Showdown looming in Zimbabwe as war veterans demand pension hike

Harare (Zimbabwe) A potentially explosive showdown is looming in Zimbabwe following an ultimatum issued by the country’s independence war veterans who are demanding an increase in their gratuities, APA learnt here on Friday.

The combative Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association gave Labour and Social Welfare Minister Nicholas Goche up to 14 March to respond to their demands or risk a confrontation.

The war veterans want their monthly pensions immediately raised from 103 000 Zimdollars (US$412) to 500,000 Zimdollars (US$2,000) per person.

Zimbabwe uses a dual exchange rate, with most transactions quoted at the unofficial and illegal parallel market rate of 8,400 Zimdollars to one American greenback.

The official rate is 250 Zimdollars to the US unit.

“You understand and appreciate the role we played during and after the liberation struggle and we hope you will address this problem on time. We give you 14 days to address the issue, failure of which we will confront our patron President Robert Mugabe,” said ZNLWVA in a letter to Goche.

Mugabe is patron of the war veterans who wield immense influence in his ruling ZANU PF party because they are a centerpiece of its electioneering machine, waging violence and terror against the opposition at every election to ensure victory for the party.

The ex-combatants also spearheaded the government’s controversial land reform programme that began years ago.

The veterans used the same tactics in 1997 to arm-twist the government into giving them gratuity payments, a development blamed by some observers as being the main trigger of Zimbabwe’s current economic problems.

Zimbabwe has the world’s highest inflation rate of close to 1,600 percent, while the country also faces rising unemployment and poverty as it grapples its worst ever economic crisis.

If their demands are met, this would put the war veterans on the same salary scale as teachers and nurses.

 

Published by Korir, African Press in Norway, apn, africanpress@chello.no tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525 source.apa

A Lebanese diamond smuggler to re-appear in court

Harare (Zimbabwe) A Lebanese national will on Wednesday make a second appearance before a Harare magistrate after being charged together with a senior Zimbabwean government official of attempting to smuggle more than 10,000 carats of diamond from the country.

Lebanese Carol Gerge Elmatni was jointly charged with William Nhara, a principal director in the Zimbabwe government, of attempting to smuggle out of the country 10,773 carats of diamonds valued at over US$128,000.

Nhara is further accused of attempting to pay a US$700 bribe to a police officer at Harare International Airport to secure the release of Elmatni.

The two are remanded in custody.

Nhara becomes the first senior government official to be netted under a police crackdown codenamed “Operation Chikorokoza Chapera,” whose aim is to rid the country of gold and diamond barons who are smuggling precious minerals out of Zimbabwe.

President Robert Mugabe revealed two weeks ago that he was aware that some of his ministers and senior officials were smuggling of precious minerals from the country.

He warned that the net would soon close in on the barons.

 

Published by Korir, African Press in Norway, apn, africanpress@chello.no, tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525 source.apa

Former parliament speaker to answer questions of corruption

Monrovia (Liberia) The former speaker of Liberia’s lower parliament Edwin Melvin Snowe Tuesday for the second time appeared before police investigators to answer to questions of corruption.

Mr. Snowe, who resigned his post as speaker recently, is being investigated on allegations of stealing more than US$1million while he served as managing director of the Liberia Petroleum Refining Corporation between 2003 and 2005.

Police investigators say Mr. Snowe cooperated with the investigation team, and was given copies of audit reports linking him to the corruption.

The former speaker’s lawyer, Counsellor Theophilus Gould, who also served as Solicitor General during the transitional period, told reporters late Tuesday that Mr. Snowe is expected to respond to the charges during his next appearance.

Already, there are arguments that the former speaker as a sitting legislator has immunities which cover him from prosecution.

But Justice Minister Mrs. Frances Johnson Morris clarified in an interview with UN radio in Monrovia Wednesday that a legislator can be stripped of his /her immunities, depending on the crime he/she is accused of committing.

She explained that a legislator’s immunities can be stripped if he/she is charged with corruption, felony, and other grave crimes.

Published Korir, African Press in Norway, apn, africanpress@chello.no tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525 source.apa

Flaws detected in the recently signed agreement

Monrovia (Liberia) Several flaws have been detected in the agreement recently signed between the Liberian government and Mittal Steel Company, which is yet to be ratified by Liberia’s bicameral legislature, APA learnt Thursday.

The agreement with the steel giant, Mittal seeks to exploit iron ore in north-eastern Nimba County of Liberia for about US$1billion.

The Senate Press Bureau told APA Thursday that a series of flaws were discovered in the agreement during a public hearing hosted Wednesday by the Senate Committee on Lands, Mines and Minerals.

The senator for Grand Cape Mount County, Abel Massaley wanted to know whether the bidding for the agreement was done in line with the Public Procurement Act of the country, or just the mining laws of Liberia which do not require bidding or on a first come first served basis.

He pointed out that the Public Procurement Act and the first come first served basis were in conflict with each another, and that he will submit a dissenting position to plenary in due course.

Other issues of concern which the senate took keen note of during the public hearing, included the non-inclusion of the provision of elementary and secondary schools by Mittal Steel in its operational areas.

The provision of schools was contained in the previous agreement ratified by the 51st legislature, but was later dropped when the agreement was reviewed.

The current agreement obligates the company only to provide vocational education.

Considering the massive pollution of the environment during operations of LAMCO, the predecessor of MITTAL Steel in north-eastern Nimba County, the senators also raised concern about the environmental impact the mining activities of MITTAL would have on its area of operations.

The Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Ben Donnie was alsoconcerned about the environmental impact assessment to be submitted by MITTAL.

Mr. Donnie said the agency would not issue the company an operating certificate in the absence of an environment development and protection plan.

During the operations of LAMCO, the Yah River in the area was polluted by materials, chemical and human waste produced during the company’s operations.

The St. John River in nearby Grand Bassa County in which the Yah River washes its banks, was equally polluted, and affected residents of these areas.

Published by Korir, African Press in Norway, apn, africanpress@chello.no tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525 source.apa

Zimbabean activist honoured

Washington DC - (USA) The US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Wednesday presented Zimbabwean human rights activist Jennifer Williams with an International Women of Courage Award at the State Department in Washington.

Ms. Williams, founder of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), a civil society organization established in 2003 to protest government abuses, accepted the award in the name of the group’s more than 45,000 members.

The Zimbabwean was one of 10 recipients of the courage award chosen from among a field of 82 women activists nominated by U.S. embassies worldwide. The ceremony was held on the eve of International Women’s Day, during a month that the United States celebrates its National Women’s History Month.

Announcing the award for Williams, the department cited the “harassment and physical abuse” she suffered under President Robert Mugabe’s regime and commended her for “providing an example of courage and leadership by working for change through peaceful and non-violent means.”

In establishing the award in 2006, Ms. Condoleezza Rice said : “Women of courage are standing up for freedom and human dignity and the United States stands with them. We must not forget that the advance of women’s rights and the advance of human liberty go hand in hand.”

Arrested more than 25 times for leading protests against President Mugabe’s regime, Ms. Williams said : “Zimbabwe supposedly got independence in 1980. But under “dictator” Mugabe’s disastrous land-seizure policies the economy is being destroyed and the country is turning into a beggar of international food aid.”

Because of resulting malnutrition and lack of proper health care, she added, “women are dying at age 34 ; men, at 37. You can’t earn a living. The authorities tear down houses that are not squatter houses and stop you from making a living. Hardships fall especially hard on women,” Ms. Williams adds ; “because it is the children who beg mama for more food or want to know why they can no longer go to school when there is no money for school fees.”

Ms. Williams has paid a high personal price for her social and political protests. She received death threats following her arrests.

Her thriving public relations business is defunct and her husband and children live in “economic exile” in Britain. Despite the personal sacrifices, the activist said she feels empowered because “WOZA’s strength lies in its community members who have ownership” in the organization.

“It is because of our united struggle, hand in hand, that we are going to get the Zimbabwe we want,” she said.

 

Published by Korir, African Press in Norway, apn, africanpress@chello.no tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525. source.apa

Human rights court begins hearing of rights violations

*”Europe’s top human rights court started hearing charges on Thursday of human rights violations leveled against Norway by nearly 160 children of a Nazi program aimed at creating an “Aryan elite”.

The application was lodged with the European Court of Rights in 2003 after the Oslo City Court rejected a case by seven of the applicants, notably because their claims came too long after a statutory time limit. Norwegian courts upheld that ruling.Joined by 152 others, who were also born during World War Two to a Norwegian mother and a German father, they are now asking the European court to rule on whether their human rights were violated due to the discrimination and hardships they faced towards the end of the war and afterwards.

“The applicants complain about the treatment they suffered as war children as well as the authorities’ failure to take any remedial measures subsequently,” the European Court of Human Rights said in a statement. “They claim the violations are continuing in the sense that they are still reminded in negative terms of their origin and value.”

Between 10,000 and 12,000 so-called “war children” were born in Norway to Norwegian mothers and German fathers, with a number of them registered as children of “Lebensborn” or “font of life” - a project launched by Heinrich Himmler’s SS to produce children who were deemed racially and genetically pure.

Many children from the Lebensborn homes, particularly in Norway - which was seen as home to the most Aryan stock - were socially ostracized after the war.

The European Court of Human Rights said the applicants claimed that many mothers of war children were marginalized, had difficulties in obtaining employment and often had their children adopted or placed in foster homes or institutions. It also said many of the Norwegian war children were deprived of their original names and identity, subjected to discrimination, harassment and ill treatment and left with psychological problems and registered disabled at an early age.”*

(Reuters)

*”/”*Lifted by Korir and published by African Press in Norway, apn, africanpress@chello.no tel +47 932 99 739 +47 6300 2525 source Reuters/aftenpostenENG

Norway: Dead for one month without the family knowing

*”Two days before the burial of a 71-year-old man, relatives learned that he had been dead for a month without the family being notified. “We are all shaken that something like this can be possible,” the 71-year-old’s niece, Rita Halden, told newspaper Bergens Tidende.

Her uncle died of a heart attack on Feb. 3 this year and was taken to Haukeland Hospital, where his body was put in the morgue, without his closest relatives being notified.

The dead man had been living in care for a psychiatric disorder, and a female friend there took on the arrangements for the funeral.

“What happened, as far as we have been able to reconstruct events, was that this friend told hospital staff that she would take on the duties of informing the family and the practical arrangements of the funeral. But she was clearly not able to do this,” Halden said.

The man’s two sisters and five nieces learned about his death two days before the burial after chancing upon his funeral notice in the newspaper.

According to the family, Haukeland Hospital has not apologized. Information director Mona Høgli of Health Bergen said that guidelines were followed and that it does not necessarily have to be the next of kin that are notified when a patient arrives.

“It can be a friend, a lover, or anyone else. This was done in this case,” Høgli said.

*”/”*Lifted by Korir and published by African Press in Norway, apn, africanpress@chello.no tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525 source.aftenpostenENG

Norway: Cheaters to be cracked down technologically

*”The University of Oslo (UiO) will introduce new technology in an attempt to crack down on cheating and plagiarism. UiO will likely adopt Ephorus, an electronic search system designed to unearth copying and repeat texts, student newspaper Universitas reports.

It is currently possible for two identical papers to pass through the grading system without being discovered, but Ephorus should reveal plagiarism and the reuse of texts.

The system recognizes texts that have already been submitted and also checks papers against the Internet. In the end an expert will determine if any matches are the result of cheating.

The humanities and law departments will now test the anti-cheating system.

“Each cheating case is one too many, whether it is done with intent or due to a lack of training. It means that we have not managed to communicate our preventive efforts, which can result in a loss of reputation for the University if it becomes a matter of large numbers,” UiO studies director Monica Bakken told Universitas.”*

By Dag Yngve Dahle and Jonathan Tisdall

*”/”*Lifted and published by African Press in Norway, apn, africanpress@chello.no tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525 source.aftenpostenENG