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Pambazuka News 253: Cote d'Ivoire: the flame that guarantees immobilisation
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Highlights from this issue
Featured this week
2006-05-04
FEATURED: Following last week’s article on Côte d’Ivoire, Yveline Dévérin continues to unravel the complex political situation in the country
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:
- Interview with Prof. Ernest Wamba dia Wamba on the situation in the DRC
- World Press Freedom Day: Internet censorship on the rise?
- World Press Freedom Day: Cameroonian journalist Pius Njawe on his 126 arrests
LETTERS: On Charles Taylor and Wole Soyinka
BLOGGING AFRICA: Blog columnist Sokari Ekine wraps up the African blogosphere
BOOKS AND ARTS: Shailja Patel wants to be on whatever Wole Soyinka is on when she turns 70
CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: Darfur peace talks extended yet again
HUMAN RIGHTS: ‘Treason trial’ opens in Addis
WOMEN AND GENDER: Gambia ratifies women’s rights protocol
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: Concern after militia attacks on IDP camps
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: All eyes on Chad elections
DEVELOPMENT: Towards a global labour charter for the 21st century
CORRUPTION: Tough new Kenyan laws to tackle corruption
HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS: Free health care announced in Burundi
RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA: Amnesty report profiles attacks on immigrants in Russia
ENVIRONMENT: Claims that Mega dam will exacerbate poverty in Mozambique
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Links to stories related to World Press Day
NEWS FROM THE DIASPORA: Immigrant boycott day goes ahead in US
ADVOCACY AND CAMPAIGNS: Join the virtual march against genocide in Darfur
PLUS: Internet and Technology, e-Newsletters, Courses and Jobs.
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Features
Côte d’Ivoire: The Flame that Guarantees Immobilisation
2006-05-04
Yveline Dévérin
“We are far from reaching the end of the tunnel,” writes Yveline Dévérin of the situation in Côte d’Ivoire, as she describes the complicated progression of the conflict over the last four years. She writes that: “All those who are in the position to have the power to turn the situation towards peace have an interest in the crisis continuing, not only because it is lucrative but also because it is validating. And this is exactly the same for the powers that be, as for the opposition powers, as for the rebel powers.” For further information on Côte d’Ivoire, see last week’s Pambazuka News article at http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/33854
From the 15-19 January 2006, the Côte d’Ivoire experienced a new wave of violence of the kind it has been hitherto accustomed. Both in Abidjan, but also in the west and different parts of the south of the country, for some four days, troops from the ‘patriotic galaxy’ (the presidential side) occupied the streets, hijacked cars and duly occupied the Ivorian radio and TV network (Radio Télévision Ivorienne) so as to broadcast their messages. Most significantly – and this is without precedent – they attacked UN premises, and even the Blue Helmets of the United Nations Mission for Côte d’Ivoire (ONUCI) themselves, forcing them to withdraw into the ‘security zone’ which separates the government zone from the ‘ex-rebel’ zone.
In order to appraise the ins and outs of this new phase of the crisis, it is first appropriate to review the general circumstances that have brought about this situation.
The inexorable march of immobilisation since September 2002
The immobilisation is on the march, and nothing can stop it. ¬– Edgar Faure
Without going back over the different episodes of the saga of the Ivorian crisis, it is nevertheless useful to review the recent context of these events. It should be remembered that in the Côte d’Ivoire, since September 2002, there have been six agreements and dozens of mediation operations and that these have not succeeded in progressing the situation. Now in 2006, the population has reached the stage of exasperation. The regular refrain, repeated in Abidjan for over two years: ‘We’ve had enough’, has now become ‘Even the Bétés [1] have had enough’.
In January 2006, the escalating tensions linked to the various deadlines to which the people had grown accustomed – an announced military coup, presidential elections, the nomination of the Prime-Minister, the formation of the government – came to a head. At every hurdle, the population fears a reprisal of the war, and so lives in a constant state of expectant anxiety.
The military coup announced by General Doué
Along with other exiled soldiers, the former Head of the Army has been sending several open letters via the internet to the Abidjan press. Whilst there are some who have recognised an unpleasant build-up in these undisclosed letters, it was nevertheless a shock that a broadcast on the 19 August 2004 on Radio française internationale (RFI – the French language world news service) disseminated an interview with the disgraced general, in which he is cited as explaining:
“I have chosen to break the silence because I am of the opinion that the situation has lasted for too long and that a return to peace in the Côte d’Ivoire is wholly conditional on the departure of President Gbagbo. If the international community is not willing to commit to making him go quietly, I will do so myself, by any means necessary. And let it be understood that this will not be done without serious damage.”
Nothing has happened yet, but the waiting is causing everyone to live in a state of nervous exhaustion. The mysterious attack on the military camps at Akouédo on the 2 January 2006 has raised the tension yet another notch (the reasons for, and circumstances of this attack had still not been established at the beginning of April 2006).
Elections
It was constitutionally anticipated that elections would take place on the 30 October 2005; but they did not, leaving a constitutional void. On the 20 October, the UN decreed the impossibility of holding elections. In accordance with Resolution 1622, it decided instead to prolong the mandate of President Gbagbo for another 12 months, which allowed him to remain ‘head of State’, whilst at the same time delegating a major component of his executive powers to a Prime-Minister who would be ‘acceptable to everyone’. This state of affairs was supervised by the International Working Group, whose members include the African Union, ECOWAS, the UN, the EU and France.
Nomination of a Prime-Minister ‘acceptable to everyone’
After endless dithering (the differences in nuance between ‘acceptable to everyone’ and ‘acceptable for everyone’ caused huge problems), Charles Konan Banny, the governor of the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) was finally accepted as - or rather, designated - Prime-Minister on the 4 December 2005.
Formation of the Government
After more than three weeks of bitter disagreements, Charles Konan Banny formed his Government on the 28 December 2005. The arguments were essentially over the sharing out of posts, how many were allocated to each party, and which individuals were chosen. (The parties each preferred their ‘Party bosses’, whilst Charles Konan Banny wanted technocrats.). And for the politicians the stakes were economic as well as political: as much do with personal enrichment, as with party-financing. The Ivorians refer to them as ‘fat-cat Ministers’, which aptly summarises the real problem!
The issue of the Minister of Finance
This one is far and away the fattest cat of all the ministers, and a major source of funds. He returns to the Government in the Cabinet, therefore escaping from the Ivorian Popular Front, which is finding itself cut off from a major part of its provisions. This is a crucial element in grasping the succession of events.
The National Assembly
2004 has amply demonstrated how the National Assembly has been used by Laurent Gbagbo as a mechanism for blocking reforms. But it is also a financial godsend. The members of parliament receive a not negligible amount, in a country which is weakened, and where numerous people have lost their jobs or seen their incomes much reduced following the events of November 2004.
Moreover the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI- Gbagbo’s presidential party) is largely in the majority, and therefore, importantly can make payments to the militias again: ‘A militant is someone who shares and who distributes’, declared the ‘Patriote’, the daily paper close to the opposition RDR party, remarks attributed to a mysterious and anonymous ‘official of the central office [who] was questioning Gbagbo’.
Gunpowder
Against this background, there is the additional problem of the mandate of the MPs, which, constitutionally, was supposed to expire on the 16 December 2005. As was the case for President Gbagbo, there was the problem it would be prolonged. The question was put to the International Working Group which is supposed to ‘consult all Ivorian parties with the aim of ensuring that all the Ivorian institutions function normally until elections are held’, conforming to the UN Resolution 1633. The position of the working group is clear: it acknowledges the fact that the mandate of the MPs ended on the 16 December 2005. According to the Closing Remarks of the Meeting of the International Working Group, 15 January 2006):
“In conformity with paragraph 11 of Resolution 1633 in relation to the expiry of the mandate of the National Assembly, the International Working Group has held lengthy consultations with all the Ivorian parties about the functioning of state institutions. The working group has come to the conclusion that the mandate of the National Assembly, which expired on the 16 December 2005, should not be extended.”
Incidentally, this communiqué is only repeating the terms of Resolution 1633.
The reaction was very violent by MPs, the Ivorian Popular Front, the ‘people on the streets’ and the ‘young patriots’. But we should point out that the MPs who protested were less concerned about the vindication of their function than of their status: they are quite happy no longer having legislative power, but are keen to remain MPs or to put it another way, to have their hands on the allowances. The Ivorian people were not duped by a scant mobilisation of about 3000 ‘patriots’, and this part of negotiations was notably suspect, marked by the image of the behaviour of the MPs as compared to the ordinary population.
The reaction is assuming new forms, compared with what has happened before. The ‘patriotic galaxy’ in the presidential sphere is still ahead of the game, but it is no longer mobilising the same crowds as it did in January 2003 or November 2004. Its power to cause a stir is intact, perhaps more concentrated. The theme of independence that was blown-out by the international community has been taken up again, as on previous occasions.
On the other hand, we are witnessing few physical attacks against the French (largely owing to the lack of targets). Though without historical precedent, these attacks are now being directed against the UN and the Blue Helmets. The UN headquarters are being attacked to the point where the UN is being forced to evacuate its staff. All UN symbols are being attacked; and the offices of certain UN agencies and NGOs, such as the UNOCHA (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), UNHCR and Save the Children are being pillaged, ransacked and set on fire. These attacks on NGOs are also a new phenomenon.
Another difference between this new wave of violence and those that occurred earlier is that this time, movements can be observed in all the towns of the southern zone (Daloa, Guiglo, Douékoué, San Pedro, Yamoussoukro). In the west, recent attacks on UN bases at Guiglo led to four deaths in the ‘patriot’ ranks. Everywhere, equipment essential for working is being savaged. UN military equipment was abandoned on the spot when the Bangladais Blue Helmets had to evacuate their bases in Douékoué and Guiglo, and to withdraw into the security zone, escorted by the ‘Ivorian Defence and Security Forces’ (Agence France Presse 18 January 2006). These are the same security forces which a number of observers have seen openly supporting the militias in the field, for example, opening the doors of the Ivorian Radio/TV network (Radio Television Ivoriennes) for them.
The patriots are demanding the departure of the UN. Pascal Affi N’Guessan, the Secretary General of the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI- Presidential party) has been very clear on this point. In a declaration, he has ‘demanded the departure of all UN and ‘Licorne’ [a French army operation] forces from the country which are exploiting and enslaving the Côte d’Ivoire’. At the same time, in line with the intentions of Abidjan, he has called for ‘the establishment of a national liberation government, which will bring together all the patriotic forces’. Which would mean the end of the government so painfully assembled by Charles Konan Banny.
Consequences
Paris is finally able to retreat from a perilous tête-à-tête with Abidjan. For once, ‘Licorne’, the French occupation army, is not in the firing line.
In contrast, the UN is totally discredited. Once again, it is brandishing threats it is then reluctant to apply: sanctions have been regularly announced for three years now. Not until the beginning of February 2006 were three names to be proposed, and then sanctions came into force on the 7 February. But those who have been sanctioned are of secondary significance – the heads of the two patriotic movements, Charles Blé Godé and Eugène Djué, and, for the sake of balance, one war leader from the north, Fofié Kouakou, the commander of the zone [2] of Korhogo (responsible for human rights violations).
Moreover stirring the UN to impose sanctions first required that its own equipment was set fire to, and its own soldiers were displaced. And yet again the ‘valets’, those who are politically responsible for the crisis remaining completely untouched by them. Meanwhile the UN has succeeded in overcoming the dilemma of its credibility: to dare to sanction despite the fear of a reprisal of violence against its personnel and equipment, so as not to make it obvious that fear of the latter is preventing all effectiveness.
Above all, we are witnessing the total discredit of the United Nations Mission for Côte d’Ivoire. The Blue Helmets have been attacked and have the Ivorian Armed Forces to thank for their ‘welcome’ to the west (Douékoué and Guiglo). This army escorted them as far as Bangolo (in the [UN] ‘security zone’!) where the Licorne army could protect them.
In Abidjan, French soldiers from the Licorne army had to intervene by helicopter to ‘filter out’ UN soldiers from their headquarters, where they had been barricaded. The UN soldiers are all the more discredited given that they had already been denounced as ‘tourists’ before this particular crisis [3]. Some newspapers have referred to them as ‘armed tourists’. Perhaps the most surreal development is that in February, transferrals of soldiers liberated by the peace in Liberia were effected not to safeguard the population, but rather, to safeguard UN agents.
The political consequences are important too: UN soldiers were supposed to ensure the security of the ministries of the ‘G7’ group (grouping of the 7 opposition parties). But the New Forces are refusing to invest any confidence in soldiers who are incapable of ensuring their own security! They are therefore demanding the return of their ministers to the northern zone, under their own control, or the possibility of providing for their own security – which would suppose allowing ex-rebel armies to enter Abidjan!
In view of the escalation of violence, John Bolton, the US Ambassador to the UN recently declared to the Security Council that it was possible that the United Nations Mission for Côte d’Ivoire (ONUCI) is more of a problem than a solution to the Ivorian crisis’. (UN Press Agence 0/02/2006).
In the event, the New Forces have identified excellent lines of argument and a supplementary excuse for postponing the deadlines for disarmament. This at any rate is what has been posted on their website since 21 January: ‘Unilateral Disarmament of the New Forces? The Ivorian Popular Front can give up hope of that’. The incapacity of the ONUCI to fulfil its mandate, added to open concern of the Ivorian Security Forces’ for the patriots is unlikely to reassure them.
Nevertheless, the international community has reaffirmed its support for Konan Banny, and this alone appears to reinforce his power.
The ‘patriotic galaxy’ has shown that it is now mobilising fewer people (about 3000 patriots – against several hundreds of thousands in November 2004 – though this weakness has however effectively succeeds in mobilising 7000 Blue Helmets of the UN). Manifestly, there are some cracks at the heart of the ‘patriotic galaxy’, particularly between the supporters of Blé Goudé and those of Eugène Djué. The latter have already protested against the fact that they are less ‘highly regarded’ (understand, ‘highly paid’) than those of Blé Goudé. It was Djué’s supporters who delayed in ‘liberating the streets’ on the 19 January 2006.
It should not be forgotten either that the military check points were also opportunities for racketeering. The troubles should not last too long: the armed forces which are collecting taxes from the population could not allow civilian ‘patriots’ to replace them for too long at the check points, and thus to compete with them: ‘The armed forces have come back in order to racketeer.’ (Le Front No: 111 8, 21 January 2006)
To understand the inward tensions of the different groups, particularly those at the heart of the army and of the patriotic galaxy, it is essential to understand the financial motive – which is a crucial element in deciphering the crisis. Exploiting the divisions within the opposing side is effectively also a component in the struggle between the ‘G7’ (coalition of Houphouétistes – the opposition) and Laurent Gbagbo’s Ivorian Popular Front. Cutting the Ivorian Popular Front off from its resources through the biased redistribution of the ministries was one element of a strategy designed to force the government party to negotiate a peace process.
Conclusion
We are far from reaching the end of the tunnel. Sometimes it is even tempting to ask oneself if it is not circular. The sanctions the UN has finally decided to apply (freezing bank accounts, travel bans) have only affected the intermediary figures, and have not touched either those who are making the biggest profits out of the crisis, or those who are fuelling it. The ‘patriots’ who have been affected have transformed the impact of the sanctions into martyrdom – into a grand ceremony glorifying the heroes. Their flourishing investments in the Côte d’Ivoire – cyber-cafés, petrol stations, property acquisitions – have not been hit, and they continue to receive tax-breaks from the presidential milieu, which, needless to say, is not affected by the sanctions either.
All those who are in the position to have the power to turn the situation towards peace have an interest in the crisis continuing, not only because it is lucrative but also because it is validating. And this is exactly the same for the powers that be, as for the opposition powers, as for the rebel powers. It would be reasonable to assume that considerable severance of the income linked to the crisis would mean that a large part of the interest in it would be lost, especially if this could be matched with the promise of an appearance before the International Criminal Court, which would at least cause some discomfort in retirement. But this would require all those responsible to be sanctioned. On both sides. And would therefore run the risk of another wave of anti-UN violence, which, the solidarity between heads of State makes all the more difficult to imagine.
* Yveline Dévérin is Lecturer in Geography, University of Toulouse-le-Mirail, France
* This article was translated from the original French version by Stephanie Kitchen. See www.pambazuka.org/fr for the French version of Pambazuka News. Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org
Notes
[1] The ethnic group of President Gbagbo, who is accused of pursuing ‘tribalist’ politics, which favours his own group.
[2] The ‘commander of the zone’ is, in the rebellion organisation, responsible for the region (zone). He has functions similar to those of a ‘Préfet’ [a State representative in Fraoncophone political systems – translator’s note]
[3] The people from Abidjan criticise their excursions in 4-wheel drives, in the trendy areas, their sexual tourism; which is all the more distasteful given the Ivorian population is financially shattered, and because it creates the impression they are benefiting from the crisis.
Comment & analysis
DRC: Countdown to elections
Pambazuka News Question and Answer article
2006-05-04
The first elections in 40 years are now scheduled to take place in the DRC on July 30, it was announced this week. Joseph Kabila, former taxi driver and president since the 2001 assassination of his father Laurent Kabila, will be one of 33 presidential hopefuls, while 9,587 candidates will stand for 500 seats in the senate and national assembly. Hopes are that elections will end years of war which some predictions say have claimed 3.9 million lives. Pambazuka News questioned Ernest Wamba dia Wambia on what to expect from the elections.
Pambazuka News: The date for DRC elections – June 18 – was postponed and the latest date put forward has been the end of July. Given the current circumstances in which the DRC finds itself, are elections likely to take place at all?
Ernest Wamba dia Wamba: The latest date for DRC elections has been set at July 30. It is most probably going to be changed again. Most of the political actors are unhappy about how the elections calendar is being fixed, without prior political consensus from all actors. Voices are being heard saying that elections are not likely to take place as planned. Others think that by June 30 - when the Transition was set to end, troubles are likely. Tshisekedi’s UDPS (Pambazuka News note : Étienne Tshisekedi was a former Prime Minister, UDPS stands for Union for Democracy and Social Progress) and others are now saying that only a mini intercongolese dialogue can save the situation. The dialogue should recreate a consensus for the way elections are going to be organized past June 30.
Pambazuka News : It is hoped that when elections do take place, they will provide a fresh start to the DRC. The fact that there will be 33 presidential candidates and nearly 10,000 applications for the parliamentary elections does at first sight appear to be a positive democratic development. But to what extent will the polls be democratic and to what extent is there a danger that elections could result in further disruption related to disputes over the results?
Ernest Wamba dia Wamba : At no time since independence have Congolese agreed on fundamentals of national ideals or interests (and their articulation to world powers and neighbouring countries’interests) without external arbitration. While no sum-up of the 1960s UN Congolese mission has been really done, the country is again under another UN Congolese mission. The ICD Accord (Pambazuka News note : ICD stands for Inter-Congolese Dialogue, which followed the Lusaka Accord in 1999 that officially ended armed conflict) made the CIAT (Pambazuka News : The French acronym for the International Committee to Accompany the Transition) the last resort in the conduct of the Transition.
The Congolese do not really own the very elctoral process itself - not just because the international community finances most of it, but even the fact that the whole conception of what democracy we must have seems to be outside influenced (thus, the tendencies of carving the laws with certain people in mind). By the way, people went to vote, in the referendum, for a Constitution they had not seen. And since there were four different constitutional texts the day before the referendum, those who had seen one did not know which one they were approving.
There is a general will and enthusiasm, among people, to go to elections to settle the legitimacy crisis. But, increasingly, it appears that free and fair elections, the way things are being conducted, are out of the question. Those who feel to gain argue that it does not matter the quality of elections ; with time in the future, things will improve. Right now, what counts is to start. The manipulatory character of Congolese politics based on the conception of winning against rather than with makes it difficult to have agreements over the need to set up a positive political atmosphere, acceptable to all, conducive to an acceptable and thus credible electoral process. Certainly, results are going to be disputed. The institution for settleting the conflits, the Supreme Court of Justice, has already been discredited in many actors’ views. The great number of candidates is mostly due to the fact that politics is seen, and has been functioning, as the only way to have access to some income.
Pambazuka News : The involvement of foreign powers – both regional and international – is well documented in fuelling the conflict in the DRC. How will these interests effect the elections?
Ernest Wamba dia Wamba : The most important thing is that for the first time, there seems to be a consensus in the international community to have elections, even if only symbolically. Their countries’ respective people whose money is used to finance the elections in the DRC may ask for explanation if there is nothing to show. There is a sense, hence the precipitous character of the electoral process, that there are particular puppets some powers would like to see win in the elections ; people who may guarantee their interests to the extent of not needing instability to secure them. Those powers, it is hoped, will discipline their allies that are Congolese neighbours.
Pambazuka News : The tremendous potential of the DRC is often cited. Yet the country faces enormous problems: Its infrastructure has been destroyed, there is still widespread fighting etc etc. Does anyone have a viable recovery plan on the table or will it just be business as usual following the elections?
Ernest Wamba dia Wamba : Some of us are actually raising that same issue. The transitionary government has not even had an awareness of the fact that the country is in a castrophic situation and has thus failed to proclaim it to the world and provoke a general solidarity to focus on trying to get the country out of that situation and actually come up with a plan for doing it. Few candidates seem to be aware of this need, let alone to think of the essential tasks to pursue after the elections.
I did want to stand for the presidential elections to make sure this issue is made part of the electoral campaign discussions. As I opposed paying the so-called caution of $50,000 (such a high price or tax to pay to exercise one’s right to be candidate - This favors of course looters-past, present and puppets), my candidacy was not retained, one of among 40. We (in a group) are still agitating for that position; we are about to release a public statement.
Pambazuka News : What should be the top five priorities of any newly-elected government?
Ernest Wamba dia Wamba : I believe that the general framework should include two essential global tasks: proclaim the fact that the country is in a catastrophic situation and work out a plan to get out of the situation, on the basis of people’s involvement; start to build a State, from below, different from the one, now decomposed, built from a colonial model.
The top priorities should include: radical improvement of fiscal structures (it is easy to spend money, but tough to raise it, especially when the country is like now), address fast the rehabilitation of economic-related infrastructures with an aim to integrate parts of the country; stop all the leaks, especially the looting structures (mines, oil, wood, etc.), rebuild basic state apparatuses, with people involvement (reduce government and administration sizes); a lot of work for people mobilization linked to job creation - where feasible without forcing, people must be displaced from overcrowded cities to the country side where the agriculture policy and local State structures being built may be tested. It is hoped that the solidarity demand may mean a temporary stop on the debt payment.
Pambazuka News : Marie-Madeleine Kalala, DRC Minister for Human Rights, in briefing the UN Human Rights Committee in March 2006, declared that a Truth and Reconciliation Commission had been established, as well as a national human rights monitoring institute. This was in order to identify people responsible for human rights violations. How important are these processes to healing the DRC?
Ernest Wamba dia Wamba : The existence of institutions is often seen here as its only value. Not only are they ill manned, with incompetent people or people who hardly know what reconciliation implies or people who happen to be puppets of forces that are scared of real reconciliation. Nothing very serious has taken place to actually say that there has been attempts at reconciling Congolese. No ceremony, even at the presidential level, even just symbolically has taken place.
To be effective, like a palaver, reconciliation must involve first the leaders themselves who are willing to accept their own misgivings and are willing to pardon others and be tolerant to hear all kind of grievances voiced, etc. Reconciliation cannot be done privately. The whole healing process is still to be started and done. In fact, most Congolese are counting on the performance of the International Criminal Court to get the criminals judged. It is not easy to identify people responsible for human rights violations, when those are in power.
I do know some human rights advocates who have been threatened because of their work of identifying certain human rights violators, one or two had to leave the country. If archives can be safely organized to be used when some of those people are out of power, that may be a good thing to do; but, that does not deal really with the healing part yet.
Pambazuka News: Lastly, the situation of the DRC can be seen as unique, given the complicated nature of the country in the first place, as well as the role of international and regional actors. Yet, the solution seems to be: Have an election and everything will be okay. Has the complicated nature of the country been adequately considered?
Ernest Wamba dia Wamba : It is true the international community pushes the thesis : have an election and everything will be okay. This seems to be the only way of justifying neocolonialism these days. Most of the recommendations are thus not specific, only things done elsewhere taken to be master keys used everywhere, including the so-called post-conflict economic measures.
When you have a leadership of a complicated country that knows close to nothing of the country’s history and the advisors are only interested in self-enrichment, not much can be expected. The present ones are in fact hostile to any Congolese intellectual who may make the difference. Universities are left to rot. The foreign partisan advisers don’t pay attention to the complicated character of the country either, not even the long term interest of the country. The consequence is a country in a catastrophic situation. There has to be a real break, from the leadership perspective, from the past.
There has to emerge really committed intellectuals, patriotic enough, willing to really come up with a vision to grasp fully the problems of the country and clearly specify its short and long term interest and the latter relation to foreign powers and countries’ interests. A real plan is necessary to prioritize the elements of a government programme. We need a think tank devoted to that task of mapping what must be known and done to make the country occupy its real place in Africa and the world. I would enjoy being involved in this work.
* Professor Ernest Wamba dia Wamba is a historian who has taught at a number of universities including Harvard University and the University of Dar-es-Salaam
* Interview conducted by email. Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org
Internet censorship on the rise?
2006-05-04
Patrick Burnett
As internet usage in Africa grows, governments are beginning to wake up to the power of the online medium to communicate, influence and organize. Already numerous examples of internet censorship in the form of arrests and website blocking can be found. This is likely to grow, says Patrick Burnett.
News last week was that Internet giant Yahoo! had been fingered in the November 2003 imprisonment of Chinese cyber-dissident Jiang Lijun, who was sentenced to four years for pro-democracy postings on the internet. The company found itself in the hot seat after Reporters Without Borders published documents it said proved that Yahoo! provided information that led to the jailing. Lijun, 40, was sentenced for “subversion”, accused of seeking to use “violent means” to impose democracy. It is the third time that Yahoo! has been implicated in collaborating with the Chinese authorities in tracking down those who use the internet to express divergent opinions, says the press freedom group.
Not that Yahoo! is alone. Microsoft and Google have also been accused of assisting the Chinese government to enforce their censorship laws. An enormous internet market of 111 million users combined with an official intolerance for opposing views has led the Chinese to develop sophisticated web monitoring and censoring systems. Web sites and blogs are frequently blocked and internet searchers disrupted.
Compared to China, Africa has a tiny internet market of only 23 million users, or 2-3 percent of the total population. As a result it has been easy for governments to ignore the threat that the internet poses to them in terms of its organizing potential and its ability to act as a vehicle for diverse thoughts and opinions. The reality is that this is changing. Regimes are likely to make greater use of internet censorship techniques and crack down on those who use the internet to express contrary views. Africa already has a poor record of press freedom and locking up of journalists. This record is likely to be duplicated in cyber-space.
It’s no coincidence that Zimbabwe, which relies heavily on China for financial and technical support, has drafted the Interception of Communications Bill 2006, which seeks to empower the authorities to intercept telephone, e-mail and cell phone messages. When the Bill comes into force the government will establish a telecommunications agency called the Monitoring and Interception of Communications Centre to monitor mail, according to the Zimbabwe Independent (http://www.kubatana.net/html/archive/legisl/060324zimind.asp?sector=LEGISL). The Bill will compel operators to install software and hardware to enable them to intercept and store information as directed by the state. The service providers will also be asked to link their message monitoring equipment to the government agency. Failure to comply will result in a fine or imprisonment.
While the Zimbabwean government has thus clearly recognised that control of information extends to email and have plans to govern this area, examples of direct internet censorship are already easy to find. In February, the Ugandan government deployed filtering techniques against a Ugandan news radio station's website. This was the first known case of internet censorship in Uganda and came at a time when public debate was crucial - just before presidential and parliamentary elections on 23 February. The blocking was done by local Internet Service Providers, who effectively barred the site’s internet identity number, known as an IP address. This method of censorship meant that 700 other sites hosted by the same server were also blocked, according to tests by Nart Villeneuve, head of research at Toronto University. (http://ice.citizenlab.org/index.php?s=Uganda)
In Ethiopia, where up to 70 journalists are believed to be detained, Ethiopian security forces on January 27 detained Frezer Negash, a correspondent for the US-based Web site Ethiopian Review. The Committee to Protect Journalists reported at the time that Ethiopian officials had cracked down on Negash over her online writings, which were unfavourable to the government. Negash was freed from custody on March 10 after a court ordered her release on bail. (http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/africa/ethiopia30jan06na.html)
But the most sophisticated examples of internet censorship have emerged from North Africa. The extent of the problem was starkly demonstrated by the actions of the Tunisian government during the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in November 2005, when it was made clear that any opinions outside what the Tunisian government deemed acceptable were not to be tolerated. Online writers have been imprisoned and websites are routinely blocked. According to a Human Rights Watch report, tests conducted in 2005 found that Tunisia censors hundreds of websites. In addition, Human Rights Watch reported that internet users believed the government monitored email and internet traffic. Stiff laws were used to detain online writers for expressing their opinions. In neighbouring Libya, the government has blocked critical web sites based outside the country and hacked a website critical of the government, Human Rights Watch says. Egypt, reports Human Rights Watch, had detained people for their activities online and used the internet to monitor and entrap homosexuals. (http://hrw.org/reports/2005/mena1105/2.htm#_Toc119125694)
These examples show that some African governments, caught between a rock and a hard place as liberalization of telecommunications opens up the internet market to more users but at the same time reluctant to let go of state controlled information channels, are beginning to wake up to the threat the internet presents to maintaining the status quo. Crucially, governments are not seeking to shut down the internet entirely and in many cases have facilitated its growth, but what they are seeking to do is to control the flow of information, in much the same way as traditional media channels have been controlled. This presents dangers in that it fosters an environment of self-censorship where citizens of a country do not feel free to express their opinions online. Internet Service Providers, fearful that they will face the wrath of the law, would rather remove content that may be remotely offensive, thus abrogating censorship to the private sector. This in itself can be profoundly unscientific. As the Ugandan example demonstrates, by taking down a single internet site, 700 additional sites were inadvertently blocked.
If the above examples and trends are anything to go by, as the internet spreads and new forms of expression such as blogging become more popular, internet censorship is going to increase as governments realize the power of the online medium. Control is likely to involve governments blocking websites they deem undesirable, the arrest and persecution of those who use the internet to express critical views and the introduction of laws that allow government to control the internet, given that in many African countries laws governing traditional media and forms of expression may not extend to the internet. Internet censorship is likely to take place with greater vigour in countries that already have poor freedom of expression records. Unless a government has an entrenched respect for human rights that extends to all areas of society, repression is likely to replicate itself in the virtual environment of the internet.
Lastly, an enormous barrier to the benefits of the internet in Africa lies in the fact that so few people have access – and that this is not going to change in the near future, even though growth rates between 2000-2005 were over 400 percent. In this sense, it is the structural inequities of the global economic order that censor tens of millions of people. As a 2003 Privacy International (http://www.privacyinternational.org/article.shtml?cmd[347]=x-347-103801 ) report noted:
“Thus, the solution to African Internet censorship lies as much in finding global solutions to these problems, as it is about reinforcing national and regional respect for freedom of expression on the medium of the Internet.”
* Patrick Burnett is online news editor, Pambazuka News
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org
Never a Prisoner
2006-05-04
Pius Njawe
One of Africa’s utmost press freedom heroes, Cameroonian journalist Pius Njawe has faced relentless harassment by the authorities throughout his career. In the past thirty years he has been arrested 126 times and served prison time on three different occasions. Despite ongoing adversities, Njawe continues to publish his newspaper Le Messager. In 1993, he was awarded the WAN Golden Pen of Freedom in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the independent press in his country. Pius wrote this article for the World Association of Newspapers on the occassion of World Press Freedom Day on May 3.
I have been a journalist since the age of 15. I started as an errand boy at a newspaper called Semences africaines, in the city of Yaoundé, Cameroon. Over the past 34 years, I have been arrested 126 times while carrying out my profession as a journalist. Physical and mental torture, death threats, the ransacking of my newsroom, etc., has often been my daily lot in a situation where repression and corruption, even within the press, have become the norm. Woe betide the slightest dissenting voice in this context, for it attracts all kinds of wrath, even from so-called colleagues…
My longest detention lasted ten months. I was arrested on 24 December 1997 for daring to wonder about the President's health after he had experienced heart problems whilst watching the Cameroonian football cup final. On 13 January 1998 I was sentenced to 24 months in prison. Four months later, the sentence was reduced to 12 months under pressure from national and international public opinion. But that was not enough to remove the pressure, and after ten months, the President resigned himself to pardoning me, a pardon I had never asked for.
I have never felt like a prisoner when I have been behind bars. You can be in prison without being a prisoner; the real prisoners are those who imprison journalists whose only crime is to inform or to express an opinion. On the other hand, being deprived of your family, your colleagues and the people you love is a real ordeal; and the tears you cry say less about being behind bars than about the pain and suffering your absence causes on all sides. I used to shed my tears in the arms of Jane - my late wife - and my children, when I saw the suffering they had to endure to come and see me in prison, as if my absence from them was not enough for my persecutors. I could not stop myself from crying when Jane gave birth to a still-born child on 9 January 1998, four days before my trial, following beatings she received the previous day when she brought me food, by prison guards who did not even have pity on her late pregnancy.
While my many detentions have largely contributed to confirming my convictions about certain democratic and human values, my long stay in prison above all stimulated my sense of solidarity with others, particularly the poor and the outcast. It strengthened my determination to use journalism as a weapon against all kinds of abuse. For there is no better weapon than words for restoring peace and justice among people, although it depends how those words are used.
To have the privilege of writing taken away from you overnight feels like being victim of a crime. The prison governor called me into his office one day to warn me that as a prisoner I did not have the right to write, and that my persistence would land me in solitary confinement. I immediately started to think about what my long days would be like in a cell I was sharing with more than 150 fellow detainees, almost all of them crooks, if I could not write. So I decided to defy the governor's ban by stepping up my bi-weekly column, "Le Bloc-notes du bagnard" (The Convict's Notebook), in my newspaper Le Messager. The chain of people I was bribing - including prison guards - to get my column out, was long; I have always wondered how I would have survived in that prison without writing.
During a lecture I once gave to students from a well-known university in New York, the director of the school of journalism made the following remark: "Mr. Njawe, my students and I appreciated your brilliant exposé of the situation regarding press freedom in Cameroon and in Africa in general. But I cannot help wondering one thing: either you invented all these stories to impress us, which I could understand, or everything you have told us is true and I am dying to ask you why you continue to work in the profession in the suicidal situation you describe?"
It is indeed difficult to understand why people persist in a profession that causes them so much misery and suffering. As regards my own case, I invariably reply to everyone who wonders this, that I entered journalism the way you enter a religion; journalism is my religion. I believe in it, and a thousand trials, a thousand arrests, a thousand imprisonments and as many death threats will never make me change job. On the contrary, the harder it is, the more you have to believe in it and cling to it.
Even in the depths of a prison cell you can feel good about being a journalist. How many times have I not rubbed my hands in my cell, my fingers itching to once again hold a pen between them, when thinking back over my career? How many times have I smiled when recalling an editorial or an article that helped foil the most atrocious plans against Cameroon and its people? If only for consolation, one sometimes ends up saying: "They're right to take it out on me like this, after all, I haven’t spared them in my articles…". Provided, of course, that you adhere to the best practices of journalism - that you scrupulously respect the canons that make our profession so great.
Respecting ethical standards is of fundamental importance for anyone wishing to be a journalist. It protects you against all kinds of people who would like to teach you a lesson. When you are facing a judge who is being manipulated, it is your irreproachable professional defense that makes that judge examine his or her own conscience. It is what wins your colleagues over to your cause when you are in difficulty. Doing your job properly therefore seems to be the best advice anyone can give a journalist operating in a context of constant harassment. And doing your job properly also, and above all, means avoiding "gumbo journalism", a practice becoming increasingly widespread in our profession, where people write what they are paid to write instead of giving real information and the truth. While journalists have the right to earn a decent living, even in emerging nations, honest journalists never need pockets in their shrouds…
Journalists perform a social function, which gives them not immunity, but the right to look critically at the way a nation is being run. While playing this crucial role, it is important for them to be protected by the law, but also by the whole of society for which they work. Mobilization is therefore essential every time a journalist is thrown into prison, or threatened with arrest or death. Because every time a journalist is silenced, society loses one of its watchdogs.
* This article was made available by the World Association of Newspapers to mark World Press Freedom Day on May 3. Visit http://www.worldpressfreedomday.org/ for more information.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org
Pan-African Postcard
Monitoring development promises
2006-05-05
Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem
Mozambique is the latest favourite of the international community, following in the footsteps of disgraced Uganda which held the position in the 80s and 90s. Tajudeen Abdul Raheem scrapes away the veneer of growth rates and donor funding to look at issues of governance and accountability. He concludes with news about the African Monitor, launched this week to monitor whether development promises are being kept by both donor and recipient nations.
If you read anything about Mozambique today and the 'tremendous progress' the country is supposed to be making, one cannot help recollecting similar rave reviews and reports about Uganda in the late 1980s through the 1990s. The statistics are very familiar: over 6% growth rate, expanding opportunities for business, IMF/World Bank ideology, a confident middle class, and an environment open to foreign investment, INGOs and Donors.
In the case of Uganda there was also identification with 'A Strong Man' who is considered an 'enlightened' or 'benevolent' dictator. Of course the ovation for Uganda is no longer as enthusiastic as it used to be. This is not only due to the economic limitations of macro economic rejuvenation in a dependent economy but also the limits of political tolerance between the ruling party/clique and president on the one hand and their erstwhile and over indulgent foreign supporters. In some senses Museveni has become the tail trying to wag the dog or in another sense a beggar who cannot accept the ultimate loss of sovereignty stemming from an economy that is too much dependent on outside forces and support.
So it was with Uganda in mind that I arrived in Maputo last week. There are no doubts about the visible signs of a country in some kind of rebirth after a painful history of armed conflict largely the result of regional destabilization of neighboring apartheid South Africa and the immoral logic of the cold war. Many new buildings are going up and old ones being rehabilitated.
There are more than twenty big donor agencies and organizations in the country who are basically the engine of the new growth. It is a reward for successful peaceful settlement of the war against RENAMO, ideological capitulation or pragmatic realignment away from the former Stalinist model and endorsement for the political leadership.
But as in Uganda this support came with costs that increase everyday. One, it is not sustainable that a country be so dependent on foreigners through both direct budget support and resources for its capital development. Two, such endorsement comes with political consequences that often lead to collisions in the future, especially after a period of stabilization. Those who pay the piper will want to call the tune eventually. Also the growth may not guarantee any long lasting development.
Speaking to some of the officials of the key government ministries, the story is similar to what many people in financial and economic ministries in many African countries will recognize. Just take the example of the time that the government of Mozambique spends on a twice-yearly review with donors. Each round takes 45 days each, which means 90 days in the year. This means that the working year is actually reduced, so what time is spent by government officials on actually working to deliver services to their own people? Those who are condemned to these endless missions and evaluations know that as a consequence of these meetings more meetings and missions are generated. In a way development becomes paper-driven. No wonder the 'miraculous' average growth rates bandied about often mean nothing to the vast population condemned to eke out their living in the 'micro' level.
Many African governments as a result of their collective political failure and mismanagement of the resources of the continent have made themselves supervisors for foreign interests and are now conditioned to be accountable to donors and Western agencies. They are often too scared or intimidated to resist unless when their narrow political interests (like continuing stay in power) are concerned. Yet donor demands and interventions are collectively undermining the capacity of our governments and peoples. Even our largely foreign sponsored NGOs (increasingly substituted for civil society) are also more accountable to their funders than the people they serve. Many of the so called opposition politicians spend more time complaining, whining and pining to foreign (and usually Western ) diplomats and other aid officials than organising to politically challenge misruling governments.
Our governments sign up to international commitments like the Millennium Development Goals in addition to mountains of other Intra African protocols or agreements like NEPAD and the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) without expecting to fulfill them.
Not a few Africans are fed up with this situation but too many of us agonise instead of organising. But Njongonkulu Ndungane, the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, following in the tradition of activist priests like his predecessor, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, is hoping to reverse the trend of governance without accountability both on the continent and internationally. And he is challenging other Africans to join him. On Wednesday 3 May, after almost a year of consultations across the continent among civil society, NGOs, governments, International agencies and multilateral institutions, he launched the African Monitor. The mission is to make sure that African governments and non African governments meet up to the commitments they have made under various instruments, chiefly the MDGs, NEPAD, G8, etc.
It is a very daunting task. However because Ndungane has a wide constituency of faith based groups (not limited to Christians or Anglicans but involving other faiths)and also due to the existence of so many groups working (often in isolation) across the continent, the African Monitor may actually provide a useful service in building bridges of activism and policy engagement and ensure accountability through high level advocacy backed by grass roots activism.
As I have argued elsewhere, Africa does not need new commitments or promises, just a fulfillment of old ones we made to ourselves and made by others. While our governments are used to being formally accountable to outsiders, the African Monitor hopes to make them accountable to their own peoples and also monitor the accountability of others to us. In a way it may operationalise one of the few good things in the APRM, the principle of 'mutual accountability' between us and those who claim to be our 'international partners'. As the South African vice president observed in her conclusion at the workshop that preceded the launch, even the monitors need to be watched.
* Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is General-Secretary of the Pan African Movement, Kampala (Uganda) and Co-Director of Justice Africa
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org
Letters
On Charles Taylor
2006-05-03
T. Nyikayaramba
I would like to comment on the Charles Taylor issue. I am a Zimbabwean.
According to my understanding, of which I stand to be corrected, Charles Taylor negotiated with the mediator Obasanjo (of Nigeria). Taylor decided to exchange his pride of being a president with exile. He stepped down to save many lives. It is important to honour set agreements, since it affects other nations.
The following points are worthy noting:
AU negotiators do not stick by their promises for peace. Obasanjo betrayed Taylor. He is supposed to have protected Taylor to maintain his promise for the good of peace. If Taylor had not chosen to step down, he could still be president and many people would be dead by now. He chose to save many lives and for such a bold move, he has to be protected. Its more difficult for any other President or dictator in Africa to step down under same conditions as Taylor, since protection is not guaranteed. If I were a dictator, and Obasanjo came for negotiations, I wouldn’t step down. I would rather protect my life and let other people die than ending up in Taylor's situation. I strongly feel that injustice has been done to this dictator. I know that he was a dictator. I am convinced that he caused serious sufferings to the people of Liberia, but please note that he decided to step down to stop further suffering.
It’s now very difficult for any dictator to trust the AU.
On Wole Soyinka in the USA
2006-05-03
Jacques Depelchin
I cannot say that I followed every interview Soyinka gave in his visit to the San Francisco Bay Area, but in all of them, including the one excerpted in the latest issue of Pambazuka News, there was something striking: not a word about African literature. It was almost as if the ones doing the interview had decided that the subject did not even exist or that (just as bad) it was not worthy of discussion. One is reminded of Oxford Historian, Trevor-Roper's words in relation to African History: "There is no such a thing as African history." Sure, Soyinka is very committed to politics (Nigerian, African, planetary) in ways which tend to encourage this kind of public humiliation which says without saying that there is no such a thing as African literature. And to the face of the first African Nobel Prize Winner for literature, to boot.
Clearly, the interviewers were more interested in showing off by pulling Soyinka into an arena in which they felt more comfortable rather than showing their ignorance or contempt for African literature.
Would it not have been interesting, informative, to hear from Soyinka how writers in other parts of the Continent were doing, (e.g. in Zimbabwe, Angola, Mozambique, South Africa?). How often is there a chance to listen to someone like Soyinka share his understanding, his knowledge of the literary scene on a Continent which continues to be treated as a sort of tabula rasa? What is the state of African publishing? Why has the Western publishing industry favored certain African writers over others? Did his prize lead to greater interest, among Western publishers, in searching for new literary talents in Africa? The list of questions which could have been posed and were not is so long that their avoidance was difficult not to notice.
Interestingly Soyinka did try to steer (ever so subtly) the conversation toward his passion for theater. Still, one wishes he had pushed harder. One can only marvel at the durability of the Discovery Syndrome and the multiple ways in which it manifests itself.
Thank you for the good work and do take care.
Books & arts
Expanding the Vision of Humanity: Soyinka the Artist
2006-05-03
Shailja Patel
The crowd at Cody's, Berkeley's legendary bookshop, is multicolored in every way – skin, clothing, headgear. On this Saturday night, over 100 people have filled the upstairs space to see and hear Wole Soyinka read from his new memoir: "You Must Set Forth At Dawn." The chairs are all taken. People stand at the back, pressed up against display tables and bookshelves.
When Soyinka enters the room, his trademark shock of white hair moves like a beacon to the podium. At 70 years old, he has been through gruelling physical trials, including 22 months in solitary confinement under the Abacha regime. He's on a book tour so jam-packed with interviews, readings, signings, speaking engagements, it would exhaust a 25-year old. And even more tiring, one would imagine, is the recurrence of the same questions, over and over, at every appearance:
What do you think about the conflict over oil in Nigeria?
Is there hope for democracy in Nigeria? In Africa?
What are the responsibilities of The African Writer?
What Can We Do About Darfur?
Also recurrent in every audience: the self-important windbags who don't even have a question. Who simply want to trumpet their nanosecond of African Experience:
"I was in Ghana in the Peace Corps in 1972..."
"I visited your country in 1981 and I was told it was a very dangerous place for Americans…"
Yet, he fields them all. With grace, humor, energy, presence, attention. Stays awake. Stays engaged. Stays responsive.
Tonight, he reads an excerpt that describes his departure from Nigeria, 10 years ago, by "shall we say, an unorthodox route". A 10-hour journey by pillion on the back of a motorbike, through bush and forest via smugglers' routes, across the border. He describes the very real physical dangers and hardships: branches slashing his face in pitch darkness, risk of capture; then renders them surreal with an equally vivid evocation of the two fantasies clung to throughout the journey: a long, cold shower, followed by a long, cold beer.
His firm resonant actor's voice reminds us of his decades in theatre. It has an unhurried, hypnotic quality that redeems his frequently-rambling, verbose sentences that can seem clunky and tedious on the page. He draws out syllables, "agonized in-ten-si-ty"; aerates the prose with pauses, visibly savours the memories his words conjure up for him. "I'll sing the praises of whatever brings me solace."
So a terrifying flight into exile also becomes an ode to beer, an adventure story. The passage could be a metaphor for Soyinka's own life and work, marked by his capacity to hymn the tiny comforts of life, the minutiae of human longings, as a defiant counterpoint to the larger oppressive forces of history.
Questions about his work as an artist bring out the different strands of thought that have made up his opus.
Q: African literature in past decades has focused overwhelmingly on the encounter between African and European culture. What are African writers most concerned with today?
A: We've moved into a stage of internal probing. An inquiry into the internal states of contradiction that have prompted the state of affairs on the continent. Issues of power, and the alienation from power, of the people being governed. We're really probing into the social interstices of our being, the philosophical givens. We've become far more inward looking over the last few decades.
Q: Africa is frequently discussed generically, as a single continent, ignoring the multiple nations and cultures.
A: This is not just a mistake the West makes. Even some African intellectuals do it as an act of choice – a sensibility that denotes unity – "don't split up Africa – we're one." It's a nice sentiment, but it lacks a basis of reality.
Q: You write in English, but what is your relationship to your mother tongue?
A: Colonial language was forced upon us. Just as colonial boundaries were enforced to serve administrative and economic needs of the colonial power. After independence, these new nations required, for the same administrative, economic, legislative purposes, a national language. Which was usually the colonial language – English, or French, or Portuguese.
So my generation grew up bilingual. We had our mother tongue, and then we had English – the language of exchange, mobilization, commerce, courts. From a political aspect, it was also the language of unity.
Q: Is Heinemann's African Writers Series broad enough to cover West Africa literature adequately?
A: The series is very uneven. While it did pioneering work, it also tended to do away with standards. That was why I originally refused to be published by it. But it was also a marvelous instrument for giving new voices an avenue for publication.
Q. What are the roles and responsibilities of the African writer who lives abroad?
A: The same as the role of the writer in any part of the world. Which is no different from the role of the bricklayer, or mason, or carpenter – that is, the role of a citizen. A human being, a community member.
The writer has one advantage: the tool of instant communication. As a citizen, the writer's role is to inform, sometimes to entertain. When I seek something to read, I don't reach for a political tract, I reach for a poem, a beautiful poem. But the very act of entering another's experience enlarges and strengthens me to return to the cauldron of political engagement.
So as a writer, you must find a way to enlarge your vision of humanity.
* * * *
Many might say that with the award of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Soyinka reached the apogee of achievement as an artist. He could afford to rest on his laurels. But he continues to delight in new adventures, to bring undiminished zest to his face-to-face encounters with audiences around the world. Perhaps this appetite for dialogue, this sustained creative energy, are the finest testaments to his work. They are living proof that art can, and does, revitalize, rejuvenate, reinvent, in the face of all challenges.
I want whatever he's on. And I want to still be on it when I'm seventy.
* Shailja Patel is Kenyan poet, writer, and spoken word theater artist. Visit her at www.shailja.com
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org
Blogging Africa
Africa blog round up
2006-05-02
Sokari Ekine
Egyptian blogger, Baheyya (http://baheyya.blogspot.com/2006/04/on-eve-of-hearing.html) reports on the arrest of peaceful demonstrators holding a vigil in support of judges campaigning for judicial independence.
“Amid screams, sobs, and cries of ‘Down with Hosni Mubarak,’ ‘Down with Habib al-Adli,’ riot police cornered protestors as plain clothed agents removed them one by one. In a final, eerie scene, police peeled off the huge Egyptian flag that demonstrators had strung up to frame their vigil.”
Baheyya also provides a series of background posts to the demonstrations, explaining the last 4 years of confrontation between the judicial system and the President.
Another Egyptian blogger, the Skeptic (http://elijahzarwan.net/blog/?p=109) posts on the renewal of “the Emergency Law” last Sunday, adding to the picture of an extremely repressive and dictatorial regime in Egypt. He also writes that 25 members of the Muslim Brotherhood have been arrested for putting up posters protesting the renewal of the Emergency Law.
Lavina Live (http://lavinialive.blogspot.com/2006/04/our-freedom-was-not-free.html) comments on the recent Freedom Day holiday in South Africa celebrating 12 years of democracy. She comments on life in present day South Africa and feels privileged to be part of it:
“Living in South Africa right now is wonderful for me. I never forget how privileged I am and have been all my life. There is still a lot of work to do with education, development, in the public service and many other areas but we have come very far in 12 years. There are equal opportunities for everyone, disability and education grants for the poor, decent housing for those who never had access before and dignity for everyone, especially those who were never treated with it in the past.”
But she reminds us of the people who sacrificed their lives and liberty for her to live in an independent country and makes the insightful comment:
“Our freedom was indeed not free. I remembered that, the first time I went to vote in the national elections in 2004. I remember it each time a political figure is busted for corruption. I remember it each time I go to my comfortable suburban home in an area black people were not allowed to live less than 2 decades ago.”
Sudan Reeves (http://www.sudanreeves.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=102) writes on the genocide taking place in Darfur and asks: How do we quantify the deaths? He believes that current data shows some 450,000 people at least have been killed over the past three years of conflict.
“As Rwanda marks a grim twelfth anniversary, we must accept that while vast human destruction in Darfur has unfolded plainly before us, we have again done little more than watch, offering only unprotected humanitarian assistance while some 450,000 people have perished as a result of violence, as well as consequent malnutrition and disease. Human destruction to date, however, certainly does not mark the conclusion of the world’s moral failure in responding to genocide in Darfur - on the contrary, this massive previous destruction is our best measure of what is impending.”
He then states the Khartoum government’s “decision to stage yet another large scale military offensive is designed to assure the failure of the Abuja peace process”. In addition to that the latest statement by the SLA suggests “strong disapproval” for the peace process.
He expects that without any intervention from anywhere the situation will rapidly become much worse.
“All that can reverse this course of humanitarian collapse and accelerating human destruction is urgent intervention, with all necessary military resources and an appropriately robust mandate for civilian and humanitarian protection. At present, there are no signs that the UN is planning for such an urgent, well-equipped, and robust mission.”
Gukira (http://gukira.blogspot.com/2006/05/sexual-offences-bill.html) comments on the Kenyan Sexual Offences Bill that is presently being debated in parliament.
“Although sold as a bill against sexual offences, the current document is nothing less than a referendum on the status of gender relations in Kenya. And the news is not good. It is also an attempt to legislate sexuality and, by inference, the social worlds we create and inhabit. And, there too, the news is not good.”
He believes the Bill represents an ongoing struggle between tradition, religion and modernity and that at some point:
“We have to challenge what I now call the Culture Kiboko – that invocation of Culture used to discipline and control…We need good legislation on sexual offences. As is, this bill is not that legislation.”
Black Looks which has moved to a new site (http://www.blacklooks.org/2006/05/781.html#more-781) comments on the recent events in the Niger Delta. Specifically she questions the worthiness of Obasanjo’s latest 5 year development plan for the Niger Delta:
“The President in a panic and eager to sell the Niger Delta to the Chinese, felt he had to come up with a quick solution to the growing militancy in the region so in his ignorance of the depth of dissatisfaction and sheer misery of peoples lives, he chose to use leaking buckets to put out a raging forest fire.”
She considers his offer to the people of the region an insult which in no way even begins to meet their demands. “The people have been calling for resource control; for 25% leading to 50% deviation of oil monies; for compensation for the environmental destruction of land and water; for clean up of oil spillages over the past 40 years; investment in education and training. Obasanjo’s answer? A few thousand jobs, conscription of youths into the army and police and building 12 mega petrol stations.”
* Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks, www.blacklooks.org
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org
African Union Monitor
Kenya: NEPAD peer review complete
2006-05-03
http://allafrica.com/stories/200605020102.html
Kenya is the only East African Community member that has completed a self-audit on its socio-economic performance under the New Partnership for Africa's Development. According to the South Africa-based Nepad Africa Peer Review Mechanism secretariat, Kenya's audit report will be tabled at the APR meeting to be held in June in Banjul, Gambia. The report is being compiled by the secretariat and will be sent back to the Government for comments before being published. APRM is a self-monitoring mechanism voluntarily acceded by African Union member states to foster adoption of policies, standards and practices that will lead to high economic growth, sustainable development, political stability and accelerated regional integration.
Women & gender
Africa: Women’s and girls’ rights and HIV/AIDS
2006-05-02
2006 offers opportunities to advocate for women’s rights and HIV/AIDS during the Abuja +5 Review, UN General Assembly Session on HIV and AIDS and the International HIV/AIDS Conference among others. To prepare for advocacy and a road map on how African women’s rights can be infused in the meetings above, the African Women’s Development Fund, (AWDF), ActionAid International’s HIV/AIDS and Women’s Rights Themes, UNIFEM and OSISA hosted a two day round table, from 6-7 April, 2006, in Johannesburg, South Africa.
2006 offers opportunities to advocate for women’s rights and HIV/AIDS during the Abuja +5 Review, UN General Assembly Session on HIV and AIDS and the International HIV/AIDS Conference among others. To prepare for advocacy and a road map on how African women’s rights can be infused in the meetings above, the African Women’s Development Fund, (AWDF), ActionAid International’s HIV/AIDS and Women’s Rights Themes, UNIFEM and OSISA hosted a two day round table, from 6-7 April, 2006, in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The immediate objectives of the meeting included to develop a set of advocacy positions around women’s rights and HIV/AIDS and to develop a road map for women’s participation in key policy dialogues and processes on HIV and AIDS to ensure the integration of African women’s concerns and solutions.
The meeting was attended by 55 women from across the continent comprising African feminist/women’s rights organizations, women HIV and AIDS activists, Women living with HIV and AIDS including young women, women in strategic decision making positions in sub-regional/regional organisations who have/can use their positions to champion issues of women’s rights in the context of HIV/AIDS, development partners working on women’s rights and HIV/AIDS and strategic international women’s rights organizations.
The meeting was an exclusive space for African women’s rights organisations, women living with HIV and AIDS and women in strategic policy and decision-making positions to plan on how to engage the 2006 processes. The meeting resulted in the Johannesburg Position on Women’s and Girls’ Rights and HIV/AIDS in Africa-an advocacy statement. This statement will be updated as times goes by to bring in line with emerging issues and to customise it for different types of audience. The meeting also developed a road map for women’s participation in key policy dialogues and processes on HIV and AIDS to ensure the integration of African women’s concerns and solutions covering Abuja +5, UNGASS Review and the International Conference on HIV/AIDS
More...
Gambia: Government ratifies Protocols on Women's Rights
2006-05-04
http://allafrica.com/stories/200604280691.html
The Gambia has now ratified Articles 5,6,7 and 14 of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa. Article 5 of the Protocol deals with the elimination of harmful practices against women; Article 6 deals with marriage; Article 7 deals with divorce and property while Article 14 deals with abortion. All were ratified by The Gambia without reservations. The AU conventions on women and other UN protocols and conventions on women and the girl-child all call for the full ratification of these international instruments. This decision by the parliament strengthens Secretary of State Sheikh Tijan Hydara's point of stating that The Gambia has been and will continue to be an active, responsible and dependable member of the international order, when tabling the instruments for ratification before the National Assembly.
Global: Gender mainstreaming small arms control in the UN
2006-05-02
http://www.awid.org
June 2006 will see the UN review it's Programme of Action (PoA) to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) in All its Aspects (PoA). What is the significance of this conference for women?
Global: Gender, development, displacement and rehabilitation
2006-05-03
http://www.oneworld.net/link/gotoarticle/addhit/131978/66/78395
Displacement is a planned calamity that befalls certain sections of society at different points in time. In a scenario where the attention devoted to rehabilitation itself is limited, it is not surprising that women stand to lose the most and benefit the least from so called ‘development’ projects. Displacement usually results in deteriorating gender relations in a framework of increasing poverty and disempowerment of poor and vulnerable communities.
Global: Responding to violence against women
2006-05-02
http://www.un-instraw.org/en/index.php?option=content&task=blogcategory&id=181&It
“How development interventions address the issue of gender-based violence,” by Belen Sobrino, highlights the shortcomings of current development policies to tackle violence against women, and proposes a new framework from a body politics approach to address VAW.
Global: Women's earning power and wellbeing
2006-05-02
http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC21059
What goes on within households critically affects growth, income distribution and poverty in a country. Decisions within the household are assumed to be made in such a way that every individual within the household enjoys the same level of welfare - households are not, however, single decision-making entities. This paper argues that unitary decision-making models provide an unrealistic picture of household earnings.
Kenya: Now MPs back sex offences bill
2006-05-03
http://allafrica.com/stories/200605020715.html
The Kenyan Parliament now seems united in supporting the Sexual Offences Bill, whose fate hung in the balance last week as MPs opposed it due to various loopholes. During the third day of debate on the Bill, all MPs who spoke rooted for the proposed law, saying it was long overdue. Its shortcomings could be corrected later, they said. That contrasted sharply with last week when several MPs opposed the Bill, citing a number of flaws. Some of the weaknesses identified in the Bill include failure to define sexual offences, providing different punishment to errant age-groups, criminalising female circumcision, and legislating on matters cultural.
Nigeria: Promoting women's rights through Sharia
2006-05-02
http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC21608
This report documents both exemplary and harmful practices affecting Muslim women in Northern Nigeria, and evaluates them according to Sharia. Based on a desk review, consultations with various stakeholders and a national conference the report spans a wide area and consists of diverse ethnic groups, most of whom are Muslim.
South Africa: Trial brings rape into public view
2006-05-02
http://www.iwpr.net
In the context of the highly publicized trial of former deputy-president Jacob Zuma for rape, this article looks at the most troublesome facts and statistics behind the wave of sexual violence against women and children. South Africa is a country that is at peace yet has an incidence of rape that rivals the worst conflict zones.
Uganda: “Carpet grades” target of bias policy
2006-05-02
http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/2722/context/cover/
The practice of male lecturers at Makerere demanding sex from female students in exchange for diplomas and "carpet" grades - indicating where the transaction takes place - is well known. But recently, some administrators and women's advocates at the university quietly drafted a sexual harassment policy to address the problem. If it is approved - which could happen as soon as May - it would be among the first of its kind in an African institution of higher learning.
Human rights
DRC: Despite UN force, child soldiers multiply
2006-05-03
http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=33026
The United Nations, which is fielding over 19,800 peacekeeping troops in war-ravaged Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), is virtually fighting a losing battle to contain the ongoing recruitment of child soldiers in a country the size of Western Europe. Asked why child soldiers continue to be a recurring problem in the DRC despite the presence of the largest single U.N. peacekeeping force in the sprawling African nation, Julia Freedson, director of Watchlist of Children and Armed Conflict, told IPS: "The size and broken-down infrastructure of DRC prevents U.N. personnel from reaching many corners of the country."
Ethiopia: Treason trial of prisoners of conscience opens in Addis Ababa
2006-05-03
http://www.amnesty.org/news/
Amnesty International today (2 May) called on the Ethiopian government to release immediately and unconditionally several opposition Members of Parliament-elect, human rights defenders and journalists whose treason trial begins today, saying that they are "prisoners of conscience who have not used or advocated violence."
Global: Negotiating justice? Human rights and peace agreements
2006-05-02
http://www.ichrp.org/paper_files/128_p_01_Main_report_for_web_jpeg_covers_.pdf
Are peace agreements negotiated more easily if they include references to human rights? If so, is peace more durable as a result? 'Negotiating justice?' examines eight recent peace agreements to assess how they addressed issues such as impunity and forcible displacement. It concludes that human rights can make practical and positive contributions to many areas of conflict resolution. Each chapter ends with recommendations and questions that can help negotiators, mediators and human rights advocates to address dilemmas that arise during the negotiation of peace agreements and when the latter are implemented.
Global: Will Human Rights Council have better membership?
2006-05-02
http://www.globalpolicy.org/reform/topics/hrc/2006/0421membership.htm
Members with "egregious human rights records" were one reason the former Human Rights Commission often failed to take strong action on human rights abuses. Democratic governments were also unwilling to jeopardise economic, political or regional ties, and shied away from condemning many states. Human Rights Watch argues that the new Human Rights Council's increased membership standards will discourage abusive states from joining. But whether "democratic government" members will also take their Council responsibilities seriously remains to be seen.
Somalia: 16 year old boy executes father's killer under Sharia law
2006-05-03
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4967108.stm
A teenage Somali boy has stabbed to death his father's killer in a public execution ordered by an Islamic court. Large crowds gathered at a Koranic school in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, to watch Mohamed Moallim, 16, stab Omar Hussein in the head and throat. Hussein had been convicted of killing the boy's father, Sheikh Osman Moallim, after a row about Mohamed's education. Islamic courts have brought a semblance of order to Mogadishu, imposing Sharia law after years of rule by warlords. However there is some opposition to the courts.
South Africa: New report details apartheid army secrets
2006-05-02
http://tinyurl.com/krb3d
A report detailing white South Africa's deadly military involvement during apartheid's dying days has been made public for the first time, the Sunday Independent reported. The Steyn report, compiled by a top apartheid general for South Africa's last white president, FW de Klerk, details how the army helped destabilise the country during the turbulent early 1990s.
Refugees & forced migration
Africa: Churches lash 'inhumane treatment' of refugees in Netherlands
2006-05-03
http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=19&story_id=29699&name=Churches+lash+'inhumane+treatment'+of+refugees
Asylum seekers and refugees in the Netherlands are increasingly facing "inhumane treatment", the Dutch Council of Churches warned. The Council expressed acute concern about putting asylum seekers with serious illnesses, including psychiatric patients, on the street, and the treatment of underage asylum seekers. Some of the children, the Council said, are locked up in deportation centres. There is also an increase in the number of children disappearing from asylum centres and reports of suicide.
Chad: Security concerns heighten following deadly militia attack near Chad refugee camps
2006-05-03
http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/news/opendoc.htm?tbl=NEWS&id=445772944
UNHCR has expressed alarm over growing insecurity along the Chad-Sudan border, where a raid on Monday by 150 armed men just a few kilometres from a refugee camp left four Chadian civilians dead and five others wounded. The Chadians were killed in an attack near the village of Dolola, in south-eastern Chad. Dolola is near UNHCR's refugee camp at Goz Amir, which currently shelters some 17,700 Sudanese refugees from Darfur.
DRC: Reintegration programs required in South Kivu
2006-05-03
http://www.refintl.org/content/article/detail/8504?PHPSESSID=ac18a4cacb12aba609e69f6229d34e58
Refugees and internally displaced people are returning home in South Kivu Province of the Congo, but face enormous difficulties: basic assistance and services in their communities are minimal or nonexistent. Donors and humanitarian agencies must coordinate their interventions, especially to provide the seeds and tools essential for self-sufficiency, and increase community capacity to absorb returnees.
Somalia: UN envoy slams camp conditions
2006-05-03
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/05/02/somalia.refugees.ap/
Kjell Magne Bondevik, the U.N. special humanitarian envoy for the Horn of Africa, has said after a visit to Somalia, "It was especially moving to visit the country where several thousand ... displaced were living under the worst conditions I have ever seen." He added that governments must do more to ensure drought and hunger are eradicated in the long-term.
Sudan: Refugees start journey home
2006-05-03
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53120
Almost two dozen trucks left Uganda, carrying scores of Sudanese refugees home from settlements near the border with Sudan as their voluntary repatriation kicked off, according to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR). "Today [on Tuesday], we have facilitated the return of 160 refugees from Moyo District to their villages of Kangapo I and II," said the Kampala-based spokeswoman for UNHCR. "They were ferried to areas near their villages, and by the end of today, many will be in Kangapo [in southern Sudan]."
Elections & governance
Chad: Voting ends in elections
2006-05-04
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4967594.stm
Voting has ended in Chad's presidential election, in which President Idriss Deby is seeking a third term in office. Opposition parties boycotted the poll and voter turnout was reported to be extremely low. Rebel groups did not carry out threats to disrupt voting, the BBC's Stephanie Hancock in the Chadian capital, N'Djamena, reports. However, the country remains divided, with serious security concerns dominating the election. Mr Deby faced four challengers, but the poll was controversial since the main opposition party had refused to put forward candidates. Results will not be known for another ten days, but everyone in Chad is certain that President Deby will win, our correspondent says.
* Related Link:
Idriss Deby, a President Under Siege
http://www.worldpress.org/Africa/2323.cfm
Congo: Unions to increase women's part-take in politics
2006-05-02
http://www.afrol.com/articles/18854
In the run-up to the June elections in Congo Kinshasa (DRC), union leader Marie Josée Lokongo Bosiko announced a strategy to boost women's participation and representation in politics. The UNTC Vice-President sees ''husbands, traditions, religions and sects'' as the main obstacles preventing Congolese women from taking up positions of responsibility in society.
DRC: Delayed election date announced
2006-05-03
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4961708.stm
Elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been delayed until 30 July this year, electoral authorities say. The election is to be the first multi-party poll in 45 years, ending a turbulent post-war transitional period that began in 2003. Voting was scheduled for mid-2005, but has been postponed repeatedly to allow more time for candidates' registration. The presence of militia groups in the east of the country has also posed a further threat to free elections.
Egypt: Emergency laws extended for two years
2006-05-02
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060430/wl_nm/egypt_emergency_dc_1
Egypt's parliament agreed on Sunday (April 30) to a two-year extension of emergency law requested by the government while it prepares replacement anti-terrorism laws. The Muslim Brotherhood, the strongest opposition force, said there was no justification for extending the law, which President Hosni Mubarak last year promised to substitute with anti-terrorism legislation.
Malawi: Vice-President arrested
2006-05-02
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4956852.stm
The vice-president of Malawi, Cassim Chilumpha, has been arrested on charges of treason, reports say. He is accused of holding meetings in which members of his United Democratic Front party conspired to topple the country's president, his lawyer said.
Nigeria: Labour says no to 3rd term
2006-05-04
http://allafrica.com/stories/200605020288.html
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has restated its opposition to the third term bid of President Olusegun Obasanjo and state governors, saying that it had been steadfast on the issue. Describing politicians as opportunists, the congress also deplored the part played by some former public office holders, including former Chairman of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Audu Ogbeh, and former Inspectors-General of Police in the abuse of workers' and citizens' rights.
Nigeria: Legislation and the electoral process
2006-05-02
http://www.cdd.org.uk
Elections have meaning for most people only in a democratic context because they lead to the choice of decision-makers by the majority of citizens. Elections and democracy are therefore inextricably linked. Three major challenges face the future of elections and democracy in Nigeria as we move towards the 2007 elections. The first challenge is that of the will and capacity of the National Assembly and INEC to keep to a road map that will lead us to free and fair elections in 2007. The second is the ambition of President Olusegun Obasanjo to change the Constitution to have a Third Term in office against the wishes of a majority of Nigerians. And the third is ensuring that the next elections are not as massively rigged as the previous ones were.
Sudan: Top in 'failed states index'
2006-05-03
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4964444.stm
Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo are the world's most vulnerable states, according to a new study. The report - compiled by the US Foreign Policy magazine and the US-based Fund for Peace think-tank - ranked nations according to their viability. Judged according to 12 criteria, including human flight and economic decline, states range from the most failed, Sudan, to the least, Norway. Eleven of the 20 most failed states of the 146 nations examined are in Africa.
Corruption
Africa: US case highlights bribery over technology use
2006-05-04
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/05/04/ky_executive_pleads_guilty_to_bribery/
A US technology executive has pleaded guilty to paying more than $400,000 in bribes to a congressman in charges stemming from an investigation of Representative William Jefferson, a Louisiana Democrat. Prosecutor Mark Lytle said Jackson paid $367,500 in checks and wire transfers over a four-year period to a company controlled by the congressman's wife in exchange for help promoting iGate technology in Africa.
Chad: World Bank agrees on oil revenues
2006-05-02
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/04/27/chd.bank.reut/index.html
Chad and the World Bank have struck a new and temporary deal on how the Central African country should use its oil revenues. Under the agreement, Chad will pull its threat to cease oil production while the World Bank will unlock $124 million in frozen loans and release oil revenues, a portion of which will go to help Chad's poor.
Kenya: Dutch halt aid over graft
2006-05-03
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4958316.stm
The Dutch government has suspended nearly $150m in aid to Kenya because of concerns over corruption. The Dutch development co-operation minister said her government wanted to see "more tangible results in the fight against corruption in Kenya". Kenyan officials said the move was based on a misconception. The IMF and the World Bank have recently said they were withholding millions of dollars in aid to Kenya because of concerns over corruption.
Kenya: Tough new laws to tackle corruption
2006-05-03
http://allafrica.com/stories/200605020052.html
The Kenyan government plans to introduce tough new laws to fight corruption, which will enable the state to, among other things, seize property suspected to have been acquired illegally. The new laws published by the attorney-general and tabled in parliament late last month seek to empower the government to go to the high court and ask a judge to appoint a receiver to seize property suspected to have been acquired corruptly. If enacted into law, this will remove a major loophole in the current law where corrupt individuals continue to enjoy their ill-acquired wealth even after investigators have confirmed that it was acquired through graft.
* Related Link
Graft whistle-blower sued for defamation
http://admin.corisweb.org/index.php?fuseaction=news.view&id=121035&src=dcn
Nigeria: New Pipeline a "Recipe for Disaster", Locals Say
2006-05-04
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=33042
Local communities in Nigeria are taking the World Bank before an internal auditor over claims that the lender neglected its duties and anti-poverty mission when it funded a controversial gas pipeline in the region, whose construction they say will harm the environment and area residents. Twelve Nigerian communities said they were filing the complaint about the West African Gas Pipeline with the inspection panel of the World Bank, the investigative arm of the Washington-based public lender, charging the Bank with derelict conduct in carrying out necessary "due diligence" about the project's impacts.
Development
Africa: IMF losing grip on developing countries?
2006-05-04
http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/200605020076.html
A plan by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to shift the relative voting power of some of its 184 member-nations will almost certainly be of no benefit to East African countries, which will remain heavily dependent on loans from the global financial institution. But some analysts say the IMF itself is becoming increasingly irrelevant to parts of the developing world. And, they add, the fund's waning power may presage a day when it no longer exercises decisive control over the economies and budgets of poor countries such as Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
Africa: Russian G8 leadership may push Nepad onto back burner
2006-05-04
http://www.southscan.gn.apc.org
Southscan predicts that Russia, as chair of the G8 this year, will not continue the Africa emphasis of G8 meetings since 2002 at Kananaskis in Canada. Russia is not much into the aid and investment activities that interest the West (and China). Russia has interest in exporting arms, and will consider arms for oil on the model it established with Angola.
Cameroon: Debt cancelled
2006-05-03
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4964808.stm
More than a quarter of Cameroon's national debt has been cancelled by creditors including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The reduction amounts to about 27% of Cameroon's total debt, worth $4.9bn (£2.6bn;3.8bn euros) in cash terms. The decision makes Cameroon the 19th state to complete the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. Cameroon was given the reduction after meeting poverty reduction targets and social services investments.
Global: "WTO moving closer to trade deal"
2006-05-03
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4966892.stm
The World Trade Organization is moving closer to a global trade deal, but greater flexibility and concessions are needed, top officials have said. WTO trade ministers are in Geneva this week hoping to revive the ongoing Doha round of talks that have stalled over problem areas such as agriculture. Poorer nations want greater access to richer markets, while the US and Europe are fighting over subsidy levels. US trade chief said the sides are now "relatively close".
Global: Evaluation of the Make Poverty History Campaign
2006-05-02
http://www.firetail.co.uk/?page_id=37
2005 was a significant moment for development campaigning. The United Kingdom presidencies of the EU and the G8, as well as UN meetings and WTO negotiations presented a unique opportunity to make progress in the campaign against global poverty. This report evaluates the UK’s Make Poverty History Campaign, assesses its impact, identifies its successes and discusses its challenges.
Global: Toward a global labour charter for the 21th Century
2006-05-04
http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/4278.html
The Labour Chapter in the Bamako Appeal may represent the most radical public statement on the contemporary global labour question to be found so far. Considering the present nature of work and workers worldwide, it recognises the limitations of the trade unions, traditionally considered to be either the sole or the central form of worker self organisation. But it nonetheless suggests a significant role for labour within the new global justice and solidarity movement, thus re articulating labour with the general social movement of our epoch.
Global: USAID reform - diplomacy, defence, democracy, development?
2006-05-02
http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/develop/oda/index.htm#aidtobias
Although NGOs have long called for reforms of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the changes introduced by the Bush administration will probably harm the world's poorest. The agency's new leader, Randall Tobias, now reports directly to the Secretary of State, making US aid policies even more vulnerable to "short-term political or military objectives." Among rich countries, US aid ranks second lowest as a proportion of economic output. Furthermore, 77% of this assistance goes to US suppliers and services instead of poor countries' development initiatives.
Global: World fails children on nutrition
2006-05-03
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4950648.stm
The world is failing children by not ensuring they have enough to eat, says the UN Children's Fund (Unicef). It says the number of children under five who are underweight has remained virtually unchanged since 1990, despite a target to reduce the number affected. One of the UN's Millennium Development Goals is to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger by 2015, which would mean halving the proportion of children who are underweight for their age. But Unicef warned that the world was not on track to meet that goal.
Kenya: Labour day calls to treat "hawkers" with dignity
2006-05-03
http://ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=33068
The dark clouds threaten a downpour. Already, light showers have started, and people in the streets of Kenya's capital, Nairobi, are hurrying to their destinations to avoid getting soaked. But a mother and her two-year-old daughter strapped tightly to her back, is not running away from the rains. She is fleeing the city council "askaris" (guards) who are cracking down on hawkers. Hawking within the central business district is prohibited, but has continued nonetheless with bribes known to make askaris look in the other direction.
Tanzania: IMF warns of too many economic zones
2006-05-03
http://allafrica.com/stories/200605020034.html
The International Monetary Fund has cautioned Tanzania against creating "too many special economic zones." Hit by an unprecedented drought, the Tanzanian government will be walking a tightrope in coming months, having to increase revenues without raising taxes.
Health & HIV/AIDS
Africa: Study says circumcision reduces HIV infection risk
2006-05-03
http://allafrica.com/stories/200605020377.html
Uncircumcised African men are at higher risk of HIV infection - because the inner surface of the foreskin contains cells that make it highly susceptible to infection. This new data, believed to be the first of its kind in African men, adds further weight to a South African study that last year revealed that circumcision could protect two-thirds of men from contracting HIV. According to the authors of the new study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Pathology, their research among Kenyan men is the first study of human foreskin tissue that examines why, biologically, uncircumcised African men are more likely to contract HIV than their circumcised counterparts.
Burundi: Nkurunziza announces free maternal healthcare, pay rise for workers
2006-05-04
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53075
Free maternal healthcare, a 15 percent salary increase for workers in the public service and the setting up of anti-corruption bodies are some of the measures Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza announced in a message to the nation on the eve of Labour Day, marked worldwide on 1 May. "Current salaries do not allow workers to make ends meet," he said in the central province of Gitega in a speech aired nationwide on state-owned Radio Burundi.
Global: Targeted HIV/AIDS Prevention & Care in Sex Work Settings
2006-05-03
http://www.comminit.com/materials/ma2005/materials-2140.html
Published by the World Health Organization in collaboration with GTZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit), this online toolkit is intended as a resource to guide the development and implementation of effective HIV interventions in diverse sex work settings.
Global: Toolkit to support NGOs and CBOs responding to HIV/AIDS
2006-05-02
http://www.aidsalliance.org/sw7461.asp
NGOs can build strong, lasting action on HIV/AIDS by working strategically with other people and organisations. This toolkit is designed for facilitators to use to enable participants to form partnerships, develop specific skills and increase their experience. It is one of a series of resources designed to build practical skills, provide a training resource, and to continue learning.
Global: Vaccine hope for deadly disease
2006-05-03
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4945782.stm
Scientists are hopeful a vaccine against the deadly tropical disease Marburg virus could be developed. Similar to the Ebola virus, Marburg causes internal bleeding leading to multiple organ failure in 90% of cases - there is no effective treatment. A US-Canadian team writing in the Lancet say they have created a jab which appears to protect monkeys from Marburg's harmful effects. Both the Marburg and Ebola viruses are considered potential bio-terror agents.