Press Release

South Sudan Youth Association in Ethiopia
August 23rd, 2010

August 25, 2010 (SSNA) -- We, a group of Southern Sudan Youth, have come together in Ethiopian Capital Addis Ababa to organize ourselves to consider the contribution of youth in the upcoming referendum and to have a brainstorming on difficulties and issues faced by the GOSS to deal with post-referendum situation. We have come to realize that massive diplomatic campaign is required to promote the separation of South Sudan should the people vote for separation.

Despite our volunteer contribution to promote the cause of South Sudan people, the youth have decided not to work under the GOSS Liaison Office in Addis Ababa due to the following points:

1. The Southern Sudanese in Ethiopia have come to conclusion to work with the Bureau of South Sudan Referendum Commission in Juba to organize eligible voters in Ethiopia to exercise their right of self-determination. Refugees in Gambella, Addis Ababa, Jima and various refugee camps have gladly welcomed the position of the youth to work directly with Justice Chan Ariic in order to mobilize South Sudan refugees to vote in the upcoming referendum as stipulated in the South Sudan Referendum Act.

2. To demonstrate the seriousness of our campaign to let the people of South Sudan vote for separation, we protested and matched at the African Union building to show to Africa that South Sudanese in Ethiopia want to vote in the upcoming referendum as stipulated in the South Sudan Referendum Act. We appreciate the support from the Ethiopian people during our protest at Africa Union building to condemn the attempts of the NCP to postpone the referendum.

3. The youth have concluded that referendum must be exercised on time as per the provisions of the CPA. We call upon the SPLM Political Bureau not to waver in this to promote complete implementation of the CPA. We congratulate the SPLM Political Bureau, which met from August 13-16, for taking a firm position that referendum shall not be postponed.

4. We call upon the people of South Sudan to vote for separation in the upcoming referendum to maintain the human dignity of the upcoming generations. Voting for separation is reasonable given the failure of the NCP to transform the country from its current racist status to a more inclusive country for all.

5. We call upon the international community to condemn the ongoing genocide in Darfur and should prevent the NCP from turning the South into another Darfur in the making in January, 2011, as signs of the NCPs refusal to implement the CPA have become visible.

6. We call upon the African Union to allow the International Criminal Court to establish an office in Addis Ababa to bring to justice the perpetrators of Darfur genocide and to become a witness to NCPs activities of destabilizing South Sudan to create genocide.

For contact: South Sudan Youth Association
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

August 26, 2010 (Khartoum) -- Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir will attend the ceremony of Kenya’s new constitution, Sudan state run media SUNA reports on Thursday.

SUNA initially broke the news saying al-Bashir will head to Kenya on Friday at the invitation from his Kenyan counterpart president Mwai Kibaki to attend the celebrations of the declaration of the new Kenyan constitution.

However, during a briefing to the media, Kenya's secretary to the Cabinet Amb Francis Muthaura indicated that presidents of Tanzania, Rwanda, Comoros, Somalia and Government of Southern Sudan as among those who would attend the occasion, according to the Daily Nation-Kenya.

“President Al-Bashir will be accompanied during the visit by the Minister at the Presidency of the Republic, Gen. Bakri Hassan Salih, the Presidential Advisor, Dr Mustafa Osman Ismail, the Foreign Minister, Ali Karti, and the Director of the National Security and Intelligence, Gen. Mohamed Atta”, SUNA further explained.

It is not clear as to why the president would only choose top government figures who are from his ruling National Congress party (NCP) without including anyone from his main peace partner, the SPLM.

Khartoum has increasingly becomes furious after al-Bashir was charged in June by the Hague-based court with three counts of genocide.

Omar al-Bashir who consistently refused to recognize court rulings went to Chad in June to attend three days summit of the Sahel-Saharan states – a move seen by many analysts as collective effort by Khartoum the defy the court.

The Sudanese president is wanted by International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.

Kenya is a member of Rome Statue and can implement the warrant if it chooses to do so.

The South Sudan News Agency (SSNA) has not independently confirmed the report whether or not president al-Bashsir flown to Nairobi to attend the ceremony.

JUBA, Sudan (AP) — A city shaped like a giraffe? A rhino-shaped town? Even one that looks from above like a pineapple? Southern Sudan has unveiled ambitious plans to remake its capital cities in the shapes found on their state flags, and an official says the government is talking with investors to raise the $10 billion the fanciful communities would cost.

The plan in the war-torn region comes ahead of a scheduled January referendum on independence, which most people here believe will lead to the creation of the world's newest country. The south is rich in oil, but poverty and hunger is high throughout the region, which is struggling to recover after a civil war more than two decades long.

The $10 billion concept will take decades to carry out, officials concede, though it may never escape the planning stages. The southern government's own 2010 budget was only $1.9 billion, and the U.N. says more than 90% of Southern Sudan's population lives on less than $1 a day.

The plans have evoked bemused smiles — or outright laughter — in Juba, a town that until two years ago barely had any paved roads.

"It doesn't seem like the (Government of Southern Sudan) should be using its resources or staff time when the people of Southern Sudan lack basic services like health care and water," Nora Petty, an aid worker in Juba with the Malaria Consortium.

Government officials concede that a lot of money is needed to finance the project, which includes a plan to transform two state capitals into the shapes of a giraffe and a pineapple.

Juba — the capital of Southern Sudan — is to be reshaped into a compact rhino with two pointy horns. The new area will be called "Rhino City."

Officials said the plan would bring order to the city's chaotic layout.

"Juba is made up of slums," said Jemma Kumba, the minister of housing and physical planning.

Detailed architectural drawings of Rhino City show that Central Equatoria's police headquarters would be situated at the rhino's mouth, an amusement park at the ear, an industrial area along the back and residential housing throughout the four legs.

"It's very innovative. That's our thinking. It's unique. It's the Ministry of Housing thinking you have to be unique to attract the people," said Daniel Wani, undersecretary of Southern Sudan's Ministry of Housing and Physical Planning.

If the animal-shaped towns come to be, they will join other famously shaped cities around the world. Dubai created several palm-shaped residential islands off its coast. In Argentina, planners shaped the town of Ciudad Evita into the form of Eva Peron, an actress and wife of former President Juan Peron who was known as Evita.

Of course, per capita income in the United Arab Emirates, where Dubai is located, is around $42,000 a year. In Sudan, it's just $2,300.

And unlike well-developed Dubai, Southern Sudan still lacks basic infrastructure such as roads to connect its state capitals. Outside the southern capital Juba, structures aside from mud huts are rare, and in Juba, services such as electricity and sewage are a luxury.

The Minister of Roads and Transport, Anthony Makana, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he needed up to $6 billion to pave 8,000 miles of roads in the south.

Makana said the project would connect all of the southern state capitals, but he noted that funding is a concern, given that the government has not finished paying the contractors who built 4,350 miles of red clay and gravel roads since 2005, when the landmark peace accord between the north and south was signed.

Khartoum - Ten people were killed after a mine collapsed in a desert region of northern Sudan that is currently in the grip of a gold rush, the interior ministry said on Wednesday.

"Ten people are dead following the collapse at a small gold mine at Kabkabah village in the Abu Hamed sector," a ministry statement quoted Nile state police chief Adel Khujly al-Jak as saying.

Rising gold prices combined with the availability of metal detectors has sparked a gold rush in northern Sudan, with thousands of prospectors descending on the area in recent years in the hope of striking it rich.Several reports have appeared in the Khartoum papers about deadly accidents, usually citing anonymous sources. Prospectors from the north often come to the capital to sell gold in the large Al-Arabi souk.

"For the past two years prospectors have been coming to us to sell gold," Mahdi, a jeweller in the market, told AFP. "Sometimes they have 100 grammes, 250 grammes or even a kilo or more.

"Here in Khartoum we have cash to buy their gold, whereas in the north the merchants have less liquidity." - AFP

Associated Press

WASHINGTON –  A judge who questioned whether Barclays Bank PLC was getting off too easily nonetheless approved a deal Wednesday that will likely enable the financial institution to avoid prosecution on allegations that it engaged in $500 million in illegal transactions with banks in Cuba, Iran, Libya, Sudan and Burma for more than a decade.

Under the arrangement with the Justice Department, Barclays will pay $298 million — half of it to the United States and the rest under an agreement with the Manhattan district attorney's office in New York.

In exchange for the London-based bank's ongoing cooperation, the two criminal charges the bank faces will be deferred and ultimately dropped as long as the financial institution demonstrates that it is complying with U.S. laws.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan expressed concern that no one working at the bank was charged criminally and that the $298 million would come out of the pockets of Barclays' shareholders.

It looks like the bank is "getting a free ride here; that is what the average person probably concludes," Sullivan said.

Justice Department attorney Kevin Gerrity said the deferred prosecution agreement represents a fair and appropriate resolution of the case, balancing the serious nature of the criminal charges and "doing the right thing."

Gerrity said "we looked very hard" to find individuals at the bank who engaged in the alleged criminal conduct.

"There was no paper trail?" Sullivan said. "Senior management has to know who is responsible. ... Someone has to mastermind this."

Gerrity said the bank spent $250 million conducting an internal investigation of the matter.

"They spent $250 million and didn't find anything? That's just shocking," the judge said.

"We did not find anyone" who engaged in criminal conduct, Gerrity said.

Gerrity said senior management did not know of the misconduct until 2006, and disclosed it to the Justice Department. Low-level employees carried out the transactions and it became a question of whether they lacked criminal intent, said David Braff, an attorney representing the bank.

Sullivan declared that "I am not trying to micromanage" the Justice Department, but the judge suggested that prosecuting the bank might have brought pressure to bear in terms of uncovering who was responsible for the alleged criminal conduct.

The judge said at the outset of the court proceeding that he was unfamiliar with deferred prosecution agreements like the one he was being asked to approve. His deep skepticism of the deal turned to acceptance over the course of the hearing, which lasted over an hour.

The Justice Department uses deferred prosecution agreements as an in-between option to obtaining the conviction of a corporation or declining to prosecute altogether.

The bank was accused of violating the Trading with the Enemy Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

According to court papers in the case, Barclays concealed the transactions that it carried out with banks in the countries, which were under U.S. economic sanctions.

The papers stated that as early as November 1987, banks in the sanctioned countries directed Barclays not to mention their names on payment messages sent to the United States. The papers also said that Barclays' operating procedures educated employees on how to bypass filters designed to flag incoming payment messages involving sanctioned banks.

KHARTOUM (AFP) – Sudan expects to increase its oil production by up to one-third by next year, taking it to as high as 600,000 barrels per day, the country's new oil minister said on Wednesday.

A steering committee on cattle rustling in the eastern Africa region wants member states to ratify the protocol on combating the vice.

The committee said ratification of the protocol on prevention, combating and eradication of cattle rustling in eastern Africa will add muscle to the fight against the vice.

The call was made on Monday as delegates from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia and South Sudan began a two-day meeting of the Mifugo project, a partnership between the Eastern Africa Police Chiefs’ Cooperation and the Institute of Security Studies.

Established in 2008, Mifugo, a Swahili word for livestock, is tasked to implement the fight against cattle rustling.

Speaking at the opening of the workshop, Augusta Muchai, the Mifugo programme head, said the five member states had not ratified the protocol.

She said by not ratifying the protocol signed in 2008, the member states were slowing down the fight aginst the vice. “I request that members of the steering committee put pressure on the relevant authorities in their countries to make sure that they ratify the law,” Muchai said.

Representing Uganda’s Inspector General of Police as the guest of honour, Okoth Ochola, the assistant Inspector General of Police, said efforts were underway to have Uganda ratify the protocol.

“Even though Uganda is committed to ratifying the protocol, this has not yet happened due to various challenges.”

Ochola added that the First Lady, Janet Museveni, who is also the Karamoja affairs state minister, was paying personal attention to the ratification process and “with her push, we are optimistic that any remaining hurdles will be overcome.”

Earlier, Dr. Nicholas Kauta, the director of animal resources at the agriculture ministry, had said cattle rustling was responsible for the proliferation of livestock diseases (New Vision).
 

The National

NAIROBI // Sudan is at a crossroads and perhaps no one knows this better than John Paguir. As the undersecretary for trade in the government of Southern Sudan, Mr Paguir’s job is to attract foreign investment in the aspiring nation.

But with tensions mounting between north and south Sudan, a shaky start to an independence referendum and continued conflict in the western Darfur region, this may not be the ideal time to invest anywhere in Sudan.

The unsure fate of Southern Sudan – whether it votes for independence or if the referendum even happens in January as scheduled – as well as that of the rest of Sudan makes Mr Paguir’s job difficult.

“It would be much better for investment if Southern Sudan becomes independent,” he said in a recent interview. “We have resources, yes, but we need to bring investors to develop our land. There is fear. Some say they will wait until after 2011.”

The next five months will be perhaps the most critical period in the recent history of Sudan, Africa’s largest country by land mass and home to 42 million people. The oil-producing south is careening towards a Jan 9 referendum on independence. This is the last step in a 2005 peace deal that ended the country’s 20-year civil war between the Muslim north and Christian south.

A member of the referendum committee said last week that the vote should be delayed, which sparked a backlash from southern leaders who have staked their political careers on delivering independence for the south. 

“The time that is remaining is not enough to hold a referendum,” Tarek Osman al Taher said. “We at the commission will begin the necessary measures to try to hold the referendum on time but we must warn the partners that there is not enough time.”

Several issues need to be resolved before the vote including the demarcation of the border and division of oil revenues between the north and south. There is also the task of organising a free and fair referendum across an underdeveloped region that still sees flare-ups of tribal violence.

A presidential election in April was mostly peaceful but was plagued with technical problems in the south. Juba, the southern capital, has little infrastructure and is ill-prepared to be the capital of an independent nation, according to many westerners who live there.

A delay in the referendum would be a violation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended the civil war, southern leaders warned.

“Any proposal to postpone the referendum will be considered a violation of the CPA and would be a threat to the entire peace process,” Pagan Amum, peace minister in the southern government, told reporters in Juba. He added that Southern Sudan would have “other mechanisms to exercise its right to self-determination in the event of any attempt to put off or create obstacles to this referendum”.

Leaders from the north and south began last week to meet to resolve issues of citizenship, currency and international treaties the south would join if it votes for independence.

“Action at the political level to resolve these outstanding questions without further delay is clearly now of the utmost importance,” said Derek Plumbly, head of the Assessment and Evaluation Commission, a Sudanese commission tasked with implementing the peace agreement.

Even if Southern Sudan votes for separation, as most analysts believe will happen, and the process goes smoothly, Khartoum will still be left with a lingering conflict in the western Darfur region. The war between Arab nomads and African tribes over scarce resources has killed about 300,000 people since 2003, according to the United Nations. The International Criminal Court has indicted Omar al Bashir, the Sudanese president, for genocide.

With most of the villages in the vast arid region razed, many Darfuris live in packed, squalid camps near big cities. Last week, Sudan barred aid groups from some of the largest Darfur camps because of clashes between groups in the camps that are divided over the peace process.

Khartoum has been accused using aid as a political tool and withholding the much-needed assistance in order to punish certain groups.

Advocacy groups warned that Southern Sudan’s referendum and the north-south issues are taking the international community’s attention away from the Darfur conflict, even as violence there surges.

“The US and other key countries have largely turned away from serious political engagement in Darfur in favour of the north-south issues,” said John Prendergast, co-founder of The Enough Project, an advocacy group. “By not focusing on an all-Sudan solution, they end up with no solution at all, and the crises bleed on.”

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Mr Nafie however accused SPLM of wanting to divide Sudan, adding if the movement decided on declaring south Sudan’s independence by a parliamentary vote without a referendum it would be committing political suicide.” - Daily Nation