The Commonwealth Update

An Authoritative, nation-by-nation review of events across the Commonwealth, with an update now published six times a year in an issue of The Round Table.

Back to the Commonwealth Archive

From 2008, the review is being written by Oren Gruenbaum, the Commonwealth Update editor, and currently Senior Sub-Editor at The Guardian in the UK

In 2007, the review was written by Judith Soal, a journalist who has worked extensively in South Africa and is currently deputy night editor at The Guardian in the UK.

Until 2007 the review was written by Derek Ingram, who was the Founding Editor of Gemini News Service until 1993, and is the author of a number of books about the Commonwealth and is active in the CJA, CPU, CHRI and the RCS, as well as a member of the Moot.

Related Commonwealth links

Commonwealth Updates

Commonwealth Update - Issue 398

Oren Gruenbaum

ABSTRACT
Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf resigned as impeachment proceedings were due to begin. Talks on a power-sharing deal in Zimbabwe became bogged down amid the further disintegration of the economy. Bangladesh held its first elections since the army seized power last year. The Indian government survived a critical vote of confidence over a controversial nuclear deal with the US. Levy Mwanawasa, the Zambian president, died. Kenya's finance minister, a key ally of the president, resigned over the allegedly dubious sale of a state-owned hotel to Libya. The Nigerian president sacked military chiefs in a further distancing of the government from the previous regime. Rare public opposition to the absolute rule of the Swazi king erupted over a shopping trip to Europe and the Middle East by his wives.

AFRICA

Botswana
Botswana boycotted the Southern African Development Community summit in South Africa in August in protest at the presence there of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe following the disputed election process in that country and political violence by government-backed militias.

Botswana does not recognise Mugabe as the legitimate Zimbabwean president (27 July).

President Ian Khama introduced a new alcohol tax that will raise the price of beer by 70% (31 July). Khama, a Christian, said that if the levy did not curb drinking, a further increase of 70% would be considered. The new tax follows trading curfews for bars, bottle stores and nightclubs. There are fears that the move will drive people to dangerous home brews.

Cameroon
Nigeria handed over the oil-rich Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon, ending a long dispute (14 August). Over the past year about 50 people have been killed in clashes. A militant Nigerian group, the Niger Delta Defence and Security Council, has fought the handover. In recent years, at least 100,000 people have moved to Nigeria, local leaders say, but the transfer was described by UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon as "a model for negotiated settlements of border disputes". Nigeria and Cameroon will now jointly explore oilfields left untapped because of the dispute.

A famous singer, Lapiro de Mbanga, faces two years imprisonment for allegedly organising anti-government riots in Mbanga in February that left more than 100 protesters dead. Lapiro's supporters say he is being victimised because of his criticism of the government. His song Constipated Constitution mocked changes to the law allowing President Paul Biya, 75, to seek re-election in 2011 after 26 years in power.

Ghana
President John Kufuor held talks with community leaders after 13 people were killed in clashes between Mamprusi and Kusasi near Bawku, threatening elections later this year (25 June).

Kenya
The former anti-corruption chief John Githongo called for an amnesty for those admitting guilt in corruption cases (20 Aug). It was his first visit back since fleeing to the UK in 2005 after he exposed the $1bn Anglo-Leasing scandal, which forced the resignation of several ministers.

At least 70 pupils were charged over unrest at boarding schools across the country. One died in Nairobi after a dormitory was burned down in protests over poor food and harsh rules. The crisis closed 200 schools.

Environmentalists and locals won an injunction on a controversial sugar-cane project in the Tana delta, near Mombasa (18 July). The $369m project to grow sugarcane for ethanol threatens fragile wetlands that are home to 350 species of birds, rare sharks and many endangered primates.

The finance minister, Amos Kimunya, a key ally of President Mwai Kibaki, resigned over the secret sale of the Grand Regency Hotel to the Libyan government for $45m after parliament passed a vote of no confidence (10 July). Its recorded value was $115m.

Malawi
The former Malawian leader Bakili Muluzi went to court to overturn a ban on him seeking re-election as president next year because he has already served two consecutive terms. Muluzi wants to stand against President Bingu wa Mutharika, his chosen successor with whom he fell out. James Phiri, a rival candidate from his own party, said it would be against the constitution as Malawians had rejected life-presidency when Muluzi ended Hastings Banda's 30-year rule in 1994, winning the country's first multi-party elections.

Nigeria
President Umaru Yar'Adua dismissed the chief of defence staff, together with the heads of the army and navy (21 Aug). The three were seen as loyalists of former president Olusegun Obasanjo. After serial military coups since independence, Yar'Adua last year became the first Nigerian civilian leader to succeed another.

A key Obasanjo ally should never hold public office again, the Senate said after an investigation found 32bn naira ($217m) missing from the accounts of the Federal Capital Territory, which runs the capital, Abuja. Nasir el-Rufai's administration also demolished thousands of houses and slums in Abuja, moving more than 800,000 people. Two former aviation ministers were arrested over the disappearance of $160m for radar equipment to improve Nigeria's poor air safety record after hundreds died in crashes. Femi Fani-Kayode and Babalola Borishade denied any wrongdoing.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) handed over two German hostages kidnapped in an apparent attempt by the militants to distance themselves from criminal gangs extorting money from oil companies.

Seven foreign oil workers have been kidnapped since June, and shootings in turf wars in the Delta capital, Port Harcourt, claim dozens of victims each month. Law and order has virtually broken down, civil society campaigners say. The head of Nigeria's national oil company said it had paid $12m in protection money to rebels. Mend claimed responsibility for attacks that closed two oil pipelines—Nigeria's oil output fell to its lowest level in 20 years. Britain is to provide military training to help Nigeria improve security in the Delta after Yar'Adua told the G8 summit in Japan in July that an international cartel of oil smugglers was stealing billions of dollars in "blood oil" from Nigeria.

Thirty members of a separatist movement pleaded not guilty to planning to "wage a war" against the government. They are among 84 members of the Movement for the Actualisation of a Sovereign State of Biafra (Massob) arrested in Enugu in May and accused of treason after allegedly celebrating the anniversary of the civil war in 1967, in which more than a million people died.

The Jamatu Nasril Islam, Nigeria's Islamic authority, told a man with 86 wives to choose only four to comply with sharia law or be sentenced to death for adultery. Mohammed Bello Abubakar, 84, a former teacher and Muslim preacher in Niger state, has at least 170 children. Islamic authorities in Bauchi launched a crackdown on sex workers previously identified by the Red Cross for an Aids campaign. The sharia commission's own security force rounded up prostitutes in raids on hotels.

At least a dozen people died around the country during a recruitment drive for the Nigerian Immigration Service (14 July). More than 130,000 candidates applied for 1,260 jobs. Government posts are prized for their regular salaries and good benefits.

Nigeria needs $85bn invested in its power infrastructure to produce electricity 24 hours a day, a commission said. The government plans to spend $5bn on power generation, which has fallen from 3,500 to 1,800 megawatts.

South Africa
A deadline to close six camps for foreigners displaced by riots in May was extended to allow the Constitutional Court to consider an appeal by human rights groups to keep them open (15 August). The provincial government in Gauteng says it is now safe for the 4,000 foreigners to return to their homes but the migrants fear they will be attacked again. The camps were set up in May after 60 people were killed and thousands displaced by anti-immigrant riots.

Trade unions held a one-day strike across the country to protest against the high cost of living, which brought much of the economy to a standstill.

The protests also aired opposition to President Thabo Mbeki and support for his putative successor, ANC President Jacob Zuma. Meanwhile, Zuma lost a legal bid to stop documents being used as evidence in his corruption trial.

The Constitutional Court allowed prosecutors to present documents seized from his home and other locations. Zuma is accused of racketeering, corruption, money laundering and fraud in connection with a 1999 arms deal but supporters claim the charges are to prevent him from succeeding Mbeki.

The South African judge Navanethem Pillay was nominated as the new UN high commissioner for human rights by the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon.

Pillay, an appeals judge at the International Criminal Court, became the first woman to open her own law practice in Natal province in1967 and defended anti-apartheid activists including Nelson Mandela.

Police opened fire on each other as national officers tried to break up a strike by local forces over salaries and nepotism that was blocking traffic in Johannesburg. Seven metro officers were injured. A union official denied that local police had fired live rounds in response to rubber bullets.

Swaziland
Hundreds of Swazi women broke with tradition to march through the capital to protest about a shopping trip taken by nine of the king's 13 wives, who chartered a plane to go to Europe and the Middle East (21 Aug). Africa's last absolute monarchy is one of the world's poorest countries and more than 40% of the population are believed to be infected with HIV.

Tanzania
Another albino man was murdered—Tanzania's 26th victim in under a year (27 July). The attackers in Mwanza reportedly severed Jovin Majaliwa's foot and genitalia. His wife, also an albino, was injured but raised the alarm.

Neighbours have asked police to look after two of her children who are also albinos. Since March, when President Jakaya Kikwete ordered a crackdown on ritual killings for body parts, 173 witchdoctors have been arrested.

Uganda
The prime minister, Apolo Nsibambi, apologised to MPs for the detention of three officials from the semi-autonomous kingdom of Buganda (29 July).

Their arrest for sedition was criticised by human rights groups and follows a dispute over a controversial land reform bill. The kingdom wants the return of its communal land but the government wants to give tenants who have been on the land for decades rights to farm it.

Zambia
President Levy Mwanawasa died in a Paris hospital following a stroke during an African Union summit in Egypt in June. He was 59. Vice-President Rupiah Banda is expected to take over as acting leader. Mwanawasa, president from 2002-08, was one of Africa's sterner critics of the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe. His predecessor, Frederick Chiluba, had picked him to lead the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy but Mwanawasa pressed for Chiluba's immunity from prosecution to be lifted and he was charged with stealing money while in office.

Zimbabwe
The opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai warned that power-sharing talks could collapse if President Robert Mugabe convened parliament despite the lack of a deal (21 August). Talks between Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change and Mugabe's Zanu-PF party to resolve Zimbabwe's post-election crisis have stalled, despite mediation by South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki and the Southern African Development Community.

Tsvangirai said that while there had been progress, the balance of power between the president and a new position of prime minister was a stumbling block. The opposition leader insists that the prime minister must have executive powers with the presidency reduced to a ceremonial head of state.

A previous offer to make Tsvangirai a third vice-president was described as "insulting". Referring to the late Zimbabwean nationalist leader Joshua Nkomo sharing power with Zanu-PF, Tsvangirai said: "We don't want co-optation, we want co-operation."

However, many MDC supporters and officials believe Mugabe will not cede real power to Tsvangirai and any deal would be a trap. They also insist that Mugabe and his heads of the military and police should face charges for beatings, rape, abductions and murder carried out by government forces.

The MDC said more than 120 supporters had been killed, some 5,000 abducted and 200,000 had fled their homes. Zanu-PF demands an amnesty. Other sticking points are the make-up of any coalition cabinet and control of Zimbabwe's security forces.

Tsvangirai won the first presidential round in March before withdrawing from a June run-off just before the polls, citing violence against MDC supporters. Zanu-PF lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since independence in 1980, winning 97 seats to the MDC's 109. Both parties need the backing of an MDC breakaway faction led by Arthur Mutambara, which has 10 seats, for a majority.

The official inflation rate jumped to 11.25m% in June from 2.2m% in May, and chronic food, fuel and foreign currency shortages are worsening. But many economists believe the figure is higher and it has little meaning for Zimbabweans, for whom bread costs almost five times more than a month ago—if it can be found for sale. In bars, the price of beer goes up between rounds. The government revalued the currency, knocking 10 zeros off the Zimbabwean dollar.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon called on the government to lift restrictions on aid deliveries to stop "a catastrophic humanitarian crisis" threatening 1.5 million people. The government has been accused of using food aid as a political weapon. Russia and China were criticised for vetoing a UN security council resolution to impose sanctions, which the Mugabe regime denounced as racist. The US, EU and the UK are withholding a $1.9bn financial aid package, needed to stabilise Zimbabwe's economy and combat hyperinflation, until Mugabe relinquishes control. Many believe hyperinflation has driven the government to negotiations.

arrow Back to Top

ASIA

Bangladesh
Bangladesh held its first elections since the army seized power last year.

Candidates backed by the Awami League Party performed strongly in local elections, election officials said (5 August). The party swept all four city councils and eight of nine towns that voted. Officials said the turnout was high and voting passed off without violence or vote-rigging.

Elections for Dhaka, Chittagong and more than 300 municipalities will be held by October. General elections due last year were postponed after political violence and are now to be held in December. The Awami League overwhelmed its traditional rival, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which won in just one municipality.

The leader of the biggest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, was released on bail. Matiur Rahman Nizami, who was industries minister in the last elected government, is alleged to have fraudulently awarded a cargo contract to a firm in 2003. A Truth and Accountability Commission has been set up to tackle corruption; the interim government will offer partial amnesties for information about corrupt deals but critics say it will achieve little before December when the government is due to relinquish power. Meanwhile, the UN Development Programme said the government had made progress against corruption but Transparency International said corruption had continued to thrive and that in some sectors corruption had actually increased since 2007. It said Bangladesh remained one of the world's most corrupt countries.

The War Crimes Fact-Finding Committee has compiled evidence against some 1,150 alleged war criminals during Bangladesh's war of independence from Pakistan, in which up to three million people died. It wants the authorities to hold war crime trials and block Jamaat-e-Islami, whose members were in a group call Al-Badr during the war, from standing in elections for its role in massacres. Jamaat, which was a fringe party in 1971 but a junior coalition partner in the last elected government, denies the allegations.

Some 250,000 "stranded Pakistanis" living in camps in Bangladesh have been told they can apply for citizenship, having been forced to stay in the country since it gained independence in 1971.

Bangladesh said two border guards were shot dead by Indian troops on the frontier in Chapainawabganj. Bangladesh said Indian troops fired without provocation but Delhi said its troops had been chasing cattle smugglers and both sides had traded heavy fire. The long and undemarcated border has seen regular clashes.

India
The Congress Party-led government narrowly survived a vote of confidence over a civilian nuclear deal with the US amid claims of vote buying (22 July). Communists, who quit the ruling coalition in protest at the accord, say the accord could allow too much US influence over Indian foreign policy but the government says it is needed to meet soaring energy demands. If the government had lost the vote, India would have faced early elections. The deal with the US to trade in nuclear materials now needs approval by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and the US Congress. The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has already backed it. The agreement requires India to open its civilian nuclear facilities for international inspection in return for the US and the NSG lifting a blockade put on India in 1974, following India's testing of a nuclear device.

At least 49 people died and more than 100 were wounded in a series of explosions in Ahmadabad (27 July). Seventeen blasts in an hour hit residential areas, markets, a train station and a bus in Gujarat's commercial capital. Two days before, seven blasts killed two people in India's IT hub, Bangalore. Days later, police defused 19 small bombs in Surat, a diamond and textile centre in Gujarat. An Islamist group known as Indian Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the Ahmadabad attacks and bombs that killed 63 in Jaipur in May. Some 2,500 Muslims were killed by Hindu mobs in 2002 in Ahmadabad.

There were large-scale protests in Indian-controlled Kashmir (21 August), in both the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley and the Hindu-dominated Jammu region. The protests started over the ownership of land around a Hindu shrine but developed into pro-independence demonstrations after Hindu militants rioted. At least 20 people have been killed in the most serious anti-India protests in years.

India should take action against state-backed vigilantes in Chhattisgarh state, the US-based Human Rights Watch said. Since 2005, security forces and the Salwa Judum militia, which was launched in 2005 to fight Maoist rebels, had killed and raped villagers, HRW said. Another group, the Delhi-based Asian Centre for Human Rights, said nearly 7,500 people had died in custody in India since 2003, many tortured. The United Liberation Front of Assam, the state's strongest separatist group, said it would begin negotiations with Delhi in return for Ulfa leaders getting freedom of movement. Ulfa has been fighting for a separate Assamese homeland for two decades. In Orissa, 40 police commandos drowned after their boat capsized under attack from suspected Maoist rebels, who Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described as the biggest internal security threat to the country.

India's gays, lesbians, bisexuals and hijra transsexuals took to the streets in June, many in disguise, for Delhi's first Queer Pride Parade. A lawsuit is attempting to overturn a law dating from colonial times making homosexuality punishable by life imprisonment.

The government of Uttar Pradesh ordered an inquiry into the deaths of four farmers during clashes with the police in a Delhi suburb (14 Aug). The farmers were demanding compensation for land seized for industrial development. A strike to protest at the assassination of a Marxist leader at the school where he was a teacher paralysed the troubled West Bengal area of Nandigram. The murder, which the Marxist-led government blamed on the opposition Trinamul Congress, follows resistance by locals to the seizure of farmland for an Indonesian chemical factory. More than 40 people have died in clashes over new economic zones.

Unicef, the UN children's agency, said India was failing to provide basic healthcare for its poorest children despite strong economic growth. India and China account for nearly a third of the world's child deaths but India had 2.1 million child deaths in 2006 against 400,000 in China. The head of Bihar state's welfare department is promoting eating rats to cope with food shortages. He said this would preserve more grain while also reducing hunger among the very poor Musahar caste.

At least 145 people died in a stampede at a Hindu temple in Himachal Pradesh. A shelter on a path to the temple collapsed, triggering rumours of a landslide. On the same day, at least 35 farm workers were killed when their lorry plunged into a river in Bihar state. Two days earlier 32 people died in a fire on a train in Andhra Pradesh and a bus crash killed at least 34 in Uttaranchal.

Nearly four million lorries, which transport 70% of goods in India, were taken off the roads after their owners began an indefinite strike to protest against rising fuel bills (2 July). Banks published lists of farmers eligible for a $1.8bn government debt-relief scheme for 30 million farmers. Some 10,000 farmers commit suicide every year because of debt.

An Indian man reported to be the oldest in the world died in Jaipur. Habib Miyan's pension papers indicated he was born in 1879 but he claimed to be 138. A woman said to be 70 years old gave birth to twins in Uttar Pradesh.

If her age were proven it would make her the world's oldest mother. Her and her husband, a farmer in his mid-70s, were so desperate for a male heir that they spent their life savings and took out a bank loan for IVF treatment.

Malaysia
The opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was charged with sodomising a former male aide (7 Aug). Anwar pleaded not guilty and called the accusation politically motivated. It came as Anwar prepared to fight for a seat in parliament, after a ban on his seeking public office expired. The 60-year-old former deputy prime minister was jailed after facing similar accusations 10 years ago. Anwar said he had leaked hospital records proving that the alleged victim had none of the injuries claimed. Sodomy, even between consenting adults, is punishable by 20 years' imprisonment in Muslim Malaysia. Meanwhile, the prime minister, Abdullah Badawi refused to step down after poor election results and high fuel prices. Abdullah said his deputy, Najib Razak, would take over as head of the ruling United Malays National Organisation party in 2010. Razak himself faces claims of sexual misconduct involving a Mongolian model murdered in 2006.

Maldives
President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom ratified a new constitution bringing in key democratic changes after years of autocratic rule (7 Aug). It paves the way for the first multi-party presidential elections. The new constitution follows four years of debate in a special assembly, and brings in a separation of powers and a bill of rights. Tourism has made the Maldives prosperous but opponents describe him as a dictator. There is no freedom of expression in the Maldives or political parties. Demand for reform began after protests sparked by the death of a prisoner in jail in 2003.

Pakistan
President Pervez Musharraf resigned just before he faced impeachment for subverting the constitution (19 Aug). In an hour-long television speech he denied any wrongdoing during his nine-year rule. Charges against him included his first seizure of power in 1999 from Nawaz Sharif, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), whom Musharraf imprisoned and exiled, and his second last November, when he declared an emergency as a means to get re-elected president.

The biggest party, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), nominated its leader, Asif Zardari, to replace him. However, the PPP's main coalition partner, Sharif, opposes Zardari, widower of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, getting the job. The parties are also deadlocked over how many of the 60 judges sacked by Musharraf during emergency rule should be reinstated. Zardari, granted an amnesty from corruption charges under Musharraf, expects the deposed judges to be less friendly than their successors. The ruling coalition was elected in February but has failed to find solutions to Pakistan's economic crisis and to the threat from militants in its north-western tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.

Pakistan offered to investigate a bomb attack on India's embassy in Kabul in July that killed more than 50 people, India said, following talks between the two countries' prime ministers at a south Asian summit in Sri Lanka. Pakistan denied US claims that its ISI spy agency was involved in the bombing. Pakistan's government reversed a move to put the ISI under the control of the Interior Ministry within hours, apparently following the army's intervention.

India and Pakistan accused each other of breaching a 2003 ceasefire in the disputed territory of Kashmir. Exchanges of fire went on for hours along the Line of Control dividing the region. India said one of its soldiers was killed.

Internal violence continued to wrack Pakistan. A military offensive in the Bajaur tribal region in August left more than 500 people dead, most of them Taliban fighters, officials said. One was Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, the alleged number three in al-Qaida. Two suicide-bombers blew themselves up outside Pakistan's main munitions factory in Wah, near the capital Islamabad, killing 64 people, and a bomb at a hospital in Dera Ismail Khan killed 32.

Taliban militants loyal to Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan killed at least 22 members of a tribe in Jandola considered friendly to the government. At least 21 people were killed in sectarian clashes between Sunnis and Shias in the Kurram tribal region near the Afghan border.

Doctors in Kurram appealed for urgent medical aid and food because Sunni tribesmen had cut off roads.

Haji Namdar, a militant Islamist leader in the Khyber region, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen at the headquarters of his Vice and Virtue Movement.

Although initially welcomed for his Taliban-like laws, which included bans on music and TV, some tribal chiefs accused him of "religious terrorism".

Two militants in Swat died after accidentally detonating explosives with which they planned to blow up a school, police said. Militants have destroyed more than 70 state schools in the area, with three girls' schools being burned down days before. The Taliban in the Mohmand tribal area set up permanent Islamic courts to replace mobile courts in what they say shows the diminishing authority of Islamabad. They said the courts were already functioning in neighbouring Bajaur. At least 15 policemen were killed in a suicide bomb attack in Islamabad on the first anniversary of the siege at the city's Red Mosque, in which more than 100 people were killed during fighting. More than a dozen people were killed in bomb attacks and skirmishes in Baluchistan, a gas-rich province that has a long-running nationalist insurrection.

Musharraf's cabinet approved a plan to commute the sentences of some 7,000 prisoners on death row to life imprisonment. The rights group Amnesty International said the move would reprieve about one-third of the world's prisoners facing execution.

Singapore
The Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) expressed "deep disappointment" at the detention of the Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent 12 of the last 18 years under house arrest. The organisation, meeting in Singapore, called for "meaningful dialogue" with opposition figures, although Burma's rulers have shown no sign of opening up since joining Asean in 1997.

Sri Lanka
The army said it had overrun an important training complex of the rebel Tamil Tigers in the north and was close to the Tigers' headquarters at Kilinochchi. Some 75,000 people displaced by recent fighting were reported to be converging on the town. Elsewhere, it said it had captured Vidattaltivu, a key coastal town in the north-west used to smuggle supplies from India, for the first time since 1990. Both sides claim to have inflicted heavy casualties on the other as soldiers advance on the de-facto Tamil mini-state. Amnesty International accused the rebels of breaking international law by using civilians as buffers against the army. Officials said at least four people were killed and 25 wounded when rebel gunmen ambushed a crowded bus in Buttala, near the capital, Colombo.

The former Tamil Tiger deputy commander known as Colonel Karuna, who defected to government forces in 2004, arrived in Colombo after serving a prison sentence in Britain for trying to enter the UK on a false passport.

Hundreds of journalists protested outside the presidential residence, demanding an end to attacks on the media. At least 12 journalists have been killed in Sri Lanka since 2005.

arrow Back to Top

EUROPE

Cyprus
Leaders of the divided island agreed to launch reunification talks on 3 September, the UN said (25 July). The Greek Cypriot leader, Demetris Christofias, and the Turkish Cypriot leader, Mehmet Ali Talat, met for two hours in the UN-controlled buffer zone. Australia's former foreign minister, Alexander Downer, who helped end fighting in East Timor in 1999, was appointed as UN special envoy to the peace process. Talks have been stalled since 2004 when Greek Cypriots rejected a UN peace plan backed by Turkish Cypriots but the symbolic crossing at Ledra Street was opened in April for the first time since 1964.

United Kingdom
Speculation about a challenge to the prime minister, Gordon Brown, from within the ruling Labour Party increased after the foreign secretary, David Miliband, appeared to stake a claim to the leadership. Labour has hit a 30-year low behind the opposition Conservative Party in opinion polls and was crushed in several by-elections. One was the historic loss of a Glasgow stronghold. The imminent defeat in a second formerly safe seat in Scotland by the Scottish National Party could see Brown deposed.

The economy ground to a halt in June, ending 15 years of consecutive growth and raising expectations that the world's fourth-biggest economy was entering a recession under the global effects of high commodity prices, the continuing credit crunch and collapsing property prices. Domestic fuel bills are expected to rise by about 40% this year to an average of nearly $3,000 per household. The number of migrants coming to the UK for a year or more rose to a record level. The UK's population is growing by about a million every three years, also due to a rise in births. Meanwhile, detainees at an immigration removal centre continued their hunger strike over living conditions into a second week.

Britons were astonished to find the UK third in the medal table as the Beijing Olympics neared its end. The number of golds marked the best result in a century, ahead of fierce rivals Australia and Germany.

Police arrested about 100 protesters on a week-long demonstration against plans for a new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth, Kent.

Environmentalists say burning coal releases too much carbon dioxide but the government is keen to reduce dependence on gas imported largely from Russia. It also wants to build eight new nuclear plants. Meanwhile, Brown agreed with other leaders of the G8 industrialised nations to set a goal of a 50% cut in greenhouse gases by 2050. The new head of the state Environment Agency said parts of the British coastline were so badly eroded they were not worth protecting from erosion as global warming raises sea levels. Chris Smith, a former minister, said coastal homes in areas such as Norfolk and Suffolk would have to be abandoned.

MPs tabled an amendment to a bill to give women in Northern Ireland the same abortion rights as in Britain. Pressure from churches meant the 1967 Abortion Act was never enacted in Northern Ireland. The MP Diane Abbott said: "Northern Ireland women are effectively second-class citizens." MPs rejected an attempt to reduce their generous allowances for expenses of $50,000 a year.

The UK ratified the controversial Lisbon Treaty on the enlargement of the European Union, despite doubts raised by the "no" vote in the Ireland's referendum. Brown announced tougher measures against knife crime after four fatal stabbings in one day heightened concerns about teenage violence. The European Court of Human Rights ruled that Britain breached international conventions by monitoring emails and phone calls between Ireland and the UK.

arrow Back to Top

AMERICAS

Antigua and Barbuda
Antigua's government is to introduce the death penalty for armed crime following the murders of a British honeymoon couple (12 August). The new legislation will be introduced for anyone who uses a gun or knife in a crime that results in death or serious injury. Gun traffickers are being blamed for a recent surge in violence in the tourism-dependent Caribbean nation.

Canada
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Steacutephane Dion, the Liberal opposition leader, both said they would consider forcing an election this autumn. Harper's Conservatives have governed without a parliamentary majority since 2006.

A Palestinian village, Bil'in, is suing two Canadian construction companies in a Montreal court for working on a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, accusing them of breaching international war crimes laws by building on land belonging to the village.

Canada is to deport a US soldier who fled to the country to avoid deployment in Iraq (13 August). Jeremy Hinzman's family's application for refugee status was turned down by Canada. Hinzman, who had already served a tour of duty in Afghanistan, was the first Iraq war resister to seek sanctuary in Canada. Some 200 US deserters are believed to have fled to Canada. Tens of thousands of Americans found refuge in Canada during the Vietnam war to avoid the military draft but the US no longer has compulsory conscription. Robin Long, another US deserter, had already become the first sent back since the Iraq war (16 July).

An Arctic national park, Auyuittuq (The Land That Never Melts), was partly closed and 22 hikers evacuated after permafrost melted in record high temperatures and caused flash flooding.

Jamaica
There were wild celebrations after the island's athletes shattered world records and won most of the sprint medals at the Beijing Olympics. Usain Bolt set 100m and 200m world records, the women made a clean sweep of the 100m and won the 200m. It was the first time a Jamaican man had won the blue riband event.

Karl Samuda, the trade minister, suspended the $100m-a-year export of scrap metal in June after rising world commodity prices led to a spate of thefts of telephone cables and pipes. He said the thefts were "scrapping the country of its infrastructure".

arrow Back to Top

PACIFIC

Australia
Australia's worst drought in a century threatens to destroy the ecology of the main food-growing region, the Murray-Darling river basin, a report said. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd admitted that a A$3.7bn ($3.6bn) conservation plan would not produce results fast enough after the driest June on record. The basin produces 40% of Australia's fruit, vegetables and grain.

Australian police made the world's largest seizure of ecstasy—the 1.5m pills were hidden in tinned tomatoes.

Fiji
The head of the military government, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, was sharply criticised for boycotting the Pacific Islands Forum summit on the island of Niue (19 August). Bainimarama, who seized power in a coup in 2006, said Fiji was being pressured to return to democratic rule too quickly. In July, foreign ministers from Australia, New Zealand, Tonga, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Tuvalu met officials in Fiji to urge the regime to honour a pledge to hold elections in early 2009. Bainimarama now wants to delay polls for 15 months to change what he called a "racist" electoral system.

Four Hindu temples were destroyed in arson attacks. The Indian Fijian community, brought to work as indentured labour for Fiji's sugar-cane plantations, is seen as controlling much of the economy.

New Zealand
In an historic settlement, the government signed over 176 000 hectares of commercial forest in the North Island to the ownership of seven Maori tribes (25 June). The NZ$420m ($319m) agreement—the largest single deal between the government and the Maori—seeks to address grievances dating from the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi that have helped leave the Maori among New Zealand's poorest people.

A judge made a young girl a ward of court so she could change her name from Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii. Other names previously banned include Sex Fruit, Keenan Got Lucy and Yeah Detroit but Number 16 Bus Shelter, Violence and Midnight Chardonnay have been allowed.

Papua New Guinea
Police have been ordered to shoot criminals wearing police uniforms following robberies at two banks (9 July). Police chief Gari Baki said: "This uniform belongs to the Queen, and its reputation should not be tarnished by criminals."

Tonga
King George Tupou V is to give up much of his near-absolute power by 2010 when most of the new parliament will be elected, it was announced ahead of his coronation (29 July). There was criticism that 5.7m Tongan dollars ($2.5m) was being spent on the ceremony—which featured a golden throne and crown, an ermine robe and 1000 guests—in the poor nation. Unrest boiled over into riots in 2006 at a pro-democracy rally in the capital, Nuku'alofa, that left eight people dead and destroyed much of the city.

arrow Back to Top

GENERAL

Commonwealth
The Commonwealth secretary-general, Kamalesh Sharma, expressed regret over the failure of the Doha round of World Trade Organisation talks in July. "This setback should not be allowed to undermine the concept of multilateralism and the potentially large gains to be made by the global economy," he said. In a meeting in London with the secretary-general, Pakistan's foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, said his government greatly valued its Commonwealth membership and was committed to upholding its democratic principles.

Sharma visited New Zealand in August, with the situation in Fiji featuring prominently in discussions with political leaders. Sharma paid tribute to Zambia's Levy Mwanawasa, calling the late president an "illustrious son of Africa".

The secretary-general and Michael Somare, the prime minister of Papua New Guinea, discussed the Commonwealth's technical assistance to PNG through the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation. Sharma welcomed the new constitution in the Maldives, calling it "a major milestone".

Commonwealth Publications - http://publications.thecommonwealth.org/

  • Commonwealth Local Government Handbook 2008, 258 pages, ISBN 978-0-9555447-2-9
  • Lino Briguglio, Gordon Cordina, Constance Vigilance, Nadia Farrugia, Small States and the Pillars of Economic Resilience, 484 pages, ISBN 978-99909-49-24-7
  • Mihirinie Wijayawardene, Girls' Education: A Foundation for Development, 43 pages, ISBN 978-0-903850-27-8

arrow Back to Top