CAIRO, Aug 26 (KUNA) -- Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Abul Gheit affirmed importance of the African Union meetings that kicked off here on Thursday -- that aim to reach a mutual startegy to sustain peace in the continent.
At the inaugration of the first meeting of the Special Envoys of the Secretary General of the United Nations and the African Union to Africa, Abul Gheit described the meeting as a "unique opportunity" to identify lessons learned from the varied experiences in the African continent, exchange ideas and experiences in support of the concept of "best practices," in particular with regard to the maintenance of regional peace and security.
He stressed on importance of this meeting for completion of several elements of a regime of peace and security for Africa, for activation of the African Standby Force, in addition to the completion of the rest of the bases, namely the continental system of early warning system, activities of the Council of Elders as well as building capacity in government departments for the Peace and Security Commission to carry out its vital tasks in the management and settlement of disputes.
For his part, Secretary General of the Arab League Amr Moussa said cooperation between international and regional organizations has become necessary due to global conditions and problems of the large and growing role of regional organizations. He also noted necessity of tighter cooperation among the regional organizations, subregional organizations and main branches of the UN as well as its development programs.
In his speech, Moussa said the concepts that govern the regional and international work develop continuosly, indicating that the concept of peace and security in Africa and its international implications became more extensive and included economic, social, environmental and cultural factors.
Furthermore, Moussa called for the involvement of existing organizations for discussing the effects of peace and security in the broad sense.
At the end, Moussa proposed that this forum becomes a permanent institution which meets regularly and groups envoys, representatives of regional and international organizations and other bodies that promote peace and security in Africa.

ISLAMABAD: Fearing a backlash from the media and public, Senate Chairman Farooq H Naek has cancelled a visit of senators, which could have promoted the Pakistani cause of raising funds for the flood affectees, Daily Times learnt on Thursday.

In continuation of stringent measures for an austerity cut in expenditures, the Senate chairman disapproved all foreign visits, including the one to attend the 56th Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) Conference, scheduled to be held from September 10 to 19 at Nairobi, Kenya, sources told this scribe on Thursday. Expenditures on delegates, spouses, attendants and observers varied from $3,500 to $1,000 per head in addition to travel and TA/DA expenses. Millions of rupees from the national exchequer have been saved by Naek’s orders. Although, this good gesture of the Senate chairman to spare money for humanity in need was beyond any doubt, yet the significance of the mega event of the CPA in Nairobi, Kenya could not be denied as well.

This time, the CPA had envisaged an impressive agenda, which mostly related to the challenges the South Asian countries in general and Pakistan in particular had to encounter with. The CPA General Assembly would hold an extensive workshop in Nairobi on the global water and food crisis, sustainable development of energy and environment and preparation of the Commonwealth for the Emerging New World Economic Order. The participants of the 56th CPA Conference would thoroughly debate on the parliamentary procedural mechanism of accountability, scrutiny of governance through the Internet for strengthening oversight, the role of MPs in the gross roots projects, in protection of migrant workers and in natural disaster management.

All these crucial issues presently dominated our political culture. The authors of the CPA agenda, had been well conversant of the political controversies in its member countries such as Pakistan, enable the MPs from the South Asian countries to contribute their experiences and get benefit out of decades-old experiences of stable parliaments of the developed countries.

Naek while cancelling the trip to Nairobi directed the Senate administration that concrete steps be taken for evolving the IT mechanism through which member countries, unable of virtual participation, could get benefit from or contribute their shares in all mega events of the CPA. Instantly, it would not be materialised because any change in the procedural mechanism for the sessions of the CPA required a 60-days prior notice from the mover under the constitution and the rules of procedure of the CPA.

A reliable source in the Senate claimed that it was not the issue of millions of rupees being spent on lucrative foreign trips. The main dilemma was the way Pakistan spent the money from the national exchequer and what it gets of this hard-earned liquidity. Islamabad’s archrival, India, always surpassed Pakistan at all the global forums because India’s participation in the global debates on every issue had been marvellous. It was the reason that the Indian politicians and citizens occupied significant positions in global bodies such as the IPU and the CPA.

An official in the Senate said that the cancellation of the foreign trip to Nairobi was an ultimate outcome of the media’s ongoing hostile campaign against the elected government’s bid to liaise with the global forums and communities. Although, Pakistan’s absence from the Nairobi conference pacified the political rivals but it would also enable our global rivals to get maximum benefit from this situation.

On the other hand, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Interior Minister Senator Rehman Malik continued to enjoy foreign trips in the name of sensitising the world community for assistance for the flood affectees. Separately, Minister of State and Board of Investment Chairman Saleem H Mandviwalla had been paying a two-day visit to the Republic of Korea to apprise the Korean government and the private sector of the devastation caused by the massive floods in Pakistan. Despite the fact that religious scholars had been advocating the Muslim community to donate for the flood affectees instead of performing Umrah and Haj, Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman had performed Umrah a couple of days ago.

It is pertinent to mention here that the CPA had been established as an Empire Parliamentary Association, which had been renamed as CPQA in 1948.

THE 2010 edition of the golf Safari Series tee off in Uganda with over 100 competitors in contention for the coveted title at the par 72 Kitante course.

Uganda, that has been included in the 14-leg series this year, today hosts the one day opening event that will be played on stableford full handicap format.

“In total we play host to over 1000 golfers from all over the world and use the Safari to popularize Africa as a potential golfing destination,” event partner Donald Ajuoga (above) remarked at the launch of the event yesterday.

The tournament will start by short-gun tee off at 12:30pm and will be crowned with a prize-giving ceremony in the evening at the club.

The event that is by invitation, will see the winner in each of the 14 countries make the finals in Kenya in March 2011.

Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa, Botswana, Senegal, Cameroon, Cote d’Voire, Netherlands and China will also be covered in the series (New Vision).

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Hip-hop artist Wyclef Jean has a new song blasting Haitian officials for rejecting his presidential bid.

With the referendum on the south's secession approaching, the Sudanese government is intent on censoring media debate

Freedom of speech has not been thriving in Sudan recently. Khartoum has witnessed a spate of newspaper closures and a media clampdown due to what the government regards as a dangerous discourse lending support to the secession of the south.

Until now, the government has mainly preoccupied itself with censoring criticism of the president, Omar el Bashir, and his regime, but it seems that any coverage of the issue of secession or north-south problems is viewed as an implicit encouragement of separation – a prospect that the government is increasingly uneasy about.

When the Sudanese comprehensive peace agreement was signed in 2005, it ended decades of war between the north and south. Of all the provisions of the agreement, the most dramatic was that which gave the south of the country the right to secede, contingent upon the results of a plebiscite to be held in 2011.

The focus in the meantime was to make unity "attractive" – the mantra of the government over the past six years. Throughout this time, apart from splitting the spoils (not entirely equitably) with a semi-autonomous government in the south, the NCP has done little more than talk of promoting harmony, fraternity, tolerance, etc, and appoint a few strategic southern leaders to the cabinet. Unsurprisingly, this has not been a sufficient unguent; the referendum is now six months away and the first cracks are beginning to show.

The latest publication to be shut down, al-Intibaha, is one of the most widely circulated in the country. Run by the president's uncle, it certainly was not an opposition nor "cause" newspaper and hitherto had enjoyed the government's blessing. Apparently, the paper was in violation of the comprehensive peace agreement, which tries to enshrine unity while also making allowances for secession. This intrinsically contradictory situation blatantly betrays the northern junta's intentions: that it had never given much thought to the separation and, more sinisterly, perhaps, has no desire to go through with it. This is the problem with basing decisions around the narrow and blinkered interests of the NCP rather than Sudan's national interest.

As with all deals that have delayed consequences, the immediate benefits of peace seemed most appealing to the negotiators in 2005. The advantages appeared to outweigh the potential ramifications and economic fallout of the secession, which the government was supposed to do its best to pre-empt by throwing itself wholeheartedly into a nation-building exercise.

I was always curious as to how this would happen. How the south – almost half the country, ethnically marginalised, racially stigmatised, bereft of infrastructure, economic support and subject to consistent military attrition for the best part of 50 years – would suddenly find staying tethered to a north with which it shares little but the scars of a the longest-running war in Africa, "attractive".

Moreover, it was difficult to envisage how the Sudanese government would bring itself to relinquish the southern territories, rich as they are in natural resources and oil.

So, just as Faustus squirmed to find a way out on his day of reckoning, the Sudanese government is already trying, in its characteristic and inimitable style, to find a last-minute stay of execution. Hence the incommensurate response to talk of the referendum in the media.

An NCP official told Voice of America that the government will soon launch "a very strong campaign" with the sole aim of achieving unity between the north and the south in the coming referendum. There have already been discussions with the SPLM of a confederacy with a rotating presidency as an alternative to separation.

As last-minute and unrealistic as this seems, it may just come off. The NCP has stakeholders within the ranks of some southern parties and may yet – if it can succeed in building an alliance with them – stymie the planned vote and, once again, prevent the people of the south from deciding on their future.

Authors: Nesrine Malik

Hague court issues arrest warrant for Sudanese president, adding international pressure to further isolate regime

The international criminal court has charged Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, with three counts of genocide in Darfur, a move that will pile further diplomatic pressure on his isolated regime.

He is accused of trying to wipe out three non-Arab ethnic groups in the region, where more than 200,000 people have died since 2003.

The arrest warrant said there were "reasonable grounds to believe" Sudanese forces attempted genocide against the Darfur tribal groups Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa.

The ICC prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, accuses Bashir of keeping 2.5 million refugees in Darfur in camps "under genocide conditions, like a gigantic Auschwitz".

Last year the court charged Bashir with war crimes over the conflict in Darfur, making him the first sitting head of state issued with an arrest warrant by the ICC.

Judges then dismissed the prosecution's most contentious charge of genocide.

Four months ago an appeals panel ruled that judges made an "error in law" when they refused to indict Bashir on international law's gravest charge.

Prosecutors then filed their case again and on today judges issued an arrest warrant charging Bashir with three counts of genocide.