http://www.africanpress.me/ Elizabeth Mbaire Koikai __

Elizabeth M. Koikai reporting for API from Norway

The Norwegian Progress Party is at it again. Morten Ørsal Johansen who is the party’s immigration policy spokesman,wants to deny asylum seekers who do not follow Norwegian rules permanent residence permits.

Together with other party colleagues Mr. Johansen has received full support from the party’s leadership and parliamentary group. If the proposals go through, asylum seekers will be required to thoroughly follow norwegian rules before getting a permanent residence permit.

The Party which identifies itself as conservative liberal is currently considered as the second-largest party in Norway. Party leader Siv Jensen wants Norway to have a more restrictive immigration policy and tougher integration laws.

Mr. Johansen told Dagbladet, a Norwegian newspaper, that there must be consequences for people who refuse to be a part of the society. And that asylum seekers who do not want to integrate and become part of the Norwegian society, should return to their countries.

Mr Johansen also suggests that asylum seekers who have debts to the public, as those who do not pay child support should not get permanent residence permits.

— It is voluntary to come to Norway, but one has to commit, say Johansen.

The politician proceeds and gives an example, If a woman who refuses to take a job because she can not use the burqa (an enveloping outer garment worn by muslim women) in the job, she will have to accept the consequences. Those who do not want to work, should not have permanent residence permits, says Johansen.

The Progress Party representative also points out that the government will try to facilitate and assist asylum seekers. But that those seeking residence permits are also responsible for their own integration. Foreign nationals who wish to stay and live in Norway must make an effort and learn Norwegian langauge.

— People who do not want to be part of Norwegian society and do not respect our culture and our way of life, have nothing to do in Norway, he says.

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BAMAKO,  – The African Union (AU) and ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) have been taking a dual-track approach in Mali in recent weeks – diplomatic negotiations with the rebels and Islamist groups who have taken over the north, while calling on the UN Security Council to draft a resolution and approve a military mission. Analysts question whether either option is likely to work, and if so, which?

“Using force is not the first option. The first option remains to get results through negotiations with the ones with legitimate demands,” ECOWAS Commission President Kadré Désiré Ouédrogo said last week.

Burkina Faso’s President Blaise Compaoré, negotiator for ECOWAS, has pursued talks with spokespersons of both Ansar Dine, an Islamist group that wants to apply Sharia throughout Mali, and MNLA rebels (Movement National pour la Liberation d’Azawad), which wants to create a separate state in the north. Members of Ansar Dine told reporters this week that they accept mediation by ECOWAS through Burkina Faso, but will not act as conduits between ECOWAS and other Al Qaeda-affiliated groups working in northern Mali.

Islamist and Tuareg groups seized control of northern Mali in April just after rebels in the Malian army launched a takeover in the capital, Bamako, ousting the civilian government. Civilian power was restored in the south on 12 April, but concerns about Ansar Dine’s links with extremist groups, including Al Qaeda, have led several analysts to describe the region as a potential “West African Afghanistan”.

Ansar Dine and the MNLA co-exist in an uneasy alliance, with evidence emerging of serious hostility towards Ansar Dine from within the MNLA; and clashes broke out between the groups in the northern region of Kidal in early June.

ECOWAS objectives are to preserve Mali’s territorial integrity, maintain the liberty and human rights of Malians, and create a setting in which the region can manage the country’s humanitarian crisis, according to Burkina Faso’s foreign minister, Djibril Bassolé.

Thus far, the regional body focused its main energies in removing from power Junta head Capt. Amadou Sanogo and his National Committee for the Restoration of Democracy. In March ECOWAS imposed comprehensive sanctions against Sanogo; suspended Mali from the regional body; recalled ambassadors; closed borders with Mali and imposed a travel ban on the coup leaders.

UN assessing resolution

Should diplomatic efforts fail, ECOWAS spokespeople said, major troop contributions by Niger, Nigeria and Senegal meant there were 3,270 troops ready to intervene once a UN resolution has been passed.

On 14 June the AU and ECOWAS called for a UN mission under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which would legitimize the use of force to achieve its goals and protect civilians. UN Security Council (UNSC) members demanded further clarification on the role of the Malian army in the force, as well as the size, goals, and operational capacity of the force.

On 18 June UNSC declared its readiness to consider backing an African intervention force, although the decision by the 15 UNSC members was not unanimous.

Gilles Yabi, West Africa Director of the International Crisis Group, a conflict-resolution think-tank, assessed the UNSC’s caution: “The situation in northern Mali is quite different from other situations where a peacekeeping mission can be deployed to monitor a ceasefire, for example… Before approving a mission, the UNSC needs to be sure that ECOWAS has the means to achieve its ends. Previous situations show that the ECOWAS force has serious limitations in terms of logistics, communication equipment, and intelligence capacities, which are essential assets for an operation in a northern Mali,” he told IRIN.

Hostility

The current Malian transition government is pushing for a negotiated process before contemplating a military response, and has never given approval to an ECOWAS mission. However, over the past week it has boosted contact with ECOWAS, France and Algeria to discuss the issue. A delegation of ECOWAS military strategists is expected next week in Bamako to discuss collaboration with the Malian army.

The Malian government would have to convince a population that is largely hostile to a foreign intervention. “ECOWAS is not welcome here,” said Ousmane Maiga, a retired teacher in Bamako. Several protests against an ECOWAS intervention have been held in the capital since the crisis began.

Critics say an ECOWAS force of some 3,000 troops would be unable to regain control of the north – it would be more likely to gain control of some cities and towns, leaving rebel and Islamist groups to remain in the area. Further, taking such a tack would not address the underlying grievances that led to the rebellion in the first place. Many of the MNLA’s main grievances draw on the memories of past atrocities committed by national armies, the failure of peace agreements to deliver security and release from poverty, and the squandering or misappropriation of funds by national and local authorities. Added to this has been resentment of the government’s phlegmatic response to Al Qaeda in the Islmaic Maghreb (AQIM) activities in the north.

West says Africa to lead

The new French President, François Hollande, said France would be ready to support an ECOWAS military operation, as “there is a threat of terrorist groups taking root in northern Mali”, but it was “up to African nations to take the initiative in leading any military operation”. France’s Defence Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, after meeting with his Italian counterpart, on 18 June asked for European direct action in the Malian crisis, without clarifying what this meant. The US Secretary of State for African Affairs, Johnnie Carson, has told reporters the US is ready to support African intervention if the goals are spelled out clearly.

Other Western nations have remained silent about supporting any type of mission, as non-African military support is a sensitive issue. With Islamists and AQIM-affiliated groups controlling major parts of the north, a foreign intervention might trigger more hostility from terrorists and Islamists. “It is not impossible that some of the armed groups in the north would like to see such Western engagement, and use it as a way to mobilize anti-Western foreign support and internationalize the conflict. It is also not clear that Malians in Bamako and the south want to see visible military activity from Western countries,” Yabi noted.

Foreign military cooperation, mainly from France and the United States, has stalled since the coup, and staff and money for security cooperation has been withdrawn.

Algeria’s President Abdelaziz Bouteflika offered logistical support to a Malian military operation on 13 June. Algeria could provide airlift capabilities, which the Malian army lacks, said a military analyst, but Algeria is maintaining its position of non-interference, even though seven of its diplomats were kidnapped in the northern town of Gao by the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), a small Islamist AQIM-affiliated group. President Bouteflika and Prime Minister Diarra have not provided more details on the deal.

AQIM’s origins are usually traced back to the crisis in Algeria in 1992, and human rights activists, academics and others repeatedly questioned the role of Algeria’s intelligence service, the Département du Renseignement de la Sécurité (DRS), accusing it of infiltrating armed movements and controlling key terrorist operatives.

The Mauritanian government, which has over recent years launched robust military operations to stamp out AQIM activity in its territory, is taking a deterrent approach, stepping up surveillance on the Mali border. European and American security actors are also providing some technical help to support a containment strategy to try to protect the Mauritania, Niger and Burkina Faso borders from infiltration by military groups.

Niger and Burkina Faso have reiterated the need for an ECOWAS-led solution. The EU Military Committee has sent security experts and military analysts to neighbouring Niger as part of a pledge of US$190 million by the European Commission to improve security in the Sahel.

Malian Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra conducted a review of the army in Ségou, central Mali, on 1 June. According to the Malian Ministry of Defence, 4,000 Malian soldiers are ready to be deployed to the north – 1,000 of them near Nema in Mauritania, an important crossroads town close to the border of southern Mali, and 2,000 of them to Sévaré in the Mopti region, an important crossroads town with access to Gao and Timbuktu to the north, Segou and Bamako to the southwest, and Burkina Faso to the south. Observers have noted military preparations in Sévaré.

A Western military attaché who asked to remain unnamed was sceptical that a unilateral Malian intervention would work, due to low capacity. “They haven’t tackled the problems that brought about Mali’s defeat in the north,” he told IRIN. The Malian army lost control of northern Mali within 48 hours of the coup in Bamako on 22 March, when unranked soldiers toppled the military hierarchy.

Over the past few months Tuareg rebels have seized several large weapons caches from Malian military in northern garrisons which were added to the arsenal they brought back from the Libyan conflict.

The US has run a military support operation, Africa Command (AFRICOM), in Mali, Mauritania and parts of Niger for years, spending millions dollars on anti-terrorist military training in Mali. Many of the trainees became leaders of the coup in Mali according to local observers and journalists.

An important regional anti-terrorist training exercise – Flintlock – which included several African and foreign forces, was in preparation and due to be held in February 2012, but was cancelled because of the rebellion in Mali. Several intelligence-gathering planes have flown over northern Mali from Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, as part of a surveillance system named Creek Sand by AFRICOM.

mb/aj/he source www.irinnews.org

Photo: Shermaine Ho/IRIN

More than 2 million people were affected in the 2011 floods

BANGKOK,  – As flood season revisits Thailand, experts and policymakers look to 2011, which brought the worst floods in half a century, to glean lessons about how they might safely move floodwater through Bangkok, the Thai capital, should they need to.

“One thing we realized from last year’s flood is that our city’s drainage capacity is not enough,” said Chusit Apirumanekul, a climate information application specialist at the Bangkok-based Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre (ADPC). “We need to do something from the lessons that we learned.”

Flooding is an annual occurrence in Thailand, most of which lies in the drainage basin of the Chao Phraya River flowing from the confluence of the Ping and Nan rivers in the north. In 2011 over 500 people died in the flooding that swept down to the centre of the Thai kingdom and the World Bank put the economic losses at US$45 billion.

In October the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DPPM) reported that more than 2.4 million people in 28 of Thailand’s 76 provinces were affected. But it was the duration of the floods that stands out in the memories of most residents. Much of flooding that struck the Southeast Asian nation started in late July 2011 and did not fully subside until January 2012.

High seasonal rainfall in the hilly north fed a gathering tide that slowly snaked down through the central provinces to the Gulf of Thailand. In Bangkok, a megacity of more than 10 million inhabitants and the nation’s industrial heartland, the water ran into a substantial bottleneck, stopping it from getting to the sea.

Since then the Thai government has spent millions of dollars on prevention measures to avert a similar disaster, mostly on dredging canals and building dykes and floodwalls around industrial estates.

IRIN asked experts in Thailand and abroad what the authorities could do to drain floodwater from the city more effectively if these measures failed.

Drainage capacity

“We have a big flood every five years in Jakarta [capital of Indonesia],” said Doddy Suparta, a water expert at Mercy Corps, a disaster relief NGO based in Indonesia’s “mega-delta” city, whose more than 10 million inhabitants are familiar with the risk of flooding.

In the rainy season water comes flowing into Jakarta from hilly regions that lie east and west of the city. “We had a major flood in 1997, then in 2002, and then again in 2007,” Suparta said.

To tackle this recurring problem, Jakarta’s authorities have undertaken the East Flood Canal Project, building a 23.5km canal to carry the overflow from seven major rivers – the Ciliwung, Cililitan, Cipinang, Sunter, Buaran, Jati Kramat and Cakung – to the sea.

In addition, the Jakarta Emergency Dredging Initiative to deepen and rehabilitate 11 major floodways and canals in the city will be completed by March 2017. The World Bank is providing $140 million for the project, with the Indonesian government supplying the remaining $50 million required.

In Bangkok the municipal authorities maintain more than 1,100 canals. “The drainage system was not created to deal with floods like this [in 2011]. The canals that we use to get floodwater out of the city were originally made for irrigation purposes almost 200 years ago,” the ADPC’s Apirumanekul told IRIN. “If you want to drain the water [from the city] fast, you need to increase the drainage capacity from the upstream part of the Chao Phraya River basin to the Gulf of Thailand.”

Super “floodway”

At Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok the Unit for Disaster and Land Information Studies, led by Thanawat Jarupongsakul, has proposed a 200km “super floodway” of widened canals to protect parts of the country from future flood disasters, and provide an emergency expressway for excess water, allowing it to pass through the city to the ocean.

The project, with an estimated cost of $1 billion, would link existing irrigation canals to help drain runoff, as well as raise roads leading to and from Bangkok six metres off the ground to act as dykes, preventing canal spillage. Jarupongsakul estimated that the proposed floodway could hold 1.6 billion cubic metres of water, and drain 500 million cubic meters of water daily.

This system would not only be cheaper than building a new waterway, but would also be energy-efficient by using the power of gravity to keep the water moving.

However, Lertchai Srianant, a water management officer in Thailand’s Royal Irrigation Department, noted that “The government has a plan to use a large retention area in the upper part of the Chao Phraya basin to store excess water, so the water level in the river will not be higher than the dykes at any point.”

Photo: Shermaine Ho/IRIN

Thousands were displaced in Bangkok

Pumps

Bangkok and Jakarta both use giant pumps to speed up the process of drainage. “North Jakarta is the lowest part of the city, so the water ends up going there. We have several big centrifugal pumps in that area. When the water reaches a certain height, the pumps turn on automatically and push the water out into the sea,” said Suparta from Mercy Corps.

A similar pump is located in central Bangkok, from where it diverts water that collects in a smaller basin that cannot drain naturally into the Gulf of Thailand, and pushes it into an underground tunnel so it can run into the ocean.

“When the water enters an area inside the dykes protecting inner Bangkok, the only way to remove it is by pumps. There’s quite some pump capacity, but by the time the water reaches the pumps there’s already been some significant damage,” said Adri Verwey, a veteran flood management consultant from the Netherlands who is assisting in projects for the Vietnamese and Brazilian governments.

At the height of the 2011 floods some residents on the outskirts of the Thai capital, where the water stayed high for months, called for the dykes protecting central Bangkok to be broken to allow floodwater to drain away through the city into the ocean.

“Bangkok is lower than mean sea level. This means that once water gets into the centre of the city it will not drain out easily,” Apirumanekul warned. “And since water in the city drains out through the Chao Phraya River, if the level of the river is high at that time, it could take a very long time and cause a lot of damage.”

ms/ds/he
source www.irinnews.org

KAMPALA,  – The Ugandan government says it is in discussions to legalize and grant naturalization to thousands of refugees who fled into the country in the 1960s and 1990s, mainly from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda.

At an event in the capital, Kampala, to commemorate World Refugee Day on 20 June, Stephen Mallinga, Uganda’s Minister for Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees, said the government had set up a committee that included refugees and humanitarian agencies to discuss the mechanisms for naturalization.

“These are refugees who… have lost touch with their countries of origin. Naturalization of these cases is one possible solution and discussions are underway in this direction,” he said. “The naturalization of these refugees will mean their stay in Uganda will not be illegal. They will be Ugandans who are entitled to live and work in Uganda and have a productive life.”

He said the refugees eligible for naturalization would be those who have been in the country for lengthy periods and have no interest in returning to their countries of origin. Most of those matching these criteria were originally Congolese and Rwandan.

Uganda would become the second East African nation to naturalize refugees – in 2010 Tanzania naturalized more than 162,000 Burundians who fled their homeland in 1972.

Mary Cifende Anganze, a Congolese refugee representative, welcomed the minister’s announcement. “It will be a big milestone in the lives of those who qualify for the citizenship. They will have new opportunities in life,” she said.

“This is a very good gesture by the government. It’s really a humanitarian act by Uganda. These people who will naturalized will be integrated with the local community and live together as one,” said Mohammed Abdri Ada, a representative of the UN Refugee Agency (UNCHR) in Uganda. “In Europe, it’s basically supposed to take five years. But in Africa, it takes about 30 to 40 years for one to be granted citizenship.”

Uganda’s Commissioner for Refugees in the Office of the Prime Minister, David Kazungu, told IRIN that at least 5,000 refugees had applied for citizenship. “All of them will be considered, and those who qualify will be granted citizenship,” he said.

The exercise would contribute to solving the challenge of Uganda’s heavy caseload of 183,148 refugees and asylum seekers. According UNHCR statistics from 1 June 2012; the country hosts 104,686 Congolese, 22,786 Somalis, 19,406 Sudanese, 16,160 Rwandans, 9,475 Burundians and 6,734 Eritreans. There are also 2,124 Ethiopians, 1,640 Kenyans and 137 others.

A continuous stream of refugees flow into Uganda as people flee violence in the DRC’s North Kivu Province and Jonglei State in South Sudan.

Eight major settlements house the refugees, mainly in the southwest and north. The overall coordination and management of the settlements is handled by the Office of the Prime Minister – under which the Ministry for Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees falls – in partnership with UNHCR and a number of NGOs.

Naturalizing long-term refugees will come as a relief to many Rwandans. A UNHCR decision to invoke a cessation clause – through which states and the UNHCR recognize changed circumstances in refugees’ countries of origin and allow for repatriation – were at risk of having to return home against their will. The cessation clause becomes effective in June 2013.

He pointed out that the country faced large gaps in funding, while the number of refugees continued to rise, saying, “I appeal to the international community to mobilize the requisite resources in order for Uganda to meet the protection needs of these refugees.”

so/kr/he
source www.irinnews.org

ICC Judge Sylvia Steiner (Presiding Judge, center) and ICC legal officers Alejandro Kiss and Ania Salinas Cerda with the winners of the ICC Moot Court Competition – Spanish Edition, representing the University del Rosario (Colombia) © ICC-CPI 

For the second year in a row, the University del Rosario (Colombia) has won the ICC Moot Court Competition – Spanish edition. The final round was held today, 22 June 2012, in Courtroom I of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague (the Netherlands). The winning team is composed of (from left to right in above photo): Juan Ramón Martinez (coach), Andrea Castillo Guevara, Angela Cordoba Carrera, Jonathan Riveros Tarazona, Marialejandra Moreno Mantilla, Andrea Mateus and Felipe Tenorio Obando. The University Nacional del Sur (Argentina) and the University of Chile (Chile) won, respectively, the second and third places. The award to the Best Speaker went to Marialejandra Moreno Mantilla from the University del Rosario (Colombia).

The teams competed before ICC Judge Sylvia Steiner, and ICC legal officers Alejandro Kiss and Ania Salinas Cerda on a fictitious case, presenting oral arguments for a confirmation of charges hearing in the roles of Prosecution, Defence, and Legal representation of victims. The final round of the ICC Trial Competition in Spanish was also web streamed live on the Court’s official website.

Following the decision rendered by the Chamber on the winners of the competition, the ICC hosted an awards ceremony for the winners and participants.

For the organisation of this competition in Spanish, the ICC worked in partnership with the University of Utrecht and the Latin American Council of Studies on International and Comparative Law, COLADIC (Mexico).

During their time in The Hague, the students visited other international courts and criminal tribunals including the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). They also attended academic events at Utrecht University in the context of the Ibero-American Week on International Justice and Human Rights. The study visit offers to the students a unique opportunity to come together in an exciting setting and to meet with eminent personalities of the international law scene.

The Court has also supported three other language versions of the ICC Trial Competition this year and hosted their finals in the ICC courtroom: English (27 April), Chinese and Russian (both on 1 June). It is envisaged that, in the medium and long term, the ICC Trial Competition will also be expanded, in cooperation with others, to the other official languages of the Court: French and Arabic.

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source ICC

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On Friday, 22 June 2012, Mr. Abdelaziz Al-Hassadi, Attorney General of Libya, heading a high level Libyan delegation, visited the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague (Netherlands) where he met with the ICC President, Judge Sang-Hyun Song, the ICC Registrar Silvana Arbia, and other ICC officials to discuss the situation of the four ICC staff members held in Zintan, Libya, following their mission to visit Saif Al-islam Gaddafi, who is subject to prosecution before the ICC for alleged crimes against humanity.

During the meeting, Mr. Al-Hassadi presented to the ICC officials information regarding the visit of the four staff members to Zintan on 7 June 2012.

The ICC President thanked the Attorney General for visiting the Court. He expressed appreciation for the mutual trust confirmed in the meetings and welcomed the commitment of the Libyan authorities to cooperate fully with the ICC in accordance with United Nations Security Council resolution 1970 (2011). The President underlined the shared interest of the ICC and the Libyan authorities that Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi and Abdullah Al-Senussi should face justice.

The ICC takes very seriously the information reported by Libyan authorities in relation to the ICC staff members’ visit. The ICC fully understands the importance of the matter for the Libyan authorities and the people of Libya.

The Court attaches great importance to the principle that its staff members, when carrying out their functions, should also respect national laws. The information reported by the Libyan authorities will be fully investigated in accordance with ICC procedures following the return of the four staff members. For this purpose, the Court will be seeking further background information from the Libyan authorities. The ICC will remain in close contact with the Libyan authorities to inform them of progress.

The ICC deeply regrets any events that may have given rise to concerns on the part of the Libyan authorities. In carrying out its functions, the Court has no intention of doing anything that would undermine the national security of Libya.

When the ICC has completed its investigation, the Court will ensure that anyone found responsible for any misconduct will be subject to appropriate sanctions.

In fulfilling its mandate to end impunity and providing justice to victims, the ICC is ready to assist national authorities with their investigations if requests are submitted to the Court. The ICC is committed to continued mutual cooperation with the Libyan authorities and will do everything it can to assist them.

The ICC is extremely grateful to the Libyan authorities for their commitment to take all necessary action for the release of the Court’s staff members and their speedy reunification with their family members.

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source ICC

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In an effort to guarantee Kenya’s next presidential election is peaceful and fair, Prime Minister Raila Odinga is appealing to the international community for financial assistance.

Speaking to international donors such as Sweden, Finland, Japan and representatives of USAID at the fourth development partnership forum meeting, Odinga said the money allocated thus far to Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) may not be adequate to carry out Kenya’s March 2013 election.

Although the IEBC had originally requested $416 million USD to conduct the elections, it was allocated only $208 million USD by the Kenyan Treasury for the 2012/2013 financial year. Odinga called on support from its development partners, including the United States, to fill any gaps that may remain.
To read the full Daily Nation article, please click HERE

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Source: Sent to API by Cristina Rue. This material is distributed by Chlopak, Leonard, Schechter & Associates on behalf of the Office of the President of the Republic of Kenya. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice, Washington, DC.

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The results of the second round of the Egyptian presidential election, held on 16-17 June, were due to be announced on Thursday 21 June. According to the Egyptian presidential election commission, the results have been delayed because both candidates have filed complaints of election fraud.

“I understand that all complaints must be considered carefully, but it is important that this is done quickly and effectively so as not to create undue uncertainty about the election results. This is particularly important in a situation where many question the transition to civilian rule in Egypt” said Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.

We have witnessed worrying setbacks in Egypt’s democratisation process during the past few weeks. The newly elected parliament has been dissolved despite the relatively smooth electoral process, the Military Council’s powers have been considerably strengthened, the constitutional process has been called in question, and the presidency has been stripped of some of its powers.

“Egypt is now facing significant political challenges that have become even greater in the past few weeks. We have great expectations that the reform process will lead to a genuine separation of powers between democratically elected institutions based on a democratic constitution. The Military Council has a particular responsibility for this transition process. I therefore stress how important it is that the transition to a civilian government is announced on 1 July as planned,” said Mr Støre.

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