The theme of exile appears to hold great fascination for literary critics, artistic consumers, anthologists and festival directors of all artistic genres; and a week or two had hardly passed after my vanishing trick from my homeland before I began to be bombarded with enquiries about how exile was affecting my writing: "Are you still able to write?" "What does exile mean to your writing?" Ad infinitum. Invitations from literary journals were not slow to follow, then desperate summonses to conferences, seminars, etc, all in search of the elusive quarry - both process and product - that bears the invisible stigmata of literature in exile.

The United Nations refugee agency has announced more than 230 refugees are en route from Djibouti to Somalia under a voluntary repatriation program. Many of the refugees have lived outside their country for at least 10 years.

The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, leading journalists and media executives, is deeply disturbed by the decision of the government to deport the Zimbabwe correspondent for the British newspaper, The Guardian. On the basis of information provided to IPI, on 15 July, Andrew Meldrum, a United States citizen who has lived in Zimbabwe for over 20 years and who holds a permanent residency permit, was informed by the Department of Immigration that he must leave the country within 24 hours.

A new project has seen some of South Africa's finest handiwork appearing in some of the UK's most well-heeled stores. The accessories involved have been created by a novel partnership between 700 South African craft workers and six of London's best designers.

Plans for a titanium mine in southeast Kenya, approved by the Kenyan government last week, could lead to environmental damage and adversely affect the lives of people, local rights groups warned on Tuesday.

The Nkoranza District Assembly is to develop the monkey sanctuaries at Fiema and Boabeng to boost eco-tourism, making the area a "gate-way" to the development of the District.

Solutions for desertification can no longer be postponed, says Hama Arba Diallo, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). Speaking at the opening in Windhoek of the African Regional Conference to review UNCCD, Diallo said the poor were both the victims and agents of environmental damage.

One of the main rebel groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo was responsible for a massacre in the eastern town of Kisangani earlier this year, a report by the United Nations Human Rights Commission says. The report says up to 180 people, the majority of them civilians, were killed in reprisal attacks by gunmen from the RCD Goma rebel faction after a mutiny.

When large numbers of people are displaced from their homeland, neighbouring countries can find themselves shouldering a disproportionate share of the refugee burden. Yet, mass influxes of refugees, as happened in Tanzania after the Rwandan genocide, can also bring security threats and economic and legal problems for the host country.

The rhetoric of participation and gender awareness has entered the development mainstream. Has this led to more equitable development initiatives? What are the consequences of the frequently found slippage between ‘involving women’ and ‘addressing gender’? And how can those using participatory approaches address issues of gender difference more effectively?

The European Union has released Euro 30 million (US $29.6 million) to provide urgent support for Angola's peace process. The funds fall within a Euro 125 million (US $ 123.6 million) plan for humanitarian and rehabilitation projects in the country.

Corporations (both local and international) investing in developing countries affect millions of poor and vulnerable people. How can corporations learn more about the political, historical, social and cultural environment in which they operate? Can they engage in dialogue with vulnerable people and become partners in, and not obstacles to, sustainable development?

Health Minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang is not trying to "block" a R720-million grant from the United Nations Global Fund for Aids, intended for the prevention and treatment of the disease in KwaZulu-Natal, her ministry said this week.

American school children's pocket money has seen the beginning of a new future for a crèche in Morgan's Bay. Siyazama Crèche received a cheque for R22 700 from two United States elementary schools and celebrated with a party, said Siyazama administrative committee member Sue Warren-Smith.

Refugees in Ethiopia are to benefit from a US $1.7 million donation from the US government to help make up food shortages. The move follows appeals by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) which warned it may be forced to cut rations to thousands of refugees because of a shortfall. WFP said the drop in calories would have hit refugee women and children hardest. The pledge is part of a US $12.4 million donation to the World Food Programme to “fill critical gaps” in refugee feeding across Africa.

The EU and France have agreed to fund rural development projects in Burkina Faso under separate agreements with the West African country. Five provinces in western Burkina Faso are to benefit from a five-year project under which the EU is to provide 10.01 million euro (US $9.89 million) to promote rural empowerment and economic activity for local development, strengthening the delivery of social services and encouraging sustainable management of natural resources.

The Eastern Cape Community Chest has welcomed some new donors this month: Pharmacare Manufacturing staff and a number of new manufacturing staff members at Daimler Chrysler.

The New York-based Carnegie Foundation will help the universities of Pretoria and the Western Cape offer post-graduate LL.M and M.Com courses on trade and investment over the next three years. The two universities have received about R10-million to present joint courses on trade and investment in Africa.

SciDev.Net is a recently-established website, committed to building awareness of the potential contribution of science and technology to meeting the needs of developing countries. We are seeking a creative, self-motivated and experienced individual to be the regional coordinator for the sub-Saharan African network. The coordinator will be based in eastern Africa.

In a letter to the editor of the London Independent last Saturday, five leaders of international HIV/AIDS advocacy groups urged G8 leaders to "make the [Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria] effective by pledging substantially more money."

“Male physical tolerance” studies and HIV+ men have been discussed at Microbicides 2002.

The "fraud-ridden" home affairs department is to undertake an assessment of its business risks and revamp its fraud-prevention plan.

Read our primer on the bill that plans to promote universal access to electronic communications and encourage the use of e-government services. Critics say the bill will put the .za domain under government control and will not improve service.

World Neighbors seeks an East Africa Area Representative. Responsibilities include program development, strategic planning, budgeting, evaluation, reporting, administration and fund-raising.

South Africa is awash with funding for HIV/Aids prevention and care. However, lack of management capacity, national strategies in their infancy and "shaky" co-operation between Pretoria and the provinces have the potential to result in major under-spending in fighting the epidemic. These points are made in an article in the latest issue of the South African Medical Journal.

The Addis Ababa-based UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) said on Tuesday that granting farmers in Ethiopia ownership of their land could speed up development.

The BCC/IEC Specialist will provide the technical and professional service set forth under the supervision of the Senior Adviser/Team Leader.

A group of campaigners against HIV/AIDS in Somalia, called AIDSOM, last week held the country's first ever public awareness demonstration in the coastal town of Marka, south of Mogadishu. "We did not experience any harassment and were mostly welcomed by the local population", said AIDSOM head Abdullahi Jama Hassan. However, he acknowledged that in some places the campaigners were forced to leave.

Ethiopia is facing a food shortfall of almost 200,000 tons until the end of the year, the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) has warned.

Eating food contaminated with aflatoxins hampers the growth and development of children in Benin and Togo, scientists from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Ibadan, Nigeria, and the University of Leeds, UK, reported in a study published this month.

The Senegalese army has ended a "clean-up" campaign it started on 21 June to restore security in Casamance, Southern Senegal, sources said on Tuesday. The military announced on 7 July that it had ceased operations, according to the sources, who added that the situation in Casamance had been calm in the past week.

From Burkina Faso to Botswana, national and regional Human Development Reports are proving to be a vital tool for generating commitment and mobilizing resources against the deadly HIV/AIDS epidemic. The Burkina Faso Human Development Report 2001, for example, led the way to negotiations with international financial institutions, resulting in significant new allocations of resources for the campaign against HIV/AIDS, reported Christian Lemaire, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative.

The election of Armando Guebuza as the new secretary general of Mozambique’s ruling party, Frelimo, makes it certain that he will be the party’s presidential candidate in 2004. During over two decades in politics, Guebuza has driven some controversial policies and is known to have extensive business interests. He talked to allAfrica.com about his goals.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is to help Liberia's government provide emergency agricultural assistance to war-affected farmers through a project worth US $237,000.

Anti-Slavery International (London) is seeking a Child Labour Officer to play a lead role in implementing our child labour strategy and to plan and develop our future work.

With reference to the Corporate Watch item WHEN PRIVATISED WATER BECOMES TOO EXPENSIVE reported in PAMBAZUKA NEWS 72, Part 12: to the best of my knowledge the inferred statement that Johannesburg's water services have been sold off to the French-based multinational Suez, formerly Suez Lyonnaise, is (currently at least!) simply untrue. To many of us who are against 'privatisation' and lengthy concession contracts etc such false reporting just does damage to our cause. The Johannesburg Metropolitan Council has formed a council owned water company and signed a 5 year management contract with a subsidiary of Suez. Both these actions were effected without meaningful consultation with Johannesburg residents or organised labour.

As reported on the corporatewatch website the Lesotho Highlands Water Scheme has caused Johannesburg water costs to soar. This has been happening since 1997; not just overnight. Phase 1b of the project was implemented in a very non-transparent manner since the present government was elected.

Opposition in South Africa to the early implementation of phase 2 has reached a critical mass. Implementation is therefore likely to be deferred indefinitely. However, based on the manner in which phase 1b was implemented, advocacy groups and the general public still need to remain vigilant.

It is also true that unaccounted-for water figures which include leakage but also unbilled water etc, are very high. Total unaccounted-for water is currently estimated at about 42%. It is possible that the figure is as high as 50%, but I doubt if this is all due to leakage.

I write these comments mainly as a Johannesburg resident living close to Sandton and Alexandra rather than in my professional capacity. I do, however, have a keen professional interest in both institutional arrangements and water demand management in South Africa generally.

African civil society groups began a three-day meeting on Wednesday in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, to forge a common agenda for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD).

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has described as "malicious" and "outrageous" allegations of corruption and mismanagement levelled against it by a group of Kenyan politicians over the agency's management of refugee camps in the northern part of the country.

Coca Cola, the world’s number one beverage brand name, was the target of criticisms by AIDS activists last Thursday at the International AIDS Conference in Barcelona. Activists from the advocacy group ACT UP! led a shutdown of the beverage manufacturer’s stand at the conference, in protest against the company’s policy of restricting access to life-saving antiretroviral treatment only to 1500 of its direct employees, completely ignoring 100,000 other workers in Africa who help bottle the product.

Seizures of African ivory by Thai officials increased hundredfold last year. Traders buy illegal African tusks, often smuggled by hand through Bangkok airport, and carve them into trinkets to feed Asia's voracious demand for ivory.

After fifty years in which the Bretton Woods institutions have proved increasingly outdated and incapable of removing persistent poverty, the time has come for an imaginative replacement or extension to suit the requirements of a globalising economy. Surely a global economy effective for all is better than one which is confined to, at best, three fifths of the world, writes Bill Peters from the Jubilee Debt Campaign.

Nigeria is among 17 countries blacklisted for financial crimes by the UN Financial Action Task Force, the CBN deputy governor, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, says.

No terrorist attack, no war, has ever threatened the lives of more than 40 million people worldwide. AIDS does. African countries, and particularly those in Southern Africa, currently bear the heaviest burden of the AIDS epidemic - its effects permeate societies and include children, women, men, rich and poor alike. This book is one of the few on AIDS written from within Africa. Helen Jackson is the author of two previous versions of the highly acclaimed and popular resource book "AIDS Action Now", which has now been extensively expanded and improved into the current book AIDS Africa.

One of the hot issues up for discussion at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, starting next month in Johannesburg, is that of biodiversity, or the number of different species on earth. A report on the biodiversity of SA, released by The Green Trust and the Endangered Wildlife Trust, points to the urgency of the issue for SA.

Some 7,000 children left the battlefields when combatants in Sierra Leone's savage civil war started turning in their guns last year -- the youngest just 6 years old.

A report released last week by the US-based Human Rights Watch documents increased suffering of children and women in Congo in the past four years.

In the last two decades of Sudan's civil war, there have been few hopeful moments, and few windows of opportunity for making peace. In the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks, one of those moments arrived, and the window of opportunity for peace opened. For a number of reasons, however, the window is closing quickly. If more serious leverage is not immediately brought to bear on the warring parties in the context of the current peace talks taking place in Kenya, the window will slam shut, condemning the Sudanese people to cumulative levels of death and destruction with few parallels to any conflict since World War II.

The Answer to All Questions: A Just and Comprehensive Peace

The U.S. has a number of fundamental policy objectives in Sudan: countering terrorism, promoting human rights and democracy, ending the war, and supporting humanitarian assistance. All of these objectives are best addressed through a comprehensive peace agreement which both reforms the central government and provides for the exercise of self-determination for southern Sudanese.

More than any other country in the world, the U.S. has the ability to move the Sudan peace process forward. The U.S. has decided to focus on making the IGAD process in Kenya a more serious one. So far, U.S. efforts have been useful but by no means sufficient. This is why today's hearing is so timely.

In the topsy-turvy debate over Sudan policy, the very idea of a negotiated settlement has come under fire by those who see negotiating with the Khartoum government as useless. That may be proven true, but in the absence of a new U.S. policy objective which has not yet been formulated, such a view abandons the Sudanese people, particularly southerners, to endless war.

In fact, southern Sudanese are prepared to continue the war indefinitely in the absence of a just peace, a factor that continues to be underestimated by mediators. But as long as an opportunity exists to end the conflict through the conclusion of a comprehensive peace agreement, we must urgently and diligently pursue that objective.

To be clear, in order for peace efforts to have a chance of succeeding, the objective of the negotiations must emphasize a just settlement. There are indications from the ongoing talks in Kenya that mediators and observers are pulling back from support for self-determination in the form of a referendum with the full complement of options, including independence. It cannot be emphasized enough that southern Sudanese will continue the war, no matter what the cost or the outlook, if this fundamental element of any potential solution is not part of the deal in some form. Modalities can certainly be negotiated, but the essential principle appears to be under assault, and this guarantees the failure of the negotiations. It is not too late to rectify this.

The Missing Ingredient in the Peace Process: Leverage

Because the divergent positions of the parties are so entrenched, it is unlikely that they can be reconciled through conventional facilitation alone. More forceful diplomatic intervention -- of which leverage is the key element -- will be required than is currently envisioned. Therefore, the most visible missing ingredient of a potentially successful IGAD peace effort is coordination of pressures and incentives.

Leverage does not grow on trees. It is created through leadership in the development of a multilateral strategy of carrots and sticks, and its judicious execution. Despite the influence the U.S. actually possesses over the warring parties, American diplomats have frequently claimed in the past that they lack the leverage to move the parties toward peace. Such claims increase perceptions among Sudanese parties that the leverage the U.S. does in fact enjoy will not be used during the negotiations - perceptions that in fact reduce outside leverage in the manner of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

To be effective, pressures and incentives must be multilateral. As the actor with the most potential leverage and the only one whom all Sudanese parties believe can make peace, the U.S. should take the lead in organising the judicious and tactically opportune application of these carrots and sticks. This may be the single most important contribution the U.S. can make.

Leverage can be increased both through actions and positions taken in the context of the peace process, and through wider policies pursued by the U.S. Both are discussed below. All of these require U.S. leadership but would have much greater effect if pursued - through the G-8, EU and other bodies - with our European allies as well as with other countries with influence.
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On 10 July 2002, Tewodros Kassa, former editor-in-chief of the Amharic-language weekly "Ethop", was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison. The charge resulted from three 2001 "Ethop" newspaper articles.