FACTBOX-Human rights still poor in Africa, US says

Feb 25 (Reuters) - Human rights remained poor in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa in 2008, according to the U.S. State Department's global survey released on Wednesday.

Following is a summary of some of its findings:

SUDAN

The government's human rights record remained poor as it bombed villages, killed civilians and collaborated with militias in the troubled Darfur region, and rebel groups there continued to commit serious abuses as well. Both sides beat and raped civilians, recruited child soldiers and harassed aid groups. Serious abuses continued in the country's southern region as well, including extrajudicial killings and beatings.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

The government's human rights record remained poor. Internal conflicts had an extremely negative effect on security and human rights during the year. Government control over many regions remained weak, and civilian authorities generally did not control the security forces, which committed unlawful killings, torture and rape, recruited child soldiers and forced civilian labor. Life-threatening conditions persisted in prison facilities. Armed groups continued to commit serious abuses, some of which may have constituted war crimes.

ZIMBABWE

The government continued to engage in the pervasive and systematic abuse of human rights, which increased during the year. President Robert Mugabe's ruling party manipulated the political process through violence, corruption and intimidation. Unlawful killings and motivated abductions increased and prison conditions were life-threatening. The government continued to evict citizens and demolish homes and marketplaces and repress freedom of speech, press and assembly, and it worsened food insecurity by blocking aid groups' operations.

ETHIOPIA

Continued fighting between government forces and an insurgent movement in the Ogaden region resulted in allegations of abuses by all sides, including diversion of food aid. There were fewer reports of extrajudicial killings but abuses persisted. Other reported violations include arbitrary arrest, poor prison conditions, torture and beatings, police and judicial corruption, and restrictions on freedoms of assembly and the press and exploitation of women and children.

SOMALIA

The country's poor human rights situation deteriorated further during the year, exacerbated by the absence of effective governance institutions and rule of law and the widespread availability of weapons.

SOUTH AFRICA

The government generally respected the rights of its citizens but violations included use of excessive force by police, vigilante and mob violence, severe overcrowding of prisons, pervasive violence against women, and child labor.

NIGERIA

The government's human rights record remained poor and officials at all levels continued to commit serious abuses. Security forces acted with impunity and committed extrajudicial killings, torture and rape, and arrested citizens arbitrarily. Corruption, vigilante killings, forced labor and restrictions on freedoms of speech and assembly remained problematic.

(Reporting by Andy Sullivan in Washington; Editing by Bill Trott)

Source:Reuters

The Enrichment of Africa's French Allies

By BRUCE CRUMLEY / PARIS Friday, May. 08, 2009

French President Nicolas Sarkozy (L) stands with his Congolese counterpart Denis Sassou-Nguesso (R) at the beginning of a state dinner at the presidential palace in Brazzaville on March 26, 2009.

ERIC FEFERBERG/AFP/Getty

It is a shame for France to tolerate these corrupt African leaders. I though France had learnt from the ELF corruption scandal in 2003

President Nicolas Sarkozy may have promised on the campaign trail to clean up the less than savory relationship France maintains with various strongman leaders in its former African colonies, but that's proved to be easier said than done. So, France's judiciary is looking to step in where diplomats have been leery to tread, by filing corruption charges against three African heads of state.

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This week, France's senior investigating magistrate, Françoise Desset, ruled that a case brought by the anticorruption organization Transparency International against three African leaders had sufficient merit to warrant a full judicial investigation. The complaint accuses the trio — Gabon's President Omar Bongo, President Denis Sassou-Nguesso of the Republic of Congo, and Equatorial Guinea leader Teodoro Obiang Nguema — of pillaging their impoverished nations and treating state money as their personal wealth to finance acquisitions in France. The ruling means Desset can use her judicial authority to examine banking and other records to determine the origins of funds maintained by the three in France, and used to buy property here. (See pictures of the Pope in Africa.)

All three leaders fit the stereotype of the African "Big Man," having seized and maintained power by force. Each one, Transparency International alleges, has also used his position to enrich himself. That, French foreign-policy specialists say, has been done with the complicity and connivance of successive French governments maintaining the traditional Françafrique policy of retaining influence among former colonies. French lawyers for each of the leaders have flatly refuted the allegations. In Gabon — where Bongo is in temporary seclusion to mourn the death of his wife — government spokesman Alain Akouala Atipault assured that "there's nothing concrete in this affair, and there will be nothing legally concrete." Though French officials initially refused to comment on Desset's ruling, Paris prosecutor, Jean-Claude Marin, announced Thursday he had appealed her decision to investigate the claim.

"Françafrique is a Gaullist creation that integrated leaders from France's African sphere as virtual members of the French political and strategic élite," explains Antoine Glaser, a specialist on Franco-African relations, and author of the recent book Sarko in Africa. "That relationship has been based on French recognition of services rendered, and meant the interests of African leaders and their families that make up the first circle of power have come before the actual populations they're supposed to represent."

France's coddling, critics have long complained, has allowed its client regimes in Africa to quash political opposition, shackle democracy and siphon off untold fortunes from the national coffers for their personal use — even donations to French political parties of all stripes. According to the Transparency International complaint that Desset has decided to investigate, the Bongo and Sassou-Nguesso families hold 70 and 111 bank accounts in France respectively, and own a total of 31 pricey homes or buildings in and around Paris. They also boast entire fleets of cars in France. Listed in the Obiang Nguema family's holdings are two luxury automobiles and a $44.2 million private jet (though the Equatorial Guinean first family has snubbed Paris' real estate market in favor of a $45 million property in Malibu).

What's wrong with that? Nothing, according to Sassou-Nguesso — who publicly pooh-poohed a 2007 French corruption complaint against him, noting that "leaders from around the world have châteaux and palaces in France, whether they're from the Gulf, Europe, or Africa." (See pictures of South Africa.)

But where the previous investigation failed, Desset has chosen to officially investigate the embezzlement charges raised by Transparency International — and braved the anticipated appeal by France's top prosecutor against the investigation. Indeed, if the investigation makes it all the way to court, some observers say it could be the first blow that eventually brings the understandings of Françafrique crashing down.

"No matter the merits and competencies of these leaders," Transparency's lawyer William Bourdon ironically noted, "no one can seriously believe that their holdings could have been obtained as the fruit of their labor alone."

Still, the African leaders under investigation in France aren't quaking just yet. Aware that the Paris prosecutor's office twice previously rejected Transparency's request as legally unfounded, they were among the many expecting that Desset's decision to investigate would be appealed. Many observers note that the prosecutor's office is filled by officials appointed by politicians that may be reluctant to see Paris' relations with African leaders aired. Some of France's less-than-savory clients in Africa have previously threatened to bring down political heavyweights in Paris who also benefited from Françafrique if the situation were to change to their disadvantage.

Still, Glaser believes the case may eventually be allowed to proceed once efforts to stop it have been rebuffed by the courts. That would allow Sarkozy plausible deniability before vulnerable African allies, yet help him to jettisonFrançafrique policies that he has tried to end as promised, but was instead forced to fall back on in crisis situations.

"When France moved to save Chad's government from surging rebels, its forces came in from Gabon — just one example of how Sarkozy found himself chained to the realities of old Françafrique," says Glaser. "But France no longer has the money, forces, or desire to pay the price to be able to act unilaterally in Africa. Meanwhile, I think Sarkozy sees Françafrique is dying whether people like it or not. This legal case suggests he's not the only one recognizing that, and turned to a new order of affairs."