The Week That Was - July 1 to 7, 2010

Sudan

• In a sign of increased repression in advance of the January 2011 referendum on southern secession, the Sudanese government closed the Al Intibaha newspaper for an indefinite period for promoting north and south separation.
• Registration for the January 2011 referendum on independence has fallen behind schedule and is not expected to start on July 9 as had been planned. The semi-autonomous government of southern Sudan has also requested computerization of the whole voter registration process for the upcoming referendum in the region.
• Misseriya tribesmen killed five people in an attack on a village in the Abyei region this week, the second such attack in less than a month. The administrator of Abyei called the attack an attempt to complicate the referendum and border demarcation process.
• UNAMID chief Ibrahim Gambari called on Sudan to allow peacekeepers to access all areas in Darfur. 
• On Monday, international envoys and representatives of regional and international organizations met in El Fasher, North Darfur, to discuss the peace process in Darfur. U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan Scott Gration, and British Envoy Michael O’Neill were absent.
• Sudanese opposition leader Hasan Turabi was released this week after spending 45 days in detention for criticizing the country’s recent elections.
• The Libyan envoy to the Darfur peace talks in Doha, Mohamed Garsallah, had played an important role in Tripoli’s efforts to unify the different rebel factions in a group called Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM-Revolutionary Forces) in August 2009. Now, he has been ordered to return home by his government.
• Displaced persons in Kalma camp have been suffering from a lack of water, due to a lack of gasoline to run their water pumps.      
• The Libyan ambassador to Khartoum disclosed that the Sudanese government never made a request to expel the leader of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) Khalil Ibrahim who has been residing in Libya since last May.

Burma

• According to a recently released EarthRights International report, the Burmese military junta siphoned away billions of dollars in gas revenues to fund a clandestine nuclear weapons program.
• The U.S. Senate Finance Committee voted 22-1 to renew the “Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003,” which bans Burmese imports unless the US President certifies that the country has taken steps toward democratic reforms and to fight international drug smuggling.
• The UN High Commissioner for Refugees is calling on nations to accept some of the over 30,542 Burmese refugees who cannot remain in the countries in which they have initially sought refuge.

Democratic Republic of Congo

• The DRC will receive billions of dollars in debt relief from the World Bank, cutting the amount the nation owes by over 80%.
• Attacks by Mai Mai militants in the North Kivu village of Rwenga resulted in the deaths of two people and the displacement of the entire village. This is the tenth such attack in North Kivu since June.
  

Afghanistan

• Amnesty International has called on General David Petraeus to redouble the military’s effort to minimize civilian casualties in the nation.
• NATO airstrikes killed five Afghan National Army troops in a helicopter attack in the southwestern Ghazni province.

Iraq

• The top U.S. military commander in Iraq stated that UN peacekeepers may be needed to protect disputed areas in northern Iraq if tensions between Kurds and the country’s Arab population have not eased by the U.S. pullout at the end of 2011.  
• According to the Iraqi government three decades of war have left Iraq with almost a million widows, 100,000 of whom are a result of the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
• An army intelligence analyst was charged in connection with the leak of a video showing U.S. forces killing around a dozen civilians, including two journalists.  

Pakistan

• Violence continued in Pakistan earlier this week as suicide bombers attacked the nation’s most important Sufi shrine, killing at least 42 people and injuring 175. Meanwhile on Tuesday Pakistani forces killed 23 militants during a search operation in the northwest.
• Pakistani leaders are calling for a landmark national conference, involving all major political parties, to develop a counter-terrorism strategy.
• Pakistani leaders will discuss alleged human rights violations by security forces in India-administered Kashmir during the Indian External Affairs Minister’s upcoming visit.

Somalia

• After a meeting of East African states in Addis Ababa, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) called on the African Union Mission in Somalia to deploy an additional 2,000 peacekeeping troops to the nation.
• Somali and African Union troops began a long-promised battle to push back Islamic militants in the capital. So far 16 people died and 45 were wounded in the effort.
• According to a UNHCR spokesman increased violence in the nation has made it increasingly difficult and dangerous for Somalis to flee the country.