Sudanese President has no regard for human rights

Sudanese President Omar Assad El-Bechir seems to be a hard nut to crack. He has the nerves to warn President Bush and Prime Minister Gordon Brown, daring them to announce their visits whenever they visit Iraq.

The man has refused to accept peacekeepers to be mandated longer in order to bring stability to the Darfur people.

The question many are now asking is what steps George Bush is comtemplating. Is he planning to bomb the Sudanese President out of power before his term in the White House runs out?

There is no question that the people of Darfur are suffering and being displaced because of the conflict in the region. The international community has the responsibility to solve the conflict and must not continue wasting time like they did when the Rwanda massacre took place in 1994.

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A call for death sentence against two terrorists in Mauritania

Nouakchott (Mauritania) The public prosecutor’s office in Nouakchott on has called for the death sentence against two of the 14 suspected terrorists standing trial for “carrying of arms against Mauritania and treason.”

The two suspects, Taher Ould Abdel Jelil and Tayib Ould Saleck are charged with participating in the 2005 attack on the Limgheity military barracks during which 15 Mauritanian soldiers were killed.

The attack was officially blamed on the Algerian Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which became the military wing of al Qaeda in the Maghreb under the regime of President Maaouya Ould Sid’Ahmed Taya who was toppled in a coup on 03 August 2005.

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Senegal has reiterated its decision to try the former Chadian president, Hissein Habre in a regular criminal court

Dakar (Senegal) Senegal on Thursday reiterated its decision to try the former Chadian president, Hissein Habre in a regular criminal court instead of a special court as initially planned.

Senegal will not resort to a special court to try Habré like the Special Tribunal for Rwanda or the International Criminal Court for ex-Yugoslavia, Senegalese justice minister, Cheikh Tidiane Sy explained.

He said the trial by a criminal court was in line with the future amendment of the country’s criminal code.

A Senegalese joint task force had proposed a special jurisdiction estimated at 43 billion francs CFA (US$ 90 million) but which President Abdoulaye Wade described as extravagant.

Several human rights watchdogs and advocates of victims had accused Senegal of showing less interest by deferring the former Chadian president’s trial.

Senegal always responded by insisting on the African dimension of the affair and managed to obtain a mandate from the African Union in July 2006 to try Hissein Habre in Dakar.

Habré, went into exil in Senegal since he was thrown out of power in 1990 following allegations of arbitrary arrest, mass murder, and torture committed during his almost twenty-year rule in Chad.

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Kenya lifts ban on direct flights from Somalia

Nairobi (Kenya) Kenya has lifted its ban on direct flights from Somalia but imposed conditions for flight operations.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) said authorized passenger flights from Somali will now be required to make mandatory stopovers at Wajir airport, about 170 km southwest of Nairobi, before proceeding to their destinations in Kenya.

The statement also said cargo flights from Somalia are not authorized to carry passengers.

“Any flights from Somalia with unauthorized passengers will be required to take them back, including the miraa (khat) or cargo flights,” KCAA said.

Cargo flights from Somalia, including miraa flights on their return journey from Somalia, must also land at Wajir airport for security, customs and immigration clearance before proceeding to their final destinations within Kenya.

The statement warned that any violation of the conditions, which must be met first by August 1, would lead to severe penalties such as confiscation of the aircraft.

Among the violations cited include unauthorized landings at aerodromes without first notifying Kenyan authorities.

In November 2006, Kenya suspended direct flights from Somalia on security grounds.

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Al-Bashir challenges President Bush and Prime Minister Brown to appear before crowds of Iraqis, just like he was doing in Darfur

Khartoum (Sudan) Sudan has reiterated that it will not allow the joint United Nations-African Union force in Darfur to use “all means necessary”, including force, to keep the peace in the troubled region.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali al-Sadiq said on Tuesday that Sudan is consulting on the mandate for the UN-AU force of 26,000 troops including police in Darfur.

France and Britain have drafted a resolution that would allow the peacekeepers to use all necessary means, including force, to protect itself as well as civilians in Darfur.

However, Sudan opposes this mandate and wants a weaker one that would restrict the force\’s action.

Sudan describes a stronger mandate as a violation of its sovereignty.

Al-Sadiq said peacekeepers should focus only on making sure a peace agreement from last year is kept, and nothing else.

Last year, Sudan rejected a Security Council resolution that would have deployed 22,000 UN troops in Darfur with a robust mandate.

The hybrid force was supposed to be a compromise but could stall over the disagreements about how much force the troops will be allowed to show.

Sudan President Omar al-Bashir taunted the United States and Britain during his trip to Darfur on Saturday, saying that the two were exaggerating the region\’s problems to hide what he called their failure in Iraq.

Al-Bashir said President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Gordon Brown would never announce a visit to Iraq before it was over and dared them to appear before crowds of Iraqis, just like he was doing in Darfur.

He also accused aid workers of collecting money in the name of Darfur and spending it elsewhere.

He accused aid groups in Darfur of turning refugee camps into museums where human misery was put on display for the rest of the world to see.

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Foreign ministers from SADC hold talks on the latest political developments ahead of a SADC summit in Zambia.

Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) Foreign ministers from the Southern African Development Community (SADC)Wednesday in Dar es Salaam continued to deliberate on the latest political developments in the region ahead of a SADC summit in Lusaka, Zambia.

High on the agenda of the three-day meeting that started Tuesday are the political events in Lesotho, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zimbabwe, according to the Tanzanian foreign ministry here.

Following a directive made at an extraordinary SADC summit on 29 March in Dar es Salaam, the regional inter-ministerial summit was entrusted to deliberate on the Zimbabwe crisis before forwarding its recommendations to the SADC summit set for Lusaka, Zambia, in August.

The ministers are also assessing the political situation following controversial polls in the DRC and Lesotho, the ministry said.

During the March Dar es Salaam summit, the SADC leaders assigned South African President Thabo Mbeki to facilitate a dialogue between the government of Zimbabwe and the opposition.

Apart from looking at the regional assignments, the ministers will also refine the agenda for the Lusaka SADC summit, the ministry said.

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The United Nations refugee agency on Tuesday appealed for 48 million dollars to alleviate the plight of Somalis

Washington DC (USA) The United Nations refugee agency on Tuesday appealed for 48 million dollars to alleviate the plight of Somalis fleeing violence in their country.

The funds will be used to provide “badly needed assistance for newly arrived Somali refugees fleeing renewed conflict in Somalia, and people displaced inside Somalia,” Ms. Jennifer Pagonis, a spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told a press briefing in Geneva.

She estimated that the number of Somalis in the region who will receive assistance from UNHCR when the appeal is yielded to, will rise from the current 312,000 to 478,000 by end 2008.

The agency said it will use the funds to help internally displaced Somalis and newly arrived Somali refugees in Kenya, Ethiopia, Yemen and Djibouti.

The appeal, launched Monday, is separate from UNHCR’s annual programme to assist the 450,000 Somali refugees who fled previous turmoil in Somalia, which has not had a functioning government since 1991.

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Former US President Bill Clinton has left for home from Tanzania

Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) Former US President Bill Clinton has left for home, following his three-day working visit to assist Tanzania in its fight against malaria.

Clinton, who left on Tuesday, has been on a Southern Africa safari, visiting South Africa, Zambia and Malawi — conducting various humanitarian activities.

He arrived in Tanzania on Sunday to promote low cost treatment for malaria, Africa’s major killer disease, with simple remedies.

Foreign ministry and State House officials said the former US leader held a closed-door meeting in the northern town of Arusha Tuesday with President Jakaya Kikwete before leaving the country.

Though diplomats declined to speculate on what the two leaders discussed during their tête-à-tête, no doubt Clinton’s efforts to reduce HIV/Aids and malarial deaths in Tanzania was at the centre of the talks.

Clinton, after leaving office in 2001, formed the Clinton Foundation for HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI) to help fight the killer disease as well as treat tuberculosis and malaria in Africa.

Addressing a gathering at Pugu Kajiungeni in Dar es Salaam on Sunday, the former leader wondered why people should continue to die of malaria, a disease his country eradicated in the 1950s using DDT.

While in Dar es Salaam, the 42nd president of the United States (1993-2001), officiated at the launching of the subsidy programme for the anti-malarial artemisinin-based combined therapy (ACT).

Malaria, which is transmitted by a parasite carried in mosquitoes, claims about 100,000 lives annually in Tanzania alone, with pregnant mothers and under-five children as its main victims.

The figure is one of the highest rates in the world, and Clinton came to show his support through a pilot programme for subsidised medicines, which could be a model for Africa.

Clinton, though, is no stranger to Tanzania.

He was the first sitting American president to visit the country in 2000 during the Burundi peace signing ceremony.

This was at the invitation of elder statesman and South Africa’s former President Nelson Mandela, who was the chief mediator of the conflict.

Clinton was again in the country two years ago, to show support for the fight against HIV/AIDS here.

The latest visit is his third to the country.

His wife, Hillary, and their only daughter, Chelsea, have also visited the country.

Hillary wants to make history now by becoming the first American woman president if she wins the Democratic Party’s nomination for the job and the American people go on to elect her.

Deaths from malaria, caused basically by poverty and neglect, are a tragic blot to the free conscience of a world full of resources — financial, scientific and human — to wipe out the disease.

With support from the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation, Clinton and other like-minded leaders are now out to ensure that the world can register a big difference by merely showing concern and care.

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