African Media Coverage

June 16-30, 2009

Uganda: New Vision
‘AU yet to clear Bashir’ – Museveni
Published: June 19, 2009

PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has appealed to the international community to take tough measures against perpetrators of violence in Darfur. Museveni called for a swift move to stop what he called ‘Arab chauvinism against African sovereignty’.

The President, on a three-day working visit to Germany, was meeting the country’s parliamentary committee on East Africa at Adlon Hotel in Berlin.

The committee members include Fischer Hartwig, Grosberg Gabriel, Meinhardt Patrick, Dr. Uschi and Muller Kerstin.

“Darfur is a real problem to Africa; the international community must find a quick solution. Africans are being displaced from their land,” Museveni said.
He however defended the position of the African Union (AU), on the warrant of arrest issued against Sudanese President, Gen. Omar el Bashir.

Read the article here.

Uganda: Weekly Observer
Who says a president can't face justice?
Published: June 24, 2009

Systematic acts of rape, murder and pillage are some of the crimes [being committed against] the Darfuri people of neighbouring Sudan 24 hours, seven days! Who is a Darfuri man, woman and child that he or she should suffer this cycle of violence? Are the Darfuri tribes not human that these crimes should be perpetrated against them at will and with impunity, and that the perpetrators should not be held accountable for their actions? One thing is certain in my mind, and I believe in the minds of the leaders of the Sudan and the African Union, and that is that the Darfuris are human beings whose cultures are pieced up together with the rest of the world and that this humanity is one with the rest of the world.
 
So, why should it be that after decades of being subjected to genocidal violence consistently, efforts to end impunity and hold persons suspected of perpetrating the crimes committed against the ordinary civilian in Darfur that the African Union has failed to protect, is becoming political in the eyes of African leaders and scholars in as far as the indictment of President Bashir is concerned?

Read the article here.

Angola: Angola Press
US envoy to meet Darfur's rebels
Published: June 29, 2009

The US envoy for Sudan, Scott Gration, is due to meet Darfur rebel leaders in neighbouring Chad in a bid to revive the stalled peace process.

Mr Gration is hoping to talk to officials from two rebel groups - the SLA and Jem - as well as Chad's President Idriss Deby. Chad and Sudan accuse each other of backing rebel groups which operate across their troubled border.

Some 300,000 people have died in the six-year conflict, the UN says.

The BBC's Celeste Hicks in N'Djamena says it is an open secret that leaders from the Justice and Equality Movement (Jem) are often in Chad's capital.

Many are from the same Zaghawa ethnic group as President Deby. Leaders of Abdul Wahid's faction of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) are also in Chad for the talks.

Read the article here.