ETHIOPIAN OPPOSITION ACCUSE GOVERNMENT OVER ANTI-GOVERNMENT PLOT

An Ethiopian opposition leader said on Tuesday an anti-government plot had been invented as an excuse to arrest potential candidates ahead of national elections next year. “Without third party verification I can’t believe there was a plot,” Bulcha Demeksa, leader of one of the largest opposition parties, the Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement, told Reuters.

“This government is just looking for an excuse to imprison potential politicians.” Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s government said last month a group led by an Ethiopian-American professor had planned to use assassinations and bombings to provoke street protests and topple the government.

Addis Ababa arrested 40 former and current army personnel and members of a disbanded opposition group from a “terror network” it said was formed by Berhanu Nega, an opposition leader now teaching economics in the United States.

The Bucknell University lecturer, who has publicly said he wants to overthrow the Ethiopian government, has called the accusations “baseless”. “When Berhanu says he wants to overthrow the government, it is just words,” said Bulcha. “He couldn’t have organised these people from the U.S.”

SOURCED FROM REUTERS

LOCAL GOVERNMENT POLL, A TEST FOR NIGERIAN’S DEMOCRACY

Heavily-armed police and soldiers are out in force in a town in south-western Nigeria as people vote in a renewed attempt to elect a state governor. A re-run election last week ended in chaos, with allegations of violence, ballot-rigging and intimidation.

The Ekiti State vote is seen as a must-win for both main political parties. The initial poll two years ago was won by the ruling People’s Democratic Party candidate but the result was overturned amid claims of mass vote-rigging.

President Umaru Yar’Adua has said the situation in Ekiti shows the need for urgent reform of Nigeria’s election system. The BBC’s Caroline Duffield is in the state’s capital of Oye Ekiti, where Tuesday’s vote re-run is being held, and she says roads surrounding the constituency are deserted except for the Nigerian military.

The area has been the scene of election violence many times and voters are very nervous, she adds. Efforts to elect a new governor have been marked by violence and intimidation since the man elected back in 2007, Segun Oni, was thrown out of office after massive vote-rigging emerged.

SOURCED FROM BBC

CHAD BLAMES SUDAN ON ATTACK, 2 DAYS AFTER PEACE ACCORD

Chad’s government has accused Sudan of launching a military attack, two days after the neighbours signed a reconciliation agreement in Qatar.

Communications Minister Mahamat Hissene said Khartoum was behind a “planned aggression”, reported AFP new agency.

A BBC correspondent in Chad says he is referring to alleged Khartoum support for Chad rebels, a common claim. Sudan promptly denied the latest allegation.

In Doha on Sunday, Sudan and Chad agreed to end hostilities.

“While the ink has yet to dry on the Doha accord, the Khartoum regime has just launched several armoured columns against our country,” the communications minister told state radio, reported AFP.

The two countries have long been at odds amid mutual allegations of support for insurgents in each other’s territory, especially near the war-torn Darfur region along their common border.

Sudanese army spokesman Osman al-Agbash promptly rejected Tuesday’s claim, telling AFP: “What is happening now inside Chad is between the Chadian army and the Chadian rebels. Sudan has no relation with this.”

The BBC’s Celeste Hicks in Chad’s capital, N’Djamena, says there has been rebel movement in recent days in the east of Chad, but it is not clear if the insurgents have gone on the offensive.

She says the last time Chad’s rebels launched a significant attack was on the eastern town of Goz Beida in June last year.

Chad has on a number of occasions since then accused Sudan of egging on the rebels, she says.

In May 2008, Khartoum accused N’Djamena of backing Darfur-based insurgents who launched an unprecedented attack on the Sudanese capital.

Chad denied any involvement and in turn accused Sudan of having backed a push by rebels on N’Djamena three months earlier that reached the gates of the presidential palace before being repulsed.

Solving the dispute between the two countries is seen as a key step in solving the crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region.

Many Darfur rebels are from the same ethnic group as President Idriss Deby, and ever since their uprising began, he has been accused of offering them support.

Although Khartoum has repeatedly denied backing the rebels, analysts note the insurgents have operated out of Sudanese territory for several years.

Sunday’s talks were brokered by Qatar and Libya, which have been leading reconciliation efforts between Chad and Sudan after they renewed diplomatic relations in November after a six-month rift.

N’Djamena and Khartoum also shunned each other diplomatically for four months in 2006 after an attack by rebels on Chad.

SOURCED FROM BBC

ZIMBABWEANS ACTIVISTS ORDERED BACK TO JAIL

A Zimbabwean court on Tuesday ordered 18 activists facing charges of terrorism back to prison after they were indicted for trial next month, a decision likely to spark new tensions in the unity government.

The activists, including leading rights campaigner Jestina Mukoko and several opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) members, say they were abducted by state security agents from their homes late year and tortured to force them to confess to planning to remove President Robert Mugabe from power.

SOURCED FROM REUTERS

RUSSIA PUSHES FOR AN INTERNATIONAL PIRATES COURT

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday suggested establishing an international court to try suspected pirates.

Russia last week said it had captured a pirate vessel with 29 people on board off the coast of Somalia, but it has not yet decided where to try the suspects.

“It is necessary to consider all possibilities, including, maybe, the formation of some kind of international court on this theme,” Medvedev told Prosecutor General Yury Chaika in televised remarks.

“Often states where these pirates come from do not take any actions, in short, they aid this kind of crime,” Medvedev said.

Russia is among several naval powers with warships in the area to protect one of the world’s busiest sea lanes from spate of hijackings by Somali pirates.

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US WANTS ANTI PIRACY FIGHT TAKEN ASHORE

The fight against piracy must involve efforts on land and at sea, the U.S. Navy’s top officer said on Monday, saying the issue was more complex than just putting arms on commercial ships.

“Pirates don’t live at sea. They live ashore. They move their money ashore. You can’t have a discussion about eradicating piracy without having a discussion about the shore dimension,” Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Gary Roughead told reporters after a speech at a Navy League conference.

He said the area off the coast of Somalia was four times the size of Texas and there were complex legal issues involved. He said it was also not clear that the shipping industry wanted to begin using armed convoys to protect ships against pirates.

Heavily armed pirates from virtually lawless Somalia have increasingly struck merchant ships in the Gulf of Aden, capturing dozens of vessels and hundreds of hostages and making off with millions of dollars in ransoms.

U.S. Navy commandos shot and killed three gunmen last month to free Richard Phillips, the U.S. ship captain held hostage by Somali pirates. A fourth suspected pirate was arrested and brought to the United States for trial.

His kidnapping prompted several U.S. lawmakers to call for putting U.S. military forces on board commercial vessels, a measure opposed by the Pentagon.

SOURCED FROM REUTERS