Liberia: Min. Dukuly Senses Lasting Regional Peace

A meeting between Liberian and La Cote'dIvoire Chiefs and Elders organized by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and partners including the UNDP opened yesterday in Zwedru, Grand Gedeh County.

The five-day event which began Wednesday October 16, 2013 with the arrival of about 108 Chiefs and Elders from border region in Liberia and Ivory Coast will be climaxed on Saturday October 19, 2013 with Presidents Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and her counterpart, President Alassane Quattara of Coted'Ivoire receiving resolutions from the Chiefs and Elders on ways to enhance and solidity peace and security especially on the border lines of the two neighboring countries.

Speaking at the opening of the meeting, Internal Affairs, Morris Dukuly said he hope the forum will provide an opportunity and a platform for representatives of the two countries, particularly local officials along the common border to dialogue and consult on matters relating to the sustenance of peace between the two countries.

Minister Dukuly: "We in Liberia are hopeful that the outcome of our deliberations will strengthen our friendship, bolster trans-border security and elevate our cooperation to a new level, in the interest of our people."

High lighting the long standing ties between the two countries, Minister Dukuly noted that in the quest for the liberation of Africa, Liberia as the only independent African nation at the time, championed the cause of the liberation of African countries most importantly, Cote d'Ivoire which finally got her independent on August 7, 1960.

He narrated that in the years that followed, President Félix Houphouët-Boigny embraced the friendship of his counterpart President William V. S. Tubman, and as their bond strengthened and deepened, the two nations grew in mutual respect, cooperation, and unity.

"During the tenure of President William R. Tolbert, Jr. who served for nineteen years as Vice President to President Tubman, a romantic flavor was added to the already strong Liberian-Ivorian relations when A. Benedict Tolbert, son of President Tolbert, took the hand of Daisy, daughter of President Houphouët-Boigny, into marriage." "It is perhaps the deep admiration that President Tolbert had of President Houphouët-Boigny, while serving as vice president that fashioned these personal bonds at the highest levels of our two governments" Minister Dukuly intimated.

The former Minister of State for Presidential Affairs said: "you who are old enough to remember this period, you may recall that when we spoke of the atmosphere that prevailed in this region then, we did not only speak of peace as we do today, we spoke of peace and tranquility,' a characterization that seems to have receded into memory in recent years.

He told the gathering that as the 1959 meeting sowed the seed of what today is the African Union, formerly the Organization of African Unity, he is optimistic that this meeting will open a new page in the relationship between the two post-conflict countries.

Minister Dukuly used the occasion to praise the host county Grand Gedeh for the reception being accorded their guests adding that, this meeting presents the opportunity for the people of the county to rebrand and remarket themselves to shed any and all stereotypical imagery that people may have on their minds about the county or its people.

Speaking Earlier, a representative of Cote d'Ivoire Minister of State, Interior and Security, Francios Jean Nebout expressed delight over the meeting saying it will provide the opportunity to open lines of communication between the countries through information sharing thus alleviating fear of insecurity along their common border.

He said with the involving of international peace missions both in Liberia and Cote d'Ivoire, this meeting of the Joint Council of Chiefs and Elders is the best mechanism to consolidate the gains made in the restoration of peace in the two neighboring countries. The Cote d'Ivoire government representative further said he hope resolution coming out of the meeting will address the prevailing issues of the refugees return, disarmament and demobilization, reintegration and reconciliation of Cote d'Ivoire citizens affected by the 2010 civil crisis in that country.

Mr.Nebout said he anticipate that the on-going meeting of border Chiefs and Elders would evolve resolutions that would foster lasting peace and development and address women and children issues thus allowing his country to reinforce administrative diplomacy with its neighbors.

In a brief overview of the Meeting, Deputy Internal Affairs Minister for Urban Affairs Mr. Amos Tweh said the cross-border meeting is a brainchild of the two quadripartite meetings and that over one hundred community representatives comprising traditional chiefs, women, youth groups, refugee leaders among others are brainstorming in an effort to cement the peace initiative President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and many stakeholders have started.

According to him, the overriding objective of the meeting is to among others contribute to the strengthening of corporation, collaboration and coordination which will ensure coherence of information exchanges between civilian and security authorities in the border regions of the two countries.

Welcoming the delegates at the onset of the meeting, the Superintendent of grand Gedeh County Mr. Peter L. Solo said he is convinced that the meeting will address various problems and challenges which are being inflamed by uncontrolled cross-border movements of persons and goods.

He indicated that the absence of security forces and strategies for controlling small arms and light weapons as well as in adequate access to basic services in the two countries are reasons why the participants need to derive a mutual and genuine understanding that will improve cooperation, collaboration and coordination between the two countries.

South Africa soap opera stand-off stops filming

The soap is set in Johannesburg's cut-throat advertising industry 

The producer of the South African soap opera Generations has told the BBC he does not intend to comply with the contract demands of striking actors.

Nearly the entire cast of South Africa's most popular drama series did not turn up on set when filming of the show was supposed to restart on Monday.

They refused to sign contracts with "out clauses" which allow for characters to be killed off.

Producer Mfundi Vundla said flexibility was needed to make a ratings success.

The soap opera, which is produced by Mr Vundla's Morula Pictures for South Africa's SABC 1 channel, is also hugely popular across Africa and a big revenue earner for the public broadcaster.

'Well paid'

Mr Vundla said the trouble began at an anniversary party last month to celebrate 20 years of the show, which is set in the cut-throat advertising industry in Johannesburg and centres around the lives of the Moroka family.

At the party, SABC announced that Mr Vundla's company had secured a three-year contract to continue producing the show.

"All hell broke lose, the actors thought the three-year contract to my production company was an automatic three-year contract to them," Mr Vundla told the BBC's Newsday programme.

They then complained when he presented them with three-year contracts which had "out clauses" to allow for different storylines or new characters, he said.

"We as the producers have the right to write out one or more existing members of the ensemble," Mr Vundla said.

"This has been the modus operandi for the last 20 years."

He said the actors earned a good wage, some with a salary of 500,000 South African rand ($50,600; £31,600) a year.

"That's a lot of money in South Africa - it takes a chartered accountant about four years [to earn that]," he said.

According to South Africa's City Press newspaper, the actors have appointed a lawyer to negotiate with Mr Vundla over the contracts and other wage demands.

Mr Vundla said he was not ready to negotiate yet as he hoped that the "penny might drop" and that the actors would see his point of view.

There are enough episodes of the soap already filmed to air until the New Year.

Africa: Campaign Names Africa's Slave-Holding Nations

Seyinna Gababe, un village à 18 km de Kaédi (Mauritanie)

An anti-slavery campaign group says in a new report that Nigeria has the highest number of people living in what it describes as “modern slavery” in Africa, while Mauritania has Africa's – and the world's – highest number of “slaves” in proportion to the total population.

The Walk Free Foundation, founded by Australians, published the first of what is planned as an annual Global Slavery Index in London on Thursday.

The index estimates that Nigeria has between 670,000 and 740,000 people living in modern slavery. It says the figures for Ethiopia are between 620,000 and 680,000 and for the Democratic Republic of Congo between 440,000 and 490,000.

Mauritania is named as having 140,000 to 160,000 living in slavery, in a population of 3.8 million.

The foundation defines modern slavery as including slavery as customarily understood, human trafficking, forced labour and “slavery-like practices” such as debt bondage, forced marriages and sale or expoitation of children.

“Victims of modern slavery,” it says, “have their freedom denied, and are used and controlled and exploited by another person for profit, sex or the thrill of domination.”

Five African nations are among the 10 nations identified as having the highest prevalence of modern slavery: Mauritania, Benin (in 7th place internationally), Cote d'Ivoire (8th place), The Gambia (9th) and Gabon (10th).

Non-African nations in the worst 10 are, in order below Mauritania, Haiti, Pakistan, India, Nepal and Moldova.

Africa's worst 10 also include Senegal, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Togo and Cape Verde.

The report says Mauritania experiences mostly “chattel slavery” meaning that “adults and children... are the full property of their masters who exercise total ownership over them and their descendants.” It also says there are high levels of child marriage in Mauritania.

While Cote d'Ivoire is cited as one of the nations “working hard” to address the problem, Mauritania is one of the countries in which the response is “token at best”.

“In Cote d’Ivoire,” the report says, “a unique system of protection has been formed, harnessing the market forces of cocoa purchasers as a mechanism to drive overall improvement in labour practices and move towards the eradication of worst forms of child labour and forced labour in cocoa production.”

Africa: Investing in People and Evidence for Sustainable Farming

Evaluation of farming systems, new ideas and learning with practitioners should be part of a transformed agriculture.

Food security is difficult to pin down. It can be explained simply as access to enough food. But behind that simplicity lies an interconnected web of factors - from food prices to agricultural practices, nutrition, natural resources, technology, trade and social development.

Breaking down such complexity to its component parts is artificial, but is often necessary to gain understanding. It is in that spirit that the collection of articles this week focuses on just one, but fundamental, aspect of food security: sustainable agriculture. We examine how science and technology (S&T) can increase agricultural productivity within environmental and resource limits. (Our next Spotlight will explore other aspects of food security.)

Although agricultural productivity has changed remarkably over the past 50 years or so, partly helped by advances in S&T, the limits to this growth are now clear.

Scarce land and water, poor soils, climate change impacts and more mouths to feed are among the challenges farmers face in the twenty-first century, particularly the smallholders who grow most of the food consumed in the developing world.

Time for transformation

An overview article by Zareen Pervez Bharucha, of the University of Essex in the United Kingdom, outlines resource challenges for agriculture - some of them the Green Revolution's environmental legacy - that illustrate a need to fundamentally transform farming.

Bharucha traces how S&T contributed to agricultural development, summarises recent advances (such as new crop varieties that benefit smallholders), and profiles agroecological systems that combine technological innovation with management strategies to suit local conditions in developing countries.

In the first of three opinion articles, Cuba-based agroecologist, researcher and farmer Fernando R. Funes-Monzote says family farmers must be central to any strategy for sustainable food production - and that agroecology is the most realistic approach.

He argues for the building of bridges between the realities of family farming and debates on sustainable agriculture, saying that, despite its promise, agroecology has had little impact as yet.

Echoing the call for a paradigm shift, Norman Uphoff, professor of government and international agriculture at Cornell University, United States, calls for alternative approaches to farming that suit current and future realities.

The usual, linear 'from lab to land' model of developing and diffusing innovations needs to change, says Uphoff. Scientists and practitioners should learn from new methods and ideas such as the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) - and they must get better at learning both with and from farmers.

There are several examples of farmer-led innovation and of fruitful collaboration between smallholders and researchers in the developing world, reports Joel Winston in a feature article. In some cases these have developed into farmer field schools: networks that share ideas and knowledge across agricultural communities.

These initiatives challenge the top-down model of technology transfer, tap into farmers' expertise and give them real control over the technologies they adopt.

What really works?

These writers reveal a palpable conviction about the potential of food production models that focus on agricultural ecosystems and smallholders. But how do farmers and scientists know what works?

The effectiveness of agroecological systems has been under debate, writes David J. Spielman, senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute in the United States. In the case of SRI, for example, Uphoff says it's time to accept the evidence of farmers' increased yields and the system's growing popularity, and put the controversy aside.

Spielman suggests economists can help evaluate such 'real-world' evidence, whatever the agricultural approach taken. But they'll need to work more closely with agronomists, he argues.

Perhaps one prerequisite to such collaboration is greater investment in gathering evidence - requiring a bigger and stronger monitoring and evaluation (M&E) component for any agricultural development project. A 2009 survey of agricultural experts suggested that M&E is weak, with little incentive for agencies and other organisations to devote resources to it. [1]

Another way of finding out what works - what some countries are doing right and how to replicate it - is to find success stories and communicate them, said Steve Wiggins, from the UK's Overseas Development Institute, speaking at The All Party Parliamentary Group on Agriculture and Food for Development in the United Kingdom last April.

Take the best of both

In a review of 20 agricultural success stories assessed by an international panel in 2009, applying S&T emerged as one of several determinants of success. [2] The case-studies included research and development for advanced crop breeding techniques as well as tools that work with farmers' traditional resource management practices.

This reminds us that the scientific approaches that 'worked' in the twentieth century are by no means irrelevant. It's no accident that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is working on computational advances that aim to take years off the development process for improved crop genotypes.

But how centrally biotechnology will feature in future agricultural development remains an open question. The answer may differ depending on location, context or crops.

Taken as a whole, our Spotlight articles suggest that sustainable agricultural development cannot simply apply technology or innovation, whether transferred or home-grown. S&T can provide the tools that people - farmers, scientists, economists or other partners - develop, according to their own needs.

Knowledge sharing, cooperation and learning platforms are essential.

Progress should come from investing not just in scientific approaches, but also in human resources. That will ensure agricultural production systems are sustainable - and have people keeping them that way.

African Union condemns 'unfair' ICC

Uhuru Kenyatta (back row) says his case will interfere with his running of the country

The International Criminal Court is treating Africa unfairly, a senior African Union official has said, at the start of a special AU meeting to discuss a possible pull-out.

Ethiopian Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the court was targeting Africa and Africans.

The two-day summit comes as Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta is due to face trial at The Hague next month.

He denies charges of organising violence after the 2007 elections.

On Thursday, Mr Kenyatta again asked for the charges to be dismissed.

He, along with some other African leaders, argue that a serving president should not be made to face trial.

The ICC has rejected a previous request that he be allowed to give evidence by video link.

His deputy, William Ruto, faces similar charges, which he also denies.

His trial was postponed for a week last month to allow him to return home to help deal with the terror attack on the Westgate shopping centre.

'Like Hermann Goering'

Mr Tedros, who is the current chairman of the AU's Executive Council, said the ICC was "condescending" towards the continent.

"Far from promoting justice and reconciliation... the court has transformed itself into a political instrument targeting Africa and Africans. This unfair and unjust treatment is totally unacceptable," he said.

He said that the ICC had failed to respond to the African Union's previous complaints and said the issue should be referred to the UN Security Council.

Kenya's foreign minister has denied initial reports that it is lobbying for the African Union to call for all member states to withdraw from the ICC.

Analysts say several East African nations favour such a move, while there is less support in West Africa.

Botswana has also publicly supported the court, while South Africa's governing African National Congress has voiced criticism.

Thirty-four of the AU's 54 members have signed up to the ICC.

If a large number of the 34 African countries were to pull out, it would be a huge blow to the ICC, which has 122 members.

Kenya's parliament has already passed a motion for the country to withdraw.

Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said that withdrawing from the court would be a "badge of shame".

Nobel Peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu has also voiced his support for the ICC.

"Those leaders seeking to skirt the court are effectively looking for a license to kill, maim and oppress their own people without consequence. They believe the interests of the people should not stand in the way of their ambitions of wealth and power," he wrote in an article carried by several newspapers.

"They simply vilify the institution as racist and unjust, as Hermann Goering and his fellow Nazi defendants vilified the Nuremberg tribunals following World War II," he wrote.

All eight of the cases currently open at the ICC are in Africa but it is also investigating possible cases elsewhere.

Gaddafi-era spy chief al-Senussi to be tried in Libya

Abdullah al-Senussi (in blue), Gaddafi's brother-in-law and a trusted aide, appeared at a pre-trial hearing in Tripoli on 19 September

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has ruled that Libya's Gaddafi-era intelligence chief, Abdullah al-Senussi, can be tried in Libya.

The decision means that the ICC will no longer demand that Mr Senussi be sent to The Hague to stand trial.

The former military intelligence boss was indicted by the ICC in 2011 for war crimes allegedly committed during the uprising against Colonel Gaddafi.

Mr Senussi's lawyer, Ben Emmerson, described it as a "shocking decision".

Mr Emmerson said he would be appealing against the ruling.

He said the ICC had evidence "that the Libyan justice system is in a state of collapse and that it is incapable of conducting fair trials of any Gaddafi-era officials".

The lawyer for the Libyan government welcomed the ICC's decision.

Philippe Sands said the ruling "vindicates the efforts it [the Libyan government] has made to give effect to the principle of complementarity, which allows Libya to conduct the trial of Mr Senussi if it satisfies the court, as it has done, that it can conduct a fair trial".

The principle referred to means that the ICC does not carry out proceedings against a suspect if it deems they are receiving a fair trial in a domestic court.

A pre-trial chamber at the ICC decided that "Libya is willing and able genuinely to carry out" investigations into Mr Senussi, the court said in a statement.

It said the decision had "no bearing on the case against Saif al-Islam Gaddafi".

'Sparse evidence'

The late Libyan leader's son was also indicted by the ICC for war crimes, and is a co-defendant, along with 36 others, of Mr Senussi in the domestic case.

The ICC said Libya had failed to show it had collected more than "a few sparse items of evidence" against Mr Gaddafi and had yet to secure him legal representation.

A court in Tripoli is to decide on 24 October whether to indict Mr Gaddafi and Mr Senussi, among 20 figures of the former regime charged with the 2011 killings of protesters, Agence France-Presse reported.

Saif Gaddafi is being held by a militia in the western town of Zintan. Last month the militiamen refused to deliver him to a court in Tripoli to appear at a pre-trial hearing alongside Mr Senussi and his co-defendants.

He is facing trial in Zintan on a separate charge of trading information threatening Libya's national security. That case has been adjourned until 12 December.

Security problems

The ICC said its decision not to try Mr Senussi - Col Gaddafi's brother-in-law and said to have been one of his closest aides - could be appealed against if it later decides the trial is unfair.

Mr Senussi has been implicated in an infamous Libyan massacre in 1996, in which more than 1,000 inmates were killed at the Abu Salim prison in Tripoli.

In 1999 Mr Senussi was tried in absentia in France and sentenced to life imprisonment for the shooting down of a UTA airliner over Niger a decade earlier.

He fled Libya after the downfall of Col Gaddafi but was extradited from Mauritania last year.

Amnesty International has called for the immediate transfer of Mr Senussi and Mr Gaddafi to the ICC.

'Law of the gun'

Amnesty said Libya still needed to improve security and rebuild the country's justice system to ensure fair impartial trials.

Ben Emmerson said Libya was "sliding into widescale lawlessness where the law of the gun rules and armed militias do as they please".

The former intelligence chief's lawyer added that the effect of Friday's decision would be "to condemn Mr Senussi to face mob justice without even access to a lawyer, and in which the inevitable outcome is the death penalty".

Libya has been beset by security problems since the 2011 uprising, during which Col Gaddafi was captured and killed while trying to hide from rebels.

Earlier this week, the country's prime minister, Ali Zeidan, was kidnapped for several hours by armed militiamen.

Libya: Bomb Badly Damages Sweden Consulate in Benghazi

A bomb has exploded near the Swedish consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Initial reports indicated that the building sustained heavy damages, but that no one had been hurt in the blast.

Security officials confirmed a car bomb had been detonated near the Swedish consulate on Friday.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

DW.DE

PM's seizure highlights chaos in Libya

Thursday's brief detainment of Prime Minister Ali Zidan has underlined the chaos currently wracking Libya. Analysts say that unless foreign powers offer the government help, the country could become "a failed state." (10.10.2013)

No one was injured in the attack, according to initial reports. However, the explosion left the building heavily damaged.

Libyan officials have struggled to maintain peace in the country since the 2011 civil war.

The bombing came a day after gunmen released Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zidan from captivity. The abduction appeared to be in retaliation for the Libyan government's alleged involvement in the US capture of a suspected al-Qaeda militant over the weekend.

The attack also came in the wake of an assault on Russia's embassy in Tripoli by an armed group less than two weeks ago.

On September 11, militants linked to al-Qaeda affiliates attacked the US consulate in Benghazi, killing the US ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.