
EU Court of Justice Advocate General Finds that Western Sahara not part of EU-Morocco Trade Deal (14.09.2016)







[Delivered by Ms. Mary Soliman, Acting Director, Geneva Branch, Office for Disarmament Affairs]
I am pleased to greet the Sixth Meeting of the States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions. I congratulate the Netherlands for assuming the Presidency of the Meeting and for leading its preparations. I also thank Switzerland, the host country.
Over the years, States, international organizations and civil society have worked together to establish and implement a solid legal norm prohibiting the use, development, production, acquisition, transfer or stockpiling of cluster munitions. This unity has made the Convention a success.
I congratulate Colombia, which ratified during the First Review Conference last year, as well as Cuba, Mauritius, Palau and Somalia for joining the Convention most recently, bringing the number of States parties to 100. The United Nations will continue to support all efforts aimed at the universalization of the Convention.
With the adoption of the Dubrovnik Action Plan, States parties have set an ambitious path of concrete actions and specific deadlines for the Convention’s further implementation by the Second Review Conference in 2020. Actions are to be undertaken in the crucial areas of universalization, stockpile destruction, clearance and risk reduction education, victim assistance, international cooperation and assistance, transparency and national implementation measures. Our shared hope is to achieve the destruction of additional stockpiled cluster munitions, the release of previously contaminated land for productive use and, ultimately, a reduction in the number of new victims.
Ridding the world of heinous cluster munitions is a moral and humanitarian imperative. I wish you every success as you embark on your important deliberations.

“I have given order [for the army] to take action on protestors with no sympathy” Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegne
Today’s report from Amhara is not good as the Ethiopian National Defence Force is continuing to take heavy artillery to the Province. As the picture is evidence of. In Bahir Dar the people have burned down 9 Flower Farms, several shops and even factories in the city.
“I know you will continue working to make our shared vision of a peaceful & prosperous #Ethiopia become reality.” (U.S. Embassy in Addis, 31.08.2016).
As the pictures show, there aren’t much peace of mind in sight for the men and woman who get to meet the Agazi squad from the ENDF. There cannot be peace when the heavy artillery and soldiers are arriving to settle the score with the demonstrators.
The Army are acting with violence and killings in Gondar. It is hard to know the numbers and intelligence is scarce as the Internet blockade is still evident in the Amhara State. This is a government sending their specialized weapons against their own citizens who peacefully protest, not criminals or terrorist. This proves to what extent the Ethiopian Authorities does with their citizens.
“TPLF has ordered deployment of additional 25,000 regular army to Amahara region. It is also sending Tigray region special police force dressed in federal police. Wrong move. It might thing it can use overwhelming force to shut down the protest. But its risking further fracturing the army.Also Amhara farmers are armed and they be forced to abandon the current peaceful protest and confront the regime in armed rebellion” (Jawar Mohammed, 31.08.2016).
The effect in Addis Ababa is that the flower prices has sky-rocketed due to scarcity after the violence in Amhara.
“ESAT Radio: 254 fully armed soldiers defected and joined the peasant forces in Armacheho, Gondar” (ESAT Radio, 31.08.2016).

There is reports of four people have been gunned down in Debareq town, where several also been injured. Also protesters in the town burned the house of the mayor down.
Also that certain level of protester has done what they can to phone-lines to be able to call and tell what is happening in the Amhara state.
“Uprisings defense when it is a matter of patience and control obligation , but for 30 million people, has confirmed the fact that the deadly assault on the whole Africa has the capacity of various international organizations” – Dr. Debretsion Gebre Michael.
Reports from the OmoroProtest:
“#OromoProtests BREAKING: armed conflict between Karayu Oromo and Agazi soldiers at Xuxi village in Fantale District, East Shewa. Four Agazi’s and three pastoralists have been killed” (SiiTube, 31.08.2016).
What reported about yesterday:
“Deadly protests have however continued on Tuesday in Gondar and Gojam where seven protesters – three in Adet and four in Simada – were shot and killed by TPLF forces. Three people were also killed in Merawi. In Bahir Dar, angry protesters went to the Sebatamit prison and freed 700 prisoners who were detained in the recent protests. Several people were injured in the shoot out to free the prisoners, according to hospital sources. Gun fire could be heard on Tuesday in the city of Bahir Dar which saw deadly protests on Monday as four people were killed and protesters attacked businesses belonging to the regime. In Amba Giorgis, regime forces attacked residents who on Monday targeted businesses and set on fire houses belonging regime officials. Tensions remained high in Finote Selam that has seen deadly protests in recent days. Offices and businesses remained closed on Tuesday in Finote Selam” (SiiTube, 31.08.2016).
This is what I collected today. The Army and Government continues to silence and oppress the Amhara people as they goes all-in the capital city of Banhir Dar City. While the protestors are retaliating with burning businesses that even has hit the flower market of Addis Ababa. Still, the killings and violence from the government continues… the silence from the world and the little sad reports prove the fate of a people who deserve a government who takes care of them; not a government who comes with heavy artillery and tanks to silence the citizens of Amhara State. Peace.

On Ethiopian TV and on a Press Conference today the Prime Minister of Ethiopia His Exellency Hailemariam Desalegne said that the Military could take any action against the protestors of Amahara region. This here is not great news as the oppressive behaviour is continuing. The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and the Ethiopia National Defence Force (ENDF) are attacking their own public. It’s scary to know how far the EPRDF are using military to silence their citizens.
As this been told there been reports of total shutdown of Internet in the Northern Regions of Ethiopia. Also, there been reports of military intervention with tanks and equipment to silence the demonstrations. So the Demonstrations in Gondar has been planned to shut down, apparently.

“Amhara regional gov spokesman said the military is underway, which he describe “to control and take any measure in the region.” (EHRP, 2016).
“Even the little report that is, that Prison of Andasa near Bandahir have the prisoners broken out. “The Gebeya (market) area shut down.” High tensions. Agazi forces on the streets” (Habesha, 2016).
“According to sources in Addis Abeba and Amhara Regional cities, and Addis Abeba based Sheger Radio, thousands of heavily armed members of the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) along with the special squad of Agazi Force, have been deployed to the Gojjam and Gonder provinces of the Amhara regional state” (Link: http://debirhan.com/?p=10342, 2016)
In Amahara region the Military have set off the Martial Law. Stopping all people from moving and selling; no social networks, internet, markets and the Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) is heavy deployed in the area.
In Bandahir where the forces we’re taking control over the town the tortured people who demonstrated and also killings from the military. But no numbers confirmed.
Second Report from Bandahir:
“The regional government said yesterday it has invited the military to restore order. But, in Bahirdar city, it appears only federal police and regional forces are actively involved. The regional government disclosed today that it has arrested “key instigators of violence and vandalism”. Since several arrests and subsequent releases took place in the past weeks without much announcements, it seems the statement refers to either mass arrest or high profile arrests” (Daniel Berhane, 30.08.2016).
Reports of full hospital at Bahir Dar Fekege Hiwot Hospital; the hospital is full of injured people after the army entered the town.
In Gojam and Gondar the Phone Service is shut off from the authorities. So the intelligence from the area is near to extinct. So if the Martial Law is in effect in the scores of the Bandahir.

This is just pieces of the puzzle, not the real picture as the government does what they can to silence their report of their behaviour. As the allies of the Government doesn’t want the world to condemn them. The UN Envoy or Special Representative Michael Keating had consultation meeting with the Minister Taye Atske-Selassie on the violence of Somalia. But the man from the United Nations didn’t care for thinking about the oppressed people in Amhara. So the United Nation takes a blind eye to Ethiopian issues as long as their army fights the Al-Shabab, because the citizens of Amhara aren’t that important. Is that what the citizens of the world should take from this and their actions?
The worrying effect is that the PM can go off on TV at a Press Conference and later the pictures of military artillery and tanks going on the roads towards the Amhara Region. With the reports of civilian casualties! This should be sanctioned and the Ethiopian Government shouldn’t be walked away from even as the United Nation, United States and other allies need their forces as peacekeepers, because their funding of this government are oppressing and killing their own. That they do because they don’t want to be silenced anymore. They does so in peace, but brutally get shut-down by army and their tanks. Peace.







Statement attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General on Western Sahara.
NEW YORK, United States of America, August 29, 2016 – The Secretary-General is deeply concerned over the tense situation that has developed in the narrow Buffer Strip in southwestern Western Sahara between the Moroccan berm and the Mauritanian border as a result of changes in the status quo and the introduction of armed units from Morocco and the Polisario in close proximity to each other.
The Secretary-General calls on both parties to suspend any action that alters that status quo and to withdraw all armed elements so as to prevent any further escalation and permit MINURSO to hold discussions with both parties on the situation. The Secretary-General stresses the importance for both parties to adhere to their obligations as per the Military Agreement number 1, and the need to respect the letter and the spirit of the ceasefire agreement.




Adama Dieng, expressed his concern at inflammatory statements by public officials that could constitute incitement to violence including, most recently, by a senior official of the ruling CNDD-FDD political party.
NEW YORK, United States of America, August 25, 2016 – The United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, expressed his concern at inflammatory statements by public officials that could constitute incitement to violence including, most recently, by a senior official of the ruling CNDD-FDD political party.
In a statement on 16 August 2016 that was published on the CNDD-FDD website, Pascal Nyabenda, who was at the time President of the CNDD-FDD party and President of the National Assembly, suggested that the genocide in Rwanda was a fabrication of the international community, (“montages genocidaires contre le Gouvernement dit Hutu de Kigali”) that was used to remove the Hutu government that was in place at the time.
“This irresponsible statement could be interpreted as genocide denial”, Mr. Dieng said, “and has the potential to inflame ethnic tensions, both within Burundi and outside its borders”. At the 20 August meeting of the party, a new head of the CNDD-FDD was appointed but Mr. Nyabenda continues in his role as President of the National Assembly.
The situation in Burundi continues to be marred by instability and reports of serious human rights violations, including allegations of extra-judicial killings, disappearances, torture, and arbitrary detention of members of the opposition, civil society and those suspected of opposing the Government. Human rights defenders and journalists are among the hundreds of thousands of people who have fled the country since April 2015.
In its concluding observations, issued on 11 August 2016 following a special report submitted at the request of the United Nations Committee Against Torture (CAT), the Committee’s international experts expressed deep concern over the hundreds of reports of torture received and called for investigations into all cases of killings, enforced disappearances and other violence motivated by the ethnic origin of the victim. The Committee urged the Burundian Government to refrain from making any public statements that could exacerbate ethnic tensions or incite violence or hatred and to ensure that public and law enforcement officials do not accept or tolerate such acts by other groups.
Special Adviser Dieng also raised concern that the youth wing of the CNDD-FDD party, known as the Imbonerakure, continues to be associated with human rights abuses and is reported to have threatened ethnic violence. He noted that the Minister of the Interior of Burundi had confirmed that the Imbonakure formed part of the national security strategy, as the CAT also pointed out in its concluding observations.
Special Adviser Dieng reminded the Government of Burundi of its obligation to protect its populations, regardless of their ethnicity or political affiliation, and to refrain from any action or discourse that could inflame ethnic tensions. He highlighted the importance of countering such messages with alternative speech to foster unity rather than further entrench divisions, and called on all parties to prioritize inclusive dialogue to bring about an end to the protracted crisis.