Pambazuka News 325: Justice for Mau Mau war veterans
Pambazuka News 325: Justice for Mau Mau war veterans
Investec is a respected Anglo South African merchant bank listed on the London Stock Exchange since 2002 and said to be worth UK £3.5 billion (about Ksh 472.5 billion). Its Guernsey operation Investec Trust Guernsey (ITG) has become embroiled in Kenya’s Anglo Leasing grand corruption scandal.
Unless urgent attention is paid to decreasing the burden of cancer, there are going to be e catastrophic results especially in Africa and parts of Asia, experts warned at a gathering in Cape Town this week. In 2000, there were an estimated 10,4 million new cases of cancer diagnosed worldwide, 6,5 million deaths from cancer, while over 25 million people were living with cancer. By 2030, it is projected that there will be 25,4 million new cases of cancer, 16,4 million cancer deaths annually and a staggering 75 million people living with cancer.
Small teams of Israeli doctors will travel to Swaziland to perform circumcisions for two-week stints this year under a program organized by the Jerusalem AIDS Project and financed by Hadassah, a US-based Jewish organization, and other donors. The effort to circumcise Swazi men is being carried out in the hopes of curbing the spread of HIV/AIDS in a country with the world's highest HIV infection rate.
What credibility can we afford such gloomy words that portray Africans as fundamentally traumatized beings incapable of acting on their own behalf and in their own recognized interests, asks Achille Mbembe. What is this so-called historicity of the continent which totally silences the long tradition of resistance, including that against French colonialism, along with today’s struggles for democracy, none of which receive the clear support of a country which, for many years, has actively backed the local satrapies?
Not having enough food is associated with a higher frequency of multiple high-risk sexual behaviours among women in Botswana and Swaziland, a study published in the October edition of PLoS Medicine has found. Women who reported food insecurity in the previous year had an 80% increase in their likelihood of transaction sex, a 70% increase in their risk of reporting unprotected sex with a non-primary partner, and a 50% increase in their likelihood of intergenerational sex.
US and African researchers have developed an algorithm, based on rapid test results, symptoms and risk behaviours, that makes it possible to accurately detect acute HIV infection without widespread use of HIV RNA assays. Identifying acute infection has significant implications for curbing the spread of HIV infection, particularly in resource-poor settings. The findings were published the October edition of AIDS.
Money from the Presidential Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is funding organisations in Uganda that actively promote homophobia, a leading human rights charity has warned. In a letter to the Mark Dybul, US Global AIDS Coordinator, Human Rights Watch, expressed grave concern about “an expanding pattern of attacks in Uganda upon the human rights of lesbian, gay and transgender people”, and highlighted the homophobic activities of Pastor Martin Ssempa, a member of the First lady’s of Uganda’s Task Force on AIDS and recipient of PEPFAR prevention HIV prevention money.
All parties in the Western Sahara dispute are celebrating a new draft resolution unanimously adopted on October 15th by the United Nations General Assembly's Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonisation). At the same time, neither Morocco nor the Polisario Front appears to be backing down from their opposing positions.
The World Development Report 2008 calls for greater investment in agriculture in developing countries.The report warns that the sector must be placed at the center of the development agenda if the goals of halving extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 are to be realized.
When the two buses from Mogadishu finally reached Galkayo, everyone aboard felt relieved even though the road had been paved with militiamen robbing passengers at gunpoint and five women had been raped. Once in Galkayo, the second largest city in Puntland in north-eastern Somalia, the women joined the belt of settlements sheltering displaced families that has grown around this city due to a recurrent civil conflict over the past 17 years.
More than 16,000 refugees have returned to their home districts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's (DRC) Equateur province so far this year – almost as much as in the three previous years combined. The surge in the number of returns to the rainforests of northwest DRC – almost all from the neighbouring Republic of Congo (RoC) across the Oubangui River – comes as UNHCR prepares to phase out assisted voluntary repatriation to this area in mid-2008.
The latest escalation in fighting in North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has forced thousands more people to flee southwards towards Goma and across the border into Uganda. An estimated 8,000 Congolese refugees who fled to Bunagana in Uganda over the weekend were still there on Tuesday morning.
The dangerous Gulf of Aden crossing claimed more lives at the weekend when up to 66 people drowned after being forced overboard by smugglers off the coast of Yemen. The tragedy involved two smugglers' boats that left the Somali coastal town of Bossaso on Saturday with 244 people aboard, mostly Somalis and Ethiopians. The two vessels reached the Yemeni coast off Hawrat Al Shatee on Sunday, survivors said, adding that passengers were forced into deep water and many drowned.
A renowned Yanomami Indian leader from Brazilian Amazonia has made an emotional plea to the Botswana government to let the Kalahari Bushmen live on their land, ‘in peace for the rest of their lives’. Davi Yanomami, UN Global 500 award winner, spoke today from Berlin where he is holding meetings with top German politicians.
Gender differentials in health related risks and outcomes are partly determined by biological sex differences. Yet they are also the result of how societies socialise women and men into gender roles. This paper published by the Women and Gender Equity Knowledge Network draws together evidence that identifies and explains what gender inequality and inequity mean in terms of differential exposures and vulnerabilities for women versus men, and also how health care systems and health research reproduce these inequalities and inequities instead of resolving them.
Three weeks ago, 35-year-old Waldo Bester was found stabbed to death in Vredenburg, north of Cape Town. Although details of this gay man’s attack are unclear at present, the fact remains that he was murdered brutally in what is believed to be hate crime according to Cape Town’s Triangle Project – which is long standing gay organisation in the Western Cape Province.
Two decades after a landmark report sounded alarm bells about the state of the planet and called for urgent action to change direction, the world is still in dire straits, a U.N. agency said on Thursday. While the U.N. Environment Programme's fourth Global Environment Outlook (GEO-4) says action has been successfully taken in some regions and on some problems, the overall picture is one of sloth and neglect.
Reporters Without Borders has condemned information, press and communication minister Toussaint Tshilombo Send’s announcement of a ban on around 40 TV and radio stations five days ago. It has had the effect of silencing four community radio stations based in Kinshasa, while around 200 other community radio stations throughout the country are also threatened.
Demand for higher education in sub-Saharan Africa is exploding, and countries like Ghana are struggling to cope. Though sub-Saharan Africa has the world’s lowest university enrollment rates, Ghana has been forced to tackle Africa’s newest development problem — many more applicants than slots to fill.
The hidden crimes of systematic detention, torture and murder committed against the opponents of the government of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by security forces has been exposed. Amnesty International (AI) that exposed the crimes in a newly published report asked the government of President Joseph Kabila to urgently and independently investigate the alleged cases.
A five-year Gender Equity through Education Programme has been launched in the Southern Sudanese capital of Juba. Launched by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in cooperation with the South Sudan government, a total of US $6.5 million has been earmarked for the programme.
Worldwide, more than a billion people live in slums, with as many as one million in Kibera, Africa's largest such settlement, in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. Slum Survivors, IRIN's first full-length documentary, tells some of their stories.
Kenya's electoral commission has named 27 December as the date for elections. Presidential, parliamentary and civic polls will be held simultaneously and are expected to be closely contested. President Mwai Kibaki is running for a second five-year term, having won an election in 2002 to replace former long-time leader Daniel arap Moi.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) office in Sanaa is to create and manage a database that will register migrants and asylum seekers from Africa who have arrived in Yemen by sea after crossing the Gulf of Aden, according to Stefano Tamagnini, head of office. Tamagnini, who said his office was still seeking funding for the project, told IRIN the database would be crucial since it will contain all information about African migrants coming to Yemen. However, he said his office would not be in a position to manage the database for new arrivals without donor support.
Ongoing clashes coupled with a lack of central government control are crippling attempts to develop a national AIDS strategy in Somalia, where thousands have been displaced and are living in temporary shelters, with little access to basic healthcare.
Comlan Houessou certainly knows what he is talking about when it comes to the impact of AIDS on rural communities. He is a farmer in Benin who has lost everything because of HIV: the respect of his neighbours, his savings and his land. He is now fighting to rebuild his life.
Fighters of Burundi's last active rebel group have for the second time in one week attacked a position occupied by a break-away faction, forcing villagers to flee their homes, a senior military official said. The evening raid by combatants of the Front National de Liberation (FNL), led by Agathon Rwasa, took place on 24 October evening on a site where the so-called FNL "dissidents" have gathered in Gakungwe village of Kabezi commune in Bujumbura Rural province.
A donation of US$150 million to a 10-year water project in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Senegal and nine other countries in Africa and Central America by the Howard G. Buffet Foundation could be the start of a much-needed injection of donor innovation into the relief sector, non-governmental organisations involved in the project say.
The government of Swaziland announced this week that it would be allocating thousands of hectares to a private company to cultivate cassava for biofuel. About 40 percent of the country's one million people are facing acute food and water shortages. "The cassava ethanol project has restarted the debate on how the country should use its agriculture land," said Sipho Mthetfwa, an agriculture extension officer in Shiselweni Region in the south of the country.
The Maghrib region wich is considered the richest part of the African continent is experiencing a slow uptake of ICTs. Figures released by the United Nations Development Programme in Algiers show a timid evolution of ICTs in the Maghreb region with only 2,5% of Internet penetration.
Police may have killed hundreds of people in a crackdown on Kenya's notorious Mungiki gang, a rights group said on Thursday, in a growing national controversy ahead of a presidential election in December. The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights said it suspects police dumped hundreds of bodies in a Nairobi mortuary before lack of space forced them to use secluded bushland outside the capital.
Nigeria's House of Representatives adjourned for another week on Tuesday as warring sides in the ruling party prolonged a crisis over alleged corruption. Nigeria's lower chamber has been paralysed for weeks since Speaker Patricia Etteh, a former beautician, was found by a House panel to have broken rules in awarding contracts worth $5-million to renovate two official houses and buy 10 cars.
Air pollution is so bad in Cairo that living in the sprawling city of 18-million residents is said to be akin to smoking 20 cigarettes a day. According to the World Health Organisation, the average Cairene ingests more than 20 times the acceptable level of air pollution a day. A 2002 World Bank report estimates that pollution causes $2,42-billion-worth of environmental damage each year, about 5% of Egypt's annual gross domestic product.
A new partnership has been launched to address the declining state of the world’s fresh water supply and the lack of access to clean water services by the world’s poorest people. The Global Water Initiative (GWI) brings together a group of seven leading international NGOs, including Action Against Hunger (ACF) – USA, CARE, Catholic Relief Services (CRS), The World Conservation Union (IUCN), International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), Oxfam America and SOS Sahel – UK.
The brutal regime of Samuel Doe ran up much of Liberia's illegitimate debt, with no benefit to the people of Liberia. Today, Liberia has a $4.5 billion debt to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and other creditors. During the years of civil war, Liberia failed to make its scheduled payments, resulting in huge arrears, which the IMF insists must be cleared before Liberia can enter the debt cancellation process.
None of us know when we might need the services of an effective human rights organization to defend us, our families, colleagues and communities, or even our way of life. What is certain is that we will need them at some point in our lives. That is why we all have an interest in making sure that the individuals who have chosen this difficult job are allowed to do their jobs without pressure and intimidation.
As the Zanu PF power struggle rages on, President Robert Mugabe has all but secured the endorsement he desperately needs to be the party's presidential candidate in next year's elections. What remains is an automatic approval of his candidacy at the party's extraordinary congress in December, it became evident this week.
The government has pledged to investigate opposition allegations of state sanctioned violence against its supporters, apparently under pressure from South Africa, which is mediating in the Zimbabwe crisis, to keep the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) at the negotiating table. MDC officials, who attended a meeting with Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi at his offices in Harare yesterday told journalists that the Minister made an undertaking to investigate charges by the opposition of a new wave of Zanu PF attacks against its supporters.
The Mugabe regime’s plans to acquire state-of-the-art anti-riot gear to use against the opposition ahead of next year’s elections have been foiled, the MDC says. Allegations that Zanu PF had made proposals to the South African government to buy US$1,5 million worth of military equipment came to light at a meeting convened by Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi and officials from the main opposition party.
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information has condemned the denial of the right to travel and movement inflicted upon former prisoner of conscience, lawyer Mohamed Abbu by the Tunisian authorities. He was prohibited from travelling to Cairo to attend the trial of Ibrahim Essa, editor in chief of the independent "Aldostur". The trial is set to take place on 24 October 2007.
On 22 October 2007, Chief Justice Johnnie Lewis threatened to imprison journalists for committing such "infractions" as "misspelling his name", "giving him wrong and inappropriate titles" and "attaching his photos to stories that have nothing to do with him in their papers." Lewis made the threats in open court, with the heads of several newspapers in attendance by invitation. The session was also attended by other members of the Supreme Court.
Pambazuka News 324: Haiti: The disapearance of Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine
Pambazuka News 324: Haiti: The disapearance of Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine
A United States appellate court on Friday allowed claims brought by victims of apartheid against dozens of major companies to go forward, saying a lower court erred in ruling it did not have jurisdiction over the matter. The corporations named in the suits include oil companies such as BP and Exxon Mobil, banks such as Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and UBS, as well as other multinationals such as IBM, General Motors and Ford.
Microsoft Research has issued a worldwide RFP to incubate creative and novel healthcare solutions that are accessible, affordable, and relevant for ‘smart’ mobile phones. Microsoft Research will support selected academic research with the goal of advancing the state-of-the-art in ‘smart’ cell phones for healthcare applications. Successful projects must seek to increase the capacity of cell phone-based healthcare solutions in under-served rural and urban communities. They must also take into consideration the social context of application deployment. deadline for submission of proposals is October 29, 2007.
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/324/blogs_01_afrigadget.gif World junk – Africa recycles! I find my more and more of my friends are recycling household waste including food for fertilizer but there is still a lack of imagination in using junk as art or simply repairing a consumer item such as phones, computers, cameras etc. In Africa and other parts of the Global South it’s a different story. African Gadget presents a short photo essay of sculpture, Simon Mwangi who
“calls himself a mabati (sheet metal) blacksmith. He takes junk and creates beautiful metal animal sculptures. If you happen by his roadside shop on Ngong Road in Nairobi, you’ll see a number of crocodiles and if you’re lucky, a full sized giraffe”
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/324/blogs_02_kameelah.gifKameelah Writes along with thousands of other bloggers, participates in the “National Day of Panhandling for Reparations” across the United States.
“I am participating in this performance because I believe that a conversation about reparations has been pushed aside for way too long. This country has paid reparations for some of its past injustices, but not for slavery. Why not? I am sitting with this sign to show that I want reparations for American Slavery to move forward.
You can participate too. Bloggers- spread this post to any and all blogs that you belong to. This performance is a great way to generate dialogue and re-energize the stalled conversation about reparations, and a great way to show the power of blogs for connecting people, art, social issues and dialogue!”
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/324/blogs_03_olawunmi.gifSilent Storms in an Ocean of One comments on the recent attack by armed robbers on Nigerian rapper 2face idibia
“this was an act of needless violence, but who protects us? where do we get justice when the people charged with protecting the nation are among the very rank of murderers and thieves? last year my dad got robbed at a chackpoint by men he was certain to be policemen. his car was taken and he was left on the streets with no means of contacting his family. at least he was unharmed. most people are not so blessed.
2face idibia has struggled all his life to get where he has. what he really needs to do is be allowed to enjoy the success that his God-given talent has brought him. but to some people he's just another wealthy mark to be robed and harmed for loot. but why did they have to shoot him? at least if you leave the victim alone they have their lives to live, and with time they will replace what was taken. but how do you replace a life, or a limb? and how do you console a family whose joy has been stolen by a random act of violence?”
As usual in Nigeria there are rumors surrounding the attack such as it was not random but someone or group attacked him out of jealousy, he is dead, he is not dead, he was robbed, he was not robbed and so on. Whatever happened armed robbery such as this is endemic in the country and has been for the past 30 years. Members of my own family have been victims as have friends and friends of friends.. Who in Nigeria does not know someone who has been a victim of this type of crime?
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/324/blogs_04_ajao.gifOluniyi David Ajao comments on why paypal and other electronic payment systems are not available in Nigeria and has started an online campaign to try to rectify the situation and ask for PayPal to be available in the country.
“Whatever their reasons are, I am using this blog post to agitate that full Paypal services be made available to residents of Nigeria so they can fully partake in global e-commerce.
Are you a Nigerian resident in Nigeria? Do you agree that Paypal services should be available to Nigeria? Share your thoughts here and now by posting your comment”
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/324/blogs_05_curiosity.gifNigerian Curiosity writes on the failure of Bill Gates to obtain a Nigerian visa.
“Apparently, Mr. Gates recently needed a visa for a planned visit to Nigeria. He was initially refused said visa on the premise that the authorities required proof he would not reside in Nigeria indefinitely, which would cause a strain on social services.
Eventually, the situation was cleared and Mr. Gates received a tourist visa to travel to the country of my fathers. He had to get a letter from his bank, though.” Hilarious!
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/324/blogs_06_ntwiga.gifSome music for a change.Steve Ntwiga is my favourite blog for African music. He specialises in seeking out old tunes and bands from the 60s and 70s. Everything here is wonderful and I only wish I knew where he found these gems.
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/324/blogs_07_bennloxo.gifStaying with the music theme – Benn Loxo is the next best African music blog to Steve’s and in this post he features some rumba music from Tanzania
“There’s something really sexy about the word ‘rumba’. It’s also a bit of a misnomer in that over the years it came to represent a variety of Cuban-influenced musical styles popular across Africa, not all of them ‘rumba’ in its original sense.
While the heart of rumba was in the country-formerly-known-as-Zaire, there were many great groups in other countries as well. One reason is the civil war that erupted in Belgium Congo during the 1960s. It forced many Congolese musicians out of the country, a bunch of whom ended up in Tanzania”
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/324/blogs_08_bl.gifBlack Looks comments on the findings by the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission that the US government has been funding anti-gay and lesbian organisations in Uganda as well as supporting Iran and Cameroon in preventing gay rights groups from having consultative status at the UN.
"The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) has published a disturbing story reporting that the US Government has been funding anti gay and lesbian groups in Uganda such as the Makerere University Community Church and the Ugandan Muslim Tabliqh Women’s Desk who have said they will form an “anti-gay squad to fight homosexuality.”
“The US has also supported Cameroon and Iran in preventing gay rights groups from having consultative status at the UN. At the same time that the US government is funding anti gay and lesbian organisations, it’s own State Department has issued a report on human rights giving details of abuses by some governments based on “sexual orientation and gender identity”. Not surprisingly the report failed to include the US government’s own human rights record in the report.”
* Sokari Ekine is Online Editor for Pambazuka News
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/324/43763-from-jhelum-to-tana.j... a personal journey to find her history and identity, angered by the lack of recognition given to Indians in Kenya's fight for independence and inspired by a portrait of her great-grandfather, it took Neera Kapur-Dromson five years to create the book, “From Jhelum to Tana.” A fourth generation Kenyan of Indian origin, Neera Kapur-Dromson was born in Nairobi, where she grew up. At the feet of gurus in India, she studied the art of Indian classical dance. She continues to perform Odissi, a style of dance from the eastern state of Orissa, and regularly writes articles on socio-cultural subjects; From Jhelum to Tana is her first book.
Jhelum is a river that flows through Miani, a little town in Punjab now in Pakistan. This is where Lala Kirparam Ramchand, the author's mother's grandfather, was born. His ashes were released into the Tana - a river in Kenya, eastern Africa, which flows out into the Indian Ocean. India was where he was born; Kenya was where he spent the better half of his life. It was where he experienced Kenya's wilderness - hunting zebras and dodging lions during the building of the railway; and the enchantment of Kenya's old coastal towns - Lamu, Malindi, Mombasa. He started a thriving business, gave rise to many generations, endured the Second World War, the end of colonialism, and survived outbreaks of cholera and malaria. “From Jhelum to Tana” is a personal account of Kapur's family history from 1898 - the time her great-grandfather sailed from India to Kenya in a dhow - till today. It is more than a personal family story being passed down.
Kapur, using her vibrant imagination and through many conversations with her mother, extended family, and friends, pieces together each family member's individual personality, re-living their lives a century ago. She traveled different continents, explored libraries, old towns, and archives and read numerous books to produce both a family story and a historical documentary, where the twists and turns of family life are intertwined with African and Indian legends and the political and global scenario at the time. The thorough research that has been done is clearly visible. Interwoven into this family story is a history of many nations and many races - Kenya, India, Europe and their ethnic communities. In this rich and informative book, Kapur re-tells history as seen from the point of view of an ordinary citizen, and touches on issues such as race, culture, values and politics. The book is aimed at focused readers who take the effort to shift their thinking back and forth from one era, one country, and one continent to another.
The author gives our ancestors a personality, a character. She put herself in her ancestors' shoes and took the time and effort to ask questions that are not frequently asked; questions about infidelity, family politics, traditions and home truths. Kapur exposes intimate family stories, and in the Asian community, where people like to keep certain things secretive and private, this is a very daring thing to do. But she feels she has to, and she should. “So many people refused to divulge information,” says the author. The book quenches curious minds, answers complex questions and raises just as many. It leaves the readers with a different mindset and it serves as the perfect platform to begin one's own introspection into your family roots, your country's roots - the country you were born in, live in or work in. This book is important not only for Kenyans and South East Asians, but generally for migrants and the diasporas; it opens eyes, and provides an insight into many cultures and traditions. It has facts, figures and priceless information about cultures and periods of history hardly known to even our descendants. Adding to its honest wholesomeness, on the one hand the book is emotionally and spiritually involving and on the other hand, it raises issues of universal philosophical value.
In the realm of African-Indian writing, fiction writer Moyez Vassanji takes the lead, and after the acclaim he has received, it is difficult to surpass him. In that respect, Kapur's choice of writing a memoir/biography is perfect.
Conversely, due to the myriad of topics and mass of information contained in this book, some areas lack continuity of story making the book seem patchy. A reader may get lost with all the relations, which is especially possible when it involves large Asian families. It is the type of book that one must read a second time to get a full grasp of.
In Nairobi, in her mother's garden surrounded by jacaranda trees, Kapur and her mother spent long hours at the breakfast table discussing the generations gone by. In this same garden I sat with the author. Talking to her was like going behind the scenes into the making of a saga; an essential piece of literature that will make part of history. There could not have been a more appropriate time for this book to materialize… Our globalized, multi-cultural environment is literally driving us to search for or cling to our identity and roots; to appreciate other cultures through sharing. Kapur could not have said it better, “As people of different cultures we must look at our common identities, and rather than always picking on our differences, concentrate on our similarities.”
* Heer Raja is a passionate young woman, driven by curiosity and striving to be authentic. She has a huge fascination with the human mind.
* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
ADAD Statement 10/10/07 - Objections to Transfer of Cases to Rwanda ADAD Denounces the Transfer of ICTR Cases to Rwanda as a Violation of the Rights of the Accused to a Fair Trial and Urges the ICTR Judges to Reject the Prosecution's Motions for Transfer The Association of Defence Attorneys at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) unequivocally condemns the transfer of any cases to Rwanda.
"In this fascinating history of the Guardian, South Africa's famous anti-apartheid newspaper, James Zug tells the story of a political publication that not only reported events but also helped to shape them. Between 1937 and 1963, the Guardian was the sole voice of dissent in the South African media, and Zug shows us how it played an essential role in the struggle to end apartheid."
Last Friday was the two-month anniversary of the abduction of Haitian human rights activist Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine. Lovinsky has been one of Haiti’s most persistent and effective human rights activists in Haiti for almost 20 years.
The Detention Monitoring Advisor will: Provide advice and training on effective visits to places of detention which have the purpose of preventing torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. In the context of the implementation of the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture (OPCAT), analyse existing or proposed visiting mechanisms to provide advice on their strengths and weaknesses as preventive bodies. Develop the in-house expertise on National Preventive Mechanisms emerging from the OPCAT. Deadline for application: 11 November 2007.
The International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) seeks a Project Co-ordinator for Middle East and North Africa (MENA) to be based in the Secretariat in Copenhagen as part of the Programme Unit. As Project Co-ordinator your key role will be to assist and communicate with the network in MENA, to develop and implement a strategy for the work in the region, and to collect and pass on the knowledge and experience in the region within the field of torture rehabilitation so that it furthers and supports the international work against torture. Deadline: Friday, 26 October 2007
The Researcher will be based in Goma, eastern DRC, and responsibilities will include, but are not limited to, monitoring violations of human rights and international humanitarian law; curbing abuses through monitoring, investigating and documenting human rights violations in DRC (with a focus on the eastern provinces); applying sound judgment to investigation, reporting and advocacy work; writing and publicizing concise and accurate reports, briefing papers, letters, press releases, op-eds and submissions to international bodies as needed, with a quick turnaround time; developing and implementing local, regional and international strategies to bring violations to the attention of the government and the international community and change abusive laws, policies and practices. Apply immediately.
DATA is looking for a media officer to join our busy European team. Excellent writing skills are essential – a degree in development, African studies or international relations is an advantage. The job involves media monitoring, drafting press releases and managing media records. We’re also looking for good IT skills, some media experience and a second language, preferably French. It’s a small team with great opportunities to learn. The pace is fast so you also need to be flexible, friendly and good at meeting deadlines. Closing date: 9 November 2007.
Applications are invited from nationals of non-OECD countries for a number of two-year fellowships to work on development and the role of developing countries in the world political economy. Up to six such fellowships will be awarded in each of the next five years, beginning in September 2008, for a year’s study at Oxford followed by a year at Princeton. Post-holders will be provided with appropriate stipends sufficient to cover full living costs. The programme intends to establish a network of leading scholar-practitioners in global governance.
CARE Danmark is seeking a technical advisor to the programme in Niger focused on community based natural resource management and civil society strengthening. The programme aims to increase livelihood security through a range of initiatives that builds the resilience of the population to high climatic variations including; access to water and pastures, diversification of livelihood strategies and support to the decentralisation process. The programme is funded by CARE Danmark, Danida and the EU with a budget of 2 million euro per year. Deadline: 5 November 2007
Our client, the Government of Rwanda (GoR) has launched a new Rwanda Investment Climate Project (RICP) aimed to strengthen and speed up the pace of investment in climate reforms in the commercial justice, business registration and land registration sectors. The Project Director will be held accountable for project delivery and achievement of its mission. Manage project resources to ensure all the three project components (commercial justice, business registration and land registration) are implemented efficiently and effectively within set timeframes as well as mantain goodwill and effective stakeholder support.
The AU Monitor has developed an African Union and Civil Society Calendar for your reference and input. The calendar will be regularly updated each month with relevant pan-African events, meetings and other important dates. Please refer to the calendar regularly and write directly to aumonitor.editor at gmail.com should you wish to add items to the calendar.
This week’s AU Monitor brings you peace and security news from the Comoros, where after a series of failed negotiations, the African Union has imposed sanctions against Anjouan authorities. While a civil society report shows that the cost of conflict on African development was approximately $300bn between 1990 and 2005.
In trade news, the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) argues that the Economic Partnership Agreements, due to be signed by the end of this year between Africa and Europe, violate international law and impede development by depriving countries of sorely needed revenue from trade taxes. While church groups are organising the Trade Week of Action from October 14-21 to call for alternatives to enforced free trade. The planned events range from hunger strikes and pickets to worship and high-profile seminars.
In health news, the AU will hold a meeting to discuss the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plan for Africa, which concludes that “local production can be successfully done in the continent. However there is need for the African countries to reassess the realities, possibilities and the feasibility of the programme so that it moves from being a political slogan to a reality after good ground work.” Further, African-American US Congressional Representative Barbara Lee has introduced the African Health Capacity Investment Act of 2007 in the US House of Representatives. The bill would authorize $600 million to train healthcare workers in Africa and provide incentives for them to stay in their home countries to reduce the brain drain, which is crippling African health care. Also in the U.S, a Court of Appeals ruled in favour of going ahead with the Khulumani v. Barclays et. al case which charges twenty three multinational corporations with aiding and abetting Apartheid. The case was initiated by eighty seven South Africans, all of whom were victims of gross human rights abuses during Apartheid. By allowing the lawsuit to go to trial, the Court is setting precedent for the possibility of corporations to be held account for human rights abuses outside of their home countries.
At the United Nations, Alfredo Tjiurimo Hengari argues that Security Council reform is critical as the United Nations “has not itself transformed and designed the necessary institutions of governance consistent with the noble ideals that drive modern democratic societies” as stated by President Thabo Mbeki at the General Assembly in New York.
STUDENTS’ UNION. Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife
October 14, 2007
Press Statement:
Release Akinola Saburi, Dairo Olatunde and Taiwo Hassan Now!!
The students' union of Obafemi Awolowo University, (OAU) Ile-Ife condemn in absolute terms, the abduction of two union leaders - Dairo Olatunde (public relations officer) and Hassan Taiwo Hussein (National Coordinator of the Education Rights Campaign, ERC) for unjustified reasons. They were abducted at Sport Centre of the OAU while leaving the campus. According to information, they were seriously beaten up and forced into a station wagon car by the men suspected to be members of State Security Service (SSS) and the university's security unit called crackers at the instance of the vice chancellor, Prof. Michael Oladimeji Faborode. We do not know their destination till now.
Furthermore, we condemn the unwholesome closure of the university by the OAU management on a frivolous excuse of giving students "a mid semester break". To further show the intolerant and high-handedness of the Prof. Faborode-led management, heavily armed mobile policemen were drafted to the campus to chase out innocent students after forcing them to abdicate their academic works for no just reason.
The university was suddenly closed down on the night of Wednesday, 10th October, 2007 while students were asked to leave the campus within less than fifteen (15) hours. Students held a congress on the morning of Thursday, 11th October at Awolowo hall and collectively rejected the school closure on the basis that they are not animals who will be forced out of the campus at the whims and caprices of the vice chancellor without due regard to their wishes. Students also questioned the sincerity of the management which refused to grant just one week compulsory lecture free week in February (and rather preferred to close down the campus indefinitely) but is now giving a Greek gift of about two weeks mid-semester break! Yet, it is the same management that will be blackmailing the union leadership of trying to disrupt the academic calendar. We also condemn the closure on the basis that it will cause disruption of the calendar which will lead to mass failure as was witnessed last semester. Consequently, students embarked on peaceful protest to drive home their demand for a review of the closure on Thursday, October 11, 2007. Rather than heed to the request of the students, the Prof. Faborode-led management brought in mobile police men to attack students. This has led to attack on students especially the female students who were in the hall of residence as at the time the police came to campus. According to reports, the students, especially the female students were beaten by the mobile policemen. We are still collating names of those affected.
It is also at this point that Dairo Olatunde and Hassan Taiwo were arrested. We view their arrest as an attempt to stiffen progressive voices on the campus as against the reactionary rulership of Prof. Faborode-ed management. It is worthy of note to state that since the beginning of Prof. Faborode regime, the university has not known peace. In the last six months, three union leaders who are critical of the management style have been arrested/abducted by the management while other leaders are being witch hunted. Also, within the same six months, the campus has been closed down three times while over N20 million has been used to attack the students' union and its leadership. The welfare conditions of students have never been so bad as water is not constant (and not potable) while electricity supply has been erratic, yet hundreds of million was collected from students by the Faborode's administration.
The arrest of Dairo and Hassan to us is an attempt to stop the students from solidarising with their leader, Akinola Saburi who has been illegally arrested by SSS men and whose case is coming up on Monday, 15th October, 2007 at Osogbo High Court. This to us is a violation of Section 40 of the Nigerian constitution and Section 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 which guarantee freedom of expression and association. We therefore condemn the role of the Nigerian police and the SSS for being tools of oppressing Nigerian students. Unlike what the university management wants the whole world to believe that the students' union is causing crisis, it is the management, in connivance with the security agencies - SSS and the Osun State Police Command that has been precipitating crisis in order to attack the union and its leaders.
We see the current attack on the union as a reflection of the undemocratic nature of running our ivory towers and the deliberate under funding of education by the neo-liberal Yar'Adua's government. This is further confirmed by the deliberate criminal silence of the federal government on the OAU crisis while the apparatus of government especially the police and the SSS are being used to intimidate students' leaders who have been at the forefront of the agitation for proper funding of education and egalitarian Nigerian economy; and yet we are made to believe that Nigeria is a democratic state.
Consequently, we demand:
1. Immediate release of Akinola Saburi (OAU students' union president), Dairo Olatunde (Pubic Relations Officer) and Hassan Taiwo Hussein(Coordinator, Education Rights Campaign) and end to culture of victimization. We also demand for N100 million damages for them by the SSS for this illegal arrest.
2. Immediate reopening of the university
3. Immediate removal of the vice chancellor, Prof. Michael Oladimeji Faborode and his kitchen cabinet for high-handedness and gross mismanagement. This is necessary in order to avoid further crisis.
4. Immediate probe of the Prof. Faborode-led management by a democratic committee and arraignment of its officers if found guilty.
5. Improvement in the welfare conditions of students including provision of constant power supply, potable water supply, enough lecture rooms and hostel facilities, etc.
6. End to education commercialization and privatization. For massive funding of education by at least 26 percent of the budget as prescribed by UNESCO.
7. Democratic running of the education sector at all levels to include representatives of ASUU, NASU, ASUP, NUT, SSANU, COEASU, students' unions, etc.
Finally, we enjoin the general public to ignore all propaganda of the university management while we also call on labour and civil society organisations to prevail on the government to take action. OAU students are known to be non-destructive even at the point of the worst provocation; we shall not renege on this principle but we shall not stop in fighting oppression and misuse of power by people like Prof. Faborode. We wish to end by saying that if anything untoward should happen to Akinola Saburi, Dairo Olatunde and Hassan Taiwo Hussein, we shall hold the university management, the Nigerian police and the SSS responsible.
In the struggle for independent unionism, properly-funded, democratically-run education system, nationalization of the Nigerian economy, we shall remain undaunted.
* Signed Ogumah Segun Andrew, Speaker. Oyedeji Nurudeen, Clerk
* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/324/43776-Sankara.jpgKoni Benson and Mukoma Wa Ngugi interview Aziz Fall, Co-ordinator of the International Campaign for Justice for Sankara (ICJS) on the 20th anniversary of the assassination of Thomas Sankara.
President Thomas Sankara, affectionately referred to as Africa’s Che Guevera was assassinated in Burkina Faso on October 15th, 1987. Twenty years later, his assassins remain in power and continue to reverse the revolutionary changes Sankara initiated.
We interviewed Aziz Fall, the co-ordinator of the International Justice Campaign for Sankara (ICJS) who has been receiving ongoing anonymous death threats since December 2006. He has been co-ordinating 22 lawyers from France, to Senegal, Canada, Togo and beyond, dedicated to using legal means to find the truth behind Sankara’s assassination.
We started the interview by asking Aziz Fall about the death threats against him and his family, and about ICJS and the UN judgements on Sankara’s assassination. We then asked him about some of Sankara’s achievements in relation to the emancipation of women, education, and neo-colonialism in the 1980s, and then moved onto questions about power, politics, and policies in Burkina Faso under President Blaise Compaoré who has been in power since Sankara's assassination in 1987. Lastly, the interview reflects on Sankara’s legacy and his continuing relevance in this age of globalisation.
Aziz, Can you please tell us the nature of the death threats? What do they say? Do have an idea of where they are coming from? Are they from the government? Third parties? Is it one person or several people etc?
Thank you. I’ve received four death threats since December 2006. Three letters in bubble envelopes left in the mailbox at my front door. The first one was simple and said “stop or be stopped,” the second was similar but didn’t mention my name, and the third was a little more explicit, mentioning my name, asking me “to commit suicide or face execution.” I filed a complaint with the police in March 2007.
Then, in April, after the screening of a film on Thomas Sankara in Montreal, a young Burkinabé journalist, Sam Kah, who appeared in the film, received a threat, according to the organising committee of the Thomas Sankara 20th anniversary commemorations. The committee had invited both of us to their activities which take place Oct 11-15th, 2007. Following the threat against Sam Kah, I decided to tell the committee members about my own death threats, which I had previously hidden from them because I was worried it would have a demobilising effect.
They issued a press release concerning the threats against the two of us. A couple of days later, I received another threat, this time by phone. A man with a strange accent warned me that neither the police nor my lawyers would be able to protect me, and that since I still didn’t understand, my family would be targeted first, then me.
At about this time, someone tried, unsuccessfully, to break into my home through the back door. This was discovered as we were installing an alarm system.
We don't know exactly who is behind these threats. But we have good evidence that a Frenchman and two Africans have something to hide, because they have been caught in a number of lies and contradictions. The police and CSIS, Canada’s spy agency, are still investigating. That’s all I can say at this point.
It is unacceptable that as an advocate of freedom and justice, I am being physically threatened in a country that promotes these basic values around the world. We have approached the Canadian authorities about this situation, and we have great hope that they will do everything to solve the matter.
Can you briefly talk about the International Campaign Justice for Sankara (ICJS) and GRILA? How does the United Nations judgement (in which the Committee considers that the refusal to conduct an investigation into the death of Thomas Sankara, the lack of official recognition of his place of burial and the failure to correct the death certificate constitute inhuman treatment of Ms.Sankara and her sons, in breach of article 7 of the Covenant) affect the search for justice on behalf of Sankara?
Sankara's widow, Mariam Sankara, and his two sons never abandoned their call to the international community to take action to bring his assassins to justice. Ten years ago, the Group for Research and Initiative for the Liberation of Africa (GRILA, an internationalist and panafricanist group) answered that call by creating an international campaign with a twofold strategy involving a political component and a legal one. I had the honour of co-ordinating a team of 22 lawyers, which put together a case for a full investigation into the murder of President Sankara and a dozen of his colleagues.
The government of Burkina Faso, under the presidency of Blaise Compaoré, along with a highly compromised judicial system, blocked all efforts by the Campaign to bring the case to court. After exhausting all possible legal recourse within the country, the Campaign brought the case before United Nations Human Rights Committee. Just over one year ago, the UN Human Rights Committee ruled in favour of the International Justice for Sankara Campaign, and demanded that the government of Burkina Faso take action to shed light on the circumstances of Sankara's death.
(See )
That was actually a world first, and certainly a legal precedent in Africa, creating a breach in the cycles of impunity that characterize the political life of our continent. There is also a link between the Sankara case and the trial of Charles Taylor, the former Liberian head of state, who plotted with Compaoré in the assassination of Sankara. We expect the final UN judgement to be announced later this year and really hope that it will represent a major step forward in the global struggle against impunity.
What were some of Sankara's achievements, be it in the emancipation of women, education or rolling back neo-colonialism?
Our organisation (GRILA) and the revolution in Burkina Faso are the exact same age and we have many things in common. So we may sound pretty subjective when it comes to our assessment of what was achieved in those three years. Sankara tried to put into practice most of the key elements of our own philosophy; among other things, the destruction of all forms of racism and ethnocentrism, with the Bambaata summit and the anti-apartheid struggle; the respect of collective and human rights; the struggle against regimes allied with imperialist interests; a balance between rural and urban incomes; food self-sufficiency; the fulfilment of basic needs. A key issue for Sankara was the political, economic and social emancipation of women and the transformation of sexist mentalities. That particular aspect was crucial in a very traditional society where sexism was so with entrenched. Men were invited to go to the market once a week, women were appointed to key State positions, and civic rights and the constitution granted women important advantages.
While there were mistakes and contradictions due to the weakness of his alliances, Sankara was steadfast in focusing on other key issues as well, issues that are still cornerstones to our own work, namely, popular and civic participation, popular democracy and the promotion and empowerment of Africa's youth. Sankara promoted self-reliant, ecologically sustainable development, and invited locals and foreigners alike to plant trees; the emergence of regional panafricanist states that were politically and economically accountable to their citizens, as evidenced by his attempts to unite with Ghana. Sankara was committed to fighting corruption, and personally served as a very modest example, refusing to live a life of luxury and reigning in any tendencies by those within his government toward ostentatious consumption.
Are some of these changes still visible or has the Compaoré government managed to erase all of them?
While the Sankarist regime laid the ground for stability and a better form of development, it is clear that the international order ensured that Compaoré's regime did not take the same path. Compaoré’s regime was also involved in the Liberian and Sierra Leonean crises and wars, generating tremendous wealth for itself. The government has become very wealthy, which has allowed it to bribe some of the opposition elite, while intimidating or killing others. Within the framework of the neo-liberal agenda and the French zone of influence among its former African colonies, the regime has been able to establish a formal democracy and to reproduced itself, and in so doing has widened the gap between the haves and the have nots.
Compaoré has recently amended the constitution so that he can run for a third term which means he will have been in power from 1987 to 2012.
A very common phenomenon in Africa indeed. It's a pity, but history will judge. Killing your comrades and opponents and tailoring the constitution to fit your needs is nothing new. Even if the population is frightened, and busy surviving the harsh conditions of unequal development, there is no doubt that one day it will rise up against this.
How do the people of Burkina Faso regard Sankara today? Is he still part of the political imagination?
In general, people have a lot of admiration for him despite of the regime’s anti-Sankara propaganda and intimidation. The teenage generation doesn't know him well, and many may just know him as an icon. However, it is heartening that at the African social forum in Bamako, Sankara was chosen as a leading model. As my comrade Ameth Lô wrote, “The Sankarist alternative remains, therefore, entirely relevant in addressing issues surrounding development and lasting sovereignty. It is a panafricanist socialist alternative, focused uniquely on meeting the needs of the African masses, impoverished by decades of structural adjustment programs that had no results other than to ensure continued payments to shameless creditors for the so-called debt that's not only immoral—since a third of the initial debt has been repaid—but also because the borrowed funds were never injected into the economic and social fabric of these countries.” (see http://www.grila.org/e_forum.htm)
We'll see how the population will react on October 15, but it is clear that Sankara is going to be celebrated in many countries this year, which has been named Sankara Year by his supporters. That is surely a great sign of vitality and political imagination!
How does Sankara challenge the idea of revolution today? What is his legacy? What is his continuing relevance in this age of globalisation?
I think that GRILA is living proof of that legacy, and that the struggle that is at stake, in this process of so-called African union and various attempts at integration, has to consider what we are still advocating, namely: democracy and progressive strategies that focus on self-reliant and popular development. Africa should rely more on its own forces, within a socialist and panafricanist perspective, and develop strong ties with other third world countries. This form of development entails subordinating external demands to internal needs. A consciousness that is increasingly homogenised by the dominant values of today's globalized world system, however, is incapable of envisaging such a path. As the Burkinabé revolution was trying to achieve, GRILA's task as well as that of any other progressive political force in Africa, should be to contribute to re-politicizing the discussion around development, fostering a new political consciousness, and channelling the efforts of an organic intelligentsia that will be capable of building an alternative to the disorder now ravaging Africa.
How are these challenges being addressed today—locally and internationally?
For us it is important to continue the work. We will not be intimidated. Locally the Sankarist movement, despite numerous factions, is more united and better organized. In many African countries and in the Diaspora, Sankarist clubs and associations are mushrooming. A lot of people expect that history will repeat itself in a cyclical fashion. But each society is confronted with new challenges, and will take different roads. It appears to me that as long as the contradictions of capitalism deepen, and societies continued to be destroyed by the capitalist way of life and production, we have no choice but to invent more progressive and internationalist paths in order to tackle the barbarism of globalisation and the forces that dominate it.
* Koni Benson is a researcher at the International Labour Research and Information Group in Cape Town.
* Mukoma Wa Ngugi is the author of Hurling Words at Consciousness (AWP, 2006) Conversing with Africa: Politics of Change (KPH, 2003), and editor of the forthcoming, New Kenyan Fiction (Ishmael Reed Publications, 2008). He is a political columnist for the BBC Focus on Africa Magazine.
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/324/43777-Lovinsky.jpgOn the evening of 11th August 2007 Haitian and global activist, Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine disappeared and has not been seen since. Ben Terral of Haiti Action contrasts the Haiti of the US and their proxy army the MINUSTAH with the real Haiti of Lovinsky, the Lavalas movement and the masses of Haitian people.
In the August 9, 2007 Washington Times, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon described his late July visit to the Haitian shantytown of Cite Soleil. Ki-moon trumpets armed incursions waged by the UN mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) and their success in establishing “security,” and concludes, “I am convinced Haiti is at a turning point. Long the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, seemingly forever mired in political turmoil, it at long last has a golden chance to begin to rebuild itself. With the help of the international community -- and the United Nations in particular -- it can.”
On a July visit to Haiti, most of the people I spoke with were less enthusiastic about the UN presence in their country. On July 28, I observed a spirited demonstration across from UN headquarters on Ave. John Brown in Port-au-Prince. The protest took the form of what Haitian activists call a “sit-in”; such actions are smaller than mass mobilization “manifestations” which involve thousands of people marching. July 28 marked the 92nd anniversary of the 1915 US Marine invasion of Haiti, which many Haitians I spoke to see as a direct precursor to the current UN presence in Haiti, given that MINUSTAH, as the mission is known, was established in 2004 to legitimize the US-backed coup regime which ousted the democratically-elected government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide. (Aristide remains in U.S.-enforced exile in South Africa.)
Several activists began posting photos of dissidents killed by military, police and death squads over the past few decades. The photos were placed on a banner that said in Kreyol, “everytime a militant falls, 1,000 will rise to take their place.”
The protestors danced as they chanted, calling out in Kreyol, “what are we asking? For MINUSTAH to leave!” This was immediately followed by a song about their deposed President, which explained “our blood is Aristide's blood.”
A bitterly angry Haitian woman informed me that her 25 year-old daughter was killed in the middle of the night by the UN during a raid on her neighborhood. She told us, “we will never forget how many people the UN has killed.” On previous trips to Haiti, I spoke to other family members of innocent civilians who became “collateral damage” – picked off for no other reason than that they were in the line of fire when UN soldiers went into assault mode on flimsily constructed, densely packed neighborhoods. In one such raid in Cite Soleil, MINUSTAH fired up to 22,000 bullets, according to declassified documents from the U.S. embassy.
The chanting continued in Kreyol: “Calling George Bush, come and get your thieves!” Then the demonstrators began moving up Avenue John Brown, to another entrance to the UN facility about a city block away.
There Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, the head of Fondasyon 30 Septanm, a Haitian human rights organization which advocates for victims of the 1991 and 2004 coup d'etats against the democratically-elected governments of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, read a statement that included this passage: “Yes in 1915 we were subjected to an imperialist, criminal and ruthless occupation. In the year 2004 we again were subjected to another imperialist, criminal and ruthless occupation, even if the dark forces tried to hide their faces behind the army of a few countries that are poor like us.” Lovinsky then added the Kreyol proverb, “Those who pay the band decide what music to play.”
Lovinsky expressed vehement opposition to President Rene Preval's extension of the UN mandate in Haiti. Though elected by the country's poor majority largely because of his past association with Aristide (he was Prime Minister in the first Aristide administration which ended in the 1991 coup), most activists I spoke to now see Preval as at best ineffectual in standing up to rightist forces. And unlike Aristide, Preval has delivered few concrete gains for the poor masses and appears to have little ability or interest in communicating to them what he plans to do to improve their lot.
At the checkpoint Lovinsky directed his bullhorn toward, Jordanian troops stood poised with weapons at the ready in front of a roadblock covered in razor wire. Brazilian, Nepalese, and Bolivian soldiers had also driven by and scrutinized the demonstration at various points.
It was striking how many different uniformed and plainclothes soldiers and officers, including a Phillipine officer wearing a beret, a French officer, and a man with a U.S. flag on his shoulder, repeatedly photographed the assembled demonstrators. UN occupation forces have worked closely with Haitian police, whose widespread use of torture and extrajudicial execution under the post-2004 coup regime has been widely documented, in reports by the University of Miami, Harvard Law School, the Institute for Justice and Democracy and other organizations. Given that holdovers from the coup period still dominate the Haitian police (as well as the judiciary and most ministries), repeatedly photographing protestors seemed more about sending a message of intimidation than a matter of developing files on the fifty mostly elderly men and women in attendance, none of whom posed any physical threat to the heavily armed UN forces.
While Ban Ki-moon praised the Haitian Senate for passing legislation aimed at “creating a legal climate more conducive to economic development and foreign investment,” Lovinsky had a more grassroots perspective at the UN demonstration: “The bourgeoisie favored an occupation which would bring it big profits.”
Certainly a key factor in Jean-Bertrand Aristide earning the enmity of the small number of Haitian super-rich, who collaborated with the U.S., France and Canada on his 2004 ouster, was his Lavalas Party government's work to provide some measure of economic justice by doubling the minimum wage and pushing elites to pay taxes. The Lavalas motto was “from misery to poverty with dignity,” not “working to create a climate more conducive to foreign exploitation.”
Poor Lavalas supporters were swept up en masse throughout the “interim” coup government of 2004-2006. (One of the more prominent current political prisoners, Lavalas grassroots organizer Rene Civil, who helped mobilize thousands in demonstrations to demand the return of Aristide, was arrested on trumped-up charges after Preval took office.) I spoke to a young man in the horrifically overcrowded downtown penitentiary in Port-au-Prince who has been trying with no success to get evidence of his innocence to a judge. His lawyer told me his client was picked up by police in a sweep after the business he worked in was robbed, then he was the one “suspect” police held on to after scrutinizing his history as a nonviolent Lavalas activist.
Untold numbers of other prisoners who identify as Lavalas remain in jail in similarly dubious circumstances. Some have been inside since the 2004 coup without once having seen a judge. One current prisoner estimated that more than 65% of those in the main penitentiary are there for political reasons. Given that I have heard repeatedly from prisoners and families of prisoners that they were offered freedom for cash payments of thousands of U.S. dollars they did not have, in a very real sense these people have been criminalized for being poor.
Incredibly, the outgoing head of UN peacekeeping operations in Haiti, Guatemalan Edmond Mulet gave a recent interview in which he admitted how awful jail conditions are: “We are victims of our own success. They are completely overcrowded. They even have to take turns now to sit or to lie down or to sleep because there is not enough room. So they take turns. They sleep for four hours and then are woken up so the others can sleep. It's pretty horrible. And the sanitary conditions, you have cells that were made for four people and you have
40 or 50 in them. And this poses not only security problems, but also on human rights issue as well. So we are hoping some countries will be interested in putting a remedy to this.”
Mulet went on, “One of the problems we have in Haiti is most of the inmates are in preventive detention mode. They have probably never seen a judge, there's no formal accusation, there's no file, there's nothing. Some of them probably stole a chicken and probably the penalty for that would be five days in jail and they've been in jail two or three years."
Meanwhile anti-Aristide death squad thugs, including perpetrators of the April 1994 Raboteau massacre of Lavalas supporters, convicted and jailed under Haiti's democratic governments are still roaming free after being sprung from jail by paramilitaries who did the dirty work of the 2004 coup.
The sense of solidarity the poor still have for Aristide (a Port-au-Prince resident told me, ‘Aristide was trying to help the lower classes -- that's why he was kidnapped”; the graffiti “VIV RETOU TITID,” or “long live the return of Aristide,” was everywhere) is indicative of the resilience of the popular movement for social and economic justice in Haiti. But given that the current UN mission in the country was established to support a status quo at odds with that popular movement, renewing the UN mandate there will only be another barrier to real democracy and progressive change for the vast majority of Haitians.
ADDENDUM:
On Tuesday, September 18, the Bay Area-based Haiti Action Committee (HAC) held a rally in downtown San Francisco to call attention to the unresolved kidnapping of veteran Haitian human rights activist Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine.
Robert Roth, a San Francisco high school teacher and long-time solidarity activist who took part in a delegation to Haiti in late July (which this writer joined in Port-au-Prince), spoke first at the rally. Roth explained, “It's been over a month since Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine has disappeared. He is a human rights worker, he's a psychologist, he's worked with victims of torture from the coup of 1991-1994. He's continued his human rights advocacy in Haiti during this recent coup in 2004, a coup organized and created by the United States government.”
Roth continued, “When we were there in Haiti, we met with Lovinsky at his house, he talked to us about the current situation in Haiti and how the human rights violations continue against the people. He talked to us about political prisoners, and how they continue to be held in Haiti under the UN occupation, and how they continue to be held under the Preval government.”
Roth added, “He is a deep thinker, and he is a very, very important leader of the people's movement in Haiti. And he has disappeared for over a month, and that's a crime against the people of Haiti, it's a crime against anyone who believes in freedom and justice. It's a crime against anyone who believes in peace and dignity and human rights and all the things that we cherish. And so our hearts are with him wherever he is. And we will not give up. We will not give up our solidarity with Lovinsky. We will not give up hope for his safe return, we will not give up our demand that the authorities in Haiti account for his disappearance, and bring him safely back to his family, his people. And we don't see this as just about Lovinsky. It's about the people of Haiti, it's about the people of Iraq, it's about the people of Palestine, it's about the people of the Philippines, wherever people are fighting for justice. And so we take a moment here to honor him, and we take a moment to let people all over the world now that Lovinsky is with us, we're with him, and we'll continue to be out here until he returns home safely.”
HAC co-founder Pierre Labossiere echoed that internationalist perspective in his comments about “this beautiful brother, psychologist, human rights worker, someone who's at the forefront of the movement for justice, for economic and social justice for the people of Haiti, and for people throughout the world." Labossiere noted that when a member of the July delegation who was helping organize a Human Rights Tribunal on crimes committed during Katrina told Lovinsky of that New Orleans-based solidarity initiative, “Lovinsky said, ‘how do I support it? Let me sign up.’ […] As a matter of fact he was supposed to attend the tribunal when he disappeared three weeks before, the actual tribunal took place. So Lovinsky is one of those brothers who care for people world-wide, he's just … not limited to Haiti. He sees the struggle for justice, and human rights,and equality as a world-wide struggle, and that people need to rally around from wherever you are from and link arms with each other, so we can have a world of peace, a world of justice, where human rights are
respected.”
Labossiere asked the San Francisco protestors to write or call “the US embassy in Haiti, to the Brazilian authorities, who are in charge of the UN mission in Haiti, to the Haitian authorities.” The message: “we need them to exert all their influence – they are very powerful, very influential – with all sectors of Haitian society, from the very top politicians to the underworld, to demand one thing: that brother Lovinsky be returned to his family safely.”
In a September 13 letter to the Brazilian government, Dominican Sister Stella Goodpasture of the Mission of San Jose, emphasized that her appeal was not a request “for the Brazilian mission in Port-au-Prince to crack down militarily as they have in the past. What we are asking for is that Brazilian officials express their concern through any and all channels that the kidnappers should negotiate with Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine's family and that Lovinsky needs to be released unharmed.”
*Ben Terrall is an activist and a member of Haiti Action –
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
More such messages to the authorities in Haiti are still needed.
Haitian Ministry of Justice
Tel: 011-509-245-0474
UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH)
Tel: 011-509-244-0650/0660
FAX: 011-509-244-9366/67
Or, Fax Office of UN Secretary General in New York: 212-963-4879
United States Embassy in Haiti
Tel: 011-509-223-4711, or 222-0200 or 0354
FAX: 011-509-223-1641
Embassy of Brazil in Haiti
FAX: 011-509-256-0900
Email:[email][email protected]
Tel: 011-509-256-9662 or 6208 or 7556 or 7578
Pambazuka News is a prize-winning electronic newsletter on social justice. It is produced by a pan-African community of some 300 citizens and organisations - academics, policy makers, social activists, women's organisations, civil society organisations, writers, artists, poets, bloggers, and commentators. We are seeking an a dynamic and energetic editor whose primary task will be leading on the development of Pambazuka News as the principal platform of progressive and critical political analysis in Africa.
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This report by the African Biodiversity Network looks at case studies in Benin, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, as well as trends elsewhere in Africa. The report indicates that big companies are seeking to convert large areas of Africa’s best land over to biofuel production, even if this means privatizing customary land, evicting farmers, raising food prices, competing for water resources, and cutting down forests and conservation areas.
One of the world’s most respected scientists is embroiled in an extraordinary row after claiming that black people are less intelligent than white people. James Watson, a Nobel Prize winner for his part in discovering the structure of DNA, has provoked outrage with his comments, made ahead of his arrival in Britain.
A Nobel prize-winning scientist who reportedly claimed Africans and Europeans had different levels of intelligence is no longer welcome to deliver a lecture at London's Science Museum, the museum said. James Watson, who won the Nobel Prize for co-discovering DNA, drew widespread outrage when he told The Sunday Times that Africans and Europeans did not share the same brain power.
Using data from a 2004 household-based survey of children, this paper examines differences between boys and girls in self reports of food insecurity in Zimbabwe. Previous studies have taken only the views of the household head into consideration in categorizing the food insecurity status of the household. By so doing, the possibilities of differential experiences of food insecurity by individual household members were ignored.
The United Nations affiliated University for Peace (UPEACE), based in Costa Rica, announces with great pleasure its forthcoming short courses related to Gender and Peacebuilding. The courses offer a combination of theoretical knowledge and practical skills, incorporating historic and current events from around the world. Each short course will be taught in an intensive three weeks periods requiring 45 hours of class work under the guidance of a highly qualified group of professor and recognized international guest lecturers.
Artists for Human Rights recently presented its International Human Rights Hero Award for 2007 at the Celebrity Centre International in Hollywood, Los Angeles USA. among the recipients of this year’s award was Sammy Jacobs Abbey, Director of the International Centre for Conflict and Human Rights Analysis (ICCHRA). His 2007 International Human Rights Hero Award was in recognition for successfully implementing Human Rights Education and leadership program in Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America, at the United Nations and all over the world, providing hope to thousands of youth and potential leaders.
Six African womens groups and individuals were among the 14 laureates feted recently by the Womens World Summit Foundation. They received awards for creativity in rural life.
The successful candidate will be expected to manage and oversee the execution of the project in all its aspects, including: financial and research management; reporting to EAPPCO, ISS, the steering committee and donors; managing donor and partner relations; overseeing and building the project team in terms of project design, quality control, methodology, capacity building and dissemination of results through publications, briefings, media and seminars
An experienced trainer, with expertise in human resource management, curriculum development, development and writing of manuals, training modules and ability to develop and present training to local, national and regional organizations. The training coordinator will build the anti cattle rustling capacity of EAPCCO member states through the development of training modules, coordination and provision of training.
"One of the key predicaments of the ongoing social and political transition in the world today is the subversion of language and ideas to create political smoke screen or delusion or to give a semblance of social and political legitimacy for the hegemonic discourse.” John Samuel argues that the use of the term Civil Society is being used as a smokescreen to give “social and political legitimacy for the hegemonic discourse".
Words are like flowers. Flowers have their own colour, texture and smell. Not every kind of flower blooms in every climate or soil. It's the same with words. Their colour, texture, smell and meaning arise organically from a particular socio-historical and cultural milieu. When demand exceeds the supply of flowers, there arises a market for manufactured flowers. Plastic flowers need neither soil nor climate; they transcend space and time. They may sometimes look like the real thing. But they can never feel like the real thing.
So it is with words in the postmodern condition. There are all too many plastic words, good for decoration and intellectual pleasantries, and little else. One of the key predicaments of the ongoing social and political transition in the world today is the subversion of language and ideas to create political smoke screen or delusion or to give a semblance of social and political legitimacy for the hegemonic discourse. Often progressive-sounding words and phrases are used to conceal the reality on the ground or to create a virtual or projected sense of select images and discourse. The reshuffling of meanings and the subversion of political semantics has become the order of the day. This has become a part of process of creating the new pornography of politics. The very term Civil Society is major protagonist in the post-modern politics of delusive power-plays and elusive semantics. They together often create political and policy mirages.
The term ‘Civil Society’ is contested terrain. Over the last fifteen years it has been used to denote everything from citizens’ groups and activist formations to highly institutionalized non-governmental organisations and foundations. There is another dimension to this process of subversive politics of words from the point of view of the history ideas and the political economy of knowledge.
Civil society as a concept originated in 18th-century Western Europe. It was a theoretical construct useful in analyzing and understanding the emerging socio-political economy of the industrialized west in the 18th and 19th centuries. The concept was resurrected in the late-'80s amidst the ruins of the authoritarian regimes of Eastern Europe. It was born-again in the manufacturing shops neo-democratization ventures in the North. During the second coming of the concept, more stress was laid on producing and marketing the civil society in different colours and shapes, rather than on reflecting the very validity of the idea in relation to real-life situations and experiences. The civil society is being paraded as the new panacea for issues such as poverty, human rights, gender equity and `good governance'.
What is this civil society all about? Whose civil society are we talking about? There is no one answer or even set of answers. The colour and smell of the term will change according to the convenience of the various proponents. As a result of such ambivalence, the second coming of the civil society conceals more than it reveals. Civil society, we are told, is synchronous with democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of choice, good governance and opportunity for economic growth. But what do all these goodies entail? Whose democracy? Whose freedom of expression and choice are we talking about?
The new holy trinity of the State, Market and Civil Society can be capable of concealing the structural inequalities, marginalization and patriarchy, and reduces complex reality into neat spaces. There is an underlying tendency to homogenize the world according to an idealized notion of governance that skips the entire historical process of marginalization and unequal distribution of power in the socio-economic and political arena. The problem with such an ahistorical theorization is that anything and everything outside the market and the State can be considered civil society. So the Islamic Taliban, Sangh Parivar in India and all such fundamentalist formations as well as small self-help groups, neighborhood associations or professional groups can be considered part of civil society. A mega-million non-profit organisation with huge corporate structures and tens of thousand of staff or a mega billion Foundation is as much part of civil society as a small NGO or a small community organisation. This is an interesting logic wherein sharks, sardines and shrimps all say we are fish, though the sharks would like the freedom to swallow sardines and other small fish.
This nebulous concept had its origin in western political theory. The pre-18th century concept emerged in the tradition of Aristotle, Cicero and modern natural law. Till the 18th century, civil society was considered "a type of political association which placed its members under the influence of laws and ensured peaceful order and good government". The discourse on civil society took a critical turn in the 18th century, as a corollary to the discourse on emerging capitalism as well as liberal democratic movements. The ambivalence of this concept is partly because it was an analytical tool used by both the proponents and critics of modern capitalism. On the one hand it served as a convenient tool to legitimize the market outside the sphere of an authoritarian and mercantile State and on the other; it was a tool to rationalize the sphere of individuals and associations to assert their freedom and rights.
One can see three broad varieties of definitions and interpretations of this term. There is a tradition that can be traced back to John Locke, Thomas Paine and De Tocqueville -- the liberal tradition. Though there are differing nuances within this tradition, one of the significant aspects is that civil society is considered a `natural condition' for freedom, and a legitimate area of association, individual action and human rights. Thus the notion of civil society came to be seen in opposition to the State: it allowed space for democracy and the growth of markets.
The classical political economy tradition of civil society emanated from the works of Adam Ferguson, Adam Smith and J S Mill. This stream of thinking perceived civil society as a sphere for the satisfaction of individual interests and private wants. This perspective stressed the primacy of individualism, property and the market. The third stream of civil society discourse can be traced back to Hegel, Marx, Gramsci and Habermass. This stream can be seen as a critique of the liberal and classical political economy tradition. This perspective interpreted civil society as a historically-produced sphere of life rather than the natural condition of freedom. This tradition questioned the notion of an idealized civil society and recognized the internal contradictions and conflict of interests within civil society. For Hegel, civil society was sandwiched between a patriarchal family and the universal State. Though Hegel questioned the idealized notion of civil society, he tended to idealize a universal State. By challenging the idealization of both State and civil society, Marx argued that the contradictions within civil society are reproduced within the State. For Marx, the State is not merely an external force that confronts civil society, but the reflection of it, wherein different interest groups penetrate the State to rule. Both Hegel and Marx pointed out the role of the elite in defining the character of civil society. Gramsci emphasized civil society as the realm of public opinion and culture. It is the public sphere where hegemony is created through consent and coercion.
In the second coming of the civil society in the late-'80s and through the '90s, the predominant trend has been a resurrection of the tradition of Adam Ferguson and Adam Smith, with a doze of De Tocqueville's liberalism. The new civil society discourse is often misused as a poaching ground by the New Right to rationalise and legitimize the privatization of the public services and to reduce the State as a support mechanism to the market.
The other part of the story is that the Civil Society is also being used to denote new democratization, grassroots politics and new way for citizens’ participation and engagement in the process of governance and affairs of the state. While the term Civil Society has broader social and political connotations, the tendency is often to equate the Civil Society with NGOs. The very world of NGOs themselves are very heterogeneous and with multiple institutional, social and funding power relations at play. The NGO world is increasingly looking like an Orwellian Animal Farm, wherein everyone is supposed to be equal but some are more equal than others. This becomes all the more problematic given that many of the new-generation NGOs are more like private enterprises in the public domain. The problem occurs when such groups or entities develop a universalistic claim based on an imagined or assumed legitimacy.
The various political and knowledge traditions behind the term Civil Society co-exit w and often intermingle to create new sense and meaning to the term civil society. This often makes the concept fluid and ambivalent.
The new civil society discourse is also a symptom of the crisis in social theorization. Instead of looking for fresh theories to address the profound socio-political and economic transition, the tendency is to resurrect concepts and theoretical frameworks from the residue of the Enlightenment in the 18th century...
We are in the transitory phase of a new epoch. The notions of nation-state, market, civil society, reason and progress that emerged during the Enlightenment are beginning to get transformed. In the new paradigm shift, we once again go back to the lived experiences of communities and individuals to search for new ways of looking at the transition of the world. We need a new language, a new set of insights and a fresh sense of humility to look at our past, present and future. What we need is to rediscover ethical communities within our societies and the world. We can still question injustice or rights violations based on the whole range of humanizing ethical traditions.
When we have the potential to grow our own beautiful flowers and organic words, why must we be deluded by plastic flowers and words?
* John Samuel is a human rights activist and is currently International Director of Actionaid, based in Bangkok.
* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
An experienced senior legal analyst to develop a regional legislative and law enforcement strategy to counter, prevent, combat and eradicate cattle rustling and illicit cross border activities in Eastern African region, working with national governments, international partners and regional organizations.
An experienced community/civil society coordinator with expertise in community engagement and liaison, conflict management, media, civil society, and dealing with pastoral communities, especially in Eastern Africa. The successful candidate will, among other tasks, coordinate and manage intra and cross community/border peace meetings in the pastoral area.
An experienced (field) researcher that can undertake practical assessments of community pastoral and security issues in Eastern Africa (focusing on the five project countries). He/she will work in close collaboration with government agencies and officials to improve inter-departmental and eventually regional cooperation on border control in pastoralist areas.
Requirements:
. 3+ years campaigning experience and a track record in achieving change
. The willingness and confidence to challenge powerful governments and corporations
. Imaginative, analytical problem solving . An innovative approach to devising campaign strategies and communications
. The ability to lead, manage and motivate staff within a core campaign team
. Drive, self-motivation, dedication, a high degree of initiative and teamwork
. A belief in peaceful direct action and the aims of Greenpeace
CLOSING DATE: 24 OCTOBER 2007.
Dear Friends of Lucia
An injustice to one is an injustice to all of us.
You strike a woman. You strike a rock.
'I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is, I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat.' Rebecca West, Suffragist, 1913.
What has Lucia not been through? She has survived several March 11ths. She has survived the horrors of Zanu PF's tyranny and brutality. She has been a source of our inspiration our leader, the voice of reason that has refused to be cowed out of the peoples struggle. She has remained consistent and steadfast that people and especially marginalised women are who this struggle is all about and for. Lucia is also the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, ZCTU, first Vice President and the regional President of the Southern African Trade Union Council.
As part of the ongoing campaign by many of us who understand the unfortunate removal of Lucia Matibenga from the national chairpersonship of the MDC Women's Assembly, we have formed the 'Friends of Lucia Campaign.' If you believe in fairness and justice you can be one of us.
The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has set the date for the illegal women's congress to be held on the 28th of October. While Mai Mati or Lucy has received nominations and overwhelming support from the grassroots in the party, going into that election without her support base firstly knowing how flawed the process of removing her was, and secondly why she is constantly attacked by MDC patriarchs, would be a gross omission on our part.
Why are they so frightened of Lucia?
Lucia will not benefit from silent support, those who claim to be her friends have to say, enough is enough. Democracy in the MDC will not benefit from silent solidarity. The assault on the Women's Assembly chair should be viewed within the broader context of women's liberation and emancipation.
Comrades in South Africa have started to write in support of the MDC women's struggle, well done to Philile the South African daughter of the slain anti-apartheid activist Siphethelo Mbokazi. Others have sent in heart warming e-mails and text messages. We know we are not alone.
How can you help?
We believe if everyone is encouraged to use the tools and resources within their means, we can run a very effective campaign. To demand the respect for women like Mai Mati. Your solidarity costs nothing just be principled.
What are the objectives of this campaign. Put the women's agenda back on the agenda. Link up, nationally, regionally and internationally, with other activists, feminists, politicians who share the same aspirations as the female politicians in Zimbabwe.
. Campaign that women in politics be recognised as grown adults.
. Demand their rightful place in leadership not as a favour but a right.
. Invigorate activists who have endured the backlash from both the patriarchy in their midst and the Robert Mugabe dictatorship.
. Campaign for an end to all forms of violence against women in politics and Zimbabwe at large. Especially the attack on female politician's sexuality.
. Build solidarity with like minded men who are not threatened by what Zimbabwean female politicians stand for.
The – an Afro centric internet networking and information exchange platform, calls for submission of poems for its forth-coming book ‘African Reflections’, a collection of poetry & prose by African Authors Its aim is to encourage and promote the writing of emerging as well as more experienced African creative writers, as such, entrants will be judged on ability rather than experience.
African Journal of Political Science and International Relations (AJPSIR) is currently accepting manuscripts for publication. AJPSIR publishes rigorous theoretical reasoning and advanced empirical research in all areas of the subjects. We welcome articles or proposals from all perspectives and on all subjects pertaining to Africa, Africa 's relationship to the world, public policy, international relations, comparative politics, political methodology, political theory, political history and culture, global political economy, strategy and environment.
ARC International and the Coalition for African Lesbians (CAL) is excited to announce an international conference entitled "International Dialogue on Gender, Sexuality, and HIV/AIDS: Strengthening Human Rights Responses in Africa and around the globe ." Deadline is 24th October 2007
Catholic Relief Services Egypt is seeking to fill the post of Social Counsellor for it\'s Refugee Education Project: 2007 - 2008. The Social Counsellor (SC) will assume responsibility for working with rest of team and beneficiaries in support of the awarded (sub) grant.
Batonga Foundation. Led by West African singer, songwriter, and UNICEF International Goodwill Ambassador Angelique Kidjo, Batonga’s mission is to provide girls with secondary and higher education so they can take the lead in changing Africa. It is currently operational in five African nations: Benin, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Mali and Sierra Leone.