Israel to probe cameraman’s death

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Joe Stork, Human Rights Watch’s Middle East director, said in a statement: “Israeli soldiers did not make sure they were aiming at a military target before firing, and there is evidence suggesting they actually targeted the journalists.”

 

Israeli denial

However, the Israeli military has strongly denied that the camera crew was deliberately targeted.

 

“The cameraman was in a combat zone at a time when our forces were coming under fire,” a military spokeswoman said.

“Allegations that the Israeli army targeted the journalist are completely baseless. The IDF [Israel Defence Force] makes every effort to avoid casualties among those not implicated in acts of violence.”

She said that the results of the inquiry would be handed to the military advocate general.

Shana’s final piece of footage showed an Israeli tank firing a shell just before the camera went black. Other journalists who arrived at the scene shortly after the shelling also said they came under tank fire.

Clearly marked

“The Reuters truck was clearly marked ‘TV’ and ‘Press’ and drove by the tank twice, so it’s hard to believe the Israeli tank crew didn’t see the pickup contained only journalists,” Stork said.

The vehicle the cameraman was travelling in was clearly marked [AFP]

 

Shana’s protective vest, which also had a blue-on-white “Press” marking, was ripped off by the attack, which medical examination showed had thrust several 38-mm metal darts, known as flechettes, through his neck severing his spine.

 

Two more Palestinian teenagers wounded in the attack died of their injuries on Sunday raising the death toll from the incident to six people, according to medics.

About 20 Palestinians had died in clashes with the Israeli military on the day of the incident, many of them civilians, after fighters had earlier killed three Israeli soldiers.

Several dozen journalists marched through the West Bank city of Ramallah on Sunday, led by a group carrying a stretcher with a camera and a tripod to protest against Shana’s killing.

 

 

 

They carried a banner reading: “The occupiers are responsible for the blood of our colleague.”

 

Meanwhile, at least two Palestinians were killed in an air raid in southern Gaza, bringing the death toll for the last two days to nine people.

The Israeli military confirmed the attacks saying it targeted a group of armed men.

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African Press International

Several dozen journalists gathered in Ramallah to protest against Shana’s killing[AFP]

The Israeli military has said it will investigate the death of a Palestinian cameraman killed during heavy clashes in the Gaza Strip.

The announcement on Sunday came as Human Rights Watch said Fadel Shana may have been deliberately targeted by an Israeli tank crew last Wednesday.

The group said its on-site investigation had indicated that the crew fired “recklessly or deliberately” at the Reuters news agency cameraman and his soundman.

Shana and Wafa Abu Mizyed had been travelling in a vehicle clearly marked as belonging to media workers when they came under attack.

Malawians in Diaspora set up pressure group

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Malawians living in the Diaspora have established a non- artisan pressure group, the Malawi Movement for Restoration of Democracy (MMRD), to contribute towards restoring and sustaining the country’s democracy, APA learnt on Monday.

Interim chair Chris Banda said in an email interview with APA that the group would like to share the realisation that the country’s democratic principles, institutions, gains and ideals are restored and sustained.

\”We will work with all Malawians regardless of their current political persuasion, traditional leaders, educators and faith organisations so that we put in place a democratic agenda leading to the general elections in 2009 and beyond,\” he said.

He said the MMRD will be engaging in an exciting, soul searching and comprehensive conversation with all Malawians to ensure that governments must come and go but democratic pillars must stand sustainably.

Banda added that the group will also facilitate donor funding for various development projects in the country.

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African Press International – api

News update

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Breaking news: 12:52 PM

• Kenya Airways plane overshoots runway at Entebbe, airline says aircraft and passengers all OK
• Tanzania Minister Andrew Chenge resigns over graft claims_

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African Press International – API

Crumbling over public service appointments in Kenya.

Publisher: Korir, api africanpress@getmail.no source.standard.ke

Major test over Civil Service jobs

By Ben Agina

With the coalition Cabinet in place, the focus now turns to the Civil Service, State corporations and foreign missions.

 

Although the naming of Permanent Secretaries to various ministries is expected anytime now, the changes are likely to be minimal and not widespread as earlier expected, The Standard reliably learnt last night.

In the new dispensation, top parastatal jobs could be advertised and those interested to become State corporations’ chief executives will be subjected to interviews, in a radical departure from what has previously been the practice — direct political appointment.

The apparent shift might mean, therefore, that President Kibaki may drop only a few of the 36 Permanent Secretaries in office when he picks the 42-member coalition Permanent Secretaries line up.

At least nine new PSs will be picked for the new ministries, even as a handful of holders of the plum Civil Service jobs retire and others are shuffled in “another attempt at portfolio balance”.

The new ministries include the Prime Minister’s office, Nairobi Metropolitan, Northern Kenya and Arid Areas Development, Public Health and Sanitation, Higher Education, Science and Technology, Fisheries, Industrialisation, Medical Services and Public Works.

It is understood that qualification and experience will be key in appointing PSs, although the line up is also expected to feature new blood.

To be a PS, proven skills to run a specific ministry will be key. There will also be regional balance in picking the top civil servants, and each of them will have to pass an NSIS search.

However, it is those who have attained the mandatory retirement age of 55 whose fate appeared to hang in the balance last night.

They are Mr Gerishon Ikiara (Transport), Mr Patrick Nyoike (Energy), Prof Karega Mutahi (Education), Mr Joseph Kinyua (Treasury), Mr Mutua Kilaka (Financial Secretary) and Ms Rachel Arunga (Special Programmes).

And, it will be another political test — in spite of denials that the Civil Service would not be politicised — for President Kibaki and Prime Minister, Mr Raila Odinga, who at the weekend were targets of simmering regional dissatisfaction over the coalition Cabinet, which they jointly picked.

There were fears that even though the appointment will solely be done by President Kibaki with minimal consultation with ODM, picking PSs could provide another turf in which vested regional interests will be pitted against the collective national good.

“PSs should be appointed without reference to any particular party or region,” PNU spokesman, Mr George Nyamweya, said. “Our party stand has always been that the Civil Service should not be politicised.”

ODM-Kenya, a member of the coalition, said through the Secretary General and Minister For Nairobi Metropolitan Development, Mr Mutula Kilonzo, said: “Although Section 111 of the Constitution vests the powers to appoint PSs in the President, we expect the Head of State to appoint persons who will make the objectives of the Accord a reality.”

He added: “In ODM, PNU and ODM-Kenya, we have a cocktail of qualified people to choose from.”

But Mr Wycliffe Oparanya, the Butere MP and Planning minister, last night said PNU and ODM must share PSs and ambassadorial slots equally.

“The two share executive powers. This cuts across the Cabinet, Civil Service and foreign missions,” Oparanya told The Standard.

The minister took issue with PNU’s position that it was only the President who determines who becomes ambassador, PS or parastatal head.

Saying PNU and ODM should consult widely before coming up with this professional arm of Government, he said: “That’s the way to go. We are in a coalition Government.”

Back to the PSs, even though Mr Francis Muthaura’s job as Head of Civil Service and Secretary to the Cabinet has been a subject of much speculation in the recent past, The Standard learnt that the career civil servant and diplomat could be retained for at least a year or two to allow proper transition.

In recent weeks, names of his possible successor have been bandied around. They include that of Agriculture PS, Mr Romano Kiome, the only high ranking official who attended the unveiling of the Grand Coalition Cabinet at State House, Nairobi.

Mr Mwangi Thuita, PS Foreign Affairs, Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) Director, Mr Julius Kipng’etich, and ODM’s head of secretariat, Dr Mohammed Isahakia, have also been repeatedly linked to the job.

Last night, details of who will take up which positions from ODM, PNU or ODM-Kenya remained scanty. But there were questions over whether the appointments will follow the format where a Ministry with an ODM minister will get a PS from PNU and vice-versa.

Sources told The Standard that the appointments of the PSs could consider regional balance — an issue that some MPs claim was not taken into account during the announcement of the expanded Cabinet last Sunday.

The imminent reshuffle of the PSs comes against a backdrop of a blame game between PNU and ODM that delayed the naming of the coalition Cabinet and which could play out again in the picking of PSs.

Prior to the coalition Cabinet, a flurry of letters was exchanged between ODM and PNU showing that they had differed widely on their interpretation of key clauses of the agreement brokered by mediator, Mr Kofi Annan, in February.

ODM, through its secretariat, had insisted that the structure and organisation of Government, including the rationalisation of the office of the Head of Public Service and appointment of Permanent Secretaries, be shared.

The party had stated that the Government had to be “a grand coalition of two equal partners sharing executive power on a 50-50 basis”.

However, President Kibaki’s PNU side was adamant that executive authority of the Government was vested in the President.

PNU even cited sections of the Constitution, which vest the power to appoint the Secretary to the Cabinet and PSs in the President.

Muthaura, who was himself sucked into the storm, went further to state that the National Accord did not include sharing of jobs in the Civil Service.

“Therefore, it should be clear that appointments in the public service are vested on the Head of State by the Constitution or Acts of Parliament,” said Muthaura in a letter on March 10.

He assured public servants that there was nothing to worry about over their jobs or the politicisation of the public service.

“I urge the public service to embrace the implementation of the Accord. It is extremely important that professionalism is maintained and be free from partisan politics,” said Muthaura.

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African Press International – api

 

Luo leader Raila Odinga has short-changed our people, says Kipsigis MPs

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Now the Kipsigis MPs are complaining that they have been short-changed by the Luo leader, Raila Odinga. They supported him and his party during the recent elections. It is interesting to see the MPs complain as if they were blinded. Why did they ever think that Raila will give them any consideration at all? Now Raila is comfortable and can only laugh it off and if the MPs continue complaining, Raila will call them for lunch and cool them down with new promises which they will never get.

During the by-election in Ainamoi, the MPs say they will stamp out any outside influence. Forming their own party may give them strength in future negotiations they insist. API

South Rift leaders threaten to quit ODM

By Standard

MPs and more than 100 councillors have threatened to withdraw support for ODM over Cabinet appointments.

The leaders from the South Rift accused Prime Minister, Mr Raila Odinga, of sidelining the Kipsigis.

“The community got a raw deal in the appointments,” the leaders said in a statement read by Chepalungu MP, Mr Isaac Ruto.

Speaking at Tea Research Foundation, Kericho, on Saturday, they called for a political party for the community.

Konoin MP, Dr Julius Kones, said the community would use the by-elections in Ainamoi and Trans Mara to stamp their authority.

Among the MPs at the meeting were Mr Franklin Bett (Buret), Mr Magerer Lang’at (Kipkelion) and Mr Zakayo Cheruiyot (Kuresoi).

Former MPs, Mr Paul Sang and Mr John Terer, also attended the meeting.

The leaders said they held Raila responsible for shortchanging the community.

In the region, only Bomet MP, Mr Kipkalya Kones, is a cabinet minister (Roads), while Mr Charles Keter (Belgut) and his Sotik counterpart, Mrs Lorna Laboso, were appointed assistant ministers in the ministry of Energy and office of the Vice-President respectively.

On Thursday, ten MPs from the Rift Valley raised concern over Cabinet appointments, saying they were shortchanged.

Meanwhile, Budalang’i MP, Mr Ababu Namwamba, has asked Raila to contact ODM MPs who missed the appointments and assure them that all was not lost.

“We have many other opportunities and all is not lost for the MPs who missed Cabinet appointments. That is what our PM should tell them now,” said Namwamba.

The MP, who is also the ODM Parliamentary Secretary, said legislators were concerned with the disquiet in the party over Cabinet appointments.

“Not everyone can be a minister. There are other roles we can play as MPs,” said Namwamba.

Several PNU MPs have also complained that they were shortchanged.

Namwamba said there was need for Raila to talk to the party MPs.

The Kuria also claim they were shortchanged following the demotion of their MP, Dr Wilfred Machage, from minister to an assistant.

A group of leaders from the district, led by Mr Chris Gibagiri, said they were contemplating withdrawing their support for President Kibaki for allegedly embarrassing them.

Speaking in Nairobi, Gibagiri who lost to Machage in the last elections said Machage should not have been a sacrificial lamp.

“Why did they rob the Kuria after Machage had served for only five months” asked Gibagiri.

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 African press International – API

 

 

 

 

 

The break up is coming

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Fallout looms over Cabinet positions

By Standard Team

The likelihood of internal rebellion in ODM and PNU over dissatisfaction with the distribution of ministerial positions took a new turn at the weekend, with MPs threatening to form new political parties.

President Kibaki (PNU) and the Prime Minister, Mr Raila Odinga (ODM), could face major fallouts in their parties over regional balance in Cabinet appointments.

This emerged even as the two leaders prepared for a crucial meeting on Tuesday to address the plight of thousands of displaced people still marooned in camps in various parts of the country.

The grumbling went a decibel higher at the weekend with an outpouring of anger in the South Rift. This painted a worrying picture of what lay ahead of the historic coalition Government.

Outbursts

 

On Saturday, five MPs from the Kipsigis community held a second meeting in Kericho within a week and announced that they were considering an alternative party through which they would seek future coalitions.

MPs, Dr Julius Kones (Konoin), Mr Isaac Ruto (Chepalungu), Mr Franklin Bett (Bureti), Mr Magerer Lang’at (Kipkelion) and Mr Zakayo Cheruiyot (Kuresoi), and former MPs, Mr Paul Sang and Mr John Terer, also attended the meeting.

But the protests were not restricted in the Rift Valley — they were loud, too, in parts of Nyanza and Western, where leaders said their communities had been short-changed by PNU and ODM in the distribution of Cabinet slots.

In Kisii, MPs, led by Mr Walter Nyambati (Kitutu Masaba) and Dr Richard Monda (Nyaribari Chache), let fly another round of outbursts, this time directed at President Kibaki with accusations that he had short-charged the community.

They argued that having defended and remained loyal to the party during the hotly contested presidential elections, the Kisii deserved at least two Cabinet slots from PNU.

Monda said ODM was also to blame for sidelining the community, even after the party got a huge chunk of the region’s 700,000 votes in Kisii.

Budalang’i MP, Mr Ababu Namwamba, told Raila to get in touch with grumbling ODM MPs who missed out on Cabinet appointments and assure them that all was not lost and that their grievances would soon be addressed.

“We have many other opportunities and all is not lost for the MPs who missed Cabinet appointments. That is what our PM should tell them now,” said Namwamba.

In western Kenya, MPs took stock of the benefits they had got by seeking pre-election partnership with the PNU.

A major split emerged in Ford-Kenya as well, with party MPs failing to agree on whether they should continue supporting President Kibaki or not.

MPs, Mr Eugene Wamalwa (Saboti) and Dr Eseli Simiyu (Kimilili), lashed out at the President, accusing him of giving Western Province a raw deal even after the region made huge sacrifices to support PNU.

Eseli said Kibaki had committed a “serious crime” against Ford-Kenya, adding that “someone like Eugene Wamalwa should not have missed from the list of PNU ministers or Assistant ministers”.

On his part Wamalwa, noted: “Ford-Kenya has stood by Kibaki since the time the late Vice-President Michael Wamalwa decided to shelve his ambition and support him for the presidency but he (Kibaki) has not reciprocated.”

But Ford-Kenya Chairman, Mr Musikari Kombo, Foreign Affairs minister, Mr Moses Wetangula, and Assistant minister, Mr Bifwoli Wakoli, however, defended President Kibaki, saying PNU had rewarded Western Province much more than ODM had done.

“Ford-Kenya received three Cabinet ministers and an Assistant minister, while the province received only five ministerial positions from ODM although it gave the party 19 MPs,” said Wetangula.

Individual MPs from other parts of the country, while acknowledging that there was no regional balance in the picking of the coalition Cabinet, attempted to interpret the meaning of the coalition and what it portends for the future.

Fisheries minister, Dr Paul Otuoma, claimed that ODM’s decision to share the spoils with PNU in the grand coalition was only “a tactical retreat”.

The first-term Funyula MP, who floored former Vice-President, Mr Moody Awori, in last year’s elections, said ODM’s decision to join Government was not cowardly, but a gesture to avert anarchy in the country. “Who in this country doesn’t know the truth about the presidential polls? Our party boss, Raila Odinga, won the elections outright and the logical thing would have been for ODM supporters to demand the presidency,” said Otuoma.

Stop the talk

 

Meanwhile, the Central Organisation of Trade Unions (Cotu) joined the debate and called on MPs who failed to get Cabinet appointments to stop complaining and work for the people.

Cotu Secretary-General, Mr Francis Atwoli, said not all MPs could be appointed to the Cabinet, and that some had to remain ordinary MPs.

He said trade unionists “fully supported” the Grand Coalition Cabinet.

“We are ready to work with it. Those who were not appointed should stop complaining and concentrate on development issues,” said Atwoli.

The Catholic Church also added its voice, saying although the coalition Government had restored peace, a lot more needed to be done to seek lasting solutions.

They said the focus should shift from who was left out of Government to what the Government needs to do to move the country forward.

The bishops demanded the involvement of religious leaders in mediated talks as the country tries to get its footing after the post-election chaos that nearly tipped the country into the abyss.

“Let our political leaders come out, involve us and let us look for solutions together,” said retired Nairobi Archbishop, Ndingi Mwana a’ Nzeki.

The bishops, who were drawn from 25 countries and congregated at the Holy Family Basilica, Nairobi, said the coalition Government did not mark the end of problems.

“Problems in this country are known to everybody. Let us join hands together and solve them once and for all,” said Ndingi.

The clergymen agreed with former UN Secretary-General, Dr kofi Annan’s sentiments that a lot remained to be done in seeking solutions for problems bedeviling the country.

The bishops were drawn from South Africa, Kenya and the US, among other countries.

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African Press International – api

Rwanda to import sugar from Egypt

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 Hit by severe sugar shortages and ever rising prices, Rwandan government has announced that it will begin importing sugar from Egypt as a counter measure.

In a televised press conference on Sunday, the Commerce and Trade Minister Monique Nsanzabaganwa, said the decision was in response to the general outcry over sugar shortages and increasing prices in the country.

She attributed the current shortage to a deficit supply created by the sole sugar producing firm, Kabuye Sugar Works, which is operating below capacity and its recent halt in production.

However, Nsanzabaganwa did not disclose the quantity that will be imported nor the duration.

Prices of sugar and food have risen by over 30 percent with a kilogram from its former price of Frw500 (about US 90 cents) to prices ranging between Frw900 and Frw1200.

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African press International – api

Witness describes AFRC-RUF cooperation, crimes and links to Charles Taylor

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The prosecution in the trial of the ongoing former Liberian president Charles Taylor at the Special Criminal Court for Sierra Leone at The Hague on Thursday continued examining its witness Alimamy Bobson Sesay, a former member of the Sierra Leone army, according to a press release from the court.

According to the release, Sesay told Prosecutor Shyamala Alagendra that he had been an officer with the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) after it seized power in Sierra Leone in May 1997.

He said that he remained in Freetown until the ECOMOG intervention in February 1998 that drove the AFRC/RUF forces from the capital.

On the May 1997 AFRC coup, the witness said he heard RUF leader Foday Sankoh on BBC radio saying that the RUF should join the AFRC junta and take orders from junta leader Johnny Paul Koroma. Finally, he heard Koroma himself on the radio announcing the members of his Council.

Asked about the relationship between the AFRC and RUF at the time, Sesay said it was very good, and throughout his testimony he described mixed AFRC/RUF brigades, a unified command under Koroma, and joint operations.

During the junta period, Sesay told of a three-day student strike against AFRC/RUF rule, and said that the troops had been sent to quell the demonstrations. He said he was with a group of AFRC men who shot and killed two students.

At the meeting, of AFRC/RUF commanders convened by Johnny Paul Koroma in Koidu Town; Kono district shortly after AFRC/RUF forces captured it in March 1998, which the witness said he attended, Koroma explained that the civilians of Kono were against them and ordered their houses should be burned, the able-bodied should be put to work, and all other civilians should be executed. The witness said Koroma also announced that he was going to meet Charles Taylor in Liberia to get arms and ammunition, which he felt would be forthcoming because these would help them to secure diamond-rich Kono.

The witness said that after this meeting, he went with Hassan Papa Bangura, other AFRC and RUF members to Yardo Road in Koidu, where they encountered a group of civilians and shot them all dead. They then displayed the corpses at road junctions because the chairman (Koroma) had said they should create fear so that other civilians would not come to Koidu.

While Sesay was naming AFRC and RUF members assigned as military supervisors in 1998, he spoke of an Idrissa Kamara who he said also went by another name.

However, the witness said he did not want to provide the nickname for security reasons because Kamara was now a close protection officer for Sierra Leone’s new president (Ernest Bai Koroma), and remains more commonly known by his wartime nickname. After brief deliberations, the judges ordered Sesay to state the nickname. The witness said it was “Leatherboot”, a name already mentioned by previous witnesses in the trial.

Charles Taylor is being tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the conflict in Sierra Leone.

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African Press International – api