Australian PM wants blacks recognized

ROD McGUIRK, Associated Press

- Australia’s prime minister, who has won applause for apologizing to Aborigines for past wrongs, has revived plans for a constitutional revision to recognize the country’s indigenous people.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was visiting a remote Outback Aboriginal community Wednesday when he raised the issue of recognizing Aborigines in Australia’s 107-year-old constitution.

“We will … give attention to detailed, sensitive consultation with indigenous communities about the most appropriate form and timing of constitutional recognition,” Rudd told the Yolngu people in the Northern Territory.

But government opponents warned Thursday against giving Aborigines any special privileges under a revised constitution.

“The challenge … is putting something into the constitution that is meaningful without alienating large sections of the population,” opposition Liberal Party indigenous affairs spokesman Tony Abbott told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

“One thing you certainly couldn’t do is give more rights to one group of Australians than to others,” he added.

Opposition from Liberal lawmakers would almost certainly ensure that any referendum needed to include Aborigines in the constitution would fail. Referenda that lack bipartisan support almost always fail in Australia.

Australia’s constitution does not mention Aborigines. A referendum in 1999 that proposed adding a preamble to the constitution that recognized indigenous people as the first Australians sparked bitter debate about its wording and ended in defeat.

Australia was colonized in 1788, but the nation’s highest court did not recognize until 1992 that Aborigines had been the legal owners of the land when British settlers arrived.

Federal compensation has been paid to some Aborigines for loss of land while native title claims over parts of cities around Australia are still before the courts.

Rudd said Thursday he did not have a timetable for constitutional reform.

Rudd, whose Labor Party won elections in November, led Parliament in February to apologize to Aborigines for past racist policies and mistreatment.

Aborigines are a 400,000-member minority among Australia’s 21 million population. They are also the poorest, least-healthy and worst-educated ethnic group in Australia.

Zimbabwe sides agree to power-sharing talks

ANGUS SHAW, Associated Press

- Three months after the voting and violence began, Zimbabwe’s embattled President Robert Mugabe and his bitter opposition rival agreed Monday to hold talks immediately about sharing power to end the country’s political crisis.

But the rivals’ first joint appearance in a decade did not bring relief to Zimbabweans grappling with the world’s worst inflation. They lined up outside banks for Monday’s release of a new Zimbabwe $100 billion note issued by the central bank — an instant hit with collectors on eBay.

Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai signed the breakthrough deal agreeing in cautious language that they have an obligation to establish a framework of “working together in an inclusive government.”

It commits them to creating a “genuine, viable, permanent and sustainable solution” within two weeks and calls on parties to “eliminate all forms of political violence.”

The deal, following three months of state-sponsored electoral violence, was seen as a victory for the opposition and was similar in concept to the pact worked out between rivals to end ethnic and political violence in Kenya that killed more than 1,000 people earlier this year.

Tsvangirai called it “the first tentative step toward searching for a solution,” adding that “not finding a solution is not an option.”

Mugabe stressed they must “chart a new way” and act without influence from Europe or the United States — a dig at Tsvangirai, whom he calls a Western puppet.

An official from Tsvangirai’s party said the talks are to begin Thursday in South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, with representatives from both sides. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to reporters.

The agreement sets out priorities of a new government, including restoring economic stability, and calls for discussing land reform and Western sanctions targeting Mugabe and about 130 of his top aides.

It was also signed by South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki, the mediator for whom the agreement is a diplomatic coup. Mbeki had insisted that dialogue — and not punitive sanctions — was the only way to deal with Mugabe.

Zimbabwe’s leader of 28 years appeared nervous at the ceremony and shook hands with everyone except Tsvangirai after the signing. At a news conference later, he posed for journalists giving Tsvangirai a tentative handshake.

Head bowed, Mugabe stood between a beaming Tsvangirai and opposition leader Arthur Mutambara, never once looking directly at Tsvangirai during the hourlong ceremony and news conference.

For Mugabe and Tsvangirai, it was a rare meeting of two longtime foes. They last crossed paths at a 1998 Workers’ Day rally when Tsvangirai was secretary-general of Zimbabwe’s trade union federation, said George Sibotshiwe, a spokesman for Tsvangirai’s party.

Tsvangirai became leader of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change party in 1999.

In an Internet blog Monday, senior opposition official Eddie Cross predicted the agreement would bring “shock and trepidation” in ruling ZANU-PF party circles.

“It represents a full climb down by Mugabe and his cohorts made even more significant by the fact that nowhere does it mention that Mugabe is the president of Zimbabwe,” said Cross, who is in charge of policy for Tsvangirai’s party. Instead, it identifies Mugabe as president of the ZANU-PF party.

Many see a coalition — perhaps with Mugabe as president and Tsvangirai as prime minister or vice president — as the only way to lead the nation out of the impasse and begin reversing its economic collapse.

The central bank issued a $100 billion note Monday in an attempt to keep up with mind-boggling inflation officially set at 2.2 million percent, but unofficially much higher.

The note — enough to buy two loaves of bread — was immediately put up for bid on eBay, the Internet auctioneer. The seller put a reserve of $79.94 on the note, worth $5 at Zimbabwe’s official exchange rate and just $1 on the black market.

Mugabe, 84, has been in power since his country won independence in 1980. For years, he was revered for leading the seven-year bush war to oust the white-minority government ruling the former British colony.

The turnaround came when Mugabe lost a 2000 referendum that would have allowed him to appropriate white-owned farmland without compensation to resettle black peasant farmers. Whites owned two-thirds of the best agricultural land.

Mugabe accused the farmers of backing Tsvangirai and set loose so-called “war veterans” who violently invaded farms, killing some farmers.

Most of the seized land went to Mugabe’s ministers and generals and was left to lie fallow. Today Zimbabwe, once an exporter of food to the region, is dependent on food aid for a third of its population.

Mugabe last month banned aid agencies from distributing food, accusing them of helping only opposition supporters. Monday’s agreement says humanitarian agencies must be allowed to help.

In the March presidential election, Tsvangirai garnered the most votes — but not enough to win outright.

Tsvangirai pulled out of the June runoff against Mugabe, citing escalating state-sponsored violence against his supporters. His party says more than 120 of its activists have been killed by Mugabe’s police, soldiers and party militants since the March vote. Thousands have been injured and tens of thousands have had their homes torched or been forced to leave areas where opposition legislators were elected.

The United States pushed for a U.N. Security Council resolution to impose sanctions on Mugabe and his top aides for allegedly overseeing the violence and to force them to negotiate. But Russia and China delivered a rare twin veto of the resolution.

On Monday, State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos told reporters the U.S. supports negotiations that lead to expressing the Zimbabwean people’s will.

Mugabe and his ruling ZANU-PF party insist he is Zimbabwe’s elected leader, though the one-man presidential runoff is widely regarded as a sham. His party has said it is open to power-sharing — but only if Mugabe heads any unity government.

The opposition has said it is open to a “government of national healing” — but only one with moderate ruling party members, not Mugabe. An end to political violence is expected to be one condition of the agreement.

White, Non-White Criminals Treated Differently In Canada

Vittorio Hernandez, AHN News

- Canadian police treat criminals differently, depending on their skin color, according to an analysis of criminal histories of 3 million people.

According to a Toronto Star analysis, based on data from the Canadian Police Information Center database, non-whites had a 53 percent chance of not being convicted. An Ontario judge interviewed by the Star explained that most non-whites spent more time under pre-trial custody and that laxity on them is a reward.

The study also said blacks accused of crimes were more likely to plead not guilty.

University of Windsor law professor David Tanovich indicated the higher rates of dropping of charges against non-whites could be because the courts felt some of the cases were results of racial profiling, rather than real results of criminal investigation.

The study also concluded that 32.5 percent of non-white suspects were asked to provide DNA samples, even if they comprised only 16.7 percent of those who had criminal records.

Differences in how offenders were treated were reflected in the criminal files of non-whites, which were more likely to have a notation on their record.

Although the report said crimes decreased in Canada, the country’s $13 billion annual bill for policing, courts and penitentiary maintenance are expected to increase. Experts attribute this to mandatory minimum sentences, which sent prison costs jumping to $49 billion a year from only $1.8 billion the previous year.

Authorities Deny Banning Blacks And Mongolians From Beijing Bars During Olympics

Amy Beeman, AHN

- Reports have surfaced that the Chinese Government is forcing bar owners to ban blacks and Mongolians from their bars during the Olympic games next month.

The pledges are said to be secret, but The South China Daily reported that some bar owners, especially those in Sanlitun, an area known for its nightlife, said they were forced by Public Security Bureau officials to sign pledges agreeing not to allow black people into their bars. Mongolians are also reportedly banned.

Some police and bar owners deny this ban is in place, but some Africans reported being charged double what other’s pay as entry fees, and others recently told the World Net Daily that they were forced to show their passports prior to being allowed into a bar. No one else had to show such identification. The South China Daily quoted one bar owner as saying police came to him and made him agree, “not to serve black people or Mongolians.”

It is reported that Chinese officials regard blacks and Mongolians as largely responsible for drug dealing and other criminal activity, and this ban is another measure to control what the rest of the world sees when all eyes are on Beijing for 17 days during the summer games.

On the Chinese website Danwei it was written that these bans are highly unlikely, however, unless they were done by low-level police officers.

South Africa celebrates Mandela on his 90th

CELEAN JACOBSON, Associated Press

- Some came in exquisitely beaded traditional skins, others wore T-shirts emblazoned with his name, and Nelson Mandela welcomed all to the festive tent outside his home Saturday for the formal celebration of the anti-apartheid icon’s 90th birthday.

Hundreds of guests stood and cheered and a Xhosa choir sang “Here is our hope!” at the entrance of Mandela — walking in with his successor as South Africa’s president, Thabo Mbeki, and African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma. Mandela, wearing an intricately patterned shirt in shades of brown, stopped to personally greet a few of the 500 honored guests as he made his way to the head table.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner icon had celebrated privately with his family in his home village in the country’s rural southeast on Friday, the day he turned 90. Saturday was a grand occasion at his homestead in Qunu, 600 miles south of Johannesburg where as a boy he herded cattle in the hills.

The party tent was decorated with the blue and orange colors of Mandela’s Xhosa tribe and with his clan’s crest — a bee flanked by tree branches, symbolizing industry, community and strength.

George Bizos was among the fellow veterans of the struggle to transform South Africa from a white supremacist pariah nation into a multiracial democracy who came to the party Saturday. He identified Mandela’s optimism as his most “sterling quality.

“He always believed that there would be freedom around the corner,” said Bizos, a lawyer who defended Mandela and other anti-apartheid leaders during the era of white rule.

Tributes from Mbeki and others and performances by choirs and dancers were planned under the tent. As the party started, herd boys beat drums outside, while an orchestra played inside.

“Clearly, today is a very special day for all of us in South Africa and around the world,” said Mac Maharaj, who served time with Mandela on Robben Island, and then served in Mandela’s Cabinet.

Mandela was imprisoned for nearly three decades for his fight against apartheid. He was released in 1990 to lead negotiations that ended decades of racist white rule, then was elected president in South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994.

He completed his term in 1999 and did not run again, but has continued to take a leading role in the fight against poverty, illiteracy and AIDS in Africa. Age has slowed him in recent years, but many still remain in awe of his stamina. Just last month he was the honored guest for a huge charity concert in London’s Hyde Park.

“For a man of 90, he’s in very good shape,” one of his doctors, Peter Friedland, said at the party Saturday.

He looked and sounded vigorous Friday when he gave a brief interview to a small group of reporters from The Associated Press and other media, his first such exchange in several years. He was expected to address the party guests later Saturday.

During Friday’s interview, he expressed deep concern at the poverty that still grips wide swaths of South Africa. The economy has grown steadily in recent years, but the benefits have yet to trickle to the poorest. Most blacks were stripped of resources and given inferior education under apartheid, leaving them unprepared to enjoy development now.

Mandela’s message was simple — the wealthy must do more.

“There are many people in South Africa who are rich and who can share those riches with those not so fortunate, who have not been able to conquer poverty,” Mandela said Friday.

Friday was also the 10th anniversary of his marriage to his third wife, Graca Machel.

Flowers were arranged in vases of tin, a traditional material for 10th anniversary gifts, at the head table Saturday. His children and grandchildren had put together an album of family photographs and testimonials as a gift, bound in aluminum, another 10th anniversary material.

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