POLITICS AND POWER

THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1281 - 13/03/2010 POLITICS & POWER Rajoelina’s top ten advisors For the last year, the President of the High Authority for Transition (HAT), Andry Rajoelina known as TGV has managed to stay in power by thwarting international pressure for him to install a consensus regime. Several of his advisors, each in a specific post, have had a significant role to play to help him get over this hurdle or help him find funding. (...)  [704 words]  [$9.5] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1281 - 13/03/2010 POLITICS & POWER This sheikh is controversial as ever The dust has barely begun to settle on the scandal of the pollution of the water in La Misere village by the firm Ascon working in the Seychelles on the construction of a luxury villa for Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan (ION 1280). (...)  [308 words]  [$5.4] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1281 - 13/03/2010 POLITICS & POWER Seye Abraha issues warnings It would appear that Seye Abraha wants to take advantage of the international controversy that has broken out about food aid in the 1980s to the rebels in the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. (...)  [154 words]  [$5.4] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1281 - 13/03/2010 POLITICS & POWER Africom to train TFG troops During his visit to Brussels on 4 March, General Richard J. Sherlock director of strategy, plans & programs of African Command (Africom), informed the members of the European Union (EU) Council and the European Commission of the American army program to train non-commissioned officers of the Somalian Transitional Federal Government (TFG) armed services. (...)  [296 words]  [$5.4] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1280 - 27/02/2010 POLITICS & POWER Berenger and Ramgoolam obliged to unite? In spite of the rift of distrust that has separated them since their ruling coalition broke up in 1997, the present Prime Minister and leader of the Labour Party (LP), Navin Ramgoolam and the leader of the Mouvement Militant Mauricien (MMM, opposition), Paul Berenger, could form an alliance ahead of the general election due to be held later this year. (...)  [756 words]  [$9.5] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1280 - 27/02/2010 POLITICS & POWER LRA in the news again General Aronda Nyakairima, the head of the Ugandan armed forces, made two trips in quick succession to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to evaluate precisely the extent of the renewal of activity of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) headed by Joseph Kony and other rebel groups. (...)  [286 words]  [FREE] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1280 - 27/02/2010 POLITICS & POWER Legal FRUD says “yes but” During his party’s conference on 11 and 12 February, the chairman of the Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy (Legal FRUD, a member of the ruling coalition), Ali Mohamed Daoud known as Jean Marie, strongly sang the praises of President Ismail Omar Guelleh (IOG). (...)  [178 words]  [$5.4] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1280 - 27/02/2010 POLITICS & POWER Said Larifou takes the debate to Addis The opposition in the Comoros is finding it difficult to make the African Union (AU) executives aware of the “creeping coup d’état” that in its view President Ahmed Abdallah Sambi has in store. (...)  [354 words]  [$5.4] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1279 - 13/02/2010 POLITICS & POWER Secession in the South, coup in the North In the minds of those who brokered the 2005 peace agreement, the national election in April 2010 should have had a calming effect ahead of the South Sudan self-determination referendum in 2011. This scenario has now gone adrift, because there is no doubt at all as to what the outcome of the referendum will be: (...)  [776 words]  [$9.5] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1279 - 13/02/2010 POLITICS & POWER Uhuru Kenyatta vs Raila Odinga According to a source inside the Kenyan ministry for finance, Uhuru Kenyatta has been furious with the Prime Minister Raila Odinga since he learnt that the latter had recently ordered his permanent secretary Mohammed Isahakia to draw up a directive giving the Prime Minister’s office the power to authorise investigations by private companies into corruption affairs involving ministers and government top ranking civil servants. (...)  [260 words]  [FREE]   THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1281 - 13/03/2010 POLITICS & POWER The level of security as seen by UN According to the evaluation made by the United Nations on a scale of one to five (where five corresponds to a need to evacuate its entire staff) the level of security in Djibouti is seen as being in phase one in much of the country. (...)  [291 words]  [$5.4] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1281 - 13/03/2010 POLITICS & POWER Bleak future for Hailu Shawel Nothing is going right for Hailu Shawel and his All Ethiopian Unity Party (AEUP), opposition grouping which accepted to participate in the general election this year. (...)  [221 words]  [$5.4] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1281 - 13/03/2010 POLITICS & POWER Renewed tension with Kigali To begin with, there was the incident of the Ugandan police beating up Joe Kabatsi, an independent candidate for the forthcoming parliamentary election in the southern part of the country. (...)  [360 words]  [$5.4] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1281 - 13/03/2010 POLITICS & POWER President Sambi has gone too far After the vote by the Comoros Congress (during a session boycotted by the opposition) extending the presidential mandate, the African Union (AU), France and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) all issued communiqués reminding that the mandate of President Ahmed Abdallah Sambi is due to end in May 2010, not November 2011. (...)  [260 words]  [FREE] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1280 - 27/02/2010 POLITICS & POWER American frigates snubbed Certain American experts and high-ranking officers in Africa Command (Africom) are distrustful of the government of President Armando Guebuza of Mozambique (ION 1276), and vice versa. (...)  [204 words]  [$5.4] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1280 - 27/02/2010 POLITICS & POWER Mark Mwandosya vs Dawasco The Minister for Water and Irrigation, Mark Mwandosya has been in open conflict with the board of the State-owned Dar es-Salaam Water and Sewerage Corporation (Dawasco) since the latter short-listed, on 25 January, six candidates for the post of its CEO. (...)  [221 words]  [$5.4] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1280 - 27/02/2010 POLITICS & POWER A sheikh who is starting to irritate The opposition newspapers have been repeatedly criticising the privileges the Seychelles authorities have given the President of the United Arab Emirates, Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. (...)  [320 words]  [$5.4] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1280 - 27/02/2010 POLITICS & POWER Ineffective regional integration aid In the view of the European Union Accounts Commission, the poor impact of the projects of the European Development Fund (EDF) is partly explained by the fact that the four regional organisations active in East Africa – Comesa, East African Community, IGAD and the Indian Ocean Commission – are treading on each other’s toes. (...)  [248 words]  [$5.4] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1279 - 13/02/2010 POLITICS & POWER Diplomat returns privately The former chargée d’affaires of the French embassy in Antananarivo, Marie Claire Girardin, who acted as interim ambassador for several months in 2009 before she was recalled to Paris, has finally been won over by the charm of the country. (...)  [251 words]  [$5.4] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1279 - 13/02/2010 POLITICS & POWER Lease for Italian base renegotiated During his visit to Nairobi in mid-January, the Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Franco Frattini, signed an agreement with the Kenyan government extending the lease on the San Marco space centre in Malindi until the end of the year. (...)  [202 words]  [$5.4]