WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange ordered by  a London court to report in person daily to Beccles police station in Suffolk, eastern England is an easy target for murder because those who want to see him dead can easily get him when going to the police station.

The court should not have done it this way. It is not impossible for the police to control his whereabouts because they know where he stays. It is better for him to be placed  in house arrest until the case is determined than having specified time when to report daily to the police. His daily visit to the station is putting him in danger.

The American government is very angry at him, and it is not impossible for them to organise for his kidnapping when he is going to the police station. He will simply be kidnapped and taken to America and if he resists, something awful may happen to him during the struggle and the world will never know who attempted to kidnap him causing his death in the process.

Remember this is a man whose works continues to cause the big power embarrassment on a daily basis through his release of secret diplomatic cables exposing American diplomats to hate all over the world. Many world leaders do not want to meet the American ambassadors serving in their countries because they report dirt in secret cables to the home country.

What we are saying is a wake up call. All those who love the work Assange is doing should ensure that he is protected all day, even when he is reporting to the police station daily.

We wrote earlier that the women in Sweden were not raped or molested but that we believe they want Assange’s money and to share his fame. When one analyses things surrounding the case, it is clear that the women wanted sex from him and he gave them, only that disagreements on the way forward – to have  permanent relationship was not a thing Assange wanted, thus, making the women to decide to cause him pain and destroy his work. Shame on them – the two Swedish women!

A court in London will hold a full hearing on whether to extradite him to Sweden to face rape charges. The case will be heard on February 7, 2011.

It is expected that thousands of his supporters will travel to London to give him moral support. It will be an embarrassment to extradite him to Sweden on false charges brought up due to lies by the two women who even after claiming rape had occurred were able to organise a party for him and take him to movies.

By Chief editor Korir, African Press International.

KENYA-SOMALIA: Refugees fear increased police harassment

Photo: Carolina Montenegro/IRIN

Several Somali refugees in Eastleigh told IRIN they felt unfairly targeted by the police

NAIROBI, 22 December 2010 (IRIN) – Somali nationals living in the Kenyan capital say they fear increased harassment by the police after a deadly grenade explosion at a bus station on 20 December.

“Whenever incidents occur, such as the explosion, the first people targeted are Muslims in general and Somalis in particular,” Ali Mohamud, a member of parliament in Somalia, told IRIN in the district of Eastleigh, where many Somalis live.

“This has adversely affected refugees because they tend to get arrested whether or not they have legal documentation,” he added.

While Kenyan police have identified one of the bombers as a Tanzanian national among the would-be passengers of the Uganda-bound bus, officials in both Nairobi and Kampala suspect the blast, in which one bomber died and dozens were injured, may be linked to Al-Shabab, the main Islamist insurgency fighting the transitional government in Somalia.

Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for twin suicide bombings that killed 79 people in Kampala in July. No clear link was found between the group and a 3 December blast caused by a similar Russian-made grenade in Eastleigh, in which one policeman died.

Mohamud dismissed as nonsense the perception that many Somalis in Eastleigh supported Al-Shabab, pointing out that the insurgency was the very reason many people had fled Somalia for Kenya.

Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe told IRIN the force had stepped up law enforcement with regard to illegal immigrants because there seemed to be a wave of increased arrivals from neighbouring countries.

“In the last two weeks alone, we have netted over 300 illegal immigrants and over 800 in the last three months,” Kiraithe said. “In fact, there is no crackdown as such; this is just normal law enforcement, only that we have increased our efforts to protect the citizens against the threat of terrorism.”

In Eastleigh, IRIN spoke to several Somali refugees who said they felt unfairly targeted whenever incidents such as the grenade explosion occurred.

Arrests

Mohamud said it took about two to three days to be released from police custody even when a refugee was legal. “I don’t see why someone should be arrested when they have documents; the police should let them go once they establish that they are in the country legally,” he said.

Jama Osman, 37, a football coach who is also a human rights activist, told IRIN: “I have personal experience of these ‘arrests’; it once happened as I went to Kenyatta National Hospital to seek treatment, I showed them [the police] my documents from UNHCR [the UN Refugee Agency] but they insisted I had no right to be in the country. They then took me to a side street and one of them held my neck tightly as the other one took all the valuables I had in my pockets. I was then released.”

Osman said he later informed UNHCR and the Refugee Council of Kenya, a non-governmental advocacy group, but nothing came of it.

“For us now, we are living in fear of increased harassment and it does not matter whether one has papers or not, you will only be released once you have parted with some money,” said Osman.

Somali elders in Eastleigh are arranging to contact the Kenyan government, through the Refugee Council of Kenya, seeking action over police harassment, Ali Mussa said.

“As Somali elders, we would like to let the Kenyan government know that we are unhappy about the barbaric acts of some policemen,” he said. “We would like to see the government take action on Somalis who have committed crimes but it is unfair to target only Somalis when attacks occur whose perpetrators are yet to be identified.”

Photo: Julius Mwelu/IRIN

Police action has negatively affected business in Eastleigh, according to Mohammed Mohamoud Gutale, a member of the Eastleigh Business District Association (file photo)

Blow to business

Mohammed Mohamoud Gutale, a member of the Eastleigh Business District Association, said the police action had negatively affected business.

“Nowadays, because of some of these crackdowns, Eastleigh has acquired a reputation of a place of lawlessness, an area with smugglers, money launderers and many other criminals,” Gutale said. “This has put off many of our customers and affected business and the livelihoods of the people who live in Eastleigh.”

Gutale said the business association had contact the Nairobi provincial police officer and the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Internal Security and presented their complaints, “but no further action has been taken”.

On 10 December, two NGOs, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Kituo Cha Sheria – a centre for legal empowerment – expressed concern over the police’s “indiscriminate” raiding homes of refugees and random arrests of those suspected of being in the country illegally.

Laban Osoro, legal advocate and coordinator with Kituo Cha Sheria, which partners with the IRC to aid urban refugees, said: “They are using the excuse of needing to verify documents to arrest people and keep them detained for longer. This is extremely worrying.”

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source http://www.irinnews.org

ETHIOPIA-KENYA: Rebel group wreaks havoc in northeast Kenya

Photo: Siegfried Modola/IRIN

Armed rebels are a constant source of fear for civilians in northeast Kenya (file photo)

MOYALE, 23 December 2010 (IRIN) – The presence of an Ethiopian rebel group in northern Kenya, coupled with operations by security forces from both countries, has caused numerous casualties and displacement among local residents, who also complain of arbitrary arrests.

“They are a menace,” Moyale District Commissioner David Rotich said of the secessionist Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), which first rose up against Ethiopian authorities three decades ago.

“They pose a major threat to security and development and are linked to a group of gun dealers and poachers across the region,” he alleged.

Residents of Moyale, Isiolo and Marsabit districts told IRIN that civilians were often detained by security agents who accused them of belonging to the OLF, or harassed by the rebels on suspicion of collaborating with the authorities.

Terror

A trader at Walda centre in Sololo, Moyale district, said several business people had to close their operations because of a wave of terror acts allegedly arising from the OLF presence in the area.

“Walda trading centre is a risky and difficult area to do business because it is considered the main military base for OLF rebels; Ethiopian troops frequently attack us while pursuing the rebel fighters who also attack, abduct, kill and threaten local residents,” the trader said.

Identifying himself only as Wario, a hotelier at Turbi – where at least 80 people were killed four years ago – said the OLF, often comprising Kenyans and Ethiopians, once ordered him close his restaurant business because of his ethnicity.

“Our county council and government issues permits and licences for all traders to conduct business but [I believe] OLF makes the final decision; I was forced to close my restaurant because my crime was simple, I am a Gabra and therefore considered an enemy,” Wario said.

Most of the OLF fighters in northern Kenya are from the Borana community.

A retired chief from Sololo said: “The OLF was at first a pride to the Borana community but it is now a monster; it has killed many of our neighbours.”

On 15 December, 15 people died in Moyale and Marsabit districts after fierce fighting between the OLF and a splinter group in Badarero, Walda and Kate areas.

A Turbi resident, identified only as Ndege, said hundreds of families from his Gabra community remained displaced.

“We have suffered greatly at the hands of OLF; many people have been killed, many families are poor after losing their livestock to OLF, many have moved far away to look for manual work, other are recipients of relief food, beggars in towns and some young orphaned girls have been forced to work as commercial sex workers,” Ndege said.

Police operations

In November, Kenya police launched an operation to flush out the OLF rebels. However, residents said dozens of innocent youth were netted in the operation.

Moyale police commander Nathaniel Langat, told IRIN: “We have intelligence reports, what we are doing now is very different from the past operations, it has achieved a lot, the rebels have fled, many have crossed to Ethiopia, the government could not just sit and watch its citizens being killed, abducted and threatened by this bandits.”

Wenslas Ong’ayo, the Upper Eastern province regional commissioner, said the operation was being conducted “with a human face” and that no incidents had been reported so far. He added that all those arrested were found with weapons and had no permission to be in the country.

However, Wajir human rights network official Mukhtar Nur said an assessment conducted by the group established that local residents were living in fear of security forces and rebel fighters roaming the area.

“Young herders are no longer going out to look after their animals for fear of arrests,” he said. “Women are also afraid to go out to look for water or firewood because some have been arrested along the way, held the whole day and accused of ferrying supplies to the rebels.”

• Meanwhile, in Nairobi, some 200 ethnic Oromos from Ethiopia complained of police harassment at a protest rally on 23 December.

“The police come to our houses in the middle of the night, abusing women, ripping up our refugee documents,” Tsegaye Gudeta, spokesman for the Oromo Refugee Community Welfare Association, told IRIN.

“Besides detention, some of us are facing daily disappearances and abuse. We were afraid for our lives, have no other place to go and we couldn’t wait any more,” he added.

The protest was held outside the UN Refugee Agency, which Gudeta said should work with Kenyan police to increase awareness of refugees’ rights.

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source http://www.irinnews.org

SOUTH AFRICA: New ARV tender halves drug prices

Photo: Kate Holt/IRIN

Cheaper drugs

JOHANNESBURG, 20 December 2010 (PlusNews) – South Africa’s newly announced tender for antiretrovirals (ARVs) has halved the price the government will pay for the life-saving drugs; however, fixed dose combinations, which would decrease the pill burden, are still largely absent from the deal.

With estimated savings of about US$685 million from end-January, South African Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said the programme could now afford to treat twice as many HIV-positive patients as before. Few fixed dose combinations have been included in the new tender, however, due to continued registration delays with the Medicines Control Council (MCC).

As part of a campaign to test 15 million South Africans for HIV by April 2011, at least 4.8 million people had been tested as of June 2010. More than 900,000 people were diagnosed HIV-positive as a result; Motsoaledi said he hoped the savings earned through the new drug tender would help these new HIV patients.

South Africa has an HIV prevalence rate of about 18 percent, and is estimated to have the world’s largest ARV programme. In a budget speech made earlier this year, Motsoaledi stated that despite the country’s huge economies of scale in ARV procurement, it still paid significantly higher prices for its ARVs than other countries.

In 2008, the country paid about $23 for a month’s supply of a 300mg tablet of the ARV tenofovir; in 2011, the country will pay just less than $8.

While the tender’s prices are new, its drug suppliers are not as 10 long-standing pharmaceutical companies will continue to supply the national programme with ARVs although in different proportions. The increased competitiveness of the new tender was cited by Motsoaledi as one of the reasons behind new, lower drug pricing alongside advancements in the production and acquisition of ARV ingredients.

Registration delays

According to Andy Gray, a senior lecturer at the department of therapeutics and medicines management at South Africa’s University of KwaZulu-Natal, the tender has only included dual fixed-dose combinations, such as a tenofovir and emtricitabine, in limited amounts. The tender makes no provision for triple combination pills, including those that would add nevirapine to this combination to form South Africa’s first-line regimen.

According to a statement released by Section 27, a public interest legal centre, triple fixed-dose combinations were not included because most, while approved by agencies such as the US Food and Drug Administration, have not yet been approved by South Africa’s MCC.

Fixed-dose combinations have been shown to reduce pharmacy errors in dispensing and to ease treatment adherence.

Only half the battle

While activists from the South African AIDS lobby group, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), and Section 27 have welcomed the new tender, they continue to call for improvements in the tender’s terms and greater transparency.

According to a statement released by senior researcher and director of policy and research at Section 27, Jonathan Berger, the tender makes no provision for a reduction in drug prices should the prices of the active ingredients decline. He also added that, as in past tenders, the government has yet to release any documentation about the selection process or how the tender was allocated.

The statement also called for the speedy implementation of the newly established Central Procurement Authority, which was approved at a recent National Health Council meeting.

The new body is expected to draw on the lessons learned from the new ARV tender to push for lower prices on other health-related commodities and deal with issues of late payments to manufacturers that have been blamed for past shortages in ARVs, HIV testing kits and tuberculosis drugs, according to a department of health statement.

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source http://www.irinnews.org