Tag: GreatLakesNews

{{American President Barack Obama has warned that his country and Uganda’s relationship would be “complicated” if President Museveni assents to the Anti-Homosexuality Bill.}}

A statement from the White House in Washington quoted Mr Obama as saying that the bill will “complicate our valued relationship with Uganda”, adding: “The Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda, once law, will be more than an affront and a danger to the gay community in Uganda. It will be a step backward for all Ugandans and reflect poorly on Uganda’s commitment to protecting the human rights of its people. It also will mark a serious setback for all those around the world who share a commitment to freedom, justice and equal rights.”

Mr Obama’s Sunday warning came a day after President Museveni announced at the NRM party’s parliamentary retreat in Kyankwanzi that he would assent to the Bill after a presentation by Ugandan scientists concluded that homosexuality is not natural.

“It is on the strength (that people are not homosexuals by genetics) that I am going to sign the bill,” President Museveni told the MPs. “I know we are going to have a big battle with the outside groups about this but I will tell them what our scientists have to say.”

Whereas Parliament had passed the Bill in December, President Museveni was hesitant to assent to it, first citing the lack of quorum on the day it was passed but later indicating that he needed a scientific explanation on whether homosexuality was a natural condition.

Barely 24 hours after his Kyankwanzi pronouncement, the President was already facing the “battle” with the American National Security Adviser, Ms Susan Rice, calling Mr Museveni to express her government’s and Mr Obama’s reservations on the matter.

According to the Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary, Ambassador James Mugume, the Americans had called to offer “further evidence” that homosexuality is a natural behaviour in contradiction with what the local scientists had presented.

agencies

{{Rebel forces in South Sudan launched a major assault early Tuesday against the key town of Malakal, the government-controlled capital of the oil-rich Upper Nile state, witnesses told media.}}

“The fighting is very heavy. There is fighting on the outskirts of the town. It’s a very big, coordinated attack,” an independent source said.

The fighting appeared the heaviest to take place since the government of President Salva Kiir and rebels loyal to former vice president Riek Machar signed a ceasefire agreement in neighbouring Ethiopia on January 23.

Malakal, situated on the bank of the White Nile, is one of three state capitals that were in rebel hands but which were recaptured by South Sudan’s government, backed by Ugandan troops, before the ceasefire was signed.

The conflict in South Sudan, the world’s youngest nation which won independence from Khartoum less than three years ago, erupted in the capital Juba on December 15 but quickly spread across the country.

The fighting in South Sudan has left thousands dead and displaced close to 900,000 people.

wirestory

{{UN monitors have found evidence that arm shipments to the Somali Government have been diverted to clan militias and in one case were destined for an Al-Shabaab rebel commander.}}

A confidential report by the Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group, seen by reporters on Friday, found “high level and systematic abuses in weapons management and distribution” by Somali authorities.

In February 2013 the United Nations Security Council voted to partially lift an arms embargo against Somalia, seeking to help the beleaguered government in its battle against Islamist guerrillas.

But the council imposed restrictions requiring notification of shipments, banned certain heavy weapons and mandated the Monitoring Group to watch how matters proceeded.

{{Uganda will this week host the fourth Northern Corridor Integration Projects Summit with particular focus set towards the sharing of knowledge on the projects being pursued by the East African Community member states.}}

During the summit, the East African tourist visa and the use of national identity cards, voter/student cards as travel documents, which started on January 1, will be launched.

Its also indicated that regional presidents will consider entering into a security pact.

Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan- all members of the Northern Corridor, will participate while Tanzania will attend as a member of the East African Community.

Rwanda will present on the progress of a single customs territory, the East African tourism visa, travel documents, security cooperation and airspace management .

Uganda will present on railway development, oil refinery development, ICT, and political federation.

Kenya will also produce a report on energy generation, pipeline construction, and human resource capacity building in specialised skills for railway, energy, oil refinery and ICT development.

{Monitor}

{{A group of United Nations human rights advocates have urged Kenya to repeal parts of a recently enacted law that they say discriminates against women.}}

The Marriage and Property Act bars women from taking up land title deeds in the names of their deceased or divorced husbands unless they can prove they contributed to acquisition of the property during marriage.

{{EQUAL TREATMENT}}

“Such provisions are serious retrogressive steps in the protection of women’s equal access to land and property, and are in violation of Kenya’s international and regional human rights obligations,” said Frances Raday, head of the UN Working Group on Discrimination against Women.

These sections of the law that took effect last month are also squarely at odds with the constitutional guarantees of equal treatment, Ms Raday added.

She warned that very few women will meet the law’s requirement because it is rare for wives to have land title deeds in their own names or hold them jointly with men.

{{VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN}}

“Women will effectively have no security of tenure or place to live with their children if their husband leaves them or dies, which will also increase their risk of experiencing violence,” the UN representative said.

She added that the new Act will have “a detrimental impact on women and children’s right to food, adequate housing and standards of living.

The call for a repeal of the “discriminatory” sections of the law was joined by four UN special rapporteurs who include investigators on topics of extreme poverty, violence against women as well as rights to food and adequate housing.

{nation}

{{The man who hijacked an Ethiopian Airlines flight en route from Addis Ababa to Rome on Monday was the co-pilot, according to the Geneva airport where the plane was forced to land.}}

The co-pilot said he had seized his chance when the pilot went to the bathroom, Geneva police spokesman Eric Grandjean told reporters.

“He said he felt threatened in his country and wants to seek asylum in Switzerland,” he said.

The man, born in 1983 and an Ethiopian citizen, had contacted Geneva Airport and said “he needed to land to fill the tank. After that he announced the hijacking,” Grandjean said.

“At 6:02 am, the plane landed safely,” he said, adding that the co-pilot had left the plane by scaling down a rope he had thrown out of the cockpit window.

“He didn’t have a weapon with him,” he said, adding that the hijacker would go before a judge Monday.

Technically, he can be charged with “hostage-taking,” and could face up to 20 years in prison, Grandjean said.

{{The wanted deputy of Uganda’s murderous Lord’s Resistance Army rebels, Okot Odhiambo (pictured above), may have been killed in recent fighting, the Ugandan defence minister told media on Friday.}}

Odhiambo was indicted by the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2005 along with LRA chief Joseph Kony and fellow rebel Dominic Ongwen on charges of butchering and kidnapping civilians.

“There are pointers from defectors that Okot Odhiambo may be dead,” Defence Minister Crispus Kiyonga told reporters Friday.

“Our forces are verifying these reports to check if indeed he died in the battles we have had with them and a position will be communicated,” Kiyonga said.

According to the ICC warrant, former LRA members describe Odhiambo as a “ruthless killer” and “the one who killed the most”.

Odhiambo is widely suspected to have directed the killing of some 300 civilians during a February 2004 attack on the Barlonyo internally displaced persons camp in northern Uganda, one of the single largest massacres in the LRA’s brutal history.

After Odhiambo reportedly ordered the rebels to “kill every living thing”, witnesses say camp residents were burnt alive in their homes, hacked to death with machetes, stabbed, bludgeoned and shot as they tried to escape.

NV