Wamarekani Wamshukia Obama Kuhusu Kikwete, Wamwambia Asije Tanzania

[Kibukuasili]

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Obama’s ill-advised visit to Tanzania

By Dana Milbank, Monday, June 10, 4:07 AM

When President Obama goes to Africa at month’s end, the first African American president will have a rare opportunity to spread U.S. values to that continent. It would be a shame if his trip instead validated slavery.
By selecting Tanzania as one of the three countries that will receive a presidential visit on that trip, the Obama administration is honoring a government that has been in a multiyear diplomatic dispute with the United States over human trafficking.
Specifically, a U.S. court in 2008 issued a $1 million judgment against a Tanzanian diplomat stationed in Washington because he and his wife held a young woman against her will as a domestic servant at their Bethesda home, refusing to pay her and abusing her for four years until she escaped. The diplomat, Alan Mzengi, didn’t contest the civil lawsuit and, instead of paying the default judgment, returned to Tanzania, where at last report he served as an adviser to President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete — the very person Obama will meet with.
The State Department has tried to pressure Kikwete’s government to get the judgment paid and to sanction diplomats who engage in human trafficking. But the efforts have produced nothing but a derisory settlement offer, and the State Department has not moved to punish Tanzania.
Now Obama is rewarding Tanzania with a presidential trip. “An official visit from the U.S. president is a gift that is utterly inappropriate after a Tanzanian government official committed horrifying human rights violations just a few miles from the White House,” said Martina Vandenberg, a human rights lawyer who represented the victim, Zipora Mazengo, pro bono. Vandenberg, a Washington lawyer I’ve known for years, said Obama “would undermine all credibility on trafficking.”
A spokeswoman for the State Department’s African Affairs bureau said that the case “continues to be of significant concern” and that “we are again engaging the government of Tanzania to do what is necessary to see that this matter is addressed.”
Obama has made human trafficking a centerpiece of his foreign policy agenda, saying in a speech to the Clinton Global Initiative last year that “it is a debasement of our common humanity” that “must be called by its true name, modern slavery. . . . When a woman is locked in a sweatshop, or trapped in a home as a domestic servant, alone and abused and incapable of leaving — that’s slavery.”
Unfortunately, the administration’s actions haven’t always matched its high-minded words, as has been the case with targeted assassinations, Chinese dissidents, Guantanamo Bay, domestic surveillance and other challenges to human rights and civil liberties. The Tanzania case appears to be an instance of business interests trumping human rights. The Chinese president visited the East African country a few months ago, and U.S. businesses are eager to get in on the region’s petroleum supplies and other natural resources before China becomes dominant there.
Beyond that calculation, the administration has been reluctant to use the few tools it has to combat human trafficking by diplomats, who are protected from some prosecutions. After federal authorities said they were investigating a possible case of human trafficking in McLean by a Saudi diplomat, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) wrote to Secretary of State John Kerry, citing the Mzengi case and questioning why State seldom seeks waivers of diplomatic immunity for offenders and has not used its power to block visas for servants of diplomats from offending countries.
In the Mzengi case, a federal judge found that the diplomat and his wife confiscated Mazengo’s passport and forced her to work 17-hour days. They refused her medical care (she couldn’t wear shoes because of an untreated ingrown toenail and was once forced to shovel snow barefoot) and wouldn’t let her leave the house without an escort. After the $1,059,349 judgment, the woman said she would accept a settlement that included only her back wages of $170,000; the Tanzanians eventually offered $22,000 with an iffy promise of small future payments from Mzengi.
Mzengi returned to Tanzania a few months after the judgment and got a position advising Kikwete, according to a 2010 Time magazine report, citing an academic adviser of Mzengi. Embassy officials didn’t return my phone calls.
According to cables released by WikiLeaks, U.S. officials formally told the Tanzanians that diplomats such as Mzengi should “face appropriate sanction.” The Tanzanians were also told the matter could call into question Tanzania’s “commitment to combating human trafficking.”
The U.S. officials wrote that they made it clear “that the Tanzanian government cannot ignore our requests for information and assistance.”
Or can it?
Twitter: milbank

 

[Muke Ya Muzungu]

When President Obama goes to Africa at month's end, the first African American president will have a rare opportunity to spread U.S. values to that continent. It would be a shame if his trip instead validated slavery. By selecting Tanzania as one of the three countries that will receive a presidential visit on that trip, the Obama administration is honoring a government that has been in a multiyear diplomatic dispute with the United States over human trafficking.

Specifically, a U.S. court in 2008 issued a $1 million judgment against a Tanzanian diplomat stationed in Washington because he and his wife held a young woman against her will as a domestic servant at their Bethesda home, refusing to pay her and abusing her for four years until she escaped. The diplomat, Alan Mzengi, didn't contest the civil lawsuit and, instead of paying the default judgment, returned to Tanzania, where at last report he served as an adviser to President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete - the very person Obama will meet with.

The State Department has tried to pressure Kikwete's government to get the judgment paid and to sanction diplomats who engage in human trafficking. But the efforts have produced nothing but a derisory settlement offer, and the State Department has not moved to punish Tanzania.

Now Obama is rewarding Tanzania with a presidential trip. "An official visit from the U.S. president is a gift that is utterly inappropriate after a Tanzanian government official committed horrifying human rights violations just a few miles from the White House," said Martina Vandenberg, a human rights lawyer who represented the victim, Zipora Mazengo, pro bono. Vandenberg, a Washington lawyer I've known for years, said Obama "would undermine all credibility on trafficking."

A spokeswoman for the State Department's African Affairs bureau said that the case "continues to be of significant concern" and that "we are again engaging the government of Tanzania to do what is necessary to see that this matter is addressed." Obama has made human trafficking a centerpiece of his foreign policy agenda, saying in a speech to the Clinton Global Initiative last year that "it is a debasement of our common humanity" that "must be called by its true name, modern slavery. . . . When a woman is locked in a sweatshop, or trapped in a home as a domestic servant, alone and abused and incapable of leaving - that's slavery."

Unfortunately, the administration's actions haven't always matched its high-minded words, as has been the case with targeted assassinations, Chinese dissidents, Guantanamo Bay, domestic surveillance and other challenges to human rights and civil liberties. The Tanzania case appears to be an instance of business interests trumping human rights. The Chinese president visited the East African country a few months ago, and U.S. businesses are eager to get in on the region's petroleum supplies and other natural resources before China becomes dominant there.

Beyond that calculation, the administration has been reluctant to use the few tools it has to combat human trafficking by diplomats, who are protected from some prosecutions. After federal authorities said they were investigating a possible case of human trafficking in McLean by a Saudi diplomat, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) wrote to Secretary of State John Kerry, citing the Mzengi case and questioning why State seldom seeks waivers of diplomatic immunity for offenders and has not used its power to block visas for servants of diplomats from offending countries. In the Mzengi case, a federal judge found that the diplomat and his wife confiscated Mazengo's passport and forced her to work 17-hour days.

They refused her medical care (she couldn't wear shoes because of an untreated ingrown toenail and was once forced to shovel snow barefoot) and wouldn't let her leave the house without an escort. After the $1,059,349 judgment, the woman said she would accept a settlement that included only her back wages of $170,000; the Tanzanians eventually offered $22,000 with an iffy promise of small future payments from Mzengi.

Mzengi returned to Tanzania a few months after the judgment and got a position advising Kikwete, according to a 2010 Time magazine report, citing an academic adviser of Mzengi. Embassy officials didn't return my phone calls. According to cables released by WikiLeaks, U.S. officials formally told the Tanzanians that diplomats such as Mzengi should "face appropriate sanction." The Tanzanians were also told the matter could call into question Tanzania's "commitment to combating human trafficking." The U.S. officials wrote that they made it clear "that the Tanzanian government cannot ignore our requests for information and assistance." Or can it?
Dana Milbank: Obama’s ill-advised visit to Tanzania - The Washington Post

 

[artorius]

Mkulu akiona hii thread atasema "huo ni upepo tu''

 

[Nkoboiboi]

URANIUM, GAS, vs Mzengi.......!!!!!!!! Atakuja tu hayo ni makelele ya chura.... hawa jamaa tamaa yao ni uranium na gas

 

[sad]

mbona hamchangii au kizungu kimewashinda kuelewa makala hii?

 

[bornagain]

Du hii kitu wameitupilia kwenye Washngton post du hatari sana maana hili gazeti lina ushawishi na linasomwa sana na wamarekani.Lakini kama ni hivo mbona naskia pia hata yule mama waliempatia ubalozi Zambia kabla alikuwa USA nae naskia alimpeleka mdada akamfanyisha kazi USA na baadae huyo mdada hajulikani alipo.Skandali kali sana kama sasa wanadiplomosia wetu wananishwa na wauza watu.

Lakini pia hilo haliwezi kumzuia Obama kuja Tanzania hata kwa dawa maana waMarekani wanajua wanachokifanya wanataka gesi na mafuta kwa udi na uvumba hiyo ni janja ya kujifanya eti wanajali sana human right? Kama ingekuwa wanajali hiyo humani rights utawala wa rais Clinton asingekubali kumfadhili Kagame afanye maauaji ya kimbari Rwanda mwaka 1994 katika maandalizi ya kumsapoti ili aiteke DRC ili jamaa wachimbe dhahabu.Ni janja tu ya wamarekani kuona kuwa eti wanapenda sana na wanajua sana human rights wakati wao ndio wavurugaji wa kwanza wa human rights katika Africa.Fuatilia migogoro yote ya Africa kwenye natural resources kote basi nyuma yake kwa 90% wapo wamarekani. So hata kama Tanzania ingekuwa na vita so long as kuna mafuta na gesi lazima Obama angekuja tu kwa hiyo in short tuendelee na maandalizi ya ujio wa Obama wala hakuna kitakachoharibika.Wenye gari za Noah nzuri pelekeni pale Oysterbay polisi kwa ajili ya ukaguzi na kula tenda.Lakini inatakiwa ufike mwenyewe maana nimeshaona harufu ya udalali

 

[Gushleviv]

mbona hamchangii au kizungu kimewashinda kuelewa makala hii?

Chezea kingreza weye!? Wabongo janjajanja nyiiingi ya kutupia maneno kama "lol" mara "lmfao" ila walete kwenye articles za ukweli woote wanasanda!

 

[Viol]

mbona hamchangii au kizungu kimewashinda kuelewa makala hii?

Tutafsirie nigga

 

[Mamndenyi]

Kithungu tena mwe mwe.

 

[Mutakyamirwa]

With Obama's presidential visit, all hiden human rights violation secrets will be put to light.

 

[BONGOLALA]

Hata Asipokuja ni sawa tuu!hana la zaidi kwa watanzania

 

[Kennedy]

Bongo kapu la Mjinga lazima Mwelevu US
aweke Mkono.

 

[Eric Cartman]

One would have thought of all the problems and human rights abuses that occur daily in Tanzania the writer would have a field day in bashing the trip, and yet she picks a single case of wanting to run away servant in their shores using that as a base to justify the evil regime that exist in our land. It is a clear case of a naive western journalists assuming their liberal democracies are universal.

I don't know about the rest of you but she comes across as an amateur when it comes to understanding the extent of African abuses on power and human rights acts, Hence her writing is nothing more than a spiteful propaganda for reasons only to known to her.

That leaves one justification on the whole purpose of this article from this mama/dada it seems she does not like us and that on her mindset we do not deserve the honour of the most powerful man in the world visiting us (he has powerful subordinates you know for little countries).

Nevertheless someone needs to tell this lady most of our land is still uncharted and America wants a large piece of that pie whilst it is still baking in the oven, I know it wont be my share, they take in the end.

 

[Kizotaka]

Sasa vasco nae ilikuwaje akamfanya huyu jamaa mshauri wake wakati anajua anasoo?

 

[kinauche]

Sasa vasco nae ilikuwaje akamfanya huyu jamaa mshauri wake wakati anajua anasoo?

Is there any truth in this? Where is this Mizengi man now? Still advising the president? Information please. Do you think such allegations can stop the Us president from visit the country?

Sent from my BlackBerry 9860 using JamiiForums

 

[monomotapa]

No way back hiyo safari ilishapangwa, the only thing huyo diplomat anayetakiwa kwa kesi ya human trafficking atashughurikiwa kwa taratibu stahiki. Umuhimu wa safari yake ni mkubwa kuliko hiyo allegation kwa uchumi wa Marekani na Tanzania. Kuna nchi nyingi za Asia zinatuhumiwa na makosa kama hayo lakini kuna kitu kinaitwa 'Priority' Nina wasiwasi hii thread kaleta jamaa wa nchi jirani maana inawaumiza sana kwa huyu kiongozi wa dunia kuja Tanzania...Ukabila unawaumiza sana.

 

[Ibrahim K. Chiki]

it is important for us citizens to be taking note on sensitive issues like this one. time will tell.

 

[kbosho]

anakuja tz kwa faida ya usa na sio tz

 

[Lwesye]

The Chinese president visited the East African country a few months ago, and U.S. businesses are eager to get in on the region's petroleum supplies and other natural resources before China becomes dominant there.

Haya maneno yanatisha duh wanakuja kwa sababu wanaogopa China itajinyakulia uhalali wa kibiashara nchini sasa tutaipata mabingwa wawili kuja kupambana kwa rasilimali zetu

 

[Kizotaka]

Is there any truth in this? Where is this Mizengi man now? Still advising the president? Information please. Do you think such allegations can stop the Us president from visit the country?

Sent from my BlackBerry 9860 using JamiiForums

That also not the reason to visit our rich country