Year: 2021

GENEVA — U.N. investigators are accusing Burundi’s government of hiding widespread rights violations and repressive measures behind a façade of democracy. The charge comes in a report by the Commission of Inquiry on Burundi submitted to the U.N Human Rights Council.

The commission on inquiry says encouraging signs that Burundi might be moving toward a more democratic society following the election of President Evariste Ndayishimiye have proven to be an illusion.

Despite initial improvements in human rights at the end of the electoral process in 2020, Commission Chair Doudou Diene notes a significant increase in violations as of June this year.

“To date, only symbolic gestures, though welcome, and often controversial decisions, have been made so far. These are neither sufficient nor adequate to have a sustainable and profound impact on the human rights situation. The façade of normalization hides a very concerning human rights situation,” Diene said, speaking through an interpreter.

The report finds most violations occur in the context of the fight against armed groups allegedly responsible for attacks throughout the country since August of last year.

However, Diene said the Commission believes these armed attacks have been used as an excuse to pursue political opponents in violation of their human rights.

He said Burundian authorities are tightening their grip over the activities of civil society and denying people their right to freedom of expression and association. He said the government has cracked down on a free media and has suspended some media outlets.

He said journalists who dare to question or criticize the government are vilified, intimidated, or threatened.

“It is clear that the Burundian authorities consider that civil society’s sole purpose is to assist them and to support government projects, thereby denying the very principle of freedom of association. In particular, it seeks to control the operating costs of NGO’s and the salaries of expatriates,” Diene said.

In his rebuttal, Burundi’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Renovat Tabu, ignored all criticisms raised by the Commission. He cited the many improvements he said his government made in the fight against injustice, in furthering freedom of opinion and of the press, in education and a wide range of other human rights.

He said Burundi had several institutions engaged in the promotion and protection of human rights. He added that Burundi’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission was operational and doing an excellent job in cementing national reconciliation.

Source: Voice of America

Biniam Girmay hailed a landmark moment for Eritrea and all of Africa after winning the silver medal in the U23 men’s road race at the UCI Road World Championships.

The rising star burst clear of a reduced bunch to place second in Leuven, just a couple of seconds after solo winner Filippo Baroncini. In doing so, he made history, becoming the first Eritrean and the first black African to win a medal at the Road World Championships.

“For me, for my nation, also for Africa, this means a lot,” Girmay said as his section of the post-race press conference outlasted that of the world champion to his left.

“I’m really happy. I’m really proud of my nation, so I say congrats to all Eritreans and also to all Africans.”

Girmay nodded his head sharply as he crossed the line, which at first looked like a show of frustration. He had been the fastest in the reduced bunch, only thwarted by a solo attacker, but it soon became clear that there wasn’t a hint of disappointment.

He sank to the tarmac and was mobbed by his teammates and staff, and could no doubt hear – if not see – the flag-laden Eritrean fans in Leuven.

“Yesterday I called my family, and they told me to remember when I was a kid,” he revealed. “My father said to me ‘hopefully you will become one of the biggest riders in all the world, you will be world champion’. So I was on the phone to my father and my whole family, and they said ‘for sure you can do it and take a medal’.

“I say thank you for all my family. They supported me. They give me really good motivation, every single day. When I was starting my sprint, I was a bit nervous but I was also thinking just to get one of the medals. Not to win – just to finish top three and I did it. I am happy with my place.”

Girmay has been touted as a big talent but his journey to the top of the sport is far from straightforward. Cycling is popular in Eritrea but in terms of pathways to the professional ranks, it lags far behind cycling’s European heartlands.

“I’m from the capital city Asmara. That’s the cycling zone in Eritrea,” Girmay said, explaining his roots. “Every Sunday there’s a race, and all the people who like cycling give you a lot of advice. I started when I was 12 years old, at school. I rode mountain bike but then I also started road racing when I was 15.”

Girmay’s big break was an invite to the UCI’s World Cycling Centre, to which he says he owes a big debt of gratitude. The WCC is an initiative of the sport’s governing body to develop riders from backgrounds that may ordinarily prevent them from reaching the pro ranks, housing them in Switzerland and offering structured training and access to races.

“I raced a lot of races with them and gained a lot of good experience. When you’re young, you come to Europe and you see the peloton – big peloton – and a lot of tactics. Mentally and physically, I grew at the World Cycling Centre.”After I won the African Continental Championships – in the TT and the road race – the UCI invited me, so I joined them in 2018 and stayed until the end of 2019. It was really important – one of the most important things,” Girmay said.

“It means a lot to me because I went to Europe in 2018 and every year, with every step, every new experience, I learn a lot. It has worked today.”

Girmay then signed his first professional contract with the French Delko team for 2020, and he immediately made his mark, winning two stages of the Tropicale Amissa Bongo in Gabon. He went on to finish runner-up behind Giulio Ciccone at Trofeo Laigueglia, then to Loic Vliegen at Tour du Doubs, as well as picking up four podiums at the Tour du Rwanda and fourth at the Giro della Toscana.

Interest rocketed, WorldTour teams started circling, and, as Delko found themselves in financial and administrative trouble this year, a mid-season transfer to WorldTour outfit Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux was organised for the start of August. He quickly set about winning the GP Besançon Doubs – his first professional victory on European soil.

“When I joined this team I was super happy. I think it’s a good team. It’s not only a team but a family,” he said. “I also say thank you to them for giving me the opportunity and supporting me the past few months. I joined halfway through the season but they gave me the chance immediately to sprint for the win.”

Girmay signed a long-term deal with the Belgian team and recently relocated to Lucca, Italy, where there’s a sizeable contingent of Eritrean riders. He signed through 2024 – a sign of how highly rated he is – in which time he hopes to hone his skills as a versatile sprinter and start winning bigger and bigger races.

“For now, I’m really looking at the Classics, also some hilly races with a sprint,” he said. “This is my best capacity so I’m working for this to be faster in the bunch sprints and on the small uphills. I also want to show the next few years that I can be one of the big riders.

“When I was little, I liked sprinters. I wouldn’t say he’s my hero, but I like Peter Sagan, not only for his cycling but also outside of cycling. He’s really funny and easy-going.”

The future appears very bright indeed for Girmay but he is also aware of the potential impact of his silver medal not just in the next few years, or even the rest of his career, but for decades and generations to come.

“In Eritrea our future is bright,” he said. “We have really good potential. It’s not just from the last years, it’s longer.

“We will get more experience, and progress every day mentally and physically. There is a really good future, I think.”

Source: Dehai Eritrea Online

South Sudan’s Vice President Rebecca Nyandeng de Mabior is calling on the United Nations to lift its three-year-old arms embargo on South Sudan.

De Mabior, scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, told VOA in an exclusive interview that the embargo hinders implementation of South Sudan’s 2018 peace agreement, specifically the training and equipping of soldiers in a unified national army.

“We are going to graduate them with sticks and then you just send them to the community, they will not go to the barracks,” she said in the interview. “What controls the soldier is his gun or her gun…. So, if the arms embargo is there, how does the U.N. expect us to arm those people they’re telling us to graduate?”

Building an army made up of fighters from South Sudan’s formerly warring parties is considered a key aspect of the 2018 peace deal that ended the country’s civil war.

De Mabior says some 53,000 troops have been trained, and now await integration into that unified national force.

Problems with South Sudan government

In a scathing report issued from Geneva this week, a U.N. body said South Sudan is suffering a human rights crisis of epic proportions, citing alarming levels of conflict in nine of the country’s 10 states.

The report from the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan documented the prevalence of enforced disappearances, torture, rape, and conflict-related sexual violence and the forced recruitment of child soldiers throughout the country.

A separate commission report dealing with economic crimes accuses South Sudanese political elites of illicitly diverting millions of dollars from public coffers into private bank accounts.

De Mabior said she understands the international community’s dissatisfaction with the performance of South Sudan’s government.

“I’m not coming here to deny what was happening in the country nor to defend what is going on,” she told VOA. “Yes, we had some problems, and with these difficulties we are going through, our people are expecting so much from the government.”

“What happened for many years now cannot just be overcome overnight. It’s a process and we are asking our people to be patient with us,” she added.

Noting the slow pace, Juba-based political analyst James Okuk told VOA last week that only 10% of the tasks in South Sudan’s 2018 peace agreement have been implemented three years after signing the deal, and that the Chapter II security arrangements are a sticking point.

As for South Sudan’s economy, de Mabior argued that her government has made visible progress.

“If you go to Juba now the economic indications are showing. The IMF has helped us, so now we have balanced the exchange rate,” and she noted through IMF loans her government has been able to curb South Sudan’s soaring inflation and give some back pay to civil servants.

She also said the South Sudan National Revenue Authority has digitized the system of revenue collection and eliminated illegal “taxation” roadblocks.

De Mabior, who is also chair of the Gender and Youth cluster in the executive government, told VOA, “We are working to see to it that the representation of women is realized. There are some problems yes, like, for example, in the executive the percentage is 26% and it was supposed to be 35%, and also in the parliament – but the parliament is much better than the executive.”

South Sudan’s peace agreement guarantees 35% percent representation for women at all levels of government, a commitment that President Salva Kiir’s government has come up short of fulfilling in all government institutions.

Women underrepresented

Being the first and only female vice president in South Sudan among the five officials holding that title, de Mabior says “At least this percentage in the presidency is OK because it’s a place that we were not reaching [before]. And you know women are reasonable people,” she told VOA, “Coming out of tradition and culture in the country which are oppressing women, we are [now] much better.”

She admitted that fulfilling the 35% women’s representation guarantee remains problematic. “I know that there are these problems, but the most important [thing] for us now is for our children to be secure.”

Fragile peace

South Sudan’s civil war began in December 2013, just two years after the country gained independence from Sudan, when President Kiir accused his former First Vice President Riek Machar of attempting a coup against him.

South Sudan’s major warring parties signed a new peace agreement in 2018 after the collapse of a 2015 peace agreement that plunged the country back into violence.

Some armed groups refused to sign the 2018 peace deal and a recent division within the forces of Machar (SPLA-IO) is threatening an already fragile arrangement.

South Sudan’s first female vice president brings optimism and determination to her position, but her goals face headwinds the nation has yet to overcome in its 10 years of independence. Nonetheless, she tells VOA, she vows to press forward.

“We need to make sure as a government we implement this agreement, there’s nothing else as I stated earlier,” she said. “The whole world is tired of us, even our own people are getting tired, but they have to be patient and to give us another chance so that we implement this agreement. There’s no shortcut to freedom. If they want freedom and they want to be secure in their own country, we have to walk this rough road.”

Source: Voice of America