Military Coup in Niger

NIAMEY, Feb 18: Soldiers in Niger seized President Mamadou Tandja in a coup bid on Thursday amid gunbattles that killed at least three troops in the uranium-rich nation, two ministers also being held captive said.

Gunfire and loud explosions reverberated across the capital Niamey as soldiers assaulted the presidential palace where Mr Tandja, the country’s strongman for the past decade, presided over a cabinet meeting.

A French diplomat said Mr Tandja’s own guard took part in the coup.

“We want to know what has happened. It is our country and no one wants to set it ablaze,” said one of Mr Tandja’s ministers, contacted by mobile telephone from Niamey and speaking on condition of anonymity.

“We cannot move freely, we cannot go out. They have taken away Mamadou Tandja,” he added.

The other minister said: “We do not know what is happening, we are not free to move about, but we have our mobile telephones with us and we are where the cabinet meeting was to take place.”

An African diplomat based in Niger confirmed the capture, saying several senior government figures had been arrested.

“Tandja is among them. The rebels have taken the upper hand,” he said.

Another official said that Mr Tandja was believed to be held in a military barrack on the outskirts of the capital.

“President Tandja and his aide-de-camp may be held at a garrison in Tondibia,” about 20km west of Niamey, the official said.

State radio suspended its programmes and played martial music as Niger’s long-simmering political tensions erupted. Previous coups in the state have seen the network playing military tunes.

Mr Tandja, 71, extended his term through a controversial referendum last August after dissolving parliament and the constitutional court, leading to the West African nation’s isolation in the international stage.

Witnesses said they saw the bodies of three soldiers being lifted out of a badly damaged armoured vehicle which pulled up outside the morgue of the main hospital.—AFP

NIGER: Goah arrested for Defamation

25 September 2009
International Press Institute Niger urges government to immediately release Ibrahim Soumana Gaoh

(IPI/IFEX) - VIENNA, 23 September - The director of weekly Niger news magazine Le Témoin (The Witness), Ibrahim Soumana Gaoh, was arrested on Sunday on charges of defaming the communications minister, a journalist at the magazine told IPI by phone on Wednesday.

Gaoh was arrested in connection with a 14 September article entitled "Wassosso à la SONITEL" which implicated Niger's communications minister, Mohamed Ben Omar, in a financial scandal.

Le Témoin journalist Amadou Tiémagou told IPI that the allegedly defamatory article implicated the minister in massive financial irregularities relating to the 2001 privatisation of SONITEL, a Niger telecommunications company. The company has since been re-nationalized, according to news reports.

Gaoh was brought before the courts for the first time on Wednesday. If convicted, he could face "several months" in jail, Tiémagou said.

He is next due to appear before the judge on Friday.

"The International Press Institute (IPI) condemns the arrest of Ibrahim Soumana Gaoh, and demands that he be released immediately," said IPI Director David Dadge. "Journalists have a right and a duty to report on government activities that are in the public interest, and should be permitted to do so without fear of retribution."

In another case that has drawn widespread criticism, journalist Abdoulaye Tiémogo, director of Le Canard Déchainé, was imprisoned last month for "casting discredit on a judicial ruling" after making televised comments about his paper's coverage of a government warrant that had been issued for former Prime Minister Hama Amadou. Tiémogo was sentenced on 18 August to three months in prison.

http://www.ifex.org/niger/2009/09/25/gaoh_charged/

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Niger's President Attempts to Change Constitution

In May President Mamadou Tandja of Niger began plans for a referendum over a constitutional amendment that would allow him to run for a third presidential term in the November 2009 elections. Many Nigeriens were shocked, saying he "swore on the Koran" to step down in December this year.

Now members of the Niger's military are making an advance vote, ahead of tomorrow's controversial national referendum on President Mamadou Tandja's attempt to change the constitution to enable him run a third term.

Tuesday will be the day for the referendum, which could change Niger’s constitution, abolishing terms of services for the president. Opposition parties have widely described the move as an insult to democracy.

Mr Tandja was due to leave office in December this year, but has somersaulted dissolving parliament and ignoring the ruling by the highest court of the country in his bid to run for the third term.

He has defended his move saying the people want to him to stay in office.

The bid has seen a series of protests, with the opposition parties calling on their supporters to boycott the referendum.

The 71 years old Mr Tandja was first elected in 1999 and has stayed in power for his full two terms.

His move has also received a blanket international condemnation, but on Friday, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, urged the people of Niger to refrain from violence and exercise the utmost restraint.

Mr Ban “reiterates his support for an inclusive process to resolve the current crisis peacefully and in conformity with the country's democratic values,” a statement issued by his spokesperson read.

Mr Ban also said he was concerned that the referendum was taking place, “despite sharp differences among the country's political stakeholders,” and he urged all sides in the impoverished West African country to show restraint. “The United Nations stands ready to support initiatives that would help resolve the current situation in a peaceful and sustainable manner,” he added.

From here.