Zimbabwe: Finance Minister: Gov’t Could Close
Harare ---Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister Tendai Biti has warned that the government could face closure due to lack of money unless revenue from diamond mining starts to flow.
Mr. Biti said that this comes after the mines ministry had informed him that no diamond auction had been held since the beginning of this year, after the World Diamond Council (WDC) lifted the ban on Zimbabwe diamonds last year.
The statement by the minister who is a member of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC party, a coalition partner with President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF is seen to draw new rifts in the fragile power-sharing government.
He said 70 percent of government revenue without the diamond money had been spent on wages, leaving little for anything else.
"Diamonds will have to deliver - otherwise the only thing we have to do will be to pay wages and government will have to close," said Biti.
The finance minister said there was no money also to budget for an early general election as favoured by President Robert Mugabe, but what was available was only for a referendum on the scheduled constitution and a census.
The ministries are split under the coalition government formed in 2009 between President Mugabe and Tsvangirai now Prime Minister after the disputed presidential election that turned violent.
The unity government still remain fragile with disagreement on equal sharing of power, with each side accusing the other of double-crossing. Mugabe blames Tsvangirai for being behind international sanctions and travel bans that face him and his party allies, while Tsvangirai has accused ZANU-PF of harassing and attacking supporters of his MDC party.
Recently during celebration of his 88th birthday, Mugabe hinted that elections will be held with or without the new constitution, which forms part of the political reforms that regional mediators of the Zimbabwean crisis have called to be made first.
Zimbabwe is said to earn more than $3billion a year from diamond mining in the country. In 2009 an international ban was imposed on Zimbabwe diamonds following claims that mines in rich eastern Marange mines were under military control, which channelled funds to Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party, accusations the party denies.
The Hague, Netherlands
ICC Finds DR Congo Warlord Lubanga Guilty
The International Criminal Court has found Democratic Republic of Congo’s warlord Thomas Lubanga guilty of conscripting and using child soldiers during the country’s 1998-2003 civil war.
The Wednesday’s verdict becomes The Hague-based court’s first since it was set up a decade ago, and his sentencing will be passed down at a later hearing.
The three judge decision said evidence proved that Lubanga, 51, as head of the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) and its military wing Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (FPLC) bore the responsibility of enlisting child soldiers in his militia, to fight for establishment and maintain military control over Ituri, a lucrative gold-mining region in north-eastern DR Congo.
"The chamber reached its decision unanimously that the prosecution has proved Thomas Lubanga guilty of crimes of conscription and enlisting children under the age of 15 and used them to participate in hostilities," presiding Judge Adrian Fulford told the court during his 30 minute delivery of the verdict.
"The evidence demonstrated that children endured harsh training regiments and were subjected to severe punishment," judge Fulford said, noting that there was a lot of evidence relating to the rape and sexual violence against the girls that were conscripted into the army.
The prosecution also accused him of using some of the children as his bodyguards where young girls were used as domestic helps and sex slaves, charges he denies saying he was only a political leader.
Lubanga has been detained at The Hague since 2006 following arrest on ICC warrant, before trial in 2009 that has seen prosecutors call 36 witnesses, the defence 24 and three representing victims during the 204 days of hearings.