ICC has no power: Sudan’s wanted President Al Bashir on State visit to Libya

by api

ICC should be enabled, by all Nations party to the treaty that created it, to have a quick response squad to be used to seize wanted persons for trial who choose not to cooperate by handing themselves over when called upon to do so.

The existence of such a squad could now have been sneaked into Libya when Al Bashir is there and the team would have the power to seize and hand him over to the ICC for trial.

A squad of the kind we are talking about should consist of trained persons from all those countries that have signed the ICC treaty – example, 10 persons from each country to form the squad and be based in the Hague, ready for despatch at any time to destinations for necessary mission.

What does this tell the world? The International Criminal Court (ICC) has been angry with Kenya for allowing Al Bashir to visit the country during Kenya’s promulgation. If at the time there was such a squad, the team would have seized him from Kenyan soil.

Now Al Bashir visits Libya after Gaddafi’s fall and meets with the new leaders who were recently helped by the West to take over the country. It is not logical at all to make any understanding out of this. Why do the new leaders allow Al Bashir, the man wanted by the International community to visit the country?

This is a sign to the west to say the new Libya will not cooperate when the ICC will ask them to hand over perpetrators of the conflict in the country that saw the murder of Muammar Gaddafi and many of his supporters.

During the liberation of Libya, both sides – Gaddafi’s side and the new leadership committed crimes and those people must be tried by the international community. But by allowing Al Bashir to visit the country, the new Libyan leadership is already telling the west to keep off their internal affairs.

The west is always ready to jump in and help solve conflicts around the world, – they west plays the policeman of the world –  hoping to change the status quo, but they never learn when the same leaders they help to take over power turn their back against them.

Now Libyan leaders are turning their back to west after being brought to power using the NATO planes, and sadly for the west. they will swallow their pride, but proudly move on to the next victim which will either be Syria or Iran. Both are targets now and no negotiations will save the two from Nato planes in the very near future.

The latest information:

Now Libya tells the west that Al Bashir’s weapons helped them to overthrow Gaddafi. NATO thought they were the only ones helping, but their’s was bombings from the air, while the new leaders in Libya secretly got weapons from Sudan! Now it is clear why Al Bashir has been welcomed in Libya as a hero despite ICC warrant of arrest.

 

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The new Jamaican premier wants to break ties with the monarchy

by api

Jamaica has been independent from Britain – the colonialists, for over 50 years but the British Queen has remained the ceremonious Head of State.

Jamaica held elections recently and got a new prime minister. She has now launched a campaign to break-away from the British monarchy. The queen is still head of state and the new Prime Minister thinks it is time her country dropped the Queen and become a republic.

This is good for many Jamaicans who do not want any more connection with their former colonial masters. There are some, however, who think they can still benefit by having the queen as head of state. It allows them easy access into Britain where many Jamaicans live at the moment.

It was through this promise that the new PM came back into active politics and was elected. She will, therefore, have to push for the changes in the laws in order to satisfy the electorate who brought her to power.

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HIV tests: Community health workers are attempting to trace people tested with faulty kits

KENYA: New guidelines follow recall of faulty HIV test

Photo: Wendy Stone/IRIN

Community health workers are attempting to trace people who were tested with the faulty kits (file photo)

NAIROBI, 5 – The Kenyan government has changed its HIV testing algorithm following the withdrawal of a widely used brand of HIV test on warnings from UN World Health Organization (WHO).

In November, WHO removed the Standard Diagnostics Bioline® HIV 1/2 3.0 Rapid HIV Test Kit from its list of approved rapid test kits with immediate effect; the alert was issued after Bioline failed quality assurance tests.

The Kenyan government estimates one million kits were in circulation at the time of the recall, about one-tenth of all the HIV kits available in the country.

“We followed the World Health Organization alert and have in turn ordered all health facilities and voluntary counselling and testing centres to stop using the kit,” said Shahnaz Sharif, Kenya’s director of public health at the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation.

New guidelines

Bioline, which is manufactured in South Korea, was in use as a confirmatory test, the second conducted during standard HIV testing, which uses three tests – an initial screening test, a confirmatory test and if there is a discrepancy, a third, tie-breaker test.

As a result of the recall, Unigold, the brand used in Kenya as a tie-breaker, now replaces Bioline as the confirmatory test, and the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test – which requires a blood sample be sent to a laboratory and takes significantly longer than the rapid tests – becomes the tie-breaker. A brand known as Determine retains its place as the official screening test.

“We have already engaged the services of a supply chain management organization to help with collecting the Bioline kit from facilities countrywide and at the same time, replace it with Unigold; it [the supply chain management firm] has the database of all the health facilities that received the faulty Bioline kit,” said Peter Cherutich, deputy director of the National AIDS and Sexually transmitted infections Control Programme.

“Health facilities will commence working with the various partners to help trace people who might have been tested with the faulty kit so that they can come for repeat tests,” said Jackson Kioko, director of public health and sanitation in Kenya’s Nyanza Province, which has the country’s highest HIV prevalence levels – 14.8 percent compared with a national average of 7.4 percent.

Concern

However, health workers are concerned that the use of the ELISA test will discourage nervous testers. “Except in the cases of infants, HIV tests results have always been instant and that has been the beauty of it; the process of having to wait for your result in case of discrepancies might be very agonizing for many people,” said Julie Nasirembe, a nurse at a health facility in Nairobi.

There is also concern about the impact the recall will have on public confidence in HIV testing, especially as the country pushes for universal access to HIV counselling and testing.

“We don’t know how widely this Bioline kit might have been used but it definitely eroded your confidence, not only in the health facilities but even in yourself, because if you test negative you are not sure if you are accurately negative,” said Dan Mutisya, a resident of Kenya’s capital Nairobi.

ko/kr/mw source www.irinnews.org

Competition for pastureland lies at the heart of the conflict

KENYA: Thousands flee fatal clashes in Moyale

Photo: Siegfried Modola/IRIN

Competition for pastureland lies at the heart of the conflict

MOYALE,  – At least six people have been killed in a fresh wave of fighting between two rival groups near the northern Kenya town of Moyale, prompting thousands to flee their homes, aid agencies and residents told IRIN.

The latest clashes between the Borana and Gabra communities, which follow weeks of unrest in December, began on 3 January and continued into the following day.

The fighting reportedly broke out after a disagreement between youths at a peace meeting degenerated first into an exchange of stones, then gunfire.

The Kenya Red Cross Society said six people had so far been confirmed dead, three of them children, and dozens of houses had been burnt. Three other people were reported to have sustained serious injuries.

Difficulties in accessing the affected villages of Odha, Kanisa, Masille, Iladu and Hellu led officials to believe the final toll could rise significantly,

Some 1,700 children from these villages have been unable to attend school because they fled with their families to Moyale town, according to one education official.

Reacting to complaints of government inaction, Regional Commissioner Issah Nakoru said: “Our people must be assured that the government has deployed more than 1,000 security officers in Moyale and Isiolo [about 500km to the southwest].”

Residents “have a role to play. Tell us those who among them are engaged in the fight and those who are inciting the communities to fight,” he said.

na/am/mw
source www.irinnews.org