Chinese will build a high-speed rail system between Abuja and Lagos

[Matthias Offodile]

Hu´s visit to Nigeria

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) 27/04/2006

Chinese President Hu Jintao said yesterday his government will seek much closer ties with Africa a resource-rich frontier of opportunity for the world’s fastest growing economy after signing oil and other agreements with Nigeria and granting the West African giant an aid package.
Hu, on the second and final day of his visit to Nigeria, addressed the country’s parliament on China’s relations with Africa.
“Africa has rich resources and market potentials, whereas China has available effective practices and practical know-how it has gained in the course of modernisation,” Hu said.
China is seeking “a strategic partnership” with the continent that would improve living standards for Africa, he said. China’s interest and growing profile has worried Western rivals among them countries who may feel their colonial ties should give them an advantage for Africa’s resources and markets. And some Africans have complained about being flooded with cheap Chinese goods.
“China’s development will not pose a threat to anyone. On the contrary, it will bring more development opportunities to the world,” Hu told Nigeria’s parliament.
The world’s most populous country, with 1.3 billion people, has also set new development targets to increase its gross domestic product and lower energy consumption, the Chinese leader said. “By the year 2020 ... GDP would quadruple that of 2000 to reach $4 trillion, averaging $3,000 per head,” Hu said.
China’s economy is growing so fast, its leaders have taken steps to avoid inflation or ballooning bad loans. Growth hit 10.2 per cent in the first quarter, and China is hungry for the energy, timber, minerals and other raw materials Africa can provide.
During the first day of the visit, Hu and his Nigerian counterpart Olusegun Obasanjo presided over the signing of a string of agreements covering cooperation in energy, telecommunications, infrastructure development and health.
One agreement requires Nigeria’s Petroleum Ministry to give China’s state oil firm preferential access to oil blocks in return for a Chinese undertaking to take over a loss-making refinery in the northern city of Kaduna.
Under other deals, Chinese firms will build a hydroelectric power station in the northeastern Mambilla plateau and a high-speed rail system linking the Nigerian capital Abuja with the economic capital, Lagos.
Two Chinese telecommunication firms, Huawei Technologies and ZTE, will execute large contracts for rural telephone service across Nigeria with the help of concessionary loans from the Chinese government worth more than $200 million (161 million euros).



:cheers: i love that news

[empersouf]

Great news!
Would be the first highspeed rail:D

[Pieter_Van_Classen]

Wow, that is some pretty remarkable information. Do they have any renders on this project? Oh, yeah, Matthias, by the way, where in Germany do you live?

[Matthias Offodile]

yes, that would be great to see some renders but searching for renders on Chinese website will be in vain. I was trying to do it for Angola but quickly had to give it up.

[dysan1]

hmmm...seems that China is trying to be as buddy buddy as they can to secure cheaper oil or just better deals...all the while finding a place to use their companies to build. Do yoy know that when chinese companies do work in another country they bring in all their own workers from china and do not use locals? that is what is happening in SA and is giving them a very bad reputation and causing tension between the governments

[skipperBill]

This is all very positive..Africa needs more investment anyway it can get it. Hopefully they will release some renders of that rail project soon.

dysan1 wrote: Do yoy know that when chinese companies do work in another country they bring in all their own workers from china and do not use locals?

I also heard that the Chinese bring their own workers because there is a lack of capacity and skills in some African countries especially on big projects. Usually those Chinese workers would train locals along the way as the project progresses and that is supposed to help these poorer nations develope a class of experienced engnieers (at least that is how it is supposed to work in theory).

[JD]

kewl!!

[Matthias Offodile]

skipperbill,

no it has nothing to do with skill but beleive it or not it is about wages. Chinese workers are CHEAPER AND MORE EASILY EXPLOITABLE than African or Nigerian workers in this case. It is really weird.

[baersworth]

Chinese workers are CHEAPER AND MORE EASILY EXPLOITABLE than African or Nigerian workers in this case
================================================================
If the Chinese workers all the way fly to Africa, with accomdation and other allowance, is still cheaper than local, the local should really think about that. What I heard was Skipper's version. It is impossible not to hire locals in Africa for that kind of construction projects like building a railway. However, if it is for a highly technical project like telecommunication, it is possible as it take long time to train the technicians needed, and time is money. Chinese companies will only bring their workers when the locals are more expensive, like in the Middle East, where local people generally do not like that kind of job.

[SE9]

Biggle! Great news :) I wonder what the daily capacity would be.

[AlexS2000]

skipperbill,

no it has nothing to do with skill but beleive it or not it is about wages. Chinese workers are CHEAPER AND MORE EASILY EXPLOITABLE than African or Nigerian workers in this case. It is really weird.

SKILL MATTER SINCE WITHOUT SKILL NO MATTER HOW CHEAP A WORKER HE/SHE WON'T GET THE JOB DONE! If the local worker can get the job then he/she will be hired or else China will bring foreing worker. For example, China has a lot of expensive foreign workers that bring technology, know-how and managament skill to teach the local. Skill first, price second if you want a project to succeed

[Matthias Offodile]

AlexS2000, that is partly true..... but as I have many contacts in Nigeria I can also judge the matters more closely. And I can tell you that Chinese workers get a fraction of that Nigerian workers earn. and those workers who are shipped from China to Africa I would greatly doubt if they are really "skilled". ( I am not talking about the engineering who conceptualize those projects) The works done by "simple blue collar workers" can easily be done by Nigerian, Algerian or whoever. There are a lot of skilled people in Nigeria...and not just some "black faces" who jumps around in banana skirts chanting "voodoo songs". (a picture that was once depicted by Joseph Conrad´s novel "Heart of Darkness" and which has still survived in the minds of people as Western media invariably revels in portraying those images on the continent). For example, social housing in Algeria is entirely built by Chinese workers! Come on, those works can be done by Algerians themselves but Algerian workers are far more demanding and costly than Chinese workers. This is the main point. COST COUNTS NOWADAYS

[baersworth]

I have a question to Matthias Offodile, why the local workers are more expensive than the Chinese workers ? It is no surprise that workers in developed countries are more expensive than Chinese workers, but African countries are just like China, they are developing countries too. If blue collar worker in those developing countries earn several times more than the Chinese workers, they are in fact being paid at the same level as workers in developed countries, which is a little bit weird. How the economy system in those countries works ? In China, everything is in fact very cheap and even a low income worker can have a quite decent living, how is the price of the daily necessity goods in African countries ? Are they also at the price tag of the developed countries ?

[Matthias Offodile]

Baersworth, of course they do not earn several times more than Chinese workers but if A Nigerian worker gets a meagre 1.5$ and hour for instance, the Chinese worker will do it for half the price. So he is cheaper! Chinese workers are not organized in unions like Nigerian workers are. They are all herded together onto lorries in the early morning hours, zealously work from morning till dusk and are then calmly transported back to their makeshift "camps". They never voice their discontent as opposed to Nigerian workers who can get pretty nasty when they feel mistreated. ...which is in turn not good for the contractor and the on-time completion of projects.
are you sure that a low income worker can have quite a good living in China? What do you mean by having "a good living"! If you mean that he owns a motorbike/a crumpy car, a TV-Set, swallows down a hot meal per day, has a DVD and/or a radio. That is the same for an ordinary Nigerian worker (as they get the electronic stuff from China which makes the stuff really affordable for the masses nowadays) but that is not what I define as a having a good living. these are basics, to my mind.
Prices of daily necessity goods varies whether you buy them on open markets, grow vegetable on your own or head for the well-packed supermakets.
Economies in Africa are principally informal. Nigeria´s GDP amounts to someting around 80$ billion dollars (little less than that)...but the bulk of the economic figures are not represented in those numbers. You can open a good company and this company is not listed anywhere (no taxes). the informal sector is that what makes Nigera tick economically. If you add these figure to the country´s GDP, it would be twice or even thrice as high. ( I am not exagerating, I read the latter in several serious journals)

[AlexS2000]

AlexS2000, that is partly true..... but as I have many contacts in Nigeria I can also judge the matters more closely. And I can tell you that Chinese workers get a fraction of that Nigerian workers earn. and those workers who are shipped from China to Africa I would greatly doubt if they are really "skilled". ( I am not talking about the engineering who conceptualize those projects) The works done by "simple blue collar workers" can easily be done by Nigerian, Algerian or whoever. There are a lot of skilled people in Nigeria...and not just some "black faces" who jumps around in banana skirts chanting "voodoo songs". (a picture that was once depicted by Joseph Conrad´s novel "Heart of Darkness" and which has still survived in the minds of people as Western media invariably revels in portraying those images on the continent). For example, social housing in Algeria is entirely built by Chinese workers! Come on, those works can be done by Algerians themselves but Algerian workers are far more demanding and costly than Chinese workers. This is the main point. COST COUNTS NOWADAYS
Hi Matthias

What you are saying is that Chinese company are taking job away from Algerian. I don't think that the Chinese companies that are building the railroad and housing for the Algerian people are meant to harm them.
I guess that China should stop any more buiding and work in Africa so the local companies and people can have job then.

[Matthias Offodile]

No, but they should employ a higher percentage of local workers! That is essentially important for long-term acceptance

[dysan1]

Well its all good what u say...but in theory they are exploiting a country. We have the skill for the jobs here, but they will only use their own workers for they cost less to them...but legally they are being challenged in court now, for paying under the SA minimun wage and for anti competitive procedures

[baersworth]

No, but they should employ a higher percentage of local workers! That is essentially important for long-term acceptance
===============================================================
Agree. But I guess for non skill worker in any country can only earn for the very basis of living standard, before the country is rich and well developed, a welfare state is an illusion and will in fact prevent the country from further development. No doubt Chinese worker will be more hard working, Chinese generally are willing to work very hard in order to save money for their plan tomorrow, and that is why China is moving fast in its development. Everything has a cost as well development, only when people are willing to pay for the cost (by working hard) today they will have a better living in the future. Chinese People do know hard working today means better living tomorrow and they will be more than willing to work hard instead of complaining. For the Chinese company who use Chinese worker, I believe the contract for the project should have stated clearly about the arrangement. The costs for the workers will be one of the consideration for the price, if the local goverment requires the Chinese company to employ certain percentage of local worker, it will be reflected in the price, if the local worker are more expensive in real terms. It is then a compromise as to whether the local government wants an infra structure project be completed in a shorter time with a lower price, or to prefer a better local employment rate but pay more for the project or sometime have to delay the completion. It is a decision for the local goverment to make and to decide which option is in fact better for their country.

[muchbetter]

skipperbill,

no it has nothing to do with skill but beleive it or not it is about wages. Chinese workers are CHEAPER AND MORE EASILY EXPLOITABLE than African or Nigerian workers in this case. It is really weird.

Easily organized Chinese workers and highly efficiecy in finishing projects were main reason for chinese company to hire Chinese workers. Most Chinese workers could obtain subsidies after they return back to China. However, Training African workers will add extra responsibility to Chinese companies unless African government signed agreement with Chinese companies which mentioned training local workers. Because of all projects designed and built by Chinese, communication might be problematic too.

[Matthias Offodile]

Muchbetter, you´ve really got the point in your analisis! Sooner or later Chinese companies will have to train (where necessary) and employ the locals from South Africa to Algeria and beyond!!! Otherwise they might run into very serious diffculties ...just what Dysan1 pointed out above for the South African case! People in Africa want to have partners and not just herd that invade countries!

But I am sure that as far as the train project in Nigeria is concened THEY WILL HAVE TO EMPLOY LOCALS OTHERWISE THE PROJECTS WILL NEVER TAKE OFF

[muchbetter]

Muchbetter, you´ve really got the point in your analisis! Sooner or later Chinese companies will have to train (where necessary) and employ the locals from South Africa to Algeria and beyond!!! Otherwise they might run into very serious diffculties ...just what Dysan1 pointed out above for the South African case! People in Africa want to have partners and not just herd that invade countries!

But I am sure that as far as the train project in Nigeria is concened THEY WILL HAVE TO EMPLOY LOCALS OTHERWISE THE PROJECTS WILL NEVER TAKE OFF
In fact, Chinese companies trained local educated people for management then who trained local workers for common works under leadership of local managers. This is the way they are doing now.

[AlexS2000]

Muchbetter, you´ve really got the point in your analisis! Sooner or later Chinese companies will have to train (where necessary) and employ the locals from South Africa to Algeria and beyond!!! Otherwise they might run into very serious diffculties ...just what Dysan1 pointed out above for the South African case! People in Africa want to have partners and not just herd that invade countries!

But I am sure that as far as the train project in Nigeria is concened THEY WILL HAVE TO EMPLOY LOCALS OTHERWISE THE PROJECTS WILL NEVER TAKE OFF

So the Chinese worker are herd in your eyes? Drones is that what you mean?
I guess that China should follow the European model and only send companies to exploit the natural resources and let the infrastructure building to the local since they have the skill.
Who finance this infrastructure building and he/she would decide how to best use the money!

[Muckingfutz]

They should employ whoever will get the job done. It is the Nigerian government's job to create jobs, not the Chinese.

[dysan1]

whatever some of u say...if chinese firms come to africa for construction projects, bring their own workers and DO NOT train and better equip locals, then they are no better than the colonisers that robbed these nations of their wealth in the first place.

This is the modern age and china should not try and bully these small countries

[Casa]

i don't think that they are the same as colonisers because they don't impose their culture and also there are not seen as superior by locals even if they bring projects and technology. but i think they have their reasons to bring their workers. i take just the case of algeria where they are alot of companies working in building , their workers work much harder than any worker i guess in the world and they work 24 hours in shifts and they are payed perhaps the same as locals or below and i heard that some are prisoners who china make them work overseas instead of keeping them in jail ( i think is a rumor), and as you know in building time is money , them to decease their cost and to be competitive they have to bring their workers

[Matthias Offodile]

Dysan1, I perfectly agree with you! There is nothing to add to it.

Casa, I have also heard from people that a lot of the Chinese construction workers are prisoners in China! But I do not know if this is true! People in Africa are telling this at least...

[Mosi-oa-Tunya]

This proposed high speed rail link is the longest in Africa as it even exceeds the length of the Gautrain high speed train being built in Johannesburg, South Africa.

[AlexS2000]

This proposed high speed rail link is the longest in Africa as it even exceeds the length of the Gautrain high speed train being built in Johannesburg, South Africa.

I guess that it would use Chinese high speed train such as "China Star".
It took China years to master such as technology.
Maintenance require skill to keep the rail working for a long period of time.
That is where the local can get the job directly by maintaining the high speed train station. Also, the high speed rail could help the economy as well in the long term.

[null]

that a lot of the Chinese construction workers are prisoners in China!

oh LORD!our govt pay (or compensate) them to make them work for you

it would be a wonder that china has so many 'skilled 'prisoners.lol

[baersworth]

I have also heard from people that a lot of the Chinese construction workers are prisoners in China! But I do not know if this is true! People in Africa are telling this at least...
===============================================================
You mistake USA for China. USA actually used its prisoners to build the highways. (mostly black people in the South, and many of them became prisoners because the highway needed to be built). In China, everything is inadequate except manpower.

[baersworth]

For building a railway, in China there are usually built by special teams, sometime by engineers of the army which in China they are called the railway army with some local people employed locally at the sport of construction. The core team moves along with the construction work, but the locally employed people may not follow them to move all the way because the railway construction is not like building a building in a city, it have to be carried out in the remote mountain or the inner part of a desert, local people used to live in cities may not willing to work under such conditions. Buiding a railway is very complicate engineer work as it involve tunnels, bridges, and different geological problems, the construction company need a very skillful core team to work with.

[Matthias Offodile]

Baersworth, a personal question: do you have any links to China or are you even Chinese? :)

[baersworth]

Matthias Offodile..I am Chinese... :-)

[Matthias Offodile]

That´s great :) cos´it is very rare that Asian people show any interest for Africa. :cry: Welcome to the forum! :hug:

Hope whenever you find any news on projects between Africa and Asia, you will add it to the forum :wave:

[baersworth]

Matthias Offodile...in fact a lot of people in China are interested in Africa. Apart from the daily discussion on BBS forums about the news between China and Africa, there are web sites for people interested in African culture, business and travel etc., but those web sites are only in Chinese :-). Africa is a place of a lot of potential, just look at the land, the natural resource and the manpower there. Chinese know Africa will be developed very fast after the infrastructure are in place and obviously it is the place not to be neglected.

[nomarandlee]

You mistake USA for China. USA actually used its prisoners to build the highways. (mostly black people in the South, and many of them became prisoners because the highway needed to be built). .


That is so bogus...Care to share your info sources?

[Xusein]

Nice...high-speed rail!

Fixing and updating infrastructure is probably the first step to becoming more economically developed. China could help many African nations reach at least the first steps.

[AlexS2000]

Nice...high-speed rail!

Fixing and updating infrastructure is probably the first step to becoming more economically developed. China could help many African nations reach at least the first steps.

Right!! That is the main objective of developing the infrastructure for the development of the countries. The infrasctructure whether using few or many local people is besides the point, the point that in the long term it could help the country in economic development.

[AlexS2000]

That is so bogus...Care to share your info sources?
Maybe he is referring to the "chain gang" in which prisioner were used to do some roadwork under the police watch.
Here is a link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chain_gang that explain that chain gang were used to do hard work and menial job.

[baersworth]

Yes, the chain-gang. What I had read was that most part of the southern high way in USA were built in that way. Those people had made great contribution to the infrastructure which laid the foundation of the later economic development. In fact, the scene of black be put in long term jail for petty crime and the prison authority provided hard labour for construction companies appears in movies from time to time, including the famous "Shawshank Redemption" where Morgan Freemen played the leading character.

[KB]

hey C'mon, lets not b discussing how chinese or africanS work?

Anyone got more details? how fast will it go? what kinda of tracks are they planning? time of completion, etc

[Nixoderm]

Wow! This would certainly help the economy. I would improve trade and prevent the death on the roads and in the air in Nigeria.

[Nixoderm]

FG Plans High Speed Rail Line
From Reuben Buhari in Kaduna, 02.29.2008

As part of efforts to resuscitate the ailing rail infrastrucuture in the country, the Minister of Transportation, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke disclosed that the Federal Government would be executing a new high speed rail line that would run through six states that are considered as vital trade routes.
The minister added that the rail line, when completed is expected to convey an average of 30 – 40 million tons of goods per annum and about 60 – 70 million passengers, which would considerably reduced the burden posed by the menace of road transportation in the country.

Represented by the Minister of State for Transport, Mr. Felix Hyet, at the ongoing 29th Kaduna International Trade Fair during the “Transportation Day” of the ministry, Maduekwe stated that the sorry state of the nation’s railway system was caused by undue negligence of the sector by successive governments for over two decades. She added that her ministry intends to consolidate on the gains of the immediate past administration, stressing that the Olusegun Obasanjo administration had awarded a contract for the construction of a 1001 Km rail line stretching across the southern and northern part of the country.

She also disclosed that arrangements have been concluded for the take-off of seven Inland Container Depots as pilot schemes on a Built, Operate and Transfer (BOT) arrangement in Ibadan, Jos, Funtua, Bauchi Maiduguri, Isiala-Ngwa in Abia and Kano.

In the area of air transportation, the minister said that based on the catastrophic state of the aviation sector in the past five years, her ministry has taken step to repohttp://www.skyscrapercity.com/newreply.php?do=postreply&t=344084
SkyscraperCity - Reply to Topicsition the sector through an effective regulatory framework aimed at checking the excesses of the operators.

e adds that four control towers of Lagos ,Kano , Abuja and Port Harcourt have been modanised so that they can improve on Meteorological forecasting.
While indicating that the nation is on the right track toward economic recovery and prosperity due to the current reform initiatives and the implementation strategy adopted by the federal government, Maduekwe assured both foreign and indigenous investors of a conducive investment climate with favourable tax relieve facility.

Also in attendance at the fair ground were representatives of the 17 parastatals under the ministry including the permanent secretary, Hajia Amina Lawal.
source: http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=104692

http://www.nigeriaexport.com/news/02maptren.jpg

[ufookoro]

Nigeria: Abuja Rail Mass Transit System Will Be Gas-Powered - FCTA





Email This Page

Print This Page

Comment on this article




Vanguard (Lagos)

3 April 2008
Posted to the web 3 April 2008

Adekunle Aliyu
Lagos

THE Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) says the Abuja Rail Mass Transit System, for now, will be gas-powered.

Secretary of the Transport Unit, Mr Christopher Chigboh, told the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja that the metro transport system was designed to run on both gas and electricity.


"The metro system will be gas-powered initially, then in the near future when the energy supply becomes more stable, we can convert to electricity," he said.

He said that the Abuja master plan had been all-inclusive with the provision for the metro transport system.

"It is not new, the 1981 Abuja master plan for metro system was designed and NEPA was fully involved.

"NEPA had a copy of the master plan of the energy requirement of the city," he said in answer to what role NEPA now known as PHCN would play in the project.

Relevant Links

West Africa
Economy, Business and Finance
Nigeria
Transport and Shipping



The project would come in two different models, namely the "Light Rail Transit (LRT) and Rapid Rail Transit (RRT).

The LRT is low-speed, fewer coaches and will operate within the city centre. The RRT is high speed, more coaches and designed to cover the FCT.

NAN also learnt that the project was designed by CPCS Transport Nigeria Limited to be built by China Civil Engineering and Construction Corporation (CCECC).

[De La Canada]

MARVELOUS THIS WOULD CHANGE THE WAY NIGERIANS TRAVEL COME CHRISTMAS TIME...LESS CONGESTION ON THE MOTORWAYS

[popa1980]

Nigeria is perfect for railways- high population in a relatively compact area.

[Jim856796]

Should Lagos and Abuja be the only stations in this line or should there be more stations?

[BUTEMBO21]

Should Lagos and Abuja be the only stations in this line or should there be more stations?

It's just the begining , not the end.

[nomarandlee]

Maybe he is referring to the "chain gang" in which prisioner were used to do some roadwork under the police watch.
Here is a link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chain_gang that explain that chain gang were used to do hard work and menial job.

Yea, be that as it may it doesn't so much fit with his heavy handed assertion.

[Matthias Offodile]

forget about it with the new president tearing up all contracts that Obasanjo meant good for Nigeria, this plan will never see the light of day.

[MBA-Congo]

Uganda’s And United Nations’ Despicable Travesty

Black Star News Editorial


September 23rd, 2008



Bush with the United States' favorite African dictator, Lt. General Yoweri K. Museveni



email it!
print it!
pdf it!



5 Stars - Excellent4 Stars - Good3 Stars - Average2 Stars - Fair1 Stars - Poor
5 / 5 (1 Votes)








[Black Star News Editorial]



The United Nations is on the verge of embarrassing itself by committing a travesty of incurable proportions; member states may vote for Uganda, whose president's militarism may be responsible for nine million deaths in Africa, and several wars of aggression, to take a seat on the UN Security Council.

The outrage must be denounced and rejected.

The role of the United Nations Security Council is to protect and enforce international law; it’s preposterous for a nation-state that wantonly and repeatedly violates these laws to sit on the Security Council.

In 2005, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found Uganda liable for crimes against humanity, war crimes, massive destruction, and looting, as a result of its national army's occupation of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC): please see http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/116/10455.pdf

The United Nations itself as an organization was created to prevent these types of outrages against humanity.

Estimates of deaths in eastern Congo have reached seven million. Uganda was assessed $10 billion after the ICJ found it liable for the Congo crimes; not a single dollar has yet been paid. The Commander-in-Chief of Uganda's army is the president, Lt. General Yoweri K. Museveni. He is in New York this week addressing the General Assembly. It’s because he enjoys US protection that he will not be served with an arrest warrant.

The Congo crimes, committed by Uganda troops and allied militias, and detailed in the World court's findings, include mass rapes –using sexual assault as an instrument of terror, which was hitherto unknown in Congo—mass killings, burnings of people alive in their huts, and theft of Congo's mineral and natural resources.


The ICC earlier this year indicted Jean Pierre Bemba, a Congolese warlord who was financed by Uganda, on separate war crimes; Bemba already is at the Hague awaiting trial. Human Rights Watch in a 2003 report, "Ituri: Covered In Blood," identified at least 10 militias it said were Uganda-backed. These insurgent organizations were accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes.


Congo's presidency, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal on June 8, 2006, referred the same allegations of crimes for which the ICJ found Uganda liable, to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for criminal investigation.

According to the Wall Street Journal's report, once the court started its probe, Gen. Museveni contacted then U.N. Secretary General Annan and urged him to derail the ICC investigation. The Journal wrote: "President Museveni of Uganda asked U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to block the Congo investigation, according to one person familiar with the matter. Mr. Annan replied that he had no power to interfere with the court, this person said."

Uganda also is tied to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

Whereas there had been relative peace between Hutu and Tutsi since the genocide that accompanied independence in the early 1960s, Uganda upset this delicate balance and re-ignited deep seated ethnic fears by invading Rwanda in October 1990; the warfare ended in genocide four years later after the assassination of Rwanda President Juvenal Habyarimana.

The officers that led the invasion into Rwanda were senior officers in the Ugandan army, including Fred Rwigyema and Paul Kagame; they were both sent for training in the United States by President Museveni before invading Rwanda. Citizens of Rwanda should contact a smart American lawyer and explore legal options against the United States for collaborating in the invasion that culminated in genocide.

Domestically, within Uganda itself, nearly 2 million ethnic Acholis, more than 90% of the population, have been confined inside death centers, where, according to a report by the World Health Organization (WHO), up to 1,000 civilians were dying per week through governmental neglect, resulting in starvation, dehydration, and deaths through treatable diseases.

Critics have denounced the Uganda government administered centers as "concentration camps" and the 10 to 15 years confinement as "slow motion genocide." Between 600,000 to one million Acholis may have died in these camps during the period of these illegal detentions over the last decade. Please see: http://130.94.183.89/parker/sub01wsu.html

By comparison, the number of civilians killed by the vicious Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, during its 22 years war with the Uganda government, may not reach 22,000 since there has never been a report of 1,000 civilians being killed by the rebels in any one given year.

Now that the owners of fertile tracts of land in Acholi have been buried in mass graves, the Uganda government has cynically invited foreign investors to seize the land for commercial farming.

To reward General Museveni’s regime –after being involved in the deaths of seven million Congolese; one million Rwandese, and possibly another million Ugandans in Acholi—with a seat on the Security Council amounts to the following:

(1) Travesty that exposes the United Nations and the Security Council to global ridicule, scorn, and contempt.

(2) Interfering with the ongoing ICC investigation of alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against the people of DRC by Uganda's army and its allied militias, as already established by the ICJ. The UN would, incongruously, be inviting a suspect –commander in chief Lt. Gen. Museveni—in alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity to sit on the very body, the Security Council, which is empowered to either suspend or to not suspend an indictment by the ICC.

(3) Irreparably tarnishing the reputation of the Security Council; in particular challenging its mandate to end impunity of state and non-state actors.

(4) Squandering the moral stature of the Security Council, without which its authority is compromised and its actions rendered meaningless.

(5) Undermining the Security Council's ability to deal with future crises, including wars of aggression, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.

(6) Violating the UN’s own charter, which forbids wars of aggression, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, which Uganda already has been established to have committed in DRC by the ICJ.

(7) Promoting future wars of aggression, war crimes and crimes against humanity, and genocide, since the Security Council would no longer be able to play any deterrence role, having been compromised by rewarding a country that already was found to have committed these crimes, to sit on the Security Council. Moreover, the UN has also condemned Uganda –as well as the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels—for continued use and deployment of child soldiers in contravention of International laws. Please see: http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/crp/index.htm

(8) Emboldening the Ugandan dictatorship to continue human rights abuse domestically and wars of aggression, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, regionally, having nothing to fear from the United Nations and the international community.

(9) Betraying legitimate domestic opposition and resistance to the dictatorship, within Uganda.

(10) Confirming to the world that hypocrisy rules regardless of beautiful phrases such as “the rule of law” and “human rights.”

In order for Uganda to be elected, it needs the support of the five countries that hold permanent seats on the Security Council –the United States, Russia, France, the United Kingdom, and China.

The Bush Administration is grateful to Museveni for sending a token military force to Somalia, ostensibly on a peace keeping mission; in reality, to shore up the U.S.-backed Ethiopian occupation.

Ironically, some members of the Uganda armed force now stationed in Somalia may have been involved in the Congo atrocities; the Bush Administration has been willing to disregard genocide in Africa as a result of General Museveni's militarism, in return for short-term gains.

Anyone with a sense of human dignity, or any organization that still takes human rights and the UN Charter seriously and is horrified by this outrageous travesty, should protest in the strongest possible terms to ambassadors from the Five Permanent Member countries on the Security Council.

Send your letter of protest, or an e-mail message, or forward this Black Star News editorial, or call and speak with the respective ambassadors of:

The United States usa@un.int (212) 415-4000 Fax (212) 415-4443 ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad;

China (212) 655-6100 fax (212) 481-2998 ambassador Wang Guangya;

Russia rusun@un.int (212) 861-4900/4901 Fax (212) 628-0252 ambassador Vitaly I. Churkin;

United Kingdom uk@un.int (212) 745-9200 Fax (212) 745-9316 ambassador Sir Emyr Jones Parry;

and, France france@un.int (212) 308-5700 Fax (212) 421-6889 ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sablière.



Also call the United States Department of State and register your outrage to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at (202) 647-2492 Fax (202) 647-0244.

Please copy your letters of protest to Milton@blackstarnews.com or faxes to (866) 242-9689.








To comment or to subscribe to or advertise in New York’s leading Pan African weekly investigative newspaper, or to send us a news tip, please call (212) 481-7745 or send a note to Milton@blackstarnews.com


Also visit out sister publications Harlem Business News www.harlembusinessnews.com and The Groove music magazine at www.thegroovemag.com


"Speaking Truth To Empower."

[Matthias Offodile]

MBA Congo, look at what you have posted?! How does this concern Nigeria? I don´t see the link.

[Kenguy]

MBA Congo, look at what you have posted?! How does this concern Nigeria? I don´t see the link.

^^
Maybe in his anger, he didn't see where he posted it.:) It should be in the oasis section.

[Gulivar]

Any news on this?

[friendsofthecity]

Yes! It was once concelled and brought back to be completed on phases based of agreement by both sides.