United States Africa Command

Public Affairs Office

21 September 2010

USAFRICOM - related news stories

TOP NEWS RELATED TO U.S. AFRICA COMMAND AND AFRICA

USAID Education Officer Commends New Hope Academy (The Informer -

Monrovia)
(Liberia) The Director of Education for United States Agency for International
Development (USAID-Liberia), says the sacrifices and labor of study of students in the
country would yield bountiful fruits.

U.S. Judges Dismiss Case Against Shell (This Day)

(Nigeria) A US Appeals Court yesterday dismissed a case against Royal Dutch Shell Plc
(RDSa.L) that could have held the company liable over accusations that it assisted
Nigerian authorities in violently suppressing protests against oil exploration in the
1990s.

Witness in 1998 Bombings Is Identified at a Hearing (New York Times)

(Kenya/Tanzania) Hussein Abebe, 46, has been cooperating with the authorities
against Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a terrorism suspect captured in 2004, then held in a
secret C.I.A.-run jail and later in the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

U.S. military advisor in Mauritius sentenced to 35 years in prison for drug trafficking
(Xinhua)
(Mauritius) A U.S military advisor was sentenced to 35 years in prison for drug
trafficking by the Mauritius justice system, Mauritius media reported on Sunday.

Canadian held in Libya as US oil spy suspect: report (AFP)

(Libya) A Canadian suspected of industrial espionage on behalf of the United States
has been prevented from leaving Libya for security reasons, the newspaper Oea
reported on Monday.

French hunt al-Qaida after kidnappings (UPI)

(Niger) The confrontation between France and al-Qaida's North African network may
have reached critical mass with last week's kidnapping of seven people, five of them
French citizens, in Niger.
Violence Disrupts Zimbabwe Constitutional Process (Voice of America)
(Zimbabwe) Zimbabwe’s prime minister has condemned violence that disrupted public
meetings to discuss a planned constitutional revision.

At South Africa summit, hard-liners pushing to seize white farms (Christian Science
Monitor)
(South Africa) A fight for the soul of South Africa’s ruling party is under way in
Durban at an African National Congress (ANC) policy conference that could decide
who rules the party and how it is run for the remaining two years of this presidential
term.

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Website
 UN puts spotlight on consolidating peace in Central African Republic
 Guinea: UN envoy continues consultations over political tensions
 UN agency urges resumption of family-visit flights for Western Sahara refugees
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST:

WHEN/WHERE: Tuesday, September 21, 2:00 p.m., U.S. Institute of Peace

WHAT: Civil Society in Darfur: The Missing Peace
WHO: Theodore Murphy, Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue; Jérôme Tubiana,
Independent researcher; Jon Temin, Moderator,U.S. Institute of Peace
Info: http://www.usip.org/events/civil-society-in-darfur-the-missing-peace

WHEN/WHERE: Wednesday, September 22, 9:00 a.m., U.S. Institute of Peace

WHAT: A Fresh Look at Post-conflict Economics
WHO: Ambassador Charles Ries, Executive Vice President of the Clinton Bush Haiti
Fund and Former Minister for Economic Affairs and Coordinator for Economic
Transition in Iraq; Graciana del Castillo, Senior Research Scholar at Columbia
University, and author of "Rebuilding War-Torn States"; Gary Milante, Research
Economist, The World Bank; Julia Roig, Executive Director, Partners for Democratic
Change; Patrick Doherty, Director, Smart Strategy Initiative at the New America
Foundation
Info: http://www.usip.org/events/fresh-look-post-conflict-economics-theory-
experience-and-reality

WHEN/WHERE: Thursday, September 23, 9:00 a.m.

WHAT: Breakfast Briefing with The Honorable Robert P. Jackson, New Ambassador of
the United States to Cameroon
WHO: Business Council for International Understanding with Chevron Corporation
Info: http://www.bciu.org/wip01/online_event_invitation.asp?
continent=0&country=0&currentorpast=current&eventsorprograms=events&IDNumbe
r=1431&ProgramIDNumber=0&Keycode=8031275
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FULL ARTICLE TEXT

USAID Education Officer Commends New Hope Academy (The Informer - Monrovia)

The Director of Education for United States Agency for International Development
(USAID-Liberia), says the sacrifices and labor of study of students in the country would
yield bountiful fruits.

Madam Julia Richards told graduates of New Hope Academy in Paynesville, outside
Monrovia, on Sunday, September 10, 2010, that there were also 'bountiful positive
energy and hope in the country, as such, 'formidable opportunity costs made to send
them to school by their families would soon be seen as having been worth it.'

"I have been a witness to many changes that indicate that Liberia is getting on. What I
see when I look around is hope. I see eager and bright eyes, looking to the future. I
sense very active brains pondering possibilities for growth and personal development,"
she further told the graduates.

Madam Richards: "It is truly an honor and pleasure, for me to stand before you, and
have this opportunity to address you on this most important occasion in your life-your
graduation! I salute you... And join the many proud parents, family members and
friends of yours in congratulating you for your accomplishment of completing high
school, for successfully having passed the WAEC Exam, and for being on the doorstep
to a new life."

Turning to teachers of the academy, the USAID official lauded them for their many
sacrifices which she said were responsible for the success of the students. You, too, have
made innumerable sacrifices to ensure that your students learned and perform well and
not only that, to pass the world-class WAEC exam.

Agencies such as the one I work for-USAID- are doing much more to improve the
chances of young people of Liberia to have positive learning opportunities. But it is
people such as Augustine Arkoi and humanitarian foundations such as better Future
Foundation that really torch the hearts and souls of community citizens one by one,"
she declared.

Madam Richards who, before taking assignment to Liberia had worked for 24 years on
education for Guatermala's indigenous Maya population that suffered the most in that
country's civil war, observed that New Hope Academy is a 'hope that boys and girls
disadvantaged by the turmoil of Liberian civil war, have the opportunity to go to
school, to learn and achieve, to have a whole new world opened through education.'
According to her, the commitment and dedication of the New Hope Academy to this
cause are 'exemplary.'
The graduation program, held on the Peace Island campus of the academy was
attended by an array of personalities from both the public and private sectors.

Among them were Grand Kru County Representative at the National Legislature,
Wesseh Blamo, who also cautioned the graduates including six girls and ten boys to
remain focused and acquire advanced education that would make them more useful to
the state and the larger society, saying: "graduation from secondary school was just the
beginning of professional development."

All of New Hope Academy's sixteen 12th graders who sat for the 2009/2010 senior high
school examination administered by the West African Examination Council (WAEC)
made a successful pass.

New Hope Academy was also among 14 secondary schools in the country whose 12th
graders topped the WAEC exam.

Meanwhile, Rev. Augustine Arkoi, founder of the New Hope Academy, thanked
USAID for the numerous developmental support, such as Library and bridge
constructions, which according to him have brought much relief to the 15 thousand
residents of Peace Island community. He called on other development partners to assist
the Island have access to safe drinking water, proper waste management, among others.
--------------------
U.S. Judges Dismiss Case Against Shell (This Day)

Lagos — A US Appeals Court yesterday dismissed a case against Royal Dutch Shell Plc
(RDSa.L) that could have held the company liable over accusations that it assisted
Nigerian authorities in violently suppressing protests against oil exploration in the
1990s.

Judges in the US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York ruled that until the
Supreme Court deemed otherwise, corporations could not be held liable in US courts
for violations of international human rights law.

One judge on the three-member appeals court panel wrote a strong dissent of the
majority opinion, calling it "a substantial blow to international law."

The case was brought by families of seven Nigerians who were executed by a former
military government for protesting Shell's exploration and development.

Shell has denied allegations of involvement in human rights abuses. The accusations
against Shell included violations connected with the 1995 hangings of prominent
activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other protesters by Nigeria's then military
government.
The families had sought to make the company the first foreign corporation found liable
in a U.S. court for aiding human rights violations abroad under a 1789 U.S. statute, the
Alien Tort Statute (ATS).

Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs and Judge Jose Cabranes said in a written ruling that the
claims could not be allowed under the statute. They said the trial judge, who declined
to dismiss some claims against Shell, should have thrown out all claims.

"We hold, under the precedents of the Supreme Court and our own Court over the past
three decades, that in ATS suits alleging violations of customary international law, the
scope of liability -- who is liable for what -- is determined by customary international
law itself," the ruling said.

It noted that no corporation has ever been subject to any form of civil or criminal
liability under the international law of human rights.

"We hold that corporate liability is not a discernible -- much less universally recognized
-- norm of customary international law that we may apply pursuant to the ATS.

"Accordingly, plaintiffs' ATS claims must be dismissed for lack of subject matter
jurisdiction," the 138-page ruling said in part.

In a dissenting opinion, Judge Pierre Leval wrote:

"The majority opinion deals a substantial blow to international law and its undertaking
to protect fundamental human rights.

"According to the rule my colleagues have created, one who earns profits by
commercial exploitation of abuse of fundamental human rights can successfully shield
those profits from victims' claims for compensation simply by taking the precaution of
conducting the heinous operation in the corporate form," Leval said.
--------------------
Witness in 1998 Bombings Is Identified at a Hearing (New York Times)

For years, the Tanzanian man had been a mystery, his identity undisclosed. And when
he finally testified last week in a heavily guarded courtroom in Manhattan, security was
so tight that prosecutors asked the judge to instruct sketch artists to obscure his face in
their drawings.

The man, Hussein Abebe, 46, has been cooperating with the authorities against Ahmed
Khalfan Ghailani, a terrorism suspect captured in 2004, then held in a secret C.I.A.-run
jail and later in the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
Last year, Mr. Ghailani became the first detainee moved into the civilian system, where
he faces trial soon in the 1998 conspiracy to bomb the United States Embassies in Kenya
and Tanzania, attacks that killed 224 people.

Prosecutors have said Mr. Abebe sold Mr. Ghailani hundreds of pounds of TNT that
was used in the attack in Tanzania.

“This is a giant witness for the government,” a federal prosecutor, Michael Farbiarz,
told a judge last week, adding, “There’s nothing bigger than him.”

But a dispute has arisen over whether Mr. Abebe should be allowed to testify at trial
because the government first learned of him from Mr. Ghailani when he was in C.I.A.
custody where, his lawyers say, he was subjected to coercive interrogation and torture.

In a preliminary ruling, the judge, Lewis A. Kaplan of Federal District Court, called for
a hearing to further explore whether the government could show that Mr. Abebe’s
decision to cooperate was voluntary, and only remotely linked to Mr. Ghailani’s
statements during his interrogation.

But after the hearing last week, Judge Kaplan appeared to have serious questions about
Mr. Abebe’s reasons for cooperating. For one thing, the witness contradicted F.B.I.
testimony about what he had said earlier.

“It’s just abundantly clear,” the judge said, “that there are two remarkably different
factual narratives that could be drawn from the evidence.” He even seemed to ask
whether the government might be considering dropping their plan to have Mr. Abebe
testify.

The prosecutor, Mr. Farbiarz, staunchly defended Mr. Abebe’s account, calling it
“incredibly important” — straightforward, consistent, clear and reliable.

The judge seemed skeptical, saying at one point, “If the government thinks there aren’t
any factual disputes here, you’re on a different planet.”

Ever since the Obama administration moved Mr. Ghailani into federal court, his case
has been seen as a crucial test of President Obama’s goal of trying detainees in the
civilian system. Already, Judge Kaplan has rejected two key defense requests to dismiss
charges, on grounds of government misconduct and speedy-trial violations, and
prosecutors have said they do not intend to use statements from Mr. Ghailani’s
interrogation at trial.

While a ruling barring the witness from testifying would not lead to dismissal, it could
make proving the case more complicated and have serious ramifications for other
detainee cases.
“This is the moment,” said Karen J. Greenberg, executive director of the Center on Law
and Security at New York University, who observed the hearing. “This will establish
the standard for how we deal with witnesses and other evidence that’s the result of
torture.”

Judge Kaplan has never ruled on whether Mr. Ghailani was subjected to mistreatment
while being detained, but he assumed he was coerced, to resolve the legal issue before
him.

Testimony revealed that the C.I.A. and Tanzanian intelligence worked closely for more
than a year to track down Mr. Abebe, based on information Mr. Ghailani was providing
while in C.I.A. custody.

Mr. Abebe was from Arusha, a city where his family was in mining and had access to
explosives, court papers and testimony showed.

He sold the TNT to Mr. Ghailani believing it would be used for legitimate mining, he
said, but he learned otherwise after seeing a televised report on the bombing of the
embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Mr. Abebe kept his own role a secret for eight years, he said. Then, in 2006, he was
arrested by Tanzanian authorities and questioned by them and later by the F.B.I.

An F.B.I. agent, Philip Swabsin, testified that Mr. Abebe had said he lived in constant
fear of being found out. The agent recalled him saying that “one day this day would
come” and that “he would have a knock at the front door.”

But when a defense lawyer, Peter E. Quijano, cross-examined Mr. Abebe, the witness
denied ever having such fear. “I did not have worry about being arrested,” he said.

Mr. Quijano inquired further, trying to clarify the apparent contradiction, but Mr.
Abebe did not change his account.

Mr. Abebe also testified that Tanzanian officials had encouraged him to cooperate with
the Americans so that he could go back to Arusha. In his earlier ruling, Judge Kaplan
noted that Mr. Abebe had been released from custody only after the F.B.I questioned
him and he had “promised to appear as a witness.”

Mr. Abebe, speaking through a Swahili interpreter, said he had agreed to cooperate
because of his anger that he had been deceived and that the explosives were used to kill
people. “For myself, I cannot even kill a, slaughter a chicken,” he said.

But he was not required to cooperate, he testified. “It was not a must,” he said.
The hearing, in which a C.I.A. representative testified in a classified session, also shed
light on how detainees in the agency’s so-called black sites were used to support
intelligence operations.

“There is at least some evidence that there was an ongoing interactive process between
the efforts to smoke out Hussein and find him, identify him and find him,” the judge
said of Mr. Abebe, “and the interrogation of Ghailani by the C.I.A.”

At one point, Judge Kaplan noted, “somebody in Tanzania” came up with “a great
theory” of where Mr. Abebe might be found.

“They think they know the neighborhood,” the judge said, and that led to a “further
interaction with Ghailani.”

“I won’t say anything more on that,” the judge added, “because of the sensitivity.” But
it appeared that the C.I.A. had gone back to Mr. Ghailani and interrogated him again
for information that helped locate Mr. Abebe.
--------------------
U.S. military advisor in Mauritius sentenced to 35 years in prison for drug trafficking
(Xinhua)

PORT LOUIS - A U.S military advisor was sentenced to 35 years in prison for drug
trafficking by the Mauritius justice system, Mauritius media reported on Sunday.

The anti-narcotics police brigade discovered that Scott Bradley Mertz was in possession
of 1,181 grammes of heroine with a market value of 400,000 U.S. dollars.

According to the media reports, the drugs were destined for a notorious drug trafficker
in Mauritius.
--------------------
Canadian held in Libya as US oil spy suspect: report (AFP)

TRIPOLI – A Canadian suspected of industrial espionage on behalf of the United States

has been prevented from leaving Libya for security reasons, the newspaper Oea
reported on Monday.

It said Douglas Oriali, who also has Australian and Irish citizenship, is suspected of
working with US intelligence "to gather information aiming to ensure the failure of a
drilling project off the Libyan coast by Britain's BP."

The paper quoted "a senior official" as saying that Oriali on arrival said he was an
archaeologist visiting Libya as a tourist.
Oriali was placed under surveillance, the official said, adding he was then prevented
from leaving the country after "contacts with a US diplomat in Libya who is suspected
of being an intelligence agent."

The Canadian embassy, contacted by AFP, refused to comment.

However, the newspaper quoted "sources from the embassy" as saying Oriali is being
held at his Tripoli hotel and that he has been questioned twice by Libyan security and
that his laptop and mobile phone have been confiscated.

Oea said that under questioning, Oriali supplied the authorities with his Internet
banking details and information about the content of emails.

BP has said it would start drilling off the Libyan coast during the second half of the year
under a 2007 deal with Tripoli allowing it to drill five wells in the Gulf of Sirte at depths
of about 1,700 metres (5,500 feet).

That is slightly deeper than the Gulf of Mexico BP well that ruptured on April 20,
causing the worst US environmental disaster on record.

On September 7, the Libyan government website said the country has no stake in BP or
any other international oil firms, countering speculation to the contrary.
--------------------
French hunt al-Qaida after kidnappings (UPI)

NIAMEY, Niger - The confrontation between France and al-Qaida's North African
network may have reached critical mass with last week's kidnapping of seven people,
five of them French citizens, in Niger.

A contingent of French Special Forces troops was reported to have deployed in Niamey,
Niger's capital. Their stated mission is to support Niger's military hunt the kidnappers
and their captives but they could be the vanguard of a larger French force across the
region.

French surveillance aircraft based in neighboring Mali, where AQIM also operates, have
flown to Niamey to help in the search.

The abductions Thursday took place near the French-owned Arlit uranium mining
facility in the north of the country and although no group has claimed responsibility the
incident bore all the hallmarks of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb or Tuareg insurgents
who often work with the jihadists.
The kidnappings came six weeks after French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared war
on AQIM for beheading a 78-year-old French hostage, Michel Germaneau, in Mali July
24, three months after he was kidnapped in Niger.

AQIM said it killed Germaneau in retaliation for an attack on a jihadist base in the
desert two days earlier by French and Mauritanian troops. Six jihadists were killed in
the raid, which was seen as a botched bid to rescue Germaneau.

The French government said that operation was intended to thwart an imminent, but
unspecified, AQIM attack against a West African nation, presumably Mauritania which
has taken a hard line against the jihadists.

The raid was the first counter-terrorism operation in northern Africa in which Western
forces are known to have participated.

AQIM leader Abdelmalik Droukdel issued an audio tape in which he declared that
Sarkozy had by initiating the July 22 raid "opened the gates of hell on himself, his
people and his nation."

That suggested AQIM, while going after French targets in North Africa, might also seek
to carry out attacks in France itself, escalating the confrontation with Sarkozy to a
dangerous new level.

The Arlit kidnappings mark AQIM's first known operation in northern Niger, where
the French state-owned company Areva has several uranium mines that provide 40
percent of France's requirements for nuclear power generation.

That indicates a menacing expansion of AQIM's operational zone in a region that is vital
to France's economic well-being.

France has been plagued by Islamist terrorists from Algeria and other North African
states since the 1990s, mainly members of the now-defunct Armed Islamic Group which
fought against Algeria's military government for most of that decade.

France has never been singled out by al-Qaida's various networks, in part because it
didn't join the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

But the Armed Islamic Group, known by its French acronym GIA, was infamous for its
brutality, beheading its victims and massacring civilians before it splintered. Its hard-
liners eventually morphed into AQIM and swore allegiance to Osama bin Laden.

France is the first European state to become directly involved in fighting jihadists in
North Africa, which was part of the empire France carved out in Africa starting in the
17th century.
European intelligence services have been battling North African jihadists for years, long
before 9/11 finally thrust the Americans into combating terrorism.

The emergence of AQIM in September 2006 gave rise to concerns that the jihadists
would unleash a wave of attacks in Western Europe, where the North African jihadists
long maintained elaborate financial and logistics support networks.

That hasn't happened, although several major plots have been foiled. One of the most
ambitious occurred in 1994 when four GIA activists seized an Air France Airbus in
Algiers on Christmas Eve and threatened to crash it into the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

French police commandos stormed the aircraft in Marseille, where it was being
refueled. They killed all the hijackers before they could carry out an operation that
would have preceded 9/11 by seven years -- an example of what the Maghreb jihadists
may be capable of, particularly if they still have some sort of support network in France.

Many Western European states, particularly France, Spain, Belgium and Italy, have
large, often disaffected, Muslim communities made up largely of North Africans in
which the jihadists would be able to operate.
--------------------
Violence Disrupts Zimbabwe Constitutional Process (Voice of America)

Zimbabwe’s prime minister has condemned violence that disrupted public meetings to
discuss a planned constitutional revision.

Morgan Tsvangirai Monday accused opponents of the process of “hiring thugs” to

disrupt the constitutional outreach process.

Witnesses said protesters threw stones and shouted at participants at several public
events in Zimbabwe’s two main cities.

At least five people were injured Sunday at one meeting in the capital, Harare. After the
violence broke out, other meetings across Harare and Buluwayo were abandoned.

A local group monitoring the meetings, Sokwanele, said an “overwhelming number” of

the violent protesters are from the ZANU-PF party of President Robert Mugabe.
ZANU-PF leaders have denied the accusations.

Douglas Mwonzora, one of the heads of the committee overseeing the constitutional
process, said Monday he was “dismayed” by the violence, adding that upcoming
meetings were postponed “indefinitely.”

President Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980.

The constitutional reform is mandated by the coalition agreement between Mr.
Mugabe’s and Mr. Tsvangirai’s parties. The parties reached the agreement, under
international pressure, following the disputed and violence-plagued 2008 elections.

After a new constitution is passed, the parties have agreed to hold a new election.
--------------------
At South Africa summit, hard-liners pushing to seize white farms (Christian Science
Monitor)

A fight for the soul of South Africa’s ruling party is under way in Durban at an African
National Congress (ANC) policy conference that could decide who rules the party and
how it is run for the remaining two years of this presidential term.

At stake at the ANC's National General Council are not just a handful of political
careers, but the party's commitment to democracy, property rights, a free market
economic system, and transparency.

ANC dissidents aren't likely to remove South African President Jacob Zuma from the
top spot. But given that the two ANC allies that worked the hardest to put Mr. Zuma
into power in the 2008 election now appear at odds with him, the conference should
foreshadow trouble for Zuma down the road.

The ANC won over 65 percent of the vote in the last general election with the help of
the Congress of South African Trades Unions and the South African Communist Party,
so the ANC’s hold on power is not in imminent danger.

But Zuma’s leadership over the ANC itself appears increasingly fragile.

On the left, Zuma faces challenges from a massive labor union conglomerate whose
strikes last month nearly brought the nation to a halt.

And on his populist right, Zuma’s authority is being challenged by the pugnacious
Julius Malema, the controversial leader of the ANC’s Youth League, who has repeatedly
called for the ANC’s older generation to step aside for the new generation.

"The issue of generational mix will not be avoided,” Mr. Malema said in an interview
with the Monitor. “We will make sure that this generational mix is done in all ANC
structures.” Malema also said he will push for South Africa to nationalize mines, a
proposal that would likely scare off foreign investment, and confiscate white-owned
farms.

Radical transformation?
“We are going to use the NGC [National General Council] as a launch event for this
radical economic transformation," said Malema. “We need to translate our wealth from
the minority to the majority unashamedly and without pleasing Britain, the imperialist."

South Africa hasn’t been a British colony for 63 years. But anticolonialist rhetoric like
Malema's is striking a chord here, as public-sector unions turn against a government
they once supported and calls for nationalization are finding a large audience.

"It's going to be tough,” says Adam Habib, the deputy vice chancellor of the University
of Johannesburg and a political analyst. “But what the meeting will achieve is to make a
compromise on certain issues, otherwise I can't see the congress agreeing on anything
the ANC Youth League, Cosatu [Congress of South African Trades Unions], and SACP
[the South African Communist Party] would raise.”

Malema could overstep his bounds, says Steven Friedman, a research associate at the
Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa) and visiting professor of politics at
Rhodes University. Pushing for a change of leadership, he says, would almost certainly
backfire on the Youth League.

"The platform is to make policy review,” says Mr. Friedman. “There will be great
opposition for the Youth League if ever they raised the subject [of leadership]. The
Youth League will run into trouble."

But the issue of leadership will not be easily avoided, says Tiniyiko Maluleke, executive
director for Research at the University of South Africa (Unisa).

"The issue of leadership is of interest not only to the ANC Youth League or Malema but
to the alliance partners [including COSATU and the SACP],” says Professor Maluleke.
"Any attempt to prevent it will be difficult."

Zuma hits
The conference is likely to be a raucous affair, with opportunities for Malema and other
former allies of Zuma, such as Zwelinzima Vavi of COSATU, to vent against the
president's failure to deliver on campaign promises.

In his opening speech at the National General Council, Zuma took a tough line with his
critics. “We have no choice but to reintroduce discipline in the ANC,” Mr. Zuma is
reported to have told the 2000 ANC delegates at the meeting in Durban. “If we fail to do
so, we would be weakening the very fiber and existence of the ANC.”

Singling out the ANC Youth League, he added, “We have noted some regrettable
incidents, particularly relating to the ANC Youth League conferences, which are
unacceptable and need to be dealt with. It is clear that the time has come for the
organization to act. We must take a decision that those who engage in such activities are
in fact undermining the organization and its work.”

In his Monitor interview, Malema says he wanted to press on with the Youth League’s
radical agenda for transforming the economy, and insisted that seizing land from white
farmers is the right course of action.

The willing-seller willing-buyer method of transferring land from whites to blacks has
failed, Malema says. He wants South Africa to emulate Zimbabwe, and force sales of
white land at prices set by the government. “The farmer should take it or leave, but the
bottom line is that the government should determine the price of land."

In a May interview with Britain’s Daily Mail, Malema praised the land-grab policies of
President Robert Mugabe, saying taking land from white farmers “was very good
except the violent part of it.... We’ve got a majority in parliament to make legislation
that will give us power to expropriate land with compensation,” he said.
--------------------
UN News Service Africa Briefs
Full Articles on UN Website

UN puts spotlight on consolidating peace in Central African Republic

20 September – The United Nations today called on the international community to
provide critical additional aid to the Central African Republic (CAR) to prevent a
resumption of conflict in an impoverished country that is a prime target of UN efforts to
consolidate peace in once violence-torn nations.

Guinea: UN envoy continues consultations over political tensions

20 September – A senior United Nations official is holding consultations today in
Guinea with key officials as part of an international effort to resolve the tensions
surrounding the deferral of the country’s second round of presidential elections.

UN agency urges resumption of family-visit flights for Western Sahara refugees

20 September – The United Nations refugee agency said it is seeking to clarify why a
family-visit flight for Western Sahara refugees had to be aborted last week, adding that
it hoped the confidence-building measure will be able to resume as soon as possible.