Politics

1, December 2017

‘Merkel’s party, SPD agree to enter coalition talks’ ⁰

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, her Bavarian ally Horst Seehofer, and SPD Party leader Martin Schulz agreed during a meeting late on Thursday to enter into talks to find a way out of the recent political impasse in forming a coalition, a party official said on Friday.

The leaders of the three parties discussed various options for forming a coalition government, including a Merkel-led minority government, but they voiced skepticism about the latter option, said the party official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity and on the condition the party not be named.

Merkel has been looking for a coalition partner after her center-right bloc lost support to the far right in Sept. 24 elections and her attempts to form a three-way tie-up with the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and the Greens failed.

Public opinion also appeared to be behind the new sides opening talks, with a poll commissioned by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung showing 61 percent of Germans wanted the SPD to enter coalition negotiations with Merkel’s conservatives.

Spiegel weekly noted that Thursday’s meeting was crucial for the chancellor.

“For Merkel, it’s a fight for political survival that’s starting,” said Spiegel.

“Merkel must do everything to forge this alliance — the only one that would ensure stable power,” it added.

(Source: Agencies)

1, December 2017

Zimbabwe: The Crocodile names military figures to cabinet posts ⁰

Zimbabwe’s new president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, appointed senior military officials to top posts in his new cabinet and chose a veteran cabinet minister to head the finance ministry.

Mnangagwa was sworn in as president last Friday after 93-year-old Robert Mugabe quit under pressure from the army.

He named Patrick Chinamasa as finance minister, Air Marshal Perrance Shiri land minister, and Major General Sibusiso Moyo foreign minister, among other appointments.

He also brought back many faces from the Robert Mugabe-era, which could disappoint Zimbabweans who had been expecting a broad-based government and a break with the past.

Chinamasa, a former finance minister in Mugabe’s government, moved to a newly-created ministry of cyber security in a reshuffle last month. The cyber portfolio has been folded into the information ministry headed by a former deputy minister in Mugabe’s government, Supa Mandiwanzira.

Mnangagwa is under pressure to deliver, especially on the economy, which is in the grip of severe foreign currency shortages that have seen banks failing to give customers cash.

He told heads of government ministries on Tuesday that he was putting together a “leaner” government, which would see the merging of some departments to enhance efficiency.

(Source: Reuters)

28, November 2017

Understanding the Fru Ndi-Balla-Munzu Bamenda meeting ⁰

A gang of Southern Cameroons figures facing threat to their political existence met in the Bamenda County to demand a cessation of French Cameroun government sanctioned arrests of people in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. Aside the arrests, the gang of five led by Ni John Fru Ndi asked the French Cameroun government to release Southern Cameroonians being held in connection with the uprising.

They called on the Francophone government to step up efforts to ensure return of people who fled the conflict, a general amnesty for those who are in exile and for an end to internet restriction imposed since late September. The undersigned political leaders and so-called leading members of the civil society met in Bamenda and claimed to brainstorm on the urgent need for frank, inclusive and comprehensive national dialogue on the ‘Anglophone crisis.’

A press release issued at the end of the meeting and dated November 26 read as follows: “The undersigned political leaders and leading members of civil society met in Bamenda today to brainstorm on the urgent need for frank, inclusive and comprehensive national dialogue on the ‘Anglophone crisis.’”

According to them, it is only dialogue that can serve as a ‘means of returning the Northwest and Southwest regions to normalcy’ and that it should be organized ‘without further delay.’

The Bamenda forum finally betrayed the unprecedented, but fledgling supply of huge financial resources by a cadre of President Biya agents in the political and diplomatic sectors of Southern Cameroons. It is abundantly clear that Prof. Munzu and Dr. Barrister Agbor Balla initiated the meeting.

As pointed out sometime ago, Barrister Agbor Balla is still in his pre detention mind set. The character of the Southern Cameroons conflict has shifted and Prof. Munzu, Fru Ndi, Balla et al needs time to understand that it has moved from lawyers and teachers strike to a popular revolt.

By arresting Barrister Agbor Balla in the course of dialogue, President Biya criminalized dialogue. Balla was charged for terrorism for advocating dialogue. The Bamenda forum means that Balla has still not understood the significance of his abduction, his eight months detention as well as that of hundreds of Southern Cameroonians, the annexation of the Southern Cameroons territory and the resolve of the people of Southern Cameroons to defend themselves.

Biya has made the country a large open air prison with poverty and unemployment as security guards. Southern Cameroons is a state of blood and constantly under pervasive climate of repression, fear, torture abduction, killings and forceful detentions. They have shut down the internet services and are committing war crimes inside Southern Cameroons territory. Yet, Fru Ndi, Munzu, Balla and Co still believes in the CPDM crime syndicate.

Apart from Fru Ndi, other signatories to the statement included Prof. Simon Munzu, Barrister Felix Nkongho Agbor Balla, Prince Ekosso and Mrs. Ndi Christine.

By Soter Agbaw-Ebai, CCN

27, November 2017

China denies role in Zimbabwe’s coup ⁰

China’s Foreign Ministry has denied playing a role in the recent political developments in Zimbabwe that led to the ouster of long-time ruler Robert Mugabe.

“China always upholds the principle of non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs and this remains unchanged,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Monday while congratulating Zimbabwe’s new President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Geng also denied claims that a visit by Zimbabwe’s army chief General Constantine Chiwenga shortly before the political crisis erupted in Harare earlier this month was a sign of China’s role in the developments that led to Mugabe’s house arrest.

Geng said Chiwenga’s visit was pre-planned and had nothing to do with the political situation in Zimbabwe.

“It was planned long before and it was also approved by the former president Mugabe,” said the official, adding that the visit was a “normal interaction.”

For nearly half a century, China has maintained a huge influence in Zimbabwe as it originally supported anti-colonial guerrilla fighters in the 1960s and then helped their leader Mugabe rise to power in the South African country.

Beijing backed Mugabe during his 37 years in power and has been among Zimbabwe’s major trade partners.

Mnangagwa, who served as Mugabe’s deputy for years, also received training in China during the liberation struggle of the 1960s.

The spokesman said Mnangagwa, whose sacking by Mugabe sparked the political unrest in Zimbabwe, could further steer Zimbabwe toward progress.

“We congratulate President Mnangagwa on his inauguration … We firmly support Zimbabwe following a path that supports its own national conditions and we believe under the leadership of Mr Mnangagwa Zimbabwe … national development will make further progress,” Geng said.

Source: Presstv

27, November 2017

Ambazonia Crisis: French Cameroun National Assembly Speaker defiant in face of SDF opposition ⁰

The Speaker of the French Cameroun National Assembly, Cavaye Djibril has said that work will resume at the Ngoa Ekele building today Monday the 27^thof November 2017. Officially, SDF Members of Parliament have not declared an end to their strike action that rocked the 3^rd parliamentary session and caused activities to be suspended in the so-called Lower House since Thursday, November 22, 2017.

The SDF MPs have been demanding that the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime opens an inclusive dialogue on the Southern Cameroons crisis.

Without revealing the aftermath of the talks that were held between the government and SDF parliamentarians, Hon. Cavaye announced on the official website of the National Assembly today’s recovery program in the Francophone dominated national assembly.

– 10 am Conference of Presidents,

– 10.30 am Plenary session deposit of a text and

– 11 am Committee on Foreign Affairs with the adoption of the report on the draft law number 1015 / PJl / AN.

Mr. Cavaye revealed that the MPs including those of the SDF will all answer present today. Another French Cameroun CPDM MP, Hon. Marlyse Rose Douala Bell was quoted as saying that “Unless they change in the meantime. We met at the funeral of Hon. Arthur Ekeke Lysinge in Buea and we talked a lot about how the parliament should discuss this Anglophone crisis. When I say, it’s with the SDF deputies. I think there are also negotiations that are being done at the parliamentary group level and elsewhere to keep this 3rd session going without further disruption.”

By Sama Ernest, CCN

27, November 2017

Ireland urges UK to stay in customs union to avoid hard border ⁰

The Republic of Ireland has threatened to veto Brexit trade talks unless Britain provides guarantees over Dublin’s border with Northern Ireland.

The Irish EU commissioner, Phil Hogan, said on Sunday that the border problem can easily be solved if British Prime Minister Theresa May drops her plans to take Britain out of the European Union customs union and the single market when it departs the 28-nation bloc in 2019.

“If the UK or Northern Ireland remained in the EU customs union, or better still the single market, there would be no border issue,” he said. “That’s a very simple fact.”

Britain’s international trade secretary, Liam Fox, quickly rejected Hogan’s solution. He told Sky News that the resolution of the border issue between the two Irelands will have to wait until details about future trade relations with the EU have been worked out.

“We don’t want there to be a hard border, but the UK is going to be leaving the customs union and the single market,” he said.

A hard border would make passport and customs controls mandatory, hampering business ties between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

The EU has required sufficient progress on the border issue as a pre-condition to launch the Brexit trade talks next year before officially leaving the bloc in 2019.

In an interview with the Observer, Hogan (pictured above) also warned there was “blind faith” from some UK ministers that Britain would secure a comprehensive Brexit free trade deal. He warned that Ireland would “continue to play tough to the end” over its threat to veto trade talks until it had guarantees over the border.

The Irish government wants a written guarantee that there will be no hard border with Northern Ireland, something Dublin emphasizes can only be achieved, in effect, by keeping the region within the single market and customs union. However, May has repeatedly made clear that Britain will leave the single market and customs union, regardless of the border implications.

Ireland’s approach has also been rejected by Arlene Foster, leader of the Democratic Unionists, a Northern Ireland party that is using its votes in the parliament to prop up May’s minority government.

Foster told her party conference Saturday that the party would not back any agreement that “creates barriers” between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom, in effect ruling out special status for Northern Ireland in the post-Brexit era.

Source: Presstv

26, November 2017

Battle for Ambazonia: Biya relying on a divided North West Fons Association ⁰

French Cameroun Head of State, President Paul Biya has reportedly confirmed that Prime Minister Philemon Yang and his gang of CPDM elites have failed to resolve the crisis that rocked the former Southern Cameroons territory. Southern Cameroons declared its independence on October 1 and the interim leadership renamed the region, the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

We understand the French Cameroun chief executive and his Francophone emissary Garga Haman Adji were relying on the North West Traditional Chiefs Association to win over back the territory. However, events took a dramatic U turn yesterday Saturday, November 25, 2017 in Nkambe in the North-West Region with a major split within the respected Tikar establishment.

The executive board of the Northwest Traditional Chiefs Association (NOWFU) during yesterday’s session of its the General Assembly, made public a correspondence in which Mr. Paul Biya solicited the contribution of the Fons to calm the discontented populations. To this end, reported state radio and television, “the president of the NOWFU invited his peers to prepare very quickly the grievances of their people that they will present to the head of state.”

Information filtered to Etoudi that this new attempt by Paul Biya is also bound to fail in all likelihood because; NOWFU itself is going through a crisis of leadership. While Fon Teche Njei, the incumbent president, was organizing the Elective General Assembly in Nkambe, a dissident faction of NOWFU was holding another meeting on the side in Bamenda.

The Ambazonia crisis which has lasted for more than a year now has been worsening over the past few days. On high instructions from the French Cameroun dictator Paul Biya, Prime Minister Philemon Yang has conducted no less than three missions to dialogue with elites and local populations to find ways and means away out of the crisis. The stagnation of the socio-political tension is proof that the Prime Minister and all the personalities who constituted his suite failed brilliantly in their missions ..

By Rita Akana, with files from CIN

25, November 2017

Zimbabwe court declares military action against Mugabe ‘constitutional’ ⁰

A Zimbabwean high court has ruled that the military action leading to former President Robert Mugabe’s resignation was “constitutional” and not a coup.

“Actions by the Zimbabwe Defense Forces to stop the usurping of power by those close to former president Robert Mugabe are constitutional,” state-run Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) media quoted officials of the top court as saying.

Referring to Mugabe’s wife Grace and her supporters, the court ruled that the takeover was “to ensure the non-elected individual do not exercise powers that can only be exercised by (those) elected.”

This photo taken on June 02, 2017 shows then-Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe (L) with his wife Grace Mugabe (R) raising their fists in a vehicle during a Zimbabwe ruling party rally at Rudhaka Stadium in Marondera. (By AFP)

The tribunal also noted that Mugabe’s firing of his former deputy, Emmerson Mnangagwa, over a power struggle between him as his wife earlier this month had been against the law.

On November 23, Mugabe finally succumbed to pressures and stepped down after 37 years in power.

Zimbabwean new interim President Emmerson Mnangagwa takes the oath of office before the chief judge of the Supreme Court as he is officially sworn-in during a ceremony in Harare on November 24, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

The resignation came several days after army chiefs put military vehicles on the streets of the capital, Harare and placed the 93-year-old leader under house arrest. Many Zimbabweans celebrated the end of Mugabe’s rule.

A day after, his sacked deputy, Mnangagwa, was sworn in as the country’s interim president, vowing sweeping changes and seeking to attract foreign investment to revive the moribund economy in the south African country.

Mnangagwa is Zimbabwe’s second president since the country gained independence from British colonial rule in 1981.

Source: Presstv

25, November 2017

The French President is the defacto Commander-in-Chief of the Cameroonian Armed Forces ⁰

Biya has been president of Cameroun since Ahmadu Ahidjo handed over power to him. He has been on the saddle for 35 years. He has survived many coups and many sham elections. He has left Cameroun rural, desolate. But no one cites him as an example of a political tragedy. Mugabe is the African tragedy. Biya spends months on end holidaying in Switzerland. But the western press leaves him in his peace. No one is intent on bringing him down in the name of democracy.

Biya has repressed political opponents. Biya has supervised genocidal incursions into the English speaking parts of Southern Cameroon. But nobody thinks of Biya and remembers the ICC. France is the nanny of Cameroun. But that apostle of freedom and rule of law would not open her mouth and tell President Biya to step down. The French president is the defacto commander-in-chief of the Cameroonian Armed Forces. But he won’t nudge the army to do a Zimbabwe in Cameroon.

Western news media celebrated crowds on the streets screaming obscenities at a Mugabe held down by the army. But western media won’t call on France to tell the Camerounian army to hold down Biya so the party in Harare can move to Yaounde. Biya can remain on the throne. France is happy with him. He can junket around the European Union. He can loot the Camerounian treasury and stash it in France and Switzerland. If he challenges French authority then his sins will come to the fore and he would become a demon. We are happy Mugabe has gone. But the West must let go of its stinking hypocrisy. It is more abhorrent, more tyrannical, than Mugabe’s despotism.

Source: The Vanguard

24, November 2017

Opposition MPs Demand Open Debate on Anglophone Crisis ⁰

Opposition lawmakers disrupted parliament for a second day in a row Friday as tensions deepen over the government’s handling of the crisis in the country’s anglophone regions.

Lawmakers of Cameroon’s main opposition party, the Social Democratic Front sang a protest song demand parliament hold debates on how to resolve the year-long strike in the two English-speaking regions.

“We have been here for more than one year and in every session nothing is said about the crisis,” complained SDF’s Joseph Mbah Ndam, who is also vice speaker of parliament, “so we have decided today that nothing will go on here if we do not find a definite solution to the anglophone crisis.”

Uptick in violence

The crisis has grown increasingly violent over the past year as separatist groups have emerged. Many schools in the southwest and northwest remain shut and a strike has closed down many businesses.

French-speakers are the majority in the bilingual country, and anglophone activists say they are marginalized. Many are demanding reforms, while others want all-out independence.

Most of the SDF lawmakers hail from the two anglophone regions. They have faced threats and physical assaults for continuing to serve in the National Assembly amid the crisis.

The SDF lawmakers announced a boycott a week ago demanding the government do more to peacefully end the strike. On Thursday, they began singing to interrupt parliament proceedings.

2018 budget

Government ministers had come to answer questions on last year’s budget and the 2018 financial plans. Cavaye Yeguie Djibril, the speaker of the National Assembly, says he could not bear the disturbances by the SDF and called off the plenary.

He announced that the ruling CPDM majority had voted and adopted last year’s settlement bill even though no vote had taken place.

The CPDM controls 148 seats in the 180 member parliament and the SDF just 18. Political analyst Reymond Etoga says the SDF won’t be able to derail the passing of the 2018 budget, but the government should heed their calls for open debate to resolve the anglophone crisis.

“In order for us to be able to create a society where everyone can feel part of, we must understand that truth is very necessary,” Etoga noted, “and we are in a quagmire situation at this point in time because the system in place has refused categorically to be able to say this is white and this is black.”

Professor Elvis Ngole Ngole, a close aide of President Paul Biya, has been leading teams to dialogue with the populations in the northwest and southwest. “Those who felt they were excluded, I think it is genuine,” he said. ” As we continue, there will be more inclusion than exclusion because no one should be excluded because as long as there is democracy and we believe in it, as long as we are a republic we will keep on talking to one another and that is dialogue.”

However, government overtures at dialogue have also been coupled with a crackdown. Following violent unrest last December, troops were deployed to the anglophone regions and the internet was cut for three months. The government has released several dozen people detained for months over the strike. Activists say more remain behind bars and must also be released before any dialogue can take place.

Culled from VOA