Vincent Harris reported that European governments collaborated with Gaddafi to prevent migrants from departing from making their way to Europe from Libya's long Mediterranean coastline.
KPFA Weekend News Anchor David Landau: 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.
KPFA/Ann Garrison: Aljazeera English recorded the voice of this Nigerian, who goes by the name of Courage, after he escaped an attack in Libya this week:
Courage: 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.
Vincent Harris, Dutch creator of the blog Colored Opinionsand host of Colored Opinions Great Lakes Blogchat on Blog Talk Radio.
KPFA: Vincent Harris, creator of the Netherlands-based blog Colored Opinions, 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,:
Vincent Harris: 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.
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.
For Pacifica, KPFA and Afrobeat Radio, I'm Ann Garrison.
KPFA Weekend News Host Anthony Fest:
And turning now to news from Africa, the dispute over who is responsible for the bloodshed in East/Central Africa over the past 16 years intensified this month when, on November 9th, Rwandan President Paul Kagame's former bodyguard testified at the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda. Following that testimony he told a newspaper and website that Kagame summarily executes political enemies. On November 12 Rwanda's High Court sent an opposition leader back to prison. Now a new Dutch Parliament seems close to confirming that it will no longer support Kagame's government. KPFA's Ann Garrison has the story.
KPFA/Ann Garrison:
Rwandan President Paul Kagame's former bodyguard Aloys Ruyenzi testified, at the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda, that the President of the Interahamwe, the militia said to have massacred the Rwandan Tutsi population in 1994, was himself a Tutsi and Rwandan Patriotic Front and Army agent. Ruyenzi, in an interview with The Newsline East Africa, also described what he called "killing spots," where, he says, the Kagame regime continues to sort, classify, and then systematically execute those it perceives as enemies.
The Kagame regime's High Court in turn denied opposition leader Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza's bail appeal, and sent her back to prison to await trial for conspiring with terrorists and genocide ideology, which means disagreeing with the official history of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide.
Rwandan exiles and supporters have demonstrated in Brussels, the Hague, and London since Ingabire's arrest, and the new Dutch Parliament seems to be moving toward a vote to sustain a 2008 decision to cut economic aid to Kagame's Rwandan regime because of its human rights abuses in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo and because of Ingabire's imprisonment.
Vincent Harris is a Dutch new media consultant and writer. Harris says that the Dutch Parliament's decision could raise the question of why other European nations and the U.S. continue to provide economic and military aid to Rwanda:
Colored Opinions Blogger/Writer/New Media Consultant Vincent Harris:
In December the final decision concerning budget support, whether the Netherlands will resume budget support to Rwanda, will be made by the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Kigali's reputation is at stake. Once the Dutch government freezes budget support again, it's a strong signal to all European partners, and also to, for instance, the US and the UK to explain why they think they should keep supporting this regime.
KPFA/Ann:
Harris says that Ingabire was a respectable, working, lawabiding, resident of the Netherlands, where her family still resides, for 16 years, before her return to Rwanda, and that church groups with significant influence are collecting petition signatures, to be addressed to the Dutch Parliament, asking the legislative body to lobby for her safety and human rights.
Harris reports that the Dutch Parliament has already asked its embassy staff to attend her trial as witnesses, though they do not believe that she can receive a fair trial in Rwanda.
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