MGV News   Sweden: Damning UN Report Causes Halt to Rwandan US$10M Aid New Zealand: Fiji Retaliatory Diplomatic Expulsion Expected For Visa Refusal Peru: Death Squad Chief Apologizes For Implicating Fujimori South Africa: Oxfam Appeals For US$6M Zimbabwe Cholera Fund China: Thirty Years of Capitalism; Without Western-Style Democracy   Specials New IMDiversity Pharmaceutical Careers Channel   New! Expanded Graduate/ Professional School Opportunities Channel   What's New at IMDiversity

Minorities Global Village Daily News

Sweden: Damning UN Report Causes Halt to Rwandan US$10M Aid

By MALIN RISING
Associated Press Writer

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - The Swedish government said Wednesday it has withdrawn 80 million kronor ($10 million) in annual aid to the Rwandan government after a United Nations report concluded that the country is helping armed Tutsi rebels in Congo.

Sweden's aid minister Gunilla Carlsson said her country takes the U.N. report "very seriously" and expects "constructive actions" from both Congo and Rwanda.

The report prepared by five outside experts concluded Rwanda is helping ethnic Tutsi rebels fight the Congolese government and Congo is collaborating with ethnic Hutu rebels and other forces against Rwanda.

Sweden's decision follows a similar move by the Netherlands last week. The Dutch overseas aid minister, Bert Koenders then said he was suspending aid to Rwanda's government of around euro3 million ($4.1 million) a year because of the report.

Rwanda's president Paul Kagame said the U.N. report was "baseless."

Speaking to reporters in the country's capital, Kigali he said Rwanda and its people will have to learn to become self-reliant because donors easily change their minds on how and when to give aid.

"Plan B is there in form of people of Rwanda ... now they should be ready to survive under any circumstances," said Kagame. "We need to work really hard."

Kagame criticized donor countries, saying they upheld reports like the U.N.'s on the recent violence in eastern Congo when it was convenient for them.

"They withdraw their aid under the pretext of their taxpayers who would not keep on financing us with such allegations like that report," he said.

Among other things, the U.N. report also said it found evidence that the armed groups being aided by Rwanda and Congo are using child soldiers, violating laws meant to protect women and children, and that the rebels on both sides make millions of dollars a year from illegal trade in minerals.

The Swedish government said it will continue sending humanitarian aid of about 60 million kronor ($7.5 million) a year to international aid organizations in Rwanda.

___

Associated Press Writers Mike Corder in The Hague and Felly Kimenyi in Kigali, Rwanda contributed to this report.

AP-CS-12-17-08 1326EST

New Zealand: Fiji Retaliatory Diplomatic Expulsion Expected For Visa Refusal

By RAY LILLEY
Associated Press Writer

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - New Zealand refused Tuesday to grant a visa to the son of a Fijian official -- a move likely to push the military regime to expel another of Wellington's senior diplomats.

The rejection of the student visa stems from travel sanctions New Zealand imposed on key members of Fiji's government and their relatives following a bloodless coup in December 2006.

The sanctions have incensed the regime as they prevent even Fijian sports teams from entering or transiting through New Zealand. Fiji ejected Wellington's top diplomat was last June.

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key told reporters that his foreign minister had spoken with Fiji's military leader and prime minister, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, and that the ball was now in Fiji's court.

Foreign Minister Murray McCully "had a direct conversation with Frank Bainimarama and there's been no agreed pathway" for resolving the issue, he said. "It's work in progress. ... Taking the matter forward is in the hands of the Fijians now. We want our acting High Commissioner to stay there."

In a message last month, Bainimarama warned Wellington that if the student visa was not granted, acting High Commissioner Caroline McDonald would be expelled.

There was no immediate comment from Fiji.

Earlier Tuesday, Key said the visa rejection "spells out our position, which is we have no intentions of lifting the ban on people traveling to New Zealand if they are part of the regime, or associated with the regime."

The student was identified as George Naceva, the son of Rupeni Naceva, secretary to Fiji President Ratu Josefa Iloilo. In October, New Zealand refused to renew the visa held by Naceva who was studying at a New Zealand university.

The United States, European Union, 53-member Commonwealth and 14-member Pacific Islands Forum have all demanded a speedy return to democracy. But Bainimarama has insisted the volatile nation's "racist" electoral system and "systemic corruption" must be changed before elections.

AP-CS-12-16-08 0027EST

Peru: Death Squad Chief Apologizes For Implicating Fujimori

LIMA, Peru (AP) - A former Peruvian army officer apologized to Alberto Fujimori Wednesday for now-recanted comments linking him to a 1990s military death squad, contradicting a key piece of prosecutors' evidence in the ex-president's human rights trial.

Imprisoned ex-Maj. Santiago Martin Rivas told the court that he lied in a 2001 interview when he said Fujimori endorsed the death squad's operations, and that he parroted material provided by the interviewer.

"To all those absent, and to the president here today, I would like to apologize publicly for the verbal excesses that I committed at the time," Martin Rivas said. "I was induced into error."

So far no witness has incriminated Fujimori on the stand during his yearlong trial, making Martin Rivas' taped interview a crucial part of prosecutors' case. They argue that the former president knew and approved of the death squad's kidnappings and massacres during a dirty war against the bloody, Maoist Shining Path guerrillas.

Fujimori, 70, denies authorizing the squad and says his military chiefs never told him about it.

In the 2001 interview, Martin Rivas said pardons and amnesty laws for death squad members after two massacres became public were proof Fujimori knew of the operation. He first recanted the comments on the witness stand in February.

Martin Rivas, leader of the death squad, is serving a 20-year prison term on charges related to the killings of 15 people at a barbecue in 1991 and the kidnap-killings of nine college students and their professor the following year.

Fujimori, who faces up to 30 years in the death squad case, is already serving six years for a conviction on abuse of power charges. He was president from 1990 to 2000.

AP-CS-12-17-08 1720EST

South Africa: Oxfam Appeals For US$6M Zimbabwe Cholera Fund

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) - The British charity Oxfam is asking the public and international donors for $6 million to fight cholera and hunger in Zimbabwe.

In a statement Thursday, Oxfam says it is providing food, water purification tables and soap to 1 million Zimbabweans, and was preparing to "substantially" scale up efforts.

Oxfam says some Zimbabwean children were eating only a meager meal every three days.

Zimbabwe's economic collapse has led to the food and disease crisis. The collapse dates to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's orders in 2000 to seize farms from whites. Mugabe says his goal was to help poor blacks, but many of the farms ended up in the hands of his cronies. Production has plummeted in a country where agriculture had been the economy's mainstay.

AP-CS-12-17-08 1957EST

China: Thirty Years of Capitalism; Without Western-Style Democracy

By AUDRA ANG
Associated Press Writer

BEIJING (AP) - China marked the 30th anniversary of the start of its capitalist revolution with a speech Thursday from Communist Party leader Hu Jintao, who urged continued economic reform but said it would not lead to Western-style democracy.

He praised the economic changes of the last three decades, including opening the door to free market reforms and foreign trade, which have brought a massive transformation to the country.

"Since the reform and opening up, the fundamental reason for all the achievements and progress we have made has been our creation and development of the socialism with Chinese characteristics," Hu said in a speech during a ceremony at the Great Hall of the People.

The concept, frequently touted by the leadership, refers to the jettisoning of the centrally planned economy while maintaining strict authoritarian one-party communist rule.

The theory "not only showcases the vitality of contemporary Chinese Marxism, but also opens more room for further innovation of theories," Hu said during his 90-minute address, which was nationally televised.

"We need to draw on the beneficial fruits of mankind's political achievements, but we will never copy the model of the Western political system," Hu said.

The event at the Great Hall of the People -- the seat of the country's legislature in the heart of the Chinese capital -- was attended by more than 6,000 party leaders, legislators and military officials, who politely applauded throughout Hu's remarks.

The Great Hall was the site of a Communist Party gathering on Dec. 18, 1978, that endorsed small-scale private farming, the first step toward abandoning the late leader Mao Zedong's vision of communal agriculture and industry.

China's economy has since grown into the world's fourth-largest behind the U.S., Japan and Germany. Annual per capita income has soared to about 19,000 yuan ($2,760) last year, up from just 380 yuan in 1978.

Along with private enterprise and capital markets have come greater prosperity and stability than ever before.

Virtually all Chinese families now have at least one television and, in the cities, a washing machine -- rare items three decades ago. Some 15 million families own private cars, and many Chinese also own their own homes.

"Nowadays, we worry instead about eating too well rather than not eating enough," says Guo Linchun, 78, retired music teacher in Beijing. "Now, living standards have improved so much, we see not only televisions, so many people even own cars."

The modern industries have also brought many modern ills: pollution, industrial accidents and product safety scandals. And China's heavy reliance on exports and foreign investment ensures that the uncertainties now afflicting the global economy are haunting the Chinese as well.

Hu said China needed to firmly focus on economic development to weather the current crisis.

"Standing still and regressing will lead only to a dead end," he said.

As economic growth slows and factories close, job losses threaten to fuel political unrest. Authorities have slashed interest rates and promised to spend more than half a trillion dollars to stimulate the economy.

The latest problems may widen a wealth gap that has already alarmed China's leaders, who worry about social instability caused by people who have missed out on China's economic boom.

"In the past 30 years, we attached great importance to promoting a harmonious society through achieving social equality while developing the economy," Hu said.

He also said one of the other great achievements of the last 30 years was "opposing Taiwan independence." China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949. Beijing continues to claim the self-governing island as part of its territory, and has threatened force if Taiwan declares formal independence.

And despite the massive growth and China's material wealth, it is still considered a developing country. According to the World Bank's most recent estimates, more than 100 million of the 1.3 billion Chinese still live on less than $1 a day. That's way down from 800 million three decades ago, but hundreds of millions more get by on just $1 to $2 a day.

Simmering protests over pollution and industrial accidents have prompted authorities to pledge better enforcement of environmental, labor and safety standards.

___

Associated Press writers Elaine Kurtenbach in Shanghai and Chi-Chi Zhang in Beijing contributed to this report.

AP-ES-12-18-08 0148EST

[Back to Top]