Africa

The woman who turned up to surprise her would-be killer

15 September 2015, in the Syrian Arab Republic, (foreground) twin sisters Kadija and Bayan, 11, attending school. SOURCE: UNICEF/Sanadiki

By Valentina Ieri
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 4 2016 (IPS)

More than $10 billion were pledged as humanitarian aid for war-ravaged Syria at the fourth international donor conference in London.

In his opening remarks Thursday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was implicitly critical of the international community for its failure to end the Syrian conflict, which has entered its sixth year.

Urging all participants to increase funds, he said “the situation is not sustainable. We cannot go on like this. There is no military solution. Only political dialogue, inclusive political dialogue, will rescue the Syrian people from their intolerable suffering,” he said.

World leaders, including heads of state and heads of government from the UK, Germany, Kuwait, Norway, Jordan, along with leaders of about 70 other delegations, pledged over $10 billion — more than twice as much as last year’s $3.8 billion in pledges at the donor conference in Kuwait.

“Today’s pledges” – remarked Ban – “will enable humanitarian workers to continue reaching millions of people with life-saving aid,” alleviating the horrendous suffering of Syrian refugees by helping children to get back to school, designing employment programmes and re-building infrastructure, Ban added.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (top right) addresses the donors conference entitled “Supporting Syria and the Region” in London. Hosted by the United Kingdom, Germany, Norway, Kuwait and the United Nations and building on previous conferences in Kuwait.
Pictured on dais (from left): Erna Solberg, Prime Minister of Norway; Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany; Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Amir of the State of Kuwait; and David Cameron, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Source: UN PHOTO/ Eskinder Debebe

However the issue is not only about financial commitments but also how best to efficiently and effectively deploy funds, explained Mercy Corps – one of the largest humanitarian organisations working inside Syria — and feeding more than 500,000 people each month in the Aleppo Governorate.

Simon O’Connell, Mercy Corps Executive director, said leaders should allow “Syrians and host communities (to) have maximum control over their own futures, by investing in small and medium entrerprises and enabling the creation of jobs.

“But no amount of aid will end the suffering of the Syrian people unless there is an end to the conflict and full humanitarian access.”

Mercy Corps, which was one of only two international organisations invited to the “Inside Syria” plenary session Thursday, said the recent bombings and the increased military offensive have forced around 21,000 people to flee towards the Turkish border.

Future prospects seem dark unless something is done to stem the violence, Connell warned.

Gordon Brown, former British Prime Minister and current U.N. Special Envoy for Global Education, said: “Education has finally been recognised as essential humanitarian aid to meet the needs of Syria’s six million displaced children…It means that by 2017 all refugee children will be offered a place at school – for the first time ever in a humanitarian crisis.”

Gordon Brown’s new 2016 “Marshall Plan” requires funds amounting about 1.5 billion pounds sterling (approx. $2.4 billion) in order to reduce the increasing level of child marriage, child labour and child trafficking in the region.

Providing schools in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan will guarantee a future for both Syrian girls and boys and prevent internally displaced families from departing into unsafe journeys towards Europe, added the U.N. Special Envoy.

“We have to find the £1.5 billion” – urged Brown. “To fully fund this welcome promise, and if bigger numbers of Syria’s 12 million displaced persons are not to head for Europe — and become not just a humanitarian problem but a security problem — we urgently need to collect funds and pin down the pledges to secure the one million plus additional school places promised,” Brown added.

(End)

More than 100 UN peacekeepers will be sent home from the Central African Republic after accusations of child sexual abuse, the UN says.

The body of an Italian student who disappeared last week in Cairo has been found and shows signs of torture, an Egyptian prosecutor says.

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS , Feb 4 2016 (IPS)

After nine years in office, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will step down in December perhaps without achieving one of his more ambitious and elusive political goals: ensuring the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).

“This year marks 20 years since it has been open for signature,” he said last week, pointing out that the recent nuclear test by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) – the fourth since 2006 — was “deeply destabilizing for regional security and seriously undermines international non-proliferation efforts.”

Now is the time, he argued, to make the final push to secure the CTBT’s entry into force, as well as to achieve its universality.

In the interim, states should consider how to strengthen the current defacto moratorium on nuclear tests, he advised, “so that no state can use the current status of the CTBT as an excuse to conduct a nuclear test.”

But how close – or how further away– are we from the CTBT coming into force?

Jayantha Dhanapala, a member of the Group of Eminent Persons appointed by the Executive Secretary of the Provisional Technical Secretariat of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO), told IPS: “The CTBT was widely acclaimed as the litmus test of the sincerity of nuclear weapon states in their commitment to nuclear disarmament. The concrete promise of its conclusion was among the causes that led to the permanent extension of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1995 under my Presidency.”

He said the fact that this important brake on the research and development of the most destructive weapon invented is not in force is ominous as relations between the major nuclear weapon states – the US and the Russian Federation who hold 93% of the weapons between them – deteriorate with no dialogue across the divide.

Huge sums of money are being spent on modernisation of the weapons and extremist groups practising barbaric terrorism may acquire them adding to the existential threat that the weapons pose, said Dhanapala, a former UN Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs.

John Hallam, Nuclear Disarmament Campaigner with People for Nuclear Disarmament and the Human Survival Project, told IPS he has, over the years, suggested a number of possibilities for entry into force of the CTBT, including a ‘group of friends’ (governments) declaring that, for them, the CTBT has already entered into force.

Once such group of governments could constitute a comfortable General Assembly (GA) majority in a resolution cementing this in some sense, he added. Possibly at a later stage, he said, one could put up a GA resolution simply declaring that it is now in force. Period.

“I understand fully that such approaches are likely to encounter resistance from non-ratifiers. However the pressure would then be on them to ratify. And a majority should not be bound by the tiny minority of holdouts however influential,” said Hallam.

“And it is an idea I have been gently suggesting in a number of quarters for a number of years,” he pointed out.

The CTBT, which was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly back in 1996, has still not come into force for one primary reason: eight key countries have either refused to sign or have held back their ratifications.

The three who have not signed – India, North Korea and Pakistan – and the five who have not ratified — the United States, China, Egypt, Iran and Israel – remain non-committal 20 years following the adoption of the treaty.

Currently, there is a voluntary moratoria on testing imposed by many nuclear-armed States. “But moratoria are no substitute for a CTBT in force. The four nuclear tests conducted by the DPRK are proof of this, Ban said.

In September 2013, a group of about 20 “eminent persons” was tasked with an unenviable job: convince eight recalcitrant countries to join the CTBT.

Under the provisions of the CTBT, the treaty cannot enter into force without the participation of the last of the eight key countries.

Addressing the UN’s Committee on Disarmament and International Security last October, Lassina Zerbo, Executive Secretary of the CTBTO, said it was necessary to reignite the spirit of the 1990s and go beyond the “business-as-usual” approach of recent years.

“It was necessary to further disarmament, because they would lead the process and see it through. Operationalizing the CTBT would greatly increase the capacity of the international community to address proliferation and advance prospects for those weapons’ eventual elimination”.

In the current millennium, he pointed out, there had only been one county (DPRK) that had violated the moratorium on nuclear testing. “Action was still needed to secure the future of the Treaty as a firm legal barrier against nuclear testing and the nuclear arms race,” he said.

He said nuclear weapons and nuclear testing had a dangerous and destabilizing impact on global security, as well as a negative impact on the environment. More than $1 billion had so far been invested in the most sophisticated and far-reaching verification regime ever conceived.

Significant national security decisions were made in good faith, with the expectation that the Treaty would become legally binding, in line with international law. Countries should finish the job done by experts, he added.

“The challenges of disarmament and non-proliferation required bold ideas and global solutions, as well as the active engagement of stakeholders from all corners of the world. Equally important was building capacity among the next generation of experts, who would carry the endeavours forward,” Zerbo declared.

Hallam told IPS whatever multilateral initiative is adopted, something has got to be done that does an end run around entry-into-force conditions in the text of the treaty, that are, almost impossible ever to satisfy. They have to be in some way short-circuited.

He said that other alternatives must be sought, and that” we should be creative in doing so.”

“I think the CTBTO is already doing a splendid job (and specifically that Lassina Zerbo is doing a great job in promoting it), and this fact already stands it in good stead.”

It would be important to ensure that raw data from the CTBTO sensor network is readily and quickly available to the research community – not just the nonproliferation community but others who might be interested such as geophysicists and climate researchers, not to mention tsunami warning centres, he added.

The writer can be contacted at thalifdeen@aol.com

By Marco Cavalcante

Abdalla lives in the state of Kassala in eastern Sudan and does not really know what happens in the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York, thousands of kilometers away. He is not only geographically distant; his very reality is of another world. How could anything debated and decided over there – no matter how good- can be relevant to him and his family? His main worry is to make sure his family, especially the youngest two of his five children, have enough to eat. He is concerned about them having a chance to go to school, having enough money to pay for their medicine when they are sick, to eventually find a job when – and even if - they become adults… in a few words: to have a life and a range of opportunities that he never had.

But what happened in that far away room in New York last September is actually very much about Abdalla and his family. The countries of the World, encouraged by satisfying the performance of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), have decided to be even more ambitious. For the first time, the world has set as its collective objective to totally eliminate poverty and hunger. Not to reduce them, but to zero them. That is why this is relevant to everyone, especially to Abdalla.

But were the MDG results so encouraging to make it realistic to set these new lofty targets? The fact is that, worldwide, we have indeed obtained some important results. The percentage of people living under the poverty threshold in developing countries decreased from 47% in 1990 to 14% in 2015. And, the percentage of people suffering hunger decreased from 23% in 1990 to around 13% in 2015. Unfortunately these successes have not been equally achieved worldwide: Asia, the protagonist of unprecedented economic growth, performed better than other continents. In addition, even within successful countries, important segments of the population remain excluded from the economic development dividend. These communities continue to suffer increasing hunger and poverty furthering the economic and social divide between the rich and the poor.

Now is the time to look at people and communities that have been excluded from this growth. That is why 193 nations decided to set the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs, to be reached by 2030. People will say: “are they realistic?” or “why do we set ourselves up for failure?”. Let's not forget that there was a similar reaction when the MDGs were set. It is a fact that globally we do have sufficient resources and knowledge to achieve these goals, guaranteeing the world and its people a future free from both poverty and hunger. A combination of investments in social protection and in the agricultural sector has proven to be a successful receipt in the countries that were able to achieve the poverty and hunger goals of the MDGs.

We shouldn't be concerned about being too optimistic or even realistic, our only commitment should be to try. Because certainly, if we don't, we will not achieve them. And if in January 2031, the nations of the world meet again and see that there are still poor or hungry people, it will not mean that we failed, but only that there will still be better work to do.

In Sudan the scope of work is enormous: 46.5% of people live under the poverty line, while 38% of the children are suffering from stunting (too short for their age, a form of chronic malnutrition) and 16% from wasting (too thin for their age, a form of acute malnutrition). These percentage means millions of people have to be reached with assistance in the next fifteen years.

In the meantime, Abdalla is talking about the drought, what the “experts” call El Nino. His harvest is not nearly as good as last year's. He is seriously thinking of selling his livestock in order to cope with the difficulties that he will face. This is where we will start 2016 and this journey towards reaching the SDGs, with Abdalla's family and all the other families that commenced this New Year with little to celebrate and much to worry. It is going to be a long and hard walk but we will get there. If by 2030 or later, it really does not matter too much. But together, we will get there.

Marco Cavalcante works as Head of Programme for the United Nations World Food Programme. This article was written in his personal capacity and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the United Nations World Food Programme.

Mali score a last-gasp winner to edge out Ivory Coast 1-0 in an enthralling encounter and reach the African Nations Championship final.

According to the Italian Ministry of Labour and Social Policy estimates, three out of four Bangladeshi workers in Italy work in the tertiary sector. 23,3% of them are employed in the hotel, restaurant and catering sector. Credit: Simba Shani Kamaria Russeau/IPS

By Francesco Farnè
Rome, Feb 4 2016 (IPS)

“During the first months in Italy, I always prayed for rain. I spent hours checking the weather forecast” said Roni, a 26 year old graduate from a middle-income family in Bangladesh. His father, a public servant and his mother a home maker, Roni had to sell umbrellas on the streets of Rome for more than a year before finding a summer job by the sea at a coffee shop, popularly known as a ‘bar’ in Italy.

In a recent interview with IPS, Roni explained that in 2012, he left his country, like many other Bangladeshis, in search of better opportunities in Europe. “I decided to leave for economic reasons; it was impossible to get a job in Bangladesh, even though I am a University graduate. I had heard that many friends and relatives made a fortune in Italy and wanted to be like them”, said Roni.

According to ISTAT 2015 (Italian National Institute of Statistics) estimates, there are more than 138.000 Bangladeshi nationals legally residing in Italy – a 9 % increase compared to 2014. Like Roni, many in the Bangladeshi community play a significant role in the Italian economy as part of the labour force. In particular, 75.6% of Bangladeshi workers in Italy are employed in the service sector.

Additionally, more than 20.000 Bangladeshi entrepreneurs were registered as business owners in 2013, according to the “Annual report on the presence of immigrants – The Bengali Community” issued by the Italian Ministry of Labour and Social Policy.

Roni describes the process of getting a visa as very complex. “There are two kinds of visas, one for agricultural workers and one for all the others. The former is quite easy to obtain and costs less, about € 8.000, while for the latter, the one I obtained, a sponsor residing in Italy is required and the cost is over € 12.000.”

“I paid my sponsor directly, and he completed all the required documentation”, he continued, “and once he obtained the nullaosta (clearance), I could apply for my visa at the Embassy of Italy in Bangladesh. I was lucky as it took only three months for the documents to be ready. Many other people have to wait much longer and deal with and pay two or three in between agents to connect them with the sponsor.”

Although it is widely known that the Bangladeshi migrants look out for each other, Roni says that getting support from the established Bangladeshi community has been a challenge. “Since the day I arrived, I sensed a lack of solidarity, fraternity and belonging within my national community. [Those] now in a position to help others seem to forget that once they were the ones in need. It looks like they forget their immediate past and think they are not like this anymore and therefore don’t want to do anything with them”, said Roni.

“No one helped me with my job search nor gave me any indication on where to buy umbrellas to sell, nor helped me with the language, as I did not speak Italian. My sponsor just helped me find a place to sleep – a room shared with nine other strangers I had to pay for myself – and that’s it”, he continued.

After 18 months of search, Roni has now found a job in a restaurant and is much happier. In addition, he has a contract which will enable him to renew his residency permit.

He earns more than €1000 per month, enough to send some money home. Roni explained that remittances are an integral part of his “mission” here in order to help his family back home, since his father retired. As he needs over €400 per month for his own survival in Italy, he is able to send home between €400 and €600 per month. His family uses the money for subsistence and for rent.

Indeed, after China, Bangladesh is the second country of destination of remittances from Italy, amounting to €346.1 million in 2013 (7.9% of all remittances), according to the Annual report by the Italian Ministry of Labour and Social Policy.

When asked for details of his contract, Roni revealed that even though he is contracted for six hours of work each day, he works for 10 hours or more for the same wage, and, days of leave or sickness do not count as working days.

Roni claims he is paid less than other workers with different nationalities. Although Roni’s terms of employment appeared to be better than those of other migrant workers, it nevertheless disregards many of the employment rights regarding remuneration, sick-leave, and weekly working hours outlined in the many directives set out by the EU Commission.

“This is not only about bad bosses exploiting migrants”, said Roni, “we, as migrant workers have to stand up for our rights and stop accepting these humiliating conditions. As long as there is another migrant willing to accept unfair conditions, my attempts to fight for a better contract and for workers’ rights will be in vain.”

“I think government policies to protect workers are good”, he continued. “It is not a matter of policies, it is how they are implemented to make sure that laws are respected. In fact, after government officials carried out an inspection at my workplace, we were immediately hired, gaining formal access to basic welfare and social protection measures.”

Roni concluded by making an appeal to his own people: “let’s help each other and put our strengths together. Do not forget to help the newcomers, as it will pay off! I myself had helped two Bangladeshi nationals hosting them at my place and paying the rent for them. They will repay me as soon as they get jobs. Solidarity will lead to a win-win situation and it is the only way to improve our condition.”

Roni is just one of the many faces representing the migration crisis Italy is facing today. With the weakest suffering the worst consequences of the crisis, from a policy perspective, there is no doubt that an integrated EU approach will be the only effective way to face the issue. This is especially true when attempting to ensure implementation and enforcement of the social welfare laws, human rights and labour rights laws.

At both the national and local level, Italian institutions, as well as non-governmental organizations, have a key role to play. They must raise awareness and enhance understanding of these issues. Workers must be aware of their “labour and employment rights, social and welfare rights, and where to seek assistance”, as stated by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in its publication “Protecting the rights of migrant workers: a shared responsibility”.

All of this can significantly help create long-lasting legislative changes that are needed in the employment sector to ensure that migrants rights are protected. Finally, Italian institutions and civil society organisations should demand stricter controls by the authorities to ensure that existing laws are actually enforced and implemented, as suggested by Roni.

(End)

Roberto Savio, IPS news agency founder and president emeritus and publisher of Other News

By Roberto Savio
Rome, Feb 4 2016 (IPS)

We are witnessing the slow agony of the dream of European integration, disintegrating without a single demonstration occuring anywhere, among its 500 millions of citizens. It is clear that European institutions are in an existential crisis but the debate is only at intergovernmental level.

Roberto Savio

This proves clearly that European citizens do not feel close to Brussels. Gone are the 1950s, when young people mobilized in the Youth Federalist Movement, with activists from the Federal Movement led by Altiero Spinelli, and the massive campaign for a Europe that would transcend national boundaries, a rallying theme of the intellectuals of the time.

It has been a crescendo of crisis. First came the North-South divide, with a North that did not want to rescue the South, and made austerity a monolithic taboo, with Germany as its inflexible leader. Greece was the chosen place to clash and win, even if its budget was just 4 percent of the whole European Union. The front for fiscal discipline and austerity easily overran those pleading for development and growth as a priority and it alienated many of citizens caught in the fight.

Then come the East-West divide. It become clear that the countries which were under the Soviet Union, joined the EU purely for economic reasons, and did not identify with the so called European values, the basis for the founding treaties. Solidarity was not only ignored, but actively rejected, first with Greece, and now with the refugees. There are now two countries, first Hungary and now Poland, which explicitly reject the “European model and values”, one to defend an autocratic model of governance, and the other Christian values, ignoring any declarations emanating from Brussels.

At the same time, another ominous development emerged. British Prime Minister David Cameron used threats to get special conditions, or in order to leave the EU altogether. At Davos, he explicitly said that Britain was in the EU for the market, but rejects everything else, and especially any possible further integration. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been sending soothing signs, and all European countries are in the process of trying to recover as much sovereignty as possible. Therefore, whatever Britain may get in the end will serve as a benchmark for everyone else. It is revealing that in Britain, the pro-Europe lobby is run by the financial and economic sector, and there is no citizen’s movement.

All this is happening within a framework of economic stagnation that even unprecedented financial injections from the European Central Bank have not been able to lift.

The list of countries in trouble does not cover only countries from the South. Leaders of fiscal rectitude, like the Netherlands and Finland, are in serious difficulty. The only country which is doing relatively well, Germany, enjoys a positive trade balance with the rest of Europe, has a much lower rate of interest mainly due to its generally better performance; it has been calculated that over half of its positive budget comes from its asymmetric relations with the rest of Europe. Yet, Germany has stubbornly refused to use some of these revenues to create any pact to socialize its assets, like a European Fund to bail out countries, or anything similar. Hardly a shining example of solidarity….as its minister of finance, Wolfgang Schauble, famously said, “we are not going to give the gains that we have sweated for to those who have not worked hard the way we have…”

Finally, the refugee crisis has been the last blow to an institution which was already breathing with great effort. Last year, more than 1,3 million people escaping conflicts in Iraq, Libya and Syria, arrived in Europe. This year, according the High Commissioner for Refugees, at least another million are expected to find their way to Europe.

What has been happening, shows the European reality. The Commission determined that 40.000 people, a mere drop in the ocean, should be relocated from Syria and Ethiopia. This led to a furious process of bargaining, with the Eastern European countries flatly refusing to take part and in spite of threats by the Commission. As of today, the total number of people who have relocated is a mere 201.

Meanwhile Angela Merkel decided to open Germany up to one million refugees, mainly Syrians. But a smart interpretation of the Treaty on Refugees made clear that economic refugees (as well as climate) were excluded, and it was then declared that the Balkans were safe and secure, thereby excluding any Europeans coming to Germany by way of Albania, Kosovo and other countries not yet part of the EU.

It is interesting that, at the same time, Montenegro was invited to join Nato, which, by coincidence also serves to increase the containment of Russia, thanks to a standing army of 3.000. But of course, the flood of people made it difficult to process the paperwork required, and so each country was forced to resort to its own way of doing things, without any relation with Brussels.

Austria declared that it would admit only 37.500 asylum applications.

Denmark, besides creating a campaign to announce to refugees that they were not welcome, passed a law that delays family reunification for three years, and authorises the authorities to seize asylum seekers’ cash and jewels exceeding US$1.400.

Sweden announced that it would give shorter residence permits, and that strict controls will be imposed on trains coming from Denmark.

Finland and Holland have indicated that they will immediately expel all those who do not fit under strict norms as refugees. Great Britain, which was responsible together with the United States for the Iraq invasion (from which ISIS was born) has announced that it will take 27.000 refugees.

There has been a veritable flourishing of wall construction, constructed in Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia and Austria. Meanwhile Europe tried to buy the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with three billion euros, as a way to stop the flow of refugees but it didn’t work. Now Greece is the culprit, because it was not able to adequately process the nearly 800.000 people who transitted the country.

Austria has asked to exclude Greece from the Schengen agreement, and move European borders “further north” . This chapter is now being concluded by the German initiative to introduce, once again national border controls, for a period of two years. Last year, there were 56 million trucks crossing between countries, and every day 1,7 million people crossed between borders.

To eliminate the Schengen agreement for free movement of Europeans, would be a very powerful signal. But more critically are the imminent political changes which see anti-European and xenophobic parties all riding the wave of fear and insecurity crossing Europe.

In Germany, where Angela Merkel is increasingly losing support, the Party for an Alternative, which has been relatively marginal, could achieve representation in at least three provinces. Across Europe, from France to Italy, from Great Britain to the Netherlands, right wing parties are on the rise.

These parties all use some form of left wing rhetoric: Let us renationalize industries and banks, increase social safety nets, fight against neoliberal globalization…

Hungary has heavily taxed foreign banks to get them to leave, and Poland is using similar language. Their target is very simple: the unemployed, the under employed, retirees, all those with precarious livelihoods, those who feel that they have been left out of the political system and dream of a glorious yesterday. If it is working in the United States with the likes of DonaldTrump, it will work here.

Therefore, there is no doubt that at this moment a referendum for Europe would never pass. Citizens do not feel that this is ‘their’ Europe. This is a serious problem for a democratic Europe.

Will the European Union survive? Probably, but it will be more a kind of common market for finance and business rather than a citizen’s project. It will also hasten the reduction of European power in the world, and the loss of European identity, once the most revolutionary project in modern history.

(End)

A plaque targeting Prime Minister David Cameron, as demonstrators protest in Oxford Street, London, 26 March 2011. Credit: Mark Ramsay | Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/neutronboy/5562337245/ | Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

By Baher Kamal
Cairo, Feb 4 2016 (IPS)

“Do you speak English fluently? No? Then you risk to become a terrorist!.” IPS posed this dilemma to some young Muslim women living in Cairo, while explaining that this appears to be UK prime minister David Cameron’s formula to judge the level of Muslim women’s risk to fall, passively, into the horrific trap of extremism.

Here you have some answers: “He must be kidding, I can’t believe that…,” says Egyptian university student Fatima S.M.

“This is just insulting! What does language have to do with such a risk?,” responds Fakhira H. from Pakistan who is married to an Egyptian engineer.

“This pure colonialism, Cameron still dreams of the British Empire,” reacts Nigerian Afunu K. who works at an export-import company in Cairo.

“Oh my God! We knew that Muslim women are victims of constant stigmatisation everywhere, in particular in Western countries… But I never expected it to be at this level,” said Tunisian translator Halima M.

Of course this is not at all about any scientific survey-just an indicative example of how Muslim women from different countries and backgrounds see Cameron’s recent surprising statement: Muslim women who fail to learn English to a high enough standard could face deportation from the UK, the prime minister said on 18 January.

Cameron suggested that poor English skills can leave people “more susceptible” to the messages of groups like the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (DAESH).

“After two and a half years they should be improving their English and we will be testing them,” the UK prime minister stated. “We will bring this in October and it will apply to people who have come in on a spousal visa recently and they will be tested.”

Cameron’s comments came as his Conservative government launched a $28.5 million language fund for Muslim women in the United Kingdom as part of a drive to “build community integration.”

Current British immigration rules require that spouses be able to speak English before they arrive in the UK to live with their partners. “…They would face further tests after two and a half years in the UK, said Cameron, before threatening them: “You can’t guarantee you will be able to stay if you are not improving your language.”

The number of Muslim living in the UK is estimated to be around 2.7 million out of Britain’s total population of 64 million.

The British government estimates that around 190,000 Muslim women (about 22% of the total) living in the UK speak little or no English.

“… If you are not able to speak English, not able to integrate, you may find, therefore, you have challenges understanding what your identity is, and therefore you could be more susceptible to the extremist message,” the UK prime minister affirmed.

Cameron further explained that a lack of language skills could make Muslims in the U.K. more vulnerable to the message of extremist groups. “I am not saying there is some sort of causal connection between not speaking English and becoming an extremist, of course not,” he said.

Significantly, Cameron’s cabinet did not ratify last summer the so-called Istanbul Convention, a pan-European convention establishing minimum standards for governments to meet when tackling violence against women. The UK had signed up on this Convention three and a half years ago. The Convention entered into force eighteen months ago.

The UK prime ministers’ statements came under fire in his own country.

This is about a “dog-whistle politics at its best,” said the UK Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron.

Cameron’s idea is “lazy and misguided”… a “stereotyping of British Muslim communities,” reacted Sayeeda Warsi, former Conservative Party co-chair. “I think it is lazy and sloppy when we start making policies based on stereotypes which do badly stigmatise communities.”

Andy Burnham, the Home Affairs spokesman for the Labour Party shadow cabinet, accused Cameron of a “clumsy and simplistic approach” that is “unfairly stigmatising a whole community.”

“Disgraceful stereotyping,” said Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the UK-based Ramadhan Foundation.

These are only a few selected reactions of a number of figures who have the chance for their voices to be heard.

But imagine you are a Muslim woman and live in the United Kingdom. Like any other woman, you already face many daily hurdles in this world of flagrant gender inequality.

Then recall that these challenges are augmented by the fact that you are a foreigner. Your religion in this case puts additional heavy stigmatisation weight in your mind and on your shoulders.

What would you think?

(End)

February 3, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - In line with a second agreement signed by the oil ministers of the two countries Wednesday, South Sudan will provide Sudan with 28,000 barrel of crude oil per day to be used in power production and cover its local needs.

The Khartoum Refinery installation (Xinhua)

South Sudanese oil minister Stephen Dhieu Dau and his Sudanese counterpart Mohamed Zayed Awad who is visiting Juba agreed to review the fees paid by South Sudan for exporting its oil using Sudan's pipeline and oil infrastructure.

The Sudanese oil ministry said in a statement extended to Sudan Tribune Wednesday that Juba agreed to provide 18.000 barrel oil crude per day to a power plant in the White Nile state.

The statement further said that additional 10.000 barrel of oil crude will be supplied to Khartoum refinery in order to meet a growing demand for petroleum products.

The oil deal is signed 24 hours before the inauguration by President Omer al-Bashir of a power plant in Um Dabakir area in the While Nile state at a capacity of 500 megawatts.

Also, the agreement comes in phase with Sudanese government plans to increase the capacity of Khartoum refinery to 200.000 barrel per day.

The statement didn't elaborate on the financial cost of the deal, but analysts say it will be according to the international market.

The signed agreements will consolidate the joint interests and cooperation between the two countries and help to resolve the outstanding issues between the two countries.

The Sudanese minister stressed his ministry's keenness to provide technical assistance to South Sudan, in the framework of bilateral cooperation adding that the agreement is in the interest of both peoples.

(ST)

February 3, 2016 (JUBA) - South Sudanese government led by President Salva Kiir said on Wednesday that opposition forces have besieged the strategic town of Bentiu in the oil producing Unity state.

South Sudanese soldiers patrol the streets of Unity state capital Bentiu on 12 January 2014 (Photo: Simon Maina/AFP)

Speaking to reporters after an extraordinary Council of Ministers meeting in Juba, government spokesman and minister of information and broadcasting, Michael Makuei Lueth, said all routes leading to the oil producing town are cut off by the opposition forces of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA-IO) led by former Vice-president, Riek Machar.

"We don't know their intention but they have closed all the roads; around Bentiu are closed and there is no movement into or out of the town," said Makuei, referring to a security report presented by ministers of defense and national security in a meeting chaired by President Salva Kiir on Wednesday.

"We don't think it is cantonment or assembling of SPLM-IO forces because you don't decide cantonment areas on your own. It is something that all parties do jointly," he said in reference to assembly areas contained in the peace agreement signed five months ago to end the 21 months old war.

Makuei said the government was monitoring the movement of the opposition troops closely.

SPLA-IO REFUTES ACCUSATION

Meanwhile, officials of the SPLM-IO have denied the accusations, saying this could be a pretext by the government if it planned to attack their forces in Unity state.

“Our forces have not moved out. They are in their bases,” said James Gatdet Dak, official spokesman of the SPLM-IO leadership.

“We hope this is not a pretext by the government to attack our forces in the area,” he said.

He also said the government could be trying to divert the public attention from the ceasefire violations and atrocities it has been committing in Western Equatoria state.

Clashes this week occurred in Mundri county of Western Equatoria state between government troops and opposition forces, with the chairman of the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC), Festus Mogae, confirming the dire situation in the area.

The opposition faction accused the South Sudanese army (SPLA) of attacking their positions and civilian settlements in Western Equatoria. While the government's newly appointed governor in the area confirmed the clashes, senior military leaders in Juba denied having received reports about the fighting.

(ST)

January 3, 2016 (YAMBIO) – 30 youth drawn from the five payams of Yambio in South Sudan's Gbudue state have been trained on good governance and conflict resolution.

Youth attending the training in Yambio February 3, 2016 (ST)

A local based entity known as Community Empowerment for Rehabilitation and Development Organisation, (CEFORD) has organised the three-day workshop, which reportedly intends to equip youth with skills on conflict management.

CEFORD's project manager, Valentino Asienzo, said Yambio was chosen as the venue for the workshop owing to recent experiences of conflict and between local youth and the army, which saw nearly a dozen people killed.

“Youth have been involved in some conflict and organise themselves into groups and enter the bush in parts of former Western Equatoria state saying they are demanding their rights or to find solutions to their problems, but through dialogue a peaceful resolution can reached not fighting,” said Asienzo.

CEFORD has, in the past, organised such trainings in Ibba county to 30 youth on conflict management and has been operating in some counties in greater Western Equatoria to bring the youth and civil society groups together, training them on how to manage and find solutions to conflicts.

Some of the youth said the absence of schools in their areas makes them very idle.

James Kubako, a participant, vowed to convince county authorities to establish schools that would help absorb majority of the youth and keep them busy.

The youth and the country's armed forces were often involved in fierce battles in various parts of Western Equatoria state, a situation worsened by the 21-months long conflict.

(ST)

The bullet-ridden Fatih Paşa Mosque in the heart of Diyarbakir's historical Sur district, which was heavily damaged in clashes between Turkish armed forces and local militant youths. Credit: Joris Leverink/IPS

By Joris Leverink
ISTANBUL, Turkey, Feb 4 2016 (IPS)

The latest footage to come out of Sur, the historical district in Diyarbakir that has been under total lock down by Turkish armed forces for the past sixty days, shows a level of devastation one would sooner expect in Syria. In more ways than one – empty streets lined with debris, bombed-out buildings, tanks and soldiers shooting at invisible assailants – the situation in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeastern regions resembles a war zone.

The Turkish government maintains that it is engaged in a fight against terror. However, the security operations are characterized by a disproportionate use of violence, whereby entire towns and neighborhoods are cut off from the outside world with civilians trapped inside their homes for weeks on end. This has led to calls by international human rights organizations to end the collective punishment of an entire population for the acts of a small minority.

At its second general congress in late January, the key political representative of the Kurdish population in Turkey, the Peoples’ Democratic Party, or HDP, stressed its determination to seek a peaceful solution to the violent conflict. “If politics can play a role, weapons are not necessary. Where there’s no politics, there will be
weapons,” Selahattin Demirtaş, the co-chair of the party summarized the situation.

From autonomy to conflict

In the spring of 2013 hopes were high for a political solution to the decades-old violent conflict between the Turkish state and its Kurdish minority, represented on the battlefield by the leftist Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. After years of fighting and tens of thousands deaths, both parties appeared determined to bring the war to an end and engage in peace talks. For almost 2.5 years the fighting ceased. The precarious peace came to an end in the summer of 2015.

As a spillover from the war in Syria, tensions between the Kurds in Turkey and the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, reached a boiling point. In Syria, local Kurds had been fighting off a number of Turkey-backed jihadist and Syrian opposition groups – most prominently the so-called Islamic State, or ISIS. When Kurdish groups in Turkey became the target of two ISIS-linked suicide attacks – in Diyarbakir in June, and Suruç in July – it was the AKP that was held responsible for the onslaught.

The ceasefire broke down and violence escalated quickly. Turkey launched air raids against PKK targets in northern Iraq, in response to which security forces inside Turkey were attacked by Kurdish militants. Having lost their trust in the Turkish state to properly address Kurdish grievances concerning the right to speak and be educated in their mother tongue, to practice their own religion, to be represented politically and to protect the natural environment of their historical homelands, many Kurds instead turned to the ideology of “democratic confederalism”.

Developed by the jailed leader of the PKK, Abdullah Öcalan, democratic confederalism promotes the autonomy of local communities and a decentralization of the state.

When towns and neighborhoods across the Kurdish regions of Turkey started declaring their autonomy in the wake of the re-escalated conflict, the Turkish state under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan responded by sending in the army and declaring dozens of so-called curfews that in practice amount to military sieges. Besides hundreds of casualties among the army and Kurdish militants, around two hundred civilians are believed to have been killed in the past six months.

Bleak prospects for peace

After the HDP became the first party with roots in the Kurdish freedom movement to pass the exceedingly high electoral threshold of 10 per cent at the parliamentary elections in June – and again at the snap elections in November – it has come under severe pressure from the political establishment. President Erdogan personally suggested that the HDP representatives ought to be stripped from their immunity so that they could be prosecuted for supporting terrorism.

Nonetheless, the party refuses to succumb to the intimidation and has consistently called for a peaceful and democratic solution to the conflict. “Despite all the oppression, a new democratic model is emerging,” HDP co-chair Figen Yüksedağ said in her speech at the congress. “This model continues to gain support, even while under attack. The HDP has a historical responsibility to bring this project to a successful end.”

Her co-chair Demirtaş added the warning that “If we fail to produce a solution for the end of the violence, it is the end of politics in Turkey.” Unfortunately, prospects for a political solution are bleak. Mayors and political representatives of the towns and districts where the population has called for autonomy are prosecuted and jailed. At the same time President Erdogan warned that, “It should be known that we will bring the whole world down on those who seek to establish a state within a state under the name of autonomy and self-governance.”

Prime Minister Davutoğlu recently vowed to continue the military operations until “our mountains, plains and towns are cleansed of these killers.” This type of uncompromising discourse from the country’s two most powerful political leaders instills little hope that the government is prepared to return to the negotiation table any time soon. The Kurds, both at home and across the border in Syria, are seen as the biggest threat to the territorial integrity of Turkey, and to stop this perceived threat no price is too high.

In the same way that Turkey has refused to allow the Syrian Kurds a seat at the negotiation table in Geneva, it is refusing to enter into dialogue with the Kurds at home.

The multiple references to Syria in this article are no coincidence; if the Turkish government continues to ignore all but a military solution to the current unrest, there is a very real threat that part of the country will soon resemble its southern neighbor.

The HDP’s invitation is there. In the words of co-chair Demirtaş: “Dialogue and negotiation should be the method when the public is under threat. Strengthening democracy is the only way to save Turkey from disaster.”

(End)

A consecration ceremony of the Timbuktu mausoleums, last held in the 11th century, was celebrated today at the initiative of the local community, the final phase of the United Nations-backed cultural rebirth of the age-old Sahara city after the destruction wrought by radical Islamists in 2012.

The United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) reported today that it has identified seven new possible victims of sexual exploitation and abuse in the town of Bambari, just days after the UN revealed which countries&#39 troops have been accused of abusing minors.

A senior United Nations official has held talks with Somali leaders in Mogadishu, the capital, in a show of support for last month&#39s &#8220breakthrough&#8221 political achievement in selecting an electoral model to be used later this year in efforts to lead the Horn of Africa country out of decades of factional war.

February 3, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - The United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) has allocated $7 million to the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to help address some of the most pressing needs of South Sudanese refugees in Sudan.

South Sudanese children play in Al-Alagaya camp in White Nile State, Sudan (Photo UNHCR)

An estimated 198,600 South Sudanese have sought refuge in Sudan following the eruption of conflict in South Sudan in December 2013. The majority reside in White Nile and Khartoum States.

In statement extended to Sudan Tribune Wednesday, UNHCR representative in Sudan Mohammed Adar said the timing of the CERF funds is critical, describing it as the first significant contribution received this year.

“It will help address the increasing humanitarian needs of South Sudanese refugees fleeing conflict and violence at home, and finding safety in Sudan,” he said.

According to the statement, “the funds will be used to ease overcrowding in existing refugee sites and support protection, health, nutrition, water and sanitation, as well as emergency education”.

The statement pointed that the overcrowding has been a challenge in the seven sites where refugees have been living in White Nile State, increasing the risks to their health and well-being, saying the CERF's funds will support the opening of two additional sites and help address overcrowding.

“The CERF funding being made available will support programmes that are implemented in White Nile State by UNHCR and other UN agencies, including the United Nations Children's Fund, the United Nations World Food Programme, the United Nations Population Fund and the World Health Organization”, added the statement
The conflict in South Sudan erupted in mid-December 2013 between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir Mayardit and those backing former Vice President Riek Machar.

The violence which quickly spread across the country killed tens of thousands of people and forced an estimated two million flee their homes.

(ST)

February 3, 2016 (JUBA) – South Sudanese government has denied having told by East African regional bloc, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), to revoke the unilaterally created 28 states in violation of the peace agreement it signed with opposition factions in August 2015 on the basis of the existing 10 states, saying it was a misinterpretation.

South Sudanese information minister Michael Makuei Lueth attends a press conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 5 January 2014 (Photo: AP/Elias Asmara)

In a statement issued shortly after an extraordinary Council of Ministers meeting in Juba on Wednesday, chaired by President Salva Kiir, Juba accused journalists of “misinterpreting” the IGAD communiqué.

“IGAD communiqué did not ask to revoke the 28 states,” Michael Makuei Lueth, minister of information, spokesman of the government and deputy chief negotiator for the government told reporters on Wednesday in broadcasted statement on the state-run South Sudan Television (SSTV).

He said the communiqué instead asked the parties to continue to dialogue on the matter of the 28 states, after formation of transitional government. Lueth went ahead to read to reporters point 6 of the IGAD communiqué, which reads:

“Concerned by the recent decision of the Government of South Sudan to implement the October 2, 2015 Presidential Decree on the creation of 28 new states, given that such action is insistent with the terms of ARCSS [Agreement on Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan]. However, Council underlined that this should not delay the formation of the Transitional Government of National Unity (TGoNU) and urges the rapid formation of the TGoNU to enable dialogue on this matter.”

The communique called on the parties, the government, the armed opposition faction of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM-IO) led by former Vice President, Riek Machar, and other partners in peace, to instead form a boundary commission with membership of all the parties to the peace agreement and review the process for creation of new states.

“Urges the Parties, subsequent to the formation of TGoNU at national level, in the absence of agreement on the creation of new states, to suspend further action implementing the operationalization of new states until an inclusive, participatory National Boundary Commission comprising all parties to ARCSS reviews proposed states and their boundaries, and that this review process occur, for a period of up to one month,” reads point 12 in the communique.

The statement further said in case the parties to the agreement will not agree on proposed states, they will “revert” to the provisions of the agreement which is based on 10 states.

“Indicates to the Parties that in the event there are outstanding disputes at the end of the boundary review process, the Parties should revert to the provisions of the Agreement,” reads point 13.

Lueth could not however explain to the reporters what the communiqué meant to “suspend” the operationalization of 28 states, which is described as “inconsistent” with the provisions of the peace agreement.

Observers say the suspension does clearly mean the 28 states have become defunct, their operationalization to establish their governments is therefore frozen and the newly appointed governors are as well suspended until all the parties reach a consensus on a number of new states to create.

Also the decision that in case the parties will not agree on the number of states to be created during the upcoming dialogue within membership of the boundary commission, the parties shall revert to the existing 10 states.

The decision, they say, has undoubtedly brought to an end the 28 states, arguing that it is obvious the parties will not agree on the 28 states and may reduce or increase the number, redraw their boundaries, or simply revert to 10 states.

(ST)

February 3, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - Italy's embassy in Khartoum Wednesday announced that an Italian commercial delegation would arrive in the Sudanese capital next week to discuss ways for expanding the trade exchange between the two countries.

Italy's ambassador to Khartoum Fabrizio Lobasso

In a short statement extended to Sudan Tribune Wednesday, the embassy said the commercial delegation would include 14 companies, pointing it will visit Sudan between 8 to 12 February.

It added the delegations aims to explore the Sudanese market in order to develop more sustainable industrial partnerships that would promote trade exchange between Sudan and Italy.

According to the statement, the talks would focus on developing partnerships in areas of energy and renewable energy, agriculture and food, hydropower and infrastructure.

Besides the bilateral meetings the Italian delegation will hold several meetings including with the Sudan Chamber of Commerce, Sudan Businessmen Union, Foreign Ministry, Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Investment.

Last October, Italy's ambassador to Khartoum Fabrizio Lobasso told Sudan Tribune that the Sudanese-Italian political consultations committee held discussions to resume bilateral talks between the two countries following a hiatus of more than ten years.

According to Lobasso, the meeting of the committee, which was held at Sudan's foreign ministry premises, saw “good discussions” on bilateral relations as well as domestic and regional issues.