What qualify genocide? Let us not be selective. When it happen in some countries it called "genocide" and everyone agree with the label. But then when other countries experienced even worse in every sense the way,it is put to analysis. So in order for an organization to respond to an emergency to an horrible act, we need to debate whatever it is a genocide or not. Any way one looks it, after wasting time debating on the issue, it becomes a genocide. Is this a good way to handle an emergency?

This is the second part of Gerry Caplan's "The Genocide Problem: 'Never Again' All Over Again" published in Pambazuka News 177 last week.

The Genocide Specialists From the first, I had thought my report should put the Rwandan genocide into some historical context, and I began reading in the field of genocide generally. Before long, I had come face to face with the burgeoning world of genocide studies. This subculture, I soon discovered, is quite separate from that of high-profile Holocaust studies. While some specialists in "other" genocides are also students of the Holocaust, for a long time only a handful of Holocaust specialists were prepared to accept experts in comparative genocides as their kin. According to New York City College Professor Henry Huttenbach, a Jewish refugee from Hitler's Germany, most Holocaust specialists still demand that the genocide of the Jews be treated as qualitatively different from - really a greater catastrophe than - the genocide of others. And "any whiff of comparison was automatically condemned as a form of denial, revisionism, trivialization, etc." This is an enormously emotional and divisive issue, but the evidence surely corroborates Huttenbach's assertion. In his intellectually thrilling and morally courageous study, The Holocaust in American Life, University of Chicago historian Peter Novick introduces the concept of "the Olympics of victimization," a fierce competition for primacy among the world's victims that the Jews are determined to win. Largely, they have succeeded. Even a good number, though not all, of my newly discovered genocide studies family share the view that the Holocaust - always with a capital "H" - is at the farthest point of the genocide continuum.

In 1999, when I began working on Rwanda, the world of non-Holocaust genocide studies was just beginning to flourish. Frank Chalk and Kurt Jonassohn's The History and Sociology of Genocide: Analyses and Case Studies in 1990 was way ahead of the curve. It was Rwanda and Srebrenica that really set things off. The International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) had been organized in 1994. In 1999, Huttenbach founded the Journal of Genocide Studies, the first of its kind not exclusively dedicated to the Holocaust. The same year, a two-volume Encyclopedia of Genocide appeared. In 2002, a thick and engrossing collection of essays appeared called Pioneers of Genocide Studies - imagine: pioneers already! - and Samantha Power won the Pulitzer Prize for her exceptional study A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide. Imagine: humanity had inflicted on itself an entire era of genocide, and we were living through it.

The field was taking off. In June, 2003, I was among two hundred people attending the IAGS conference in Galway, Ireland. There were forty-four intriguing panels to choose from, so many I couldn't even attend all the Rwanda sessions let alone those on Burundi, Srebrenica, Armenia, the Third World and the Holocaust, the Herero of southwestern Africa, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Korea, Bangladesh, Assyria, the indigenous peoples of the Americas and Australia, Cambodia, genocide prevention, genocide denial, comparative genocide, genocide art, genocide and children, survivors, truth commissions, the problem of reconciliation, the problem of reparations, the International Criminal Court, the International Criminal Tribunals of Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and even more.

Size is relative, of course. This small, tight world of genocide mavens is some-thing of a movable feast really: I keep meeting them at other conferences, in London, northern England, Stockholm, Lund, Washington, Toronto, and Rwanda itself. Their hero is Raphael Lemkin, the Polish Jewish lawyer who coined the word "genocide" and was the driving force behind the 1948 UN Genocide Convention. They know by rote the convention's key clauses and even its wildly optimistic title: "The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide." And they know the politics. After long, acrimonious negotiations that included early intimations of Cold War hostilities, the General Assembly agreed soon after World War II that genocide would be defined as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group."

From these few words spill a host of complications. How do you prove intent? Exactly how many victims are necessary to constitute a "part"? What about "politicide," the word invented to describe attempts to eliminate political opponents, the stock-in-trade of both governments proudly promising to introduce "socialism" - Stalin's USSR, Mao's China, Pol Pot's Cambodia - and those defending the "free world" against "socialism" - U.S.-backed military dictatorships in Argentina, Brazil, Guatemala, Chile, Indonesia, the apartheid government in South Africa. What's the difference between mass murder, pogroms, or large-scale massacres and genocide, and why does it matter? And - the central conundrum - how can we know whether a conflict will escalate into a genocide until it actually does?

Then there are the bedeviling practical issues. What are the consequences of a determination that genocide is being carried out? Countries that ratify the convention "undertake to prevent and to punish" genocide perpetrators, and are entitled to call on the UN "to take such action under the Charter of the UN as they consider appropriate for the prevention and suppression of acts of genocide." That's all. There's no call for direct military intervention. So, de-spite the apparent angst by the Clinton administration in 1994 that if it recognized Rwanda as a genocide it would be obliged to dispatch U.S. troops, many authorities agree that a strongly worded resolution at the Security Council would fulfill the obligations of the convention - even if the genocide continued.

These issues have been debated at interminable length by the cognoscenti, who mostly agree about the flaws of the 1948 convention and disagree about attempts to amend it. As a result, like it or not, it will remain unamended, unsatisfactory as it clearly is, while the new International Criminal Court and the rest of us make do as best we can. And we will continue to disagree on what is and what is not a genocide. Some well-regarded scholars argue there have been as many as fifty such calamities since the world vowed "Never Again" after Hitler's defeat in 1945. Others say that only four really meet the criteria set out in the UN Convention: the extermination of the Hereros, the Armenians, the Jews, and the Tutsi. It's more than a merely pedantic academic debate. But it will never be resolved. Genocide specialists seem to hold, simultaneously, two quite separate big ideas: that under certain circumstances all humans are capable of perpetrating unspeakable crimes against humanity; and that the only sound motive for being a "genocide freak" - as one of them wryly calls the group - is to figure out how to prevent its recurrence. Intuitively, the two may seem to be in conflict. After all, the record indisputably shows that humans have used violent means to resolve disputes ever since our species first evolved. How can we prevent genocide - or violence between humans of any kind - since humans are clearly hardwired to resort to force under any number of circumstances? To activists, however, the resolution of this dialectic is obvious: we must learn to predict the onslaught of genocide and have the capacity to nip it in the bud.

It came as no surprise to me that so many well-known, highly reputable genocide scholars subscribe to the old insight memorably articulated by Walt Kelly's sweet comic book character, Pogo Possum: "We have met the enemy and he is us." You can't study this subject without wondering about yourself. And we all do. Most of the two dozen men and women who are the "pioneers of genocide studies" explicitly believe that they themselves are potentially capable of the most atrocious behaviour imaginable. In the words of scholar and author Eric Markusen, "the vast majority of perpetrators, accomplices and bystanders to genocidal violence are not sadists or psychopaths, but are psychologically normal according to standard means of assessing mental health and illness." Yehuda Bauer, an Israeli and one of the Holocaust scholars, told me that genocidal attitudes now exist among both Palestinians and Israelis. This is not a man to use such language loosely. As for Rwanda, hundreds of thousands of Hutu were actively involved in the genocide. Most of them were ordinary Rwandans. What possible reason is there to believe they were fundamentally different from me? Or you?

But genocide scholars believe - hope? pray? - that our capacity for evil can be constrained. Perhaps the driving passion of genocide scholarship is to learn from the past to prevent recurrences in the future. As the presentations at the Galway conference amply demonstrated, these are scholar/activists who make no pretense to scholarly detachment. It's not that they eschew solid academic research; on the contrary, most take it very seriously and some are very good at it. But many openly pursue their academic work for activist ends. Virtually all of them are committed either to the prevention of future genocides or to having the world offer appropriate recognition to their own special genocide. A good number are committed to both. Indeed, there is now a Genocide Watch and a full-blown International Campaign to End Genocide supported by twenty-four active member organizations.

Why should this be? After all, you won't find all of the innumerable students of war marching with the peace movement, and no one expects them to. They're scholars for the sake of scholarship - or, perhaps, for publication. But I'd confidently say that all experts in the Armenian genocide have as their overriding purpose getting the world to recognize the 1915 genocide inflicted by the Turks. What drives them mad is the continuing success of Ankara in pressuring the governments of Germany, Britain, the U.S., and - in an unnerving triumph of realpolitik over the solidarity of victims - Israel, to refuse to officially recognize the genocide of the Armenians.

The personal is political in genocide studies. Most authorities on the Armenian genocide are Armenians, descendants of the genocide's victims or survivors. Here, of course, is the key to their militancy and activism. Similarly, most of the pioneers of Holocaust and genocide studies, and the founders of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, and the Journal of Genocide Studies, have been Jewish - survivors, relatives of survivors, or child refugees. Another perceptible group, small but influential, focus on genocide scholarship from a Christian perspective; that is, genocide as the ultimate violation of the laws of God. This, needless to say, is not the bellicose Christianity that so many Americans now seem to embrace.

So Galway wasn't just another academic conference, a talk shop where the arcane and obscure so often reign. This was a coming together of people who had consciously steeped themselves in the most terrible calamities humans have wrought on each other. Many had been touched directly by a genocide. All had a cause, most of them worthy ones. Just about every imaginable horror show of the past century was flagged in those few days.

Yet every single person at that conference was aware that "Never Again" had proved to be one of the greatest broken promises in history; as any genocide maven will aggressively tell you, "Again and Again" is the more accurate phrase. The very reason the genocide prevention movement is thriving is because the phenomenon itself is thriving. Look at the last decade alone. Bosnia and Rwanda. Serbs and Kosovars. Chechnya and East Timor. Nuclear threats, inherently genocidal, between Pakistan and India. Sierra Leone, with its child militias and child amputees. Potential genocide in the Ivory Coast. Burundi on a knife's edge. Rwanda enigmatic and unpredictable. The ongoing calamity in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. And the latest test case: the disaster in Darfur in western Sudan.

If crimes against humanity continue - and they do, as I write - it's not because specialists in genocide aren't trying to prevent them. The question is how to do so. Most of these "preventionists" argue for an early warning system that would allow experts to predict when a genocide is likely, so that the world can be informed and take appropriate action. For the last couple of years, some advocated for a "genocide prevention focal point" to be set up permanently at the UN, and as his contribution to the tenth anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced something very much like that. The premise is straightforward: through empirical and scientific observation of conflicts, we can isolate the variables and causal mechanisms at work and predict future genocides before they occur. With this information, we can then intervene and prevent the tragedy.

Once again, complications arise. There's no more reason for genocide scholars to agree on everything than for genocide victims to do so. Not everyone agrees on which conflicts in the past have been "real" genocides. Not every-one agrees on the variables and stages that lead to genocide. In practice, it's usually more credible and accurate to speak of large-scale massacres and atrocities than of genocide. The Nazi genocide against the Jews didn't begin until 1941. Until it was actually launched in Rwanda, no one could be sure there'd be a genocide; but there had been anti-Tutsi pogroms galore. Already there's a heated dispute as to whether Darfur constitutes a genocide or "ethnic clean-sing." Surely there's no need to resolve this semantic dispute before intervening?

Two intertwined dilemmas remain. Without meaning to sound pretentious, I'd say that preventionists must address the question of human nature. In spite of endless "Never Again" rhetoric and unprecedented efforts to prevent genocide in the past decade or so, and in the face of the rapid growth of what has been dubbed the "genocide prevention industry," before our very eyes the phenomenon of genocide has continued and even intensified. In this sense, the work of the preventionists is a Sisyphean labour of hope and faith over reason and evidence.

Even more problematic is the premise that if we're able to forecast an imminent genocide, policymakers will then naturally jump in and end the crisis before it escalates. I don't see it: I regard it as the genocide specialists' equivalent of "the truth shall make you free" - one of life's great fallacies. Fore-knowledge of genocide might just as easily have the opposite effect. Given the track record to date, it's at least as plausible to argue that early warnings of potential genocide are most likely to help politicians distance themselves from any obligation to intervene in the conflict. In the words of Samuel Totten, a highly respected genocide scholar, developing potential early warning signals "is easy - and this is a vast understatement - compared to mobilizing the political will of the international community to act when such signals appear on the horizon." Two factors are at work here. Human nature, for politicians, is to avoid entanglements they can't control and which have little political payoff. Beyond that, the interests of the preventionists' world and the powers-that-be seem largely antithetical. Almost all of us oppose the major interventions initiated by the U.S. and Britain, while they in turn are largely indifferent to the interventions we plead for.

As I write, Darfur stands as the test. Despite a flurry of activity, at the moment the world is failing badly, the penalty, as always, being paid by those under siege. Darfur is routinely called "the new Rwanda," but I'm more taken with the differences. The massive attacks by Arab Muslim militias on African Muslim peas-ants and farmers, supported by the terrorist government in Khartoum, began in early 2003. Since then, the usual suspects among humanitarian and human rights agencies, joined by the International Campaign to End Genocide, have been demanding that action be taken. Early in 2004, with the death, rape, and refugee counts mounting, the calls for action intensified. Mainstream media coverage became widespread around April with the tenth anniversary of the Rwandan genocide. An unprecedented informal coalition emerged, including the Bush administration. Maybe it's a genocide, almost certainly it's severe ethnic cleansing, and it is without question a world-class atrocity. Everybody now agrees the situation is intolerable. This makes the situation almost more terrible than Rwanda's a decade ago. Despite everything we know, despite all the demands made on the terrorist Sudanese government by the most powerful forces on earth, nothing has changed. Verbal threats are backed by mealy-mouthed resolutions promising serious consideration of future action if the militias aren't suppressed immediately. Meanwhile, the arrival of the rainy season in May blocked sup-plies to the hundreds of thousands of displaced African refugees, and the raids continued. How many more will be added to the fifty thousand dead and the hundreds of thousands of pathetic refugees, while the world attacks with a torrent of words?

The real comparison with 1994, then, is simply inaction in the face of gross provocation. At the end of the day, no Geneva Convention on genocide, whatever its language, and no early warnings, however unmistakable, can substitute for political will among the powers-that-can. The extent of recent coverage of the Darfur tragedy suggests that media and public interest can indeed influence governments to appear to care. But garnering such interest, as Darfur plainly shows, is a long, drawn-out process, and the move from concern to action can take forever. Pessimists will not be disappointed.

For the record, none of those who betrayed Rwanda has ever faced the consequences. Not a single government has lost an election for allowing hundreds of thousands of Africans to be murdered. Not a single French politician has been held accountable for allowing the genocidaires to escape from Rwanda to Zaire/Congo, thereby setting in motion the catastrophic wars that have since plagued the African Great Lakes region. No one has been called on to resign for their actions or advice. Bill Clinton's 957-page memoir, My Life, calls Rwanda "one of my greatest regrets," and spends exactly two pages in total on the subject. This is truly the globalization of impunity.

Nor did those guilty of sins against Rwanda deign to atone by commemorating the tenth anniversary of the genocide in Kigali in April. Kofi Annan went to Geneva instead. The U.S. sent a mid-level diplomat who offered a derisory handout of a $1 million (U.S.) for orphans, widows, and aids victims. Canada's delegation consisted of a former junior cabinet minister and the ambassador to Rome who advises on things African. Among all Western nations, only the Belgians sent their prime minister to apologize and repent. The Rwandans were disappointed but philosophical; their expectations were low.

None of this can give the preventionists a single reason for optimism. It's true that the Remembering Rwanda movement achieved some success. Commemorations of the tenth anniversary occurred around the world and Rwanda got more media coverage in those ten days than during the past ten years. But even if this attention proves to be sustainable, even if the victims and the survivors and the perpetrators and the "bystanders" are all remembered, what then? We will not have changed. Darfur reminds us that, once more, "Never Again" seems beyond human nature. Too many of us like to cause harm and too few of us care enough to prevent it.

Yet we go on. Why? Maybe because if we refuse to give up, we will stumble across an answer. Maybe because it matters that the victims gain some posthumous dignity. That the survivors will know someone cares. That the perpetrators are reminded that they can run but they can't hide. That those guilty of crimes of commission or omission - the French, the Americans, the Catholics, the Brits - will remember that there is no statute of limitations on accountability, and that we will keep naming and shaming them as long as is necessary. For myself, maybe it's because Carol will be reassured that I emerged from my encounter with genocide gloomier than ever but not ready to surrender. Not yet immobilized. And no less willing than before to throw myself - with the usual modest expectations, of course - into the eternal struggle that the pursuit of social justice and equality has always demanded.

* Gerry Caplan is a Canadian-based public policy analyst and international coordinator of the "Remembering Rwanda" Project. He is also a public affairs commentator and author of "Rwanda: The Preventable Genocide," the report of the International Panel of Eminent Personalities To Investigate the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, appointed by the Organization of African Unity (OAU). He is presently co-editing a book on the Rwandan genocide ten years later.

* This article was first published in the October issue of The Walrus, a new Canadian general interest magazine. It is reproduced here with their permission. The Walrus magazine is available on newsstands and book stores in the US as well as Canada, with subscribers from all over the world. For more information about The Walrus:

* Please send comments to [email protected]

The Sectoral Expert will be supporting the Technical Project Coordinator. He/she will follow the reconstruction on going activities. He/she will support the logistic aspects of the Project. Requirements: University Degree in Architecture or other technical degrees; Fluency in written and oral Portuguese; Experience in rehabilitation projects; Strong motivation to work in the mentioned area. Job reference code: RW_99757A. Closing date: 31 October 2004

Dans le cadre du développement de ses activités, la CTB recherche un (H/F): Expert en matière d'appui à la décentralisation, délégué à la cogestion du projet: Appui au développement local des districts de Buliza, Rulindo, Rushashi et Shyorongi en province de Kigali Ngali, Rwanda. Postulez via le site web: www.btcctb.org ou envoyer votre lettre de motivation ainsi que votre CV en mentionnant clairement la fonction pour laquelle vous posez votre candidature ainsi que le numéro de référence, à l'adresse [email protected]. Postulez, au plus tard le 19 octobre 2004

The International conference on AIDS and STI in Africa is a gathering place for leaders across various sectors in Africa to discuss HIV/AIDS and its effects on Africa's development. The XIV edition of ICASA is billed for Abuja in December 2005. The e-consultation begain October 2 and will end November 2, 2004. To join the discussion, send a blank email to youthaticasa2005- [email protected].

Poor performance of spring and summer rains could result in a total failure of long-cycle crops and a much below average harvest of short-cycle crops. Although some improvement in harvest prospects was expected if September rains improved, a dry spell dominated the last three weeks of the month, removing the prospect for improvement. According to a Ministry of Health (MoA) nutrition survey, the prevalence of acute malnutrition in the lowland areas of the surveyed zones was found to be very high and had increased significantly since the December 2003 surveys.

Kenya will soon be declared a polio free zone. Minister for Health Charity Ngilu says this follows the formulation of a taskforce on polio-virus laboratory containment. The Polio Taskforce would be charged with the responsibility of preparing the country for polio free certification and is also expected to provide a systematic national plan of action to minimize the risk of reintroduction of wild polioviruses from the laboratory.

The race to succeed South African President Thabo Mbeki began unofficially yesterday with the opening in Durban of a high-profile corruption case. Mr Mbeki, re-elected to a second term in April, is not due to step down until 2009. But the integrity of Jacob Zuma, his deputy and most likely successor, will be in the spotlight as Schabir Shaik, Mr Zuma's former financial adviser, is tried for corruption, fraud and theft linked to a big arms deal.

Upbeat mood in Washington News of Prof. Wangari Maathai's award of the Nobel Peace Prize has instantly raised the face of Kenya in the international community. Everyone here is happy with the decision of the Noble Committee in Oslo. It is important for Kenyans to reflect on this award and what it means for Kenya. Wangari has become the first African woman to win the coveted peace prize. Kenya now ranks second to South Africa in the journey of peace. The first peace prize in Africa was bagged by Chief Albert Luthuli in 1964. Wangari not only stood up fiercely against the irrational leadership of president Moi but also raised the profile of the Kenyan woman. In 1992 she tried unsuccessfully to unite the opposition even as backed Jaramogi Oginga Odinga against the will of her tribe mates. The culturally cursing women public nudity that involved Koigi's mother was reminiscent of Mary Nyanjiru's removal of her skirt to give cowardly men who refused to storm the Nairobi police station to release Harry Thuku in 1922. It is in line with Kikuyu protest tradition that saw Waiyaki wa Hinga burried alive near Kibwezi rather than succumb to humiliation by a colonial officer in Dagoretti,a Mr. Purkiss.

Wangari is an ambitious woman. She vied for presidency in 1997 not so much because she had any chances but because she never wanted Charity Ngilu to take another first from her by being the first woman presidential candidate in Kenya. This nobel prize has raised Kenya's visibility abroad. It can have an impact in tourism and giving a general clean bill of health to the new leadership in Kenya. It should be given the right interpretation and place in the Kenyan psyche so that it can inspire the right attitudes and behavior in society. I admire the way South Africans would have used such an occassion to make a national celebration. This is because it has a healing potential for the nation. I would be optimistic to believe that this award will inspire women and men to strive for hard earned recognition rather than mediocre short cut (corruption) based elevation that have propelled some leaders in Kenya.

There are many more women in Africa who would give Wangari a run for her money. In Kenya alone there is the renowned women educationist Dr. Eddah Gachukia, in Tanzania we have Mrs. Getrude Mongella, now Chairman of AU parliament and UN boss Anna Tibaijuka, in Uganda we have legislators Winnie Byanyima and S. Kazibwe. We can't forget the late Rwandese Prime Minister, Agatha Uwilingiyimana and first woman president Ruth Sando Pere of Sierra Leone and Sirleaf Johnson, a 1997 presidential contender in Liberia. We can't also forget Winnie Madikizela Mandela and Graca Machel Mandela. Wangari has opened the way for honoring more African women honors. Hongera!

Scarcely after about 700 delegates gathered in Kenya last month to discuss ways of eradicating female genital mutilation (FGM) in Africa, a court case in Burkina Faso provided a striking illustration of the gulf between activism and reality in the matter of FGM. On Sep. 21, Adama Barry was sentenced to a maximum jail term of three years for having mutilated sixteen girls on Aug. 15 (FGM is banned in Burkina Faso). Prior to the trial, she had received four other prison sentences of between four and six months for carrying out circumcisions.

Morocco has urged Algeria to allow the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) "fulfil duly its mandate in (Tindouf) camps," and voiced "support" to carry on the visit exchange program between families in the camps and their families in southern Morocco. Families in Tindouf (southern Algeria) and their relatives in southern Morocco have been separated for almost three decades because of the conflict between Morocco and the Algeria-backed Polisario separatists that are claiming the secession of Morocco's southern provinces known as the Sahara.

Zimbabwe's tiny San community has laid the blame for their ongoing economic hardships squarely on the government, which they accuse of discrimination and neglect. While the San argue that they are a disadvantaged people in need of humanitarian support in order to escape poverty, some neighbouring villagers look down on them - accusing them of alcoholism and a refusal to embrace "modernisation".

Four of the world's foremost environmental and development campaigners are to address a press conference on Friday 15th October in London, at the opening day of the European Social Forum (ESF). All are addressing major platforms at the European Social Forum, being held from 15 to 17 October in London. They will talk about their work and explain why they consider social forums and the London ESF a crucial part of the fight against corporate globalisation and environmental destruction.

The Science and Development Network (www.scidev.net) is delighted to announce that the new edition of the Africa Newsletter, focusing on science communication and gender issues, is now available. Coinciding with the news that Kenyan environmental activist and politician (and former scientist) Wangari Maathai has won the Nobel Prize for Peace, the October newsletter includes profiles of women scientists and women science journalists as well as reporting on some innovative science communication projects.

Do you know any person or organization, whose works or actions have helped to break the silence around HIV/AIDS in your community? Do you know any individual, organization or community-based intervention, whose impact has helped highlight the campaign against HIV-related stigma and discrimination? Do you know of any radio or television station that has shown outstanding commitment to coverage of HIV/AIDS and demonstrated accuracy, depth and innovative programming in its coverage? Here is your chance to help us select the most outstanding media and community responses to HIV/AIDS in Nigeria. Deadline for nominations: November 1, 2004

On October 7 2004, the state prosecution in the Caprivi high treason trial asked the court to place a partial ban on the media's reporting of the trial. State Advocate Taswald July asked Judge Elton Hoff to order the media not to reveal the identity of the third witness the State intends to call. The state's prosecution team stressed the fact that they were neither asking for a total ban on the media reporting on the trial proceedings, nor on the publication of the testimony given by the witness. Human rights and media activist however questioned the efficacy of the order, if granted, as it only seeks to prevent the media from reporting on and disclosing the identity of one of the witnesses. The public, however, is allowed free access to both courts and prisons. All 120 treason suspects are in custody and being tried at Grootfontein.

BACKGROUND
In the early hours of August 2, 1999, members of a secessionist group, the Caprivi Liberation Army (CLA), launched an armed attack on government forces and buildings in the regional capital of Katima Mulilo in the Caprivi region of north eastern Namibia. According to official sources, they attacked the police headquarters, the local offices of the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation, an army base and an immigration post. In the attacks, 11 people were killed, at least six of whom were members of the security forces. That evening, President Samuel Nujoma declared a State of Emergency. A curfew was imposed in Katima Mulilo and Namibia's borders with Angola, Zambia and Botswana were closed. Mishake Muyongo, leader of the CLA, was granted political asylum in Denmark.

A group of Kenyans are making a case for a new publication which can focus on the political, economic and social struggle in Kenya from a different ideological perspective. At the moment, the mainstream print media is dominated by the Daily Nation, The Standard and Kenya Times, three major publications which, according to the Mapambano working group, although very informative in news and analysis, are publications that project a one-sided ideological point of view.

The UK government is giving away millions of pounds from the UK aid budget to privatisation consultants engaged to 'advise' developing countries on handing over their public services to the private sector, according to a new report from anti-poverty charity War on Want. The report - Profiting from Poverty: Privatisation consultants, DFID and public services - reveals how consultancy firms such as Pricewaterhouse Coopers, KPMG and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu have all won vast sums in 'aid-funded business' to direct the privatisation of water, rail, electricity and postal services in developing countries. Since 1997, the Department for International Development (DFID) has also paid over £34 million from the aid budget to Thatcherite think-tank the Adam Smith Institute. STOP PRESS: In response to the campaign by War on Want and other organisations, the UK government has just announced a public consultation on its policy of requiring developing countries to privatise their public services in return for UK aid. The consultation into aid conditionality is being run by the Department for International Development (DFID), and members of the public are invited to send in their responses by 30 November 2004. War on Want is calling on its supporters, partners and allies to respond to the consultation with a simple message: that UK aid must no longer be made conditional upon privatisation, trade liberalisation or any other macroeconomic conditions. More details on DFID website: www.dfid.gov.uk/consultations/

"...Progress For Children addresses the child survival Millennium Development Goal, graphically depicting the world's advances in the lead up to 2015. It states that despite global gains in child survival since 1990, significant discrepancies remain within and across countries and regions and 11 million children still die needlessly each year. By ensuring access to basic services and continued use of simple, cost-effective interventions, these deaths can be averted and the goal of a two-thirds reduction in under-five mortality from 1990 to 2015 achieved [...]"

Nigerian authorities are committing serious acts of intimidation against senior leaders and activists of the Nigerian trade union movement, said the ICFTU today. In a spate of incidents which began to flourish in the days prior to the general strike called by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) after talks with the government to reverse petrol price increases of 25% broke down, the Nigerian authorities subjected the trade union leader Adams Oshiomole to unlawful arrest and ill treatment.

A new guide has been launched which is liberally interspersed with examples of searches, and search strategies, relating to Africa or African studies topics. A pilot edition of this guide is now freely accessible at http://www.hanszell.co.uk/google/. It is published as an adjunct to the new third edition of The African Studies Companion: A Guide to Information Sources (online at http://www.africanstudiescompanion.com/) although it can also be used on its own.

United Nations workers and hundreds of volunteers have vaccinated more than seven million children in Madagascar against measles to prevent a potentially lethal outbreak on the giant Indian Ocean island. The month-long drive against the world's biggest vaccine-preventable killer saw trucks and planes delivering 10 million doses of the vaccine throughout the country, which is bigger than France.

Southern African countries, hard-hit by recent droughts and floods, have been urged to adopt disaster management legislation to improve their response to emergencies. An agricultural economist, Andries Jordaan, told IRIN on Tuesday that the legislation should provide for setting up an early warning system and proactive prevention policies. Jordaan was at a three-day conference and exhibition on African Aid, Disaster Management and Relief, which opened in South Africa on Tuesday.

The Mauritanian government has arrested Saleh Ould Hanenna, the mastermind of last year's military uprising against President Maaouiya Ould Taya, who had been on the run for 16 months. Ould Hanenna was the mastermind of a failed coup attempt on 8 June 2003 which led to two days of heavy fighting in the capital Nouakchott before forces loyal to Ould Taya regained control.

Zimbabwe's request for funding from the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria has again been rejected. Last week Zimbabwe appealed the Fund's earlier rejection of its HIV/AIDS and TB grant proposals and was also rejected. However, Mary Sandasi, the director of a local HIV/AIDS group, Women and AIDS Support Network, said she believed the Global Fund was "mixing issues" and had "a hidden agenda".

Nurses in hospitals and health centres across Burundi began a two-day strike on Monday to demand better working conditions, while the government would not start talks with the union. Hospitals and health centres in the capital, Bujumbura, and in the provinces of Makamba, Kayanza and Bururi could only provide minimum service. The striking nurses listed 14 demands, including one for overtime pay, stating that the current arrangement was unacceptable.

Artists for a New South Africa (ANSA) Amandla AIDS Fund (AAF) was established in 2003 by a $2.5 million donation from Carlos and Deborah Santana. They directed the entire net proceeds of the 2003 U.S. Summer Santana Shaman tour to the fund, which provides grants to South African organisations working to combat Aids.

The University of Guelph is conducting a research project to collect information to develop a database of community radio stations in Africa. To be included, please send: Name of radio station; contact person; physical and mailing address; telephone number (with area code): fax; email address; website; radio frequency (ex: 95.2 FM); date established; funding sources; range (number of kilometers); power source (watts); languages broadcast in (please include all); Does your station have rural development programming including but not limited to agriculture, health and the environment? If yes, how many minutes per week is this type of programming broadcast? Number of hours per week you broadcast any NON MUSIC programming? Number of hours per week you broadcast total (including music and non music programming)? And any other relevant information about your station.

This is a summary of a full-length case study, to be published in December 2004. It examines the role of land access in the conflicts which have affected Eastern Congo, especially since 1993. Based on fieldwork and an extensive review of secondary literature, it includes recommendations for the Government of the DRC, the international community, and civil society actors. It concludes that since the start of the Congolese war, land has turned from a 'source' of conflict into a 'resource' of conflict.

The World Food Programme (WFP), the food arm of the UN, spent over $11.4 million (R74.1 million) to buy over 47 000 tons of maize and other food materials in South Africa last year. This emerged yesterday at the fourth annual African aid, disaster management and relief procurement conference in Johannesburg. "We buy food to satisfy the needs of the people," Joop Menkeld, the WFP's procurement officer said. Over 14.4 million people are set to be affected by disaster every year.

Armed conflicts in Mozambique (1978-1992), in Sierra Leone (1991-2002) and still ongoing in Northern Uganda (since 1987) have displaced, killed and maimed millions. In each conflict thousands of boys and girls as young as seven were forcibly recruited into the fighting forces. The experience has affected many of them emotionally and physically, and deprived them of years of education. New research tackles the complex question of how best to reintegrate former girl soldiers back into society and education.

Dr Milica Bisic from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), who took on entrenched interests to stamp out tax evasion in Republika Srpska, BiH, and whistleblowers who brought to light the Goldenberg scandal in Kenya, were the winners of the TI Integrity Awards. David Munyakei, a clerk at the Central Bank of Kenya, provided MPs with documents revealing illegal transactions with Goldenberg International. Constable Naftali Lagat refused to obey Kenya's Director of Criminal Investigations' demand that he release to a director of Goldenberg International smuggled gold he had intercepted at Kenya's Wilson Airport.

Social pensions in developing countries can raise the poorest older people and their families out of dire poverty, says HelpAge International in a new report. The Age and Security report provides the first comprehensive survey of social pension schemes in developing countries, and analyses how these regular cash payments can improve the lives of older people and their families.

The long awaited first part of Balancing Act's African Internet Country Market Profiles is now out and covers 22 countries in West Africa. It also contains a summary overview of the internet in these countries and a look at the coming legalisation of VoIP in West Africa: who will be the winners and losers?

Ivory Coast's President Laurent Gbagbo has said that rules on who is eligible to become head of state will be decided by referendum and only after rebels start disarming. An amendment to permit presidential candidates born of one instead of two parents of Ivorian origin would allow Alassane Ouattara, a former top International Monetary Fund official and arch-rival of Gbagbo who is popular in the rebel-held north of the country, to stand for president in elections scheduled for 2005.

Somalia's most stable region, the breakaway Somaliland enclave, expressed opposition on Tuesday to new Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf, underscoring its hostility to a man long seen as the territory's arch foe. The Somaliland government warned Yusuf, a warlord elected head of state on October 10th by lawmakers at peace talks held in Kenya, against any attempted aggression and said it was on alert against any move to reunite Somaliland with the rest of Somalia.

President Museveni hit out U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland for suggesting that the suffering caused by war in northern Uganda was comparable to that in Sudan's strife-torn Darfur. Egeland urged the international community last week to focus on northern Uganda and the atrocities of the Lord's Resistance Army. Museveni questioned, "In what way is it like Darfur? True, people are in camps because of attacks by the terrorists. But it seems some people don't want us to defeat the terrorists."

Two people have been shot dead and several trade unionists have been arrested in isolated flare-ups of violence triggered by Nigeria's general strike. Lagos, the commercial capital of the West African country, remained shut down on Tuesday for the second day running. Banks, schools, offices and most businesses stayed closed in Nigeria's other main cities, except for Abuja. The four-day stoppage began on Monday and was called by Nigeria's largest trade union movement to protest at a recent 25 percent increase in fuel prices.

The third edition of "Kenya - The Top 100 People" looks at the power handover to current President Mwai Kibaki, through exclusive biographies on the former and current President and other influential people who currently hold the true keys to power. This book reveals the personalities of the new president's inner circle of power, the young members of civil society who joined the new government, rising Kikuyu businessmen, the new heads of State companies and the regime's new security bosses. In addition to government officials, The Top 100 People discloses who are the men and women who really count in Kenya.

New evidence has emerged linking Jeffrey Archer to the alleged conspirators behind the attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea. A lawyer for the Equatorial Guinea government said in London Tuesday that telephone records showed four calls between the homes of one of the alleged financiers behind the plot, London-based Lebanese businessman Ely Calil, and Lord Archer in the run-up to the coup attempt in March. Another alleged plotter, businessman Greg Wales, also made five calls to Sir Mark Thatcher in the days after the failed coup.

A United Nations conference has given Swaziland the green light to export some of its white rhinos and bring in trophy hunters to shoot the animals. The motion was passed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, which is meeting in Bangkok. It follows last week's lifting of a ban on hunting the rarer black rhino in Namibia and South Africa. Swaziland claims money raised from exports of live animals or trophy hunts will be used for rhino conservation.

As swarms of locusts began devastating the crops and pasture lands of West Africa during this year's rainy season, the first teams to provide assistance on the ground did not come from the traditional donor countries of Europe and North America. Instead, trucks loaded with spraying equipment and pesticide rolled across the Sahara desert only a few weeks after the first swarms of locusts from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya to help the struggling locust control teams of their poorer southern neighbours.

Zimbabwean NGOs have adopted a code of ethics ahead of a controversial new law threatening them with closure for maladministration and political activism. The code, which deals with accountability, transparency and good governance, was adopted at a three-day exhibition last week in the capital, Harare, which showcased the work of the NGO sector in health and social service delivery.

Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party has claimed victory in a weekend by-election after the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) failed to field candidates for the local poll. ZANU-PF retained the Masvingo district parliamentary seat in southern Zimbabwe, which fell vacant after the death last month of 69-year-old Eddison Zvobgo, a founding member of ZANU-PF. The ruling party now holds 98 of 150 seats in parliament, two short of the two-thirds majority that would allow it to amend the constitution.

OSISA oversees US$5 million in grants annually in Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Support is offered to projects that are national or regional. The programmes broadly focus on education, media, information technology, human rights and democracy. Rolling Deadlines.

The Kenyan Community Abroad will be holding its fifth Annual Conference and AGM in Nairobi from December 14th to 18th. This will be the first time that the Kenyan Diaspora is holding an event of this magnitude and pomp in Kenya. The event, dubbed the KCA homecoming 2004 will be held at the historic Kenyatta International Conference Centre in Nairobi. Being a first of its kind, the forum brings together 400 high caliber Kenyans from across the globe. Kenyan's abroad are ready to show what they are capable of and where they can add value.

At the Conference of Intellectuals from Africa and the Diaspora in Senegal, UNESCO deputy director in charge of Africa, Nouréni Tidjani-Serpos believes that with the evolution of information and communication technologies, intellectuals from Africa and the Diaspora do not need to return home before contributing toward continental development. "It is now possible for members of the African Diaspora to use their knowledge to serve the continent without being physically present. You can, wherever you are, bring something to Africa," he encouraged. For information on the 1st Conference of Intellectuals from Africa and the Diaspora:
http://www.panapress.com/dossindexlat.asp?code=eng054

President Yoweri Museveni has admitted that he blindly supported the United States-led invasion of Iraq. "I supported the Americans in Iraq, but I didn't even know what they were fighting for," he said. "What I knew is that Saddam [Hussein] was a friend of Bashir, and Bashir was my enemy." When referring to weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Museveni said "I don’t know whether it was true or not." He said he figured that if Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, they could have easily ended up with the Sudanese President Omar Bashir and that was why he supported the American invasion of Iraq.

Washington, DC: While thousands of trained Zambian teachers sit unemployed and classes overflow with students, Zambia will shell out a staggering $156 million more on debt repayments that it will spend on education this year. These new figures are released today, October 1, in a ground-breaking by the Global Campaign for Education (GCE). The new report reveals how Zambian children are paying the price for IMF policies. Ludicrously, while schools are in desperate need of another 9000 teachers, 8-9,000 qualified teachers sit unemployed. Why? A budget ceiling on government spending imposed by the IMF means that the government is not able to employ the teachers and health workers it desperately needs.

The GCE report, "Undervaluing teachers: IMF policies squeeze Zambian education system" is co-authored with International agencies VSO and Oxfam. It calls upon the IMF and rich countries at today's G7 finance ministers meeting to announce 100% cancellation of multilateral debt owed by the world's poorest countries, funded in part by a revaluation of IMF gold stocks. Report co-author Max Lawson from Oxfam, said: "The IMF's priority is to be repaid at all costs, even at the expense of educating Zambian children. Meanwhile the IMF is sitting on billions of dollars worth of gold they neither need nor use." Co-author Lucia Fry from VSO said "Zambia shows us the need for a radical change in the way the IMF does its business.

IMF commitments to the Millennium Goals are tested in exactly these challenging circumstances and the fund is failing on all counts." In Zambia, one of the poorest countries in the world, more than 70% of the population live in poverty and one in five adults are infected with HIV/AIDS. Education should be the golden path to ending poverty and helping stop the spread of HIV, yet in 2004, the Zambian government will be forced to pay $377 million in debt repayments, and spend just $221 million education. Repayments to the IMF alone will amount to a massive $247 million, more than entire annual education budget.

Silas Silewu, Head Master at Maano Basic School in Lusaka says: "We have only 3 teachers, including me, to teach 526 pupils. The average class size is 70 pupils and each teacher has to teach two classes. To work effectively we need at least 12 teachers." The Dutch Government has now stepped in with a short-term emergency package to allow some of these 9000 teachers to be taken on. However this does not solve the long-term problem of how to finance much needed future increases in teacher numbers.

GCE Report recommendations:

- The IMF and G7 should today announce 100% cancellation of multilateral debt owed by the world's poorest countries, funded in part by a revaluation of IMF gold stocks.

- Rich countries should pledge $50bn extra in development aid annually to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), including the additional US$5.6bn needed to achieve universal basic education. Developed countries should set clear timetables to reach the agreed target of 0.7% of GNP spending on overseas development assistance by 2010.

- A fully independent review of the impact of economic policy conditionality should be conducted, including inflation targets and payroll ceilings, as countries move into the second round of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers. The report demands due diligence of the IMF in ensuring all macroeconomic frameworks are the product of national discussion of different scenarios, based on independent Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIA) linked to MDG needs.

- The IMF must be explicit in its communiqués that adequate numbers of trained teachers and health workers are vital to achieving the MDGs and resources must be found to pay them a living wage.

- Funding for basic education and other poverty reduction strategies must be delinked from the IMF's lending program.

- Rich countries must expand their commitment to direct budget support, pooled sector funding and predictable long-term financing through mechanisms such as the EFA Fast Track Initiative and the proposed International Financing Facility.

- Developing country governments should make poverty reduction and the attainment of the MDGs an explicit objective of macroeconomic policy with transparent and measurable indicators in the annual budget, and maximize expenditure on poverty reduction, including education and health