By The Citizen Correspondent, Nairobi

Britain has a list of 20 prominent Kenyans it has banned from visiting the country for “involvement in serious corruption”.

Making the announcement, British high commissioner Rob Macaire said the list had been growing over the past three years. But, he said it would not be published.

Asked if the list was connected to the United States threat to ban 15 prominent Kenyans from visiting the country if they didn’t push the reform process, Mr Macaire said:

“We are united in the stand against impunity in Kenya but I can’t speak for any other government.” He said the message to Kenyan leaders was to engage and recommit themselves to progress on reforms.

Mr Macaire was speaking at the German ambassador’s residence in Nairobi on the sidelines of a reception to mark the country’s 20 years of re-unification.

The function was well attended by the diplomatic community. Kenyans present included Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Foreign minister Moses Wetang’ula. The host was Ms Margit Hellwig-Boette, who started her job as ambassador on Monday this week.

Mr Odinga said Germany was a symbol of unification for the whole world, adding that Germany’s peaceful elections last weekend that saw Chancellor Angela Merkel retain power was “a good example to Kenya that winner and loser need to shake hands.”

Mr Wetang’ula said foreign envoys were free to express their views. He said: “Whatever we do that you feel we are not doing well, we welcome your criticism but with respect and within protocol.”

The announcement by UK that it had banned 20 Kenyans from visiting the country comes three days after expiry of the deadline for formation of a tribunal to try suspects of the post-election violence. On Friday, the European Union through Sweden, said it would take action against impunity in Kenya.

Posted on API by  K.M. Joseph, Oslo, Norway

GLOBAL: Island nations frustrated at climate talks

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Male, the capital of the Maldives. With an average ground level of 1.5 metres above sea level, it is the country with the lowest highest point in the world, at 2.3 metres

BANGKOK,  – Up to half a million people in the Pacific will lose their homes and their countries to rising sea levels because small island nations cannot persuade the rest of the world to reduce greenhouse gas emissions sufficiently, campaigners say.

The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) is calling for a significant reduction in global emissions so the world’s temperature does not rise more than 1.5 degrees centigrade above pre-industrial levels.

But after a week of negotiations in Bangkok before the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December, developed and developing world countries have been unable to agree anything at all on emissions cuts, AOSIS said.

“We are not working through the options as negotiations, we are simply restating our positions. So we may arrive in Copenhagen with the parties still very far apart. It’s really setting up Copenhagen for failure or an inadequate result,” Leon Charles, chairman of the AOSIS negotiating team, who is from the Caribbean island of Grenada, told IRIN.

AOSIS, whose members are among the most vulnerable to climate change, “can’t live with” global temperature rises of two degrees, a possible target mentioned in the Bangkok talks, Charles said.

“We want 1.5 degrees centigrade in terms of mitigation and significant scaled-up and easily accessible finance. It’s about our survival,” he said.

An AOSIS statement issued after a preliminary meeting in New York in September said members were “profoundly disappointed” by the lack of will in the negotiations to protect small island developing states from climate change impacts.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

A beach at Funafuti atoll, capital of Tuvalu, a Polynesian island nation located in the Pacific Ocean, midway between Hawaii and Australia. With a population of less than 12,000, Tuvalu is likely to disappear in the future because of rising sea levels

Relocation issues

Campaigners said AOSIS’s prospects were dim, calling instead for more attention on how and where people from submerged countries would be relocated.

“Copenhagen won’t be enough. The islands will sink. In the Pacific region, we are looking at about 500,000 people who will need to move. But the islands aren’t talking about the migration issue,” said Marstella Jack, a Micronesian former attorney-general, who was in Bangkok with observers from the Climate Action Network.

Jack said leaders were “too chicken” to address the issue. “They don’t have the leverage to fight the issue with the developed world. Migration will hit us in the face before we realise it. But what happens to the sovereign country of Tuvalu, for example, if the land is gone?”

Tuvalu, with a population of less than 12,000, is heavily flooded every spring by ever more destructive tides. The total land surface of Tuvalu, which comprises nine small coral atolls, is 26 sqkm and on average, it is less than 2m above sea level.

“We are just waiting, and when the time comes, we won’t be Tuvalans any more, just climate change refugees,” said Taukiei Kitara, of the Tuvalu Association of NGOs.

So far, only Mohamed Nasheed, president of the Maldives, has spoken openly about moving all 370,000 residents to another country if, as looks likely, rising waters cover the islands, most of which are less than 1.5m above sea level.

“There are tons of legal and sovereignty issues and we are negotiating aggressively. There are huge complications down the line and if we can avoid these through a strong climate change agreement, let’s do so,” said AOSIS’s Charles.

Photo: Pip Starr

The view of Han island from Yolasa island, both part of the Carteret Islands of Papua New Guinea. Han used to be one island but has now been bisected by rising sea levels

Losing identity

Any kind of displacement is a big issue in Pacific island culture, which links identity to land, Jack said. It is estimated that Micronesia’s low-lying islands, where most of the population lives, will be submerged by 2030.

“Our identity is tied to the tiny island we are from … So losing the land is losing our survival, because the very sense of survival is that piece of land,” she said.

“And once the island is gone, it’s gone for ever and there’s no identity left. That’s the biggest problem that we have, and we would have it even if the Australian government were to carve out a chunk of Queensland and say we could have sovereignty over it, which they aren’t likely to do.”

Some AOSIS members face different problems. The Caribbean island of Antigua and Barbuda has become so storm-wracked that 10 years from now, banks will cease insuring new projects, spelling an end to economic development, said Diann Black Layne, an ambassador in the islands’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

But for the Pacific Islanders watching the water slowly rise around their homes, climate change is no longer about economics.

“The world is thinking about trade. But that’s not what climate change is about – it’s about us living, not drowning,” said Jack.

ts/ey/mw source.irinnews.org

Senegalese Oppositions up to oust Wade

Banjul, Gambia (API)-Opposition leaders in Senegal has been going through many channels possible in order to remove President Abdoulie Wade from office come the 2012 general elections.

Opposition leader, Landing SAVANE of ANDJEF/PADS (African Party for Democracy and Socialism)  who is on holiday in Banjul, said one of the issues discussed by Senegalese opposition is that if Wade is not defeated in the first round of voting, then there is a probability that opposition parties will form a coalition to ensure that he is ousted.

Mr. SAVANE was speaking in an interview with this reporterat Sarge’s Hotel, Senegambia today Sunday. However, he said that the current regime has proposed to amend parts of the electoral laws. Currently, the voting system in Senegal is that if a candidate cannot afford to secure up to 50 per cent of the votes, then there will be a run-off (second round).

According to him, President Wade has proposed to do away with the second round of voting and opted for a simple majority voting system (the first past, the post system). He said the change is yet to be effected but stressed that it will be unfair and undemocratic provided that Wade succeeded in changing the voting system without the consent of the opposition.

He said that a national body called Assises National Delegates, Chaired by Amadou Muktarr, a retired senior UNESCO official, has been formed to enlighten the people on what is happening in the country and also proposals for a change of government.

“The association is made up of intellectuals, opposition members and religious leaders.”

Vote rigging

Mr. SAVANE, who hailed from Binjoune, Southern Senegal, is optimistic that come 2012, the opposition will win the elections provided that they are not cheated, adding that the electorate has loose confidence in the Senegalese leader.

Asked what proves are there to justify his claim, he said, ‘we have not conducted a survey to know whether Wade’s support is declining but I am a statistician and from the look of things, it clear that the people no longer wants him.’

“In Senegal, people are not allowed to conduct public surveys on the political situation,” he said.

Freedom of expression and funding problems

SAVANE, who has been into politics since 1966, said it has been very difficult for people to be prevented from expressing their views though they have been jailed sometimes for criticizing governments.

He admitted that some opposition parties are faced with funding problems; nonetheless, there are others that have funds and means of challenging Mr. Wade.

He said that there is no specific problem confronting the opposition in Senegal. “Its like any other country, in Benin and Mali the opposition has won elections. We only have it in Senegal in 2000 when Wade was elected into office.

Wada’s lows

Asked what are the points to focus on where the current regime has failed or recorded low outcomes, he said that Wada’s administration have failed to provide enough energy in order to ensure a vibrant industrial enterprise.

He also argued that Wada’s foreign policies are becoming unacceptable. “He is supporting coups which are contradictory to international community principles,” he said.

He also said that the present day government of Senegal is inactive in dealing with natural disasters such as floods. He stressed that corruption is also key in the current government.

The opposition leader, who is currently on holidays in The Gambia, said he has no plans to meet the Gambian leader or government officials but did not rule out the possibility of meeting government officials in the near future.

“I have decided to be spending my holidays in African countries rather than going to Europe, I have no plans to meet government officials but I hope to meet them when next I visit The Gambia,” he concluded. 01API MSS 4^th 0ctober 2009

End

AFGHANISTAN: Flooding Amu River displaces hundreds of people

Photo: Masoud Popalzai/IRIN

Local farmers have been affected by land erosion and flooding waters of the Amu River for over a decade

MAZAR-I-SHARIF,  – Dozens of families from the Kaldar and Shortepa districts of Balkh Province, in northern Afghanistan, have been displaced from their homes after the Amu River burst its banks, provincial officials said.

The Amu – also called the Oxus – is the longest river in Central Asia, with a basin including the territories of Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

“Over the past two months, more than 150 houses have been destroyed by the flooding waters of the Amu River,” Rahmatullah Zahid, head of the disasters management department in Balkh, told IRIN.

More than 900 people in the affected households have either set up tents in the area or have sought refuge in nearby communities, Zahid said.

“They are in need of protection and assistance,” he said, adding that some food aid had been distributed among them by provincial authorities.

An increase in the amount of water in the river has also caused some damage in Khamyab and Qarqin districts in neighbouring Jawzjan Province, local officials said.

They said a further increase in the river’s water levels could cause severe flooding along its basins, which are said to be very vulnerable to water flow fluctuations.

Photo: IRIN

The Amu is the longest river in Central Asia; taking water samples in Turkmenistan

Livelihoods lost

On the banks of the Amu River are farm and pasture lands that provide livelihoods to hundreds of local households.

Over the years, erratic flooding and water-induced erosion have destroyed or submerged large agricultural areas near the river in Balkh and Jawzjan provinces. “Our lands have been constantly submerged and destroyed by river water,” Mohammad Azeem, a local farmer, told IRIN.

Another man said he had lost over half his agricultural land over the past three years.

“For many years we have been pleading to the government to fix the riverbanks but it has done nothing,” said Abdul Sataar, a farmer in Shortepa District.

Neighbouring Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have reportedly built retainer walls, dams, concrete riverbanks and other reinforcements on their parts of the river, while the Afghan authorities have widely resorted to temporary measures such as the use of gabion boxes and sandbags in the river basin to prevent flooding and quick land erosion.

However, most of these have been washed away by strong currents, provincial officials said.

According to a preliminary assessment done by the government, hundreds of millions of dollars are needed to properly reinforce the riverbanks and protect nearby agriculture fields.

Meanwhile, the European Commission (EC) representation in Afghanistan has committed 2.5 million Euros to a project for the management of Panj River – a major tributary of the Amu in Badakhshan Province in the northeast – and Amu River.

The project’s overall objective is to support “the sustainable protection and economic and equitable management of water and land resources across the northeastern Panj-Amu river Basin,” according to a press release issued by the EC on 4 October.

mb/ad/ed source.irinnews.org

YEMEN: Children in north suffer severe malnutrition

Photo: Adel Yahya/IRIN

Displaced children with their cooking items at a rural school in Amran Governorate used as a makeshift IDP camp

SANAA,  – Many children in the impoverished northern governorates of Yemen, particularly Saada, are suffering severe malnutrition as a result of food price hikes and limited access to food because of escalating violence between the army and rebels, according to UN and Yemeni government officials.

In May, the World Food Programme (WFP) screened children in Saada city and in camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in and around the city and found they were more malnourished than the national average.

According to Giancarlo Cirri, WFP representative in Yemen, 4.5 percent of children in the camps were suffering severe malnourishment, and 12.9 percent were moderately malnourished.

“The nutrition situation in the city was even more serious, with 12.6 percent of children severely [malnourished] and 27.2 percent acutely malnourished,” Cirri told IRIN.

He said that since a sixth bout of clashes between the government and Houthi-led Shia rebels broke out on 11 August “the nutritional status of children might have worsened with the reduction of access to food, particularly in Saada where families have lost their livelihoods and other assets”.

Photo: OCHA

A map of Yemen highlighting Saada, Amran, Hajja and al-Jawf Provinces

Interventions

Soaring prices of grains and other staples in northern Yemen have contributed to increasing malnutrition among children, particularly those displaced by fighting, according to Naseem Ur-Rehman, chief communications and information officer at the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) office in Yemen.

An assessment carried out by a UNICEF team in early September in the Maraziq IDP camp in Hajja Governorate, some 250km northwest of the capital, Sanaa, found that 7 percent of children there were severely malnourished and in need of immediate attention, Ur-Rehman told IRIN.

“An arrangement has been worked out with the district hospital in Haradh [in Hajja Governorate] to treat severe cases,” Ur-Rehman said, adding that UNICEF was providing ready-to-use food, plumpy’nut (a peanut-based food used in famine relief) and nutritional support wherever they could. This included adding micro-nutrients to food, such as Vitamin A to cooking oil, iron to wheat flour and iodine to table salt.

Dr Najeeb Abdulbaqi, director of the malnutrition department at the Ministry of Public Health and Population, said that through their healthcare units in Saada and Hajja governorates, children with severe malnutrition were being provided with free therapeutic formulas (high-potency vitamin and mineral formulas).

“The ministry has well-trained medical staff treating acutely malnourished cases in these units,” he told IRIN. “We also treated moderate and severe cases in old IDP camps in both governorates, as well as in Amran and al-Jawf [governorates].”

However, Abdulbaqi said that because of government budget cuts this year, the health ministry lacked adequate funding to carry out further interventions for malnourished people in these areas. “The ministry still needs unlimited funding from international and/or local donors to implement other malnutrition strategies,” he said.

Emergency plan extended

In response to the increasing needs in conflict-ridden northern areas, WFP is expanding its emergency operation to support 150,000 beneficiaries, Cirri said, adding that blanket supplementary feeding for all beneficiary children under five will be implemented in the context of the ongoing expanded emergency operation for Saada.

“Due to the volatility of the security situation, the WFP emergency operation is being extended until June 2010,” he said. WFP is distributing high-energy biscuits to cover the immediate needs of newly displaced persons, Cirri said.

Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the world with 35 percent of its 21 million people living below the poverty line. According to UNICEF, 45 percent of its child population is underweight.

ay/ed source.irinnews.org

INDONESIA: Aid slow to arrive after quake

Photo: Jefri Aries/IRIN

Without any food aid, a woman is forced to cook vegetable scraps for her children in Ketaping Village, Padang Pariaman district, West Sumatra

PADANG, – Four days after a devastating earthquake hit West Sumatra province in Indonesia, survivors say little or no humanitarian assistance has reached them, leaving some to beg for money.

At least 603 people have been killed and 343 people were missing and believed trapped under collapsed buildings after the 30 September quake, according to data from the disaster relief coordination post at the West Sumatra governor’s office.

Residents in the worst-hit district of Padang Pariaman set up barriers on the roads near their damaged houses, begging for donations from motorists. Some survivors also pitched tents outside their damaged houses.

“Since the earthquake, we haven’t received anything,” said Riswan Zailani, whose family home was flattened in the quake, leaving only its corrugated zinc roof visible.

“I heard there’s a lot of assistance coming but where is it?” said Zailani, who stood in the middle of the road waving a can to passing motorists asking for money.

According to the governor’s office, around 3,000 people have been injured in the quake, some seriously, while 83,000 homes were badly damaged.

The health ministry‘s crisis centre estimated the death toll could reach more than 1,000, with another 618 people believed killed when landslides triggered by the earthquake buried three entire hamlets in Padang Pariaman.

Rustam Pakaya, head of the crisis centre, also estimated that 3,000 people were still missing.

Photo: ReliefWeb

The earthquake struck off the city of Padang on Indonesia’s Sumatra island on 30 September

Relief slow to come

The Indonesian government is leading emergency response operations, providing search and rescue services, and food and non-food relief items, while neighbouring provinces are also sending food and other assistance.

However, officials admitted that many survivors had not received aid yet.

“We have distributed whatever we have. Many have not received assistance because the stuff is still on its way,” Ade Edwar, head of West Sumatra’s disaster coordinating agency, told IRIN.

“Relief supplies from Jakarta are expected to arrive as soon as today. What else can we give them?” he said.

Edwar said two ships carrying tents from the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) were on their way to Padang, West Sumatra’s capital, and that many food warehouses in Padang were damaged by the quake.

“We are not in a supermarket. We are in an emergency situation,” he said.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on 3 October, access to some places, particularly inland mountainous areas, is difficult as many land routes have been cut by landslides.

Infrastructure damaged

While mobile communications have been restored to many areas, including Padang, quake survivors are also struggling with a lack of electricity and clean water, forcing some to bathe in rivers.

“I know it’s not clean, but it’s better than not taking a bath for days,” said Afrizal, a Padang resident.

Dody Ruswandi, head of the provincial Public Works Department, said one of four water treatment plants supplying West Sumatra was damaged, cutting the water supply to 70,000 homes.

“We need 30 days to fix it. We know this situation is causing a lot of discomfort to people,” he said.

Water tanks have been dispatched to several areas and mobile water treatment equipment was on its way from Jakarta, he said.

“Hopefully this will ease the hardship but, of course, it won’t be the same as before the earthquake,” he said.

Photo: Jefri Aries/IRIN

A quake survivor waits for aid amid the ruins of her house in Ketaping Village, Padang Pariaman district, West Sumatra

International aid efforts

According to OCHA, immediate needs include medical supplies and personnel, hygiene kits, soap, petrol, generators, food and shelter.

WFP Indonesia said it was conducting an assessment of the situation and senior programme assistant Mispan Indarjo said the agency would focus on providing micronutrients for children under five in the form of biscuits.

UNICEF is to distribute relief items such as water pumps and hygiene kits for 50,000 families, while the UN Development Programme has deployed a waste management team.

More than 400 rescuers from countries such as Singapore, Australia, Germany, Turkey, Korea, Switzerland and Japan are helping their Indonesian counterparts search for the missing.

Edwar said search and rescue efforts would last until six days after the quake, around 6 October.

“We are still hopeful of finding more survivors,” he said.

atp/ey/ed source.irinnews.org

INDONESIA: Rescuers struggle to reach Sumatra quake victims

Photo: ReliefWeb

A powerful earthquake struck off the city of Padang on Indonesia’s Sumatra island on 30 September, killing at least 467 people and trapping thousands under rubble

JAKARTA,  – Rescue workers are battling to save scores of people trapped in collapsed buildings after two earthquakes struck Indonesia’s West Sumatra Province [see larger version of map], with aid supplies being flown in and NGOs mobilising helpers.

At least 467 people have been killed in the quakes that devastated the provincial capital, Padang, and the nearby coastal town of Pariaman, according to Indonesia’s Social Affairs Ministry.

“The death toll is likely to increase as many people are still trapped under collapsed buildings, homes and hotels,” Priyadi Kardono, a spokesman for the National Agency for Disaster Management, told IRIN.

A 7.9 magnitude quake struck off the coast of West Sumatra Province in the late afternoon on 30 September, swiftly followed by a 6.2 magnitude quake, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The earthquake occurred along the same fault-line that spawned the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, and was also felt in North Sumatra, Riau and Aceh in Indonesia, as well as Malaysia and Singapore.

OCHA said thousands of people were reported to be displaced after heavy rains and landslides, which followed the quakes, with reports of significant damage to infrastructure, including telecommunications, roads, bridges and water supply systems.

Air Putih, a local NGO, estimated that about 40 percent of buildings in Pariaman were heavily damaged, while television footage from Padang showed buildings in the city’s business district in ruins.

Rescuers were shown struggling to remove debris from buildings where scores of people were believed trapped. Rains and crowds blocking the roads were hampering rescue efforts, TV One, a local TV station, reported.

A team of six government ministers led by Coordinating Minister for People’s Welfare Aburizal Bakrie flew to Padang on 1 October.

At the same time two Hercules C-130 military cargo aircraft left Jakarta carrying doctors and relief supplies, including tents, medicines and food.

“This earthquake is huge. The extent of the damage is likely to be similar to the earthquake in Yogyakarta,” Bakrie said, referring to the 2006 quake that hit Yogyakarta province on the island of Java, killing 5,744 people.

Rustam Pakaya, head of the health ministry’s crisis centre, said a medical team had been dispatched to Padang to set up field hospitals for survivors.

A team of UN agencies, including OCHA, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) has also travelled to the affected areas in West Sumatra to assess the damage and emergency relief needs of the population.

Aid agencies step in

International humanitarian group World Vision said it would send staff on 1 October to assess the damage.

“It is critical that we get people into the quake zone as soon as possible to find out what has happened. If buildings have collapsed, then people are likely to be in urgent need of food, water and especially shelter,” Jimmy Nadapdap, World Vision Indonesia’s Humanitarian and Emergency Affairs director, said in a statement.

“What typically happens is that people become terrified to go back to their homes, especially if damaged, as there will be numerous aftershocks. Securing alternative shelter will be critical,” he said.

Save the Children said it was mobilizing staff to provide aid to children and families in Western Sumatra. The group is providing relief to survivors of a 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck West Java province last month, killing 81 people and displacing about 200,000.

Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago, sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, the edge of a tectonic plate prone to seismic upheaval.

Experts said West Sumatra, especially Padang, is at risk of being devastated by a tsunami in the event of an earthquake similar in magnitude to the one that triggered the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed more than 220,000 people across Asian and African countries.

atp/ey/ds/mw source.irinnews.org