Save the Children Sweden has been present in Côte d'Ivoire since 1999. We support children's own organisations, community-based initiatives, local NGOs, media workers and government structures to promote the respect for children's rights. We support initiatives to prevent trafficking, abuse and exploitation of children and we have a project to train military on child protection and the impacts of conflict on children. From 2006 we will expand our program to enhance quality education for children affected by the conflict in collaboration with Save the Children UK. This is part of an initiative at a global level from Save the Children Alliance to contribute to the Millennium Development Goal on education.

Examining the linkages between pastoralism and conflict using a sustainable livelihoods-based conflict analysis, this paper looks at the challenges posed by conflict in pastoral regions. In particular it focuses on the challenges to development as well as the risk conflict presents to domestic and international security. A new generation of emerging pastoral projects share many common characteristics. They: acknowledge pastoralists as capable environmental custodians and managers; allow for patterns of mobility and livelihood diversification; include the systematic participation of pastoral communities; enhance access to and options for extended information and communication; improve representation of pastoral interests vis-à-vis external agents (other land users, government bodies, market agents, civil society, etc.); stress the development of pastoral markets.

Recent research by the Trades and Development Studies Centre Trust in Zimbabwe examines the implications of current Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) for Eastern and Southern Africa. There are many problems with the negotiations including a threat to existing regional integration efforts, a lack of negotiating capacity on behalf of the African-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) group of nations and a threat to local producers, who will have to compete with more powerful European Union (EU) competitors. Faced with these problems is it prudent to continue with the negotiations for the EPAs with the EU? Are there any alternatives to the EPAs? These are the questions the Trades and Development Studies Centre Trust set out to answer.

Background

The African-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) group of nations have traditionally been dependent on preferential market access into the European Union (EU) markets under the Lomé Agreement. The preferences were in the form of reduced or zero tariffs on key ACP exports to the EU. In addition, commodity protocols were incorporated in order to accommodate traditional ACP exports such as sugar, beef, veal and rum.

After the conclusion of the Uruguay Round of talks and the establishment of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 1995, the trade preferences became illegal because they violated the WTO Most Favoured Nation (MFN) principle. As such, the EU and the ACP states had to get special permission (waiver) to temporarily continue their special trading favours at the WTO Ministerial Conference in Doha, It is in this context that the EU proposed new trading arrangements which are WTO compatible. The EU further argued that Lomé preferences had not brought any trade benefits to most ACP countries as compared to non-ACP countries. For instance, whilst trade between the EU and non-ACP countries increased, EU - ACP trade declined from 6,7 % in the 1970s to 3% in 1998.

At the insistence of the EU, a new ACP-EU co-operation Agreement was signed in June 2000 in Cotonou, Benin (Cotonou Agreement). Under this agreement, ACP states would enter into reciprocal trade arrangements called Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). Under this scenario, ACP countries would be required to give the EU the same market access that the EU gives to them. Different regions in the ACP group can negotiate the trade issues and create their own EPA with the EU. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) and Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) regions are in the process of negotiating such EPAs with the EU. These reciprocal trade arrangements are often described as WTO compatible in the sense that they are presumed not to violate the WTO rules on regional trade agreements. However it is far from clear that negotiating EPAs with the EU is the best option for the development of the ESA/SADC region.

There are many problems associated with the current negotiations. Reciprocal trade between the ESA/SADC countries and the EU is meant to start by January 2008. The negotiations for the EPA were meant to have started in September 2002. However these started way after this date around 2004. ESA/SADC countries are simply not ready for these negotiations. Important procedures such as analyzing the impact of the EPA on national and regional economies were done at a very late stage, and years after the ESA/SADC states had signed the Cotonou agreement.

ESA/SADC states have in the past been building institutions to promote regional economic development through trade and cooperation in various areas. These efforts saw the birth of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU, the oldest customs union in the world), Southern African Development Community (SADC), Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the East Africa Customs Union (EAC). Instead of strengthening these regional institutions the manner with which the negotiating groups have been structured risks dismantling these institutions and also historical efforts made towards regional integration.

Although ESA/SADC and the EU states have competing interests in these negotiations, the ESA/SADC states are largely dependent on the EU especially with respect to the funding of the negotiations. It is difficult to see how the ESA/SADC states can effectively promote and protect their producers in these negotiations over markets when they are financially and technically compromised.

ESA/SADC countries lack the effective capacity to negotiate the EPA with the EU. This includes the human and technical resources to do so. On the other hand the EU has a strong and technical bureaucracy with decades of experience in handling tricky international trade issues.

There are reasonable fears that opening up ESA/SADC markets will wipe out local producers and have them replaced by EU exporters. Further ESA/SADC economies are largely agro-based and local agricultural producers will find it difficult to compete against resource rich EU-based agricultural producers who are invariably cushioned by hefty subsidies.

Faced with these problems is it prudent to continue with the negotiations for the EPAs with the EU? Are there any alternatives to the EPAs?

It does not appear as if the Cotonou agreement gave ESA/SADC countries real alternatives to EPAs. Although Article 37 of the Cotonou agreement talks of alternative trade arrangements with those non-LDC ACP states which are not ready to negotiate EPAs with the EU, there is no real alternative mentioned in the agreement. Article 37 promises to give those non-LDCs not ready for EPAs alternative trade arrangements with benefits similar to those under the Lome conventions. This is a dubious promise. The only possible alternative under Article 37 is the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), a system of favours which must be granted to all developing countries. By definition this cannot result in favours similar to those under the Lome conventions because the later were meant for particular (ACP) developing countries, not all developing countries. Effectively Article 37 offers no real alternative to EPAs. Having said this, it is ironical that despite claiming to be unprepared for EPAs all ESA/SADC countries are negotiating one with the EU, and none have attempted to use the so-called alternative under Article 37.

ESA/SADC states must think of options to the current EPA negotiations. But what are these options, and how effective can they be?

1. Maintaining the status quo. Ideally many producers in the ACP group, including those in the ESA/SADC region would like the Lome preferences to be kept or even improved upon. They would like to continue getting special favours over and above other developing countries. This would see ESA/SADC states keeping special market access on favourable terms for example, for sugar and beef exports. To keep these favours ESA/SADC countries and their ACP counterparts must wait for the EU to be given another waiver to permit these one-way favours. However this is increasingly becoming a remote possibility for a number of reasons:

- Banana producing countries of Latin America have bitterly complained against the EU’s ACP preferences, arguing that they are discriminatory. The WTO has ruled that these preferences are indeed discriminatory and violate the MFN rule;

- There is a strong lobby in the EU and beyond (e.g. certain Asian countries) which is against Lome type trade preferences and is advocating for their ban at the WTO.

2. No reciprocity. Under this option ESA/SADC would not need to enter into damaging reciprocal arrangements with the EU, but to create non-reciprocal schemes. These are limited by the WTO rules to those non-reciprocal arrangements which are WTO compliant. This entails schemes under the GSP which is open to all developing countries. There are other GSP schemes which favour LDCs over developing countries, e.g., the EU’s Everything But Arms (EBA which gives LDCs products - except arms - entering the EU zero percent duty) scheme which is exclusive for LDCs. In this respect ESA/SADC countries would split along LDC and non-LDC lines. The EBA and the general GSP must be measured with the real market access under the Lome preferences. Even with these preferences ESA/SADC exports did not achieve a high level of penetration into the EU market.

A number of barriers prevented this, such as:

- Non-tariff barriers; subsidies granted to EU producers, especially under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) made it difficult for ESA/SADC producers to compete in the EU.

- Stringent rules for human, plant and animal health (Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures created obstacles against ESA/SADC exports as exporters could not afford to meet the requirements.

- Administrative procedures to satisfy rules of origin requirements also dissuaded ESA/SADC exporters from fully taking advantage of the Lome preferences. Already the beef, cereals and dairy sectors in ESA/SADC states are facing dwindling opportunities as a result of the CAP reforms.

These barriers are still relevant under the GSP and its EBA variety, if they are not removed the GSP and the EBA options are not really options for ESA/SADC.

3. Some level of Reciprocity. This option allows ESA/SADC states to partially open up their markets to the EU by liberalizing specific sectors whilst shutting out certain EU products and services for the protection of infantile producers. EU exports to the ESA/SADC region face tariff and non-tariff barriers. However the case for lowering barriers to EU imports may have several negative results, for example:

- government revenue losses, worst affected would be Mauritius, Zimbabwe and Tanzania which would lose more than 30% of customs revenue;

- local industry may not be able to compete with stronger EU-based competitors;

- there will be an increase in EU imports compared to a decline in ESA/SADC exports, there is a possibility that the food and beverages sectors would suffer as a result of more EU competing products entering the market; While the short-term result is that cheaper food imports will benefit consumers, the food processing and milling industries will face ultimate ruin;

- lower ESA/SADC duties on EU imports will negatively affect trade amongst ESA/SADC countries with respect to their own FTAs such as under, EAC, COMESA and the planned SADC FTA.

ESA/SADC states may opt to shut out specific EU products and unilaterally liberalise their economies in areas they are ready to do so. From an ESA/SADC perspective this is reasonable because it protects vulnerable sectors from damaging competition. However both light market opening (some level of reciprocity) and the non-reciprocal unilateral tariff structuring have to comply with the WTO rules. At present Article XXIV which caters for RTAs does not permit such deviations. To accommodate this option Article XXIV has to be amended to:

- recognize the disparities between industrialized and developing countries;

- make the interpretation of the requirement for “substantially all trade” to be liberalized more flexible for developing countries which have economic sectors which are too sensitive to competition from industrialized trading partners;

- grant developing countries in a proposed FTA with an industrialized country more time and opportunity to adjust to the new arrangement (transition period), for example by up to 18 years or more.

The ACP states have tabled this proposal before the WTO for possible negotiation at the December 2005 summit. However the weight of influence seems staked against the ACP proposal. Japan and Australia are opposed to this proposal, added to these is the traditional hostility to ACP preferences as shown by Latin American countries, and sometimes with USA backing.

Tying Trade Liberalisation to Developmental Benchmarks

Proposals forwarded by Trades Centre under its study on New Enhanced Economic Agreements (ERA) provide practical options for future EU-ACP trading co-operation. Essentially, the proposal ties trade liberalisation by African countries to certain developmental benchmarks which include:

- Agreed measures of development and overall vulnerability of each African Regional Partner (e.g. SADC or ESA). For example, opening up of Africa’s markets to the EU must be tied to substantial debt relief by the EU to Africa. In other words, the EU pays a price for preferential market provided to it.

- LDC members retain their special access to EU markets without reciprocity for an extended period.

- Opening up of Africa’s markets is related to agreed benchmarks in reform of the CAP.

- EU trade diversion avoided by liberalizing at own pace within the WTO frameworks thus giving improved access to non-EU markets.

- Aid component of ERA is used to enhance trade capabilities and increase export diversification.

- Aid is also used to cushion the transition to more liberal trading conditions (especially changes in protocols).

- There is a contract enforcement mechanism (including dispute procedures) in place.

- Rules of origin are simple and facilitate cumulation.

- Review of WTO provisions on RTAs.

More aid, investment, and new issues.

ACP states (inclusive of ESA/SADC countries) seem to be involved in the EPA negotiations for the purposes of accessing more aid and investment from the EU. It is not clear that more aid and investment will only come from the EU if ESA/SADC states agree to EPA arrangements with the EU. Above this ESA/SADC states have committed themselves to supporting negotiations on investment, competition and intellectual property related issues both at an EPA level and at the WTO. This is despite their resistance to the discussions of these issues at the Cancun WTO summit. This shows a level of confusion as there is no guarantee that more aid and investment will materialize from the EU as a result of the EPA under negotiations.

Recommendations

The EPA negotiations should either be drastically slowed down or stopped. This will give ESA/SADC time to make real assessments of future trade relations not only with Europe but with the rest of the world. The present concern for ESA/SADC states like the rest of the ACP group is to maintain historical favours from the EU. At the same time ESA/SADC states want to benefit from the multilateral framework under the WTO. As explained above there is a conflicting legal responsibility here. In the short-term ESA/SADC states should:

- engage WTO partners to ensure that post-Lome trade arrangements do not get implemented by 2008 as planned under the Cotonou agreement.

- actively table alternatives to the EPAs proposal. This involves having to pull out of the current negotiations, or seeking a reprieve. The short-term plan obviously includes conflicting positions, the more reason why it is not ideal.

- ESA/SADC states should revisit their regional integration commitments and give effect to deeper integration. Emphasis should be on food security as the priority for the region. And with respect to trade relations with the rest of the world ESA/SADC states should.

- assess their historical dependence on Europe in the light of shifting geopolitical priorities. EU trade preferences have not and will not increase African productivity and economic security. Some sectors of ESA/SADC economies are at the mercy of EU CAP reforms and the EU is no longer a viable market for them.

- work collectively with other developing countries to ensure that the WTO framework works to the advantage of developing countries. ACP states have used the WTO summits as a place to secure the continuity of EU preferences. Instead better use of the multilateral framework can be made if ACP states focus on issues common to the trading prospects of all developing countries. Though some ACP states are active on issues common to all developing states, there is always the EU trade preferences issue.

- take a lead in negotiating the implementation of development country friendly WTO concessions, in this case the market access commitments of developed countries under Part IV of GATT. These concessions do not require reciprocal action from developing countries especially with respect to liberalization commitments. The WTO rules did not make flexible rules to govern RTAs involving developed-developing country configuration precisely because it makes no economic sense. Hence ESA/SADC states should insist on the actualization of those rules made with developing countries in mind.

* Many thanks to Dr. Medicine Masiiwa from the Trades and Development Studies Centre Trust (Trades Centre) for providing this summary of research into EPAs being conducted by the Trades Centre.

* Please send comments to [email protected]

If there's one struggle that's looking on the up at the moment, writes Raj Patel on his blog Voice of the Turtle, it's the fight to get Ashwin Desai's job back at the Centre for Civil Society. Patel explains why Desai, a veteran of the anti-apartheid struggle and author of ‘We are the Poors’, has been banned from the University of KwaZulu-Natal for his uncompromising honesty. Desai applied for funding earlier this year to undertake research on the history of race and sport in South Africa, but the Vice-Chancellor, Malegapuru William Makgoba, instructed the selection committee at the University of KwaZulu-Natal not to consider Desai's application. Visit Voice of the Turtle for the full story and sign a petition in support of Desai by visiting http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/567835610?ltl=1136454112

‘Immigration and Asylum: From 1900 to the Present’ is an accessible and up-to-date introduction to the key concepts, terms, personalities, and real-world issues associated with the surge of immigration from the beginning of the 20th century to the present. It focuses on the United States, but is also the first encyclopaedic work on the subject that reflects a truly global perspective. With contributions from the world's foremost authorities on the subject, Immigration and Asylum offers nearly 200 entries organized around four themes: immigration and asylum; the major migrating groups around the world; expulsions and other forced population movements; and the politics of migration.

While e-learning programmes in African Universities may be faced with challenges, it is important to point out that even universities in other parts of the world are faced with difficulties when implementing the same programmes. For example, in Digital Hemlock: Internet Education and the Poisoning of Teaching, the author observed that in 2000, $483 million was spent on companies building courses for the educational market. By 2002, the amount spent on building online material for commercial purposes reduced to US$17 million. This means that African universities must conduct needs assessment before designing and launching e-learning programmes.

Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is increasingly affecting the fisheries revenues of developing countries. The global cost of IUU fishing practices is estimated to be in excess of US$ 2.4 billion annually, about US$900 million for sub-Saharan Africa alone. Research by the Marine Resources Assessment Group, UK, which reviewed the impact of IUU fishing on developing countries, found that the level of IUU fishing was inversely correlated with their state of governance. IUU fishing in sub-Saharan Africa primarily affects tuna fisheries in east African states and mixed fisheries in west African states. West Africa, the Mozambique Channel, Somalia and central Africa are particular problem areas: targeting relatively modest funds here could significantly increase government incomes from fishing, improve livelihoods and contribute to food security, although the income increase might not always equate to the full value of the IUU catch.

“Screams never stopped; the most acute were children’s. My eyes couldn’t follow where or where to look. It was cold. It was dark. Soldiers were brutal. They were just beating anyone anywhere, stepping over anyone and anything.” This quote is from an anonymous eyewitness account (reproduced below) of events that took place last Friday in Cairo, when Egyptian security police brutally broke up a three-month sit-in protest being held by Sudanese refugees in Cairo. News reports indicate that the number of people killed is approaching 30. As detailed in an October 2005 Pambazuka News article (http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=29957) the refugees were protesting against their appalling conditions and the constant abuse of their rights and had camped out near the Cairo office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), demanding protection from forced repatriation and protection of vulnerable groups. At that stage one of the protestors vowed: “We will wait here, we will die here. We have no other place to go.”

At 10:00 pm, Thursday, December 29th I received an SMS saying the Mohandesin area was turning into a military camp and that Sudanese refugees who had been sitting in for 3 months may be disbursed by force.

I arrived at 11:00 pm to find state security trucks and plain clothes police closing the roads of Batal Ahmed Abdel Aziz, Ahmed Orabi, and Gameet el Dewal streets.

Public white busses lined up all the way from Donuts House till Mustafa Mahmud square with a few state security soldiers sitting inside them. I was able to take down some of the bus numbers as I walked - 4129, 3696, 4107, 4136, 4335, 3416, 3534, and 3416.

In a few minutes all streets leading to Mustafa Mahmud were totally blocked. Police forces started cornering and then disbursing civilian pedestrians.

At 1:00 am, and it was really cold, security forces started flushing the refugees with three water cannons from three different sides. The first spray lasted for almost 6 minutes and was rather high. We could see the water reaching as high as the 4th balcony of the near-by building. Probably it aimed at destroying the top of their shelters.

Refugees met the water floods with cheer and dance. This was a reaction no one at the other side could understand and it rather provoked the ‘they deserve whatever happens to them - they are crazy’ type of thinking.

The few civilians who gathered to observe the scene from afar were mostly quite amused. I painfully heard comments such as “let them take a shower to become clean”, “Egypt has been more than patient with them”, “security forces should’ve got rid of them from day one”, “They (Sudanese) are disgusting”. Laughs interrupted such comments as the refugees were sprayed with water. Few stood silent with eyes wide open at the scene, while only one objected and explained that Sudanese had demands and rights to be met by UNHCR.

A police officer told a friend as he smiled that they badly needed a bath after three months. “We have orders to finish this tonight and we will,” he added.

We resorted to the 2nd floor of a café just across the park to be able to observe, take pictures, and make phone calls. Choosing the time to attack the refugees was more than well planned. Midnight Thursday in the New Year’s weekend. All the media I contacted were out of town for vacation. A handful of political activists arrived but were totally helpless. A couple of human rights activists were with us on the phone all night.

Almost an hour later another 5 minutes of continuous water showered the refugees. This time the water was low, strong and direct, straight at the people.

Water stopped and a negotiation round started with a delegated refugee committee, an Egyptian official, and a UNHCR official. The Egyptian said: “UNHCR will do nothing for you. We are authorized by the highest power in the state to disburse this sit in today.” The reply of the refugees was that: “We will die on the turf.”

I was able to step to the second security circle surrounding them. A public bus waiting in the area had five refugees at the back seat while a sixth one was being brutally beaten by 5 state security soldiers. From my position next to the bus I could see and hear him screaming as they beat him on his head and back with hands and batons, kicked him, and twisted his arm and wrist behind his back as his screams went louder and louder.

An officer standing next to us explained that he was trying to break the window and escape because he was drunk. At this point a man from the back seat opened the window and holding a baby girl of a few months old, cried: “We are not drunk, I am not drunk, he is not drunk, and this baby is not drunk. Her mother died here in this park.” They beat him to silence as well and continued with the sixth guy. A young man took a video of the scene on his cell phone and later Bluetoothed it to me.

Reporters, observers and the few activists who were there started to leave the scene as time passed with no further developments. It was very cold and my hands and nose were freezing. It was unimaginable to imagine wet people!

At around 4 am we managed to get to the building of Al Watany Bank of Egypt and only then we had a full clear view of the situation from high. In Mustafa Mahmud square, I could count 60 state security wagons, 6 ambulances, 10 armored cars and uncountable busses.

At 4:45 am the troops were lining up properly and the first circle of formations moved closer to surround the refugees. Their warm up exercise echoed in the empty city as they said: “Ho- ho- ho- masr!” and singing “Ya ahla esm fel wegood yaa masr” meaning “To Egypt, who has the most beautiful name ever, whose name was created to be eternal, for Egypt we live…and for Egypt we die.”

Refugees lined up and started warming up too but saying “Allah Akbar”, “La ilaha ella Allah” and “Hasbona allah wa neama al wakil”, meaning “There is no god but Allah and only him we delegate to handle our injustice.” The Christians chanted Halleluiah. The few civilian audience started cheering for the Egyptian army.

At 5 am sharp the 3 water cannons flushed them again and right beside the water line security forces timely attacked the refugee campus with batons and shields. After 1 minute the water stopped. Soldiers destroyed the rest of their makeshift homes and pulled up their front line of luggage, throwing it away as other soldiers made their way in.

Refugees fought back with wood sticks, plastic empty water jars and gallons, and their hands.

The left side (the side of Radwan Ogeil store) fought back very bravely and was able to force soldiers to retreat out for three times, but on the other two sides soldiers were breaking in. Sounds of sharp metal hits were heard loudly. I guess these were the wooden sticks on the metal shields. Also sounds of screams, mainly women and children, echoed.

After 10 minutes, a whistle was heard and all forces pulled out of the garden. Lines were reorganized. Extra troops were added to the Al Ogeil store side and in a couple of minutes a signal was given and they lashed back in.

This time was fierce. The street lights were cut off. Screams never stopped; the most acute were children’s. My eyes couldn’t follow where or where to look. It was cold. It was dark. I am sure the garden was muddy after all this water. Soldiers were brutal. They were just beating anyone anywhere, stepping over anyone and anything.

Every 2 or 3 seconds a refugee would be dragged out of the horror circle, beaten all the way out. Another 3-4 soldiers would take grip of the refugee so the first soldier could go back to hunt another one. The soldiers receiving the refugee beat him more with batons on his back, bringing him down to his knee, slapping the back of his head, dragging him to a bus where other soldiers took care of the next stage. All the way through, obscenities could be heard.

This happened to men and women equally. Sometimes when the victim was a woman I saw a child trying to hang to her leg as the soldiers dragged the mother.

I saw four refugees carried by soldiers from their arms and legs, often dropping midway totally motionless and I could swear they were dead.

The most horrible was the EGYPTIANS! Civilians who cheered as if they were cheering for the ‘army forces’ freeing Egypt! As forces advanced in battle; the audience cheered, whistled and clapped. They were amused!

Resistance was weakening on Al Ogeil side and soldiers were breaking fully in when my host, standing beside me in the balcony said: “We are entering from the left side.” I looked back at him in shock. This is not “we”. He said: “I mean the Egyptians.” These are not Egyptians. He said “whatever.”

I started shaking.

As the refugees were dragged out in bigger numbers they forced them to sit on the ground in groups, casually beating them till soldiers would come pick them up and put them in busses.

A friend later told me he saw an officer spitting on a bus as it moved away with refugees!

Resistance fully collapsed. As fewer refugees were left inside the garden facing at least 2500 soldiers, the screams became sharper, louder and desperate.

Everything was over at 5:30 am sharp.

When I took control over my body, I picked up my car and followed 6 of the white public transportation busses carrying almost fainting refugees and state security forces to Dahshur State Security Camp in Fayoum road. They arrived there at exactly 7:15 am. The camp is almost 40 kms outside Cairo. Distance could be more or less, I was so tired and so not well. The wagon numbers were 3686, 4107, 6132, 4335, and 3696. I missed the numbers of the first bus.

Returning back to Cairo I went directly to the battlefield. Let the pictures speak.

So far 20 people died. There is news that those who were taken to the state security camp are all released. And some are released from Turah. No news yet from Dahshur.

Individuals, groups, lawyers, and associations are protesting in the same place tomorrow Saturday 12 noon at both the brutality of the Egyptian government and the disgraceful role of UNHCR.

We shall not close the file of the massacre committed by the Egyptian regime against the Sudanese refugees in Egypt. Send letters of protest and condemnation to Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak ([email protected]) and the Egyptian embassy in your country.

Write to UN Secretary General demanding an international investigation.

* Please send comments to

For a full list of those to be deported see the link below.

Namuli, the lead character of this novel, makes her way from an isolated Ugandan village to international recognition. She encounters obstacles, prejudices and uncertainties about her own identity as a student, professional woman and mother. She experiences the enigmas of love, relationships and loss. The novel is based on a true story and aims to give readers an authentic picture of what it was like to live in Uganda from the 1950s through to the 1970s.

Gova is a book of poetry written in one of South Africa's unofficial languages, Isicamtho – a polyglot of the 11 official languages and one which has its origins in the so-called tsotsi taal of the Black gehttoes. Ike Mboneni Muila is a master of this language and encourages readers to dive in.

Eva Dadrian tracks the aftermath of the massacre of Sudanese refugees in Cairo on Friday 30, December 2005, noting that it is an insult to the memory of those killed that the very regime which originally led to their flight to Egypt will soon be hosting an African Union Summit (in Khartoum, 14-16 January). Dadrian asks: “Will the African heads of state attending the AU Summit in Khartoum, in a humanitarian gesture, stand 60 seconds in silence in memory of the tragic incident in Cairo? I wonder whether any one of them will sense that 60 seconds is more than enough for a police truncheon to cut short the life of an African refugee?”

Human rights groups and opponents of the Sudanese government call the hosting of the African Union Summit by Khartoum (14-16 January 2006) an affront and an insult to the memory of the people of Darfur who have died at the hands of the very regime hosting the summit.

Observers and political activists are asking how a country which has a civil war in Darfur - where more than 2.5 million internally displaced people are still being subjected to attacks by government backed militias – and has some 500,000 refugees scattered in 5 neighbouring countries and more than 2 million Southern Sudanese IDPs in and around Khartoum, can be considered as the host of the AU Summit?

It is a further insult to the memory of those Sudanese refugees who were trampled to death or died of their wounds during and after the vicious attack by the Egyptian security police on the Mustafa Mahmoud Park, just across from the UNHCR office, on Friday 30, December 2005, where since September 26, 2005, they were staging a sit-in in protest at the UNHCR’s earlier decision to close their files and start their repatriation.

Whatever accusations can be had against the Sudanese refugees, like those made by Egyptian comedian Adel Imam, himself a UNHCR goodwill ambassador, who said, “they put their children in front of them as human shields” or a police officer, who said, “they were singing and dancing during the attack”, the high loss of life suggests that extreme brutality was used by the Egyptian security forces during the dawn attack.

Precise figures for the dead and wounded are still unclear. Various reports have put the death toll at 56, with 15 children and many women and elderly among them. According to Astrid van Genderen Stort, a spokeswoman from the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), there are also over “70 injuries of various degrees of severity”.

As shocking as it may sound to the readership of Pambazuka News, the Egyptian security forces aimed mainly at the heads, kidneys and genital parts of male and female refugees alike. All those who died and whose corpses are still lying in morgues have head wounds, brain haemorrhages, burst kidneys and burst pancreas. Many of the refugees, Muslims and Christians alike, who were later released from the military barracks they were taken to, and who had gathered in a number of churches in Cairo, said that a refugee from Darfur, who was bleeding from his head wounds, was thrown off by the police from the military truck taking them to Al Torah security barracks. His body was later recovered by fellow Darfurians from the road where he had bled to death.

Human rights groups and MPs from the Muslim Brotherhood are calling for an independent investigation into the violent clashes of last Friday. In a statement issued on January 2, the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) is saying “the Egyptian Security Forces should immediately investigate these deaths and unjustified violent incidents” stating that the police used “excessive force” in breaking up the three-month long peaceful sit-in. EOHR urges also that “all those responsible be brought to trial”. Fingers of accusation are pointed at Habib Al Adly, the minister of interior known for his notorious heavy-handed techniques against demonstrators and opponents to the Mubarak regime.

Civil society activists who organised a demonstration last Saturday in protest at the “Friday massacre in Mustapha Mahmoud Park” and in solidarity with the Sudanese refugees, were defiantly holding banners and posters that read “We are All Sudanese” and “Down with Habib Al Adly”. Al Adly, whose name means “The Just one” has just been reinstated in a new cabinet and took his oath of allegiance on Saturday, January 1, 2006, a day after the Friday events.

After 5 days locked in highly secured military barracks and security forces’ camps around Cairo, the Egyptian authorities announced that they were preparing to deport some 656 Sudanese. The official reason for the deportations is as vague as the destination the refugees will be taken to. It is believed that they will land either in Khartoum or in Juba. Among these refugees are people from Darfur where there are already 2.5 million internally displaced people living in camps and at the mercy of banditry. No one can guaranty their safety when they will reach Sudan.

For three days, members of the foreign and Egyptian media, human rights activists, and members of non-governmental organisations managed to keep in touch with the refuges held in the 5 military barracks, through their mobile phones. Then, silence fell and all contacts were cut off as “the police have taken away cell phones and money from our pockets” confirmed a Southern Sudanese, who, thanks to his Blue Card giving him Refugee Status, was released from Manshiet Nasr barracks, just a few hours before I met him in the Sakkakini church in Abbasseya, Cairo.

Some refugees, accused of being the instigators of the “violence against the security forces” (by the way according to the ministry of interior, some 73 policemen and officers were wounded during the attack) have “disappeared”. Human rights activists fear for them as unconfirmed reports are mentioning that the so-called leaders are being held in the special units of the dreaded Amn Al Markazi at Al Darrassa (Central Security) for “further interrogation”.

On the other hand, the EOHR stresses the very valid point that the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, ratified by Egypt in 1981, should be implemented “through legislation consistent with the Egyptian constitution, which guarantees the right of refuge”. According to the UNHCR office, between 1994 and 2004, some 31,000 Sudanese were given refugee status and more than half were resettled in third countries. However, the vast majority of asylum seekers have not been granted refugee status and as such are disqualified from resettlement. Furthermore, the UNHCR changed its policies for the Sudanese refugees on the basis that the Naivasha Peace Agreement signed and ratified in January 2005, between the Khartoum government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), has brought peace and improved the conditions in Sudan.

For the past 48 hours, contradictory reports have been circulating in Cairo and ambiguous declarations made by both the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Interior and the UNHCR Cairo office. Egyptian officials say that only those Sudanese whose asylum requests have been rejected by the UNHCR and who do not have legal residence in Egypt will be expelled, yet the UNHCR declares that the Egyptian authorities have promised not to repatriate any of the Sudanese refugees. There was no comment on the reports by the Egyptian officials. However, in a statement issued by the Sudanese government in Khartoum, some 100 refugees have been flown back to Khartoum “according to their wish to return home”.

Apart from the loss of life, the accusations and the blame, the consequences of these tragic events are already having serious repercussions on diplomatic relations between Cairo and the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS). In a statement issued by GOSS, Vice President Riek Machar declares that his government is “greatly shocked by this callous act from the security forces of a friendly and sisterly country that has been known of spearheading the unity of the people of the Nile Valley, and particularly the peoples of Egypt and Sudan.”

The wording of the statement is extremely severe as it implies that what happened in Mustapha Mahmoud Park is a crime as it “breaks every known international law including the UN Human Rights Convention and the fundamental right to life.” In Southern Sudan politicians are already voicing a freeze on the diplomatic relations with Egypt, while unconfirmed reports from Sudan have mentioned the closure of the Egyptian consulate in Juba, on the request of GOSS.

But officials in Cairo, Khartoum and even the UNHCR have all rejected calls for an international investigation, so who is to stand by the fundamental right to life of some 25 million African refugees, homeless and IDPs? Will the African heads of state attending the AU Summit in Khartoum, in a “humanitarian” gesture, stand 60 seconds in silence in memory of the tragic incident in Cairo? I wonder whether any one of them will sense that 60 seconds is more than enough for a police truncheon to cut short the life of an African refugee?

* Eva Dadrian is an independent broadcaster and Political and Country Risk Analyst for print and broadcast media.

* Please send comments to [email protected]

There has never been a year like it. In 2005 people campaigned in more than 80 countries to "make poverty history". Yet, gloomy figures emerged at the UN General Assembly meeting in September when the "Millennium Development Goals" were reviewed. On present progress, it would be 2150 not 2015 before the target to halve the number of people living in poverty would be reached.

The Right Honorable Prime Minister, as you should appreciate, it’s not usual for an ordinary Ugandan to write to you an open letter. But these are not ordinary times, in light of the arbitrarily manner with which your government is meddling in Uganda’s governance through its withdrawing of budgetary support in a manner reminiscent of the days of the empire.

Certainly I do thank you for the development support you offered Uganda in the last 15 or so years. It changed lives for the better including of the most vulnerable. While your vision of a just world as articulated in your third term is also most commendable.

However, many find dubious the reasons Britain provided for its aid cut. The more surprising in light of Britain’s long inteference in Uganda’s governance, dating back more that 100 years and starting with the colonial experience. And as you should recall, for more than 80 of these years Britain undermined rather than promoted Uganda’s good political governance.

For British colonialism, which we experienced for 60 years, was the exact antithesis of democratic governance. No elections, no accountable structures, no responsiveness or meaningful social programmes. Actually colonialism left us a legacy of underdevelopment and an autocratic culture and institutions. One which we have been attempting to undo, for the most part successfully, in the last 20 years!

Allow me to remind you that Britain was also instrumental in propping up both the Milton Obote (I and II) and Idi Amin regimes. For when Obote abrogated Uganda’s 1962 Lancaster House constitution, the Labour government under Harrold Wilson conveniently adopted a business as usual approach! Later Heath’s regime encouraged, to put it mildly, the Amin coup. Indeed Britain was the first to recognize and internationally legitimized Amin junta.

The pattern was much similar to Obote’s fraudulent return to power in 1980. Indeed Britain trained the murderous Uganda National Liberation Army and most conspicuously never criticized that regime’s attempted genocide. Hence the question, Rt.Hon. Prime Minister, where do you get the moral authority to now lecture us on our democratization process, in light of the above most dismal history?

Britain claims that Uganda does not have the commitment towards maintaining an independent judiciary. Please further substantiate on this serious allegation. We cherish the independence of our judiciary, which for your information is currently and ably arbitrating major disputes in the land.

In sum sir, Ugandans primarily through their own devices re-established the rule of law and we do not need patronizing foreigners to claim to be the guarantors of our freedoms, when in actual essence they were the source of the very governance problems we are grappling with now.

Sir, Britain also thinks that our freedom of the press is under threat! This impression requires correction. For actually, and for your information, Ugandans enjoy more press freedom than the British.

Then there is the claim that Ugandans have no freedom of association. This we find incredulous! Parties are now legally recognised and many recently held unprecedented vibrant and democratic delegates conferences which renewed their leadership.

Concerning the case of Kizza Besigye and the Ituri 22, we could probably seek guidance from Britain’s long history. How do you treat treason suspects? Are they feted? Let off the hook, outside due process, because, for instance, they are noblemen and politically well connected? In our case of the above the accused have been rigorously subjected to an expeditious due process of the law. It is this process that will provide the final verdict.

Ironically the effects of your glaring blunders could be the opposite of what you intended. Many Ugandans now question the donor’s biased meddling and patronizing attitudes. This is consolidating a strong nationalist ideology that questions the wisdom of our exposing ourselves to your arrogance and arbitrary methods of work.

This book, from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa and edited by South African activists, provides more detail on the practical threats to public well-being and climatic stability arising from the growing fashion for carbon trading. It focuses in particular on the disturbing record of South African "carbon-saving" projects and their role in shoring up a destructive oil economy with a record of harm to African people.

This is an exciting new position for a dedicated and skilled individual with strong fundraising skills and a creative mind. Working in the Communications Department, the postholder will manage a small but growing marketing and fundraising team and will be responsible for developing and implementing a fundraising strategy for CIIR that focuses on major donors, trusts, companies, religious orders and low value donors.

PEACE X PEACE is an international organization which empowers women worldwide to “enrich lives locally and promote peace globally”. It connects women’s groups (called “Circles”) in the United States with women’s Circles around the world in a Global Network. Via the Internet, the “Sister Circles” exchange information and personal experiences. It is the largest organization in the world that uses the Internet to support women of different cultures through communication. Communicating through PEACE X PEACE provides women with the opportunity to change perceptions, create friendships, and work towards collaborative goals, with the ultimate aim of creating lasting peace. A monthly e-newsletter uses exclusive essays, opinion pieces, interviews, and stories from peace experts around the world to tell you about peace building in the world.

Overwhelmed with the challenges posed by a series of natural disasters that occurred in 2005, United Nations officials responsible for delivering humanitarian aid are urging international donors to get prepared for the next year now. "None of us knows what 2006 will bring. We can hope for a calmer year, but we have to be prepared for every eventuality," James Morris, executive director of the U.N. World Food Program (WFP), said in an appeal to donors Wednesday (January 28).

Micro-credit facilities for men could emerge as a powerful tool to check the alarming increase in cases of violence against women in Kenya. Experts say that with easy access to small loans for income generating activities, men would have less time on their hands to be abusive. Violence against women has been on the increase in this East African nation. An estimated 2,800 rape cases were reported in 2004, according to the police. This was 500 times more than the figure reported in 2003. Jennifer Riria, chief executive of the internationally-known Kenya Women Finance Trust (KWFT), is pushing to expand micro-credit services to include men.

The long-awaited international declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples may see the light of day in 2006, after more than 10 years of complex efforts by a United Nations working group, experts announced. The negotiations that took place in 2005 gave rise to a glimmer of hope that the next session of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, to be held in March and April, might approve the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

A new report by UNICEF details the impact of conflict on children’s lives in Darfur, almost three years after the violence began. The key findings of the report are: the economy of Darfur is in steep decline, creating and reinforcing a reliance on humanitarian aid; as a result, conditions are worsening for children who live in areas outside the camps, in communities hitherto not directly affected by the fighting; low-level violence continues unabated almost daily, creating a climate of fear and further crippling core economic activities; Darfur has become “ghettoed,” with groups from all tribes afraid to move beyond their immediate environments.

International development charity, the Catholic Institute for International Relations (CIIR), is to change its name to Progressio at the start of 2006. Progressio is a Latin word meaning development and advancement, the very factors the organisation promotes among its partners, supporters and the general public. The name Progressio comes from Populorum Progressio, one of the central documents in Catholic Social Teaching that emerged from the Second Vatican Council. Populorum Progressio speaks about the challenges of development and the importance of justice in relations between rich and poor nations.

Mauritania deposited its instrument of ratification of the protocol on the African charter on human and peoples’ rights on the rights of women in Africa with the African Union on 14th December 2005. Burkina Faso and Guinea in West Africa will very shortly deposit their ratification instrument as their parliaments have respectively authorised it. Outside West Africa, Mozambique’s Parliament has also approved the ratification of the Protocol.

In this article, Kady Souley Boncano shares her experience of how radio made her a star in her country. She describes the changes Niger has undergone in the last few years and the way radio has affected the life of women in Niger.

The world witnessed a number of major political achievements for women in 2005, from the election of Africa's first female president to the first polls in Saudi Arabia to include women, according to the Boston Globe. "This has been a year in which women have taken grassroots struggles and transformed them into something bigger by developing a very considered political strategy," said Kavita Ramdas, president of the San Francisco-based Global Fund for Women, which provides grants to women's rights groups around the world.

While the African born make up a small proportion of the foreign-born population in the United States, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of immigrants born in Africa over the past couple of decades. As a group, the African born are more likely to be proficient in English, work in higher-level occupations, and have higher earnings than the overall foreign-born population. However, closer examination of the African born immigrants from specific countries reveals a great deal of diversity in migration patterns, political conditions, economies, and group histories.

This briefing paper offers concrete suggestions for women's health and rights advocates within and beyond Africa. It provides detailed information that can help African women exercise their reproductive rights. The paper can also be useful to advocates outside Africa who are seeking to establish similar guarantees.

Africa Source II is Africa's premier Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) specialised hands on skills development event focused on the Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) sector. Bringing together over 120 NGO support professionals, staff and software experts, the participants will examine how information technologies and FOSS can strategically impact and build civil society organisations on the continent.

A new website has been launched where you can publish your own eyewitness accounts of an event, send in news reports, write a column, become a movie or music reviewer, or take up a community issue. Visit the website to register and submit a story, picture or sound file.

The Mozambican public prosecutor in the Carloso Cardoso murder case has asked for Anibal dos Santos Junior, or Anibalzinho, to be jailed for up to 30 years, writes Charles Mangwiro on the website www.journalism.co.za Olinda Cossa argued that Anibalzinho was undoubtedly guilty of the 2000 murder of Cardoso, Mozambique’s top investigative journalist. Cossa cited evidence found during the investigations and a series of interviews Anibalzinho gave to the press since his return from South Africa where he was rearrested after his first escape from prison on the eve of his trial in 2002.

The African Commission on Human and People's Rights (ACHPR), an African Union (AU) institution, has adopted a resolution strongly denouncing Zimbabwe's human rights practices. "This will exert a lot of pressure on Zimbabwe - this is the first time such a significant body, so close to African heads of state, observes and condemns such defiance of human rights compliance," Arnold Tsunga, Director of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, told IRIN.

A loophole in the UK National Health Service's policy banning recruitment of health care workers from developing countries has led to the hiring of thousands of nurses and midwives from such countries and is damaging the global fight against HIV/AIDS and other diseases, Andrew George, a member of Parliament from the minority Liberal Democrat party, said on Monday, London's Guardian reports. George said nurses and midwives are being brought from developing countries to work in the United Kingdom through a loophole in the ban that allows them to work for a short time at a private facility before being hired by the government.

London's Guardian on Tuesday examined the effects of HIV/AIDS on teachers in South Africa and how teachers' unions and other organizations in the country are leading a movement to implement education and prevention programs in schools to fight the epidemic. Four South African teachers' unions joined U.S. and South African partners in October to launch a two-year pilot project that aims to combine peer education, HIV testing and antiretroviral treatment for teachers in three provinces in the country.

Like many Senegalese, Ibou Seck stopped taking his tuberculosis treatment before the course was up, prolonging his illness, risking death, and ultimately reducing the effectiveness of the drugs for other patients. “I didn’t have any support from my family so I stopped my treatment early. I was left alone, isolated in a back room near the chicken house while everyone in the district gossiped about my illness,” explained 36-year-old Seck, who works as a mechanic in the capital, Dakar.

After being politically crucified over charges of malfeasance and mismanagement, the U.N. Secretariat has responded with a new "whistle-blower protection policy" aimed at encouraging staffers, contractors, consultants and even the public to help expose corruption in the world body. The new policy, which comes into force in January, assures whistle-blowers that there will be no retaliation for reporting misconduct and "for cooperating with duly authorised audits or investigations".

Chad has reacted angrily to warnings from the World Bank, after its parliament voted to relax controls on the use of its oil revenues. The government has accused the World Bank of acting like a coloniser. The body lent Chad more than $39m (£23m) to build a pipeline with an estimated total cost of almost $4bn. It was on condition that Chad's churches, trade unions and non-governmental organisations monitored how oil revenues were spent.

Nigeria's anti-corruption agency is investigating a former state governor who is widely expected to run for president in 2007 in connection with funds looted during the rule of General Sani Abacha, a spokesman said on Wednesday. The probe into the accounts of Buba Marwa, who was military administrator of Lagos state under Abacha, is the first attempt by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to go after a highly placed official from that era over looted funds.

A report by the UN Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) quotes UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan issuing a warning that the security situation in Darfur continued to deteriorate, leading to nearly a doubling of confirmed civilian deaths. In his latest monthly report on the conflict in the western Sudanese region, he called it a "deeply disturbing trend" with "devastating effects on the civilian population".

Reports indicate that Uganda has begun negotiating payment terms with the Democratic Republic of Congo after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Kampala should compensate the neighbouring country for invading and plundering her neighbour's resources. Congo sued Uganda in the UN's highest court in 1999.The two countries have an option of negotiating between themselves to reach a compromise amount and terms of payment.

An analysis appearing in the East African, observes: "The government's sense of accountability to taxpayers, is lacking. The Executive will dutifully sit down each year with bilateral and multilateral development financiers and haggle over figures, answer questions and make promises to be more accountable. There is no such meeting with citizens. The budget process has opened up, albeit minimally, but the accountability process has not".

A commentator in the weekly regional newspaper the East African argues that as a political party, Narc (the ruling National Rainbow Coalition) is as good as dead. Unable to quell the simmering rifts between its constituent factions, the leadership of Kenya's National Rainbow Coalition appears increasingly tremulous, shiftless, and for a governing party, rudderless.

We wish to immensely appreciate the quality and incisive coverage of the Pan-African issues. We at Kenya Alliance of Resident Associations (KARA) are pleased to be associated with you and look forward to a possible partnership with yourselves. Thank you.

I happened across some if your comments on neoliberalism. I am impressed. Not to be overly pedantic, but I do believe that much of it is in classical liberalism, as described by the late Karl Polanyi in 'The Great Transformation' [1944]; Boston, Beacon, 1957; 2nd edition Boston, Beacon, 2001. This also involved the great age of colonialism, and neoliberalism is nothing if not neocolonialism.

The structures of neoliberalism are uniformly and without exception established for the benefit of the metropoli, not for the benefit of the subject peoples. This is as true of IMF and World Bank structures (The Washington Consensus) as it was for the British Raj or neocolonial structures in Latin America. And in fact, with the popular perceptions of Globalism, the world in 1900 was probably more "globalist" than is our world one hundred years later. Best!

Broadband access has become increasingly available in Africa over the last four years according to the authors of a new report published by Balancing Act. The report is based on a survey of 100 operators on the continent. According to authors Paul Hamilton and Russell Southwood, between 2001 and the present day a wide range of both wireline and wireless broadband technologies have been deployed across Africa. The first were deployed from around 2001, and the pace has picked up from 2003 onwards.

The open encyclopaedia, Wikipedia, is facing renewed criticism from media professionals and academics worldwide, who argue that it cannot be trusted as a credible source of information. Wikipedia is the largest encyclopaedia in the world, with over 3.7 million articles in over 200 languages. It has over 850 000 articles in its English version alone, more than four times as many as the next-biggest English encyclopaedia - Encyclopaedia Britannica. The issue at stake for many though, is how many of these articles are reasonably accurate and adequate.

The Oak Fellowship provides an opportunity for prominent practitioners in international human rights to take a sabbatical leave from their work and spend a semester (September - December 2006) as a scholar-in-residence at Colby College. This provides the Fellow time for reflection, research, writing, and teaching. Following the period of the award, it is expected that the Fellow will return to his or her human rights work.

An AIDS epidemic as severe as the one plowing through South Africa will change society. But how and along what lines? 'Buckling: The impact of AIDS in South Africa', tackles the question in distinctive and critical-minded fashion – and arrives at disquieting and surprising conclusions. A detailed, multidisciplinary review of research evidence, this short book adopts a unique perspective which reveals more clearly the contingency and complexity of the epidemic's effects. It shows how conventional conceptions of AIDS impact (and programme responses) tend to reflect dominant ideological fixations – particularly the overriding emphasis on productive processes and economic growth, governance and security – and how the wellbeing of humans typically is refracted through those preoccupations.

This online document addresses ways in which civil society can participate in aid. The report reviews civil society's involvement in aid and considers a number of country case studies where theory has been put into practice. The authors note that many development actors are currently formulating their own rationales for widening participation in aid coordination processes. These rationales are founded in arguments for democratic representation, efficiency of aid, prioritisation of poverty eradication, good governance and a rights-based approach to development.