PAMBAZUKA NEWS 143: THE SUDANESE GOVERNMENT'S GUN BARREL POLITICS IN DAFUR A weekly electronic newsletter for social justice in Africa To view online, go to http://www.pambazuka.org/
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By trying once again to solve the Darfur crisis through the barrel of the gun is a clear indication that Khartoum has learned nothing from the 20 year-old-war it fought against its own citizens in Southern Sudan. Despite agreeing recently that a ceasefire is necessary to stop the bloodshed in Darfur, and despite claiming this week that the "war in Darfur" is over, the regime has stepped up its military operations in the province and with the same token has rejected the invitation to a conference on Darfur proposed by the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, a Swiss non-governmental peace group, to be held February 14 and 15 in Geneva. While fighting the so-called "insurgents" the Sudanese armed forces and other paramilitary units – the Popular Defence Forces - have simultaneously targeted civilians, allegedly accused of supporting the rebellion. More than 600,000 people have fled from their destroyed villages and have taken refuge in other towns in makeshift camps under trees with almost no food, water or shelter, while more than 100,000 fled to neighbouring Chad. Khartoum announced that major military operations in Darfur are over but villages are still being attacked and burned by the Janjaweed, the Khartoum-backed armed militias, and government Antonov planes continue to bomb indiscriminately villages as near as 60 kilometres from Al Fasher, the capital of Northern Darfur. A ceasefire negotiated in neighbouring Chad (Abeche 1) seeking to end the conflict collapsed because the government has not kept its part of the deal, i.e. stop all its military operations and especially rein in the Janjaweed. In fact Osman Youssef Kibir, the governor of North Darfur, has admitted that militiamen acting in the name of the government executed civilians in his province, although he denied that the government bore any responsibility for their acts. Last week, the government overrun a number of camps held by the fighters of the Movement for Justice and Equality (MJE), one of the fighting factions in Darfur. Then it turned its wrath against the other faction, the Sudan Liberation Army and has surrounded Jebal Marra, their stronghold, with the full might of its armed forces and its allies. The situation in Darfur is far from being "under control", as claimed by the Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir. The rebellion will continue as long as Khartoum refuses to acknowledge any political motivation for the unrest in the province, rejects a political solution to the crisis and blaming it instead on "armed criminal gangs and outlaws", who it says are aided by tribes from Chad. Much of the tension in Darfur results from the same issues that led Southern Sudan to take up arms back in 1983 -- a central government that exploits local resources, imposes its cultural beliefs on the indigenous African population and consistently plays off local tribes and ethnic groups against each other for short-term gains. The Darfur Liberation Front -- which later changed its name to the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) -- took up arms last February because the Khartoum government had "introduced policies of marginalisation, racial discrimination and exploitation that had disrupted the peaceful coexistence between the region's African sedentary and Arab nomad communities". Since the rebellion erupted the province is a war zone, with tremendous suffering inflicted on the civilian population by the army and the armed militias. SLA complains that the government in Khartoum, like all its predecessors, is dominated by the northern Arab elite and has ignored their needs. They argue that Darfur too should be offered a slice of a power-sharing deal and that its natural resources developed for the benefit of the local population. Calling for a separation of state and religion, the SLA/SLM have spelled out their objective "to create a united democratic Sudan" where the unity of the country will ultimately be based on the right to self-determination of the various peoples of Sudan. Also, they are asking for the establishment of an economy and a political system that addresses the uneven development and marginalisation that have plagued the country since independence. Yet these claims have had no effect on the government. It continues refusing to acknowledge the political motivation for the unrest and accuses Eritrea and the Sudan People Liberation Army (SPLA) of supporting and arming the rebels. Darfur is the most underdeveloped region in the country and is prone to drought and famines, two factors which have fuelled conflict between nomadic Arab tribes, armed by the government, militias and local African villagers. Libya, who backs the Zaghawa, "a useful long term leverage weapon against N'djamena" according to Al Fazzan, the former Libyan ambassador to Cairo and who is now representing his country in Damascus, has offered to solve Darfur's "tribal dispute" by inviting the Arab herders and pastoralists of Darfur into Libya. There, they will receive new territories, pastures and water points and even the Libyan nationality. Tripoli wants at all costs to unite with Sudan and Egypt and recently Kadhafi has proposed a draft constitution for a tripartite union to form the Golden Triangle, his 35 year-old dream. Sudan may be an oil producer at the rate of 330,000 barrels per day, but the oil bonanza has only begun in 1999. With the exception of the capital, there is practically neither proper health services nor education and no communications infrastructure in the country. Neglected by successive governments, the peripheral regions - Darfur, Kordofan, Nuba Mountains and the Eastern Province – can easily claim to benefit from "sustained UNDERdevelopment". Parallel to the issues of neglect and underdevelopment, racial discrimination and exploitation have poisoned inter-tribal co-existence. Pastoralism and farming have historically been and remain the most viable economic sectors in the province. It could be argued that land has long been at the heart of many conflicts in Africa, either between the indigenous black African populations and new comers - the case of Zimbabwe – or between farmers and pastoralists like in Darfur. During British colonial rule, the conflicts over pastures and water points were solved through the local tribal administration. Good neighbourhood still prevailing in those days, the pastoralists were allowed to move into the grazing areas with their cattle, sheep and camels, only after farmers had harvested their fields. But at independence, in the rush to modernise the country and move away from "old traditions", the new rulers of Sudan dismantled the local tribal administration and never replaced it. In the early 1980s, as drought and underdevelopment reduced pastures and water resources, the struggle for survival intensified for the nomadic pastoralists. During the 1986-89 premiership of Sadiq Al-Mahdi (Umma Party) the problem resurfaced when the nomadic tribes of the region, commonly known as the Baggara, moved indiscriminately into farming lands. These actions were made possible by a deliberate government policy and with the tacit approval of local government officials. The Baggara were even given weapons to "defend" themselves in case they were attacked by the indigenous farmers. Needless to say that often the weapons were used to take over lands and water points from the indigenous farmers. Since then, Darfur has been the scene of attacks by armed groups on indigenous farmers. The present government reacted by detaining incommunicado in various prisons around the country, community leaders and alleged critics of its policies in the province. Following unrest in and around Geneina, Northern Darfur (2001) where hundreds of Massaleet were killed and dozens of villages burnt to the ground, Special Courts were established to deal with "murders, armed attacks and banditry". These courts have handed down death sentences and cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments – cross amputation, public flogging - after unfair and rushed trials. Armed conflict and deliberate government strategies have largely been responsible for the long history of wars and of famines in Sudan. The current fighting, primarily along ethnic lines, is the result of that strategy. For almost twenty-five years, famine and scorched earth policy have been regarded as the outcome of a political process of depleting a region from its native population and transferring the resources of the region from the weak – the indigenous people - to the politically strong – Khartoum northern elites. Various armed militia groups, the Janjaweed in the case of Darfur and the Muraheleen in the Nuba Mountains and in Southern Sudan, have been the vehicles for the regime policies and have been utilized as proxies by Khartoum. Their task is to attack and plunder the people of a given region and take their reward – the war booty - in the form of looted cattle, crops etc. A few years ago, these groups did not have any political agenda in Darfur, but today this has changed. Their political agenda is to assist the government in 'arabising' the region and taking over its natural resources – oil and minerals. The army and the security forces, the specially created Popular Defence Force (PDF), support these militias whose main task is to terrorise and isolate the local populations by forcibly preventing them from working in their fields and looking after their animals. By burning crops and looting cattle, the Janjaweed militias have created and maintained artificial scarcities of food, driving the farmers from their land and pushing them towards urban centres or to the arid, desolate parts of the province. It is true that the raiding, displacement, and asset destruction did not affect all parts of Darfur simultaneously but they have created a situation of extreme instability whereby ordinary economic activities and survival strategies became impossible. In addition, the nature of inter-tribal clashes in Darfur has been exacerbated by an inflow of arms from neighbouring countries, Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR). Tribal groups, militias, dissidents, rebel groups as well as ordinary civilians have easy access to small arms. However, in this particular instance, local politicians as well as the central government have fuelled the rivalry between farming settlers and semi-nomadic communities. Neighbouring states also have interests in Darfur. The Zaghawa of Darfur have helped Idriss Deby gain power in N'djamena in 1990 and with their kin tribe in Chad they form the backbone of Deby's army and security forces. Libya has its own agenda, especially since Col Kadhafi has turned its attention to Africa and to the mineral-rich Sahel countries. In Northern Darfur, bordering Egypt and Libya, lies Jebal 'Aweinat, one of the richest mineral regions of the entire Sahel with foreseeable deposits of uranium, while Southern Darfur is known for its oil, iron ore and copper deposits. The government has come under serious criticism from humanitarian and human rights organisations about attacks on civilian targets and the deteriorating security situation in Darfur. There is no circumstance that justifies deliberate attacks on civilians or military operations that endanger civilian lives. These are all grave violations of human rights and the laws of war. But since the Sudanese leaders and their friends, especially Libya, which became a member of the UN Human Rights Commission last year, have halted the work of the UN Rapporteur for human rights in Sudan during the Commission annual meeting in Geneva (April 2003) violations of human rights have doubled in Darfur. Already in November 2002, Gerhart Baum, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Sudan, expressed concern over the slow progress achieved by the Khartoum government in redressing the human rights situation. He referred particularly to the negative role of the nomadic Arab tribes (mainly the Baggara and Misariyyah) from which government formed Muraheleen (nomadic) militias, which were deeply implicated in abductions and the targeting of civilians. Yet this has been crippled because civilians' cattle and grain are looted, agriculture land devastated, homes burnt, mills destroyed. Thousands of Fur, Zaghawa and Massaleet are unable to go back to their villages, plant or replace their herds. During a consultative meeting that took place in Nairobi in January between Vice President Ali Osman Taha and Ahmed Diraige, the leader of the Sudan Federal Democratic Alliance (SFDA) and former governor of Darfur (1980-1983) the government accepted that a ceasefire would be agreed and implemented under the supervision of international monitors, and negotiations opened with the Darfur fighters in order to reach a political settlement to the issue. But it seems that diplomatic and political solutions have been put aside and the government will pursue its military policy. * Send comments on this editorial - and other events in Africa - to [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Eva Dadrian is an independent broadcaster and Political and Country Risk Analyst for print and broadcast media, who currently works as a consultant for Arab African Affairs (London) and writes on a regular basis for AFRICA ANALYSIS (London), for Al Ahram HEBDO Echos Economiques and Al Ahram WEEKLY (Cairo) and contributes to Africa Service BBC WS (London). Published reports include: Religion and Politics in North Africa; The Horn of Africa: Country Risk Analysis; The Nile Waters: Risk Analysis; State and Church in Ethiopia; Policing the Horn of Africa; Religion and Politics in Sudan; Can South Sudan survive as an independent state? * NOTE FOR EDITORS: Please note that this editorial was commissioned from the author for Pambazuka News. While we are pleased that several print publications have used our editorials, we ask editors to note that if they use this article, they do so on the understanding that they are expected to provide the following credit: "This article first appeared in Pambazuka News, an electronic newsletter for social justice in Africa, www.pambazuka.org". Editors are also encouraged to make a donation. WITH THANKS TO OUR SUPPORTERS We'd like to thank all of you who have responded so quickly to our appeal: so far, we have received more than 500 pounds! Thank you! This means that nearly 200 organisations/individuals in Africa can get this service for free. If you would like to support Pambazuka News, but can't make a donation yourself, why not write to someone you know who would be willing to make a donation on your behalf - as little as $5 will ensure your subscription remains free. /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 2. Comment and Analysis PRESIDENT MBEKI MISREPRESENTS FACTS, CAUSES CONFUSION ON HIV/AIDS Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) Statement The TAC has strongly welcomed the government's operational treatment plan for HIV/AIDS of November 2003. We also welcome the efforts being made by some provincial governments, including Kwazulu-Natal, Gauteng and Western Cape, to implement this plan. Overall, we recognize that there has been tangible progress by government in improving policies, budgets and plans to prevent and treat HIV infection. However we are alarmed that this progress and the efforts of national and provincial government health departments and officials are being undermined by inaccurate comments by President Mbeki and Minister of Health, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. On the evening of 8 February 2004 an interview with President Mbeki was broadcast live on SABC television and radio. Regrettably, his comments on HIV/AIDS contained serious factual misrepresentations. This and his single mention of "AIDS", in passing, in his State of the Nation address to Parliament on February 6th 2004 suggest that he still he refuses to accept the seriousness of the epidemic. We are concerned that this is causing confusion in the public and despair among people with HIV/AIDS and health professionals. The publication of the Operational Plan increases the need for leadership - rather than reduces it. The President stated that no studies have been done using death data to determine AIDS deaths and that the only reliable death statistics we have are for road accident deaths. This is untrue. There have been two studies examining death registration data to determine mortality due to AIDS. Both were conducted by state institutions, Statistics South Africa and the Medical Research Council (see footnote 1). The Statistics South Africa report was commissioned by Cabinet. Both studies demonstrate the increased and massive mortality due to HIV. Their findings are included in a recent publication of the Health Department titled 'Health Statistics'. Another government endorsed study, the Impact of HIV/AIDS on the Health Sector(see footnote 2), found high AIDS mortality among health-care workers and estimated that 13% of health workers deaths from 1997 to 2001 were HIV- related. The study found that the HIV "epidemic has an impact on the health system through loss of staff due to illness, absenteeism, low staff morale, and also through the increased burden of patient load." In response to a question on his silence on AIDS, President Mbeki stated that his doctors informed him that diabetes is also an epidemic. He then questioned why no-one talks about diabetes, suggesting that AIDS unfairly dominates debate on health-care to the detriment of other diseases. This too is misleading: the President's choice of diabetes as an example of a disease neglected in debate is unfortunate. Drugs for treating diabetes are heavily overpriced; there should be a campaign for their reduction. But unlike HIV (until November 2003), diabetes is treated in the public health sector. However, the President should be aware that according to an initial investigation into the burden of disease estimates in South Africa released in 2003 by the MRC, AIDS was responsible for 39% of lost life-years in 2000 -- more than the next 10 worst diseases. Diabetes is the 12th worst disease and is responsible for slightly more than 1% of lost life-years. The two diseases are incomparable in scale. President Mbeki stated that few countries 'can hold a candle to South Africa's HIV/AIDS programme'. A number of developing countries do much better than South Africa when it comes to HIV prevention and treatment, often with far fewer resources. And certainly, the political leaders of many much poorer developing countries do better than South Africa in their public messaging. With its relative wealth and more sophisticated public health care infrastructure, South Africa should be leading the response in Africa to HIV/AIDS, but it is not. Currently, South Africa treats approximately 1,500 people in its public sector, who are not on drug trials, paying for their own medicines or being sponsored. Throughout South Africa, fewer than 40,000 people are on treatment. South Africa now has a competent implementation plan on paper, but its roll-out is being delayed. By contrast: * Brazil's government treats over 100,000 people and has less than a quarter of South Africa's HIV infections. Its prevention and treatment programmes are incomparably better than South Africa. * Botswana is treating approximately 15,000 and Cameroon approximately 7,000 people. TAC believes that confronting HIV, and mitigating its impact on the progress of our country, demands that we are truthful with ourselves and that we enter into genuine partnerships for HIV prevention and treatment. The continued failure of the President and Minister of Health to deal appropriately or caringly with the epidemic is undermining the delivery of decent health-care to millions of poor people. This is one of the most important challenges facing South Africa; the President and Minister of Health must lead not confuse and obfuscate. - Footnote 1: See http://www.statssa.gov.za/Archives/Publications/Causes%20of% 20death/Causes%20of%20death.pdf and http://www.mrc.ac.za/bod/complete.pdf - Footnote 2: See http://www.hsrcpublishers.co.za/index.html?e- lib.html~content THE TYRANNY OF COPYRIGHT http://www.ucimc.org/newswire/display/15372/index.php Not long ago, the Internet's ability to provide instant, inexpensive and perfect copies of text, sound and images was heralded with the phrase ''information wants to be free.'' Yet the implications of this freedom have frightened some creators -- particularly those in the recording, publishing and movie industries -- who argue that the greater ease of copying and distribution increases the need for more stringent intellectual property laws. The movie and music industries have succeeded in lobbying lawmakers to allow them to tighten their grips on their creations by lengthening copyright terms. The law has also extended the scope of copyright protection, creating what critics have called a ''paracopyright,'' which prohibits not only duplicating protected material but in some cases even gaining access to it in the first place. In addition to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the most significant piece of new legislation is the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act, which added 20 years of protection to past and present copyrighted works and was upheld by the Supreme Court a year ago. In less than a decade, the much-ballyhooed liberating potential of the Internet seems to have given way to something of an intellectual land grab, presided over by legislators and lawyers for the media industries. In response to these developments, a protest movement is forming, made up of lawyers, scholars and activists who fear that bolstering copyright protection in the name of foiling ''piracy'' will have disastrous consequences for society -- hindering the ability to experiment and create and eroding our democratic freedoms. This group of reformers, which Lawrence Lessig, a professor at Stanford Law School, calls the ''free culture movement,'' might also be thought of as the ''Copy Left'' (to borrow a term originally used by software programmers to signal that their product bore fewer than the usual amount of copyright restrictions). Lawyers and professors at the nation's top universities and law schools, the members of the Copy Left aren't wild-eyed radicals opposed to the use of copyright, though they do object fiercely to the way copyright has been distorted by recent legislation and manipulated by companies like Diebold. Nor do they share a coherent political ideology. What they do share is a fear that the United States is becoming less free and ultimately less creative. While the American copyright system was designed to encourage innovation, it is now, they contend, being used to squelch it. They see themselves as fighting for a traditional understanding of intellectual property in the face of a radical effort to turn copyright law into a tool for hoarding ideas. ''The notion that intellectual property rights should never expire, and works never enter the public domain -- this is the truly fanatical and unconstitutional position,'' says Jonathan Zittrain, a co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, the intellectual hub of the Copy Left. /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 3. Letters REMEMBERING RWANDA Elisabeth Nyffenegger Thank you for the last edition of Pambazuka! Much appreciated and widely dispersed! I read with vivid interest the sober and chilling summary made by Caplan on Rwanda and it brought back plenty of memories. I note with interest that a number of committees have formed albeit outside Rwanda to commemorate the massacre. I always view such events with some misgivings. I tend to fear that such events become the grounding for a culture of disaster such as that perpetuated by the Jews and the Shoa who seem decidedly unwilling or unable to move on. But I acknowledge that it is only ten years since the atrocious events, which is to say early days. I won't talk about reconciliation since I don't believe that any one who is not directly involved is qualified to even articulate the word in such a situation. However, I think it would be good if people could move on and one thing that helps is to be able to clear the damage suffered. To again have a roof above one's head, to be able to buy food and clothing, to till the land, etc, in short to get back to normal life. But this requires material and financial means. (Not talk! talk! talk! It doesn't feed anybody!) REMEMBERING RWANDA George Pope Extremely valuable. Thanks. RESISTING MONSANTO Glenn Ashton, South African Freeze Alliance On Genetic Engineering Monsanto Corporation, responsible for over 90% of the Genetically Modified (GM) crops planted worldwide, has recently lodged an application with the South African Department of Agriculture to import a pesticide resistant GM wheat into this country. This application is as unwelcome as it is speculative. The underlying reason for this application appears to be wholly speculative; Monsanto's Wally Green, their point man in South Africa, stated in Business Day on 20th January 2004 that the application would have absolutely no immediate effect, because the wheat has not been approved anywhere in the world but the application would merely clear the way for future approvals. Corporations involved in pushing GM crops regularly engage in this sort of practice by applying for approval of crops in nations completely removed from their core markets, in order that these permissions be used as motivation to apply political and regulatory pressure on other nations to gain clearance. This type of speculative application runs directly counter to the public good and transparent governance. It serves to benefit no single entity beside Monsanto. It is also of concern that this application is being made before all of the facts and background information regarding this herbicide resistant wheat have been released to the public. Monsanto habitually plays its cards close to its chest as far as divulging information critical of its products is concerned, despite its public posturing that it works for the public good. If Monsanto wishes to import a product that has failed to gain approval anywhere in the world it should do two things; one it should divulge all information that forms part of its application to gain legal approval of the product into the public domain and, two it should wait until such time as relevant national authorities in each nation have given approval of the product before submitting approval requests, until such time as it is imported. Other GM crops that have been genetically engineered to resist pesticides have been shown by both government and independent researchers to increase the levels of pesticide used, despite claims to the contrary from within the industry. The use of the herbicide that will be used with this wheat, Roundup®, the active ingredient of which is glyphosate, has been linked various environmental and human hazards. The South African application to grant permission to import GM wheat must surely be decisively rejected by all South Africans once they have been appraised of the facts behind this matter. /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 4. Conflict and Emergencies AFRICA/GLOBAL: NO TO US BASES http://www.focusweb.org/popups/articleswindow.php?id=405 A recent meeting brought together 125 participants from 34 countries to strategise against the proliferation of US military bases worldwide as a result of the "war on terror". The meeting provided a space for people to share their experiences living with US military presence and present their own local struggles to confront it. More importantly, the conference gave them an opportunity to put their heads together and begin thinking about a joint and collectively coordinated global campaign against US bases. ANGOLA: GOVT CALLS FOR MEDIATION IN CABINDA http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39352 The Angolan government is seeking a mediator to resolve the separatist crisis in the enclave of Cabinda, according to news reports. Interior Minister Osvaldo Serra van Dunem announced on Wednesday that the government wanted a "real and suitable mediator to commence a transparent dialogue" about the future of the oil-rich province. DRC: PEACEKEEPERS CAN LEAVE, SAYS KABILA http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3472063.stm Security in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is improving so fast that United Nations troops can leave this year, President Joseph Kabila has said. Some 10,000 UN troops are in the DRC to monitor a peace deal which ended almost five years of war. Despite the peace deal, parts of eastern DRC in particular remain dangerous with many different armed groups killing, raping and looting. ETHIOPIA: ETHNIC VIOLENCE LEAVES 18 DEAD IN THE EAST http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39343 Ethnic violence has left at least 18 people dead and several hundred homes burnt down in eastern Ethiopia, the country’s human rights organisation revealed on Friday. The Ethiopian Human Rights Council (ERCHO) said fighting had erupted between the Somali and Oromo ethnic groups competing for political power in West Harerge. ETHIOPIA: RENEWED CLASHES IN GAMBELLA http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3475851.stm Scores of people are reported to have been killed in renewed violence in Ethiopia's tense Gambella region. United Nations officials say that up to 40 people died in the clashes, reports the UN's Irin news agency. Last year, some 150 people died in violence between ethnic Nuers and Anyuaks. LESOTHO: EMERGENCY DECLARED http://www.enn.com/news/2004-02-12/s_13050.asp The tiny African kingdom of Lesotho declared a state of emergency Wednesday and appealed for more food aid, saying thousands of people would otherwise face severe shortages because of prolonged drought. Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili said the mountainous territory's population of around 2 million required 57,000 tons of food products to feed some 600,000 people who would need aid until the 2005 harvest. "The severe drought during the 2002/2003 cropping season led to untimely planting of food crops, and the last winter saw neither rain nor snow throughout the season," Mosisili said. LIBERIA: LURD LEADER DROPS DEMAND FOR BRYANT TO GO http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39333 Ten days after calling for Gyude’s Bryant’s removal as head of the transitional government, Sekou Conneh, leader of the LURD rebel movement, has changed his mind. Conneh, whose own leadership of LURD is challenged by a faction supporting his estranged wife, told IRIN in an interview that he did not have any "personal problem" with Bryant as leader of Liberia's broad-based transitional government. SUDAN: PEACE PROCESS IS VULNERABLE, SAY ANALYSTS http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=22290 Sudan's peace process will collapse if Khartoum and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army refuse to involve others in the talks that are underway in Kenya, political commentators have warned. "There are 36 militia and political groups in the south. If they are not handled well, there will be trouble,” said John Yor, a political science lecturer at the University of South Africa (UNISA). He told a meeting held in Pretoria, last Thursday, that the four major political parties in northern Sudan had also taken something of a back seat in the peace process. SUDAN: TALKS WITH DARFUR REBELS REJECTED http://www.unwire.org/News/328_426_12953.asp Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir has declared victory in the contested western region of Darfur, offered rebels a one-month amnesty and said he would not attend peace talks this weekend in Geneva. He has promised to provide access to Darfur for aid workers, however, a move the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs welcomed. "This represents a breakthrough, since for months we have been prevented from reaching large numbers of displaced civilians in what is one of the worst emergencies in Africa," said Jan Egeland, the U.N. emergency relief coordinator. /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 5. Human Rights AFRICA/GLOBAL: BIG BRANDS ERODING RIGHTS http://www.oxfam.org.uk/press/releases/bigbrand_090204.htm Big brand companies and retailers in the fashion and food industries are driving down employment conditions for millions of women workers around the world, according to a new study by international agency Oxfam. Oxfam says that huge retailing “empires” are undermining the very labour standards they claim to uphold by using a common business model that demands ever-quicker and cheaper delivery of the freshest and latest products. AFRICA: BEYOND THE HAGUE: THE CHALLENGES OF INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE The development of a system of international justice to limit impunity for serious human rights crimes has struck at outmoded notions of national sovereignty and the absolute prerogative of states. It would have been unrealistic to expect that progress would occur in a straight line. To address today's more difficult environment, recent achievements must be secured and the system must be refined so that perpetrators of the most serious crimes are increasingly held to account. This is according to the conclusion of "Beyond the Hague: The Challenges of International Justice," a report written by the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch as part of the Human Rights Watch 2004 World Report. Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=19944 AFRICA: UK ATTEMPT TO HALT US HUMAN RIGHTS CASES AGAINST BRITISH FIRMS http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=490056 The U.K Government has made a formal intervention in the US justice process in an attempt to stop British companies being sued in America for alleged human rights violations committed around the world. The move follows months of lobbying from British businesses, which are concerned that they might have to pay millions of pounds in compensation for the alleged exploitation of Third World countries and their people. The Foreign Office is understood to be concerned about a billion-dollar damages claim against British companies that conducted business in apartheid South Africa. Shell, Barclays, NatWest and the mining group Anglo American were named as co-defendants in a lawsuit brought by victims of the racist regime. DRC: EU SHOULD PROVIDE FUNDING FOR JUDICIAL REFORMS President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo should prioritize justice for the horrific crimes committed in the country's five-year war, Human Rights Watch says in a new briefing paper. This week President Kabila is visiting Europe to meet with the British, French, German and Belgian governments to discuss their provision of support for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The European Commission, in conjunction with U.N. agencies and potential European donors, initiated a mission of independent experts to assess the justice system in the DRC and is expected to recommend funding priorities to the European Union next month. Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=19946 GHANA: NO DRAMA AS RAWLINGS APPEARS BEFORE RIGHTS COMMISSION http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=51645 The appearance of Former President Jerry John Rawlings before the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) in response to two subpoenas from the Commission came to an anticlimactic end after 30 minutes hearing on Thursday. The Chairman of the Commission, Mr Justice Kweku Etru Amua-Sekyi discharged Rawlings after the Former President had said he did not have a video and audio recordings of two events. Former President Rawlings was to produce a video recording of the torture and killing of some soldiers, who allegedly attempted to overthrow his government. UGANDA: BOTH MUSEVENI AND KONY SHOULD FACE WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL http://www.blackstarnews.com/musev.html Recently, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni asked the International Criminal Court at The Hague to investigate and prosecute rebels and rebel leader Joseph Kony of the Lord's Resistance Army, LRA. By jumping out first to the ICC, looking for an opportunity to prosecute Kony, Museveni is pointing fingers at his fellow thugs knowing full well that he too will have to face justice. To heal the wounds and scars of the 18-year old genocide in Acholi both Kony and Museveni must appear before a war crimes tribunal. /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 6. Refugees and Forced Migration AFRICA/GLOBAL: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REFUGEES FEATURE: A DREAM OF PROTECTION TURNED INTO NIGHTMARE http://news.amnesty.org/mav/index/ENGPOL30100220042004 As long as people's human rights are being violated, the world will have a "refugee problem". And whenever there is a refugee problem, the people who will suffer the most are the refugees themselves. Those who drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognized this in 1948, as did those who drafted the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention. The right to seek asylum from persecution, as well as the right not to be sent back to your persecutors, were both given a central place in the human rights framework that evolved after the horrors of the Second World War. Yet, in the early 21st century, more than fifty years since the adoption of the 1951 Convention, do states care about refugee protection? Do people care? AFRICA/GLOBAL: BBC SPECIAL: THE ROAD TO REFUGE http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/world/2001/road_to_refuge/default.stm Fifty years after the adoption of the UN Convention on Refugees, the decade we live in has seen more of the world's people than ever before seeking refuge from war, persecution or disaster. This special report tells the stories behind the statistics, using first-person testimonies and in-depth interviews to trace the journey from home into exile. It asks why refugees are still fleeing, where they go, and examines how we treat them. AFRICA/GLOBAL: LUBBERS DISMISSES CLAIMS REFUGEES SPREAD AIDS http://tinyurl.com/26ucq High Commissioner Ruud Lubbers has dismissed claims that refugees spread AIDS as attempts to further stigmatize a population already traumatized by discrimination and negative stereotyping. Addressing the 20th meeting in Geneva on Monday of the Interagency Advisory Group on AIDS, Lubbers said this "double discrimination" was not only unjust but also unsubstantiated by data. AFRICA/UK: NEW REPORT EXPOSES UK FAILURES CAUSING NEARLY 14,000 WRONG ASYLUM DECISIONS IN ONE YEAR http://www.oneworld.net/external/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amnesty.org.uk%2Fdeliver%2Fdocument%2F15158 A new report released this week by Amnesty International reveals UK Home Office asylum decisions based on inaccurate and out-of-date country information, unreasoned decisions about people's credibility and a failure to properly consider complex torture cases. Government figures show that the Home Office gets the initial decision wrong on nearly 14,000 asylum cases in the last reported calendar year (2002), meaning around 1 in 5 cases are overturned after costly appeals. This figure rises to nearly 4 in 10 cases from Somalia, and more than 1 in 3 Sudanese and Eritrean asylum applications. ANGOLA: UNHCR AND GOVERNMENT DISCUSS REPATRIATION http://www.angolapress-angop.ao/noticia-e.asp?ID=231748 The Angolan Government and the UNHCR this month started discussions meant to outline the repatriation program of Angolan refugees in 2004, particularly those living in sheltering camps. The UNHCR official, Matthew Brook said there might soon occur a meeting gathering all interveners of the repatriation process, which will analyse the program in an open way. SUDAN/CHAD: UN REFUGEE AGENCY BEGINS EVACUATING SUDANESE REFUGEES FROM CONFLICT ZONE http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home Aid workers have begun evacuating thousands of Sudanese refugees from the embattled Chadian border town of Tine despite blinding sandstorms and strong winds. The first convoy of 147 refugees in 33 families left Tine on Saturday for the transit centre of Touloum, 80 km inland. On Sunday, 225 refugees in 64 families joined the convoy to the facility, where the arrivals received a 15-day food ration from the World Food Programme and mats, blankets, jerry cans and soap from the UN refugee agency. "The first movement took place in very difficult weather," reported Yvan Sturm, head of UNHCR’s emergency team in the region. Visibility was zero in the midst of sandstorms and strong winds, Sturm said, upsetting plans to transport a larger number of refugees. SUDAN: PROSPECTS OF RETURN BRING MIXED FEELINGS FOR SUDANESE REFUGEES http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/news Kenya's Sudanese refugees have mixed feelings about returning to their war-torn homeland. Many want to go home as soon as negotiators sign a peace accord, while others are worried about finding schools and other infrastructure. Many young Sudanese refugees in this camp have never seen their homeland. The only thing they know about their native southern Sudan comes from their families, in stories told many times over during 12 years of exile in the middle of a semi-arid desert. UGANDA: LRA DUPED THEIR WAY INTO IDPS CAMP - EYEWITNESSES http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39372&SelectRegion=East_Africa&SelectCountry=UGANDA The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels who killed scores of internally displaced persons in a camp near the northern town of Lira on 5 February gained access to the camp by pretending to be government soldiers and militias. Suspicions were aroused when the rebels started deploying throughout the camp and ordering people not to move. A full-scale attack on the largely defenceless population in the camp was then launched. Contrary to government reports, victims said the rebels had deliberately opened fire on civilians inside the camp, and then, brandishing machetes and clubs, chased those who tried to run away. ZIMBABWE: THE PLIGHT OF EX-COMMERCIAL FARM WORKERS http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39358 Almost four years after the government of Zimbabwe adopted the fast-track land redistribution programme, thousands of ex-commercial farm workers find themselves displaced and without employment. In 2000 the government embarked on the controversial initiative that drove thousands of white farmers off their estates, saying it intended to resettle land-hungry black Zimbabweans. More than 300,000 farm workers who had been employed by the former commercial farmers were also displaced in the process. /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 7. Women and Gender AFRICA: CONFERENCE DELEGATES IN ETHIOPIA CALL FOR END TO FGM http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39341&SelectRegion=Africa&SelectCountry=AFRICA African governments recently faced renewed demands to introduce and enforce tough laws to stamp out female genital mutilation (FGM) and protect the women of their countries. Leading health and human rights experts on the continent called for legislation to end the practice to which 2 million African women and girls in 28 countries are subjected every year. AFRICA: EFFECTIVE MEASURES NEEDED TO PROTECT GIRLS FROM FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION As the world observes the first International Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Day, Amnesty International has appealed to all governments to ensure effective protection of girls from female genital mutilation (FGM). "Governments are responsible for protecting women and girls' physical and mental integrity. Moving against FGM should be part of a comprehensive approach to protect women from violence and assert their equal status in society," Amnesty International said. During its last meeting in February 2003, the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (IAC) adopted a "Declaration of Zero Tolerance to FGM on the African Continent". Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=19945 AFRICA: ENGENDERING FAIRNESS AND INCLUSIVENESS In March 2002 Urgent Action Fund-Africa (UAF-Africa) hosted the Great Lakes Regional Consultation on UN Resolution 1325, the first UN measure to endorse women's involvement in peace processes. That consultation stimulated African women's desire to learn more about and utilize African instruments and mechanisms for human rights and justice. In response to this idea to focus on instruments and mechanisms in Africa, UAF-Africa convened another consultation to determine how these regional instruments and mechanisms can be used to engender fairness and inclusiveness in peace negotiations, regional security, and transitional justice processes. Participants in this June 2003 meeting, held in Naivasha, Kenya, included women legal experts, human rights advocates, peace building activists, and development professionals. Discussion was based on critical analysis, review of documentation and presentation of case studies, tempered with role-plays, informal exchanges, and bonding/ networking. Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=20087 AFRICA: FUTURE MAY DEPEND ON WOMEN'S EMPLOYMENT http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/1705/context/archive A report released last month, ‘The Security Demographic: Population and Civil Conflict after the Cold War’, argues that much of sub-Saharan Africa, as well as parts of the Middle East and Asia, are at high-risk for future civil conflict. The report, which found a high correlation between demographics and conflict in the 1990s, also identifies the increasing toll of HIV/AIDS as a factor that will likely make some states more vulnerable to civil conflict in the future. Researchers at Population Action International argue that the best way to mitigate these factors is to improve women's access to education, family planning and economic opportunities. KENYA: NATIONAL AWARD HONOURS WOMEN'S ACTIVIST Betty Murungi, Director for Africa, Urgent Action Fund, was awarded the Kenya National honor of the Moran of the Order of the Burning Spear by President Kibaki for her work mainly with civil society and human rights issues. Betty was one of the very few women honored and one of the youngest on the list. Read the citation by clicking on the link below. Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=20094 KENYA: TIME TO TELL THE STORY OF KENYAN WOMEN Kenyan women bore the brunt of Kenya's economic and human rights violations. They struggled to hold their families together through difficult times. Still, countless families were destroyed and fell apart. Kenyan women received no support and no recognition, yet they endured. It is time their stories were heard. This is according to the summary of a report on an all-women forum on a proposed Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC). Urgent Action Fund-Africa collaborated with the Federation of Women Lawyers in Kenya (FIDA-Kenya) to organize the forum. Participants heard testimonies from survivors of human rights abuses, discussed key issues about establishing a Kenyan TJRC and developed recommendations for the TJRC Task Force. The Forum's final report, a summary of which is available by clicking on the web link below, provides background information about TRCs; includes the full text of the keynote address; summarizes survivors' testimonies and views on reconciliation; and presents recommendations to the TJRC Task Force. Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=20085 MALAWI: OF POLYGAMY, WOMEN AND CHILDREN'S RIGHTS http://allafrica.com/stories/200402050445.html "I cannot pretend that every thing is rosy in a polygamous marriage. There is a lot of misery and hatred which is sometimes beyond description." These were the sentiments of a wife in a polygamous family with three other women in Mangochi. "I am often subjected to mistreatment just because I'm now regarded as a spent force," says Rosemary Jamali, the first wife to a small-scale fisherman in the lakeshore district. Polygamy, says Linly Kantengeni, a women's rights activist, does not only pose a physical threat to most women but is also a psychological ailment. NIGER: LEGAL BAN ON FEMALE CIRCUMCISION WIDELY IGNORED http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39355 Niger’s Minister for Social Development and Women's Affairs has called for a government crackdown of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), widely known as female circumcision. The practice was made illegal in this poor West African country three years ago, but it remains widespread and no-one has ever been prosecuted for performing the crude operation. NIGERIA: DEATH PENALTY VIOLATES FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND IS USED IN A DISCRIMINATORY WAY AGAINST WOMEN The death penalty as applied in Nigeria violates fundamental human rights and is sometimes used in a discriminatory way against women, Amnesty International says in a new and its first report on women and the death penalty entitled: "Nigeria: The death penalty and women under the Nigerian penal systems". "The Nigerian government should abolish the death penalty and place an immediate moratorium on any pending executions," the organisation said. Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=20012 NIGERIA: FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION: A VANQUISHED TRADITION ? http://www.thisdayonline.com/archive/2004/02/09/20040209fea02.html An age-long tradition which should have been thrown to the dust bin years ago, the circumcision of the girl-child, is a tradition still prevalent in certain parts of the country until now. About ten states of the federation have passed legislation in their houses of assemblies banning the practice. TANZANIA: WILL TANZANIA MEET THE 2005 REGIONAL GENDER TARGET? In 1997 the SADC Heads of State and Government signed the Declaration on Gender and Development at a summit held in Malawi. The declaration mandated all member states to increase the number of women in all decision-making positions to at least 30 percent by 2005. Despite the signing of the declaration, the number of women in decision-making positions at all levels in many countries remains below the 30 percent target. Yet women’s involvement in decision-making is one of the key concepts of democracy, good governance and promotion of human rights in any country. According to a 2003 survey by the Tanzania Media Women’s Association (TAMWA), women in Tanzania constitute 21.3 percent in parliament and 14.8 percent in cabinet. Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=20023 UGANDA: TAXIS PUT WOMEN IN THE DRIVER'S SEAT http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=22294 Hail a taxi in New York City, and the odds are that your driver will be a wise-cracking male cabbie who's unafraid to share his philosophy about life with you. But, do the same in Kampala, and you may just get a sharp female graduate who's turned to taxi driving as a way of getting ahead in Uganda's uncertain job market. Margaret Isiko, 27, is a case in point. She's one of 16 women who've taken the wheel of metred taxi cabs that were introduced in Kampala last month. At the moment, 30 of these yellow cabs are plying the streets of the Ugandan capital. /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 8. Elections and Governance BURUNDI: PLEA FOR NEW CONSTITUTION, ELECTORAL LAW http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39403 The transitional government of Burundi should ensure that the country has a new constitution as well as an electoral law to enable it to move to democracy within the time stipulated in the 2000 Arusha peace accord, the president of the accord's Implementation Monitoring Committee, Berhanu Dinka, said on Monday. Dinka, who is also the UN Secretary-General's Representative to Burundi, made the remarks when he opened the 17th session of the committee in the capital, Bujumbura. This session is expected to last five days. GHANA: GATEWAY TO WEST AFRICAN STABILITY? http://www.nai.uu.se/newsfromnai/suifonsve.html Domestically, Ghanaian democracy is thriving amidst a virulent opposition that is gearing to stage a come back to the political podium. Parliamentary and Presidential elections are billed for 2004 and the atmosphere is (as it has been since the 2000 elections) already rife with politics. Ghanaians seem to talk and live politics every day. Local FM radio talk shows have all been about politics, dominated by the scramble for visibility and consolidation of gains by officials, supporters, or sympathizers of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) or the opposition and former ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC). The picture of Ghana painted above is quite rosy, but is the impression as positive under the surface? This article takes a cursory look at the strengths of the present Ghanaian dispensation, the stakes, and the grey areas of the Ghanaian drive towards democracy and economic consolidation as a West African peace house. IVORY COAST: IVORIAN REBEL RULES OUT POLL BID http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3478683.stm The leader of Ivory Coast's former rebels has said he will not stand in presidential elections next year. Guillaume Soro's announcement comes amid reports of a split in the New Forces movement and follows the fatal shooting of another senior official. KENYA: GOVERNMENT STANDS FIRM ON MINIBUS STRIKE http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=22303 Kenya has been reduced to a walking nation, with hundreds of thousands of people covering long distances on foot to work and home everyday. Some walk over 20 kilometres a day. The sight of winding streams of people, from as early as 4.30 a.m., heading to work have become the order of the day. The crisis heightened on Feb. 1 after Kenya’s minibus taxis, known as matatus, refused to adhere to new rules meant to restore sanity on the road. Last year, the government launched a massive campaign to restore discipline and safety in the public transport sector, which had been characterised by disorder. NIGERIA: FUEL STRIKE BAN FAILS http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3466463.stm Nigerian authorities have failed to secure a court order stopping unions from holding a strike in protest over a new fuel tax. Nigeria's trade unions postponed a general strike over the tax last month following a court order. The trade union leader Adams Oshiomhole has said they will now meet to decide whether they will resume the strike. RWANDA: AT LEAST 6 AFRICAN LEADERS TO ATTEND NEPAD SUMMIT http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-02/11/content_1308194.htm Six African heads of state and government have confirmed to attend the forthcoming summit of the first African Peer Review (APR) Forum and the 9th Heads of State and Government Implementation Committee (HSGIC) on Feb. 13-14, Rwanda News Agency reported Tuesday. According to the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) secretariat in Kigali, heads of state and government who so far have confirmed their attendance to the summit include Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Joachim Chissano of Mozambique, Omar Bongo of Gabon, Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, John Kuffor of Ghana and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. SOUTH AFRICA: RACE A DEFINING ISSUE IN THE UPCOMING ELECTION http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/s_africa.asp The announcement, Monday, that South Africa will go to the polls on April 14 for its third democratic election has opened the way for political parties to start campaigning in earnest. But, analysts are already predicting that the ruling African National Congress will be returned to power with a sweeping majority. "Voter support for the African National Congress (ANC) is stable, as evidenced in the 1994 and 1999 general elections, as well as from recent opinion polls,” said Tom Lodge, a political science lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. ZAMBIA: WAGE FREEZE MAY PROMPT WORKERS TO DOWN TOOLS http://iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=68&art_id=qw1076412785820Z511&set_id=1 Zambian workers have threatened to hold nationwide demonstrations and picket parliament to protest higher taxes introduced in the 2004 budget, labour leaders said on Tuesday. "We shall paralyse government operations through mass demonstrations," said Joyce Nonde, president of the Federation of Free Trade Unions of Zambia (FFTUZ). No date was given for the planned protests. ZIMBABWE: MDC BOSS CASTS DOUBT ON MBEKI'S POLL PLEDGE http://zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=8608 Confusion has again engulfed assertions by President Thabo Mbeki on progress towards ending Zimbabwe's political crisis, with a senior opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader denying it has agreed to an early election. Mbeki said on television on Sunday that the MDC and Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF had agreed to bring the next election forward to March next year. His comments follow a recent insistence, also disputed by the parties involved, that Zimbabwe's protagonists were about to start formal negotiations to end the crisis. /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 9. Development AFRICA/GLOBAL: THE WSF VS THE WEF http://www.tni.org/archives/arruda/supersedes.htm Just the item security of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos cost nearly 18 million dollars. 2,000 people attended, among which CEOs of the largest global corporations and politicians of more than 100 countries, plus international journalists. In Mumbai, one member of the Swiss delegation interviewed the Chief of Police and learned that, in order to guarantee the safety of more than 100,000 people 700 policemen were on the streets. In Davos, 7,000 policemen, soldiers and agents, including the Swiss Air Forces, armed to their teeth, were mobilize to protect the world’s 2,000 richest and most powerful persons. AFRICA/GLOBAL: WATER PRIVATISATION FAILS TO FULFIL ITS PROMISES http://www.id21.org/society/s2bjb1g1.html Developing countries are increasingly under pressure from international development institutions to privatise their water supplies. Yet privatisation has failed to produce its expected benefits. Research from the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) warns that privatisation is unlikely to contribute to achieving the Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of people without access to water and sanitation by 2015. Despite its prominence in current debates only around five per cent of the world’s population is served by the formal private sector. AFRICA: CONCERN OVER WORLD BANK'S POSITION ON FUNDING MINING PROJECTS http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39413 South Africa's Minister of Minerals and Energy, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, on Monday raised concerns that the World Bank was considering a limit on financing coal and oil projects in developing countries. Mlambo-Ngucka's concerns were prompted by the recommendations in an Extractive Industries Review (EIR), launched by the World Bank two years ago to evaluate the impact of its involvement in the oil, mining and gas sectors. AFRICA: DEVELOPING COUNTRIES URGED TO RESIST INTIMIDATION AT HONG KONG WTO MEETING http://allafrica.com/stories/200402050303.html Nigeria and other developing countries have been advised on strategies to employ to ensure that their interest is protected at the next World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial meeting coming up end of 2004 or early 2005 in Hong Kong. Ms Aileen Kwa a trade analyst with Focus on the Global South, based in Geneva, noted in a statement sent to Vanguard that the developing countries' negotiators, trade unions and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) have worked very hard since the WTO's inception to improve upon its inequitable rule, but still, the rules have not been changed to their benefit in any way. AFRICA: REDUCING POVERTY OR REPEATING MISTAKES? http://www.eurodad.org/articles/default.aspx?id=511 This report, criticising the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers from a civil society perspective, is produced by the Swedish People Participating in Poverty Reduction (PPPR) programme. The report outlines the perspectives, positions and recommendations of PPPR partners in relation to PRSP process, PRSP policy contents, and implementation and monitoring of PRSPs. The detailed and wide-ranging critique given and the recommendations made are directed towards national governments, donors and civil society itself. The document is introduced with a 6 pages long executive summary that outlines the main findings and recommendations within the three main areas of PRSP processes that provides the structure of the report. The report is the result of a desk research study involving partner NGOs linked to the PPPR project in the following countries: Burkina Faso, Zambia, Mozambique, Cambodia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Honduras, Bolivia and Nicaragua as well as AFRODAD, an organisation working at the continental level. AFRICA: WHO OWES WHOM? Rich-country finance ministers meeting in Florida this weekend focused on the sinking dollar and rising U.S. debt, cautioning against excessive volatility in currency markets. They also called for more reductions in the debt burdens of Iraq and Afghanistan, and warned debt-strapped Argentina to comply with International Monetary Fund policies. Africa's debt, estimated at more than $300 billion, was not on the agenda. Nevertheless, debt cancellation campaigners are noting that President Bush's rationale for cancelling Iraq's debt - with new measures currently on the fast track - uses arguments that can be easily applied to Africa as well. The legacy of debt Mobutu Sese Seko left in the Congo, for example, is surely as dubious as the debt Saddam Hussein left in Iraq. This issue of AfricaFocus Bulletin contains a brief excerpt from a news report on the consequences of the debt crisis for Zambia, and recent material from the American Friends Service Committee and the Jubilee USA Network, both engaged in campaigns this year to bring the debt issue to wider public attention in the US. Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=20054 /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 10. Corruption AFRICA: TOWARD A HIGHER STANDARD http://www.wits.ac.za/saiia/online.htm In early December 2003, representatives of 95 countries gathered in panama hats amid the ancient Mayan ruins of Merida, the capital of Mexico’s Yucatan, to sign the landmark UN Convention Against Corruption. The convention takes the unprecedented step of compelling governments to return stolen assets to the countries from which they were taken. That’s an important point of departure. It paves the way for efforts to repatriate funds stolen by deposed dictators like Zaire’s Mobutu Sese Seko, Nigeria’s Sani Abacha and Liberia’s Charles Taylor. As UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said at the signing conference, ‘Corrupt officials will in the future find fewer ways to hide their illicit gains.’ This article in the February edition of the South African Institute of International Affairs electronic journal of governance and innovation looks at the fight against corruption on the African continent. ANGOLA: RIGHTS ACTIVISTS CALL FOR GREATER TRANSPARENCY http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39432 Rights activists in Angola have accused the authorities of riding roughshod over civil liberties after demonstrators this week were prevented from staging a protest against alleged government graft. According to the protest organisers, police on Tuesday cordoned off access to the venue for the demonstration, a central square in the capital, Luanda. CAMEROON: NATIONAL ANTI-CORRUPTION OBSERVATORY MEMBER WANTS CREATION OF GOVERNANCE MINISTRY http://www.transparency.org/cgi-bin/dcn-read.pl?citID=100173 A member of the national anti-corruption observatory at the prime minister's office has recommended the creation of a ministry of governance as the only way to arrest corruption which has eaten deep into the fabric of Cameron's society. Ngalah Edward who made the recommendation in a memo dated 23 January to the head of state, Paul Biya, a copy of which The Herald procured, noted that his observation was based on the fact that "the fight against corruption had failed as anti-corruption structures seem to be beating around the bush." GHANA: CHIEF JUSTICE ON CORRUPTION, INDISCIPLINE IN JUDICIARY http://www.transparency.org/cgi-bin/dcn-read.pl?citID=100216 The Chief Justice, Mr. Justice George Kingsley Acquah, says he is determined to fight against any form of corruption and indiscipline within the Judicial Service. "I cannot eliminate completely allegations of corruption within the judiciary on the eve of my assumption of office but I will ensure that corruption is controlled", he said last week. KENYA: JUDGE FACES GRAFT TRIBUNAL http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3472155.stm The first Kenyan judge to appear before a disciplinary tribunal is set to defend himself in the capital, Nairobi. Justice Phillip Waki will go before a tribunal set up after a recent purge on corruption in the judiciary. KENYA: TWO SWEDES JAILED OVER BRIBES IN KENYAN DEAL http://www.transparency.org/cgi-bin/dcn-read.pl?citID=100193 Two Swedish businessmen have been convicted on bribery charges related to a roads project in Kenya funded by the World Bank. Claes Fjellner and Ejie Karlsson were jailed by a court in Huddinge, Sweden, for their role in a corruption syndicate which grounded a $115 million plan to improve 26 urban roads. The two were involved in the bribery of World Bank officials overseeing the Kenya Urban Transportation Improvement Project (Kutip). NIGERIA: SEARCH FOR ABACHA LOOT IN KENYA http://allafrica.com/stories/200402110105.html Investigators looking for billions of stolen money stashed overseas by former Nigerian strongman Sani Abacha have moved the search to Kenya. Drawn from Nigeria and Interpol (International Police), they are scrutinising records at some Kenyan banks in a bid to find out how the money travelled overseas. Sources in the Kenyan security network say preliminary investigations have established that some of the money was withdrawn and used by someone in Kenya. NIGERIA: UK SOLICITOR NAMED IN BRIBERY PROBE http://www.transparency.org/cgi-bin/dcn-read.pl?citID=100185 A solicitor in a small north London firm has been named in connection with a $180m (pounds 100m) French and American corruption investigation which could lead to the indictment of Dick Cheney, the US vice-president. The solicitor has been identified in the French press as a financial intermediary in the deal being investigated. The Paris inquiry, led by Judge Renaud van Ruymbeke, concerns allegations of bribery against an international consortium building a $4bn liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Nigeria during the regime of the late dictator Sani Abacha. ZIMBABWE: SELECTIVE DE-CORRUPTION CAMPAIGN http://www.nu.ac.za/ccs/default.asp?2,40,5,362 Following the arrest of a number of key figures for corruption related charges, Zimbabwe’s ZANU PF is apparently infatuated with a so-called campaign against corruption. This comes in the wake of a demand by delegates at the late December 2003 ZANU PF Congress that officialdom deals with corruption threatening to bring the country to a standstill. A move to pacify congress attendees resulted in a number of low-key arrests in the post-congress period, culminating in the high-note incarceration of Philip Chiyangwa. Chinyangwa is the Mashonaland West Provincial Chairman and MP for ZANU PF. The arrest of Chiyangwa, the circumstances surrounding it as well as the attempt by ZANU PF to gain political mileage from it are fully consistent with ZANU PF’s self-gratification, deliberate confusion of issues, and propensity to give the people a raw deal, says this commentary. /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 11. Health KENYA: FREE HEALTHCARE SET FOR JULY http://www.eastandard.net/headlines/news11020408.htm A new scheme to pay hospital bills for all Kenyans will take effect on July 1, Health minister Charity Ngilu revealed this week. Ngilu said membership to the National Social Health Insurance Fund will be compulsory and free for poor Kenyans. Unlike in the past when medical cover was only available to people in formal employment, unemployed Kenyans and those in the Jua kali (informal) sector will now benefit, Ngilu said. NIGERIA: STATE, MUSLIM REPRESENTATIVES SENT ABROAD TO SHOW POLIO VACCINE NOT HIV-CONTAMINATED http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=22122 The Nigerian government on Friday announced that it is sending state and religious representatives to South Africa, Indonesia and India this week to observe testing of the polio vaccine and "bring back proof" that it is not contaminated with HIV, according to reports. In October 2003, health workers in Nigeria launched a project to immunize 15 million African children at immediate risk of contracting polio. However, the vaccinations were hampered when some Muslim leaders in the northern part of the country said the immunization effort is part of a U.S. plan to decimate the Muslim population by spreading HIV/AIDS and infertility. SOUTH AFRICA: DOCTORS' CERTIFICATES HERE TO STAY, SAYS HEALTH MINISTER http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=125&art_id=vn20040210023604980C633876&set_id=1 The proposed Certificate of Need (CoN) for doctors, which they claim intrudes on their right to freedom of movement, will remain. This was the word from Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang when she briefed the media on Monday as part of the government's social development and health cluster. "The government will move on the CoN framework to achieve our goals in terms of the constitution," the minister said. "The CoN will remain. It is intended to transform the healthcare sector in South Africa." SOUTHERN AFRICA: THE CHALLENGE OF PROVIDING HEALTHY URBAN ENVIRONMENTS http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39415 Africa's urban poor, often struggling to eke out a living in unplanned and expanding shanty communities, are at the back of the queue for water and sewerage services from underfunded local authorities. But, as recent serious outbreaks of cholera in Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe have demonstrated, the lack of access to safe water and proper sanitation are critical public health issues. ZIMBABWE: PUBLIC HEALTH SYSTEM DISSOLVING http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=22048 The New York Times last Thursday profiled Zimbabwe's health care system, which "like the rest of [the country's] economic and social fabric ... is dissolving." With the economy in "free fall," Zimbabwe is "desperately short of even basic drugs and medical equipment," which is forcing a "once robust" health care system "close to ruin" and is taking a "human toll," according to the Times. /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 12. HIV/AIDS AFRICA: AFRICA ACTION MARKS NATIONAL BLACK HIV/AIDS AWARENESS DAY National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day on February 7 emphasized the disproportionate impact of the pandemic among Black people in the U.S. and globally. Africa Action's Executive Director, Salih Booker said: "National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day is so important because it forces us to confront the system of global apartheid that has shaped the course of the AIDS pandemic in the U.S. and globally." Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=19978 AFRICA: AIDS IN AFRICA MOSTLY CAUSED BY UNPROTECTED SEX, STUDY SAYS http://www.unwire.org/UNWire/20040206/449_12859.asp Experts from the Joint U.N. Program on HIV/AIDS and the Word Health Organisation published an article in this week's edition of The Lancet medical journal rejecting the theory that the primary means of HIV transmission in sub-Saharan Africa is unsafe injections. Epidemiological evidence shows that the major mode of HIV transmission in the region continues to be sexual transmission. However, the organisations agreed that the risk of unsafe injections should be reduced and suggested that data be improved for the identification of such risks. AFRICA: WEALTHY NATIONS NEGLECTING NEED, AIDS ENVOY SAYS http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/02/09/MNGL34S1AF1.DTL With pointed jabs at the United States, a U.N. special envoy told a gathering of leading AIDS scientists that wealthy nations must make up for a "decade of financial abstinence'' to battle the global epidemic. Stephen Lewis, a Canadian diplomat who has been the United Nations' special representative for AIDS in Africa, made his case on Sunday for a dramatic increase in spending to fight the disease at the opening session of the 11th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, held in San Francisco. BOTSWANA: URBAN GROWTH, SOCIAL MOBILITY CONTRIBUTING TO RAPID SPREAD OF HIV http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=22049 The development of Botswana's infrastructure, including transportation, urban growth and social mobility, has contributed to the rapid spread of HIV in the country, according to reports. With 38% of the adult population in Botswana estimated to be HIV-positive, the country has the highest HIV prevalence in the world. GHANA: HIV INFECTION RATES RISING IN CITIES, SURVEY SHOWS http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39438 Ghanaian health experts began reviewing measures to control HIV/AIDS at a first ever National Research Conference on Wednesday following a new survey which showed that HIV prevalence rates were rising in the country's main cities. Ghana's National AIDS Control Programme (NACP), which conducts Ghana's HIV/AIDS Sentinel Surveys, determined in 2002 that the HIV prevalence rate in Ghana was 3.4 percent, one of the lowest in West Africa. MALAWI: MULUZI URGES MALAWIANS TO END AIDS SILENCE http://iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=84&art_id=qw1076426642290B254&set_id=1 Malawi's President Bakili Muluzi on Tuesday urged Malawians to break the stigma attached to Aids as a first step in fighting the disease, which has infected more than 14 percent of the country's 11 million people. "My own brother, third born in our family, died of Aids three years ago," said Muluzi as he launched a long-awaited official programme to fight the killer disease. SOUTH AFRICA: DISGUISING AIDS IN SOUTH AFRICA http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/3465897.stm South African President Thabo Mbeki's attitude towards HIV and Aids is once again under scrutiny. He claims: "I don't know anyone who has died of Aids." So why does it continue to dominate the problems facing the South African people? People don't actually die of Aids. What kills them tends to be the so-called "opportunist" diseases that thrive because of the damage that the Aids virus, HIV, causes to the body's defence system; infections like TB, pneumonia, and even influenza. So President Mbeki's statement that he does not know anyone who has died of Aids is technically correct. But it is a bit disingenuous, and Aids campaigners say such remarks are profoundly unhelpful. SOUTH AFRICA: HEALTH MINISTER U-TURN ON AIDS DRUG PLAN http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=125&art_id=vn20040210104607436C121700&set_id=1 In an astonishing about-turn, embattled Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has denied outright she gave any commitment to the start of a national anti-retroviral roll-out. The shock announcement is sure to send Aids activists, the health profession and those affected by the virus into a tailspin. The minister and Nono Simelela, head of the government's HIV and Aids programme, laid out the planned roll-out in substantial detail last November. But now she says it will start when "everything is ready". /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 13. Education AFRICA: LIFELONG LEARNING - A NEW MOMENTUM AND A NEW OPPORTUNITY FOR ADULT BASIC LEARNING AND EDUCATION (ABLE) IN THE SOUTH 'Learning Communities' The Key To Education And Lifelong Learning For All http://www.eldis.org/cf/search/disp/docdisplay.cfm?doc=DOC14032&resource=f1 This paper is the result of a study commissioned by Sida on the status and current trends in adult basic education in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. The study included a review of relevant documentation in several languages, an electronic survey with key respondents throughout the world, personal interviews and a few field visits. The process also included a five-week bilingual on-line forum on the topic, with over 300 subscribers from all over the world. AFRICA: WHERE HAS ALL THE EDUCATION GONE? Employment Outcomes Among Secondary School And University Leavers http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/pvty/pdf-files/AFRICAREPORTText.pdf This report presents the main findings of an international research project evaluating the further education and employment experiences of secondary school leavers and university graduates in Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Using a standard tracer survey methodology, the study provides data for monitoring and evaluating the impact of educational reforms. The report finds that leavers and graduates are involved in three main activities: wage and self-employment, unemployment, and further education and training. It also assesses the impact of the AIDS epidemic, and discusses the gender, socio-economic background, and religion of those surveyed. MADAGASCAR: SUCCESS FOR NON-FORMAL LEARNING CENTRES http://portal.unesco.org/education/ev.php?URL_ID=27727&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201&reload=1075382788 In just one month Jocelyn, 12, has learnt to read. He is attending one of Madagascar’s 260 learning centres scattered in villages in the poor provinces of Fianarantsoa, Majunga, Tamatave and Toliara. The centre is Jocelyn’s first contact with an educational institution. Like many children living in rural Madagascar, Jocelyn’s parents, who are farmers, could not afford to send him to school. “I hope the courses won’t stop. I want to continue to learn,” Jocelyn says, while proudly reading to his parents from his book. Madagascar’s government and the UN System Joint Programme to Promote Basic Education for All Malagasy Children are behind this innovative non-formal education programme. MOZAMBIQUE: 17 PERCENT OF TEACHERS HIV POSITIVE http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-02/10/content_1306061.htm About 17 percent of Mozambique's teachers are HIV positive, considerably higher than the national average of 13 percent HIV prevalence among people aged between 15 and 49, declared Mozambican Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi in Maputo on Monday. Speaking at the opening of a seminar on education and AIDS in Maputo, Mocumbi said that this will lead to the death of 1.6 percent per year of the country's teachers. NIGERIA: TEACHERS PROTEST OVER PAY, HOLD LAWMAKERS HOSTAGE http://allafrica.com/stories/200402110678.html Over 300 primary school teachers in Delta State this week stormed the state House of Assembly and held legislators including assembly workers and visitors hostage for over three hours in protest against non-payment of their due entitlements. The placard-carrying protesters barricaded the gate thereby preventing entry and exit from the assembly complex. TANZANIA: COLLEGE SUSPENDS ITS STUDENT BODY http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=85&art_id=qw1076501342892B235&set_id=1 The management of the state-run Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology (DIT) in the Tanzanian commercial capital on Wednesday closed the college and suspended all 619 students after accusing them of vandalism. The students on Sunday stormed the college's stores and destroyed foodstuffs and harassed cooks, saying meals were unwholesome. They also accused the institution's administration of mismanagement. /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 14. Social Welfare AFRICA/GLOBAL: WHY DO ADOLESCENTS JOIN ARMED FORCES AND GROUPS? http://www.child-soldiers.org/cs/childsoldiers.nsf/37f914dcf6a462ec802569bb00677467/4b193eee6d2e409a80256e23003d7cc3?OpenDocument In many of today’s conflicts, adolescents represent the majority of children who fight or are associated with armed forces and groups; however, they are often ineligible for demobilisation programs for child soldiers as they become adults in the ranks of armed groups, missing the opportunity for rehabilitation and reintegration into a peaceful community. Lingering wars can destroy most of the economic and social infrastructure of countries and exacerbate the privation of the populations involved, leading to voluntary recruitment of adolescents. As greater and greater portions of the Gross Domestic Product of countries go to war efforts, less and less of the public budget is allocated to education or health. For an increasing number of youngsters, there is no other school than a military training camp and the only way for them and their families to thrive or to be safe is to be associated with armed groups. AFRICA: ORPHANS 'MOST NEGLECTED' PART OF FIGHT AGAINST HIV/AIDS http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=22150 Orphans are the "most neglected" part of the war against HIV/AIDS, "perhaps because they are the living, and, for some, shameful reminders of a disease gone rampant," UNICEF Canada President David Agnew writes in a Vancouver Sun opinion piece. There are 11.5 million AIDS orphans in Africa, and the number could grow to 20 million by 2010, Agnew says. In Zimbabwe, although the majority of orphans are cared for by their relatives, the "sheer number combined with the wretched economy ... has put enormous strain on those supports ... [and] orphans are increasingly left to fend for themselves," Agnew says. BOTSWANA/NIGERIA/SUDAN: LIFTING THE RESOURCE CURSE: EXTRACTIVE INDUSTRY, CHILDREN AND GOVERNANCE Ensuring That Extractive Industries Benefit Children http://www.eldis.org/ds/docdisplay.cfm?doc=DOC13818&resource=f1csr&n=1 This report explores the reasons behind the link between mineral wealth and child poverty in countries such as Azerbaijan, Colombia, Nigeria, Sudan and Venezuela. Comparing these countries with success stories such as Botswana and Norway, the report identifies positive, practical and achievable approaches to lift the ‘resource curse’. The report argues that different actors (government, donors, extractive companies, civil society) have particular roles to play in ensuring mineral resource extraction brings benefits for ordinary citizens, and emphasises in particular that extractive companies are best placed to trigger change now. MALAWI: NEW TOOL TO FIGHT MALARIA IS SAVING LIVES http://www.savethechildren.org/health/malaria_success.asp Families in the rural villages of Malawi face many challenges. Most are subsistence farmers who struggle to feed their children. Education levels are generally low – a third of the males and two-thirds of the females cannot read or write. Hunger and disease kill many thousands of people – particularly children – every year. One of the most common killer diseases is malaria, which accounts for as much as 15 to 20 percent of deaths among school-age children in the region. But a new Save the Children program has bought down death rates from malaria by 72 percent in some villages. SOUTHERN AFRICA: SEXUAL ABUSE OF SCHOOLGIRLS LARGELY UNPUNISHED http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39353 The ongoing sexual abuse of girls in some schools in Malawi and Zimbabwe remains largely unpunished, forcing many young women to abandon their education, a recent report has revealed. A joint study by the University of Sussex and African educators noted that despite the international drive to get more girls into schools, very little attention has been paid to the hurdles young girls face in the education system. ZIMBABWE: RESCUING BULAWAYO'S STREET KIDS http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39409 It is a few minutes before lunchtime and a disorderly queue of dishevelled youths in ragged clothes has already formed outside the doors of Thuthuka, a drop-in centre for street children in Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo. Thuthuka has led Bulawayo's initiative to help its homeless children by also providing life skills education and counselling at the drop-in centre, as part of a city-wide taskforce trying to address the growing phenomenon. /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 15. Racism and Xenophobia CôTE D'IVOIRE: UN EXPERT ON RACISM TO EXAMINE ETHNIC ASPECTS OF CONFLICT http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=9700&Cr=ivoire&Cr1= Doudou Diene, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, is on a 12-day visit to Côte d'Ivoire to examine the role of ethnicity in the context of the country's conflict. He will visit Abidjan, the country's political centre, and its capital, Yamoussoukro, as well as other towns to gather information on the socio-political dynamics in Côte d'Ivoire. SOUTH AFRICA: A NATION OF 'RECOVERING' RACISTS http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=139&art_id=qw1076316121161S162&set_id=1 Ten years after apartheid ended, racism still overshadows South Africa, but glimmers of a more equal "rainbow nation" are breaking through. "We need to recognise the profound impact that racism has had on our society, materially, spiritually, psychologically or morally," President Thabo Mbeki said recently. "We need to recognise that many South Africans are still hurt and still feel the pain and the consequences." SOUTH AFRICA: LANDMARK RULING ON RACISM AT CITY CLUB http://www.capetimes.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=269&fArticleId=346193 In the first case heard since the Equality Court was set up last year, the owners of the club Sliver in Green Point acknowledged that racial discrimination lay behind the assault on a coloured man and his white partner after being refused entry to the gay club. After being refused an apology from the club or a change in its policy, the couple, from Bantry Bay, approached the South African Human Rights Commission last month and a complaint, one of the first, was lodged with the Equality Court. SOUTH AFRICA: PROBE INTO RUGBY RACISM DUE SOON http://www.bday.co.za/bday/content/direct/1,3523,1540290-6078-0,00.html An inquiry into racism in South African rugby will be set up by the end of February, sports minister Ngconde Balfour said. Late last year the South African Rugby Football Union (SARFU) cancelled a commission that was to have begun an inquiry into alleged racism in Springbok rugby. This was after reports that a white player had refused to share a room with a mixed race team-mate. Balfour said SARFU had asked the sports ministry to conduct the inquiry into the sport nationally. /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 16. Environment AFRICA/GLOBAL: GLOBAL MEETING ON PROTECTING BIODIVERSITY BEGINS http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/78696/1/ "The survival of the human species depends on biological diversity. Without biodiversity, there would be no trees to produce oxygen, no water catchments and no biodegradation, so that organic waste would just accumulate," says Hamdallah Zedan, executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity. "The services provided by biodiversity are inestimable and yet, because they are free, they are often overlooked, to the point where biodiversity is still being lost at an alarming rate." Zedan is in Kuala Lumpur at the Putra World Trade Centre with more than 2,000 delegates from around the world for the opening of the seventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP7). AFRICA: CLOUD FORESTS, WATER SOURCE TO MILLIONS, FACE RISK http://www.enn.com/news/2004-02-10/s_12940.asp A warming climate threatens tropical mountain forests that strip moisture from clouds and supply water to millions of people in Africa and Latin America, experts said in a U.N. report released on Monday. Cloud forests in equatorial and sub-equatorial regions of Latin America, Africa, and Asia account for just 2.5 percent, or 400,000 sq km (154,000 sq miles) of world tropical forest cover. But the benefits are felt way beyond their boundaries. AFRICA: INDIGENOUS PEOPLE DEMAND RIGHTS PROTECTION http://www.enn.com/news/2004-02-12/s_13061.asp Indigenous people from around the world demanded at a conference Wednesday that governments respect aboriginal land ownership and halt development and resettlement programs that can harm the environment. "We are linked to our land," said Sinafasi Makelo, a representative of Congo's Mbuti pygmies. "We must not be ordered to leave for money or material compensation. That is not what we're seeking." Makelo accused African authorities of expelling indigenous people to create national parks and forest reserves - then letting Western companies plunder the "protected" areas for profit. AFRICA: OFFICIALS CALL FOR BETTER MANAGEMENT OF INDIGENOUS CROPS http://www.enn.com/news/2004-02-11/s_13012.asp Developing countries should promote the cultivation of more indigenous crops to help combat hunger and malnutrition facing hundreds of millions of people in Asia and Africa, a U.N. conference on biodiversity was told Tuesday. About 800 million people in the developing world could remain "chronically underfed" unless governments help more farmers cultivate a diverse range of plants that could become food sources, said researchers from the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute. KENYA: NEW HOPE FOR KENYA'S DRYLANDS http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3461983.stm Some of the wildlife which had disappeared from Kenya's drylands are starting to return, thanks to the efforts of environmental agencies and the government. The area around Lake Baringo in the country's Rift Valley used to be a great source of biodiversity. But overgrazing in the past 50 years turned it into a barren wasteland - a disaster the area is only now starting to recover from. MADAGASCAR: LARGE GRANT AIMS TO PRESERVE MADAGASCAR'S BIODIVERSITY http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/78448/1/ Conservation and sustainable development efforts in the isolated and biodiverse nation of Madagascar received a boost Wednesday in the form of four grants totalling $1.6 million from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation based in Chicago. The good news comes just as the island nation is cleaning up after tropical cyclone Elita which hit Madagascar on January 28 with winds averaging 200 miles per hour. TANZANIA: ENGAGING COMMUNITIES IN WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT http://www.nina.no/archive/nina/Publikasjoner/project%20repor t/PR22.pdf There exists a large opportunity for more constructive processes around conflict issues like illegal hunting, cattle grazing in protected areas, water management, and community development with regards communities adjacent to Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, according to a study by the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA). The study found that many people have a distrustful and difficult relationship with the park agency and the way the park and wildlife resources are being managed. Hunting was a prevalent and highly important activity for the communities and poaching is frequently counted as the most important conservation impact in Serengeti. /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 17. Land and Land Rights AFRICA: SWEET LIKE CHOCOLATE? ASSESSING COFFEE AND COCOA PRODUCTION http://www.rspb.org.uk/Images/Sweet%20Like%20Chocolate%205%20dec_tcm5-48253.pdf The collapse in commodity prices over the last few decades threatens farmer livelihoods and development prospects, according to a paper that studies the cases of cocoa and coffee to assess whether their systems of production and trade meet the needs and aspirations of poor rural populations in the developing world, and minimize environmental damage. The paper, from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, said the collapse in prices also had a significant impact on the environment. The biodiversity effects of changing prices were highly site-specific, but it was clear that the market was not delivering environmentally or socially sound outcomes. AFRICA: WOMEN'S LAND RIGHTS IN SOUTHERN AND EASTERN AFRICA http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/livelihoods/landrights/downloads/wlrsea_short_report.rtf Women's already fragile land rights were being further eroded in a global context of privatisation, World Bank-sponsored land reforms, HIV/AIDS, changing employment and international trade patterns, and the food crisis in parts of Southern and Eastern Africa. This was the general consensus of issues raised in presentations and discussions at a workshop last year on Women's Land Rights in Southern and Eastern Africa. KENYA: PLANS TO REDISTRIBUTE IDLE LAND TO POOR http://iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=87&art_id=qw107635104165B254&set_id=1 Kenya's minister for land on Monday threatened to repossess tracts of idle land and redistribute it to thousands of landless people. Land ownership is an explosive topic in Kenya, with successive governments being blamed for failing to tackle the problem of inequitable land distribution. UGANDA: LAND OWNERSHIP STILL ELUDES WOMEN http://allafrica.com/stories/200402100387.html Deborah, 46 cohabited with a man for eight years then separated after producing two bouncing boys. Her sister Anatasia, 40, separated after cohabiting for years and producing three daughters. Both of them returned to their parents in Kabermaido, where they were allocated a plot of land. However, last year their brothers evicted them on grounds that they had no right to inherit an inch of their father's land. Now they are not only landless but have no home. /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 18. Media and Freedom of Expression LIBERIA: CRIMINAL CHARGES BROUGHT AGAINST JOURNALISTS WORKING FOR PRIVATE WEEKLY In a 4 February 2004 letter to Liberian President Gyude Bryant, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) expressed its concern over the recent criminal charges brought against journalists working for the private weekly newspaper "Telegraph". On 16 January, editor-in-chief Philip Moore Jr., managing editor Adolphus Karnuah and sub-editor Robert Kpadeh Jr. were arrested and brought to the Magistrate Court in the capital, Monrovia, where they were charged with "criminal malevolence". Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=20027 LIBERIA: US$5 MILLION LAWSUIT FILED AGAINST NEWSPAPER The "Chronicle" newspaper has been brought before the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court in the capital, Monrovia, in an action for "damages for injury to reputation". Philip Keikpo, former business manager of exiled former president Charles Taylor, is claiming US$5 million for a front page lead story entitled, "How Taylor Diverted Millions", published in the 23 January 2004 edition of the "Chronicle". Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=20030 NIGERIA: BUILDING COMMUNITY RADIO Civil Society Organizations should design and implement an aggressive advocacy campaign programme in their communities and at local, state and national levels in order to generate widespread understanding and support for community broadcasting across the country, according to the communiqué of a seminar on building community radio broadcasting in Nigeria held in January. The communiqué said a network of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) should be formed to provide a common platform for the articulation of stakeholders' interest on community radio broadcasting. Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=20028 ZAMBIA: JOURNALISTS BARRED FROM TRIBUNAL HEARING On 3 February 2004, the media and public were barred from attending hearings of a tribunal investigating allegations of professional misconduct levelled by President Levy Mwanawasa against Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Mukelebai Mukelebai. Judge Esau Chulu, the tribunal chairperson who sat with Judges Philip Musonda and Charles Kajimanga, ruled that the proceedings would be held in camera, despite an application by Mukelebai's lawyer, Vincent Malambo, that they be open to the public. Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=20031 ZIMBABWE: DISMAY AT COURT RULING Media Defence Fund Press Statement "The Media Defence Fund (MDF) and the Media lawyers Network (MLN) are dismayed by the Supreme Court judgment upholding certain sections of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) as constitutional. The Constitutional challenge brought by the Independent Journalists Association of Zimbabwe (IJAZ) against the Minister of State for Information and Publicity in the Office of the President and Cabinet as well as the Media and Information Commission (MIC) sought the nullification of sections 79, 80, 83 and 85 as unconstitutional. The case was heard on 21 November 2002 with judgment only being delivered on 6 February 2004, fifteen months after the matter was heard. Although the Supreme Court noted that freedom of the press is covered in section 20 of the constitution, we express our disappointment that the court ruled that these sections are still constitutional." Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=20026 ZIMBABWE: ELECTION FATIGUE The media’s lack of professional resilience when covering elections was illustrated again by the way in which they handled the Gutu North by-election, says the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ) in its latest bulletin. "The media generally gave scant attention to the election and, as a result, omitted pertinent information on the electoral process, which the ruling party has manipulated in the past to tilt the outcome in its favour." None of the Press investigated the state of the voters’ roll, said MMPZ, or why the opposition had been refused access to the consolidated roll. Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=20029 ZIMBABWE: NO ACCREDITATION FOR ANZ JOURNALISTS http://www.africapulse.org.za/index.php?action=viewarticle&articleid=1891&PHPSESSID=7d6e834c33b31dd329ef124d22af9f7f The Media and Information Commission (MIC) has announced that no journalists from the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe, publishers of the Daily News and Daily News on Sunday will be accredited. The Commission, headed by Tafataona Mahoso, said that the journalists would not be accredited since the Daily News and the Daily News on Sunday are not registered. /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 19. News from the Diaspora AFRICA - THE WAY OUT OF THE POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CRISIS The African Caribbean and Asian Society (ACAS), Sussex University, presents: A Public Meeting with speaker Explo Nani-Kofi of the African Liberation Support Campaign Network (ALISC), Thursday 19 February 2004, 6pm - 9pm Lecture Hall A1, Sussex University, Falmer, near Brighton Train from Victoria to Falmer, changing at Brighton. Sussex University is very near Falmer station Further info: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] NEW AFRICAN FILMS FESTIVAL http://www.transafricaforum.org/communityevents.html afrikafé, TransAfrica Forum and Visions Cinema will present the first-annual "New African Films Festival," featuring 13 African films from eastern, western, central, northern and southern Africa. Award-winning actor and human rights activist, Mr. Danny Glover, who is featured in one of the films, will be our special guest on opening night. RICHNESS OF BLACK HISTORY SHOULDN'T BE SEGREGATED INTO ONE MONTH http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0209/p09s03-coop.html It happens every February. People who are passionate about the black experience are pressed into a whirlwind schedule that ends as quickly as it begins, some 28 days later. Welcome, we are told, to Black History Month. But isn't it time Black History Month (BHM) continued its evolution into a year-round celebration to ensure that any indifferent citizens can begin to understand that what we teach, preach, lecture, and conjecture about is really American history? /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 20. Advocacy and Campaigns DE BEERS BOYCOTT LAUNCHED http://www.survival-international.org/news.htm Survival International has launched a postcard campaign calling on the public to boycott De Beers diamonds and Iman cosmetics. Survival International says De Beers opposes the recognition of indigenous peoples’ rights in Africa, and its managing director in Botswana has welcomed the eviction of the Gana and Gwi Bushmen from their land; Iman is De Beers’s ‘public face’. TAKE ACTION FOR ETHIOPIA http://www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk/default.asp?action=article&id=338 Jubilee Debt Campaign says they have learned that the USA and Germany are blocking World Bank-IMF 'top-up' debt relief for Ethiopia and Niger on the basis of a mere technicality. This could cost Ethiopia $35 million per year. They are asking people to visit their website to find out how to take action. URGE BURUNDIAN PRESIDENT TO RATIFY THE ROME STATUTE OF THE ICC You can help encourage the President of Burundi to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court without delay. Please send appeals by mail or fax, preferably in French, to President Domitien Ndayizeye at the address available by clicking on the web link below. Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=20010 /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 21. Internet and Technology AFRICA/GLOBAL: LINUX WINS ACCEPTANCE OF MAJOR GLOBAL COMPUTER FIRMS http://www.thisdayonline.com/archive/2004/02/05/20040205bus06.html Major global computer companies are now embracing Linux. IBM, for one, is currently running a series of television and online ads proclaiming that the future is open, as in open source computing. KENYA: CCK COMMISSIONS SH17M STUDY http://www.eastandard.net/archives/February/thur05022004/business/bsnews05020428.htm A Sh17 million study to work out measures of increasing the number of people with access to telephones was launched this week. At the same time, the government said the country will have a second fixed telephone service provider by June. NAMIBIA: GOOGLE LAUNCHES .NA WEBSITE http://www.namibian.com.na/2004/february/national/042308C671.html When Namibian internet users access Google, they are automatically redirected to www.google.com.na. The new site gives users the option of using an Afrikaans version of the Google site. /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 22. eNewsletters and Mailing Lists COMMUNITY INFORMATICS NEWSLETTER http://lists.sn.apc.org/mailman/listinfo/cinsainfo 'Community Informatics' is an e-newsletter packed with information for parties interested in community ICTs. Every month, it provides ICT news, important ICT announcements and the latest information added to the CINSA portal (www.cinsa.info). This includes research, advocacy articles and resources. DEVELOPMENT POLICY MANAGEMENT FORUM E-NEWSFORUM DPMF e-NewsForum is a free electronic newsletter that comes out every two months. The main purpose of this small electronic newsletter is to: - Exchange information on issues of interest to the three constituencies of DPMF Network- these are Policy Makers, Civil Society Organisations and Researchers/Lecturers/Scholars. - To make available, information and data of relevance and interest to the Network and which is not easily accessible to the members of the Network. - As this online interaction intensifies DPMF intends to introduce online discussion among its network on current issues of concern to the different constituencies. The DPMF is a pan-African, non-profit, research and training CSO (Civil Society Organisation) located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in the UNECA (Economic Commission for Africa) compound. Since its inception in March 1995, DPMF has carried out important activities aimed at consolidating and institutionalizing democratic governance in Africa. In particular, it has focused on enhancing institutional capacity for development policy management in African countries. Among DPMF's core areas of interventions is conflict management, resolution, and particularly, post conflict reconciliation. DPMF has created and is expanding a pan-African network of concerned individuals and institutions to consolidate democratic governance by enhancing capacity in the policy making process, in order to face the challenges of development, reconstruction in post-conflict situations, and promotion of an African renaissance. Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=20092 E-DISCUSSION: SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION 1325 http://www.unifem.org/index.php?f_page_pid=209 In October 2000, the Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. With this resolution, the Security Council affirmed for the first time that integrating a gender perspective and ensuring women's participation in decision making was necessary at all stages of armed conflict, including pre-conflict. UNIFEM, the International Women's Tribune Centre and Women's International League for Peace and Freedom invite you to participate in a moderated e-mail discussion in preparation for the fourth anniversary of Security Council Resolution 1325. YOUTH, HIV AND GENDER http://projects.takingitglobal.org/genderAIDS The NGO Committee on Youth at the United Nations in New York is inviting young people to take part in a month long online discussion on: "Young people are the key in the fight against AIDS." This is a month-long moderated discussion for and by youth (aged 15-24) on the gender dimensions of the AIDS pandemic. AIDS affects everyone, but it discriminates against women due to their biological susceptibility to infection during sexual intercourse, cultural norms that prevent women from negotiating safe sex, and their lack of access to health care and education. /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 23. Fundraising and Useful Resources CODESRIA: CALL FOR PROPOSALS 2004/2005 http://www.thusanang.org.za/index.php?option=news&task=viewarticle&sid=488 The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) invites proposals for the constitution of Comparative Research Networks (CRNs) in Africa. The primary objectives of the CRNs are to carry out comparative studies on various themes, and develop and consolidate a comparative analytic perspective in the work of African social researchers. GKP LAUNCHES ITS SEED GRANT AND SMALL INNOVATIVE PROJECTS FUND http://www.thusanang.org.za/index.php?option=news&task=viewarticle&sid=491 The Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) calls for summary proposals for pilot projects or from new and ongoing small-scale initiatives. The grants offered to projects are between US$10 000 and US$15 000 with the focus on developing countries. The projects proposed should contribute to the innovative use of information and communication technology (ICT) for civil society strengthening and participation in the Information Society; and/or promote partnerships to support and develop small-scale and community-based initiatives. LEADERSHIP & ADVOCACY FOR WOMEN IN AFRICA Applications are now being invited for the Leadership and Advocacy for Women in Africa (LAWA) 2004-05 Fellowships for law school graduates and practicing attorneys in Lesotho, South Africa and Swaziland who have a strong interest in and commitment to women's rights. This unique program offers African women's rights advocates an opportunity to come to Washington, DC, USA for 16 months to earn an advanced law degree at Georgetown University Law Centre and complete a work placement focused on women's rights. Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=20025 ROKS ANNUAL RESEARCH COMPETITION 2003-2004 http://www.thusanang.org.za/index.php?option=news&task=viewarticle&sid=489 The Research on Knowledge Systems (RoKS) initiative of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation is supporting research that focuses on the social and human development, and public policy related challenges of technologies facing the developing world. The competition is offering grants at a maximum value of CAD$80 000 to researchers and institutions based in the developing world. For joint proposals where researchers are located in two or more countries a maximum of CAD$160 000 will be awarded. Proposals addressing new technologies in areas other than information and communication technology (ICT) for development will also be considered. /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 24. Courses, Seminars, and Workshops ADVANCING RURAL WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT: ICT'S IN THE SERVICE OF GOOD GOVERNANCE, DEMOCRATIC PRACTICE AND DEVELOPMENT FOR WOMEN IN AFRICA 23 - 25 February 2004, Johannesburg, South Africa Women'sNet is hosting a regional workshop to be held in Johannesburg on the 23rd of February until the 25th of February 2004. The workshop is held with the support of the Food and Agricultural Organisation's (FAO) Dimitra Project. The workshop will bring together women's organisations, government officials, and gender and development practitioners and researchers, involved in gender and Information and Communication (ICT) projects and initiatives. Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=20006 BUILDING EFFECTIVE ORGANISATIONS Looking to build an effective, efficient and sustainable organisation? Limited resources for attending courses? Need effective training that you can do while working? Fahamu, in association with the University of Oxford, is offering distance learning courses specifically designed to meet the needs of human rights and civil society organisations. You can be anywhere to do these courses. Using cutting-edge interactive CDROMs, with support from a course tutor via email and an optional workshop, the course methodology is designed for learning at work without the need to take study leave. Those successfully completing the course will be awarded with a certificate from the University of Oxford. Fahamu – Learning for change – uses information and communication technologies to serve the needs of organisations and social movements that aspire to progressive social change and that promote and protect human rights. The following courses are available in 2004: · An introduction to human rights (3 weeks) · Investigating, reporting and monitoring human rights violations (18 weeks) · Using the internet for advocacy and research (16 weeks) · Leadership and management for change (18 weeks) · Fundraising and resource mobilisation (18 weeks) · Finance for the non-financial manager (18 weeks) · JustWrite: an on-line course on effective writing (5 weeks) The first course begins on 1 March 2004. For course dates, information, fees and registration forms kindly contact Camille Downes in Durban, South Africa on TEL: +27-(0)31-2071144/8360 FAX: +27-31-2078403 EMAIL: [EMAIL PROTECTED] or Hilary Isaacs in Oxford, UK on TEL: +44-(0)845 456 2442 FAX: +44-(0)845-456-2443 EMAIL: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.fahamu.org/ INVITATION TO THE TO THE CIVICUS WORLD ASSEMBLY Gaborone, Botswana, 21-25 March 2004 The CIVICUS World Assembly creates an opportunity for civil society organisations which normally do not have access to certain important actors nationally, regionally and internationally to engage in dialogue and debate about the future of the planet generally, and the role of civil society specifically. The overall World Assembly theme is Acting Together for a Just World. Plenary sessions, learning exchanges and capacity-building workshops will focus on the following sub-themes: Civic justice which explores ways to defend the rights of civic associations and to strengthen the governance and legitimacy of civil society organisations; Social justice, which explores civil society's role in situations of public or private conflict; Political justice which explores ways to enhance citizen engagement in decision-making; and Economic justice which will reflect on the ways in which globalisation is changing the world of work. Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=20066 REGIONAL COURSE ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS http://www.hrea.org/erc/Calendar/display.php?doc_id=1595&month=5&year=2004 This course is intended for professionals, researchers, activists, defenders and trainers from Southern Africa to broaden their knowledge and further develop their human rights expertise on the substantive and institutional aspects of the promotion and protection of civil and political rights at national, regional and international levels. UPEACE CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP FOR THE WESTERN AFRICAN REGION http://www.africa.upeace.org/enews.cfm The third UPEACE Curriculum Development Workshop for the Western African region will be held in Abuja, Nigeria from the 8th to 12th of March, 2004, co-hosted with and coordinated by the National Universities Commission of Nigeria (NUC) and the University of Jos, Nigeria. This workshop is the third in a set of three sub-regional workshops being organized in 2003 and early 2004 by the UPEACE Africa Programme, bringing together academicians, researchers, and educators to consolidate knowledge and build the basis for mastering the skills needed for the management, resolution, and transformation of conflict. The strategy of curriculum development workshops will allow individual professors, lecturers, and NGO leaders, to come together and rapidly develop from their cumulative experience what amount to immediately applicable teaching strategies. /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 25. Jobs DRC: COUNTRY DIRECTOR Women For Women International http://www.fpa.org/jobs_contact2423/jobs_contact_show.htm?doc_id=208361 Women for Women International is seeking an individual to serve as Country Director in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for a period of eighteen months. The Country Director is the official representative of Women for Women International in the country, overseeing staff, programs and administrative activities. KENYA: GRANTS PROGRAMME OFFICER Urgent Action Fund For Women's Human Rights Urgent Action Fund Africa is accepting applications for a full-time, salaried Program Officer with a focus on grant making in Africa. The position will be based in Nairobi, Kenya. The Program Officer will work with the US-based Program Team in reviewing and managing correspondence from African organisations that request support from the Urgent Action Fund. The Program Officer will report to the Director of UAF-Africa and will supervise a Program Associate. Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=20003 RESEARCH FELLOW: REFUGEE LAW PROJECT http://www.refugeelawproject.org The Refugee Law Project (RLP) is an autonomous project of the Faculty of Law at Makerere University located in Kampala, Uganda. Through its departments of Legal Aid and Counselling, Education and Training, and Research and Advocacy, the RLP raises awareness of the plight of the approximately 160,000 officially registered asylum seekers and refugees in Uganda and strives to ensure enjoyment of their human rights. The RLP is currently inviting applications for the post of Research Fellow for citizens of the East African region. The Fellow would operate within the Department of Research and Advocacy and be responsible for assisting in the continual refining of the project's research agenda. The position would involve carrying out field research at both fundamental/policy and investigative/individual levels throughout Uganda, analysing collected data, and contributing to various publications of the RLP including its Working Paper series and Policy Paper series. Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED] SOUTH AFRICA: PROJECT COORDINATOR Municipal Services Project The Municipal Services Project (MSP) is looking for an experienced Project Coordinator to manage research and administrative activities in the project. This is a two-year contract position from March 2004 to March 2006 with the possibility of a one-year extension. The Coordinator will be based in Cape Town at the International Labour Research and Information Group Trust (ILRIG) offices, affiliated with the University of Cape Town. Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=20002 /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 26. Books and Arts 100 WAYS OF SEEING AN UNEQUAL WORLD Bob Sutcliffe http://dannyreviews.com/h/Unequal_World.html 100 Ways of Seeing an Unequal World actually offers 123 perspectives on world inequality, each consisting of a two-page presentation with a graph or graphs on the left and explanation and interpretation on the right. The topics covered range across production, income and trade, demographics and health, agriculture, environment, refugees and repression. Sutcliffe pays special attention to regional (rather than just international) and gender inequalities, and attempts to set comparisons in a historical perspective. DREAMS Kavevangua Kahengua http://tinyurl.com/2ykxl This is a collection of poems and a short story of wide thematic scope. The poet portrays, without bitterness, some of the grave injustices of the colonial system and their consequences as well as the problems, frustrations and joys of living in independent Namibia. EXPANDING DEMOCRATIC SPACE IN NIGERIA Jibrin Ibrahim http://www.africanbookscollective.com/ There is wide preoccupation with the vital issue of democracy in Africa, and its implication for the world at large. The reality is for the most part that on the African continent, democratic freedoms are suppressed; violence and atrocities flourish; and a critical mass of the citizens are disenfranchised with few or no rights in their own countries; for many, this process having been driven by their own governments. This book demonstrates that citizens have however always sought ways and struggled to expedite an arguably inevitable process towards greater freedom. It examines how barriers to democracy have been overcome in Nigeria; the legacy of the Babangida administration; state feminism and democratisation; civil society and democratisation, including the roles of the mass media, student vanguardism, intellectuals and academics, the left and trade unions; and liberties, rights, ethnicity and citizenship. NEWS FROM THE NORDIC AFRICA INSTITUTE: NEW EDITION http://www.nai.uu.se/newsfromnai/newssve.html The latest issue of 'News from the Nordic Africa Institute' has a special dossier on CODESRIA, as a way of celebrating CODESRIA's 30th anniversary: interviews of the former and current presidents of CODESRIA, Professors Mahmood Mamdani and Zenebeworke Tadesse, two new members of the CODESRIA Secretariat, Francis Nyamnjoh, Head of the Publications and Communications Department, and Ebrima Sall, Head of the Research and Documentation Department, and an interview with Professor Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, the famous writer. “WHICH BLACK WOMAN INSPIRED YOU? – CELEBRATING BLACK WOMEN IN THE ARTS” The Black Arts Quarterly Our last issue “Youth Culture, Community Activism, Education and the Arts” featured a startling array of poetry from all around the world, as well as outstanding contributions to our knowledge (ujuzi wetu in Swahili) about the next generation and its relationship to this one. Now we are welcoming submissions that further develop themes (in the arts) that were championed by black women in particular. The Black Arts Quarterly seeks to publish written work of (preferably) less than 15-20 pages (double-spaced) that explores the role that the arts have played in the lives of black women, and vice versa: the role that women played in the black arts. What sort of consciousness-raising force came forth from black women? Tell us about the black woman who inspired you, your intellectual pursuit, your art, and/or your activism. Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=19997 \/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ PAMBAZUKA NEWS IS PUBLISHED BY FAHAMU Fahamu - learning for change 14, Standingford House, Cave Street, Oxford OX4 1BA, UK 620 Overport City, Durban 4001, South Africa [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.fahamu.org [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.fahamu.org.za Editorial Board: Firoze Manji (Fahamu), Patrick Burnett (Fahamu), Rotimi Sankore, (CREDO [EMAIL PROTECTED]) Our thanks to the following: Christina Clark, Chukwu-Emeka Chikezie (AFFORD) Linda Ndlovu (SANGONeT), Catherine Njuguna, Elizabeth Onyango, and to the Ford Foundation's Special Initiative for Africa. SANGONeT: http://www.sn.apc.org AFFORD: http://www.afford-uk.org Pambazuka News list server is hosted at Kabissa: http://www.kabissa.org SUBMITTING NEWS: send to [EMAIL PROTECTED] SUBSCRIBE The Newsletter comes out weekly and is delivered to subscribers by e-mail. Subscription is free. To subscribe, send an e-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> with only the word 'subscribe' in the subject or body. To subscribe online, visit: http://lists.kabissa.org/mailman/listinfo/pambazuka-news FAIR USE This Newsletter is produced under the principles of 'fair use'. We strive to attribute sources by providing direct links to authors and websites. When full text is submitted to us and no website is provided, we make the text available on our website via a "for more information" link. Please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] immediately regarding copyright issues. The views expressed in this newsletter, including the signed editorials, do not necessarily represent those of Fahamu (c) Fahamu 2004 If you wish to stop receiving the newsletter, unsubscribe immediately by sending a message FROM THE ADDRESS YOU WANT REMOVED to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] should you need further assistance subscribing or unsubscribing. /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\
