Mugume

Elections a MUST for Sudan’s stability, Dr. Luka
Mugume Rwakaringi
The Presidential affairs Minister, Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS), Dr. Luka Biong Deng has called on the International community to help Sudan hold free and fair elections as part of implementing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed four years ago.
Dr. Luka was on Tuesday addressing members of Joint Donor Team who holding a three days strategic plan meeting in Juba with senior GoSS representatives.
“This is the most critical part of the six years by the CPA”, noted the Minister elaborating that the two years remaining in the transition period should be monitored well so as to achieve lasting peace for Sudan which acts as a buffer for peace in the region.
The forth coming elections and later the referendum, The Presidential affairs Minister elaborated are not only a constitutional right but a provisional of CPA which must be attained at all costs.
“South Sudan provides a challenge to the whole World to enable Sudan enjoy Peace brought by the CPA”, said Dr. Luka.
He noted that the GoSS has made a remarkable development in terms of peace and economical progress after the CPA which should be harnessed by the International community.
This development he elaborated is evidenced by improvement in infrastructure such as roads as well as service provision.
He thanked the Joint Donor Team (JDT) for their continued support and determination to help South Sudan beyond 2011.
He noted that although South Sudan is determined to achieve development, peace and stability, it still faces other hard challenges such as instability in the Nuba Mountains, Darfur crisis and LRA’s Joseph Kony attacks.
Dr. Luka said that the international community should respect the choice of the South Sudan people who have been denied to enjoy their rights for a long period of time.
Reacting to the concerns raised if the ICC will not affect the peace process, The Minister acknowledged that the Darfur crisis has to be settled if Sudan is to get adequate solution and lasting peace.
South Sudan is also affected global crisis inform of capital inflow, foreign Aid, export and import decline and the decline in Oil prices.
The Joint Donor Team which comprises the government of Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and UK are taking measures and ensuring ways to increase their funding towards the forth coming elections. These governments provide almost $ 300 M development assistance to Southern Sudan.
Dr. Luka Biong Deng was accompanied by Aggrey Tisa Sabuni, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning (MoFEP) whose ministry is in charge of coordinating development aid from international donors.
25% of 2009 GoSS budget will be provided by the donors with this figure rising to over 60% in health sector.
Ends ……

General Nkunda “Unlawfully Detained” in Rwanda

Stéphane Bourgon says Nkunda’s Lawyer says his client is being held in a secret location, has yet to see a lawyer, or even appear before a judge to hear the charges against him. Rwanda has also denied all family requests for access to the deposed general and has refused to tell them where he is being held.

“This is a very unique situation, especially without him getting access to a lawyer. This is worse than Guantanamo,” said Bourgon, a Canadian who is also representing Drago Nikolic at the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia in The Hague. “We are of the view he is unlawfully detained.”

Nkunda is the former leader of CNDP rebels, which for several years fought the Congolese army in North Kivu.

Media reports at the time of his arrest in late January suggested he was fleeing to Rwanda after losing the leadership of the CNDP to Bosco Ntaganda. Rwanda has long been accused of backing Nkunda’s rebellion against the Congolese government which has displaced hundreds of thousands and created a humanitarian disaster in North Kivu.

Speculation about his whereabouts is rife. Some say he is in a prison near Kigali and others that he’s being held in a hotel or house in Gisenyi – just across the border from the North Kivu capital Goma.

Bourgon has received recent information that Nkunda is being held by the military in Gisenyi. He plans to petition a civilian court in the town for the general’s release after a military court last week refused to accept the motion. In the meantime, he says he has no idea where his client is being held. “I have been contacting all sides of the government of Rwanda trying to establish where he is and try to get access to him. That access was denied, and I was never provided with any information,” he said.

Congolese government spokesman Lambert Mende would only say that Nkunda is still in Rwanda and that discussions about his return are ongoing. He told IWPR that Nkunda is being held incommunicado for his own protection but that he is in good health.

Mende suggested that as the former head of the CNDP, Nkunda could be eligible for the amnesty deal currently under negotiation.

As part of the January peace agreement that ended the fighting with the CNDP, the government offered an amnesty for acts of war and insurrection. However, the CNDP is demanding that war crimes and crimes against humanity be included to guarantee a lasting peace.

CNDP Leaders suggest Nkunda should be included in any deal. “It must benefit all the leaders of the CNDP without any exception,” he said.

“Those people who want a general amnesty today, tomorrow they will decide to go back to the jungle and do whatever comes to their mind as they think that they are authorized to do everything they want and be granted amnesty,” said Immaculee Birhaheka, a member of local human rights group.

Should he end up in court, Mende insists that Nkunda could get a fair trial in Congo. “Mr Nkunda will receive the right of any arrested person, including the right to the defense,” he said.

His lawyer Bourgon is however isn’t convinced. He says an immediate priority is to ensure the general is not extradited to Congo – a country that retains the death penalty and is notorious for its crumbled and corrupt judicial system.

I am wondering what's wrong with the recent events about sexual harrassment reported in Media. Below is one of common stories. Mugume

'Italian Fritzl raped daughter for 25yrs'From NICK PISA
In Perugia, Italy
Adoptad from, www.thesun.co.uk

A MAN dubbed Italy’s Josef Fritzl kept his daughter prisoner and brutally raped her for 25 years, cops said yesterday.
Accused Michele Mongelli, 64, allegedly believed it was “his right” to sexually abuse her.

Police claim he groomed his son Giuseppe to abuse the girl too — along with his OWN four children. Father and son were last night under arrest in Turin.

Home ... fiend's Turin apartment
The claims have stunned Italy and sparked comparisons with Austria’s Fritzl case.

Detectives think the daughter — who is now 34 and named “Laura” by the Italian media — was first abused at nine.

She was held in a room with no electricity, was only allowed outside with her father and received little education.

Disturbed
She is said to have escaped 15 years ago and raised the alarm but Mongelli — a scrap metal dealer — convinced police she was “disturbed”.

Detectives said Giuseppe also abused sister Laura AND preyed on his own kids aged six to 20.

The case came to light after police got a tip-off and bugged the family’s home and car.

In one recording, Giuseppe’s eight-year-old daughter says: “Dad, get your hands off me. You are a bastard, stop it.”

Pietro Forno, the chief prosecutor, said it was the worst incest case he had ever seen. And he admitted that the details had sickened his toughest investigators.

Mr Forno said: “The victims were subjected to sexual and psychological abuse. I don’t want to blame the psychologists who worked with this family in 1994.

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“But it’s clear the signs were there — and not acted upon when they should have been. The father believed it was his right to abuse his daughter and he passed this on to his son who abused his sister and his own children.”

The case bears striking similarities to Elisabeth Fritzl’s ordeal at the hands of her evil father.

He locked her up in a cellar for 24 years and fathered seven children with her, killing one days after the birth.

Mongelli’s wife Caterina defended him yesterday, saying: “This is all lies. He kept her inside because he was worried about her.” The victims were in social care last night.

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Southern Sudan Initiative to Bridge Lives (SOSUBILI).

We are saving lives, organizing and empowering the communities for socio-economic development, achieving better water and sanitization services and ensuring a landmine free region.

We need any well wishers, charities, volunteers for the cause of the suffering people. Please do not hesitate to contact us.

Contact us

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Waat, Nyiro County
Southern Sudan
Phone: +249-926793844/+249-955003929
Email: sosubili@yahoo.com
Alternative Email: davismugume@yahoo.com
Southern Sudan Initiative to Bridge Lives (SOSUBILI).

www.freetocharities.org.uk/sosubili

By, Sudan Tribune
US Gen. Gration takes over as Sudan envoy
Thursday 19 March 2009 06:30.
March 19, 2009 (WASHINGTON) – President Barack Obama today appointed retired Air Force General J. Scott Gration as the US Special Envoy for Sudan, fulfilling one of the campaign promises he had made to address the situation in Darfur.

US special envoy to Sudan Scott Gration “General Gration’s personal and professional background, and his service to the country as both a military leader and a humanitarian, give him the insights and experience necessary for this assignment,” said Obama in a written statement.

The US president said that Sudan “cries out for peace and for justice,” remarking also the urgency of the worsening humanitarian situation.

Gration (pronounced GRAY-shun) received a cordial welcome message from Sudan’s ambassador in New York, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad. But the new envoy immediately will face the Sudan government’s diplomatic efforts to suspend the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against Al-Bashir by lobbying the UN Security Council, a step the US opposes. He will also now be at the forefront of the US administration’s thus far unsuccessful effort to get Sudan to reverse its decision to expel 16 aid groups working in Darfur.

The new envoy succeeds three special envoys who served under President Bush. He was raised in the Congo and speaks fluent Swahili. He served in the US Air Force from 1974 to 2006.

Robert Wood, spokesman of the US State Department, said today “if indeed there are further deaths that take place in Darfur, there will be only one person responsible for those deaths, and that will be President Bashir.”

He said “we plan to continue to push that line because what President Bashir is doing is just creating a much, much worse situation on the ground, and he needs to be held accountable for that.”

In a message meant for the new US envoy, the chairman of the Sudan Liberation Movement, Abdel Wahid Al-Nur said that he calls on Gration to work for ensuring the security of civilians in Darfur and to create a conducive environment for peace in Darfur.

Activists in the United States praised the choice of Gration. “His experience, gravitas and close relationship with President Obama will contribute greatly to his effectiveness. It remains to be seen if he will have the mandate and authority to drive U.S. policy on Sudan,” said Save Darfur Coalition Executive Director Jerry Fowler in an e-mail message.

Omer Ismail, a policy advisor from the Darfur region, said “now we have an envoy to implement the policy of the Obama administration in Sudan. Since we have a team that is working on the review of that policy for a long time now, and some of the outlook of that policy is now beginning to take shape, we need an envoy to implement that policy.”

Ismail, who works for the Enough Project, a US-based think-tank and advocacy organization, disagreed with a report yesterday by The New York Times that had said “the administration appeared to be locked in a struggle over who would take charge of the issue and how it should be approached.” He viewed the appointment instead as an indication that the policy review is close to completion.

Though today the State Department spokesman declined to tell press who is leading the interagency review, the key figures include White House advisors Samantha Power and Michelle Gavin.

Gration, a decorated general, flew 274 combat missions over Iraq during the first Persian Gulf War. He held one of the highest ranking posts at the US European Command based in Stuttgart-Vaihingen, Germany.

Ismail welcomed the appointment of an envoy with military standing: “We would like to have a military man who really will know what to do. Because it is not the time to negotiate with Bashir as much as tell him what we want to do. And who can do that better than a retired Air Force general? Because Bashir is a soldier, he understands that. This is a guy who can be at his eye level and basically tell him what needs to be done.”

The analyst also predicted that Al-Bashir will only dig a deeper hole for himself if he continues his moves against aid organizations.

Obama’s statement indicated likewise that the Government of Sudan “will be held accountable for the lives lost” in the void left by the ousted aid groups.

Fan kills goal-bound soccer striker
BAGHDAD - An Iraqi soccer fan shot dead a player of the opposing team as he tried to score an equalizing goal in the final minutes of a match, police said on Monday.

The shooting on Saturday in Hilla, 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad, during a match between local teams, underscored the country’s propensity to lawlessness even as violence by militant groups falls to lows not seen since mid-2003.

* Former England midfielder Paul Gascoigne has revealed his heart stopped beating three times while in rehab and that he also came close to committing suicide during his battle with depression and alcoholism.

By Eddie Ssejjoba and Anne Mugisa, Newvision, Uganda

THE Police in Kampala are hunting for suspected witchdoctors who attempted to strangle a woman for human sacrifice.

Rita Nansamba, 20, of Nyendo in Masaka town, was rescued on Tuesday night by a man passing by a newly-constructed building in Kisalosalo Zone in Kyebando, Kawempe Division when he heard her cry for help.

The head of the anti-human sacrifice and trafficking, Moses Binoga and the Police spokesperson, Judith Nabakooba, visited the woman on Wednesday in Mulago Hospital where she was admitted in critical condition.

Nabakooba said the rescuer made an alarm which scared away the assailants, leaving the victim unconscious.

Narrating her ordeal, the bruised Nansamba who is nursing a swollen face, a painful neck and abdomen, said the witchdoctors attempted to strangle her.

Her troubles started last week when a man only identified as Alex and resident of Nyendo, convinced her grandmother, Maria Asaba, to release her for a job in Kampala.

She said the man hired a taxi which brought them to one of the Kampala taxi parks from where they took another taxi to Kyebando. She lived with Alex’s relatives from Friday to Tuesday evening when he came with men in a small car.

“After discussing with the men, Alex told me to go with them so they could give me a job,” she said.

No sooner had she entered the car than the killers gagged her with a piece of cloth and bound her hands.

“They took me to a storeyed building and were joined by more men who inspected me,” she narrated.

The suspects agreed she was not the right candidate but decided to kill her for fear that she would report them if left free.

Nansamba could not remember what followed, but said the men attempted to strangle her but fled after the Good Samaritan made the alarm.

The Good Samaritan took her to Kira Road Police Station from where she was rushed to hospital.

The detectives took a statement from Nansamba before declaring the hunt for the culprits.

Binoga said cases of human sacrifice were rampant and warned women against moving out with men pretending to be lovers. He said many victims were women lured with love offers by strangers.

“Girls, always inform friends or relatives whenever you go out with men,” he said.

The Police say 50 people went missing in the past one week. In a report on human sacrifice and trafficking for the week of March 8 to 15, the Police said one person was killed in suspected human sacrifice.

Three of the missing people were men, while five were women.

According to the Police, two boys and five girls were traced and had not been under danger of human sacrifice.

They said some of the children got lost due to careless parents while one hid to scare her mother who had caned her.

The Police also said six suspects had been arrested and were questioned in connection with the missing people.

According to the Police, a decomposing body of a young woman was discovered in Pader on March 10, in a dustbin, with the breasts and private parts missing.

The murderers and the deceased have not been identified.

Arrested for attempted kidnap was Ronald Kagugube, a resident of Kata village, Matugga in Wakiso district. He reportedly tried to kidnap a boy, Amos Rukundo, from Kirowoza village, Kakooge in Nakasongola. The suspect had a knife, a suspicious liquid in a mineral water bottle and some powder.

The Police also said a number of witchdoctors and other individuals were being investigated after the public reported them.

Fear, tension skyrocketing after Bashir arrest warrant

By Philp Atem (Edited by Mugume Rwakaringi)
Following Wednesday International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant release against president of the Republic of Sudan Omar-El Bashir in relation to the report on genocide, War Crime and Murder alleged by prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo has brought to brought political fear and tension among politicians, army and civilians, foreigners and Nationals in Sudan especially in Juba, the Capital city of South Sudan.

Tension remained evident as many foreigners started packing their belongings and going back home some going to up country Sudan where they anticipate to be secure than Juba. Fears have been worsened by the Khartoum government ordered 10 leading international humanitarian organizations expelled from Darfur on Wednesday after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the country's president for alleged atrocities in the conflict-ridden region.

Other fear -gripped people are the returnees who have not tasted the fruits of Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed four years ago in Naivasha-Kenya.

Many pubs, bars and night clubs which hitherto close after mid night closed their business even before 10 PM.

Despite limited traffic seen on road, Business were not booming in the markets such as in Konyo-Konyo Market, Jebel Market which was ordered by market authorities to close for twelve hours after the ICC verdict.

“Something bad may happen, I think this is a setback to CPA”, said John Lomude. One Sudanese student speaking to BBC blamed the ICC saying that “ICC issue is not for Bashir but entire Sudan as a nation”.

The government of South Sudan has however calmed down the situation.

GoSS Vice President Dr.Riak Machar Tany speaking on the South Sudan stated: “our position remains the same and Sudanese should better cooperate with the ICC in order to ease the case for the betterment of our president of the republic of Sudan.”

He also urged nationals and foreigners not to fear and have courage in such situation.

The President of the Republic of Sudan had before the issuing of the arrest warrant said: “if ICC issued an arrest warrant, what will happen next! Nothing much will happen; they have tried thrice but have not succeeded”. Al-Bashir denies the war crimes accusations.

The United Democratic Front (UDF) Chairperson Mr. Peter Abdurrahman Sule had also told the press that nationals should cooperate in having Bashir tried by the ICC.
“Over 20 000 people were killed in Darfur war and many suffer without the basic needs”, he deserves trial said the UDF chairperson.

If al-Bashir is brought to trial and prosecuted, he faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

The international aid groups ordered out were Oxfam, CARE, MSF-Holland, Mercy Corps, Save the Children, the Norwegian Refugee Council, and the International Rescue Committee, Action Contre la Faim, Solidarites, and CHF International. This leaves thousands of lives in Darfur at stake without the basic needs of life such as clean water, nutrition and shelter.