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Tag: GreatLakesNews

  • Kenyatta Can Perform Official Duties During Trial, ICC Says

    Kenyatta Can Perform Official Duties During Trial, ICC Says

    Judges at the International Criminal Court on Friday excused Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta from “continuous presence” at his impending trial for crimes against humanity.

    The decision to give Kenyatta permission to deal with some of his official duties at home rather than permanently attending the trial was adopted by a majority vote, with presiding Judge Kuniko Ozaki dissenting, the ICC said in a statement. Kenyatta’s trial is due to start on Nov 12.

    Kenyatta and his deputy, William Ruto, are accused of orchestrating a wave of violence in which 1,200 people died after contested 2007 elections. Both men deny the charges and have tried to have the prosecutions adjourned or halted.

    The war crimes proceedings in The Hague against Ruto were delayed last month to allow him to deal with an Islamist militant assault on the Westgate mall in Nairobi in which 67 civilians and members of the security forces were killed.

    Kenyatta’s trial is the court’s most high profile case since it was established a decade ago and the first against a sitting president.

    An African Union summit last weekend criticised the court and complained it had only pursued Africans. It said that if the UN Security Council failed to put the cases on hold Kenyatta should refuse to attend his trial.

    reuters

  • Suicide Bomber kills 13 at Restaurant in Somalia

    Suicide Bomber kills 13 at Restaurant in Somalia

    {{A suicide bomber killed at least 13 people outside a restaurant popular with Ethiopian and Somali troops in the town of Baladweyne in central Somalia on Saturday, a local politician said.}}

    More than 10 people were also wounded in the blast near a military base, Dahir Amin Jesow told Reuters over the phone from Baladweyne.

    No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

  • Gen. Kiir Tells UN Abyei Requires Global Approach

    Gen. Kiir Tells UN Abyei Requires Global Approach

    {{A honest global approach is required for Sudan and South Sudan to amicably resolve their impasse over the disputed region of Abyei, Salva Kiir has told the United Nations special envoy for two countries.}}

    The South Sudan leader, during Wednesday’s meeting with Haile Menkerios also expressed disappointments at the way the international community responded to calls for their immediate intervention on the Abyei issue.

    “The issue of Abyei remains a big challenge not only to our two countries, but also to the international community. We are committed on our side to the full resolution of the final status”, Kiir told the UN special envoy in the capital, Juba.

    There is also a need for an honest approach from the international community so that the conflict is resolved amicably at once, he stressed.

    At press briefing shortly after his meeting with President Kiir, Menkerios their discussions mainly focused on the progress so far made in the implementation of last year Cooperation Agreement, which both countries signed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

    “I came to meet President Salva Kiir and members of his government on numbers of issues, especially the progress made in the implementation of the cooperation agreement and Abyei. It was a very good meeting. The president briefed about progress which have been made and his commitment to resolving the issue of Abyei”, said the UN special envoy.

    Resolving the issue of Abyei is very important because the local people in Abyei feel that results of the discussions do not get implemented, and are becoming more concerns, he added.

    Menkerios, however, commended the two countries for showing commitment to fully implement all agreement reached, but urged the two leaders to urgently reach a deal on Abyei referendum vote.

    {KIIR WRITES TO AU}

    The meeting between Kiir and the UN envoy comes barely a week after the South Sudan leader wrote to the African Union Commission (AUC), requesting the continental body to take complete responsibility over the impasse between the two countries.

    In a letter delivered by the country’s foreign minister, Kiir said he saw no possibility of reaching an understanding with Khartoum over the disputed oil-producing region anytime soon, even if discussions continued for 100 years.

    North and South Sudan fought over two decades of civil war, which only ended with the 2005 signing of a peace accord in Kenya.

    But under its protocol on Abyei, the people of the contested region should have conducted their referendum at the same time as the people of South Sudan, but it was postponed because of disagreements between the North and South Sudanese leaders.

    These differences mainly centred on the eligibility of votes. While the south-governing Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement (SPLM) maintained that only the nine Ngok Dinka chiefdoms are eligible to vote as permanent residents of the area, the Khartoum-based National Congress Party (NCP) insisted that the Misseriya Arabs, who are temporary residents, should be allowed to take part in the vote.

    {sudantribune}

  • Zanzibaris Challenged to Invest in Flower Industry

    Zanzibaris Challenged to Invest in Flower Industry

    {{The government of Zanzibar has encouraged investors and farmers to focus on the horticultural industry to capitalise on the Isle’s fertile land.}}

    Agricultural stakeholders have also been reminded of the importance of taking advantage of the Abeid Amani Karume International Airport.

    The deputy minister for Agriculture, Mr Mohamed Dimwa, said this earlier this week in the House of Representatives when responding to a question from a Special Seats representative, Ms Wanu Hafidh Ameir.

    The House of Reresentatives is currently meeting in Zanzibar for an ordinary calendar year session.

    Mr Dimwa said that despite the fact that Zanzibar has favourable land for horticulture farming, many residents have failed to embark on it due to lack of capital.

    “Flowers and other horticulture farming products such as fruits can flourish really well in the Isles because the climate favours their growth, “ he said.

    However, he said, the problem has been lack of capital among farmers. “So, I call on investors to put money in it,” he said.

    Apart from the favourite climate, Mr Dimwa said, horticulture produce will easily be exported through the Abeid Aman Karume International Airport.

    Ms Ameir sought to know what the government was doing to improve horticulture farming in the Isles, which has played a crucial role in reducing poverty in other countries.

    “I want to know what the government is doing to empower farmers in the Isles so that they can venture in horticulture which has played a big role in reducing poverty in other countries,” said Ms Ameir.

    {thecitizen}

  • Congolese Surgeon Awarded Civil Courage Prize

    Congolese Surgeon Awarded Civil Courage Prize

    {{A Congolese surgeon ({pictured above}) who treated tens of thousands of women who were gang-raped received a prize honouring his courage.}}

    Denis Mukwege accepted the 2013 Civil Courage Prize, awarded by the New York-based Train Foundation, on Tuesday for his work at the Panzi Hospital, which he founded in 1999 in the capital of the war-torn province of South Kivu.

    “Meeting these women completely changed my life,” Mukwege said.

    “My profession as a medical doctor led me to become a direct witness to a mass crime that is hard to fully understand. This is because sexual violence targets our most precious resource: our mothers, our wives and our daughters.”

    The UN has said various armed groups are behind rapes in eastern Congo.

    The Congolese army and M23 rebels it fights also have been accused of raping civilians.

    Eastern Congo’s mineral riches have been exploited for years by a myriad of armed rebel groups and militias who have used violence to control the region’s mines.

    M23 formally launched its rebellion last year, drawing its name from a failed March 23, 2009 peace agreement with the Congolese government.

    Mukwege said in his speech that rape is probably “history’s oldest and least condemned crime” and said that struggles over the metals used in cell phones have contributed to the loss of 5 mllion lives in his country.

    “There is nothing inevitable about this situation,” he said. “We can bring positive change to the Congo.”

    Last year, Mukwege in a speech at the United Nations, lashed out at the international community for its inaction on his country’s civil war.

    He moved to Europe following an assassination attempt against him last October.

    {Agencies}

  • Kenya to Place Microchips in Rhino Horns

    Kenya to Place Microchips in Rhino Horns

    {{Kenya will place microchips in the horn of every rhino in the country in a bid to stamp out a surge in poaching the threatened animals, wildlife officials say.}}

    Kenya has just over 1,000 rhinos, and the tiny chips will be inserted and hidden in the horn, which is made of keratin, the same material as fingernails or hardened hair.

    “Poachers are getting more sophisticated in their approach,” Paul Udoto, spokesman for the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), told media.

    “So it is vital that conservation efforts also follow and embrace the use of more sophisticated technology to counter the killing of wildlife.”

    The World Wildlife Fund donated the chips as well as five scanners at a cost of $15,000, although tracking the rhino to dart them and fit the device will cost considerably more.

    However, it will boost the ability of police to prosecute poachers or traffickers, allowing for all animals to be traced and providing potential vital information on poaching and smuggling chains.

    “Investigators will be able to link any poaching case to a recovered or confiscated horn, and this forms crucial evidence in court, contributing towards the prosecution’s ability to push for sentencing of a suspected rhino criminal,” KWS said in a statement.

    Poaching has risen sharply in Africa in recent years, with rhinos not the only animals targeted. Whole elephant herds have been massacred for their ivory.

    The lucrative Asian black market for rhino horn has driven a boom in poaching across Africa. Asian consumers believe the horns have powerful healing properties.

    In August, poachers shot dead a white rhino in Nairobi’s national park, a brazen raid in one of the best guarded sites in Kenya.

    Simply chopping the horn off the rhino has limited impact, Udoto explained.

    “The horn grows back … and we’ve so sadly found that poachers can kill a rhino at first sight and only then find that its horn has been removed,” he said.

    {Agencies}

  • Norwegian Kenya Attack Suspect Named

    Norwegian Kenya Attack Suspect Named

    {{The man being investigated by Norwegian police over the attack on Kenya’s Westgate shopping centre is Hassan Abdi Dhuhulow, media has learned.}}

    The 23-year-old Norwegian citizen of Somali origin is suspected of helping to plan and carry out the attack.

    Reporters have spoken to a relative of his in Norway who said he left the town of Larvik for Somalia in 2009.

    At least 67 people died in the attack in Nairobi, which the al-Qaeda linked group al-Shabab says it carried out.

    Last week Norway’s intelligence agency, the PST, said it had sent officers to Kenya to verify reports that a Norwegian citizen had been involved in the assault on the shopping centre, which began on Saturday 21 September and lasted four days.

    It is unclear how many militants were involved. Police had initially estimated that there were 10-15 attackers inside the complex, but the CCTV footage which has so far been released by the Kenyan authorities shows just four men.

    Hassan Abdi Dhuhulow is believed to be one of those four, the media has learned from sources in Kenya and Norway.

    Forensic investigators are still combing through the rubble of Westgate – no bodies have yet been identified and it is not known whether the attackers are alive or dead.

    BBC

  • Ethiopia ‘tortures’ inmates says HRW

    Ethiopia ‘tortures’ inmates says HRW

    {{Ethiopian authorities are torturing and mistreating political detainees to extract confessions, Human Rights Watch says.}}

    The US-based group says former prisoners at the main detention centre in Addis Ababa described being beaten and kicked during interrogation.

    It accuses Ethiopia of using anti-terrorism laws to stifle dissent.

    The government has dismissed the report as biased and lacking credible evidence, according to media.

    The report by HRW says police investigators at Maekelawi prison use illegal interrogation methods, keep inmates in poor detention conditions, and routinely deny them access to a lawyer.

    Former detainees reported “being held in painful stress positions for hours upon end, hung from the wall by their wrists, often while being beaten”, it said.

    {{‘Culture of impunity’}}

    “Ethiopian authorities right in the heart of the capital regularly use abuse to gather information,” said Leslie Lefkow, HRW’s deputy Africa director.

    “Beatings, torture, and coerced confessions are no way to deal with journalists or the political opposition.”

    {Protests earlier this year called for the release of political prisoners}
    {wirestory}

  • Jailed Ethiopian Journalist Honoured

    Jailed Ethiopian Journalist Honoured

    {{Journalists and media owners across Africa have honoured a jailed Ethiopian journalist, Woubshet Taye.}}

    In a statement extended to media on Wednesday, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Woubshet Taye was honoured during the African Journalist Awards 2013.

    The journalists’ wife and son received the award on his behalf at a ceremony held on Saturday in Cape Town, South Africa.

    Comprising a panel of 10 independent judges, the CNN MultiChoice African Journalist Awards was launched in 1995 and has since been held yearly honouring journalists in recognition of their contribution to a free press in Africa despite the risks they face.

    Woubshet, deputy editor of the Awramba Times, was detained in June 2011 on terror charges.

    He is currently serving 14 year jail term after he was found guilty in January 2012 under Ethiopia’s controversial anti-terrorism law.

    Following his arrest the paper’s editor fled into exile and the privately run paper was banned from publishing.

    Similarly, prominent Journalists Reeyot Alemu and Eskinder Nega are serving a 5 and 18 year jail terms respectively on terrorism related charges.

    “Journalists like Woubshet Taye and his colleagues Reeyot Alemu and Eskinder Nega should be out of prison and working to build the prosperity and the freedom of a new Ethiopia” explained judges at the journalism award adding ‘‘ This award is in recognition of Wubshet’s work and in solidarity with his condition”

    According to CPJ sources, Woubshet’s application for a presidential pardon was rejected in September.

    After receiving the Award, his wife, Berhane Tesfaye, said “her husband was grateful for the solidarity and received the award in the name of all journalists who are oppressed”.

    {startribune}

  • Juba Stops Media Campaigns for Abyei Referendum

    Juba Stops Media Campaigns for Abyei Referendum

    {{South Sudanese government unexpectedly issued strong administrative instructions, suspending all announcements and mobilisation campaigns in support of the Abyei referendum, according to senior officials.}}

    The directive, issued late on October 15, affects state-owned South Sudan Television and Radio but cites no specific reasons for the cessation of communications about the plebiscite, which was scheduled to take place this month.

    “The management of the South Sudan Television and Radio has received directives from a higher authority to immediately suspend all announcements and mobilisation campaigns in support of Abyei referendum. We were told to implement them (administrative orders) with immediate effective. There was no mention of any reason”, a senior official at South Sudan Television told Sudan Tribune on Wednesday.

    Abyei was originally due to hold a vote to decide its future in January 2011 at the same time that South Sudan opted to secede from Sudan. The oil-producing region is claimed by both countries.

    However the referendum has been delayed because the two parties failed to define who are Abyei residents that can participate in the crucial vote on the fate of the disputed territory.

    Khartoum says the Misseriya nomads who pass some six months in the area are residents and have to vote while officials in Juba say only the Ngok Dinka can vote.

    Last year, the African mediation or the African Union High Implementation Panel (AUHIP) proposed that only the Ngok Dinka participate in a referendum that can take place in October 2013.

    The panel said that its proposal comes in line with the rule of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in July 2009 providing that Abyei belongs to the nine chiefdoms of the Ngok Dinka.

    The elite of the Ngok Dinka and several civil society groups from the disputed area campaigned recently to unilaterally hold the referendum as provided in the AUHIP proposal.

    The South Sudanese government backed the move and directed to support the return of Abyei people to their homeland to take part in the vote.

    In a joint meeting held in New York on 27 September, The African Union and United Nations said concerned by the “deteriorating political environment in the Abyei area and the risk that unilateral actions by Misseriya and Ngok Dinka communities lead to security incidents costly in human lives”.

    They further called on the two sides to form Abyei interim administration and to ” he Abyei Area Referendum Commission and refrain from undertaking unilateral actions and encourages implementation of such commitments.”

    sudantribune