Migranten und nicht-weisse Chemnitzer erzählen, wie sie die Gewalteskalation erleben

"Als ich das erste Mal in Chemnitz ankam, standen hier Leute in Wehrmachts-T-Shirts – wie willst du die zurückgewinnen?!"

Es ist nicht erst seit Montagabend klar, dass Chemnitz in besonderem Masse ein Problem mit Rechtsextremismus und Ausländerhass hat. Die rechte Gruppierung "Pro Chemnitz" stellt drei Stadträte, die Mörder des NSU fanden bei Chemnitz Unterschlupf, und bei der Bundestagswahl 2017 holte die AfD in Chemnitz fast ein Viertel der Stimmen.

Seit dem vergangenen Wochenende steht Chemnitz für viele in einer Reihe mit Rostock-Lichtenhagen, Hoyerswerda oder Freital. Eine Art ostdeutscher Schandfleck, in dem der Staat sein Gewaltmonopol verloren hat, Rechtsextreme ungehindert auf Menschenjagd gehen und rassistische Positionen auch viele Bürger nicht mehr abschrecken.

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Auch bei VICE: Meine Flucht aus Syrien 

Zu Jahresbeginn betrug der Anteil der Ausländer in Chemnitz laut Freier Presse 7,6 Prozent, der Anteil der Geflüchteten, die ebenfalls unter diese Gruppe fallen, 2,4 Prozent. Bei 240.000 Einwohnern entspricht das etwa 19.000 Ausländern – davon 5.900 Geflüchtete. Ihnen empfahl die Opferberatung RAA Sachsen vor dem Aufmarsch am Montag, "die Innenstadt ab Nachmittag grossflächig zu meiden". Man rechne mit "gewaltbereiten Neonazis und Rassisten, die gezielt auf Geflüchtete und Gegendemonstrante_innen losgehen wollen".

Und dennoch, als am Montag "Pro Chemnitz", die NPD, der III. Weg und andere rechtsextreme Gruppierungen mehrere Tausend Menschen zum Protestmobilisierten, standen ihnen im Stadthallenpark unter den Gegendemonstranten auch viele Migranten und andere People of Color gegenüber. Sie skandierten: "Nazis raus". Wir haben mit ihnen über die Vorfälle des Wochenendes und die rechte Eskalation in Chemnitz gesprochen.

Ahmed, 23, Geflüchteter aus Syrien

VICE: Hast du mitbekommen, was hier am Wochenende in Chemnitz passiert ist?Ahmed: Wahrscheinlich haben ein Syrer und ein Iraker auf dem Stadtfest einen Mann getötet und zwei weitere verletzt. Es war für mich schlimm, zu sehen, dass Landsleute solche Taten verüben. Am Sonntag sind Neonazis überall auf den Strassen gelaufen, haben geschimpft und wollten Flüchtlinge schlagen.

Hatte das auch für dich persönlich Konsequenzen?Vorhin habe ich per Facebook eine Nachricht bekommen, in der steht: "Geh heute bitte raus, scheiss Flüchtling. Hurensohn". Ich kenne den Absender nicht.

Was empfindest du, wenn du solche Nachrichten liest?Ich fühle mich in erster Linie schlecht. Aber andererseits: Was soll ich machen? Ich zeige es rum und fotografiere es ab. Ich bin vor zwei Jahren aus Syrien nach Deutschland geflüchtet, lerne hier und mache eine Ausbildung. Und ich kann nicht sagen, dass alle Deutschen schlecht sind. Es gibt sowohl gute als auch schlechte Leute in diesem Land, das gilt auch für Flüchtlinge. Und auch wenn Nazis durch die Strassen ziehen und Leute schlagen, ist Deutschland meine Heimat.

Richie, 18, aus Oederan, östlich von Chemnitz

VICE: Gegen was protestierst du heute?Richie: Ich finde es nicht gut, was am Sonntag in Chemnitz passiert ist und was heute schon wieder da drüben, auf der anderen Strassenseite, los ist. Es ist nicht cool, wenn Menschengruppen anderer Hautfarbe gejagt werden, als wäre es etwas ganz Normales – und keiner macht was dagegen.

Hast du Angst?Manchmal macht man sich Gedanken, schliesslich sehen die Rechtsextremen schon sehr gewalttätig aus. Ich selbst bin zwar nicht der Kleinste oder der Schmalste bin, allerdings habe ich kleinere Geschwister. Und wenn die nach Chemnitz fahren, bin ich schon ziemlich besorgt, dass jemand mit einer dummen Gesinnung seine Meinung körperlich äussern könnte.

Wie nimmst du die Stimmung in Sachsen wahr?Es gab schon mal eine Phase, wo das ähnlich schlimm war, dann aber auch wieder Zeiten, in denen das abgeklungen ist. Jetzt gerade siehst du überall Leute mit rechten Shirts, rechten Parolen und rechten Stickern.

Wenn du den rechtsextremen Demonstranten etwas sagen könntest, was wäre das?Ich würde denen vermitteln, dass es friedliche Wege gibt, seine Meinung zu äussern. Es braucht ausserdem mehr Aufklärung, um zu zeigen, dass ziemlich viele gute Dinge wegfallen, wenn das umgesetzt würde, was die wollen. Es gibt hier etwa zahlreiche ausländische Ärzte, Restaurants oder Handwerker. Und ich würde sie mit älteren Leuten sprechen lassen, damit sie erfahren, wie das alles früher war – und dass es nicht die beste Idee ist, mit solchen Parolen um sich zu werfen.

Ziya, 18, Geflüchteter aus Afghanistan

VICE: Wie geht es dir, mit dem, was hier in der Stadt passiert?Ziya: Mich macht das sehr traurig. Es gab eine schlimme Tötung, die Leute sind daraufhin durch die Innenstadt gezogen, das war ebenfalls schrecklich. Die Leute haben die Tat dafür genutzt, grundlos Flüchtlinge anzugreifen. Ich selbst war in der Innenstadt und wollte mit meiner jüngeren Schwester spielen. Dann kam ein älterer Mann auf mich zu und sagte: "Renn einfach weg, sonst werden dich Neonazis verletzen." Daraufhin habe ich meine Schwester auf den Arm gepackt und bin weggerannt.

Leute jagen Geflüchtete und rufen ausländerfeindliche Parolen. Wie verändert dich das?Auf mich hat schon einmal ein Mann einen Hund gehetzt. Ich wurde zwar nicht verletzt und habe es nicht angezeigt, aber: Ich habe Angst und das Gefühl, dass die Leute zunehmend keine Flüchtlinge mehr wollen. Sie sagen immer: "Die Ausländer haben gute Berufe. Die Ausländer kriegen gute Wohnplätze." Dann denke ich immer: Warum hast du dich selbst nicht mehr angestrengt? Warum hast du nicht in der Schule aufgepasst? Wenn du selbst schuld bist, dann ist das dein Problem.

Glaubst du, dass viele deiner Mitbürger Neonazis sind?Ich selbst mache eine Ausbildung und sowohl meine Lehrerin als auch meine Mitschüler sind nett und helfen mir sehr. Nicht alle Deutschen also sind so. Und man muss auch sagen: Deutsche haben auch oft Angst vor Flüchtlingen, weil Menschen verletzt wurden. Wenn Leute angegriffen werden, ist das immer schlimm, ganz egal ob Neonazis oder Flüchtlinge die Täter sind.

Wie könnte das Problem gelöst werden?Ich glaube, die Leute müssen sich an den Tisch setzen und miteinander reden. Aber ich denke auch, die Menschen hier wollen uns Flüchtlinge einfach nicht mehr hier haben. Dabei ist Deutschland meine neue Heimat, ich will Medizin studieren und Arzt werden. Nach Afghanistan kehre ich nicht mehr zurück.

Ahmad, 24, Geflüchteter aus Afghanistan

VICE: Warum protestierst du heute?Ahmad: Ich habe von dem Tod des Mannes auf dem Stadtfest gehört und bin direkt nach der Arbeit hierher gekommen. Für mich war wichtig zu zeigen: Es gibt auch andere Flüchtlinge, nicht alle sind so. Ich erkläre das immer gerne mit meiner Hand. [ streckt seine rechte Hand aus und hält sie vor den Körper]. Wir Flüchtlinge sind wie die Finger: Es gibt grosse, kleine, schräge und gerade. Es gibt also gute und schlechte. Man darf nicht verallgemeinern.

Hat sich die Stimmung in den drei Jahren, in denen du in Deutschland lebst, verändert?Ja, inzwischen werden wir pauschal verurteilt. Ich selbst habe zwar keine Angst, aber inzwischen müsste ich sie eigentlich haben. Du kannst unterwegs sein und wenn dir fünf, sechs Leute auflauern und sehen, dass du wie ein Flüchtling aussiehst, dann bist du nicht mehr sicher.

Wie stellst du dir angesichts dessen deine Zukunft vor?Ich habe eine Ausbildung in einer Apotheke als pharmazeutischer Kaufmann gemacht und will hier arbeiten. Wenn ich aber solche Szenen sehe, dann muss ich mir gut überlegen, ob ich hier weitermachen kann.

Mohamed, 38, syrischstämmig, aus Köln angereist

VICE: Wie hast du die Eskalation in Chemnitze erlebt?Mohamed: Ich habe am Sonntag Videos gesehen, wie Leute Migranten gejagt haben. Das hat mich schockiert. Ich habe zwei Jahre lang in Chemnitz gelebt und am Schauspielhaus gearbeitet und bin heute extra aus Köln angereist, weil glaube, es ist wichtig, Flagge zu zeigen – und zwar völlig unabhängig davon, was auf dem Stadtfest passiert ist.

Wie ist es für dich, in deinen alten Wohnort zurückzukehren?Es sind richtig, richtig viele Leute bei der rechten Demonstration. Das macht mir Angst und das besorgt mich als Bürger. Wie kann es sein, dass Sachsen so aufgegeben wird? Man hat den Eindruck, dass diese ganzen Strassenzüge, wo früher Leute gelebt haben, inzwischen leer sind. Und für mich hat dieser Rechtsruck ganz praktische Konsequenzen: Ich weiss nachher zum Beispiel noch nicht, wie ich zu meiner Karre komme.

Glaubst du, dass Leute, die sich rechtsextremen Demos anschliessen, zurückgewonnen werden können?Ich bin strikt dagegen, mit Rechten zu reden. 2015 wurde erzählt: "Ihr müsst mit den Rechten reden." Nein man, müsst ihr nicht! Als ich das erste Mal in Chemnitz ankam, standen hier Leute in Wehrmachts-T-Shirts – wie willst du die zurückgewinnen?! Stell dich mal in Essen oder Köln in so T-Shirts hin, dann kriegst du eine von rechts und links.

Was kann die Politik tun?Ich finde, dass der Ministerpräsident sich nicht hinter seinen Kindergarten-Tweets verstecken kann, sondern sich hinstellen und klar gegen Rechts Flagge bekennen muss, anstatt alles zu relativieren. Es ist vielleicht ein Tropfen auf den heissen Stein, aber das wäre ein erstes Signal.

Folge VICE auf Facebook, Twitter und Instagram.

Dieser Artikel erschien ursprünglich auf VICE DE.

Hass in Chemnitz: Die Eskalation um die rechte "Trauerfeier" im Video

VICE hat vor Ort mit Ausländerhassern und mit Geflüchteten gesprochen.

Nach der Tötung eines 35-jährigen Deutschen marschierten in Chemnitz Tausende Menschen auf. Unter ihnen waren gewaltbereite Neonazis von der NPD, dem III. Weg und militanten Kameradschaften. Die Situation eskalierte, Demonstrierende schmissen Feuerwerkskörper und Flaschen, zeigten Hitlergrüsse, pöbelten Journalisten und Journalistinnen an. VICE war vor Ort, hat mit Ausländerhassern und mit Geflüchteten gesprochen.

Folge VICE auf Facebook, Twitter und Instagram.

Dieser Artikel erschien ursprünglich auf VICE DE.

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Opinion: Germany must apologize for its genocide in Namibia

Germany's decision to return colonial-era human remains to Namibia is an important step toward reconciliation. But the gesture is worthless without an apology for the country's genocide in Africa, says DW's Daniel Pelz.
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Finally, a small gesture. The return of human remains is a signal to Namibia that Germany regrets the crimes committed during its colonial past. It was bare racism that compelled people to loot graves and remove human bones for questionable research in the German empire. It culminated in the genocide of tens of thousands of Herero and Nama people.

Mistakes on all sides

It's a gesture that comes at the right time, after years of unsuccessful negotiations, arguments about compensation and verbal attacks. Two years ago, the German government promised to apologize for the genocide, more than a century after it ended. Namibia is still waiting, and so are the Herero and Nama. Namibians have the impression that the German government doesn't want to confess to its past guilt.

Read more: Genocide in Namibia: Germany remains at odds with its colonial legacy

Sure, Germany does not bear sole responsibility for the years of delay. Both sides have long taken positions and made demands that made agreement impossible.

The German government will only apologize once the issue of reparations has been settled to its satisfaction. Namibian authorities have done nothing to include in the negotiations representatives of the Herero and Nama critical of the government, while on the other hand, they publicly flirted with a lawsuit against Germany. With due respect for justified frustration at the missing apology, a few representatives of the Herero and Nama have attracted attention by making unrealistic demands and directing verbal attacks at Germany.

The return to Namibia of the remains comes at this very tense time.

DW's Daniel Pelz

It is an opportunity to pause for a moment and think about Germany's colonial past and the crimes it committed. In particular about the worst German colonial crime, as far as we know: the murder of tens of thousands — some even say hundreds of thousands — of Herero and Nama men, women and children who German colonial soldiers imprisoned in concentration camps or chased into the desert to perish of thirst. There are countless victims whose names and fates have long been forgotten. These people were denied eternal rest. Their bones were kept in cardboard boxes in German hospital storerooms for decades. As a result, present-day Herero and Nama were never able to bury their ancestors in a dignified way.

Chance for a new approach

This is an opportunity for all sides to approach one other, a chance at an agreement for both governments, whose negotiators are scheduled to hold talks again on Friday. It is also an opportunity for the two sides to reach out to those Herero and Nama who took Germany to court in New York.

Read more: Germany's new Africa policy builds on old solutions

It is an opportunity to finally get them involved in earnest in the negotiations. And it is an opportunity for some representatives to drop their demands and accept that ultimately, an agreement over this issue will be concluded between governments. The fact that one of the representatives is allowed to speak at the ceremony is an encouraging first step. The fact that critical representatives of German civil society must remain outside, however, is not.

For all the importance of this day, real reconciliation requires an apology.

DW RECOMMENDS

Germany returns human remains from Namibia genocide

The German government has handed over the remains of indigenous men and women killed during the colonial era. Namibian activists have called on Berlin to apologize for massacring thousands and provide reparations. (29.08.2018)  

Namibians losing patience over German slowness to act on genocide claims

Anger is building in Namibia over inaction by colonial-era power Germany, almost three years after talks began about an apology and reparations for the genocide of its indigenous Herero and Nama. (09.05.2018)  

New initiatives to deal with Germany's colonial heritage

How should Germany deal with the cultural goods acquired through colonial rule? German museums now focus more on the origin of their collections, among them the Hamburg-based Museum of Anthropology. (29.01.2018)  

Genocide in Namibia: Germany remains at odds with its colonial legacy

Namibia's Herero people have filed a lawsuit in the US against Germany over a genocide in the early 20th century. The case, which got underway on Tuesday, shows how Germany is still struggling with its colonial past. (30.07.2018)  

Germany's new Africa policy builds on old solutions

Germany's new coalition government wants to make Africa a priority, and is promising more private investment and development aid. For many, these are the same empty promises of the past. (14.03.2018)  

AUDIOS AND VIDEOS ON THE TOPIC

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Rechter Aufmarsch in Chemnitz Trettmann: Latenten Rassismus gab es schon in der DDR Stefan Richter im Gespräch mit Gesa Ufer

Ermittlungen nach spontaner Demo in Chemnitz (dpa-Bildfunk / Andreas Seidel/)

Der Aufmarsch hunderter Rechtsradikaler in Chemnitz am Sonntag sei Ergebnis einer jahrzehntelangen falschen Politik, sagt Hip-Hopper Trettmann. Die Landesregierung habe es über Dekaden verschlafen, etwas gegen rechte Strukturen zu tun, meint der gebürtige Chemnitzer.

Nach dem gewaltsamen Tod eines 35-Jährigen wurde das sächsische Chemnitz am gestrigen Sonntag zum Schauplatz eines beängstigenden Aufmarsches hunderter Rechtsradikaler. Über die sozialen Netzwerke hatten sich in kürzester Zeit 800 bis 1000 rechte Demonstranten in der Innenstadt versammelt. Augenzeugen berichteten von regelrechten Hetzjagden auf Migranten.

Dass in kurzer Zeit so viele Rechtsradikale mobilisiert werden konnten, liege an einer jahrzehntelangen falschen Politik, sagt der Hip-Hop-Musiker Trettmann alias Stefan Richter im Deutschlandfunk Kultur. Er stammt ursprünglich aus Chemnitz, lebt mittlerweile in Leipzig.

Die Landesregierung habe es über Dekaden verschlafen, etwas gegen rechte Strukturen zu tun. Außerdem gelte: "Der Feind steht immer links." So trete auch die Polizei auf. Dazu komme noch ein besonders gewalttätiges Fußball-Klientel.

Die "bösen Jahre" der Nachwendezeit

Bereits während der DDR-Zeit habe es einen "latenten Rassismus" gegeben, erklärt der 1973 geborene Trettmann. Und nennt Beispiele:

"Da wurde beim Fußball der schwarze Spieler als Brikett bezeichnet."

Es habe auch Gewaltexzesse gegeben zwischen Heavy-Metal-Fans und Punks.

"So richtig los ging das erst mit den Wendejahren - als das System quasi gescheitert war."

Damals sei "alles, was links, rot oder nach Sozialismus oder Kommunismus aussah", geächtet worden. Die Nachwendezeit sei dann "richtig schlimm" gewesen: mit der Belagerung von Jugendclubs, "Fascho-Überfällen". Man sei nie davor gefeit gewesen, "aufgrund eines Basecaps aufs Maul zu bekommen."

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"Ich kenne wenige Positivbeispiele"

Ob er mit seinem Umzug nach Leipzig die Hoffnung für Chemnitz aufgegeben habe? "Das ist so ein grundsätzliches Ding", sagt Trettmann. "Inwieweit lernt der Mensch denn aus Geschichte - und wie viele Menschen haben vergessen, was sich in unserer Geschichte abgespielt hat?".

Wenn er das über die Jahre hinweg erörtere, verliere er den Glauben an die Menschheit. "Denn ich kenne wenige Positivbeispiele."

Er habe tiefen Respekt vor Leuten wie der Band Kraftklub und allen Leuten, "die was tun, und in diesen Enklaven kämpfen". Die Chemnitzer Band engagiert sich gegen Rechtsextremismus. Aber wie lange man sein Leben diesem Kampf widme, müsse jeder selbst entscheiden. Schon alleine, es als Künstler zu thematisieren, sei ein Mittel, um etwas dagegen zu tun.

"Ich würde mir wünschen, dass die Leute auf die Straße gehen und zeigen: Chemnitz ist unsere Stadt!"

(abr)

Hören Sie auch ein Gespräch mit dem Sozialpsychologen Harald Welzer und unserem Sachsen-Korrespondenten Bastian Brandau zu: Was ist am Samstag und Sonntag in Chemnitz passiert? 

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Massive 5,000-year-old burial monument unearthed in Kenya

View of Lothagam North Pillar Kenya, built by eastern Africa's earliest herders around 5000 years ago, researchers say. Megaliths, stone circles, and cairns can be seen behind the 30m platform mound.

By Segun Akande, for CNN

Updated 1053 GMT (1853 HKT) August 23, 2018

Lagos, Nigeria (CNN)Kenya's arid, gullied Lothagam Valley is a throwback to a very distant past. Now, the region is the site of a discovery that has the potential to change how the world views ancient societies and the way they operated.

A team of researchers from Stony Brook University and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History have discovered a massive, elaborate cemetery in the region that is the largest and oldest in Eastern Africa. Here, temperatures can rise to 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), and the vast, rocky landscape can look like a desert planet from the "Star Trek" movies -- or Mars.

"This discovery challenges earlier ideas about monumentality," said Elizabeth Sawchuk of the Department of Anthropology, Social & Behavioral Sciences at Stony Brook University in New York.

For decades, Lothagam's well-preserved grandeur has fascinated archaeologists. The researchers wanted to study a large community of animal herders thought to have built the Lothagam North Pillar site, a communal cemetery, about 5,000 years ago.

The herders built a platform approximately 30 meters in diameter, with a deep cavity where about 580 men, women and children were buried side by side, each wearing nearly the same amount of ornaments, and no sign of special treatment.

Local tribes have revered the sites for years, according to Sawchuk.

"They regard the pillars as dancers turned to stone after they laughed at a god who visited them in disguise wearing strange clothes," Sawchuk said. "The Turkana do not consider themselves descendants of these people, but they watch over the sites and make sure that they are protected."

The ornaments uncovered at the site, elaborate and resplendent pendants and earrings made of ostrich eggshells and stone, reflect the herders' expertise.

Stone pendants and earrings from the communal cemetery of Lothagam North, Kenya.

"The jewelry would have had great value, as each bead would have taken many hours of skilled labor to carefully grind down and shape," Sawchuk said.

Beyond revealing the level of their skill, they also indicate how the society was structured.

"They may have been a way for people to show who they were, the group they belonged to, and the strength of their social networks," Sawchuk said.

The findings suggest that the pastoralists, who led a mobile lifestyle, had a community in which everyone was equal -- an egalitarian society.

"Until recently, archaeologists thought that emerging elites instigated monumental constructions to simultaneously bolster their own authority and serve as symbols of social unity," said Elisabeth Hildebrand, associate professor of anthropology at Stony Brook University.

Simple society, complex achievement

Scientists have long viewed ancient monuments as "indicators of complex societies with differentiated social classes," the archaeologists said in a statement.

A familiar example is the Pyramids of Giza, built by the ancient Egyptians under the direction of their powerful pharaohs.

"Ancient monuments have thus previously been regarded as reliable indicators of complex societies with differentiated social classes," the archaeologists said.

However, the Lothagam North Pillar Site defeats that theory.

"These motives may well have been the case among sedentary farmers, but the finds at Lothagam North Pillar Site show that some instances of monumentality developed for other reasons that did not relate to elites," Hildebrand said.

Instead, this site showcases unity.

"By constructing the mortuary cavity, people created a shared space where community members could be placed all together, without any sign of certain individuals being given primacy," Hildebrand said.

"The close positioning and irregular orientation of burials within the cavity suggests that again, no individual was being ranked over other people. All of this shows us that the building and use of Lothagam North were not done to serve some emerging elite class, but rather to create unity across an entire community."

The discovery gives credence to similar large, monumental structures built by groups thought to be egalitarian in Africa and other continents.

After Lothagam's herders buried their dead, they covered the cavity with stones and placed large stone pillars.

Other stone monuments were laid nearby, they said.

"The monuments may have served as a place for people to congregate, renew social ties, and reinforce community identity," said Anneke Janzen of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

Lothagam's rich past

The Lothagam site is close to Lake Turkana, a vast body of water that sustained groups of hunter-gatherers and fishers living around the lake, and eventually the mobile pastoralists, according to Hildebrand.

Stone palette with zoomorphic bovine carving from the communal cemetery of Lothagam North, Kenya.

"Today, Lake Turkana gets about 90% of its water from the SW Ethiopian highlands via the Omo River, and the remaining 10% from the western Kenyan highlands via the Turkwel and Kerio Rivers. During times past, rainfall in all these areas fluctuated, and Lake Turkana expanded and contracted as weather systems changed," Hildebrand said.

The conditions would worsen and improve over the years, as herding was introduced to the area.

Today, Lothagam is littered with stone tools, harpoon tips, pottery, and animal remains that offer a glimpse into prehistoric life in Africa.

Hildebrand said the discovery of the cemetery should make Kenyans, and Africans, proud of the "deep cultural traditions" among one of its oldest civilizations.

"In a certain sense, these early herders formed the first civilization of eastern Africa with elaborate individual and community practices. In today's time of climate change and economic instability, we can all take a very important lesson from eastern Africa's first herders: Facing an equally challenging situation, they responded by coming together and strengthening their community," Hildebrand said.

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Bullet was aimed at me, says Moses Wetang’ula

Security officers whisk away Robert Kundu (centre), Chief Executive Committee for Sports in Kakamega County, following chaos during the burial of Likuyani MP Dr Enock Kibunguchy’s driver. PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

22.August 2018

In Summary

• The Bungoma senator claimed the incident at Mukuyu village Kiminini was political elimination against Ford-Kenya leadership.
• MCAs asked Mr Kibunguchy to respect Governor Oparanya and other county officials and avoid using funerals to tarnish their reputation.

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By NATION TEAM
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Police were on Tuesday looking into claims that Bungoma Senator Moses Wetang'ula was the target in a shooting that saw five people suffer bullet injuries in a burial in Trans Nzoia on Monday.

Although there was no proof yet to the sensational claims, Mr Wetangula and a local leader who was injured during the burial of a bodyguard attached to Likuyani MP Enock Kibunguchy, claimed that the shots were aimed at the Ford Kenya leader.

Mr Kibuguchy's driver was shot dead by armed gang last week.

The Bungoma senator claimed the incident at Mukuyu village Kiminini was political elimination against Ford-Kenya leadership.

MISSED BULLET

“I saw the police who shot the MCA and he was aiming at us. I am perturbed that the bullet was meant for me,” claimed Mr Wetang'ula.

The sentiments are supported by Kapomboi MCA Ben Wanjala who sustained bullet injury during the fracas.

“The bullet which shot me was meant for Mr Wetang'ula, it missed him by a whisker,” said Mr Wanjala who is receiving treatment at Mt Elgon hospital in Kitale.

Dr Kibunguchy was on Tuesday summoned by detectives from Kakamega County to record a statement over remarks he made at a funeral service of his driver Trans-Nzoia County on Monday.

POLITICAL OPPONENTS

The detectives have asked the MP to shed light on claims that his opponents were behind an attack in which his driver was shot dead outside a motel at the Soy market.

The MP who spoke on phone said the chaos which erupted at his driver's funeral was part of a scheme by his political opponents to eliminate him.

“We have summoned the MP to record a statement on his remarks that there was a plot by his political opponents to have him killed,” said Mr John Onyango, the county criminal investigation officer.

A section of MCAs from the Kakamega County led by Leader of Majority Joel Otwoma and nominated county representative Ms Auxillia Nyamwoma accused Mr Kibunguchy of inciting mourners to eject the County Executive for Sports Robert Kundu Makhanu shortly after he had arrived to attend the funeral.

VIOLENCE

“We condemn the remarks made by the MP while he was addressing mourners during the burial of his driver,” said Mr Otwoma.

The MCAs who are close allies of Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya said it was unfortunate that Mr Kibunguchy had incited mourners to attack the county official who had attended the burial.

They asked the MP to respect Governor Oparanya and other county officials and avoid using funerals to tarnish their reputation.

Mr Makhanu did not show up for the media briefing or respond to calls or text messages sent to his him. But according to Dr Kibunguchy the killing of his driver was an attempt on his life, was violence aimed at Ford-Kenya leaders who attended the funeral was engineered by the same people who killed his driver.

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Annan lashed out at state of global leadership before death

Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan delivers a speech during the African Green Revolution Forum at the Accra international conference centre on September 2, 2010. PHOTO | ISSOUF SANOGO | AFP 

18.Aug.2018

In Summary

• There was an outpouring of grief-stricken tributes from leaders for Annan after his foundation announced he died.

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By AFP
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PARIS

Former UN chief Kofi Annan, who died on Saturday, lashed out at the state of global leadership in an exclusive interview with AFP last year, urging more cooperation to deal with terrorism, migration and climate change.

"Honestly speaking, we are in a mess," the Nobel peace laureate said on December 12 ahead of a major climate conference in Paris.

"In the past when we went through this sort of crisis, you had leaders who had the courage and the vision to want to take action, to understand that they needed to work with others."

WRONG DIRECTION
Speaking two years to the day after the Paris climate deal was agreed — and following President Donald Trump's announcement that the United States would leave the pact — Annan remembered "the enthusiasm, the excitement and the energy that was brought to bear" in 2015.

"When you walk away from a conference like this, you expect people to go away fully determined to implement, to continue and move," he said.

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"But that hasn't happened, I think. We've slackened a bit... We haven't followed through."

"We must also remember that only promises that are kept are promises which matter."

"Today, leaders are going in the wrong direction," Annan said. "Leaders are withdrawing."

NUCLEAR WAR
He expressed particular concern over escalating tensions with North Korea, warning: "One miscalculation, one mistake and we are all victims".

"It may not be a deliberate decision to start a nuclear war," he added, adding that inflammatory rhetoric — without mentioning Trump or North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by name — was not helping.

Annan spoke to AFP as part of The Elders group of senior statesmen and women.

There was an outpouring of grief-stricken tributes on Saturday from leaders around the world for Annan after his foundation announced he died at the age 80 after a short illness.

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Kofi Annan, former U.N. secretary general, dies at 80

                              

                                                   

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan speaks during a lecture at George Washington University in 2006. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

By Stanley Meisler

August 18 at 6:24 AM

Kofi Annan of Ghana, whose popular and influential reign as secretary general of the United Nations was marred by White House anger at his opposition to the American invasion of Iraq, died Aug. 18. He was 80.

The death was confirmed by the Annan family and the Kofi Annan Foundation. The cause and location were not immediately available.

“Wherever there was suffering or need, he reached out and touched many people with his deep compassion and empathy,” the foundation said in a statement.

Current U.N. Secretary General António Guterres called Annan “a guiding force for good.”

“He provided people everywhere with a space for dialogue, a place for problem-solving and a path to a better world,” said Guterres.

Mr. Annan, who shared the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize with the international body he led from 1997 to 2006, owed his original triumph and his later turmoil to tense relations with the United States. In some ways, he was an accidental secretary general.

His predecessor, Egyptian diplomat and minister Boutros Boutros-Ghali, was vilified by conservative American politicians for supposedly leading the United States into disastrous overseas adventures. The Clinton White House was no more enamored of Boutros-Ghali’s leadership and imperious personal style and clashed with the secretary general over his reluctance to bomb the Serbs during the conflict in Bosnia.

The personal enmity between the secretary general and Madeleine Albright, then serving as U.S. ambassador to the U.N., had grown so bitter that she vetoed Boutros-Ghali’s bid for a second term in 1996 even though he had the support of all 14 other members of the Security Council.

Albright assuaged African member countries by sponsoring Mr. Annan, a well-liked U.N. insider who had joined the organization in 1962 and rose through the bureaucracy mainly having handled personnel and budget matters.

Mr. Annan became the seventh secretary general and the first black African to hold the job. He did not fit the stereotype of the haughty and secretive international civil servant.

He tried to answer all questions of reporters and ambassadors with disarming frankness. He published long reports, chock full of classified cables, that detailed the U.N.’s mistakes in dealing with the massacres in Srebrenica during the Balkans war and Rwanda in the 1990s — a period when he was chief of peacekeeping.

In 1995, Mr. Annan had overseen the transfer of U.N. peacekeeping forces in Bosnia to a NATO-led force after years of devastating, ethnically-driven conflict. Mr. Annan’s comments at the time reflected the anguish felt by many at the U.N. over being unable to end that war.

“In looking back we shall all record how we responded to the escalating horrors of the last four years,” he said. “And as we do so, there are questions that each of us will have to answer. What did I do? Could I have done more? And could it have made a difference? Did I let my prejudice, my indifference and my fear overwhelm my reason? And how would I react next time?”

His most important legacy as secretary general was his rejection of the long-standing notion that the U.N. could not interfere in the internal affairs of a member country.

He preached and finally persuaded the U.N. that a government’s suppression of its own people threatened international stability, making it a proper issue for the Security Council. This doctrine eventually led to the U.N. resolution that authorized the NATO bombing that helped end the dictatorial regime of Moammar Gaddafi in Libya in 2011.

Mr. Annan tried to make the position of secretary general more familiar to Americans. He threw out the first ball at a 1999 World Series game in Yankee Stadium. He appeared on the children’s television show “Sesame Street,” leading the squabbling Muppets in a U.N. group hug.

He and his wife, Nane, danced at so many dinners and parties that William H. Luers, a veteran U.S. diplomat and a past president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, once called him a “social star of New York society.”

His first, celebrated term as secretary general was capped by the Nobel Peace Prize. “In an organization that can hardly become more than its members permit, he has made clear that sovereignty can not be a shield behind which member states conceal their violations,” the Nobel committee wrote.

The U.N. works best when the secretary general and the American president agree on most major issues. For that reason, Mr. Annan had a bruising second term as he pushed back against President George W. Bush’s growing determination to invade Iraq for supposedly harboring weapons of mass destruction.

Brian Urquhart, a former undersecretary general who is the dean of U.N. commentators, said in an interview, “He had the bad luck to be secretary general when Washington was run by a band of ideologues. . . . If the United States had been on his side, he would have been regarded as in the class of Dag Hammarskjold,” the Swedish diplomat widely regarded as the U.N.’s greatest secretary general.

Mr. Annan became a continual irritant to the Americans. He eliminated an easy excuse for war by persuading the Iraqis to allow U.N. inspectors back in to search for weapons of mass destruction. He emboldened the ambassadors from Chile and Mexico to withhold support for an American resolution authorizing an invasion.

When the Americans invaded in March 2003, Mr. Annan deplored the American failure “to solve this problem by a collective decision.”

Afterward, Mr. Annan infuriated the White House by telling a BBC reporter that the invasion was “illegal” and by sending a letter to Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair imploring them not to attack the Sunni Muslim city of Fallujah.

Bush aides thought the secretary general was trying to embarrass the president during his 2004 reelection campaign. Randy Scheunemann, a Republican foreign policy specialist, told the BBC that Mr. Annan’s labeling of the war as illegal was “outrageous” and “reeks of political interference.”

Mr. Annan wanted to keep channels open so that the U.N. could help the people of Iraq after the invasion. This would come to haunt the secretary general when a suicide bomber blew up U.N. headquarters in Baghdad in August 2003, killing his friend and troubleshooter Sergio Vieira de Mello of Brazil and 21 other U.N. officials.

“You send in some of your best people who are friends,” he said in an interview, “and they get killed for trying to sort out the aftermath of the war you didn’t support, you can imagine my discouragement and melancholy. It was tough.”

Mr. Annan was buffeted a year or so after the invasion by a conservative campaign against him over what was called the “oil-for-food” scandal. Under the program, developed in 1996 while Iraq was under sanctions before the invasion, Saddam Hussein was allowed to sell some oil to buy food for his people.

A commission headed by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker found that Hussein had profited illegally by almost $2 billion under the program from overpayments for oil and kickbacks for food.

Outside the oil-for-food corruption, according to the Volcker commission, the Iraqi regime had earned even more illegal profits — almost $11 billion — by smuggling oil to Turkey, Jordan and other countries. Mr. Annan told reporters that most of these illegal sales had been allowed by American and British officials who “decided to close their eyes to smuggling to Turkey and Jordan because they were allies.” 

This U.S.-British complicity in the illegal commerce — an open secret for years — was confirmed later by Kenneth Pollack, who monitored Iraqi oil sales for the Clinton White House.

The Volcker commission did not accuse Mr. Annan of making a single penny from the oil-for-food transactions. But it accused him of a failure of management for not preventing the corruption.

Moreover, the commission found that Mr. Annan’s son, Kojo, was on the secret payroll of a Swiss company trying to do business under the oil-for-food program. The secretary general was cleared of trying to do anything to favor the Swiss firm, but the son’s foolishness, as Mr. Annan put it, “caused me lots of grief.”

Mr. Annan was still venerated throughout the rest of the world, and after retiring from the U.N. in 2006 he soon took on a role in the mold of former South African president Nelson Mandela, of a wise, noble elder trying to mediate a host of conflicts in his native Africa.

Kofi Atta Annan was born with a twin sister on April 8, 1938, in Kumasi, Ghana — in what was then the British colony of the Gold Coast. His father was a senior buyer of cocoa for the Anglo-Dutch corporation Unilever. He named his son in the Ghanian Akan language: Kofi means “born on Friday” and Atta means “twin.”

After attending schools in the Gold Coast, Kofi Annan won a Ford Foundation scholarship to Macalester in Minnesota. After graduating in 1961 with an economics degree, he found work as a junior administrative and budget officer with the U.N.’s World Health Organization in Geneva.

Mr. Annan had begun to attracted wider notice at the start of the Persian Gulf War. On a special mission to Baghdad as chief of personnel, he helped persuade the Iraqis to release 900 U.N. employees and dependents held as hostages. He also organized an airlift of hundreds of thousands of Asian workers back to their original homes.

Boutros-Ghali pulled Mr. Annan out of the U.N.’s bureaucratic dullness in 1992, naming him deputy chief of peacekeeping, the most dramatic work of the U.N. The next year, Mr. Annan was promoted to chief of peacekeeping with the rank of undersecretary general, the highest in the U.N. civil service. Mr. Annan presided over a record expansion of peacekeeping to 75,000 troops in 19 missions.

In his new role, Mr. Annan drew strong criticism from some journalists and activists for failing to sound the alarm about the threat of impending genocide in Rwanda. Mr. Annan and his aides worked behind the scenes to prevent the unfolding killing in Rwanda, but they said the forces of ethnic hatred were too strong to temper. When the massacres erupted, the U.N. Security Council, led by the United States, did little to stop them; hundreds of thousands were killed.

Mr. Annan’s first marriage, to Titilola Alakija of Nigeria, ended in divorce. In 1984, he married Nane Lagergren, a Swedish lawyer and jurist. Her uncle was Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved the lives of thousands of Hungarian Jews during World War II and disappeared mysteriously in 1945 while in the custody of the Soviet army.

Besides his wife, survivors include two children from his first marriage ; and a stepdaughter . A complete list of survivors could not be confirmed.

Though soft-spoken, Mr. Annan was often eloquent. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo just three months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and his acceptance speech took note of that terrible day.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, “we have entered the third millennium through a gate of fire. If today, after the horror of 11 September, we see better, and we see further — we will realize that humanity is indivisible. New threats make no distinctions between races, nations or regions. . . . A deeper awareness of the bonds that bind us all — in pain as in prosperity — has gripped young and old.”

Stanley Meisler, a veteran foreign correspondent, was the author of "Kofi Annan: A Man of Peace in a World of War" and of "United Nations: A History.'' He died in 2016.

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