The Commonwealth must have strong values, David Cameron says

Continue reading the main story

Related Stories

Girls equal in throne succession

PM Commonwealth human rights plea

Sri Lanka anger at war crime move

David Cameron has threatened to withhold UK aid from countries that do not reform legislation banning homosexuality.

The UK prime minister said he raised the issue with some of the states involved at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth, Australia.

Human rights reform in the Commonwealth was one issue that leaders failed to reach agreement on at the summit.

Mr Cameron says those receiving UK aid should “adhere to proper human rights”.

Ending the bans on homosexuality was one of the recommendations of an internal report into the future relevance of the Commonwealth.

British empire

Mr Cameron told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show that “British aid should have more strings attached”.

But he conceded that countries could not change immediately, and cautioned that there would be a “journey”.

“This is an issue where we are pushing for movement, we are prepared to put some money behind what we believe. But I'm afraid that you can't expect countries to change overnight.

“Britain is one of the premier aid givers in the world. We want to see countries that receive our aid adhering to proper human rights.

Continue reading the main story

Find out more

Watch David Cameron's interview with Andrew Marr on Sunday 30 October 2011 at 09:00 on BBC Two

Catch up via iPlayer

“We are saying that is one of the things that determines our aid policy, and there have been particularly bad examples where we have taken action.”

Mr Cameron said he had spoken with “a number of African countries” and that more pressure had been applied by Foreign Secretary William Hague, who deputised for him during parts of the summit.

Some 41 nations within the 54-member Commonwealth have laws banning homosexuality. Many of these laws are a legacy of British Empire laws.

The discussion in the Ugandan parliament of an anti-homosexuality bill in 2009 sparked particular controversy, and earlier this year Ugandan gay rights campaigner David Kato was beaten to death in a suspected hate crime.

Nigeria's Senate is currently discussing a bill banning same-sex marriage, that includes penalties for anyone witnessing or aiding a same-sex marriage.

A spokesman for the Department for International Development said that only a type of bi-lateral aid known as general budget support would be withheld.

Budget support, which accounts for about 5% of the UK's annual aid budget of £7.46bn, is conditional direct assistance to governments. To qualify, recipients must adhere to rules on poverty reduction, respect of human rights, good governance and domestic accountability.

Malawi recently had £19m of budget support suspended following various infractions including poor progress on human rights and media freedoms and concern over the government's approach to gay rights, the DFID spokesman said.

Appointing a human rights commissioner to address this and other human rights issues was one of the 100-plus recommendations of the internal report, by the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group, which includes former UK foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind.

However, objections from a number of countries blocked adoption of the recommendation, according to Australia's prime minister Julia Gillard, speaking at the end of the three-day summit in Western Australia.

Besides the homosexuality rights issue, Sri Lanka's human rights conduct also came under scrutiny at the summit. The country will host the next head of government's meeting in two years' time.

Sri Lanka's army has been accused of war crimes during the civil war with the Tamil Tigers.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said he will boycott the 2013 summit unless there are major reforms in the country.

Succession question

In earlier comments, Mr Cameron said there had to be a “proper, independent exercise to look into the whole issue of what happened, and whether there were war crimes, and who is responsible” in Sri Lanka.

BBC correspondent Nicholas Witchell said the summit had been seen as a “watershed” for the organisation as it “struggles to demonstrate its relevance, particularly on human rights”.

Though the summit agreed to draw up a written charter and strengthen its ministerial action group, our correspondent said the outcome will be viewed by many “as a disappointing one and an opportunity missed”.

Two other developments came from the summit – a reform of royal succession and action on polio.

It was agreed that sons and daughters of any future UK monarch would have equal right to the throne. They will also be allowed to marry Roman Catholics without giving up a claim to the throne.

The move was agreed by the 15 Commonwealth realms where the monarch is head of state.

And Mr Cameron joined the leaders of Canada, Australia and Nigeria, in committing tens of millions of pounds towards eradicating polio in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.

The campaign will be supported financially by Microsoft magnate Bill Gates.

Source

Rwanda experienced Africa's worst genocide in modern times, and the country's recovery was marred by its intervention in the conflict in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

The country has been beset by ethnic tension associated with the traditionally unequal relationship between the dominant Tutsi minority and the majority Hutus.

Although after 1959 the ethnic relationship was reversed, when civil war prompted around 200,000 Tutsis to flee to Burundi, lingering resentment led to periodic massacres of Tutsis.

The most notorious of these began in April 1994. The shooting down of the plane carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana, and his Burundian counterpart, near Kigali triggered what appeared to be a coordinated attempt by Hutus to eliminate the Tutsi population.

Continue reading the main story

At a glance

Politics: Rwanda is trying to shake off its image associated with the 1994 state-sponsored genocide; the government argues the country is now stable

Economy: Growth exceeded 5% in the five years since 2001, driven by coffee and tea exports and expanding tourism; poverty is widespread and Rwanda is highly dependent on aid

Justice: The UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has convicted 27 people for their involvement the 1994 genocide

In response, the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) launched a military campaign to control the country. It achieved this by July, by which time at least 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus had been brutally massacred.

Some two million Hutus fled to Zaire, now the DR Congo. They included some of those responsible for the massacres, and some joined Zairean forces to attack local Tutsis. Rwanda responded by invading refugee camps dominated by Hutu militiamen.

Meanwhile, Laurent Kabila, who seized control of Zaire and renamed it the DR Congo, failed to banish the Hutu extremists, prompting Rwanda to support the rebels trying to overthrow him.

Rwanda withdrew its forces from DR Congo in late 2002 after signing a peace deal with Kinshasa. But tensions simmer, with Rwanda accusing the Congolese army of aiding Hutu rebels in eastern DR Congo.

Rwanda has used traditional “gacaca” community courts to try those suspected of taking part in the 1994 genocide. But key individuals – particularly those accused of orchestrating the slaughter – appear before an International Criminal Tribunal in northern Tanzania.

The country is striving to rebuild its economy, with coffee and tea production being among its main sources of foreign exchange. Nearly two thirds of the population live below the poverty line.

Source

MOGADISHU, Somalia – An al-Qaida-linked Somali militant group on Sunday posted a tape allegedly made by an American citizen who blew himself up during an attack on an African Union base in Somalia’s capital that left at least 10 people dead.

The young man, who would be at least the fourth American to become a suicide bomber in Somalia, urges other young people not to “just chill all day” and instead fight nonbelievers around the world.

The website Somalimemo.net, often used by the al-Shabab militia, said Somali-American bomber Abdisalan Taqabalahullaah had emigrated to the U.S. when he was 2 years old.

It was not possible to verify the claims and the U.S. Embassy was not able to comment. U.S. authorities estimate that at least 20 American passport holders have joined the insurgents in Somalia. At least three of them became suicide bombers.

The young man had an American accent and mixed Muslim terminology with American slang as he urged Muslims to carry out attacks against non-Muslims around the world.

“My brothers and sisters, do jihad in America, do jihad in Canada, do jihad in England, anywhere in Europe, in Asia, in Africa, in China, in Australia,” the voice said. “Anywhere you find (unbelievers), fight them and be firm against them.

“Today jihad is what is most important thing for the Muslim ummah,” he said, using a word for the Islamic community. “It is not important that you, you know, you you become a doctor or you become, you know, uh, some sort of engineer.”

“We have to believe in Allah and die as Muslims … Brainstorm,” the youth said. “Don’t, don’t just sit around and, you know, be, be be a couch potato and you know, you know, just like, you know, just chill all day, you know. It doesn’t, it doesn’t, it will not benefit you, it will not benefit yourself, or the Muslims.”

On Saturday, two suicide bombers blew themselves up in an attack on an African Union base that killed at least 10 people. The AU has not released official casualty figures but al-Shabab says dozens died.

About 9,000 AU peacekeepers supporting Somali government troops have almost pushed al-Shabab from the capital of Mogadishu. Earlier this month, Kenya opened a second front, sending hundreds of soldiers across the border into southern Somalia.

The insurgency is outgunned by both forces and has been weakened by a famine in its strongholds. But it still maintains the ability to carry off spectacular attacks, like a truck bomb that killed more than 100 people earlier this month, or Saturday’s two-hour attack on the AU base.

Somalia has not had a functioning government in more than 20 years.

___

Houreld contributed to this report from Nairobi, Kenya.

Source

Ghana was the first place in sub-Saharan Africa where Europeans arrived to trade – first in gold, later in slaves.

It was also the first black African nation in the region to achieve independence from a colonial power, in this instance Britain.

Despite being rich in mineral resources, and endowed with a good education system and efficient civil service, Ghana fell victim to corruption and mismanagement soon after independence in 1957.

In 1966 its first president and pan-African hero, Kwame Nkrumah, was deposed in a coup, heralding years of mostly-military rule. In 1981 Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings staged his second coup. The country began to move towards economic stability and democracy.

Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.

In April 1992 a constitution allowing for a multi-party system was approved in a referendum, ushering in a period of democracy.

A well-administered country by regional standards, Ghana is often seen as a model for political and economic reform in Africa. Cocoa exports are an essential part of the economy; Ghana is the world's second-largest producer.

The discovery of major offshore oil reserves was announced in June 2007, encouraging expectations of a major economic boost. Production officially began at the end of 2010, but some analysts expressed concern over the country's ability to manage its new industry, as laws governing the oil sector had not yet been passed.

Early among African countries to decolonise, Ghana is now a stable democracy with lively elections

In July 2009, Ghana secured a 600 million dollar three-year loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), amid concerns about the impact of the global recession on poorer countries. The IMF said the Ghanaian economy had proved to be relatively resilient because of the high prices of cocoa and gold.

Ghana has a high-profile peacekeeping role; troops have been deployed in Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone and DR Congo.

Although Ghana has largely escaped the civil strife that has plagued other West African countries, in 1994-95 land disputes in the north erupted into ethnic violence, resulting in the deaths of 1,000 people and the displacement of a further 150,000.

Source