We begin in Liberia by running into a young boy with a US diplomatic car

[NNN0LHI]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAEU6M0WHD.html

<snip>As the Americans moved on, crowds chased their 15-vehicle convoy. In the confusion, one diplomatic car ran into a young boy, who was brought to the American Embassy for treatment. Liberian police fired shots in the air to disperse the crowds.

more

My question is where do we go next? Looks like our sons and daughters have a lot of liberating to do.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/2982818.stm

Uganda's atrocious war

Uganda's rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has become synonymous with torture, abductions and killings

"They tied me and laid me down. They told me not to cry. Not to make any noise. Then one man sat on my chest, men held my arms, legs, and one held my neck".

"Another picked up an axe. First he chopped my left hand, then my right. Then he chopped my nose, my ears and my mouth with a knife."

23-year-old David was abducted by rebels of the LRA, who falsely accused him of being a government soldier.

more

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/2665103.stm

Eyewitness: Sierra Leone's rape ordeal

As Human Rights Watch reports that systematic rape was committed in Sierra Leone's civil war, FB, a woman who was 10 when her family fled to Liberia in 1991, tells of the ordeal her sister and other girls went through.

We crossed into Vahun where there was a sort of refugee camp.

We were there for two weeks and terrible things happened.

We thought we had escaped from the rebels but we found many of them there. They controlled the camp.

more

http://www.nigeriamasterweb.com/HeatInNigeria.html

Nigeria On The Verge of War?

Political violence in Nigeria
The Delta has seen clashes in recent weeks The levels of political violence in the country are now causing increasing concern, with elections in Nigeria just a few weeks away. Nigeria's oil producing areas have been particularly volatile in recent weeks, with continuing instability in the rivers and creeks of Delta State, forcing the evacuation of major oil facilities and severely disrupting production there. This latest incident was in neighbouring Rivers State, near one of the key oil industry centres in the south - Port Harcourt. Hundreds of members of the opposition All-Nigeria People's Party had gathered to hear their local leaders speak. Accounts vary as to how the violence began, but eyewitnesses from the ANPP say that as they arrived at the venue they were set upon by local youths with machetes and other weapons, forcing people to flee and creating total confusion. According to the police, scores of people died as the crowd stampeded into a river to escape the disturbances. Another violent incident, also reported over the weekend, involved members of a group calling for the secession of eastern Nigeria. The group, the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (Massob), has been officially banned, but attempted to hold a rally near the eastern town of Owerri on Saturday. Their route to the venue was blocked by armed police, and in the confusion that followed, the police say at least seven people were shot and killed. Members of the group say the number of dead was far higher, with hundreds arrested. It is becoming increasingly evident that there are those within Nigeria who are intent, for whatever reason, on disrupting the election process through violence. Tensions are so high in some areas that President Olusegun Obasanjo recently held an all-party emergency conference to address the issue. -Culled from BBC-Online, Monday, March 31, 2003

Nigeria Police in The Dock
Okigwe Local Government Area of Imo State has not known peace since the Saturday, March 29, police killing of 50 members of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB. The community has been deserted as inhabitants have fled for safety. There was still a heavy presence of armed policemen in the area as at press time. Kenneth Anyanwu, MASSOB director of information, told Newswatch that MASSOB was on its way to a solidarity rally in support of American war against terrorism in Iraq when a combined team of the armed mobile policemen laid ambush and opened fire on them. Anyanwu accused Governor Achike Udenwa of Imo State of being behind the killing of MASSOB members. He said Ralph Uwazuruike, MASSOB leader, was arrested and detained at the Imo State police headquarters near Government House, Owerri, before the Presidency ordered his transfer to Force Headquarters, Abuja , on Monday, March 31.

more

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/redir.php?jid=4e62fb1da2e82850

Lagos riots over fuel in run-up to American visit

POLICE and demonstrators fought running battles in the streets of Lagos yesterday, just days before President Bush arrives in Nigeria on his five-day tour of Africa. The security forces used teargas and live ammunition and several demonstrators were killed.

There has also been a crackdown by the Government in Senegal, where Mr Bush begins his tour today. As many as 1,000 people, described by the Government as criminal elements, have been arrested and locked up over the past few days.

An advance team of US Marines arrived in Liberia yesterday to see how stability can be brought to that war- ravaged country if President Taylor keeps his promise to go into exile in Nigeria.

Mr Taylor claimed last night he would stand down “in a jiffy” if and when an international stabilisation force arrived in the country. “My departure depends on the presence of an international force, not the presence or absence of the Americans,” he said.

more

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,6719420%255E1702,00.html

28 killed in Burundi rebel attack

AT least 28 people, including 17 rebels, were killed today when the second biggest Hutu rebel group in Burundi, the National Liberation Forces (FNL), mounted a major attack on the nation's capital, Bujumbura.

Two civilians were killed in another attack in the north of the country, allegedly carried out by the main rebel group, the Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD).

Outside Bujumbura, the FNL attacked three districts using automatic weapons and grenades about 4am (1200 AEST), and were met by strong fire from government forces.

The rift between Burundi's Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups has seen the small, densely-populated country which borders Rwanda in the volatile Great Lakes region of Africa mired in a civil war that has claimed more than 300,000 lives since 1993.

more

[Paschall]

1. Argh!

I hope the boy is okay. (We have a medical facility at the US embassy in Monrovia?). But even if he were killed (heaven forbid), the death would be forgiven like the deaths of Western European civilians from Allied bombings were forgiven in WWII, if we can actually resolve the situation there. (I mean civilian deaths in countries we liberated, of course.)

Your catalogue of hotspots tells me we need to be part of a multilateral force with UN sanction. And, given the character of this misadminstration, I would urge a joint command. Or a non-US command. The French commanded US and French forces in a recent successful rescue of civilians in Africa. (The French were chosen because they know the territory.)

And, despite lots of worry about the behavior of French forces in Ivory Coast, they seemed to have performed well. But their job was strictly limited to interposing themselves between combat factions and protecting civilians. They could only use their weapons if fired upon or to rescue civilians from attack.

I think I trust the US military to handle this job. The problem is the current civilian leadership at the Pentagon and the ulterior motives of the PNAC cabal. God what a friggin' mess!

ON EDIT: Of course, any peacekeeping action will only be effective if we really apply ourselves to helping out these struggling nations--and I don't mean smoke and mirrors, AIDS funding-with-strings-attached, or ramming GM foods down the Africans' throats!

[Generic Other]

2. Just what is our African foreign policy

I think the creation of Liberia was the last time American politicians even thought about Africa.

Seems like our present policies have been to ignore the aids epidemic, pretend the violence and mayhem isn't happening, and hope that they all die off so as to make it easier to take their natural resources.

A hungry little African boy standing in the way of progress? Sounds like the present situation in anutshell.

Don't tell me this isn't genocide by design.