by Max and Tony
The Latest News in Africa
News Article by REUTERS posted on January 21, 2009 at 22:58:26: EST (-5 GMT)
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Sudan may try Turabi for Darfur rebel links
KHARTOUM (REUTERS) :
Hassan al-Turabi, an influential Islamist, was arrested last week after calling on Sudan’s president to surrender himself to the International Criminal Court to face charges of orchestrating genocide in Darfur.
The Sudanese Media Centre quoted an unnamed security source as saying Turabi and his aides were supporting Darfur’s insurgent Justice and Equality Movement financially and logistically.
“The source has not ruled out presenting Turabi for trial,” it said. It did not name specific charges.
Government sources outside state security, including the ministry of justice, have so far not commented on the reasons for Turabi’s detention. Turabi’s supporters yesterday denied any link to JEM.
Members of his opposition Popular Congress Party said he was arrested to silence him in the build-up to a ruling from the International Criminal Court on whether to issue an arrest warrant against President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for alleged war crimes in Darfur.
The US embassy in Khartoum yesterday said it was “concerned” about the arrest of Turabi and another senior official from his party, adding Sudan needed to respect freedom of expression in the run-up to elections planned in 2009.
Turabi was Bashir’s ideologue until they split in a power struggle in 1999-2000.
International experts say 200,000 people have died since JEM and other rebels took up arms against the government in 2003, accusing it of neglecting the remote western region.
The UN and African Union mission in Darfur (Unamid) aims to deploy 80% of its joint peacekeeping force there by March this year and the rest by June, a senior UN official said yesterday.
Unamid took over from a smaller AU mission last year but is well short of its promised strength of 26,000 troops. Susana Malcorra, the UN’s head of department of field support, said it was vital troop-contributing nations prepare their forces.
“We have now achieved over 60% deployment,” she told a meeting of UN, AU and Sudanese officials in Addis Ababa. “It is critical that troop-contributing countries undertake the range of pre-deployment preparations as rapidly as possible.”
Mutref Sediq, state minister in Sudan’s foreign ministry, said his government remained committed to facilitating the full deployment of Unamid.
A detained Sudanese opposition leader could be tried over accusations of supporting a Darfur rebel movement, state media reported yesterday. |
This artical was from this site http://www.sudan.net/
41,087,825 people (world rank: 30th) (2009 estimate)
On Januar
Khartoum is one of three sister cities, built at the convergence of the Blue and White Niles: Omdurman to the north-west across the White Nile, North Khartoum, and Khartoum itself on the southern bank of the Blue Nile.
Khartoum has a relatively short history. It was first established as a military outpost in 1821, and is said to derive its name from the thin spit of land at the convergence of the rivers, which resembles an elephant's trunk (khurtum). Khartoum grew rapidly in prosperity during the boom years of the slave trade, between 1825 and 1880. In 1834 it became the capital of the Sudan, and many explorers from Europe used it as a base for their African expeditions.
y 1, 2008, a group of assailants shot and killed two U.S. Embassy employees - an American USAID officer and a Sudanese national driver. The attack was found to be ideologically motivated, and the assailants were convicted and sentenced under Sudanese law in 2009. Terrorists are known to operate in Sudan and continue to seek opportunities to carry out attacks against U.S. and European interests. Terrorist actions may include suicide operations, bombings, or kidnappings. U.S. citizens should be aware of the risk of indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets in public places, which include tourist sites and locations where westerners are known to congregate, and commercial operations associated with U.S. or Western interests. Terrorists are known to have targeted both official facilities and residential compounds. Anti-western sentiment is prevalent, and U.S. citizens should exercise utmost caution at all times.
Sudan has been at civil war for the majority of its 50 years of independence. Since 2003, another conflict between African rebels and Sudanese militias resulted in widespread violence in the Darfur region. This violence, in turn, led to genocide. The two peace agreements signed in recent months are a hopeful step towards peace and stability in the country.
Languages:
Arabic (official), English (official), Nubian, Ta Bedawie, diverse dialects of Nilotic, Nilo-Hamitic, Sudanic languages
note: program of "Arabization" in process
Sudan seeks global support as vote nears
UNITED NATIONS – Sudanese officials asked world leaders including President Barack Obama on Friday for international support to maintain peace as they near a critical independence referendum on south Sudan that is likely to split Africa's largest country in two.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Obama and other leaders addressed concerns that preparations for the Jan. 9 vote are lagging and urged a timely and peaceful ballot to ensure any possible transition is smooth and does not ignite a new civil war.
"There will not be a referendum in time in southern Sudan unless things change and change quickly," Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi warned a high-level meeting organized by the U.N. chief.
Obama's presence at the gathering demonstrated deep U.S. interest in Sudan's future. The U.S. has offered Sudan the possibility of restored diplomatic relations if it improves conditions in the conflict-wracked western Darfur region, and does not undermine the referendum.
"What happens in Sudan in the days ahead may decide whether a people who have endured too much war move forward toward peace or slip backward into bloodshed," said Obama. "And what happens in Sudan matters to all of sub-Saharan Africa, and it matters to the world."
Zenawi said issues that still must be addressed include the demarcation of potential borders between north and south. If the problems are not dealt with, "we will have a breakdown of peace."
"Sudan is the most important issue of war and peace in Africa," the Ethiopian leader said. "If we fail, it will be a catastrophe for the whole continent. "
A 2005 peace agreement that ended a 21-year civil war between Sudan's mostly Muslim north and predominantly animist and Christian south set up the a unity government in the capital, Khartoum, as well as an autonomous government in the south. It called for the 2011 referendum on southern independence.
Sudan's Second Vice President Ali Osman Taha pledged "the strongest of commitments" to the agreement, and affirmed again that its "supreme and all important goal ... is sustainable and lasting peace for the people of Sudan, north and south and for our region and beyond ... regardless of the outcome of the referendum."
Taha called for an end to stifling economic sanctions, and for forgiveness of the country's foreign debt.
"We need the full cooperation of the international community ... if lasting peace in my country is to become a viable hope," he said.
Sudanese First Vice President Salva Kiir, a former rebel leader who serves as first vice president in Sudan's unity government while also leading a separate autonomous government in the south, also asked for international support.
"Now, as the greatest moment of our history approaches, it is up to all of us to ensure that the referendum is conducted without delay or reservations," Kiir said. "With your help I'm confident we can achieve our common goals."
A communique issued after Friday's meeting said that next year's referendum would not end obligations by signatories of the five-year-old peace accord to work together for a peaceful transition.
It also expressed worries about ongoing violence in the Darfur region, and "welcomed commitments by the Government of Sudan to end impunity, bring all perpetrators of crimes to justice and protect civilians."
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki told the U.N. General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting that Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir and Kiir assured him that the referendum will take place as scheduled, and they will accept the vote's outcome.
Kibaki is convening East Africa's Intergovernmental Authority on Development in November to ensure all goes well with the vote. Ban has formed a panel to monitor voting,
"The Sudanese people cannot afford a resumption of conflict," Ban told the gathering. "We must all assist them in finding a peaceful way through one of the most important passages in their country's history."
China also is keenly interested in the future of Sudan. It is a key source of its crude oil, and is the African nation's top supporter on the U.N. Security Council.
"Whatever the result of the referendum, it is crucial to maintain peace in Sudan and the region," said Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhai Jun. He also called for increased humanitarian assistance to conflict-wracked Darfur.
Along with the Jan. 9 referendum on southern independence, the oil-rich central region of Abyei is to vote that day whether it should belong in Sudan's north or in a possible new country in the south. Leaders in the Arab-dominated north and mainly black African south are in a tug-of-war over Abyei, home to oil fields worth hundreds of millions of dollars.`
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