made to understand that you will be only 72 years in 2016? May be I am wrong but in case, I am right, Article 98 has vindicated you, Article 104 qualified you and Articles 1 and 103 will guarantee your presidency till 2021. I wish you good health as well.

It is for the above reasons that I do not hesitate to tell the Besigyes, Wokuris, and some religious leaders of this part and the rest of the world to stop making noise and making life difficult for other people to live that Yoweri Museveni's constitutional term ends on May 11, 2021 (Aticle 61 (2) and when he will be 77 years young but old according to Article 102 (b) of the Ugandan Constitution respectively.

May God Bless Uganda. "

http://www.monitor.co.ug/Magazines/ThoughtIdeas/Save+your+breath++Museveni+reign+ends+2021/-/689844/1482060/-/1uou6u/-/index.html