The president of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, has arrived in Juba, capital of South Sudan, 4 January for talks with his southern counterpart, Salva Kiir, five days before the south votes 9 January on whether to stay with the North or become independent. Officials say four million people have registered to vote, most in the south, but also in the north and in eight foreign countries. The comprehensive peace agreement of 2005 which put an end to decades of civil war stipulates that for the vote to be valid, 60 percent of the region’s voters must take part.
Foreign groups are sending observers into the region to monitor the vote. Former US President Jimmy Carter is heading a high-level delegation to Sudan. The Carter Center is deploying 100 foreign monitors as well as training 3,000 local observers, according to All-Africa 4 January.
Actor George Clooney launched a private satellite surveillance effort a week ago to focus attention on Sudan during the referendum process. The Satellite Sentinel Project is to combine real-time satellite imagery with other information to monitor the security situation on the ground.
A civilian employee of the UN peacekeeping mission to Darfur has been abducted by armed men in El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur. The kidnapping ocurred just hours after a UN Security Council mission arrived in the area, 7 October. Sudanese armed forces began a hunt for the kidnapped man.
Armed men entered the residence of the kidnapping victim, tied up two of his colleagues and drove off with him and another colleague, who managed to escape. The UN has not released details of the victim. Kidnappings, often for ransom, have increased since Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir, was issued an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court.
The region has seen increased heavy fighting in the past week and a half.
Links to other sites:AFP, Al-Jazeera, BBC, IOL.com
Sudan’s first multi-party elections in 24 years have put Omar al-Bashir, the president who won power in a coup 20 years ago, firmly in the seat of power. The semi-autonomous south of the country voted Salva Kiir into power there by a large vote. Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague on charges of war crimes, of which he says he is innocent.
Sudan’s ambassador to the United Nations has gone on the attack to deflect multiple charges against his government. Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad told CNN (programme will air 9 December) that his country will never hand over its president, Omar al-Bashir, to the International Criminal Court in The Hague where he is accused of war crimes. The ambassador lashes out in the TV interview at other criticisms of his country, which range from the opposition party saying it is corrupt to some US senators calling for an investigation into whether the country has an ongoing genocide. Sudan’s civil war nominally ended in 2005, but the number of deaths from violence in Darfur as well as other areas remains high. The ambassador 23 November called for UN peacekeepers to leave his country, following a UN report and criticism from Ban Ki-moon. The fighting in Darfur is over, according to the ambassador, but Aljazeera reports that concerns are growing over elections in April 2010.
Links to other sites: Aljazeera, CNN, Voice of America
The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has issued an arrest warrant for Omar al-Bashir, the president of Sudan, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, although, reports the BBC, it “stopped short of accusing [him] of genocide” and AllAfrica, which carries several articles on the arrest, says two of the three judges who ruled on the warrant refused to consider genocide charges. The Sudanese leader reportedly called the decision worthless. He is the first sitting head of state to be charged by the ICC.
