IGIHE

Author: admin

  • UN team to investigate Alleged Chemical Attacks in Syria

    UN says weapons inspectors are to depart shortly for Syria to investigate the alleged use of chemical weapons.

    Under an agreement reached with Damascus, the UN team is to visit three sites over two weeks, including a northern town at the centre of allegations of chemical weapons use.

    Some 26 people were killed in the attacks in Khan al-Assal in March.

    The UN mission had been delayed over differences with the Syrian government over the scope of the investigation.

    However, on 31 July the Syrian government agreed to allow UN inspectors to visit the sites. On Wednesday the UN said its team had completed their trip preparations.

    “The government of Syria has formally accepted the modalities essential for co-operation to ensure the proper, safe and efficient conduct of the mission,” a spokesman for UN chief Ban Ki-moon, Eduardo del Buey, said.

    “The departure of the team is now imminent,” he added.

    The mandate of the 10-man investigating team, led by Swedish arms expert Ake Sellstroem, is limited to reporting on whether chemical weapons were actually used and which ones, but it will not determine responsibility for any attacks.

    After the initial two weeks, the UN said, the trip was “extendable upon mutual consent”.

    Two of the locations to be investigated have not been identified so far.

    What started out as anti-government protests inspired by the Arab Spring quickly descended into a full-scale civil war in Syria, with more than 100,000 people killed during the 28-month conflict.

    The possibility of President Bashar al-Assad using Syria’s chemical weapons stock or rebels obtaining some of the stockpiles is one of the factors that has most worried Western observers of the conflict.

    The UN says it has received up to 13 reports of chemical weapons use in Syria – one from the Damascus government about the events at Khan al-Assal, with the rest mainly from the UK, France and USA.

    Both sides of the conflict – the rebels and the government – have denied using chemical weapons.

    Syria is one of seven countries that have not joined the 1997 convention banning chemical weapons.

    Syria is widely believed to possess large undeclared stockpiles of mustard gas and sarin nerve agent.

    BBC

  • Medecins Sans Frontieres halts all operations in Somalia

    {{International medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has announced it will pull out of Somalia saying the threat of deadly violence had become intolerable.}}

    The withdrawal of MSF, or Doctors Without Borders, is a blow to the government’s effort to persuade Somalis and foreign donors that security is improving and a stubborn insurgency is on the wane.

    “The closure of our activities is a direct result of extreme attacks on our staff, in an environment where armed groups and civilian leaders increasingly support, tolerate or condone the killing, assaulting and abducting of humanitarian aid workers,” Unni Karunakara, MSF’s international president, told reporters in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Wednesday.

    Sixteen MSF staff members have been killed in Somalia since 1991 when civil war erupted, but the charity stayed on, negotiating with fighter groups and resorting to hiring armed guards, something it does not do in any other country.

    “But we have reached our limit,” Karunakara said, fighting back tears.

    {aljazeera}

  • Manning apologises in WikiLeaks case

    US soldier Bradley Manning has apologised to a military court for giving war logs and diplomatic secrets to the WikiLeaks website three years ago, the biggest breach of classified data in the nation’s history.

    “I am sorry that my actions hurt people. I’m sorry that they hurt the United States,” the 25-year-old US Army Private First Class told the sentencing phase of his court-martial in a Fort Meade military court on Wednesday.

    “I am sorry for the unintended consequences of my actions… The last few years have been a learning experience.”

    Manning spoke quietly and non-defiantly in his first extensive public comments since February.

    Manning faces up to 90 years in prison for providing more than 700,000 documents, battle videos and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks, hurling the pro-transparency website and its founder, Julian Assange, into the world spotlight.

    Defence lawyers seeking a milder sentence rested their case on Wednesday after Manning’s statement.

    With about a dozen witnesses including Army superiors, mental health professionals and Manning’s own sister, they sought to show Judge Colonel Denise Lind that commanders ignored signs of mental stress.

    agencies

  • Germany, France haul euro zone out of recession

    {{The economies of Germany and France grew faster than expected in the second quarter, bettering a widely heralded expansion in the United States and pulling the euro zone out of a 1-1/2 year-long recession.}}

    The increased pace was primarily driven by renewed business and consumer spending in the 17-country bloc’s two largest economies. The euro zone economy was fragile overall, however, with some countries, notably Spain and Italy, still struggling.

    European Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said the data released on Wednesday showing 0.3 percent euro zone growth for the three months to June meant a nascent recovery was on a more solid footing.

    But he said there was no room for complacency and that maintaining pace depended on “avoid(ing) new political crises and detrimental market turbulence”.

    The euro zone has been in a debt crisis for more than 3-1/2 years.

    Germany, the bloc’s economic powerhouse, grew 0.7 percent, its largest expansion in more than a year, thanks largely to domestic private and public consumption.

    France’s economy expanded 0.5 percent, pulling out of a shallow recession to post its strongest quarterly growth since early 2011. The turnaround was driven by consumer spending and industrial output, although investment dropped again.

    French and German growth compared with a second-quarter expansion of around 0.4 percent in the United States, considered one of the bright spots of the global recovery.

    Improvement was noticeable elsewhere in the bloc. Bailed-out Portugal’s GDP leapt 1.1 percent in the quarter, its strongest in almost three years, due to higher exports and the easing of a previous investment slump.

    {reuters}

  • Brotherhood says Will Bring Down Egypt’s ‘Military Coup’

    {{Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood said on Thursday it would bring down the “military coup” but stressed it remained committed to a peaceful struggle, despite the heavy loss of life when government forces broke up its protest camps.}}

    The crackdown on Wednesday defied Western appeals for restraint and a peaceful, negotiated settlement to Egypt’s political crisis following the military’s removal of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi last month, prompting international statements of dismay and condemnation.

    “We will always be non-violent and peaceful. We remain strong, defiant and resolved,” Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad wrote on his Twitter feed. “We will push (forward) until we bring down this military coup,” he added.

    Security forces struggled to clamp a lid on Egypt after the worst nationwide bloodshed in decades, although a curfew largely held in Cairo overnight.

    Islamists clashed with police and troops who used bulldozers, teargas and live fire on Wednesday to clear out two Cairo sit-ins that had become a hub of Muslim Brotherhood resistance to the military after it deposed Mursi on July 3.

    The clashes spread quickly, and a health ministry official said about 300 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured in fighting in Cairo, Alexandria and numerous towns and cities around the mostly Muslim nation of 84 million.

    In Ankara, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan called on Thursday for the U.N. Security Council to convene quickly and act after what he described as a massacre in Egypt.

    “Those who remain silent in the face of this massacre are as guilty as those who carried it out. The U.N. Security Council must convene quickly,” he told a news conference.

    At the site of one Cairo sit-in, garbage collectors cleared still-smoldering piles of burnt tents on Thursday. Soldiers dismantled the stage at the heart of the protest camp. A burnt out armored vehicle stood abandoned in the street.

    The Muslim Brotherhood said the true death toll was far higher, with a spokesman saying 2,000 people had been killed in a “massacre”. It was impossible to verify the figures independently given the extent of the violence.

    {agencies}

  • Meeting Discusses Adolescent Reproductive & Sexual Health

    {{A meeting on Experience & Knowledge Sharing was held August 13, by Imbuto Foundation at the Hill Top Hotel in Kigali.}}

    Several health and Adolescents Sexual Reproductive Health &Rights (ASRH&R) stakeholders attended, including executive staff from health centers, Directors of health “ one from all districts”, peer educators, teachers, heads of schools, ASRH&R clubs presidents, as well as representatives from the Ministry of Health, UNFPA and Districts Social Affairs. Around 220 participants attended.

    The purpose of the meeting was for stakeholders to share experiences, best practices and lessons learnt on ASRH&R information and services.

    As indicated in the 2011-2015 National Strategic Plan, there is a strong need for youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health services.

    This health issue has remained a priority for developing countries ever since the Call for universal access to reproductive health made at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Egypt.

    Since then, Rwanda has developed a new ASRH&R Policy and Strategic Plan to address key demands in this area, including challenges related to HIV/AIDS and unwanted pregnancies among the youth.

    In line with the government’s efforts to ensure that Rwandan youth are well informed about sexual and reproductive health, Imbuto Foundation has been implementing the ASRH&R Project for the last 3 years.

    This initiative is based on pairing schools, community and health centers to provide adolescents and young adults with adequate knowledge and services on sexual reproductive health issues.

  • RDF Officers Train on Prevention & Response to Conflict –Related Sexual Violence in Peacekeeping Theatres

    {{Rwanda Peace Academy is hosting a two-day course on “Prevention and Response to Conflict –Related Sexual Violence in Peacekeeping Theatres.” }}

    The course that opened today is a result of collaborative efforts between the UN Women, the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), and the Rwanda Peace Academy on behalf of the Government of Rwanda.

    The goal of the training is to arm uniformed peacekeepers with positive illustrative examples of how to effectively respond to sexual violence in conflict and post conflict environments.

    The training is centered on the scenario-based training modules for UN military personnel on the specifics of preventing and responding to sexual violence. The two-day course is sponsored by the UN Women.

    Fifty RDF Officers and in particular those in pre-deployment training and others serving as instructors in the area of peace support operations will benefit from the training.

    Rwanda was selected for the piloting of this course because of her lead role as a troop contributing country and her gender-responsive peacekeeping.

  • President Kagame Dissolves Parliament

    {{President Paul Kagame has effective August 14th, dissolved the Chamber of Deputies and requested all eligible Rwandans to participate in the next parliamentary elections scheduled to take place on 16th November 2013.}}

    Article 76 of the constitution gives powers to President of the Republic to dissolve parliament 30 days before the expiry of its current term.

    In a short speech to outgoing parliamentarians, Paul Kagame commended the outgoing Mps for passing laws that have been vital for the country’s development.

    “I thank the Chamber of Deputies for accomplishing enormous work in different areas” He said.

    President Kagame said that apart from voting laws, parliamentarians also have done many other things which lead to Rwanda’s dignity.

    Kagame said that “Parliament played a big role in changing the image of our nation, what has been achieved is impressive.”

    However, he said “Next Parliament needs to put more efforts in regional cooperation and collaboration.”

    The President requested the outgoing MPs to keep the good spirit of work for their country adding that there are many more things Rwanda needs from them.

  • Zimbabwe, a Closed chapter. . . South Africa tells UN

    {{South Africa has told the United Nations that Zimbabwe is neither an issue for discussion within Sadc nor at the United Nations in the wake of the widely endorsed harmonised elections, with President Jacob Zuma set to inform the 33rd Ordinary Sadc Summit that convenes in Lilongwe, Malawi, over the weekend that his job in Zimbabwe was done.}}

    Cde Zuma was appointed facilitator to the Global Political Agreement in September 2008, taking over from Cde Thabo Mbeki whom he also succeeded at Union Buildings, the seat of the SA government.

    South African International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane told UN General Assembly President Mr Vuk Jeremic during a meeting in Pretoria on Monday that South Africa had already endorsed the harmonised elections and congratulated President Mugabe on his re-election.

    “There is absolutely nothing new to discuss on Zimbabwe. The parties that did not win the elections have approached the highest court in Zimbabwe.

    “We will all wait for the outcome of the court process. All the observer missions have said the elections were peaceful and free. We have already made our own national statement on the elections in Zimbabwe,’’ Ms Nkoana-Mashabane said in response to Mr Jeremic’s request for an update on the situation in Zimbabwe.

    Ms Nkoana-Mashabane’s comments follow an announcement by the South African presidency that Cde Zuma would inform Sadc that his job as mediator in Zimbabwe was done.

    City Press on Monday quoted an unnamed official in the SA Presidency as saying President Zuma’s role was over and he would officially inform Sadc leaders in Lilongwe.

    “As far as South Africa is concerned, we have ended mediation in Zimbabwe,” said the source.

    The source said the final Sadc report would also uphold the credibility of the elections that he said were free and peaceful.

    Source: {Herald}

  • Amb. Rwamucyo Presents His Credentials in Sri Lanka

    {{Ambassador Ernest Rwamucyo, High Commissioner of the Republic of Rwanda to the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka with residence in New Delhi, India, presented his letter of credence to H.E Mahinda Rajapaksa, President of Sri Lanka at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo.}}

    Amb. Rwamucyo was on August 12, accompanied by Mr. Cally Alles Honorary Consul of Rwanda in Sri Lanka and Mr. Mucyo Rutishisha Second Counselor.

    In their short discussion, the High Commissioner conveyed the regards and warm greetings from H.E Paul Kagame to his counterpart.

    The High Commissioner stressed Rwanda’s commitment to strengthen bilateral relations with Sri Lanka. He reiterated the need for close collaboration between Rwanda and Sri Lanka in the Commonwealth framework.

    He also highlighted Rwanda’s participation at the forthcoming Commonwealth Heads of Governments Meeting to be held in Colombo in November 2013 which will offer a good opportunity to cement bilateral ties between the two Nations.

    In the subsequent meeting held with the Sri Lankan Minister of External Affairs, Prof. Gamini Lakshman Peiris, the High Commissioner reiterated the Rwanda’s commitment to cooperate with Sri Lanka on bilateral and global issues.

    With the facilitation of the Honorary Consul’s office in Colombo, the High Commission in New Delhi is keen to enhancing cooperation between Sri Lanka and Rwanda, notably in the field of skill development, entrepreneurship, youth collaboration among others.