Deputies Legislate Infamous Electoral Bill

Secretary General Lamin Nyabally/ JollofNews image

 The Gambia’s rubber-stamping National Assembly this evening passed into law the infamous Electoral Amendment Bill that aims to throw out opposition from participating in elections. The controversial bill, tabled by Secretary General Lamin Nyabally, was passed by the ruling APRC deputies with slight amendments.

Due to unexplained reasons, the bill could not be presented before deputies on June 23rd and 30th. It was earlier rumoured that a split within the APRC over putting the country’s democracy on sale had led to cancellation of the bill purportedly sponsored by the Independent Electoral Commission.

The endorsed bill reduced the deposit for presidential, parliamentary and local government candidates by half. That means half a million dalasi, 50, 000 25, 000 and 10, 000 for presidential, parliamentary and local government candidates, respectively.

Another twist on the passed legislation is the question of deposit refunds. Presidential candidates who gets 40 percent of the votes will be refundedemocracyal Assembly and Mayoral candidates will be refunded provided they amass 20 percent of the valid votes cast.

The legislation that attracts anger and frustration among opposition, human rights and civil society activist maintains a portion that requires political parties to be resident in the country and allow the IEC to investigate their source of income.

Gambians are now waiting for the opposition parties’ reaction to the current development. All of them lampooned the APRC for shutting the doors to participatory democracy in a country that in the past bragged as the champion of democracy, political pluralism, the rule of law, among others.

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Source.www.kaironews.com

EU: Rights Abuses at Home Drive Mediterranean Crisis

Migrants Detail Horrors That Caused Them to Flee

• What the European Union Should Do
  Sustain search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean

  Increase safe, legal channels for migrants and asylum seekers to enter the EU

  Ensure more equitable distribution of asylum seekers among EU members
  Tweet the recommendations

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  A rescue operation by the Irish Navy ship Le Eithne, participating in the Frontex mission Triton, on June 6, 2015.
  © 2015 AP Photo/Irish Defence Forces

(Brussels) – Human rights abuses in their home countries are the driving force behind the surge in boat migration in the Mediterranean to reach Europe, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.EU leaders should put human rights at the heart of its response. EU leaders will meet on June 25 and 26, 2015, to discuss European Commission proposals toward a “European Migration Agenda.”

 “The Mediterranean Migration Crisis: Why People Flee, What the EU Should Do,” documents the human rights abuses driving people to make the dangerous sea crossing and the shortcomings of EU migration and asylum policies. The report is based on over 150 interviews in May with recently-arrived migrants and asylum seekers in Italy – Lampedusa, Catania, and Milan – and Greece – the islands of Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Leros, and Kos. The conclusions are also based on extensive Human Rights Watch research in Syria, Eritrea, Afghanistan, andSomalia – the home countries of many of those arriving by sea. 

“The majority of those crossing the Mediterranean are taking terrible risks because they have to, not because they want to,” said Judith Sunderland, senior Western Europe researcher at Human Rights Watch and author of the report. “Saving lives and increasing safe pathways into Europe should be the EU’s priorities, while ensuring that all cooperation with countries of origin and transit countries respects international human rights standards.”

source. http://www.hrw.org/news

Arrest of Rwanda Intelligence Chief

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There has been significant progress in ensuring justice for the victims of the genocide in Rwanda. But thousands of victims and their relatives are still waiting for justice for crimes committed by members of the Rwandan Patriotic Front since 1994.

Daniel Bekele, Africa director

(London) – Human Rights Watch is monitoring the case of Emmanuel Karenzi Karake, head of theRwandan intelligence services, who was arrested in London on June 20, 2015, on a European arrest warrant following a request issued by a Spanish judge.

In the event that Karenzi Karake is extradited to Spain, where a Spanish court has indicted him and 39 other senior Rwandan officials for serious crimes committed in violation of international law, the Spanish authorities should ensure that due process is followed and that he receives a fair trial.

“There has been significant progress in ensuring justice for the victims of the genocide in Rwanda,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “But thousands of victims and their relatives are still waiting for justice for crimes committed by members of the Rwandan Patriotic Front since 1994.”

Karenzi Karake has been a key senior military and intelligence official in Rwanda for the last 20 years. Victims and witnesses of human rights violations have often cited his name in connection with serious crimes going back to the 1990s. In the Spanish indictment he is accused, among other things, of involvement in the 1997 murder of three Spanish aid workers.

In the years following the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, members of the Rwandan Patriotic Army killed thousands of civilians, particularly in the context of a counterinsurgency operation in the northwest of Rwanda, as well as in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Rwandan troops killed hundreds of civilians in the Congolese town ofKisangani in June 2000 when Rwandan and Ugandan troops clashed there. Karenzi Karake was a commander of the Rwandan troops.

The investigation into Karenzi Karake and other Rwandan officials in Spain was made possible because some of the victims are Spanish and in application of the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows the courts of a country to investigate and prosecute particularly grave crimes even if they are committed abroad and by foreigners.

Human Rights Watch has reviewed the 2008 Spanish indictment, which it believes has some merit, and calls for the investigations into the crimes cited therein to continue to be pursued.
xource; http://www.hrw.org/news

Amnesty Urgent Action COUP SUSPECT’S TEENAGE SON HELD INCOMMUNICADO

 Yusupha Lowe, the 16 year old son of Bai Lowe, a man accused of being involved in the 30 December 2014 attempted coup in Gambia, was arrested on 1 January. Initial reports indicated that he was being held at the National Intelligence Agency headquarters, but credible sources now indicate that he is no longer being held there. Yusupha Lowe, the 16 year old son of Bai Lowe (who is alleged to have been involved in the attempted coup of 30 December 2014 in Gambia) was arrested together with his 19-year-old uncle, Pa Alieu Lowe and his father’s exwife, Jariatou Lowe, on 1 January. They were taken from Bai Lowe’s residence at around 1:00pm by men in plain clothes claiming to be following presidential orders. A few weeks later, Jariatou Lowe was released without charge. However, Yusupha Lowe and Pa Alieu Lowe remain in incommunicado detention, without being charged and having no access to lawyers or family members. Initial reports had indicated that Yusupha Lowe was being held at the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) headquarters in Banjul, Gambia, but credible sources now indicate that he is no longer being held there. His current whereabouts remain unknown and his family is concerned about his safety. Relatives of people suspected to have been involved in the 30 December 2014 coup attempt have been subjected to reprisals by Gambian security forces. It is unclear how many people remain in incommunicado detention. Amnesty International is concerned about the unlawful detention without charge of Yusupha Lowe and other relatives of the December 2014 coup suspects, well beyond the 72 hour time limit provided in Gambia’s constitution and other human rights laws and treaties. The Gambian government has refused to acknowledge the detention of Yusupha Lowe and many others and has not provided information on their whereabouts, effectively holding them outside of the protection of the law. This amounts to enforced disappearance, a crime under international law. As their whereabouts remain unknown, they are at a high risk of torture and other abuses. Please write immediately in English or your own language:  Urging the authorities to immediately reveal the whereabouts of Yusupha Lowe and all other detainees;  Calling on the authorities to promptly charge Yusupha Lowe and all other detainees with an internationally recognizable criminal offense should there be sufficient evidence or else immediately release them;  Calling on the authorities to immediately provide all the people detained in relation to the December 2014 coup attempt access to their families and lawyers;  Urging authorities to ensure that all detainees are not subjected to torture or ill-treatment while in detention.

Libya: Civilians Trapped in Benghazi

Allow Safe Passage, Aid Access

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  Downtown area of Benghazi, Libya where forces loyal to the Libyan Army are fighting Islamist militias, April 2015.
  © 2015 Hanan Salah/Human Rights Watch

As fighting in Benghazi intensifies, all the forces involved need to take all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians and civilian property. It’s vitally important for the Libyan Army and militias in Benghazi to allow civilians safe passage and to facilitate access to take badly needed aid to the people inside.

Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director.

(Beirut) – The parties to the conflict in Libya should allow civilians safe passage out of neighborhoods in the eastern city of Benghazi and other areas caught up in the hostilities and permit access to deliver food and medical supplies.

Residents of Benghazi whom Human Rights Watch met on April 17, 2015, and interviewed by phone on May 21 said that Libyan families and foreign civilians were trapped in downtown Benghazi affected by fighting, including areas of El-Blad, Sidi Khreibish, and El-Sabri. They said the militants controlling these areas were not allowing civilians to leave, and conditions were increasingly dire, due to food shortages and lack of medical care and because electricity to most areas had been cut. One Sidi Khreibish resident who managed to leave said that the Libyan army would no longer allow people to leave unless through a coordinated safe passage by the Libyan Red Crescent, and that militants were barring people from leaving the areas under their control.

Another Benghazi resident who had managed to leave militia-controlled areas said at least four civilians had died since March, one from gunfire and three from untreated injuries.

“As fighting in Benghazi intensifies, all the forces involved need to take all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians and civilian property,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director. “It’s vitally important for the Libyan Army and militias in Benghazi to allow civilians safe passage and to facilitate access to take badly needed aid to the people inside.”

The number of people killed and injured in Benghazi has continued to rise since Human Rights Watch visited the city in April. On May 12, a shell fired into the Ard Baloun neighborhood killed three children and injured two others from the same family, according to a local news report. Militants affiliated with the extremist group Islamic State (also known as ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack. Two days later, one man and seven children died when a shell hit the Hay Al-Salam neighborhood, according to the website of Al-Jalaa hospital in Benghazi.

The Benghazi residents told Human Rights Watch that the Libyan Red Crescent Society had coordinated arrangements with forces loyal to the Libyan Army and the opposing militants to allow civilians safe passage out of the city’s neighborhoods until November 4, 2014. Since then, all further attempts by the Red Crescent to facilitate the evacuation of civilians had failed, including three attempts in February and March 2015, because either the militants disagreed or forces loyal to the army refused to agree, claiming that it would put the civilians’ lives at risk.

After such a failed attempt in March, an injured resident died after the Army refused to allow passage for a car carrying him insisting that residents could only leave the area by foot.

Abdelrazeq al-Nadhouri, the Libyan Army’s chief of staff, met with Human Rights Watch on April 18 at his headquarters in Al-Marj, 100 kilometers east of Benghazi. He contended that families who remained in the areas affected by fighting “wanted to stay there and refused to leave,” but said that the army would allow any who wished to do so to leave.

The same day, Zakaria Beltamer, the head of the Benghazi Crisis Committee, a body created by the Prime Ministry with several local council members and the Libyan Red Crescent, told Human Rights Watch in a separate meeting that the Red Crescent had made several calls for the evacuation of civilians, that all families had been evacuated from the affected parts of Benghazi neighborhoods, and that “whoever is still inside is with them,” meaning members of Ansar Al-Sharia or Islamist militants.

But Benghazi residents who spoke with Human Rights Watch, including a Red Crescent volunteer who helped coordinate evacuations, contradicted his assessment. The volunteer said that the Red Crescent had registered 58 people by phone in militia-controlled areas who wanted to leave but were unable to for fear of being attacked by the militias if they tried.

Beltamer said there has been widespread displacement of families from Benghazi since the outbreak of the violence in May 2014. He said that 15,000 families were registered with the Crisis Committee as internally displaced persons but acknowledged that many others had found shelter with relatives or had left the city altogether and had not registered. Benghazi, Libya’s second largest city – after the capital, Tripoli – had a population of 650,000 prior to the start of the conflict out of Libya’s total population of 6.4 million.

Under international humanitarian law – the laws of war – all forces engaged in armed conflict must allow civilians to safely evacuate from areas affected by fighting and give civilians “effective advance warning” of attacks that could put them at risk whenever circumstances permit. Even after armed forces have warned civilians of impending attacks, they must still take all feasible precautions to avoid causing loss of civilian life. This includes canceling an attack when it becomes apparent that the target is civilian or that the civilian loss would be disproportionate to the expected military gain.

Warnings such as those issued by the Libyan Army in November telling civilians to evacuate their neighborhoods do not absolve it of the duty to avoid attacks likely to cause indiscriminate or disproportionate loss of civilian life, Human Rights Watch said.

International humanitarian law also requires parties to a conflict to allow and facilitate rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief for civilians in need. Denying civilians access to food and medical care is a serious violation of international humanitarian law, and intentionally attacking personnel, installations, material, units, or vehicles involved in relief efforts is a war crime.

In the face of mounting atrocities, Human Rights Watch has called on the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to open an investigation into serious ongoing violations in Libya. The ICC prosecutor has jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide committed in Libya since February 15, 2011.

During the 28th session at the Human Rights Council in March 2015, member states created a UN inquiry to investigate serious crimes in Libya since 2014. Human Rights Watch urged the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to speed up the deployment of the mission so it can exercise its mandate.

“With each day that passes, civilians who remain trapped in Benghazi neighborhoods face worsening conditions and greater peril for their lives,” Whitson said.

The Opposing Forces in Benghazi
Benghazi has been caught up in fighting since May 2014, when then-retired General Khalifa Hiftar and allied militias operating under the name “Libya Dignity” opened a military campaign against militant groups in Benghazi. The Dignity alliance in Benghazi comprises units of the Army, the Army Special Forces (Sa’eqa), and volunteer fighters. The Libyan Army is loyal to Libya’s internationally recognized government based in the eastern cities of Tobruk and Al-Bayda, and in March 2015 Hiftar was named commander of the army.

In July 2014, the militant groups Ansar Al-Sharia, Rafallah Al-Sahati, and Libya Shield Forces, some of the militant groups the army is fighting in Benghazi, formed the Benghazi Revolutionaries Shura Council (BRSC), which opposes the internationally recognized government and is allied with the rival self-declared government based in Tripoli. Members of groups that have pledged allegiance to the extremist group Islamic State (also known as ISIS) are also fighting the Libyan Army alongside the BRSC but are not in formal military alliance with the BRSC, Benghazi residents say.

Accounts by Residents
Due to the ongoing military operations and movement restrictions, Human Rights Watch was unable to enter the downtown areas of Benghazi to independently confirm the numbers or locations of trapped civilians.

A Benghazi resident whose father and brother had managed to flee the downtown area just a day before told Human Rights Watch on April 17, 2015, and in a call on May 21, that he knew of 50 to 60 houses in ‘ El Blad that remained inhabited with at least 15 to 20 families, as well as at least 15 families who remained in El-Sabri, and about 60 houses in Sidi Khreibish, 10 of which were inhabited by Libyan families and the rest by foreign families, including Syrians, Palestinians, and Asian and African nationals. The resident also said the most difficult area to assess was El-Sabri because it was controlled by groups affiliated with ISIS. He believed several dozen families were still in El-Sabri, close to the sea, but had no contact with them.

The resident said that while some young men refused to leave, most families were anxious to evacuate to less dangerous areas. “Most families thought it would be a matter of weeks before the war in their area was over, so they opted to stay and take care of their houses,” he said. “However, they are now stuck there, including women, children, and elderly.”

He said it had taken only three days for the Libyan Army to gain control of the Salmani neighborhood, leading many families to think that other areas would also be quickly cleared of BRSC and other militants.

He also said that his family had left their home in downtown Benghazi on November 3, 2014, under a safe passage that the Red Crescent had arranged, but that his father and brother had stayed to take care of the house. They left only on April 16, 2015:

They swam [through the sea, along the coast] for four hours at night and I was waiting for them when they arrived to safety. Those trapped have some dry food stocks, yet no medical treatment as the only field clinic belongs to the militant group Ansar Al-Sharia and they don’t treat sick or injured civilians. Most areas have no power and people charge their mobile phones in their cars.

He said the escape of his father’s and brother’s escape had been dangerous but was coordinated with the Libyan military, which had detained the two men for questioning on their arrival but released them after two days. The resident said that only a few other men and one family had managed to get away from the conflict area by swimming.

The resident said he knew of four civilian deaths through information obtained by relatives in the area:

• Abu Shawki, 75, a Palestinian, died in March when a bullet hit him in the head as he walked along Al-Sharif Street in Sidi Khreibish;
• Ossma Al-Greitli, 65, died in early April from injuries he sustained in February when he was hit by shrapnel in El-Gzeir Street. He had not received any medical treatment;
• An unnamed Syrian national also died in early April, two days after shrapnel hit him in the abdomen as he was leaving the Old Mosque in the downtown area. No medical care was available; and
• Ahmed al-Zlitni died in mid-March at his home in the El-Sabri neighborhood from a lack of medical treatment after he was burned in a fire caused by candles he used because of power cuts.

An unnamed Mauritanian national was found dead in front of a mosque in El-Sabri area in the first week of May. Two residents interviewed by Human Rights Watch said they believed members of ISIS affiliated militia had killed him when a group of civilians tried to leave the area which is under the militia’s control.

Another resident told Human Rights Watch on May 20 that her father was still trapped in the Sidi Khreibish neighborhood. She said that she and other family members evacuated on November 4, but that her father had stayed behind to take care of their home because he expected the army to quickly drive what the militia groups from the area.

She said that approximately 80 other families also remained in Sidi Khreibish and, like her father, existed on flour from a local bakery and tinned and dry foods obtained from supermarkets that had been shut and homes in the area. Her father and their neighbors were eating only one meal a day, she said. Power supplies to the area had been cut off four months earlier and residents had little access to phone networks and the Internet:

I am afraid for my father as things have gotten very bad. After we left in November, we repeatedly attempted to coordinate with the Red Crescent for a safe passage for him and for others to leave the area but the takfiris [Islamist militias] controlling the area refused to allow the civilians out. Right now, even the army will not let anyone out of the area as there are no guarantees from the other side [Islamist militias].

A volunteer at the Libyan Red Crescent Society, who is in charge of the evacuations of civilians from the downtown areas of Benghazi, told Human Rights Watch on May 21 the Red Crescent had only registered 28 Libyan nationals and 30 foreigners by telephone, including some women and children, who remained trapped in the downtown area. The Red Crescent has had no access to the area since November, the volunteer said. The volunteer acknowledged that many families and individuals did not register with the Red Crescent for fear of being targeted by the extremists or because they sympathized with them:

Despite assurances by the army that everyone would be allowed to exit the areas, including the injured of the other side [Islamist militia groups], many people who are inside the downtown area are afraid of the extremists. We were informed that one man who used to negotiate with them [Islamist militia groups] has now gone missing and hasn’t been heard of for five days. It has become very complicated for us, as there is no longer one person or a single group side to coordinate with. There are at least three, with Ansar Al-Sharia, The Libyan Shield Forces, and those loyal to the Islamic State, dividing the downtown area between them.

source: http://www.hrw.org/news

IMF: Fixing Exchange Rates Will Make Matters Worse For Economy

The Resident Representative of the International Monetary Fund has said that The Gambia government’s decision to fix the exchange rate of the country’s depreciating currency, the dalasi, against major currencies of the world will make matters worse for the economy.

Gaston Mpatswe, who was yesterday briefing journalists barely a month after IMF approved a 10 million US dollar bailout  for the country, said the sooner the authorities lift the restrictions on the foreign exchange, the better for the economy.

He said: “The depreciation of the dalasi is a symptom of what is happening in the economy. It is just a symptom of the problems that were in the economy over a period of time.  And we believe that fixing the exchange rate is not helping the economy. When you fix it, people will keep their foreign currency and that will make matters even worse. It also will increase speculation, excess demand pressure, makes export of Gambian goods and services expensive and it will have direct impact on the poor because it will not reduce inflation or depreciation of the dalasi and families that are relying on remittances will have to spend on those expensive goods after the exchange rate has gone down. The recovery of the dollar also affected the dalasi.

“We have engaged the government on economic implications of fixing foreign exchange rate. We will have a consultation with the government on the economy in future and we will provide fiscal advice on what the government might do to tackle certain problems in the economy.

“Gambia has been registering a volatile growth rate over the years. The country needs 3.3 percent over a sustained period to be able to reduce poverty. I cannot say if The Gambia is in an economic recession; the economy is facing severe challenges that have to be corrected. The economy is at a crossroads. The government has been borrowing to finance its increasing deficit, both domestically and externally. The Gambian economy needs structural adjustment.

“The export of the country is around $107.3 million while import is around $306.6 million. The fiscal deficit has steadily increased; it was estimated at 4.45 billion dalasis at the end of 2014, against a surplus in 2007. The Gambia’s first challenges are related to structure of the economy and repeated spending pressures that have been affecting the country over a period of time.”

Source www.http://standard.gm/

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Burundi Opposition Figure Shot Dead

Zedi Feruzi was the head of the opposition party Union for Peace and Development [Citi FM]

Opposition officials confirm death of Union for Peace of Development party leader in capital Bujumbura.

Zedi Feruzi, a leader of an opposition party, has been shot dead alongside his bodyguard in Bujumbura, a leading opposition figure has confirmed to Al Jazeera.

Feruzi, whose bloodied body was found in the Ngagara district of Bujumbura on Saturday evening, was the head of the opposition party Union for Peace and Development (UPD).

Leading opposition figure, Agathon Rwasa, said there was no information on who had killed Feruzi, but he had spoken out against President Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision to stand for a third-term in office.

Residents said a third person, believed to be another police officer tasked with protecting Feruzi, was seriously injured in the incident.

“We heard around 20 gunshots, everyone fell to the ground, people saw a Toyota car speeding away,” said a neighbour, who did not witness the shooting himself.

Around an hour after the attack police had yet to arrive at the scene, according to the AFP news agency.

Meanwhile, two barricades of tyres were set alight in the district, where local youths were sealing off streets and alleyways to outsiders.

Saturday’s assassination will add to tensions in Burundi after a month of protests against President Nkurunziza.

A coup attempt to remove Nkurunziza by army officers opposed to his decision to contest the presidential vote failed after the intervention of loyal members of the military.

More than 20 people have died in anti-government protests since the president’s announcement to stand in late April.

Source: Al Jazeera And AFP

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