Africa celebrates Obama victory with pride, hope

By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NAIROBI, Kenya — For many across Africa and the world, Barack Obama’s election seals America’s reputation as a land of staggering opportunity.

“If it were possible for me to get to the United States on my bicycle, I would,” said Joseph Ochieng, a 36-year-old carpenter who lives in Kenya’s sprawling Kibera shantytown, a maze of tin-roofed shacks and dirt roads.

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki declared a public holiday Thursday in the country of Obama’s late father, allowing celebrations to continue through the night and into a second day. From Europe and Asia to the Middle East, many expressed amazement that the U.S. could overcome centuries of racial strife and elect an African-American president.

Scenes of jubilation broke out in the western Kenya village of Kogelo, where many of Obama’s Kenyan relatives still live. People sang, danced in the streets and wrapped themselves in U.S. flags. A group of exuberant residents picked up the president-elect’s half brother Malik and carried him through the village.

“Unbelievable!” Malik Obama shouted, leading the family in chanting, “Obama’s coming, make way!”

“He’s in!” said Rachel Ndimu, 23, a Kenyan business student who joined hundreds of others for an election party that began at 5 a.m. Wednesday at the residence of the U.S. ambassador to Kenya, Michael Ranneberger.

Obama was born in Hawaii, where he spent most of his childhood raised by his white mother. He barely knew his father. But for the world’s poorest continent, the ascent of a man of African heritage to America’s highest office was a source of immeasurable pride and hope.

Tributes rolled in from two of Africa’s groundbreaking leaders. Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first black president, said Obama gave the world the courage to dream.

“Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place,” Mandela said in a letter of congratulations.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf — the first woman elected to head an African country — said she did not expect to see a black American president in her lifetime.

“All Africans now know that if you persevere, all things are possible,” she said.

In Britain, The Sun newspaper borrowed from Neil Armstrong’s 1969 moon landing in describing Obama’s election as “one giant leap for mankind.”

Yet celebrations were often tempered by sobering concerns that Obama faces momentous global challenges — wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the nuclear ambitions of Iran, the elusive hunt for peace in the Middle East and a financial crisis.

Europe, where Obama is overwhelmingly popular, is one region that looked eagerly to an Obama administration for a revival in warm relations after the Bush government’s chilly rift with the continent over the Iraq war.

“At a time when we have to confront immense challenges together, your election raises great hopes in France, in Europe and in the rest of the world,” French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a letter to Obama.

Obama’s victory also was greeted with cheers in Mexico, where former Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda wrote in the Reforma newspaper that the presidency represents a chance for Mexico to remake its relationship with the United States.

“Obama’s win … opens to Mexico an extraordinary opportunity to reposition itself in the world because it will be infinitely easier to be a neighbor, ally and friend of the United States with Obama,” he wrote.

Americans living abroad, too, basked in the glow of a victory hoped for by most of the world.

“I’m proud of being an American today,” said Jody Suden, a mother of two in London. “It’s such a shift from the way things have been.”

This report includes information from Cox News Service.

Libya gives U.S. money for terror victims

WASHINGTON (CNN — The United States has received “a substantial amount of money” from Libya to settle claims by American victims of terrorism, a senior U.S. official announced Thursday.

We believe that (the) direct deposit of these funds is evidence of Libya’s commitment to fully implementing the claims settlement agreement,” the official said.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s government has made a partial payment to the United States for terror victims.

Kara Weipz, president of Families of Pan Am 103, had a mixed reaction to the news, calling it “a positive step, but a small step.

“I’m a little bit cynical,” said Weipz, whose brother died when Pan Am Flight 103 was blown out of the sky over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988. “It’s a positive step, but what are we going to have to do to see the next step and how many more months will that take?”

Weipz, who spoke to CNN from her New Jersey home, said she has not been contacted by the State Department about the development.

Last month, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the United States was still waiting for the promised payment following Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s meeting with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi in the Libyan capital, Tripoli.

Washington has promised to normalize relations with Libya to reward it for abandoning its weapons of mass destruction program and for taking responsibility for the downing of Pan Am 103 and other terror attacks against Americans.

Part of the complicated agreement between the two nations called for the creation of a special fund set up by the State Department to finalize the terrorism claims. The partial payment announced on Thursday is a step toward full compensation sought by the families of the terrorist victims.

Rice’s visit to Libya in September was the first by an American secretary of state since 1953, and both countries hailed it as a breakthrough. It followed months of complicated negotiations between the two countries.

However, some relatives of victims of the Pan Am explosion, which killed all 259 people on board the plane and 11 more on the ground, have criticized Rice for going to Tripoli, especially before the Libyans paid the final installments of the settlement.

“It’s absolutely absurd they sent high-ranking officials before this was settled,” Weipz said.

U.S. companies hope the new relationship will reap billions in new investment in Libya — a country rich in petroleum reserves but lacking a developed infrastructure. But both sides were blocked from doing business until Libya agreed to pay in full the terrorism claims to U.S. victims.

The U.S. official would not say how much money Libya had deposited in the special fund set up for the victims’ families, but he said it “demonstrates Libya’s commitment to fully resolving outstanding claims.”

“We will continue to work with Libya to ensure the expeditious receipt of the remaining agreed funds to compensate the victims and families,” the official said.

Families of victims of Pan Am 103 had received part but not all of the $10 million per person compensation promised by Libya.

Following the full payment, Rice must certify to Congress that the necessary funds have been received to cover outstanding settlements and wrongful death and physical injury claims.

Then, as part of the carefully orchestrated step-by-step process, the U.S. government will restore Libya’s immunity to court cases — a key point sought by Libya to allow U.S. companies to invest in Libya without fear of future lawsuits from terrorism victims.

Rice arrives in Libya on historic visit

By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer Matthew Lee, Associated Press Writer 43 mins ago

TRIPOLI, Libya – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday that her historic visit to former pariah state Libya proves that the U.S. never writes off another nation forever.

Rice is the highest-ranking American official to visit the North African country in more than a half-century. She will meet over dinner with mercurial leader Moammar Gadhafi, whom President Reagan once called a “mad dog” and other U.S. leaders have called a terrorist.

“There is a long way to go but I do believe that this demonstrates that the United States doesn’t have permanent enemies,” Rice said as she flew to the capital. She said she had not expected she would ever go to Libya.

Rice was welcomed with a modest ceremony at the airport and was meeting with Libya’s foreign minister before the highlight of the brief visit — dinner with Gadhafi. He invited her for the evening meal that breaks the day’s fast observed during the holy month of Ramadan, and although details were sketchy ahead of time, U.S. officials said they expected Rice would dine in a traditional, desert-style tent.

“I look forward to hearing the leader’s world view,” Rice told reporters.

Gadhafi is expected to be surrounded by an all-female bodyguard corps.

Rice is the first secretary of state to visit Libya since John Foster Dulles in 1953 and the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit since then-Vice President Richard Nixon in 1957.

Gadhafi has sought the visit to culminate five years of halting but steadily improving ties that began when Libya abandoned weapons of mass destruction and renounced terrorism in 2003.

Libya has since agreed to pay compensation to the families of victims of the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, and those of a 1986 attack on a disco in Berlin, which prompted President Reagan to order retaliatory airstrikes on Libyan targets. The money is not yet all there, but U.S. officials say they are confident it will be paid soon.

“It demonstrates that when countries are prepared to make strategic changes in direction the United States is prepared to respond,” Rice said. “It’s a beginning, it’s an opening. It’s not, I think, the end of the story.”

Rice was spending only a few hours in Tripoli, an ancient city fronting the Mediterranean sea and backing to the north African desert. There were few signs in the capital that Libyans or their government saw the day as particularly significant. Unlike in some capitals, there were no banners along her motorcade route or crowds lined up to gawk.

Rice was visiting the offices that serve as the U.S. embassy in Libya. Plans to send a full-fledged ambassador are hung up in Congress over concern that Libya has not fulfilled all its promises to compensate terror victims.

“No one can ever salve the wounds of the families,” victimized by terror attacks, Rice said. “That is why we have looked so hard for justice to be brought and a means of compensation.”

U.S. officials had hoped that Libya would have deposited hundreds of millions of dollars into the compensation fund by the time Rice arrived. But the State Department said Thursday that the account remained empty.

Some of the families of those killed in the Lockerbie bombing have raised vehement objections to Rice meeting with Gadhafi, whom they consider to be unrepentant for the deaths of the 280 people, including 180 Americans.

The Bush administration has expressed sympathy with the families but said it is time to move ahead with Libya, which is the first, and thus far only, country designated by the State Department to be a “state sponsor of terrorism” to be removed from that list through its own actions.

Rice’s visit comes amid a surge in interest from U.S. companies, particularly in the energy sector, to do business in Libya, where European companies have had much greater access in recent years. Libya’s proven oil reserves are the ninth largest in the world, close to 39 billion barrels, and vast areas remain unexplored for new deposits.

“Reliable sources of energy supply, multiple sources of energy, diversification of energy supply is an important element of economic development for the entire international economy,” Rice said, but not the focus of the U.S. opening to Libya. “The relationship has much broader potential than just energy.”

White House press secretary Dana Perino said Friday in Washington that the Bush administration hopes to be able to announce a new ambassador there soon.

“We have had a long and bad history with Libya,” she said. “That began to turn around when they turned away from nuclear weapons and terrorism. That country has radically changed its behavior and Secretary Rice’s trip signifies a new chapter in U.S.-Libya bilateral relations.”

Relations between the countries are still strained on a number of fronts, ranging from human rights issues to the final resolution of legal claims from the terror bombings.

A leading Libyan reformer, Fathi al-Jhami, whose case has been championed by the Bush administration and by Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden, remained in detention, where he has been near continuously since 2002. Rights groups say hundreds of other political prisoners are still being held.

Rice said she would raise the dissident’s case with Libyan officials and wanted to see his release.

Libya, now an elected member of the U.N. Security Council, has voted with the U.S. on issues related to Iran’s nuclear program and has helped with the Darfur crisis. But its support on other key issues, notably the Middle East peace process, is far from clear.

Among the biggest question marks is the often unpredictable behavior of the sunglasses-clad Gadhafi, who has cultivated images as both an Arab potentate and African monarch since taking power in a 1969 coup.

In an interview with Al-Jazeera television last year, Gadhafi spoke of Rice in most unusual terms, calling her “Leezza” and suggesting that she actually runs the Arab world with which he has had severe differences in the past.

“I support my darling black African woman,” he said. “I admire and am very proud of the way she leans back and gives orders to the Arab leaders … Leezza, Leezza, Leezza. … I love her very much. I admire her, and I’m proud of her, because she’s a black woman of African origin.”

(This version CORRECTS the year of the Pan Am 103 bombing to 1988.)

Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

Guards for African leaders battle; dozen injured

From Samson Ntale

CNN

KAMPALA, Uganda (CNN) — A fight between Ugandan and Libyan presidential guards sparked chaos during a ceremony attended by the heads of state from 11 African nations on Wednesday. Several of the guards to the visiting heads of state from Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Mali, Somalia, Sudan and Djibouti sustained serious injuries in the fight, which included punches, kicks and the drawing of guns.

No leaders were hurt in the melee, though several were knocked over. Several journalists also were caught up in the fracas and suffered injuries or lost their grips on cameras and recorders.

The incident occurred at the opening of a massive Gadhafi National Mosque in Kampala, a structure begun by the late Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in 1972 and completed with financing from Libya, according to African media reports.

Minutes after Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and his host, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, jointly unveiled a plaque to mark the event, the Libyan guards pushed away the guards of other delegations at the mosque’s entrance.

The Ugandan guards — who had traded hostilities with the predominantly-Arab Libyan guards at every joint event since Gadhafi’s arrival in the country Sunday — reacted with fury and fought back.

Museveni briefly lost his balance when a hefty Libyan guard pushed him to a wall. Another Libyan guard pushed Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who also lost his balance but was caught by his own guards.

The vice president of Tanzania was knocked over by fighting guards as he was taking his shoes off to enter the mosque.

Guards to the rest of the visiting presidents and prime ministers kept their respective leaders out of the fray, with some drawing their guns as the dignitaries looked on in disbelief. Some leaders — notably those from Somalia, Burundi and Djibouti — were visibly uneasy as guns were drawn on all sides.

By the time the fight was over more than six minutes later, about a dozen presidential guards were left bleeding from compound fractures and the Libyan and Ugandan protocol officials traded bitter accusations of disrespect and racism.

“What are your people up to? Do you want to kill our leader?” a Libyan protocol official said to his Ugandan counterpart.

The Ugandan official, who declined to be named, shouted back, “Why do think you’re superior? What makes you think Uganda has any ill intention against Gadhafi?”

The Ugandan official said Museveni’s guards were simply doing their job as security for the host country and had a right to respond when the Libyan guards pushed them back.

It has taken 36 years to complete the giant mosque on a hill in the heart of Kampala. It used to be a colonial fort named after British Capt. Frederick Lugard.

The mosque can accommodate as many as 17,000 people at one time, according to the engineers, who call it the largest mosque in sub-Saharan Africa.

Many Muslims interviewed said the mosque’s opening evoked sweet memories of Amin, the deceased dictator.

“It is a great day and thanks be to Allah for the completion,” said Salim Abdul Noor, 39. “This should remind us that while Amin is demonized as Africa’s worst dictator, there are many things he did for this country that successive governments largely depend on, and much of the completed installations and structures like this beautiful mosque was Amin’s dream, may Allah rest him in peace.”

The Swedish vice president of the European Islamic Conference, Adly Abu Hajar, 57, said the mosque heals rifts in a religion introduced to Uganda in 1844 by Arab slave traders.

“I find this complex has brought unity among Muslims in Uganda. There have been so many factions, but this attraction has brought them together, identifying themselves with a common home.”

The fight prompted a crisis meeting by Ugandan security authorities, after which invited diplomats from mainly the European missions in Uganda expressed dismay.

“It’s disgrace. It shows there is something wrong yet unknown between the two parties,” said the head of one European mission in Kampala, who declined to be named.

The police chief, Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura, and the head of the army, Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, declined to comment on the fight.

But Capt. Edison Kwesiga, the spokesman of the Ugandan Presidential Guard Brigade, confirmed their hostile relationship with the Libyans.

“It is our responsibility to ensure the safety of any visiting head of state. We have to do our job using any means. But our Libyan brothers always want us to fail. True, it’s not the first time they come and act as you see,” Kwesiga said.