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Published 26th June 2009

Vol 50 No 13


Zimbabwe

Tsvangirai carries the can

Image courtesy of Panos Pictures
Image courtesy of Panos Pictures

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The momentum is moving in the MDC's favour yet its foreign friends remain cautious

After a three-week tour through Western capitals and having raised some US$150 million for his fragile government, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai now knows that diplomats and business people in the West are as ambivalent as their African counterparts about the prospects for Zimbabwe in the short term. The difference is that African governments have already 'taken the risk', as Tsvangirai puts it. The stakes are much higher for Zimbabwe's neighbours if things fall apart again.


Coup anniversary – 20 years of Islamist rule

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As the NCP/NIF celebrates 20 years in power, the 'democratic transformation' stipulated by the CPA looks optimistic

A momentous year awaits Sudan. Amid fighting in the South and Darfur, elections are due in February and the Southern referendum on independence is scheduled for 2011. The...


Business beyond borders

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The Zuma government's foreign policy will be more about commerce than high-minded diplomacy

The appointment of the inexperienced Maite Nkoana-Mashabane as Foreign Minister in the new African National Congress (ANC) government suggests that President Jacob Zuma will dominate foreign policy, with...



BLUE LINES
THE INSIDE VIEW

President Mwai Kibaki and Premier Raila Odinga held urgent talks on 23 June in Harambee ('All pull together') House with the Committee of Experts on Constitutional Review to prevent former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan from handing a list of the December 2007 post-election violence perpetrators to the International Criminal Court. Annan told Africa Confidential that he would give the list to Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo if a local tribunal is not set up by August. A special tr...
President Mwai Kibaki and Premier Raila Odinga held urgent talks on 23 June in Harambee ('All pull together') House with the Committee of Experts on Constitutional Review to prevent former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan from handing a list of the December 2007 post-election violence perpetrators to the International Criminal Court. Annan told Africa Confidential that he would give the list to Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo if a local tribunal is not set up by August. A special tribunal would require constitutional reforms to go ahead, and behind the scenes Kibaki and Odinga want to identify any loopholes which would allow them to create a tribunal with international and local judges without parliamentary approval. A method that would bypass Parliament would certainly face domestic legal challenges but would provide much needed delays. The most unlikely option is just to let Annan hand over the sealed list of accused to the ICC. Moreno-Ocampo, who says the ICC has begun a preliminary examination of the Kenya cases, will meet Kenyan legal officials on 1 July. Another option is to try to pass the constitutional admendments to allow a tribunal to be formed, but that is unlikely with Parliament in recess again on 25 June. ODM and PNU party leaders have little latitude to force MPs to cooperate. Such measures already failed to pass in March; some MPs do not trust the local justice system’s ability to rule independently while others seek to protect powerful friends.
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Tshwane's big five

Foreign affairs analysts broadly agree that five countries will attract more attention from Tshwane (Pretoria)

Angola will welcome Jacob Zuma on his first foreign trip as President 'before Christmas'. Zuma is grateful to President José Eduardo dos Santos for the loan of an...


'Selling the South down the river'

This week's meeting in Washington of the two signatories to the 2005 CPA is unprecedented. Both the National Congress Party (aka National Islamic Front) and the Sudan People's...


On top and in charge

The May elections have given President Mutharika political dominance for the term that is meant to be his last

After his victory in the 19 May elections, President Bingu wa Mutharika and his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) dominate Malawi's political scene. Mutharika won 66% of the vote...


Synchrobudgets

As they approach economic union, East Africa's finance ministers struggle to balance the books at home

The East African Community, grouping Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda, plans to set up a common market this November. The opportunities are potentially vast: the EAC comprises...


Kikwete's bailout package

Tanzania, the second largest of the big-three members of the East African Community, has presented a budget with a bullish message designed to spend its way out of...


Camara's reality television

Conakry's military leader regularly berates drug traffickers and corrupt businesses on the state media but is extending his stay in office

Many Guineans like Captain Moussa Dadis Camara's tough talk on state television and his increasingly tough actions, such as the mass arrests of suspected drug traffickers. Yet the...



Pointers

Hide and seek

National Assembly politicians are investigating reports that tens of billions of dollars in revenue from the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation's (NNPC) foreign subsidiaries, which have accrued over...


No funeral for Françafrique

On 16 June, Francophone leaders came to bury El HadjOmar Bongo Ondimba, éminence grise of the occult Françafrique networks, and to keep alive the personalised relations between France...