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/

Kenya Denies Helping Arm Southern Sudan

The Kenyan government has dismissed a report by a Swiss research institute that says it is secretly helping Southern Sudan stockpile weapons in violation of a U.S.-backed peace agreement. The Small Arms Survey says Southern Sudan government forces have received tanks and weapons that had previously been held in Kenya.

In an interview with VOA, Kenya's Defense Ministry Spokesman Bogita Ongeri dismissed the Small Arms Survey report as speculation.

The document, which contains satellite images allegedly showing T-72 Soviet tanks at the Southern Sudan military headquarters, claims the vehicles were the same tanks that arrived in Kenya in 2008. The Swiss team that authored the report says the photos are credible proof the Kenyan government has helped South Sudan obtain weapons in violation of a peace deal backed by the United States.

But Ongeri told VOA there is no evidence to back the claims, and the tanks are still in the hands of the Kenyan military.

"We have clearly indicated that those are our tanks and they are. I do no know where they are getting those things," he said.




AP
The Ukrainian cargo ship MV Faina arrives at the Kenyan port of Mombasa, 23 Feb 2009, after Somali pirates released the vessel held for some 4 months
The Soviet tanks first arrived at the Kenyan port of Mombassa amid a blaze of publicity in 2008, aboard the MV Faina cargo ship. The Ukrainian-owned vessel had recently been released by pirates after it was hijacked off the coast of neighboring Somalia.

Media attention on the ship's military cargo had led to increasing speculation it had originally been headed for South Sudan. The Small Arms Survey says the tanks were part of three shipments secretly under contract to the Southern Sudan government that were delivered to Kenya's Ministry of Defense.

Source:voanews.com/

The Top 10 Apologies Barack Obama should make to the world

The first year of Barack Obama’s presidency was marked by a series of embarrassing and groveling apologies for his country on the world stage. From his apology to the French for America’s supposed “arrogance”, to his massive mea culpa before the Muslim world in Egypt, President Obama succeeded in elevating national humiliation into an art form.

In his second year, I would strongly encourage the president to stop apologising for his country, and project more pride in his great nation’s past. The United States, together with Great Britain, have done more to advance the cause of liberty and freedom on the world stage than any other nations in history. From defeating the menace of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Empire, to liberating tens of millions of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US and UK have consistently been at the forefront of the defence of the free world in the face of tyranny.

If President Obama does feel the urge to show contrition on the world stage in 2010, he should apologise not for his country but for his administration’s shoddy treatment of its allies as well as political dissidents fighting for freedom across the world. He has also shown extraordinary indifference towards the victims of Communist rule in Europe, as well as the hundreds of thousands who perished in Darfur at the hands of the Sudanese regime. While every dictatorship on earth, from Iran to Venezuela to Sudan has been earmarked for engagement by the Obama White House, some of America’s closest friends and supporters have been shunned, humiliated or left out in the cold.

So here is a list of apologies that Barack Obama should make on behalf of his own administration, for undermining America’s traditional alliances, treating America’s friends with contempt, and refusing to side with the victims of totalitarian regimes.

1. Apology to the British people

Barack Obama’s treatment of America’s closest ally has been little short of appalling. It started off badly when he threw a bust of Churchill out of the Oval Office within days of coming to power, and went downhill from there. He humiliated the British Prime Minister during his visit to Washington last March, treating him like the leader of a Third World country, and sent him packing with a gift of 25 DVDs. Obama has little interest in the Special Relationship, and cannot even bring himself to acknowledge the sacrifice of British troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. As an exceedingly rude and ignorant senior State Department official put it - “There’s nothing special about Britain. You’re just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. You shouldn’t expect special treatment.”

2. Apology to allies in Eastern and Central Europe

The Obama administration’s cowardly decision to appease Moscow by pulling out of an agreement to install missile interceptors and radars in Poland and the Czech Republic was an appalling betrayal of key US allies who had faced up to intense intimidation from Russia. As I wrote at the time, “the impending cancellation of Third Site is a shameful abandonment of America’s friends in eastern and central Europe, and a slap in the face for those who actually believed a key agreement with Washington was worth the paper it was written on.”

3. Apology to Iranian Dissidents

Barack Obama’s appeasement of the brutal Iranian regime in the name of “engagement” has not only emboldened Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Mullahs, but has also undercut the millions of Iranians who have bravely protested against the Islamist theocracy. President Obama has remained largely silent in the face of the brutal beating, rape, torture and murder of thousands of political dissidents since Ahmadinejad was fraudulently re-elected last year. Obama’s refusal to take a strong stand for fear of offending the Iranian regime is a disgrace, and a damning indictment of his world leadership.

4. Apology to the victims of Communism

Barack Obama made Berlin a central stage of his presidential election campaign when he addressed an adoring crowd of hundreds of thousands of Germans in July 2008. However in November 2009, President Obama could not be bothered to fly to Berlin to attend the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, when even the Russian president showed up. Hillary Clinton stood in for the commander-in-chief and delivered an underwhelming speech that was more about Obama than American leadership in the Cold War. The White House decision to snub the Berlin ceremony was an insult to the memory of the tens of millions who perished at the hands of Communism in Europe. It demonstrated a callous disregard for human suffering and a refusal to acknowledge the huge role played by Ronald Reagan and the American people in bringing down the Iron Curtain. It also displayed what can only de described as an arrogant disdain for the transatlantic alliance.

5. Apology to the victims of the Sudan genocide

The Obama administration’s decision to engage with the brutal regime in Khartoum led by Omar Hassan al-Bashir, was both shocking and morally sickening. Obama’s special envoy to Sudan, retired Air Force Major General J. Scott Gration summed up the new US strategy when he ludicrously declared: “We’ve got to think about giving out cookies. Kids, countries — they react to gold stars, smiley faces, handshakes, agreements, talk, engagement.” This sent an appalling signal to would be genocidal regimes across the world that even they can be rehabilitated after murdering hundreds of thousands of people. Although it has received relatively little attention, the White House’s offer to lift sanctions against Sudan in exchange for “concrete steps in a new direction”, was one of the worst decisions made by Barack Obama since he took office.

6. Apology to the people of Honduras

It is still difficult to fathom the reasoning behind the White House’s incredible decision to side with Marxist despot Manuel Zelaya after he was removed by the Honduran Congress with the backing of the country’s Supreme Court. The Obama administration immediately condemned the fully constitutional actions of pro-American legislators who acted against a power-hungry figure determined to stay in power beyond his fixed term of office. Bizarrely, the White House aligned itself with the likes of America-hating tyrants like Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro and Daniel Ortega against pro-democracy forces who love the United States.

7. Apology to the Israeli people

Barack Obama has shown less enthusiasm for backing Israel, America’s closest ally in the Middle East, than any president since Jimmy Carter. His speech before a Muslim audience in Cairo in June set the tone for his approach towards Israel when he controversially drew parallels between the plight of the Palestinians and the Jewish people during the Holocaust, and used the word “occupation” describing Palestinian refugee camps. Obama’s weakness in the face of the Iranian nuclear threat has also caused widespread concern, and has significantly increased the likelihood that Israel will have to defend itself against Iran.

8. Apology to pro-democracy forces in Venezuela

Barack Obama’s handshake with Hugo Chavez at the Summit of the Americas last April set the tone for a new, more amicable US relationship with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s chief ally in Latin America. It was a move that hugely undercut the democracy movement in Venezuela, and the millions of Venezuelans who are clamouring for freedom. Washington’s silence over widespread human rights violations by the Chavez regime is yet another blight on the Obama administration’s reputation. The president’s decision to reach out to Chavez was also a dangerously naive gesture that offered a veneer of legitimacy to one of the world’s biggest state sponsors of international terror, with close ties to Iran, Syria and Sudan.

9. Apology to the Dalai Lama

As The Telegraph reported last October, Barack Obama was the first US president to refuse to meet the Dalai Lama since the Tibetan spiritual leader first started visiting Washington nearly 20 years ago. This, despite the fact that he had been welcomed to the United States no less than 10 times, and had been awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest US civilian award. The White House decision was taken in order not to offend Beijing ahead of a November summit with Hu Jintao. There is now speculation Obama has changed his mind and will meet with the Dalai Lama later this month, despite strong Chinese opposition. A perfect opportunity then for an apology to one of the great symbols of freedom on the world stage.

10. Apology to Chinese dissidents

Freedom in China has been given short thrift by the Obama administration, which has attached less importance to human rights across the world than any American government in modern times. The position of the Obama team was put bluntly by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, when she was questioned about Chinese state oppression in a press roundtable in South Korea last February: “but our pressing on those issues can’t interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis, and the security crisis. We have to have a dialogue that leads to an understanding and cooperation on each of these.” Not exactly a message of US support for thousands of Chinese pro-democracy activists who regularly face imprisonment, beatings and torture.

Source:blogs.telegraph.co.uk/

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 NCP express hope that SPLM Arman’s political career comes to an end

January 31, 2010 (KHARTOUM) – A senior official in the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) appeared to signal a growing concern over the candidacy of Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) deputy Secretary General Yasir Arman who is running for president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir and a handful of other hopefuls.

In an interview with the London based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat the state minister for foreign affairs Ali Karti who is also the NCP’s foreign affairs official said that SPLM’s pick of Arman is a mere expression of gratitude by the ex-Southern rebel group towards the Northern figure.

“This is just an attempt [by SPLM] to show appreciation to his [Arman] big efforts that he undertook particularly the accusations and abuse and in our assessment it is a reward to what he does. Definitely he would not be an alternative to Kiir [SPLM] chairman” Karti said.

“We hope that he is burned [politically] and is out of the way” he added.

The NCP official said that his party’s decision not to challenge Salva Kiir over South Sudan presidency is out of their belief that they should not “open a door of competition” in South Sudan and also denied that his party is secretly supporting Lam Akol who has defected from the SPLM to found his own party and maintains close links with the ruling party.

Following the decision by the NCP to endorse Kiir for South Sudan presidency, its officials said they want they want the SPLM to do the same and withdraw the candidacy of Arman as a return of favor.

However, the SPLM dismissed the request saying it is a sign of fear that Bashir, who faces an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC), may not win in his reelection bid.

There is growing speculation in Khartoum that the SPLM may end up pulling Arman from the race and endorsing Bashir in order to ensure that the NCP would grant the South Sudanese a smooth path to referendum and secession particularly as many issues remain outstanding with regard to post-independence arrangements including national debt, border demarcation, water and international agreements.

Source:sudantribune.com/

Sierra Leone: Ambassador Bangali On AU Mission in Sudan

Freetown — Sierra Leone's Ambassador to the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and permanent representative (PR) to the African Union, His Excellency Ambassador Andrew Bangali, on Tuesday 19th January 2010 left Addis Ababa as a member of the Commission's second pre-election assessment and humanitarian mission to the Republic of Sudan.

The objective of the mission was to assess the state of preparedness of the Sudanese government ahead of the country's elections slated for 11th April 2010.

The mission also undertook a humanitarian assessment duty by visiting internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps in Darfur.

Ambassador Bangali, who is also accredited as Sierra Leone's PR to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa or ECA is vice chair of the sub-committee on refugees, returnees and internally displaced persons, a committee that is drawn up by the AU permanent representatives' committee (PRC) and the African Union Commission.

Other members of the delegation included: The AU commissioner for political affairs, Her Excellency Mrs. Julia Dolly Joiner; Mr. Kimena Polla, Zambia's deputy Ambassador to Ethiopia; Justice Lewis Makame, chairman of Tanzania's Electoral Commission, Mr. Adekunle Adeyemi, erstwhile Ambassador of Nigeria cum expert on conflict resolution; Dr. Fonkam Samuel Azu'u, chairman of the Electoral Commission of Cameroon; Alhaji Chermo Ceesay, special assistant to the Commissioner of Political Affairs; Mr. Guy Cyrille Tapoko, political officer at the political affairs department; Miss Haja Kamara, political officer at the political affairs department and Mrs. Roman Mekonnen, finance officer at the department of finance in the African Union Commission.

The delegation returned to Addis Ababa on Sunday 25th January 2010.

On 26th and 27th January 2010, Ambassador Bangali joined his colleague Ambassadors at the discussions and deliberations of the 19th ordinary session of the PRC ahead of the African Union summit at the commission's headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Ambassador Bangali made series of pivotal interventions during the meeting and also used the occasion to extend Sierra Leone's heartfelt condolences to the victims of the Ethiopian airliner crash that took place on taking off from Beirut airport in Lebanon with 92 passengers on board.
International Organisations
The committee is comprised of African Ambassadors and Permanent Representatives charged with the responsibility of overseeing the work of the commission.

The committee considered items on the agenda of the summit, which they will submit to the Executive Council.

The 16th ordinary session of the executive council scheduled for 28th and 29th January 2010 considered and adopted the report of the PRC for transmission to the heads of state for decisions and declarations.

This year's AU summit is themed: 'Information and Communication Technologies in Africa: Challenges and Prospects for Development.'

Messers Amadu Koroma and Christopher Bockarie - Sierra Leone's deputy Ambassador to the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and second secretary at the mission respectively also attended the meeting.

Source:allafrica.com/

INTERVIEW-Sudan rejects US charge on arms transfers to south

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Sudan's U.N. ambassador on Friday dismissed as "irresponsible" U.S. allegations that weapons from northern Sudan were going to armed groups in the semi-autonomous south ahead of a nationwide April election.

Earlier this week the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said Washington was concerned about the flow of arms, including heavy weapons, into southern Sudan, and believed they were coming from northern Sudan and neighboring countries.

Sudanese Ambassador Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem told Reuters that Khartoum "categorically denied" Rice's allegations.

"The statement by the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. attributing arms flows to south Sudan to the north is most irresponsible," he said in an interview.

"It demonstrates that Susan Rice is still imprisoning herself in the past and failed to move from an activist position to that of a worthy representative of a superpower."

He added that it was U.S. arms sales that were making the world less safe, not weapons from his oil-rich African nation.

U.N. officials have said privately that they, too, suspect the north was supplying southern militants with weapons.

The oil-producing nation's north and south fought each other for more than two decades until a 2005 peace deal that promised national elections, due in April, and a referendum on southern independence in January 2011.

The International Crisis Group (ICG), an independent multinational group, has said relations between the two sides have broken down and Sudan needed more time to prepare for a widely expected 'yes' vote for southern independence if it wanted to avoid a violent break-up.

Armies from both sides, and an array of rebel groups and militias, are also stockpiling arms ahead of any conflict, despite U.N. and European Union arms embargoes, according to a December 2009 report by the Small Arms Survey.

The Enough Project, a U.S.-based anti-genocide group, has been saying for months that increasingly sophisticated attacks by the same ethnic-based militias that were used by Khartoum in the south during the civil war was cause for great alarm.

EUROPE'S GUANTANAMO

The Sudanese envoy also reacted angrily to comments from the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who said this week that he expected a genocide charge soon against Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. [ID:nLDE60R1PZ]

Abdalhaleem said that "the enemies of Sudan" were trying to use Moreno-Ocampo to destroy the peace process for Sudan's western Darfur region and insisted that Khartoum would never cooperate with The Hague-based court.

He said Moreno-Ocampo was "just a screwdriver in the workshop of double standards and injustice and the ICC is the European Guantanamo." He was referring to the controversial U.S. military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Bashir in March 2009 for alleged war crimes in Sudan's western Darfur region in connection with mass killings and deportations, but it said there were insufficient grounds to charge him with genocide.

Moreno-Ocampo appealed that decision to press for a genocide indictment.

The ICC has said it will issue a decision on the appeal on Feb. 3.

Bashir described the warrant against him as "all lies" last year and ordered major aid agencies out of Sudan in response.

Estimates vary widely on how many people have died in the Darfur conflict, which began when mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against the government in 2003. The United Nations says as many as 300,000 have died, but Sudan's estimate is 10,000. (Editing by Paul Simao)

Source:reuters.com/

As UN Spins Statements on Sudan Separatism, Ban's Stance on Sri Lanka Recalled

UNITED NATIONS, February 2 -- Following a protest of the UN in Juba, South Sudan which included calls for "Ban Ki-moon [to] repent before judgment," the UN belated rushed to argue that Mr. Ban was misquoted by AFP about disfavoring a vote for self-determination by the South Sudanese.

Ban's Associate Spokesman Farhan Haq came in late for Tuesday noon briefing at the UN in New York, read a statement then began to leave the podium without taking any questions. Inner City Press called out, will you take questions later? When he did, later, the UN did not transcribe it.

But Inner City Press asked Haq both what the UN says Ban told AFP, and how Ban's statement about making unity attractive does not indicate a preference. Haq argued that this language is from the CPA. He said he would later provide Ban's actually words to those interested. Video here, from Minute 1:50.

When Inner City Press went to Haq's office before six p.m. on Tuesday, it was closed. The Deputy Spokesperson handed Inner City Press a print out in which AFP had dutifully modified the quote. This was taken at face value.

But also in Haq's begrudging Q &A period, when Inner City Press asked about UN vehicles stolen in Darfur, Haq answered that this would not undermine the UN's "relationship" with "military leaders of Sudan." Video here, from Minute 3:33.

Ban Ki-moon, whether due to personal beliefs or by letting others in his administration take the lead, has elsewhere come down firmly on the side of central governments over minorities seeking autonomy.



Protest of UN and Ban in South Sudan, Tribune


During the Sri Lankan bloodbath on the beach of 2009, for example, he and his closest advisors were seen as doing little to stop the Rajapaksa regime in Colombo from bombing civilians in norther Sri Lanka, to crush "separatism."

This is not irrelevant from consideration of Ban Ki-moon's statements and attitudes about Sudan. You can make AFP run a correction, then dodge and not transcribe questions, but the issue remains and will be pursued. Watch this site.

Source:innercitypress.com/