Back Issues

This week's highlights

2007-04-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/highlights/40768

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Fahamu bids farewell to Patrick
FEATURES: Ike Okonta assesses Nigeria’s forthcoming elections
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:
- Grace Kwinge on her experience of Mugabe’s security forces
- Joseph Yav – Lessons from Rwanda
- Issa Shivji on building the pan-African vision
PAN-AFRICAN POSTCARD: Tajudeen assesses the role of local factors in the Nigeria elections
BLOGGING AFRICA: ICTs for kids in Ghana, Middle East realities, Nigerian models and chocolate crucifixes
BOOKS & ARTS: Poems by Sokari Ekine and Rethabile Masilo

WOMEN AND GENDER: Blogs begin new conversation for Egyptian women
CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: Algerian bomb death-toll rises
HUMAN RIGHTS: Ethiopian genocide suspects released
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: Asylum seekers left homeless in South Africa
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: New Ivorian government announced
AFRICA AND CHINA: Namibia and China sign 13 agreements
CORRUPTION: World Bank staff seeks Wolfowitz’s ouster
DEVELOPMENT: Opposition to more say for developing nations in IMF
HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS: What the papers aren’t saying about TB and HIV
EDUCATION: India offers Tanzania 100 scholarships a year
LGBTI: Making Herstory
RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA: Uganda forest protest sparks racial violence
ENVIRONMENT: Will the poor be flooded out?
LAND & LAND RIGHTS: The politics of land clashes
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Nigerian Radio and TV stations shut down
INTERNET AND TECHNOLOGY: Report on ICT access across Africa
PLUS: e-Newsletters and Mailings Lists; Fundraising and Useful Resources; Courses, Seminars and Workshops and Jobs

*Pambazuka News now has a Del.icio.us page, where you can view the various websites that we visit to keep our fingers on the pulse of Africa! Visit http://del.icio.us/pambazuka_news

Patrick Burnett is moving on

2007-04-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/Announce/40771

We are sad to bring you news about the impending departure of Patrick Burnett from Pambazuka News and Fahamu.

Patrick joined Fahamu in 2002 as a part-time research assistant for Pambazuka News. The impact of his presence on the Pambazuka News team was felt immediately. The quality of news and information appearing in what was to become later the Links and Resources section changed radically. Pambazuka News began providing a space to many of those who were engaged in social justice struggles in Africa whose voices were rarely heard.

A broader range of editorials and essays from activists and analysts began to appear in Pambazuka News as a result of Patrick’s work. And at the same time, he helped to manage a sister newsletter, Equinet News.

In January 2004, Patrick was appointed News and Information coordinator and took on primary responsibility for expanding Pambazuka News and involving a team of volunteers across the continent. The structure and quality of Pambazuka News began to develop in ways that we had hardly foreseen, matched by the steady and rapid growth in the number of subscribers and contributors.

A year later, in 2005, Patrick became the Online News Editor of Pambazuka News. Under his leadership, Pambazuka News was to win a range of international awards as the newsletter gained recognition as the principal forum for analysis, debate, discussion and information about the struggles for social justice in Africa.

There is little doubt that we owe much of the success of Pambazuka News to Patrick. Few people realise how much hard work is done by so few people to produce Pambazuka News. Gathering information across the continent, commissioning and reviewing articles, chasing recalcitrant authors to keep their promises, writing articles, undertaking research on multiple and complex issues - these are just some of the tasks that are involved. Combine that with the tyranny of the weekly deadlines, it is surprising that anyone is able to keep going.

Patrick has wanted, for some time now, to move on and develop his own work in journalism. He has been amazingly generous in agreeing to postpone his departure by several months pending our appointment of an online news editor and a researcher for the Links and Resources section of Pambazuka News. With these tasks completed, Patrick will be leaving on April 20, once the 300th issue of Pambazuka News has been put to bed. That we have reached this age is a testimony to Patrick's contributions.

As we celebrate the birthday of our 300th issue next week, please join us also in celebrating Patrick’s contribution to Pambazuka News. Patrick – thank you for all you have done. Go well. And keep in touch.

Firoze Manji
Editor Pambazuka News

Nigeria - danger signs on democracy road

Ike Okonta

2007-04-11

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/40717

If Nigeria successfully holds local and federal elections on 14 and 21 April, it will be the first time that an elected civilian government will hand power over to another. Will the elections hold? Will clear winners emerge? Will alleged losers accept their defeat with good grace, actuated by the larger national interest? Ike Okonta places Nigeria’s forthcoming elections in historical and political context.


Given the country’s turbulent political history, the choice confronting Nigerians in these difficult times is between democracy and national disintegration. Some analysts would like to add a third into the mix: a military coup d’etat. But I have firmly ruled this out. Ambitious officers might well attempt a takeover, but Nigerians’ current deep aversion to military rule will see to it that they will not last in office.

In times past the army always stepped into the breach when the politicians failed to abide by the rules of the game, using the coup to truncate the party-political process, abolish the constitution, and govern the country from their barracks. The armed forces had a modicum of respectability in the 1970s, fresh from a bitter civil war. They were viewed – at least in the western and northern parts of the country – as the nation’s saviour.

But the Babangida and Abacha regimes (1985-1998) exploded the myth of the Nigerian military as guarantors of peace and drivers of national progress. The campaign for democratic rule that seeded in the late 1980s was deeply-rooted, popular and enduring for the simple reason that ordinary Nigerians had by this time seen through the mask of the soldiers. Now they clearly recognised that their very survival depended on them winning back the right to govern themselves or elect their representatives as they saw fit.

Ordinary Nigerians are still struggling to consolidate the democratic government they won at such high cost in 1999 when their protests finally forced the General Abubakar-led junta to hold elections. It is not likely that they will tolerate another military adventurer, no matter how well-meaning, in the corridors of power.

If the mass of Nigerians prefer to live in a united country rather than go their separate ways – and all available research points to the former – and if they are firmly set against renewed military rule – as indeed they have – then it stands to reason to argue that they will work strenuously to ensure that the elections are duly held.

After all, multi-ethnic nations are best held together by dialogue and consensus. They will also likely engage the electoral process with great care knowing as they do now that inconclusive or chaotic elections could throw Nigeria on to the path of disintegration along the ever present fault-lines of religion and narrow ethnic nationalism.

They will want the elections to be peaceful, transparent and the results fair and credible. They will want the victors to demonstrate humility in their triumph, and the losers to accept that democratic elections are not a one-off event but an on-going process, holding out the hope of their own triumph in the next electoral round. Above all, Nigerians will want the out-going Obasanjo government to display statesmanship; and with an eye on history, to ensure that all conceivable obstacles to a smooth transfer of power to its successor are removed.

All evidence supports the contention that the majority of Nigerians are working hard to achieve this outcome. But there are also worrying signs on democracy’s road, as the country approaches the elections. Some of these danger signals are born of residual structural problems in the polity; the rest are largely attitudinal, driven by the personal quirks of certain political actors. It is important that we highlight these danger signs, separate those that can be remedied from the intractable, and urge well-meaning Nigerian political actors to channel their energies towards those that can be remedied. The point of political diagnosis is to identify and remove elements that impede the healthy functioning of the polity.

Three danger signs

Nigeria’s current political regime is a very young electoral system struggling to achieve democratic consolidation. Thirty years of military rule foisted a culture of impunity, authoritarianism, and disempowered citizenship on the people. The vital institutions that support representative government – a free and robust press, an independent and impartial judiciary, and political parties driven by policy issues and buoyed up by a freely associating and enlightened citizenry – that began to emerge in the 1940s when the struggle for independence really commenced, were stifled following the first military coup in January 1966.

Efforts of progressive politicians and civil society leaders since the end of the civil war in January 1970 have been directed largely towards winning back the open civic space in which these crucial institutions can thrive and prosper again. The Second Republic of 1979-1983 was too short a period for these supportive institutions of representative rule to re-embed in the wider society. Generals Babangida and Abacha’s unrelenting and all-encompassing attacks on the civic-political space killed off the tender shoots that began to bud during that brief spring. In a real sense therefore, the advent of the Third Republic in 1999, for all its imperfections, offered the first real opportunity, after the demise of the First Republic in 1966 and the bloody civil war which followed in its wake eighteen months later, for the institutional ramparts of democratic government to take root again.

This is the reason why Nigerians will go into the April 2007 elections without the benefit of real political parties and politicians to represent their views and interests. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the ruling party, has since 1998 when it came into being, transformed into a bloated, vote-rigging machine intolerant of opposition within or from rival parties. Run along highly authoritarian lines and dependent on the president for funds and policy, the PDP has been reduced to a branch of the government. The latter is also subject to the whims and commands of President Obasanjo.

The leading opposition parties – All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and Action Congress (AC) - are run along more consensual lines. But they are hampered by a lack of experienced and trained personnel; a narrow and opportunistic membership base; perennial shortage of funds; and a domineering presidency which has not hesitated to use government largesse and paid agents provocateurs to undermine them.

The judiciary, after the battering it endured at the hands of the soldiers, is still struggling to find a credible role for itself in the new civilian dispensation. The Nigerian press is fiercely combative and fearless, but journalists are yet to make the transition from being guerrillas fighting off military dictatorship to cool-headed analysts nudging politicians and public discourse towards policy issues.

To correct these structural problems will require time and a great deal of political skill. Because they will endure into the coming 2007 electoral cycle, the gaps they will open up in the political system could be exploited by a ruling party anxious to retain power at the centre and in the states. Having rigged the 1999 and 2003 elections with impunity, the PDP will be sorely tempted to enact a repeat performance this April, taking advantage of the weakened opposition, a cowed judiciary, and a still tactically-challenged press. This is the first danger sign on the road to the elections.

Whilst Olusegun Obasanjo is still the head of the federal government, he is no longer in power. This might sound paradoxical; but the architecture of power in Nigeria is as multilayered as it is complex. Obasanjo rose to prominence in the Nigerian armed forces in the late 1960s riding on the coat tails of the northern coup-makers of July 1966, most notably General Yakubu Danjuma.

Burdened with his close friendship with Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, leader of the abortive January 1966 putsch in the north, and with his own role in that event still shrouded in mystery, Obasanjo had necessarily to demonstrate his loyalty to the new power elite – led by Col. Yakubu Gowon, Col. Murtala Muhammed, and Major Danjuma. It was on the rump of this group that he relied when Muhammed was assassinated in February 1976, after he had replaced Gowon as head of state the previous year and he (Obasanjo) was asked to step into the breach. He reigned; but real power lay with chief of army staff General Danjuma and chief of staff, supreme headquarters, General Shehu Yar’Adua. Obasanjo’s pay-back was his strident defence of ‘Nigerian unity’; and along with this, a pro-northern political stance when the time came to hand over power to politicians in 1979.

This pact, forged in the turbulent period of military rule in the 1970s, was to be replayed in 1999 when the northern military and political elite, reeling from attacks from pro-democracy elements in the wake of General Babangida and Abacha’s excesses, looked for a safe pair of hands to cede power. This was meant to be a tactical manoeuvre, designed to placate frayed nerves in the progressive camp in southern Nigeria. Babangida, acting on behalf of a loose coalition of northern elites, though by no means all northern interests, again sought out Obasanjo and finessed the politics that took him to Abuja as President in May 1999.

Throughout his military and later political career, Obasanjo never took any risks that could put his life or career on the line. He was content to let others take the risks, including dangerous military putsch. He would emerge from the shadow when the gun smoke had cleared and scout for rich pickings. Obasanjo’s sole attempt to make a bid for real power on his own behalf was the ill-fated attempt to get his minions in the PDP to tinker with the constitution that he might stay on as President beyond the two terms stipulated by the constitution. The powerful coalition of Babangida, Danjuma, and Vice President Atiku Abubakar – all northerners - united with pro-democracy elements in the press and civil society and promptly slapped down Obasanjo in May 2006.

That episode, more than anything else, demonstrated where real power in Nigeria lay. It also pointed to Obasanjo’s fragile position in the country’s nascent democratic game. He would, ideally, like to retire as a king-maker now that he can no longer extend his stay in office. But he has never had a secure power base to call his own: neither in the armed forces; nor in his Yoruba region home where he is distrusted by a populace who still see him as a northern ‘stooge’; nor in civil society; nor amongst the intelligentsia who regard him with a mix of loathing and disdain.

Nevertheless, Obasanjo has made it clear that come April he is determined to steamroll his chosen presidential candidate, Umar Yar’Adua, younger brother of the late Shehu Yar’Adua, into State House. The northern political elite is equally determined to demonstrate that Obasanjo has neither the right nor the political clout to appoint a new political leader for them. They see the April polls as the proving ground.

Obasanjo and his unpopular party will go into the elections with the full backing of the PDP state governors who are anxious to ensure continuity and thus shield themselves from later prosecution for corrupt enrichment and a supine police force with armed elements drawn from the army and paid thugs that Nigerian cities now have in abundance. This group will have to confront a vengeful Northern elite and their allies in the south, grouped around General Muhammadu Buhari, presidential candidate of the ANPP, and Atiku Abubakar, Obasanjo’s vice president, whose bid for the top job under the Action Congress is still under a cloud.

Were the supporting institutions of Nigeria’s young democracy autonomous and functioning, all eyes would have turned to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the courts to ensure free and credible polls; thus removing the prospect of a free for all between these two bitterly opposed political factions. But INEC, following its recent pronouncement banning Vice President Abubakar, a noted critic of Obasanjo, from contesting the presidential election even though the electoral act does not accord it such power, has demonstrated that it is an interested party, on the side of President Obasanjo and the PDP government.

The Buhari and Atiku groups have stated that they view INEC as a partial entity that will work on Obasanjo’s behalf during the elections. This means that they will put into place their own independent machinery to police the electoral process and ensure that neither the INEC nor PDP’s agents rig the polls. Obasanjo, who was recently quoted in the press as saying that the election would be a ‘do or die’ affair for him will be expected to use the machinery and financial resources of the government to ensure that his will prevails. The inevitable clash between these juggernauts will reverberate in wider Nigerian political and civil society, already stretched to breaking point. This is the second danger sign on Nigeria’s democracy road.

Then there is a third danger sign, as ominous as the first two. This is the international politics of oil and the extent to which the major oil-consuming nations in Western Europe and North America seeking to secure their strategic interests will attempt to shape the political outcome in Nigeria to their advantage. At the heart of this realpolitik is the growing armed insurrection in the Niger Delta, fed and sustained by five decades of economic exploitation and political marginalisation that the local communities have suffered at such terrible cost.

The United States and the European Union backed the Obasanjo government in 1999 and again in 2003 even though there was abundant evidence that those elections had been marked by rigging and violence. Obasanjo was seen as friendly to their interests. He was also seen as a competent general who could be counted on to rein in the youth activists in the Delta region and ensure that Western oil companies continue to extract oil undisturbed.

Local democracy and corporate social responsibility were thus sacrificed for cheap oil. This democratic deficit is at the heart of the present crisis in the Niger Delta. Continued backing for Obasanjo’s political agenda in April will certainly escalate this crisis, which in turn could spill out into other regions of the country igniting a political cyclone.

These then are the three major danger signs on the road to the April general elections. So far, ordinary Nigerians in their millions have remained spectators in this great game, even as their economic and social condition continues to deteriorate. They are waiting anxiously for the April elections to settle accounts with those whom they see as having betrayed them, leaving them worse off than they were in 1999. If they are denied their day in the voting booth, the three danger signs will meld with popular anger and frustration. There is no knowing whether Nigeria will still be there on the map when the storm settles.

Alternatively, Nigeria’s ruling elites can elect to head off this storm by insisting on fair elections. But how might the end game play out?

Endgame of a defeated General

President Olusegun Obasanjo will quit power in May. There is no getting around it. The current power constellation is firmly against him despite his strenuous efforts since he assumed office in 1999 to build an independent power base of his own. The question now is the manner of Obasanjo’s going, and how to ensure that Nigeria as a corporate entity remains after the storm has quietened.

Forecasting the ramifications of Nigeria’s coming general elections is now a booming industry in the United States and Western Europe. These forecasts and analyses run the gamut from the sober to the downright loony. Most centre on the rising armed conflict in the oil-bearing Niger Delta, and how the elections might likely impact the flow of oil to the Western countries.

But for Nigerians and other Africans, the stakes are higher. A conflict-ridden Nigeria in the wake of inconclusive or rigged elections will trigger powerful waves of chaos and anarchy throughout West Africa, suspend the ambitions of ECOWAS to transform the region into a belt of economic prosperity, and open up west and central Africa to natural resource hunters intent on fomenting war and pave the way for easy pickings.

It is therefore important that Nigerian political thinkers step out to combat the muddled, self-serving analyses of those who have put themselves forward as ‘interpreters’ of political trends in their country. Indeed, they are challenged to articulate a clear road map to fair, peaceful and conclusive elections: to an electoral outcome that will provide a framework in which the task of repairing the damage Obasanjo and his lieutenants have wrought these past eight years can commence.

The Washington based Eurasia Group had this to say about the coming elections: ‘An election delay and the constitutional crisis which will likely follow could tempt the country’s military and influential ex-military establishment – which ruled Nigeria for four decades – to consider re-entering politics...Obasanjo’s relationship with key figures within the ex-military establishment, such as former head of state General Ibrahim Babangida, former long-time National Security Adviser Mohammed Gusau and former Defense Minister Theophilus Danjuma, is currently strained. In any political crisis it is not clear that these powerful figures, and many others within the ex-military establishment, would back Obasanjo rather than someone else to replace him.’

Underpinning this controversial analysis is nostalgia for a return to military rule in Nigeria. This nostalgia is to be found mainly in neoconservative political and business circles in Europe and the United States whose favourite business model in Africa is using corrupt dictators to repress the ordinary people, thus paving the way for them to pillage the continent’s natural resources undisturbed. General Ibrahim Babangida, Mobutu Sese Seko and others of their ilk were feted in London and Paris and Washington for precisely this reason. There are many in the power corridors of these three cities that still yearn for the return of the ‘good old days’ of Babangida in Nigeria.

While it is true that the likes of Babangida and Danjuma are still powerful, due to the stupendous wealth they illegally amassed following the end of the Nigerian civil war in 1970, it would be a mistake to see power as influence in the country today. The generals have virtually no political influence in a country where the ordinary people view soldiers with a mix of contempt and loathing, and are determined to protect the right to vote they won back in 1999. Obasanjo was able to deny Babangida and Gusau the presidential ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party not because he himself is powerful, but because he was canny enough to recognise that Nigerians would not shed a tear for Babangida and Gusau when they were fed with a dose of their own medicine.

Likewise, Babangida, working in partnership with Vice President Atiku Abubakar, was able to frustrate Obasanjo’s plot to remain in office. Not because Babangida himself is overwhelmingly politically influential, but because he too recognised that the majority of Nigerians detest the President’s authoritarian pretensions and want to see the back of him in May 2007. Babangida tapped into this powerful current and Obasanjo’s third term ambitions bit the dust.

What the foregoing tells us clearly is that ordinary Nigerians and their desire for representative and accountable government are now firmly in the saddle and will ultimately determine the direction in which the country will go in May – democratic rule or a return to dictatorship. The wind, I hazard to say, is blowing in the direction of democratic consolidation.

The prospects of a successful military coup in the wake of chaotic elections this April are not very bright. It does not even register on the political radar of the Nigerian street. Nor are there signs among the rank and file in the armed forces that they are yet again beginning to see themselves as the nation’s saviour. The army’s sense of self-worth took a battering in the 1990s as Babangida and his successor General Sani Abacha systematically destroyed all hopes of social and economic progress in the country. Ordinary soldiers, who were deployed in the cities to shoot and maim democracy activists, and students have since those tragic events been lumped together with their commanders as destroyers of the nation. This unflattering image, still powerful and enduring, is one which officers and the other ranks are yet to live down.

We are thus left with a charged political arena in which the ex-military gladiators will have to slug it out among themselves, while an impoverished populace look on from the sideline, waiting for yet another breach in the rampart to claw back more of their purloined freedom. Olusegun Obasanjo had an easy ride in 1979 when, as military head of state, he worked in concert with his fellow generals to shape the general elections and handed power to their preferred candidate. Indeed, Obasanjo had declared a few months before those elections that victory would not necessarily go to the most qualified candidate, a clear indication that the likes of Malam Aminu Kanu, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and Chief Obafemi Awolowo, still widely venerated in the country, would not be allowed to take power.

Shehu Shagari, presidential candidate of the National Party of Nigeria, was the least qualified in a field bristling with intellectual and political giants, tempered and burnished in the furnace of the independence struggles of the 1940s and 1950s. Obasanjo, notorious for his envy of intellectuals and political figures more accomplished than himself, chose to put personal interest above the national imperative of supporting a politician and statesman able to guide Nigeria seamlessly from unaccountable military rule to a democracy delivering the essentials of life to a still hopeful and expectant populace.

The depredations of the Shagari years and punitive IMF-sanctioned structural adjustment, shortly after the return of military dictatorship, were Obasanjo’s parting gift to Nigerians in September 1979. The present challenge, insist Nigerian democratic activists, is to ensure that he will not have the opportunity to give the people a similar gift this coming May.

‘Popular’ political analysis led by the BBC presents Umar Yar’Adua, presidential candidate of the PDP, as the favourite to win the election. The argument is that a candidate has to have an enormous war chest and a powerful election-rigging machine – which the Obasanjo government has in abundance - to win. This analysis not only forecloses the democratic option - i.e. the choice of the majority of ordinary Nigerians freely expressed in the polling booth - it also subtly encourages the belief that there will be no credible challenge to the PDP machine this April.

This, then, is the area in which Nigerian democrats have been channelling their energies: to prove that free elections, without which any talk of democratic government is just much hot air, are possible in Nigeria. They are also looking ahead. In the eventuality that they are unable to ensure free elections, they plan to make the cost of rigging so expensive that the perpetrators will be forced into an untenable position, making it impossible for them to form a government.

Obasanjo’s critics say the PDP government can only point to an abysmal record in office these eight years. The fundamental challenges that confronted Nigerian state and society in May 1999 are still staring Nigerians in the face: a new constitution that addresses the terms of association between the federating units and thus ensures political order; a home-grown economic strategy capable of tackling the scourge of mass unemployment and deepening poverty; and a social compact led by a visionary political elite restoring hope and love of country in a battered and increasingly cynical populace.

PDP candidates cannot therefore rely on their ‘performance’ in office to win the argument on the campaign ground. True, the campaign strategies of the other presidential candidates have been rather short on concrete alternative policies – the exception being Prof. Pat Utomi, presidential candidate of the African Democratic Party (ADP), and to a lesser extent, General Muhammadu Buhari of the ANPP. But these two candidates are in a powerful position to reap bountifully from the widespread distrust of the PDP and its politics of plunder and incompetence. In a free and fair context, Buhari and Utomi could easily emerge as hot favourites for president. The task, say those desirous of easing the PDP out of office, is to build a nation-wide coalition of vote-watchers capable of counting the vote and making the vote count.

Power at all costs?

The Obasanjo government has fired the first salvo in its ‘war’ to retain power at all costs. All manner of obstacles, including police harassment, were put in the path of Buhari’s campaign team as they went about canvassing votes in the northern part of the country in March. Desperate PDP officials, faced with the awful prospect of a long Harmattan out of government, and being made to account for the billions of dollars they frittered away on the altar of corruption and indolence, are likely to resort to even worse tactics as the electoral battle is joined.

Advocates of political liberty and fair play at the polls are preparing themselves for the bruising context ahead. They argue that given past performance, it would be foolhardy, even suicidal, to look to the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct fair elections, and the police to maintain order. Recent actions and pronouncements of ranking INEC officials have made it clear that they are riding on Obasanjo’s PDP wagon. The use of the police to prevent rival politicians from campaigning is also a signpost pointing to close PDP-police collaboration during the elections.

Political parties working to replace the PDP government are increasingly looking elsewhere for countervailing civic machinery able to secure peaceful and orderly elections. Faith leaders, the independent media, labour unions, women’s organisations, ethnic associations and town unions, progressive student groups and democracy activists, among other non-violent civic organisations, are being actively courted, mobilised, and empowered to perform this function.

But they also recognise that it is not enough to focus only on policing the vote on election day. Leaders of these political parties and their allies in civil society say they are already thinking ahead and have factored in the possibility that their forces could be overwhelmed by the PDP juggernaut, as the vote tally stacks up against them. If that day comes, they could borrow a leaf from the recent elections in Mexico and peacefully mobilise their followers and sundry Nigerians desirous of fair elections to demand a recount or another round of elections.

They have also put the National Assembly and the judiciary on notice, for these institutions to stand ready to do their duty if the government in power proves beyond reasonable doubt that it is no longer capable of governing a fair and orderly transfer of power. There are strong speculations in the media that pressure could be brought to bear on Ken Nnamani, President of the Senate and third in line as President, to commence impeachment proceedings against Obasanjo and Vice President Abubakar, using a recent Senate report indicting both of fraud.

Continuing speculations concerning the health of PDP presidential candidate Umaru Yar’Adua, and Obasanjo’s strident assurances that all is well with him only point up the vulnerable position of both, even as ordinary Nigerians continue to yearn for a paradigm shift in the politics of the country. A recent meeting between Muhammadu Buhari and the leadership of the influential Christian Association of Nigeria during which the ANPP candidate gave firm assurances that he would not tamper with secular provisions of the constitution and favour his fellow Muslims unduly indicate that inter-ethnic and inter-faith coalition-building in pursuit of a broad-based response to the PDP is emerging. Likewise, the positive nation-wide response to Prof. Utomi’s visit to Oloibiri, the Niger Delta village where oil was first struck in 1956, points to burgeoning civic support for political leaders with a record of service and integrity.

It is these powerful supporting pillars of the dawning democratic moment that Obasanjo’s desperate end game is up against. The resort to election rigging and strong-arm tactics will not be an effective response to this moment. To rig the vote is one thing; to form a government based on rigged polls is quite a different ball game.

Presently Nigeria stands at a crossroads – to follow the path of democratic consolidation and its attendant fruits of stable, orderly and accountable government and prosperity; or to return to authoritarian rule and its diet of poverty, corruption, and ethnic conflict.

This drama is unfolding in a new international arena in which the peaceful rise of China and India as major economic powers are changing the balance of power, re-ordering the traditional flow of raw materials from Africa to the Western industrialised countries, and reshaping the way in which powerful corporations think about and do business on the continent. The present presents threats. But it also presents opportunities for resource-rich but technology and capital-poor countries such as Nigeria.

The proliferation of international terror networks, the resurgent scramble for nuclear bombs and other weapons of mass destruction, and rising ethnic wars on a mass scale make a compelling case for arenas of stable and peaceful government in resource-rich areas such as Africa.

Nigeria is one of the most important players on the continent, perhaps the most important. A peaceful, stable and democratic Nigeria can function as an agent of world peace, in a continent that has come up on the foreign policy radar of established and rising powers as crucial to their future economic health.

But a Nigeria in thrall to an incompetent and authoritarian government will open up this vast country to vendors of terror and pillage, further pushing the global order towards cataclysm. Fair elections are therefore as important to ordinary Nigerians as they are to those among the global powers anxious to navigate the new order into calmer waters.

* Ike Okonta is currently Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford, UK. His book, When Citizens Revolt: Nigerian Elites, Big Oil, and the Ogoni Struggle for Self-determination (Africa World Press, Trenton, 2007) is forthcoming.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

From Rwanda to Darfur: Never again? Or never say never again?

Joseph Yav Katshung

2007-04-11

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/40718

As we approach the 13th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide we should not only remember the horrors that took place, but focus our attention on the failure to halt the developing genocide in Darfur.


April marks the 13th anniversary of the start of the genocide in Rwanda during which approximately 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in 100 days. When celebrating the anniversary of this horrific tragedy let us take a moment to remember those who were slaughtered so unmercifully. More attention should be focused on how to prevent future heinous crimes to occur in Africa and elsewhere.

‘Never again’ – an international commitment or a rhetorical sound bite?

After the horrors of the holocaust, the international community drafted the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and pledged 'never again' to such evil. The United Nations was founded with the objective that humanity should be spared the scourge of war forever. The pledge proved empty as numerous heinous crimes followed. In fact, civilians in Africa bear the heaviest brunt of acts of terror, civil wars, violent suppression of political opponents and criminal violence.

The most glaring and heinous examples of the failure of civilian protection in Africa are the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, the war in the DRC between 1998 and 2003, which resulted in one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with over 3,400,000 persons displaced from their homes and an estimated 4 million killed and, the Darfur conflict that started in 2003, with estimates of deaths ranging from 180,000 to 400,000. At least 2,000,000 people have been forced to flee from their homes and are displaced in Sudan or in camps in neighbouring countries. These cases are particularly relevant: they happened in our lifetimes and continue to happen now.

Never say never again?

They are a tragic part of Africa’s contemporary history. One may easily say that 'never again' has lost its meaning. While Rwanda was supposedly the scar on our conscience that would be the last incident of mass atrocities allowed to occur, it provided a foreshadowing of things to come. That is true especially in Africa where, despite leaders’ pledge to never let another Rwanda happen again, they have not demonstrated the will to exercise the African Union’s right to intervene to stem gross human rights violations in a concerted or consistent manner.

Even if there is controversy about the definition of genocide in Darfur, there is little doubt that despite the hair-splitting of the proper description of the unfolding tragedy, there is a developing genocide in Darfur which is being met by a similar reaction or lack of action from the world community. Equally, the current situation in Zimbabwe - where the state is oppressing its own people - is another case for the agenda of actions to end this cycle, and move us to finally realise the call of 'never again'.

As 7 April has been designated by the UN as 'international day of reflection on the genocide in Rwanda', the profound sense of 'never again' should be reflected in the prevention or action in the event of of heinous crimes and other violations of human rights. Prevention of such crimes through swift and effective action will send us a clear message. Maybe, thus inspired, we can someday make 'never again' more than a mere slogan.

In so doing, responses to protect civilians would immensely benefit from President Paul Kagame’s sagacious words:

'Never again should the international community’s response to these crimes be found wanting. Let us resolve to take collective actions in a timely and decisive manner. Let us also commit to put in place early warning mechanisms and ensure that preventive interventions are the rule rather and the exception.'

To achieve the broad goal here expressed will certainly take more than rhetoric. Political commitment must be expressed, not only in establishing the required mechanisms but also in triggering them to act when action is required.

The case of Darfur aptly demonstrates the futility of establishing legal regimes which cannot be effectively utilised. In providing for intervention in internal affairs of member states when massive human rights violations are perpetrated without action from the government concerned, or when the government itself is involved in such atrocities, the Constitutive Act of the African Union has codified an important principle of international law. This principle as holds that while states have the responsibility to protect their citizens in recognition of their sovereignty, the default responsibility falls upon the international community, in this case the AU, which can intervene to forestall atrocities.

The cases of Darfur and Zimbabwe are the latest in a string of similar situations to pose unanswered questions to our rhetorical commitments. It is one thing for the silence to be ruptured for lack of preventive mechanisms. But our deafening silence in the face of continuing atrocities is quite another. Empty diplomatic gestures without concrete action in places like Darfur long recognised as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis is a damning indictment of the international community, in particular the leading nations at global and continental levels.

As the world commemorates the commencement of the tragic events of 1994 in Rwanda, our leadership and those who shape opinion and policy must rethink our commitment to a world and continent free of human suffering, a continent committed to furthering the aspiration of a peaceful world, a world in which human life and dignity are embedded in state policy and interactions between nations. This would allow us, when necessary, to discard parochial notions of sovereignty and to act accordingly when another Rwanda or Darfur threaten.

To achieve this, we must bring together the institutions and collective powers we have established to construct a world in which ‘never again’ means what it should.

* Joseph Yav is a lecture at the Faculty of Law, University of Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo. He is also the executive director of the Centre d’etudes et de recherche en droits de l’homme, democratie et justice transitionnelle/Centre for Human Rights, Democracy and Transitional Justice Studies. Email: joyav22@yahoo.fr

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

The essential building blocks of the pan-African vision

Issa G Shivji

2007-04-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/40765

Issa Shivji continues the debate on the creation of a 'United States of Africa'. Drawing on past experience and present initiatives of regional cooperation in East Africa, he suggests that the economic focus should be at the level of production – capital and labour, rather than on trade. Politically, it should be people-centred rather than state-oriented.


The African Union has set the stage for a critical debate on pan-African unity. This has deep resonance with the nationalist struggles that ushered in Africa’s independence. At that time, the defining theme and rallying cry of the nationalists - from Nkrumah, Nyerere, Banda to Babu - was pan-Africanism. African nationalism by definition, they argued, could not be anything other than pan-Africanism.

The current pan-Africa debate presents an opportune moment for the continent to confront some of the key challenges facing it, among which is imperialism. African nationalism was born in the struggle against imperialism. It could only be sustained as long as it remained anti-imperialist.

Today, few of our countries can claim to be truly independent. We have no power to make the most basic of our own decisions. Our sovereignty is sold to the highest bidder. Our foreign policy is aligned with the super-power. Our laws - ‘made in the IMF’ - are thrust on our parliamentarians. The multinationals wring out of us outrageous concessions in agreements, which are ‘top secret’, even from the elected representatives of the people.

The current quest for pan-African unity must acknowledge the threat, and not shy away from the challenge posed by imperialism. As globalisation, an even more vicious form of imperialism, engulfs us we need to return to the roots of our independence: the great post-war nationalist movement which resulted in the independence of more than 50 African countries.

Today, as we sink deep into the uncharted seas of globalisation, and let the shylocks and sharks of the global market devour our resources and dictate our policies, our societies are being torn asunder along various parochial fault lines of ethnicity, race, region and clan. If ever there were a time to rekindle the dream and vision of pan-Africanism, then that time is now.

Even as Africa trails its focus on pan-African unity, one sees reason for hope and promise in continuing efforts towards regional integration. There are deep historical underpinnings behind the quest towards regional unity. Pan-Africanist visionaries such as Nkrumah and Nyerere foresaw the dangers of becoming independent alone.

Mwalimu was for instance prepared to delay the independence of Tanganyika if the four East African countries (Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika and Zanzibar) could do it as a federal unit. The ongoing efforts towards regional integration must therefore be weighed in the context of pan-Africanism.

In East Africa, the heads of state have already decided to revive the East African Co-operation and a treaty has already been agreed. Consultations have now been initiated seeking the people's views on the creation of an East African federation.

The East African Community, the predecessor of the East African Co-operation, collapsed in the 1970s under the strain of state differences and bitter rivalry among vested interests.

This time round, one hopes that the lessons have been learnt and that the mistakes of the past will not be repeated. The objective must be to place cooperation on a firmer foundation by adopting better and durable approaches to the issue of unity.

As Africa moves towards consolidating pan-African unity, there are lessons that can be drawn both from past experience and present initiative towards consolidating regional cooperation in East Africa.

The old cooperation was characterised by two major thrusts. On the economic plane, it was trade centred. While on the political plane, it was state driven. Its overall approach was economic rather than political.

A useful lesson to the pan-African vision is that economic unity needs to be based on a complementarity of structures. Countries can only cooperate when the issue of economic unity is approached politically. For instance, a common approach to fixing the prices of agricultural exports or repayment of debts can be a genuine basis for cooperation. This requires political decisions.

In the case of East Africa, the structures of production in the three countries were competitive rather than complimentary. Being export oriented economies, the three entities exported almost similar agricultural crops. They competed in wooing the same investors to invest in import-substitution industrialisation. The three countries were thus rivals in the international market rather than cooperators, which rendered their unity fragile.

The pan-Africa enterprise can draw three vital lessons from the East African experience. First, the approach should be explicitly political. Second, on the economic plane, the foundation of unity should be at the level of production – capital and labour; rather than trade. Thirdly, on the political level, it should be people-centred rather than state-oriented.

Another region where forging genuine cooperation can greatly support the pan-Africa vision is in the Great Lakes region. Within a larger political grouping, it is perhaps easier and more feasible to control civil wars which have spilled over into border wars between countries in this region. A project resulting in peace in this region would dramatically boost genuine pan-Africanism and bring the dream of African unity closer.

Pan-Africa unity can provide space for increased interaction especially in areas such as human resource development to benefit countries in need. Countries in re-orientation such as Rwanda for instance could benefit from the talent pool available in other countries in much the same way as happened in the 1960s when Nigeria sent many of its magistrates to support Tanzania’s judiciary.

The same could be applied in higher education. Rwanda is in the process of rebuilding its university. UK universities are fast bidding for donor funds to send their teams of experts, advisors, professors and so on. Such opportunities should be consciously used to create practical ways of cooperation rather than being left to be manipulated by big powers. Such cooperation and assistance among ourselves would be mutually beneficial and in the interest of the ideal of African unity.

Cooperation at every level – regional or continental – must provide an enabling framework for the involvement of civil society and other stakeholders. The rationale is simple. Cooperation at all these levels is too important to be left to heads of state alone. The immediate area heads of state identify for cooperation is defence and security, mostly their own of course.

Left to their devices, states can break unity either owing to pressure from international powers or narrow visions of local vested interests. Africa’s people must therefore not leave the pursuit of pan-African unity to their states and politicians. Only when Africa’s people are united can pan-African unity be sustained. They must widen their horizons to take into account new conditions and possibilities.

While, indeed, we must have sufficient will and sentiment to promote African unity, we must at the same time be prudent to protect and enhance our national interests. However, both these – pan-Africanism and nationalism – should be placed in the larger interests of the majority, and not succumb to narrow factional motives, or the greed of groups and classes. The interest of the large majority – the popular classes – should be the litmus test.

African unity as an expression of pan-Africanism is not only a desirable vision for Africa at this stage of our development, but a necessity. It is a necessity because left on our own, we are likely to become - and are increasingly becoming - pawns on the geopolitical and military chessboard of the imperial powers, under the hegemony of the most militarised and ruthless superpower in the history of mankind.

• Issa G. Shivji was, until his recent retirement, Professor of Law at the University of Dar es Salaam where he has been teaching since 1970. He has authored over a dozen books and numerous articles. His books include Class Struggles in Tanzania (1976), The Concept of Human Rights in Africa (1989) and Not Yet Democracy: Reforming Land Tenure in Tanzania (1998).

• Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

The woman in me

Grace Kwinjeh

2007-04-11

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/40719

Grace Kwinje’s personal experiences under the blows and batons of Robert Mugabe’s men.


'I will go before the King, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.'

Esther 4:16 HARARE - 'What sort of woman are you Grace Kwinjeh?' 'Who do you think you are?' 'What are you trying to prove?' Questions asked by more than five baton stick wielding riot police officers as they beat me up on that fateful day at Machipisa Police Station in Harare on 11 March.

This was round one out of many.

Yet it was about the woman in me. It was about me as a woman and what I stand for or represent.

Each blow epitomised what they feared and hated in my defiance against them. This translated into the most brutal assault or dare I say attempted murder on me, on my person, my being; that woman in me.

I did not respond I stood still and took each blow as it came. I did not cry. I did not beg for mercy. None of the comrades present on that day cried or begged for mercy, none denounced the party or tried to negotiate themselves out of this horror of horrors that will never be erased from our memories.

Neither will the physical or emotional scars ever heal. No amount of therapy can heal what we went through on that day.

Sekai Holland a 64 year old grandmother was called a 'whore', 'Blair's whore' to be precise. 'No I cannot be Blair's whore he is my son' she said. How dare she respond thus?

Associate herself with the defiled Tony Blair? And so Sekai was danced on, interestingly by another woman. 'Iri hure raBlair rinoda varungu,' translates to 'this Blair whore loves white men'.

Sekai married for 40 years to an Australian was severely assaulted several times. She broke a leg an arm and three ribs. Why because as a journalist she made the double 'choices' of marrying a white man and belonging to the opposition; for that she had to suffer.

She had to be punished for going against the 'norm', the 'expected' by ZANU PF.

That woman in her was under attack verbally and physically. Her age? Not an issue.

The two young women we were with were not spared. The young 'whores' according to the officers had to be taught a lesson.

Together with Sekai and myself we were beaten on the buttocks. 'Rovai mazigaro' 'beat up the big bums' they shouted.

My black beret fell off and I got a beating for my blond hair. 'Hure rekuHoliday Inn rovai.' 'A Holiday Inn prostitute beat her up.' 'Look at the color of her hair.' The 'sins' were many. I colored my hair blond in protest after Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede denied me a travel document on the basis that it was a 'state security document' and not a 'right.' I was slowly being rendered stateless in my own country.

And so as is the case too in opposition politics the attack on us women was more on our sexuality, we were assaulted, humiliated, demeaned in whatever way they could think of.

Comically again, amongst us victims were some of the worst male philanderers, but the issue with them remained political, exposing the misogynistic character of our society.

We were treated this way because we are women and nothing else.

As I reflect on, I do not regret the woman I am and the hard choices I have to make.

It is for these that in my life I have often been persecuted, socially, sexually or mentally and this time I have paid an insufferably heavy price that has left deep scars on my body and soul.

I challenge oppressive systems in all their forms not just to do away with Robert Mugabe's injustice, but also primitive actions by those in our midst that still place us women in the odd position, of being underdogs even in the struggle for a democratic and just society.

It is a double battle for both our political freedom and emancipation, none of which can be achieved without the other, otherwise it's a half-baked revolution, similar to the one we got at independence.

Zimbabwean women in politics have stories to tell. Opposition politics?
More stories.

Over the past months I have seen myself in and out of jail on various dubious charges mostly to do with organising and leading illegal demonstrations.

Once I was placed in solitary confinement at Rhodesville Police station for 48 hours. The aim here I suppose was just to traumatise me. As I sat there in that cell on my own I was afraid.

Afraid of many things to do with being tortured, raped or even being killed. By the grace of God I came out not touched.

A female freedom fighter can be killed at any time. In the wee hours of 12 March the military police came for me at Braeside Police Station, where I had been dumped half dead already, the night before.

A search for me by family and friends was in full scale at this time.

I was in a cell with two other women. One of them was actually nursing and praying for me as I was in great pain and bleeding. We heard the sound of cars outside. Foot steps then the jail door opened.

The officer in charge, Makore pointed at me and said 'uyu Kwinjeh' to four military intelligence officials. I held on to the two women I knew I was in danger.

Once again in the fence of Braeside police station, I was tortured by the officers. They said they had been given orders to kill and not negotiate with civilians. This was not a joke because by this time comrade Gift Tandare's body lay cold somewhere.

May his soul rest in peace. I did not know this. The rest I leave to God and his mercy for me on that night.

They asked me all sorts of questions as they beat me with short 30 centimetre really painful baton sticks. I fainted several times but each time they got me up and tortured me.

Until in the end I could not stand that is when they asked me to remain seated and stretch out my legs and they beat the soles of my feet. How I got back in the cell I do not know. All I know is my life was spared.

They stayed on vigil outside the fence waiting for further 'instructions'. Thank God some officials from the Lawyers for Human Rights found me before the 'instructions' came the next day.

And then it was drama after drama. Released to hospital under riot police guard; then no charges; re arrested while trying to leave the country then back to hospital under riot police guard.

Eventually with Sekai Holland we made it for medical treatment here in South Africa.

I thank the sisters and brothers for the solidarity that came in the form of prayers, demonstrations, night dresses, cake, books, fruit and water.

Above all for taking the risk of being associated with this kind of woman, by visiting us at the Avenues Clinic in full view of the police and CIO operatives.

I will end with a quote from Paolo Coelho's The Zahir, 'I don't regret the painful times; I bear my scars as if they were medals. I know that freedom has a high price, as high as that of slavery; the difference is that you pay with pleasure and a smile, even when that smile is dimmed by tears.' And so the woman in me will fight on. Aluta Continua!

* Grace Kwinje is the deputy secretary for international relations in the Morgan Tsvangirai-led Movement for Democratic Change.

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

As Nigerians go to the polls

Tajudeen Abdul Raheem

2007-04-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/panafrican/40782

Nigerians go to the polls this Saturday in a historic, highly contentious election. Tadjudeen contests the election may be determined more by local factors than powers of incumbency. It may also spur the opposition to unite behind a candidate against the ruling PDP at next weekend’s presidential election.


Nigerians go to the polls this Saturday in a historic, highly contentious election.

It is historic because it is the first time that an elected government will be handing over to another elected government through universal adult suffrage.

It has been highly contentious. It will leave people with negative forebodings because of the violence, generalised insecurity and uncertainties that elections continue to generate across this continent; as we try to deepen democracy beyond ‘voting without choosing’; and make a difference to the way in which we are governed politically, economically and socially.

As with any challenge faced by other African countries, the challenge facing Nigeria, by virtue of its size, is multiplied several times.

This weekend’s election is the first in a two week marathon to choose public officials for both state and federal governments of Nigeria. This Saturday, voters are choosing members for 36 state parliaments and 36 state governors. There are at least two dozen contestants for every available post. There are over 30 political parties contesting.

The resources at the disposal of many of the states are bigger than the national budgets of a majority of the member states of the African Union.

Therefore a lot at stake at these 'local' elections. It is not surprising that most of the electoral violence tends to occur at these elections, because the local elite is most visible at this level.

At this level, they can legitimately access a bigger share, second only to that of the federal government, of the nationally allocated oil revenues.

So if you do not control power at the centre, doing so at state levels is second choice. Local government is a very distant, and relatively poor third option.

At the federal level the contest is narrowed to two main parties: usually the ruling part and whatever coalition of ‘eaters’ and other foot lose opportunists on the one hand; and a coalition of opposition parties on the other.

At the state level things, are complicated by specific local conditions: personalities, historical memories and local rivalries.

The party in power at the centre always has the advantage of ‘changing political facts’ locally through all kinds of uses and abuses of the powers of incumbency.

Thus in 2003, the ruling PDP went on a rampage claiming victory in more than two thirds of the states across the country, mostly through blatant rigging, including massive votes in most of the oil-producing southern states where there were successful boycotts of the polls.

In Obasanjo’s home state, where he even lost his deposit in his own family ward in 1999, an election in which his own Yoruba people did not endorse his candidature, he was seen as sponsored by the Hausa–Fulani north.

The PDP reversed the course by giving Obasanjo more votes than there were registered voters! An election petition later nullified the result, but with no effect on the presidency.

However in at least one state, e.g. Imo, the rigged results were overturned, and the legitimate winning opposition party regained the governorship.

In two other states, Lagos and Kano - the two most populous, metropolitan states with very conscious civic populations, the leading opposition parties, AD and ANPP respectively, were sufficiently vigilant and organised in a balance of terror against the PDP, so as to ensure that there victories were not stolen.

At Saturday’s elections, the PDP may attempt to sweep everything again. But the party is no longer as formidable as it appears, in spite of its control of the state machinery.

First, its umbrella symbol is now so tattered that it no longer holds its various factions together. It is bitterly divided between Obasanjo loyalists, Atiku supporters and all kinds of anti-Baba PDP grandees. Those who did not defect with Atiku have gone to other parties.

Secondly, Atiku’s group had control over most of the party's financial machinery which was used to rig the PDP to power, notably in 2003. Therefore Obasanjo’s people do not have monopoly over the manipulations. Hence the mortal fear of having Atiku on the ballot, and risk having to content with his counter-rigging infrastructure.

Thirdly, Obasanjo does not know how to make friends, although he is field-marshal in manufacturing enemies by the seconds. He has caused more disenchantment in his ranks through the whimsical way he imposed governorship candidates in many states.

In one state Obasanjo imposed the fourth-placed candidate, while in other states, the names of winning candidates were substituted with Aso Rock favorites. Two of those went to court to have the decision quashed, and were successful.

But rather than reinstate them, Obasanjo’s party declared that they will not be contesting in the states. They expelled the victorious candidates in order to deny them the PDP platform. All these will militate against PDP at state level.

By no means are the other parties any more democratic than the PDP: most of them will rig where they can, and are able to.

What this all means is that this Saturday’s elections may be determined more by local factors than the powers of incumbency, whether at local or federal levels. The opposition parties may do better than feared. They may also spur the opposition to unite against the PDP at next weekend’s presidential election behind a candidate best placed to challenge the PDP candidate, Umar Musa Yar Adua, who remains the front runner.

* Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is the Deputy Director for the UN Millennium Campaign in Africa, based in Nairobi, Kenya. He writes this article in his personal capacity as a concerned pan-Africanist.

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

The broken garden

Rethabile Masilo

2007-04-11

http://sotho.blogsome.com/2007/04/05/the-broken-garden/

The broken garden

The ash moon like a hole
siphoned all flowers
to adorn the other side.

Every plant of every seed
all gone for the sole
glory of hyper-powers;

gone forever is the star’s
confession, where we stood
in lineage a little while,

God’s hope, the life of soil,
the need that feeds my hours
in the night, muddied blood

let for gain. Look at the sons
of slavery among the saints!
© Rethabile Masilo

Hibernation

Sokari Ekine

2007-04-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/40757

I woke up this morning
After a week of hibernation
I decided I had been hiding long enough
So I blasted myself in to her heart
Pumping the blood through her veins
You think you can turn your eyes, close your ears,
Shut your mind to me who has the name of
Pain?

African Literature

2007-04-11

http://www.wordswithoutborders.org/

The April issue of Words Without Borders focuses on African literature, with work by Marguerite Abouet, Alain Mabanckou, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Yasmina Khadra, Amina Saïd, Ondjaki, and the late, great Ahmadou Kourouma. What a relief to see that, unlike many other literary editors, those at WWB understand that Africa also includes North Africa.

Review of African blogs

Sokari Ekine

2007-04-11

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/blog/40723

Ramblings of an African Geek reports on an ICT project for secondary school children in Ghana called the I2CAP competition.

'The I2CAP program is a secondary school level programming competition. We train the teachers who go back and train the students. Then we have regional competitions and finally the nationals. At the moment their tutors are taught in the Ruby programming language…They are given a bunch of problems of varying difficulty and graded on how well they can create a working solution…Its only been going on for almost 2 years and we finally got teachers in every region trained. The first nationals will be in september. The plan is to eventually be able to assemble a national team for the International Programming Olympiad'

100 kids took part in the project however Geek has some criticisms such as the age of the computers – its about time Africa stopped being the dumping ground of ancient computers – a 5 year old computer is about 30 years old in reality if not more.

Musings of a Naijaman comments on his adventures in London seeking out Nigerian food and newspapers and ends up at the Bukka in Kilburn High Road. And on the continuing drama that is the Nigerian elections he points to a piece in This Day on how to prevent Rigging.

'Over in Naija, the drama continues as the elections draw nearer with court cases and counter suits and sudden deaths and the rearing of violence - Simon Kolawole of Thisday had some useful pointers on how to prevent rigging (or at least stop PDP from rigging too much)'

Subzero Blue comments on an article on the “so called “Seven Pillars of Middle East Reality” that stand in the way of peace with Israel. Subzero takes each “pillar” which he generally describes as [un]reality apart such as placing the onus of peace on Arab leaders

'This can't be more wrong; the Arab leaders wouldn't want anything more than to have the whole Israel-Palestine problem solved, a peace established, the ability to move on and leave the whole thing behind them. In fact, a number of the Arab regimes, if not most of them, already have secret ties with Israel, and are just waiting for the chance to make them public and announce normalization and all minorities living in the Arab world are under siege.'

'This is very very wrong, and a trip to any country in the Arab world where a religious minority exists can show that; Jews in countries like Tunisia and Morocco, Christians in countries like Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon, and the list continues; These people enjoy all their rights and freedoms, and live in peace alongside Muslims.'

My Haven a blog by South African gay couple, Matuba and Murphy comment on an editorial in Behind the Mask (South African LHBT news site) titled “The Only Gay Jesus Christ” stating that Jesus was in fact bi-sexual. Haven’s response to the piece is that it is completely unfounded and baseless statement.

'Conduct your research or perhaps use acceptable quotes that shows insight and initiative! Behind the Mask should know better than everyone else not publish such bigotry. They advocate for the existence of homosexuals. They fight for the rights of those who are violated - yet they bash Christianity with unfounded lies! As far as I am concerned it is all lies because there is no basis!'

eshuneutics continues with the Easter theme and Jesus Christ in his post on Indulgence – chocolate crucifixes and Easter eggs – the 80 million sold and the sheer waste of the packaging – 4,500 tonnes altogether!

'It was Ezra Pound who once said “We have the press for wafer”. And sadly, we do: and its views are about as intellectually chewy as a chocolate box. Nowhere has the press tied all perspectives together and suggested that it is the continual commercialisation of religion that has caused this wastage of natural resources. Probably, that would be a crusade too far.'

Bella Naija is one of Nigeria’s most popular blogs. Bella blogs on Nigeria popular culture: fashion, celebrities and Nollywood. This week the focus is on “Nigeria’s Next Top Model”…which is an event that will take place in London this month. Apparently there are “Top Model” events worldwide but this is a first for Nigeria

'I think it’s a good idea although I really wish this would have been more like the American Top Model reality show format with the whole thing taking place in Nigeria but I guess this is a start. I understand that subsequent ‘seasons/cycles’ will attempt to follow US Top Model format.'

There are rich pickings to be had for the winners – TV, advertising deals and the chance to become the 'face of Nigeria' – what better reward could any woman wish for!

Sudanese Thinker goes on yet another anti-gay rant with the proviso that “he doesn’t mean to offend anyone”. Of course ST is entitled to his own opinion but the whole piece is full of misinformation and plain bigotry. He ends up telling us of an encounter with “2 gay dues and a transsexual” and concludes that you cant judge people on the basis of their sexuality. And he even has some friends who are atheist as well! God what a relief on both counts.

'I was extremely uncomfortable in the beginning and felt like cursing my friend but I convinced myself to remain respectful since I was a guest. At first, I conversed with everyone except the transsexual. After a while, the party got going when the host started blasting some really good old school hip hop music. Eventually we all conversed, laughed and joked around until I completely forgot the fact that 2 of the guys were gay and one was a transsexual. It didn’t bother me much anymore. Unlike previous cases, they didn’t try to hit on me and they didn’t make any flirtatious moves which was obviously a very good thing. As a result, I learned three new fashion words. Cetour, retro and bohemian (did I spell them right?). Moreover I started thinking and I gained a new perspective.'

Shack dwellers rise up in South Africa

System Cele

2007-04-12

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/broadcasts/podcasts.php

System Cele from shack dweller association Abahlali in Durban speaks to Pambazuka News about the struggle for rights to land and housing in new South Africa. Five members of her group are now on hunger strike after being arrested in what Abahlali sees as a politically motivated murder charge. In this interview System speaks about why the community is struggling to stay in their area, and the obstacles they face in daily life and political organising. For more on shack dwellers issues and updates on the hunger strike see the Abahlali website.

Angola: Chinese specialists prepare agricultural development program

2007-04-13

http://www.macauhub.com.mo/en/news.php?ID=3150

China is to train 10,000 agricultural technicians for Africa over the next four years, a Chinese academic has announced. Professor Heping Jiang from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, who headed a mission to apply the program to four Angolan provinces (Moxico, Bié, Huila and Kuand Kubango), told Angolan news agency Angop that of the total Angola would have 60 technicians trained.

Namibia: Namibia and China sign thirteen agreements

2007-04-13

http://www.namibian.com.na/2007/April/marketplace/0785B213C0.html

A one-day business seminar of the second Namibia-China Joint Commission on Economic Corporation has culminated in the signing of 13 business memoranda of understanding between Namibian and Chinese businesses. The seminar was held in Windhoek on Monday. The two countries signed business agreements on marble blocks, seal oil, wet-blue cattle hides, manganese ore, marble slabs, fishmeal, tuna as well as blister copper.

Egypt: Blogs begin new conversation for women

2007-04-12

http://www.humanrightshouse.org/dllvis5.asp?id=5247

Like many people living in countries where expressing unorthodox views can be difficult, Egyptians have turned to the Internet. The recent surge in blogging has given many Egyptians the opportunity to voice opinions about a range of subjects. Women in particular have tapped into the blogosphere.

Global: Agenda Journal - Call for Papers

2007-04-11

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/wgender/40720

This journal will be the first part of a trilogy on New Technologies (part two – reproductive rights and HIV/AIDS; part three – intellectual property rights), to be published in September 2007.
Agenda Journal on New Technologies - Biopolitics. This journal will be the first part of a trilogy on New Technologies (part two – reproductive rights and HIV/AIDS; part three – intellectual property rights), to be published in September 2007. Proposed contributions should cover one or more of the following key areas from a women’s rights or feminist perspective:

This journal will look at the exploitation of the environment and its people, particularly women, as well as the resulting, increasing inequalities and social injustice. Writers should investigate the ‘power politics’ of governments and industry that undermine people’s (women’s) basic rights to be healthy and have access to (natural) resources, e.g. food and water.

In the journal, we would like to investigate how GM food impacts on women’s bodies and how it influences and distorts our concepts of poverty. One of the results of GM on farming is, for example, that farmers are forced to (re)purchase patented, modified seeds, which results in loss of seed security (while seed storage has been traditionally women’s responsibility).

Abstracts and contributions must be written in English language and a style accessible to a wide audience. Please submit abstracts to editor@agenda.org.za by 27th April 2007. For more information contact: editor@agenda.org.za

South Africa: Call for poetry: Agenda #73 –Biopolitics

2007-04-11

http://www.agenda.org

Length of poetry contributions: Poems to fit a full page of the Agenda Journal. Deadline: 28 June 2007. All submissions must be emailed to editor@agenda.org.za For more information contact editor@agenda.org.za

Southern Africa: South Africa sets pace for regional gender equality

2007-04-13

http://www.afrol.com/articles/25052

Later this year, women in Southern Africa expect a leap forward when it comes to gender equality as Heads of State are discussing more binding commitments to raise women's share of decision-making positions to 50 percent. South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki is putting heavy pressure on his colleagues, who also can point to considerable gains.

Ethiopia: Genocide, treason suspects freed

2007-04-13

http://www.afrol.com/articles/25001

The government of Ethiopia has dropped charges against its citizens accused of attempting to commit genocide, treason and other crimes during the 2005 protests against the alleged vote rigging by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. About 200 people lost their lives in the protests.

Global: Unions protest company's human rights abuses

2007-04-12

http://www.union-network.org/unipropertyn.nsf/EnG4SAllianceCampaign?OpenPage

On November 3, 20 unions from around the world met to create the Alliance for Justice at Group 4 Securicor. G4S is the biggest employer in the security industry and one of the biggest employers in the world with around 400,000 workers in more than 100 countries. The Alliance aims to win a global agreement to ensure workers' rights to join the union of their choice and receive decent treatment, including a living wage and social protection.

Rwanda: Ex-President pardoned

2007-04-13

http://www.afrol.com/articles/24997

Pasteur Bizimungu, the ex-President of Rwanda, was allowed to walk a free man from prison last week after he was pardoned by President Paul Kagame. Rwandan officials said the release, which came a day before the 13th anniversary of the start of the 100-day genocide, was done in good faith. It is expected to foster reconciliation in a society that has gone through the pains of genocide.

Rwanda: "Go. If You Die, Perhaps I Will Live" - Book release

2007-04-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/rights/40764

As a contribution to this year’s commemoration, African Rights is publishing a book dedicated to Murambi. “Go. If You Die, Perhaps I Will Live”: A Collective Account of Genocide and Survival in Murambi, Gikongoro, April-July 1994 weaves together the testimonies of 91 survivors, witnesses and perpetrators to create an intricate and nuanced narrative.
Press Release: A New 250 Page Book by African Rights

On 7 April 2007, Rwanda will begin to mark the 13th commemoration of the 1994 genocide with a ceremony at Murambi in Gikongoro. Now a national genocide memorial site, Murambi was a school under construction in 1994. It contains the remains of some of the
50,000 Tutsi men, women and children who died there, a testimony to the atrocities that took place “under the cover of night” on 21 April 1994.Murambi is set to become a genocide education and prevention centre. It is particularly appropriate that the site previously intended as a school should be reclaimed as a place of learning and reflection. Yet this in itself is a reminder that the losses of the genocide were also losses for villages, regions and the entire country. Instead of a school, serving the community, Murambi became a wasteland of unfulfilled skills, ideas, talents and energies.

As a contribution to this year’s commemoration, African Rights is publishing a book dedicated to Murambi. “Go. If You Die, Perhaps I Will Live”: A Collective Account of Genocide and Survival in Murambi, Gikongoro, April-July 1994 weaves together the testimonies of 91 survivors, witnesses and perpetrators to create an intricate and nuanced narrative. It is an unrelenting, painful and moving account that provides a stark insight into the 1994 genocide. It stands alongside the physical preservation of the massacre to enable an accurate interpretation of the visual record of horror that lies there and aims to support the work of genocide prevention.

Survivors bravely recount terrifying experiences of seeing their homes going up in flames, navigating deadly roadblocks and witnessing the murder of their parents, children, wives, husbands, siblings and sometimes of their entire families. Overwhelmingly, the book documents extreme suffering and loss beyond measure. No explanation of the genocide could ever be adequate, but the contributions from militiamen provide important insights into the pressures and inducements Hutu males in particular faced, as well as into the planning and execution of the bloodshed. They speak about the civilian and military officials who incited, armed and organized them, detail the extent of their crimes and reveal the identities of some of those who died at their hands.

In recording these memories, and in publishing a partial census of the dead, African Rights hopes to ensure that the victims of Murambi are remembered in Rwanda, internationally and by future generations, and also to encourage recognition within affected communities. By drawing on the words of individuals from diverse backgrounds, “Go. If You Die, Perhaps I Will Live” demonstrates the potential in Rwanda for a collective understanding of the genocide that can emerge through dialogue and education.

The Road to Murambi

The death of President Juvénal Habyarimana on 6 April 1994 sparked the genocide of Tutsis throughout Rwanda. In Gikongoro préfecture, interahamwe militiamen began to set fire to their houses as early as the 7th. They deserted their homes en masse. rom the communes of Mudasomwa, Kinyamakara, Karama and Nyamagabe, streams of refugees set out on journeys that would eventually end on the crest of a hill in Murambi, on the outskirts of Gikongoro town, in the commune of Nyamagabe.
Many first took sanctuary in the spacious Catholic Bishopric located in the town of Gikongoro which was soon overflowing with frightened refugees. “No one helped us,” commented Annonciata Muhayimana who had trekked from Mudasomwa with young children. Even worse, added Domina Uwariraye, was the violence and the fear.

Some refugees were abducted and killed, and some of the women were raped by soldiers and militiamen. The local residents came by and told us that our end was in sight.

Beginning Sunday 10 April, senior officials transferred all the refugees to Murambi. Most made their way by foot. The operation was directed by the préfet (governor), Laurent Bucyibaruta; Col. Aloys Simba, a retired officer who, in 1994, was appointed as the head of civil defence for the préfectures of Gikongoro and Butare; the deputy head of the gendarmerie for Gikongoro, Captain Faustin Sebuhura: and the bourgmestre (mayor) of Nyamagabe, Félicien Semakwavu. Eugénie Mushimiyimana recalled the reasons they gave for the move.

Bucyibaruta and Semakwavu told us that they considered Murambi a more appropriate place because it was isolated and had the necessary watchmen and water.
The strategies for the genocide in Gikongoro were debated and decided upon at a critical meeting on 13 April in the office of the préfecture where Bucyibaruta, Simba and Sebuhura spelt out the aims and gave directives. Désiré Ngezahayo, the bourgmestre of commune Karama, spoke of the rationale behind the forced exodus to Murambi.
Simba reassured us that getting the Tutsis to congregate in the same place was a way of setting an effective trap for them.

As the turmoil and panic spread, tens of thousands more headed directly for Murambi. A series of formidable roadblocks, established across the commune to monitor and control the movement of Tutsis, punctuated, and sometimes terminated, their journeys. The roadblock at Kabeza, a collection of shops about one kilometre south of Murambi, initially served as a gateway to channel as many Tutsis as possible up the hill. But later on, when Emmanuel Nyirimbuga was on duty, David Karangwa, a court clerk, and deputy-préfet Frodouald Havugimana, came to announce a change in strategy.

They said the large number of Tutsi refugees in the camp could put the local Hutu population at risk. They told us to start checking the identity cards of everyone who came through and to execute on the spot anyone whose card showed them to be Tutsi.

Some of Léocadie’s companions were indeed murdered, and women like her were taken aside and raped. The interahamwe killed all the men and a few women. Some other women, including my brother’s fiancée and I, were taken to bushes not far from the site to be raped. I was raped by five strangers.
Those who made it to Murambi were at first relieved to have come to the end of their journey, but they soon realized the predicament into which they had been led.

“Facing Death Through Hunger and Thirst”
The refugees were crowded into Murambi for about ten days. But Francine Mutuyimana, a child of 11, lost all sense of time. Her days in the camp “felt like years because of the torment we endured.” They were frightened and some were severely traumatised. Others were sick or injured and all were extremely hungry and thirsty. Surrounding the perimeter of the camp was an iron fence. Officials told the refugees that the soldiers manning it were there to keep them from harm. But constant physical and verbal threats made them increasingly sceptical.
Promises of security were never honoured, commented Valérie Mukamana.

The interahamwe threw stones at us from outside the school buildings.
In reality, added Julienne Umugwaneza, the soldiers watched over them “so that no-one could escape.” Few had had the time, or the presence of mind, to carry food with them when they deserted their homes, and the guards did not allow them to fetch provisions or purchase food from the shops nearby. The lack of water was particularly unbearable. The presence of armed men all around them made it virtually impossible to fetch the water that was plentiful in a stream close to the school. The refugees drew strength from pooling their meagre resources.
Bernadette Mukamugenzi and the other refugees huddled in the same building shared a single sack of rice.

It was finished in a few days because it was divided up among lots of people. We couldn’t eat while seeing neighbours’ children crying with hunger.
But solidarity and generosity notwithstanding, supplies were scant and hunger, dehydration and untreated wounds were all too common, and claimed the lives of some refugees. The few who tried to help were thwarted and turned away.

“Get Ready to Begin the War”
As conditions inside the camp deteriorated, outside its iron fence, military and civilian officials prepared the Hutu population for what they described as a war of self-defence. The days between 18-20 April were devoted to twin challenges: firstly, to generating fear and distrust of the Tutsis in the camp among Hutus living in the vicinity, particularly males, in order to convince them of the need for a showdown, and secondly, to drawing in forces from further afield.

On 18 April, Bucyibaruta and Sebuhura visited Mudasomwa, a commune whose interahamwe would come to distinguish itself in the massacres, not only in Murambi but even beyond the borders of Gikongoro. Sylvestre Maniraho recalled the appeal that would eventually win him over.

Bucyibaruta told us: “We have come to ask you to lend us a hand in the war that we are going to wage against the Tutsis. I’m speaking about those who have gathered in Murambi. They are prepared to exterminate you. The vehicles to take you are available. If you don’t have fuel, the Petrorwanda petrol station is inexhaustible.” Similar calls to come armed to Murambi reached militiamen across Nyamagabe and bordering communes and many convened on the hills overlooking Murambi on the 19th. The mission was aborted because there were not enough men to mount a successful offensive against such a massive crowd of refugees.
Instead, the 19th was given over to a visit by the president of the interim government, Théodore Sindikubwabo, who met with Bucyibaruta and senior officials in Gikongoro town.

Sindikubwabo’s message, according to Joseph Ntegeyintwali, a deputy-préfet, was “to kill all the Tutsis who had congregated in Murambi and Cyanika.” The participants intensified the propaganda tours, the recruitment efforts and the distribution of arms. To spare them and to enlarge what was seen as a battlefield, Hutu families in the area were relocated to a school in town.

In the early hours of 21 April, David Havugimana took up his machete when Sebuhura, in the company of other officials, came and announced: “‘all the men should wake up! We want their help to go and fight the Tutsis in Murambi!’” Havugimana and thousands of other interahamwe gathered at Kabeza. Standing guard at the roadblock there, Emmanuel Nyirimbuga watched as armed men congregated around his post.
By 3:00 a.m., Kabeza was swarming with interahamwe and more were arriving all the time. Ten the gendarmes came with guns, grenades and other weapons I had never even seen before.

The militiamen were then given a series of instructions from their leaders and told of the tactics to employ. They covered their faces with a variety of leaves, both as camouflage and as a means of distinguishing themselves from those whose lives they were to take.
Semakwavu, said Havugimana, cheered on the militiamen, telling them: “‘you must get ready to begin the war against the Tutsis!’”

“Blood Flowed Like a River”
At 3:00 a.m. On 21 April, Bucyibaruta, Simba, Semakwavu, Sebuhura and Havugimana, amongst other officials, had gathered at Murambi, together with the gendarmes and militiamen who would follow their lead. The massacre that would leave an estimated 50,000 people dead began when they told the gendarmes to open fire. In a well-calculated effort to maximize the effectiveness of the bombardment, civilians armed with traditional weapons Page 6
6 encircled the camp. Refugees who tried to dodge the grenades and bullets confronted this barricade of militiamen, including Gaspard Ayirwanda.

The sky had turned red because of the bullets and the grenades. Our group took up a position at the entrance of the camp. We were told to mow down the Tutsis who wanted to force their way through our wall. It was easy to pick them out because, unlike us, they weren’t wearing anything distinctive. I killed five people with a massue.
The refugees in the large courtyard at the entrance to the school—mostly men and boys— were the first to feel the impact of the firing. They fought back courageously, hurling stones from the courtyard and from the large administrative building. Grâce Mukantarindwa, then
19, was among the women and girls who backed them up by supplying the stones. “They died after battling desperately,” she said. They were no match for the well-armed and experienced gendarmes. “It was a hopeless fight,” concluded Grâce.

Déo Nsengiyumva, aged 24 at the time, saw his father and many other men succumb to the burst of the first grenade.
They didn’t die right away; they remained there, barely breathing. Everyone was engaged in the fight. And since there were so many attackers, we couldn’t even move them away from the grenades and bullets that were coming down like rain. I heard all sorts of noises: cries of pain from the dying, women praying, children screaming, wounded men asking us not to die without a fight and, of course, gunshots.
The ammunition ran out at about 6:00 a.m., and a certain Mureramanzi, described as “an excellent driver”, was sent to replenish the ammunition from the gendarmerie camp. After a short pause, the detonations and the gunshots began again at 6:20 a.m. and lasted until 9:00 a.m. But the massacre continued on as peasants and militiamen, brandishing machetes, swords, axes and nail-studded clubs known as massues, entered the school grounds to finish off the wounded and the dying. Didacienne was in one of the classrooms at the back of the school grounds.

They went straight for my grandmother and struck her on the forehead with a machete. She immediately fell to the ground. There were close to 40 people in the room. They lashed out blindly with their machetes, hitting every part of the body indiscriminately. My grandfather was also slashed with a machete. At least four men struck each victim. My brother’s skull was fractured by a rock.
Not knowing where to go, Marie Mujawimana just bolted out of the two-storey building.

The wounded staggered around us, screaming. We dispersed as people tried to run from the grenades and the guns. There were dead bodies and wounded refugees falling from upstairs and tumbling down to the courtyard. Even some who hadn’t been touched leapt out because they were so completely petrified.
Marie and others either took cover in the bushes and banana plantations, headed to the homes of relatives and friends or set out on the route north towards the Parish of Cyanika in Karama which sheltered over 10,000 Tutsis. The refugees who were still alive in the school feigned death underneath heaps of bodies or by smearing themselves with blood.

Around 10:30 a.m., Bucyibaruta, Semakwavu, Simba and Sebuhura stood around the camp with the militiamen. They offered congratulations, but indicated that the work was not over.
Vincent de Paul Nsabiyera, who had made his own contribution, heard Bucyibaruta’s address.

The préfet thanked everyone, especially the interahamwe from Mudasomwa, for what had been accomplished. Cars were put at the disposal of the bravest so they could go and lend a hand to the militiamen of Karama who had also begun to exterminate the thousands of Tutsis at Cyanika.
After being assured that the Tutsi-owned stores in town would be theirs to loot once they had completed the new task at hand, the men from Mudasomwa were immediately driven to Cyanika. The other militiamen turned their attention to the possessions of the dead on the school grounds and also in Gikongoro town. Cows, money, and later land, were among the most sought after treasures, but even bloodstained clothing, mattresses and cooking utensils were taken by the militia and local residents, including women and girls. Jean-Pierre Sindikubwabo made sure he got his reward.

I managed to take a bloody mattress. I wasn’t embarrassed to carry it on my head.
Blood trailed behind me on the road. I washed it at the police camp. There were no roadblocks to stop us. Everyone was satisfied with the mass killings.

“Plunged Back into the Horror”
Within a few days of the start of the genocide, Tutsis from the communes of Karama, Rukondo and Kinyamakara filled all the buildings at the Catholic Parish of Cyanika, including the church and its adjacent enclosed courtyard, the health centre and the primary school. Some of the survivors from Murambi, like Marie-Chantal Mukamunana, ran to Cyanika on the 21st.

We had left Murambi with approximately 1,500 people, but not more than 200 actually reached Cyanika. Many were massacred along the way and others drowned in the Muzirankwavu river, which had flooded over because of the recent rains. I almost drowned myself, but the water threw me to the opposite bank and I continued to run.
As Grâce moved from Murambi to Cyanika, one thought was uppermost in her mind: to urge the refugees at Cyanika to flee to Burundi. But as soon as she got inside the church gates, at about 11:00 a.m., she found herself “plunged back into the horror again.” The men from Mudasomwa, who had been singled out for their “sterling performance” in Murambi, and militiamen from other communes, had joined forces with their counterparts in Karama. Grâce found the massacre eerily familiar.
The killings followed exactly the same pattern as Murambi, beginning with guns and the lobbing of grenades. They used firearms for a long time.
During the second phase, men armed with traditional weapons found
Grâce. This time, I didn’t escape. I was hit in the face with a machete, on the left side.
She drifted in and out of consciousness and realized, when she saw their corpses that the people she had hoped to save with a timely warning had been killed.

“Death Wasn’t Ready For Me”
Those who had the good fortune to leave Murambi and Cyanika with no wounds or minimal injuries faced immediate and continued danger outside, as militiamen persisted in a meticulous hunt for survivors. Given the impossible odds, it is not surprising that the women, men and children who gave their testimonies attribute their survival to sheer luck.After leaving the massacre site, Collette was distraught, traumatised and “so afraid of being hacked up by a machete,” that she tried to take her own life.

I threw myself into a small stream that was nearby, but I didn’t die. I told myself that death wasn’t ready for me.
For Collette and many others, luck included the kindness of Hutu friends and acquaintances.
Collette was given asylum by Triphonie, an elderly woman who had helped her in the past.

Luck for others came from the fact that their tormentors were in great haste, perhaps to run after someone else, or to share in the spoils of the genocide. But there were also those, especially the elderly or parents who had lost all their children, who were deliberately left alive in order, as the militia said so often, “to die of sorrow.” Concealing the Evidence There followed an attempt to keep the evidence from coming to the attention of visiting journalists and the international community. This, as well as concern about the spread of disease, prompted the office of the préfecture to initiate burials without delay. Local officials provided bulldozers and called on prisoners from Gikongoro central prison to dump the corpses into mass graves. The bourgmestres of Murambi and Cyanika, Semakwavu and Ngezahayo, supervised the proceedings, which “completely lacked dignity” as one observer admitted. The reason why was spelt out by Callixte Hategekimana, responsible for roads and bridges in Gikongoro, who arranged for the bulldozers.

These people were looked upon as an enemy. The burial was not organized as a gesture of respect for them. Rather, it was a way of sparing the population the outbreak of an epidemic.
With thousands of victims at the two massacre sites, the burial stretched out over four days.
On 26 April, Bucyibaruta organized an unusually large summit to assess the situation and to discuss future strategies. All the deputy-préfets, bourgmestres and councilors were in attendance. Ngezahayo gave details about the agenda and the mood that day.
It was felt that we had achieved a great deal. Our officials were very happy as they had become convinced that Gikongoro would be regarded as the préfecture that had done the most in the genocide. Afterwards, we had beer and lots of meat.

It was agreed to urge the population to go back to farming and to ask civil servants to return to work at the beginning of May. The return to normality was linked to a message intended for the outside world. Ngezahayo emphasized another topic—how to deal with the remaining Tutsis.
It was decided that we should say a truce had been declared, a way of making survivors come out of their hiding places, after which they were killed. The purpose was to ensure that there really would be no one left in the Tutsi community.

Kigeme hospital was one of the last places in Gikongoro to still accommodate a significant number of Tutsis. At the end of May, they were visited by the interahamwe. Bucyibaruta, Semakwavu and Sebuhura arrived in the midst of the massacre. They put aside a group of women and arranged their transport to Murambi in order to convince foreigners that Tutsis had not been massacred in Rwanda.
Echoing the other women who went with her to Murambi, Espérance Mukagashugi described the school as “a mass grave.” Traces of blood were everywhere on the walls. And in the courtyard there were pools of congealed blood, blackened by the sun.

“In Murambi”, commented Suzanne Uwamurera, “we lived a very miserable life.” Their misery included abductions, rape, hunger and thirst.
A contingent of French soldiers, part of Operation Turquoise, stationed themselves at Murambi when they arrived in Rwanda in late June. In addition to those who were already there, other survivors came to Murambi in search of protection. By then, the interim government faced the prospect of military defeat, and many of the killers who had begun retreating into Zone Turquoise were also housed at the school, making the survivors feel ill at ease and fearful.
“Survival in Extreme Solitude” Survivors in Gikongoro and elsewhere lost their families and friends. They speak of being overwhelmed by loneliness, of living with a permanent sense of emptiness. Simon Mutangana said he did not know “how to explain the life of a survivor in Gikongoro because it is so terrible.” Between my wife and myself, we lost about 150 members of our extended family in Murambi.
Our two daughters aged six and four, died at Murambi; only the child my wife was carrying on her back survived. Two of my brothers were also killed in Murambi.
Loss of family is a tragedy with incalculable losses. In a country like Rwanda, the family is not only a pool of people bound together by ties of blood, love and mutual dependence. It is also an economic lifeline, the most basic and reliable form of social security, and a source of practical support and protection. In a society that remains overwhelmingly rural, it is also a vital source of labour.

As they mourn the immense human toll, survivors deal with other grievances which are wide-
ranging and cut deep. The loss of property and the destruction of their houses threw most of them, especially those in rural communities, into sudden poverty and took away the anchor of a family home. Fear of encountering former neighbours can still be a powerful deterrent in cultivating their land. Didacienne, like most survivors, is haunted by the fact that she has not been able to give her parents and siblings a dignified burial.
No-one is sure they have buried their own relatives who were at Murambi, but they try to believe it to avoid torment. Personally, I condemn myself for the fact that I have not buried my parents, brothers and sisters.
Their preoccupation with justice, seen as a prerequisite for genuine healing, is broad and their bitterness at its limitations affects every aspect of their being. Those who seek to challenge impunity feel targeted and sometimes intimidated into silence. The tension between him and his neighbours is such that Déo does not dare return to live in his family’s home.

How can I live with someone who, even today, doesn’t want to tell me what happened during the genocide? Our security situation is very precarious. Those we have identified as génocidaires and their families harass and insult us everywhere we go, saying that we are accusing them for nothing because they will surely be released.

Given the unprecedented and extraordinary degree of popular participation in killing, raping and looting, the decimation of the Tutsi community, the ties of family, friendship and complicity between those who killed and potential witnesses, and the exodus abroad of the planners and organizers, justice for the most part remains elusive. “In certain parts of Gikongoro,” added Déo, “the entire Tutsi community was eliminated. There is no-one left to accuse the perpetrators.” The principal architects of the genocide at Murambi, the men who bear the ultimate responsibility, live abroad. And to date, only Col. Simba has been prosecuted; in December 2005 he was given a 25 year sentence by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Emmanuel Nteziryayo, the bourgmestre of Mudasomwa, was arrested in the UK in December 2006 and is currently in detention awaiting extradition hearings. But the others live as free men. Bucyibaruta is in France while Sebuhura, Semakwavu and Havugimana are thought to be living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Their absence undermines the process of justice in Rwanda, as Séraphine Mutegaraba noted.
Unfortunately, the leading organizers of the genocide, not only in Mudasomwa but elsewhere in Gikongoro, are all at liberty abroad. This is very disheartening for everyone involved in justice.

Preventing Genocide and Nurturing Tolerance

Tragically, the story of Murambi is not yet over. It continues both in the pain of survivors and in the denials from some of the perpetrators and witnesses. Attempts to deny, against all the evidence, that the bones which now lie at Murambi are those of genocide victims are a particular source of distress. There is as yet no well-established answer to the question of how to promote tolerance and prevent future violence, but it seems clear from the example of the 1994 genocide itself that selective representations of the past can be exploited to sever communities. We hope that the survivors and perpetrators who have been willing to publicly testify to their experiences of the genocide in Murambi will contribute to justice and prevent revisionist accounts.

Thomas, living close by, suggested that “Murambi will be respected, even honoured, by all Rwandese citizens when they have a common understanding about the genocide.” The late Fr.
Modeste Mungwarareba lost some of his relatives in the massacre at Murambi and gave considerable thought to how such an understanding might be reached. Fr. Modeste first experienced a massacre in Gikongoro in 1963 when he was 12. In an interview before his death, he was emphatic that only justice can lead to reconciliation and peace.
The solution to the problem, both for those who have lost their loved ones and for those who have been involved in the killings, will come through justice. Justice is the path to reconciliation and reconstruction and should be seen as a mark of respect for all those who suffered a horrific death.

To nurture the collective vision that Thomas has in mind, Fr. Modeste argued that it was essential for perpetrators, witnesses and survivors to all remember, and encourage others to remember, the crimes of 1994. His thoughts on the preservation of the memory of the genocide, still apply:
The reason why they should not forget and should keep the memories alive in the hearts of others has nothing to do with perpetuating feelings of hatred and vengeance. Far from it. The purpose is rather to educate the hearts and minds of every citizen of Rwanda. The genocide was engendered by racist ideas and teaching. These racist teachings were published in books; they influenced people who read them, and ordinary people were told about them at public meetings in their commune or sector. If all this is written down, it will be like a “road sign” which directs travelers on their way through the dangerous twists and turns of life.

Every Rwandese who was in the country at the time has his own story to tell of the path he trod and the events he witnessed. Writing down these personal histories for the benefit of others, helps to guard against any repeat whilst, at the same time, helping people put behind them the horror of the bloodbath they escaped.
It is in this spirit, and with the same aspirations, that


“Go. If You Die, Perhaps I Will Live”: A Collective Account of Death and Survival in Murambi, Gikongoro, was written April-July 1994.

Sudan: US state orders Sudan divestment

2007-04-13

http://www.afrol.com/articles/24988

The Governor of the US state Iowa, Chet Culver, signed a targeted divestment bill requiring the state to divest from companies that support the government of Sudan. Iowa becomes the first US state to adopt divestment legislation this year; but the eighth US state to divest from Sudan overall.

Tunisia: Video-sharing site blocked

2007-04-13

http://www.afrol.com/articles/25053

Tunisian authorities have followed the example of China and Thailand, blocking access to a website sharing videos for national residents. The 'Dailymotion' site had posted some political videos and its editor now risks three years in prison.

CAR: 50,000 South Sudanese repatriated so far

2007-04-12

http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/461bb7302.html

UNHCR's repatriation programme for South Sudan topped the 50,000 mark this week when a group of 84 Sudanese refugees flew to the town of Yambio from Central African Republic (CAR).

Chad: 9,000 move to IDP camp after brutal village attacks

2007-04-12

http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/461bb1262.html

Some 9,000 Chadians have arrived in UN refugee agency trucks and on their own at the Habile site for internally displaced persons after brutal attacks on two villages left houses torched and the ground strewn with dead. A United Nations team headed by UNHCR reached the burnt out villages of Tiero and Marena on Sunday, a week after the March 31 attacks.

DRC: Photo exhibitions to highlight refugee issues

2007-04-12

http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/461d027f4.html

The UN refugee agency and the World Food Programme will later this month open an exhibition in London of powerful images of displaced people and returnees in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).The exhibition, "Exposed and Hungry: Life in eastern Congo," will feature pictures by American freelance photographer Susan Schulman focusing on the issues of bringing shelter, protection and food to people in the volatile eastern regions of the DRC.

Somalia: More than 15,000 Somali refugees live in squalid conditions

2007-04-13

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71247

Amnah Abdul-Hamid, 26, escaped war in Somalia in search of a better life in Yemen. But since arriving four years ago, her two children have died of diarrhoea and she is now sick and destitute. "I suffer from brain neuritis [inflammation of a nerve or nerves]. I am in dire need of help as I have no job to provide food and shelter for myself," said Amnah, a divorcee who lives and depends on a Somali family living in the predominantly Somali al-Basateen area of Aden province.

South Africa: Evictions leave asylum-seekers homeless

2007-04-12

http://www.unhcr.org/news.html

Johannesburg's inner city regeneration programme has led to the eviction of more than 100 refugees and asylum seekers. Some fear a flurry of evictions in coming months could see 70,000 people, including refugees and asylum seekers, expelled from 235 buildings.

Sudan: Appeal to support adequate protection of asylum-seekers in UK

2007-04-12

http://www.wagingpeace.info/

If Tony Blair’s Government is as concerned as it claims to be about the people of Darfur, then it should at the very least abide by its international obligation to protect these Darfuri asylum seekers and issue an immediate moratorium on the further removal of non-Arab Darfuri asylum seekers to Sudan.

Benin: President wins election

2007-04-12

http://tinyurl.com/35duv2

A coalition led by Thomas Boni Yayi, Benin's president, has taken control of parliament, according to election results announced by the country's constitutional court. According to a report by Al-Jazeera, Yayi said wresting control of parliament from traditional elites was key to pushing through anti-corruption reforms, which he claims prompted an attempt on his life last month.

Côte d’Ivoire: New government announced

2007-04-13

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-04/08/content_5947426.htm

Cote d'Ivoire's President Laurent Gbagbo on Saturday announced the formation of a new government which will be in charge of getting the country out of the crisis which it has been experienced for more than four years. The new government of Prime Minister Guillaume Soro consists of 33 ministerial portfolios, and the entry of six new ministers.

DRC: Bemba leaves the country

2007-04-12

http://tinyurl.com/ynky7x

One of the Democratic Republic of Congo's key opposition leaders has left the country, ending three weeks of living under the protection of the South African embassy in Kinshasa. According to one witness, Jean-Pierre Bemba boarded a private jet bound for Portugal on Wednesday, where he is due to have medical treatment.

Nigeria: Holiday blow to presidential hopeful

2007-04-12

http://tinyurl.com/2k7vox

The Nigerian president's declaration of a public holiday has delayed a supreme court hearing into whether the vice-president may stand in next week's election.
Olusegun Obasanjo has designated Thursday and Friday, 12 and 13 April as a holiday, directly threatening the electoral campaign of Atiku Abubakar.

North Africa: Rabat floats Western Sahara autonomy plan

2007-04-12

http://tinyurl.com/2ve85o

Morocco has delivered a proposal for autonomous control over the disputed Western Sahara region to the UN secretary-general, according to a report by Al-Jazeera. The North African country's proposal came a day after a rival movement working for the separation of Western Sahara from Morocco called for a referendum on independence.

DRC: Corruption in Congo: Seeing the wood for the trees

2007-04-13

http://www.alertnet.org/db/blogs/20316/2007/03/12-122132-1.htm

Two sacks of salt, 18 bars of soap, four packets of coffee, 24 bottles of beer and two bags of sugar. That's the compensation a Congolese community can expect for giving a logging company access to huge areas of local rainforest. If they're really lucky, they might get a school or a pharmacy thrown in. According to a report from environmental campaigning group Greenpeace, Carving up the Congo, corporations are offering gifts worth as little as $100 to local people in exchange for permission to cut down wood worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Global: World Bank staff seek Wolfowitz's ouster

2007-04-13

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37328

The World Bank's Staff Association, which represents 10,000 employees, asked Bank President Paul Wolfowitz to step down Thursday amid charges that he gave his girlfriend, a Bank employee, improper pay raises and attempted to cover it up.

Kenya: IMF waives requirements, approves loan

2007-04-13

http://tinyurl.com/2zspsf

The International Monetary Fund ( IMF) said on Thursday it would give Kenya 56.8 million U.S. dollars after waivering five requirements including declaration of assets by ministers and senior civil servants, according to a report by Xinhua. A statement from the IMF Country Office in Kenya said the east African nation's macroeconomic performance had improved markedly since 2004, resulting in increased financial reserves.

Africa: Health worker shortage "catastrophe" for Africa

2007-04-13

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-04/13/content_5969062.htm

A shortage of over 1 million health workers has put Africa, still grappling with huge health challenges, into a catastrophic situation, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned. With a shortfall of 4.3 million health workers worldwide, the deficit in Africa alone is more than 1 million, according to Francis Omaswa, executive director of the Global Health Workforce Alliance (GHWA) under the WHO.

Africa: Spain funds UN-HABITAT project in 3 African Countries

2007-04-12

http://www.unhabitat.org/content.asp?cid=4545&catid=5&typeid=6&subMenuId=0

The Government of Spain has committed new funding of US$592,000 for UN-HABITAT's Rapid Urban Sector Profiling for Sustainability (RUSPS) programme in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Senegal. The Rapid Urban Sector Profiling for Sustainability (RUSPS) programme undertakes assessments of urban conditions in selected cities

Angola: Worlds in collision

2007-04-12

http://tinyurl.com/3yr5np

Forget statistics on literacy, child mortality and access to clean piped water: In Angola, the shopping-mall is the key indicator of social and economic development. As OpenDemocracy's Lara Pawson reports, Luanda’s poor are paying a heavy price for the gleaming condominiums and shopping-malls arising around them.

Global: More say for developing nations at IMF opposed

2007-04-13

http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2056115,00.html

Britain and France are opposing plans to give leading developing countries more power at the International Monetary Fund amid accusations that they are seeking to protect their privileged status at the Washington-based institution.

Global: New trade rules to benefit some countries - FAO report

2007-04-13

ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/009/a0950e/a0950e.pdf

Multilateral agricultural trade policy reform is expected to stimulate trade and economic growth, but any new trade rules need to be compatible with the first Millennium Development Goal, which calls for the proportion of people suffering from hunger or living in extreme poverty to be reduced by half by the year 2015, warns the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in its annual report on the State of Agricultural Commodity Markets 2006 (SOCO2006).

Africa: Africa and HIV/Aids: men at work

2007-04-12

http://www.opendemocracy.net/globalization-village/aids_men_4509.jsp

Self-education in positive masculinity is at the core of efforts to contain the spread of HIV/Aids, writes Patricia Daniel for OpenDemocracy.

Global: Good choice: the right to sexual and reproductive health

2007-04-13

http://www.panos.org.uk/PDF/reports/relaytoolkit4.pdf

Sexual and reproductive health services are vital in preventing unnecessary deaths, of both men and women. Yet - as World Health Day highlighted - governments and health organisations are still failing to prioritise spending on these services, according to this PANOS report.

Global: TB and HIV: what the papers aren't saying

2007-04-13

http://www.panos.org.uk/PDF/reports/tb_media_coverage.pdf

Despite being the leading cause of death among people living with HIV, media coverage of tuberculosis (TB) remains minimal or non-existent says a new report from Panos. The report, TB - What the papers aren’t saying, argues that the main reasons behind the lack of coverage are the health sector’s failure to engage with journalists adequately and the media’s unwillingness to prioritise health stories.

Southern Africa: Raising children orphaned by AIDS

2007-04-12

http://www.worlded.org/WEIInternet/features/raising_orphaned_children.cfm

In sub-Saharan Africa, by 2010 it is estimated that 25 million children will be orphaned or will be considered vulnerable because of HIV. For the past five years in Uganda, World Education has been at the forefront of efforts to help families and local organizations raise these children in the communities where they live.

Tanzania: Genital herpes quadruples risk of HIV acquisition in high-risk women

2007-04-12

http://www.aidsmap.com/en/news/DA90A407-7D43-4966-A60B-8120EEC45E64.asp

Chronic or recent infection with the genital herpes virus (HSV-2) increases the risk of acquiring HIV more than four- and five-fold, respectively, according to research undertaken amongst high-risk women in Tanzania and published online ahead of print in the May 1st issue of the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Zimbabwe: community HIV prevention trial fails due to economic decline

2007-04-12

http://www.aidsmap.com/en/news/84BAF565-15D7-4441-BE11-BD86A242CBB8.asp

A complex community-based intervention implemented in Zimbabwe has failed to reduce the incidence of new HIV infections in the population. Researchers from the UK, Zimbabwe and South Africa studied the impact of an integrated community and clinic-based intervention programme, one strategy thought to have potential to promote behaviour change.

Zimbabwe: Increased severity of Kaposi's sarcoma in HIV-1-infected women

2007-04-12

http://www.aidsmap.com/en/news/A587BF63-65CF-4C34-862F-FB0545C6CC4A.asp

Zimbabwean women with HIV/AIDS who present with AIDS-related Kaposi sarcoma (AIDS-KS) are younger than male counterparts of similar AIDS-KS status and have a more severe course of KS, according to the findings of a cross-sectional study published in the March 1st edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.

Global: Children in conflict get little help for education, new report shows

2007-04-13

http://tinyurl.com/yol49p

The world’s richest countries are failing to help millions of children in conflict-affected nations get an education, a new Save the Children report has revealed, ahead of a series of crucial world donor meetings. For example, in the Sudanese region of Darfur, over 50 percent of children are out of school, many forced from their homes due to violence, but almost no funding has been provided specifically to educate these children.

Tanzania: India offers Tanzania 100 scholarships a year

2007-04-13

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-04/12/content_5968241.htm

The Indian government has increased its annual quota for scholarships offered to Tanzanians to 100 to help with vocational training in the east African country. The increase was announced by the Dar es Salaam-based Indian High Commission in a press statement available on Thursday.

Zimbabwe: "It is all zero here, we have nothing"

2007-04-13

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37332

Chippy Ncube, aged 6, jubilantly hurried home as soon as she received her school report. She could not hide her excitement at being the top student in her grade one class when schools closed for the holidays recently in Zimbabwe. Such an achievement can only be attained with great effort in a country where the education system is under severe strain.

Nigeria: Anti-gay bill: Uncertainty grows

2007-04-12

http://www.mask.org.za/article.php?cat=nigeria&id=1543

In spite of the previous protests and the international pressure exerted upon the Nigerian government since the infamous Anti-gay bill, all efforts now seem to have come to a standstill pending the federal elections on 21 April this year.

South Africa: Archiving their own stories

2007-04-12

http://www.mask.org.za/article.php?cat=southafrica&id=1547

Lack of archived material on lesbians in South Africa has prompted photographers Jean Brundrit and Zanele Muholi to conduct a workshop entitled "Making Herstory". The project trains participants to acquire basic photography skills that will enable them to document their past, present and future.

South Africa: Case against gay men withdrawn

2007-04-12

http://www.mask.org.za/article.php?cat=southafrica&id=1548

The case against 14 gay men arrested last year and charged with public indecency at Camp David Bar in Pretoria, South Africa, has been thrown out of court. The charge of operating a brothel laid against the owner of the club was also dropped because of lack of evidence.

Uganda: Forest protest sparks racial violence

2007-04-13

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uganda/Story/0,,2056421,00.html

Uganda's capital, Kampala, erupted into racial violence this week, with three people killed during a protest against government plans to allow Ugandan-Asian industrialists to grow sugar cane on protected forest land. In scenes described as reminiscent of 1972, when Idi Amin led a hate campaign against south Asian merchants, demonstrators attacked businesses and a Hindu temple, where police had to rescue more than 100 people seeking sanctuary.

Africa: Indigenous knowledge in natural disaster reduction

2007-04-12

http://www.environmenttimes.net/article.cfm?pageID=132

In Africa, local communities had well-developed traditional indigenous knowledge systems for environmental management and coping strategies, making them more resilient to environmental change. This knowledge had, and still has, a high degree of acceptability amongst the majority of populations in which it has been preserved.

Burkina Faso: A pilot project that defies desertification

2007-04-13

http://ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=37312

The village of Guié in central Burkina Faso may not have much name recognition in the grand scheme of things. But for more than a decade, this community has been the site of an initiative that provides hope in the fight against desertification.

Global: Security Council to take up climate change

2007-04-12

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37292

The U.N. Security Council, whose primary mandate is to prevent wars and preserve world peace, will once again break tradition next week when it debates the newest threat to international security: climate change.

Global: Will the poor be flooded out?

2007-04-12

http://www.cgdev.org/content/publications/detail/13452/

This Center for Global Development (CGD) report by senior fellow David Wheeler shows that while there is no indication that floods are more common in poor countries, when it does flood, poor country citizens are much more likely than the residents of rich countries to suffer severe consequences: homelessness, injury, death.

Tanzania: Forced Water Privatisation

2007-04-11

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/environment/40744

Tanzania Gender Networking Programme has issued a strong statement condemning profit hungry companies that came to Africa to reap profits from our natural resources such as water.
The legal arbitration soon to open in Holland and in which British investor Biwater is demanding $25 million from Tanzania, a country said to be one of the poorest in the world is of great public interest to any Tanzanian, like our well-wishers all over the globe. This case is not only an international investment dispute but also a human rights issue. The outcomes of the case will have great implications on the lives of common Tanzanians. Tax payers’ money is definitely going into an area of no positive impact to poverty reduction let alone equity and justice in the country.

The Tanzania Gender Networking Programme(TGNP) condemns companies, such as Bi-water Gauff that have sought to reap maximum profits from natural resources, in countries that lack strong economies like Tanzania. We demand that the Biwater Gauff versus United Republic of Tanzania case currently being heard at the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) beginning Monday 16th April 2007, be open to the watchful eyes and cameras of the world so that the mayhem of plunder by profit hungry companies of the ‘global village’ can partly be revealed for all to see.

This is what forced privatization can do. We wish to re-affirm our unhappiness and anger over privatization of public services as one of the key conditionalities enforced by International Financial Institutions led by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB).Ironically, the ICSID is part and parcel of the World Bank system.

As gender and human rights activists, we are appalled by the trends. Aid and loans continue to come to Tanzania with difficult strings attached, most of which have working at the detriment of Tanzania. The City Water Consortium contract of 2003 is just one case in mind. We are confident that Tanzanians will continue to oppose such colonial type of contracts in future. But this case must end now and without harm to the economy and welfare of the people of Tanzania.

TGNP is part of an amicus submission that was presented to the ICSID together with six other human rights organizations in Tanzania, Switzerland and Canada last month. Although we are confident that there is no legitimate case against the people of Tanzania, dubious undertakings are likely to affect the conduct of the case. Bi-water is known for international maneuvers across the world and the likelihood is that the case may turn thorny to Tanzania. According to a report, Challenging Investment Rule, just released in the United Kingdom, nearly 70 percent of ICSID cases are ruled or settled in favor of the investor with a compensation award against the country where the investment failed. The report notes that in seven out of 109 cases filed with ICSID, the investor’s revenues exceeded the gross domestic product of the country they were suing. This case may add to the number of such cases.

Water privatization has failed to get water to those who desperately need it. The ongoing arbitration will definitely not deliver water to the women and poor men of Tanzania. Tanzanians don’t owe, why pay?

Released,


Usu Mallya
Executive Director
Wednesday, 11th April 2007

Kenya: The politics of land clashes

Joshua Ogada

2007-04-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/land/40833

The rising death toll from on-going land clashes in Kenya and the apparent inability of the government to protect the lives of its citizens attests to the complex nature of the underlying problem. To date, 147 people have been killed and an estimated 60,000 have been left homeless, by the violence that has gripped the slopes of mount Elgon in Western Kenya.

To be sure, the government does indeed have the wherewithal to quell the conflict and disarm all parties involved, as evidenced by the swift and effective, if not brutal, suppression of political dissent in recent times.

The issue of land is a contentious one right across the continent. In Zimbabwe, the government’s land redistribution programme has triggered violence and adversely affected food production. In post-apartheid South Africa land redistribution has been ongoing. Although some land-claims have been settled, there is still a significant lobby by those who remain landless. In other instances, land clashes have been a result of population growth, environmental degradation and an increased need to rationalize land tenure regimes. Pastoralist and agricultural land-use practices vie for increasingly scarce land.

In Kenya, the government’s centralised control of land distribution and registration has been highly politicized, leading to frequent conflagrations, such as the current one. At independence, the government assumed control of large tracts of arable land. Some of these were distributed through settlement schemes which sought to distribute parcels fro subsistence farming to those without land. Others were retained by the government through the parastatal Agricultural Development Corporation (ADC) whose purpose was to support the country’s agricultural production and through large scale farming.

The economic declines of the recent years and the subsequent state divestment gave way to selling off of these lands that were previously controlled by government. In the process, land became an instrument of political patronage, much like the case of Zimbabwe.

With increasing political dissent, the Moi regime began to trade land for political support, allocating it to influential individuals and to groups whose support the government needed. Whilst in some instances, the land redistribution exercise targeted deserving groups; in other cases it alienated groups who felt they had been denied land to which they had historical claim. In the 90’s clashes broke out in the Rift Valley between the maasai and other groups whom they perceived as interlopers who had settled on land that was historically theirs.

The common thread linking past land conflicts in Kenya is that they tend to flare up at times of intense political activity such as elections. Given the strong influence of ethnicity and clannism in Kenyan politics, it has been convenient for politicians to use land distribution as a bargaining tool or a rallying point.

The self-styled Sabaot Land Defence Force (SLDF) purports to fight for the land rights of the Sabaot community who inhabit the Mount Elgon region in western Kenya. Their campaign of violence has left hundreds dead and thousands more evicted from land that had been allocated by the government for settlement. This is no departure from the form-book of previous clashes that have been witnessed in Kenya in the last 30 years.

The government is complicit in the violence and terror against its own citizens. There have been accusations of direct or indirect government involvement in the violence that has plagued the area. This is not the first time that aspersions of this nature have been cast, especially given the well-orchestrated way in which the present and past attacks have been carried out.

At a more significant level, until such time as government reviews land policy, the system will remain open to manipulation and exploitation for political gain. A clearly defined land policy will go a long way in poverty eradication by ensuring a means of subsistence. Furthermore, land ownership provides access to credit for the poor.

As long as the current inequalities exist and the economic vulnerability of populations provides a means of control, not only in Kenya, but across the continent, governments’ commitment to human development will be schizophrenic at best.

Further Reading: Land Tenure and Administration in Africa: Lessons of Experience and Emerging Issues. International Institute for Environment and Development & Food and Agricultural Organization. 2006. http://www.iied.org/pubs/pdf/full/9305IIED.pdf

Land tenure and conflict in Africa: Prevention, mitigation and reconstruction. African Center for Technologies. 2004. http://www.acts.or.ke/pubs/reports/Land%20Tenure.pdf

Global: Call for April 17: International Peasant's Struggle Day

2007-04-12

http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/1799.html

The 17th of April is the International Peasant's Struggle Day, established after the massacre of 19 landless peasants belonging to the Landless Movement (MST) in Brazil on the 17th of April 1996 during the second conference of La Via Campesina in Tlaxcala, Mexico. In commemoration of that day, La Via Campesina and its allies are organizing activities and actions all over the world.

Africa: African land rights and conflict

2007-04-12

http://tinyurl.com/3bfodz

People in Africa are now increasingly competing to get access to arable land and pastures. Open land conflicts are becoming more and more common across the continent. This paper by the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) is based on experiences gained by the three authors through previous research activities and assignments in different parts of Africa and reading of existing literature.

Côte d’Ivoire: Back to the land

2007-04-13

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71207

Ousmane Sawadogo carefully tends a little plot of earth at a centre for displaced people in western Côte d’Ivoire, waiting for seasonal rains to begin and for the day he can return to his cocoa and coffee plantation northeast of here.

Kenya: Land clashes kill 147, shatter health services

2007-04-13

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L12372803.htm

Land clashes in western Kenya have killed 147 people in the past six months, uprooted more than 60,000 and left already basic health services in disarray, aid workers have reported. Violent disputes over land are common in the east African country, but these are the worst for a decade and residents fear they could escalate ahead of elections expected in December.

DRC: Death sentence proposed for journalist's assassins

2007-04-13

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/82449/

During the 4 April 2007 public hearing of the Kinshasa/Matete Military Court, the prosecution requested death sentences for the alleged assassins of journalist Franck Ngyke and his wife Hélène Mpaka, assassinated in their home on the night of 2-3 November 2005.

Gambia: Magistrate says court has jurisdiction to hear case against US-based journalist

2007-04-13

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/82466/

A magistrate in Kanifing, a district in Serrekunda, Gambia's largest city, ruled on 11 April 2007 that his court had the jurisdiction to hear a criminal case against US-based Gambian journalist, Fatou Jaw Manneh, after her lawyer argued that the case fell outside the court's jurisdiction.

Nigeria: Radio and TV stations shut down by security forces

2007-04-12

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=21688

Two new Lagos-based broadcast media, Link FM and GTV, were abruptly shut down by the security forces on Wednesday 11 April, three days before elections for state governors and state parliaments. Eight members of the security forces burst into the Link FM and GTV studios in the Lagos district of Ketu, ordering all the employees to leave and placing seals over the entrances.

Somalia: Presidential official orders arrest of TV crew

2007-04-12

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=21655

Abdulkadir Ashir "Nadara," head of the privately-owned TV station Universal TV, journalist Bashir Dirie Nalei and cameraman Hamud Mohammed Osman were arrested on 8 April at Mogadishu airport and have been held since then. The three journalists had covered a press conference by President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, during which "Nadara" had asked him about favouritism in his choice of officials.

Tunisia: Free expression violations worse, says report

2007-04-13

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/82415/

The Tunisian government has failed to make progress in improving free expression conditions over the past year, even further stifling dissidents, the IFEX Tunisia Monitoring Group (TMG) has found in its fourth major report.

Zimbabwe: Journalist freed on bail and hospitalized

2007-04-12

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=21536

Gift Phiri, a contributor to the London-based weekly The Zimbabwean, has been released on bail and immediately hospitalized for treatment to injuries resulting from the beatings he received during four days in police custody.

Algeria: Bomb death toll increases

2007-04-13

http://www.afrol.com/articles/25063

Algerian authorities have confirmed that the dead toll of the Wednesday’s bomb blasts has risen to 33. With al-Qaeda’s purported claims of being responsible for the catastrophe, most Algerians have since been running cold with fears, especially at a time the terrorist network is said to be quickly spreading its tentacles in the North Africa region.

Côte d’Ivoire: Peace process moves ahead with talks on buffer zone

2007-04-13

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71579

Cote d’Ivoire’s nascent peace plan moved closer towards changing the situation on the ground on Wednesday as the government, rival armed groups and international peacekeepers agreed a schedule to dismantle the country's buffer zone.

DRC: prosecutor asks Senate to lift Bemba immunity

2007-04-13

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L12574886.htm

Congo's public prosecutor has asked the Senate to lift senator Jean-Pierre Bemba's immunity so he can be charged over bloody clashes between his forces and army troops last month, according to documents seen by Reuters. Public Prosecutor Tshimanga Mukeba said in a letter to the provisional head of the Senate that Bemba, who flew to Portugal on Wednesday for medical treatment, was the "intellectual author" of the fighting in which up to 600 people died.

Somalia: Fighting threatens peace efforts in Mogadishu

2007-04-13

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71577

The fighting that broke out in the Somali capital of Mogadishu on Wednesday, prompting more people to flee their homes, has cast a cloud over anticipated reconciliation talks between various political groups. Many of the families that fled the latest fighting came from areas that were previously unaffected by clashes between Ethiopian-backed government forces and insurgents.

Sudan: Rebel threat to food security in the south

2007-04-13

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71343

Attacks on civilian populations in southern Sudan by the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) pose a significant threat to food security and overall stability in Equatoria states, according to a report.

Africa: Kabissa 2 - Technology for social change

2007-04-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/internet/40781

Kabissa has submitted a project proposal idea to NetSquared - an organization that is working to spur the adoption of new “social web” tools among organizations working for social change. Kabissa has entered the competition which is very steep with 150 projects participating.
Kabissa has submitted a project proposal idea to NetSquared - an organization that is working to spur the adoption of new “social web” tools among organizations working for social change. Kabissa has entered the competition which is very steep with 150 projects participating. Voting is only possible THIS WEEK, before Saturday, 14 April. Please vote yourself, right away if you can, and tell your friends and colleagues that you think might also be interested.

To vote, go to http://www.netsquared.org and click on “vote for your projects” - instructions will be on that page. You will have to register as a user of the site (takes about 2 minutes) and then return to the site to vote.

Africa: Report on household and individual ICT access across 10 countries

2007-04-12

http://www.researchictafrica.net/images/upload/Toward2.pdf

Based on the 2004 e-Access & Usage Household survey that was completed during the course of 2004 and 2005, this report is the result of a demand study of individuals and households and how ICT's are used across 10 African countries.

Africa: Why affordable international bandwidth matters

2007-04-12

http://tinyurl.com/fc6qe

International bandwidth is what connects Africa’s telephone and internet users to neighbouring countries and the rest of the world. It is delivered either by fibre optic cable (like the existing SAT3 cable) or via satellite. For higher volumes use, fibre provides a significantly cheaper way of carrying traffic than satellite, although the latter remains essential for connecting rural areas.

Global: Report on UNESCO Community Multi- Media Centres

2007-04-12

http://tinyurl.com/yqjbsv

UNESCO's Community Multimedia Centres initiative is in its fifth year of operation, with 39 pilot CMCs established in communities across Latin America/Caribbean, Africa and South Asia. UNESCO has also provided networking opportunities and support tools for management, multimedia training, offline access to Internet content, and action research and evaluation.

Uganda: E-protesting Ugandans resort to ICTs to save the forest

2007-04-13

http://hana.ru.ac.za/article.cfm?articleID=1355

The campaign to save Uganda's Mabira, one of the biggest natural forest reserves in central and eastern Africa has intensified with the opening of protest websites, blogs and usage of SMS and e-mail protest messages.
Highway Africa News Agency

The campaign to save Uganda's Mabira, one of the biggest natural forest reserves in central and eastern Africa has intensified with the opening of protest websites, blogs and usage of SMS and e-mail protest messages.

By early this week about 6 000 people had signed up to several Internet websites to protest government's intended giveaway of 7,100 hectares of forestland to sugar producing investors, referred to as SCOUL, for conversion into sugarcane plantation.

"We the undersigned do not believe that Mabira Forest should be de-gazetted Govrenment of Uganda in order to plan sugar cane," reads the appeal on www.savemabira.petition-time.com

While iblog in the UK says, "the not-so-sweet taste of sugar" other bloggers have run protest messages and discussion forums over the Internet syndicating messages such as, "An Inconvenient Truth - SAVE MABIRA FOREST", "Here is the Mabira conservation plea" and another classic, "sell of Mabira is madness."

Green Watch, an environmental NGO that also joined the campaign against the forest giveaway claimed it had by Monday this week sent out over 30,000 SMS to unique mobile SIM devices, according to one of its officials Kenneth Kakuru.

This means that more than 2 percent of the 2.3 million mobile phone subscribers in Uganda have received the protest SMS messages.

SMS is an acronym that refers to "short message service" application for mobile telephony and wireless personal digital devices referred to as PDAs.

"Save Mabira Forest. Do not buy Lugazi Sugar," read the SMS messages.

Government swung into action by ordering police to make all possible attempts to investigate the campaign in which anonymous individuals composed mobile phone, PDA short messages and e-mails calling for a boycott of SCOUL sugar.

Uganda's police spokesman Asan Kasigye told HANA that the hunt for the originator of the sugar-boycott messages was on because the boycott was an economic sabotage.

The impact of the SMS and e-protest campaign on the SCOUL sugar market hasn't yet been assessed.

Although SMS is a nearly 10-year-old technology that's been enormously popular in Europe and the US, sub-Sahara African countries have rolled out the service in earnest only in the past five years.

With only 2 percent of Africa's population enjoying access to the Internet and 50,000 new mobile subscribers everyday, Africans have moved to the usage of SMS technology as a way of embracing digital citizenship.

Ken Lohento of the Panos Institute of West Africa recently said, "Nigeria's 6 million mobile subscribers mobilize demonstrations by usage of SMS applications.

Ownership of the new Internet-based services such as blogs is on the upward trend and this enhances broad based access to voice on the continent.

According to a Frost and Sullivan study, SMS leads all wireless data services in its contribution to total telecom revenue.

Global: Web2ForDev International Conference; Call for Proposals

2007-04-12

http://www.iicd.org/articles/web2fordev2007

The Web2ForDev International Conference will promote the adoption and dissemination of appropriate, low-cost and replicable Internet-based applications by actors in agriculture, rural development, and natural resource management. It aims to inspire participants to use and develop their own information management and communication systems based on these applications. The Deadline for submission of proposals is 30 April 2007.

South Africa: Media Literacy Course

2007-04-11

http://www.genderlinks.org.za/page.php?p_id=242

The media literacy course is part of GMDC activities that seek to promote dialogue and debate around gender and media.

UK: Jobs at Child Protection Agency

2007-04-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/40767

CHILD TRAFFICKING - ECPAT UK (Child protection agency) is recruiting four positions as part of an expanding programme on safeguarding child victims of trafficking. All positions are based in central London. All successful applicants will be required to have a Criminal Records Bureau Disclosure (police check).
1) PROGRAMME CO-ORDINATOR – TRAINER (Full Time); 2)TRAINER – COMMUNITY (0.6 Part Time)3) CAMPAIGNS OFFICER (Full Time)4)SENIOR OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR (Full Time) Applications packs will be available online from 16th April at: www.ecpat.org.uk For further information contact: info@ecpat.org.uk

Fahamu