Mugabe's wife Grace under probe for ivory smuggling

Yahoo – AFP, 25 March 2018

Zimbabwe's former first lady Grace Mugabe allegedly "spirited large consignments
of ivory to China, the United Arab Emirates and the United States"

Zimbabwean police are investigating former ruler Robert Mugabe’s wife Grace, accused of smuggling ivory worth millions to underground foreign markets, a state-owned weekly reported Sunday.

The Sunday Mail said investigators from the parks and wildlife authority handed documents to police showing that the former first lady “spirited large consignments of ivory to China, the United Arab Emirates and the United States among other destinations.”

Police spokeswoman Charity Charamba confirmed receiving a report but declined to elaborate when questioned by AFP.

The Sunday Mail said the report accused Grace Mugabe of ordering officials to grant her permits to export the ivory as gifts to the leaders of various countries.

“Once outside Zimbabwe, the 'gifts' would be pooled together with other consignments of the product and routed to black markets,” The Sunday Mail reported.

A senior official in the presidency, Christopher Mutsvangwa, told the paper the government was tipped off by an unnamed whistleblower.

“Police and whistleblowers laid a trap for suppliers believed to be working for Grace Mugabe,” Mutsvangwa said.

“The culprits were caught and that is how investigations started. When we were confronted with so much evidence, there is no way we could ignore.”

The paper said police may question the former first lady soon.

Grace Mugabe was tipped alongside the current President Emmerson Mnangagwa to succeed Mugabe, who ruled Zimbabwe since independence from British colonial rule in 1980 until he was forced to step down in November 2017 following a military takeover.

She earned the sobriquet “Gucci Grace” for her lavish lifestyle.

Zimbabwe has suffered rampant poaching of elephants, targeted for their ivory tusks which are used for ornaments and medicines.

At least 400 elephants died from cyanide poisoning in Hwange, Zimbabwe’s biggest national park in the northwest of the country, between 2013 and 2015.

But parks director-general Fulton Mangwanya said poaching had declined since Mugabe’s ouster.

“Poaching levels have dropped sharply in Hwange because the market has been disturbed,” The Sunday Mail quoted him as saying.

Mugabe's wife Grace under probe for ivory smuggling https://t.co/pjCHIeCXP9 pic.twitter.com/6RXCyUlE4I

— AFP news agency (@AFP) March 25, 2018

French wrote to thank UN worker for disclosing abuse by troops

Authorities sent letter to whistleblower Anders Kompass, who faces dismissal from UN for leaking report into claims of child abuse by French troops in Africa

The Guardian, Sandra Laville, Friday 1 May 2015

French authorities wrote to Anders Kompass last July, shortly after he disclosed to
 them details of alleged child sex abuse by peacekeeping troops in the Central African
Republic. Photograph: Orlanda Sierra/AFP/Getty Images

French authorities sent a letter of thanks to the UN whistleblower who passed on details of the alleged of abuse of children by its troops in Africa, the Guardian can reveal.

The official, Anders Kompass, has been suspended by the UN and faces dismissal for what the organisation says is a “breach of protocols” in releasing a confidential internal UN document.

Sources close to the case say Kompass, director of field operations for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, disclosed the report to the French because of the UN’s failure to act quickly to stop the abuse identified in their own internal report.

Hinting that the allegations represented just a fraction of what had taken place, a UN spokesman said on Friday “it is possible, it’s horribly possible” that more allegations of sexual abuse of children by French and other soldiers in the Central African Republic could come to light.

As Kompass fights for his job, it emerged on Friday that the French were grateful for the disclosure of the report detailing interviews with children as young as eight or nine who describe sexual abuse at the hands of its peacekeepers.

The French mission was not under the direct control of the UN, but run by the French authorities. The abuse was identified by the UN in an internal report commissioned after reports on the ground that children were being abused.

The letter from the French expressed gratitude for Kompass’s actions. It read: “Dear director, Thank you for the information you have shared with my government concerning Operation Sangaris in the Central African Republic.

“The information is receiving the full attention of the authorities. Given the seriousness of the allegations and the necessity to check the veracity of them, it was immediately decided to launch a judicial inquiry which will determine what subsequent steps will be taken, including possible criminal proceedings. In addition, a command disciplinary investigation has been ordered without delay, under the responsibility of the defence staff.”

The letter, signed by the French permanent representative in Geneva, was sent to Kompass at his UN office on 30 July last year, shortly after he sent the report to the French mission.

It is understood the letter was logged in the OHCHR official correspondence register on 5 August – suggesting his employers were aware of his actions.

Eight months later, however, Kompass was told he was being suspended and was under investigation for breaching strict protocols on the release of confidential information.

The UN has failed to say when or if it officially passed on the report detailing the sexual exploitation of the children to the French for them to take action.

On Friday the OHCHR repeated its assertion that Kompass was not a whistleblower but had “breached strict protocols.”

The UN spokesman said: “This investigation concerns the manner in which confidential information, and especially the identities of child victims and witnesses, as well as of the investigators, was communicated to external actors in possible breach of strict rules that exist to protect victims, witnesses and investigators.”

On Thursday, the French president, François Hollande, promised to show “no mercy” if the allegations against French troops were found to be true.

As the investigation by the French continued, Bea Edwards, of the Government Accountability Project, which provides advocacy for whistleblowers, said the UN was wrong to say Kompass was not a whistleblower.

Under their own protocols, she said, his actions were a whistleblower disclosure to law enforcement about abuse by troops authorised by UN Security Council Resolution 2127 to deploy to the CAR.

“His transmission of criminal allegations to French authorities meets the conditions permitting the external disclosure of wrongdoing,” said Edwards. “These include that the allegations represented violations of international law, as well as an imminent and ongoing danger to the public health and safety and that there was no personal benefit accrued to the whisteblower.”

Whistleblower phone app seeks to outsmart corruption

Yahoo – AFP, Amy Fallon, 28 Sep 2014

Gerald Businge, the project co-ordinator of Action for Transparency (A4T),

 demonstrating how his anti-corruption app works, in Kampala, Uganda, September 19,

2014 (AFP Photo/Isaac Kasamani)

Kampala (AFP) - Douglas Buule, a teacher at Kiwenda primary, a government school outside Uganda's capital Kampala, has a recurring problem.

"The money used to access the chalk comes late, even towards the end of term," explains Buule. "It is a big burden to keep on writing on a chalk board. So sometimes the head teacher buys chalk on credit or even uses her own money."

Funds arriving late or going missing altogether also mean the school's 529 students usually only take exams twice a term instead of monthly, said the teacher.

Gerald Businge, the project co-ordinator of 

Action for Transparency, demonstrating how

 his anti-corruption app works, September 19, 

2014 (AFP Photo/Isaac Kasamani)

"There is lack of transparency in many government institutions on the funds that are supplied and used," said Buule, complaining of the country's endemic corruption. "That lack of transparency is affecting day-to-day learning."

But now, a new project is shifting the balance of power.

Through the Action for Transparency (A4T) Smartphone app, being piloted in three Ugandan districts, communities are being armed with information allowing them to report anonymously when budget allocations for health centres and schools fail to match public expenditure.

Using the GPS-enabled A4T app, a user can receive the location of a school or health centre, the number of staff allocated to them by both the government and the institution, and the amount of money approved and dispersed.

If they suspect money is being misused -- for example if the government provides funds for an ambulance which then is nowhere to be seen -- the user can simply click on the app's whistle icon to send an instant report to the A4T website and their Facebook page.

"If it is a police case we'll report it to the police," said Moses Karatunga, the programme officer for Transparency International (TI) Uganda. "If it's an advocacy issue we can take it up with the ministry."

Keeping tabs on the cash flow

In the past year, Uganda's corruption rating has deteriorated, according to TI. They are introducing the app along with the Fojo Media Institute, part of Linnaeus University in Sweden, the Uganda Media Development Foundation (UMDF) and the African Center for Media Excellence (ACME).

Gerald Businge, the A4T project coordinator, said Ugandans feared blowing the whistle on corruption.

"They think they could get sacked, they could get victimised," he said. "There is also that worry 'I report and nothing is done.' So we're saying 'take this to the public court'."

President of Uganda Yoweri Museveni address

 the United Nations General Assembly on

 September 24, 2014 in New York. An app is

 helping to tackle corruption in Uganda (AFP

Photo/Andrew Burton)

But it's hoped that through A4T, which has been funded by SIDA, the Swedish International Development Agency, mismanagement of money can be prevented.

"When people know they're being monitored they're less likely to squander or misuse money," said Businge.

Community monitors such as Twahah Musoke visit schools and health facilities in their area a minimum of two times in a quarter. The institutions and facilities can also access the app from the TI representatives.

Already Musoke has been to five schools, including Kiwenda primary, and three health centres in the Busukuma area, home to about 16,000 people, in Wakiso district.

Challenges related to monitoring money include financial committees not knowing how much government money is being sent, and information and money staying with one person, for instance a school headmistress, instead of a team, he said.

"We need to empower people to realise it's their responsibility to access this information," said Musoke.

"If they go and seek the information the administrators of these facilities will be in a position to account for and utilise (the money) the way it's meant to be utilised."

Businge said phones were chosen for the project as "very many Ugandans have mobile phones and at least every family has a mobile phone".

"We're telling people that phones can do much more than what you're already doing," he said.