Burundi: We've played this scene before.

A statement from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.


UN experts call for determined Security Council action to prevent mass violence in the Great Lakes region


GENEVA (16 July 2015) – A group of United Nations human rights experts* today urged the Security Council to take immediate action to prevent Burundi from sliding back into violent conflict ahead of presidential elections, a crisis which will not leave the other countries in the region, including Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, unaffected. Thus far, 145,000 persons have fled to neighbouring countries in fear for their lives.

This is something that should scare the shit out of the whole world. Once again we are seeing the Great Lakes Region of Africa descend into chaos and once again the world is looking away. Six million lives have been lost in the DR Congo since 1998 and lets not forget the genocide in Rwanda and a further 800,000 lives. 


“The world is witnessing an escalating pattern of politically motivated violence in Burundi, enabled by the country’s decades-long tradition of impunity,” the experts warned. “The international community must not simply stand by and wait for mass atrocities to unfold, thereby risking a major conflict of regional proportions before it finally decides to act,” the Special Rapporteurs added, pointing to repeated cycles of mass violations that Burundi and the Great Lakes region have witnessed in recent history.

New Zealand is the currently president of the Security Council as we were when the Rwandan Genocide occurred and once again the Security Council is dithering. The difference being the last time we held the presidency we acted with honour.

" As the death count grew, our Ambassador, Colin Keating, pressed hard for the UN peacekeeping mission in Rwanda to be strengthened, and for the Council to declare this atrocity as genocide.

As the Council’s President in April 1994, we even had to threaten to hold a public debate to shame certain countries for their refusal to acknowledge what was happening.

In the end, mainly because of the unwillingness of some of the Council’s permanent members, those efforts were unsuccessful and 800,000 innocent people were butchered – many with jungle knives."

For fucks sake our ( NZ ) official position is that we oppose the great power Security Council veto. Yes we failed Rwanda but we tried. We may fail again...we will certainly fail if we don't try. The world voted us onto the Security Council not the vested interests of the west.

The situation in Burundi has already involved serious human rights violations. “It is accumulating the well-known and visible marks of a society which previously suffered divisions leading to grave violence. This can escalate into major conflict through the use of outright repression against, and intimidation of, the population at large, the instrumentalization of the police, the closure of independent media, as well as the detention of the opposition and other civic leaders. We also witness efforts to coerce the judiciary, some of whose highest members have fled the country claiming their lives were at risk. In the meantime, armed militias, with the collaboration of authorities, exercise violence against civilians. In these circumstances, it is not surprising that the results of the 29 June elections have generally not been endorsed,” the experts raised alarm. 

In short we have all the ingredients for another ethnic conflict that like the rest will engulf the the Great Lakes Region with potential consequences that don't bare thinking about except that we will have to do a lot more than think about them if   when they come to pass.



“The absence of independent media and a climate of repression and fear to exercise civil rights and express opinions, notably by peacefully taking to the streets, have marred the recent elections and will also be defining the forthcoming presidential elections, now scheduled for 21 July. The postponement by six days of the presidential elections does not remedy this blatant deficiency,” the mandate-holders stated.

It might be time for the world as represented by the Security Council to remind certain African dictators of a supposedly African proverb popularised by American President Roosevelt.

" Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far,"  


“If the government persists in holding presidential elections under the current circumstances – something even the former first Vice-President objected to after also having fled the country – they will in no way confer any legitimacy on the to-be-elected authorities. On the contrary, the elections are highly likely to result in major instability and confrontations in Burundi, with the potential to spread to the region,” the experts warned.

The big and forever unanswered question being who will benefit from the instability ? Oh of course the West, instability is opportunity.... just look at the illegal exploitation of resources multi-nationals have achieved in the DR Congo....and the cost... six million Congolese lives.  


On 9 July, the situation on Burundi was most recently discussed by the Security Council. The seven independent experts strongly echoed the call made by the High Commissioner for Human Rights to immediately disarm the youth militia Imbonerakure which is spreading major violence and intimidation among the population. The experts join the High Commissioner in recalling that the people of Burundi “have a right to go about their lives peacefully, in freedom, equality and dignity; without fear, and with equitable access to their country's many resources and opportunities.”

The Imbonerakure are targeting Tutsi communities and it would seem are predominantly a Hutu organisation.To quote Marrilion's Fish " You've played this scene before ".  


“The Security Council has a unique role for peace and security and for preventing conflicts worldwide. This is a crisis that is eminently preventable – everyone can see the risks. What is lacking is action,” underscored the independent experts. “Given the painful history of Burundi and the region, the long engagement of the United Nations in the country to re-build peace, the Security Council must be all the more alerted to the increasing potential of an escalation of massive violence,” the experts added.

And New Zealand as the current the president of the Security Council have failed enormously. We have failed our own legacy... even worse we have failed the trust the world mandated us with. 


“Burundians, who live in the world’s third poorest country must be spared another cycle of violence, with the misery and destruction that violence always leave on its wake. They look to the Security Council to live up to its unique role in the prevention of mass atrocities,” the experts urged.

I am ashamed to be a New Zealander today. John Key a new flag will not disassociate us from a genocide we did nothing to prevent. If our old brand has more honour than our new brand it would be better to abandon the exercise.

Burundi: More Bat shit crazy and New Zealand is once again chairing the Security Council.

Yet another African President who can't read the writing on the wall and thinks the presidency is a job for life.

 

Burundi: Power and opposition committed to continue dialogue despite differences

July 16, 2015 1:26 (Last updated July 16, 2015 1:30)

AA / Bujumbura / Jean Bosco / Rénovat Ndabashinze

After two days of consultations, conducted under the aegis of the new mediator of the crisis in Burundi, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, the Burundian parties agreed Wednesday to continue the dialogue that no compromise has yet been reached on the issue of the controversial third term of Pierre Nkurunziza.

That would have to be the stupidest mediator appointment in the history of stupid mediator appointments. A bit like putting a rabbit in charge of a lettuce patch.

In it, the author says, back in 1986: "The problem of Africa in general and Uganda in particular is not the people but leaders who want to overstay in power."

And who wrote it? The current president, Yoweri Museveni, who has been in the job for 25 years

The presidential camp, always hostile to the idea of ​​further postpone the date of the presidential elections (as advocated by the East African Community (EAC)), proposed to resume dialogue after the elections.

So the Presidents plan is to discuss with the opposition his third term in office after the election that he will corruptly win giving him a third term in office. Bat shit crazy springs to mind.

 "The government agrees on the principle of dialogue, but now the urgency is to organize the presidential election to avoid an institutional vacuum," said Alain-Aimé plenary Nyamitwe, Burundian Minister External relations.

You couldn't make this shit up nobody would believe you. 

Ugandan President had presented a set of proposals capable of resolving the crisis in the country since April 26, when the Burundian president Pierre Nkurunziza was invested by its candidate in the next presidential party, ruled unconstitutional by a candidacy civil society and the opposition.

Only Museveni could achieve a set of " proposals capable of resolving " such a crisis... even Rwanda's Kagame has recognised that you need to actually change the constitution first.   

One of the opposition leaders told Anadolu on condition of anonymity that "Yoweri Museveni, in particular, proposed the opposition to go to the presidential elections, to accept the results, let Nkurunziza still govern the country for two years with a transitional parliament and a national unity government even organize elections at the end of this period. "

Hilarious..the election hasn't actually happened yet but the result is clearly in and Nkurunziza has won.

A scenario that excludes the presidential clan. Willy Nyamitwe, Nkurunziza adviser, in charge of communication, notes in this in a press statement that "it is inconceivable that Burundi has already held elections in 2005 and 2010 to return to a transitional government, we are agree to a national unity government after the elections, and this is also recommended by our Constitution, "he has said Wednesday.

Coast of civil society is a mixture of satisfaction and anxiety prevailing at the corresponding Anadolu, present at the plenary meeting thereof held on Wednesday. 

If you can figure out what that means you are doing better than me although my guess is nothing at all.

Pierre Claver Mbonimpa, president of the association for human rights and the protection of detained persons (APRODH) said rather "reassured" about the outcome of the dialogue.

On the side of the opposition, Charles Nditije, the Coalition of Independents "Amizero y'Abarundi" (Hope Burundians), also said "confident".

I am pleased to hear that all are " reassured " and " confident ". I am not.


" In scenes reminiscent of Rwanda's 1994 genocide in which at least 800,000 people (mainly Tutsi and moderate Hutu) were killed, Burundian Tutsi refugees say local security forces have prevented a massacre after they dispersed members of the Imbonerakure, the youth wing of the country's ruling party, who had threatened to kill them in their refugee camp, IBTimes UK has learned.

Burundi: Scenes of violent clashes between police and protesters in Bujumbura
Under Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza's CNDD-FDD party umbrella, the Imbonerakure (the Kirundi word for "those that see far") have been waging a campaign of intimidation and violence to help Nkurunziza win a controversial third term in the 26 June elections."

This is a very volatile situation..

"The findings made ​​in the presence of the facilitator provide a solid foundation on which we can resume dialogue which had been suspended moult times in the past," he said, recalling that two UN facilitators were dispatched to Burundi since the outbreak of this crisis, before being disqualified, respectively, the power and the opposition.


In other words they don't give a shit about the UN and international opinion is irrelevant. The irony from a New Zealand perspective being that we currently chair the Security Council. The last time we ( New Zealand ) chaired the Security Council the Rwandan genocide occurred and despite our best efforts the Security Council refused to act. I hope someone is awake in New York.

Since his arrival on Tuesday, Burundi, Yoweri Museveni, was, by turns, talks with Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza, representatives of opposition parties, the presidential party and movement, civil society, different faiths and with media and former Heads of State.

Museveni has failed to bring about a resolution.


" Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has left crisis talks between Burundi's rival political factions without a deal, but last-ditch efforts to end months of violence continue. "

Following these exchanges, the Ugandan president proposed Wednesday during a plenary session in Bujumbura, the various parties to immediately put around the negotiating table to find a compromise.

"Dialogue must resume immediately, under the facilitation of my defense minister" for his part urged the Ugandan mediator, announcing that it was his defense minister Crispus Kiyonga expected in Bujumbura on Thursday, which will relay the in the dialogue.

Museveni is no fool. He knows that there will be no glory for him here and has opted to get out of " Dodge ".

More than 100 people have been killed since the party in power has formalized Nkurunziza's candidacy in the presidential election of 2015, according to the main advocacy group Human Rights and Detained Persons.

Meeting on 6 July in Dar Essalalm, the Heads of State of the East African Community (EAC) had asked to postpone the presidential "in order to give time to the new Ombudsman, Yoweri Museveni, to conduct a dialogue with various parties ". The government then announced the postponement of the presidential election on July 15 to 21.

Watch this space.

Israel & America: " And I think of all the good things That we have left undone "

Brian Eno writes at Popular Resistance

Today I Saw A Weeping Palestinian Man Holding A Plastic Bag Of Meat: It Was His Son

Brian Eno’s letter to America: WHY? I just don’t get it

Brian Eno is an artist, musical innovator, record producer for artists ranging from David Bowie to U2 and Coldplay. He has been a consistent supporter of Stop the War Coalition since it was first founded.

Dear All of You:

I sense I’m breaking an unspoken rule with this letter, but I can’t keep quiet any more.

Not quite sure what rule Eno is breaking. From the perspective of this blog I am a little off reservation insofar as I avoid Middle Eastern politics but I do not avoid issues such as genocide and there is no other description for the activities of Israel in Gaza.

Today I saw a picture of a weeping Palestinian man holding a plastic carrier bag of meat. It was his son. He’d been shredded (the hospital’s word) by an Israeli missile attack – apparently using their fab new weapon, flechette bombs. You probably know what those are – hundreds of small steel darts packed around explosive which tear the flesh off humans. The boy was Mohammed Khalaf al-Nawasra. He was 4 years old.

This act by Israel is in my opinion a crime against humanity. The most favorable interpretation possible is that it is a war crime.

A war crime is a serious violation of the laws and customs of war (also known as international humanitarian law) giving rise to individual criminal responsibility. Examples of war crimes such as:
 Murdering, mistreating, or deporting civilian residents of an occupied territory to slave labor camps
 Murdering or mistreating prisoners of war or civilian internees
 Forcing protected persons to serve in the forces of a hostile power
 Killing hostages
 Killing or punishing spies or other persons convicted of war crimes without a fair trial
 Wantonly destroying cities, towns, villages, or any object not warranted by military necessity

I suddenly found myself thinking that it could have been one of my kids in that bag, and that thought upset me more than anything has for a long time.

Then I read that the UN had said that Israel might be guilty of war crimes in Gaza, and they wanted to launch a commission into that. America won’t sign up to it.

There is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that Israel is guilty of war crimes. America is aware of this and is using its influence to silence western criticism of Israel and it will use its Security Council Veto to prevent this issue being considered by the UN. America has a tradition of preventing those who have committed the worst crime possible... genocide.... facing justice. Be it the Nazi scientists saved at conclusion of WWII or the Rwandan Hutu genocidairs given carte blanche by the Americans and French to kill around a million Tutsi over the course of 3 months in 1994.   

The terrible reality of  America's behaviour is that further crimes against humanity  are then facilitated by the survivors of such atrocities due to American guilt. Be it Israel in Gaza or Rwanda in the DR Congo today.

What is going on in America? I know from my own experience how slanted your news is, and how little you get to hear about the other side of this story. But – for Christ’s sake! – it’s not that hard to find out. Why does America continue its blind support of this one-sided exercise in ethnic cleansing? WHY? I just don’t get it. I really hate to think its just the power of AIPAC… for if that’s the case, then your government really is fundamentally corrupt. No, I don’t think that’s the reason… but I have no idea what it could be.

Eno needs to cut out the bullshit. This is not ethnic cleansing it is genocide. The term " ethnic cleansing " is a manifestation of just how fucking useless the media are. With regard to the Israel lobby ( AIPAC ) and American corruption Eno has perhaps unwittingly answered that question with his observation on the American medias complicity in keeping the truth from the public, mind you the US public have bought into this deception.

The America I know and like is compassionate, broadminded, creative, eclectic, tolerant and generous. You, my close American friends, symbolise those things for me. But which America is backing this horrible one-sided colonialist war? I can’t work it out: I know you’re not the only people like you, so how come all those voices aren’t heard or registered?

The Americans I know fit Eno's description but America collectively does not. That should not come as a surprise the Americans the world meets are the minority.

" More than half of Americans - 54per cent - have never traveled outside the U.S., and 35per cent admit that they do not even own a passport.

According to a survey of 2,105 Americans, conducted by CouponCodes4u, 41per cent of travelers who have never been abroad feel that everything worth visiting is in the U.S.

Only 15per cent of respondents said they planned on vacationing abroad this year.

Of those who said they would remain in their own state, 22per cent admitted that they had never ventured outside its borders before. "

I don't know if the statistics include military deployments by US personnel but I suspect they do and that would exasperate the situation.

How come it isn’t your spirit that most of the world now thinks of when it hears the word ‘America’? How bad does it look when the one country which more than any other grounds its identity in notions of Liberty and Democracy then goes and puts its money exactly where its mouth isn’t and supports a ragingly racist theocracy?

If the America Eno alludes too ever existed I have no idea when it was. Ask native or black Americans about that. America isn't so far from a theocracy and the ability of the majority of Americans to look critically at Americas behaviour as an international citizen is a joke. When the Global Financial Crisis hit the world was shown pictures of Americans who had lost their homes in trailer parks with the stars and stripes flying prominently. In most of the world the flags would have been burning but not in brainwashed batshit crazy America.

I was in Israel last year with Mary. Her sister works for UNWRA in Jerusalem. Showing us round were a Palestinian – Shadi, who is her sister’s husband and a professional guide – and Oren Jacobovitch, an Israeli Jew, an ex-major from the IDF who left the service under a cloud for refusing to beat up Palestinians. Between the two of them we got to see some harrowing things – Palestinian houses hemmed in by wire mesh and boards to prevent settlers throwing shit and piss and used sanitary towels at the inhabitants; Palestinian kids on their way to school being beaten by Israeli kids with baseball bats to parental applause and laughter; a whole village evicted and living in caves while three settler families moved onto their land; an Israeli settlement on top of a hill diverting its sewage directly down onto Palestinian farmland below; The Wall; the checkpoints… and all the endless daily humiliations. I kept thinking, “Do Americans really condone this? Do they really think this is OK? Or do they just not know about it?”.

They don't know, they don't want to known and worse they don't care that they don't know. That will however change.

" The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out. "

As for the Peace Process: Israel wants the Process but not the Peace. While ‘the process’ is going on the settlers continue grabbing land and building their settlements… and then when the Palestinians finally erupt with their pathetic fireworks they get hammered and shredded with state-of-the-art missiles and depleted uranium shells because Israel ‘has a right to defend itself’ ( whereas Palestine clearly doesn’t). And the settler militias are always happy to lend a fist or rip up someone’s olive grove while the army looks the other way.

That is a very astute observation.  The process is useful from an Israeli perspective, it has destroyed any possibility of a two state solution. Just in case you are unaware of the scale of this theft be prepared to be shocked.

Remember that the map is now 14 years out of date. And the reason ?

" The two-state solution refers to a solution of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict currently under discussion, which calls for "two states for two peoples." The two-state solution envisages an independent State of Palestine alongside the State of Israel, west of the Jordan River.

The framework of the solution is set out in UN resolutions on the "Peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine", going back to 1974. The resolution calls for "two States, Israel and Palestine ... side by side within secure and recognized borders" together with "a just resolution of the refugee question in conformity with UN resolution 194". The borders of the state of Palestine are "based on the pre-1967 borders". The latest resolution in November 2013 was passed 165 to 6, with 6 abstentions. The countries voting against were Canada, Israel, Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Palau and the United States.

The Palestinians have "shown serious interest" in a two-state solution since the mid-1970s, and its mainstream leadership has embraced the concept since the 1982 Arab Summit in Fez.

Over the years, polls have consistently shown "respectable Israeli and Palestinian majorities in favor of a negotiated two-state settlement."

It will not happen. As Eno points out above " a whole village evicted and living in caves while three settler families moved onto their land "

By the way, most of them are not ethnic Israelis – they’re ‘right of return’ Jews from Russia and Ukraine and Moravia and South Africa and Brooklyn who came to Israel recently with the notion that they had an inviolable (God-given!) right to the land, and that ‘Arab’ equates with ‘vermin’ – straightforward old-school racism delivered with the same arrogant, shameless swagger that the good ole boys of Louisiana used to affect. That is the culture our taxes are defending. It’s like sending money to the Klan.

Regular readers of this blog will be aware that my partner's sister and three of my four daughters arrived in New Zealand in March this year. Much to my annoyance they had to go through the six week residential orientation programme required by immigration NZ for refugees ( I was totally wrong to oppose this and Immigration NZ were right to insist on it ). I met a family who arrived at the same time from Syria ( mum was fluent in English, actually an English teacher ) while my family were on the course. The family were Palestinians who had been evicted by Israel and tried their luck in Baghdad, America wrecked that relocation, so they tried Syria. We all know what is happening there ( unless of course we are Americans ). Dad is business man he had owned retail operations, he had employed people he wants to be a productive participant here. He belongs to us now and he will I am sure for the forth time in his life set up a business and contribute to the NZ community. 

Israel and America think of him as vermin:

" The term describes farm pests which raid farms as opposed to infest farms—mainly predators such as... "

Israel are far worse than vermin they raid and infest.

As for giving the Klan  Israel tax money Eno is correct the only difference being that the Klan saw a value in property and didn't always kill. 

But beyond this, what really troubles me is the bigger picture. Like it or not, in the eyes of most of the world, America represents ‘The West’. So it is The West  that is seen as supporting this war, despite all our high-handed talk about morality and democracy. I fear that all the civilisational achievements of The Enlightenment and Western Culture are being discredited – to the great glee of the mad Mullahs – by this flagrant hypocrisy. The war has no moral justification that I can see  - but it doesn’t even have any pragmatic value either. It doesn’t make Kissingerian ‘Realpolitik’ sense; it just makes us look bad.

Actually I disagree. New Zealand under previous administrations has disassociated its self from the " West " I am sure we will again. The West needs to disassociate from America. If America wishes to remain a nation caught in the amber of the 20th century so be it. Empires fall when they become irrelevant, ask Britain.

I’m sorry to burden you all with this. I know you’re busy and in varying degrees allergic to politics, but this is beyond politics. It’s us squandering the civilisational capital that we’ve built over generations. None of the questions in this letter are rhetorical: I really don’t get it and I wish that I did.

I get it Brian. I am just far more objective than you.

DR Congo: " The child before they broke his heart Our heart, the heart that I believed was lost "

Esther Nsapu at Rafiki blogs: Another African blog and even better from Goma. You can't know how happy that makes me. This is a translation from French and cleaned up by me. All translation errors are mine. As this is Esther' blog I have not made any comments as per my practice with Charly Kasereka and Chantal Faida's blogs.

Shasha: Space "friend to children" Shaping the future of underprivileged children

                           

Child soldiers, victims of war and orphan's studying free courtesy of the  friend child Shasha network. In addition to the lessons learned in the classroom they are also trained in dressmaking and design; we have to prepare a better future.

They are about 500 children from the territories of Walikale, Masisi, Rutchuru aged from 4-16 years. They live, study and are supported by free to friend child space (SAEP) at Shasha, a locality thirty kilometers to the west of Goma, North Kivu, DRC.

Most of these children have lost their parents in the recurrent wars of the region. Some are the result of rape and others are former soldiers conscripted into armed groups. " I feel better here. Here after a few months I can read and write " reports Bonane Bazimaziki, 14, former militiaman.

At the age of 13, K. Baeni like most children accommodated in "Space " , could not count or hold a pen. "His integration was not easy but we are proud of him as of all the others  , " said Clarisse Kasaza the manager of SAEP.

Included in this number, nearly 200 girls are taught the skills of cutting and sewing, while boys learn drawing and painting. " I am proud to be able to sew clothes but also to weave carpets , " says FT, a girl born as a result of rape, never having known her parents and abandoned at birth. 

Even the locals are included 

Although this SAEP project is designed to supervise the children victims of war, the work of this organisation also benefits the local people. Included in the school, there is  ten local children. George Bazibuhe, chief of the town of Shasha observes, this organization is also very beneficial as giving the poor village children the opportunity to study for free.

He is proud and encourages developers and managers of this structure for children. " I can hardly pay my rent and my income does not allow me to educate my three children. Fortunately this center exists if not, I would seem irresponsible "explains Nsimire, who sells mangoes in the village.

According to Clarisse Kasaza since the center was established there two years ago, the progress has been significant: " children who were violent became docile. Tomorrow they will become honest and responsible citizens thanks to the education they have acquired.  " But the fact remains that the stresses on parents are large and numerous a fault authorities of the country are powerless to fix so the center must respond.

OK sort of breaking my comments rule but as I was working on this a friend
Kalume Jon mentioned what he was currently doing.

"...in Northern Uganda where Lord Resistance Army operated by Joseph Kony,... now am in evaluation of children's situation, orphans and child soldiers and vulnerable women affected by war. "

From a global perspective these issues should and are to some degree addressed by the UN. Rehabilitation should become a UN Security Council responsibility, the way out of messes like this is to break the cycle of violence. From a New Zealand perspective we need to win a seat on the council in September and getting Helen Clark into the job as UN Secretary General should be a national priority. We may only be four million people at the bottom of the world but that is not a weakness it is our strength. The NZ Government is by virtue of our size close to constituents. 

In 1994 while New Zealand held the presidency of the UN Security Council the Rwanda genocide happened. We attempted to stop it but we were over ruled by permanent council members.  Most New Zealander's didn't  and don't know the Rwanda genocide happened. Had they known, had they mobilised who knows what the international community would have been forced to do, remember the Springbok tour of '81 and we were divide then. New Zealand is almost unique in the world, when we collectively want our government to do something they had better do it or start looking for new jobs. That is our size advantage, that is our ability to change the world.

Nigeria: " Wearing bracelets of smoke, naked of understanding "

The Guardian reports

Boko Haram claims responsibility for kidnapping Nigeria schoolgirls

Islamist militants' leader threatens to sell the more than 270 girls abducted in north-east Nigeria on 14 April

Screengrab from video obtained by AFP of Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau claiming responsibility for abducting the schoolgirls. Photograph: Ho/AFP/Getty Images

The leader of Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram has said that more than 270 schoolgirls snatched from their dormitories were "slaves" whom he planned to sell in the market.

"I abducted your girls," a man claiming to be Abubakar Shekau, the group's leader, said in a video seen by the Guardian. "I will sell them in the market, by Allah. I will sell them off and marry them off. There is a market for selling humans.

I can't wait for the day that Abubakar Shekau is given a chance to discuss this act of barbarity on a one to one level with Allah. Hopefully it will involve a particularly cruel and unusual form of punishment in the hours if not days leading up to that discussion.

"Women are slaves. I want to reassure my Muslim brothers that Allah says slaves are permitted in Islam," he added, in an apparent reference to an ancient tradition of enslaving women captured during jihad, or holy war.

This coward and that is a charitable description of him, conducts his holy war on school children I guess his band of madmen are unable to attract life partners in a conventional manner so in this instance he has targeted girls.

Speaking in northern Nigeria's Hausa language during a rambling hour-long speech, he threatened further attacks on schools and warned the international community not to get involved in Nigeria. Shekau has previously called western education "a plot against Islam" and urged his fighters to kill students and teachers.

The international community are already involved.

" The United States Department of State offered a $7 million reward and the Nigerian government offered a N50 million reward for his capture, making him the most wanted man in Nigeria and Islamist in Africa."  

I hope that the international community get more involved. This prick needs to be taken down fast, we have seen the damage that Joseph Kony has caused in the Great Lakes Region, this is the Nigerian equivalent. 

"I will marry off a woman at the age of 12. I will marry off a girl at the age of nine," he said at another point in the video.

Sub Saharan Africa has become the new battle ground between radical Islam and sanity. It is a fight that West must get involved insofar as it is our fight as well. One need only look at the Central African Republic and the religious insanity occurring there to realise there is a radical Islamic agenda at play.

The chilling message came as police questioned 'Gbenga Sesan – the activist behind the popular Twitter campaign #BringBackOurGirls – and two women who helped organise protests calling for the government to do more to rescue the girls.

And to make matters even worse the Nigerian Government has taken to the path of blaming the victims. It would seem that President Goodluck Jonathan's  government has opted to fight insanity through even more fucking insanity.

Protesters call for the release of the missing schoolgirls at the state government house, in Lagos, Nigeria. Photograph: Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP/Getty Images

Saratu Angus Ndirpaya and Naomi Mutah Nyadar were detained after attending a meeting with the president's wife, Patience, who, in a bizarre twist, suggested the mass abductions had never happened and were instead a conspiracy to derail her husband's presidential campaign for elections next year.

Yes no surprises there. Her husband being re-elected is far more important to the stupid bitch than the lives of 270 school girls. She is if nothing else a worthy member of the Crocodile Club.

At least 300 teenage girls were snatched in a dawn raid in Chibok, in Boko Haram's north-eastern heartland of Borno state, on 15 April. President Goodluck Jonathan did not publicly comment on the abductions for two weeks and the government's clumsy handling of the case has triggered protests across almost every major city.

Not just Nigeria. The hashtag #BringBackOurGirls is recording huge hits including some fairly serious players such as Hillary Clinton.

" Access to education is a basic right & an unconscionable reason to target innocent girls. We must stand up to terrorism.#BringBackOurGirls "

Jonathan pledged on Sunday evening that the government would return the girls to their families. "This is a trying time for this country. It is painful," he said.

Made even more painful for the victims by his wife, Nigeria's First Lady. If there was any justice in this world she would be sharing the fate of those school girls for her total lack of empathy and compassion.

Diplomats say the government is in talks with the UK and the US for assistance in bolstering the country's security.

This is bigger than the UK and the US, it is a crime against humanity and humanity needs to make it clear to those incompetent fools who are permanent members of the security council including the aforementioned states that we expect a resolution to this atrocity and the wider Boko Haram problem. If that solution involves killing every one of the pricks that is fine by me.

Mallam Mpur, whose two nieces are among the missing, said parents were reeling from reports the girls had been sold as "brides" to the extremists. He could not yet face telling the parents and relatives who gathered at his home for daily updates and support about the latest threats, he added. "In a few hours it will be exactly three weeks since our girls were taken away – we are counting every hour," he said.

"All I can say is, as parents we are desperate and begging. If the Nigerian government cannot help us, there is no shame in appealing to other African countries or the international community for help."

There is a huge amount of shame in the families having to appeal to the African and international community for help and that shame is our shame not the families. Boko Haram should have been destroyed long before now. We know their modus operandi, when they attacked the girls dormitories they should have hit heavily armed UN troops with an offensive mandate, it is clear that the Nigerian security forces are not up to the job. 

Some parents say their attempts to pass on information to the authorities have been fruitless. Farmer Dauda said his daughter called him from a forest training camp for militants last week. "One of the Boko Haram people came on the phone and told us not to worry; that our daughter is in safe hands," he told the Guardian. "The man told us, we have warned you not to send your children to school and this is the consequence. Then he told us that if we are patient and follow their orders, we will see our daughter again. But the government are not interested in hearing when we try to speak to them."

 It is also clear that the President Jonathan has failed in his most important role. He needs to go.

About 50 girls escaped in the confusion, some by jumping off trucks and fleeing for miles on foot through the dense Sambisa forest. Two girls have since died from snake bites, according to intermediaries in contact with the militants.

A demonstrator in London protests against the failure of the Nigerian government, to rescue the schoolgirls abducted by Boka Haram extremists. Photograph: Ruth Whitworth/Demotix/Corbis

Another Chibok elder, whose house was burned down during the five-hour raid by Boko Haram, said life was continuing in a state of terror. "Any little noise we hear at night, we all run out into the bush fearing for our lives," said the villager, adding that some households had resorted to organising their own night watch rotas.

The choice is simple deal with these Boko Haram scum now or later, it will cost a lot less to deal with them now.

The Christian Association of Nigeria published a list on Sunday of 180 Christian girls – about two-thirds of the total 276 – among the missing.

"Daughters of Zion taken captive, to be treated as slaves and sold into marriage to unclean people," the list was subtitled.

Understandable but not particularly helpful.

Its release has been widely criticised by Nigerians in a sign of how anger at the abductions has bridged the sectarian tensions that sometimes flare up between an evenly divided Muslim and Christian population.

Islam has a long tradition of scholarship something that I doubt the Boko Haram animals are aware of, it is no surprise that the muslim community is as horrified by this as the christian community, describing muslims as unclean is stupid.  

In a televised broadcast on Sunday, the first lady, who holds no official office, was seen alternately weeping and berating community members during a meeting to discuss the kidnappings. She warned against further protest marches: "You are playing games. Don't use schoolchildren and women for demonstration again. Keep it to Borno, let it end there," the official News Agency of Nigeria reported.

An official from the school who was at the meeting said: "She told us we were not patriotic; that we were members of Boko Haram ourselves and we wanted to disgrace the country."

Yes.. I have little to add to my comments above other than the first lady should just fuck off. The eyes of the world are watching Nigeria and it is clear who has disgraced the country.

The president's approval ratings have taken a battering as security has deteriorated in the runup to elections next year. In a weekly media chat late on Sunday, Jonathan denied that security had worsened, despite two bomb blasts on the outskirts of Abuja, the capital, which left 105 dead last month. "I believe we are succeeding" he said.

Really ?

" Nigeria was yesterday ranked the 16th most failed nation in the world, out of a total of 177 countries that were surveyed."

The government has launched a massive security operation in the capital this week as it prepares to host the World Economic Forum, at which dignitaries and heads of state will discuss Africa's positive growth story.

The glitz of the meeting will elude most ordinary Nigerians. Sitting forlornly on a plastic chair outside an Abuja police station, one woman who had travelled from Chibok to protest said: "We don't know why the government is treating us like we are less than animals. It is just really painful."

It is interesting to note that Nigeria is one of the MINT nations. It would seem that that was a wildly optimistic bit of wishful thinking.

Hat tip No Right Turn