In a Mother’s Loss, Kenya’s Agony

Members of the Israel Church of Africa prayed during the funeral of two children who were burned to death in a house with 17 other people in Kenya. (Benedicte Kurzen for The New York Times)
KATITO, Kenya, Feb. 15th. (NY Times) —It did not take many people to carry the coffins of Wycliffe and Cynthia Awino. They were 7 and 9 years old. The brother and sister were burned to death by a mob last month in Kenya in the explosion of post-election violence. And if there ever was a woman alone, it was their mother, Millicent Awino, who stood by herself at the foot of two freshly dug graves on Thursday, blotting out reality with her hands over her face, as her only children disappeared into the ground. “I only wish to have kids again,” she said, staring at the caskets. Ms. Awino is a 23-year-old single mother who was at work packing roses for the equivalent of $2 a day when her children were killed. A mob surrounded the house where they were hiding with 17 other people, barricaded the doors and soaked the walls with gasoline. No one inside had a chance. Everyone died, including 11 children. It was one of the most disturbing episodes in the bloodletting that convulsed Kenya since a disputed election in December. The incumbent president, Mwai Kibaki, was declared the winner over the top opposition leader, Raila Odinga, despite widespread evidence of vote rigging. Since then, more than 1,000 people have been killed in vicious fighting between supporters of the two politicians, fighting that followed mostly ethnic lines but broke all rules. Old men were chopped in the head with axes. Mothers were stabbed to death in front of screaming babies.

The killings seem to have subsided for now as Kenya’s rival politicians continue to negotiate. On Thursday, officials said that government and opposition leaders had agreed to the idea of joining together in a coalition government but remained bitterly divided over how much power the opposition would have. Condoleezza Rice, the American Secretary of State, is headed to Kenya next week to coax along the politicians. While they haggle, there are open wounds almost everywhere. Katito, where Ms. Awino now lives, is a small town about an hour’s drive from Kisumu, an industrial city on Lake Victoria. About all that is left of Kisumu’s once vibrant Kikuyu community, which once numbered in the tens of thousands, are a string of scorched shops picked clean by looters. Mr. Kibaki is a Kikuyu and opposition supporters have vented their outrage about the election toward members of his ethnic group, who have been methodically hunted down across the country. The Kikuyus have taken revenge, massacring Luos, Mr. Odinga’s community. The Awinos are Luos. They lived in Naivasha, an ethnically mixed town in the Rift Valley that used to be known for its nature walks, fancy hotels and flower farms. Around 7 a.m., Sunday, Jan. 27, Ms. Awino left for work. She was one of the many migrant workers who had flocked to Naivasha for jobs in the flower farms, neatly packing beautiful roses by day and returning to their iron-roofed shanties at night. Two dollars a day is considered a decent wage here, especially for a woman who dropped out of 8th grade to have her first baby at age 14. Wycliffe and Cynthia were sent to a neighbor’s house. Wycliffe seemed especially caring for a 7-year-old. “Whenever I came home from work, he’d take one look at me and say, ‘Mommy, you’re tired,”’ Ms. Awino said.

Cynthia helped raise him, boiling tea in the morning and cooking rice. The only picture the family has of them shows the children sitting on the grass, Wycliffe with a freshly shaved head, Cynthia wearing a lemon-colored dress. Ms. Awino rushed back to her neighborhood that Sunday afternoon when her boss told her that Kikuyu gangs were killings Luos. She found her house in ashes. When she reached her neighbors, she collapsed. The bodies of Wycliffe and Cynthia were found huddled with the others in a back room, burned almost beyond recognition. On Thursday morning, Ms. Awino brought the bodies home, two wooden coffins trimmed with lace strapped atop a minibus. Home is now a shack with plastic sheeting for walls, built on the edge of a farm belonging to her ex-husband’s father. The people here are strangers to Ms. Awino. Even though she split up with her husband seven years ago, custom has it that she still should live on his family’s land. About 20 people came to the funeral. The refreshments were simple, warm Coca-Colas and slices of white bread. Members of the local church tapped metal rings that rang like bells. The smell of fresh manure wafted up from the fields. The speeches were short. Ms. Awino told the story of how her children were killed. Their father, Morris Okoth, then shared a few words. “There is no need for payback,” he said. Wycliffe went first. Before his three-foot coffin was lowered into its hole, one woman threw herself on it. “Wycliffe! Wycliffe!” she wailed. “Where are you?” Cynthia’s coffin was then covered by shovelfuls of earth. There was no comforting message at the end. There seemed to be nothing to say. Most people walked away with their heads down. The only sounds were soft sobbing and birds chirping.
By Jeffrey Gettleman
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Sexual Violence Spreading in African War Zones

Unicef says social turmoil leads to an epidemic of sexual abuse

Sexual violence is spreading in African conflict zones like an epidemic, the United Nations has warned.
Feb. 13th. (BBC) - The UN's children's fund, Unicef, says rape is no longer just perpetrated by combatants but also by civilians. The organisation said rape was most common in countries affected by wars and natural disasters. "When societies collapse there seems to be a licence to rape. This is a major concern to us," Unicef Deputy Executive Director Hilde Frafjord Johnson said. Sexual violence appeared to accompany a significant uprooting of society when some of the social norms crumble, she said.

Things happen that are unheard of in other African communities Unicef's Hilde Frafjord Johnson

Ms Johnson said that in Kenya reported cases of sexual violence had doubled within days of the recent post-election conflict erupting. "Things happen that are unheard of in other African communities suddenly happen in these situations, and that is why we call it epidemic proportions, because it takes a life of its own," she said. She added that rape was also prevalent in trouble spots in Sudan, Chad and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where victims range from a few months old to octogenarians. The warning comes as Unicef launches an appeal for $856m to help women and children who are victims of conflicts and other emergencies across the continent. Sudan tops the list of countries in need of aid with Unicef calling for $150m.
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Spielberg Drops Out as Adviser to Beijing Olympics in Dispute Over Darfur Conflict

WASHINGTON, Feb. 13th. (NY Times) - Steven Spielberg said Tuesday that he was withdrawing as an artistic adviser to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, after almost a year of trying unsuccessfully to prod President Hu Jintao of China to do more to try to end Sudan’s attacks in the darfur region. Mr. Spielberg’s decision, and the public way he announced it, is a blow to China, which has said that its relationship with Sudan should not be linked to the Olympics, which have become a source of national pride. “Sudan’s government bears the bulk of the responsibility for these ongoing crimes but the international community, and particularly China, should be doing more to end the continuing human suffering there,” the statement said. “China’s economic, military and diplomatic ties to the government of Sudan continue to provide it with the opportunity and obligation to press for change.” Responding to Mr. Spielberg’s action, a spokesman at the Chinese Embassy in Washington said, “As the Darfur issue is neither an internal issue of China nor is it caused by China, it is completely unreasonable, irresponsible and unfair to link the two as one.” Mr. Spielberg had written to Mr. Hu about Darfur twice in the past 10 months, his spokesman said, taking China to task for its “silence” while Sudan blocked the deployment of international peacekeepers and expelled aid workers from the region.

In September, Mr. Spielberg also met with China’s special envoy to Darfur at the Chinese mission to the United Nations, said Mr. Spielberg’s spokesman, Andy Spahn. None of those efforts yielded the results Mr. Spielberg wanted, Mr. Spahn said. In the meantime, Mr. Spielberg had come under increasing pressure from advocates working on Darfur, including a campaign by the actress mia Farrow, to drop his association with the Beijing Olympics. After receiving word that Mr. Spielberg had done just that, Ms. Farrow was jubilant. “His voice and all of the moral authority it gives, used this way, brings a shred of hope to Darfur, and God knows, rations of hope are meager at this time,” said Ms. Farrow, a good-will ambassador for the Unicef who helped start a campaign last year to label the Games in Beijing the “Genocide Olympics.” The actor Don Cheadle, a co-founder of Not On Our Watch, a Darfur advocacy group, said he hoped that Mr. Spielberg’s actions would force China to rethink its position. “One guy like Steven in a position like that is like 100 other guys,” he said. “Those are the kinds of moves, that if they catch fire, and other people think of boycotting, or refraining, the cumulative effect could be something that potentially could change the calculation of that government.”

Mr. Spahn said Mr. Spielberg planned to encourage others to do more to pressure China on Darfur, but he did not offer details. Advocates said they hoped to enlist help from corporate sponsors of the Olympics. China has fought attempts to link Darfur to the Olympics, but it has also responded at times to the pressure. Last year, shortly after Mr. Spielberg’s first letter to Mr. Hu, China dispatched a senior official to Sudan to push the government to accept a peacekeeping force and appointed a special envoy. But the Sudanese military has continued its attacks there, as recently as last week.
By Helene Cooper. David M. Halbfinger contributed reporting from Los Angeles.
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UN Forum Aims To End Trafficking

The first major United Nations conference on the growing problem of human trafficking has opened in Vienna.
Vienna Feb 13th. (BBC) - More than 1,000 delegates from over 100 countries are attending the forum to discuss solutions, including techniques to monitor criminal gangs. There are believed to be millions of victims of trafficking worldwide - in a multi-billion dollar industry. UN officials say human trafficking is the hidden crime of globalisation and nothing short of modern day slavery. International celebrities among the delegates included British actress Emma Thompson, Latin pop star Ricky Martin and Egypt's First Lady Suzanne Mubarak.

The head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Antonio Maria Costa welcomed their support in tackling a problem that affects both wealthy and developing countries. He compared the three-day conference, that ends on Friday, to something between the World Economic Forum at Davos and the infamous 1960s music festival, Woodstock. "Government statements, expert discussions, along with music, speeches, videos, films and art to inspire us all. I hope, by the end of the forum, a roadmap will be developed to guide us forward," he said. "This is not an inter-governmental conference, nor is it a talk shop. Think of it more as a rally. We march together." He said that "200 years after the end of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, we have the obligation to fight a crime that has no place in the 21st Century. Let's call it what it is: modern slavery," he said.

The UN estimates that about 2.5 million people are involved in forced labour as a result of trafficking. It says the majority of victims are between the ages of 18 and 24 years and about 1.2 million children are trafficked each year. Ursula Plassnik, Austrian Federal Minister for European and International Affairs, said national action plans and regional international co-operation was needed. She said human trafficking had become a "booming organised crime" with annual profits of up to $32bn (21bn euros; £16bn) on a global scale. "It is thus considered an even more lucrative business than trafficking of weapons," she said.

Pop star Ricky Martin, who set up the Ricky Martin Foundation for children, told delegates that when he heard about the situation, he had to act. "I witnessed the horrors of human trafficking on a trip to India, where I saved three little girls from the streets of Calcutta," he said. "You know what was going on and if you won't do anything, you allow it to happen." Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson told the forum the story of a Moldovan woman who was trafficked to the UK and forced to work as a prostitute. The UN Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking was launched by the UN in March 2007. Forum organisers hope more countries will be encouraged to ratify a UN protocol on human trafficking and to develop laws to fight the crime. Other issues on the agenda include finding ways of disrupting internet payments for sex services on the web.
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Mbeki Fails in Zimbabwe Crisis, Opposition Claims

JOHANNESBURG, Feb. 14th. (NY Times) — The leader of Zimbabwe's main opposition party said Wednesday that Sth. Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, had failed as a mediator in setting the groundwork for fair elections in Zimbabwe and urged him to show “a little courage” and stop his “quiet support for the dictatorship” of Robert Mugabe. The remarks by Morgan Tsvangirai, the longtime leader of the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, were an unusual broadside. He is ordinarily deferential toward the regionally powerful Mr. Mbeki. But the March 29 elections are fast approaching, and Mr. Tsvangirai, like many civic and religious leaders in Zimbabwe, is fully expecting the vote to be rigged by Mr. Mugabe, the president, who has held power for nearly 30 years. Mr. Tsvangirai (pronounced CHANG-guh-rye), speaking at a news conference here, asked South Africa’s president to use his influence to demand an open campaign and an honest vote count. “President Mbeki,” he said, “if you won’t do it for us, if you won’t do it for Africa, do it for your own country. Do it for your legacy.”

This past year, Mr. Mbeki was designated by the Southern African Development Community, a regional bloc of nations, to mediate the political conflicts between the Movement for Democratic Change and the Mugabe government. Some agreements were reached concerning press freedoms and opposition political activity, and when negotiations hit a seeming impasse, Mr. Mbeki, who had previously left much of the mediating to aides, made a personal trip to Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe. But no further deals were made, and Mr. Mugabe, amid protests from his political rivals, set the elections for March 29. South Africa’s president seems to have concluded that his mediation was a great success. Last week, he told fellow leaders of the Southern African Development Community that the Zimbabwe dispute was mostly settled, trumpeting the “commendable achievements.” These claims defy reality, Mr. Tsvangirai insisted Wednesday, speaking in Johannesburg rather than Harare, where most press coverage remains banned. “Nothing has changed, he said. “Just this past weekend, an M.D.C. rally, legal in any democracy and now legal in Zimbabwe, was broken up by armed riot police in the town of Kadoma. Changes in the law, negotiated by President Mbeki, have not changed the behavior of the dictatorship.” After the press briefing, Mr. Tsvangirai said he hoped that Mr. Mbeki would ask other African leaders to send election monitors to Zimbabwe. “Unless he requests it, it won’t be done,” he said.

Mr. Mbeki is in the final year of his second term, and if a failed mediation in Zimbabwe besmirches his legacy, it will not be the only stain. In December, he lost control of his party, the African National Congress, to a bitter rival, Jacob Zuma. In January, the nation lapsed into an electricity crisis that saps the economy as well as outrages the citizenry, with the government admitting it failed to act in time to avoid the power failures. Two weeks ago, Jackie Selebi, the national police commissioner and one of Mr. Mbeki’s political allies, was placed on leave amid corruption charges growing out of links with a reputed mobster. Mr. Mbeki’s chief spokesman, Mukoni Ratshitanga, said he did not want to comment on Mr. Tsvangirai’s remarks without reading them in context. He did not reply further after being e-mailed the text. Zimbabwe is one of South Africa’s neighbors to the north. The country was once considered a prodigious regional breadbasket, but its economy has been in free fall since Mr. Mugabe began confiscating the land of white farmers in 2000, often doling it out to loyalists with limited experience in farming or interest in learning how it is done. Store shelves are denuded of basic foodstuffs. Inflation has officially catapulted above 26,000 percent. A single copy of the state-controlled newspaper costs 10 million Zimbabwean dollars.

Mr. Tsvangirai nearly outpolled Mr. Mugabe in the official results of the 2002 presidential contest. He says the election was stolen from him then, much the way as he expects it to be stolen six weeks from now. Last March, he was badly beaten by the police during an antigovernment protest; his bloodied face and cracked skull elevated his international profile. But Mr. Tsvangirai is not Mr. Mugabe’s only rival in the presidential race. Arthur Mutambara, a noted student leader in the 1980s, leads a breakaway faction of the Movement for Democratic Change. And, in an intriguing turn, Simba Makoni, a former finance minister and longtime stalwart in Mr. Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party, has turned against the president, who was his 83-year-old patron. Mr. Makoni said he represented many yet-to-be-named dissatisfied insiders. He has since been expelled from the party. Mr. Tsvangirai welcomed him to the rough-and-tumble of the nation’s elective politics. “Opposition leaders in Zimbabwe face arrest, beatings, tear gas, treason trials—and the shock of seeing their candidates and supporters murdered,” he said. “Mr. Makoni knows this. He has seen it from the safety of the ZANU Politburo. He may soon experience it firsthand.”
By Barry Bearak
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Australia Apologizing to Aborigines

SYDNEY, Australia, Feb. 13th. (NY Times) — Prime Minister Kevin Rudd asked Parliament on Tuesday to approve an apology to the country’s indigenous minorities for past mistreatment of them at the hands of the authorities. The apology itself will be made by Mr. Rudd on Wednesday, but he presented Parliament with the text he intends to use. Parliament, which is dominated by his party, is expected to approve it. “We apologize for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians,” the text reads. The apology is aimed particularly at the “stolen generations,” the thousands of Aboriginal and mixed-race children who were taken from their parents, in some states as part of a policy to “breed out the color,” in the words of Cecil Cook, who went by the title of chief protector of Aborigines in the Northern Territory in the 1930s. The text of the apology fulfills one of the basic demands of the people who have been calling for such a move for years: It includes the word “sorry.” “We apologize especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country. For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry. To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry. And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry,” the text reads.

Kirstie Parker, the managing editor of the Aboriginal newspaper The Koori Mail, said she thought the apology hit the right note. “I think it is a very broad but in some places quite specific statement, and I found it very moving,” she said. But she said that the apology would fall short for many indigenous Australians because the government had ruled out offering compensation to those affected by the policy. “There are many people who are saying that they must back this up with compensation,” Ms. Parker said. The previous government, under Prime Minister John Howard, refused to apologize, partly because it did not feel responsible for the misdeeds of past administrations, but also because of fear that an apology would lead to enormous compensation claims. Last year, a court in South Australia awarded 525,000 Australian dollars, or about $475,000, to Bruce Trevorrow, who was taken from his mother when he was a baby, for unlawful treatment and false imprisonment. “I get a distinct feeling among Aboriginal people that they feel that compensation is an absolute possibility, notwithstanding the prime minister’s very vehement statement about not considering it,” Ms. Parker said.

The apology does end with a commitment to eradicating the gap between mainstream Australia and the 2.5 percent of the population that consists of Aborigines or Torres Strait Islanders. The apology imagines “a future where we harness the determination of all Australians, indigenous and nonindigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity.” The first full sitting of the new Parliament is on Wednesday, and making the apology the first item of business is deeply symbolic. A 1997 report by the government’s Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission estimated that from 1 in 10 to 1 in 3 indigenous and mixed-race children were taken from their parents in the decades leading up to 1969, when the policy was formally abandoned. The effects of two centuries of discrimination, coupled with the friction between an ancient and unique culture and the modern world, have left many indigenous Australians eking out a living on the margins of society. Aboriginal life expectancy is 17 years shorter than the average Australian’s; indigenous unemployment is running at three times the rate of the country as a whole; and the incidence of crime and alcoholism is significantly higher in indigenous communities.
By TIM JOHNSTON
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Australia Sends Troops to East Timor

DILI, East Timor, Feb. 13th. (NY Times). - Australia rushed troop reinforcements into East Timor on Tuesday to help enforce a security clampdown a day after a pair of assassination attempts prompted fears of unrest. After the attacks on President José Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão, which left Mr. Ramos-Horta in extremely serious condition, Parliament imposed a state of emergency and restricted civil freedoms. The East Timorese police and soldiers, backed by United Nations forces, erected roadblocks and searched all vehicles entering or leaving the capital, Dili, as the hunt continued for the renegade East Timorese soldiers blamed for the attacks.

Mr. Ramos-Horta, who was shot in the back and stomach outside his home at dawn Monday, was in serious but stable condition in an Australian hospital on Tuesday. Mr. Gusmão, whose convoy was attacked an hour later, was unharmed. Under the state of emergency, a curfew was put in place from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m., and all public gatherings were prohibited. Dili, a ramshackle seaside city, remained calm on Tuesday. Street markets were crowded, and residents went about their business despite some apprehension over the repercussions of what government officials described as an attempt to derail East Timor’s fledgling democracy. Responding to concerns that the assassination attempts could provoke more violence in a country that has suffered repeated bloodshed in the nearly six years since it formally declared independence, Australia flew an additional 140 troops and 70 police officers into Dili to reinforce an international stabilization force of about 1,000 soldiers already there under a United Nations mandate. An Australian Navy frigate also sailed into the waters off the city. The international force and a United Nations police contingent were sent to East Timor in 2006 to quell widespread unrest.

The attacks on East Timor’s two most senior politicians underscored the huge challenge facing this impoverished country as it tries to overcome a long history of violence, build a sustainable economy and entrench democracy. In May, Mr. Ramos-Horta won a resounding mandate in presidential elections. He had won respect and shared the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize for leading diplomatic efforts to end East Timor’s 24-year occupation by Indonesia and for his peacemaking efforts in numerous internal disputes. In the attack on Monday, he was shot three times outside his home in eastern Dili by about 10 rebels, according to East Timorese and United Nations officials. In an exchange of gunfire, the rebels’ commander, Alfredo Reinado, was killed. Mr. Reinado was a former military police officer who deserted in 2006 over a range of internal grievances in the army. The same group of rebels attacked Mr. Gusmão, East Timor’s first president, who was chosen as prime minister after parliamentary elections last July. Mr. Gusmão called the attacks a well-planned attempt to “paralyze the government and create instability. I consider this incident a coup attempt against the state by Reinado, and it failed,” Mr. Gusmão said, according to The Associated Press. “The government won’t fall because of this.”

Mr. Ramos-Horta, 58, underwent surgery for his gunshot wounds at an Australian military base in Dili on Monday morning before being placed on a ventilator in an induced coma and airlifted to a hospital in Darwin, in northern Australia. A doctor who treated him there said that his condition had stabilized by Tuesday after further surgery, but remained “extremely serious.” The wounds were to his chest and abdomen. As the hunt for the rebels continued Tuesday, questions arose over whether protection of the nation’s leaders had been adequate. United Nations officials said Mr. Ramos-Horta had insisted on being guarded only by members of the national police force. But the army chief, Brig. Taur Matan Rusk, demanded to know how such attacks could be mounted in Dili given the “high number of international forces present.” He called on the United Nations to appoint an international team to investigate the attacks. The United Nations deputy police commissioner in East Timor, Hermanprit Singh, said Tuesday that the East Timor and United Nations police forces had identified several individuals involved in the attacks through interviews with witnesses. President Bush condemned the violence, saying, “Those who are responsible must know that they cannot derail democracy.” The United Nations Security Council appealed for calm and urged the government to bring those responsible for the “heinous act” to justice.
By DONALD GREENLEES
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Kenya’s Middle Class Feeling Sting of Violence

Mumo Kituku, a dentist, has a clinic near one of Nairobi’s most volatile neighborhoods, and some of his patients are staying home. (Christophe Calais for The New York Times)
NAIROBI, Kenya: Feb. 11th. — George G. Mbugua is a 42-year-old executive with two cars, a closet full of suits and a good job as the chief financial officer of a growing company. His life has all the trappings of a professional anywhere. He recently joined a country club and has taken up golf. But unlike anywhere else, this executive has to keep his eyes peeled on the daily commute for stone-throwing mobs. When he gets home after a long day, he has to explain to his daughters why people from different ethnic groups are hacking one another to death. Even his own affluent neighborhood has been affected. Some of the Mbuguas’ neighbors recently fled their five-bedroom homes because of the violence that has exploded in Kenya since a disputed election in December turned this promising African country upside down. “Nobody’s untouched,” Mr. Mbugua said.

Of all the election-related conflicts that have cracked open in Kenya — Luos versus Kikuyus (two big ethnic groups), The Orange Democratic Movement versus the Party of National Unity (the leading political parties), police versus protesters — none may be more crucial than the struggle between those who seem to have nothing to lose, like the mobs in the slums who burn down their own neighborhoods, and those who are deeply invested in this country’s stability. The well-established middle class here is thought to be one of the most important factors that separate Kenya from other African countries that have been consumed by ethnic conflict. Millions of Kenyans identify as much with what they do or where they went to college as who their ancestors are. They have overcome ethnic differences, dating between groups and sometimes intermarrying, living in mixed neighborhoods, and sending their children to the best schools they can afford, regardless of who else goes there. The fighting that rages in the countryside, where men with mud-smeared faces and makeshift weapons are hunting down people of other ethnicities, seems as foreign to many of these white-collar Kenyans as it might to people living thousands of miles away. But the professionals are hardly retreating. Three times a week, a group of doctors, lawyers, former politicians, writers, wildlife experts, business consultants and professors meet in a conference room at the Serena Hotel in Nairobi, the capital. They call themselves Concerned Citizens for Peace, and they have taken up projects such as raising money for displaced people, organizing candlelight vigils and bending the ear of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of the United nations, who met with business leaders during his emergency trip to Kenya this month. The group begins each session by standing up, holding hands and singing the national anthem. Mr. Mbugua spoke the other day at one of those meetings about the importance of reconciliation in the workplace. His idea was to keep local languages, which many Kenyans speak in addition to the country’s official languages (English and Kiswahili), away from the water cooler. “We don’t want people to feel excluded when they’re at work,” he said. Bethuel Kiplagat, a retired ambassador, praised the meeting’s openness. “We must put everything down on the table,” he said, “however painful it is.”

Many African countries are all about haves versus have-nots, with millions of people toiling in the fields, barely surviving, while a tiny elite holds all the wealth. Kenya is different. James Shikwati, a Kenyan economist, estimates that of Kenya’s population of approximately 37 million, about four million are in the middle class, making between $2,500 and $40,000 a year. The number of Kenyans enrolled in college has more than doubled in the past 10 years, to more than 100,000. “There are sizable fortunes in the hands of people of all ethnic backgrounds,” said Richard Leakey, the noted Kenyan paleontologist. “I think the middle class will ultimately prevail on the government authority in one form or the other to just pull itself together and get on with business.” Business is hurting. Vigilante roadblocks have paralyzed the flow of goods across the country. Vandals have ripped up miles of railroad tracks. Tourists have bolted from the game parks faster than the antelope in them. The estimated losses are now running into the billions of dollars. Fanis Anne Nyangayi just started her own marketing company in Nairobi, and she has already had to lay off staff because nobody wants to commit to marketing plans. “Everything’s on hold,” she said. To her, the ethnic clashes that continue to flare in the Rift Valley, less than 100 miles away, are disturbing — and hard to understand.

The disputed election, in which President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner despite widespread evidence of vote rigging, uncorked decades of frustrations about land, political power and economic inequalities. Many Kenyans tend to vote along ethnic lines, and much of the violence since the election has taken on an ethnic cast, with members of groups that tend to support the opposition fighting against members of groups that have backed the president. More than 1,000 people have been killed. But ethnic identity issues are more complicated in the city. Ms. Nyangayi, 36, said she did not know she was a member of the Luhya ethnic group until she was 10 years old. She was born in Lamu, on the Kenyan coast, moved to Mombasa, a port town, and lived in Nairobi and Kisumu, in the far western part of Kenya. “I can’t even speak Luhya,” a shortcoming that is sometimes viewed as snobby, she said. “It’s not that I think I’m above being a Luhya,” she explained. “I’m proud of being a Luhya. It’s just that we moved around a lot as a kid, and I missed the bus somewhere.” Wambua Kilonzo is a lawyer, and he broke with his ethnic group, the Kamba, to vote for Raila Odinga, the top opposition leader who is a Luo. Many Kambas voted for another candidate, Kalonzo Musyoka, who is now vice president. “To me, it was more about the issues,” Mr. Kilonzo said, pointing to Mr. Odinga’s vow to fight corruption and restructure the government.

Mr. Kilonzo’s emerging law practice has been hurt by the election fallout. One of his top clients is the owner of a high-priced safari lodge that until recently had celebrities flying in on a regular basis. The resort is now a luxurious ghost town, and Mr. Kilonzo, 31, doesn’t feel right adding to the owner’s burdens. “How can I take money from my client when his business is like this?” he said. Mumo Kituku is a 31-year-old dentist in a clinic near a slum. He pulls teeth for the equivalent of $5 and gets a cut of the clinic’s profits depending on how many patients he serves. But the clinic is near Kibera, one of Nairobi’s more volatile neighborhoods, and in the past month, some of his patients have been afraid to venture out of their homes, reducing his workload and his income. “It’s been rough, man,” he said. It is issues like those that have pushed business leaders into action. They have struggled to be heard, with the young men sharpening machetes grabbing more headlines than the executives’ quiet efforts to wage peace.

But the white-collar profile has risen in the past few weeks. Executives from multinational and local companies recently met with Mr. Kibaki and Mr. Odinga to stress the economic toll that is accruing while the top politicians continue to posture and the fighting between their supporters rages on. Some businesses have taken out advertisements in the local newspapers urging peace. “Kenya,” read a message from a bank on Monday, “our unity is our pride.” Some Kenyan journalists have complained that the middle class is not doing enough. “They have been lulled by a false sense of security they have enjoyed sheltered in their homes and clubs,” wrote Tom Mshindi, a columnist for The Saturday Nation. That said, business leaders have organized reconciliation workshops and gone back to their companies with plans of action. People like Mr. Mbugua do not want to see their dreams disappear. He wants to establish a financial planning organization in Kenya. And travel the world. “All my life I’ve wanted to go to Hawaii,” he said. “Is there ice there? And what about deer hunting in Alaska? What’s that like?”
By Jeffrey Gettleman
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President of East Timor Wounded in Rebel Attack

Feb. 11th. (NY Times) - President José Ramos-Horta of East Timor was shot and seriously wounded Monday, and gunmen attacked a convoy carrying Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão, threatening to further destabilize the struggling young nation. Officials blamed a renegade military officer who they said was killed in an exchange of gunfire, suggesting that the attacks in Dili, the capital, were an attempted coup. Mr. Gusmão was unhurt and called on the nation to remain calm. “The state came under attack,” he said. “The attempt to kill the prime minister and president today failed, and only the president was injured.” Mr. Ramos-Horta, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 for his efforts to free East Timor from Indonesian domination, was in stable condition after being shot in the stomach, officials said. A military spokesman, Domingos da Camara, said the attacks were carried out by Alfredo Reinado, the leader of a rebellious military group. He said Mr. Reinado was killed in an exchange of gunfire between the president’s guards and the occupants of two cars that were driven by his house early in the morning. Any involvement by Mr. Reinado could not be independently confirmed.

East Timor won independence from Indonesia in a referendum in 1999 and became a self-governing nation in 2002 after a transition period under United Nations administration. But it has failed so far to stabilize its young democracy, and tensions mounted this month as rebels loyal to Mr. Reinado fired on Australian troops who are part of a peacekeeping force. “We’re in for another period of instability because there has been more than one shooting this morning,” said Sophia Cason of the International Crisis Group in a telephone interview on Monday. “There’s more than one group involved, and even if the president manages to pull through, the fact that there has been an assassination attempt against him will cause some instability,” she said. “There are people who are going to be very concerned and upset about what’s happening.”

Mr. Reinado had led a revolt against the government since 2006, when factional fighting killed 37 people and drove 150,000 people from their homes. Many of them remain in tents, saying they are afraid to return to their homes for fear of more violence. Mr. Ramos-Horta, 58, was elected president last May after serving as foreign minister. He succeeded the former guerrilla leader, Mr. Gusmão, who was later elected prime minister. Mr. Ramos-Horta led an international campaign for independence from Indonesia, which occupied East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, for 24 years and remained the international face of the world’s youngest nation. He received the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo.

Last month the International Crisis Group warned that there was a risk of more unrest unless the police and the military were reformed. In November, Mr. Reinado threatened to use force against the government unless it met the demands of his group of hundreds of military deserters. “I will lead my soldiers down to Dili,” he said. “The situation and stability of this country will be worse.” Mr. Reinado’s revolt reflected divisions within the police and the military and unresolved social and economic issues that have contributed to continuing poverty and instability. “The problem is that a lot of the issues which led to the crisis in 2006 haven’t actually been dealt with,” Ms. Cason said. “There hasn’t been the reform of the military or the reform of the police that’s needed. “The other causes are high-level political disputes, massive unemployment, which has led to an increased number of fights between street gangs. All of these issues are still here.”
By Seth Mydans and TIM JOHNSTON
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Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Mozlink’ for any or all of the articles/images placed here. The placing of an article does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
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