France pledges $450m to Haiti

Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, has pledged an aid and debt relief package amounting to about $450m to earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

The amount includes a cancellation of Haiti's debt to France of $77m, Sarkozy said during a brief visit to the Caribbean nation on Wednesday.



Sarkozy arrived in Haiti to support international relief efforts after last month's deadly earthquake which killed around 230,000 people and left more than a million homeless.

His visit is the first ever by a French president to the former French slave colony, which fought for and won its independence in 1804, becoming the first independent black republic.

Staying in Haiti for less than four hours, Sarkozy greeted French embassy staff and aid workers and took a helicopter tour to see the extent of damage left by last month's quake.

Later speaking alongside Rene Preval, the Haitian president, Sarkozy said he wanted to turn the page in France's long history of troubled relations with its former colony.

But for many Haitians, Sarkozy's visit highlighted the bitter legacy of the price paid by Haiti to secure its freedom from French rule.

Following a succesful revolt in 1804, Haiti was forced to pay compensation to France – a debt that took more than half a century to pay off.

'Clear responsibility'

In today's money the payments amount to more than $20bn.

For many Haitians those payments are what set the seal on Haiti's endemic poverty and at a demonstration on Wednesday hundreds of Haitian protesters called on France to pay back the money.

"France has played an important role in the way the country is suffering economically, and it has a clear responsibility to pay reparations," Camille Chalmers, a Haitian economist, told Al Jazeera.

During his visit Sarkozy acknowledged that France and Haiti had had a troubled relationship, saying he was conscious that France "did not leave a good legacy" in its former colony.

"We are staring at history in its face, we have not discarded it and we assume responsibility," he said.

However, asked by Al Jazeera about the issue of reparations for Haiti's post-independence payments to France he appeared dismissive.

"Non, non, non (No, no, no)", he said.

'New era'

Al Jazeera's Steve Chao, reporting from the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, said that French officials hoped that the visit "will summon a new era between France and its former colony,

"Sarkozy and his people are very much cognisant of the fact that Haitians hold a lot of suspicion and resentment over its former brutal years of slavery as a colony and over feelings that France has continued to meddle in politics on this island in more recent years," he said.

Sarkozy surveyed the devastated Haitian capital and other affected areas by helicopter, and was also to visit a French-run field hospital.

He was also due to meet Haiti's leaders to offer France's financial support for a plan for post-quake recovery and reconstruction that is being put together by foreign donors with the Haitian government.

Economists from the Inter-American Development Bank have estimated the cost of rebuilding Haiti after the quake, which killed more than 200,000 people and left more than one million homeless, could reach nearly $14 billion, making it proportionately the most destructive natural disaster in modern times.

Besides providing immediate emergency aid to the hurt and homeless from the quake, international donors are looking to support Haiti's long-term recovery to try to pull the country out of a cycle of poverty and political instability.

While aid workers rush to distribute tarpaulins before the rainy season starts, the United Nations says only about 272,000 people have been provided with shelter materials so far.

Missionaries freed

In a separate development late on Wednesday, a Haitian judge ordered the release of eight American missionaries who had been charged with child kidnapping.

The eight were expected to be flown out of the capital, Port-au-Prince, aboard a US military transport plane.

Two others remain in detention after the judge said he wanted to question them about previous visits to the country.

The ten missionaries were arrested last month after trying to take 33 children out of the country without proper documentation.

The group members have denied any wrongdoing.

2-Year-Old Kosovo Between Reality, Hope

Marking its second birthday, Muslim-majority Kosovo is still facing major challenges ranging from economical woes to international recognition, amid a glimmer of hope that the Serbian minority is finally joining the fold.

"Kosovo is on the brink of an outbreak of social discontent," Bardh Hamzaj, a political analyst, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Tuesday, 16 February.

Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008 marking the final chapter in the violent break-up of the former communist Yugoslavia, has recently been hit by a wave of strikes.

Police officers and health workers staged strikes last month demanding a 100 percent salary hike.

The national economy, driven by exports of metals, cannot generate enough revenue for the government, nor can its labour market absorb some 30,000 youngsters every year.

Official data show that Kosovo is among the poorest countries in Europe with more then 40 percent unemployment and 45 percent of its two-million population living in poverty.

The global financial crisis has undermined the ability of many donor countries to meet their earlier aid obligations towards Europe's new-born baby.

Donor help accounts for 15 percent of GDP and Finance Minister Ahmet Shala said they hoped donors would help fill this year's budget gap.

The country is also still trying to gain more international ground by campaigning for more countries to recognize its independence.

"The biggest number of states which have not recognized Kosovo yet are waiting for the International Court of Justice," said Foreign Minister Skender Hyseni.

Serbia, which still considers Kosovo a breakaway province, has challenged its independence with the ICJ, which is yet to make a final decision.

Currently, a total of 65 countries -- including the US and the majority of European Union members -- recognize independent Kosovo.

Hope

But officials in the Muslim-majority country are urging calm, asserting that the current challenges, especially economical woes, need more time to be solved.

"Citizens expect that with the independence, social well-being will follow immediately," said Minister for Public Administration Arsim Bajrami.

"All expectations will not be fulfilled at once."

The minister cited some positive signs including a significant Serb turnout in the November local elections.

"It is an encouraging fact that we as the state made the local Serbs turn to the reality and understand that their future is Kosovo and their integration into the institutions (of the state)."

Many Serbs took part in the vote, the first after independence, effectively ending their boycott of polls organized since Kosovo came under UN administration in 1999 after a NATO bombing campaign that halted civilian killings and ethnic cleansing by Serbian troops.

"In four municipalities pragmatic Serbs won the vote," noted minister Bajrami.

Albanians make up about 90 percent of Kosovo's population of around two million people.

Other minorities include Roma, Bosniaks and Gorani, or Slavic Muslims.

Kenya's Emerging Muslim Girls

Her black eyes are resting under her lowering eyelids, her polite face crops affable smile occasionally displaying her teeth as white as a corn seed, her tender body looks weak, but she is seemingly strong in brain.

"What a boy can do, a girl can do as well," Farhiya Ibrahim, the best performing girl in the 2009 primary school national examinations in Kenya’s Muslim-dominated Northeastern province, told IslamOnline.net, carefully enunciating her words.

She has put her best foot forward leaving nothing to chance in emerging the best student beating more than 10,000 boys and girls who have sat for the final primary exams.

"First it is through the Mercy of Allah that I have emerged among the best, but then it is also out of my own hard work and commitment that have seen me passing well."

Farhiya has built a formidable foundation that lifted her to success through out her eight years studying at a low-cost Islamic Call Foundation primary school in Wajir town.

"I had a favorable atmosphere to study, where I was encouraged to excel by both my parents and teachers, and I seized the opportunity to study hard."

Her class master says she deserved her exemplary performance in the national examinations as she beat all odds to prove that girls can perform well like boys.

"Her outstanding performance is something she deserved, she is a strong-willed lady who has the courage to find her dreams come true," said Mr. Omar Khalid.

Exemplary

Farhiya's starling performance is a powerful indication of how Muslim girls in Kenya have been rising from the ashes over the years to register admirable performances in both public and private schools.

In much of Northeastern Kenya, a girl competing with boys is seen like stirring a real hornet’s nest and many believed the success of this determined girl was just on a wing and a prayer.

As a girl, her success is an ensuing achievement, especially by girls from the marginalized Muslim region where critical sectors of education and health are the lowest in the East African country.

These days, girls like Farhiya are determined to show their academic prowess despite the poor states of many education institutions in much of Kenya’s Muslim towns.

Female students are now coming out from a backdrop of cultural and traditional attitude that have over the years kept many young girls to remain out of classes.

For many years, the community’s attitude in educating young children has been bent on discouraging education for female students.

"It is good that these days people are understanding Islam very well and they are educating girls like boys," says Mrs. Fatuma Ali Saman, the principal of Nairobi Muslims Academy.

"But initially parents never used to demand a lot from girls, so educating them was viewed as wastage of resources."

Challenges

Despite shining examples like Farhiya, girl child education in the poverty-devastated region, where access to education is possible for only a small percentage of school going children, still remains a tall order.

"There is nothing big to celebrate at the moment, we are still looking at the vast gender disparities in many schools across the region," Mrs. Amina Ibrahim, an education specialist with UNICEF Nairobi office, told IOL.

"For the past few years, the situation in terms of access to education was bad for the girl child, many girls often don’t survive past primary education that is our biggest concern at the moment."

Gender disparity is still more pronounced with less than 15 percent of young girls enrolling in schools.

Five years after Kenya introduced free primary education for all, the enrollment of female students in schools lags behind boys and remains the lowest in the country.

Over 90 percent of government-sponsored primary schools in Northeastern Kenya lacked proper learning environment.

Many children study under trees due to lack of classrooms.

Educationist here say school dropout is highest among young girls affecting school-going children of between 10 to 15 years, many of the girls who dropped out of classes are toiling as domestic servants.

Many more girls also remain miniature adults assisting their families to manage their domestic chores.

However, in the past few years there have been significant interventions made by education stakeholders in order to improve access to education for young girls.

The performance of girls has been improving in line with the country’s trend but the improvement is slim and Education Ministry officials say it will need a lot of bold campaigns.

Some Muslim schools are inventing more defined interventions to find favorable schooling environment for female students.

"If schooling environments do not change there will never be hope in educating Muslims girls here," says Asha Mohamed, a female teacher.

For now the impressive success of Farhiya is a welcome encouragement for girls in this poor province to strive hard and make a difference in the future.

"We have the courage to excel as girls, for me I would like to be an engineer and I believe I can make it."

Ban Clouds Iraq Vote Legitimacy

The controversial disqualifications of hundreds of candidates are casting a pall on the legitimacy of the upcoming parliamentary elections, amid fears that the ugly face of sectarian violence might pop up again.

"There are no doubts that the coming elections are being seen as illegitimate," Mark Jefreens, an international observer, told IslamOnline.net.

"Months before the polls, no one had alerted about any Baath support and when Sunnis started to get important expressions in the street’s vox pop, the central government comes out with this accusations."

An integrity and accountability committee upheld last week a ban barring 480 candidates from contesting the March 7 elections on alleged links to Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party.

Two Sunni stalwarts, Saleh al-Mutlak and Dhafer al-Ani from the secular Iraqiya list of former premier Iyad Allawi, are among those disqualified.

The controversial decision surprisingly reversed a judicial panel decision allowing the candidates to stand for the polls on condition that their cases be examined after the vote and those found to be Baathists would be eliminated.

"Nuri al-Maliki used his position as prime minister to force the Supreme Judicial Council to make a final decision in few days," said Abdel-Waleed Raja’a, a political expert and professor at Mustansiriyah University.

Iraqiya list has suspended its election campaign to protest the decision, warning of chaos over the ban.

"Prepare yourself for all possibilities," Mutlak told a meeting of tribal leaders in Baghdad, accusing the Maliki government of being influenced by Iran.

"We are faced with difficult choices during the next few days," he added.

"This situation generates serious questions about the value of the coming elections… and the creation of crisis and the sowing of chaos."

Violence Fears

Experts warn that the ban could plunge the country back into a new cycle of sectarian violence.

"They want to show a clear involvement of those candidates without significant proofs and are opening doors to an uncontrolled chaos," warns Raja’a, the analyst and university professor.

"Ordinary Iraqis have to prepare themselves for constant attacks that have already started to be reported since the first announcement."

Two people were injured in a bomb attack against the North Baghdad headquarters of Mutlak’s election list Sunday.

Another bomb was thrown into the garden of a building used by Sunni scholars, including poll candidates.

Two people were also wounded when a bomb struck the HQ of the Moderate Movement list in Karrada, east Baghdad, and a third was hurt when a bomb hit a building used by an election list led by Nehru Abdulkarim al-Keznazani.

The vote, the second parliamentary ballot since the 2003-led US invasion, is seen as a test of reconciliation between the Sunnis who ruled under Saddam and the Shiites who came to power after his ouster.

But the recent attacks are fanning fears about the outbreak of sectarian violence again.

The country fell into deadly sectarian violence in 2005, leaving thousands of people killed and displaced.

"Maliki is signing his authorization to the violence in the country," charged Jefreens, the international observer.

But he believes Maliki's popularity and election chances are not as strong as they were in the previous elections.

"Locals are too tired of losing their loved ones, which could reflect in the poll final results, decreasing the participation of his bloc in government seats."