Sudan, South Sudan Agree on Basic Reforms

Khartoum---Leaders of Sudan and South Sudan have agreed on a framework accord that will allow citizens from either side acquire basic freedoms.

The deal mediated by African Union will see citizens of the two states be granted freedom to live, work, travel and own property on either side of the border. According to the framework agreement nationals of each state will be allowed “freedom of residence, freedom of movement, freedom to undertake economic activity and freedom to acquire and dispose property.”

The deal is seen by many analysts as only agreements in policy owing to many other deals in the past between the two border states that remain dishonoured. Earlier in January, the Khartoum government had warned that it would treat any South Sudanese who does not obtain residency or work permits by April 8 as foreigner.

 According to the UN some 350,000 southerners are reported to have moved back to the south since October 2010 after decades of living in the north, though 700,000 others still remain.

South Sudan became independent in July following an earlier January referendum described under the 2005 peace deal that ended the protracted north-south conflict. Disagreement over a possible border demarcation and sharing of oil resources still remain unsettled as both sides accuse each other of arm-twisting.

In January, South Sudan shut down its oil fields following row over oil transit fees accusing the north of stealing its oil and over excessive transit charges. South Sudan depends on oil it exports for 98% of its national revenue and the shut down have seen the Juba government cut down on its expenditures.

Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir is expected to tour South Sudan in the next two weeks for the first time since the secession, to discuss matters over the border dispute which both sides agreed in February to settle within three months.

The Hague, Netherland

ICC to Deliver Verdict on DR Congo’s Lubanga

The International Criminal Court is set to deliver its first verdict in the case of Democratic Republic of Congo’s Thomas Lubanga charged with recruiting and using child soldiers during the country’s 1998-2003 war.

Lubanga, former leader of the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), an ethnic Hema political group is alleged to have led its military wing the Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (FPLC), which under his lead abducted children as young as nine to operate as combatants, sex slaves and bodyguards.

ICC Chief prosecutor Luis  Moreno-Ocampo told the court that Lubanga victimised children who were mostly abducted from homes, schools and football fields before they had chance to grow up by forcing them to kill and rape. The prosecutors allege that the children were taken to military training camps, where they were beaten and drugged. Girls among them were used as sex slaves, prosecutors told the court.

Videos shown to the court during the trial appeared to show Mr. Lubanga galvanising child soldiers to fight in the conflict between the Hema and Lendu tribes between 2002 and 2003 in north-eastern DR Congo.

Lubanga,51, has pleaded not guilty saying he was only a politician and was not involved in the violence, denying that he led the UPC military wing.

His lawyers have accused the prosecution of fabricating false evidence with the help of intermediaries they used to find witnesses, and also claimed that individuals were paid to give false testimony.

The trial began in 2009 lasting for 204 days of hearings, with prosecutors calling 36 witnesses, the defence 24 and three represented victims.  Verdict is expected to be passed down by three judges later, where If found guilty, Lubanga could to face up to life imprisonment.

More than 60,000 people were massacred in north-eastern DR Congo in one of Africa’s worst tribal warfare characterised with mass rape, mass torture and mass arbitrary arrest during the conflict driven by desire to control the region seen as most lucrative gold-mining territories.

This is ICC’s landmark case since its establishment a decade ago, with Lubanga who was detained in 2006 being first suspect to be taken into custody and his trial first becomes the first on the use of child soldiers.

The Hague-based court was established in 2002 to try genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, as the world's only independent, permanent tribunal.

The ICC has faced criticism over its much focus on Africa, with all its seven cases its investigating being based on the continent.

Lubanga is one of 20 suspects who have been the subject of arrest warrants from the ICC. Others include Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of the former Libyan leader, President Omar al-Bashir and other members of the Sudanese government, and Joseph Kony, the fugitive Ugandan leader of the Lord's Resistance Army whose recent film on his atrocities has gone viral, calling for his arrest.