DeTall Malual
Gabriel M.Tor
I am a poet and a opinionated writer.
A high delegation from the World Bank headed by the Deputy Governor and the Director of African strategies is expected to arrive in Sudan on Tuesday. The visit, which includes Khartoum and Juba, will review the Multi-donors Activities Fund, which was established by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) to support war-affected areas in Sudan.
The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, has visited Rwanda on Wednesday to dissuade the country from withdrawing its peacekeeping forces, in an attempt to soften tensions provokes by the UN report citing involvement of Rwandan troops in genocide crimes in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the nineties.
A three-day forum of Jonglei State Counties commissioners has started, Thursday, in the State's Capital Bor aiming to discuss ways and resources needed to strengthen good governance.
Worldwide Caution
United States Department of State
Bureau of Consular Affairs
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Travel Alert - Qu'ran Burning
September 9, 2010
The Department of State is issuing this Travel Alert to caution U.S.
citizens of the potential for anti-U.S. demonstrations in many countries
in response to stated plans by a church in Florida to burn Qur'ans on
the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Demonstrations, some violent, have already taken place in several
countries, including Afghanistan and Indonesia, in response to media
reports of the church's plans. The potential for further protests and
demonstrations, some of which may turn violent, remains high. We urge
you to pay attention to local reaction to the situation, and to avoid
areas where demonstrations may take place. This Travel Alert expires on
September 30, 2010.
We also remind you of the continuing threat to U.S. interests and
citizens posed by various terrorist groups, as outlined in the
Department's Worldwide Caution.
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Peter Clottey, VOA
The spokesman for the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) political movement of south Sudan said his party is “panicked and disturbed” over the referendum commission’s lack of progress ahead of the scheduled 9th January vote.
Yien Matthew Chol told VOA that, despite promises of full implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) has “consistently” blocked efforts to hold the referendum as agreed.
“The SPLM is worried over the current situation that there is no clear move. Even when we sometimes reached agreements with the NCP, they just at anytime run away and cling to the positions which are anti-fair and free referendum,” he said.
Provisions of the CPA allow residents in south Sudan to decide in a referendum whether to be part of Sudan or secede and become an independent nation.
Chol also said that, under peace accord, the semi-autonomous south Sudan’s referendum should be held concurrently with that of the oil-rich enclave of Abiye.
He expressed concern that the NCP has so far failed to cooperate with other parties to set up the Abiye commission to organize that area’s referendum, which is also scheduled for 9th January.
But, officials of the ruling NCP dismissed the accusations as baseless propaganda saying the party has been working closely with the SPLM to organize the January referendum.
Chol urged the international community to put pressure on Khartoum to guarantee its commitment towards a free and fair vote. He also said that there are ample reasons to believe that the ruling NCP wants to control the activities of the referendum commission.
“Two days ago, there was a decision and a clear agreement made that registration will start and take like a month which commences approximately in October and that is good news partially. As far as my knowledge is concerned, to the very moment, the commission has not received yet its budget, technically, to start the work.”
Committee to Protect Journalists
Following Sunday's murder in Angola of Alberto Graves Chakussanga, a radio journalist with a station critical of the ruling MPLA government, authorities must conduct a thorough and transparent investigation exploring all possible leads and bring those responsible to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Wednesday.
Chakussanga's neighbors and relatives found the journalist lying in a corridor of his home in Luanda's Viana district with a bullet in his back early Sunday morning, according to local journalists. He had been the presenter of a weekly, Umbundu-language news call-in program on private Radio Despertar.
The motive for the killing was not immediately clear. Colleagues told CPJ that the only item missing from the house was a bottle of cooking gas. No arrests have been made. "We condemn the murder of Alberto Chakussanga," said Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed Keita. "We call on Angolan authorities to consider every possible motive for this killing including his journalism." Chakussanga had a following with the Ovimbundu, Angola's largest ethnic group who originate from the south of the country, a stronghold of former rebel movement UNITA, according to local journalists. Radio Despertar was launched in December 2006, under the terms of a 2002 peace deal between the ruling MPLA and UNITA.
In a press conference on Tuesday, Rui Falcão, secretary of information of the MPLA politburo, accused Radio Despertar of repeatedly inciting the population to commit "civil disobedience" since Monday in support of the opposition former rebel movement UNITA, according to news reports. The accusations were based on interviews and commentary that criticized the government's performance. In a press statement today, Radio Despertar rejected the allegations as "unfounded and slanderous," and asserted its editorial independence. Local journalists said the station has been critical of both UNITA and the authorities, and they allege that the government electronically interferes with its frequency in parts of Luanda.
Chakussanga, 32, was also a lecturer at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Agostinho Neto state university and at the Angolan police academy, according to local journalists. A few hours before his death, Chakussanga had left his pregnant wife at a hospital where she gave birth later that day to a baby boy, colleagues said.
by Peter Martell
KHARTOUM (AFP) – Sudan has resolved an angry dispute with the south by returning the payment of crucial oil revenues to hard currency, a senior southern government official said on Thursday.
Last month, southern finance minister David Deng Athorbei accused former civil war enemies in the north of "deliberately" weakening the fledgling southern economy, by switching the south?s share of oil revenues from foreign currency to the Sudanese pound.
The central bank in Khartoum denied payments had changed.
However, southern finance ministry undersecretary Salvatore Garang Mabiordit confirmed the payment in foreign currency had returned.
"There were meetings 10 days ago at a senior level to work this issue out, and we are thankful that the payments have now returned to normal," said Mabiordit, speaking from the southern capital Juba.
"This had been a big problem and a big concern, but it has now been resolved."
Sudan is sub-Saharan Africa?s third largest oil producer, providing as much as 98 percent of the southern government?s income.
However, the grossly underdeveloped south is still recovering from decades of war with the north, during which about two million people were killed in a conflict fuelled by religion, ethnicity, ideology and resources, including oil.
Juba had said it would be unable to pay for key imports without its hard currency income from oil.
Under a 2005 peace agreement, the north and south are committed to splitting oil revenues equally, with the national unity government in Khartoum transferring the share in foreign currency.
The south is due in January to vote in a referendum on independence, set up under the peace deal, and many expect southerners to overwhelmingly back full independence.
The return of payments is seen as a positive step in the tense relationship between Khartoum and Juba, with international pressure growing on both sides to resolve post-referendum negotiations, including deals on potential oil sharing.
The central bank had previously blocked hard currency payments in 2008, a situation resolved at the time by the intervention of senior southern leaders.
The bulk of Sudan's crude reserves lie in the south, but the oil is exported on pipelines that only run north.
On Wednesday US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Sudanese leaders in a bid to defuse what she called the "ticking time bomb" of an "inevitable" secession of the south.
"We're trying to begin negotiations to work out some of those intractable problems. What happens to the oil revenues?" she asked.
Several key oil fields lie along the still contested north-south border, another issue of concern.
The border was meant to be defined six months after the 2005 peace deal was signed, but negotiations by the committee established to demarcate it are in "deadlock," International Crisis Group said last week.
The Brussels-based think tank warned that some border areas "remain dangerously militarized" as the oil issue raises the stakes for drawing boundaries.
"Given the location of many oil deposits, border uncertainty has also contributed to mistrust, as southerners have questioned whether Khartoum was sharing as much revenue as required," the ICG report warned.
The US Secretary of State, Hilray Clinton said the upcoming referendum for the self-determination will lead to inevitable separation of the south from the north.
Reacting to Clinton's statements, the National Congress Party (NCP) regarded the statements as an attempt to influence the results of the referendum.
By Mabior Philip
Parliament - Juba, Sudan (Borglobe)....Legislators in the Juba-based Southern Sudan regional parliament are setting on for a secession campaign ahead of a vote that will split an already volatile Sudan in to two nations.
Southern Sudan, a region most ravaged by two decades-long civil war, but currently dependent on revenues from oil, is to hold a sensitive vote in January next year, to either confirm the unity of the Sudan as set in a 2005 peace deal or opt for secession from the dominantly Islamic north to establish her own independent nation.
Legislators yesterday convened an unusual sitting to strategize on how to prevent the embattled north from rigging the results of the vote.
Speaker of the parliament, James Wani Igga, said the legislators should go to their own constituencies, tell the electorates why separation is the favorable choice, defuse tension, sensitize on how to vote, and to monitor irregularities in the vote.
The legislators noted with worries that a mistake was made in allowing southerners outside the south to vote for they will not be under monitoring of the regional government.
They said the north will let all the northerners and Arab communities outside Sudan register and vote for unity, which may not be the choice of southerners. “If those outside vote unity then it shall be final”, said Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Micheal Makuei Lueth.
The number of Southerners in the north was estimated at half a million in the 2008 census, but the northern officials said they had already registered 4.5 million, which the legislators said was the beginning of rigging.
“The north will encourage the registration of as many as possible and later discourages voting of as many others so that the 60% is not attained”, Wani Igga said
