from Pambazuka.

US authorities say former Liberian leader Charles Taylor worked for its intelligence agencies, including the CIA, the Boston Globe reports.

The revelation comes in response to a Freedom of Information request by the newspaper.

A Globe reporter told the BBC this is the first official confirmation of long-held reports of a relationship between US intelligence and Mr Taylor.

Mr Taylor is awaiting a verdict on his trial for alleged war crimes.

Rumours of CIA ties were fuelled in July 2009 when Mr Taylor himself told his trial, at the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone in the Hague, that US agents had helped him escape from a maximum security prison in Boston in 1985.

The CIA at the time denied such claims as “completely absurd”.

But now the Defence Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s spy arm, has disclosed that its agents – and those of the CIA – did later use Mr Taylor as an informant, the Globe reports. Source

Taylor has already denied the allegations and threatened to sue the Boston Globe.

Ivory Coast’s former president Laurent Gbagbo will get legal aid while his financial status is assessed, the International Criminal Court (ICC) said Saturday.

His defence costs to date will be covered by the ICC’s legal aid, said a statement from the court’s clerk, after his defence team said they had no resources with which to conduct his defence.

During a hearing on December 14, lawyer Emmanuel Altit, for Gbagbo, told the court that they did not have the means to do their job.

“At this moment, we do have no office, no computer, no access to the Court’s computer system, no funding,” he said.

The financial aid granted by the court will however only cover the preliminary stages of the case pending an investigation into Gbagbo’s financial status, after which it would be reassessed, the clerk’s statement said.

Full article here.

Africa is becoming an increasingly attractive hub for foreign investors in light of various economic, political and social reforms that are sweeping through the continent, resulting in a much improved business environment conducive for foreign direct investment. Apart from that, there is widespread development of critical social and physical infrastructure, and there is an increasing pool of well-educated, English-speaking, enterprising workers in most countries across the continent.

Read the Forbes article about investment in agriculture, tourism, mineral resources, infrastructure and consumer goods.

She also argues that President Obama lost a great deal of trust from African-American public following the Lybian war.

Welcome to Sipopo. This Orwellian complex, grafted on to the capital, Malabo, is the face Equatorial Guinea wishes to present to the world. Obiang, now the longest-serving ruler in Africa and a man accused of presiding over one of the world’s most corrupt, kleptocratic and repressive governments, spent more than half a billion pounds creating it as part of his drive to rebrand his regime. It is small change for a man alleged to pocket £40m a day in energy revenues; his tiny country is sub-Saharan Africa’s third-largest oil producer.

It is like something out of The Truman Show, one of many illusions in a land of artifice. Sipopo cost four times the annual education budget in what is perhaps the planet’s most unequal society, a country where per-capita wealth exceeds Britain but three-quarters of its 675,000 citizens live on less than a dollar a day. Infant mortality rates are among the worst in the world, but that spanking-new hospital, said one doctor, has no patients most of the time. Ordinary people, it turns out, are barred from the area.

[...]

Freedom House, the respected US think tank, places Equatorial Guinea alongside Burma, North Korea and Somalia on its list of the world’s worst regimes, a ruthless one-party state where elections are stolen, opponents jailed and state coffers looted, control of daily life is all-pervasive and the government is accused of grotesque human rights abuses, including torture and extrajudicial killings.

Read the full article, The strange and evil world of Equatorial Guinea, by Ian Birell here.

In Libya, as in other countries affected by the ‘Arab Spring’, the AU based its action on the need to contribute to the achievement of the overall objectives sought by the union, namely peace, stability, democratic governance, respect for human rights, justice, prosperity and unity.

All the initiatives [...] were driven by a genuine commitment to do whatever was possible to facilitate dialogue among Libyans, ensure that they owned any solution to the crisis, avoid further suffering and create conditions conducive to a smooth and peaceful transition. The AU was also aware of the risks that continued fighting in Libya posed to regional stability and security.

In spite of the challenges faced and the lack of support from important members of the international community, the AU never relented in its efforts. It acted within the framework of its own decisions and the relevant UN Security Council resolutions. It deliberately chose to address the Libyan crisis in a manner that took into account both the immediate and the long-term challenges. It had no, and still has no, other agenda than the interests of the Libyan people.

The issues raised by the AU from the onset of the crisis remain as valid today as they were yesterday. How best to promote an inclusive transition to avert the instability and chaos that would come with exclusion of key stakeholders? How to address the issue of reconciliation, heal the wounds of the past and deliver justice? How to ensure that the legitimate demands of the Libyan people to democracy, human rights, good governance are indeed fulfilled?

Read the full article here.

Botswana’s President Ian Khama Monday hit out at African leaders who refuse to cooperate with the International Criminal Court saying it put the continent “on the wrong side of history.”

Khama, giving a keynote speech to the ICC’s annual meeting, particularly hit out at a decision by an African Union summit this year to oppose arrest warrants issued for late Libyan strongman Moamer Kadhafi and other African leaders.

“This decision is a serious setback in the battle against impunity in Africa and undermines efforts to confront war crimes and crimes against humanity which are committed by some leaders on the continent,” Khama said.

“Such a move also places Africa on the wrong side of history. It is a betrayal of the innocent and helpless victims of such crimes.”

[...]

“We need to have the political will and the moral courage to hold accountable, without fear or favour, anyone in authority — including a sitting head of state — when he or she is suspected of having committed crimes against innocent people,” Khama said. Source

This transfer followed a procedure so hasty that it could be rightfully described as abduction. My suspicion grows even more, when the prosecuting attorney claiming to be targeting six officials in Cote d’Ivoire, unduly focuses on Gbagbo, the one who is least likely to escape due to his being already in custody.
This eagerness to indict and transfer Gbagbo, who did not run in the face of the bombing of his palace like a common criminal, defies logic and the quest for true reconciliation and sustainable peace in Cote d’Ivoire.
After fifty years of independence, Africa should have all the knowhow to bring justice to its own citizens and do away with imported justice.

Source

Quite ironically, I tend to think that the main reason why most ICC cases are about African countries is the inability of many African states or even African institutions to establish trusted judiciary systems. Who reactions have been positive if the Gbagbo’s trial was held in Cote d’Ivoire?

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: In your study of 50 deals in seven countries, you’ve found no evidence for fair financial returns to countries or their people. And not only do agrofuels plantations displace food crops, they also need twice as much water. Weighing the lack of economic benefits against the social and environmental costs, it’s irrational for countries to make deals with investors. What’s driving this destructive behaviour? Why are governments so willing to accept poor deals from investor?

OAKLAND INSTITUTE: Many African governments fervently encourage foreign investment in agricultural land and often offer what some investors have called ‘mouthwatering’ incentives. Some officials seem to genuinely trust that land deals will spur growth with incoming capital, assist with infrastructure, and create employment for local people. This belief that large-scale land investment will result in much needed economic development has been strongly promoted by white-collar experts from the World Bank and officials from donor countries.

The trend of large-scale land investment in Africa could not take place without the work of the World Bank over the past two decades, which has been orchestrating the establishment of business-friendly environments for investor access to land. From helping attract investors, to shaping policy and law that allows for streamlined and lucrative investor contracts, the World Bank has clearly played a key role to enable and promote land investment.

Read the full version here.