Kerry spells out policy on Senkaku Islands

April 15, 2013

TOKYO, April 15 (UPI) -- The United States recognizes the Senkaku Islands are under Japan's administration but doesn't take a stand on their ultimate sovereignty, its top diplomat said.

Secretary of State John Kerry, concluding his Asia visit in Japan, commented on the East China Sea islands, which have become a source of serious territorial dispute between Japan and China. Tensions over their rival claims have led to violent protests in China and adversely affected their bilateral trade. The United States remains concerned that the issue should not get out of control.

Appearing with Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida at a news conference, Kerry said in his talks he reiterated U.S. principles governing the policy on the Senkaku.

"The United States, as everybody knows, does not take a position on the ultimate sovereignty of the islands. But we do recognize that they are under the administration of Japan," Kerry said. "And we obviously want all the parties to deal with territorial issues through peaceful means."

The U.S. visitor said any action that raises tensions or leads to miscalculations would affect peace, stability and prosperity of an entire region.

"And so we oppose any unilateral or coercive action that would somehow aim at changing the status quo," Kerry said.

Kishida said while Japan-China relations are very important, he explained to Kerry that Japan cannot concede on issues of her sovereignty.

"I stated Japan is calling on China to reaffirm our mutually beneficial relationship based on common strategic interest, and I explained Japan's door is always open to dialogue," he said.

Answering a question, Kishida said there is "stable relationship" between the two major economies in the region and that both countries need to promote from a broad perspective the mutually beneficially relationship based on common strategic interests.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2013/04/15/Kerry-spells-out-policy-on-Senkaku-Islands/UPI-20751366006285/.

Ivory Coast littered with weapons

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast, April 16 (UPI) -- Ivory Coast is still flush with weapons more than two years after an end to post-election conflict, a researcher from Amnesty International said.

Laurent Gbagbo was arrested with the help of French peacekeepers in April 2011 following the political violence. Ggabgo refused to stand down as president despite international recognition that Alassane Ouattara won a contest meant to unite a country divided by war.

Gbagbo is awaiting trial at the International Criminal Court for crimes allegedly committed during the post-election violence. Rights groups say Ouattara supporters may have played a role in the crisis as well.

Human Rights Watch estimates that at least 3,000 people died in fighting from November 2010 to May 2011. Amnesty International West African researcher Salvatore Sagues told the United Nations' humanitarian news agency IRIN that Ivory Coast is littered with weapons despite an arms embargo enacted in 2004.

"Arms continued to be delivered to pro-Gbagbo forces during the 2011 post-election crisis" he said. "This shows that even a U.N. arms embargo is not enough to stop the illegal trade of weapons."

U.N. officials said they were keeping a close tab on security developments ahead of local elections scheduled Sunday in Ivory Coast.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2013/04/16/Ivory-Coast-littered-with-weapons/UPI-54811366119840/.

Chavez heir barely wins; opposition rejects count

April 15, 2013

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Hugo Chavez's hand-picked successor, Nicolas Maduro, won a razor-thin victory in Sunday's special presidential election but the opposition candidate refused to accept the result and demanded a full recount.

Maduro's stunningly close victory followed an often ugly, mudslinging campaign in which the winner promised to carry on Chavez's self-styled socialist revolution, while challenger Henrique Capriles' main message was that Chavez put this country with the world's largest oil reserves on the road to ruin.

Despite the ill feelings, both men sent their supporters home and urged them to refrain from violence. Maduro, acting president since Chavez's March 5 death, held a double-digit advantage in opinion polls just two weeks ago, but electoral officials said he got just 50.7 percent of the votes to 49.1 percent for Capriles with nearly all ballots counted.

The margin was about 234,935 votes. Turnout was 78 percent, down from just over 80 percent in the October election that Chavez won by a nearly 11-point margin over Capriles. Chavistas set off fireworks and raced through downtown Caracas blasting horns in jubilation. But analysts called the slim margin a disaster for Maduro, a former union leader and bus driver in the radical wing of Chavismo who is believed to have close ties to Cuba.

In a victory speech, he told a crowd outside the presidential palace that his victory was further proof that Chavez "continues to be invincible." But in a hint of discontent, National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello, who many consider Maduro's main rival, expressed dismay in a tweet: "The results oblige us to make a profound self-criticism. It's contradictory that the poor sectors of the population vote for their longtime exploiters."

At Capriles' campaign headquarters, people hung their heads quietly as the results were announced by an electoral council stacked with government loyalists. Many started crying; others just stared at TV screens in disbelief.

Later, Capriles emerged to angrily reject the official totals: "It is the government that has been defeated." He said his campaign came up with "a result that is different from the results announced today."

"The biggest loser today is you," Capriles said, directly addressing Maduro through the camera. "The people don't love you." Armed forces joint chief, Gen. Wilmer Barrientos, called on the military to accept the results.

A Capriles' campaign staffer told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that the candidate met with the military high command after polls closed. But campaign official Armando Briquet later denied a meeting was held.

Capriles, an athletic 40-year-old state governor, had mocked and belittled Maduro as a poor, bland imitation of Chavez. Maduro said during his victory speech that Capriles had called him before the results were announced to suggest a "pact" and that Maduro refused. Capriles' camp did not comment on Maduro's claim.

Maduro, a longtime foreign minister to Chavez, rode a wave of sympathy for the charismatic leader to victory, pinning his hopes on the immense loyalty for his boss among millions of poor beneficiaries of government largesse and the powerful state apparatus that Chavez skillfully consolidated.

Capriles' main campaign weapon was to simply emphasize "the incompetence of the state." Millions of Venezuelans were lifted out of poverty under Chavez, but many also believe his government not only squandered, but plundered, much of the $1 trillion in oil revenues during his 14-year rule.

Venezuelans are afflicted by chronic power outages, crumbling infrastructure, unfinished public works projects, double-digit inflation, food and medicine shortages, and rampant crime — one of the world's highest homicide and kidnapping rates — that the opposition said worsened after Chavez disappeared to Cuba in December for what would be his final surgery.

Analyst David Smilde at the Washington Office on Latin America think tank predicted the victory would prove pyrrhic and make Maduro extremely vulnerable. "It will make people in his coalition think that perhaps he is not the one to lead the revolution forward," Smilde said.

"This is a result in which the 'official winner' appears as the biggest loser," said Amherst College political scientist Javier Corrales. "The 'official loser' — the opposition — emerges even stronger than it did six months ago. These are very delicate situations in any political system, especially when there is so much mistrust of institutions."

Many across the nation put little stock in Maduro's claims that sabotage by the far right was to blame for worsening power outages and food shortages in the weeks before the vote. "We can't continue to believe in messiahs," said Jose Romero, a 48-year-old industrial engineer who voted for Capriles in the central city of Valencia. "This country has learned a lot and today we know that one person can't fix everything."

In a Chavista stronghold in Petare outside Caracas, Maria Velasquez, 48, who works in a government soup kitchen that feeds 200 people, said she voted for Chavez's man "because that is what my comandante ordered."

Reynaldo Ramos, a 60-year-old construction worker, said he "voted for Chavez" before correcting himself and saying he chose Maduro. But he could not seem to get his beloved leader out of his mind. "We must always vote for Chavez because he always does what's best for the people and we're going to continue on this path," Ramos said. He said the government had helped him get work on the subway system and helps pay his grandchildren's school costs.

The governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela deployed a well-worn get-out-the-vote machine spearheaded by loyal state employees. It also enjoyed the backing of state media as part of its near-monopoly on institutional power.

Capriles' camp said Chavista loyalists in the judiciary put them at glaring disadvantage by slapping the campaign and broadcast media with fines and prosecutions that they called unwarranted. Only one opposition TV station remains and it was being sold to a new owner Monday.

At rallies, Capriles would read out a list of unfinished road, bridge and rail projects. Then he asked people what goods were scarce on store shelves. Capriles showed Maduro none of the respect he earlier accorded Chavez.

Maduro hit back hard, at one point calling Capriles' backers "heirs of Hitler." It was an odd accusation considering that Capriles is the grandson of Holocaust survivors from Poland. The opposition contended Chavez looted the treasury last year to buy his re-election with government handouts. It also complained about the steady flow of cut-rate oil to Cuba, which Capriles said would end if he won.

Venezuela's $30 billion fiscal deficit is equal to about 10 percent of the country's gross domestic product. Maduro focused his campaign message on his mentor: "I am Chavez. We are all Chavez." And he promised to expand anti-poverty programs.

He will face no end of hard choices for which Corrales, of Amherst, said he has shown no skills for tackling. Maduro has "a penchant for blaming everything on his 'adversaries' — capitalism, imperialism, the bourgeoisie, the oligarchs — so it is hard to figure how exactly he would address any policy challenge other than taking a tough line against his adversaries."

Many factories operate at half capacity because strict currency controls make it hard for them to pay for imported parts and materials. Business leaders say some companies verge on bankruptcy because they cannot extend lines of credit with foreign suppliers.

Chavez imposed currency controls a decade ago trying to stem capital flight as his government expropriated large land parcels and dozens of businesses. Now, dollars sell on the black market at three times the official exchange rate and Maduro has had to devalue Venezuela's currency, the bolivar, twice this year.

Meanwhile, consumers grumble that stores are short of milk, butter, corn flour and other staples. The government blames hoarding, while the opposition points at the price controls imposed by Chavez in an attempt to bring down double-digit inflation.

Associated Press writers Fabiola Sanchez, Jorge Rueda, E. Eduardo Castillo and Christopher Toothaker in Caracas and Vivian Sequera in Valencia contributed to this report.

Venezuelans vote on future of "Chavista" socialism

By Daniel Wallis and Todd Benson
Sun Apr 14, 2013

(Reuters) - Venezuelans went to the polls on Sunday to vote whether to honor Hugo Chavez's dying wish for a longtime loyalist to continue his self-proclaimed socialist revolution or hand power to a young challenger vowing business-friendly changes.

Acting President Nicolas Maduro had a double-digit lead over opposition challenger Henrique Capriles in most polls heading into election day, buoyed by Chavez's public blessing before he died from cancer last month. But the gap narrowed in recent days, with one survey putting it at 7 percentage points.

Maduro supporters mobilized voters in the rough barrios of Caracas, where Chavez is revered as a hero of the poor, sounding pre-dawn bugle calls to rouse citizens to get out to vote. Lines formed under blistering sunshine at some voting centers, but many were notably shorter than they were at last October's election, when an ailing Chavez trounced Capriles.

Political strategists said that could mean there will be a surge in voting late in the day, or a smaller turnout than last year. Then, a record 80 percent of registered voters cast ballots following an aggressive get-out-the-vote campaign by the Chavista camp.

"We're going to elect Maduro president because he's following the path set by Chavez," Morelia Roa, a 58-year-old nurse, said after casting her ballot in the same working class Caracas district where Maduro voted.

Maduro, a 50-year-old former bus driver, has promised to deepen Chavez's "21st century socialism" if he triumphs. Capriles, an athletic 40-year-old who has generated widespread enthusiasm among the opposition, wants to take Venezuela down a more centrist path.

Whoever wins will inherit control of the world's biggest oil reserves in an OPEC nation, where stark political polarization is one of Chavez's many legacies. Also at stake is the generous economic aid Chavez showered on left-leaning Latin American governments from Cuba to Bolivia.

Following opposition complaints that some people were illegally helping elderly voters cast their ballots, Capriles urged his followers to report any violations of election laws. But he also stressed he would respect the outcome of the vote, whatever it might be.

"Today, all Venezuelans are reporters. If you see something irregular, take a picture, air it on social media," Capriles said after voting. "But let there be no doubt, we will respect the will of the people."

Electoral authorities said voting was going smoothly and that there was no evidence of irregularities. Given the deep mutual mistrust on both sides, some worry that a close or contested result could spark unrest.

Some 170 international observers were on hand, many from left-leaning political parties across Latin America. Polls are due to close at 6 p.m. (6:30 p.m. ET/2230 GMT), though voting could run longer if there are still lines.

Sunday's vote is the first presidential election in two decades without Chavez on the ballot. In many ways, though, it is all about the late president, who was viewed by the poor as a messiah for giving them a political voice and for funneling billions of dollars of oil revenue into social programs.

Maduro campaigned as a loyal disciple of Chavez, repeatedly calling himself an "apostle" and "son" of the late president. Chavez gave Maduro a huge boost by publicly endorsing him in his final speech in December before heading to Cuba for his last cancer operation.

True to form, Maduro dedicated his vote on Sunday to his political mentor.

"The last 21 years of my life have revolved around the dreams of a man, of a giant," an emotional Maduro said. "I never thought I'd be here. But here I am ... And I'm going to be president of the republic for the next six years."

POST-CHAVEZ CHALLENGES

If Maduro wins, he will immediately face big challenges as he tries to stamp his authority on a disparate ruling coalition while lacking his mentor's charisma, or the healthy state finances that Chavez enjoyed in last year's race.

It is hard to predict how he might do things his own way. Like many senior officials, Maduro was passionately loyal to Chavez and never voiced a different opinion in public.

Supporters say he could use his background as a union negotiator-turned-diplomat to build bridges, perhaps even with the United States after tensions during Chavez's 14-year rule.

But there was little sign of his softer side on the campaign trail. Maduro's rhetoric veered from outraged - alleging opposition plots to kill him using mercenaries - to light-hearted, such as poking fun at his often-cited tale of how he was visited by Chavez's spirit in the form of a bird.

More often he sounded indignant, accusing the "far right" of plotting a repeat of a short-lived coup against Chavez a decade ago if the opposition loses Sunday's vote.

Capriles will have an even tougher time if he pulls off an upset. One of the biggest challenges will be to win over suspicious supporters of Chavez and Maduro. Both repeatedly derided the opposition candidate as nothing more than a pampered rich kid, a traitor, and a puppet of "U.S. imperialism."

In last year's campaign, Capriles carefully avoided disparaging Chavez, in a bid to woo the poor. He has not afforded Maduro the same respect, denouncing him and his "coterie" as phony socialists who have enriched themselves while paying only lip service to Chavez's deeply held ideology.

Capriles touts a Brazilian-style model that mixes pro-business policies with heavy state spending on the poor, a recipe that made Brazil one of the world's hottest emerging economies in the past decade.

The opposition hopes bubbling discontent over daily problems such as rampant crime, high inflation, chronic power outages and occasional shortages of food staples and medicines will tip the vote in favor of Capriles.

"Capriles is our only hope. He's the best leader the opposition has had and could be a great president," Alberto Gomez, a 55-year-old bakery owner, said after voting in an upscale district of Caracas.

"The country is a mess," he added. "It's time to forget Chavez and create a new Venezuela outside of his shadow."

(Additional reporting by Deisy Buitrago and Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Kieran Murray, Jackie Frank and David Brunnstrom)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/14/us-venezuela-election-idUSBRE93C0B120130414.

Chavez's legacy gains religious glow in Venezuela

March 30, 2013

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Holding a Bible in her arms at the start of Holy Week, seamstress Maria Munoz waited patiently to visit the tomb of the man she considers another savior of humanity.

The 64-year-old said she had already turned her humble one-bedroom house into a shrine devoted to the late President Hugo Chavez, complete with busts, photos and coffee mugs bearing his image. Now, she said, her brother-in-law was looking for a larger house to display six boxes' worth of Chavez relics that her family has collected throughout his political career.

"He saved us from so many politicians who came before him," Munoz said as tears welled in her eyes. "He saved us from everything." Chavez's die-hard followers considered him a living legend on a par with independence-era hero Simon Bolivar well before his March 5 death from cancer. In the mere three weeks since, however, Chavez has ascended to divine status in this deeply Catholic country as the government and Chavistas build a religious mythology around him ahead of April 14 elections to pick a new leader.

Chavez's hand-picked successor, Nicolas Maduro, has led the way, repeatedly calling the late president "the redeemer Christ of the Americas" and describing Chavistas, including himself, as "apostles."

Maduro went even further after Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio became Pope Francis earlier this month. Maduro said Chavez had advised Jesus Christ in heaven that it was time for a South American pope.

That comes as Maduro's government loops ads on state TV comparing Chavez to sainted heroes such as Bolivar and puts up countless banners around the capital emblazoned with Chavez's image and the message "From his hands sprouts the rain of life."

"President Chavez is in heaven," Maduro told a March 16 rally in the poor Caracas neighborhood of Catia. "I don't have any doubt that if any man who walked this earth did what was needed so that Christ the redeemer would give him a seat at his side, it was our redeemer liberator of the 21st century, the comandante Hugo Chavez."

Chavistas such as Munoz have filled Venezuela with murals, posters and other artwork showing Chavez in holy poses surrounded by crosses, rosary beads and other religious symbolism. One poster on sale in downtown Caracas depicts Chavez holding a shining gold cross in his hands beside a quote from the Book of Joshua: "Comrade, be not afraid. Neither be dismayed, for I Will be with you each instant." The original scripture says "Lord thy God," and not "I," will accompany humanity each instant.

The late leader had encouraged such treatment as he built an elaborate cult of personality and mythologized his own rise to power, said Carolina Acosta-Alzuru, a University of Georgia media studies scholar who hails from Venezuela.

She said Chavez's successors are clearly hoping that pumping up that mythology can boost Maduro's presidential campaign, which has been based almost entirely on promises to continue Chavez's legacy. The opposition candidate, Gov. Henrique Capriles, counters that Maduro isn't Chavez, and highlights the problems that Chavez left behind such as soaring crime and inflation.

"They're fast-tracking the mythification," Acosta-Alzuru said of the government. "Sometimes I feel that Venezuelan politics has become a big church. Sometimes I feel it has become a big mausoleum." Teacher Geraldine Escalona said she believed Chavez had served a divine purpose during his 58 years on earth, including launching free housing and education programs and pushing the cause of Latin American unity.

"God used him for this, for unifying our country and Latin America," the 22-year-old said. "I saw him as a kind of God." Such rhetoric has upset some religious leaders and drawn the reproach of Venezuela's top Roman Catholic official, Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino, on the eve of the Easter holidays.

"One can't equate any hero or human leader or authority with Jesus Christ," Urosa warned. "We can't equate the supernatural and religious sphere with the natural, earthly and sociopolitical." Chavez, in his days, crossed paths frequently with Venezuela's church, which sometimes accused the socialist leader of becoming increasingly authoritarian. Chavez described Christ as a socialist, and he strongly criticized Cardinal Urosa, saying he misled the Vatican with warnings that Venezuela was drifting toward dictatorship.

Emerging this week from a church on the outskirts of Caracas, Lizbeth Colmenares slammed politicians from both sides for using derogatory language in the campaign, particularly during Holy Week. "They are not following the words of Christ," said Colmenares, a 67-year old retiree who was holding palm fronds woven into the shape of the Holy Cross. "They should be more humble and they shouldn't be attacking each other that way."

Of course, politics and religion have long mixed in Latin America, starting with the Spanish conquest of the New World, which Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes famously said was carried out "between sword and cross."

In the 20th century, Argentine first lady Eva Peron helped start a leftist Latin American pantheon after her untimely death in 1952. She's since become a veritable saint for millions in her homeland, with pictures of her angelic face still commonly displayed in homes and government offices. Like Chavez, Peron was worshiped as a protector of the poor as well as a political fighter.

Chavez tied his own legacy to Bolivar, incessantly invoking his name and delivering hundreds of speeches with Bolivar's stern portrait looming over his shoulder. Chavez renamed the whole country "The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela" and ordered a giant mausoleum built to house Bolivar's bones.

A short animated spot shown repeatedly on state TV this month makes clear that Chavez has already become a political saint for millions. It shows Chavez, after death, walking the western Venezuelan plains of his childhood before coming across Peron, Bolivar, the martyred Chilean President Salvador Allende and Argentine revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, among others.

"We know that in Argentina we have a Peronism that is very much alive," said Acosta-Alzuru. "And there are other examples in Latin America where a leader, a caudillo, tries to be everything for the country. What Maduro and Chavez's followers are doing is trying to keep Chavez alive."

Some Chavez supporters waiting to visit his tomb on a hill overlooking Caracas said their comandante is with them in spirit — and for that reason they planned to vote for Maduro, confident that Chavez was guiding his hand.

Reaching the marble tomb means first walking through an exhibit celebrating Chavez's life and military career, with photos and text exalting a seemingly inevitable rise to immortality. "He's still alive," said 52-year-old nurse Gisela Averdano. "He hasn't died. For me, he will always continue."

AP writers James Anderson and Christopher Toothaker contributed to this report.

US deploys destroyer off tense Korean peninsula

Seoul (AFP)
April 2, 2013

The United States has placed a destroyer off the South Korean coast to defend against a possible missile strike, the latest in a series of publicized US deployments to counter North Korean threats.

The USS Fitzgerald was moved to the southwestern coast after taking part in annual military exercises, instead of returning to its home port in Japan, a US defense official told AFP Monday on condition of anonymity.

The deployment came hours after a gathering of North Korea's rubber-stamp parliament adopted a law formalizing the country's status as a nuclear weapons state.

The Korean peninsula has been caught in a cycle of escalating tensions since the North launched a long-range rocket in December and followed it with a nuclear test in February.

Subsequent UN sanctions and annual South Korea-US military exercises have been used by Pyongyang to justify a wave of increasingly dire threats against Seoul and Washington, including warnings of missile strikes and nuclear war.

In this light, the shifting of the USS Fitzgerald was "a prudent move", the US defense official said, adding that it would offer "greater missile defense options should that become necessary".

Earlier on Monday, the US military announced it had deployed F-22 Raptor stealth fighters to South Korea as part of the ongoing annual "Foal Eagle" joint military exercise.

Pentagon spokesman George Little said the F-22s were an "important display" of US commitment to its military alliance with the South.

"The North Koreans have a choice. They can continue to engage in provocations, with bellicose, overheated, irresponsible rhetoric, or they can choose the path of peace," Little told reporters.

North Korea has already threatened to strike the US mainland and US bases in the Pacific in response to the participation of nuclear-capable US B-52 and B-2 stealth bombers in the "Foal Eagle" drill.

But the tough talk has yet to be matched by action on the ground, according to US intelligence.

"Despite the harsh rhetoric we're hearing from Pyongyang, we are not seeing changes to the North Korean military posture, such as large-scale mobilizations and positioning of forces," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

Meanwhile, South Korea's new president, Park Geun-Hye, told senior military officials that any provocation from the North should be met with a "strong and immediate" military response, no matter what the political fallout.

The assertive US and South Korean stances suggest the two allies are working in close concert, and South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-Se was in Washington for talks Tuesday with new US Secretary of State John Kerry.

The "continuing military threats from the North" will top the agenda, Yun's ministry said in a statement.

The high-stakes standoff on the Korean peninsula has triggered widespread international concern of an accidental conflict that could escalate rapidly.

Some analysts, however, note that the most recent round of North Korean threats, while still extremely belligerent, have emphasized that Pyongyang would only act in response to a military attack from the US or South Korea.

Given that the prospects of such a pre-emptive attack are almost zero, this provides North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un with a face-saving exit, suggested Stephen Haggard, a North Korea expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.

Kim can argue that all the threats and military inspections "have in fact been successful at deterring an attack, even though it was not coming in any case", Haggard said.

"So the regime can now claim success and step back," he added.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/US_deploys_destroyer_off_tense_Korean_peninsula_999.html.

Brazil to buy 34 Gepard tanks from Germany

Rio De Janeiro (AFP)
April 11, 2013

Brazil will buy 34 1A2 Gepard anti-aircraft tanks from Germany to provide security at World Youth Day and major sporting events, officials said Thursday.

The tanks are likely to be used when Brazil hosts the World Cup next year and the 2016 Olympic Games. A Defense Ministry statement said the contract would be signed in the coming days with the total value still under negotiation.

The used, 47.5-tonne tanks, which were upgraded in 2010 and fitted with new radar systems, will be able to operate until 2030, the G1 news website quoted anti-aircraft artillery brigade chief General Marcio Roland Heise as saying.

Eight of the armored vehicles are to be delivered before June and will be used during World Youth Day, the Catholic youth fest that Pope Francis plans to attend in Rio in July.

"I want all troops to be ready and trained to use this new (anti-aircraft) system at the opening and closing of the Confederations Cup and during the pope's visit to protect those who will be in stadiums," Heise said.

The other tanks are to be delivered by 2015.

Rio is hosting Latin America's biggest defense trade fair this week.

South Africa's privately-owned Paramount Group, which is attending the LAAD Defense and Security expo, signed a contract with Rio de Janeiro state for the sale of eight police armored vehicles that will be delivered by December.

The vehicles will also be used to protect the World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Brazil_to_buy_34_Gepard_tanks_from_Germany_999.html.

C. African Republic president flees to Cameroon

March 26, 2013

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The president of the Central African Republic fled the country for Cameroon after rebels overran the capital of the impoverished nation long wracked by rebellions.

South Africa said Monday that 13 of its soldiers were killed in fighting with rebels, prompting criticism about why its forces had intervened in such a volatile conflict. Ousted President Francois Bozize sought "'temporary" refuge on its territory, the Cameroonian government confirmed Monday.

Central African Republic's new leadership appeared fragmented, with a split emerging in the rebel coalition that seized the capital. The African Union on Monday imposed a travel ban and asset freeze on seven leaders of the rebel coalition, known as Seleka, and said their advance had undermined prospects for a lasting solution to the crisis in the landlocked country. It urged African states to deny "any sanctuary and cooperation" to the rebel chiefs.

The United States is "deeply concerned about a serious deterioration in the security situation" in Central African Republic, said U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement Sunday.

"We urgently call on the Seleka leadership which has taken control of Bangui to establish law and order in the city and to restore basic services of electricity and water," the statement said. The U.N. Security Council said in a statement that it "strongly condemned the recent attacks and the seizure of power by force in the Central African Republic" and "the ensuing violence and looting." It also denounced the violence that led to the South African casualties.

The Security Council "called on all parties to refrain from any acts of violence against civilians, including foreign communities." The rebel groups making up the Seleka alliance agreed they wanted Bozize out. Some of the rebels complained of broken promises of government jobs and other benefits. Others cited the deep impoverishment of the country's distant north despite the Central African Republic's considerable wealth of gold, diamonds, timber and uranium.

Africa has a fraught history of foreign military missions, whether for humanitarian or political purposes, or some combination of the two, in times of conflict. The central part of the continent, repeatedly buffeted by interlocking rebellions, is particularly treacherous for countries with an activist foreign policy.

In addition to the South African troop deaths, another 27 soldiers were wounded in the country's worst loss in combat since nine soldiers died in Lesotho in 1998. "I think South Africa realized right from the beginning that there will be casualties," said Johan Potgieter, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, in Pretoria, the South African capital. "If you want to be in peacekeeping, and you don't want body bags, you should get out of there."

South Africa's losses point to the challenges that the country faces as it tries to project continental leadership amid questions about the adequacy of its resources and the clarity of political direction from Pretoria. It has participated in peacekeeping in regions including Burundi and Darfur in Sudan.

South African troops served as trainers for the national army in the Central African Republic. But more troops were sent to protect those trainers as security deteriorated, and critics questioned the collaboration with Bozize, who came to power in a rebellion a decade ago and whose commitment to the terms of past peace deals was in doubt.

This week was meant to be triumphant for South Africa, which will host Brazil, Russia, India and China at the "BRICS" summit. South African President Jacob Zuma gave a speech on Monday that was supposed to celebrate the summit, but he devoted his first remarks to mourning for those killed in the battle in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic.

Some 200 South African soldiers were deployed at the Bangui base. Estimates of the size of the rebel force that attacked them ranged from at least five to 15 times bigger, raising questions about the security precautions and reconnaissance abilities of the South African contingent.

South African troops "fought a high-tempo battle for nine hours defending the South African military base, until the bandits raised a white flag and asked for a cease-fire," Zuma said. "Our soldiers inflicted heavy casualties among the attacking bandit forces."

Gen. Solly Shoke, South Africa's military chief, said 3,000 rebels armed with mortars and heavy machine guns took part in the fighting. The bulk of the fighting occurred Saturday, though rebels contacted South African forces early Sunday to arrange and "uneasy truce," the military chief said.

South African authorities were working to identify a body, raising the possibility that the death toll would increase to 14 if it is determined the body is that of the missing serviceman. The rebels' invasion of the capital came two months after they signed a peace agreement that would have let Bozize serve until 2016. That deal unraveled in recent days, prompting the insurgents' advance into Bangui, where French troops moved to secure the airport.

Defense analyst Helmoed Heitman said on South Africa's Radio 702 that the South African force in the Central African Republic was lightly equipped and had no aerial support. In the past, he said, South Africa turned down a deal for military transport helicopters because it could not afford them.

The Democratic Alliance, an opposition party in South Africa, said the government should explain why South African forces were deployed "in the middle of what amounted to a civil war, with so little military support."

The government of Cameroon said Bozize would be leaving for another unspecified country. There were reports of looting in Bangui amid the specter of continuing unrest. Michel Djotodia, one of the leaders of the rebel coalition, said he considers himself to be the new head of state. Another rebel leader, Nelson N'Djadder, said he does not recognize Djotodia as president.

"We had agreed that we would push to Bangui in order to arrest Bozize and that we would then announce an 18-month transition, a transition that would be as fast as possible — and not one that would last three years," N'Djadder told The Associated Press by telephone from Paris. "I have enough soldiers loyal to me to attack Djotodia. I am planning to take the Wednesday flight to Bangui."

N'Djadder said rebels —not those under his command — had pillaged homes in Bangui, including those of French expatriates. The U.S. State Department said it was concerned about the security situation and urged the Seleka leadership to establish order and restore electricity and water.

The rebel success in the nation of 4.5 million suggests the possible backing of neighboring nations. There has been speculation that either Chad or Sudan or Gabon had provided the rebels with arms and logistical support. Djotodia rejected that claim.

The overthrow of Bozize could affect the hunt for Joseph Kony, said the commander of African troops tracking the fugitive warlord. Bozize was a strong supporter of African efforts to dismantle Kony's Lord's Resistance Army.

Ugandan Brig. Dick Olum, speaking from his South Sudanese military base in Nzara, said Monday he is concerned by past rebel statements that all foreign troops must leave the country. Some 3,350 African troops are currently deployed against the LRA in South Sudan and the Central African Republic. The U.S. also has anti-Kony military advisers in the Central African Republic.

Central African Republic has suffered instability since obtaining independence from France in 1960, including at least three coup plots in 2012, according to a December analysis by Alex Vines of the London-based Royal Institute for International Affairs. He said the European Union had spent more than 100 million euros on peace missions there since 2004.

Callimachi contributed to this report from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press writers Krista Larson in Dakar, Emmanuel Tumanjong in Yaounde, Cameroon and Rodney Muhumuza in Kampala, Uganda also contributed.

Pentagon requests more funding for Israel's 'Iron Dome'

Washington (AFP)
April 16, 2013

The Pentagon has requested $220.3 million in 2014 to bolster Israel's "Iron Dome" missile defense system despite broader cuts to US military spending, according to budget documents.

The US Missile Defense Agency also is asking for an additional $175.9 million in fiscal year 2015 for Israel's homegrown missile defense network, according to the agency's budget proposal posted online.

The Pentagon already invested $204 million on the system in 2011 and $70 million in 2012.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel promised in talks in March with his Israeli counterpart, Ehud Barak, who has since retired, that Washington would continue to fund anti-missile weaponry, including Iron Dome, despite fiscal pressures.

The budget details emerged before Hagel's planned visit to Israel next week, his first as defense secretary.

The Republican majority in the House of Representatives in May 2012 called for additional funding of roughly $680 million for the Iron Dome program.

US military assistance to Israel comes to about three billion dollars a year to ensure the country's "qualitative military edge" in the region, as mandated by Congress.

For its part, Israel has spent a billion dollars on the development and production of Iron Dome batteries.

Israeli officials say the Iron Dome program proved a success in battle last year.

In eight days of fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants in November, the Israeli military said it brought down 421 of 1,354 rockets fired from the Gaza Strip.

Of those which landed, 58 hit urban areas while the rest fell in open fields, causing no damage.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Pentagon_requests_more_funding_for_Israels_Iron_Dome_999.html.