Africa

By Zubeida Mustafa
Jun 10 2016 (Dawn, Pakistan)

The Pakistan Economic Survey 2015-16 reminds us of our ticking population bomb.

We are told that today the country`s population stands at 195.4 million 3.7m more than it was the previous year. We have regressed.

The population growth rate stands at 1.89pc in 2016. It dropped to 1.49pc in 1960-2003.

Yet few express serious concern about the threat we face from our rapidly growing numbers that are undermining our national economy and destroying our social structures.

Many myths have been propagated to camouflage the official apathy vis-à-vis the population sector. Thus, it is said that there is population resistance to family planning on religious grounds. Another myth goes that people are ignorant of birth control and prefer large families.

These myths have been exploded by the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey of 2007 and 2014 which established that only a handful of women cited religion as a factor in their failure to limit pregnancies.

As for ignorance, practically all women questioned knew of at least one or more contraceptive methods. It cannot be disputed that irrespective of the views expressed from the pulpit women are now ready to plan their families. According to the two demographic surveys, there is also a substantial unmet need. That means there is a big chunk of the reproductive age female population 40 pc according to some estimates who want to limit their family size but cannot.

Then why are we failing in this sector? Of course, there is the usual absence of political will, ineptitude and corruption that marks the government`s working in the social sectors.

Policies are there but implementation is not.

The number and performance of population welfare centres that were set up to provide access to contraceptive services leave much to be desired. Media reports indicate that they are either non-existent or non-functional in many remote areas. Poor performance of official service institutions impacts mainly on the underprivileged, the worst sufferers. This is visible in the large family size of the poor.

There is a lot of focus on awareness-raising and research when the key issue to be addressedis thatofeasy access tocontraceptive services for potential acceptors. It is a pity that many who do not want more children cannot avert births because family planning services are beyond their reach.

There is also the need to integrate the population sector with the health system. This was suggested many years ago by Dr Nafis Sadik, the first executive director of the UN Population Fund, to the Pakistan government. But for reasons not known, Islamabad could never understand why a holistic approach was needed for a successful familyplanning programme.

Another aspect that has been ignored is the need to focus intensely on the status of women.

It seems that the progress made by the feminist activists in the 1980s and 1990s in empowering women has been pushed back. With daughters held in low esteem, family planning has suffered a setback. Parental preference for a male child remains pronounced.

Itappears thatithasbeenlefttoahandful of NGOs to sustain Pakistan`s population programme. The biggest of them is RahnumaFPAP, the oldest organisation in the field.

Having been launched in 1953 when Pakistan did not even have an official population programme, it has an impressive delivery network of 10 family health hospitals, 10 mobile service units and thousands of clinics. It has created referral mechanisms with a number of government and private clinics and practitioners and thus claims to cover an area of 77,910 square kilometres and a population of 12.5m.

Rahnuma`s dynamic and committed president, Mahtab Akbar Rashdi, tells me that her organisation has made all its programmesholistic and integrated. She herself is a staunch advocate of family planning and agrees that low esteem for women is a deterrent to progress in this sector.

HANDS is another large NGO that was launchedin 1979 with the mission of improving health and education, with a focus on mother and child and reproductive health. It claims an outreach of 25m people in 42,000 villages. Its Marvi model involving community-based health workers visiting women in their homes was conceptualised in 2007. HANDS claims that it is making an impact.

But can NGOs with their limited resources and capacity achieve what is essentially the government`s responsibility? Mahtab Rashdi complains that `visible political commitment from the provincial governments is yet to be seen`. She specifically identifies Punjab, Pakistan`s most populous province, where the government`s family planning programme `reaches only 17pc of people in the reproductive age`.

This leaves one wondering if family planning also has a political dimension as the census that has been blocked since 2008. After all, doesn`t a big population translate into a big constituency? That is a political bonus in a country where ethnicity determines electoral results.

www.zubeidamustafa.com

This story was originally published by Dawn, Pakistan

By Ahmad Ibrahim
Jun 10 2016 (The Daily Star, Bangladesh)

In a developing country such as Bangladesh, where the implementation of democracy still seems a far flung dream as national budgets blur the line between fantasy and expectation, land has come to be the defining issue of the day. It is of little surprise that a third-world country, caught in the throes of frantic industrial development, would have to deal with the issue of land. Add to it the fact that Bangladesh is the most densely populated country in the world and what you basically have is a recipe for development induced disasters. But even taking all of these challenges into account the current state of land rights in the country is appalling. Almost 56 percent of the entire population is functionally landless, getting by either through odd jobs or becoming part of the industrial division of labour. The average size of land holding is a meagre 0.6 hectare. For a country that is yet almost completely dependent on agrarianism as part of its economy, that is a terrible figure.

PHOTO: Sheikh Nasir

A quick look at the rampant corporatism in the acquisition and use of land will tell us where the root of the problems lie. A 1950 law states that no corporation or household is allowed to own more 33.33 acres of land by itself. While this law itself seems to have been made with the region’s low availability of land in mind, it falls flat in the face of bureaucratic capitalism. An investor can now easily create dummy firms and corporations under whose name they can own an unlimited amount of land, all registered under different firms or people. This is why we see thousands upon thousands of acres of land owned by giant firms, while the poorest are becoming increasingly dispossessed of land and livelihood.

The question of land extends far beyond the scope of acquisition. In many parts of the country, some yet to be transformed by the mechanisms of for-profit businesses, land forms an intrinsic part of a community’s identity. Often the land on which people farm has been passed down through the generations, and is used to grow crops, house the dead and for festivals and the likes. Is there a monetary value that can be placed on such a relationship? The answer to that might be no, but the government does seem intent on trying its best to do so. A nation gripped by the rhetoric of development, Bangladesh is now site to several contested regions where displacement is occurring every day.

Yours truly has visited several of these sites- Rampal in Bagerhat, Chunarughat in Habiganj, Banshkhali in Chittagong. In all of these cases, displacement either has occurred or will occur due to development projects. In the case of Rampal, the land acquisition for the coal-power plant has already displaced thousands. Where there was once fields of fish farms and crops, there are now trucks carrying sand as the Sundarbans wait apprehensively for a death blow. A fact-finding mission has revealed that the government had absolutely no safeguards in place for the displacement that happened there. They only offered monetary compensation for the land, and even that below market price. The government knowingly flouted several rules from institutions such as World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) for Development-Induced Displacement (DIDR). That is, when a government removes a people from their land in order to make way for some infrastructural development, they must not only compensate but also rehabilitate, make sure that these people have a new area of living, and a secure means of living. Instead, the government chose to only pay the value of the land and move on. Not looking at the population who were landless on paper, who were evicted and got nothing in return. These people, along with the ones who received compensation, will eventually fill garments factories and chemical factories, having no choice but to enter the labour supply- thereby fundamentally changing their way of life without their consent. The only law the government has to go by is the Acquisition and Requisition of Immovable Property Act 1984, which is probably one of the laziest examples of lawmaking. In a legislation that is almost copied word for word from one created in 1850 by the colonial powers, the document provides many barriers for those who own land and, in fact, makes it extremely easy for the Bangladeshi government to acquire land via eminent domain.

Bangladesh is home to a diverse group of religions and ethnicities, many of whom have culturally different ties to nature and land, and yet the rampant dispossessing of the poor from their lands is changing the realities of all these communities. Take, for example, the legislation on Special Economic Zones (SEZ), where it is mentioned that the government will only look at khas land and not farm lands. And yet the records they rely on date back to colonial times, making a mockery of all their promises. In those outdated records, the 512 acres in Chunarughat are khas arid lands, while in reality they are the major source of sustenance for the tea-workers’ community, who have endured poverty for centuries. In those records, the Khasia village in Nahar Tea Gardens is khas land, whereas the indigenous community have lived there for over 75 years. It is these inefficiencies that forever cripple an already corrupt system of governance.

No doubt the country needs a robust infrastructure if it is to compete in the wider world’s game of power, but it is being done by sacrificing millions of poor people inside the country. Who does the electricity generated from Rampal go to? Where would the profits from the SEZ in Chunarughat go (according to BEZA, there is full repatriation for foreign investors)? These are hard questions that we must ask ourselves. Today, the state of land rights in the country is in a deplorable condition, but with effective campaigning, we may be able to better protect individual landowners from the mouths of the big sharks.

The writer is a researcher and activist.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

A selection of photos from across the African continent this week.

Paul Ballen of Paul's Homemade Ice Cream talks to the BBC about his ambitions for his luxury product.

United Airlines and Iberia will no longer fly to Nigeria as airlines face foreign currency restrictions.

A man extradited to Italy accused of being a top people-smuggler tells police his arrest was a case of mistaken identity.

June 09, 2016 (KHARTOUM) – Sudanese Minister of Foreign Affairs has called on the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to intensify pressures on the armed groups and opposition parties to sign the African Union Roadmap Agreement for peace in Sudan.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (right) meets with Ibrahim Ghandour, Sudanese Minister for Foreign Affairs on June 9, 2016 (UN Photo)

According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday, Ghandour who is currently in New York briefed Ban Ki Moon on the outcome of the national dialogue and the efforts exerted to convince holdout opposition groups to join the peace process.

The Sudanese top diplomat further thanked the UN chief for welcoming the signing of the Roadmap Agreement and called on the international body to convince the armed groups and opposition forces to sign the AUHIP brokered plan to achieve peace and national dialogue in Sudan.

On 21 March, the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) and the Sudanese government signed a framework agreement calling to stop war in Blue Nile, Darfur, and South Kordofan and to and to allow humanitarian access to the needy in the war affected zones ahead of the national dialogue process.

However, the opposition groups, Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), National Umma Party (NUP), Sudan People's Liberation Movement -North (SPLM-N), and Sudan Liberation Movement-Minni Minnawi (SLM-MM) refused to sign the roadmap saying it excludes other opposition groups and acknowledges the government controlled process as as basis for the constitutional reform process.

Concerning UNAMID exit strategy from Darfur, the Minister of Foreign Affairs called on the United Nations to support its smooth withdrawal from Darfur as agreed by the United Nations, African Union and the government of Sudan.

“The implementation of Darfur Administrative Referendum and the visit of President al-Bashir to Darfur five states are clear indicators of peace in the region,” said Ghandour.

A tripartite working group has been set up in February 2015 to develop an exit strategy for the UNAMID from Darfur. The UN linked the full withdrawal of the peacekeeping operation from Darfur region to the signing of a ceasefire agreement where the protection of civilians can be ensured.

The hybrid mission has been deployed in Darfur since December 2007 with a mandate to stem violence against civilians in the western Sudan's region.

The meeting between the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ibrahim Ghandour and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon has also discussed the situation in South Sudan and the outcome of the recent joint Sudan and South Sudan ministerial meeting in Khartoum.

Ban Ki-Moon hailed Sudan's efforts to achieve peace and stability in South Sudan, the statement said.

(ST)

As South Africa narrowly avoids a credit downgrade from ratings agency Standard and Poors, the BBC's Lerato Mbele examines the country's economic prospects.

Hasna (left) and Marwa (right), nurses in their early twenties, were reluctant to be photographed on the street—primarily because of attention this drew from male Somalilanders—but were more comfortable in a quiet café. Credit: James Jeffrey/IPS

By James Jeffrey
HARGEISA, Somaliland, Jun 10 2016 (IPS)

Amid the hustle and bustle of downtown Hargeisa, Somaliland’s sun-blasted capital, women in various traditional Islamic modes of dress barter, argue and joke with men—much of it particularly volubly. Somaliland women are far from submissive and docile.

Somaliland’s culture is strongly influenced by Islam—Sharia law is included in its constitution—while this religiousness appears to co-exist with many signs of a liberal free market society, a dynamic embodied by Somaliland women whose roles in society and the economy undercut certain stereotypes about women’s Muslim clothing equalling submission or coercion.

“The West needs to stop obsessing about what women are wearing—whether those in the West who are wearing less or those in the East who are wearing more,” says 29-year-old Zainab, relaxing in a new trendy café after her day job as a dentist in Hargeisa. “It should focus on what women are contributing to the community and country.”“It’s about what’s inside your head, not what’s over your head.” -- Zainab, dentist.

Somaliland has had to develop a strong entrepreneurial streak since 1991 and its declaration of independence from Somalia never being recognised by the international community, leaving it to rebuild its shattered economy and infrastructure alone following a civil war.

Today, many small businesses are run by women, who in addition to bringing up large numbers of children are often breadwinners for families whose husbands were physically or mentally scarred by the war.

“Here women are butchers—that doesn’t happen in many places. It shows you how tough Somaliland women are,” Zainab says. “It’s about what’s inside your head, not what’s over your head.”

The issue of how the Quran, the central religious text of Islam, instructs women to dress is a source of continuing debate around the world, although a traditional stance is taken in Somaliland with all women covering at least their hair in public.

“Everyone is free to follow their religion and this is what the Islamic religion says: that a woman should cover their body,” says Kaltun Hassan Abdi, a commissioner at the National Electoral Commission, responsible for female representation in elections.  “It’s an obligation, so women don’t see it as discrimination or violation of rights.”

But some Somalilanders express concern about a steady drift toward Islamic conservatism in Hargeisa: music no longer blares out from teashops; colourful Somali robes are increasingly replaced by black abayas; more women are wearing niqabs—face veils—than a year ago; and no woman goes about town bareheaded as happened in the 1970s.

“The last 15-18 years have witnessed a dramatic change in the extent to which religion influences how people live their daily lives,” says Rakiya Omaar, a lawyer and chair of Horizon Institute, a consultancy firm that works on strengthening the capacity and self-reliance of institutions in Somaliland. “There is pressure to live as a serious Muslim—it may be subtle or overt; it may come from family or it may be the wider society that you interact with.”

But it’s hard to find a woman in Hargeisa who says she feels pressurised by Islam or society’s adherence to it (women in smaller towns or rural areas are more likely to face increased religious conservatism, Omaar notes).

“I asked myself why I wear the hijab, and decided because that’s Allah’s will, and it’s part of my religion and my identity, and since then it’s been a choice,” Zainab says.

Zainab at work n Hargeisa, Somaliland. Credit: James Jeffrey/IPS

During Mohamed Siad Barre’s communist-inspired dictatorship throughout the 1970s and ‘80s, Islam was suppressed in Somalia. Since Somaliland broke away, Islam has been able to reassert itself—including the flourishing of madrassas, Islamic religious schools—with positive effects, according to some.

“There are problems for women here but they’re not due to religion rather they are Somali cultural problems,” says Khadar Husein, operational director of the Hargeisa office of Transparency Solutions, a UK-based organization focused on capacity building in civil society.

“The man is mainly dominant in Somali society—things like domestic violence go back to that culture but has no root in Islam. Getting a more religious society means eliminating those cultural problems.”

But religion doesn’t appear to be easing restrictions on women in Somaliland’s political life.

“Without a women’s quota I don’t think there will be any more women in parliament,” Baar Saed Farah, the only female in the 82-member Lower Chamber of parliament, says about current lobbying to give 30 seats to women from forthcoming elections in 2017 (no women are permitted in the 82-member House of Elders in the Upper Chamber).

“In normal employment there is no differentiation between genders but when it comes to political participation it becomes very difficult for women because of a culture that favours men,” Farah says. “It has been there for a long time—even women may not accept a woman running for election as they’re so used to men always leading and making decisions.”

Somaliland remains a strongly male-dominated society. Polygyny, where a man can take several wives, is widely condoned and practised. Marriages are frequently arranged between the groom and the family of the bride—without the latter’s consent—and it’s easier for men to initiate a divorce. The prevalence of female genital mutilation in the Somalia region stands at about 95 percent, according to the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund.

And while Somaliland women may be a force to be reckoned with among markets and street-side trading, they still face many limits to full economic opportunities.

“They only operate small businesses, you won’t find many rich business women here,” says Nafisa Yusuf Mohamed, director of Hargeisa-based female empowerment organisation Nagaad Network. “For now there aren’t many alternatives, but this could change as enrolment in higher education is improving.”

Expanding female education is also affecting Somaliland’s increasing religiousness, Mohamed explains, as today’s young women better understand than their mothers the Quran, becoming more avid adherents in the process.

She notes how many young Somalilanders such as her 17-year-old daughter, who recently started wearing the niqab of her own volition, use social media to discuss and learn more about Islam once they finish attending madrassas.

There are also other more prosaic reasons for wearing the likes of the niqab, observers note. Some women wear them because they are shy, or want to protect their skin from harsh sunlight, or want to fit in with friends wearing them.

Changing Muslim clothing trends may be most noticeable to the outsider, but other developments also illustrate Somaliland’s increasing religiousness: the extent mosque prayer times affect working hours, both in the public and private sector; the higher proportion of adults praying the full five times a day; and the increasing numbers of mosques built.

“These changes are also a response to wider regional and international developments which have affected the Muslim world, in particular the growing perception that life in the Western world is becoming more hostile to Muslims,” Omaar says.

Although for most Somalilanders, exasperation with the West appears to primarily stem from how countries such as the UK—Somaliland was a UK protectorate until 1960—continue to not recognise its sovereign status, resulting in enormous financial drawbacks for the country.

Hence, as Somaliland celebrates its 25th anniversary of unrecognized independence this year, its economy remains perilously fragile, with poverty and unemployment rampant among its roughly four million-plus population.

“If you look at the happiness of Somalilanders and the challenges they are facing it does not match,” Husein says. “They are happy because of their values and religion.”

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• Winning Women a Greater Say in Somaliland’s Policy-Making
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June 10, 2016 (JUBA) – South Sudan's state-owned television, the South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation (SSBC), has resume broadcast after it went off air for two days.

The government media for news coverage and programs went off air Monday as oficials gave conflicting reasons, including a technical fault and lack of funds to buy devices.

“We apologize for any inconvenience caused by lack of news and programs for the last two days,” a news anchor at SSBC announced on Wednesday evening.

(ST)

Meeting today with Faustin Archange Touadéra, President of the Central African Republic (CAR), United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted that the country had turned a corner following the holding of democratic elections, and welcomed the leader&#39s resolve to fully address the root causes of the country&#39s crisis in an inclusive spirit.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned yesterday&#39s attack on Ethiopian troops at an base of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) in Halgan, Somalia.

New pieces of debris, one resembling a seat part, are found in Madagascar by a man searching for parts of missing flight MH370.

June 9, 2016 (YAMBIO) - Ten youth who were kidnaped on Tuesday by armed youth in Rii-rangu who claimed to be under the SPLA-IO forces have been released after negotiations between the local authority and the armed youth.

Speaking to Sudan Tribune, Joseph Lagu, one of those kidnaped said he was carrying a man with a boda boda [motor bike] outside a town when the passenger snatched the bike from him. He said he then called his colleagues of boda-boda riders to pursue the robber to Rii-rangu area, but were captured by the armed youth in the area.

Lagu explained that six youth members from Yambio town and four others in Soura area including the alleged thief were detained but later released without charge. He added that the leader of the armed youth said the youth should not be tortured after they were beaten at the time they were detained.

The commissioner of Yambio county, Grace Appolo, confirmed their release, saying she engaged the armed youth in communication in Rii-rangu, explaining to them the importance of releasing them.

Rii-rangu payam in Yambio county has been under the control of the armed group claimed to be under the leadership of the SPLA-IO and no government officials have access to the area.

(ST)

June 9, 2016 (WASHINGTON) - The lack of international action against President Omer al-Bashir emboldened him to defy the international Justice and to travel around the world, said International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda Thursday.

Fatou Bensouda, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), briefs the Security Council at its meeting on the situation in Darfur, Sudan. (UN Photo/Loey Felipe)

President al-Bashir is the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the ICC for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed during a counterinsurgency campaign carried out by the army and government militias in Darfur region after the outbreak of rebellion in 2003.

Presenting her twenty-third report to the Council on the situation in Darfur, Bensouda said this inaction by the Security Council "has emboldened Mr Al Bashir to continue travelling across international borders despite the fact that two arrest warrants have been issued against him by the Court".

She further said that Council's failure to act has "equally emboldened states, both parties as well as certain non-parties to the Rome Statute, not only to facilitate Mr Al Bashir's travels to their territories but to invite and host him".

She emphasized that such an evolving trend risked setting an “ominous precedent,” which, unless redirected, will not bode well for similar genuine efforts aimed at bringing those responsible for mass atrocities to justice.

“Above all, such nonfeasance has emboldened some States to publicly express pride in disregarding the Council's authority,” she said, which should be a matter of great concern to all.

Sudanese president was recently in Djibouti and Uganda, the two states are member to the Rome Statute, to attend the inaugurations of President Ismail Omar Guelleh and President Yoweri Museveni.

Bensouda further said that her work on Darfur was complicated by the lack of access to Sudanese territory, resource constraints and non-execution of the long-outstanding arrest warrants against Sudanese officials, which have all contributed to the slow progress in investigations.

The ICC issued arrest warrants for the Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir, his former Interior Minister Abdel Rahim Hussein, the former deputy Interior Minister Ahmed Haroun, and a former militia leader Ali Kushayb.

African countries members of the UN Security Council including Angola, Egypt and Senegal showed their commitment to the African Union's position on the ICC and called to suspend criminal proceedings against President Bashir.

Chinese and Russian envoys also expressed their support to the AU's position. The Japanese representative expressed his support to the ICC and called to bringing those responsible for Darfur crimes to justice.

The Sudanese Ambassador Omer Dahab Fadl Mohamed said his country had no connection whatsoever with the ICC pointing that article 13 (b) of the Rome Statute did not indicate its applicability to non-signatory States.

He added that the decision to refer the Darfur situation had been unfounded, and it was unfortunate that countries of the Northern hemisphere had exempted themselves, while African countries suffered discriminatory treatment.

(ST)

June 9, 2016 (JUBA) - Human and civil rights activists acting in solidarity with family members of victims of the civil war in South Sudan have expressed disappointments at president Salva Kiir for soliciting international support for reconciliation at the expense of justice.

Displaced people who fled from violence in Jonglei state capital Bor queue outside a clinic run by MSF in Lakes state's Awerial town on 2 January 2014 (Photo: AP/Ben Curtis)

President Kiir's press secretary, Ateny Wek Ateny, on Wednesday confirmed that the president had knowledge about an article which was published by The New York Times, proposing to drop justice and accountability clauses from the 2015 peace agreement.

But First Vice President, Riek Machar's press secretary, James Gatdet Dak, distanced their office from the document, saying Machar was not part of the alleged proposal to drop justice for war crimes.

The proposal from President Kiir's office attracted criticisms from the war-ravaged nation who demanded accountability for the war crimes.

Wol Deng Wol Monychol, a native of Western Bahr el Ghazal state, said he was shocked to learn the leaders have decided to shelf hybrid court at which perpetrators would be tried for their role in the 21 months of conflict during which heinous atrocities were committed by the parties to the conflict at the height of the war.

“There are some indications, and it's really not just speculations but a clear indication that perpetrators will not accept the establishment of the court and hand themselves for trials, but this does not mean South Sudan belongs to them and this does not mean they are above the law to escape or defer accountability. Those who have issues to answer must be held to account,” said Monychol.

Gatwech Tut Joak, a native of Akobo but now living at the United Nations camp in Juba said he was outraged upon learning that the two leaders have allegedly asked for the court to be established because those who may have played a role in the conflict may reject and choose to go to the bush instead of handing themselves over to the court to be tried.

He said he was outraged after confirmation by President Kiir's press secretary that his boss indeed asked for dropping of justice and accountability for the criminals who committed the crimes during the war.

“I was shocked and outraged by what I read and confirmed by presidential spokesperson Ateny Wek Ateny. I thought it was just a media report when I saw it. But if this is now true as Ateny Wek said it, then what messages does this convey to the victims of war? So they must kill and walk away without being held accountability. What precedent will this set,” asked a visibly angered Joak on Thursday.

Joak said the trials of the perpetrators will restore hope and build confidence. He asked who would be held accountable for the killings of innocent people if there are not going to be trials for atrocities committed during the war and what precedent it will set if people commit crimes not and punished.

Sebit Anthony, a South Sudanese based in Nairobi, Kenya, said he was not surprised the leaders were now pushing for indefinite deferral of the establishment of a hybrid court because of the role they themselves have played in the conflict.

“Obviously, nobody should be surprised about this article. There is nowhere a perpetrator would accept to investigate himself or herself and go to the court for a crime the person has committed. I am aware that even if the court is established, they will not allow the Hybrid court to carry out its mandate. But what I know is that they will have to face the court one day, even if after they are gone from power,” said Anthony.

The activist said the only alternative for the people is to unite and vote them out of power in order to allow a new president to make the perpetrators pay for the crimes they committed during war.

The outcry comes after a New York Times published an article purporting to have been written by President Salva Kiir and the first vice president Riek Machar, as co-authors, asking the international community to help them work for reconciliation instead of pursuing the formation of hybrid court.

The two leaders, according to the report, alleged in an opinion article that time for the court was not right to establish it for trials.

However, the office of Machar said the article was prepared by someone without his knowledge.

His spokesperson, Dak, said Machar is committed to the implementation of justice and accountability mechanism to pursue the trial of perpetrators of crimes as well as pursue reconciliation and healing concurrently without compromising the importance of each of the two processes.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed, beginning with the massacre of thousands of civilian members of the ethnic Nuer community in Juba. The war then spread to other states, leading to more crimes committed by the parties to the conflict.

(ST)

June 9, 2016 (JUBA) – South Sudan said it loses millions of money in revenues to taxes exemptions at the customs points along the borders in the country. United Nations and other humanitarian agencies have been “exploiting the generosity.”

A Mongolian troop with the UN's mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) smiles for the camera with a local boy in Bentiu, Unity State. 2 October 2012 (UNMISS Photo)

Akok Noon Akok, the Director General of South Sudan Customs Services, said government officials also secure exemptions to import personal effects and dodge taxes.

“I can say 99% [ of exemptions] are going to UN, NGOs and Humanitarian agencies. So you can say whatever we collect monthly can be [half] by what goes on exemption,” said Akok, speaking at a reception organized in Juba on Wednesday for new Interior Minister, General Alfred Lado Gore.

He said the remaining “one percent of exemption goes to government agencies.”

South Sudan relies on oil revenues for up to 98% to fund its budget. But the 21 months of war and lowering oil prices has pushed the country to the verge of economic collapse and demands collecting taxes from non-oil sources. Customs duties are one such source.

Minister Gore said tax exemption should be narrowed to ensure that it is not exploited.

“All over the world, there are exemptions but we are too generous and people tend to abuse this generosity,” he said, speaking to senior customs officials in Juba.

He said anyone applying for customs exemptions should be scrutinized to ascertain the significance of the item being imported in order to minimize misuse of exemptions.

“They [people seeking exemption] bring all sorts of things, asked for exemption and the money just goes to the [UN] agencies, not the country of [origin],” said Gen. Gore, the minister without mentioning any UN agency by name.

There was no immediate response from UN and Humanitarian agencies. Some junior customs officials told Sudan Tribune that UN officials misused letters of exemption to import beverages and tobacco – items that taxed highly and not for humanitarian purposes.

Other agencies extend the exemption letters to companies importing fuel to South Sudan and therefore dodge taxes at the borders despite those companies being owned by businessmen.

One positive note, he said, is the likely reopening of South Sudan – Sudan border.

"They (Sudanese) have accepted the corridor; so this is where you people will now move to establish your offices because those are very important areas for trade, and within the next two weeks the four agreements will now be finalized so that we collect revenues from traders who will now move from there and here and this will add to your revenue collection,” he said.

CORRUPT OFFICIALS

But Minister Gore has another shortcoming – corruption. Nimule and Kaya – the two busiest crossing points from Uganda to South Sudan are not remitting taxes to Juba, Minister Gore said.

“I have just received a report that Nimule checkpoint has collapsed. The money there is going to individuals because they are connected with big people! Very big people who are untouchables,” said Gore, without giving names of the suspected “big people.”

He alleges that insignificant amount is remitted to government accounts and the officers take chunk of the revenues.

He said his ministry, which deploys senior customs officials to border points, will review promotion process to remove corrupt individuals.

(ST)

June 9, 2016 (JUBA) – President Salva Kiir's office has finally revealed that it was responsible for the controversial article which found itself to The New York Times, proposing to scrap from the peace agreement justice and accountability clauses over crimes committed during the war.

South Sudan's presidential spokesperson, Ateny Wek Ateny (AFP)

They also insisted that the article, published by The New York Times on Tuesday and later on by some other media outlets, was written in the office of the President with the agreement of the First Vice President, Riek Machar.

Ateny Wek Ateny, on Thursday revealed that the article originated from the President's office and called on the people and the media to take only his statement as the overall spokesman in the Presidency.

“The opinion article was from the President and the First Vice President about the issue of transitional justice and truth and reconciliation,” Ateny told the media.

“After the signing of the peace agreement and formation of the transitional government of national unity, the spokesperson for the whole presidency is me," further claimed. "And it was written from my office."

The three-man presidency includes President Kiir, his first deputy, Machar and second deputy, James Wani. However, Machar and Wani also have their respective press secretaries.

Also, an ambassador, Gordon Buay, who is allied to President Kiir and works in the South Sudan's embassy in Washington DC, issued a separate statement on Thursday, confirming that the article was sent to The New York Times by Ateny Wek Ateny and sent another copy to him [Buay].

Buay revealed that he helped in contacting The New York Times and convinced the US-based news organization to publish the article as an Op-ed.

He criticized the office of the First Vice President, Machar, for disowning the article, adding that what President Kiir's press secretary, Ateny Wek Ateny, confirmed about the alleged agreement between the two top leaders to write the article was the truth.

He also criticized any other press secretary including Machar's spokesman, James Gatdet Dak, for refuting the claim over the article, echoing that only Ateny Wek is now the spokesman for the whole Presidency after formation of the transitional government of national unity (TGoNU).

“Ateny Wek Ateny, who is the official spokesman of the entire Presidency, came out and said that both the President and the FVP [First Vice President] wrote the article published by The New York Times,” Buay said in a statement he circulated on social media.

Buay warned that the "government" will sue media houses who will continue to refer to comments as from the spokesperson from the office of the First Vice President.

But Machar's spokesperson, James Gatdet Dak, dismissed the claims by the officials from the president's office, saying there was no need to dictate people into accepting the “falsified article.”

“Well, what I know is that we work as partners in the transitional government. No one party should author an opinion and insert the name of the other partner as co-author. This is illegal and cheating,” Dak said.

“And this is particularly a serious matter when the other partner attempts to violate the peace agreement by trying to scrap the vital clauses on justice and accountability,” he added.

Dak also said the Presidency is composed of different offices which have separate press secretaries, dismissing the claims that the “entire” Presidency had one press secretary or spokesperson.

He also said the Presidency derived from a coalition government is united by the August 2015 peace agreement, which he said, was like a contractual agreement that no one partner should temper with.

“I suspect that there is desire by others to control the flow of information to the public or to the media no matter how incorrect the information is. However, their desire is wrong. And they should be corrected whenever they are in the wrong,” he said.

He added that there is nothing called press secretary for the entire Presidency of the coalition government composed of different partners, offices and parties, saying it is not even practical.

"There can be one information minister or government's official spokesperson, even in a coalition government, but not one press secretary or spokesperson for different institutions or top executive offices," he said.

The peace agreement signed between the parties provided for mechanisms through which to pursue justice and accountability for the crimes committed.

The attempt to dodge accountability attracted fierce criticisms from the public who called for justice to be served by bringing to book through a hybrid court the criminals.

(ST)

June 06, 2016 (JUBA) - South Sudanese university professors and lecturers have demanded that the country's higher education minister, Peter Adwok Nyaba withdraws instructions demanding that striking staffs to resume teaching or "face consequences."

Peter Adwok Nyaba (The Niles/Pascal Ladu)

Speaking at a meeting in Juba, lecturers from five public universities accused Adwok of intimidation and being insensitive to the plight of the teaching staff.

"We demanded the minister of higher education to withdraw his threatening letter [that we resume work] or resign," said Philip Finish, a lecturer from the University of Juba.

Finish was speaking during a meeting organised in response to a letter from the education minister addressed to lecturers, who are in a third week of a sit down strike.

Adwok, who had acknowledged as a basics right the lecturers' decision to strike over a three month delayed salary payments, had asked the teaching staff to resume teaching.

He also warned against the continued strike, saying the staff would be punished if the was not ended. When contacted on Monday, Adwok said lecturers were not exceptional.

"The country is in an economic crisis and the lecturers will be paid once we get money," he said.

But members of the university staffs dismissed the minister's explanation as insufficient.

"We teach while standing for three hours in one class and if you have not eaten for days, you may even collapse in front of the students," said a lecturer who preferred anonymity.

"We have not paid rents for three months and our children are suffering. We can't continue to work without pay indefinitely," he added.

The university lecturers have not been paid salaries for March, April and May as well as housing and transport allowances for 10 months. They also accuse the government of failing to honor similar pledges to pay lecturers in the past should the strike be called off.

A lecturer in a public university in South Sudan earns between $250 to $450 monthly.

(ST)

June 9, 2016 (JUBA) - The governor of Lol, one of South Sudan's newly created state, Rizik Zachariah Hassan has appointed 11 county commissioners in fulfilment of a republican order breaking up the three counties into several administrative units.

Rizik Zachariah Hassan, Governor of Lol state (UN photo)

Hassan, who returned to Raja, the administrative headquarters of the new state last weekend after spending more than a month in Juba, issued the order on Thursday.

He named Anei Anei and Anei Wal Achien as the new county commissioners for Korok North and East counties, respectively.

The former Aweil West County, Peter Dut Akot was named the new county commissioner for Gumjuer East. Several officials were also appointed.

This comes after President Salva Kiir in april approved the creation of more counties in Lol state. The presidential order approving new counties broke up Aweil North County into four counties and Aweil West into another four and Raja into three. The counties forming Aweil West include Gomjuer West with its administrative headquarters at Nyamellel, Gomjuer East at Wedwil, Marialbai at Marialbai, Majakbai at Majakbai.

Aweil North comprises of Malual North with administrative headquarters at Gok Machar, Malual Centre at Maper Dut Wieu, Korok East at Maper Dut Thou and Korok West at Jach.

The presidential order also divided Raja into Kuru with its administrative headquarter at Uyu-kuku, Ringi with the administrative headquarter at Bor and Ere at Ere.

The Lol state governor, members of his cabinet and the county commissioners have welcomed the decision, describing it a wise decision taken in line with South Sudan's ruling party (SPLM) vision of taking towns closer to the people.

In October last year, the South Sudanese leader dissolved the nation's 10 regional states and created 28 new ones, in a move which was the armed opposition faction said undermine a peace deal to end over the two-years of civil war in the young nation.

(ST)