ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — The African Union urged the International Criminal Court Friday to suspend its indictment of Sudan's president on genocide charges, saying it could jeopardize any peace process in Darfur.
The court's chief prosecutor has accused Omar al-Bashir of masterminding attempts to wipe out African tribes in western Sudan's Darfur region with a campaign of murder, rape and deportation.
The ICC still must decide whether to issue a warrant for al-Bashir. There have been no rulings on the warrant yet and a court decision is expected early this year. The UN has the power to grant a one-year suspension.
Up to 300,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been forced from their homes in five years of fighting in Darfur. Al-Bashir is also accused of unleashing militia allied with the government to target civilians, rather than rebels, in villages and camps.
The head of the AU Peace and Security Council said Friday that African foreign ministers unanimously supported delaying the indictment process for a year so officials can negotiate peace in Darfur.
"There is a solidarity shown toward the president of Sudan, unanimously," Ramtane Lamamra said after the closed-door session.
Sudanese officials were not available for comment Friday.
Reed Brody, a Brussels-based lawyer with Human Rights Watch said the AU's argument that Bashir's arrest would imperil the peace process had one fatal flaw. "What peace process?" he said. "We don't see an effective peace process happening at the moment."
The Sudanese government does not recognize the court, and has refused to turn over any suspects to face international justice. Al-Bashir is the first sitting head of state named as a war crimes suspect by the court's prosecutors. (By ANITA POWELL)
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Somalia Chooses Former Islamic Leader as President
By Jason McLure and Hamsa Omar
Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Somalia’s transitional parliament chose a former leader of the country’s ousted Islamic Courts Union government as president, a United Nations official said.
Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, a moderate Islamist who was chairman of the Islamic Courts Union, was selected today after two rounds of voting, Charles Petrie, the deputy special representative for the UN’s Political Office for Somalia, said in a telephone interview from Djibouti.
Ahmed defeated Maslah Mohamed Siad Barre, the son of former dictator Mohamed Said Barre, by 293 votes to 126 in the second round. Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein withdrew after the first round, in which he received 59 votes, Petrie said.
Somalia is in its 18th year of a civil war that has displaced 1 million people and left 3.2 million in need of food aid, according to the UN. The Horn of Africa nation hasn’t had a functioning central administration since the ouster of Siad Barre in 1991.
. Ahmed, speaking following his election, said he wanted to create a government of national unity, and promised to reach out to groups not included in the transitional parliament, an indirect reference to the hard-line Islamist al-Shabaab militia that controls much of southern Somalia. He also reached out to neighboring countries, saying “his interests were in creating a stable Somalia, but not an aggressive Somalia,” said Petrie.
Invasion
Ahmed is a former teacher who helped found the Islamic Courts Union which took control of Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia from U.S.-backed warlords in mid-2006. From his base in Mogadishu he became chairman of the movement, though his power was soon eclipsed by more radical Islamist elements.
The U.S., fearing that the ICU was sheltering al-Qaeda terrorists, supported an invasion by neighboring Ethiopia in December 2006. Ahmed fled ahead of Ethiopian troops and surrendered to Kenyan security forces in January 2007. He was later released and became head of the Alliance for the Re- Liberation of Somalia, a group of moderate Islamist sheikhs, clan-leaders and businessmen opposed to the Ethiopian-backed transitional federal government.
His group signed a preliminary peace agreement with the transitional government in Djibouti in June. Following the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops and the resignation of Ethiopia’s ally, President Abdullahi Yusuf, Ahmed’s faction formally joined the government earlier this week.
In an interview with Bloomberg News in August in his hotel room in Djibouti, Ahmed spoke of reconciling with al-Shabaab, which now controls a large swathe of southern Somalia and has instituted Shari’a law in Baidoa, the nominal seat of the Somali parliament. He also indicated that he may not share the U.S. view of terrorism in Somalia, saying that he was not aware of any al-Qaeda operatives in the country. Hassan al-Turki, named by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist, is just a “normal Somali man,” Ahmed said. The U.S. has launched a number of air raids into Somalia in the past two years, targeting alleged al- Qaeda members.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Ethiopia says 4.9 million people need food aid
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia said on Friday that 4.9 million of its people will need emergency food aid in the first six months of 2009 due to drought and appealed for $390 million from donors to pay for it.
That figure represents a fall of 1.5 million from last October, when the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said 6.4 million people needed urgent help to stave off hunger.
Friday's statement said poor rains and high global commodity prices had triggered food insecurity in the huge Horn of Afric country last year, but lamented that there had been only a "limited response" from the international community.
Many Africans fear the global credit crunch will mean rich nations send less aid to the world's poorest continent.
The figures for those needing emergency food aid do not include Ethiopians who regularly suffer hunger and already receive cash or food handouts from the government. Aid agency Oxfam said that figure was 7.2 million people in 2008.
And here is the rest of it.
That figure represents a fall of 1.5 million from last October, when the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said 6.4 million people needed urgent help to stave off hunger.
Friday's statement said poor rains and high global commodity prices had triggered food insecurity in the huge Horn of Afric country last year, but lamented that there had been only a "limited response" from the international community.
Many Africans fear the global credit crunch will mean rich nations send less aid to the world's poorest continent.
The figures for those needing emergency food aid do not include Ethiopians who regularly suffer hunger and already receive cash or food handouts from the government. Aid agency Oxfam said that figure was 7.2 million people in 2008.
And here is the rest of it.
A Speech Worth Listening To
Days after the newly elected president of the United States Barack Obama made his inauguration speech, Dr. Birhanu had to attend on a meeting which took place in Dallas, Texas. Here is what he said.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
European Parliament concerned over recent developments in Ethiopia
The European Parliament wrote a letter to the Presidnet of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso expressing its concern over the recent political developments in Ethiopia. Click here to see the full letter. And here is the rest of it.
Candle-light Vigil for Birtukan
By Meheret Negussie- Addis Ababa
On Wendsday 28 January 2009 evening Unity for Democracy and Justice (UDJ) officials and party supporters held a candle-light vigil at the party’s head office honoring the day the party’s chair woman Birtukan Mideksa was re-arrested. Dr. Hailu Araya, Vice President and Head of Public Relations, told our sources that the party is also in preparation to hold a peaceful demonstration in opposition to Birtukan’s imprisonment.
On Wendsday 28 January 2009 evening Unity for Democracy and Justice (UDJ) officials and party supporters held a candle-light vigil at the party’s head office honoring the day the party’s chair woman Birtukan Mideksa was re-arrested. Dr. Hailu Araya, Vice President and Head of Public Relations, told our sources that the party is also in preparation to hold a peaceful demonstration in opposition to Birtukan’s imprisonment.
INTERVIEW-Djibouti will resist war with Eritrea - president
By David Clarke
DJIBOUTI, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Djibouti will not be pushed into war with its Horn of Africa neighbour Eritrea and will exhaust all legal means to settle a long-running border row, the Djibouti president said in an interview.
The two nations, on a crucial shipping lane linking Europe to Asia, clashed in June after Djibouti accused Eritrea of moving troops across the border. Eritrea denies the accusations. A dozen Djiboutian soldiers were killed in the fighting.
The United Nations' Security Council passed a resolution on Jan. 14 giving Eritrea five weeks to withdraw its forces from the Red Sea coastal area of Ras Doumeira and Doumeira Island -- a demand quickly rejected by Asmara.
"They want to lure us into war. But we will not do it. We will exhaust all the legal solutions," Djibouti's President Ismail Omar Guelleh, 61, told Reuters in an interview at the colonial-era presidential palace on Wednesday.
Djibouti hosts France's largest military base in Africa and also a major U.S. base. The country's modern port is used by foreign navies patrolling the busy shipping lanes off the coast of Somalia to fight piracy.
The former French colony of some 800,000 people, which also borders Somalia, is the main route to the sea for Ethiopia -- Eritrea's arch enemy and Washington's chief regional ally.
Guelleh said Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki would most likely try and block a U.N. team from visiting the disputed area to compile a report for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon once the five-week deadline was up.
"Because what interests him is Ethiopia. It's not working. He has problems with Ethiopia, but not us. Why is he making us the hostages?" said Guelleh.
He said Eritrea was now trying to court Iran by sending ministerial delegations to the Islamic Republic, perhaps with a view to sending Washington a warning message.
"But they are not listening. He's going to lose there as well. You don't win by threatening people," said Guelleh.
Critics say Eritrea has isolated itself, is a danger to security in the Horn of Africa and is acting as a destabilising force in both Ethiopia and Somalia.
But Asmara says it has long been the victim of pro-Ethiopian prejudice and unfair meddling by the international community, particularly in its border dispute with Addis Ababa.
Djibouti has been Ethiopia's main gateway for imports and exports since it lost the ports of Assab and Masawa when Eritrea won its independence in the early 1990s after a 30-year war.
The U.N. Security Council demanded in its resolution earlier this month that Eritrea acknowledge its border dispute with Djibouti and participate in diplomatic efforts to resolve it.
Asmara accuses Security Council members of ignoring what it called breaches of international law by Ethiopia, with which it fought a 1998-2000 border war that killed 70,000 people.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Insurgents seize seat of Somalia's parliament
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — A hardline Islamic group seized the seat of the Somali parliament and said Tuesday that it will establish sharia law in the city.
Al-Shabab, which is on Washington's list of terror groups, took over Baidoa late Monday, a day after Ethiopian troops who had been propping up the government ended their unpopular, two-year presence. Al-Shabab, which means "The Youth," has been gaining ground as Somalia's Western-backed government crumbles.
"We will establish an Islamic administration for the town, and appeal residents to remain calm," al-Shabab spokesman Sheik Muktar Robow said.
The takeover came as Somalia's parliament meets this week in neighboring Djibouti to elect a new president. It appears unlikely the lawmakers will be able to return to Baidoa, 155 miles (250 kilometers) southwest of the capital.
There was a brief firefight between the Islamists and government-allied militias, who soon fled, witnesses said.
A nurse at the city's main hospital, Ahmed Yarow, said two people were wounded during the clashes.
The arid, impoverished Horn of Africa nation has not had a functioning government since 1991, when clan-based warlords overthrew a socialist dictator. Pirates operate off its lawless coastline and analysts fear the failed state is a harbor for international terrorists.
The African Union has fewer than 3,000 troops in Somalia, even though 8,000 were authorized.
African Union commission chairman Jean Ping said Tuesday the capture of Baidoa was not unexpected.
"It's not with three battalions that we can cover all of Somalia," he said at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Al-Shabab, which is on Washington's list of terror groups, took over Baidoa late Monday, a day after Ethiopian troops who had been propping up the government ended their unpopular, two-year presence. Al-Shabab, which means "The Youth," has been gaining ground as Somalia's Western-backed government crumbles.
"We will establish an Islamic administration for the town, and appeal residents to remain calm," al-Shabab spokesman Sheik Muktar Robow said.
The takeover came as Somalia's parliament meets this week in neighboring Djibouti to elect a new president. It appears unlikely the lawmakers will be able to return to Baidoa, 155 miles (250 kilometers) southwest of the capital.
There was a brief firefight between the Islamists and government-allied militias, who soon fled, witnesses said.
A nurse at the city's main hospital, Ahmed Yarow, said two people were wounded during the clashes.
The arid, impoverished Horn of Africa nation has not had a functioning government since 1991, when clan-based warlords overthrew a socialist dictator. Pirates operate off its lawless coastline and analysts fear the failed state is a harbor for international terrorists.
The African Union has fewer than 3,000 troops in Somalia, even though 8,000 were authorized.
African Union commission chairman Jean Ping said Tuesday the capture of Baidoa was not unexpected.
"It's not with three battalions that we can cover all of Somalia," he said at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Somali Islamist leader wants peace with Ethiopia
By Abdiaziz Hassan
DJIBOUTI (Reuters) - Somalia's Islamist presidential candidate said he wants to make peace with Ethiopia, bring young militia fighters into a national security force, and rebuild the country's social services.
Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, the moderate Islamist leader from the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS), also told Reuters he was ready to discuss any political or religious issues with Islamist insurgents still fighting in Somalia.
Ahmed, a law graduate from Libya, was chairman of the Islamic Courts' Union which ran Mogadishu in 2006. Initially welcomed for bringing order to a city ruled by warlords, Ethiopian troops invaded and ousted them from the capital.
But the Ethiopian soldiers failed to quell a two-year Islamist insurgency and left Somalia on Monday. More than 16,000 civilians have been killed since the start of 2007, a million fled their homes and piracy has flourished off Somalia's coast.
"It is very, very necessary to improve our relations with the neighbouring countries and to end the long dispute between Somalia and Ethiopia," Ahmed told Reuters late on Monday.
"That will help the region's development, because poverty in the region is encouraging the conflict to continue and we have to stand for eradicating it," he said.
Somalia's parliament agreed on Monday to invite 200 ARS members into an expanded assembly which international players hope will elect a new president this week. Another 75 seats have been left vacant for other opposition groups to join later.
The challenge for any new leader will be to bring security to the Horn of Africa nation and persuade the array of Islamist fighters to end their struggle now the Ethiopians have left.
NO REASON FOR KILLING NOW
Ahmed said it was time for all Somalis to find peace, whatever their political or religious ideology, and he would try and convince hardliners to work in the nation's interest.
"The insurgents had been fighting for the Ethiopian withdrawal. Now they have pulled out of the country, there is no reason to fight and kill more Somalis," he said.
"If they have a political agenda, we are ready to talk to them. And the second issue may be based on religion, and we are ready to discuss that with them."
Fighters in Al Shabaab, which is on Washington's list of foreign terrorist groups, have vowed to continue their fight to impose a strict version of Islamic law which has traditionally been shunned by more moderate Somalis.
"In this new era, we have to improve security. We will try to join all the forces available, whether they are insurgents, the current security forces or former military," Ahmed said.
"What these young militia men believe is not what they were born into. We will try to convince them how valuable it is to be a security officer working for the nation's interest," he said.
Al Shabaab fighters captured Somalia's seat of parliament, Baidoa, on Monday, taking advantage of a power vacuum just hours after Ethiopian soldiers withdrew.
Ahmed said including opposition parties absent from reconciliation talks in neighbouring Djibouti would be a priority, along with resettling the displaced, rebuilding the capital and restoring health services and education.
"I believe there is a big hope of creating a government of national unity," he said.
"There are no major differences between the Somali people. But there are some fishermen in the ocean of politics who want to destroy the image of the good people. We must face them and then stop them before they become obstacles to our efforts."
Monday, January 26, 2009
Ethiopia curb on charities alarms human rights activists
Mark Tran
The Guardian, Monday 26 January 2009
Human rights activists have accused the Ethiopian government of tightening its grip on power through a new law on charity funding that they claim will criminalise human rights work and clamp down on political debate ahead of next year's elections.
At the core of the charities and societies proclamation (CSO law) that came into force this month, is a provision stating that any organisation receiving over 10% of its funding from abroad is a "foreign NGO".
Once designated as "foreign", an organisation is not allowed to engage in activities concerning democratic and human rights, conflict resolution or criminal justice.
Ostensibly, the law is designed to ensure those who engage in Ethiopian politics should be Ethiopian nationals. However, not even the largest human rights groups in Ethiopia can raise enough money domestically in what is one of the world's poorest countries.
Ethiopian officials say the law is simply in line with the constitution, which forbids foreigners from taking part in domestic political activities. But human rights groups and Ethiopians abroad view the law as a draconian act by an increasingly authoritarian government, especially since the contested elections of 2005.
The critics of the Meles Zenawi government say the law is but the latest in a series of measures aimed at cracking down on dissent, ranging from the censorship of the media to the arrest of opposition leaders. The US and Britain have tried to persuade the Ethiopian government, which is a major beneficiary of foreign aid, to dilute the measure.
"We appreciate that some of our concerns have been addressed," the Foreign Office said in a statement. "However, core elements of the legislation, notably the provisions on foreign funding and social advocacy, have not been changed. We are concerned that the law could limit the legitimate activities of Ethiopian and international CSOs undertaking development work in Ethiopia."
The outgoing Bush administration, which viewed Ethiopia as an important ally in its "war on terror", said this month that the law may restrict US government assistance to Ethiopia.
Organisations such as the Ethiopian Human Rights Council, the main group carrying out human rights monitoring, and the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association, a women's advocacy group, depend overwhelmingly on foreign money - by as much as 90%.
The only associations in Ethiopia that do not rely on foreign funds are the so-called mass associations, known as gongos, which are dismissed by critics as "impostors of democracy" because they are essentially ruling party or government-run organisations.
The law also provides for the establishment of a regulating body - the Charities and Societies Agency - with extensive, albeit unclear and arbitrary, powers over the registration of charities and over how they work.
The Guardian, Monday 26 January 2009
Human rights activists have accused the Ethiopian government of tightening its grip on power through a new law on charity funding that they claim will criminalise human rights work and clamp down on political debate ahead of next year's elections.
At the core of the charities and societies proclamation (CSO law) that came into force this month, is a provision stating that any organisation receiving over 10% of its funding from abroad is a "foreign NGO".
Once designated as "foreign", an organisation is not allowed to engage in activities concerning democratic and human rights, conflict resolution or criminal justice.
Ostensibly, the law is designed to ensure those who engage in Ethiopian politics should be Ethiopian nationals. However, not even the largest human rights groups in Ethiopia can raise enough money domestically in what is one of the world's poorest countries.
Ethiopian officials say the law is simply in line with the constitution, which forbids foreigners from taking part in domestic political activities. But human rights groups and Ethiopians abroad view the law as a draconian act by an increasingly authoritarian government, especially since the contested elections of 2005.
The critics of the Meles Zenawi government say the law is but the latest in a series of measures aimed at cracking down on dissent, ranging from the censorship of the media to the arrest of opposition leaders. The US and Britain have tried to persuade the Ethiopian government, which is a major beneficiary of foreign aid, to dilute the measure.
"We appreciate that some of our concerns have been addressed," the Foreign Office said in a statement. "However, core elements of the legislation, notably the provisions on foreign funding and social advocacy, have not been changed. We are concerned that the law could limit the legitimate activities of Ethiopian and international CSOs undertaking development work in Ethiopia."
The outgoing Bush administration, which viewed Ethiopia as an important ally in its "war on terror", said this month that the law may restrict US government assistance to Ethiopia.
Organisations such as the Ethiopian Human Rights Council, the main group carrying out human rights monitoring, and the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association, a women's advocacy group, depend overwhelmingly on foreign money - by as much as 90%.
The only associations in Ethiopia that do not rely on foreign funds are the so-called mass associations, known as gongos, which are dismissed by critics as "impostors of democracy" because they are essentially ruling party or government-run organisations.
The law also provides for the establishment of a regulating body - the Charities and Societies Agency - with extensive, albeit unclear and arbitrary, powers over the registration of charities and over how they work.
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