Around 3,000 people marched in Conakry to protest the election results [AFP]
Police in Guinea have fired teargas at thousands of people marching against alleged fraud in last month's first round of presidential elections.
The protest took place in the capital Conakry on Monday, in defiance of a government ban on demonstrations.
Cellou Dalein Diallo, the former prime minister, won the June 27 election with nearly 40 per cent of the vote and is set to go forward into a runoff with second-placed Alpha Conde on July 18.
But losing parties including supporters of Sidya Toure, another ex-prime minister, say they have evidence of rigging.
On Monday a crowd of around 3,000 people, largely composed of women, marched in front of the electoral commission and the supreme court chanting "Sidya was cheated" and "we want Sidya for the second round".
Irregularities
Toure missed out on a place in a runoff vote to be the west African country's first freely elected president, after gaining 15.60 per cent of the first-round vote, according to provisional results.
Diallo scored 39.72 per cent and Conde 20.67 per cent.
Many of the initial 24 candidates have alleged irregularities in voting and they have eight days to contest the results, according to electoral commission rules.
The commission has itself admitted "many cases of fraud".
Over three million Guineans, 77 per cent of registered voters, participated in the country's first democratic election since independence from France in 1958 in a bid to end half a century of civilian and military dictatorships.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Arrests made over Uganda bombings
Andrew Simmons reports on the destruction in Kampala and the president's response
Ugandan authorities have made a number of arrests in connection with explosions at two sites in Kampala that left at least 74 people dead.
Kale Kayihura, the inspector-general of police, said on Tuesday that investigators had also found a unexploded suicide bomb belt at a third site, a discotheque, in the capital.
Somalia's al-Shabab group has said it carried out the attacks on Sunday.
"We have established that what was found at the discotheque was in fact a suicide vest, and it could also be used as an IED [improvised explosive device]," Kayihura said.
The vest, laden with explosives and fitted with a detonator, was found on Monday, packed in a laptop bag at a club in the southwestern Kampala district of Makindye.
"It's possible that the person who was supposed to do this was [a coward] because the system was intact," he said.
One blast hit an Ethiopian restaurant in the south of the city on Sunday, while the other occurred at a rugby sports club as people watched the World Cup final.
Al-Shabab statement
The near-simultaneous attacks on Sunday were the first time the group, which has carried out multiple suicide attacks inside Somalia, has struck outside of the country.
"Al-Shabab was behind the two blasts in Uganda," Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage, the group's spokesperson, announced in Mogadishu.
"We thank the mujahideens that carried out the attack. We are sending a message to Uganda and Burundi, if they do not take out their Amisom [African Union Mission in Somalia] troops from Somalia, blasts will continue and it will happen."
INTERACT
Were you at the scene of the Kampala attacks?
Send us your photos, video and personal accounts
Uganda and Burundi currently have peacekeepers in Somalia as part of a stabilisation mission supported by the African Union.
"[Al-Shabab's] strategy is to undermine getting troops into Somalia through attacks like this," Simmons said.
Hussein Mohammed Noor, a Somalia analyst, said the Ethiopian restaurant was likely targeted because of "Ethiopia's involvement in Somalia".
However, he told Al Jazeera that these attacks were unlikely to make African countries reconsider sending troops to Somalia.
Lieutenant-Colonel Felix Kulaigye, a Ugandan army spokesman, said: "Al-Shabab is the reason why we should stay in Somalia. We have to pacify Somalia."
Kayihura that the attacks, which took place amid large crowds at the two locations, could have been carried out by suicide bombers.
"These bombs were definitely targeting World Cup crowds," he said.
Severed head found
Investigators reportedly found the severed head of a Somali national at the scene of one of the blasts.
Officials said 60 Ugandans, nine Ethiopians or Eritreans, one Irish woman, and one Asian were also among those killed.
Two people could not be identified. At least 85 people were wounded.
The blasts had 'all the hallmarks' of al-Shabab
The attacks left scores of football fans reeling in shock.
"We were watching soccer here and then when there were three minutes to the end of the match an explosion came ... and it was so loud," Juma Seiko, who was at the Kampala Rugby Club, said.
Hassan Isilow, a Somali analyst living in Kampala, said that Somalis in Uganda feared reprisals after the claims that al-Shabab launched the attacks.
"There is fear within the Somali community at the moment," he said. "People are in panic."
"[Somalis] own lots of businesses around the city and most of them are not working today."
Ramtane Lamamra, the AU commissioner for peace and security, condemned the attack "in the strongest possible terms".
"The attacks prove that terrorists can hit anywhere, including Africa," he said.
Lamamra said that the body's annual meeting of heads of state would go ahead in Kampala next week.
Ugandan authorities have made a number of arrests in connection with explosions at two sites in Kampala that left at least 74 people dead.
Kale Kayihura, the inspector-general of police, said on Tuesday that investigators had also found a unexploded suicide bomb belt at a third site, a discotheque, in the capital.
Somalia's al-Shabab group has said it carried out the attacks on Sunday.
"We have established that what was found at the discotheque was in fact a suicide vest, and it could also be used as an IED [improvised explosive device]," Kayihura said.
The vest, laden with explosives and fitted with a detonator, was found on Monday, packed in a laptop bag at a club in the southwestern Kampala district of Makindye.
"It's possible that the person who was supposed to do this was [a coward] because the system was intact," he said.
One blast hit an Ethiopian restaurant in the south of the city on Sunday, while the other occurred at a rugby sports club as people watched the World Cup final.
Al-Shabab statement
The near-simultaneous attacks on Sunday were the first time the group, which has carried out multiple suicide attacks inside Somalia, has struck outside of the country.
"Al-Shabab was behind the two blasts in Uganda," Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage, the group's spokesperson, announced in Mogadishu.
"We thank the mujahideens that carried out the attack. We are sending a message to Uganda and Burundi, if they do not take out their Amisom [African Union Mission in Somalia] troops from Somalia, blasts will continue and it will happen."
INTERACT
Were you at the scene of the Kampala attacks?
Send us your photos, video and personal accounts
Uganda and Burundi currently have peacekeepers in Somalia as part of a stabilisation mission supported by the African Union.
"[Al-Shabab's] strategy is to undermine getting troops into Somalia through attacks like this," Simmons said.
Hussein Mohammed Noor, a Somalia analyst, said the Ethiopian restaurant was likely targeted because of "Ethiopia's involvement in Somalia".
However, he told Al Jazeera that these attacks were unlikely to make African countries reconsider sending troops to Somalia.
Lieutenant-Colonel Felix Kulaigye, a Ugandan army spokesman, said: "Al-Shabab is the reason why we should stay in Somalia. We have to pacify Somalia."
Kayihura that the attacks, which took place amid large crowds at the two locations, could have been carried out by suicide bombers.
"These bombs were definitely targeting World Cup crowds," he said.
Severed head found
Investigators reportedly found the severed head of a Somali national at the scene of one of the blasts.
Officials said 60 Ugandans, nine Ethiopians or Eritreans, one Irish woman, and one Asian were also among those killed.
Two people could not be identified. At least 85 people were wounded.
The blasts had 'all the hallmarks' of al-Shabab
The attacks left scores of football fans reeling in shock.
"We were watching soccer here and then when there were three minutes to the end of the match an explosion came ... and it was so loud," Juma Seiko, who was at the Kampala Rugby Club, said.
Hassan Isilow, a Somali analyst living in Kampala, said that Somalis in Uganda feared reprisals after the claims that al-Shabab launched the attacks.
"There is fear within the Somali community at the moment," he said. "People are in panic."
"[Somalis] own lots of businesses around the city and most of them are not working today."
Ramtane Lamamra, the AU commissioner for peace and security, condemned the attack "in the strongest possible terms".
"The attacks prove that terrorists can hit anywhere, including Africa," he said.
Lamamra said that the body's annual meeting of heads of state would go ahead in Kampala next week.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Rwanda: Kagame tortures opposition, arrests Ingabire's new lawyer
By Ann Garrison.
Rwandan opposition leaders Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza and Frank Habineza report ongoing torture of opposition party members arrested in Kigali on June 24th, 2010, as they attempted to protest exclusion from this year's presidential election.
Ingabire is the presidential candidate of Rwanda's FDU-Inkingi Party, Habineza of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda.
Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, presidential candidate of Rwanda's FDU-Inkingi Party, whom Peter Erlnder flew to Rwanda to defend against charges he is now facing himself. She has been warned that she will be arrested again if she continues to speak to the press, and now her Rwandan lawyer, Theogene Muhayeyezu, has been arrested as well.
Ingabire also reports that her Rwandan lawyer, Mr. Theogene Muhayeyezu, has been arrested, tortured, and detained incommunicado. Yesterday her former U.S. lawyer, Peter Erlinder, and his Kenyan lawyers Kennedy Ogeto and Otachi Gershom, addressed the Chicago Chapter of the National Lawyers' Guild, about the meaning of Erlinder's three weeks incarceration in Rwanda after traveling there to defend Ingabire against charges of "genocide ideology," which he called "trumped up charges" and "thought crime." Rwanda's genocide ideology statutes ban disagreement with the official version of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide, or, many say, disagreement with sitting President Paul Kagame.
Rwandan Police arrested hundreds of opposition party members on June 24th, including presidential candidate Bernard Ntaganda. Ntaganda had called for the day's protest, saying that "silence is acceptance" of the opposition's exclusion from the election. He remains in prison, now on a hunger strike, and two other P.S. Imberakuri Party officers, including the Secretary General, have
Parti Social-Imberakuri
Rwandan Police arrested Bernard Ntaganda, presidential candidate of the dissident wing of Rwanda's Parti Social-Imberakuri, on the morning of April 24th, before he could leave his home to attend a protest of the opposition's exclusion from the election, which he had called, saying "Silence is acceptance."
No candidates who've been allowed to run against Kagame in the election now heading for August 9th polls have the remotest chance of defeating him; most observers describe them as faux candidates who agreed to run so as to make Kagame's re-election look credible. Banned Umuseso Newspaper Editors Didas Gasana and Charles Kabonero, both of whom have fled to Uganda to escape imprisonment themselves, say that election observers from the UK and the US can do no more than validate a sham.
Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza of the United Democratic Forces, reports, from Kigali, that the opposition members still under arrest are being held in cells, handcuffed day and night, and tortured, with the following consequences:
"1. Ms. Alice MUHIRWA, the FDU-Inkingi Party Treasurer, is still bleeding due to boots kicks into her stomach. She has been denied access to a medical doctor.
2. Mr. Sylvain SIBOMANA, the FDU Secretary General, needs an urgent X-Ray after being beaten hard several times with legs and arms tied behind his back.
3. Mr. Theoneste SIBOMANA, FDU Party Leader in Kigali, needs to be evaluated for head injury, possibly a concussion, after his head was banged on the wall many times.
4. Maitre Theogene MUHAYEYEZU, the new defense lawyer for Ms. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, the party's chair and presidential candidate, has been tortured after arrest and detained incommunicado.
5. The medical condition of the party member Martin NTAVUKA is not known."
The US Embassy is next door to Rwandan President Paul Kagame's offices, and the U.S.A. and the UK are the dominant foreign powers in the region, and the most generous donors to the Rwandan government. Opposition leaders Habineza and Ingabire have both called on the U.S. and the UK to make real democracy and respect for human rights in Rwanda a condition of their ongoing support.
Umuseso Editor Didas Gasana said, "I would like the American people to know that their tax dollars are not going to build hospitals and schools, but to support one of the most brutal dictatorships in Africa."
Rwandan opposition leaders Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza and Frank Habineza report ongoing torture of opposition party members arrested in Kigali on June 24th, 2010, as they attempted to protest exclusion from this year's presidential election.
Ingabire is the presidential candidate of Rwanda's FDU-Inkingi Party, Habineza of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda.
Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, presidential candidate of Rwanda's FDU-Inkingi Party, whom Peter Erlnder flew to Rwanda to defend against charges he is now facing himself. She has been warned that she will be arrested again if she continues to speak to the press, and now her Rwandan lawyer, Theogene Muhayeyezu, has been arrested as well.
Ingabire also reports that her Rwandan lawyer, Mr. Theogene Muhayeyezu, has been arrested, tortured, and detained incommunicado. Yesterday her former U.S. lawyer, Peter Erlinder, and his Kenyan lawyers Kennedy Ogeto and Otachi Gershom, addressed the Chicago Chapter of the National Lawyers' Guild, about the meaning of Erlinder's three weeks incarceration in Rwanda after traveling there to defend Ingabire against charges of "genocide ideology," which he called "trumped up charges" and "thought crime." Rwanda's genocide ideology statutes ban disagreement with the official version of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide, or, many say, disagreement with sitting President Paul Kagame.
Rwandan Police arrested hundreds of opposition party members on June 24th, including presidential candidate Bernard Ntaganda. Ntaganda had called for the day's protest, saying that "silence is acceptance" of the opposition's exclusion from the election. He remains in prison, now on a hunger strike, and two other P.S. Imberakuri Party officers, including the Secretary General, have
Parti Social-Imberakuri
Rwandan Police arrested Bernard Ntaganda, presidential candidate of the dissident wing of Rwanda's Parti Social-Imberakuri, on the morning of April 24th, before he could leave his home to attend a protest of the opposition's exclusion from the election, which he had called, saying "Silence is acceptance."
No candidates who've been allowed to run against Kagame in the election now heading for August 9th polls have the remotest chance of defeating him; most observers describe them as faux candidates who agreed to run so as to make Kagame's re-election look credible. Banned Umuseso Newspaper Editors Didas Gasana and Charles Kabonero, both of whom have fled to Uganda to escape imprisonment themselves, say that election observers from the UK and the US can do no more than validate a sham.
Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza of the United Democratic Forces, reports, from Kigali, that the opposition members still under arrest are being held in cells, handcuffed day and night, and tortured, with the following consequences:
"1. Ms. Alice MUHIRWA, the FDU-Inkingi Party Treasurer, is still bleeding due to boots kicks into her stomach. She has been denied access to a medical doctor.
2. Mr. Sylvain SIBOMANA, the FDU Secretary General, needs an urgent X-Ray after being beaten hard several times with legs and arms tied behind his back.
3. Mr. Theoneste SIBOMANA, FDU Party Leader in Kigali, needs to be evaluated for head injury, possibly a concussion, after his head was banged on the wall many times.
4. Maitre Theogene MUHAYEYEZU, the new defense lawyer for Ms. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, the party's chair and presidential candidate, has been tortured after arrest and detained incommunicado.
5. The medical condition of the party member Martin NTAVUKA is not known."
The US Embassy is next door to Rwandan President Paul Kagame's offices, and the U.S.A. and the UK are the dominant foreign powers in the region, and the most generous donors to the Rwandan government. Opposition leaders Habineza and Ingabire have both called on the U.S. and the UK to make real democracy and respect for human rights in Rwanda a condition of their ongoing support.
Umuseso Editor Didas Gasana said, "I would like the American people to know that their tax dollars are not going to build hospitals and schools, but to support one of the most brutal dictatorships in Africa."
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