The AfricaNews articles of sheleta
Postpone Sudan elections
Elections in Sudan need to be postponed until after the 2011 referendum or simplified and held only for executive positions at this time. - Sudan's first multi-party elections in over two decades are planned for 11 April 2010. As stipulated in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended the north-south conflict, the elections would give a chance to Sudanese to freely choose their own representatives for the first time since 1986.
The elected officials would then be able to work on making unity of the country attractive to the southerners who will vote in the self-determination referendum in January 2011 whether to remain in a united Sudan or form an independent country.
…European ignorance and Sudan
Speaking at a press conference in Egypt, Javier Solana, the European Union foreign policy chief, said that he does not support independence for South Sudan. - As agreed in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended one of the longest and bloodiest wars in Africa, South Sudan will hold a referendum on self-determination in 2011 where the people in the south will decide if they want to remain a part of Sudan or form an independent country.
Despite all that, Solana already dismisses the will of the people in the south and emphasizes; “it is very important that the country remained unified”.
“I looked at the chart, I looked at the distribution of resources, and I l…Jacob Zuma roars at African tyrants
African tyrants, dictators, and alleged war criminals are very likely to regret the April 2009 election victory of the African National Congress and its president, Jacob Zuma, more than the South African opposition parties. - On April 22, South Africans voted in forth democratic elections since the end of apartheid. The African National Congress won about 65% of the vote, thus paving the way for Zuma to become the new president of South Africa.
Quoting unidentified South African diplomatic sources, the London Times writes that Jacob Zuma "has already indicated that president Omar al-Bashir of Sudan, who has been charged by the International Criminal Court over alleged war crimes and …We watched Rwandan to crumble
Fifteen years ago, in only three months almost a million Tutsis and many moderate Hutus were brutally slaughtered by the Hutu army and extremists in Rwanda. During this time, the world watched and did nothing. - Philip Gourevitch wrote in his book on the Rwandan genocide that "the dead of Rwanda accumulated at nearly three times the rate of Jewish dead during the Holocaust. It was the most efficient mass killing since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki."
And while everyone knew what was going on in Rwanda, to many it didn't matter. It was in Africa.
When the genocide began on April 6, 1994, the international community simply turned away and disregarded the re…SA: "ANC to rule till Jesus comes"
The African National Congress will rule South Africa till Jesus comes again, Jacob Zuma, the head of the ruling party said. He said the ANC will win the upcoming elections in April because God and Jesus are on their side. - “We believers know that Jesus will come back, we say the ANC will rule until he comes back,” Zuma, who is likely to be the next president, told ANC supporters in the Mpumalanga province.
He said church leaders must persuade believers to vote for the ANC. “When priests pray for poverty to end and for development, then it means God agrees with the ANC because the ANC stands for those things,” Zuma said.
“When you preach in your churches, …What Mbeki brings to Darfur
The African Union has appointed former South African president, Thabo Mbeki, to chair a committee to investigate human rights violations in Darfur and be a liaison between the government of Sudan and the International Criminal Court. - Interestingly, the AU decided to appoint the same man who while the president of South Africa had a very friendly relationship with Omar al-Bashir, the president of Sudan who is indicted by the ICC for the war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.
During Mbeki's presidency, when South Africa was a temporary member of the United Nations Security Council, the country's diplomats tried everything to suspend or delay the ICC’s case again…Darfur: What now?
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, for the alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur. - This is the first time the ICC has filled charges against a sitting head of state. The chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, believes he can prove that al-Bashir and his government are criminally responsible for "intentionally directing attacks against an important part of the civilian population of Darfur, murdering, exterminating, raping, torturing and forcibly transferring large numbers of civilians and pillaging their property."
As Nick Grono from the International Crisis Group writes, th…Gaddafi's seeds of hatred in Darfur
Libyan leader and the new Chairman of the African Union, Colonel Moamer Gaddafi, said in a speech aired on Al-Libya television channel that the International Criminal Court needs to stop proceedings against Sudan's president Omar al-Bashir as "it was Israel and not the Sudanese president who was to blame for the Darfur conflict." - "Key rebel leaders have opened offices in Tel Aviv and meet frequently with the (Israeli) army... If Tel Aviv among others is behind the events in Darfur, why then call al-Bashir or the Sudanese government to account," added Gaddafi.
He was referring to a case against the president of Sudan at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for …Darfur: Let them all die
A day does not pass without some Western diplomats blaming the Sudanese government for the conflict and suffering in Darfur. But at the same time the Western governments do not want to talk about their empty promises to help Darfurians, which have been largely ignored immediately after being proclaimed. - In a report titled "Empty Promises on Darfur: International community fails to protect," Amnesty International has criticized the international community "for its failure to improve the security of people in Darfur since the deployment of peacekeeping troops by the United Nations more than one year ago."
The report states that the "promises made to the people of …Genocide prevention takes political will
Dan Glickman writes in the Huffington Post about a proposal for the new American administration that would help prevent future mass atrocities and genocides around the world. - Over the past year, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the American Academy of Diplomacy, and the United States Institute of Peace worked on identifying “practical steps that could enhance the capacity of the US government to prevent and respond to genocide and mass atrocities.”
The Genocide Prevention Task Force, co-chaired by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former Secretary of Defense William Cohen “proposes a blueprint for the next administration and for the future, t…Zimbabwe: Insanity in time of cholera
"I am happy to say that we have arrested cholera," said Robert Mugabe in a televised address to the nation on Thursday, December 11, and added that now there is no need for the invasion of Zimbabwe by the international community led by the United States, Britain, and France. - Mugabe's regime claims that the cholera outbreak does not exist in Zimbabwe any more. They say the entire story about the cholera epidemic has been fabricated in the West to mobilize the support for the invasion of this Southern African country.
A cholera epidemic broke out in Zimbabwe a few weeks ago, claiming so far over 700 lives, with more than 16,000 cases reported. The aid agencies estimate tha…SA: Supporting oppression, torture abroad
What happened to the morals, values, and principles of freedom and democracy in South Africa? Why is a country which suffered so much under oppression in the past today supporting some of the most oppressive regimes around the world? - As a two-year temporary member of the UN Security Council, South Africa has voted against imposing sanctions on Zimbabwe, despite the unthinkable crisis and ruthless dictatorship of Robert Mugabe. While members of the opposition were being killed in Zimbabwe, former South African president Thabo Mbeki held Mugabe's hand on TV and claimed there was no crisis in Zimbabwe whatsoever.
When the UN voted to condemn Myanmar's military junta crackdown on …Zimbabwe's collapse
A few decades ago, Zimbabwe was the second most industrialized nation and the most robust agricultural producer on the African continent. Today, the country is facing a total collapse. In 1998, Zimbabwe had the second highest GDP in sub-Saharan Africa. - In July 2008, the annual inflation rate in the country was over 231,000,000%. Yes, you got it right - 231 million percent and rising! Since 2000, the overall food production in Zimbabwe has declined by over 70%. The country under Mugabe has experienced "the most dramatic peacetime collapse of any country since Weimar Germany."
Over 80% of Zimbabweans are unemployed. It is estimated that over three million citizens have left the …Arab hypocrisy towards Darfur crisis
When Muslims suffer around the world in the hands of Americans, Russians, Serbs, or Israelis, the Arab and Muslim countries are very active in condemning the attacks and violence. Their governments complain and raise funds, diplomats protest, the media report, and the citizens demonstrate against "crusaders and infidels." - But when Muslims suffer in the hands of an Arab regime, then there is barely any condemnation of the violence and crimes in the Arab and Muslim world.
Since 2003, Sudan's western province of Darfur is an epicenter of a conflict between the mainly "African" rebels and the Arab-controlled Sudanese government and their proxy militias. It is estima…Revolution is Sudan's solution
Something radical and revolutionary will have to happen to end the protracted conflict and human suffering in Darfur. In 2003, a conflict broke out in Sudan's western province of Darfur between the mainly "African" rebels and the government forces and their proxy "Arab" militias. - It is estimated that about 200,000 people have died in the conflict from fighting, disease, and starvation. The UN and aid agencies estimate that over two million Darfurians, out of a population of about six million, are living in refugee camps in Darfur and neighboring countries. Even though the majority of all deaths in Darfur occurred in 2003 and 2004, the conflict is nowhere near the e…
