South African miners charged with murder of colleagues shot by police

Murder charges brought against 270 miners under obscure law previously used by apartheid government

guardian.co.uk, David Batty, Thursday 30 August 2012

South African police gather around fallen miners on 16 August after they
 opened fire during clashes near the Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana.
Photograph: Stringer/AFP/Getty Images

The 270 miners arrested during violent strikes in South Africa have been charged with the murder of their 34 colleagues who were shot dead by police.

The murder charge – and associated charges for the attempted murder of 78 miners injured at the Marikana mine near Johannesburg – was brought by the national prosecuting authority under an obscure Roman-Dutch common law previously used by the apartheid government.

The move came as the men appeared in court charged with public violence over the clashes at the Lonmin platinum mine on 16 August when striking miners armed with clubs, machetes and at least one gun allegedly charged police, who opened fire. It suggests President Jacob Zuma's government is trying to shift the blame for the killings to the striking miners.

The prosecuting authority said all 270 miners had been charged. Less than one in 10 Lonmin miners turned up for work at the mine on Tuesday, the lowest level since workers returned to work following the clashes. Violence has since spread to Lonmin's other operations.

The firm said 8% of its 28,000 workers showed up as union protests continued.

Lonmin had initially threatened to sack striking workers.

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Egypt and Iran leaders hold historic meeting

Deutsche Welle, 30 August 2012

The leaders of Egypt and Iran have held the first presidential-level talks between the two countries in more than 30 years. It signals a major shift in foreign policy for both countries.

The meeting between Egypt's Mohammad Morsi and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took place on the sidelines of the summit of non-aligned countries in Tehran.

The topics of discussion included the need for an end to the Syria crisis, and the two countries' severed diplomatic ties. The leaders reportedly agreed that Egypt and Iran were "strategic partners" in the region.

The two countries have had no formal contact or ties since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution and Egypt's peace treaty with Israel.

"Iran sees in Egypt a strategic partner and believes that it would be to the benefit of all states if Iran and Egypt would be beside each other," Ahmadinejad is reported to have told Morsi during the meeting.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian told the country's Al-Alam 

broadcaster that the leaders discussed ways to boost the level of relations between Tehran and Cairo, and that the meeting was held in a friendly atmosphere.

After the meeting, Ahmadinejad issued a statement in which Morsi was quoted as saying that the Syrian crisis could only be resolved "with the help of influential countries in the region like Iran."

The meeting follows Morsi's opening speech at the summit, during which the Syrian delegation walked out as he called for urgent intervention against President Bashar Assad's regime. He also compared the conflict there to Egypt's own recent past.

"The revolution in Egypt is the cornerstone for the Arab Spring, which started days after Tunisia and then it was followed by Libya and Yemen and now the revolution in Syria against its oppressive regime," he said.

However, this contradicted Iran and Syria's own position on the uprising. Both countries view the conflict in Syria as being the result of a "terrorist" plot masterminded by the United States and other foreign countries.

jr/pfd (AFP, dpa)

Related Article:

Egypt Leader Slams Syrian Regime During Iran Visit

Egypt Leader Slams Syrian Regime During Iran Visit

Associated Press, Nasser Karimi, Aug 30, 2012

In this photo released by the official website of the Iranian presidency office,

 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, second right, welcomes Egyptian

 President Mohammed Morsi for the opening session of the Nonaligned Movement,

 NAM, summit, in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Aug. 30, 2012. Morsi described the Syrian

 regime as "oppressive" and called for it to transfer power to a democratic system 

during a visit to Syria's key regional ally Iran on Thursday. Iranian Vice-President

 Mohammad Reza Rahimi stands at right, and Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, left.

(AP Photo/Presidency Office)

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- In a clear rebuke to Syria's key ally Iran, Egypt's new president said Thursday that Bashar Assad's "oppressive" regime has lost its legitimacy and told an international conference in Tehran that the world must stand behind the Syrian rebels.

The rallying call by Mohammed Morsi - making the first visit to Iran by an Egyptian leader since the 1979 Islamic Revolution - showed the huge divide between Iran's stalwart support of Assad and the growing network of regional powers pushing for his downfall.

It also drove home the difficulties for Iran as host of a gathering of the 120-nation Nonaligned Movement, a Cold War-era group that Tehran seeks to transform into a powerful bloc to challenge Western influence.

Iran's leaders say the weeklong meeting, which wraps up Friday, displays the inability of the West's attempt to isolate the country over its nuclear program. But Iran has been forced to endure stinging criticism from its most high-level participant as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon cited concerns about Iran's human rights record and said Iran's condemnations of Israel were unacceptable.

Morsi's address to the gathering further pushed Iran into a corner. In effect, he demanded Iran join the growing anti-Assad consensus or risk being further estranged from Egypt and other regional heavyweights such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

Morsi has proposed that Iran take part in a four-nation contact group that would include Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia to mediate an end to the Syrian crisis. The U.N. chief Ban also said Iran has a key role to play in finding a solution to end Syria's civil war, which activists say has claimed at least 20,000 lives.

But Iran has given no signals of breaking ties with Assad, and the Syrian rebels fighting the regime say they reject Iran's participation in any peace efforts.

"The bloodletting in Syria is the responsibility of all of us and we should know that this bloodletting won't be stopped without active interference by all of," Morsi said. "The Syrian crisis is bleeding our hearts."

Syrian delegates to the conference walked out during Morsi's speech.

In another possible dig at Iran, Morsi gave credit to the Arab Spring wave of uprisings that put him in power and touched off the civil war in Syria. Iran has endorsed many of the revolts - describing them as a modern-day reflection of its Islamic Revolution more than three decades ago - but denounces the Syrian uprising as orchestrated by "enemies" that include Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

At the United Nations, Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is expected to urge the Security Council later Thursday to set up a safe zone in Syria to protect thousands of civilians fleeing the civil war. But the initiative is almost certain to meet resistance from Council members such as Russia, which has supported the Assad dynasty for decades.

Morsi's Sunni Muslim Brotherhood backers, Egypt's most powerful political group since the revolt, are opposed to Shiite Iran's staunch backing of the Syrian regime and its lethal crackdown on largely Sunni protesters. Assad is a follower of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

"We should all express our full support to the struggle of those who are demanding freedom and justice in Syria and translate our sympathies into a clear political vision that supports peaceful transfer (of power) to a democratic system," Morsi said in his opening statement.

Morsi slammed Assad's rule, saying that the world had a "moral duty" to stand with the Syrian people in their struggle "against an oppressive regime that has lost its legitimacy."

He said having a democratic system in Syria "reflects the desire of the Syrian people for freedom, justice and equality and at the same time protects Syria from entering into a civil war or being divided by sectarian clashes."

Morsi also called for uniting the fractured Syrian opposition, which has not been able to agree on a clear transitional roadmap for governing the country if Assad should fall. The Egyptian president expressed Cairo's readiness to work with all parties to stop the bloodshed and "agree on a clear vision on which the new free Syria will be based."

He has, in the past, spoken out against international military intervention in Syria.

Egyptian officials had said they did not expect top-level bilateral meetings with their Iranian counterparts during Morsi's visit. However, semiofficial ISNA news agency said Morsi and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met later.

Morsi's visit represents a major step toward ending decades of friction between the two countries despite the still-cool rapport.

Tehran cut ties with Egypt following Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution. Under Morsi's predecessor who was ousted, Hosni Mubarak, Egypt sided with Saudi Arabia and other Sunni-dominated Arab states in trying to isolate Shiite-led Iran.

In an attempt at outreach with Iran, Morsi stressed that it is the right of countries to develop nuclear energy for peaceful as long as it adheres to international protocols. The West fears Iran's uranium enrichment could lead to atomic weapons, but Iran has insisted that it only seeks reactors for energy and medical purposes.

The U.N. chief called Iran's nuclear program "top concern" of international community and urged Tehran's "full cooperation" with the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency, which seeks greater access to Iranian sites for inspections.

He also urged all parties - apparently including Israel - to "stop provocative and inflammatory threats; a war of words can quickly spiral into war of violence."

But he added specific censure for Iranian condemnations of Israel. Earlier this month, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Israel will "disappear from the scene of geography." In his speech Thursday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Israel a "fake regime."

"I strongly reject threats by any member states to destroy another or outrageous attempt to deny historical facts such as the Holocaust , claiming that another state, Israel, does not have the right to exist or describing it in racist terms," Ban said.

Earlier, Khamenei repeated his claims that Iran has never pursued nuclear weapons - calling use of atomic arms a "big and unforgivable sin" - but also noted it will never give up its work on nuclear technology.

"I declare that the Islamic Republic of Iran has never been after nuclear weapons and it never will abandon its right for peaceful use of nuclear energy" he told the gathering.

Associated Press writers Aya Batrawy in Cairo and Brian Murphy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

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"The End of History" – Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)

(Subjects: Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Muhammad, Jesus, God, Jews, Arabs, EU, US, Israel, Iran, Russia, Africa, South America, Global Unity,..... etc.) (Text version)

" ..... If an Arab and a Jew can look at one another and see the Akashic lineage and see the one family, there is hope. If they can see that their differences no longer require that they kill one another, then there is a beginning of a change in history. And that's what is happening now. All of humanity, no matter what the spiritual belief, has been guilty of falling into the historic trap of separating instead of unifying. Now it's starting to change. There's a shift happening. ....."

"Perceptions of God" – June 6, 2010 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Quantum Teaching, The Fear of God, Near-death Experience, God Becomes Mythology, Worship, Mastery, Intelligent Design, Benevolent Creator, Global Unity.... etc.) (Text version)

“.. For centuries you haven't been able to think past that box of what God must be like. So you create a Human-like God with wars in heaven, angel strife, things that would explain the devil, fallen angels, pearly gates, lists of dos and don'ts, and many rules still based on cultures that are centuries old. You create golden streets and even sexual pleasures as rewards for men (of course) - all Human perspective, pasted upon God. I want to tell you that it's a lot different than that. I want to remind you that there are those who have seen it! Why don't you ask somebody who has had what you would call a near-death experience?

"Healing the Military Energies in our family Tree" – Jun 13, 2011 (Kryon channelled by David Brown)

“ … There’s much violence and anger throughout the world; when we look at the Middle East, we can see that changes are coming there. The West has a lot of power over the Middle East, but that power will begin to dissolve. The Muslim people of this world will begin to have their own power, and their own prosperity, and they will begin to disconnect from the Western World. This disconnection doesn’t have to be violent as violence only happens when somebody hangs onto what doesn’t belong to them....

... What Military Energy means if we use an analogy: it would be like putting grinding paste into the oil of your motor car. Once you release these energies you will begin to feel lighter as you disconnect from this reality, and, you will find it easier and easier to release any other negative emotions. Military Energies are the core of all your problems...."

France opens enquiry into claims of Arafat poisoning

Yahoo, Pauline Talagrand, AFP, 28 August 2012 

Palestinian leader Yasser.

(AFP Photo/Abbas Momani)

French prosecutors have opened a murder enquiry into Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's 2004 death near Paris following claims he may have died of polonium poisoning, sources close to the matter told AFP Tuesday.

The probe comes after Arafat's family launched legal action in France last month following reports the veteran Palestinian leader may have died from radioactive polonium.

Arafat's widow Suha and his daughter Zawra lodged a murder complaint on July 31 in the Paris suburb of Nanterre. Arafat died at age 75 at a military hospital near Paris in 2004.

"A judicial murder enquiry has been opened, as expected following the complaint from Mrs. Arafat," a source close to the matter told AFP. Another source confirmed the probe had been opened.

The Palestinian Authority hailed the move.

"We welcome this decision and (Palestinian) president Mahmud Abbas has officially asked French President Francois Hollande to help us to investigate the circumstances of the martyrdom of late president Arafat," senior Palestinian official Saeb Erakat told AFP in Ramallah.

Allegations that the Nobel Peace laureate was poisoned were resurrected last month after Al-Jazeera news channel broadcast an investigation in which experts said they found high levels of polonium on his personal effects.

Polonium is a highly toxic substance which is rarely found outside military and scientific circles, and was used to kill former Russian spy turned Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko, who died in 2006 shortly after drinking tea laced with the poison.

Suha Arafat has said she backs exhuming her late husband's remains from his mausoleum in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

A Swiss radiology lab at the Lausanne University Hospital Centre said on Friday it has received Suha Arafat's go-ahead to test his remains for poisoning by polonium.

French news website Slate.fr on Tuesday published a copy of the medical report into Arafat's death and said his symptoms were not consistent with polonium poisoning.

Arafat was sent to the Percy military hospital in Clamart outside Paris after suffering from nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, acute diarrhea and thrombocytopenia -- an abnormally low amount of platelets in the blood.

Doctors at the hospital conducted a wide range of tests but were unable to determine the exact cause of his illness.

A few days after his arrival in France, Arafat lapsed into a coma and he died on November 11, 2004. No autopsy was conducted.

"The hypothesis of polonium does not stand up to scrutiny," Marcel Francis-Kahn, the former chief of rheumatology at Paris's Bichat hospital, told Slate.fr.

"All experts know that poisoning by radioactive material does not lead to the symptoms seen in Arafat," he said, noting that he also suffered no traditional effects of radiation poisoning such as hair loss and a massive drop in white blood cells.

At the time of Arafat's death, Palestinian officials alleged he had been poisoned by long-time foe Israel, but an inconclusive Palestinian investigation in 2005 ruled out poisoning, as well as cancer and AIDS.

Israel has consistently denied the allegations, accusing Suha Arafat and Palestinian officials of covering up the real reasons for the death of the former leader, who led the struggle for Palestinian statehood for nearly four decades.

Related Articles:

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'Polonium would be hardly detectable'

Iraq minister resigns after spat with PM

Deutsche Welle, 27 August 2012

Iraq's cabinet hit a bump in the road on Monday, when the communications minister announced his resignation. The minister in question had clashed repeatedly with the country's prime minister.

Iraq's communications minister, Mohammed Allawi, quit his post on Monday, blaming the Shi'ite prime minister for meddling. Allawi is the first minister to resign from his position since Iraq's government was formed in December 2010.

“I present my resignation because I have become incapable of working in such an infested environment," said Allawi in his resignation letter.

The former communications minister is an adherent of the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc in the country's fractious power-sharing government. Allawi has consistently clashed with Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Allawi, in a telephone interview with AFP on Monday, detailed alleged government attempts to control the appointment and transfer of senior officials. More specifically, he accused the prime minister of ordering the transfer of several director-generals in the communications ministry against Allawi's wishes.

“Some of our DGs who are very truthful, they are working very hard, he [Maliki] asked me to transfer them back to their previous ministries," Allawi said.

"I asked to keep them but he refused," Allawi added.

There exists deep political cleavages in Iraq between Sunni, Shi'ite and Kurdish blocs, and the situation has worsened since American troops left the country in December. Tensions reached boiling point when al-Maliki's government moved to arrest the vice present and Iraqiya member Tareq al-Hashemi earlier in the year. Al-Hashemi has since fled to Turkey. The Iraqiya bloc frequently charge al-Maliki with acting like a dictator. They recently tried to rally a no-confidence motion against him, which failed.

sej/ccp (Reuters, AFP)

Related Article:

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Facebook Israel-Arab youth group has rare meeting

The Jakarta Post, The Associated Press, Jerusalem, August 27 2012

A Facebook-based movement for Mideast youth says the group has held its first gathering, bringing young activists from Israel and Arab countries to Germany to promote peace.

Nimrod Ben-Zeev of the YaLa-Young Leaders group says 18 members from Israel, the Palestinian territories, Tunisia, Algeria, Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan, Iraq and Kuwait met in Berlin over the weekend.

Ben-Zeev, an Israeli, said the group was selected from the most active of YaLa's 162,000 Facebook members.

Meetings between Israelis and citizens of Arab nations are rare. Except for Egypt and the Palestinians, none of those represented have diplomatic ties with Israel.

Ben-Zeev said Monday the movement wants to empower Middle Eastern youths to work together to improve their communities. It plans an online university next year.

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Watatita: Idul Fitri in Malang Sparks Hope for the Country's Religious Issues

"The End of History" – Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)

(Subjects: Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Muhammad, Jesus, God, Jews, Arabs, EU, US, Israel, Iran, Russia, Africa, South America, Global Unity,..... etc.) (Text version)

" ..... If an Arab and a Jew can look at one another and see the Akashic lineage and see the one family, there is hope. If they can see that their differences no longer require that they kill one another, then there is a beginning of a change in history. And that's what is happening now. All of humanity, no matter what the spiritual belief, has been guilty of falling into the historic trap of separating instead of unifying. Now it's starting to change. There's a shift happening. ....."

No "Angolan Spring" before the elections

Deutsche Welle, 27 August 2012

National elections will be held in Angola at the end of the month. The polls are expected to end in victory for the ruling MPLA party, though they are tentative signs of a "Angolan Spring."

Inspired by the Arab Spring that swept through the Middle East and North Africa, more and more young Angolans are calling for the ousting of President Eduardo dos Santos.

His MPLA party has ruled the country since it gained independence from Portugal more than 30 years ago.

The only authoritarian leader who has been in power longer than dos Santos is Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema.

The MPLA dominates politics and the media. Increasingly, though, young people in Angola are coming to believe they have had enough of their dictator.

Students, artists and citizens' rights activists, have been openly calling for demonstrations to overthrow dos Santos since last year

30-year-old rapper Carbono Casimiro's lyrics tell of the desperation felt by young people. His country, Angola, is one of the most resource-rich countries in the world, yet it offers no prospects for its youth. Instead, they are ground down by unemployment, poverty and corruption.

“We are all victims of catastrophic governance, that's why i don't just do music, but I hit the streets with other young people and demonstrate against the government”, says Casimoro. “But the government suppresses our freedoms, and we are afraid something could happen to us. We are peaceful and we're not looking for confrontation with the government. We want justice.."

Hope for an "Angolan Spring" 

President Eduardo dos Santos' ruling
 party the MPLA has been in power
since independence

Although the protest movement believes the majority of the population is on their side, especially in the slums of the capital, Luanda, only a few hundred protestors have the courage to take to the streets.

Others are worried by reprisals from the state security apparatus. "Zedu", as the Angolan President dos Santos is called by the population, is a feared man.

Yet some young Angolans are wondering that if the former Tunisian leader Ben Ali, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, or Libya's Muammar Gaddafi can be ousted from power, then why couldn't the same happen to dos Santos..

The young protestors appear to be well-organized and perhaps aware of the dangers they face if caught by security agents. They communicate via mobile phone and the Internet.

On social media the young protestors call for a revolution of the Angolan people against 32 years of tyranny and bad governance. Some of their slogans read "Angola's Youth against Corruption" or "President zedu out - Down with dictatorship".

Repression and regime propaganda 

Youth demonstrations hope to bring
about change in Angola

Angolan police, military and intelligence agencies are nervous. Attempts to bribe the leaders of the protesters with cash or cars, alternate with threats, violence and attacks against members of the protest movement who are known to them.

Despite this intimidation, Libertador, the pseudonym of one of the protest movement leaders, is determined not to give in. ”For almost 33 years we have had a tyrant in power, we will never stop fighting for democracy in our country," he says.

Hungry for change 

Rapper Luaty Beirão hopes his
music will help bring about a more
democratic Angola

Angola is still a long way from being a democracy, because the opposition parties are not given a fair chance to compete with the party in power.

Rapper Luaty Beirão, known as "Ikonoklasta" or "Brigadeiro Matafrakus" in hip-hop circles, wishes that the MPLA were swept from office. "People of my age have never known a time when there was another party in power," he says.

Luaty Beirão comes from a family loyal to regime. His father, João Beirão, was, for many years the head of the state-owned dos Santos Foundation. The son, though, regards the Angolan political elite with contempt..

"We are fed up with the MPLA and are hungry for change. The MPLA have installed a dirty, corrupt system in our country ," he says. He will be voting against the MPLA in the elections on 31 August

Resilience through music 

In previous elections the MPLA has
 secured mreo than 80 percent of
the vote

Rapper Carbono Casimiro has recently released a new song on the Internet. It tells of the brutality the regime uses to repress dissent . "They beat us up and arrest us just because we demand bread, medical care and education," the lyrics say

That track is ironically called "Bom Cidadão," meaning "good citizen".

Carbono himself has experienced such brutality first hand. He was jailed for several weeks because he joined a demonstration against President Eduardo dos Santos.

Optimistic observers believe that an Angolan Spring will eventually erode away the power of the MPLA and its leaders, even if they do win the elections on August 31.

Togo women call sex strike against President Gnassingbe

BBC News, 27 August 2012

Related Stories 

• Profile: Faure Gnassingbe
• Togo leader's brother convicted
• In pictures:Togo unrest

Isabelle Ameganvi said holding the strike
 would ensure women's voices would
be heard

Women in Togo have called a week-long sex strike, starting on Monday, to demand the president's resignation.

The ban has been called by opposition coalition Let's Save Togo, which groups together nine civil society groups and seven opposition parties and movements.

Opposition leader Isabelle Ameganvi said that sex could be a "weapon of the battle" to achieve political change.

The coalition wants President Faure Gnassingbe, whose family has held power for decades, to stand down.

"We have many means to oblige men to understand what women want in Togo," Ms Ameganvi, leader of the women's wing of the coalition, told the BBC.

She said she had been inspired by a similar strike by Liberian women in 2003, who used a sex strike to campaign for peace.

"If men refuse to hear our cries we will hold another demonstration that will be more powerful than a sex strike," she added.

'Like fasting'

Togo has been run by the same family for more than four decades.

President Faure Gnassingbe took power in 2005 following the death of his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled Togo for 38 years. The president was re-elected in 2010.

The strike was announced at a rally on Saturday in Lome, attended by thousands of people. 

The rally was held to protest against recent electoral reforms, which demonstrators say will make it easier for Mr Gnassingbe's party to win re-election in the parliamentary polls set for October.

Activists say that the strike will motivate men who are not involved in the political movement to pursue its goals, which include an end to the system allowing unlimited presidential terms.

Earlier this month, two anti-Gnassingbe protests were dispersed by police using tear gas and more than 100 people were arrested.

The sex strike was welcomed as a political tool by some women in Lome.

"It's a good thing for us women to observe this sex strike as long as our children are in jail now. I believe that by observing this, we will get them released," Abla Tamekloe told the Associated Press.

"For me, it's like fasting, and unless you fast, you will not get what you want from God."

Nigeria confirms 'backroom' talks with Islamists

Deutsche Welle, 27 August 2012

The Nigerian government has said it is holding "backroom" talks with members of the radical Islamist sect Boko Haram. The move represents a shift away from a purely military response to the group's insurgency.

The spokesman for Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan on Sunday told journalists that talks were going on with some members of Boko Haram.

"The form of the dialog is that backroom channels are being used to reach across with the sole objective of understanding what exactly the grievances of these persons are, what exactly can be done to resolve the crises," Reuben Abati told reporters at the presidential villa in the capital, Abuja.

He said the government had reached out to the insurgents "in the overall best interest of ensuring peace and stability in Nigeria and the secuirty of life and property."

This is the first official goverment confirmation of back-channel talks after the information minister earlier indicated that some kind of contact with the group had been established.

Religious divide

Boko Haram is blamed for the deaths of more than 1,400 people in northern and central Nigeria. Its members are thought to have received training from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in northern Mali.

The group has, among other things, called for an Islamic state in Nigeria, but its demands are not consistent.

Last week, what is believed to be the main branch of Boko Haram ruled out peace talks unless the government accepted the demand for such a state. 

Jonathan is seeking a peaceful
solution to the conflict

President Jonathan has accused Boko Haram of trying to incite religious unrest in Nigeria, which has a predominantly Muslim north and mainly Christian south. Recently, several of its attacks have targeted churches, although Muslims have also been victims.

Until now, the Nigerian government has focused on military means to combat the attacks. The army has been accused of major abuses while carrying out raids.

Abati said the president was now looking at other options for solving the problem of the Boko Haram insurgency, including the implementation of social programs to increase prosperity and create jobs.

tj/msh (AFP, Reuters)

Related Articles:

Watatita: Idul Fitri in Malang Sparks Hope for the Country's Religious Issues

"Healing the Military Energies in our family Tree" – Jun 13, 2011 (Kryon channelled by David Brown)

“ … There’s much violence and anger throughout the world; when we look at the Middle East, we can see that changes are coming there. The West has a lot of power over the Middle East, but that power will begin to dissolve. The Muslim people of this world will begin to have their own power, and their own prosperity, and they will begin to disconnect from the Western World. This disconnection doesn’t have to be violent as violence only happens when somebody hangs onto what doesn’t belong to them....

... What Military Energy means if we use an analogy: it would be like putting grinding paste into the oil of your motor car. Once you release these energies you will begin to feel lighter as you disconnect from this reality, and, you will find it easier and easier to release any other negative emotions. Military Energies are the core of all your problems...."

Ugandan acid attack victim won't be silenced

RNW, Vanessa O’Brien, Tel Aviv, 26 August 2012

(Vanessa O'Brien)

Pentecostal Bishop Umar Mulinde has become well-known in Uganda since converting from Islam to Christianity. His campaign against the introduction of Islamic courts in Uganda resulted in him suffering a brutal acid attack last year. Now in Israel for treatment, his body may be broken and suffering, but his mind and spirit are strong.

With a low-tipped cowboy hat and pink-flesh coloured compression mask covering his face, Umar Mulinde (38) moves gingerly across a Tel Aviv hotel lobby, sheltered from the scorching Israeli sun. Exhaustion overwhelms him as he finally sits down after his daily journey to Sheba Hospital, where he is being treated for the deep acid burns that scar the right side of his face.

It’s hard to believe this is Uganda’s firebrand Bishop of the Pentecostal Gospel Life Church International, who can be seen energetically preaching in a variety of YouTube videos. Speaking with unwavering conviction, he says “the people who did this to me, they thought they are serving God. But I feel sorry for them and I forgive them because they didn’t know what they were doing.”

Allah Akbar

Mulinde was attacked on Christmas Eve 2011 in Namasuba, 10 kilometres from Kampala, right outside his church and directly opposite a police station. Two men approached and threw an unidentified acid directly at his face. “As I was opening the door of my car, one poured a bucket of acid on my head,” Mulinde recalls. “I felt fire from my head down to my toes.”

As he toppled over, the second attacker poured acid over his back. Acid burned through the metal of Mulinde’s car. His last memory of the assault was hearing the words “Allah Akbar” echoing three times. He thought he was going to die.

Fatwa

Mulinde is a well-known public figure in Uganda, notably because he is an apostate. He’s a former Muslim sheikh, the grandson of an imam, who converted to Christianity on Easter Sunday in 1993. From that time forward, says Mulinde, even his own brothers wouldn’t greet him in the street.

But it wasn’t until he led a group of Christian leaders to petition Parliament in April 2011 that a fatwa was issued against his life. They were calling for a temporary halt to the introduction of the Muslim Personal Law Bill. It aims to put into effect Article 129 of the Ugandan Constitution, providing for the establishment of official Islamic courts to dispense justice to Uganda’s Muslims under sharia law.

“We even told the government that if they do it and go ahead we will sue them,” Mulinde says passionately, while adjusting the dark glasses that cover his one good eye and the one doctors were unable to save. “We will take it to the court of law because if Uganda is 85 percent Christian, and we have never asked for Christian laws in the constitution, how do you put Muslim laws in the constitution? The constitution says Uganda is a secular state.”

Not only for Muslims

The Ugandan Muslim Centre for Justice and Law (UMCJL) is once again pushing for the legalisation of the sharia Kadhi courts, which currently operate ad-hoc. UMCJL president Jaffer Senganda, who knows Mulinde personally, told Radio Netherlands Worldwide that he doubts Muslims were involved in the acid attack on the Bishop. He says the Christian opposition in Uganda fears that Kadhi courts would have jurisdiction in criminal matters, which isn’t true. Mulinde counter-argues that the Christian population’s fears are validated by Nigeria’s example. “They said, ‘This is for Muslims’ but they end up applying it to everybody.”

Hope

Although Mulinde was raised to hate Israel as a Muslim, he had a change of heart when he converted to Christianity. He has brought several groups of Ugandan pilgrims to the Holy Land and established friendships in the Jewish community. Sheba Hospital’s burn unit, which has experience dealing victims of terrorism, is treating him for free.

“He has a long way to go,” says Sheba Hospital spokesman David Weinberg, “but his story is one that played on our hearts.” Mulinde’s doctor Haik Yosef says while the physical damage is “severe and deep”, his future prognosis is good. “Some people get small scars and become depressed, but sometimes even such a severe burn like Umar’s won’t change his character or his perception of everything. I think he will do just fine.”

The attack has not deterred Mulinde: he is still fighting the establishment of Kadhi courts, and will continue his campaign when he returns to Uganda in several months time. But first, he has three more surgeries and skin grafts to endure.

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"The End of History" – Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)

(Subjects: Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Muhammad, Jesus, God, Jews, Arabs, EU, US, Israel, Iran, Russia, Africa, South America, Global Unity,..... etc.) (Text version)

" ..... If an Arab and a Jew can look at one another and see the Akashic lineage and see the one family, there is hope. If they can see that their differences no longer require that they kill one another, then there is a beginning of a change in history. And that's what is happening now. All of humanity, no matter what the spiritual belief, has been guilty of falling into the historic trap of separating instead of unifying. Now it's starting to change. There's a shift happening. ....."