Ivory Coast / Belarus, Africa / Europe

Stolen elections and dictators for leaders are not unique to Africa, as the media would often have us believe. While I’m angered and embarrassed by the situation in the Ivory Coast, as well as worried about friends in the country (though glad that ECOWAS has seen fit to take swift punitive action against Gbagbo), and hot on the heels of this disgrace comes the news (thanks again to Wikileaks), that wanted Sudanese president, Omar al-Bashir has stolen $9bn dollars of his people’s money, let’s not forget that today in Belarus presidential ‘elections’ are being held, that is to say, the 're-election' of Europe’s last dictator, Alexander Lukashenka. While he has been careful to give the polls a semblance of plurality, it’s a foregone conclusion that Lukashenka will once again be president of the former Soviet state, as he has been since 1994.

Amnesty International has published its key concerns about human rights in Belarus in the run up to the elections. “The human rights of people in Belarus are routinely abused by the state. Freedom of speech and the right to peaceful protest are not respected. Human rights defenders are harassed. We have serious concerns about unfair trials and the use of torture in detention. This is all the more worrying because Belarus is the only country in Europe still to retain the death penalty,” said Amnesty international UK Director Kate Allen.

See below a video from Al Jazeera.



**UPDATE - EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS, 20 December
Question mark over EU policy after Belarus election violence

Worse than expected violence on the streets of Minsk following presidential elections on Sunday (19 December) have placed a question mark over EU's new policy of engagement with Belarus.

The union in October again suspended a travel ban on President Aleskander Luksahenko and 35 top officials originally imposed after a post-election crackdown in 2006 in the hope that better relations would pull the administration closer to EU standards and interests.

A stream of EU VIPs have also travelled to the region in recent months, dangling the prospect of up to €3 billion in aid if the election goes off well.

But Mr Lukashenko on Sunday evening responded by sending riot police to attack a huge crowd of between 20,000 and 40,000 protesters which gathered in the capital's central Independence Square to call for him to step down or at the least to hold a second round in the vote.


Opposition candidate Vladimir Neklyaev was injured in the clash

Sixty-four-year-old opposition candidate Vladimir Neklyayev was knocked unconscious in the street by masked men, taken to hospital and then abducted from his hospital bed by plain clothes officers who locked his wife in an adjoining room, wrapped him in a blanket and took him away. His whereabouts were unknown on Monday morning.
More…

Greek chaos amid general strike and austerity protests

The former Greek development minister Costis Hatzidakis, centre, was attacked by protesters in Athens. AP.

Greece descended into chaos on Wednesday, as thousands took to the streets to protest against a new wave of austerity cuts amid a nationwide walkout and an attack on the former Greek transport minister.
The Telegraph

The facts and figures from Bloomberg here and here.

Teflon Silvio - Berlusconi survives two no-confidence votes

But riots break out in Rome. Hooded protesters set up flaming barricades as police baton-charge demonstrators in several parts of capital's historic centre. Violent clashes have left 50 police officers and at least 40 protesters injured.
More from The Guardian and video below.

Kosovo holds historic election as division persists

Kosovo is holding its first parliamentary election since unilaterally declaring independence from Serbia almost three years ago.

The ethnic Albanian majority and small Serb minority remain largely estranged, more than a decade after a Nato-led conflict broke Belgrade's control.

Serbia has not recognised Kosovo's independence and most Serbs are expected to boycott the elections.

The EU says the election is important for Kosovo's hopes of entry.

During the campaign, institutionalised corruption and the dire state of Kosovo's economy have consistently topped lists of voter concerns.

More from BBC...

Below from Al Jazeera:

Related: Wikileaks cables: Kosovo sliding towards partition, Washington told

WikiLeaks cables: Pope wanted Muslim Turkey kept out of EU

A WikiLeaks cable reports that Pope Benedict XVI, seen here being received by Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara in 2006, 'might prefer to see Turkey develop a special relationship short of EU membership'. Photograph: Dylan Martinez/AFP/Getty Images

The pope is responsible for the Vatican's growing hostility towards Turkey joining the EU, previously secret cables sent from the US embassy to the Holy See in Rome claim.

In 2004 Cardinal Ratzinger, the future pope, spoke out against letting a Muslim state join, although at the time the Vatican was formally neutral on the question.

The Vatican's acting foreign minister, Monsignor Pietro Parolin, responded by telling US diplomats that Ratzinger's comments were his own rather than the official Vatican position.

The cable released by WikiLeaks shows that Ratzinger was the leading voice behind the Holy See's unsuccessful drive to secure a reference to Europe's "Christian roots" in the EU constitution. The US diplomat noted that Ratzinger "clearly understands that allowing a Muslim country into the EU would further weaken his case for Europe's Christian foundations".

More...

More financial folly from the Commission

So this year's EU Development Days have come to an end after two days of roundtables, conferences, seminars, workshops and discussions involving heads of state, diplomats, officials, development experts and interested members of the public. According to the Commission, 6,000 delegates attended the event and were treated to, among other things, a fashion show, a music concert and theatre productions. The cost for this affair? Rumoured to be in the region of two million euro. Money that would have been better spent in actual development, no doubt.

This latest financial folly comes just weeks after a similar ill-conceived exercise to mark the EU Year Against Poverty in which thousands of free branded t-shirts were handed out to all and sundry outside the Parliament. The t-shirts were given away free, which is worth reiterating, because they weren't given in exchange for signing up to receiving more information about poverty in the EU or for pledging to help combat inequalities. No, the communications 'experts' responsible for such profligacy clearly have a complete disregard for the cardinal rule of communications campaigns: what do you want people to do NOT what do you want them to know. However much, or little, the branded t-shirts cost to produce, again, surely it's money that would have been better spent actually combatting poverty as opposed to promoting it!

In this age of austerity, surely the powers-that-be at the Commission could come up with more cost-effective ways for getting their messages out and engaging the public in a meaningful way. The key is not to throw money at comms campaigns but rather to inject a bit of common sense in to them. EC Comms Watch continues...

The people versus Paul Kagame

Men blow vuvuzelas as they gather outside the Square conventre centre to protest against the visit of Rwanda's President, Paul Kagame to the EU Development Days in Brussels, Monday, 6 December, 2010. Photo from AP.

Europe's missing millions: listen now

Click here to listen

Over the last seven years, the European Union has paid out billions of Euros in grants designed to revitalise Europe's poorest regions.

But an investigation for File on 4 has revealed the extent to which these payments are open to widespread fraud, abuse and mismanagement.

Angus Stickler tracks how money has gone astray across the 27 member states and asks why funding continues in regions with proven records of corruption and fraud. Throughout the EU there is evidence that money has been wasted or even stolen. In Southern Italy, money has gone to Mafia-controlled construction companies and bogus energy projects. Across the EU expensive projects lie unused and unfit for purpose, despite receiving funding of millions of Euros.

The EU has created its own anti-fraud agency, OLAF, to stop these abuses, but are critics right when they claim it's underfunded and ineffective?

File on 4/Bureau of Investigative Journalism co-production.

Producer: Gail Champion Editor: David Ross.