The African Union (AU) has voted for a fourfold increase in its budget, but cuts still have to be made to some programmes. Among areas that have been put on hold until next year is the continent-wide, anti-poverty blueprint – the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad). The AU had wanted $200 million a year to finance Nepad – in areas like road and bridge building - then cut that figure to $30 million before it was shelved. The current AU budget is $43 million, but only $27 million has been paid up.

Ms. Delphine Djiraibe of Chad has been selected for the 2004 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award. Ms. Djiraibe was chosen by an international panel of distinguished judges for her tireless efforts in promoting the human rights of the Chadian people, often at great personal risk to herself and her family. Ms. Djiraibe is being recognized for her work on the Chad/Cameroon Oil and Pipeline Project. Her multifaceted campaign encompasses fighting governmental corruption, ensuring that the Chadian people benefit from the pipeline and its resulting profits, and preventing environmental devastation resulting from its construction.

Kenya's government has missed its best chance to stamp out rampant corruption and faces a tough task to regain credibility, Transparency International (TI) said last Thursday, International Anti-Corruption Day. More than half of Kenyans do not think graft is decreasing, TI Kenya executive director Gladwell Otieno said. "The political class's dismal performance over the past two years has resulted in a highly negative perception by Kenyans," Otieno said at a news conference launching TI's Global Corruption Barometer survey.

Thousands of young Kenyans “rocked” against AIDS in Nairobi in sweltering temperatures in recognition of World AIDS Day. The concert, held on December 5, was the first of its kind in Kenya. For a week prior to the concert, seven disc jockeys who helped host the event attended an HIV/AIDS reporting workshop provided by Internews’ Local Voices project. At the training, DJ trainer Georges Collinet coached them in how to talk about HIV/AIDS in an accurate, yet “cool” and accessible way so that their messages could be understood and absorbed by the mostly youthful concertgoers.

The human rights environment in Zimbabwe has become increasingly complex. For the last few years political violence has dominated any discussion about health and human rights. Since 2000 there have been periods of intense violence across the whole country, especially around national elections. This punctuates a background intimidation that prevents people from engaging in open discussion, especially where it is different from the official version. Doctors are afraid to challenge the violence because they are afraid of being labeled anti-government or belonging to the opposition, or simply afraid of what 'might' happen to them if they stick their necks out.

There have been situations of doctors refusing to see or avoiding patients who are victims of organised or state violence. In one case a well-known human rights lawyer was denied treatment at a health facility because a health care worker was afraid to implicate himself if the matter went to court. Such is the atmosphere of intimidation. Violence and torture is carried out to make people support the ruling party and government, or at least make them too afraid to oppose it.

The Global Health Watch newsletter is part of the initiative to mobilise civil society around an alternative World Health Report. The November newsletter is now available.

Lesotho's government aims to give women full legal equality and property rights within a year in one of the handful of African states where women remain legally inferior to men. Women in the mountainous kingdom - one of the world's poorest countries and entirely circled by South Africa - can vote, work and hold public office, but they are legally minors, subordinate to their husbands or fathers.

The Global Network for Good Governance (GNGG), an anti-corruption and good governance network that includes organizations and individuals from 21 countries, has announced the opening of a new branch in Nigeria. The new branch is tasked with establishing a viable network of the GNGG in Nigeria. To do so, the branch will draw the network members from a range of institutions, such as public, private, and third sector organizations, the media, and individuals who share a vision of good governance and a corruption-free society. Contact [email protected] to find out more.

Zambian president Levy Mwanawasa has instructed his lawyers to sue opposition Patriotic Front leader Michael Sata for defaming him as corrupt, the official Zambia Daily Mail said on Sunday. Darlington Mwape, the president's special assistant for legal affairs, was quoted as saying that Sata has defamed the president by alleging that he is corrupt. A statement issued by Mwape Saturday said Sata had alleged on Radio Icengelo that the president had acquired eight farms and equipped them with combine harvesters and tractors since he came into office in early 2002.

After a decade of civil war, Burundi has a chance for real peace but only if it holds to its tight election schedule - five months with a constitutional referendum, local, national assembly and senate elections, and finally selection of the president by parliament. The sequence is ambitious but necessary to finalise a difficult peace process, says the International Crisis Group in a new report, available in French from their website.
* Related Link: New delay to Burundi referendum
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4095961.stm

The Refugee Law Project (RLP) has released a report on child protection issues among refugees and nationals in western Uganda. RLP Working Paper 13: Child Protection in the Context of Displacement, funded by Save the Children in Uganda (SCiU), details education, health and child abuse concerns in Ntoroko County, Bundibugyo District.

Building on past research presented in RLP Working Paper 10: Displacement in Bundibugyo District: A Situation Analysis, the new report shows how conflict, displacement and poverty in western Uganda and neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have contributed to very difficult living conditions for children in Ntoroko County. While all children face child protection issues in this context, refugee children encounter additional challenges because of language barriers, lack of social support structures and discrimination.

Research findings reveal major barriers to accessing quality education for children in Ntoroko County, particularly for girls and Congolese children. Malaria, cough, worms and cholera are the main health issues facing children, due primarily to poor sanitation and lack of access to clean water. Child abuse, neglect, rape and defilement are widespread in the county, but response from local authorities has been inadequate, contributing to a culture of impunity.

This paper from the HIV/AIDS Impact on Education Clearinghouse examines the literature on how HIV/AIDS has impacted teachers and other education personnel in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d`Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria and Senegal. It focuses on the areas of: prevalence; impact on professional lives of teachers; impact of teacher infection on schools; impact of teacher infection on students; infection of administrative personnel; responses from teachers; and responses from management.

For the last six months, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport has been Sanjai Shah’s second home. Unlike other passengers on transit, he is known to many of the airport staff and they know him as "the man in limbo", for he can neither enter nor leave the country. He has no travel documents.The Kitale-born man of Asian descent is at the airport courtesy of what he calls "racist and dehumanising" treatment from British immigration officials.

A top adviser for the New Partnership for Africa's Development has been implicated in a multimillion-rand bribery scandal. It is alleged that Reatile Mochebelele, the Midrand-based adviser to Nepad on water affairs and sanitation, was paid to secure contracts for the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. He has been named by the government of Lesotho as the recipient of more than DM1 million (about R3.9 million) in bribes during his tenure as the chief delegate of the government of Lesotho on the Highlands Water Commission from 1996 to 1999.

Internews Network is currently seeking a Print Media Management Trainer to be based in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire. The Print Media Management Trainer will mentor four or five of the independent newspapers in Cote d'Ivoire that are committed to improving editorial balance. The Trainer will work with owners and managers to understand the importance of balanced news and the impact of credible editorial content on advertising revenue and readership levels.

A bill before the US Congress would ban tens of millions of dollars in U.S. economic aid to some of its allies unless they formally agree to exempt U.S. citizens from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. Congress passed a law in 2002 that gave the administration the discretion to cut off military aid to countries not belonging to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) that ratified the ICC. Over the past year, the administration has done precisely that with about three-dozen countries, almost all of them poor nations in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Central Europe. The Nethercutt Amendment would deprive the same nations of economic support funds (ESF), a category of economic assistance that accounts for about $2.5 billion in the current foreign-aid bill.

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* The World Bank and Civil Society: Forward to the past

* Faceless, by Ammo Darko

In commemoration of the 2004 World AIDS Day, the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, the National Action Committee on AIDS in collaboration with the United Nations Theme Group on HIV/AIDS organised a one day national conference in Nigeria on the theme: 'Women, Girls and HIV/AIDS'. The conference was designed to raise awareness among the Nigerian populace as well as policy makers on the ways in which women's inequality helps fuel the transmission of HIV and increase the impact of AIDS. The conference served as a forum for examining the gender dimensions to the HIV/AIDS pandemic as well as seeking lasting solutions in Nigeria. It was attended by 158 participants comprising of representatives of government agencies, HIV/AIDS support groups, civil society organisations, faith-based organisations, development agencies and media organisations. Read the statement issued at the meeting by clicking on the link below.

Africa is endowed with both surface and underground water resources however; there is a high variability in the amount of water available for domestic, industrial and agricultural use. Water shortage has become a yearly routine and affects the livelihood security of a majority of the population. As popularly put by Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of the United Nations: “We need to learn how to value water, because, water is life”. According to a study published by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), groundwater, the unseen source of life for two billion people, is diminishing almost everywhere in the world. The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) initiative recognises the water resource issue as a priority focus and seeks to achieve socio-economic outcomes and sustained poverty reduction.

The water variability in Africa has been caused mainly by pollution, mismanagement, population increase and rapid depletion of forest. Pollution is one of the major problems accounting for low quality and quantity of water resources. Polluting agents emanate from cultivated areas where pesticides and fertilisers that have accumulated in the soil leak into the streams. Persistent felling of trees around the catchment areas of most rivers and dumping of industrial and household waste into the streams are the other factors. There is also a new phenomenon of indiscriminate disposal of polythene materials in some African countries, such as Ghana and Nigeria, worsening the already polluted surface water and preventing underground seepage of water. The result is the poor quality and quantity of water resources we have today. Some 450million people in 29 countries live with chronic water shortages, thus one person in six cannot rely on safe drinking water.

Water resources in Africa have been widely botched and used without regard to any management regulation. Lack of enforcement by authorities of the existing regulations that control the use and the pollution of water aggravate the water resource problem in some countries of Africa. Population increase and the demand for water resources for various uses without a mechanism for recycle and reuse also contribute to the water variability issue.

Rapid depletion of tropical forests is another factor accounting for the low quantity of water resources. For instance, in the 1900s, Ghana was covered by 8.2 million hectares of original moist tropical forest which had reduced to 2.1 million hectares by 1998 and stood at 1.4 million hectares in 2003.

The effects of this includes but is not limited to seasonal water supply shortages for domestic and industrial use and the spread of water related diseases. Seasonal water shortage for domestic, industrial and agricultural uses affect socio-economic development of many countries in Africa. We are all a living testimony to this.

Water related diseases spread as a result of inadequate and safe drinking water for the majority of the populace. Water related diseases kill a child every eight seconds and are responsible for 80% of all illness and deaths in Africa.

Livelihood security of the people is undermined and has the potential to leave the majority of the populace vulnerable to various forms of threats. Where lies the sustainability element of this valuable resource?

Government agencies including ministries, water research institutes, water related bodies, universities, other research institutions, NGO’s and individuals have made several attempts and encouraging statements in the past and still strive in diverse ways to address the problem. Consider encouraging words and statements from government bodies, other institutions and individuals such as these:

“ government will commit itself to ensuring the proper management of water resources to prevent misuse, over exploitation and pollution”

“ better water resource management practices will help improve the quantity and quality of water for all ”

“ management and sustenance of the country’s water resources should be a concerted effort”

“ government, NGO’s, universities as well as research institutions should collaborate to seek a more permanent solution to the problems of the country’s water resources”

“ Rain harvesting, for instance, could save a lot of people from the water shortage”

Despite all these efforts and encouraging statements, the water quality and quantity problem is still worsening day-by-day. For the past years we have largely paid lip service to the long-term consequences of our actions. Our individual behaviour and attitudes damage this valuable resource; let’s think about them now. Never lose hope; all is not lost. Today we are in the position to buy the water of tomorrow.

* David Wellington ESSAW, a Ghanaian, is a PhD Candidate at the Centre for Ecological Economics and Water Policy Research, University of New England, Australia. His interest is in water management and policy issues, development planning and management and community development.

* Please send comments to

On 12 December 2004, policemen assigned to protect the governor of Oyo State (southwestern Nigeria), Alhaji Rashidi Ladoja, assaulted two journalists on the orders the governor's chief security officer. The targeted journalists were AbdulRazak Adebayo, of "Daily Trust" newspaper, and Tunde Sanni, of "ThisDay" newspaper. The incident took place in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, at a memorial prayer session held for the late Adisa Bakare, the father of former minister of works and housing Alhaji Abdulkarim Adisa, who died on 7 December.

On 8 December 2004, the National Communications Board (Conseil national de la communication, CNC), Guinea's media regulatory body, announced the lifting of a suspension order against "Le Quotidien" newspaper. The paper was suspended "indefinitely" more than three weeks ago and its editorial team is experiencing serious financial difficulties as a result of the forced closure. (French version available)

South Africa's system of social grants has reduced poverty and is playing a developmental role in uplifting poor households, according to a new study. The research was commissioned by the Department for Social Development and focused on the social and economic impact of the government's main social transfers, such as the State Old Age Pensions (SOAP), Disability Grants (DG) and Child Support Grants (CSG), among others.

Paul Biya, Cameroon’s president for 22 years and fresh from re-election, has named a trusty aide as the new prime minister and brought a few new faces into government. Ephraim Inoni, a 57-year-old English-speaking financier who has served as a top presidential aide for the last ten years, was appointed to take over as premier from fellow anglophone, Peter Mafany Musonge, national radio announced last week.

Burundi began on Monday a weeklong health protection campaign targeting over three million children and 17,000 pregnant women, in an effort to reduce the country's high infant and maternal mortality rates. During the campaign, medical teams are due to deworm an estimated three million children aged from one year to 14 years; provide vitamin A for another one million infants aged from six months to 59 months; immunise 17,000 pregnant women against tetanus, and distribute mineral salts and folic acid to them.

Uganda's government must do what it can to protect children and women from violence, while the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) must immediately and unconditionally stop abducting, killing and exploiting Uganda's children, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said last Thursday. UNICEF said that in the district of Gulu alone, an estimated 840 abducted girls returned home this year. About thirty 30 percent had already become mothers.

"I have few expectations of Tony Blair's Commission on Africa. We do not need another commission to look at Africa's problems," writes Yao Graham, co-ordinator of Third World Network-Africa, based in Accra, Ghana, in The Guardian UK. "The archives of the United Nations, African institutions and many other bodies are bulging with reports and proposals on how to resolve the world's north-south divide. There are many international agreements that have been frustrated by western governments and corporations. And, more importantly, African governments have come up with many demands, in forums such as the World Trade Organisation, which have been blocked by western governments, including the UK under Blair."

International Anti-Corruption Day, held last Thursday, may well have struck a particular chord with South Africans this year. The country is currently witnessing a high-profile corruption case, which is being held in the eastern port city of Durban. The trial involves flamboyant businessman Schabir Shaikh, who is accused of paying over 180,000 dollars to Vice-President Jacob Zuma in return for having the latter promote his business interests. Although Zuma himself is not in the dock, media interest in the proceedings has been intense, (the trial began in October).

Kenyan authorities have begun to repossess millions of hectares of public land acquired illegally since independence in 1963, officials say. Lands and Housing Minister Amos Kimunya said land seized by at least 60 people, including former President Daniel arap Moi, had already been taken back.

"As social activists in the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for development, we applaud those activities of UNESCO directed towards placing knowledge in the public domain and, in particular, promoting FLOSS (Free Libre and Open Source Software) in developing countries. We recognise and value the battles fought by UNESCO in the context of the World Summit for the Information Society. This position, from an intergovernmental organisation, is one of the closest to the position of civil society. In this context it is with surprise that we receive news of an agreement between UNESCO and the Microsoft company, proposed for application in the fields of information, communication, education and learning. Our perplexity grows with the knowledge that at the same time UNESCO is finalising an important agreement on cultural diversity."

Two years ago AFFORD initiated a project “Aiding & Abetting: Global Image, Local Damage?” that brought five artists together with different African community groups supporting development in their regions of origin to produce stimulating artwork that told a different story of how Africans support each other in their quest for development & progress. We exhibited this work during the Africa Diaspora & Development Day (ad3) in July 2003 to critical acclaim. AFFORD is keen to build on the success of this project with a second phase, called “Releasing Our African Diaspora Stories” (ROADS). Click on the link to find out more.

I agree with you entirely on this issue (Pan-African Postcard: Gluttons who vomit on shoes, 29 July 2004). I just wanted to say that this British High Commissioner is serving a country where pirates and thieves of the worst sort are worshiped as national heroes. This tells you everything about his lot.

Talk about gluttons, do they Europeans ever get satisfied with anything? They want to possess and control the whole world. And to think they are our “donors”: is Western Europe still not more dependent on Afrika than the reverse?

That British High Commissioner will never say one bit against his own country, where corruption is institutional. I have always pointed out the fact that in a place like “Cameroon” where I hail from, it is not really corruption when a policeman demands money in return for a favor or not; it is an exercise or abuse of power or position. But in a place like Western Europe where you find MPs sitting on the board of directors and where contracts are only awarded after heavy bribery, you will never hear them talk of corruption. And then Transparency International will come up with Cameroon as being the most corrupt country on earth. Ridiculous!

I see it as a relentless effort to control us by controlling our minds. And we are made to believe that we can only achieve progress if we stop the corruption, engage in voting for fools and so on. What nonsense! We Afrikans have to understand what the main issue is. We have to understand what it means to redefine ourselves after the long period of devastation through foreign involvement in our business.

They even go as far as choosing Mandela as Afrikan president of the century and Mugabe as the worst. And so the former is given red carpet treatment all over Europe and the later gets a hell of a whipping from the international imperialist press. But the Afrikan youths must understand that the President who addresses the land question (which is a very pressing issue) best is automatically the president of the decade or century. We have to understand basically that we live on what comes out of the land not on elections. First things first!

We have to be very critical in our thinking. We have to assess all these NGOs all over Afrika being financed from abroad. What a thing! Our governments are forced to cut down expenditure on vital domains like education and health care. At the same time NGOs are encouraged to carry out functions which only the state can carry out most effectively.

Talk about women’s rights: Can you separate women’s rights from human rights? And who came up with this? The World Bank! Can you imagine? And now our educated women go about repeating this without analyzing further. Don’t get me wrong. I oppose the maltreatment of women. I would be a bastard not to respect women. But a European male cannot educate me on women’s rights. Let him do his homework first.

I will not only say what displeases me without trying to suggest a solution. I think we need some serious education, not to be confused with literacy. Education is the ability to link one with his environment and literacy can serve as a very effective tool. This means that education has to start with historical knowledge, because it is history which teaches us about our background. A very central point in this is our cultural history.

Every time I see a black woman say she is a feminist I feel like crying. If she understood Afrikan history she wouldn’t say a thing like that. I am very much aware of the weakening of the central position of the Afrikan woman in society above all after the transatlantic slave trade period. We have to go beyond signing petitions on women’s rights, which seems to deviate our attention from the real issue, which is Afrikan liberation. You cannot talk about the rights of women in a society living in slavery.

We have to deal critically with issues like bearing European and Arab names and fooling ourselves that these are religious names. You find Afrikans using names like Peter, Paul, Mary, Linda and so on. What a shame! A name stands for an identity. Pambazuka the name of this site is an Afrikan word and means much. We should get out of the way if we cannot call ourselves like Afrikans should. We have to deal with foreign religions and the role they play in our underdevelopment. These are very pressing issues to be dealt with.

The Sister Eno Deborah Anwana wrote a well-researched article “Taking control of Africa’s resources”. I was a bit irritated by the last sentence mentioning the promotion of the African Union through NEPAD. I always thought the AU was an Afrikan creation and that the NEPAD was another initiative from the imperialist West to undermine the AU. Maybe she could inform me more on the issue.

I must say your website is well organized. I would like to know about your goals and aims.

Very often I have found that we Afrikans are very interested in moving forward whilst neglecting our past. We have to understand that we need to study the past in order to design the future. It is only when we understand this that we shall learn to stop imitating people who are imitating us. We should learn about people who tried to organize Afrikan communities all over the world. Our goal should be to create a synthesis of all Afrikan peoples at home and abroad. And we on the Afrikan continent have to understand basically that we are directly responsible for the well-being of Afrikans worldwide. When I write of Afrikans worldwide I mean each and every Blackman on this planet. In the past the Pan-Afrikan impulse came more from the Afrikans born abroad; this has to be equaled by those born on the mother continent. We on the mother continent should try to reach the others outside. The Afrikan Union will only succeed and be complete if we bear this in mind. We must remember that the Pan-Afrikan idea, which led to the creation of the OAU (AU) sprang up from the Caribics and evolved as a 3-way exchange between Afrikans in the Caribics, the American mainland and Afrika. Maybe this could serve as an impulse for your website.

Maybe you could also deal with the fact that we should learn about those leaders who tried to organize Afrikan peoples like the great Chaka Zulu, Nzinga, Marcus Garvey, Nkrumah, a.o. and also on prominent historians like the late great John Henrik Clarke, Dr. Ben, Cheikh Anta Diop, Theophile Obenga and the great Ivan van Sertima, a.o.

Continue with the good work.

I've been trying to get the authorities here for suggestions and/or to take some kind of action regarding this matter but have not had any practical feedback from anybody, yet.

There are some doctors and nurses belonging to the community who perform this these days and because it is such a close-knit community, it's very difficult to catch the perpetrators or the parents/guardians who take their little girls of between 5 and 6 years to them.

The Kenyan organizations who deal with this matter and to whom I've written have offered to take no action, unfortunately. They all want somebody to volunteer (including the police), to plant a trap to catch them red-handed. I wouldn't personally have minded doing this if I had a daughter, but I don't.

So, what other alternative does one have in the circumstances? Because if nothing is done, this practice will continue, ad infinitum, and the poor little girls continue to suffer and ironically they themselves will practice it on their daughters when the time comes.

Any suggestions on what to do?

There should be changes in the governance of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, especially in voting structure and representation changes in the governance of the WTO, including more transparency, the elimination of the green room processes and the creation of more representative processes for decision making. There should also be a move away from a focus on the G-8 to a focus on the G-24. This is according to a paper from the Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD) at Columbia University in the United States. The paper assesses the underlying democratic deficiencies and weaknesses in global governance, and examines the forces that might lead to a meaningful change.

In 2003, together with more than 300 local partners, Alternatives launched a portal in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The project empowers local civil society groups to present and promote their activities and perspectives, which is particularly important in the current period, where civil society is taking an ever-increasing role in defending the principles that can support long-term peace in the region.

One of the biggest land invasions ever seen in South Africa has sparked a court battle between the government and a white farmer who says he is being effectively expropriated. The Supreme Court of Appeals in May ordered the state to compensate Braam Duvenage and resettle around 40 000 people who moved onto his farm in Benoni outside Johannesburg after their nearby township ran out of living space. But state attorneys refused, saying Duvenage should deal with the matter and they took the case to the Constitutional Court.

The National Council for Higher Education has come up with a damning report on the status of higher education in the country. While noting positive developments in the sector like the number of universities increasing from one in 1987 to 28 today, it warned that 11 of them were operating illegally. The draft report being released at a stakeholders' workshop in Kampala paints a gloomy picture of the sector saying it is characterised by poor record keeping, under-funding, outmoded curriculum and unacceptably high lecturer to student ratio.

Nearly 600 health experts, economists and policy-makers have joined an appeal for free AIDS treatment for all people living with HIV/AIDS in the developing world. The "Free By 5" declaration will be presented to the World Bank, aid donors, the World Health Organisation (WHO), UNAIDS and many other parties in the next few days.

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) lobby group was awarded costs in its failed Pretoria High Court application for access to the health department's documents on an Aids treatment plan. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, the health minister, cited as the respondent in the matter, was ordered to pay the applicant's costs.

At least 1.2 billion poor people are not able to read or write. This restricts their ability to carry out every day activities such as read signposts, understand medicine labels and machinery instructions, confirm commercial transactions and avoid being cheated. Increasing the pool of literate and numerate people is essential to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

This report from the Consortium for Street Children looks at the situation of Kenyan street children in general and those in conflict with the law in particular. It examines the status of the Kenyan juvenile justice system and the reasons behind children ending up in the street as well as the offences they commonly commit/are accused of committing. Whilst the study explores the socio-cultural factors behind the commission of crimes, it also features children's resilience.

The perception is that the Affirmative Action Policy is ethnically based and might rip the country off if it is not managed properly, says the Director of the Labour Resource and Research Institute (LaRRi) Herbert Jauch.
Jauch told New Era that based on a survey that was conducted recently on the effectiveness of the policy four years after its launch, it was found that most companies have not made an effort to practise what the policy stipulates and the whole concept is taken as something that should be applied based on ethnic grounds.

While some countries have well-developed educational programmes for promoting awareness of and respect for human rights, elsewhere human rights education for children, young people and the general population needs to be strengthened considerably, said Mr Koichiro Matsuura, director-general of Unesco, on the occasion of Human Rights Day on 10 December.

For the international community to intervene decisively in a particular conflict, it is always better if a clear picture of good guys and bad guys can emerge. Anything less and the world dithers. Most decision-makers take an 'innocent until proven guilty' approach to ruling parties and rebels.

Unfortunately, it is not always possible to give easy answers. At times, all the protagonists are unfit to rule. What can the international community do then? That is the fundamental problem in Côte d'Ivoire today.

Until last month, an uneasy ceasefire held between the government and rebel troops, who seized the northern half of the country in 2002. Despite the presence of UN peacekeeping troops the Ivorian government broke the détente by bombing rebel positions. In the process, nine French soldiers and an American aid worker were killed. In retaliation, the French army destroyed most of the Ivorian air force.

Recently, the UN Security Council imposed an arms embargo, a welcome first step but not enough to end the cycle of violence in what was once regarded as the most stable country in a very unstable region. Before mediators can find a solution, they must understand the depth and complexity of the country's leadership crisis.

The present crisis began to take shape in 1993, when the country's first president, Felix Houphoüet-Boigny, died after 33 years in power. Under his reign, Côte d'Ivoire became the most advanced economy in West Africa. As the world's top cocoa producer, the country was able to afford a modern capital and an impressive network of roads. Foreign investment and a policy welcoming migrant labour from neighbouring countries were part of the country's success story.

During the boom years, millions of economic migrants from all over West Africa settled permanently in Côte d'Ivoire. With time they acquired Ivorian citizenship and their children were born in the country.

By the time Houphoüet-Boigny died, Côte d'Ivoire was on the verge of implosion. The winds of democratisation were sweeping Africa. Prices for the nation's major crops, cocoa and coffee, were dropping, the currency, the CFA franc, was devalued. National debt had risen to unsustainable levels and unrest gripped the country.

Former finance minister Henri Konan Bédié succeeded Houphoüet-Boigny. To bolster his power base and exclude rivals from contesting for power, Bédié promoted a new concept of 'Ivoirité' (Ivorian-ness), which sought to distinguish between 'real' Ivorian citizens and foreigners.

Hidden behind this question was the issue of land ownership, entitlement to what was left of the riches of the country and access to political power. Due to their geographical proximity and cultural links to countries such as Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea, the burden rested (and still rests) on people from the northern part of Côte d'Ivoire to prove that they are not foreigners. In the past few years identity cards have been denied to a lot of people on the basis of their Malinké sounding names. Consequently, during the last elections a substantial number of northerners were disenfranchised.

Alassane Ouattara became the flashpoint of this politics of exclusion. He draws much of his support from the north. He served as prime minister in Houphouët's last government and was, with Gbagbo, the most popular rival to Bédié. Being a Muslim of Burkina Faso descent, Ouattara's Ivorian citizenship has been contested by Bedié and Gbagbo's governments. This has effectively barred him from being a presidential candidate.

In December 1999, Gen. Robert Guéi toppled Konan Bédié in a coup d'état. Despite promises to the contrary, Guéi stood as a candidate in elections that also barred Ouattara from participation. Guéi declared himself the winner, but was forced to flee by popular uprising. Laurent Gbagbo, long an opponent of Houphouët's ruling party, took power as the presumed winner of that flawed election. Ouattara called for fresh elections, but Gbagbo refused. Fighting erupted between Gbagbo and Ouattara supporters.

Instead of conciliation, Gbagbo continued to stir ethnic division. He financed and armed the Young Patriots, a party militia that has staged violent demonstrations, attacked foreigners and is accused of extra-judicial killings of opposition party organisers.

Within two years, rebel soldiers from the north rose against his government and succeeded in cutting the country in two. Rapid deployment of French troops stalled the conflict, but neither side has shown willingness to compromise. Both sides have broken the Marcoussis peace accord brokered by the French as well as the Accra II and III agreements. Gbagbo continued to re-arm and failed to follow through on pledges to reform electoral and citizenship laws.

French troops and political pressure were without doubt instrumental in stopping all-out civil war. But as the former colonial power, France does not have the profile of a neutral party. Through state media propaganda, Gbagbo effectively used the destruction of the nation's small air force in November to whip up anti-French sentiment among the population and divert international attention from his abrupt violation of the cease-fire.

Left alone, the country will return to war, which will have devastating consequences for the region. Fresh elections are necessary, but many issues must be settled first.

Given their track record, it seems unlikely that either Gbagbo or Guillaume Soro of the rebel forces will lay down their arms unless the international community imposes its will. Elections must be organised by a body that is broadly accepted as neutral but is forceful enough to insist on fair play. Unless the elections are free and fair, the conflict will start again.

Ouattara and Bédié are planning to join forces and contest the elections together, with Bédié running as president and Ouattara as prime minister. Bédié pledged to serve only one term and hand over to Ouattara. An alliance between Ouattara and Bédié, a Christian, is capable of defeating Gbagbo in a fair vote and would help diffuse the threat that southern Christians perceive from a northern Muslim running the country.

The first step to effective outside mediation is recognising the extent to which all players have acted in bad faith so far. Grand corruption went unchecked under Bédié, who celebrated his outrageous fortune with champagne and caviar. He also fathered the present politics of exclusion. Gbagbo has stirred ethnic tension, continually delayed implementation of the peace accords, unleashed the violent Young Patriots and pumped out hate speech on state media. He is not committed to a diplomatic resolution of the crisis. As for Ouattara, although he could have diffused tensions and relinquished control of his party to someone with less problematic nationality, he led his party to boycott elections even though this was a bad political move.

The northern rebel forces, who remain tainted for having tried to violently seize power, have no political experience or party organisation able to assume leadership. Moreover, the government has accused them of being backed militarily by Burkina Faso.

Given this background, the best option would be to bar Gbagbo, Bédié, Ouattara and Soro from politics. Indeed, judging from previous actions, Gbagbo's government will try everything to prevent the elections from taking place in the face of the Bedié-Ouattara alliance or will simply bar Bédié from being a candidate.

An interim government must therefore take over and lead the country to internationally supervised elections.

* Véronique Tadjo is a writer and artist from Côte d'Ivoire. A former lecturer at the University of Abidjan and author, her latest novel, Reine Pokou, will appear next March in Paris. This article was first published in e-Africa, an electronic journal published by The South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA). It is reproduced here with permission of SAIIA. (http://www.saiia.org.za/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&si...)

* Please send comments to [email protected]

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