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Apologies to subscribers

2006-07-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/highlights/36241

Dear Pambazuka News Subscriber,

This week we suffered some problems with our list server. As a result, you were sent a number of messages that had not been authorised by us for distribution. While we think there may have been a breach of security, we are not certain why this happened. We are investigating this at the moment to make sure that it doesn't happen again.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused. And thank you to the many who wrote to alert us to the problem.

The Editors

Featured this week

2006-07-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/highlights/36236

LAST ISSUE UNTIL AUGUST 24: Pambazuka News will be taking a three-week break to enable staff to do research and take some rest. The next edition of Pambazuka News will therefore be on Thursday, August 24.

FEATURED: The DRC elections won’t hide the need for long term justice and reconciliation, writes Theodore Kasongo Kamwimbi
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:
- More than a year after the Ethiopian elections, Erkyihun Lagere urges the country to move forward towards 2010 elections
- Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed argues that the current Middle East crisis has ignited dangerous tensions
- Strategic Initiatives for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) Network details the difficulties faced by women in Somalia
LETTERS: on colonialists vs China, the Middle East, the DRC, the PAP and free lunches
PAN-AFRICAN POSTCARD:
BLOGGING AFRICA: Blogs on Ethiopia, Somalia, Lebanon, slavery and pidgin
BOOKS AND ARTS: Shailja Patel pays tribute to Bi Kidude, 95-year old Zanzibari musical phenomenon
AFRICAN UNION MONITOR: Judges and impunity statement from the Coalition for the Establishment of An Effective African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights
CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: Links to news on Sudan, DRC, Somalia, Kenya
HUMAN RIGHTS: Domestic workers abused worldwide, says Human Rights Watch report
WOMEN AND GENDER: Food and Agriculture Organisation report says gender critical in dealing with climate change
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: Zimbabwe exodus floods South Africa
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: Former Zanu-PF top dog reveals poll-fixing secrets
DEVELOPMENT: Landmark South African court case tests water privatisation
CORRUPTION: Global Witness report on corruption in the DRC mining industry
HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS: Swaziland text messaging campaign on HIV/AIDS causes fury
EDUCATION: Radio used to educate orphans in Rwanda
ENVIRONMENT: More oil leaks plague Niger Delta
LAND AND LAND RIGHTS: HIV/Aids, hunger and the Mozambique Land Law
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Outspoken Tunisian human rights activist beaten
INTERNET AND TECHNOLOGY: Human rights and the information society
PLUS: e-Newsletters and Mailings Lists; Fundraising and Useful Resources; Courses, Seminars and Workshops; Jobs.

Online News Editor

2006-07-27

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/editorjob.php

Pambazuka News, the electronic weekly newsletter and website focusing on social justice issues in Africa, is seeking an ONLINE NEWS EDITOR. You will be a forward thinking and independent person with a strong background in journalism and experience and/or a strong interest in the power of the internet for information delivery and campaigning. For more information, please visit the website provided.

PLEASE NOTE: Owing to the number of applications received, we are changing the final date for applications from August 15 to July 31.

The DRC elections, reconciliation and justice

Theodore Kasongo Kamwimbi

2006-07-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/36231

Voters in the Democratic Republic of Congo go to the polls on July 30 for the first time in 40 years and after a four-year transitional period that followed a brutal war. Theodore Kasongo Kamwimbi points to the failure of the DRC to achieve justice for victims of human rights abuses as a significant threat to the elections, future peace and stability. “Many younger people argue that they won’t let the perpetrators walk free forever. They guarantee that sooner or later they will honour the memory of the loved ones innocently massacred, raped, abused, abducted by those who are running the country and want to run it indefinitely.”


After five years of war and terror which left more than three million dead and thousands displaced, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is struggling to make way for the establishment of a new society. The process is on track so far, as the first democratic elections, initially scheduled for April and June 2006, are finally confirmed to take place on 30 July 2006. The elections are the result of various rounds of negotiations and peace accords between the DRC government, Mai-Mai militia, rebel groups, non-armed political opposition parties and representatives of civil society.

During the negotiation process, the government of the Republic was represented by the former government led by President Joseph Kabila. Rebel groups were represented by the Rwanda-backed Congolese Rally for Democracy (Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie, RCD-Goma), the Uganda-backed Movement for the Liberation of Congo (Mouvement pour la Libération du Congo, MLC), the Congolese Rally for Democracy-National (Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie-National (RCD-N), the Congolese Rally for Democracy/Kisangani- Liberation Movement (Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie/Kisangani- Mouvement de Libération, RCD/K-ML). Non-armed political opposition parties were represented by the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (Union pour la Démocratie et le Progrès Social, UDPS), Unified Lumumbist Party (Parti Lumumbiste Unifié, PALU), National Congolese Movement-Lumumba (Mouvement National Congolais- Lumumba, M.N.C./L), Popular Movement for the Revolution- Fait Privé (Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution- Fait Privé (MPR- Fait Privé), Innovative Forces for Union and Solidarity (Forces Novatrices pour l’Union et la Solidarité, FONUS) and Democratic and Social Christian Party (Parti Social et Démocrate Chrétien, PDSC).

The first positive achievement of the process was the global and all-inclusive agreement on transition in the DRC signed by all parties in Pretoria, South Africa on 16 December 2002. Despite the difficulties and misunderstandings which characterised the political negotiations, under the guidance and supervision of the international community all the parties managed to reach a final agreement in Sun City, on 2 April 2003. In order to sign the agreement and end the conflict, all the parties were asked to make a power-sharing concession in the form of a government of national unity. A transitional government of national unity was formed. However the rebel groups, including RCD-Goma, MNC, RCD-N submitted to participation in the government on the non-negotiable condition of being granted amnesty for all offences committed during the conflict. As a result no condition was imposed on the belligerent groups to apologise, tell the truth or ask for forgiveness for their wrongdoings.

The majority of Congolese people as well as the principal non-armed opposition parties, including UDPS, PALU, FONUS and PDSC were unanimous in their criticism of the amnesty offered as impunity in the name of reconciliation. The former perpetrators could not, during the transition, be prosecuted and punished, in order to preserve peace and prevent a relapse into conflict. But, in the opinion of many Congolese, reconciliation through justice and truth is extremely crucial in the DRC context considering the degree of violence and terror that occurred during the years of conflict. Therefore, the key question is whether reconciliation has really started in the DRC if as Alex Boraine argues:

“Reconciliation can begin when perpetrators are held accountable, when truth is sought openly and fearlessly, when institutional reform commences and when the need for reparation is acknowledged and acted upon.” [1]

In other words, it can be argued that a given society can be considered as reconciled only if a number of conditions are fulfilled:

- Accountability of perpetrators

Reconciliation can indeed begin when perpetrators are held accountable for their wrongdoings. But in the DRC context that is not the case as former perpetrators have not been prosecuted and have not acknowledged or disclosed their wrongdoings. Therefore, they have not shown any remorse to the victims and the community as a whole. It is obvious that the decision to grant amnesty to them for political reasons is unlikely to promote national reconciliation and meet the population’s demands for justice.

In the Congolese public opinion, the best way of holding someone accountable for his act or omission is through the judiciary system as established by the law. If a presumed perpetrator does not appear in a court of law for his alleged criminal actions or omissions, that is considered to breed impunity. This absence of justice has created frustration among the Congolese and caused private vengeance and cycles of violence between communities.

For instance, in the North-eastern DRC the culture of impunity has resulted in a cycle of ethnic violence among the local populations as reported by Human Rights Watch in its briefing paper of January 2004. This kind of attitude is believed to be exacerbated, especially in the case of amnesty granted to former perpetrators in order to reach political agreement. Moreover, as long as the former perpetrators have now become state officials capable of taking executive decisions, the justice option is clearly difficult to achieve. The other reason is that some of them still have military capability and could take up their weapons and destabilise the peace process once again.

- Open and fearless truth-seeking

It is argued that reconciliation can begin when truth is sought openly and fearlessly. But in the DRC, although the appropriate non-judicial mechanism, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) is well established, truth-telling is not happening. The TRC resulted from the Inter-Congolese Dialogue to establish the truth and give the perpetrators the opportunity to seek forgiveness and pay compensation to their victims. This has not happened yet, as the TRC hasn’t called and put together victims and perpetrators to facilitate reconciliation.

Congolese people and civil society organisations are pessimistic concerning any success of the truth-telling model and thence, its ability to achieve reconciliation. This seems true given the fact that the TRC has a bounded mandate and has to submit its complete and final report before the end of the transitional period. According to the new calendar released by the Independent Electoral Commission on 12 January 2006 the elections in June 2006 will end the transitional period. Moreover, as its President, Bishop Jean-Luc Kuye told the International Centre for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) in August 2004, the TRC is unable to undertake investigations of human rights violations. Instead, it has focused its work on conflict-mediation activities. [2] As it can be noticed, in this case it is difficult to imagine a face-to-face process between perpetrators and their victims, as the TRC is not even able to identify the crimes committed.

- Effectiveness of Institutional Reform

It is argued that reconciliation can begin when institutional reform commences effectively. In this regard, the DRC is far from achieving its goals in relation to the reform of government sectors. For instance, the government has not managed to reform the public administration, justice system, nor to unify, restructure and reintegrate the security forces, including police and the army. Without institutional reform fair and free general elections, sustained peace and stability, and go forward in the reconstruction process will be impossible.

One of the major obstacles for peace, reconciliation and stability in the DRC remains the army and security forces. Indeed, during the last years of war and violence the DRC had more than five different armed groups fighting against each other for control of different portions of territory. The Ugandan backed MLC was in control of the Northwestern part of the country, while the Northeastern part was under the control of RCD/N, RCD-ML, UPC rebel group and other militia groups. The Kivu and North-Katanga provinces were controlled by the Rwandan backed RCD/ Goma and the Mai-Mai militia. The rest of the territory was under the control of the Congolese national army, FAC and national police.

All these groups were enemies for a long time, but now they need to be part of the new unified, restructured, reintegrated and inclusive security forces under construction. As is evident, this will be an extremely difficult and challenging task, but it is essential for sustainable peace and reconciliation in the DRC as well as in the rest of the Great Lakes region. To date, the unification and integration process of the army is far from being achieved given both the hostility of former belligerent armies to the transitional government and the divisions between them on the basis of ethnicity.

For example, the majority of the former RCD-Goma, Congolese Tutsi known as Banyamulenge, fight regularly against other units composed of other Congolese ethnic groups. It has been reported that a number of former RCD soldiers, mainly Congolese Tutsi, are deserting the new integrated army to join the dissident General Laurent Nkunda. In fact, Laurent Nkunda, a Tutsi Congolese, was a senior military officer in the former rebel group RCD-Goma. In accordance with the Global and All-inclusive Agreement signed in Pretoria by all the warring parties, he was named general in a new integrated Congolese army. But, he declined the offer and withdrew his troops to Masisi in North Kivu province from where he threatened to overthrow the government in Kinshasa on the pretext of rescuing, protecting and defending his community members, "threatened" by the Congolese government. In September 2004, Nkunda was sentenced in absentia by a Congolese military court and an international arrest warrant was issued against him after he briefly seized and occupied Bukavu, the capital city of South Kivu province. But, to date the DRC police and army as well as the UN peacekeeping forces have not been able to arrest him. Human Rights Watch [3] criticized this failure in a statement released on 1 February 2006.

Urgent reform is also needed in the public administration sector which is generally corrupt. As a result, corruption has been strongly institutionalised in all national sectors in the DRC. For reform to happen, political will is needed from officials with the support of the Congolese people.

- Acknowledgment of the need for reparation

It is argued that reconciliation can begin when the need for reparation is acknowledged and acted upon. In the DRC, former perpetrators haven’t acknowledged their wrongdoings and showed their willingness to pay reparations to victims or survivors. This attitude has made the victims feel forgotten and abandoned. Yet, the majority of former perpetrators in power have enough resources to pay compensation to their victims. It’s just a question of political will and personal conscience. Like in South Africa, the issue of individual reparations for victims could be used in the DRC context to appease victims’ anger over the amnesty process. [4] Victims would feel morally rehabilitated if the need for symbolic reparations was acknowledged. Reparation is indeed essential for reconciliation to sustain peace and democracy. In this regard, Charles Villa-Vicencio argues that reconciliation includes reparation because to exclude socio-economic justice from the reconciliation process is to endanger the prospects of democratic consolidation. [5]

As demonstrated, all conditions to begin reconciliation are not fulfilled in the DRC and both the rule of law and truth-telling mechanisms have failed up to now. Therefore, the Congolese believe that the only remaining option would be the international criminal judicial model. This option has also been called for by various local and international human rights organisations given the scale of abuses committed in the last five years. An International Criminal Court process could possibly work if the DRC ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) by Decree-Law No 13/2002 of 30 March 2002. This international court would deal with crimes not covered by the amnesty law, including war crimes and crimes against humanity. But, cooperation between the Congolese judicial system and the ICC would be necessary. Congolese officials have already shown their willingness in that regard by inviting the ICC prosecuting authority to proceed with investigations on the ground. The ICC has responded to the Congolese request and promised the significant involvement of victims of violence in the north-eastern region of Ituri in the inquiry process, as reported by the Catholic Missionary International Service News Agency (MISNA) on 20 January 2006.

The ICC exercises jurisdiction over crimes against humanity, war crimes, aggression and genocide in accordance with article 5 (1) of Rome Statute under which it was established. But in order to prosecute those crimes the ICC has to work with the Congolese government and judicial authorities. This is required by the principle of complementarity provided in Paragraph 10 of the preamble of the Rome Statute of the ICC. In accordance with this principle, priority to exercise jurisdiction over the crimes mentioned in article 5 is reserved to national courts, unless the State in question is unwilling or unable to prosecute, as stated in article 17 (a). The ICC should prosecute those who committed the crimes within its jurisdiction; otherwise the question of impunity will once again be raised, which undermines deterrence and encourages recidivism.

As an international body, the ICC was created to fight impunity and rejects any procedures or institutions that protect perpetrators from accountability. One may wonder about the impact of the ICC proceedings on the reconciliation process in the DRC. In the DRC context, the ICC is indeed in a good position to prosecute the crimes committed because the Congolese judicial system is unable to prosecute given the multidimensional problems it is facing. Among those problems the key ones are: corruption, nepotism, tribalism, lack of professionalism, lack of impartiality and the absence of an independent judiciary. Another major reason why the DRC national judicial system is unable to prosecute has been the political situation on the ground, which gave Congolese authorities no choice other than negotiations.

Paul Van Zyl [6] argues that it would be irresponsible to prosecute those perpetrators who are able to jeopardise peaceful transition to stable democracy and peace. However, alternative transitional justice mechanisms are still feasible and possible in the DRC context. For instance, acknowledgement and apology would be one of the better options for the former perpetrators to reconcile with their victims. This happened once, during the 1991 Sovereign National Conference, when many officials and members of Mobutu’s party came and apologised publicly to the Congolese people. That attitude was well received and appreciated by the whole nation, but unfortunately the perpetrators’ acts were not sincere.

One of the key actors in the Congolese political arena, MLC leader and Vice-president for economic and financial affairs, Jean-Pierre Bemba has publicly apologised for atrocities, crimes and pillages committed by his soldiers during the war. Bemba made his apology in his speech at his party’s congress where he was designated as a candidate for the forthcoming Presidential elections. One may, of course, wonder whether he apologized in order to get sympathy and support from the Congolese people with a view to the elections, or if he sincerely apologised and sought forgiveness. Time will tell.

The overriding issue, at this stage, is whether the Congolese will be willing to let their perpetrators decide their destiny. The majority of Congolese believe that they are subject to the will of those who committed mass human rights violations against them. Many younger people argue that they won’t let the perpetrators walk free forever. They guarantee that sooner or later they will honour the memory of the loved ones innocently massacred, raped, abused, abducted by those who are running the country and want to run it indefinitely. In consequence reconciliation without truth and justice in the DRC poses a significant risk to the future stability of the country.

* Theodore Kasongo Kamwimbi is a lawyer to the Kinshasa Court of Appeal, currently acting as the Fellows Programme Coordinator at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) in Cape Town, South Africa. He has published and co-published several articles, including “Hat Kongo eine Friedensperspektive?”, a Newspaper article published in Germany in the Der Überblick in July 2006 as well as ‘DRC moves towards first democratic elections: Congo peace prospects precarious’, a Newspaper article published in The Cape Times on 5 July 2006. (contact tkamwimbi@ijr.org.za or kamwimbi@yahoo.com)

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Notes:

[1] Boraine, Alex (2004) ‘Transitional Justice’, in Villa-Vicencio, Charles and Doxtader, Erik (eds.) Pieces of the Puzzle: Keywords on Reconciliation and Transitional Justice, Cape Town: IJR, p. 69-70.
[2] Borello, Federico (2004) ‘A First Few Steps: The Long Road to a Just Peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo’, Occasional Paper Series, New-York: ICTJ p.46.
[3] Human Rights Watch (2006) ‘D.R. Congo: Arrest Laurent Nkunda For War Crimes: Military and U.N. Should Act to Protect Civilians’, New York, Available at http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006/01/31/congo12579.htm Accessed on: 2 February 2006
[4] Lyster, Richard (2000) ‘Amnesty: the burden of victims’ in Villa-Vicencio, Charles and Verwoerd, Wilhelm, Looking back Reaching Forward: Reflections on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa, UCT Press: Cape Town, p.189.
[5] Villa-Vicencio, Charles (2004) ‘Reconciliation’, in Villa-Vicencio, Charles and Doxtader, Erik (eds.) Pieces of the Puzzle: Keywords on Reconciliation and Transitional Justice, Cape Town: IJR, p. 8.
[6] Van Zyl, Paul (2000) ‘Justice without Punishment: Guaranteeing Human Rights in Transitional Societies’ in Villa- Vicencio, Charles and Verwoerd, Wilhelm, Looking back Reaching Forward: Reflections on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa, UCT Press: Cape Town, p. 43.

Ethiopia: A year after the elections

Erkyihun Lagere

2006-07-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/36233

It’s more than a year since the May 2005 Ethiopian elections collapsed in chaos, resulting in violence, arrests, imprisonments and a press crackdown. How can the country move forward towards elections in 2010? Now is the time for the government to dodge the election trends of other African governments. Now is the time for dialogue and tolerance, writes Erkyihun Lagere. Only if this happens can Ethiopia truly fulfill is reputation as a mosaic culture.


The parliamentary election in Ethiopia in May 2005 was unique in Ethiopian history, and can be compared to the South African elections of 1994 where all South Africans, after 40 years of segregation, went to the polling stations and queued for hours to exercise their democratic rights and put in place a Government of National Unity. It was the first in Ethiopia’s history, especially in a multi party platform, where Ethiopians became aware of and exercised their power to elect their legislators and form a government. Politicians consented not to use the barrel of the gun to access power. It was this sense of assurance that encouraged eligible Ethiopians to go to the polling stations and exercise their newly found democratic rights.

During the Communist regime, the process was manipulated, votes were rigged and members of the communist party were declared the winners at any cost. After the overthrow of the Communist Derg regime in 1991 by the Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front’s (EPRDF) armed insurgency, the EPRDF’s Meles Zenawi reorganized Ethiopia’s regions along ethnic lines and constructed a political machine that has dominated Ethiopian politics for the past 15 years. Despite widespread opposition to this system among a number of ethnic groups in Ethiopia, the EPRDF and Zenawi had been able to maintain their power. However the existence of a better organized, united opposition combined with an energized electorate strongly contributed to the hope that surrounded the 2005 elections.

The May 2005 Ethiopian Elections

The May 2005 elections drew the attention of Ethiopians at home, the diaspora, and even the international community. It was the first time in Ethiopian history where the incumbent government provided facilities, gave access to government owned media and allowed the opposition to campaign “freely”. While the incumbents still enjoyed some advantages, the pre-election processes were nevertheless unprecedented in several ways:

1. It was the first [1] election that took place in a multi-party platform. According to the Associated Press, it was “the most competitive election in the country’s 3,000 year history” [2].

2. There was an open debate (discussion) in the media between the incumbent and opposition political parties.

3. All political parties condemned violence and requested their supporters to go to the polling stations and cast their vote.

4. The four major parties signed a non-violence pact.

5. It was the first election in Ethiopian history where Ethiopians went to the polls believing that they could cast votes and elect a government of their choice.

6. It was a practical demonstration of attempts to accommodate the interests of opposition political parties. The hope was perhaps best captured by Desalegn Rahamato from the Forum for Social Studies who was quoted saying: “We do not expect a miracle, certainly nobody expects the government to lose but we are hoping that the composition of parliament will change substantially so there will be more opposition.” [3]

What went wrong?

The Prime Minister’s premature announcement of EPRDF’s overwhelming victory [4] was the beginning of the rift in the political process, which subsequently led to allegations and counter allegations that increased the gap between opposition political parties and EPRDF [5]. This premature announcement challenged the power of the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) which was the only institution empowered to declare the election results.

The NEBE’s inability to intervene immediately to stop the incursion increased dissent, led to civil violence and forced the residents of Addis Ababa to demonstrate and express their dissatisfaction with the handling of the election results. Although the incumbent government claimed that the opposition political parties instigated and backed the civil violence – the government’s violent suppression of demonstrations also escalated and triggered more violence.

The incumbent government breached the non-violence agreement signed before the election, and violated the people’s constitutional right to peaceful demonstration and gathering. Even worse, mass arrests of students, innocent civilians and leaders of the opposition were carried out. Some of the imprisoned opposition leaders had won Parliamentary seats even in the rigged election.

The derailment of the democratic processes led to the curtailment of press freedom, the arrest of journalists and the closure of private newspapers. Further, it created tension among ethnic groups and sporadic violence in the southern part of Ethiopia that could have been exploited by politicians to orchestrate ethnic violence. In the Diaspora, the consequences were a series of demonstrations, public meetings, vigils, and lobbying of governments and donors to reconsider their relations and restrict development assistance.

Elections in Africa

Was the process in Ethiopia different from other African countries? What are the election trends in Africa? At this junction it would be useful to briefly analyze the election trends within other countries in Africa in order to shed light on the Ethiopian case.

It is a public knowledge that most African elections are marred with fraud and vote rigging. In most cases in Africa, opposition political parties claim victory in major cities while the incumbent governments do so in rural areas. In the post conflict environment of most African countries, an incumbent government rarely wins votes in metropolitan areas. The rationale being that the cities hold the enlightened members of the society (the elites, unionized labor force etc.) who are politically conscious, and rely on the often poorly provided services (water, electricity, health) of the incumbent government.

Further, they are also the immediate victims of government policies, which are designed to attract donors, and the international community to demonstrate governments commitment to good governance. Thus, the perpetually dissatisfied urban electorate demonstrate their anger through huge turn outs at polling stations to vote against the incumbent government that threatens their livelihood; though they know that their vote will not make a huge impact on the overall result. In addition, the presence of the international community and international observers predominantly in urban areas makes it more challenging for the incumbent government to rig votes in cities compared to rural areas.

However, in rural Africa with low literacy rates, difficult living conditions, and well established control mechanisms, the electorate can be coerced, bribed and manipulated to vote for the incumbent. If they vote against an incumbent that stays in power, they will be denied access to fertilizer, insecticide, veterinary care, healthcare and other essential services the government provides. For the sake of survival, the rural communities have to comply with the instructions of government officials. As mentioned earlier, the lack of transportation and hospitality infrastructure limits the number of international or even domestic observes in rural areas, making it easy to rig the vote. As an emerging democracy, Ethiopia is affected by all these factors and it should be no surprise that the incumbent EPRDF claimed victory in rural Ethiopia while losing in the big cities.

The consequences of the May 2005 election

Why did the incumbent government rush to declare its party as a winner? I think it was due to a lack of confidence in its own system. The EPRDF believed that they had won the confidences of the electorate in Addis Ababa and other metropolitan areas which in the end turned out to be woefully wrong. As the election results started to become public in the metropolitan areas the party became increasingly frustrated and insecure.

However, the EPRDF should have been conscious of the elections trend in Africa and been prepared for such an outcome: Robert Mugabe’s party ZANU-PF lost in Harare and Bulawayo, Daniel Arap Moi’s party KANU lost in Kisumu, Nairobi, Nakuru and Naivasha. By rushing to announce the result, EPRDF failed to comply with the guidelines of NEBE and this demonstrated a lack of experience in multi-party politics.

Accepting defeat was difficult and unfamiliar in the culture, and the social and political systems. With the exception of rare cases such as Ghana, Kenya, and Zambia, most incumbents in many African countries have rarely accepted defeat and handed over power to the victorious political party. This highlights a crucial issue in African politics – leaders who come to power using the barrel of the gun do not have the confidence to leave the government mansion willingly and become an “ordinary” citizen.

I can understand their fear. Such leaders, while in power, are not interested in developing a system that could provide them a means that would enable them to live as an ordinary citizen, because they do not want to leave power. It has become fashionable to amend Constitutions, extend terms of office, and stay in power for life. This alienates them from the community and they cannot assimilate back if they leave power because of injustices they committed and unlimited powers they exercised over the people. They are foreigners who would only feel secure living in exile from their homeland usually after a last minute peace deal brokered by a western government.

An important question one should ask is why it was necessary to violate the non-violence pact signed before the 2005 Ethiopian elections where the major political parties agreed “[t]o peacefully resolve our differences or other disagreements between and among ourselves”. [6] Why was it necessary to change a relatively smooth democratic process to a violent event where over 40 people lost their lives, thousands (including leaders of opposition political parties, human right activists and civil society organizations, etc.) ended up in detention camps, and freedom of press was curtailed severely.

Losing the elections in Addis Ababa, where the African Union and some international organizations have their headquarters, was an embarrassment for the EPRDF government. As the parliamentary election results continued to become public formally and informally, it became evident that while some senior government officials including the Minister of Education Genet Zewdae, speaker of the House Ato Dawit Yohannes, etc. lost their parliamentary seats in Addis, still more government officials lost in the regional towns. Thus, the EPRDF government, on the notion of maintaining order and peace in the country, banned public meetings and rallies, intimidated, harassed and retaliated against the electorate who voted against EPRDF, using excessive power and denying the people the right to express their views publicly on the results of the election.

It is worth remembering that retaliation or revenge breeds violence and creates a downward spiral of violence. Ethiopians at home and in the Diaspora witnessed and remember how revenge and retaliation spiraled into violence during the early days of the Marxist regime. Loosely translated, one of the slogans that bred violence was “the blood of one revolutionary can be matched by the blood of a thousand anarchists”. It is thirty years later now and I am sure most Ethiopians remember how the retaliatory chain of violence labeled “Red Terror” and “White Terror” wiped out thousands of young and educated Ethiopians.

More recently, Ethiopians will also recall how the EPRDF, which took power in 1991, used this terror to identify with families of the victims, win trust and confidence of Ethiopians and show the atrocities the Communist government committed against its own people. There is no justification for any group including EPRDF to use revenge (violence) as a means to solve the current problem in Ethiopia.

It has become clear that the legal system is too slow, either due to limited capacity or a lack of good will, to provide remedy for those who seek justice, especially those jailed in connection to the May 2005 elections. As all concerned Ethiopians and the international community continue to advocate for justice, it is a ripe time to plan and discuss how the democratic process should continue in Ethiopia. The parliament has only three years and ten months to finish its term and visionary people and their leaders must start preparation for the next elections, which are slated for 2010.

From the contested election results of May 2005, Ethiopians have demonstrated their ability and commitment to use the ballot box to elect leaders who can form a government that respects the rights of its citizens, and is dedicated to good governance. Every politician and even the highest organ responsible for implementing the elections recognized the power of the electorate, as indicated by the NEBE chairman’s comment that “[t]he determination of the people to exercise their democratic rights is a sure guarantee that democracy is here to stay”. [7]

If this is the principle that guides the people of Ethiopia and is the motto of the Board, then it will be appropriate to give elections another try. Opposition political parties and those who would like to participate in the next election have to develop a strategy and road map on what should be accomplished between now and the next elections. Willingness (Preparedness) to engage in dialogue should be part of strategy. Dialogue can help shed some light into what happened during the 2005 elections and provide space to identify future opportunities. Identifying lessons learned and building on that foundation is one sign of growth, and would minimize chances of similar mistakes in the future.

What can be done to reinvigorate the democratic processes in Ethiopia? It is true that innocent people have died and leaders of the opposition political parties, human rights activists, and CSO leaders are languishing in jails still waiting for justice. With this in mind, following are suggestions on how to break the stalemate, and continue building the democratic process that was halted.

Looking Forward

While the outcome of the elections strangled an emerging democratic culture and increased polarization among various groups, I would argue that it is in the best interests of Ethiopians at home, in the Diaspora, and the international community that the process be given another chance.

While some groups now contend that change can only come via the barrel of the gun, I do not see the rationale, yet, for further blood shed! As an Ethiopian, I am against all violence and do not want to see any Ethiopian take up a gun and kill another Ethiopian. We have had enough of that - violence breeds violence. We have grieved for the last forty years, exhumed graves to collect human remains, and we have been pointing figures at others who were involved in killing our innocent brothers and sisters. If we opt for violence as a means to solve the current problem in Ethiopia, this will only increase the prison population, intensify divisions among groups, create new groups of victims and result in yet another exodus of refugees. Are we ready for another round of demobilization and reintegration of ex-combatants? Have we even finished reintegrating ex-combatants from the communist regime? We have not yet fully addressed the psychosocial problems in our communities and the economy is staggering to grow. We need to break the cycle of violence. We need to reconcile, heal wounds and build a democratic society. What are the options?

1. A need to stop the zero-sum mind set

The incumbent government and opposition political parties perceive the political landscape as a small cake, each one of them determined and eager to get a bigger portion at any cost – today. They fail to look into the future or explore if there are other alternatives and opportunities. The ‘here and now’ perception should be challenged. All have to agree to expand the cake and get a good share for each and look to the opportunities in the future. In spite of the differences in their political manifestos all political parties have to invest in the future. The cycle of elections is five years and this is not a long time to wait. Looking into the future will generate options. Since more elections are coming, there are opportunities to win, “benefit” and demonstrate their talent and commitment to good governance. Therefore, there is a need for compromise and a move out of the cocoon of “all for me attitude”.

2. Need to develop a culture of dialogue and tolerance

History and experience have proved that a culture of political dialogue among Ethiopians is missing. Dialogue helps to reestablish relationships, to develop a shared vision and commitment [8] and subsequently to increase tolerance, which include among other things the ability to listen and engage. At this juncture it is appropriate to ask whether dialogue is new to Ethiopians. Among many groups in Ethiopia, there are different forms of dialogue: “afersat”, “idir”; “ikub”, “mahibir”, etc. which are used at different levels in the society, family, and community to address issues of mutual concern. Afersata, for example, is used to identify criminals, investigate crime, mediate inter group and inter community conflicts, etc. Communities under the leadership of the community elders attend a series of meetings to weed out criminals from their community. In similar ways, Idir and iquib are used to address social issues and financial needs. However, politicians do not have such a platform and fail to develop such a model in a multi-party environment to negotiate and discuss crosscutting national issues.

Among most Ethiopians, losers are not welcome and this is reflected in our culture and value system. This is inculcated in early childhood. Therefore, most of us (including politicians) who grew up in a social system that considers defeat as a disgrace can rarely accept defeat and would rather retaliate or take revenge. It is crucial to change this attitude, and teach people that accepting defeat is not the end of the world, but an opportunity to explore other possibilities, and look to the future.

Conclusion

Ethiopians at home and in the diaspora have an obligation to nurture what was planted prior to the election in May 2005. It requires gentle hands using appropriate tools that can nourish it, removing weeds that have the potential to strangle its growth, and provide good nutrients so that it continues to grow and bear fruit. If the government and opposition political parties continue to use a heavy hand, the democratic process will become stunted. Suppressing and punishing any form of political dissent will not help the democratic processes in Ethiopia to grow. A polarized approach will increase the rift among groups who are interested in taking the process forward.

It is time to remove the stigma attached to elections; another election is coming in about three years time and it is coming with new opportunities. Let us stop blaming and blackmailing others if the person expresses an opinion which is different from that of our own. Different views would provide room for growth and if all Ethiopians promoted just one ideology life would be monotonous. It is time to continue to promote our mosaic culture, and appreciate our differences. It is the drum, the kirar, the masinko, embelata, etc. which have important but distinct roles in producing the rhythm in our music.

* Erkyihun Lagere is an Ethiopian working in the field of conflict analysis and resolution for an NGO based in Europe Contact lerkyihun@aim.com

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Notes

[1] The elections in 1995 and 2000 could not be claimed to be multiparty because there was not strong opposition
[2] “Ethiopia’s governing party claims victory” Associated Press, International Herald Tribune, May 18, 2005
[3] Quoted from the BBC News website 11/05/06 ‘Election fever hits Ethiopian cities’.
[4] Ethiopia’s governing party claims a victory, International Herald Tribune, May 18, 2005
[5] See J. Abbink, Discomfiture of democracy? The 2005 election crisis in Ethiopia and its aftermath. African Affairs Volume 105, Number 419, April 2006. p.183
[6]The full text of the Ethiopia Electoral Non-Violence Pact from http://www.electionsethiopia.org/Whats%20New22.html
[7]Ethiopia PM warns of ‘hate’ poll, 6 May 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4522205.stm
[8] Harold Saunders Saunders, Harold. 1996. Prenegotiation and Circum-negotiation: Arenas of the Peace Process, in Chester A. Crocker and Fen Osler Hampson, Managing Global Chaos: Sources of and Responses to International Conflict. Washington, D.C. USIP. Pp.419-432.

From London to Beirut

Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed

2006-07-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/36227

As air and ground fighting continues to kill and maim in the Middle East, Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed looks at the broader ramifications of the current conflict – and the ultimate price that it might extract.


Over 300 people killed, most of them civilians. 1,000 wounded. Half a million and rising displaced from their homes. A third of these Lebanese casualties, according to the UN, have been children. These estimated figures dwarf in scale the terror and tragedy that paralysed London almost around the same time last year, when 52 were killed and over 700 wounded in a coordinated bomb attack on the commuter transport system.

What's happening in Lebanon is six times the devastation, six times the agony, six times the trauma, six times the terror of the 7/7 terrorist attacks. But leaders in the UK, US and European governments don't seem to think so. They have all unanimously fumbled their fingers and mumbled meaninglessly as Israel has proceeded to respond to Hizbollah's capture of Israeli Defence Force (IDF) combatants - an action in concordance with legitimate military resistance against illegal occupation - by ruthlessly smashing civilian life and infrastructure in Beirut.

IDF operations have targeted key civilian installations, including water and sanitation systems, destroyed Lebanon's largest dairy farm and pharmeceutical plant, shelled UN posts sheltering civilians, flattened whole villages, and turned mosques, churches and houses into rubble. They have cut off roads and bridges, blocking urgently needed humanitarian assistance.

But such terrorist attacks, when targeted against the Other, no longer constitute terrorism at all; in our Orwellian world of media double-speak, they become instead laudable acts of valour. In fact, when an Israeli air strike killed 8 Canadian citizens in southern Lebanon, US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton emphasized that such deaths due to IDF operations are morally different to the deaths of Israelis due to attacks by Hizbollah. "I think it would be a mistake to ascribe moral equivalence to civilians who die as the direct result of malicious terrorist acts," he said. In contrast, Israeli military operations constituted only "self-defense", with the "the tragic and unfortunate consequence of civilian deaths."

Dead Lebanese are unworthy victims. They don't count. But Israeli lives do. The moral distinction drawn by Bolton is not in fact moral at all; it is political, a political decision to view the lives of one group of human beings as sacred, and another group as functionally irrelevant. Such "moral" distinctions are central to the legitimization of large-scale systematic violence against a particular human group.

The Beirut bombings are not the result of a fundamentally religious conflict. Israel Defence Force raids are indiscriminately murdering Lebanese and non-Lebanese Muslims, Jews and Christians. It's difficult, caught in the horror of the bloodied bodies left in the wake IDF air strikes, to remind ourselves of the context of the crisis, and its strategic trajectories. But the broad ramifications must be understood.

Israeli policy-planners have long envisaged a protracted wider regional conflict as a potentially useful way for Israel to achieve longstanding historical objectives. Israeli spokesmen have been at pains to characterize the conflict as a regional conspiracy against Israel hatched by Iran and Syria. But this obscures the fact that, although the latter indeed provide support for Hizbollah, the Lebanese resistance group remains an autonomous and outspoken organization rooted firmly in its national homeland. US and Israeli officials, however, see the drastic escalation of the conflict as an opportunity to explore the prospects for US-Israeli military expansionism.

The invasion of Iraq was, we ought to remind ourselves, merely the first stage in a rolling strategy for the reconfiguration of the Middle East whose existence is now well-documented and indisputable. Reporting for Time Magazine in February 2003, Joe Klein – a member of the Council on Foreign Relations – observed that: “Israel is very much embedded in the rationale for war with Iraq. It is part of the argument that dare not speak its name, a fantasy quietly cherished by the neo-conservative faction in the Bush administration and by many leaders of the American Jewish Community.” The US war on Iraq was intended to be the beginning of a whole new era in the Middle East, designed to “send a message to Syria and Iran about the perils of support for Islamic terrorists,” bring an end to the Palestinian problem, and shake the “wobbly Hashemite monarchy in Jordan.” We are now seeing the next stages of this "new era" in construction.

Need we also remind ourselves of the influential 1996 strategy paper authored by David Wurmser published by the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies (IASPS) based in Jerusalem and Washington D.C.? It advised: "The battle to dominate and define Iraq is, by extension, the battle to dominate the balance of power in the Levant over the long run... The United States must support moves to challenge Syria’s position in Lebanon, to undermine Iran, to ensure Turkey’s long-term pro-Western tilt and integration into Europe, to support Jordan’s efforts in Iraq, and to understand better the dynamics of Saudi succession as they relate to its foreign policy."

The overwhelming danger is plain for all reasonable observers to see. Israel is escalating its aggression, in both diplomatic rhetoric and military conduct, against Beirut, Damascus and Tehran, knowing full-well that this is dramatically increasing the probability of a wider conflict. Tehran has loudly confirmed its solidarity with Damascus in the event of a serious Israeli assault there. As the IDF continues to terrorise Lebanon with impunity while our own governments continue to supply military and financial aid to Israel, Hizbollah is left with little option but to escalate its own responses with support from Iran and Syria. As usual, Hizbollah's responses are in turn cited by Israel as ample justification for increasing its own indiscriminate massacres of Lebanese civilians, which further aggravates and escalates Hizbollah's retaliations.

As the cycle widens and deepens, US leaders and experts increasingly blame Iran, albeit without evidence, for engineering Hizbollah's initial operation to capture the IDF soldiers. The danger that the increasing involvement of Iran and/or Syria in the conflict could be exploited by Israel to convert it into a full-scale regional war should not be underestimated. As the late Professor Israel Shahak of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, wrote years ago in his Open Secrets (London: Pluto, 1997):

"The wish for peace, so often assumed as the Israeli aim, is not in my view a principle of Israeli policy, while the wish to extend Israeli domination and influence is… Israel is preparing for a war, nuclear if need be, for the sake of averting domestic change not to its liking, if it occurs in some or any Middle Eastern states... Israel clearly prepares itself to seek overtly a hegemony over the entire Middle East…without hesitating to use for the purpose all means available, including nuclear ones."

There could perhaps be no better time to heed Shahak's warning than now, when both the US and Israel, with British complicity and European duplicity, are maneuvering themselves into a position where they can legitimize the opening of multiple military confrontations with Lebanon, Iran and Syria. The nuclear implications have never been lost. Both Britain and the United States have adopted first-strike nuclear policies, and are actively pursuing tactical nuclear weapons to make such unconventional warfare strategically viable. US Vice-President Dick Cheney continues to spend most of his time in secret nuclear bunkers where he oversees the establishment and functioning of an unelected network of unknown officials, planned to immediately come into power in the event of a nuclear strike against the United States.

For the last few decades in the Middle East, armageddon has long lingered on the horizon, but in light of recent events, its shadow looms closer. Our leaders are not rational, trustworthy individuals, and we are not safe in their hands. We do not want to experience 7th July 2005 a thousand times over. So we must take action, now; which means making the voices of we, the people, heard so clearly and overwhelmingly that those who kill and support killing in our name can do so no longer.

* This article first appeared on www.zmag.org Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed is the author of The London Bombings: An Independent Inquiry (London: Duckworth, 2006, www.independentinquiry.co.uk) He teaches courses in International Relations at the School of Social Sciences and Cultural Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton, where he is doing his PhD studying imperialism and genocide. Since 9/11, he has authored three other books revealing the realpolitik behind the rhetoric of the "War on Terror", The War on Freedom, Behind the War on Terror and The War on Truth.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

* Links on the Middle East crisis

- Five Israeli myths
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=107&ItemID=10643
- Depleted Uranium and US-Israeli Bombs
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/msg/1153759483.html
- Organisation of African Trade Union press release on Lebenon
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/36205
- Save the Lebanese Civilians Petition
http://epetition.net/julywar/index.php
- Support relieve efforts
http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/4636.html
- Diary of Liberians in Beirut
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54803
- Cellphone blog
http://itf.typepad.com/lebanon/
- Other blogs
http://lebanonupdates.blogspot.com/
http://siegeoflebanon.blogspot.com/
http://www.fromisraeltolebanon.org/

Somalia’s Struggle

2006-07-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/36240

Months of fighting in Mogadishu has just ended, with the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) defeating warlords allegedly backed by the United States for control of the capital. In the last week, the threat of new violence has loomed with reports that Ethiopian troops have entered the country to defend its powerless government against the Islamist forces. The following article was compiled and submitted to Pambazuka News by Strategic Initiatives for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) Network and details the difficulties faced by ordinary people trying to escape the violence.


The struggle for power in Somalia is an ongoing battle. In recent days Ethiopian troops have been sent into the country, allegedly backed by the US, to defend the town of Baidoa, seat of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), against a possible attack from the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) who took control of the capital Mogadishu last month.

The battle for the capital itself involved many months of fighting between the UIC’s militia, who have also assumed power in many areas of South Somalia, and an alliance of warlords believed to have been backed by the US. The involvement of the Islamists is only the most recent move in a series of power struggles which began following the departure of Siad Barre’s Government, overthrown in 1991. Warlords have fought between themselves ever since to succeed in governing the country.

Now, although most of the warlords have fled Mogadishu, there remains a continued threat of further conflict with the rising tension between the UIC and the TFG. Many Somalis, whose population is predominantly Muslim, are glad that the Islamists have taken control of the capital because they have brought a severe reduction in violence. However UIC control has raised alarm with the TFG (who have limited power), Ethiopia and the US. They believe that Islamic dominance will lead to Somalia becoming a safe haven for terrorists, including members of al-Qaeda.

Yet while the gunbattles rage and the political struggles are fought it is the people of Somalia who continue to suffer as victims of attacks, with few job opportunities, with no stable Government and thus little access to services. Moreover, unlike its neighbour Sudan, due to the ferocity of fighting and lack of Government, the involvement of the international community in assisting Somalia has been limited. For many Somalis life has become unbearable and they have little hope for any improvement. Violence against women, including rape, is rife, there are limited police and hospitals, theft and lootings by gangs is commonplace, most children in IDP camps have had no education and many IDPs are forced to move from camp to camp.

This has driven some Somalis to take desperate measures to try to change their situation. A special report by IRIN (UN news agency) in June told the tales of the thousands of Somali people attempting to escape to the Middle East by paying middlemen to take them across the Red Sea. Many never make it past the port as their fares for the journey – their life savings – are stolen on the way to reach the boats. Others who make the treacherous voyage will have their bodies washed up on the shores of Yemen. Even those who do make it risk being deported back to Somalia. But they will try again; for Somalis life or death is a challenge they face every day.

Civil Society Forum for Peace

Two Strategic Initiatives for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) members, the Coalition of Grassroots Women’s Organisations (COGWO) and the Peace and Human Rights Network (PHRN), have joined with other civil rights groups in Somalia to set up a Civil Society Forum which held its first planning meetings this month. The idea of the Forum came about in response to the continued conflict in Somalia, the recent deployment of Ethiopian troops and tensions between the TFG and UIC, which has led to fears of further armed confrontation.

The aim of the Forum is to strengthen the role of civil society in promoting dialogue and in achieving a peaceful resolution to the Somali conflict. The Forum will seek to develop a common agenda, strategy and vision for civil society so that organisations can work together with a comprehensive approach to achieve greater impact. It is hoped that the Forum and its participants will be able to play a crucial role mediating between the UIC and TFG as well as ensuring that community needs are addressed. The Forum also wishes to promote the establishment of a government of national unity and to prevent the collapse of the TFG. Any organisation that believes in these objectives is welcome to become a member of the Forum and further meetings will take place later this month. For more information please contact: cogwo_organization@hotmail.com

Saving Lives through Food Distribution

SIHA member Kalsan voluntary organization recently donated 2,000kg of maize and sorghum to four refugee camps in the north of Mogadishu, Karan district, Wajeer quarter. Two hundred families, of mainly women and children, each received 10kg of the provisions. Food distribution projects like this can play a life saving role as few aid resources are available for IDPs living in the camps. However there is hope for the future. The United Nations Emergency Coordinator, Jan Egeland, recently met UIC officials to open discussions on allowing the UN and other aid agencies access to deliver badly needed supplies to Mogadishu.

A Cry for Help: Internally displaced women living in camps in Mogadishu tell their stories

RUKIO AHMED ALI comes from Bakal region of Southern Somalia. “We used to live in another IDP camp which was hit by a mortar during the recent fighting. A friend of mine, an old woman, was killed. A number of children were also killed. Others who did not manage to escape were injured. Most were people I knew and still know. I moved to this IDP camp, Tawakal, after that attack and I feel secure here now.”

On the safety issue she continues: “Whilst I do feel safe here and generally in the city too I have no idea for how long. The shooting and fighting has stopped at the moment and I am able to move around relatively easily. But I don’t have the security of a livelihood to sustain me and my family. I see my future as doomed. Look, I have nothing, no work, no home, just this shelter. Who knows what the Islamists will do. I do not know whether we will have rights under them. Remember that I am an IDP who essentially has no right, no voice and doesn’t exist. In that context, my future is bleak. But there is something I do know, this war has caused unimaginable suffering to a lot of people and it must end. Can you help, please?”

SA’IDO BARISE CEYMOY lives at AMIN NUR IDP camp in Wardhigley District in Mogadishu. She and her family were evacuated from another IDP camp known as BUR EYLON in Bay Region, South West of Mogadishu. She has two children and is 7 months pregnant. “It was terrible (referring to the recent fighting). Right now as we speak, I do not know the whereabouts of my husband. It is two months today since he disappeared. I do not know whether he was killed or what. I am very worried. I have two young children and am pregnant. I do not know how I will cope without him. Life has become a misery. This war has made me very sad and angry. It has robbed me of my husband. I live here, a miserable life. I own nothing that I can call my own: no assets and no means to earn a livelihood. The future is bleak for me and my children whose father…no one knows where he is!”

On the issue of sending her children to school she responds with a smile: “That is a good thing to do for ones’ kids, but I am not in a position to send them since I have no means to pay them through school. In any case I do not feel comfortable enough to do so since security is not yet all that good. Remember I am an IDP. To me the most important thing is to try to feed, clothe and house them. That is what is critical. Can I do that? I do not know since right now I am pregnant and cannot seek any work around the camp or outside. It is terrible. My husband was everything and now he is not here.”

MADINO ADEN BIYOOLE and her family have lived in Mogadishu for a period of 12 years. They left their home in the Bay region of Somalia because of severe drought. “Fighting has become a normal occurrence here. We hide under these makeshift huts as our only place to seek safety. However, fighting does not know IDP camps, it does not know children, it does not know women and the elderly. These people shell everywhere indiscriminately. It is terrifying especially for the kids. I thank God we are alive and together. But I don’t know for how long. I feel secure now but who knows, another fight may be coming. It is awful. It may not be over yet. Pressure must be exerted on these people to lay down their weapons and seek dialogue for the sake of peace. In Somalia life is all about risks perpetrated by power hungry people. As a woman, things are harder. As an IDP they are even worse. I am helpless and feel unworthy. Imagine what could happen if a shell hit this hut?” She begins to cry.

FATIMA AHMED MOHAMED: “I do not know where Somalia is heading. The people fighting have no compassion for us women and children. They have been fighting for so long that it has become a habit. This madness must stop and let us rebuild our lost lives. Look at this camp (Fardow). Is it a place for human beings? No sanitation, no clean water and no means to change the situation since no work is available. We live in poverty, wretched poverty. Why has God forsaken us?”

FADUMO SHEIKH ALI has lived in ISBARTIIBO IDP camp for 10 years. She originally comes from the Bay region of South Somalia. “I tell you, we have nothing: no clothes, no shelter (pointing around) and no food. I am waiting for God to help and improve my future. We live in deplorable conditions as you can see. This is made worse by war, war, war or whatever you may call it. It kills people: young, old, women, men and everyone. It does not help anyone. I feel angry, angry at those causing us so much suffering, so much trauma and above all making it difficult to have a livelihood. I need to be secure from harm, secure from hunger and secure in assets. But I do not possess any of these. Of course the fighting has stopped again but nothing has changed for me. I still eke a living from begging. Is that the life we want to live? NO! We want our leaders to give us hope not misery. We need the basic requirements of life: schools for our children, health centres for pregnant mothers and livelihoods. Maybe what I am saying is a dream. So be it. Let me dream to soothe my pain temporarily, to reduce my sadness and anger. What a world we live in! It is not a good life to live in an IDP camp. But this has become necessary because of selfishness amongst our leaders who have no souls, hearts and foresight. What a pity.”

* This article was compiled and submitted to Pambazuka News by Strategic Initiatives for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) Network. SIHA is a network of civil society organisations from North and South Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia and Somaliland. Founded in 1995 by a collection of women's groups with the view of strengthening their capacity, SIHA has grown over the years and is now comprised of 28 member organisations.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

There is something you can do about Lebanon

Tajudeen Abdul Raheem

2006-07-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/panafrican/36276

The Irish know a lot about colonialism and oppression. They know what it means to be occupied, humiliated and oppressed, denied dignity and humanity on your own God –given soil. They are the first and last colony of the British. They have rebelled, sabotaged rose up in arms, and fought many wars, against the British in order to secure their liberation. Thus one of their famous nationalists, Connolly, knew what he was talking about when he stated: ” A nation that holds another in bondage cannot itself be free”.

Ireland did win its independence from Britain but not as a united country because the British gerrymandered the borders of the Irish counties and manipulated the Independence referendum in a way that ensured that a pro colonialist (otherwise called Unionist) majority was guaranteed in six of the counties which became Northern Ireland’ within the United Kingdom. The Irish Nationalist never accepted the division of their homeland and this gave rise to armed resistance by the Irish republicans through the IRA (Irish Republican Army). After decades of armed struggle, despite protestations to the contrary, it was no less a conservative ‘Queen and Country’ party than a Margaret Thatcher led Conservative government, that began negotiations with the terrorists’ that finally led to the Good Friday agreement and ended major active hostilities between the British and the IRA in Northern Ireland.

The history of British colonial domination across is full of repeats of this pattern of public declarations that ‘we won’t talk to terrorists’ but making deals behind closed doors usually after realizing that they cannot defeat the ‘terrorists’ militarily. Former British terrorists included many Israeli Zionists like former Prime Ministers Begun, Rabin, Sharon and others who were leading members of ‘terrorist’ cells that waged a campaign of terror, murders and assassinations to chase the British out of Palestine and establish the Zionist state of Israel. Many people regarded as national heroes in Israel were at one time or the other under ‘terrorist watch’ by the British. But today all that is forgotten with Britain as the most pro –Zionist state in Europe supporting anything that the Americans are doing in their uncritical support for anything that Israel does.

The history of Israel as a Zionist state and the collective memory of pain, suffering, oppression and humiliation as a people, either in Biblical Egypt or fascist and genocidal ‘modern’ Europe, should have taught them that no matter how unequal the power balance, oppressed peoples will always rise. Even if all the powers in this world combine to hold them down they will always find a way to affirm their humanity.

Its current unjust war of destruction and campaign of annihilation in Lebanon is a glaring example of how it might be able to be right. The attacks on Lebanon are ostensibly justified as ‘retaliation ‘for the capture of two Israeli soldiers by the Lebanese resistance group, Hizbollah whom they regard as terrorists. But three weeks into the this unequal tragedy it is clear to anybody that even if the two soldiers were not abducted Israel would have found another reason for ‘reinvading’ Lebanon, a country from which they were expelled by the same Hizbollah and other patriotic Lebanese forces.

How much is the life of an Israeli worth? On the principle of a-life-for-a-life how many more Lebanese children, women and innocent men have to be killed, orphaned or widowed before Israeli lust for blood is satiated? Lebanon has been bombed continuously for three weeks, its infrastructure destroyed in a vengeance spree of collective punishment by the Israeli Army. Those that have the power to moderate Israeli militarism, principally, its biggest backer, the USA, have egged it on against all pleas by the UN and other members of the international community, for a ceasefire. Instead the US and its loyal poodle, the British Prime Minister, have speciously insisted that Lebanon somehow brought this unto itself. They have not learnt their lessons from Palestine. They humiliated Yasser Arafat in life and death, orchestrated the succession of Abbas but still gave nothing in return to show that ‘moderation’ can deliver, and were later surprised that Hamas won a democratic election. No sooner than Hamas was elected they began a campaign of blockade and sanctions that punishes the Palestinians for voting democratically!

In Lebanon only two years ago, we are made to believe a popular uprising of Lebanese democrats, eschewing foreign intervention consequent to the assassination of the popular PM, Hariri, led to the exit of Syrian forces. It is this same democratic government that is being ‘supported’ by invasion. Israel like its Anglo-American backers has a weird way of ‘bombing people for freedom’ despite trying it in Iraq and Afghanistan without evident success. Instead of securing their illegitimate occupation of Iraq through divide and rule of the population, what their occupation has done is to unite Iraqis in a patriotic resistance against foreign domination.

No fewer outcomes will come out of the current attacks and occupation of Lebanon by Israel no matter how long it takes. I saw a young woman interviewed the other day who summed up both the mixture of hopelessness and defiance when she said: “Lebanon has seen war before and we survived………… we will survive this one too and the Israelis will leave our country...”

Does this mean that there is nothing that anyone of us can do? There is a sense of powerlessness and anger by many that given the power balance even if you do not support the Israelis you have nothing but moral outrage to help the Lebanese or the Palestinians. We should not underestimate the power of moral outrage. The ANC and other Liberation Movements in South Africa like the Mau Mau fighters in Kenya before them or the Algerian Resistant Movement before that, and the Madiba, who is now venerated by everybody, used to be regarded as terrorists.

* 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 or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

OATUU Condemns bombardment in Palestine and Lebanon

Hassan A. Sunmonu

2006-07-26

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/36205

The Organisation of African Trade Union Unity (OATUU), is at the moment dumbfounded at the criminal aerial bombardment of Israel on the innocent Palestinian and Lebanese populations and on the civil infrastructures of Palestine and Lebanon. Millions of African Workers, under the OATUU ask, until what time can the Occupied Arab Territories support the blockage, the extermination and the vandalism perpetrated by Israel?

The OATUU continues to ask the question to know or to find the whereabouts of the uncountable International Organizations concerned with Human Rights that exist throughout the world? Why does the International Community remain so quiet in the face of the present martyrdom of the Peoples of Palestine and Lebanon? Why are they silent in the face of the massacre and genocide perpetrated against the martyred people of Palestine, whose only aspiration is recognition of their legitimate and inalienable rights to peace and national sovereignty?

For us in the OATUU, we shall never stop to repeat, that the Palestinian Problem is the epicentre of the conflict in the Middle East, and the only condition that can bring a just, comprehensive and durable peace to the Middle East is the withdrawal of Israel from the Occupied Palestinian territories and from South Lebanon and the Golan Heights of Syria.

Could we also know the reason why the United Nations and the International Community always shut their eyes on the pursuit of Israeli policy of extension and colonization in flagrant violation of the pertinent resolutions of the United Nations, in particular, Resolution 1402 of the UN Security Council demanding the withdrawal of Israel from Palestinian territories?

In OATUU, our firm conviction is that the Palestinian State will come into existence, and it will be a viable state with internationally recognized frontiers with Jerusalem as capital.

We strongly demand that Israel puts an end to aerial bombardments against the friendly Peoples of Lebanon and Palestine. We launch an urgent appeal to the United Nations and the International Community to compel Israel to put an end to its aggression against Palestine and Lebanon.

We cannot accept the fallacious argument that people unjustifiably resisting illegal occupation of their land are terrorists. We recall that the African National Congress was also called a terrorist organization during their noble struggle against apartheid.

Without Justice, there can be no Peace

Middle East Crisis: Substituting plurality for conquest

Ndung’u Wainaina

2006-07-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/36234

Karl Marx said of Louis Bonarparte (September 2, 1778 – July 25, 1846) that “men are makers of their own history but they do not make it as they please, they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves but under circumstances directly found, given and transmitted from the past”. This statement represents the political and socio-cultural reality of the Middle East and its long but protracted violent conflict. The fact that the social groups involved tend to define themselves by their history sets them apart from each other. In this situation, unless plurality of differences is recognized as a positive aspect of today’s geopolitical realm - as opposed to a Westernised attitude of colonialism and conquest - the struggle for racial and socio-cultural equality will continue taking a militarized form.

Western civilization and economic imperialism expansionists should come to terms with the fact that social fragmentation is a way of giving voice to the exclusion. In this instance, Middle East people and their counterparts in other developing countries are fighting against racial domination, militarized economic imperialism and cultural annihilation. It is a people united to recapture and occupy their rightful space to speak for themselves in their own voice and have that voice accepted as authentic and legitimate. The rationale advanced here is that pluralism and assertion of difference helps to undermine the grip of the dominant groups over political and social discourse.

Contemporary South Africa was negotiated and built on this reality even though there does still exist severe socio-economic structural disparities. Apartheid, which became official policy in 1948, was the product of the fear of a small privileged group. Ironically, just as is happening in the Middle East, the same Western capitals that condemned apartheid facilitated the trading of multinational companies with the apartheid regime.

The Middle East conflict is becoming increasingly dangerous and inflammatory, jeopardizing and endangering regional peace and security. It is significant to note here that America and its Western allies can easily use the so-called Iran link with the Hezbollah and Hamas movements to launch a reckless and ill-advised attack against Iran over Iran’s uranium enrichment programme.

The answer to the Middle East crisis is a political justice based on recognition of the plurality and identity of various groups in the region. Racial dominance, denial of political and economic rights and social degradation exercised by Israel and her Western allies are all measures to safeguard the exploitation of oil wealth by Western capitals and minority interests in the region. The message and response coming out of the G8 Summit and United Nations are just desperate attempts to try to keep the lid on the crisis in the hope that it might somehow go away on its own.

The search for ‘peace’ by Western diplomacy in the Middle East and other flash points has achieved little other than to ensure the continuation of underlying instability. The reality is that none of the so-called super powers currently has the capacity to get control of the conflict in the Middle East. Further, none between Israel and her Arab neighbours can win a straight all out war.

The Iraq and Afghanistan disasters engineered by Western capitals are unraveling case studies of attempts by Western colonial imperialism to disintegrate states for purpose of re-colonization and exploitation. It is the same as in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Western countries after facilitating genocide for over 45 years, are now busy actively stage managing “democratic” elections to ensure smooth but well controlled political transition.

It is incumbent on the international community to pressurize parties to the conflict to respect the rules of international humanitarian law, to refrain from violence against the civilian population and to treat under all circumstances all detained combatants and civilians in accordance with the Geneva Conventions.

* Ndung’u Wainain is a Programme Officer, NCEC and Director, International Center for Policy and Conflict. P.O. Box 11996-00400 Nairobi. Tel: 4445974, 4446313; email: wainainagn@yahoo.co.uk

Between colonialists and China

Kola Ibrahim

2006-07-25

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/36182

Not that what I have to say matters - since when has anyone cared to read what readers have to express. Pambazuka News: show me you are different. Ok, I want to find out from him why China can produce cheaply and not the Funtua Textiles he made mention of. (http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/panafrican/36045). I guess this is China's time in the serial rape of an ever-willing continent. The elites speak to themselves and the rest of the people are pre-occupied with finding what to survive on. I once asked a question no one bothered to answer: Why do you have China Towns all over the world and not one Naija Town is possible? I rest my case!

Never again

Ruth Otima

2006-07-25

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/36183

After Rwanda 12 years ago, the world has not learned its lesson on genocide prevention (http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/33432). The apathy of the Security Council has been nothing but pathetic. It shames me that the American government seems to not give a damn about Darfur. This is Rwanda all over again.

Peace, security and elections in the DRC

Godfrey Musila

2006-07-25

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/36184

Thank you for the good editorial work that you are doing. I thank Mr. Yav Katshung Joseph for the informative and educative article. (http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/33432). As you remember, DRC was formerly called Zaire. The reason why the name was changed; many of us do not know! Let us pray that someone will not start another war just because of the name. I agree with him in the conclusion, in fact many giant steps have been taken on the way to democracy. The international community should not be commended - these people are everywhere even where wars have failed to stop. Take the example of the Middle East, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda. Thank you once again.

There is no free lunch

Ben Laauwen

2006-07-26

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/36188

Excellent article, placing the drive to privatisation in a clear light. (http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/31759). The expected returns on FDI, related to privatised public services, to shareholders will soon replace the interest owed on debts to the World Bank and IMF. "There is no free lunch". I hope African leaders will see the trap in time.

Where is the PAP headed?

Godfrey Musila

2006-07-26

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/36189

Where is the Pan African Parliament headed (http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/panafrican/34156)? Walking may be a good step, but where the PAP is headed is more important.

Crying Blood

Chuma Nwokolo

2006-07-26

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/36186

Today I feel no kinship with the human race.
I’m sorry,
but today I feel affinity with clotting blood
smeared on a pitted ghetto street,
beside the broken skull of an alien child,
barely ten winters old.
crushed by the triumphant indifference
of the ruling race

I’m sorry. For I know how infra dig this sounds,
especially when I estimate
the days and months of blinkless surveillance
you’ll now invest in me;
but up there in the cynic skies
I see your rockets’ frozen flatulence
and wonder what you sought,
so far above the earth,
when everywhere I turn
the cries of dying children fill my ears…

Today! I feel no kinship with the human race
for when his alien scream perjured the air
my heart confessed its truth!
That’s how I know I’m alien too,
like him, an outsider
There are many, many restless aliens
stalking all your streets

Tonight, when claret dams rupture,
don’t expect squeamishness from me,
when grey wakes end in the mist of flashing skies…
I know how terrorist this sounds!
coming from one so conformist!
…but I have seen polished members of the human race
dining with dismembered portions of the avian race.
I have seen courteous, lipsticked, napkined smiles,
pausing awhile to masticate
- and know that norms of decency
have no bearings beyond the pale of race…

Tonight! When I steer angers into crimson streams,
don’t expect decency when brooks begin to brim,
for your pacifists will turn their backs to the butchers,
only to belly up to the dinner
once the gory deed is done…

Tonight! I’ll feel no kinship with the wicked race
when judgement’s angel stalks,
but heed this warning; let every quickened man beware.
For every clotted drop will tell its tale to me,
‘and I’ll raise every sleeper of your race
to come account to Me.

Tonight’.

* From Chuma Nwokolo: ‘Memories of Stone’. Lagos: Villagerhouse 2006. Reproduce with the permission of the author.

* Chuma Nwokolo is a writer and advocate from Jos, Nigeria, and is writer-in-residence at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England.

Drum Rider

A Tribute to Bi Kidude, 95-year old Zanzibari musical phenomenon

Shailja Patel

2006-07-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/36217

Bi Kidude, virtuoso queen of Taraab and Unyago music from Zanzibar, continues to dazzle audiences at the age of 95-plus. Shailja Patel saw her live for the first time at the recently-ended ZIFF Festival of the Dhow Countries.


I.

The woman planted a drum on the grass before her
twisted a soft worn khanga round her hips.
As if she was going to wash clothes, chop vegetables,
hike a child to her back to go to market.
None of us really paid any attention.

The woman harnessed her hips to the drum.
Chest-high, foot-in-diameter uyagi drum.
Placed it aslant between her straddled legs,
settled into position.
Sunken chest erect
shoulders, neck, at the ready,
mouth set over gaping gums,
khanga hiked up skinny strong legs.
Feet placed in the earth
like it was time
to do business.
Like she was going
to work.

Suddenly, we are on
Planet Kidude.
Where men scurry across the mat
place mics, arrange wires, jostle for camera views.
Where she ignores them all
because she has done this for eight decades,
before there were cameras, mics;
decades she hoisted her drum
trudged rich dirt,
the length and breadth of Tanzania
to perform.
Decades she fought off
terror, insults, mockery,
the soul-destroying silence
only the strongest fire survives,
decades she travelled deep and deeper
to the heart of her own rhythm.

This is Bi Kidude.
Virtuoso of Taraab, Uyagi,
woman who at ninety-five, has walked more miles
than most of us have driven,
claimed a lineage
of music rooted
in the lives of the powerless,
stories unfurled in language of street and market,
poetry buried in the bodies of women.

II.

I have never seen a woman ride a drum before
like a goddess rides a tiger
like creation rides the cosmos,
I have never seen a woman ride a drum like this -
I have never seen an artist
male or female,
anywhere across the globe
own their instrument,
like it grew out of their belly
was welded to their thighs.

III.

Then, there were the dancers.

The dancers moved lazily
dropped their cellphones, shook out their khangas
gold at their ears, their necks, their wrists
gold gleamed in their mouths.

The dancers slipped into movement
as a bhajia slips into hot oil
rises to the surface
starts to sizzle.

Now the dancers shake their hips
with precision of balance, control
potency of strength, of muscle isolation
Olympic gymnasts would envy.

They shake their hips
for all of us
who have been taught, coerced
to disown our bodies,
for all women whose bodies
have been stolen from them.

They thrust their succulent buttocks out
with democratic largesse:
tease the old woman in the black buibui,
taunt the white-boy, dreadlocked tourist
who feigns coolness behind his wraparound sunglasses
while I watch his neck turn scarlet
drip with sweat.

The dancers shake their hips for the waitresses
at Africa House hotel, caged
in the most godawful
ugly, cheap, confining,
sweat-producing black skirts, white shirts
to serve drinks to tourists in shorts and bikinis.
Because heaven forbid those who serve
should ever feel breeze on their skins,
heaven forbid those who serve
should move their hips and torsos
freely in clothes that flow,
colours that hum,
we might forget they are servants
we might
see them.

The dancers shake their hips for the women
those waitresses serve. Waxy-pale bikini-clad tourists
at Serena's poolside.
Women who check their bodies daily
for forbidden fat,
outlawed abundance of flesh.
Women of the tragic sisterhood
of liposuction, surgical alteration,
silent epidemic – thirty-thousand anorexia deaths per year.
Women taught that beauty
equals self-annihilation.

These dancers shake their hips
for the six-thousand girl children who today
were held down, legs spread, hands tied, gagged, blindfolded
tortured beyond screaming,
violated beyond horror,
circumcised
for the crime
of a clitoris.

They shake their hips for every woman
infected with HIV
by a man who valued her life
less than his gratification.

These women who circle Bi Kidude
as planets orbit the sun,
circle like temple snakes
sinuous panthers
the source where sound begins,
they are shaking the bounty
of women's bodies
back into the world.

Their hips and butts are saying
YESS!!
YES - to largeness that does not apologise.
YES - to power, knowledge that do not disguise themselves.
YES -to pleasure, claimed and vested
in our mortal beautiful bodies.

III

I will never fear aging again
because now I have heard Bi Kidude
belt out, at ninety-five, without a mic
tobacco-stained waves of sound
sandpapered down to coconut fibre
stronger than cables of steel.

I will never fear aging again
because now I have seen Bi Kidude
whose face has never touched
an anti-wrinkle cream,
an age-defying glycolic acid enzyme peel,
who knocks back whisky, cigarettes
for every ounce of moisturizer I consume,
hypnotise a hundred cameras.


I have felt the power of this woman's neck
her shoulder muscles
surge thunder down arm
to hand to drum;
generate more electricity
than ten Madonnas,
a hundred Fela Kutis with sixteen-piece bands,
take us back to the center of fertile creation
where sound begins.

IV.

I believe in Bi Kidude
the way I don't believe in god.

But if god were a ninety-five-year old, ebony black
Swahili woman,
who claims to be one hundred and twenty,
with a mouth full of broken and missing teeth
hands veined like banyan trees
a drum between her legs,
a kijiti between her defiant, all-knowing lips
a shillingi-mia-kumi note flapping out of her neckline;

if god chanted wickedly satirical shairi
about the dangers of the very deathstick
she sucks on;

if god embraced irony, lust, contradiction
heartbreak, imperfection,
if god flaunted her struggles like a velvet cape,
rearranged the atoms of the world
with the rhythm of her gut

then maybe I would believe
in that god.
That god who is only a name
for the genius in all of us
that makes us our own imam and prophet
our own divinity.

I would call the faithful to prayer:
Bomba Kidude! Kidude Saafi!

And they would holler back: Saafi!
They would holler back: Saafi!
They would holler back: SAAFI!

And we would all be

god.

* Shailja Patel is a Kenyan Indian poet and spoken word artist. Visit her at www.shailja.com

* Background on Bi Kidude (Courtesy of Busara Promotions)

She is about 93 or something like that, but still she is the undisputed queen of taarab and unyago traditional music. Bi Kidude is still alive and kicking, touring Europe as well as Africa spreading taarab music. You might wonder what keeps this legendary barefoot diva strong and active despite her age, but as she says herself "everytime I sing I feel like a 14-year old girl!”

Bi Kidude's exact date of birth is unknown, much of her life story is uncorroborated, giving her an almost mythical status. Kidude started out her musical career in the 1920s, and learnt many of her songs with Siti bint Saad. She has performed in countries all around Europe, Middle East and Japan and finally recorded her first solo album ("Zanzibar", Retroafric Recordings) only six years ago, while in her mid-eighties. Recently she released a second locally-produced album ("Machozi ya Huba", Heartbeat Records) with her traditional drums influencing the burgeoning Zenji Flava local hip-hop scene in one of the most remarkable juxtapositions of musical style in modern 'World Music'.

Since fleeing a forced marriage at the age of 13 and escaping her homeland of Zanzibar, Bi Kidude has led an extraordinary and varied career as a drummer, singer, henna artist and natural healer. Her first journey was to the mainland of Tanzania, where she walked the length and breadth of the country barefoot. Fleeing a second unhappy marriage, Bi Kidude boarded a dhow, the ancient sailing vessels of the Swahili coast and journeyed north to Egypt where she became a renowned singer in the foremost dance bands of 1930's Egypt.

With renewed confidence and a new attitude to tradition (by now Kidude had thrown off her veil and shaved her head!) she returned, slowly to Zanzibar where she acquired a small clay house in the 1940's and settled down to life grounded in the traditional roots of society. Her role was as part of the 'Unyago' movement, which prepares young Swahili women for their transition through puberty and she excelled at the art of henna designing for young brides, manufacturing her own 'wanja' application from age old recipes fit 'to make a rainbow shine'. To this day, Bi Kidude performs traditional unyago music and is still the island's leading exponent of this ancient dance ritual, performed exclusively for teenage girls, which uses traditional rhythms to teach women to pleasure their husbands, while lecturing against the dangers of sexual abuse and oppression.

Her many talents were acknowledged by Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) at the second Festival of the Dhow Countries in 1999, when she was awarded "Lifetime Achievement Award for Contribution to the Arts."

Bi Kidude's is a remarkable story, one which challenges our perception of age, and of the role of women in Islam. She has never conformed to the media stereotype of a Muslim woman ever since she removed her veil. To see a ninety-something year old Muslim woman drink, smoke, flirt, dance and drum is a unique experience. To witness the transformation as she reverses the ageing process and changes from a wrinkled granny into a vital shining star is nothing short of revelationary.

For the past three months Bi Kidude has been setting the festivals and concert venues of Europe ablaze, where she has been receiving rapturous reviews of her performances with Zanzibar's illustrious Culture Musical Club taarab orchestra. With her humble manner, incredible stage personality, voice and strength, Bi Kidude is favourite with audiences wherever the group performs.

Midway through this tour, the whole of Zanzibar was thrown into shock and disarray when a rumour spread fast through the island that Bi Kidude had died. From the narrow streets of Stone Town to the barazas of N'gambo and throughout the villages this was the only topic of conversation as the island rapidly acquired the atmosphere of mourning. This rumour continued to spread even long after the offices of Busara Promotions had disseminated confirmation from Bi Kidude's European promoters that on the contrary, she was alive and very well. She may have been surprised to hear that people in Zanzibar think that she has died:

"Sijafa bado. Labda sababu watu hawajaonana nami sasa karibu mwezi. Lakini bado tunaendelea na safari na bado safari ndefu ya miezi miwili. Lakini sijambo, sina wasiwasi miye. Kuimba naimba na nguvu zote ambazo ninazo ili watu wafurahi."

"I haven't died yet. Maybe people are saying that because they haven't seen me around for almost a month. But we are still continuing our tour which lasts for two more months. Me, I'm well, I have no problem. Me I sing with all my strength and continue to make people happy."

In September she will be packing her drums and travelling again, to perform a series of shows around KwaZulu Natal at the invitation of Awesome Africa Festival, culminating in a shared performance with South Africa's legendary Mahotella Queens.

Courtesy of Busara Promotions.

African Blogs: Ethiopia and Somalia, Lebanon, Slavery and Pidgin

Sokari Ekine

2006-07-26

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/blog/36187

As we near the first democratic elections in nearly 40 years in the DRC, yet another self-serving conflict is brewing in Africa. This time it is between Somalia and Ethiopia.

Ethiopundit - Ethiopundit (http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2006/08/taken-for-ride.html) believes the present near conflict between the two countries serves the interests of both Meles Zenawi and the Somali religious warlords.

“Both have now acquired the 'worthy' opponents of their dreams (and everyone else's nightmares) to justify and excuse all of their myriad crimes - past, present and future - while they fortify and refortify their respective revolutions…No one else benefits except for the web of aggressive international mayhem that is attempting to hijack Islam (arms dealers and Swiss bankers too). Ethiopians and the donor patrons of Meles Inc. are, in turn, unwillingly and quite willingly being forced to go along for a ride that will end badly…”

Have US interests a part to play in this proposed conflict – Zenawi being backed by the US in yet another proxy war on their behalf against the Islamic forces they could not defeat via the old Somali warlords?

Nazret.com - Nazret.com (http://nazret.com/blog/index.php?title=20000_ethiopians_in_lebanon&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1) points to an article that reports on some 2000 Ethiopians and other stranded migrant workers in Lebanon. Many governments of these nationals are unable to evacuate their citizens and are calling on the International Organisation on Migration to assist them. For example, Ghana has said it has at least 500 citizens in Beirut and more in Tripoli. Nigerians are also amongst the dead and displaced. Many other African nationals are in Lebanon, displaced and without the means to survive.

Egyptian bloggers, Manal and Alaa’s Bucket - Manal and Alaa's Bucket (http://www.manalaa.net/me-5th-columnist) address a short message to the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt, criticising them for their “lack of adventure”:

“We argue that sometimes staying safe is not an option, and that you have to sacrifice and pay the price of your adventure [rather] than pay the price of sitting idly and waiting…look at the state we live in, look at how hopeless we Egyptians have become; look at how the government cracks down on citizens even if they don't get involved in politics at all; look at how optimistic and proud HizbAllah's adventure made us. Yet you Muslim Brotherhood remain conservative in your actions and [are] moving slowly. Even the younger generations of the Muslim Brothers are cautious! Isn't it part of being young to be daring and a bit reckless? Don't you all burn inside with the need to act, the need to do something? The urge to engage in an ‘adventure’?”

Passion of the Present - Passion of the Present (http://platform.blogs.com/passionofthepresent/2006/07/jan_pronk_on_th.html) posts a piece by Jan Pronk on the lack of progress since the signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement.

“Ten weeks after the signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement the situation is still quite bleak… Violations of the agreement continue. Intra SLA fighting has not stopped. Two new movements have emerged. One is called the G19, a group which originally consisted of nineteen people, who were present in Abuja as members or advisors of the SLA delegation, but who increasingly disagreed with the leadership…A second new group is the New Redemption Front (NRF). They seem to have their base in the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), which had participated in the Abuja talks…”

Pronk explains the actions of the two groups and other factions over the past few weeks. He believes that peace cannot take place under the present conditions as most people do not have trust in those that signed the DPA. Added to that is the failure by Khartoum to disarm the Janjaweed who continue to carry out atrocities.

Nigerian blogger, Story of My Life Story of My Life (http://nijaoffspring.blogspot.com/2006/07/why-i-resent-white-people-pt-1.html) writes a piece on white people’s response to racism. She goes on to discuss slavery and the effect of the European invasion on Africa and the benefits to European countries of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.

“The first act against Africa by Whites was a unilateral act of war, announced or unannounced. There were no African Kings or Queens in any of the European countries or in the US when ships set sail for Africa to capture slaves for profit. White people had already decided to raid for slaves. They didn't need the agreement of black people on that. Hence, the concept of ‘trade’ is a fallacy. The African so-called slave ‘trade’ was a demand-driven market out of Europe and America, not a supply-driven market out of Africa. Africans did not seek to sell captives to the white people as an original act.”

“As Britain developed into the world's first post-industrial nation, financial services became an increasingly important sector of its economy. Invisible financial exports, as mentioned, kept Britain out of the red, especially capital investments outside Europe, particularly to the developing and open markets in Africa and predominantly white settler colonies. In addition, surplus capital was often more profitably invested overseas, where cheap labour, limited competition, and abundant raw materials made a greater premium possible.”

The Cameroonian blogosphere is coming alive with yet another new blog – Martin Jumbam is a journalist and translator Martin Jumbam (http://www.martinjumbam.com/2006/07/interview_with_.html). He has a series of interviews with Professor Abioseh Michael Porter. In the first interview they discuss the use of pidgin or krio in literary expression. Porter says the response to writing in pidgin differs depending on who you talk to. The masses are very receptive and appreciative whilst the educated elite of Cameroon, Nigeria and Sierra Leone despise it’s use. In Cameroon there exists a hierarchy of language:

“At the top of the ladder, you have French, which by sheer number of speakers outranks the others, and then there is English, with Pidgin coming a distant third. There was the mistaken assumption that Pidgin would corrupt the speaker’s correct use of English. Linguistically that is, of course, not true because if you study Pidgin, or any other language, in and of itself and use it the way it is meant to be used, it would be difficult to confuse one with the other. Take the Romance languages of Europe, for example. They are morphologically quite similar but people don’t mix them up simply for that reason. What we have here is simply a kind of superiority complex, if you can excuse that term, European languages have in relation to Pidgin or Krio.”

A number of Nigeria writers have chosen to write in pidgin. Amos Tutola is probably the most famous and Ken Saro Wiwa’s “Sozaboy: A story in rotten English” is one of his best. However on the whole the use of pidgin has been marginalized even though it is used by all strata of society in day-to-day speech.

* Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks, www.blacklooks.org

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

Africa: Judges must address impunity

2006-07-26

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/aumonitor/36201

"The Coalition for the Establishment of An Effective African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights congratulates the Judges of the African Court on Human & People’s Rights on their swearing in by President Denis Sassou-Nguesso, Chairperson of the African Union at the 7th session of the meeting of the African Union Heads of Government in Banjul, The Gambia on 2nd July 2006."
Press Release

The Coalition for the Establishment of An Effective African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights congratulates the Judges of the African Court on Human & People’s Rights on their swearing in by President Denis Sassou-Nguesso, Chairperson of the African Union at the 7th session of the meeting of the African Union Heads of Government in Banjul, The Gambia on 2nd July 2006.

The inauguration of the Court and their first meeting comes at a time, when the African continent is bedeviled with the problem of impunity and the challenge of establishing accountable government founded on law and justice. These have led to series of severe conflicts that have resulted in the loss of hundreds of thousands of valuable African lives and a high incidence of gross human rights violations.

It is the wish and desire of Africans and friends of Africa the world over that the new Judges would waste no time in taking steps that would enable them play their rightful part in creating a new order on the continent where respect for fundamental rights and freedoms becomes the basis of government.
“ As they get down to business, the judges of the African Court must focus on stemming the tide of impunity and widespread gross human rights violations that currently afflict our continent,” says Ibrahima Kane of Interights (a London based human rights non-governmental organization and member of the Coalition).

Ms Ronke Adekunle, of Alliances for Africa (an international human rights NGO) and head of the Coalition’s Communications Unit, says that, “this day heralds a new dawn in Africa. The Coalition fervently hopes that members of this august body would strive to live up to the demands of their high office by ensuring that they discharge their responsibilities efficiently and effectively and in such a manner that would bring succour and restitution to the numerous victims of human rights abuses in Africa.”

Today signposts a new beginning in the battle to enthrone a culture of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms on the continent and we shall all support the judges to ensure they keep the promise which this day represents in the life of all Africans.” says Chidi Odinkalu, Senior Legal Officer, Africa Programme, Open Society Justice Initiative.

In extending its hands of fellowship and co-operation to the new judges, the Coalition restates its commitment to continue in its avowed tradition of working assiduously towards ensuring that the new court is both vibrant and effective in the discharge of its functions.

The Coalition offers to place at the disposal of the Court, the support of civil society in and outside Africa in a partnership to rid the continent of the prevalence of gross human rights violations and the culture of impunity.

The Coalition urges all human rights defenders and non-governmental organizations across Africa to take full advantage of the existence of this new court in their work to turn Africa into a place where fundamental rights and freedoms are both respected and defended.

The newly sworn in Judges of the Court and their terms of office are:

1) Ms. Sophia A.B. Akufo - Ghanaian (2 year term)
2) Mr. Hamdi Faraj Fanoush – Libyan (4 year term)
3) Mr. Modibo Tounty Guindo – Malian (6 year term)
4) Mr. El-Hadji Guisse – Senegalese (4 year term)
5) Mr. George W. Kanyeihamba – Ugandan (2 year term)
6) Mrs. Kelello Justina Mafoso-Guni – Basotho (4 year term)
7) Mr. Jean Mutsinzi – Rwandese (6 year term)
8) Mr. Bernard Ngoepe - South African (2 year term)
9) Mr. Gerard Niyungeko – Burundian (6 year term)
10) Mr. Fatsah Ouguergouz – Algeria (4 year term)
11) Mr. Jean Emile Somda – Burkinabe (2 year term)


The Coalition for the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights includes over 500 leading African and international NGOs and expert human rights institutions. Established in 2003, the Coalition works to ensure the establishment of effective African regional courts and tribunals in Africa.

For further information, see www.africancourtcoalition.org

Zimbabwe: AU not doing much to tackle political crisis

2006-07-26

http://www.zimbabwejournalists.com/story.php?art_id=741&cat=4

The Zimbabwean political crisis has reached boiling point with over 85% of the population unemployed and inflation above 1000%. Given the prominence and effects of the Zimbabwean case in Africa and specifically Southern Africa, it is undoubtedly a pressing issue which need the attention of the African Union. It is painful to note that the AU has only acknowledged the problem verbally and has never espoused to tackle it. A closer analysis shows that the AU is divided on how to address the Zimbabwean political crisis.

Global: Gender critical in responding to climate change

2006-07-24

http://www.fao.org/sd/dim_pe1/docs/pe1_051001d1_en.pdf

The gender aspects of climate change have generally been neglected in international climate policy. This report, produced by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), argues that gender, like poverty, is a cross cutting issue in climate change and needs to be recognised as such. Particularly in developing countries, women generally have lower incomes than men, they often have limited control of resources, and they have less access to information and decision making authority. Their ability to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change is thus lower than that of men.

Global: Gender and media handbook

2006-07-26

http://www.comminit.com/materials/ma2006/materials-2905.html

This handbook aims to help journalists and media professionals internationally to be sensitive to gender issues such as negative portrayals of women in the media, the lack of women in leadership positions in media organisations, etc., and to provide practical help for people who want to see things change.

Global: Gender, globalization, economic policy and employment

2006-07-24

http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=doc20273

The study demonstrates how the labour market and the world of work in general are clearly sex-disaggregated and how important it is to undertake analysis of the impact of macroeconomic policies on growth, employment and poverty reduction, with specific consideration of such segmentation. The study also demonstrates how different aspects of macroeconomic policies affect women's and men's work differently.

Cameroon: Family planning vis-a-vis gender relations

2006-07-24

http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC12036

This paper explores Cameroon's family planning policy and questions whether the policy affects gender relations vis-a-vis peace building; the case of Njindom married men. The overarching question is: do Njindom men as patriarchs exclude their wives from reproductive decision-making process?

South Africa: Pregnancy related to school drop-out

2006-07-24

http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC22372

Using data collected in 2001 in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, this paper examines the factors associated with schoolgirl pregnancy, as well as the likelihood of school dropout and subsequent re-enrollment among pregnant schoolgirls. This analysis triangulates data collected from birth histories, education histories, and data concerning pregnancy to strengthen the identification of young women who became pregnant while enrolled in school and to define discrete periods of school interruption prior to first pregnancy.

Swaziland: Facing the culture shock of monogamy

2006-07-24

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54737

Polygamy is enshrined as a man's right in Swaziland's new constitution, but women led by King Mswati's eldest daughter are having none of it, taking on the traditionalists that run the country. "Polygamy brings all advantages in a relationship to men, and this to me is unfair and evil," Princess Sikhanyiso told the press this week in an ongoing debate that has stirred deep emotions.

DRC: Domestic Workers Abused Worldwide

2006-07-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/rights/36232

Domestic workers face a wide range of grave abuses and labor exploitation, including physical and sexual abuse, forced confinement, non-payment of wages, denial of food and health care and excessive working hours with no rest days, Human Rights Watch has said in a new report.
For Immediate Release

Domestic Workers Abused Worldwide

Report Spotlights Violence and Slavelike Conditions in 12 Countries


(Jakarta, July 27, 2006) – Domestic workers face a wide range of grave abuses and labor exploitation, including physical and sexual abuse, forced confinement, non-payment of wages, denial of food and health care and excessive working hours with no rest days, Human Rights Watch said in a new report today.

Governments typically exclude domestic workers from standard labor protections and fail to monitor recruitment practices that impose heavy debt burdens or misinform the workers about their jobs.

“Instead of guaranteeing domestic workers’ ability to work with dignity and freedom from violence, governments have systematically denied them key labor protections extended to other workers,” said Nisha Varia, senior researcher for the Women’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch. “Migrants and children are especially at risk of abuse.”

The 93-page report, “Swept Under the Rug: Abuses Against Domestic Workers Around the World,” synthesizes Human Rights Watch research since 2001 on abuses against women and child domestic workers originating from or working in El Salvador, Guatemala, Indonesia, Malaysia, Morocco, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Togo, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States.

“Millions of women and girls turn to domestic work as one of the few economic opportunities available to them,” said Varia. “Abuses often take place in private homes and are totally hidden from the public eye.”

In the worst situations, women and girls are trapped in situations of forced labor or have been trafficked into forced domestic work in conditions akin to slavery.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that more girls under 16 work in domestic service than in any other category of child labor. In Indonesia, the ILO estimates there are nearly 700,000 child domestic workers, while in El Salvador more than 20,000 girls and women between the ages of 14 and 19 are domestic workers.

Exploitative working conditions often make domestic labor one of the worst forms of child labor.

Human Rights Watch said that the numbers of women migrants has increased significantly over the last three decades, and they now comprise approximately half of the estimated 200 million migrants worldwide. The feminization of labor migration is particularly pronounced in the Philippines, Indonesia and Sri Lanka, where national-level estimates indicate that women comprise 60-75 percent of legal migrants, many of whom are employed as domestic workers in the Middle East and Asia.

Estimating the prevalence of abuse is difficult given the lack of reporting mechanisms, the lack of legal protections and restrictions on the freedom of movement of domestic workers. However, there are many indications that abuses are widespread. In Saudi Arabia, the embassies of Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Philippines handle thousands of complaints every year. In January 2004, for instance, the Sri Lankan embassy estimated it was receiving about 150 domestic workers each month who had fled abusive employers. According to information provided by embassies in Singapore, at least 147 domestic workers have fallen to their deaths from tall buildings since 1998 due to hazardous workplace conditions or suicide.

“Domestic workers are often hostage to labor agents and employers,” said Varia. “Governments must better regulate working conditions, detect violations and impose meaningful civil and criminal sanctions.”

Labor legislation in Hong Kong sets a positive example – domestic workers have the right to a minimum wage, a weekly day of rest, maternity leave and public holidays.

In general, labor legislation must be complemented by criminal laws allowing for prosecution of offenses such as: physical, psychological and sexual abuse; forced labor; forced confinement; and trafficking in persons. In increasing by 1.5 times the normal penalties for crimes like assault or forced confinement if they are committed against domestic workers, Singapore has rightly acknowledged the particular risks faced by these workers.

Punitive immigration laws, such as those used in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia, that discourage migrant domestic workers from fleeing abusive employers and militate against pressing charges for criminal offenses, should be reformed.

The U.N. General Assembly’s High Level Dialogue on Migration and Development in September 2006 will be an important venue for governments to increase their cooperation and prevent abuses associated with migration for domestic work. This week, national human rights commissions from across Asia met to discuss women migrants and irregular migrants in a conference hosted by Indonesia’s National Commission on Violence against Women.

Human Rights Watch urged governments to extend key labor protections to domestic workers, establish minimum standards of employment regionally to prevent unhealthy competition, and ensure that employers and labor agents are held accountable for abusive practices. They should also prioritize the elimination of the worst forms of child labor, including child domestic work.

Selected testimonies:

“As a domestic worker, you have no control over your life. No one respects you. You have no rights. This is the lowest kind of work.”

– Hasana, child domestic worker who began employment at age 12, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, December 4, 2004

“It was hard to work for them because there was not enough food. I got food once a day. If I made a mistake … [my employer] wouldn’t give me food for two days. I often got treatment like that. Sometimes for one, two, three days. Because I was starving, I would steal food from the house. Because of that, the employer beat me badly.”

– Arianti Harikusomo, Indonesian domestic worker, age 27, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, February 25, 2004

“If I did something the employer didn’t like, she would grab my hair and hit my head on the wall. She would say things like, ‘I don’t pay you to sit and watch TV! You don’t wash the dishes well. I pay your mother good money and you don’t do anything [to deserve it].’ … Once I forgot clothes in the washer, and they started to smell, so she grabbed my head and tried to stick it in the washing machine.”

– Saida B., child domestic worker, age 15, Casablanca, Morocco, May 17, 2005

“I was locked up inside the agency for 45 days. We were Indonesians and Filipinos; 25 of us. We got food only once a day. We couldn’t go out at all. The agency said we owed them 1,500 Dhm – three months’ salary. Five of us ran away; we used a blanket to escape from the second floor. Four of us got injured.”

– Cristina Suarez, Filipina domestic worker, age 26, Dubai, UAE, February 27, 2006

“When the lady went to drop off the children to the grandmother’s house, the man would stay at home … he raped me many, many times; once a day, every day for three months. He hit me a lot because I didn’t want to have sex. I don’t know what a condom is, but he used some tissues after he raped me. [After paying off my three months’ debt] I took a knife, I said, ‘Don’t get near me, what are you doing?’ I told the lady; she was very angry with me and [the next day] she took me to the harbor and said she bought a ticket for me to Pontianak. I had no money to get home from Pontianak. I haven’t gone to a doctor.”

– Zakiah, returned domestic worker from Malaysia, age 20, Lombok, Indonesia, January 24, 2004

“There was a woman who came to the market to buy charcoal. She found me and told my mother about a woman in Lom� who was looking for a girl like me to stay with her and do domestic work. She came to my mother and my mother gave me away. The woman gave my mother some money, but I don’t know how much.”

– K�m�yao A., child trafficking victim, age 10, Lom�, Togo, May 14, 2002

The Human Rights Watch report, “Swept Under the Rug: Abuses Against Domestic Workers Around the World,” is available at:

http://hrw.org/reports/2006/wrd0706/



Photographs from Magnum photographer Susan Meiselas, video testimonies from domestic workers, and other resources will be available on the Human Rights Watch website beginning Thursday, July 27:

http://hrw.org/campaigns/women/2006/domestic_workers/index.htm



For more information, please contact:

In Jakarta, Nisha Varia (English): +62-81383858720

In Cairo, Clarisa Bencomo (English, Arabic): +2-012-163-4600

In New York, Marianne Mollmann (English, Spanish, French, German, Danish): +1-212-216-1285

In New York, Michael Bochenek (English, Spanish, Portuguese): +1-212-216-1245

In London, Urmi Shah (English): +44-20-7713-2788

In Milan, Jude Sunderland (English, French, Spanish, Italian): +39-02-69901902

Global: People trafficking

2006-07-24

http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC22407

This edition of the Forced Migration Review covers many aspects of the vulnerabilities of the victims of forced migration. This issue looks not only at the struggles of refugees and internally displaced people, but also victims of human trafficking.

Liberia: Taylor trial begins

2006-07-24

http://tinyurl.com/qylv6

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor on Friday (21 July) made his first court appearance in The Hague since leaving Sierra Leone last month. Taylor's lawyer Karim Khan told the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), sitting at International Criminal Court (ICC) facilities, that Taylor is unhappy with prison conditions at The Hague, calling conditions at the Freetown, Sierra Leone prison that formerly detained Taylor far superior to his current conditions, reports the Jurist.

Somalia: Gunmen have killed over 600

2006-07-24

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060723/D8J1RLGO0.html

Gunmen have killed 682 civilians, including a foreign journalist, in executions over the past year in Somalia, a local rights group said Sunday (July 23). The killings took place largely in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. Some came during battles for control of the city, others were due to clan differences, a few were kidnappings and some were for unknown motives, according to the report by the Dr. Ismael Jumale Human Rights Center.

Sudan: Oil development in the northern Upper Nile

2006-07-26

http://www.ecosonline.org/index.cfm?event=showreports&page=reports

This report documents the socio-economic and environmental impact of oil exploitation in the Melut Basin in Upper Nile State, Sudan, as told by inhabitants of the area and photographed from satellites. It focuses on the Melut and Maban Counties, Renk District, which fall into concession blocks 3 and 7, held by the Petrodar Operating Company Ltd. under an Exploration and Production Sharing Agreement with the Sudanese Government.

Zimbabwe: Plan to spy on citizens

2006-07-24

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060723/D8J1PS700.html

Times are hard and getting harder in Zimbabwe, where people too proud to cry about hunger, joblessness and misrule could soon find it too dangerous to joke about them. Parliament plans to debate proposals next month to empower the secret police to eavesdrop on mail, e-mail and phones without any court approval.

Africa: Plans launched to mitigate brain drain

2006-07-24

http://tinyurl.com/zo8kf

Two initiatives launched this month aim to mitigate the 'brain drain' caused when scientists and others emigrate from African countries to work elsewhere. Last week (11-12 July) government ministers from 58 European and African countries met in Rabat, Morocco for the first Euro-African Conference on Migration and Development, reports SciDev.

Algeria: Risking it all to enter Europe

2006-07-24

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060723/D8J1RLGO0.html

Early one morning in April, a desperate young Algerian man slipped into a warehouse on the outskirts of Algiers and sealed himself inside a shipping container destined for France. The guard he had bribed to let him into the warehouse begged him to reconsider. Every year, tens of thousands of impoverished Africans lured by Europe's prosperity risk their lives attempting to reach the continent illegally. European Union officials estimate the number doubled this year, though they have no firm figures.

Spain: Two dead on Canary Islands boat

2006-07-24

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5209514.stm

Two people have been found dead aboard a small boat that arrived in Spain's Canary Islands carrying 48 immigrants. The boat from Africa was spotted by a merchant ship early on Monday (July 24). Many of the illegal immigrants have been transported to local hospitals.

Uganda: Six-month plan to resettle IDPs in the east

2006-07-26

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54706

The Ugandan government has started implementing a six-month emergency plan to resettle thousands of people displaced by the 20-year old conflict between the army and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in the eastern region, a senior official said.

Zimbabwe: Exodus overwhelms South Africa

2006-07-24

http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=14822

South Africa deported more than 51,000 illegal Zimbabwean immigrants between January and June this year as floods of people fled economic collapse. The Department of Home Affairs says it is now deporting 265 Zimbabweans a day. Last year, 97,433 Zimbabweans were deported compared with 72,112 in 2004. The government is considering building a second detention centre in Limpopo to cope with the dramatic increase in illegal immigration from Zimbabwe.

Côte d’Ivoire: Delays and controversy dog identity scheme

2006-07-24

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/ivory/2006/0713identity.htm

The UN has run into difficulty in implementing its plan of issuing identity papers to the 3.5 million undocumented Ivorians ahead of the elections scheduled for October. Delays and allegations of fraud threaten to undermine the effort to remove one of the Ivory Coast conflict's most sensitive issues. The question of who is a "pure" Ivorian was behind the 2002 civil war and international observers see its resolution as vital for the elections to succeed.

Kenya: New party wins seats in parliament

2006-07-26

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54797

A political party founded two months ago by politicians allied to Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki on Tuesday (25 July) won three out of five parliamentary seats after a by-election called following the deaths of five MPs in a plane crash in April.

Global: Donors can lead in the practice of good governance

2006-07-24

http://www.id21.org/society/s9asb1g1.html

Good governance - the fair and transparent management of a country's resources and institutions - has become a key objective for European Union (EU) development assistance. Without practices that lead to good governance, donors are less willing to provide aid and for this reason the EU is supporting developing country programmes that focus on governance issues.

Mauritania: Five charged with coup plot

2006-07-24

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060719/D8IURFFG3.html

Mauritania authorities have charged five men with plotting to overthrow this desert nation's military junta, which has pledged to restore civilian rule by next year. Prosecutor Ben Amar Ould Veta said the five, arrested June 19 for allegedly conspiring to sabotage a referendum that put term limits on future presidents, were charged with "plotting to reverse the constitutional order."

South Africa: Presidential Succession in Practice

2006-07-26

http://www.idasa.org.za

Who will be elected President of the African National Congress (ANC) in 2007? Who will become President of the Republic of South Africa in 2009? These questions, and the speculation cast in their drift, have come increasingly to dominate newspaper headlines and the South African political imagination, says the latest edtion of ePoliticsSA, which tackles the issue.

Zimbabwe: How polls were fixed

2006-07-24

http://tinyurl.com/f29p2

A former Zanu-PF provincial chairperson has spilled the beans on how the ruling party rigged the 2002 presidential election, which President Robert Mugabe won against most expectations. Dr Daniel Shumba is a retired army officer, former provincial chairperson of Zanu-PF and central committee member who was kicked out of the party last year, together with four others after facilitating an “illegal” meeting that sought to thwart the nomination of Vice-President Joice Mujuru as the party’s vice-president, reports the Mail and Guardian.

Global: Corruption Fighters' Toolkit

2006-07-24

http://www.transparency.org/tools/e_toolkit

The Corruption Fighters' Toolkit is a compendium of practical civil society anti-corruption experiences described in concrete and accessible language. It presents innovative anti-corruption tools developed and implemented by Transparency International National Chapters and other civil society organisations from around the world.

DRC: Digging in corruption

2006-07-24

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/kongidx.htm#digging

This Global Witness report highlights the corruption and fraud that plague mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo province of Katanga, one of the world's richest copper and cobalt producing areas. While the people of the Congo remain mired in poverty, government and security officials ignore or actively collude in smuggling large quantities of precious minerals out of the country.

Liberia: Child rapists walk free for a few dollars

2006-07-26

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54798

Alleged child rapists are paying their way out of jail while court officials and police officers demand bribes and kickbacks from the families of child rape victims who want to see their attackers arrested and prosecuted, according to a UN report.

Rwanda: Country Gets Accolades Over Corruption Fight

2006-07-26

http://allafrica.com/stories/200607250838.html

The Africa Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) has commended Rwanda's efforts in fighting corruption, promotion of women rights, fostering country ownership and decentralisation of health services in the review report of the country launched recently. The launch followed a successful peer review of Rwanda and Kenya during the 5th summit of the APR Forum held in Banjul, Gambia presided over by chairman of the APR forum, Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Zimbabwe: Tycoon linked to Mugabe faces tax inquiry

2006-07-24

http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=14827

One of Africa's richest men is due to appear in court in Harare today (July 24) to face allegations of economic crimes. John Bredenkamp, a Zimbabwean tycoon who has homes and offices in Britain, was arrested in a raid at his estate near Harare on Friday. The 66-year-old former Rhodesian rugby captain, whose fortune comes from enterprises including tobacco and the arms trade, had only just returned home to Zimbabwe from London.

South Africa: Legal challenge over water policy in poor community

2006-07-27

http://southafrica.indymedia.org/news/2006/07/10745.php

This week an application was launched in the Johannesburg High Court asking the Court to declare that the decisions of Johannesburg Water to limit free basic water supply to 6 kilolitres per household per month and to unilaterally install prepayment meters are unconstitutional and unlawful. The Court is being asked to order Johannesburg Water (Pty) Ltd. to provide a free basic water supply of 50 litres per person per day, and the option of a credit-metered supply installed at the cost of the City of Johannesburg, to the residents of Phiri, Soweto.

South Africa: Meeting on the World Social Forum in Durban

2006-07-27

http://www.ukzn.ac.za/ccs/default.asp?2,40,3,989

Various papers were presented at a recent workshop on the World Social Forum held in Durban. The papers include:
- Ahmed Allahwala & Keil Roger (2006) Introduction to a Debate on the World Social Forum.
- Conway, Jane (2006) Social Forums, Social Movements and Social Change.
- Bond Patrick (2006) Gramsci, Polanyi and Impressions from Africa on the Social Forum Phenomenon.
Visit the website provided for full details.

Global: Civil Society’s policymaking role a work in progress

2006-07-24

http://www.globalpolicy.org/ngos/state/2006/0619workinprogress.htm

Few would dispute that civil society organisations (CSOs) have grown substantially in number and influence over the past decades. But, are these groups at a point now where they play a determining role, alongside government, in public policy-making? Not yet, says Tiberius Baraza, a researcher in the Governance and Development Department at the Institute of Policy Analysis and Research -- a non-governmental body based in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

Global: Collapse of WTO talks good for women, says group

2006-07-26

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/development/36191

The indefinite suspension of the WTO Doha negotiations offers a unique opportunity to review and reconsider the multilateral trading system as a whole, and to start with a new approach to a global trading system that will promote social and gender justice, women's empowerment and environmental sustainability. "The collapse of the Doha negotiations creates a momentum to review the past negotiations and analyse the flaws in the WTO system in its entirety. The current neoliberal approach to the multilateral trading system subordinates the needs of women and men in developing countries to corporate-driven interests," stated Barbara Specht, WIDE Information Officer.
Press release:
For immediate release

Collapse of the WTO Doha negotiations: Turning point for developing a
multilateral trading system based on women's rights and sustainable
development.

Brussels, 25 July 2006: Yesterday's indefinite suspension of the WTO Doha
negotiations offers a unique opportunity to review and reconsider the
multilateral trading system as a whole, and to start with a new approach to
a global trading system that will promote social and gender justice, women's
empowerment and environmental sustainability.

After a series of missed deadlines and despite the call of the G8 leaders
last week in St Petersburg for a breakthrough in the negotiations, trade
negotiators of the G6 (EU, U.S., Japan, Brazil, India and Australia)
yesterday finally acknowledged that the gaps between key players remain too
wide to unlock the stalled negotiations. The current deadlock was caused by
developed countries, mainly the U.S., who was not willing or able to come up
with steeper cuts in US farm subsides.

"The collapse of the Doha negotiations creates a momentum to review the past
negotiations and analyse the flaws in the WTO system in its entirety. The
current neoliberal approach to the multilateral trading system subordinates
the needs of women and men in developing countries to corporate-driven
interests," stated Barbara Specht, WIDE Information Officer.

"The bias of the Doha negotiations to serves private interests of the
biggest corporations instead of benefiting the majority of the world's
people, mobilised public opposition in developing and developed countries
all around the world. Recent World Bank [1] and other studies such as the
Carnegie Endowment [2] highlighted the fact that the current trade
liberalisation agenda is not working for the majority of women and men,
particularly those living in impoverished developing countries, and that
especially women 'tend to be among the most vulnerable to adverse impacts'
[3]. Trade can be a medium of development, but trade liberalisation is not a
panacea to development, poverty eradication and gender equality," Barbara
Specht concluded.

"The time has come to start with a new approach to a multilateral trading
systems that will genuinely promote fair, gender just and sustainable
societies that benefit all women and men. For this, international trade
policy must be constrained and bound by existing international agreements
that promote human rights and women's rights, ecological sustainability,
human dignity and must aim to end poverty and promote well-being. Trade
policies can no longer be dictated by the interests of big corporations. Any
further WTO negotiations should not undermine governments' commitments to
implement the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action agreed at the
Fourth World Conference on Women or the realisation of gender equality and
women's human rights as enshrined in the Convention of the Elimination of
All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)."

[End]

For further information, please contact
Barbara Specht at barbara@wide-network.org or call +32-2-545.90.74
------------------------------
[1] A series of devastating reports on the potential outcomes of the Doha
Round were published by the World Bank, the UN, and several think tanks
including
"Agricultural Trade Reform and the Doha Development Agenda", Kym Anderson
and Will Martin et. al. World Bank Report, Nov.1, 2005
[2]"Winners and Losers: Impact of the Doha Round on Developing Countries",
Sandra Polaski, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington DC,
2006
[3] "Global Overview Trade Sustainability Assessment of the Doha Development
Agenda" from the EU, final draft report

Global: WTO talks collapse

2006-07-24

http://tinyurl.com/qfhl6

Talks among six key World Trade Organization governments collapsed, imperiling efforts to reach a global market-opening agreement worth billions of dollars. Ministers from the US, the European Union, Brazil, India, Australia and Japan remained deadlocked, prompting WTO Director- General Pascal Lamy to suspend the five-year-old talks to dismantle market barriers and lift millions out of poverty in the developing world, reports Bloomberg.

Lesotho: A stitch in time

2006-07-24

http://tinyurl.com/g6mer

Lesotho’s single largest employer, the textile industry, has made a remarkable comeback, setting an example for the region and giving thousands back their jobs. “All the factories that were closed have been reopened - the number of jobs that had shrunk from just more than 50 000 to less than 40 000 have now climbed back to about 47 000,” Andy Salm, regional textile and apparel specialist at ComMark Trust, an NGO that monitors the industry in Southern Africa, told Irin.

Zimbabwe: Private sector urged to exploit bilateral trade agreements

2006-07-24

http://www.bilaterals.org/article.php3?id_article=5310

The private sector in Zimbabwe has been urged to exploit the various bilateral trade agreements that the country has signed with its trading partners. Industry and International Trade Minister Obert Mpofu said that the agreements gave business the leeway to expand markets to boost foreign currency earnings. It was critical that the government received feedback on the effectiveness of the trade agreements to allow the authorities to deal with operational problems that agreements might be presenting, he said.

South Africa: HIV rate stable in teens but increasing among older women

2006-07-27

http://www.health-e.org.za/news/article.php?uid=20031463

Pregnant women aged between 25 and 29, living in KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Gauteng are worst affected by HIV. But the biggest increases in HIV are among pregnant women aged 35 to 39, and those living in North West. This is according to the annual HIV and syphilis prevalence survey for 2005.

Swaziland: Anti-AIDS text messaging campaign raises hackles

2006-07-27

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54748

In one of the biggest demonstrations seen in Swaziland in years, HIV-positive people marched on the offices of the prime minister and the national AIDS council this week to protest an "insulting" new media campaign. The project by the National Emergency Response Council on HIV/AIDS (NERCHA) seems to suggest that HIV is caused by sexual infidelity. It was launched last month without consulting people living with the virus.

Africa: Health shortage

2006-07-26

http://tinyurl.com/fk6xc

Throughout much of Africa, the shortage of trained medical personnel is hurting the effort to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, not to mention other diseases, including malaria and tuberculosis, that are endemic in parts of the continent. Nongovernmental organizations, including Cambridge-based Physicians for Human Rights, had hoped that leaders of the Group of Eight nations would agree to commit major new resources to this problem at their recent meeting in Russia, but they failed to do so, reports the Boston Globe.

Africa: Malaria on the continent

2006-07-24

http://www.comminit.com/baseline/baseline2005/baseline-475.html

There are at least 300 million acute cases of malaria each year resulting in over 1 million deaths, about 90% of which are in Africa. Malaria is Africa's leading cause of under-5 mortality and accounts for 40% of public health expenditure, 30 to 50% of inpatient visits, and up to 50% of outpatient visits in high malaria transmission areas.

Kenya: Wrong drugs causing huge malaria mortality

2006-07-26

http://www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news.php?articleid=1143955736

The lone doctor on duty on a Sunday morning at the New Nyanza Provincial hospital's paediatric wing has to attend to some 100 patients. He tells his audience that he loses three patients everyday to malaria, just because they reach the hospital when their health status has deteriorated.

Global: Home water treatment best for fighting disease

2006-07-24

http://tinyurl.com/m4dmo

Treating water in homes is a more effective way of controlling diarrhoea in poor countries than interventions at wells. So concludes a review published today (19 July) by The Cochrane Collaboration.

Global: TB - the ignored disease

2006-07-24

http://www.comminit.com/baseline/baseline2006/baseline-499.html

One in 3 deaths of people with HIV/AIDS is caused by TB. There have been 21 new HIV drugs for every one new TB drug since 1986; the test for TB is 100 years old, and the vaccine being used today is the same as it was 80 years ago.

Southern Africa: Spatial Development Initiative

2006-07-24

http://www.comminit.com/experiences/pds2005/experiences-3507.html

This tool is a geographical information system (GIS)-based project that uses software to generate risk maps, graphs and tables about malaria, which are then posted online so users can consult them to determine malaria risk and plan malaria control.

Global: Education Ministers meet

2006-07-24

http://tinyurl.com/ndoyo

The Ministers of Education of the G8 nations met in Moscow in advance of the 2006 G-8 Summit set for July 15-18 in St. Petersburg, Russia. With 100 million primary school age children out of school, G8 members recognize that accelerated progress is required to meet the 2015 Millennium Development Goals set for education, reports the Development Gateway.

DRC: No money, no schools

2006-07-24

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54558

The headmaster, wearing a tattered red uniform, points at his worn slippers and says, "Look at me. Do I look like a teacher? We have no desks, no books - not even water." Then Ire Yabongengo complains about parents who are fed up with constantly repairing the school, a collection of shacks made of sticks and mud, with roofs made of leaves.

Libya: US science cooperation plan announced

2006-07-24

http://tinyurl.com/fjabu

For the first time in more than a quarter of a century, the United States and Libya have agreed to cooperate in various fields of science and technology. The plans were announced during last week's (10-13 July) visit to Libya by Paula Dobriansky, the US under secretary of state for democracy and global affairs, reports SciDev.

Malawi: Parliament calls for better education

2006-07-24

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54749

Members of Parliament (MPs) meeting in Malawi's capital, Lilongwe, to discuss the 2006/07 budget have called for the education system to be overhauled, with the abolition of community day secondary schools (CDSSs) as one of the options. MP Ishmael Chafukira told parliament that the mushrooming CDSSs, which evolved from distance education centres, had contributed to the poor quality of education in the country, and alleged that most of these teachers "do not have necessary qualifications to teach in secondary schools”.

Rwanda: Freeplay lifeline radios

2006-07-24

http://www.comminit.com/experiences/pds2006/experiences-3857.html

This project provides orphaned child heads of households in Rwanda with a self-powered radio that is designed to provide distance education covering topics such as how to prevent disease, increase garden yields, and maintain goats. The radio is constructed to operate in harsh conditions and climates for many hours on wind-up energy or solar power; organisers describe it as colourful, easy to use, and able to receive excellent reception.

Global: All types of inequality are not created equal

2006-07-24

http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/inequal/indexgen.htm#inequallevy

This report examines the complexities of defining inequality within and between countries. Using ethnic and gender disparities as case examples, the author argues that inequality can lead to short and medium term economic growth and development, but may come at a long run detriment to the marginalized group. The author calls on countries and development agencies to take into account the diversity of economic needs among different sectors of society and to make "growth and equity compatible."

Nigeria: No respite for people of Niger Delta

2006-07-27

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54817

When oil began seeping from pipelines owned by Italian oil company Agip recently, Nigerian newspapers reported that the spill was caused by sabotage. "Oil spills have become a great environmental tragedy in Nigeria, polluting streams, farmlands, the air and destroying lives," said Nnimmo Bassey, head of Environmental Rights Action (ERA), which is affiliated with the international environmental group Friends of the Earth.

DRC: Forestry administration at the service of the people?

2006-07-24

http://www.wrm.org.uy/bulletin/107/viewpoint.html#Central

Since 1990, a lot of noise has been made about the forests of the Congo Basin, both good and bad. Now a new environmental wave is descending on the Democratic Republic of Congo, of a scope very similar to that of the “Zaire boom” in the seventies. However, the question is: are the Central African forestry administrations - generally subject to insidious sociological factors - aligned with the aspirations and needs regarding welfare of the region’s inhabitants?

Mozambique: Paving the way for industrial tree plantations

2006-07-24

http://www.wrm.org.uy/bulletin/107/viewpoint.html#Mozambique

In May 2006, the Mozambique Ministry of Agriculture submitted for discussion the document “National Reforestation Strategy” As stated in the document, the bases to promote the establishment of tree plantations in the country involving fast-growing species are set out. Following the pattern present in all the other countries that have introduced large-scale monoculture tree plantations, the proposal comes with the promise of generating jobs and eradicating poverty, contributing to national development particularly in rural zones.

Namibia: Country urged to take lead in solar energy usage

2006-07-24

http://allafrica.com/stories/200607140166.html

Namibia has the best solar reserves in the world and the country should become an international leader in the field of solar and wind energy use, an academic has said. Speaking in Windhoek at the launch of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Institute (REEEI), Polytechnic Rector Dr Tjama Tjivikua said fossil fuels like oil and coal would soon be exhausted and conflicts caused oil prices to rise. The use of cleaner fuel sources would lead to a less polluted world and better efficiency.

South Africa: Halt on 'super sorghum' study

2006-07-24

http://tinyurl.com/qhcwu

South Africa has blocked trials of genetically modified sorghum that leaders of a multi-million-dollar project hope can boost nutrition in Africa. Kenyan scientist Florence Wambugu, who heads the Africa Harvest Biotech Foundation International, has secured US$18.6 million over five years from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop new sorghum varieties with elevated levels of iron, zinc and vitamins. But last week (12 July) South Africa rejected the application to set up a laboratory and greenhouse on its soil, reports SciDev.

Uganda: China to build 530MW dam

2006-07-24

http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/220/510156

China has agreed to construct the Ayago-Nile hydro-power dam that will provide about 530MW to meet the 8% annual electricity demand. The river that drops about 80m over about 9.5km is at Murchison Falls in Nebbi district. Uganda's ambassador to China, Charles Wagidoso, said the estimated project cost according to the East African Master Plan study of 2006 is $900m (sh1.6 trillion).

Zimbabwe: Sale of ivory halted

2006-07-24

http://tinyurl.com/erlov

Authorities in Zimbabwe have suspended all sales of ivory in a bid to stop underhand deals, it was reported on Monday (July 24). The decision was reached after a meeting between the National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority and the recently established Zimbabwe Ivory Manufacturers' Association, said the state-controlled Herald newspaper, reports the Mail and Guardian.

Southern Africa: HIV/AIDS, hunger and vulnerability

2006-07-27

http://www.sarpn.org.za/documents/d0002044/index.php

A number of Concern Worldwide and Oxfam-International projects were visited in Mozambique between the 9th and 17th of April as part of the collaborative project on strengthening responses to food and nutrition security and HIV/AIDS in the Southern African region. A major issue raised by a number of partners, including the Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN and the União Nacional de Camponeses (UNAC), was that of the Mozambique Land Law. Visit the website of the Southern African Regional Poverty Network for more information.

South Africa: Growing communities

2006-07-26

http://www.ukzn.ac.za/ccs/default.asp?2,40,5,1071

Farms don't just grow food - they grow communities. You don't have to go far to be part of these communities, either. In South Durban, urban farmers have long been supporting the local economy, and the surrounding neighbourhoods. And they're under threat.

Zimbabwe: Farmers claim for land grab

2006-07-24

http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=14830

A group of 11 dispossessed Zimbabwean farmers of Dutch origin are poised to take their case for compensation in respect of confiscated land to an international tribunal. The Dutch Farmers Association, with UK-based AgricAfrica, registered the case on behalf of the farmers at the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes, a World Bank resolution forum. The claims total more than $15m.

Kenya: Kenyan won't reveal sources

2006-07-27

http://www.journalism.co.za/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=4283&CAMSSID=6d078cf514e68d5773c1edc0eefa73f6

Evelyn Kwamboka, a reporter with the Standard, last Friday opposed a plea by the state to have her take the witness stand to disclose sources of a court story appearing in the newspaper on June 28, according to a report on www.journalism.co.za The reporter had been served with summons requiring her to disclose the source of a story she authored on the Bishop Gilbert Deya's so-called miracle babies' saga.

Somalia: Media deaths rise

2006-07-27

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34069

Martin Adler, 2006; Kate Peyton, 2005; Duniya Muhyadin Nur, 2005; Abdullahi Madkeer, 2003; Ahmed Kafi Awale, 2000; Marcello Palmisano, 1995; Miran Krovatin, 1994; Ilaria Alpi, 1994; Pierre Anceaux, 1994; Jean-Claude Jumel, 1993; Hansi Krauss, 1993; Hosea Maina, 1993; Dan Eldon, 1993; Anthony Macharia, 1993*. The list of journalists killed in Somalia since the overthrow of dictator Muhammad Siad Barre in 1991 contains 14 names. And, it risks growing longer.

Tunisia: Outspoken human rights activist beaten

2006-07-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/36220

The Working Group on Press Freedom and Free Expression in North Africa (WGFENA) has condemned the assault perpetrated by Tunisian security forces against the prominent writer and human rights activist, Naziha Regiba (also known as "Um Ziad"). The attack came after security forces besieged The National Council for Liberties in Tunisia [Conseil National pour les Libertés en Tunisie, CNLT] to prevent its members from attending a meeting.
IFEX - News from the international freedom of expression community
_________________________________________________________________

ALERT - TUNISIA

26 July 2006

Outspoken human rights activist beaten and threatened with sexual assault

SOURCE: Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (HRinfo), Cairo

**For further information on the prior harassment of Regiba, see IFEX alerts of 3 April, 20 and 8 March 2006**

(HRinfo/IFEX) - The following is a 24 July 2006 statement by WGFENA, of which HRinfo is a member:

Tunisia: A Human Rights Organization Besieged; A Human Rights Activist and Writer Is Beaten and Threatened With Sexual Assault

A statement issued by: The Working Group on Press Freedom and Free Expression in North Africa (WGFENA)

The Working Group on Press Freedom and Free Expression in North Africa (WGFENA) condemned today the assault perpetrated by Tunisian security forces against the prominent writer and human rights activist, Naziha Regiba (also known as "Um Ziad"). The attack came after security forces besieged The National Council for Liberties in Tunisia [Conseil National pour les Libertés en Tunisie, CNLT] to prevent its members from attending a meeting.

On Friday morning, 21 July 2006, Um Ziad, the prominent writer and editor of "Tunisian Word" ("Kilmat Tunis") magazine, went to the National Council for Liberties headquarters to attend a meeting. As she approached the office, she was physically and verbally assaulted by Tunisian security forces, who then forced her to get into a taxi and said to the driver, "take her wherever you want and do what you want with her; she is a . . . " (describing her with obscene words). Afterwards, security forces surrounded her residence for the whole day.

It is surprising that this incident should occur around the same time as Tunisians celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Personal and Family Law, which is considered to be the best in the Arab world, as if to highlight the fact that state practices are in total contradiction of legislation.

WGFENA believes that this blatant assault on the writer and human rights activist Um Ziad is a continuation of police assaults and violations practiced by the Tunisian government against those who dare to criticize the deteriorating situation of human rights in the country, a situation due to the government's aggressive denial of its people's rights and freedoms.

The National Council for Liberties in Tunisia is a human rights organization founded in 1998. Its objectives are to support judicial independence, defend freedom of expression and ensure the right to free elections. The Tunisian government systematically harasses and assaults its members and founders due to their criticism of Tunisian governmental and police practices.

Naziha Regiba - who is also known as "Um Ziad" - is a member of the National Council for Liberties in Tunisia and the editor of " Kilmat Tunis", an electronic magazine. The website of "Kilmat Tunis" magazine is blocked in Tunisia. Um Ziad is also a member of the advisory board of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (HRinfo). Um Ziad has regularly been the target of governmental harassment, the most recent example of which was the government's fabrication of a sexual scandal concerning her husband, Mokhtar Al-Galali, a former Member of Parliament, a few months ago. Their aim is to punish her for being outspoken against police practices against Tunisian citizens and for defending the principles of human rights and freedom of expression.

For further information contact Gamal Eid, Executive Director, HRinfo, Apartment 10, No. 5, Street 105, from Midan al Hurriya, al Maadi, Cairo, Egypt, tel/fax: +202 524 9544, e-mail: info@hrinfo.net, gamal4eid@yahoo.com, Internet: http://www.hrinfo.net/en

The information contained in this alert is the sole responsibility of HRinfo. In citing this material for broadcast or publication, please credit HRinfo.
_________________________________________________________________
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Burkina Faso: Charges dropped in murdered journalist’s case

2006-07-24

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54746

Rights groups in Burkina Faso say they are outraged over the dismissal of charges against the former head of the presidential guard in connection with the 1998 murder of prominent journalist Norbert Zongo. Prosecutors said they were dropping charges against warrant officer Marcel Kafando for lack of evidence. The prosecutor said a key witness failed to recall details of a meeting with Kafando days before Zongo’s murder.

DRC: Press in protest closure

2006-07-24

http://tinyurl.com/kamq7

No newspapers were published in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for a day in protest at the killing of a reporter 10 days ago, according to a report on Irinnnews.org. "A day without newspapers throughout the country; it is our way of protesting against those who want to muffle the freedom of the press and that of expression. We are not afraid of death, but we will continue doing our work," John Richard Kasonga, the secretary of the National Union of the Congolese Press, said. The protest was held July 18.

Nigeria: 'Freedom Radio' Programme Debuts in Book Format

2006-07-24

http://allafrica.com/stories/200607070099.html

The release of the book, Birgiman Hankaka 1, by Adamu Aliyu Kiyawa, an educationist and veteran radio broadcaster/journalist in Kano recently has provided Hausa readers across the country an opportunity to benefit from the enormous information and knowledge that had hitherto been the exclusive of radio listeners in Kano. The 105-page publication is a reproduction of his popular weekly radio talk show, "Birgiman Hankaka", aired on Freedom Radio Kano, and anchored by the veteran broadcaster in Kano state.

Palestine: Peace Propaganda and the Promised Land

2006-07-26

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14034.htm

Does the news coverage reflect the reality on the ground? Through the voices of scholars, media critics, peace activists, religious figures, and Middle East experts, Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land carefully analyzes and explains how--through the use of language, framing and context--the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza remains hidden in the news media, and Israeli colonization of the occupied terrorities appears to be a defensive move rather than an offensive one.

South Africa: SABC falls short of ideals

2006-07-24

http://tinyurl.com/h3ubo

Putting into practice the public broadcaster’s lofty ideals and the policies encapsulated in its editorial code of practice have been identified as weaknesses of SABC news and current affairs structures, writes Ron Derby in Business Day. Panelists at an Open Society Foundation for SA colloquium yesterday (July 20) dissected the conundrum that is the SABC, raising concerns over recent allegations of censorship and blacklisting of analysts, which they argued has tainted its image, reports Journalism.co.za.

Zambia: Media wings clipped "in the interest of free and fair" poll

2006-07-24

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54770

Zambia's at times cavalier media may be forced to tread more cautiously in covering the run-up to this year's general elections. Under a new electoral act they will not be able to publish speculative analysis, unsourced opinion polls or predict the result before the official announcement, unless they are willing to risk a five-year jail sentence or US$2,500 fine.

Africa: AU Mulls Citizenship for Slave Kin

2006-07-24

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060720/D8J003Q01.html

African and black American leaders meeting this week (July 20) debated an unusual proposal to spur investment and interest in the continent - securing African citizenship for American descendants of Africans taken away as slaves. The idea came out of a summit bringing African governments and the US private sector together in search of partnerships to end Africa's poverty. Presidents from 12 African countries attended the four-day conference, along with former US President Bill Clinton and World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz.

Liberia: Letters to Firestone highlights abuses

2006-07-26

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/diaspora/36194

To mark Liberia’s Independence Day, Liberian-Americans and concerned consumers from 36 states are joining Friends of the Earth, International Labor Rights Fund, Institute for Policy Studies, TransAfrica Forum and other members of the Stop Firestone Coalition in telling Firestone that “80 years of exploitation is enough.” As part of the first national day of action organized by the Stop Firestone Coalition, participants will be delivering letters to Firestone Complete Auto Care in Wheaton, MD and to retailers across the country in an effort to urge the tire giant to end its long history of perpetuating slave-like conditions on its rubber plantation in Liberia.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 26, 2006
Contacts: Friends of the Earth: Elizabeth Bast, 202-222-0719, EBast@foe.org
International Labor Rights Fund: Bama Athreya, 202-347-4100 x106, bama.athreya@ilrf.org
Institute for Policy Studies: Emily Schwartz Greco, 202-297-5412, emily@ips-dc.org


Special Delivery: Letters to Firestone in DC Area and in 36 States Highlight Company’s Abuses in Liberia

National Day of Action on Liberia’s Independence Day Urges Tire Giant to
End Child Labor and Improve Conditions on Liberian Rubber Plantation

Washington, DC - To mark Liberia’s Independence Day, Liberian-Americans and concerned consumers from 36 states are joining Friends of the Earth, International Labor Rights Fund, Institute for Policy Studies, TransAfrica Forum and other members of the Stop Firestone Coalition in telling Firestone that “80 years of exploitation is enough.” As part of the first national day of action organized by the Stop Firestone Coalition, participants will be delivering letters to Firestone Complete Auto Care in Wheaton, MD and to retailers across the country in an effort to urge the tire giant to end its long history of perpetuating slave-like conditions on its rubber plantation in Liberia.

The letters—addressed to store managers and to Firestone Rubber president Dan Adomitis—detail citizens’ concerns over the slave-like conditions practiced in the operations of an American icon like Firestone. Among other things, the letters describe how Firestone has built its record profits on the backs of Liberia’s poor.

“For 80 years the people and environment of Liberia have been abused,” said Emira Woods, a Liberian-American and co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies. “It’s an outrage. Such an American icon must be a more responsible corporate citizen.”

“On the Firestone rubber plantation, instead of camp or school, children endure long summers of forced labor. Children wake up each day at 4:30 am to ‘help’ their parents tap rubber trees, spray pesticides, and haul heavy buckets of rubber up to two miles each day,” said Bama Athreya, director of the International Labor Rights Fund. “Children belong in school, not working the plantation.”

The Stop Firestone Coalition is additionally concerned that environmental damage caused by the use of harmful chemicals and the untreated run-off from Firestone’s operations into adjacent rivers is having health implications on communities around the plantation. “Kids on the plantation drink, bathe and swim in the Farmington River while watching the Firestone factory dump its waste on the opposite river banks,” said Elizabeth Bast, international policy analyst at Friends of the Earth. “Firestone’s tradition of exploitation has endured far too long.”

A detailed list of the coalition’s demands of Firestone is available at http://www.stopfirestone.org/demands.shtml

# # #
Friends of the Earth is the U. S. voice of the world’s largest network of environmental groups with one million supporters in 70 countries across five continents. www.foe.org
International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF) is an advocacy organization dedicated to achieving just and humane treatment for workers worldwide. www.laborrights.org
Institute for Policy Studies strengthens social movements with independent research, visionary thinking, and links to the grassroots, scholars and elected officials. Since 1963, it has empowered people to build healthy and democratic societies in communities, the U.S., and the world. www.ips-dc.org
TransAfrica Forum is a major research, educational, and organizing institution for the African-American community focusing on conditions in the African World. www.transafricaforum.org

For more information and background on the international Stop Firestone Coalition, visit www.stopfirestone.org

US: Ebon Run

2006-07-26

http://www.adspread.com/ebonrun.htm

"The Ebon Run" is the Black-oriented human-rights magazine that allows the people themselves to write their own articles in their own words and have them distributed to the people. It is YOUR magazine to use to get the word out regarding vital news and info. Partners are needed in order to develop and expand this critical project.

Sudan: Child soldiers disarmed

2006-07-27

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54813

Some 242 children who have been in the fighting units of the southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) were on Tuesday disarmed and demobilised at a ceremony in the southern town of Tonj in Warab State. According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), in the past five years more than 15,000 children have been disarmed, demobilised and returned to their families and communities from SPLA ranks.

Sudan: Uganda delegation 'en route' to meet rebel leader

2006-07-27

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54815

A delegation of about 150 people from northern Uganda has arrived in Maridi, Western Equatoria State of southern Sudan, on their way to meet the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), Joseph Kony. Sources said the meeting was likely to take place on Thursday in Nabanga, near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. The LRA, the sources added, had been holed up in this area and in Garamba national park for some time now.

DRC: Escaping the conflict trap

2006-07-24

http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=2829&l=1

Congo’s elections on 30 July could become the root of renewed violence unless Kinshasa and donors increase efforts to create a transparent and accountable government. This is the country’s most promising moment since independence, but there are huge dangers as well because the poll will create a significant class of disenfranchised politicians and former warlords tempted to take advantage of state weakness and launch new insurgencies.

DRC: Voluntary militia disarmament ends

2006-07-26

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54819

The voluntary disarmament of militia in Ituri District, in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has ended, with 4,000 former fighters surrendering in the past two months, officials in charge of the programme have said.

Kenya: War-weary pastoralists long for peace

2006-07-24

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=278357&area=/insight/insight__africa/

Clutching an assault rifle, Ekai Lokipeng shows off six marks on his chest, the result of ritual scarification ceremonies to indicate the number of people he has killed. The scars symbolise the pride that Kenyan pastoralists along the country's volatile border with Ethiopia take in protecting their herds from rustlers. But they are also a source of despair for Lokipeng who has grown tired of decades of constant cross-border raids and deadly inter-clan violence, reports the Mail and Guardian.

Nigeria: Four killed in latest attack on police stations in the southeast

2006-07-26

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54785

Dozens of armed men attacked a police station in Nigeria’s southeastern Anambra state leaving four people dead, among them two policemen, police said on Monday, July 24. The attack on the police station in the trading town of Nnewi on Saturday is part of a pattern of recent attacks on police stations in Anambra linked to a group campaigning for an independent Biafra republic for the region’s mainly ethnic Igbos.

Somalia: Move to oust Ethiopian troops

2006-07-24

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5210244.stm

Thousands of Somalis have staged a rally in Mogadishu calling on Ethiopian troops to leave their country. The demonstrators burnt Ethiopian flags at a protest in the capital, which since June has been run by the powerful Union of Islamic Courts (UIC). The UIC has vowed to expel Ethiopian troops who are deployed to assist the weak transitional Somali government.
* Related Link
Experts see proxy war under way
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5975932,00.html

Sudan: Darfur Peace agreement detailed

2006-07-24

http://www.africafocus.org/country/sudan.php

The real problem with the Darfur Peace Agreement, contends one of the advisors to the negotiations, is not its detailed provisions, which are both substantive and the result of significant input even from factions that eventually refused to sign. It is the lack of will to implement the accord, whether on the part of the government of Sudan, the rebels in Darfur, or the international parties that must guarantee its implementation.

Global: Human Rights in the Global Information Society

2006-07-27

http://www.digitalopportunity.org/article/view/135389/1/

International organizations, governments, academia, industry, and the media have all begun to grapple with the information society as a global policy issue. The contributors to this timely volume examine the links between information technology and human rights from a range of disciplinary perspectives.

Global: Skype adds SMS to arsenal

2006-07-27

http://mobile365.com/365_news/index.php?release=81

With the addition of SMS messaging via Mobile 365's global delivery network, Skype users can keep in touch by sending SMS messages to mobile subscribers anywhere in the world. With this new service, Skype users can send an SMS to a mobile phone directly from their keyboard. The service is quick and simple to use, and features a straightforward pricing plan.

Nigeria: Third VOIP forum set to go

2006-07-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/internet/36239

The third annual African VoIP Forum will bring leading international and regional experts to Lagos. The VoIP Forum is being supported by the African ISP Association (www.afrispa.org), ISP Association of Nigeria (www.ispan.org.ng), the Nigeria Internet Group (www.nig.org.ng), and the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), giving it an impressive stamp of endorsement by the ICT industry.
Press Release

26 July 2006

The third annual African VoIP Forum will bring leading international and regional experts to Lagos

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) will be attending the third African VoIP Forum in Lagos over 21-23 August 2006. A statement issued in London by the organisers of the VoIP Forum, AITEC Africa of the UK, has confirmed the attendance of Paolo Rosa, Head, Standards
Co-operation & Communications, ITU-T, Switzerland, as one of the high-level speakers for the event.

Nigeria's chief Regulator, Engineer Ernest Ndukwe, will be making a keynote address at the event which is expected to be opened by the Honourable Minister of Communications, Chief Cornelius Adebayo. Another keynote speaker at the high-profile event is the President of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Dr Emmanuel Ekuwem.

The VoIP Forum is being supported by the African ISP Association (www.afrispa.org), ISP Association of Nigeria (www.ispan.org.ng), the Nigeria Internet Group (www.nig.org.ng), and the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), giving it an impressive stamp of endorsement by the ICT industry.

The VoIP Forum, third in its series in Africa, is being held in Nigeria for the first time. It is being organised jointly by AITEC Africa and IT Edge, Nigeria's leading content-focused IT magazine. Host country partner is the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) hailed globally as a proactive regulatory authority that has steered the country's telecom sector to become one of the most successful in Africa.

The Forum is featuring leading VoIP experts in the field. They include Tom Koster, GM, Sky-Stream, United Arab Emirates; Yossi Barkan, Executive Director, Africa, PCCW Global, Hong Kong; Sunday Folayan, MD, Skannet Nigeria; Mawuli Tse, Sales Director, Africa, iBasis; and Russell Southwood, CEO, Balancing Act, UK. Forum sessions will consider issues that include 'Assessing investment in new VoIP opportunities,' 'VoIP pricing and service strategies in a competitive market,' 'the business opportunities VoIP offer,' and 'Maximising international connectivity via a virtual service provider’, among others.

Leading the Nigerian speakers is the Director-General of the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), Professor Robert Ajayi Borroffice who heads Nigeria’s space research drive under the leadership of the Honourable Minister of Science and Technology Professor Turner Isoun. NARSDA will be launching Nigeria's second and premier communication satellite (NIGCOSAT-1) early next year to redefine communication satellite service delivery on the continent.

The CEO of Junisat, Nigeria's leading internet/VSAT service provider, will be making a presentation on VoIP status in Nigeria under the thematic title: "Is VoIP still viable for the Nigeria market?"

The Forum also is providing an exhibition showcase for IT solution providers. Already signed up as exhibitors are NIGCOMSAT-1 Project, Direct-on-PC, which is providing on-site cyber café services for more than 300 delegates from several countries expected to attend the high-profile event; Junisat, which has increasingly created a niche in the market for high quality Internet service delivery, Ibadan based Skannet and the Teledom Group which has emerged as one of Nigeria's leading providers of multiplex IT solutions. They join the growing list of foreign exhibitors led by Dalcom.

The Nigerian Internet Group (NIG) is hosting its members in its exhibition booth. "The responses have been tremendous. We have received requests for participation more than we had projected with exhibitors and delegates exceeding the projected figures. All these underscore the great interest investors have in the Nigerian market, the increasing confidence in the market as well as the regulatory environment as one that encourages the take up and fast deployment of innovative technologies," said Sean Moroney, AITEC Group Chairman.

ATCON is the umbrella body for telecommunications operators in Nigeria, the NIG is the country's leading interest group for the promotion of Internet diffusion and the NCS is Nigeria’s largest body for computer (ICT) professionals.

"This is very exciting. The industry is a dynamic one and certainly VoIP would not cease to be a major issue for a long time," said ATCON president, Dr Emmanuel Ekuwem. “The African VoIP Forum ushers in opportunities for exhibitors and delegates to explore diverse opportunities offered organisations and individuals by IP technologies."

Announcing AfrISPA's and ISPAN's support for the event, ISPAN president Engr Sam Adeleke expressed the hope that the Forum would play a benchmark role in encouraging progressive and effective regulation of VoIP throughout the continent. "We encourage fellow ISPs, as well as regulators, to attend from throughout Africa so that we can form a continental body of knowledge on best practice in this crucial area for the future of telecommunications development."

Three workshops are being hosted alongside the main conference. They are:
• An interactive workshop for corporate users, will provide a detailed
Introduction to VoIP, and will provided by a leading local expert, Sunday Folayan, MD of Skannet Nigeria
• The second is aimed at ISPs & telecom operators and will focus on
international VoIP links, with training provided by Mawuli Tse, Sales Director, Africa, iBasis, USA.
• Survival strategies for Telcos, ISPs & Cyber Cafes, by Russell
Southwood, CEO of Balancing Act, UK

For further information, contact:

In Nigeria: IT Edge, Tel +234(0)1-891-2626; editorial@itedgenews.com

International: AITEC Africa, Tel: +44(0)1480-880774; info@aitecafrica.com

For full details and to register as a delegate, log on to: www.aitecafrica.com

Africa: Beware of Gates bearing gifts

2006-07-24

http://www.civicus.org/new/media/BewareofGates17july06.doc

African leaders are busy signing agreements with major US software companies granting them long term monopolies in return for short term donations. They are proudly announcing the short-term benefits but remaining silent about any long term costs. Foreign corporations know well how important immediate benefits are to politicians and how difficult it is for them to resist such photo-opportunities.

Africa: Designing poverty strategies

2006-07-24

http://models.wider.unu.edu/africa_web/

With support from the governments of Sweden and the United Kingdom, the World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER) has developed a website that allows users to create ''what if'' simulation analyses for five different African countries. Each country micro simulation model provides users with the poverty, distribution, and budgetary impacts of their policy choices and compares the simulation results with the current state or the base scenario.

Global: Publication on Open Standards

2006-07-24

http://tinyurl.com/jhxls

In this age of information and communications technology, many governments are moving towards open standards and frameworks. Open standards ensure that products and services can inter-operate and work together. The UNDP-APDIP has released their publication on Open Standards.

Africa: Special Programme on Africa page updated

2006-07-26

http://www.amnesty.nl/spa

The webpage of the Special Programme on Africa on the website of Amnesty International Netherlands has been redesigned. The page opens with general information on SPA in English (click "français" for a translation in French). SPA publications can now be downloaded in English, French and Portuguese (with very few exceptions in Portuguese and French).

Global: Knowledge for Development Program Newsletter

2006-07-24

http://tinyurl.com/z9tn6

A quarterly publication for professionals interested in the knowledge economy issues, including economic and institutional regime, education, innovation and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), this newsletter is published by the World Bank Institute.

Africa: CIVICUS Nelson Mandela Graca Machel Innovation Awards

2006-07-24

http://www.civicus.org/new/content/TheCIVICUSInnovationsAward.htm

The CIVICUS Nelson Mandela Graca Machel Innovation Awards are aimed at providing seed funding for innovative ideas emerging from organisations or groups of participants at the CIVICUS World Assembly. The broad idea is to support community based and grassroots initiatives with an emphasis on the overall WA theme: Acting Together for a Just World through one of the four sub-themes: Civic, Economic, Political and Social Justice.

Global: Call for DemocracyNews submissions

2006-07-24

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/fundraising/36118

The next issue of DemocracyNews will go out on August 9, 2006. Click on the link below to find out where to send submissions.
The next deadline for submitting items is July 31. Please send items to: world@ned.org You are encouraged to submit items under any area of democracy work. We welcome items announcing publications, upcoming events, reports on research, new Web sites, and other information, and we are most interested in posting requests for partnerships between organizations on collaborative projects, brief descriptions of collaborative projects already underway or completed, and ideas for new initiatives in which others may be interested. We hope DemocracyNews will be a source not only for information about participants' activities, but also for new ideas about strategies to advance democracy.

Global: Human Rights Tools

2006-07-26

http://www.humanrightstools.org

A new website for human rights professionals called Human Rights Tools has been created. It offers four main services: A library of carefully selected and commented resources; Key resources for country analysis; Daily updated human rights headlines; a Human Rights Tools newsletter.

Global: Special offer for Pambazuka News readers

2006-07-26

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/fundraising/36190

QuickGuides are 24 page books, readable in an hour, covering the fundraising and management needs of both large and small organisations. QuickGuides are the perfect way to learn about a subject quickly and easily, and because they are written and reviewed by knowledgeable professionals from all around the world they will be useful wherever you operate as they are not country specific. And with 6 new titles to add to our current 22 and more planned for 2007 - from sources of funding to events planning, motivating staff to marketing – it’s all there. At £8 or US$14 per book, QuickGuides are accessible to all, and you can build your own library of expertise. And as a reader of Pambazuka News, you can take advantage of a special promotion of 3 books for the price of 2 until the end of October 2006. Or for £125 you can buy an entire library of all 28 titles. QuickGuides are a resource you can’t afford not to have. Quote ref: pambazuka and order online now at our online bookshop.
http://www.quickguidesonline.com

UK: African Socialist International

2006-07-26

http://www.asiuhuru.org

The many years of work to build the African Socialist International has been a process to forward that legacy. This 7th Conference to Build the African Socialist International (ASI) in October opens the way to the ASI founding Congress. Conference is to be held October 6 and 7 in London, registration details can be found on the website.

Botswana: An Executive Course for NGO Leaders in Africa

2006-07-24

http://tinyurl.com/kcs8h

The Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa (OSISA) and the SADC regional centre of specialisation in Public Administration and Management (CESPAM) based at the University of Botswana have developed a unique and appropriate Public Policy executive course. The overall objectives of the course are to develop a high-level professional public policy and development certificate course that will be attended by civil society NGO leaders in the region.

Mexico: Know How Conference 2006

2006-07-24

http://knowhow-pueg.unam.mx/

Know How 2006 will advance the agenda of women and information in a post World Summit on Information Society era. It will pursue women's empowerment through information and knowledge via education, media, libraries and the Internet.

South Africa: EnviroMedia 2006

2006-07-26

http://www.enviromedia2006.co.za/

EnviroMedia 2006 is the third event of its kind bringing journalists, media practitioners and development experts together to deepen understandings and share expertise about reporting on environment, sustainability and development in Africa.

West Africa: Developer roadshow gets rolling

2006-07-24

http://www.tectonic.co.za/view.php?id=1060&s=news

The second-ever Africa developer roadshow, this time in West Africa, will be held in Ghana during August and organisers are looking for developers from across the region to attend. Workshops on the agenda include localisation and further development of the education-in-a-box project.

Africa: Programme Co-ordinator

The Tropical Health and Education Trust

2006-07-24

http://www.eldis.org/cf/search/disp/DocDisplay.cfm?Doc=DOC22178&Resource=f1

The successful applicant will have a commitment to international development; some experience of programme co-ordination; strong written and budget monitoring skills; and the ability to travel overseas for up to 8 weeks per year. S/he will have good interpersonal skills and the ability to work effectively within a small and busy office.

Global: Program Manager

New Field Foundation

2006-07-26

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/36193

New Field Foundation is seeking a program manager to help develop and manage its Africa grant making program. Founded in 2003, New Field Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation located in San Francisco as a supporting organization of Tides Foundation. The program manager will work closely with the executive director and other team members to help develop strategy, assess proposals, prepare grant recommendations, and provide contextual analysis for a multi-layered program that brings resources to and benefits women and their families facing poverty, violence, and injustice in sub-Saharan Africa. Please visit our website at www.newfieldfound.org for a full job description.

Global: Program Interns

African women of distinction

2006-07-26

http://www.amandakoster.com/awod

African Women's of Distinction Program is seeking 10-15 Program Interns living in Africa, and 5 Interns living in the US (preference for New York, San Francisco, and Seattle areas). This internship is a great opportunity for young men and women or other professionals with development experience. The AWOD has immediate 6-month internships available starting September 2006. The internship requires a minimum of 8 hours per week commitment. Much of the work can be completed at home and on weekends.

Kenya: Representative

Academy for Educational Development

2006-07-24

http://www.eldis.org/cf/search/disp/DocDisplay.cfm?Doc=DOC21816&Resource=f1

The ECA Representative will manage and help develop the regional office, create a strong regional presence for AED, and build relationships with, and serve as an organisational focal point for the donor community, foundations, and corporations active in the region. She/he will forge connections for collaboration with local, national, and regional partners, and with key professionals; manage and help coordinate national and regional AED programs; and represent AED at professional and other meetings in the region.

Senegal: Deputy Chief of Party

Family Planning Project

2006-07-24

http://www.comminit.com/vacancy2789.html

The incumbent will serve as Deputy Chief of Party on a collaborative USAID-funded project that seeks to improve the health status of families in Senegal. S/he must have a minimum of 10 years overall experience implementing maternal and child health and family planning programmes in West Africa.

Sudan: Chief of Party

Sudan Community Radio Project

2006-07-24

http://www.internews.org/about/employment.htm

Internews Network is seeking a Chief of Party to lead a USAID funded project focused on building community radio stations in Southern Sudan. The project will include (1) construction of three radio stations located in Southern Sudan and the Three Rivers Area, and (2) capacity building in the form of training of journalists and technical staff.

Fahamu