 BISSAU, 10 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - Guinea-Bissau's electoral commission on Wednesday formally declared one-time military ruler Joao Bernardo "Nino" Vieira the president of the small West African country, dismissing his challenger's claims that last month's ballot had been fraudulent.
Malam Mane, the electoral commission's head, confirmed provisional results that Vieira had garnered 52 percent of the vote in the 24 July poll, with Malam Bacai Sanha, the candidate of the ruling African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC) trailing in second with 48 percent.
"With these results, Vieira is elected president of Guinea-Bissau," Mane said, as outside the commission extra soldiers stood guard with Kalashnikovs and grenade launchers.
This presidential election was supposed to set the seal on Guinea-Bissau's return to constitutional government after a civil war in 1998-1999 that was followed by several years of political instability and administrative chaos. |
|
KIGALI, 9 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - Rwandan genocide survivors issued on Monday a collective complaint to the government about its decision on 29 July to release tens of thousands of inmates, many of whom had confessed to taking part in the 1994 genocide.
"Their release will only serve to weaken the Gacaca courts as survivors will find these courts irrelevant," Ibuka, an umbrella organisation for Rwandan genocide survivors, said in a communique.
The Gacaca courts were set up in 2002 to bring to trial many of the genocide suspects.
|
|
 BRAZZAVILLE, 9 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - President D?nis Sassou-Nguesso of the Republic of Congo (ROC) said on Monday he wanted the truth to emerge from the trial of 15 senior security officials over the disappearances of refugees in an affair known as the "Beach" case.
"Our expectations and hopes are that this trial brings out the entire truth," he said in his declaration in parliament.
The Beach case started on 19 July at the Brazzaville Criminal Court. The defendants are amongst of the country's highest ranking security officials. They are accused of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes.
|
|
 NAIROBI, 9 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - There is no split within Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) over the deployment of foreign peacekeeping troops and relocation to the Somali capital, Mogadishu, a senior member of the TFG said on Tuesday.
"There may be misunderstandings and differences of opinion, but I am not aware of any split or two camps within the TFG," Abdirahman Dinari, spokesman for the TFG, told IRIN.
Dinari said the TFG welcomed efforts by the UN and others to facilitate dialogue, "but that should not become some sort of a reconciliation conference".
|
|
 LAGOS, 8 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - When Nigeria conducts a long-overdue national census in November, no data will be collected showing the religious or ethnic origins of its citizens.
Africa’s most populous country of more than 126 million people, split between a mainly Muslim north and largely Christian south, is frequently plagued by ethnic and religious upheavals.
The authorities fear that highlighting those divisions in a national headcount will only inflame tensions.
A meeting of the advisory National Council of State, comprising the country’s 36 state governors and former heads of state, called by President Olusegun Obasanjo in January, had advised against considering religion and ethnicity in the census.
|
|
NOUAKCHOTT, 8 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - Mauritania's military junta has been outlining its plans for the mainly-desert nation, hoping to shore up the goodwill that has so far greeted it at home, and reassure a displeased international community that it has no intention of clinging on to power indefinitely.
After meeting with the putschists who overthrew President Maaouya Ould Taya in a bloodless coup last week, opposition leaders said the so-called Military Council for Justice and Democracy had promised to hold a referendum on changes to the constitution within a year, to be followed immediately by legislative elections.
The junta also picked a civilian prime minister, Sidi Mohamed Ould Boubacar, over the weekend to head a caretaker government. He held the same post under Ould Taya before falling out of favour and becoming Mauritania's ambassador to Paris.
|
|
|
<< Start < Prev 181 182 183 184 185 186 Next > End >>
|
| Results 1087 - 1092 of 1113 |
