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By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – The family of comrade David Kolekile Sipunzi has confirmed the passing of the leader of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). The announcement was made by William Mabapa, deputy general secretary of the black workers union.
Mabapa called Sipunzi a unionist dedicated to fighting for the rights of employees.
Viewpoint by Bill Dahl*
QUERETARO, Mexico (IDN) – Donald Trump lost the U.S. Presidential election. Trump garnered 73.9 million votes to Joe Biden’s 80 million (47.2% to 51.1%). Yet, Trump refuses to formally concede his loss. His attempts to win legal challenges based upon assertions of widespread voter fraud have been unanimously rejected by U.S. courts. The official certification of the election results is scheduled for December 14, 2020.
Viewpoint by Tonny Raymond Kirabira and Leila Choukroune*
PORTSMOUTH, United Kingdom (IDN) – Thirty-four years ago, northern Uganda was plunged into a two-decade-long civil war between the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) led by Joseph Kony and the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF).
Numerous children were victims of abduction, sexual violence, forced labour and soldiering. More specifically, children born of war continue to be the invisible victim of sexual violence. Non-governmental organisations estimate that over 66,000 children and youths were abducted by the LRA to serve as soldiers or sex slaves.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – Elections are a deadly game in Uganda. That was the message issued twice by Security Minister General Elly Tumwine as political rallies heat up and a national election to elect the President and the Parliament scheduled for January 14, 2021 draws near.
"Police have a right to shoot you and kill you if you reach a certain level of violence," Gen. Tumwine declared. "Can I repeat? Police have a right to shoot you and you die for nothing.... do it at your own risk."
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – “Meeting with foreign diplomats is not a crime. Nor is peacefully advocating for human rights.” Those were the first words of Antony Blinken as he steps up to the plate and assumes the position of foreign policy adviser to President-elect Joe Biden.
Blinken joins prominent leaders in the human rights community coming to the defence of three domestic rights activists who met with Western diplomats for a briefing on November 3.
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*
LUND, Sweden (IDN) – It will take a long time before America can again strut the world stage and lecture about the values of democracy, poking its finger in the eye of every authoritarian or dictatorial government it has the desire to show up. A former president, no less, is going to use every occasion into the distant future to tell the world that this election of 2020 was illegally hijacked.
The election has shown up the deficiencies in America’s “democracy”. We again learnt that winning a handsome majority of votes wasn’t enough and that for President-elect Joe Biden to win he had to garner 270 votes in the electoral college which is biased towards the under-populated, rural, states such as Wyoming with only 600,000 people.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – Foul play may have been the winner in recent national elections in Tanzania, where the ruling party swept up an overwhelming majority of parliamentary seats and the leaders of both top opposition parties lost theirs.
Citing “seditious language”, the election commission suspended the campaign of opposition challenger Tundu Lissu. Heavily armed police blocked his entire convoy for hours as he headed to launch new offices earlier this month. In a similar fashion, opposition candidate Seif Sharif Hamad was arrested on October 29, soon after holding a press conference in Zanzibar.
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*
LUND, Sweden (IDN) – France has its back to the wall, unnecessarily so. Its coronavirus policy is in a mess. (How come the Asians and Africans can get it right and the Europeans and Americans can’t? Perhaps we are racially inferior.) And now there is the appalling act by an 18-year old fanatic who, in the name of Islam, decapitates a teacher for showing his class the notorious caricatures of Mohammed, published in the satirical magazine, “Charlie Hebdo” five years ago. Two weeks later three worshipers in a church in Nice were gunned down by another young fanatic of Muslim origin.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – A long-running conflict between Cameroon's French and English-speaking communities brought new horror on October 24 with an attack on the Mother Francisca International Bilingual Academy in the city of Kumba, in the country’s Southwest Region, by armed terrorists taking the lives of six children and leaving over a dozen seriously injured.
Communications Minister Rene Emmanuel Sadi called it "a terrorist act of unbearable cruelty and barbarity".
By UN Academic Impact
NEW YORK (IDN) – There are an estimated 476 million indigenous peoples in the world, living across 90 countries. They speak an overwhelming majority of the world’s estimated 7,000 languages and represent 5,000 different cultures.
COVID-19 has posed a grave threat to Indigenous peoples around the world, who already lack access to healthcare and other essential services. Yet, Indigenous peoples are seeking their own solutions in their own languages, using divergent knowledge, practices and preventative measures to fight the pandemic.
IDN-InDepthNews offers news analyses, features, reports and viewpoints that impact the world and its peoples. It has been online since 2009. Its network spans countries around the world.