African Media Coverage

September 16-30, 2008

South Africa: News 24
“Ghana unlikely to arrest Bashir”
Published: September 25, 2008

Ghana is unlikely to arrest Sudan's president at a summit next week even if the International Criminal Court (ICC) issues a warrant for his arrest for genocide, a Ghanaian government source said on Wednesday.

The prosecutor of the ICC accuses President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of genocide and war crimes in Sudan's western Darfur region and asked the court's judges in July to issue an arrest warrant against him.

Their decision is widely expected by the end of the year and Bashir has not since travelled to a country that has ratified the treaty creating the ICC.

But officials said on Tuesday he will travel to Ghana, which has ratified the ICC treaty, for a meeting of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) leaders on October 1-3.

"I don't think he will be arrested if he comes to Ghana. It is unlikely because there are lots of issues involved which we must consider, apart from our own interest," said a Ghanaian government source who declined to be identified.

Read the full article here.

Angola: Angola Press
“UN admits Darfur troop shortfall”
Published: September 18, 2008

Only half the troops intended for a joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force for the Sudanese region of Darfur will be deployed by 2009, the UN says.

Alain Le Roy, the new head of UN peacekeeping, said only 13,000 of the 26,000 troops authorised for the Unamid force would arrive by the end of 2008.

Unamid took over peacekeeping duties in the war-ravaged Darfur province last January from a 7,000-strong AU force.

It had planned to have more than 20,000 staff deployed by the start of 2009.

But by last month it had only 8,100 troops and fewer than 2,000 police on the ground.

In July, Unamid's commander, Nigerian Gen Martin Agwai, expressed optimism that 80% of the force could be deployed by year's end. That optimism was echoed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Read the full article here.

South Africa: News 24
“Sudan slams UN rights expert”
Published: September 17, 2008

Geneva - Sudan on Wednesday denounced an independent UN human rights official as an "agent of the European Union" after she criticised Khartoum's human rights record in the conflict-riven region of Darfur.

"The special rapporteur on Sudan, Miss Sima Samar, has demonstrated that she is an agent of the European Union," Sudan's ambassador in Geneva, John Ukec Lueth Ukec, told the UN Human Rights Council.

In her report to the council, which was released on September 9, Samar slammed Sudan's "grim" human rights record and accused the government in Khartoum of affording impunity to rights abusers.

She highlighted "indiscriminate" and "disproportionate" bombing of civilians by Sudanese forces in the east of Darfur, as well as ongoing sexual violence and a wave of arbitrary arrests and disappearances.

Read the full article here.