Author: Web Desk

UNITED NATIONS— The United Nations General Assembly is expected to vote this week, diplomats said, to call out Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for creating a “dire” humanitarian situation, urge aid access and again demand Moscow stop fighting and withdraw its troops.

It will be the second time the 193-member General Assembly votes on the Ukraine crisis since Russia launched what it calls a “special military operation” on Feb 24 to destroy Ukraine’s military infrastructure.

Ukraine, the United States and allies are looking to improve on the 141 yes votes cast to adopt a March 2 General Assembly resolution that deplored Russia’s “aggression against Ukraine.” Russia, Belarus, Eritrea, North Korea and Syria voted no, while 35 states – including China – abstained.

However, diplomats said South Africa has proposed a rival draft text on Ukraine’s humanitarian situation. The draft makes no reference to Russia. It was not immediately clear whether South Africa planned to put it to a vote.

General Assembly resolutions are nonbinding, but they carry political weight. The March 2 vote illustrated Russia’s international isolation over its invasion of Ukraine. While Russia is a veto power in the 15-member UN Security Council, no one country can block a General Assembly resolution.

The draft resolution put forward by Ukraine and allies for a likely vote this week focuses on the humanitarian situation – demanding the protection of civilians, medical personnel, aid workers, journalists, hospitals and other civilian infrastructure.

Ukraine and Western allies have accused Moscow of attacking civilians indiscriminately. Moscow denies attacking civilians.

The Ukraine and allies draft resolution also demands an end to the siege of cities, in particular Mariupol.

Ukraine defied Moscow’s demand for its soldiers to lay down arms before dawn on Monday in besieged Mariupol where hundreds of thousands of civilians are cowering from Russian bombardments laying waste to their city.

The second General Assembly vote comes after France and Mexico drafted a similar Security Council resolution, but did not call a vote because they said Moscow would have blocked it. Russia then put forward its own draft council text, but pulled it from a planned vote last week.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

Political analysts say South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has undercut his own utility as a potential mediator of the war in Ukraine with a controversial suggestion that NATO’s own actions are to blame for Russia’s invasion of its western neighbor.

Ramaphosa has said he prefers negotiations over weapons or economic sanctions, in reference to sanctions piled on Russia by the United States and Western allies in the aftermath of the invasion, now in its fourth week.

“The war could have been avoided if NATO had heeded the warnings from amongst its own leaders and officials over the years that its eastward expansion would lead to greater, not less, instability in the region,” Ramaphosa told parliament last Thursday.

But he added that South Africa “cannot condone the use of force and violation of international law.”

The South African president said South Africa had been asked to mediate in the conflict, but he did not mention who requested the intervention.

University of Western Australia analyst Dr. Muhammad Dan Suleiman told VOA that Ramaphosa’s “outrageous” comment is “more like stoking the fire of conflict (and) projecting a paradigm of war rather than peace." He said the comment undercuts any possibility for Ramaphosa to mediate peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.

Longtime allies

Africa's most industrialized nation has long-standing relations with the Kremlin dating back to the 1960s. During South Africa’s apartheid regime, the Soviet Union backed anti-apartheid freedom fighters.

After majority control came to South Africa in 1994, politicians, including those of the ruling African National Congress, maintained ties with Moscow, which observers say makes it no surprise that South Africa has not condemned Russia’s invasion.

Suleiman said there is no historical reason that gratitude for Soviet support during the apartheid era should translate to a defense of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

''For whatever reason, (Ramaphosa) seems to be equating Russia to the Soviet Union. And that is not true, because Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. And so, whatever help the Soviet Union gave to the ANC during apartheid also had the contribution of Ukraine,'' Suleiman said.

Prince Mashele, executive director at the Center for Politics and Research in Pretoria, said Ramaphosa’s position doesn’t reflect the current thinking of most South Africans.

''You can't have a foreign policy that is frozen in the past. Foreign policy has to be dynamic. If (Ramaphosa) had a flexible policy, he would appreciate that the Russia of today is not the Russia of yesteryear.''

Mashele told VOA, "Ramaphosa is trapped by his own political party, the ANC, and so, the position he articulates doesn't reflect his own personal preference. In the ANC, there are relics of the old world aligned with the Communist Party of South Africa and (are) still active,” Mashele said.

Mashele disagrees with some analysts’ assertions that Black South Africans in 2022 continue to look to Moscow for support.

''I am Black. I come from Black communities. The majority of Black South Africans are actually inspired by the West. Their culture, mannerisms, are an extension of the West, in terms of thinking.''

He added, ''Black South Africans don't even wish to visit Moscow. They wish to visit New York, or Dubai in the East, or Europe. And so, the position that is articulated by Ramaphosa on behalf of South Africans doesn't reflect the thinking of Black people. It only represents the thinking of a political clique in the ANC.”

Source: Voice of America

ACCRA— President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has urged members of the Economic Community of West African States to comply with, and enforce judgements of the bloc’s Community Court of Justice (CCJ) for stronger integration of the region.

He noted that despite the best efforts of the Court to deliver on its mandate, it was constrained by the poor rate of enforcement of its judgements that presently stood at 13 per cent.

“Unless member states comply with the judgements of the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice, it will be difficult to build public confidence in the court…I appeal to all member states to ensure that they comply with their treaty obligations by observing and obeying the judgements of the court,” he said.

The President made the appeal when he opened the 11th external session of the CCJ in Accra on Monday.

He called on all member states that were yet to appoint competent national authorities for the enforcement of judgements of the Community Court to “respectfully do so without further delay.”

The Court’s external session will run from March 21 to April 1 this year at the Court Complex in Accra. The session forms part of efforts to bring justice closer to the grassroots for the benefit of indigent citizens who could otherwise not afford the attendant cost of litigation in the seat of the court at Abuja, Nigeria.

The session, which is a key activity of the annual work programme of the Court, also provides the opportunity for citizens to observe the Court in session, sensitize the public and engage with its stakeholders. It provides the opportunity for judicial dialogue with national courts of host countries.

Some sixty cases, one pertaining to Ghana, would be adjudicated by the Court during the session.

President Akufo-Addo however suggested to the Court to align its practices and procedures to the generally recognised rules of other international Courts to obviate any potential conflict between the courts and national governments.

He submitted that the CCJ should insist that all applicants for the exercise of the Courts expanded jurisdiction satisfied the requirement of the exhaustion of domestic remedies prior to filling their cases with the Court.

That, he said, would allow for the systematic development of the authority of the Court.

President Akufo-Addo noted that the CCJ, as the guarantor of ECOWAS Community norms, had a strategic role to play in the integration process of the bloc.

Thus, the Court must be supported to provide the enabling legal environment for the integration of the region.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK