PAMBAZUKA NEWS 129: ISSUES IN DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN KENYA
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 129: ISSUES IN DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN KENYA
Senior editors from 14 southern African countries will meet in Johannesburg, South Africa, in November 2003 to establish the first of five planned regional chapters for the new Africa Editors' Forum.
Zimbabwe plans to use the banned chemical DDT in its anti-malaria spraying programme. DDT has been shown to cause cancer, infant deaths, to poison animals, and to be very hard to eradicate from groundwater and the food chain. Environmentalists in Zimbabwe say the government has been forced to resort to the chemical because it can't afford better alternatives. But government spokespeople counter that the chemical is still used in South Africa and Swaziland.
Every four years the Polisario Front holds a congress, to discuss how to proceed with their 27-year battle against Morocco for self-determination of the disputed Western Sahara. Hundreds of Polisario representatives based as far a field as Australia make their way back for the event. This year, for the first time since a ceasefire was signed with Morocco in 1991, the Polisario held their congress in the heart of what they proudly call "liberated territory".
A new polio outbreak spreading from Nigeria to neighbouring countries is putting 15 million children at risk, requiring a massive immunization campaign across five countries in west and central Africa. Beginning today, hundreds of thousands of volunteers and healthworkers in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Niger and Togo will aim to reach every child in those countries with polio vaccine in just three days.
Rwanda's historic elections sent the world's highest share of women to parliament, knocking long-time champion Sweden from the top spot, the Inter-Parliamentary Union said on Wednesday. Rwanda's women now occupy 48,8 percent of the seats.
Tuition centres have become the rage in Zambia. The centres offer what would appear to be dream schools. Small classes with individual attention from teachers, concentration on weak subjects and to top it all British accredited examinations: O level and A level.
AIDS experts have raised doubts about a new study suggesting South Africa's HIV/AIDS epidemic peaked in 2002 and was expected to level off as fewer new infections were reported. The study, published in the recent issue of the African Journal of AIDS Research, said that the epidemic in South Africa peaked last year with about 4.69 million people living with HIV/AIDS and had started to level off.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame has asked members of the newly installed parliament to endorse the establishment of an ombudsman’s office so that senior and grassroots government officials could declare their assets before taking office. "We need to have a continuous assessment of how our leaders accumulate their wealth," he said on Tuesday during the swearing in of his new cabinet in the capital, Kigali.
Presidential elections in Guinea, in which the head of state, Lansana Conte, will seek another seven-year term despite failing health, will take place on 21 December, the government has announced.
The government of Burkina Faso has arrested Norbert Tiendrebeogo, leader of the opposition Social Forces Front (FFS) party, in connection with an alleged coup plot. FFS deputy leader Brice Yogo told IRIN that Tiendrebeogo was summoned to the police headquarters for questioning on Monday and was subsequently detained.
Some 100 activists were arrested in Zimbabwe on Wednesday after protesting near the parliament in Harare. The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) organised the protest in support of political reforms.
Burundi on Tuesday entered its 11th year of civil war that has claimed more than 300 000 mostly civilian lives and ravaged this tiny French-speaking central African country that nevertheless clings today to hopes for peace. The civil war was sparked 10 years ago by the assassination of Burundi's first Hutu president Melchior Ndadaye in an attempted military coup. A decade of inter-ethnic violence has followed.
A High Court judge in Zimbabwe Wednesday approved a petition by two top government officials that allows them to remove themselves from a case brought by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. The opposition is questioning the judge's decision, saying the two officials played a key role in the presidential election last year that the opposition is challenging in the courts.
Related Link:
* Election Petition - Full Heads of Argument
http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=7794
Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo have pledged to work together to curb militia groups threatening Rwanda's stability. The two countries have also agreed to reopen embassies in each other's countries for the first time since they went to war five years ago.
Branch and regional structures of the African National Congress (ANC) are questioning the decision of their president, Thabo Mbeki, to use a legal route to resolve a party problem. Some members and leaders say the appointment of a commission of inquiry into allegations that national director of public prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka was a spy was shortsighted and ill-advised. They are concerned that Mbeki failed to provide leadership or seek "a political solution to a political problem" which threatens to divide the party.
Africa has taken the lead position as a host for corporate fraudsters. A report released last week by accounting firm Price Waterhouse Coopers says the level of economic crime was highest in Africa at 51 percent followed by North America with 41 percent.
Tuberculosis is making a comeback in Mali, partly as a result of HIV/AIDS patients falling prey to the disease, but also because the respiratory disease is considered shameful and patients are reluctant to seek treatment, government officials said.
Recently corruption has entered the stage of international policy discussion in a major way. On average the poorer countries are also the more corrupt. In this context, an important issue of international corruption is whether multinational enterprises and national and international aid organisations with origins in richer countries are important suppliers of bribes to public administrations and politicians in poor countries. A paper from the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs looks at corruption in the context of the debate on ‘globalisation’.
Media in Nigeria is a weekly publication on developments within and affecting the media/communication/freedom of expression sector in Nigeria. It is an initiative of the Institute for Media and Society (IMS), a non-profit, non-governmental organization based in Lagos, Nigeria. If you want to subscribe, simply send a message to: [email protected] OR [email protected] saying you want to subscribe. If you no longer wish to subscribe, send a message that you no longer wish to subscribe to the same address.
Cancun was just the lull before the storm and the storm is now here in the form of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) being negotiated under the Cotonou negotiations launched in September 2002 and due to end on December 31 2007. Both the EU and the US will continue to use their power to pursue their trade agenda through a series of bilateral negotiations with developing countries under the Cotonou, warns this editorial from the Seatini Bulletin.
Pop-up adverts, forms that don't work, slow-loading internet sites - the list is endless, as this columnist found out when he asked readers to send in comments on the things they hate most about the web. Click on the link to check it out.
Women are among the poorest worldwide – and not only in economic terms. Millions of them lack the most basic benefits that science and technology can offer, from agricultural advances to distance learning. In this article Shirley Malcom, co-chair of the Gender Advisory Board of the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development, says that the gender divide in science and technology education demands a special strategy.
A new initiative has been launched to provide researchers and academics in some of the world's poorest countries with free or low-cost access to scientific literature in food, nutrition, agriculture and related biological, environmental and social sciences.
An "E-Donor Bill of Rights" is being created to address concerns and challenges arising from Internet charitable giving. The Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) is working with other philanthropic organisations as well as online service providers to ensure that online donors have greater confidence in the nonprofit organisations and causes they are asked to support.
Unsure of how to evaluate fundraising costs? Confused with planned giving terminology? Need to know more about Internet fundraising? The Association of Fundraising Professionals has a resource centre on their website where Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) are answered.
The Internet Nonprofit Centre is the home of the Nonprofit FAQ. The FAQ is based on "frequently asked questions" – and their answers – drawn from the 'Nonprofit' email discussion forum on fundraising.
The Kibaki administration will be evading a historic responsibility if it fails to resolve issues that are pertinent to a peaceful transition and the very future of democracy, human rights and the rule of law in Kenya. The NARC government was voted into power primarily because the Moi government was regarded as deceptive and undemocratic. Undemocratic because the previous elections were characterised by violence and claims of malpractice; the state instruments were partisan; the government was intolerant to divergent opinions; and the government was insensitive to popular demands. However, since NARC came to power, there have been undercurrents that the Kibaki administration is no different from its predecessor after all.
Firstly, though the Kibaki government is more tolerant to different opinions, recent events indicate that the government is growing sensitive by the day. Indeed, like its predecessor, the administration is eager to use the oppressive tools of the state, including the provincial administration, to muzzle opposing opinions. The recent attempt by the administration to bar a Baringo Central MP from addressing his constituents has been interpreted in this light.
Paradoxically, while the NARC leaders were in the opposition, they vigorously campaigned for the dismantling of the provincial administration. The then official opposition party, Kibaki’s Democratic Party of Kenya, presented a memorandum to the constitution of Kenya Review Commission calling for the scrapping of the administration. However, on assuming power, they have not only defended the administration, but an assistant minister in the office of the president has been quoted as saying they will weed out those sympathetic to the previous government from the administration.
Secondly, the NARC leadership has increasingly been using the same old methods. In the recently held by-elections, NARC ministers have been criss-crossing the affected constituencies using the trappings of power, state resources and promising largesse from the state. Yet, when they were in the opposition last year, they constantly accused KANU, which was in power then, of using state resources for partisan gains. Closely related to that, of course, is the old tactic of divide and rule and the mentality that only those who support the government will benefit from government resources. Week after week, NARC ministers are quoted exhorting the various ethnic communities to support the government if they hope to benefit from its largesse.
Not even yesteryears’ democracy and human rights crusaders are immune from this anachronistic thinking. Indeed, when the president visited his home turf two months ago, there were deliberate efforts to isolate and condemn a part of Central Province that voted for the opposition. Apparently, the right to an opinion and association has lost meaning now that NARC is in power.
Thirdly, the old issue of selective application of the law has reared its ugly head again. There are increasing concerns that the war against corruption is turning out to be selective and targeted at specific individuals and families. For many key players in the current administration were in fact stalwarts of the previous administration. It’s therefore highly inconceivable that they were not involved in the corruption of that era. Indeed, their names appear in several public accounts and public investment committee reports. Others were mentioned in the various human rights reports as players in various human rights abuses, including ethnic violence. Yet, they continue serving in the cabinet as ministers, assistant ministers and others as influential NARC MPs, while government officers continue making allegations against certain families and individuals. Again the old adage that charity begins at home appears to have lost its meaning.
And fourthly is the question of the ruling coalition’s internal democracy. As it were, a political party cannot give a country what it lacks internally. Thus, NARC cannot entrench democracy in the country if it cannot grant the same to its members. One measure of a party’s attitude towards democracy is its capacity to subject its leaders to popular mandate, which is through party elections. Yet, this is the most divisive issue in NARC.
The established tradition worldwide is that parties, whose ideological persuasions are close, form coalitions after elections in order to constitute a government, where no single party wins a majority. For NARC, political parties and amorphous groups formed the coalition regardless of their political persuasions to win the December 2002 elections. Thus, the party lacks clear structures and leadership, has no quantifiable membership, lacks unifying ideology and, much worse, has not agreed whether to be one party or to retain its current amorphous state. The persistent war between factions of the coalitions means that the party will take sometime before it can guarantee its membership internal democracy. And that undermines the capacity of the coalition to entrench democracy in the country.
On the human rights front, the NARC government has done better than the previous KANU one. On assuming power, it accorded human rights campaigners positions in its ranks, opened torture chambers - among them the famous Nyayo House - and cautioned the security organs against abusing suspects’ rights. However, there have been genuine concerns that the country may be sliding back into the days of torture. In recent weeks, there have been complaints that police officers are perpetrating arbitrary arrests; extra-judicial killings are still prevalent while the security officers have been accused of torturing suspects, notably in Kisii.
Moreover, the government recently initiated a security operation in Turkana district, which was called off after a fierce battle between the residents and the security forces. While the number of the dead was given as six, there are fears that the operation left behind trails of human rights abuses, which are not yet documented.
There are also expressions of genuine grievances arising from the recent efforts to form a Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission. The concerns are that the proposed commission is a tactic to witch-hunt and humiliate certain individuals and communities, and not an effort to promote national reconciliation.
Secondly, the old tactic of destroying people’s income basis in an effort to remove them from certain areas, which was perfected in the 1990s, has been brought back. In the last few weeks, the government, in conjunction with the Nairobi City Council, has been demolishing informal business structures in order to remove those businesses from supposedly road reserves. The problem is that this destruction, which has only been conducted in upmarket areas, leaves many people without an income and thus compromises their economic rights.
More importantly, the recently published suppression of terrorism bill has sent shock waves into the spines of many Kenyans and human rights activists. Indeed, the bill has met resistance from many quarters including members of parliament. The resistance has its roots in two areas. Firstly the government published the bill without consulting with stakeholders, and appeared to be bowing to pressure from both the American and the British governments. Indeed, despite protests against this bill, the government has indicated its resolve not to withdraw the bill. Secondly, and much worse, the bill is highly repressive, runs against the national spirit and militates against our national sovereignty in favour of American and British interests.
In their analysis, the Chambers of Justice, a legal civil society group, says the bill germinates out of the US Patriot Act 2001, whose official title is Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act. In the US, the group notes, the “application of the Patriot Act by the US government has resulted in some of the grossest violations of human rights ever revealed since the Nuremberg trials.” It cites the case of the al-Qaeda suspects who are still incarcerated incommunicado at the US military base in Quatanamo Bay in Cuba, two years after they were arrested in Afghanistan.
The bill contravenes Sections 72, 74(1), 77 (2a), 77(4), 77(8), 82 and the bill of rights; contravenes the penal code section 9; and lowers the standard of the burden of proof as required in all criminal cases. Needless to add that the bill lacks adequate provisions for compensation of victims of terrorism and gives sweeping powers to the police. These powers include powers to detain cash belonging to a suspect and forfeits the property of suspected persons to the state. And, ironically, the bill not only allows foreign security forces, notably American and British, to arrest and detain Kenyans, but it also sanctions torture and police brutality. Indeed, there are reports that a team of Kenyan CID officers and the American FBI agents tortured suspects arrested recently in Mombasa on suspicion of terrorism.
And lastly, there is the issue of ratification and adoption of the international human rights conventions in Kenya. Kenya is a signatory to such important treaties as the African Charter of Human Rights and People's Rights (ACHPR) of 1981, the African Charter of the Rights and Welfare of the Child, and which are both acceptable by NEPAD's human rights committee. However, the country still lags behind in legislating and effecting these conventions.
* Evans Wafula is an advocacy officer with the Independent Medico Legal Unit in Kenya.
* Please send comments on this editorial to
Recently, the Cabinet proposed that the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC), be abolished and its duties transferred to the Inspectorate of Government (IGG). Although this was just a proposal to the Constitutional Review Commission, it should never have even been suggested because such a move would be anti-people, a betrayal to the United Nations and against the Constitution, argues Nathan Byamukama, head of department monitoring and treatise at UHRC. Byamukama was writing in The Monitor newspaper.
We are an established NGO, with the aims of reconciliation and comunity development through a range of grassroots projects including the Tsebong Community library, computer training courses for the disadvantaged, the Iphediseng women's sewing project, art programmes and the Interactive Themba Theatre group who are pioneering HIV/AIDs education through drama. We are looking for a part time administrator to start at the end of November. Ideally you are a mature person with initiative, fluent English and a minimum of one African language ( preferably Xhosa, Zulu, Sotho). You will also have at least 3 years' previous experience in an office environment, with a good working knowledge of Word, Excel and email with proven skills in book-keeping as your role will be to deliver the day to day administration of the office at the Centre and its various projects. The salary we can offer is from R2750pm for 3 days a week. Please send your cv & letter of application/phone number, with current salary and references by fax to 011 477 3490, email [email][email protected] or post PO Box 468 Westhoven 2142 Jo’burg by NOON Wednesday 29th Oct. Interviews will be at the Centre on Friday 31st Oct.
“Mma Ramotswe had a detective agency in Africa, at the foot of Kgale Hill. These were its assets: a tiny white van, two desks, two chairs, a telephone, and an old typewriter. Then there was a teapot, in which Mma Ramotswe – the only lady private detective in Botswana – brewed redbush tea. And three mugs – one for herself, one for her secretary, and one for the client. What else does a detective agency really need?” The Africa Book Centre invites you to tea with Alexander McCall Smith, creator of Mma Ramotswe, and author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series.
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 128: RESOURCES, CONFLICTS AND RECONSTRUCTION: A CONGOLESE GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 128: RESOURCES, CONFLICTS AND RECONSTRUCTION: A CONGOLESE GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
Nigeria has lodged a request for judicial cooperation with Switzerland as part of an ongoing probe into an alleged multi-billion-dollar embezzlement by the late military dictator Sani Abacha, Swiss authorities said on Saturday.
The food crisis in Zimbabwe is worsening, with a majority of the country's districts having exhausted their food stocks, according to a UN report received on Friday. "According to reports from 58 districts in August 2003, food is becoming scarce, harvest stocks have been exhausted in a majority of districts and over half report a deteriorating food situation," the report said. The report comes a week after the UN's food agency warned that only a quarter of its appeal for funds to feed millions of starving people in southern Africa, most of them in Zimbabwe, had been met. An estimated 5.5 million Zimbabweans will require emergency food aid by early next year, out of a regional total of 6.5 million. This is one of the stories in the latest Zimbabwe Update for the beginning of October. The Zimbabwe Update is produced by ZIMCIVINFO in support of democracy, peace and civics in Zimbabwe.
"Landmines, or anti-personnel mines as they are sometimes called, are a scourge on the post-World War II landscape where they have completely changed the nature of warfare. In the second half of the twentieth century and beyond, landmines have been a lucrative commodity and have been planted in conflict zones throughout Africa, Asia, the former Soviet bloc and the Middle East." To subscribe or unsubscribe email [email protected]
Advocates of liberalisation assert that states which disengage from strategic economic planning are more likely to stimulate economic growth and hasten poverty reduction. Is there evidence to back this neo-liberal claim? What is the role of national economic governance in poverty eradication? How should we monitor the relation of economic governance to poverty reduction?
Property inheritance by women is emerging as one of the greatest present-day controversies in Africa, with the majority of people on the continent still not keen on passing on inheritances to women and a sharp conflict between the traditional cultural ethic and modern way of life.
African female experts from different liberal parties will discuss their national situation and the measures taken by the party to enhance female participation. The workshop will produce a joint declaration with practical points for the future.
Since 1978, Freedom House has published Freedom in the World, an annual comparative assessment of the state of political rights and civil liberties in 192 countries and 18 related and disputed territories. Widely used by policy-makers, journalists, and scholars, the 700-page survey is the definitive report on freedom around the globe.
This budget brief from the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA) assesses the extent to which the 2003 South African Budget addresses widespread child poverty and the delivery of children's socio-economic rights. The brief concludes that while Budget 2003 may have moved a small step in the 'right' direction, the national treasury, along with other government departments, could have done and should have done more for poor children.
What are the links between HIV, poverty, education and gender inequality? How have structural adjustment and cost-sharing affected vulnerable children in Tanzania? Are policy-makers able to address the serious inequalities and vulnerabilities faced by the growing number of children working the country's streets?
Three broad facts about education have emerged from recent research. Firstly, almost universally education is found to lift people out of poverty. Secondly, when a comparison is made between investing in education and other forms of investment, the returns from investing in education are on average lower. Thirdly, the returns to education - in the sense of the increment in income that accrues to each year of education - are much higher for those with higher levels of education. What factors influence these trends?
This paper by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Global Network / World Wildlife Fund begins by asking why forest conservationists should consider poverty reduction. It argues that, since poverty reduction is such a global priority, if the forestry community do not develop good proposals that contribute to that agenda, forest depletion may increase.
Forget the spin you have been reading about the "failure" of the World Trade Organisation meeting in Cancun, says this commentary from Foreign Policy in Focus. It was one of the most successful international meetings in years because it redefined how trade can benefit the poor and how the developing world can be real players in these negotiations. In fact, if policymakers and global trade negotiators were paying attention, Cancun could lead to trade talks that actually bring about fair trade, and the benefits to both the developing and the developed world that have long been promised.
UNICEF and World Health Organisation representatives in Uganda have asked the government and rebel groups to observe an eight-day ceasefire, beginning Tuesday, to allow more than 50,000 vaccinators to immunize children against measles. "No cause and no conflict can be greater or more urgent than the cause of protecting all the children of Uganda from this deadly disease," the representatives said in a statement.
The world anti-corruption watchdog, Transparency International (TI), says that Zimbabwe, one of Africa’s wealthiest nations that has sadly been reduced to an economic basket case, is accelerating towards being one of the worst corrupt countries in the world, giving another twist to the screws on a country already bruised by negative international perception.
Nigeria is threatening legal action against the UK government unless it returns, with interest, £3m ($5m) that it says was stolen from its central bank. The money - a small fraction of the billions of dollars thought to have been plundered by Sani Abacha, the late African dictator - was seized in 1998 from a Nigerian businessman at Heathrow airport. The UK Treasury acquired the money after the customs service argued it was probably the proceeds of drug sales.
Over 1.2 billion adolescents - one person in five - are making the transition from child-hood to adulthood. How well we prepare them to face adult challenges in a fast changing world will shape humanity's common future. Adolescents must be enabled to avoid early pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS while being given skills, opportunities and a real say in development plans, stresses The State of World Population 2003 report by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.
The Coalition for the ICC (CICC) has posted a number of new and updated fact sheets in its online press room. New and updated CICC and member fact sheets include:
* 2003 - '04 Calendar of ICC Events
http://www.iccnow.org/pressroom/factsheets/FS-2003-04Calendar.pdf
* Q&A: The Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC
http://www.iccnow.org/pressroom/factsheets/FS-Prosecutor.pdf
* History of the Establishment of the ICC: A Timeline
http://www.iccnow.org/documents/iccbasics/History.pdf
* U.S. Opposition to the ICC: From 'Unsigning' to Immunity Agreements
http://www.iccnow.org/pressroom/factsheets/FS-AMICC-USTimeline.pdf
* Q&A: U.S. so-called "Article 98" or Bilateral Immunity Agreements
http://www.iccnow.org/pressroom/factsheets/FS-BIAsSept2003.pdf
* The U.S. Government Position on the ICC: How Sanctions Will Affect U.S. Allies http://www.iccnow.org/pressroom/factsheets/FS-WICC-BIAanecdotes.pdf
Kenya's gays and lesbians plan to forward their grievances to the government and lobby for recognition in a draft constitution currently being discussed in Nairobi by 629 delegates from across the East African country.
The African media had a bad week throughout the continent, as governments closed private radio stations and newspapers, and arrested editors, reporters and publishers in what press freedom organisations consider an effort to eliminate the free flow of information.
When Lands Minister Judith Kapijimpanga announced recently that government had, with immediate effect, directed local authorities to intensify land allocation to women to empower them through ownership, there was a huge round of applause. But not everyone is optimistic. The Zambia National Land Alliance, an NGO reviewing the land policy, says all this is high sounding and right along the lines of affirmative action, but will be a long time coming.
It's been months since Noma, a cancer patient at Mpilo, the largest government hospital here, has gone for radiotherapy. The process is meant to stop the cancer in her leg from spreading. But five months ago the only machine used by patients in three provinces - Matabeleland, Masvingo and Midlands - broke down and there is no foreign currency to import spares. Mpilo Hospital has also run out chemotherapy drugs.
Alarmed by the dwindling numbers of its rare species of fish, locally known as chambo, the Malawi government has formulated a 10-year plan to restore the fish in Lake Malawi, and its largest outlet, Shire River.
An international refugee rights organisation has criticised the manner in which the Ugandan government last month carried out the relocation of Sudanese refugees from a camp in western Uganda, which ended in riots and the arrest of some refugees.
Due to the onset of the rainy season, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) plans to step up its voluntary repatriation programme for Angolan refugees living in neighbouring countries. The UN refugee agency this week said some 15,000 Angolans had returned from Zambia, mainly from Meheba camp near the border with Angola.
After several years of waiting, the few hours more mattered little. Like others around him, Joseph Kayuka, sat patiently surrounded by a few precious belongings: a bench, a bicycle and some clothes, as well as pots and pans, crammed into a couple of old sacks. But, by mid morning of 1 October, Kayuka, his wife Imacule Mkingiya and their five children had boarded the truck and were riding along a bumpy road heading west back into Burundi.
Extremely poor levels of hygiene in Sudan, coupled with a lack of health care facilities, medicines and trained personnel, are contributing to widespread preventable blindness. All the leading causes of preventable blindness, such as trachoma, river blindness, and cataracts co-exist in Sudan, Dr Serge Resnikoff, Coordinator of the World Health Organisation's (WHO) Prevention of Blindness and Deafness programme, told IRIN.
After 40 years of political enmity, Central African Republic Prime Minister Abel Goumba and former President David Dacko made a historic reconciliation on Friday in the capital, Bangui, during the on-going national reconciliation talks.
Two major international NGO coalitions have expressed support for their Tanzanian counterparts who oppose the country's NGO Act, due to enter into force before the end of October, because it would impose "serious restrictions to freedoms of association and expression".
Ethiopia said on Wednesday a ruling on its new border with Eritrea was a "recipe for disaster", upping the stakes in its dispute with the international boundary commission that defined the frontier. Ethiopia has repeatedly objected to the new frontier drawn up by the commission under a peace deal ending its 1998-2000 border war with Eritrea, clouding efforts to bring a final resolution to the conflict that cost 70,000 lives.
Of the 94 candidates for mayors of Mozambican towns and cities in the municipal elections scheduled for 19 November, only the 33 candidates from the ruling Frelimo Party have presented nomination papers free of any irregularities.
Ruling party parliamentarians have been accused of following in the paths of Kenya and Zimbabwe, by apportioning land to Government leaders. "You're helping people who are in a better category to help themselves rather than helping the poor," parliament heard.
I agree that corruption has been elevated to unjustified high heights (Pambazuka News 127: The Politics of Corruption). In Zambia that is all the government is talking about. In the meantime, the masses are wallowing in unmitigated poverty. The failure or omission by government to provide social services is blamed on the corruption of the government of Chiluba. Chiluba in turn had blamed it on the corruption in Kaunda's time. So much is being said by Mwanawasa's regime on its zero tolerance to corruption. But the so-called economic plunderers of yesterday are being acquitted by the courts daily due to lack of evidence. The so-called Task Force on corruption is clearly out of its depth. We are tired of the corruption menu being served to us daily.
My colleague Lesley Abdela and I are compiling a report for the United Nations designed to increase the fairness of elections as far as women are concerned. I hope readers will send examples of good practice and also bad practice, for inclusion in the report. Please e-mail Tim Symonds on [email][email protected] We want to find material on women and elections around the world, particularly on steps taken to increase women's participation in national, local, county, or regional or municipal elections, in the following categories: 1. Actions and campaigns by women's NGOs to increase women's participation in elections; 2. Female voter education; 3. Women candidates; 4. Impact on women of election laws; 5. Quotas; 6. Raising funds for female candidates; 7. Media coverage at election time on issues of special importance to women; 8. Steps to make voter registration accessible for women; 9. Minimising intimidation of female voters/candidates; 10. matters concerning illiteracy. All contributions used in the report will be fully acknowledged.
The piece on corruption is right on the mark (Pambazuka News 127: The Politics of Corruption). It would have been even better if he could have elaborated further on the alternative to passive politics, i.e. how to develop and practice politics which is unambiguously emancipatory. Someone (in France I believe) once said that military and war questions should not be left in the hands of generals alone. The same can be said with politics: left to the politicians alone or their way of doing it, politics can only be disastrous. Emancipatory politics cannot be reduced to seeking to seize state power. Everywhere in the world, people are dissatisfied with politics solely defined by professional politicians. Philosophers and political activists are also tackling the problem. The works of John Holloway (Change the World Without Taking Power), Alain Badiou (An Essay on the Understanding of Evil) and Michel-Rolph Trouillot (Silencing the Past) show that it is not enough to denounce.
I want to congratulate the team on Pambazuka. Keep up the good work, we as South African citizens enjoy it very much. Thanks a lot for all the effort.
Following the gagging of The Daily News and its sister Sunday paper, The Standard and The Zimbabwe Independent have now clearly become the next targets of the Department of Information’s campaign to muzzle all alternative views under the pretext of “enforcing the law”. According to The Standard, Information Minister Jonathan Moyo and Media and Information Commission chairperson, Tafataona Mahoso, threatened to take action against the two papers, which Moyo described as the “running dogs of imperialism”. This is according to the latest edition of the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe weekly media update.
A vigilante group attacked Cyril Zenda, a senior journalist with the "Financial Gazette" newspaper, on October 3, robbing him of
5000 Zimbabwe dollars (approx. US$6) and his mobile phone. Zenda told MISA-Zimbabwe that he was spotted by a vigilante group known as Chipangano when he disembarked from a bus at Harare's main bus terminus. He said the group pulled him to a secluded area and began interrogating him about the message on a MISA-Zimbabwe t-shirt he was wearing.
Farid Alilat, managing editor of the daily "Liberté", was arrested on October 7 at his newspaper's offices and brought before an Algiers court, where he was questioned for five hours about a column entitled "La fessée" ("The Spanking").The column, published on 21 August, was written by Hakim Laâlam of the daily "Le Soir d'Algérie", which was suspended at the time for having failed to pay its debts to the state printers. "Liberté" published the column as a gesture of solidarity.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says it is deeply concerned by the recent violent attack on Araya Tesfa Mariam, a journalist working for the Amharic-language weekly Ethiop. On October 1, unidentified assailants attacked and brutally beat Mariam near his home in the capital, Addis Ababa. According to local journalists, Mariam is still receiving medical attention for severe injuries to his skull, hands, and legs sustained during the assault.
Paul Kamara, managing editor of the "For-Di-People" newspaper, was arrested and detained on October 3 at the headquarters of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Kamara was released after seven hours and asked to report the following morning. He was arrested in connection with a front page article published in the October 3, 2003 edition of the paper. The article challenged the constitutional legality of the Speaker of Parliament, Justice Edmond Cowan's defence of President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah in Parliament.
The research agenda of the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food will be launched at a special scientific conference that will bring together several hundred scientists with development stakeholders to present and debate key issues around increasing water productivity in agriculture and the impacts on poverty alleviation and on food, health and environmental security in the program's benchmark basins.
In an effort to broaden its gender and technology initiatives as well as enhance women's participation in Uganda's ICT sector, the Department of Women and Gender Studies (DWGS) at Makerere University would like to propose a Gender and ICT for Development Seminar Series to provide an opportunity for students, scholars and interested members of the public to gain insights on the intersection of gender, ICTs and development from key actors in the field. Particular emphasis would be given to raise the challenges and opportunities for women aspiring to be IT professionals.
Two tireless women's rights champions, Maeza Ashenafi from Ethiopia and Sara Longwe from Zambia, were awarded the 15th annual Africa Prize for Leadership, often referred to as the "Nobel Prize for Africa”, in a ceremony Saturday in New York. The Hunger Project, a global strategic organisation that is committed to ending hunger worldwide, sponsors the 50,000-dollar award. The annual prize recognises activists' bold leadership to legally guarantee women's full human rights on the African continent.
This collection of essays presents 15 case studies of African countries whose recent past has been shaped by conflict. Its exploration of the potential for reconciliation and justice reveals the experiences of communities and nations that are struggling to build a peaceful, prosperous future. It is essential reading for students of development, politics and history, and for the general reader who wants to know more about current affairs in Africa.
The 1994 Rwandan Genocide continues to have serious repercussions for peace and stability in the Great Lakes region of Africa. As we recently saw, the key element of the July 30, 2002 Pretoria peace agreement between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was the latter’s commitment to disarm and repatriate Rwandan Hutu militants. This volume continues where most books on the region leave off. The contributors make the connection between the Rwandan Genocide and the continuation of the conflict into the territory of Zaire which finally culminated in the overthrow of Mobutu Sese Seko’s kleptocratic regime.
"Seven boys left home one morning for work - and they never returned." Those seven boys, later referred to as the Gugulethu Seven, turned up on television that night dead. The news labelled them terrorists and their mothers had to watch their dead children being dragged on the ground in front of the world to see. As I purchase my ticket for the award-winning documentary Long Nights Journey Into Day on four stories, out of the thousands that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission(TRC) uncovered, I ask the ticket seller a question. It's a question that has become a bit of a hobby actually, when watching African films. "How many people have come to see it?" He tells me that there aren't that many and then he proceeds to say that more black people have come to see it than white people. "They should be the ones seeing it." I say. He concurs.
Northern Kenya is home to two million people, an 80 percent illiteracy rate, poor living conditions and health care, low rainfall, scarce water and diminishing grazing for the mainly pastorilist population. Present day circumstances are bad enough, but the people have also suffered from dehumanising acts inflicted on them first by British colonial rule and then the subsequent post-independent governments of Kenyatta and Moi. According to the organisation the Northern Forum for Democracy: "The situation prevailing in Northern Kenya is exceptional as communities have over the years suffered from gross injustices. It makes them feel that it's a conspiracy of all Kenyans against then and therefore a situation of hopelessness reigns."
A small and quiet academic debate threatens tribal peoples around the world. It is largely sparked by the plight of the Gana and Gwi “Bushmen” in Botswana who are being forcibly removed from their lands, many think to clear the area for eventual diamond mining. A handful of anthropologists now oppose indigenous peoples' struggle for their land rights, especially in Africa but also more generally.
The signing on 8 October 2003 of an agreement on implementation of the December 2002 cease-fire agreement between the Government of Burundi and rebels leaves significant challenges unresolved, says Amnesty International. "It is essential that the Government of Burundi and the rebels assisted by regional and international actors commit themselves to addressing fundamental questions such as impunity. A determination by all parties to end the human rights and humanitarian crises must underpin a political settlement," Amnesty International said.
President M. Tandja Mamadou has warned independent radio stations operating in parts of the country against broadcasting any programmes "liable to disturb the social peace and public order." In a 2 October 2003 radio message to all regional ministers, municipal chief executives and district heads of public institutions, the president instructed them to "immediately invite all media heads in areas under your jurisdiction and call them to order to warn them against any act liable to endanger the peace and public order." He also threatened that "any unacceptable behaviour would be severely dealt with under the law."