Letter from the US to the readers! 

ARCHDIOCESE BEGINS PROCESS TO RAISE URGENT FUND FOR PRESENT CHURCH’S SEXUAL ABUSE SCANDAL.

Dear Holy people,

Last December, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles settled 46 civil cases in which clergy abuse had been alleged. The total settlement cost was $60 million, with the Archdiocese contributing approximately $40 million of the total amount. At the time of that settlement, I wrote:

“Now that this settlement is finalized, our attention will focus on the resolution of all remaining cases. To reach a settlement in those cases will require the active participation of the many insurance companies and churches and individuals who provided liability insurance and support during those past years when abuse occurred. It is my hope that these insurance companies will join all of us in moving steadily toward a final settlement of these cases as soon as possible.”

Yet, $660 million to be pay out again, which is by far the largest payout in the church’s sexual abuse scandal. We want a very strong support from your church and organization in oder to get this settle as well. Please kindly get back as soon as you receive this email. So, will could instruct you on how your contribution to this would be made.

I once again renew my pledge and that of the Archdiocese to continue the important work of preventing sexual abuse and the potential for abuse through our abuse prevention training programs, screening procedures for all priests, employees and volunteers, and our age-appropriate safe environment programs for children in our parishes and schools.

I have often said over these past years that God’s grace is more powerful than the evil of sinful actions. Our Church has become more humble, more faithful, and more centered upon our primary mission: to evangelize all peoples in the name of Jesus Christ.

I am confident that we will be able to carry forward this mission with renewed energy and with a bold creativity.

Let us pray for the special intercession of Our Lady of the Angels that she will guide all of us in restoring wholeness to victims and integrity to the Church.

I await your sincere response.

Cardinal Roger M. Mahony
Archbishop of Los Angeles

Published by Korir, African Press International (API) * African Press in Norway (APN) africanpress@chello.no tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525

 By Joseph Murimi and Ayub Savula

Posted by Wilfred Zulu

Lusaka–The civil society in Zambia on Thursday picketed Parliament urging Members of Parliament not to support a government’s Constitutional Conference Bill.

Led by the outspoken Oasis Forum, which is composed of the church and Law Association of Zambia (LAZ), the protestors who included university students and opposition political parties, demanded that the constitution-making process was supposed to be all-inclusive and not a preserve of politicians, as the Bill seeks.

Two weeks ago, President Levy Mwanawasa said that the constitution making process was a political process, therefore the civil society were not supposed to be allowed to ‘hijack’ it.

Since 2003 when the Constitution Review Commission (CRC) was set up to come up with a new republican constitution, the process has along the way been clouded in mistrust between government on one hand and the opposition political parties and the civil society on the other.

According to a petition presented to Parliament by the Oasis Forum, the civil society says, “the Constitutional Conference Bill should not be tabled in parliament before we, the people see the contents of the Bill and make their comments”.

Ironically, two of the five political parties that converged under the Netherlands government’s sponsored Zambia Centre for Inter-party Dialogue (ZCID) have since pulled out after government committed them, without consultation, to a roadmap that does not allow public participation in discussing the contents.

But Justice Minister George Kunda dismissed the demands by the civil society as lacking “real issues”.

“As government, we are going ahead to present the bill as soon as we finish working on it…it should be in the next week or so.”

Once presented in Parliament, it is most unlikely to fail as the ruling party enjoys big numbers.

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Africa is indeed a land of contrast. This week on one of the world great leaders and political visionaries, Former South Africa’s president celebrated his 89th birthday with a group of international elder statesmen, Nobel laureates, great entrepreneurs, soccer stars and generally the world acknowledged the birth day of the great icon of liberation, humility and courage. Africa is re-known for its many
resources but at the same time infamous for many ills and
malfunctions.

Ironically despite Africa’s huge natural resources and resourceful populations and many nature’s natural endowments its global share of world trade is somewhere below 1%. It is the same continent besides having a lot of wisdom as enraptured in oral traditions and many other forms of intellect and wisdom indicative theories and cultural development which has produced so many political, social and economical myopias and demagogues.

Politics in Africa remains an anathema, confused and visionless. This does not mean lack of potential but greed, tribalism, corruption, nepotism, jealousies, confusion and selfishness drive politics in Africa. Politics drive economies globally. Confused and reckless politics inevitable destroy economies leading to poverty and suffering. Visionary leadership such as that of Mandela. Theodore Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and others create great countries.

Useless and visionless politics lead to the many failed states found in Africa and most of the third world. What kind of future do countries or zones  like Somalia,  Darfur, Palestine, Afghanistan, present day Iraq, Congo and many others confer to their children and the general citizenry. If you look closely to all the states with such and worse problems (and incidentally most of them are in Africa) it has to do with poor leadership or confused and forced directions given by some forces of global politics with of course a hidden agenda in economics and influence.

Kenya looks to be doing fine. But Kenya needs to do more. The yawning gaps between rich and poor, the scourge of poverty and HIV AIDS, Unemployment, Insecurity, corruption and tribalism are vices and ills to seriously worry about. We are not lacking potential in leadership but to get statesmen kind of people in various levels of leadership has always been tough for Kenya. Promising leaders whether old or youthful disappoint every day. But the potential is there and perhaps it is high time we have people desiring to have a chequered career, biography and great legacies like Mandela. It is not easy but yet not impossible!

By API*APN East African Correspondent

Harrison  Mwirigi  Ikunda,
P.O. Box 51806,
Nairobi – Kenya

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Niamey (Niger) Niger’s President Mamadou Tandja on Wednesday afternoon received in audience the former Chinese hostage, Zhang Guohua, freed Sunday following his abduction by rebels of the Movement of Niger People for Justice (MNJ) in the north of the country, a source close to the Chinese embassy in Niamey told APA Thursday.

Tandja declared that this is an isolated incident that cannot undermine relations between China and Niger”, says Chinese Ambassador to Niger Chen Gonglai, who attended the meeting.

According to him, President Mamadou Tandja is convinced that “the friendly co-operation between the two countries in the various fields will be strengthened”, adding that the head of state “attached a particular attention to the rescue of the Chinese hostage”.

“We commend all those who contributed to the release of our compatriot”, the Chinese diplomat told reporters.

Deputy managing director of the mining company of Agelik, a subsidiary of the China Nuclear Engineering Construction Corporation Group, Zahang Guohua was kidnapped on 6 June on the uranium-bearing site of Teguidan Tessoum, 950 km north, in the region of Agadez.

The MNJ is upset that Chinese companies working in the mining sector in Niger “do not employ local people and invest in basic facilities”.

The abduction of the Chinese national is only “a warning and the MNJ would not demand ransom or mistreat its hostages”, the movement notes.

The MNJ, which claims a status of rebel movement, calls for a better implementation of the 1995 peace accords that put an end to the Tuareg revolt in the 1990s, particularly the clauses providing for their social and economic reintegration and the provision of jobs to the locals by mining companies.

Released on 15 July, Zhang arrived in Niamey, Niger’s capital, on the same day.

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Freetown (Sierra Leone) The UN special court for Sierra Leone on Thursday passed its first sentences on three senior members of the former Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), the military junta that seized power from a democratically elected government in 1997.

Alex Tamba Brima and Santigie Borbor Kanu, the first two defendants, were sentenced to 50 years imprisonment each and the third defendant, Brima Kamara was slammed 45 years.

The three were the first to be sentenced by the court following the end of Sierra Leone’s civil war in 2002.

Due to security reasons, the three, who are likely to serve their sentences in European jails instead of Sierra Leone will have the right to appeal their conviction.

Among other things, the three were charged with war crimes including murder, rape, the mutilation of civilians, burning villages, as well as conscripting thousands of child soldiers and forcing others to work as labourers in diamond mines.

“The three accused persons have committed violations of human rights in which civilians were mutilated, while others were killed and some burnt in their houses,” Justice Julia Sebutinde said, while passing sentence in Freetown, the capital.

The court has indicted 12 people in connection with the war, including the former Liberian President

Charles Taylor, who is currently on trial at the International War Crimes Tribunal at The Hague, accused of backing the former rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF).

Three of those indicted by the court, the RUF leader Foday Sankoh, his deputy, Sam Bockarie (General Mosquito) and the leader of the pro-government militia; the Kamajors, Sam Hinga Norman, died before their verdicts were delivered.

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Lusaka (Zambia) The Zambian High Court sitting in Lusaka on Friday ordered government officials to release former President, Frederick Chiluba’s passport to enable him travel to South Africa for medical attention.

High Court Deputy Registrar Jones Chinyama issued the orders after Chiluba’s lawyers applied to the court to have the document returned to him during hearings held in the Zambian capital.

Chinyama, however, said that the former president should be mindful of his court appearance on 14 August 2007 to answer criminal charges with two other colleagues for theft by public servants.

The former leader is jointly charged with Access Financial Services director Aaron Chungu and Lusaka businessman Faustin Kabwe for theft of about US$500,000.

The accused have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

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Lagos (Nigeria) The Secretary to the Nigerian government, Alhaji Babagana Kingibe, Wednesday observed that problems arising from wars and conflicts had hindered development in the ECOWAS region.

Addressing a three-day retreat organised to tackle the problem of refugees and displaced persons in the West Africa sub-region organised by the United Nations High Commission for refugees (UNHCR) in Jos, about 300km from Abuja, Kingibe said there was the need to prevent conflicts through good governance and accountability.

In a welcome address, the UNHCR Representative in Nigeria and ECOWAS, Mr Alphonse Malanda, said that the retreat was planned to find solutions to the problem of refugees and displaced persons.

This, he explained was to pave the way for active collaboration within member states in finding solutions to the problem.

He added that the retreat would assess the implementation of an earlier retreat held in Dakar, Senegal, on integration in the sub-region.

Malanda said that the commission was working to restore normalcy in Cote d’ Ivoire and expressed happiness that peace had also returned to Togo.

The commission, he added, supported the objectives of the ECOWAS Refugees Commission to maintain peace in the sub-region.

Malanda expressed happiness that ECOWAS was working for an integrated sub-region where all citizens would enjoy freedom of movement.

In her remarks, the deputy governor of Plateau State, Mrs Pauline Tallen, listed the series of conflicts that had ravaged the sub-region, causing refugee influx.

Tallen said that Plateau State had its share of upheavals and that the state government was working to promote and sustain peaceful co-existence among citizens.

She said fairness and justice to all citizens were the major elements for promoting development and that any responsible government should work towards promoting justice.

The retreat, which is organised by UNHCR for ambassadors from ECOWAS member states, is being chaired by Burkina Faso. It is on the theme: “Search for durable solutions to the problems of refugees and displaced persons within the West Africa sub-region’’, and it is being attended by diplomats from Guinea, Niger, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Mali, Liberia and Cote d’Ivoire.

The ECOWAS Commission was also represented.

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