Posts by OscarNkala:
Zim gold production up 61% to 11 240 kg
January 11th, 2013By Oscar Nkala.
Gold production in Zimbabwe during the first nine months of this year increased by 61% to 11 140 kg, driven largely by the firming bullion price.
In its latest report on the performance of the mining sector, the Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe says the increased gold production means the country remains on course to achieve its production target of 15 t this year, which will enable the country to rejoin the prestigious London Bullion Market Association (LBMA).
Zimbabwe was expelled from the LBMA in 2008, when its yearly gold production tumbled to a negligible 3 t as many mines ceased production owing to the political and economic challenges facing the country at the time.
However, production has been on the rebound since the adoption of a multi- currency regime in February 2009.
Meanwhile, the chamber says Zimbabwe needs up to $7-billion to recapitalise the mining sector in the next five years. The chamber believes that, if it receives the necessary capital injection, the country can increase yearly gold production to 50 t, platinum production to 21 t and coal production to seven-million t from the two-million forecast for this year.
The industry currently faces many problems, including high operating costs, exorbitant mining fees and taxes, political uncertainty, contentious mining regulations and a liquidity crisis which has dried up sources of long-term loans. The gold sector is currently operating at nearly 50% capacity, while chrome mining has been affected by low prices. Sectors like nickel, copper and tin have not been reactivated since going on care and main- tenance in the last decade.
The positive news of an increase in gold production came as Rio Tinto-owned Murowa Diamonds announced a significant increase in diamond production to 92 000 ct between July and September.
Zambia deploys army, paramilitary police forces in crack down on secessionists in Western province
October 17th, 2012By Oscar Nkala.
Zambian President Michael Sata has ordered the deployment of several infantry divisions backed by special forces commandos to conduct security operations in the country’s Western Province where leaders of the secessionist Barotseland Liberation Army have mobilised an estimated 3000 rebels to fight and push the army out of the predominantly Lozi territory.
According to Zambian media reports, the deployment comes in the wake of a declaration by the Barotseland Liberation Army commander Lieutenant James Mwiya who announced last week that the rebel army has received orders from its political masters, the Barotseland Organisation, the Barotse Freedom Movement and Citizens of Barotseland to wage a war for the liberation of the Lozi heartland presently known as the Western Province.
The rebel army has also instructed all Barotse citizens of the Western Provine to dress up in red apparels to signify their solidarity and strong resolve in anticipation of bloodshed.
Adrressing the media in Mongu, the impoverished capital of the Western Province, Lt Mwiya said dressing in red was the first step to signify their passage to an independent state. “Barotseland is not part of Zambia and the Republic of Zambia is not a free, unitary, indivisible, multi-party and democratic Christian nation by fact. A red colour campaign is for Barotseland independence, self determination and secession. All the people of Barotseland are requested to put on red colour in support of Barotseland fully seceding from Zambia,” he said.
The heavy military incursion into the Western Province is part of a crackdown aimed at suppressing the rebellion before it develops into a war. The army operation is also aimed at backing up an ongoing police dragnet which has so far failed to arrest the leaders of the main secessionist groups in the area.
The security forces are intensively hunting for Barotse Freedom Movement leader Chazele Mulasikwanda who stands accused of treason after leading some Lozi activists in tearing 500 copies of the country’s draft constitution to pieces in a symbolic act of defiance of Zambian authority. So far, 17 alleged rebel sympathisers have been arrested in the joint army and police crackdown.
“Zambians think the Barotse (secession) issue is organised by a few people who are influencing the majority. No, that is what left former president Rupiah Banda in trouble when he ordered the killing of Barotse citizens last year. He thought that only a few people were calling for Barotseland independence. His intelligence officers deceived him, because the truth is — all Barotses are involved. Leaders of movements like Chazele should not be picked out as individuals. If Zambia thinks it has a case, let them hunt for all Barotses. There is no turning back, we have almost 3, 000 men in all corners of Barotseland to fight back and we will do so without hesitation,” said one rebel leader.
Government fears of a bloody show-down with the secessionists were heightened last month when it learnt that most of the people who have joined the rebel army are ex-servicemen from the national army, the police, the prisons and intelligence services.
It also fears that because of their background in the security services, the rebels still have active sympathisers and agents within the government security apparatus. The idea to form a rebel army to liberate Barotseland was reached in March this year by the leaders of all the secessionists movements.
The rebels say they are determined to secede because like all the four past presidents of Zambia, President Sata has not honoured a government promise to implement the Barotseland Agreement of 1964.
In terms of the agreement, the government was supposed to grant self-government to Barotseland. The rebels have since declared that they are no longer bound by the agreement and will instead push for the creation of an independent Lozi state in the Western Province.
However, President Sata has responded with a vitriolic verbal attack on the secessionist leaders and a heavy deployment of security forces to engage the rebels and quell the uprising. Ratcheting up the war talk, the rebels have threatened to strike high value Zambian targets which include the State House, Bank of Zambia, the economic hub of Manda Hill in Lusaka and the Kenneth Kaunda International Airport.
Thirty-nine members of the Army Special Forces who recently returned from the Southern Africa Development Community-sponsored regional commando training course code-named exercise “Ex-Highlander” in Lesotho have also been deployed for counter-insurgency operations in the Western Province.
Uganda pleads for UN support for deployment of 4000 strong neutral force in Eastern DR Congo
October 17th, 2012By Oscar Nkala.
Ugandan Vice President Edward Ssekandi says the United Nations should support the joint proposal from members states of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region and the Southern Africa Development Community for the deployment of a 4000-strong Neutral International Force on the border between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo to end the war between the M23 rebel group and several militias fighting the Congolese army in the North Kivu, South Kivu and Goma regions, but only ‘as long as the mistakes of the past are not repeated.’
The security and humanitarian situation in Eastern DRC has deteriorated lately amid continuing clashes between the army and the M23 rebel group led by General Jean Bosco Ntaganda, which mutinied and eventually broke away from the Congolese Armed Forces (FAC) in April this year. M23 has been fighting intermittently since then against the UN MONUSUCO force and winning regularly against a disorganized and de-motivated Congolese national army.
Addressing the recent UN High Level Meeting on the situation in the Eastern DRC, Ssekandi said with UN support, the deployment of the proposed Neutral Intervention Force to clear Eastern DRC of its own rebels and those from neighbouring countries can end the war and create the necessary conditions for a sustainable peace process to hold.
He said the DRC has for long been a threat to regional stability, in most cases willingly under the rule of the late dictators Mobutu Sese Seko and Laurent Desire Kabila when it harboured rebel groups such as Uganda’s Allied Forces for Democracy, the Lord’s Resistance Army, the Rwandan Interahamwe and of late, ex-genocidaire Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).
He said the DRC also offered sanctuary to Jonas Savimbi’s Union for the Total Liberation of Angola (UNITA) and armed enemies of Central African neighbours Congo-Brazzaville and South Sudan. Ssekandi said although the regional governments have no evidence that President Joseph Kabila’s government supports rebel groups from neighbouring countries, it continues to host regional armed groups which launch regular raids into neighbouring countries and retreat into the safety of Congolese territory when counter-attacked.
“Since the advent of President Joseph Kabila’s government to power in 2001, we do not have evidence that the Congo government has threatened its neighbours by design. However, DRC has continued to threaten the security of neighbours by default. Since the DRC government and the UN forces that are supporting it (MONUSUC) are not effectively controlling the territory of DRC, the country has continued to be home to the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), the ex-genocidaires of Rwanda, the extremist Paremuhutu terrorists from Burundi, the Allied Forces for Democracy and the Lord’s Resistance Army terrorists from Uganda.
“Neither the DRC government, nor the UN forces are able to remove these terrorists. Therefore, the recent proposal by the ICGLR and the Southern Africa Development Community of a Neutral International Force could provide a solution as long as mistakes, as happened in our region in the past, are not repeated,” Ssekandi said. However, he said the plan will fail as many others have done before it if the DRC government and the international forces do not eradicate regional rebels and internal armed groups operating on Congolese territory.
“This is not a favour to the neighbours, it is a right. No UN member has a right, by design or default, to allow its territory to be a threat to neighbours. In Uganda’s capacity as Chair of the ICGLR, and in an effort to resolve the situation in Eastern DRC, we have had interaction with the M-23. They submitted 21 grievances from which you can discern the frame of mind of that group. The problem of negative forces has persisted for too long in spite of the efforts of the government of the DRC and MONUSCO. It is therefore the considered view of ICGLR that a force from the region has got better prospects of bringing peace to the region. Let us support negotiations with M-23 to end their issues peacefully, if possible.”
The Ugandan VP said the process will also hinge heavily on the DRC’s ability to build its own coherent, truly national national army to ensure that the government maintains security control over its entire territory when foreign forces leave after clearing out armed rebels groups. “Let us support a UN mandate for the Neutral International Force so that they can help the DRC army to deal with the terrorists against the neighboring countries. However, DRC should build its own army. Why should it take so long to build an army? After Idi Amin, it took Uganda only two years. By the end of 1980, we already had the nucleus of an army. Without an effective army, how will the DRC territory be effectively and sustainably controlled?”
He said a coherent Congolese national army ceased to exist in the 1960s when state institutions collapsed under Mobutu and has never been organized into a disciplined national security force since then. He alluded to its fractious nature saying it is riven with tribal sub-armies, inter-ethnic strife and competing political and tribal loyalties, all of which are considered to be above the nation.
“Building a national army is ideological. You must see the people of Uganda, DRC or Somalia as your people not just members of your tribe. That is why we introduced a quota system for building our army in Uganda. The army must have a national ideology based on the knowledge that the country provides more opportunities for the people than the tribe. Without a national army, the groups who are excluded feel insecure with a sectarian army. When that sectarian army faces a challenge, it will fight an isolated battle. These basics must be grasped. I heard one UN official questioning the integration of the fighting forces (in DRC) into the national army on the grounds of ‘loyalty’. A ‘loyal’ sectarian army is the greatest liability for any system. Integration is, therefore unavoidable,” Ssekandi advised.
However, the International Crisis Group has dismissed the ICGLR call for military intervention to solve the security crisis in the Eastern DRC as ‘an unrealistic and ineffective solution.’ The group said there will be no solution to the war as long as international donors and African mediators persist in managing the crisis when they are supposed to be solving it. It added that the crisis continues to recur because all the past agreements signed to pave the way to peace have not been implemented.
“This crisis shows that today’s problems are the same as yesterday’s because the 2008 framework for resolution of the conflict has yet to be put in place. Instead of implementing the March 23, 2009 agreement between the government and the National Council for the Defence of the People (formerly led by General Laurent Nkunda), the Congolese authorities pretended to be integrating the CNDP into political institutions, while the rebel group pretended to be integrating into the Congolese army. In the absence of army reform, military pressure on armed groups only had a temporary effect and post-conflict reconstruction was not accompanied by essential governance reforms and political dialogue,” the group says in its latest update of the DRC crisis.
The DRC accuses Rwanda of supporting the M23 rebellion, a charge which President Paul Kagame and the government in Kigali has dismissed as provocative and baseless. Instead, Rwanda has charged that it should be the one complaining because DR Congo is host to the FDLR rebels and other members of the former Rwandan army which, alongside the government’s Interahamwe militia, perpetrated the 1994 genocide. The ICG however insists that the deployment of an intervention force will not end the cycle of repetitive rebellions behind the insecurity in the Kivus and Goma regions.
“Pursuant to the peace and security architecture, the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) organised in July a regional dialogue to avoid conflict between Rwanda and the DRC. Unfortunately, it seems to be promoting an unrealistic and ineffective solution by advocating for the deployment of a 4,000-strong neutral force at the border between Rwanda and the DRC. If international donors and African mediators persist in managing the crisis rather than solving it, it will be impossible to avoid the repetitive cycle of rebellions in the Kivus. The risk of large-scale violence will remain,” the ICG said.