Sunday, December 19, 2010

Sudan's President Al Bashir addresses the mini-summit on the security situation in Somalia - ISSA rejects any Israeli role in Africa

Sudan is keeping its diplomatic mission in Mogadishu despite the deteriorated security situation there.

The 1st Consultative Meeting held between the Council of Arab Peace and Security (PSC) and the Peace and Security Council of the African Union called for full Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Arab territories.

Further details below.

ISSA Rejects any Israeli Role in Africa - Al Bashir Addresses the Mini-Summit on the Security Situation in Somalia
Source: Sudan Vision Daily - www.sudanvisiondaily.com
Author: Al-Sammani Awadallah
Date: Monday, 20 December 2010
(Khartoum, Sudan) – President of the Republic, Field Marshal Omer Al Bashir will address at 12:00 noon today in the Friendship Hall the Mini-Summit on the Security Situation in Somalia.

The summit will discuss the situation in Somalia amid broad participation from African Security and Intelligence services.

Sudanese National Intelligence and Security Service Representative, Major General Hanafi Abdullah said in a press conference yesterday that the situation in Somalia will top the agendas of the summit, pointing our to the role played by Sudan in connection to the Somali issue and the financial and logistic support present to the government in Mogadishu.

He affirmed that Sudan is keeping its diplomatic mission in Mogadishu despite the deteriorated security situation there.

He said that the summit will discuss the proposed mechanism to upgrade the capability in Somalia and the current situation there. He pointed to the participation of the African Union and IGAD in this mini-summit to reach a united vision in supporting the AU Peace and Security Council to resolve the issue besides helping the African leaders in supporting stability in Somalia.

On his part, CISSA executive Secretary, Isaac Moyo said that Sudan is continuously supporting the CISSA and this meeting is evidence to the confidence of the CISSA in Sudan which is one of its founders.

He added that the CISSA held a workshop on the ICC through which the rejection voice of the African continent came out.

He disclosed that today's meeting is a unique chance to activate the data of the CISSA over Somalia to bridge any gaps, affirming that the African governments blessed the formation of the CISSA as a unique institution.

He said that the mini-summit will discuss on the sidelines of the meeting the situation in Sudan and the upcoming referendum.

Moyo affirmed that CISSA is an African entity working for the interest of the continent as a security mechanism to confront the security problems in the continent.

He confirmed that CISSA doesn't welcome any Israeli role in Africa and will unveil any Zionist plots.
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The 1st Consultative Meeting held between the Council of Arab Peace and Security (PSC) and the Peace and Security Council of the African Union called for full Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Arab territories.

Arab and African PSCs Call for Israeli Withdrawal from All Occupied Arab Lands
Source: Ahlul Bayt News Agency - www.abna.ir
Date:
The 1st Consultative Meeting held between the Council of Arab Peace and Security (PSC) and the Peace and Security Council of the African Union called for full Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Arab territories.
The meeting was held at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo.

The councils issued a statement in which they urged the international community to recognize the State of Palestine within the borders of June 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital and reach a just and comprehensive solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The statement included several items that reflect the stances of the Arab and African countries concerning Sudan, Somalia and the Comoros, in order to achieve peace, stability, security and prevent external interference in those areas.

Ambassador Youssef Ahmed, Syria's Permanent Representative to the League of Arab States, stressed the importance of holding such meetings between the Arab and the African blocs to reach joint cooperation and coordination between them.

Ahmad stressed that these meetings should reflect clear and strong stances that reject the obstinate Israeli policies, which hinder the peace efforts and violate the international resolutions.

Ambassador Ahmad called for an effective Arab and African role to solve the crisis of Sudan and the Horn of Africa and achieve peace and stability in these areas.

The Council of Arab Peace and Security was established in 2006 during the Arab Summit in Khartoum. It aims at preventing, managing and solving crises.

The Council submits reports to the League's Council with its recommendations and suggestions on the measures necessary to maintain international peace and security, the outcome of negotiations, mediation and conciliation efforts conducted between disputing parties.

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Thursday, December 09, 2010

Understanding the Ethiopian hardliners

On Sudan, Getachew urged the U.S. to engage Bashir and the Sudanese leadership. Sudan, more than Somalia, poses the greatest threat to regional security and stability, Getachew argued. The prospects for a civil war which destabilizes the region would be devastating. The only country that would benefit would be Eritrea.

Further details below.

US embassy cables Meles Security chief and Yamamoto
Source: www.abugidainfo.com
Date: Wednesday, 08 December 2010.
US embassy cables Meles Security chief and Yamamoto
Monday, 08 June 2009, 12:33

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EU contributed over €600 million to Ethiopia - “Ethiopia’s Stalled Democracy: A Spotlight on the Ogaden”

Mr. Marino Busdachin, UNPO General Secretary, stressed the need to discuss Ethiopia’s failed governance because “not enough people in the EU manifest enough interest in the Ethiopia issue.” A major conference was needed to bring new thinking to light – the EU contributed over €600 million to Ethiopia but was treated with contempt and its funds used not for, but against, democracy – this had to be stopped.

The plight of Ogaden women was presented by Mr. Abdullahi Mohamed and Ms. Abbey Augus of African Rights Monitor who cited cases of arrest, robbery, rape, and extrajudicial killings, that compounded critically low development indicators and a tolerance of underage marriage and female genital mutilation.

Full story below.

EU must end “business as usual” with Ethiopia
Source: Unrepresented Nations and People Organization
Reprinted by: africanpressorganization
Date: Thursday, 09 December 2010 (BRUSSELS, Kingdom of Belgium):
In a hearing convened on 7 December 2010 in the European Parliament, deputies, media and civil society heard that the European Union must uphold its values and support them with “concrete action” while the EU High Representative’s “softly worded” statements must be replaced by an assessment of the effectiveness of EU aid distribution and its impact on human rights and democratization, possibly leading to the consideration of identifying targeted sanctions.

Rare and moving testimony from an eyewitness to the severe and degrading human rights abuses being perpetrated in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia informed discussions in a cross-party hearing, entitled “Ethiopia’s Stalled Democracy: A Spotlight on the Ogaden” convened by Ms. Ana Gomes MEP in the European Parliament on 7 December 2010.

Opening the hearing, Vice-President of the European Parliament, Mr. László Tőkés MEP noted that the hearing represented an important step to understanding “Ethiopia’s complexity and the legitimacy of its peoples’ demands” emphasizing that “to look to the future we must understand the present.”

Ms. Ana Gomes MEP communicated her desire for a constructive dialogue – there was “a pressing need to assess where Ethiopian governance is heading” she noted and it was time the international community reacts ”against the domestic and international threat of Ethiopia’s repressive government.”

Mr. Marino Busdachin, UNPO General Secretary, stressed the need to discuss Ethiopia’s failed governance because “not enough people in the EU manifest enough interest in the Ethiopia issue.” A major conference was needed to bring new thinking to light – the EU contributed over €600 million to Ethiopia but was treated with contempt and its funds used not for, but against, democracy – this had to be stopped.

The plight of Ogaden women was presented by Mr. Abdullahi Mohamed and Ms. Abbey Augus of African Rights Monitor who cited cases of arrest, robbery, rape, and extrajudicial killings, that compounded critically low development indicators and a tolerance of underage marriage and female genital mutilation.

In a historical overview Dr. Barbara Lakeberg of the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights drew from personal experience in Iraq the case of Ethiopians that fleeing the country to escape repression and the limits to free expression that made independent assessments of the situation in Ogaden so difficult.

Professor Jans of Tilburg University emphasized the need to develop a respect of minorities that went not in the direction of tolerance but rather a deeper and more positive “intercultural reciprocity” that placed Ethiopians under a law applicable to all – similar to that enshrined in the South African constitution.


SOURCE

Unrepresented Nations and People Organization
[End of copy]

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Tuesday, December 07, 2010

Yemen key transit hub for Hamas arms: leaked memos

WASHINGTON saw Yemen as a key transit point for arms flowing to the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and the Gaza Strip via Sudan, according to US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks on Tuesday.

"We understand a significant volume of arms shipments to Hamas make the short 24-hour transit across the Red Sea from Yemen to Sudan," a July 2009 memo from the US embassy in Saana said.

Full story below.

Yemen key transit hub for Hamas arms: leaked memos
Source: AFP - www.google.com/hostednews
By Paul Handley (AFP) – Tuesday, 07 December 2010:
(RIYADH) - Washington saw Yemen as a key transit point for arms flowing to the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and the Gaza Strip via Sudan, according to US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks on Tuesday.

"We understand a significant volume of arms shipments to Hamas make the short 24-hour transit across the Red Sea from Yemen to Sudan," a July 2009 memo from the US embassy in Saana said.

"These shipments usually transit in small groups of flagged and unflagged dhows" -- small wooden ships -- that hide by mixing with other similar vessels in busy harbours or in coastal mangroves, according to the document.

"The weapons are transported by boat across the Red Sea to landing points in Sudan ... Once landed, we assess that the goods are transported north by car through Sudan."

Weapons one group smuggled to Gaza included rockets, handguns, anti-armour rocket-propelled grenades, and anti-aircraft guns, the memo said.

It said the US was asking Sanaa for permission to conduct surveillance over Yemen's coastal sea using helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles to track the arms-smuggling dhows.

"In a recent case, sparse intelligence and a dhow's use of Yemeni territorial waters allowed a known shipment of arms probably bound for Gaza to transit undetected in international waters past a searching US warship," it said.

The same document said Yemen was a departure point for arms going to Somalia and other east African countries, and to Saudi Arabia as well.

Washington had information on a Yemen-based smugglers who were sending arms to African buyers, who possibly sold them on to Al-Qaeda-associated groups like Somalia's Al-Shabab rebels.

US embassy documents also spoke of the "robust black market" for weapons in Yemen.

One of the biggest worries for the US officials was the possibility that shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles could be obtained on the Yemen market.

In a cable from January 2010, US officials expressed concerns about Yemen's planned purchase of 30,000 assault rifles and ammunition from Bulgaria "given the unstable situation in Yemen and the potential for proliferation of small arms."

One month earlier, another memo spoke of worries that Yemen's defence ministry planned to buy a shipment of small arms and heavy artillery ammunition, sniper rifles, anti-aircraft guns and howitzers from a Serbian arms dealer Slobodan Tesic, who was on a UN travel ban list.

The embassy said it worried that the weapons could be diverted to the black market.

But a 2007 cable suggested Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh took a casual view toward the arms black market, and could benefit from it himself.

In the middle of a meeting with the White House's top counter-terrorism advisor, Frances Townsend, Saleh unexpectedly invited in known arms dealer Faris Manaa.

"If he does not behave properly, you can take him... back to Washington in Townsend's plane or to Guantanamo," Saleh joked with the Americans.

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Friday, November 26, 2010

Ethiopia's ONLF rebels say killed 35 govt troops - Government says claim propaganda based on lies

  • Region is eyed for potential oil and gas reserves
  • Government says claim propaganda based on lies
Ethiopia's ONLF rebels say killed 35 govt troops
Source: Reuters - uk.reuters.com
Author: Aaron Maasho
Date: Friday, 26 November 2010 1:14pm GMT
ADDIS ABABA, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Rebels in Ethiopia's Ogaden region said on Friday they had killed 35 government troops in three days of fighting, a charge dismissed by the government.

The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) wants autonomy for the ethnic Somali-dominated province, which is drawing interest from foreign firms who think its deserts might hold significant oil and gas deposits.

The group said in a statement that hundreds of civilians were tortured by government troops in November after they were displaced from their localities.

"A brigade has engaged the Ethiopian Army on multiple fronts around Degahbur from November 23 to 25. They lost 35 soldiers in the operation, with many wounded," the ONLF said.

"This operation was to disrupt the Ethiopian government's new strategy of evicting people from their habitat and confiscating their properties, then taking them to killing centres," the group said.

Government spokesman Shimelis Kemal dismissed the claim.

"What happened was that the army was conducting a mop-up operation to get rid of bandits. Six of their members were killed while two were captured," he told Reuters by phone.

Ethiopia says the Ogaden basin may contain gas reserves of 4 trillion cubic feet and major oil deposits.

The ONLF routinely claims victories over the army. The government has admitted to small skirmishes in the past year but Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said the ONLF had been defeated.

Ethiopia signed a peace deal in October with a faction of the ONLF, although another division of the group called the deal "irrelevant".

"They (ONLF) have been crushed. This is a splinter group that is limited to highway robberies and nothing more," Shimelis said. Addis Ababa says the ONLF are "terrorists" supported by regional rival Eritrea.

(Editing by David Clarke and Jan Harvey)

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New Sudan war would cost Ethiopia, region

New Sudan war would cost Kenya, region
Source: AFP / www.capitalfm.co.ke
Date: Thursday, 25 November 2010


(Khartoum, Sudan, Nov 25) - A return to civil war in the event that south Sudan votes for independence would cost the country, the region and international community more than 100 billion dollars, a study published on Thursday warned.

Aegis Trust, an NGO, and three research centres including the Institute for Security Studies, based in South Africa, drew up four post-referendum scenarios, ranging from peace to a resumption of full-scale war between north and south Sudan.

In the case of a 10-year conflict of medium intensity, the losses for Sudan would amount to at least 52.1 billion dollars (39 billion euros), on top of about 29 billion dollars for neighbouring Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda, the study estimated.

The impact on the international community would top 30 billion dollars in terms of peacekeeping missions and humanitarian aid.

"This report demonstrates the high cost of conflict. It implies that domestic, regional and international parties should be asking: 'Are we doing enough to avoid a war that might cost over 100 billion dollars and ruin countless lives?'" said Matthew Bell of London-based Frontier Economics.

The study calculated Sudan's losses in case of war on the basis of an annual 2.2-percent decline in Gross Domestic Product.

It would cost Ethiopia and Kenya more than one billion dollars a year in terms of forecast growth, the researchers said, warning that war would also damage Egypt, Sudan's northern neighbour and the region's leading economy.

The impact could be even heavier in the event of full-scale war that would disrupt the oil production of Africa's largest country, which has reserves of more than six billion barrels.

Khartoum and the former southern rebels signed a peace deal in 2005 after more than two decades of war. A central element of that accord is an independence referendum for the south scheduled for January. Since July, the two sides have been negotiating on key post-vote issues.

Chief among those crucial to a peaceful transition in case of partition is the sharing of oil resources.

Oil revenues make up the Sudanese government's main source of foreign currency earnings, while southern Sudan depends on oil for as much as 98 percent of its budget.

Most of Sudan's reserves are concentrated in the south but can only be exported through a pipeline passing through the north on the way to Port Sudan on the Red Sea.

An oil-sharing formula would benefit both the north and south, whereas an interruption in production and exports would damage the whole country.

"Reaching some level of agreement before the referendum is important not only because both economies need uninterrupted revenue, but also to sustain the confidence of oil companies in their existing investments," the International Crisis Group said this week.

In case of peace and healthy ties between north and south Sudan as well improved security in Darfur, Sudan's growth would steady at an annual 6.2 percent for five years and even reach nine percent from 2016, the study said.
- - -

Report On The Cost Of A Possible Return To War In Sudan
Source: SRS (Sudan Radio Service) - www.sudanradio.org
Date: Thursday, 25 November 2010
(Nairobi, Kenya) – A report published by a coalition of European and African economic and political think-tanks on Thursday says a return to war in Sudan would cost Sudan, the region and the international community about 100 billion US dollars.

The report which comes amid fears that the referendum could trigger an escalation of violence attempts to analyze the economic cost of war to the region.

Mathew Bell an Associate Director of the London based, Frontier Economics spoke to SRS in Nairobi during the launch of the report.

[Mathew Bell]: “The report is an attempt to do with economic analysis of what the cost of war to Sudan and the region and the international community could be. It very explicitly sets aside the very real and important human costs of death and suffering that would result in war but to take a financial perspective as a way of adding to the debate around the cost of war. The headline itself looks like it would cost in excess of about a hundred billion dollars to the combination of Sudan the region and the international community should war break out. That figure breaks down into about 50 billion dollar cost to the Sudanese economy itself. About a 25 billion dollar cost to the regional economy including Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda. And about a 25 to 30 billion dollar cost to the international community in the form of peace keeping in the form of humanitarian intervention.”

Mathew Bell recognizes the difficulties in measuring the costs of potential future conflict in the report. He explains the different scenarios.

[Mathew Bell]: “Because of the uncertainties of what may happen because nobody can be sure about what the outcome is going to be, we have looked at different potential scenarios; we have tried to come up with a range of figures. And the 100 billion dollar that we have been quoting is towards the bottom end of that range. And the Low, medium and high conflict scenarios are different levels of conflict from a low level civil war situation, to a very serious situation to a very serious full blown civil war that might involve some of the regional players as well, or ways of how to characterize different points in the spectrum of costs. What we don’t comment on at all is what the likelihood of different scenarios would be. But we want to give a range of potential costs.”

According to the report the evidence suggests that the net impact of conflict would be significantly negative. Sudan would lose about 50 billion USD from its GDP, the neighboring countries would lose 25 billion USD of GDP and the international community would lose 30 billion USD in peacekeeping and humanitarian costs.

The report by the European and African economic and political think-tanks on the cost of war in Sudan was launched in Nairobi on Thursday.

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Saturday, October 02, 2010

South Sudan warns of violence over Jan. vote - Sudan NCP and SPLM to meet in Addis Ababa on resolution over Abyei

AFTER reaching no agreement on resolving the controversy over the formation of a commission to conduct referendum in Abyei in New York, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the National Congress Party (NCP) agreed to meet again in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. A delegation of the SPLM will leave today [Friday, 01 Oct] for Addis Ababa to a meeting that is scheduled to take place tomorrow [Saturday, 02 Oct], Salva Kiir said yesterday [Thursday, 30 Sep].

In Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters Friday that the U.S. special envoy for Sudan, Scott Gration, would participate Sunday in a meeting on Sudan in Ethiopia. Crowley said Clinton talked Friday about Sudan with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who "pledged to Secretary Clinton that he would likewise do everything he could to encourage the parties to reach an agreement on Abyei."

Clinton spoke Thursday with Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha to encourage the ruling NCP, based in Sudan’s capital Khartoum, to come to “Addis Ababa on Sunday prepared to negotiate and to make sure that the negotiating team will have specific authority to reach agreement on Abyei,” Crowley said.

“We are very conscious of the fact that we have just about 100 days remaining, and Abyei is one of the central issues that has to be resolved before we can hope for a successful referenda early in 2011,” Crowley said.

Speaking before a crowd of about 1,000 people, Kiir appealed to the armies and people of Sudan to shun war, saying that he is not a coward but only those who have not been in war “still drill for it.” He said the south was willing to negotiate with the north.

Leaders from the north and south meet this weekend in Ethiopia in search for solutions surrounding the January votes. The north-south border must still be demarcated and agreements made over oil wealth, much of which is located in the south.

At Kiir’s arrival at the airport, traditional dancers performed on the runway and Kiir released white doves into the air. A white bull — a southern cultural emblem of prosperity — was slaughtered as Kiir’s plane landed.

Juba residents lined the streets to welcome Kiir, and one youth group wore T-shirts that saying: “The referendum is your golden chance for total independence.”

Read full story here below by AP, Bor Globe, SOSA News.

From: The Associated Press (AP) by Maggie Flick
Date: Friday 01 October 2010
Title: S Sudan president warns of violence over Jan. vote:
(JUBA, Sudan) — The president of Southern Sudan on Friday warned cheering crowds of a return to violence "on a massive scale" if the region's independence referendum — now 100 days away — is not held on time.

President Salva Kiir's return to this dusty, former war garrison town follows meetings at the U.N. last week that focused new attention on the region in the run-up to a Jan. 9 vote on independence.

Kiir predicted the south's vote will pass overwhelmingly. The border region of Abyei — where much of Sudan's oil is located — holds a similar vote the same day, in which voters will choose whether the region will join Sudan's north or a possible new country in the south.

"Delay or denial of the right of self-determination for the people of Southern Sudan and Abyei risks dangerous instability," Kiir said, according to prepared remarks. "There is without question a real risk of a return to violence on a massive scale if the referenda do not go ahead as scheduled."

Tensions between north and south are high over stalled preparations for both the southern referendum and the separate vote for Abyei. The Obama administration has labeled it "inevitable" the south will declare independence, but U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has also called the issue a "ticking time bomb."

In Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters Friday that the U.S. special envoy for Sudan, Scott Gration, would participate Sunday in a meeting on Sudan in Ethiopia. Crowley said Clinton talked Friday about Sudan with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who "pledged to Secretary Clinton that he would likewise do everything he could to encourage the parties to reach an agreement on Abyei."

Gration also has plans to meet with Meles before Sunday's meeting.

Clinton also spoke Thursday with Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha to encourage the ruling National Congress Party, based in Sudan's capital Khartoum, to come to "Addis Ababa on Sunday prepared to negotiate and to make sure that the negotiating team will have specific authority to reach agreement on Abyei," Crowley said.

"We are very conscious of the fact that we have just about 100 days remaining, and Abyei is one of the central issues that has to be resolved before we can hope for a successful referenda early in 2011," Crowley said.

Speaking before a crowd of about 1,000 people, Kiir appealed to the armies and people of Sudan to shun war, saying that he is not a coward but only those who have not been in war "still drill for it." He said the south was willing to negotiate with the north.

Leaders from the north and south meet this weekend in Ethiopia in search for solutions surrounding the January votes. The north-south border must still be demarcated and agreements made over oil wealth, much of which is located in the south.
At Kiir's arrival at the airport, traditional dancers performed on the runway and Kiir released white doves into the air. A white bull — a southern cultural emblem of prosperity — was slaughtered as Kiir's plane landed.

Juba residents lined the streets to welcome Kiir, and one youth group wore T-shirts that saying: "The referendum is your golden chance for total independence."

Sudan has been wracked by decades of war. A 2005 peace agreement ended the north-south conflict that killed 2 million people but by then the western Darfur region was at war. The referendum for the south's independence is part of the peace agreement.
- - -

From: Bor Globe.com by Mabior Philip, Staff Writer
Date: Friday 01 October 2010 at 6:05 pm
Title: Sudan NCP and SPLM to meet in Addis Ababa on resolution over Abyei controversy
(Juba, Sudan - Borglobe) - After reaching no agreement on resolving the controversy over the formation of a commission to conduct referendum in Abyei in New York, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement and the National Congress Party agreed to meet again in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

A delegation of the SPLM will leave to day for Addis Ababa to a meeting that is scheduled to take place tomorrow, Salva Kiir said yesterday.

He said the National Congress Party must implement the CPA with faith and commitment, including the Abyei Protocol and a verdict issued last year by The Hague based permanent court of arbitration, delimiting Abyei boundaries.

In statements yesterday at Garang’s Mausoleum, Kiir said the Addis Ababa meeting must reach a resolution to avoid Abyei confrontation that owned by the nine Dinka Nogk Chiefdoms transferred to Southern Kordofan in1905, from remaining a flash point of bloody north-south conflict.

The SPLM and the NCP are stuck on the formation of the referendum commission for Abyei, triggering worries from the troubled natives of the area that the NCP might be plotting to derail the long-savored vote.

Borders between the north and south have not been demarcated thus far and the boundaries of the contested Abyei have not been marked on ground despite a court ruling issued last year.
- - -

From: SOSA News.com by R. Amoko
Date: Saturday 02 October 2010
Title: President Kiir warns of violence over Jan Poll
(Juba, S. Sudan) – The president of Southern Sudan on Friday warned cheering crowds of a return to violence “on a massive scale” if the region’s independence referendum now 100 days away is not held on time.

President Salva Kiir’s return to this dusty, former war garrison town follows meetings at the U.N. last week that focused new attention on the region in the run-up to a Jan. 9 vote on independence.

Kiir predicted the south’s vote will pass overwhelmingly. The border region of Abyei, where much of Sudan’s oil is located, holds a similar vote the same day, in which voters will choose whether the region will join Sudan’s north or a possible new country in the south.

“Delay or denial of the right of self-determination for the people of Southern Sudan and Abyei risks dangerous instability,” Kiir said, according to prepared remarks. “There is without question a real risk of a return to violence on a massive scale if the referenda do not go ahead as scheduled.”

Tensions between north and south are high over stalled preparations for both the southern referendum and the separate vote for Abyei. The Obama administration has labeled it “inevitable” the south will declare independence, but U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has also called the issue a “ticking time bomb.”

In Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters Friday that the U.S. special envoy for Sudan, Scott Gration, would participate Sunday in a meeting on Sudan in Ethiopia. Crowley said Clinton talked Friday about Sudan with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who “pledged to Secretary Clinton that he would likewise do everything he could to encourage the parties to reach an agreement on Abyei.”

Gration also has plans to meet with Meles before Sunday’s meeting.

Clinton also spoke Thursday with Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha to encourage the ruling National Congress Party, based in Sudan’s capital Khartoum, to come to “Addis Ababa on Sunday prepared to negotiate and to make sure that the negotiating team will have specific authority to reach agreement on Abyei,” Crowley said.

“We are very conscious of the fact that we have just about 100 days remaining, and Abyei is one of the central issues that has to be resolved before we can hope for a successful referenda early in 2011,” Crowley said.

Speaking before a crowd of about 1,000 people, Kiir appealed to the armies and people of Sudan to shun war, saying that he is not a coward but only those who have not been in war “still drill for it.” He said the south was willing to negotiate with the north.

Leaders from the north and south meet this weekend in Ethiopia in search for solutions surrounding the January votes. The north-south border must still be demarcated and agreements made over oil wealth, much of which is located in the south.

At Kiir’s arrival at the airport, traditional dancers performed on the runway and Kiir released white doves into the air. A white bull — a southern cultural emblem of prosperity — was slaughtered as Kiir’s plane landed.

Juba residents lined the streets to welcome Kiir, and one youth group wore T-shirts that saying: “The referendum is your golden chance for total independence.”

Sudan has been wracked by decades of war. A 2005 peace agreement ended the north-south conflict that killed 2 million people but by then the western Darfur region was at war. The referendum for the south’s independence is part of the peace agreement.

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Saturday, September 18, 2010

Band Aid and UNHCR link up again to help Somali and Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia



Somali refugees at a water outlet in Ethiopia. Band Aid's donation will help provide fresh water for refugees in Aw-Barre camp. (UNHCR)

Band Aid and UNHCR link up again to help Somali and Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia
From UNHCR.org
Friday, 17 September 2010
LONDON, United Kingdom, September 17 (UNHCR) – The Band Aid Charitable Trust set up by rock music legends Bob Geldof and Midge Ure in 1985 has given £55,000 (US$86,000) to UNHCR to help Somali refugees in eastern Ethiopia.

The grant will be used to construct a gravity-fed pipeline to provide a regular supply of fresh water to refugees in the Aw-Barre camp, which hosts some 13,000 Somalis who have fled their conflict-torn country. Some 30,000 Ethiopians living nearby will also benefit from the project.

The provision of clean water will have benefits for public health and personal hygiene. It will also have a positive gender impact as women and girls will no longer have to run the risk of being attacked or raped while collecting water outside the camp. They will also now have more time to spend on education or income-generation activities.

Claire Palmer, a fund-raiser for UNHCR in London, welcomed the collaboration and noted that "this project marks the rekindling of a relationship between UNHCR and The Band Aid Charitable Trust that began in the mid-80s when Band Aid supported UNHCR with funds to provide emergency humanitarian aid for Sudanese and Somali refugees living in Ethiopia."

The Band Aid Charitable Trust was set up to handle and allocate funds raised by the song, "Do They Know It's Christmas?," which was performed by a superband brought together by Geldof of the Boomtown Rats and Ure from Ultravox.

Led by the two men, the group featured artists such as Phil Collins, Sir Paul McCartney, Boy George, Bono, Paul Weller, George Michael, Sting and David Bowie. It became a massive charts hit. New versions of the song were released in 1989 and 2004.

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Saturday, July 10, 2010

Famine and Foreigners: Ethiopia Since Live Aid (Peter Gill)

Ethiopia Since Live Aid, Part III: On Africa, aid, and the West
From OUPblog - Thursday, July 8th, 2010:

Peter Gill is a journalist specialising in developing world affairs, and first travelled to Ethiopia in the 1960s. He has made films in and reported from Gaza, Lebanon, Afghanistan, South Africa, Uganda, and Sudan, as well as Ethiopia. He recently led BBC World Service Trust campaigns on leprosy and HIV/AIDS in India. His new book is Famine and Foreigners: Ethiopia Since Live Aid, which is the story of what has happened in the country since the famous music and television events 25 years ago.

This third and final part of our ‘Ethiopia Since Live Aid’ blog feature is an original post by Peter Gill, in which he discusses the West’s view of aid and Africa. If you missed it, on Tuesday we read an excerpt from the book, and yesterday we ran an exclusive Q&A with Peter.

This 2010 ‘Summer of Africa’ has been promoted as a moment of transformation – an acknowledgment that the continent may at last be on the move, that it may be beginning to cast off its image as global basket case, ceasing to be a ‘scar on the conscience of humanity,’ in the phrase of former Prime Minister Tony Blair.

It was 25 years ago in July that a great Ethiopian famine and the Live Aid concert which it inspired underlined the physical and moral enormity of mass death by starvation. These events defined popular outrage at the human cost of extreme poverty and began to build an extraordinary consensus around the merits of aid. A generation later, in the teeth of financial gales in the rich world, this consensus is under increasing scrutiny.

Of course aid works and it works at many levels. Charity is an essential characteristic of social relationships. It saves lives and it helps individuals, families, sometimes whole communities to improve their existence. What the big aid flows – from governments and charities – have not done is to change the face of poor societies, to overcome the disgrace of extreme poverty.

Now the western world may have missed its opportunity to fix the problem. It may no longer have the means. It is also far too preoccupied with addressing the processes of how best to deliver aid, and has failed to sort out whether it had the right strategy in the first place.

What went wrong, I believe, is that we kept seeing Africa in our own image – as we would like it to be, rather than as it was. The colonial period may have become history, but the colonial mindset of ‘we-know-best’ has surely persisted. We compounded the error by allowing our hearts to rule our heads in how we spend the aid money. We have been more troubled by the symptoms of poverty than to see where our help was most needed.

Our fortunate way of the life in the West – prosperity allied with liberal democratic forms of government – may be the envy and the aspiration of many in the poor world, but did that give us the right in the name of ‘good governance’ to insist that there are quick and easy steps to achieving it? In the decades after Europe’s helter-skelter decolonisation, was it realistic to ignore the lessons of our own tortured political evolution and demand swift democratic reform as a condition of aid?

Our rich world sensibilities have, rightly, been offended by deaths from preventable diseases and we have, again rightly, poured money into ever more ambitious health initiatives. But we have made little corresponding effort to help African women plan their families by plugging the huge gap in contraceptive needs. Aid expenditure on family planning has actually fallen in the past decade and for 2010 the United Nations is projecting a paltry $414 million in Sub Saharan Africa compared with $16 billion for HIV/AIDS, 40 times as much.

As in so much, Ethiopia is the iconic example. At the time of the great famine in 1984-5, the population stood at 40 million. It is now 80 million and the demographers say it will double again within the next 25 to 30 years. This increase is barely sustainable.In recent years the Ethiopian government has made big efforts to bring modern contraceptive techniques to rural areas, but there has been no corresponding leadership from the West and that in turn has discouraged the Ethiopians from making population into the political priority it will have to be.

The West has been similarly negligent in the field of agriculture development. In a continent where up to three quarters of people are dependent on agriculture for survival, we have poured billions into getting children into rural primary schools, but have made little provision for the fact that too many of them come to school hungry, too many drop out within a year and that there are too few jobs beyond the land if they do finish school. In the 20 years after the Ethiopian famine aid to African agriculture collapsed by almost two thirds, from $3 billion to $1.2 billion.

A generation on from Live Aid there is now an alternative model of development emerging from the East. The Chinese have raised several hundred million of their own people out of poverty and are beginning to offer the lessons to Africa. There is less of an accent on charity and welfare, more attention paid to trade investment, technical inputs and, most of all, to infrastructure projects, including the roads to get an agricultural economy moving forward.

In the West the Chinese are commonly criticised for exploiting Africa’s natural resources and mocked for disregarding human rights in the name of ‘non-interference.’ But if we are truly interested in eliminating extreme poverty it is surely sensible to pose the question whether the West or the East is likely to have the better answer. Man of course does not live by bread alone, but it is an essential start. [end of copy]

Hat tip: Sudan news from The New York Times

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