* The BBC film "Kill Thy Neighbour" will be shown at Chatham House on March 31st.
* BBC World Television will be running a Rwanda season during April with the films "Journey Into Darkness" (1994); "Valentinas Story" (1996); "When Good Men Do Nothing" (2000) and "Kill Thy Neighbour" (2003).
* VisionTV will be broadcasting the documentary "Rwanda: In Search of Hope" on April 8 at 10pm ET.
* PBS Frontline is producing a major documentary on "Rwanda, 10 years later”, scheduled to have its premier at the Holocaust Museum in DC on April 1, 2004, then to be shown on PBS stations in the US and may also be shown on BBC Panorama.
* NPR (National Public Radio-USA) is presenting a one-hour news magazine on courageous Hutu who saved Tutsi lives during the genocide, risking their own in the process. To be aired around April 7th.
* Anne Aghion's sequel to her acclaimed 2002 documentary, "Gacaca, Living Together Again In Rwanda?" will be released in late March or early April.

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination held over two days a thematic discussion on the issue of non-citizens and racial discrimination during which Committee Experts exchanged views with representatives of States parties, NGOs and UN agencies. Doudou Diène, the Special Rapporteur on racism of the Commission on Human Rights, stated that discrimination against non-citizens was a new type of discrimination and was connected to discrimination against refugees and immigrants. Non-citizens were extremely vulnerable in terms of exercising their rights and receiving social protection, including the right to health.

The Government has been urged to take a more proactive approach to the development of Information Technology (IT) in order to improve the business environment. Sector players described information and communication technology (ICT) as vital to the growth of any economy and warned that Kenya risked being left behind by its neighbours should the government fail to act promptly.

This guide, produced by Forest Peoples Programme, aims to provide practical information for indigenous peoples and organizations to support their use of rights-based arguments under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

In this third of three reports on e-mail fraud, Go Digital's Tracey Logan meets Nuhu Ribadu, head of Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, who is trying to end so-called 419 e-mail scams.

Community Media for Development and GOAL Mozambique collaborated to develop a radio programme with a group of Street Youth in Maputo, Mozambique. The group recorded songs, skits, and messages about HIV/AIDS, sexual abuse, and children's rights in Portuguese and Shangana. The recordings were then produced into a series suitable for broadcast or educational use, and are being distributed freely to community radio stations across Mozambique. An accompanying Portuguese language activity book was also developed to be used in educational/literacy programmes. The audio may be downloaded from the Internet. For information, contact [email protected].

A Namibian High Court will decide on Thursday whether the state can challenge the release of 13 men accused of treason for their alleged role in secessionist violence. The 13 were part of a group of 120 arrested for taking part in an attack by the Caprivi Liberation Army (CLA) on Katimo Mulilo, the largest town in the northeastern Caprivi region, which left 13 people dead in 1999. The 13, including John Samboma, the alleged commander of the CLA, were released last Monday following an order by Judge Elton Hoff at the High Court in Grootfontein, 500 km from the Namibian capital, Windhoek. Hoff ruled that his court did not have the jurisdiction to try them because the circumstances under which they had been held were "irregular".

Members of a Nigerian committee tasked with verifying the safety of oral polio vaccine amid suspicion that it causes HIV/AIDS and infertility have deemed the product safe, the Nigerian daily Vanguard reports. Committee members were dispatched early last month to South Africa and India to monitor analyses of the vaccine and to Indonesia to meet with scientists at a vaccine production company. The team found trace amounts of estradiol, a hormone suspected of causing infertility, but said the amounts were minute, "much less than what is found in recycled drinking water in several developed countries."

While Brazil maintains the strongest economy in Latin America, access to education for many young people in Brazil is still an obstacle. Brazil's 76 million negros and pardos (blacks and browns) constitute the world's second largest population of people of African descent outside of Africa. Although they are between 45% - 55% of Brazil's population, they comprise merely 2% of the nation's university students. Limited access to education and racial discrimination within Brazil's education system has a significantly negative impact on the lives of Afro-Brazilians.

UN Wire reported that UN officials told the Commission on the Status of Women at a meeting on 2 March 2004 that gender equality was the key to reducing poverty and meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s). UN Wire documented how participants discussed the issue that despite progress towards gender parity, in many countries women’s rights are still under threat. According to World Health Organisation (WHO) research, between 10 and 69 per cent of women worldwide are subjected to some form of violence in their lives, while 1 600 women die every day due to pregnancy-related complications.

Human rights advocates are calling on the Kenyan government to stop demolishing shantytowns in the capital until it has worked out a plan to relocate the inhabitants. This was the week the Kenyan government was to bulldoze homes and businesses in the poorest sections of Nairobi. But President Mwai Kibaki intervened in the last minute and stopped the demolition until the government finds a way to relocate the residents.

The Combined Harare Residents Association has condemned the arbitrary and authoritarian crackdown on homeless people in Harare last week. "We do not believe that this action was carried out on the instructions of the elected councillors but rather by the de facto mayor of Harare, Town Clerk Chideya. Again we call upon councillors to assert the power given to them by the citizens of Harare and to put the municipal employees to work for the benefit of all of us.”

This issue focuses on the on the link between population and civil society. It includes:
- Secretary general’s message: Working together for a secure world;
- Civil Society News In Brief;
- Population and Civil Society: an introduction;
- HIV/AIDS: Seeking a broad, unified and global approach;
- The population and environment nexus;
- Women and population: an issue of rights rather than fertility control;
- What’s up on the Word Front?
- Classifieds.
To subscribe or unsubscribe please email [email protected]

Your recent article “Confronting impunity through the ICC: is Africa ready and waiting?” Has triggered a number of considerations that I wish to submit here.

The issue that troubled me most is the suggestion that amnesty may be a way forward in a situation of peace negotiations! While one may have to accept a certain delay in carrying out justice for purely tactical reasons, such as the perpetrator has still such an enormous nuisance value - as was the case after the fall of both Pinochet and Videla in the case of Chilli and Argentina - that to indict them would lead to the conflict flaring up again. Of course this must be avoided! But does that imply that people such as Taylor and his like should be immune from justice? After the horrendous deeds they perpetrated? If such people are to walk about scot-free, then what is justice all about?

Justice is central to the functioning of all societies! No society condones murder and theft. Justice serves as a frame that tells everyone that not every thing is permitted, it is the limits within which human passions - the destructive ones - are contained. To do away with justice is opening a Pandora box that will require a strong and very wise man to close again, possibly thousands of deaths later!

It doesn't take a great deal of imagination I don't think to put oneself into the shoes of the victim of one of these atrocious conflicts and imagine that one is sitting in one's damaged house considering the devastation of one's life, the loss of one's kin with perhaps no known burial site, one's property stolen or destroyed and one's neighbour - the known perpetrator - going about his business, untroubled, having possibly gained from it all! I suggest that this is a case for taking the law into one's own hands which, all will agree, is conducive neither to peace nor to the rule of law!

Furthermore, the trial of the perpetrators is the time for the community as a whole to learn what has happened and for the victim to receive public recognition for what it endured which opens the way to support and help from the community. The court itself may grant compensation. The trial is also the time when the past is looked into the face no matter how painful it may be, a necessary and unavoidable step if it is ever to be put to rest, to become a thing of the past.

Reconciliation has an agenda and a timetable of its own! But what ever its pace it starts with justice which is to say, the culprit brought to books. Also, literature and psychiatrists alike have described what they call the "moral trauma", suffered by those who committed a terrible deed. Some will say "serves them right!". But this does not improve the society to which the perpetrator belongs and it is desirable that he too be given the chance to start afresh, having had the possibility to "redeem" himself through paying for his crimes. (The master minds and hardened criminals are likely to be immune to moral trauma).

Or course national justice is preferable to international justice whenever possible. In particular it would be best for the victims to have their case heard within their own community. But how often is it possible? The extraordinary undertaking of the Truth and Reconciliation commission in South Africa was "pulled off" by two outstanding fellows, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and president Mandela. How many post conflict situations are there where two such wise men with immense moral credibility could "pull off such a trick"?
The decision of whether justice should be carried out in an international or a national court of justice should be considered carefully on the ground that all too often one finds that the people holding key positions before the conflict and during the conflict are the same again in the post conflict situation.
I dare say that the people who most probably (it is for the court of justice to decide!) carry a heavy responsibility in the unfolding of the devastating events should not be entrusted with the carrying out of justice.

In some instances the judiciary ceased to exist as a result of the conflict, as was the case in Rwanda where the whole legal body had become so perverted that it could not be of any use after the genocide.

One thing seems obvious: kangaroo courts for the sake of exercising justice nationally rather then internationally does not serve the cause of justice nor does it satisfy the innate need for fairness that is common to all humans.
National or international, justice should be the concern of all. If one considers the sometimes huge international effort in bringing food and drugs to the victims of armed conflicts over long period to time, (not all of it useful) perhaps some of that effort could be diverted towards the training of the legal staff, the (re) establishing of a functioning, fair and independent judiciary, endowed with sufficient means to carry out this most important of tasks.

To conclude, I suggest that tactical postponement may have to be tolerated in order to prevent worse evil. But amnesty? NO! Amnesty is a dirty word that should be banned lest we allow a horrible past to intrude into the present and hijack the future! It must always be remembered that the operative word for a peaceful future, for a harmonious world, is Justice.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says it is concerned about the health of Abdallah Zouari, a journalist from the suspended Islamist weekly "Al-Fajr" who has been carrying on a hunger strike since 27 January 2004 to protest the worsening of his prison conditions. On their last visit, his family, who had not been allowed to see him for two weeks, found him to be in a seriously weakened physical and mental state.

Cotton farmer Faustin Bagaza, 55, wears the cloak of poverty around him even tighter these days. Despite harvesting his crop for two successive years, he has made no sales. The reason? A rebellion in northwestern Central African Republic (CAR) that has devastated the country's agriculture, health, education and other services.

One million people are "at imminent risk of life and livelihood" in Sudan's western region of Darfur, due to a lack of civil order and the "refusal of local and national authorities to permit unrestricted access for humanitarian workers", according to the US government. A statement released on Tuesday said the US viewed the deepening humanitarian crisis in Darfur with grave concern. Particularly threatening were the actions of the "government-supported militias, known as the Janjawid, who continue to attack and burn undefended villages, murdering and raping the inhabitants and forcing survivors into desperate flight to garrison towns" or neighbouring Chad, it said.

Zimbabwe's private doctors this week stopped demanding cash payments for services and reverted to accepting valid medical aid cards, easing the difficulties of patients struggling to afford medical attention. Private doctors had been demanding cash upfront since January, citing long delays in the processing of claims by the National Association of Medical Aid Societies (NAMAS). They also hiked their consultation fees from an average of Zim $26,500 (US $6) per visit to Zim $46,500 (US $10).

The Angolan government on Tuesday pledged to take steps to slash the appalling child mortality rate by half within the next four years. Almost three decades of civil conflict have given Angola the world's third-worst rate of child death, with one in four likely to die before they reach their fifth birthday, according to figures from the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).

Ethiopia’s human rights group on Wednesday condemned the mass arrests and physical abuse in January of hundreds of university students in the capital, Addis Ababa. The Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO) said federal officers had rounded up 349 students belonging to the Oromo ethnic group before transporting them to a detention centre. The students – members of the country’s largest ethnic group – had then been forced to march barefoot or on their knees along a gravel path for several hours, EHRCO stated.

Swazis are capable of formulating their own system of democratic governance, which does not have to be similar to the South African model, a senior government official told IRIN on Tuesday. Minister of Foreign Affairs Mabili Dlamini was responding to a reference made to governance issues in Swaziland in the election manifesto of the ruling South African party, the African National Congress (ANC). Swaziland was singled out by the ANC as a country where the party intended to help strengthen democracy and assist in "social normalisation and economic reconstruction".

Time is out of joint in Zimbabwe. We have gone through the looking glass and live in a state of schizophrenia. We read one thing in the state media, and experience something quite different on the ground. The new farmers are said to be creating a revolution, but there is no farm produce in the shops, no agricultural goods to export. Our “enemies” who want to sabotage our economy are feeding us, while our own rulers destroy productive capacity, pillage our natural resources, and even make money illegally exporting the food on which the people depend for survival.

Time moves too fast. In a day lives are turned upside down. A government decree quadruples tariffs on virtually every imported good, destroying businesses, crippling industries relying on imported components, wiping out the means of survival for hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans who have been eking out a living through cross-border trade. In a week the only non-government daily newspaper is off the street, on the street and off the street again. In a month prices double in the shops, and 20,000 Zimbabweans die of AIDS. In a year inflation soars from 220% to 620% and your used car depreciates by doubling its Zimdollar value. And in a year the public mood changes from hope and expectation of relief from the madness to deep, debilitating despair.

On our side of the looking glass, the mounting catastrophe has political, economic, social and cultural components. Most objective observers would trace the economic problems back at least to the late 1980’s. Certainly the introduction of structural adjustment at the beginning of the 90’s can be seen as the process which eroded the living standards of Zimbabweans, and spawned the first broad-based opposition party. It also generated pressure from interest groups such as war veterans and ambitious black businessmen who felt they had waited too long to share in the country’s wealth. The government’s response to these developments sent the country into the downward spiral which today ensnares us. Instead of taking the criticism and the pressure and sitting back to plan a coherent strategy of how to deal with the inter-related issues, ZANU PF panicked, saw their ruling position threatened, and from 1997 on have responded piecemeal, reactively and irrationally, bringing us to the tragedy which unfolds before our eyes.

They gave in to pressures from those groups with which they had racial and historical affinities, that is the “indigenous businessmen” and the war veterans, while viciously attacking those in the political opposition and civil society who dared to demand policies that would serve the needs of the people at large. These were accused of wanting to sabotage the economy, acting as agents of foreign powers, fomenting discord and trying to reverse the gains of the liberation war. Because the government half believed their own fantasies, they became quite incapable of drawing appropriate strategies to handle the economic crisis, and became obsessed with simply retaining political power. Every economic policy became twisted to suit the immediate needs of ZANU PF, while the needs of the consumer, the producer, the employer and employee were disregarded. Basic economic sense was thrown to the winds, commonplace economic imperatives defied. ZANU PF returned to the militarist leadership and rhetoric of the liberation war.

The economic slide was precipitated by the 1997 surrender to the demands of war veterans, but it became a plunge from the beginning of the seizure of land from white commercial farmers in February 2000. Angered by the negative results of the referendum on a new constitution in that month, ZANU PF devised a malicious but brilliant strategy designed to recover domestic support, provide new sources of patronage, fulfill the promises of the liberation struggle and attract international support from traditional allies of the 1970’s. In their panic they rushed headlong to seize agricultural land from white farmers by violent means, afraid to wait for a legal process to unfold. They justified this by the philosophy of armed struggle and the injustices perpetrated by colonizers in the hundred years before Independence. Law was no longer necessary; the end justified any means.

It is exactly four years since the officially sanctioned land invasions began. During that time the economy has shrunk to less than half its previous size, while inflation has risen to 620%. Added to the pre-existing economic crisis, the destruction of a substantial portion of commercial agriculture has brought a sharp decline in foreign exchange earnings, and severe food shortages. Government’s attempts to manipulate prices, interest rates and foreign exchange rates have produced chaos – artificial shortages of price-controlled goods and a booming black market, illegal export of basic goods to neighbouring countries, closure of factories and other businesses, especially those related to agricultural production. The lack of foreign currency reduced ability to import essential consumer and capital goods and the general decline of the economy starved government of revenue. At the same time runaway inflation led to a need to print ever larger amounts of bank notes which government could not afford. The result was the crippling cash shortage in mid 2003. High inflation coupled with low interest rates impoverished pensioners and anyone else dependent on a fixed income, and initiated a flight of savings from banks into foreign currency. What could no longer be obtained in banks by any but the privileged few, was readily available on many street corners in the major cities at up to 8 times the official rate.

Those privileged few were having a heyday, amassing fortunes of gigantic proportions by accessing foreign currency from the banks at official rates and selling it on the black market. A new class of economic parasites was being created. We began to hear of 25 room mansions, stables of Mercedes Benz cars, cupboards full of designer suits. The owners did not hide; they boasted of their wealth in the face of the people whose situation was becoming daily more desperate.

The year 2003 was a dreadful one for most Zimbabweans. While the government tinkered at the edges of the economy and finally brought staple foodstuffs back to the shelves and solved the cash crisis by introducing bearer cheques as temporary legal tender, they failed to bring inflation under control. By the end of the year it had reached 600%. And the economy continues to shrink. The October beginning of the 2003-4 planting season heralded new disasters in the future as agricultural inputs were simply not available to most of those wanting to farm. But the failures on the economic front were compensated for in the political arena. In spite of the ability of the opposition still to win local government elections in most urban areas, ZANU PF could make use of its new draconian security and media legislation, the support of a loyal army and police and national service militia to block out the opposition from rural constituencies. And in the urban councils held by the MDC, ZANU PF has used its control of national resources to interfere and create havoc in local government, dividing and frustrating opposition controlled councils, particularly Harare, and making them lose public support. The mass action threatened by the opposition never got started in the face of government terror, and ZANU PF remains firmly in charge. The political tide running in favour of the opposition seems to have been halted. A combination of severe repression, patronage through allocation of land and positions that give access to public resources, and ever more strident racial and xenophobic rhetoric have kept the forces of opposition off balance and out of step.

Now, in March, 2004, four years on from the beginning of the plunge, where do we stand, and what is the outlook for the next twelve months?

Economically, we are still spiraling downwards. This year agriculture is expected to produce only 1/3 of the nation’s staple maize requirements. Exportable crops such as tobacco and paprika, are down to a small fraction of what was previously produced. Industrial capacity deteriorates and unemployment rises. While donor aid feeds those people in rural areas whose own crops fail through poor rains and lack of inputs, an ever greater percentage of the urban population fail to cope, enter the ranks of the destitute and are in need of food aid themselves even while food sits on the supermarket shelves.

Not only goods, but also services are either not available or unaffordable. Starved of government finance, social welfare has long ago collapsed as a point of last resort for the destitute. Hospitals have no equipment or medicines and few qualified staff. A patient with a fracture is told to bring plaster of paris before his bone can be set. Schools have poorly functioning infrastructure, broken desks and toilets, paint peeling from walls, no laboratory equipment or books. Yet they charge fees that have forced many, in both rural and urban areas to withdraw their children. The mission boarding schools, once the pride of Zimbabwean education and the training ground for the professional classes, are deteriorating rapidly, unable to sustain quality with the fees that the dwindling middle classes are able to afford. Both the major state universities have been crippled by repeated staff and student strikes, and at present neither is holding classes.

While high fee paying private schools manage to maintain reasonable standards, private health care is faltering on the brink of collapse. Doctors’ fees, hospitals and medicines are unaffordable except for the elite and many procedures are no longer provided in the country. Employees on medical aid are not better off as the doctors and medical aid societies quarrel over rates and payment procedures, leaving the patients to pay cash and claim later. When a simple consultation, laboratory test and prescription may cost half a month’s salary, or more, it will be rational for a worker to terminate medical aid subscriptions and it will not be surprising if all the medical aid societies collapse completely before this year is out, leaving health care accessible only to the very rich. Government’s response to the failures of service providers was predictable – punish headmasters who try to keep their schools running by allowing fee increases in line with inflation, criminalize doctors who charge cash. It is hardly surprising that many educational and medical professionals have left the country.

They are not alone. A recent survey showed that 3.4 million Zimbabweans – ¼ of the population – lives outside the country. Professionals have left with their families to find work where there is greater security and they can command a higher standard of living. Young people have left to escape the dejection and boredom of joblessness and to find tertiary education which does not require the completion of a “national service” which brutalizes and indoctrinates. Mothers have left their children behind while they live in squalor and do menial jobs to send home the precious “forex” which buys food, clothing and pays school fees. Pensioners go to do care work because they cannot survive on their pensions. Others have gone to earn the money to buy a house. They leave behind families broken, rudderless, a prey to the immorality which has gripped the country. Led by the orgy of violence and rape characterising the land seizures, national service training, and election “campaigning”, we – especially our younger generation – have lost the ability to distinguish right from wrong. Might is right; if you can exploit your fellow before he or she exploits you, fine. And then we have the example of our “businessmen” who amass wealth without any skills, any work, by manipulating a corrupt system. Dealing is the name of the game, and he who plays it well prospers. “Cry Beloved Zimbabwe”, was the lament of the WOZA women who were stopped by the police from distributing roses on Valentine’s Day. “Let love overcome hate” was their stifled message that few were allowed to hear.

The New Year produced a surprise as a new monetary policy announced by the Reserve Bank Governor began to take effect. Suddenly we found members of the corrupt elite, even a designer-suit, 25 room mansion ZANU PF M.P., behind bars on allegations of fraud and foreign currency dealing. Government announced a war on corruption. Was this an attempt to win favour among the people, with an eye to the 2005 elections? or simply the public manifestation of a power struggle within ZANU PF as the succession issue hots up, or even a desperate need to raise foreign currency at any cost? The population is sceptical, and waits to see. A real war on corruption would have to bring down far more known crooks and thieves from their high places. At the same time, there has been an attempt to bring some sanity to the foreign currency market by introducing a state-controlled auction. This effectively devalued the currency by 75%, bringing the official exchange rate up and the black market rate down, at least temporarily. But it has negatively affected exporters, importers and consumers and will certainly fuel inflation further. We are set for another round of catastrophic price rises. Where the problems are essentially political piecemeal policies cannot rescue us. A modern economy cannot thrive in the absence of political stability, without smooth linkages to the international players.

On the economic side then, 2004 is likely to bring us only misery. What of the political? It is encouraging that through all the intimidation and violence the opposition MDC has managed to survive, maintain its structures and has held together in spite of a wide internal divergence of ideological positions. It contains some individuals who have worked at great personal risk to bring change. Furthermore, they deserve credit for firmly adhering to principles of non-violence, restraining their youthful hotheads who would prefer to answer violence with violence. It is clear, however, that elections marked by state violence and terror will not bring change unless the electoral ground rules are completely rewritten, and that is certainly not going to occur in the present circumstances. What about the mass action route? Besides the opposition party, MDC, several civil society organisations have raised their voices against government policies. These include the labour federation, ZCTU, the National Constitutional Assembly, some of the churches which have country wide membership organisations, and several other NGO’s. All of them, including the MDC, are divided between the activists who want to take to the streets and the lobbyists, who want to push for some kind of “talks” with government.

Those in favour of street action are in a weak position. 2003 demonstrated that while people were prepared to protest by staying away from work, they were not ready to take to the streets and face the riot police and possibly the army. Activists watched events unfold in the Georgian capital Tbilisi with envy, but have been forced to admit that Zimbabweans are simply not yet willing to take the risk. Small demonstrations organized by the ZCTU, the NCA and WOZA, a group which organizes grassroots women, invariably resulted in arrests or police brutality or both. The masses have shied away from such action, and without the masses, this tactic cannot shift ZANU PF in any way. But the bravery of the few, especially when they are women, keeps the opposition visible and raises sprits and hope.

Dialogue between ZANU PF and the MDC has been held out as the solution by neighbouring African countries, particularly South Africa. The purpose of such inter-party talks would be to agree to end human rights abuses, re-establish the rule of law, and rewrite the electoral rules so that a new election could produce a government accepted as legitimate domestically and internationally. Then a start could be made to repair the economic damage. Such talks would have to be brokered by foreign mediators.

For the MDC, talks would be the best solution, but so far they have proved elusive. For obvious reasons ZANU PF is not interested and has deliberately held out the impression to the South Africans that they were committed while doing absolutely nothing. But it is now becoming clear that in the end this is the only way that a solution will be found.

ZANU PF appears to think that they have outwitted the opposition and can hang on to power until 2005, when they will conduct an even more violent and dishonest election which will see them clear for another five years. Even now they are making preparations. A new Presidential decree has introduced the power of detention without bail, on mere suspicion, where there is no evidence of wrong-doing. Youth militia training is being stepped up to provide a reserve of shock troops. The United Nations was asked to provide funding for the election, but the request was quickly withdrawn when they proposed to send a delegation to study the situation on the ground. The MDC, under severe constraint from forces of terror, unconstitutional laws, and a compliant judiciary, and the unwillingness of their members to engage in civil disobedience, is hobbled. It can not do much more than to hold its supporters together, plan policies to implement if they do gain power, and work hard, as they are now doing, to persuade African governments, particularly that of South Africa, to apply the pressure for internationally accepted elections.

Hence the deep despair of the population. Most Zimbabweans face the year with little hope for any early solution. But there are signs that the logic of economic failures may finally bring the whole edifice crashing down. Maybe enough Zimbabweans will decide that “enough is enough” and provide the critical mass in the streets to topple ZANU PF. The “war on corruption” has now exposed the rot at the core and could develop into an uncontrollable internecine struggle. The distortions in the Zimbabwean economy have impacted heavily on the region. President Mbeki, like Obasanjo in December, might finally decide that it is not worth the embarrassment of continuing to support Robert Mugabe, whose galloping paranoia occasionally turns on Mbeki himself. Or, a serious illness or even death of the 80-year-old Mugabe might open an opportunity for a South Africa assisted return to legitimacy, and an end to the madness. “An idea whose time has come cannot be stopped”.

The time for democratic change in Zimbabwe has not yet come. But time does move fast in Zimbabwe. The unexpected occurs on a daily basis. While today we may see little hope, tomorrow or next week will surely be different, for ultimately time is on our side.

* Send comments on this editorial - and other events in Africa - to

* Previous editorials from Mary Ndlovu
- Zimbabwe’s March: Pambazuka News 105, 2003

* NOTE FOR EDITORS: Please note that this editorial was commissioned from the author for Pambazuka News. While we are pleased that several print publications have used our editorials, we ask editors to note that if they use this article, they do so on the understanding that they are expected to provide the following credit: "This article first appeared in Pambazuka News, an electronic newsletter for social justice in Africa, Editors are also encouraged to make a donation.

Ecotourism is taking its toll on wildlife and may be endangering the survival of the very animals people are flocking to see, according to researchers. Biologists and conservationists are worried because polar bears, dolphins, penguins and other creatures are getting stressed and losing weight and some are dying.

If you are in Bulawayo or London, join the Women of Zimbabwe Arise in a solidarity protest march on International Women's Day on March 08. Click on the link below for full details.

April 7, 2004 marks ten years since the beginning of the Rwandan genocide, when nearly a million people were killed in ninety days while the international community largely stood by. In response, the Centre for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at American University Washington College of Law has launched the Rwanda Commemoration Project: Genocide in Our Time, an international initiative that seeks to raise awareness of this anniversary and the important lessons of the tragic events in Rwanda. Read more by clicking on the link below.

The Africa-America Institute invites applications for the International Fellowships Program of the Ford Foundation from South African resident citizens and residents. The International Fellowships Program will provide support for up to three years of full-time postgraduate study. The primary objective of the Fellowships Program is to provide opportunities for individuals and communities that lack systematic access to higher education. The Ford International recipients will be expected to use their education to redress historical patterns of injustice.

A motor bike-donated by the German Embassy; at least 50 people to attend to on a 'good day'; the nearest village being 13km away for house-calls and no anti-retroviral drugs to give some of his patients who desperately need them, is what one medical officer in the remote area of Shiwa'ng'andu (lake of Crocodiles) in the Northern part of Zambia has to contend with on an almost everyday basis. “What can I do really, as I have to almost literally split myself to attend to various health matters in the villages, do sensitization programs, attend to patients at the Shiwa Hospital and of course try and spend time with my family,” says one jovial Joshua Musabaka whom this writer had the pleasure to meet during an HIV/AIDS sensitisation workshop held in Chief Mukwikiles' area recently.

The Shuttleworth Foundation is currently calling for proposals of innovative and pilot educational projects. The call for proposals will focus on the following areas:
- Maths, science, technology and entrepreneurship in the General Education and Training (GET) phase; and
- Numeracy in the Foundation phase.

A small kingdom in Uganda says it is suing the United Kingdom for alleged atrocities committed by British soldiers during the colonial period, the BBC said in a report on its website this week. Ernest Kizza, a spokesman for the Bunyoro-Kitara kingdom, told the BBC they are seeking $5.5 trillion.

Accusations of political bias are piling up against Malawi's state broadcaster in the run-up to general elections scheduled for May 18. In the latest salvo to be fired, a group of religious leaders has asked the courts to ensure equal air time for all political parties.

"There is a moratorium on new land reform projects – you can apply but your project will not be considered for at least two years.” During last year landless people in the Western Cape have had to swallow these words. The lack of funds has meant that land reform has stood still in the Western Cape; only two- to three-year-old projects are proceeding. And Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel’s Budget for this year has brought no respite.

A deadly fire in a satellite town of the Angolan capital has shown the woefully inadequate state of hospitals in a country still struggling to get back on its feet two years after the end of a brutal civil war. The accident in late February happened when a truck carrying barrels of petrol caught fire in the town of Viana, killing 15 people immediately and injuring more than 80. The wounded were admitted to nearby Neves Bendinha Hospital, where staff did their best to treat them for third-degree burns in under-equipped facilities. As patients lay screaming in corridors and overcrowded wards, many on plastic mattresses on the floor, and as the stench of burnt flesh filled the building, hospital director Dr. Valdemiro Diogo said resources were desperately over-stretched.

A Liberian government team is due in the northeast of the country this week to investigate reports that hundreds of fighters loyal to exiled president Charles Taylor are undergoing training there. A senior government official said the gunmen, mostly from Liberia and Guinea, were at a camp in Nimba County, the region near Ivory Coast from where Taylor launched a rebellion in 1989 that triggered nearly 14 years of war.

The Minister of Higher Education Herbert Murerwa says the government has no money to meet the demands of University of Zimbabwe lecturers who have been on strike for some weeks Murerwa told The Standard newspaper that only dialogue between the UZ Council and the University Teachers' Association (UTA) could bring normalcy to the UZ.

Girls have been part of government militia or opposition fighting forces in more than 50 countries over recent years, a Canadian human rights organisation has said in a new report. The organisation, Rights and Democracy, said many of the girls had taken part in armed conflict, were abducted or had to join to survive. The report, called Where are the Girls, focuses on northern Uganda, Sierra Leone and Mozambique.

The Eastern Africa Sub-regional Support Initiative for the Advancement of Women (EASSI) is seeking for applications from young women who wish to be attached to the organisation under its internship programme.

Government has extended the probe into corrupt practices to all structures of the public service and warned civil servants with dubiously acquired properties to prepare for questioning. Vice-President Nevers Mumba said in Lusaka that the fight against corruption had been extended to the whole public service and all civil servants owning questionable properties would be called to account.

The government of Benin has set up a national child protection committee to oversee the fight against child trafficking and the work of child protection organisations. The 15-member committee includes the representatives of several child welfare organisations, the government and the police. It was set up last Friday for an initial period of 12 months.

A month after schools were due to have resumed classes in the rebel-held north of Cote d’Ivoire, the overwhelming majority are still shut, with no teachers and very little in the way of teaching materials, education officials told IRIN. Most schools in the north closed after Cote d’Ivoire plunged into civil war 19 months ago leaving 300,000 pupils idle.

Children in South Africa have been speaking out about human rights violations, including child prostitution. A non-governmental organisation based in Cape Town called Molo Songololo organised the event to highlight the plight of thousands of victims of child abuse in South Africa and other parts of the world. According to a 2000 report by the NGO there were estimated to be around 38,000 child prostitutes in South Africa. Some of them are known to have been abducted at shopping malls.

Relief has come the way of persons living with HIV/AIDS as the first consignment of N500 million anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs has arrived the country. However, the drugs will be given to the 10,000 persons already enrolled in the government approved 25 access centres. This was announced by Health Minister Professor Eyitayo Lambo.

There is room for improvement in early childhood care and education in the world's nine high population countries, according to UNESCO's latest Policy Brief on Early Childhood. Favourable demographic trends means that there are fewer children to serve and if the countries' investment in early childhood remains constant, more can be spent on improving quality, says Soo-Hyang Choi of UNESCO. Early childhood care and education was the topic chosen for the 5th E-9 Ministerial Review Meeting, held in Cairo, Egypt, in December 2003. The Policy Brief represents some highlights of progress achieved in ECCE access in the nine countries - Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria and Pakistan.

Presidents from across Africa gathered for an extraordinary summit of the African Union to discuss issues of water, agriculture and defence, deemed crucial to the development of the world's poorest continent. "There cannot be any development unless we have a general environment of peace, security and stability," AU Chairman and Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano told the summit. Alpha Oumar Konare, the former president of Mali who is now chairman of the AU Commission, told delegates the continent needs "an African standby force (ASF) that can be operational and respond rapidly to any crisis."

Nigeria is ready to mediate in the border dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea, its foreign minister says. Olu Adeneji told the BBC's Network Africa programme that Eritrea's leader had asked Nigeria to intervene. If confirmed, this would mark a new strategy for Eritrea, which has insisted that the dispute was settled by a 2002 international court ruling.

In 2003 the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced $10 billion in "debt relief" for the Democratic Republic of Congo. According to their calculations, this would reduce the country's foreign debt by approximately 80 percent. The offer came, however, with a full set of complicated conditions and deadlines. Even if all of the conditions are met, full relief would not be delivered until sometime in 2006. After that, Congo would still owe over $2 billion to foreign creditors. The largest creditors are the Bank and Fund themselves, plus the U.S., France, and Belgium. Yet the Congo, of all countries, has one of the strongest cases for full cancellation of debt and indeed for reparations from the lenders, writes William Minter, a Foreign Policy in Focus analyst and the editor of the AfricaFocus Bulletin, in this Foreign Policy in Focus commentary.

* Africana Studies: Resources for African and African American Studies http://dizzy.library.arizona.edu/library/teams/fah/subpathpages/Africana...
* Africa: Art of the Continent
http://www.artnetweb.com/guggenheim/africa/
* African Art: Aesthetics and Meaning
http://www.lib.virginia.edu/clemons/RMC/exhib/93.ray.aa/African.html
* African Art and the Internet
http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/about/press/internet.html
Visit the URL provided for a full list of websites.

Employers that take on refugees who have been granted permission to stay in the UK are often impressed with the calibre of their work – but frightened to publicise the fact that they employ them, for fear of negative publicity.

This submission is concerned with the constraints on responding to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa, as analysed by Justice Africa, on behalf of the African Civil Society Governance and AIDS Initiative (GAIN). It anticipates likely problems of the next five years, as Africa and its international partners struggle to respond to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It identifies a series of potentially binding constraints on that response: resources, capacity, policy and democracy.