Nairobi – Kenya has written to the UN Security Council pleading to scrap the international crimes against humanity trials for President Uhuru Kenyatta and his vice president William Ruto, according to documents seen on Thursday.

“What this delegation is asking for is not deferral,” Kenya’s ambassador to the UN, Macharia Kamau, wrote in a letter to the Council seen by AFP.

“What this delegation is asking for is for the immediate termination of the case at The Hague.”

Harare – Zimbabwe’s lower house of parliament on Thursday approved a draft constitution that was overwhelmingly endorsed in a March referendum, paving the way for new elections.

“The number of affirmative votes, 156 is not less than two-thirds of the total members of the house,” said parliament speaker Lovemore Moyo in the capital Harare.

All the lawmakers present voted in favour of the draft which needed the assent of two-thirds. The rest of the 210-member chamber were absent or have passed away.

The charter is expected to be rubber-stamped by the senate and then signed into law by President Robert Mugabe.

The text takes away the president’s immunity after leaving office, bolsters the power of the courts, and sets up a peace and reconciliation commission tasked with post-conflict justice and healing.

It also limits a president’s tenure to two five-year terms, curtails presidential powers and abolishes the post of prime minister.

Mugabe has ruled uninterrupted since Zimbabwe’s independence from Britain in 1980, despite a series of disputed and violent polls and a severe economic crash propelled by hyper-inflation.

A new constitution is one of the key reforms agreed to under the unity government formed between Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in 2009 following a bloody presidential run-off election the year before.

Both leaders backed the draft charter during the referendum but they are still haggling over the date of general elections.

Tsvangirai is also insisting on reforms in the media, electoral and security sectors to ensure free and credible polls.

- AFP

May 09, 2013

Nigeria’s president is cutting short a trip abroad after militant groups killed dozens of security officers in two separate incidents this week.

Government officials say President Goodluck Jonathan is aborting a trip to southern Africa and returning to the capital, Abuja, immediately. They say he will meet on arrival with top military and police officials to review Nigeria’s security situation.

His return comes after suspected Boko Haram militants raided the northeastern town of Bama on Tuesday and killed 55 people, many of them police and prison officials.

Meanwhile, officials in central Nigeria say members of a cult killed at least 23 police officers who were coming to arrest the group’s leader.

Police were concerned the cult, known as Ombatse, was fomenting violence. A reporter for VOA’s Hausa Service says the cult was giving out a potion that members believed would make people invisible and invincible.

The reporter says at least 40 people in all were killed in Tuesday’s gunbattle.

Wives of the killed police officers staged a demonstration Thursday, blocking a highway leading to Lafia.

There was no indication whether there was a link between the Ombatse attack and the raid by Boko Haram.

Nigerian security forces have battled Boko Haram for the past four years, with no visible progress toward stamping out the group, which advocates the imposition of Islamic law.

Northern leaders have called for the government to give amnesty to the militants in hopes of stopping the violence.

Niamey – A Nigerian fighter jet taking part in military operations against al-Qaeda-linked Islamic militants in Mali crashed in western Niger, killing its two crew, Niger and Nigerian officials said on Monday.

The incident marked the first casualties in Mali for Nigerian troops, which form the largest contingent in a West African regional force participating in the French-led campaign to drive Islamist rebels from the country’s desert north.

Air Commodore Yusuf Anas, spokesperson for the Nigerian Air Force, said the plane was an Alpha jet stationed in Niger as part of a Nigerian squadron supporting the mission in Mali.

“An investigation is going on to find out what happened. They were on a normal routine flight about 60km west of Niamey when something happened,” Anas told Reuters.

Asked if there was any evidence of anti-aircraft fire, he said: “We don’t know but it was inside Nigerien territory.”

A Niger security source said the jet crashed near Dargol in the Tillabery region which borders Mali.

“The plane was not shot at. It was not in enemy territory so for now we are looking at maybe a mechanical problem,” another security official from Niger, who asked not to be identified, said.

- Reuters

Zambia’s High Commissioner to South Africa has reassured the government in Pretoria that diplomatic relations between the two nations will remain strong, according to Clayson Monyela, South African Foreign Affairs Ministry Spokesman.

“South Africa noted with regret this negative comment about South Africa attributed to the vice president of Zambia,” said Monyela, referring to a report in the Guardian newspaper.

“What we have received from the Zambia High Commissioner,” continued Monyela, “is that relationship between Zambia and South Africa remains strong, solid, friendly and fraternal and historical. We will seek an explanation from him in terms of what do these remarks mean in the context of our bilateral relations.”

Last week, South Africa summoned Zambia’s ambassador Muyeba Chikonde to explain what were seen as insulting and anti-South African statements attributed to Vice President Guy Scott.

“What we then did was to summoned the High Commissioner of Zambia to come and explain to us what informed these remarks and whether they are true and if they are true what do they mean in the context of our bilateral relations,” said Monyela.

Scott was quoted by the Guardian as saying: “South Africans are very backward in terms of historical development…I hate South Africans; they really think they’re the bees’ knees and actually they’ve been the cause of so much trouble in this part of the world… “

Monyela said Zambia officials answered that Scott’s remarks do not reflect the views of the government in Lusaka and its people.

“They’ve not been able to speak to the vice president to ascertain whether in fact it’s true that he said the things that he is alleged to have said,” said Monyela. “But we have been given assurance that those views, even if they were said, do not represent the views of the government of Zambia.”

Zambia opposition parties sharply criticized Scott’s alleged remarks after expressing concern that they would create deep diplomatic rifts between Lusaka and Pretoria. But, Monyela says relations between the two nations will remain cordial in spite of the reported comments.

“We can assure the people of Zambia that irrespective of the explanation that we will finally get from the vice president when he comes back from his leave, in fact if he said what he is alleged to have said, we will deal with them at the level of the president and the vice president,” continued Monyela, “but it will not affect people-to-people relations.”

Monyela predicts diplomatic relations between the two countries will remain strong in the future.

“We don’t think it’s a matter that will compromise our strong bond and relations,” said Monyela.

VOA

The International Criminal Court [ICC] has delayed the trial of Kenyan Deputy President William Ruto, who is facing charges of crimes against humanity.

The trial was set to begin May 28, but a court statement Monday said it was “provisionally” postponed until after judges hold status conferences with prosecutors and defense attorneys.

Ruto is accused of helping to organize a campaign of ethnic violence after Kenya’s disputed 2007 presidential election. More than 1,100 people were killed and 300,000 displaced from their homes.

Despite the charges, Ruto was elected as the running mate of new Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta in March. Kenyatta is facing similar charges at the ICC and is due to go on trial in July. In March, his lawyers asked the court to drop the charges, after the case against the president’s co-accused, Francis Muthaura, collapsed.

A Kenyan radio executive, Joshua Arap Sang, is being tried alongside Ruto, although the ICC has said his contribution to the crimes was “not essential.”

This is the second time the ICC has delayed the trial, which was originally set to begin last month.

The court says that in its status conferences, scheduled for this week and next, it will address prosecutors’ request to add five people to the list of witnesses, among other procedural matters.

VOA

Two Iranians have been sentenced to life in prison by a Kenyan court on terrorism-related charges.

Ahmad Mohammed and Sayed Mousavi were convicted last week of possessing explosives, which they allegedly planned to use for an attack.

“I shudder to imagine the amount of damage that could have been seen,” Judge Kiarie Waweru Kiarie said, AFP news agency reports.

The Iranian government denied that it was part of any plot to target Kenya.

Defence lawyer David Kirimi said he would appeal against the ruling.

“The sentencing is wrong, misconceived and outrageous, and an injustice to our clients,” Mr Kirimi told AFP.

‘Cry of victims’

The court said Mohammed and Mousavi were suspected to have links with a network planning bombings in the capital, Nairobi and the coastal city of Mombasa.

Judge Kiarie said he had decided to sentence them to life in prison because the “cry of victims of previous terrorist attacks is louder” than their pleas for leniency, AFP reports.

Defence lawyers alleged that Mohammed and Mousavi were interrogated by Israeli security officers while in detention.

The prosecution denied the allegation.

Mohamed and Mousavi were arrested in June 2012 and charged with possessing 15kg (33 pounds) of the powerful explosive RDX.

Soon thereafter, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran was plotting attacks against Israel in Kenya.

On Sunday, Iran’s ambassador to Kenya, Malik Hussein Givzad, denied his government’s involvement involved in any terror plot, Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper reports.

Iran would help Mohamed and Mousavi appeal against the ruling, he added.

However, Iran would not sever ties with Kenya over the issue, Mr Givzad said.

“Iran has cordial business relations with Kenya. This was a judicial process, which we respect,” he is quoted as saying.

Kenya has been hit in recent years by a spate of bombings and abductions, blamed on Somalia’s al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group.

It sent troops into Somalia in October 2011 to help the UN-backed government seize territory from the militants.

In 2002, al-Qaeda-linked militants bombed an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, killing 18 people.

A missile was also fired, but it failed to hit its target – an Israeli charter plane flying out of Mombasa, a popular tourist resort.

BBC

UK Prime Minister David Cameron is to host an international conference in London to help Somalia end more than two decades of conflict.

The conference will focus on rebuilding its security forces and tackling rape – a largely taboo subject in Somalia.

Somalia is widely regarded as a failed state, hit by an Islamist insurgency, piracy and a famine from 2010 to 2012.

At least seven people were killed in a car bomb attack in the capital, Mogadishu, on Sunday.

Al-Shabab, which is part of al-Qaeda, said it carried out the attack.

Tuesday’s meeting – which Mr Cameron will co-host with Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud – follows similar conferences in London and the Turkish city of Istanbul last year, amid growing international concern that Somalia has turned into a haven for al-Qaeda-linked militants.

‘Dramatic change’

“I hope we can all get behind a long-term security plan – one that ends the Shabab’s reign of terror forever,” Mr Cameron said.

“I also hope we can improve transparency and accountability so people know where resources are going. We also need to continue the process of rebuilding the Somali state, with all the regions of Somalia around the table and the neighbouring countries too.”

BBC Somalia analyst Mary Harper says there has been a dramatic change in the country in the past year.

There is a new government – the first one in more than two decades to be recognised by the United States, the International Monetary Fund(IMF) and other key players, she says.

Al-Shabab has lost control of the major towns, pirate attacks off the Somali coast have fallen dramatically and the famine, which the United Nations estimates claimed nearly 260,000 lives, is over, she adds.

However, massive challenges remain, as al-Shabab still has the capacity to carry out attacks and the government depends on about 18,000 African Union (AU) troops for its security, our correspondent says.

Somalia is also divided into a patchwork of self-governing regions, many of them hostile to the central government.

The breakaway state of Somaliland and the semi-autonomous region of Puntland say they will boycott the conference.

The conference will address an issue that was until recently completely taboo in Somalia – rape, especially of women living in camps for displaced people, our correspondent says.

Somali aid worker Halima Ali Adan told the BBC the decision to tackle the issue at the conference was a big step forward.

“Sexual violence is something that was not ever spoken about in Somalia,” she said.

“The international community themselves have seen the importance of this issue to be addressed as soon as possible because it is actually overwhelming.”

Delegates from more than 50 countries and organisations are expected to attend the meeting.

On Monday, Qatar said Sunday’s suicide attack in Mogadishu had targeted its officials, Qatar’s official QNA news agency reported.

The four officials were travelling in armoured vehicles belonging to the Somali government when the convoy was attacked, it said.

BBC

None of the Qatari nationals were injured, QNA reported.

However, 10 other people were wounded in the attack, according to a BBC correspondent in Mogadishu.