Annan welcomes election of new Somali president

UNITED NATIONS - UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Monday hailed the election of a new president in lawless Somalia, which has been without a fully functioning central government for more than a decade. Abdullahi Yusuf as the transitional president of Somalia by the transitional federal parliament,” Annan’s spokesman said in a statement. “He considers this as another important step toward the re-establishment of peace and stability in Somalia and he looks forward to the formation in the near future, of a transitional federal government capable of beginning reconciliation and reconstruction in a spirit of consensus and dialogue,” the statement said. “He urges all Somalis to be part of the effort to restore peace and security in their country,” it said. The east African country has lacked a widely recognised president and central government since the fall of dictator Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991. Numerous armed factions centred around the country’s clans have since battled for control of different fiefdoms.

At least 23 dead in Congo boat disaster: UN

KINSHASA - At least 23 people died when a large motorised canoe capsized on Lake Kivu in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo late on Sunday, the United Nations said.  “The provisional death toll is 23 ... 23 bodies have been recovered. Another 43 people have been rescued but the rescue operation is ongoing so this may rise,” said Madnodje Mounoubai, a spokesman for the UN mission in the eastern Congolese town of Bukavu. The boat was going from the town of Kalehe across Lake Kivu to Goma, a town 40 km (25 miles) away. A Kalehe resident said he believed just over 80 people were aboard the vessel, which was also laden with manioc and bananas. Lake Kivu spans the Congo-Rwanda border and ferries are a popular means of transport in a region where many roads are poor and bands of armed militias roam the remote corners of the former Zaire. Mounoubai said the bodies had been recovered at a village called Musheny-Chigera on the shores of Lake Kivu, north of Kalehe. He said the accident happened at about 11 p.m. (2100 GMT) and appeared to have been caused by a freak wave. The Kalehe resident said he had also heard that 23 bodies had been found, but added that there were unconfirmed reports that a second boat had sunk on Lake Kivu. A Rwandan ferry sank in October last year killing 13 and in March 2003 another passenger boat capsized, killing 23 of those on board. Bad weather or overloading are usually blamed for the disasters.

 

Malaysia’s Mahathir says Iraq sacrificed for democracy

SINGAPORE - Asian nations need more time to adopt democracy and were unlikely to be persuaded by what they are seeing in Iraq, former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Monday. The blunt-speaking Mahathir, who stepped down as Malaysian premier last year, described the current situation in Iraq as akin to civil war in which large numbers of people were being sacrificed so democracy could be practiced. “The state of affairs today cannot truly be said to be better than when it was not democratic,” Mahathir told an audience of around 2,000 business people, parliamentarians, students and diplomats in a speech on Asian leadership in the city-state. “Killing men, women and children, the old and the infirm is justified; starving and depriving them of medical treatment is justified because their death would bring about democracy.” Mahathir also revealed he had spoken with British Prime Minister Tony Blair before the Iraq war and advised him on alternatives. "I said look, Hafez al-Assad, the dictator of Syria, eventually died and his son is a much more reasonable man. But Blair said well Saddam Hussein is too young. He’s not going to die soon enough,” Mahathir said The man who saw off his share of political challengers during 22-years in office, suggested a number of other methods to effect political change.

ASSASSINATION

“There are various ways. Assassination is one of them,” he said to nervous laughter in the auditorium. “One way is ask a foreign friend to remove your leader, that’s the second way.” Mahathir, who was prime minister of Malaysia from 1981 and won four consecutive elections, has long believed Asia should find its own way to democracy. In his speech he argued many political systems in the region remained immature as evidenced by a large number of parties contesting election, which made it difficult to form credible governments, and the pressure exerted on individual candidates. “Bribery, thuggery, bad-mouthing, religious trickery, nepotism and numerous other unsavoury ways can bring victory to the candidates least suitable to lead a nation,” he said. Famous for dismissing the advice of the International Monetary Fund at the height of the Asian financial crisis, Mahathir also criticised current Asian leaders for being too Euro-centric. “Those who kow-tow too much to the ethnic-Europeans should not be surprised if their people will rise against them, will commit acts of terror or whatever.”