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Mali must Investigate disappearances and killings of Junta opponents
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- Written by alib
- Category: Africa
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London - Mali must halt its slide into human rights chaos and open investigations into dozens of cases of enforced disappearances, extra-judicial killings and torture documented by Amnesty International.
In a report released today following a 10-day mission to Mali in July 2012, Amnesty International details brutal abuses committed by soldiers loyal to the military Junta against soldiers and police officers involved in an attempted counter-coup on 30 April 2012.
In the days that followed the attempted counter-coup dozens of soldiers were arrested and taken to Kati military camp, 20 kilometres north of Bamako, the capital. They were held for more than 40 days in appalling conditions and subjected to torture and sexual abuse. Twenty one detainees were abducted from their cell at night and haven't been seen since.
“The Malian authorities have a duty to investigate all the cases we have documented. Those responsible for these brutal efforts to avenge the attempted counter-coup must be held accountable for their actions,” said Gaetan Mootoo, Amnesty International’s West Africa researcher.
“These vengeful acts fly in the face of Mali’s international human rights obligations and action must be taken to ensure the military Junta doesn’t continue to operate with impunity.”
Amnesty International’s report details the enforced disappearance of at least 21 named individuals on the night of 2 to 3 May from the cell they were being held in.
One of the inmates of these disappeared people prisoners told Amnesty International:
“Around two in the morning, the door of our cell opened. Our wardens stood at the door and began to read a list. One by one, the soldiers called, went out. We haven’t seen our cellmates since that date.”
Amnesty International is also concerned about a number of soldiers being treated for wounds in Gabriel Touré Hospital in Bamako who were abducted by the military junta on 1 May. Despite its requests, Amnesty International has not obtained the list of these soldiers and has not been able to establish their whereabouts.
While held in Kati military camp prisoners described inhumane and degrading conditions including 80 inmates wearing just their underwear crammed into a five metre square cell. The detainees were forced to relieve themselves in a plastic bag and were deprived of food during the first days of their detention. Some detainees were regularly taken from their cell to be beaten and interrogated.
One prisoner described the following torture used to extract a confession from him:
“They asked us to confess that we had wanted to carry out a coup. They made us lie face down, they tied our hands behind our backs and then tied them to our feet. One of them forced a cloth in our mouths using a stick. We couldn’t talk let alone scream. They put out cigarettes on our bodies, one of them put out his cigarette in my ear.”
In some cases sexual abuse was carried out against prisoners in Kati. One police officer said:
“We were four, they asked us to undress completely, we were ordered to sodomize each other otherwise they would execute us…During the act, our guards shouted us to do it harder.”
In 2009 Mali ratified the International Convention prohibiting enforced disappearances and therefore has an obligation under international law to make known immediately the whereabouts of all those soldiers and policemen who disappeared in the crackdown following the failed counter-coup. A list of names is available in Amnesty International’s report.
“The transitional government in Mali is failing in its task to protect the human rights of its citizens and this lawlessness cannot be allowed to continue,” said Gaetan Mootoo.
“Malian judicial officials must launch an immediate investigation into these very serious events and restore stability to a country that has suffered immeasurably over the past six months.”
Menawhile, on 29 and 30 July, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) visited 79 Malian military personnel held by the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) in the Tinzaouatène area of north-eastern Mali. In its capacity as a neutral intermediary, the ICRC will also assist in the transfer of a detainee released for health reasons, who will be handed over to the Malian authorities.
ICRC staff spoke with and registered the detainees, and gave them the opportunity to contact their relatives in Bamako and elsewhere by telephone. During the visit, the ICRC also distributed 20 Red Cross messages (containing brief family news) written to detainees. In addition, 75 detainees wrote Red Cross messages which the ICRC will deliver to their families.
"By exchanging news with their families, detainees can reduce their isolation," said Jean-Nicolas Marti, who heads the ICRC's regional delegation for Mali and Niger. "They are directly renewing ties with close relatives they have been separated from for several months."
The detainees were also provided with food aid.
Over 30 South African miners killed by police
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- Category: Africa
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Johannesburg - Over 30 people were killed when Police opened fire after failing to disperse strikers armed with clubs and machetes at the Marikana mine.Clashes between police and striking miners came toa head when police opened fire in an attempt disperse striking miners.
The powerful National Union of Mineworkers put the figure at 36, according to AFP news agency.
The incident came after several days of violent strikes in which 10 people were killed, including two police officers who were hacked to death.
The Marikana mine incident was one of the bloodiest police operations since the apartheid era.
The Lonmin-owned platinum mine has been at the centre of a violent pay dispute, exacerbated by tensions between two rival trade unions.
South African Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa confirmed the toll on Friday saying that a lot of people were injured and “the number keeps on going up."
Police were sent to break up the protest of some 3,000 miners who had gathered on a hillside overlooking Marikana, which lies about 100 km (62 miles) north-west of Johannesburg, to call for a pay rise of more than $1,000 (£636) a month.
The circumstances that led police to open fire remain unclear, but reports from eyewitnesses suggest the shooting took place after a group of demonstrators rushed at a line of police officers.
Police, armed with automatic rifles and pistols, first used water cannon, tear gas and stun grenades in an attempt to break up the protest but when protesters surged towards them with machetes, they fired dozens of shots, witnesses said.
Police ministry spokesman Zweli Mnisi defended the actions of police, saying they had a right to defend themselves.
In a statement, President Jacob Zuma said he was "shocked and dismayed at this senseless violence".
"We call upon the labour movement and business to work with government to arrest the situation before it deteriorates any further," he added pointing out that an investigation into the incident had been launched.
The stand-off has been exacerbated by rivalry between two trade unions, with the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), a new group, seeking to challenge the dominance of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).
The NUM is seen as being close to the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and the two groups were allies in the fight to end white minority rule, although relations between the ANC and the unions have worsened in recent years.
South Africa is the largest platinum producer in the world and the dispute has already affected production. Lonmin, the world's third-largest platinum producer, has encountered similar labour disputes at the Marikana mine. In May 2011, the company sacked some 9,000 employees after a strike.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles dies
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- Written by northsouth
- Category: Africa
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Addis Ababa - Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who led his country for more than two decades, has died of an infection while being treated abroad for an undisclosed illness, state-run television said today. Speculation that Meles, 57, was seriously ill grew after he failed to attend an African Union summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa last month. "Prime Minister Zenawi suddenly passed away last night. Meles was recovering in a hospital overseas for the past two months but died of a sudden infection at 11:40 (on Monday night)," state television said. Meles seized power in 1991 from Mengistu Haile Mariam's military junta. As president and then prime minister he turned Ethiopia into a key player in regional security affairs.
His forces, widely regarded as among the strongest on the continent, have entered Somalia twice to battle Islamist militants, winning him accolades from the West for supporting its fight against al-Qaeda linked groups. State media said Deputy Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn would be the acting prime minister. Television broadcast footage of Meles against a backdrop of solemn, instrumental music. Diplomats in Addis Ababa had said Meles was being treated in Brussels for an undisclosed illness, while others said he was in Germany. During his time in office Meles was credited with steering Ethiopia towards economic growth and also helped mediate in several regional disputes, including rifts between Sudan and South Sudan.
"I believe that any successor to Meles will focus first on domestic issues and for the most part leave the regional and international engagement to other countries, at least until the new leader is firmly established in office," David Shinn, former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia, told Reuters. State television said details of his funeral would be announced soon, the country's first state burial in modern times. Emperor Haile Selassie was laid to rest in 2000, 26 years after he was deposed. His body was found decades later beneath a palace lavatory in what forensic experts said were signs he had been murdered. Another deposed leader, Mengistu Haile Mariam lives in exile in Zimbabwe.(FA/NSN)
Mali forms new government after 5 months of chaos
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- Written by alib
- Category: Africa
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Bamako - Mali's interim president Dioncounda Traore announced the formation of a new national unity government on Monday, five months after the country was plunged into chaos following a military coup in which Islamists seized the country’s northern regions and after the country's previous transitional authority broke down without successfully setting up elections.The new 31-member government is intended to be more inclusive than the previous authority, of which some members are still included. Holders of five posts were chosen by military leaders. Cheikh Modibo Diarra is to remain as prime minister
The west African nation has been in crisis since March when democratically elected president Amadou Toumani Toure was overthrown by the military, who two weeks later handed over power to a transitional administration.
The ensuing political turmoil allowed Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist rebels to wrest control of the northern desert regions.
The national unity government announced by presidential decree Monday has 31 ministers of almost all political shades including four women.
Tieman Coulibaly, a member of the anti-coup Front for Democracy and the Republic (FDR) party, becomes foreign minister under controversial Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra.
The new administration also includes a new ministry of religious affairs, headed by Yacouba Traore.
Among those reappointed are three military members seen as close to the former junta: Defence Minister Colonel Yamoussa Camara, Security Minister General Tiefing Konate and Minister for Territorial Administration Colonel Moussa Sinko Coulibaly.
Justice Minister Malick Coulibaly and Health Minister Soumana Makadji were also reappointed.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which has proposed sending an intervention force to Mali to help the weak transitional government, ordered Bamako to form a government of national unity by July 31 that would be able to reconquer the north.
The ultimatum was later extended. ECOWAS also warned Bamako it could be expelled from the group.
With the country split in two, political parties including Traore's had called for Diarra's ouster.
But on August 13 Traore "renewed his confidence" in Diarra and asked him to make proposals on forming a government of national unity, after consultations by Traore with the country's "civil society" including political parties and the junta.
The communication ministry will be taken over by Bruno Maiga, a junior minister in the previous administration formed on April 24.
Coulibaly replaces Sadio Lamine Sow, seen as close to Burkina Faso's President Blaise Compaore, the top West African mediator in Mali's crisis.
Diarra, an internationally renowned astrophysicist who came to power on April 24, has been under fire from much of Mali's political class including Traore's party who accused him of incompetence and called for his departure.
They claimed he had no "strategy" to solve the problem in the vast north of the country where Islamist groups seized key cities in the chaos following the March coup.
The takeover was spearheaded by Tuareg rebels seeking an independent state for their nomadic desert tribe, but the extremists have pushed them aside and seek an Islamic state in the zone, an area larger than France or Texas.
The groups -- which security experts say are acting under the aegis of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) -- have since imposed strict Islamic law in northern Mali, prompting outrage as they stoned an unmarried couple to death and cut off the hand of a thief.
Fighters from Ansar Dine also destroyed part of Timbuktu's cultural treasures, declaring the ancient Muslim shrines "haram" or forbidden in Islam shortly after UNESCO placed them on a list of endangered World Heritage sites.
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