tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71499030885715518382024-03-12T17:10:58.838-07:00Ann GarrisonAnn Garrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07763740577715213433noreply@blogger.comBlogger223125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7149903088571551838.post-31284438941802514422011-10-06T09:45:00.000-07:002011-10-06T09:45:12.911-07:00CIUT Taylor Report on Victoire Ingabire's Trial<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, 'Bitstream Vera Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', Meiryo, 'Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro', 'MS PGothic', Osaka, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="field field-name-field-mp3 field-type-audio field-label-hidden" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div class="field-items" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div class="field-item even" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div class="jp-audio" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; width: 420px;"><div class="jp-type-single" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, 'Bitstream Vera Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', Meiryo, 'Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro', 'MS PGothic', Osaka, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><i><br />
</i></span></span></span></div></div><div class="audio-download" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, 'Bitstream Vera Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', Meiryo, 'Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro', 'MS PGothic', Osaka, sans-serif;"><b style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Download:</b><span class="file" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><img alt="" class="file-icon" src="http://www.anngarrison.com/modules/file/icons/audio-x-generic.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="audio/mpeg" /> <a href="http://www.anngarrison.com/sites/default/files/mp3/CIUT%20Taylor_Report%20on%20Victoire%20Ingabire%27s%20trial%2009-05-2011.mp3" style="color: #c36328; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" type="audio/mpeg; length=20034453">CIUT Taylor_Report on Victoire Ingabire's trial 09-05-2011.mp3</a></span></span></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden" style="clear: right; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div class="field-items" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, 'Bitstream Vera Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', Meiryo, 'Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro', 'MS PGothic', Osaka, sans-serif;"><img alt="" src="http://www.anngarrison.com/sites/default/files/ciut_logo.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; float: left; height: 222px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; width: 215px;" /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, 'Bitstream Vera Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', Meiryo, 'Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro', 'MS PGothic', Osaka, sans-serif;">Victoire Ingabire is on trial in Kigali, Rwanda, for contesting the history of the Rwanda Genocide codified in the Rwandan Constitution, and thus, contesting the dictatorship of a Tutsi elite, and, their invasion, plunder, and de facto colonization of neighboring Congo. CUIT-Toronto Host Phil Taylor and I talked about her trial on its opening day, September 5, 2011.</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, 'Bitstream Vera Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', Meiryo, 'Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro', 'MS PGothic', Osaka, sans-serif;">Everything we said that day remains true, one month into the trial. We didn't have time to explain that the U.S. is one of Rwanda's top donors, but Rwanda Genocide survivor Aimable Mugara did so in his essay "<a href="http://sfbayview.com/2011/do-american-taxpayers-really-want-to-pay-rwanda-to-keep-victoire-ingabire-behind-bars/" style="color: #c36328; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Do American taxpayers really want to pay Rwanda to keep Victoire Ingabire behind bars?</a>" published on the website of the San Francisco Bay View Newspaper. </span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, 'Bitstream Vera Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', Meiryo, 'Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro', 'MS PGothic', Osaka, sans-serif;">When her trial resumed, after an adjournment, on October 4th, Victoire Ingabire herself said: </span></div><div class="rteindent1" style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 40px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, 'Bitstream Vera Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', Meiryo, 'Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro', 'MS PGothic', Osaka, sans-serif;"><strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><em style="font-style: italic; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">"Prosecution should stop misleading the public that I am afraid. I here reconfirm that I am not afraid at all and that I have never violated any law while being in Rwanda and outside of Rwanda. I did nothing wrong against my country."</em></strong></span></div></div></div></div></div>Ann Garrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07763740577715213433noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7149903088571551838.post-47581270140925451582011-07-28T18:34:00.000-07:002011-10-06T11:25:55.231-07:00Ann Garrison has moved from Blogger to Drupal<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGifqx3AeWit7KW9gJiZAEAMYiurin04_jBHaXxQ7un8SQOV3a65InEXhcwYeS9nVtWT4BtBSHyLGcr3p9uqDQ0ddVjx9KflGwGQM8DVTRrlRmWB2VqPDeOltk-frCmxvABb0oHxfb8IK6/s1600/websiteshot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGifqx3AeWit7KW9gJiZAEAMYiurin04_jBHaXxQ7un8SQOV3a65InEXhcwYeS9nVtWT4BtBSHyLGcr3p9uqDQ0ddVjx9KflGwGQM8DVTRrlRmWB2VqPDeOltk-frCmxvABb0oHxfb8IK6/s400/websiteshot.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
This blog has moved to a Drupal website, <a href="http://anngarrison.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #660000;">anngarrison.com</span></a>, with full search capabilities. </div>Ann Garrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07763740577715213433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7149903088571551838.post-65259565752963569392011-05-07T07:46:00.000-07:002011-05-07T07:47:18.930-07:00Political prisoner Ingabire under greater isolation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;"></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://fbcdn-photos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/231141_10150237775209328_758984327_8642380_7437173_a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="img" height="240" src="https://fbcdn-photos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/231141_10150237775209328_758984327_8642380_7437173_a.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza <br />
remains in maximum security prison in Kigali, Rwanda, <br />
where she has now been more isolated.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;">Kigali 06 May 2011</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"></div><br />
Ms. Victoire Ingabire, FDU-INKINGI chairperson and Rwandan political prisoner is spending her 204th day in captivity in maximum prison today.<br />
<div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"></div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;">More isolation measures are now in force. The party members who visited the prison today were not given a chance to see Ms. Ingabire. The jailers informed that they have orders to follow and that any other questions should be addressed to the Minister of internal Security. </div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;">On 29 April 2011 a dozen FDU-INKINGI party members were chased away by the maximum prison security staff. Security Minister Fazil Harelimana told the BBC-Kinyarwanda that Madame Victoire Ingabire “must herself submit in advance a list of 5 people prior to the visitation days because the government does not want anybody to disturb prisoners when they are watching TV, reading or enjoying their siesta." The political prisoner is incommunicado and has no means to pre-screen and shortlist her visitors days before. This is enormously inconvenient and has the direct effect of making visits impossible.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;">Since January 2011, the defense counsel has not been allowed to take confidential instructions from the client due to continuous and persistent monitoring of their discussions by security operatives. Prompt access has been often denied too. Those persistent violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights are seriously compromising all chances for a fair trial in Rwanda. </div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;">We call upon President Paul Kagame and his government to consider the humanity of political prisoners and remove all those obstacles. </div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;">FDU-Inkingi</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;">Boniface Twagirimana</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;">Interim Vice President.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;">We also recommend to visit <a href="http://www.victoire-ingabire.com/" rel="nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.victoire-ingabire.com/</a>.</div><div><br />
</div></div>Ann Garrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07763740577715213433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7149903088571551838.post-66352436978542089492011-04-25T08:56:00.000-07:002011-04-25T19:36:30.017-07:00Rwanda and the Pentagon's Predator Drones<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, 'Bitstream Vera Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', Meiryo, 'Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro', 'MS PGothic', Osaka, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"></span><br />
<div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 6px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><b>KPFA Weekend News, 04.23.2011:</b></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 6px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">KPFA Weekend News Host</strong>: The prevailing narrative of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide is that extremist Hutus massacred 800,000 or more Rwandan Tutsi and moderate Hutu, who tried to protect them. But, many scholars, journalists, and human rights investigators now argue that both Tutsi and Hutu massacred one another because of their ethnicity.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 6px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><img alt="" src="http://www.anngarrison.com/sites/default/files/images/Predator%20Drones%20Resized.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; float: right; height: 199px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; width: 300px;" />The truth is now more and more significant for all Africa, as NATO wages war in Libya, and U.S. policy lobbyists promote a <a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/02/drones-vs-darfur/" style="color: #c36328; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;">proposal to use Predator Drones to "stop genocide,"</a> specifically to stop the next Rwanda or Darfur from happening elsewhere in Africa, such as Libya or Sudan. KPFA's Ann Garrison spoke to a Rwandan American legal scholar and a Rwandan Genocide survivor about the Rwandan massacres of 1994.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 6px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 6px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Read more at anngarrison.com, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06;"><a href="http://www.anngarrison.com/audio/rwanda-genocide-excuse-for-predator-drones-over-africa."><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06;">http://www.anngarrison.com/audio/rwanda-genocide-excuse-for-predator-drones-over-africa</span></a> .</span></div></div>Ann Garrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07763740577715213433noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7149903088571551838.post-81616490394055790652011-04-21T20:25:00.000-07:002011-04-21T20:25:32.064-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyUOjtuDd2iB6gnyjC_oM5nSEFB8rD97Dy89KM-W6Vz807AZz1lGQkaix2upul75UqMIwFeDxqxB6IPPUaX8yy48FXVrvwNDWlSvhPZ4BR_TtD7Clpv8umxSaqmUVy1OYuTMUw0G0dquu7/s1600/KPFAlogostraightsmall.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyUOjtuDd2iB6gnyjC_oM5nSEFB8rD97Dy89KM-W6Vz807AZz1lGQkaix2upul75UqMIwFeDxqxB6IPPUaX8yy48FXVrvwNDWlSvhPZ4BR_TtD7Clpv8umxSaqmUVy1OYuTMUw0G0dquu7/s1600/KPFAlogostraightsmall.png" /></a></div><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Many social justice and environmental activists now decry as the cause of hunger and corporate land grabs, especially in Africa, to produce fuel for wealthier parts of the world. </div>Ann Garrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07763740577715213433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7149903088571551838.post-55812341440722273322011-04-09T21:14:00.000-07:002011-04-09T22:48:22.872-07:00Erlinder v. Kagame and Victor's History<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibeNw7A-GDofCkz4sxmmxC3edhh_5bDrKyyAKfqjJTlPxAkTwTkhJDllKsd8OhLeMHzpSB5EYGIvhQnMPl8R7qb8LM1Qqn7kN7HphKfuYZcNfYYMfeTkOXPi17g2-NpTBYuwl2M7X3ooKd/s1600/KPFAlogostraightcrop.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibeNw7A-GDofCkz4sxmmxC3edhh_5bDrKyyAKfqjJTlPxAkTwTkhJDllKsd8OhLeMHzpSB5EYGIvhQnMPl8R7qb8LM1Qqn7kN7HphKfuYZcNfYYMfeTkOXPi17g2-NpTBYuwl2M7X3ooKd/s1600/KPFAlogostraightcrop.png" /></a></span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii7tLIICOmuw1ayCDrTldIDp9s-ErN3BThpcgoozxw4pLyQBqbGOS-BsQMVqELLHj0nXCUoWqMo-WOB0wg3g911L9xBT1FFwwpvQHQyE8LlaA-ayAb77SByBf5Ab7szY8mZ4r3-NlKGOja/s1600/RwandaGenocide%25234.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii7tLIICOmuw1ayCDrTldIDp9s-ErN3BThpcgoozxw4pLyQBqbGOS-BsQMVqELLHj0nXCUoWqMo-WOB0wg3g911L9xBT1FFwwpvQHQyE8LlaA-ayAb77SByBf5Ab7szY8mZ4r3-NlKGOja/s320/RwandaGenocide%25234.jpg" width="216" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rwanda Genocide, 1994.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b></b><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><b>KPFA Weekend News Anchor David Rosenberg: </b>April 6th was the 17th anniversary of events that triggered the massacres that the world came to know as the Rwanda Genocide. The history of the 1994 genocide and the ensuing war in Rwanda's resource rich neighbor, the Democratic Republic of Congo, are fiercely disputed by a growing number of scholars, journalists, and human rights investigators, and by Rwandan and Congolese opposition leaders, genocide survivors, exiles, and refugees. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, Rwanda's 43-year-old opposition leader, and mother of three, remains in Rwanda's 1930 maximum security prison, charged with terrorism and disputing the official Rwanda Genocide history. And, William Mitchell Law Professor and former National Lawyers Guild President Peter Erlinder has now published an 80-page, footnoted and documented report, in the DePaul University Law School's Journal of Justice, in which he argues that Rwandan President Paul Kagame and his Rwandan Patriotic Front regime bear responsibility for the Rwanda Genocide and Congo Wars. </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Professor Peter Erlinder in handcuffs in a<br />
Kigali courtroom, with Kennedy Ogetto, the<br />
Kenyan ICTR lawyer who flew to Kigali to<br />
defend him when he was arrested after<br />
flying there to defend Victoire Ingabire <br />
Umuhoza.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Last year Kagame arrested and imprisoned Erlinder in Rwanda, after he had traveled there to defend Ingabire, and last week the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda came close to sanctioning him for refusing to return to Arusha, Tanzania, to defend another client. Erlinder had said that he would not return because Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front agents might well assassinate, kidnap, or disappear him if he did. The court did not acknowledge Erlinder's claim that his life would be in danger in Arusha, but they did excuse him after his doctor reported that he suffers from post traumatic stress syndrome as a consequence of his arrest and imprisonment in Rwanda last year.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">KPFA's Ann Garrison spoke to Professor Erlinder by phone from his office at William Mitchell College of Law, in St. Paul, Minneapolis:</span></div><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Ann Garrison: </b> Peter Erlinder, t</span>his story is still obscure to many KPFA listeners. Could you explain why Paul Kagame, the President of Rwanda, would conceivably want to assassinate, kidnap, or disappear you?<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Rwandan opposition leader<br />
Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza remains<br />
in Rwanda's 1930 maximum security<br />
prison charged with terrorism and<br />
genocide ideology, i.e., disagreeing with<br />
the official history of the Rwanda<br />
Genocide. </i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Peter Erlinder:</b> Well, during my work at the UN Tribunal, I had an opportunity to have access to the previously secret United Nations files that were kept by UN personnel in Rwanda during the time that's known as the genocide. And those documents tell a completely different story than the story the world has heard about what happened in Rwanda during that time. Also I was able to link that to US documents from the State Department, the CIA and the Pentagon and the documents from other countries. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">And I used those documents to defend my client and he and other military officers were acquitted of the charge of conspiracy to commit genocide, which means there was no plan on the part of the previous government and military. </span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Ann Garrison: </b> And do the documents that you've assembled demonstrate that President Kagame and the Rwandan Patriotic Front regime are most responsible for the mass slaughter of 1994 which came to be the principle justification of the Kagame regime? </span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Peter Erlinder: </b> Yeah, what the documents show is that the RPF were the dominant military power in Rwanda. They were responsible for assassinating the Rwandan and Burundian Presidents, which touched off the mass violence. They were in a position to stop the mass violence and didn't do so because of their desire to win the war. And then once they did seize power continued carrying out violence against civilians.</span></span></div><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://goo.gl/0XvO6">AfrobeatRadio</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Ann Garrison: </b>And what do those documents that you've assembled say about the ensuing Congo War? </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Peter Erlinder:</b> Well, the documents make clear that the RPF went on to carry out an invasion of the eastern Congo along with Uganda and then essentially to control the eastern Congo, which they do to this day. And that was accomplished because of ongoing support from the Pentagon, and then, unfortunately, it becomes clear that this support was covered up as the ICTR began to develop. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Ann Garrison: </b>Links to Professor Erlinder's report on the Rwanda Genocide and Congo War can be found on the websites of the San Francisco Bay View and AfrobeatRadio.net. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">For Pacifica, KPFA and AfrobeatRadio, I'm Ann Garrison.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i>(<a href="http://www.france-rwanda.info/article-the-united-nations-ad-hoc-tribunal-for-rwanda-ictr-tpir-international-justice-or-judicially-constructed-victors-impunity-68913793.html">SF Bay View link</a> for press release and download link Erlinder's report, </i></span><i>The United Nations Ad Hoc Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR-TPIR): International justice or judicially-constructed victors’ impunity?)</i><br />
<br />
</div></div>Ann Garrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07763740577715213433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7149903088571551838.post-41825508894975331892011-04-07T01:45:00.000-07:002011-04-07T23:59:55.689-07:00Hate Speech: An Argument for Genocide, in the OpEdNews???<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: right;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimw7_WTznpA_tvStxhkWMZrSQxIzx0szvnqgcA4tnbZVgI9RsMK_Rm3M_6qZd1wK28ZU_eGzsVkIJ_ibPoUxdjj8t8XBIWqlxYvSZJZ5chnoxPD76QvlGaLpwrrH2arnEbou7hM0JDUvHU/s1600/Poor-Rwandans.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimw7_WTznpA_tvStxhkWMZrSQxIzx0szvnqgcA4tnbZVgI9RsMK_Rm3M_6qZd1wK28ZU_eGzsVkIJ_ibPoUxdjj8t8XBIWqlxYvSZJZ5chnoxPD76QvlGaLpwrrH2arnEbou7hM0JDUvHU/s320/Poor-Rwandans.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"Rwandans so poor to be sterilized"<br />
Photo illustrating legal scholar Charles Kambanda's essay,<br />
"<a href="http://www.theproxylake.com/2011/02/rwanda-why-sterilize-the-poor/">Why sterilize the poor?</a>"</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="titlecomment"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Reading the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpEdNewshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpEdNews">OpEdNews</a>, which the Wikipedia defines as <span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">a </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">United States</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">-based, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressivism_in_the_United_States" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;" title="Progressivism in the United States">progressive</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">/</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_liberalism_in_the_United_States" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;" title="Modern liberalism in the United States">liberal</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">news</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activism" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">activism</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">, and opinion </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Website" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">websit</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">e, on 04.06.2011, the 17th anniversary of the Rwanda Genocide, I came across some deeply dangerous, ethnic hate speech demonizing East/Central African Hutu people, in a piece of writing titled "</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><a href="http://www.opednews.com/articles/Rwanda-a-Light-for-the-Wo-by-Olga-Bonfiglio-110406-53.html?show=votes">Rwanda, a Light for the World</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">." </span></span></div><div class="titlecomment"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="titlecomment"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">This piece of writing had already been promoted to the site's #3 headline, risen to #39 on the list of most viewed posts, and been reposted to Facebook four times. </span></span></div><div class="titlecomment"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="titlecomment"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">Its appearance, on a website that would never tolerate such talk of African Americans, Native Americans, or any other American ethnic group, demonstrates how widely accepted the official version of the Rwanda Genocide history, that Hutu extremists killed 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 100 days, is----and, how widely accepted the consequent demonization and/or dehumanization of East/ Central African Hutu people is. </span></span> In order for this to be published in the liberal, "progressive" OpEdNews, an OpEdNews editor had to approve it.</div><div class="titlecomment"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="titlecomment"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">Most ethnic hate speech is based on inaccurate information, but even if the official version of the Rwanda Genocide history were accurate, it could not possibly justify this wholesale demonization of Hutu people, which comes very close to an overt argument for genocide and/or, one form of genocide--- the Kagame regime's plan to sterilize 700,000 adult Rwandan males, which legal scholar Charles Kambanda so eloquently deconstructs in "<a href="http://www.theproxylake.com/2011/02/rwanda-why-sterilize-the-poor/">Rwanda: Why Sterilize the Poor?</a>" (The majority of Rwandans are Hutu, and, very poor.)</span></div><div class="titlecomment"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span></div><div class="contentsmall" style="color: black; margin-top: 8px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Specifically, the author, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=7149903088571551838&postID=4182550889497533189"><span class="wwscontent" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;">Olga Bonfiglio, writes:</span></a></span></span></div><div class="contentsmall" style="color: black; margin-top: 8px;"><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYqVqShxELuQDOdkezQ3hiEktBDa6KMSbF8pxamcqKL8niJHY7KsdFn9sEBK2lVYO8m_hnjmj_tB64PI1GaqwTnbqUU26-QcjjC5b6yqmBFS8OnAY7uJIVJb8aPbKL1gxBsxedPj47LIyo/s1600/Rwandamap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYqVqShxELuQDOdkezQ3hiEktBDa6KMSbF8pxamcqKL8niJHY7KsdFn9sEBK2lVYO8m_hnjmj_tB64PI1GaqwTnbqUU26-QcjjC5b6yqmBFS8OnAY7uJIVJb8aPbKL1gxBsxedPj47LIyo/s1600/Rwandamap.jpg" /></a></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"Mass migrations have taken place since 1959 when Tutsi refugees spilled into the neighboring countries of Burundi, Congo, Uganda and Tanzania <b>because Hutu regimes preached hate and discrimination.</b> President Paul Kagame, who led the rebel army against the Hutu government in 1994 and subsequently quelled the 100-day genocide, was among those Tutsi families who fled to Uganda.</span></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Since the Tutsi takeover of government, 3 million Hutu have left the country, some of them still lusting after Tutsi blood.</b> This massive dislocation of the population is <b>unsettling for Rwandans as well as for their neighbors who are forced to host refugees they don't want.</b> <b>Meanwhile, Rwanda remains one of the poorest, most densely-populated countries in the world with scarce resources to boot</b>."</span></i></div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Even as she claims to be praising Rwanda a model for ethnic reconciliation, Bonfiglio sounds as though she would really like to exterminate---e.g., by sterilization---this Hutu refugee population which is "still lusting after Tutsi blood," and is such a burden, not only to neighboring countries who don't want them, but also to Rwanda, which is already so poor and overpopulated without them.</span></div><div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-NilrGbOF8zKRZLqWaOjYzmfcuBD70pVS_fWGtp3I8Lw00A4rDwb9V0b2fK9WLZLHmM7XoMEZbGuldeMSlVglpwBqj25DTv4F4lv-UCNVRR6wQsjF4coxCQXgmpssWLSIdB7xZWVjdVBg/s1600/Kagamekarate.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-NilrGbOF8zKRZLqWaOjYzmfcuBD70pVS_fWGtp3I8Lw00A4rDwb9V0b2fK9WLZLHmM7XoMEZbGuldeMSlVglpwBqj25DTv4F4lv-UCNVRR6wQsjF4coxCQXgmpssWLSIdB7xZWVjdVBg/s200/Kagamekarate.jpeg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Rwandan President<br />
Paul Kagame</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Best I can say is that Bonfiglio at least acknowledges that there was a Tutsi takeover of the Rwandan government in 1994, a reality that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Kagame">Rwandan President Paul Kagame</a> and most of his other propagandists are still trying to deny, claiming that they have instead abolished ethnic identification and privilege based on ethnic identification. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Bonfiglio seems strangely unable to perceive the contradictions between:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">1) Her claim, like theirs, that Rwanda is "the light of the world," a model of reconciliation, and, </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">2) Her acknowledgment of an ethnic Tutsi takeover, and, </span></div><div><br />
</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"></span>3) Her hate speech demonizing and dehumanizing Hutu people as so many have since the Tutsi, Rwandan Patriotic Front victory in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_Civil_War">Rwandan Civil War of 1990-1994</a>. </div></div><br />
<div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">F</span>or alternative accounts of the violence known as the Rwanda Genocide, argued from evidence, listen to <a href="http://afrobeatradio.net/2011/02/09/prof-peter-erlinder-speaks-on-rwanda-genocide/">Professor Peter Erlinder Speaks on Rwanda Genocide</a>, on AfrobeatRadio.net, read Professor Peter Erlinder's <a href="http://france-rwanda-tribune.over-blog.com/article-the-united-nations-ad-hoc-tribunal-for-rwanda-ictr-tpir-international-justice-or-judicially-constructed-victors-impunity-68913793.html">The United Nations Ad Hoc Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR-TPIR): International Justice or Victor's Impunity</a>, and/or Michel Chussodovsky's <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO305A.html">Rwanda: Installing a US Protectorate in Central Africa</a>, on Global Research. </div></div></div>Ann Garrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07763740577715213433noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7149903088571551838.post-80838584573343098312011-04-03T21:43:00.000-07:002012-08-02T15:39:09.433-07:00California Fault Lines, Lawmakers, and Nuclear Power<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>KPFA Weekend News Anchor Anthony Fest:</b> California has two operating nuclear power plants, San Onofre in Orange County, and PG&E's Diablo Canyon Plant in San Luis Obispo County, on the Central Coast. Both are on the coastline and both are built near earthquake faults. State Senator Alex Padilla has called for a special hearing at the State capitol on April 14 to examine the risks the two aging plants might pose. KPFA's Ann Garrison has the story.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>PG&E's Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant on the<br />
California Coast</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>KPFA/Ann Garrison:</b> For the past five years the San Luis Obispo-based <a href="http://a4nr.org/">Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility</a> has been urging California legislators and oversight agencies to require peer reviewed seismic studies to measure the risk of earthquake damage to Pacific Gas and Electric's (PG&E's) nuclear power plant at Diablo Canyon and Southern California Edison's plant at San Onofre. The California Energy Commission has requested that the <a href="http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/puc/">California Public Utilities Commission</a> require PG&E do the latest, advanced 3-D studies on both old and new earthquake faults beneath Diablo Canyon before granting any ratepayer funding for its license renewal applications, but PG&E has opposed and fought the requirement to do the studies, and the CPUC has failed to act. Rochelle Becker, Executive Director of the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility, says that Japan's worsening nuclear catastrophe could have been California's, and that Californians should be able to insist that the studies be done now.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rochelle Becker, Executive Director,<br />
Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>Rochelle Becker:</b> The one thing that separates California from every other reactor site in the nation is the seismic proximity. There are four active faults within 5 kilometers of Diablo Canyon, one 1800 feet away. There are several active faults offshore of San Onofre and there are new studies being done that have come out of the Baja quakes last year. We are focussing on what the State has jurisdiction to do. If we step into fighting nuclear power, fighting the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, then we have a much greater hill to climb. And, we are on the other side of the country from the rest of the reactors' groups. We need to focus on California. We certainly support what everyone else is doing, but in California, it is California rights that should do this. It is California officials who are responsible. <br />
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<b>KPFA: </b> Updates on the challenge to re-licensing California's nuclear power plants will be posted to the website of the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility, <a href="http://a4nr.org/">a4nr.org</a>, as the process unfolds.<br />
<br />
For Pacifica/KPFA, I'm Ann Garrison.<br />
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<br /></div>Ann Garrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07763740577715213433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7149903088571551838.post-35646150244069345042011-04-02T23:20:00.001-07:002012-03-07T09:47:02.682-08:00The LRA Excuse for Ugandan Troops in Congo---Again<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIU48DRMKCk15EwoU1T_1Pn4EGD_RoTwJCNuPOzJNVcQaYbl_l4h2FPVy5RKeRNmPPD9aVt1gRvpVYp0_qKo3RfD6vg0Jy59ztl0NMqKyOlHPo1X1YW-IAUgciQg0d8U1TV3vIiXvateBj/s1600/Joseph-Kony.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIU48DRMKCk15EwoU1T_1Pn4EGD_RoTwJCNuPOzJNVcQaYbl_l4h2FPVy5RKeRNmPPD9aVt1gRvpVYp0_qKo3RfD6vg0Jy59ztl0NMqKyOlHPo1X1YW-IAUgciQg0d8U1TV3vIiXvateBj/s200/Joseph-Kony.jpg" width="200" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">LRA militia leader Joseph Kony</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><b>KPFA Audio link: </b><a href="http://goo.gl/0kSN9">http://goo.gl/0kSN9</a></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><b><br />
</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><b>KPFA Weekend News Anchor:</b> Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's state newspaper, <a href="http://blog.invisiblechildren.com/2011/03/new-vision-uganda-congo-resume-kony-hunt/">The New Vision, has reported</a> that the UN Security Council and the Democratic Republic of Congo have agreed to join Museveni's army, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uganda_People's_Defence_Force">Uganda People's Defense Force</a>, in a new offensive to hunt Joseph Kony’s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord's_Resistance_Army">Lord’s Resistance Army</a>, or <span class="il" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #dbf0fa; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #222222;">LRA</span>, and Jamil Mukulu’s Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF, in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic. The U.S.A.'s <a href="http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-s1067/show"><span class="il" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #dbf0fa; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #222222;">LRA</span> Disarmament Act</a>, which President Obama signed into law in 2010, authorizes funding, training, and collaboration with the U.S. Department of State, the Department of Defense, the US Agency for International Development, and the U.S. Intelligence Community to hunt down the <span class="il" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #dbf0fa; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #222222;">LRA</span>. KPFA's Ann Garrison has more:</span></span><br />
<div class="gmail_quote"><div class="gmail_quote" style="font-size: 13px;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdVi4nbRnrA3aRVPzML-qHW9G7V4nm_Ivcyd6AQtuoW4A_GOKZBccx5EBMEpQZX3IlvRyHhawweLw831dUFs27JFtY_0rojHUjUGR-LGW0bF1QebE7_RhZDzbOt_G8PDieh2KKWS_mHF_T/s1600/UgandaRegionalcrop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdVi4nbRnrA3aRVPzML-qHW9G7V4nm_Ivcyd6AQtuoW4A_GOKZBccx5EBMEpQZX3IlvRyHhawweLw831dUFs27JFtY_0rojHUjUGR-LGW0bF1QebE7_RhZDzbOt_G8PDieh2KKWS_mHF_T/s1600/UgandaRegionalcrop.jpg" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Uganda and its neighbors, the<br />
Democratic Republic of <br />
Congo, Central African<br />
Republic, and Sudan. </span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
<b>KPFA/Ann Garrison: </b> The Security Council, and the Congolese and Ugandan Defense Ministers said that the Ugandan Army needs to launch this new military offensive in Congo and the Central African Republic, or CAR, because the <span class="il" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #dbf0fa; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #222222;">LRA</span> keep raping and killing civilians there, though the UN Mapping Report released on October 1st, 2010, documents the Ugandan Army's own civilian massacres, mass rapes, and other sexual atrocities in Congo. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Michael Kirkpatrick is a <a href="http://www.blackstarnews.com/news/122/ARTICLE/6586/2010-06-02.html">Black Star News</a> contributor who has traveled back and forth to Uganda and its Acholi region frequently since 1998. He says that Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army are always the most convenient excuse for military intervention: </span></span></div><div class="gmail_quote" style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsrketoWu6w_DlR1wpc1taTq4jCSAruFOIigVErSrNPVudqt5v2AsE3rBB9xPWCD4u2qTNkZqCvDiEWz6jZNx8zpFjMpgvw9qD-PNpK1BN4dG2g83Lu4TnHg3JvQh_wyrIoFDYNfSzaRor/s1600/MichaelK.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsrketoWu6w_DlR1wpc1taTq4jCSAruFOIigVErSrNPVudqt5v2AsE3rBB9xPWCD4u2qTNkZqCvDiEWz6jZNx8zpFjMpgvw9qD-PNpK1BN4dG2g83Lu4TnHg3JvQh_wyrIoFDYNfSzaRor/s200/MichaelK.jpg" width="200" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Black Star News contributor Michael<br />
Kirkpatrick in Northern Uganda</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><b>Michael Kirkpatrick: </b>There is a pattern of demonizing Joseph Kony for every atrocity and every crime. Joseph Kony has become demonized to justify military intervention by the U.S. and by other forces in that part of Africa. He's become a phantom menace. He's almost like this mysterious fog that is just creeping around Central Africa but he's been able to survive for over 20 years. He's nothing but a gang leader. He's a thug. He's a rag tag bunch of criminals that's somehow been able to survive for over 20 years. There's a reason he's been able to survive. He is the bad guy in the battle. To say that, somehow, modern armies haven't been able to capture, in twenty years, a rebel thug, is preposterous. </span></div><div class="gmail_quote"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz3PTyw_NMgG2oiBebr8NotOvugy_L8T5RB7H885bn6azK8iGaZm_UqWXkEeisu1Ou2iHpnFnDb4-02nq64iPeCul8zEsIdM6jCTNJh5f3AcVjXLmwCalrZjpdxD8fk4ZCfdsdV4K6n5VB/s1600/HomoGenerals.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz3PTyw_NMgG2oiBebr8NotOvugy_L8T5RB7H885bn6azK8iGaZm_UqWXkEeisu1Ou2iHpnFnDb4-02nq64iPeCul8zEsIdM6jCTNJh5f3AcVjXLmwCalrZjpdxD8fk4ZCfdsdV4K6n5VB/s1600/HomoGenerals.jpeg" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Uganda's Rolling Stone tabloid's cover story</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">about Islamic "homo generals" with ties</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">to the Lord's Resistance Army.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>KPFA: </b> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Last November Uganda's fanatically homophobic tabloid newspaper <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_Stone_(Uganda)">Rolling Stone</a> ran a story about what it called Islamic Homo Generals, meaning terrorists, with ties to the Lord's Resistance Army. </span></span></div><div class="gmail_quote"><div><div style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.8ex; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding-left: 1ex;"></blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">For Pacifica, <a href="http://www.kpfa.org/">KPFA</a> Radio, I'm Ann Garrison.</span></div></div></div></div></div>Ann Garrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07763740577715213433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7149903088571551838.post-21244472557346096892011-04-01T16:13:00.000-07:002011-04-03T21:14:47.733-07:00Stopping Nuclear Power in California<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjddn1dyvIaujR9fKMGgPBCSz53sBYwixCItVetbu3CtTofiwYTcy_6gap9vIz-Q1fb-dXsHBbhB9gJfADLwpmX5Easq1WNckmU9gdU05j5eikUXy_NGlB22rjRlP7iGM-CT6xQLjehtXXp/s1600/KPFAlogostraightcrop.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjddn1dyvIaujR9fKMGgPBCSz53sBYwixCItVetbu3CtTofiwYTcy_6gap9vIz-Q1fb-dXsHBbhB9gJfADLwpmX5Easq1WNckmU9gdU05j5eikUXy_NGlB22rjRlP7iGM-CT6xQLjehtXXp/s1600/KPFAlogostraightcrop.png" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYgf7-IPEd7EgD8MXsRs58qyCIgIYaYzn5RHiXIxzX1m7xMwAy9LD-w00CKyrwhxYyvW8HuAOkD78ozR2HJA5xvvLMFp0D1RADuFw75k9HzhxpNyy9_qUGacqJHBrV6Wfib408rbrv3Fad/s1600/KMEC.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="60" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYgf7-IPEd7EgD8MXsRs58qyCIgIYaYzn5RHiXIxzX1m7xMwAy9LD-w00CKyrwhxYyvW8HuAOkD78ozR2HJA5xvvLMFp0D1RADuFw75k9HzhxpNyy9_qUGacqJHBrV6Wfib408rbrv3Fad/s200/KMEC.png" width="200" /></a></div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; font-style: normal;">Url for KPFA Radio archive above: <a href="http://goo.gl/8lFix">http://goo.gl/8lFix</a>.</span></span></i><br />
<br />
I spoke with Rochelle Becker of the <a href="http://a4nr.org/">Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility</a> about the statewide campaign to make the <a href="http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/puc/">California Public Utilities Commission</a> (CPUC) require <a href="http://www.pge.com/">Pacific Gas'n Electric</a> (PG&E), and <a href="http://www.sce.com/">Southern California Edison</a> (SCE), do further seismic studies before re-licensing their nuclear power plants, PG&E's Diablo Canyon plant and SCE's San Onofre Plant. This interview has played on <a href="http://www.kpfa.org/">KPFA-Berkeley</a>, <a href="http://www.kmecradio.org/">KMEC-Mendocino</a>, both Pacifica radio stations in the State of California.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinU58UpTqN7o1tZdtb-pzvSQhB5Ln3C46s3R4oI8u5xk7Ma0YUzHwusSwBTadqaT24iSG3g705JtLR3Y3wQjfl3M0gLqYQsUMkBsC5F7avhOnkxnTHlUIToldk4w2NwtmafYHVNGbk72u9/s1600/DiabloCanyon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinU58UpTqN7o1tZdtb-pzvSQhB5Ln3C46s3R4oI8u5xk7Ma0YUzHwusSwBTadqaT24iSG3g705JtLR3Y3wQjfl3M0gLqYQsUMkBsC5F7avhOnkxnTHlUIToldk4w2NwtmafYHVNGbk72u9/s320/DiabloCanyon.jpg" width="314" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Pacific Gas'n Electric's Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant</i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; font-style: normal;">Url for KPFA radio archive: <a href="http://goo.gl/8lFix">http://goo.gl/8lFix</a>.</span></span></i></div></div></div>Ann Garrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07763740577715213433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7149903088571551838.post-28882953369304642922011-03-21T12:46:00.000-07:002011-03-28T16:35:13.563-07:00Navajo activists for another way, beyond coal and nuclear, after Japan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPXyxtujyJeYQtI8pea2dIzkPO5712mLyYhG0XqFqZCtCzCWuDUbJH86bRhUBsos9rD8F0gvdyqgp1EjCkK6BoURU1jOudOLdfW7M2U_NebG5FtTkkSRdNRhpSBao88Z5NVFw5TJB-cpgG/s1600/KPFAlogostraightcrop.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrHYjshXoEn_lVk0Qz36DxPSaxFj_rnDNy3btdFN3ex31fRobLywG-qmSDtEaMOrgGmoICyB1Uhc6IhYsDcvzjBCa6qwcMIlJgbwB8TIUi85EAMX_mL9msBm3CSOu0Tofm9Di-MiF-0lqu/s1600/LoriGoodman%25283%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrHYjshXoEn_lVk0Qz36DxPSaxFj_rnDNy3btdFN3ex31fRobLywG-qmSDtEaMOrgGmoICyB1Uhc6IhYsDcvzjBCa6qwcMIlJgbwB8TIUi85EAMX_mL9msBm3CSOu0Tofm9Di-MiF-0lqu/s400/LoriGoodman%25283%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i>Lori Goodman of Diné CARE, lifelong environmental<br />
activist, of Citizens saUnited Against Ruining<br />
Our Environment, and the Navajo Nation.<br />
Photo: Craig Barrett<br />
</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.kpfa.org/">http://www.kpfa.org/</a></td></tr>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">K</span>PFA Weekend News Anchor Anthony Fest</span></b>: In <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Times; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">1979, the same year as the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navajo_Nation">Navajo Nation</a> suffered the worst uranium mining accident in U.S. history, when 1100 tons of mining tailings and 100 million gallons of radioactive water burst through an earthen dam, into the Rio Puerco, at a uranium mine in Church Rock, New Mexico on the Navajo Reservation. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Times; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Times; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">In 2005, the Navajo Nation passed <a href="http://www.sric.org/uranium/DNRPA.pdf">the world's first and only indigenous ban on uranium mining</a>, but mining corporations and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have attempted to ignore or override that ban. KPFA's Ann Garrison spoke to lifelong Navajo environmentalist Lori Goodman, with <a href="http://www.dinecare.org/">Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment</a> about the Navajo response to the Japanese nuclear catastrophe:</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></b></span></b><br />
<b><br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>KPFA/Ann Garrison: </b>Lori, how have the Navajo people reacted to the Japanese nuclear power catastrophe?</span></b><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWO5ZT7LyJIuXYr0GmGOOgpM4cwW4p1OAIMlfW5wEVJiuhW7KOfWnD18egbM5gBfhyphenhyphenwhXPj1R_myfwWCYCzN0yRQLu_O2EOWPm11qBBsoFxJ7SygQx-_I89i4g6w65ZYvTT-lQ-lZMO4dy/s1600/NavajoResmap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWO5ZT7LyJIuXYr0GmGOOgpM4cwW4p1OAIMlfW5wEVJiuhW7KOfWnD18egbM5gBfhyphenhyphenwhXPj1R_myfwWCYCzN0yRQLu_O2EOWPm11qBBsoFxJ7SygQx-_I89i4g6w65ZYvTT-lQ-lZMO4dy/s320/NavajoResmap.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Navajo Reservation is 26,000 square miles, in<br />
Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. With a quarter<br />
million people, it is the largest native nation in<br />
the U.S.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><b>Lori Goodman: </b>Well, the Navajo people understand what's happening in Japan, and that the situation that they're in is because of the electrical power that they were receiving, in that case from a nuclear power plant. And, in the case of the Navajo people, we have two of the largest coal-fired and most polluting power plants in the western United States on the Navajo Nation. And so they see that as one and the same, and they also understand that there's a better way to generate electricity, by harnessing the sun and the wind. <br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>KPFA: </b>What is the stage of your renewable energy proposal. A lot of intellectual infrastructure but no capital source---is that still the case?<br />
<br />
<b>Lori Goodman: </b>Ah, yes, it is. We really need the California ratepayers to go back and say "OK, we will buy energy from the Navajo Nation, from renewable energy sources."<br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>KPFA: </b>And are the mining corporations and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission still pressuring you, trying to ignore or override the historic uranium mining ban?<br />
<br />
<b>Lori Goodman:</b> Yes, the day after it was signed, they all went into action to try and lift the ban, or sidestep. That's going on. <br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Warning not to drink<br />
from the Rio Puerco, <br />
1979, after the earthen dam at<br />
U.S. Nuclear's uranium <br />
mine burst. Eleven<br />
hundred tons of tailings <br />
and 100 million gallons of<br />
radioactive water spilled<br />
into the the river, before<br />
Navajo miners, working <br />
without protective gear,<br />
could repair it. </i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><b>KPFA: </b><b style="font-weight: normal;"> </b>And what's the state of the attempt to clean up the toxic mess left by the many years of uranium mining?<br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>Lori Goodman: </b>Church Rock now is a Superfund site, but we have three other Superfund sites on the Navajo Nation from uranium mining. And there's also a need to have 20 or 30 more other Superfund sites, but unfortunately the Superfund has not been reauthorized, so there are no funds there, so people are dying and getting polluted daily. <br />
<br />
<b>KPFA: </b>Lori, you're also on the Board of the <a href="http://www.peacedevelopmentfund.org/">Peace Development Fund</a>. Would you like to say anything about the connection between nuclear power, weapons, and war?<br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>Lori Goodman: </b>Well, I think the Peace Development Fund sees that as one and the same. There's no such thing as peaceful nuclear energy. It's all destructive, as we see that being played out right now in Japan. And I do want to say that Peace Development Fund has set up donations for the communities that live next to the nuclear power plants in Japan, because we understand those people that live next to these plants are also environmental justice communities. So Peace Development Fund wants to ensure that those people get help because most of the time they're overlooked, just as we saw in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina">Katrina</a>. <br />
<br />
<b>KPFA: </b> Lori, thank you. It's an honor to speak to you for KPFA.<br />
<br />
<b>Lori Goodman</b>: Thank you for having me.<br />
<br />
<b>KPFA:</b> Goodman also said that if California stopped using nuclear power, they would hugely reduce the pressure to overturn the Navajo uranium mining ban, the only native claim to resource sovereignty of its kind. <br />
<br />
For Pacifica, KPFA Radio, I'm Ann Garrison. <br />
<br />
KPFA Radio archive URL: <a href="http://goo.gl/NMkAS">http://goo.gl/NMkAS</a>.</div>Ann Garrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07763740577715213433noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7149903088571551838.post-50490422080287096182011-03-19T19:50:00.000-07:002011-03-22T15:35:24.940-07:00Can Barney out legislate Bahati?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
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</span></b></span></b></div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;">KPFA Weekend News Anchor Cameron Jones:</span></b> On Tuesday, Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank, ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, moved a human rights amendment to the Financial Services Bill out of committee on a unanimous vote. <a href="http://financialservices.house.gov/media/pdf/031511Frank008Am.pdf">The amendment</a> urges the U.S. Treasury Department to advocate that multilateral development banks supported by the U.S. not assist nations engaging in gross human rights violations, including denial of the freedom of religion and physical persecution because of sexual orientation or gender identity. KPFA's Ann Garrison has more. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGXoP4l8EjxubAqNhMW_G91O2h0KIlQuIAXrX01ucTEFLrnzwlR24Bv8ICBuKJC55kgklR_pmptZPwB3x8zOwqp2XIjK85R7a67nGNSYNybEiU4vdLo1Cx_obNES4EsUE2tIEFAacdV_ky/s1600/uganda_anti-homosexuality_bill_protest2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGXoP4l8EjxubAqNhMW_G91O2h0KIlQuIAXrX01ucTEFLrnzwlR24Bv8ICBuKJC55kgklR_pmptZPwB3x8zOwqp2XIjK85R7a67nGNSYNybEiU4vdLo1Cx_obNES4EsUE2tIEFAacdV_ky/s320/uganda_anti-homosexuality_bill_protest2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: center;"><i>The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power protest <br />
against Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Act, <br />
a.k.a. Hang-the-Gays Bill, in New York City.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><b>KPFA/Ann Garrison: </b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barney_Frank">Congressman Barney Frank</a>, in his press release about the amendment, used the physical persecution of sexual minorities in Uganda as an example of the sort of human rights violations that his amendment would discourage, so most of the press has interpreted it as being targeted singly at Uganda's pending<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uganda_Anti-Homosexuality_Bill"> Anti-Homosexuality Act,</a> otherwise known as the Hang-the-Gays bill, or, the Bahati bill, after its author Ugandan Parliamentarian David Bahati. Last week the New Vision, Uganda's state-owned newspaper, reported that Uganda's Speaker of Parliament has summoned MPs to report on March 22 to take up “unfinished business,” including the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. <br />
<br />
Liberian born <a href="http://www.ips-dc.org/staff/emira">Emira Woods</a>, Co-Editor of the Institute for Policy Studies' Foreign Policy in Focus, and one of the African advocates at the March 2nd Congressional briefing on the <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Countries/AfricaRegion/Pages/RDCProjetMapping.aspx">UN Mapping Report</a> on Congo atrocities, told KPFA that although LGBT rights activism had most likely inspired Frank to write the amendment, it should apply to the whole range of human rights violations. She added, however, that an enforcement mechanism is hard to imagine: <br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"></span>Emira Woods: </b>With the amendment and press release coming forward, what Congressman Frank has done is call much needed attention to the anti-gay legislation and I think we should commend that, and yet I think it is difficult to imagine how that will be implemented by Treasury using its leverage on the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the other international financial institutions. I think this is an instance where a Congressman is using the political, sort of like a bully pulpit.<br />
<div><br />
<b>KPFA: </b>And then you think the amendment's advocacy might be expanded to stop other gender violence such as the sexual terrorism in the Democratic Republic of Congo? <br />
<br />
<b>Emira Woods: </b>I think its first important to applaud the attention that he's bringing to the issues of the anti-gay legislation in Uganda. That's huge. And I think it's much needed. And all of the champions and defenders of human rights broadly, of LGBT right in particular, throughout Africa, welcome the statements and the actions from Congressman Frank. So I think wee have to applaud that first. Acknowledge it, support it, strengthen it. And then, I think, moving further to encourage a similar bully pulpit be used to address the atrocities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.<br />
<br />
<b>KPFA: </b>For Pacifica, KFPA and AfrobeatRadio, I'm Ann Garrison.<br />
<br />
Audio link: <a href="http://www.anngarrison.com/images/mp3s/barneyfranklgbt.mp3">http://www.anngarrison.com/images/mp3s/barneyfranklgbt.mp3</a>.</div></div></div>Ann Garrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07763740577715213433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7149903088571551838.post-50713241277848915192011-03-13T12:18:00.001-07:002012-03-13T15:15:55.985-07:00White Man's Burden: Affleck and Prendergast in Congress for Congo<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHAr41corfmyLGGeS2SVpF0m5whLQSlCEZWFmplfgN2flqLzC-wzk8PzMcK4JUMsXwSi-M5XDZYbmGdJS6BdqqPOrAgYOZ9tKwFfD8cU4rfQ23aRBmWHk0FbD9PEe75tAsnHoG6pM6Ghzf/s1600/AffleckPrendergast.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHAr41corfmyLGGeS2SVpF0m5whLQSlCEZWFmplfgN2flqLzC-wzk8PzMcK4JUMsXwSi-M5XDZYbmGdJS6BdqqPOrAgYOZ9tKwFfD8cU4rfQ23aRBmWHk0FbD9PEe75tAsnHoG6pM6Ghzf/s320/AffleckPrendergast.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Ben Affleck and John Prendergast in Congress, <br />
March 6th, 2010 to testify at a House Foreign <br />
Affairs Committee hearing on conflict in the <br />
Democratic Republic of Congo. No<br />
Congolese or African person testified.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><b>KPFA News Anchor Cameron Jones: </b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">On Tuesday the House Foreign Relations Committee held a <a href="http://www.c-span.org/Events/House-Foreign-Affairs-Subcommittee-Hearing-on-Congo/10737420057-1/">hearing </a>on the Democratic Republic of Congo, the most lethal conflict in the world since World War II, which has continued since the International Rescue Committee estimated, over three years ago, that more than 5.4 million people had died in the conflict, most of whom died of hardship after being driven from their homes. The hearing featured the testimony of actor <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222;">Ben Affleck</span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">, heiress and philanthropist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cindy_McCain">Cindy McCain</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Prendergast">John Prendergast</a>, co-founder of the <a href="http://www.enoughproject.org/">Enough Project</a>, a foreign policy lobbying project of the <a href="http://www.americanprogress.org/">Center for American Progress</a>. No Congolese, African, or even African American person testified. KPFA's Ann Garrison has more. </span></span></span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><b>KPFA/Ann Garrison: </b>Friends of the Congo's Executive Director Maurice Carney told KPFA that the absence of a Congolese or even African voice at the Congressional hearing on Congo's catastrophe was no surprise even in the age of President Barack Obama.</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: right;"></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><b>Maurice Carney: </b>It's part of a long pattern of the colonization of information. You have experts who claim to be speaking on behalf of the Africans.</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJxJ8hXxLpcn8H4i9s-qKUHVlVnbP0lPAe32JOMKU52qHXt3jr9BIYipt0I2iniAGB14FF5o1FRYEiK8WWAqF-PnD5J2XBgumFJMYoRfxaoQgbGM8_4B1dte30kVLKpXioTwoi1xEiO18P/s1600/IMG_5001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJxJ8hXxLpcn8H4i9s-qKUHVlVnbP0lPAe32JOMKU52qHXt3jr9BIYipt0I2iniAGB14FF5o1FRYEiK8WWAqF-PnD5J2XBgumFJMYoRfxaoQgbGM8_4B1dte30kVLKpXioTwoi1xEiO18P/s400/IMG_5001.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">African scholars and activists Nii Akuetta, Claude<br />
Gatebuke, Emira Wood, Jacques, Bahati, Nita Evele, and<br />
Kambale Musavuli, the all African panelists at the<br />
Great LakesAdvocates' Coalition March 2nd briefing on<br />
the 2010 UN Mapping Report, which docuemtnts atrocities <br />
committed in the Democratic Republic of Congo. <br />
None of them were invited <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><i>to the March 6th </i></span></span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><i></i></span>Affleck/Prendergast Congressional hearing on Congo. </span></i><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i>Photo credit: Arrian Lewis</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><b>KPFA: </b>The African Great Lakes Advocacy Coalition had, six days earlier held a briefing on the <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Countries/AfricaRegion/Pages/RDCProjetMapping.aspx">UN Mapping Report</a>, released on October 1, 2010, which documents mass atrocities in Congo, with an all African, including Congolese, panel. An intern from John Prendergast's ENOUGH Project was in attendance, asking questions, but, as Carney noted, none of the panel's all African speakers were invited to speak at Tuesday's hearing.</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Affleck and Prendergast attributed most of Congo's violence to two militias, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Forces_for_the_Liberation_of_Rwanda">Democratic Federation for the Liberation of Rwanda</a>, on Congo's southeastern border with Rwanda, and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord's_Resistance_Army">Lord's Resistance Army</a> on its northeastern border with Uganda, but the African Great Lakes Advocates said that Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, both longstanding U.S. allies, are most responsible, and that this has been abundantly evidenced in the UN Mapping Report, and many previous UN reports referenced in the Mapping Report. </div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixT_0uLoU4gAj8P4tD6wskmjHQS8mPQKQ8Trqpwq9XQDXMvzsBnIg4-iMHxI39h7VfU6pJ5otBMafwWRL8ZOPyfpQ7w2Fj_cioDacIwiumi6cR_SlwffVEtaP5gUwx8yEjHqJOvrZ2ZSwd/s1600/MauriceCarney.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixT_0uLoU4gAj8P4tD6wskmjHQS8mPQKQ8Trqpwq9XQDXMvzsBnIg4-iMHxI39h7VfU6pJ5otBMafwWRL8ZOPyfpQ7w2Fj_cioDacIwiumi6cR_SlwffVEtaP5gUwx8yEjHqJOvrZ2ZSwd/s320/MauriceCarney.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i>Maurice Carney, <br />
Executive Director, Friends of the Congo</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><b>Maurice Carney: </b>Both the FDLR and the LRA can enroll in the Museveni and Kagame School of Mass Atrocities and get a Ph.D., because the overwhelming suffering in the region has been triggered by U.S. allies Rwanda and Uganda, led by their presidents. So, when you have people testifying in Congress and talking about FDLR and LRA, to the exclusion of U.S. allies Rwanda and Uganda, you feel like you're in the twilight zone, lIke <i>'What are you talking about?' </i> Friends of the Congo maintains that, based on the information that these groups present, we can't help but be led to the conclusion that they're looking to cover for U.S. strategic and economic interests because their presentations are marked by two striking exclusions. One, a discussion around Rwanda and Uganda, and two, a discussion around multinational corporations, the mining companies that are directly involved in the region. </div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><b>KPFA: </b>John Prendergast is most often introduced on talk shows, and in Congressional hearings, as an author and human rights advocate, but neither he nor the ENOUGH Project hide his previous employment as Director of African Affairs on Bill Clinton's National Security Council, and on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Intelligence_Council">National Intelligence Council</a>.</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br />
</div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Ben Affleck made <a href="http://www.politico.com/click/stories/1011/affleck_kerry_join_forces.html">another celebrity appearance</a>, last November, with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kerry">John Kerry</a>, at a press conference about foreign policy in Congo at the <a href="http://csis.org/">Center for Strategic and International Studies</a>, which is now headed by former Deputy Director of Defense John Hamre. Again, Maurice Carney:</span></span><br />
<div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixwOXxiqnuSiqaVDW4EUNVJtucstOFL8ITfVZGjrNxNlefuw-fXpzdjiDl3JYz5SVh33sakf6BItcWj6z5cg3zg_OiE5ljn4N6PfWLwFlLiX5F-3NPhgqC0JWD1QzgtbUp80l_a7HOnp6s/s1600/CynthiaMcKinneyinCongress.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixwOXxiqnuSiqaVDW4EUNVJtucstOFL8ITfVZGjrNxNlefuw-fXpzdjiDl3JYz5SVh33sakf6BItcWj6z5cg3zg_OiE5ljn4N6PfWLwFlLiX5F-3NPhgqC0JWD1QzgtbUp80l_a7HOnp6s/s320/CynthiaMcKinneyinCongress.jpg" width="236" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Former Georgia Congresswoman </span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Cynthia McKinney held Congressional </span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">hearings on the Congo conflict in 2001.</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><b>Maurice Carney: </b>The people called in to testify are usually those who reinforce U.S. foreign policy in a particular region of the world, not those who challenge U.S. foreign policy. So that's just the way it works in Washington unless you connect with a progressive, such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynthia_McKinney">Cynthia McKinney</a>, when she was in the Congress. She brought in alternative views that exposed the role of U.S. foreign policy abroad. But we've yet to find another champion like Cynthia McKinney. </div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><b>KPFA: </b>A partial transcript of McKinney's 2001 Congressional hearings on Congo, can be found on the website of the San Francisco Bay View Newspaper with the title "<a href="http://sfbayview.com/2008/congresswoman-cynthia-mckinney-end-the-conflict-in-the-congo-2/">End the Conflict in Congo</a>." Keith Harmon Snow's essay "<a href="http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/01/ben-affleck-rwanda-and-corporate-sustained-catastrophe/">Ben Affleck, Rwanda, and Corporate Sustained Catastrophe</a>" can be found on the Dissident Voice website.</div></div></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse;"><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;">For <a href="http://www.pacifica.org/">Pacifica</a>, <a href="http://www.kpfa.org/">KPFA</a> and <a href="http://afrobeatradio.net/">AfrobeatRadio</a>, I'm Ann Garrison. </div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br />
</div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate;">Audio url: </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate;"><a href="http://goo.gl/fe8iz">http://goo.gl/fe8iz</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate;">.</span></span></div></div></div>Ann Garrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07763740577715213433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7149903088571551838.post-11578951351679449632011-03-06T21:45:00.000-08:002011-04-12T19:31:54.482-07:00Gaddafi's Libya, African refugees, and European xenophobia<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDL2BB1MPziG979uBSjMW5nNlCMS5nRjbAaTrBPxtOLeENuEdVR3njDj0IYDkOyw0pMRfvV7y9-QOHHavDBqcWnQBVj7C50tbmhIxgQRb04bgzLpuQmM69Ur2ASs2e1egaXG5p-7sjqFnn/s1600/KPFAlogostraightsmallcrop.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><b><br />
</b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">KPFA Weekend News, 03.06.2011:</span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Audio url: <a href="http://bit.ly/gYgGzb">http://bit.ly/gYgGzb</a></span></span></b><br />
<b><br />
</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgbkpKCgpLcpmxdcY6rXDauY2B4QVB5KPeW-Lp-OtYS9jSQWy-Hn8IXKSrh9CQlgxWbjGp2F2ZxCIar4h3lN0-2H4ur3LdtM6gFbNauUttV741yd0W6_h_PMxQEEXaRMvlrlCf5mPeNgOb/s1600/Libyamap.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgbkpKCgpLcpmxdcY6rXDauY2B4QVB5KPeW-Lp-OtYS9jSQWy-Hn8IXKSrh9CQlgxWbjGp2F2ZxCIar4h3lN0-2H4ur3LdtM6gFbNauUttV741yd0W6_h_PMxQEEXaRMvlrlCf5mPeNgOb/s320/Libyamap.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Vincent Harris reported that European governments</i><br />
<i>collaborated with Gaddafi to prevent migrants from</i><br />
<i>departing from making their way to Europe from Libya's </i><br />
<i>long Mediterranean coastline.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><b>KPFA Weekend News Anchor David Landau: </b>Black, Southern Africans in Libya are in peril consequent to both racism and Western media reports that Muammar Gaddafy is using quote unquote "African mercenaries," meaning Black, Southern Africans, to put down the Libyan uprising. Pleas for help have gone up on blogs in North Africa and both NGOS and multilateral organizations are seeking access, resources, and the relaxation of immigration restrictions, so as to evacuate those endangered. KPFA's Ann Garrison has more.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>KPFA/Ann Garrison: </b>Aljazeera English recorded the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNA8z5G-Xmk&feature=player_embedded">voice of this Nigerian</a>, who goes by the name of Courage, after he escaped an attack in Libya this week: </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Courage: </b>When I was coming from my work, I looked on my back. There were car after me, chasing me. They said I should stop. I can't stop because they were holding cutlass and dangerous weapons with them. I was running for my life. If they had caught me that would have been the end of my life. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2-lmCPtBPvAHUPlgpdUSjbepAZMeWaYTT4c-rHSicxgVzq5rg3DZB6Mq-a_KN_T7eVZUEF5LQgNh4akC5uzUI3qpaP9v-YU9O12Zuv9WnU4rANAapxzJrUcuXVEbqJe-Z4vqYBrN1GvxE/s1600/H.VincentHarris.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2-lmCPtBPvAHUPlgpdUSjbepAZMeWaYTT4c-rHSicxgVzq5rg3DZB6Mq-a_KN_T7eVZUEF5LQgNh4akC5uzUI3qpaP9v-YU9O12Zuv9WnU4rANAapxzJrUcuXVEbqJe-Z4vqYBrN1GvxE/s1600/H.VincentHarris.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Vincent Harris, Dutch</i><br />
<i>creator of the blog Colored </i><br />
<i>Opinions</i><i>and host of Colored </i><br />
<i>Opinions </i><i><a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/coloredopinions">Great Lakes Blogchat</a> </i><br />
<i>on </i><i>Blog Talk Radio. </i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><b>KPFA: </b>Vincent Harris, creator of the Netherlands-based blog <a href="http://coloredopinions.blogspot.com/">Colored Opinions</a>, spoke with KPFA about what he calls xenophobic, anti-immigrant politics in Europe. He says European governments have a history of collaboration with Gaddafi to maintain a buffer zone meant to restrict African immigration to Europe by boat from the Libyan coast. Harris said that constraining African immigration is a high priority of most European governments and that, in exchange for his help with this goal, Gaddafi received military training for his army, and acceptance in European capitols,:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Vincent Harris:</b> They needed Gaddafi to solve this perceived problem, that Africans were crossing into Europe, from Libya. They worked together to make sure that no Africans go into Europe. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Harris added that North Africans are nevertheless likely to meet more xenophobia than Southern Africans in Europe because Europeans perceive North Africans as Muslims and Black, Southern Africans as Christians. He also reported that on March 3rd, the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, urged the European Commission to appeal to EU member nations to help evacuate and offer protection to 4,000 sub-Saharan refugees who are currently trapped in Libya. Harris’s report, “Africans trapped in Gaddafy’s Libya” can be found on sfbayview.com and afrobeatradio.net.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
For Pacifica, KPFA and Afrobeat Radio, I'm Ann Garrison. <o:p></o:p></div><br />
<br />
<br />
</div></div>Ann Garrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07763740577715213433noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7149903088571551838.post-60436734197466374582011-03-05T21:38:00.000-08:002011-03-06T22:51:54.515-08:00Sudanese oil violence, post referendum<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSEcC93jdbu7aksI-9fh4UgiJDQ0E4p2LOuMCkikYnFqu-hFtMU157FlSCVwBoBEW6Kdts5RVsA37a1P0g0jdd2RqmvXsHGt7S3dadkZHfK-sJ-YD3ONxbxMmnvYiRDMcmB1RNecFeEAQ5/s1600/KPFAlogostraightsmallcrop.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSEcC93jdbu7aksI-9fh4UgiJDQ0E4p2LOuMCkikYnFqu-hFtMU157FlSCVwBoBEW6Kdts5RVsA37a1P0g0jdd2RqmvXsHGt7S3dadkZHfK-sJ-YD3ONxbxMmnvYiRDMcmB1RNecFeEAQ5/s200/KPFAlogostraightsmallcrop.png" width="186" /></a></div>KPFA Weekend News, 03.05.2011:<br />
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<b>Audio link: </b><a href="http://goo.gl/133F2">http://goo.gl/133F2</a><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>Host Cameron Jones: </b>The Southern Sudanese people voted for independence from Northern Sudan in January of this year, but the hotly contested, oil rich Abyei region, between the districts now scheduled to join the independent states of North and South Sudan, did not vote with the rest of the country because North and South could not agree as to who would be eligible to vote. Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir vowed that he would not agree to Abyei becoming part of the South. This week clashes broke out again in Abyei, and the death toll is already reported to be over 100. KPFA's Ann Garrison has more.<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN-qZ5ZFLzTeTG5Hvqja7N0EpdBq-5muQ2p9KHksonQqzY4SFVnTdTozN8UAZEljeS9invlNW70ajsapwe5Ipy8QKBtwDPk7pT5bF2jR-HdEFIrINMcu4Wrk3jgaQAa3_-bkjLB9tm5sog/s1600/Abyei.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN-qZ5ZFLzTeTG5Hvqja7N0EpdBq-5muQ2p9KHksonQqzY4SFVnTdTozN8UAZEljeS9invlNW70ajsapwe5Ipy8QKBtwDPk7pT5bF2jR-HdEFIrINMcu4Wrk3jgaQAa3_-bkjLB9tm5sog/s1600/Abyei.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Sudan's oil rich Abyei <br />
district is in yellow. <br />
Image: Wikimedia Commons</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><b>KPFA/Ann Garrison:</b> Some sources claim that the Misseriya herdsmen identified with the North attacked the Dinka Ngok farmers identified with the South, but Government of Southern Sudan spokesperson Marial Benjamin Barnaba blamed the Sudanese Army and Popular Defense Forces loyal to Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir.<br />
<br />
<b>Marial Benjamin Barnaba: </b> “The areas being attacked are north of Abyei and the people on the attack are the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Popular Defense Forces. This morning at nine fifty am, Makir village was completely burned down by the Sudanese Armed Forces which is being claimed to be Misseriya. And other attacks are pending. The citizens of Abyei, the Ngok Dinka in this areas, they have been moving southwards because of these continuous attacks and in fact most of the causalities have been the local police, plus the civilian population.”<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL7ij-6tNo81VWWB08CBfr7tGNwm2x1VNde0laE9B8X-2OEFbXhOX9qfSCPyClfYPXsl_D6r4_i3Q8fikl6JInbloguTIqyt66sauIkVf5z7o9QAUTlvly3FbhrpIPHAnj3XNAqUBcHC0K/s1600/Mugumecrop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL7ij-6tNo81VWWB08CBfr7tGNwm2x1VNde0laE9B8X-2OEFbXhOX9qfSCPyClfYPXsl_D6r4_i3Q8fikl6JInbloguTIqyt66sauIkVf5z7o9QAUTlvly3FbhrpIPHAnj3XNAqUBcHC0K/s200/Mugumecrop.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nile Fortune Managing Editor<br />
Mugume Rwakaringi. </td></tr>
</tbody></table><b>KPFA:</b> Nile Fortune Editor and Contributor Mugume Rwakaringi told <a href="http://www.kpfa.org/">KPFA</a> that the people of Abyei are trapped between the counter accusations of Khartoum and Juba, the capitols of Northern and Southern Sudan, and that traditional Misseriya herdsmen and Dinka Ngok farmers would peacefully co-exist, if not for the oil thirst of the outside forces driving the conflict.<br />
<br />
In January, as soon as the votes for independence had been counted in Southern Sudan, Massachusetts Senator and former presidential candidate John Kerry declared the U.S.A. would not leave Abyei behind.<br />
<br />
<b>John Kerry:</b> “Let’s be clear. Even as today marks the end of one journey and the beginning of another, a lot of work remains ahead in the very new term in the next months of the CPA before July 9th, in order to resolve outstanding issues regarding oil revenues, borders, and of course Abyei and Darfur. Abyei is front and center on the agenda even today. Abyei is not being left behind, Abyei is not being forgotten.<br />
<br />
<b>KPFA:</b> Mugume Rwakaringi's essay, "Who should save the Abyei people?" will be available tomorrow on the websites of the San Francisco Bay View and AfrobeatRadio. For Pacifica, KPFA and AfrobeatRadio, I'm Ann Garrison.<br />
<div><br />
</div></div></div>Ann Garrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07763740577715213433noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7149903088571551838.post-3591296310006989922011-03-01T14:05:00.000-08:002011-03-02T01:12:22.747-08:00No Funds for Tasers or War Criminals; Stop State Violence in San Francisco and Congo<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIT82TALiY9sKynEOrnnLodu__rYVs-t0iWVdqjzts6yCuyVeMzd5Mh7RyeXec3s5riUJnnDYv1GuZ_lJiSSQEAxhrds6o66j-ETb2D2_MqPHpyYlXWleJqbZ4JaRdlBwbm2RbFv2NR4jr/s1600/JulianDavis.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIT82TALiY9sKynEOrnnLodu__rYVs-t0iWVdqjzts6yCuyVeMzd5Mh7RyeXec3s5riUJnnDYv1GuZ_lJiSSQEAxhrds6o66j-ETb2D2_MqPHpyYlXWleJqbZ4JaRdlBwbm2RbFv2NR4jr/s1600/JulianDavis.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Julian Davis, listening and waiting to speak at the <br />
San Francisco Police Commission hearing on<br />
arming the SFPD with tasers as well as handguns. <br />
Davis, President of the Booker T. Washington </span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Service Center, asked the Commissioners to<br />
consider the role of tasers in the Oscar Grant <br />
shooting and to consider disproportionate<br />
impacts on communities of color. He asked<br />
the Commissioners not only not to buy tasers<br />
but also to stop wasting money studying them.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">On Wednesday, February 24th, I attended a San Francisco Police Commission hearing to oppose arming the San Francisco Police with tasers as well as handguns. I've come to question the point of attending hearings like this because, for one, my side inevitably loses, whether it's about the <a href="http://www.fogcityjournal.com/news_in_brief/bcn_blue_angles_070926.shtml">Blue Angels</a>, the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and the<a href="http://www.lennar.com/about/about"> Lennar Corporation</a> in the Hunters' Point Shipyard, <a href="http://www.fogcityjournal.com/wordpress/2567/thanks-gavin-willie-and-rose-for-saving-us-from-democracy/">San Francisco's next mayor</a>, or even a Board of Supervisors' resolution about the latest uproar at <a href="http://www.kpfa.org/home">KPFA Radio</a>, the Bay Area's <a href="http://www.pacifica.org/">Pacifica Radio</a> station. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">It often seems to me that we show up at City Hall hearings like this simply to help create facades of public process for Boards and Commissions that strike political deals or otherwise make up their minds long before the hearing starts. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibqvFTeRVOLcyNvXLGf9jiXnQNB3nlkZYcAVUI6ukO7qLTfSGN-yeP1pG3RKfdA9pPs1_Md1KQQqL3fF6oJbtmLFzeMDjxeWYsaAxKw0AYFKL5IRI5Ch8Qti3hWZB1CsOK5BfEm19fxM06/s1600/Sabrina.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibqvFTeRVOLcyNvXLGf9jiXnQNB3nlkZYcAVUI6ukO7qLTfSGN-yeP1pG3RKfdA9pPs1_Md1KQQqL3fF6oJbtmLFzeMDjxeWYsaAxKw0AYFKL5IRI5Ch8Qti3hWZB1CsOK5BfEm19fxM06/s1600/Sabrina.png" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">KPFA News reporter</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: small;">Sabrina Jacobs</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;">I've therefore sworn I'd never again appear at one, but---never say never---I showed up last Wednesday after so many of the people I most admire in San Francisco urged attendance. <a href="http://www.sfbos.org/index.aspx?page=2130">Supervisor John Avalos</a> offered his office to accommodate the overflow crowd, and I enjoyed the company, especially that of <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/sabrina-jacobs/27/513/947">Sabrina Jacobs</a>, who produced this report for KPFA News: </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><span style="font-size: small;">(Audio link: <a href="http://bit.ly/hLhwYk">http://goo.gl/bAQhf</a>.)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Once again, and as always, every time I've been to City Hall, I was on the losing side. Commissioner Petra DeJesus, who cast the sole vote against more taser studies, said that no matter how they reworded what they were voting on, they were still voting to proceed toward taser use. </span>Bob Offer-Westort, Civil Rights Organizer for <a href="http://www.cohsf.org/en/">San Francisco's Coalition on Homelessness</a>, thought that those who attended the meeting had managed, at least, to buy time to organize. <br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">And I at least felt honored to be among the crowd of doctors, lawyers, social workers, organizers, and activists who came to speak against taser use. Many had so much relevant experience and/or expertise that I found myself wondering what I could possibly add, but by the time I got a turn at the mike, the Western Regional Representative for Amnesty International (AI), </span>had helped me find a few words, by telling the Commissioners that AI considers tasers a form of torture:<br />
<i><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: small;">"I'm Ann Garrison, a long term resident, a District 8 voter, a journalist. In recent years I've cultivated expertise in US interventions and involvements in East/Central Africa: Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Sudan. I'm here in part because these are my friends, in the audience, but also because the culture that we impose on other parts of the world is something we create right here, every day, in public forums like this one, and in the decisions that come out of them. A few points about San Francisco's culture as it is now: </span></i><br />
<div style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGgDGpCtV_BTgSC-uwywc_hq8OtsRNXHEWS9akGfCMQlnKH_PTmaykUCJ1JP3ZwSK8C4_vVJF1CdUjsnAISzYhRi8XbACvQkdEYPB3mV8X_GGV7TWU0o9w7pB4F6lJhPykWziiwmuVoKxD/s1600/BlueAngels.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="158" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGgDGpCtV_BTgSC-uwywc_hq8OtsRNXHEWS9akGfCMQlnKH_PTmaykUCJ1JP3ZwSK8C4_vVJF1CdUjsnAISzYhRi8XbACvQkdEYPB3mV8X_GGV7TWU0o9w7pB4F6lJhPykWziiwmuVoKxD/s200/BlueAngels.jpg" width="200" /></a><i><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></i></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">1) Every year San Francisco hosts <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtkvraLh7Lk">Fleet Week and the Blue Angels Air Show</a>, a celebration of global military dominance and the equation of might and right.</span></i></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></i></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">2) In January 2007,</span><span style="font-size: small;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-align: left;">the nine-member Black Caucus of the California Legislature released “<a href="http://asmdc.org/members/a47/issues/state-of-black-california" style="color: black;">The State of Black California</a>” report, which said that the disparity of wealth, income, and education between black and white people is greater in San Francisco than anywhere else in the state.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></span></i></div><i><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></i> <br />
<i><span style="font-size: small;">3) In July 2009, the <a href="http://www.nlchp.org/">National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty</a> and the <a href="http://www.nationalhomeless.org/">National Coalition for the Homeless </a></span>released its "<a href="http://www.nlchp.org/news.cfm?id=108">Homes not Handcuffs</a>" report ranking San Francisco as the seventh meanest city to the homeless in the U.S.</i> <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIeQcMfC0c6IxUi52k_P6uo4N85u22vU4_mGNRgFVxSe7_qM2ufmteoyaL-brv46kmkzOWiL7XZlIXpJkWBiZwG_Ymqt-UXLnj3-zjxV_exxDP4sIKRhNPa2HtiHqP1FZH_q-Awq_wVtrD/s1600/BayViewtasers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIeQcMfC0c6IxUi52k_P6uo4N85u22vU4_mGNRgFVxSe7_qM2ufmteoyaL-brv46kmkzOWiL7XZlIXpJkWBiZwG_Ymqt-UXLnj3-zjxV_exxDP4sIKRhNPa2HtiHqP1FZH_q-Awq_wVtrD/s200/BayViewtasers.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><i><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: small;"> Please don't add the police use of a weapon tantamount to torture to this list."</span></i><br />
<br />
Three days later, I produced my own KPFA Weekend News report, below, about the March 2nd Congressional briefing on the UN Mapping Report documenting civilian massacres and atrocities, including mass weaponized rape, committed by the armies of African dictators that the U.S. has armed, trained, advised, and guided with logistical and intelligence support for many years.<br />
<br />
This is to ask those who attended the Police Commission taser hearing to call Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, and Nancy Pelosi as well, and urge them to attend this briefing. <i>(For Congressional contacts, see <a href="http://contactingthecongress.org/">http://contactingthecongress.org/</a>.)</i><br />
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyvqTy8vW5oG8w5AoMycrrhmQ-rr3Fy7dQ1JpjoAuezt3caxdi2zATgBQnEKJZl4ixIop8x8gG_4Ub0Fa0Z2NTJNtMaieYnMfLNPuj8DIA-_S9wiXxSfZ2B9ijBCoadtq4kuq7FxEkAJA_/s1600/KPFAlogostraightsmallcrop.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyvqTy8vW5oG8w5AoMycrrhmQ-rr3Fy7dQ1JpjoAuezt3caxdi2zATgBQnEKJZl4ixIop8x8gG_4Ub0Fa0Z2NTJNtMaieYnMfLNPuj8DIA-_S9wiXxSfZ2B9ijBCoadtq4kuq7FxEkAJA_/s1600/KPFAlogostraightsmallcrop.png" /></a></div><br />
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(Audio link: <a href="http://goo.gl/7FfZS">http://goo.gl/7FfZS</a>.)<br />
<br />
<b>KPFA Weekend News Anchor Cameron Jones:</b> The Great Lakes Region of Africa Coalition of peace and social justice activists in the U.S. is preparing for a March 2nd Congressional briefing on the <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Countries/AfricaRegion/Pages/RDCProjetMapping.aspx">UN Mapping Report</a> documenting atrocities committed in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The report was leaked on August 26th, 2010, and officially released by the UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights on October 1st. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC2KqHX4zOA5qp9KKLE2a0P_7RhGfsfWLrursfYOqBq5pR6PYvTGxaVjtMrNCQI_SI-PRRk4c6nKiaArB9f6d48w6yu1xslTBglnua2QA_8iZ663ZJCln0DHQyRBQ4zxLSCOGCX6AqBCP5/s1600/Kagametroops.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC2KqHX4zOA5qp9KKLE2a0P_7RhGfsfWLrursfYOqBq5pR6PYvTGxaVjtMrNCQI_SI-PRRk4c6nKiaArB9f6d48w6yu1xslTBglnua2QA_8iZ663ZJCln0DHQyRBQ4zxLSCOGCX6AqBCP5/s320/Kagametroops.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>President and General Paul Kagame leads the army whose<br />
crimes in Congo are documented in the UN Mapping Report<br />
leaked 08.26.2010, and officially released 10.01.2010.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>The armies of Congo's neighbors to the east, Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi, and most of all that of Rwandan President Paul Kagame, are most implicated, but the U.S. continues to collaborate with all three militarily. KPFA's Ann Garrison has more.<br />
<br />
<b>KPFA/Ann Garrison:</b> International, multilingual broadcast headlines following the August 26th leak of the UN Mapping Report were later combined into this sound collage to introduce "The contradictions of General Paul Kagame:," a video posted to the Youtube and <a href="http://www.jambonews.net/en/">Jambo News</a>, a publication covering Africa's Great Lakes Region:<br />
<br />
<b>Audio collage of headlines:</b> (Audio collage of broadcast headlines during the week following the 08.26.2010 leak of the report.)<br />
<br />
<b>KPFA:</b> Despite the Mapping Report's documentation of atrocities including mass rape, civilian massacres, destruction of hospitals and other essential infrastructure, and even genocide, there have been no international criminal indictments. Within the last year <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Kagame">Rwanda's President Paul Kagame</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoweri_Museveni">Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Nkurunziza">Burundi's President Pierre Nkrunziza</a>, all of whom are implicated in the UN report, held onto power in elections that much of the world understood as window dressing for dictatorship.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB1mBa3SX92oONzYErsT35EtHmYGVUfx-YuLpsS2CREhh8FeCyK-4ncgw2b0CvmLmCMN-lmpY0nrKRaBIH6rYC0wF_4XepfbnDsy0DM5hQZmD6qTjSblmsXITEpr-fQsOG_ZMpf4G9J1BW/s1600/Congobordersbestmap.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB1mBa3SX92oONzYErsT35EtHmYGVUfx-YuLpsS2CREhh8FeCyK-4ncgw2b0CvmLmCMN-lmpY0nrKRaBIH6rYC0wF_4XepfbnDsy0DM5hQZmD6qTjSblmsXITEpr-fQsOG_ZMpf4G9J1BW/s320/Congobordersbestmap.jpeg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB1mBa3SX92oONzYErsT35EtHmYGVUfx-YuLpsS2CREhh8FeCyK-4ncgw2b0CvmLmCMN-lmpY0nrKRaBIH6rYC0wF_4XepfbnDsy0DM5hQZmD6qTjSblmsXITEpr-fQsOG_ZMpf4G9J1BW/s1600/Congobordersbestmap.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br />
</a><br />
The U.S. and UK have continued to arm, train, and collaborate with the armies of Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi in Somalia, Sudan, and elsewhere on the African continent. Last July the Pentagon awarded Northrop Grumman and three other defense and security contractors a <a href="http://www.irconnect.com/noc/press/pages/news_releases.html?d=195604">$500 million contract</a> to train the armies of Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi and other African allies.<br />
<br />
Jacques Bahati, Policy Analyst for the Washington D.C.-based Africa Faith and Justice Network spoke to KPFA about the Great Lakes Coalition's hopes for its March 2nd briefing on Capitol Hill: <br />
<br />
<b>Jacques Bahati: </b>Our goal is to rally U.S. support for justice for the crimes committed by the Rwandan, Ugandan, and Burundian armies and their Congolese collaborators in the war against Congo in 1996 to 2003. Also we want the U.S. to take a clear stand on this issue, supporting the UN Mapping Report recommendations to set up an investigation to determine whether the targeted and massive killing of Congolese, Burundian, and Rwandan Hutu were a genocide. <b> </b><br />
<br />
<b>KPFA:</b> There have been many Congressional hearings and many UN reports about this. What are you hoping might be different this time?<br />
<br />
<b>Jacques Bahati: </b>Well, we can't get tired. We will continue to push and rally the international community for peace and stability of the region. Although they might not hear us or they haven't heard us, we believe that one day they will hear what we are saying, because the evidence is very clear. Many people died and justice has to be served. <b> </b><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiutZ-2ZrSuThafEL-U3C7VH3BCA8p_CRn7KndFg6NWhqarKvdvARuKAC5me-JEiB6BVpkZT8quvuKVyMl9im-o9ED9OLgNJ94maE5V2uMO5_E0nHKcVa8I8aY8uo54Te2e5IWJtTlQpfQ3/s1600/Obama.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiutZ-2ZrSuThafEL-U3C7VH3BCA8p_CRn7KndFg6NWhqarKvdvARuKAC5me-JEiB6BVpkZT8quvuKVyMl9im-o9ED9OLgNJ94maE5V2uMO5_E0nHKcVa8I8aY8uo54Te2e5IWJtTlQpfQ3/s320/Obama.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>President Barack Obama, as a Senator, authored Senate <br />
Bill 2125, the <a href="http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s109-2125">Congo, Relief, Security, and </a></i><br />
<i><a href="http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s109-2125">Democracy Promotion Act of 2006</a>.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><b>KPFA:</b> Bahati also said that they would be asking Congress to push for implementation of Senate Bill 2125, the <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=21291">Obama Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act of 2006</a>, and the only bill that President Obama, as a Senator, ushered into law on his own. The bill calls for appointment of a Special Envoy to the Congo, and for the cancellation of U.S. assistance to any country invading the Congo and plundering its resources, as the Mapping Report and previous UN reports demonstrate, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi have.<br />
<br />
The Great Lakes Coalition is asking Americans to call their Senators and Congressmembers to ask them to attend the March 2nd briefing on the UN Mapping Report on Capitol Hill. For updates on the hearings, see the websites of the <a href="http://afjn.org/">Africa Faith and Justice Network</a> and <a href="http://www.friendsofthecongo.org/">Friends of the Congo</a>.<br />
<br />
For Pacifica, KPFA and AfrobeatRadio, I'm Ann Garrison.<br />
<br />
<i><br />
</i><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
</div></div></div>Ann Garrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07763740577715213433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7149903088571551838.post-24106661479176249512011-02-27T04:39:00.000-08:002011-03-01T14:16:36.731-08:00Africa advocates head to Congress re Congo atrocities<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyvqTy8vW5oG8w5AoMycrrhmQ-rr3Fy7dQ1JpjoAuezt3caxdi2zATgBQnEKJZl4ixIop8x8gG_4Ub0Fa0Z2NTJNtMaieYnMfLNPuj8DIA-_S9wiXxSfZ2B9ijBCoadtq4kuq7FxEkAJA_/s1600/KPFAlogostraightsmallcrop.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyvqTy8vW5oG8w5AoMycrrhmQ-rr3Fy7dQ1JpjoAuezt3caxdi2zATgBQnEKJZl4ixIop8x8gG_4Ub0Fa0Z2NTJNtMaieYnMfLNPuj8DIA-_S9wiXxSfZ2B9ijBCoadtq4kuq7FxEkAJA_/s1600/KPFAlogostraightsmallcrop.png" /></a></div><br />
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<br />
<b>KPFA Weekend News Anchor Cameron Jones:</b> The Great Lakes Region of Africa Coalition of peace and social justice activists in the U.S. is preparing for a March 2nd Congressional briefing on the <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Countries/AfricaRegion/Pages/RDCProjetMapping.aspx">UN Mapping Report</a> documenting atrocities committed in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The report was leaked on August 26th, 2010, and officially released by the UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights on October 1st. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC2KqHX4zOA5qp9KKLE2a0P_7RhGfsfWLrursfYOqBq5pR6PYvTGxaVjtMrNCQI_SI-PRRk4c6nKiaArB9f6d48w6yu1xslTBglnua2QA_8iZ663ZJCln0DHQyRBQ4zxLSCOGCX6AqBCP5/s1600/Kagametroops.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC2KqHX4zOA5qp9KKLE2a0P_7RhGfsfWLrursfYOqBq5pR6PYvTGxaVjtMrNCQI_SI-PRRk4c6nKiaArB9f6d48w6yu1xslTBglnua2QA_8iZ663ZJCln0DHQyRBQ4zxLSCOGCX6AqBCP5/s320/Kagametroops.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>President and General Paul Kagame leads the army whose<br />
crimes in Congo are documented in the UN Mapping Report<br />
leaked 08.26.2010, and officially released 10.01.2010.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>The armies of Congo's neighbors to the east, Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi, and most of all that of Rwandan President Paul Kagame, are most implicated, but the U.S. continues to collaborate with all three militarily. KPFA's Ann Garrison has more.<br />
<br />
<b>KPFA/Ann Garrison:</b> International, multilingual broadcast headlines following the August 26th leak of the UN Mapping Report were later combined into this sound collage to introduce "The contradictions of General Paul Kagame:," a video posted to the Youtube and <a href="http://www.jambonews.net/en/">Jambo News</a>, a publication covering Africa's Great Lakes Region:<br />
<br />
<b>Audio collage of headlines:</b> (Audio collage of broadcast headlines during the week following the 08.26.2010 leak of the report.)<br />
<br />
<b>KPFA/Ann Garrison:</b> Despite the Mapping Report's documentation of atrocities including mass rape, civilian massacres, destruction of hospitals and other essential infrastructure, and even genocide, there have been no international criminal indictments. Within the last year <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Kagame">Rwanda's President Paul Kagame</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoweri_Museveni">Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Nkurunziza">Burundi's President Pierre Nkrunziza</a>, all of whom are implicated in the UN report, held onto power in elections that much of the world understood as window dressing for dictatorship.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB1mBa3SX92oONzYErsT35EtHmYGVUfx-YuLpsS2CREhh8FeCyK-4ncgw2b0CvmLmCMN-lmpY0nrKRaBIH6rYC0wF_4XepfbnDsy0DM5hQZmD6qTjSblmsXITEpr-fQsOG_ZMpf4G9J1BW/s1600/Congobordersbestmap.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB1mBa3SX92oONzYErsT35EtHmYGVUfx-YuLpsS2CREhh8FeCyK-4ncgw2b0CvmLmCMN-lmpY0nrKRaBIH6rYC0wF_4XepfbnDsy0DM5hQZmD6qTjSblmsXITEpr-fQsOG_ZMpf4G9J1BW/s320/Congobordersbestmap.jpeg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB1mBa3SX92oONzYErsT35EtHmYGVUfx-YuLpsS2CREhh8FeCyK-4ncgw2b0CvmLmCMN-lmpY0nrKRaBIH6rYC0wF_4XepfbnDsy0DM5hQZmD6qTjSblmsXITEpr-fQsOG_ZMpf4G9J1BW/s1600/Congobordersbestmap.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br />
</a><br />
The U.S. and UK have continued to arm, train, and collaborate with the armies of Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi in Somalia, Sudan, and elsewhere on the African continent. Last July the Pentagon awarded Northrop Grumman and three other defense and security contractors a <a href="http://www.irconnect.com/noc/press/pages/news_releases.html?d=195604">$500 million contract</a> to train the armies of Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi and other African allies.<br />
<br />
Jacques Bahati, Policy Analyst for the Washington D.C.-based <a href="http://afjn.org/">Africa Faith and Justice</a> Network spoke to KPFA about the Great Lakes Coalition's hopes for its March 2nd briefing on Capitol Hill: <br />
<br />
<b>Jacques Bahati: </b>Our goal is to rally U.S. support for justice for the crimes committed by the Rwandan, Ugandan, and Burundian armies and their Congolese collaborators in the war against Congo in 1996 to 2003. Also we want the U.S. to take a clear stand on this issue, supporting the UN Mapping Report recommendations to set up an investigation to determine whether the targeted and massive killing of Congolese, Burundian, and Rwandan Hutu were a genocide. <b> </b><br />
<br />
<b>KPFA:</b> There have been many Congressional hearings and many UN reports about this. What are you hoping might be different this time?<br />
<br />
<b>Jacques Bahati: </b>Well, we can't get tired. We will continue to push and rally the international community for peace and stability of the region. Although they might not hear us or they haven't heard us, we believe that one day they will hear what we are saying, because the evidence is very clear. Many people died and justice has to be served. <b> </b><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiutZ-2ZrSuThafEL-U3C7VH3BCA8p_CRn7KndFg6NWhqarKvdvARuKAC5me-JEiB6BVpkZT8quvuKVyMl9im-o9ED9OLgNJ94maE5V2uMO5_E0nHKcVa8I8aY8uo54Te2e5IWJtTlQpfQ3/s1600/Obama.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiutZ-2ZrSuThafEL-U3C7VH3BCA8p_CRn7KndFg6NWhqarKvdvARuKAC5me-JEiB6BVpkZT8quvuKVyMl9im-o9ED9OLgNJ94maE5V2uMO5_E0nHKcVa8I8aY8uo54Te2e5IWJtTlQpfQ3/s320/Obama.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>President Barack Obama, as a Senator, authored Senate <br />
Bill 2125, the Congo, Relief, Security, and Democracy<br />
Promotion Act of 2006.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><b>Ann Garrison:</b> Bahati also said that they would be asking Congress to push for implementation of Senate Bill 2125, the Obama Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act of 2006, and the only bill that President Obama, as a Senator, ushered into law on his own. The bill calls for appointment of a Special Envoy to the Congo, and for the cancellation of U.S. assistance to any country invading the Congo and plundering its resources, as the Mapping Report and previous UN reports demonstrate, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi have.<br />
<br />
The Great Lakes Coalition is asking Americans to call their Senators and Congressmembers to ask them to attend the March 2nd briefing on the UN Mapping Report on Capitol Hill. For updates on the hearings, see the websites of the Africa Faith and Justice Network and Friends of the Congo.<br />
<br />
For Pacifica, KPFA and AfrobeatRadio, I'm Ann Garrison.<br />
<br />
<i>(For Congressional contacts, see <a href="http://contactingthecongress.org/">http://contactingthecongress.org/</a>.)</i><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
</div></div>Ann Garrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07763740577715213433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7149903088571551838.post-85137507503775661642011-02-21T14:25:00.000-08:002011-02-26T15:09:29.581-08:00Besigye rejects Museveni's rule<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<br />
KPFA Weekend News, 02.20.2011:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRYo7RvAiUVfKGwP0hhr5B8ggW3yyr2iZd882-rAUAEXE-J6Ik8iDRaimPUOjfzN6-kK1l3tx-N-lRZglY4lBDI7Oab8Vc2gOr3_Tmg9h-xdRYNJQc1enx4emKpFt6eDIIpyl5oa3B38dA/s1600/KPFAlogostraightsmallcrop.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRYo7RvAiUVfKGwP0hhr5B8ggW3yyr2iZd882-rAUAEXE-J6Ik8iDRaimPUOjfzN6-kK1l3tx-N-lRZglY4lBDI7Oab8Vc2gOr3_Tmg9h-xdRYNJQc1enx4emKpFt6eDIIpyl5oa3B38dA/s200/KPFAlogostraightsmallcrop.png" width="114" /></a></div><br />
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Audio link: <a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=7149903088571551838&postID=8513750750377566164">http://goo.gl/3K2nu</a><br />
<br />
<b>KPFA Weekend News Anchor Anthony Fest:</b> And this is KPFA/KPFB in Berkeley, or KFCF, 88.1 in Fresno. The program is the Weekend News; I'm Anthony Fest with David Landau. Turning now to news from Africa, Ugandan <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoweri_Museveni">President Yoweri Museveni</a> has been in power for the past 25 years, with military, diplomatic, and intelligence support from the U.S. He officially claimed victory in Uganda's presidential election this morning, but opposition parties and election observers claimed widespread election fraud. <a href="http://www.kpfa.org/supportkpfa/">KPFA</a>'s Ann Garrison has more. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja0MFLppd66gSRY8TTBi5JMx94HVJV71N6cm0SsAd5uC2OrAqLKA593y8Ub-_9MHFGDMzLJ8oGAvtZBKc8unUMUFkGvJSWKGjEZi-ILO6BjwM28wXAO2Mpu-2xrCZPf7c-xW_4nUDgFA_i/s1600/Museveni.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja0MFLppd66gSRY8TTBi5JMx94HVJV71N6cm0SsAd5uC2OrAqLKA593y8Ub-_9MHFGDMzLJ8oGAvtZBKc8unUMUFkGvJSWKGjEZi-ILO6BjwM28wXAO2Mpu-2xrCZPf7c-xW_4nUDgFA_i/s1600/Museveni.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni entered his 26th<br />
year in power, after claiming victory, on 02.20.2011, in<br />
yet another presidential election that opposition parties<br />
declared fraudulent.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><b>KPFA/Ann Garrison</b>: In his introduction to a recent <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SD3mVDgliJk">interview with Ugandan President Yoweri Musveni</a>, Aljazeera host Mohammed Adow said that Museveni had joined the League of African Rulers whose only wish is to stay in power forever. In conversation with Museveni, the Aljazeera host asked whether he would ever consider retiring, and criticized his extreme concentration of power, in his own hands.<br />
<br />
<b>Aljazeera's Talk to Jazeera Host Mohammed Adow</b>: Mr. President, your National Resistance Movement Party is run like a one man show, not an institution. You are the NRM and without you, some say, it's the end of the party. <br />
<br />
<b>Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni:</b> Oh, they must be sick, because NRM has got nine million members now. Many of the things they do, I don't even know. So anybody who said that I'm running that huge organization alone must be sick in his head or her head.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhpNoXDIDgnH9IUwKwmsuGF8pld0Cc3oA6y6QpkD507TrMKxMXa6gzn_03KMlIGBU8nFQrXvXKHOb3dUOpsn7GeIEVOQDrXVxPSKqcXYdNc5cSn-AR6Kqj364oOrzF9gpA5Ibn21RlIIP-/s1600/uganda_map.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhpNoXDIDgnH9IUwKwmsuGF8pld0Cc3oA6y6QpkD507TrMKxMXa6gzn_03KMlIGBU8nFQrXvXKHOb3dUOpsn7GeIEVOQDrXVxPSKqcXYdNc5cSn-AR6Kqj364oOrzF9gpA5Ibn21RlIIP-/s200/uganda_map.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><b>KPFA: </b> Opposition presidential candidate <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kizza_Besigye">Dr. Kizza Besigye</a> and the Democracy Group, a non-partisan election monitoring team, were collecting their own election poll tallies after Ugandans went to the polls on Friday, so as to publish their own results, but Museveni's Communications Commission made that impossible by ordering telecom companies to jam their SMS message reception. Besigye, his party and other members of the opposition categorically rejected the election results, and denounced the National Electoral Commission which Museveni selected himself. <br />
<br />
They also accused Museveni and his party of ballot stuffing, unsealed ballot boxes, voter intimidation by the army, flagrant vote buying, and using state resources to win. <a href="http://allafrica.com/stories/201102210446.html">Commonwealth observers observed the same irregularities</a>.<br />
<br />
<b>Commonwealth election observers spokesman: </b>The power of incumbency in this general election, and during the campaign leading to it, was exercised to such an extent as to compromise severely the level playing field between the competing candidates and political parties.<br />
<br />
<b>KPFA:</b> Poverty, especially among Uganda's majority subsistence farmers, was the opposition's central issue, but, poverty also made Ugandans vulnerable to widely reported, flagrant vote buying by the rullng party. Besigye urged hungry Ugandans to take the money, then vote against the thieves who gave it to them, but Job Collins, who ran for Youth Member of Parliament in Uganda's Northern Region, and other members of the opposition said that many impoverished Ugandans feel too disempowered to defy the authority of those who paid for their votes. <br />
<br />
Speaking to the press, Besigye said that the opposition rejected not only the election results but also any legal authority based on them:<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqDPbNvfqiJW8LoounvARZY-biPgdBu7WEBTkj2SiicCTtwybQX55x44iOy76X31wPapPJDSgdgwFZTXBp1xjlbMkhZVHKT8e0yU8M4poL861tVWZQnqaKoLZj1zAz9lmbHw3YKaPqjr5E/s1600/Besigye.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqDPbNvfqiJW8LoounvARZY-biPgdBu7WEBTkj2SiicCTtwybQX55x44iOy76X31wPapPJDSgdgwFZTXBp1xjlbMkhZVHKT8e0yU8M4poL861tVWZQnqaKoLZj1zAz9lmbHw3YKaPqjr5E/s1600/Besigye.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Dr. Kizza Besigye has rejected the authority of Ugandan <br />
President Yoweri Museveni established by the <br />
02.20.2011 election, because, he claims, it was fraudulent.</i> </td></tr>
</tbody></table><b>Dr. Kizza Besigye: </b>We have rejected the outcome of this election. We are rejecting the leadership that emerges out of this sham election. And we are going to take steps, in consultation with the various people we have pointed out, all the stakeholders in our country, including the public, as to the means we are going to use to bring the country back to Constitutional rule. <br />
<br />
<b>KPFA: </b> Africa peace and justice activists in the U.S. have stepped up their calls for the U.S. to stop supporting both the Museveni regime and the Rwandan regime of Paul Kagame since the October 1st release of the UN Mapping Report documenting their armies' war crimes in the Democratic Republic of Congo.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgM9VwtPlfURUoS1xTUY_qgGFwf2sIcTUlcKPoaAxRnYyb7pHglcnBHYbGKJlsqjyi2DsjDbpDCFxM8hY10IQPKkPPlkriU4XFGVaIu9BBcVls5L_5ZDmLcgMXE1RXzSWukcMyPm2tsdcH/s1600/Afrobeatlogo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgM9VwtPlfURUoS1xTUY_qgGFwf2sIcTUlcKPoaAxRnYyb7pHglcnBHYbGKJlsqjyi2DsjDbpDCFxM8hY10IQPKkPPlkriU4XFGVaIu9BBcVls5L_5ZDmLcgMXE1RXzSWukcMyPm2tsdcH/s1600/Afrobeatlogo.jpg" /></a></div>For Pacifica, KPFA and AfrobeatRadio, I'm Ann Garrison. </div>Ann Garrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07763740577715213433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7149903088571551838.post-28126751881806757242011-02-19T23:38:00.000-08:002011-02-20T10:03:18.188-08:00Uganda: Museveni Claims Victory, Opposition Claims Fraud<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><a href="http://www.kpfa.org/supportkpfa/">KPFA</a> Weekend News, 02.19.2011</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEq2BUEMiOGfK-Nk2AvZvx24AkJK_ipsRvkf05Y-F9Qtfqufi6FM1TSIb9XdFkecU8GKmRocQE-OHDgTWajQBPApsy-3FBdscRm5NZ80-vxcEoCVchxSKdiY9cnCUSoyh4NX3RJ5Sngu6K/s1600/KPFAlogostraightsmallcrop.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEq2BUEMiOGfK-Nk2AvZvx24AkJK_ipsRvkf05Y-F9Qtfqufi6FM1TSIb9XdFkecU8GKmRocQE-OHDgTWajQBPApsy-3FBdscRm5NZ80-vxcEoCVchxSKdiY9cnCUSoyh4NX3RJ5Sngu6K/s200/KPFAlogostraightsmallcrop.png" width="114" /></a></div><br />
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<b>KPFA Weekend News Anchor Cameron Jones:</b> Ugandans voted in parliamentary, presidential, and local elections on Friday, after the Uganda Communications Commission’s telecom companies told bulk SMS providers to block messages containing key words or phrases such as “Tunisia,” “Egypt,” “Mubarak,” “Ben Ali” or “people power.” Uganda’s National Electoral Commission has projected President Yoweri Museveni the winner. Museveni has ruled Uganda since 1986, with U.S. military, diplomatic, intelligence and financial support. KPFA’s Ann Garrison has more.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8YKgQG0jw81W6G6tj9nXJbEdNDxtl4OpArcNWi7LqBq1faMi4UM-63LWhHMum9ns8tA_bVL11bBbcyYuBme8wsWShZqdh2CAHXJcqRrmXMhfolBEAPHT5c9PQnN2X6vgNgNQYxm1x-L38/s1600/MuseveniShouldResign.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8YKgQG0jw81W6G6tj9nXJbEdNDxtl4OpArcNWi7LqBq1faMi4UM-63LWhHMum9ns8tA_bVL11bBbcyYuBme8wsWShZqdh2CAHXJcqRrmXMhfolBEAPHT5c9PQnN2X6vgNgNQYxm1x-L38/s1600/MuseveniShouldResign.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>President Yoweri Museveni <br />
celebrating his 26th year in power.</i> </td></tr>
</tbody></table><b>Ann Garrison:</b> Before yesterday’s polls, Uganda's <a href="http://www.monitor.co.ug/">Daily Monitor</a> reported that there were roughly 140,000 dead people, 5,000 people 110 years and older, and half a million foreigners on Uganda's voter rolls. Ugandan American newspaper editor <a href="http://blackstarnews.com/?c=135&a=2828">Milton Allimadi</a> wrote that, “The dead people might be so appalled that they’ll vote for the opposition this time,” but leading opposition presidential candidate <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kizza_Besigye">Dr. Kizza Besigye</a> warned that ghost votes would be some of the most serious fraud.<br />
<br />
He also predicted widespread vote buying by Museveni’s party and urged hungry Ugandans to take the money, get a good meal, then go out and vote against those who paid them:<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkcVrxHa75DGfvSzHylB-JZ7J4cMX6WvbIAyJ4B5BZYX6K7_5L2g5FcQdlTydrRMA_0hyphenhyphenfr51Zo5YZLIiRFroz4tuzyXJUry9oeZS6biRLNP6DR3HF3yS1VQWymh0erUFyx2rSu_uB8Ehy/s1600/MugishaBesigye.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkcVrxHa75DGfvSzHylB-JZ7J4cMX6WvbIAyJ4B5BZYX6K7_5L2g5FcQdlTydrRMA_0hyphenhyphenfr51Zo5YZLIiRFroz4tuzyXJUry9oeZS6biRLNP6DR3HF3yS1VQWymh0erUFyx2rSu_uB8Ehy/s400/MugishaBesigye.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Campaign posters for opposition candidates Anne Mugisha <br />
and Dr. Kizza Besigye at a campaign rally in Uganda.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><b>Dr. Kizza Besigye:</b> Well, the money must be eaten. It is our money. It is not anybody else’s money. This is YOUR money. Eat it and vote against the thieves.<br />
<br />
<b>Ann Garrison:</b> Today <a href="http://annemugisha.com/about-me.html">Anne Mugisha</a>, a member of Besigye’s party and a candidate for Women’s Member of Parliament in Uganda’s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbarara_District">Mbarara District</a>, reported that one of her volunteers came close to being arrested for disturbing the peace when she objected to agents of Museveni’s party openly buying votes in a village square.<br />
<br />
Mugisha, like Besigye, is reporting a host of election violations as the National Electoral Commission projects her as a second place finisher, but she says this is no surprise:<br />
<br />
<b>Anne Mugisha:</b> It’s like walking into a casino knowing that the guy who owns it has to make a profit. Sometimes a few lucky people make some money but most of the time people lose. So this time around I lost. A few of our opposition people did scrape through, but the casino is owned by the ruling party and President Museveni, and they will definitely be looking to make a profit.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixlKaBb8priPrjLSa8HjfU8Xd2IktE1yJU5vTWg9UeBodF2t7o23jUyC0yjXYhe2ffAu_wZsUaItvD7chqQJY6Z2j8b1rzk29WpJKNm9J8rDO75KbqgYe9jXXE3s6AhY6xc4TAS77I_lXM/s1600/Ugandaglobalmap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixlKaBb8priPrjLSa8HjfU8Xd2IktE1yJU5vTWg9UeBodF2t7o23jUyC0yjXYhe2ffAu_wZsUaItvD7chqQJY6Z2j8b1rzk29WpJKNm9J8rDO75KbqgYe9jXXE3s6AhY6xc4TAS77I_lXM/s1600/Ugandaglobalmap.jpg" /></a></div><b>Ann Garrison:</b> Dr. Kizza Besigye held a press conference at the end of the day today in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, to say that this year’s election had been even more rigged than before and that he will hold another press conference tomorrow to announce his response. Both he and opposition presidential candidate Olara Otunnu, before the polls, urged Ugandans not to accept the results that they knew would be rigged.<br />
<br />
When asked what he would do if people protested, Museveni said that was simple, that he would lock them up.<br />
<br />
Dominique Diomi, a survivor of the ongoing Congo conflict which has cost millions of lives, said that Ugandans are far from the only ones concerned about Museveni retaining his hold on power.<br />
<br />
<b>Dominique Diomi: </b>It is a disgrace that Yoweri Museveni was even allowed to stand for the presidency again, after the UN Mapping Report which was released on October 1st last year, documented that his army perpetrated crimes against humanity and genocide and massacre of civilians in the Congo.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy7UnFm0r-2KJ0Z3d9iV8sEBMhXm14v9ZgeGLue02NC4XzpJFnEUmUonh_OFUMw9IWc0akfY6HtF57cO9H2lTvHIg0EXxFhDSHwf7O2e65VBRLowK7tyAkuFimrtTCHwbJ311HYVxbFaRz/s1600/Afrobeatlogo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy7UnFm0r-2KJ0Z3d9iV8sEBMhXm14v9ZgeGLue02NC4XzpJFnEUmUonh_OFUMw9IWc0akfY6HtF57cO9H2lTvHIg0EXxFhDSHwf7O2e65VBRLowK7tyAkuFimrtTCHwbJ311HYVxbFaRz/s1600/Afrobeatlogo.jpg" /></a></div><b>Ann Garrison:</b> For updates on the Ugandan situation, see <a href="http://afrobeatradio.net/">AfrobeatRadio.net</a> and the <a href="http://sfbayview.com/?s=Uganda">San Francisco Bay View Newspaper</a>. For Pacific, KPFA and AfrobeatRadio, I’m Ann Garrison.<br />
<br />
<br />
</div>Ann Garrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07763740577715213433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7149903088571551838.post-10416276736121656472011-02-19T10:46:00.000-08:002011-02-19T15:48:39.959-08:00Museveni's Casino: Anne Mugisha on Uganda's 2011 election<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ97SKRxldT2eKVIaNng8KiYscICftTRNR7BAvaRhJi4-lH43CDjVT6sXyDtchrzKxEnVLe_rz9hYs6lMriQI7afamuBbLn-kkjEWRUyoQCB1rw1wqybdaCQ7J5n9qqRO6qyj7qNSXz6LH/s1600/MuseveniShouldResign.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ97SKRxldT2eKVIaNng8KiYscICftTRNR7BAvaRhJi4-lH43CDjVT6sXyDtchrzKxEnVLe_rz9hYs6lMriQI7afamuBbLn-kkjEWRUyoQCB1rw1wqybdaCQ7J5n9qqRO6qyj7qNSXz6LH/s400/MuseveniShouldResign.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni </span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">celebrates his 26th year in office. </span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5nHegSMFql4YsFHhgLgCoZ5aK4gvnoQuGf_SQ96zv9iSPo36i6gS8wzA2_Jb4VxERva1QuznAHaABCY_BYxK49zUMPmlV1qQYLNAD3-OhjowyK_06BI2nnN3bQjJqoJNawhTgQqocZKax/s1600/Annecampaignposter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5nHegSMFql4YsFHhgLgCoZ5aK4gvnoQuGf_SQ96zv9iSPo36i6gS8wzA2_Jb4VxERva1QuznAHaABCY_BYxK49zUMPmlV1qQYLNAD3-OhjowyK_06BI2nnN3bQjJqoJNawhTgQqocZKax/s320/Annecampaignposter.jpg" width="228" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Anne Mugisha</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div><i></i><br />
<div><i>"We knew exactly what was going to happen in this election. We complained about the registers, we complained about the inflated numbers of people on the registers, we complained about the use of state resources in the election, but we still agreed to go in and participate. So that's like walking into a casino, knowing that the guy who owns it has to make a profit. Sometimes a few lucky people make some money. But most of the time people lose. So this time around I lost. A few of our opposition people did scrape through, but the casino is owned by the ruling party and President Museveni and they would definitely be looking to make a profit. So that's how I see this election, like a trip to the casino." </i></div></div><div><i>--Anne Mugisha, 2011 candidate for Women's Member of Parliament </i><i>in Uganda's Mbarara District </i></div><div><i><br />
</i></div><div>That's one quote, from my conversation with <a href="http://annemugisha.com/about-me.html">Anne Mugisha</a>, opposition candidate for Women's Member of Parliament in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbarara_District">Uganda's Mbrara District</a>, on 02.19.2011, the day after Uganda's 2011 presidential and parliamentary polls closed. She also reported that one of her volunteers came close to being arrested for objecting to the ruling National Resistance Movement's reps openly buying votes in the center of a village, and she talked about the need to build a culture of nonviolent protest in Uganda, a process that she said would take years. Here's the conversation:</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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<br />
</div></div></div>Ann Garrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07763740577715213433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7149903088571551838.post-91206122052926240402011-02-19T10:32:00.000-08:002011-02-19T10:45:35.646-08:00Museveni's Casino: Anne Mugisha on Uganda's 2011 election<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ97SKRxldT2eKVIaNng8KiYscICftTRNR7BAvaRhJi4-lH43CDjVT6sXyDtchrzKxEnVLe_rz9hYs6lMriQI7afamuBbLn-kkjEWRUyoQCB1rw1wqybdaCQ7J5n9qqRO6qyj7qNSXz6LH/s1600/MuseveniShouldResign.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ97SKRxldT2eKVIaNng8KiYscICftTRNR7BAvaRhJi4-lH43CDjVT6sXyDtchrzKxEnVLe_rz9hYs6lMriQI7afamuBbLn-kkjEWRUyoQCB1rw1wqybdaCQ7J5n9qqRO6qyj7qNSXz6LH/s400/MuseveniShouldResign.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni celebrates his 26th year in office. </i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: right;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5nHegSMFql4YsFHhgLgCoZ5aK4gvnoQuGf_SQ96zv9iSPo36i6gS8wzA2_Jb4VxERva1QuznAHaABCY_BYxK49zUMPmlV1qQYLNAD3-OhjowyK_06BI2nnN3bQjJqoJNawhTgQqocZKax/s1600/Annecampaignposter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5nHegSMFql4YsFHhgLgCoZ5aK4gvnoQuGf_SQ96zv9iSPo36i6gS8wzA2_Jb4VxERva1QuznAHaABCY_BYxK49zUMPmlV1qQYLNAD3-OhjowyK_06BI2nnN3bQjJqoJNawhTgQqocZKax/s320/Annecampaignposter.jpg" width="228" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Anne Mugisha</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div><i></i><br />
<div><i><i><br />
</i></i></div><i>"We knew exactly what was going to happen in this election. We complained about the registers, we complained about the inflated numbers of people on the registers, we complained about the use of state resources in the election, but we still agreed to go in and participate. So that's like walking into a casino, knowing that the guy who owns it has to make a profit. Sometimes a few lucky people make some money. But most of the time people lose. So this time around I lost. A few of our opposition people did scrape through, but the casino is owned by the ruling party and President Museveni and they would definitely be looking to make a profit. So that's how I see this election, like a trip to the casino." </i></div><div><i>--Anne Mugisha, 2011 candidate for Women's Member of Parliament </i><i>in Uganda's Mbarara District </i></div><div><i><br />
</i></div><div>That's one quote, from my conversation with <a href="http://annemugisha.com/about-me.html">Anne Mugisha</a>, opposition candidate for Women's Member of Parliament in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbarara_District">Uganda's Mbrara District</a>, on 02.19.2011, the day after Uganda's 2011 presidential and parliamentary polls closed. She also reported that one of her volunteers came close to being arrested for objecting to the ruling National Resistance Movement's reps openly buying votes in the center of a village, and talked about the need to build a culture of nonviolent protest in Uganda, a process that she seems committed to but said would take years. Here's the conversation, just one paragraph fits into my <a href="http://www.kpfa.org/home">KPFA</a> Weekend News on Uganda's polls: </div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx-lpte6SBGmkHnaPaYnpccqEHy93hIoASbmbVLWZJI5dW4mpkfan6GsQIdI-lHS2RsPWJ4Y1SeMHrEIHFnwBtr5Ot5NIrbRpMhpD6Y4Cd8aHT_L83c7G53Ao3GzAzI7EF5EtbQf2x60jZ/s1600/MuseveniBesigye.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx-lpte6SBGmkHnaPaYnpccqEHy93hIoASbmbVLWZJI5dW4mpkfan6GsQIdI-lHS2RsPWJ4Y1SeMHrEIHFnwBtr5Ot5NIrbRpMhpD6Y4Cd8aHT_L83c7G53Ao3GzAzI7EF5EtbQf2x60jZ/s320/MuseveniBesigye.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Yoweri Museveni, Uganda's President for the past 26 years,</i><br />
<i>and his rival presidential candidate, for the third time, </i><br />
<i>Dr. Kizza Besigye.</i> </td></tr>
</tbody></table>Ugandans began voting on Friday, February 18th, with the country's <a href="http://www.monitor.co.ug/SpecialReports/Elections/-/859108/1109082/-/k2jf6f/-/index.html">Daily Monitor</a> reporting that there are 140,000 dead people, 5000 people 110 years and older, and half a million foreigners on the rolls.<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
"The dead people might be so appalled," said Ugandan American Newspaper Editor Milton Allimadi, that they might vote for the opposition this time. <br />
<br />
Dr. Kizza Besigye urged any Ugandans selling their votes to Museveni and the NRM to eat the money, get a good meal, because it's their money; not anybody else's money.<br />
<br />
"Eat it," he said, "and then go and vote against the thieves." <br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/whOZ8jKlExI" title="YouTube video player" width="480"></iframe></div><br />
The Twitter hashtag for Uganda's election is #Ugandavotes.</div></div>Ann Garrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07763740577715213433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7149903088571551838.post-54711466993227248782011-02-14T17:24:00.000-08:002011-02-16T13:26:00.596-08:00Milton Allimadi on Uganda, Rwanda, and Uganda's 2011 Election<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: right;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxPbcN3F4ss_3jckMBwWWsjspb7PONsl32kIG5GZnD_k1ZVuV7roXFjT24eeOcIACUeJBt5gSVHSofIcGP0W-u0olsHsCk5QnfPSsyxqxFTXtzUQTeY_iwa4B_mySVXSBJJVxWULCC2IfJ/s1600/MiltonAllimadioffice.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxPbcN3F4ss_3jckMBwWWsjspb7PONsl32kIG5GZnD_k1ZVuV7roXFjT24eeOcIACUeJBt5gSVHSofIcGP0W-u0olsHsCk5QnfPSsyxqxFTXtzUQTeY_iwa4B_mySVXSBJJVxWULCC2IfJ/s1600/MiltonAllimadioffice.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Milton Allimadi, Ugandan American<br />
Editor of the New York City-based<br />
<a href="http://www.blackstarnews.com/">Black Star News</a>.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>On Saturday, 02.14, I spoke to Ugandan American Black Star News Editor Milton Allimadi, about Uganda's February 18th election for KPFA News and Afrobeat Radio, about whether or not Ugandan might follow Egypt after the February 18th polls that no one expects to be free or fair. That link is posted <a href="http://afrobeatradio.net/2011/02/13/will-uganda-follow-egypt-and-tunisia/">here on AfrobeatRadio.net</a>, and this is a recording of our extended conversation, touching on:<br />
<br />
- the <a href="http://allafrica.com/stories/201102080249.html">European Union's election observers' </a>mission,<br />
<br />
- the Rwanda Genocide and the <a href="http://exposeugandasgenocide.blogspot.com/2007/12/acholi-final-solution.html">Acholi Genocide</a> in Northern Uganda,<br />
<br />
- the threat of war between Rwanda and Uganda, a backdrop to the Ugandan election, and, one possible explanation of the high level visit by <a href="http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1102068/-/c58sjgz/-/index.html">U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Jim Steinberg and UnderSecretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson</a>.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEeKj1ZaKA4OfabUdHvPSDv87UnzadrOH3evCIL4YxUnk2MGUmWZrosaC8UZWAn6_p84CWGmNS-cafd3T4YUyHuT0txf67KXZr3tuVAnrH6MZC_lcXv0QRgkG45WWc89QjH4SeqsYFgbJt/s1600/MuseveniKagame.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEeKj1ZaKA4OfabUdHvPSDv87UnzadrOH3evCIL4YxUnk2MGUmWZrosaC8UZWAn6_p84CWGmNS-cafd3T4YUyHuT0txf67KXZr3tuVAnrH6MZC_lcXv0QRgkG45WWc89QjH4SeqsYFgbJt/s320/MuseveniKagame.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Allies of the U.S., enemies of each other. There<br />
is considerable unease that Rwandan President <br />
Paul Kagame and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni,<br />
will go to war after Uganda's February 18th </i><br />
<i>election, assuming Museveni remains in office.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<br />
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</div>Ann Garrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07763740577715213433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7149903088571551838.post-16377461456192989272011-02-12T21:39:00.000-08:002011-03-17T16:30:39.182-07:00KPFA Weekend News: Uganda the next Egypt?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><b><br />
</b><br />
<b>KPFA Weekend News, 02.12.2011:</b><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpTDntp4U9b_stMe52qRB-zuEMycEZoS2RrkbSc9dycDXAVujmLnPIAWCMnTQHMR_vz1hm80TRhRWZmQNaJPbIUvQqmFdWFtYXvJieoEe76YhUT-DpYZlLsQbZ2MQ4Pxyx0ccl3yIDhT1_/s1600/KPFAlogostraightsmallcrop.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpTDntp4U9b_stMe52qRB-zuEMycEZoS2RrkbSc9dycDXAVujmLnPIAWCMnTQHMR_vz1hm80TRhRWZmQNaJPbIUvQqmFdWFtYXvJieoEe76YhUT-DpYZlLsQbZ2MQ4Pxyx0ccl3yIDhT1_/s1600/KPFAlogostraightsmallcrop.png" /></a></div><script src="http://cdn.widgetserver.com/syndication/subscriber/InsertWidget.js" type="text/javascript">
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</div></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf8U7V7aDzTyz2Y7YZ4gRn9uhR46NlDxGkkZH7Jo8_rft5QHnJcF0bFYqOH1yor2rKYBO4wCJlDQC8Lc6DEz3i5W3kEGyNAKXz-oOtLcRoSRvrcFXgZuZG-w495CNZqjFzVLvSmJeItRcS/s1600/uganda_map.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf8U7V7aDzTyz2Y7YZ4gRn9uhR46NlDxGkkZH7Jo8_rft5QHnJcF0bFYqOH1yor2rKYBO4wCJlDQC8Lc6DEz3i5W3kEGyNAKXz-oOtLcRoSRvrcFXgZuZG-w495CNZqjFzVLvSmJeItRcS/s200/uganda_map.jpg" width="200" /></a><b>KPFA Weekend News Anchor David Rosenberg: </b>One of Uganda's three leading opposition presidential candidates, and others, predict that Uganda could become the next Egypt or Tunisia after next Friday's presidential and parliamentary elections, which few expect to be free or fair. Ann Garrison has more.<br />
<br />
<b>KPFA/Ann Garrison: </b>Last week the world watched Egyptians in the streets of Cairo, and heard voices of the Egyptian revolution on radio, TV, Facebook, Twitter, the blogosphere, and elsewhere on the Internet. They included the voice of this Egyptian street protestor, which nearly two million people have now heard on the Youtube alone:<br />
<br />
<b>Egyptian Street Protestor: </b>We will not be silenced. Whether you are Christian, whether you are Muslim, or whether you are an atheist, you will demand your goddamn rights, and we will have our rights, one way or the other. We will never be silenced.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGfb-tRQL1NnqVtakvC-AC8AlZwOh-pYZyR5cMk5B16vZ6sOqPjTZTPa4LH4MCgRoQ9Ag5pa0s-MiTtqDA6fuy2xcTskwX5op8lGr7emhMWJyopALYJJv8KgqT9rXp6RJhgRg4M0h3ARA2/s1600/Milton+Allimadi%2527s+passport+photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGfb-tRQL1NnqVtakvC-AC8AlZwOh-pYZyR5cMk5B16vZ6sOqPjTZTPa4LH4MCgRoQ9Ag5pa0s-MiTtqDA6fuy2xcTskwX5op8lGr7emhMWJyopALYJJv8KgqT9rXp6RJhgRg4M0h3ARA2/s200/Milton+Allimadi%2527s+passport+photo.jpg" width="181" /></a></div><b>KPFA: </b>Milton Allimadi, Ugandan American editor of the New York City-based Black Star News says that Egypt's uprising was really a global uprising, with scenes beamed all around the world, and both Egyptians and Mubarak well aware that the rest of the world was watching. Allimadi also agrees with Dr. Kizza Besigye that Uganda could be next.<br />
<br />
He spoke to KPFA from New York City: <br />
<br />
<b>Milton Allimadi: </b>This should be seen as a sequence of events now, so the world will see this as interconnected. Egypt was seen as connected with Tunisia, so I see this as a possibility in Uganda as well. Ugandans are very savy; they're very sophisticated consumers of news and they watched developments in both Tunisia and Egypt very carefully.<br />
<br />
<b>KPFA: </b>The majority of Ugandans are subsistence farmers. Do you have an idea of what kind of media and Internet access they have?<br />
<br />
<b>Milton Allimadi: </b>The majority of Egyptians are subsistence farmers as well, but the people that are connected to Facebook, the Internet, and to Twitter, live in the large cities such as Cairo. The same applies to Uganda. The sophisticated Internet consumers of news live in cities such as Kampala, Entebbe, Jinja, Gulu, Mbarara, Masaka, and these are the ones that would likely show their protest in these urban areas and that's where it counts.<br />
<br />
<b>KPFA: </b>So you think that, if there is an uprising, it will take place in the cities?<br />
<br />
<b>Milton Allimadi: </b>Absolutely; these kinds of uprisings invariably take part in the cities. That's where most international, as well as local, media, are focussed and concentrated. And, in Uganda, I think there's a sense by international media that this is a ground changing election, because the BBC, which has traditionally been very apologetic and sympathetic to President Museveni, has now for the first time deployed a major contingent of reporters inside Uganda, so the coverage is going to be very different and very significant this time around.<br />
<br />
<b>KPFA: </b>Do you know of any effort to block the news and or the Internet?<br />
<br />
<b>Milton Allimadi: </b>Not yet, but there may be plans to do that come election time. And I know there are many organizations inside and outside Uganda who are working on setting up alternative networks to be able to disseminate information.<br />
<br />
<b>KPFA: </b>U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg and Under Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson flew into Kampala, Uganda last week to meet with Uganda's three leading opposition presidential candidates, Kizza Besigye, Norbert Mao, and Olara Otunnu, all of whom told them that Friday's elections will not be free and fair. Steinberg and Carson then went on to meet with Ugandan President Yoweri Museven, who has been one of the U.S.A.'s closest allies and military collaborators since the end of the Cold War. Before leaving, Steinberg gave a speech at Kampala's Makerere University about the importance of free and fair elections, and protecting human rights for all, regardless of race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation.<br />
<br />
For a longer version of this interview with Milton Allimadi and for ongoing updates on Uganda's election, see the websites of the San Francisco Bay View and AfrobeatRadio.net.<br />
<br />
For Pacifica/KPFA and AfrobeatRadio, I'm Ann Garrison.</div>Ann Garrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07763740577715213433noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7149903088571551838.post-78667948578960316682011-02-07T17:42:00.000-08:002011-11-30T07:51:09.125-08:00Whither Uganda? Election 2011<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-bottom: 6px; padding-left: 6px; padding-right: 6px; padding-top: 6px; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg64QXAg2qg3gBrsytUECxZZlufL5twWdvWHZamb4AvxjyZnui2kMZnK7J3bP5lmKYuNQho3L9A0Sb5SegnGfAfyj5n-ZyJ1EvlyU2Otk32xOxcBwSYsIY39HqLVJq8fP-8stJewMHaf9dn/s1600/MuseveniBesigye.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg64QXAg2qg3gBrsytUECxZZlufL5twWdvWHZamb4AvxjyZnui2kMZnK7J3bP5lmKYuNQho3L9A0Sb5SegnGfAfyj5n-ZyJ1EvlyU2Otk32xOxcBwSYsIY39HqLVJq8fP-8stJewMHaf9dn/s400/MuseveniBesigye.png" width="400" /></a></div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="padding-top: 4px; text-align: center;"><div style="font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><i>Published in Uganda's <a href="http://goo.gl/rDo4w">Daily Monitor</a>.</i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><i><br />
</i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">On February 6th, the day of my KPFA News report below, Uganda's </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1102068/-/c58sjgz/-/index.html">Daily </a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1102068/-/c58sjgz/-/index.html">Monitor reported</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> that </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/119494.htm">US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg</a>, and <a href="http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/01/135792.htm">Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson</a>, were in Uganda to speak to the three opposition presidential candidates, Kizza Besigye of Inter-Party Cooperation, Olara Otunnu of the Uganda Peoples Congress, and Norbert Mao of the Democratic Party, and that the meeting</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"> "formed the basis of their engagement with President Museveni." The Monitor also reported that "</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;">Uganda is a key strategic partner to the US in its role in maintaining regional stability."</span></span></div></div></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk2OgIqkkBalx5q5duUKckcqzjQG_TfkbrVC5OuQsJ4EF9FUo74a6JpplO9uIzEeQsw51t2iVSHW14CxsPM3l5QiZm7x_OlpM_6ze_sw1uQ7IklpsSarMfAs335LvaznLpXixQ2k3-G8ys/s1600/KPFAlogostraightsmallcrop.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk2OgIqkkBalx5q5duUKckcqzjQG_TfkbrVC5OuQsJ4EF9FUo74a6JpplO9uIzEeQsw51t2iVSHW14CxsPM3l5QiZm7x_OlpM_6ze_sw1uQ7IklpsSarMfAs335LvaznLpXixQ2k3-G8ys/s200/KPFAlogostraightsmallcrop.png" width="114" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> <i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Audio link: <a href="http://goo.gl/IhDnW">http://goo.gl/IhDnW</a>.</span></i></span><br />
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<div style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>KPFA Weekend News Anchor Anthony Fest: </b>Uganda is approaching parliamentary and presidential elections on February 18th. The current regime of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoweri_Museveni" style="color: #336633;" target="_blank">Yoweri Museveni </a>imprisoned one of the leading candidates, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kizza_Besigye" style="color: #336633;" target="_blank">Dr. Kizza Besigye</a>, when he ran against Museveni in 2005 and 2006, but all charges were dropped and Besigye is running again this year. Internationally known human rights advocate <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olara_Otunnu" style="color: #336633;" target="_blank">Olara Otunnu</a>, former U.N. Under-Secretary General and Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflict Zones returned from exile to run for president, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norbert_Mao" style="color: #336633;" target="_blank">Norbert Mao</a>, a Ugandan lawyer known for his negotiations to bring peace to Uganda's wartorn north, is running against Museveni as well. KPFA's Ann Garrison has the story.</span></div><div style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>KPFA/Ann Garrison: </b>Uganda, appears to be having a real presidential election, unlike Rwanda, where two of three viable presidential candidates had been arrested before the election year was over and both remain in maximum security prison. Uganda's leading presidential candidates are actively campaigning, as are parliamentary candidates, though election violence is feared and few expect the election to be free or fair. Dr. Kizza Besigye has said that he will conduct his own presidential exit polls, though Museveni has threatened to arrest him if he does.</span></div><div style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The main campaign issues are poverty, government corruption, and segregated education, which leaves children of the majority peasant population being shuffled through poor public schools, without acquiring any skills, while children of the elite attend private school.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH1QTC14YsAHRCQGZqRNpwOFP0qtwqF6xd9LDh2hffrm6n72KhbG3VwBcNRVzO6BsvV1QK5zZBUeAYk-8c1WRPFGifFSr7b5eiuc-PZPNFzGWq2ngk-ORRE10oLiUcpWBzuTg6cKvNF8KY/s1600/OtunnuinKampala.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH1QTC14YsAHRCQGZqRNpwOFP0qtwqF6xd9LDh2hffrm6n72KhbG3VwBcNRVzO6BsvV1QK5zZBUeAYk-8c1WRPFGifFSr7b5eiuc-PZPNFzGWq2ngk-ORRE10oLiUcpWBzuTg6cKvNF8KY/s320/OtunnuinKampala.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Olara Otunnu, leader of the Uganda People's <br />
Congress party, arrives for his nomination as <br />
presidential candidate in the capital Kampala.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Presidential candidate Olara Otunnu, who attended primary and secondary school in a mud hut in Uganda's indigenous <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acholi_people" style="color: #336633;" target="_blank">Acholi region</a>, went on to Uganda's Makerere University and from there to Oxford and Harvard Law School, but he says that his story is not possible in Uganda now</span></div><div style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Olara Otunnu:</b> The education system, especially at the primary level and the elementary level, have completely collapsed. The government has abandoned the public schools, the government schools. And instead, with the corruption, the country has seen a mushrooming of top quality private schools for those who are very, very wealthy. And then, this completely collapsed the system for the vast majority of children. These schools are no longer able to lay the foundation for children who go on to secondary schools, who can become teachers, and doctors, and engineers, as it used to be in our school system. </span></div><div style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>KPFA: </b><a href="http://lezgetreal.com/author/melnathan/" style="color: #336633;" target="_blank">Melanie Nathan</a>, Marin County Human Rights Commissioner, Editor/Contributor to LezGetReal, a Gay Girl's View of the World, and international LGBT activist says that damage to Uganda's public schools is a tragedy for Ugandans and for LGBT rights:</span></div><div style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Melanie Nathan: </b>Destroying pubic education, as Museveni has in Uganda, is a great way to encourage the fearful religious fundamentalism manipulated by those trying to institute homicidal homophobia with this Anti-Homosexuality Act, also known as the Hang-the-Gays Bill.</span></div><div style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMTltWf_yjUZDHnecAa5u_laIWWf8qbBK_TBXpB3uv94ZD24MHUbit1xworNJ-ZCkCdGAKSmsIr0v2EgiaCzXVczzfQ_ap0fBE7hfopI5w354UifqxP3vssUZwgB7cs7pPazdW5f2Xy_KR/s1600/NorbertMao.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMTltWf_yjUZDHnecAa5u_laIWWf8qbBK_TBXpB3uv94ZD24MHUbit1xworNJ-ZCkCdGAKSmsIr0v2EgiaCzXVczzfQ_ap0fBE7hfopI5w354UifqxP3vssUZwgB7cs7pPazdW5f2Xy_KR/s320/NorbertMao.jpg" width="320" /></a>N</span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Uganda's Democratic Party presidential <br />
candidate Norbert Mao, listened <br />
to this woman in Kazo, Kiruhuura district.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>KPFA: </b>Many Congolese people, including <a href="https://www.facebook.com/eric.kamba" style="color: #336633;" target="_blank">Eric Kamba</a>, of the Boston-based <a href="http://c-dc.net/cdcHome.html" style="color: #336633;" target="_blank">Congolese Development Center</a>, would like to see Museveni voted out of office because of his army's war crimes in Congo, which have been documented in many <a href="http://www.friendsofthecongo.org/reports-a-studies.html" style="color: #336633;" target="_blank">UN reports</a>. Kamba, a refugee from Congo's central Kasai Province, says that he would be assassinated if he went home because he has accused the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Kabila" style="color: #336633;" target="_blank">Congolese President Joseph Kabila</a> of corruption and collaboration with Museveni and Rwandan President Paul Kagame in the invasion and occupation of Congo.</span></div><div style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Eric Kamba: </b>As an African, I would like to see Yoweri Museveni voted out of office because he caused the collapse of the most fundamental social institutions and high levels of poverty and corruption in his own country. As a Congolese refugee, I want to see his regime end because he invaded and occupied Congo, and is still plundering its natural resources. In 2008, <a href="http://www.rescue.org/resource-file/irc-congo-mortality-survey-2007" style="color: #336633;" target="_blank">the International Refugee Commission, estimated that there have been 5.4 million deaths</a> due to the conflict in Congo, and there have been many more since 2008 that no one has counted.</span></div><div style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>KPFA</b>: And what would you expect from Uganda's other presidential candidates?</span></div><div style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Eric Kamba:</b> Dr Kizza Besigye has spoken out against Uganda's invasion of Congo for years and the other leading presidential candidates oppose it as well; any of them would be a big improvement for Uganda, Congo, and Africa. Museveni has been clinging to power and terrorizing the whole Great Lakes Region for the past 25 years.</span></div><div style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN9Awy6Evzqo_xZi7fpu7MqFD5XyAALqXdEZ1vdJ2rEtxQ2LZu3NvVONM-guOgty1Vlh_X0UsIjSpQqD6jwVqVeVedQmD0qD9IT9xoWfRUOa-beSx-SBxcHcYTndQK-iLYb89iL5Sok89P/s1600/Afrobeatlogo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN9Awy6Evzqo_xZi7fpu7MqFD5XyAALqXdEZ1vdJ2rEtxQ2LZu3NvVONM-guOgty1Vlh_X0UsIjSpQqD6jwVqVeVedQmD0qD9IT9xoWfRUOa-beSx-SBxcHcYTndQK-iLYb89iL5Sok89P/s1600/Afrobeatlogo.jpg" /></span></a></div><div style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>KPFA</b>: For Pacifica, KPFA and AfrobeatRadio, I'm Ann Garrison.</span></div></div>Ann Garrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07763740577715213433noreply@blogger.com0