Liberian President Charles Taylor should be arrested by the government of any country he travels to, now that his indictment has been announced by the Sierra Leone Special Court, Human Rights Watch says. The Liberian president was attending peace talks in Ghana when the indictment was "unsealed."

The main concern of the Nigerian government was not to run the most open election possible, but rather to remain in power by whatever means possible, according to the conclusion of an analysis of the recent elections by the Centre for Democracy and Development. However, the CDD said: "Despite all the discrepancies and malpractice recorded, we can still suggest that the election was not an invalid episode, even though it was far from free and fair."

U.N. Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa Stephen Lewis, during a speech at the Global Health Council's annual conference in Washington, D.C., said that he was "aghast" at the way in which "AIDS was deepening hunger and hunger was deepening AIDS" in Southern Africa. According to Lewis, Africa "reaps what the world sows, and with a vengeance."

The government has locked horns with the Private Hospitals Association (PHA) over plans to gazette and control all fees charged by private health institutions in the country, The Standard has established. Sources said the government would, in the next "few months", set all fees paid in private hospitals because the institutions were charging rates beyond the reach of the ordinary people.

The National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) has received three-four wheel drive vehicles and other equipment as part of a 220,000- dollar grant from the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), a member of the global network of the Soros Foundation.The equipment include computers, video cameras and binding equipment. OSIWA's grant, which was made through the Access to Justice Initiative of the Legal and Justice Programme, would enhance the Commission's capacity to conduct public hearings in the regions and provide greater citizen access to the services of the Commission nationwide.

Attention all NGOs and CBOs! Come and join us at SANGONeT on Wednesday 25 June, 1pm to 4pm, for Thusanang's first focus group discussion. During this discussion: the Thusanang team will give you a detailed tour of the Thusanang portal, including a sneak preview of our Grantmaker Database; the Thusanang team wants to hear what you think of our services so far. Give us feedback, good or bad; and have your say: what should we focus on in future? What are the main challenges for your organisation when it comes to funding and fundraising?

A Zambian Demographic Education Survey (ZDES) report for 2002 has revealed that education has become more widespread, leading to a significant improvement in girl-child education. A nation-wide survey carried out among primary school children between August and October last year showed that there had been a dramatic improvement in the participation of girls in education.

Women in Lesotho married under customary law continue to be discriminated against. This was a conclusion reached at a two-day workshop on customary law and women's rights organised jointly by the Community Legal Resource and Advice Centre (CLRAC) of Lesotho and the Legal Resource Centre (LRC) of South Africa. The workshop, which is the result of a comparative study of women's rights in Lesotho and South Africa under customary law, found that the struggle of women for equal access to the law is still far from being reached.

This week, while African leaders persuaded the G8 heads in Evian to listen to the views of African heads of state on their own development path, the Zimbabwe regime used military force to suppress the views of its people.

The five African leaders argued for a new attitude towards Africa, based not on aid, but on respect for African approaches to solving economic and social problems. While there is debate on the paths being put forward, the idea that powerful nations stop unilaterally restructuring the world to suit their own goals, at the cost of poverty and decline in the south is not in dispute.

This makes the Zimbabwe regime’s efforts to unilaterally restructure economic and political life to secure its own political survival at the cost of a nation’s economic misery and fundamental rights a problem for the continent as a whole. It fundamentally undermines a central African position in global engagement.

Zimbabwe is currently in a freefall to economic collapse. Unemployment has soared, rural production declined, productive land is underutilized, and essential supplies sold at unaffordable prices in the parallel market. Once vibrant production and service sectors have collapsed.

While the long term imbalances of an inequitable colonial economy are not in dispute, the flight of capital, the exile of millions of young Zimbabweans, destructive engagement with the international community, growth of hunger, acute collapse of production and growth in speculation traces back to the policies of the current regime, and its unwillingness to listen to national voices other than its own.

The massive desire for a new people driven constitution has been shelved, and efforts to revive it are met with brutal suppression. Electoral processes have been undermined by violence and suppression of basic electoral rights, culminating in a 2002 presidential election that Southern African Development Community (SADC) parliamentarians said did not met regional standards. People’s efforts to gather within civil society to defend labour rights, to be informed through national media, to join political parties of their choice or to freely chose elected leaders have culminated in arrests, assault, torture and starvation, reinforced by a violent extra legal partisan militia. Frustration over political exclusion, economic decline and rights abuses have led to an increasing level of non-violent social action in 2003, including labour strikes and national stayaways. These too have been met with arrest of civil and political leaders and assault of citizens. Southern African leaders calling for Zimbabwean people’s rights to peacefully protest have been ignored.

In May heads of state from the region travelled to Harare in an effort to broker dialogue. While the need for dialogue was publicly endorsed by both ZanuPF and MDC, there appeared to be no sign of urgency or initiative from the regime to take dialogue forward, nor to resolve the economic crisis. Instead dialogue was tactically blocked by ZanuPF demands that a central agenda issue– that of legitimacy – be dropped.

Angered by poverty, confronted by lack of constructive leadership in the regime, disillusioned by lack of decisive action from regional leaders, ordinary people have now pushed for their own right to act. In a week of collective action from 2 to 6 June 2003 in Zimbabwe, there was an almost complete shutdown of workplaces and stayaway of workers. Thousands of people tried to hold peaceful marches in different parts of the country but were forced back by police, army and armed militias using teargas and live ammunition. People were indiscriminately assaulted with batons and whips, some within their homes. Unarmed youth were forced back using dogs, helicopters with tear gas, water cannons and weapons. By midweek over 300 people were reported to have been arrested, including the MDC President, Morgan Tsvangirai, and Secretary-General, Welshman Ncube, the Mayor of Bulawayo, Japhet Ndabeni Ncube, numerous city councilors, MDC officials and Members of Parliament. A number of cases have been reported of people still missing after being detained by security forces. The major cities of the country have been put under siege through army, militia and police assault and violence to hold people within their areas.

This stand off between ordinary people and the crackdown on democratic rights by security and army operatives in the streets of Harare, Bulawayo, Mutare and other parts of Zimbabwe is not simply an abuse of the democratic right to peaceful protest, it is a symbol of the crisis that Zimbabwe has reached. Will Africans vacillate over political uncertainty while ordinary people are abused by military power? The UN Secretary General, an African, urged the MDC to ensure their action was peaceful and lawful, and urged the Zimbabwe government to respect basic principles of freedom of expression and assembly and the human rights of those participating in the mass action. African American Organisations in the US from trade union, African solidarity, church and civil society, coming from a tradition of progressive solidarity with struggles for decolonization and against apartheid, condemned the ‘police brutality and excessive force’ being used. “Such trends in the abuse of human rights are not only unacceptable, they are threats to your country’s stability and they are undermining the economic and political development your people desire and deserve.”

These and other voices are adding to the internal pressure calling for those holding political power to realize that constituent power, not military power, should determine our future in Africa. In the stand off between unarmed people exercising rights to freedom of expression and assembly and armed and violent repression by security forces, it is the hand that holds the ballot and not the gun that fires the bullet that is the basis for our sovereignty.

The bloodshed and abuse of people’s rights in Zimbabwe blots the conscience of the continent. If you agree, petition your media, political leadership, SADC and African Union (AU) leadership condemning the current flagrant abuse of people’s democratic rights in Zimbabwe and calling for:
* An end to the police and military siege of Zimbabwe’s communities;
* Disbanding of militia and an end to police brutality and use of excessive force to repress citizens;
* Recognition of the right to peaceful, non violent collective action;
* An end to political repression and release of political prisoners in Zimbabwe; and
* Immediate and unconditional dialogue between MDC and ZanuPF.

FOUR DAYS OF PROTEST: MONDAY TO THURSDAY

MONDAY:
* Cops shoot live rounds to disperse protestors

Zimbabwean police fired teargas and shot live rounds in the air to disperse several hundred protesters marching towards downtown Harare from the nearby township of Highfield, witnesses said.
* Demonstrators killed, report says
id=15521
"Zimbabwe must be seen as a test case for Africa, for the resolve of leaders and peoples to deal with a rogue and illegitimate regime. We in MDC recognise and affirm that violence does not resolve such a crisis, and we will not use the same tools that are used by the repressor." - Morgan Tsvangirai, in an interview with Zimwatch.
* MDC response to protest ban

Zimbabwean police fired tear gas and warning shots at demonstrators in one Harare township on Monday, the first day of a week of opposition protests against President Robert Mugabe, witnesses said.
* Zimbabwe's Tsvangirai released
http://allafrica.com/stories/200306030881.html
AT least 115 people were arrested yesterday as security forces swooped on demonstrators and officials of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in a move to crush anti-government protests that are expected to end on Friday.
* G8 concerned about Zimbabwe
* Letter to Mugabe condemns repression
id=15431
MDC members arrested in Masvingo, including the member of parliament for Masvingo Central, Silas Mangono, were denied food while being detained, the MDC reported.

WEDNESDAY:
* Anonymous report on violence in Harare
* Arrests continue as Tsvangirai fights ban order
* Councillor assaulted in his home

Zimbabwe's anti-government strike kept the country at a standstill for the second day yesterday with fewer reports of public demonstrations in the face of a massive show of force by army and police.
* Police beat patients in Harare
Zimbabwean police raided a private Harare hospital, the third day of a week-long national strike, beating and arresting several patients, according to doctors.
* Opposition claims success

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said it fears violence after information that Mugabe had ordered soldiers to move from door to door in overcrowded townships and beat anyone who failed to report for work
* Human Rights Activist Arrested

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) claimed last night that one of its officials in Harare, Tichaona Kaguru, had died after being allegedly abducted and tortured by government security agents in a crackdown on opposition supporters.
* Protests and Arrests: Crisis Information Updates
http://www.zvakwana.org
Remember that in high density areas running battles continue to occur between pro-democracy activists and the repressive state authorities. Brave Zimbabweans have, throughout this week, taken on the might of the illegitimate regime. Visit the Zvakwana newsletter for the latest news.

"We have noticed a big increase in the abandonment of babies since the new year," says Clive Beckenham, the co-director of the New Life Home Trust for abandoned, orphaned and HIV-positive babies in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. Last week alone, the home was contacted by two hospitals with 11 unwanted babies needing homes.

Government has a contractual link with a sub-contractor in the R60bn arms deal, Business Day has learned, despite repeated assurances that it dealt directly only with the four prime contractors in the weapons programme.

Is your writing getting the results you want? Perhaps you find writing a chore. Perhaps you know what you want to say, but not how to say it. Perhaps you need to polish your skills. If so, then JustWrite is just what you need. JustWrite is a unique online learning experience, created for anybody needing to write powerful, persuasive documents. It is ideal for anybody producing a research report; thesis; book or book chapter; advocacy document; paper for publication; essay; - or any other substantial piece of writing. In three intensive weeks, JustWrite will guide you from conception to final draft. The next online course begins on 14 July 2003. You can be anywhere in the world to benefit from this course; you only need access to a computer and email. Places are limited, so book early.

There is no lock on the door, no phalanx of guards, no visible impediment to the drugs leaving the glass chamber that the laboratory technicians call a "stability room". The pills come in little white boxes with labels such as lamivudine, zidovudine and efavirenz, technical names disguising the fact that these tablets are the stuff of life. Take them together and if you have HIV you can stave off death for years. Millions in Africa have the virus but not the pills. A stone's throw from the laboratory Aids is wiping out communities, yet these pills cannot leave the stability room.

We are yet to start reading your journal, but having looked through your profile we want to assume that it will be of tremendous importance to achieving our set goals.

Leader of the opposition, Tony Leon, called on President Thabo Mbeki last Friday to "take responsibility as the arms deal unravels". In his weekly column in the Democratic Alliance's (DA) on-line publication, SA Today, he said it was becoming increasingly apparent the public did not know the full extent of the scandal and where it would lead.

All the signs are that next week's summit of G8 leaders in France's Evian will be - from Africa's perspective - another waste of space. US assistance to Africa is dependent on the degree Africa builds itself around the American business model and accepts American law and cheap farm exports. Britain is an American satrapy and it will mimic the American position. As a result, we can expect stalemate and warm words, says this commentary.

Preferential trade access the European Union (EU) has accorded dozens of African countries may have done more harm than good. This is the theme of an essay by the head of the SA Institute of International Affairs Greg Mills and by De Beers director Jonathan Oppenheimer, published this week in a collection of pieces on Africa by a UK-based think tank, the Foreign Policy Centre. Mills and Oppenheimer say that if there is to be real progress in Africa, selective preferential trade access needs to be replaced by broader access to developed markets.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is asking EU diplomats to give 4 minutes of their time to listen to the views of African fishermen before deciding on the future of fishing deals between the EU and developing countries. The European Commission proposes to turn its ‘cash for access’ deals - whereby the EU pays developing countries for EU boats to fish in their waters - into “partnership agreements” aimed at developing sustainable fisheries. But WWF, and African fishermen, are very critical of the EU’s record on fishing in developing countries.

Dead bodies litter Bunia's empty streets. From some the blood still drips from machete slashes, spear thrusts and bullet wounds. Others are two weeks old and stinking, half-eaten by the packs of dogs flopping lazily about the once-prosperous north-eastern capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The organisation CREDO for Freedom of Expression and Associated Rights has written to the interim chairman of the African Union (AU) Amara Essy voicing concern over the poor rights record of a significant number of AU member countries. Pointing out that 26 May marked the second anniversary of the AU, CREDO said the constitutive Act of the AU placed certain obligations on the union and member states with regards to human rights.

In an effort to hasten progress towards ending two decades of civil war in Sudan, mediator Lazaro Sumbeiywo is drawing up a final peace agreement to present to the two warring parties next week. “I am developing a final agreement. I am working on it,” Sumbeiywo told IPS this week. This is part of the new holistic style of negotiating which begun in the latest round of talks, held in Kenya, which broke off on May 21 with several major issues still unresolved.

After performing for Nelson Mandela, the Queen and the Royalty party; concerts in New Zealand, Ireland, Paris and so on, they are coming to ekasie Diepkloof. This Soweto violin group is called Buskuid. It was and is not the case of charity where the Goddess (Nalden- the group instructor) will flap her golden wings from her country to uncover talents from Soweto gutters.

Gaborone, the capital of Botswana, was the site of the first historical meeting of 200 education policy-makers, practitioners and development agencies. The policy-makers and practitioners were from 28 African countries. In total, there were participants from 35 countries internationally. Speakers representing these countries and agencies focused on various aspects of using ICT in the education system in Africa.

Two South African lobby groups this week picketed a biotechnology conference in Johannesburg over the controversial issue of genetically modified (GM) food. A small group of protesters from the Environmental Justice Networking Forum and the South African Freeze Alliance on Genetic Engineering held up placards with slogans like "Say Yes to Organic Agriculture" and "Warning: GM foods can damage your health". Sister Angelica Loub, one of the protesters, said she had environmental, social and economic concerns about genetically modified foods.

If education is good for the economy, why have so many countries not yet achieved Education for All? Most governments claim that their aim is to deliver economic growth, yet many have singularly failed to use the tool of education in its support. Is it the absence of the freedom and democracy that prevents the people from voicing their demand for education? Is it because maintaining educational and economic inequality actually suits the ruling elite? Political leaders have become adept at articulating the rhetoric about the importance of education, but are less inclined to acknowledge that importance at budget time. 'Education-Who Pays?' is the subject of the April-June 2003 edition of the Education Today newsletter.

The main pipeline supplying natural gas to Nigeria's biggest power station has been ruptured by explosives planted by suspected ethnic Ijaw militants, the navy said on Monday. The pipeline which was blasted on Saturday at the village of Ajama, near the oil town of Warri in the oil-rich Niger Delta, supplies gas from transnational ChevronTexaco's Escravos gas plant to the Egbin thermal power station, near Nigeria's biggest city, Lagos.

Cases of typhoid and diarrhoea among children in the northern town of Bambari in the Central African Republic (CAR) have increased due to lack of safe drinking water, government-run Radio Centrafrique reported on Saturday.

Local and international human rights campaigners on Sunday denounced violence which they said was "blindly directed at the civilian population" in Burundi, and urged the army and rebels to respect a ceasefire agreement reached on 2 December 2002.

Twelve years after Burkina Faso launched a campaign that outlawed female genital mutilation (FGM) in 1996 and imposed heavy penalties on circumcisers, the number of women undergoing the harmful practise is declining, officials said.

I thank you very much for sending me your publication: you are really doing a good job. I would like to express my opinion on the DRC crisis - I have read many books relating to the history and politics of the DRC. Since 1960, the DRC has been the victim of aggression from so-called “super-powers”, including Belgium, the UK and the USA. All have contributed to looting and spoiling the wealth of the DRC, and created and enhanced ethnic division so as to rule. Remember that the UN contributed to the killing of democratically elected DRC Leaders, such as Patrice Lumumba, Maurice M'polo and Joseph Okito.

Besides, we have observed that when it comes to the crises in the DRC, the UN seems to minimize the facts just to satisfy the so-called “international community”. Today, MONUC is in Congo while millions of Congolese are dying. What is the role of MONUC? Let us say: when somebody is fighting with his neighbour and starts crying for help, basically anyone who is passing and concerned by peace, without even asking what is happening, will first separate them and then try to find out the reason for the fight.

I would like to ask you to publish this message so any Congolese shall know that the UN is just an institution which has been made by superpowers to control especially Black Africa, and loot the African continent by keeping it in under-development and eternal darkness.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has stated that it is deeply disturbed by the recent jailing of Melese Shine, editor-in-chief of the Amharic-language weekly "Ethiop". Another journalist, Tewodros Kassa, the former editor-in-chief of "Ethiop", has been imprisoned since May 2002. Shine was charged with defamation under Ethiopia's Press Proclamation No.34/1992 after a letter to the editor published in "Ethiop" in November 2001 alleged that Melkamu Gettu, the administrator of the state-owned Ras Desta Hospital in the capital, Addis Ababa, had embezzled hospital funds.

The summary illegal deportation in defiance of Supreme Court orders of the London Guardian correspondent Andrew Meldrum from Zimbabwe on May 16 raises several serious issues which impact on the treatment of journalists, the rule of law and the conduct of the President and his officials, states the South African Chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa.

Cost Recovery and the Crisis of Service Delivery in South Africa is a groundbreaking publication, providing a theoretical and empirical review of the dramatic shift from welfare municipalism to a neoliberal vision of balanced budgets and fiscal restraint. Centred largely on case studies in a number of South African municipalities, this volume critically examines ‘cost recovery’, the heart of this new municipal vision. The authors contend that cost recovery has far-reaching implications for access to services, affordability and privatisation. At a theoretical level, the book explores ways of reversing the insidious effects of commodification, the role of the market in shaping service delivery, and the way we ‘value’ essential goods such as water. These issues are of increasing importance internationally as governments around the world move more aggressively toward full cost recovery measures.

CHIMURENGA is an advertising-free and self-funded quarterly of arts.cultures.politics from Africa for Africa. Contributors to the latest edition include Toure, Kgafela oa Magogodi, Yambo Ouologuem, Zackie Achmat, Elaine Salo, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Kalamu ya Salaam, Gael Reagon, Mukoma wa Ngugi.

On June 1, the G8 leaders will gather in Evian, France, where access to medicines is again at the top of the their agenda. (The G8 countries are: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, UK, USA.) That same day, according to far too familiar disease statistics, 19,000 people will die from AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, African trypanosomiasis, and visceral leishmaniasis. These five diseases represent the failure of the pharmaceutical industry to deliver medicines for the developing world, and the non-response from governments to this market failure.

Tanzania's national food crop production is likely to decline by 10 percent this year compared to last year, the Famine Early Warning System has predicted in its May report. Despite the shortfall, which has been put down to "low and erratic rainfall", Famine Early Warning System said that the overall food supply situation would remain "adequate". Nonetheless, it noted that the price of staple foods began to rise in some markets in April, "contrary to the normal trend".

How is globalisation affecting the lives of the 3.4 million inhabitants of the Angolan capital, Luanda? Can the state use wealth from oil and diamonds to lift the city's poor out of poverty? Can civil society release the potential of the poor to become development actors?

This paper from the Overseas Development Institute examines whether and how wildlife is a source of rural growth and development in East Africa, and whether its potential could be tapped more fully. It focuses particularly on the wildlife tourism industry, pulling together issues from a range of work and comparisons from Southern Africa, rather than presenting conclusive results based on detailed research specific to this topic. The paper reports that although wildlife-based tourism is a thriving industry in some well-established tourism destinations in East Africa, evidence suggests that the wider potential of wildlife enterprise in other rural areas is not being harnessed to the full.

According to Business Day, the small, medium and micro enterprise (SMME) sector has received a shot in the arm from the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) and the Department of Trade and Industry. They have put in seed funding for the sector to the tune of R32 million and R5 million respectively. The initiative is part of the Swedish-SA Business Partnership Fund and its strategy to provide access to finance for SMMEs.

One of the greatest threats to the realisation of child rights in South Africa and in sub-Saharan Africa is the HIV/Aids pandemic, the University of Cape Town's Children's Institute said on Tuesday. "The illness and death of adults as a result of HIV/Aids has a profound impact on the survival, development and protection of children in South Africa," the institute said.

NGO's have called for an independent audit of the national AIDS fund as they fear that the money might not be reaching the intended beneficiaries because no audit has been done. The call was made by representatives of NGOs in the country who met in Masvingo on Wednesday to discuss the national AIDS policy.

Discuss how youth can overcome the challenges of finding employment. The outcome of this discussion forum will be presented at the Youth Employment Summit (YES), which is holding its first regional summit in Hyderabad, India, in December 2003.

The only viable solution to end the crisis in Zimbabwe was through a process of serious and sincere dialogue, said Movement for Democratic Change president Morgan Tsvangirai at a recent meeting with G8 ambassadors. "Therefore, the urgency of international pressure being exerted to bring Mugabe to the negotiating table cannot be overemphasized. It is the only way to avert a catastrophe. A culture of democracy and political tolerance in Zimbabwe can only take root if all of us accept the principle of dialogue without preconditions, as a way out of political problems," he said.

United Nations agencies and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have announced a new initiative focused on developing new diagnostic tests for the world's most deadly infectious diseases, increasing the possibility of early detection and treatment. The Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) was formed by the UN-backed Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) and the Gates Foundation in response to the critical need for new tools to detect infectious diseases.

The European Commission (EC) said it has initiated new Micro Project Programmes in the six states of the Niger Delta region worth 42 million euros (about N6.2 billion).The states covered by the programme are Abia, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Edo, Imo and Ondo. The project is aimed at improving the living standards of the impoverished settlements in the Niger Delta region.

Equality Now, an international human rights organisation dedicated to end violence and discrimination against women and girls globally, is looking for a Program Officer with experience in human rights work focusing on protecting the fundamental rights of women. Based in the Africa Regional Office of Equality Now, located in Nairobi (Kenya), the Program Officer will be responsible for program work in French Speaking Africa, with a particular focus on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). She/he will report to the Africa Regional Director.

The Rockefeller Foundation is currently seeking an Associate Director for its office in Nairobi who will have overall responsibility for providing thematic leadership for grant activities in the AIDS area of work in the development of programs related to the Health Equity (HE) theme and the Africa Regional Program (ARP) in Eastern and Southern Africa.