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Tanzania’s main opposition party, the Party for Democracy and Progress, also known as Chadema, says police have detained their leader Freeman Mbowe.  Mbowe was arrested before he was scheduled to speak at a conference to announce demands for constitutional reforms.

The statement from Chadema’s Communication Director John Mrema, shared on Twitter, says Freeman Mbowe and 10 other Chadema members were rounded up at night in Tanzania’s northwestern port city of Mwanza.

“The party condemns the repression of the rights of Tanzanians with the strongest force. These are signs that the dictatorship that existed during the rule of President John Magufuli continues,” the statement said.

Mbowe was approached by an army of police officers in his hotel when he arrived at 2:30 am Wednesday and was arrested together with other leaders of the party, according to local reports.

While other Chadema members were taken to the Mwanza police station, there has been no information about Mbowe’s whereabouts so far.

“We want the police to come out and say where the chairman is and why he was arrested,” the opposition party statement said.

The deputy chairperson of Chadema, Tundu Lissu, pleaded for action in support of the country’s civil society.

“Calling for political reforms is no breach of any law,” he said. Lissu said that he urges “Tanzania’s dev’t [development] partners to stop subsidizing the CCM [Chama Cha Mapinduzi] dictatorship & to support democracy,” in a Twitter post Wednesday.

The Chama Cha Mapinduzi is the country’s ruling party and the second longest ruling party on the continent.

On Monday, Mbowe said the party would not leave the city until the new constitution conference takes place, telling the government if it intends to prevent them from organizing the conference they should enhance their skills to fight the people.

 
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Haiti’s new prime minister, Ariel Henry, took office Tuesday in the aftermath of the president’s assassination two weeks ago, pledging to improve the country’s dire security and to organize long-delayed elections. 

Henry was installed as head of a new government in an attempt to stabilize a country on the brink of chaos since the murder of President Jovenel Moise at his residence in the early hours of July 7. 

The swearing in of Henry, who was named to the post by Moise days before his death, was seen as a key step toward holding elections as demanded by many Haitians and the international community. 

After the president was killed by armed commandos, acting Prime Minister Claude Joseph declared a “state of siege” and said he was in charge, launching a power tussle in the violence-wracked impoverished Caribbean nation. 

“One of my priority tasks will be to reassure the people that we will do everything to restore order and security,” Henry said Tuesday to Haiti’s population of 10 million people. “This is one of the main issues that the president wanted me to tackle, because he understood that it was a necessary step if we were to succeed in his other concern of organizing credible, honest, transparent and inclusive elections.” 

The inauguration ceremony in Port-au-Prince was preceded by solemn tributes to Moise, including speeches, dancing and music on a stage set with bouquets of white flowers and a giant portrait of the assassinated president.   

Haitian authorities, with the help of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, are still investigating the murky motives for Moise’s assassination.  

More than 20 people, many of them retired Colombian military personnel, have been arrested in connection with the killing. 

In the new government, Joseph, who agreed to stand down and cede the role to Henry, returned to his former post as foreign minister.   

Moise, 53, had ruled Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, by decree after legislative elections due in 2018 were delayed in the wake of multiple disputes, including about when his own term ended. 

As well as presidential, legislative and local elections, Haiti had been due to have a constitutional referendum in September after it was twice postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.   

In the power struggle after Moise’s killing, the balance tipped toward Henry when ambassadors — including some from the United States, France and the United Nations — informally threw their support behind the 71-year-old neurosurgeon. 

Haiti has no working parliament and no workable succession process and was already mired deep in a political and security crisis when Moise was killed.   

Haitian police have accused a Haitian doctor with ties to Florida, Christian Emmanuel Sanon, of being a mastermind of the plot and having “political objectives.” 

“All the culprits, perpetrators and sponsors must be identified and brought before Haitian justice,” Henry, who has previously held several ministerial jobs, said in his speech. “And I hope that exemplary and dissuasive sentences will be pronounced. The nation expects no less from its leaders. Never again will we have to relive such a tragedy.” 

“The solution to the Haitian crisis must come from the Haitians,” he added. “Everything is negotiable, except democracy, elections and the rule of law.”   

Henry also thanked international partners for the arrival of the country’s first batch of COVID-19 vaccines, which arrived last week in a nation with scarce health resources.   

The United States, which exerts wide influence in Haiti, welcomed the new government, with State Department spokesman Ned Price saying Washington was “encouraged to see Haitian political and civil actors working to form a unity government that can stabilize the country.” 

Moise will be laid to rest on Friday in the northern city of Cap-Haitien. His widow, Martine Moise, who was seriously wounded in the attack, was treated in a Miami hospital before returning home over the weekend.  
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The Japanese women’s softball team posted an 8-1 rout of Australia Wednesday to usher in the Tokyo Olympic Games. 

The Games, delayed for a year by the pandemic, got off to a quiet start when Japanese pitcher Yukiko Ueno tossed the first pitch to Australian leadoff hitter Michelle Cox at a near-empty stadium in the northwest city of Fukushima, the site of the 2011 nuclear disaster. 

Australia took a 1-0 lead in the first inning after Ueno walked a batter and hit the next two, allowing Cox to score. But the host country quickly rebounded, tying the game in the same inning, then scoring two runs in the third and three more in the fourth. The game ended after Yu Yamamoto hit a two-run homer in the fifth inning that prompted the umpires to invoke the mercy rule. 

The Japan-Australia contest was the first of three games scheduled for Wednesday. The United States beat Italy 2-0 in the second game, with 38-year-old Cat Osterman, who won gold with the U.S. team in 2004 and silver in 2008, striking out nine batters while giving up just one hit over six innings.   

Mexico and Canada were slated for the third game at Fukushima Azuma Baseball Stadium.   

The first women’s soccer matches are scheduled to be held Wednesday in Tokyo.   

The Tokyo Olympics are being staged under a coronavirus state of emergency prompted by rising rates of new COVID-19 infections and low rates of vaccinations. So far, at least 70 people connected to the Games have tested positive for COVID-19 since athletes began arriving at the Olympic Village in Tokyo. 

Olympic organizers have banned fans from attending any of the events because of the current surge of new infections.   

Mexico’s national baseball team has been placed in quarantine in Mexico City after two players tested positive for COVID-19 before they were scheduled to travel to Japan.   

Meanwhile, an administrative error has caused six members of the Polish swim team to leave Tokyo and return home. A delegation of 23 swimmers arrived in Tokyo to take part in the Games, but the Polish Swimming Federation (PZP) recalled six of them home Sunday because of an administrative error.   

All six swimmers issued a statement calling on the entire organization’s board to resign immediately.   

PZP director Pawel Slominski issued a statement Monday expressing his “great regret, sadness and bitterness about the situation.”   

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters. 
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Some members of Haiti’s opposition say they will not support Prime Minister-designate Ariel Henry, whom President Jovenel Moise named to the position a day before he was assassinated. Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph has led the country since the president was killed inside his private residence in the early hours of July 7.  

On Saturday, the influential CORE group issued a statement, calling for the formation of a “consensual and inclusive government.” The CORE group is comprised of ambassadors from the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, the European Union, Brazil, and the representatives of the United Nations, as well as the Organization of American States.  

“To this end, we encourage Prime Minister-designate Ariel Henry to pursue the mission he was charged with to form this type of government,” the statement said.  

“Although Haiti faces grave danger, the members of the group express their hope that together, the political, economic and civil society actors of the country will support their officials as they work to reestablish security,” the statement added.    

Henry, a 71-year-old neurosurgeon, addressed the nation on Sunday, identifying himself as prime minister and promising to announce his Cabinet soon.  

“In short order, I will announce the members of my consensual government who will occupy their posts for a brief period of time, until we hold elections to choose our next president,” Henry said. “Over the past few days, I have met with leaders from all sectors of civil society as well as politicians and members of the private sector. I intend to continue these discussions because it is the only way to unite as a Haitian family.”   

In response to a question posed by VOA Creole during a Port-au-Prince press conference on Friday, Joseph denied wanting to stay in power.    

“I do not have any personal ambitions. I am not a member of any particular political party. Jovenel Moise named me charge d’affaires, Jovenel Moise named me foreign minister, and it is under Jovenel Moise that I became prime minister. I have no ties to any political party,” Joseph told VOA.

It was not clear when Joseph would step down.  

Opposition rejects CORE group, PM designate 
 
Former Senator Serge Jean Louis of the Fron Nasyonal Demokrasi (FND) party rejected outright the CORE group’s statement Monday.  

“I am almost sure that no one in the opposition supports this because it’s a road to nowhere. This is just another PHTK government (the party of Moise) – with the same orientation,” he told VOA.    

Lawyer Caleb Jean Baptiste, who heads a legal group dedicated to defending prisoners and human rights, also rejected the CORE group statement.    

“The CORE group is not Dessalines (Haitian revolutionary war hero), it is not Henry Christophe (Haitian revolutionary hero), it is not Haitian, they are interfering in our country, they are violating the OAS charter, they are violating all the agreements that we have signed and ratified, the CORE group does not have the right to do that,” Jean Baptiste told VOA.  

VOA Creole reached out to both Henry and Joseph for comment but did not get a response.   

Funeral preparations 

Meanwhile, in Cape Haitian, preparations for Moise’s funeral on Friday are under way. VOA Creole’s reporter in the northern city saw stands being built to accommodate VIPs who will be attending the official ceremony on Friday.  

VOA also visited the cemetery where the president will be laid to rest next to his father, Etienne Moise, who passed away on October 4, 2020. It was the president’s desire to be buried next to his father, his family said.    

First lady Martine Moise returned to Haiti on Saturday from Miami, where she was treated for wounds sustained during the attack that resulted in her husband’s death. Dressed in black, protected by an anti-bullet vest and with her arm in a sling. She was greeted at the airport by Joseph, with whom she has been in frequent contact since the assassination.  
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U.S. President Joe Biden hosts Jordan’s King Abdullah at the White House Monday with several key regional issues on the agenda, as well as a show of support for the Jordanian leader after a challenge to his rule. 

“It will be an opportunity to discuss the many challenges facing the Middle East and showcase Jordan’s leadership role in promoting peace and stability in the region,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters. She called Jordan “a key security partner and ally of the United States.” 

Monday’s meetings are expected to include discussion of the situation in Syria, where a decade of conflict has pushed more than 1 million Syrians into Jordan, as well as neighboring Iraq, where U.S. forces have been the target of attacks by Iran-backed militias. 

Other topics include efforts to revive the Iran nuclear deal, dormant Israel-Palestinian peace talks, and the Trump-era Abraham Accords that saw Israel normalize relations with four Arab states. 

Abdullah’s in-person visit with Biden is the first by a Middle East leader since the U.S. president took office in January. Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi is scheduled to go to the White House next week, and the Biden administration is planning a visit for Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. 

Last week, a Jordanian security court sentenced two former officials to 15 years in prison for allegedly conspiring with the king’s half-brother, Prince Hamzah, to instigate unrest against the monarch while seeking foreign assistance.

The former officials were arrested in April, and Hamzah was placed under house arrest, though he was never charged. All three denied the accusations against them. 

Some information for this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters. 
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