The News Review:

- Who’s who in the alleged coup
- Rhode Island news | projo.com | The Providence Journal
- Going Underground
- Obasanjo and the Darfur Genocide

Who’s who in the alleged coup
Independent Online – Aug 29, 2004
He faces up to 10 years in jail. His lawyers say he and 69 men detained with him in Zimbabwe, where they were arrested in March when their plane stopped over to pick up arms, were on their way to provide security at diamond mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mann and Nick du Toit, held as a co-conspirator in Equatorial Guinea, were members of a now-defunct mercenary group in Sierra Leone and Angola. Severo Moto Accused by the government in Malabo of being the instigator of the alleged coup. Denies involvement. Moto is president of the self-proclaimed Equatorial Guinean government-in-exile based in Spain, the former colonial power. Media reports say he was flown to neighbouring Mali on the eve of the planned coup, in preparation for his unveiling as Equatorial Guinea’s new leader.

Rhode Island news | projo.com | The Providence Journal
Providence Journal – Aug 29, 2004
Many of Howard’s family and friends said at the funeral and at his wake on Friday that they are still baffled by the apparent murder-suicide. The police have not determined a motive. “I come here to bury my son, not to try him,” Robert’s father, Willie Howard, who lives in Sierra Leone, told the congregation. “The circumstances leading to his death we will never know. The crowd — many of whom were dressed in the shimmering red, blue and black gowns and head wraps of West Africa — murmured in agreement. Willie Howard asked for a moment of silence for Dr. Mitchell, a graduate of Harvard University and Cornell Medical School and a former Marine medical officer.

Going Underground
Washington Post – Aug 29, 2004
The building, one of the few historical artifacts on display, was donated to the museum by the owner of the land on which it sat. Dismantled and rebuilt here, it’s a hallowed place that reduces visitors to a hush. Upstairs is “From Slavery to Freedom,” a vivid, well-curated exhibit that starts with details of the capture of unsuspecting victims in Sierra Leone and other countries along Africa’s Gold Coast, includes timelines and facts about the importance of slavery to the U. economy and climaxes with an account of the emancipation of slaves at the end of the Civil War. In the museum’s last pavilion, an eerie display of oversize photographs depicts cross burnings, scenes of genocide and other forms of racism that African Americans and others have faced since the end of slavery. A room at the end is set aside for visitors to discuss what they have seen.

Obasanjo and the Darfur Genocide
This Day – This Day (subscription) – Aug 29, 2004
It is significant that in a report to the UN Security Council the same week the G-8 meeting was taking place in the United States, Mr. Annan set out the scale of challenge in Sudan were his organization to intervene and set up a peace monitoring mission in the country. Sudan, he pointed out, was 35 times larger than Sierra Leone where the largest UN peacekeeping force in the world has so far gulped billions of dollars. Might the cost implications of international intervention explain the reluctance of the Big Powers to order a UN-led peace mission to move into Sudan and save the dying people of Darfur? Yes, cost is a big factor. But so also are the calculations of the transnational oil companies and the host countries that back them. Washington’s unilateral designation of Sudan as a ’state sponsor of terrorism’ in 1997 has meant that US oil companies, obeying the economic sanctions imposed on the country by the American government, have lost out on the emerging Sudan oil bonanza. The Bush White House is presently under tremendous pressure from its Big Oil financiers to lift the sanctions so they can move into the lucrative Sudanese oil fields.