Accra (Ghana) – A group calling itself the Concerned Friends of Kufuor has pledged a brand new, custom-made BMW 7 Series as gift to former President J.A. Kufuor. The gift, they say is to put an end to the protracted controversy over state vehicles allocated to the ex-president.

It is three months into the Atta Mills administration, but the controversy over the allocation of state vehicles to former President Kufuor appears far from over. Eleven state vehicles said to be in the custody of the former president have all been withdrawn while the government has offered him four other vehicles.

Mr. Kufuor had early on rejected the state’s offer to swap two BMWs with two Chryslers, an issue which became a huge public controversy.

Even before the state honours its constitutional obligation, the Concerned Friends of Kufuor says their gift should be enough to end the controversy over the cars. Spokesperson of the group, Alfred Kwame Larbi says the brand new BMW Seven series will be ready in three months.

The group, he said is made up of businessmen based in the UK, some of who are friends of the former president. Citing a rubber plantation in Tarkwa, Mr. Larbi said some of the businessmen were beneficiaries of the huge investment atmosphere created by the former president and will be glad to offer a token in appreciation.

The former president has been officially informed about the decision of the group and has expressed his gratitude.

Former Information Minister, Stephen Asamoah Boateng has also confirmed a similar project aimed at raising funds to buy a new vehicle for the former president.

source.Accra Mail (Ghana)

Mbabane (Swaziland) - She is popularly known as sitjifiri (beautiful and well-kempt woman in SiSwati). Sylvia Khuzwayo travels across the Shiselweni region, in the southern part of the Kingdom of Swaziland, giving testimonials to communities on her experience of living with HIV.

Khuzwayo, a mother of three who has been living with HIV for eleven years, is an “expert client” for international humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières, which advocates an expanded role for people living with HIV/AIDS in fighting the spread of the disease.

IPS: When did you find out that you were infected with HIV?
Sylvia Khuzwayo: I tested positive for HIV in 1998 and I started treatment in 2001. [At the time] we used to buy ARVs and I used to spend $90 on the tablets monthly.

IPS: What motivated you to get tested?
SK: When my husband died, I joined an HIV support group called Swaziland Aids Support Organisation (SASO). Although I wasn’t aware of my status then, I just took an interest in SASO because they opened up their membership to people who also didn’t know their status. I liked working with SASO because I enjoy doing charity work. At SASO they motivated me to get tested and members were very supportive when I disclosed my status.

IPS: Now you work as an expert client at MSF. What does your work entail?
SK: Expert clients are people who have tested positive to HIV and are open about their status. Expert clients draw from their own experiences to help people living with HIV in their communities come to terms with living with the virus. We give testimonials on how it feels to be living with HIV. Many people have since realised that living with HIV is not as bad as they thought it was. We also encourage early testing and disclosure to their families and friends.

IPS: How does disclosing one’s status help the person to cope with living with HIV?
SK: Openness helps to reduce stigma and discrimination. In the communities people still believe in witchcraft and when somebody dies they start blaming some family members for bewitching a person who has died from AIDS-related illnesses. Disclosing your status to your family earlier would help do away with finger pointing on the cause of death once a person dies of AIDS-related illnesses. A lot of people are still using traditional healers and in cases of HIV/AIDS we encourage patients to use clinics and hospitals.

IPS: What qualifications should an expert client have?
SK: An expert client is someone who is a role model to the community. Such a person should demonstrate that indeed there is life after being infected with HIV. They must be clean and show progress in their lives. There is no academic qualification needed because expert clients use testimonials to educate people about HIV/AIDS. They don’t necessarily need academic qualification but they must try to get as much information as possible on HIV/AIDS because people are looking up to them. There are so many misconceptions out there and expert clients should be on top of the game to give people the correct information.

IPS: What has helped you to allay the fears that people have about HIV/AIDS?
SK: Apart from reading, I also use the internet and listen a lot to the radio to get more knowledge about HIV/AIDS. Remember HIV/AIDS is very dynamic and it keeps changing all the time and an expert client has to use different media to enrich their knowledge. I also interact with doctors at MSF to get more information from them. It is also important for expert clients to undergo training on HIV/AIDS. I did a three-month course on HIV counselling recently which had different components including home-based care, palliative care, positive living, stress management and public speaking.

IPS: What impact have expert clients had in the fight against HIV/AIDS?
SK: Expert clients have made a lot of difference in the communities they live in. They have helped a lot of people to be open about their status.
For people on treatment, you find that most of them undergo side effects such as losing your body shape because your bums would shrink while your tummy and breasts enlarge. This is something I went through and I was really frustrated. As an expert client who has been through this, you have to encourage people to accept their new bodies. I always tell people that it’s better to have poor body shape than no life at all.

IPS: So where does one find expert clients?
SK: Expert clients are found only at clinics. We speak to people from communities who visit the clinics. But there is a serious need for expert clients to be in communities such that when there is meeting at chiefdom, an expert client should be there to address people on HIV/AIDS. At MSF we emphasise that expert clients should work in clinics from their communities so that they relate to people who know them very well. This also provides job opportunities to a lot of people out there.

IPS: Do we have as many men we women as expert clients?
SK: Unfortunately a lot of men are still afraid of being open about their status. Out of eleven expert clients at MSF we have only one man. We don’t only need men as expert clients but we also need people in government leadership, such as a minister, who will disclose their status so that people see that indeed life after HIV.

source.Inter Press Service (IPS)

Lagos (Nigeria) — The rising violence in the oil-rich Niger Delta has continued to take its toll on Nigeria’s revenue as the report by the Niger Delta Technical Committee revealed that the country has lost at least $23.7 billion to oil theft and sabotage in the first nine months of 2008.

The report, which also raised fears that the crisis may soon worsen is coming barely three weeks after the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) announced a shortfall in oil revenue from average N330 billion (US $2.2 billion) monthly recorded in 2008 to about N150 billion (US $1 billion) in January 2009. The Presidential Commi-ttee report obtained by Dow Jones news wire, stated that attacks on installations in the region resulted “in shut downs and spillages with consequent losses in revenue estimated at about $20.7 billion.”

According to the Ledum Mitee – led committee “this amount (of $20.7 billion) is exclusive of another estimated $3 billion lost to oil bunkering (theft) over the first seven months of this year alone.”The report, which was based on an average of 700,000 barrels a day lost during the months from January to September multiplied by each month’s average Nigerian crude prices, also added that “there are unaccounted costs in human misery, with about 1,000 persons killed within the same period and another 300 taken as hostages.”

Confirming the figures, Mitee, who is a political leader in Ogoniland said “If we were to buy peace, we would be spending less than what we are losing in the crisis”. The committee was set up on December 1, by President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to resolve the crisis in the Niger Delta. The report is yet to be made public.

Militants’ attacks and crude theft since 2006 have resulted in the shut in of more than 500,000 barrels a day of production. Prior to the escalation of the crisis, Nigeria produced between 2.5 million and 2.6 million barrels of oil per day. The current production fluctuates between 1.6 and 2.2 million barrels a day.

The report had proposed an amnesty for militants if they are willing to disarm, an offer the militants have however rejected.But “judging by the level of angst we perceive, we share the views of those who believe that there is a looming danger that the present Niger Delta crisis could easily escalate. Based on the numbers disclosed, “the cost of failure is too enormous to contemplate,” the report added.

The Group Managing Director of NNPC, Dr. Mohammed Bakindo, NNPC had at a recent meeting between the Senate committee on petroleum ( upstream) and stakeholders in the oil and gas industry announced a shortfall in oil revenue from average N330 billion (US $2.2 billion) monthly recorded in 2008 to about N150 billion (US $1 billion) in January 2009. This he said represents a 50 percent fall in the oil revenue flow compared to that of 2008. According to him the drop is occasioned by the slide in the price of crude which dropped from as high as N22,500 (US $150) per barrel in 2008 to as low as N6,450 (US $43) per barrel this year. “In terms of pricing, whereas in 2008, our crude strength averaged $97 per barrel, in the year 2009, as at January, the average basket is hovering around $43 a barrel,” said Bakindo.

The GMD added that the decline in daily crude production from two-million barrels per day in 2008 to the current level of 1.6 million barrels per day, is taking a heavy toll on the economy. The NNPC group managing director observed that the slowdown in investment in oil and gas production, insecurity in the oil- producing Niger Delta and OPEC quotas are some of the key challenges facing the industry. Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation and the world’s eighth-largest crude oil exporter.

source.This Day (Nigeria)

Lusaka (Zambia) — Africa’s contribution to the global economy will continue to be low if there is no investment in infrastructure, delegates heard at the North-South Corridor Conference in Lusaka, where 1.2 billion dollars was raised.

Zambia’s President Rupiah Banda told the conference, which ended yesterday, that there is a need to invest in infrastructure development and the energy sector to reverse the continent’s low contribution to the global economy.

Donors pledged 1.2 billion dollars on the first day of the conference on Apr 6 for the North-South Corridor’s infrastructure and trade facilitation programme. More than 1,000 officials, donors, businesspeople, ministers, diplomats and others from Africa and elsewhere attended the event in Lusaka, Zambia.

The North-South Corridor, which traverses eight countries in eastern and southern Africa, is a combination of two existing corridors (Durban Corridor and the Dar Es Salaam Corridor), linking the port of Durban and others in southern Africa to the east African port of Dar Es Salaam. The Durban corridor also has direct links into the Beira, Maputo, Walvis Bay, Benguela and Lobito corridors.

From the port of Dar Es Salaam, the corridors link to central Africa. From the border post of Tunduma (Tanzania), the corridor links Moyale (Kenya) corridor and the northern corridor, linking the port of Mombasa to the Eastern DRC through Uganda and Rwanda. This provides physical interconnectivity between eastern and southern Africa.

The high-level investment conference was a tripartite meeting of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the Economic Community for East Africa (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki, chairperson of COMESA, Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni representing EAC and South Africa’s President Kgalema Motlanthe representing SADC attended the meeting, in addition to the host, Banda.

The three regional economic communities (RECs) have pledged to work together towards the creation of a free trade area across their 26 member states. The corridor is the first major project under the newly formed Tripartite Task Force.

“The challenging economic environment, which was brought into sharper focus at last week’s Group of 20 Summit, brings urgency to the efforts of COMESA, EAC and SADC to bring together our respective regional integration programmes. This is in order to further enlarge our markets, unlock our productive potential, increase levels of intra-African trade and enhance our regional prospects,” Motlanthe told the conference.

During the proceedings, the World Bank committed 500 million dollars to projects along the North-South Corridor, with an additional 500 million dollars committed to investing in projects that are significantly complementary to the North-South Corridor. The European Commission (EC) pledged 150 million dollars, the African Development Bank (ADB) 380 million dollars for projects on the North-South Corridor, in addition to its 160 million dollars in sections of the Ncala Corridor. The latter is complementary to the North-South Corridor and provides an alternative route to the sea. The UK’s Department for International Development committed to 100 million pounds over the next five years for projects on the North-South Corridor, aligned to the priorities of the RECs.

The RECs – COMESA, EAC and SADC – will implement an extensive aid-for-trade programme encompassing transport, power and trade facilitation projects along the North-South Corridor.

The three leaders representing the three RECs announced plans to implement critical reforms to facilitate cross-border trade, reduce transport delays and costs and promote public and private sector investment. The North-South Corridor was selected for the aid-for-trade pilot programme because it is the busiest corridor in the region in terms of values and volumes of freight. Poor road and rail infrastructure and long waiting times at borders and ports create significant costs and hamper regional producers’ ability to access regional and international markets.

“If we are to realise our vision of creating a vibrant and integrated free trade area, it is vital that we develop the region’s physical infrastructure and capacity to trade. That is why the North-South Corridor pilot aid-for-trade programme is so important to our progress,” Kibaki explained.

Another innovation is the holistic and regional approach the programme takes to transport system planning and maintenance, the aim of which is to give producers in the region access to a greater choice of road and rail networks. The North-South Corridor programme includes the maintenance and upgrading of roads, establishing a system to more efficiently control axle loads, reduce border post delays and rehabilitate rail track along the corridor. Faster border crossings and improved port facilities, railways and highways will enable producers and traders, especially in landlocked countries, to transport their goods quickly and access regional and international markets more easily, stimulating economic growth and inward investment.

In addition to upgrading infrastructure, the initiative will also simplify regulatory processes to speed up cross-border clearing procedures, harmonise transit and transport regulations and simplify administrative requirements.

World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director General Pascal Lamy said aid-for-trade is essential to support Africa’s own economic growth agenda while the North-South Corridor is an example of a highly innovative regional aid-for-trade approach that can transform competitiveness and enhance regional trade flows.

source.Inter Press Service (IPS)

Freetown (Sierra Leone) – Freetown — Special Court for Sierra Leone yesterday sentenced former leaders of the Revolutionary United Front, RUF Issa Sesay, Morris Kallon and Augustine Gbao to 52, 40 and 25 years respectively.

But the 52 year sentence slammed on the first accused Issa Sesay turned out to be the highest ever handed down by the UN backed hybrid court. His lawyer Wayne Jordash described the decision as the most unfair result of a trial that was also unfair in the history of international tribunal.

“The trial chamber did not do their job properly from the beginning to the end of the trial,” he said adding “The chamber abandoned legal principles and the notion of fairness. We are not surprised about the outcome of the trial. We are going to appeal in every charge of the indictment.”

Kallon’s lead defense counsel, Charles Taku said the judgment by the chamber was a mockery to international justice. “The judgment can satisfy political will but it does not meet international standards. “We think the whole trial was more about politics instead of law and justice,” he said.

The three were found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the country’s decade-long civil war. Sesay and Kallon were each found guilty of 16 counts of the indictment whilst Gbao was found guilty on 14 counts. Presiding judge Justice Pierre Boutet said aggravating and mitigating effects were both dealt with separately, adding, “We give consideration to the nature and physical impact of the crimes including their scale.”

He said the gravity of Sesay’s crimes and conduct reaches the highest level, noting that Sesay and Kallon contributed significantly to the joint criminal enterprise.

“Civilians had been shot and killed. They were made to choose between their lives or those of their family members,” he said.

The men received separate sentences for each of the crimes. Justice Boutet said the sentences would be served concurrently and that time spent in detention by the three men would be considered. Sesay’s sentence is the longest ever handed out by the Special Court.

Special Court prosecutor Stephen Rapp welcomed the sentencing judgment of the three leaders of the RUF. He said the sentences recognize the gravity of the terrible atrocities for which the three men have been held responsible, adding, “Most importantly they honour the victims who suffered because of the acts and decisions of these individuals.”

“The judgment of the trial chamber has helped re-established justice and the rule of law in Sierra Leone, without which lasting peace and development is not possible,” he said.

Meanwhile, John Cammegh, lead counsel for Gbao, also expressed his disappointment with the sentences, saying his client was “convicted and sentenced without having been found to have fired a single shot or have ordered a single shot.”

He said they were optimistic about the appeal, noting that Justice Boutet’s dissension was unusual in international criminal law, and that Gbao was “found basically not guilty of 90 per cent of the allegations against him.”

Appeals must be filed within two weeks. The appeals process is expected to finish in September or October of this year.

source.Concord Times (Sierra Leone)