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THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 17, 2011
FOREIGN NEWS Pro-Gbagbo militias chased out
F
IGHTING in western Ivory Coast between Ivorian troops and militias loyal to former president Laurent Gbagbo is over, but the militiamen killed a total of 220 people as they fled to Liberia, the government said yesterday. West Africa’s former economic star is still reeling from a violent five-month power struggle between Gbagbo and President Alassane Ouattara that killed at least 3,000 people, displaced more than a million and brought the economy to a standstill. “It’s over. The militiamen have fled to Liberia,” government spokesman Patrick Achi said by telephone. “In total, they killed 220,” he said, a toll which is much higher than the last count of 120 on May 11. He said most were civilians killed by the militias as they fled from Abidjan westwards to the Liberian border. Many of the militiamen were Liberian mercenaries hired by Gbagbo, the government said. Gbagbo, who refused to quit despite U.N.-certified results showing he lost November’s election, was finally captured by pro-Ouattara forces on April 11 with French military help. Fighting continued in parts of Abidjan until militiamen and Liberian mercenaries loyal to him were defeated two weeks ago, whereupon they fled through coastal forests and cocoa fields, killing many civilians along the way, the government says.
Haiti’s Martelly wants business leader as PM
War crimes prosecutor seeks to arrest Gaddafi A WAR crimes prosecutor yesterday sought an arrest warrant for Muammar Gaddafi accusing him of killing protesters against his 41-year rule as NATO stepped up air strikes on Libyan forces. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, International Criminal Court prosecutor, also asked judges, who must now see if there is enough evidence to issue warrants, for the arrest of Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam and his spy chief brother-inlaw Abdullah al-Senussi. In the uprising, civilians were attacked at home, protests were suppressed using live ammunition, heavy artillery was used against funeral processions and snipers deployed to kill people leaving mosques after prayers, the prosecutor said.
“We have strong evidence, so strong evidence,” Moreno-Ocampo said, adding: “We are almost ready for trial ... Gaddafi ruled Libya through fear and Libyans are losing that fear now.” The prosecutor’s office had received calls from senior officials in the Gaddafi government in the past week to provide information. Prosecutors spoke with eyewitnesses to attacks and assessed evidence from 1,200 documents, plus videos and photos. Thousands of people have been killed in the conflict in the North African oil-producing desert state, the bloodiest of the revolts which have convulsed the Middle East in what has been called the “Arab Spring.” NATO, which has been hitting targets in Libya for
nearly two months, appeared to step up its bombing campaign on Monday with strikes in several towns and cities including Tripoli, according to Libyan state television and rebels. On the diplomatic front, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said the United Nations was working on the removal of Gaddafi to exile to make way for a new government and a Libyan government delegation was expected in Moscow on Tuesday. Libyan officials have denied killing civilians, saying instead they were forced to take action against criminal armed gangs and al Qaeda militants. They say a NATO bombing campaign is an act of colonial aggression aimed at grabbing Libya’s oil. Moreno-Ocampo said per-
•Gaddafi
secution was still taking place in areas under Gaddafi control with forces arresting, imprisoning and torturing alleged dissidents. Some people had disappeared. Prosecutors are also investigating reports of mass rapes, war crimes committed by different parties and attacks against sub-Saharan Africans wrongly seen as mercenaries once the Libyan situation developed into an armed conflict.
Sudan’s SPLM rejects win for ‘war criminal’
S
UDAN’S former rebels have rejected the election victory of Ahmed Haroun, indicted for alleged war crimes committed in Darfur. He has been declared the winner of the governorship poll in the oil-rich South Kordofan state, which borders potential flashpoints Darfur and South Sudan. South Sudan is set to become independent in July, while civil war is still raging in Darfur. Analysts fear the dispute could spark yet another conflict in Sudan. The International Criminal Court accuses Mr Haroun of mobilising Arab militias to commit genocide against black African residents of Darfur when he was the minister there in 2003-4. He has denied any wrong-doing. President Omar al-Bashir is also wanted on similar charges. Mr Haroun, from the president’s National Congress Party, defeated senior SPLM official Abdelaziz al-Hilu, according to the official results. Could Nuba mountains be next Sudan conflict? “We will not accept these results because the vote was rigged,” said Yasir Arman, head of the SPLM in the north. The SPLM fought the north for two decades before a 2005 peace deal, which paved the way for independence for the largely Christian and animist South Sudan from the mainly Muslim, Arabic-speaking north.
•Mandela’s grand daughter Ndileka (middle) helps him cast his vote...yesterday
Nelson Mandela votes early in South Africa election F ORMER President Nelson Mandela has voted at home in South Africa’s local elections, two days early, like others unable to reach a polling station. His foundation released the first photographs of the 92-year-old hero of the fight against white minority rule since he was hospitalised in January. He was accompanied by his wife, daughter and granddaughter. He has not appeared at a public engagement since
the closing ceremony of the football World Cup in July 2010. Correspondents say Mr Mandela has appeared increasingly frail on his infrequent public appearances since retiring from public life in 2004. The Nobel Peace Prize winner has been treated at home since his release from hospital following an acute respiratory infection. But Independent Elector-
al Commission chairwoman Brigalia Bam told Radio 702 that he was well enough to vote on his own. “Amazingly enough, the presiding officer was trying to help, and he [Mandela] said: ‘No, no, no. I’m fine. I don’t need any help’,” she said. She also said the former president had been looking forward to voting “so much”. Mr Mandela, known to
South Africans by his clan name Madiba, was imprisoned for 27 years by the apartheid government. He was released from jail in 1990 and went on to lead the African National Congress to a landslide victory in 1994 - the first time South Africa’s black majority was allowed to vote. He stood down as president in 1999 but the ANC retains a massive majority in parliament and runs all but one of the country’s provinces
Moroccan MPs favour probe into detention centre
M
EMBERS of parliament in Morocco back a parliamentary probe into a secret detention centre near Rabat, a senior politician announced Monday, a day after a demonstration by youths wanting it closed. “We are favourable to opening a commission of inquiry into this centre, even though no decision has been taken,” Ahmed Zaidi, the head of the parliamentary group of the government coalition, the Socialist
Union of Popular Forces (USFP), told AFP. “Among MPs, we are discussing it and exchanging views,” he added. Zaidi’s announcement came after the ministry of justice decided to open an inquiry at the headquarters of the Moroccan domestic intelligence service, the DST, which supposedly runs the Temara detention centre. The justice department “has given instructions to the state prosecutor to open
the necessary investigations into the site” closes to the capital, Communications Minister Khalid Naciri said, in a statement welcomed by MPs. “We have already lodged a request for the constitution of a commission of inquiry into this centre. Now, after Mr Naciri’s statement, anything becomes possible,” said Lahcen Daoudi, head of the parliamentary group of the Islamist opposition Justice and Development Party.
More than 10 people were injured on Sunday when police broke up a demonstration by about 100 youths of the February 20 Movement, named for the date of the first popular uprising to press for change in the north African kingdom. The protestors wanted to demonstrate outside the headquarters of the DST, denouncing the detention centre believed to be based there and demanding its closure and respect for human rights.
HAITI’S new president wants a business leader to serve as his prime minister, a government official said. The official announcement that President Michel Martelly wants Daniel-Gerard Rouzier to be the country’s No. 2 official comes one day after Martelly, a charismatic pop star known as “Sweet Micky”, was sworn in as Haiti’s next leader in back-to-back ceremonies at a makeshift Parliament and on the lawn of the National Palace, which collapsed in last year’s crippling earthquake. Parliament must still ratify Rouzier to the post. Also Sunday, an adviser to current Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said Bellerive had submitted his resignation to make room for his successor. Bellerive, who also cochairs Haiti’s reconstruction commission with former U.S. President Bill Clinton, will stay in the job until the new head of government is ratified, his special adviser, Alice Blanchet, told The Associated Press. The new prime minister will also serve as co-chair of Haiti’s Interim Recovery Commission, whose mandate is due to expire in October. The body has been criticized for not doing enough to house and help survivors of the January 2010 earthquake that claimed 300,000 lives and displaced 2 million others. Martelly’s chief-of-staff Thierry Mayard-Paul said Sunday that Martelly picked Rouzier as his choice for prime minister because of his record as an established entrepreneur.
Syria: mass grave found in Dera’a SYRIA’S brutal crackdown against pro-democracy protests took a chilling turn yesterday with the discovery of a mass grave in Dera’a, the town at the heart of twomoth-long protests, an activist said. “The army today allowed residents to venture outside their homes for two hours daily,” said Ammar Qurabi of the National Organisation for Human Rights in Syria. “They discovered a mass grave in the old part of town but authorities immediately cordoned off the area to prevent residents from recovering the bodies, some of which they promised would be handed over later,” he said on the phone from Cairo. Qurabi said the Syrian regime must bear full responsibility for the crimes committed against “unarmed” citizens and urged the international community and civil society to pressure it to stop the “brutal repression” of its people. He was unable say how many people were buried in the alleged mass grave.