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Published 1st December 2006

Vol 47 No 24

South Africa

Help, murder, police!

The investigation of a fraudster's murder raises doubts about the national police chief's position

President Thabo Mbeki and Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula are so far standing by National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi, who is at the centre of a bizarre political-criminal scandal. It began when Brett Kebble, a mining magnate and fraudster, who has been bankrolling the defence of the sacked Deputy President, Jacob Zuma, was shot dead in his car on 27 September last year. Kebble has been linked to the theft of millions of mining company shares. On 16 November the Scorpions, the investigative arm of the National Prosecutions Authority, arrested Selebi's friend Glen Agliotti in connection with the murder. They are now investigating Selebi himself, who insists he has done no wrong and was unaware of any criminal activity by Agliotti.

La grande rupture

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A French judge warms up some old allegations and creates a diplomatic storm

The break in diplomatic relations between Paris and Kigali will not heal quickly. It came after France's Judge Jean-Louis Bruguière asked a higher court to issue internation...

Retaliatory justice

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If Judge Jean-Louis Bruguière obtains the international warrants issued in France, nine people will be targets for arrest if they enter the European Union and other countrie...

BLUE LINES
THE INSIDE VIEW

Khartoum is at the epicentre of the growing regional crisis in the Horn of Africa, which is spreading into Central Africa. As UN and African Union officials at the talks in Addis Ababa pressed Sudan to agree to a UN peacekeeping mission in Darfur, President Omer el Beshir’s troops were stepping up their joint offensive with Janjaweed militias in northern Darfur and coordinating support for rebel forces in Chad and Central African Republic. Then on 29 November, news broke that Khartoum-backed ...
Khartoum is at the epicentre of the growing regional crisis in the Horn of Africa, which is spreading into Central Africa. As UN and African Union officials at the talks in Addis Ababa pressed Sudan to agree to a UN peacekeeping mission in Darfur, President Omer el Beshir’s troops were stepping up their joint offensive with Janjaweed militias in northern Darfur and coordinating support for rebel forces in Chad and Central African Republic. Then on 29 November, news broke that Khartoum-backed militias were fighting with Sudan People’s Liberation Army forces in Malakal, southern Sudan. Yet Khartoum’s Islamist regime maintains broad support from its Egyptian and Libyan neighbours and so worsens the north-south divide in the AU. Somalia, where the Supreme Islamic Courts Council is at war with the Transitional Federal Government, also links to Khartoum. Many of the SICC militants were trained in Sudan, when the Khartoum regime hosted Usama bin Laden and styled itself as the headquarters of Islamist International. Although US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Jendayi Frazer says she spends 80% of her time on Sudan and Somalia, Western states seem further than ever from having an effective policy in the Horn.
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No win, no gain

The military regime gets the election result it wanted, with no party strong enough to govern

There was no winner in the parliamentary elections on 19 November, the first since Colonel Ely Ould Mohamed Vall's coup of 3 August 2005 (AC Vol 45 No 17). Since none of the partie...

Sudan targets Chad

Chadian rebels launch a new offensive against President Déby after fresh backing from the Sudan government

Khartoum's military planners called a secret conference late last month in El Geneina, West Darfur. As host and financier, Khartoum demanded that the disparate Chadian rebel groups...

Powering up

Overseas investment in aluminium helps the Eastern Cape and requires more investment in power

Alcan is to build a US$2.7 billion smelter at the Coega Industrial Development Zone (IDZ) in South Africa's Eastern Cape. This could salvage the Zone's faltering fortunes - and the...

A plan from the centre

The President wants both to modernise the economy and to snub outsiders

Running the world's fastest growing oil economy gives President José Eduardo dos Santos some autonomy over policy. He wants to sustain record growth rates with Chinese-style centra...

Investigation down under

Woodside Petroleum is Mauritania's largest foreign investor by far. It has sunk around US$1 billion into its Chinguetti offshore project, pumping the only oil between the North Sea...

Voters and protestors start to register

Luanda saw its biggest demonstration for years in the week before registration, when the radical Partido de Apoio Democrático e Progresso de Angola gathered outside the Fren...

The Darfur deadline passes

As the death rate of Darfur villagers soars, so does the confidence of the regime killing them

Western and African governments talk of a UN 'hybrid force' to protect civilians in Darfur but it is the National Congress (formerly National Islamic Front) regime which is literal...

The President speaks

Bingu wa Mutharika puts his case: the IMF approves, politics are turbulent and the anti-corruption trials hang fire

Malawi is in political turmoil. As many as half of its MPs may face by-elections after a constitutional ruling barred them from changing party allegiance between elections. In the ...

Pointers

Atiku again

Vice-President Atiku Abubakar launched his campaign for the presidency in Abuja on 25 November, insisting that he could win elections due next April, despite the open hostility of ...

Grafters' gridlock

Rival factions are ramping up corruption claims against each other in the run-up to the annual conference on 14-17 December of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic ...

Resolution riddles

The draft resolution on Somalia to be put to the United Nations Security Council by the United States this week, proposes the deployment of a regional force to support Somalia's Tr...

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