From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Sun Oct 25 2009 - 13:11:02 EST
Sudan's SPLM demands democracy, boycott parliament
Sun Oct 25, 2009 3:20pm GMT
KHARTOUM, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Sudan's junior partners in government will
boycott parliament until a package of democratic laws is passed, a senior
official said on Sunday, stoking tensions ahead of elections next year.
The northern National Congress Party (NCP) and the southern Sudan People's
Liberation Movement (SPLM) signed a 2005 peace deal ending more than two
decades of civil war. But delays over implementation have led to fears of
reignited conflict.
More than 20 opposition parties said they would boycott Sudan's first
multi-party vote in 24 years if democratic laws, including reform of the
powerful national security forces, were not passed this parliamentary
session.
"The SPLM...will continue to boycott the session ... until ... laws for
democratisation and free and fair elections (are passed)," said Yasir Arman,
head of the SPLM caucus in parliament.
"It should be as a package," he said of the laws including those regulating
referenda in 2011 on secession for the south and the oil-rich Abyei region,
laws guiding consultations on separation for two other disputed states,
reform of the criminal code, trade unions and of the national security
organ.
The SPLM said last week it would keep up the boycott until Sunday, Oct. 25.
But with little progress, Arman said the walk out would continue.
The NCP criticised the boycott, questioning how it would help parliamentary
discussions on the laws. The NCP has a majority of seats in the legislature.
With elections less than six months away, the SPLM and opposition parties
say the NCP has showed no political will to pass laws that they view as
essential for free elections.
U.S. President Barack Obama unveiled a new strategy last week offering Sudan
incentives for implementing the 2005 deal but warning of penalties if
Khartoum stalled.
The north-south civil war claimed some 2 million lives, drove 4 million from
their homes and destabilised much of east Africa.
Arman also said while some progress had been made on drafting the law on the
southern referendum on secession, no final agreement had been reached.
U.N. sources said progress on the referendum laws had to be made "in the
coming weeks" to build confidence in the south that the crucial vote would
happen and avoid derailing the peace deal.
"Any public perception that the referendum will not happen on time -- that
would be disastrous," said one U.N. source, who declined to be named.
(Reporting by Opheera McDoom; Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton)
C Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
Somalia's Shabaab rebels execute two for spying
Sun Oct 25, 2009 12:43pm GMT
* Young men killed by firing squad
* Hundreds forced to watch in Marka
* Insurgents also seize NGO staff
(Updates with NGO members seized, paragraph 8)
By Ibrahim Mohamed and Abdi Guled
MOGADISHU, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Somalia's hardline al Shabaab insurgents
executed two young men in public on Sunday after telling a crowd in a
rebel-held port that they had confessed to spying.
The United States says the group, which wants to topple President Sheikh
Sharif Ahmed's fragile U.N.-backed government and impose its own strict
version of Islamic law, is al Qaeda's proxy in the failed Horn of Africa
state.
"These two young men were involved in spying against our Islamic
administration," Sheikh Suldan, an al Shabaab official, told reporters in
Marka, 100 km (62 miles) south of Mogadishu.
"We have been holding them for three months. We investigated and they
confessed."
Witnesses said al Shabaab fighters used loudspeakers to summon residents to
an open area near the port, where hundreds gathered to watch the grisly
spectacle.
Courts run by al Shabaab clerics have ordered executions, floggings and
amputations in recent months, mostly in Kismayu further south, but also in
rebel-held districts of the capital.
The insurgents have also banned movies, musical ringtones, dancing at
wedding ceremonies and playing or watching soccer.
Also on Sunday, al Shabaab closed a local non-governmental organisation,
ASEP, in Balad Hawa town near the Kenyan border and seized several of its
members, residents said. An al Shabaab source said the staff had also been
accused of spying.
FIRING SQUAD
One witness in Marka, Ali Hussein, said by telephone that residents were
forced to watch the pair killed by firing squad.
"The two teenagers were accused of spying, but we cannot judge if they were
guilty for ourselves," Hussein told Reuters.
"One of the boys did not die easily, so about eight masked al Shabaab men
went close and opened fire on him. Soon his body looked like chopped-up meat
because of the many gunshots."
Fighting in Somalia has killed 19,000 civilians since the start of 2007 and
driven 1.5 million from their homes, creating one of the world's worst
humanitarian emergencies.
Western security agencies say the drought-ravaged nation has become a safe
haven for militants, including foreign jihadists, who are using it to plot
attacks across the region and beyond.
Al Shabaab has said it will strike the capitals of Burundi and Uganda in
revenge for rocket attacks on Thursday by African Union peacekeepers from
those countries that killed at least 30 people in and around Mogadishu's
Bakara market.
Earlier this month, the insurgent group organised a Koran recital
competition for youths in Kismayu and awarded the 17-year-old winner an
AK-47 rifle, two hand grenades, a computer and an anti-tank mine as prizes.
The group urged Somali parents to let children learn how to handle weapons
and fight what it calls the apostate government. (Additional reporting by
Mohamed Ahmed in Mogadishu and Sahra Abdi in Nairobi; Writing by Daniel
Wallis; Editing by Tim Pearce)
C Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
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