Appeals Court says ICC Could Charge Sudan President with Genocide

Appeals court judges have ruled the International Criminal Court was wrong to decide Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir could not be charged with genocide for his actions on Darfur.

The ruling by the appeals judges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague was unanimous.

The appeals judges ruled to reverse a previous court decision, saying it had used an overly high standard of proof to dismiss genocide charges against Sudan President Omar Al-Bashir.

Last year, the court charged Mr. Bashir with war crimes and crimes against humanity - including murder, extermination, torture and rape. Seven years of conflict in Sudan's Darfur province have killed about 300,000 people and displaced nearly three million.

But the appeals judges did not agree to the prosecutor's request to rule Mr. Bashir was responsible for genocide. The pre-trial chamber must take up that issue again.

Amnesty International senior legal advisor Christopher Hall hailed the appeal judges' ruling.

"I think little by little, the vice is closing in on him and at some point he will have to face a trial in the International Criminal Court in the same way that President Milosevic or President Taylor or numerous other officials from Rwanda and Sierra Leone have had to face trials," said Christopher Hall.

In remarks to the Associated Press news agency, a spokesman for the Sudanese government dismissed the court's decision as having no consequence, and said Mr. Bashir would run for re-election in April. While several countries have ignored the court's international arrest warrant against Mr. Bashir, he is increasingly isolated.

The court's arrest warrant against Mr. Bashir is its first against a sitting head of state.

Source:voanews.com/

Four Million Hungry People In Southern Sudan

ROME, Feb 3 (Bernama) -- The Rome-based World Food Programme said that there are nearly four million hungry people in southern Sudan since last August due to the drought that hit the region and internal conflicts, the Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported.

The coordinator of the WFP Leo Van Der Velden said that the rise in the number of hungry people came shortly before the rainy season, which leads to difficulty in delivering food aid to the population centres.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry said that the internal conflict and attacking the so-called IRA, Uganda and the drought that hit the region had led to the suffering of almost half the population in the south and to the scarcity of food.

The conflict in southern Sudan between the northern and southern tribes has resulted in the killing last year of 2500 people and to displacing about 350 people.

The news agency, citing a broadcast on Radio London, reported that the total population in need of food aid in Sudan amounted to some 11 million people.

In a statement, United Nations said that they are trying to ensure that Sudanese people have enough food aid until next season to harvest in October.

Source:bernama.com/

SUDAN: Universal access still a long way off in the south

JUBA, 3 February 2010 (PlusNews) - Southern Sudan's poor infrastructure, largely illiterate population and dearth of health facilities and workers mean that despite five years of peace, HIV programmes are still in their infancy.

There are no national-level statistics on HIV prevalence or incidence, further hampering the fight against the pandemic, but a 2007 site-specific antenatal surveillance by the US Centres for Disease control found prevalence levels ranging from as low as 0.8 percent in Leer, Unity State, to as high as 11.5 percent in Tambura, Western Equatoria State.

"We use an estimate of 3.1 percent for the south, and we know that the epidemic is more concentrated in big towns and areas near the border with our neighbours who have higher prevalence, such as Kenya and Uganda, but so far we have not conducted a survey of HIV indicators," Bellario Ahoy Ngong, chairman of the South Sudan AIDS Commission (SSAC) told IRIN/PlusNews.

Ngong said HIV was spread mainly through heterosexual transmission, and was worse in the areas where trading opportunities had expanded since the Comprehensive peace Agreement with the north was signed in 2005.

"There has been a lot of movement of people since we attained peace, and in the big towns like Juba, Yei and Yambio, sex work has increased along with trade," he said. "Unfortunately, our people have very low knowledge of HIV transmission and prevention, so they are very vulnerable."
Health system reconstruction

Dr Samson Baba, director-general of the Ministry of Health's directorate of external assistance and coordination, said the plan would give 85 percent to 90 percent of people access to "acceptable levels of healthcare" within 10 years.

"Through the Multi-Donor Trust Fund [a World Bank mechanism to coordinate the reconstruction and development of Sudan], we are creating a basic healthcare package that stipulates the minimum standard of care that should be available at all health centres within the country," he told IRIN/PlusNews.

"We are also embarking on an ambitious training programme for health workers ... using NGOs to train local staff, sending locals abroad for training, and developing our own training institutions," he said. "At current training levels, it would take us 66 years to satisfy our midwife gap, but with our accelerated plan it should take 10 years."

The government intends scaling up its ART sites to at least 20 by the end of 2011, with at least one in each of the south's 10 states, and to double the number of people on ART.

"Achieving universal access will be a slow process because of all the difficulties," said WHO's Busulwa, "but there is strong political commitment and the government does want to take ownership of the programmes, so it will eventually happen."

Source:plusnews.org/

Human rights groups slam state on refugee statements

Human rights organizations accused the government of lying to the public about the threat of infiltrators from Africa in an effort to prevent Sudanese and Eritrean asylum seekers from obtaining sanctuary in Israel. A coalition of the organizations held a press conference in Tel Aviv on Wednesday and presented a report, which they say exposes the government’s lies.

The report was prepared by nine groups in advance of a Knesset debate on the infiltration protection bill scheduled for Wednesday. The participating organizations – the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Amnesty-Israel, ASAF, the Migrant Workers Hotline, the African Refugees Development Center, the Israel Religious Action Center, Kav LaOved and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel – warn that the new law means that Israel would be backing out of its obligations to the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, incarcerating innocent refugees or deporting them to countries where their lives will be at risk and criminalizing those who aid asylum seekers.

The chief accusation in the report is that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and other ministers speak in “two voices.”

The report states that while government officials repeatedly told the public that a vast majority of the asylum seekers are not refugees, but rather labor migrants, they have told the international community a different story.

The report also states that documents produced by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which are based on official numbers that the government provides, show that as of 2009, 90.4 percent of the asylum seekers were indeed refugees from Sudan and Eritrea.

The report further claims that the government regularly inflates the security and demographic threat posed by asylum seekers. It quotes Netanyahu saying two weeks ago that “Israel will not allow its borders to be flooded by illegal foreign workers.”

The coalition also claims in their report that Netanyahu and other ministers are being disingenuous when alluding to both the numbers of asylum seekers waiting to cross over the border and the security risk they pose. The report states that the numbers of asylum seekers entering the country are actually in decline and that not a single asylum seeker has ever been charged with conducting terrorist activities.

Source:jpost.com/

Lost Boys vote in Chicago to inspire change in Sudan

Chicago’s Lost Boys of Sudan are setting an example for their families in Sudan by voting in Tuesday’s local primary election.
The refugees, exiled during the Sudanese civil war, never voted in their country. As the first in their families to cast a ballot, they are educating Sudanese about the importance of voting to create change. This at a time when Sudan is about to hold its first presidential election in more than two decades.

“The Lost Boys always take responsibility and are always looking for changes,” said Peter Magai Bul, 27, a Lost Boy and community activist. “They are doing this as citizens of the United States. You will see them voting in every election.”

Many Lost Boys, orphans named for their trek across Sudan to refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya during the war, voted early in the Chicago primaries, and those who didn’t said they would be at the polls Tuesday.

“It’s something that we don’t want to miss,” said Malual Awak, president of the Sudanese Community Association of Illinois.

Hundreds of Lost Boys from across the Midwest gathered at Truman College on Sunday to discuss Sudan’s upcoming election, call for an independent Southern Sudan and celebrate their birthdays. Because most of them do not have birth certificates, upon arrival in America they were assigned Jan. 31 as their collective birthday.

According to a 2008 survey by the United African Organization - a Chicago-based advocacy organizatoin - more than 90 percent of the estimated 30,000 naturalized African immigrants and refugees in metropolitan area vote in every election. They are interested in participating in every level,” said executive director Alie Kabba.

Voting is a way for refugees to become integrated into American society, and it also signifies freedom from the oppression many left behind in Africa, Kabba said.

“African refugees generally tend to come from countries with authoritarian regimes,” Kabba said. “One of the first things that they want to do here is demonstrate their yearning for a democratic society. It is a way for them to really call this place home.”

Voting has taken on an even greater significance for the Lost Boys, who hope to encourage their families to participate in Sudan’s first free presidential election in April after more than 20 years of single-party rule. “We vote to make a difference,” said Jacob Maker Dier, who became a citizen in 2007. “It’s setting an example (for our families). They have to show up.”

The Sudanese election was mandated by the 2005 peace agreement that ended the country’s 22-year civil war between the north and the south. The outcome of the election will have important significance. Some candidates are pushing for Southern Sudan’s secession, which will be decided in a referendum in 2011.

More than 150 Lost Boys have relocated to Chicago since 2001. They’ve made the city a stronghold for Sudanese activism, calling for a free and fair election in Sudan through organized events at universities and churches. Magai Bul, founder of Ayual Community Development Association, a non-profit dedicated to improving life in Southern Sudan, recently returned from a five-week trip to the country to educate residents about the voting process. Now he’s spreading his message through Facebook and Twitter.

“I’ve seen the consequences of when people are not allowed to participate,” Magai Bul said. “The consequence is war.”

Most of the population of Southern Sudan will not be allowed to vote, however. The Sudan government requires that voters present a passport, and many civilians lost any government identification they had during the war. The Lost Boys, who could theoretically vote in the Sudan election in absentia, also do not have Sudanese passports, but U.S. Ambassador to Sudan Akec Khoc said they will be able to apply for documentation at registration centers in Chicago in time to vote on the independence referendum next year.

Source:news.medill.northwestern.edu/

Sudan and Chad agreed to end hostilities - official

December 27, 2009 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan and its neighboring Chad have agreed to end hostilities against each other, said spokesperson of the foreign ministry in Khartoum today.

The Chadian foreign minister Moussa Faki Mahamat, heading a high level security delegation, was this week in Khartoum where he met Sudanese Omer Al-Bashir on Thursday, and held talks with presidential adviser Ghazi Salah Al-Deen Attabani and intelligence chief Mohamed Atta Al-Moula.

Moussa said they had agreed to implement the already signed agreements which deal mainly with the control of joint border and presence of rebel groups in their respective territories.

"Chadian-Sudanese relations will witness a major breakthrough in the coming days," said Sunday Muawiya Osman Khalid Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who further said that the two countries had agreed to stop all forms of hostilities between the two countries at both the military and the media levels.

Khalid also said they agreed to increase the political engagement between the two countries through exchange visits at the different levels including the border towns.

He also indicated that a Sudanese military delegation would travel to Ndjamena within two weeks to discuss implementation of security and military issues as it is agreed in the signed agreement.

According to a non-aggression pact signed in the Senegalese capital, on the sidelined of the Islamic Conference summit on March 13, 2008, the two countries agreed to deploy a monitoring force to ensure stability on the joint border and to establish a contact group composed of Congo, Eritrea, Gabon, Libya and Senegal.

According to the deal, Chad will supply its own soldiers to patrol its own border, Sudan will supply its own soldiers to patrol its own border, and the peace and security force will become a mechanism for observing the two countries.

According to Dakar agreement, an aerial and satellite surveillance would be used to identify the troops movement across the border.

Speaking to Miraya FM on Sunday, the Chadian Consul in Khartoum Hussein Jeddah said his country would ban the activities of the Sudanese rebels inside its territories in implementation of the signed deals between the two countries.

The diplomat disclosed Sudan had evacuated the Chadian rebels at four hundreds kilometers from the joint border.

During the last four years, Sudan and Chad traded accusation of supporting rebel groups who attacked the two capitals and remain active along the border areas.

Khalid stressed that the recent move between the Chad and Sudan is not tactical or related to Darfur peace process in Doha but rather expresses a strategic issue for the two neighbors that have interdependent interests.

Source:sudantribune.com/

LRA kill 1,300 in Sudan, DRC

Describing harrowing experience from victims, the report called on the international community to co-operate with the ICC in investigating, arresting, and transferring all LRA leaders accused of international crimes.


Lira
About 1,300 civilians have died in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo in 10 months following human rights abuses allegedly committed by rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army, according to latest periodic reports by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

One report on southern Sudan reveals attacks on civilians in Western and Central Equatoria States, between December 15 2008 and March 10 2009.

The report on the DRC states that at least 1,200 civilians were killed, including women who were raped before execution.
According to the report, more than 100 people were wounded by gunshots and stabbing and about 1,400 people were abducted and some executed or are missing.

Sexual slavery
“During their captivity, abductees were subjected to forced labour in fields, forced to carry looted goods or personal effects or recruited into the LRA. Women were forced to marry LRA members, subjected to sexual slavery, or both,” the report released last week said.

It adds: “Thousands of homes, dozens of shops and businesses, as well as public buildings, including at least 30 schools, health centres, hospitals, churches, markets, and traditional seats of chiefdoms, were looted, set on fire and over 200,000 people were also displaced.”

Describing harrowing experience from victims, the report called on the international community to co-operate with the ICC in investigating, arresting, and transferring all LRA leaders accused of international crimes.

The report also accused the DRC army, FARDC, of human rights violation of the displaced persons instead of protecting them.

“Soldiers of the Congolese armed forces, supposed to protect civilians, also committed human rights violations, including executions, rape, arbitrary arrests and detentions and illegal, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and extortion,” the report said.

The report stated that attacks, systematic and widespread human rights violations carried out since mid-September 2008 against Congolese civilians may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The Sudan report on the other hand based on 27 confirmed attacks, reveals that at least 81 civilians were killed in attacks and many others injured.

“The evidence presented in this report suggests that LRA actions may amount to crimes against humanity,” the report says. The reports recommended that the United Nation Mission in Sudan should exercise its protection of civilians since its mandated to prevent further loss of life.

“The international community, including governments, should cooperate with the ICC to search for, arrest and surrender the LRA leaders accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The international community should support meaningful peace efforts between governments in the region and the LRA,” the report recommends.

Issues in report

Women were forced to marry LRA members, subjected to sexual slavery or both.
Thirty schools, health centres, hospitals, churches, markets, and traditional seats of chiefdoms, were looted, set on fire. Over 200,000 people were displaced.
The report describes the report as systematic and widespread human rights violations carried out since mid-September 2008 against Congolese civilians may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.
DRC army accused of violating rights displaced persons instead of protecting them.

Source:monitor.co.ug/

Sudan Parl't to vote on referendum law

The office of Sudan National Congress Party says the dispute between the ruling party and Sudan People's Liberation Movement about referendum on Southern independence, concerns the participation of the southern who live outside the region.

The head of the office, Ghazi Salah al-din, released on Monday the news in a statement, a copy of which was received by Al-Alam.

The statement said that the removal of the clause 3 of the article 27 on referendum law, created a lot of disagreements between the two parties.

According to this clause, those Sudanese citizens who belong to southern Sudan ethnic groups and have not had permanent residence since January 1956, do not have rights to participate in the referendum.

Sudan's parliament was due to vote again on Monday on the referendum law.

"We agreed on the fact that the law on the referendum will be resubmitted to parliament on Monday to be adopted with the article that had been removed," said Riek Mashar of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement.

On Tuesday, MPs from the SPLM and other southern parties walked out in protest at a new clause allowing diaspora southerners -- including those in the north who could be subject to northern influence -- to cast absentee ballots

Source:alalam.ir/

UN: Rebel Group's Attacks in Congo, Sudan May Be Punishable War Crimes

The U.N. Human Rights Office says the attacks and systematic, widespread violations carried out by the Lord's Resistance Army in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Southern Sudan may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity. The U.N. agency has just issued two reports on the atrocities committed by the LRA over a 10-month period.

Between September 2008 and June 2009, the U.N. report says the Lord's Resistance Army killed 1,200 people and abducted 1,400 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Some 600 children and 400 women were among those kidnapped. These terror tactics are blamed for forcing 230,000 terrified villagers to flee their homes.

Last Christmas, the LRA unleashed its most devastating wave of synchronized attacks. Dozens of locations in and around the towns of Faradje and Doruma were attacked. About 500 civilians were killed and hundreds of others abducted.

Human Rights Spokesman, Rupert Colville, says last year's events haunt everyone in the region. "There is a major fear that they may, in fact, try and repeat, at least partly, what they did last Christmas this Christmas and the U.N. peacekeeping force in DRC, MONUC said last week it had gone on high alert because it had some indications that the LRA could try and do what they did last year, which was particularly savage. They had exploited Christmas, exploited the fact that people were gathering in town centers for the festivities. People were gathering in churches and they used that to maximize their impact," he said.

The LRA waged a civil war in Uganda for more than two decades. During that time, the rebel group abducted more than 10,000 children, using them as child soldiers and sex slaves. About a million people were displaced.

After the LRA was driven out of Uganda in 2002 and out of Southern Sudan in 2005, it took refuge in the Orientale Province, a remote corner in northern DRC.

Last year and early this year, the Congolese army, with support from the U.N. Mission in DRC, launched three separate military operations to try to dislodge the Lord's Resistance Army.

As a consequence, the LRA splintered into several groups and crossed into neighboring Central African Republic and Sudan. Colville says this may have reduced the intensity of their attacks, but it has not stopped them. "And the splinters themselves are causing problems in that they are now in three countries again, not just in one ... It is a very worrying situation because as you say, they have gone on for decades this group. They spent about 20 years largely in Uganda. The same style - killing, mutilating, raping, stealing children, sex slavery ... And, because they keep stealing people, they keep replenishing their forces. So, it is a very efficient form of barbarity in the practice by the LRA. They manage to replicate themselves and keep going," he said.

The report urges the international community to help the DRC improve the quality of its security forces and their ability to protect civilians. It also calls for governments to cooperate with the International Criminal Court in investigating and arresting all LRA leaders accused of international crimes

Souce:voanews.com/

Darfur crimes continue, Sudan not cooperating with ICC, official says

United Nations (CNN) -- The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor reported Friday to the U.N. Security Council that violence continues in Darfur and that the Sudanese president and his government are not cooperating with investigators.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo noted positive developments in judicial proceedings and "fruitful" cooperation with international bodies, but said there still remain many setbacks. He explained that crimes continue in the region, including "indiscriminate bombings of civilians ... rapes and sexual violence" and the "use of child soldiers."

Moreno-Ocampo also highlighted Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's role in the situation. "Any leader committing crimes will face justice. Power does not provide immunity."

Al-Bashir has refused to appoint a lawyer to represent his position in court and, because of the ICC-issued warrant for his arrest, has not risked traveling to attend high-level events such as the U.N. General Assembly or a meeting held by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, or to other countries where it had been thought he might go, such as Uganda, Nigeria and Venezuela.

Moreno-Ocampo said respect for the International Criminal Court's decision to issue the warrant would send a clear message that al-Bashir "will face justice."

"There was no immunity for President [Slobodan] Milosevic [of the former Yugoslavia], there was no immunity for Prime Minister [Jean] Kambanda [of Rwanda], there was no immunity for President [Charles] Taylor [of Liberia]," he said.



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Sudan
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Instead of complying with the Security Council, al-Bashir has used the Sudanese state apparatus "to commit massive crimes" and has attempted to "exacerbate" the conflict in the South as means of shifting the international community's attention away from Darfur, Moreno-Ocampo said. He also accused al-Bashir of "stopping information about the crimes" rather than stopping the crimes themselves.

Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Rosemary DiCarlo called on the Sudanese government to fully cooperate with the International Criminal Court and its investigations as called for in Security Council Resolution 1593.

"The United States believes that those responsible for the atrocities in Darfur must be held accountable" as they "affect the stability of Sudan as a whole," she said.

DiCarlo said the ongoing violence in Darfur undermines "an already fragile humanitarian situation" and urged all states "to refrain from providing political or financial support" to those charged by the International Criminal Court .

Moreno-Ocampo said his office was considering holding responsible Sudanese officials "who actively deny and dissimulate crimes."

"Since Nuremberg, due obedience is no longer a legal excuse" for the facilitation of such criminal acts, he said.

Sudanese Ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad responded by calling Moreno-Ocampo a "mercenary of death and destruction," back once more to spread his "illusions" and "catastrophic vision."

"This is a big lie. The war in Darfur is over," he said.

Mohamad turned to those in the Security Council who asked for justice, and said they "should feel ashamed" and that their "credibility is at stake, if they have any."

The Sudanese ambassador said Moreno-Ocampo "would like to prolong the suffering of our people," and said, "We will charge him with political prostitution."

Reiterating his role as prosecutor is "to investigate and prosecute to contribute to the prevention of future crimes," Moreno-Ocampo said he is "ready to answer any challenge in court."

However, he acknowledged he would need the Security Council's full support "to end the current crimes against the people from Darfur."

Source:edition.cnn.com/