Diplomatic Briefing
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Newsline: U.S. Embassy intervenes to free VOA Correspondent in Ethiopia
Voice of America correspondent Peter Heinlein and his translator were released from police custody in Ethiopia, officials said. Heinlein and his translator Simegineh Yekoye were arrested on the outskirts of Addis Ababa upon leaving a local mosque where they had been filming. VOA said Saturday Heinlein and Simegineh were released and all charges were dropped after an official from the U.S. Embassy’s consular section appeared at the prison Saturday morning. VOA and the Committee to Protect Journalists expressed their relief in a statement Saturday, condemning the “restriction imposed by the Ethiopian government on foreign journalists.” VOA quoted Heinlein as saying he believed his arrest was linked to his reporting on a dispute between Ethiopia’s Muslim minority and the government over the leadership of the nation’s Muslim community.
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2012/05/26/VOA-Correspondent-freed/UPI-30121338056520/?spt=hs&or=tn
Newsline: Libyan PM lays wreath at London embassy siege site
Libya’s prime minister placed a wreath at the spot where a London policewoman was killed by gunfire from the Libyan Embassy in 1984. Abdurrahim el-Keib, who placed the wreath of white roses and carnations, has pledged that his country would work closely with the British government in a renewed investigation of the killing. A team of London detectives will be going to Libya to continue their investigation. Policewoman Yvonne Fletcher, 25, was policing a demonstration against Libya’s then-ruler Col. Moammar Gadhafi when an unidentified person sprayed the crowd with bullets, killing her and wounding 10 Libyan demonstrators. No one has ever been charged for the shootings. The incident poisoned relations between Britain and the North African state, leading to an 11-day siege of the embassy and a break in diplomatic relations between London and Tripoli. Fletcher’s killer has yet to be brought to justice, and the fall of Gadhafi’s government after last year’s uprising has reawakened interest in her case.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/05/25/libyan-pm-lays-wreath-at-london-embassy-siege-site/
Newsline: U.S. Dismisses Money Laundering Allegations Against Nigerian Embassy
The controversy generated by the fraud allegation that was recently made against the leadership of the Nigerian Embassy in Washington DC and the Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York by an Online Journal (Not Leadership) may have come to an end just as the Department of States on Wednesday night absolved the Missions of any complicity. One of the Spokespersons of the US Department of States who reacted to the report during an chat with LEADERSHIP, said that the United States government did not order any bank to close down the accounts of both the Nigerian Embassy and the Permanent Mission in New York. The source who preferred anonymity also told our Correspondent that no allegation of fraudulent activities against the leaderships of both Nigerian Missions had been brought to the knowledge of the government of her country. She further said that the United States government has not received any information that the Ambassadors Adebowale Adefuye and Joy Ogwu-led administrations at both the Embassy in Washington DC and Permanent Mission in New York were involved in laundering money into the country on behalf of some State Governors and top government functionaries as reported by the Online Journal. The United States official did not tell LEADERSHIP if the Permanent Mission in New York had ever operated or still operates bank accounts with Wells Fargo and Bank of America but, she confirmed that no bank account belonging to both Missions was closed down. It would be recalled that an Online Journal recently reported that the United States government had forced two of the country’s leading banks to close the accounts of the Nigerian Embassy in Washington DC and the Nigerian Mission in New York over alleged shady money transfer involving state governors and public officers.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201205250084.html
Newsline: Chinese embassy helps to release nationals detained in Nigeria
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei has confirmed that around 70 Chinese citizens who were arrested by Nigeria’s immigration authorities, have been released. On Tuesday, nearly 100 Chinese nationals were detained in Nigeria, accused of living and working illegally in the country. The Chinese embassy has met with officials from Nigeria’s foreign ministry and its immigration department, to lodge a representation. China urges Nigerian authorities to make sure of the safety of detained Chinese nationals and ensure their humane treatment. Hong Lei, Spokesperson of Chinese Foreign Ministry, said, “The Chinese Embassy in Nigeria and General Consulate in Lagos have paid great attention to the incident and made prompt inquiries concerning the case. For those Chinese who have been confirmed to have stayed and worked illegally and are facing repatriation, the Chinese embassy will continue to offer consular assistance for their legal rights and safety.”
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/video/2012-05/25/c_131610748.htm
Newsline: Nigerian Embassy in US Denies Laundering Allegation
The Nigerian Ambassador to the United States, Prof. Adebowale Adefuye, has refuted media reports that the leadership of the Embassy in Washington DC was using its bank accounts to launder huge amounts of money for some state governors and government officials. The ambassador also confirmed that both the Nigerian Embassy in Washington DC and Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York did not operate any bank accounts with Wells Fargo and Bank of America as stated in the report which he called a ‘wicked bid’ to undermine the reputation of the embassy.
http://leadership.ng/nga/articles/25467/2012/05/23/nigerian_embassy_us_denies_laundering_allegation.html
Newsline: Senegal embassy will be hub for Australia
A new embassy in Senegal will serve as a “hub” for Australia’s engagement with French-speaking Africa. The federal government’s 2012/13 budget includes funding for a new embassy in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, which will be Australia’s first diplomatic mission in Francophone Africa. The new post – coupled with a previously announced new mission in Chengdu, China – will cost the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) about $53 million over the next five years. A DFAT official says it will be a “small, lean mission” but will have responsibility for much of the region. “The new post in Senegal will serve as a hub for Australia’s broader diplomatic engagement in French-speaking West Africa,” the official said. Foreign Minister Bob Carr said the posting represented the growing importance of Australia’s ties to Africa. “It will provide a significant boost to Australia’s growing commercial and political interests in West Africa,” he said. Opening a mission in one of the roughly 30 French-speaking African countries was a key recommendation of a parliamentary inquiry into Australia’s ties with Africa last year. Australia’s missions in Africa are currently concentrated in eastern and southern Africa, particularly in former British colonies. The Dakar and Chengdu missions will bring the total number of Australia’s diplomatic missions to 97, still well below most other G20 nations.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news-old/senegal-embassy-will-be-hub-for-australia/story-fn3dxity-1226351043878
Newsline: Somalia, Zambia face diplomatic row
Somalia government Sunday clarified that the diplomatic row in Lusaka, leading to the temporal closure of the embassy in the country, was caused by a Somali national masquerading as an envoy. Zambian authorities closed the embassy after confusion emerged when another “diplomat” was sent in to take up the appointment without the knowledge of the one serving Shirwa Ibrahim. “It is a very embarrassing situation that we had to disclose our differences at the police station,” Mr Ibrahim, who took up office three months ago, said. According to the ambassador, the man who turned up to claim his post, only identified as Muhammed, was a resident and a member of the Somali-Zambia Friendship Association. The ambassador also accused Somalis in Zambia of frustrating his government’s operations in the country. Mr Ibrahim also blamed the Zambian government for the problems facing his embassy, claiming that some corrupt Somalis based in Lusaka have been gaining access to government departments through “bribes”. So far, Zambian government has not responded to the allegations. Currently, Somalia is run by a transitional government and has been categorised as a failed state. It has been without an effective central government since President Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991.
http://www.zambianwatchdog.com/?p=34496
Newsline: Belgium thinks Gaddafi laundered cash through embassy
Former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s family members may have used the Libyan embassy in Belgium to launder government funds before the country slid into civil war last year, a Belgian financial fraud watchdog said. “It’s more than a suspicion,” the watchdog’s president Jean-Claude Delepiere told Reuters. The Libyan treasury transferred about 1.5 million euros ($1.97 million) to its embassy in Brussels, which was then mostly withdrawn in cash, Belgium’s money-laundering watchdog said in its annual report. The Belgian Financial Intelligence Processing Unit searched the financial accounts of the embassy in Brussels at the start of 2011 after getting a tip-off from banks. The agency believes the money may have originated from Libyan organizations controlled by Gaddafi’s family. Following the start of fighting in Libya in 2011, the United Nations and its member countries located and froze about $19 billion in assets believed to have been under the control of Gaddafi or his associates, U.S. officials said at the time. In March this year, the Libyan government reclaimed a London mansion worth 10 million pounds ($16 million) from Gaddafi’s son Saadi, after a British court ruled it had been bought using stolen Libyan state funds.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-libya-gaddafi-launderingbre8430pp-20120504,0,821975.story
Newsline: UK embassy investigates arrest of Briton in Sudan
The British embassy was “urgently” investigating on Sunday the arrest in Sudan of one of its citizens, who was among four foreigners the Sudanese military said it captured in the tense Heglig oil region. “We are urgently investigating the arrest of a British national in Sudan,” an embassy spokesperson told AFP. “We immediately requested consular access”. Sudanese army spokesman, Sawarmi Khaled Saad, on Saturday identified the foreigners as a Briton, a Norwegian, a South African and a South Sudanese. “We captured them inside Sudan’s borders, in the Heglig area, and they were collecting war debris for investigation,” Saad said after the four were brought to the capital Khartoum. A colleague of one of the men said they were deminers working on the South Sudanese side of the border. The four were on a de-mining mission “and one of them was from the UN”, said Josephine Guerrero, a spokeswoman for the United Nations Mission in South Sudan. “We’re uncertain of the circumstances,” she added. In the most serious fighting since the South’s independence, Juba’s troops occupied Sudan’s main oil region of Heglig for 10 days, a move which coincided with Sudanese air strikes against the South. Sudan declared on April 20 that its troops had forced the Southern soldiers out of Heglig, but the South said it withdrew of its own accord. South Sudan broke away from Sudan in July last year after a peace deal ended one of Africa’s longest civil wars, which killed about two million people between 1983 and 2005.
http://www.emirates247.com/news/world/briton-among-four-arrested-in-sudan-embassy-2012-04-30-1.456365
Newsline: South Sudan Inaugurates Embassy in China
President Kiir on his visit to China inaugurated the South Sudan Embassy located in Beijing, China’s Capital City. The ceremony was attended by diplomats of foreign missions accredited to the People’s Republic of China. According to President Kiir, the presence of this embassy in China is a signal to a new chapter for the people and the governments of the two countries. The presence of the embassy will help to strengthen the bilateral relations between the two countries and South Sudan hopes that relations between the two countries will be for mutual benefit in trade, economy, technology, people to people contacts on business opportunities as well as tourism.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201204270892.html
