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11/03/05 - News and city sectionGeldof blasts Bush and Mugabe
By Jason Beattie Political Correspondent, Evening StandardLive Aid founder Bob Geldof today launched into a four-letter-word tirade against President George Bush - and won the backing of Tony Blair.
The rock star said Mr Blair should tell the American president that it would cost the United States "f*** all" to help relieve African poverty.
Speaking at the launch of the British-led Commission for Africa report, Geldof also attacked several African leaders, calling Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe an "ageing creep" and attacking Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni for trying to stay in office for life.
The Prime Minister then surprised his audience by backing Geldof. "Because I'm a politician in a suit I wince at the occasional word - but actually what he said is really what I think."
Unveiling the report, Mr Blair challenged the international community to free the African continent from the shackles of poverty, disease and war.
"There can be no excuse, no defence, no justification for the plight of millions of our fellow beings in Africa today. There should be nothing that stands in our way of changing it. That is the simple message from the report published today," said Mr Blair.
"In a world where prosperity is increasing and more people sharing each year in this growing wealth, it is an obscenity that should haunt our daily thoughts that four million children in Africa will die this year before their fifth birthday," he added.
The 400-page report by the 17-strong Commission called for a doubling of foreign aid to Africa to $50 billion (?26bn) a year by
2010. It also sets out plans to fight Aids, cancel debt and remove trade barriers on poor countries.
Other recommendations of the report - dubbed the Marshall Plan for Africa - include a renewed drive to clamp down on bribery and corruption; a blueprint for improving governance in some African states and a new arms treaty to regulate the flow of weapons into the continent.
But aid experts questioned the scope of the report, claiming it fell short of what was required if Africa's fortunes were to be turned round.
Even before its publication, a central plank for funding the plan - Gordon Brown's proposed International Finance Facility - has been vetoed by the US.
"This report can be a rallying call for a generation that will no longer tolerate the obscenity of extreme poverty in Africa - or it could end up gathering dust," said Adrian Lovett of Oxfam. "It's now up to world leaders to rise to the challenge, to take long-overdue action and make this a breakthrough year for Africa," he added.
Mr Blair has promised to make Africa a priority of Britain's presidency of the G8 group of nations this year. He called for a new partnership between rich nations and Africa. But the 17 members of the Commission, who include Geldof and Ethiopian prime minister Meles Zenawi, acknowledged that other high-profile efforts to rescue Africa have foundered.
Speaking at the British Museum launch, Geldof said he hoped the Commission's wish list could be transformed into action.
"It redefines the dysfunctional relationship between the developed world and Africa," he said.
But Peter Hardstaff of the World Development Movement claimed the report said nothing " particularly new, innovative or radical". "It falls well short of the radical break with the past necessary if Africa's fortunes are to be turned round. There are no recommendations on climate change, no action to deal with the collapse of commodity prices and it endorses a discredited voluntary approach to regulating multinational corporations."
Tory Alan Duncan said: "The Commission will only ever deliver results if each and all of its participant countries subscribes to a collective commitment to govern well."
Find this story at http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/17212222?version=1
�2005 Associated New Media======Geldof asks Museveni not to stand again
By Stuart Price
in London
In an impassioned speech at the launch of Tony Blair�s Commission for Africa report in London yesterday, rock star and developing world campaigner Bob Geldof (left) said President Yoweri Museveni should not stand for a third term.
The Commission for Africa was established in February 2004 to examine how best the world can help tackle Africa�s problems.
Taking the podium at the British Museum after British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Geldof applauded Museveni�s achievements but advised him against staying on at State House.
�The President of Uganda, who implemented poverty measures and AIDS measures that all worked with debt relief, is now trying to be president for life. Get a grip Museveni. Your time is up, go away,� he told the gathered international media and dignitaries.
�Africa is stagnating in poverty while the rest of the world streaks away from it. Why? Is it the stupidity and brutality of the thugs that still operate governments throughout Africa?� Geldof asked.
He praised President Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi. �Here is the President of Malawi. He�s a guy there who tried to clean up the government. Suddenly his party left him. Hullo!� he said.
After criticising Museveni, Geldof said: �Mugabe, that aging creep. Get out! Let Africa breathe. It is stirring.�
�It (Africa) has been a giant asleep in an enforced slumber, but it is stirring. There are free and fairish elections. There are 16 countries with enviable economic growth, from a low basis but getting there,� he concluded.
Geldof said the difference between this and previous reports on how to end poverty in Africa was the level of political commitment from those in power in the world�s richest countries.
But he said the key to development was ending misrule in Africa.
Geldo f also spoke of the time he spent filming in northern Uganda and Blair�s reaction to the footage he saw.
�When the Prime Minister asked me �what is that?� I explained it was (the sight of) 40,000 kids in northern Uganda being sent by their mums and dads from the villages that surround the town of Kitgum every night for 10 years to escape the thugs that will raid their village and take their children to be sex slaves and child soldiers,� he said.
�In our world,� he continued, �last night and tonight, 40,000 children will be walking up five dust roads to sleep on the rocks and rubble of a deserted town like Kitgum.�
With anger rising in his voice, Geldof declared, �how dare we let that happen?�
A personality that brushes aside bureaucracy and officialdom, Geldof proclaimed: �I don�t care what it costs. I do not want 40,000 children walking up a road every night to escape being killed.�
Highlighting the injustice between the industrialised an d developing world, Geldof continued by saying: �Let me tell you what the cost is, let me tell you how pathetic this is. Let me tell you about all the NGO arguments for Gleneagles (the venue for the G8 meeting later this year).�
�Do you know how much it costs? One half a stick of chewing gum for each citizen of the G7 countries a day; no jobs lost, no taxes raised, no farms closed, no factories closed,� he said.
�What are we doing?� Geldof asked in respect to the rest of the world neglecting the only continent to have grown poorer over the last two decades.
The Commission for Africa proposed that wealthy countries increase their aid to Africa, raising it to U$50 billion over the next 10 years. It also highlighted the need for African governments to root out corruption that exists in many quarters.
Blair said Africa was the fundamental challenge for the present generation.
�Africa can change for the better and the report shows how. There can be no excuse, no defence, no justification for the plight of millions of our fellow human beings in Africa today,� he said.
The report�s overall findings and recommendations are to cancel debt, spend more on health, especially on HIV/Aids, provide free primary school education and the creation of fairer international trade rules.
It also says the West should fund African peacekeeping activities, return the money stolen by past and present corrupt politicians and officials and end the sale of arms to conflict zones and warlords.
EndsNew Vision: Saturday, 12th March, 2005
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Minister Protests Museveni Attack
The Monitor (Kampala)
NEWS
March 13, 2005
Posted to the web March 14, 2005
By Simon Kasyate
KampalaThe government has strongly protested the demand by British rock star and debt relief campaigner Bob Geldof that President Museveni abandons his third term bid.
Sir Geldof, who has long been involved with African causes, the latest being his membership on the Commission for Africa, said at the launch of the commission's report in London on Wednesday that Museveni should "give up" his quest for another term as President.
That advice drew the indignation of Mr Semakula Kiwanuka, the minister of state for finance in charge of investments.
"Who is a rock star to tell us who becomes our next President?" said a visibly angry Kiwanuka who stormed this paper's offices in Industrial Area yesterday (Saturday) morning to protest Geldof's remarks that The Monitor carried. "Who are the British to determine who rules us here? Where were they when Amin and Obote were killing our people?"
Kiwanuka dismissed Geldof's remarks as unfortunate, uncalled for and misguided.
"The British ruled us for more than half a century and never put in place any democracy," said Kiwanuka, who holds a doctorate in history and taught the discipline at university level for many years. "What moral authority do they have to preach to us democracy? Why don't they go to Australia and tell Prime Minister [John] Howard now vying for the fifth term to step aside? Why have they not told Blair who is seeking a third term the same?"
Added Kiwanuka, the author of a history book titled From Colonialism to Independence:
"The message I am giving to all of you who are pontificating is that the future of this country is going to be determined by Ugandans, not British MPs, rock stars and the like."
Kiwanuka's attacks follow those made by Information minister Nsaba Buturo in response to 27 British MPs who recently tabled a motion in the House of Commons against the proposed removal of presidential term limits from Uganda's Constitution to allow Museveni seek yet another term.
"Nobody from outside Uganda has a mandate to tell Ugandans how they should govern themselves; any attempts to do that would be reminiscent of colonial times," Buturo said.
Both Kiwanuka and Buturo say it is the people of Uganda demanding a third term and not Museveni.
"The peace and development we are enjoying today is not because of beautiful clauses in the Constitution, checks and balances, but because of the leadership. That is why Ugandans still want Museveni around," Kiwanuka said.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who set up the commission, launched the report in London although he did not add his voice to Geldof's concerns.
His country's MPs are, however, focusing closely on political developments in Kampala. On Thursday, Mr Bill Rammell, junior foreign minister, told British MPs that there are "countries like Uganda and Zimbabwe where poor adherence to international human rights standards, and a lack of commitment to democracy, good governance and the rule of law, cause us particular concern".
Mr Chris Mullin, the UK junior foreign minister directly responsible for Africa, said at the same session: "A fair multi-party system needs to be established sufficiently in advance of the 2006 elections. We are concerned by delays in implementing the government's roadmap on transition published last July, and the short time remaining to debate such a wide-ranging and complicated Constitutional Amendment Bill. We have consistently urged the Government of Uganda to ensure that the process is constitutional, respects press freedom, the rule of law and institutions of governance, and is free from physical intimidation or manipulation.
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