September 22, 2015 (JUBA) – South Sudanese vice president, Jame Wani Igga, said the government is committed to fully implement the peace agreement signed last month. Igga will be relegated to third position after former vice president Riek Machar, who will be made the first vice president according to the peace deal.
Speaking to lawmakers in Juba on Tuesday before leaving for New York to represent President Salva Kiir at the world annual meeting, Igga said the commitment to realize peace is unwavering.
“Our people want to know our seriousness and genuine determination as a government to [implement] this peace [agreement],” said Igga, in a lengthy briefing.
“I appeal to this house, if there is anybody affected by this agreement to forget [his/her reservations],” he said.
President Kiir, in succumbing to heavy regional and international threats of sanctions on him and his government, signed the agreement nine days after rebel leader Machar and former detainee Pagan Amum.
While signing, the president issued a list of points as “reservations” including demilitarization of Juba and the authority of joint monitoring and evaluation that has a veto power over national affairs. He repeated those points last week in address to the nation.
Igga said the government has one choice after the president inked the peace accord, and that is to implement it. He previously criticized the reservations put forth by his government.
“There is no alternative, we must end the war. We want treatment for our country,” he said.
He decried the repeated relegation from senior position in a peace agreement to reunite the ruling SPLM party, referring to Machar's split from SPLM in 1991 and a return in 2002 when Igga was pushed to the fourth position in hierarchy.
However, according to the SPLM historical hierarchy which the movement's leaders have been referring to for reunifications, Igga has been junior to Machar.
While the two top rival leaders, Kiir and Machar, will share power and decision making process in the would-be formed transitional government of national unity in December, Igga will only participate when the two agree to invite him to their presidency meetings.
(ST)
September 22, 2015 (NAIROBI) – The reinstated secretary general of the South Sudan's governing party, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), Pagan Amum, has accused President Salva Kiir of attempting to abrogate the recently signed peace agreement with the armed opposition leader, Riek Machar and his group of the former detainees.
In an exclusive interview with Sudan Tribune on Tuesday, Amum, who is again in self-imposed exile after signing the agreement, said he will travel to New York soon to attend the United Nations General Assembly meeting on South Sudan scheduled for 29 September and to interact with world leaders about the peace deal.
“We are traveling to New York and will be meeting with different heads of state. Those of the region and African continent and the rest of the international community to mobilize support for implementation of the peace agreement,” he said.
Amum, who also represents the former detainees in the peace agreement, said while in New York he will have an opportunity to continue to touch base with the opposition leader and first vice-president designate, Machar, and James Wani Igga, current vice- president.
He however said President Kiir is not committed to implement the peace agreement based on his “negative” public comments and previous reluctance to sign the peace deal with a list of reservations.
The ruling party secretary-general recalled President Kiir's comments when he said the agreement was neither a Quran nor a Bible, adding that the South Sudanese leader was imitating the same comment which former Sudanese president Nimieri uttered when he was about to abrogate the Addis Ababa agreement of 1972.
“He [Kiir] is not for implementation but for abrogation of the agreement. This is very unfortunate,” said Amum.
He further recalled that it became a surprise when President Kiir refused to sign the peace agreement with Machar and others in Addis Ababa on 17 August, saying all preparations were made for him to sign and he had already agreed.
The only outstanding issue Kiir complained of, he recalled, was the power sharing in the three states of the oil-rich Upper Nile state which initially gave the armed opposition of Machar 53%, government 33% and former detainees and political parties sharing the remaining 14%.
However, Amum said in his meeting with the president after the percentage of power sharing in governments of the Greater Upper Nile region was changed to 40%, 46% and 14%, respectively, Kiir agreed to sign the deal and travelled to Addis Ababa for this purpose.
He said the president even told him to carry the message to mediators and the opposition leader, Machar, that he was ready to sign the agreement on 17 August, but Amum accused unnamed people around the president for changing his mind in the last minute when he surprised everybody that he wouldn't sign it.
He added that the list of reservations by president Kiir in the agreement are a clear indication that he is not ready to fully implement the peace agreement.
KIIR AGAINST SPLM REUNIFICATION
Amum also accused his party chairman of trying to fail the Arusha agreement on reunification of the SPLM party, saying the president has been reluctant to implement or pursue the party accord and that its implementation had been “frustrating.”
He revealed that when the former detainees, or sometimes referred to as G-10 arrived in Juba for the reunification agreement, Kiir was suspicious and asked them questions contrary to the spirit of the deal.
“Even President Kiir himself was asking why we were returning back. He was telling me that he wanted to know why are we back… That we have hidden agenda to overthrow the government. I told him we are back to reunite the SPLM,” he further recalled.
He also added that he could not return to Juba after signing the agreement and before formation of the transitional government due to threats uttered against him by the government.
“Government launched hostility against G-10 for signing the peace deal. The threats made them not to go back to Juba,” he said.
He further accused the government of employing “assassinating characters” of members of the former detainees. He also stressed that the recent comments by the president revealed that he was not interested to reunite the ruling party.
Amum however said he had informed the ruling parties of Tanzania and South Africa, who mediate between the SPLM factions, about the ill-intentions of president Kiir to kill the party and appealed to their governments to help achieve the reunification of the party.
(ST)
Az Ukrán Oktatás- és Tudományügyi Minisztérium elfogadta és Szerhij Kvit oktatásügyi miniszter aláírta a 2015-16-os tanév végi kibocsátó vizsgákról szóló határozatot – adta hírül az osvita.ua hírportál szeptember 21-én.
A dokumentum értelmében a 4. és a 11. osztályos tanulók májusban vizsgáznak, míg a 9. osztályosok júniusban adnak számot tudásukról. A végzős diákok továbbra is külső független tesztelés formájában érettségiznek.
A negyedikes tanulók május 10. és 20. között három tantárgyból vizsgáznak: ukrán nyelvből, olvasásból és matematikából.
A 9. osztályos tanulóknak június 1. és 10. között lesz év végi vizsga ukrán nyelvből és matematikából, valamint az iskola tantestülete által megválasztott harmadik tantárgyból.
A végzős diákok három tantárgyból érettségiznek: ukrán és idegen nyelvből, valamint választhatnak a matematika és a történelem vizsga közül. Az érettségi vizsgákra május 16. és 30. között kerül sor külső független tesztelés formájában.
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Rendkívüli csúcstalálkozón vitatják meg szerda este az Európai Unió tagállamai a migrációs válság fejleményeit és a lehetséges megoldásra vonatkozó javaslatokat.
Az uniós állam- illetve kormányfők csúcstalálkozóját Donald Tusk, az Európai Tanács elnöke hívta össze. Tusk meghívó levélből kiderül, azt óhajtja megvitatni, milyen segítséget lehet nyújtani a frontállamoknak, hogyan lehetséges az együttműködés a Nyugat-Balkán államaival, Törökországgal és a Szíriával szomszédos többi országgal, miként nyújtható nagyobb támogatás az ENSZ Menekültügyi Főbiztosságának és a Világélelmezési Programnak, valamint hogyan juttathatóak haza azok, akik nem jogosultak menekültstátusra. Az állam- illetve kormányfők azt követően ülnek össze, hogy kedden a tagállami kormányok belügyminiszterei vitatták meg a kvóták kérdését – s nagy többséggel (Csehország, Magyarország, Románia és Szlovákia ellenszavazatával, valamint Finnország tartózkodásával) el is fogadták 120 ezer menekült szétosztásának a tervét. A magyar álláspont szerint a menekültek szétosztása nem oldja meg a problémát, melynek gyökere nem az Európai Unióban, hanem az unión kívül van, ezért megoldásra is az EU-n kívül van szükség. Emellett Magyarország egyáltalán nem ért egyet azzal, hogy megkérdezése nélkül frontállammá minősítsék.
September 21, 2015 (BRUSSELS) - Sudanese prominent activists briefed the European Union (EU) lawmakers about the situation of human rights in the country and pointed to the government's lack of willingness to enforce domestic laws and international conventions.
The Paris-based Sudan Center for Transitional Justice and Peace Studies (SCTJPS) organized on Tuesday a hearing about the current human rights situation in Sudan at the EU Parliament headquarters in Brussels with the participation of Amine Mekki Medani and Suleiman Baldo.
Before the meeting which was supported by EU MP Marie-Christine Vergiat, the two Sudanese activists held a press conference where they painted a gloomy picture about the human rights situation in term of lack of freedoms and war crimes in the conflict zones.
Medani who chairs an alliance of civil society groups explained that the country before the Islamist coup d'état of June 1989 had acceded to several international treaties and conventions. He further said that the transitional constitution of 2005 provides in its article 27 section three that all the conventions ratified by Sudan have to be considered part of the constitution.
"But if one stops and looks at the statuary provisions of the laws and codes which govern the day to day life in Sudan you find there is a wide discrepancy between the law and the constitution itself and thereby a (clear) contradiction with the international governance," he said.
The Sudanese lawyer further stressed that the country is ruled by the State Security Act which is being repeatedly changed to empower the security apparatus and give it the needed means to grip on the country.
To illustrate his statements, Medani cited the constitutional amendment of December 2014 which authorized the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) to have its own military organization and to create the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia.
Also, he said that the NISS has the power to arrest, to search and detain people in its own detention centres not in a prison where people are kept in solitary confinement under bad conditions.
Madani was detained together with the head opposition alliance National Consensus Forces during four months after signing on 3 December 2014 of the Sudan Call declaration which calls for a comprehensive peace and constitutional conference in the country.
HUMAN RIGHT DEVIATION
From his part, the Sudanese human rights activist and international expert Suliman Baldo reiterated that there is no lake of laws or constitutional guarantees for the protection of human rights in Sudan, emphasizing "the problem is the absence of political will to abide by these very strong guarantees" .
In fact "the problem is the total deviation by the practices of the Government of Sudan from constitutional rights that are written in the constitution, from legal obligations that are written in the domestic laws and from religious values that are written in the Islam from which the government inspires its own claims to legitimacy," Baldo stressed.
He said that the government considers the human rights as a political game of power balance between it and the international community.
In May 2011, Khartoum government took commitments to adopt and ratify new international conventions including the Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa for Legal Action.
The former director of Africa programme for International Crisis Group, stressed that it is not enough to sign and ratify protocols but "a responsible government" should meet its obligations before international and domestic laws.
DARFUR IDPS
Regarding the human rights violations in the war areas, Baldo said the government can demonstrate its genuine desire to resolve the 12-year crisis in Darfur by encouraging the voluntary return of some 2.5 million internally displaced persons (IDPS).
"The solution is in the hands of the government and it does not need the UN Security Council or the African Union to it," he said. Before to add "It has to secure the same areas, and to negotiate with the militias that chased the (indigenous) populations out of their areas. So, that they (the militiamen) are part of the solution and not part of the problem.
He explained that the violence in Darfur since 2008 has changed face because the capacity of rebels has diminished, adding that the region is now the scene of intertribal fighting between different tribes that were armed by the government.
"The claim by the government that it secured Darfur is a fallacy. violence rampant as result of government policies in arming the tribes," he concluded.
(ST)
President of ELIAMEP, Professor Loukas Tsoukalis wrote an article in Kathimerini discussing the result of the Greek election. This article was published on 21 September 2015 and is available here.
A világ minden tájáról érkezett zarándokok Mekkában összegyűlt százezrei vették útjukat tegnap a szaúd-arábiai várostól keletre fekvő Mina felé, hogy megkezdjék a hagyományos éves muzulmán zarándoklatot (haddzs). A Mekkától öt kilométerre fekvő területen több mint 100 ezer légkondicionált sátor várja a hívőket, akik az első napot a Korán olvasásával és A cikk folytatása …
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Augusztusban az ország közvetlen kötelezettsége 21,3 milliárd euró volt, a közvetett kötelességek pedig 2,5 milliárd eurót nyomtak.
A múlt év végén Szerbia közadóssága 22,76 milliárd eurót tett ki, a GDP 70,9 százalékát. 2013 végén 20,14 milliárd eurót jegyeztek, elérte a bruttó társadalmi össztermék 59,6 százalékát.