500,000 Sudanese Christians Being Evicted to the South

Sudanese Christians who have barely a month to leave the north or risk being treated as foreigners are starting
to move, but Christian leaders are concerned that the 8 April deadline set by Islamic-majority Sudan is unrealistic.

“We are very concerned. Moving is not easy … people have children in school. They have homes … It is almost impossible,” Roman Catholic Bishop Daniel Adwok, the Khartoum archdiocese auxiliary told ENInews in a telephone interview on 7 March.

Sudan in February announced the deadline for the former citizens it had stripped of nationality after South
Sudan’s January 2011 vote to secede. The ultimatum will affect an estimated 500,000-700,000 people, who are mainly Christians of southern origin that still live in the north.

Many of them fled north during the long civil war fought between the Government of Sudan and the former
rebels, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement. They have lived there for decades together with children who were born there. Few have ties with South Sudan.

The people are desperate to move, according to reports, following the deadline and increasing tensions between the two nations over oil wealth. The tensions started escalating in January after the north allegedly started taking crude oil from the landlocked south, which it was exporting through a pipeline to Port Sudan on the Red Sea.

“We want the rights of these people addressed by the two parliaments. Everyone has a right to choose where
they want to live. It is a human right,” said Adwok.

Sudan amended its laws after the south’s independence to say that Sudanese people automatically lose
citizenship when they acquire by right or by other means the citizenship of South Sudan. Sudanese people in the north with any parents, grandparents or great grandparents born in the South Sudan or belong to any southern ethnic group are considered that country’s nationals.

That’s the official deadline, but we don’t know how the Khartoum regime will react,” said John Ashworth, an

advisor of the Sudan Ecumenical Forum.

Some church leaders fear increased persecution of Christians in the north or even forced repatriation for those
who may want to stay. “The fears have been there from the beginning. There could be some form of harassment, and that could intensify after that date, but for forceful removal, it is hard to ascertain,” said the Rev. Don Bosco Ochieng, a Roman Catholic priest in the Rumbek diocese.

Aid agencies are calling for the extension of the deadline, warning that it will create a logistical and humanitarian catastrophe.

The Rest @ Venienco

Boko Haram kills and Christians and Muslim Alike

The following article came about six weeks ago, but it provides more details about the originis of Boko Haram, and separates it from other Muslim Groups in NOrthern Nigeria..

- Shsimron Issachar

The religious sect, Boko Haram, appears to have laid a siege to the Northern part of Nigeria, especially the North East geo-political zone of the region. Aside mindless killings of innocent Nigerians, the sect’s members also carry out wanton destruction of property in a bid to make people in the zone embrace their views on Islamic religious code and western education. JAMES BWALA, in this report, examines the sect vis-a-vis its activities, members and sponsors.

THE fear of Boko Haram is, to state the fact, the beginning of wisdom in some states of the Northern part of Nigeria. The group, which parades religious extremists pushing for the enthronement of Sharia and abadonment of western education in the region, has always sent jitters down the spines of old and young in the North Eastern states of Borno, Bauchi, Yobe, Adamawa, Gombe and Taraba. Wherever the group operates, it often leaves behind sad stories and scary scenes of destruction, maiming and death.

In Borno, the stronghold of the group, many lives and property have been lost to guerrila-like attacks unleashed on the residents of the ancient town of Maiduguri by the sect since it began its operations a few years ago.

About 48 hours ago, the governorship candidate on the platform of All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Engineer Modu Fannami Gubio and six other persons, including the brother of the Borno State governor, Alhaji Goni Modu Sheriff, were killed by people suspected to be Boko Haram members. The deceased had just finished performing their Friday Juma’at prayer when the killers struck, thus throwing residents of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, into confusion.

Miffed by the incessant killings masterminded by the sect, Sunday Tribune went to Maiduguri and other towns in Borno State and engaged residents of the towns on the supposed identity, origin and grievances of a group that has largely been linked with Al Qaeda.

“Boko Haram is purely a terrorist group,” claimed Habeeb Mosa, a pharmacist living in GRA, Maiduguri. He narrated to Sunday Tribune how the group attacked a police post in the town and killed all the five police officers on duty. They said they were not interested in western education and would want everybody to embrace Sharia. I’m not against Sharia because I’m a Muslim, but why must they force people to embrace their view,” he questioned.

According to the Borno State Police Commissioner, Mohammed Jinjiri Abubakar, “they are a group of miscreants using Islam as a cover-up and have succeeded in instilling fear in the minds of the people of the state to the extent that 90 per cent of Maiduguri residents are hesitant and fearful to provide information to the police on the hideouts and activities of the Boko Haram sect members.” The Commissioner maintained that the group had succeeded in cowing residents of the town, noting that the residents needed to come out of their shell and resist the sect, since its members resided in their midst.“We don’t have any magic wand to fight the armed sect members, as long as the residents are not willing to provide information on the sect members’ activities to our men and officers.”

The President General of the Igbo Welfare Association in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, Elder Nneka Okereke, said the sect members were some Muslims youths and hoodlums assembled by some religious fanatics to kill Igbos and destroy their businesses. He said “killings in recent weeks have taken a frightening dimension, in that armed gangs are selectively robbing and killing Igbos. Armed robberies and killings in the past three weeks have been selectively directed at Igbos and Igbo businesses. It is on record that from 28th of December, 2010 to 17th January, 2011, no fewer than five innocent Igbos have been killed in cold blood, while several others were shot and are still lying critically in the hospitals.”

Okereke further stated that within the same period, about 12 business premises owned by Igbos were selectively robbed at gun point. While some non Igbos met there were asked to leave before the harassment, robberies and killings were carried out.

For the Christian community, Boko Haram is a group of unidentified persons believed to have been brainwashed to annihilate Christians and non-Muslims to the extent that any Muslim who stands on their way is also destroyed because they believe they are fighting the cause of Allah.

While addresing newsmen at the CAN secretariat in Maiduguri recently, the CAN Chairman in the state, Rev. Yuguda Z. Mdurvwa, said the atrocities perpetrated by some groups of persons “who have taken upon themselves the responsibility of annihilating Christians in the state can no longer be condoned as enough is enough.”

He said while they had visited mayhem on Christians in Borno State, destroying churches and killing Christians, without any provocation whatsoever, Christians, though peaceful people, who believed in living peacefully with their neighbours as taught by the Holy Bible, failed to understand the failure of the security agencies in ensuring that lives and property were protected, and therefore, were no more prepared to look on while Christians would killed silently and churches destroyed.

Sunday Tribune also spoke with a cross section of people in Maiduguri on the activities of the group.

•  Some of them said Boko Haram was a name given to the “Yusufiya Sect.” The sect, according to them, is now terrorizing the people of the state and is believed to be sponsored by highly placed politicians in the country, judging by their modus oparandi, which gives no doubt that politicians are using that name for cover to perpetrate evil in the state. 
• According to them, with the rate at which they are now operating, people of Borno State prefer a state of emergency because the state government under Ali Sheriff has failed to provide adequate protection for them and the police have also failed in their duty to protect lives and property.

Sunday Tribune also recalled that Governor Sheriff, while shifting blame on the security operatives, described them as a bunch of criminals. He told newsmen that he heard of the plan to attack all the churches in Maiduguri on the eve of Christmas and as Chief Security Officer of the state, he informed all the chief security agents to station their men to protect lives and property, but unfortunately, they could not come in time to save the situation. Of course, the situation of things in Maiduguri is frightening, as the atmosphere in the town is very tense because of the many rumours making the round about Boko Haram.

When Sunday Tribune spoke with Mallam Tanko Karami, he said that

• Boko Haram or “Yusufiya Sect,” started as a movement in 2000. 
• According to him, since inception, their goals and idealogy were made very clear to the people of the state. They hate any knowledge outside the teachings of the Holy Book. 
• Their teachings are against the beliefs of other Muslims, especially the idea of acquiring western education and perhaps, some practices in governance.
• No one can tell of their sources of income but they are believed to be sponsored by some highly placed individuals in the society and organizations, “which are also responsible for the increase in its members.
• They do not appreciate the positions of other Muslims and Christians who believe in western education,” he said.

“Some people see this group as a combination of drug addicts, vagabonds and intellectuals who want to seize power from politicians to install Islamic law,” said Aminat Sufiyat. Others said these people had made their intentions known several times that a time is coming that they would have to make a change in the country of how things were being run by government, and when the Borno State government introduced the motor vehicle law sometimes in 2009, they defied the law and several times had to clash with the authorities, and because they were left untouched, many joined the movement later,” he explained.

• Sunday Tribune gathered that though members of the sect have Islamic background, they are preferably referred to as hoodlums.
•  However, many Islamic clerics in Borno State have tried to educate followers of Islam on the teachings of the Boko Haram sect by critically looking at the teachings of Islam with regards to understanding the Holy Book and what Isalm said about western education. 
• One of those, who took time to admonish Muslims in one of his lectures on the state-owned radio and television, Sheikh Saleh, who also emphasised the need for youths, especially students of tertiary institutions to embrace knowledge of Islam, noting that the religion has root in modern sciences, while acquisition of knowledge in those fields is incumbent and lawful for all practicing Muslims.

According to him;

• “knowledge in Islam is divided into two and all are incumbent upon every Muslim to acquire. We have what is called Fardul Aiyn (general knowledge of individual on Islam) and fardul Kifaya (general knowledge about things in our environment). 
• While the first teaches you what you should know about your religion, the other teaches Muslims to acquire knowledge in the field of Astronomy, Biology, Physics, Mathematics, Geology and so on”
• Against the teaching of the outlawed Boko Haram sect, Sheik Saleh noted that there was no knowledge that is beneficial to mankind that is forbidden for Muslims.

Sharing the view of the National Chairman of Fatawa Committee, another renowned Islamic scholar, Sheik Modu Mustapha, urged Muslims to imbibe the attitude of seeking knowledge both western and Islamic, emphasising that no knowledge would be beneficial without discipline and respect for constituted authorities.

According to him, Muslims must continue to work in unity and cohesion and avoid any act that could bring about division in the religion, even as he described Boko Haram as an example of lack of adequate knowledge of Islam. He also called on lecturers in universities and other institutions of higher learning to adopt some of the Islamic knowledge in the formulation of their curriculum.

The Rest @ Sunday Tribune (Nigeria)

Al Shabaab Counter Attacks in Kenya

A series of explosions at a bus station in the Kenyan capital Nairobi has killed at least three people and wounded 40 others, the Kenyan Red Cross has said.

The Red Cross reported on its official twitter account that eight out of the 40 injured admitted to hospital on Saturday, are in a critical condition.

Witnesses reported that people in a moving car hurled three grenades at the terminal in Nairobi, Charles Owinom the police spokesman, said. Witnesses told the Reuters news agency they believed there had been up to four blasts, but there was no official confirmation of multiple explosions.




Kenyan police immediately blamed the Somali group al-Shabab for the attacks.

"This is a cowardly act by al-Shabab elements," Charles Owino, police spokesman told reporters at the bus station.

"But we will not relent in the war. We will get them and we will continue with the war."

Kenyan troops are currently fighting the Shebab in neighbouring Somalia. "We can confirm that indeed three people have been killed, 21 injured," he added.

The blasts are the latest in a string of small arms, bomb and grenade attacks that have killed scores of people since Kenya sent troops across the border into neighboring Somalia in October.

During those attacks, grenades were thrown into a bar and another bus station, both not far from the scene of Saturday's attack, killing one person and wounding more than 20.

The Rest @ al Jazera

UN Firearms Protocol (UNFP) Creates Tighter Restrictions on European Arms Exports

The new EU legislation adopted by the Council is aimed at effectively fighting illegal arms trafficking through stronger rules for exports and imports of firearms and improving traceability. In particular, the Regulation sets up simplified procedures for temporary export, import and transit of small numbers of firearms for ‘verifiable lawful purposes’, such as recreational, repair or exhibition, in order to avoid unnecessary administrative burdens.

Furthermore, the tracing and control of imports and exports of civilian firearms from and to the EU territory (firearms intended for military purposes are governed by other rules) is improved thanks to the new regulation. Exports of firearms will be subject to export authorisations, containing the necessary information to trace them, including the country of origin, the country of export, the final recipient and a description of the quantity of the firearms and related items. The European Parliament already asked for more transparency on exports of arms in April 2011.

The Regulation adopted addresses trade and transfers with countries outside the EU, thereby transposing the provisions of Article 10 of the UN Firearms Protocol (UNFP) on ‘General requirements for export, import and transit licensing or authorization systems’. It applies to firearms, their parts and essential components and ammunition for civilian use.

The Rest @ Euroalert

Boko Haram Reveals Plan to to Expel All Christians from Northern NIgeria

Boko Haram plans 'to eradicate Christians' from areas in Nigeria

Boko Haram, the radical Islamist terror group that has been linked to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb as well as Shabaab, al Qaeda's affiliate in East Africa, is intent on turning its insurgency in the north of Nigeria into a full-fledged war between Christans and Muslims.

• The terror group has bombed numerous churches in the country in the past two years, including a suicide attack at a church in Jos at the end of February. 
• Leadership, a Nigerian news outlet, interviewed a Boko Haram spokesman who said that the group will "eradicate Christians from certain parts of the country" while fighting to establish "a proper Islamic state."
• A Nigerian spokesman for the Islamic militant group Boko Haram told Bikyamasr.com on Sunday that they are planning a "war" on Christians in the next few weeks. According to the spokesman, speaking via telephone from northern Nigeria, the group "will launch a number of attacks, coordinated and part of the plan to eradicate Christians from certain parts of the country."

Boko Haram have taken responsibility for a number of bomb attacks on Christian churches across the country since a Christmas Day bombing left dozens of people killed.

The government has promised to crackdown on the group and has deployed military units across the country in an attempt to curtail the Islamic group's activities, arresting and killing a number of members in recent weeks.

But the spokesman said the government "cannot be prepared for what is to come."

He said, without giving specific details, "we will create so much effort to end the Christian presence in our push to have a proper Islamic state that the Christians won't be able to stay."

On Friday, the group reportedly killed three of its own members late on Friday in the northeastern state of Maiduguri, police and military sources confirmed.

"This was part of our planning and it is unfortunate," said the spokesman.

By BILL ROGGIO
The Rest @ The Longwar Journal

KAS Engineering and Peter Mirchev, VIctor Bout's Bulgarian Arms Supplier

Last week, during the last of four interviews I conducted with Viktor Bout, an arms trafficker, for my story in this week’s New Yorker, Bout became somewhat annoyed.

 My reporting drew on a variety of sources—surveillance tapes and transcripts, testimony at trial, D.E.A. case files, data recovered from Bout’s computer, and many interviews—but some of the more illustrative descriptions of Bout’s career came from his own longtime friend and business associate, a Bulgarian arms broker named Peter Mirchev. Finally, Bout said, “Why don’t you just write an article about Peter Mirchev?”

It’s a fair question.

• After all, Mirchev is the one to whom Bout turned when men posing as members of the FARC expressed their interest in purchasing Iglas, a type of surface-to-air missile. 
• Bout was primarily a logistics and transport man. Mirchev was the weapons guy. 
• Since the early nineteen-nineties, Mirchev has run an arms-export company called KAS Engineering. Initially registered in Bulgaria, now licensed from the offshore haven of Gibraltar, 
• KAS Engineering brokers weapons deals for clients around the world by tapping into Mirchev’s contacts with manufacturers in Bulgaria and Ukraine. 
• Mirchev insists that he plays by the rules and doesn’t fulfill contracts for embargoed countries, though he subtly leaves open the possibility that weapons could be diverted: “My obligation is to put stuff inside the plane. From there, I don’t give a shit where the plane will go.” 
• He has a LinkedIn account and encourages contact from those desiring “new ventures,” “expertise requests,” and “getting back in touch,” among others. An American official I met overseas dubbed Mirchev a “real player.”

Bout went on trial in lower Manhattan this fall, on charges related to the FARC deal. Throughout, Mirchev struck me as the one person who could offer some genuine, unvarnished sense of what had occurred—and whether Bout had intended to go through with the sale. In pre-trial hearings, Bout’s lawyer, Albert Dayan, had left open the possibility that he would call Mirchev to testify. Dayan, however, didn’t bring any witnesses. The prosecutors were left pointing to a single phone conversation between Bout and Mirchev and a few references to Mirchev that Bout made in Thailand in order to make their case.

Then, on one of the last days of the trial, they projected a screenshot from Bout’s computer, showing a Microsoft Outlook entry for Mirchev that included an e-mail and cell-phone number. I called the number a few days later. Mirchev answered. He said that he never spoke to journalists, and was about to hang up when I told him where I’d gotten his number, how his name had already been dragged through the dirt in an American courtroom, and that I wanted to hear his side of things—in person. I said I could be in Sofia within a week or two. He finally agreed.

Mirchev offered to meet me at my hotel. A small, shifty man with boxy cheeks but an otherwise forgettable face, he entered the hotel lobby, shook my hand with a nervous twitch, and suggested we go somewhere else. We ended up two blocks away, at a café called Cookies. We ordered coffee, and, later, a couple of Johnnie Walker Blacks. It was early afternoon. Mirchev spent the rest of the day telling me how he met Bout, how they became good friends, how their families vacationed together, and how he supplied weapons to the young Russian.

So why was Mirchev not targeted, too? That’s a question only the D.E.A. could answer and, for this piece, I wasn’t granted any access to serving D.E.A. agents. But it is apparent that the sting, named Operation Relentless, set its sights solely on Bout.

Anyone else swept up in the raid—apart from Andrew Smulian, who witnessed the evolution of the case and who seemed most ripe for “flipping” and testifying against Bout— was quickly discarded. For instance, the D.E.A. and the Royal Thai Police arrested Bout’s bodyguard Mikhail Belezorosky in Thailand. They briefly questioned him. “First, he said he didn’t speak English. Then he said he was a taxi-driver. Then he said he was on vacation. Then he said he was a taxi-driver on vacation. He was very, very confused,” said Tom Pasquerello, the D.E.A.’s regional director in Bangkok. Another agent gave Belezorosky twenty dollars' worth of Thai baht and told him to leave Bangkok immediately.

Mirchev is nonetheless careful about where he travels these days. Last week, he called me to ask about a woman from The New Yorker who had been calling him, speaking flawless Russian. (Mirchev and I have talked a handful of times on the phone since our meeting in Sofia.) He explained that she was a fact-checker and suggested that the three of us could all get dinner and drinks one evening if he ever visited New York. Then he laughed. “I’m not coming to New York anytime,” he said. “Or else I’ll be in the jail cell next to Viktor.”

The Rest by Nicholas Schmidle @  the New Yorker Magazine

Tribal Corruption in the Leadership of Boko Haram

Abuja (Agenzia Fides) - "We were able to link the activities of Boko Haram to the training and logistical support that the sect receives by Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQMI)." This is what the Nigerian Air Force Chief of Staff, General Oluseyi Petinrin says, in a report presented by the Vice-Admiral, Sa'ad Ibrahim, at a meeting of the heads of security of the Countries of the Economic Community of West African States (CEDEAO in the French acronym, ECOWAS in English). The meeting was attended by the heads of security of Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger and Nigeria.

The Boko Haram sect continues to rage in northern Nigeria (but has also carried out attacks in the federal capital Abuja and other areas), while the AQMI, starting from southern Algeria has expanded its activities in Mali, Mauritania and Niger, touching almost Nigeria and Burkina Faso. The two movements have created links on the basis of a common ideology, but probably also due to cross-border trafficking, which are among the main sources of funding for AQMI.

The economic-criminal dimension of Boko Haram has recently emerged from statements made to police by the sect's spokesman, Abu Qaqa,

• after his arrest. According to Abu Qaqa there is discontent within the sect between the leadership, led by Abu Shekau, and on the redistribution of robberies carried out to finance Boko Haram’s activities. In particular members of the Kanuri ethnic group, is favored in the recycling of valuable cars, stolen officially to carry out attacks, but actually donated to the privileged members of the sect. (L.M.)  

The Rest @ Agenzia Fides