The head of the Iraq Survey Group, Charles Duelfer, has reported that his investigation into the possible transfer of WMD to Syria had been wound up because of the “declining security situation”.
But, in an interview with The Independent, Mr Duelfer said that Zarqawi had claimed responsibility for the car-bomb attack on his convoy on 6 November 2004. The American who led the hunt for Iraq’s missing weapons of mass destruction has revealed that the investigation was cut short after he was targeted by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the militant leader in an attack that left two people dead. An investigation had been completed and no grounds for initiating disciplinary procedures were found; the case was closed on 14 January 2005.Mr Grinberg is known to be at the forefront of efforts to combat sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers in the Congo and is a highly respected and experienced UN peacemaker.We apologise for any distress caused to him or his family by the article.. An article on 11 January 2005 headlined “Sex and the UN: when peacemakers become predators” referred to Jaque Grinberg, the former chief of staff of Monuc. Mr Mugabe has said he will jail manufacturers whom he accuses of creating shortages to encourage people to revolt.. Mr Mugabe has also created a new ministry to look after the rural electorate.Food ran out in Zimbabwe soon after the election and the country has experienced acute power and fuel shortages over the past two weeks Basic commodities have disappeared from shops. His party lost nearly all seats in urban areas, traditional strongholds of the opposition, and won in rural areas where it had created more constituencies.
“The politicians think we have enough animals to feed people without wiping out different species We as professionals don’t think so. We are talking to them [the politicians] and we hope we will reach consensus on protecting our wildlife heritage.”Other government officials said that Mr Mugabe was so happy about his rural constituency – which ensured he achieved a majority of seats in last month’s parliamentary elections – that he wanted to do everything to please the voters. It is believed that police and army officials appropriated the meat for themselves and it never reached the intended beneficiaries.Farmers have relied on their own livestock in the past three years of famine, induced by the land seizures. Their plight has worsened since the government stopped international donors from distributing food aid in a move by Mr Mugabe to take charge of the process himself and punish those who did not support him.Parks officials say many of the peasants living close to the reserves have already been venturing inside to hunt and kill animals with snares. But they said the impact of snare hunting by the villagers was limited compared to what would happen if armed national park rangers were allowed to enter conservation areas to secure meat to feed millions of hungry farmers.”Killing of animals for any reasons other than conservation can be very disastrous,” said a parks official, speaking on condition of anonymity. A giraffe was also killed to feed peasants in the Binga area during the festivities, but the meat disappeared.
Fresh from his disputed victory in Zimbabwe’s parliamentary elections, President Robert Mugabe has turned his sights on the country’s wildlife reserves in a bid to feed thousands of malnourished villagers.
Zimbabwe’s national parks have been ordered to work with rural district councils to begin the wholesale slaughter of big game. National park rangers said they had already shot 10 elephants in the past week. It is likely, however, that the AU force will be given a stronger mandate to protect civilians who are under threat.. But the force remains small relative to its task, and its mandate is limited, preventing it from enforcing the peace. “It is a question of choosing the most appropriate organisation for the operation,” one official said.Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than two million have fled their homes during the last two years of violence in Darfur involving Arab militias, non-Arab rebels and Sudanese government forces in the province.The deployment of more than 2,000 African Union peace monitors has helped calm the situation in some areas. Some neighbours from my village were sitting next to me, I don’t know what happened to them.”A passenger on the train, K Navaratne, said: “I saw body parts strewn along the track and more bodies were stuck in the bus and people were screaming for help. The driver of the bus should be shot.”According to Sri Lankan Railways, 99 passengers were on board the bus, which almost certainly means it was overloaded.Reports from Sri Lanka suggested the bus driver was racing a bus from a rival company – which is a common practice in South Asia, where private bus companies put enormous pressure on their drivers to arrive before the competition.With no job security under south Asia’s limited labour laws, the drivers frequently take large amounts of caffeine and other stimulants to keep themselves going through punishing schedules.The Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapakse, who visited the scene, said he would recommend new measures to punish drivers who broke traffic laws.
