US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was headed to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) yesterday to target an epidemic of sexual assault in the violence-torn nation after wrapping up a trip to Angola where she pushed democratic reform and trade.
Clinton was scheduled to leave Angola after signing a new agreement with health officials to fight HIV/AIDS and meeting Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos, who has ruled for 30 years and has been criticized for postponing a presidential vote scheduled for this year.
In the Congolese capital of Kinshasa, she will visit a hospital founded by former NBA star Dikembe Mutumbo, a native of Congo, and hold a town hall meeting. Today she is to travel to the east of the country to meet victims of rapes and other sexual crimes.
While in the eastern city of Goma, Clinton also plans to meet Congolese President Joseph Kabila to press his government on democratic reform and fighting corruption in the wake of a brutal conflict that at its height drew in a half dozen of the country’s neighbors.
She delivered a similar message in oil-rich Angola, which is struggling to rebuild after 27 years of war that ended in 2002.
On Sunday, she urged Angola’s government to build on successful legislative elections held last year — the first in 16 years — by holding presidential elections as soon as possible and dealing with the legacy of 27 years of civil war.
“We look forward to Angola building on this positive step, including the adoption of a new constitution, investigating and prosecuting past human rights abuses and holding a timely, free and fair presidential election,” she said.
“So, Mr. Minister, we have our work cut out for us,” she said.
Clinton stressed the need for greater accountability and transparency in Angola’s petroleum sector, particularly with revenue from exports, which account for nearly 60 percent of the country’s GDP, officials traveling with her said.
Clinton came to Luanda on the third leg of a seven-nation trip to reinforce the US’ presence in a country where it increasingly is competing for energy resources with China. However, she downplayed any concern about China’s activities in the country.
“I am not looking at what anyone else does in Angola,” Clinton said.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
RSS