News@ISS

ISS Today: The Impact of Inadequate Ammunition Stockpile Management in Africa

webmaster@issafrica.org (Institute for Security Studies) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 03:24:38 PDT

ISS Today: 6 Jul 2009:

At the end of April there was a massive explosion at a government armoury on the outskirts of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. The armoury, which is situated close to a military facility, and a mere 14km away from the city centre, was said to contain a significant amount of ordinance, including mines and artillery shells. The April 29 explosion, which sent shockwaves throughout the city, resulted in the deaths of at least three people, with scores more being injured and left homeless."

ISS Today: Intelligence ministry, A study in democracy? The 2009 State Security Budget Debate, South Africa

webmaster@issafrica.org (Institute for Security Studies) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:18:42 PDT

ISS Today: 3 July 2009 :

The minister for State Security, Dr. Siyabonga Cwele missed the opportunity, in his annual budget vote address to the South African Parliament on July 1, to explain the implication of the ministry’s name change. Neither did parliament effectively play its oversight role."

ISS Today: Enhancing Effective Participation of Youth in Africa

webmaster@issafrica.org (Institute for Security Studies) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 05:04:53 PDT

ISS Today, 1 July 2009: Enhancing Effective Participation of Youth in Africa

“Youth service could make a great contribution through changing a culture of confrontation between social actors and thestate and replacing it with a culture of participation in national development”. Vicente Espinoza"

ISS Today: AU Reiterates Commitment to the ICC

webmaster@issafrica.org (Institute for Security Studies) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 03:05:26 PDT

ISS Today: 30 Jun 2009: AU Reiterates Commitment to the ICC

There is no doubt that international criminal justice as it relates to the International Criminal Court (ICC) has taken center stage within the media and at various forums in the last year. This is so especially following the issuing of the warrant of arrest for President Al Bashir of Sudan. The warrant of arrest was not received well in many quarters including some African leaders and commentators. The Al Bashir arrest warrant seen within the broader context of the ICC’s work in Africa has led some to conclude that the ICC is ‘targeting Africans for political reasons’."

ISS Today: Global Week of Action Calls for Advance on an Arms Trade Treaty

webmaster@issafrica.org (Institute for Security Studies) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 01:07:44 PDT

ISS Today: 29 June 2009

A Global Week of Action Against Gun Violence took place from the 15th to the 21st of June 2009. The annual campaign aims to draw attention to the proliferation and misuse of small arms and light weapons worldwide, and to lobby for stricter controls over arms and the arms trade."

ISS Today: 26 June 2009: Has Swaziland Become a Sanctuary for Human Rights Violations?

webmaster@issafrica.org (Institute for Security Studies) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 02:45:24 PDT

ISS Today: 26 June

When a certain Swazi human rights lawyer decided to make a controversial statement on Workers' Day recently, he was arrested and charged under section 5 of the Sedition and Subversive Activities Act of 1938. He allegedly portrayed as freedom fighters two men who died in what the government claims to have been a botched terrorist attack on a bridge. Without addressing the merits of the pending case before the Swazi courts, it would be useful to analyse some of the salient provisions of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Swaziland Act of 2005 in relation to this Act of 1938.

ISS Today: Let the Investor Beware: Lessons from Tannenbaum

webmaster@issafrica.org (Institute for Security Studies) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 02:50:49 PDT

ISS Today: 25 June 2009

As the saga involving the Tannenbaum Ponzi scheme continues to unfold, numerous issues are being thrown up in the media and in public debate. If the allegations in the media are true, the scheme has been running for three years, and is probably the largest in the history of fraud in South Africa. Among the questions it raises is the role of institutions mandated to supervise banks and non-banking financial institutions in South Africa, such as the Reserve Bank and the Financial Services Board (FSB). According to the 2008 annual report of the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC), the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (2001) binds accountable institutions to a regulatory framework for client identification, record keeping and reporting suspicious transactions.

Crime Becomes an Issue at Confederations Cup - Digital Journal: Your News Network

webmaster@issafrica.org (Institute for Security Studies) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 03:15:36 PDT

Digtal Journal, 23 June 2009

... BBC Sport reports that crime in South Africa has been a major talking point in the run up to next year’s 2010 World Cup, and pointed to the country’s high crime rate. It also quoted Dr Johan Burger, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria, as saying that while serious crime like carjackings had increased since 2004, no major sports events had suffered from serious violent crime.

ISS Today: The Legality of Intervention by the African Standby Force in Grave Circumstances

webmaster@issafrica.org (Institute for Security Studies) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 03:06:16 PDT

ISS Today:24 Jun 2009::

As the African Standby Force (ASF), one of the components of the new African Peace and Security Architecture, approaches its operational readiness by 2010, questions are now emerging about the legal obligations of the African Union (AU) in using the ASF."

ISS Today: The Legality of Intervention by the African Standby Force in Grave Circumstances

webmaster@issafrica.org (Institute for Security Studies) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 03:06:13 PDT

Ethiopian troops return to Somalia

webmaster@issafrica.org (Institute for Security Studies) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:28:47 PDT

CS Monitor, 22 June 2009

... Intervention now 'would be more of a preemptive position to neutralize the Islamists,' says Paula Roque, an expert on the Horn of Africa region for the Institute for Security Studies in Tshwane (Pretoria). 'Since the 1990s attacks [on US embassies] in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam, we know that Al Qaeda has been in the region anyway.

ISS Today: The Security Situation in the DRC Since the Arrest of Laurent Nkunda

webmaster@issafrica.org (Institute for Security Studies) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:52:13 PDT

ISS Today: 23 June 2009

Since the beginning of 2009, particularly since the arrest of Laurent Nkunda of the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) on 22 January 2009, the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has experienced in a wait-and-see situation. The surprising rapprochement between Rwanda and the DRC that led to the joint military operation “Umoja Wetu” (Our unity) against the FDLR also created space for the CNDP to abandon its armed conflict.

ISS Today: AU Leaders Should Tackle Agriculture

webmaster@issafrica.org (Institute for Security Studies) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 05:37:18 PDT

ISS Today: 22 June 2009:

The ICC indictment of Sudan’s President Omar el Bashir, Zimbabwe’s troubled transitional unity government and Madagascar’s recent coup may well take most of the headlines at next month’s African Union (AU) summit in Sirte, Libya. However, the official theme of the meeting will be 'Investing in Agriculture for Economic Growth and Food Security'."

Top Somali warlord: willing to talk?

webmaster@issafrica.org (Institute for Security Studies) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 05:14:05 PDT

csmonitor.com, 17 June 2009

... 'What seems to be happening is that a lot of behind-the-scenes negotiation is taking place,' says Paula Roque, a Horn of Africa specialist at the Institute for Security Studies in Tshwane (Pretoria). 'Aweys may not have gotten the military successes he had been expecting and now he may be reassessing his political position.'

'People will be humanised'

webmaster@issafrica.org (Institute for Security Studies) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 05:07:34 PDT

IOL, 18 June 2009

... Chandré Gould, of the Institute for Security Studies, said taxpayers were to fork out about R10.8-billion - more than the cost of building and upgrading stadiums for the World Cup - to create 16 711 prison beds, most of which would be in private prisons. This meant each bed space would cost R653 800.

ISS Today: To What Extent is the Government of Kenya Committed to Police Reforms?

webmaster@issafrica.org (Institute for Security Studies) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 03:19:35 PDT

ISS Today: 19 June 2009

When the UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston initially reported that there are extrajudicial killings in Kenya orchestrated by the police, he may have shocked the world but not citizens and residents of Kenya. On the contrary, Kenyans must have been shocked when the government denied the existence of illegal police executions and rubbished the Alston report as untrue and shoddy work."

ISS Today: Fear and Loathing of the Rich Infringe on South Africans’ Civil Liberties

webmaster@issafrica.org (Institute for Security Studies) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:21:22 PDT

ISS Today: 18 June 2009

Perhaps the single most important concern of South Africa’s rich classes is crime. While 2007/08 crime statistics indicated the crime rate decreased for violent contact crimes such as murder (by 4,7%), rape (8,8%) and aggravated robbery (7,4%), still the threat of these crimes looms large and imposing in the national psyche.

ISS Today: African Union Still Supportive of ICC

webmaster@issafrica.org (Institute for Security Studies) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:05:05 PDT

ISS Today: 17 June 2009

The much-anticipated African Union (AU) meeting of States Parties to the International Criminal Court (ICC) eventually took place in Addis Ababa on 9 June 2008. Many, in particular concerned civil society organisations (CSOs) had feared that this meeting, which took place at a very uncertain juncture in the life of the ICC, could sound the death knell for the Court, at least for its work in Africa.

Is South Africa ready for 2010?

webmaster@issafrica.org (Institute for Security Studies) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 04:25:27 PDT

BBC, 11 June 2009

... Dr Johan Burger, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, which is a non-profit, independent organisation in South Africa, admits the country has 'a serious crime problem' but emphasises the situation is improving.

Botswana says that it has a legal duty to help ensure Al-Bashir appears before ICC

webmaster@issafrica.org (Institute for Security Studies) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 04:21:34 PDT

examiner.com, 10 June 2009

... Experts, such as Festus Aboagye, a researcher at Pretoria’s Institute for Security Studies, have suggested that the AU should see the ICC as a partner in upholding the rule of law and protecting human rights and recognize the difference between the political and legal approaches toward these goals.

Will Bashir's visit hamper Zimbabwe's pleas for aid?

webmaster@issafrica.org (Institute for Security Studies) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 04:17:46 PDT

Zimbabwejournalists.com, 8 June 2009

... "Western policy has failed to make any real impact in changing the behavior of the regime in Zimbabwe," says Godfrey Musila, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies in Tshwane (Pretoria).

Bongo death sparks succession battle

webmaster@issafrica.org (Institute for Security Studies) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 04:11:40 PDT

The Times, 9 June 2009

... The most likely contender for the top political post was Bongo’s son Ali, who is the mineral-rich West African country’s defence minister, said Paul-Simon Handy of the Institute for Security Studies.

ISS Today: Non-Intervention: An Alternative Way for Modern Conflict Resolution?

webmaster@issafrica.org (Institute for Security Studies) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 00:45:29 PDT

ISS Today: 12 June 2009

It has become a cliché that the end of the cold war marked a significant change in the paradigm of conflict resolution, or perhaps, conflict ‘accommodation’. Humanitarian intervention – simply the coercive (or non-coercive) use of force (or the threat of its use) to prevent and/or protect serious violations and of human rights – has become a tool of choice and first resort by the international community. This has especially followed ‘humanitarian ceasefire agreements’ that are neither comprehensive nor substantive, just for the sole objective of giving peace a chance.

ISS Today: Not Just an Autocrat: The Mixed Legacy of President Bongo

webmaster@issafrica.org (Institute for Security Studies) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 03:22:36 PDT

ISS Today: 11 June 2009

After vehemently denying what French media were reporting since last Sunday, Gabonese authorities finally admitted the death of President Omar Bongo Ondimba in Barcelona on Monday. This notoriously unprofessional management of government communication around the president’s illness and death is representative of both the void left by Bongo and the panic of Gabonese authorities regarding the future of the country without him.

ISS Today: UN Peace Resolution Fails Women

webmaster@issafrica.org (Institute for Security Studies) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 03:00:27 PDT

ISS Today: 09 Jun 2009:

On the 31st of October 2000, the United Nations Security Council adopted a landmark resolution, UNSCR 1325, that reaffirmed the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts and peace-building."