Ghana shuts down Embassy in Cote d’Ivoire

Source: GhanaWeb

The writing was on the wall as soon as President J.E.A Mills of Ghana uttered the controversial dziwo fie asem words which betrayed the regional body, ECOWAS, and, by extension, the wish of the majority of Ivorians to have their electoral mandate respected by the defeated incumbent president, Laurent Gbagbo.

The New Statesman can confirm that the entire staff of Ghana’s embassy in Abidjan, including the ambassador, Col E K T Donkor (rtd), have been evacuated to Ghana and the mission closed down.

This evacuation, according to embassy sources, was forced by perceived or real threats to the lives of the staff of the embassy after Laurent Gbagbo’s arrest and Alassane Ouattara taking full charge as the legitimately elected president of Cote d’Ivoire.

The reaction of the opposition New Patriotic Party in Ghana has been swift and damning. Nana Akomea, the Communications Director of the NPP, told the New Statesman, when reached for his party’s comment, said, “it was a likely consequent of the President’s blunder which we warned was reckless, compromised our national and regional security and exposed the lives of Ghanaians to danger.”

When contacted for his comments by on this latest development the Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, wondered who Ghanaians in La Cote d'Ivoire would turn to if they needed any form of assistance.

Over 1.5 millions Ghanaians are estimated to be domiciled in Cote d’Ivoire and fears of reprisals have gripped them as many Ivorians see Gbagbo’s international friends, particularly President Mills, as the ones who fed fuel to Gbagbo’s deadly intransigence and recalcitrance which sent the country back into a civil war until a UN and French-backed military intervention led to Gbagbo’s arrest on April 11.

Our sources at the Foreign Affairs Ministry here in Accra say the ambassador and the last of his team were flown out secretly from Abidjan Monday night to Accra on board Ghana’s presidential jet.

A diplomatic source in Abidjan described the decision by Accra to evacuate its staff as “strange and paradoxical and probably fed by paranoia and guilt.”

Ironically, the decision by President Mills to recall Ghana’s ambassador comes at a time when efforts are being made to return Abidjan and other parts of the country to normalcy.

Our intelligence sources point to two things that might have influenced this evacuation. First, the overwhelming anger and betrayal that pro-Ouattara forces and ordinary Ivorians felt by the decision of President Mills to speak against the collective decision of ECOWAS on December 24 to exert pressure on Gbagbo to quit or be forced out.

The second thing cited was the decision by some pro-Government group in Accra to stage a demonstration on Tuesday, April 12, the day after Gbagbo’s arrest. This was seen as an affront to Ouattara’s authority, coming after the day he was seeking to take complete control of the Ivorian situation.

They also point to the decision by the Ghana police to not oppose the demonstration, even though it was argued by opposition members in Accra that the organisers of the demonstration were allowed to protest without the mandatory five-day notice. The organisers denied this charge, though.

Prof Mills on the third anniversary of his presidency chose to speak against any use of military force and both Prof Gbagbo and Gbagbo’s foreign minister repeatedly named President Mills as one of seven African leaders who were on his side even when the rest of the world was asking him to go.

Ghana refused to sack Gbagbo’s ambassador for the duration of the crisis, adding to suspicions that Ghana was heavily on the side of Gbagbo.

Many Ivorians saw this as offering Mr Gbagbo false hope, feeding his intransigence which, after nearly five months, led to over 1,500 deaths and over a million Ivorians displaced, and hundreds of thousands as refugees in neighbouring countries, including Ghana.

At his January 7 press conference at the Castle, Accra, President Mills chose to throw, what NPP Chairman Jake Obestebi-Lamptey described as, “a very unhelpful lifeline to Gbagbo’s illegitimate hold on power.”

He said to a question from a journalist, “It is not for Ghana to choose a leader for Cote d’Ivoire. As a person I don’t think this military option is going to bring peace to the nation. I don’t want to be saddled with a problem we can’t settle.”

At the time when Ivorians were looking onto international support, Ghana’s President said that Ghanaians would mind their own business as Ghanaians “and, in other words, leave our neighbours to burn,” stressed Mr Obestebi-Lamptey in response.

In his own words, President Mills said, ‘dzi wo fie asem.’’

Alassane Ouattara of the Rally of the Republicans won the November 28 presidential runoff with 2,483,164 votes, representing 54.1% of the 4,590,219 valid votes cast.

Laurent Gbagbo of the ruling Ivorian people’s Front lost with 2,107,055 (45.9%0, a margin of more than 400,000 votes.

Fidel Castro steps down

Former Cuban president Fidel Castro.




Fidel Castro confirmed he had resigned from the top leadership of the Cuba Communist Party in an article published on Tuesday, after the party approved a raft of economic reforms.

"Raul knew that I would not accept a formal role in the party today," Castro said in an article on the Cubadebate.cu portal, referring to his brother Raul and his own absence from the party's new Central Committee, elected on Monday.

Castro (84) had served as first secretary in the Central Committee of the party — which underpins the country's Communist government — since the party's creation in 1965.

Fidel said he had handed over the functions of the party head to Raul when he ceded power to his brother because of his own declining health in 2006, though he retained the first secretary title.

"(Raul) has always been who I described as First Secretary and Commander in Chief," Fidel wrote in the article.

"He never failed to convey to me the ideas that were planned," he added.

The move came after the sixth Communist Party Congress approved a flurry of measures on Monday aimed at keeping Cuba's centrally planned economy from collapse but without any broad embrace of market-oriented economic change.

The changes inject a modicum of the free market into the island's economy ahead of a vote Tuesday expected to officially relieve 84-year-old Castro of his position as party head after more than four decades.

The 1000 delegates gathered in Havana for the four-day party congress approved some 300 economic proposals and elected a new central committee leadership.

Reforms include the cutting of, eventually, a million state jobs, and decentralising the agricultural sector.

Many of the measures have already been adopted over the past year, with the Congress now formally approving them.

Results of the voting on leadership term limits will be presented on Tuesday, when Fidel, who ceded power to his brother when he fell ill in 2006, would be finally, officially replaced as party chief.

Raul, who turns 80 on 3 June, likely would officially become the party's new first secretary.

Raul Castro said on Saturday that he backed political term limits of 10 years at most for the top leadership spots, in a country he and his brother have led for more than five decades.

Focus will be also on the party's number two position, which could possibly signal the direction of eventual transfer of power in the years to come.

Raul has rejected broader market-minded reforms like those adopted by China, saying they would be "in open contradiction to the essence of socialism... because they were calling for allowing the concentration of property."

AFP

Libya: Al-Qaeda chief 'heading for besieged city of Misrata'

(AKI) - The head of Al-Qaeda in Libya is heading for the stricken city of Misrata from the rebel stronghold of Bengasi, government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim announced, cited on Monday by pan-Arab daily Al-Quds al-Arabi's website

"We have learned that a prominent Al-Qaeda leader, Abdelhakim al-Hasari, is heading towards Misurata aboard a ship," said Ibrahim.

"There are 25 well-trained fighters on board the ship with him," Ibrahim added.

The humanitarian situation was reported to be dire in Misrata on Monday, which has been the scene of intense fighting between anti-government rebels and forces loyal to longtime Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. A chartered Greek ferry arrived off the port as part of an international refugee rescue operation to help an estimated 10,000 non-Libyans waiting to leave.

The refugees are camping out around Misrata without adequate shelter, clean water or food and no medical care, according to the IOM.

Ibrahim said Misratat was still in rebel hands. "It's possible that terrorists will gain the upper hand in Libya and this represents a threat for the region and for Europe," he stated.

He reitereated Gaddafi's repeated claims that Al-Qaeda is playing a role the uprising against his 40-year-long autocratic rule.

"The evidence that Al-Qaeda is involved in the war in Libya is increasing day by day," Ibrahim said.

Al-Hasadi was sailing towards Misrata aboard an Egyptian ship, the 'al-Shahid Abdelwahab', Ibrahim said. Gaddafi forces have been pounding the western bastion since mid-February when the pro-democracy revolt began.

Earthquake shakes Australia, New Zealand

BRISBANE, Australia – Moderate earthquakes rattled parts of Australia and New Zealand on Saturday, including the devastated city of Christchurch where power was cut to thousands of homes, officials said.

No major damage was reported from either quake, and no tsunami warning was issued.

The magnitude-5.2 quake that struck Christchurch was far less powerful than one that leveled office blocks and homes in the New Zealand city on Feb. 22, killing at least 169 people and devastating the downtown area.

Energy supplier Orion said Saturday's quake cut power to about 20,000 homes and businesses in the city, but officials were working quickly to restore service. No other damage was reported.

Christchurch has been hit by scores of aftershocks since the February disaster.

Eighteen minutes before New Zealand's earthquake Saturday, a magnitude-5.2 quake hit about 80 miles (125 kilometers) southeast of the Australian coastal city of Townsville in Queensland state, at a depth of about 6 miles (10 kilometers) below the ocean floor.

"It scared my daughter enough that she jumped on the couch with me and my windows were rattling," Townsville local government councilor Natalie Marr said.

Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported from Queensland that residents of several towns and cities along the coast felt the quake.

Nigerians count presidential ballots; bomb hurts 8

Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan casts his ballot in his home village of Otuoke, Bayelsa state April …




KADUNA, Nigeria – Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan won nearly every state in preliminary results released Sunday for the oil-rich nation's presidential election, though fragmented returns suggested he faced strong opposition from the country's Muslim north.

Meanwhile, authorities in this northern Nigerian city and hometown of the country's vice president said eight people were wounded after a bomb exploded at a hotel in a poor neighborhood hours after voters cast their ballots.

Jonathan, who became president after his predecessor died in office last year, remains the presumed front-runner in Saturday's poll as his ruling People's Democratic Party has dominated politics in the West African giant since it became a democracy 12 years ago. But to become president, he must carry at least a quarter of the votes cast in at least 24 states and its capital.

Results released Sunday by Nigeria's Independent National Electoral Commission show Jonathan won the capital of Abuja and six states: Anambra, Enugu, Kogi, Lagos, Ogun and Ondo states. He also carried more than 25 percent of the vote in Osun state, which was won candidate Nuhu Ribadu of the Action Congress of Nigeria, and Sokoto state, which was won by candidate Muhammadu Buhari of the Congress for Progressive Change.

However, none of these initial returns included any states from Nigeria's north, which remains hesitant about Jonathan as the Christian from the south who took over after the death of the country's elected Muslim leader. Many of the north's elite wanted the ruling party to honor an unwritten power-sharing agreement calling for a Muslim candidate to run in this election.

Former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change, won the support of many in the north as a Muslim leader willing to crack down on the corruption prevalent in the nation. Initial results not yet certified by federal officials suggested he carried several northern states.

Nigeria has a long history of violent and rigged polls, and legislative elections earlier this month left a hotel ablaze, a politician dead and a polling station and a vote-counting center bombed in the nation's northeast. However, observers largely said Saturday's poll appeared to be fair, with fewer cases of ballot box thefts.

"These elections were not without problems — in particular isolated incidents of intimidation, violence, and illegal voting — but these did not undermine the overall credibility of the process," read a statement issued Sunday by Project 2011 Swift Count, a coalition of trusted local monitoring groups.

The tension between Christians and Muslim has erupted into violence that has killed thousands since Nigeria became a democracy more than a decade ago. Many of those attacks focus in Nigeria's fertile central belt.

In the city of Kaduna — the hometown of Vice President Namadi Sambo and one city that's been at the center of that violence — police said Sunday that officers had two suspects in custody after the bombing Saturday night at the Happy Hotel. Kaduna state police spokesman Aminu Lawal told The Associated Press that authorities had no motive for the attack, though the neighborhood suffered some unrest during voting Saturday.

Inside the hotel, police officers looked for evidence Sunday amid the crumbled cement walls, shattered glass and blood-stained ground. The explosion happened just next to a small dingy bar inside the hotel complex, which on one wall bore a sign that read: "This brothel supports no condom, no sex policy."

Outside, a giant Jonathan campaign banner hung over the hotel in a neighborhood home to both poor Christians and Muslims. Blue graffiti bearing the name of Buhari's party could be seen on walls, while other ruling party banners appeared to have been cut with knives.

China's March trade surplus at $140 mln

China said Sunday it had returned a trade surplus in March after the world's number two economy posted its first trade deficit in nearly a year in February.

Customs data showed a surplus of $140 million last month after February's deficit of $7.3 billion -- the country's first since March 2010.

Exports in March rose 35.8 percent from the same month a year earlier, up from February's 2.4 percent rise.

Advertisement: Story continues below Imports rose 27.3 percent, up from 19.4 percent in February. Rising prices for raw materials helped push up the value of imports.

A Dow Jones poll of 13 economists had forecast a median monthly deficit of $4.0 billion for March.

For the first quarter, China posted a small deficit of $1.02 billion, its first quarterly trade deficit since the first quarter of 2004.

"China's demand is strong and the prices of bulk commodities are high currently, but the situation won't last as China's exports usually go up in the second half of each year," UBS economist Wang Tao told Dow Jones.

February's slowdown was typical of China's festive season, when factories ease off -- and in most cases close -- after cranking up production before the Lunar New Year holiday.

For the first quarter, China's exports rose 26.5 percent on year and imports were up 32.6 percent on year.

The quarter's trade deficit was due to the strong rise in imports, the General Administration of Customs said in a statement.

"The value of imports in the first quarter hit a record high for the first time of more than $400 billion," the customs administration said.

China is expected to post a large trade surplus for the full year, as its foreign trade tends to go through a seasonal cycle with monthly trade surpluses later in the year.

In 2010, China posted a $7.24 billion deficit in March, as companies stocked up on imported raw materials, many of which were later processed into goods for export. For the full year, China posted a $183.1 billion surplus.

Washington, one of the harshest critics of Beijing's trade policy, acknowledged in March that China was taking steps to boost imports.

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said last month that China had no alternative but to shift its growth strategy toward relying more on domestic growth as demand weakens in the US and Europe -- but added it needed to do more.

"The rebalancing is happening. It's only a matter of time," BNP Paribas economist Isaac Meng told Dow Jones, adding rising import prices were eroding the surplus while domestic inflation was raising export prices.

China is planning to cut tariffs on imports as it seeks to boost domestic demand, state media has reported.

The state-run China Daily quoted Vice-Commerce Minister Zhing Shan last month as saying not only would the government cut tariffs, but it would also relax some restrictions on importers

Ghana's former first lady to run in primaries - history in the making

Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings
Ghana's former first lady Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, pictured in 2010, said on Thursday she plans to challenge President John Atta Mills in party primaries ahead of elections next year in Ghana.




ACCRA, Ghana – Ghana's former first lady, the wife of longtime ruler Jerry Rawlings, says she will challenge the current president in her party's July primaries.

Nana Konadu Rawlings, 62, in a letter to the National Democratic Congress' secretary-general Thursday, says she is resigning as first vice-chairman so she can contest President John Atta Mills in July presidential nominations for next year's general election.

This is the first time a sitting president has been challenged by a member of the ruling party. If chosen, Konadu would also become the first woman to stand for presidential elections.

Jerry Rawlings, a former coup leader, went on to organize elections in the West African nation in the 1990s. He won two terms, then surprised the world in 2000 when his party lost and he voluntarily stepped down.

Ghana May Use E-Voting In 2012

Deputy Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Mr Safo Kantanka (2nd right) in a group photograph with members of the Mozambican delegation which paid a courtesy call on the offices of the Commission as part of their working visit to Ghana.




The Ghana Electoral Commission (EC) has expressed the wish to adopt the electronic voting system in the next general election because it will solve many problems in the election process.

“It is our wish because it will solve a lot of our problems”, the Deputy Chairman of the EC (Operations), Mr Kwadwo Safo Kantanka, responded to a question posed by the Daily Graphic as to whether electronic voting would be used in Election 2012.

He, however, indicated that electronic voting would be applied only if the system was ready by the time of holding the next general elections.

Mr Kantanka made the submissions after an interaction with two delegations from The Netherlands Institute of Multiparty Democracy and the Parliament of Mozambique.

The two delegations were in the country as guests of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) to interact with key political stakeholders in the country and, for the Mozambican delegation in particular, to learn more about the positive strides Ghana had made in democratic governance and conduct of elections.

There have been calls from the general public for the adoption of electronic voting in Election 2012, but Mr Kantanka said “If everything goes on well, we will use the system for the 2012 elections”.

The EC placed an advertisement in the Tuesday, February 8, 2011 issue of the Daily Graphic, requesting an expression of interest from Ghanaian companies in the biometric technology in line with its arrangement to replace the existing voters register that was compiled in 2004.

The advertisement called on organisations who have the capacity to provide equipment for biometric registration to avail themselves of the opportunity.

Two months afterwards, the commission is yet to review the interests so expressed by individuals and organisations for the provision of equipment for biometric registration, according to Mr Kantanka.

In response to another question, he said the EC had not yet decided to create additional constituencies and polling stations, although he acknowledged that widely-separated polling stations often demarcated in sparsely populated areas could indirectly disenfranchise some people because they might not wish to walk long distances to vote.

Earlier in an interaction with The Netherlands and the Mozambican delegation, Mr Kantanka briefed them on the history, composition and functions of the EC.

He said the EC was apolitical and that to the best of his knowledge, none of the commissioners had exhibited any political bias in the course of their duties.

On the issue of state funding of political parties, Mr Kantanka said a draft bill had been prepared in that respect, under the auspices of the IEA, and expressed the hope that it would come to fruition very soon.

He said the election process was very important and if well-managed, it could help avoid a lot of problems.

The Executive Director of the IEA, Mrs Jean Mensa, welcoming the two delegations to Ghana, expressed the hope that their mission would be very fruitful.

The leader of the Mozambican delegation, Mr Antonio Chipanga, said there were a lot of things Mozambique had to learn from Ghana, the latter having attained political independence much earlier and made great strides in the democratic process

France blocks train from Italy in migrant spat

ROME – A train carrying Tunisian immigrants from Italy was halted at the French border Sunday in an escalation of a international dispute over the fate of North African migrants fleeing political unrest for refuge in Europe.

A spokesman for the Italian rail company, Maurizio Furia, told The Associated Press in Rome that the train carrying migrants and political activists who support them wasn't being allowed to pass into Menton, France, from the Italian border station of Ventimiglia.

Italy recently started giving out temporary residence permits to some of the thousands of Tunisians escaping unrest in northern Africa in recent weeks. The Italians say the permits should allow the Tunisians to go to France under an accord allowing visa-free travel among many European countries.

French authorities say they will allow in only Tunisians with the financial resources to live in France independently.

Italy insisted that the temporary permits were valid for entry into other European nations adhering to the visa-free Schengen travel accords.

"We have given the migrants travel documents, and we gave everything (else) that is needed, and the European Commission recognized that, it has said that Italy is following the Schengen rules," Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said in an interview on Italy's Sky TG24 TV.

Visa "free travel is legitimate for all those with the papers and who want to go to France," Maroni said.

Maroni is a top officials of the anti-immigrant Northern League party, a main coalition partner of Premier Silvio Berlusconi.

Nigeria's Jonathan well ahead in vote count

ABUJA (Reuters) – Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan took a very strong lead on Sunday as votes were tallied from around the nation, although his main rival Muhammadu Buhari did well across the mainly-Muslim north.

Results from 18 states including the capital Abuja and commercial hub Lagos put pre-poll favorite Jonathan at over 14 million votes with Buhari on 6 million. Jonathan did particularly well in his largely-Christian south.

Results still had to come in from some of Buhari's strongholds, but his chances of closing the gap on Jonathan were diminishing in a poll described by observers as the fairest in decades in Africa's most populous nation.

Buhari, a former military ruler from the dustblown Muslim north, was hoping to at least force a second round against Jonathan, the first head of state from the oil-producing Niger Delta.

"I do not think there is going to be a second round," said ruling People's Democratic Party representative Usman Jibrin after votes were tallied at an all-night session in Abuja.

To avoid a run-off, the winner must get a simple majority and at least a quarter of the vote in 24 of the 36 states.

Buhari took around 60 percent of the vote in Kano, the most populous state in the north. Jonathan won just 16 percent.

But in at least 15 of the states for which results were available, Jonathan had already secured at least the 25 percent necessary.

Observers generally gave a clean bill of health to the vote.

Heading an observer mission for the African Union, former Ghanaian President John Kufuor said Nigeria appeared to have ended its reputation for badly flawed elections.

"Even with what has transpired so far, I expect the developments here will have a very positive impact on the continent," he told Reuters.

TROUBLE

Fearing the ruling party would try to fiddle the results -- the norm in ballots since army rule ended in 1999 -- Buhari supporters took to the streets in some northern cities.

Trouble flared in isolated areas.

Police were investigating a possible bomb blast in a brothel near a polling station in the city of Kaduna late on Saturday. A PDP official's house was burned down in the town of Azere.

Shots were fired in Bauchi and a car thought to be carrying fraudulent ballots was set ablaze in what turned out to be a case of mistaken identity. Youths stalked the streets armed with bows and arrows.

Should Jonathan become the first sitting president to lose an election, there could be trouble in his volatile home region the Niger Delta, home to Africa's biggest oil and gas industry.

Turnout was high in the oil region, where people often did not bother to vote in the past because they knew results would be rigged and feared intimidation by heavily armed thugs.

"It is a path that would have been hard to imagine four or even two years ago," said Chris Newsom, an adviser to civil society group Stakeholder Democracy Network in the Niger Delta.

Buhari's support was bolstered by a feeling among many in the north that Jonathan is usurping their right to another four years in power. Jonathan inherited office after his predecessor, northerner Umaru Yar'Adua, died last year in his first term, interrupting a rotation between north and south.