As Kenya Bleeds, Tourism Also Suffers in Land of Safaris

Lel Cartwright, a tourist, with Isaac Rotich, a safari guide, at the Cottars 1920s Mara Safari Camp in Kenya’s Masai Mara. (Guillaume Bonn for The New York Times)
KEEKOROK, Kenya: March 1st. (NY Times) — Nancy Holan just had the safari of her life. She and a friend flew to Kenya from Detroit and as they cruised the wide open plains, they had the lions, zebras and elephants all to themselves. "It was wonderful," she said. Not far away, Isaac Rotich, a high-end safari guide, paced an empty game lodge in freshly polished safari boots. He can spot a six-inch lizard 50 feet away, and tell you the name — in Kiswahili, English and Latin — of the plant it is sitting on. He has spent years building this career and was making $30,000 a year, a king’s ransom in these parts. Now he is afraid of losing it all. “We’re hurting, big time,” Mr. Rotich said. This is what Kenya’s legendary safari business has become: wonderful for tourists, disastrous for just about everyone else.

Tourism is one of Kenya’s biggest industries, but the violence that exploded after a flawed election in December has eviscerated the business, with bookings down 80 to 90 percent in most areas. Even after a peace deal was signed Thursday, government and tourism officials worried that it could take months — if not years — to recover. Kenya’s rival politicians have agreed to share power, and on Friday many people here praised them for finally calming the country down. But the long-term economic consequences are just beginning to sink in. “We will work very hard to see what we can salvage,” said Rose Musonye Kwena, an official at the Kenya Tourist Board, who estimated that even if there was no more major violence this year business would still be down 50 percent. The images of machete-wielding mobs caused a tourist stampede, and the lingering uncertainty over the country’s direction has caused a wave of cancellations, leaving dozens of hotels closed and thousands of guides, drivers, cooks, waiters, masseuses, wood carvers and bead stringers out of work. Many of them support a vast network of relatives. A continued tourism meltdown could push millions of Kenyans toward poverty, which was one of the underlying causes of the violence in the first place. The downturn also threatens to reverse the momentum that Kenya has made in recent years to protect land and animals. Government officials are worried about out-of-work guides and trackers poaching game. Village elders in animal-rich areas who had been persuaded that conservation and tourism would be profitable have been re-examining this equation and considering selling off their land. Sales mean farms, and farms mean fences, which could block the millions of zebra, wildebeest and antelope that migrate across the famous Masai Mara game reserve each year, possibly endangering one of the most spectacular gatherings of animal life on the planet. “It’s absolutely catastrophic,” said Calvin Cottar, the owner of an upscale safari camp.

Kenya’s billion-dollar tourism industry, which injects critically needed foreign exchange into the economy, is hardly the only victim. The election crisis, which started when Kenya’s election commission declared the incumbent president, Mwai Kibaki, the winner of a closely contested race, despite widespread evidence of vote rigging, has killed more than 1,000 people and balkanized Kenya, with hundreds of thousands fleeing their homes and resettling in ethnically homogenous zones. The violence punched a hole through the economy, disrupting coffee and tea production, knocking down the stock market’s value and bruising transport, manufacturing, construction and nearly every other industry — except maybe the funeral trade. Tourism could take among the longest to bounce back, because it is especially sensitive to perceptions, and the well-publicized bloodshed of the past two months has badly dented Kenya’s image. Last year, the country had more than two million tourists. In January, there were only 55,000 new arrivals, well below projections. The truth is that most of the violence has subsided and it never really touched the tourist areas, like the Masai Mara.

But many Western governments seem to think otherwise. Australia is still warning its citizens traveling to Kenya to stay indoors, not exactly the greatest plug for game watching. “These warnings are a real problem for us,” Mr. Cottar said. Even if the game lodges have been perfectly safe, he said, people have not wanted to come to Kenya if they think “they will be drinking Champagne while somebody is getting hacked to death over the hill.” His resort is as good an example as any. Cottars 1920s Mara Safari Camp is one of the most luxurious lodges in Kenya, charging up to $710 a night per person, and is usually booked solid at this time of year. Now it is deserted. It is nestled in an especially picturesque corner of the Masai Mara, overlooking the green hills of Africa that inspired Ernest Hemingway and so many others. The lodge plays up the old-school theme, decked out with leather trunks, brass telescopes and pith helmets. On Sunday, the only guests were a couple from Kenya who paid cut-rate local prices, which allow the lodges to stay open — but just barely. The couple, James and Lel Cartwright, arrived in their own plane. For once, the air over the Masai Mara was clear as glass. “It was stunning,” Mrs. Cartwright said. “There’s usually a wall of dust from all the minibuses.” The staff at Cottars threw on their fezzes and best smiles. But underneath they seemed down. Their salaries have been halved. The tips have dried up. Daniel Lanke, a waiter at Cottars, just enrolled his ninth child in private school but now, he said, “I can’t even buy him socks.” In the villages around the lodge, it is the same story. At the sound of a truck, Masai women dash in from the fields and set up tables full of souvenirs. Some have not sold a necklace for months. “We are going to go hungry,” said one woman, Nalarame Noloswesh, who has seven children.

Many lodges have teamed up with local communities, sharing a slice of their profits in exchange for using the communities’ land. The whole point was to make tourism more profitable than agriculture, so villagers would have an incentive to set aside their land for animals. Kenya’s tourism officials seem to appreciate the stakes. They are planning to begin a huge marketing campaign to reassure potential visitors that Kenya is safe. Mr. Cottar says that he will donate some of his proceeds to the Kenyan Red Cross to emphasize that “if you go on safari now, you’ll be helping the country.” But those with the means may not wait. Mr. Rotich, the safari guide, is fully aware of his skills. He is an expert game spotter, speaks impeccable English and seems genuinely interested in every form of life on the veldt, from the towering giraffe to the lowly dung beetle. “This is all I know,” he said. The other day, he found a herd of 150 elephants eating grass in a clearing. Babies wrestled with one another as their enormous mothers lumbered past. The elephant train was headed south to Tanzania, where the safari industry is booming because many tourists are flocking there instead. Mr. Rotich said he might join them. “I love Kenya,” he said. “But I have my dreams.”
by Jeffrey Gettleman
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Kenya Rivals Reach Peace Agreement

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, left, and Raila Odinga, the opposition leader, with Kofi Annan in Nairobi, Kenya, on Friday. (Simon Maina/Agence France-Presse -- Getty Images)

NAIROBI, Kenya: Feb. 29th. (NY Times) — Kenya’s rival leaders broke their tense standoff on Thursday, agreeing to share power in a deal that may end the violence that has engulfed the nation but could mark the beginning of a long and difficult political relationship. The country seemed to let out a collective hooray as Mwai Kibaki, the president and Raila Odinga, the top opposition leader, sat at a desk in front of the president’s office, with a bank of television cameras rolling, and signed an agreement that creates a powerful prime minister position for Mr. Odinga and splits cabinet positions between the government and the opposition. There are still many thorny issues to resolve, among them how the government will function with essentially two bosses. There is also a deeply divided country to heal. More than 1,000 Kenyans have been killed and hundreds of thousands driven from their homes in an uncharacteristic burst of violence set off by a deeply flawed election in December. Much of the fighting, like the voting, has been along ethnic lines.

But the two-page agreement, which came after intense international pressure and mediation by Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary general, seemed to serve as a contract to pull Kenya back from the brink. Both leaders urged their supporters, who have battled viciously across the country in recent weeks, to respect it. “I call on Kenyans to embrace the spirit of togetherness,” Mr. Kibaki said. Mr. Odinga was beaming next to him. “We should begin to ensure that Kenyans begin to celebrate and love each other and that we destroy the monster that is called ethnicity,” he said. Kenyans were glued to their television sets and radios across the country as the news broke. In downtown Nairobi, the capital, a crowd poured into the streets and danced and cheered until they were run off by tear-gas shooting police officers. In offices across town, business executives, who have watched their profits fall and the investments tank over the past two months, finally exhaled. “Yes, I’m relieved,” said Ngovi Kitau, the manager of a large car dealership. He had just come from a meeting where his company had decided to let 10 people go a month because business was so bad. “You don’t know what we’ve been through.” But he injected a note of caution that many Kenyans seemed to feel: “It’s a marriage of convenience, and it’s the best way out because it’s going to get the country moving again. But it’s not a solution.”

Kenya used to be considered one of the most prosperous countries in Africa, known as an oasis of stability in a turbulent region. But the country spun into chaos in late December after the national election commission declared Mr. Kibaki the winner of a closely-contested election over Mr. Odinga, who claims to have won the most votes. Election observers have been unanimous that the election was tainted by irregularities, with some saying that the government rigged the tallying of votes to give Mr. Kibaki a slender, 11th-hour edge. The controversy spawned bloodletting across the country, with supporters of Mr. Odinga and Mr. Kibaki fighting one another in brutal battles. Mr. Odinga and Mr. Kibaki are from different ethnic groups, and the election seems to have kicked the lid off a set of simmering political, ethnic and economic issues. The violence cooled down in the past few weeks, but the tension and displacements continued, with many Kenyans saying that the country would not return to peace until the dueling politicians agreed to some sort of solution.

Mr. Annan took the lead in trying to bring the two sides together. For the past month, he has been meeting nearly every day with negotiators for Mr. Kibaki and Mr. Odinga, searching for a political compromise. More than anyone else, he has been the hope of this country. A newly-born baby rhino was even named after him. This week the talks nearly collapsed altogether. Negotiators deadlocked over whether they would share responsibilities or share power, with the government refusing to give Mr. Odinga substantial authority or to amend the constitution to create the position of prime minister, which had not existed in Kenya’s system. Mr. Annan then decided to bypass the negotiation teams and go directly to Mr. Odinga and Mr. Kibaki. He met with them behind closed doors for six hours on Thursday. At 4:30 p.m. local time, Mr. Annan, Mr. Kibaki and Mr. Odinga emerged. The two leaders signed the agreement with Mr. Annan standing behind them, his hands clasped, as a crowd of diplomats, cabinet ministers and political supporters clapped.

The deal creates a government of national unity, melding the president’s party with Mr. Odinga’s. Mr. Odinga will become prime minister and will “coordinate and supervise” government affairs. The cabinet positions will be divided, based on parliamentary strength. Mr. Odinga’s party has a slight edge in Parliament. This is not the first time Mr. Kibaki, 76, and Mr. Odinga, 63, have vowed to work together. The two were close political allies in 2002, when Mr. Kibaki was elected president, but they soon had a falling out. Under the deal, the two sides will work together on constitutional reform, land reform, electoral reform and a complete overall of Kenya’s political system. “Today we have reached an important staging post, but the journey is far from over,” Mr. Annan said. “Let the spirit of healing begin today. Let it begin now.”
by Jeffrey Gettleman with Kennedy Abwao contributed to this report
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Ten UN Agencies Target Female Mutilation

Female genital mutilation is deeply rooted in many societies
UN, New York: Feb. 27th. (BBC News) A range of United Nations agencies are calling for the practice of female genital mutilation to be ended within the space of a generation. An estimated three million girls a year are thought to be at risk from this practice, many of them in Africa. The practice of cutting off the clitoris of a young girl - and often more - is deeply rooted in some cultures. Ten UN agencies want a major reduction in the tradition by 2015. The practice is seen in some countries as a way to ensure virginity and to make a woman marriageable. Yet it also leads to bleeding, shock, infections and a higher rate of death for the women's new-born babies, say the UN groups.

Up to 140 million women are thought to have undergone this procedure in 28 countries in Africa, and a few in Asia and the Middle East. It is also happening to girls and women who have left their original countries and settled in the West. The UN agencies say traditions are often stronger than law and legal action by itself is not enough to tackle this. Change must come from within communities, they say, citing the example of West Africa, where villages have joined together to make pledges to abandon this practice.
by Laura Trevelyan
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Cubans Wary of Raúl Castro’s Hints at Change

HAVANA, Cuba: Feb. 27th. (NY Times) — In his first state reception as Cuba's president, Raul Castro met Tuesday not with leftist Latin American leaders like Hugo Chavez and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, nor with Chinese officials, but with the secretary of state of the Vatican, a traditional enemy of Communism and a critic of Cuba’s record on human rights. Mr. Castro’s decision to begin his tenure by meeting the Vatican’s top diplomat, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, a possible go-between with the United States and Europe, reflects his practical, no-nonsense style as well as his greater willingness to put ideology aside to achieve his goals than his brother often showed. Mr. Castro, who is 76 years old, is hardly a fresh face to Cubans, having served as the defense minister for the past half century. Many people doubt that he intends to upend his brother’s legacy. Yet he does seem inclined to govern more pragmatically than his more doctrinaire and romantic brother, who ran this country for 49 years as if it were his own business, signing off on almost every government decision. Raúl Castro has said the government needs to shrink and become more compact. He has promised “structural changes” and “big decisions.” “We have to make our government’s management more efficient,” he said Sunday, adding, “We have to plan well, and we cannot spend more than we have.”

Since he became acting president after Fidel Castro fell ill and disappeared from public view in July 2006, Raúl Castro has sought to improve public transportation and shake up the state-controlled dairy monopoly. He also shocked people when he acknowledged that the average salary of about $19 a month was too little to live on. As he took office Sunday, he raised the possibility of revaluing the Cuban peso to give salary-earners greater buying power. Raúl Castro’s decision on Sunday to put his closest friends and loyalists in the major positions of vice president and defense minister also suggests that he has control of the government, even though he has promised to consult Fidel Castro on important matters. Despite such steps, many Cubans say they see few signs of real change. Some say they suspect that Fidel Castro will continue to rule from behind the scenes. Others see little ideological difference between the ex-president and his brother. Still others argue that the centralized bureaucratic apparatus of the state is too rusty to be reformed. A young man stood in Havana’s central park on Monday, scanning the faces of the new government leaders, his face scrunched up in puzzled concentration. When a reporter asked him what he thought of the new president, he muttered, “It’s good,” rattled the paper shut and marched quickly away, casting a furtive glance at a nearby police officer. “Everyone is afraid to talk,” said a student sitting on a park bench nearby who identified himself only as Alejandro. “This is the time when the people should go to the street, but they are afraid. My country is like a prison.” A few blocks away, José, a store clerk in his 30s, was waiting in line outside a post office in Old Havana to send an e-mail message to a family friend through a secure Internet connection that allows no other contact with the outside world. “There was no change,” he said, echoing the views of others. “Look, if you paint this tile here and you paint it with the same color, there is no change. The brothers think alike.”

Many experts on Cuba, however, say the two brothers often have not seen eye to eye. They have clashed over the years on everything from Fidel Castro’s short-lived flirtation with the American public in 1959 to the necessity of allowing some private enterprise during the economic crisis here in the 1990s. Fidel Castro, who is 81, was renowned for his ability to recall arcane details and second-guess his cabinet members, fostering an atmosphere in which even high-ranking officials were afraid to act without the president’s explicit approval. Raúl Castro, who spent much of his life at the head of Cuba’s military, has a reputation for delegating authority and demanding results from managers, people who know him say. “He once said to me after I had given a report at a meeting, ‘All right, this is your report, if one word of this is not true, I’m going to cut you in half,’ ” recalled Vladimiro Roca, a former fighter pilot who fell out with the authorities and has become a leading dissident. Fidel Castro often rambled on for hours in sometimes dull but occasionally stunning oratory. Raúl Castro gives short, precise speeches, always going directly to the heart of his subject. Where Fidel Castro sought the international limelight, his brother focuses more on bread-and-butter domestic issues.

In recent public speeches, Raúl Castro appears to have calculated for political reasons that he cannot distance himself too much from his brother, who, despite his long illness, continues to lead the Communist Party and to cast a large shadow over Cuban politics. For example, the new president made it clear in his first speech to the National Assembly over the weekend that he would continue to consult Fidel and even asked for a vote to authorize him to do so, drawing extended applause from party regulars. But the younger Castro’s actions show that he is willing to take Cuba in a different direction from that of his more dogmatic brother. Over the last year and a half, Raúl Castro has openly criticized state salaries as too low to live on, and speaking to the Congress, he raised the possibility of revaluing the Cuban peso to give salary-earners more buying power. Mr. Castro has taken steps to decentralize the production and distribution of milk. He has imported hundreds of buses from China to alleviate transportation woes and rid the streets of tractor-trailers fitted out for public transportation, eyesores known as camels. He has all but done away with the obligatory mass demonstrations Fidel Castro often organized to rally people against the United States. The younger Castro has even encouraged a measure of public debate about government programs, something his brother rarely allowed. Last fall, he authorized town hall meetings across the island to let people vent their frustrations with the system, though he made it clear that decisions about changes would rest with the ruling party.

Indeed, one of the two state newspapers, Juventud Rebelde, has done exposes on the filching of goods and food from state-run businesses that has become part of life here. Leading cultural figures, meanwhile, have called for dropping onerous visa requirements and other limits on personal freedom. Raúl Castro seems firmly in control of the Council of State, the main governing body. He named his old friends and military comrades — José Ramón Machado Ventura and Gen. Julio Casas Reguiero — as first vice president and defense minister, respectively. The upper echelon of the council is stacked with other military leaders who are considered close to the new president, among them Gen. Abelardo Colomé Ibarra and Juan Almeida Bosque. “This is Raúl’s team, the group of vice presidents,” said Brian Latell, a former C.I.A. analyst who wrote the book “After Fidel” and has studied the brothers for years. “I do think that Raúl is in charge. He’s going to pay proper homage to Fidel but not obeisance.” What is more, Raúl Castro says he will not officially appoint the rest of his cabinet until December at the earliest. Some political analysts says this gives him time to purge the cabinet members considered to be more loyal to his brother than to him if he wishes.

Still, after 49 years of living under Fidel Castro, many Cubans are skeptical of their new leader’s ability to get things done. They are waiting for Raúl Castro to do something concrete to improve their lives, like raise salaries. “His speech sounded more or less like more of the same,” said Alberto, a veteran driver for the official government taxi service. “There is a big gap between what is said and what is done.” Yoani Sánchez, who writes a political blog, said: “In general there is a sense of frustration because we had expected more. There is talk of changes, but he puts off defining those changes.” Still, many Cubans took heart that Mr. Castro had promised in his speech to lift some regulations and restrictions that stifle economic growth. For starters, he said it was time to revalue the Cuban peso, a step toward getting rid of the dual-currency system that has impoverished millions of Cubans. For years, the government has used a nearly worthless peso to pay government salaries while restricting the distribution of a so-called convertible peso that can be exchanged for foreign currency. The system has led to a kind of economic apartheid. Cubans with access to convertible pesos live far better than their compatriots. Those who live solely on government salaries can barely survive, even with free health care and subsidized rations of some basic foodstuffs and tobacco. Restrictions on travel and access to the Internet also rankle many Cubans, who believe the rules are virtually imprisoning them on their island. University students recently clashed with the president of the National Assembly over travel rights, a scene that was filmed and distributed clandestinely. Some Cubans expect Mr. Castro might lift some travel restrictions as a crowd-pleaser. Others said they hoped they would be allowed to own cellphones and to stay at tourist hotels, small but symbolically important steps. In the long run, however, his biggest challenge is revamping Cuba’s centralized economy. Raúl Castro said in his first speech to Parliament that the government needed to be streamlined and decentralized. No institution was safe from reforms, he said.

Yet his appointees are themselves members of the old guard, mostly men in their 70s. That disappointed some here who had hoped a younger generation of technocrats might rise. In some circles there is a feeling the veterans of the revolution can never dismantle the current economic system, which offers people little incentive to work. “Raúl has to make the country more efficient and give incentives to for work because really no one works in Cuba now,” said Juan, a man in his forties who acts as a consultant to importers. “How to you put a country to work that isn’t used to working? That is the trick.”
By James C. Mckinley Jr.
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Annan Tries to Spur Kenya Talks

NAIROBI, Kenya: Feb. 27th. (NY Times) - Kofi Annan suspended day-to-day mediation talks in Kenya on Tuesday and said he would now take up the remaining divisive issues with Kenya’s leaders directly. Mr. Annan, the former United Nations secretary general, seems to be growing increasingly frustrated with the pace of the negotiations, which have ground on for more than a month and are intended to solve a political crisis in Kenya that has cost more than 1,000 lives. “We cannot continue on the current basis,” said Mr. Annan, who is shepherding the talks. “It’s important for the leaders themselves to take charge.” Mr. Annan said it was crucial to reach a comprehensive solution and not “a patch-up job.”

Kenya’s troubles started in late December after the national election commission declared Mwai Kibaki, the incumbent, the winner of a presidential election over Raila Odinga, the top opposition leader, despite widespread evidence of vote rigging. The turmoil that followed pitted supporters of Mr. Odinga against those of Mr. Kibaki in brutal battles that spread across the country and split many areas along ethnic lines. Mr. Odinga and Mr. Kibaki are from different ethnic groups, and the election seems to have kicked the lid off simmering political, ethnic and economic issues. Mr. Annan has been meeting nearly every day with negotiators for Mr. Kibaki and Mr. Odinga, searching for a compromise that will calm the country. Mr. Annan said Tuesday that he was not giving up, but that a conclusion would be reached much faster by bypassing the negotiators and speaking with Mr. Kibaki and Mr. Odinga themselves. The two sides have agreed on many points. Last week, the government acquiesced to the opposition’s demand to create a position of prime minister for Mr. Odinga, who claims to have won the election.

But this week the two sides seem to have split over the details of that position, and Mr. Annan said that barely any progress was made Tuesday. The talks seem to alternate between promising and hopeless, and whenever progress is blocked, the two sides start hurling accusations at each other, as they did on Tuesday. The government now claims that the opposition is refusing to budge. From the government’s perspective, it has conceded much. Mr. Kibaki’s team rejects the accusations that the government rigged the elections to keep Mr. Kibaki in power, as some election observers have suggested. Mr. Kibaki’s team believes that offering the opposition posts in the government is a generous compromise. “We tend to feel we have been railroaded,” said Mutula Kilonzo, a negotiator for the government. But the opposition says that the government has been stubborn, and that beneath all the talk it does not want to share power in a meaningful way. “We have been extremely frustrated,” said Musalia Mudavadi, an opposition leader. “There are moments we believe we have made ground, but we realize the following day that there is a reversal.”

The pressure for a deal is increasing. Opposition leaders have threatened to resume nationwide protests on Thursday, and such events have turned bloody before. Foreign powers, like the United States, are demanding that Kenya’s leaders find a political solution fast. On Tuesday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice issued a threatening statement saying, “There can be no excuse for further delay.” “We are exploring a wide range of possible actions,” she said. “We will draw our own conclusions about who is responsible for lack of progress and take necessary steps.”
by Jeffrey Gettleman with Kennedy Abwao contributed reporting.
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Drug-Resistant TB at Record Levels

A ward for tuberculosis and HIV patients in Juba Hospital in southern Sudan. (Lynsey Addario for The New York Times)

Feb. 26th. (NY Times) - Multiple-drug-resistant tuberculosis cases in parts of the former Soviet Union have reached the highest rates ever recorded and could soar even higher, spreading the bacterial disease elsewhere, the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday in releasing findings from the largest global survey of the problem. The highest rate was in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, where 22.3 percent of new tuberculosis cases were resistant to the standard anti-tuberculosis drug regimen during the survey period from 2002 to 2006. That exceeded the previous high of 14.2 percent, in Kazakhstan. Studies in China also suggest that multiple-drug-resistant TB is widespread in the inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang regions, W.H.O. said. The new survey, the first in four years, shows that earlier predictions were correct and that governments have lost control of tuberculosis in many areas. The reason, health officials say, is that countries have failed to invest enough to build, equip and staff the laboratories needed to detect the disease. The countries also failed to assure sufficient amounts of standard drugs and then to monitor patients to ensure that they complete a full course of therapy. Inadequate therapy often leads to development of multiple-drug-resistant strains of the tuberculosis bacterium. Drug-resistant tuberculosis, like drug-sensitive TB, can be transmitted from an infected individual to a noninfected person in droplets through coughing, sneezing, singing and other activities. The drug resistant form can take two years to treat with drugs that are 100 times more expensive than the first-line regimen, the health agency, a unit of the United Nations said. The survey also found alarmingly high rates in Moldova (19.4 percent), Donetsk in the Ukraine (16 percent), Tomsk Oblast in Russia (15 percent) and Tashkent in Uzbekistan (14.8 percent). Those levels surpassed the highest levels that nearly all experts once thought were possible, Dr. Mario C. Raviglione, who directs the health organization’s Stop Tuberculosis program, said in an interview. “We are seeing levels of multiple-drug-resistant TB that we never expected — 20 percent is a very high level,” Dr. Raviglione, said. The Global Plan to Stop TB is a road map for reducing by half TB prevalence and deaths by 2015 compared with 1990 levels.

When W.H.O. started a drug surveillance project in 1994, he said, “the general thinking was that multiple-drug-resistant TB would never be a real problem since it was felt to be confined to immunosuppressed patients.” A decade ago, when W.H.O. first received reports of 9 to 10 percent rates of multiple-drug-resistant TB in some areas, many scientists thought the figure was inaccurate due to a misclassification that mixed new, previously treated and chronic cases together. Experts also said higher rates were not possible, Dr. Raviglione said, but “we see now it is possible, it tells you they are really doing something wrong in places where this form of TB is spreading.” Overall, about one in 20 new cases of tuberculosis in the world is resistant to first line drugs, which translates into nearly 500,000 of the 9 million new tuberculosis cases that are detected each year, according to the W.H.O. survey, which involved 90,000 patients in 81 countries.

The World Health Organization says that there is a financial gap of $2.5 billion of the estimated $4.8 billion needed this year for overall TB control in low- and middle-income countries. For the first time, the survey included analysis of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, or XDR-TB, a virtually untreatable form of the respiratory disease because the causative bacteria are resistant to virtually all the most effective anti-TB drugs. XDR-TB has been reported in 45 countries, but because few countries have the necessary laboratories to detect it, the data were limited. The true extent of the problem remains unknown in some pockets of the world because only six countries in Africa, the region with the world’s highest incidence of TB, could provide drug resistance data for the report, Dr. Raviglione said. Other countries in the region could not conduct surveys because they lack the laboratory equipment and trained personnel needed to identify drug-resistant TB. Outbreaks of drug resistance are likely going undetected, Abigail Wright, the principal author of the W.H.O. report, said. Although the W.H.O. report highlights the extent of drug resistance, Dr. Raviglione said there were successes where governments invested in control measures. He cited the Baltic countries of Estonia and Latvia as “the model” because they were the drug resistant tuberculosis “hot spots” 13 years ago. Today, following a substantial investment and a sustained assault on multiple-drug-resistant TB, rates in these two countries are stabilizing and rates of new TB are falling.
By Lawrence K. Altman
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China, in New Role, Presses Sudan on Darfur

A restaurant in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, is among the signs of China’s active commercial and diplomatic role in the country. (Lynsey Addario for The New York Times)

KHARTOUM, Sudan: Feb. 23rd. (NY Times) — Amid the international outrage over the bloodshed in Darfur, frustration has increasingly turned toward China, Sudan’s biggest trading partner and international protector, culminating in Steven Spielberg’s decision last week to withdraw as artistic adviser to the Beijing Olympics. And it may be working. China has begun shifting its position on Darfur, stepping outside its diplomatic comfort zone to quietly push Sudan to accept the world’s largest peacekeeping force, diplomats and analysts say. It has also acted publicly, sending engineers to help peacekeepers in Darfur and appointing a special envoy to the region who has toured refugee camps and pressed the Sudanese government to change its policies. Few analysts expect China to walk away from its business ties to Sudan, but its willingness to take up the issue is a rare venture into something China swears it never does — meddle in the internal affairs of its trading partners. “China in my view has been very cooperative,” said Andrew S. Natsios, the former special envoy of President Bush to Sudan. “The level of coordination and cooperation has been improving each month.”

For all of China’s billion-dollar oil contracts, multimillion-dollar arms shipments and Security Council veto protection of Sudan, the global power with the biggest influence over the country has scarcely a dime invested here, has no ambassador on Sudanese soil and has slapped progressively tougher sanctions on its government: the United States. While conventional wisdom holds that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have sapped America’s prestige and power, especially in Muslim countries, the United States remains the gatekeeper to international respectability in the eyes of the Sudanese government, and its power to influence top officials here — through threats or inducements — remains unmatched, diplomats, Sudanese government officials and analysts say. “Coming to some sort of agreement with the United States is the Holy Grail of Sudanese politics,” said a senior Western diplomat in Khartoum, who was not authorized to speak publicly. “No one has been able to deliver it.” This holds true though Sudan is awash in investments from Asia and the gulf that would, in theory, allow the oil-rich but development-poor country to prosper more broadly than it has despite American opprobrium.

American approval and acceptance would transform Sudan in a way the billions of dollars from China, India, Malaysia, Iran and the gulf have been unable to: by opening the spigots of Western development aid and with it a deal to reduce its nearly $30 billion in external debt, along with technical assistance to manage the tide of money rushing in. “We are receiving billions of dollars in foreign investment that we are not even prepared to absorb,” said Ali al-Sadig, a senior diplomat and Sudanese government spokesman who worked on the China desk of Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for many years. “We don’t have the capacity. We need Western expertise. Sudan wants, above all, a normal relationship with the United States and the West.” But the Bush administration seems divided on what to do about Darfur. On one hand, there is heavy pressure from advocacy groups, Congress and others to take a tough line with Sudan, stepping up sanctions and hammering the government over new attacks.

At the same time, because Sudan is a crucial ally of the United States in fighting terrorism, some in the administration argue that it cannot be allowed to become more isolated and further beyond the West’s orbit than it already is, diplomats and analysts say. Sudan’s relationship with the West has been troubled ever since Omar al-Bashir seized power in 1989 and embraced militant Islam, playing host to a variety of jihadists, including Osama bin Laden. The relationship hit its lowest in 1998 when the Clinton administration bombed a Khartoum pharmaceutical factory it claimed was producing chemical weapons, though the allegation has never been proved. After Sept. 11, Sudan reached out to the United States, realizing that it could find itself in the cross hairs of America’s military might just as Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and Iraq later did. The two countries have since cooperated on counterterrorism issues, even though Sudan remains on an American list of nations that sponsor terrorism. Mr. Bush sent John C. Danforth, the former Missouri senator, to help negotiate a deal to end the civil war in southern Sudan that had lasted two decades and claimed two million lives. Sudan had many reasons for wanting to end the war — its military was exhausted, and a stalemate was helping neither side — but the chance to improve relations with the United States was a big inducement for Sudan’s government. Then “Darfur happened,” the diplomat said.

At first, the conflict in Darfur seemed a fly in the ointment, a distraction from the main work of securing peace between the north and south. But five years later, the Darfur crisis is undermining the peace agreement and threatens to tear Sudan apart. More than 200,000 have died in Darfur, according to international estimates, and 2.5 million have been pushed into camps here and in Chad, sowing chaos in one of the world’s poorest regions. Sudan’s government says the toll has been greatly exaggerated. The conflict has also inspired one of the largest protest movements in the United States since the battle to end apartheid in South Africa. China, with its vast commercial interests and sensitivity to criticism around the Olympics, presents a unique leverage point for this movement. Like Mr. Spielberg, Mia Farrow, an actress and Darfur activist, has said China can do more, specifically by pushing for the full deployment of 27,000 peacekeeping troops in Darfur, supplying some of the helicopters needed for the mission and demanding an end to aerial bombardment of civilian areas. But some diplomats and analysts argue that offering concessions, not demands — a chance to come off the state sponsor of terrorism list or easing sanctions — may offer the best opportunity to get Sudan’s government to strike a deal in Darfur.

There are grave risks to that strategy, not least of which is that Sudan’s government has a history of making agreements and not fully putting them in place. “What this government responds to is pressure,” Jerry Fowler, executive director of the Save Darfur Coalition, said of Sudan’s leaders. As a senior Western diplomat in Khartoum put it, the West’s stance on Sudan must be “mistrust but verify,” a twist on Reagan’s posture on the Soviet Union. Furthermore, the Sudanese government is far from unanimous in its craving for international respectability. The small cadre who have ruled this country since the National Islamic Front seized power in a coup in 1989 have tried a variety of guises — radical Islamism, Arab nationalism and garden variety despotism — in their quest to hang on to power. The relative moderates who were crucial to negotiating a deal with the south have been largely sidelined, and analysts and diplomats say that hard-liners in the military and elsewhere are increasingly less interested in Western ties.

As for China, analysts warn, there are limits to how far it will go. Olympics or no, China’s leadership simply has too much at stake in Sudan. “Their political fortunes are tied to their ability to deliver a constant stream of economic goods at home,” said Christopher Alden, a senior lecturer at the London School of Economics who has studied China-Africa relations. “They can’t say, ‘O.K., we have sunk billions over the long term in Sudan and we are just going to walk away from it because of Darfur.’ It is just not going to happen.” China, along with Iran, Russia and others, is still selling weapons to Sudan. While China says it is abiding by a United Nations embargo on sending weapons directly to Darfur, an analysis of shell casings and vehicles found in Darfur by a panel of United Nations experts found that Chinese weapons were making their way to Darfur. Fractures among the rebel groups in Darfur and threats from Sudan’s neighbors, like Chad, may have more impact on the quest for peace than anything Washington or Beijing does. Still, John Prendergast, a former Clinton administration official, advocate and writer on Sudan for two decades, said that China and the United States needed to be engaged. “Unless China and the U.S. are both exerting much more pressure on Sudan, the crisis will continue to spiral out of control,” he said in an e-mail message. “China has unique economic leverage, while the U.S. retains leverage based on its ability to confer or withdraw legitimacy.”
By Lydia Polgreen
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Kenya - After the Violence

Nairobi, Kenya: Feb. 21st: Arriving in Nairobi some weeks after the post election violence one is aware of normality slowly returning to that city. What strikes one is that it is the poor areas, the slums that have been most affected. As I walked through Mathare, Huruma, Korogocho, and Kariobangi, there was plenty of evidence of the violence which occurred, houses and churches had been burned, homes and stalls abandoned from where people of different tribes had either been evicted or had fled in fear.

There were also long queues of women and children outside stations where food was been handed out. In talking with some of the people they shared feelings of anger, fear, hopelessness and shame for what had happened. Now that the violence has calmed down people were asking, how could these things have happened? Why did neighbour turn against neighbour? What ignited such destruction? In one of the camps which I visited with the local Chief, people sat around still bewildered at what had happened. Some of these people had lost all their property and source of income, others worried about missing family members. In one of the tents I came across a mother who had given birth to triplets on the night the violence started. The babies were the centre of attention as they smiled and gurgled, but the comments of others were, "why should these lovely innocent babies be born into such a violent world". An elderly man wondered, "is this the Kenya I fought for during the war of independence and worked so hard to build up Kenya". In one of the areas where Sr Lydia and her team had gathered displaced children I looked at the drawings these children had done of their experience of the post election days. A sense of dismay and sadness came over me when I saw what these children had drawn, homes and churches on fire, people waving sticks and pangas, people lying dead on the streets, some beheaded, other injured.. One could not but help wonder the impact of such violence had on these vulnerable children.

But what impressed me most were the good stories and the presence of so many good Samaritans. Somehow the response to the evil had also evoked great good, but these are the stories that rarely make the headlines. For example - the Kikuyu woman who when she saw Kikuyu youth threatening to kill a Luo man, threw her arms around him and started crying and pleading to save her husband, and succeeded in saving the stranger’s life; - or the Luo woman who hid five Kikuyu children in her home; - or the Christians who hid their priests who were of a different tribe. In the camps and affected areas one meets volunteers both local and international, missionaries and Non Government Organizations who are assisting those affected with food, blankets, clothing and tents, as well as assisting others to get back home or to repair their homes. Some of this has been possible due to grants that have been received from IMRS/Irish Aid. At present the mediation meetings with Kofi Annan continue. People are anxiously awaiting the outcome. What is very evident is that the ordinary person on the street wants a peaceful solution. They want to get on with their lives. We continue to pray that the Leaders who sit in comfortable hotels, whose families have not experienced the violence and destruction, will come together to work for the good of the people of Kenya and united will address some of the underlying causes for the unrest and discontent. To- morrow I move on to Nakuru.
Sr. Miriam. From Nairobi
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Child Sexual Abuse in the Philippines

OLANGAPO CITY, Philippines, Feb. 22 nd, (ICN) - Anna Maria aged 15, is recovering at the Preda Centre. She goes to school and loves to learn. She travels to school with 35 other children who are also recovering and overcoming the trauma of abuse. Given care, affirmation support and good therapy, victims are not damaged forever. They can recover and make a success of life. That is the goal of the Childhood for Children Life Recovery Programme. There are 53 children recovering in Preda at present, not all are ready for school. Arriving from school on the Preda bus, they are laughing, boisterous and full of life, simply happy. They have a meeting on their return to Preda and tell about their experience at school. The staff members listen and help them deal with any school problems. It is so important to listen to children. After the meeting and story telling, they all go to wash up and have a shower and change clothes. They come together for a meal. A buzz of noisy conversation and chatting fills the room. Some of the girls are assigned to wash the dishes, others clean the dining room and sweep the floor. The Preda social worker helps and encourages them. teaching by example. Others are allowed to watch a serial story on TV for 40 minutes. Only positive inspirational and education programmes are viewed.

Then it,s time for homework. Some of the children work on the computers. A teacher arrives in the study hall and Anna Maria is always eager to do the home work. The children know that education is the only way out of the pit of poverty. After doing their homework, the children have evening prayer and a reading from the gospel. Through the Gospel, the children learn that every individual is important, precious and valuable, and has rights as a member of the Family of God, as a human person and especially as a child. It is not only the group that is important, but each individual. Taken for granted today, it was a revolutionaryidea 2000 years ago. An individual can never be sacrificed for the sake of group or family interest. This is a typical day in the life of Anna Maria. She is happy and laughing and doing well in school. But when she first came to Preda, she was depressed, suicidal and filled with fear and anxiety. She was alone and lost, far from her parents and home. She was a victim of forced child prostitution.

It all began when she was taken out of school at 14 by her impoverished parents to work as a domestic helper in the city to send money home. They did not know that the owner, Dom Pedro, was a member of the political elite and a wealthy sex club owner. She washed and cleaned in his sumptuous private mansion. Anna Maria never received any payment and was not allowed to leave the compound. There was no escape. One night, Anna Maria was set upon by the 20 year old son of her employer. A week later she was taken out to his friends and they abused her too. Soon after she was brought to the sex club and made work serving drinks in the club. A foreign sex tourist fancied her, paid the manager and dragged her to a back room where she was sexually abused again and again. She was traumatised, shocked and crying. In desperation, she climbed out a toilet window and ran away. A good hearted woman vendor in the market heard her story and immediately sent a text message to Preda. She was a member of the "defenders of children, a group trained by the Preda Community Education Team to report child abuse. Within twenty minutes, the Preda child rescue team van arrived and Anna Maria was saved. She is now a strong minded young lady and empowered to testify against her abuser.

It is only a government that is corruption free and cares for the dignity of women and children that will close the sex industry and stop supporting it. They can do it, with political will, and by canceling the operating licenses and permits. That will save thousands of children like Anna Maria. It can,t come soon enough.
Contact Fr Shay Cullen at the Preda Centre, Upper Kalaklan, Olongapo City, Philippines. E-mail: preda@info.com.ph
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Peace Deal Nearly Done in Kenya

NAIROBI, Kenya. Feb. 22nd. (NY Times) — Kenya’s rival political parties have nearly completed a deal to end the crisis that has kept this country on edge for almost two months, with the government agreeing to create a prime minister position, one of the opposition’s chief demands, a high-ranking government official said Thursday. Not all the details have been worked out, the official said, but lawyers were drafting language on Thursday evening that would outline the job description of the prime minister position and how it would be incorporated into Kenya’s political framework. An opposition official confirmed that a deal was close, but was a bit more cautious, saying that the amount of power given to the new prime minister position had not yet been pinned down. “It’s a major achievement,” said the opposition official, on the condition of anonymity because both sides had been asked by international mediators not to speak to the press. “The next challenge will be to put meat on the bone.” Many Kenyans were glued to their televisions and radios on Thursday for the latest developments, and they seemed to be keeping their fingers crossed. The consensus here is that a political compromise between the government and the opposition is the only way to end the fighting between each side’s supporters.

The trouble started in December after the national election commission declared Mwai Kibaki, the incumbent, the winner of a presidential election over Raila Odinga, the top opposition leader, despite widespread evidence of vote rigging. The unrest has killed more than 1,000 people and threatened Kenya’s reputation for stability in a turbulent region. Mr. Odinga claims he won the election and has demanded that his party be given a meaningful role in the government. He has said the minimum he would accept was a role as prime minister. Over the past few days, the two sides have argued intensely over exactly what that position would look like. On Thursday, they agreed that the prime minister would “coordinate and supervise government functions,” said the government official. “It’s quite a substantial and reasonable role,” the official said. “I didn’t see anyone unhappy.” The president would still remain head of state and head of government, with the prime minister reporting to him, according to the current proposal. It was not clear on Thursday evening if the president would be able to fire the prime minister, something that the opposition has adamantly opposed, or if that would be up to Parliament. Opposition leaders are also pushing for guarantees that Parliament has real muscle, arguing that there is not an adequate separation of powers between the president and the Parliament.

Still, Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary general, who has been in Kenya for a month trying to broker a political truce, seemed optimistic that all this could be sorted out. In a short statement on Thursday, he said he could finally see “the light at the end of the tunnel.” Other officials close to the talks said that many of the thorniest issues had been resolved and that the government had agreed to give the opposition at least a dozen cabinet posts. But a deal had seemed close several other times recently, only to evaporate. Both sides described the prime minister proposal as a temporary solution, and have vowed to change the country’s laws to address long-festering problems. The disputed election stirred up decades of grievances about land, power and economic opportunity, and set off battles between ethnic groups supporting the president and those backing the opposition. Many Kenyans vote along ethnic lines. Lawmakers have also promised to work together to rewrite the Kenyan Constitution, which vests enormous powers in the presidency and is seen as one of the root causes of this crisis.

But the biggest hurdle was a power-sharing agreement. Mr. Odinga and his team said the only fair solution was to make him the prime minister, but Mr. Kibaki seemed intent on shutting him out, saying this week that any deal had to be consistent with Kenya’s Constitution, which does not specifically authorize a prime minister position. But Mr. Kibaki has come under international pressure to compromise. On Monday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Kenya and said that “real power sharing” was needed, a clear signal to Mr. Kibaki that Washington wanted him to give the opposition a significant role. The high-ranking government official cautioned that serious issues had to be to overcome before completion of the deal, which some people close to the talks said could be as early as Friday. Tough issues include how the prime minister job would be created — whether by Parliament, as the government wants, or by a constitutional amendment, as opposition leaders had sought, though on Thursday they seemed to back down. Who would have more power, the prime minister or the vice president, currently a former opposition member who switched sides? Other questions include how long the position would last and whether there would be another election before Mr. Kibaki’s term expires in five years. “No deal is done until it is done,” the government official said.
By Jeffrey Gettleman with Kennedy Abwao contributed reporting.
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C.I.A. Confirms Rendition Report

LONDON, Feb. 22nd. (NY Times) — In tones freighted with frustration, Britain’s foreign secretary, David Miliband, on Thursday told the House of Commons that “contrary to earlier explicit assurances” the CIA had confirmed using an American-operated airfield on the British island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean for refuelling two American “rendition” flights carrying terrorism suspects in 2002. The American acknowledgment of the flights, each carrying a single detainee, contradicted previous assurances by the United States to Britain’s Labor government that no such flights had landed on British territory or passed through British airspace. Although the C.I.A. attributed its earlier denials to a “flawed records search,” the admission could add to the animosity the government here has aroused, particularly with Labor’s left wing, over its alliance with the United States in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Mr. Miliband’s statement prompted protests from members of Parliament from various parties and from British-based human rights groups that had contended for years that Britain had been a knowing or unknowing partner in the American use of rendition flights. The term has been used to describe the secret transport of prisoners from one country or jurisdiction to another without formal extradition proceedings. It gained much of its notoriety from the American practice after Sept. 11, 2001, of transporting terrorism suspects secretly to other countries for interrogation.

The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Michael Hayden, informed British officials of the 2002 flights during a visit to London last week. He issued a statement to the agency’s staff in Washington on Thursday saying that a fresh review of agency records had shown that the C.I.A. had erred in assuring Britain previously that “there had been no rendition flights involving their soil or airspace” since the 2001 attacks in the United States. Mr. Miliband said he had received a personal apology from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who had told him that she shared his “deep regret” about the earlier false denials. “That information, supplied in good faith, turned out to be wrong,” General Hayden said, adding, “This time, the examination revealed the two stops in Diego Garcia. The refueling, conducted more than five years ago, lasted just a short time. But it happened. That we found this mistake ourselves, and that we brought it to the attention of the British government, in no way changes or excuses the reality that we were in the wrong. An important part of intelligence work, inherently urgent, complex and uncertain, is to take responsibility for errors and to learn from them. In this case, the result of a flawed records search, we have done so.”

Mr. Miliband told the House of Commons he was “very sorry indeed” to have to revise the Labor government’s repeated assurances in recent years that it knew of no American rendition flights involving British airspace or airfields. The British assurances, on numerous occasions in 2005, 2006 and 2007, were given, among others, by the former prime minister, Tony Blair, who said in 2005 that he was “not prepared to believe” that the Americans had broken faith with Britain over the issue, and by a former foreign secretary, Jack Straw, who dismissed the accusations as “a very old story,” and a discredited one. “The House and its members will be deeply disappointed at this news, and about its late emergence,” Mr. Miliband said in his Commons statement. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, visiting Brussels, spoke in similar terms. “It is unfortunate that this was not known, and it was unfortunate it happened without us knowing that it had happened,” he said, adding that Britain would press for procedures to ensure that such a breach could not happen again. For Mr. Brown, the information about the flights came at a politically awkward moment, when he has been struggling with low poll ratings driven by a series of government mishaps, and by months of uncertainty over the future of the troubled Northern Rock bank, which was finally nationalized in legislation rushed through Parliament on Monday. Mr. Brown, a silent skeptic during the Blair years about Britain’s military commitments in Afghanistan and Iraq, has also been working to replace the close relationship Mr. Blair had with President Bush with a more wary stance and moving rapidly to draw down Britain’s remaining 4,200 troops in Iraq.

In his account, General Hayden, the C.I.A. director, said that neither of the two detainees carried aboard the rendition flights that refuelled at Diego Garcia “was ever part of the C.I.A.’s high-value terrorist interrogation program.” This appeared to be his way of saying what Mr. Miliband, in his Commons statement, made explicit, that the suspects on the two flights were not taken to any of the C.I.A.’s network of secret prisons, some of them in eastern Europe, and that they were not subjected to stress techniques that critics of the C.I.A. program have described as tantamount to torture, including waterboarding. General Hayden said one of the detainees “was ultimately transferred to Guantánamo,” the American military prison on the eastern tip of Cuba, while the other “was returned to his home country,” identified by State Department officials in Washington on Thursday as Morocco. “These were rendition operations, nothing more,” General Hayden said. He also used the statement to refute accusations by human rights groups that the C.I.A. “had a holding facility” for terrorist suspects on Diego Garcia, a 40-mile long island leased by Britain about 1,000 miles southwest of the southernmost tip of India. “That is false,” he said.

For more than 30 years, the United States has operated a military air base on the island under an agreement with Britain, using it mainly for refuelling and as a forward base for long-range bombers, including B-52’s, that have been used in military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. As many as 2,500 American military personnel are said to be stationed at the base, while Britain has only a few hundred. More than 2,000 islanders were transferred elsewhere after Britain leased the island, many of them under bitter protest. For years, governments and Parliaments across Europe have been roiled by accusations that the C.I.A. has used European airspace and airfields for rendition flights, but in the face of insistent American denials much about the practice has remained murky. The nations listed by human rights groups as having been involved in the flights — or of turning a blind eye to use of their airfields — have included Britain, Greece, Portugal, Spain and Sweden, among others. One British rights group, Liberty, contended in 2005 that aircraft operated by or chartered by the C.I.A. had used 11 British airports and air bases since 2001, involving 210 flights. The CIA’s acknowledgment that it misled Britain about the two flights revived those accusations, and not only among the rights groups. Mr. Miliband said the foreign office was compiling a list of flights that protest groups have cited in their accusations of British complicity in the C.I.A. rendition program, which would be passed to the United States for “their specific assurance that none of these fights were used for rendition purposes." William Hague, foreign affairs spokesman for the opposition Conservatives, espressed support for that plan. “As America’s candid friend,” Mr. Hague told the BBC, Britain should insist that the Bush administration clear up all the uncertainties surrounding rendition, and not only the details of the flights, but whether it was prepared to “adopt a definition of torture” that met the standards laid down in international conventions.
by John F. Burns
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Pakistani Victors Say They Agree on Coalition

Supporters of Benazir Bhutto’s party shouted protests in Karachi over election results for a party linked to the president. (Max Becherer/Polaris, for The New York Times)

Feb. 22nd. (NY Times) - Pakistan's two main opposition parties announced Thursday that they would work together to form a coalition government. The apparent breakthrough came after the leaders of the two parties, the victors in Pakistan’s parliamentary elections, held make-or-break talks in Islamabad, the capital. “We will work together to form the government," former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif told a joint news conference in Islamabad, after the talks with Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of Benazir Bhutto, the assassinated former prime minister, news agencies reported. "We intend to stay together and be together in the Parliament,” Mr. Zardari said at the news conference, The Associated Press reported. “We intend to strengthen Pakistan together.” The leaders said they had agreed in principle to the restoration of the judiciary that had been swept away by President Pervez Musharraf under emergency rule last November. But they did not immediately say whether they would push for the ouster of Mr. Musharraf, The A.P. reported.

Both the future of Mr. Musharraf and the restoration of the judges had been divisive issues for the two parties in their coalition negotiations. Some analysts had expected that instead of working with Mr. Sharif, Mr. Zardari, who leads the party with the largest number of seats in the new Parliament, would reach out to the remnants of Mr. Musharraf’s party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Q. Since the election on Monday, Mr. Sharif, the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, which came in second to Mr. Zardari’s Pakistan Peoples Party, has been adamant about trying to bring impeachment proceedings against Mr. Musharraf, who removed Mr. Sharif from power in a 1999 coup. Mr. Sharif also argued for the immediate reinstatement of the judiciary, in particular the former chief justice of the Supreme Court, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who has been under house arrest for three months. To show his solidarity with Mr. Chaudhry, Mr. Sharif joined a noisy demonstration on Thursday outside the judge’s Islamabad home. Mr. Sharif, speaking through a bullhorn to cheers, said he would make sure in the next few days that the chief justice and dozens of other judges “illegally” fired by Mr. Musharraf would be restored to the bench. Mr. Sharif then asked the protesters to disband.

Later, Mr. Chaudhry spoke from his home by mobile phone to lawyers gathering in Karachi and Lahore, calling for the reinstatement of the judges, The A.P. reported. Mr. Zardari has taken a somewhat softer line on the restoration of the judiciary, saying it should be a matter for the new Parliament. Several days after Ms. Bhutto was assassinated in December, Mr. Zardari lashed out at Mr. Musharraf’s party, accusing it of masterminding her death and calling it “the killer party.” But since the election on Monday, Mr. Zardari has taken a less hostile approach. By Wednesday he had dropped his harsh references to Mr. Musharraf and his defeated party. As the maneuvering between the political parties has intensified in the last several days, the perception has grown among Pakistanis that the Bush administration would much prefer Mr. Zardari to join forces with the followers of Mr. Musharraf than with Mr. Sharif’s.

The United States ambassador, Anne W. Patterson, met with Mr. Zardari on Wednesday at the American Embassy, an encounter that bolstered the belief among Pakistanis that Washington was in the thick of the political negotiations. Statements from the White House and the State Department encouraging a broad consensus in a new government also added to the sense that the administration was eager to try to preserve some power for Mr. Musharraf, an ally in the campaign against terrorism. Dana Perino, a White House spokeswoman, confirmed Thursday that Mr. Bush took time during a tour of African states to telephone Mr. Musharraf on Tuesday after his party’s losses in the parliamentary elections. The call was made during Mr. Bush’s flight from Rwanda to Ghana, but Ms. Perino would not say what the two leaders discussed. She said it was up to the Pakistani people to decide whether Mr. Musharraf retained his position.

Some Pakistanis warned Thursday that the United States must stand back. The leader of the opposition lawyers’ movement in Pakistan, Aitzaz Ahsan, who has been under house arrest for more than three months but is now able to speak by telephone, said he had told a visiting American diplomat on Wednesday, “The guy is history; please don’t prop him up.” He said he pointed out to the diplomat, Bryan Hunt, the United States consul general in Lahore, that Mr. Musharraf’s party had won only a small fraction of the 272 parliamentary seats. Mr. Ahsan has become a folk hero among the lawyers who opposed President Musharraf in his battle with the Supreme Court chief justice and the judiciary in general. Mr. Ahsan’s steadfast stand behind the restoration of judges appeared to be a motivating force behind the surprisingly strong showing in the elections for Mr. Sharif. Mr. Ahsan argued that in terms of the campaign against terrorism, which is Washington’s priority in Pakistan, the restoration of the judiciary and the end of Mr. Musharraf’s rule were essential. Weapons of war were not the primary ingredients for success against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, he said. “The only effective weapon is an empowered people with enforceable rights, and you can’t have those rights without an independent judiciary,” he said.

Mr. Ahsan is a senior member of the Pakistan Peoples Party, although he had a prickly relationship with Ms. Bhutto, who appeared to resent his independent streak. One of Pakistan’s most sought-after lawyers, Mr. Ahsan defended Mr. Zardari and Ms. Bhutto in court when they faced corruption charges after her first term as prime minister, and won acquittals for the couple in 18 cases between 1990 and 1993, he said. Mr. Zardari currently faces corruption charges in Switzerland. He said in an interview last week that corruption cases against him in Pakistan were still pending. Mr. Ahsan warned that if a new parliamentary coalition did not heed the call to reinstate the judiciary, he was preparing a campaign to pressure the new Parliament to do so. On March 9, the anniversary of Mr. Musharraf’s first suspension of the Supreme Court justice, Mr. Chaudhry, Mr. Ahsan said he would lead a long caravan of vehicles, coming from Lahore and other major cities, into Islamabad. The caravan would include scores of judges who had been dismissed late last year, at the same time Mr. Chaudhry was removed for a second time.
By Graham Bowley. Jane Perlez contributed reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan
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Irish soldiers to leave for Chad tonight

(Pat Nash left, to command EU force in Chad and Central African Republic)
Dublin, Ireland: Feb. 20th. (The Irish Times) - Fifty members of the Irish Army's elite Ranger Wing are due to leave for Chad tonight after weeks of delays. The mission has been delayed twice over a lack of medical and logistical resources, and more recently because the rebel advance on the capital N'djamena closed the main airport. The main contingent of 400 Irish troops is due to be in place in Chad in mid-May as part of the 3,700-strong EUfor peacekeeping force. They will protect refugees in Chad and those displaced by the conflict in Darfur in western Sudan. About 200 EU troops, including eight Irish soldiers, are already on the ground, having arrived prior to the rebel offensive. Representatives of the Chadian rebel alliance warned last week Irish troops will be considered a hostile force if they deploy alongside French forces.

On their arrival, the Rangers face a difficult 900km journey by land across Chad's arid interior to the eastern regions of Abeche and Goz Beida. About 400,000 refugees from Sudan's war-torn Darfur region are crammed into camps along the border. Deployment of the 14-nation EU force began last week with Swedish Special Forces and French logistical units arriving at the reopened N'Djamena airport. Lieut Gen Pat Nash, the Paris-based Irish commander of EUfor said an information campaign aimed at explaining the role of Eufor was already under way in Chad.

The Irish Anti-War Movement will hold a protest outside the Dáil this afternoon over the deployment. It claims the Irish Army is helping support "a French colonial adventure to prop up the corrupt undemocratic regime" of Chad's President Idriss Déby. It also accuses Ireland of taking sides in a proxy war that is raging between Sudan and Chad. "It is utterly wrong and contrary to Ireland's tradition of military neutrality to put Irish troops in harms way by sending them into this situation," said IAWM chairman Richard Boyd Barrett. "The Government is putting the lives of Irish troops at risk to serve the interests of French colonialism and a corrupt and undemocratic regime." © 2008 ireland.com
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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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UN Envoy Welcomes Burma Timetable

(Mr Gambari left, has visited Burma twice since the September protests)
Beijing, China: Feb. 19th. (BBC News) - The UN's special envoy for Burma says the nation's plan for a constitutional referendum and multi-party elections is a "significant step". Ibrahim Gambari said this was the first time the Burmese government had set out a timetable for political reform. It marked the first "established timeframe for the implementation of (Burma's) political roadmap", he said. But the UN envoy said the referendum had to be credible and include genuine political participation. Last week, Burma's military leaders announced that a referendum on a new constitution would be held in May, followed by national elections in 2010. The main opposition party, the National League for Democracy, was not involved in drafting the constitution, and analysts believe it is likely to bar the party's detained leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, from standing.

Mr Gambari is in Beijing to enlist Chinese help in persuading Burma to establish a more democratic and open political system. He spoke to journalists following what he described as "open and constructive" talks with Chinese officials. During the press conference, Mr Gambari was careful not to suggest China had more influence over Burma than any other country. But afterwards he admitted China and India were the countries with the most leverage. Mr Gambari will next visit Indonesia, Singapore and Japan as part of his efforts to push forward reform in Burma. He was last in Burma in November last year, but said he hoped to return before April. "The authorities had said they would receive me after the middle of April, but we have reason to believe they are reconsidering," he said. Although the envoy said he was not frustrated by the apparent lack of progress, he added that there needed to be tangible results. These included lifting restrictions on Ms Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest, and establishing a more inclusive political system. The UN envoy has been working on a political settlement since Burmese troops used force to end anti-government protests in September last year.
By Michael Bristow
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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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