Africa

January 12, 2016 (BENTIU) - A woman was killed and two others injured in a shooting in Jeizira area, west of South Sudan's Unity state capital, Bentiu.

The map of Unity state

The incident, an aid worker told Sudan Tribune, occurred in a civilian position.

Lunyjow Manyuan Gatdet, the deceased's husband, said five shots were fired on to his wife's body, describing the situation as “very severe”.

Gatdet admitted the huge presence of pro-government in the area.

An eye witness separately told Sudan Tribune that the shooting occurred inside Mathoyoh village, some few kilometers from Bentiu.

Weirial Puok Baluang, a press secretary for the armed opposition appointed governor of Unity state accused government forces of “murdering civilians”, allegations Sudan Tribune could not independently verify.

Baluang said their forces were stationed on the other side of Naam River, further claiming that pro-government forces be held accountable for the incident.

“Today, we received sudden news that three civilians were killed in a shooting instigated by pro government forces. We have been monitoring their usual activities in the area,” he said.

A resident of Bentiu, only identified as Mary, said 70-year old Mun Koy Bayah was seriously wounded and admitted in a hospital operated by the international medical charity, Medicines San Fronties (MSF) in Unity state.

(ST)

January 12, 2016 (JUBA) - Citizens in South Sudan's newly-created state of Warrap
have been requested to turn out in large numbers to welcome their new governors.

Map of South Sudan showing Warrap state in red

In a statement issued Tuesday, the caretaker information minister for Gogrial state, Ariech Mayar Ariech, said the governors of Gogrial, Twic and Tonj states will visit their respective places Wednesday.

“Therefore, all members of three states' public are requested to come out in their huge numbers to receive their heads of governments. As for now, we have deployed handful of journalists/reporters to the welcoming events in term of the news coverage", partly reads the brief statement.

In October last year, South Sudan's leader established 28 states through an order, cited as “The Establishment Order No. 36/2015 AD for creation of new South Sudan states”.

President Salva Kiir, however, issued a separate republican order in December last year appointing governors for the 28 new states created to replace the initial 10.

(ST)

January12, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) Sudan Liberation Movement- Minni Minnawi (SLM-MM) will present a joint position paper to the Qatari mediator on way to achieve peace in Darfur.

JEM leader Gibril Ibrahim (C) speaks at the opening session of Darfur negotiations flanked by SLM-MM leader Minni Minnawi in Addis Ababa on 23 November 2014 (Photo courtesy of AUHIP)

The announcement was made on Tuesday following a meeting held in the French capital Paris between the Qatari Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed bin Abdallah al-Mahmoud, JEM leader Gibril Ibrahim and SLM-MM chairman Minni Minnawi on Monday.

Earlier last week, the two rebel leaders indicated that the meeting was organised on their request to discuss with the Qatari official who co-brokered the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD) their demand to open the framework text for negotiations.

"The two sides agreed that the two Movements provide a detailed paper to the Qatari mediation including their vision about the possibility of finding common ground for the peace process in Darfur as soon as possible," said the short statement.

The statement further underlined that the meeting was constructive. It further said that the meeting centered on the peace process in Darfur and the role of the Qatari mediation to achieve a comprehensive peace in Darfur.

The two groups call to open the DDPD for negotiations saying some issues were ignored or not fairly treated, but Khartoum rejects such request.

The Sudanese government proposes they sign the framework document deal stressing it deals with all their claims. After what, they have to discuss security arrangements agreement and join the national dialogue to discuss any further regional or national demands.

During the two round of talks in Addis Ababa in 2014 and 2015, Darfur holdout rebel groups say they want to renegotiate the compensations of the war affected civilians, their security and protection from the armed militias; land ownership, power and wealth sharing.

One of the participants in the meeting told Sudan Tribune that the Qartari minister said the DDPD "is not a revealed book and they are open to new ideas".

his "implies that the document failed to achieve its objectives at least they wished," he further added.

The Paris meeting comes at a time where the African Union's High Implementation Panel (AUHIP) is preparing to hold an informal meeting between the government and the two rebel groups in Addis Ababa.

The DDPD was signed on 11 July 2011 between the Sudanese government and and the Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM) of Tijani al-Sissi. A JEM splinter faction led by Bakheit Abdel- Karim Dabajo (JEM-Dabajo) joined the deal in April 2013.

(ST)

January 12, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - The Central Bureau of Statistics in Sudan announced that the monthly inflation rate has slightly dropped to reach 12, 58% in December compared to 12, 8% recorded the month before.

A vendor sells vegetables during Ramadan at a local market in north Khartoum August 3, 2012 (REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah)

The 2015 budget had a target inflation rate of 25% while the IMF projected 12.4% by year end.

Sudan's economy was hit hard since the southern part of the country declared independence in July 2011, taking with it about 75% of the country's oil output.

The Sudanese pound has lost 100% of its value since South Sudan's secession, pushing inflation rates to record levels given that country imports most of its food.

The East African nation which became a net importer of oil after the partition is benefiting from the sharp drop in crude prices worldwide weak demand and rise in supplies.

Ordinary citizens however continue to complain from cost of living increases that impaired their access to basic commodities.

Last month, the Sudanese government expected that growth rate would increase this year and imports would decrease due to the falling crude prices.

(ST)

January 12, 2016 (JUBA) – South Sudanese parties to the peace agreement signed in August 2015 will on Thursday for the first time reveal names of national ministers they have nominated to compose the membership of cabinet for a transitional government of national unity, the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC) announced on Tuesday.

SPLM-IO Chief Negotiator, Taban Deng Gai, leader of advance team, with David Deng Athorbei, chairman of national committee, hold a press conference in Juba airport upon arrival on Monday, 21 December 2015 (ST Photo)

In meeting on Tuesday with participation of all partis to the peace agreement chaired by JMEC chairman, former President of Botswana, Festus Mogae, the parties also agreed to allow unimpeded humanitarian access to all parts of the country.

The government, SPLM in opposition, former detainees and other South Sudan political parties selected their respective ministerial portfolios last week. The exercise, seen as a breakthrough in implementing the peace agreement, was done through consensus.

The parties have not yet nominated their officials who will fill the selected positions of institutions, but this would now happen on Thursday.

“The Parties committed to naming their ministers for the Transitional Government of National Unity (TGoNU) by 14 January 2016, and that the TGoNU would be formed by 22 January 2016, as provided for in the implementation calendar issued earlier by JMEC,” said a statement from JMEC extended to Sudan Tribune on Tuesday.

“Additionally, the Parties committed to the expeditious convening of the Strategic Defence and Security Review Board, to begin the vital process of security sector reform and transformation provided for in the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan,” the statement added.

TGoNU will run for thirty months as a coalition government before elections will take place at the end of the transitional period in 2018..

JMEC added that the transitional government of national unity will be sworn in on 22 January, 2016.

Former vice-president and first vice-president designate, Riek Machar, is expected to return to the national capital, Juba, for formation of the government. It however remains unclear whether his forces will be deployed in the capital for his security before his arrival.

(ST)

January 12, 2016 (JUBA) – Former chief administrator of Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA), David Yau Yau, has abandoned his South Sudan Democratic Movement (SSDM) Cobra Faction to join the ruling party of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) in order to participate in the power sharing drawn from the peace agreement the government signed with opposition factions.

Greater Pibor Administrator and head of SSDM/A Cobra faction David Yauyau seen in Juba on May, 20, 2014 (AFP)

Yau Yau, flanked by military, political and community members of the SSDM cobra faction who signed a peace agreement with the government in May 2014, declared his decision at the SPLM general secretariat on Monday in Juba.

“As of today, 11th January 2016 in Juba, Monday onwards, we have become members fully in the SPLM,” said Yau Yau.

“We are ready to participate, we are ready to partake, we are ready to share (power) and we are ready to contribute to the development in South Sudan,” said the former rebel commander.

President Salva Kiir dropped Yau Yau last month from the newly created Buma state leadership and instead appointed Baba Bedan Konyi as governor for the new state transformed from GPAA.

Tension increased in Pibor area with Yau Yau loyalists claiming that the population was disappointed by appointment of Konyi. President Kiir hosted a meeting for two days early last week in the State House to dialogue with members of the Murle tribe – one led by Yau Yau and another faction by the new governor Konyi.

Yau Yau attempted to join the SPLM before appointment of the new governors was announced last month in a bid to take the job but the process was delayed, SPLM sources told Sudan Tribune.

“So fully we are SPLM members, and we are SPLA, especially the military part,” Yau Yau told reporters after holding a closed door meeting with SPLM top political officials in Juba.

His military wing, the Cobra Faction, was integrated into South Sudan army, the SPLA, in accordance with the May 2014 peace agreement. Yau Yau, a former Bible student with no military background before, has been made a military general, only five years after forming his armed rebellion in Jonglei state in 2010 following defeat in local elections. He accused the SPLM of electoral fraud.

SPLM secretary for political affairs, Antipas Nyok, received Yau Yau on Monday in the national secretariat.

“We are very grateful that today comrade David Yau Yau is here with all the political and military leaders who were there with him in the Cobra Faction, and they have declared their full intention of joining the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) under the leadership of Comrade General Salva Kiir Mayardiit,” said Nyok.

Reporters were not allowed to ask questions during the press briefing and it remained unclear what new role Yau Yau may be playing in the party or government.

(ST)

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By Valentina Ieri
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 12 2016 (IPS)

In 2015, the number of international migrants reached 244 million – a 41 percent increase compared to early 2000 – according to a United Nations report, released on January 12. Of those 244 million migrants, 20 million were refugees.

The report – titled “Trends in International Migrant Stock: The 2015 Revision“ – was presented by Jan Eliasson, U.N. Deputy Secretary-General, along with Bela Hovy, Chief of the Migration Section of the Population Division, at the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN/DESA).

Produced by the UN/DESA, the new dataset showed that nearly two thirds of all international migrants live in Europe (76 million), Asia (75 million), North America (54 million), Africa (21 million), Latin America and the Caribbean (9 million) and Oceania (8 million).

The United States hosts the largest number of international migrants (47 million), which equals to one fifth of the world’s total, according to UN figures.

Trailing behind the United States are Germany and Russia, with 12 million respectively, Saudi Arabia with 10 million, the United Kingdom with nine, and the United Arab Emirates with eight million.

Drawing attention to refugees, Eliasson noted how particularly relevant migration is for population growth. “Between 2000 and 2015, positive net migration contributed to 42 percent of population growth in North America and 32 percent in Oceania. In Europe the size of the population would have fallen in the absence of a positive net migration”.

The international community, he said, must focus more on the “positive narratives of international migrations”, such as remittances, exchange of international labour and the economic contribution of migrants to both the country of origins and the recipient country.

Currently, the three main countries with the highest outflow of refugees are Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia, where the population is forced to flee due to political conflicts and lack of infrastructures, social and public services for men, women and children, said Eliasson.

“Migration should be safe, orderly and regular” – he said- “although we have seen that this is not the case today.” He highlighted the need to design good policies in the host countries, and ultimately solve the problems in the countries of origin.

It is also necessary to support countries of transitions, such as Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, in developing the adequate infrastructures and humanitarian responses to welcome refugees, said Eliasson.

Reinforcing this view, Hovy said: “It is important all these groups of migrants have rights, especially the right of refugees not to return to their countries where their life and their routine is at risk, and the right to seek asylum”.

Back in November 2015, U.N. Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, announced the need for a roadmap on the large movement of migrants and refugees.

As part of Ban’s roadmap, three other meetings are schedule to take place in 2016:

First, the UN, along with UK, Kuwait, Germany and Norway will address the fourth Financial International Humanitarian Pledging Conference for Syria, on February 4, in London.

Second, the Office of the U.N. High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) will hold a conference in Geneva on March 30 on resettling Syrian refugees. Third, the international community will gather at the World Humanitarian Summit, on May 23-24 in Turkey.

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By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 12 2016 (IPS)

“This is a ray of hope for children, the majority of whom have not had the chance of education since they left Syria,” UN Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown said while announcing new funding pledges towards a plan to provide education for Syrian refugee children.

The humanitarian plan, proposed in the UN Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan (3RP) 2016-2017, aims to educate one million Syrian refugee children in Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey by the end of 2016. Donors from the European Union and the Gulf region have recently provided more than 250 million dollars to achieving this goal.

Currently, there are over 1.3 million Syrian refugee boys and girls in neighboring countries including Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. Of this population, only 48 percent of school-age children have access to education.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has said the five-year-old Syrian civil war has reversed more than a decade of progress in children’s education. And due to the lack of opportunities, child labor and child marriage rates have also increased among refugees.

According to the UN, one in every three refugee children work in the black market. ‘Girls Not Brides’, an organisation working to end child marriages, has also found that child marriage rates among Syrian refugee girls have doubled — from 12 percent to 26 percent.

“Unless we can provide chances for children, every day new families will decide the only hope for their children’s future is to leave for Europe,” said Brown, a former British Prime Minister.
The UN has appealed for about $750 million dollars to provide education to at least one million refugee children in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.

As part of the No Lost Generation campaign, the initiative builds on a successful project in Lebanon where over 200,000 refugees have attended double-shift schools.

The cost-effective double-shift system allows Lebanese children to learn in the mornings, opening up the same classrooms for refugees in the afternoons.

Brown added that this is part of a wider plan to create a humanitarian platform for education in emergencies. “If we can create a platform, then some of these children who have been denied schooling for five years of the civil war and some children who would never go through a classroom door in the period in which they are refugees and in exile, will get new chances that they would never have had before,” he stated.

With the upcoming World Economic Forum in Davos and the International Humanitarian Pledging Conference for Syria in London, Brown aims to raise the additional $500 million in the coming weeks.

According to UNHCR, children below the age of 18 make up 51 percent of all refugees worldwide. However, humanitarian funding for education in emergencies has been insufficient. UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) reported that in 2014, education received only 2 percent of humanitarian aid.

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Johan Galtung is professor of peace studies, founder of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment and rector of the TRANSCEND Peace University-TPU. He has published 164 books on peace and related issues, of which 41 have been translated into 35 languages, for a total of 135 book translations, including ‘50 Years-100 Peace and Conflict Perspectives’

By Johan Galtung
OSLO, Jan 12 2016 (IPS)

Baher Kamal, in … And All of a Sudden Syria!: “The “big five,” the United Nations veto powers, have just agreed United Nations Resolution 2254 of 18-12-2015, time to end the Syrian five-year long human tragedy; they waited until 300,000 innocent civilians were killed and 4.5 million humans lost as refugees and homeless at home, hundreds of field testing of state-of-the-art drones made, and daily U.S., British, French and Russian bombing carried out.” No Chinese bombing.

Johan Galtung

One term in the resolution, road map, already spells failure. There is another reason: missing issues. But something can be done. Roads twist, turn and may be far from straight. Traveling a road is a linear, one step or mile-stone after another, process, by the map. The West loves linearity; as causal chains, (falling dominoes,) from a root cause; as deductive chains from axioms; as ranks from high to low.

However, is that not how the world is, moving in time, causes-effects, axioms-consequences, rank, power, over others? Are roads not rather useful? They are. Is there an alternative to a road map? There is.

One step after the other in time is diachronic. An alternative would be synchronic; at the same time. Let us call it a cake map.

A cake is served, cut in slices, each party takes a slice, waits till all are served to start together. By the road map, first come first served first to eat. Or, highest rank eats first, down the line. The cake map stands for togetherness, simultaneity, shared experience. Not necessarily good: it was also used by the West to carve up Africa.

The cake is an issue; the slices are aspects. How it is defined, how it is cut, who are invited is essential. Basic to the cake map is equality among parties and slices: all get theirs at the same time.

For the Syria issue the Resolution lists the aspects on the road:
• 25 January 2016 (in two weeks) as the target date to begin talks;
• immediately all parties stop attacking civilians;
• within one month: options for a ceasefire monitoring mechanism;
• within 6 months “credible, inclusive and non-sectarian governance”;
• within 18 months “free and fair elections–by the new constitution”.

Kamal mentions many actors and crucial problems with this agenda. The focus here is on the linearity: ceasefire-governance-constitution-free and fair elections. Why stop attacking civilians who can become or are combatants? Why should actors agree to a ceasefire before their rights are guaranteed in a constitution? Why non-sectarian “governance” in a sectarian country? Each step presupposes the next. The “peace process” can be blocked, at any point, by any one party. Like a road.

Proposal: On 25 January, appoint four representative commissions– one for each of the four aspects–with mechanisms of dialogue for all six pairs and plenaries. Then report on all aspects on the agenda.

Back to the cake, “Syria.” Does “Syria” exist? Once much of the Middle East, the name was used for the French “mandate” carved out of the vast Ottoman Empire from 1516 to 1916 when ended by Sykes-Picot. A commission on the Ottoman period, exploring millets for minorities, is indispensable. So is a commission on the Sykes-Picot trauma, also with Turkey as a member; hopefully with UK-France-Russia apologizing.

We have seen it before. The US was a major party to the conflict and the UN conference manager 2013-14. There are now more parties: Jordan has identified up to 160 terrorist groups (Kamal), probably not counting state terrorists. And today the UN is the conference manager.

This column at the time (27 Jan 2014) identified seven Syria conflicts:
1 Minority/majority, democracy/dictatorship, Assad/not Assad in Syria;
2 Sunni/Shia all over, also with “Sunni Islamic State Iraq-Syria ISIS”;
3 Syrians/minorities “like Turks and Kurds, Maronites and Christians”;
4 Syria/”those who, like USA and Israel, prefer Syria fragmented”;
5 Syria/Turkey with “neo-Ottoman expansionist policies”;
6 USA-UK-France/Russia-China “determined to avoid another Libya”;
7 Violent perpetrators of all kinds/killed-bereaved-potential victims.

All seven are still there. They have become more violent, like the second, between Saudi Arabia–also financing IS–and Iran. But the resolution focuses on the first and the last. All parties mentioned should be invited or at least consulted publicly. Last time Iran was excluded, defined as the bad one; this time IS(IS), today called Daesh.

A process excluding major process parties is doomed in advance.

However, imagine that the cake is defined as, “the conflict formation in and around Syria”; that the slices are the seven conflicts indicated with one commission for each; that around the table are the actors mentioned, some grouped together. The Resolution aspects are on their agendas; with commissions on the Ottoman Empire and Sykes-Picot.

What can we expect, what can we reasonably hope for, as visions?

“Mandate”, “colony”: there is some reality to Syria (and to Iraq). The borders are hopeless and should be respected, but not for a unitary state. For something looser, a (con)federation. Basic building-blocs would be provinces from Ottoman times, millets for smaller minorities, and cantons for the strip of Kurds along the Turkish border. The constitution could define a national assembly with two chambers: one territorial for the provinces, and one non-territorial for nations and faiths with some cultural veto in matters concerning themselves.

There is also the Swiss model with the assembly being based on territorially defined cantons, and the cabinet on nations-faiths: of 7 members 3 speak German, 1 Rheto-roman, 2 French and 1 Italian (4 Protestant and 3 Catholic?). Not impossible for Syria. With the Kurds as some kind of Liechtenstein (that is where con-federation enters).

In addition to parallel NGO fora. There is much to articulate.

Assad or not? If he is excluded as punishment for violence, there are many to be excluded. A conference only for victims, and China?

Better see it as human tragedy-stupidity, and build something new.

The violent parties will not get what they want. The victims can be accommodated peacefully in this looser Syria. Moreover, the perpetrators should fund reconstruction proportionate to the violence they wrought in the past four years. As quickly as humanly possible.

Syria offered a poor choice between a minority dictatorship with tolerance and a majority dictatorship–democracy–without. Violence flourished, attracting old suspects for proxy wars. “Bomb Syria” was the panacea, after “bomb Libya”. What a shame. Bring it to an end.

*Johan Galtung’s editorial originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 11 January 2016: TRANSCEND Media Service – TMS: Syria (Minding the Minds II)

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