1. Somalia: 10 000 flee Mogadishu fighting
2. Somalia: Arab League has role in peace deal (editorial)
3. Kenya: Is the country now the 53rd state? (editorial)
4. Kenya: Uhuru: Why I accuse Moi and Kibaki
5. Rwanda: EU to mediate between Kigali and Paris
6. Uganda: Churches oppose Mabira giveaway
7. Africa at large: Annan to chair leadership prize-panel
8. Malawi: Tobacco industry going up in smoke
9. Congo DRC: Between a Bemba and a Kabila
10. South Africa: Child rapes 'an emergency'
11. South Africa: Desmond Tutu reflects
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1. Somalia: 10 000 flee Mogadishu fighting
Sout African Press Association (SAPA)
April 1, 2007 About 10 000 people have fled the fierce fighting in the Somali capital of Mogadishu in the past three days alone, said the UN refugee agency on Sunday. The latest figures from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees brought the total of displaced people to nearly 100 000.
Up to 56 000 people fled the city in March, most of them since March 21, when the first major clashes erupted between Ethiopian troops backing Somalia's provisional government and Islamist fighters. An estimated 40 000 people already had fled Mogadishu in February, said UNHCR spokesperson William Spindler. "The exodus from the Somali capital continues and the figure is expected to rise as people living close to the conflict area are abandoning their homes because of mortar shells and fears that the fighting will spread," he said.
People fleeing the fighting had moved out to the neighbouring regions of Middle Shabelle, Lower Shabelle, Hiraan, Bay, Galagadud and Mudug, said Spindler. The fourth straight day of heavy fighting on Sunday left a trail of devastation in the Somali capital as Ugandan peacekeepers reported their first death and clan elders called for a ceasefire.
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2. Somalia: Arab League has role in peace deal (editorial)
The Nation (Kenya) March 30, 2007
Nairobi (Kenya) - The escalation of violence in Mogadishu, despite the presence of an Africa peace-keeping force, is worrying, indeed. It is also a very strong indicator that the troubles in Somalia will not be resolved by force. As long as the Transitional Government is seen to be in office only courtesy of the Ethiopian military machine, seen as foreign interlopers, it will not be able to secure support of the majority. And as long as the African Union troops - a small initial detachment from Uganda is already in place - are seen to have been sent principally to prop up the Transitional Government, they will not succeed in their mission. Instead, they will be exposed to grave danger. The Transitional Government is planning to host an all-inclusive national reconciliation conference within a fortnight. This conference must be open to all groups who have stake and a say in Somalia, and it must have the ultimate objective of forming a broad-based administration in which no group will be shut out. In his capacity as chairman of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (Igad) - the regional body that has spearheaded peace-making efforts in the Horn of Africa - President Kibaki on Wednesday addressed the 19th League of Arab States Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
He appealed to the international community to help in efforts to restore peace in Somalia. We believe he was appealing directly to the Arab countries, which can exercise a great deal of clout in the region. They can play an important role in funding the deployment of AU troops and also in helping the Transitional Government strengthen its institution of governance. Just as important, however, is the clout they can exercise in persuading the exiled Union of Islamic Courts leaders to return to Somalia and play their rightful role in re-building the shattered country. Between Igad and the Arab League, a lot of pressure can be brought on both sides to reach a settlement that will be good for Somalia.
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3. Kenya: Is the country now the 53rd state? (editorial)
East AFrican (Kenya) March 31, 2007
The news that the Kenya Government is surrendering its own citizens to foreign countries without the due process of law and without bothering to inform their families, is causing dismay among citizens who look to the government for protection. It appears the government has been turning over suspects arrested while fleeing Somalia to the United States, Ethiopia and the transitional Somali government.
It is understandable that Kenya, having been a victim twice, should wish to be in the forefront of fighting terrorism. But the danger is that the Muslim community that has borne the brunt of these arrests is feeling increasingly disillusioned and excluded from the Kenyan judicial system.
Parliament has yet to debate and pass the Anti-Terrorism Bill into law. So, under which law is the government arresting these suspects? Worse still, why is Kenya handing over its citizens to Somalia, which doesn’t even have a functioning justice system? It is time the government acted to dispel the impression that Kenya has surrendered its sovereignty to the US at least in as far as the war against terror is concerned.
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4. Kenya: Uhuru: Why I accuse Moi and Kibaki
Nation (Kenya), by Julius Bosire and John Shilitsa April 2, 2007
Official Opposition leader Uhuru Kenyatta has accused former President Moi and President Kibaki of having joined hands to frustrate his bid to capture the country’s top seat. Mr Kenyatta, who was addressing a political rally in Mumias Town’s Uhuru market at the weekend, accused the two leaders of polarising Kenya for their own selfish ends. He asked why the retired President had turned against him, yet he lost the presidency in 2002 because of the “simple’’ perception that he was Mr Moi’s project.
“You (Kenyans) rejected me in 2002 accusing me of being former President Moi’s project, but the two elderly men have now joined hands against me, I cannot understand why this is happening,’’ Mr Kenyatta said. Former President Moi is viewed as Mr Kenyatta’s political mentor. After unsuccessfully spearheading the latter’s bid to capture the presidency in 2002, Mr Moi later tried to give Jomo Kenyatta’s son a head-start in party politics when he bequeathed him Kanu leadership in an acting capacity.
‘‘When I first contested the presidency, my vision was to bring in a new administration system, far better than the Moi one, but my chances were foiled by my detractors for their own interests at the expense of the nation,” Mr Kenyatta said. He added that much as he respected President Kibaki and his predecessor Moi, it was important to point out their failures and successes to build a strong democracy that befits the 21st century. Mr Kenyatta said President Kibaki’s government had nothing to do with the welfare of Central Province and the people of the region were experiencing hardship like other Kenyans.
He faulted the President’s administration, saying it had failed to deliver pre-election pledges. The Gatundu South MP said his move to lead Kanu to join hands with the Liberal Democratic Party was aimed at creating a strong force that would bring good governance. He said all he needed was five years to make Kenya a country of wealthy and healthy people. He urged ODM-K supporters to nominate him to face President Kibaki in the next General Election, but he was quick to add that he would support any nominee of the party.
He asked the youth to vote for him to bring about desired leadership. Mr Kenyatta said: ‘‘Anyone who tells you that you will develop when your man is in power is a liar who wants to use your vote to achieve his or her selfish ends’’. At ACK Milimani Girls High School Mr Kenyatta told Kenyans to unite and avoid tribal politics. “We want a strong base in ODM-K so that we lead this country on ideologies as opposed to the fallout that we witnessed after the last General Election when some people thought they could lead the country without their partners,” he said.
His host, local MP Wycliffe Osundwa, paraded his opponents, Mr Ben Washiali and Martin Oloo, praising them as ambitious young men who had noble ideas. Mr Washiali had invited Mr Kenyatta to the harambee where the latter gave Sh300,000 while teachers and parents gave Sh320,000.
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5. Rwanda: EU to mediate between Kigali and Paris
New Times (Rwanda), by Robert Mukombozi April 2, 2007
The European Union has promised to mediate talks aimed at easing the standoff between Rwanda and France. According to Roeland Van De Geer, the new EU Special Representative for the Great Lakes Region, the body has sought the Rwandan government’s position and is prepared to engage Paris over the matter. “I have talked to the President (Paul Kagame) and his position is clear. The Rwandan government is not interested in pursuing the bickering with France,” he said during a press conference held at the EU Kigali offices in Kacyiru yesterday.
In November, Rwanda severed ties with France, after French magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguiere attempted to absolve the French of complicity in the 1994 Genocide by making claims that the Rwanda Patriotic Front/Army (RPF/A) was involved in downing the plane of the late president Juvenal Habyarimana. And, flanked by his Political Advisor Jean-Michel Dumont, Van De Geer noted that as a member of the European body, France will be approached to acknowledge the realities of the ongoing bilateral standoff with Rwanda, a country just recovering from the Genocide that claimed one million people 13 years ago.
“Rwanda at this time has not to be reminded of its painful past,” he said and noted however, that the problem would take some time to resolve. “But the EU would make sure that Paris understands Rwanda’s position,” he added. Van De Geer’s remarks also come at a time when there are reports indicating that some French diplomats have recently been engaged in acrimonious acts against Rwanda, struggling to resurrect a previous provision requiring the Rwandan government to notify the UN Security Council (UNSC) whenever it buys arms. However, according to the foreign minister Dr.Charles Murigande, improved security and Rwanda’s global commitment to peacekeeping efforts, rendered the French diplomats’ quest ineffective.
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6. Uganda: Churches oppose Mabira giveaway
New Vision (Uganda) April 1, 2007
Several churches used Palm Sunday prayers yesterday to oppose the Government’s plan to give away part of Mabira Forest Reserve for sugarcane production. “It sounds ridiculous for a government to emphasise tree planting while at the same time proposing to destroy a natural forest. If implemented, we are heading for a disaster and for desertification,” said Msgr. Paul Ssemwogerere at Christ the King cathedral. The vicar-general of Kampala Archdiocese noted that Mabira was a geographical case study for students. “Shall we tell the younger generation that a natural forest was replaced by sugarcane?” he asked. “They will blame us for the consequences.”
He advised the Government to accept the offer of the Kabaka, Ronald Mutebi. In a bid to save the forest, the Buganda king had offered 7,300 acres of land in Kyaggwe, Mukono district. At All Saints Church, Nakasero, Rev. Frank Tukwasibwe called for a prayer to save Mabira Forest. “In the book of Genesis, God calls on us to protect our environment. Let us pray for the protection of Mabira forest.” He was referring to Genesis Chapter 2:15, when God created man and put him in the Garden of Eden to take care of it.
Rev. Michael Wasswa at St. Mark’s Namate in Entebbe denounced corruption and asked the Government to reconsider its position on Mabira. “Let us sing Hosanna for government officials so that they may reconsider the Mabira issue and for many of them who are engaged in corruption to change their behaviour.” However, the churches in northern Uganda were more pre-occupied with peace. Hundreds of Christians throughout the Acholi sub-region thronged the churches to pray for the quick resumption and successful conclusion of the Juba peace talks. Palm Sunday marks the end of 40 days of Lent. On this Sunday, Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem on a donkey, after fasting and meditating in the desert. He received a big welcome from his followers, who were waving palm leaves. The day also marks the beginning of the Easter Week.
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7. Africa at large: Annan to chair leadership prize-panel
allafrica.com April 2, 2007
Cape Town (South Africa) - Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan is to head the judging panel which will select the winner of the new Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership. This was announced in a statement issued from Geneva after the first meeting of the prize committee at the weekend.
The new prize, announced last October, will reward former African heads of government who have left office in the last three years and have demonstrated exemplary leadership. It will be awarded by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, established by the telecommunications entrepeneur of the same name. The foundation bills the prize, worth US$5 million dollars over 10 years, as the largest in the world. Annan is joined on the prize committee by five other judges: Aïcha Bah Diallo, former education minister in Guinea; Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the former finance minister and foreign minister of Nigeria; Salim Salim, former Organisation for African Unity chief; Martti Ahtisaari, former President of Finland; and Mary Robinson, former Irish president and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Annan said in a foundation press release that the committee's task was challenging: "While developed countries have an important role to play in creating an enabling environment for Africa’s development," he said, "it is for Africa to lead and take ownership of Africa’s development process. Good governance and leadership are central to finding solutions to the vast challenges that face Africa."
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8. Malawi: Tobacco industry going up in smoke
Inter Press Service (IPS), by Pilirani Semu-Banda March 31, 2007
Blantyre (Malawi) - Tobacco prices and production levels are dropping amid pressure from the anti-smoking lobby and the general downturn in agricultural produce markets. But Malawi has still not made adequate progress in promoting crops to replace its primary foreign exchange earner. Green gold is the term that Malawians use for the country's tobacco. The nation derives up to 70 percent of its foreign exchange earnings from the crop and 80 percent of the country's labour force works in the tobacco industry. Historically, the leaf has been regarded as an economic lifeline in a country without rich mineral endowments.
The southern African country is a major tobacco exporter in the world, accounting for five percent of the world's total exports and two percent of world's total production. In terms of burley tobacco, Malawi produces about 20 percent of the world's total, according to the World Bank. The Tobacco Association of Malawi (TAMA), which promotes and protects tobacco farmers' interests, says that the leaf also accounts for 13 percent of the country's gross domestic product and makes up 23 percent of the tax base.
The crop is treasured because of historical associations. Commercial production can be traced back as far as 1889 when it was introduced by settlers from Virginia in the United States. However, in recent years the tobacco industry has been struggling for survival. It is fighting global anti-smoking campaigns led by public health activists, backed by the World Health Organisation. Poor auction prices and a dearth of buyers are also among the challenges that Malawian tobacco producers are grappling with. Caught in the middle of these challenges are the country's small-holder tobacco farmers. One of them is 55-year-old Dongo Msiska. All his life he has known nothing but tobacco cultivation.
At the age of 24, he took over a 50-hectare farm from his father. Since then the livelihoods of his family and those of his 33 employees have depended on the production of the leaf. In the past three years, Msiska's income has dwindled rapidly in the face of poor auction floor prices. He has since been forced to cut production by half. ''I could not afford to buy enough production inputs with the little money I got for last year's crop. I had to reduce production and have since had to let some of my workers go,'' he says. Msiska's woes were a result of last year's catastrophic decline of 15 percent in tobacco sales. Sales figures from the Tobacco Control Commission (TCC) indicated that the crop raked in 162 061 893 US dollars in 2005 but only 137 834 528 US dollars in 2006.
Malawian president Bingu wa Mutharika, himself a farmer, has admitted that the tobacco industry is not as viable as it used to be. He and the ministries of agriculture and trade have urged tobacco farmers to consider diversifying production to cotton, cassava, pigeon peas, ground nuts, soya, dairy products, beans and rice as alternatives to tobacco. Up to 40,000 farmers have heeded the calls to diversify in the past six years and have since abandoned tobacco production, according to the TCC. But despite his calls for diversification, Mutharika has continued to fight for the survival of the tobacco industry. Major buyers of Malawi's tobacco were last year ordered by the president to leave the country or offer better prices on the auction floors. He accused them of running a cartel and fixing prices.
Mutharika imposed a minimum price of 110 cents per kilogram and, for higher grade leaf, 170 cents per kilogram but the buyers boycotted the market, forcing the government to concede defeat. The president has no kind words for the buyers and has since branded them ''thieves'' and ''exploiters'' for defying his price setting. Meanwhile, Malawi is pursuing a deal that addresses issues of collective marketing as well as value-adding with the other tobacco-producing countries of Zambia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. They aim to position the industry better in the world markets so that the countries can reap more from the crop, says the trade ministry.
The government is optimistic that handling the problems dogging the tobacco industry at a regional level will yield more positive results than working in isolation. Despite the pressure on the industry the majority of Malawian farmers, through TAMA, have resisted a diversification strategy that excludes tobacco because the commercial value of the crop still remains the highest. TAMA executive secretary Felix Mkumba argues that the leaf has a readily available market which is well guaranteed since everything that they produce is still sold, despite the low prices. ''Accepting total diversification will be suicidal.''
David Mkwambisi, a lecturer at the Bunda College of Agriculture at the University of Malawi, disagrees with TAMA. He does not consider tobacco to be the backbone of the country's economy anymore. This is because the government and stakeholders have failed to introduce measures which would enhance crop production, he argues. The growers have been penalized with taxes which have not been ploughed back into the sector. Therefore Mkwambisi contends that the global problems besetting the tobacco industry are not the primary concern. Domestic politics is the source of much of the tobacco industry's difficulties.
He also has questions about how the government is approaching the issue of diversification. ''Even though cotton was identified as a crop to replace tobacco, nothing has been done to promote cotton. ''Why did the president rush to announce the diversification towards cotton? Do we have markets for cotton, cassava, soya and beans? Why should we expand cultivation to those products if we have not found the markets yet?'' asks Mkwambisi. He says that even if tobacco was not facing the current public health campaigns, it is extremely bad planning to depend on one crop for economic growth. ''As a country we have been standing on a slim edge economically by relying on tobacco only,'' warns Mkwambisi.
Meanwhile Malawi's tobacco production levels are plunging. The TCC has indicated that tobacco yields this year (2007) are down by 18 million kg from 158 million kg last year. The country's international buyers are demanding 170 million kg, which means that the supply from Malawi is short by 30 million kg.
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9. Congo DRC: Between a Bemba and a Kabila
Mail&Guardian (South Africa), by Stephanie Wolters April 1, 2007
The fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo last week has thrown South Africa into the midst of that country’s most serious crisis since the elections last year. Amid heavy fighting between government troops and those loyal to former vice-president and presidential rival Jean-Pierre Bemba, Bemba last week sought refuge in the South African compound, which is close to his main residence in Kinshasa. Fighting between the two camps erupted early on the day a government ultimatum for Bemba’s forces -- estimated at between 600 and 1 000 -- to join the Congolese army was due to expire.
The government had issued the ultimatum three weeks earlier and the army appears to have been moving in to take forceable action, despite the fact that the two sides were in ongoing negotiations about the appropriate size of a personal guard for Bemba. Taking a firm line, Congolese President Joseph Kabila said this week that his government would not tolerate personal militia and that Bemba could face charges of treason. The Bemba camp says that an agreement signed by the two parties prior to the holding of the second round of elections in October last year is the basis for negotiations on the size of his protection team. According to that accord, the winner of the election must ensure the safety of the loser by providing him with a guard of an appropriate size.
However, late in February the Kabila government published a presidential decree, which stipulates that the government will put 12 policemen at the disposal of all four former transition government vice-presidents, including Bemba. The Bemba camp feels that this is insufficient. Moise Musangana, Bemba’s spokesperson, told the Mail & Guardian that, given the history of violence between the two camps -- this is their third major clash in eight months -- Bemba feels he should be given a more sizeable guard. The two men were due to meet to discuss the matter in person on March 22, the day the fighting started.
“Bemba was willing to accept that his guards come from the Congolese army, but it could not just be any troops [given clashes in the past]. He expected the Kabila camp to make suggestions as to the size and composition of the force.” One week after the events that are estimated to have killed between 200 to 500 people, many of them civilians, the leader of the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC), who is now an elected senator in the national assembly, remained in a residence belonging to the South African embassy.
Various international actors, led by the UN mission in the DRC (Monuc), and including South Africa, are attempting to mediate between him and Kabila. The UN Security Council, which was briefed on the events on Tuesday, was awaiting the outcome of a specially convened SADC heads-of-state meeting to make a statement about a way forward. On Tuesday South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Aziz Pahad, said Bemba could stay in the embassy for as long as necessary and that the South African government was legally required to protect him. South Africa’s stance is likely to strain relations between it and the DRC, because South Africa providing Bemba with a safe haven would be in defiance of the Congolese government’s desire to see him prosecuted for “treason”.
“This is a difficult situation. South Africa is working hard to prepare the ground to see if it can’t get Kabila to agree to restart talks. This is the best option. The other options -- giving Bemba to the government, or Bemba going into exile, would both have negative repercussions,” said Henri Boshoff, a military analyst with the Institute for Security Studies. South Africa hosted the Congolese peace talks in 2002 and has provided military and financial assistance to the DRC’s transition government. South African President Thabo Mbeki has hailed the electoral process a success.
Many South African businesses had been hoping to capitalise on this involvement to make lucrative deals in the mineral-rich country. A disagreement over what to do with Bemba could threaten economic and diplomatic relations between the two countries, dealing a severe blow to South Africa’s desire to increase its influence in Africa. Bene M’poko, the Congolese ambassador to South Africa, told the M&G this week that he would not speculate on what would happen if South Africa did not render Bemba to the Congolese authorities. However, he rejected the idea of renewed negotiations with Bemba. “We have been negotiating with Bemba for five years [since the Sun City talks in 2002]. Every time we negotiate with him, he refuses… We negotiated the status of the four vice-presidents; they agreed.”
Meanwhile, although the international community has condemned the violence of last week, no one has pointed the finger of blame at Bemba outright and there is some feeling that offensive actions by the Kabila camp triggered the violence. This week the European Union said it deplored the “premature recourse to violence when all avenues of negotiation had not yet been exhausted”, adding that it had been negotiating with the two sides about the size of Bemba’s personal guard for 10 days prior to the outbreak of violence. For now efforts are concentrated on trying to find a solution that would allow Bemba to leave the embassy and resume his duties as a senator. Observers realise that if a compromise cannot be found, a severe blow will have been dealt to the fledgling Congolese democracy.
The repeated incidents of violence between Bemba’s troops and Congolese army troops are to a great extent a legacy of the transition government’s failure to complete the disarmament and reintegration of all rebel forces into a unified national army. This issue dogged the transition and now threatens to weaken the country’s tenuous stability. Last week’s events in Kinshasa are to a great extent the result of incomplete integration of war-time forces into a unified Congolese army. The lack of political will to complete the integration has allowed the rival politicians to maintain their own “militia”.
# President Joseph Kabila’s personal guard is estimated to number close to 14 000, of which 5 000 are based in Kinshasa. At least an equally large number are in Katanga province, Kabila’s stronghold, while the rest are concentrated in cities around the country. Only a fraction of these have been through the military reintegration process. This has long been a point of contention between the Kabila camp and his opponents, and is one of the key reasons why Bemba has been unwilling to surrender his personal guard. # Former vice-president and Movement for the Liberation of Congo leader Jean-Pierre Bemba’s personal guard is estimated to number between 600 and 800 men, all in Kinshasa. Most of them have either fled or dispersed following last week’s fighting. The UN mission in the DRC (Monuc) has provided shelter to 138 of them. # Former vice-president Azarias Ruberwa, leader of the Congolese Rally for Democracy, is estimated to have between 300 and 400 personal guards in Kinshasa.
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10. South Africa: Child rapes 'an emergency'
Cape Times (South Africa), by Anel Powell April 2, 2007
The rape of children has reached crisis proportions, researchers say. Almost half of the 50 000 rapes reported each year are of children younger than 18 years. In nearly four in five cases, the child knows the rapist and in three out of five the mother is aware of the abuse. We have an emergency on our hands," said Andrew Dawes, who researched child abuse in the Western Cape for the Human Sciences Research Council in 2006.
One in four children raped is between 11 and 15 years, according to Statistics South Africa figures. In the Cape Town metropole and southern Cape and Karoo regions, where figures from offices dealing with sexual assault were available, the sex abuse of children under 13 years was on the increase, said Dawes. According to police figures, 23 453, or 43 percent, of the 54 926 rapes and the same proportion of the indecent assaults reported in 2005/2006 were of children. Experts say the true number is even higher.
Samantha Waterhouse, of Resources Aimed at the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect, said a survey had found only one in six victims went to the police. The abuse of boys and girls, especially by people of the same sex, was extremely poorly reported, she said. "Most rapes (of) children are not reported. The Medical Research Council says only one in nine rapes is reported, which means that if 22 500 child rapes are reported, there are at least 202 500 such rapes a year. It is likely, however, that the rate of underreporting is even higher than this."
Cases went unreported because the perpetrator would often convince the child he could be trusted and what he was doing was not "bad" but a secret. Leanne Stellenberg, of the Kuils River support centre, said most victims preferred going to the support centre than to the police. Ada Buys, manager of the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse in the Helderberg (Patch), said more than 50 cases of child abuse were reported in January alone, the highest number in 15 years. The level of abuse was higher in summer.
"The biggest problem is that the mothers are torn between the perpetrator, who could be the stepfather or boyfriend, and the child." If a mother sided with the abuser, this was a "double blow" for the child. The abused child would try to win back the mother's favour by giving in to the demands of the perpetrator. Buys said this "passivity" about abuse would only exacerbate child abuse. "How can we solve the problem if families don't stick together?"
Culprits "groomed" their child victims over time. They targeted their victims - commonly poor children from broken homes where the mother had been abused. "If children are not protected, they will have the same passivity towards their children." In Khayelitsha, one third of the abused children referred to the Simelela Centre are girls younger than 14. Dawes found that Red Cross Children's Hospital treats almost 78 children a year with injuries related to sexual abuse.
Waterhouse said alcohol and drugs contributed to sexual abuse, while tik tended to be linked to brutal rapes. Society was becoming increasingly tolerant of people who sexually abused children, she said. "People we trust are potentially capable of abusing children." Only five percent of reported cases of sexual assaults on children and nine percent of rapes of adults lead to criminal convictions.
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11. South Africa: Desmond Tutu reflects
allAfrica.com, by Tami Hultman March 30, 2007
Cape Town (South Africa) - Nobel Peace Prizewinner, cleric and champion of justice for the world's poor: retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu still moves at a blistering pace, leaving aides and admirers struggling to stay abreast. AllAfrica's Tami Hultman managed to snag a few minutes of his time in Cape Town, for an interview that touched on Africa's prospects, South Africa's relations with Zimbabwe and the contemporary relevance of Good Friday, which Christians observe next week. The interview was conducted prior to the current escalation of the governance and humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe.
These days there is a running debate among Africans and people who care about Africa over whether to promote the continent as a place where positive developments are being overlooked or, on the other hand, to insist that the world pay attention to Africa's crises. What do you think? How should we think about Africa today? —We are bombarded and overwhelmed by a great deal of bad news. And it is true. Wherever you look - Burma, Darfur, Zimbabwe - there are some really awful things around. We may sometimes get to be despondent about how things are panning out. And I have thought that a ministry that the church possibly ought to be considering is reminding people that, yes, there are awful things, but there are a heck of a lot of wonderful things happening. You know, you could have spent a great deal of time speaking about the war in Iraq, and that would be justifiable. But we forget how before that war, we had millions of people around the world demonstrating against the possibility of a war, miles away from their doorstep. One particular day, when the world said we want to register our opposition to the war, you had this wonderful wave of humanity. Starting in the east as the sun rose, it was wave upon wave upon wave of remarkable people, passionate about peace. If we had the eyes to look, thin! k of the people who spend so much of their time serving people who suffer from HIV and Aids; the many who are involved in relief in places like Darfur.
I have thought that part of my remaining ministry is reminding us of the very considerable accord that there is in the world. In our experience here with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, where you were quite devastated by the revelations of atrocities that people committed, [we had] the revelation of the extent of our capacity for evil. All of us. But then, one of the surprising things I took away from the TRC was not the being devastated and appalled, as one might have expected. It was the other thing. The exhilaration that you experienced as you encountered, you saw examples of the incredible generosity of people, the incredible capacity of people to be good. And so I think a ministry we ought to be engaging in is not just showing the amount of good there is but, also, reminding people that, in fact, we are fundamentally good. We are created for goodness. Which is why you can have something that is odd, in a sense, in a world where we have made a fetish of success.! And so you get people being macho and aggressive in pursuit of that success. It's extraordinary, then, that the people we admire, the ones we look on as heroes and heroines, are not the ones that are successful and celebrities because of their bank balances. Yes, we probably envy them a little and yes, think that they count. But the people we really respect - revere in fact - are not macho. Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and the list just goes on and on. The Dalai Lama is one of the few who can fill Central Park when he goes to New York. He and Madiba [Nelson Mandela] are among the only two non-popstars who can do that. And you have to ask why? The reason is that people realize they are good.
So you prefer to emphasize the positive. —I don't think that we are meant to pretend things are other than they are. Things are awful! Here in South Africa, now, it is about 800 people who die every day of Aids. Many of those needn't have died. We've been irresponsible in the way we have sought to deal with that. I think it is important that it is publicized and people will get to know about all of the awfulness. But we also need to be finding a way of reminding people of the bigger picture – that, despite all of the appearances to the contrary, it is in fact a moral universe.
You mentioned Zimbabwe, on your doorstep, as it were. You have been very critical of President Robert Mugabe for, among other things, his increasingly authoritarian rule, and you have called attention to the economic and humanitarian emergencies in what was once a prospering country. —It's been awful. It's very sad. There has been so long a time with people suffering as much as they have. And I am very sad, because I used to have the highest regard for [Mugabe].
Why do you see things having come to this point, in the Mugabe administration? —Those who are not African may not always understand it. President Mugabe was the star before Madiba [Mandela] appeared. Then, when Madiba appears, the media are cruel, really, in how they turned to concentrate almost exclusively on Madiba. That must have shaken President Mugabe. I think, in part, it explains what subsequently happened. He found it very difficult to play second fiddle.
You've also urged African leaders, including South African President Thabo Mbeki, to take a strong stand for democracy in Zimbabwe. —When President Mugabe has gone to some of these heads of state meetings, African heads of state, he has been welcomed like a hero.
Why do you think President Mbeki, whose movement had world support in its struggle for democracy and justice in South Africa, has been so reluctant to publicly criticize Zimbabwe's crackdown on dissent? —I did say to President Mbeki at one point that I understood the constraints under which he was operating. If Thabo [Mbeki] criticized President Mugabe, he would be seen as an upstart. He is much younger. And Mugabe was imprisoned for his struggle for an independent Zimbabwe. Even though Thabo was in exile - exile is not the same as being in prison, you know. And so he had a great deal that was constraining him. And I said that. But I would have thought that we might have found a way - perhaps let one of the government ministers say, quite categorically, that there were things that were unacceptable. I would have thought, too, that the African Union would say: "Here are criteria, standards, against which we have to judge anyone, and they are objective. If you don't do one, two, three, four you fall by the wayside - and maybe forfeit your membership until you abide by the standards. And I wish, for our own sakes, that African leaders could uphold these standards. Because, in ! some way, it is almost as though they are saying, "We can't afford to be too strict in our judgment of him, because it might rebound on us. We might be held to the same standards." It is almost as though they are scared that they are likely themselves to fall by the wayside.
You've also made it clear, in the past, that you aren't looking to the United States and other western nations to provide the answers to Africa's problems. –I wish so much that the West could learn a tiny bit of modesty. One looks at all the mess that is happening in many so-called "third world" countries. I wish the nations of the West could just remember a little bit that they produced the Holocaust. They produced Fascism. They produced the dictatorships in Spain, Portugal. When you think of the guillotine in France, you think of all the bloody wars that have happened in England, on the European continent, in the United States. Look at what Katrina revealed of the state of your country. There are many good people in the West, in the United States, yes. I'm just saying they shouldn't be so hoity-toity. And they mustn't forget that Africa was not always like this. Africa produced refuge. Not refugees, it provided refuge. Asylum. When people were hungry in Palestine, they came to Africa for food. Abraham and his family and Jacob came to Africa. When the Holy Family was facing persecution in the Holy Land they escaped to Africa f! or refuge. And when on that Friday which we call "Good", when Jesus carried a cross, it was Simon of Cyrene [an African] who helped Jesus carry his cross. And don't forget that some of the greatest minds in our church were African.
At the same time, you've said the global community should be doing more to help Africa develop economically, to end its conflicts? —In the end, actually, you are not being altruistic when you do that. It's the best form of self-interest. Because the world is operating in such a way these days that you can't quarantine yourself from unrest, from the effects of the poverty and disease in other parts of the world. The war against terror is not going to be won as long as we have conditions in so many parts of the world which make people desperate. It's as simple as that. If we do not learn the law that God tries hard to teach us - that we are family - we will do what Martin Luther King said would happen: we will learn that we are brothers and sisters or we will perish together like fools. That is the law of this universe. And I hope that we will learn that before it is too late.
***********************************SUB-END************************************
1. Congo (DRC): Troops ransack Bemba HQ
2. Tanzania: Maasai land grabbing angers president
3. Nigeria: INEC raises alarm over polls
4. Rwanda: Burundi to adopt reforms
5. Tanzania: SADC tasks Mbeki to mediate in Zimbabwe
6. Zimbabwe: Operation "living well" also a disaster
7. Zimbabwe: Rebuilding the people's pride (Comment)
8. Sierra Leone: No compassion for country's amputees
9. South Africa: ANC: The state of the race
10. South Africa: A new power behind the throne? (Comment)
**********NEWSandBACKGROUND**************
1. Congo (DRC): Troops ransack Bemba HQ
South African Press Association (SAPA) March 29, 2007
Kinshasa (DRC) - Government troops have ransacked the party offices of Democratic Republic of Congo opposition leader Jean-Pierre Bemba, his supporters said on Thursday. It houses both the offices of Bemba's Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) and three radio and television stations he owns. Soldiers had carried off furniture from the building, said local residents and traders.
Members of the Republican Guard stationed outside the city centre premises on Thursday barred entry to an AFP journalist. MLC activists and employees of Bemba's stations told AFP they too had been prevented from entering. Canal Congo TV (CCTV), Canal Kin TV (CKTV) and Radio Liberte Kinshasa (Ralik) have been off air since just before last week's clashes between government troops and Bemba's militia. Troops moved into the building after the fighting last Thursday and Friday in Kinshasa, when 2 000 government troops overcame 700 fighters loyal to Bemba.
"We are living in hiding," Maurice Bokoko, the head of CCTV and Radio Ralik, told AFP. "We have been told our offices have been pillaged and ransacked by the soldiers, but we can't go to check ourselves. "Our stations were taken off the air on Wednesday, March 21, the day before the fighting," he added. "Fortunately the staff were not on the premises when the shooting started." Bokoko said they would be meeting the military prosecutor on Friday to get access to the building, assess the damage and file a complaint.
The French media rights group Reporters without Borders (RSF) meanwhile expressed concern on Thursday about the fate of ten of the 63 employees at Bemba's stations. An RSF statement said they had been in hiding since the government cut the stations' signals last week after one station broadcast an interview with Bemba in which he accused the army high command of corruption. Bemba had claimed in a Lingala-language interview, the language used in western DRC, that the army high command was skimming off 500m Congolese francs ($885 000) from the military payroll every month.
Bemba's radio and TV stations employ 63 journalists, technicians and administrative staff. Bemba himself remains at the South African embassy, where he took refuge when last week's fighting started. Talks are underway with the DRC government to allow the ex-rebel leader and former vice president fly out to Portugal for treatment to an old leg injury. Last week's violence broke after Bemba refused to allow his militia to be integrated into the army. Late on Wednesday he said that his forces were beginning to join the regular army, on his orders. On Tuesday, 14 EU ambassadors condemned the government's excessive use of force in the fighting, which according to their estimates killed between 200 and 500 people, many of them civilians.
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2. Tanzania: Maasai land grabbing angers president
Arusha Times (Tanzania), by Edward Selasini March 29, 2007
Most of the Maasai guarding homes and businesses in towns across Tanzania, or those who have relocated to other regions, have actually lost their land to shrewd rich people who have paid their way to displace them. But Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete last week stood firm to defend displaced tribal people or those in danger of suffering a similar fate, saying that he would revoke all shoddy land agreements in Arusha region and redistribute the land to the poor.
"One controversial trend that may disrupt our stability is the erratic sale of communal land to rich people," he said, noting that Arusha is leading in land disputes because people’s homelands have been turned into commercial plots for sale. The President who was addressing public institutions leaders at the Arusha International Conference Centre (AICC) on March 23 said he would be firm in preventing land grabbing being perpetrated by dishonest elements. He said such practice has led to many residents of Arusha region fleeing to other regions and causing other problems where they relocate.
He said despite the fact that individuals acquiring land normally follow legal procedures, the deeds are illegal because they actually disposes poor people of their ancestral land. Many Maasai people have moved from Arusha region to Tanga, Morogoro and Coast regions not because they liked doing so but because they have been cheated of their land, he said. The President who was visibly angered by the situation promised to make sure that all land irregularly acquired by individuals is repossessed by those who legally own it.
" I need a report of the exercise. You should not wait for me to come back to Arusha to ask for it," he told Arusha regional leaders. As President of Tanzania, he said, he had been entrusted to oversee that Laws are observed. Some of the main land laws in Tanzania include the Land Act No. 4 of 1999, Village Land Act No. 5 of 1999 and the Land Dispute Act No. 2 of 2002. These laws, he said, are meant to safeguard land policies and should be respected.
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3. Nigeria: INEC raises alarm over polls
This Day (Nigeria) March 29, 2007
On a day President Olusegun Obasanjo finally assented to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2007, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has expressed fear that the April polls may not hold going by the barrage of court cases challenging the commission's work. This comes as the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) Presidential candidate, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), calls on Senators and members of the House of Representatives to cut short their recess and reconvene next week in an emergency session to discuss a matter of urgent national importance.
INEC National Commissioner in charge of Information and Publicity, Barrister Philip Umeadi, expressed the commission's fears during his daily press briefing on the state of preparations for the April 14 and 21 elections. According to him "We might be boxed into a difficult situation for the election to hold. As I speak to you, most sincerely, we might be boxed into a tight situation, if the court continues to speak."
Specifically asked what the commission will do in terms of the plans to emboss the photographs of the Presidential and Governorship candidates in the ballot papers in view of the court orders that some candidates be allowed to contest, Umeadi said "the biggest printing press in the world can only print 1.2 million copies in a day, so you figure that out yourself. We have just 17 days to the elections. So, you add up the details."
************************************************************************** 4. Rwanda: Burundi to adopt reforms
New Times (Rwanda), by Edwin Musoni and Ignatius Issuna March 30, 2007
Visiting Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza said his country is to emulate several reforms Rwanda has adopted, in a bid to spur development.Speaking to The New Times yesterday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Charles Murigande said that President Nkurunziza, who held talks with President Kagame at Village Urugwiro, is on a study tour to edify him with Rwanda’s achievements including reforms made in the past thirteen years.
Murigande further said the reforms to be adopted, including the realisation of mass participation in national programmes, are expected to be implemented before Burundi joins the East African Community (EAC). “He is here on a state visit and he will be visiting several developmental activities in the country” Murigande added. He also disclosed that Burundi is also currently engaged in a joint partnership with Rwanda in preparation for both countries’ admission to the East African Business Council (EABC), expected after the June 8 Annual General Meeting in Nairobi.
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5. Tanzania: SADC tasks Mbeki to mediate in Zimbabwe
Zimonline March 30, 2007
Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania) – African leaders on Thursday appointed South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki to broker talks between President Robert Mugabe and the opposition to find a solution to Zimbabwe’s political crisis. Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders, who many had expected to take a tougher stance on Mugabe and pressure him to step down, also called on the West to drop sanctions against Harare and urged Britain to fund land redistribution in Zimbabwe as promised at the country’s pre-independence conference in 1979.
SADC chairman and Tanzania President Jakaya Kikwete said the emergency summit of the 14-nation bloc appealed to all parties in Zimbabwe to co-operate and pull back from the brink. "The decision has been to promote dialogue of parties in Zimbabwe," Kikwete told a news conference. He added: "The appeal to parties is to be co-operative and give this initiative a chance, also for the parties to exercise restraint and avoid anything that's going to inflame the situation."
SADC leaders, blamed in the past for standing by while Zimbabwe’s crisis worsened, called the emergency summit in Tanzania amid an international outcry over a brutal clampdown by Mugabe against the opposition. Regional leaders were also concerned by a deepening economic crisis in the country marked by hyperinflation, shortages of food and basic commodities. Diplomats speaking ahead of the summit had said SADC leaders would tell Mugabe that he should not stand for re-election next year, while Zimbabwe’s main opposition Movement for Democratic Change party, the United States (US) and other Western powers had all urged African leaders to take a tougher stance against the 83-year old President.
The US had specifically urged the SADC summit to hold Mugabe to account "for his misrule, not only over the last few weeks but over the last few years." Former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright and Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu in an opinion piece that appeared in the Washington Post on Thursday also called on world leaders to speak out against the Harare administration. But there was no word last night whether SADC leaders had talked tough with Mugabe during their closed-door meeting.
Mugabe’s defiant spokesman George Charamba appears to have been spot on when he told journalists earlier on Thursday that the Zimbabwean leader was in Dar es Salaam for two things: “"To explain the situation on the ground and to get solidarity from SADC in his fight against the British." Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since its 1980 independence from Britain but critics say his policies are responsible for an economic meltdown, which has left the majority of the country’s 12 million people mired in poverty as unemployment rockets while inflation has surged to nearly 2 000 percent. - ZimOnline
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6. Zimbabwe: Operation ''living well'' also a disaster
Inter Press Service (IPS), by Davison Makanga March 29, 2007
Harare (Zimbabwe) - ''It is appalling how our government has simply discarded its own people,'' exclaims civic activist Max Mkandla. He is referring to the ruling ZANU-PF's Operation Murambatsvina (''drive out filth'') and its follow-up, Operation Garikai (''living well''). Informal traders have been battling to survive since the government's infamous Operation Murambatsvina destroyed homes and stalls almost two years ago in May 2005. About 700,000 traders were chased from urban areas known to support the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
The attacks happened shortly after the controversial parliamentary elections of that year in which the ruling ZANU-PF drew two-thirds of the electoral support amid indications of vote rigging. The ''operation'' aggravated the economic meltdown in Zimbabwe for ordinary residents. Traders are still constantly subjected to police harassment. The police conduct sporadic raids and confiscate merchandise. Traders are forced to pay fines for trading ''illegally''.
They have had to devise innovative plans to avoid police interference. Some display only a small sample of goods with the rest hidden in a safe place. Others sell fruit, clothing and basic commodities such as soap and cooking oil from car boots. But sometimes their luck runs out. ''We have to do something to earn a living, even if it is risky. Hide and seek with the police is the name of the game. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. It all depends on the moods of the police officers,'' says Maxwell Tumbare, an informal trader in Zimbabwe's capital of Harare.
Little has come of the government's Operation Garikai which was launched to address the criticism by United Nations Special Envoy Anna Tibaijuka about Operation Murambatsvina. Her report confirmed that over 2.4 million Zimbabweans' livelihoods were detrimentally affected by Operation Murambatsvina. The government is on record as saying that Garikai as a ''follow-up programme'' to Murambatsvina was to be completed by August 2005.
Operation Garikai was to involve the construction of housing units and ''legitimate'' stalls and flea markets. Regarding the markets little has happened apart from a centre for small and medium enterprises built in Harare's Glen View suburb. The centre accommodates carpenters and metalworkers. ''We are now working from here but the place is too small for our operations,'' Isaac Makanga, a carpenter, complains. Construction arrested at foundation level is testimony to an ambitious project that never was. In Chiredzi in the south eastern part of the country traders are selling their goods wherever they can. It is the same story in other provinces.
''The government embarked on an unplanned project and is now failing to deliver because of a combination of factors, especially inflation and corruption,'' explains Heneri Dzinotyiwei, a professor in political science at the University of Zimbabwe. The hyperinflationary environment strangled Operation Garikai as operational costs increased by the day. Inflation is currently at 1,729 percent. Most contractors and suppliers withdrew their services after the government failed to honour its financial obligations.
Building at housing projects around the country has been abandoned after the government rushed into construction without consultation with local authorities. Those that have been completed are without proper sanitation and electricity. At one such project in Chiredzi, inhabitants use a common lavatory at a nearby school while in provinces like Matebeleland South and Mashonaland West people use the bush. ''We have no choice but to live here. It is better than staying in open air,'' Solomon Mhere from the Chiredzi project laments.
Operation Garikai houses have been criticised because of their size. ''Match boxes'' is the term commonly used to describe them. A typical bedroom cannot accommodate a double bed, let alone a wardrobe or other furniture. Mkandla describes the living conditions as ''inhumane. The houses are not fit for human habitation''. Jan Egeland, the United Nations' special envoy on humanitarian issues, became the government's enemy overnight after condemning Garikai houses at Whitecliff farm on the outskirts of Harare. Egeland described the situation as ''puzzling'' and ''disastrous'' during his follow-up visit in December 2005.
Corruption in government circles has contributed to the fiasco. Government officials have been accused of milking the national treasury by inflating supplier quotations and taking the extra cash. Suppliers oblige as long they are guaranteed of being awarded tenders. ''There is no accountability by our government. Therefore it is unsurprising that all these cases pass unnoticed,'' explains Dzinotyiwei. The government went on to defy logic when it spurned the assistance offered by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). ''People are suffering because of political expedience,'' says Itai Zimunya, programmes officer with the Crisis In Zimbabwe Coalition.
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7. Zimbabwe: Rebuilding the people's pride (Comment)
Institute of War and Peace Reporting, by Trevor Ncube March 29, 2007
Robert Mugabe used to be my hero. At university, where I was a member of the student council, I remember how proud I was when he came to visit us. I lined up to shake his hand, and it was a moment I cherished. Here was an African leader whom I looked up to. I admired the way he spoke, his manner of thought, his vision. I looked forward to when he addressed the nation, and marvelled at how he fired such strong sentiments of patriotism and nationalism.
A man who could have been a Nelson Mandela - a figurehead for Africa - has instead destroyed people’s lives and dreams. He has devastated a jewel of a nation. In pursuit of personal benefit, of his desire to stay in power, he has become a monster who clings on to power only because he can. The recent beating of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is thus not only a traumatic event for the opposition leader, but also a symbol of what has happened to the entire country.
My mother is Zimbabwean, I was born in Zimbabwe, and I lived there for the first four decades of my life. In 1994, I received an award as Zimbabwean editor of the year. But the government said that because my father was born in Zambia, I was not Zimbabwean. The real reason, however, was that Mugabe regarded me as one of his enemies because I run the only two remaining independent newspapers left in the country. Fortunately, I was able to win the case. But I ask, why did Zimbabwe lose its respect for humanity? We have a society in which the government decides who qualifies as patriotic. If you do not agree with us, you are an enemy of the state and have no rights. This lack of mutual respect is the deepest tragedy, the most fundamental distortion of a long period of misrule. Robert Mugabe has poisoned our national pride, and it will take us a long time to get back to where we were at independence in 1980.
I am often asked what more the international community could do. Are they, and especially Britain as the former colonial power, to blame? In all fairness, I believe that the international powers have been outplayed by a very wily fox, and it is very hard to hold them responsible for the situation inside the country. Mugabe has made it impossible for anyone to do anything meaningful, apart from marching on Harare. However, I personally do judge Thabo Mbeki, the president of South Africa, very harshly.
South Africa is the regional powerhouse, and if Mbeki had condemned the elections that were stolen in 2000, then the rest of the continent, and the international community too, would have been able to take a much stronger position, and much bloodshed might have been spared. Now, however, South Africa is engaging more constructively in the current crisis. The situation has got worse, and they are serious concerned that their neighbour might collapse completely.
Through various regional structures, several African leaders are playing a more active role, trying diplomatically to open the way for Mugabe’s departure and the establishment of a new government in Zimbabwe. We do not know how all this will play out, and there have been false dawns before. Yet all these factors make the current crisis a moment of hope as well as fear. We are exactly 50 years from the beginning of the post-colonial experience in Africa, and it may be that we have now come full circle.
Even at this worrying moment, if African leaders can come together to resolve the crisis, we could be seeing a rebirth not only of Zimbabwe but of the continent as a whole. Clearly, we have learned some lessons from the last half-century, and one of them is that the days are gone when we can blame everything on colonialism. What Africans, and especially Zimbabweans, have to do now is assume responsibility for the crisis themselves and find their own solutions to it.
The scale of the challenge is enormous, and international support and expertise will be vital in tackling it – re-establishing democratic institutions and rebuilding a devastated economy. But the biggest and most long-term challenge will be recreating a sense of mutual respect and in fact rebuilding society. We will have to cleanse people’s minds, and rebuild their respect for life, dignity, and property, and for each other. Then it will be up to Africa to ensure that Robert Mugabe is the last strongman of the continent. Never again must one man hold the hopes and dreams of a nation to ransom. *Trevor Ncube, a native Zimbabwean, is chief executive of South Africa’s Mail & Guardian, owner of Zimbabwe’s Independent and Standard newspapers, and chairman of the Africa division of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting.
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8. Sierra Leone: No compassion for country’s amputees
World Press, by Roland Bankole Marke March 29, 2007
A harrowing, decade-long civil war endured by the citizens of Sierra Leone is now over, but many scars still remain. Top United Nations emissary Carolyn McAskie, responsible for peace-building, said: "The war has been over for five years. The peace has held; I think that's a Gold Standard. … There is still a lot to do though." President Ahmed Tejan Kabba has publicly told the nation that his government is bogged down with other overwhelming national priorities; therefore he could not address the individual needs of his people. He advised every Sierra Leonean to start helping themselves. Presently, the government is busy with its pending presidential and parliamentary elections that are just a few months away. However, elections are not a curative measure for the thousands of amputees, such as Mamusu Thoronka and Tamba Ngaujah, who are still languishing in Sierra Leone's wilderness, handicapped and in destitution and despondency. They simply cannot fend for themselves.
The disturbing and graphic practice of mutilation and amputation germinated from the seeds sown during the 1991 civil war in the nation's eastern border town of Bormaru. Sierra Leone shares close proximity and commonality with neighboring Liberia, where the diabolical genesis of dehumanization and brutality started. The government discounted the rebels, who migrated to Liberia to execute heinous crimes with the aid of Liberia's then-president Charles Taylor, as mere rabble-rousers. But history has come to quite a different judgment. Dire warnings fell by the wayside, to be trodden on or ignored. The government assured its citizens that the dreadful situation was under control, but innocent, peaceful Sierra Leonean civilians would encounter a bizarre, barbaric and innovative surgical nightmare.
The psychology behind the amputation of limbs, tongues or ears is the intent to instill panic within the government and in its citizens. In a previous election the people had voted overwhelmingly for President Kabba. Since they used their hands to vote, dismembering their limbs will prevent them from casting another ballot for a democratic government. The rebels' propaganda campaign of fear has been utilized to impose their will on the people of Sierra Leone, just like terrorists in the Middle East.
According to Mamusu: "On January 22, 1999 when the capital city Freetown was attacked by rebels, I attempted to take refuge in a building to escape their vengeance. But they found me, and put my hand on a table and were ready to cut it off with a machete like a butcher would sever animal meat. I begged for mercy asking them to respect God and me, being His child. They told me to point to God with my right hand which they also tried to chop off. They tried three times but failed; the hand of God probably helped or saved me. I still can't use three fingers on my right hand."
With her tenacious spirit Mamusu refuses to give up her fight for survival or self-sufficiency. She does cross-border trade between Guinea and Sierra Leone. In Guinea goods are cheaper but a recent embargo put on Guinean goods could threaten her future. She still sells vegetables, such as beans, to enable her to buy clothes and household necessities for her large family. Goods and service are now going at more "cut throat" prices upcountry than in Freetown. Mamusu also rears a few chickens for subsistence and sometimes sells some.
"Rebels have threatened to end our lives," she said. "They say, if the government will not stop talking about amputees and the rebel atrocities that created them, they will get rid of us all. I fear the advent of another war." Mamusu keeps the welfare of her children paramount in her mind. She is not seeking vengeance or retribution towards her assailants, but instead has offered forgiveness to them, despite the institution of the War Crimes Court to help bring justice to people like her.
"I want someone to take care of my children," she declared. "The former rebel fighters are being well looked after, with skills training and free education for their children. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission said we amputees should get a pension but we have seen nothing." It was a Norwegian charity that helped to house her. She continued: "There is discrimination against amputees at all levels. I cannot cook for myself; I have to direct my daughter Bonki to do the cooking for me. When my children run into disagreements in school their peers tell them, 'Your mother is a half-person.' It is so demeaning and painful for me since I'm a victim of my circumstance. We amputees are really discriminated against in Sierra Leone."
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9. South Africa: ANC: The state of the race
Mail&Guardian (South Africa), by Mbuyisi Mgibisa March 30, 2007
With less than nine months to go before the ANC national conference, which will choose a new leadership, adversaries Jacob Zuma and President Thabo Mbeki are using very different strategies in their attempts to win support. Last weekend was a case in point. Mbeki, who is also the party’s president, met with the Mpumalanga provincial leadership as part of his continuing attempts to woo party structures, while Zuma was in Limpopo, accompanied by his main backers, Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi and the communist boss Blade Nzimande.
Mbeki is painstakingly working party structures while Zuma is building constituencies of influence, notably among the left and lately with the Afrikaans community, both of whom the president has alienated over the years. In addition, Zuma is working the religious communities. Who’s winning? While Zuma’s work may grab the headlines, Mbeki’s strategy is more wily. December’s conference will be run by the delegates, so party work is of the essence. Winning over constituencies will become important in the run-up to 2009, when the next national election is due.
Mbeki was scheduled to continue his work inside ANC structures by addressing the ANC Women’s League’s national general council on Friday. The league is a known fortress of support for Mbeki. In Polokwane last weekend, Buti Manamela, the national secretary of the Young Communist League, dubbed 2007 as “the longest year for the ANC”, referring to the succession battle in the ruling party. He hinted that Zuma’s campaign trail was already in full swing, saying: “We’re setting the ball rolling, warming the places and familiarising ourselves with the territory.”
At the University of Limpopo, where a two-day event was held to commemorate slain SACP member Chris Hani, the political fervour generated by students disproved the conventional wisdom that when it comes to politics, young people aren’t interested. The students chanted, danced and sang “Zuma, my president” throughout the commemoration. Shortly after Zuma’s arrival for the Chris Hani memorial lecture on Saturday, Joyce Tsiba, a YCL national executive member, asked the crowd to sing the national anthem to mark the opening of the proceedings. But the students burst into Zuma’s trademark song, Khawulethe Umshini Wam -- to the amusement of the ANC deputy president and other guests -- until they were again asked to sing the national anthem.
In his speech, Zuma addressed key issues affecting the youth, including education and Aids -- before reiterating the historical role Hani had played in the liberation struggle. Following his address, the crowds demanded that he sing Umshini Wam. Zuma immediately grabbed the microphone and sang and danced to their applause. Zuma is deploying a populist strategy deliberately to counter Mbeki’s image as aloof and cold. What he lacks in intellectual clout he makes up for in personal warmth, and he uses it as part of his strategic armoury.
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10. South Africa: A new power behind the throne? (Comment)
Business Day (South Africa), by Anthony Butler March 30, 2007 The African National Congress (ANC) recently circulated 13 discussion documents to stimulate debate ahead of its winter policy conference. Positions will be adopted in June that may decisively influence the succession struggle at the ANC’s 52nd national conference, to be held in Limpopo in December. The most fascinating of the documents is modestly titled “Discussion document on the organisational review”. It is 50 pages long, 90% of which seems to be deliberate obfuscation. Behind the verbiage, however, lies a disturbing set of proposals for the future of the ANC.
The Sunday Times greeted the document as an attempt to “clip Mbeki’s wings”. Nothing could be further from the truth. Instead, it seems to imply that the ANC must make it possible for Mbeki’s inner circle in the state presidency to continue to rule SA after 2009. If this interpretation is correct, the document signals one of the most audacious factional drives for power in the history of the modern ANC. The genius of the paper is that it endorses familiar leftist criticisms of Mbeki’s first decade in power. Too much power has been vested in one man. The movement’s presidency has usurped powers rightfully belonging to its secretary-general. Government ministers have become distant from the people. The ANC has lost the capacity to make policy and to monitor its implementation.
The remedy for a decade of centralisation in President Thabo Mbeki’s conjoined state and ANC presidencies, the document suggests, is the creation of two centres of power. Rather than being subordinated to the state, the ANC must become more than its match. Indeed, the “integration” between state and party “should be based on the principle that the ANC is the ultimate strategic centre of power”.Five key institutional changes are recommended. First, the authors observe that the party is currently unable to “track and monitor policy implementation”. It proposes the creation of a substantial new “policy institute”. At the same time, the national executive committee’s (NEC’s) policy subcommittees, its traditional mechanisms for policy innovation and oversight, will have to report to the institute.
Second, a new “political school” is proposed to train cadres in important matters such as “the theory of revolution” and “statecraft”. All officials and cadres “deployed to the state, the economy, the arena for the battle of ideas and civil society” will be obliged to attend classes “to introduce them to the ANC’s thinking and key objectives”. NEC members, cabinet ministers and premiers are not exempt.
Third, new ANC departments controlling political communications and cadre deployment will be set up. No longer will the state president appoint cabinet ministers or provincial executives.
Fourth, the document proposes to downgrade the NEC, hitherto the ANC’s senior decision-making body. In comments that will leave many NEC veterans aghast, the document proposes to dilute election of members with secondments, to render the NEC ineffectual by hugely increasing its size, and to subordinate its policy subcommittees to the policy institute and secretary-general’s office. With unprecedented disrespect towards the movement’s most venerated institution, the document also ridicules NEC members by insisting they complete “appropriate” classes at the political school and undertake “mass work” allocated by party functionaries. “Currently, most NEC members are too content merely to attend regional and provincial meetings and thereafter go home!”
Finally, and most importantly, the document proposes a vastly expanded secretary-general’s office that will have “the requisite capacity to co-ordinate and manage the work of all the departments or units”. It may seem curious that such an important discussion document proposes in such convoluted language to rob the state presidency of the powers Mbeki has accumulated for it, and to rebuild the secretary-general’s office he has been content to see wither. Why is a new ANC policy institute needed? Surely the ANC already controls policy making, through the deployment of senior ANC officials to existing state institutions?
The new secretary-general, it is proposed, will head a machine curiously reminiscent of Mbeki’s state presidency. Is the real plan that Joel Netshitenzhe, the Presidency’s key policy strategist, will emerge as a candidate for the office of secretary-general? Will presidency director-general Frank Chikane step down from government to take up new responsibilities in ANC head office?
Scepticism about the motivations behind the plan will be redoubled by the collateral damage its implementation would cause to the state. A transformation of the national headquarters would require skilled personnel, most of whom today work in Mbeki’s state presidency. The new national office would have to employ much of the current presidency’s policy co-ordination and communications expertise, as well as senior legal and political advisers. Given the evident disjuncture of salary levels between the party and government, the document proposes “a framework of broad salary bands that cut across the entire public sector, and that also have articulation with the salaries within the movement. This will facilitate the deployment and redeployment of cadres.”
Sceptics will observe that the ANC is currently quite incapable of funding such plans. Even if, assuming the worst outcome, the new head office was to become a flourishing trading site, where procurement and policy influence could be exchanged for party funds, a massive financial shortfall would persist. Perhaps for this reason, the discussion document piously observes that the viability of parties is “a matter of public interest”, and proposes as a matter of urgency “a comprehensive system of public funding of representative political parties”. Government’s critics should beware, however, because a further proposal is for an “effective regulatory architecture for private funding of political parties and civil society groups to enhance accountability and transparency to the citizenry”.
The notion that Mbeki should remain ANC president, more or less in perpetuity, certainly seems to be gaining ground. So too does the idea that the control by his inner circle of government policy and appointments must be sustained after 2009. On one view, this represents a prudent safeguard against a potentially “populist” successor. For those who discount the likely success of the Zuma candidacy, however, the rebuilt ANC machine is more likely to be the power behind the throne of a new state president, such as Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, possessed of no distinctive policy agenda or political constituency of her own.
*Butler teaches public policy at the University of Cape Town.
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