KABISSA-FAHAMU NEWSLETTER 23 * 3671 SUBSCRIBERS

Despite recent political upheavals, the internet in Cote D'Ivoire continues to grow steadily. Although the semi-privatised state telco operates a monopoly, its regulatory regime has been sufficiently liberal to encourage new operators. As a regional hub for the computer industry it should have considerable future potential. Kokou Adediha looks at what's happening.

Former SA minister of post and telecommunications Jay Naidoo yesterday called on the private sector to overcome the “paralysis of analysis” on the digital divide and start on concrete projects to overcome it, and profit in the process.

Uganda, Rwanda and Congolese rebels have all described as evil-minded, senseless and ridiculous a new report in which the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) accused them of involvement in the assassination of the former Congolese President, Laurent Desire Kabila, in January. The report, released on Wednesday in the capital Kinshasa, said international intelligence agencies were also implicated but did not specify which.

Burundi army officers failed to turn up in Arusha today for a scheduled meeting with eight pro-Tutsi political parties. The meeting was to have addressed Burundi's transitional leadership. The eight parties are opposed to the current Burundi leader Pierre Buyoya leading the first phase of a three-year transitional plan proposed by Nelson Mandela, the facilitator of the Burundi peace talks.

Shell's deepwater subsidiary in the country, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited (SNEPCO), has announced the discovery of another substantial crude oil find in the company's oil block located in Nigeria's offshore deepwaters.

South Africa yesterday for the first time publicly criticised the illegal occupation of white-owned farms by self-styled veterans of Zimbabwe's 1970s independence war and their attacks on private companies and foreign aid organisations ostensibly on behalf of discontented workers. In the clearest sign yet of a shift by Pretoria from its policy of quiet diplomacy on Harare, Jeremiah Ndou, South Africa's High Commissioner to Zimbabwe, said in a statement that his country strongly condemned the current wave of company invasions.

In the White House earlier this month, U.S. President George Bush told Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo that the United States would continue to help train Nigerian troops as peacekeepers. This week en route to Mali, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters that President Bush's assurance represented an unbreakable promise, despite Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's intention to reduce overseas commitments by the Pentagon.

"Corruption report stuns cricket world," announced one website this week. Remove cricket from that headline, and you might be closer to the truth. Because for those in the game who have followed developments closely since Cronjegate " and have greeted each new revelation with less shock and horror than the last " there is precious little that is new in Sir Paul Condon's report. Stunned? We passed that stage ages ago.

Tagged under: 23, Contributor, Corruption, Governance

The Mozambican public prosecuting authorities on Tuesday charged six people for the assassination of Carlos Cardoso, the editor of the independent newssheet, Metical. The six, who include businessman Ayob Abdul Satar and former bank manager Vicente Ramaya, were arrested following a six-month investigation.

At first glance, the public hearings on the arms deal, due to start in Pretoria next week, appear to be a good thing. The government will be bringing into the open one of the most damaging sagas since 1994. And the public will be given an opportunity to judge for themselves why " and how improperly " R50-billion was spent on a sophisticated defence package. Unfortunately, if one probes a little further, the hearings have few redeeming features. Instead they appear to be the result of anything from sloppy legal thinking to a sinister exercise to sabotage the main criminal investigation.

We're eating more meat, drinking more coffee, popping more pills, driving further and getting fatter. Around the world we are consuming more than ever before: but more than one billion people still don't have access to safe water; natural disasters are taking a worsening toll; and we have yet to vanquish some of the world's biggest killers-diarrhea, malaria and AIDS-reports a new publication by the Worldwatch Institute, Vital Signs 2001: The Trends That are Shaping Our Future.

White farmers and private financial backers have offered to give the government a million hectares of farmland to resettle landless blacks, the scheme's coordinator, Malcolm Vowles, told IRIN on Thursday. "This is a genuine attempt to break the impasse over land in this country," Vowles said. Zimbabwe's mainly white Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) has been deadlocked in negotiations with the government over the confiscation and violent occupation by black militants of hundreds of white-owned farms.

An Amnesty International (AI) research team has found widespread evidence of politically-motivated murder, torture, rape and violence. Tor-Hugne Olsen, head of the team, told IRIN on Wednesday that after spending a week in the country, they had established that such acts were "commonplace" and that the government was doing nothing to stop them.

Oxfam campaigners notched up another notable success at the annual general meeting of GlaxoSmithKline. Shareholders arriving at the meeting at the Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre in London yesterday, 21 May, were greeted by protesters under a banner proclaiming "Take Leadership". Dressed in white lab coats, the campaigners from Oxfam campaigners handed out prescription bags with a medicine packet containing a leaflet calling for GSK to take the lead within the pharmaceutical industry to make essential medicines cheaper for poor countries.

Rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone have for the first time allowed the deployment of UN peacekeepers in the contested eastern diamond- producing region of Kono, about 340 kilometres from the capital Freetown. Confirming the breakthrough to IPS this week, the spokesperson for the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), Margaret Novicki, said that two companies of about 250 Bangladeshi troops have moved into Kono ahead of the full deployment of peacekeepers there.

First of all, thank you for an excellent south-focused newsletter that is one of the rare things in my email box that I regularly read. Secondly, I am sending the announcement of a newsletter that we are putting out which enables our southern partners to reach a larger audience. I hope you can share the announcement with your readership. The text is below. Thank you.

The rich get richer
The poor get the picture
The bombs never hit you when you're down so low

The Global Alliance for Women's Health submits new proposals for the revised draft Declaration of Commitment on HIV /AIDS. If you or your organization would like to sign on to these proposals please contact us by e-mail.

Zimbabwe has passed a new law which imposes jail sentences of up to 20 years on anyone who knowingly passes on the HIV virus to another person. Under the Sexual Offences Act, women raped and infected with HIV as a result will be given health assistance by the state and the children born as a result of the assault will also be supported.

The race for the leadership of the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) Women's Wing has gathered momentum as the elections' date draws near. BDP women are scheduled to elect their leaders in Shoshong this weekend at the end of their national congress.

Women for Change executive director Emily Sikazwe has condemned the practice by politicians to use women as mere tools in politics. Speaking during yesterday's national Development Review Forum at Lusaka's Intercontinental Hotel, Sikazwe said women had continued to be marginalised even though they played a major role in putting politicians into power.

Children fleeing fighting in Liberia's Lofa County and separated from their families are vulnerable to attacks by rebel and government forces while girls and women are being raped, Save the Children UK reported on Wednesday.

With the continued influx of illegal immigrants into Maun, local authorities have launched a major move counter the situation. Maun District Commissioner Michael Maforaga dispatched trucks to fetch 14 more refugees from Shakawe, so they could be locked up in jail cells before facing repatriation. But a member of Women Against Rape (WAR) said Maun suffers from a more serious problem than is seen on the surface.

Political parties are not fair game for the press, senior advocate George Bizos told the Johannesburg High Court yesterday. Van Niekerk and Mda lodged the application in response to a statement made by senior ANC leader Jeff Radebe to the Human Rights Commission during its hearings on media racism last year. Radebe told the commission that Van Niekerk had authored a critical opinion piece on Thabo Mbeki, who was deputy president at the time, and published it under Mda's name.

Racism is alive and well, and thriving in South Africa and the world at large. Racism is both overt and subliminal. Sometimes it is hard to distinguish the one from the other. Overt racism is in the face of the white farmer who shoots at black children crossing what he thinks of as his property, or in the face of the other white farmer who covers a black worker from top to toe in silver paint to make a point about what the farmer considers to be insubordination.

Title: AFRICA CONNECTS CONFERENCE - FINAL CALL FOR PAPERS
Conference Date: 10-13 July 2001
Location: Cape Town
Closing Date for Proposal Submissions: 1 June 2001
Contact Details: E-mail: [email protected]
Web: http://ac.wcape.school.za

Telephone: +27 21 674-9140
Fax: +27 21 683-6766
Post: PO Box 44460, Claremont 7735, Cape Town, South Africa

The Africa Connects conference, focusing on Education in the Internet Age, will be held in Cape Town, South Africa from 10-13 July 2001, opened by South Africa's Minister of Education Kader Asmal.
The conference is hosted by SchoolNet SA and the Western Cape Schools Network in association with the 8th Annual International I*EARN Conference (with activities for I*EARN delegates from 9-14 July).

You are invited to submit your presentation proposals for the conference. 1500 delegates with a wide range of ICT interests and abilities are expected to attend. All proposals will be seriously considered.

Title: Claude Ake Memorial Awards Program. Deadline for Applications: July 16, 2001. Contact Details: The Africa-America Institute Claude Ake Memorial Awards, 1625 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Suite 400, Washington, D.C. 20036-2259, U.S.A.

The Africa-America Institute and the African Studies Association announce the 2002 Claude Ake Memorial Awards Program competition, funded by the Ford Foundation. The Claude Ake Memorial Awards Program seeks to encourage young and mid-career African scholars-activists to carry out research, reflection and writing about their ideas and activities. The award is intended for Africans who are engaged in knowledge-based and reality-informed problem solving to address the continent's development challenges, in the tradition of Claude Ake.

“World Guide to Scholarships” is a foremost guide for financial aid information for international students wishing to study in a foreign country. Most comprehensive listing of grants, scholarships, loan programs, and other information to assist students in their pursuit to study abroad. The guide includes directory of award scholarships, grants and fellowships available to international students all over the world. The guide identifies several independent and corporate foundations, all of which award grants to individuals.

Deadlines for Applications: 31 October 2001
Contact Information: Steven Wayling Manager, Research Training Grants (RTG)Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), World Health Organization, 1211 Geneva 27
Switzerland, Fax: +41-22-791-4854 Tel: +41-22-791-3909

The UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) invites applications for the award of Research Training Grants (RTG) in 2002. Applicants must be nationals of, and employed in, the developing disease endemic countries (DECs),particularly from least developed countries, and low income and high- burden countries with limited research capacity. RTGs are awarded, on a competitive basis, for studies leading to a postgraduate degree, or for acquiring specialized skills. Studies must be on one or more of the TDR target diseases - malaria, leishmaniasis, schistosomiasis, lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis, African trypanosomiasis and Chagas disease, leprosy, dengue and tuberculosis in laboratory, clinical or applied field research disciplines relevant to TDR and/or national priorities. The training may take place in the home country, in another developing country, or in a developed country. TDR reserves the right to select the academic institution, research programme or TDR-funded Research & Development (R&D) project where it is felt the most suitable training can be obtained.

Date: 14th - 16th September 2001
Location: University of Central Lancashire, England
Deadline for Submission of Papers: 31st May, 2001
Cost: The conference fee which includes all documentation, refreshments and lunches will be £85.00 plus VAT (£99.88 incl. VAT). There will also be a
daily delegate rate of £50.00 plus VAT (£58.75 incl.VAT). Please note that accommodation is not included in the fee. Should you require a list of accommodation, close to the venue, please contact the conference unit on 01772 892256.
The main purpose of this first ASA-UK conference on Human Rights is to examine the ways in which human rights are involved in a wide range of contemporary issues in African Studies.
Contact Details: Please address all submissions and general enquiries to:

Liz Kelly
Business Services
Livesey House
University of Central Lancashire
Preston PR1 2HE, UK

Tel: 00 (44) 1772 892256
Fax: 00 (44) 1772 892938

South African investigators begin public hearings today into alleged corruption by senior politicians in the hugely controversial purchase of £4bn worth of weapons from European manufacturers. But scepticism about the effectiveness of the public protector's investigation - one of three by government agencies looking into the accusations of corruption - has grown as the African National Congress has sought to use its overwhelming majority in parliament to limit the political damage.

Job Title: Program Manager, Transitional Justice Project Department. Location: Center for Civil and Human Rights, Notre Dame Law School, Notre Dame, Indiana,USA. Position Pay Range: $ 4,055 - $ 6,763/Month. Application Deadline: June 20, 2001. Position will remain open until filled. Contact Details: Please apply with cover letter, resume, and letters of reference to: Program Manager, Transitional Justice Project, Job # 1012-135 Dept. of Human Resources, 100 Grace Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556

Tagged under: 23, Contributor, Governance, Jobs

Job Title:Associate Director of the Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute
Location:Columbia Law School, New York, New York
Closing Date for Applications: Initial screening will begin on May 31, 2001
Contact Details: Sharon Kim, Human Rights Institute,
Columbia Law School, 435 West 116th Street,
New York, New York 10027

Tagged under: 23, Contributor, Jobs, Resources

Job Title:Project Director (Bringing Human Rights Home Project)
Location: Columbia Law School, New York, New York
Closing Date for Applications: Initial screening will begin on May 31,2001
Contact Details: Sharon Kim, Human Rights Institute,
Columbia Law School, 435 West 116th Street,
New York, New York 10027

Tagged under: 23, Contributor, Jobs, Resources

Job Title: Post of HIC General Secretary
Location: Cape Town, South Africa
Organization: Habitat International Coalition
Closing Date for Applications: 30 June 2001
Contact Details: The Secretariat, Habitat International Coalition, P.O. Box 34519, Groote Schuur 7937, Cape Town, South Africa Tel: 27 21 696 2205 Fax: 27 21 696 2203

Tagged under: 23, Contributor, Jobs, Resources

Title: A Collaborative Conference on the Crisis in Health Care, Environment, and Economic Development in Africa.
Date: September 12 - 14, 2001
Location: Chicago, IL
Contact Phone Number: (312) 755-0635

Title: PATT -Technology Education Conference.
Date: October 2001
Location: Cape Town, South Africa
Closing Date for Submission of Papers: 11 June 2001-05-28
Cost of Conference: Conference fees (incl. teas, lunch and functions)
Authors presenting a paper: $ 200/R 1200 (reduced: R 600)
Delegates $ 210/R 1300 (reduced: R 650)
Contact Details: Prof. Nico Beute Tel +27 21 460-3657
Dean: Engineering Faculty Fax +27 21 460-3701
Cape Technikon Email: [email protected]
PO Box 652, Cape Town, 8000 RSA

Wayne Marshall, UNIX programmer and African resident, shares concern over what he names "the new zeal of the high-tech missionary" - delivering internet access. Access delivery does not mean that projects are planned well. They need to be carried out with insight into issues like sustainability and relevance.

A look at new policies around information, Internet access and multimedia in Cote D'Ivoire. New infrastructure and policy developments have gone ahead despite a telco monopoly and political upheaval. However, there are still several obstacles to becoming a connected computer user.

A project in Zambia is examining how interactive radio instruction can help bring basic education and life skills to help address the crisis of AIDS orphans. In "interactive radio instruction," broadcast lessons are scripted so that listeners feel as if they are interacting with the radio teachers. EDC has been working in partnership with the Zambian Ministry of Education's Educational Broadcasting Service (EBS), churches, NGOs and local community groups to use this method to meet the desperate and growing needs of AIDS orphans.

In the last 40 years urban populations have increased five-fold and over the next 30 years 90 per cent of population growth will be in urban areas. As the special session of the UN assembly meets in New York on June 6 - 8 2001 to review progress since 1996, Panos is publishing a new report, Governing Our Cities: will people power work? assessing whether post-Istanbul urban strategies are succeeding. It concludes that although many nations are trying to take new approaches to the way they manage cities, they are doomed to fail unless governments work in tandem with other groups in society, and particularly the urban poor.

The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) has launched an internet-based campaign with Yahoo! and other partners to create public awareness about the urgent need for an accessible AIDS vaccine. The Call for Action petition will be presented during the UN Special Session on HIV/AIDS in New York June 25-27 2001. Sign by June 25.

Should all HIV/AIDS research become centralised in Western competence centres? You may cast your vote (anonymously).

It was like a scene out of Le Carré: the brilliant agent comes in from the cold and, in hours of debriefing, empties his memory of horrors committed in the name of an ideology gone rotten. But this was a far bigger catch than some used-up Cold War spy. The former apparatchik was Joseph Stiglitz, ex-chief economist of the World Bank. The new world economic order was his theory come to life. He was in Washington for the big confab of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. But instead of chairing meetings of ministers and central bankers, he was outside the police cordons. The World Bank fired Stiglitz two years ago. He was not allowed a quiet retirement: he was excommunicated purely for expressing mild dissent from globalisation World Bank-style.

There are signs that Nigeria's northern region is becoming increasingly vulnerable to annual epidemics of measles and meningitis amid widespread resistance to immunisation by suspicious locals. Taking advantage of strong anti-Western sentiments sweeping across the predominantly Muslim region since a number of states started implementing strict Islamic law over the past year and a half, some radical Muslims have launched a strong campaign against Western medicine.

Dr. Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), today called on world leaders "to give full-fledged priority to food security in national policies." Addressing a Summit meeting of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), Dr. Diouf said, "Freeing the planet from hunger is a formidable historical challenge, particularly for Africa's Heads of State. But, I am convinced that this objective is within our reach."

The Nairobi River, one of the most polluted rivers in Kenya, is the focus of an intense cleanup campaign by the United Nations Environment Programme which is headquartered in Kenya's capital city of Nairobi, through which the river runs.

Royal Dutch/Shell Group, the second-largest publicly traded oil company, will team up with the World Bank to spread the benefits of its oil projects to Nigeria's people, in a bid to repair Shell's image in the country. Shell's plans to join with the lender in setting up a $30 million fund to finance oil service contractors is drawing fire from human rights and environmental groups, which say the bank is
encouraging what they call Shell's abuses in the oil-rich Niger Delta.

In this issue: global warming changes forecast for agriculture; an interview with Asbjorn Eide, senior fellow and former director of the Norwegian Institute of Human Rights, explores the concept of food as a human right; read about the 2020 Vision conference on "Sustainable Food Security for All by 2020" in Bonn, September 4-6, 2001.

The World Bank and the IMF announced on Wednesday that they have agreed to support a comprehensive debt reduction package for Chad—one of the poorest countries on earthunder the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative.

The IMF has commended Tanzania for continued impressive economic performance, saying it may soon qualify for extensive debt relief under the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, AFP reports. Jürgen Reitmaier, leader of an IMF team on a two-week mission to Tanzania, said on Friday that most of the benchmarks set under the Fund's Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) have been met.

Masvingo’s Mayoral elections again exposed the state media’s bias in favour of the ruling party. In previous weeks these media had given ample platform to the ruling party to campaign. In the week even after the defeat of the ruling party, the state-media solicited opinions from an array of Zanu PF sources. On the day the results were announced ZBCTV gave little airtime to the victor. On the other hand, The Daily News’ had a subjective interpretation of the results, both in its headline and in the text.

Wednesday, May 30 2001 is the D-day for the formal opening of Nigeria's first resource centre and a new website dedicated to providing
information on HIV/AIDS and reproductive health issues for the media and the general public. The Media Resource Centre on HIV/AIDS and Reproductive Health/Rights, the first of its kind in the country, is a project of Journalists
Against AIDS (JAAIDS) Nigeria, a media-based HIV/AIDS advocacy organisation founded by a group of journalists in 1997. Located at 1st Floor, 42 Ijaye Road, Ogba, Lagos, the resource centre
will provide electronic and non-electronic information resources on HIV/AIDS, reproductive health and other health issues to journalists and other members of the public. Facilities at the centre include a documentation library stocking HIV-related literature, research reports, CD-ROMs, disks, and audio-visual materials.

The Institute for Policy Studies and Friends of the Earth today denounced the World Banks plans to approve a $15 million loan to a financial intermediary that would provide subcontracting services to Shell Oil Corporation in the Niger Delta of Nigeria. The loan, which would be provided by the World Bank's private sector lending arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), would provide hard currency to banks in the Niger Delta who could then onlend to subcontractors providing services to the Shell Oil Corporation. It is set to be approved next week.

As expected, Senator Jim Jeffords announced this morning he is leaving the Republican party and will align himself with the Senate's Democratic caucus. The move, which Jeffords delayed to permit smooth Senate passage of the massive Bush tax cut, swings power over Senate committees and the schedule of Senate legislation to the Democratic Party.

Nominations for the 2002 Reebok Human Rights Award are currently being sought. Please put in your nomination by the June 15, 2001 deadline.
The Reebok Human Rights Award seeks to shine a positive, international light on young human rights activists and to support their work with a $50,000 grant from the Reebok Human Rights Foundation. The Award has honored 64 past recipients in 28 countries. Visit the website for the announcement and application materials for the 2002 Reebok Human Rights Awards.

It is time for the talking to stop and the action against corruption to begin. This is the central message that civil society organisations from across the world will deliver when they place a set of key demands before the more than 100 governments gathering at the Second Global Forum on Fighting Corruption and Safeguarding Integrity in The Hague, The Netherlands from May 28-31, 2001.

semaine du 25.05.01 au 03.06.01.

Residents of the Central African Republic's capital, Bangui, have been fleeing continuing fighting between the presidential guard and rebellious soldiers. The authorities had said on Monday that they had the city under control, following what was described as a coup attempt against President Ange-Felix Patasse carried out by disgruntled soldiers.

The Sudanese president, Omar al-Bashir, and the main rebel leader, John Garang of the Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA), are to attend a summit aimed at ending the country's 18 year civil war. The peace summit, organised by the regional Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) is due to take place in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, in June.

The people of Nigeria should be celebrating the second anniversary of the restoration of civilian rule, but as the BBC reports, few are in partying mood.

Chad's six unsuccessful presidential candidates were all picked up for questioning by police on Monday and then released an hour later. The six men were meeting just hours after it was announced that Chad's incumbent President Idriss Deby had won an outright majority in the first round of voting, making a second round unnecessary. The six opposition candidates had issued a joint statement last Thursday alleging fraud in the 20 May poll, but foreign observers said the vote appeared to be fair.

Senior army officers in Zimbabwe have secretly warned the South African government that they may launch a coup against Robert Mugabe if the growing political and economic crisis results in riots. Pretoria has strongly advised against any move to overthrow the Zimbabwean president by force but has been made aware of the circumstances in which it may be attempted.

Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe's government has been thrown into disarray by the death of the defence minister, Moven Mahachi, the second cabinet minister to die in a car accident in the past month. Mr Mahachi, 53, was killed late Saturday afternoon in a car accident in Zimbabwe's eastern mountain district of Nyanga. He had been one of Mr Mugabe's longest serving and most trusted allies. In 1975 he helped Mr Mugabe escape Rhodesian authorities by sneaking across the eastern border to Mozambique.

Sixty Angolan children abducted by UNITA forces earlier this month were freed on Friday, but an unknown number of juveniles remain captives within the rebel movement's ranks, humanitarian officials told IRIN. The children, along with two adults, were released at Camabatela in the northern province of Kwanza Norte. They had been abducted from an orphanage more than 300 km south run by the development agency ADPP, during an attack on the town of Caxito on 5 May.

Somalis in the self-declared state of Somaliland, northwestern Somalia, will be asked on 31 May to vote on a new constitution which includes an article on territorial independence. Somaliland independence was unilaterally declared in May 1991, but has never received international recognition. The declaration followed the collapse of Muhammad Siyad Barre's military dictatorship, which had pursued brutal policies in the north during the civil war of the 1980s. During a recent visit to the capital, Hargeysa, IRIN spoke to Somaliland President Muhammad Ibrahim Egal about independence, and the issue of past atrocities. A number of sites discovered in 1997 were identified by an international forensic team as having characteristics of mass graves, but no further investigation followed.

The JRS-backed Radio Kwizera has donated 50 solar powered free-play radio sets to schools in the refugee camps of Ngara and Biharamulo districts of Tanzania, the Catholic NGO Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS) reported on Friday. Forty six of the radios would be used by primary schools in the camps of Lukole, Lumasi and Kitali to monitor education programmes produced and broadcast by Radio Kwizera, it said.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Saturday urged Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi to step aside next year, when his term of office finishes under the constitution, and to let a new president be elected, the 'New York Times' reported. President Moi sidestepped direct questions as to whether he would stand again, saying that the destiny of Kenya was in the hands of the people themselves.

Research funded by the Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS) has found that 90 percent of respondents displaced by tribal land clashes feared to return home due to ongoing hostility, the Catholic NGO reported on Friday. Land clashes directly linked to the 1992 and 1997 multi-party elections in Kenya had prompted JRS to commission research to assess the situation of those displaced by the clashes and to identify warning signs that portended violence, it said.

Fourth Session of the Independent Commission on "Africa and the Challenges
of the Third Millennium"
Date: 28-29 May 2001
Location: Accra (Ghana)
Contact Details: For more information, please contact :
Bernard VERSCHUEREN [email protected]
Africa Millennium Project (233-21) 77 53 60
Iddrisu SIDDIQ [email protected]
UNDP-Accra (233-21) 77 38 90 ou (233-24) 32 76 61

The group of eight pro-Tutsi parties supporting Colonel Epitace Bayaganakandi as transitional president have issued a statement condemning the "unacceptable manipulation by the government and its associates aimed at avoiding the implementation of the Arusha agreement", the private Burundi news agency NetPress reported. It said the parties believed that a recent meeting brokered by the Italian San Egidio religious community which brought together the CNDD faction of Leonard Nyangoma, the hardline Tutsi PARENA party, the government, and ruling party UPRONA, as well as the recent visit to South Africa by President Pierre Buyoya were attempts to "exclude Bayaganakandi".

A former MP is among 10 people sentenced to death in a ruling on genocide by a court in the northwestern town of Gisenyi, Rwandan radio reported on Saturday. It said Wellars Banzi, who was an MP under the former regime and an ex-chairman of the Mouvement republicain national pour le developpement (MRND), was among 54 people on trial for genocide. Twenty three others were sentenced to life imprisonment. He was found guilty of "inciting ethnic division" through articles he wrote for the extremist 'Kangura' newspaper.

The UN Security Council mission wound up its visit to the region at the weekend, after talks in Kampala on the last leg of the trip. The leader of the mission, French ambassador Jean-David Levitte, is due to provide a closed-door briefing to the Council on the eight-country tour on Tuesday. While in Uganda, the 11 ambassadors met Jean-Pierre Bemba, leader of the rebel Front de liberation du Congo (FLC) for talks on the disengagement of his forces from positions in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

On 24 May, Eritreans celebrated 10 years of independence from Ethiopian rule. In an address to the nation, Presidents Isayas Afewerki stressed the need to reduce the size of the army, swollen after the two year border conflict with Ethiopia in 1998, the pro-government Visafric news agency said. The demobilisation of enlisted soldiers and their reintegration into civilian society would reduce government expenditure on the military and generate economic growth, Isayas said.

A large-scale humanitarian disaster loomed as the lives of drought-affected populations of central, western and southern Sudan entered a more difficult phase, according to the latest summary report from UNOCHA, for the month of April. In addition to some 600,000 people being in dire need of food and supplies, infant mortality was increasing, malnutrition rates were rising - especially among children, and new segments of society were experiencing vulnerability, it said.

US President George W. Bush has prohibited the import of all rough diamonds from Liberia, the US State Department reported. Liberia is under UN sanctions for dealing in Sierra Leonean diamonds and otherwise supporting Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels.

The evacuation of tens of thousands of refugees from the Parrot's Beak in southern Guinea is nearing completion, UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski said on Friday. He said about 2,000 refugees remaining in small groups in camps and villages inside the Beak, an insecure area wedged into Sierra Leone, would be transferred over the next two days to the Katkama transit camp to the north.

Although Zimbabwe is likely to face serious food shortages this year, the situation is not likely to lead to the predicted flood of refugees entering neighbouring countries, observers and civic organisations told IRIN on Friday. "Those with skills are leaving, but this is not a new phenomena," a foreign economic analyst told IRIN from Harare. Estimates suggest about 400,000 Zimbabweans have left in recent years, mainly for South Africa, Botswana, Britain and North America.

I thought I should write to thank Kabisa-Fahamu for the wonderful work that you are doing in inter-alia up-dating us on a number of issues and bringing us news from accross the world. It really is a pleasure reading through most of the staff atht you bring to us through this newsletter. Keep it up!

Of interest though is the debate around the issue of compensation to affected countries by former colonialist states. One would like to hear views of members to the project on this issue, as I think is one of very burning issues and needs to be confronted and addressed.

This would even be of necessity as we continue to, in disbelief, note that countries from the the developed world are reluctant to write off debts of poor countries, who, if it were not for the brutal colonialist tendencies and practices, which resulted in invasions and brutal uprooting of resources from these countries, they probably would not be in these type of financial difficulties.

I would definately like the subject put on the public domain for vigorous discussions, which should lead to resolutions taken and loobbying done for their implementation.

Finanlly, please receive our latest research results on 'Impact of Freedom of Expression on the Rights of the Child', whic we conducted during the year 2000.

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