The announcement by one of the main armed factions in Somalia, Al Shabaab, that foreign relief organisations would be welcomed in territories under their control has raised hopes for a desperately-needed scale-up of assistance inside the country. “MSF has been working continuously in Somalia for over two decades running large-scale medical programs,” said Joe Belliveau, MSF operational manager. “We have managed to maintain our programmes under Al-Shabaab, but restrictions on supplies and international support staff have prevented us from scaling up further. We hope that the Al-Shabaab statement leads to a lifting of these restrictions.” Refugees MSF teams are fully... Continue Reading
JOHANNESBURG, 6 July 2011 (IRIN) – With just weeks to go before a 27-month moratorium on deporting Zimbabweans living illegally in South Africa expires, the authorities are scrambling to complete a documentation process that will still leave hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans lacking the necessary permits to avoid arrest. The number of Zimbabweans who have fled the political and economic crisis in their country and moved to South Africa is unknown but estimates from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) range from 1 to 1.5 million. Before the government introduced the moratorium in April 2009, the authorities were deporting Zimbabweans... Continue Reading
The United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda today referred the case of Jean Uwinkindi to the Republic of Rwanda to be tried in the Rwandan national court system under Rule 11 bis, marking the first time in the Tribunal’s history it has done so. A specially designated Referral Chamber composed of Judges Florence Rita Arrey, Presiding, Emile Francis Short and Robert Fremr decided upon assessment of the submissions of the Defence and amici curiae (including the Government of Rwanda, Human Right Watch, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, the International Criminal Defence Attorneys Association, and the Kigali Bar Association) that... Continue Reading
BENTIU, UNITY STATE, (IRIN) – Michael David* has not had a normal childhood. In his 11 years he has been a child soldier and a street child, as well as one of the one million primary school children in Southern Sudan out of school. But his life may be taking a turn for the better: “My mother was one of the many wives of my father. We lived in a home with many `tukhuls’ [huts] near Bentiu with my elder brother and the rest of the family. One day my mother left my father, who was very old, and took... Continue Reading
The United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda today convicted all the six accused persons in what is called the Butare case including the first woman to be charged of genocide, Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, the former Minister of Family and Women’s Development. Trial Chamber II composed of Judges William Sekule, presiding, Arlette Ramaroson and Solomy Balungi Bossa then sentenced Nyiramasuhuko to life in prison for conspiracy to commit genocide, genocide, crimes against humanity (extermination, rape, and persecution), and serious violations of Article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions and of Additional Protocol II thereto (violence to life, and outrages upon personal... Continue Reading
