The presidents of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo have signed a peace accord aimed at ending three years of hostility. The signing took place last Friday in Angola, whose president Jose Eduardo dos Santos has taken on the role of peace broker in the Congo conflict.

There is growing concern that globalisation threatens the ability of developing countries to address social policy concerns. Is there a need for a global regulatory framework to protect social rights? Should the international financial institutions (IFI) be getting involved in social policy or would a new institution to deal with social policy be more likely to win support?

This paper is a case study into the impact of an export liberalization programme on cashew farmers in Mozambique. The authors argue that opponents of the reform felt that the policy did little to benefit poor cashew farmers while bankrupting factories in urban areas. It presents an analysis into the distributional and efficiency consequences of the liberalization program, and concludes that after 10 years, there was little to show for the reform.

This book looks at education as a vehicle for rebuilding refugee children's lives, through social interaction and gaining knowledge and skills for their future lives. It reviews the state of the art, identifies key issues and best practices, and aims to assist in updating UNHCR guidelines for assistance to refugee education in developing countries. The five chapters in this book address different issues within the context of education for refugees.

The government is to spend 150m shillings [1.8m dollars] to train public officials to fight corruption. Some 970 officers from government departments, parastatals and local authorities will be trained to help combat corruption at their places of work.

One of the six men accused of murdering Mozambique's best known journalist, Carlos Cardoso, has escaped from Maputo's top security jail. A police spokesman confirmed on Monday to Cardoso's widow, Nina Berg, that the suspect, Anibal Antonio dos Santos Junior (better known by his underworld nickname of Anibalzinho), had escaped from the prison at about 23.00 on Sunday night. No further details of the escape are yet available.

It was useless to talk about sustainable development when people were starving and when there were poor education facilities and declining health care in a country, said Lucie Jessie Nyirenda of the Economic Justice Network in Malawi.

Africa faced enormous electricity supply problems in both urban and rural areas, with a large portion of the population relying on paraffin as the principle source of fuel in rural areas, and the lack of electricity exacerbating conditions of poverty.

Mukarwego Athanasie knows what it is like to be used as a weapon of war. “I am a victim of rape that was used as a weapon during the war in Rwanda,” she says. As part of their campaign of terror, HIV infected soldiers would rape whole villages of women to spread the virus amongst the civilian population.

People from across the world - mainly from Africa - stood up in front of thousands at a meeting on corporate accountability at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) and faced the television cameras to voice their anger at how the negative impacts of globalisation resulted in their continued poverty and disempowerment.

Developing country governments were continuing to service illegitimate debts that could not be paid without causing enormous human harm, Leslie Fields from Friends of the Earth International told a Global People's Forum meeting on debt eradication during the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD).

A Togolese opposition leader and a journalist could be sentenced to four years imprisonment each for "defamation" following the publication of articles saying that President Gnassingbe Eyadema is one of the world's richest men.

A new South African project is set to revolutionise how AIDS patients manage their anti-retroviral treatment regimes, which often involve taking as many as 20 pills a day. The Cell Life project — a collaboration between the University of Cape Town and the Cape Technikon — hopes to solve the management problem of HIV/AIDS by using a mix of information communications technology, health and engineering expertise.

This position is in the Alternatives to Slash-and-Burn (ASB) Programme (www.asb.cgiar.org) whose objective is to identify, develop and implement innovative policies, institutions and technologies that can reduce poverty and conserve tropical forests.

The Kenyan president has sacked a junior minister and told those Kanu party members who oppose his choice of successor to quit the party. On Monday, the official presidential press service announced that deputy Foreign Minister Peter Odoyo had been relieved of his duties with immediate effect.

Center for Economic Justice has launched a new, updated website for the World Bank Bonds Boycott campaign. Colorful, easy to navigate, and updated with all the latest campaign developments, www.worldbankboycott.org is a valuable new resource for organizers and others interested in global economic and environmental justice.

Miatta Sheriff and Maima Kromah are six-year old Liberian children. They have lived for several months in a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and have no idea where their parents are. Sheriff and Kromah are among thousands of Liberian children separated from their parents by fighting between government troops and rebels of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) since 1998.

Persistent wrangling between the executive and legislative arms of government in Nigeria took a critical turn when the House of Representatives last month gave President Olusegun Obasanjo a fortnight to resign or face impeachment. The two weeks have since passed, with Obasanjo defying the motion of the lower chamber of parliament, ridiculing it as "a joke taken too far".

A rupture in a pipeline belonging to oil giant Royal Dutch/ Shell has resulted in a major oil slick in Nigeria’s southern Niger Delta, local residents reported last Friday. Residents of Rumuekpe community, near the Nigeria’s oil industry capital, Port Harcourt, said oil from a broken pipe, 20 inches diameter, was spreading through creeks and streams in the area, seeping into farmland and destroying plants and trees.

At least four out of over 600 diarrhoea patients reported in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, since July were suffering from cholera, according to government health officers.

Human rights bodies have condemned the alleged "silencing of dissent" and "disregard for the rule of law" in Zimbabwe. Amnesty International said the Zimbabwean authorities were "intensifying harassment of human rights organisations, the independent media and the judiciary", ahead of local council elections later this month.

Unrelenting attacks by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) have created a "horrendous" humanitarian situation and stretched local resources in northern Uganda beyond their limits, according to a UN report.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, has expressed "grave concern" over the apparent forced repatriation, since 31 August, of some 1,500 Congolese refugees from Rwanda to North Kivu, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Thousands of hungry people in southeastern Angola are heading for the town of Mavinga in the hope of finding food, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) warned in a statement.

Environment-related diseases and illnesses kill the equivalent of a jumbo jet full of children every 45 minutes, World Health Organisation director-general Dr Gro Brundtland says.

It is now officially recognised by the World Health Organisation, that 80 percent of the people in poor economies rely on traditional medicine for their primary health care. In many countries, the ratio of orthodox medicine practitioners to the population is still very high. A recent research finding shows that resurgent enthusiasm for traditional medicine is leading to over-harvesting of plants from the wild for medicinal use.

Thousands of people are currently hit by famine in Congo Brazzaville. Official and humanitarian sources confirmed here late last month that as much as 32 percent of the country's entire population are starving.

The Zambian government has allowed the World Food Programme to start distributing genetically modified (GM) food aid to refugees.

The first batch of 69 people, who sought refuge in Nigeria as a result of the war in Sierra Leone, have been voluntarily repatriated.

When WFP head James Morris arrived in Nhwali to inspect the distribution of mielies, an unprecedented seven government trucks filled with bags of mielies for sale rolled up, the first time since July that even one truck has arrived to feed the 9 000 people in the area, deep in opposition territory.

How accurate are the claims of large corporations that they are now environmentally responsible and promoting development? This book examines the debate and identifies areas of progress as well as the limits of corporate environmentalism in developing countries.

A special gathering of women held as part of the World Summit on Sustainable Development has called for a United Nations Convention on Corporate Accountability to monitor, address and sanction violations by corporations. The final declaration of the Women’s Action Tent, held between 26 and 30 August, demanded that UN conference outcomes should not be compromised in the process of building greater coherence with international finance and trade institutions.

The outbreak of meningitis in Rwanda continues to threaten the lives of some 2 million people, and fears are the disease may spread close to the capital Kigali, endangering another one million people, UNICEF said in a press release Tuesday.

The government of Zimbabwe has "urged" country residents to undergo voluntary HIV testing, Xinhua News Agency reports. Minister of Health and Child Welfare David Parirenyatwa said that knowing one's HIV status is "very important" to plan for the future.

Internationally known economist Jeffrey Sachs has called for African countries to stop paying their debts and to allocate the funds to AIDS and other urgent needs. "It's untenable to be paying debt that could be used to fight the pandemic," Sachs said in Johannesburg last month. "It's much more than a vicious cycle of poverty. There's a silent holocaust under way." African governments, however, fear retaliation by creditors if they should take such steps.

The Social Movements Indaba, together with many social movements from all over the world, declare that: The World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in the super-rich suburb of Sandton, Johannesburg, has failed. The world’s poor, and the earth’s deteriorating environment have benefited nothing from the Summit. Instead of a lift out of poverty and a healthier environment, the world can look forward to a deepening of poverty on a global scale, and to a further deterioration of the environment.

The UN Security Council has decided to keep UN peacekeepers in Ethiopia and Eritrea six more months to give the countries time to mark their border. The Horn of Africa neighbours fought a 2½-year war over the 1,000-kilometre border, a conflict that cost 80,000 lives. The fighting ended in December 2000, when they agreed to establish an international commission to draw the border.

With 5 more days to the deadline for nominations, we are urging eligible organizations to apply/nominate for this year's APC Africa Hafkin Communications Prize for 2002 ' People-Centred Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Policy in Africa'.

Personally, I'd love to get a huge pipe out to the Internet. The true Internet junkie can never have enough bandwidth. But... is it really worth it? Tracey Burrows takes a look at the hype and the facts surrounding Telkom's recent introduction of this service to a few South Africa users. The reader comments are worth browsing.

Deutsche Bank South Africa has formally launched its Africa Foundation aimed at supporting and uplifting impoverished individuals and communities. Deutsche Bank Board of Directors approved a US$15-million endowment for the Africa Foundation in 2001.

Four months have passed since the Global Fund for HIV/Aids, TB and malaria approved a multi-million rand donation, provoking the anger of Health Minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. She met the fund's executive director, Dr Richard Feachem, in Geneva on Friday to discuss her opposition on the allocation of the money to KwaZulu-Natal. But they failed to resolve the issue.

In a seven-year educational transformational programme for Eastern Cape schools, DFID has injected R360-million for the so–called Imbewu programme. The programme includes among other things turning 1500 Eastern Cape schools into self-governing schools. The programme will be officially launched at the JS Skenjana School in Idutywa today.

The National Development Agency on Thursday handed over a cheque for R200 000 to the community of Msinga in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands.

The government of Sudan should end its
recent crackdown on the press, Human Rights Watch has said in a letter to
the Sudanese president. In the past week, the government's National Press Council (NPC) has
confiscated entire daily editions of three newspapers.

In war, HIV/AIDS spreads rapidly as a result of sexual bartering, sexual violence, low awareness about HIV, and the breakdown of vital services in health and education. In conflict situations, young people are most at risk. These are some of the reflections of a report detailing the experiences of the International Save the Children Alliance on HIV/AIDS and its effects on young people in conflict situations around the world.

The tragic events of September 11 2001 represent different things to different people. The victims, the terrorists, western, Arab and Muslim governments, Europeans, Africans, Asians, Muslims and non Muslims, people of different political persuasions and leanings, the media, all perceive September 11 differently and all have no homogenous positions on the events of that day and its fall outs. It will therefore be incredulous to pretend that any single individual or group of individuals can speak for Africa or all Africans in relation to September 11.

The one thing that we can be sure of, is that the events of 9-11 as it is now fashionably described, have altered the trajectory of and interaction between international politics, foreign policy, international economic relations, religion, ideology, democracy, human rights and international law. To go a step further, many more people than previously now see how these issues are connected and interact to shape the perception and future of different societies and the world as a whole. In Africa, where slavery, colonialism the cold war, dictatorships and the inequitable nature of north - south economic relations have deepened the problems of poverty, lack of democracy and human rights, it is even more important to reflect on September 11 and its implications for Africa.

No one in his or her right mind will deny that the key problems facing Africa today are those of economic underdevelopment, poverty, lack of democracy and human rights. The proportions are different in all countries but the problems are the same. Without democracy and human rights, the problems of economic underdevelopment and poverty in Africa will never be fully addressed. The question therefore, is how has September 11 impacted on the development of democracy and human rights in Africa.

To a large extent, the reactions to and fallouts of September 11 have been driven by policies of the United States Bush administration and its allies. This is perfectly understandable for reasons that are self-evident. It is important however that in formulating and implementing policy, all governments have a moral obligation to consider its implication for others especially where such policy could negatively impact on democracy and human rights around the world. The available evidence suggests that this is not the case.

Prior to September 11, the rhetoric from a significant number of African governments suggested that even if not fully committed to good governance, human rights and democracy, many of them at least recognised the need to be seen to walking in that direction. After September 11, such rhetoric did not necessarily diminish but became qualified with “recognising the need to fight terrorism”. Many governments which for years have resisted the pressure from civil society to enact legislation, or adopt good practice upholding freedom of expression, assembly, association and other key rights, have suddenly began rushing through “anti-terrorism legislation” curtailing those same rights. In many of cases, the provisions of the laws are so broad that even peaceful and legitimate democratic opposition can be targeted as “terrorists”.

In Uganda for instance the Suppression of Terrorism Bill 2001 imposes a mandatory death sentence for “Terrorists and any person who aids, abets, finances or supports terrorism”. In addition Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mauritius and Egypt have adopted or are at advanced stages of adopting similar legislation that restricts freedom of expression, association and assembly, could define certain peaceful activity as abetting terrorism, erodes the right to a fair and open trial, legitimises arbitrary and prolonged detention, and increases powers of surveillance. Many more African countries are openly considering similar legislation. This in itself is a problem, but the problem is further compounded by the fact that major countries around the world have adopted similar legislation. Several Amnesty International reports document similar laws adopted by the United States, and key countries of the European Union. This in turn has created the international cover for less democratic countries. In many cases, some of these laws adopted in Africa could have been borrowed almost directly from US or UK laws.

The direct implication of this is an “unholy and unlikely” alliance of a variety of governments against civil liberties in the name of fighting terrorism. This creates a fundamental contradiction for instance within the United Nations system where the hitherto champions of civil liberties are now championing the restriction of these same liberties. The US government has also under the USA Patriot Act enabled the Secretary of State to declare as inadmissible into the US persons that may have undertaken activities including advocacy that undermines the Bush administrations approach to the war on terrorism. Considering that the United Nations is situated in New York, and that thousands of human rights activists visit the US in order to invoke United Nations documents in their struggle to uphold human rights, the Bush Administration could end up undermining the UN system in relation to human rights without necessarily meaning to do so.

Add to this the contradiction of key EU governments and the US administration turning a blind eye to “allied” undemocratic governments while condemning others. In the UK Guardian of August 22 2002, US Assistant Secretary of State Walter Kainstener outlined the Bush administrations plans for regime change in Zimbabwe on the basis that the government is undemocratic. The day before, the Pakistani military government headed by General Musharaff a US government ally amended his country’s constitution to give him powers to dissolve future elected parliaments and extend his rule for another five years. The Guardian and other papers also reported this with virtually no complaint from the allies in the war against terrorism. To date the US has not called for the removal of Musharaff [it is worth noting that the alienation of Pakistani civil society can in turn only help Al Queda hide in Pakistan]. Significantly, Pakistan’s earlier suspension from the Commonwealth for Musharaff's coup against an elected government has been conveniently forgotten.

It is an absurdity for major powers to create monsters or facilitate circumstances that create them and then embark on policy u-turns that can only worsen the situation. Without going into the complications of the legitimacy of the land problem in Zimbabwe while condemning Mugabe's methods, such contradictions can only strengthen the likes of Mugabe and undermine democracy in Africa. The International Federation of Journalists in its publication on “Journalism and the War on Terrorism” by Aidan White quotes a Mugabe Spokesperson “As for the correspondents, we would like them to know that we agree with US President Bush that anyone who finances, harbours or defends terrorists is himself a terrorist. We too will not make any difference between terrorists and their friends and supporters ” If Mugabe were to suddenly find himself in the unique position of facilitating a US attack on a neighbouring country harbouring terrorists it is easy to see how such rhetoric would suddenly endear him to the Bush Administration.

If we are to take only one example of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the world can see how cold war politics, the assassination of the country’s democratically elected leader Patrice Lumumba and support for the dictatorship of Mobutu Seseseko by Western governments plunged the country into a crisis from which it is yet to recover after several decades. There is something deeply unsettling about sacrificing the future of millions of people for the convenience of foreign policy. African countries do not need any more of this.

The war on terrorism should not and cannot be fought outside an ethical framework. Any policies that sacrifice human rights for this war will only succeed in fuelling the conditions in which terrorists thrive. The fact that Islam is used as an ideological tool to recruit so called warriors should not obscure the fact that the Middle East is country for country one of the most undemocratic regions in the world. Elections have never been held in Saudi Arabia and will not be held for the foreseeable future. That the majority of the 9-11 hijackers are of Saudi origin cannot be a coincidence. If the same conditions are created in Africa, terrorism, which is by nature a clandestine activity, may well be provided with a popular base that will in turn appear to justify the suppression of democracy in the name of fighting terrorism.

African civil society needs to make it clear in policy and advocacy that they are one hundred percent opposed to terrorism, but also one hundred percent committed to democracy. There is no contradiction in this. There is nothing anti-American about upholding democratic rights. There should be absolutely no doubt that any laws that curtail freedom of expression, association, assembly, and so forth in Africa will be used against democratic opposition and human rights activists. One year after September 11, and, dozens of anti-democratic laws later, no one knows where Osama bin Laden, Mullah Omar, and at least five thousand to ten thousand “graduates” of the Al Queda training camps are. It is therefore important to begin now to call for the immediate repeal of all provisions of anti-terrorism legislation that promotes the suppression of human rights and for a halt to such legislation in Africa. Not to do so may plunge Africa into strife and conflict from which it may never emerge.

Participants at the 10th International Freedom of Exchange (IFEX) general meeting in Dakar have led the way by adopting a declaration on September 11 2002 by condemning “acts of terror and crimes against humanity such as the attacks on the United States one year ago” but also criticising “anti terrorism laws passed in many countries in the aftermath of September 11 attacks” that “include provisions that undermine civil liberties and in some cases severely restrict the right to freedom of expression and freedom of information”. It is important that all national, regional and international human rights and freedom of expression organisations around the world follow this lead.

Sankore is Coordinator of CREDO for Freedom of Expression and Associated Rights.

Angola’s enormous diamond and oil wealth has proved to be more of a curse than a promise, with conflict over resources causing immense human suffering. But increasingly the links between resources and conflict are being made and it is in this context that sustainable development becomes crucially important, argues this article published in State of the World 2002, excerpts of which are printed in Pambazuka News with permission from the author.