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/

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/

Algerian artists for the 54th celebrations of Sudan's independence

Algiers- On Algeria's initiative and under the high patronage of Presidents Abdelaziz Bouteflika and Omar Hassan El Bashir, a host of Algerian artists will take part in the festivities celebrating the 54th anniversary of the independence of Sudan on 1st January 2010, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Sunday.

"This gesture, expression of the traditions of friendship and brotherhood binding the two peoples," the same source underscored, will be conveyed through two major artistic evening performances in Khartoum and Umm Durman on 31st December 2009 and 1st January 2010. Both shows, scheduled to feature famous Algerian artists and the Algerian National Ballet, will take place at Khartoum’s Friendship Hall and Umm Durman’s National Theatre.

Source:

Sudan:Communique of the 213th Meeting of the Peace and Security Council

The Peace and Security Council of the African Union (AU), at its 213rd meeting held on 22 December 2009, considered the Report of the Mission undertaken by the Council to the Sudan, from 23rd to 25th November 2009, and adopted the following decision:

Council:

1. Takes note of the Report [PSC/PR/CCXIII] on the PSC field mission which visited the Sudan from 23rd to 25th November 2009;

2. Stresses the need to re?energize the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and to accelerate the process of post?conflict reconstruction and socio?economic development in South Sudan. In this respect, Council further stresses the importance of the AU Ministerial Committee on Post?Conflict Reconstruction of the Sudan and encourages the Committee to intensify its efforts;

3. Emphasizes the need, given the challenges related to the general elections in April 2010 and the referendum in early 2011, for the AU to accelerate the implementation of the recommendations of the African Union High Level Panel on Darfur (AUPD) in line with the
decision adopted by Council at its 207th meeting held at the level of Heads of State and Government in Abuja, Nigeria, on 29 October 2009;

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4. Expresses concern at the continuing lack of confidence between the National Congress Party (NCP) and the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement (SPLM) regarding the implementation of the CPA, which affects preparations for the referendum scheduled for early 2011. In this regard, stresses the need for the AU, and IGAD, with the support of the international community, to assist in renewing confidence between the two parties;

5. Notes the challenges faced by the Sudan in both the implementation of the CPA and the upcoming elections in April 2010, as well as the preparations for the referendum. In this respect, Council decides to establish an Ad Hoc Committee on Sudan to assist in addressing the challenges. Council further agrees to undertake field missions to Sudan in support of the peace processes in that country;

6. Requests the Chairperson of the Commission to submit to it regular reports on the evolution of the situation in Sudan;

7. Decides to remain seized of the matter.

Source:allafrica.com/

Guantánamo judge won't expand Sudanese war crimes case

In this photo of a sketch by courtroom artist Janet Hamlin, defendant Ibrahim al Qosi, far left, sits with a member of his defense team in the courthouse for the U.S. war crimes commission at the Camp Justice compound on Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba, Wednesday, July 15, 2009. A Pentagon court security officer approved this sketch for release. JANET HAMLIN / POOL SKETCH ARTIST









BY CAROL ROSENBERG
crosenberg@MiamiHerald.com
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- A military judge dealt the Pentagon a double-barreled defeat Thursday, rebuffing a bid to include al Qaeda's 1992-96 formative era in a Sudanese captive's war crimes case and separately ordering the government to put on a show-cause hearing Jan. 6.

The decision by Air Force Lt. Col. Nancy Paul appeared to put the case against alleged Osama bin Laden bodyguard Ibrahim al Qosi on track to become the first Obama administration trial by military commission here at Guantánamo Bay, early next year.

But she also limited the scope of the trial, leaving Pentagon prosecutors evaluating whether to withdraw the case entirely and start fresh.

Meanwhile, Paul ruled that adding allegations against Qosi, 49, covering the time period of 1992 to 1996 would "fundamentally'' and "dramatically'' change the nature of Qosi's military commission case. She called the prosecutors' proposal an "unfair surprise'' nearly two years after the Pentagon swore out charges against the captive.

Conviction at trial is punishable by a maximum of life in prison. Qosi has been held at Guantánamo for almost eight years.

"While the basic elements of the offense conspiracy does not change, nor is a greater punishment possible, the scope of the crimes the accused must defend against will have shifted dramatically,'' she read from the ruling, as Qosi listened to an Arabic translation.

At issue had been whether the Pentagon could use a new military commission law just enacted by Congress to expand the case against Qosi, who is now accused of supporting terror and conspiracy for allegedly serving as a member of bin Laden's bodyguard detail in Afghanistan after 1996.

From 1992 to 1996, bin Laden was based in Qosi's native Khartoum, and, according to Pentagon documents, Qosi allegedly handled the al Qaeda payroll. Sudan's government had bin Laden and his organization leave the country in 1996, after pressure by the Clinton administration.

The Pentagon's chief war crimes prosecutor, Navy Capt. John F. Murphy, said his office would not appeal the ruling.

But he said his lawyers would consult with attorneys at the office of Susan Crawford, the Pentagon appointee in charge of the war court, to decide whether to withdraw the case and bring new charges that expand the case.

In her twin rulings Thursday, Paul became the first commissions judge to address head-on how to apply Congress' new Military Commissions Act of 2009 to old cases still at the court and approved for military trials by Attorney General Eric Holder.

Qosi was singled out for trial in the earliest years of the establishment of the prison camps at Guantánamo. He was captured in Afghanistan in late 2001, allegedly after serving on an al Qaeda mortar crew and helping bin Laden elude American capture at Tora Bora.

He has been charged in every version of a commission dating back to the original effort established by the Bush administration, which was struck down as unconstitutional by the Rehnquist Supreme Court.

Under the new law, only war-on-terror captives defined as an ``unprivileged enemy belligerent'' -- not a POW -- can go before the tribunals now being held here at Camp Justice.

And defense lawyers asked the judge to throw the case out because Qosi had been held as an ``unlawful enemy combatant'' -- Congress' old label for a war-crimes trial candidate.

Navy Cmdr. Dirk Padgett, the case prosecutor, argued Wednesday that the case the Pentagon would present at trial to a panel of military officers would prove Qosi was an ``unprivileged enemy belligerent.''

But Paul instead borrowed a page from the earlier trial of Osama bin Laden's Yemeni driver and ordered the government to call witnesses and present evidence Jan. 6, in a proceeding that some lawyers have likened to a show-case hearing in civilian criminal court.

To decide whether the captive of eight years met the definition, she said, she would consult both U.S. law and The Geneva Conventions.

"We don't view this as a setback,'' said Murphy, the Pentagon prosecutor. "We view this as a normal part of the process. We have conflicts between the new statute and the old statute. There are remedies to these issues.''

Source:miamiherald.com/