Monthly Archives: July 2012

Arms Trade Treaty – an historic opportunity

Posted on July 24, 2012 by

By William Hague Six years ago the international community began detailed work on an Arms Trade Treaty. We are now in the final week of negotiations. The UK remains steadfast and determined to get the strongest possible Treaty. We will not sign up to a weak text. We want an agreement which is robust and legally binding and achieves significant gains for the international community, particularly greater security and the preservation of human rights. The UK wants a treaty which acknowledges the responsibility of all States to effectively regulate and control the international transfer of conventional arms. The remaining negotiations will be tough and some countries seem determined to block … Continue reading →

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Arms Trade Treaty: Time for negotiations is running out

Posted on July 23, 2012 by

By Alan Duncan Over the last six years, the UK has led international efforts to agree a robust and effective Arms Trade Treaty. In 2006, the UK co-authored the first UN Resolution on this subject, alongside Kenya, Costa Rica, Australia, Japan, Finland and Argentina. This eclectic group of countries demonstrates the strength and breadth of international support for a legally binding Arms Trade Treaty. This work is coming to a head at the United Nations in New York where intensive negotiations on the text of a treaty are due to conclude Friday 27 July. International regulation of the arms trade is urgently needed. More than 740,000 men, women and children … Continue reading →

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How Mali became a spillover from Col Gaddafi’s ouster

Posted on July 22, 2012 by

There is no question America is playing a major part causing divisions within numerous countries struggling for sanity and we know enough to accept America means well but seemingly to often be out of their depth which is brilliantly voiced in the following article presented in this weekend’s Sunday New York Times by Ross Douthat. ALMOST nine months after the world watched Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi meet his maker at the hands of a camera-phone-wielding mob, our intervention in Libya’s civil war has vanished down the American memory hole. To the intervention’s champions, this is no doubt regarded as proof of the operation’s great success: We toppled a tyrant, assisted our … Continue reading →

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Are Western countries meddling in AU elections?

Posted on July 11, 2012 by

By David Nyekorach Matsanga The African Union (AU) is holding its 19th extraordinary Summit meeting in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa. The week-long summit started Monday and will culminate in the election of a new Chairperson of the AU Commission. My organization has considered the main pillars during the formation of the OAU (now called AU). My organization has looked at the dream of the founding fathers of UNITY. The dream of the late founding fathers, namely Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah, Tanzania’s Julius Kambarage Nyerere, Kenya’s Jomo Kenyatta, Senegal’s Ahmed Sekou Toure, Egypt’s Abdel Nasser, Congo’s Patrice Lumumba, Uganda’s Milton Obote and many others, was to have a United Africa … Continue reading →

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Malawi in luck as Britain offers to stabilise her economy

Posted on July 3, 2012 by

By Robert Asketill Somehow it is amazing, considering their own difficulties, to hear Britain is to buy up to £20 million of Malawian currency to help stabilise this African state’s economy following a major devaluation. We were aware that Malawi was to be given aid now that this poor country has voted in a Lady President as covered in our previous comment: “Defending Banda’s decision not to host this year’s AU Summit”. Britain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague last month announced the UK would appoint a new High Commissioner to the Commonwealth state, a year after the expulsion of the previous holder of the post who had branded the previous President Mutharika … Continue reading →

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The Arab Spring – Is there another side to the story?

Posted on July 1, 2012 by

By Robert Asketill We have had to listen via the media on the success of the European-inspired Arab Spring but which, looked at sensibly by those of us with long personal experience with the Arab and African problems, knew could lead to disaster . This is certainly so for the poor and uneducated masses who have now found themselves homeless, on the edge of starvation, waterless and with guns appearing in place of the digging tool so desperately needed. Yet the voices of those who created the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ can still be heard from their luxurious vastly expensive banqueting conferences, boasting of success and of being well on the … Continue reading →

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