Africa

By Dacia Pajé and Margherita Rossi
Dec 18 2015 (IPS)

How could a chocolate snack challenge a regime? Surprisingly, in North Korea, it can.

On the 30th of July 2014, a group of 200 people gathered in Paju, a small South Korean city situated at the borders with North Korea. South Koreans, along with North Koreans defectors, grouped to send to the other side 50 oversized balloons, filled with boxes of Choco Pie, a well-known South Korean snack.

The North Korean totalitarianism banned the snack as a symbol of the American capitalism strongly fought in any way by the North Korean dictatorship.

As reported by Sokeel Park in The Guardian, Choco Pies have always played an important role in the Korean Hallyu (the Korean Wave of pop culture), one of the most effective soft power tools used by South Korea to spread its culture all around the world. North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un, saw it as a potential contaminator and an enemy for his regime. After banning it, he decided to create a domestic competitor of it as well. On one hand, taking this commercial measure created an alternative to the consumers. On the other hand, stopping the so-called sweet revolution, he again took away the choice from the citizens.

The Cold War between the two Koreas has started long ago, after WWII, which provoked the breakup of lots of families as well as a strengthening the regime. The outlawing of the Choco Pie is just an example of what it is going on inside the country. It is just a hint of how human rights are not respected at all. This apparently absurd privation shows also how North Korean people have no voice in their own country as well as outside it.

In North Korea, we cannot even talk about censorship of means of communication, because everything belongs to the dictator and it is controlled from the beginning by the political headquarter.

Have you ever thought about the fact that we are shown only images about the regime ceremonies?

When we watch the society celebrating the oligarchic government acting like robots, do we perceive them as regular human beings? And still, they are.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (the official title of North Korea) is actually a huge bubble of violence, in which no one can neither enter nor escape. The country has closed its commercial doors in order to preserve itself and to cut off its population form the occidental world.

“Democracy grows from within, and external actors can only support it.” That is what we can read among the four key recommendations resulting from the International Round Table on Democracy, Peace and Security: The Role of the United Nations, in 2010. However, it is difficult to make this principle reality if we are in a non-existent society with non-existent rights. It is hard to believe that North Korean people by themselves could stand the systematic violence committed by the oligarchic group of soldiers who keep the country as a social prison.

If they refuse everything coming from the outside world, why should we turn our back on them? They deserve the right to bite a pie freely, don’t they?

(End)

Robo-cops on parade, funny funerals and breaking stones

Alaa Arsheed, Syrian refugee and violinist, and Gian Pietro Masa, experimental electronic musician, during their live peromance at the inauguration of Fornasetti's Calendarium exhibition. Credit: Fornasetti / IPS

By Francesco Farnè and Valentina Gasbarri
ROME, Dec 18 2015 (IPS)

“In Beirut I was like a bird in a cage, I felt like a prisoner. Today, I have the chance to let my dreams come true, make a living with my music, realizing my dad’s project: open a new Alpha – my family’s cultural center, destroyed during the war- to share Syrian culture and help my people in Europe,” Alaa Arsheed, a Syrian refugee, told IPS.

Alaa, 29-year old and an accomplished violinist has become living proof of the positive effects migration can have on host countries, especially in countries like Italy where structural problems related both to the financial and migration crises have changed the course of present political history.

In the past century Italy has gone through mass emigration, internal migration and mass immigration. According to ISTAT (Italian National Institute of Statistics) almost 4 million non-EU migrants live in the country in 2015. The flimsy boats filled with human cargo and often sink in in the Mediterranean leaving many adrift in the cold sea, and some perish.

About 3 per cent of the world’s refugees arrive in Italy says the Report on International Protection in Italy 2015, released by The National Association of Italian Municipalities (ANCI) , Caritas Italiana, Cittalia, Migrantes Fundation and the The SPRAR project (Protection System for Refugees and Asylum Seekers), in partnership with the Ministry of Interior and The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The report says by the end of 2014 there were 33 on-going wars, 13 crisis situations and 16 UN missions. The humanitarian crises in the Middle-East pushed nearly 19.5 million refugees to flee their home country, 38,2 million were internally displaced people (IDPs) from war and persecution and 1.8 million were asylum seekers. As a consequence, the number of migrants reached 59.5 milion people.

According to the last figures from the Italian Ministry of Interior, in 2015 about 120,000 migrants arrived in Italy. The vast majority of people are refugees and migrants from Syria, followed by Afghanis, Pakistanis and Iraqis. The countries of origin for people crossing from Libya include Eritrea, Gambia, Mali, Nigeria, Somalia and Sudan. 2,900 migrants have lost their lives in the Mediterranean during their dangerous journey.

Alaa Arsheed says he was drawn by the magnetism of Italy and Italian people while he was looking for a better life and a place where he could have the “right of having rights.” He describes how music, and art in general, helped him overcome many of the difficulties he faced since he left Syria and why he is convinced that Italy is such an inspiring place where he loves to live. An Italian friend of his, Marta, a painter, put him in contact with Barnaba Fornasetti. Barnaba is the son of the internationally renowned Italian designer Piero Fornasetti, and CEO of the Fornasetti Design company. Barnaba, like his father, is an artist and also a skilled DJ.

Audience attending the live music perfomance at the inauguration of Fornasetti’s Calendarium exhibition. Credit: Fornasetti / IPS

When Barnaba met Alaa, he immediately recognized talent and saw the potential for an artistic collaboration. He invited Alaa to play his violin during the inauguration of his exhibit in Milan. It was an artistic collaboration as the experimental electronic musician Gian Pietro Masa and Alaa, played together in a long session, coordinated by musician and composer Roberto Coppolecchia.

“Art can be a powerful tool for integration, and music, in particular, it is a language that speaks directly to your inner soul, no matter what your religion, nationality, political affiliation, sex or age is,” said Alaa.

“I was born in As-Suwayda, in the Daraa province in southern Syria, where the so called ‘Arab spring’ started in February 2011,” said Alaa. His family owned an art café called Alpha which was the only free cultural space where artists could gather in the city. Alpha’s motto was “Art for All,” he said and then quoted Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “Everyone has the right to freely participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.”

Since its foundation, more than 140 art exhibitions, music, and literary events took place in Alpha, bypassing government censorship. “That was our way to protest, peaceful, based on art and free from religious and political influences. Once, we revisited Voltaire’s quotations in a visual art exhibit,” he said.

Late in 2011, Alaa, like many other Syrians, was forced to leave his country in the face of the civil war. He was able to bring just his violin and a few things with him. He moved to Beirut, where he lived teaching and playing music. Six months ago, he had a meeting that changed his life forever. While teaching violin to Palestinian refugees in a camp, he met Italian actor and UNHCR ambassador Alessandro Gassman, while he was in Lebanon filming a documentary about “art in times of war” called “Torn – Strappati.”

Alaa was involved in the making of this documentary, which was presented at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival, and he features playing his violin. For him, this instrument has become the symbol of how music can heal the pain of a generation of young Syrians.

His talent, and the visibility that Gassman and UNHCR gave to his him, the Fabrica Communication Research Group offered Alaa a music scholarship in Treviso, a city located in the North-East of Italy. “In Italy I found an inspiring, friendly atmosphere and I was also able to realize one of my professional dreams: publish my first album, sham, which means “Damascus” in the Aramaic language,” he said.

Eventually, he asked for asylum in Europe and today he lives in Italy. “I miss my family and my hometown,” and he said he still plays music with his brothers and sister who play the violin, viola and cello, via Skype. They want to play together as a string quartet in Italy someday.

Alaa is now working on a project, in partnership with Fabrica, that he says will make his parents happy and proud of him. As Alpha was destroyed during the war, he would like to rebuild this cultural space in Europe where it would be a landmark for plenty of refugees with the aim of preserving and spreading Syrian culture, as he said, “Art is stronger than everything.”

(End)

From the left: Gian Pietro Masa, Alaa Arsheed, Barnaba Fornasetti, CEO, Fornasetti design company, and IPS Director General Farhana Haque Rahman at the inauguration of Fornasetti’s Calendarium exhibition. Credit: Fornasetti / IPS

A hospital in Srinagar, Kashmir. Credit: Umer Asif/IPS

By Umar Shah
SRINAGAR, India, Dec 18 2015 (IPS)

In an isolated ward of one of Kashmir’s largest government-run hospitals, 54-year-old Ashraf Ali Khan is finding it hard to sleep properly. His 15-year-old son, Asif, is sitting on a bench near the bed staring at his ailing father.

Asif has not been told by his family that his father is suffering from a potentially terminal disease cancer. He knows his father is suffering from a consistent fever which sent him to the hospital, but doesn’t know his father is in the last stage of the crippling disease.

Ashraf Ali, a carpenter, went to the doctor eight months ago after persistent coughing. He had a chest X-ray which then led to further examinations. After series of tests, it was finally he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He has two months to live at best.

Ashraf is among thousands of people who have ben struck down with the disease. In a war-torn Kashmir, about 4000 cases are found every year in this Himalayan region.

Apart from the political uncertainty, which so far has claimed thousands of lives, experts says there is a 20 per cent rise in cancer cases in Kashmir with figures never decreasing. The latest data published by the state’s health department has Kashmir topping the list of cancer cases in India.

The data reveals in the past three years, more than 1,700 people have died due to cancer in Kashmir. It says that since January 2014 there were 12,091 patients who were detected with cancer in various state hospitals. In 2013, 6,300 patients were detected with the killer disease.

The top 10 cancers taking a toll in Kashmir are lung cancer, stomach, colon (large intestine cancers), breast, brain, esophagus (cancer of food pipe), non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, gastroesophageal, junction cancer (cancer between the stomach and food pipe), ovarian and skin cancers.

Experts say the cancer mortality rate among the people in Kashmir witnessed a sharp increase due to some leading behavioural and dietary risks, including high body mass index, low fruit and vegetable intake, lack of physical activity, tobacco use and lack of regular check-ups. Changing lifestyle, environmental degradation and differing food habits are reasons attributed to the surge in all the cancers especially in esophagus, colon and breast cancers.

Kashmir’s leading oncologist Mohammad Maqbool Lone says the situation in Kashmir is becoming more grim every day a with the highest number of lung cancers In the country found in the people of Kashmir.

“The situation is indeed alarming in Kashmir. There are patients hailing from every part of Kashmir including the far flung areas which are diagnosed with such a terminal disease,” says Lone.

Until now no single factor has been identified as the main cause of the rising cancers as compared to other regions of India. As health experts in Kashmir are not certain about the major causes for the rise of the deadly disease, they suspect three main components can trigger the rise of cancer in this Himalayan region.

One is a societal component with poor rural lifestyles and general deprivation, in particular a lack of vitamins and dietary nutrients.

The second reason for rising cancers in Kashmir is the use of copper utensils in cooking, the consumption of spicy, deep fried foodstuffs, and the drinking of hot salty tea which is largely being consumed in every home in Kashmir.

The third factor in rising cancer cases is an environmental issue with exposure to high levels of dietary nitrosamines from diverse sources. Overall, these three components are the general pattern that has led to esophageal and other cancers.

Oncologist Abdul Rashid Lone says that rising numbers of smokers has led to a rise in lung cancers here. He also claims that the detection rate also has increased besides the advancement in medical technologies.

“Earlier, most of the cancer cases in Kashmir used to go unnoticed. At present, the technology has advanced so much that a patient can be diagnosed with the disease. This is the main reason that today we say cancer cases rise in Kashmir,” Dr Lone said.

Oncologist Riyaz Ahmad Shah says that apart from the lung cancer, there are cases of stomach cancer on the rise in Kashmir. He says certain types of cancers are found in children including blood cancers and tumours.

“In case of females, there are cancers related to the reproductive system like cervical cancer, ovarian tumours and breast cancer. In males there are stomach, lung, and esophagus cancers found,” said Dr Shah.

Renowned gastroenterologist, Dr Showkat Ahmad Zargar, says any delay in the detection of cancer could prove fatal for the patient. He says due to the massive adulteration in food items, gastric diseases are on rise in Kashmir.

“Such diseases are killing people slowly. The people here are not very much health conscious which leads to the delay in detecting whether a person is suffering from a cancer or not,” Dr Showkat said.

“There are high chances that a person suffering from cancer can be cured if detected at early,” said Dr Sana-ul-lah who heads the oncology department in one of Kashmir’s leading government run hospitals.

Tobacco use in Kashmir has increased along with unhealthy diets. “If the key risk factors are avoided, Kashmir could be saved from this fatal disease which continues to claim thousands of precious lives every year in the region,” Dr Sana-ul-lah said.

Insha Usman, a research scholar says there are no major steps being taken by the state government to ensure that people are informed and are aware of cancer. She says early symptoms and preventive measures should be made public in far flung areas of Kashmir so that people are conscious of the cancer threat.

“Ironically, there is no comprehensive policy available with the government at the present time that could have made people aware of such a fatal disease. Mass awareness campaigns in villages and towns and people are informed about the symptoms of cancer and early treatment,” she said.

According to the latest study, colorectal cancer (CRC) is the major cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide and in Kashmir, CRC has been found to be the third most common gastrointestinal cancer after esophageal and gastric.

The study says there are certain factors which increase person’s risk of developing CRC. “The most important of these are the age, diet, obesity, diabetes and smoking, personal cancer history, alcohol consumption, large intestinal polyps, family history of colon cancer, race and ethnic background, genetic or family predisposition,” said the finding.

It adds that another major cause of cancer deaths was a late visit to the doctor. “The involvement of quacks, inexperienced medical practitioners and post-referral delays make the situation difficult to handle,” the study concluded.

The steady rise in cancer patients began several decades ago leading to the establishment of an NGO. The Cancer Society of Kashmir, formed in 1999, provides medical and financial help to poor patients suffering from the dreadful disease here.

Masood Ahmad Mir from Cancer Society of Kashmir says that they have started a one-day care centre which runs twice a week. “During this time, doctors from different fields like medical oncology, radio oncology, and gastroenterology sit together and treat patients. We do not charge anything from the people who visit us for the treatment,” he said.

(End)

December 17, 2015 (ADDIS ABABA) – The leadership of the armed opposition faction of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM-IO) announced it has agreed to the recent timetable submitted to the warring parties in South Sudan by the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC) to carry out activities towards formation of the transitional government of national unity which should run the country for the next 30 months.

Taban Deng Gai, head of delegation of the armed opposition faction led by the former vice-president Riek Machar, and the three mediators arrive to attend a special consultation meeting in support of the IGAD-led South Sudan peace process in Khartoum on 12 January 2015 (Photo: Reuters/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah)

“Reference to your letter with Ref: JMCE/c/c/2015M/8 dated 14 December 2015 and your letter dated 15 December 2015, I am hereby informing your esteem offices that SPLM/SPLA (IO) fully agrees to the compromise plan: numbers and timetable on the arrival of the Advance Team to Juba and States of South Sudan. The timetable and days of departure from Pagak, South Sudan and arrival to Juba, South Sudan may change once GRSS give us the clearance to go Juba and other logistical arrangements are in place,” said SPLM-IO chief negotiator, Taban Deng Gai, in a letter addressed to the chairman of JMEC, Festus Mogae.

“The first group to arrive to Juba shall include the Chief negoatiator, SPLM/SPLA (IO) representatives and Support Staff to JMEC/JMCC/NCAC/CTSAMM as well as our team for selection of the TGoNU Ministerial portfolio,” further reads the letter, dated 17 December, extended to Sudan Tribune on Thursday.

Officials of the opposition faction however said the first group of the team will not travel to Juba as previously thought, as they have been waiting for written clearance from the government as well as putting final touches on the logistics for the transportation of the 609 advance team members approved by JMEC and IGAD.

They said the first group of 150 may travel in the "next few days."

(ST)

December 17, 2015 (JUBA) – South Sudan's state-owned Nile Petroleum company has announced that the recent decision by the Central Bank of South Sudan has forced them to impose new higher prices of fuel, increasing the retail sale three times higher to 22 South Sudanese pounds (SSP) per a litre.

A long line of motorists wait to fill up at Runway petrol station in Western Bahr el Ghazal capital Wau on 12 September 2014 (ST)

“You are all kindly notified effectively today the, 17th December, 2015 Nilepet new fuel rates shall be as follows: 1. Whole Salve rate (one truck) is 20 SSP per litre; 2. Depot is 21 SSP per litre; 3. Retail rate is 22 SSP per litre,” Nilepet said in a circular sent out on Thursday, a copy of which obtained by Sudan Tribune.

The instructions to increase the fuel prices was sent out to all fuel station managers in the country by Chol D. T Abel, the director general of downstream Nilepet.

The new development comes only three days since South Sudan central bank announced free floating of the South Sudanese pounds against foreign currencies, prompting further devaluation of the South Sudanese pounds with 20 SSP to 1 US dollar in the banks.

South Sudanese top officials of the central bank and the ministry of finance and economic planning said they were forced to float the currency due to lack of US dollars in the reserve and the decrease in oil production because of the two-year old violent conflict in the country.

Before the 15 December 2013 war erupted the official rate of the exchange was 2.9 SSP per 1 dollar and the price of fuel was only 6 SSP per litre, which has now jumped to 20 per litre according to the new announcement.

“Please note this change has been sparked by the Central Bank of the Republic of South Sudan,” Nilepet official Chol further explained to the public in his order on Thursday.

Following announcement of realignment of local currency exchange rates, fuel stations and other shops remained closed in Juba and other major towns for the last three days, prompting the Nilepet management to act.

However, the decision of the central bank has been welcomed by several international economists and think-tanks organizations in Juba, particularly due to the fact that those who poses dollars, such as international organizations will buy dollars at ease with high rate.

“South Sudan's decision to float its currency is much welcome, in light of deteriorating oil prices and the exhaustion of reserves,” said International Growth Centre (IGC), a London-based research group working in South Sudan in a statement on Thursday.

Keith Jefferis, an IGC Consultant and former deputy governor of the Central Bank in Botswana said “the exchange rate is arguably the most important price in an economy especially for an open economy country like South Sudan, and maintaining the fixed exchange rate was clearly unsustainable.”

Jefferis had authored an IGC report for the government of South Sudan in October.

The limited supply of United States dollars from the Central Bank has meant that only a few people could access dollars at the official rate of 3 SSP to the dollar, while the vast majority of the people were left to source dollars in the black market at a rate nearly six times the official rate.

The differential access to dollars at the official rate distorts the market, and created an opportunity for those with access to dollars at the official rate to engage in “round tripping,” IGC said in a statement extended to Sudan Tribune.

Richard Newfarmer, country director of the IGC's programme in South Sudan, said that allowing the banks to buy and sell dollars at market rates will free more dollars, benefiting more those who posses dollars.

“People who have dollars will now be willing to exchange their dollars through the banks, thereby allowing the banks to meet the needs of their customers, including importers and individuals with dollar deposits,” said Newfarmer.

It is not clear if the government will also issue prices for other commodities in the market after releasing the price of the fuel.

The sudden fuel price increase seems to be the first bite among expected "shocks" in the market due to the floating of the exchange rate.

(ST)

Despite the immense needs in conflict-affected areas of northern Mali, the United Nations Children&#39s Fund (UNICEF) is hampered by constrained access and limited funding, and is thus calling for &#8220action now&#8221 to help the more than 380,000 children who remain out of school in the region.

Senior United Nations officials today called on Liberia to root out sometimes deadly human rights violations masquerading as cultural practices, citing female genital mutilation, forced initiation into secret societies, witchcraft accusations, trials by ordeal and ritualistic killings.

December 17, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese Ministry of Finance announced on Thursday that the government will not initiate a new round of subsidy cuts on fuel until they see further drops in global oil prices.

Sudanese oil workers at one of GNPOC fields in South Kordofan (file photo Asawer oil company)

Oil prices have fell from their three-digit figures to around $36 per barrel which offered huge reprieve to energy importers such as Sudan.

The state minister of Finance and Economic Planning Abdel-Rahman Dirar affirmed that the government will continue to subsidize fuel to meet demands of the local market but that in the event of more decline in oil prices it will be scrapped entirely.

He added that when the government is assured that the private sector has the ability to provide fuel to the consumer at reasonable prices, they will liberalize the price of fuel.

Dirar said that money saved from oil prices drop will be used to finance productive sectors and allocate another part to low-income families and social programs.

The official stated that a 20% increase in salaries of government employees in 2016 will be paid for by savings from lower oil prices.

Last week, the Minister of Finance was reportedly quoted as announcing fresh subsidy cuts in the 2016 budget year. But the ministry later denied its intention to do so.

The Sudanese cabinet approved the draft 2016 budget in a five hour session chaired by President Omer al-Bashir.

Scores have been killed in several Sudanese cities in protests that erupted in September 2013 after the government partially lifted fuel subsidies.

(ST)

By Ban Ki-moon

Seventy years ago, the United Nations was created from the ashes of the Second World War. Seven decades later, in Paris, nations have united in the face of another threat – the threat to life as we know it due to a rapidly warming planet.

Governments have ushered in a new era of global cooperation on climate change – one of the most complex issues ever to confront humanity. In doing so, they have significantly advanced efforts to uphold our Charter mandate to "save succeeding generations".

The Paris Agreement is a triumph for people, the environment, and for multilateralism. It is a health insurance policy for the planet. For the first time, every country in the world has pledged to curb their emissions, strengthen resilience and act internationally and domestically to address climate change.

Together, countries have agreed that, in minimizing risks of climate change, the national interest is best served by pursuing the common good. I believe it is an example we could gainfully follow across the political agenda.

The victory in Paris caps a remarkable year. From the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction to the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development, from the historic Sustainable Development Summit in New York to the climate conference in Paris, this has been a year in which the United Nations has proven its ability to deliver hope and healing to the world.

Since my first days in office, I have called climate change the defining challenge of our time. That is why I have made it a top priority of my tenure. I have spoken with nearly every world leader about the threat climate change poses to our economies, our security and our very survival. I have visited every continent and met communities living on the climate front-lines.
I have been moved by suffering and inspired by the solutions that will make our world safer and more prosperous.

I have participated in every United Nations climate conference. The three Climate Summits I convened mobilized political will and catalyzed innovative action by governments, business and civil society. The Paris Action Agenda, along with the commitments made at last year's Climate Summit, show that the answers are there.

What was once unthinkable is now unstoppable. The private sector is already investing increasingly in a low-emissions future. The solutions are increasingly affordable and available, and many more are poised to come, especially after the success of Paris.

The Paris Agreement delivered on all the key points I called for. Markets now have the clear signal they need to scale up investments that will generate low-emissions, climate-resilient development.

All countries have agreed to work to limit global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius and, given the grave risks, to strive for 1.5 degrees. This is especially important for the nations of Africa, Small Island Developing States and Least Developed Countries.

In Paris, countries agreed on a long-term goal to cap global greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible in the second half of the century. One hundred and eighty-eight countries have now submitted their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, which show what they are prepared to do to reduce emissions and build climate resilience.

Currently, these national targets have already significantly bent the emissions curve downwards. But, collectively, they still leave us with an unacceptably dangerous 3 degrees Celsius temperature rise. That is why countries in Paris pledged that they will review their national climate plans every five years, beginning in 2018. This will allow them to increase ambition in line with what science demands.

The Paris Agreement also ensures sufficient, balanced adaptation and mitigation support for developing countries, especially the poorest and most vulnerable. And it will help to scale up global efforts to address and minimize loss and damage from climate change.

Governments have agreed to binding, robust, transparent rules of the road to ensure that all countries do what they have said they would do. Developed countries have agreed to lead in mobilizing finance and to scale up technology support and capacity building. And developing countries have assumed increasing responsibility to address climate change in line with their capabilities.

In acknowledging this historic achievement, I would be remiss if I did not recognize the leadership and vision of the business community and civil society. They have highlighted both the stakes and the solutions. I salute them for their outstanding display of climate citizenship.

Now, with the Paris Agreement in place, our thoughts must immediately turn to implementation. By addressing climate change we are advancing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Paris Agreement has positive implications for all the Sustainable Development Goals. We are poised to enter a new era of opportunity.

As Governments, business and civil society begin the mammoth project of tackling climate change and realizing the Sustainable Development Goals, the United Nations will assist Member States and society at large at every stage. As a first step in implementing the Paris Agreement, I will convene, as requested by the Agreement and by the Convention, a high-level signing ceremony in New York, on 22 April next year.

I will invite world leaders to come to help keep and increase momentum. By working together, we can achieve our shared objective to end poverty, strengthen peace, and ensure a life of dignity and opportunity for all.

The writer is Secretary-General of the United Nations

December 17, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour revealed that the recent tripartite meeting on Ethiopia's Grand Renaissance Dam (GERD) held in Khartoum last week has achieved positive results but that it was withheld from the media.

Sudan's foreign minister Ibrahim Ghandour (SUNA Photo)

The ministers of water and foreign affairs in Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia concluded the talks last Saturday which were widely believed to have failed to bridge the differences particularly between Ethiopia and Egypt.

Ghandour nonetheless expressed hope that these “positive” results could soon be articulated in the form of an agreement that satisfies all sides during the meeting scheduled to be held in Khartoum later this month.

He emphasized in an interview with Egypt's Middle East News Agency (MENA) that the negotiations are tough, explaining that water is a matter of national security for any country and that "everyone's job is to make sure that National Security is preserved for all of us".

“Sudan has stressed that it is neither a mediator nor neutral or biased, but we are owners and partners", Ghandour said and pointed out that Sudan seeks to protect the rights in Egypt and Ethiopia as well.

“We emerged [from last week's meeting] to agree on another meeting which was after we tabled some of the principles and requirements assigned to the technical committees .. which we agreed at the same time that we will not mention to the press," the Sudanese official said.

Ghandour explained that media sometimes tend to report things by putting them out of context.

He recalled that the Declaration of Principles signed by the three presidents last March in Khartoum confirmed that no party should be negatively affected by the dam.

"This is the principle of which we are discussing ways to affirm it through an agreement through an accord submitted to the political leadership," Ghandour said.

When asked about his level of optimism, the foreign minister said "I am not saying that I am optimistic or pessimistic but the spirit that I have witnessed suggests that we can agree in the next tripartite meeting in Khartoum".

The GERD, scheduled to be completed in 2017, will be Africa's largest hydroelectric power plant with a storage capacity of 74 billion cubic meters of water.

Egypt has repeatedly expressed concerns that filling and operating the dam on the Blue Nile will negatively affect Egypt's water supply, while Ethiopia has rejected those claims.

(ST)

The corn is cooked with limewater to eliminate aflatoxins that cause liver and cervical cancer. Here a worker at the Grulin company is stirring the corn before it is washed, drained and ground, in San Luís Huexotla, Mexico. Credit: Emilio Godoy/IPS

By Emilio Godoy
TEXCOCO, Mexico , Dec 18 2015 (IPS)

Every day in the wee hours of the morning Verónica Reyes’ extended family grinds corn to make the dough they use in the tacos they sell from their food truck in Mexico City.

Sons, daughters-in-law and nephews and nieces divide the work in the family business that makes and sells cecina (dried, salted meat) tacos, longaniza (a kind of Spanish sausage), quesadillas and tlacoyos (thick stuffed oval-shaped corn dough tortillas).

“We cook the corn the night before and we grind it early in the morning, to serve people at 8:00 AM,” said Reyes, who has made a living selling food for years.

The family loads up the metal countertop, gas cylinders, tables, chairs, ingredients and over 60 kg of corn dough in their medium-sized truck before heading from their town of San Jerónimo Acazulco, some 46 km southwest of Mexico City, to whatever spot they have chosen that day to sell their wares.

When the taco truck packs up, it has sold just about all the food prepared that day.

The cooked corn dough takes on a yellow tone, an effect caused by a process called nixtamalisation – the preparation of corn or other grain, which is soaked and cooked in an alkaline solution, usually limewater, and hulled.According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), 25 percent of world food crops are contaminated with aflatoxins.

This technique dates back to before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in Mexico in the 15th century, when local indigenous people cooked corn this way.

Nixtamalisation significantly reduces aflatoxins – any of several carcinogenic mycotoxins produced by molds that commonly infect corn, peanuts and other crops.

“In Mexico aflatoxins are a serious problem,” Ofelia Buendía, a professor at the department of agroindustrial engineering at the Autonomous University of Chapingo, told IPS. “A major effort has been made to eliminate them. The most effective is the traditional nixtamalisation technique.”

She has specialised in “nixtamalising” beans, quinoa, oats, amaranth, barley and other grains, and in producing nutritional foods.

Mexico’s corn dough and tortilla industry encompasses more than 78,000 mills and tortilla factories, over half of which are concentrated in just seven of the country’s 31 states.

Nearly 60 percent of the tortillas sold were made with nixtamalised dough.

Corn is the foundation of the diet in Central America and Mexico, where the process of nixtamalisation is widely used.

But consumption of tortillas has shrunk in Mexico, from 170 kg a year per person in the 1970s to 75 kg today, due to the inroads made by fast food and junk food.

Mexico is now cooperating with Kenya in east Africa to transfer know-how and technology to introduce the technique, to help that country reduce aflatoxins.

Mexico and Kenya signed two cooperation agreements, one of which offers technical support and involves the sending of mills by Mexico’s International Development Cooperation Agency.

Kenya, the world’s second-largest producer and consumer of corn, needs 45 million 90-kg bags of corn a year, and only produces 40 million.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), 25 percent of world food crops are contaminated with aflatoxins, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that more than 4.5 billion people in the developing world have chronic exposure to them.

Studies by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) suggest that approximately 26,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa die every year of liver cancer associated with chronic exposure to aflatoxins.

At 3:00 AM, the machines are turned on in the processing plant of the Comercializadora y Distribuidora de Alimentos Grulin food processing and distribution company in the town of San Luís Huexotla, some 50 km east of Mexico City.

The work consists of washing the corn cooked the night before, draining it, and grinding it to produce the dough for making tortillas and toast, which are packaged and distributed to sales points in the area.

“Nixtamalisation respects the nutrients in the corn, although some are lost in the washing process,” José Linares, director general of Grulin, told IPS. “There are faster systems of nixtamalisation, but they’re more costly. The technology is shifting towards a more efficient use of water and faster processing.”

His father started out with one tortilla factory, and the business expanded until the Grulin company was founded in 2013.

Grulin processes between 32 and 36 50-kg balls of dough a day. One kg of corn produces 1.9 kg of dough.

The corn is cooked for 90 minutes and then passes through a tank of limewater for 30 seconds before going into tubs with a capacity of 750 kg, where it remains for 24 hours. It is then drained and is ready for grinding between two matching carved stones.

Officials from the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO) have visited Mexico to learn about nixtamalisation and test corn products.

The experts who talked to the Kenyan officials said the technique could be adopted by nations in Africa.

“In Africa they want to know about the process, because of its tremendous uses for food. Some variables can be influenced, such as texture and taste,” said Buendía. “The Chinese eat tortillas, so this technique could be adopted. These opportunities cannot be missed.”

Besides cultural questions, the availability of water and generation of waste liquid – known as ‘nejayote’ – can be problems. For every 50 kg of corn processed, some 75 litres of water are needed. The nejayote, which is highly polluting because of its degree of alkalinity, is dumped into the sewer system.

Academic researchers are investigating how to make use of the waste liquid to produce fertiliser, to reuse it in washing the corn, and to make water use more efficient.

“It would be necessary to overcome the cultural barriers, and make sure the taste of lime isn’t noticeable….The technique is replicable,” said Grulin’s Linares.

In 2009, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service developed a biological control technology called AflaSafe, to fight aflatoxins in corn and peanuts. It is so far available in Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Kenya, Senegal and Zambia.

Edited by Estrella Gutiérrez and Verónica Firme/Translated by Stephanie Wildes

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By Tesfa-Alem Tekle

December 17, 2015 (ADDIS ABABA) – South Sudan's Nuer community in Uganda say they were blocked from holding a program to commemorate the second anniversary of mass slaughter committed in Juba against ethnic Nuers in mid-December 2013.

Nuer traditional cultural dancers on Sunday at Bentiu Indepedent stadium in Unity state. 10 November 2013 (ST)

The commemoration program was initially scheduled to be held on 15 December, but officials from the South Sudanese embassy in Kampala, collaborating with the chairman of some pro-government Nuers reportedly cancelled the commemoration program.

In an email correspondence to Sudan Tribune, the leadership of the Nuer community claimed Ugandan police ordered the community to cancel the commemoration meeting and allegedly even threatened to arrest the entire community members.

“The Uganda police (Captain) came to shine Hotel and closed the gate and tell people that they received a call from military attaché in south Sudan embassy by the name Gai Chatim Puoch who told them that the date of 15 December has been changed to 16 December which is in their claim, was the day which the failed coup of Dr. Riek Machar was controlled”, the Nuer community said.

Following the incident, the chairman of the Nuer community in Uganda, Stephen Gai Kak Gai, formed a group of nine members to meet Gai Chatim puoch, the military attaché at South Sudanese embassy in Kampala to address the issue.

The community, however, claimed embassy officials refused to cooperate and a meeting to amicably settle the case for the community to proceed with the commemoration failed.

“Chatim failed to understand the claim and said that he would remain loyal to the government and would not entertain the objectives of SPLM/SPLA-IO”, said Kak.

According to the Nuer leadership in Kampala, Chatim, at a meeting held at Fang Fang Hotel admitted he could not help Nuer Community to go on with the commemoration.

Chatim claimed the planned 15 December commemoration contradicts the objectives of the government that termed the event as a failed coup and the memorial event would rather be held on December16.

The group strongly condemned the interruption during the mourning of over 20,000 Nuer civilians who were killed in Juba during the early days of the conflict, which triggered after president Kiir accused his former deputy of staging a coup, an allegation he denies.

Members of the South Sudan's Nuer community across the world marked the 15 December event.

(ST)

December 17, 2015 (KHARTOUM) - A Faction of the rebel Sudan liberation Movement/the Second Revolution (SLM-2ed R), that fights the Sudanese government in Darfur , has joined the Sudan Liberation (SLMJ) Movement For Justice and sent a delegation to participate in the ongoing National Dialogue Conference.

Sudan Liberation Movement Justice leader Taher Hajer (L), SLM Unity leader, Abdallah Yahia (C) and Abu Al Gasim Imam leader of SLM- 2edR after the alliance agreement in July, 2014 (ST)

The two group's leaders Abul Gasim Imam and al-Taher Hajer, respectively, had accompanied Chadian President Idriss Deby when he visited Khartoum on October 10 to attend the opening session of the dialogue conference.

In a statement issued Thursday the SLM-2ed R said it had sent a delegation to the National Dialogue Conference to explain its views on how peace can be achieved in Sudan and how the country's crisis can be resolved.

The statement said the movement's delegation was led by Abdel Latif Abdallah (Bargi), the SLM-2ed R deputy chairman.

Imam has, however, told Sudan Tribune that he will not return to Sudan unless he signs a peace deal with the government.

He added that they have the same position as the SLMJ.

The SLMJ of al-Taher Hajer, last Tuesday sent a delegation led by its deputy chairperson Abdallah Abdel Karim to take part in the dialogue conference.

The Sudanese Government is doing its best to involve as many splinter rebel groups in the dialogue which was ,so far, shunned by the major opposition parties and armed movements .

In Khartoum, SLMJ announced it was ready to sign a peace accord if all the national dialogue resolutions and recommendations are implemented.

At a press conference Thursday the movement's deputy chairman Abdel Karim said the big issues being discussed in the dialogue conference represent the major objectives of his movement.

“That is why we have decided to attend,'' he said.

He said they were taking part in the dialogue at a government invitation carried to them by the Chadian president.

“We are here to join the Sudanese forces in the discussion of national matters and not to negotiate with the government,'' he said.

He reaffirmed that his movement was still at war with the government , adding "we did not sign a peace nor a ceasefire agreement with the government, so far.''

He said his movement was the strongest movement in the field in Darfur at the moment .

”The proof for this is that we did not go to any foreign capital .We are operating within Sudan,'' he said, ruling out any split in the movement's higher echelons.

Sudanese government says they crushed rebel groups in the western Sudan region and rebel group no longer have any military activities.

(ST)

December 17, 2015 (KHARTOUM) - The Sudanese government said preparing to repatriate some 800 Sudanese asylum seekers back to Sudan from Jordan where local authorities decided to expel them.

Sudanese tents are pitched outside the U.N. refugee agency headquarters in Amman, Jordan to press demands for resettlement to a third country, on December 2, 2015 (Photo AP/Raad Adayleh)

Reports from Amman, say the Jordanian police on Wednesday 16 October forcefully moved the Sudanese who were camping in front of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office there to the airport to process them for deportation.

In a statement issued on Thursday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that "dozens of Jordanian police arrived with around 14 buses at about 4 a.m. on December 16, and ushered all the Sudanese from their protest camp tents into the buses".

In Khartoum, the Sudanese foreign ministry spokesperson Ali al-Sadiq told reporters that the government is awaiting the green light of the Jordanian authorities to send air-planes to repatriate the Sudanese nationals.

Al-Sadiq further expressed his government rejection of indecent treatment of the Sudanese that Jordan decided to deport from its territory.

"Jordan has the right to not give them residence permit but it has no right to abuse them," he said.

An international journalist who went to the airport told HRW she saw 30 to 40 children among the Sudanese set for deportation.

Jordanian government spokesperson Mohamed al-Momani told the CNN Arabic Service, that the deportation decision Wednesday was in coordination with the Sudanese authorities, adding the deportees do not fit the refugee definition.

"They entered (in Jordan) for treatment in the country but not as refugees. Also the UNHCR does not give them the refugees status. So they do not fit with the refugee definition," al-Momani said.

The UNHCR estimates that there are some 4,000 Sudanese asylum seekers in Jordan.

Sudanese used to travel for treatment in Jordan as they get easily an entry visa to the country.

(ST)

December 17, 2015 (YAMBIO) – Opposition forces allied to the armed faction led by former vice president, Riek Machar, have accused South Sudanese army (SPLA) of attacking their position on Wednesday in Western Equatoria state.

South Sudanese SPLA soldiers in Pageri in Eastern Equatoria state on August 20, 2015 (Photo AFP/Samir Bol)

In a statement signed by Brigadier General Henry Malesh Jioce Louis, chief operations officer in the area, he said the attack took place on 15 December.

“The fighting took place in between Maridi and Rasura, around 12:15PM on 15/12/2015 till 4:30PM, 16/12/2015, our forces were in defensive position and we crash[ed] them and destroyed 5 of their cars,” partly reads the statement, dated 17 December, extended to Sudan Tribune on Thursday.

He also accused forces of the Ugandan People's Defence Forces (UPDF) stationed in Western Equatoria state of allegedly involving in the attack, fighting on the side of president Salva Kiir's government.

He added that their forces in the area, known as Nerran Division of SPLA-IO, will exercise their right to fight back should the government forces and UPDF troops carry out further attacks on their locations.

Sudan Tribune could not independently verify the claimed incident by the opposition forces.

The group announced last month that it had joined the opposition faction under the leadership of former vice president and expressed commitment to the implementation of the peace agreement signed in August by the warring parties.

(ST)

December 17, 2015 (JUBA) –The forthcoming extra-ordinary meeting of South Sudan's ruling Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM) party due early next year will also involve members of the armed opposition faction (SPLM-IO), a top official disclosed.

Jemma Nunu Kumba at a meeting in Kigali, Rwanda, November 12, 2013 (NBI photo)

The acting SPLM secretary general, Jemma Nunu Kumba told reporters that all party members who participated in the 2008 convention will be invited.

“The FDs (former detainees) are already here [Juba] and are invited as well as the SPLM in opposition to attend the extraordinary meeting on January 7th 2016,” she said.

“All members who participated in the second convention of the SPLM in 2008 will attend,” she added.

The country's ruling party held its first convention in 1994 while the group was still engaged in armed struggle with the Sudanese government in Eastern Equatoria state.

The SPLM announced an extraordinary meeting for November, but postponed it for early December before pushing it to January. The party split into the SPLM in Opposition headed by ex-vice president Riek Machar, former political detainees under the leadership of SPLM secretary Pagan Amum and that in government led by President Salva Kiir.

President Kiir chaired Thursday's meeting, also attended by SPLM states chairpersons and governors as well as other members of political bureau and national ministers.

The South Sudanese leader, sources told Sudan Tribune instructed state governors to receive “any number of advance team” sent by SPLM in Opposition, a shift from 30-member delegation earlier announced by information minister, Michael Makuei Lueth.

(ST)

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