South Sudan might cut oil production

JUBA, South Sudan, Nov. 30 (UPI) — South Sudan might be forced to stop producing oil because storage capacity is limited, a minister said after Sudan blocked oil exports from its neighbor.

Khartoum this week said it wasn’t going to export the 200,000 barrels per day produced by South Sudan, forcing China to step into the regional embargo.

Beijing called on the Sudanese government to end the blockade since it is the largest buyer of crude oil from the region and the move affected its tankers first.

“Maintaining normal production of oil is important to both South Sudan and Sudan,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei was quoted by the Financial Times as saying. “We hope north and South Sudan can stay rational, show restraint and resolve relevant problems through neighborly pragmatism and friendly talks.”

Energy analysts told the Financial Times that although crude oil from the region represents only a fraction of the oil market, supplies are strained as markets try to recover from outages from the war in Libya and declining output from Syria.

Arkangelo Okwang, an energy official in South Sudan, told the Financial Times further action from Khartoum might force his country to cut output because its own storage capacity is limited.

“That will be a disaster if we are forced to stop production,” he was quoted as saying.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Resources/2011/11/30/South-Sudan-might-cut-oil-production/UPI-56741322656858/#ixzz1fFc0nIdJ

Sudan’s bid to join EAC rejected as South Sudan’s deferred
Sudan Tribune
In a related context, the EAC’s head-of-states summit deferred application of the newly-independent state of South Sudan to join the regional bloc for further scrutiny. According to the summit’s final communiqué, South Sudan’s application is to be …

South Sudan Central Bank introduces new payment systems
Sudan Tribune
November 30, 2011 (JUBA) – The Central Bank of South Sudan on Wednesday announced it was embarking on a modernisation of the country’s payments, clearing and settlement systems. Bank officials say the development will be part of a national payments …

Sudan says it will seize South Sudanese oil as talks fail

Alan Boswell McClatchy Newspapers

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Sudan vowed Wednesday to confiscate a portion of South Sudan’s oil as it passes through a pipeline in Sudan as talks between the countries failed to produce any agreement on how to split oil revenues.

Sudanese officials defended the action as a reasonable step to bolster their country’s flailing economy, which lost access to oil production facilities earlier this year when South Sudan became independent.

Several months of negotiations have failed to produce a deal on how much South Sudan should pay to move its oil north through a pipeline that runs through Sudan.

South Sudan denounced Sudan’s plan, and mediators from other African nations expressed frustration that six days of talks hadn’t ended in an agreement. Former South African President Thabo Mbeki oversaw the talks.

Sudan said it would take only a portion of South Sudan’s oil and that the rest would be allowed to flow to ships for export.

South Sudan’s chief negotiator, Pagan Amum, called the solution “extortion” and “looting” and said no agreement had been reached because Sudan was asking for too much.

According to South Sudanese officials, two shipments totaling 1.6 million barrels were delayed in Port Sudan but the ships have since been loaded and were expected to be released soon. One of those shipments belonged to a Chinese oil firm, prompting a rare public reproach by the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing, urging both sides to keep the oil flowing.

Sudan pledged to continue negotiating, and said it wouldn’t block shipments of South Sudanese oil.

“We are never going to shut down the pipeline. We will take from the oil in kind what we deem to be our dues,” Said al Khatib, a senior member of the Sudanese delegation, said in an interview Wednesday. “We will stick to what we feel is our fair share.”

Sudan won’t grab more than 30 percent of the oil, Khatib said. Another member of the Sudanese delegation said it probably would be around 23 percent.

International reaction is still uncertain.

By the time the oil reaches Sudanese territory, the South Sudanese government already has sold it to a third-party buyer. Amum said he doubted that Sudan could stop foreign companies from claiming their paid-for commodity, and that he considered the latest news merely an intimidation tactic.

Sudan’s Khatib said that would be a problem South Sudan would have to sort out with its business partners.

“This is something that they have been notified of. So when they sell, they know now that whatever they sell, some of that is ours. So they need to make that clear to the buyers,” Khatib said.

(Boswell is a McClatchy special correspondent.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/11/30/131777/sudan-says-it-will-seize-south.html

Sudan says it will seize South Sudanese oil as talks fail
MiamiHerald.com
By Alan Boswell ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Sudan vowed Wednesday to confiscate a portion of South Sudan’s oil as it passes through a pipeline in Sudan as talks between the countries failed to produce any agreement on how to split oil revenues. …

Prisoners do hard time in South Sudan’s Rumbek central prison
msnbc.com (blog)
A man accused of murder in Rumbek central prison wears padlocked chains around his ankles as his fellow prisoners look on in Rumbek, in Southern Sudan, on Nov. 14, 2011. The prison in Rumbek, the capital of Lakes State (center), dates from 1948, …

S. Korea likely to send peacekeeping troops to South Sudan before May: officials The Korea Herald South Korea is likely to dispatch peacekeeping troops to South Sudan before May, after having checked security conditions in the newly independent African nation, multiple government officials said Thursday. The government is considering sending a …

Sudan says to take quarter of south’s oil, as talks fail AFP The Sudanese government pledged in a statement earlier not to block southern exports. “The Government of Sudan has not, and will not, stop or impede the flow and export of the Republic of South Sudan,” it said, after five days of negotiations in the …

Sudan has not stopped South Sudan oil exports: official Reuters Africa By Aaron Maasho ADDIS ABABA/JUBA (Reuters) – A Sudanese official on Wednesday denied the country had halted landlocked South Sudan’s oil exports in a transit fee row, but said Sudan had confiscated crude shipments in lieu of payments it claims South …

Africa’s Final Frontier – South Sudan Expedition 2012 Easier (press release) In February 2012 a team of nine adventurers will set off into the wilderness of South Sudan to retrace the footsteps of the first British Explorers and be the first expedition into the world’s newest country! It is literally the land that time forgot, …

Gaddafi and me: professor explains why London School of Economics (LSE) took cash from Libyan tyrant’s son

The man who helped to elicit a £1.5m donation from Saif al-Islam’s foundation tells his side of the story
A description of how Saif Gaddafi changed into a “frightened” man as the Libyan revolution approached is given today by his informal academic adviser from the London School of Economics.

Professor David Held, professor of political science at the LSE, is expected to face criticism – along with the university hierarchy – when the long-awaited inquiry into its links with the Libyan regime is published today.

In the first interview he has given about the saga – he spoke to reporters from the LSE’s student newspaper, The Beaver – Professor Held acknowledges that he knew at the time that a £1.5m donation to the university from the Gaddafi charity would be “controversial”. He says that, with hindsight, his behaviour could “give rise to a perception it was mistaken”.

The professor also speaks of student Saif Gaddafi as a “young man who was struggling to make sense of the world, struggling to think about issues which obviously were not easy for him to think about”.

He adds: “After four years or so, I found him to be much like an American liberal. He used to say there is nothing wrong with American democracy promotion in the Middle East – I’d be horrified by that statement – because Arabs should promote democracy themselves.”

Professor Held also reveals in the interview the regime’s desire for much stronger links – he was personally invited to Libya “three or four times” following Saif Gaddafi’s graduation, and also declined opportunities to meet the student’s father, Colonel Gaddafi.

The last meeting between Saif and Held was in December 2010 when he noticed a distinct shift of character in Colonel Gaddafi’s son.

“He was really frightened,” he said. “I said ‘You look terrible’, and he explained that some of his friends had been arrested in Libya, that his media enterprises had been closed down and that he was under pressure to remove the human rights dimension of his foundation.”

That charity, the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation, was set up in 1988. “Whatever sort of reform battle he was waging with the regime, it seemed to me at the moment that he had lost.

“I said ‘What are you going to do?’ He clearly didn’t know. I said, ‘Don’t go back’. But he obviously made a different decision.” Asked why Saif had changed so radically from moderniser to defender of his father’s regime, the professor said: “I don’t think that he thought that there would come a moment when he’d have to choose between his father, mother, siblings, family, tribe and his project of modernising Libya.

“I think he thought he had 10 to 15 years to do this. He believed his father would get old, he [Saif] would slowly take over and he would transform Libya. But he didn’t have that time. ”

Professor Held revealed it would have been possible to have had a meeting with Saif’s father three or four times.

“I refused… It was one thing to deal with his son, another to deal with the old guard of the regime itself.”

Professor Held is expected to face criticism in today’s report, and was also questioned about Saif’s PhD thesis amid accusations of plagiarism against the Libyan dictator’s son.

Tony Blair helped Saif Gaddafi with his PhD thesis, sending the dictator’s son a personally signed letter on Downing Street headed paper which thanked Saif for showing him “your interesting PhD thesis” – in May 2007. The letter offered guidance on a number of points, including examples of co-operation between governments, people and business “that might help with your studies”. The Foreign Office has also confirmed that Britain’s ambassador to the US, Sir Nigel Sheinwald, met Saif during his time at the LSE.

“The evidence for plagiarism is not as great as people think,” Professor Held claimed, “and the issue will be: to what extent did he have help from an outsider? I don’t know what the evidence is at this stage.”

During the interview, Professor Held, who is leaving the LSE to take up a post at Durham University in January, gives an account of how he acted as the lynchpin for the £1.5m donation from the Gaddafi charity to the university.

“As soon as it became a possibility, I picked up the phone and called Howard Davies [the director of LSE who resigned over the affair] to ask him what he thought. I knew, of course, that this would be controversial.

“Had Howard said at that moment, ‘Drop it – it’s not a good idea’, I would have, of course, dropped it. But he said: ‘Let’s put it through the committees’.”

Saif’s fate has turned, Professor Held said, on his speech on 20 February this year when he blamed oil companies, and “imperialists” for the protests and warned that “rivers of blood” would flow across Libya if they did not stop.

“I know that he had almost two speeches prepared on that fateful night of the 20 February,” said Professor Held. “One by his closest adviser, which started with a conciliatory message to the people of Benghazi, apologies and deep concern about what had happened. It moved in an entirely different direction to the one that he gave. The speech he delivered instead was appalling, threatening and, as time went by, he became a spokesperson for this brutal regime.”

Professor Held said of criticism of the LSE for accepting the donation: “People easily forget that the middle of 2009 is very different to now. No one anticipated the Arab spring. No one could anticipate that a student I knew would suddenly, at a moment of pressure, make a catastrophic set of choices.”

He revealed the decision to accept the donation went through two meetings of the LSE’s council – with a thorough discussion the second time. According to Professor Held, Mr Davies was “on balance” in favour of acceptance.

On deciding to take a position with Saif Gaddafi’s foundation (he resigned soon after following an LSE council meeting), Professor Held said: “I thought it would be interesting. I thought I would learn a lot.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/gaddafi-and-me-professor-explains-why-lse-took-cash-from-libyan-tyrants-son-6269866.html

South Sudan “surprised” by oil export halt, Seeks Alternative Pipeline

* China urges resolution to the transit fee row

* Dispute threatens to disrupt oil supplies from South Sudan

* S. Sudan minister says proposing 5-year financial package (Recasts with South Sudan’s oil minister comments)

By Hereward Holland and Chris Buckley

JUBA/BEIJING, Nov 29 (Reuters) – South Sudan’s oil minister said on Tuesday Sudan’s decision to halt the South’s oil exports over a transit fee row would hurt both countries’ oil interests, and that the South would keep seeking an alternative pipeline.

China, a major buyer of oil from both countries, urged the governments to resolve the dispute.

The row, which surfaced on Monday, has threatened to disrupt oil supplies from Africa’s newest nation and is likely to complicate sensitive talks in Addis Ababa over unresolved issues related to South Sudan’s secession in July.

South Sudan’s Oil Minister Stephen Dhieu Dau said Sudan’s decision was “unfortunate” and, as a result, the new nation would reinvigorate efforts to build an alternative pipeline to decrease its dependence on Sudan’s oil infrastructure.

“We do not see a future in the oil infrastructure of the north. Our oil must have access to international markets. We should not be punished because we decided to secede,” he told Reuters by telephone from the Ethiopian capital.

South Sudan seceded on July 9, taking about three-quarters of the formerly united country’s roughly 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil output. The industry is vital to both economies.

South Sudan’s exports to China and elsewhere still have to pass through pipelines to a Red Sea port located in Sudan. The two sides have not agreed how much South Sudan should pay as a transit fee.

Dhieu said South Sudan had proposed two alternatives to Sudan to help it plug an estimated $7.8 billion fiscal deficit over five years, a figure he said was calculated by the International Monetary Fund.

The first was a $5.4 billion, five-year transitional financial package, half of which would include giving up some arrears South Sudan says it is owed. The second was a transit fee of not more than $0.75 per barrel.

“We have offered to pay $2.6 billion over five years and forgiveness of arrears of $2.6 billion, for a deal in which we would not pay transit fees,” Dhieu said.

“This is the package of financial assistance we are offering to Khartoum, and while this is happening we were surprised by this unilateral decision. This unilateral action taken by Khartoum will have a negative impact on all of Sudan’s oil interests.”

Sudan had been allowing South Sudan to export crude without a final deal in expectation the fees would be paid after an agreement, but decided to stop the exports – roughly 200,000 bpd – on Nov. 17, Sudan’s acting oil minister, Ali Ahmed Osman said on Monday.

Osman said South Sudan already owed Sudan some $727 million in arrears for the period between July 9 and the end of October.

BEIJING’S BALANCING ACT

China has sought to maintain good ties with both countries since South Sudan declared independence from its larger and long-dominant northern neighbour, despite the rancour.

That balancing act is being tested by Monday’s announcement. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei urged the two governments to avoid choking off oil supplies.

“We believe that maintaining the normal production of oil is important for both South Sudan and Sudan,” Hong told a daily briefing.

“We hope that north and south Sudan will exercise reason and restraint, and use a flexible and pragmatic approach to resolve their problems through friendly consultation,” he said.

“We are confident that the two governments will abide by their promises, ensure the stability and continuity of oil cooperation, and protect the lawful rights of Chinese businesses and the safety of their personnel.”

By October, China’s purchases of Sudanese crude appeared little affected, with imports in the first 10 months of this year up 5.5 percent on the year at 11.12 million tonnes, or about 5 percent of China’s total crude oil imports.

But a 600,000 barrel oil shipment sold by South Sudan to China’s Unipec did not load as scheduled on Monday because of the decision to halt exports, South Sudanese officials said.

In August, China’s visiting Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi vowed that Beijing would support both Sudan and South Sudan and help both countries develop their oil industries.

China maintained close economic and political ties with north Sudan throughout a U.S. trade embargo and also wants to reach out to the south, which decided to break away from Khartoum under a 2005 peace deal. (Additional reporting by Alexander Dziadosz in Khartoum; editing by James Jukwey)

http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFL5E7MT4MS20111129?sp=true

 

Present Situation & Future Developments of the South Sudanese Business Sector

Government of South Sudan Minis try of Finance&
Economic Planning
Presentation by H.E Kuol Athian Mawien
Present Situation & Future Developments of the South Sudanese
Business Sector
Hamburg, June 20, 2008

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Firstly, I wish to thank you for inviting me to this seventh German-Sudanese Business
Forum. It gives me great pleasure to be able to outline to you the current situation of
the Business Sector in Southern Sudan, and or policies for its future development It is
my hope that in doing so, I may encourage some of you to come to Southern Sudan,
and explore the business opportunities available there.
There are enormous opportunities in Sudan in general and Southern Sudan in
particular for investment. Peace has come to Southern Sudan after many decades of
unrest. We are confident that peace will be a way of life for the Southern Sudanese.
Our aim now is to develop a peaceful and prosperous nation, and we are fortunate to
have oil revenues with which to finance our development. It is our aim to use our oil
revenues wisely, so that we develop our infrastructure and stimulate investment. This
will enable our people to enjoy a higher standard of living, and will enable us to
develop our tax base, so that in the end, we have a viable alternative to oil as a source
of agriculture.
Traditionally, Southern Sudan’s strength has been in the field of agriculture=;
Southern Sudan is blessed with a good climate, fertile soil and unpolluted
environment. Now, due to the displacement of our people, and the devastation
wreaked by war on our productive base, we are importing food. However, our
potential to supply our domesticate market and export our surplus is huge. There is
potential for those wishing to invest in cash crops as well. Tea, coffee, rice, gum and
maize have traditionally been produced in Southern Sudan and there is potential to
scale up activities in this sector.
In light of the current global increase in food prices, agriculture is an area which
investors should take very seriously.
Potential for tourism, particularly wildlife tourism is also great. Because of civil strife,
the environment has been untouched and even today, wildlife in its thousands can be
viewed easily in many parts of Southern Sudan. We have huge potential to develop a
niche wildlife tourism market for game viewing and bird watching. The Nile can also
be the single biggest draw for tourists to Southern Sudan. There is tremendous
potential for water sports and investors in the cruise business.
More broadly, in terms of the tourist industry, we need investment in the form of
hotels all over Southern Sudan; Hotels are needed in large numbers, and needed
quickly, in Southern Sudan. The number of investors, international civil servants, and
staff from NGOs who are coming into Southern Sudan is increasing every day. Flights
to Juba are generally full, which is an indication of the increasing number of people
coming into Southern Sudan. Current accommodation is basic and needs to be
upgraded. Returns are high in this field and there is enough space for many more
investors.
Southern Sudan is also rich in oil, minerals, including gold and diamonds, and ore. We
welcome investors to prospect for minerals in Southern Sudan and establish
manufacturing units here. We look to the establishment of manufacturing units in
Southern Sudan. Land is easily available for those who wish to set up manufacturing
units in Southern Sudan. We want to realize the benefits of value addition to our raw
materials, through transfer of technology to the South, instead of seeing the benefits
accrue to countries abroad.
At present, we import all our manufactured products, as well as aggregates such as
cement. Given our landlocked natured, our reconstruction needs, and our demand for
construction materials, this is not cost-effective for us. We would therefore like to
encourage import-substituting production of manufactured and processed products
for the local market, and capacity for cement production.
This policy of industrialization and value addition is necessary in order to provide
skilled and semi-skilled employment to the under-employed and unemployed,
particularly in the agricultural sector. We believe that investment in human capital will
deliver significant gains to our economy, particularly in the area of agro-processing
and light manufacturing for the domestic market, and this should be a particular target
for investment.
For those interested in significant capital investment, the Nile has the potential to
generate enormous hydroelectric power. Neighboring countries are hungry for power
and Southern Sudan itself will need more power with each passing month. We look to
investors to join with us in this huge challenge.
Based on the needs that I have outlined, as well as our potential, we welcome
investors and investment. However, we would like investors to work for the benefit of
Southern Sudanese. This does not men that we will restrict the ways in which you can
invest here. You can invest through any number of channels; you can invest directly,
make use of local agents, or go into partnership with local businesspersons. However,
any investment should be mutually beneficial. Southern Sudanese have suffered long
and have suffered a lot by way of deprivation and poverty for decades. We want the
benefits of peace and development accrue to all Southern Sudanese.
Any investment in Southern Sudan should generate employment for South Sudanese.
That is an essential pre requisite. I have heard people say that the capacity of Southern
Sudanese to handle hi-tech jobs is limited. My answer would be that if Southern
Sudanese are trained they will be as good as anybody else will in the world. We look
to investment as a means of transferring technology and enhancing skills acquisition in
the South. As far as we are concerned, technology transfer through foreign direct
investment is one of the leading ways of accelerating our development. I will enable us
to increase our skills base, raise our productivity, and enhance our output.
As a government, we know that we cannot just stand by, and expect investors to
come to the South of their own accord. We must ensure that the environment we
provide is conducive, and work to make Southern Sudan an attractive investment
destination for innovative investors with a keen eye for emerging business
opportunities. We are in the process of developing business-friendly laws and policies,
and are committed to guaranteeing freedom of economic activity. We do not place
restrictions on flow of capital, either into or out of the country and likewise, we
guarantee free movement of people and capital goods. We are committed to the
principles of market competition, and have put this into practice in our own
procurement policies.

The government of Southern Sudan, through its oil wealth, is the single biggest actor

in the Southern Sudanese economy at present, and our policy

of competitive procurement acts as an important stimulant to private sector growth.
More broadly, the government of Southern Sudan has recently defined its six top
expenditure priorities for the period 2008 – 2011. Three of these are directly linked to
our objective of stimulating private sector-led development in Southern Sudan. We
have placed a priority on maintaining security, which is a pre-requisite for investment.
We have prioritized the development of road infrastructure, which is essential for the
development of markets. In addition, we have prioritized the development of our
productive capacity in the agricultural sector, to ensure that our population, the
majority of who live in the rural areas, are food secure and able to engage in market
activities.
Finally, as I conclude, I wish to touch briefly on the issue of the financial sector. To be
frank with our commercial banking system is still in its infancy. We know that this is
not a constraint to foreign investors, who have access to capital abroad. Nevertheless,
we would like to attract investors to come into our financial sector, so that in turn our
local businesses can benefit from access to credit through the local commercial
banking system.
In conclusion, the situation in Southern Sudan has come back to normality. There is
now stable and friendly investment climate which guarantees security of investment,
freedom to set up business enterprises, and repatriation of capital. The government of
Southern Sudan actively wishes to encourage investors to come and identify for
themselves the business opportunities available in the South in all areas. Our private
sector, and our markets, are probably some of the least developed in the world. Most
people would probably see this as a challenge. However, we believe that businessminded
investors will also see it as a huge opportunity. Working in partnership, and
through wise use of our oil revenues, we believe the South has the opportunity to reap
the gains of private sector development.
I once again wish to thank you for giving me the opportunity to meet with you today.
7th German-Sudanese Business Forum, Hamburg, Germany
June 20th, 2008

investment in south sudan.pdf 88K   View   Download

University of Groningen PhD Scholarships for Developing Countries 2012-2013

The University of Groningen in Netherlands invites applications from students from developing countries to do a fully funded PhD programme in the university. The University of Groningen Talent Grant is meant to create a strong link between recipients’ universities and Groningen.

Eligibility

PhD candidates from a university that has signed a co-operation agreement will be given preferential treatment. There are also grants available for a brief stay in Groningen (max. three months). These are intended for junior researchers who wish to formulate a research proposal or academic staff who want to spend a sabbatical leave at the University of Groningen.

Requirements:

• Applicant is an inhabitant of one of the eligible countries
• Applicant meets the academic requirements for PhD research (has an MSc degree of equivalent) and is a junior researcher
• Applicant is employed by a research institute or university in country of origin and should receive an income from the home institution. The application should be supported by this organization
• Research should relate to issues relevant to developing countries or Eastern European countries and should be conducted in the home country
• Applicant submits a research proposal. This proposal should include:
• Clear research question
• Short description of current developments in the chosen area of research
• A plan for the work
• A survey of relevant literature
• A list of applicant’s publications
• References
• The University of Groningen is able to provide a thesis supervisor who will be responsible for the scientific supervision of the research

Worth of Awards

The programme enables junior researchers to do part of their PhD research at the University of Groningen for periods of a maximum of six months each year within a four year period. During this period, the researcher remains in the employ of their home institution in the country of origin. Grants will cover expenses incurred in travelling to and from the Netherlands (max. of four times) and the living costs during the stay. A moderate research budget can be granted, if judged necessary by the academic supervisor.

 How to Apply

• First the candidate should apply for admission to a study programme at the University of Groningen. Please check the application guide from the link below and apply early.

Eligible Countries

Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Central African Replublic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, China, Colombia, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea–Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kiribati, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Laos, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar, Moldova, Mongolia, Macedonia, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Morocco, Nepal, Niger, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Namibia, Niue, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Autonomous Palestinian Territories, Rwanda, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Sudan, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Swaziland, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tokelau, Tonga, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Tanzania, Togo, Tuvalu, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Vanuatu, Vietnam, Wallis and Futuna, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe, East Timor, South Korea

Deadline: February 22, 2012.

For more information about the scholarship, click here.

To learn more about applying for admission, click here

World AIDS Day 2011: Getting to Zero HIV

The first day of the twelve month of the calendar year was adopted as ‘World AIDS Day’ on the recommendation of Dr. Jonathan Mann, a former Director of the Global Programme on AIDS at the World Health Organisation (WHO). The notion of World AIDS Day was conceived by James W. Bunn and Thomas Netter who were, at the time, public information officers at the Global Programme on AIDS.

The concept appealed to Dr Mann and he agreed with the recommendation that 1 December 1988 would be the first ever World AIDS Day. The Global Programme on AIDS became the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in 1996. Dr Mann and his wife, Mary Lou Clements-Mann, a world leading researcher on HIV/ AIDS died in a plane crash (Swissair Flight 111) in 1998.

World AIDS Day is dedicated to raising awareness about HIV/AIDS and demonstrating international solidarity. The day is an opportunity for public and private partners to spread awareness about the status of the pandemic and encourage progress in HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care in high prevalence countries. The theme of World AIDS Day between 2011-2015, will be “Getting to Zero: Zero new HIV infections. Zero discrimination. Zero AIDS related deaths”. This is a very ambitious aspiration.

The UNAIDS World AIDS Day Report (2011)  shows that by the end of 2010 there were about 34 million people living with HIV globally. This was an increase of about 17%  to the number of people living with HIV in 2001. There were 2.7 million new HIV infections in 2010, a reduction of about 15% in comparison to the number of new infections in 2001. 70% of all the new HIV infections in 2010 were in Sub-Saharan Africa. The annual numbers of new HIV infections continue to fall more rapidly in some countries than others. New HIV infections have fallen significantly in 33 countries, 22 of which are in Sub-Saharan Africa. In geography, I am told, the term Sub-Saharan Africa refers to the African countries south of the Sahara desert.

Although the population of Sub-Saharan Africa is about 12% of the global population,  it has a relatively high number of people living with HIV. Every year AIDS has claimed at least one million lives in Sub-Saharan Africa since 1998. About  21 million men, women and children were living with HIV by the end of 2010 in Sub-Saharan Africa; about 68% of all the people living with HIV in the world. There were about 2 million people newly infected with HIV in 2010. Almost half of the deaths associated with HIV-related illnesses in 2010 occurred in southern Africa. There are about 6 million people living with HIV in the Republic of South Africa, the highest number in the world. With about 25% of its adult population living with HIV the Kingdom of Swaziland has the highest adult HIV prevalence in the world. The number of people living with HIV in the Republic of South Sudan is unknown and HIV prevalence is expected to increase, particularly in the national and state capitals, until a fully functional health care system is introduced to provide access to HIV treatment, management and care.

HIV is mainly transmitted by unprotected sexual intercourse (UPSI). It may also be transmitted from mother to child in pregnancy, at birth or breast milk; the use of unsterilised injections by drug users; the transfusion of blood products and organ transplantation from HIV infected people. It is thought that the main route of transmission in the high HIV prevalence countries in Sub-Saharan Africa is UPSI. Safer sex methods and a reduced number of sexual partners can protect people from the risk of exposure to HIV, suffering the consequences of AIDS-related illnesses and premature death.

The concept of multiple sexual partners includes the cultural prac of polygamy, inheritance of the wives of dead relatives and extra-marital sexual partners. When a married woman in a polygamous family has an extra-marital affair with an HIV positive man, the infection would be passed on to her husband and his other wives. A man who inherits the wife of an HIV-infected dead uncle might pass on the virus to his other wife or wives. Similarly, a man who expresses his masculinity by serial extra-marital relationships (aka random sampling), would be at increased vulnerability to HIV infection, ill-health and premature death.

Increased sexual activity in men is inextricably linked with the indiscriminate abuse of alcohol or drugs or peer pressure. Alcohol, drugs and peer pressure frequently lead to increased sexual activity and tragic consequences. Increased sexual activity in women would also raise the potential for unplanned pregnancy, lone parenthood, social exclusion and poor mental health. This argument is in agreement with the Christian value of ‘security in marriage’

HIV/AIDS is almost always linked with the proliferation of brothels in South Sudan. Sex workers from neighbouring Uganda are allegedly responsible for the surge in the number of people living with HIV or dying of HIV-related causes. The anecdotal evidence quoted  is based on premise that the majority of sex workers speak either ‘Kiswahili’ or ‘English’. A close examination of the issue shows that some of the active sex workers are of South Sudanese origin. Many of the ‘returnee’ sex workers are unfortunate South Sudanese who were born in exile and to whom Kiswahili is the first language. Therefore, the ‘returnee’ sex workers are our own daughters and sisters orphaned or widowed by the war of liberation in which they were cruelly deprived of their parents and the opportunity for education and a better life. Some of the unfortunate women are the offspring of liberation war heroes who paid the ultimate price in the struggle for freedom and independence!

The ludicrous idea that the spread of HIV can be halted by the violent deportation of Ugandan women will not resolve our predicament. It would be tantamount to a crime against humanity. We can improve the situation by adopting a more responsible attitude in the allocation of national resources. In the United Kingdom, 40 per cent of the national budget is allocated to the National Health Service (ministry for health), thirty percent is allocated to education and the rest of the ministries share the balance. This trend is replicated across the developed world. We need more investment in education, health and social services.

There will be no significant change in South Sudan until we learn to be accountable for our actions and decisions. We should demonstrate humility in public office and in the service of the silent majority. We must reduce the burden of government bureaucracy to a manageable structure. We must also learn from the experiences of countries like Greece and Italy that ignored the participation of technocrats in government to their peril. We need to engage with and involve the vast array of South Sudanese technocrats in the international organisations, developed and developing countries so that they can return to serve in our home country. We need to act now to prevent the scourge of HIV/AIDS spiralling out of control, increasing infant and adult mortality and morbidity, reducing our capacity for economic development and growth, creating political instability and insecurity.

HIV has no friend irrespective of your age, disability, ethnicity, faith, gender or social status.I  would urge each and every one of us to be screened for HIV and other life threatening STIs.

I wish you all the best on World AIDS Day.

Hakeem Legge

Interim Head of Health Improvement

NHS North of England

Blenheim House

Leeds, United Kingdom

United States Hosts International Engagement Conference for South Sudan

An Open Dialogue with the Government of South Sudan
on Development and Investment

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 28, 2011
Public Information: 202-712-4810

www.usaid.gov

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The United States will host the International Engagement Conference for South Sudan December 14-15 in Washington, D.C., to honor the new nation and commence a development and investment dialogue with the Government of South Sudan. The conference will outline the Government of South Sudan’s strategic development priorities and highlight opportunities for engagement with public and private sector partners. The conference will also include officials from the United Kingdom, Norway, Turkey, the European Union, the United Nations, the African Union, the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, the Corporate Council on Africa, and InterAction.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Rajiv Shah are scheduled to speak during the two-day event, as well as foreign officials, development ministers, and private sector and NGO leaders. Participation in the conference is limited to invited guests. Portions of the event will be open to the press.

The conference builds on the U.S. Government’s long partnership with the people of South Sudan. As the lead donor of humanitarian and development assistance for decades, the United States has helped to support the people of South Sudan as they establish peace and secure the strategic tools needed to build a nation.

The first day of the conference will focus on those development and policy priorities of the Government of South Sudan that will serve as the key architectural components for the new nation. South Sudan President Salva Kiir will articulate his vision for the development of his country, and Secretary Clinton will outline the U.S. Government’s commitment to South Sudan being able to meet its development challenges. Government, private sector, and civil society members will discuss issues such as managing oil revenues, delivering valuable social services such as education and health care, strengthening government institutions, and building the country’s human capital.

The second day of the conference will focus on private sector and investment opportunities in South Sudan, in line with the priorities of the Government of South Sudan. This will include discussions of high-priority sectors such as oil and renewable energy, agriculture, and communications technology. The conference will also include discussions of policies to develop a business-enabling environment, for example, through infrastructure and financial services.

For more information about USAID South Sudan programs, please visit www.usaid.gov/locations/sub-saharan_africa/countries/south_sudan/index.html.

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The American people, through the U.S. Agency for International Development, have provided economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide for nearly 50 years.

For more information about USAID’s programs, please visit: usaid.gov. To read our blog, see blog.usaid.gov.

Excuse Mechanisms that Cause Some Governance Drawbacks in South Sudan

By Dr. James Okuk,

In my PhD research between 2006 to 2009, the below are identified excuse mechanisms that have caused some drawbacks in many actions and omissions of our government leaders in Southern Sudan by then. The same is still happening these days, yet our leaders do not care to benefit from academic researches some of us have done with patriotic spirit, aiming at helping our dear Motherland to get built on a firmed foundation of “justice as fairness”.

As our government leaders grapple these days in crisis management ranging from war provocation, oil business politics and other pending critical issues signaled by the Sudanese government leaders, I thought it could be of interest to some of you to find the connections and relevance of this research findings.

Perhaps, one day the voice of reason and wisdom will come to reign in South Sudan where the  academic endeavors of young people like me, Augustino Ting,  and many others will get acknowledged and used rather than hated for the good of the new nation.

Instead of locking us behind colonial bars in Juba under pretext of being criminal because of criticizing the President and his government,  the best and right place to imprison intellectuals and journalists of South Sudan would have been a closed think-tank research confines for finding objective  and recommendable solutions to the mountainous challenges facing the new country from different angles (internally as well as externally).

If you happened to pass through the main library of University of Nairobi, please you may check the table and explanatory analyses of these mechanism in Chapter Seven of my thesis. The title of the thesis is ” Rawlsian Justice and Poverty Reduction in Southern Sudan”, which I defended rigorously in July 2009 with success and admiration from examiners’ panel.

• Do not trouble the trouble until it troubles you. • Let’s wait and see; it will work itself out alone. • Time heals; so do not get bothered. • What is the hurry for anyway? There is no hurry in Africa. • We seem to have been okay the way we are, why change? • My people are different; they are sure to resist. • We have always done it our way and it worked. • Do you think you can do more than what we have done? • Our region and priorities are different from yours. • Our culture and regulations cannot accommodate these changes. • We are too small and young; that is not for us anyway. • We only have a skeleton staff; they are not enough for that work. • We are not licensed to do so; it doesn’t have the mandate. • Do we have the go ahead from authorities above? • Does our constitution allow this? • That’s too bold a decision. Do we have the authority? • We do not have the quorum. • It’s not within our plans and priorities. • It is not in the budget; wait until we budget for it. • Is this in line with the National Development Plan? • Wait until we are of age; that is beyond our capacity now. • We do not have skills; nobody here can handle it. • We do not have the experience to implement this.

• That’s outside our organizational boundaries. • It is too early for that; that is being over ambitious. • You are living beyond your time. • We are approaching this emotionally, let’s be a little more rational. • We have to tread on this very, very carefully, and consider all the implications. • Have you verified the facts? Don’t take it at face value. • We do not have the full information. • Let’s form a committee to look into that matter. • That is too expensive. Does the benefit justify the cost? • We tried that before; it never worked. • Where has this worked before? • The season is not right for it now; may be when it will be a bit better. • We are too busy around here; may be next year. • Do we really have the time? • It is not an emergency; let’s give ourselves more time to think over it. • Let’s pray about it and wait for God’s right time for intervention. • That is outdated; we use to do that long ago. • There is no use talking about it; remember the donor fatigue. • We are already overloaded; we can’t take more. • Stakeholders are not genuine in this; they have hidden agenda. • It sounds too theoretical; perhaps only good for academic argument. • It is the economy to blame. • It is the Arabs and Khartoum to blame. • That sounds too simplistic; it is not worth paying attention to.

Dr. James Okuk

Juba, Cell Phone: 0998270837

Briefing by the Sudan Revolutionary Front

Act for Sudan is pleased to host a conference call open to activists and interested parties for a briefing provided by leaders of the Sudan Revolutionary Front. The call will be recorded and, time permitting, will conclude with Q&A.

PLEASE NOTE NEW CALL-IN NUMBER:

Call: 209-647-1600
Access Code: 406516#

Confirmed speakers for the call include:

Justice and Equality Movement:
– Dr. Gibril Ibrahim Mohamed – Secretary of Foreign Relations
– Ahmed Hussein Adam – Assistant to Chairman for Foreign Relations and International Co-operation

Sudan Liberation Movement – Minnawi:
– Minni Minnawi – Chairman
– Traiyo Ahmed Ali – Chairman Assistant for Foreign Relations
– Tragi O. Mustafa – Leader in SLM

Sudan People’s Liberation Movement – North:
– Yasir Arman, Secretary General

If possible, please RSVP in advance to Esther Sprague at esprague11@yahoo.com. Thank you and please let us know if you have questions.

Act for Sudan is an alliance of American citizen activists and Sudanese U.S. residents who advocate for an end to genocide and mass atrocities in Sudan. Act for Sudan is dedicated to advocacy that is directly informed by the situation on the ground and by Sudanese people who urgently seek protection, justice, and peace. Our website is at www.actforsudan.org.

Sudan Denies Halting South Sudan oil exports as China Condemns the Move

Sudan’s denies halting South Sudan oil exports as China condemns move
Sudan Tribune
November 29, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese government on Tuesday appeared to reverse a decision it announced yesterday by which oil exports from South Sudan passing through the north’s pipelines would come to a halt. The foreign ministry spokesperson …

Sudan has not stopped South Sudan oil exports -official
Reuters
By Aaron Maasho ADDIS ABABA, Nov 30 (Reuters) – Sudan has not stopped landlocked South Sudan’s oil exports in a transit fee row and does not intend to, a Sudanese official said on Wednesday, but said Sudan had confiscated crude shipments in lieu of …

South Sudan: Educating War Orphans Will Pay Back to Martyrs – Chairperson
AllAfrica.com
Juba — The Chairperson of War Disabled, Widowers and Orphans Commission Deng Dau Deng said the only pay back to the martyrs is to educate their children, rendering maximum support and care for their families. .In an interview with Deng he said, …

South Sudan: US to Host International Conference for South Sudan
AllAfrica.com
Washington — The United States will host the International Engagement Conference for South Sudan December 14-15 in Washington to honor the new nation and begin a development and investment dialogue with the government of South Sudan. …

South Sudan: land of opportunity, if you don’t mind risk
Reuters
An influx of adventurous entrepreneurs has helped fuel a small business boom in the world’s youngest country, South Sudan, which declared independence in July under a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war with the north. …

South Sudanese Leaders Should Not Be Source of Insecurity to Their People
AllAfrica.com
If South Sudanese and the people of Yirol county cannot love themselves like the Indians, the Chinese or the people of Israel, then one cannot conclude that the idea that Arabs were bad was a fake one meant to further some kind of gruesome hidden …

S. Sudan battles to transform guerrilla army
AFP
JUBA — As he approaches the imposing compound on the outskirts of Juba, a motorbike taxi driver shakes his head and refuses to stop within 200 metres (yards) of South Sudan?s military headquarters. He says the fear of crossing the security forces at …

Barges Bring Jubilant Returnees to South Sudan
Voice of America
November 29, 2011 Barges Bring Jubilant Returnees to South Sudan Hannah McNeish | Juba, South Sudan More than 350000 returnees have flocked to South Sudan since the country gained independence from the north in July. This week, 3200 more arrived in the …

Texas A&M System International Institute Helping South Sudan
KBTX
From the freshly paved roads of Juba to muddy rural paths clogged with bighorn cattle, the people of South Sudan are busy building a new country with help from a new agricultural development partnership. Through a recent agreement with the US Agency …

South Sudan delegation visits SA
Independent Online
A labour delegation from South Sudan is on a study visit to South Africa to explore best labour practices, Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant said on Tuesday. “It was critical for the new South Sudan state to bring together government, …

South Sudan Fights New War Against HIV/AIDS
Voice of America
November 29, 2011 South Sudan Fights New War Against HIV/AIDS Hannah McNeish | Juba, South Sudan South Sudan gained independence from the north after decades of civil war that killed an estimated 2 million people. Now there is peace and business is ..

Tales from Detention: Freedom is never free, a special note to friends of freedom of expression

By Ngor Arol Garang

While thrown behind bar on the order of Akol Koor Kuc, Director General of the National Intelligence and Security Service for internal affairs, exactly on the first day of this month (November 2011), human right organizations acting in solidarity with media fraternity sprung up to their feet to pressure our release from detention.

The group I owe thanks and for whom I wrote this special note includes the widely read online Sudan Tribune, reporters without borders, Amnesty International, Committee to Protect Journalists, Association for Media Development in South Sudan, Community Empowerment for Progress Organization and South Sudan Human Right Society Advocacy.

Personal friends and relatives included my own brother Albino Garang Arol Garang, Reverend William Mou Deng, Lual Agel, Majok Kanajak, Ateny Wek Ateny, Tong Deng Anei, Akol Ayom Wekdit, Mading Ngor (the manager of another online news provider dubbed New Sudan vision), Nhial Bol Akeen, editor chief of the citizen newspaper, Dr. Dhieu Mathok Diing Wol and Dr.Luka Biong Deng both of whom are senior members of the South Sudan’s ruling party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), among others, courageously stood with my family members.

Their resolve to join pressure group was necessitated not by personal bonds but conscience to remind government of constitutional obligation to respect human right and press freedom, as enshrined in the Transitional Constitution of South Sudan

The reason which necessitated my arrest is that on Saturday 22, October 2011, the residents of Juba, as members of the public may be aware, witnessed the wedding ceremony of the President Salva Kiir Mayardit’s daughter, Adut Salva Kiir, to Nardes Jebeyehu Alemneh, as husband of her choice. Almenhu is an Ethiopian migrant in South Sudan.

The ceremony attended by senior government officials was held at Rejaf Catholic Church where the president was officially seen handing over his daughter to bridegroom in the presence of the family members and relatives including friends. Viewed as bridal right since it is claimed that love has no borders, the acceptance of the president to allow his daughter to marry a foreigner without objection, met with a lot of hard feelings and public disquiet including individual members within the president’s own family.

Causes of commotions were grounded on cultural practices and traditional values managing marital rights. Some customs and traditions views president and other high ranking officials as symbols of national integrity and pride, thus putting them under close public scrutiny, including examining the backgrounds of those seeking to marry from their family members.

Many argued that president owes thanks and appreciations for bypassing traditions and customs which holds freedoms of daughters and sons to marry based on their choice. Others supported traditional practices of which some cultures in South Sudan including the Dinka tribe, to which the president belongs, requires that someone intending to marry from a high class family must have a clear family background.

This includes pleasant personalities as well as being a well known for achievements in the community from where the bridegroom wants to marry. Little was known about the president’s son in law since he comes from another country. This prompted many citizens to react against the marriage in social forums and other networks including internet based forums where community members share events, latest developments and current affairs with those residing outside the country. Others reacted in the print media some of which include The Citizen and Almasir daily newspapers which are some of the print media widely read in Juba.

The public reaction carried on for more than four days until on 26 October, when The Destiny newspaper, which was just being established, published an opinion written by a columnist called Dengdit Ayok, protesting the marriage. While the opinion was generally seen as another voice reflecting public reactions against the marital arrangement, some of the public members including elements from the National Intelligence and Security Service saw it at different angle including interpretations and arguments that the opinion had gone beyond limits of the freedom of expression into privacy.

Some views argued that some words of the opinion, especially the part blaming the church for blessing a bride claimed to be pregnant, should have been edited to avoid questioning religious teaching. Others claimed that churches including the Roman Catholic to which the bride belongs do not bless pregnant brides.

Other areas included the part questioning role of the presidential security guards, who seem to have not lived up to their duties to the extent that a foreign national easily gained access to the house of the president to make an affair with his daughter, casting doubts about ability of the guards to provide adequate security to the president, especially at the time when some of the senior government officials have always been heard complaining against external support to rebels fighting to remove his government from the power. Other fears were connected to safety of the president because of the international reports claiming that South Sudan is one of the countries in east Africa susceptible to terrorist attacks.

As talks against the marriage continues to be introductory point of any social gathering, the board of directors of the Destiny newspaper, on 28 October, convened a meeting in which a decision was reached to suspend the columnist who wrote an opinion believed to have exceeded right to freedom of expression to enter privacy.

His membership in the paper was suspended for one month and the management of the paper subsequently wrote and published a statement apologizing for publishing critical opinion on a family affair on 31 November. A copy of the apology was given to the family of the president and another to the ministry of information and broadcasting. The intention was to contain public reactions as voices against the marriage continues to dominate street talks in Juba.

Reasons for suspending columnist who serves as deputy editor in chief included violation of the editorial policy and operating procedures which requires all the reporters and opinion writers to submit articles and opinions to the managing editor and the chairman of the board of directors for scrutiny before publication. These procedures were bypassed as the opinion writer wrote his own opinion and submitted directly to the designer whose work is limited to only laying out and design of the paper. Another observation was the use of poignant language which hurt the feeling of family of the president as well as selection of some words blaming other institutions.

On 1st November, the National Intelligence and Security Service arrested me on assumption that I, as the member of the board of directors trusted with the editorial responsibility, have approved publication of the opinion which they believed have gone into privacy of the president and his family.

This follows a meeting held on 31 October between Akol Koor Kuc, the Director General of the National Intelligence and Security Service and Dr. Dhieu Mathok. Kuc and Dr. Mathok, who is the chairman of board of directors, could not reach a consensus on the demand that the opinion writer be handed over to them (National Security) for investigation, thus decided to invite me in the next meeting.

Kuc (the Director General for National Security) told Dr. Mathok that the purpose of the meeting would be to know one another with the editors and to see how best they in the security section could work together with the media practitioners in gathering information for common good of the country and the entire citizenry.

Kuc, however, on 1st November, trashed the purpose of the meeting as he told Dr. Mathok and turned it into an interrogative session asking why the opinion was published and subsequently ordered my arrest into the cell within the headquarters of the National Security located at Jebel Kujur. He also handed an official statement suspending the paper until further notice and equally instructed his subordinates to look for Dengdit Ayok to bring him into the cell too.

On 5th November, exactly five days after my arrest, the security elements after amounting intensive search, brought in Ayok and took him to a separate cell where he was kept without talking to other detainees until after four days. Brought after I have complained against torture and other abuses to the chief investigator, Ayok received only slaps and verbal abuse and was never beaten until we were released.

In the detention, I was subjected to callous treatment, tortured; saw degrading handling and denial of all fundamental right including family visit for the whole week. No access to medical examination even when I was visibly seen very sick as a result of unwarranted beatings. No lawyer was equally allowed to me and no charges were brought against me. I was kept in an isolated place within the cell where I was not allowed to talk to other detainees for the five days. With other prisoners, we were forced to lay down to be walked on with boots as an interrogative means of getting other information about us.

This became the source of why I always get into problems with the security guards who were fond of torturing people because I do not accept laying down to be walked on and to be beaten. Besides torturing, the environment in which I was held was another form of torture. One could knock against objects and hard standings when even one tries to visit a relieving facility located within the cell, because it was ever dark making it difficult to know the presence of other people around you.

The only way to know presence of other people was through touching or calling the name of the person you need to talk with. Another form of torture was clearly seen in feeding. 1.5 liters of bottled water was shared amongst four people and one piece of bread a day. Food from family members was either eaten by the guards or rejected on the pretense that prisoners are fed in the cell. One of my family members I have never seen until I was released claimed to have been taking the food and water to me while being held.

That he deposits the food and water at the reception where he was not allowed to visit where I was held. Besides this form of treatment, the hygienic condition was always in horrible shape as the environment was ever emitting foul odor. The cells were always full and congested beyond accommodating capacity. There were no opening spaces for ventilation.

This makes it possible to contract contagious skin and airborne diseases. People who were notably sick including constant cough with difficulties in breathing in the cell were put together with other detainees. With the mounting pressure demanding our release on the government increases, the chief investigator, on 17 November, told the guards to inform us to be prepared because we were to be taken to the court that day, which we welcomed but no move was taken until we spent another night.

On the following day which was 18, the Inspector General of police, General Acuil Tito Madut, presumably after communications with the Director General of the National Security sent a colonel from ministry of interior who works in the department of criminal investigation unit (CID) so we are brought to him. The colonel with five others went and brought us to him (General Madut) the same day evening.

In his office after arrival from the national security headquarters situated at Jebel Kujur, west of Juba town, General Madut said he was asked by the president to pass on to us his resolve to release us without going to court. That marks our release without charges. The General only asked us to refrain from writing against any public figure in the future, especially after I insisted on asking what I have done to warrant arrest and torture, to forgive and take it a lesson not to allow any subordinate to publish an article or opinion without my consent.

In the evening of 20 November, the family of the president and I in the company of some members of my family met during a meal prepared to bring us together. We exchanged smiles and greetings before getting into real discussion prior to reaching a wrapping up to restore trust and understanding to foster peace and harmony.

The author can be reached at ngoraguot@yahoo.com or alternatively ngorgarang8@gmail.com He is the managing editor of the suspended Destiny daily newspaper and a correspondent of the Sudan Tribune.

http://www.sudantribune.com/Freedom-is-never-free-a-special,40823#tabs-1

ICC issues warrant for Ivory Coast’s Gbagbo: lawyer

DAKAR (Reuters) – The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for ousted Ivory Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo, his France-based lawyer said on Tuesday, and a Gbagbo adviser said he expected him to be transferred to The Hague “in the coming hours.”

“They (Ivorian justice authorities) showed it to him this morning,” Lucie Bourthumieux said by telephone, questioning the competence of the ICC to judge Gbagbo.

Gbagbo adviser Toussaint Alain, said ICC officials were already at his place of detention in the northern Ivorian town of Korhogo “trying to execute the illegal mandate to transfer President Gbagbo to the ICC in the coming hours.”

“I condemn … this victor’s justice,” he added in an emailed statement.

The ICC declined to comment.

“Since there is no public decision issued by the chamber, the ICC cannot comment on media reports,” said spokesman Fadi Al-Abdallah.

The court is investigating killings, rapes and other abuses committed in Ivory Coast during a post-election dispute between President Alassane Ouattara and Gbagbo, when the incumbent refused to cede power despite losing an election to Ouattara.

Gbagbo was captured in April by French-backed pro-Ouattara forces after a civil war killed 3,000 people and displaced more than a million. He is under house arrest in north Ivory Coast.

The court plans to focus on between two and six people thought most responsible for atrocities, the prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said during a visit to the country last month.

He reiterated that the court would only investigate crimes going back to the election, the first round of which was last October, not further back into the near decade of crisis since a failed 2002 rebellion against Gbagbo that split the country in two. Gbagbo’s camp have rejected that time limit as unfair.

Gbagbo refused to step down after losing a U.N.-certified election to Ouattara in November. His government then used a force of soldiers, paramilitaries and youth militias to entrench his position and crush dissent, re-igniting a civil war.

Although the Ivory Coast is not one of the member countries covered by the ICC, it has accepted its jurisdiction.

(Reporting by Mark John in Dakar, Tim Cocks in Abidjan, Svebor Kranjc in the Netherlands; Writing by Tim Cocks)

http://news.yahoo.com/icc-issued-warrant-ivory-coasts-gbagbo-lawyer-161742033.html;_ylt=ApmoHfQkf7Ieej0PgdrfljtvaA8F;

Gender-Based Violence and Women Rights Violation Report in Central Equatoria State

 Denial of Women engagement and rights

                       Caused

Gender Based Violence and Women Rights Violations

Central Equatoria State –Juba

2011

Introduction

This report is a progressive account of a small policy research on Gender strategic plans implementation for central Equatoria state. The exercise covered six counties of Central Equatoria State. The county Gender officers were the prime target of the study. The study intends to measure the level of county gender officers in executing the state gender strategic plans at their jurisdiction of work. The approach is through the tools of monitoring and evaluation of counties gender officers’ capacities in implementing the state strategic plans. This study was supported financially by Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) office in Juba.

Executive Summary

To know the efforts of Central Equatoria state authorities and communities in reaching a point of action for driving towards the three key principles for embracing gender namely;

1. Full gender equality and the elimination of gender discrimination;
2. The integrations and full participation of women in development;
3. An increased contribution by women in the strengthening of world peace

CEPO acknowledged that these principles are not easily   achieved in totality but it is necessary to recognize how much they are localized by the state and the communities for reasonable work towards them.  For practical talks regarding the work towards localization of these principles, CEPO has to undertake a project under funding from Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) for conducting activities as semi policy research on Central Equatoria State Gender strategies. The activities undertaken are directly engaging the county Gender officers on the following activities;

1. Carrying out Gender and women rights awareness raising/sensitization
2. Observing and monitoring of customary courts practices, county Gender officers commitment including their level of knowledge on the state gender plans/strategies
3. Same observation is also done on the police Gender desk

The methodology applied for conducting the activities  mainly comprised of community leaders briefing, public event on Sundays in the church, on Friday in the mosques and market days, conducting focus group discussions and filling of standard checklist for customary court practices. Meanwhile CEPO conducted full observation by using SWOT analysis tool on the county and police Gender officers’   level of commitment via field activities reporting.

The study exercise revealed that less was done by both the county and police gender   officers in increasing the struggle towards reduction of Gender based violence and women rights violation.  The constraints are centered on the following issues;

1. Most of the county Gender officers are not appointed by the government, they are rather   volunteering for positions making them to do things according to their own will.
2. Limited funding  by the county administration for implementing Gender and women rights activities in their budgets because the county authorities view the Gender Unit   as something to be financed International  NGOs   (foreign aid).
3. The police administration   treat the special protection unit (gender desk) as an isolated unit out  of the police service,  this has attributed to a lot of barriers such as special protection unit office building are taken for other purposes and officers engaged in the gender trainings are always transferred from time to time then   consistency  on issues become at stake
4. The special protection units in the police building are not at rights locations, because some of the current buildings are exposing the victims of gender based violence to the society.
5. Both county and police gender desk officers are not informed about the state gender plans/strategies. Therefore no priorities for achievement at their levels.  Further there are lack of information sharing between the special protection unit and the county gender office

The key challenges faced during the study were the issue of county infrastructure which has limited the project outreach to some Payams in the counties. For better future works on gender, CEPO has the following recommendations for deliberations;

1. There is need for the state ministry of social development to adapt a participatory approach for developing the state gender plans/strategies.
2. The ministry of social development needs to work closely with ministry of finance in budgeting and with the state ministry of local government for inclusion of gender activities in the counties’ annual budgets.
3. Capacity building for management of Gender Based Violence and women rights is indispensable for all actors in the area of gender with special focus on police administration in acknowledging the role of gender desk inclusive.
4. There is need for civil society, media and international community to focus on tracking the expenditure on gender for accountability purpose.

Background information

Gender Based Violence and violation of women rights are the key problems in our societies/communities with regard to women issues in six Counties of Central Equatoria state. The government is the first actor obligated to resolve these women issues and constraints in our society and communities. The state government   central Equatoria   through the ministry of social development and child welfare tried to address the problems of women rights and violence against women.   The state strategy for addressing women rights and gender based violence were great if fully executed as planned.

One of the simple tactics for executing these plans is through engaging the county gender officers and the gender desks in the police fully.  The county gender officers and desks are recruited and   the county police gender desks are created both for the purpose of achieving gender objectives. CEPO feels it is important to measure the role of the county gender officers and the police gender desks in the achievement of the state gender objectives. With regard to this concern, CEPO won Norwegian people’s aid Women’s Legal and Human Rights Grant particularly targeting combating violence against women, grant dated January 2011. The project is undertook the followings activities;

1. Gender Based Violence TOT training that forecast on 12 gender desk officers from the 6 counties of Central Equatoria State (Juba, Terekeka, Lainya, Morobo, Kajo-keji and Yei)
2. Facilitation of gender based violence sensitization in the counties for 3 months
3. Monitoring of customary courts in the counties
4. Monitoring and evaluation of the counties gender officers and desks in the counties

Goal: Enhancement of Central Equatoria State gender and women rights strategies implementation

Objectives;

1)      To evaluate how the counties gender officers are engaged in raising awareness on gender as per their training action plans.

2)      To learn about the progress of gender officers’ engagement in the customary courts monitoring in order to identify the related gender issues handled by the traditional courts.

3)      To learn and understand   the community concept   on  GBV issues and their perception and know  what the measures they best would use to address the issues at stake

4)      To monitor the county desk officers in their respective counties

Expected results;

1)      To have slight review on Central Equatoria State gender strategies

2)      To come out with working plans/ recommendations on gender based violence

Activities carried out;

Training of 12 state counties gender officers on gender and women rights sensitization and documentation.

a)      The 12 trained Gender officers were assigned to conduct the following activities ;

b)      Conduct gender and human rights sensitization using the followings tactics

• Community leaders briefing
• Community public event
• Market day briefing

c)      Monitoring of the customary court practices with emphasizes on gender issues, women rights and legal women disputes.

d)     Evaluation of the prisons and police station gender desk as women rights are concerned

e)      Mapping of the customary courts in the counties

f)       While CEPO gender unit has conducted opinion assessment of local government officers on gender mainstreaming in local government administrative units and council

Rationale of the assessment

The primary principles underlying this study were the capacity and commitment of the county gender officers in Central Equatoria state, their roles and duties in combating Gender Based Violence, women rights violations and carrying out sensitization/responsiveness raising on human rights and gender.

The question which encouraged this study was how much are the county gender officers informed about the state strategic plan? This makes Community Empowerment for progress organization-CEPO to intervene in assessing the county gender officers’ level of information about the state gender strategy.

Methodology

Central Equatoria counties gender officers were identified and trained on gender and women rights awareness raising including monitoring of customary court practices and evaluation of the county police gender desks and prison condition in relation to women rights

The trained 12 Central Equatoria State counties gender officers were given the following materials;

a)      Gender and women rights awareness raising guideline Manuel

b)      Standard developed checklists for;

• Monitoring the customary courts practices,
• Evaluation of the police gender desk,
• Mapping customary courts in counties.   Further SWOT analysis was used by CEPO for measure the state gender policy

The counties’ gender officers do render the filled standard checklists to CEPO gender Unit on monthly basis for analysis and drawing findings;

Thematic areas covered are as follow;

• The roles of women and men in society building
• Domestic violence against women
• Rights of  women – bill of rights
• Women and legal disputes mitigation in customary court/ law
• Women and imprisonment

SWOT Analysis

 Why SWOT analysis as study tool for measuring the state gender plans or strategies 

Equating responsiveness and effectiveness of an activity against its gaps, and failure for discovering successes against losing, sustainability against areas that need improvement on the other hand. There is need to have a clear view about the activity strengthen, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in order to draw reasonable conclusion, in relation to successes, effectiveness, gaps and failures as bases for measuring sustainability and identifying areas of improvements.

RESULTS OF THE SWOT ANALYSIS (County gender officers and County police gender desks view test)

Strengthens	Weaknesses
Advantages of the state gender plan/strategy?•         We (county gender officers) assume that it is focusing on finding durable solutions for gender based violence and  affordable ways for gender mainstreaming in the state affairsInnovative aspects of the state gender plans/strategy?•         Since we are not informed about the state gender plans/strategy, then we have no comments What are your capabilities as county gender officers, police gender desk officer? •         We are well informed about the basic context and content of  Gender based violence and women rights Added value of  gender plans/strategies •         We assume that empowerment of women in every aspect to have balance with men •         We assume equal education of men and women on participatory approach and inclusion in development •         We assume protection of women peace and security	Disadvantages of the state gender plans/strategy?•         We are not well informed about it, so it is hard to draw views on the disadvantagesGaps in the state gender plan development processes•         The process of developing the state gender plans or strategy is not made more participatory  to the county gender officers and the public•         The communities voices for framing the gender plans are not concerned at all•         It is more of donor, initiator and intellectuals  opinion driven Gaps in capabilities as county gender officer and police gender desk officer? •         Limited knowledge and skills on state gender plans or strategy •         Limit understanding within the police on the police gender desk What are your own vulnerabilities? •         Limited self knowledge on the plans reduce commitment for  achieving the results •         Becoming aggressive in office due to low proper capacities, this needs knowledge for accompanying objectives
Opportunities	Threats
What are the interests for the gender plans/strategy further activities?•         We do not have knowledge about the plans and this makes it hard for us   to commentWhat do people say about the gender plans/strategy positively? •         They are not informed about the state plans or strategy , therefore they do not have commentsWhat help have you done to your community using the gender plans/strategy for improving gender situation?•         We have mitigated  several  community legal issues/disputes  in an alternative dispute resolution manner without to court of law •          Have brought some customary /traditional judges to understand violation of women rights and best tactics for mitigating gender based violence	What are the negative aspects of gender plans/strategy that people do speak about?•         They are not informed about the gender plans/strategyWhat are the future challenges that may not allow the state gender plans/strategy to continue?•         Exclusivity of process for developing the state plans or strategy•         None listening to the communities voicesWhat are the things that may prevent the sustainability of the state gender plans/strategy activities •         Poor obligation for the communities’ actors in working for gender mainstreaming right from family to the society •         Limited dissemination of the gender plans to the county gender officer in particular and the public in general

KEY FINDINGS (based on the results of the SWOT analysis)

1-      The state gender strategies

Central Equatoria State has effective gender and women rights plans. The plans execution is the main problem, because of three main reasons identified by CEPO as follow;

1.           I.            The state gender desk officers are not well informed about the state gender and women rights strategies/ plans. This is due to their none involvement during the processes of formulating the state gender and women rights strategies and plans
2.        II.            Limited resources both human and financial  for executing the state gender and women rights  strategies/ plans
3.     III.            Institutional weaknesses in terms of technocrats for executing the strategies/plans ranging from    county up to state level.

2-      County gender desk officers

Through their engagement with CEPO, it was realized that most of the county gender desk officers are volunteers in their county positions. It is only realized in Morobo county that one gender desk officer was appointed under South Sudan public law. In most of the counties, they are not fully recruited as government officers under the public services law. This has reduced their commitment in culture of office work for combating gender and women rights violations and sensitization.

3-      The county administration in gender mainstreaming

In the concept point of view, the counties of Central Equatoria State have slight positive move in mainstreaming gender in their administration and management arenas.  Employment of women in the county offices is good and effective. The only major constraint is the issue of budgeting for gender activities at the counties by the counties’ administrations in their annual county budgets. CEPO noted with high concern that majority of the counties are treating the gender unit as component to be funded by international and United Nations agencies. This has made gender not to be a priority in the county annual budget.

4-      The police and the prison officers’ role in gender

It is clear that the police and prison officers should work on respect of women dignity and rights. Even a female officer being in police or prison service requires sensitization on the respect of women dignity and rights. Noted by CEPO that fellow women in the law enforcement agencies special in the prison authority are worse in unlawful treatment of a woman under their authorities. This is realized as common practices in the counties. Few female officers in the law enforcement agencies are dedicated for the respect of their fellow women dignity and rights in facing the law. Further the conditions of the prisons in the counties are not favorable for women prisoners in several ways. Some women are detained together with their children, the child condition is not taken into account and this makes the woman mentally disturb.

With regard to the special protection unit under the police authorities, the unit is facing challenge from the police criminal investigation department known as CID. The CID views the special protection unit as Non-governmental organization culture of fighting their approaches of investigating crimes. Because the special protection unit is more of human rights and dignity values and hence jeopardizing their investigations approaches.

One valuable aspect about the CID role in the policing services, CID is one of the departments within the police institution that have influential role over the police leadership decision. Therefore the police leadership mainly goes with the advices of the CID

Customary court/law practices

The customary court/law is made of traditions, customs and beliefs in the communities. Most of the customary courts laws are based on the principle of man is the bread winner while a woman is an assistant to man. The customary court/law is used frequently by men to resolve disputes   even involving issues to be addressed by statuary court for the purpose of winning legal disputes resolution against women. Women rights in the customary court/law seem as false claims by women for the sake of avoiding the use of customary law. Among the worst scenario is where the customary court favor men more than women and this is realized in respect to right to ownership.  Ownership in the customary laws of Central Equatoria State counties communities is not clearly defined. Most of the definitions are focused on men dominance as a rule factor of legal disputes. Live example of this is the issue of a woman considered by the customary laws as property of man so she cannot own property of men.  It is common in customary court that the traditional judges use to ask questions such as ‘How come that a property want to own a property’?”

5-      Family and gender

Family role in gender is commonly realized when the unit is distributing the roles of participation between male and female child in the house, and another aspect is the education of the children.   It is realized that families in rural setting give full educational requirements for male-child than female-child and this is so because of traditional thoughts such as educating a girl is educating  for someone’s family one day in the future ( after marriage). This concept is extending to the level of economy. Since the rural economy is mainly male-dominance, the rural economy has become so discriminative to rural woman. This has made the rural so dependent on male. With this factor the rural female has no-voice to speak out their sufferings which was caused by male partner in marriage. Family has effective role in promoting gender and fighting gender-based violence and rights and freedoms violations. Simply, if male can believe and accept that female have same and equal rights and freedoms.

The tendency of gender

It was realized through the study that the tendency of gender means women affairs is high and exists in the minds of the majority members of the society. Evidence to that is always the position of the gender officer is offered to female candidate whether being in non-governmental organization and governmental institutions. Therefore the real meaning of gender as a social relationship between man and woman become weak and narrowly focused.

The common gender based violence identified in the counties

Counties	Types of the gender violations
	RapingAnd harassment and intimidation	Early marriage	Wife beating	Pregnancy outside marriage	Favoritism  of boy to girls	Killing of women /murder /killing attempts	Robbery /theft With focus on woman	Adultery	Child defilement	Child abuse	Forced marriage
Yei
Morobo		[1]
Kajo-keji
Terekeka				[2]							[3]
Lainya
Juba

 

Root causes of GBV;

1.         i.            Harmful cultural practices  and traditions
2.       ii.            Ignorance of women’s rights in education and livelihood
3.     iii.            High bride price  that acts as an obstacle for the voices of women
4.     iv.            High rate of drunkenness or alcohol abuse
5.       v.            Favoritism for boys than girls
6.     vi.            Vulnerability of women in regards to their physical make up
7.   vii.            Limited access to justices in both customary and statuary courts systems
8. Poverty

EFFECTS;

1.         i.            Physical and emotional torture
2.       ii.            Gender inequality-this has extend the gender gap
3.     iii.            Women voices are not heard
4.     iv.            Rural economy become more discriminative towards women
5.       v.            Isolate cases of Human trafficking mainly girls from rural set up and some from northern Uganda  communities
6.     vi.            People were now getting aware of GBV and its effects

Recommendations and way forward

Based on the situation analyses presented, here are some recommendations:

1-      Involvement of the county gender officers during the processes of developing the state gender plans or strategies

Development of the state gender policy, strategy or plan is a creation of women’s platform or agenda for the given period of time, because always such platforms intending to address both strategic gender interests and practices. Further if possible development of the state gender policy, strategies or plans should get the participation of the all women actors in the society ranging from urban to rural set ups.

In the current status of South Sudan women level of education is low,  it is necessary to develop plans that look into women’s agenda, their needs in the simplest way that the least educated women in the rural communities are able to understand and accomplish for the following purposes;

To identify some of the obstacles such as;

1.  I.            Customary, legal, cultural, political and economic obstacles to women advancement in the community
2. Local forms of discrimination against women in all aspects of society
3. Factors that trigger gender based violence, work-place sexual harassment, abuse, intimidation of women in public life in the community
4. The best affordable community tactics for outlawing early, arranged, and forced marriage to allow girls and women to continue education and pursue careers in life

2-      Focus of the counties on gender priorities during their budgeting

Use of government funds for enhancement of gender agenda in the counties need to be more available than pushing financing of gender objectives to foreign aid.   Foreign aid is not a regular source for timely implementation of objectives for making change. Denying budget for gender objectives implementation is another advance constraint for reduction of the gender gap and this attitude attributes to sustains of gender inequalities

3-      Promote effective women’s political engagement in both political parties and leading legislative since political parties and legislative assembly are the gatekeepers to women’s participation in the society.

The women in politics have to take the gender objectives achievement as priority for all. They have to development caucuses that play key role influencing political decision and will for driving gender agenda. The women in the politics have to conduct any lobbying or advocacy with strategy of mobilizing the women and men as pressure group out the politics for cultivating chance for dialogue on gender

4-      Initiation of committed and effective  women’s organization that brings together women from all various roles and duties for common ground for driving gender agenda jointly as one voice and power

1.                 I.            The task of this women’s organization is to develop and promote the women’s agenda.
2.              II.             Articulate the differences between political parties and women’s movement; and address challenges facing women in Central Equatoria state.
3.           III.            Creation of economic activities such as small-credit groups that addresses specific needs of women in urban and rural areas
4.           IV.            Schools at role in promoting an inclusive and gender-sensitive society that respect the rights of girls and women are required

5-      Training of more police gender desk officers on how to deal with issues of gender based violence and women rights.

1.        I.            Police officers that are trained on how to handle gender violence and women rights violations must be sustain in one by the police administration in one location.
2.     II.            There is need to train the police leadership on the importance of the special protection unit( police gender desk) and specially trainings must be done for the police Criminal Investigation Department
3.  III.            Location of the office for the special protection unit should be in isolate place and the building should provide all the necessary requirements for addressing the GBV
4.  IV.            There is a need for the police administration to integrate the gender desk into the operational system of the police services
5.     V.            There is need to sensitize the whole policing services on the importance of the police gender desk in dealing with gender based violence and women legal issues and rights
6.  VI.            There is need to increase coordination between the police gender desk and the county gender desk

6-      Capacity building prioritization on delivery  of gender agenda 

1.     I.            There is need to train  the traditional judges on specific skills for handling gender based violence in the customary courts
2.  II.            There is need for engaging the legislative gender outstanding committee on gender prioritizing in budgeting processes
3. Media and civil society training on making gender agenda realistic at affordable cost is essential including tracking gender budgets expenditure

7-      Rounding conditions that have  negative implication on gender must be taken into account such as;

1.        I.            Mother with child under arrest should be given special consideration with regard to child welfare
2.     II.            Equal fulfillment of educational requirement ranging from time allocation for study up to schooling materials between girl and boy student be with compromise

8-      Women peace and security

1.        I.            There is need to enact gender law in South Sudan for the interest of gender equality and equity in the society for providing women peace and security
2.     II.            Orientation of the law enforcement agencies on how to handling and protect women from Gender based violence and rights violation is paramount
3.  III.            Insertion of United Nation resolution 1325 indicators into policies and program strategies for ensuring women protection

9-      Man-gender strategy

I.      There is a need to engage man fully in gender mainstreaming and in finding solutions for addressing gender based violence and violation of women rights

II.      There is a need to critical focus on engaging couples in gender sensitization and awareness raising specifically in the rural communities

III.      There is need to change the knowledge, attitudes and practices ( KAP) of the society members in relation to gender mainstreaming

Conclusion

This project has drawn CEPO attention for doubling efforts on working in the areas of gender based violence and women rights more constructively. Through the project activities, CEPO realized that much need to be done in addressing the gender based violence and women rights violations.

State gender policy development requires participation of all actors that will have role and responsibilities for execution of gender policy right from the stage of facilitating gender trainings, sensitization, lobbying and advocacy in Central Equatoria State counties.

For realization of the identified recommendations, CEPO will conduct stakeholders meetings to discuss the best mechanisms for the implementation of the recommendations. On the other hand this project has strengthened CEPO’s gender centre focus on priorities that are achievable than unrealistic ones. CEPO will be using these project findings for designing next year gender and women rights plans.

Annex: CEPO

Who is CEPO?: Community Empowerment for Progress Organization-CEPO is South Sudan civil society organization registered by the Ministry of Legal Affairs and Constitutional Development in Republic of South Sudan. CEPO is engaged in the areas of conflict mitigation, peace, human rights, and rule of law, governance, democratic transformation and livelihood.

CEPO Mission:  Strengthening and Promoting the capacity and capability of society members on peace building, security reform, culture of human rights, protection, democratic principles and livelihood.

CEPO Mission Messages/Expected results (mandate):

1.      Secure and peaceful society

2.      Self-reliant society

3.      Obeying and honoring rule of law and protection

4.      Responsive security society

CEPO Vision: Building capacity and capability of society members on development through self-reliance and genuine interventions

CEPO Core Values:

1.      Commitment, Accountability  and Transparency (CAT)

2.      Non- partisanship

3.      Devolution of power and Delegation ( Decentralized administration and management )

Goal: Focuses on participation of all society members in development as a complement to their government and other stakeholders role

Objectives:

1.      To promote community members interaction with the security organs in order to achieve suitable secure society

2.      To promote effective and strengthen community members engagement in peace building, human rights and protection

3.      To involve community members in economical and agricultural projects

4.      To bring the process of policy development in the legislature too close to the members of the society

5.      To make policy development processes more participatory for institutionalizing accountability and transparency of governance and leadership

2 attachments — Download all attachments

Gender Report 2011.pdf 319K   View   Download

CEPO Gender Based Violence and Women Rights strategic plan research for centeral Equatoria state.doc 197K   View   Download

Contacts Email: ceposudan@yahoo.co.uk, ceposouthsudan@gmail.com info@ceposouthsudan.com   Website: www.ceposouthsudan.org

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[1] Less cases of early marriages are witnessed

[2] Less cases of pregnancy outside marriage were witnessed

[3] A lot of cases on forced marriages were witnessed

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History Proving a Touchy Subject in Britain (and so will it be in South Sudan soon!)

By D.D. GUTTENPLAN

LONDON — As the novelist George Orwell observed, he who controls the past controls the future, so it is perhaps not surprising that Orwell’s home country is the latest setting for a battle over what history is and how it is taught. In recent weeks, two conferences here have seen the polite tones of academic debate shattered as historians traded accusations of racism, dumbing down and just plain ignorance.

David Cannadine, a professor of history at Princeton, at a conference in London last week on the teaching of history. He said claims of a crisis were based on the myth of a golden age.

At the same time Michael Gove, the education minister, has been urged by some of the country’s most eminent historians to abandon his plan to revamp the way history is taught in schools.

David Starkey, the author of several books about Henry VIII and his wives and a frequent guest on British television programs, argued at a historians’ conference in London this month that schools ought to focus more on Britain’s “own culture.”

When another historian argued that contemporary Britain was “rather diverse,” Mr. Starkey replied: “No it’s not. Most of Britain is a mono-culture,” adding that large parts of the country were “unmitigatingly white.” Mr. Starkey made headlines last summer after claiming, in comments on several days of riots, that Britain’s poor whites had “become black; a particular sort of violent, destructive, nihilistic, gangster culture has become the fashion.”

Last week, David Cannadine, a professor of history at Princeton, told Mr. Gove that claims there is a crisis in the way students are taught history are based on the “myth of a golden age” when boys and girls could recite all the kings and queens of England. Speaking at a conference at the University of London to launch his new book, “The Right Kind of History,” which examines the way the subject has been taught for the past century, Mr. Cannadine said: “Complaints about the inadequacy of teaching history in English schools have been going on for as long as history has been taught in English schools.”

Currently high school students in Britain are allowed to stop studying history at the age of 14 — unlike most other European countries, Mr. Cannadine said. If the government wanted to improve the state of historical understanding it should make the subject compulsory until the age of 16, he said. But the curriculum, he said firmly, “really ought to be left alone.”

Because it tells a country’s own story, history is often a controversial subject. Last year in Texas, the State Board of Education voted to require that textbooks used in the state’s schools portray conservatives in a more positive light and emphasize the role of Christianity in American history. The board’s initial decision to delete Thomas Jefferson from a list of thinkers whose work inspired other revolutions was widely derided — and eventually reversed. But the Texas board did impose many other changes to the state’s history curriculum.

In Germany in the 1980s the Historikerstreit, or historians’ quarrel, began after Ernst Nolte, a professor at the Free University of Berlin, published an article in which he described the Holocaust as essentially “a reaction, born from fear” of the Russian revolution. His argument that Germans should stop apologizing for their past, and that Hitler’s actions were “understandable, and up to a certain point, indeed, justified,” prompted a dispute that raged for several years.

Richard Evans, at the time a young historian at the University of East Anglia, took an active role in the controversy, pointing out the similarity between some of Mr. Nolte’s arguments and those long used by anti-Semites in Europe and the U.S.

The current British battle began in the spring of 2010 when the Harvard professor Niall Ferguson made a speech at the Hay literary festival complaining “in this country, the vast majority of school pupils learn only about Henry VIII, Adolf Hitler and Martin Luther King,” adding that his own children had never been taught about the original Martin Luther. Mr. Gove, who was in the audience, raised his hand and asked “Will Harvard let you spend more time in Britain to help us design a more exciting and engaging history curriculum?”

It was later announced that Mr. Cannadine and Simon Schama, a British historian who teaches at Columbia, had also been recruited to help revamp the national curriculum. Then in March Mr. Evans, now the Regius professor of history at Cambridge, launched an attack on the whole project in The London Review of Books.

Mr. Evans accused the government of wanting to foist “a celebratory history” that would gloss over the darker parts of Britain’s past — and neglect the contribution of darker peoples to the country’s heritage. The result, he warned, “would be a radically ignorant form of dumbing down.”

Mr. Ferguson denied any such intention. “I don’t know why he feels the need to create the fiction that I’m some kind of reactionary monster — a hate figure for the febrile liberal imagination,” he said in an interview. “Anybody who reads my stuff knows I’m not arguing for the imposition of some kind of Tory meta-narrative.”

Mr. Evans, who attended both recent conferences, said that the effort to “convert history teaching in the schools into a means of forging a national identity went beyond party politics.” The former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown “was also very keen on this,” he said.

Mr. Ferguson also found an unlikely defender. Eric Hobsbawm, author of “The Age of Revolution,” described Mr. Ferguson as “a very smart man, and a very good historian. Loath as I am to take the Tory line, on this issue they have more of a point than most of us academics are prepared to admit.”

“History is supposed to teach people perspective and proportion,” Mr. Cannadine said, bemoaning the way the current debate has become “polarized around a set of entrenched positions: those who stress the importance of historical knowledge — facts — over historical skills, those who want a narrative of national greatness versus a warts-and-all portrait of the past, and those who want to focus on the country you’re in rather than our relationship with the broader world.”

Part of the fault, Mr. Cannadine said, lies in the nature of the discipline. “If you’re taught geometry in Adelaide or Vancouver it’s pretty much the same subject. History is taught very differently.

“I was much struck by the fact that this discussion of how history is taught was totally devoid of historical perspective. What’s being said now has been said for 100 years,” Mr. Cannadine said.

At last week’s conference, Mr. Gove partially disarmed his critics. Though he complained again about the neglect of British history in favor of either “Hitler and the Henrys” or a unit on the American West, which he referred to as “cowboys and Indians,” he added: “It’s dangerous if politicians impose too many of their own prejudices on the national curriculum.”

He also said he had “a totally open mind” on whether history should be taught till age 16.

He refused to abandon plans to revamp the curriculum, saying he thought “much more history should be taught” and in a “more demanding” way. But in an exchange with Mr. Evans, he conceded the importance of placing British history in a global context.

“He backpedaled a little,” Mr. Cannadine said afterward. Mr. Gove, he added “is clearly someone we can work with. And we have to work with him.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/28/world/europe/28iht-educLede28.html?pagewanted=2&ref=world&src=me

Gove: pupils know more about the (American) Wild West than their own (UK) country

Education Secretary wants GCSE curriculum to focus more on key events in British history

Pupils studying for GCSEs in British secondary schools know more about the history of the American Wild West than they do about their own country, the Education Secretary claimed yesterday.

Michael Gove, below, produced figures showing that pupils were far more likely to study the Wild West or the Nazis than any aspect of British history. He called for history lessons to focus more on British events so children would “take pride” in their country’s history.

“I don’t believe it’s necessarily propagandistic to have a national curriculum broadly sympathetic to our past and our values,” he said. “Of course, we don’t want our national curriculum to be the scholastic equivalent of the Last Night of the Proms. But nor should it be a morale-sapping exercise in self-flagellation.”

Mr Gove, who was addressing a conference of historians at University College London, said 40 per cent of pupils chose history for their GCSEs, but in the case of the AQA exam board, only 8 per cent chose to do British history. Another 48 per cent opted for the American Wild West and 44 per cent chose Germany between 1919 and 1945. A similar picture emerged at Edexcel, where only 4 per cent chose British history. “It has often been said that pupils are concentrating too much on Hitler and the Henrys [the Tudor period],” he added. “However, there is very little concentration on any of the Henrys and quite a lot of enthusiasm for the American West.”

Mr Gove singled out the signing of the treaty at Runnymede ; the Glorious Revolution and the Great Reform Bill as three events that showed Britain was on the side of freedom and democracy. He also cited a survey by Cardiff University which showed that undergraduates struggled to name the British general at Waterloo; the monarch during the Spanish Armada; Brunel’s profession; the name of any 19th century Prime Minister and the location of the Boer War.

On Waterloo, twice as many thought Nelson was in charge as Wellington, and nine thought Napoleon was in charge of the British. He said most students would still have gained A grades at A-level.

“There is evidence that even among those who are passionate about history, it is still the case that what they’re being fed is thin gruel intellectually,” he said.

Mr Gove is reviewing the national curriculum and is facing calls to make history compulsory until the age of 16.

Know your history? Take the gove test

Mr Gove singled out three key dates from British history which would help pupils develop a pride in the country’s past. But can you pinpoint them all? They were:

a) The signing of the Runnymede Treaty by King John

b) The Glorious Revolution

c) The Great Reform Bill

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/gove-pupils-know-more-about-the-wild-west-than-their-own-country-6267697.html

 

Northern Bahr el Ghazal youth leader deplores arrest of three members in Aweil

“Jacob Bol Deng, John Mawien Kuocmol Chan and John Garang Agawi were arrested immediately after leaving the conference hall on the order of organisers of the conference, simply because they objected the way the conference was organised”, he said.

November 27, 2011 (JUBA) – The leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement Youth wing in Northern Bahr el Ghazal state on Sunday condemned arrest of three members by the state security, describing it as an unacceptable act.

Garang Velantino Wol Kon, the chairperson of the SPLM Youth League (SPLM-YL) in the state said in an interview on Sunday that the three youth members were arrested after distributing a statement rejecting the procedures of the event and the organisation of a four days youth conference which begun on 24 November.

“They have arrested three members”, Kon told Sudan Tribune by phone from Aweil town, capital of Northern Bahr el Ghazal, referring to the state authorities.

“Jacob Bol Deng, John Mawien Kuocmol Chan and John Garang Agawi were arrested immediately after leaving the conference hall on the order of organisers of the conference, simply because they objected the way the conference was organised”, he said

The youth leader added that authorities have rejected his suggestion to be arrested in the place the arrested youth members because of his immunity as youth leader.

“I told them to arrest me and release those they have been arrested because I am the leader but they did not accept. They asked me to come tomorrow to see whether the deputy governor, Dut Dut Yel, would accept to remove my immunity so as to pave the way for my arrest so that those who have been arrested are released”, Kon explained.

This follows a statement signed by six youth leaders from the four states of Warrap, Lakes, North and Western Bahr el Ghazal, rejecting procedures and the way the conference was organised.

The document was copied to all the four state governors and youth offices and was signed by: Dhieu Wal Takpiny – SPLM Youth League in Lakes State, Manyiel, Dut Kok – Lakes State Youth Union Chairperson, Dahie Abulrahaman Dahie, SPLM Youth chairperson in Western Bahr el Ghazal, Deng Madut – SPLM Youth League in Warrap State, Kuol Yueu Kuol – Warrap State Youth Union chairperson, Garang Velantino Wol – SPLM Youth League in Northern Bahr el Ghazal.

Kuol Wieu Kuol, the chairperson of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement Youth League, (SPLM-YL) in Warrap State, told Sudan Tribune on Saturday that his and other youth groups had not been consulted.

“It would have been good idea if the objectives were made known to all the other groups. If indeed the intention was meant to bring youth together and to cherish each other, the objectives and criteria of selections would have been made known to all. Some youth, especially those coming from Warrap State, were selected from Juba directly attended the conference without the knowledge of other group”, he said.

Manyiel Dut Kok, chairperson of the SPLM Youth League in Lakes State also told Sudan Tribune on Saturday that the organisers of the conference should have shared the plans and objectives about conference with all the region’s youth groups.

Kok said those attending the conference from Lakes state were taken from Juba directly to the venue of the conference without consultation with official youth representatives, who live in the area.

“We have 12 people attending from Lakes State. They were taken from Juba without my knowledge”, he said explaining that resolution of the conference would not be binding on youth leadership in the state.

Dhaya Abelrahaman Dhaya, a member of the SPLM Youth League in Western Bahr el Ghazal State said Saturday that he supports unity among youth group but opposed the way the conference was organised.

“I agree that we should work together in sensitising and encouraging youths to promote peace and unity but I do not agree with the way this conference was organised.

“Normally, the official procedure was that all the groups should have been consulted. If the intention of this conference was to bring youth together, the SPLM youth league should have been consulted prior to commencement of the conference so that we discuss with them objectives and expected recommendation with the SPLM Secretariat in the state and the ministry of social welfare and development”, he said.

(ST)

http://www.sudantribune.com/N-Bahr-el-Ghazal-youth-leader,40839

PETITION AGAINST ILLEGAL DETENTION OF PAUL MADIT MALUAC AND RELATIVES IN SPLA MILITARY CAMP IN RUMBEK EAST COUNTY

Dear Editor,

I would be grateful if this piece is published widely so that Paul Madit Maluac and relatives are released immediately.

It is so sad that our army SPLA is still holding our people rentlessly without due respect to our constitution to which everyone vow alligence and reference to.

An evidence of hostage is the letter attached from acting Governor of Lakes state Hon. Marik Nanga Marik dated 21st November 2011 and which was turned down in total disrespect by our army command in Rumbek East County with no reasons given for his countinual detention.

Looking forward for your usual support against wrongs in our society.

Yours truly.

Akolde Nhiak Jinub,

Rumbek, The Republic of South Sudan.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PETITION AGAINST ILLEGAL DETENTION OF FATHER AND UNCLE PAUL MADIT MALUAC AND RELATIVES IN SPLA MILITARY CAMP IN PANAWAC AND PACONG OF RUMBEK EAST COUNTY

We, the undersigned family members, relatives, friends and community members of Paul Madit Maluac write to appeal against illegal-prolonged-detention of father and uncle Paul Madit Maluac since October 26^th 2011 till today November 28^th 2011 by Sudan People’s Liberation Army/South Sudan Armed Forces (SPLA/SSAF) following prison escape of his son Angui-alou Paul Madit in April 2011, who was accused of involvement in Alamtoc West (Athoi) sectional feud of December 18^th 2010.

We condemn in the strongest possible terms the arbitrary arrest of Paul Madit Maluac, Abany Mayar Ater, Marial Maker Maluac and Marial Maker Dut; Paul who has shown during the past several months a very high sense of maturity, responsibility and intellectuality in this same controversial arbitrary arrest of his two wives Yom Dongrin and Nyitur Marial from June 15^th – July 25^th 2011 for the same cause (prison escape of his son Angui-alou Paul.

Angui-alou was/is a victim of conspiracies that have nurtured this ugly sectional feuds since September 17^th 2001 when Bech Dong Manguen was first assaulted and murdered in cool blood and who has had cursed the entire youth generations for one decade from  – 2001 – 2011 now that we are still being haunted by this endless sectional clashes.

Reasons to why did Angui-alou Paul Madit escape from Rumbek Prison blame goes to the authorities of the Lakes state that did not bring to custody Angui-alou rivals from the day he was ordered from Rumbek Hospital to Rumbek Prison cell with his open wounds and while in Prison, he was denied all medical care. Did Angui-alou like anyone else not have any basic rights to treatment as a wounded person? Yes, he did, but he was refused to, hence the genesis of biasness was sown, hence escape was one last viable resort to him, which he did in midst April without any consent of his family.

Angui-alou Paul Madit after his prison escape wrote a letter demanding that one of his rivals – from Aliap section of Rumbek Central County are wen Nguenjak and Makuoi Majak Mading from Gony section of Athoi and of whom Angui-alou Paul accused of having instigated and incited the battle that ensued on 18^th December 2010, and to whom Angui-alou Paul Madit be brought to Rumbek Prison first hand before his return to the Prison, or else he will not come for another arrest without his rivals.

If Lakes state government, Rumbek East County administration and the SPLA would need a peaceful settlement of this long decade sectional conflicts of Athoi in Alamtoc West, why did it not listen to these calls and other constitutional means and that a fact findings committee be formed to investigate and put forward full recommendations for peaceful resolutions of this never-ending fights between one community where a cousin, uncle and aunty cohesiveness have been broken inconsiderately for eleven years now.

What we would like to make clear to our SPLA army in Rumbek East County in Pacong and Panawac; and South Sudan at large is that our constitution says that anyone above 18 years is an adult whose decisions and actions are not greatly influenced by the family and that any actions or decisions should be treated as individual. If Angui-alou is thought and as perceived as having done wrongs, his case should be handled by civil court of law, and not a displacement of justice on his family.

Attempts by father and Uncle Paul Madit Maluac, Abany Mayar Ater, Marial Maker Maluac and Marial Maker Dut family members to have them be brought to civil custody (Police and Prisons) have failed, and this sends to us an apparent speculation that SPLA forces deployed in Rumbek East County especially in Pacong and Panawac have different motives against Paul Madit Maluac, his family and entire section of Thuyic with visible hands from the County administration and in the SPLA army itself.

On 21^st November 2011, his son Makim Paul Madit with Deputy Commissioner of Police David Dut Marial with a letter or request by Acting Governor Hon. Marik Nanga Marik in pursuit move from SPLA army custody to Police were denied access and worse episode of the whole scenario was on Makim Paul, who was taken off Police vehicle which was driven by the acting commissioner of Police Lakes state, lashed indiscriminately and arrested too for four days of 21^st — 25^th November 2011. The letter of Acting Governor Hon. Marik Nanga Marik, Minister of Information, Communication, Culture, Youth and Sports, here attached for your reference.

Makim Paul was later sent out after another marathon for his release. Other family members and relatives arrested and detained since 18^th November 2011 and who are still under detention are Abany Mayar Ater, wife to Paul Madit Maluac son – Mabeny Paul Madit, Marial Maker Maluac, paternal uncle son to Paul Madit, Marial Maker Dut, paternal uncle to Paul Madit

Paul Madit Maluac, Abany Mayar Ater, Marial Maker Maluac and Marial Maker Dut detention is illegal and they have not been charged with nor have they committed any crime.

The undersigned family members, relatives and friends, and community members call for their immediate release and ask civil society, advocacy groups, UNMISS human rights office in Lakes state of Rumbek, the international community and other concerned actors to demand the South Sudanese authorities especially the commander of SPLA contingent deployed in Rumbek East County Maj. Gen. Marial Chanuong to release Paul Madit Maluac, Abany Mayar Ater, Marial Maker Maluac and Marial Maker Dut immediately, their case be transferred to Police, which will send them to civil court for trial if any (cast of doubts for wrongdoings for their arrest) and to uphold the individual human rights till proven guilty by competent court of law in civil procedural systems, and not the army of SPLA.

Signed by:

1. Aweng Kuarang
2. Yom Dongrin Akek
3. Akol Mabor Chol
4. Yom Marial Makec
5. Makim Paul Madit
6. Lahat Paul Madit
7. Maluac Paul Madit
8. Cueibet Paul Madit
9. Thonde Paul Madit
10. Akanon Paul Madit
11. Ronaldo Kau Maker Dut
12. Mabior Wende Makuek Dut
13. Alir Maluac Atuongtok
14. Makuei Machuor Majak
15. Alek Chol Akeu
16. Yar Kocdong Dhuol
17. Yar Kuot Kuac
18. Nyidier Paul Madit
19. Aluong Paul Madit
20. Akolde Paul Madit

Sudan Stops the Export of South Sudan Oil through its Pipelines

Sudan says halted South Sudan govt oil exports

Reuters
By Alexander Dziadosz and Hereward Holland KHARTOUM/JUBA, Nov 28 (Reuters) – Sudan said on Monday it had halted landlocked South Sudan’s oil exports until the two agree on a transit fee, stepping up a row between the former civil war foes over how to …

Sudan Blocks South Sudanese Oil Exports Via Its Pipelines
Bloomberg
By Salma El Wardany – Mon Nov 28 13:44:05 GMT 2011 Sudan blocked oil exports from South Sudan via its pipelines and will only allow them to resume once a bilateral agreement has been reached on payment for the shipments, Sudanese Oil Minister Ali Ahmed ..

Sudan says halted South Sudan govt oil exports
Reuters
By Alexander Dziadosz and Khalid Abdelaziz KHARTOUM, Nov 28 (Reuters) – Sudan has halted South Sudan’s oil exports because the two have not yet agreed on a transit fee for the new nation to export its crude through its neighbour, Sudan’s acting oil …

Sudan halts oil exports from south

Financial Times – ‎

Sudan has halted exports of oil from its newly independent southern neighbour, undermining the latest negotiations between the two sides to agree a revenue-sharing deal. South Sudan, which separated from Khartoum on July 9 …

 Sudan says halted South Sudan govt oil exports

Reuters Africa –

KHARTOUM/JUBA (Reuters) – Sudan said on Monday it had halted landlocked South Sudan’s oil exports until the two agree on a transit fee, stepping up a row between the two old civil war foes over how to untangle …

 Sudan Blocks South Sudan Oil Exports

Voice of America – ‎‎

November 28, 2011 Sudan Blocks South Sudan Oil Exports VOA News The Sudanese government has blocked oil exports from newly independent South Sudan, citing a transit fee dispute. Landlocked South Sudan relies on its northern neighbor’s pipelines and …

 Sudan says halted South Sudan govt oil exports

Reuters Africa –

KHARTOUM, Nov 28 (Reuters) – Sudan has halted South Sudan’s oil exports because the two have not yet agreed on a transit fee for the new nation to export its crude through its neighbour, Sudan’s acting oil …

Khartoum halts South Sudan oil exports

AFP – ‎

KHARTOUM — The Khartoum government has blocked South Sudanese oil exports through its Red Sea port due to a dispute over transit fees, Oil Minister Ali Ahmed Osman announced on Monday. An official in Juba slammed what she called the “sudden” suspension …

 Sudan’s halt to exports a sign of “abusive anger” – S. Sudan

Reuters Africa –

JUBA Nov 28 (Reuters) – South Sudan on Monday sharply criticised Sudan’s decision to halt the new nation’s oil exports until the two sides agree on how much South Sudan should pay as a transit fee, calling it a sign of “abusive anger. …

 S. Sudan oil shipment to Unipec didn’t load over row -official

Reuters Africa – ‎

KHARTOUM Nov 28 (Reuters) – A 600000 barrel oil shipment sold by South Sudan to China’s Unipec did not load as scheduled on Monday because of Sudan’s decision to halt South Sudan’s oil exports, a South Sudan oil official told Reuters. …

Sudan Blocks South Sudan Oil Exports

Voice of America (blog) – ‎

The Sudanese government has blocked oil exports from newly independent South Sudan, citing a transit fee dispute. Landlocked South Sudan relies on its northern neighbor’s pipelines and port on the Red Sea to export oil. Sudan’s oil minister, Ali Ahmed …

 Sudan Blocks South Sudanese Oil Exports Via Its Pipelines

BusinessWeek –

Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) — Sudan blocked oil exports from South Sudan via its pipelines and will only allow them to resume once a bilateral agreement has been reached on payment for the shipments, Sudanese Oil Minister Ali Ahmed Osman …

Darfur Envoy: Sudan Rebels Increasing ‘Rhetoric of War’
Voice of America
He also expressed concern about the frayed relationship between Sudan and South Sudan over post-breakup issues involving borders and the sharing of oil revenue. North, South hold mediated talks Delegations from the north and south are meeting in Addis …

South Sudan: Five months old, but still struggling
AFP
Five months ago, South Sudan celebrated independence from the North after a 20 year civil war which killed tens of thousands of people. But the world’s youngest country has huge problems to overcome

Why Is the South Sudan Main Opposition Always Silent On Issues of Concern in …
Middle East North Africa Financial Network
Why Is the South Sudan Main Opposition Always Silent On Issues of Concern in Some Communities? Nov 28, 2011 (The Citizen/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) — The 2011 general election in South Sudan gave birth to what is so-called now the opposition …

South Sudan: Youth Dismiss Boycott Claim in Aweil Conference
AllAfrica.com
… League Secretary General of Northern-Bahr el Ghazal State, Mayuol Diing Mayuol described the claim made by Garang Valentino Wol Kon on some youth walking out in the conference as a misleading statement that was published on Sudan Tribune website. …

South Sudan: Victim’s Father Appeals to Rights Groups for Support in Searching …
AllAfrica.com
… and eventual release several months later without trial has called upon human rights group across the country to stand with him in his effort of asking the government of South Sudan for reason which led to the release of the suspect without trial. …

South Sudan: Our MPs Should Push for a Law Against Neglect of Duty
AllAfrica.com
Since the executive body of the Republic of South Sudan cannot regulate itself, members of the National Assembly should initiate a bill that would charge ministers with neglect of duty. This proposal will curb the executive from some of their …

South Sudan: ‘Claim Your Rights’, Gender Minister Urges Women
AllAfrica.com
Speaking at the Nyakuron Cultural Centre on Friday while officiating at the commemoration of the international day for eliminating violence against women, Dr Nyanyang said the new Republic of South Sudan, like any other nation in the world, …

South Sudan: OIG Releases Audit Report On Grants Managed By PSI
AllAfrica.com
On 31 October 2011, the OIG released three audit reports on eight grants managed by Population Services International in South Sudan, Madagascar and Togo, as well as a report on PSI Headquarters and on issues that it said were common across all grants …

South Sudan: President Kiir Advocates Government-Church Cooperation
AllAfrica.com
Salva Kiir Mayardit said joint efforts and cooperation between the government and the church will lay a strong foundation for peace and stability among the communities in the Republic of South Sudan. HE Kiir made the remarks today when addressing the …

Slow resettlement stalls S.Sudanese dreams
AFP
RUMBEK, South Sudan — South Sudan’s independence attracted thousands back home from the north, but hopes for a new and better life have eluded many still struggling to survive in transit camps. Under brick- or plastic-walled shelters in the central …

Al-Mahdi accuses Sudan’s ruling party of squandering oil money
Sudan Tribune
Sudan has been struggling with an economic crisis since it lost 75 percent of the oil revenues on which the country heavily relied after South Sudan seceded in July. In an effort to contain the situation, the government introduced a set of austerity …

Slow resettlement stalls S Sudan dreams
Independent Online
By Aude Genet A man waves South Sudan’s national flag as he attends the Independence Day celebrations in the capital Juba. Rumbek – South Sudan’s independence attracted thousands back home from the north, but hopes for a new and better life have eluded …

South Sudan’s secession is not a model for conflict resolution – Taha
Sudan Tribune
November27, 2011 (KHARTOUM)— Sudan’s Fist Vice-President Ali Osman Taha said Friday that South Sudan secession should not be taken as model for conflict resolution in similar crises. Sudan’s Vice-President Ali Osman Taha walks past the honor guards as …

South Sudan imports 6.4 million tons of items through Kenya’s port
Sudan Tribune
November 27, 2011 (MOMBASA) – South Sudan this year imported more than six million tons of items through the port of Mombasa, Kenya, authorities there have revealed. The revelation was made as South Sudan’s Vice-President Reck Machar visited Mombasa …

Update on the Death Sentence on SPLM-N members

Dear All,
Please find the recent statement issued today by the SPLM-N Secretary General.
Thanks
Anwar Elhaj
SPLMN Representative
USA

Yasir Arman: The Security Apparatus’ Denial of Death Sentences Aims to Distract from Growing

Solidarity with the Condemned Detainees.

The Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement- North Secretary General, Mr. Yasir Arman, described reports from Sudanese regime’s Security Apparatus, which denied the issuing of secret death sentences on a number of SPLM-N civilians detainees as a move aimed at diverting the international solidarity campaign now gathering momentum.

He added that the published denials by the Security Apparatus that Mr. Abdel-Monim Rahma and nineteen of his comrades, including an under-age detainee, are facing death sentences is an attempt to obscure clear facts from view, and counter the world-wide disapproval and distaste conveyed to the National Congress Party regime by foreign governments and international organizations, who were in contact with SPLM-N leadership, and remain closely following developments of the matter.

He also declared that the SPLM-N values highly the international solidarity campaign now underway, and offered his gratitude and deep appreciation to individuals, groups, governments, organizations, the Sudanese electronic media, columnists and lawyers who are taking part in this humane drive, which so far has compelled the NCP regime to implicate itself in a barefaced lie. No doubt, preparing the way for a retreat on the issue.

He reiterated the SPLM-N demand of Albashir’s criminal regime to release all political detainees- as they are civilians unconnected to any armed actions. Alternatively, if they are involved in wrongdoing, they should be submitted to normal judicial processes, and are afforded the chance to defend themselves and contact their lawyers, and of offering them the right to a public trial open to the media and human rights observers. He also emphasized the need for increased solidarity with Mr. Abdel-Monim Rahma and his fellow detainees. He also called on Sudanese lawyers to join the recently formed legal defence committee, and to utilize this initiative to set up a body for the defense of human rights and democratic freedoms in Sudan.

He finally added that the SPLM-N is hereby issuing a warning to the leadership of NCP: ‘ if these executions are carried out, or should any harm befall the detainees, there will be serious consequences. The war crimes and grave violations committed by the NCP regime against the Sudanese people will sooner or later find redress, and perpetrators will be held accountable. Such gratuitous deaths, as you’re about to commit, beget only more deaths!’

Office of the Secretary General

Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement- North

28th November 2011