Eastern Africa could face dry conditions early next year, with the possibility of seasonal rains being delayed by the effects of a climate phenomenon called La Niña, climatologists say. "The second rainy season starts now for the Horn of Africa and Eastern Africa - we expect the rains to be near normal over much of the Greater Horn of Africa," said Bwango Apuuli, deputy director of the Nairobi-based Climate Prediction and Application Centre (ICPAC) of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the regional grouping.

A new focus on healthcare in South Africa's most densely populated inner-city suburb, is to help regenerate a community hard hit by HIV/AIDS, poverty and crime. Hillbrow used to be the most trendy and cosmopolitan area in Johannesburg; today it is thought to be one of the most tightly packed places on the continent.

Ivorian children in a Liberia refugee camp have been deprived of an education based on their home country curriculum in a school that opened there over three years ago. “This is really paining our hearts,” said Aisha Berete, mother of five of the 387 children attending the Saclepea Refugee Primary School in eastern Nimba County. “[The children] are losing their Ivorian identity and how will they fit in to the Ivorian school system once we return home?”

Controversial both inside and outside the institution, the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) strategy in low-income countries was debated at a recent panel that questioned whether or not the IMF should exit low-income countries. The role of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in low-income countries (LICs) is a highly controversial issue both inside and outside the institution, as reported in the findings by the external committee on World Bank-IMF collaboration, known as the Malan Committee.

Sudan's president has promised to pay $300-million in compensation to the country's war-torn Darfur region, tripling a previous pledge, former United States president Jimmy Carter said on Wednesday. Carter spoke during a tour of Darfur which was marred by a heated exchange between the former president and Sudanese security who prevented him visiting a Darfur tribal leader.

Ten African Union (AU) soldiers were killed and 50 were missing after armed men launched an assault on an AU base in Darfur, the worst attack on AU troops since they deployed in Sudan's violent west in 2004. The AU called it a "deliberate and sustained" assault by about 30 vehicles, which overran and looted the peacekeepers' camp on Saturday night.

Ugandan troops looted truckloads of valuable trees from south Sudan when they were pursuing Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels who were hiding in the region, a research group said on Friday. The Swiss-based Small Arms Survey said the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) cut teak trees in southern Sudan's Equatoria region during Operation Iron Fist, which had been approved by the Khartoum government.

Australia has slashed the number of African refugees admitted into the country partly because many have problems settling into the community, the government said on Tuesday. Over the past two years the intake of Africans has been cut from 70 percent of the total of 13 000 refugees to just 30 percent, Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews told reporters.

The Program Associate will assist the AEI-AGSP team with creating new and revising existing methods and tools to integrate gender into AGSP program activities, including specific tools and strategies to mentor and support boy scholars. In addition to gender integration support, the Program Associate will also assist the AGSP team with financial and programmatic management for approximately 30 African subcontracting partner organizations in 13 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. This position is 100% program funded. The deadline is 10 October 2007.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/322/43547.jpgS’bu Zikode of Abahlali baseMjondolo in Durban recalls the peaceful march by residents on the 28th September which ended with the local police attacking demonstrators with batons, rubber bullets, fire cannons and the arrest of 15 Sydenham residents. He raises the questions, “do the poor have a right to life, a right to speak and ultimately a right to citizenship of South Africa?”

Not only as a leader of the Movement of Abahlali, but also as an ordinary South African Citizen, as a parent, as a father and mostly a human being I am extremely hurt. My heart is torn apart when in my own country, in a broad daylight like on Friday the 28 September 2007, it is made so clear that the poor are not Citizens. When they try to sweep up us out of the cities it is clear that we are not citizens. When they beat us to stop us speaking it is clear that we are not citizens.

It is of a great concern that thousands of Abahlali baseMjondolo members have marched peacefully to the eThekwini municipal mayor Obed Mlaba and have been received with such violence. We marched to demand no power, no position no fame, nothing from his family. We only marched for the Right to life of the shack dwellers, the farm dwellers and thousands of forgotten citizens of this country in the name of democracy, in the name of a better life for all.

What a life without shame, without conscience, without respect for vulnerable groups in our society the elderly women and children. The presence of church leaders amongst the poor has had a far-reaching reason to those in need of a church. The biggest curse is that while praying, the innocents were started to be flooded with heavy forces of water, the strong church leaders stood very firm to shield the innocents. The heavy armed members of the SAPS started assaulting the church leaders, throwing teargas, beating helpless women, shooting old women and men at the back while running to their homes.

This event took place at about 12:15pm when the innocent marchers were still waiting for the mayor to receive the memorandum of demands as arranged with him. The march had complied with the Gathering Act of SA. Without any provocation or unruliness the police decided to act on the instructions of the Mayor of non compliance with the South African Law, because he thinks being at that position means being the law unto himself.

The incident took place in my presence. I had offered myself to represent the helpless so that they may see many more, so that they may not be alone while taking their pain for as long as they still believe that we all have all the Right to life. I think this is a difficult leadership style one needs to adopt to save so many lives. Thus I think it is enough that many of us are born and die in shack fires in jondolos, that we die through various diseases associated with unhygienic conditions from the poisonous air we breath in the jondolos, that we live and die with TB and HIV/AIDS as the research confirms that the shack settlements have the highest infection of the virus. People die because of crime, floods and storms; they die while trying to find toilets in the night. We are seeing no future to our children except to the children of those in authority like Mayor Mlaba. Some of us die while trying to speak truth to power, as we get shot while marching.

After a long shooting I had received a call from the Municipality saying that a representative is on his way to receive the memorandum. But already fourteen members were arrested, four were heavily shot and two were badly wounded. This was quite disturbing. Who was going to hand over the memorandum as the police under the command Sydenham Glen Nayager had already chased everyone? In the next ten minutes I received a call saying that I must bring the Memorandum in Baig’s office as the official was very scared to come out. Then I said he must come out as most comrades have fled, wounded and harmless, and most police were gone still chasing people away down the roads. I had remained with a small group of less than one hundred with elderly people and pregnant women you couldn’t flee.

Then we had no other choice but to face the remaining police and I read the memorandum loudly to Mr. Mzi Magubane who described himself as a senior Manager from the Dept. of Housing in eThekwini municipality. Magubane has been described by System Cele as another old liar. She said that when she was still a child ‘this man used to deceive my father when he was still alive working in the Kennedy Road Committee, today he has come to bluff me.’ So Bahlali your message was sent with another dishonest man with a history of lies.

Today we have to take care of our comrades who for no reasons were imprisoned; today we have to look for money to pay bail and lawyers to represent them in court for nothing. Today like other days we have to run around doctors and hospitals to try and support the shot and hurt comrades. Today like any other day we have stood together and planned an alternative, as we shall not allow any forces to force us silent. So as long as Amandla belongs to us we shall not fear. As long as democracy is used to further the political scores of the minority and as long as there is great inequality in our society Abahlali will stand together for the dawn of true democracy where everyone matters.

As challenges increase every day for the Movement one is for us to seek for justice to take its course. I will soon be writing to the Amnesty International for a wide range of legal support on this dirty behaviour of SAPS. But all of this will not compromise any demands. We will make a follow up and engage the city in a progressive manner that seeks to see a remarkable social change for all. Our city and our country still need true leaders that do not run away from their responsibility like Mlaba. We need leaders that will act, as servants of the public and not expect to be masters over the public like eThekwini Mayor Obed Mlaba.

* S’bu Zikode Abahlali baseMjondolo -

* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) applauds the efforts taken by coalitions to promote Freedom of Information (FOI) Laws in Africa and reaffirms its unflinching support and collaboration with the stakeholders involved in the process. As the world commemorates the International Right to Know Day, the IFJ reiterate its support to the FOI coalitions in Africa and calls on its affiliates to join the movement in order to guarantee access to information and protection of sources in Africa.

On Monday over 200 Women of Zimbabwe Arise and Men of Zimbabwe Arise activists marched through the city of Bulawayo. WOZA coordinator Jenni Williams said representatives from Harare, Mutare, Masvingo and rural Insiza joined local members to demand ‘peace’ and an end to police harassment from the brutal regime. The group of singing protestors marched from near St Mary's Cathedral, pausing to send messages of solidarity to Bishop Pius Ncube, whose courageous outspokenness against human rights abuses in Zimbabwe has often made him a target of the State.

A Nigerian court allowed the federal government on Wednesday to serve a summons on U.S.-based drug maker Pfizer Inc to defend itself against a $6.5 billion lawsuit over a drug trial. The federal government and the northern Nigerian state of Kano are suing Pfizer for a combined $8.5 billion in damages over the 1996 trial of Trovan, a new drug tested on children during a meningitis epidemic.

A recent capacity development program on Anti-Corruption and Good Governance held for 13 East Africans was an eye opener on public discourse, accountable leadership but above all, about ethical leadership. Drawn from the Government and Civil Society, the training conducted by Marquette University’s Les Aspin Center for Government in Washington DC, provided participants with knowledge and skills in preventive, proactive, multi-pronged, institutional support strategies for improving accountability and other good governance practices in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/authors/Joseph-Yav.jpgThe exploitation of natural resources has played a central role in the conflict in the Great Lakes region and the DRC. Joseph Yav, offers a perspective on how to transform conflicts by using resources as “tools for reconciliation and and reconstruction in the Great Lakes region.

“I hope they don’t discover oil. Then we will be in real trouble”. [Blood Diamond]

Introduction

To adapt an old metaphor, one could say, when the Great Lakes Region of Africa sneezes, the entire world including Africa catch a cold. Several interconnected elements shaped conflicts in the Great Lakes region, including the interests of neighbouring countries, competition over natural and economic resources concerns over instability and lack of security, and ethnic chauvinism, to name but a few.

The oil prospects of the Great Lakes region appear at once more dangerous. Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo are sitting on what prospectors believe could be oil reserves of up to one billion barrels in the Albertine Basin which they share. At the time of writing, the oil region of the eastern DRC was the theatre of clashes culminating in killing of civilians and militaries by the Ugandan and Congolese armies. This is now leading to fears that the lake Albert conflict may spread and make a renewed cross-border conflict involving other negative forces and countries.

This may lead to another case of conflict over resources and well described in a recent movie named “ Blood Diamond” where the old man sighs: “I hope they don’t discover oil. Then we will be in real trouble”.

Yes, one could say that the old man of the above-mentioned movie is right; the Great lakes region of Africa is in real trouble. If realistic possibilities for conflict resolution and transformation are to be developed, concerns about oil and other resources will have to be addressed. This article will focus only on the issue of resources as a source of conflict or a resource for peace and reconstruction and will offer a perspective on how to transform conflicts by using resources as tools of reconciliation and reconstruction in the Great Lakes region.

History of conflict over resources in the Great Lakes Region

One of the most perplexing issues in the Great Lakes region of Africa and especially in the DRC conflict has been, and still is, that of the exploitation of the DRC’s natural resources. Illegal exploitation of the DRC’s mineral resources has been a constant feature in discussions about the war in general and especially in the eastern part of the country. There is a debate about whether the exploitation of mineral resources is a main aim for foreign intervention or whether mining initiatives is a way of financing the war effort. It has long been established that the exploitation of these resources, including ‘coltan’ (columbite-tantalite), gold, and diamonds in the eastern Congo, and diamonds, copper, cobalt, and timber in central DRC, contributed to and exacerbated the conflict in the country. Concerned with reports of pillaging of resources by the foreign forces, the UN Security Council mandated an independent panel to investigate these allegations.

In fact, in its presidential statement dated 2 June 2000 (S/PRST/2000/20), the Security Council requested that the Secretary-General establish a Panel of Experts on the illegal exploitation of natural resources and other forms of wealth of the DRC. The objective was to research and analyze the links between the exploitation of the natural resources and other forms of wealth in the DRC and the continuation of the conflict. In its four reports, the UN Panel of Experts has named senior Ugandan and Rwandese armed forces officers and senior government officials and their families, who are allegedly responsible for illegal exploitation of the DRC's natural resources and other abuses.

It has also proposed that measures be taken against the states, individuals and companies most implicated in the exploitation, including travel bans, financial penalties and reductions in aid disbursements. In January 2003, in response to complaints raised by companies and some governments, the Panel's mandate was extended to 31 October 2003. In its final report from October 2003 the Panel largely documented the nexus of economic exploitation, arms trafficking, and armed conflict, stating that illegal exploitation remains one of the main sources of funding groups involved in perpetuating conflict. The Panel of Experts also listed companies based in Belgium, China, France, Germany, Israel, Spain, the UK, and the United States, that were allegedly involved in the illegal arms trade in the DRC.

Regional actors have been accused of aggression and ‘foreign adventurism’ with regard to Congolese territory and natural resources. In other words, while parties to the conflict in the DRC may have been motivated originally by security concerns, their continued presence in the DRC can be attributed to economic gains derived from the DRC. The report further stated that criminal groups linked to the armies of Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe and the Government of the DRC have benefited from such conflicts. This is critical to the peace process, because according to reports, these ‘groups will not disband voluntarily … they have built up a self-financing war economy centred on mineral exploitation’.

The rationale for intervention by neighbouring states became self-enforcing and the localised conflicts became regional. As such, the conflicts within and among the countries of the Great Lakes region require regionally based and targeted solutions, along with the cooperation of other, relevant neighbouring states.

Current situation: Oil wars in the Great Lakes of Africa?

Uganda and the DRC share Lake Albert, which has become an important new frontier in the search for oil on the continent. Lake Albert, also Albert Nyanza and formerly Lake Mobutu Sese Seko, is one of the Great Lakes of Africa. It is Africa's seventh largest lake, and ranks as the world’s twenty-third largest lake by volume. It is located in the center of the continent, on the border between the DRC and Uganda. It is the northernmost of the chain of lakes in the Great Rift Valley; it is about 160 km long and 30 km wide, with a maximum depth of 51 m, and a surface elevation of 619 m above sea level. In 1864, the explorer Samuel Baker discovered the lake; he named it after the deceased Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria. The late and former Congolese president Mobutu temporarily named the lake after himself.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/322/43557_oil.jpgConflict is arising over oil found in Lake Albert. Reserves are estimated at less than 100,000 barrels a day for about 10 years when production starts. Tensions began to rise at the end of July beginning of August when a unit of Congolese Armed Forces (FARDC), captured four Ugandan marines who had apparently strayed towards the Congolese west bank of Lake Albert. But on August 3, the situation grew serious. FARDC soldiers patrolling the lake attacked an oil exploration barge belonging to Canada's Heritage Oil Corporation and killed a British contractor working for Canada's Heritage Oil Corp. The Ugandan army retaliated and a Congolese soldier died in the short shoot-out while a Ugandan soldier was wounded.

Since then, tension has been mounting along that part of the Uganda-Congo frontier that runs north-south down the 160 kilometre-long lake - although the alignment of the border has never been precisely defined. Following the discovery of oil in the Albertine Basin, both the Ugandan and Congolese armies have been deploying heavily around the shores, with some observers saying there is now a threat of all-out war.

To ease the tensions, Congolese president Joseph Kabila and his counterpart, Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni, held a one-day summit meeting in Tanzania on September 8 in an attempt to sort out the border dispute. They signed an agreement to immediately pull back their troops 150 kilometers from the border to ease tensions over an oil-rich border lake. They agreed to work together to explore and exploit oil in the Lake Albert area and to lay a joint pipeline to distribute any oil and they signed the agreement in the presence of Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, diplomats and journalists. They also agreed that a joint team will begin work to demarcate the contested area of the lake. Further, they agreed to meet once a year and to raise their diplomatic missions to ambassadorial level to help improve relations.

However, few days after the meeting and agreements another military clash erupted on the lake on September 24. Reuters reported that six civilians were killed when Ugandan soldiers opened fire on a Congolese passenger boat on Lake Albert. In a conflicting version of the shooting incident, Uganda's military reported two soldiers killed, one from each country, in what it said was a gunfight during a dispute over an oil exploration vessel working on the border lake.

There is therefore an urgent need of transforming resources from source of conflict to options for reconciliation and reconstruction in the Great Lakes region.

Concluding remarks: Transforming the Oil concern from the Source of Conflict to a Resource for Peace in the Great Lakes Region
Reconciliation and reconstruction are essential elements of peacebuilding. The key to transforming conflicts is to build strong, equitable relations where distrust and fear were once the norm.

In the Great Lakes region, as in many other African countries, violent conflict has become the ‘normal’ state of affairs. Control of economic resources has become an important factor in motivating and sustaining armed conflicts. Complex political economies, which often hide behind the outward symbols of statehood and national sovereignty, have been rooted in the pursuance of conflict. The challenge therefore is to transform regional and national political ‘parasite’ economies that rely on violent conflict into healthy systems based on political participation, social and economic inclusion, and respect for human rights and the rule of law.

Accordingly, any attempt at transforming conflicts to ensure reconciliation and reconstruction in the region requires stimulating positive developments in the region. Such developments will reassure the affected countries that their security and economic interests are better served through fostering stability and improving relations with their neighbours than through allowing their neighbours’ turmoil to deflect them from their objective of peace, reconciliation, democracy, and economic development.

Moreover, in terms of ensuring security, ignoring the tensions and misunderstanding among the DRC and Uganda will have far-reaching implications for the stability and socioeconomic development of the region because resources will be diverted from human and economic development to warfare. For this reason it is important for these countries to cooperate towards the restoration of peaceful dialogue and cordial interstate relations. In this regard, armed incursions and clashes can lead to rising tensions and full-blown interstate armed conflict which, if not promptly addressed, will affect the long-term well-being and socioeconomic development of both populations.

The Great Lakes region is rich in the natural resources that are at stake for many actors in the conflict. However, natural resources also harbour potential for post-conflict rehabilitation and development. Countries should therefore examine ways of limiting the exploitation of such resources -especially oil in this case- for the purpose of funding conflict. They should furthermore seek to identify and promote the means by which such resources can be safeguarded and managed in a way that will reduce conflict and ensure benefit to the population. Equally, there is a need to develop institutions and frameworks for the integration and transformation of the informal economy to a formal economy, governed by a reasonable rule of law, transparency and efficiency, without marginalising local and regional actors.

* Dr. Joseph Yav is a lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo. He is also the executive director of the CERDH (Centre d’Etudes et de Recherche en Droits de l’Homme, Democratie et Justice Transitionnelle/Centre for Human Rights, Democracy and Transitional Justice Studies.) and Coordinator of the UNESCO Chair for Human Rights. Email: [email][email protected] and [email][email protected]

* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

A call for papers has been issued for Labour Crossings: World , Work and History, an international conference to be held at University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa from Friday 5 September to Monday 8 September 2008, and organised by the History Workshop and the Centre for Sociological Research, South Africa, in association with the International Association of Labour History Institutions and the International Conference of Labour and Social History.

The position will be based in Lusaka, with extensive travel to 16 project sites in Lusaka and all the provinces and will be housed within the Broadcasting Programme of MISA Zambia.
For further information Email: [email][email protected]

The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), the government of Uganda and Microsoft have signed a letter of intent pledging to set up a local economic growth software centre within twelve months and a software development programme for the country. The pact was signed by Uganda's minister of Information and Communication Technology Dr. Ham Mukasa Mulira, Dr. Geoffrey Mariki, the UNIDO representative for East Africa and Mr. Louis Otieno, the Microsoft general manager for East and Southern Africa.

Over 500,000 people in Ghana's rural and peri-urban communities are benefiting from the establishment of about 69 Rural Business Centres (RBCs) aimed at connecting the communities to the outside world and also to educate them on the uses and benefits of ICTs. The centres, established under the Ghana Telecom's eCommerce and Renewable Energy (eCARE) programme has been running since 2003 with just about three of such centres piloted as at 2005.

CIVICUS seeks to recruit Associates for its Civil Society Watch Programme (CSW).

Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and Independent Advocacy Project (IAP) have called on the African Union and all African governments, including Nigeria and South Africa to act immediately to demand that the Sudanese government, armed groups and Janjawid militia in Darfur and eastern Chad to halt attacks against civilians and humanitarian agencies.

Commonwealth presidents and prime ministers, who meet every two years in a CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting) almost always say something about human rights. But there are huge differences between comments which are banal, and commitments which lead to specific action by the Commonwealth Secretariat and member governments.

Calls for increased participation of women in policy-making decisions are on the rise as world leaders prepare to attend an international meeting on climate change to be held at U.N. headquarters. Most governments have largely failed to consider the gender aspects of climate change, women leaders representing numerous civil society groups told reporters at a recent news conference.

A trial of the microbicide gel, Carraguard, is being run by the Population Council, an international non-profit organisation, at three sites in South Africa: the Setshaba Research Centre in Soshanguve, in Cape Town and in KwaZulu-Natal Province. Microbicides include a range of products - such as gels, films and sponges - that could help prevent the transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. No microbicide has yet been shown to be effective.

Up to $42 billion will need to be found by 2010 if universal access to HIV treatment, prevention and care is to be achieved in line with the 2005 commitment by G8 governments, UNAIDS has said. UNAIDS’ estimate has been developed ahead of an international meeting, which starts today in Berlin, to win increased donor commitments to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. The Fund currently accounts for one-quarter of all international donor expenditure on Aids.

Equatorial Guinea produces a barrel of oil per person per day. In 2005, it had a budget of US$2 billion" more than sufficient to raise the standard of living of it’s 400,000 citizens. The country also has aid links: with school students in the United States, and church schools and small municipalities in Spain. Agustin Vellos argues that the so-called 'development cooperation' between Spain and Equatorial Guinea is nothing more than political rhetoric that supports the corrupt practices of President Obiang’s government and acts as a smokescreen for failed Western development models.

Development cooperation between Spain and Equatorial Guinea is an exercise in political rhetoric. Fine for soothing the consciences of sensitive citizens. Useful to dissemble the policies of both countries' governments. The citizenry think they are 'helping' the poor. While politicians cover up the way cooperation is useless for the African country's development; but good for increasing the scandalous wealth of the Obiang ruling clan, and for contributing to Spanish political and business expansion.

Some people think international cooperation and official development aid are matters of foreign policy. In the pre-democratic years, the governing class argued that Spain had been generous during its colonial era; and that the proof of this was the spread of Catholicism and civilization, as well as miscegenation. However, that generosity was not enough to produce doctors and engineers, or to leave a political and social infrastructure in Western Sahara and Equatorial Guinea. So. when independence came, frustrated in the Saharawi case, development cooperation was obligatory for Equatorial Guinea.

The same happened with the other colonial centres, England, France, and Portugal. They left nations independent politically, but not culturally or economically. Colonialism became neocolonialism. The powerful could no longer directly exploit the weak as before. But they worked out new systems: conditional loans, unfavourable trade deals, e.g., the Lomé Convention of 1975, exorbitant charges for services, the fiscal policies of the IMF, World Bank projects, and so on.

From independence in 1968 until approximately 1995, when the oil exploration years began, Spain worked on development with Equatorial Guinea in the fields of politics, economics, the armed forces and education. Ironically, one of the first agreements signed in 1979 was the Protocol on Cooperation on Hydrocarbon Matters.

It is surely surprising that cooperation between the tenth world power and its former colony of just 28,000 square kilometres, 400,000 inhabitants and abundant natural resources has not managed to pull the colony up from among the lowest rungs of the United Nations Development Program's Human Development Index in its first 30 years of independence. It is more surprising still when one considers the development cooperation from the United States, France, China and other countries, without counting the international bodies and agencies: the United Nations, The World Health Organisation, UNESCO, UNICEF and the European Economic Community.

Beginning in the last years of the previous century and the first years of the 21st century, Equatorial Guinea experienced unparalleled rapid growth. The reason was gas and oil: 81,000 barrels a day in 1998, 300,000 a day in 2004 and 420,000 barrels a day in 2005.

This led the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to grow 18 percent in 2000, 66 per cent in 2001, 20per cent in 2002, 10 per cent in 2003 and 25 per cent in 2004. Per capita income has gone from some US$600 in 1998, US$2000 in 2000, to US$5300 in 2005.

The oil sector makes up 97 pr cent of the country's exports and 92 per cent of its GDP. But in addition there are timber, cacao, minerals, fisheries, agricultural produce and tourist potential. Once again, it is surprising that a country able to produce a barrel of oil per person per day, that can count on other resources and is a trade partner of the richest countries in the world, also depends on aid links with school students in the United States, and with church schools and small municipalities in Spain. All these links indicate what is commonly understood as development cooperation by rich-country citizens concerned for people in poor countries.

Karen Miller, former secretary of the Hatcher primary school (Kentucky, USA) moved to the capital of Equatorial Guinea, Malabo, and emailed her friend Jenny Johnson about the school needs in the country. The world's fifth largest oil company, Marathon Oil (www.marathon.com), which operates in Equatorial Guinea, published Jenny's response:

'I felt the need to help. I knew this was something God wanted me to do. I put up posters in the school. The only problem was making sure the books donated by teachers and pupils arrived. I want to thank all those who have helped with this project. First of all to God, our Father, for making this happen, to the school community and especially to Marathon for starting this aid project for the students of the island of Bioko.' The estimated cost to the company was some 35,000 Euros.

Last April, the municipality of Alcorcón, close to Madrid, signed a permanent cooperation agreement with the Organization of Ibero-American States. The fact that Equatorial Guinea is not exactly located in the ibero-american area does not stop the municipality saying: 'we are very proud as a city to join this project of a meeting between cultures. Material cooperation with Equatorial Guinea, initially of 60,000 Euros, will enable the start up of a reading project on the one hand, with school libraries and on the other hand, teacher training in Spanish and local languages and in mathematics'.

In the first week of June, the church schools of Monforte organised a solidarity fair to raise funds for their colleagues in Equatorial Guinea. According to a local daily paper, 'the jumble sale, dinner and dance and donations raised 7,794 Euros'. Unlike the reports above, no mention is made of the uses made of the money.

Perhaps the teacher, the mayor and the religious teaching staff are unaware that the government of Equatorial Guinea, with a budget of US$2 billion in 2005, could well afford to pay for some text books and school libraries.

Preoccupied with prayers, meetings and brunches, maybe they have not had the chance to get to know the reality of the country; but instead have collected over 100,000 Euros. Even if that sum reaches Equatorial Guinea, which may be unlikely, that money does not even come close to the 380,000 Euros paid for a Lamborghini sports car acquired in 2005 by Teodoro Nguema. a son of President Obiang and Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, according to a report in the South African Cape Times of July 20, 2007.

It can be argued that a similar effort by 16 other solidarity groups could match the money that Nguema might have used to benefit his people. This last alternative seems more likely to benefit the development of Equatorial Guinea, except one might prefer that people not live dependent on the charity of others. 27 solidarity groups with similar fundraising ability would be needed to match Nguema's penchant for luxury cars, since the same article reports he also spent 800,000 Euros that year buying a Bentley Arnage and a Bentley Mulliner.

Even so, it is hard for the good will of development workers, donors, sponsors and volunteers to keep up with the pace of spending: the US Forbes magazine, specialising in listing the world's wealthiest people, reported that on June 5, 2006 Nguema also rented the yacht of Microsft co-founder Paul Allen, the fifth wealthiest man in the world, for 600,000 Euros.

Teodorín, as he is known, has a mansion and a recording studio in the United States and various properties and interests in other countries. Global Witness, an organisation dedicated to uncovering corruption in countries rich in raw materials, reports that the mansion is worth US$35,000,000.

Although ordinary citizens are unaware of these facts, the government knows them very well, but still maintains cooperation links. With regard to state development aid, there is abundant information in various official and quasi-official sources, such as political parties, institutes and foundations

The Spanish State Secretariat for International Cooperation declares 'the government...bears collective responsibility for respecting and defending peace and human dignity and equality at the world level. Poverty reduction is an ethical duty for the world's most prosperous citizens and a political obligation for all the governments on the planet'.

Lofty aims that perhaps don't marry up too well with military spending of 17 billion Euros in 2007, 15th highest in the world, while expenditure on development aid is 3 billion. Loans that create more debt, debt forgiveness and so on must be subtracted from the latter amount. While that first figure for defence can be left out of the equation altogether until someone proves the link between arms spending and development.

Spanish development aid to Equatorial Guinea devoted nearly 4.5 million Euros to healthcare in 2004-5, spread over various projects: control of endemic diseases, water purification, community health and health workers. With that sum, President Obiang would have struggled to purchase his two mansions in Maryland in the US.

But we may say: It is not a matter of tracking down every last cent. These African countries are known for their idiosyncrasies. No one is perfect. Well, in that case, take the example of quality healthcare. Spain, for example, is placed 21st in the Human Development Index. Shile Equatorial Guinea is placed 121st. Per capita spending on healthcare is US$1,640 and US$139 respectively.

Development cooperation, galactic style, to use a fashionable term, would ensure that people in Equatorial Guinea enjoyed the same level of health care as people in Spain. Multiplying 450,000 people by US$1,640 works out at a little more than US$700 million. Coincidentally the same amount Obiang transferred to personal accounts in the unexpectedly extinct Riggs Bank, based, by the way, in the United States and, as luck would have it, the main investor in Equatorial Guinea.

We can look at it another way. Obiang spends about US$70,000,000 a year on 'security', a figure to be treated with caution, since the actual sum is unknown, even to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (www.sipri.se). But it can be inferred from purchases of war equipment. Spain, the United States and Israel have all sold Obiang military materiel and trained his troops and police. In ten years of oil exploration, it is not unreasonable to think that Obiang could have increased his people's life expectancy with such a sum. But life expectancy remains about half that of Spain's: 43.5 and 79.5 years respectively.

Or again, we could argue, development cooperation is very much more than money. According to Spain's International Cooperation for Development Law, drawn up in 1998, 'development processes will be promoted with respect to the defence and protection of human rights, basic liberties and economic and social welfare needs...'

Those processes do not exist as Spain knows very well. Although the Minister for Foreign Affairs omits to mention it and prefers to talk about other things. Parliamentarians who visited the country in 2007 'found improvements and returned optimistic'.

Political declarations, projects, reports and aid workers abound. But this is not development cooperation. To talk as if there were development cooperation is an insult to the people of Equatorial Guinea. In fact, we should talk about a development cooperation fraud.

* Agustin Velloso. UNED, Facultad de Educacion, Paseo Senda del Rey, nº 728040-Madrid, Spain.

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Abdelbagi Jibril, director of the Darfur Relief and Documentation Centre, compares South Africa's economic and trade relations with China and the Arab Gulf states and its defence of the Khartoum regime with its indifference towards the tragedy of the people of Darfur, which, he concludes, is tantamount to the genocide of Africans.

The South African government is playing an increasingly important role in the political and economic affairs of the African continent. South Africa’s increasing political role is directly linked to its economic might. Its economy accounts for about 45 per cent of Africa’s GDP, equivalent of three times the size of the second biggest economy in Africa (Egypt). South Africa's economic interest and importance are the driving forces behind its political stands on some of the crucial situations facing Africa today, including Darfur. Within the African Union (AU), South Africa is a member of the influential Peace and Security Council, where vital measures affecting peace and security in Africa are discussed and acted on. At the international level, South Africa is currently a member of the UN Security Council and the UN Human Rights Council.

South Africa and Sudan, south Sudan

South Africa has developed a special relationship with Sudan, especially after the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in January 2005. The two countries collaborate in various economic and commercial fields. They have growing cooperation in the energy sector, as well as in security and military fields. Immediately following the signing of the CPA, South Africa decided to establish a diplomatic mission in Sudan, which opened soon after. President Thabo Mbeki was the only African head of state outside of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) to attend all the concluding sessions of the important phases of the political negotiations between the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement and Army (SPLM/A) and Khartoum that ended in Nairobi with the signing of the CPA on 9 January 2005. He was also among the few African heads of state to attend the coronation of the late Dr John Garang as the first Vice-President of Sudan in July 2005.

After the defeat of apartheid and the establishment of a democratic nation in 1994, the ANC government made a strategic decision to support the people of south Sudan and their representative organisation the SPLM/A. A number of SPLM/A cadres received training and education in South Africa. Cooperation in this field continues through the Pretoria-based Centre for African Renaissance Studies at the University of South Africa. A considerable contingent of scholars and students from south Sudan are now attending South African universities. Following the increase in the production of commercially viable quantities of Sudanese crude oil and the establishment of the autonomous Government of South Sudan, the relationship between the two countries has been further strengthened and consolidated. The struggle of the people of south Sudan for justice and equality was the cornerstone of South Africa’s interest.

It has been observed that some SPLM/A supporters, especially those who participated in the Inter-Sudanese Peace Talks on Darfur, hold unusual enmity towards the insurgent movements and people of Darfur. These cadres have aggressively rejected the demands of the people of Darfur for a proportionate share in the economic and political life of the country, on the grounds that such demands will affect the CPA. Some of them even claim that the people of Darfur instigated the destruction of their region in order to sabotage the peace agreement. Since then, some SPLM/A elements have launched a sinister campaign against the demands of Darfurians for justice and equality. This campaign has reached many parts of east, west and southern Africa.

South Africa and China

South Africa has strong trade and economic ties with China. There are political and ideological affinities, inherited from the era of black South Africa’s revolution against the oppressive apartheid regime. This relationship has created a complicated dynamic, especially at international decision-making fora. Both China and South Africa are currently members of the UN Security Council and the Human Rights Council. At the international level we have observed that South Africa and China assume similar positions on some issues in the area of international peace, security and human rights, in particular on the situation in Darfur.

South Africa and the Arab Gulf states

South Africa has strong trade and economic relationships with countries in the Arabian Gulf region. In fact, the Gulf region is becoming an important trade zone and It holds great potential for South Africa, not only as an export market and a source of energy, but also as a strategic source of foreign direct investment. During the past few years, the oil-rich Arab Gulf states have invested billions of US dollars from surplus oil revenue in real estate, private equity investment, infrastructure development, tourism and other related business affairs in South Africa. Sudan represents a special area of geopolitical interest for the Gulf States. Protecting the Arab-centric government of General El Bashir is one of the main factors, which bring together all members of the League of Arab States in their support of Khartoum. On the other hand, it is clear that most states in sub-Saharan Africa have yet to understand the full ramifications of the crisis in Darfur: which is largely driven by the quest for encroachment on the land owned by indigenous African tribes.

South Africa and Darfur

The position of the government of South Africa vis-à-vis the situation in Darfur is characterised by indifference to the suffering of the victims of this human tragedy. Although South Africa participated in the AU Mission in Sudan (AMIS), and has sent some military and police forces to Darfur, the effectiveness of its contribution remains disproportionate to the role of political leadership that it actively pursues in relation to the Dafurian situation.

Out of the total AMIS authorised troops of 6,171 military and 1,560 police personnel, South Africa has contributed some 600 individuals. Recently, we have observed that the government of South Africa increasingly supports the Khartoum government in its handling of Darfur. South Africa continues to use its membership of the AU Peace and Security Council to back the position assumed by Sudan and its north and east African allies within AU institutions. At the international level the country follows a similar policy. On no less than a dozen occasions, South Africa has used its membership of the UN Security Council and the Human Rights Council to oppose and water down projects and resolutions which could have helped provide the victims of the armed conflict in Darfur with protection and relief. Below are some examples of South Africa’s callous position on Darfur.

On 12 July 2007, three members of the UN Security Council, Britain, France and Ghana, submitted a draft resolution for consideration and action by other members of the council. Because of the gravity of the situation on the ground, the resolution was tabled under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. The draft text approved the 'hybrid' African Union-United Nations force. Although the text was reasonably prepared, it ran into strong opposition from some council members, in particular China and South Africa took the lead.

South Africa's ambassador to the UN in New York, Dumisani Kumalo, labelled the draft resolution as 'totally unacceptable'. He further accused the sponsors, including Ghana, of 'throwing everything into the kitchen sink'. He strongly supported the position of the Sudanese government that the resolution should be 'more Sudan friendly'; and that it should drop 'irrelevant' and 'alien' issues, like the threat of 'other measures', usually meaning sanctions. Ambassador Kumalo has been consistent on this position. In March 2007, when he was President of the Security Council, he said that 'the UN can't send troops into Darfur without the permission of the Sudanese Government…[the] UN can't just order the marines into a country'. This assertion is irrelevant and misleading about UN peacekeepers being drawn from the US marines.

The irony is that the government of South Africa seems to be blindly supporting Khartoum. On 17 June 2007, at a press conference given by the UN Security Council delegation following a meeting in Khartoum with Sudan’s president, Ambassador Kumalo was quoted as saying 'I can tell you that the Foreign Minister told us in no uncertain terms that the Government of Sudan accepted the hybrid operation without any conditionality. The President himself just confirmed the same thing to us'. Indeed, Sudan’s president did not miss out on the opportunity to declare that '…no Western European soldier will touch Sudan’s soil', thus belying Kumalo’s statement.

At the High Level Meeting held in New York, Sudan, supported by South Africa and other AU members, formally objected to the deployment in Darfur of infantry contingents from Uruguay and Thailand. They also objected to the deployment of a military engineering unit from Norway. These objections are clear violations of the AU agreement with the UN on the UN/AU hybrid military presence in Darfur. They disregard completely the letter and the spirit of UN Security Council Resolution 1769 (2007), which authorised the UN/AU Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID).

At the fifth session of the UN Human Rights Council held in Geneva, 12–30 March 2007, many human rights activists were shocked when the South African delegation stood fast in support of the Sudanese government. Together with Algeria, they endorsed a weak resolution text that praised Sudan’s militaristic policy in Darfur. This occurred despite the almost unanimous opinion among delegates from sub-Saharan Africa, including SADC countries, that they could no longer extend unconditional backing to the government of Sudan for its crimes in Darfur. When their efforts failed, the delegation of South Africa used all kinds of tactics to water down the resolution, introduced by the EU, on the situation in Sudan.

The position of the ANC government in South Africa vis-à-vis the situation in Darfur is disappointing. Providing unconditional political and diplomatic support to the government of Sudan amounts to certain complicity. Moreover, efforts of the government of South Africa to abort robust regional and international plans to protect the defenceless civilian population in Darfur betray the ideals of justice, human dignity, equality, liberty and peaceful coexistence, for which the South African masses fought an heroic rebellion against the racist apartheid regime. Because of such a glorious history, the position of the ANC government in South Africa, in support of the the crimes the Sudanese government continues to commit in Darfur, disturbs the victims of this tragedy more than the positions of China, Egypt, Algeria, Russia and other friends of Sudan. External observers too could easily point out that if Africans themselves don’t give a hang about African victims of the Darfur tragedy, why should the rest of the world care?

In 2010, South Africa is expected to host the Football World Cup. This important global manifestation will focus the world’s attention on South Africa as a preferred destination for tourism, trade and investment. Hosting this prestigious global tournament should place a certain moral responsibility on the host nation regarding the values of solidarity, friendship, peace, justice and human dignity. What we see in South Africa’s policy towards Darfur is the antithesis of these high moral values. It should be rejected by all peace-loving people. The world should know that by protecting the government of Sudan over Darfur, South Africa has tainted its hands. It supports a killer regime that actively pursues a policy of imposing living conditions that will eventually lead to the destruction, in whole or in part, of a specific group of people because of their ethnic or tribal background. Dafur is tantamount to the genocide of Africans.

* Abdelbagi Jibril is Executive Director of the Darfur Relief and Documentation Centre.

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

The arrival of new technologies often results in a wider gap between the rich and the poor. Yet some innovations fail to be applied in developing countries where there is a real need. As E.F. Schumacher observed, 'new technologies are developed only when people of power and wealth back the development'. The International Council for Science argues, as do many others, that developing countries lack an infrastructure base for exploiting technology, and suggests increased investment in universities.

High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres has welcomed the adoption of a UN Security Council resolution establishing a multi-dimensional United Nations mission in Chad and Central African Republic (CAR) that will help strengthen security in the region. Guterres said he looked forward to an early decision of the European Union (EU) to send military troops so that the UN force – to be known by its acronym MINURCAT – can deploy in the coming weeks and months.

A very dry spell preceding the floods affected the whole country, almost leading to the closure of the hydroelectric dam at Akosombo in the south-east; this facility is fed from the north by the Volta River. Then, in late August, came the rains, deluging the Northern region and the Upper East and Upper West regions, also in the north. The downpours forced families. who had been battling with the drought, to deal with a different type of natural disaster, with many fleeing their homes.

Rita Kalikokha of Dowa, a rural district in central Malawi, thinks about abandoning school every time she menstruates. The hard-working, resolute 13-year-old attends a primary school that has no running water. All 350 pupils at Rita’s school have only two pit-latrines to share, and there is no tap where they can wash their hands after using the toilet. Rita says she and other adolescent girls find these poor sanitation conditions even more awkward when it is time for their monthly periods: 'It’s so difficult to concentrate in class when you know there is no water to clean up with at break time. I usually prefer staying home every time my menses come.'

While its economic landscape is brightening, Africa is still bedeviled by some of the same obstacles that have historically undermined economic development in the resource and labour-rich region. And many of those woes could be solved through development of further intraregional trade. 'The relatively small weight of intraregional trade in Africa, despite the existence of several (and frequently overlapping) regional trade agreements, is due largely to their structure of production and the composition of their exports', according to a report released earlier this month by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

When Mohsin Hendricks, an Imam in South Africa, revealed that he was gay he expected protests and calls for his death. But he never imagined he would talk about his sexuality and religion publically. Hendricks appears in Jihad for Love, a documentary about gay Muslim men and women in Iraq, Pakistan, Egypt and South Africa. Indian filmmaker Parvez Sharma, who is gay himself, wants his movie to reach Muslim communities, even those where being homosexual remains a crime punishable by death.

Nigerian armed group Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) has threatened to resume its campaign of kidnapping foreigners and attacking oil facilities, ending a four-month ceasefire. They made the announcement in an email to the media on Sunday, denying government reports that the group's leaders had been arrested in Angola

Darfur's rebel groups could face sanctions if they do not attend peace talks with Khartoum in Libya next month, delegates to a UN-sponsored meeting in New York have warned. US and Sudanese officials both called for sanctions against rebels who stayed away from negotiations, in a rare moment of unity following Friday's meeting.

A new IFAD-funded programme in Uganda will help increase incomes, boost economic growth and reduce poverty by improving farmers’ access to markets with better infrastructure. The programme will be funded partially by a US$15,000,00 IFAD loan to the Government of Uganda. The Community Agricultural Infrastructure Improvement Programme, co-financed by the African Development Bank, will cover 26 districts in central and eastern Uganda, representing about 27 per cent of the country’s land area.

The Uganda National Council for Science has asked the Government to change the school curriculum to develop science and technology at early stages. The executive secretary, Dr Peter Ndemere, on Monday said they were working on a US$30,000,000 (about 48 bilion Kenya shillings) project to address research, curriculum development and the transfer of knowledge to the market. The five-year project started in February this year.

Nine African countries have won the first ever awards given for promoting the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) by governments in fulfilling their public service delivery functions, the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) has announced. The Technology in Government in Africa (TIGA) awards came about through collaboration between UNECA and the Canadian Policy Resource Centre in training African policy-makers.

The discovery of about eighty foetuses in a stream used by a peri-urban community in Swaziland has raised disturbing questions about the desperation of women in a country where unwanted pregnancies are common, abortion is illegal and two-thirds of the population live in poverty.

The Somali government has stopped evicting internally displaced persons (IDPs) from government buildings, in a bid to stem displacement in the capital, Mogadishu, an official told IRIN on 26 September. Dahir Mohamed Burale, the commissioner of the National Refugee Commission of Somalia (NRCS), said it had convinced the government it should provide alternative accommodation for the IDPs before evicting them.

Tajudeen Abdul Raheem argues that Western posturing against Zimbabwe, particularly in the case of the British, stokes the cause of the Mugabe apologists. Instead, he argues, solidarity should be with the ordinary people of Zimbabwe, who should not be distracted from demanding their government be held accountable to them.

There are very few African political activists who have been publicly consistent in their criticisms of
President Mugabe and ZANU-PF of Zimbabwe. I am one of them. But we are not very many. That is not because Africans do not care about what is happening in Zimbabwe; but because the external dimension: regime-change agenda induced from UK and US, and internal racial dynamics of the struggle have both combined to work in Mugabe's favour.

My position is made more difficult by the fact that I was until early last year Secretary-General of the Pan African Movement. Mugabe is indeed one of the most respected and admired leaders in the Pan African Movement, so how can I be criticising one of our icons?

Readers who routinely sent me text or email messages: 'well said'; 'aluta continua comrade'; 'give it to them man', etc, have been outraged by my stand on Zimbabwe and Mugabe. One close comrade, a well respected academic lawyer, wrote to me stating categorically that I should add a disclaimer at the end of my columns. He suggested: 'the views expressed are my personal views not necessarily the view of the Global Pan African Movement'. Both legally and politically, he is correct. But I was puzzled that he never felt it necessary to give me this legal advice until Mugabe became an issue!

One of my critics, a veteran of black struggles in the diaspora, even went as far as to suggest that my columns are syndicatedly written by the MI5 and CIA! My response to such lurid accusations is that if the CIA and MI5 could recruit me without my knowledge, then we must give them credit for good judgement!

More seriously, I have not been surprised by the hostile reactions. President Mugabe evokes extremes of passions, with no one being neutral. He is regarded by many Africans and pan-Africanists as the Liberator, the icon of anti–imperialism, the bold and courageous African leader who is able to look at imperialists in the face and say: 'to hell with you'.

In a historical period when Western arrogance and US hegemonic unilateralism are making many people angry, eliciting powerlessness and hopelessness, many are willing to embrace anyone who dares stand up against the West, especially the US. The same sentiments that drew many to admire Saddam Hussein, as an agent of the US for many years, regardless of his atrocities against his own people; or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran today in his vitriolic attacks on the US, or Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. Many who are unsympathetic to socialism nonetheless admire Castro and Cubans for standing against the US and for having defied it for almost five decades, less than 100km from the coast of Florida! These are seen as leaders who refuse to bend to the wishes of Washington. Even other leaders, especially from the poorer countries of the world, are silently applauding them.

In the case of Mugabe, legitimacy is also derived from a genuine liberation struggle that many regarded as being ambushed by a 'Lancaster House compromise'. Therefore, they see Mugabe as returning to the unfinished agenda, differing from the negotiated settlement that led to independence in 1980. Many are stuck in 1980 and Chimurenga, and fail to judge Mugabe and ZANU PF for almost three decades of monopoly power in the country.

When this is pointed out, a lot of apologetics say that Lancaster House prevented any radical solution. But Lancaster was for only 10 years. Why then did Mugabe not restart the Chimurenga in 1990, instead of being forced to do so in the late 1990s by the veterans? But seeking answers to these questions are like arguing with Jehovah' witnesses!

What also strengthens the pro-Mugabe lobby is the evident hypocrisy of the West in dealing with the
Zimbabwe. Why is Mugabe singled out? Where were they in the mid-1980s when Matabeleland was wasting in ZANU's drive for a one-party state? Would they be making so much noise had Mugabe not attacked and repossessed land from white settlers, whose ancestors - with British imperial force - had grabbed the lands from black people? Is Mugabe being punished as a warning to the ANC in neighbouring South Africa: not to even dare to address the grotesque land inequality in that country?

It is the historic wrong against blacks in Zimbabwe that makes many Africans generally sympathetic to Mugabe, even if they will disagree with some of the methods. The pressures from the West, which is silent about similar or worse excesses of human rights, government authoritarianism and dictatorial leadership by other African leaders, but chose to make Mugabe a scapegoat, work for Mugabe apologists.

That is why the current debate sparked by Britain's Gordon Brown on the forthcoming Africa-EU dialogue scheduled for Portugal later this year can only make Mugabe's position more formidable. Britain is the least qualified country to grandstand anyone on Zimbabwe. Brown can not be threatening the rest of Europe with boycott because of one man and one country. If the dialogue is indeed between Africa and Europe, why should one side be laying down the terms?

Why do European leaders think they are the only ones with a public to respond to? African leaders must not accept this. If they do, they will prove to their people that they are spineless poodles of imperialism, whose only question, when asked to jump by the West, is not why, but how high?

However, rejecting the arrogance and hypocrisies of European leaders should not mean that we should endorse the excesses of President Mugabe's prolonged one-man-rule. Political and ideological suspicions of the opposition do not justify the attacks on them. In any case, our solidarity should be with the people of Zimbabwe, who may be ZANU loyalists, MDC supporters or neither. As citizens, they deserve to demand that their government be held accountable to them.

A disproportionate focus on the West's agenda is making us compromise in our duty to express this
solidarity much more boldly.

Tajudeen Abdul Raheem is the Deputy Director for the UN Millennium Campaign in Africa, based in Nairobi, Kenya. He writes this article in a personal capacity as a concerned pan-Africanist.

Military dissidents loyal to renegade army general Laurent Nkunda have resumed fighting in the eastern province of North Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, two weeks after a ceasefire was negotiated by the UN Mission in the Congo (MONUC). 'The insurgents launched attacks against three of our positions in the morning, in Ngungu where the clashes had ceased, in Karuba and in Kichanga' [in Masisi territory, northeast of Goma, the provincial capital], Colonel Delphin Kahindi, the deputy commander of the Congolese army in the province, said on 24 September 2007.

Reporters Without Borders is appalled by the attempted murder on 24 September 2007 of privately-owned Radio Shabelle's acting manager, Jafar Mohammed 'Kukay', the latest target of a wave of political killings that seems to be aimed at demonstrating that the transitional federal government is unable to guarantee security in the Somali capital.

Zimbabwe posted a trade deficit of US$189,000,000 in the first six months of 2007 against China, the price of a costly marriage of convenience founded on Harare’s quest for friendship and Beijing’s search for cheap raw materials. Bi-lateral trade between the two countries clocked US$205,000,00 between January and June, almost 80 per cent of the US$270,000,000 registered during the whole of 2006.

Floods that have left hundreds of thousands of Africans homeless across vast swathes of the continent have claimed 64 lives in Nigeria and 33 in Burkina Faso, government and aid officials said on Thursday. Nigeria's Red Cross said the death toll covered a period since mid-July, while 22,000 people have been displaced in ten sometimes arid northern states of the most populous nation in Africa, as well as in the Lagos area, the huge economic capital in the south-west.

As the Save Darfur Day was commemorated around the world on September 17, 2007, General Agwai, commander of the AU-EU peacekeeping force for Darfur, states that political will is needed to end the crisis, noting that he has only 6,000 of the 20,000 troops he requires. Further, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project and the Independent Advocacy Project have called on the African Union and all African governments to immediately demand that the Sudanese government, armed groups and Janjawid militia halt attacks against civilians and humanitarian agencies. These urgent demands are contained in a 5-Point Programme for Ending Violence in Darfur, which the groups released to mark Save Darfur Day.

As the 'Stop EPA campaign' prepares for the global day of action against the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) on September, 27, the African Union has issued a report cautioning member states to conclude only the agreements that do not undermine the development of the continent. The report notes that European negotiators have failed to appreciate the socio-economic and political philosophy that drives regional integration in Africa.

In another article, Pilirani Semu-Banda argues that the EPAs may undermine the benefits for the sugar industry of the ‘Everything-But-Arms’ European Union (EU) trade initiative. While David Cronin reports from a conference organised by members of the European parliament, where trade unionists and policy analysts stated that African nations have been reduced to begging in negotiations with the EU in what has turned into an exercise 'assaulting democracy'.

As the EPA negotiations continue, the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) and the European Commission held consultations aimed at 'starting a process of reinforced cooperation with a view to identifying ways to achieve greater development impact in Africa through effective collaborative efforts'.

'Mobilizing Aid for Trade: Focus on Africa' is the theme of a conference scheduled in October in Tanzania, under the auspices of the AfDB, the UN Economic Commission for Africa and the World Trade Organization (WTO) in cooperation with the World Bank. Pascal Lamy of the WTO and Donald Kaberuka of the AfDB explain the rationale behind the Aid for Trade meeting asserting that there is increasing recognition that even with free trade, many countries do not have the basic infrastructure needed to take advantage of it. However, Emmanuel Opati argues that the 'trade, not aid' slogan ignores a major factor - the role of Africa’s image. Speaking to this image, a group of media practitioners deliberated in China to assess how Africa and China can exchange information and experience as well as change negative African and Chinese perceptions of one another in the era of globalisation.

As the latest summit to discuss a post-Kyoto treaty continues in New York this week, the single most revealing statement has already been spoken: 'We need to climate-proof economic growth.' These few words, told to reporters by the UN’s top climate official, Yvo de Boer, during the recent Vienna round of talks, define the blinded establishment approach to tackling climate change.

This paper was presented to the Africa University Annual Conference on the 'Commemoration of the Legacy of Dag Hammarskjöld', held in Mutare, Zimbabwe, 24-26 September 2007. The author, Henning Melber, was prevented from participating in the event, since the Zimbabwean embassy had informed him a day before his departure from Sweden that the immigration authorities in Harare had turned down his visa application.

During a visit to India in early February 1956, Dag Hammarskjöld presented one of the very rare impromptu speeches of his career as second Secretary General to the United Nations (1953-61) when addressing the Indian Council of World Affairs. Prompted by a moving encounter with local culture performed in his honour earlier on, his mainly extemporaneous speech explored the dimensions of human universalism. A commonality beyond Western – or, indeed, any other culturally, religiously or geographically limited – ideology or conviction.

'It is no news to anybody, but we sense it in different degrees, that our world of today is more than ever before one world. The weakness of one is the weakness of all, and the strength of one – not the military strength, but the real strength, the economic and social strength, the happiness of people – is indirectly the strength of all. Through various developments which are familiar to all, world solidarity has, so to say, been forced upon us. This is no longer a choice of enlightened spirits; it is something which those whose temperament leads them in the direction of isolationism have also to accept.'

Isolationism is a phenomenon guided by a lack of reality, or by selective perceptions, found often by leaders and their followers. It is a universal feature, and not confined to any particular society or group. By no coincidence it was the British Lord Acton, who stated, within the society considered to be one of the cradles of the modern day political system called democracy, that power corrupts, and that absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Former liberation movements, who, after long and painful sacrifices by the oppressed people fighting against colonial occupation ultimately secured the fundamental right of self-determination and seized the legitimate political power based on popular vote, are not protected from these temptations. As a result of such 'limits to liberation', Zimbabwe is in the midst of an ongoing crisis. The 'political economy of decline' can hardly be ignored by anyone living in or having insights into the social and political realities. Even though Zimbabwe has frequently denied the freedom of movement and the freedom of expression to those seeking to form or to articulate a view on the ground; just as the apartheid settler colonial regimes of Rhodesia, South West Africa and South Africa had done during earlier (and definitely not so good old) days.

Notwithstanding such disturbing features of limiting the freedom of individuals, to which numerous (and much more serious) incidences against its own people over the years since the Gukurahundi of the mid-1980s in Matabeleland have alerted us, some maintain the impression that ‘business as usual’ exists (- and maybe it does?). There remain ‘professional denialists’, who continue to dismiss any such notion – even if the authorities of a state without any serious crisis of legitimacy could afford to allow visitors to enter their country freely. Zimbabwe’s ambassador to neighbouring Namibia (where an increasing number of Zimbabweans are seeking refuge and thereby testify to the ongoing crisis at home) stated in an interview to the state-owned daily newspaper as late as mid-September 2007 that, 'Zimbabwe […] is a peaceful paradise and politically stable since 1980'. Asked how the political situation in his country can be resolved, he answered: 'The question is misleading because it assumes that there is a political problem in Zimbabwe. This is not the case. There is no political situation in Zimbabwe.' According to most others, and in direct contradiction to the diplomat’s view, there clearly is.

These more critical views do not have to be a part of or closely affiliated to any of the organised political rival groupings contributing to a chronic state of protest, unrest and repression spiralling the country’s people further into misery and suffering. The sub-regional body, SADC, has officially acknowledged the need to mediate, with the goal to bring the decline to a halt and the country back on track towards a peaceful future in stability. The Communiqué of the Extraordinary Summit of the SADC Heads of State held, because of the Zimbabwe crisis, on 28-29 March 2007 in Dar-es-Salaam, however, provided a classic example of a dilemma, when it 'reaffirmed its solidarity with the Government and people of Zimbabwe'. In this case, obviously, one can hardly have it both ways.

It is fair to assume that Zimbabwe 'has posed fundamental questions about the extent to which SADC members can and should intervene in the internal affairs of other member countries for the sake of regional interests. […] SADC has been slow to respond to the crisis. It has failed to replicate the positive solidarity that SADCC members once levelled against apartheid South Africa.'

Notwithstanding the reservations provoked by the ongoing double-bind message by SADC as the sub-regional organisation as well as individual SADC member countries, the latest assessment of the International Crisis Group (ICG) concludes that the regionally negotiated solution would be the most feasible option for Zimbabwe:

'The next few months present a moment of truth. […] SADC and its member states have the capacity to reverse a downward spiral which increasingly threatens the region’s stability but they must be prepared to support the initiative they have begun and Mbeki’s mandate. This means using economic leverage, conditioning a recovery package on performance and making clear that if there is no cooperation they will not hesitate to call the initiative a failure and reject elections that are not a product of their mediation and do not comply with SADC’s own democratic standards.'

Such pro-active policy is a kind of interference, which corresponds with the new political realities and a common understanding as codified in the currently applicable documents guiding African continental politics. The Constitutive Act of the African Union (AU) deviated in a substantial paradigm from the fundamental principles of the earlier Organisation of African Unity (OAU).

The non-intervention into matters of member states had been a hitherto holy principle, on which the OAU based its continental policies. The AU constitution has replaced this by a clear notion of collective responsibilities, which under grave circumstances even justify joint intervention into the internal affairs of the member states. This new approach has already provided results by means of a visible implementation on several occasions.

Along similar lines and despite all critical analyses - justified with regard to the reluctant pursuance of the noble goals defined - The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and its African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) have created a corresponding new paradigmatic framework for good governance and the commitment by African states to comply with such defined standards. It could do no harm to measure those governments not volunteering to this screening exercise according to similar criteria and seek their application. Similarly, as suggested by SADC at its last ordinary summit in August 2007 in Lusaka, a few among the growing number of voluntarily retiring elder statesmen and former presidents might be a suitable task force to seek negotiations with an aging autocrat reluctant to give up power.

But seeking a lasting solution for Zimbabweans means more than entering into a negotiated compromise in terms of power sharing among segmented political elites representing different interests, while offering guaranteed protection for perpetrators if they comply with such controlled change. In an analytically remarkable Pastoral Letter released by the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference on Holy Thursday of 2007, the internal, class-related roots of the current Zimbabwean crisis were highlighted:

'Black Zimbabweans today fight for the same basic rights they fought for during the liberation struggle. It is the same conflict between those who possess power and wealth in abundance, and those who do not; between those who are determined to maintain their privileges of power and wealth at any cost, even at the cost of bloodshed, and those who demand their democratic rights and a share in the fruits of independence; between those who continue to benefit from the present system of inequality and injustice, because it favours them and enables them to maintain an exceptionally high standard of living, and those who go to bed hungry at night and wake up in the morning to another day without work and without income; between those who only know the language of violence and intimidation, and those who feel they have nothing more to loose because their Constitutional rights have been abrogated and their votes rigged.'

This insight is of relevance not only for Zimbabwe. It is relevant for all societies marred by antagonistic forces culminating in extreme social disparities, where a privileged few feast at the expense of the marginalised majority. This includes (though is anything but confined to) the societies in (southern) Africa, who for both external as well as internal limiting factors have not managed to overcome the colonial legacy and its fundamentally unjust and discriminating social structures and corresponding mental dispositions.

This paper opened with a quote from a rather spontaneously motivated speech by Dag Hammarskjöld in 1956, documenting his firm belief in the unity of humankind and its shared values and norms. Much remains in this world, even half a century later, as a continuing challenge to enhance such understanding. A challenge, which clearly embraces the need to reduce the gross imbalances, which, in a very concrete and lasting material sense, prevent the full implementation of such universal ethical and moral norms to the benefit of most, if not all, in this world of the early 21st century.

But the lack of progress does not mean that Hammarskjöld’s words and visions were neither practical nor realistic. For him, the work of the United Nations should build on the commonality of humankind, its conduct and experience:

'With respect to the United Nations as a symbol of faith, it may […] be said that to every man it stands as a kind of "yes’ to the ability of man to form his own destiny, and form his own destiny so as to create a world where the dignity of man can come fully into its own.'

These words should continue to serve as an invitation to jointly turn all corners of this world into a better one to the benefit of the ordinary people. 'In such a world', the late Secretary General further clarified in no uncertain terms, 'it is impossible to maintain the status of "haves" and "have-nots", just as impossible as it has grown to be inside the nation state'. The challenge to turn his words into social and political realities remains on our agenda. It includes the southern African region in general, and, in particular, Zimbabwe.

Such a demand is by no means a Eurocentric fantasy of neocolonial or imperialist interventions, as so often claimed by those local elites under siege, simply because they are measured and judged against universal standards and values relating to fundamental and undivided human rights based principles and norms: the same principles and norms, they claimed to be fighting for, when fighting against settler-colonial minority regimes denying them those rights. The same rights they are now denying to so many among their 'liberated' people. The current necessity to take sides is by no means drawing a dividing line along race or the North-South axis, as relevant as such criteria for historically rooted privileges, identities and interests might generally be. Instead, such dismissals of human rights-related notions are nothing more than a smokescreen, a constructed escape route for those, who try to get away with cheating again the 'wretched of the earth'. As a pan-African human rights campaigner clarified:

'I have heard some people argue that the "enemies" of Africa now crying about human rights did not burden their conscience with such luxuries when benefiting from 400 years of industrial scale slavery, colonialism and brutal exploitation of Africa and its peoples. In other words, that ‘white farmers’ deserve some of their own medicine. Not only does such thinking reduce Africans to the moral bankruptcy of colonialists, it also fails to understand that it risks granting unlimited and indefinite power to Africa’s actual and imaginary liberators such that we may all end up being shackled by them. Africa’s liberation movements drew their moral strength from the fact that on the balance, they fought for social justice, human rights, equality and democracy – for all […].'

The 25-year old unemployed Harare woman Ndakaitei captured the sentiments after three chimurengas on behalf of a frustrated post-independent urban youth when she cried out: 'We desire a future that is not like the present!'

Notes and references

I owe this information (and the quotes) to the fascinating manuscript submitted by Manuel Fröhlich on ‘The Unknown Assignation’. Dag Hammarskjöld in the Papers of George Ivan Smith for forthcoming publication with the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation in its new Critical Currents occasional paper series. This will then – like many other publications - also be available on the Foundation’s web site:

Dag Hammarskjöld, ‘The United Nations – Its Ideology and Activities. Address before the Indian Council of World Affairs 3 February 1956’. In: Andrew W. Cordier/Wilder Foote (eds), Public Papers of the Secretaries-General of the United Nations. Volume II: Dag Hammarskjöld 1953-1956. New York and London 1972.

Henning Melber (ed.), Limits to Liberation in Southern Africa. The unfinished business of democratic consolidation. Cape Town: HSRC Press 2003.

Suzanne Dansereau/Mario Zamponi, Zimbabwe – The Political Economy of Decline. Uppsala: The Nordic Africa Institute 2005 (Discussion Paper; 27).

A recent volume included a variety of case studies from SADC countries ranging from better to worse practices with regard to state presidents (not) leaving office, including Botswana, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe; see Roger Southall/Henning Melber (eds), Legacies of Power. Leadership Change and Former Presidents in African Politics. Cape Town: HSRC Press and Uppsala: The Nordic Africa Institute 2006.

Rotimi Sankore, ‘Pan Africanism and the Zimbabwe Crisis’, Pambazuka News, no. 319, 12 September 2007.

* Henning Melber came to Namibia as a son of German immigrants in 1967, where he joined the liberation movement SWAPO in 1974. He was director of The Namibian Economic Policy Research Unit (NEPRU) in Windhoek (1992 to 2000) and research director at The Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala/Sweden (2000 to 2006). He is presently the executive director of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation.

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