News and comment on South Africa's Presidential AIDS Advisory Panel Report.

The latest research and news on health issues in developing countries.

Environmental pressure groups who say that eco-tourism has failed on the basis of its own principles, are advocating for a speedy review of the concept if the world's biodiversity is to be preserved and mounting poverty alleviated.

Kenyan reform derailed before Leakey left: Nairobi's anti-corruption strategy was already in retreat, but the government may still persuade the international community to keep giving.

The Chapter 2 Network is a clearinghouse of information and communication
for social justice issues in South Africa. Through its website, it provides
information about advocacy campaigns; training on Advocacy and lobbying,
including learning practical skills through the Advocacy game; research on
political intelligence, policy analysis and legislation monitoring and networking opportunities to interact with other civil society organisations who are engaged in social justice advocacy.

The Digital Governance website was launched a month back to explore
INNOVATIVE e-Governance Models in South based on the application of Knowledge Management principles and Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The website is a part of the KnowNet Initiative which harnesses the potential of ICT and Remote Volunteering to catalyse Human Development.

Officials of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said they considered the privatization of the Egyptian state-owned banks not important as the country's banking system depends largely on these banks' power and competition, on the contrary the privatization may yield adverse outcomes if the government gives up these significant tool in controlling the monetary policy.

Great Issue!!! -- perhaps a bit long? Congratulations -- and thanks for the editorial on Money Laundering.

The Senate agreed last night that the United States should double current spending on the global battle against HIV/AIDS to more than $1 billion within the next two years.

Two companies at the centre of the probe into the multibillion-rand arms deal have just added another lucrative deal to their portfolios. Futuristic Business Solutions (FBS) and African Defence Systems (ADS) are now the black empowerment partners of Agusta SpA, the company that won, in controversial circumstances, the contract to supply helicopters to the South African Air Force.

Proceedings of the Council of Ministers of Water Affairs of the Nile Basin States (Nile-COM) who held an Extraordinary Meeting in Khartoum, Sudan, on March 28-29, 2001.

Naspers has announced that it is considering de-listing M-Web, citing negative market conditions. It is expected that M-Web investors will be offered Naspers shares in a share swap deal.

The latest collection of snippets from the world of Telematics and Development.

Grant opportunities from the World Bank to assess e-readiness. The grants are offered to governmental institutions. Deadline for submitting proposals is May 1st.

bYtES For aLL is a voluntary, unfunded venture. bYtES For aLL volunteers team includes: Frederick in Goa, Partha in Dhaka, Zubair in Islamabad, Archana in Goa, Zunaira in Karachi, Arun-Kumar in Darmstatd, Shivkumar in Mumbai, Sangeeta in Nepal, Daryl in Chicago and Gihan in Sri Lanka.

A public, unmoderated, open mailing list has been started to coordinate efforts of NGOs to steer back the USA administration to honoring its global responsibilities. Bycotting USA-products worldwide is the ultimate action that can be taken by ordinary citizens as well as governments. It may be the only
message the MBA-President George W. Bush can understand.

The Bush administration is putting forward alternative guidelines for a new international global warming agreement, it was reported yesterday, as it finds itself increasingly isolated on the world stage for its rejection of the Kyoto treaty.

A European weapons maker at the centre of an investigation into alleged influence-buying in South Africa has admitted delivering luxury cars to 30 top government, defence and aviation officials while bidding for a multimillion pound arms contract.

Sudanese rebels have threatened to attack international oil workers operating in the wartorn south of the country. The SPLA rebels, who are fighting for autonomy or independence in the south, said the Sudanese Government was using money from oil exports to finance its miltary operations.

UN special report on children and armed conflict.

The UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has won agreement from six major drug companies to keep cutting prices of Aids treatments for the world's poorest nations.

Zimbabwe plans to pull out 5,000 troops from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the "immediate future" - halving its military presence in the mineral-rich country - in a move a defence spokesman on Thursday described as a vote of confidence in the peace process.

In a race against time and the weather, the United Nations refugee agency is stepping up its efforts to move tens of thousands of Sierra Leonean refugees away from volatile border zones in south-western Guinea to safer sites in the interior of the country.

The court case brought by a group of pharmaceutical companies against the Government of South Africa has focused attention on the relationship between intellectual property rights and development. The law in question allows the South African Health Minister to disregard patent rights under certain circumstances in order to supply more affordable medicines to protect public health.

Civic groups in Zimbabwe are willing and able to take on the government over a new constitution, Thoko Matshe head of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) told IRIN on Tuesday. "We're talking mass action and civil disobedience on a wide scale if government ignores the people," Matshe said.

The World Bank President James Wolfensohn has criticised developed nations for their failure to uphold their promise to allocate 0.7 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) for official development assistance (ODA) to the needy countries, particularly in Africa.

According to Allafrica.com, the Mugabe government has begun to control Zimbabwe's media by tightening the flow of information ahead of presidential elections next year. It wants to speed through legislation in parliament aimed at controlling the dissemination of information and the conduct of journalists in executing their duties.

America's newspaper editors should include black journalists in daily news meetings and offer minorities more internships and top management jobs, a black reporters group said Thursday.

The government of Niger has sent out and urgent appeal for emergency aid of some 60,000 tonnes of cereals for May-August to avert the wave of famine in the country.

National Development Party leader Raila Odinga yesterday scoffed at attempts to extend President Moi's term of office beyond the year 2002. Such attempts were not only inconsequential but time-wasting, Mr Odinga said.

The Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Louise Frecheet, who is on a visit to Sierra Leone, has met President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah at his Hill Station Lodge in Freetown. Ms Frechete told president Kabbah that the UN would closely work with government and non-governmental organisations to pursue peace and development in the country.

Pakistan is to send over 4,000 soldiers to join the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), UN deputy spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva said on Thursday in New York. "The details of their deployment, including discussions on equipment, logistics and transportation requirements, are still being worked out," he reported.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned that despite the relatively calm situation in Rwanda, rural and urban poverty pose a serious threat to the country's economic and social development. In a report, it noted that out of 8 million inhabitants, 28,130 were Congolese refugees, 5,087 were internally displaced, 52,242 were recent returnees, 60,195 were affected by drought in the south and east of the country and some 2 million people were living in difficult conditions.

A humanitarian assessment mission has visited the province of Rutana in the southeast following a wave of fighting between the army and rebels last month in three of its communes - Gitanga, Rutana and Musongati. A report issued by UNOCHA-Burundi noted that 1,500 families had been displaced in Gitanga and 1,187 in Rutana. Musongati was still affected by fighting and a final estimate had not been made.

Kyalami Exhibition & Conference Center, Johannesburg, South Africa,
24-26 April 2001. This conference, being held jointly by African IT Exhibitions & Conferences (AITEC) and the Linux Professionals Association, will provide an educational and commercial platform for the popularization of Linux and its applications in Africa. The presentations will deal with free software and projects on development of network applications. A review of the usage of Linux in Africa will also be presented.

Sustainable Development and the New Economy, Cité des Sciences et de 'Industrie, la Villette, Paris, France, 14-16 May 2001.OECD Forum 2001 is an international public conference which brings together Ministers, heads of international organisations, and participants from business, labour, non-governmental organisations and civil society at large. The main objective of the OECD Forum is to foster an open, inclusive dialogue on the opportunities and risks in the increasingly global,knowledge-based economy of the 21st century, and how this new knowledge economy can best function for the betterment of all.

Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A. 20-21 April 2001. *Registration deadline extended to April 14* Science and technology is widely recognized as an important factor in the economic transformation of developing countries. Mobilizing this knowledge to meet the agricultural, health, communication and environmental needs of the poor has become of the most important issues in international relations. The workshop is part of an on-going effort to explore the linkages between science, technology and globalization.

Last June, parliamentary elections were held in Zimbabwe in an atmosphere of fear and violence. The elections marked the first time a strong opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), challenged the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU (PF)) in the political arena. The MDC won 57 out of 120 contested seats but the price was high as pre-election violence erupted in the form of extra-judicial killings, beatings, property damage and intimidation around the country.

International observers and commentators including Amnesty International, the Commonwealth, the US-based National Democratic Institute and the European Union all released reports citing evidence that the elections were not free and fair. In fact, Zimbabwe's own Electoral Commission proclaimed the elections the bloodiest since the end of white minority rule in 1980.

Both political parties blame the other for incitement of violence. However, the MDC has brought legal challenges to the High Court of Zimbabwe in 39 constituencies in an effort to overturn election results in those areas. They are alleging that the violence perpetrated by ZANU (PF) agents, with the knowledge or active participation of the ZANU (PF) candidate at the time, unfairly affected the outcome of the vote thereby violating the Electoral Act of Zimbabwe. The cases have thus far involved numerous allegations of violence being perpetuated by veterans of Zimbabwe's war of liberation. Factions of these veterans are widely regarded to be militant and very close to ZANU (PF). War veterans are seen to be responsible for numerous acts of violence perpetrated against white commercial farmers in the past year in protest of what is perceived to be white domination of the industry. The vast majority of the electoral violence was perpetrated against members or perceived members of the MDC. They are asking that all elections in these 39 constituencies be re-run to achieve accurate results. If any member of parliament is found guilty of election misconduct in these proceedings, that member will be ineligible to run for public office for five years and a bi-election will be called in that constituency to determine a new sitting member.

In addition to allegations of violence, many protest the government's changes to the Electoral Act immediately preceding the election. The Electoral Act allows for the president to make changes to the electoral system. He did so in the following ways: 1) Changes in the postal ballot system were made on June 7, ahead of the voting dates of the 24th & 25th June, to make it more difficult for Zimbabweans abroad to cast their ballots, 2) The Electoral Supervisory Commission had its power to accredit observers and monitors revoked and placed in the hands of the Registrar General, 3) Sitting dates for the Nomination Courts were deferred from May 29 to June 3, 4) The Electoral Act's 21-day provision between nomination and polling was shortened to 20 days, and 5) Voter registration was extended from 16 April to 12 June. (All information regarding changes to the Electoral Act is courtesy of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum's report, 'Human Rights and Zimbabwe's June 2000 Election')

The Amani Trust, a Zimbabwean NGO advocating for victims of organized violence and torture, will produce a weekly report for the international community on the progress of these trials. This report will focus on cases of gross human rights violations and electoral abuses within constituencies that have cases before the High Court.

From The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum - April 9, 2001, v.7
Zimbabwe Parliamentary Election Challenges Newsletter

WITNESS advances human rights advocacy through the use of video and communications technology. The Deputy Director will ideally begin on June 1, 2001. ANNUAL SALARY: Competitive with benefits. SUBMISSIONS: Cover letter, resume, one (1) writing sample, & contact information for three (3) references.
NO LATER THAN APRIL 15, 2001.