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 DAILY PRESS REVIEW, Sunday 15 June 2003
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DAILY PRESS REVIEW
Sunday 15 June 2003
National Press
Al Ayam Paper, Khartoum: Justice minister creates posts for attorneys to handle terrorism
The Minister of Justice, Ali Mohammed Osman Yassin issued a decree creating posts for attorneys to apply Sudanese laws relevant to fighting terrorism, criminal cases and civil aviation laws.
The move was made as part of Sudan’s anti-terrorism campaign.
Sudan on Tuesday became the 24th Member State of the African Union to accede to the Convention on the Prevention and Combating of Terrorism.
The country's permanent representative to the African Union, Mr. Osman El-Sayed, handed over the Instrument of Accession to Ambassador Daniel Antonio, Acting Interim Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union.
Ambassador Osman El-Sayed said on the occasion that Sudan had reaffirmed its commitment to one of the key principles of the African Union by becoming a party to the convention.
Al Ayam Paper, Khartoum: USAID team to visit Darfur
A team from the USAID is due to begin a tour to Western Darfur province to assess on the ground the humanitarian situation in the area.
The Minister of International Cooperation, Yusef Takana has discussed yesterday with the US Charge D’affairs in Khartoum, Jeff Millington, in the presence of the USAID Director in Sudan, aspects of the humanitarian aid provided to the country now and during the post peace stage as well US contribution to the rehabilitation of the war-affected areas in the country.
Akhbar Al Youm Paper, Khartoum: Governor of Western Kordofan discloses new exciting information on the foreign suspected network
The Governor of Western Kordofan State, Gen. Police El Tayeb Abdul Rahman, following a visit he said he had paid to the camp of the of the suspected foreign network in a remote area of State, that the leader “Amir” of the network is called Al-Fahed Bin Mohamed.
The security authorities seized a number of videotapes, publications and books indicating the group is the extremist ideas of the group and their call for Jihad against America and what they describe as the enemies of Islam.
According to the Governor the camp of the network was located between two hills in a remote area about 12 hours of drive from the Foola town.
He said the camp was arranged in a strange manner indicating the huge resources and the high organisation the network was enjoying.
The members of the network were involved in tough military drills in deep trenches and among the trees and were exercising high tactics.
Abdul Rahman said the authorities were chasing a group of 40 suspects who fled the camp.
On June 5th, seventeen Saudis detained in Sudan were extradited home and an investigation into their military training in Sudan began.
The Sudanese Interior Ministry had announced that 17 Saudis and a Palestinian were arrested in the preceding week in a remote area in western Sudan while engaging in "unauthorized military training." Sudanese authorities said they had been tipped off by a shepherd.
Al Sahafa Paper, Khartoum: Sudan rejects Ugandan leader claims that says Sudan supports rebel groups in north
The government of the Sudan has strongly rejected accusations levelled by the Ugandan President; Yoweri Museveni that Sudan is supporting rebels in northern Uganda because it wants to expand into territory of Ugandan.
Sudan Minister of Foreign Affairs in a press statement yesterday said that if Uganda by such allegations wants to pressure on Sudan, this would never happen.
President Yoweri Museveni said Friday, in an interview with The Associated Press, Museveni said fighters from the al-Qaida terror network were in Sudan until recently helping rebel groups in northern Uganda with arms and training.
"Our country is the nearest target in the expansionist plans of those Islamists who are our neighbors," Museveni said. "They want to expand into Sudan."
He has said the continued rebel attacks have damaged Uganda's tourism industry. The
country's most important game park, Murchison Falls, is in northern Uganda.
Uganda supported the United States in the war against Iraq "because we knew that if Saddam Hussein had those weapons of mass destruction, then Sudan would also have them because they were allies. Very close."
Uganda also supported the U.S.-led war against terrorism after Sept. 11, 2001, Museveni said, a topic he discussed with President George W. Bush at the White House on Tuesday. Museveni spent Friday morning at the State and Defense Departments and returns home Saturday after a stop in London.
International Newswires
AFP, Cairo: Arab League chief to visit war-torn southern Sudan
Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa will travel to Sudan at the end of the month, making his visit to the war-torn south of the country, his organization said Thursday.
"The secretary general will travel June 30 to Sudan, where he will have talks with the Sudanese authorities and will carry out for the first time a visit to the southern regions," a league source said.
The announcement followed a meeting Thursday between Mussa and Yasser Arman, spokesman of the southern Sudan Liberation Army (SPLA), who handed over a message from SPLA leader John Garang about his visits to Europe and the United States.
Mussa named Nadia Makram-Ebeid as a special envoy to Sudan in December and the league set up an Arab fund for rebuilding southern Sudan, which has been ravaged by war for 20 years.
AFP, Kampala: Uganda, Sudan renegotiate military deal against LRA rebels
Uganda and Sudan have renegotiated a deal under which the Ugandan army could stay in southern Sudan to continue its search and destroy operations against Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, army spokesman Major Shaban Bantariza said Thursday.
"The government of Uganda and Sudan have renewed the earlier protocol now extending Ugandan army's military operation, code-named Operation Iron Fist, against the LRA rebels
in southern Sudan," Bantariza said in a statement released here on Thursday.
Sudan allowed Uganda in March 2002 to deploy troops on its soil to raid LRA camps in southern Sudan. The Ugandans consequently managed to destroy some of the camps.
"The seventh addendum of this protocol has been signed by the minister of state for defence
Ruth Nankabirwa for Uganda and Sudanese diplomat Hassan Yousif Ngor," Bantariza added.
Bantariza later told AFP by telephone that the period of stay, which had expired on May 31, was extended to August 31.
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks, Asmara: Progress On Repatriation of Eritrean Refugees
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has reached an agreement with the governments of Eritrea and Sudan on where to open a humanitarian corridor between the two countries to facilitate the repatriation of thousands of Eritrean refugees, the UNHCR has said.
"We have reached agreement on the location of the border crossing, that will allow the resumption of repatriation to begin soon," Christian Koch, acting head of UNHCR in Eritrea, told IRIN on Wednesday.
Describing the agreement with the two governments as an "important breakthrough", Koch said: "I am confident that we're going in the right direction and that in a short time we'll be able to fine-tune the operational aspects of the repatriation to start moving the convoys".
"We're under time pressure. We're very interested in getting some people home before the rains start so they can benefit from the planting season," Wendy Rappeport, external relations officer with UNHCR told IRIN.
Written communications from the two governments, agreeing that the corridor should be located on the Laffa-Talatasher road which crosses the Eritrean-Sudanese border, were received by UNHCR on 5 and 7 of June respectively. This resolves a key issue discussed in parallel negotiations between UNHCR and the two governments.
There has been no direct communication on repatriation between the two governments since October 2002, when deteriorated relations between them led to their mutual border being closed.
Negotiations with the governments have been ongoing since October 2002 to allow the voluntary repatriation to resume. So far, about 36,000 Eritreans have registered to be repatriated, 32,000 of whom have been verified by the Eritrean Relief and Refugee Commission (ERREC) as genuine Eritreans, and therefore allowed to return home.
Over 100,000 have applied to stay in Sudan. A registration process is ongoing to establish how many of the estimated 340,000 Eritreans in Sudan wish to stay there, and how many are eligible to do so. Since the beginning of this year, Eritreans have to apply individually to either UNHCR or the Sudanese government to retain their refugee status, which ceased at the end of 2002.
Between June 2000 and October 2002, before the border was closed, 103,000 Eritreans returned home from Sudan.
Since the stalling of the repatriation, UNHCR has been concentrating on reintegrating those who had already returned, by providing basic services for them like schools, water points, health facilities and income-generating activities.
"We are giving them the basic conditions to allow them to become economically self-reliant," Koch told IRIN. "Those who have come back are therefore less of a burden for the Eritrean authorities and it has made their reintegration into Eritrean society easier."
The UN System in the National Press
Al Rai Al Aam Paper, Khartoum: US food shipment to Sudan released, despite fear genetically treated
Sudanese authorities have decided to release a mainly US food aid shipment held up for more than 10 days on grounds it was treated genetically, Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said Saturday.
Ismail announced the decision to the press following a meeting with Tom Vraaslen, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's special envoy for humanitarian affairs.
The food shipment was held up at Port Sudan, in the northeast of the country on the Red Sea coast.
The government decision provided for six-month period to allow the concerned authorities to prepare the necessary study on the probabilities of the genetically modified food.
The minister thanked the envoy for the humanitarian role played by the United Nations in Sudan.
He expressed hope that the SPLM/A would respond to the efforts of delivery of the food assistance in the same manner showed by the government.
Meanwhile the Presidential Political Advisor, Dr, Qutbi Al Mahadi renewed the commitment of the Sudan for full cooperation with the United Nations to fulfil its humanitarian mission in the country.
Qutbi has reviewed with Vraalsen the role, which the United Nations could play in the post peace period.
Vraalsen affirmed the keenness of the United Nations on the flow of the humanitarian assistance to all needy people.
He is due to travel today accompanied by the Commissioner General of HAC, to Damazein, Bluer Nile State to assess on the ground the humanitarian situation in the area.
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peace builder
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انستقرام
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