Arrest warrant issued for Abdel Raheem Muhammad Hussein

The warrant for the Sudanese defence minister covers crimes in Darfur which is all the ICC is allowed to investigate under its mandate from the UN Security Council.

But what about the bombings in South Kordofan targeting the Nuba people and the incursions into Abyei last year which also happened on his watch? Seems like there is nothing the ICC can do about that.

http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL5E8E19WJ20120301

The Lubanga verdict at last

The big day is March 14th.

http://www.icc-cpi.int/NR/exeres/8044AED7-D927-4746-AA82-7E650025F9D7.htm 

Ocampo’s crusades tainted the idea of international justice

A gloomy assessment in Canada's Globe & Mail of Luis Moreno Ocampo's time as prosecutor.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/doug-saunders/ocampos-crusades-tainted-the-idea-of-international-justice/article2349318/

EAC membership for South Sudan?

My piece on whether South Sudan should be admitted to the East African Community

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/document-preview.aspx?doc_id=109316695

The business of oil in South Sudan

An interesting report on business-community relations in the oil sector in South Sudan. It was written by Integrity Research and Consultancy where I work as a consultant in their media development practice.

http://www.integrityresearch.co.uk/integrity-blog/business-community-relations-south-sudans-oil-sector

Journalists released

The journalists held without charge for insulting the president's daughter in a newspaper article have been released.

http://www.sudantribune.com/South-Sudan-releases-two,40769

Journalists Arrested in South Sudan

As some of you know I've been working in Juba, South Sudan on a variety of media development projects (read more about this at http://www.integrityresearch.co.uk/). I was lucky enough to be there on independence day, July 9, along with many colleagues from the local and international press so it is with concern I see that two journalists have been arrested for a story they wrote recently criticising president Salva Kiir.

It was a truly awful piece of journalism (nasty and racist) but absolute proof of 2 things - a) journalists are in danger in South Sudan and b) unethical reporting can get you into a huge amount of trouble. I'm a big believer in teaching journalists in conflict and post conflict countries to work in a more ethical way, for their own safety if nothing else. Here's a press release from the Committee to Protect Journalists.

http://www.cpj.org/2011/11/south-sudan-security-detains-two-journalists.php