PAMBAZUKA NEWS EDIÇÃO EM PORTUGUÊS 93: Moçambique: RENAMO insiste emgovernar 6 províncias | Crise política agudiza-se no Brasil
PAMBAZUKA NEWS EDIÇÃO EM PORTUGUÊS 93: Moçambique: RENAMO insiste emgovernar 6 províncias | Crise política agudiza-se no Brasil
Soldiers and police are patrolling Swaziland's major highway and other main routes, as an anti-government stay-away begins. The action is to protest against King Mswati III's plans to buy himself a R720 million private jet, as well as government statements and decisions that defy the country's courts.
South Africa's minister of health and a provincial health minister are being taken to court by AIDS lobby group the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), for failing to provide nevirapine to pregnant women in one of the country's nine provinces.
A reporter of Monrovia's independent Inquirer newspaper, Throble Suah, was allegedly flogged by five uniformed security personnel, reports the paper.
As Rwanda starts the full implementation of the gacaca traditional justice system, to try suspects of the 1994 genocide, Amnesty International has called on Rwandan authorities to ensure that gacaca trials conform with basic international standards of fairness so that the government's efforts to end impunity are effective.
The much-vaunted New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) faces an assortment of obstacles - including the Zimbabwe crisis - and a range of negative perceptions which hover ominously over it, a business forum on the continental recovery programme heard last week.
Rhythm and blues singer Shola Ama and Kora award winner Mory Kante have arrived in the country for the long-awaited HIV/AIDS jazz concert at the Fountains in Pretoria. The concert is expected to raise about R100 000, which will be donated towards South Africa's efforts against the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The National Association of People Living with AIDS (Napwa) will be the key beneficiary.
The consistent shortfall of maize in Matabeleland North and South, the reported increase in sale of household assets to buy food, biased access to controlled price foods and the low reported level of access to seed and fertilizer were of "serious concern" with regards the food situation in Zimbabwe. This is according to a report by Fosenet, the NGO Food Security Network, that assessed the food situation in Zimbabwe for November. A summary of the report is available through the link provided.
The Women's World Organization for Rights, Literature, and Development, or Women's WORLD, was formed because nowhere on earth are women's voices given the same respect as men's. “In far too many countries, women who try to have a public voice are met with hatred, contempt, suppression, exile, or death,” says their web site.
These insightful investigations into the policies, strategies and actions of the stakeholders involved in the African ICT policy-making process are the first in a series of research reports commissioned by the APC to investigate the current role of local civil society organisations (CSOs) in developing and strengthening ICT policy-making at a national level.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and foreign direct investment (FDI) are very much like identical twins in the government's economic policy. President Kufuor has made the development of ICT one of the cornerstones of his vision for Ghana's development. He has established a high-powered commission to oversee its development. The first two years of his administration have seen him also making first hand contacts around the world to interest investors in Ghana.
It is a fact that the rapid development and use of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) have had a direct and dramatic impact on all aspects of life. However, the pace at which the changes are taking place is unprecedented and there is a danger that 'the have and have-not' scenario of the industrial age will be replaced with 'the knows and knows-not' of the information age.
With Kenya's elections just nine days away, an anti-corruption group accuses the government of financing political campaigns. The group, Transparency International, is calling for stricter control of government resources.
Nearly half of Zambian urban voters received gifts from politicians to influence their vote in presidential elections at the end of last year, Transparency International Zambia, an anti-corruption lobbying group, said.
FATWAS AND DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS: THE TIME TO INTERVENE IS NOW
5 December 2002
An article written in mid-November by journalist Isioma Daniel about the Miss World beauty pageant and published by ThisDay newspaper in Nigeria sparked protests by Muslims and subsequent riots killed an estimated 200 people. Rotimi Sankore, Coordinator of CREDO for Freedom of Expression and Associated Rights, argued that failing to halt 'politically' motivated rights violations at the starting blocks can often have devastating effects for society.
BLACK HISTORY: SIGNIFICANCE FOR THE DIASPORA AND AFRICA
14 November 2002
History has shown that racial superiority, which rationalises racism, is a myth. If all races are equal, then there is no basis for racism and economic exploitation, just as there never was any basis for slavery and colonialism beyond greed. The correction of contemporary understanding of Black history has massive implications for people of African descent and identity, in relation to racism, human rights, dignity and self-respect, argued this editorial.
PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN RIGHTS
19 September 2002
University of Dar Es Salaam Professor of Law, Issa G. Shivji, argued that the language of rights articulates the most pressing concerns of the large majority of people, while at the same time providing for the language of resistance and the changing of existing conditions. It is important that activist NGOs and other human rights advocates are conscious of the different perspectives on human rights, so that they know what to promote, in whose interest and in which direction, he says.
THE MISSIONARY POSITION: NGOS AND DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA
15 August 2002
Development NGOs operating in Africa have inadvertently become part of the neo-liberal global agenda, and thereby serve to undermine the battle for social justice and human rights in much the same way as their missionary predecessors, argued this paper in the July issue of International Affairs. The paper said that the contribution of NGOs to relieving poverty was minimal and they played a “significant role” in undermining the struggle of African people to emancipate themselves from economic, social and political oppression. NGOs faced a stark choice: They could move into the political domain and support social movements that sought to challenge a social system that benefited a few and impoverished the majority; or they could continue unchanged and thus become complicit in a system that left the majority in misery.
DEATH BY STARVATION IN MALAWI
13 June 2002
News of famine in Malawi began to reach the ears of urban policymakers in Lilongwe and foreign capitals from October 2001. The Malawi Economic Justice Network (MEJN) and the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace had attempted to mobilize activist groups to pressurize the Government to declare a “famine”, but was unsuccessful, their data being dismissed as lacking credibility. By June 2002, the disaster had claimed nearly a thousand African lives. This policy brief from ActionAid scrutinized the failure of macro-economic and structural policy to safeguard against the famine in Malawi.
http://www.fpif.org/outside/commentary/2002/0204nepad.html "WHAT WENT WRONG?" - INTERPRETING ZIMBABWE'S ELECTION
14 March 2002
The people of Zimbabwe re-elected Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu) president Robert Mugabe in early March by a vote of 1.69 million to 1.28 million for his closest opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai. What will democratic activists in Zimbabwe do in response to the rigged elections, asked Patrick Bond and Raj Patel? The gut- reaction seemed to be one of hunkering down to overcome the shock of what many term “the mugging.” Activists were overcome with exhaustion, intimidation and the sheer challenge of going up against the repressive arms of the state. More than a thousand civil-society election monitors were arrested. Army and police patrolled the ghettoes and the mood of fear and loathing was palpable. At this crucial juncture, leadership appeared to be lacking.
Since coming to power in 1986, Uganda's National Resistance Movement (NRM) has made significant strides towards including women as partners in the country's development and decision-making process. But tradition dies hard, and Ugandan women complain there is still a long way to go.
A Ugandan minister has said her country will not accept Rwandan refugees who have left Tanzania seeking asylum, according to the privately owned Kampala newspaper, the Monitor.
The Danie Craven stadium in Stellenbosch was reminiscent of a picnic on Tuesday night. African National Congress delegates converged under trees in the grandstands, to finetune their preference for the leaders they want included in the ANC's national executive committee. The national executive committee (NEC) of the ANC is the highest decision-making body between party conferences, and is very influential in implementing and shaping the policies of the ANC.
Zimbabwe's energy minister says that a vital fuel deal with Libya includes conditions the fuel-starved Southern African country cannot meet. Speculation has been rife in Zimbabwe that the deal with Libya, which supplies 70% of the country's fuel needs, has collapsed. Over the past two weeks, the fuel situation in the country has become desperate.
PAMBAZUKA NEWS EDIÇÃO EM PORTUGUÊS 92: Crise militar e humanitária em Moçambique | Regime assassina activista indígena em Honduras
PAMBAZUKA NEWS EDIÇÃO EM PORTUGUÊS 92: Crise militar e humanitária em Moçambique | Regime assassina activista indígena em Honduras
Reducing the gender gap in health and education can significantly reduce personal and household poverty and generate national economic growth, according to a report issued by the United Nations Population Fund.
Promoting reproductive health and rights is “indispensable” for economic growth and poverty reduction, according to a new report from the United Nations Population Fund.
Lesotho’s Prime Minister, Pakalitha Mosisili says a multi-sectoral effort is needed and should be stepped up more than ever to fight the HIV/Aids pandemic. Lesotho’s HIV/Aids infection rate stands at 31% and is regarded as one of the highest in the southern African region.
Although the government claims it has stopped acquiring farms, the listing and gazetting of commercial farms continues. The state of affairs has been interpreted by critics to mean there is continued confusion in the farming sector. More than 30 farms were listed in an Extraordinary Government Gazette under General Notices 610 A of 2002 and 610 B of 2002.
Population growth, land pressure and decreasing agricultural productivity have led to severe economic, ecological and social challenges in the Mulanje District of Malawi. As a result the area is experiencing structural violence, an extended socio-economic crisis, and the potential for violent conflict is slowly building up.
Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi has named a multi-sectoral Interim Management Team (IMT) to assist the Eastern Cape government in stamping out corruption and ease its administrative backlogs.
French soldiers have discovered a mass grave in the west of divided Ivory Coast, where rebels and loyalist forces have been locked in conflict since September, a French army spokesman said last Friday.
It was mid-April when it first became evident that the South African government had had a change of heart regarding the use of anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs for the treatment of HIV/Aids in the public health sector. The world's most powerful weapon against HIV/AIDS - anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs - dominated public debate about the disease in South Africa this year. Follow the link provided for a review of the AIDS debate in South Africa over the last year, provided by Health-E News Service.
Several well known human rights activists and members of Nigeria's civil society have been prevented from travelling out of the country in the past week by the Nigerian State Security Service (SSS), says CREDO, an International human rights organisation based in Senegal and London and focusing on work in Africa. CREDO said the "new wave" of repression by Nigeria's civil society was believed to be authorised by the highest levels of Nigeria's political and military establishment.
The Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, has made an urgent appeal for 1.4 million metric tons of food aid, as his country faces a famine potentially as severe as the 1984 crisis.
The focus of the conference will be to examine best training practices used in international healthcare settings, with particular emphasis on family planning and reproductive health in Africa. In addition, training practices that have been employed successfully in sectors other than healthcare will be examined and discussed for their applicability to reproductive health programs.
With some 780 million people suffering from chronic hunger worldwide, and with 40 million people at risk of starvation on the African continent alone, it is ironic that the people with the power and financial resources to do something about it are feasting 21 times a week. They are themselves dying, succumbing to the diseases that once afflicted only overindulgent kings and queens.
Oil was first discovered in the Niger Delta in the 1950s. Today 90% of Nigeria's export earnings come from oil. The Delta's inhabitants have benefited little from the oil boom, and their environment has been seriously polluted. Oil spills are frequent, says Ogon Patterson of Environmental Rights Action, the Nigerian branch of Friends of the Earth. "On average, we get 220 oil spills a year because most of the equipment used by the multinational oil corporations is old. These spills have led to permanent degradation of the environment and loss of biodiversity."
Initiated in 1987, "Synergy Gender and Development" (Synfev), of Enda Third World, conducts activities in an effort to benefit women by promoting gender equality, peace, and sustainable development. The programme aims to help Francophone African women escape poverty, victimisation, and marginilisation by improving their capacities with regard to ICTs. An underlying commitment is to enable these women to retain their personal and cultural identities in the face of globalisation.
This book provides critical perspectives on media structures, ownership, new regulatory regimes, and the way both nations and local communities within them have engaged with globalisation via localised responses in Southern Africa. Studies detailed in this collection discuss privatisation, black empowerment, liberalisation, traditional communication, democracy and media freedom, the kalahari San, identity and new media.
This book argues that HIV/AIDS is an epidemic of globalisation. Its trajectory can be directly linked to global inequality. Globalisation determines the scale and scope of HIV/AIDS, and HIV/AIDS will shape international political, economic and social relations in the first decades of this century. Above all, HIV/AIDS shows the bankruptcy of national and international public health policy.
There have been significant changes in sexual behaviour in South Africa over the past four years, a new study has found. According to the study, condom use among sexually active youth was high, with 57 percent of males and 46 percent of females having used a condom the last time they had sexual intercourse.
Blue is normally my favorite color, but after my recent trip to Lesotho I will have to reconsider. The water I saw exiting two clothing manufacturing plants and entering nearby fields was the color of ink. A steady stream of this filth entered a space surrounded by cattle grazing, children playing, and adults interacting, turning the area into a cesspool. From this field, the refuse enters a nearby river, flowing first into South Africa and later into Namibia.
Zambia is facing the worst food crisis for over a decade. This year, people’s usual defence mechanisms – such as fishing or collecting wild fruit – simply won’t be enough. The people in Manchamvwa village are using simple technology and equipment to work their way out of this crisis.
Kenyan police appear to be using the November 28 attacks on Israeli tourists in Mombassa to justify a crackdown on refugees living in Nairobi, Human Rights Watch says. Since November 29, the police have conducted three large raids and dozens of arbitrary arrests against refugees from Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo in several neighborhoods of Nairobi.
Related Link: Police deny refugee harassment
http://irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31300
It would seem that Nepad is the only African initiative that has the potential to bring an end to the enduring socio-economic morass wreaking havoc in the continent. Despite the conceptual and operational limitations apparent at this stage, it appears that it cannot just be dismissed as a wish-list that will not achieve any of its stated objectives. However, this does not mean that it should be accepted uncritically. Nepad is still in its embryonic stages and there is still a laborious journey to travel before the rebirth of the continent can be achieved. This places a challenge to governments, private sector and civil society to ensure that that journey is travelled in a manner that will deliver to the poverty stricken masses whose expectations have already been elevated.
Sierra Leone's youth believe that to achieve peace, degradation and instability must be eliminated from their communities and their everyday lives, according to a paper from the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children. Recommendations from the paper include a need for increased support from the international community and increased access to education.
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Maputo loan shark Nini Satar and Nyimpine Chissano, the president's son, confronted each other across the floor of the courtroom during the Carlos Cardosa murder trial and called each other liars. Nini, on trial for the murder of Carlos Cardoso, says he met Nyimpine repeatedly and was given cheques by Nyimpine to pay for the Cardoso murder. Nyimpine, appearing as a witness last Thursday and Friday, says he met Nini only once and that the cheques were given to Maria Candida Cossa as security for a loan. Nympine needed the money to stop being taken to court by Budget Rent-a-Car, and claimed Cossa sold the cheques on to Nini.
CREDO, an international human rights organisation based in Senegal and London and focusing on work in Africa, has welcomed the swearing in of the judges of the Special War Crimes Court on Sierra Leone. However, the organisation says it is concerned at the waning enthusiasm of the international community and donor countries for the Truth and Reconciliation process in Sierra Leone.
The leaders of three southern African countries are due to sign a treaty on Monday that will bring into existence the world's largest game park. Presidents Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe are due to give their assent to the 95 000-square-kilometre, cross-border park.
The US has issued a warning to the government of Swaziland saying that if it continues to ignore democratic principles its eligibility under the US African Growth and Opportunity Act will be reviewed.
Some of the contents of this issue are:
* Challenging Minorities, Difference and Tribal Citizenship in Botswana p. 671 Richard Werbner
* From a Phone Call to the High Court: Wayeyi Visibility and the Kamanakao Association's Campaign for Linguistic and Cultural Rights in Botswana p. 685 Lydia Nyati-Ramahobo
* Navigating the 'Neutral' State: 'Minority' Rights in Botswana p. 711 Jacqueline S. Solway
The Chairperson of the International Governing Council of the Centre for Democracy & Development (CDD), Dr. Tajudeen Abdul Raheem was arrested at the Murtala Mohammed Airport on his way to London on December 3. The CDD is an independent research, information and training institution dedicated to policy-oriented scholarship on questions of democratic development and peace building in the West African sub-region.
Civil Aviation Authority chief executive Trevor Abrahams was placed on an indefinite compulsory leave of absence last Thursday following allegations of misconduct and impropriety against him.
An animal conservationist with experience in both government and nonprofit sectors has been selected to fill the post of Director for the Kenya Wildlife Service vacated by retirement. Michael Wamithi worked for 14 years in the Service, before he took his present position as East Africa regional director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).
This is an exciting opportunity to play a significant role SC UK's Programme in Angola. SC UK has worked closely with the MOH at provincial and municipal level in health since 1993. This involvement was interrupted at the beginning of 2001 and SC UK is looking to re-engage in both urban and rural settings in Huambo province, with plans to move from an emergency health programme towards a more development based programme over the next two years.
The successful candidate will take the lead on the Masisi programme team for financial, administrative and human resources policy and procedural matters, set up and review. He/She will monitor all grants and programme budget finances, provide regular capacity building for staff and ensure clear internal audits as well as supervise accounts for external audits.
Urgently required to manage a large operation which provides community service and health programmes for over 130,000 Congolese refugees in three camps, and a community development programme in western Tanzania.
The Health Manager (HM) is responsible for overseeing all IRC health interventions in Kabare Health Zone. The Health Manger is responsible for planning, developing and implementing emergency health interventions (in collaboration with the Health Coordinator) as needed, while planning longer-term public health programs.
On 4 December 2002, a major victory for press freedom in Zimbabwe was won when a Harare magistrate dropped charges against three journalists from "The Standard". The three journalists were accused of publishing falsehoods under the draconian Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA).
In the months since the presidential election the privately owned media have been consistently reporting incidents of political violence around the country, mostly against opposition MDC officials or those perceived to be the party's supporters. The government-controlled media on the other hand, has virtually ignored the development of this frightening "norm" in Zimbabwean society, giving the impression that politically motivated violence no longer occurs in Zimbabwe, says the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe.
The first conference dedicated to African Women's Sexual and Reproductive Health & Rights will take place in Johannesburg, South Africa, February 4th to 7th 2003. The conference represents an opportunity to bring together policy makers, women's organisations, donor agencies, researchers and health-care providers to debate and strategise around gender and health in Africa. Africa is currently in a state of reproductive health crisis facing the highest rates of maternal mortality and the spread of HIV / AIDS and low availability of and use of fertility regulation methods. This conference is an attempt to address the emergency in the region and raise awareness of the connection between this crisis and women's sexual and reproductive health and rights issues and mobilize pan-African public opinion to support them.
What discussions, dilemmas and ideas are surfacing around the Beijing +10/Fifth World Conference debate? We at AWID, would like to invite and engage you, our members and forum participants, in a timely and ongoing dialogue around the pros, cons and alternatives to the proposed 2005 Conference. This four-week online discussion will be moderated and will include weekly summaries and discussion topics relevant to the individual postings and contributions made throughout the week. To participate please subscribe by sending a message to [email protected]. Please leave the subject line blank and write "subscribe
5worldconferencewomen" (without quotes) in the text of the message.
At first it seems a contradiction in terms: the toil of generations of African slaves and the quiet reflections of poetry. As a new anthology demonstrates, however, poets on both sides of the Atlantic focused an early, bright, harsh and unwavering light on slavery even as the slave trade flourished and plantation owners prospered from it. A newly published book, Amazing Grace, An Anthology of Poems About Slavery, 1660-1810, brings together a remarkably diverse cast of more than 250 poets.
Government troops retook Damara in the northeast of the Central African Republic (CAR) last Saturday after a two-hour battle against rebels loyal to the former army chief of staff, Gen Francois Bozize, Junior Defence Minister Xavier Yangongo told IRIN.
The Sudanese government has agreed in principle to a proposal by the African Union (AU) that the Khartoum government meet its Asmara counterpart, according to Sudanese radio. The radio said on 6 December that the AU had invited the two governments to meet and discuss ways of reducing bilateral tension, which has been high for the past two months following accusations by Sudan that Eritrea was backing rebel forces fighting the government of President Umar al-Bashir.
The Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) rebel movement last Friday claimed to have recaptured the mineral-rich town of Mwenga in South Kivu Province in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) from a local Mayi-Mayi militia backed by Rwandan Hutu exiles.
The Organisation des femmes centrafricaines, a women's association in the Central African Republic (CAR), launched an aid appeal on 5 December for women raped during the October rebel uprising. "They need urgent humanitarian assistance, including medicines and food," Helene Kaine, chairwoman of the association, told IRIN. "Among them were children aged between nine and 14."
The campaign to eliminate river blindness as a public health threat in West Africa ended at a ceremony in the Burkina Faso capital, Ouagadougou last Friday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has hailed the waiver of ex-President Hissene Habre's immunity by the Chadian government, saying it would pave the way for his prosecution in Belgium. It also opens the way for his indictment and extradition from Senegal where he lives in exile, HRW said in a news release.
Close to 60,000 children across Zimbabwe are expected to benefit from a supplementary feeding scheme from December to March next year, World Vision says.
Zimbabwe's economic problems are exacerbating violence against women and their sexual exploitation, women's groups say. "With all the economic problems, violence has taken a new twist," matrimonial lawyer Nomsa Ncube told IRIN.
The Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC) and the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma), the two largest rebel factions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), have reached a power-sharing agreement for a future transitional national government. However, the DRC government opposes the deal.
Related Link: Power-sharing talks resume in SA
http://ww.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31323
South Africa's AIDS epidemic is exacting a deadly toll on South Africa's children, with greater numbers infected with HIV than was previously thought, according to a survey released Thursday.
A dismissed Anglo Platinum manager has claimed that his former colleagues made racist remarks and that he lost his job for raising complaints about this and for calling union members "comrades".
"Education is the key to life!" Smiling schoolgirls from Zanaki Secondary, in Tanzania’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, said it all. Welcoming African education ministers, and delegates from all over the continent, with song and dance, the students gave a passionate performance at the opening of the 8th conference of African education ministers on Tuesday. But the challenge facing Africa’s educators and governments, as they chart the way forward to ensure 'Education For all' (EFA), is formidable.
Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia, the three countries hardest hit by a region-wide food crisis, are set to benefit from a US$100m grant, to assist in funding emergency and supplementary food distribution.
These submissions intend to highlight provisions in the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Bill, which offend against various sections of the Constitution. This includes most specifically sections (18)(1) - the right to the protection of the law and section (20) - the right to freedom of expression and to freely receive and impart information and ideas.
South Africa’s Social Development Minister Dr. Zola Skweyiya says he is embarrassed that children should die of malnutrition in his country.
The crop fields are lush green in Bikita. One thousand hungry people in this remote southern area of Zimbabwe queue quietly under the midday sun for food aid. They're just a fraction of the eight million starving in this southern African country. Each person standing in this feeding centre queue in Bikita, some 240km south-east of Harare, has come to collect aid for at least two other people.
What is the impact of HIV/Aids on agriculture and the private sector? The key finding in this report is that HIV/Aids has not affected the profitability and productivity of Swazi businesses, as the costs have been passed onto the households and the public sector.
The Minister of Social Development, Dr. Zola Skweyiya has undertaken an emergency visit to the Intandane area in the Eastern Cape to check the reasons for the delays of grant payment to thousands of pensioners.
About R15m in social grant money has been pocketed by government officials this year throughout the country, Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya has disclosed.
The rampant corruption in government departments will scare away donors if not tackled, French ambassador Jean Bernard Thiant has said. He queried the way the Government had handled the US$100m grant from the World Health Organisation to the health ministry. He said the fund, meant for the fight against malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/Aids, had been diverted to other sectors.
The decision last month to extend Operation Iron Fist into 2003 is more likely to subject women and girls in Northern Uganda to further violence than bring peace to the region. In March, the Ugandan government obtained approval from the Sudanese government to launch a military offensive against the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), whose bases are located in southern Sudan.
Zackie Achmat is not hungry, but tucks into the chocolate cake just the same. Achmat is HIV positive, yet refuses to take the antiretroviral drugs that could prolong his life. But he does boost his immune system with protein -- with chocolate cake. Achmat is not a shanty dweller unable to afford the drugs; he is not a so-called "Aids dissident" who believes the drugs are poison; he is not mad, and he is not suicidal. Zackie Achmat, according to Nelson Mandela, is a national hero: an ordinary man whose extraordinary resolve could help save thousands of African lives, at the cost of his own.
Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, minister of the Department of Public Service and Administration, will address the Global Forum on Thursday to highlight SA's goals in implementing electronic government.
Following a recent oil spill in the Niger Delta, send protest letters to Shell in Nigeria demanding:
1. immediate and full clean-up of the spill;
2. relief materials to the community to cushion the economic effects of
the spill;
3. adequate compensation to the local people whose environment and means
of livelihood have been destroyed by the spill.
ADDRESS:
SPDC Nig. Ltd
Freeman House
21/22 Marina, P.M.B. 2418
Lagos, Nigeria
Tel: 23412601600-19
Fax: 23412636681
[email][email protected] and [email][email protected]
News has reached us that Joseph Eneko, Governor of Ituri in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and member of the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Democratie/Kisangani (RCD/Kisangani) was murdered on November 21, 2002. This murder is not just one more name in a long list of those lost in the mini-world war that has been gripping central Africa. The peace and reconciliation efforts in the DRC are seriously undermined by such assassinations, potentially plunging that country further into a cycle of endless death squads, retaliations and full-scale war. Facilitating the resolution of the civil war in the DRC must become a major focus of the attention of the newly formed African Union. The full array of diplomatic initiatives will be necessary in order to bring about not only a cessation of violence, but a just resolution of the demands for democracy and popular control on the part of the people of the Congo. Attempts at continental development and an African Renaissance will go nowhere as long as the open sores represented by the crises of the DRC as well as other hotspots such as Zimbabwe, go unhealed. It is critical that supporters of peace and justice for the DRC speak out against terror as represented by the murder of Governor Eneko. We in the Diaspora cannot afford to turn a blind eye to such events.
Liberian authorities released journalist Hassan Bility, whom authorities had held incommunicado since June 24 as a "prisoner of war." According to news reports, Bility, editor of the independent weekly The Analyst, was released without being charged or tried. He left the country for an undisclosed location.
At least 700,000 people are trafficked worldwide each year and trafficking is the fastest growing means by which people are enslaved today. Young girls are trafficked to work as domestics in West Africa, boys as young as four are abducted from countries in South Asia and forced to work as camel jockeys in the Gulf, and women from eastern Europe are sold into Europe's sex industry. To mark Human Rights Day, Tuesday 10 December, Anti-Slavery International is calling on the public to sign the Stop Human Traffic petition urging governments to introduce anti-trafficking laws and to develop measures to protect the victims of human trafficking.
This morning, in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court, all charges against the ninety-three (93) members of APF affiliate, the Soldiers Forum (SF), were finally dropped. This is a resounding victory against the South African state’s continuing, and opportunistic, attempts to repress legitimate political dissent and to criminalize the actions of those who are struggling for socio-economic justice.
Zambia will need to spend at least $270 million over the next three years to fight the spread of HIV, Finance Minister Emmanuel Kasonde announced as part of the nation's three-year development plan, Reuters reports.
In its new human rights working group on 'people of African descent', the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has placed Black Americans, Canadians, and other unspecified Black populations elsewhere, into the category "Western European and Other". The OHCHR is located in Geneva, Switzerland. Text of the official UN press release is included below. The "Working-Group on People of African Descent" is to follow up on concerns raised at the United Nations World Conference against Racism (WCAR) in Durban, South Africa, Aug/Sept. 2001. Racism and related issues are international human rights issues as well as domestic concerns within countries. Well thought-out structures are required to address them even if it means altering application of the UN's five-part division of the World. Otherwise this working group on or for "people of African Descent" shows distinct potential to possibly marginalise or trivialise significant populations, and that's just the beginning.
The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) has labelled the arrests of several high-level members of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) as a "chilling reminder" of the repression and intimidation faced by those opposed to the policies of President Robert Mugabe. This follows the arrest of five ZCTU members on December 9, including general secretary Wellington Chibhebhe.
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders has expressed its support for Nigerian human rights associations and its members who have been arrested and harassed in recent weeks. The organisation has condemned the climate of hostility against human rights defenders aimed at dissuading them from carrying out their human rights activities and their fight against impunity. It is urging all concerned parties and activists to write to the Nigerian authorities urging them to put an end to all forms of harassment and threats to all human rights defenders and their organisations in Nigeria.
An online discussion forum for non-governmental organisations and civil society to discuss their input in the Final Declarations of the World Summit of the Information Society (WSIS; Geneva 2003, Tunis 2005) will be held on UNESCO's website at http://wsisforum.unesco.org from 9 December 2002 to 15 January 2003.
The hotly-contested upcoming December 27 election has highlighted serious human rights shortcomings in Kenya, Human Rights Watch says. As the election approaches and Kenya's draft constitution awaits enactment, Human Rights Watch has released a new report urging all candidates to adhere to a clear human rights agenda, which would address the iniquities and abuses that persist in the East African country.
I do not know Isioma Daniels and have never met her, but this is not the point.
I heard of her situation as many people have regarding the Fatwa and that she probably fled to the United States. The first thing any reasonable person would say: We hope that you are safe and fine and that you are recovering from your ordeal. (See Pambazuka News, December 5 edition) Who would think otherwise? Some people have experienced what you are going through, some voices are being heard in your support already. Many people would like to hear from you; given the (electronic) means of communication today, one would hope that you can safely send a message.
The reduction in barriers to international trade can increase and create incomes for the poor and provide more resources to fight poverty, says a paper produced by the UK Department for International Development. The main findings of the paper are that trade liberalisation can have a positive impact on poverty only if developing and developed countries agree in adopting domestic and international trade policies based on best practices and tailored to individual circumstances.
University of Botswana (UB) students, armed with bricks and stones, attacked two journalists from the bi-weekly newspaper "Mokgosi" on 5 December 2002.
The Mombasa attacks have served two purposes. One is specifically to draw the Israelis further into a regional war on terror. The other is to demonstrate, by attempting to shoot down an airliner, that the reach of al Qaeda and its associates is potentially worldwide. Meanwhile, the view from Washington remains that this is an unconventional war that can be fought and won on American terms. There is still little interest in understanding where al Qaeda is coming from or why support for it may be increasing. The tragedy is that it may take more atrocities and much more loss of life before a deeper understanding begins to dawn, says an analysis by Foreign Policy in Focus.
A senior public servant assaulted journalist McDonald Chapalapata, of "The Nation" newspaper on November 28. "He pounced on me as I took notes and I fell to the floor. He smashed my cell phone and my company dictaphone against a wall," Chapalapata, who sustained injuries to his face and arm, told NAMISA.
The Debt Relief Enhancement Act Of 2002, which would have committed the USA to pursuing a policy of limiting annual debt repayments from poor countries to 10 percent of their revenues - 5 percent in the case of countries experiencing severe health crises like the HIV-AIDS pandemic - has failed to get approval from US legislators.
Approximately 20 million young people around the world have crossed an international border or moved to another location in their own country to escape war, persecution and/or abuse and a significant number of these are adolescents.
Letter to The Daily News (Zim) 4 December 2002
On the morning of Saturday 30 November 2002, as I watched the winding army convoys of our “gallant” warriors returning from the Democratic Republic of the Congo campaign, I must confess that I did not feel a surge of patriotism. Rather, I was chilled to the bone, for this was not a celebration of the return of conquering and victorious soldiers. It was nothing but a blatant show of naked might and brute force designed to cower an already brutalised and highly disenchanted populace. It is now official. Zimbabwe is a police state and overwhelmingly repressive State machinery is in place, should people dare to speak out and stand up for their rights and dignity. The crunch is beginning.