Our weekly round-up of must-read stories you might have missed. In focus this week: U.N. envoy says she sees ‘political will‘ for eastern DRC peace plan; Humanity United, NGOs celebrate first year of Atrocity Prevention Board; Kual Deng Majok killed.
U.N. envoy says she sees ‘political will’ for eastern DRC peace plan – May 3, 2013
A U.N. special envoy, saying she sees a “political will,” urged leaders to keep working for success of the new eastern Democratic Republic of Congo peace plan. “I am seeing a political will and an urgency for peace that has to be maintained,” Mary Robinson, Special Envoy for Africa’s Great Lakes Region, said Friday in the Burundi capital of Bujumbura, the latest stop on her Great Lakes mission. “We have had regional agreements before. This time must be different. Now is the time for the implementation to begin,” she said of the Peace Security and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the region. Robinson said she met with Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza and welcomed his commitment to the peace plan. Robinson also met with regional envoys of the African Union and the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, as well as with the leadership and staff of the U.N. Office in Burundi…
NGOs Celebrate First Year of Atrocity Prevention Board, Offer Recommendations – May 3, 2013
Last April, in a speech at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, President Obama announced the creation of the Atrocities Prevention Board. Housed within the National Security Council, the Atrocities Prevention Board is a high-level interagency panel that monitors emerging threats of atrocities and develops new tools to prevent such violence. This week, Humanity United and a coalition of 19 human rights organizations, known as the Prevention & Protection Working Group, marked the board’s one-year anniversary by applauding President Obama and the administration’s commitment to prevent mass atrocities (see full text of letter below). However, we also noted several recommendations for implementation—which were highlighted in Wednesday’s article in The Hill…
Sudan tribal leader killed in Abyei region – May 5, 2013
Kual Deng Majok, the chief of the Dinka ethnic group, was killed during a stand-off between the Arab Misseriya militia and UN peacekeepers. There were also reports of UN forces being wounded. Oil-rich Abyei abuts both Sudan and South Sudan – which seceded in 2011 – and is claimed by the two countries. The conflict is rooted in a dispute over land between farmers of the pro-South Sudan Dinka Ngok people and cattle-herding Misseriya Arab nomads in the north. As a result, Abyei remains under the administration of an interim UN security force. Saturday’s incident began when a convoy of South Sudanese officials looking into the future of Abyei was surrounded by the Arab militia, and the UN tried to secure their release. A Dinka official told AFP news agency: “The top Dinka leader, Kual Deng Majok, was killed… after he was attacked by Misseriya.”…
