Lebanon National Resistance Day on May 25, 2013. The event is designed to commemorate the Israeli Defense Forces withdrawal from the south of the country in 2000., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

May 25th… Victory Day of National Resistance, Liberating the South From Israeli Occupation

May 25, 2013

DAMASCUS, (SANA)-”Withdrawal which won’t touch dignity”, with this brief, Israeli General Shaul Mofaz tried to justify the reason behind the Israeli army humble defeat in South Lebanon on May 25th, 2000 which became the victory Day of the National Resistance and liberating south Lebanon after 22 years of the Israeli occupation.

The withdrawal of the Israeli occupation from South Lebanon on this day without negotiations or conditions was a defeat for Israel which Yediot Ahronot newspaper described as “shameful” calling this day as “the day of shame”.

The Israeli occupation forces invaded south Lebanon in 1978 and expanded its occupation to the Lebanese lands till reaching Beirut in 1982.

The Lebanese men rushed to bear weapon and defend their homeland to establish what is known later the Lebanese National resistance to confront what had been called as “the legend army” which can’t be defeated.

The resistance military operations have forced the Israeli army to retreat under the density of their processes to from an occupation line before liberating the South in 2000.

The resistance launched hundreds of special operations in the first half of 2000 targeting the sites of the occupation, forcing Israel to withdraw from Lebanon.

The day before liberation, the resistance stormed the occupation and its militias, led by Antoine Lahd, posts with bombing explosives.

The hardest strikes which the Israeli occupation received in the first month of 2000 were the assassination of Akl Hashem, one of the Israeli agents, and after two hours, the resistance targeted two Israeli military convoys, claiming the lives of three Israelis and wounding many others.

At 6:42 a.m. the Mercedes of Israeli General Benny Gantz crossed gate 93 of Fatima on the Lebanese-Israeli borders to be followed by vehicles and troop carriers into the occupied Palestinian lands abandoning an occupation barbed wire for which they paid souls and money but in vain.

On the same day and at 6:43 Israel closed its borders with Lebanon after pulling out the last soldier to end a 22 year occupation that cost it 1200 soldier.

Nasrallah: Syria’s Fall Spells Gloomy Future for the Region

May 25, 2013

BEIRUT, (SANA)_Hezbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said that the countries and peoples of the region are threatened by the US-backed takfiri project, for it is the last the US can do to impose its control on the region.

Speaking at a central festival on the occasion of the 13th anniversary of Resistance and Liberation Day in Mashghara, south Lebanon, Nasrallah said that Syria has turned into a battlefield for imposing a political project led by the US and its allies in the region, as Syria is the ”linchpin of resistance.”

”If Syria falls in the hands of the US, Israel and the takfiris, the Lebanese resistance will be beleaguered and Israel will enter Lebanon…If Syria falls, this means that Palestine will be lost, and a bleak future awaits the peoples of the region,” said Nasrallah.

Nasrallah said that the events in Syria are important and decisive to Lebanon ”and we have the courage to speak and act boldly at a certain historical moment…We’ve said that some public demands are rightful, and there are pros and cons, and that the way to reform is through dialogue without one bullet fired.”

”The Syrian leadership has agreed to sit to the dialogue table, but the opposition has rejected it and continues to do so up until this moment, in the hopes that the regime will be toppled in a short time.”

He added that the takfiris and gunmen entered Syria after being granted the necessary facilitations, which ”did not bother those who met in Jordan under the name ‘Friends of Syria’,” indicating that those fighting in Syria are part of an organization called ” The Islamic State of Iraq” which have admitted that it carried out operations that spared no religion or sect in Iraq.

”We’ve used our relations with all powers for a political solution in Syria, ” said Nasrallah, ”but the other axis is bent on fighting to the end and rejects dialogue, although there have been acceptable compromises that the Syrian leadership accepted.”

”Neighboring countries are ready to destroy Syria for the regime to depart,” he added.

”Does the outside opposition have any leverage on the armed groups which have taken control of some areas?” Nasrallah asked, adding that it is well known that the takfiris dominate the armed groups and are funded and armed by Arab states.

Nasrallah added that the issue in Syria is not about reforms or a revolution of the people against the “regime”, saying that “if the takfiri groups controlled Syria or Syrian provinces, particularly those adjacent to the Lebanese borders, then Lebanon and all the Lebanese people will be at risk.”

“We, the peoples of the region, are facing challenges and risks, uppermost are the threat that has existed since al-Nakba, which is Israel and its intentions, and schemes, and the other one is the situation in Syria and the emergence of the takfiri movements,” Nasrallah said.

He said that the US is interfering to prevent Syria from acquiring air-defense systems as it sells other Arab countries billion-worth weapons because there are assurances that these weapons will not be used against Israel.

M. Nassr/M. Ismael

President of Sudan Omar Hassan al-Bashir, former South African President Thabo Mbeki and President Silva Kiir of South Sudan at a cooperation agreement celebration in Ethiopia. The two states have pledged to end differences., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

South Sudan says war crimes court persecutes Africans

By Hereward Holland
Reuters – Thu, May 23, 2013

JUBA (Reuters) – South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir said on Thursday his country would never become a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC), saying it appeared to be preoccupied with prosecuting African leaders.

“It seems that this thing has been meant for African leaders, that they have to be humiliated…we never accept it,” Kiir told reporters, referring to the Hague-based tribunal.

“We will sit together with our brothers and sisters in Kenya,” he said at a news conference in South Sudan’s capital Juba held jointly with Kenya’s new president Uhuru Kenyatta, who faces charges of crimes against humanity at the tribunal.

Last month, South Sudan received Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, another African leader indicted by the Hague tribunal for masterminding war crimes in the western region of Darfur.

The African Union, which is holding a summit this week, routinely accuses the ICC of bias against African leaders.

Kiir and Kenyatta also pledged to implement a memorandum of understanding signed last year to build an oil pipeline from landlocked South Sudan to Lamu on Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast.

“With the pipeline project we have agreed an area where we need to tackle the funding jointly together as a join Kenyan-South Sudan project,” Kenyatta said, without giving details.

South Sudan restarted oil exports through Sudan in April following a 16-month shutdown triggered by disputes over pipeline fees. The rift caused South Sudan to undertake feasibility studies for alternative pipelines through Kenya and through Ethiopia to Djibouti.

(Editing by Ulf Laessing and Michael Roddy)

A Pan-African Conference on Trade Union in Sudan. President Bashir Hassan al-Bashir standing in attention., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

SATURDAY 25 MAY 2013

Sudan’s parliament reiterates refusal for privatization of Sugar factories

May 24, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s National Assembly has renewed its rejection for selling some sugar factories as part of a government policy aiming at reducing financial and economic burden through privatising public enterprises.

The sale is part of government’s plans to increase agricultural production including sugar in order to compensate for its oil loss after the secession of South Sudan taking with it about 75% of the country’s oil output.

The Sudanese authroities plans to sell 70 % of its shares in four sugar factories including Aljunied, Halfa Al-Gadida, Asalaya, and Sinnar to the private sector and retains the remaining 30% of the capital.

The head of the parliamentary subcommittee on Energy, Mining and Industry, Omer Adam Rahma, warned of the negative results of privatisation, saying that it leads to workers’ layoffs as well as undermining the current efforts to solve the problems of the sugar sector.

In a statement released on Friday, Rahama stressed his committee’ rejection of the move, adding that sugar factories belong to the Sudanese people and should be dealt with in a way that preserves the rights of the people.

Rahama further said that lack of funding is the major problem facing sugar factories, calling upon the government to provide funds in local and foreign currencies.

Once hoped to be the breadbasket of the Arab world, Sudan’s agricultural sector has continued to deteriorate over the years mainly as a result of negligence, drought, mismanagement and the overall economic climate.

Sudan’s minister of industry Abd Al-Wahab Osman, had earlier said that the main motive for privatization is increasing efficiency and improving workers conditions.

He denied that privatization would lead to workers layoffs, saying, instead, it will increase their numbers and skills through training.

Some sugar experts in Khartoum say however it is better to renovate the four factories instead of planning to construct three new factories, adding the privatisation may also destroy the social fabric and the towns that emerged around it.

(ST)

East African proposed oil pipeline. The project would involve the states of South Sudan, Uganda and Kenya. Oil is a major source of speculation in the region., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda
Pipeline poker

East Africa is in danger of throwing away part of its new-found oil wealth

May 25th 2013
The Economist
KAMPALA

IN MARCH last year the heads of state of Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan met among mangroves in Lamu, a Kenyan town on the Indian Ocean, to launch the construction of a port and oil pipeline together costing $16 billion that would serve all their countries and vastly enrich them.

Taxpayers were billed $350,000 for the celebratory meal, according to local officials, though it actually cost only $4,000. So far, so profitable. But little has happened since. Plans to build the pipeline have stalled.

The absence of the Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, at the launch was the first clue that all was not well. Uganda recently found 3.5 billion barrels of oil by Lake Albert.

It should be part of any pipeline project that links new fields in the region. Oil has also been found on the other side of the lake, in Congo. And across the border in Kenya, exploration looks promising; Tullow Oil, a London-listed company, says it is pumping 281 barrels per day (b/d) from a test well. Nearby Ethiopia is exploring furiously, too.

South Sudan, which is already producing oil, hopes to find more big fields along its border with Kenya.

So an oil bonanza is in the offing. Revenues could lift millions out of poverty, but only if the oil can find an efficient way to market. The local fields are expensive to tap, say experts.

A single pipeline could serve them all and would be the cheapest option, running to Lamu via Lokichar in north-west Kenya and beyond (see map).

But the new oil nations cannot agree on a joint plan. All are obsessed with refining crude at the expense of exporting it. South Sudan, a country without electricity, is in the process of building not one but two small refineries, the first taking 5,000b/d, the second 10,000. “Contracts have been signed,” says an official in Juba, the capital.

Ethiopia has even grander plans, hoping to satisfy the fuel needs of its 83m people by building a refinery on the South Sudanese border, absorbing about 100,000b/d. And Uganda sees itself as a petro-supplier for the entire region. Initially it wanted to refine 180,000b/d but may scale back its plan to 30-60,000. Only in Kenya is reason slowly taking hold. Insiders say refinery plans for Lamu have been downsized.

Building refineries makes no sense for east Africa. It would be wasteful and is unlikely to give countries the energy security they seek, as some of the fields will run dry quite soon.

The economies of scale in refining are vast.

Buying fuel from mega-refineries in Asia will be cheaper for a long time to come, even if it means losing some of the profits from processing.

Even worse, the new oil states of east Africa cannot agree on where to build their pipeline. It is possible that three will be built—or none. Leaders in four countries insist on satisfying narrow national goals. Ethiopia is in only the early stages of exploration, so why—its leaders ask—should they pay for a pipeline? The answer is that other investors, mostly from Japan, will cough up: all that is now needed is a commitment to use the pipeline if oil is found.

South Sudan has productive fields farther north, plus access to an adequate pipeline owned by Sudan, its arch-enemy. Again, why pay for a new one? Because South Sudanese leaders would like to have an alternative outlet, given northern hostility. Everyone knows that. But officials are dragging their feet, since the north has just agreed to a new transit deal that will run at least until 2016.

Separately the South Sudanese are holding talks with the Ethiopians about building a pipeline to Djibouti rather than to Lamu, cutting out Kenya. This would cement South Sudan’s friendship with militarily powerful Ethiopia and, so the logic goes, strengthen its position vis-à-vis the north. However, such a pipeline would be still more expensive, since it would cross highlands and swamps and take longer to build. Little advance work has been done, in contrast to the Lamu pipeline.

Uganda, too, has talked up alternative pipeline plans. Maps handed around in Kampala, the capital, show three potential crude-export routes. In addition to the line to Lamu, they trace one to Mombasa, farther south on the Kenyan coast, and one to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. Both would be for exclusive Ugandan use, since all other known fields are much farther north.

The southern pipelines would also be more expensive than the Lamu option. A line to Mombasa, one of the world’s most congested ports, would have to climb high mountains and require heating the oil, to keep it flowing in the high-altitude cold; the line to Dar would be extremely long and have to cross national parks. All this because Ugandans hate playing second fiddle to Kenya, the regional top dog.

The Lamu pipeline makes the most economic sense for all involved. But failure to work together may doom it. National and personal interests trump regional co-operation and commercial logic. In Uganda Mr Museveni is keen to settle his legacy as the champion of a strong nation, building vast refineries and spiting the tiresome Kenyans. South Sudan is fixated on warding off the north at the expense—it seems—of almost everything else. Ethiopia sees a chance to steal Kenya’s thunder, too. “It’s every guy for himself,” says an oil executive wryly. “And I thought the private sector is rough.” Pipeline politics makes a mockery of the East African Community, a bloc dedicated to regional co-operation. All but one of the countries are members or aspire to join.

Of late, a new momentum behind the oil push is being felt. The Ugandan government is in final production talks with three oil companies. Executives from Tullow, Total and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (better known as CNOOC), as well as local civil servants, conferred with Mr Museveni at his farm near the Rwandan border in late April. In June South Sudan will finish a feasibility study for the Ethiopian pipeline to Djibouti, after which it has said it will make a decision on export routes.

“Everything is up in the air,” says a diplomat. Kenyan and Ethiopian officials, as well as oil-company representatives, have been scurrying to Juba to make their case. Pagan Amun, who leads South Sudan’s talks with the north, is said to be keen to ditch the Lamu pipeline.

Planners say it could be built in about three years, carrying either 400,000 b/d if all countries were on board, or about half that if South Sudan or Uganda were not. Kenya’s new president, Uhuru Kenyatta, is pushing for results. He may be especially keen in order to deflect attention from his indictment by the International Criminal Court at The Hague. His first big trip after taking office was to Lamu. None of his counterparts was there to meet him.

By failing to co-operate, the new oil states are likely to waste part of their wealth on duplicate infrastructure, building too many refineries and pipelines. Oil can still be a curse.

Sudan President Omar al-Bashir is fighting to maintain the sovereignty of his central African nation., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

SATURDAY 25 MAY 2013

Africa celebrates 50th years of unity

By Tesfa-Alem Tekle

May 24, 2013 (ADDIS ABABA) – African countries are marking the 50th anniversary of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) with was replaced by the African Union (AU) in 2002.

Leaders from different of African countries and others have arrived in Addis Ababa, on Friday to attend the anniversary of the continental bloc.

At the AU summit, African leaders will celebrate past achievements and will discuss how to bringing socio-economic and political transformation over the next half century.

The African Union Commission chairwoman, Dlamini-Zuma, underscored that the aim of the celebrations is to energise and galvanise Africans toward an African renaissance.

Addressing the opening of the 23rd Ordinary Session of the AU Executive Council, Dlamini-Zuma stressed that Africa’s leadership should ensure rapid and sustainable change further urging a need of concerted efforts to realise the dream of uniting Africa.

At the AU summit, African leaders are set to adopt a series of proclamations including a resolution that frames continent’s key objectives for the next 50 years.

According to Zuma, African identity and renaissance, integration, social and economic development, democracy, good governance peace and security are areas the draft proclamation of the continental body emphasises.

“We will reclaim the African narrative as we reflect on the past, assess our present state and plan for our future” she said.

Another agenda set is a draft proposal aimed to urge international crimes against humanity trials for Kenya’s leaders to be referred back to their country.

The AU summit of head of states will decide on the draft proposal which was agreed by African foreign ministers on Friday.

Established on May 25, 1963 in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, the OAU played a leading role in efforts to decolonising African countries and liberating them from South Africa from apartheid.

Currently the organisation is largely engaged in pan African movement and in promoting unity and solidarity of African States.

The AU’s 50th anniversary is being commemorated on the theme: “’Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance”.

Conferences, workshops and many other events are underway in connection with the anniversary.

As part of the celebrations there will be a football match between Sudan and Ethiopian national teams on Saturday afternoon in Addis Ababa stadium.

The Sudanese national team arrived in Addis Ababa on Friday. Sudan is one of the founding member States of the Organization of African Unity.

Ahead of the event Sudan has claimed that the AU may adopt a resolution endorsing an collective withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has indicted President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir for alleged genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.

The Sudanese ambassador to Ethiopia Sir al-Khitm Khalifa said this week that Uganda and Kenya have made a last minute push to include the ICC issue on the AU summit agenda.

The Kenyan government has recently been attempting to terminate the ICC’s case against its new president Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto for their alleged role in violence following disputed elections at the end of 2007.

Eighty heads of state are said to attend the golden jubilee celebrations.

UN chief Ban ki-Moon, United States secretary of state John Kerry, and leaders from Russia, Sweden, France, Iran, Brazil, Cuba, Jamaica, Ireland and Haiti are among others, who are attending the founding anniversary of the Organization of the African Unity.

(ST)

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