GENERAL NEWS

George Clooney launches project to 'end war in Africa'

NEWS STORY

Source: Al Jazeera

21 July 2015 - George Clooney, the Hollywood actor, has launched a new initiative called The Sentry aimed at ending conflicts on the African continent by tracking the money that fuels them.

The Sentry, founded by Clooney and John Prendergast from the advocacy group the Enough Project, will investigate the financing of conflicts in South Sudan, Sudan, the Central African Republic (CAR) and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Enough Project said on Monday.

Akshaya Kumar, a policy analyst with the Enough Project, told Al Jazeera on Monday the idea for the project came from a dissatisfaction with traditional peacemaking and conflict mitigation approaches.

"We were inspired by the success of financial warfare in the fight to stem terrorist operations, money laundering and drug trafficking," Kumar said.

Prendergast, a former Africa director at the US National Security Council turned human-rights activist, said that "conventional tools of diplomacy" had so far failed and that "new efforts [to end wars] must centre on how to make war more costly than peace".

"The objective of The Sentry is to follow the money and deny those war profiteers the proceeds from their crimes," said Prendergast.

The Sentry says that their goal is to "dismantle the networks of perpetrators, facilitators and enablers who fund and profit from Africa's deadliest conflicts", which the project identified as South Sudan, Sudan, the CAR and DR Congo.

South Sudan has been embroiled in a civil war since December 2013, while the CAR remains insecure and tense since a coup in March 2013.

The eastern DR Congo remains one of the most volatile regions in the continent, with multiple rebel groups operating along the border with Uganda and Rwanda.

But commentators say The Sentry, as well-intentioned and logically sound as it may be, suffers from the same shortcomings as a number of poorly conceived Western-led projects of the past.

"I don't see much evidence of partnership with Africans in The Sentry, let alone African leadership," Alex Perry, a freelance journalist and contributing editor to Newsweek, told Al Jazeera by email.

"There are plenty of Africans capable of running this kind of initiative - and you have to think that, since they're on the ground, they'd be best placed to do so."

'Laudable impulse'

While acknowledging the initiative was "striking" and an "out-of-the-box" effort, Perry said it would have been better if it had recognised that Africans were best placed to identify and fix their own problems.

"And if you want to do this kind of work (which is a laudable impulse), ask them if they require your assistance and present any ideas you come up with as mere supplementary and subject to their approval," he said.

Kumar rejected this criticism, describing The Sentry as "grounded in close collaboration with African civil society".

"We work closely with local journalists and activists to feed their findings into broader cross-jurisdictional investigations," she said.

Participants in the project include C4ADS, a Washington-based non-profit research organisation, and the activist group Not On Our Watch, co-founded by Clooney and fellow Hollywood actors Don Cheadle, Matt Damon and Brad Pitt.

In 2010, Clooney and Prendergast initiated the Satellite Sentinel Project, using satellites to map evidence of conflict and human-rights abuses on the ground.

At that time, the fear was of war between Khartoum and Juba as the south prepared for its independence in July 2011.

But in late 2013, civil war broke out inside the new nation of South Sudan and the satellite project was left largely redundant.

The Sentry's first briefing paper on South Sudan was damning.

It described the civil war between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy, Riek Machar, as "a competition among the nation's elite for power and profits," with warring parties fighting for control of "a kleptocratic regime that has captured and controlled nearly all profit-generating sectors of the economy".

Clooney has been criticised on a number of occasions for mixing celebrity with a complex conflict in South Sudan, but Kumar says no one was under the illusion that celebrity activism made him an expert on the matters at hand.

"Mr Clooney hopes to once again deploy his celebrity in service of the people of South Sudan, while making it clear that might require targeting their leaders ill gotten gains and illicit supply networks," she said.

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DRC

Provinciales: le CEFJ craint une «élimination des femmes à la course électorale»

NEWS STORY

Source: Radio Okapi (http://radiookapi.net/actualite/2015/07/20/provinciales-le-cefj-craint-u...)

20 Juillet 2015 - Le collectif pour l’émergence des femmes et de la jeunesse en RDC (CEFJ) se plaint de l’invalidation de plusieurs candidatures féminines par les Cours d’appel congolaises. Dans un communiqué de presse parvenu lundi 20 juillet à Radio Okapi, la coordonnatrice de cette structure, Bernadette Kamango, craint que ces invalidations, dont beaucoup sont injustes selon elle, ouvrent la voie à l’élimination des femmes à la course électorale.

Bernadette Kamango regrette ainsi une réduction du taux de participation des femmes aux élections provinciales, induisant aussi celle du taux de la représentativité de la femme dans les institutions provinciales.

«Après le traitement des contentieux électoraux par la cour d’appel, en particulier des cas des suppléants des candidates, les candidatures féminines pourraient être rabaissées à environ 8% quand la Ceni va afficher la liste définitive», a-t-elle estimé.

Selon les prévisions du CEFJ, après le scrutin électoral, les élues députées femmes aux provinciales pourraient représenter entre 6 et 2%.

Bernadette Kamango s’en remet à la Commission électorale nationale indépendante (Ceni), pour le «repêchage» des candidates victimes «injustement» de cas de doublons de leurs suppléants.

«Donc, nous proposons à la Ceni le repêchage ou bien la réhabilitation des candidates aux élections provinciales plutôt victimes de la mauvaise foi de leurs suppléants. Celles-ci se disent totalement choquées d’être invalidées alors qu’elles ignoraient totalement les vraies intentions cachées de leurs suppléants qui ont postulé sur plusieurs listes», a-t-elle expliqué.

Plusieurs candidats invalidés par la Ceni pour les élections provinciales prévues le 25 octobre en RDC ont porté plainte contre la commission électorale.

Les dossiers des candidats ont été rejetés, selon la Ceni, soit parce qu’ils étaient non conformes, soit parce qu’ils regorgeaient de doublons de candidatures.

A Kindu, chef-lieu de la province du Maniema, par exemple, la Ceni a reconnu des erreurs matérielles dans certains dossiers.​

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RWANDA

Rwanda launches consultations on Kagame third term

NEWS STORY

Source: AFP

Kigali, 20 July 2015 - Rwandan lawmakers began a national tour Monday consulting people on possible constitutional changes to allow strongman Paul Kagame a third term in power, parliament speaker Donatilla Mukabalisa said.

Last week both houses in parliament voted in support of a constitutional change, backing a petition signed by millions of citizens.

"All lawmakers will go to consult with the population... to ask them their opinion about the amendment - what they expect from this reform," Mukabalisa told AFP.

Over 3.7 million people -- well over half of the voters -- signed a petition calling for a change to Article 101 of the constitution, which limits the president to two terms, according to Rwandan media.

The consultations, which end on August 11, will guide lawmakers as they draft proposed changes.

Any change to the constitution would require a vote in support by at least three-quarters of both parliamentary houses, followed by a national referendum.

Kagame, 57, has been at the helm of Rwandan politics since 1994, when an offensive by his Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) rebels put an end to a genocide by Hutu extremists that left an estimated 800,000 people dead, most of whom were Tutsis.

As minister of defence and then vice president, Kagame was widely seen as the power behind the throne even before he took the presidency only in 2003, winning 95 percent of the vote. He was re-elected in 2010 with a similarly resounding mandate. The next elections are due in 2017.

From the trauma of genocide, he has been painted as a guarantor of stability and economic development, earning praise from donors -- and his supporters say many in Rwanda view the prospect of his departure as a step into the unknown.

Critics say however that he has silenced the opposition and the media.

Kagame says the decision is for the "Rwandan people".

The move comes amid a wider controversy in Africa over efforts by leaders to change constitutions in order to stay in office.

Neighbouring Burundi has been in turmoil since April when President Pierre Nkurunziza announced his bid to stand for a third term in polls, a move branded by opponents as unconstitutional and a violation of a peace deal that paved the way to end civil war in 2006.

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BURUNDI

Voting Begins in Burundi after a Night of Violence

NEWS STORY

Source: The New York Times

By Marc Santora

21 July 2015 - The polls opened in Burundi on Tuesday morning after a night of explosions and gunfire, as voting began in a presidential election whose results are not in doubt but whose consequences could prove deeply destabilizing.

President Pierre Nkurunziza is seeking a third term in office in defiance of international condemnation and bitter opposition at home. Every major opposition party has boycotted the election.

Several explosions rocked Bujumbura, the capital, overnight, and sporadic shooting could be heard just hours before the polls opened. It was unclear whether anyone had been wounded or killed.

Nighttime violence has become common since the country’s current crisis began in April. Soon after Mr. Nkurunziza announced his bid for a third term, people took to the streets to express outrage over what they saw as a clear violation of the country’s Constitution. Scores were killed as demonstrators clashed with the police.

In May, a general and former head of the country’s intelligence service attempted to oust the president while he was out of the country, but the effort failed. The coup leaders went into hiding, but they have continued to threaten to lead a revolt.

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With fear and uncertainty gripping the country, more than 170,000 civilians have fled since April. Often traveling at night, with few possessions beyond what they can carry on their backs, they make their way to the borders of Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania.

As many as 1,000 people are entering Tanzania from Burundi each day, according to Doctors Without Borders, which says resources are now stretched to their breaking point.

“In the last two weeks, the number of people streaming across the border from Burundi has almost tripled,” the group said in a statement. “We can only expect that number to increase.”

Western diplomats said last-ditch efforts to find compromise between the opposition and the ruling party had failed.

The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, called on the authorities “to do all in their power to ensure security and a peaceful atmosphere during the election” and “to refrain from any acts of violence that could compromise the stability of Burundi and the region.”

At a tense meeting Monday with Western officials, officials close to Mr. Nkurunziza made it clear that they planned to change the Constitution to solidify control over the country, according to a person who had been briefed on the negotiations. The government also refused a request to reopen an independent radio station, the person said.

Last month, after parliamentary elections that independent observers condemned as unfair and flawed, Mr. Nkurunziza’s party, the National Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces for the Defense of Democracy, won a sweeping victory. Since then, the party has sought to strengthen its grip on power and its control over the intelligence and security apparatus.

While there are large pockets of opposition to Mr. Nkurunziza in the capital, he has deep support in other parts of the country. The central theme of his appeal to the people has been simple: During his presidency, there has been no war.

“For the first time, we have had 10 years without bloodshed since independence,” Mr. Nkurunziza told hundreds of supporters on Friday at a campaign rally.

Burundi gained its independence from Belgium in 1962 and has been plagued by war and conflict ever since, often with the two major ethnic groups, Hutu and Tutsi, pitted against each other.

Some 300,000 people died in a decade-long civil war that started in 1993 and only ended after years of often-difficult negotiations.

The gains made in rebuilding this nation since the fighting stopped are now at risk, analysts say.

“Many people are afraid,” said Sarah Jackson, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes.

“The Burundian authorities have crushed demonstrations with lethal and excessive force,” she said. “They continue to arrest and torture protesters