Kigali: The former US under secretary for African Affairs told a high level audience in Kigali Saturday that the International Criminal Court (ICC) is a “highly politicized institution” – in comments that caused mummers among western diplomats.
The office of the prosecutor is politicized, said Dr Jendayi Fraser, who was addressing a major conference in Kigali, as part of Rwanda’s 50th anniversary of independence. Dr Fraser was responding to a question directed at her to comment on the role of international bodies that are shaping events on the continent.
Dr Fraser said the ICC “interferes” in African affairs because Africans were unable to establish institutions that will provide justice and hold high level criminals accountable.
Build the structures necessary to do what the ICC is doing, said Fraser.
As the ex-US top diplomat for African affairs spoke, there were noticeable mummers coming from the section of the conference hall where western diplomats were seated.
Dr Fraser is one of the grand speakers at the independence conference themed: “Governance and Democracy: an African Perspective”. Several other speaks have been lined up for the event, as Rwanda marks 50 years after independence in July 01.
The independence festivities have been merged with Liberation Day, which is marked on July 04. It is the day when Kigali fell to the then RPF rebels in 1994. Rwandans are expecting a big party on that day.
Other speakers will at today’s conference include Prof. Margee Ensign - President of American University of Nigeria; former US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Affairs; and Kenya’s trade minister, Moses Wetangula, among others.
In a brief interview he conducted tonight, 28 April 2012, with the national media outlets, President Isaias Afwerki underscored that the recent rumor regarding his state of health attests to the mounting frustration on the part of its authors. (Shabait)
Chalice on track to finalise US$80m sale by late July
Symbol: ASX: CHN TSX: CXN
Shares outstanding: 250 million
Fully diluted: 258 million
Chalice Gold Mines Limited (ASX:CHN) (TSX:CXN) is pleased to advise that the Board of Shanghai Construction Group Co Ltd ("SCG") has approved the agreement to acquire Chalice's 60 per cent interest in the Zara Project in Eritrea for US$78 million plus a deferred payment of US$2 million.
As a result of the SCG Board approval, a Sale and Purchase Agreement ("the Agreement") has been executed between SCG subsidiary, China SFECO Group ("SFECO") and Chalice.
Key conditions precedent to completing the Agreement include:
the approval of Chalice Shareholders;
SFECO obtaining certain regulatory approvals within China, including those of the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Commerce, the State Asset Supervision and Administration Commission and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange;
completion of the sale of the 30 per cent interest in the Zara Project by Chalice to ENAMCO for the outstanding balance of US$31 million. This condition remains for the benefit of Chalice, which can choose to waive it; and
SFECO obtaining certain approvals within Eritrea to confirm that it has the requisite technical and financial resources to meet its obligations in developing the Project.
All conditions are required to be met by no later than 26 July 2012.
Chalice advices that completion of the transaction with ENAMCO will now occur concurrently with the SFECO transaction rather than prior to 30 June 2012 as previously announced on 25 January 2012.
In addition, subject to completion of the sale of the Zara Project to SFECO, Chalice and Dragon Mining Limited have agreed to set aside the trailing payment of $4 million to Dragon in the event that a one million ounce Ore Reserve is delineated at the Zara Project (see announcement to the ASX on 22 June 2010) in consideration for an up-front one-off payment of $1.5 million.
Chalice was advised by Middletons and China SFECO Group was advised by Deloitte on financial and accounting matters, Pinsent Masons LLP on legal matters and Golders on technical mining issues.
TIM GOYDER Executive Chairman
Forward Looking Statements
This document may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation and forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this document and Chalice Gold Mines Limited (the Company) does not intend, and does not assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements except as required by law or regulation.
This document may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation and forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this document and Chalice Gold Mines Limited (the Company) does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law or regulation.
Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect Company management's expectations or beliefs regarding future events and include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the estimation of mineral reserves and mineral resources, the realization of mineral reserve estimates, the likelihood of exploration success, the timing and amount of estimated future production, costs of production, capital expenditures, success of mining operations, environmental risks, unanticipated reclamation expenses, title disputes or claims and limitations on insurance coverage, as well as the possibility that a sale of the Zara Gold Project may be consummated.
In certain cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved or the negative of these terms or comparable terminology. By their very nature forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, risks related to actual results of current exploration activities; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; future prices of mineral resources; possible variations in ore reserves, grade or recovery rates; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; delays in obtaining governmental approvals or financing or in the completion of development or construction activities; completion of the sale of the Zara Gold Project to SFECO; the tax payable on any such transaction; completion of the sale of a 30% interest in the Zara Gold Project to the Eritrean National Mining Corporation; the use of any sale proceeds received from the sale of the Zara Gold Project; as well as those factors detailed from time to time in the Company's interim and annual financial statements, all of which are filed and available for review on SEDAR at sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.
Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.
Eritrea has sought to quash speculation about President Isaias Afewerki's health, saying he was "fit as a fiddle" and lambasting the United States for spreading "lies" over his condition.
Rumours have been rife in the past few years that Isaias, 66 and in power since 1993 after leading his country to independence from Ethiopia, was in poor health and required regular trips abroad for treatment.
Speculation about his health has stirred up debate over who might eventually replace the reclusive leader. Isaias has no obvious successor but the opposition says he might be grooming his son, Abraham, for the top job.
U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks have also mentioned the possibility of the military elite trying to take over power in the Red Sea state.
Eritrea refuted speculation about his health late on Sunday in a special announcement aired by the information ministry on state television and later broadcast on the Internet.
"There has been widespread speculation in the past few weeks that President Isaias has fallen seriously ill," the broadcast said.
"We would like to announce that President Isaias is fit as a fiddle and is in the best of health under all criteria," it added in remarks translated from the Tigrinya language.
Eritrea's exiled opposition has alleged on numerous occasions that the president is suffering from a serious liver ailment and that he has been receiving medical attention in Qatar, with which his nation has close ties.
In a move aimed at highlighting his good health, the broadcast showed a montage of Isaias sporting a baseball cap and making a short dash down a dirt track as he waved to bystanders in light rain.
It also pictured the leader snapping pictures with a point-and-shoot camera, then walking up a slope and posing as he smiled alongside other men on the banks of a reservoir.
Eritrea accused the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of spreading the "lies" surrounding its leader's health.
In a leaked cable from the U.S. embassy in the capital Asmara, former U.S. ambassador Ronald McMullen said Isaias feared the U.S. would try to kill him by firing a missile on his residence in the coastal city of Massawa.
Asmara often criticises Washington which it says backs its arch rival Ethiopia in the two countries' frontier dispute.
"Those lies emanate from Langley with the CIA being the rumour-mongers," said the television announcement, referring to the intelligence agency's headquarters.
Eritrea and Ethiopia have been at loggerheads since their 1998-2000 border war, which killed 70,000 people, and they accuse one another of backing the other's rebels and working to topple the other's government.
Isaias accused Washington last month of plotting Ethiopian cross-border raids that targeted alleged rebel camps. (Editing by George Obulutsa and Maria Golovnina)
Eritrea’s government denied accusations by Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi that it was responsible for abducting more than 100 gold miners in northwestern Ethiopia.
The incident, which took place “recently,” was one of a series that prompted a counter-offensive by Ethiopian forces on March 15, when they attacked three military bases inside Eritrea used by rebels to attack Ethiopia, Meles told lawmakers yesterday in the capital, Addis Ababa. He didn’t provide a more specific timeframe on when the abductions took place.
“It has become the modus operandi of Ethiopia to blame everything on Eritrea,” Girma Asmerom, Eritrea’s ambassador to the African Union, said in an interview today. “They think by lying and lying the lies may be perceived to be true.”
Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a war from 1998 to 2000 that killed 70,000 people, according to the Brussels-based International Crisis Group. Last month’s attack in southeastern Eritrea followed the January killing of five European tourists by Eritrea-backed insurgents, according to Ethiopia. Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki’s government denied any involvement in the incident.
Cross-border abductions such as those carried out in Ethiopia’s northwestern Tigray region occur regularly, Ethiopian Communications Bereket Simon said in a phone interview today from Addis Ababa, without providing further details.
“The proportional measure was taken in account of all the misdeeds,” he said. A return to all-out war is unlikely, Meles said yesterday.
UN Sanctions
Eritrea has been under United Nations sanctions since 2009 for allegedly supporting rebels in the Horn of Africa region, including al-Qaeda-backed militants in Somalia. Ethiopia accuses Eritrea of backing groups including the rebel Ethiopian Unity and Freedom Force, which yesterday claimed responsibility for an attack on Metema town in Ethiopia’s Amhara region on April 11.
About 20 buildings, including the Khartoum Hotel, were burned down, the group said in an e-mailed response to questions yesterday. Many of the properties were owned by members of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which is a member of Ethiopia’s five-party ruling coalition and led by Meles, the EUFF said.
The rebel organization, which was established in June, also said it attacked a convoy in which the governor of Sudan’s Gadarif state was travelling on April 9.
While the claims are the “usual fabrications”, all such groups are supported or “directly manipulated” by Eritrea, according to Bereket.
Eritrea does not want to destabilize its neighbors by backing rebel groups, according to Girma.
“It has selfish interests in a stable, united and developed Ethiopia and Sudan,” he said. “They are big markets.”
To contact the reporter on this story: William Davison in Addis Ababa via Nairobi at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Richardson in Nairobi at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi accused Eritrea on Tuesday of abducting dozens of Ethiopian miners from the country's northwest, in a potential escalation of tension between the arch-enemies.
Ethiopian troops crossed into the Red Sea state last month and attacked what they said were military bases used by rebels to stage raids, including a January attack that killed five Western tourists in Ethiopia's remote Afar region.
These attacks were the first on Eritrean soil that Ethiopia has admitted to since the end of a devastating 1998-2000 border war, sparking concern that their unresolved frontier spat could escalate into a full-scale war.
"They (Eritrean government) recently kidnapped more than 100 young miners who were mining gold in our country's northwest. And in the northeast, they killed some tourists and kidnapped others," Meles said, the latter referring to the January raid.
"We have taken proportional measures in both locations," he told lawmakers in response to a question on relations with Eritrea.
Meles did not specify when and exactly where the abductions in the country's northwest Tigray region took place, nor the measures his country had subsequently taken.
Eritrean officials were not immediately available for comment, but they often dismiss their rivals' allegations as a ploy to harm Eritrea's reputation.
Ethiopia routinely accuses Asmara of supporting Ethiopian separatist groups. It blamed an Afar rebel movement for the kidnapping of Westerners in its northern Afar region in 2007, and again for the attack in the same area earlier this year.
Gunmen killed two Germans, two Hungarians and an Austrian in a dawn attack on a group of tourists in the remote Afar region on January 17, and seized two Germans and two Ethiopians.
A rebel group in the Afar region said in February it had freed the two Germans, although there has been no official confirmation of the release.
After the border war, the Hague-based Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission ruled that the flashpoint town of Badme belonged to Eritrea but the village remains in the hands of its neighbor, which is calling for negotiations to implement the ruling.
Asmara blames the international community for the impasse, and President Isaias Afewerki last month accused the United States of plotting the Ethiopian raids.
Ethiopia is Washington's biggest ally in the Horn of Africa region and has deployed troops in lawless Somalia to fight al Qaeda-linked insurgents in Somalia.
"The military incursions were plotted by Washington with the aim of diverting attention from implementing the boundary commission's decision," Isaias said in an interview with state television.
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