Briefs
FrontLines - February 2009
Accused Slayers of USAID’s Granville, Rahama, on Trial
Khartoum, Sudan—Two Sudanese men on Jan. 21 denied in court that they were involved in the killing last year of USAID officer John Granville, 33, and his driver Abdelrahman Abbas Rahama, 39, but said that killing “American unbelievers” was honorable, Reuters reported.
The two are among five men accused of killing Granville and Rahama, who were returning home from New Year’s Eve celebrations in Khartoum Jan. 1, 2008.
“Killing American unbelievers
is an honor, but I was not involved in this case,” Mohamed Makkawi Ibrahim Mohamed said. A second defendant, Abdel Basit al-Hajj Hassan, agreed with his statement.
A third defendant, former army officer Mohamed Osman Yusuf Mohamed, also denied taking part in the killing. All three said earlier confessions were made under torture. The judge was expected to cross-examine the two remaining defendants the following week.
“The whole thing is crazy,” said Granville’s mother, Jane, in the Buffalo News. “This is a horrible time for us.”
Sudanese prosecutor Muhammad al-Mustafa Musa said the suspects were members of a previously unknown terrorist
group who came to Khartoum to murder Westerners.
Granville’s mother resides in Buffalo, N.Y., and said distance
and sparse media coverage
of the trial have made it difficult for her to obtain accurate
information. Hearings for the trial began in August but the judge adjourned the trial until September so the Granville family could appoint a lawyer to represent the family’s
interest in the Sudanese legal system. The trial was adjourned again in December due to the illness of the judge.
“John was a very selfless man who fell in love with Africa and was trying to make life better for people there,” David Gavazzi, a family friend who gave the eulogy at Granville’s funeral said in the Buffalo News. “This trial is never going to bring John back…. I can only hope that the best effort is given to bringing the men responsible to justice in the most appropriate way possible.”
Congress Appoints Key Chairmen to Oversee USAID
Washington—The 111th Congress announced during the second week in January the chairman and ranking members of committees that oversee USAID operations.
Among these appointments are Sens. Daniel K. Inouye* (D-Hawaii) as chairman and Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) as ranking
member of the Senate Committee on Appropriations. Rep. David R. Obey (D-Wis.) will serve as chairman and Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) as ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) will serve as chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs and Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), recently nominated to be secretary of commerce, will serve as the ranking member. Rep. Nita M. Lowey (D-N.Y.) was to serve as chairwoman and Rep. Kay Granger* (R-Texas) will serve as ranking member for the House Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations.
Sen. John Kerry* (D-Mass.) is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) is ranking member. In the House, Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Calif.) is chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) is ranking member.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) is chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and Sen. Susan M. Collins (R-Maine) is ranking member. Rep. Edolphus Towns* (D-N.Y.) is chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform and Rep. Darrell Issa* (R-Calif.) serves as ranking member.
Several other committees have jurisdiction over Food for Peace, a USAID- and USDA-managed program that uses U.S. food for overseas aid. Sen. Herbert Kohl (D-Wis.) is chairman and Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) is ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies.
Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) will serve as chairwoman
and Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) will serve as ranking member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies.
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa)
is chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry and Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) is the ranking member. Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) is chairman and Rep. Frank D. Lucas (R-Okla.) ranking member for the House Committee on Agriculture.
*Indicates they did not previously
hold this position.
Guinea Aid Cut After Coup
Following a military coup after the death of Guinea’s longtime strongman Lansana Conte, the State Department announced Jan. 6 that “the United States is suspending assistance to Guinea, with the exception of humanitarian aid and programs supporting the democratic process.”
Most of USAID’s $13-million
budget for the past year in the West African nation of 10 million people focused on health and democracy—programs which will remain in place.
Humanitarian aid includes health and education assistance and PL 480-funded food aid which supports agriculture and health activities. Democratic process assistance includes USAID elections assistance and most Agency work on good governance—
such as local governance
and decentralization.
Some agriculture and natural resource management activities worth about $1 million may be suspended, as will military aid by the departments of State and Defense. The political situation, however, remains fluid, and specific
program decisions may yet be altered.
Food Convoys Begin Trek Across Sahara
Food convoys for 250,000 Sudanese refugees in Chad began a 1,750-mile trek from Libya across the Sahara desert to refugee camps on the Sudan border, the U.N. World Food Program announced Jan. 13.
Some 58 trucks left Al Khufra in Libya in late December and were expected to reach northeastern
Chad later in January, before seasonal rains. A second convoy of nearly 100 trucks departed Al Khufra Jan 11.
Somali Gunmen Release Aid Workers
Nairobi, Kenya—Two aid workers kidnapped from Ethiopia by Somali gunmen more than three months ago were released Jan. 8 in good health, their organization said.
French aid group Medecins du Monde (Doctors of the World) said in a statement that Japanese worker Keiko Akahane, 32, and Dutchman Willem Sools, 27, were staying at a safe location after their release.
In a statement, Medecins du Monde quoted Sools as saying , “I regularly tell myself that I’m free; what a pleasure to see the stars!”
“I am in a dream!” Akahane said in the statement.
The two aid workers were seized in September in Ethiopia’s eastern border region of Ogaden, where ethnic Somalis have been fighting for more than a decade for greater autonomy or independence, and taken to Mogadishu.
UN Food Agency Condemns Killing of Staff in Somalia
The U.N. World Food Program (WFP) said on Jan. 6 that a staff member was gunned down while monitoring a school feeding program in the south of the war-torn nation.
WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said the killing of 44-year-old Somali national Ibrahim Hussein Duale was
a “shocking attack on one of
our staff while he was doing
his job.”
Duale was shot by three masked gunmen while he was monitoring school feeding in a WFP-supported school in Yubsan village, six kilometers from the Gedo region capital of Garbahare in southern Somalia. Witnesses say the gunmen approached him while he was seated, ordered him to stand up, and then shot him. He is the third WFP staff member killed since August 2008 in Somalia.
UN Agency Delivers Food Aid to Urban Africans
The Wall Street Journal reported from Monrovia, Liberia, that “escalating hunger in African cities is forcing aid agencies accustomed to tackling
food shortages in rural areas to scramble for strategies to address the more complex hunger problems in sprawling slums.”
The shifting situation, aggravated by high food prices, has caused the the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) to reevaluate its methods. It “has plenty of experience trucking food into rural Africa, responding
to shortages sparked by drought, famine and war, but in urban areas...the hurdles are different,” said the Journal. As it develops urban approaches, the WFP must be careful to avoid affecting local livelihoods,
so it began in 2008 to experiment with cash and voucher systems that would avoid upsetting local economies.
So far, the WFP is working
with governments and local aid groups to create programs
in the West African cities
of Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso, and Monrovia.
Zimbabwe to Charge Journalists $4,000 Fee
Harare, Zimbabwe—The Zimbabwe government said it will demand that foreign reporters pay an annual fee of $4,000 to practice journalism.
In addition, foreign media groups must pay $10,000 for the application and $20,000 for accreditation, payable only in foreign currency, the government-
controlled Media and Information Commission said Jan 8.
Many media organizations are banned from Zimbabwe. Those that do still operate there—including Reuters, The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, and Al Jazeera—would have to pay the fee if they wanted to report from the country.
From news reports and other sources ★
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