End Seen To Congo War
Nov. 5 (GIN) – Thousands of women dressed in white marched down the central boulevard in Kinshasa this week, singing the praises of President Joseph Kabila and the army, according to media on the scene.
End Seen To Congo War
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Nov. 5 (GIN) – Thousands of women dressed in white marched down the central boulevard in Kinshasa this week, singing the praises of President Joseph Kabila and the army, according to media on the scene.
The celebrations marked the end of a brutal 20-month revolt in Africa’s mineral-rich eastern Congo. The M23 rebel army reportedly scattered after the Congolese army captured its last hilltop stronghold.
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With the defeat of the M23, hopes have been raised for peace in a region where millions died.
The leader of the M23 movement, Bertrand Bisimwa, ordered rebel commanders to prepare fighters for “disarmament, demobilization and social reintegration.” The group will pursue its goals through political means, he said.
M23 seized parts of Congo's North Kivu province last year. But the Congolese military, backed by United Nations forces, retook territory from M23 in recent weeks and a two-week U.N.-backed offensive cornered the insurgents in the lush hills along the border with Uganda and Rwanda.
The real test will be whether government and rebels can reach a lasting political deal. M23 took up arms last year when a previous 2009 peace accord with the Tutsi-led rebels unraveled.
Lambert Mende, a spokesman for Kabila's government, said it would sign an accord in the coming days in the Ugandan capital of Kampala, where peace talks have been taking place for months.
Russell Feingold, U.S. special envoy to the Great Lakes region, said: "In a region that has suffered so much, this is obviously a significant positive step in the right direction"
Malawi President Joyce Banda, in her role as Chair of the Southern Africa Development Community, called on the parties to avoid a renewal of fighting, for the sake of the DRC, and the continent as a whole.
In the U.S., Friends of the Congo executive director Maurice Carney cautioned: “Contrary to media reports, the M23 announcement that they are laying down their arms does not end the conflict in Congo. The story is really whether this is the end of Rwanda's intervention."
"The long overdue pressure on Rwanda by the U.S. and UK was critical” to disabling the DRC, he said… We must keep the pressure on the U.S. government to cease its support of strongmen in the heart of Africa. ... The Congo has seen the deadliest conflict in the world since World War II, with an estimated 6 million killed."
Free Journalist Eskinder Nega
Nov. 5 (GIN) – South African author Zakes Mda is urging Africans to step up and protest the lengthy sentence meted out to Ethiopian journalist Eskinder Nega for his pro-democracy writings that offended the government.
Mda, a novelist, poet and playwriting, is the son of A.P. Mda, a “guiding light” in the founding of the Pan African Congress. Nega, who turns 45 this month, sits in Kaliti prison, outside of Addis Ababa, where he is serving an 18-year sentence as a convicted terrorist.
“The government would have the world believe he is a reckless, even racist, agitator bent on violent revolution,” wrote Mda. “Yet, a review of the evidence against him reveals a thoughtful and principled man whose only crime has been to urge, peacefully and publicly, Ethiopia's rulers to deliver … peaceful, democratic reform.”
Eskinder came onto the radar screen of Ethiopian officials when in February 2011, inspired by the Egyptian military's tolerance of pro-democracy protesters in Tahrir Square, he wrote an article urging Ethiopian soldiers to follow their example, should demonstrations break out in Addis.
His column appeared on a US-based Ethiopian news website blocked inside his country. In response, the state security detained Eskinder, accusing him of inciting the public against the government. He was tried and sentenced in 2012 to 18 years.
Mda said that African voices needed to be heard on this matter. “Why should these violations be Bob Geldof's business and not ours? Surely we also care about human rights because we are directly affected, even more so than those based in the west.”
Coincidentally, the African Media Leaders Forum will be meeting this week in Addis Abba. The N.Y.--based Committee to Protect Journalists called on participants to ensure that press freedom is squarely on the agenda. See their website www.cpj.org for additional information.
Eskinder is a Prisoner of Conscience and recipient of the 2012 PEN/American Center Freedom to Write/Barbara Goldsmith Award.
Steel Company Leaves Path Of Destruction
Nov. 5 (GIN) – From Minnesota to Zimbabwe, workers across two continents are challenging an industrial conglomerate that has wrecked havoc with a trail of failed mining operations around the world.
In the U.S., the Essar Group Ltd, has a mixed legacy, with bankruptcy in West Virginia, a cash crisis threatening pension payments in Minnesota and in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, outstanding debts of $530 million and flooding, property damage and other environmental hazards in Kentucky.
United Steel Worker President Mike Da Prat said of recent negotiations with Essar: “They have a legal firm that has piles of lawyers and we’re dealing with them all the time…We are now fighting over language that has existed for decades.”
Meanwhile, in Zimbabwe, workers have been living on half salaries for the past 36 months while the government negotiates the sale of the debt-ridden Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (ZISCO) to Essar.
In its initial effort to off-load ZISCO, the government “accidentally” threw in the holdings of the Buchwa Iron Ore Mining Company, worth several billion dollars, although the selling price of ZISCO was only $750 million. Essar is claiming the unexpected prize plus lengthy tax exemptions ever since.
Established in 1946, ZISCO was briefly the largest steelworks in independent Africa, producing a million tonnes of steel each year. Now, with the ZISCO deal up in the air, half-built workers’ housing remains, giving the region an empty and abandoned look.
“There is a high rate of stress; workers suffer from high blood pressure and strokes. The situation has been going on for too long,” said Misheck Mashedze, a Zisco steel employee for the past 12 years.
“So many promises have been made, but nothing has been fulfilled, and in the meantime, we are suffering,” said Thomas Ngulube, who worked at Zisco steel for 24 years. An artisan blacksmith by trade, Ngulube said most workers left the steel plant at midday to “look for food and water”, although the official knock-off time was 4pm.
“It's been very, very hard,” said Benedict Moyo, chair of the ZISCO Joint Workers Union. “We’ve got families to look after. There is nothing to sustain the children. It's been hell.”
The Essar Group, based in Mumbai, India, has investments in minerals, energy, telecom, shipping and business outsourcing, although it frequently pleads poverty. If successful, the purchase of ZISCO would comprise 70 per cent of all foreign direct investment in Zimbabwe over three years.
The Essar group is currently consolidating all its businesses in India and worldwide under a Cayman Islands based global holding company, Essar Global. w/pix of Essar finance director A. Agarwal
Awards Presented To African ‘Kid Lit'
Nov. 5 (GIN) – The National Museum of African Art in Washington, DC, will be the venue for the Children’s Africana Awards and Book Festival on Sunday, Nov. 9, from 11 to 2 p.m. The annual event is sponsored by Africa Access, a nonprofit organization founded in 1989.
Africa Access, according to their website, “was founded to help schools, public libraries, and parents improve the quality of their children’s collection on Africa.” An online database, produced by Africa Access Review, contains 1000 annotations and reviews by university professors, libraries and teachers.
Since 1992, more than sixty awards have been presented to authors and illustrators.
Also on the group’s website are Best Books for Older Readers and Best Books for Young Children.
Partners for the book festival include the Library of Congress, TransAfrica, and the African studies programs of over a dozen universities. For more information, visit the website: http://www.africaaccessreview.org/aar/index.html w/pix of child's book
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