Posted by christine, February 22, 2010
By REUTERS
Published: February 20, 2010
KHARTOUM, Sudan (Reuters) — Sudan’s government signed an agreement with the main Darfur rebel group on Saturday that will help resolve the conflict in the region, President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said.
The rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement, said the agreement reached in Ndjamena, Chad, was not a final peace deal but set out the terms for negotiations that could still fail if the group’s leaders saw signs of bad faith from the Sudanese government in Khartoum…continue reading…
Posted by christine, February 12, 2010
Supporters of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) outside the Groot Drakenstein prison celebrating the 20th anniversary of former South African President Nelson Mandela’s release from jail on Thursday. (Gianluigi Guercia/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images)
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: February 11, 2010
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South African lawmakers sang Nelson Mandela’s praises Thursday as the anti-apartheid icon settled into parliament’s public gallery for a State of the Nation address scheduled in tribute to his 20 years of freedom.
Mandela was released in 1990 after spending 27 years in prison and went on to lead South Africa through the last stretch of a stunning, peaceful revolution from apartheid to democracy.
His release was remembered as triumphant Thursday, but the moment was uncertain and anxious for South Africa, and it is a testimony to Mandela’s statesmanship that things went so well…continue reading…
Posted by christine, February 9, 2010
Bahar Idriss Abu Garda gave himself up last year
The first Darfur war crimes suspect to face international judges has had the charges against him dropped.
Rebel leader Bahar Idriss Abu Garda, who gave himself up last year, had been accused of planning the killing of 12 African Union peacekeepers in 2007.
But International Criminal Court (ICC) judges ruled that there was not enough evidence to support a trial…continue reading…
Posted by christine, February 5, 2010
Life remains basic for many southern Sudanese
The number of people needing food aid in south Sudan has quadrupled in a year to more than four million, the UN’s World Food Programme says.
The WFP wants to ensure the people have enough food to last until their next harvest in October.
Southern Sudan’s agriculture minister Samson Kwaje blamed the surge on internal conflict and drought.
The region is recovering from a two-decade civil war and remains one of the least developed parts of the world.
Although the civil war with the north ended in 2005, some 2,500 people died in conflicts between rival communities in Southern Sudan last year – far more than in Darfur, the UN says…continue reading…
Posted by christine, February 4, 2010
Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the Sudanese president, waved his cane to a crowd last month in Yambio, in southern Sudan (Tim McKulka/United Mission to Sudan, via European Pressphoto Agency)
By MARLISE SIMONS
Published: February 3, 2010
The president of Sudan, who is already facing an international arrest warrant, came under new legal scrutiny on Wednesday when appeals judges at The Hague reopened the possibility that he may be charged with genocide.
The Sudanese leader, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, became the first sitting president to face an arrest order by the International Criminal Court in March, when pre-trial judges said he should be tried for crimes against humanity and war crimes in Sudan’s region of Darfur. But the judges rejected the prosecutor’s request to charge Mr. Bashirwith genocide, arguing that the evidence presented was insufficient.The court’s appeals chamber, in a short session on Wednesday, directed the judges to reconsider the prosecution evidence and to decide anew whether Mr. Bashir’s actions could amount to genocide. They found that the judges had used far higher standards of proof than were needed for an arrest warrant, and that the dismissal of the prosecutor’s genocide charges therefore amounted to an “error or law.” …continue reading…
