Central African rebels clash with French forces

(Adds details, French comment) By Paul-Marin Ngoupana BANGUI, March 4 (Reuters) – Rebels in Central African Republic said they attacked French army positions in the northern town of Birao on Sunday after French warplanes bombed their troops, killing three of them.  

Rebel spokesman Ahmat Amadine said the Union of Democratic Forces for Unity (UFDR) had seized Birao and its airport on Sunday, a day after an unsuccessful assault on the isolated northeast town near the border with strife-torn Chad and Sudan.  

“The French Mirages bombed our positions and we sustained three deaths and some wounded in our ranks,” Amadine told Reuters.  

“We responded by attacking the French positions and they have also taken several wounded,” he said, adding that the townsfolk had fled into the bush to avoid the fighting. France’s Defence Ministry confirmed the rebels had attacked French forces in Birao, but denied they had sustained any casualties.  

“The French detachment defended itself as they have the right and the duty to do, and they were supported by Mirage F1 fighter jets,” Christophe Prazuck, a Defence Ministry official, told Reuters. “Several vehicles were destroyed so in all likelihood there were casualties on the rebel side.” Dramane Zakhari, head of operations for the UFDR, said the French army and government forces had repelled an attack on Birao on Saturday, but only after the rebels had been able to seize a large cache of weapons.  

France sent special forces backed by helicopters and fighter jets to dislodge rebel fighters from Birao and a large swathe of its former colony in December, and has maintained forces in and around the town since.  

“We appeal to France to observe a strict neutrality and leave aside this problem which only concerns Central Africans,” Amadine said.  

Diplomats in Bangui say the ill-resourced government army has full control of as little as 2 percent of the country, which is larger than mainland France.

The deeply impoverished, landlocked country has been racked by years of instability with a series of coups, army mutinies and rebel uprisings, especially in the northwest where over the past 18 months government troops have burned dozens of villages suspected of aiding rebels opposed to President Francois Bozize. (Additional reporting by Swaha Pattanaik in Paris))

Ivory Coast president, rebels sign new peace deal

(Adds Gbagbo quote, details, French reaction) By Mathieu Bonkoungou  

OUAGADOUGOU, March 4 (Reuters) – Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo and rebel leader Guillaume Soro signed a new peace deal on Sunday, calling for the departure of U.N. and French troops and the creation of a new transitional government.  

The deal, after nearly a month of talks in the capital of neighbouring Burkina Faso, came after a series of U.N.-backed plans failed to deliver long-delayed elections in the world’s largest cocoa exporter, divided since a brief 2002-2003 civil war.  

“This is peace in Africa, this is peace by Africa,” Gbagbo said after signing the deal. “All the problems which are born in Africa can find their solution in Africa.”  

Under the terms of the agreement, brokered by Burkina Faso’s President Blaise Compaore, Gbagbo and Soro pledged to relaunch a stalled voter registration and identification process to prepare for elections within 10 months — slightly later than the U.N.-backed deadline of October.  

The agreement called on the United Nations and the French mission in Ivory Coast, known as Licorne, to dismantle a buffer zone which they have policed between the rebel-held north and government south since the brief civil war.  

“With the aim of allowing the free circulation of goods and people, the parties of the direct dialogue agree to ask the impartial forces of Licorne and the United Nations’ mission to suppress the buffer zone,” read a text of the agreement, obtained by Reuters.  

The peace plan envisages a line of observation posts staffed by “impartial forces”, running through the centre of the current buffer zone. These observation posts would be halved in number every two months. Gbagbo, whose mandate officially expired in 2005 but has been twice-extended under U.N.-backed deals, has frequently denounced foreign meddling in Ivory Coast in the past.  

FRANCE WELCOMES DEAL France, which has repeatedly expressed its willingness to scale back its obligations in Ivory Coast, welcomed the deal.  

“I think that from now on we can envisage a retreat of the international community, no doubt gradually, but I think the conditions are there so that the Ivorians can begin to surmount their difficulties themselves,” said French Cooperation and Development Minister Brigitte Girardin.  

Gbagbo and Soro agreed to appoint a new transitional government within five weeks, in an apparent snub to the current premier Charles Konan Banny who was named under the U.N. plan to oversee disarmament and hold elections.  

“The transitional government will work in a spirit of permanent dialogue and openness to other political forces to achieve the unification of Ivory Coast,” read the document.  

The international community has welcomed the talks, which began on Feb. 5 at Gbagbo’s instigation, after a string of international peace deals have foundered as government, rebel and opposition sides squabble over how they should be implemented.

Bashir rejects trying citizens outside Sudan

KHARTOUM, March 4 (Reuters) – President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has vowed not to send any Sudanese national for trial outside the country, after an international court said it suspected a minister and militia leader of war crimes.  

The International Criminal Court last week presented evidence against state minister for humanitarian affairs Ahmed Haroun and a pro-government militia leader Ali Koshayb for crimes against humanity in the violent Darfur region.  

Sudan, which signed but has not ratified the treaty forming the ICC, has always said the court based in The Hague has no jurisdiction in Sudan and that national proceedings would judge those accused of crimes in the four-year-old Darfur conflict.  

“The Sudanese president swore that the government would not send any Sudanese national outside the country for trial,” the state news agency SUNA quoted him as saying during a trip to South Kordofan state late on Saturday.  

He added the Sudanese judiciary was more than capable of delivering justice for anyone accused of crimes against humanity in Darfur, where experts estimate that 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven from their homes.  

Darfur was the first case to be referred to the ICC by the U.N. Security Council, despite opposition to the court from Council members including the United States, which calls the Darfur violence genocide. Khartoum rejects the term genocide and European governments are reluctant to use it. Bashir also said the court should deal with crimes against the Iraqi people by forces from a U.S.-led coalition which toppled former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.  

Saddam was tried for war crimes by an Iraqi court, sentenced to death and hanged. Sudan’s Haroun said he was inspired by Hussein’s steadfast attitude during his execution.

Sudan has also rejected a U.N. Security Council authorising a U.N. takeover of a struggling African Union mission in Darfur, accusing the world body of trying to colonise Sudan.

Darfur war crimes suspect defiant

Sudan’s humanitarian affairs minister, accused of war crimes in Darfur by the International Criminal Court (ICC), has said the move against him is political. Ahmed Haroun said he “did not feel guilty”, his conscience was clear and that he was ready to defend himself.

The ICC accuses Mr Haroun and a Janjaweed militia leader, known as Ali Kushayb, of 51 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Some 200,000 people have died in the four-year conflict in Darfur.

“I am not worried at all and I do not feel guilty because I acted within the legal framework and in accordance with the general interest,” Mr Haroun told AFP news agency.

Mr Haroun was the former interior minister in charge of Darfur and according to the ICC was responsible for organising and funding the Arab militia known as the Janjaweed.

Ali Kushayb is accused of ordering the murder, torture and mass rape against innocent civilians during attacks on villages near Kodoom, Bindisi Mukjar and Arawala in west Darfur.

Next steps

The United States has urged Sudan to co-operate fully with the ICC, but Sudan says it will not hand over the two suspects as the ICC has no jurisdiction to try its citizens and its courts are capable of prosecuting the suspects.

ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked judges to issue summonses for the two men, saying there was reason to believe they bore “criminal responsibility for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Darfur in 2003 and 2004″.

The attackers, he said, “did not target any rebel presence. Rather they targeted civilian residents based on the rationale that they were supporters of the rebel forces”.

The strategy, Mr Moreno-Ocampo added, “became the justification for the mass murder, summary execution and mass rape of civilians who were known not to be participant in any armed conflict”.

He said, “Ahmad Haroun visited Darfur on a regular basis and became known to people in Darfur as the official from Khartoum who recruits, staffs and arms the Janjaweed.

“The evidence shows that Ahmad Haroun provided arms for the Janjaweed from a budget that was unlimited and not publicly audited.”

ICC judges will now have to decide whether to open an inquiry against the suspects with the aim of issuing international arrest warrants, after Mr Moreno-Ocampo filed evidence against the two suspects.

More than 2m civilians have fled their homes, with most now staying in insecure camps supported by humanitarian agencies, who complain of frequent harassment from the Sudanese authorities.

Aid agencies are now said to be assessing how viable their operations may be following the ICC’s intervention.

Liberia’s ex-leader ’stole $1m’

Liberia’s ex-President Gyude Bryant has been charged with embezzling more than $1m while in office. Mr Bryant headed the country during a transitional phase after the end of the 14-year civil war in 2003.

His government is accused by regional body the Economic Community Of West African States, which oversaw the peace process, of stealing state funds.

President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf came to power just over a year ago promising to crack down on corruption.

“The government of Liberia has formally charged the former chairman of the transition with theft,” Information Minister Lawrence Bropleh said in a statement.

Mr Bryant was questioned by police over the corruption allegations twice last month.

At the time, Liberia’s solicitor general said everyone named in the Ecowas report would be investigated as “million and millions of dollars” had gone missing.

Mr Bryant is a businessman and was appointed by regional peace brokers to lead Liberia’s transitional administration when Charles Taylor went into exile in 2003.

After his initial appearance before the investigation board, he said he was disappointed by the process and did not expect his executive decisions to be probed.

Gaddafi: Libya ‘let down’ by West

In an exclusive interview with the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent James Robbins in the town of Sebha, Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi says his country has not been properly compensated for renouncing its nuclear weapons programme in 2003.

No question, Muammar Gaddafi is a changed man.

When we met in the town of Sebha – not in a tent this time but in a modern conference room – Col Gaddafi seemed much more the conventional politician… No women bodyguards in sight…

Britain and America now suggest the Libyan leader is a model for others to follow.

Libya abolished its programme without any compensation… This destroyed that model… no-one is going to follow that model as a result Col Muammar Gaddafi

Libya – by rejecting terrorism and then, in 2003, surrendering its nuclear and other unconventional weapons research – earned the lifting of sanctions and lost the status of a pariah.

But still Col Gaddafi can be combative.

“Libya has not been properly compensated, so other countries, like Iran and North Korea will not follow his lead.”

“This should be a model to be followed, but Libya is disappointed because the promises given by America and Britain were not fulfilled…

“And therefore those countries said we are not going to follow Libya’s example because Libya abolished its programme without any compensation… This destroyed that model… no-one is going to follow that model as a result,” he said.

‘Lost out’

So, I asked him, what more Britain and the United States should do and what they are failing to do.

“We haven’t seen Britain or the United States and the European Union setting up power stations in Libya to transform our programmes from weapons purposes to peaceful uses,” Col Gaddafi said.

“I believe that Libyans as a whole think that Britain and the United States have won, and we have lost out.”

Still, that does not mean Libya is slipping back to the old ways.

Col Gaddafi may be bargaining for greater foreign investment, but terrorism is out.

“Libya will never go back. I believe that the era of hostility and confrontation is behind us.”

Iraq

Col Gaddafi talked of Britain’s prime minister as “my friend, Tony Blair”, but he was highly critical of the situation in Iraq.

“This is a matter which is obvious… it doesn’t need clarification from me.

“The world is unified in its position to the American people. It’s not out of sympathy for the Iraqi people alone, but also the American people, who have paid the price in an unnecessary war based on false foundations.

“Thousands of Americans have been killed on the basis of wrong information. Who is going to bring back those hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who have been killed? What has happened in Iraq makes all peoples in the world feel unsafe…”

Post-Gaddafi

But when I asked whether it was still possible for Libya to work with the Western world for mutual benefit, to work constructively with Britain and the US, Col Gaddafi was emphatic.

“Yes, that is quite possible, we are working to achieve that.”

Col Gaddafi remains under pressure though at home and internationally – to accelerate economic reform, to reduce reliance on oil and gas, to share more real power with his people.

He’s been in power for almost 40 years now.

On Friday, he was celebrating 30 years of the political system he invented – Jamahiriya.

He calls it “direct democracy” – rule by the people, though opponents see it as a cover for dictatorship.

Col Gaddafi said he would like to see a time Libya did not need him as leader – because self-rule through local communes and committees reporting decisions up to the centre was working without the need for a ruler.

But he shows no sign of giving up power.

Gaddafi Foundation: http://gdf.org.ly/ 

Child soldiers being actively recruited as frontline fodder in at least 13 countries

 Source: International Save the Children Alliance

 Ten years after international guidelines were established to stamp out the recruitment and use of child soldiers, under-age fighters are still actively being recruited in at least 13 countries.

Fighting forces are recruiting and using child soldiers within Afghanistan, Burundi, Chad, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Myanmar, Nepal, Phillipines, Sri Lanka, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda. Government forces are also implicated in countries such as Southern Sudan, where the SPLA is re-recruiting children who have already been released from their own ranks.

• In Uganda 1,500 children are still held by the Lords Resistance Army. Another 10,000 children associated with the LRA are still unaccounted for.
• In Sri Lanka, at least 5,000 children have been recruited since 2001. Despite the ceasefire signed in 2002, the threat of re-recruitment is once again so strong that parents are afraid to let children leave the house.
• An estimated 11,000 children are currently involved with militias in DRC.
• Children as young as eight are being recruited by the government army of Southern Sudan.
• Around 75% of former girl soldiers in Liberia reported having suffered sexual abuse or exploitation. 
• In 2005 over 8,000 children were still fighting in West Africa, with another 20,000 in the process of or waiting to be released.

Despite the fact that the Cape Town Principles, guidelines to eradicate the use of child soldiers and protect those released, were established by the international community in 1997, the situation is still dire. Hundreds of thousands of children are still living in misery due to association with armed groups and forces.

Child soldiers are subjected to brutal intimidation, often forced to commit atrocities as military ‘training’, and then used on the frontline. Whether violently abducted, coerced into signing up or ‘volunteering’ because they have no safe alternative, they get no access to school or healthcare and are exposed to abuse and exploitation. Girls taken to become army ‘wives’ are often subjected to physical, sexual and emotional abuse. When released, ex-child soldiers are frequently rejected by society, refused access to school, and find it impossible to re-enter ‘normal’ life after so long immersed in violence. Girls as young as 12 have to deal with rape, and care for babies in isolation without any support from the community.

Bisimwa, 14, Democratic Republic Congo: “When I went to war it wasn’t a good life because I carried guns. I don’t know how many people I killed. Some of my friends died. I left the armed group because I was about to die of cold. Here we suffer too much.”

On 5 February, the international community has a crucial chance to improve the lives of all children associated with armed groups when they meet in Paris to establish new guidelines – the Paris Principles – to help eradicate the use of child soldiers.

Johanna MacVeigh, Protection Advisor, Save the Children UK: “Being recruited by armed forces has a devastating effect on children’s lives. They are immersed in violence, are subject to terrible abuse and are forced to forfeit love, play, education and hope. It is inconceivable that ten years after international guidelines were set up to protect children from recruitment, so many are still being horrifically exploited. Children can’t wait. Governments and the UN must show their support for the Paris Principles and commit to stamping out the use of child soldiers and looking after those who have been released.”

Save the Children UK is calling on:

• All governments and armed groups immediately to release all children associated with fighting forces, and to put a stop to all on-going recruitment and re-recruitment. This must not be dependent on a ceasefire or permanent peace agreement.
• All governments to ensure they have signed and ratified all relevant international law to protect children from unlawful recruitment and use, and to adhere to The Paris Principles. 
• The UN and the Human Rights Council to adopt the Paris Principles by way of resolution, recognising these bodies as the leading international instrument on the obligations of states and others in this area.
• Donors adequately to fund programmes to ensure released and demobilised children can return to normal life. Current reintegration programmes are not protecting them sufficiently. Funding for such activities should be set at a minimum of five years.
• The international community to ensure special provisions are made for former girl soldiers and their children, to lessen the risks of forced early marriage, isolation, re-recruitment or health implications of sexual violence.

Former child soldier asks world to act on crimes

By Michelle Nichols  

UNITED NATIONS, March 2 (Reuters) – Madeleine had nearly finished primary school when she was forced to join the Mai-Mai militia group as a soldier in the Democratic Republic of Congo — she was 11-years-old.  

After two years fighting on the frontlines and witnessing the rape and sexual slavery of girls, Madeleine escaped. On Friday she asked the world to recognize the crimes committed against the girl soldiers in Congo.  

“We have been forgotten by those people who should have rendered justice regarding the sexual exploitation that we suffered, which amounts to sex slavery,” said Madeleine, whose surname was withheld for security reasons.  

“We regret that the International Criminal Court has so far not taken into account this aspect, which would help ease our pain,” the 15-year-old told a “Girls Speak Out” forum at the United Nations in New York. Congo — rich in gold, diamonds and timber — was the battleground for rebels, local factions, tribes and several neighboring countries in a 1998-2003 war in which 4 million people died, many from hunger and disease.  

The Hague-based International Criminal Court ruled last month there was enough evidence against Thomas Lubanga, a Congolese militia leader accused of conscripting children for war, to launch its first trial.  

But human rights groups criticized the court for only indicting one person and said the charges should have been expanded to include killings, rape and torture.  

“What happened to us is not our fault. We were victims of selfish interests and in that sense everybody is guilty — our own communities as well as the international community,” said Madeleine, who broke down in tears and was given a standing ovation for her address.  

“We regret we were forgotten by those who should have helped us,” she told the forum, held as part of the 51st session of the Commission on the Status of Women, which is focusing on ending discrimination and violence against girls. Some 6,000 women from around the world are attending.  

Madeleine is now back at school and involved in helping other girl soldiers re-integrate into the community.  

She said up to 30 percent of the children recruited as soldiers — and sexual slaves — in the Democratic Republic of Congo were girls aged 12 and 15. “Between 70 and 80 percent of us were demobilized with babies and they’re children that are undesirable for the world, without speaking of the diseases that we acquired,” she said. “I ask myself what is our future after being demobilized. The world should ask forgiveness for this irreparable crime.”

AU peacekeeper attacked in Darfur mission HQ town

By Opheera McDoom  

KHARTOUM, March 2 (Reuters) – Armed men attacked the home of an African Union peacekeeper in Darfur’s main town of el-Fasher, causing deep concern over the safety of the 7,000-strong mission in western Sudan, an AU spokesman said on Friday.  

“Four unidentified armed men dressed in civilian clothes attacked the residence of an (AU) civilian officer,” Noureddine Mezni said of the assault on Thursday just outside the AU’s main headquarters in el-Fasher town.  

“They tied him and his guard up and they stole his vehicle and his cellular phone,” he added. The men were not injured.  

The AU has had 91 vehicles stolen since its mission in western Sudan began in 2004. Numerous attacks on AU personnel in remote areas of Darfur have halted some of the mission’s operations such as patrols. The attack in el-Fasher, the heart of the operation, is likely to further disable the ill-equipped and cash-strapped force.  

The mission has struggled to stem the rape, killing and pillage in Darfur which has killed an estimated 200,000 people and driven 2.5 million from their homes in four years.  

Washington calls the violence genocide, a term Khartoum rejects and European governments are reluctant to use.  

The International Criminal Court has said it suspects at least two people, a government official and militia leader, of responsibility for war crimes in the vast region bordering Chad, which has also suffered as the conflict spilled over the long and porous border.  

Mezni said the acting head of the AU mission in Khartoum had contacted government officials at the highest level to express deep concern and to attain assurances for the safety of the AU personnel in el-Fasher town.  

“(She) alerted the authorities to catch the criminals and recover the vehicle,” Mezni said. “This is of deep concern for the (AU) leadership.”  

Attacks on the AU and aid workers in the world’s largest humanitarian operation in Darfur have largely gone unpunished and the perpetrators are rarely caught.  

The government says security is good in Darfur except in rebel-controlled areas and that the Western media exaggerates the conflict.  

Khartoum rejects a U.N. Security Council resolution authorising a 22,500-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission to take over from the AU. Sudan has also stymied a compromise hybrid U.N.-AU force in Darfur, although a few U.N. personnel have been deployed to help the AU with logistics.

Hopes that new malaria drug could slash child deaths

Blogged by: Emma Batha 

Imagine you have malaria. You’re given 24 tablets – half white, half yellow. You quickly discover the white ones work very fast by themselves. What do you do?

 

Chances are you’ll bin the yellow ones. That’s what is happening all over Africa at the moment with a combination therapy based on the antimalarial artemisinin.

The problem is that this is creating a major risk that the malarial parasite will develop resistance to the key ingredient artesunate, with catastrophic consequences for the global fight against malaria – a disease that affects up to 500 million people a year.

Today sees the launch of a cheap treatment called ASAQ combining in one tablet both artesunate and the older antimalarial amodiaquine – the bit people are throwing away. Health experts say it represents a major new opportunity to reverse the rise in malaria, which now kills a child every 30 seconds in Africa.

What’s more, French drugs giant Sanofi-Aventis has decided not to patent the medicine, leaving the way open for generic companies to produce cheap copies for developing countries.

Sanofi has developed the treatment with the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), which is supported by global aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).

“The fact that ASAQ is made so affordable right from the start and is not under patent removes a significant barrier to its availability and should serve as a model for future drug development for neglected diseases,” says DNDi’s executive director, Dr Bernard Pecoul.

The drug is also the first combination tablet to come in smaller doses for children – a crucial development given that malaria is the number one killer of under-fives in Africa. At the moment parents have to break up adult pills and guess how much to give their children, with the risk that they underdose or overdose.

POTENTIAL DISASTER

ASAQ costs less than $1 for a three-day course for an adult and less than 50 cents for a child under five.

Wilfred Mbacham, co-ordinator of the Gates Malaria Partnership in Cameroon, told me the cheap price would make the drug less attractive to counterfeiters – an important fact given that fake medicines can increase resistance.

He said preventing and treating malaria with effective medicines and impregnated mosquito nets would cost just a fraction of the $12 billion the disease costs Africa every year.

But he added a note of caution: “The question is whether African governments will be able to sustain this initiative and if we’re not able to sustain it then it’s almost uneithical to have started it.”

Malaria expert Nick White stressed it was crucial to prevent artemisinin resistance developing as has happened with chloroquine.

Chloroquine, once hailed as the key to eradicating malaria, is now next to useless in many areas of Africa.

“If we lost artemisinin it would be a disaster,” White warned. “We do have the opportunity in the next few years to really hit malaria.”

But he said the price was still too high for many people in developing countries.

“We can make a very strong economic case for the international community to invest in making these drugs effectively free,” he added.

ASAQ is being manufactured in Morocco and will be available next month in Benin, Togo, Burkina Faso, Mali, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Mauritania, Guinea and Gabon.

MSF said it hoped to introduce the treatment as soon as possible in its programmes.