Pambazuka News 421: Zimbabwe: Transitional justice without transition?
Pambazuka News 421: Zimbabwe: Transitional justice without transition?
Gender Links, a dynamic NGO based in South Africa that promotes gender justice and equality seeks to fill the post of manager of the Southern African Gender Protocol Alliance, which comprises 40 NGOs around the region that campaigned for the adoption of this protocol in August 2008. The alliance has drawn up a work plan over the next three years for the implementation of the 28 targets for the attainment of gender equality in Southern Africa by 2015.
Over the next few weeks, Pambazuka News will be publishing a series of articles on the case for reparations for the Mau Mau (Kenya's liberation movement). This is a call for articles on this theme. Articles should be no longer than 3000 words, written in clear, jargon-free language, and should include a summary of no more than 200 words. Please send contributions to
Thanks for such a comprehensive . This piece clearly articulates the role that African governments' in complicity with Western companies play in raping our continent of natural resources, including the under development of people and places. May all readers be motivated to do their bit to resist state violence and the oppression of women and communities.
African Women's Development Fund
cc The July 2008 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Zimbabwe African Nationalist Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) and the two factions of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) offered the first glimmer of hope in resolving the longstanding crisis in Zimbabwe. With the signing of the MoU, the parties began to negotiate a settlement to the crisis under the mediation of Thabo Mbeki, the then South African president. However, it is still unlikely that the current negotiations will lead to a political transition in Zimbabwe. The current regime will remain in power and block meaningful efforts at accountability for past violations. Though a political transition remains highly unlikely any time soon, it is important to consider the form that transitional justice could take in Zimbabwe if ZANU-PF were to lose political power. This essay discusses what shape transitional justice could take if some form of transition were to occur, while recognising the immense challenges to this becoming a reality.
LIMITATIONS OF NEGOTIATED TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE
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cc President Marc Ravalomanana and beleaguered mayor of Antananarivo Andry Rajoelina – the two protagonists in the Malagasy crisis – have finally met. Thus the crisis that escalated into violence and which has left hundreds dead since 26 January seems to be headed for a negotiated settlement. But for Malagasy writer Jean-Luc Raharimanana, the blood that has been shed must not be washed away by yet another period of political games and treachery. The ‘Great Island’ must move away from the political vagaries that have plagued it since independence, the author writes.
cc The Chair of the Panel of Eminent African Personalities, His Excellency Kofi Annan, today [24 February] warned that further delays in establishing a tribunal to try those accused of post-election violence committed in Kenya in 2008 could have grave consequences for the country’s reform agenda, upon which Kenya’s stability and prosperity depend.
Hans M. Zell’s is unique and certainly one of the most useful reference resource books on publishing and the book trade in Africa. First published in 1996 under the title: Publishing and Book Development in Sub-Saharan Africa. An Annotated Bibliography (co-edited with Cecile Lomer), this book has filled a gap in the publishing world ever since.
Twin explosions Sunday killed 11 Burundian troops at a compound used by African Union peacekeepers in Mogadishu, Somalia, authorities said. Shabelle Media Network reported al-Shabaab, an Islamic extremist group with ties to al-Qaida, claimed responsibility for the attack. Al-Shabaab spokesman, Sheik Mukhtar Robow Abu Mansoor, said one of their fighters detonated a jacket laden with explosives inside the Burundian base and another suicide bomber exploded his car.
Works can be nominated for prize consideration in the individual competition categories until March 6, 2009. Nominations are recommendations; thus, nominated projects are not automatically entered in the competition. The nominated artists will be contacted by the organizer before the jury convenes. Then, projects must be formally submitted by the artists themselves prior to the entry deadline and in accordance with all competition criteria in order to be entered in the competition.
Sokwanele's ZIG Watch project has been documenting violations of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) signed between Zimbabwe's three main political parties. Through this article, Sokwanele aims to familiarise our readership with sub-clause 18.5(j), one of ten sub-clauses falling under Article XVIII of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) signed on September 15th 2008. Article XVIII of the GPA sets out to ensure the security of all Zimbabweans and to prevent future political violence.
CODESRIA/SEPHIS is pleased to announce its Equity Policy Dialogue 2009 and to invite interested researchers and policy makers to submit abstracts and paper proposals for consideration for presentation at the policy dialogue which is scheduled for 1st - 3rd October in Dakar, Senegal. The policy dialogue will bring together experts, activists and policy makers from all regions of the South.
An appeal submission is being prepared for an asylum claimant in Thailand who is from DRC. His case is being adjudicated by UNHCR. The refugee has been rejected on the grounds that he can go to an alternative part of the country, i.e. Kinshasha.
Some 3,000 African asylum-seekers have to leave Tel Aviv because of an August 2008 ruling by the Israeli Ministry of the Interior. The ruling permits asylum-seekers to reside and work only in towns and cities north of Hadera and south of Gedera, about an hour’s drive from Tel Aviv, where they now live. The ruling was initially imposed only on newcomers but in recent months asylum-seekers living in Israel for longer periods have experienced the same constraints on their work permits, forcing them to leave their homes.
Hundreds of members of Women and Men of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA/MOZA) delivered a petition to the new Minister of Education, Senator David Coltart today in Harare. Whilst leaders tried to deliver the petition to the minister, with whom they had an official appointment, riot police indiscriminately beat the peaceful group that were waiting for the minister to come and address them. At least 10 members have been arrested. The full extent of the injuries sustained are not clear but at least one woman is unable to walk and an ambulance has been called for her.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its regional body the Federation of African Journalists (FAJ) has condemned the persistent intimidation of the editor and co- proprietor of the Point Newspaper, Pap Saine by the Gambian authorities.
We would like to inform you about the decision taken by the EC-UN Joint Migration and Development Initiative (JM&DI) to extend by two weeks its call for proposals’ deadline. This Call for Proposals was launched at the Migration for Development Fair the 3rd of December 2008. It targets civil society organizations and local authorities. The new deadline is now March 27 2009, 12:00 Brussels time.
Five members, four women and one man, will spend the night in Harare Central
Police Station tonight following their arrest this morning whilst trying to hand
in a petition to the Minister of Education. Lawyers from Zimbabwe Lawyers for
Human Rights have not been allowed access to their clients so the details of
what they will be charged with are not known. Food has been allowed in to the
group this evening (Feb 25).
New Tactics are pleased to announce that our workbook, ‘New Tactics in Human Rights: A Resource for Practitioners’ is now available for download in Arabic. The New Tactics’ book is a collection of 100 innovative tactics being used by the international human rights community. This workbook is meant to illustrate the breadth of tactics and the power of tactical and strategic thinking. You can find many other translations of this book on the Workbook page!
Africa may be bracing for a commodities bust, but the still-rich investors of the Persian Gulf are doubling down here. Through the worst of the global financial crisis in recent months, Gulf investors have committed to pouring billions of dollars into sub-Saharan Africa. The timing comes just as recessions in much of the developed world, and sharply slowing growth almost everywhere else, threaten most other cross-border investment flows.
The trial of WOZA leaders Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu on charges of disturbing the peace is set to resume today in Bulawayo Magistrate’s Court. In the meantime, five WOZA activists have spent the night in custody in Harare Central Police Station. More information on both these stories will be made available soon.
Trade and cultural exchanges will benefit from direct flights between Beijing and Algeria which started earlier this week. The inaugural flight landed in Beijing Capital International Airport in the early morning of February 23 after flying 11 hours from Algeria's capital Algiers. Previously, it took travelers at least 16 hours to get the other city, as they had to transfer flights.
Minister of Trade and Industry Rasheed Mohamed Rasheed started on Tuesday 24/02/2009 important talks in Beijing with senior Chinese officials on ways of deepening bilateral economic relations. The talks focused on promoting Egyptian exports to the Chinese market to correct the imbalance in trade that tilts in China's favor by billion.
Dubai-based Gulf Research Centre (GRC) has organised the first high-profile forum to discuss the increasing importance of Africa to the UAE and wider Gulf's future. The Gulf-Africa Strategy Forum 2009 takes place on February 24 and 25 in Cape Town, South Africa, and aims to cement the Gulf-Africa relationship by offering an in-depth assessment of the status of ties and a clear outlook to where the relationship could be heading.
Britain is joining the latest scramble in Africa – to reverse decades of decay and even the disappearance of large parts of road and rail systems – with a $1bn (£690m) project to rebuild the transport network across the south of the continent. The UK has announced an agreement with eight African countries and the World Bank that will see the reconstruction of 5,280 miles (8,500km) of roads and the rejuvenation of 373 miles of railways, including some new track and the upgrading of border posts.
Despite its failure to host the 2011 All-Africa Games, Zambia has been assured by the Chinese government that its 50 000-seater Ndola Stadium will still be constructed. Chinese President Hu Jintao last week said his country is committed to improving sports infrastructure in Africa and will soon commence construction of a modern stadium in Zambia.
Zambia expects foreign direct investment to reach $2.7 billion in 2009 despite the global economic downturn as investors rush to take up tax breaks, the government's trade minister said. Zambia has in the last five years liberalised its investment policies, awarding tax incentives to foreign companies in a bid to grow the economy and create wealth and employment.
China has extended a total of $100m (about sh197b) loans and grants to Uganda in the last five years. The Chinese government has provided Uganda interest free loans and grants to set up different projects in the country totalling $100m since November 2003 to date, the former industry state minister, Prof. Ephraim Kamuntu, said
India and Mozambique on Thursday signed two agreements for promotion of trade and Investment and strengthening the cooperation in economic, cultural, scientific and technical areas. The agreements were signed by Union Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma and Mozambique Foreign Minister Oldemiro Baloi at Hyderabad House.
Despite the global air cargo turmoil, carriers are confident that the westbound Asia-Africa trade will continue to offer good prospects. Correspondent Phil Hastings looks at the airlines focusing on the African continent. Chinese investment in African infrastructure has provided a significant boost to air cargo traffic between Asia and Africa over the past two or three years.
This is a call for materials for a contemporary Reader on African sexualities, which is being developed and edited by Prof. Sylvia Tamale-outgoing Dean of Law at Makerere University and Coordinator of the Law, Gender and Sexuality Research Project at the Faculty of Law. This seminal work will be a compilation of diverse populist and academic pieces that either engage with or inform sexualities enacted all over the African continent.
On 25th February 2009, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, Prof. Philip Alston, released his findings on the matter of extrajudicial killings in Kenya and his recommendations include that the Attorney General, Amos Wako and the Commissioner of Police, Major General Hussein Ali should immediately be sacked by the appointing authority. His verdict on extrajudicial killings was clear – that there is indeed systematic, widespread and carefully planned elimination done at will and with utter impunity.
Africa Centre for Open Governance (AfriCOG) is seeking a qualified and experienced Programme Intern to provide support and assistance in all matters relating to the programme implementation functions of the organisation.
A UN report has urged developing countries to move away from selling their natural resources and concentrate instead on manufacturing. The report, titled ``Industrial Development Report 2009'', was launched by the UN Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) Tuesday. It stated that ``selling raw materials leads to insecurity and does little to ease poverty for the `bottom billion - those living on less than US$ 1 a day''.
On March 6, San Francisco district court Judge Susan Illston will hear a motion for a retrial for the Bowoto v Chevron case. Last fall, a jury found Chevron not liable for paying the Nigerian military in 1998 to shoot and kill unarmed protesters who were protesting the lack of jobs and environmental damage caused by Chevron in their community.
Ex-Malawian President Bakili Muluzi has appeared in court accused of stealing $11m (£7.7m) in donor money. Mr Muluzi was charged on 80 counts of allegedly siphoning aid cash into his private account. The 66-year-old was arrested earlier after turning himself in to the Anti-Corruption Bureau in Blantyre.
French authorities have frozen Gabon President Omar Bongo's bank accounts. The move comes after a Bordeaux court ordered President Bongo to return a payment made to him to release a jailed French businessman, Rene Cardona. The BBC's Charles Mayard in Paris says it is the first time French authorities have frozen the accounts of an acting head of state.
An international tribunal has found three Sierra Leone rebels guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. RUF leaders Issa Sesay, 38, and Morris Kallon, 45, were convicted of 16 of the 18 charges, while Augustine Gbao, 60, was found guilty on 14 of the counts. The Freetown trial of the RUF rebel leaders, related to Sierra Leone's 10-year civil war, began in mid-2004.
A UN investigator has called for the removal of Kenya's police commissioner and attorney general over a wave of alleged extrajudicial killings. Philip Alston said: "Kenyan police are a law unto themselves. They kill often, with impunity." His remarks came as video emerged of an officer saying the police commissioner had ordered the killing of suspects.
Thousands of Rwandan troops have started to leave Democratic Republic of Congo five weeks after they crossed the border to attack Hutu rebels. A ceremony has been held in the main eastern Congolese city of Goma, to mark their withdrawal. Rwanda's foreign minister says the joint operation "seriously weakened" the FDLR rebels but a BBC correspondent says civilians paid a heavy price.
Teachers in Zimbabwe have agreed to end their strike after the government promised to review salaries, and to appeal for substantial aid for schools. The teachers had been demanding their salaries in foreign currency to get around Zimbabwe's massive inflation. But they said the new Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai had been willing to listen to their grievances.
Authorities in Cameroon have arrested 25 separatist activists from a movement that has called for independence for the former French colony’s English-speaking minority, the group and police said on Tuesday. The Southern Cameroon National Council (SCNC) said the activists were arrested in Tiko, 50 km (30 miles) west of the southern city of Douala, where they went to support a colleague standing trial for holding an illegal meeting last October.
The government should address the failings in the 2008 parliamentary elections and ensure that the resounding victory of the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) does not translate into further restrictions of civil and political freedoms, Human Rights Watch has said. In a 45-page report, "Democracy or Monopoly? Angola's Reluctant Return to Elections," Human Rights Watch documents how the MPLA-dominated National Electoral Commission (CNE) failed to perform as an independent oversight body in those elections.
Corruption is an endemic cancer that has devastated African societies and impoverished millions. According to the Africa Union (AU) around $148 billion are stolen from the continent by its leaders and civil servants every year. The 2006 Forbes’ list of most corrupt nations had 9 out of the first 16 countries coming from Africa.
Over 40,000 internally displaced persons have returned to Mogadishu in the last six weeks. The majority of the returnees are from Hiraan, Mudug, Galgaduud, Lower and Middle Shabelle in the southern and central regions, which are experiencing a combination of renewed conflict and severe drought.
Although cholera fatality rates and new cases are on the decline, the epidemic is still not under control. As of 26 February, 84,027 suspected cases, including 3,894 deaths had been reported by the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, with a slight drop in the fatality rates to 4.6%.
An Egyptian woman, who went to file a complaint at a police station on 19 January, has since been subjected to torture, ill-treatment and death threats against her and her family by members of the local police force. Mona Said Thabet went to a police station north of Cairo after she was assaulted by two men at her sister's home. The men were reported to have been police informers.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has dispatched a senior United Nations political aide to Madagascar, following a request from the Government for a more active role by the world body in dealing with the political tensions in the Indian Ocean island nation.nAssistant Secretary-General Haile Menkerios, who had been sent to Madagascar in early February to assess the situation, was travelling with Mr. Ban in Africa when he was asked to return to the country to continue the UN’s good offices work there.
Improving the status and effectiveness of women, whose numbers have risen steadily in the past decade, in the police force of the Côte d’Ivoire is the subject of a new training course organized by the United Nations mission known as UNOCI in the West African country.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative in Sudan has called on all parties to immediately cease the fighting which erupted today in the southern town of Malakal, stressing the need to ensure the safety and security of civilians in the area.
A group of young people from impoverished urban areas in Kenya, Tanzania and Ghana, will set off on a gruelling trek to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro under the United Nations banner to draw attention to the effects of climate change. Ten underprivileged youth will join 25 other people from the private and public sectors in the fourth annual ascent to the “rooftop of Africa” organized by the Kilimanjaro Initiative, a Nairobi-based non-governmental organization (NGO), in partnership with the “UNite to Combat Climate Change” global campaign.
Over 15,000 people have sought safety in the Zam Zam camp in North Darfur after fleeing the latest outburst of violence in the South Darfur region of Sudan, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has reported. OCHA is concerned that with more people arriving each day, the large influx of internally displaced persons (IDPs) is putting a strain on the provision of water to camp residents.
Without an immediate infusion of funding, the already grave malnutrition and disease levels in Somalia will worsen, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has cautioned. In an alert to donors, the Office highlighted the need for assistance for emergency nutrition as well as Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programmes in two regions in north and central Somalia.
When United Villages took the web to rural India, its vision was to liberate the poor by giving them tools from the digital age. The communications group set up Internet terminals in remote villages and watched for a transformation. Almost three years later, technology is indeed enriching rural lives — but not quite how they expected. Rather than paying to send emails and surf the web villagers prefer to email their questions to someone who will do the surfing for them and return the answers in a pdf (portable document format) file.
The leading mobile telecommunications provider, Zain Tuesday announced plans to bring mobile banking to over 100 million people in Africa with the launch of its new service, Zap. Providing the most comprehensive and accessible package of mobile banking features currently available on the African continent, Zap will be initially available in Kenya and Tanzania prior to the launch in Uganda.
The ICT Regulation Toolkit is a joint knowledge product of infoDev and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The Toolkit is intended to assist regulators with the design of effective and enabling regulatory frameworks to harness the latest technological and market advances. The toolkit has become a trusted resource for policy-makers, regulators and the telecom industry, providing practical advice on issues that range from the role of competition to next generation networks.
This research paper, written by Mr. Ebenezer Malcolm and Dr. Francis Godwyll from Ohio University, USA, explores the state of ICT integration in the educational system in Ghana. The emphasis is on how ICTs are currently being used in the education sector in Ghana, what is actually happening on the ground, what are the strategies and policies related to the use of ICTs? What are the common challenges or constraints faced by Ghana schools in the area of ICT integration in schools?
King Mswati III, has expressed concern over the standard services in the health sector of the country. He said the situation is unfortunate because the south African country has several health professionals working abroad. The Prime Minister of Swaziland has disclosed that the King has charged his officials to engage all working professionals outside the country to find the cause of leaving their home soil.
A $5.3m United States Agency for International Development funded project in sub-Saharan Africa is seeking to further raise cassava production on farmers' field by 30 per cent in seven African countries. The project with the theme: “Unleashing the Power of Cassava in response to the food price crisis (UPoCA),” aims to maximize the utilization of cassava to address food price crisis in Nigeria, DR Congo, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Tanzania.
The female journalist was snatched by members of a secret society, forcibly stripped and made to parade naked through the streets. It might sound like an atrocity from the time when Sierra Leone was ripped apart by a bloody civil war, but in fact the public humiliation was exacted in the diamond-rich eastern town of Kenema just this month. The woman's alleged crime was reporting on female genital mutilation.
The National Executive of the MDC will meet Friday afternoon to discuss ongoing violations of the unity deal, that brought their party and ZANU PF into the shaky coalition government. On Tuesday Mugabe unilaterally announced the appointment of ministerial permanent secretaries without consulting the MDC. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his Deputy Arthur Mutambara then convened a press conference Wednesday to declare the appointments null and void.
Some 53 million West African children will be vaccinated against polio in schools, health clinics and their homes over the next month to tackle risks from the paralysing virus in Nigeria. The $67 million campaign, spanning eight countries, aims to increase immunity levels in one of the last strongholds of the disease that the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF have spent more than 20 years and $6 billion trying to eradicate.
The World Bank will give a $100 million emergency grant to help cash-strapped Democratic Republic of Congo pay essential bills and teachers' salaries, the Bank said on Friday. The World Bank proposed the emergency funds earlier this month after the country's mining sector was hit by the financial crisis and foreign reserves dwindled to just $36 million, down from more than $225 million last April.
A U.N. court trying the masterminds of Rwanda's 1994 genocide jailed a former military chaplain for 25 years on Friday for sexual assault and killing ethnic Tutsis who sought sanctuary at a seminary. Emmanuel Rukundo is one of two clergymen the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) indicted for their role in the 100-day slaughter in which troops and Hutu militia butchered 800,000 minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus.
A Congolese family uprooted by war went to court on Friday seeking to be reunited with a Kenyan baby they say they found abandoned on the roadside in a case testing the right of refugees to adopt. The case could be a first in global legal history, the family's lawyer and the U.N. refugee agency say. "I believe it would set a precedent. The law is silent on whether refugees can adopt," lawyer Rose Mbanya told Reuters as the case began at Nairobi's High Court.
Botswana's government has warned that it may have to cut or completely withdraw its HIV/AIDS funding, despite the rising number of people needing treatment, as the global economic crisis takes a toll on the vitally important diamond-mining sector. The government is the main financier of the national HIV/AIDS response, contributing up to 80 percent of the budget, with donors making up the remainder. But the global economic slump has led to significant declines in the sale of diamonds, Botswana's most important revenue source.
The phenomenon of Leblouh is one of the oldest social values related to beauty in Mauritanian society. Under the practice, girls are made to eat huge quantities of food, sometimes by force, to make them fatter. The aim is to give them greater chances of marriage, beauty and social acceptance, as slim women are traditionally deemed inferior.
Although there is an abundance of natural energy resources such as sunlight and water in sub-Saharan Africa, investment in renewable energy in the region has remained low. However, the recognition of the potential of hydropower is opening up a potentially lucrative market for suppliers of hydro turbines, say energy consultants Frost & Sullivan.
In an overwhelmingly positive vote for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the Central African nation of Burundi, the country's Senate has rejected a provision that would have criminalized consensual same-sex activity.
The UN refugee agency expressed concern Tuesday about mounting violence against Congolese civilians in North Kivu province after some 3,000 people were displaced during an attack on their village. "Since February 14, the so-called Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda [FDLR] have carried out numerous attacks in Masisi, Lubero and Walikale areas in North Kivu, sparking a new wave of displacement," a UNHCR spokesman said, referring to a rebel militia composed of ethnic Hutu fighters.
Soaring food prices and lack of land have forced Mauritius, a net food importing country, to launch an ambitious initiative. The island state is starting to grow its food in other African states where land is lying fallow and labour is cheap. Mauritian agro-entrepreneurs Murveen Ragobur and Gansham Boodhram are back from Mozambique where they cultivated rice on a trial basis last year, as well as potatoes and onions for the local market.
States emerging from protracted crises struggle to provide basic services. This is no more crucial than in the health sector where vulnerable ‘post-conflict’ populations are frequently in dire need of care. However, development actors are frequently faced with difficult choices – particularly how much emphasis to place on ‘humanitarian’ emergency health relief in the face of a need for health systems building. Yet is it possible to simultaneously provide basic health services whilst also developing local health provision?
This paper makes the case that attending to fundamental issues such as social exclusion and gender inequity is crucial to the effort to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The challenge is to inspire the public and professionals alike to step up efforts - not by focusing solely on the goals themselves, but, rather, by broadening the perspective through linking the MDGs to leading global development debates.
With increasing demand for resources to tackle the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, questions arise as to where such resources are to be found and whether they can be fully absorbed and spent. One major source of financing for HIV and AIDS control is external aid. The debate continues as to whether increased external assistance causes macroeconomic instability.
Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ojo Madueke, has recently denied the existence of gay people in Nigeria. He said this at the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review meeting, held in Geneva from 2-13 February, where he claimed that gay people are not visible in that country and that they do not have any registered organisations.
Pamela (not her real name), a resident of Kenya's largest slum, Kibera, continues to experience pain and discomfort one year after she was gang-raped when election-related violence erupted in the country. "The saddest part of the experience is that I don't know the rapists so I can't even say I am waiting for justice; they pushed my head under the bed and so many of them raped me until I fainted; when I came to, they had fled," Pamela said.
Calm has returned to the northern Nigerian city of Bauchi following two days of sectarian clashes that killed 14 people, displaced 4,500 and left 100 hospitalised, according to police and the International Committee of the Red Cross. The violence erupted on 20 February, with youths burning mosques and churches, according to residents of Bauchi, the capital of Bauchi state, about 300km northeast of the capital Abuja.
Last week, regulars at the HIV treatment clinic at Pelonomi hospital, in Bloemfontein, capital of South Africa's Free State Province, would have told you that the clinic has never been this quiet. Ever since the provincial government stopped initiating new patients on antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, the buzzing treatment literacy classes for people about to start taking ARVs had shrunk in size, while some existing patients stopped coming to check whether their drugs were in stock.
A Bandundu court has declared the charges pending against Bwamputu Akienzin Zéphyrin unfounded, acquitting him on all counts at his fifth court appearance. Zéphyrin was originally summoned to court in December 2008 on a defamation charge brought by Marie Théodore Kipulu Samba, a former RTNC director, after he broadcast the news of Kipulu's sacking as director of RTNC-Bandundu. Kipulu asked the court for US$50,000 in damages, in addition to the sentence provided for by law. His request was denied.
On 25 February 2009, the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) has temporarily closed Mzimba Community Radio Station, based in the northern part of the country, on grounds that the station did not comply with the regulatory body's rules and regulations as stipulated in the Communications Act.
Zanu-PF leader Robert Mugabe has dismissed as "nonsense" Western demands that he free up Zimbabwe's media in order to get sanctions lifted. In an interview with Zimbabwe television aired late on Thursday, Mugabe also denied foreign media reports that his family recently bought a luxury home in Hong Kong, and criticised Britain for plans to help some of its nationals leave Zimbabwe.