Global Voices Online

Time to study Russian, again, writes Jonathan Newton of Tales from the European Underbelly: “I would have had much use for such skills today, as I seem to be surrounded by Russian-speaking colleagues at the EU Council’s Press Centre, where the EU’s foreign ministers and assorted colleagues will wriggle around the question what to do with the EU-Russian summit on Friday when the two are so at odds with eachother that they aren’t even pretending that there will be any outcome of that meeting; and when plenty of EU member states want the meeting called off altogether.”

UDPS Liège posts an interview with Rachel Kabua Atwele, a Belgium-based UDPS sympathizer. She says [Fr]: “Let's not kid ourselves, dictatorship is alive and well. Those who believed in the good faith of Kabila the imposter are already having a hard time: Thérèse Nlandu, Pasteur Kuthino, the coup d'état on the majority through high-level corruption in the pro- Bemba provinces are sure signs of the stifling of the opposition by the AMP camp.”

Collectif-haiti-de-provence writes about a Haitian delegation's March visit to France and Belgium (Fr), which hoped to present Haiti as a place to do business and counteract negative images of the country. The delegation, which included the heads of various government ministries and members of the private sector, presented plans to establish three new industrial parks in Haiti–equipped, of course, with high security.

Le Blog du Congolais posts an article by Freddy Lokolongo stating [Fr]: “The events of Bas-Congo and more recently attacks on the homes of ex-Vice President Bemba … with the complicity of [United Nations Mission to the Congo] MONUC, do not even begin to display the extent of the plot originated by the international community … and of which Kabila [and others] are the leaders.”

Le Renouveau Congolais posts pictures [fr] of UDPS Belux's (Belgium-Luxemburg branch) celebration of the party's 25th Anniversary. UDPS is the main DRC opposition party.

UDPS Liege warns (Fr) that an AMP conference entitled “Elections: Second Round in the Congo” that took place in Belgium today was really a “conference to buy the conscience of diaspora activists”. The blog asked that UDPS sympathizers protest it.

At the UDPS Liege blog (Fr), Samy Musampa Batena Babo of the Congolese political party Union for Democracy and Social Progress alledges that the Belgian and Congolese governments have been tapping his phone.

Generation Consciente, Un Autre Afrique explains that (Fr) after a 5-year negotiation between Senegal, Belgium and the African Union on which of the two countries should host the trial of former Chadian leader Hissene Habre, “Abdoulaye Wade has decided at the African Union summit in Banjul that former Chadian leader should be judged on African soil.”

Le Blog du Congolais posts a Belgian petition asking for Louis Michel's resignation and says (Fr): “Certain Belgians are courageous enough to denounce the neocolonialist behavior of Louis Michel in the Congo. We encourage and support the courageous initiative of Mrs. Anja Vanduysen asking for Loulou's resignation.”