http://www.africafiles.org/ AfricaFiles is a network of volunteers committed to promoting African perspectives and alternative analyses for human rights and economic justice in Africa. en-ca Copyright 2010 AfricaFiles. Thu, 09 Sep 2010 07:09 EST 20 http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24304 The Kenyan government has signed an agreement with the International Criminal Court allowing them to probe the violence of the 2007-2008 election polls. By signing the agreement, the government also implicitly gave permission to the ICC to set up a court in the country to try post election violence suspects if it wanted. DH Thu, 09 Sep 2010 00:00 EST http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24304 http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24294 This letter to President Museveni from IFEX members calls for the proposed amendment to the Press And Journalists Act be scrapped. If passed, it would "restrict freedom of expression in Uganda and impede the ability of journalists and media outlets to fulfill their important roles by imposing unnecessarily onerous registration and licensing requirements on the printed media". DH/CJW ed. Wed, 08 Sep 2010 00:00 EST http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24294 http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24291 "Despite an historic peace agreement between northern and southern Sudan five years ago, the threat of renewed civil war looms closer by the day. Any resumption of hostilities would be disastrous for a country that has suffered from years of bloodshed and unfathomable destruction." Mon, 06 Sep 2010 00:00 EST http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24291 http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24287 "Failure by key political actors clearly define Sudan’s north-south boundary lines not only hindered the full implementation of 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), but also fueled mistrust between the two signatory parties, International Crisis Group (ICG) said in its latest policy briefing." GK/CJW ed. Sun, 05 Sep 2010 00:00 EST http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24287 http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24272 "Starting in mid-2003, the government of Sudan responded to an armed rebellion in the western state of Darfur with a massive campaign of killing and expulsion carried out both by regular army troops and by a proxy force known as the Janjaweed...Yet all attempts to stop the killing, whether by neighbors, regional organizations, Western states or the UN Security Council, proved ineffective...In 2005, states—including Sudan—unanimously agreed that they had a responsibility to protect populations from mass atrocities; but this abstract commitment has had little effect on the Sudanese government or on other UN member states who had made this pledge." GK/CJW ed. Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:00 EST http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24272 http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24273 "The January 2011 referendum on self-determination could result in Sudan’s partition, and the country’s North-South border may ultimately become the world’s newest international boundary. The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended two decades of civil war called for the border between the North and the semi-autonomous South to be demarcated within six months. Five years later, the task remains incomplete. The sooner the parties break the border deadlock the better...." GK/CJW ed. Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:00 EST http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24273 http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24274 "A set of legal amendments proposed by the Commission for Non-Muslims Rights (CNMR) to abolish ban on the activities of non-Muslims in Sudan’s capital Khartoum has sparked a standoff with the state’s official clergy, which yesterday slammed the amendments as “a pretext for spreading chaos and immorality’." GK/CJW ed. Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:00 EST http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24274 http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24275 "A southern Sudanese politician representing the south’s governing party – the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) - as minister for oil in the national government in Khartoum has come under fierce criticism for voicing his support to maintain the unity of Sudan." GK/CJW ed. Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:00 EST http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24275 http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24255 "In an exclusive interview, Southern Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit told World Politics Review that he doesn't think there is any point where southerners will declare a unilateral independence." GK/CJW ed. Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:00 EST http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24255 http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24257 The All Africa Conference of Churches reports on its Sudan related work in 2010, which it had declared a special year for Sudan. Working alongside the World Council of Churches and Sudan Ecumenical Forum, its main focus has been the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement and referendum scheduled for January 2011. GK/CJW ed. Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:00 EST http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24257