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Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 14:18:03 +0000
From: Charlotte Utting <[log in to unmask]>
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Subject: [WASAN] FW: AF Digest 6/11-#1
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Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 07:06:44 EDT
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Subject: AF Digest 6/11-#1
Liberians Look to U.S. for Salvation
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER
.c The Associated Press
MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) - Killers with AK-47s - empowered by their weapons,
whiskey and warlord-president Charles Taylor's sanction of savagery - prowl
an electricity-less capital named in homage to a long-ago American
president.
Refugees fill Monrovia's decayed, overgrown, high-columned mansions, built
in faithful memory of the American South.
Bloodied bodies fill the city's main hospital, John F. Kennedy Memorial.
Even in their torment, few in the west African nation of Liberia have
forgotten their country's proud founding as Africa's first republic, created
by freed slaves returned from America.
But isolated in their misery, few Liberians today realize how much Americans
have forgotten them.
``America is our elder brother. They led us from Day One,'' said Bobby
Jacob, a street peddler. ``Let them remember us!''
Jacob, 23, stood in the rain at the closed steel gates of the U.S. Embassy
complex, where thousands of Liberians clamored for shelter as war closed in
on Liberia's capital again.
``Take action now in Liberia to end war as they have in Iraq. They are our
brothers, and we are suffering,'' said Cyrus V. Zaway, a jobless refugee in
the same churning crowd.
U.S. Ambassador John Blaney committed this week to staying in Liberia as
long as possible. He used U.S. clout to press for a cease-fire, even as the
United Nations and many other foreign consuls fled and Liberia's newest
civil war sped to what seemed an inevitably bloody conclusion.
But international figures, like Liberians, have increasingly pressed the
United States to do more. The United States seems to see little interest in
doing so.
``I'm dealing with Hamas here,'' one exasperated U.S. State Department
official said, referring to the Palestinian militant group, when asked for
comment on Taylor's claims that the United States was backing the rebellions
and alleged coup attempts against him.
Insurgents have fought a 3-year-old war against Taylor - a newly indicted
war-crimes suspect and former Boston-area gas station attendant whose
conflicts have flooded West Africa with fighters, illicit arms and refugees
for more than a decade.
The rebels' latest 5-day-old push has trapped Taylor in his last stronghold,
Monrovia.
Many of the rebels are leftover fighters from Liberia's previous seven-year
civil war, which Taylor started with a 1989 uprising.
Taylor emerged from the conflict in 1996 as Liberia's strongest warlord. He
won presidential elections the following year - voted in by a populace that
feared renewed fighting if he lost.
Taylor's drunken Anti-Terrorism Unit - dressed in ragtag uniforms ranging
from green ponchos to droopy dish towels for headwear - terrorizes the city,
robbing and raping people, and pounding AK-47s barrel-first on cars to
demand money at omnipresent roadblocks.
Ahead of the latest rebel push on Monrovia, U.N. refugee chief Rudd Lubbers
called openly for the forced removal of Taylor - calling him the
``epicenter'' of the region's wars and refugee crises.
Lubbers urged the United States to intervene, citing neighboring Sierra
Leone, where armed intervention by former colonial ruler Britain helped
defeat a vicious 10-year rebel movement supported by Taylor.
Lubbers also pointed to Ivory Coast, where French troops have deployed to
force a cease-fire in their former colony's civil war - another conflict in
which Taylor's warmongering has played a role.
Unlike Britain and France, America never had a true colony in Africa. But
Liberia comes close.
The United States and American abolitionists supported the back-to-Africa
movement that sent former U.S. slaves to found Liberia in 1847.
Once settled in, Liberian-Americans set out to create a nation in the United
States' image - naming its capital after President James Monroe and its
second city after President James Buchanan.
But the American image, surreally refracted in Africa, also magnified some
of the United States' worst problems.
Liberia's African-Americans, once returned from slavery, were inspired to
enslave Liberia's own African ethnic groups. The Liberian-Americans became
the ruling class in Liberia, sending local tribal workers to labor in
plantations.
For a while, rubber trade with Firestone and other American companies gave
Liberia the highest per-capita income in sub-Saharan Africa. But the
exclusion of local tribes sparked civil conflict.
Liberia's other ethnic groups revolted against their Liberian-American
rulers in 1979. Rebel leader Samuel Doe marked the transition by tying 13
Cabinet ministers to stakes on Monrovia's beach and executing them.
Since then, the fighting has never really ended.
One billboard in Monrovia laments the country's fate and looks hopefully to
the United States for help.
``We've come a long way brother, but we are suffering. It is rough,'' a tiny
cartoon Liberian tells a giant Uncle Sam. The sign shows the two countries
together on the road to peace.
But the United States has seen no stake in intervening in its African
offshoot's problems.
``Most of my friends think I'm in Libya,''' said Doug Collier, a Tacoma,
Wash. relief worker who was among 500 foreigners who fled this week on a
French warship.
``But Liberians look to America. They don't understand: 'Why doesn't America
come in and save us?''' said Collier, who worked in Liberia with boys who
were taken as young as 6 to be fighters for Taylor.
``Liberia is America's stepchild,'' Collier said. ``And they're crying out
to their homeland.''
06/11/03 05:39 EDT
-------------------------
Zimbabwean opposition leader to seek bail
By Cris Chinaka
HARARE, June 11 (Reuters) - Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai
makes a new bid for freedom on Wednesday after five days in detention on
fresh charges of trying to overthrow President Robert Mugabe.
Armed police took up position around the High Court building, directly
opposite Mugabe's presidential offices in central Harare, where Tsvangirai
was expected to appear later on Wednesday to make a formal application for
bail.
Riot police in helmets and shields and armoured police trucks were stationed
behind the courthouse.
Tsvangirai leads the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
and poses the biggest challenge to Mugabe's 23-year rule, which has seen the
once prosperous nation descend into chaos since forceful land seizures began
in 2000.
He was arrested on Friday after calling a national strike last week that
paralysed trade and industry -- even though heavy security and gangs of
pro-Mugabe youths thwarted protests.
Officials have since warned they may revoke the licences of six companies
that complied with last week's boycott, turning them over to "patriotic" new
owners and expelling expatriate staff. They have not named the firms
targeted.
State lawyers officially charged Tsvangirai with treason on Tuesday,
declaring the protests were an attempt to overthrow the Mugabe government.
The 51-year-old former trade unionist was ordered held for another month,
although he was given leave to ask the High Court for release on bail.
WIFE'S FEARS
Tsvangirai's wife told the privately owned Daily News she feared for her
husband's safety in police custody.
"I am personally fearful and worried about his security at the remand prison
because that place is open to abuse by the authorities," Susan Tsvangirai
said.
Tsvangirai, who has not yet been asked to enter a plea, already faces a
possible death sentence for treason in a separate trial on charges he and
two party officials plotted to assassinate Mugabe.
One of his co-accused in that trial, MDC Secretary-General Welshman Ncube,
was released on Tuesday after prosecutors dropped fresh treason charges
against him.
The MDC launched last week's protests as a "final push" against Mugabe, whom
they accuse of political repression, economic mismanagement and rigging his
re-election in polls last year that several Western governments deemed
fraudulent.
Zimbabwe -- once a showcase economy for southern Africa -- has tipped into
economic disaster with inflation riding above 260 percent, soaring
unemployment and critical shortages of food and fuel.
Mugabe denies ruining the country's economy, saying the crisis is being
organised by former colonial power Britain and the United States, both of
which have condemned his policy of seizing white-owned farms for
distribution to landless blacks.
06/11/03 05:06 ET
---------------------
Mediators seek Liberia truce as deadline nears
By David Clarke
MONROVIA, June 11 (Reuters) - West African mediators will try to broker a
ceasefire between Liberia's President Charles Taylor and rebel factions on
Wednesday, in a bid to avert a bloody battle for the capital Monrovia.
Under growing international pressure, Liberia's defence minister said on
Tuesday the government was ready to negotiate a truce and the mediators said
the rebels were also willing to give peace talks a chance.
But with a rebel ultimatum for Taylor to quit expiring on Wednesday, time
for a peaceful solution was running out.
The rebels, who earlier this week got to within five km (three miles) of
Monrovia's centre, have not spelled out what they would do when the deadline
passes, but diplomats fear a repeat of the bloody fighting that left the
city's streets strewn with bodies in the 1990s.
The mediators, on a regional diplomatic shuttle to muster support for the
ceasefire, had hoped to get to Monrovia on Tuesday, but their plane was
forced to land in nearby Sierra Leone because of bad weather.
"I am optimistic that when we get to Monrovia tomorrow we will accomplish
our mission," Ghana's Foreign Minister Nana Akufo-Addo told Reuters late on
Tuesday in Freetown.
Akufo-Addo, who is leading peace efforts on behalf of the regional West
African bloc ECOWAS, said the mediators had met with rebel leader Sekou
Conneh while in Guinea and he had assured them that the rebels would stop
their advance.
Taylor's Defence Minister, Daniel Chea, said on Tuesday the government was
also prepared to halt hostilities.
But he said Taylor's forces were still fighting to repel the enemy from
Monrovia's northwestern suburbs, which have been under fierce rebel attack
for nearly a week.
Fleeing residents said the rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and
Democracy (LURD) appeared to have been pushed back a little but were thought
still to be holding a key bridge 10 km (six miles) from the city centre.
LURD and another rebel faction, known as Model, control around two-thirds of
Liberia, a country of three million which was founded by freed American
slaves.
Taylor -- a former warlord long accused of fuelling more than a decade of
conflicts in West Africa -- has been indicted by a U.N.-backed war crimes
court in nearby Sierra Leone and has few places to flee to.
In the capital, refugees in their thousands sheltered in schools and a
sports stadium with little food or water.
The United Nations, which has also called for an immediate ceasefire, says
most of the 100,000 people who lived in camps on the outskirts of Monrovia
have taken refuge in the city itself as the fighting has cut off land escape
routes.
Many expatriate aid workers have left -- French commandos evacuated more
than 500 foreigners on Monday. Those who stayed warned about the risk of
disease and malnutrition, while the city's main hospital is packed with the
wounded.
(Additional reporting by Anne Boher in Ghana)
06/10/03 21:42 ET
--------------------
Mauritanian Capital Normal After Coup Bid
By NAFI DIOUF
.c The Associated Press
NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania (AP) - Hundreds of people marched through the streets
of this West African nation's capital Tuesday to show their support for the
government, a day after the president said his forces quashed a coup
attempt.
For two days, residents had cowered in their homes as battles raged in the
city's sandy, sun-blasted streets. Fighting subsided Monday afternoon, and
President Maaouya Sid'Ahmed Ould Taya's went on national television to
declare the power grab had been thwarted.
By late afternoon Tuesday, government supporters massed in the streets near
the presidential palace, shouting slogans and waving signs.
``We're a country that's advancing, if slowly, even though there remain many
things that we need to achieve,'' said a middle-aged businessman, Ahmed
Hamza. ``What just happened is unacceptable.''
Government teams cleared two tanks crippled in the fighting but had not yet
gotten to two scorched tanks in front of state radio headquarters, near Ould
Taya's presidential palace.
Bullet and rocket holes could be seen on the walls of the parliament
building and surrounding structures, including offices of the national
airline Air Mauritania, while soldiers in sand-colored camouflage patrolled
the city.
The United States sent a 34-member military assessment team to Nouakchott to
augment security at the American Embassy and help in case its nationals are
evacuated, State Department spokesman Philip T. Reeker said. One American
citizen remained unaccounted for.
``We are pleased the attempted coup has failed and that President Taya has
regained control,'' Reeker said.
The State Department advised U.S. citizens to reconsider any plans to travel
to Mauritania.
Although Westerners are not being targeted, U.S. citizens already in
Mauritania should stay close to home, the department said in a statement.
The situation is fluid and uncertain, although government forces have
regained control of Nouakchott, it said.
The department also said the U.S. Embassy may suspend its operations from
time to time.
Nouakchott's international airport remained closed. Witnesses said that
tanks and rocket launchers could be seen on the tarmac.
The coup attempt was the most serious threat to Ould Taya's government since
he came to power in his own military takeover in 1984. He was elected
president in 1992 and 1997 elections that were widely viewed as flawed.
The uprising followed a crackdown on Islamic activists. Ould Taya's pro-West
government has a reputation of muzzling dissent, by censoring the media or
by arresting opposition leaders.
One military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, blamed the coup
attempt on a cabal led by former and current mid-ranking Army officers.
Twelve coup plotters have been arrested, the official said.
It was not clear how many people died in the uprising, though staff at
Nouakchott's main hospital said they received six bodies, three men in
uniform and three civilians. They also treated 37 wounded, including two
children, all of whom had been released.
Army Chief of Staff Mohammed Lamine Ould N'Deyane was killed by coup forces
when he refused to join their ranks, a military official said on condition
of anonymity Monday.
Mauritania's Arab-led government has tried to balance a strongly Islamic
nation with a pro-Western foreign policy. The Sahara Desert country of 2.5
million people is among the world's 30 poorest nations.
06/10/03 19:09 EDT
-------------------
Bush Meets With Thailand, Uganda Leaders
.c The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush sought new ways to combat terror and AIDS
during Oval Office meetings with the leaders of Uganda and Thailand on
Tuesday.
Bush met in the morning with Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Afterward, they urged Myanmar's military government to release immediately
the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been held incommunicado for
nearly two weeks after a mob of the government sympathizers attacked her
car. Thaksin and Bush also discussed U.S.-Thai cooperation on infectious
diseases, including HIV-AIDS.
Their meeting, closed to reporters, came on a day when police in Thailand
and Singapore said they had broken up a cell of the Islamic militant group
Jemaah Islamiyah and foiled a plot to bomb embassies in Thailand.
``Thailand has its own problems with terrorism, and they are facing up to
them, and that's important,'' White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. ``We
want to work together with them on it.''
Later, Bush met with President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, which is fighting
the AIDS epidemic with a program the White House has cited as a model for
how increased U.S. aid against the disease should be spent. Legislation
nearly tripling U.S. contributions - to $15 billion - toward fighting AIDS
in selected African and Caribbean countries was passed by Congress and
signed into law by Bush last month.
``Mr. President, you have shown extraordinary leadership on a lot of issues,
but the one issue that's really captured the imagination and the hearts of
the American people is your extraordinary leadership on HIV/AIDS in your
country,'' Bush said. ``You've shown the world what is possible, and I want
to congratulate you for that leadership.''
The Watoto Children's Choir of Uganda sang and danced for the two presidents
later in the Rose Garden. The children were orphaned by AIDS and now are
touring the United States and other countries to raise money to house AIDS
victims back home.
Bush rocked gently to their faith-filled music, clapping along and smiling
from his front-row seat alongside first lady Laura Bush. After 10-year-old
Edward, between the two songs, related the story of losing his mother and
father, the president's face became grimmer.
06/10/03 18:31 EDT
------------------
end part one
-------------------
We have spent the last seventy years making driving convenient and life
inconvenient. Well, as I've said before, what has been built can be
unbuilt, and something new put in its place.... If we begin, little by
little, making driving less convenient, eventually we will get around to
making human life more convenient - and we might at last put the civility
back into civilization.
-- Richard Risemberg
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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