Accra, Jan. 24 GNA – The 32 security men and two officials of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC), who were arrested on Tuesday for allegedly causing unlawful damage to the property of a Chinese construction firm are on bail.
Atomic security personnel released on bail
Exclusive: P-Square collaborates with Usher on new single
For some people, Nigerian super-duo of twin brothers, Peter and Paul Okoye, better known as P-Square, came into the limelight biting on their seeming resemblance with international R&B star, Usher Raymond. With somewhat similar vocals and dance routines, it seems their similarities are about to clash on a new single that sees Usher collaborating with the Nigerian singers.
According to sources, P-Square will soon release a single featuring the R&B star and it didn’t come cheap. The collaboration reportedly was made possible by Akon’s record label, Konvict Music, which made the headlines recently for allegedly signing P-Square, 2face and Wizkid all from Nigeria. The news about that signing was later rumoured to be a hype that was instigated by Wizkid’s boss, Banky W.
The cost and other details of the Usher collaboration with P-Square are expected to hit the media soon.
A Letter To Gbevlo Lartey
The National Security of this country has been entrusted into the hands of a boy by name Larry Gbevlo Lartey. A boy in mind and at heart though he is advanced in age.
That is the only reason he would be senseless enough to personally issue threats at the editor of this paper. Someone should tell that boy to do his worst. Death is the ultimate. It is an inevitable end. Beyond that there is nothing he can do. He should abduct us (as he did to our editor on March 16, 2011), torture us, detain us, kill us and burry us in mass graves. After that he should live forever or perhaps grow and metamorphose into a hard rock.
Many at times, we make the mistake of thinking that any male child who crosses his teen years automatically becomes a man. Nothing can be further from the truth. Being a man is not about age, neither is it about muscles. It is about having brains that work, a mature attitude and having a sense of responsibility.
That Gbevlo boy, instead of focusing on his job and respecting the authority that appointed him, wastes his time on petty trivialities and hops from one radio station to another talking like a parrot that has eaten too much pepper.
Which National Security Coordinator who has the brains of a man would go on radio to debate and trade near-insults with top guns at the Presidency? Which National Security Coordinator who has the brains of a man would enter into a fight over who becomes or who does not become a District Chief Executive? Of course, only a boy would behave that way because boys have no sense of loyalty. They easily grow wings and get drunk with the little (temporal) power put in their care.
Instead of finding solutions to the security concerns of this country, that Gbevlo boy, would spend his time monitoring and doing a near-espionage on journalists and editors who he thinks are critical of him.
He is yet to appreciate that the two idiots trailing workers of this newspaper are simply on a wild goose chase. It is either they spend their time celebrating laziness and go to him with bogus information, or they simply see him as someone whose instructions are not worth following.
That is the only reason they would (mis) inform him that someone in this office meets with a certain top military officer for information. When we heard it, we laughed and popped open a bottle of (none alcoholic) champagne because we got delighted the dudes are reading from an old dusty diary.
What amazed us the most was the fact that the journalists he is sponsoring with the tax payer’s sweat at Dzorowulu seems to be more current with information than the two lazy idiots who think they are trailing journalists. If Gbevlo had asked his journalists, they would have told him that we now have eyes and ears in his own office.
Just when we were wondering whether or not the Gbevlo guy would ever grow into a man, we heard him on radio justifying the senseless attack on Gifty Lawson, a female photo-journalist who was lawfully going about her duties.
The poor lady was taking photographs of a suspect on the compound of a court, outside the court room when Gbevlo’s boys grabbed her, assaulted her, put their filthy hands into her panties in public, abducted her and shoved her into their vehicle, dumped her at the headquarters of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and released her hours later with no charges and no apologies.
Yet Gbevlo sees absolutely nothing wrong with this? That is the attitude of a boy. Boys never accept mistakes. They never take responsibility. They have an allergy for the three magical words “I am sorry.” They use their muscles to bully girls. They act with their hearts rather than their heads.
It is only a boy who would live in a glass house yet have the guts to throw stones. A boy would have dry raffia stuck in his pants yet would jump over fire. Instead of investigating how his own signature got forged in his own office and used to cash huge sums of money, the Gbevlo boy is running round chasing after lizards and hurling stones at them. Our only regret is that he is paid with our taxes.
It is still a mystery why the President exercised a voluntary blindness to the several mature minds that wanted the job and gave it to this boy.
The hens have come home to roost and Gbevlo has proven that when you give your pearls to swine, they trample on it.
Source :Daybreak
E.T. Mensah As An Overseer Is An Error Of Judgement
The Appointment Of E.T. Mensah As An Overseer Is An Error Of Judgement
I author this piece in the interest of the education of all Ghanaian children and in the national interest. I am disappointed and disillusioned and so are many observers and sympathizers of our great National Democratic Congress (NDC) about events in the last few days leading to the appointment of Mr. E.T. Mensah to lead the political discourse on education as its overseer.
I consider this appointment as a complete error of judgment on the part of the president and those who offered him this advice. It is unfortunate that at a time when the general Ghanaian populace is dissatisfied with the outcomes of our educational engagements from the foundation level through the tertiary level, we will have the impudence to now begin to rub salt in their wounds by appointing a clueless and incompetent individual like Mr. E.T. Mensah to lead the national discourse on education. Let me be blank to say that Mr. E.T. Mensah should not even for a split of a second lead Ghana’s educational discourse for there is nothing he would bring to bear on that all-important discourse.
If, indeed, at its current state, the NDC lacks individuals with the requisite skills, the competence, and the hands-on experience to lead the national discourse on education, I am sure nothing prevents the president from extending a hand to an academician who can fill the void until such a time when a substantive card bearing member of the party is found to lead the educational discourse. After all, the logic on which we elected Professor John Evans Atta-Mills was because of his academic credentials. If that logic still holds, to the extent that some of us believe that a teacher who doesn’t understand simultaneous equation cannot teach it, then we expect the learned professor to respect Ghanaians and ensure Ghanaians get value for money. “How on earth can you appoint Mr. E.T. Mensah to head the vacant education ministry when we have stalwarts like Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah on the sidelines watching the unfolding events?” a caller who woke me up this morning to the story quizzed.
I do not want to belabor why E.T. Mensah’s appointment to the education ministry will only add to the undying crisis that has engulfed the NDC administration. I urge the president to return immediately to the drawing board to rectify this obvious blunder before it is too late. Ghana doesn’t lack the needed human resource to turn its fortunes around. It is the lack of vision, courage, and the dynamism to ensure we have the right mix of skills and competency in its political leadership to take bold decisions that will inure to the benefit of the whole nation that is causing us to still be wandering in the woods without a destination.
Once again, I reiterate the point that Mr. Enoch Tei Mensah does not have what it takes to lead Ghana’s educational discourse. There are thousands of Ghanaian professors who have excelled in the area of education and can bring their knowledge and expertise to bear on the educational system. Let’s, for once, be sincere to Ghanaians.
Prosper Yao Tsikata
NDC Member and Activist.
Accra’s Night Markets on the Pavements
By Solomon Mensah
When night falls and the “Abayees” are snoring heavily like Okonkwo does in his sleep, brisk businesses are born on pavements of Accra. The items sold range from consumable to non-consumable goods. Brassieres, foot wears, jewels, and “kye-bom” with bread are but a few wares that compete with pedestrians on the pavements and spill over onto the streets of Mayor Okoe Vanderpuije’s Millennium City.
Clinking of bells, soothing voices calling on passersby to buy, sign languages and many more constitute traders’ advertisement. As someone born and bred in the woodlands of the Brong Ahafo Region, I get curious when I walk in the streets of the capital. In my part of the world, the sun does not set on traders. Back at Dodosuo (my holy village), one has to knock on Maame Kwaayie’s door when it is 6pm for condiments. And if it becomes your habit to be knocking on traders’ doors after sunset, you can easily be (mis)taken for a witch. But that seems to sharply contradict the marke ting trend in big cities. “Their market knows no night,” I mummer to myself . It is 8:10pm and I am walking down the lane leading from the V.I.P Bus Terminal at Kwame Nkrumah Circle towards the Ghana Commercial Bank tower. Men, women and children are seen busily buying and selling. I am so trapped in the crowd that I have to walk sideways like a man who has lost his bearing to alcohol. A young woman in her late twenties has the neck buried in the clothing she sells. Her right leg is mounted on a small post and one hand dipped into the pocket in an attempt to ‘balance’ a customer. Next to her is another fairly old woman selling a pile of second-hand clothes.
Asare Emmanuel sells ladies’ bags. He tells me this lane is the Circle Odorna Market. On a blue polythene rubber spread on the pavement, his stuffed bags sit like bull frogs in a swamp. “Oh the night market here is good. I make good sales each night”, Asare explains why he sells at night.
But aside this flourishing venture at night, the question as to whether it is good selling on pavements is what must be the concern of authorities of the city, if not the sellers and buyers.
Asare’s friend, Kwabena says the Abayees (AMA city guards) do not allow them sell on pavements. He corrects my impression of the Abayees sleeping heartily at night. For him, the Abayees only sleep with an eye closed.
“They come here sometimes around 11:30pm after us,” he screams into my voice recorder and makes a passionate appeal. “Please, tell them we beg them.” Business seems to be thriving in the night markets, especially as the economic rains of the single ‘swine’ sorry ‘spine’ keeps falling. But this act of indiscipline must not be allowed to continue for long. Pavements are meant for pedestrians’ passage but not for market. Simple! The night markets on the pavements have also become safe havens for pick-pockets. They mingle with the crowd and take advantage of the human traffic to terrorise unsuspecting passersby.
The most annoying attitude of traders on the pavement is the fact that they see it as their right to do what they do. In one of my rush hours to catch Burma Camp bus at Tema station for lectures, I got humiliated by a trader. My crime was my unknowingly kicking a pair of shoe he displayed on a pavement. The least attempt to rid our cities and towns of such acts of lawlessness is often met with the accusation of rendering people jobless. But the fact that there are no jobs does not mean that we should compound the situation with behaviours that have the tendency of making life uncomfortable for people in our towns and cities. We must all help the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to make our city clean and safe.
The writer is a student-journalist at the Ghana Institute of Journalism. Email: [email protected]
Betty gets “F” with poor grammar and spellings
………..and falls on the dagger!
Worry no more about the jeopardy of the nation’s educational system; recording a massive failure in last year’s B.E.C.E. results – the then educational head is not even clean! She goofed with a fat pitch.
Maybe Betty Mould-Iddrisu needs to go back to the basic level (or pupils’ class one) and master spellings through “Dictation.” She needs some English lessons.
No wonder the nation’s educational system is going down in haste. Schoolchildren performed poorly under a poor minister.
If the then Minister of Education doesn’t even know spellings; could easily disgrace herself on a global platform, how does one expect schoolchildren to pass their examinations? Her grotesque weakness is appalling. Maybe, she thought she was dealing with a group of imbeciles; do anything and get away with it.
She posted an error-filled – and even lacking a full stop (.) – comment while she was at the same time talking about education: “acommodation” for accommodation, “asessment” for assessment, and “unaccetability” for unacceptability.
On Thursday, January 19, she laid a political grenade revealing a clear commingle of imbecility and incompetence – when showing a hypocritical solidarity for schoolteachers – on the social networking site, Facebook:
“I speak of more teachers accomodation being built all over Ghana and especially in the rural deprived communities, competency based asessments so headteachers are trained to manage, building teachers capacity, GES being alive to the unaccetability of not paying teachers for months, govt providing incentives and packages including facilitating purchase of means of transport, arrears and allowances paid promptly ..tbc,” posted by the just resigned Minister of Education, Betty Mould-Iddrisu.
That was a devastating and horrible performance by Ghana’s education chief, and got dozens of dumbasses – who live on another planet – to applaud her.
It’s too bad for the then education guru to tweet such lines riddled with errors. Someone must tell her to improve on it.
After shining light on her poorly tweeted grammar, I’d couple of her sympathizers who came to her defense and described it as “trivial.”
She knows that “competency based on (her) assessment,” did not qualify her to be where she was.
If the performances of schoolchildren are rated, so do that of the captain of the ship, too. The failed students may feel relieved if they learn that the self-yanked Education Minister has issues with spelling and grammar.
What you do makes you; her defects have become her.
She got it wrong in a row; left it on her page to roll – and it’s still rolling.
You can even ask her what she achieved since she took over the sinking ship and the answer will be simple: Zero. She’s no idea on how to fix the mess in Ghana’s education.
Through this same woman, the nation has mysteriously lost “gargantuan” sum of 52 million Ghana cedis to Alfred Agbesi Woyome.
She was nearly yanked from government as the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, but later was saved by the Ministry of Education – and that is an area that is not of importance to the Mills-Mahama government.
And this made her go ballistic on the social utility to launch her extreme frustration with an improper grammar and ugly spelling.
Surprisingly, in less than a week after going public with her feelings, she fell on the dagger.
Jerry Amponsah (Sabbato) NPP Communication Group New York
Re: Politicians And Phantom Promises.
Over the past month or so, The Ghanaian Chronicle has taken Nana Addo to task over his educational policy. In the said policy, aptly titled “Teachers First Educational Policy,” the first point of exit for pre- tertiary education would be at the Senior Secondary (SSS) level instead of the current system that has, over the years, thrown at least 50% of our children on the streets every year. To make the SSS exit point possible and accessible to all, Nana’s policy would make SSS education free.
To the Chronicle, Nana’s vision is too ambitious to be possible. As such, in an editorial, in I.K Gyasi’s column and recently, by Emmanuel Akli- in an article, “Politicians and Phantom Promises”-the question posed, in different forms, was how Nana was going to fund his free education. While the funding question is legitimate, it is surprising that after three major policy speeches –the Liberty Lectures, the Hamburg and the TESCON speeches, in which Nana laid out his main points- citizens are still not aware of how Nana would fund his educational policy.
In the Hamburg speech last June in Germany, Nana clearly made it known how his educational policy would be funded if giving the nod. “We intend to enhance quality of education in every public school in Ghana in our overriding goal of building a new society of opportunities by committing, BY LEGISLATION, A SIGNIFICANT AND CONSTANT PERCENTAGE OF OUR GDP TO EDUCATION,” stated Nana. In short, what Nana intends to do for education is what has been done for local government through the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF). Currently, 7% of our GDP is set aside for District Assemblies. So why can’t it be done for education? And as Nana rightly pointed out in the Hamburg speech, “the current situation, which has seen the percentage of GDP devoted to education decreasing gradually since 2009 …. do not show a nation serious about its future.” And indeed, we are a nation with misplaced priorities. For how could we devote 7% of GDP to District Assemblies (DACF) – toothless body due to patronage- and ONLY 2% of VAT annual receipts for the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund)? At the first meeting of the Volta Regional House of Chiefs this year – after the House had vowed to change voting patterns at last year’s general meeting- Togbe Afede XIV expressed his outrage and surprise at the high cost of SSS education and how it was making it difficult for the poor to access SSS education- in his region. The government representative at the meeting, Ghana’s High Commissioner to Malaysia, Mr. Dan Abodakpi, promised the House that he would take it up with the Education minister- lip service.
But Togbe Afede XIV and all well meaning Ghanaians know that nothing is going happen, for education is not Mills’ priority. A perfect example is how the government intends to waste money on providing motor cycles to all assembly members instead of giving them to teachers or National Service personnel posted in the educational sector in remote areas- the first batch had already been delivered to members in the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly of all places…for votes I presume.
As a nation however, our only hope for the future in this globalized world is to put education first. And only Nana Addo has been able to spell out a vision meant to achieve this goal through his “Teachers First educational policy.” To the naysayers, there is nothing phantom or unsustainable when it comes to Nana’s educational policy As long as a percentage of the GDP would be set aside, backed by legislative instrument, Nana’s free SSS education is as feasible as the DACF….unless a P-ndc majority in parliament decide to vote against it when the time comes.
Akwasi. A. Afrifa Akoto
The Local Content Agenda, VRA Setting The Pace
By: Christian Kpesese
Ghanaian Companies have over the years been relegated to the background to play second fiddle to foreign firms when it comes to involving themselves in industry, finance and the general control of the national economy for the maximum benefit of its people. In a sense, we seem to have forgotten that, Local Content is the degree of local ownership, control and financing by citizens of a host country in a specific venture or entity that promotes and enables the optimal use of the country`s human resources, raw materials and services. From the above definition, it is obvious that, the need for Ghana to develop a local content policy/legislation is long overdue. It is even more crucial and relevant at this point in time of the nation`s development when the country seems to have no choice than import almost everything.
It is therefore welcome news to note that, the Volta River Authority [VRA] is perfecting its vision of setting the standard for Public Sector excellence in Africa by organizing the first ever stakeholders forum on ways of maximizing local content as an important component for development.
The forum was on the theme; “Practical Initiatives for Promoting Local Content Development in the Power Utilities and Related Industries in Ghana – The Way Forward“. It brought together stakeholder experts from Academia, Industry, manufacturing and knowledgeable policy formulators who brainstormed and agreed on measures required to ensure capacity building to enhance local competitiveness, create better conditions for economic growth, employment generation and the development of the nation as a whole. VRA alone spends over 1billion US dollars annually on the importation of goods and components as part of its procurement processes. It has for over 50 years dealt mainly with foreign consultants and contractors for the purchase of components for construction and the maintenance of the Akosombo Dam, the Kpong Dam, and the Takoradi Thermal Generating Plant with little or no involvement of local partners.
The Local Content concept has the potential of reducing drastically or eliminating the financial burden of VRAs procurement system through foreign exchange. It would also strengthen relationship with indigenous contractors and create more jobs for Ghanaians.
The Volta River Authority`s major objective of ensuring and implementing a local content policy entails the following;
• Exploit the country`s resource endowment in an environmentally sustainable manner
• Attract increased local value-added investment in the industrial sector
• Facilitate technology transfer to Ghanaians and
• Domesticate knowledge, expertise and technology in industry.
It is important to note that, until the advent of a local content policy formulation agenda, foreign investors are not obliged by any law whatsoever to have local partners, employ indigenes, transfer technology and know-how or even have citizens of host nations of their firms in management positions. The development of a local content policy would require expatriate investors to obey laid down regulations and empower citizens to overcome challenges and limitations such as finance to do business, capacity building and the transfer of technology and knowledge to enable indigenes take control and maximize the benefits to the state and her people.
To demonstrate its commitment to a local content agenda, VRA has set up a Local Content team to develop strategies and put in place measures for the effective implementation of local content in VRA`s procurement process.
It is also gratifying to learn from the visionary leadership of VRA who has positioned itself as a strategic industry and gone ahead to set up a local content team and desk aimed at developing a suitable local content for the consideration of the envisaged National Content Policy covering all sectors of the economy.
VRA has indeed set the pace. It is hoped that other sectors of industry and the economy including, Tele- communication, Pharmaceuticals, Construction, Mining and Manufacturing would take a clue from the VRA example.
The Volta River Authority believes in the discipline of getting things done quickly and professes values of trust, integrity, innovation, teamwork and accountability.
The media cannot afford to be left behind but lead the crusade to ensuring that, the country develop a comprehensive National Local Content Policy to defend, protect and preserve the future generation.
[email protected]
024-6798847-The Insight
Concerned Ghanaians Must Stand Up And Be Counted
AFAG march, 25th jan 2012 –
On wednesday, 25th january 2012, ghanaians will have the opportunity of taking part
in a historic march to protest against the harsh living conditions under the
current Atta Mills”s administration. The march will be organised by the alliance for
accountable governance(AFAG) movement.
For sometime now, so may things have being going wrong in this country. Inspite of
the fact that the NPP discovered commercial oil and bequeathed tangible economic
prosperity legacy to Pres Mills”s admin, living conditions have rather deteriorated
sharply. For example a gallon of petrol now sells over 80,000 old cedis which is
highly unacceptable given that oil now sells at 110 dollars per barrel at the
international market ,and that even at the height of the oil price surge in 2007
during former pres kuffour” period, when the price of oil was 147 dollars a barrel,
a gallon of petrol sold just around 50,000 old cedis. Interestingly, it is not
only oil which is the good thing the NPP obtained for Ghana. They were all also able
to secure over 5 billion dollars debt -write off as a result of completing the hipc
program in 2004 and also over 2.5 billion dollars being further multilateral and
bilateral debt write- off (as a result
of the Gleaneaggles-UK arrangement in the spring of 2005). Simply put, the NPP was
able to save ghana over 7.5 billion dollars, the benefit of which will even be
extended to our children and our children”s children. Which govt since independence
has been able to secure this feat?. Certainly no govt comes any where close,
incuding this Atta Mills govt. Seriously, which NDC govt achievement even comes
near this?. None. Additionally, the NPP govt was able to secure grants
(outright dash) like the 545 million dollars millenium challenge facilty, which is
unlike the non -concessional loans the NDC govt is currently going for ( like
the controversial 3 billion dollar chinese loan which ghanaians will have to start
paying back in just 10 years from now). Also it was the NPP that initiated and
developed the West Africa Gas Pipeline Project that now brings gas from Nigeria at
40% reduced cost (compared to Akosombo) and feeds
the Aboadze thermal plant as well as the Asogli plant . Even the value of the cedi
to international currencies is at an all time low, with for instance, the dollar to
the cedi rate now at 1 dollar to 1.90 cedis. This is unprecedented and it has
adversely affected living conditions of ghanaians terribly. Ask any private
businessman, importer ,etc, and they will tell you the quagmire they find
themseves in.
Now, when you raise some of these issues about these unbearable living conditions,
some NDC apologists say the govt has done development. what developments? and which
govt doesn”t do development?.
After the NPP had saved the country of having to repay over 7.5 billion dollars(
which ghanaians should forever be grateful to the NPP for), and had also discovered
commercial oil for the country, who cannot do development. When for example
petroleum revenue from january to september last year, 2011, alone fetched a gross
1.9 billion dollars , who cannot do this so called piecemeal ndc developments?
And even here, we do no see any significant projects or infrastructure from our oil
money.
The above nothwithstanding, it is still not proper to compare the NPP developments
or economy to that of the NDC because the NPP did not have oil money but the NDC
has oil money and can affiord to borrow huge loans on the back of the oil wealth.
So NPP people should refrain from comparing the economies and developments of the
two regimes and move the debate to a more neutral and comparable area .
The only neutral area that will be worth comparing is govt corruption arena,
and here the Woyome matter alone in this NDC govt surpasses the combined
corruption of all the previous administrations. There are also a lot of
other serious due process breaches with the selection of SINOPEC to build the gas
plant in the western region as well as the appointment of CHINA HASSAN by govt,
which will be collecting not less than 100 million dollars to develop the sekondi
industrial estate( and all these breaches are associated with the controversial
chinese facility ) which ghanaians, as i said earlier ,will be coughing up the
repayment in a few years time.
But again, the issue of the moment is the wWoyome issue, where Pres Mills govt is
trying desperately to cover a garguantuan 58m dollar crime to the state, and this
is the essence of this AFAG march.
Now concerning the march, if you can, do physically take part, but if you cannot
because you are a civil servant or you will be out of town, contribute something
small or moblise some people in your locality who can make it to join the march. If
you can hire trotro for people , that will be very much appreciated. Also talk to
friends about it and just make it a point to be represented in the march.
A little sacrifice for a noble cause will not harm you. You may rather always be
proud of making history and contributing a little sacrifice to mother Ghana.
If for nothing at all , we owe it to our our family and our descendants . And
remember that the convergence point is at obra spot, Kwame Nkrumah circle and the
time is 6.am.wednesday 25-1-2012.
This is a national clarion call on ghanaians to stand up, and all of us concerned
citizens (when we hear it) must accordingly stand up and be counted.
Alhaji Adamu
AFAG activist
USA / Briefing on Issues of Ongoing Concern in Sudan and South Sudan
USA / Briefing on Issues of Ongoing Concern in Sudan and South Sudan
WASHINGTON, January 25, 2012/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Special Briefing
Ambassador Princeton Lyman
Special Envoy for Sudan
Via Teleconference
January 25, 2012
AMBASSADOR LYMAN: Thank you very much. Thank you all for coming and being on the line. I wanted to just bring everybody up to date on a number of issues that we’re following very closely related to Sudan and South Sudan. So let me discuss them briefly and then happy to take your questions about them.
One of the issues that we are extremely concerned about is the situation in the states of Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile. These are states in the Republic of Sudan; that is, the North. But a conflict has been raging there since last May, arising from issues never fully resolved in the civil war because people in those states, particularly in the Nuba Mountains, fought with the South. And though they remained in the North, their issues were to be resolved in a process called popular consultations. Those did not get finished and a conflict broke out. A very serious armed conflict broke out last year.
Now, what we are very concerned about right now is that there are predictions of a major humanitarian crisis in those areas, particularly Southern Kordofan. You know there’s this predictive mechanism called FEWS NET, the Famine Early Warning System Network. They – if you go on their website, you’ll see they have produced two maps, one the situation now – excuse me – and one predicting for March. By March, they feel that a large number of people, a quarter of a million or more, will be – will reach what they call emergency status, which is one short of famine. And this is very alarming to us.
We have strongly urged the Government of Sudan to allow international humanitarian aid – that is, World Food Program, UNICEF, et cetera – to come in, in all parts, across lines of whoever’s holding territory. They have refused to do so. They don’t want international involvement in this area, which they think is an internal matter and a conflict area. But we have been saying and saying to our African partners that we just can’t – the world can’t stand by and watch famine take place in an area, and know nothings being done.
So we’ve been working very hard, leading up the Africa Union meeting at the end of this month, to urge the Government of Sudan to open up international access and to do so soon. We’re under a lot of pressure if that doesn’t happen to look at other alternatives, but they all contain serious risks in doing so. So our preferred alternative – very far first alternative – is for the Government of Sudan to do this. The UN has made proposals to the government, but they haven’t been accepted yet.
The second issue that I would like to touch on is a – ongoing negotiation and dispute between Sudan and South Sudan over the distribution of oil revenues and financing. You’ll recall that after the secession of the South, 70 percent of the oil was in the South but all the infrastructure for exporting it – pipelines, et cetera – are in the North. So the two countries really are dependent on each other in the oil sector. It was also understood that when the North, now the Republic of Sudan, lost that much revenue there would be a transitional financial arrangement in which the South would ease that transition.
They’ve been negotiating and arguing over this for some time. The negotiations reached a very serious point in the last few weeks when the Republic of Sudan, in the North, began to divert Southern oil from the pipeline and to block ships with Southern oil from leaving the port, claiming this is a way to collect transit fees that they claim the South wasn’t paying. And they imposed a fee of $32 a barrel, which is quite high, for that.
After negotiations, which are still going underway, failed to reach an agreement, South Sudan said, okay, we’re going to shut off the oil, we’re going to start closing the wells, and we’ll suffer until we build a new pipeline through Kenya but we just can’t take this anymore; they’re stealing our oil.
It is a very bad situation, and both sides could get hurt very, very badly. The African Union High-Level Implementation Panel – this is the panel headed by Thabo Mbeki and former president of Burundi Pierre Buyoya and Nigerian former head of state General Abubakar – has been running negotiations on this in Addis. They’re working very hard. They’re very close to a proposal which should be able to reconcile the different interests and come up with a solution.
We’re very concerned that this negotiation succeed and before too much damage is done to the oil sector and the infrastructure, that the South feels that they can stop shutting off the production and go back to full production. So this is a quite urgent matter on which we are working very hard.
The third area I want to touch on is the situation in Jonglei. That’s a state in South Sudan. You’ll recall about two weeks ago there was a major conflict between two ethnic groups, the Lou Nuer and the Murle. There have been attacks back and forth between these groups over cattle, kidnapping of women and children, et cetera. And in this latest incident, 6,000 or so young Nuer marched on the Murle to regain the cattle, to regain the people who were kidnapped, and we feared a major massacre.
Fortunately, with the help of UNMIS, et cetera, the Murle were warned in the town of Pibor. Most of them left, and after some skirmishing and some people getting killed, perhaps several hundred, the young Nuer have started to go back. But now the Murle are undertaking revenge attacks.
In the meanwhile, the people who fled Pibor are displaced people in various towns, and we think more are in the bush. So the UN, USAID, humanitarian NGOs are all working to try and reach these people and get them humanitarian assistance.
This is a situation that demonstrates the tensions and traditional and otherwise that exist in South Sudan that have sort of – were set aside in the campaign for independence and the successful independence July 9th but now, coming to the surface, demonstrate how much the Government of South Sudan must do to improve both its security sector capabilities, but also its outreach to these communities and conflict resolution and development programs here and elsewhere in South Sudan.
So I wanted to touch on all three of those, because they are all very serious situations on which we have been working very heavily here and in the field and in our diplomacy, both in Europe, the Arab world, Africa, et cetera. So let me stop there and open it up. Happy to take your questions.
MODERATOR: We’ll go ahead and take a few questions from here in the room and then we’ll turn it over to the callers. Does anyone here in the room first have a question? Andy, go ahead.
QUESTION: Yeah. On the issue of Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan and the potential famine or food emergency, I’m wondering what you can tell us about the contingency planning, should Sudan continue to refuse access to aid groups. I understand that there has been some discussion of unilateral aid operations. Is that true? How is that possible without Sudanese Government approval? And how advanced are those – is that planning?
AMBASSADOR LYMAN: Well, we – right. We have said to the government in Khartoum for some time that we are feeling a lot of pressure if there’s no international access to look at ways in which assistance would be carried across the border without their approval. But we know there are a lot of risks to that. We know the government would be opposed to it. We have to look at the possibility of it, but we’ve made no decision to do that because it has a lot of complications.
But at the same time, we’re very worried about what happens if they don’t allow international assistance, so we continue to press heavily for international accepted assistance by the government even as we look with a good deal of apprehension at what alternatives might be possible.
QUESTION: And under that alternative plan, would that be something the U.S. is considering doing on its own, or is it something that the U.S. and neighbors are talking about?
AMBASSADOR LYMAN: We haven’t reached that point yet, and so we’re not at a point where we could get into any details as to what is possible or not. But we do know that other countries are concerned, not necessarily engaged in the same kind of planning but very concerned about this humanitarian situation.
QUESTION: And just a final one on this, on this line. Is the AU meeting and whether or not the AU takes it up as a formal subject – is that a sort of a hard or soft deadline here, because you have only until March?
AMBASSADOR LYMAN: It’s a very important date because if you want to do something by March, considering positioning of food, et cetera, it takes quite a while, several weeks, the humanitarian agencies say. So if the meeting doesn’t resolve this by the end of January, we’re going to be in a serious situation.
QUESTION: Ambassador Lyman, Rosalind Jordan of Al Jazeera English. Talk a little more about the political considerations around Khartoum’s refusal so far to allow outside interference. Why would it be to Khartoum’s benefit to not have outsiders intervening in this near-famine situation?
AMBASSADOR LYMAN: Well, of course, I can’t speak for the government, but the arguments that they have advanced to us on this are several. First of all, they say they’ve learned the lessons of Darfur; you let the international community in and the next thing you know, you’ve got a UN peacekeeping operation, you’re charged with human rights violations, there’s a peace process, and then, like Naivasha and the CPA, you lose part of your territory. So they say we’ve learned that lesson, we’re not going to do it again. That’s one line of argument.
The second is that they think the food will go to supporters of the SPLM and their North – the people they’re fighting, and therefore will prolong the conflict. So those two are the main reasons that they advance. They also deny that the situation is that serious, but we just have these predictions that are based on a lot of data.
QUESTION: And what are some of the environmental factors that may have led to this near-famine situation?
AMBASSADOR LYMAN: Two things in particular. The nature of the conflict – the Sudanese armed forces has done a great deal of bombing, and the bombing has hit the civilian population and has prevented them from planting this last year. It also forced many of them to live in caves rather than be able to tend their farms, et cetera. So they lost the planting season.
And second, because international access hasn’t been allowed, all the stocks that were there from the World Food Program, UNICEF, et cetera, are exhausted. So those two factors are the main ones.
There’s about 50,000 refugees in South Sudan and Ethiopia already from these two areas, but we see in these predictions a quarter of a million people or more who might be affected. This could be a major, major calamity. And for Africa, it seems to me this is something that shouldn’t be tolerated.
QUESTION: And does the U.S. have an assessment of whether this potential plan from the AU, from the Mbeki group, let’s call it, could actually work if some sort of resolution is reached between now and next Tuesday?
AMBASSADOR LYMAN: I only have the general outlines of the proposal. They’re being presented today to the parties. But my information is that this proposal will address the basic concerns of the North and South; that is, how to assure that there’s enough oil for the refinery in the North, which is a major concern of theirs, and a prospect of this transitional assistance while recognizing that the South has a legitimate claim about all this diverted oil and that has to be costed, and that the fees for transit are – that there’s a mutual basis for determining those.
I haven’t seen the details of the proposal. We think it’s going to address all these things, and we hope once it’s on the table that both sides will refrain from these kind of unilateral steps.
Let me just say one more thing on the humanitarian issue, because I’ve told you what I think are the arguments from Sudan, but let me tell you the arguments we have advanced on the other side. We think it would look very bad for the Government of Sudan to deny international assistance when the world is watching and a major famine could take place. We don’t think this is in the interest of the Government of Sudan, it’s not in their interest in world opinion, it’s not in the interest of them as a protector of their own citizens. These are all their own citizens.
Second, we think that – and this goes beyond the immediate humanitarian situation – ultimately there has to be a political solution here. They have fought in the Nuba Mountains before during the civil war. It never ended. So it – there has to be eventually a political solution. Making the humanitarian gesture now may create an atmosphere for that, but the most important is for the government to recognize they have this responsibility and the world will respond positively if they say yes, we have this responsibility, we’ll bring in agencies that we can trust – World Food Program and UNICEF, and monitor – and have it monitored and do the right thing.
MODERATOR: Operator, do we have any reporters on the line who would like to ask a question?
OPERATOR: To ask a question at this time, please press *1, un-mute your phone, and record your name when prompted. To withdraw your request, you may press *2. Once again, to ask a question, please press *1. I currently show no questions at this time.
MODERATOR: Andy, go ahead.
QUESTION: I’ve got another one. On the oil, on South Sudan’s decision to stop the oil production, in your view, how long can this go on? Number one, do you have any position on whether or not this was a wise bargaining move? Was this the right thing for them to do? Did they have any other option? And number two, how long can this go on before you start having very serious issues with the infrastructure and that it sort of really affects the viability of their finances?
AMBASSADOR LYMAN: I’ve heard mixed reaction – responses to that question. There is some feeling that in just three and a half days after they shut down the wells, you will get into a situation which will be very costly and time-consuming to restore production. I’ve heard different assessments of the impact on the pipeline and the environmental damage, some predicting very serious damage and costs. Others are saying less so. I don’t have a firm feeling, but there is a general feeling that it’s going to be very costly.
Is it a good tactic? I was just in South Africa, as you know, Andy, and I was reminded that Nelson Mandela also often had to take the country to the brink but never crossed it, even in the most tense times. I think the Government of South Sudan was outraged and angry and took the situation to the brink, but I’m afraid in this they may be crossing over and costing themselves in the long run when they have so many development needs.
So I think I can understand the anger, I can understand the response, but I’m very worried that they go over the brink here and then have to pay a price that will hurt the people of South Sudan for a long period of time.
QUESTION: Well, both in this case with the oil fees and with the fighting between traditional groups, does this suggest that perhaps the new government isn’t quite capable of dealing with these very serious fundamental issues? And if it’s not fully capable, what can the U.S. do to support them to prevent things from going over the edge?
AMBASSADOR LYMAN: I think the Government of South Sudan is faced with a number of challenges and still has a relatively thin layer of trained civil servants, professionalized military command and control systems, et cetera. And the country was so devastated by the civil war that there is just basic, basic development needs all throughout the country.
So I think the challenges are very great, and they must be able to dedicate their efforts, time, and resources to those demands. And that’s why getting a resolution of this issue and not losing their main source of revenue for the next couple years is vital if they’re going to be able to tackle this. And they’re going to need a lot of help. They’re going to need a lot of help to do this.
QUESTION: How is the U.S. prepared particularly to help them develop a revenue stream, since I would imagine that things such as property taxes that we have here in the U.S. aren’t as readily accessible for government operations?
AMBASSADOR LYMAN: Right now, oil provides 98 percent of the budget of South Sudan. And the other alternatives are still very, very underdeveloped. Most of the people live in the rural area. They’re poor. It’s not a commercialized agricultural sector. Even though there’s potential there, they import most of their food. So there isn’t really a solid tax base that can even begin at this point to compensate for the loss of oil revenue.
Now, we are helping, along with others, to develop agriculture. We had a big conference here called the South Sudan Engagement Conference, where we encouraged private sector investment. There was a lot of interest in it. I think over the longer term, they must diversify away from oil, but that’s going to take several years at best.
QUESTION: I’m just wondering if you could tell us a little bit about your – the tenor of your conversation with Khartoum these days. I mean, we have another report this morning that aircraft, presumably Sudanese aircraft, have bombed a refugee camp in South Sudan. This seems to be recurring practice. How are you reacting to that, and what’s your message to them? And are they – what are they telling you?
AMBASSADOR LYMAN: Well, we are concerned about this. This is the second bombing of a refugee camp in South Sudan. It violates all the rules regarding refugees. And we have raised that, raised that in the UN Security Council as well as with the government in Khartoum. Their reaction has been mixed on the first incident. I haven’t seen their reaction to this incident yesterday. But they went through a number of explanations on the last one, which – some of which were not credible, et cetera.
This is, again, as we’ve said to the government in Khartoum, an example of why this war is bad for everybody. And bombing South Sudan is only going to aggravate the situation. The Republic of Sudan claims that South Sudan is feeding this rebellion, and if that were stopped, the rebellion would end. That’s just not accurate. Even if there were assistance from the South, that isn’t what’s at the heart of this conflict.
So we’ve raised this very much with Khartoum. They haven’t appreciated our doing so, but we have. And we have continued to discuss with the Government of Sudan the importance of resolving the issues in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile, that that these are getting in the way of our normalization process, and we’ll continue to have that dialogue.
QUESTION: You mentioned that you raised it at the Security Council. Do you think that this is something that – what would you want the Security Council to do, should these attacks continue? And does that risk complicating the bilateral issues? I mean, if you bring it into the Security Council, won’t that complicate the Sudan-South Sudan track?
AMBASSADOR LYMAN: Well, it can if the Government of Sudan sees it that way. One of the points that we have tried to convey is that we’re not doing these things just to be antagonistic to the Republic of Sudan. These are ways in which the two countries can be at peace, and that includes the Republic of Sudan. Having a war in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile, still conflict in Darfur, trouble in the east – this isn’t providing a future for the people of the Republic of Sudan.
So when we raise these issues, et cetera, they see it often as antagonistic. We see it as, look, this is the pathway to the future of a peaceful Republic of Sudan. And sometimes we’re like ships crossing in the night, but that’s really the tenor of what we’re trying to say.
QUESTION: Given all of these problems that you’ve just discussed, are you concerned that the – sort of the victory that was the July independence declaration and all of the work that went into that is in danger of being unraveled, that the Sudan project is, in both cases, South and North, is really at risk of going right back off the rails now?
AMBASSADOR LYMAN: I don’t think either Sudan or South Sudan wants or intends to go back to full-scale war. I really – I’m almost totally convinced of that. That doesn’t mean that they have a good relationship at all and that there aren’t a lot of friction points on the border, over Abyei, over oil. And the relationship is bad. So there is a danger that things could get out of control, that incidents could lead to greater conflict. That’s why these issues are so terribly important, not only in and of themselves but to prevent exactly what you’re talking about. But I think both sides recognize that going back to full-scale war would be disastrous. So I think we still have to look upon that successful independence of the South as a great achievement and be thankful for it.
MODERATOR: Operator, we’ll go for one last chance and see if there are any calls in queue. Are there any calls in the queue right now?
OPERATOR: I show no questions.
MODERATOR: Okay. Thank you, Operator. With that, I think we end our session. Thank you, Ambassador Lyman.
AMBASSADOR LYMAN: Well, I want to thank you all. These are issues that we think are of great importance for this – the Administration is heavily focused on these issues, and we hope that we can do everything we can to help resolve them. So thank you very much.
MODERATOR: Thank you.
SOURCE
US Department of State
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