AfricaFocus Bulletins with Material on Peace and Security - 2008
Dec 14, 2008 USA/Somalia: Obama's First Africa Test
http://www.africafocus.org/docs08/som0812.php
With so many crises calling for attention, it may seem strange to
single out any one of them as the "first" test for the Africa
policy of the incoming Obama administration. Yet Somalia stands out
not only because it represents an international failure to respond
(as also in Darfur, the Congo, and Zimbabwe), but also for the fact
that in recent years short-sighted United States policy has
actively contributed to worsening an already desperate situation.
This policy disaster, moreover, has occurred with practically no
public debate, and no signals as yet that incoming officials plan
to change course.
Nov 27, 2008 Africa: Gift Books Issue
http://www.africafocus.org/docs08/book0811.php
Looking for gifts that are not too expensive, but still attractive,
enjoyable, and perhaps even educational as well? Take a look at the
15 books below and click on the links below each book for more
information - or to view all the images, just go directly to
http://www.africafocus.org/books/gifts08a.php
Nov 22, 2008 Somalia: Piracy and the Policy Vacuum
http://www.africafocus.org/docs08/som0811.php
"While the responsibility for this crisis [in Somalia] lies first
and foremost with the Somali leadership, the international
community, principally the U.S. government and members of the UN
Security Council, has also failed ... They have failed repeatedly
to take a principled engagement to solve the crisis, acknowledge
the power realities on the ground, support peace negotiations
without imposing external agendas, or provide independent
humanitarian assistance." - Refugees International
Nov 11, 2008 Kenya: Call for Accountability
http://www.africafocus.org/docs08/ken0811.php
"We are witnessing a situation where the politicians in government
are satisfied that they are now sharing power and that it is
business as usual. It is disturbing that they prefer to push all
issues that contributed to the crisis under the carpet ... We as
Kenyan civil society are certain that the crisis we witnessed is
not over. These same politicians will certainly break this country
if they go unpunished. We demand the full implementation of the
Waki recommendations and immediate disbandment of the Electoral
Commission of Kenya." - Kenyans for Peace through Truth and Justice
Oct 15, 2008 Western Sahara: Nonviolent Intifada; Diplomatic Impasse
http://www.africafocus.org/docs08/ws0810.php
In 1975, as the last prolonged stage of Africa's decolonization
process began with the fall of Portuguese colonialism, Portugal's
neighbor Spain decided to dispose of its colony of Western Sahara
by handing it over to Morocco and Mauritania, defying a World Court
decision in favor of self-determination. For thirty-three years,
Morocco has continued its occupation, with military and diplomatic
support from the United States and France.
Oct 11, 2008 Congo (Kinshasa): War Goes On, Little Pressure for Peace
http://www.africafocus.org/docs08/conk0810.php
The war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, site of the United
Nations' largest peacekeeping operation, attracts little attention
from the world's media. Conditions vary from place to place in that
vast country. But violence continues at high levels in parts of the
country, particularly North Kivu, and efforts to rebuild functional
state security and oversight over the economy still face enormous
obstacles.
Sep 27, 2008 Angola: Election Free and Fair, Sort Of
http://www.africafocus.org/docs08/ang0809.php
"Election free and fair, sort of," was the headline from the UN's
Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) news service after
Angola's long-awaited parliamentary election early this month. The
news service notes that its stories do not represent the position
of the United Nations, and there was no official United Nations
observer team. But the comment was an accurate summary of the
consensus of observers from Africa and Europe.
Sep 13, 2008 USA/Africa: New Policy Prospects?
http://www.africafocus.org/docs08/usaf0809.php
"If the United States takes a narrow view of Africa, as a recipient
of charity, a place to pump oil, and an arena for fighting
terrorists, then African hopes being evoked by the Obama candidacy
will almost certainly be disappointed. If, however, the United
States takes a long view, understanding that its security depends
on the human security of Africans, then there are real prospects
for a new era of collaboration and good will." - Merle Bowen and
William Minter, commentary in Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette
Jul 21, 2008 Sudan: Darfur, Justice vs. Peace
http://www.africafocus.org/docs08/sud0807a.php
On July 14, 2008, the chief prosecutor of the International
Criminal Court (ICC) asked the court to indict the president of
Sudan, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, on charges of genocide, crimes
against humanity and war crimes committed in Darfur. "Will this
be a historic victory for human rights, a principled blow on behalf
of the victims of atrocity against the men who orchestrated
massacre and destruction? Or will it be a tragedy, a clash between
the needs for justice and for peace, which will send Sudan into a
vortex of [further] turmoil and bloodshed?" - Alex de Waal
Jul 21, 2008 Sudan: Darfur, Justice and Peace
http://www.africafocus.org/docs08/sud0807b.php
"Part of the reason Darfur has remained locked in crisis for years
is that the international community has been slow to acknowledge
what has always been painfully obvious: The janjaweed militias that
have terrorized and decimated Darfur have been directed by the
Sudanese government. The militias were financed by the government,
and received direct battlefield support from the Sudanese military.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is doing no more than
acknowledging the plain, painful truth of Sudan's tragedy. The
prosecutor should be congratulated for recognizing that turning a
blind eye to war crimes is not helpful." - Enough Project
Jul 16, 2008 Nigeria: Curse of the Black Gold
http://www.africafocus.org/docs08/nig0807.php
"This book lays out the dynamics of oil and development in Nigeria
and Africa. It reveals the complicity in this perfect storm of
international oil companies, foreign governments, corrupt
oil-producing states and U.S. consumers. ... the future of oil in
Nigeria is now in question in an unprecedented way. As we speak,
something like 25 percent of Nigerian oil is locked in or deferred
because of the attacks by militants." - Michael Watts
May 30, 2008 Sudan: Abyei Aflame
http://www.africafocus.org/docs08/sud0805.php
"The town of Abyei has ceased to exist. Brigade 31 of the Sudanese
Armed Forces, or SAF, has displaced the entire civilian population
and burned Abyei's market and housing to the ground. These events
were predicted, and absent effective word and action, they became
inevitable. [but] as this report goes to the press, the United
States has not even made a public statement regarding the violence
Khartoum instigated in Abyei." - Roger Winter
May 2, 2008 Congo (Kinshasa): Still No Peace in the East
http://www.africafocus.org/docs08/conk0805.php
"On January 23, 2008, after weeks of talks, the Congolese
government signed a peace agreement in Goma, North Kivu, with 22
armed groups committing all parties to an immediate ceasefire and
disengagement of forces from frontline positions. Yet since the
signing, scores of civilians have been killed, hundreds of women
and girls raped, and many more children recruited into armed
service ..." - report from 63 Congolese and international NGOs
Apr 20, 2008 Africa: Internal Displacement Update
http://www.africafocus.org/docs08/disp0804.php
In 2007, close to half of the 26 million internally displaced
people worldwide were in 20 African countries, according to the
annual survey released on April 17 by the Internal Displacement
Monitoring Centre (IDMC) of the Norwegian Refugee Council. The
countries most affected by new displacement in 2007 were Iraq,
Somalia, Pakistan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), while
the countries with the highest totals of displaced people were
Sudan, Colombia, Iraq, the DRC, and Uganda.
Apr 6, 2008 Somalia: "Most Neglected Crisis"
http://www.africafocus.org/docs08/som0804.php
Forty humanitarian agencies appealed to the international community
late last month to pay attention to the crisis of some one million
displaced on ongoing fighting in Somalia. Refugees International
termed it currently "the most neglected crisis in the world," And
Donald Payne, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on
Africa told the New York Times (http://tinyurl.com/yo8avl), "We're
Baghdad-izing Mogadishu and Somalia."
Mar 20, 2008 Kenya: Post-Crisis Agendas
http://www.africafocus.org/docs08/ken0803.php
"The Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation between the
political parties provides Kenya's leaders with a historic
opportunity to step back from the brink and to reform and
establish institutions that can help build long-term stability. ...
However, challenges remain in ensuring that the institutions
created actually deliver accountability for recent and previous
violence, correct injustices ignored by previous administrations,
and tackle the systemic failure of governance that gave rise to
the recent crisis." - Human Rights Watch
Mar 14, 2008 USA/Africa: Africom vs. Peacekeeping
http://www.africafocus.org/docs08/usaf0803.php
The Bush administration budget for fiscal year 2009 (Oct 2008 to
Sep 2009), yet to be approved by Congress, allocated $1,300 million
for bilateral military programs related to Africa, including $400
million for the new AFRICOM military command, covering all of
Africa except Egypt. In comparison, $1,497 million is proposed for
the U.S. share of UN peacekeeping operations, leaving the U.S.
$1,772 million in arrears on its UN peacekeeping obligations, in
addition to some $700 million in arrears on the regular UN budget.
Feb 21, 2008 USA/Africa: Images and Issues
http://www.africafocus.org/docs08/usa0802.php
As President Bush winds up his 5-day trip to Africa, the initial
focus on his legacy in the fight against AIDS and malaria has been
enlivened with debate on the new and highly controversial AFRICOM
military command (See, for example,
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/world/africa/21prexy.html),
Commentators have also highlighted the contrast between Bush's
itinerary (Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana, and Liberia) and
unresolved crises in Kenya and Sudan. But from AIDS to AFRICOM,
coverage of the trip was also revealing for points hardly mentioned
by either Bush boosters or critics.
Feb 13, 2008 Chad: Civilians at Risk, Outside Roles at Issue
http://www.africafocus.org/docs08/chad0802.php
"The Chadian civil war is often described as a "spillover" from
Darfur. That is a simplification. Darfur's war actually began as a
spillover from Chad more than twenty years ago and the two
conflicts have been entangled ever since." - Alex De Waal
Feb 1, 2008 Kenya: More Pressure Needed to Stop Violence
http://www.africafocus.org/docs08/ken0802.php
"The deep frustrations that are felt on all sides of the Kenyan
divide are understandable. There is no doubt that much more work
remains to be done for Kenya to become a more equitable and
democratic society. But Kenya has come too far to throw away
decades of progress in a storm of violence and political unrest. We
must not look back years from now and wonder how and why things
were permitted to go so horribly wrong.- Senator Barack Obama, on
Kenyan radio, January 29, 2008
Jan 8, 2008 Africa: Talking about "Tribe"
http://www.africafocus.org/docs08/ethn0801.php
The Kenyan election, wrote Jeffrey Gettleman for the New York Times
in his December 31 dispatch from Nairobi, "seems to have tapped
into an atavistic vein of tribal tension that always lay beneath
the surface in Kenya but until now had not provoked widespread
mayhem." Gettleman was not exceptional among those covering the
post-election violence in his stress on "tribe." But his
terminology was unusually explicit in revealing the assumption that
such divisions are rooted in unchanging and presumably primitive
identities.
[Update January 17, 2008: Since this Bulletin was written last week,
Gettleman's coverage of Kenya in the New York Times has avoided the
indiscriminate use of the word tribe in favor of "ethnic group," and
has noted the historical origins and political character of the continued violence
in the country, as well as its links to ethnic divisions. Thanks to
those AfricaFocus readers and others who contacted the New York Times about
its coverage.]
Jan 8, 2008 Kenya: Causes and Solutions
http://www.africafocus.org/docs08/ken0801.php
"It is the Kenyan People Who Have Lost the Election," headlined
Pambazuka News in its special Kenya election edition on January 3.
"But the real tragedy of Kenya," the editorial continued, is that
the political conflict is not about alternative political
programmes that could address ... landlessness, low wages,
unemployment, lack of shelter, inadequate incomes, homelessness,
etc. ... [instead] it boils down to a fight over who has access to
the honey pot that is the state. ...[citizens] are reduced to being
just being fodder for the pigs fighting over the trough."
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