The decades-long suffering of the people of Sudan and our inability to end their suffering is a source of pain and anguish to me. Last month, I went to Abyei and several other towns in South Sudan. I saw the pain and suffering of the people. The residents of Abyei are still in displaced camps after the criminals in Khartoum burned the whole town to the ground. I am not just saying this; I saw it with my own eyes. And for those who have not seen that tragedy, here are some photos taken at the height of the torching of the town.
For the apologists of Bashir, of course nothing happened in the small town, it is all peaceful. Indeed, they even question about the atrocities being committed in Darfur. I say to these traitors, why not go and visit the refugee camps in Chad, Darfur, Abyei? How soon have we forgotten the killing fields in South Sudan. One of the major omissions in the CPA is the issue of accountability and justice. The criminals in Khartoum correctly calculated that if they can go free after the atrocities and genocide in the Nuba and South Sudan, why not do it in Darfur.
What is sad about this whole situation is that some of the leaders who were suppose to protect and look after the helpless civilian population, have become traitors and apologists for the same people who are killing and maiming the helpless. My friend and the visionary leader of Sudan, the late John Garang said it best: these people are too deformed to be reformed!
There is a Congolese saying: “No matter how long the night, the day is sure to come.” My friends, be assured, no matter how long it takes, there will be justice. The many victims of this regime did not die for nothing.
We are gathered today to discuss about the prospects of a democratic election in Sudan. In fact, the signing of the CPA was intended to transform Sudan into a democratic country. What we have seen in the past several years is quite the opposite. A friend of my told me once, “we did not sign the CPA to go to bed with the NIF; but to kiss their ideology and brutality to death.”
Imagine organizing elections in Poland during World War II. Let us be honest, are we really asking the victims of this regime in the displaced camps in Darfur, in the refugee camps in Chad, in the displaced camps in Agok, to vote for the criminals in Khartoum, while still being brutalized. I guess it would have been ok to have had an election in Cambodia and Pol Pot as a presidential candidate? I am not opposed to a free and fair elections. But I question if this election can be free and fair and morally just while the victims of genocide still languish in displaced and refugee camps.
The victims of Darfur came from far away places, leaving the dead behind. Who are they voting for? These people are still facing untold suffering. In the past several weeks alone, how many times did the Bashir security forces went into the displaced camps? They were not there to protect or provide support. They went there to kill and maim.
Remember Rwanda in 1994 and Darfur today. Let me say a few words about the ongoing genocide in Darfur. As much as I give African governments credit for resolving a number of conflicts in the past decade, it is important to note that African governments, like other members of the international community did not prevent or bring a quick end to the suffering in Darfur or Rwanda. Fourteen years ago, innocent civilians in Rwanda were being butchered, maimed, raped, and hacked to death, while many turned a blind eye.
In 2004, when the U.S. Congress declared the atrocities Genocide, I was so elated and proud, believing that we were going to do something to save lives. I was so sure that this time around it was going to be different, assuming we learned from Rwanda. I must confess, I never thought I was going to succeed even getting the resolution passed in the House, let alone see our government declare Genocide.
What we did in 2004 was long overdue. But I must also state clearly that we failed. We declared Genocide and gave hope to the people of Darfur that it was going to be different. Instead, those that could have been saved are dead and those that are in the camps continue to suffer, irrespective of the declaration. We declared Genocide, but we continued to wine and dine the architects of the Genocide. I have been to Sudan many times and most recently last months, but never to Khartoum. Why? Because I do not recognize a government that is at war with its people. .
And what are the apologists of Bashir saying today about the International Criminal Court’s charges against Bashir? Well if you look at the African Union statement, instead of speaking out and defending the helpless, they have decided to support the killers. How unfortunate. There is an African proverb that goes like this: “Where there is no shame, there is no honor.” I guess our friends at the AU think they are protecting the helpless victims of genocide.
But I must say, President Museveni of Uganda was on target when he said: “You cannot stand up and say don’t touch Bashir because he is a president. Suppose he made those mistakes. If you take that position, you will be ignoring the right of the victims.” The SPLM also took a very courageous decision telling the criminals in Khartoum that they should cooperate with the ICC. Of course there are the other turncoats, who come in different colors now lobbying on behalf of Bashir. Some of them are here with us today.
Unfortunately, some of these traitors justify their preaching by alleging that the ICC process is dangerous to peace and that the CPA will collapse. Let us be honest. Is there peace in Sudan? Is the CPA being implemented? Have the 2.2 million displaced in Darfur returned home? And what peace agreement are we talking about? The Darfur Peace Agreement? Why not ask those who signed that agreement?
It is not just the AU trying to protect Bashir, who presided over the atrocities and genocide in Darfur, South Sudan, The Nuba, and The East, The Arab League is also pushing hard to protect one of their own. The government of Egypt is at the forefront on this. Yet, the same government is also engaged in killing refugees who are attempting to cross The Egyptian border into Israel. Since January an estimated 28 refugees were killed by Egyptian security forces, a number of them are from Darfur. And what did the Sudanese Refugee Commissioner said about these victims, these refugees are pursuing their “Zionist Agenda” and that they should be dealt with firmly.
I am a strong believer that there is no peace without justice. I am not ready to give up on justice. The victims deserve our support. Some Africans argue that the ICC is only targeting Africans. How ironic. The four cases that the ICC pursuing currently, three were brought by Africans themselves. The other one, Sudan, by the United Nations Security Council.
What is always forgotten in tragic situations like these are the victims. A fourteen year old high school student wrote an article for her student newspaper a couple of years ago about the tragedy in Darfur. She wrote: “The rich culture of Tine and the prospects of its growth are now buried below the feverish marigold sand that covers most of Western Sudan, along with the bones of the women, children, and men massacred that day.”
I am not ready to give up on justice and democracy in Sudan. I saw the Promised Land through the visions of my friends John Garang and Salva Kiir. We may not see it anytime soon, but I guarantee you the people of Sudan will fight to the end for justice and democracy. And I will be there with them.
The United States government has done a great deal to help achieve these goals. I must say, despite the election year debates, President Bush did the right thing when it comes to this issue. He has done more than any president to highlight the suffering of the people of Sudan and support the victims. If there is one policy that will not change in the next Administration, it is our government’s determination to fight for justice and democracy in Sudan.
Unfortunately, as time passes, Darfur will face the same fate as other tragedies did in the past: it will soon be forgotten and abandoned. Only the dedicated will remain to fight and to protect the helpless. Agreement or no agreement, we must continue to demand accountably. Those who committed these atrocities, are the same ones who gave a safe haven to Osama Bin Laden. Let me concluded with an Ethiopian proverb: “Restless feet may walk into a snake pit.” Let me say to Bashir, you are on the edge of a snake pit.
(The author is a Congressman, and Chairman, House Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health he delivered this speech at a conference on Sudan’s elections in 2009 organized by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). on September 18, 2008)
Addis Ababa (U.S. Embassy) – Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – On September 15, U.S. Ambassador Donald Yamamoto and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission Director Glenn Anders inaugurated a water system at a ceremony at the Kebridehar town high school. The water system serves the Korahe Zone in Somali Region. The water taps were installed by the non-governmental organization (NGO) Samaritian’s Purse. The Kebridehar town water system, which serves the school and the town’s approximately 10,000 residents, was rehabilitated by the International Rescue Committee as part of a water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions project funded by USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance. In addition to rehabilitating the town water supply, the USAID-funded project is increasing access to safe drinking water in Korahe and Degehabur zones by rehabilitating non-functional boreholes and installing pumps and generators.
Ambassador Yamamoto and USAID/Ethiopia Mission Director Glenn Anders travelled to Somali Region on September 15-16, as part of a U.S. Government delegation that included the top official from the USAID Bureau of Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance, Michael Hess, and USAID Office of Food for Peace Director Jeff Borns. The group met with regional officials and USAID partners to assess the complex humanitarian situation and analyze the effectiveness of U.S. Government humanitarian assistance in affected areas.
ADDIS ABABA – The American people, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), have supported child health services and strengthened the health care system through the Essential Services for Health in Ethiopia (ESHE) project. Over the past five years, the project has improved the lives of over 15 million Ethiopians through health initiatives at the community and national levels.
ESHE is coming to a close, the project shared lessons learned and highlighted the challenges and successes of project interventions at a meeting held September 17 at the Global Hotel. Participants included senior representatives from USAID, the Ministry of Health, Regional Health Bureaus, Woreda Health Offices, and local non government and community based organizations.
Since November 2003, ESHE has helped improve child health services for communities in 101 woredas in the three most populated regions of Ethiopia: Amhara, Oromia, and Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples. The child health interventions of the project focused on improving immunization services, on promoting essential nutrition actions and on strengthening integrated approaches toward care of newborn and childhood illnesses.
For this, ESHE provided capacity building support to health workers and managers in the woredas, zones and regions, strengthened supervision and monitoring capabilities of those managers, helped intensify large scale community mobilization, and implemented strong behavior change communication aimed at improving community and household health practices. Since the project worked in very close collaboration with the Ethiopian Government’s Health Extension Program, its contribution to the mobilization of more than 50,000 voluntary community health workers in support of the prevention and promotion activities of the health extension workers was key to the overall success of the project.
In addition, ESHE celebrated with its Ministry of Health counterparts the progress that health care financing reform has achieved in Ethiopia. ESHE’s support to the establishment of a legal framework for health facilities to retain and utilize fees was instrumental in laying the foundation for regional level implementation of different components of health care financing. The surveys disseminated during the meeting showed how health facilities start devoting resources to improving their infrastructure, their information systems, their human resource capacity and their supplies in drugs and medicine.
During the meeting it was also announced that the achievements of this projects would be build upon by two newly awarded projects.
With half a million women dying in pregnancy or childbirth every year, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) have launched an initiative which could help cut mortality by about 75 per cent by training midwives in developing countries.
“By investing in midwives and universal access to reproductive health, millions of lives can be saved and we can reach Millennium Development Goal 5, to improve maternal health,” UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid said in a news release today, referring to one of eight goals that seek to slash a host of social ills by 2015. Beyond the deaths millions more women suffer long-lasting harm due to lack of care.
An additional 334,000 midwives are needed, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO). The UNFPA-ICM programme will increase the number of births attended by professional midwifery providers and develop the foundations for a sustainable midwifery workforce in selected developing countries.
Its focus will be on training midwives, developing practice standards, and strengthening national midwifery associations. It is estimated that skilled attendance at delivery, backed up by emergency obstetric care, could reduce the number of women dying in pregnancy and childbirth by about 75 per cent.
Every year half a million women die in pregnancy or childbirth and 10 to 15 million women suffer serious or long-lasting illnesses or injuries. In addition, 3 million newborns die during the first week of life and another 3 million are stillborn. Many of these deaths and disabilities could be prevented if all births were attended by midwives.
The $9-million initiative will start in 11 of the hardest-hit countries with the highest levels of maternal deaths and disability and the lowest rates of births attended by skilled workers – Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, Sudan, Uganda and Zambia. It will then expand to include 30 countries and, if funding permits, even more.
The three-year project is funded by the Netherlands and Sweden and will be implemented by ICM and UNFPA offices in the selected countries.
“We need some strong advocates who can call on governments to invest in much needed midwives,” ICM President Bridget Lynch said. “But we also need to work with governments to ensure the scaling up and quality of midwifery services. They need to take ownership.”
BBC – Uganda’s ethics and integrity minister says miniskirts should be banned – because women wearing them distract drivers and cause traffic accidents.
Nsaba Buturo told journalists in Kampala that wearing a miniskirt was like walking naked in the streets.
“What’s wrong with a miniskirt? You can cause an accident because some of our people are weak mentally,” he said.
The BBC’s Joshua Mmali in Kampala, the capital, said journalists found the minister’s comments extremely funny.
Wearing a miniskirt should be regarded as “indecent”, which would be punishable under Ugandan law, Mr Buturo said.
And he railed against the dangers facing those inadvertently distracted by short skirts.
“If you find a naked person you begin to concentrate on the make-up of that person and yet you are driving,” he said.
“These days you hardly know who is a mother from a daughter, they are all naked.”
Vice list
According to the minister, indecent dressing is just one of many vices facing Ugandan society.
“Theft and embezzlement of public funds, sub-standard service delivery, greed, infidelity, prostitution, homosexuality [and] sectarianism…” he said.
Earlier this year, Kampala’s Makerere University decided to impose a dress code for women at the institution, our reporter says.
The miniskirt and tight trousers ban has yet to be implemented, but our correspondent sought the opinions of women on campus about the minister’s opinions.
“If one wants to wear a miniskirt, it’s ok. If another wants to put on a long skirt, then that’s ok,” one woman said.
But others had more sympathy with Mr Buturo.
“I think skimpy things are not good. We are keeping the dignity of Africa as ladies and we have to cover ourselves up,” one woman, called Sharon, told the BBC.
Somali pirates, who have been relentlessly attacking ships this year off the coast of Somalia, say they will kill any European they capture if France fails to release six pirates seized by French commandos earlier this month. VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu has this exclusive report from our East Africa Bureau in Nairobi.
In a telephone interview with VOA, a man identified as the spokesman of the pirate group based in the northern Puntland town of Eyl says the group wants the European Union to pressure France to release the six pirates immediately.
The spokesman, who calls himself Bileh, says if other European Union nations refuse to negotiate the release of his compatriots, his group will begin targeting all Europeans. He says every European hostage would be beheaded.
It is not clear whether the pirate group is in contact with European Union officials about the matter. The captured Somali pirates were transferred to Paris after French commandos mounted a raid last week to free a French couple kidnapped by pirates off the coast of Somalia on September 2.
The French military also seized another group of pirates during an operation in April. But Bileh, the pirate spokesman in Eyl, made no mention of them, suggesting that the pirates taken to Paris in April may have belonged to another group.
Last week, EU foreign ministers decided to set up a special unit to coordinate warship patrols off the coast of Somalia to protect ships from piracy.
In support of that mission, Spain deployed military aircraft to the Horn on Saturday to collect information on the movements of pirates. EU foreign ministers have not decided whether to create a special naval mission to pursue the pirates and capture them.
This year, well-armed pirates, using powerful speedboats, have attacked more than 55 ships and private vessels sailing through the Gulf of Aden and along Somalia’s east coast. Piracy is threatening to disrupt global commerce and driving up costs because of soaring insurance premiums.
The group in Eyl, Puntland is believed to be the largest of the various pirate groups operating in Somalia. Pirates in Eyl and the factional leaders and businessmen who control them are said to have earned about $30 million this year in ransom payments. The group is currently holding about a dozen ships and their crew hostage.
Bileh insists the money ship owners are paying to free to their vessels and crew is not ransom, but fines and taxes being collected on behalf of the Somali people.
Bileh says the ships are being fined and taxed because they are trespassing on Somali territorial waters. He says in the absence of a functioning central government in Somalia, his group is working hard to collect enough money to form a navy strong enough to protect the Somali coast from foreign exploitation.
Eyewitness reports from Eyl suggest that pirates are using their share of the money to build palatial homes and to buy expensive cars. They are also believed to be purchasing increasingly sophisticated weapons and boats.
Somalia descended into factional chaos after the government of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre fell in 1991. The country is one of the poorest in the world, with more than 40 percent of its population in critical need of food aid.
