By Tamara Alfred
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

The first African woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Wangari Maathai, died late Sunday in a Nairobi hospital at the age of 71 following a battle with cancer.  Maathai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004.

Maathai believed that a healthy environment helped improve lives by providing clean water and firewood for cooking, thereby decreasing conflict.  The Kenyan organization she founded, the Green Belt Movement, planted 30 million trees in hopes of improving the chances for peace.  Her triumph later inspired the United Nations to launch a worldwide campaign resulting in the planting of 11 billion trees.

Although the tree-planting campaign did not initially address issues of peace and democracy, Maathai said it became clear over time that responsible governance of the environment was not possible without democracy.

“The tree became a symbol for the democratic struggle in Kenya,” said Maathai during one of her speeches.  “Citizens were mobilized to challenge widespread abuses of power, corruption and environmental mismanagement.”

Seen as a threat to the rich and powerful, Wangari Maathai was beaten, arrested and vilified for the simple act of planting a tree, a natural wonder Maathai believed, could reduce poverty and conflict.  At least three times during her activist year, she was physically attacked, including being clubbed unconscious by police during a hunger strike in 1992.  She also staged protests that vilified former Kenyan president Daniel arap Moi, a repressive and autocratic ruler, who called her a “mad woman” who was a threat to the security of Kenya.

In the summer of 1998, the Kenyan government was giving land to political allies in a protected forest on the outskirts of Nairobi.  Maathai launched a campaign to reclaim the land, ending in a confrontation with 200 hired thugs armed with machetes and bows and arrows.  While trying to plant a tree, she and her cohorts were attacked with whips, clubs and stones.  Maathai sustained a bloody gash to her head.

“Wangari Maathai was a force of nature.  While other deployed their powers and life force to damage, degrade and extract short term profit from the environment, she used her to stand in their way, mobilize communities and to argue for conservation and sustainable development over destruction,” said Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. Environmental Program, for which Maathai served as an inspiration.

Various world leaders expressed their sorrow at having lost Maathai and her efforts.

“Wangari Maathai combined the protection of the environment, with the struggle for women’s rights and fight for democracy,” said Geir Lundestad, director of the Nobel Institute.

“At last count, the Green Belt Movement…had assisted women to plant more than 40 million trees,” said Archbishop Desmond Tutu in a statement.  “She understood and acted on the inextricable links between poverty, rights and environmental sustainability.  One can but marvel at her foresight and the scope of her success.  She was a true African heroine.”

“The values she had for justice and civil liberties and what she believed were the obligations of civil society and government,” said Vertistine Mbaya, Maathai’s colleague at the University of Nairobi.  “She also demonstrated the importance of recognizing the contributions that women can make and allowing them the open space to do so.”

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore said Maathai “overcame incredible obstacles to devote her life to service – service to her children, to her constituents, to the women, and indeed all the people of Kenya – and to the world as a whole.”

For more information, please see:

CNN – Maathai: World mourns passing of ‘true African heroine’ – 26 September 2011

Huffington Post – Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Dies – 26 September 2011

By Carolyn Abdenour
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

CONAKRY, Guinea – On Tuesday, paramilitary police forces killed four people violently dispersing a march people attempted to join.  Nineteen opposition parties organized the march.  The police took control of the traffic circle and used tear gas and batons on people as they collated at September 28 Stadium, the prescribed meeting point.  Ministry of Defense spokesperson Commander Aliou Diakite reported twenty-three police officers received treatment from injuries sustained by the rock-throwing activists.

Former Prime Minister Cellou Dalein Diallo, who narrowly lost current President Alpha Conde in last November’s run-off election, reported one of the four dead bodies arrived at the headquarters of Union of the Democratic Forces of Guinea, his political party.  The other three bodies rested at the local morgue, but the morgue denied the victims’ families access to the bodies.

Diallo called the march to protest the upcoming December parliamentary elections, which he contends the government will rig.  The country should have voted for parliamentary positions six months after the presidential election, but the Independent National Electoral Commission (“CENI”) pushed them back.  Diallo asserts Conde placed a close friend as head of CENI who will attempt to tamper the votes.

On Monday, Prime Minister Mohamed Said Fofana met with opposition leaders to resolve the claims.  After unsuccessful negotiations, Diallo announced the march would proceed despite a governmental ban.  Tuesday morning, riot police assembled at main intersections around September 28 Stadium, and they fired tear gas grenades towards people attempted to organize.  After pro-opposition youth began throwing rocks at the police, witnesses report he police fired live round in the Matoto district.

Spokesperson for the opposition parties Faya Millimono reported participants received injuries from gunshots and cuts.  However, General Mamadouba Toto Camara, minister of security and protection reported the security forces “do not use firearms.”

This march was the first major demonstration since last year’s elections.  Many shops and petrol stations did not open for business on Tuesday for fears of violence from the march.

The protest took place on the eve of the second anniversary of the September 28 Massacre.  Under the rule of Junta chief Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, 150 people died when security forces fired live rounds at the anti-juanta protestors.  Mass rapes also occurred at the hands of the security forces.

Shopkeeper Souleymane Sow, a supporter of Diallo, said “What is remarkable is that the police units are using riot control tools to disperse the protesters—tear gas and night sticks, and not fire arms for the most part…It’s my opinion that the repression I’m seeing is not too violent compared to what we are used to.”

For further information, please see:
Bloomberg – Guinea Opposition Says Four People Killed in Protests, 11 Hurt – 28 Sept 11
Alert Net – Timeline – Political Tensions Rise Again in Guinea – 27 Sept 11
BBC – Guinea Elections: Three Die as Police Break Up Protest – 27 Sept 11
Wall Street Journal – Police Disperse Guinea Opposition March – 27 Sept 11