UGANDA WATCH

Uganda ADF school attack. How Islamic State has expanded into Central Africa -BBC News

noreply@blogger.com (Ingrid J. Jones) — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 11:00:00 +0000

Report at BBC News Africa
By Ashley Lime & Anne Okumu
BBC News, Mpondwe
Dated Sunday 18 June 2023 - full copy:

Uganda ADF school attack: 'Gospel songs interrupted by screaming'

Image caption,

Mary Masika, who lives opposite the school says she would often hear the students singing before bedtime

Pupils in Uganda were singing gospel songs before a deadly attack by Islamist militants on Friday, a woman who lives opposite the school says.

"Then I heard screaming," Mary Masika told the BBC. The vicious attack in Mpondwe left about 40 people dead.

Islamic State-linked militants have been blamed for the attack.

The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) was created in the 1990s and took up arms against President Yoweri Museveni, alleging persecution of Muslims.

They are now largely based in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Mpondwe Lhubiriha Secondary School attacked on Friday is close to the border.

Ms Masika says she and other residents have been left terrified by the attack which lasted about 90 minutes.

Warning: Contains details some readers may find distressing

"I have been unable to eat or sleep since then," she told the BBC in Swahili.

The students usually sing before bedtime - and at first she and her daughter thought the noise that interrupted their songs at around 22:00 (20:00 GMT) suggested that they were having a bit of fun.

But it soon became clear that something horrific was under way at the school, which had around 60 boarders living in a small compound.

ADF rebels had entered dormitories, setting fire to them and using machetes to kill and maim students.

One family in Mpondwe held the funerals on Sunday for a father and son killed in the attack - 47-year-old security guard Elphanas Mbusa and 17-year-old Masereka Elton.

Image caption,

Hurubana Kimadi Onesmus lost his son, a school watchman, and at least one of his grandsons - it is not clear if the other has been kidnapped

Their other son, 15-year-old Brian Muhindo who was also attending the school, is missing. They do not know if he is among the six boys kidnapped or one of those whose bodies cannot be identified because they have been so badly burned.

Hurubana Kimadi Onesmus told the BBC he found it difficult to understand how the attackers were able to infiltrate the school where his son, the security guard, worked and where his grandsons were studying.

"There is a very heavy military presence in the area," the 69-year-old said.

Image caption,

The BBC team were given a few minutes to photograph the scene at school in Mpondwe

Now there is a lot of security at the school - and the BBC team was given only a few minutes to take some photos of the burnt buildings.

It was a devastating and upsetting scene.

Lots of dried blood is still on the ground outside the girls' dormitory - they had been attacked with machetes and others shot dead as they ran away.

The boys' dormitory had been locked - they had either refused to open it to the rebels or they were locked inside by them. The militants poured fuel on the building and set it alight.

Inside, the smell of death is unmistakeable - beds have been reduced to wire mesh with pieces of flesh still stuck to them.

Image caption,

It is not clear if the doors of the boys' dormitory was locked by those inside or the rebels

Ms Masika said towards the end of the attack, at around 23:30, she heard one of the assailants talking at her gate and asking a fellow fighter if "the job was done".

They were talking in Swahili - the lingua franca in the region - and afterwards began shouting "Allahu Akbar", meaning "God is greatest".

She said after these chants one of them added: "We have succeeded in destabilising Museveni's country."

IMAGE SOURCE,

AFP

Image caption,

Several funerals were held on Sunday for those killed in the attack

In response, President Museveni vowed to send more troops to Rwenzori Mountains, which are along the border between Uganda and the DR Congo, saying: "Their action... the desperate, cowardly, terrorist action... will not save them."

The area around Mpondwe seems to be a mix of Christians and Muslims. Some of those attending the funerals on Sunday were dressed in traditional Muslim attire.

Other funerals for the pupils killed in the attack were held in villages across the region, with most people dumbfounded and pained by the brutality of the assault.

Related Topics

Uganda

More on this story

How Islamic State has expanded into Central Africa
Published
14 June 2021

Inside view of IS rebels behind Uganda suicide attacks
Published
24 November 2021

View original:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-65945814

[Ends]

Uganda's Ghetto Kids won hearts and shot to stardom in UK's Britain's Got Talent TV show

noreply@blogger.com (Ingrid J. Jones) — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 15:26:00 +0000

Report at BBC News Africa

Dated 03 June 2023 - full copy:

Uganda's Ghetto Kids seek glory in Britain's Got Talent

Uganda's Ghetto Kids seek glory in Britain's Got Talent They are the kids from Kampala who have made it big in the UK.

Uganda’s Ghetto Kids have shot to stardom on a show called Britain’s Got Talent – making it through to the grand finale which will air on Sunday 4 June.

They told the BBC's Stefania Okereke all about their experience.

Click here to view video and report:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-africa-65796860

[Ends]

Ugandan wants pigeon sport extended to South Sudan

noreply@blogger.com (Ingrid J. Jones) — Sat, 07 Sep 2019 08:59:00 +0000

Article from Daily Monitor Uganda

By Denis Bbosa

Dated Saturday 07 September 2019

Kidega finds gold in pigeons for sport

Photo: Denis Kidega is rearing pigeons in the hope of entering them in international sporting events for cash prizes. PHOTO | DENNIS BBOSA

In Summary

Unimaginable as it looks, Denis Kidega’s burgeoning pigeon rearing project geared towards competing on the international stage is taking giants steps towards implementation. Denis Bbosa was in Mpigi at Nsimbe Estate to evaluate Kidega’s daring move towards producing domesticated birds that can fetch him millions of shillings.

A dove or pigeon is mostly referred to as a sign of peace by Christians worldwide, but Denis Kidega, a poultry and horticulture farmer at Nsimbe Estates, has turned that belief into a business venture.

Unlike in poultry, you need to have passion, care and patience to venture into the pigeon rearing business lest you risk reaping losses.

Put succinctly, Kidega says he and his partner at Fiduga (a flower cuttings exporting company in Mpigi District) Jos Melsburg, take rearing the pigeons as a hobby which they believe will transform into a lucrative venture in the near future.

Starting out

Kidega’s first attempt to keep pigeons started on a sad note as a 12-year-old in Gulu District.

As the family was returning to Gulu from Kitgum, he lost his pigeons because he lacked the knowledge, at the time, of training the birds to return to their loft.

As fate would have it, when he was employed at Fiduga as the technical manager, his boss brought pigeons and had vast knowledge about them.

“This is the fourth year that we are rearing these pigeons. We started with a mother stock of 12, which we do not release because they came from far and I can assure you this is the best breed you can have (from South Africa),” he says with pride and satisfaction.

With good furniture, wire lining, entrance and exit channels and located in a leafy and serene environment, their five segment loft (pigeon house) shows the class and commitment Kidega and his colleagues have invested in the project, not reserved for the faint hearted.

Training the pigeons

In chicken rearing, the more birds you have, the higher the rewards that await a farmer. In this case, however, all that matters is the quality of the pigeon and how well-trained it is.

Their mission is a strategic one that leans on hope and persistence plus the willingness of potential farmers and concerned government bodies to come on board and support a new project laden with potential of reaping millions in revenue.

Kidega envisages a day when he would take some of his well-trained pigeons to compete in international races such as the recent one in South Africa that weighed about Shs385m.

The technique in pigeon race is simple. The birds are carried far away from their loft in cages and then liberated at ago – usually at a distance of more than 500 kilometres - to observe which one relocates and enters its loft faster to win the prize money.

If it does not enter and the ring is not detected by the clocking machine at the entrance, it has not won.

In South Africa, 2,627 pigeons were liberated in the early morning of February 3, 2018 in Colesburg and were expected to make their way back to their loft in Sasolburg. But two weeks later, only 1,569 pigeons had returned, which means that 40 per cent were still missing.

That points to the extra training Kidega and his colleagues have to give their birds if they are to ever take part in such money minting but challenging events.

Kidega maintains that their target for now is internal competition, limited within their stable among workers.

He urges more Ugandans to embrace pigeon raring for sports so that they can make it national and later dare the international stage that has heavyweight participants like China, US and South Africa.

“At the moment, we train them from a distance from here to Gulu and Nimule. At a speed of 1.2km per minute, the pigeon takes three hours to fly back from Nimule to Mpigi,” Kidega reveals.

To measure up to the international distance of about 550 kilometres, Kidega has engaged the South Sudan Embassy to allow them extend to their territory, but works with their Wildlife Authority and Ministry of Agriculture is still in progress.

“If more Ugandans can get interested in taking on the venture, we can form a club of farmers that will make international participation easier.”

Breeding quality pigeons

Kidega, says they expertly pair the female and male pigeons, depending on their speed rates.

“Most of the mother stock pigeons are now eight years old. We pair them for eggs after getting the one that came fastest in our international competition and the young ones are a good breed. We incubate the eggs (it lays only two) and after 21 days, we get young ones that we release within four months,” he adds.

The pigeon is first oriented around the loft, then started on a two kilometre journey, then four, before it upgrades to 20 and after two months of training, the bird is ready for longer distances.

Challenge

The pigeons used for racing are bred in captivity and spend their lives in the care of humans making them completely dependent on humans to survive.

They are not aware of predators and do not know how to protect themselves from the elements or even how to hunt for themselves.

“It is a little bit expensive. It can take you Shs1.5m to get about 45 birds, excluding the veterinary services,” Kidega warns prospective farmers.

It is advisable to get one clean person attend to the loft to avoid the smell. Interestingly, you can eat the poor performers.

Feeds

Kidega feeds the pigeons on grass, groundnuts, broken rice, sea rolls and soya and feed them regularly to maintain their high performance. But he also spends Shs100,500 on grade II flour, which he cooks into ugali (posho) for the birds.

Vaccination

“The birds are comfortable with me in a way that I can hand pick them without a struggle and closely observe the state of their health,” said Kidega.

He vaccinates them against Newcastle disease, one of the most dangerous infections with a 100 per cent mortality rate in birds, once a year.

Value for money

Kidega sells each bird at Shs300,000. He hopes to increase the amount to Shs800,000 or Shs1m, depending on the level of training and condition.

“Because we spend a lot on them, the birds are expensive. We sell a pair at Shs600,000,” Kidega says.

He believes the government can reap big if they added pigeon rearing to a list of tourism entities – because pigeons are such fascinating birds that can get tourists pouring in to interact with them.

Challenges

Of course having many pigeons calls for high maintenance and that is why after four years, Kidega has 28 birds of which 12 are female.

Then again it is a costly venture if one was to take several birds for competitions to countries such as Germany, China and South Africa.

The lack of competition at the moment is equally frustrating for Kidega and colleagues at the moment as they are limited to internal challenges.

It would also require anyone willing to start up the venture to save about Shs1m - Shs3m to set up a standard loft.

Kidega is concerned by the perception of his neighbours that he practices witchcraft because he rears pigeons. He hopes they will grow to understand the beauty of rearing these special species.

View original: https://www.monitor.co.ug/Magazines/Farming/Kidega-finds-gold-in-pigeons-for-sport/689860-5263278-402a89/index.html

Canada sending plane to Uganda to help UN peacekeeping mission in Congo and S.Sudan

noreply@blogger.com (Ingrid J. Jones) — Mon, 26 Aug 2019 11:16:00 +0000

THE UN Security Council extended the mandate of the more than 18,000-strong peacekeeping mission in Congo — the UN's biggest and most expensive, with a budget over US$1.1 billion — until Dec. 20 with a priority mandate of protecting civilians and supporting "the stabilization and strengthening of state institutions." Read more:

Article from The Canadian Press

By AMY SMART

Dated 15 August 2019 - 12:16 PM

Canada sending plane to Uganda to help with peacekeeping in Africa

Photo: Minister of National Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan responds to a question during a news conference in Ottawa, Monday, April 8, 2019. Sajjan is to announce today that a Canadian Forces Hercules transport plane will be sent to Uganda to take part in a United Nations peacekeeping mission. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

VANCOUVER - A Canadian Forces Hercules plane will be sent to Uganda to take part in a United Nations peacekeeping mission during the next 12 months, transporting troops, equipment and supplies to Congo and South Sudan.

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan says the aircraft will be supported by as many as 25 Canadian Armed Forces personnel and it will be used up to five days a month to help the UN mission operating from Entebbe.

In late 2017, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised the UN that Canada would send the plane.

It was one of three promises he made when Canada hosted a major peacekeeping summit in Vancouver.

Only one of the promises had been fulfilled, and that was the deployment of a unit of helicopters and military personnel to help with medical evacuations in Mali.

Trudeau also promised the UN a 200-strong "quick reaction force," but Canada has yet to register it in a UN database, which means it has not been formally offered.

In making the announcement on Thursday, Sajjan said Canada committed to a time frame of five years to deploy military resources to support UN peacekeeping missions.

Sajjan said in a statement the plane "will play an important role in helping supply military and police personnel on UN peace operations in the region, with critical resources."

The federal Liberals campaigned in the last election on a promise to renew Canada's commitment and role in peacekeeping in a major way, but have since been accused of not living up to the spirit of that pledge.

The government insists it is committed to peacekeeping, as evidenced by its decision to extend the mission in Mali by one month, which came after pressure from the UN and some of Canada's allies.

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said adding a plane to the UN mission in Entebbe "is an excellent example of the smart pledges that Canada will continue to support so we can fill critical gaps in UN peacekeeping."

The Security Council extended the mandate of the more than 18,000-strong peacekeeping mission in Congo — the UN's biggest and most expensive, with a budget over US$1.1 billion — until Dec. 20 with a priority mandate of protecting civilians and supporting "the stabilization and strengthening of state institutions."

Earlier this year, President Felix Tshisekedi succeeded Joseph Kabila, who governed the largely impoverished but mineral-rich central African country for 18 years.

A fact sheet released last month by the U.S.-based Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project said there have been nearly 790 "organized political violence events" in more than 420 locations since Tshisekedi's inauguration on Jan. 24. There were nearly 1,900 conflict-related fatalities reported in these events, including over 760 deaths from violence targeting civilians, it said.

The peacekeeping mission to a disputed area of Sudan and South Sudan dates to 2011. Both Sudan and South Sudan claim ownership of the oil-rich Abyei area.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2019

SOURCE: https://infotel.ca/newsitem/cda-peacekeeping/cp34164754

Sudan, S. Sudan: Ugandan war survivors partnered with therapy dogs

noreply@blogger.com (Ingrid J. Jones) — Sat, 24 Aug 2019 14:02:00 +0000

Note from Uganda Watch Editor: Please stop and watch this short powerful BBC film about Ugandan war survivors being partnered with comfort dogs.

I have spent a lifetime seeking and promoting practical ways to help people suffering poverty, homelessness and trauma. More here below. Here is the film.

Ugandan war survivors partnered with therapy dogs

'If it wasn't for him, I'd be dead'

A scheme in Uganda partner dogs with war survivors to help them overcome trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Filda was abducted as a child and forced into the LRA rebel army in Uganda, where she witnessed terrible atrocities.

As part of a scheme called The Comfort Dog Project, Filda has been partnered with a dog who was abandoned as a puppy.

The two are now helping each other heal, along with many others like them.

A film by Amelia Martyn-Hemphill for 100 Women.

Uganda’s Comfort Dog Project

The Comfort Dog Project, an NGO, helps transform the region's stray and unwanted dogs into healing therapy animals for former child soldiers and survivors of war struggling with PTSD, trauma and depression
A dog that has suffered should be able to help someone who has gone through trauma
Dogs can help people rehabilitate their psychological condition
So that they have the company, gain confidence and also overcome depression
Francis, the founder of the project trained as a psychologist and set up The Comfort Dog Project in 2015 to help people recover from mental health conditions
During the 5 month therapy programme the Comfort Dog Guardians learn to train and care for their dogs
The group also undergoes extensive trauma counselling to help them process their past experiences
But it is still a challenge for the project to gain acceptance
In Northern Uganda people use dogs for hunting, guarding homes and also they look at dogs as useless
Even though Uganda's Ministry of Health estimates about 70% of people in Northern Uganda have been traumatically affected by the war there's still stigma around mental health services
People think the moment you go to mental health you are already mentally disorientated, you cannot be helped
But attitudes in the community are starting to change, as part of her recovery Filda is with veterinary outreach and educates people on dog training, animal rights and welfare

To visit the above BBC film click here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-49409125/ugandan-war-survivors-partnered-with-therapy-dogs

Note from Uganda Watch Editor: In addition to being a lifelong anti-poverty campaigner, I have spent the past 20 years researching cannabinoid therapy to help people, particularly peacekeepers, military personnel, former child soldiers and other survivors of war struggling with PTSD, trauma and depression.

Certain cannabinoids could help people with PTSD. Better still, such a therapy could be partnered with comfort dogs. If anyone reading this can think of the best ways I could help Sudanese and Ugandan people with PTSD to be partnered with a therapy dog please contact me at ingridj.jones@btinternet.com. Thanks.

THE COMFORT DOG PROJECT

http://thebigfixuganda.org/the-comfort-dog-project.html

Give a War Trauma Survivor a Comfort Dog

$500 sponsors a dog placement

$25 sponsors a weekly training class for the Comfort Dog Project

COMFORT DOG

Dogs have a profound effect on our ability to heal from emotional trauma. The Comfort Dog Project pairs formerly homeless/neglected dogs with war survivors suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Psycho-social counseling is coupled with dog companionship and training to create a supportive bond. For $500, you can help to rehabilitate a dog, place that dog with a war survivor, and enable them to go through our 5 month training program to receive certification as a Comfort Dog.

South Sudan billions excite Uganda traders - Fight erupts as `Super 10’ run off with monies

noreply@blogger.com (Ingrid J. Jones) — Sun, 11 Aug 2019 17:09:00 +0000

Article from The Independent Uganda

By IAN KATUSIIME

Dated 05 August 2019

South Sudan billions excite Uganda traders

But fight erupts as `Super 10’ run off with compensation monies

Minister of State for Finance David Bahati (R) appearing before the select parliamentary committee on the payment of claims by the Uganda South Sudan traders.

Kampala, Uganda - Muhammad Abdullah Besimira first went to South Sudan in 2007 on a job with his company, BMA Constructions and Fabrications Ltd. He says he got a deal to construct government buildings and ministries in Jonglei State in the Greater Upper Nile Province. At the time, South Sudan was still part of Sudan.

By 2010 Besimira’s company had accumulated payment arrears pending with the government but he kept slogging away, hoping he would be paid. At the time, many Ugandan business people were in the same spot. They had payment pending from the South Sudan government.

But then in 2011 South Sudan broke away from Sudan and in 2013 civil war broke out between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and those loyal to his former deputy Riek Machar. Besimira and most of the business people fled back to Uganda.

“After the war, I was called back by the State Minister of Finance (South Sudan),” Besimira says. He resumed work and continued demanding payment. But he says he was always told the money the central government would send money to Jonglei would not be enough to enable him to be paid. Then in 2016 war erupted again. Besimira says he and thousands of other Ugandan traders were evacuated in trucks by Ugandan Army soldiers.

“That time, we were just picked and you could not leave with anything,” he says.

He never returned to Sudan. Instead, he and other Uganda business people have resorted to seeking compensation for money they lost.

He is part of an organisation called the Joint Action Redemption of Ugandan Traders in South Sudan. Its members did a range of services from construction to petty trade in South Sudan. This group includes those who were injured during the clashes and those who lost their loved ones.

Formed in 2008, it says the government of South Sudan owes them over $200 million (Approx.Shs740 billion). But in a major twist, they are now not asking for the money from the government of South Sudan but from the government of Uganda.

The arrangement is a result of an agreement signed on December 22, 2016 between the governments of Uganda and South Sudan. In the agreement, the government of Uganda agreed to pay a group of Uganda traders, now called the Super 10, US$41 million (Approx.Shs150 billion) that South Sudan agreed to reimburse. It was also agreed that a joint verification team consisting of officials from both Uganda and South Sudan would be formed to verify or confirm all other claims for subsequent settlement.

Parliament, as required by law, adopted the agreement on April 03, 2018.

But it added an addendum to the agreement that included another “additional verified 23 Uganda -South Sudan traders”. It also added that the joint verification exercise by the government of South Sudan and Uganda “continues until all claims are conclusively handled”. That appeared to have left the door open for new claimants to enter and might explain the many lists of claimants.

The matter became heated after Parliament in May approved payment of Shs947 billion to 82 Ugandan companies that supplied goods and services to South Sudan. Apparently, the government of South Sudan has approved payment of Shs778 billion to 40 companies and Shs169 billion to another 42 companies.

The super 10 and the rest

It is a complicated process with many twists and turns and allegations of corruption. It appears there are business people who deserve payment but are not paid and others that do not deserve payment but are paid. It has sparked a faceoff between the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Trade, the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), and Parliament. There is even talk of the `Super 10’, a list of claimants that gets paid over and over.

The ‘Super Ten’ is a group of companies run by well-connected businesspeople who have received compensation in two batches. It includes Rubya Investments, Kibungo Enterprises, Aponye (U) Limited, Afro Kai Ltd, Swift Commodities Establishment Ltd, Sunrise Commodities, Ms Sophie Omari, Apo General Agencies, Ropani International and K.K Transporters.

Some reports indicate that some of the companies share directors while others; like Swift Commodities Ltd are reportedly out of business.

Apollo Nyegamehe, commonly known as Aponye, who is the leader of the group told The Independent that their demands are legitimate.

According to him, their claims stem from grain supplies they made to the government of South Sudan. Unlike some of the other claimants, they were dealing directly with the top brass of the southern part of Sudan led by then vice president Salva Kiir.

“We got paid $14.8 million (Approx.Shs55 billion) in December 2011 and we received another Shs40 billion (Approx. $10 million) in April 2019,” Nyegamehe says.

Meanwhile others like Besimira keep waiting.

“We have made endless trips to the ministries of Finance and Trade of Uganda in search of compensation but all in vain,” Besimira told The Independent.

He says the government of South Sudan owes his company US$279,445 (Approx.Shs1 billion).

On February 27, 2017 he submitted compensation claim documents to both ministry of Trade and Finance. Since then he has been on a rollercoaster trying to get a penny.

In October 2018, he and fellow traders met Trade minister Amelia Kyambadde but the meeting bore no fruit in spite of her promising the lot that all would be well by February this year.

“They keep saying verification,” he says, “When they talk about verification, they are sending us back five years,” Besimira says of the process.

“They are asking us for too many documents, some banks like Liberty Bank in South Sudan closed and we have already spent way too much in the process of gathering all these documents.”

Some of the claims for compensation go back over 10 years, many lack proper documentation and the claimants are in many groups and their lists keeps changing. The list that had the Super 10 had 33 claimants in total. But an initial list, compiled in 2011 by the Ministry of Trade had 84 claims. And the latest list, compiled by the Parliamentary Select Committee and officials of the South Sudan government has 38 companies. Then the South Sudan government approved 82 companies.

The Minister of Trade, Industry and Co-operatives, Amelia Kyambadde, fueled speculation of corruption when she told the verification select committee led by Kyankwanzi District Woman MP, Ann Maria Nankabirwa, that her ministry verified 36 businesses and not the 23 traders that the Ministry of Finance submitted to Parliament.

“The list we have is what we verified; if anyone has a different list, then they manipulated it. We submitted the list to the Ministry of Finance, which never got back to us. It is Finance that submitted the list to Parliament, so they should account for the list they submitted,” Kyambadde said.

But Nankabirwa told The Independent that they zeroed on 38 companies that were entitled to be compensated. Her committee travelled to South Sudan and Kenya to verify their claims and she now blames the Ministry of Finance; especially Muhakanizi, for failing to pay the traders.

“Our traders have suffered. They have gone to the bank and borrowed money, others have mortgaged their assets,” she said, “Ernst and Young is working for who? Ministry of Finance has taken these people in circles for ten years.”

To verify or not

Faced with the accusations of corruption and many contradicting compensation claims, the Secretary to the Treasury, Keith Muhakanizi who must authorise the payment, is demanding verification.

He is specifically pushing for Ernst and Young; the international accounting firm, to verify claims. But his insistence is opposed by almost everyone, including Minister of State for Finance David Bahati, some of the traders and MPs.

When The Independent asked Muhakanizi why he is insistent on Ernst and Young doing the verification when a select parliamentary committee formed on March 6 had verified the claims of traders, he said “they did a good job on verification of domestic arrears”.

But some MPs and the Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, say the Ministry of Finance should not be insisting on re-verification of compensation claimants when, in their view, this exercise was considered closed after a joint committee of parliament and officials from the government of South Sudan carried out verification.

In a plenary session, Kadaga asked Minister Bahati: “How long are Ugandans going to suffer because of our inefficiency and corruption? When shall they be paid,” Kadaga asked in a recent plenary session.

She said parliament budgeted for the compensation money based on the verification it did.

“So what is he looking for?” she asked Bahati, “We cannot go on like this.”

Kadaga was at the time referring to Muhakanizi’s deputy, Patrick Ocailap, who put out an advert in the newspapers announcing verification of traders’ claims when Muhakanizi was on sick leave early this year.

Kadaga insisted on the traders being paid as soon as possible because parliament appropriated Shs76 billion but it has proved difficult to get it from the coffers of the Ministry of Finance.

But Bahati has been accused of pursuing personal interest. He reportedly has three companies; Kaimat Enterprises, Jan Jang Company Limited, Nile Site Company seeking compensation from South Sudan. On March 23 he was asked by the parliament’s Select Committee handling the compensation to refute the allegation but he did not.

“Even if I owned a company in South Sudan, I wouldn’t accept to be part of the on-going compensation process,” he told the committee, “So I would really request madam chair that those who are crying for me should leave me.”

Rashid Manafwa, the chairman of the Joint Action Redemption group says the contentious issue of verification started when Amelia Kyambadde, Minister of Trade, commissioned a Trade Arbitration Dispute Committee in August 2011. The seven member team was headed by businessman Omar Kassim who passed on in 2017.

Then the committee received 84 claims and according to some minutes seen by The Independent, the claims had clear documentation in form of contracts and other relevant support documents. But from the time of the Kassim committee, the traders have dealt with roadblock after roadblock.

SOURCE: https://www.independent.co.ug/south-sudan-billions-excite-uganda-traders/

Betty Bigombe the woman who befriended LRA's brutal warlord Joseph Kony

noreply@blogger.com (Ingrid J. Jones) — Sat, 10 Aug 2019 20:49:00 +0000

Article from MSN.com

Dated 08 August 2019

The woman who befriended a brutal warlord

When Betty Bigombe was growing up in northern Uganda in the late 1950s, she walked four miles a day to go to school. She knew getting an education was the only way she could change her life and make a contribution to her community.

Thirty years later her "contribution" would be to carry the fate of her region on her shoulders as she attempted to negotiate piece with Joseph Kony, the notorious leader of the Lord's Resistance Army.

Bigombe was the eighth of 11 children and grew up in a society where polygamy is still practised today.

"Without education, I probably would be having 20 children in some rural area, carrying out the daily chores of going to the field to dig, harvest, one baby on your back and another one is crawling - one of the many wives," she says.

Her family received financial and moral support from the church as she continued to study throughout her teens, and ultimately that led to the offer of a fellowship from Harvard University.

In the early 1980s, she returned home as a married women with two children. Her country was in the middle of a war that pitted President Milton Obote's forces against the guerrilla movement of Yoweri Museveni.

"At that time, I was hiding some people who were supporting President Museveni. I worked with a German woman who was with the UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency) and we smuggled people whose lives were in danger to Kenya. With a UN flag, it was OK. We could go through road blocks and get them to safety. So, that's really what triggered off fighting injustices."

In 1986, Museveni became president, a position he still holds to this day. He rewarded Bigombe by making her a government minister.

"I was very disappointed when I was appointed, because it was just men. All they did was ask me to sit and read papers, so I went and told president that I wanted to resign because I could not do crossword puzzles in the office, I could not take a novel to the office to read. I wanted work. He was shocked that I would want to resign. African ministers don't resign, especially a woman," she says.

So Betty came up with a proposal. War had broken out in the north of the country and she volunteered to go and find out where the rebels were and where they kept their weapons.

Museveni came back with a counter proposal. He agreed to send Bigombe to northern Uganda on condition she negotiated with the factions to stop the fighting.

Her friends and family thought this was a suicide mission.

"A lot of people told me, 'Resign, he wants you dead.' Friends came and said, 'This is not a woman's job. Why does he give it to you? You have no experience.'"

Certainly, nobody else was brave enough to try to negotiate with Joseph Kony, the leader of the brutal Lord's Resistance Army. Kony was a former altar boy who now claimed he was God's messenger. He told members of his messianic cult to abduct and rape girls, and he trained boys and girls to kill.

The Lord's Resistance Army sent Bigombe a letter saying Museveni had insulted them by sending a woman to negotiate. They threatened to kill her but she stayed - determined to end the war. Then they sent a victim of Kony's violence to deliver a second letter in person.

"This guy showed up. I don't know how he didn't die. There was no tetanus injection, nothing. Lips cut off, limbs cut off, drenched in blood. The so-called letter that was addressed to me was all very bloody. Of course, I couldn't even touch it."

Not deterred, Bigombe decided to write back to Kony. She referred to him as "my son" and used religion as a way of connecting with him.

Eventually Kony agreed to meet. She feared he would have her tortured and resolved to kill herself rather than be captured by him.

Deep in the jungle they met for the first time.

"He was guarded, there was church music, some men were dressed as nuns and had guns. They were singing hymns and falling down, [saying] that the demon was coming out of them. The scene was just incredible. He was wearing military uniform. He definitely came ready to intimidate."

In the next 18 months, during several face-to-face meetings, Kony started called Betty "Mummy Bigombe". Eventually he agreed to come out of the jungle for peace talks with President Museveni.

Bigombe went to the president and told him they needed to establish the conditions for the peace talks.

Instead Museveni went to a public rally and threatened Kony - telling him to come out immediately or face the wrath of government troops.

Kony and his forces responded by massacring 300 people in a trading centre on the border with Sudan.

Bigombe resigned and left for the US.

"I was very devastated. I had a breakdown on the plane. It was a very painful defeat, but it wasn't about me - it was the suffering of the people," she says.

She again studied at Harvard and then got a job at the World Bank in Washington, working in its post-conflict unit. Then one morning in 2004 she turned on the TV and everything changed. There was breaking news on CNN - the Lord's Resistance Army had entered a camp and killed more than 300 people.

"And then, inset, there was suddenly my picture - the only person who almost ended the war, the only person who has met this rebel leader. So I thought that was a calling."

Bigombe returned to Uganda and tried to arrange a fresh meeting with Kony. She felt accepting Ugandan government funding would compromise her impartiality so she used her own money. She spent the cash she'd saved for her daughter's tuition to pay her satellite phone bill.

By this time the International Criminal Court had indicted Kony for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Bigombe's work laid the foundation for peace talks in South Sudan in 2006, though these collapsed at the 11th hour, when Kony refused to sign a peace deal.

Kony and the remnants of the Lord's Resistance Army have maintained a low profile since then. He now is reportedly in ill health and his forces have shrunk to less than 100.

Today Bigombe is the Senior Director for Fragility, Conflict and Violence at the World Bank. She travels the world training mediators and shares the lessons she learned in the jungle. Kony had a huge impact on her life and she on his.

"Not too long ago I met one of his fighters. They look for me. It's strange, but they do. A couple of months ago one of them got in touch with me and said, 'This time Kony is very serious, he wants to come.' And I said, 'Stop playing games, show me proof, let him call me. I know his voice.'"

SOURCE: https://www.msn.com/en-my/news/world/the-woman-who-befriended-a-brutal-warlord/ar-AAFvuue

Uganda seizes truck taking food for South Sudan rebels SPLA-IO

noreply@blogger.com (Ingrid J. Jones) — Tue, 25 Jun 2019 23:31:00 +0000

Article from www.monitor.co.ug

By FELIX WAROM OKELLO Kampala

Published Monday 24 June 2019

Uganda seizes truck taking food for South Sudan rebels

Image: Uganda Revenue Authority said the truck was using an illegal route known as Kampala in Koboko District at the border with South Sudan. Oraba border customs is the main entry point to South Sudan through Yei and Kaya towns

The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has impounded a truck loaded with food to be supplied to the South Sudan People’s Liberation Army in Opposition (SPLA-IO) rebels.

The authority said the truck was using an illegal route known as Kampala in Koboko District at the border with South Sudan.

Oraba border customs is the main entry point to South Sudan through Yei and Kaya towns. Speaking to Daily Monitor at the weekend, the northern regional manager for Uganda Revenue Authority, Mr Godson Mwesigye, said: “It [the issue] was not smuggled goods but our problem with them is that they wanted to use an illegal route. So, we could not allow the truck to use un-gazetted route.”

He confirmed that the food stuff was bought from Uganda and was being taken to the SPLA-IO.

“For us we have no problem because once the security clears it, we shall have no problem with them. It is a security matter,” he added.

The 409th Brigade of Uganda People’s Defence Forces public relations officer, Lt Ibrahim Ssekito, said: “Our main interest is only to check if there are ammunition being smuggled in the truck. But for us we have no problem once the food is cleared because there is already an agreement signed between two warring factions in South Sudan that those people use our routes. So, we are waiting for the clearance from Kampala where initial clearance was originated.”

The deputy spokesperson of SPLA-IO, Col Paul Lam, said: “There is nothing like illegal routes because, there is no way you can bring food from Yei to our areas.”

editorial@ug.nationmedia.com

SOURCE: https://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Uganda-seizes-truck-taking-food-South-Sudan-rebels/688334-5169046-wsntxvz/index.html

Ebola cases in Uganda - DR Congo is battling second largest Ebola outbreak in history

noreply@blogger.com (Ingrid J. Jones) — Tue, 18 Jun 2019 17:46:00 +0000

From UK Government Department for International Development

Press Release - June 13, 2019

Statement from Harriett Baldwin on Ebola in Uganda

International Development Minister comments on the cases of Ebola in Uganda, near the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo

LONDON, United Kingdom, June 13, 2019/ -- Responding to the confirmation of Ebola cases in Uganda, International Development Minister and Minister for Africa, Harriett Baldwin, said:

"It is devastating to hear that cases of Ebola have now been confirmed in Uganda and tragically a child has lost their life".

"The UK government has been the leading donor for Ebola preparedness in Uganda, training health workers on the ground and providing medical equipment to deal with this virus".

"We stand ready to provide further support, but are also calling on the global community to step up. It is more important than ever that we work together to end this deadly outbreak".

Background

The Ugandan government has confirmed three cases of Ebola in the country. A five-year old boy has died as well as his 51-year old grandmother. The authorities have also identified eight contact cases.

Since 2000, Uganda has had five Ebola outbreaks. In the last outbreak (2012), there were 24 reported cases and 17 deaths. Efforts to strengthen Uganda’s health system to be prepared for such outbreaks, including through UK support, means Uganda should be well placed to manage and respond to these new cases.

UK aid has funded Uganda’s preparedness effort since the current Ebola outbreak began in August 2018. This has involved training for health workers, the provision of eight ambulances and sixty-three motorbikes to support the management of suspected cases, including in refugee settlements.

As a leading donor, the UK is coordinating other international donors to support Government of Uganda’s plans to limit the possible spread of Ebola. This has included working closely with the EU, US and Ireland.

UK experts have provided on the ground briefing to donor partners, using extensive knowledge of the disease to advise and guide the use of resources to prevent the spread of the disease.

Public Health England (PHE) continues to assess that the risk to the UK from the outbreak is negligible-very low, even after the confirmed cases on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

DRC is battling the second largest Ebola outbreak in history and the first-ever in a conflict zone, with more than 70 armed groups operating in the east of the country. The number of cases has surpassed 2,000 and the death toll has reached 1,390.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Department for International Development (DFID).

SOURCE: UK Government Department for International Development (DFID)

https://www.africa-newsroom.com/press/statement-from-harriett-baldwin-on-ebola-in-uganda?lang=en

Rice is a priority crop for Uganda - Japan's PRiDe project has trained 50,000+ farmers - 1 million S. Sudan refugees in N. Uganda

noreply@blogger.com (Ingrid J. Jones) — Sat, 20 Apr 2019 18:52:00 +0000

HERE is an interesting and heartwarming news report about an extraordinary South Sudanese refugee, Queen Chandia, who has taken in 19 orphaned and unaccompanied refugee children thanks, in part, to a programme to promote rice production that is bringing refugee and local farmers together.

JICA’s rice project is one example of a development partner working with the government and UNHCR to support both refugees and host communities in Uganda. This approach aims to foster peaceful coexistence between groups and is part of a wider response to refugee movements known as the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework or CRRF.

“Rice is a food crop and a cash crop,” explains Minoru Yoshino, chief advisor of the PRiDe project, which has trained more than 50,000 farmers since it launched in 2011. “[Growing it] improves both food security and livelihoods for refugees and Ugandans.”

Rice is a priority crop for Uganda. Growing it means refugees can contribute both towards the local economy and help the country meet its development targets. For Queen, it was also a golden opportunity to secure her income.

Thanks to generous neighbours, Queen now grows rice and other crops in Uganda and is able to support 22 refugee children in her care.

Here is the story in full incase in the future the report is moved and the link becomes broken. To view photos of Queen and her children, click on the link at the end of the following report.

South Sudanese grow rice, and community ties, in Uganda

From UNHCR.org

By Josie Le Blond in Oliji Settlement, Uganda

Thursday 18 April 2019

South Sudanese refugee Queen Chandia scans the field, then bends down to inspect the green shoots struggling out of the earth. This land in Uganda is not hers, but the rice germinating in it is. Thanks to generous neighbours, Queen grows enough to support 22 refugee children in her care.

“Rice is so profitable for me right now,” says Queen, 34, who fled conflict in South Sudan and found refuge in Uganda as a young child in the early 1990s. “Those other crops I’m just planting to supplement the food we’re given. But rice I’m using as my income-generating business.”

Queen did not always grow rice. She has spent most of her life growing maize, sorghum and peanuts on her plot in Oliji, a settlement in a region of northern Uganda that is now home to more than one million South Sudanese refugees.

As waves of violence hit her country over the years, Queen took in refugee children at her farm – orphans and unaccompanied minors who had nowhere else to go. They joined her own three children and became part of her family. Before long, Queen found herself mother of 22 children.

“We share everything with the refugees.”

“God has seen I have that heart of motherhood,” says Queen, who has taken it upon herself to pay the children’s medical and school fees, and to see to it that they are properly fed, clothed and looked after. “That could be the reason why he has sent all these children to me.”

Queen received food assistance from the World Food Programme and grew crops on land borrowed from her Ugandan neighbour. She sold any excess crops but, with maize and sorghum prices falling, Queen was struggling to make ends meet. Then, in 2014, everything changed.

Queen was selected to take part in a Promotion of Rice Development (PRiDe) project, an initiative of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) that aims to promote rice production among refugee and Ugandan farmers. Rice is a priority crop for Uganda. Growing it means refugees can contribute both towards the local economy and help the country meet its development targets. For Queen, it was also a golden opportunity to secure her income.

Queen travelled to a site outside Kampala where she learned how to grow rice. Training with a group of fellow refugees and Ugandans, Queen learned how to prepare the land and sow in straight lines, making harvesting and weeding much easier.

At the end of training, the group were given a bag of rice seed to sow. However, Queen did not have space on her plot. She approached farmer Samuel Lagu, a Ugandan also on the training program, who agreed to donate a third of his land to her and two other refugees to grow rice. For him, the gesture was natural.

“We share everything with the refugees,” says Samuel, whose own experiences of receiving help as a refugee in South Sudan in the 1980s inspired him to return the favour. “We are not going to refuse them, they are our brothers. I give land to refugees because they have no land here in Uganda.”

“Now we know how to sow, to weed, to harvest, to store, to dry very well,” he continues. “That training came through the refugees, together with the refugees, that’s why now we are working with them.”

Queen now spends every weekend with her children at Samuel’s farm, tending to two acres of rice fields. Many of Samuel’s neighbours have given land to other refugees in individual arrangements where no rent changes hands. For Queen, as for Samuel, sharing land comes naturally.

“It’s easy, we are sharing, we are birds of a feather,” explains Queen, who says closely-related cultures, language, customs and ways of life also help to foster the tight relationship between the South Sudanese and Ugandans. “If not for the border, we are the same people.”

Since the training, Queen has seen her overall yields double. With land and rice to grow on it, she has been able to diversify into livestock, keeping pigs, goats and sheep. She is planning to buy a cow with the proceeds from her next crop.

The extra income from rice has also allowed Queen to build a house for the children and keep all 22 of them in school. In return, they help out on the farm at weekends and during holidays. Now Queen looks to the new generation she has fostered to one day take up the farming baton.

“When I see my rice, as good as it is, I become somehow happy,” says Queen, adding that she hopes her children will pass on all they have learned from her about farming. “I hope what we are doing here my children are also learning. I’m really teaching teachers.”

Click here to view a video of Queen at work and at home with her children.

https://www.unhcr.org/news/stories/2019/4/5bfd5d114/south-sudanese-grow-rice-community-ties-uganda.html

Hat tip: https://reliefweb.int/report/uganda/south-sudanese-grow-rice-and-community-ties-uganda

Sudan Coup Crisis: Uganda willing to offer Al-Bashir asylum: Michale Baleke

noreply@blogger.com (Ingrid J. Jones) — Wed, 17 Apr 2019 03:33:00 +0000

Uganda willing to offer Al-Bashir asylum
Here below is a video by SABC posted today at this blog’s parent site SUDAN WATCH.

Also, the following copy of a written report by SABC posted with the video.

From SABC Digital News

Published on Google’s YouTube, Tuesday 16 April 2019:

UGANDA OFFERS OUSTED SUDAN’S AL-BASHIR ASYLUM

“The government of Uganda says it is willing to consider granting asylum to deposed Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir. It says, this in appreciation for his role in the South-Sudan peace deal. Uganda's State Minister for foreign affairs Henry Okello Oryem, said on Tuesday in Kampala, that if al-Bashir applied for asylum in Uganda his government could consider the matter. We are now joined LIVE for more on this story by Correspondent Michale Baleke from Kampala, Uganda.”

Click here to view the video: https://youtu.be/CLHWaD87WtU

South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is funded in whole or in part by the South African government. Wikipedia

“How The Crane Got Its Crown: A Ugandan Folk Tale”

noreply@blogger.com (Ingrid J. Jones) — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 16:18:00 +0000

From the Daily Monitor
By Charles Onyango Obbo
Wednesday, 24 July 2013

How the crane got its crown… and why today it is so sad

Sometime back I was sniffing around for the latest books on Uganda. Down at the end of the list, there was this “How The Crane Got Its Crown: A Ugandan Folk Tale”.

It is a children’s storybook, written and illustrated by Olivia Nakiingi Infield.

Since I couldn’t remember reading a folk tale about how the crane got its crown, I went on Amazon.com and ordered it. Two weeks ago the book arrived.

First to Olivia. We are told she wrote the book when she was 12. The book was published in July 2012, so knowing how long it takes to bring books to market even by the best American publishers, she probably finished it around mid-2011. Therefore, today she would be about 15. That is about right, because we learn that she is “now a high school student and lives in Kampala”.

Olivia writes that; “The characters in my book are based on my trips to various national parks in Uganda”, and that she hopes the book will encourage people of all ages (including your columnist, yes) to “appreciate the animals of the plains”.

It is a beautifully written and illustrated book. If you haven’t bought it for your little one, it’s worth all $16 of it.

So, what is the story and why should a grown bearded man like myself bother with it? The safest way not to spoil it is to quote the summary on the back, I guess.

“A long time ago on the African Plains, when the earth was flat and the sun never set, a terrible drought threatened the lives of the animals that lived there.

“Lion, king of the animals, is a wise leader and calls all the animals to an emergency meeting to see what can be done. First he sends cheetah, the fastest of the animals, and then elephant, the largest of the animals, to find water. But both fail.

“Finally, lion calls on crane. Crane devises a plan, and along with all the other Ugandan cranes, they fly into the sky to peck at the rain-filled clouds, high above the mountains. Water flows from the clouds and into the lake below.

“Crane is awarded a crown for saving all the animals. Today, the crowned crane is Uganda’s national emblem and can be seen in the centre of the Ugandan flag. And that is How the Crane Got Its Crown.”

You must be smiling now, because I am sure you can see where this story is going. Olivia wrote the book so that we can all appreciate the animals of the plains. But unbeknownst to her, at the age of 12, she also wrote one of the best Ugandan political commentaries of recent years.

In today’s real political life, we could say the crane got its crown for service to country. However, today every day is a reminder of how those who are trusted with power, with teaching our children, with spending our taxes prudently, and protecting the weak do everything that is against the spirit of Olivia’s crane. The crane on our flag has become a daily indictment of our failures.

Lion, king of the animals, is a strong animal. But he was wise, and democratic. He called an assembly to discuss what could be done to deal with the drought.

Today’s Uganda’s Lion King may or may not be wise. But he definitely is not democratic. He knows all, and doesn’t listen to wise counsel — except his own voice. And he beats down other animals that don’t agree with him.

Then crane flies to peck the cloud “along with all the other cranes”, i.e. with all Ugandans. And it is not just one crane that got the crown. All cranes got the crown. See? Everyone who works, everyone who is a citizen, gets to slice a piece of the cake.

That is what Uganda should be. Unfortunately, it is not. Not every Ugandan gets the cake. Not all the cranes that peck the cloud get crowns. Matter of fact, the cranes that peck the clouds today get nothing or little. The ones that don’t peck the clouds, get almost everything.

Things have changed. Today you have to be related to, be a favourite, a selected party mate, possibly even sweetheart, of a big crane or one of the big lions to get a crown.

In recent years, I have taken a very active interest in nature. Well before Olivia’s book, I had always been struck by the fact that the Crested Crane is an unhappy bird. Its eyes don’t twinkle delightfully like the parrot’s. Its crown and feathers aren’t as bright as the one that we draw on the national flag.

Thanks to Olivia’s book, now I know why the modern crane is so sad.

cobbo@ke.nationmedia.com
Twitter: cobbo3

Hat tip: Lindsey Hilsum ‏@lindseyhilsum retweet:
https://twitter.com/cobbo3/status/359952312476774400

Sudan files complaint to AU against Uganda's support for rebels

noreply@blogger.com (Ingrid J. Jones) — Sun, 21 Jul 2013 19:42:00 +0000

Report from English.news.cn published 20 July 2013; 16:55:46:

Sudan files complaint to AU against Uganda's support for rebels

KHARTOUM, Sudan - 20 July 2013 (Xinhua) -- Sudan has filed a complaint to the African Union (AU) against Uganda over its support for rebel insurgency against Khartoum, Almeghar Alsyasi daily reported Saturday.

The paper quoted Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Rahamtalla Mohamed Osman as saying that the Sudanese government "is waiting for the AU's response to its complaint."

"When we receive the AU's response, then every session will have a different discussion," he added.

Khartoum has been accusing Kampala of supporting and providing shelter for rebel movements fighting the Sudanese government. Editor: Luan

Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/africa/2013-07/20/c_132558465.htm

- - -

Further Reading

URGENT: South Sudan army says it and UN unable to protect civilians in Jonglei State. Western powers are worried the violence will escalate into full civil war. (UPDATE 1: Added YouTube video link)
Full story at Sudan Watch, Thursday 18 July 2013:
http://sudanwatch.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/urgent-south-sudan-army-says-it-and-un.html
- - -

DR Congo: Over 30,000 Congolese flee rebel attacks to Uganda: UN
KAMPALA, Uganda (AFP) 13 July 2013 – More than 30,000 refugees from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo fleeing a rebel attack on the town of Kamango have arrived in neighbouring Uganda, UN officials said on Saturday...
Full story at Congo Watch, Monday 22 July 2013:
http://congowatch.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/dr-congo-over-30000-congolese-flee.html
- - -

DR Congo: Heavy fighting has resumed between the Congolese army and the M23 armed group in the Mutaho-Kibati area, near Goma, in N. Kivu Province
HEAVY fighting has resumed between the Congolese army and the M23 armed group in the Mutaho-Kibati area, near Goma, in N. Kivu Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Excerpt from 22 July 2013 Daily Press Briefing by the UN's Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General...
Full story at Congo Watch, Tuesday 23 July 2013:
http://congowatch.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/dr-congo-heavy-fighting-has-resumed.html
- - -

CAR: Communiqué of the AU PSC on the situation in the CAR
Communiqué of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union (AU), at its 386th meeting on the situation in the Central African Republic (CAR) [Last Updated on Friday 19 July 2013]: The Peace and Security Council of the African Union (AU), at its 386th meeting held on 19 July 2013, adopted the following decision on the situation in the Central African Republic (CAR)...
Full story at: Congo Watch, Friday 19 July 2013
http://congowatch.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/car-communique-of-au-psc-on-situation.html
- - -

Uganda charges four in alleged coup plot

noreply@blogger.com (Ingrid J. Jones) — Sat, 20 Jul 2013 20:27:00 +0000

ACCORDING to the following news report by Aljazeera online, four men who worked in the office of renegade army general David Sejusa have been charged with plotting to overthrow Uganda's long-serving president, their attorney said ... intelligence agents who worked under self-exiled general David Sejusa will face court martial for suspected "treachery". Full story:

Report from Aljazeera dated Friday 19 July 2013 18:06:

Uganda charges four in alleged coup plot

Four men who worked in the office of renegade army general David Sejusa have been charged with plotting to overthrow Uganda's long-serving president, their attorney said.

Ugandan lawyer Ladislaus Rwakafuuzi on Friday said all four men who worked as intelligence agents in the office of Sejusa will face a court martial for alleged “treachery” an offence as serious as treason under Ugandan military law and which carries the death penalty.

He said the charge sheet alleges the four engaged in "activities intended to overthrow the legitimate government of Uganda,'' the same charge Sejusa is likely to face if and when he returns to Uganda.

Sejusa's aides were secretly charged weeks ago and are now detained in a quasi-military facility near the capital, Rwakafuuzi said.

Self-exiled in London

Sejusa, 58, is a member of Uganda's military high command and a decorated hero of the bush war that brought Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to power nearly three decades ago.

He is now in self-imposed exile in London after raising concerns that Museveni is grooming his son to become Uganda's next president. The general has since postponed his return to Uganda, saying his life is in danger.

In a letter to the head of Uganda's domestic spy agency, Sejusa had urged an investigation into reports of an alleged plan for the first son to succeed Museveni as president. The letter, which was later leaked to a Ugandan daily, also raised concerns that high-ranking army officers like Sejusa himself risked assassination if they opposed this succession project.

Museveni has never said he sees his son as his political heir. But the son, a senior army officer named Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has been rapidly promoted in recent years, leading many here to believe he is being prepared for high office.

Kainerugaba is now a brigadier with full command of the country's special forces, an elite group within the military that protects the president and guards national assets such as oil fields.

Uganda has not witnessed a single peaceful transfer of power since independence from Britain in 1962.

Photo: Ugandan General David Sejusa is now in self-imposed exile in London [Al Jazeera]

Source: Agencies
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2013/07/2013719152359907873.html

Eastern DR Congo: Over 30,000 Congolese flee rebel attacks to Uganda: UN

noreply@blogger.com (Ingrid J. Jones) — Sun, 14 Jul 2013 19:46:00 +0000

Report by AFP dated 13 July 2013 reprinted by Fox News.com:

Over 30,000 Congolese flee rebel attacks to Uganda: UN

KAMPALA, Uganda (AFP) 13 July 2013 – More than 30,000 refugees from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo fleeing a rebel attack on the town of Kamango have arrived in neighbouring Uganda, UN officials said on Saturday.

Streams of refugees have crossed the border into western Uganda's Bundibugyo district since the attack on Thursday.

United Nations refugee agency official Karen Ringuette said that as of late Friday, more than 30,000 had entered Uganda, updating a previous tally of at least 23,000.

So far, there had been no further updates of numbers arrived on Saturday, Ringuette added.

The town of Kamango in the northernmost part of North Kivu province was attacked and briefly occupied Thursday by a Ugandan-led rebel group, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).

Ugandan army spokesman Paddy Ankunda said Saturday that troops have been sent to reinforce positions along the border with Congo.

"We have deployed enough forces on our common border to ensure these terrorists (ADF) do not cross the line, because Uganda is their target," Ankunda told AFP.

"We are in contact with Congolese army and the situation is getting back to normal, but people have continued to enter Uganda fearing the rebels will kill them."

The ADF was formed in the mid-1990s in the Rwenzori mountains in western Uganda, close to the DR Congo border.

Part of the ADF is now based in DR Congo after Ugandan government forces attacked their bases two years ago.

Photo: A mother carries her baby at Rwamwanja refugee camp in western Uganda on February 28, 2013. More than 30,000 refugees from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo fleeing a rebel attack on the town of Kamango have arrived in neighbouring Uganda, UN officials have said. (AFP/File)

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/07/13/over-30000-congolese-flee-rebel-attacks-to-uganda-un/

Uganda's Museveni on Libya's Gaddafi and the West

noreply@blogger.com (Ingrid J. Jones) — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 14:01:00 +0000

Yoweri K. Museveni is President of the Republic of Uganda. This article was originally published in Uganda’s New Vision newspaper. Full copy:

From: www.zimbabwejournalists.com
First published: Friday, 25 March 2011; 11:37 GMT

Museveni on Gaddafi and the West
By President Yoweri Museveni, Uganda

BY THE time Muammar Gaddaffi came to power in 1969, I was a third-year university student at Dar-es-Salaam. We welcomed him because he was in the tradition of Col. Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt who had a nationalist and pan-Arabist position.

Soon, however, problems cropped up with Col. Gaddafi as far as Uganda and Black Africa were concerned. Idi Amin came to power with the support of Britain and Israel because they thought he was uneducated enough to be used by them. Amin, however, turned against his sponsors when they refused to sell him guns to fight Tanzania.

Unfortunately, Col. Muammar Gaddafi, without getting enough information about Uganda, jumped in to support Idi Amin. This was because Amin was a ‘Moslem’ and Uganda was a ‘Moslem country’ where Moslems were being ‘oppressed’ by Christians. Amin killed a lot of people extra-judicially and Gaddafi was identified with these mistakes.

In 1972 and 1979, Gaddafi sent Libyan troops to defend Idi Amin when we attacked him. I remember a Libyan Tupolev 22 bomber trying to bomb us in Mbarara in 1979. The bomb ended up in Nyarubanga because the pilots were scared. They could not come close to bomb properly. We had already shot-down many Amin MIGs using surface-to-air missiles.

The Tanzanian brothers and sisters were doing much of this fighting. Many Libyan militias were captured and repatriated to Libya by Tanzania. This was a big mistake by Gaddafi and a direct aggression against the people of Uganda and East Africa.

The second big mistake by Gaddafi was his position vis-à-vis the African Union (AU) Continental Government “now”. Since 1999, he has been pushing this position. Black people are always polite. They, normally, do not want to offend other people. This is called ‘obufura’ in Runyankore, mwolo in Luo – handling, especially strangers, with care and respect.

It seems some of the non-African cultures do not have ‘obufura’. You can witness a person talking to a mature person as if he or she is talking to a kindergarten child. “You should do this; you should do that; etc.”

We tried to politely point out to Col. Gaddafi that this was difficult in the short and medium term. We should, instead, aim at the Economic Community of Africa and, where possible, also aim at Regional Federations. Col. Gaddafi would not relent. He would not respect the rules of the AU. Something that has been covered by previous meetings would be resurrected by Gaddafi. He would ‘overrule’ a decision taken by all other African Heads of State. Some of us were forced to come out and oppose his wrong position and, working with others, we repeatedly defeated his illogical position.

The third mistake has been the tendency by Col. Gaddafi to interfere in the internal affairs of many African countries using the little money Libya has compared to those countries. One blatant example was his involvement with cultural leaders of Black Africa – kings, chiefs, etc. Since the political leaders of Africa had refused to back his project of an African Government, Gaddafi, incredibly, thought that he could by-pass them and work with these kings to implement his wishes.

I warned Gaddafi in Addis Ababa that action would be taken against any Ugandan king that involved himself in politics because it was against our Constitution. I moved a motion in Addis Ababa to expunge from the records of the AU all references to kings (cultural leaders) who had made speeches in our forum because they had been invited there illegally by Col. Gaddafi.

The fourth big mistake was by most of the Arab leaders, including Gaddafi to some extent. This was in connection with the long suffering people of Southern Sudan. Many of the Arab leaders either supported or ignored the suffering of the black people in that country. This unfairness always created tension and friction between us and the Arabs, including Gaddafi to some extent.

However, I must salute H.E. Gaddafi and H.E. Hosni Mubarak for travelling to Khartoum just before the Referendum in Sudan and advising H.E. Bashir to respect the results of that exercise.

Sometimes Gaddafi and other Middle Eastern radicals do not distance themselves sufficiently from terrorism even when they are fighting for a just cause. Terrorism is the use of indiscriminate violence – not distinguishing between military and non-military targets. The Middle Eastern radicals, quite different from the revolutionaries of black Africa, seem to say that any means is acceptable as long as you are fighting the enemy. That is why they hijack planes, use assassinations, plant bombs in bars, etc. Why bomb bars? People who go to bars are normally merry-makers, not politically-minded people.

We were together with the Arabs in the anti-colonial struggle. The black African liberation movements, however, developed differently from the Arab ones. Where we used arms, we fought soldiers or sabotaged infrastructure but never targeted non-combatants. These indiscriminate methods tend to isolate the struggles of the Middle East and the Arab world. It would be good if the radicals in these areas could streamline their work methods in this area of using violence indiscriminately.

These five points above are some of the negative points in connection to Col. Gaddafi as far as Uganda’s patriots have been concerned over the years. These positions of Col. Gaddafi have been unfortunate and unnecessary.

Nevertheless, Gaddafi has also had many positive points objectively speaking. These positive points have been in favour of Africa, Libya and the Third World. I will deal with them point by point.

Col. Gaddafi has been having an independent foreign policy and, of course, also independent internal policies. I am not able to understand the position of Western countries which appear to resent independent-minded leaders and seem to prefer puppets. Puppets are not good for any country.

Most of the countries that have transitioned from Third World to First World status since 1945 have had independent-minded leaders: South Korea (Park Chung-hee), Singapore (Lee Kuan Yew), China People’s Republic (Mao Tse Tung, Chou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping, Marshal Yang Shangkun, Li Peng, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jing Tao, etc), Malaysia (Dr. Mahthir Mohamad), Brazil (Lula Da Silva), Iran (the Ayatollahs), etc.

Between the First World War and the Second World War, the Soviet Union transitioned into an Industrial country propelled by the dictatorial but independent-minded Joseph Stalin. In Africa, we have benefited from a number of independent-minded leaders: Col. Nasser of Egypt, Mwalimu Nyerere of Tanzania, Samora Machel of Mozambique, etc. That is how Southern Africa was liberated. That is how we got rid of Idi Amin. The stopping of genocide in Rwanda and the overthrow of Mobutu, etc., were as a result of efforts of independent-minded African leaders.

Muammar Gaddafi, whatever his faults, is a true nationalist. I prefer nationalists to puppets of foreign interests. Where have the puppets caused the transformation of countries? I need some assistance with information on this from those who are familiar with puppetry. Therefore, the independent-minded Gaddafi had some positive contribution to Libya, I believe, as well as Africa and the Third World.

I will take one little example. At the time we were fighting the criminal dictatorships here in Uganda, we had a problem arising of a complication caused by our failure to capture enough guns at Kabamba on February 6, 1981. Gaddafi gave us a small consignment of 96 rifles, 100 anti-tank mines, etc., that was very useful. He did not consult Washington or Moscow before he did this. This was good for Libya, for Africa and for the Middle East. We should also remember as part of that independent-mindedness he expelled British and American military bases from Libya, etc.

Before Gaddafi came to power in 1969, a barrel of oil was 40 American cents. He launched a campaign to withhold Arab oil unless the West paid more for it. I think the price went up to US$20 per barrel. When the Arab-Israel war of 1973 broke out, the barrel of oil went to US$40.

I am, therefore, surprised to hear that many oil producers in the world, including the Gulf countries, do not appreciate the historical role played by Gaddafi on this issue. The huge wealth many of these oil producers are enjoying was, at least in part, due to Gaddafi’s efforts. The Western countries have continued to develop in spite of paying more for oil. It, therefore, means that the pre-Gaddafi oil situation was characterised by super exploitation in favour of the Western countries.

I have never taken time to investigate socio-economic conditions within Libya. When I was last there, I could see good roads even from the air. From the TV pictures, you can even see the rebels zooming up and down in pick-up vehicles on very good roads accompanied by Western journalists. Who built these good roads? Who built the oil refineries in Brega and those other places where the fighting has been taking place recently? Were these facilities built during the time of the king and his American as well as British allies or were they built by Gaddafi?

In Tunisia and Egypt, some youths immolated (burnt) themselves because they had failed to get jobs. Are the Libyans without jobs also? If so, why, then, are there hundreds of thousands of foreign workers? Is Libya’s policy of providing so many jobs to Third World workers bad? Are all the children going to school in Libya? Was that the case in the past – before Gaddafi? Is the conflict in Libya economic or purely political?

Possibly, Libya could have transitioned more if they encouraged the private sector more. However, this is something the Libyans are better placed to judge. As it is, Libya is a middle income country with GDP standing at US$89.03 billion. This is about the same as the GDP of South Africa at the time Mandela took over leadership in 1994 and it is about the current size of GDP of Spain.

Gaddafi is one of the few secular leaders in the Arab world. He does not believe in Islamic fundamentalism that is why women have been able to go to school, to join the army, etc. This is a positive point on Gaddafi’s side.

Coming to the present crisis, therefore, we need to point out some issues. The first issue is to distinguish between demonstrations and insurrections. Peaceful demonstrations should not be fired on with live bullets. Of course, even peaceful demonstrations should coordinate with the police to ensure that they do not interfere with the rights of other citizens.

When rioters are, however, attacking police stations and army barracks with the aim of taking power, then, they are no longer demonstrators; they are insurrectionists. They will have to be treated as such. A responsible government would have to use reasonable force to neutralise them. Of course, the ideal responsible government should also be an elected one by the people at periodic intervals.

If there is a doubt about the legitimacy of a government and the people decide to launch an insurrection, that should be the decision of the internal forces. It should not be for external forces to arrogate themselves that role, often, they do not have enough knowledge to decide rightly. Excessive external involvement always brings terrible distortions. Why should external forces involve themselves? That is a vote of no confidence in the people themselves.

A legitimate internal insurrection, if that is the strategy chosen by the leaders of that effort, can succeed. The Shah of Iran was defeated by an internal insurrection; the Russian Revolution in 1917 was an internal insurrection; the Revolution in Zanzibar in 1964 was an internal insurrection; the changes in Ukraine, Georgia, etc., all were internal insurrections. It should be for the leaders of the Resistance in that country to decide their strategy, not for foreigners to sponsor insurrection groups in sovereign countries.

I am totally allergic to foreign, political and military involvement in sovereign countries, especially the African countries. If foreign intervention is good, then, African countries should be the most prosperous countries in the world because we have had the greatest dosages of that: slave trade, colonialism, neo-colonialism, imperialism, etc.

All those foreign-imposed phenomena have, however, been disastrous. It is only recently that Africa is beginning to come up partly because of rejecting external meddling. External meddling and the acquiescence by Africans into that meddling have been responsible for the stagnation in Africa.

The wrong definition of priorities in many of the African countries is, in many cases, imposed by external groups. Failure to prioritise infrastructure, for instance, especially energy, is, in part, due to some of these pressures. Instead, consumption is promoted.

I have witnessed this wrong definition of priorities even here in Uganda. External interests linked up, for instance, with internal bogus groups to oppose energy projects for false reasons. How will an economy develop without energy? Quislings and their external backers do not care about all this.

If you promote foreign-backed insurrections in small countries like Libya, what will you do with the big ones like China which has got a different system from the Western systems? Are you going to impose a no-fly-zone over China in case of some internal insurrections as happened in Tiananmen Square, in Tibet or in Urumuqi?

The Western countries always use double standards. In Libya, they are very eager to impose a no-fly-zone. In Bahrain and other areas where there are pro-Western regimes, they turn a blind eye to the very same conditions or even worse conditions.

We have been appealing to the UN to impose a no-fly-zone over Somalia so as to impede the free movement of terrorists, linked to Al-Qaeda that killed Americans on September 11; killed Ugandans last July and have caused so much damage to the Somalis, without success. Why? Are there no human beings in Somalia similar to the ones in Benghazi? Or is it because Somalia does not have oil which is not fully controlled by the western oil companies on account of Gaddafi’s nationalist posture?

The Western countries are always very prompt in commenting on every problem in the Third World – Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, etc. Yet, some of these very countries were the ones impeding growth in those countries. There was a military coup d’état that slowly became a Revolution in backward Egypt in 1952. The new leader, Nasser, had ambition to cause transformation in Egypt. He wanted to build a dam not only to generate electricity but also to help with the ancient irrigation system of Egypt. He was denied money by the West because they did not believe that Egyptians needed electricity.

Nasser decided to raise that money by nationalising the Suez Canal. He was attacked by Israel, France and Britain. To be fair to the USA, President Eisenhower opposed that aggression that time. Of course, there was also the firm stand of the Soviet Union at that time. How much electricity was this dam supposed to produce? Just 2,000 mgws for a country like Egypt!! What moral right, then, do such people have to comment on the affairs of these countries?

Another negative point is going to arise out of the by now habit of the Western countries over-using their superiority in technology to impose war on less developed societies without impeachable logic. This will be the igniting of an arms race in the world. The actions of the Western countries in Iraq and now Libya are emphasising that might is “right.” I am quite sure that many countries that are able will scale up their military research, and in a few decades we may have a more armed world.

This weapons science is not magic. A small country like Israel is now a super power in terms of military technology. Yet 60 years ago, Israel had to buy second-hand fouga magister planes from France. There are many countries that can become small Israels if this trend of overusing military means by the Western countries continues.

All this notwithstanding, Col. Gaddafi should be ready to sit down with the opposition, through the mediation of the AU, with the opposition cluster of groups which now includes individuals well known to us – Ambassador Abdalla, Dr. Zubeda, etc.

I know Gaddafi has his system of elected committees that end up in a National People’s Conference. Actually Gaddafi thinks this is superior to our multi-party systems. Of course, I have never had time to know how truly competitive this system is. Anyway, even if it is competitive, there is now, apparently, a significant number of Libyans that think that there is a problem in Libya in terms of governance. Since there has not been internationally observed elections in Libya, not even by the AU, we cannot know what is correct and what is wrong. Therefore, a dialogue is the correct way forward.

The AU mission could not get to Libya because the Western countries started bombing Libya the day before they were supposed to arrive. However, the mission will continue. My opinion is that, in addition, to what the AU mission is doing, it may be important to call an extra-ordinary Summit of the AU in Addis Ababa to discuss this grave situation.

Regarding the Libyan opposition, I would feel embarrassed to be backed by Western war planes because quislings of foreign interests have never helped Africa. We have had a copious supply of them in the last 50 years – Mobutu, Houphout Boigny, Kamuzu Banda, etc. The West made a lot of mistakes in Africa and in the Middle East in the past. Apart from the slave trade and colonialism, they participated in the killing of Lumumba, until recently, the only elected leader of Congo, the killing of Felix Moummie of Cameroon, Bartholomew Boganda of Central African Republic, the support for UNITA in Angola, the support for Idi Amin at the beginning of his regime, the counter-revolution in Iran in 1953, etc.

Recently, there has been some improvement in the arrogant attitudes of some of these Western countries. Certainly, with black Africa and, particularly, Uganda, the relations are good following their fair stand on the black people of Southern Sudan. With the democratisation of South Africa and the freedom of the black people in Southern Sudan, the difference between the patriots of Uganda and the Western governments had disappeared. Unfortunately, these rush actions on Libya are beginning to raise new problems. They should be resolved quickly.

Therefore, if the Libyan opposition groups are patriots, they should fight their war by themselves and conduct their affairs by themselves. After all, they easily captured so much equipment from the Libyan army, why do they need foreign military support? I only had 27 rifles. To be puppets is not good.

The African members of the Security Council voted for this Resolution of the Security Council. This was contrary to what the Africa Peace and Security Council had decided in Addis Ababa recently. This is something that only the extra-ordinary summit can resolve.

It was good that certain big countries in the Security Council abstained on this Resolution. These were: Russia, China, Brazil, India, etc. This shows that there are balanced forces in the world that will, with more consultations, evolve more correct positions.

Being members of the UN, we are bound by the Resolution that was passed, however rash the process. Nevertheless, there is a mechanism for review. The Western countries, which are most active in these rash actions, should look at that route. It may be one way of extricating all of us from possible nasty complications.

What if the Libyans loyal to Gaddafi decide to fight on? Using tanks and planes that are easily targeted by Mr. Sarkozy’s planes is not the only way of fighting. Who will be responsible for such a protracted war? It is high time we did more careful thinking.

Global Voices Syria: Internet Users Race to Support Egyptian Protesters

noreply@blogger.com (Ingrid J. Jones) — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 02:13:00 +0000

Click here for Global Voices special coverage of Egypt Protests 2011.

Uganda: Surely, we are not as simplistic as the Tunisians; are we? (column) - North Africa: Dispirited Arabs burning for change (analysis)

noreply@blogger.com (Ingrid J. Jones) — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 12:25:00 +0000

In the past week, nearly two dozen attempted self-immolations have been reported across the Arab world, three of them fatal.

The horrifying public suicide attempts echo the iconic act of Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old Tunisian who set himself on fire in mid-December after police confiscated the produce cart he was using to make a living. Bouazizi died weeks later of his burns, but his desperate act triggered protests that eventually led Tunisian president Zine Al-Abdine Ben Ali to flee the North African country he had ruled with an iron fist for 23 years.

On Jan. 15, one day after the fall of Ben Ali, a 37-year-old Algerian man died after setting himself alight. Since then, at least 22 attempted self- immolations have been reported in Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

"The self-immolations appear to be political acts," says Michael Biggs, a sociologist at Oxford University. "These people may have personal grievances, but they're clearly attributing those grievances to the political system. They may be thinking that 'if Bouazizi can set himself on fire and precipitate a massive, popular uprising then why can't I to resolve my problem?'"

According to Biggs, incidents in which protestors deliberately set themselves on fire are extremely rare, "but much less rare than people might think."

Since the 1960s, over 1,000 cases of self-immolation have been recorded in more than 25 countries worldwide. It often occurs in waves and is most prevalent in India, Vietnam and South Korea, which account for more than half of all cases.

Read more below, in four articles, courtesy of The Norwegian Council for Africa - www.afrika.no

North Africa: Dispirited Arabs burning for change (analysis)
Inter Press Service (IPS), by Cam Mcgrath
Monday, 24 January 2011

Cairo (Egypt) — Upset over a policy that prevented him from buying subsidised food, Egyptian restaurant owner Abdou Abdel Moneim travelled to Cairo to find someone in parliament to help.

When security officers prevented him from submitting his complaint to MPs entering parliament, the 49-year-old man doused himself in fuel and cursed the Egyptian regime as he disappeared into a ball of fire.

Abdel Moneim survived with severe burns to his legs and face, but by the end of the day similar incidents had occurred in three different North African countries. In the past week, nearly two dozen attempted self-immolations have been reported across the Arab world, three of them fatal.

The horrifying public suicide attempts echo the iconic act of Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old Tunisian who set himself on fire in mid-December after police confiscated the produce cart he was using to make a living. Bouazizi died weeks later of his burns, but his desperate act triggered protests that eventually led Tunisian president Zine Al-Abdine Ben Ali to flee the North African country he had ruled with an iron fist for 23 years.

Analysts say the Tunisian revolt has resonated with millions of Arabs living under repressive regimes who are frustrated with their difficult economic conditions and limited opportunities to improve their lot. Many are drawing parallels to the situation in their own country, and wondering if a similar uprising will take place.

It's not surprising then that the heroic story of a vegetable seller whose horrific yet spectacular death brought down a tyrant has taken on an almost legendary flavour. But it may also be inspiring more tragic stories.

On Jan. 15, one day after the fall of Ben Ali, a 37-year-old Algerian man died after setting himself alight. Since then, at least 22 attempted self- immolations have been reported in Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

The suspected motive behind each incident has varied. One man was protesting corruption and injustice, another was reportedly upset at being unable to secure cheap housing, and two textile workers objected to their employer's decision to transfer them to other departments.

"The self-immolations appear to be political acts," says Michael Biggs, a sociologist at Oxford University. "These people may have personal grievances, but they're clearly attributing those grievances to the political system. They may be thinking that 'if Bouazizi can set himself on fire and precipitate a massive, popular uprising then why can't I to resolve my problem?'"

According to Biggs, incidents in which protestors deliberately set themselves on fire are extremely rare, "but much less rare than people might think."

Since the 1960s, over 1,000 cases of self-immolation have been recorded in more than 25 countries worldwide. It often occurs in waves and is most prevalent in India, Vietnam and South Korea, which account for more than half of all cases.

There are examples of Kurdish nationalists setting themselves on fire during protests in Europe in the 1990s, but until now the practice has not been common in the Muslim world, possibly due to Islam's strong prohibition of both suicide and cremation.

"It's mostly an Eastern practice. In Buddhism and Hinduism burning has a more sacred character and is an accepted form of disposing of dead bodies, so it's not the terrible thing as we think of it in Christian and Muslim religious traditions," Biggs told IPS.

The spectacle of a fiery death can be highly effective in focusing world attention on a cause or injustice. A photograph of Thich Quang Duc, the elderly Buddhist monk who immolated himself in the middle of a busy intersection in Saigon in 1963, became one of the iconic images of the Vietnam War. It was also instrumental in turning the tide of U.S. public opinion against the war.

The brutal act of setting oneself on fire usually elicits reactions of shock and horror, but also sympathy, Biggs explains. It has been utilised as a political form of protest by South Korean labour activists, Czechs opposed to Soviet occupation, and by upper-caste Indians, among others.

"Bouazizi's is probably the most successful example," he says. "The Tunisian government fell very quickly because his one action inspired many other people to go into the streets. It was also successful in South Vietnam in the 1960s, but it took five months and six monks and a nun to die before the regime was overthrown."

The historical efficacy of self-immolation protests may be one reason Arab officials and state media have attempted to portray the series of "copycat" suicide attempts as the non-political acts of opportunistic and mentally unstable individuals.

"Suicide has become a fad and is being used for blackmail," declared Egyptian state-run newspaper Al-Akhbar, deriding a man who reportedly threatened to set himself on fire after his request for public housing was repeatedly turned down.

Arab governments have appealed to religious leaders to stress Islam's injunctions against suicide in order to discourage Muslim youth from taking their own life. Imams at state-monitored mosques in Egypt and Algeria condemned self-immolation during their weekly sermons on Friday, claiming suicidal thoughts stemmed from a lack of faith.

Al-Azhar, the highest authority in Sunni Islam, issued a statement last week reaffirming that suicide violates Islam even when it is carried out as a social or political protest.

"Islam categorically forbids suicide for any reason and does not accept the separation of souls from bodies as an expression of stress, anger or protest," its spokesman said.

Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of Egypt's outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, had a different take on the state-endorsed message. In a statement the influential cleric urged Arab youth to honour the sanctity of life, blaming repressive regimes for conditions that have driven them to despair.

"Dear young men, take care of your life because it is a great bounty from Allah, and do not set yourself on fire as it is the tyrants who should burn. Be patient, endure and be steadfast. Tomorrow will come soon enough."

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Uganda: Surely, we are not as simplistic as the Tunisians; are we? (column)
The Monitor (Uganda), by Fredrick M. Masiga*
Monday, 24 January 2011

Kampala (Uganda) - Life sometimes brings along very strange coincidences and you cannot help but wonder if some of these parallels are accidental or could be interpreted as merely fateful coincidences. The events unfolding in Ivory Coast and Tunisia in the last few weeks draw a familiar line or might have a futuristic similarity to Uganda.

Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali is the disgraced former president of Tunisia. He fled the country after a 'protracted' mass revolt that started off from the flimsiest of events. A Tunisian fruits and vegetable vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi, who was accosted by local municipal council authorities, decided he had had enough with the authorities and decided to torch himself. He did not live long enough to witness that his callous act led to the ouster of Ben Ali who has ruled the country for 23 years.

Twenty six-year-old Bouazizi, like many of his youthful countrymates, woke up on the day to go out in the streets to fend for his family. He was evicted from the streets, his cart, his only means of survival was impounded, he was beaten by authorities, and his attempts to get redress from higher authorities were met with a thick wall of bureaucracy.

What drove this young man to commit what has become a celebrated act of crime in most of the Arab North Africa was not an act of cowardice rather the futility of life in a police state deficient of various freedoms and where the State has failed to provide employment and food for its people.

Some quarters in Uganda have discussed similarities of life in Tunisia to Uganda's. That the level of unemployment is high yet more and more graduates continue to be delivered from the various institutions of higher learning.

In his 23 years at the helm, Ben Ali has organised only three presidential elections and one constitutional referendum in 2002 in which not the presidential term limits were removed but the maximum term limits for a president was moved from 70 to 75 years which ironically is how old Ben Ali is now.

There were fears he would seek to return in the country's presidential elections in 2014 but first he was preparing to revisit the constitution to amend the age issue. Only now have the vast wealth of the Tunisian first family come to light to the rest of the world. Amid all the chaos, Madam Ben Ali was still able to pack up gold and other expensive metals worth $1.5 billion. But the question that many Tunisians, and Ugandans can ask the same, is how would one family accumulate wealth so much that even at the delicate one moment of total national madness they are still able to almost grab ($1.5b) and run with it?

Ben Ali's flight has thrown the country into an unexpected situation of economic woes. An economic crisis is looming with further unemployment expected because the family is said to own more than half of the large businesses that employ most urban Tunisians. The family owns businesses in real estate, financial institutions, leisure and hospitality, media and various manufacturing outfits.

Tunisia is going to its knees because a family has left under such circumstances such as Ben Ali's, the question being asked are embarrassing and point to a nation that slept while its leader implemented kitchen economic policies.

With a promise of an oil economy in the pipeline, Ugandans need to watch who is getting into the oil industry and how the oil revenue will be shared. An oil policy that is transparent and takes care of individual and national interests of Ugandans would be a positive point to start from.

Come February 18, we shall be more concerned about who, among the presidential candidates, will refuse rather than accept the results of the elections. I doubt we want somebody to do a Cote d'Ivoire here but more than half a century of politics after African countries received independence from their colonial masters, nothing is surprising anymore.

Ugandans, even with all the accolades they have of life and fun-loving people, as a people are very hypocritical individuals and therefore their real emotions and thoughts are most times shrouded in falsehood. So, a Cote d'Ivoire or a Tunisia could be the jinx embedded beneath our skin.

* Mr Masiga is the managing editor - Weekend editions of the Monitor Publications Ltd.

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Tunisia: To the tyrants of the Arab world...(opinion)
Al Jazeera, by Lamis Andoni (http://english.aljazeera.net/)
Monday, 17 January 2011
The Tunisian uprising, which succeeded in toppling Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the Tunisian president, has brought down the walls of fear, erected by repression and marginalisation, thus restoring the Arab peoples' faith in their ability to demand social justice and end tyranny. Click here to read full article at www.afrika.no.
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Tunisia: The wombs of African women will fell dictators and bring freedom (opinion)
The East African (Kenya), by Charles Onyango-Abbo
Monday, 17 January 2011
Nairobi (Kenya) - We have just seen something we haven’t witnessed in a North African, or Arab, country for donkey years. Click here to read full article at www.afrika.no

Al-Shabab and Al-Qaeda: Playing Americans for suckers - Clooney Falling Into Bin Laden’s Sudan Trap

noreply@blogger.com (Ingrid J. Jones) — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 23:51:00 +0000

Al-Shabab and Al-Qaeda: Playing Americans for suckers
Source: Michael Scheuer's Non-Intervention.com
Author: Michael Scheuer
Published: 15 July, 2010. Full copy (excluding 4 Comments):

The suicide bombing in Uganda’s capital of Kampala by the Somali Islamist group al-Shabab serves several agendas. While the facile and clueless Western media call it an “anti-World Cup attack” and the lame Obama White House says it proves al-Qaeda’s “racism” toward Africans, the reality is that from al-Sahbab’s perspective the attack is a logical and necessary response to the prolonged U.S.- and Western-backed intervention in Somalia. (How long, one wonders, will it take U.S. and Western officials to learn people don’t like being occupied?) The Kampala attack also is another episode in al-Qaeda’s ongoing campaign to lure the United States into more interventions in the Muslim world.

At the most basic level, there would be no al-Shabab in Somalia — at least not at its present strength, reach, and popularity — if Washington had not panicked several years ago at the thought of an Islamist organization known as the “Islamic Courts” taking power in Somalia. The Islamic Courts’ had all but displaced a feckless, corruption-ridden UN-backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG), and was beginning to bring a harsh but effective law-and-order system to Somalia for the first time in decades. Under President Bush, however, Washington could not stand the thought of a working Islamic government and so labored overtly and covertly for its demise.

Ultimately, Washington supported Ethiopia’s late-2006 invasion of Somalia without thinking through that it would henceforth be seen as the sponsor of Christian Ethiopia’s invasion of Muslim Somalia. The invasion turned Somalis of most factions against the interloping Christian occupiers. The large and better-armed Ethiopian conventional forces prevailed, broke up what was left of the Islamic Courts, and protected the UN-backed TFG, which now appeared even more as the imposed creature of hostile Christian countries. The Ethiopians fought a growing guerrilla war against the Somali militias and insurgents until casualties became too heavy and Addis Ababa decided to withdraw its forces. The African Union then acted to supply the 5,000 military personnel from Uganda and Burundi who now are the peacekeepers and TFG-protectors in the capital of Mogadishu.

The sum of this complicated story is that al-Shabab was born, developed quickly, and now appears to have the manpower, political savvy, and military wherewithal to compete for control of much of the central and southern portions of Somalia. Al-Shabab’s quick evolution is the result of several factors, including foreign occupation, which historically radicalizes Somalia’s usually moderate form of Islam, and the availability of help from al-Qaeda, especially in the form of veteran fighters, who offer training and a leaven of combat experience, and media operatives whose expertise has dramatically improved the quality of al-Shabab media capabilities during the past two years. In addition, a substantial inflow of aid from Arab Peninsula countries who are nominally U.S. “allies” has allowed al-Shabab and other Somali Islamists to deliver food and health services to destitute Somalis and improve their weaponry.

Having helped destroy the less radical Islamic Courts regime and still backing the moribund TFG, Washington now confronts the potential of al-Shabab controlling two thirds of Somalia and — after the Uganda bombing — the specter of the group slowly destabilizing heretofore reliably pro-U.S. regimes in Ethiopia, Kenya, and elsewhere in East Africa.

Neither Ethiopia nor Kenya is as stable as it was before the Islamic Courts were destroyed. Ethiopia paid a high price for its invasion and occupation of Somalia not only in terms of funds and lives, but in earning the durable enmity of Somali Muslims and their Islamist allies in Africa and overseas. Kenya has likewise earned al-Shabab’s wrath for supporting the corrupt TFG regime and for its willingness to host the dozen or more UN agencies and multiple Western NGOs who are operating in Somalia with intentions that are perceived by many Somalis as anti-Islamic.

And here is where al-Qaeda is luring the United States into another potentially disastrous intervention. Even though it has expended a minimum and mainly media-focused effort to support al-Shabab, Washington’s abject fear of al-Qaeda — notwithstanding Obama’s cocky and denigrating words about the group — has made bin Laden’s al-Shabab ally a primary U.S. target and therefore yet another vehicle for luring America into an expensive fight on Muslim territory.

Even before all the causalities from the bombing were counted, for example, the FBI had sent investigators to the “crime scene” in Kampala — as if the Ugandans need help from the helpless — and yesterday Rudyard Obama said he would “redouble” U.S. efforts in Somalia, which certainly means more U.S. military involvement there and the pouring of more taxpayer money into the maw of the corrupt-to-the-bone TFG. And as it becomes clear that Ethiopian and Kenyan security are also threatened by al-Shabab, those countries too will be the recipients of Mr. Obama’s resolute eagerness to dig us ever deeper into expensive, Bush-like foreign adventures.

Overall, Bush and Obama took a problem that was on the periphery of top U.S. security issues and through mindlessness and intervention made it an agent of destabilization in East Africa and a growing drain on U.S. resources. Renewed U.S. efforts against al-Shabab, together with Washington’s efforts to undermine the Muslim government of Sudan and get U.S. military forces involved in the irrelevant-to-America Darfur civil war, will again do al-Qaeda’s work for it by validating for Muslims bin Laden’s claim that Washington intends to destroy all Muslim regimes except those of the Arab tyrants who supply oil to the United States and its allies.

Years ago Osama bin Laden said something akin to: “All we need to do is send two mujahedin anywhere on earth to wave a flag that has ‘al-Qaeda’ on it and the Americans will arrive the next day with their troops and an open wallet.” As Obama hungrily gobbles down this latest lure from al-Qaeda, one can only think that there truly is a sucker born every minute.
[End of copy]

- - -

Further Reading

Clooney Falling Into Bin Laden’s Sudan Trap
Source: FOX News - http://nation.foxnews.com
Date: Monday, 03 January 2011. Full copy (excluding 271 Comments):

With the U.S. government and such scintillating strategic thinkers as George Clooney, Don Cheadle, Angelina Jolie, and Mia Farrow in the lead, the West is about to help rip Darfur and the rest of Muslim Sudan's oil-rich southern territories out of the country and create an independent, largely Christian state.

Under the guise of a "referendum" (set for 9 January 2011) that will be observed by a 110-person European Union team of imperial busybodies, Sudan's primarily Christian south will be severed from the Sudanese nation-state, setting the stage for a continuation of the decades old Muslim-Christian Sudanese civil war. The difference will be that henceforth - as is occurring in Somalia - the U.S. and the West will be obliged to protect the new nation they created by theft and oil lust with diplomacy, funding, arms, military training, and eventually troops.

And what is America's interest in becoming involved to the hilt and inextricably in Sudan? What is so vital to the United States in Sudan that President Obama is pressing the leaders of Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, and the other states of the African Union to support "our intense interest in having a successful referendum" - read that as "our intense interest in carving up Sudan to suit our imperial purposes and corner access to Sudanese oil." (As an aside, one must admit Rudyard Obama is nothing if not an aggressive proponent of improving - that is, "Westernizing" - the lives of "our little brown brothers," although the blatant theft of Islamic land is a rather odd component for the kinder and more gentle "Muslim outreach program" Obama announced in Cairo and Jakarta.)

The answer is that Obama, our bipartisan political elite, the mainstream media, and the rich, immature, libertine, and anti-U.S. Hollywood set lead by Clooney, et al, want to feel good about themselves by doing "good" for foreigners. For these elite U.S. citizens-of-the-world, ordinary Americans and their kids can starve, freeze, live on the streets, fail to find work, and remain illiterate forever. In essence, they can rot while Washington spends their taxes on Darfur - a place where absolutely no genuine U.S. interest is at stake.

Now, that's a bit harsh and in one aspect even wrong. The Democrats and Republicans must ensure that ordinary Americans are kept well-off enough to keep having children who will join the U.S. military that will be used to fight the wars their interventionism start. And there can be no doubt that Washington's leading role in championing Darfur's secession from Sudan will intensify America's war with Islam and the evolving Islam-vs-Christianity war in Africa. And, not surprisingly, the ever-adept Osama bin Laden began setting this trap for the United States over the course of the last decade.

Bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and Abu Yaha al-Libi, one of al-Qaeda's leading theologians, have spoken publicly and on multiple occasions about Washington's intention to intervene in Somalia and Sudan to halt the spread of Sunni Islam in the Horn of Africa; to eliminate the Islamic regime in Sudan; to champion the spread of Christianity in Africa; and to ensure Sudan's massive oil reserves are in pro-U.S. hands. Obama's administration, with full Republican support, is about to make these three al-Qaeda leaders appear omniscient to the Muslim world.

READ THE FULL STORY AT NON-INTERVENTION.COM [By Michael Scheuer entitled "U.S. intervention in Sudan and Somalia: Sowing war’s whirlwind for Americans" published Wednesday, 29 December 2010]

- - -

Postscript from Uganda Watch editor
Note the following copy of two quotations published in the sidebar of Michael Scheuer's Non-Intervention.com:

My policy has been and will continue to be ... to be on friendly terms with, but independent of, all nations on earth. To share in the broils of none. To supply their wants, and be carriers for them all; being thoroughly convinced that it is our policy and interest to do so; and that nothing short of self-respect, and that justice which is essential to a national character, ought to involve us in war.
George Washington

Don't patronize the enemy. They mean business. They mean every word they say. They're killing us now. Their will is not broken, They mean it. ... If they're there, your job is to kill them all. I did not want to have them just retreat and have to fight them all over again.
Maj. Gen. James Mattis, USMC

Also, note that according to Michael Scheuer's About page, he resigned from the CIA in November, 2004 and since that date has written for Antiwar.com and LewRockwell.com.
- - -

Follow news from Sudan at this site's parent blog, Sudan Watch http://sudanwatch.blogspot.com

Yellow fever outbreak along Sudan-Uganda border

noreply@blogger.com (Ingrid J. Jones) — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 14:56:00 +0000

Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes and can cause severe illness and death.

Yellow Fever Outbreak Along Sudan-Uganda Border
Source: SRS - Sudan Radio Service - www.sudanradio.org
Date: Thursday, 30 December 2010. Full copy:

30 December 2010 – (Juba) - There is an outbreak of Yellow Fever at the southern Sudan–Uganda border areas which has hampered the transport system between the two regions.

The number of people who are affected is not yet known.

The Minister of Health in the Government of Southern Sudan Luka Monoja speaking to SRS in Juba on Thursday said the ministry is preparing to handle the outbreak.

[Luka Monoja]: “We are organizing to take immediate measures. You know Yellow Fever is a very serious disease, but it has got specific steps. We will prevent anybody who doesn’t have a yellow card. But we should be able to vaccinate there at the border. You will not come until your card is ten-days old. Now a technical team from my ministry is meeting with WHO. We have about five or eight border points leading to Uganda, they should be staffed with competent health care personnel to assist. It is possible this disease started some days ago. We are going to make a public awareness for people at risk like travelers and so on, to get vaccinated so that when they travel they have no problem”.

Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes and can cause severe illness and death.

- - -

Further Reading

According to Bupa's website, the following information was published in February 2009 by, quote "Bupa's Health Information Team and is based on reputable sources of medical evidence. It has been reviewed by appropriate medical or clinical professionals. The content is intended only for general information and does not replace the need for personal advice from a qualified health professional".

Symptoms of yellow fever

You usually get symptoms three to six days after you have been bitten by an infected mosquito. This is known as the incubation period. The symptoms usually come on suddenly and can include:

high fever (39 to 40 °C)
shivers
headaches
nausea and/or vomiting
loss of appetite
muscle pain and aches
bloodshot eyes
flushing of your face
These symptoms usually last for three to four days and represent the acute phase of the virus. Most people begin to recover after this phase and their symptoms gradually disappear.

However, within 24 hours of seeming to recover, 15 to 25 percent of people enter a toxic phase of the disease. Symptoms during this phase are far more serious and may be life-threatening, including:

fever
jaundice (yellowing of your skin and the whites of your eyes) - this is where the disease gets its name
kidney failure, which may result in you no longer being able to pass urine
stomach pain with vomiting
blood in your vomit or stools
bleeding from your mouth, nose or eyes
Up to half of people who enter the toxic phase of the disease die within 10 to 14 days. Major organ failure, shock, delirium and coma usually occur before death. The rest of the people who enter this phase usually make a full recovery.

Treatment for yellow fever

There is no specific treatment for yellow fever, other than preventive measures.

Some of your symptoms may be relieved through bed rest and taking rehydration salts and paracetamol. Always read the patient information leaflet that comes with your medicine.

Intensive hospital care may help people who enter the toxic phase of the disease. However, this type of hospital care is often not available in poorer countries where the virus is widespread.

People who recover from the disease will be immune to the virus for the rest of their life.

Prevention of yellow fever

Prevention is vital in protecting yourself and stopping the spread of yellow fever. Current preventive measures include immunisation and protecting yourself from mosquito bites.

Click here for more information at www.bupa.co.uk

FXB Uganda: Beads from Beneficiaries - Necklaces that Change Lives

noreply@blogger.com (Ingrid J. Jones) — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 09:00:00 +0000

Extracts from What W.E. Can Do at www.fxb4empowerment.org

Beads from Beneficiaries is an opportunity for supporters to celebrate this holiday season by sending a heartfelt gift with the power to lift a family out of poverty – and it’s wrapping up next Friday, December 17th. Those who make a $10 donation to FXB in honor of their friends and family, will be sent a card informing their honoree of their gift! As a special touch, for individuals who donate $40 we will send a handmade, gift-wrapped beaded necklace made by a woman enrolled in FXB's program in Uganda along with the card.

Each beautiful beaded necklace represents an environmentally and socially responsible solution to overcoming the affects of poverty and AIDS. The women in FXB’s programs often have no means of earning an income prior to joining the FXB-Village program. Many are widows and mothers struggling to support the children in their care. FXB provides these women with the tools they need to become self-sufficient, including skills training and supplies to start a new trade.

Many of FXB’s beneficiaries choose to make necklaces by hand from recycled paper and glass beads as their income generating activity. Colorful paper is hand rolled to create festive beads, giving each necklace a unique appearance. The income these women make selling their crafts at the local markets allows them to feed their families, buy uniforms and pay school fees for their children, receive medical treatment, and open savings accounts to prepare for the future!

Your thoughtful gift this holiday season will help FXB provide a comprehensive package of support to more families so that they may escape poverty forever.

Join Our Holiday Fundraising Campaign
FXB's Beads from Beneficiaries

Photo of mothers in Uganda making necklaces by hand to earn an income. Your donation will help FXB continue to provide medical, nutritional, psychological, and educational support and other services to these women and their families so they can escape poverty.

KPFA Radio/Ann Garrison: "Oil, African Genocide, and the USA's LRA Excuse"

noreply@blogger.com (Ingrid J. Jones) — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 09:00:00 +0000

NOTE to self. Re-read the below copied report written by Ann Garrison. The report was published yesterday at her blog titled Ann Garrison. According to Ms Garrison's blogger profile, she is located in San Francisco, California, USA.

Also, copied here below is a map published Nov. 25 at this site's sister blog Congo Watch: "CAR: CPJP rebels kill 4 soldiers, hold Birao garrison town near border with Chad and Sudan".

Oil, African Genocide, and the USA's LRA Excuse
Source: Ann Garrison - anngarrison.blogspot.com
Author: Ann Garrison - KPFA Radio Weekend News, 12.04.2010
Date posted: Monday, 06 December 2010 at 10:50 AM
Copy in full:

On Wednesday, November 24th, President Obama sent his plan to mobilize Uganda's army, the Uganda People's Defense Force, to cross its northern border into the Central African Republic and Southern Sudan, to disarm the Lord's Resistance Army, a militia that has been fighting the Ugandan government for over 20 years. The White House issued a statement saying:

“The development of the strategy, relied on the significant involvement of the Department of State, the Department of Defense, the US Agency for International Development and the Intelligence Community." --White House "Strategy to Support the Disarmament of the Lord's Resistance Army," posted to the website of the Pulitzer Center

The President seemed either unaware or unconcerned about the UN Mapping Report, released on October 1st, which documents Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's army's war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocidal massacres of civilians, Rwandan Hutu refugees and Congolese Hutus, in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

How else could he propose to mobilize the very same army to enter the Central African Republic and Southern Sudan to protect civilians and refugees, and "meet humanitarian requirements" in "affected populations," as his strategy statement said he would?

Just over a week later, on Friday, December 3rd, NBC News Dateline aired "Winds of War, George Clooney in Sudan," which warned that the Northern Sudanese Moslem regime of Omar al-Bashir might commit genocide in Christian Southern Sudan. The next day I called Black Star News Editor Milton Allimadi from the KPFA Radio studios, in Berkeley, California, to produce this segment for the KPFA Weekend News:

KPFA Weekend News Anchor/David Rosenberg:
NBC's Dateline last night aired an hour long documentary titled "Winds of War, George Clooney in Sudan." The actor warned Dateline's audience that Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir's regime in Khartoum has already been indicted, by the International Criminal Court, for war crimes and genocide, and that he is now amassing weapons and troops to prevent Southern Sudan from forming an independent state. Critics of U.S. interventions in the region say that the U.S. is also amassing weapons and troops to move on Southern Sudan, from the Central African Republic, and from its southern border with Uganda, to secure oil. Ann Garrison is live in the studio with this report.

KPFA/Ann Garrison:
George Clooney, on Friday night's NBC Dateline, cited the opinions of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the CIA, and President Barack Obama as evidence that everyone agrees that the U.S. must engage to stop genocide after Southern Sudan's January referendum, in which the Southern Sudanese are all but certain to vote for independence.

Actor George Clooney on NBC's Dateline:
The State Department said, the Secretary of State said it's a ticking time bomb. The CIA said this is the next genocide if we're not careful; it is the biggest risk. The President has said as much. This, everyone acknowledges that this is what is going to take place if someone doesn't moderate and mediate. And that's not just my saying it. That's everyone saying it. I'm just trying to say it as loud as possible.

Ann Garrison:
Clooney's "everyone" did not include Ugandan American journalist Milton Allimadi, Editor of the New York City-based Black Star News. Allimadi says that if the President were really serious about stopping genocide in Africa, he would send peacekeepers into eastern Congo, where the worst African genocide is ongoing and has been for the past 16 years, with a loss of over 6 million lives.

Allimadi also said that Obama would not be martialing the Ugandan army of Yoweri Museveni in Northern Uganda, to move into the Central African Republic and Southern Sudan, enacting the LRA DIsarmament Act, after the October 1st release of the UN Mapping Report documenting the Ugandan Army's war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocidal massacres of Hutu civilians in Congo. Allimadi says the LRA is really an excuse to secure Southern Sudanese oil after Southern Sudan's January referendum on independence.

Black Star News Editor Milton Allimadi:
I don't buy this LRA business, not for one minute. The United States is not interested in going after the LRA. If the Ugandan government, which is familiar with the terrain, could not defeat the LRA in 24 years of conflict, what added dimension can the United States bring to this? We already saw one disastrous instance, in December 2008, using U.S. logistical support and intelligence, the Ugandan Army attacked the LRA camp at Garamba, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. And the consequences were just disastrous. They failed to get the key leaders of the LRA and instead provoked massacres of innocent Congolese civilians. Who knows who did the killings, whether it was the LRA or the Ugandan troops? It was a massive disaster.

Milton Allimadi:
I think this is what's really happening:

As you know, in early January, Southern Sudan, whose capitol is Juba, is going to vote on a referendum. That referendum will decide whether it becomes an independent republic, and it's a foregone conclusion that they're going to vote for independence.

Now here's the deal. Most or all of the oil wealth that is now sustaining the government of Sudan in the North happens to be located in Southern Sudan. I don't see how the government in Khartoum can survive and sustain itself without this oil wealth.

I think the U.S. has taken a keen interest in the management and control of this oil wealth. And if you look at the map very carefully, the LRA right now, is purported to be concentrated in Central African Republic, which also conveniently happens to be bordered with the Sudan. It's on the southwestern part of the Sudan's border, so they share a border. And in fact, if you're going to look at it from a military point of view, it's half the distance to march from the outpost of the border in Central African Republic to the capitol of Khartoum than it is to march from Juba, the capitol of Southern Sudan, to Khartoum.

I am convinced that the United States, with its ally, the Ugandan dictator Yoweri Museveni, are setting up a front line in Central African Republic, in order to weaken the government of the Sudan in Khartoum and make it difficult for the government of the Sudan in Khartoum to launch an attack against Southern Sudan, should they declare independence, which is a foregone conclusion. That to me is a much more credible story than this bogus story about the U.S. wanting to go after the LRA.

KPFA/Ann Garrison:
And do you think they want to do this in order to secure Southern Sudanese oil reserves?

Absolutely. Southern Sudanese oil reserves. And that is becoming a huge oil field now. Southern Sudan borders northern Uganda. And going from that region into Western Uganda, that's a vast oil field. As you know in recent years there's been massive discoveries of oil fields in that part of Uganda as well. So if you look at this as a continuous region, starting from Western Uganda sweeping into Northern Uganda, into Southern Sudan, very rich oil fields, which, considering the U.S. presence in the region right now, is much more secure than some of the oil fields in the Middle East.

KPFA/Ann Garrison:
President Obama himself, in his 2006 Senate Bill, the Obama Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act, said that rebel militias serve as pretexts for Uganda and Rwanda's invasions and resource plunder of neighboring Congo, but Allimadi says that Obama, the U.S. Africa Command, and federal legislators now seem to be using the pretext themselves.

For Pacifica/KPFA Radio, I'm Ann Garrison.

See also:
U.S. Troops Train Ugandan Soldiers, Photo Essay, U.S. Department of Defense, Black Star News, 02.12.2008
DRC: Civilians suffer as Uganda takes on LRA, IRIN, 01.20.2009
Peace in Northern Uganda via U.S. Bullets and Bombs, Black Star News, 03.29.2010
How Invisible Children Falsely Marketed The LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act, Black Star News, 06.02.2010
Congo Genocide; Obama Knows the Real Story, Black Star News, 10.07.2010
Sen. Barbara Boxer Co-sponsored Bill That Strengthens African Genocidal, Homophobic, Dictator, Black Star News, 09.22.2010

Labels: AFRICOM, George Clooney, KPFA, LRA, Milton Allimadi Uganda People's Defense Force,Museveni, NBC Dateline, Omar al-Bashir, Southern Sudan, Sudan, Uganda

[End of copy]

Further Reading

From the New York Times - Sunday, 05 Dec 2010

Headlines Around the Web

What's This?

SUDAN WATCH

DECEMBER 4, 2010

Sudan: Arab or African? (The

Debate Continues)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

DECEMBER 4, 2010

South Sudan Official: No Delay to

Jan Freedom Vote

INSIDE DATELINE

DECEMBER 3, 2010

Take action on Sudan now...

ECORAZZI.COM :: CELEBRITIES CAUGHT GREEN-HANDED

DECEMBER 3, 2010

George Clooney Sudan Special

Particularly 'Revealing' Warns Ann

Curry

SPERO NEWS - RELIGIOUS NEWS

DECEMBER 2, 2010

Sudan: Signs of hope and wonder

More at Blogrunner »

Uganda extradites to Rwanda genocide suspect Jean Pierre Kwitonda alias Kapalata

noreply@blogger.com (Ingrid J. Jones) — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 16:21:00 +0000

Uganda extradites Genocide suspect
Source: The New Times - www.newtimes.co.rw
Author: Bosco R. Asiimwe
Date: Friday, 03 December 2010

(KIGALI) - The government of Uganda, on Wednesday, extradited to Rwanda a genocide fugitive who was arrested last month.

Jean Pierre Kwitonda alias Kapalata was arrested by the Uganda police on November 4 in Lukaya, Masaka District following a red notice issued by Interpol Rwanda.

He has since been detained at Kireka police station, a suburb of the Ugandan capital Kampala.

Kwitonda was handed over by Charles Tumwesigye, from Interpol Directorate in Kampala. Tony Kulamba, head of Interpol Rwanda received the suspect at Gatuna border post.

Kwitonda who fled the country in 1997 is charged with six counts, including Genocide, complicity in genocide and conspiracy to commit genocide.

He also faces murder charges, extermination, formation, membership, leadership and association of criminal gangs whose purpose and existence was to do harm to people or their properties, according to the indictment.

The suspect had been handed a 19-year sentence in absentia by a Gacaca court in Gikondo, where he allegedly committed the crimes during 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.

“During Genocide, Kwitonda is said to have acted individually, or as a part of a joint criminal enterprise with some members of the ex-Far, Interahamwe leaders, interim government authorities that executed the genocide and other known or unknown to prepare, train, equip and organize militias under his supervision in former Gikondo Commune, then Kigali Prefecture,” a statement by Interpol partly reads.

During the Genocide, Kwitonda who was then 20, headed the Gikondo youth wing of MRND, the ruling of former President Juvénal Habyarimana which planned and executed the genocide.

A number of witnesses in the area had testified on how he championed the extermination of Tutsis in 1994.

He had been a well established businessman in Lyantonde trading centre, importing goods from Tanzania, Kenya and Sudan.

During his time in Uganda, Kwitonda married a Rwandan woman with whom they had four children.

“I officially hand over Kwitonda Jean Pierre alias Kapalata as per the table request by Rwanda,” Tumwesigye said handing the fugitive and his case file to Kulamba.

[End of copy]

Related Reports

Uganda extradites alleged Rwandan genocide fugitive

‎
African Press Agency (subscription) - 1 day ago

Kayiranga added that Ugandan and Rwandan prosecutions have been working together on his arrest and extradition for the genocide suspect to face justice ...

ICTR Prosecutor files applications for referrals

‎
Hague Justice Portal - 9 Nov 2010

... concerns have also prevented the extradition of accused Rwandan suspects to ... who was arrested in Uganda in June 2010 and faces charges of genocide, ...

Resolve, Uganda: US President Obama's strategy on the LRA

noreply@blogger.com (Ingrid J. Jones) — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 22:31:00 +0000

FOR the record, here is a copy of an email received today from Paul Ronan, Director of Advocacy, Resolve (formerly Resolve Uganda), followed by a copy of a blog post and tweet published today by Sam Bell, Executive Director of the newly merged Save Darfur Coalition / Genocide Intervention Network.

Please find attached President Obama's strategy on the Lord's Resistance Army, released on November 24th. Section 4 of the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act, which passed US Congress in May, mandated that President Obama develop “a strategy to guide future United States support across the region for viable multilateral efforts to mitigate and eliminate the threat to civilians and regional stability posed by the Lord’s Resistance Army.”

Below please find highlights and a brief breakdown of the strategy, including actions listed as priorities for implementation. We look forward to being in touch in the coming weeks with deeper analysis of the strategy and next steps for implementation. Two likely challenges to implementation will be securing adequate funding from Congress and the current lack of a senior LRA point person within State Department. Also attached is a press roundup of media coverage of the strategy release.

Best,

Paul

Director of Advocacy

Resolve (formerly Resolve Uganda)

Vision: “Though the challenge is complex, the vision remains simple: people in central Africa are free from the threat of LRA violence and have the freedom to pursue their livelihoods."

Purpose: The strategy does not contain much detail about specific action steps, instead providing an "overarching, comprehensive strategy direction over several years to... increase the likelihood of success in mitigating and eliminating the threat posed by the LRA." (Upcoming Congressional decisions on levels of funding will help determine how robustly the strategy is implemented and hence specific action steps.)

Four main objectives (and summary of sub-objectives):

1. Increase protection of civilians

- Improve sharing of information for understanding threats and vulnerabilities of civilian population as a result of LRA presence, and for supporting and developing effective protection strategies and interventions.

- Promote the increase in physical security of vulnerable civilian populations through the presence and action of protection actors.

- Strengthen the understanding of the LRA threat and the will and capabilities of key actors to support efforts to protect civilians and prevent and mitigate LRA attacks.

2. Apprehend or remove from the battlefield Joseph Kony and senior LRA commanders

- Provide enhanced integrated logistical, operational, and intelligence assistance in support of regional and multilateral partners.

- Enhance and sustain diplomatic efforts to coordinate and encourage support for multilateral and regional military forces in their efforts to counter the LRA and to deny any potential support to the LRA from outside actors.

3. Promote the defection, disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of remaining LRA fighters

- Ensure continued multilateral support to efforts to promote defections of LRA fighters and non-combatants through radio programs, leaflets, and other communication.

- Work with regional governments, MONUSCO, and other international actors to ensure necessary facilities and procedures are in place to receive defectors and transport them to desired home locations.

- Support the provision of enhanced medical, social, and economic reintegration assistance to demobilized LRA members and receiving communities.

4. Increase humanitarian access and provide continued relief to affected communities

- Humanitarian agencies provide minimum standards of life-saving support to LRA-affected populations.

- Promote increased access and infrastructure for the delivery of humanitarian services.

- Humanitarian agencies support early recovery activities, including transition support and livelihood support for LRA-affected populations.

Priority actions for immediate implementation

Increase physical access and telecommunications
- including road and airstrip rehabilitation and telecommunications expansion, with focus on LRA-affected areas of CAR and DRC

Increase mobility and access of civilian protection actors in LRA-affected areas
- mentions need to increase mobility of "humanitarian and civilian protection partners, including peacekeeping missions"

Enhance coordination of civilian actors and sharing of information across borders

Enhance the coordination and collaboration of forces in LRA-affected areas
- mentions need for coordination between national militaries and peacekeeping missions

Increase opportunities for LRA fighters and associated persons to safely defect and escape

Multilateral engagement

- The strategy mentions the October AU conference on the LRA in Bangui and "applauds AU engagement and regional leadership and coordination to address the LRA threat"

- The strategy highlights three priorities for US engagement at the UN Security Council as, 1. ensuring relevant peacekeeping missions are "resourced appropriately to fulfill their mandates," 2. encourage the UN political office for Central Africa to strengthen regional and international cooperation on the LRA, and 3. support the deployment of UN humanitarian staff to LRA-affected areas.

- The strategy also states an intention to continue engagement with the Office of the EU Special Representative, the World Bank's TDRP-led LRA working group, and the Great Lakes Contact Group.

- The strategy says "Any effective strategy cannot exclusively rely on one military force..." It also acknowledges that there is no guarantee Ugandan military operations against the LRA will continue and highlights the necessity of developing broader support and capacity among regional and international actors to address the crisis (though few specific details are provided).

Other notes of importance

- The strategy acknowledges that “there is no purely military solution to the LRA threat and impact.”

- The strategy highlights that additional support to the UPDF for LRA operations will happen in parallel with efforts to encourage professionalization of the UPDF and diplomatic efforts to encourage the Ugandan government and UPDF to respect human rights, democracy and good governance in Uganda.

- The strategy mentions that "local outreach" is an important component of pursuing the strategy's objectives, but does not provide detail on how this will be done.

- The strategy also outlines continued US efforts to promote comprehensive reconstruction, transitional justice, and reconciliation in northern Uganda (see annex 3).

--
Paul Ronan
Director of Advocacy
Resolve (formerly Resolve Uganda)

m: +1 315.569.8051.
o: +1 202.596.2517.
www.theresolve.org

Copy of attachment:

Press roundup for US LRA strategy release

Uganda’s dangerous rebels: Lords of woe – Economist – November 11, 2010 HYPERLINK "http://www.economist.com/node/17472814" http://www.economist.com/node/17472814

HYPERLINK "http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/Africa/Uganda-welcomes-US-LRA-plan-10646.html" \t "_blank" Uganda welcomes US LRA plan - Capital FM - ‎Nov 26, 2010‎ BY AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE KAMPALA, Nov 26

HYPERLINK "http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gBDRRHXVuzY1JDiH8RjWVEpyOwjA?docId=CNG.8a715e6abb8e8888f916a64a424e6b92.1131" \t "_blank" Obama urged to press ahead with disarming Uganda rebels - AFP - ‎Nov 25, 2010‎ KINSHASA

HYPERLINK "http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/13/739330" \t "_blank" USA to disarm Joseph Kony rebels - New Vision - ‎Nov 25, 2010‎, By Barbara Among

HYPERLINK "http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Obama-Presents-Plan-to-Help-Disarm-LRA-in-Uganda-110613824.html" \t "_blank" Obama Presents Plan to Help Disarm LRA in Uganda - Voice of America - ‎Nov 25, 2010‎, AP

HYPERLINK "http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/25/us-plan-disarm-rebels-central-africa" \t "_blank" US reveals strategy to disarm central Africa rebels - The Guardian - ‎Nov 25, 2010‎

HYPERLINK "http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-africa-11837310" \t "_blank" Obama plan to fight Africa rebels - BBC News - ‎Nov 25, 2010‎

HYPERLINK "http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-25/obama-administration-asks-fpr-funds-to-boost-uganda-s-fight-against-rebels.html" \t "_blank" Obama Administration Asks for Funds to Boost Uganda's Fight Against Rebels - Bloomberg - HYPERLINK "http://news.google.com/news/search?pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=author:%22Michael+J.+Kavanagh%22&scoring=n" \t "_blank" Michael J. Kavanagh - ‎Nov 25, 2010‎

HYPERLINK "http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2010/11/president-barack-obama-outlined-a.html" \t "_blank" President Obama Releases Plan to End Rebel Violence in Uganda - NewsHour - HYPERLINK "http://news.google.com/news/search?pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=author:%22Talea+Miller%22&scoring=n" \t "_blank" Talea Miller - ‎Nov 25, 2010‎

HYPERLINK "http://www.stripes.com/news/africa/obama-calls-for-four-pronged-effort-to-defeat-african-rebel-group-1.126439" \t "_blank" Obama calls for four-pronged effort to defeat African rebel group - Stars and Stripes - HYPERLINK "http://news.google.com/news/search?pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=author:%22John+Vandiver%22&scoring=n" \t "_blank" John Vandiver - ‎Nov 25, 2010‎

HYPERLINK "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11837310%20" \t "_blank" Barack Obama's Plan to Defeat Ugandan LRA Rebels - BBC, Nov 25, 2010

HYPERLINK "http://www.jeuneafrique.com/depeche_afp_20101125T185757Z20101125T185752Z_des-ong-demandent-l-application-urgente-du-plan-obama-contre-la-lra.html" \t "_blank" Des ONG demandent l'application "urgente" du plan Obama contre la LRA - AFP - Nov 25, 2010

HYPERLINK "http://www.observer.ug/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11124&Itemid=59" \t "_blank" Kony's Plan Too Late, Says UPDF - The Observer, Written by David Tash Lumu & Agencies, Sunday, 28 November 2010 18:03

HYPERLINK "http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/africa/101127/obama-launches-plan-against-africas-lords-resistance-army" \t "_blank" Obama takes aim at Africa's Lord's Resistance Army - The Global Post, by Tristan McConnell, 29 November, 2010

Rights groups urge Obama to act against LRA - Radio Netherlands Worldwide – November 30, 2010 HYPERLINK "http://www.rnw.nl/international-justice/article/rights-groups-urge-obama-act-against-lra" http://www.rnw.nl/international-justice/article/rights-groups-urge-obama-act-against-lra

BBC Newshour radio: HYPERLINK "http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p00byy0r/Newshour_24_11_2010_(2100_GMT)" \t "_blank" http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p00byy0r/Newshour_24_11_2010_(2100_GMT)

President Obama’s move on Kony encouraging (New Vision – EDITORIAL) - HYPERLINK "http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/14/739559" \t "_blank" http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/14/739559

Boys to men as Sudanese villagers take on Lord's Resistance Army (Sydney Morning Herald) HYPERLINK "http://www.smh.com.au/world/boys-to-men-as-sudanese-villagers-take-on-lords-resistance-army-20101126-18alb.html" \t "_blank" www.smh.com.au/world/boys-to-men-as-sudanese-villagers-take-on-lords-resistance-army-20101126-18alb.html

Obama calls for elimination of Uganda’s rebel group - International Business Times HYPERLINK "http://hken.ibtimes.com/articles/85736/20101125/joseph-kony-obama-uganda-lord-s-resistance-army-acholi-community-international-criminal-court-lra.htm" http://hken.ibtimes.com/articles/85736/20101125/joseph-kony-obama-uganda-lord-s-resistance-army-acholi-community-international-criminal-court-lra.htm

Obama presents Congress plans to disarm Uganda’s LRA rebels – RTT News - HYPERLINK "http://www.rttnews.com/Content/Policy.aspx?Id=1490257&SM=1" http://www.rttnews.com/Content/Policy.aspx?Id=1490257&SM=1

Obama unveils plan for LRA - Legalbrief – November 30, 2010 - HYPERLINK "http://www.legalbrief.co.za/article.php?story=201011301129442" http://www.legalbrief.co.za/article.php?story=201011301129442

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Related Report

Lords Resistance Army in Darfur
Source: Save Darfur Coalition's Blog for Darfur - http://blogfordarfur.org/archives/6255
Date: Wednesday, 01 December 2010
Author: Sam Bell, Executive Director, Save Darfur Coalition / Genocide Intervention Network
Copy in full:

Yesterday the UN Group of Experts for the Democratic Republic of Congo released a report which included evidence echoing the findings of many of our partner organizations – the Lords Resistance Army (LRA), an organization on the State Department’s Terrorist Exclusion List, was recently in Darfur and may still be there. Moreover, the Group of Experts’ report has details about contacts between the LRA and the Government of Sudan:

“The Group sought to verify reports from MONUSCO and the Ugandan authorities of contacts between an LRA delegation and Sudanese armed forces officers on the Central African Republic/Sudan border in October 2010. According to two eyewitnesses interviewed by the Group, the purpose of the LRA mission was to re-establish relations with the Sudanese authorities and to request assistance, including safe passage and political asylum for Joseph Kony. This mission, led by Kony’s chief bodyguard, Otto Agweny, reached the Sudanese military base at Am Dafok (near the Central African Republic/Sudan border) on 4 October, staying in the area until 9 October. In Am Dafok the group met with Sudanese armed forces commanders, including a Lieutenant Colonel who presented himself as an intelligence officer from Khartoum and an officer who presented himself as the Sudanese armed forces commander of the western region.

The Group understands that this meeting was the result of an initiative of LRA and not the Sudanese authorities. According to the eyewitnesses, no decision was reached, but the Sudanese armed forces reportedly provided the LRA delegation with their mobile and satellite phone numbers to facilitate future contacts with Kony. The Group requested information from the Sudanese authorities on the content of this meeting, but has not received a reply to its letter of 23 July. The Group will continue to seek the assistance of Member States to investigate individuals who may be supporting LRA from other countries.”

As I wrote two weeks ago, before de-listing Sudan from the State Sponsors of Terrorism List the Obama Administration must investigate links between Khartoum and the LRA, which is even more essential in light of the evidence that the Sudanese armed forces have met with LRA officials. The LRA is responsible for terrorizing civilians throughout central Africa and in 2008 its leader Joseph Kony was listed as “a Specially Designated Global Terrorist” by an Executive Order. In addition, the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Kony and several members of the LRA senior leadership for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

[Hat tip: Sam Bell's tweet posted on Twitter Wednesday, 01 December 2010. Copy in full:

new details on #LRA in #Darfur http://t.co/csvkPxF US shouldn't remove #Sudan from terror list til Kht-LRA ties investigated
about 6 hours ago via web
sam_a_bell
Sam Bell]

New Sudan war would cost Uganda, region

noreply@blogger.com (Ingrid J. Jones) — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 14:01:00 +0000

New Sudan war would cost Kenya, region
Source: AFP / www.capitalfm.co.ke
Date: Thursday, 25 November 2010

(Khartoum, Sudan, Nov 25) - A return to civil war in the event that south Sudan votes for independence would cost the country, the region and international community more than 100 billion dollars, a study published on Thursday warned.

Aegis Trust, an NGO, and three research centres including the Institute for Security Studies, based in South Africa, drew up four post-referendum scenarios, ranging from peace to a resumption of full-scale war between north and south Sudan.

In the case of a 10-year conflict of medium intensity, the losses for Sudan would amount to at least 52.1 billion dollars (39 billion euros), on top of about 29 billion dollars for neighbouring Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda, the study estimated.

The impact on the international community would top 30 billion dollars in terms of peacekeeping missions and humanitarian aid.

"This report demonstrates the high cost of conflict. It implies that domestic, regional and international parties should be asking: 'Are we doing enough to avoid a war that might cost over 100 billion dollars and ruin countless lives?'" said Matthew Bell of London-based Frontier Economics.

The study calculated Sudan's losses in case of war on the basis of an annual 2.2-percent decline in Gross Domestic Product.

It would cost Ethiopia and Kenya more than one billion dollars a year in terms of forecast growth, the researchers said, warning that war would also damage Egypt, Sudan's northern neighbour and the region's leading economy.

The impact could be even heavier in the event of full-scale war that would disrupt the oil production of Africa's largest country, which has reserves of more than six billion barrels.

Khartoum and the former southern rebels signed a peace deal in 2005 after more than two decades of war. A central element of that accord is an independence referendum for the south scheduled for January. Since July, the two sides have been negotiating on key post-vote issues.

Chief among those crucial to a peaceful transition in case of partition is the sharing of oil resources.

Oil revenues make up the Sudanese government's main source of foreign currency earnings, while southern Sudan depends on oil for as much as 98 percent of its budget.

Most of Sudan's reserves are concentrated in the south but can only be exported through a pipeline passing through the north on the way to Port Sudan on the Red Sea.

An oil-sharing formula would benefit both the north and south, whereas an interruption in production and exports would damage the whole country.

"Reaching some level of agreement before the referendum is important not only because both economies need uninterrupted revenue, but also to sustain the confidence of oil companies in their existing investments," the International Crisis Group said this week.

In case of peace and healthy ties between north and south Sudan as well improved security in Darfur, Sudan's growth would steady at an annual 6.2 percent for five years and even reach nine percent from 2016, the study said.

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Report On The Cost Of A Possible Return To War In Sudan
Source: SRS (Sudan Radio Service) - www.sudanradio.org
Date: Thursday, 25 November 2010

(Nairobi, Kenya) – A report published by a coalition of European and African economic and political think-tanks on Thursday says a return to war in Sudan would cost Sudan, the region and the international community about 100 billion US dollars.

The report which comes amid fears that the referendum could trigger an escalation of violence attempts to analyze the economic cost of war to the region.

Mathew Bell an Associate Director of the London based, Frontier Economics spoke to SRS in Nairobi during the launch of the report.

[Mathew Bell]: “The report is an attempt to do with economic analysis of what the cost of war to Sudan and the region and the international community could be. It very explicitly sets aside the very real and important human costs of death and suffering that would result in war but to take a financial perspective as a way of adding to the debate around the cost of war. The headline itself looks like it would cost in excess of about a hundred billion dollars to the combination of Sudan the region and the international community should war break out. That figure breaks down into about 50 billion dollar cost to the Sudanese economy itself. About a 25 billion dollar cost to the regional economy including Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda. And about a 25 to 30 billion dollar cost to the international community in the form of peace keeping in the form of humanitarian intervention.”

Mathew Bell recognizes the difficulties in measuring the costs of potential future conflict in the report. He explains the different scenarios.

[Mathew Bell]: “Because of the uncertainties of what may happen because nobody can be sure about what the outcome is going to be, we have looked at different potential scenarios; we have tried to come up with a range of figures. And the 100 billion dollar that we have been quoting is towards the bottom end of that range. And the Low, medium and high conflict scenarios are different levels of conflict from a low level civil war situation, to a very serious situation to a very serious full blown civil war that might involve some of the regional players as well, or ways of how to characterize different points in the spectrum of costs. What we don’t comment on at all is what the likelihood of different scenarios would be. But we want to give a range of potential costs.”

According to the report the evidence suggests that the net impact of conflict would be significantly negative. Sudan would lose about 50 billion USD from its GDP, the neighboring countries would lose 25 billion USD of GDP and the international community would lose 30 billion USD in peacekeeping and humanitarian costs.

The report by the European and African economic and political think-tanks on the cost of war in Sudan was launched in Nairobi on Thursday.