Frigate Libertad:
Clarin: “Argentina appeals in Ghana courts over the ship”
Ambito Financiero: “Personal effort by Ki-Moon, before a diplomatic war”
Pagina/12: “Many options minus negotiating with the vultures”
Press/Speech Freedom:
Clarin: “Warnings at the UN over barriers to freedom of expression in Argentina”
Clarin
Argentina appeals in Ghana courts over the ship
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
By Ana Baron
Argentina decided to appeal the ruling in which Judge Richard Adjei-Frimpong declared that the detention of the Frigate Libertad is legal.
But, what chances are there that the Court of Appeals of Ghana will reverse it?
What is in play is whether the Frigate Libertad has diplomatic immunity or not.
Judge Adjei-Frimpong states that Argentine ceded its sovereign immunity and accepted the jurisdiciton of the courts of New York and other foreign courts in 1994.
Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman said yesterday that Argentina never renounced its sovereignty and showed as proof the rulings from the U.S., Germany, France and Switzerland which rejected the attachment of the Argentine state’s assets that the vulture funds wanted to attach.
Last week, Cristina said, however, that the lawsuits the funds “are supported precisely by the immunities that were renounced by previous governments” which is to say that she sided with the Ghanaian judge and it should be strange if the vulture fund recalls that statement in the Court of Appeals. Nor does it seem very prudent that she’d said “they could hold on to the Frigate, but not with our sovereignty” opening the chance for a legal defeat.
Argentina has been arguing strongly that, by detaining the Frigate, Ghana violated the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules concerning the Immunity of State-owned Vessels that precisely grants immunity to the Frigate.
Timerman insisted yesterday that the government of Ghana has the obligation to honor these conventions. “The Ghanaian state is responsible in the international arena to take action in all its branches of government, including the judicial branch,” said the Foreign Ministry statement. The Ghana executive branch supported the release of the Frigate, but the judge refused.
Ambito Financiero
Personal effort by Ki-Moon, before a diplomatic war
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
By Carlos Burgueno
According to a report from Transparency International (an NGO that fights against corruption in the world), in its chapter on Ghana, 79% of its citizens consider the judicial system of that country to be corrupt. Also, it speaks of the need for American companies to pay “favors” to facilitate commercial transactions and judicial decisions.
Argentina will wait some days to see if a personal effort by the head of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon, manages to free the Frigate. Meanwhile at the end of tomorrow at night the frigate’s crew will return. Until the weekend, there will be a summit meeting of the President of the Nation and a few officials, where Cristina de Kirchner will decide how far to go in the conflict with Ghana.
“We are ruling out nothing,” said Foreign Minister Hector Timerman yesterday in New York, after his meeting with Ki-Moon, about the battle waged from Argentina against Ghana over the conflict. In this direction, various possible options are under review: from the presentations before UN international courts, specifically the Law of the Sea in Hamburg, to the breaking of bilateral relations with the African country.
There is only one formal option which was dismissed yesterday, by the recommendations of the officials of the United Nations themselves: the case will not be taken up by the Security Council. That was told to the Argentine delegation by Guatemalan ambassador Gert Rosenthal, who has good relations with Timerman, and who holds the pro tempore presidency of the Council. “It doesn’t alter international security,” said the Central American diplomat, a position admitted to by Argentina.
The Argentine foreign minister also got an option from Ki-Moon himself: a personal effort before the Ghanaian government of John Dramani Mahama. The UN secretary general committed to talking with the African country to analyze a diplomatic way out of the conflict, which was obviously accepted by Timerman. He’ll give very little time to this option; not because he mistrusts Ki-Moon, who has a very good dialogue with Buenos Aires, but because the government believes the position of the Ghanaian government to get behind Judge Richard Adjei Frimpong’s actions will not change. According to what the Argentine team in New York said yesterday, that judge was acting under the financial influence of the head of the vulture fund NML, Paul Singer, and would only move to worsen the situation of the Argentine crew and the security of the ship in the port of Tema. It was mentioned that in the negotiation held in Accra, the Ghanaian capital, Vice Foreign Minister Eduardo Zuain and Vice Defense Minister Alfredo Forti were told by the African government of some kind of way out with the same method with which the Elliot fund had convinces Frimpong. This information, plus the suspension of providing power to the ship, was what brought Cristina de Kirchner to make the decision to evacuate the Libertad.
In this panorama, from Buenos Aires they also put together qualifying material about the Ghanaian judicial system provided by Amnesty International.
Also from the United Nations they equally recommended prudence to the Argentine delegation in how they treat Ghana. It was clarified yesterday that it’s seen as a state among the so-called “serious ones” on the African map, almost on par with South Africa. It’s from Ghana, it was said, that humanitarian aid and infrastructure investments are coming for countries like Lesotho, Liberia, Togo, Niger, Benin, Mali, Gambia, Ivory Coast and Gambia. It was also mentioned that that country is, together with South Africa, the main state coordinator of the African Union, an arena where from the United Nations peace agreements and social, economic and financial agreements are negotiated with that region.
Timerman said that the conflict, at least for now, is not with the Ghanaian government but with the vulture fund Elliott and its influences over the African judicial system. That lowered the previous level of confrontation somewhat, where the Zuain-Forti team was blaming the Mahama government for the situation.
While allowing the efforts of Ki-Moon and the sailors are returning from the Libertad to Argentina, the government is preparing its judicial attack. At the headquarters of the Foreign Ministry in Buenos Aires, the two international protocols are already decided which Argentina and Ghana adhere to in order to advance judicially against the African country. It’s seen, in chronological order, as the Brussels Convention of 1926 for the Unification of Certain Rules concerning the Immunity of State-owned Vessels, and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
In the first case, the text relative to this case is the sixth article, where it speaks about “immunity of state-owned vessels” stating that this convention and its 1934 protocol “establish the principle that state-owned ships or those exploited by them, their cargo and passengers, are subject to relative claims and the same rules of responsibility,” at least that “they are effecting a governmental or non-commercial service”. That would mean, according to Argentina’s view, protection of a ship, its cargo and its crew always when it is conducting official and non-commercial activity.
The second protocol which Argentina will turn to is the Convention on the Law of the Sea. Article 292 of the protocol, referring to the “Prompt Release of Ships and their Crews”, speaks of “when authorities of a State have detained a ship” … “the issue can be submitted to the Court of the Laws of the Sea, unless the parties agree separately.”
That tribunal is located in Hamburg, it has 21 judges and the top leader is Bank Ki-Moon. That article speaks also of the “diplomatic status of official ships” of state, a situation that would cover the Frigate Libertad. According to the letter of this article, war ships and other ships of State destined to non-commercial ends are protected by sovereign immunity and, as such, free of attachment.
The cannons will also be pointed at the actions of the vulture funds. It was clear yesterday in the presentation in the United Nations that there is no political option to negotiate in the Ghanaian court with the plaintiff Elliott due to the decision of the Argentine government. But it was also clarified that legally it would be impossible to negotiate any legal way out in Ghana, as the “locked-shut law” approved by the Congress impedes it. This rule doesn’t allow for the discussion of payment that didn’t enter the last swap of 2010.
Yesterday, the President herself referenced this situation from the Casa Rosada, confirming that there will be no negotiations with the Elliott fund, which is also considered corrupt since the Ghana affair. The top theory of the Argentina government is that the frigate will be stranded for a long time in the port of Tema. Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry is preparing a “Botnia II”, in reference to the Uruguayan paper pulp mill that required long negotiations in the courts of The Hague. Now the issue will cross the border into Germany.
Pagina/12
Many options minus negotiating with the vultures
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman yesterday brought the complaint over the release of the Frigate Libertad, detained in the port of Tema by the court of Ghana, before the main bodies of the United Nations. During the meeting he held in New York, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon “emphasized the need to respect international law, especially the Convention of the Sea,” he said. Timerman said that Argentina will repeat its complaint before the next G-20 meeting because “the vulture funds cannot overwhelm the sovereignty of a country.” The options on the menu are various, put evidently not among them is the chance of negotiating with the funds. “While I am President, they could end up with the frigate, but no vulture fund is going to end up with the liberty, sovereignty and dignity of this country,” said Cristina Kirchner in an event sent out over national broadcast.
The event was convened to announce the new measures for insurance company funds, but the President took advantage to take a position on the issue. “What we’ve lived through these days is causing much pain and I say as an Argentine,” argued CFK during the event at the Bicentennial Museum. She said that “I have seen some, very few fortunately, defending the vulture funds that violated all the rules of international law attached our Frigate Libertad in an African port, believing they were going to pressure or extort the country.” And she closed reiterating that she will not negotiate with the funds.
It was the corollary of a day in which foreign policy activity was centered on the claim over a frigate. After having been at the United Nations days ago to vote on Argentina’s entry as a non-permanent member of the Security Council, Timerman had to go back to the headquarters located in New York. Between one and the other, the foreign minister slept on a plane four of five nights. Yesterday, he met with those in charge of the main bodies: the secretary general, the president of the Security Council and the head of the General Assembly.
In a press conference, Timerman said that Secretary Ban Ki-Moon “accepted using his good offices to talk with the government of Ghana to exchange opinions about how to resolve this conflict.” Participating in the meeting was UN legal counsel Patricia O’Brien, who commented that she’d been reviewing precedents and that it was the first time in history that she’d been given a fact like this. That the only case more or less similar was – more than 12 years ago – when a Russian ship was attached in a French port for a claim from a Swiss company, which French courts had determined that the ship was not subject to attachment and the Swiss company had to pay court costs plus indemnity.
After meeting with Timerman, the president of the General Assembly, Vuk Jeremic, issued a statement in which he expressed his “serious concern over the situation and reiterated his call on the Ghana government to desist its conduct and respect its obligations in virtue of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.”
In that same direction, the president of the Security Council, Gert Rosenthal, said that the United Nations “is on the side of compliance with international law” and that such law is an issue that “concerns it greatly.” “Clearly there is a problem here that affects not only the Argentine Republic but all the countries on the planet,” so “in that sense we are taking note of the Argentine government’s issue,” Rosenthal said.
In his presentation, Timerman argued that “the Frigate Libertad will be released sooner or later, but Argentina will not negotiate with the vulture funds and will not allow a group, operating from tax shelters that are in the Caribbean, to undo the dignity and sovereignty of a people.” And he added that “a vulture fund could never appropriate property of the Argentine government and we will not allow in any way that the vulture funds, who are today the pirates of the 21st century, try to do what the pirates did in the 17th or 18th centuries.”
In that sense, Timerman said that at the next G-20 meeting, of which Argentina is a member, he will demand the “total and absolute elimination” of the possibility that a vulture fund that operates from a tax haven can “try to subdue the sovereignty of a country,” as happened in this case with Argentina. The complaint could be put forth by Economy Minister Hernan Lorenzino, in the first week of November, when the finance heads of the G-20 meet in a preparatory summit in Mexico. Before that, it’s likely that next week Timerman himself will travel to Ghana to maintain meetings at the highest level in search of finding a way out of the situation.
Clarin
Warnings at the UN over barriers to freedom of expression in Argentina
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
By Alejandro Alfie
With an escalation of pressure from the government on the judiciary, the United States recommended yesterday to Argentina “to respect and implement the decisions of the Supreme Court on unresolved articles of the media law.” It was put forth by the US delegation, in one of three “recommendations” that were made to Argentina in the UN Human Rights Council, in Geneva.
The Court decision established that , on December 7 the preliminary measure which suspends application of the divestment clause of the media law for Clarin Group, will expire.
With no issuing of sentence about the underlying decision or renewing the preliminary measure, on December 7 the measure will expire that protects Clarin and the year term begins that the law provide for the group to transfer some media and thus adapt to the rule in effect. But the government insists that between the 7th and the 10th of December it plans to intervene “ex officio” in some companies of Clarin Group, like Channel 13 and Cablevision, about where there is concern in the United States.
Argentina submitted yesterday to its second Universal Periodic Review (UPR), on the part of 60 countries that made a series of recommendations, praise and criticism around the human rights policy that the government displays, as they acknowledged the steps taken by the investigation and conviction on crimes committed during the last military dictatorship, as well as the passage of laws on equal marriage, gender identity, migration, disabled people and violence against women, since the last UPR in 2008.
Fundación LED, which is led by Radical ex-deputy Silvana Giudici, sent a critical report about the government’s strategy against journalists and the media.
The Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS) remarked about the “serious situation of freedom for private persons in the country,” while highlighting the “positive aspects” like the “decriminalization of libel and slander.” The delegation from the United States also highlighted this, while it showed its concern for “the polarized environment in relation to the media and freedom of expression in Argentina. The interference from the Executive Branch has made access to information difficult and undermined the credibility of official statistics in areas like the census and economic data,” said the delegation of the United States.
That position was reinforced by other countries like Spain, Australia and Germany, which also criticized the status of freedom of expression in Argentina, while Belgium and Canada demanded the passage of a law on access to public information.
The Spanish delegation asked “to reinforce the actions in defense of freedom of expression and the plurality of the communication media” in Argentina; and the delegation from Germany argued that “in the face of the recent legislation about the media,” it recommended “guaranteeing that freedom of expression and freedom of the press are fully respected at all times.”
Paola García Rey, coordinator of Protection of Human Rights at Amnesty International Argentina highlighted two other worrisome issues, which they put forth yesterday in the UN: “Sexual and reproductive health, for the lack of access to safe abortions, which is the main cause of maternal mortality in Argentina; and the overcrowding and violence in prisons.”
The Argentine delegation, led by Human Rights Secretary Juan Martín Fresneda, argued that since 2003 they have created “more than 5 million jobs. We’ve sharply lowered poverty, which went from 54% to 6.5% in 2012. We’ve also reduced the rates of indigence that went from 27% to 2%.” Those figures were justified by statistical manipulation.
Despite the criticism over the hostility from the government against the media that are critical of local leaders, the Argentine official pointed out that “the cornerstone of this new stage in matters of human rights is the passage of the Law of Audiovisual Communications Services, which puts freedom of expression forward as a social right.”
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