Nelson Mandela memorial: Barack Obama wins loudest roar of approval from restless crowd

Only one man was ever going to please the soaked, restless and expectant crowd at Nelson Mandela's memorial service on Tuesday.

They wanted soaring rhetoric, they wanted hope and above all they wanted President Barack Obama, who arrived very late but was greeted with a massive roar by those inside the stadium. Speaking of Mandela as his personal inspiration, the US leader declared: "He makes me want to be a better man."

The wild response made it clear that here in South Africa at least he was seen as the heir to Nelson Mandela, the man whose death last Thursday the crowd might have come to mourn, but whose life they wanted most of all to celebrate.

Mr Obama was inspired to make an audacious speech - even daring to lecture some of the 90 other world leaders sitting around him for failing to live up to the example set by "the great liberator".

Praising "a life like no other" he said: "It took a man like Mandela to liberate not just the prisoner, but the jailer as well." The speech was passionate and heartfelt. Americans had been through the same struggle for equal rights he said, adding: "Michelle and I are beneficiaries of that."

To people watching inside the FNB stadium and in the wider South Africa, he said: "The world thanks you for sharing Nelson Mandela with us. His struggle was your struggle. His triumph was your triumph."

People cheer as U.S. President Barack Obama speaks (YVES HERMAN/REUTERS)

Heavy rain was blamed for rows of empty seats in the uncovered section of the stadium, along with travel delays and the refusal of the increasingly unpopular President Jacob Zuma to declare a national holiday.

But for the world leaders gathered in comfortable seats under cover, this was an extraordinary chance to get together in an atmosphere that was unexpectedly relaxed. They were all dressed as for a funeral, but there were wide grins as Mr Obama and the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, posed for a "selfie" photograph with the rather glamorous prime minister of Denmark, Helle Thorning-Schmidt.

President Barack Obama (R) and British Prime Minister David Cameron (L) posing for a photo with Denmark's Prime Minister Helle Thorning Schmidt (C) during the memorial service (ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP)

Michelle Obama did not appear pleased at just how well her husband was getting on with his new Danish friend, and stared away from the scene.

Michelle Obama did not join in with the three leaders (ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP)

The energised Mr Obama even shared a warm greeting with America's most awkward neighbour Raul Castro, the leader of Cuba. The Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon spoke of Mandela's "awesome power of forgiveness, and of connecting people with each other" and added: "He has done it again. Look around this stadium and this stage."

The historic handshake (GETTY IMAGES)

This was thought to be the largest gathering of world leaders at an event of this kind since the funeral of Winston Churchill in 1965, but the mood among them was set by the brief they had been given that this was a celebration of a long and great life.

Having flown in overnight, Mr Cameron arrived at the stadium early, saying he hadn't wanted to get stuck in traffic. "You know us Brits get there on time," he said; but his promptness helped him avoid a difficult encounter with his own bogeyman, the late-arriving president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe.

Instead he could mix with the likes of Bono, lead singer of U2, the supermodel Naomi Campbell and the Hollywood star Charlize Theron. Born in South Africa, she welled up when telling the Telegraph how her memories of Mandela were "just a tremendous memory of love and compassion and warmth".

Bono and Charlize Theron at the service (ODD ANDERSEN/AFP)

Even Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, was able to enjoy his own brief special moment, with Bill Clinton, one of the four past and present American presidents in the stadium. Jimmy Carter and George W Bush were the others, Every living British prime minister was present, including Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Sir John Major, who told The Telegraph: "It's very difficult to see that anyone's life will be quite as extraordinary as Nelson Mandela's in the way it has affected this country and the rest of the world. It's a celebration and there's a lot to celebrate."

Gordon and Sarah Brown talk with George W Bush (KAI PFAFFENBACH/REUTERS)

Mr Obama appeared troubled by the conditions at first, but relaxed so much during his speech that he even attempted a local accent, when praising Mandela as the embodiment of the African ideal of unity, Ubuntu, He then became even bolder, as if being this close to Mandela's memory had charged him up, bringing back memories of his first, hope-filled campaign for the US presidency.

Attempting to live up to the crowd's expectations and take on Mandela's mantle, Mr Obama challenged his fellow presidents, prime ministers and heads of state to search their souls and ask whether they lived up to the example of the man they had come to praise.

"Around the world today, men and women are still imprisoned for their political beliefs; and are still persecuted for what they look like, how they worship and who they love," he said in the presence of leaders of Iran, China and Zimbabwe, among others. "There are too many leaders who claim solidarity with Madiba's struggle for freedom but do not tolerate dissent from their own people."

But there was dissent inside the stadium, where even members of the Mandela family struggled to make themselves heard against the surge of boos and jeers every time the face of Mr Zuma appeared on giant screens in the stadium.

South African President Jacob Zuma (SIPHIWE SIBEKO/REUTERS)

Three of Mr Mandela's grandchildren and one of his great-grandchildren looked distressed by the treatment as they read a poem in his memory that compared him to "a giant tree that has fallen, scattering a thousand brilliant leaves." The loud dissent was embarrassing for the ruling ANC party and in particular Mr Zuma, at a moment when their country was the centre of the world's attention.

But many in the crowd managed to brush off mere politics and insist on giving even louder thanks for the life of the Nobel laureate, whose face appeared on many brightly coloured clothes.

Down in the enclosure where the Mandela family sat, all dressed in black, there was understandably only deep mourning. Graca Machel, the Nobel laureate's third wife and now widow, made her first public appearance since his death at the start of the month.

She moved slowly to her place with a furrowed brow, looking devastated.

Gracha Machel at the service (SIPHIWE SIBEKO/REUTERS)

This was the second time she had been to a funeral service for a husband, having lost President Samora of Mozambique to a plane crash nearly 30 years ago.

Mrs Machel sat near to Winnie Mandela, the second wife who had entered on the arm of her daughter Zindzi. This was a show of unity from the Mandela clan, whose members fought each other in the courts all summer even as the patriarch was lying on life support in hospital. Mandla, the grandson who attempted to force the others to bury his grandfather in his own village, to his own potential gain, was back among his family.

Winnie Madikizela Mandela, left, and Graca Machel, right (KAI PFAFFENBACH/REUTERS)

The traditional funeral will instead take place on Sunday in Qunu, the village in the Eastern Cape that Nelson Mandela regarded as his home.

World leaders were asked to keep away from it due to the difficulty of travel in the remote region, but Prince Charles is believed to be making plans to attend.

The stadium in which Tuesday's ceremony took place was on the site where Mr Mandela made his first major public speech after being released from prison after 27 years, in 1990. The rebuilt arena was also where he made his last public appearance during the closing ceremony for the 2010 World Cup. After a long illness, he died at the age of 95.

Tickets for yesterday's event were free, as were the buses and trains laid on to take people there. Boitshepo Matsitsi, 25, a businesswoman from Soweto, said she rose at 4.30am and drove her car to the security cordon before getting out and walking the rest of the way. "I've never felt so close to Madiba. We wouldn't have missed this for anything."

Yvonne Moratiele, 37, her head wrapped in an ANC scarf and a flag draping her body, said Mandela would be getting the send-off he deserved. "In Africa, when the lion dies, the jungle roars. We're here to make sure that happens."

When President Zuma came to the stage at last he gave a poor speech, reading from notes that he held close to his chest. His promise to follow Mandela in working to free South Africa of hunger, homelessness and inequality will not have appeased those who accuse him of squandering Mandela's legacy and acting out of self interest.

People gathered to celebrate Nelson Mandela's life (REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach)

Thato Makapa, 36, summed up the boos for Zuma in one word: "Corruption. How can he stand on a podium and talk about our Madiba?"

The day really belonged to Mr Obama. "He reminds us of Madiba," said Viola Maliti, 37, a judge's secretary. "He was also the first black president. He may not have done much for Africa yet but there's still time."

Mr Obama took care to praise "the other early giants of the ANC" and said he had first heard the name of Nelson Mandela – and learned of the struggle against apartheid - when he was a young student.

"It stirred something in me. It woke me up to my responsibilities - to others, and to myself - and set me on an improbable journey that finds me here today."

He praised Mandela for admitting his imperfections and for being full of mischief. "He was not a bust made of marble; he was a man of flesh and blood - a son and husband, a father and a friend. That is why we learned so much from him; that is why we can learn from him still."

Bringing his speech to a climax with the words of Nelson Mandela's favourite poem, Invictus, he said: "'I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.' What a magnificent soul it was. We will miss him deeply."

Kony’s surrender talks: Was the world hoodwinked?

Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, then the Internal Affairs minister, meets Joseph Kony at Ri-Kwangba at the DR Congo-Sudan border in February 2007. FILE PHOTO

Kampala- Was the world duped, even fooled, on latest intended surrender by Joseph Kony, one of the most brutal and wanted warlords?

It seems apparently so, according to emerging details.

Mr Francisco Madeira, the African Union’s special envoy on the LRA, told the UN Security Council on November 20, that Central African Republic (CAR) leaders were in touch with the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebel group and its overall commander Kony.

Mr Madeira based his briefing on updates received from CAR’s interim president Michel Djotodia during their interface in Bangui at the end of October.
According to various government and diplomatic sources, the LRA in a message promised its fighters would have assembled by November 3 if guaranteed safe passage and supplies.

In other words, the prowling rebels already skipped their own deadline to gather in one place and it was 17 days after this trick that Mr Madeira
notified the UN Security Council - vaulting over the uncomfortable detail that the development had been overtaken by reality on the ground.


A US Department of State official quoted by UK public broadcaster, the BBC, noted that Washington was not persuaded that Kony was on the point of abdicating rebellion.

The US official was not alone, and no concrete information other than loose lines dropped by beleaguered CAR officials, has come to light to validate those serious claims of the intended surrender.

In the past, Kony has told lies or walked back on his commitments to more credible intermediaries, even after persuaded national leaders and international actors bended backwards to accommodate his testy demands.
Mr Paul Ronan, the co-founder of Resolve, a frontline advocacy group on LRA issues, says the surrender talks claims “most likely aren’t true”.

The only confirmation so far is that CAR transitional president Djotodia, noted Mr Ronan, is in contact with an LRA group, and not Kony’s.
Multiple sources have told the Daily Monitor that Otto Laderere, known to be Kony’s former security aide who replaced Caesar Acellam as LRA’s intelligence chief, in late August made contact with one Demane.


Demane is a general in Djotodia’s Seleka group that ousted President François Bozizé Yangouvonda in March this year.

Hideouts
Laderere’s group is hibernating in Nzako in CAR’s remote but mineral-rich south-east, where the rebels and their dependents reportedly also practice subsistence agriculture.
The AU Regional Taskforce, as the regional intervention force supported by about 100 US Special Forces is called, has over the past months destroyed LRA camps and denied the rebels a permanent home.
Unable to roam freely and pillage villages to replenish dwindling supplies, the rebels have once again picked from their bag of tricks the most-tempting sweetener: An offer to renounce rebellion in exchange for a safe haven and food.
The rebels during their initial contact in August put their number together with dependents at 1, 200.

They then increased it to 2,000 and later doubled it to between 4,000 and 5,000 when they got feelers of possible deliveries, an exaggeration calculated to attract bigger quantities of food and medical supplies to last them longer.

Yet independent estimates show LRA’s fighting force is no more than 600, the rank and file being depleted by deaths and a spate of defections encouraged by regional militaries through air-dropped leaflets.

This newspaper understands that Djotodia as well as NGOs, eager to get some credit for getting one of the world’s most wanted men out of the bush, hauled generous portions of food and medicines to the rebels before everything suddenly went silent again.
According to Resolve’s Ronan, the interim leadership separately forced villagers and civil society actors to deliver food to rebel hide-outs, often at great risk to their safety.

By October 31 when UN and AU envoys; Abou Moussa and Mr Madeira met and told CAR leaders not to deliver supplies to LRA without concrete action - say release of children and women in captivity - the rebel group under Laderere had already snapped up substantial rations, leaving the world to guess their next course of action.


Djotodia remains unrecognised internationally as president or head-of-state, eight months after his violent power grab and his authority to preside over the country has significantly been eroded by the recent spiral in violence masterminded by unruly elements among his armed allies.

More troops in CAR
The UN, at the urging of France, CAR’s former colonial master, on Tuesday proposed to deploy a 7,000-strong intervention force to stabilise the country teetering towards full-blown genocide fanned by religious sentiments.

A source at the heart of security matters in the Great Lakes Region says the Seleka rebels “systematically plundered” the wealth of the Catholic Church - one of the richest institutions in
the landlocked country - during the war that brought Djotodia to power in March.


They ransacked missions, stripped removable property and commandeered four-wheel vehicles, including those owned by NGOs, to the distaste of the faithful.
Because Muslims dominate the command, rank and file of Seleka running the struggling transitional government, the previous looting combined with ongoing bloody military operations targeting Bozizé loyalists has tended to be interpreted in religious hues.

Isolated internationally, and beleaguered at home, Djotodia is a desperate man willing to trade off anything except his life to gain credibility.
Stakeholders, including within the African Union, believe the struggling CAR leader tossed up the Kony surrender card to draw international attention and build a clout for recognition.

Others suggest both he and general Demane hope to tap part of or whole $5 million (Shs12.5 billion) US bounty on the elusive LRA chief if he surrendered to them.

Hope flickers in hunt for Kony

The Ugandan, Congolese, CAR and South Sudan forces have been hunting LRA rebels for months under
the aegis of the African Union.


In October 2011, US President Barack Obama assigned about 100 combat-equipped US Navy SEALS as field advisors to help regional armies remove Joseph Kony and other top LRA commanders from the battlefield.
UPDF’s Brig Sam Kavuma replaced Brig Dick Prit Olum as commander of the AU Regional Taskforce in July, around the same time Washington expanded its assistance previously to UPDF to cover other armies on LRA chase.The American assistance includes sharing high-tech intelligence and gathering capabilities, training, and airlifting of troops as well as logistical supplies.
The 3,085-strong Regional Taskforce is headquartered in Yambio, South Sudan, and has tactical bases in Central African Republic’s Obbo; Nzara, South Sudan; and, Ddungu in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“The force is very robust; it has been destroying LRA camps; tracking those fleeing and denied them a permanent base to re-organise from,” said a senior AU official who asked not to be named because they are not authorised to speak to the media.
“There is heightened pressure on LRA and optimism on our part that we are closer than ever before to achieve our ultimate objective: To eliminate the LRA,” the source said.

In mid-September, 2013, AU envoy Francisco Madeira secured diplomatic authorisation from a previously hesitant Kinshasa, allowing the Regional Taskforce (SPLA contingent) to co-hunt LRA rebels inside DR Congo territory alongside 500 FARDC troops who joined the operation only in February this year.
The UPDF has some 2,000 troops on the mission, SPLA 500, adding to CAR’s 85.

From survival revolt to enigma
The rebellion in the northern Uganda began shortly after President Museveni, in January 1986, overthrew the military junta of Gen Tito Okello, himself an Acholi.

The official version of the genesis of the northern armed conflict is that it was masterminded by disgruntled Acholi soldiers to try to topple new-comer Museveni and reclaim lost state power.
In an account to this newspaper in September, exiled renegade UPDF Col Samson Mande, the commander of the National Resistance Army battalion that captured Acholi land, however, said the war was triggered off by revenge killings and indiscriminate looting by some NRA guerrillas.

The first armed resistance, he said, was organised by volunteer Ojuk, a Captain in the vanquished Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA).
It then morphed into the Holy Spirit Movement commanded by Alice Auma Lakwena, who claimed to have mythical powers that could dissolve bullets fired at her fighters. The bullets did not melt, and the NRA outgunned her advancing group in Busoga.

The little-educated Joseph Kony, her close relative and former altar boy with an odd ambition to rule Uganda based on the biblical Ten Commandments, started off the LRA in 1987.

His forces killed for leisure, conscripted and indoctrinated children as core fighters and pillaged villages in his ancestral land.
At the height of the near two-decade insurgency, humanitarian organisations estimated up to 1. 7 million people in northern Uganda huddled in Internally Displaced People’s Camps, living in squalor and dying in tens daily of preventable diseases.

A population escaping Kony’s wrath ran into harm meted by government soldiers, under David Sejusa, formerly Tinyefuza.

The humiliation of a people created jitters and
frustration that translated into venomous political grievance.


Hope flickered when Gen Aronda Nyakairima’s Operation Iron Fist kicked LRA rebels from their hideouts in mountainous parts of South Sudan, forcing them in August 2005 to sprint to Gramba Parkland in northeastern DR Congo.

The collapse of the Juba talks gave UPDF in December 2008 the incentive to pursue LRA inside DRC, flushing them out of the forested hide-out.
Today, a four-country military contingent, the Regional taskforce, keeps the LRA constantly on the run, without a permanent camp to plan or replenish dwindling stock.

LRA TIMELINE

1987: Ex-Altar Boy Joseph Kony starts the LRA group.
1993/4: Betty Bigombe, then minister for Pacification of the North, opens peace talks. Meets face-to-face with Kony, but talks collapse over mistrust.
2004: Bigombe brokers fresh negotiations, and it fails again.
2005: LRA flees to DRC, South Sudan brokers peace talks, warring parties sign ceasefire deal
2006-8. Juba peace talks take place. Kony declines to sign final peace agreement, citing his ICC indictment
and arrest warrant.

Dec. 2008: UPDF launches Operation Lightning Thunder and dislodges LRA from DRC’s Garamba Park
2011 to-date: Regional armies hunt down LRA in Central Africa.
Nov. 20, 2013: AU tells UN Security Council Kony is in surrender talks with CAR leaders.



Getty Images/Peter Kramer - Bill Gates appears on NBC News' "Today" show -- (Photo by: Peter Kramer/NBC/NBC NewsWire)



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 By Bree Fowler, The Associated Press




NEW YORK, N.Y. - Life is good for America's super wealthy.
Forbes on Monday released its annual list of the top 400 richest Americans. While most of the top names and rankings didn't change from a year ago, the majority of the elite club's members saw their fortunes grow over the past year, helped by strong stock and real estate markets.

"Basically, the mega rich are mega richer," said Forbes Senior Editor Kerry Dolan.

Dolan noted that list's minimum net income increased to a pre-financial crisis level of $1.3 billion, up from $1.1 billion in 2012, with 61 American billionaires not making the cut. "In some ways, it's harder to get on the list than it ever has been," she said.

Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates remains America's richest man, taking the top spot on the list for the 20th straight year, with a net worth of $72 billion, up from $66 billion a year ago.

Investor Warren Buffett, the head of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., posted another distant second place finish with $58.5 billion, but increased his net worth from $46 billion. Oracle Corp. co-founder Larry Ellison stayed third with $41 billion and was the only member of the top 10 whose net worth was unchanged from a year ago.

Brothers Charles and David Koch, co-owners of Koch Industries Inc., stay tied for fourth with $36 billion each, up from $31 billion in 2012.

Wal-Mart heirs Christy Walton, Jim Walton, Alice Walton and S. Robson Walton took the next four spots, with holdings ranging from $33.3 billion to $35.4 billion, all increasing from year-ago levels. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the founder of the eponymous financial information company, rounds out the top 10 with $31 billion, up from $25 billion.

According to Forbes, 273 members of the list are self-made billionaires, while 71 inherited their wealth and another 56 inherited at least some of it but are still growing it.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg returned to the list's top 20 after dropping out the year before. His net worth of $19 billion earned him the No. 20 spot.

Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz also made the list, at No. 85,with a net worth of $5.2 billion. At age 29 and just a few days younger the Zuckerberg, Moskovitz ranks as the youngest member of the list.

On the flip side, the oldest person on the list is 98-year-old David Rockefeller Sr. at No. 193 with a net worth of $2.8 billion.

A total of 20 new people joined the rankings, including Richard Yuengling Jr. of Pennsylvania beer maker D.G. Yuengling & Son, who ranked at No. 371 with $1.4 billion.

Twenty-eight people dropped off the list, including six who died. Those now falling short of the cut include energy tycoon T. Boone Pickens at $950 million, Graham Weston of Rackspace Hosting Inc. at $920 million and Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder at $1.2 billion.

A total of 48 women made the list including Hyatt Hotels heir Jennifer Pritzker at No. 327. Formerly known as James Pritzker, she's the list's first transgendered member.

According to Forbes, the 400 people on the annual list posted a combined net worth of $2 trillion, up from $1.7 trillion a year ago. That marks their highest combined value ever.

Meanwhile, the average net worth of the list's members rose to $5 billion, also the highest ever, up from $4.2 billion in 2012. Net worth grew for 314 members and fell for 30, Forbes said.

The increases aren't surprising, given that net worth for America's wealthiest people has risen in the years since the financial crisis, widening the gap between the exceptionally well-to-do and the rest of the country.

According to a study of Internal Revenue Service figures released last week, the top 1 per cent of U.S. earners collected 19.3 per cent of household income in 2012, their largest share in IRS figures going back a century.

U.S. income inequality has been growing for almost three decades. But until last year, the top 1 per cent's share of pre-tax income had not yet surpassed the 18.7 per cent it reached in 1927, according to the analysis done by economists at the University of California, Berkeley, the Paris School of Economics and Oxford University.

Some economists have speculated that the incomes of the wealthy might have surged in the past year, because they cashed in stock holdings to avoid higher capital gains taxes that kicked in in January.
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The Forbes 400: http://www.forbes.com/forbes400

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Strange fish turns human in Ibadan

Residents of Gege in Ibadan South West Local Government area of Oyo State were shocked on Tuesday, when a fish bought by a middle aged woman, Mrs. Ramota Salawu, suddenly turned to half human.

Hundreds of residents struggled to see the miracle fish where it was placed inside water in a brown bucket at Akindele Compound, Gege , Ibadan, the home of Mrs. Salawu .

When The Nation visited the compound, the said miracle fish has long white hair. The face has resemblance of a baby, while the trunk is that of a fish.

While narrating her experience, Mrs. Salawu said “I went to where we usually buy fish at Kola Eleja , Oke Ado, Ibadan to buy fish. After I finished, I boarded Okada to my place to prepare the fish for sale. Before getting the fish out of the ice-pack, we need to use knife to remove them and use water to defreeze.

“I was shocked to see the frozen fish developed into a living being in the water, the description of which showed half human and half fish. I quickly called by father and some alfas to see the strange fish.”

The fish seller could not gather herself together as she was overwhelmed by what happened.

The father of the woman, a retired civil servant, Pa Rauf Salawu expressed bewilderment over the miracle fish, adding that he has never seen such a thing before.

He said,” It was around 11am, when I started hearing the voice of my daughter while I was resting on my bed. She was shouting and screaming, such that people in the compound were attracted. Then, I decided to check what the problem was. I took along my Quran and on getting there my daughter has gone to call Sheu , a Muslim leader in the neighbourhood .

I saw the strange fish inside water in the bucket. It was strange. How can a fish bought in the cold room developed into human? That I cannot fully explain.”

There was heavy presence of policemen from the Mapo Police Station to control the crowd and maintain peace and order.

CHAMPIONING CREATIVITY ACROSS THE ART AND DESIGN WORLD

http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/leandro-erlich

Don’t underestimate Muhoozi, Museveni tells top commanders

It was in the last part of his speech to the UPDF High Command, but President Yoweri Museveni’s comments about his son, Brig. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, have become the talking point among the officers that The Independent has spoken to since.

On May 22, just a day before Museveni sweeping changes in the army top leadership, he convened a special meeting of the army’s topmost decision making body, the Army High Command, at State House Entebbe.

Museveni’s speech touched on many issues, including the role of young officers in the army, and the failures of then- Chief of Defence Forces, Gen. Aronda Nyakayirima, his then deputy, Lt. Gen. Ivan Koreta and former Air Force Commander, Lt.Gen. Jim Owoyesigire.

Brig. Muhoozi attended in his capacity as the commander of Special Forces.

Others in attendance were the Defence Minister and the two members of the original High Command as of January 26, 1986; Museveni’s younger brother, Gen. Salim Saleh, and Gen. Elly Tumwine. They `originals’ were six including Eriya Kategaya, the late prime minister, Matayo Kyaligonza who is ambassador to Burundi, and Gen. David Sejusa who is in exile.

The Chief of Defence forces, Gen. Katumba Wamala, his deputy, Lt. Gen. Charles Angina, all Service Commanders, the Chief of Staff, all Service Chiefs of Staff, all Chiefs of the Services of the Defence Forces, attended.

The High Command holds at least three annual meetings annually, but this was a special session.

Sources at the meeting told The Independent that it was clear that President Museveni sought to allay allegations that he was grooming his son, Muhoozi, to succeed him as president under the so-called `Muhoozi project’.

Gen. Sejusa, the erstwhile Coordinator Intelligence Services before he fled the country in April sparked controversy with a letter published in the media alleging a plot to assassinate army officers and politicians opposed to Muhoozi.

Sources told The Independent that apart from questioning why the military intelligence had not exposed “the subversive activities of Tinyefuza”, Museveni did not talk about Sejusa again.

However, he questioned the tendency of some officers not to use the “appropriate fora to voice opinions”. Our sources say he was understood to be referring to Gen. Sejusa.

“Do public statements provide any solution to any problem in the army?” Museveni asked, “If not, what are they for?”

Praising Muhoozi

He brought up the Muhoozi issue as he was concluding his speech.

“I cannot end this speech without talking about the issue of Muhoozi (Brig. Muhoozi Kainerugaba) since our enemies have made it a daily issue in the papers and the subversive activities of some individuals constipated with ambition and deceit,” Museveni said as he concluded his long speech.

“I am most pleased that Muhoozi has turned out to be a very serious officer, quiet and devoted to the building of the army,” Museveni told his commanders, “He has already helped us to build a Commando Force and Paratrooper Force which some of the earlier actors had either failed or refused to build.”

Museveni said the Commando Force, in partnership with elements of the Second Division, gave the ADF (Allied Democratic Forces) rebels such a decisive defeat in Semliki, western Uganda in 2007 that they have never returned to Uganda since.

In Mogadishu, Museveni went on; the commandoes have killed 192 enemies without losing any of their force.

Museveni said in all the years he has spent building the UPDF, only two people have written for him papers on Strategic and Army doctrine.

“One of them was Gen. Katumba (Wamala) when he was an instructor at Jinja,” Museveni said, “That is how I came to know him. Muhoozi has written for me several high quality papers of doctrine and strategy.”

Museveni said Muhoozi was the one who had exposed to him how the 47 Battalion deployed in the Democratic Republic of Congo to flush out the Lords Resistance (LRA) in 2008’s Operation Lightening Thunder, were eating only one meal a day. Muhoozi’s commandoes were part of this operation and that is how he came to find out, Museveni noted.

Indeed Museveni seemed not to be sure the problem had been solved for good. “Military intelligence has some gaps,” Museveni said, “why did they not detect the underfeeding of soldiers for instance? Has the underfeeding of soldiers stopped?”

A source told The Independent that members of the Reserve Fore were still suffering this problem.

Museveni added that Muhoozi is the one who advised the UPDF soldiers on the AMISOM mission in Mogadishu, Somalia, to use mouse-hole explosives in their fight against al-shabaab.

He told the High Command that before the Muhoozi intervention, the UPDF soldiers in Somalia were finding difficulty in uprooting the enemy because they were attacking through the narrow streets. Even when they changed tactics and started digging trenches, the enemy would hear them and run or attack them.

When Muhoozi visited, Museveni told the commanders, he advised them to use mouse-hole explosives that blast holes through walls. That way, the UPDF would make gains against the terrorists and hence the successes the army has registered in Somalia.

“To vilify, demonise, castigate, harangue in a demented way against such an officer is sickness in a metaphorical sense,” Museveni reportedly said, “If you have no objectivity to see value, then your leadership qualities are in question.

“Even if Muhoozi was a mediocre performer, it would be the duty of the army to defend its members as long as he has done no wrong or mistake.”

The Army High Command, according to the UPDF, is supposed to advise the President in emergency situations and on matters relating to national security or deployment of the Defence Forces and when the country is at war.

On Aronda, Koreta, Tumukunde

Without mentioning it, our sources said, Museveni used the meeting to prepare the UPDF leadership for the reshuffle he was set to announce the following morning.

In the reshuffle, Museveni removed Gen. Aronda Nyakairima and his deputy, Lt Gen. Ivan Koreta from army leadership and appointed Gen. Katumba and Maj. Gen. Angina to replace them. He appointed Gen. Aronda minister for Internal Affairs. Gen. Koreta was named ambassador for a yet to be named mission.

“While many Ugandans continue to speculate about why Museveni changed the UPDF leadership, for those who attended the meeting, they had got the answers that night even if they didn’t know that a reshuffle was looming,” our source said.

Museveni defended the appointment and promotion of young officers saying it was part of a strategy to attract new blood. He listed army officers that had attained top ranks at tender ages on the international scene and during the bush war in Luweero.

Museveni has been criticized for the apparent rapid promotion of his son, Brig. Muhoozi. However, his explanation, according to our sources appeared designed to show why he was shifting the leadership of the UPDF to young officers.

“The young and healthy people rescued this army and all should salute them,” Museveni said, “Therefore, those cadres who resent the political commissars we conscripted into command or the young commanders we recruited are `abashaija babi’ (bad men) as the Banyankole say.”

Museveni expressed frustration about personal indiscipline that had led to the death, due to sickness, of the older top commanders on the very dawn of the NRM’s capture of state power in 1986.

He said five nominees for a senior command training course in the USSR were found unfit for that course on health grounds and good commanders like Kamuntu and Katerega broke down because of the rigours of another course in Tanzania.

Museveni said as a result, they ended up sending political commissars who did not have combat experience for the trainings instead.

Ghosts resurface

At the meeting, Museveni categorised the UPDF’s challenges into two; hardware and software challenges.

Amongst the hardware challenges, Museveni listed the lack of a more capable air-defence system, suitable barracks for soldiers, a more capable marine force, a comprehensive repair and upgrade capacity for aircrafts, tanks and IFVs.

He said Uganda’s military industries need to be upgraded to manufacture the vital strategic elements the army needs so that it only buys from outside the other general requirements.

He said the welfare of the families of our comrades who died in the last 43 years needed to be extended beyond the free schooling up to A’ level which the army has been providing.

Then he embarked on the software issues which he described as “lingering negative tendencies”.

Of the seven he listed, our sources said, at least five appeared to be directed at the Aronda leadership. Museveni said the main two were failure to inspect troops and poor planning.

Museveni told the commanders that he had got a report; he would later reveal that it was from Muhoozi, that the 47 Battalion was eating only one meal just before the Garamba operation. The mission that was supposed to net LRA leader Joseph Kony was botched.

Museveni told the commanders that he told Gen. Aronda about it but later on got additional information that this was a wider problem—soldiers in DR Congo, Southern Sudan and Central African Republic (CAR) were all not getting all the food that had been released for them.

Museveni told the commanders that he also was told that “ghost soldiers” had resurfaced as the numbers of soldiers on the ground were far fewer than the payable strength. The phantom soldiers, used mainly by the army leadership to skim off millions of shillings in salaries and allowances, were still haunting the UPDF payroll. Our sources say Museveni was visibly angry about this development, when he confronted Aronda and then-Air Force Commander, Maj. Gen. Jim Owoyesigyire.

“How does such a situation come about?” Museveni asked.

Museveni also faulted the Aronda leadership of failing to “use collective solutions” to ensure that university going children of soldiers to get that education.

He said that he had written to Aronda about this—especially the need to streamline the army Savings and Credit Cooperative (SACCO) also known as Wazalendo to enable soldiers access credit.

Wazalendo is composed of UPDF personnel, their families, Reserve Forces and Staff of Ministry of Defence (MOD) according to the information on its website.

Under the SACCO, soldiers save 16 percent of their earnings and this pool is supposed to make it easy for them to access loans (credit) to enhance their individual welfare both socially and economically. By June 30, 2011, the SACCO boasted of 64,482 members since its inception in 2005.

But a source told The Independent that there were issues in managing the SACCO and the soldiers were not happy with it. Apparently top ranking officers were the ones accessing the SACCO money at the expense of their poor colleagues.

The biggest and most costly failure of the Aronda leadership, Museveni said, was poor or inadequate planning in the force.

Museveni told his commanders that he was very disappointed when after establishing a planning department and appointing Brig. Henry Tumukunde in charge of it, he heard that Tumukunde was disgruntled because planning was a “dry” department.

Museveni said that because of the weakness of the department, he had to intervene in petty issues like the need for enhanced pay for pilots and airforce mechanics.

“I do not even know whether the directives on that issue have been implemented,” he said, “I was forced to come in because I discovered that we will never develop an air-force if we continue failing to pay pilots what their colleagues are paid in the open market.”

Museveni said his biggest frustration was that poor planning caused the loss of the three choppers that crushed in Mt. Kenya enroute to Somalia.

He told the commanders that he had been against deploying the gunships to Somalia because Uganda had just attained a squadron force and he did not like the idea of scattering those scarce resources when enemies like the ADF were still swirling around Uganda.

Apparently, it is Aronda and Owoyesigyire that persuaded Museveni with prospects of making a lot of money by deploying the gunships involved.

“When eventually, I agreed, I did not know that operational planning in the Air-force was totally inefficient; no navigation charts, no emergency standing operating procedures,” Museveni said, “It was such a wastage!”

When the UPDF choppers crashed in August 2012, an angry Museveni took swipes at commanders whom he blamed of having a business mentality. At the time, no one could put a finger on these specific commanders but after the May 22 meeting, those who attended realised that beyond Owoyesigyire and his former Chief of Staff, Brigadier Moses Rwakitarate who were fired immediately, President Museveni also blamed Aronda for the chopper crashes.

Museveni said before Muhoozi advised them, the UPDF had failed to establish zonal forces to protect the areas they had captured from the enemy in Somalia. He narrated to the commanders that Aronda had travelled on a UN plane from Mogadishu to Baidoa.

“I asked Aronda how long it is from Mogadishu to Baidoa and he said two and a half hours,” Museveni narrated how he asked Aronda how the force could cover an area as big as from Entebbe to Kaabong without zonal forces.

On making this point, Museveni vowed in front of the commanders that he was going to overhaul the Somalia mission too. At the time, no one imagined that that overhaul would swallow Aronda as it did the next morning.

Gen. Katumba Wamala Takes over UPDF Command.

Uhuru inaugurated as Kenyan president

Kenya’s fourth president Uhuru Kenyatta is sworn into office by chief registrar Gladys Sholei (L) as his wife Margaret Kenyatta (R) looks on. The ceremony took place in Nairobi yesterday. PHOTO BY AFP

Kenya's new president, following his victory in March against Raila Odinga.

Dignitaries and tens of thousands of people witnessed the inauguration at a stadium in the capital, Nairobi.

Mr Odinga did not attend the ceremony after his attempt to overturn Mr Kenyatta's victory in court failed.

Mr Kenyatta and his deputy, William Ruto, face charges at the International Criminal Court relating to post-election violence five years ago.

They were on opposite sides at the time and both deny the accusations.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who faces an ICC arrest warrant over the conflict in Darfur, is not in Nairobi for the inauguration.

Mr Kenyatta is the son of Kenya's founding father, Jomo Kenyatta, and is heir to one of the largest fortunes in Kenya.

'Peace'


He served as deputy prime minister, minister for trade, and finance minister under outgoing President Mwai Kibaki.

The 51 year old will be Kenya's youngest president.

The crowd, waving Kenyan flags, burst into rapturous welcome as he took the oath of office.

Among the African leaders present for the inauguration were South Africa's Jacob Zuma, Nigeria's Goodluck Jonathan and Uganda's Yoweri Museveni.

Mr Odinga - the outgoing prime minister - is on holiday in South Africa, while other senior members of his Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (Cord) party have also stayed away to signal their opposition to Mr Kenyatta's presidency, correspondents say.

According to official results, Mr Kenyatta beat Mr Odinga by 50.07% to 43.28% in March, avoiding a run-off by just 8,100 votes.
Mr Odinga challenged the result, but said he would respect the Kenyan Supreme Court's ruling in Mr Kenyatta's favour.

After the ruling, Mr Kenyatta said his government would "work with and serve all Kenyans without any discrimination whatsoever".


"Above all, let us continue to pray for peace in our country," he said.

The election was Kenya's first after a disputed poll in 2007, which led to violence that left more than 1,200 people dead.

Mr Kenyatta is due to appear at the ICC for his trial in The Hague later this year, accused of crimes against humanity. He denies the charges.

Kenya is a party to the Rome Statute, the treaty which established the ICC in 2002.

But like most African countries, it has refused to enforce the ICC warrant for Mr Bashir's arrest.
Earlier, Kenyan government spokesman Muthui Kariuki told the BBC that Mr Bashir had been invited and would not be arrested if he accepted the invitation.


After Mr Bashir visited Kenya in 2010, a Kenyan court ruled that the government must arrest him if he returned, in line with its international obligations under the Rome Statute.

The government is appealing against the ruling.

Museveni attacks ICC at Uhuru’s swearing-in

Kampala


President Museveni yesterday lashed out at the International Criminal Court (ICC), saying it has been “grabbed by a bunch of self seekers and shallow minded people whose interests is to mint revenge on those who hold opposing views.”

Without specifying the “ICC grabbers, self seekers and shallow minded people”, President Museveni said the election of Mr Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy, Mr William Ruto, is a reminder to those using the ICC to blackmail others (African leaders) for selfish reasons that Africa is not a haven for them.

The President was among dignitaries attending President Kenyatta’s inauguration ceremony at Moi International Sports Centre in Nairobi yesterday. “I want to salute the Kenyan voters on one other issue—the rejection of the blackmail by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and those who seek to abuse this institution for their own agenda,” Mr Museveni said. He continued: “I was one of those that supported the ICC because I abhor impunity. However, the usually opinionated and arrogant actors using their careless analysis have distorted the purpose of that institution

They are now using it to install leaders of their choice in Africa and eliminate the ones they do not like.”

According to President Museveni, what happened in Kenyan election in 2007, where more than 1,000 people were killed, was not just regrettable but must be condemned. However, in his view, the external legalistic process happening at Hague is not the solution to the electoral violence or the African problems.

The President’s advice

He said: “Events of this nature first and most importantly, need an ideological solution by discerning why they happened. Why did inter-community violence occur? Was it for genuine or false reasons?” He added that instead of a thorough and thoughtful process, individuals are engaged in legal gymnastics!

Citing Uganda’s case, he said between 1966 and 1986, the country lost about 800,000 people, but it was not the ICC or the UN that helped the country deal with the sad chapter of the country’s history. “We only referred Joseph Kony of LRA to the ICC because he was operating outside Uganda. Otherwise, we would have handled him ourselves,” said President Museveni.

iladu@ug.nationmedia.com

Shokri Belaid assassination in Tunisia

Shokri Belaid assassination in Tunisia, the Secretary-General of the National Democratic Party of Tunisia video and photos


Shokri Belaid a Political, secular and leftist opponent to the policies of the Government of the Tunisian Renaissance Movement



who Killed Belaid ? And how he was assassinated ?



Shokri Belaid killed by two bullets in the neck and head in front of his house on the morning of Wednesday 6-2-2013

The identity of the perpetrators have not been identified so far and a Video was published on the moment of Shokri Belaid assassination and the arrival of an ambulance to take him after he was assassinated

In reaction to the assassination of Belaid ,Hamadi Jebali, head of the Tunisian government said that he will spare no effort to find out the perpetrators and arrest them as soon as possible

Video after the moment of the assassination of Shokri Belaid and the arrival of an ambulance to take him - YouTube




Belaid warned of the Renaissance Party ( Ennahda Movement ) and the assassination of political opponents a few hours before his death on Nessma tv channel

he said that Renaissance Party gives the green light for the assassination of political opponents







a photo of Shokri Belaid, who was assassinated in Tunisia 6-2-2013