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February 5, 2012 - The 20th extra-ordinary summit of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) of Heads of States and Governments discussed and passed resolution to tackle situations about the civil war in Somalia, the crisis in the two Sudans, IGAD Minimum Integration Plan and Piracy off the coast of Somalia. The summit also condemned Eritrea and asked to further strengthen sanctions.
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, Chairman of IGAD said in a press briefing right after the summit, “The summit addressed three key points. Firstly, the integration of IGAD both through the acceleration of infrastructure projects linking us and the establishment of free trade area in the IGAD Region. The secretariat has done a spectacular job in terms of preparing the ground work and everyone agreed to implement this plan. And so there was complete agreement on the integration path. Secondly, we discussed Somalia. We have agreed on all matters related to Somalia. Thirdly, we discussed the crisis in the Republic of Sudan and the Republic of Southern Sudan. A lot of progress was made in the negotiations led by a high level panel of the African Union. So it was agreed that the two parties will continue their negotiations throughout the summit. Although we have made a lot of progress, we are not able to come to a final agreement. So, this is where we are as IGAD.”
On Somalia, the summit deliberated most on the crisis in Somalia and its associated problem of piracy. The summit hailed the progress on the strategic concept on future AMISOM operations in Somalia as well as the gains made by the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia (TFG), Kenyan Defense Forces (KDF) and the logistical and military support extended by Ethiopia and the TFG.
The meeting regarding Somalia also called for the implementation of an inclusive political process in the liberated areas to consolidate gains made by the TFG forces with the help of African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), Kenyan and Ethiopian Defense Forces against the Somali militant group Al Shabab.
The other point raised was the dispute between South Sudan and Sudan. Following Sudan’s decision to prevent ships carrying South Sudan’s oil from leaving Port Sudan, tension is mounting. This is on top of the controversy over the oil rich region, Abyei.
“The Proposal by the panel is to have a very brief cover agreement focused on reversal of unilateral decisions and a frame work on long term solution to the problem of oil. Many of these issues in both the frame work and the cover agreement are agreed but there are some sticking points. I can not go in to the details because I am sure you would understand the sensitivities of the matter. So, in general terms I believe there is quite a lot of progress but not enough for us to make a deal now,” said Meles. “If there is no agreement, then it means there is no agreement. And so, the unilateral decision can only be stopped, if there is an agreement. As I have said while a lot of progress has been made, we don’t yet have a final agreement,” reiterated Meles.
Uganda Cranes will face South Sudan on February 16 after the world’s newest nation confirmed the international friendly.
Bobby Williamson’s side play Congo Brazzaville in the first round of the 2013 Nations Cup qualifiers on Fifa dates February 28-29.
The friendly against South Sudan will help Bobby have a closer look at local-based players to which point he has summoned 23 of them.
The summoned players start training on Monday in preparation for this game.
“More players could be added or some could be removed,” said Bobby.
Summoned players
Goalkeepers: Hamza Muwonge, Ali Kimera
Defenders: Saka Mpiima, Godfrey Walusimbi, Henry Kalungi, Ivan Bukenya, Israel Emuge, Denis Guma, Ismael Kazibwe,
Midfielders: Noah Ssemakula, Isaac Kirabira, Willy Kavuma, Moses Okello, Patrick Senfuka, Kizito Luwagga, Julius Ogwanga, Steven Bengo, Brian Majwega, Owen Kasule.
Strikers: George Abege, Jimmy Kakembo, Caesar Okuthi, Gerald Bagoole
© 2012 KELOLAND TV. All Rights Reserved.
By Matur Machiek Lom, Rumbek, South Sudan – For Contact Please call: 0956066095
In newly independent South Sudan, where roads are dirt, electricity comes from portable generators and people live in earthen huts, there is still the Internet.
That's why Esquimalt resident Peter Dibben, a recently retired lieutenant with the Royal Canadian Navy, is looking for cast-off laptop computers he can transport to a South Sudan high school when he heads there this month, so students and teachers can go online.
"I would really like to donate half a dozen laptops that could really make a big difference to people in that school," Dibben said.
Dibben, 49, spent about six months in the newly independent Republic of South Sudan as an unarmed UN military observer.
He said he got the idea for the laptop-computer donations while talking to the headmaster of a high school in South Sudan.
The country officially became an independent state July 9, following a referendum the previous January. That independence followed many years of civil war.
Dibben said despite the widespread poverty and lack of infrastructure, many towns and cities have erected cellular telephone towers.
Laptop computers, equipped with cellular modems and charged up with portable generators, could provide some Internet access.
"You're not going to download a movie on it, but you can use it if you want to access email or get some information for a school project," he said.
Anyone with a laptop to donate can contact Dibben at dibben.pw@hotmail.com. You need to act fast, however: Dibben is due to leave for Sudan from Ontario Feb. 14.
A divorced father of two grown children, and now a grandfather of three, Dibben is committed to paying his own way to South Sudan. Besides his request for laptops, his principal aim is to assist in setting up a co-operative for processing a nut grown in Sudan.
While there, Dibben said, he realized that one of the few resources South Sudan has is a supply of a locally grown commodity called shea nuts.
Also called lulu nuts by the Sudanese, the nuts produce an oil that is valued in cosmetics sold around the world.
He said he hopes to act as a middleman, linking funding sources in North America with an African agency that works to set up local co-operatives to operate processing plants to extract the oil from the shea nuts.
Dibben is already online with one potential funding agency in Vancouver.
Ultimately, he believes the co-operatives might spawn other benefits.
"I can see whole bunches of schools there so moms can bring their sons and daughters to provide a cheap, or even free, education while the mothers are working," he said.
Dibben said his motivation stems in part from his Christian ethic, but it's mostly just something he wants to do.
"I don't have to do this but it's like something God is calling me to do, and it's something I just want to do," he said.
rwatts@timescolonist.com
By Salma El Wardany
Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Four members of Sudan’s main opposition Umma party were arrested yesterday in the capital, Khartoum, party officials said.
The four were picked up at a cafe by plain-clothed men who identified themselves as members of the state security service, Mohamed al-Mahi Mohamed, a party youth leader, said by phone today. Police spokesman al-Sir Ahmed Omar didn’t answer phone calls seeking comment.
“The regime thinks that by targeting us, they silence opposition voices,” Mariam al-Mahdi, an Umma party spokeswoman, said by phone. “This repressive environment will help us mobilize people against intellectual and political terrorism practiced by the government.”
Sudan’s human rights record deteriorated last year with the eruption of new armed conflicts and crackdowns on students, rights advocates and the media, New York-based Human Rights Watch said on Jan 22. At least 73 students were arrested last month during a sit-in at Khartoum University to protest police violence and to demand the overthrow of the government.
Another Umma party member was arrested by state security agents on Jan. 27 after he organized protests in support of people displaced by the Merowe hydroelectric dam, north of Khartoum, Mohamed said. About 20 Umma members have been detained in the past three months, he said.
Six members of Girifna, or the “we’re fed up” movement, were detained on Jan. 25 after participating in a seminar on human rights, their lawyer said.
Girifna was established in October 2009 on the eve of the voter registration for Sudan’s presidential and parliamentary elections in April, 2010, to campaign against President Umar al- Bashir and his ruling National Congress Party, according to the group’s website.
--Editors: Karl Maier, Alastair Reed
To contact the reporter on this story: Salma El Wardany in Khartoum at selwardany@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net
By Dennis
After 21 years of civil war in Sudan where millions of lives were lost, we would imagine that the most logical programme for the world’s youngest nation—South Sudan, would be one that promotes population growth to replace the lost lives. South Sudan, a country twice the size of UK, and population estimated at less than 10 million, is not ripe for abortion.
Abortion is illegal in South Sudan and any organization or individual promoting abortion is promoting an illegality. However, despite what the law says and the knowledge that abortion is illegal in South Sudan, Marie Stopes International (MSI) opened a clinic in Juba (Hai Negli Area, East of Juba University) in July 2010. The opening ceremony was a low key event, intentionally designed not to attract media attention as it was soon after they had been kicked out of Khartoum. Their assets, including brand new cars, were taken by Humanitarian Commission (HAC) and all staffs paid six months’ salary to disappear and not talk to the media.
Internationally, MSI is known to provide abortions especially in countries where abortion is legal (UK, South Africa etc). On its official website in the UK, MSI describes itself and the kind of services it offer to the clients:
"Marie Stopes International is the UK's leading provider of sexual and reproductive healthcare services. Our nationwide network of sexual health clinics see over 100,000 men and women each year who come to us for information, advice and professional care. We are committed to providing all the help you need to make informed choices about your health. We ensure that there is no wait for appointments and that our centres are safe, friendly, and comfortable places to visit. Our services include: Contraception, Unplanned pregnancy counseling, Abortion information and advice, Help for women needing abortions, Abortion pill and other treatment options, Vasectomy information and vasectomy procedure, Female sterilization, Health screening for men and women, Company health screening and STI testing."
Even in countries where abortion is illegal, the practice continues but is disguised as provision of Family planning services. That is how they took root in Juba, South Sudan and in Khartoum previously.
Taking the case of MSI Juba Clinic for instance, immediately after launching, 16 staffs were recruited to do underground mobilization, targeting young girls at the University of Juba and its environs. The message was clear: tell them there are family planning services and other services like those in neighboring countries (In Uganda and Kenya, MSI is known for this practice and they were targeting those who could have heard about it such as returning refugees).
Realizing the targets were not being met, MSI decided to recruit and bring in a new country director, one who had the credentials of increasing sales in record time. And this time the sales were measured in terms of the highest number of abortions in the shortest time possible (year one target was 1500).
Deaths:
Hardly a year into the operations, the first victim of the ‘safe abortion’ was recorded. However, the case had to be killed without being picked up by the media and the police. The family based in Ethiopia was paid and all expenses related to hospitalization and burial catered for by MSI.
Shortly thereafter, another case arose. A man who was certain that his wife was pregnant came back from Yambio only to find that the wife was no longer pregnant. Upon severe battering, the wife admitted that she had procured an abortion at MSI clinic in Juba. The man had to be paid to kill the story, and thus, a high delegation was sent from London since they were getting concerned that their young project might go the Khartoum way (In reference to how they were kicked out of Khartoum)
Late last year (2011), the third victim was a young girl probably in high school. The pregnancy was more than 12 weeks and the doctor on duty refused to perform the operation. He was sacked for this but the saddest part was that the young girl passed away.
Malpractices:
Using the NGO tag, MSI is freely getting supplies from UNFPA, MSH and Ministry of health in Juba. As you can see, Family planning commodities are given to them freely and instead of providing free services as it should be, the commodities end up being sold to the poor victims!
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU):
Abortion drugs which are not registered in Juba find their way through parcels and staff hand bags. Any staff travelling to London or from London will be delivering of picking orders. Since they know that the scanning at Juba International Airport is not serious, they pass scot free and duty and tax free!
:
Capacity building is one of the core pillars of any programme and true to that MSI ensures the staffs are taken out of Juba especially to Kenya, Ghana and South Africa where they can get many women coming for abortion to practice. The flip side is, instead of focusing on Family planning as indicated in the visas, the whole two weeks training is on abortion and those missing the real benefit to the deserving communities. It would be worth money to train midwives to improve the maternal mortality situation rather than focus on abortions.
Incriminating Documents:
Documents in our possession indicate clearly the objectives of the clinic. To protect the operations, most documents are marked classified or confidential. These are never shared with outsiders. In the documents, you can clearly see what is written (different words are used to cover up the real deal, i.e. MSP and MSMP: Basically Abortions without medical assistance and with medical assistance respectively).
Interviews and Recruitment:
Having operated for one year without being un-earthed, the strategy is to move to other good areas (potential business). The major towns identified so far are Torit, Nimule, Yambio, Yei, Kajo Keji, and possibly Mundri.
When staffs are being recruited, the only thing that matters is the pro-abortion answer. For example, even if you are the most qualified candidate but you are against abortion, then you have no chance of being recruited. Due to lack of adequate job opportunities in South Sudan, most people would grudgingly accept that they can perform abortions only to realize that it is a bloody and murderous affair.
According to one of the providers: "I saw light after being presented with a case where the child came out still alive, I went home, confessed to a priest and promised myself never to be involved again." That’s how she left working for MSI. Her contract was terminated immediately.
The big and urgent question is: for how long will this carnage continue? Or if it’s the best thing to have ever happened for our girls and women, then let the government openly announce that they want to, or have already, legalize abortion. In that case, let the MSI clinic and other clinics operate freely and competitively!
The citizens of South Sudan, as well as the government, must be made aware of the illegal activities of MSI in Juba. The government must wake up and declare which side it is on, MSI or the law!! If the law had changed, then that should be made explicitly clear to all citizens of our country so that there should be accompanying laws to safeguard and protect the lives of our womenfolk at the MSI clinics and to punish any negligence and cover-ups going on there.
The simple, yet the fundamental, question is this: under whose (and what) law are MSI clinics operating? South Sudanese must know because their love ones are dying under mysterious circumstances, all under the nose of a seemingly dysfunctional government in Juba and beyond the reach of the law! Surely, South Sudanese deserve better than this!
Dennis is a concerned South Sudanese from Juba.
By Abuoi Jook Alith (Borglobe)
The lips services offered by the Republic of South Sudan Government officials in response to cyclic tribal feuds will never yield any fruit to such ferocious tribal conflict, engulfing the state of Jonglei as witnessed across the globe. The official spokesperson of the Southern Sudan government Dr. Marial Benjamin listed a number of alleged solutions to the state’s detrimental conflicts after having pointed finger of blame to Khartoum as the sole body arming Lou-Nuer and Murle communities through rebel groups. What strategies are put in place by the Juba authority in an attempt to halt those alleged illegal arms infiltrations to wrong hands in the region? If nothing done so far then when? If nothing or little done, now is the time to act by all means possible!
"Among the most important things the government is doing to stabilize the situation include deployment of police forces, formation of investigative committee to trace the root cause of the problem, disarmament of the communities, engagement of both Murle and Lou Nuer youth in conferences, creation of buffer zones for police to monitor the violent movements of the communities and providing local chiefs with police to help them solve disputes", Dr. Marial said on 16th Jan. 2011.
Some of these suggested solutions by the government have been employed before by Jonglei State Government with no success; so far deeming them no solutions to such deleterious or prejudicial killings in the state. For instance, the Jonglei State Government have held number of communities conferences that brought together all feuding communities in the state, but worse of all, the conflict shifted from cattle rustling to mass killing as witnessed in Akobo, Uror, Bor, and Pibor. So youth conferences are not new and not the best solutions to this problem anymore if our government is serious about insecurity existence.
Deployment of police forces may make sense, but how equipped are the police forces to get ready for deployment based on existing South Sudan police armament that we all know. Yes, government has recently deployed police forces and SPLA unit in Pibor area, but does this stop Murle from attacking Uror, Akobo and Bor areas? I think the government must this time needs to come up with amicable solutions to this problem as it shifts from cattle rustling to mass killing, by inventing some viable solutions rather than lips services being released all the time when similar incident occurs.
The formation of investigative committee to trace stolen herds of cattle or mass killers instead of root cause to the problem would make a better solution if not best. For instance; if attackers are followed, found and investigated, they need to be brought to book to answer mass murder and gross of human abuse charges as deterrence to all criminals across the South. The root cause is obvious that tribal feuds in Jonglei State occur because of greed for wealth acquisition in form of cattle before it recently takes different essence of mass killing in revenge. The impressive questions are when is the government forming such committees since Dr. Marial talked of on 16th January 2012, but no strategy in place up to now? I strongly do believe this a viable solution, but is our government committed to execute this brilliant idea? I wonder!
Past disarmament of communities enormously made some communities most vulnerable to others in situation a civilian possesses more than two guns, making disarmament not one of the best methods to quell recurrent fighting in Jonglei at present. When I visited my birth place in Bor, Baidit district in January 2010, I coincidently made Bor County Commissioner Maker Lual Kuol, county army commander Col. Simon Ebon, county police chief Col. Chol Achiek and Baidit and Jale members of state parliament. They were for disarmament mission as they asked civilians to surrender their arms peacefully. I asked Baidit civil administrator to give me a chance as diaspora which he did ask commissioner who agreed. I reminded the commissioner of what we presented to him when he visited Sydney in 2007 regarding insecurity before made commissioner of Bor County. I clearly brought to these local authorities’ attention that in western world, arms are possessed by licensed peoples for certain reasons with the police championing security of every citizen at all cost under sophisticated equipment. If you are now disarming civil population knowing that some communities bear more arms than others and would not surrender them all as ordered by the government. Therefore, you need to commit to protecting those who fully comply with and obey the rule of law as demanded by their governments at state and federal levels.
Well! Creation of buffer zones across counties borders for police to monitor the movements of masqueraders combined with provision of local chiefs with police units at Bomas level will greatly improve insecurity situation in the state. The allocation of well-equipped police unit with pickups mounted with automatic machine guns at Bomas and Payams levels will scare the operation of this bunch of thugs. However, the buffer zones are also useless if there are no constructed roads to connect all eleven counties of the Jonglei state. Therefore, the priority rests upon road network construction by federal government in conjunction with state government if the amicable solution is really required.
The best compliment to investigative committee is immediate construction of road network across Jonglei state, a priority that effectively accelerates the work of the suggested investigative committee. I humbly call upon Minister of road and bridges Hon. Gier Chuang Aluong to immediately develop the Jonglei State road network action plan with real construction taking off from now and be completed before rainy season this year. We need to do away with overreaction lips services and start to let actions speak louder than mere words if we need to regain civil society’s confidence that we won during our struggle days. Or else masses may be forced to rebel against the government simply because they are fed up with mere lips services by the government for more than half a decade whether we believe or not.
The author is the concerned South Sudanese living in Sydney Australia and is reachable through
danieljook@rocketmail.com
PHOEBE WEARNE AND GABRIELLE KNOWLES,
The West Australian
WA Olympic hopeful Mangar Makur Chuot was attacked for the third time in a month yesterday morning and his sister punched in the face when armed thugs showed up to a party he was hosting.
Mr Chuot, 21, and his sister Sarah, an international runway model who has modelled for Perth fashion designer Ruth Tarvydas, were involved in a brawl which spilt from Scarborough Surf Lifesaving Club into a carpark early yesterday.
A man was stabbed in the back and a police officer attacked with capsicum spray.
Last month, two men broke into the champion sprinter's home and clubbed his legs with a tree branch.
Four days later, Mr Chuot, who was born in Sudan and came to Australia about seven years ago, was at a cultural community function at Burke Reserve in Balga when he used a walking stick to fend off an attack.
Mr Chuot has previously spoken about coming to Perth for a safer and happier life and is training for the London Olympics, focusing on the 100m and 200m sprints.
Ms Chuot, 22, told Nine News she was punched in the face during the brawl when she attempted to step in and protect her brother. "He punched me really bad," she said. "The doctor said I was really lucky."
Police were called to break up the Scarborough brawl, which involved up to 60 people, just before 2am.
Insp. Neil Blair said a man had a minor wound after being stabbed in the back.
Another man was arrested for assaulting police but he broke free, and a person in the crowd sprayed one of the officers with capsicum spray.
Police said yesterday they were interviewing two people suspected of being involved in the incident and inquiries were continuing.
Meanwhile, a Singleton father bashed by gatecrashers who forced their way into his son's 18th birthday party yesterday claimed such troublemakers were not dealt with harshly enough by authorities.
The man, who did not want to be named, said he was attacked when he tried to protect his girlfriend, who had been grabbed by gatecrashers who had forced their way into his backyard.
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