Africa

This article is part of a research project by De Groene Amsterdammer, Oneworld and Inter Press Service, supported by the European Journalism Centre (made possible by the Gates Foundation). See www.aboutisds.org.

By Frank Mulder
Utrecht, The Netherlands, Dec 21 2015 (IPS)

Many Europeans fear the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) because it could enable American companies to file claims against their states. The strange thing, however, is that Western Europe is becoming a big hub in this mechanism, called the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), leading to billion dollar claims against poorer countries.

Imagine this: a country is in the middle of the worst economic crisis in decades. One in four people is unemployed. Tens of thousands are homeless. Four presidents have been replaced in two weeks’ time. To halt the downward spiral, the government decides to nationalize previously privatized sectors and companies. In response, dozens of companies sue the government, because they feel disadvantaged by the new policy. The government is forced to pay hundreds of millions in financial compensation in the years after.

Surreal? It happened to Argentina after the economic crisis early this millennium. Argentina had signed dozens of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) meant to attract foreign direct investments (FDI). The treaties gave investors the right to sue the Argentinean government in case of a conflict. Argentina became easy prey. With 56 claims to date, it is the most-sued country in the world.

ISDS is a mechanism by which a company can sue a state without actually going to court. The investor can bring his dispute before a panel of arbitrators, which acts as a kind of privatized court. The hearings often take place at the World Bank. Both parties appoint one arbitrator, and these two appoint a third one, the chairman. They are usually investment lawyers. The trio then will decide if the state treated the investor unfairly, and if yes, what it has to pay. There is no possibility to appeal.

Explosion

The world of investment arbitration is very intransparent. After a few months’ research, journalists working for the Dutch magazines Oneworld and De Groene Amsterdammer have published a number of stories about the hidden world of ISDS. The stories are accompanied by an interactive map, showing all ISDS claims ever filed against a state. The database behind this map contains information about the disputes, the awards and the members of the tribunals.

What is remarkable is the rise of the popularity of ISDS. Whereas in 2000 just 15 claims were filed, in 2014 alone nearly 70 new claims saw the light. By 2014, there were a total of 629 ISDS cases filed. This may turn out to be even more, because not all cases are public. The number of billion-dollar claims is growing.

Canada, the US and Mexico are on the top list of most-sued states. The reason is NAFTA, the free trade agreement of which ISDS is a part. However, the US has never lost a case. If we exclude the cases won by the state, a completely different picture emerges: Argentina, Venezuela, India, Mexico, Bolivia. In other words, developing and emerging countries. Many of these countries have now come to the conclusion that this arbitration system is unfair, or even neocolonial.

Dutch sandwich

Where do the claims originate from? In the list of home countries of investors the US is still number one, but in the last few years they have been surpassed by Western Europe. In 2014, more than half of all claims were filed by Western European investors. Claimant country number one is the Netherlands, with more claims than the United States.

However, a closer look at the companies involved shows that more than two-thirds of all Dutch claims have actually been filed by so-called mailbox companies. They choose to settle in the Netherlands for its attractive network of investment treaties, 95 in total, which are deemed investor-friendly.

“This is known as the Dutch sandwich,” says George Kahale III, an American top lawyer, who defends states in large investment cases. “You put a Dutch holding in between, and you can call yourself Dutch. This is how the system is misused.”

White men

In 88 per cent of the cases, the researchers found the names of the arbitrators involved. From this a picture emerges of a highly select club of men – and two women – who are assigned time and again to judge. A top-15 of arbitrators have been involved in a striking 63 per cent of all cases. In 22 per cent of the cases, even two members of the top-15 were involved, which means that they have been able to make or break the case.

“This is not strange,” says Bernard Hanotiau, a Belgian arbitrator who is also a member of the top-15. That a few arbitrators dominate the scene, he says, is just because they are the best ones. “If you look for lung cancer specialists in Belgium, you also end up with a small group. We are specialists.”

Yet this is problematic. After all, the arbitrators are not judges who have sworn an oath and have been appointed publicly. Most of them are commercial lawyers, who even continue to act as counsels next to their work as arbitrators. It is possible that a state is condemned by a judge whose law firm partner is a lawyer for an investor in a comparable case. The possibility of conflicts of interest is big.

According to Kahale, this leads to too many legal mistakes. “Their business background shines through in their decisions. Their background is commercial arbitration. The aim there is not to create correct legal precedents, but to get parties back to business again as soon as possible. Which is very bad. This is not about some little disputes, this is about multi-billion dollar claims, about principles that are crucial for countries, many of which have just a small GDP.”

Future

Criticism against the current system of investment arbitration is rising, as a growing number of countries decide to terminate the investment treaties behind ISDS. Not only countries like Venezuela, but also Indonesia, South Africa, Ecuador and India. Brazil is working on a model in which only states can file a claim on behalf of an investor.

Even the European countries, in their negotiations with the United States about TTIP, have now decided to plead for an independent investment court, in which investment cases are handled by former judges. The Dutch government has announced it will renegotiate existing investment treaties and make it harder for mailbox companies to abuse the system.

Whether these good wishes will be translated into real policy remains to be seen.

(End)

Details of a secret detention center, where serious human rights abuses took place, deep inside the sprawling Tricomalee Naval base in the east of Sri Lanka are slowly emerging. The site is nothing new to those who were held there. In June this year the South Africa-based International Truth and Justice Project, Sri Lanka (ITJPSL) […]

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By Mario Lubetkin
ROME, Dec 21 2015 (IPS)

One of the most significant aspects of the international conference on climate change, concluded in Paris on December 12, is that food security and ending hunger feature in the global agenda of the climate change debate.

The text of the final agreement adopted by the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change recognizes “the fundamental priority of safeguarding food security and ending hunger and the special vulnerability of food systems production to the impacts of climate change.”

Indeed, of the 186 countries that presented voluntary plans to reduce emissions, around a hundred include measures related to land use and agriculture.

The approved programme of measures constitutes a sector-by-sector program to be implemented by 2020, which implies there will be ongoing focus on agricultural issues and not just about energy, mitigation or transportation, which drew so much of the attention in Paris.

In the next years the commitments must be implemented, which will require helping developing countries make necessary adaptations through technology transfer and capacity building.

The Green Climate Fund, comprising 100,000 million per year provided by the industrialized countries, will be a key contributor to this process. Contributions of additional resources to the Fund for the Least Developed Countries and the Adaptation Fund, among others, have also been announced.

The issue of future food production, long saddled with a low profile in the media, is increasingly a major concern and poses a challenge to governments.

A recent World Bank report estimated that 100 million people could fall into poverty in the next 15 years due to climate change. Agricultural productivity will suffer, in turn causing higher food prices.

According to Jose Graziano da Silva, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), “climate change affects especially countries that have not contributed to causing the problem” and “particularly harms developing countries and the poorer classes.”

The facts speak for themselves. The world’s 50 poorest countries combined, are responsible for only one per cent of global greenhouse emissions, yet these nations are the ones most affected by climate change.

Approximately 75 per cent of poor people suffering from food insecurity depend on agriculture and natural resources for their livelihoods. Under current projections, it will be necessary to increase food production by 60 per cent to feed the world’s population in 2050.

Yet crop yields will, if current trends continue, fall by 10 to 20 per cent in the same period, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and higher ocean temperatures will slash fishing yields by 40 per cent.

One of the least-mentioned problems associated with climate change are the effects of droughts and floods, which have become a near constant reality. On top of the destruction of resources and huge losses brought by these phenomena, they also cause increases in food prices which in turn affects mainly the poor and most vulnerable.

Rising food prices have a direct relation to “climate migrants”, as the drop in production and income is one of the factors that triggers displacement from rural areas to cities, as well as from the poorest countries to those where there are potentially more opportunities to work and have a dignified life.

For example, migration in Syria and Somalia are not driven by political conflicts or security issues alone, but also by drought and the consequent food shortages.

This is why FAO argues that we must simultaneously solve climate change and the great challenges of development and hunger. These two scenarios go hand-in-hand. The dilemma is to make sure that measures adopted to address the former do not generate a constraint on the latter. Production capacity, particularly of developing countries, must not be jeopardized.

This is why developing countries argue that, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, they need technologies and support that they cannot fund with their own resources without hobbling their own development plans.

And since the most responsible for greenhouse gas emissions are the industrialized nations, the countries of the South insist, and have done so long before the COP21, that richer nations contribute to funding the changes needed to preserve the environment.

It was therefore natural that this dilemma was at the center of discussions in Paris and that efforts were made to find an agreement.

The creation of the Green Climate Fund was one of the keystones for an agreement that practically binds the whole world to the goal of keeping average temperatures at the end of the century from rising more than two degrees Celsius. The agreement will enter into force in 2020 and will be reviewed every five years. In that period, many problems will arise and need to be resolved.

Yet beyond the difficulties we will face on the way, it now seems legitimate to expect that the big problem will be addressed and the future of the planet will be preserved.

(End)

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December 20, 2015 (ADDIS ABABA) – An international rights body has accused the peacekeepers of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) of not providing adequate protection to civilians in danger in the war-ravaged nation despite its chapter seven mandate per a resolution of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to do just that.

An honour guard of Rwandan peacekeepers welcomes the Secretary-General at the UNMISS Tomping Base, Juba May 6, 2014 (Photo UN)

UNMISS, which resolution to deploy troops to South Sudan came out on 8 July 2011, one day before the nation became independent from Sudan, has since deployed over 12,000 troops in the country, mandated to protect civilians in danger.

A report released this week by the International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI) has however painted a gloomy picture on what it said was the failure by the UN peacekeepers in the world's youngest nation to protect the civilians outside its compounds across the country.

While the report partly commended UNMISS for providing shelter and protection to nearly 200,000 civilians who managed to escape into their civilian protection sites in the country, it said the majority of vulnerable civilians were still facing danger and losing lives on daily basis without response from the peace keepers.

“As violence escalated, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) took the unprecedented decision to open its gates to thousands of civilians fleeing violence. While the opening of a number of Protection of Civilian (PoC) sites across the country did not prevent mass violence, there is no doubt that it reduced the number of people killed or injured,” partly reads the IRRI report, dated 15 December 2015, extended to Sudan Tribune.

A survivor whose life was saved because of seeking sanctuary inside one of the UNMISS protected sites said he and all of his relatives and friends would have been killed by president Kiir's forces had it not been for the peace keepers who opened their gates to them at the peak of the conflict.

“If it was not because of peacekeepers, all of us would have been killed,” said one survivor.

However, millions of vulnerable civilians who could not make it to safety sites have continued to bear the brunt of the conflict, facing danger from the very government forces or opposition fighters who have been at war for two years.

UNMISS NOT DOING ENOUGH

Although the report commended the speed with which the decision was taken by UNMISS to open the gates in saving “some lives”, it however criticized the peace keepers for not doing enough in exercising their mandate to protect all and not some civilians in danger.

“While the UN's actions are appreciated by the thousands seeking refuge in protected sites, there are millions more outside who are suffering. The UN peacekeeping mission has simply not done enough,” it challenged.

The report cited failure to response by UNMISS in the face of mass killings of civilians in Leer county of Unity state by government forces, targeting fleeing civilians, torching their houses and abducting and raping women. It also said such deadly incidents occurred in many other places across the country and UNMISS has not done anything.

“They [UNMISS] tell us they can only protect us if we stay here. They say that if you go out far from the camp, we can't protect you,” a woman in Bor UNMISS protection camp was quoted as saying in the report.

While the civilians might be safer inside the camps - although on occasion the camps themselves have been attacked - the humanitarian situation is dire. People have been reduced to eating leaves and burning plastic to cook the small amount of food they have as there is nothing else left, the report further observed.

It suggested the pressing need for more action by the UN peace keepers to extend protection of civilians beyond their gates given the fragility of the implementation of the peace agreement signed in August 2015 among the warring parties in the country.

With its mandate expanding to monitor the implementation of the peace agreement, it further warned, there is a real danger that the protection of civilians will only be diluted further. This, it said, would be a disaster in a context in which the trajectory of the conflict continues to deteriorate in spite of the peace agreement.

Although the existence of the peace agreement presents hope for the vulnerable civilians in the young nation, it also cautioned that there is “little faith” in the agreement as the parties may return to war if the peace deal is not supported and left to fail with “devastating consequences for civilians.”

The report also rang an alarm bell about the internal complications of poor governance and weak state structure in South Sudan, saying the conflict's geopolitical positioning may further complicate the situation as the two warring parties seem to further stockpile weapons.

“With both government and opposition allegedly stockpiling weapons (which are in plentiful supply); and with another internal war taking place over the border in neighbouring Sudan's Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan states, coupled with long-established networks for destabilisation at the disposal of neighbouring governments, many of the ingredients remain in place for a protracted conflict,” it warned.

On 15 December 2013, war broke out in South Sudan when what started off as debates over reforms within the leadership of the ruling SPLM party generated into a political power struggle between president Salva Kiir and his former vice-president Riek Machar.

The violence was quickly manipulated into ethnically-aligned civil war that spread with extraordinary speed and intensity. Civilians quickly became the prime target with massacres of thousands of members of ethnic Nuer community in the capital, Juba, by president Kiir's forces, prompting retaliations in other states.

A peace agreement signed in August has been facing stumbling blocks, but with the soon expected return to Juba of the advance team of the armed opposition group (SPLM-IO), the implementation of the first phase of the deal may successfully kick off.

(ST)

December 20, 2015 (KHARTOUM) - The rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/North (SPLM-N) said its fighters repulsed a government attack on Towred area, 50 kilometers east of Bau town, Blue Nile state.

Rebel fighters from the Sudan People's Liberation Army-North (SPLA-N) on patrol in the border state of South Kordofan on 6 April 2012 (Photo: AFP/Adriane Ohanesian)

In a statement extended to Sudan Tribune, SPLM-N official spokesperson Arnu Ngutulu Lodi said their fourth front forces in the Blue Nile repelled a government attack against Towred on Saturday afternoon.

He pointed that the SPLM-N fighters destroyed and dispersed the attacking force killing four government soldiers and arresting two others.

Lodi said their fighters arrested a government army sergeant by the name of Ga'afar Abdallah Magloub and a corporal by the name of Guma'a Awarta Kadu, adding they seized 3 RPG-7 anti-armor, 2 BKM machine guns and a large amount of ammunition without losses from their side.

TALKS ON THE TWO AREAS

Meanwhile, the government negotiating team for the Two Areas talks with the SPLM-N said the two sides reached major understandings during the recent round informal meetings expecting to sign a comprehensive agreement before the end of the year.

On Friday, the Sudanese government and the SPLM-N wrapped up a three-day informal meeting in Addis Ababa and agreed to resume discussions soon.

Last November the two warring parties in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan failed to reach cessation of hostilities and humanitarian access agreements, as the five-day talks showed that important gaps persist in the positions of the two sides.

In a bid to bridges the gaps, the African Union High Implementation Panel (AUHIP) organized a three-day round of informal talks between the two sides from 16 to 18 December where the two sides debated on how to overcome their differences.

Member of the government negotiating team Bishara Guma'a Aru told the pro-government Sudan Media Center (SMC) said the two sides briefed the African mediation on the outcome of the informal discussion, noting the SPLM-N is keen to reach a final deal to end the sufferings of the people in the Two Areas.

He attributed the success of the informal talks to the regional and international changes as well as the ongoing national dialogue conference, stressing the two sides agreed to engage the holdout opposition in the dialogue.

Aru further expected that a new round of talks would be held before the end of this year.

In a statement extended to Sudan Tribune Friday the spokesperson of the SPLM-N negotiating team Mubarak Ardol said the two sides were not able to reach an agreement on the main outstanding issues.

“However they laid out their positions on those issues openly and seriously and agreed to hold a second informal meeting at the earliest time for further deep discussions and allow each side to consult with its allies in order to achieve comprehensive peace,” he said

The Sudanese army has been fighting SPLM-N rebels in Blue Nile and South Kordofan since 2011.

(ST)

December 20, 2015 (KHARTOUM) - The director of Sudan's National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) Mohamed Atta has held the newspapers responsible for the exceptional measures taken against the press by his agency.

The head of Sudan's National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS), Mohamed Atta Abbas Al-Moula (Photo: Reuters)

In an interview with Al-Sudani newspaper Sunday, Atta said that the measures taken against newspapers are not “arbitrary” but based upon the law, noting they are forced to take those measures.

He accused the Sudanese press of using sensationalism and exaggeration to attract readers, citing newspapers reports on child abuse incidents in school buses.

Last May, the NISS seized copies of 10 newspapers and suspended four of them indefinitely. The move was a reaction to reports published by those newspapers on incidents of sexual harassment and child rape taking place inside school buses.

“Sometimes we are forced to take an action against a major violation [by the newspapers] but strangely, when we suspended ten newspapers for one day for reporting the child abuse incidents, the issue was not directed against the NISS or its personnel but rather the whole [Sudanese] society,” he said.

“That is a sort of mistakes that newspapers commit on daily bases, we wish to reach a point where we aren't forced to take any action [against the newspapers]”, he added.

The spy chief defended his agency's move to suspend the ten newspapers, describing the child abuse story as “untrue, exaggerated and unfounded lie”.

He acknowledged that seizure and suspension of the newspapers could distort the image of the freedoms in Sudan, accusing the journalists of being responsible for that distortion.

It is noteworthy that NISS seized copies of al-Tayyar newspapers in the early hours of last Monday from the printing house without giving reasons. On Tuesday, the newspaper was suspended indefinitely.

Sudan's constitution guarantees freedom of expression but laws subordinate to the constitution such as the National Security Forces Act of 2010 contains articles that can be potentially used to curtail press freedom and instigate legal proceedings against newspapers and individual journalists.

Sudanese journalists work under tight daily censorship controls exercised by the NISS.

Journalists say that NISS uses seizures of print copies of newspapers, not only to censor the media but also to weaken them economically.

(ST)

December 20, 2015 (ADDIS ABABA) – The long-awaited arrival to the South Sudanese capital, Juba, of the advance team of the armed opposition faction of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM-IO) under the leadership of former vice-president, Riek Machar, will happen on Monday, officials have confirmed.

Taban Deng Gai, head of delegation of the armed opposition faction led by the former vice-president Riek Machar, and the three mediators arrive to attend a special consultation meeting in support of the IGAD-led South Sudan peace process in Khartoum on 12 January 2015 (Photo: Reuters/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah)

The first group of the advance team will leave Pagak to Juba through the airport in Gambella town, the regional capital of the western Gambella region of the neighbouring Ethiopia, from where they will be airlifted.

“The first group of the advance team of SPLM/SPLA (IO) comprising 150 cadres will arrive in Juba on Monday, December 21,” confirmed James Gatdet Dak, official spokesman of the opposition leader, Riek Machar, in a statement to the media on Sunday.

“They will be led by the Chief Negotiator, General Taban Deng Gai,” he said.

He said a remaining number of 459 to make a total of 609 will follow on different dates before the end of the year.

Dak said the first group that will arrive in Juba on Monday will mainly compose of members who will be participating in meetings of various institutions established under the peace agreement, including their support staff.

He also said a number of senior military generals from the military council of the opposition army will also be among the first group that will arrive on Monday.

In Juba, Akol Paul Kordit, who is the spokesman of the national committee set up by the government to receive and accommodate the advance team also confirmed that the team will arrive on Monday.

The government's national committee for the reception of the advance team is chaired by the minister of finance and economic planning, David Deng Athorbei.

The arrival of the team had been cancelled many times in the past due to disagreements between the government and the opposition faction.

While the SPLM-IO wanted the over 600 to return to Juba and other states in order to mobilize the populations in support to the full implementation of the peace deal, the government wanted less than 50 of them, saying the “huge number” constituted a security risk, resulting to the delays.

However, with this week's intervention of the chairman of the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC), Festus Mogae, former president of Botswana, who is tasked with the responsibility to oversee the implementation of the peace agreement, the government finally accepted to receive the number.

Upon arrival at Juba airport at around 1:30pm, the team will hold a press conference at the airport in Juba, then move to the mausoleum of late Dr. John Garang to pay respect, and then visit the SPLM House before finally going to their hotels where they will be accommodated.

The parties are now expected to jump-start the implementation of the first phases of the peace agreement including deployment of joint integrated forces in Juba, constitutional amendment, selections of ministerial portfolios and designated ministers and additional members to the national parliament as well as formation of a transitional government of national unity by 22 January 2016.

(ST)

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December 19, 2015 (JUBA) – An alliance of 18 South Sudanese political parties claim majority of South Sudanese have now discovered the idea behind the creation of the 28 new state states and have joined voices objecting to President Salva Kiir's directive.

President Salva Kiir addresses the nation at the South Sudan National Parliament in Juba, November 18, 2015. (Photo Reuters/Jok Solomun)

“This government, the present government has been living in a different world and behalves differently. It has been adopting a strange policy, a policy of acting first and think later in order to fool the people of South Sudan. Now the very people have discovered that the government was no longer working for the interest of the very people it purports to represent”, Martin Aligo, the secretary general of the alliance told Sudan Tribune.

Aligo said the way people reacted when exchange rates were floated was a demonstration that government cared less about policies which would harm ordinary people, but rather utilized it to maximise their interests at all cost.

“People have been coming to us at the alliance to say thank you for standing for truth and we told them congratulation for discovery. Now if they care about the people, let them do a survey and see what the reaction would be about these economic reforms. The result would certainly be embarrassing for them. And I challenge them to do so and let us see what happens if they deny. People are fed up”, said Aligo.

"Some of the people who initially supported the creation of 28 states are now regretting and they are the ones now championing the reverse of the decision because they have now discovered the reason", he added.

In October President Salva Kiir criticized his current governance system which he said had been holding the people's power in the center within Juba and proposed the need to adopt a federal system of governance in the world's youngest nation.

“Over the last ten years, the power which was given to you by the CPA [Comprehensive Peace Agreement] has remained in the center,” Kiir told the state-owned SSTV, referring to the peace deal signed in January 2005 with Sudan.

The CPA granted South Sudanese a referendum on self-determination which resulted to overwhelming vote for secession from Sudan in 2011. He said his rationale for delaying creation of more states in devolution of powers to the people was because he was allegedly busy preparing for referendum from 2005 to 2011.

“My administration in the center was busy with issues to do with your self-determination such that you become free and sovereign state. Now, indeed you are free, therefore, there is no reason for me to retain your constitutional right for self-governance, self-reliance, self-development and determine your through free, fair and democratic elections in three years to come,” said the South Sudanese leader.

According to President Kiir, the creation of the 28 states, which was meant to come into effect within 30 days, would provide an opportunity to “develop your locality, your home villages through mobilization of local and states resources.”

“We should therefore abandon culture of war and embrace culture of peace, co-existence and hard work such [that] you and I together develop our country because our country is a country of opportunities,” stressed the president.

The order number 36/2015 AD for creation of new states of South Sudan stated that the president would now have the chance to nominate more state governors and additional members of the state assembly in his newly created states.

The sitting state members of parliament (MPs) will be maintained at 21 members in each state and there will be no more than 21 lawmakers.

The president acknowledged that his administration has been facing economic declines, surging unemployment as a consequence of the war which erupted on 15 December 2013.

It is not clear where more resources will be mobilized to fund the development of the states as the creation of 18 more states, which came as a surprise to the nation and the international community.

THE NEW STATES

In the breakdown of the states, Kiir created 8 states for greater Equatoria which included Imatong, Namurnyang, Maridi, Budi, Amadi, Jubek, Terekeka and Yei river.

For greater Bahr el Ghazal he decreed into being 10 states namely, Wau, Aweil, Ngor, Aweil East, Twic, Gogrial, Tonj, Eastern Lakes, Western Lakes and Gok.

In greater Upper Nile he decreed 10 states to include Leer, Northern Guit, Ruweng, Eastern Nile, Jonglei, Western Nile, Eastern Bie, Lajor, Buma and Western Bie.

(ST)

December 19, 2015 (KHARTOUM) - A passerby in the streets of Khartoum can see hundreds of Syrian families who fled the devastating war that swept most of the Mediterranean nation's territories.

Sudanese and Syrian protesters demonstrate against the continued violence in Syria outside Sudan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Khartoum November 23, 2011. (Reuters)

As a result of that carnage, millions of civilians were scattered around the world in search of safety. Like many other countries, Sudan had had its share of these asylum seekers.

In the elite Riyadh and New Extension suburbs of Khartoum, one can see a lot of small businesses run by Syrian nationals. Some of these shops sell delicious Syrian food substances that range from candy to fast food, attracting noteworthy numbers of customers.

Some of these refugees have also opened a lot of crafts shops.

These small businesses provide lots of Syrian refugees with what can be described as scratchy livelihoods , given the harsh economic conditions of Sudan.

An estimated 105 thousand Syrian refugees now live in Sudan. The Government has given them the rights of residence , movement, work, free education and medication . Some philanthropic Sudanese families have hosted Syrian families who cannot afford the high house rents.

Compared to the many Syrian refugees who found a means of bread winning, hundreds of Syrian asylum seekers who failed to be classified as refugees depend on handouts from local charities and from Sudanese and Syrian traders .

Some of these refugees beg in the City streets or around mosques and marketplaces.

Mazin Abul Khair , an official of ‘the office for serving Syrian families in Sudan' said just about 100 Syrian nationals live on begging.

“The office has tried to help these but they declined to accept food baskets and financial aid we offered them, because they feel begging is far more lucrative than what we give,'' Khair told Sudan Tribune.

He said in the year 2012 some Syrian traders living in Sudan had set up a committee to take care of the refugees .The committee, that started with six families , now aids 700 families .

He said his office is run on voluntary basis and depends , primarily, on Syrian traders and some Sudanese businessmen. The office also receives some assistance from local charities.

The office offers a food basket for each of the registered families. It also provides job opportunities to the youth and pays house rents for the poor families.

Khair lamented the fact that many Syrian children could not continue with their education though the Sudanese Government had exempted all Syrian refugee children from school fees. "This is because of the difference in dialect and the difficult educational environment here," he said.

To secure the future of these children , the office has embarked on the establishment of a Syrian school , he said, adding that the office has already obtained all the required paper work and is now looking for funding for the school.

Sudanese refugees commissioner al-Mardi Salih said they strive to find lodgings to the Syrian refugees.

He said the Government of Sudan had accorded the Syrian refugees all the rights of citizenship enjoyed by any Sudanese national.

Salih also said his commission has embarked on the registration of these Syrians , giving them ‘'guest IDs'' that allow them access to free education and medical care.

‘' In the long run we can provide these people with housing in the form of camps in Khartoum. We can also give them sums to rent homes,'' he said.

(ST)

December 19, 2015 (ADDIS ABABA) - The rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) has dismissed media reports Saturday in Khartoum claiming that the movement would participate in the final session of the dialogue conference.

A SPLA-N fighter holds up his rifle near Jebel Kwo village in the rebel-held territory of the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan on 2 May 2012 (Photo: Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

The government-led national dialogue conference was inaugurated in Khartoum on October 10th amid large boycott from the major political and armed opposition.

In a press release Saturday, SPLM-N peace file spokesperson, Mubarak Ardol, dismissed as “untrue” press reports that a delegation from the movement would participate in the final session of the dialogue conference in Khartoum.

He stressed that those reports has nothing to do with the informal discussions that took place between the SPLM-N and the government in Addis Ababa.

In a press conference Friday, member of the dialogue body known as 7+7 Faisal Hassan Ibrahim expected that several members of the SPLM-N would soon join the dialogue conference.

However, Ardol pointed in his statement that the SPLM-N is negotiating with the Sudanese government not the 7+7 mechanism, saying the latter should refrain from issuing inaccurate statements.

“Unless its [the 7+7 mechanism] objective was to spoil the unremitting efforts made by the conflicting parties to achieve comprehensive solutions and equitable dialogue with the participation of all parties in order to end the war in the Two Areas and Darfur and to achieve national consensus and to bring Sudan's political and economic isolation to an end,” he said.

Last November the government and the SPLM-N failed to reach cessation of hostilities and humanitarian access agreements in the Two Areas, as the five-day talks showed that important gaps persist in the positions of the two sides.

On Friday, the two sides wrapped up a three-day informal meeting organized by the African Union High Implementation Panel (AUHIP) in Addis Ababa to explore ways to overcome their differences.

The two sides were not able to reach an agreement on the main outstanding issues but agreed to resume discussions soon.

The rare appearance of the SPLM-N chief negotiator Yasser Arman on the government-owned Sudan TV channel following the end of the informal discussions has prompted speculations that a political settlement was imminent, particularly as security services prevents local newspapers and official TV channels from mentioning any statements or remarks by rebel leaders.

The SPLM-N calls for a comprehensive peace agreement in Sudan including the political opposition, saying they refuses to repeat the 2005 peace agreement that led to the separation of South Sudan. They say the issue of the Two Areas should be resolved within a national approach.

The Sudanese army has been fighting SPLM-N rebels in Blue Nile and South Kordofan since 2011.

December 19, 2015 (JUBA) – A senior leader of the ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), Majak Agot, has called on the people of greater Dinka Bor community in general and his Twic clan in particular to exercise calm over the recent abusive attack on Rebecca Nyandeng, widow of the founder of the SPLM, John Garang de Mabior, in a church in Juba.

Rebecca Nyandeng de Mabior (ST File Photo)

Sudan Tribune two weeks ago published the report of the attack on the lady whom many South Sudanese referred to as the ‘mother' of the newly founded nation.

Nyandeng was disrespectfully insulted only two days after her return to the national capital, Juba, from Nairobi, Kenya, where she had been in exile for two years following the eruption of the war on 15 December 2015.

Due to her condemnation of the war, blaming it on the South Sudanese president, Salva Kiir, whom she accused of dictatorship and massacre of thousands of members of the Nuer ethnic group in Juba by his presidential guards, she was criticized by those who disapproved of her stance.

A woman, who allegedly hails from Dinka Bor county, uttered insults at Nyandeng while on attendance of a church service at Emmanuel Jieng Parish church in Juba, and reportedly approached her with the intention to slap her before she was restrained by other church leaders and members.

The attack also prompted reactions from members of the Twic East community, where she and her late husband hail, with those mainly in the diaspora publishing condemnation articles in the media, describing it as an attack on Twic East community in general by the Bor community of Bor county.

However, on Saturday, Agot, who was deputy minister for defense and veterans affairs before the country's crisis, appealed to the people of the three greater Bor community of Bor, Twic East and Duk counties to let go the anger generated by the attack on Nyandeng.

Agot, who was accompanying Nyandeng to the church when the insults were uttered at her, confirmed the incident which he said he witnessed despite attempts by some quarters to bury the truth of what transpired in the church, but added the incident was a normal occurrence in the culture of politics in the country.

“I know there are some people here in this country who do not want the truth to be said but we have to break that circle and try to be honest to our people,” Agot told his community gathering at Kush Resort during Duk County fundraising ceremony on Friday in Juba.

“In politics 10 people may like you whereas other 10 people will not like you and that is politics,” a Juba-based The Nation Mirror quoted him as saying on Friday.

Agot, who is a member of the 10-person group known as the ‘former detainees' who together returned to Juba with Nyandeng last month however said the incident was bad because it happened inside a church.

The recent appeal by the political leader from the greater Dinka community came as the church incident seemed to have continued to linger in the minds of those who condemned it.

Nyandeng is being blamed by a section of her Bor community for being vocal about the weaknesses of president Salva Kiir's government and for allowing her eldest son, Mabior Garang, to join the armed opposition faction led by former vice-president, Riek Machar.

(ST)