What the UN needs most is an administrative justice system open to people directly affected by UN policies. (For more information on global administrative law, read B.S. Chimni's study, on the expansion of global administrative law.) In the long run, the UN should have a unified tribunal system with a high court at the top that can issue binding rulings, but it could start with judicial oversight of UN entities that wield power over vulnerable individuals.

Kenya and Rwanda have signed a Memorandum of Understanding that will streamline professional education in Rwanda, facilitated by Kenyan teachers. The Memorandum was signed by the Kenyan Minister of Education, Science and Technology Dr. Noah M. Wekesa, MP, on behalf of the Kenyan government, while the Rwandan Minister of Education Dr. Jeanne D’arc Mujawamariya signed on behalf of the Rwanda government.

Voters in the Comoros went to the polls on Sunday to select final-round candidates in the race to become President of the Union, but the constitutional court - the highest electoral body - could still determine the outcome. The ballot is aimed at breaking the cycle of coups and political strife that has plagued the three islands in the Comoros group since they won independence from France in 1975.

Cote d'Ivoire's President Laurent Gbagbo and Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny appear to be locked in disagreement over the thorny issue of disarmament. Last week key players meeting under African Union mediation agreed that a programme for disarmament of rebels and pro-government militia could run alongside an identification programme for up to 3 million disenfranchised Ivorians. But Gbagbo, who gave the thumbs up to simultaneous identification and disarmament back in February, appears to have changed his mind.

I praise the courage of these women who gathered in J'bourg and came up with such insight (See As all women in her condition, Khwezi needs the protection of the law. If the police in South Africa have failed to protect her against the threats and intimidation, the court is in a good position to order the police to do so. In order not to send a wrong signal to the other women in similar situation, the time to act is now.

We should not fail to understand that the fear of intimidation, threat and rejection has kept many victims of sexual violence from speaking out against the violators of such inhuman acts. Thus, the few who dare to speak out, do so because they want to help put a stop to such acts. These persons should be praised and protected by the institutions that are charged with such powers of protecting the citizens.

Khwezi should be saluted for her courage.

Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem tackles the public split between Nigerian vice-president Alhaji Abubakar Atiku and president Olushegun Obasanjo. The conflict is deadlocked: Atiku can’t quit for fear of what his president will do to him, while Obasanjo can’t fire him because his deputy has just enough power to hang on to office.

In many countries, a vice president who has shown so much public outrage and disagreement with his president and has been so officially ignored and embarrassed by his boss as the vice president of Nigeria, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, would have resigned as a matter of honour. Similarly, a president, who finds himself in such confrontation and so personally and politically distrusts his deputy, would have had him sacked.

The fact that neither has been done despite the open hostility between Atiku and President Olushegun Obasanjo should tell us something very sad about the politics and power dynamics of Africa's largest country: No principles and no scruples, just personal ambitions even at the expense of the people of the country! This lack of principles is not uniquely Nigerian but it does not make it right.

Atiku cannot resign because the second he is no longer vice president he would have lost all immunity (which often operates as impunity among our elected officials). He must be scared that his embittered boss may put him in handcuffs, send him off to Kiri Kiri (Nigeria's maximum prison) on a thousand and one charges which can easily be dusted up from the files. The obvious one, which has been used to silence or 'persuade' some of his supporters to reconsider their opposition to the President, has been trials for corruption through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Atiku has been preparing to be President for a long time and will do anything to achieve his ambition, but going to prison is one of the few prices he is obviously not prepared to pay. Hence he has to remain in office untill the last possible second, when Obasanjo will not be able to do anything to him officially.

The President, on his part, has not been able to sack him because he lacks the political support of the National Parliament to carry it through. Instead, he has chosen to humiliate, subvert, corner, marginalise, undermine and also go after anyone suspected to be loyal to him within the ruling party, the political and business establishment, in the hope that Atiku 'will see sense', mend his ways or just quit.

It is an admission that the President does not control all the ace cards despite the mantra of his supporters reminding Nigerians that General Chief Matthew Olushegun Okikiola Obasanjo is the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Commander of Police, Commander of Prisons and Commander of Customs, Head of Traffic Police, Chief of Federal Road Safety Corp, etc, etc!

But what is the dispute between Obasanjo and Atiku? A very simple matter really. Atiku wants to succeed Obasanjo as President, just like Gordon Brown (who is not even Deputy Prime Minister but the Finance Secretary) has been wanting and waiting to succeed Tony Blair as British Prime Minister. It is not that Blair is very happy about it, but there is almost nothing he can do about it because the Labour Party will decide eventually.

But in the case of Atiku, his and Obasanjo's party, the People's Democratic Party (also more appropriately known as 'People Deceiving People') is not a party but a cabal of political contractors beholden to whoever is in control of the contracts. Despite not having a political, military, or even an ethnic base, in 1999, after Sani Abacha's death, Obasanjo, still recovering from his jail experience, was asked by other generals if he would consider going back to Aso Rock. Once ensconced in power, Obasanjo has become the tail that wags the dog, proving once again that a donkey can rule and twist Nigeria to his whims and caprices as long as it is occupying Aso Rock!

Ibrahim Babangida, Atiku and others who facilitated Obasanjo's ascent thought wrongly that he had no choice but to stick to them after coming to power. In 2003 they flexed their muscle again but their personal and class greed forced them to reach another deal with Obasanjo. Soon after the massive rigging in which Atiku was a major facilitator, Obasanjo went against them again and has remained so since then. He became president twice in spite of the wishes of Nigerians. Therefore, he cannot care less if the whole country is now opposed to his changing the constitution to facilitate what in Uganda many opposition people call a 'Sad Term'.

Does this make Atiku the martyr for democracy that his propagandists claim? Definitely not. He has not articulated any policy difference from Obasanjo's IMF/World Bank-know best neo-liberalism. Between him and Babangida, the other front-running contender, the choice is one of sunset or darkness. Obasanjo's people are using this to blackmail Nigerians that there are no alternatives. They are being half clever because the reason there are no other alternatives is because the incumbent has placed 'No vacancy' on the Aso Rock gate. The real choice is not between Obasanjo and these people but really between Nigerians and the military/civilian plutocrats!

* Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is General-Secretary of the Pan African Movement, Kampala (Uganda) and Co-Director of Justice Africa

* Please send comments to

Reviewed by Mukoma Wa Ngugi

In 1977, Tejumola Olaniyan narrates, Nigerian soldiers armed with AK 47’s invaded a musical concert by Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. The purpose was “To arrest the music” as per the order issued by the commanding officer . The officer meant for the soldiers to seize the musical instruments and disrupt the concert. But this particular phrase, Olaniyan, by way of introducing the book, tells the reader would not leave his mind. “It [the phrase] reveals, for example, the peculiar character of the relations between art, specifically oppositional music, and a postcolonial African state.” By shining light on the contradictions of the post-colonial state, the artist who during the fight for independence was a nationalist ally quickly became an enemy.

To further underline the relationship of the artist and his or her art to the post-colonial government, the phrase “Arrest the Music” recalls the issuance of an arrest order for Ngugi Wa Thiongo’s fictional Matigari whom the government understood to be a real life trouble maker. It might also recall a time when a highly placed Kenyan government official became so exasperated with a trouble maker called Karl Marx that he was quoted as wondering why the government couldn’t just arrest him. After all he was easy to identify, a long white beard and a heavy head with white hair. This for all we know might have been the criteria used to arrest and detain Wole Soyinka in Nigeria during the Biafran War. The post-colonial authorities ban, detain, kill and exile efficiently but their bumbling efforts do provide the artist with potent occasions for satire.

Olaniyan does several things at the same time. He captures the movement of Fela from an artist who imitates to an artist who has found his own distinctive voice that becomes Afro Beat. If Fela was many things, he was first a musician committed to developing his craft and its form. Olaniyan also traces the movement of Fela from an artist who at first created art for its sake, to entertain or for that matter for money, then to one who merely raised questions of morality and finally to an artist who was socially committed.

It is the same movement give or take a stage that musicians who enter the fray of liberation politics undergo. Improvisation of what becomes one’s calling is not just peculiar to musicians, before they became revolutionaries. Fanon was a psychiatrist, Che trained to be a doctor and Mandela was a practicing lawyer.

Olaniyan sees Fela’s ideology as a “matrix” of radical black nationalism which “opened out to a much more expansive Pan-Africanism and Afro-centrism” and a “sturdy partisanship for the oppressed lower classes that could be described as socialist in orientation” and an “irrepressible libertarianism that frequently tries to be the anchor and articulator of the other two” (76). Fela’s solidarity with “the oppressed lower classes” was complete. “He lived in their midst, trumpeted their sounds to national attention, experienced their brutalization at the hands of official lawlessness, and even shared their poverty” (81).

But Fela, as Olaniyan recognizes, is also fraught with contradictions and tragic flaws. As has often been the case, women are understood as the repositories and keepers of culture. To protect African culture from Western culture, African women have to be cleansed of lip-stick and mini skirts, circumcised, kept away from schools, driven from politics and domesticated. The domestication is done either through brute force or through the pedestal of veneration where the woman becomes a the symbol of a pure Africaness, the African queen.

The effect of either suppression or veneration is the same – African women are silenced in both the private and public spheres. In this bid to protect African culture from Western culture through the African woman, the kind of cultural nationalism that Fela adopts and propagates either suppresses or venerates the African woman. Lady, one of Fela’s most popular songs, understands the struggle for equality between the African male and woman as being infected with Westernization. Conversely, a domesticity where the African man reigns supreme over the African woman becomes African culture.

Because Olaniyan actually vocalizes some of the contradictions that Fela could not, Arrest the Music becomes in part a critique of national liberation ideologies and politics that attempt to authenticate and restore a version of African culture that rests on the suppression of the African woman.

Olaniyan is also careful not to fall into the pitfalls that a lot of critics analyzing African art fall into – the pitfall of seeing African art as always functional. In this rubric, an African artist pursues truth alone and beauty is incidental. In offering a critique of Things Fall Apart, critics first see it as a response to Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. On the other hand, Wole Soyinka’s The Interpreters, which in part deals with the imagination and the artist’s role in newly independent states is for the most left on the wayside of African literary criticism. In both instances, the art of how the story is weaved is not part of the critic’s concern. In short very few critics deal with the African artist as an artist who is first moved by images and sounds and carefully works to articulate them.

Yet the truth of it is very simple. Music perhaps more than written literature, has to first move the listener and that happens to the extent the artist uses time, space and rhythm. In Fela’s music, Olaniyan suggests, space and rhythm are just as important as the lyrics. Fela, as Olaniyan reminds the reader, is a musician’s musician; that is a musician who other musicians listen to and learn from. This in my opinion is the highest recognition an artist can receive from his or her colleagues. What happens is that the search for his musical voice, which he calls an African voice, becomes indistinguishable from his search for a political voice which attempts to articulate a beauty and ugliness peculiar to Africa. In other words, it is as if the political and musical quests take turns leading. The political leads him to another note and beat and that new beat and note leads him to another political understanding. Until at the end of it all, the listener cannot distinguish between the two. The end result of Fela’s journey is that he creates a genre of music that before him did not exist. And Afro-Beat in its own way becomes a language that mediates between Africans.

In Limuru, Kenya where I grew up, I had a friend named Joe who had the most extensive music collection in town and a music system to match. Every now and then, my brother, I and friends would descend on him to listen to his records. Inevitably we would end up dancing to Fela. Many years later, after a conference on African languages at Boston University, we (participants from all over the continent, Diaspora and the US) relaxed with Fela in Victor Manfredi’s house, himself a New York born American whose intellectual labor is on behalf of Fela’s Nigeria. In a lot of ways Fela’s music is borderless. This is not to say it is an abstract universal; I would suggest it seeks out the marginalized of the post-colonial state wherever they are and gives them “sound”.

There is a way in which, as Olaniyan suggests, Fela is cosmopolitan. Olaniyan writes that given the “circumstances of his socialization and resocialization, he cannot not be cosmopolitan, a citizen of the world” (167). I prefer the term citizen of the world because implicit in the term is a demand to be accorded human and state rights no matter where you are. At the same time it does not deny home and therefore one can be a world citizen at home. I think perhaps more than cosmopolitanism, world citizen allows for solidarity across borders whereas cosmopolitanism applies more to subjects from the ‘Third’ World who are trying to make a home in the West.

Nigeria to an extent has survived due to the resiliency of the Nigerian people, given a succession of governments that in the words of Fanon have been “good for nothing”. Ken Saro-Wiwa, a poet who was hanged by Abacha in 1996, was in a long of line of artists who have been and continue to be devoured by the post-colonial State. But like Ken Saro-Wiwa whose son has picked up his pen and activism, Fela has Femi Kuti. When I saw Femi in concert in Detroit in the summer of 2002, he opened by stating boldly that he does not apologize for his music being political. Detroit couldn’t have been a more fitting city for Afro Beat. It is a city that has seen its own share of civil strife, economic gutting and racist policies that have left the African American without any economic recourse, paralleling the plight of the Ogoni people and their exploitation by Shell.

The last chapter therefore fittingly gives a critical appraisal of Fela’s heirs to Afro-beat and Afro-beat politics like Femi Kuti. Nigeria since the Biafra War has seen its share of near implosions but none have looked as dire as the ones we are witnessing today. The government remains bent on controlling the resources. But the people of the Delata Region are tired and unable to continue with the old ways of exploitation of their labor and natural resources; they have risen up in violent opposition. It is well known that Nigeria by the year 2025 will be providing 25% of US oil which can easily turn it into an Iraq. These new Afro-Beat voices become all the more critical now.

Most writers and critics will agree Olaniyan has accomplished a most difficult task. To use words to convey the energy of music, the beat, the sound of the trumpet and the space between notes could not have been easy. But he does this seamlessly. He thereby offers a beautiful and charged translation of Fela’s music into words which in turn become a critical composition of his own. In this, that I can only call an intellectual biography of Fela, Olaniyan has not only offered a new way of looking at the man and his music, but new critical tools and concepts with which to analyze the African artist in the post-colonial state. To talk about Fela Kuti then is to talk about the state of post-colonial Africa and the artist who gives sound to the people, and the people who in turn give sound to the artist.

* Please send comments to

On Wednesday, Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos declared that his country would go to the polls before the end of 2008. Elections, not held since 1992, have been constantly delayed in the country, leading human rights activists to accuse the government of clinging to power. Steve Kibble analyses the complex nature of the Angolan state, concluding that: “Despite rhetoric on increased transparency, accountability and democratisation little has yet been accomplished to overcome the gap between ruler and ruled.”

Angola became independent from the Portuguese in 1975 after a costly and long running liberation war with three antagonistic independence movements based on different ethno-linguistic, ideological constituencies. In its almost fourth year of peace there is no immediate reason why war should resume. This follows 27 years of nearly continuous civil war between Uniao Nacional para a Independencia total de Angola (UNITA) rebels under their dictatorial leader Jonas Savimbi, and the governing Movimento Popular de Libertacao de Angola (MPLA). The former were US and apartheid South Africa-backed, with a rhetoric of representing the poor ‘real’ rural Africans of the interior. The governing party was based on the coastal elite which has large urban and mestizo elements, with a commitment to nationalism, socialism, and anti-imperialism in a conflict overlaid by the Cold War.

In 1991 the Stalinist state with an inefficient command economy changed to a supposed multiparty democratic state and market economy. Few freedoms were realised although free and fair elections were won by the government in 1992 – the ‘excuse’ for UNITA to renew the war. The state remained heavily centralised with the president able to control extra-budgetary revenues for his own accumulation and clientilist purposes. It has massive oil production, revenues and potential. Much of the infrastructure, agriculture and rudimentary health services were destroyed by war with millions of landmines being laid - with knock-on effects on agriculture, transport as well as people’s lives.

War also meant excess mortality of one million deaths - roughly a tenth of Angola’s population, displacement and urbanisation with about half of all Angolans, perhaps seven million people, living in cities and towns. The agrarian system collapsed as did the health and education services – only 37 percent of primary-aged children were enrolled in school whilst most of the health budget goes to hospital-based curative services, including elite spending in South Africa and Portugal.

Peace broke out in April 2002 when Savimbi was killed, leaving the MPLA-controlled government undisputed victor, but espousing reconciliation (Although reconciliation here largely means (six) blanket amnesties, no truth commissions and inviting selected opposition elements into the elite) - for which civil society can claim some credit. The country in theory faces a triple transition from war to peace, from devastation to reconstruction, and from a state/elite patronage system to a transparent market economy. The first two are better advanced including a greater commitment to infrastructural (re)construction. Many in civil society express concerns over delays in and government commitment to reform. Inflation has been brought down although no major structural reform has occurred. In particular there is unlikely to be a challenge to the key nature of the bazaar economy (Cadongo) in trade and services controlled upstream by commercial tycoons and army officers able to accumulate resources by using special powers, granted them by senior politicians, to import goods (Angola is ranked 133 out of 145 countries on Transparency International’s corruption index. Between 1997 and 2001, $8.45 billion of public money was unaccounted for (an average of 23% of GDP)- IMF.).

Transition or Steady State?

There is an assumption that Angola is in transition and that its current dysfunctionality will change. Conversely we can see the ‘politics of disorder’ as a functional ‘steady state’ for the Angolan elite. It holds a number of cards, despite dependence on conditionalities such as high oil prices and ability to attract concessional oil-backed loans such as from Standard Bank and $2billion from the Chinese Eximbank in 2005 (As part of the loan agreement, the Chinese are repairing infrastructure but in an opaque non-competitive deal with only 30% of the work going to local (elite-linked) firms.).

Africa's second largest producer is one of its fastest growing economies with some of its poorest people (Revista Energia’, a publication that monitors the country's energy sector, puts yearly government oil revenues at between US $4 billion and $5 billion). In 2005 oil production was 1.3 million barrels a day set to increase to two million by 2008. Much of this estimated $6.88 billion revenue goes to a small number of wealthy Angolans with little reaching citizens (Nearly all of Angola's production is offshore and for every million invested in the industry, only $100,000 is spent onshore.). The government budgeted for 16% growth although the IMF paper projected annual growth at 18% a year over 2005-2007 [1].

The country had a UNDP Human Development Index of 0.445 – making it 160 of 177. There was neither formal agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2005 or the much-heralded donors’ conference. Donors appeared reluctant to commit to a poor country with a rich elite in relation to a conference or humanitarian appeals.

Angola is also the 4th or 5th largest diamond producer - like oil, an enclave sector with little regulation or accountability, where forced labour, ill-treatment and disappearances were common. Production was expected to raise around $900 million despite continued smuggling (Despite expulsions of 127,000 foreign nationals involved in the illegal diamond trade between April 2004 and February 2005 – accompanied by allegations of brutality).

Like many oil-producing countries. Angola sees the paradox between exploitation of oil, gas and minerals and high rates of poverty indicators of child malnutrition, low health care spending, low school enrolment rates and poor adult literacy (and war). Over one million Angolan people remained dependent on food aid, and one child died every three minutes of preventable causes – 480 per day.

The effect of oil wealth (‘Dutch disease’) is to cause economic contraction and inflation through high local prices, expensive exchange rates and depressed levels of manufacturing in other sectors plus lack of national accountability, especially with increased world demand, tightening supply and in 2005 continued high prices. The underlying problem is the ‘resource curse’ of oil-based economic enclaves with greater external than internal linkages, meaning a lack of reciprocity between domestic rulers and ruled in all spheres – ‘a state without citizens’ or certainly state-citizen reciprocity [2]. The industry employs only 10,000, although accounting for 90% of exports and 80% of tax revenues. Necessary economic diversification is complicated because it is uncertain the elite wants diversification given its control over import and export and reluctance to allow an unfettered free market.

There have been changes. Transparency has improved in revenue if not expenditure through publication of an oil diagnostic undertaken by outside consultants KPMG and moves towards declaration of signature bonus payments. Although allegations of corruption persist, with high-ranking government officials implicated in private business deals related to their public office, there were successful prosecutions of senior officials in 2003-2004. In July 2004 Angola signed up to the African Union’s Peer Review Mechanism – although it is far from meeting its conditions.

Angola then faces the task of moving from a state of non-war to a ‘Civil / Social Peace’. But despite GDP growth, a current account surplus, and the lowest inflation rate ever [3], transition would have to be from a fragmented national economy with a history of financial embezzlement and misappropriation of funds, a lack of international confidence and donor coordination, poor administrative capacity, a large child population at risk from disease, and largely weak opposition and civil society. If a genuine transition it would mean ending corruption, tackling poverty, allowing the development of a genuinely independent private sector, creating an open and transparent tendering process, transforming the political system into a pluralist democracy. Civil society also calls for action on disarming the armed civilian Angolans (an estimated one third of the population but not a government priority), clearing (the unknown numbers of) landmines, and addressing the exclusion of the poor and marginalised, especially women. A widely owned electoral process would legitimise the institutions of government, debatedly without it since 1996, and lead to a constitution guaranteeing citizens' rights.

But there are a number of reasons why the government can ignore these problems whilst maintaining its own stability and security. Renewal of war is highly unlikely whereas continued high oil prices and fields for development and oil-backed loans look set to continue. The latter are not as cheap as multilateral funding, but are more government controllable. Continued Middle East instability combined with US (disputed) hegemony over the Gulf of Guinea/ the ‘American Lake’ means that Washington is looking to increased African oil, expecting it to provide 25% of its supplies. The increasing market share for Angolan oil going to the USA and other states means national and international security considerations precede transparency or human rights questions.

Angola is a strong security state under few internal or regional threats. Cooption, division and occasional repression work well to negate any possible internal threats. The Angolan elite remain largely immune to what international pressure there is for good governance - directed more towards questions of transparency, and a secure climate for foreign investment (FDI) rather than democracy and poverty alleviation. The West wants to engage with a booming economy, keen to compete with China’s lion’s share of contracts for infrastructural (re)construction.

The continuing geo-petroleo-strategic interest of the USA in the Gulf of Guinea and Angola in particular as alternative sources of supply to the Middle East was shown in continued good relations. The country gained a growing share of the US market (although oil exports to China overtook those to the USA) and the latter continues as Angola’s chief trading partner, political patron and major aid donor and gives it on rather inconsistent grounds preferential African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) treatment. Relations improved with Bern after the resolution of ‘Falconegate [4]’ whereby the Swiss released $17m for humanitarian purposes of frozen Angolan funds [5].

This lack of international pressure is against the background of declining world oil production now over the ‘Bell curve’. Regionally, excluding Zimbabwe and (parts of) the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the region has been stabilised - in part by previous Angolan interventions to destroy UNITA bases. Angola is able to use the rhetoric of sovereignty and anti-imperialism which resonates well in the southern African region, despite the more partial AU view of sovereignty as opposed to the absolutist OAU version.

Luanda alleges negotiations are taking place on ending the Cabindan separatist conflict - distinct from though entangled with the civil war. Cabinda enclave from where oil wealth derives has separatist factions fighting for independence. Cabindan human rights organisation Mpalabanda Cabinda Civic Association (MACC) says although it received a document from the government in February 2006 on ‘greater autonomy’ for the enclave, it has heard little since of any negotiations. If Cabinda can be stabilised, Angola’s rulers can open up human rights a little especially in the coastal region/ Luanda without endangering control.

Additionally, rather than seeing forthcoming elections whenever they are as an opportunity, the population being only too aware of what happened in 1992, seems as much fearful or apathetic.

The governing MPLA can pay off and play off other parties [6]. Whilst there are factions, the president runs a parallel state and seems in control as with his reversal of not standing as its presidential candidate. Through government reshuffles he negates existing and potential opponents such as the chief of external intelligence agency General Fernando Miala (who paid the price for becoming too popular).

UNITA formally reconciled its three factions after 2002, but leader Isaias Samakuva is under threat for operating a patronage system and expelling possible leadership challengers. Other parties seem more concerned with ‘getting their snouts in the trough’ rather than representing distinct interests and policies.

Political disorder and its uses

Angola is an example of the use of ‘disorder as a political instrument’ where non-transparency, non-accountable authority, and a weak legal framework provide dynamics for elite accumulation. Historically there has been a ‘Bermuda triangle’ of resource flows between Presidency, Sonangol and the national bank, bypassing formal organs such as the Ministry of Finance (although the latter is gaining greater control). As well as vast corruption in the past detailed by many reports including from the IMF, Global Witness and Human Rights Watch etc, practices continue as shown in the reports from Brazil alleging illegal financial dealings linking the Angola Minister of Finance, and the Governor of the Central Bank [7].

Sogge notes that the domestic Angolan political economy “cannot be separated from the external constituencies, chiefly the global oil and banking industries, and strongly favourable diplomatic and military currents driven by Western (especially US) strategic interests.” [8] In this sense Angola’s problems of domestic governance “are at the same time problems of global governance” in which the constrained forms of global citizenship “practised by institutions offshore set limits to citizenship for ordinary Angolans onshore”.

Elections – paths to democracy or ensuring the right result?

Elections have been promised and not held since the end of the war in 2002. The parliamentary and presidential elections announced unconvincingly in 2005 for September 2006 and 2007 respectively are now postponed until there are infrastructural improvements – for which the government would gain electoral advantage and increased control over the process.

Civil society - small, autonomous but with some resistance

A third of Angola’s population live in atomised musseques (shantytowns), with little spontaneous collective action to solve common problems. Despite little alternative leadership and vision, there have recently been protests over forced removals in some neighbourhoods in Luanda, leading to the arrest of SOS-Habitat coordinator Luis Araujo and others. Change due to citizen pressure has been limited by the absence of public systems and institutions – part of the general disorder that has served elites well for many years. There has been civil society questioning the continuation of José Eduardo dos Santos as President, transparency and corruption in government, the land law and the new constitution, the DDR process, police and military impunity, freedom of expression and political action, and Cabinda.

International activism has raised issues and set agendas in corporate behaviour such as the ‘Publish What You Pay’ campaign on transparency of payments by oil companies.

There has been talk of freeing up government control of the media and willingness to address the low rate of HIV/AIDS and associated vulnerabilities despite difficulties in access to rural areas.

Despite low population density land is scarce, with an estimated four million people relying on subsistence agriculture for survival as the only source of family income. Land tenure and use are flashpoints for disputes with large-scale population return to rural areas. In the ideological shifts of the early 1990s, a huge privatisation programme saw an elite land grab at the expense of small peasants. There is potential for conflict between customary law and state land law with the former discriminating against women.

Although the 2005 land reform law allowed communities to access and legally register their land - leading to hopes of greater security for and improvement in Angola's agricultural production - it is doubted it will eliminate conflict.

Women – the burdens of war become those of peace

Women suffered enormously during the war both through the direct effects of violent conflict and the indirect effect of poverty on families and communities. 80% of IDPs were women and children, suffering high levels of mortality, malnutrition, illiteracy, poverty and HIV/AIDS and lack of access to health, information, education and water – and decision-making. Current government crack downs on informal commercial activity increase poverty levels amongst poor urban women with a knock on effect on domestic violence against women.

Enter the IMF – or not?

Angola has applied for an IMF programme to restructure its debt [9], but not for new loans given the ‘tiny amounts’ compared to Chinese and other loans. A syndicate of European banks led by French bank Calyon are organising a $2.25 billion [10] oil-backed loan to Sonangol to refinance existing debt and $800 million in new money for undisclosed use, with the Chinese buying the oil. Finance Minister Jose Pedro de Morais said endless failed talks with the IMF were due to its not having an accumulated knowledge of Angolan economics – interpreted locally as being unwilling to understand elite needs.

Conclusion

The ruling MPLA has for many years with justification been able to blame the war for its repressive and unaccountable policies. Subsequently it has been able to point to the need to move from a war economy and polity into transition. But we do not have to believe the rhetoric over transition and its difficulties if we consider Angola as is in a ‘steady state’ with economic and political policies marked heavily by the structures established by war and from command economy and state. It is able to use its oil wealth for elite accumulation and for overcoming resistance to its rule. Clientilism has largely replaced more repressive measures. As its oil wealth and ultra deep oil exploration possibilities increase it is increasingly able to ride out any international disquiet over its policies – accessing available if expensive oil-backed loans and able to put resources where it wishes. There are some constraints in the present and future - such as wanting to present itself as not so corrupt to attract FDI, a desire to deal with its debts and its dependence on the maintenance of high oil prices – but not sufficiently to disturb the equanimity of the elite and its accumulation strategy. Any opposition can be marginalised, bought off or in the last resort got rid off.

Despite rhetoric on increased transparency, accountability and democratisation little has yet been accomplished to overcome the gap between ruler and ruled. Apart from some NGOs it seems there is little help they can expect in terms of support or pressure from the international community. As well as the increased autonomy for the elite with high oil prices and vulnerable supply, there are significant shifts in international and regional alliances in the face of the ‘Chinese threat’ and the war against terror.

* Dr. Steve Kibble is Advocacy Coordinator for Africa/Yemen, Progressio

* This is a revised version of a talk to the Africa Business Group at SOAS, 16 March 2006, and based on a chapter on Angola for Africa Yearbook 2005 to be published by Brill on behalf of Africa Institute in Hamburg, Afrikacentrum, Leiden and Nordic Afrika Instituut Uppsala. A longer version has been commissioned by the Review of African Political Economy for publication later in 2006. Visit for more information.

* Please send comments to [email protected]

References:

[1] IMF, 2005, Staff Report for the 2004 Article IV Consultation, IMF Country Report No. 05/228, Washington DC: IMF July.

[2] Thanks to David Sogge (personal communication) for this insight.

[3] In January 2006, the National Statistics Institute estimated it as averaging 18.5% over the year whilst the EIU country report thought 23.4% more likely (EIU Angola Country Report December 2005 p.11).

[4] French businessman Pierre Falcone was suspected of embezzling funds flowing from the restructuring of Angola's debt to Russia.

[5] although $37 million held in a Luxemburg-based bank account owned by a Panama-based company called Camparal, which belongs to Dos Santos allegedly vanished into tax havens

[6] Over 150 political parties continued to exist, many with identical platforms, undemocratic internal practices and with little parliamentary initiative, coalitions between opposition forces or promulgation of alternative policies or monitoring of government policies. A recent law on political parties allows government funding of parties not represented in the National Assembly during the election period (Diário da República 1.7.05).

[7] Over 150 political parties continued to exist, many with identical platforms, undemocratic internal practices and with little parliamentary initiative, coalitions between opposition forces or promulgation of alternative policies or monitoring of government policies. A recent law on political parties allows government funding of parties not represented in the National Assembly during the election period (Diário da República 1.7.05).

[8] Sogge personal communication.

[9] With estimated external debts of $10 billion Angola wants IMF approval of its would-be home-grown programme through a Policy Support Instrument (PSI) to tackle its $1.5 - $1.8 billion Paris Club debt and provide a seal of approval for creditors wanting assurances before discussing debt rescheduling.

[10] According to Global Witness, although the French press says over $3 billion.

A portal to UK Department for International Development (DFID) funded research was launched recently. This is a guide to the latest DFID-funded research and it also provides information about previous research in rural livelihoods, health, social sciences, education, infrastructure and urban development.

The government of Zanzibar plans to demolish at least 150 houses to reduce the pollution of water sources on the islands. However, Zanzibar's main opposition party, the Civic United Front, said it opposed the demolition plan. The government's decision would be a violation of human rights and of the island's land laws, spokesman Hamad Masoud said.

The Malawi government has objected to cartoons in the country's two main newspapers, calling them offensive and in conflict with Malawian culture, writes Samuel Makaka on the website The government spokesperson, Patricia Kaliati, Minister of Information, held two press conferences in less than two weeks condemning the Nation and the Daily Times. The cartoon in the Nation depicted Archbishop Ziyaye administering Eucharist to President Bingu wa Mutharika, himself a catholic. Kneeling down immediately behind him, obviously in readiness for the same, is Vice President, Cassim Chilumpha, who is a Moslem.

Alfred Egbegi, publisher of the weekly newspaper "Izon Link", who was arrested by the police in Yenogoa, the Bayelsa state capital in the Niger-Delta region of Nigeria on 12 April 2006, has been released from custody, but is now facing criminal charges in court. The publisher was arrested and charged over a story published in the Volume 7, Number 8 edition of the newspaper, carrying the headline "Ebebi cries out: Jonathan is stabbing me". The story alleged political intrigue involving the state governor, Mr. Goodluck Jonathan, and his deputy, Mr. Peremobowei Ebebi, over who would govern the state after the 2007 general elections.

The UK Development Secretary, is to call for new rules to stamp out corruption and prevent aid being squandered in developing countries. In Washington for the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, he will urge member-countries to sign up to a new anti-corruption framework. "Corruption, like temptation, exists everywhere, but in poor countries it can kill," he said. "Money meant for drugs for a sick child, or to build a hospital, can be siphoned off into Swiss bank accounts." Paul Wolfowitz, the World Bank's president, has made anti-corruption a key theme since he took over the role last year.

"We, African civil society organizations comprising organizations and networks of people living with HIV, young people, women, religious leaders and community workers at the frontline of the fight against AIDS, met in Abuja, Nigeria on April 10 to 12 2006 to develop a consolidated position for use during the review processes of the Abuja Declaration and Framework Plan for action, and the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on AIDS (UNGASS) Declaration of Commitment (DoC), and to chart a way forward regarding access for all people requiring information and services related to HIV prevention, care, support and treatment. This statement reflects the outcomes of these deliberations, as well as the sentiments of the undersigned African Civil Society Organisations."

IRIN/AllAfrica.com on Friday examined the HIV/AIDS epidemic in overcrowded camps in the Acholiland region of northern Uganda, where the disease "can't always be given priority" despite the fact that AIDS-related illnesses are among the "top self-reported causes of death" in the roughly 200 camps, which are home to nearly two million internally displaced persons. The Lord's Resistance Army and the Ugandan government have been fighting for almost 20 years in the region, leading to insecurity and underdevelopment in the country.

Mugabe famously said in 1980: “Tomorrow is thus our birthday, the birthday of great Zimbabwe and the birthday of its nation. Tomorrow we shall cease to be men and women of the past and become men and women of the future. It is tomorrow then, not yesterday, which bears our destiny. As we become a new people we are called to be constructive, progressive and forever forward looking. For we cannot afford to be men of yesterday backward looking, retrogressive and distractive.” Sadly, says this article from the blog as Zimbabwe celebrates 26 years of Independence Mugabe has failed to be constructive or progressive.
* Related Link
Little to celebrate as country turns 26

Nigerian Health Minister Eyitayo Lambo Wednesday in Abuja launched a book documenting efforts in the prevention, care and treatment of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria in the past five years. The book titled "AIDS in Nigeria: A nation on the Threshold," is the brainchild of the US Harvard School of Public Health programme, AIDS Prevention Initiative in Nigeria (APIN). It is the first major comprehensive documentation on the disease in a book form since HIV/AIDS was first reported in 1986 in the country.

"There are no reliable statistics or information on the return of stolen funds to Liberia since the collapse of the Doe regime or the Taylor regime. This issue had not been given prominence by previous caretaker governments because they felt that they did not have the authority to take on such an issue. However the Sirleaf government is an elected one and possesses the authority to press for the return of stolen funds to Liberia. This is part of the process of fighting the culture of impunity that had existed in Liberia."

With up to a million and a half people displaced by civil war and conflicts over land and ethnicity in Côte d’Ivoire, Walter Kälin, Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Representative on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), is visiting the country to investigate their plight and advocate for their rights. He will meet members of the Government of Côte d’Ivoire, organizations representing displaced persons, and national and international bodies concerned with their protection.

Civil society organizations in the US and South Africa are applauding the rejection of the USTR's efforts to revive the US-Southern Africa Customs Union Free Trade Agreement (U.S.-SACU FTA) negotiations. Citing elements of the potential deal that could have limited access to affordable generic AIDS drugs and other life-extending medicines and impeded development in the region, activists, unions, and churches expressed satisfaction that a "comprehensive" FTA is looking increasingly unlikely.

I really appreciated Stephen Marks' article on China in Africa recently (See I think this is a very important topic we as Africans should be discussing. Keep up the great work with Pambazuka, it is a fantastic service!

Is there an online protest so the women of the world can demonstrate their support for Khwezi? (See

Pambazuka News replies: The One in Nine campaign has been organised to support Kwezi. You can find out more at

The Regional Director will provide strategic program leadership and overall management of the Oxfam America Regional Office. He/she will also provide overall creative and administrative leadership to agency development of a long-term strategic vision and action plan for a growing regional program.

Google has launched its latest salvo against rivals such as Yahoo and Microsoft, unveiling a free online calendar service. The web calendar lets people store appointments, receive reminders and share schedules with others. It is tied in to Google's e-mail service, Gmail, automatically offering to add the date information in a message to the calendar.

The African Network for Strategic Communication in Health and Development (AFRICOMNET) is hosting this event with the theme 3rd Generation HIV and AIDS Communication: The Key to Prevention, Care and Treatment. The conference will bring together about 500 HIV and AIDS communication practitioners.

Feminist Africa is a free online journal published twice a year that aims to provide a forum for progressive, gender research and feminist dialogue focused on the continent of Africa.
Contact Feminist Africa on [email][email protected] for more information.

Zambian blog, Real Life of a Journalist (http://oliviaphiri.blogspot.com/2006/04/making-icts-accessible-to-women-...) writes on how to make ICTs more accessible to women. Technology has been traditionally “male” in both its construct and usage. She praises the coming of FOSS but writes that it is not user friendly and requires a certain level of technology literacy. She believes one way to overcome technophobia and illiteracy is to start teaching ICTs at primary school level.

“The computer must not be seen as a sophisticated machine, it is a tool like a cooking stick, which any person needs to study and gets used to. The world is becoming a global village; virtual offices are ruling the day…Women should be included in this growing process if sustainable development is to be achieved. Everyone should be awarded an opportunity to explore the world beyond their boundaries while sitting down.”

Random Rants of a Kenyan Girl Next Door (http://randomgirlnextdoor.blogspot.com/2006/04/black-africa-vs-black-ame...) is reminded of the tensions between Africans and African Americans. As she was told last week: “A lot of you (Africans) think you're better than us.” As she writes, this is largely true. One possible explanation she raises is:

“The majority of Kenyans, and other Africans, leave home in pursuit of education and job opportunities. Because of the stress we go through to get abroad, most of us are very driven in accomplishing specific goals. After living here (US or wherever else) for a while, you get a reality check about the system. You realize that there are certain benefits reserved for citizens (loans, scholarships, affirmative action programs) and then you wonder ‘Why aren't these people taking advantage?’ For us, it just makes sense.”

African immigrants to the US come with a colonial experience that is very different from the racist experience of African Americans. Both have struggled against white supremacy but the sight and nature of those struggles are different. White America relates very differently towards new African immigrants than towards indigenous African Americans who relative to their population are the poorest and most disadvantaged in America.

Black Star Journal (http://blackstarjournal.blogspot.com/2006/04/secretary-and-her-good-frie...) comments on the recent meeting between US Secretary of State, Ms Rice and the “tyrant in charge of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema” and wonders if:

“Equatorial Guinea's nightmarish human rights' record (which is significantly worse than Robert Mugabe's 'outpost of tyranny' but without the bluster) was part of the talks. Given the country's position as one of Africa's emerging oil exporters, I doubt the set of discussions between the secretary and her 'good friend' were that 'full.'”

I doubt it. The US is well known for it’s selective amnesia when it comes to issues of human rights – thus Zimbabwe, Burma, Belarus and Cuba are singled out, Guinea and Ethiopia are not. Neither is Nigeria, despite its blatant disregard for human rights in the proposed gay ban legislation that is presently being presented in the Senate.

Enough is Enough (http://enoughzimbabwe.org/mugabe-misfires-again-on-independence-day) is a new “super blog” from Zimbabwe. The project has been supported by the Committee to Protect Bloggers.

“In addition to my regular posts (Zimpundit) you will be able to find a wealth of information in different multimedia formats from a variety of vantage points including other Zimbloggers, observers, and Zimbabweans abroad.

Alt.Muslim (http://www.altmuslim.com/perm.php?id=1695_0_24_0_M">Alt Muslim) writes on Muslim immigration to the US which he sees as being a particularly challenging experience especially since 9/11. However the Muslim voice has been largely silent during the highly visible immigration debate taking place in the US today.

“The last few years have shown us the early targeting and detained (without a single terror-related conviction among them), the plight of Muslim immigrants caught in INS red tape, the special registration that specifically targeted Muslim visitors, the prevention of the immigration of US scholars, and the deportation of Muslim women who made the mistake of divorcing their US citizen husbands. Based on this, one would think that Muslims would have a lot to say on the current raging debate on immigration. But aside from a few voices joining calls for a more humane immigration policy as scattered endorsers of various protests, there has been little contribution from Muslim circles.”

Although the present immigration protests are largely drawn from the Hispanic community, he feels the Muslim community needs to participate as the issue affects them as much as any other recent immigrant community.

Black Looks (okrasoup.typepad.com/black_looks/2006/04/remembering_iqb.html) remembers April 16 (the International Day Against Child Slavery) and comments on the use of child labour in Nigeria where it is estimated there are 15 million working children. The government is presently drafting new policy which aims to support legislation against child labour but this will not include domestic or occupational work, which the draft describes as:

“…mild involvement of children in household and occupational activities carried out in safe conditions and environments and constitutes a mechanism for socialising children necessary for their adjustment to social and economic milieu.”

Black Looks comments:

“The words used to describe domestic labour and hawking as ‘mild involvement’ is outrageous. Children are made to work for up to 18 hours a day, 7 days a week. The child hawkers spend their day walking the streets with their wares with no relief and instructions that they must sell x amount in a day. All the children, domestic servants and hawkers are vulnerable and open to sexual and physical abuse by punters and employers or rather owners. It is unacceptable that these two groups of children are therefore not to be included in this policy which makes a mockery of the whole idea.”

Afrikan Eye (http://afrikaneye.blogspot.com/2006/04/effect-of-colonialism-on-african-...) has an excellent piece on the affect of colonialism on African Women in which she explores the economic, social and political impacts and the responses by African women.

“The first socio-political effect of colonialism was the concept of the Victorian woman which the colonisers brought with them. The colonialists came with the belief that women were to remain creatures of the private domain. Women were to preoccupy themselves with domestic issues and leave the ‘real work’ of ruling and running the nation in terms of politics and economics in particular to the men. (Economically) Firstly, women were affected by the alienation of land experienced by most Africans. However, women appear to have been more personally affected by this land alienation.”

Feminist African Sister (http://feministafricansisters.blogspot.com/2006/04/sexual-offences-bill-...) comments on the proposed Kenyan legislation known as the “Sexual Offences Act” and finds it “ludicrous to the extreme” that activists are having to lobby parliamentarians to support a bill of this kind.

“The Bill is meant to be about the national, common good! It is meant to be about Kenya against the big, bad, perpetrators of sexual violence!”

She is also irritated by activists having to justify the bill in terms of how it will also help men and boys who are raped as if women being raped is an insufficient reason for passing the bill. She asks:

“…why can't we just support efforts to punish sexual violence period! Why must we qualify it by saying, ‘even men and boys are raped?’ I don't buy for one minute, that this kowtowing will get men and boys to empathize with the rampant rape of women and girls! I don't need to be told that I too could be hit by a car, to empathize with a person who has been hit by a car! The fact that the person is telling me they were hit by a car should be enough! They need not roll up their sleeves to show me the bruises or broken bones! So why are we allowing ourselves to do so? Why do we need to qualify the reasons men should support the campaign against sexual violence and this Bill?”

* Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks,

* Please send comments to [email protected]

If the developments at the just-concluded African Union (AU) ministerial conference on World Trade Organisation talks are anything to go by, there is a real danger of failure to conclude ongoing Doha round of free trade negotiations. In the words of WTO Director General Pascal Lamy, the refusal by the big players - the European Union, the United States, Brazil and India - "to make real offers that can facilitate the signing of an agreement" is to blame for the stalemate.

The United Nations World Food Programme has welcomed its first ever contribution from the Government of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. The donation of 6.1 million Libyan dinars (US$4.5 million) will help feed 2.7 million people in the Darfur region of western Sudan and 200,000 Sudanese refugees in eastern Chad.

The Youth, Media, Development Forum is a forum for media professionals from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. The global aim of the forum is to produce more quality media projects with children, using all technologies and art forms available - television, radio, internet, print, video, music, theatre, photography, cartoons, etc.

1st International Conference on ICT for Development, Education and Training: "eLearning Africa", a conference to be held annually in Africa, intends to become the African eLearning capacity building event and – at the same time – a forum for all stakeholders engaged in the planning and implementation of technology supported learning and training on the African continent.

The Forum of Zimbabweans in the diaspora says it has begun organising its members to help solve some of the humanitarian problems in Zimbabwe. At least 80% of Zimbabweans live below the poverty line. The forum celebrated the country's 26th independence anniversary by holding a meeting in Johannesburg yesterday (April 18).

International students are worth around £5 billion a year to the UK economy but in recent years competition for attracting overseas students has been fierce and Britain is keen not to lose out to countries like the US and Australia which have always been popular destinations. Education Minister Bill Rammell told Black Britain that they are "looking at Africa as a whole to try and establish partnerships and to get it driven at a local level so that they can tap into wider funding from the aid agencies."

The African Diaspora Investment Forum (DiaForum 2006) in Brussels, June 29-30, 2006, aims at bringing together Africans in the diaspora with other stakeholders in view of enabling investment and skills transfer to the continent.

A new study in Uganda has confirmed that a combination of co-trimoxazole (Septrin), antiretroviral therapy, and insecticide-treated bed nets reduces the frequency of malaria in adults with HIV. The study aimed at assessing the effect of antiretroviral treatment (ART) on the frequency of malaria in people with HIV, and to measure the effects of co-trimoxazole and insecticide-treated bed nets.

The March attacks on The Standard and the Kenya Television Network (KTN) by the Kenya police represented a deteriorating relationship between the media and the government, according to the former permanent secretary, John Githongo. Talking to the American Press on a recent visit to the US, he said that the Kenyan media was the primary tool that mobilised and rallied public opinion against corruption in Kenya, putting the media on a collision course with the government. Asked whether he believed the President was behind the attacks, he said, "Given that the President has made no apology for these attacks, one presumes that these attacks happened very much with his acceptance and acknowledgement that it was the right thing to do, which is very unfortunate.”

The government of Chad has backed down on threats to expel 200,000 Sudanese refugees after linking a series of rebel attacks to Khartoum, but has closed the border with Sudan, threatening aid distribution. The announcements came after a week of attacks on Chadian towns by rebels seeking to overthrow Chadian President Idriss Deby, culminating in a major assault on the capital N’djamena which killed and injured more than 200.

On any given day, hundreds of women in displaced persons camps throughout Darfur can be seen nervously waiting for African Union (AU) troops before venturing outside to collect firewood for cooking. In its struggle to prevent atrocities, the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) has had many small successes and has proven innovative in its methods. Despite serious handicaps, AMIS has saved lives and prevented even worse catastrophes for many internally displaced persons (IDPs). But the African Union faces crises of its own. With a weak mandate and near-empty coffers, AMIS is itself struggling to survive.

A Rwandan ex-mayor has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for aiding and abetting killing in the 1994 genocide. Paul Bisengimina, who was mayor of Gikoro in 1994, was sentenced at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in the Tanzanian town of Arusha. He was convicted on two charges to which he pleaded guilty in terms of a plea bargaining agreement. An estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered during the 100-day genocide. Mr Bisengimina was involved in the slaughter of about 1,000 Tutsis who had sought refuge in a church.

The party of Liberian football star George Weah has complained of a "witch-hunt" after his diplomatic passport was seized at the airport. Mr Weah was "bundled off" a plane by security agents, said the party's Secretary General Eugene Nagbe. Mr Weah came second in last year's polls but says he was cheated out of victory. Observers rejected his claims. The government says it is investigating the incident and denies issuing an order to seize Mr Weah's passport.

The Namibian government has secured US $12 million in donor support for conservation efforts in four national parks over the next decade, which will have an impact on rural poverty. The Global Environment Facility (GEF) provided US $8.5 million and Germany's development agency, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, $3.5 million, with the Namibian government adding $27.4 million in cash and kind. The GEF, established in 1991, helps developing countries fund environmental projects and programmes.

Seven soldiers in the Congolese army have been sentenced to life in prison for crimes against humanity, including the mass rape of at least 119 women in the northwestern province of Equateur. This was the first sentence against the country's military personnel for crimes against humanity. However, the military garrison court in Songo Mboyo, 600 km northeast of the provincial capital Mbandaka, acquitted five other soldiers of similar charges. The convicted soldiers committed the crimes in December 2003 at Songo Mboyo.

Opposition groups on the semiautonomous Tanzanian island of Zanzibar have criticised new legislation that declares all water on the island the property of the government and introduces fees for water, which had been free. Hamad Masoud, the chief spokesman of the opposition Civic United Front on water matters, said some clauses in the bill were "unfriendly to the poor people of Zanzibar, such as declaring ocean, rain and well water government property." He said water charges would pose a burden to most Zanzibaris, who dwell in “extreme poverty”.

A top court in Central African Republic has referred its former president, Ange Felix Patasse, and Congo's Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba to the International Criminal Court in The Hague on war crimes charges. Patasse's security forces backed by fighters from Bemba's then-rebel movement in neighbouring Congo and mercenaries from Chad are accused of executing and raping civilians as they put down a coup attempt in the former French colony in October 2002.

King Mohammed's pledge to grant autonomy to Western Sahara is a breakthrough and should ease concerns on all sides over the territory's fate, said a Sahrawi leader and chairman of the council working on the proposal. "It is the first time in the kingdom's history that a Moroccan king promises autonomy for the Sahrawis," Khali Henna Ould Errachid, chairman of the Royal Consultative Council for Sahara Affairs, told Reuters. "The autonomy satisfies the aspirations of all Sahrawis. It will end the conflict. I have no doubt on that," he added.

A fresh wave of farm takeovers hit the southeastern Lowveld in Zimbabwe this week with Zanu-PF supporters and land officers seizing five plots with a ready-to-harvest sugarcane crop. The farm owners, most of them South Africans, have since appealed to the South African embassy in Harare to intervene, reports the Zimbabwe Independent. In a letter to Willem Geerlings, first secretary at the SA embassy, the farmers alleged that a Chiredzi lands officer, identified only as Mukonyora, another official identified as Guruvheti and a farmer, identified as Jambaya, invaded Hippo Valley Settlement, Holding 16, and gave the owner 30 days to vacate the property, reports the Mail and Guardian.

The PLP HIV/AIDS Senior Advisor will focus primarily on Prevention of sexual transmission but will also work closely with and provide support to the Namibia Senior Technical Advisor managing Safe Injection and PMTCT. It is expected that s/he will have a full understanding and be committed to a balanced ABC approach.

The International Rescue Committee in Uganda is seeking a dynamic, experienced deputy chief of party for programs, to assist in implementing a $30 million multi-agency consortium delivering USAID- funded HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria prevention and treatment services to conflict- affected persons in northern Uganda.

Large-scale projects such as dams and nuclear power plants, more funding for renewable energy and greater market liberalisation by poor nations are all solutions to climate change, poverty and fossil fuel dependence, according to an internal World Bank document leaked by a non-governmental organisation. The document, "Investment Framework for Clean Energy and Development", obtained by IPS, will be discussed at the upcoming joint spring meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It offers the first public glimpse of the potential features of a plan proposed by rich nations last summer to combat global warming and help secure future energy supplies. The strategy could affect billions of dollars in energy investments, and impact the environment and ecosystems around the world.