Sudan sets date for election nominations

Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir addresses the media at Khartoum airport, April 1, 2009 upon arrival from the Arab Summit in Doha. Sudan has set a date for receiving its presidential and parliamentary nominations as the historic elections for the continent’s biggest country nears. REUTERS

By LUCAS BARASAPosted Monday, December 28 2009 at 13:17

Sudan has set a date for receiving its presidential and parliamentary nominations as the historic elections for the continent’s biggest country nears.

The National Election Commission at the weekend said it will receive the nominations for the executive and legislative bodies from January 12 to January 22.

The oil-rich country is to hold the presidential and parliamentary polls from April 5 to April 12, 2010.

A report from Sudanese Embassy in Nairobi said NEC chairman Abil Alier and other commission’s member announced the nomination dates at a press conference at NEC offices.

“Alier welcomed the role being played by the media to make a success the elections process, calling for continuity of the cooperation in the coming period, especially after the conclusion of the registration phase and starting of the nomination phase,” the report, said.

The chairman of the NEC Technical Committee, Al-Hadi Mohamed Ahmed, pointed out that the nomination for the executive positions includes the election of the President of the Republic, the President of the Government of South Sudan and the Governors of the States, while the nomination for the legislative positions includes the membership of the legislative assemblies from the geographical constituencies, women, the Legislative Assembly of South Sudan and the States’ legislative assemblies.

The elections were to mark an end of a transitional period which began when the decades-long Second Sudanese Civil War came to an end in early 2005.

They were to be held from March to April 2009 but delayed due to problems with the preparation of the vote and with national census.

About 69 parties have registered for the election.

The Sudan census results were released in mid-May 2009 but was contested by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army which said Southern Sudanese are a third of Sudan’s total population while the census stated a much smaller number.

It is unknown if the Darfurian amalgamation referendum, due to take place in July 2010, will be pulled back to match the general election.

Observers believe opposition parties will have a difficult time to oust President Omar Bashir’s National Congress Party from power due to their divisions.

The Sudan elections are a cornerstone of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the Government of Sudan and the SPLM/A. Another is the Southern self-determination referendum, scheduled for 2011 at the end of the peace deal’s six-year interim period.

Field Marshal Bashir’s government bowed to pressure from the South to open voter registration centres in three Sub-Saharan states previously left out by the country’s NEC. Sudanese nationals in the Diaspora were able to register from South Africa, Kenya and Uganda. Another centre was also opened in Malaysia bringing the countries identified by NEC for the exercise to 14.

Some victors will be chosen under a first-past-the-post system, others by proportional representation. In a recent report, the Rift Valley Institute noted that the numerous elections and referendums held in Sudan since 1953 “have not so far produced the kind of stable yet dynamic government that the secret ballot is intended to encourage” largely because of “widespread and massive” fraud under authoritarian regimes and lack of necessary resources.

Source:nation.co.ke/

Sudan ships first ethanol exports to EU

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan has begun exporting its first 5 million litres of ethanol to the European Union, at an initial price of around 450 euros a cubic metre, officials from the Kenana Sugar company said on Monday.

Kenana, Sudan's largest sugar company, this year inaugurated the ethanol plant which aims to produce 65 million litres a year of the bio fuel.

"Yesterday a vessel carrying 5 million litres of ethanol went to Rotterdam," said company secretary Fareed Omer Medani.

"This has been purchased by the European Union," he said, adding by the end of February a further 20 million litres would be exported in four separate shipments.

Kenana's Managing Director Mohamed El Mardi told Reuters the price per cubic metre for the December shipment was about 450 euros FOB.

But he said prices for the four further shipments would vary, depending on the market.

"The prices are not fixed prices," he said. "For the five shipments we will have 5 different prices -- January/February prices are higher than in December."

Mardi said it was the first export of ethanol from Sudan, adding the shipments would continue regularly at 5 million litres every month.

Source:af.reuters.com/

NCP favors Sudan’s unity in 2011 referendum: official

December 26, 2009 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese ruling National Congress Party (NCP) stressed today that it is working towards making the choice of unity a dominant one among Southerners in the 2011 referendum.

Mohamed Mandoor Al-Mahdi the NCP’s VP in Khartoum state, said that the party’s leadership is in favor of Sudan’s unity, saying that the discussions with the Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) focused on the required percentage of voters in the referendum to declare the south an independent state.

The NCP official told reporters today that the NCP sought to increase the percentage to bolster hopes that unity option will be possible adding that this issue was thoroughly discussed with the ex-Southern rebel group.

Both parties in the National Unity government have been deadlocked for most of this year on the referendum law particularly over the turnout and the ‘Yes’ vote in favor of independence.

Initially the NCP wanted between 75%-90% yes vote and a two thirds turnout arguing that the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) says that the secession choice should be made difficult.

However, following stiff resistance from the SPLM, the dominant party agreed on a simple majority result for secession and a 60% turnout.

This week the national assembly adopted the referendum bill but NCP legislators modified it by cancelling an article stipulating that southerners who reside outside the region will have to register and vote only in South Sudan.

The SPLM walked out on the voting session to protest the change introduced to the bill threatening escalation if the move is not reversed. The US administration criticized the NCP saying it is reneging on the CPA.

The bill is scheduled to be sent back to the parliament to remove the modifications made by the NCP.

Al-Mahdi denied reports that the national assembly will look into the entire bill but rather at the article in dispute which the parties sat down and agreed on its resolution.

He acknowledged that the referendum law makes secession easier noting that some SPLM figures have publicly expressed their opinions in favor of independence.

On Friday the Ezekiel Gatkuoth, head of South Sudan’s mission to the United States told the Washington Times that the US financially is helping South Sudan to be a viable state should it decide to secede in 2011.

The NCP official slammed the SPLM questioning the fate of $8 billion sent to the south to be spent on development adding that this would have contributed towards making unity attractive.

Source:sudantribune.com

Police investigates suspicious death of Sudanese man in Calgary

Police units on the scene where body was found in an apartment in the 900 block of 38 Street N.E. in the city's Marlborough neighbourhood (Note: not connected to the killing scene for Saturday's death)

Photograph by: Sherri Zickefoose, Calgary Herald

(Calgary AB NSV) - Calgary police are searching for evidence linked to a suspicious death of a Sudanese man on Saturday morning.

Homicide investigators are in the preliminary stages of the investigation and few details can be released at this time. They are waiting for autopsy results.

However, The New Sudan Vision can independently confirm that the victim of Saturday's killing is a Sudanese immigrant, identified as Deng Manyuon (Deng Achol).

NSV understands that Deng left his residence on Friday evening to visit with friends, where they played dominoes.

The last person to see him alive says he and another man drove him off at his residence at around 12 midnight.

The witness said Deng opened his door and told them in Dinka that "You can go now guys. I have arrived."

At approximately 1:25 AM police responded to a domestic complaint, where they found a deceased male lying dead on a roadway near his residence.

Police have not established what transpired in Deng's residence and how the victim's bloody body was found in the snow outside his home.

Deng lived with his wife and his one-year-old son.

Source:newsudanvision.com/

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/

House passes Iran, Sudan divestment bill

The state House of Representatives unanimously passed legislation this week that prohibits Pennsylvania’s public pension funds from investing in foreign companies with significant business ties to Iran and Sudan.

House Bill 1821, sponsored by Rep. Josh Shapiro (D-Montgomery), passed by a 193-0 vote. The Protecting Pennsylvania's Investments Act would require the state Treasurer's Office, Public School Employees' Retirement System and State Employees' Retirement System, within 22 months, to end investments in targeted foreign companies who choose to continue business activities in Iran or Sudan.

“It’s been a long battle,” said Shapiro. “Five years ago, we couldn’t even get a vote on the floor. Now, it passed unanimously, 193 to zero.”

The bill is now awaiting action by the Senate before it becomes law. The House passed a similar bill in June 2008, but it died at the end of the session due to Senate inaction.

This time, Shapiro is “very optimistic” that the Senate will pass the new bill by early next year, noting that the House addressed Senate concerns regarding clarification of targeted companies and narrowing the scope of the bill to cover “only direct investments such as stocks and bonds.”

“The president of the Senate, Joseph Scarnati, has told me that he strongly supports the bill,” Shapiro said. “There is no reason this can’t get passed.”

Shapiro said he believes states have a responsibility to use their economic power to weaken their enemies, and support their allies.

“Pennsylvania has $664 million in retiree savings going to foreign companies that are propping up Iran and Sudan,” Shapiro said. “This will have a dramatic effect on the economies of those rogue nations.”

Shapiro added that the new law is also financially prudent for investors.

“Subjecting retiree benefits to the geopolitical risks of Iran and the Sudan is not a wise investment strategy,” he said.

Nineteen U.S. states already have enacted divestment legislation, and nine more states have taken voluntary steps to divest their pension funds, or passed resolutions urging divestment.

“We’re not inventing the wheel here,” said State Rep. Dan Frankel, (D-Squirrel Hill), noting that the bill was modeled on those passed in other states mandating divestment over time, to avoid unnecessary exposure to financial losses.

Frankel believes states have a moral imperative to “do whatever we can” to end support to Sudan, a nation that practices genocide, and Iran, “a terrorist state that doesn’t support our interests.”

“I represent a community that has one of the larger groups of survivors of the Holocaust,” Frankel said. “It’s a shrinking group, but when I interact with them, they feel strongly that the United States needs to stand up to genocide.”

Frankel said that the United States has failed on other occasions to act against genocide, and cannot ignore now the situation in Sudan.

“We didn’t live up to our moral responsibilities when we knew about the Holocaust early on,” he said. “And the U.S. has been disappointing in terms of how it has responded to the situation in Rwanda. But we have an ethical responsibility to be responsive. And we can be responsive as it’s been done in other states.”

“I think it’s the least the state of Pennsylvania can do,” Frankel said.

Source:thejewishchronicle.net